Ductor dubitantium, or, The rule of conscience in all her generall measures serving as a great instrument for the determination of cases of conscience : in four books / by Jeremy Taylor ...

§ III. Of CANONS Ecclesiastical.

That which I am next to inquire of, is, concerning the more parti∣cular persons or communities of men in whom the Ecclesiastical power is subjected, and where we are to find the records of Ecclesiastical laws, and from whom the obligations of Conscience doe proceed, and in what mat∣ters their authority is competent, and their Canons obligatory. That is, to what and whose Ecclesiastical Canons the Conscience is, and how far it is bound.

RULE XI. The Canons of the Apostles which are of Order and external government doe oblige the Conscience by being accepted in several Churches, not by their first establishment.

THat the Canons which the Apostles made did oblige the Churches to whom they were fitted & directed is without all question,* 1.1 according to that of the Apostle,* 1.2 To this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things. For whatsoever was their ordi∣nary power, yet they had so much of extraordinary, had such special com∣missions and warranties from Christ, had such gifts and miracles of power, so much wisdome, so much charity, and so intire a government, and were the onely fountains from whence the rules of the Church were to be de∣riv'd, that their word ought to be a law to whom it was sent, and a prece∣dent to them that should hear of it: it was like the pattern in the Mount, to which all Churches in equal circumstances and the same conjunction of affairs might conform their practices.

Thus we find that the Apostolical decree of abstaining from blood* 1.3 was observed by more Churches then those of Syria and Cilicia to which the Canon was directed; and the college of Widows or Deaconesses, though provided for the first ministery of the churches and relief of anci∣ent widows, deriv'd it self into the manners of the Western Churches, and lasted longer then there was need. There was no hurt in it; the reve∣rence to the persons and dignity Apostolical was foundation enough to bear a greater burden: but the retention of such Canons and orders was just like the retention of the Judicial laws in some commonwealths, which they did in regard to the divine wisdome; though they in so doing did piously indeed, but yet did not imitate that wisdome by which those laws were made.

But because it is evident that the laws of order and government were fitted to times and places and present necessities,* 1.4 the same wisdome that so fitted the laws and things together, did also know that those rules were not good when the things were changed and grew unfit for that measure. The Apostles in their first preachings and conversation in Jerusalem in∣stituted a coenobitic life, and had all things in common with the believers; indeed no man was tied to it: and of the same nature were their Canons, Counsels and advices, and propositions of what was best. But that advise related to the present necessities of believers: they were likely to suffer persecution, and the nation was in a little time to be destroyed, and there∣fore it was prudence to sell their lands, and charity to divide the use of it. But if any man shall say that this obliges all Christians, he is unreasonable; but if they doe not, then it is certain that their laws oblige according to the subject matter and the changing reasons of things, and therefore not by

their authority alone, but by their authority also who are judges of the reason of things, and can declare with obligation.

But yet further,* 1.5 The orders which the Apostles gave to their Chur∣ches, though they be as good now as they were then, and have equal cir∣cumstances, yet unless it can appear that they by them intended to oblige all ages of the Church, although they were not free then, yet they are free now. Now this is certain, that they gave no such laws but what they re∣ceiv'd in Commandement from Christ; and when ever they said of any particular, This say I, not the Lord, they gave but an advice, or made a temporary order; but when they said, This we have receiv'd from the Lord, it is alwaies a doctrine of faith, or a moral Commandement. So that the rules of order being neither of these are but topical, and limited, and tran∣sient; such which when they are chosen by the Rulers of Churches they become Canons and measures of practice, but else not. The Apostle made an order in the Corinthian Church that men should not pray or prophesy having their heads covered: but yet in France the preachers are covered, and doe not think they prevaricate an Apostolical Canon; because they suppos'd it reach'd no further but to that Church, or at least was agree∣able to the manners and customes of those places. S. Paul appointed that they should lay aside every first day of the week something for the poor: but he that shall chuse to doe this upon his weekly fasting-day, does as well; he does the same thing in another circumstance. * S. Paul gave in order to Timothy that a Bishop should not be a novice; meaning in age, or in Christianity, or both: and yet S. Timothy himself was but a novice, being chosen Bishop at the age of XXV years, as the Ecclesiastical histories report; and Theodosius chose Nectarius being but newly converted; and the people chose S. Ambrose to be Bishop before he was baptiz'd, and the election was confirmed by Valentinian. Fabianus, Cyprian, Nicolaus, Seve∣rus, Tarasius, were all novices or new Christians when they were chosen Bishops;* 1.6 and yet the Church made no scruple of that Canon of the Apo∣stles, because to break it was more for the edification of the Church. And I remember that Cassander, speaking of the intolerable evils that fell upon the Church by the injunction of single life to Priests and Bishops, he saies this law ought to have been relaxed, although it had been an Aposto∣lical Canon. * Thus also it happened in the Canon concerning the college of widows,* 1.7 Let not a widow be chosen under threescore years; and yet Justi∣nian suffer'd one of forty years old to be chosen, and had no scruple, and he had no reproof: but that was no great matter; for the whole institution it self is now laid aside, and other appointments are established. * And which is most of all, that Decretal of the Apostles which was made in full Council, the most Oecumenical Council that ever was in Christendome, made at the request of the Churches of the Gentiles, and the inquiry of the Jews, forbidding to eat things strangled, is no where observed in the Western Churches of Christendome;* 1.8 and S. Austin affirm'd that if any man in his time made a scruple of eating strangled birds, every man did laugh at him. But of this I have given a full account* 1.9.

Now if those Canons Apostolical which are recorded in Scripture,* 1.10 and concerning which we are sure that they had Apostolical authority, be with∣out scruple laid aside in all Christendome, some every where, some in some places, it is evident that it is the sense of the whole Catholick Church,

that the Canons of the Apostles for order and external measures of Go∣vernment had a limited sphere of activity, and bind not beyond their reason and convenience, that is, as every Church shall find them fitted to their own measures; and therefore this is much more true in such things which are but pretendedly Apostolical, whose name is borrowed, whose story is uncertain, whose matter is dubious, whose records are not authentick: and therefore whatever else can be pretended to be Apostolical, and is of this contingent nature and variable matter, is evidently subject to the pre∣sent authority of every Church or Christian Kingdome which is supreme in its own dominion.

But besides the reasonablenesse of the thing,* 1.11 we see it practis'd in all places without dispute or question; that those things which are called Ca∣nons Apostolical, and either were not so, or not certainly so, are yet laid aside by those Churches who pretend to believe them to be so. The 5^th Canon of the Apostles in that collection which is called Apostolical, appoints that the first-fruits shall be sent home to the houses of Bishops and Priests, and makes no question but they divide them amongst the Deacons and Clercs; but I think in the Church of Rome they pay no first-fruits, and what they doe pay, the Bishops and Priests keep unto themselves. But this is nothing. The 6^th Canon commands that a Priest or a Deacon should not under pretence of religion put away his wife: now this is so far from being receiv'd in the Church of Rome, that for this very Canon's sake Baronius calls the collection apocryphal, and rejects them from being Apostolical. The 7^th Canon forbids a Bishop or Presbyter to have any thing to doe in secular affaires, under pain of deposition. This would destroy much of the grandeur of the Church of Rome if it were receiv'd. And the 10^th destroys one of their great corruptions in discipline and doctrine, for it is a perfect deletery of their private Masse; it excommunicates those of the people who come to Churches and goe away before they have received the Com∣munion, calling them disturbers of the Church: now this at Rome would seem a strange thing. And yet all these are within that number of fifty which Baronius sayes were known to antiquity. But he that desires more instances in this affaire, may consult the Canons themselves, amongst which he will find very few observed at this day by any Church in Christendome. The Church of Rome pretends to believe that the wednesday and friday fast were ordained by the Apostles;* 1.12 and yet the wednesday fast is not obser∣ved except by particular order and custome but in very few places. * I shall give one instance more. The Apostles commanded the feast of Easter to be celebrated upon the Sunday after the full Moon which should happen after the vernal Aequinox: So the Western Churches said. The Eastern pretended another Canon from S. John to celebrate it after the manner of the Jewes: and though they were confident and zealous for that observation upon the Apostolical warrant; yet the Western Bishops at first, and after∣wards the whole Church did force the Easterlings to change that rule which they and their forefathers had avowed to all the world to have received from S. John; and it is observable that this was done upon the designes of peace and unity, not upon any pretence that S. John had never so given it in order to the Asian Churches.

RULE XII. All those Rituals which were taught to the Church by the Apostles concerning ministeries, which were of Divine institution, doe oblige all Chri∣stendome to their observation.

I Instance in the Holy Sacrament first of all:* 1.13 concerning which the Apostles delivered to the Churches the essential manner of celebration, that is, the way of doing it according to Christs commandement: for the words themselves being large and indefinite were spoken indeed onely to the Apostles, but yet they were representatives of all the whole Ecclesiasti∣cal order in some things, and of the whole Christian Church in other, and therefore what parts of duty and power and office did belong to each the Apostles must teach the Church, or she could have no way of knowing without particular revelation.

Thus the Apostles taught the Bishops and Priests to consecrate the Symbols of bread and wine before they did communicate;* 1.14 not onely be∣cause by Christs example we were taught to give thanks before we eat, but because the Apostles knew that the Symbols were consecrated to a my∣stery. And this was done from the beginning, and in all Churches and in all ages of the Church; by which we can conclude firmly in this Rule, that the Apostles did give a Canon or rule to the Churches to be observed al∣ways, and that the Church did never believe she had authority or reason to recede from it. For in those rites which are Ministeries of grace no man must interpose any thing that can alter any part of the institution, or make a change or variety in that which is of Divine appointment. For the effect in these things depends wholly upon the will of God, and we have nothing to discourse or argue; for we know nothing but the institu∣tion, nothing of the reason of the thing: and therefore we must in these cases with simplicity and obedience apply our selves to practice as we have received, for we have nothing else to guide us: memory and obedience, not discourse and argument, are here in season.

And in this we have an evident and apparent practice of the Church handed to us by all hands that touch these mysteries:* 1.15 as who please may see ina 1.16 Justin Martyr,b 1.17 Irenaeus,c 1.18 Origen,d 1.19 S. Cyril of Jerusalem, and ofe 1.20 Alex∣andria, f 1.21 S. Basil, S. Gregory Nyssen de vita Moysi,g 1.22 Optatus Milevitanus, h 1.23 S. Chrysostom,i 1.24 S. Ambrose,k 1.25 S. Hierom,l 1.26 S. Austin,m 1.27 Theodoret,n 1.28 Grego∣rius Emissenus,o 1.29 Gregory the Great,p 1.30 Damascen,q 1.31 Remigius,r 1.32 Paschasius and divers others, & absolutely in all the liturgies that ever were us'd in the Church: so that the derivation of this Canon from the Apostles is as evident as the obedience to it was universal.

But where the Apostles did not interpose,* 1.33 there the Churches have their liberty; and in those things also which evidently were no part of the appointed liturgy or ministration, in those things though it be certain the Apostles did give rules of order and decency, yet because order is as varia∣ble as the Tactics of an army, and decency is a relative terme, and hath a transient and changeable sense, in all these things there is no prescription to the Church, though we did know what the Churches Apostolical did pra∣ctise, for they did it with liberty: and therefore we are not bound; the Churches are as free as ever; though the single persons in the Churches can be bound, yet the Churches always have liberty.

And indeed that is the best signe that the Apostles gave no perpetual order in any instance,* 1.34 and that it is no part of the institution or the mini∣stery of grace, when the Ancient Churches, who were zealous for the ho∣nour Apostolical, and accounted every thing excellent that deriv'd from them, did differ in their practices. Thus the Greek and Latine Churches did always differ in the Sacramental bread, the Latins consecrating in un∣leavened bread which the Greeks refuse: if either one or other had been necessary they should have been clearly taught it, and if they had, there is no reason to believe but they would have kept the depositum, there being no temptation to the contrary, and no difficulty in the thing, and no great labour to preserve; the daily use of the Church would have had in it no variety; for no traditions are surer, or easier preserved then the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the matters of liturgy and the Rituals Apostolical: which when we find that they were unitedly and consentingly kept by the Ancient Churches, we may well suppose the Apostles to be the first principle of derivation, and that the thing it self was necessary and a part of the religion; but if at first they varied, they had no common principle, and therefore they had no necessity.

Thus that the Bishop or Priest should be the onely Minister of conse∣cration is an Apostolical Canon or Rule,* 1.35 ad quorum preces Christi corpus sanguisque conficitur,* 1.36 saith S. Hierom: and the continuation and descent of this particular from the manners of the Apostolical ministration is evident in the fore-alleged testimonies. Now because by this constant derivation we can pursue the track up to the Apostles, and from their practice and teaching of it we can understand it to be the will of God, and because this whole mi∣nistery is an act of grace and depends onely upon the will of God, we per∣ceive the thing to be necessary and unalterable, we must look for grace in the ministeries of grace so as God hath appointed them; and therefore in these things the Churches of the succeeding ages have no authority, no li∣berty, no variety. * That women do communicate in the holy mysteries is not set down in the institution: but the Church derives her warranty from the interpretation and order and practice Apostolical: the Church was taught by the Apostles to admit them, and she always did it: and these things amongst sober and modest men doe sufficiently prove one another. They always did it, and therefore they were taught it by the Apostles: and they were taught to doe so by the Apostles, and therefore they were ob∣lig'd to doe it. And now in matters of salvation and common duty, the rule of the Church is,* 1.37 Scriptura loquens in Masculino procedit etiam in foeminino. There is no difference in sexes, and before God it is now as it shall be in the resurrection, There is neither male nor female with him, but all alike.

That the Symbols were to be consecrated,* 1.38 and who were to conse∣crate, and who were to receive, were of great necessity to be taught and determin'd: and in all this we see unity and necessity, authority and obedi∣ence; but when we goe beyond this and the plain & necessary & constituent parts of the institution we find variety and uncertainty. That bread is to be us'd is plain: but whether leavened or unleavened neither Christ nor his Apostles have left in charge or memory. That wine is to be bless'd is cer∣tain: but whether mingled with water or not mingled, we are not determi∣ned by any authority. That the bread and wine are to be bless'd we are sure: but in what form of words, and whether by the mystic prayer, or the words of institution, is not deriv'd to us by sufficient tradition. That the Lords Supper is sacredly and with reverence to be receiv'd is taught us by the Apostles: but whether this reverence ought to be express'd by taking it virgine salivâ, fasting, or not fasting, the Apostles left the Churches to their choice. In those things which did cooperate immediately to the grace of the Sacrament, in those we were not to invent any thing, and in those we were tied to obey what was deliver'd us.

And the same is the case in Baptisme,* 1.39 in which that which was neces∣sary is that the person be baptized in water, and in the name of the Father, Son and holy Ghost: but whether the Priest shall say, Ego te baptizo, as the Latins doe, or Baptizetur servus Christi, as the Greeks doe, is indiffe∣rent: and if the Apostles had us'd any other little variety of words, yet if there was not in the first Churches an unity and universality of practice, it is certain the Apostles did not by their act or Canon intend to oblige all Christendome; but themselves did it with liberty, and therefore so might the Churches after them.

For,* 1.40 excepting those things which the Apostles received from Christ in which they were ministers to all ages, once for all conveying the mind of Christ to the generations to come, in all other things they were but ordi∣nary Ministers, to govern the Churches in their own times, and left all that ordinary power to their successors, with a power to rule their Churches, such as they had, and therefore what ever they conveyed as from Christ, a part of his doctrine or any thing of his appointment, this was to bind for ever; for Christ onely is our law-giver, and what he said, was to last for ever: in all things which he said not, the Apostles could not be law-givers, they had no such authority; and therefore whatsoever they order'd by their own wisdome, was to abide as long as the reason did abide; but still with the same liberty with which they appointed it; for of all men in the world they would least put a snare upon the Disciples, or tie fetters upon Christian li∣berty. But in Divine Commandements, and in what were the appointed ministeries of grace, they were but the mouth of Christ and Ministers of his holy spirit; and in those things, what they told to the Churches is our law for ever.

Of the same nature is the distinction of Bishops from Presbyters,* 1.41 and the government of the Church by them: for this being done in the Apostles times, and immediately receiv'd by all Churches, who every where and ever since were governed by Bishops and by Presbyters under them, it is not onely still to be retain'd unalterably, and is one of those great things in which the present Churches have no liberty or authority to make a change,

but it is to be concluded to be a law of Christ, which the Apostles did con∣vey with an intent to oblige all Christendome; not onely because the Apo∣stles could not in things indifferent oblige or make a law to succeeding ages, for they had no authority and could not govern Churches after they were dead, and it was against the laws of Christ that the commandements of men should be taught for doctrines, and it is against Christian liberty, that a lasting necessity should by man be put upon any thing, and the succeeding Churches would be streightned in the liberty which Christ had given them, and in which they were bound to stand fast; not onely all this, but this was a Ministery of grace, the Bishops were for ever appointed to give a gift by the laying on of hands: and therefore here was an appointment by Christ and by Christs spirit; for there is not in the world a greater presumption then that any should think to convey a gift of God, unlesse by God he be appointed to doe it. Here then could be no variety, and no liberty: this Canon Apostolical is of eternal obligation, and the Churches cannot other∣wise be continued.

But then in the appendages and annexes of this,* 1.42 the Apostles did doe their ministeries; they did invocate the holy Spirit upon those which were to be ordained: but in these they had no commandement what form to use. Imposition of hands and prayer were the necessary and appointed ministery; for in these things the Churches did not vary, but took them from the Apostles as the appointed liturgy: but with what forms of words, and with the tradition of what instruments, is left to the choice and Oeco∣nomy of every Church.

RULE XIII. In the Rules which the Apostles gave to their Chur∣ches in things indifferent, the Church hath a li∣berty; but it is not to be used but for great reason and great necessity, and for the edification of the people committed to their charge.

THe reasons of this Rule are these two.* 1.43 First, because it is a great re∣gard to the honour'd names of the Apostles, the pillars and foundati∣ons of the Church, that there be not an easy change made of what they in wisedome had determin'd to be the measures of order and decency. * But this is to be understood in such things which change not, and whose nature although it be not of moral obligation, yet the reason that bound it first may be perpetual, and such which cannot be succeeded to, and cannot be ex∣celled. Thus the keeping of the Lords day, besides all the other reasons deriv'd from the nature of the thing, yet even for this alone, because it de∣riv'd from the Apostles, is to remain so for ever: because the reason being at first competent for which they kept their assemblies, and gave that day to religion, and the same reason remaining for ever, and another cannot come in place of it, and a greater there cannot be, although the Churches

are not in Conscience directly bound, yet collaterally and indirectly they are. For it would be a plain contempt of the persons and wisedome of the Apostles, besides the disrespect to the mystery it self, to change the Sunday Festival into any other day; for since there can be no reason for so doing, and a greater blessing then Christs Resurrection we are not to ex∣pect, and a greater reason for the keeping of a day then a thanksgiving for the greatest blessing there cannot be (except a Divine commandement) the onely reason why any Church should change it must relate to the Apo∣stles, and therefore be no lesse then a contempt of their persons and a lessening of their eminence, and could not be lesse then an intolerable scandal.

The other reason is,* 1.44 because the Apostles even in things where they had no Divine Commandement, yet had the Spirit of God,* 1.45 the spirit of wisdome and government; and therefore where evidently there is not an inconvenience, or an uselesnesse, or an unreasonablenesse by reason of the change of times and circumstances, the Churches are on the surer side when they follow the practice and precedents of the Apostles, and have the confidences of a reasonable hope that such appointments are pleasing to Christ, since it is not unlikely that they were deriv'd from the Spirit of Christ. But in these cases the practices and Canons Apostolical must be evident and prov'd: For since in these particulars of lesser concernment, we doe but presume and conjecture that the Apostles were taught by the Spirit immediately; if it be but a conjecture also that the Apostles did teach or practise it, we have two lame feet, and cannot tread securely.

I shall give one instance in this particular,* 1.46 but it will be of great use, not onely for the verification of this explication of the Rule, but in order to conscience, because it is in some Churches tied with straight cords, and pretended to be very necessary, and of great obligation upon this stock, because it was appointed by the Apostles: and it is the observation of Lent and the weekly fasting-days.

Of the Lent-fast, and the weekly fasting-days.

The fast of Lent of all that are not pretends the most fairly to have been an Apostolical tradition;* 1.47 and if it could prove so it would with much probability pretend to have been imposed with a perpetual obligation.

Of the first we have many testimonies from the Ancient Fathers.* 1.48 So S. Hierom,* 1.49 Nos unam quadragesimam secundum traditionem Apostolorum toto anno, tempore nobis congruo jejunamus.* 1.50 So S. Leo, Quod ergo in omni tempore unumquemque convenit facere Christianum, id nunc sollicitius est & devotius exequendum, ut Apostolica institutio quadraginta dierum jejuniis im∣pleatur. And again,* 1.51 A Sanctis Apostolis per doctrinam spiritus sancti ma∣jora sunt instituta jejunia, ut per commune consortium crucis Christi, nos etiam aliquid in eo quod propter nos gessit ageremus.* 1.52 To these agrees Isi∣dorus Hispalensis, Quadragesima in universo orbe institutione Apostolicâ ob∣servatur circa confinium Dominicae passionis. To which Dorotheus a Greek Abbat does consent, save onely that he sayes more;* 1.53 for he affirms that the Apostles did consecrate the seven quadragesimal weeks of fasting. So that

here we have four Ancient Authors giving testimony that the Lent-fast was a tradition or an appointment Apostolical.

Now if it came from the Apostles by way of precedent or authori∣ty,* 1.54 the thing it self hath in its nature or appendage some advantages by which with much reasonablenesse we may believe it was intended to bind all ages of the Catholick Church. Because the usefulnesse of it will be as much now as ever it was; and it being a specification of the duty of fast∣ing, which will never be out of season, and having always the same com∣mon cause, that is the precedent of Moses and Elias, and the example of our Blessed Saviour himself, the duty not being relative to time or place, and the reason of the institution being of perpetual regard, and the useful∣nesse very great, and the thing pious and holy, and adde to these, all Chur∣ches ancient and modern having received it till now of late, it will be very like a duty incumbent upon all Churches and all ages to observe this fast which the Apostles with so much reason did prescribe.

And in pursuance of this we find some excellent persons in the An∣cient Churches saying expressely that this institution is warranted to us from Christ.* 1.55 So S. Austin, The Caresme or Lent-fast hath an authority of a Fast both in the Old Testament from the fast of Moses and Elias,* 1.56 and out of the Gospel (because so many dayes the Lord fasted) demonstrating that the Go∣spel does not differ from the law: and again, By that number of fourty in which Moses and Elias and our Lord himself did fast, was signified unto us that we must abstain from secular delights. The same thing also is affirmed by S. Hierom,* 1.57 Moses and Elias in their forty days hunger were filled with the con∣versation of God: and our Lord himself fasted so many days in the wildernesse that he might leave to us the solemn days of fasting; or, as he says in another place,* 1.58 haereditatem nobis jejunii derelinquens, ad esum corporis sui sub hoc numero animas nostras praeparat, leaving to us the inheritance of fasting, un∣der this number he prepares our souls for the eating of his body. So Isidore, The first is the fast of Lent, which began from the fast of Moses and Helias and of our Blessed Lord, who fasted so many days.

Now although these Fathers intend not to say that our Lord did command this fast,* 1.59 but gave us a precedent and an example to imitate as well as we can; he was the occasion why the Church took that time, and perform'd that severity: yet the example of our Blessed Lord cannot be neglected without sin: Non enim, Fratres, leve peccatum est indictā Quadra∣gesimam à Domino non jejunare, & jejunia consecrata ventris voracitate dis∣solvere, &c. said the Author of the 25^th sermon in the works of S. Am∣brose. It is not a light sin not to keep the Lenten-fast which was indicted by our Lord, and with the greedinesse of the belly to dissolve these consecrated fasting-days. For what does he deserve that breaks the fast which Christ in∣dicted? If therefore thou wilt be a Christian thou must doe as Christ did. He that had no sin fasted forty days: and wilt not thou who hast sinned keep the Lent-fast? He (I say) that had no sin yet fasted for our sins: Think therefore in thy Conscience what a kind of Christian thou art, when Christ fasting for thee thou wilt eat thy dinner. This Author whoever he was (for it was not S. Ambrose) suppos'd that the example of Christ was a sufficient indiction of the Quadragesimal fast. But it is to be observed that it is not unusual with Ancient writers to affirm a thing to be by Divine right, if

there be in Scripture but an authentic precedent and example of it. Thus when the Canon law affirms in 6. de censibus, cap. Quanquam, That the Churches & Church-men are free from secular exactions not onely by hu∣mane but also by Divine right: which saying because to our eares it must needs seem extremely harsh, the Glosse upon the place does soften it, by referring it to the fact of Joseph to the Egyptian Priests,* 1.60 & of Artaxerxes to the Israelites. So that it is not intended that things of this nature be Divine precepts properly so called; but such which the Church for decent regard takes up in imitation of so great examples: and indeed they are such, which when the Church hath upon such accounts taken up, cannot be omitted without sin, if they be omitted without cause: for then they have autho∣rity when they are commanded by our superiors. But the example of our Blessed Lord in such extraordinaries as these is but a very weak argument to introduce an institution, ordinary and perpetual, troublesome and ensna∣ring. But of this that we may be rid at once, I will set down the judge∣ment of S. Austin and of S. Chrysostom.* 1.61 In what shall we imitate the ways of Christ? Shall it be in that magnificence in which God was in the flesh? Or does he exhort us to this, or exact of us to doe miracles such as he did? He did not say, Ye shall not be my disciples unlesse ye walk upon the sea, or unlesse ye raise to life him that hath been dead four days, or unlesse ye open the eyes of one that was born blind. What therefore does he mean, saying, Ye must enter by the doore; Learn of me, because I am meek and humble in heart? that's en∣tring in by the door, that's the imitation of Christ that is requir'd of us. But S. Chrysostom says the same thing,* 1.62 and more pertinently and applied to this matter of fasting: He doth not say his fast is to be imitated, although he might propound those fourty days of his: But, Learn of me, for I am meek and humble in heart: yea rather contrarily, when he sent the Apostles to preach the Gospel, he did not say, Fast, but, Eat whatsoever is set before you. Now this argument of our Blessed Lord's example being remov'd, and it being certain that from his example to conclude a Divine precept in such extra∣ordinaries and external actions is the worst argument of the world, and it being expressely affirmed by S. Chrysostom that Christ did not in his fasting propound himself as imitable by us, we may now return to the first consi∣deration and pretence, and inquire whether or no the fast of Lent was a tradition and Canon Apostolical: that is, not onely whether this did de∣scend from their practice (for if Christs example did not oblige us in this, much lesse could that of the Apostles;) but also whether the Apostles did deliver this as a rule for the practice of the Churches in all descending ages.

The Lent-fast is not a tradition or Canon Apostolical.

This first appears in that we find it affirm'd often in Antiquity that the fasts of the Church were arbitrary and chosen,* 1.63 without necessity and imposition from any authority. Which thing was observed by Socrates, speaking of the Lent-fast. Because no man can shew in any record that there was a Commandement concerning this thing,* 1.64 it is manifest that the Apostles did permit a free power in the same, leaving it to every ones mind and choice, that every one might doe what was good, without the inducement of fear or of necessity. For so we ought to fast and to abstain (saith Prosper) that we may not submit our souls to a necessity of fasting and abstaining,* 1.65 that we may not doe a voluntary thing by an involuntary devotion. But of this we have

elder testimony: for when Tertullian scrap'd together all that he could to justify the Lents of Montanus, the new fasts which he for discipline would have had the Churches for ever to observe, he lay'd hold upon the practice of the Catholics to verify Montanus his imposition, saying that the Catho∣lic Bishops did injoyn fasts sometimes and ex aliqua sollicitudinis Ecclesia∣sticae causa,* 1.66 upon the occasion of some trouble or affliction in the Church, that is, temporary fasts, or solemn dayes upon special emergent accidents. He addes also that they kept the Paschal fast, the two days before Easter, in which the Bridegroom was taken from them: but in these days they did sometimes live on bread and water, ut cuique videbatur, & haec ex arbitrio agentes & non ex imperio; they did this not by any command, but by choice and as they pleas'd themselves: for so the Catholics did say and believe, sic & observasse Apostolos, nullum aliud imponentes jugum certorum, & in commune omnibus obeundorum jejuniorum,* 1.67 that the Apostles did fast as every Chri∣stian else did and ought to doe, ex arbitrio, pro temporibus & causis uniuscu∣jusque, as every one had cause and opportunity and will; but they impos'd no other yoke of certain, and for ever to be observed fasts.

Laxus ac liber modus abstinendi Ponitur cunctis: neque nos severus Terror impellit: sua quemque cogit Velle potestas. Sufficit quicquid facias, vocato Numinis nutu prius, inchoare, Sive tu mensam renuas, cibumve Sumere tentes.

So Prudentius,* 1.68 expressely affirming that even in his time there were no laws of set and annual fasts: for that very thing Victor Antiochenus makes to be a difference between the Old and New Testament;* 1.69 for the faithfull in that time had fasting-days appointed by God, quae proinde modis omnibus explere obligabantur, etiamsi alias noluissent, which they were bound by all means to observe though against their will; but under the Gospel we fast by the love of vertue, and the choice of our own will, rather then by the coaction of any law.* 1.70 For quibus diebus jejunandum sit nullo Apostolorum praecepto de∣finitum reperiri, said S. Austin; what days we are to fast is no where to be found determin'd by any precept of the Apostles.

2.* 1.71 This also appears in that we find the original of the Quadragefi∣mal or Lent-fast attributed to other causes and beginnings then the tradi∣tion or Canon Apostolical.* 1.72 Cassian sayes, that as long as the perfection of the Primitive Church did remain, there was no observation of a Lent-fast; for they who spent the whole year in abstinence were not tied with the necessity of a precept or legal sanction. But when the multitude of the believers every day cooling in their devotion did brood upon their wealth…..id tunc uni∣versis sacerdotibus placuit, then it seem'd good to the Bishops to recal men to the work of holinesse by a Canonical indiction of fasts, and to give to God the tenth of their days.* 1.73 So that the cause of the institution of this fast was the universal declension of the Primitive piety: and the Authors of it were the whole consent of Bishops. Something like this was that of S. Chry∣sostom, who complaining of the diminution of the Primitive heats of pie∣ty, and their unworthy communicating,* 1.74 especially at Easter, addes, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c.

When the Fathers had observ'd the hurt that came from so carelesse conven∣tions, they meeting together appointed forty days for fasting and prayer and hearing Sermons, and holy assemblies. S. Austin does not, as Cassian, impute it to the sanction of the Bishops, nor to a Council of the Fathers, as S. Chrysostom, but to the custome of the Church. Ut quadraginta illi dies ante Pascha observentur Ecclesiae consuetudo roboravit:* 1.75 Sic etiam ut octo dies Neophytorum distinguantur à caeteris, The custome of the Church hath esta∣blished the observation of forty dayes before Easter, and the eight dayes after Easter for the Novices. Both from the same principle. But it was not the authority of the Apostles, but the custome of the Church that made it into a law.* 1.76 In Irenaeus his time there was a custome of fasting about that time, for one or two dayes or more, but it was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a simple and a private custome. But when it was made, it was onely for the imperfect, and the men of the world that spent their year in gather∣ing money, and mispent their time; they onely were intended in the con∣stitution. This we have from S. Hierom,* 1.77 jejunia à viris prudentibus propter eos constituta fuisse qui magis saeculo vacant quam Deo, Some prudent men appointed the solemn fasts for their sakes who spent their time in the af∣faires of the world, more then in religion. And since it is consentingly af∣firmed that the great end of the Lent-fast is for preparation to the Easter communion, what use (at least to this great purpose,) can it be of to those pious persons who communicate every fortnight, or it may be every week in the year? But it is true that the great end and ministery of the Lent-fast was in order to the Easter communion, but it was of such persons who being admitted to publick penance upon Ashwednesday were reconcil'd and admitted to the communion upon Easter-day: which custome being not in use, the use of Lent in order to the chief end to which it did mini∣ster is wholly lost. It was therefore true which S. Hierom said, that Lent was for the imperfect and secular persons, for publick penitents and persons convict of scandalous crimes, for men of the world, and not for the religi∣ous, who every moneth or week observe the religion of Easter, and live in a state of perpetual preparation. Perfecti non tenentur lege jejunii, They that all the year liv'd strictly were not bound to the observation of Lent: so Cassian; and from him* 1.78 Isidorus Hispalensis and† 1.79 Rabanus Maurus: and the same thing also was affirmed by S.* 1.80 Chrysostom, from whom Cassian, who was his scholar, might receive it.

3.* 1.81 Some of the Ancient and Primitive writers affirm Pope Teles∣phorus to have been the first author of Lent-fast about the year 136. So Eusebius in his Chronicon affirms, Quadragesimale jejunium à Telesphoro per hoc tempus institutum ac praeceptum quidam scribunt, Some write that Telesphorus commanded the Quadragesimal fast. Scaliger believes this not to be the saying of Eusebius, as not being to be found in the Greek MS. copies: but however, till Scaliger's time it was in the middle ages of the Latin Church and so downwards believed; and it was affirmed expressely by * 1.82 Rabanus Maurus and† 1.83 Rupertus.

4.* 1.84 The Thing and the Name was unknown in the Church in the first three Ages. This is very apparent in Tertullian, who making his apology for the fasting-dayes of Montanus, sayes they are no such great matter that the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the spiritual men (so he calls the Catholics) should complain of them as of so intolerable yoke upon the Disciples. It was but ten dayes

in all;* 1.85 two weeks, abating Saturdays and Sundays: and Sozomen sayes these two weeks were before Easter. Now if the Catholics had known of our Lent then, of forty dayes fast, they would never have been so un∣reasonable to complain of the ten dayes of Montanus; and that was all he impos'd in the whole year, let the time be when it will. And yet this was more then the Catholics did; for when from their practice (as I noted be∣fore) Tertullian would fain have drawn some warranty and countenance, he sayes that the Apostles did not quite extinguish all difference of dayes;* 1.86 for if they did, why did the Catholics then observe Easter every year? why the fifty dayes of joy after it? why the Wednesday and Friday fast, and [good Friday or] the preparation-day? and why the Saturday fast? though indeed this ye never fast but at Easter. Here is all the solennities both of feastings and fastings which the Church then had: and therefore it is easy without much dili∣gence to discover the weaknesse of those pretences which derive from more ancient record, but indeed are nothing but deceptions and interpolations. Such as is the 69^th Canon Apostolical, which commands the observation of Lent to a Clergy-man under pain of deposition, to a lay-man under excom∣munication. But the imposture of these Canons, especially of the last 36, amongst which this is one, are abundantly acknowledged by men of all per∣suasions. And so is that of S. Ignatius to the Philippians, Despise not the Lent, for it contains an imitation of the conversation of our Lord. But of this Epistle the Ancients make no mention,* 1.87 and that it is supposititious is very fully proved by the learned and most Reverend Primate of Ardmagh, and it is so notorious as nothing can be more; for the author of this Epistle condemns that which S. Ignatius and his neighbour-Churches did, and calls him a companion of them that killed Christ, that keeps Easter after the manner of the Jews. But of this enough. But as to the thing; If the Lent fast were of Apostolical institution, it were strange there should be no men∣tion of it in the certain writings of the three first ages; not a word of it in Justin Martyr or S. Irenaeus, in Tertullian or Clemens Alexandrinus, in Clemens Romanus his genuine Epistle to the Corinthians, nor in S. Cyprian. There is indeed a little shred taken out of Origen's tenth homily on Leviti∣cus [Habemus enim quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecratos] we have the dayes of Lent design'd for fasting. But concerning this I can onely say that the homilies were supposed to be S. Cyril's, written in the fifth age and publish'd in his Name; but whoever be the author, he that wrote them destroys the letter of the Scripture all the way, out of his own brain, and is a man of no great authority,* 1.88 sayes Bellarmine: and therefore it remains certain that in the three first ages of the Church there was no mention made of the quadragesimal or forty-dayes fast in Lent, and therefore it was not de∣riv'd as a law or by rule from the Apostles: but so strange a thing it was that there should be any common prescript fasts, that Apollonius accus'd Montanus for it, he was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, he taught the solutions of marriage, and made a law for fasting-dayes.

5.* 1.89 The Quadragesimal fast was relative and ever in order to the Easter feast, and therefore could not be before that for whose sake it was appoin∣ted. But the feast of Easter was, and the Sunday festival was introduc'd by custome and arbitrary choice, for relaxation of labours and the memory of Christs resurrection: indeed it was at the beginning of the dissemina∣tion and prevailing of Christianity, but it was without a Divine command, or an Apostolical Canon,* 1.90 if we may believe Socrates. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,

The feast of Easter and other feasts, every man as they pleas'd in several places did out of a certain custome celebrate the memory of the salutary Passion. For neither our Saviour nor the Apostles appointed this by a law. For the Apo∣stles did not trouble themselves about making laws for feasts, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, but to introduce piety and a good life. The rest was permitted to the good will of the Churches, who being sen∣sible of the great benefits of Christs passion and resurrection, would quick∣ly introduce a custome of such a pious gratitude:* 1.91 and Nicephorus tels the same story, and in words very like. And the thing was not long in doing; it was so reasonable, so pious, so obvious, so ready and prepar'd, that at the very beginning all Christians did it, though, as it happens, in several Churches after several manners. And supposing that these Greeks say true, yet it is no more lessening to the sacrednesse of that great feast, that the Apostles did not intend to make laws concerning it, then it is to Baptisme, that S. Paul sayes, Christ sent him not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel; that is, though to baptize was a holy office, yet he was to attend some∣thing that was greater and requir'd his diligence and presence. But this addes some moments to the sacrednesse of this and other such feasts, that the Apostles left it to the piety and good will of the Churches, as knowing that the Spirit of God, which they had receiv'd to this and greater pur∣poses, was more then sufficient for the leading them into a specification of their piety and gratitude upon such great causes: and it was a very great matter that instantly all Churches did consent in the duty, without any law, or common teacher, but the Spirit of God and right reason. The result of this consideration is this, That if the Apostles left the celebration of Easter and other feasts to the choice and piety of the Churches, it is not likely that they bound the Lent-fast by a Canon, since the Lent was always acknowleged to be a preparation for Easter, and was never heard of before there was a Christian Easter. But if I may have leave to interpose my con∣jecture (for it is no more) I suppose Socrates by Pascha does not mean the day of the Resurrection, but the day of the Passion; and that he intends onely to say that the solemnity of the good-Friday devotion was not ap∣pointed by Christ and his Apostles, but left to the piety and gratitude of the Church. The reasons of my conjecture are these. 1. Because Socrates calls it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉; the memorial of Christs passion; which the Easter Sunday was not, but of the resurrection. 2. Because we find the word Pascha us'd by the Ancient Fathers in the same sense; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 said Timotheus Alexandrinus, to fast on the Pasch: so 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, S. Clement calls the good-friday fast, the Paschal fast, meaning that then began the Jewish passeover, and then Christ our Passeover was offered for us. So Tertullian,* 1.92 Sic & die Paschae, quo communis & quasi publica jejunii religio est, merito deponimus osculum, &c. The day of the Pasch is a publick and a common day for the religion of fasting; which because it was never true of Easter-day, and being always true of good-friday, he must mean this. 3. Because it is very probable that the Easter festival was in use,* 1.93 though not commanded, in the Apostles time, therefore because they kept the memo∣rial of the resurrection the first day in every week; and therefore Socrates could not in all likelyhood mean that day, but the Pascha passionis, the Paschal passion, not the Paschal resurrection. And then upon this account, though this fifth argument will not prevail, it is because we need it not; for

whatever destroys the premisses in this case, does establish the Conclusion. For if by Pascha he means the Paschal fast, that is, good-Friday, then he gives testimony, and that very consonantly to the prime antiquity, that it was left free and undetermin'd by Christ and his Apostles: but if he should mean the Easter feast, and did say true, yet it will follow from hence, that much more must the preceding fast be left undetermin'd.

6. If any man should say that Kings are all created,* 1.94 as Adam was, in full stature and manhood by God himself immediately, he could best be con∣futed by the midwives and the nurses, the School-masters and the servants of the family, and by all the neighbourhood, who saw them born infants, who took them from their Mothers knees, who gave them suck, who carried them in their armes, who made them coats and taught them their letters, who observed their growth & chang'd their ministeries about their persons. The same is the case of the present article. He that sayes our Lent, or forty days fast before Easter, was established by the Apostles in that full growth & state we now see it, is perfectly confuted by the testimony of those ages that saw it's infancy & childhood, & help'd to nurse it up to it's present bulk.

For it is not to be denied but that from the very first ages of the Christian Church of which we have any records,* 1.95 it was with sacrednesse and religion observed that before the feast of Easter they should fast. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 S. Clement calls it; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, so the Council of Gangra about the time of the Nicene Council, the fasts which were delivered in common, and observed by the Church;* 1.96 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, the appointed fasts, so Constantine call'd them. But this Paschal fast was nothing like ours, it was not our Quadrage∣simal; it was but a fast of one or two days at first and in some places. For at first the Christians were very shie of receiving any load of ordinances and burdens to their consciences, as soon as ever they had entred into the li∣berty of Christians. They did all that reason, and all that love would re∣quire: but if love was the parent of their observations, they would doe them in love, and not in necessity, lest they should be again intangled in a yoke of bondage. That they kept their fasts with liberty, besides the fore∣going testimonies,* 1.97 is expressely affirmed by Theodoret, who blaming the heretics that abstain'd from flesh and wine as being abominable. Ecclesia vero (saith he) de his nihil praecipit: neque enim horum usum interdicit. Ideo alii quidem permissis voluptatibus securi fruuntur, alii verò abstinent: & nemo qui rectè sapiat condemnat eum qui comedit; nam & abstinentia & participatio sunt in mentis potestate. But the Church commands nothing in these things, and forbids not to use flesh and wine; and therefore some enjoy them freely, others doe abstain, and no wise man condemns him that eats: for to eat or to abstain is in the power of every mans will. Now if the Church had from the Apostles receiv'd a law of the Lent-fast, or if in the Church there had been a law to command absti∣nence from flesh in Lent, it had not been truly said of Theodoret, Ecclesia de his nihil praecipit; for a commandement for a time and a revolving period, certainly is a commandement. But this further appears in the variety which is in all the actions and minds of men when they are at their own choice. Of this a fragment of Irenaeus mention'd by Eusebius is a great testimony:* 1.98 for there had been an unlucky difference between the Western and Eastern Churches about their keeping of Easter, and Pope Victor was

transported into heats upon the question, and received from S. Irenaeus this sober advertisement, For there is not onely a controversy about the day of Easter, but about the kind of fasting. For some suppose they ought to fast but one day, others two, others more; some measure their day by forty hours of day and night. And this variety of them that observe the fasts did not begin in our age, but long before us with our Ancestors, who, as it is likely, retaining a custome introduc'd by simplicity and a private choice, did propagate it to posterity. And yet neverthelesse all these liv'd peaceably one with another, and we also keep peace together; for the difference of the fast is so far from violating the agreement of faith, that it does commend it rather. Here was the Paschal fast observ'd by all men, but with great variety and a propor∣tionate liberty. The cause of the variety was this, which was also the ground of their practice. They thought that the words of Christ, [when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, in those days shall they fast] were to be meant of the interval of Christs death and burial,* 1.99 as we learn from Tertullian. Now because it was but one whole day that Christ was in the grave, some fasted but one day, beginning on the Friday afternoon. Others consider that Christ was about 40 hours dead, and the bridegroom was ab∣sent so long; and therefore reckon'd their fast to 40 hours, beginning from the ninth hour on good-Friday, & eating nothing till the morning of Easter day: and this was the most severe and the most prevailing amongst them; and this is the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the quadragesimal fast, this gave occasion to the name, which was kept when the forty hours was chang'd into forty dayes, and new analogies and new reasons found out for it, and their fasting for the absence of the bridegroom was chang'd into a fasting in imitation of Moses and Elias and our Blessed Saviour in the wildernesse. Onely by the way let me observe that at first they had no appointed fasts, but of those hours in which the bridegroom was taken from them, that is, none but the Pas∣chal fast; as Tertullian expressely affirms,* 1.100 illos dies jejuniis determinatos pu∣tasse in quibus ablatus est sponsus, & hos esse jam solos legitimos jejuniorum Christianorum, The Catholics had no other days appointed for fastings, no other were the legitimate fasting days for Christians (as they thought) but onely those in which the Bridegroom was taken from them.

But S. Irenaeus said that some fast one day,* 1.101 some two, and others more. Some kept the whole six days of the Passion week; we find mention made of it in Dionysius Alexandrinus about the 255^th year of Christ, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉,* 1.102 the six days of fasting; but he affirms that all doe not equally observe them. For some fast all the six days, some two, some three, some four,* 1.103 some none. But by Epiphanius his time the fast had possess'd the whole six days almost every where, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, All the people spend the six days of the Pasch, or before Easter, in dry diet: but by this time the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Quadra∣gesima had prevail'd, and was us'd to signify the Paschal fast. The word was us'd in the Council of Nice, which commanded two Synods every year to be held in the Provinces, and the first of them to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the Quadragesimal fast. But this did not signify the fast of forty days, for that was not yet brought into the Church.

But first the matter is clear that the word Quadragesima is often us'd in antiquity and by other good Authors to signify a set time of fast,* 1.104 but plain∣ly lesse then forty days.* 1.105 S. Hierom sayes that the Montanists doe make tres

in anno quadragesimas, three Lents; and yet two of them were but of five days a piece, and whether the third was more or lesse we cannot tell: and this Tertullian plainly affirms,* 1.106 who was himself a Montanist. And this thing also came into the practice of some Catholics; for they did so too in the time of Amalarius, they kept tres quadragesimas, three quadragesimal fasts;* 1.107 and yet that before Midsummer and that before Christmas were much shorter then forty days. The same word is several times used by a 1.108 Rabanus Maurus andb 1.109 Durandus. But that the use of the word may be no prejudice to the right understanding of the thing, we find the thing noted byc 1.110 Socrates and wondred at exceedingly, that since there was so great diffe∣rence in the number of days, yet all alike called it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, or the quadragesimal fast. The same also we find ind 1.111 Sozomen, noting that some did onely observe three weeks of five days to the week, out of the number of the seven antepaschal weeks, and yet neverthelesse called it Quadragesi∣ma: and the same also we find in Nicephorus, who (I suppose) transcrib'd it from them: and in Cassian's time, when the Lent-fast came up to the number of 36 days,* 1.112 yet he still calls it the Quadragesima or the 40 days fast: and it is no wonder, if Rigaltius say true, that all the set and stationary fasts of the Primitive Christians were called Quadragesimals. But the first use of the word is in the Nicene Council; unlesse the words of Origen be allowed to be good record: but yet both in Origen, and in the Nicene Council, though the word be us'd, yet without any remark of the number of the days, or intimation of it, untill the Council of Laodicea* 1.113, which mentions more weeks then one in the Lent, commanding to fast also upon the Thurs∣day of the last week in Lent. For by this time it was come to three weeks, in some places more, and in some lesse, as appears in Socrates, Sozomen, Cassian and Nicephorus above quoted.

But for the reason of the word Quadragesima there are various conje∣ctures.* 1.114 Cassian says it is an imitation of Christs fast of forty days,* 1.115 and so had the name from thence. But he addes some little Cabalistical things of the number of forty in the Scripture, which are to no great purpose. But his first conjecture is not altogether unreasonable; and Rigaltius makes use of it, saying that the Apostles having obliterated the Jewish fasts, to which Christs forty days fast put an end, and asserted us into liberty, they would upon that day on which Christ wrought our liberty for us, nailing the hand∣writing of ordinances to his Crosse,* 1.116 consecrate a fast to the memorial of this great work of redemption for us; [ut obliteratis Judaeorum Sabbatis jeju∣nia sua Christiani, quae Domino suo tantula pro tantis offerrent, de jejunii Do∣minici spatio vocitarent] that the Christians might call their fast by a name taken from the duration of the Lords fast, that since they could not attain to that great fast, they might at least have it in venerable memory. But this although it be ingenious and pretty, yet it is something violent, and hath no warrant from antiquity; and the question is better answer'd from the words of Irenaeus in Eusebius, who sayes that they who kept the Paschal fast would some of them produce the fast to forty hours: now the whole fast being in memory of the bridegrooms being taken away, and he having been absent, as they computed it, forty hours, this proportion did better carry the analogy, and therefore easily carried away the name, and a quadra∣gesimal of hours is as proper as a quadragesimal of days, and hath a better warranty then any other conjecture. But this I remark'd before.

But afterwards the number of weeks increas'd:* 1.117 it came in some places to six and seven weeks;* 1.118 so Cassian. But it was diverso more, for some would fast Saturdays, and some would not; but they made it but to be 36 days however: so we find it in S. Gregory, that 42 days were the appointment of Lent,* 1.119 but taking away the Sundays, six and thirty days remain for fasting. But in all this whole affair there was nothing yet universally determin'd by any law of the universal Church. For in Rome about the year 437 they fasted but three weeks before Easter, [and out of them they excepted Satur∣days and Sundays* 1.120.] But in Illyricum, in Greece & Alexandria they begin their Lenten fast above six weeks before Easter. Others begin seven weeks before Easter, but fast by intervals, and observe but fifteen days in all: and yet all call this the quadragesimal fast. So* 1.121 Socrates. And S. Chrysostom sayes it was the custome against Easter to ask every one how many weeks he had fasted; and you should hear some answering two, some three, some all. For at Constantinople the Lent was longest: It was of seven weeks there and all up unto Phoenicia,* 1.122 as Sozomen and Nicephorus re∣port: but all this while with liberty, by custome, and without a law. S. Austin tells that in some places they would not fast the Thursdays in Lent:* 1.123 indeed the Council of Laodicea had commanded they should, but that was but provincial, and did not oblige and was not received every where; and that saying which is reported out of the constitutions of S. Clement might prevail as far, Jejunium quintae hypocritarum est. But at Rome this was then observed, they did not fast on Thursdays, nor yet on Tuesdays, or they might chuse:* 1.124 so we find in S. Leo exhorting them to the Monday, Wednes∣day, Friday and Saturday fast, and on Saturday to watch beside. And because of the defalcation of these days in every week, some that were very zea∣lous made up their Lent to be eight weeks, and began it on Sexagesima Sunday, but at last it setled upon Ash-wednesday, and hath endur'd so to this day in many of the Western Churches.

Now if all this be not sufficient to prove that the forty days fast of Lent was not a Canon or institution Apostolical,* 1.125 I cannot tell by what measures the question can be filled: and if the Apostles were the Authors of it, yet because the Churches kept themselves in great liberty and varie∣ty, it is certain that if they did so still, there would be no diminution to re∣ligion. For the use of it being wholly for preparation to the Easter com∣munion, and the setting apart some portion of our time for God's service, it can then onely be of use, when it ministers to such ends with an advan∣tage so great as to recompence the trouble, and so material as to quit it from a vain observance. * But how it can be enjoyn'd, and how it ought to be practis'd, I shall consider in the inquiries concerning the condition of Ecclesiastical laws. Here I was onely to quit the Conscience of this snare which is laid for her by some unskilfull Fowlers, and to represent that the Apostles did not by any Rule or Canon oblige the Christian Churches.

That which remains is this,* 1.126 that we consider that it is and ought to be no prejudice to this liberty, that S. Hierom calls Lent an Apostolical tra∣dition. For it was very easy for them who lov'd the institution, and knew it very ancient, and that the custome of it did descend from Apostolical persons, to call it a tradition Apostolical. It is no wrong to S. Hierom if we

think he did so here: for he did as much as this comes to in the question of the Saturdays fast, for in his Epistle to Lucinus he sayes, Unaquaeque pro∣vincia abundet in sensu suo, & praecepta majorum leges Apostolicas arbitretur, Let every Province abound in their own sense, and suppose the precepts of their Ancestors to be Apostolical laws. But that the Churches had no such law upon them, but were at liberty, appears from all the premisses; which I summe up with the words of S. Austin. The Christians, not that the meats are unclean,* 1.127 but for mortification, doe abstain from flesh and fruits; some few always, or else at certain times: Sicut per quadragesimam ferè omnes, quanto magis quisque vel minus voluerit, seu potuerit, As in Lent almost all men, more or lesse according as every man is able, or as every man is willing.

He that desires to see more particulars concerning the history,* 1.128 the original, the variety and increase of Lent, may, if he please, read them in Cassian, in Amalarius, Alcuinus & Rabanus of old, and of late, in Durandus, in Hugo Menardus a Benedictine his notes in Gregor. Sacramentarium, in Peta∣vius his notes upon Epiphanius, Rigaltius upon Tertullian, Scaliger's admi∣rable animadversions upon Eusebius, in that excellent Epistle of Erasmus to the Bishop of Basil de interdicto esu carnium, in Delaunoy, Filescac and Daille* 1.129. Out of these any man may satisfy his curiosity; I have endeavour'd onely to satisfy the Conscience.

Concerning the weekly fasts of Friday and Saturday,* 1.130 the former of them is of great antiquity in the Church, as being in use in Tertullian's time, and without variety alwayes observed after it once began. We find the Wednesday and Friday fast mentioned by Clemens Alexandrinus, and the Wednesday station is equally in Tertullian.* 1.131 But the Saturday fast was for some ages counted abominable in the whole Church; but it came into the Latin Church in time, but with so much scandal to the Greeks, that in the year of our Lord 707 they excommunicated them that fasted on the Satur∣day, and to this day persevere in the same mind. But that neither one nor the other was of Apostolical institution, is of it self clear by the conse∣quence of the former discourse concerning Lent; the Apostles having made no laws concerning fasting-days, as I have made apparent. * The Ro∣gation fast (all the world knows) was instituted by Mammercus Bishop of Vienna: and as for the Ember-weeks, they can pretend to no antiquity that is Primitive, and rely for their authority upon a spurious epistle of Pope Ca∣lixtus, which is pretended to have been written about the year 221, and which is abundantly detected of forgery by many persons, but especially by M^r Blondel. Tertullian's words are a hatchet to cut off all fasting-days from pretending to Apostolical authority, affirming that the Montanists did fast but two weeks in the whole year, and in them not on Saturdays and Sundays (though S. Hierom is pleas'd to lay three Lents to their charge,) and that the Catholics blam'd them for imposing so much; but themselves did fast onely upon those days the bridegroom was taken from them, that is, the paschal fast; that they did sometimes interpose half-fasts, and live on bread and water for some time,* 1.132 but ut cuique videbatur, haec ex arbitrio agen∣tes, non ex imperio, as every man saw cause, doing these things by choice and not by command.

The result of this discourse is this,* 1.133 That the Apostles did not lay a yoke upon the Disciples neck in the matter of fasting, much lesse in the forty days fast of Lent; that as in relation to the Apostles, the Conscience is at liberty. Now whether or no any positive constitution of the Rulers of our Churches can or doe oblige the Conscience to the observation of Lent, and how farre, I shall consider in the next Paragraph of this Chapter.

RULE XIV. The Canons of the ancient General and Provincial Councils are then laws to the Conscience when they are bound upon us by the authority of the respective Governours of Churches.

A General Council is nothing but the union of all the Ecclesiastical pow∣er in the world.* 1.134 The authority of a General Council in matters of Government and Discipline is no greater, no more obligatory then the au∣thority of a Provincial Council to those who are under it. A General Council obliges more Countries and more Dioceses, but it obliges them no more then the Civil and Ecclesiastic power obliges them at home A General Council is an Union of Government, a consent of Princes and Bi∣shops, and in that every one agrees to govern by the measures to which there they doe consent: and the consent of opinions addes moment to the laws, and reverence to the sanction; and it must prevail against more objections then Provincial decrees, because of the advantage of wisdome and consul∣tation which is suppos'd to be there, but the whole power of obliga∣tion is deriv'd from the Authority at home. That is, if twenty Princes meet together and all their Bishops, and agree how they will have their Churches governed, those Princes which are there and those Bishops which have consented are bound by their own act, and to it they must stand till the reason alters, or a contrary or a better does intervene; but the Prince can as much alter that law when the case alters, as he can abrogate any other law to which he hath consented. But those Princes which were not there, whatever the cause of their absence be, are not oblig'd by that General Council; and that Council can have no authority but what is given them by consent, & therefore they who have not consented, are free as ever.

The Council of Florence,* 1.135 so called because, though it was begun at Ferrara, yet it was ended there, Pope Clement 7^th calls the eighth General Council in his Bull of April 22^th 1527.* 1.136 yet others call it the 16^th: but it was never receiv'd in France, as Panormitan* 1.137 tells us: for the King of France did forbid expressely and upon great penalties that any of his sub∣jects should goe to Ferrara to celebrate that Council; and after it had been celebrated, and Charles the 7^th was desir'd by Pope Eugenius to accept it, he told the Legates plainly, that he had never taken it for a Council, and he never would. The Council of Basil, though the King of France had sent his Embassadors thither, and had received it as a Council, yet he approved it but in part, for he rejected the last thirteen sessions, and approv'd onely

the first two and thirty;* 1.138 some of them as they lie, others with certain forms and qualifications: and this was done to fit and accommodate them to the exigencies of the times and places and persons,* 1.139 saith Benedict a French lawyer. And upon the like accounts the last Council of Lateran is there rejected also. Thus in England we accept not of the Council of Trent, and excepting the four first General Councils, which are established into a Law by the King and Parliament, there is no other Council at all of use in England, save onely to entertain scholars in their arguments, and to be made use of in matters of fact, by them to understand the stories of the Church. Where any thing else is received into custome and practice of law, it binds by our reception, not by it's own natural force.

But I have already spoken sufficiently of this thing* 1.140.* 1.141 I now onely mention it to the purpose that those religious and well-meaning, persons who are concluded by the canon of an Ancient Council, and think that whatever was there commanded it layes some obligation upon the Consci∣ences of us at this day, and by this means enter into infinite scruples and a restlesse unsatisfied condition, may consider that the Ancient Doctors of the Church had no jurisdiction over us who were born so many ages after them; that even then when they were made they had their authority wholly from Princes and consent of Nations; that things and reasons, that juris∣dictions and governments, that Churches and Dioceses, that interests and manners are infinitely alter'd since that time; that since the authority of those Fathers could not be permanent and abide longer then their lives, it being certainly not greater then that of Kings, which must needs die with their persons, that their successors may be Kings as well as they, and not be subjects of the dead, the efficacy of their rules must descend upon succession by a succeeding authority; that therefore they prevail upon us by a new force, by that which is extrinsecal to them; and therefore in such cases we are to inquire whether the thing be good, and if it be, we may use it with li∣berty till we be restrained, but we may also chuse; for then we are to in∣quire whether the thing be a law in that Government to which we owe obedience: for that the Fathers met at Laodicea, At Antioch, at Nice, at Gangra, a thousand, 1100 or 1300 years agoe, should have authority over us in England so many ages after, is so infinitely unreasonable, that none but the fearfull and the unbelievers, the scrupulous and those who are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, of a slavish nature, and are in bondage by their fear, and know not how to stand in that liberty by which Christ hath made them free, will account themselves in subjection to them. If upon this account the Rulers of Churches will introduce any pious, just and warrantable Canon, we are to obey in all things where they have power to command; but the Canon, for being in the old Codes of the Church, binds us no more then the laws of Constantine.

RULE XV. The laudable Customes of the Catholick Church which are in present observation doe oblige the Conscience of all Christians.

THis we have from S. Paul, who reproves the contumacy and regard∣lesse comport of those who,* 1.142 against the usages of Christians and the places where they liv'd, would wear long hair: We have no such custome, not the Churches of God. In such cases where there is no law, the manners of Christians introduce a law so far, that we cannot recede from it with∣out some probable cause; or if we doe, we cannot doe it without scandal and reproach. And indeed it is an act of love to conform to the customes of Christians with whom we doe converse, who either will think you blame their custome, or despise their persons, if you comply not. S. Austin gave his advice to the same purpose,* 1.143 In his rebus de quibus nihil certi tradit scriptura Divina, mos populi Dei vel statuta Majorum pro lege tenenda sunt. Et sicut praevaricatores divinarum legum, ita contemptores Ecclesiasticarum consuetudinum coercendi sunt. If the holy Scriptures have not interpos'd in the particular, we must keep the customes and decrees of our Ancestors as a law: and as they that prevaricate the Divine laws are to be restrained, so are all they that despise the customes of the Church. * It is a Catholic custome, that they who receive the Holy Communion, should receive it fasting. This is not a duty commanded by God: but unlesse it be necessary to eat, he that despises this custome, gives nothing but the testimony of an evil mind.

But this is first to be understood in such Customes as are laudable,* 1.144 that is, such which have no suspicion or moral reproach upon them, such which are reasonable and fit for wise and sober persons. It was a custome of the Primitive Church, at least in some places, not to touch the earth with the bare foot within the Octaves of Easter: this was a trifle, and tending to phantastic opinions and superstitious fancies, and therefore is not to be drawn into imitation; onely so long as it did remain, every man was to take care he gave no offence to weak persons, but he was to endeavour to alter it by all fair means and usages. It was a custome in many Churches anciently, and not long since in the Church of England, that in cases of the infants extreme danger the midwives did baptize them. This custome came in at a wrong door, it lean'd upon a false and superstitious opinion; and they thought it better to invade the Priests office, then to trust God with the souls which he made with his own hands and redeem'd with his Sons bloud. But this custome was not to be followed if it had still continued; for even then they confess'd it was a sinne, factum valet, fieri non debuit; and evil ought not to be done for a good end. Quod si à mulieribus bap∣tizari oporteret, profecto Christus à Matre baptizatus esset, & non à Joanne: aut cum nos ad baptizandum misit, misisset mulieres nobiscum ad hoc: nunc vero nusquam neque jussit Dominus, neque per Scripturam tradidit, utpote qui naturae convenientiam & rei decorum nosset, tanquam naturae author & legislator,* 1.145 said the Author of the Constitutions under the name of S. Clement.

If women might be suffer'd to baptize, Christ need not have gone to S. John, but might have been baptized by his Mother; and Christ would have sent women along with the Apostles when he gave them commission to preach and to baptize. But now our Lord hath neither commanded any such thing by his word, or in Scripture; for the author and law-giver of Nature knew what was agreeable and decent for their Nature.* 1.146 To this agrees that of Tertullian, Non permittitur mulieri in Ecclesia loqui, sed nec docere, nec tingere, nec offerre, nec ullius virilis muneris nedum sacerdotalis officii sortem sibi ven∣dicare, A woman is not permitted to speak in the Church, nor to teach, nor to baptize, nor to offer, nor to doe the office of a man, much lesse of a Priest. * 1.147 This custome therefore is of the nature of those which are to be laid aside. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, No man baptizes but he that is in holy Or∣ders, said Simeon of Thessalonica; and I think he said truly. But above all things, opinions are not to be taken up by custome, and reduc'd to practice: not onely because custome is no good warranty for opinions, and voluntas fertur carere oculis, intellectus pedibus, the will hath no eyes, & the understand∣ing hath no feet; that is, it can doe nothing without the will, and the will must doe nothing without that; they are a blind man and a lame when they are asunder, but when they are together they make up a sound man, while the one gives reason, and the other gives command: but besides this, when an opinion is offer'd onely by the hand of custome, it is commonly a signe of a bad cause,* 1.148 and that there is nothing else to be said for it; and therefore it was a weaknesse in Salmeron to offer to persuade us to entertain the do∣ctrine and practice of Indulgences, Purgatory, Invocation of Saints, Images and the like, because they are customes of the Church, meaning his own.

2. This is to be understood also of the Customes of the Catho∣lick Church.* 1.149 For if the Churches differ, it is indifferent to take either or neither as it may happen.* 1.150 Clemens Alexandrinus said it was a wicked∣nesse to pull the beard, because it is our natural, it is a generous and an in∣genuous ornament: and yet Gregory the 7^th, Bishop of Rome, made Arch-Bishop James shave his beard close, pretending that it had been always a custome in the Western Churches;* 1.151 Consuetudini sanctae obedire coegimus, We have constrained him to obey the holy custome. In such cases where seve∣ral Churches have several usages, every Church is to follow her own cu∣stome, and every of her subjects to obey it.

3. Though every subject is tied to the custome of his own Church,* 1.152 yet he is not to give offence when he converses with another Church that hath a differing custome: according to that rule and example of S. Ambrose, Quando hic sum, non jejuno Sabbato; quando Romae sum, jejuno Sabbato: & ad quamcunque Ecclesiam veneritis, ejus morem servate, si pati scandalum non vultis aut facere,* 1.153 When I am at Millain I doe not fast on the Saturday, when I am at Rome I doe: and to whatsoever Church you shall come, keep the custome of that Church, if ye will neither give nor receive offence. And these words S. Austin made use of to this very purpose,* 1.154 Totum hoc genus liberas habet observationes, nec disciplina ulla est in his melior gravi prudentique Christiano, quam ut eo modo agat quo agere viderit Ecclesiam ad quamcunque fortè devenerit. The best way is to doe as that Church does where you happen to be. And in the same instance S. Hierom gave answer to Lucinus, servandam esse propriae Ecclesiae consuetudinem, The custome of the place of our own Church is to be observed. And therefore at Millain it is

counted a violation of their rights when the Roman Priests come into the Ambrosian Churches, and refuse to use the Missal of S. Ambrose, but use the Roman. It is a custome in the Church of England to uncover the head or to bow the knee when the name of Jesus is named: the custome is not onely innocent but pious, and agreeable to the duty of every Chri∣stian, and therefore abstracting from the injunction, the custome it self is sufficient to exact conformity of all modest persons. But if a son of the Church of England shall come into other Protestant Churches who use it not, he is to comply with them in the omission, unlesse himself be persuaded that it is a Divine Commandement; and yet even then also, the specifica∣tion and the circumstances of time and place may be undetermin'd, and leave him in a capacity to comply for a time, and in a limited place.

4. It is requir'd that the custome be of present observation,* 1.155 or else it does not oblige the Conscience. Thus it is a custome of the Catholic Church that at the Baptising of Infants there be God-fathers and God-mothers. This custome is still of use in the Church of England: and al∣though much of the reason for which they were first introduc'd is ceas'd, and the case alter'd; yet it is enough to every man that is a subject, that it is the custome: and therefore if any man shall dispute and prove that the thing it self is not now necessary, that is no warranty to him to omit it, so long as the custome is allowed & upheld, & is no evil. But if the custome be left in a Church, that it was a Catholic custome & of long use in the Church is of no obligation to the Conscience. Socrates tells that omnes ubique in orbe ter∣rarum Ecclesiae,* 1.156 all the Churches in the world, every week upon Saturday ce∣lebrate the mysteries. Alexandrini tamen & Romani ex antiqua traditione istud facere renuunt. But the Churches of Alexandria & Rome refuse to doe so, because they have an ancient tradition to the contrary. And in this they had their liberty. It was a long & a general custome in the Church upon all occasions and motions of solemnity or greater action to make the signe of the Crosse in the aire, on the breast, or on the forehead; but he that in Eng∣land should doe so upon pretence because it was a Catholic custome would be ridiculous. For a custome obliges by being a custome amongst them with whom we doe converse, and to whom in charity and prudence we are to comply: and therefore to doe an action that was a custome there where it is not a custome, must be done upon some other reason then because it is a custome; or else it is done because there is no reason. It was a custome of the Catholic Church to reserve infants all the year till Easter to be bap∣tiz'd, except it were in cases of necessity or great danger: but we have no such custome now; nor the Churches of God; and therefore to think we are bound to comply with that or any such custome, is to make our selves too fond admirers of the actions, and more then servants to the sentences and customes of Ancient Churches.

5. An Ecclesiastical custome against an Ecclesiastical law does not ob∣lige the Conscience.* 1.157 It does in many cases excuse, but when there is no scandal accidentally emerging, it never binds us to follow it. I say it can excuse from penalty, then when the Ecclesiastical law hath been neglected, because the Governours are presumed to doe their duty; and therefore if they who made the law suffer it to be commonly broken, it is to be suppos'd they are willing the law should die: and this is the sense of that in the Comedy, Mores leges perduxerunt jam in potestatem suam,* 1.158 Customes give

limit to laws; and they bind according as the manners of men are. And this the lawyers extend even to a custome that is against the law of God.* 1.159 So the Presidents of Sena at the entry into their office take an oath in form that they will never receive bribes; and yet they doe so, and are known to doe so, and because of the general custome are never punish'd: and much of the same nature are the oaths taken at the Matriculations and admissions into Universities and offices respectively, concerning which it were very well there were some remedy or prevention. But if it can be understood that the law-giver intends the law should be in force, and that the negligence of his Ministers or the stubborn and uncomplying nature of the subjects is the cause of the want of discipline; then the conscience is oblig'd to the law, and not excus'd by the custome* 1.160. And yet further, when the law is called upon, then although there be a custome in the Church against the Canon, it neither preserves from sin, nor rescues from punishment: quia lex derogat consuetudini, say the lawyers; when the law is alive the custome is dead, because the custome took it's life from the diminution of the law; and when there is a law actually called upon, the custome to the contrary is a direct evil, and that against which the law is intended, and which the law did intend to remedy. The Church hath made laws that no man shall fast upon the Lords day, nor the great Festivals of the year: if a custome of fasting upon Christmas-day should in evil and peevish times prevail, and the law be unable or unwilling to chastise it, but suffer it to grow into evil manners; when the law is again warm and refresh'd and calls for obedience, the contrary custome is not to be pretended against the law, but to be re∣pented of. In the Church of England there is a law, that when children are baptized they shall be dipped in the water; onely if they be sick it shall be sufficient that it be sprinkled upon them: but yet the custome of sprink∣ling all does prevail. In this case we are to stand to the law, not to the custome, because the law is still in force, and is actually intended to pre∣vail according to the mind of the Church, and it is more agreeable with the practice, the laws and customes of the Primitive Church, and to the practice of Christ and his Apostles. But of this I shall speak again in some of the following Numbers.

6. An Ecclesiastical custome must be reasonable or usefull,* 1.161 or it can∣not oblige the conscience, except to avoid scandal, for that is in all things carefully to be observed, right or wrong, so it be not a sin against God; Customes must be kept, when the breaking them is scandalous. But ex∣cepting this case, an unreasonable custome does not oblige. For no man is bound to be a fool, or to doe a foolish action. Now a custome in the Ca∣non law is concluded to be reasonable if it tends to the good of the soul. In the Civil law it is allowed to be reasonable if it tends to any publick good. Thus it is a custome that Judges should wear their Robes upon their seates of judicature; that the Clergy wear blacks. Doctores por∣tant varium, quia habitus virum ostendit, saith the law, l. stigmata, C. de fabri. And that Priest were a strange peevish or a weak person who should chuse to wear gray, because there is no religion in the colour: his religion in this would have nothing else: and though these things tend not to the good of the soul, yet they tend to the good of the publick, they distinguish men, that honour may be given to them to whom honour be∣longs.

For it is considerable,* 1.162 what the wiser Lawyers say, 1. That a custome is good if it contains bonum honestum, any honesty or matter of publick re∣putation. Thus it is a custome that civil persons should not walk late in the night, but be in their houses at seasonable times; it is a good custome that Bishops and Priests abstain from going to Taverns; this custome is reasonable, and therefore does oblige those that are concerned in it. 2. A custome is good if it contains bonum commune, if it be for the common good: and of this sort there are many customes in every nation which are pass'd into laws, as that in the cause of Dowries the Judge should proceed summarily; that a fact be tried in the country where it was done; that when any man is accused he should have his accusers brought before his face. And thus also in the laws Ecclesiastical there are very many of this nature; as that when Bishops visit their Churches there be allowance of procurations and Synodals, and aptnesses for their entertainment; that when we see a Bishop we beg his blessing; that when we come to a city we first goe to the Cathedral to pray, then to the Bishop to be bless'd and prayed for; that the contract of Marriage be publickly solemniz'd in Churches after three publications; that children ask their Parents benediction: these things are of publick use, for the advancing of a necessary duty, for the mutual en∣dearment of Relatives, for the establishment of piety, for the conciliating authority, and to many other good purposes, which whosoever can advance by the keeping of a custome & complying with the manners of the Church where he lives, is not to be excus'd if he will be stubborn and singular and proud.* 1.163 3. Baldus sayes, Bona est consuetudo quae continet bonum honorabile, It is a good custome that gives honour and regard to whom it is due. Thus it is a custome that the Consecration of Bishops should be in publick Chur∣ches; that the Degree of Doctor, because it is an honour, be not conferred sneakingly and in conventicles. And upon this account, when any custome is honourable to religion or to a mystery, it is not to be omitted, because the custome is good, and in some proportions ministers to Religion and it's advantage.

Thus the Ministers of religion when they officiate are by an immemo∣rial custome vested in ables or surplices:* 1.164 it was intended as an honour to the religion, because the white and the purple colours are the ensignes of Civil and Ecclesiastical dignity respectively, and are in honour to each other al∣ternately indulg'd, and Kings weare albes, and Bishops and Judges weare purple; and our Blessed Saviour was pleas'd to call it the glory of Solomon, when he was cloth'd in the purest linen of Egypt, whose whitenesse though very bright, yet it fell short of the natural whitenesse of the lilly. Glory is nothing but the excesse and greatnesse of honour, and therefore these garments which were glorious upon Solomon, at least were given to the Reli∣gious as ensignes of honour: the same which the Epigram says of the purple Mantle which was stoln from Crispinus,* 1.165

Quisquis habes, humeris sua munera redde precamur: Non hoc Crispinus te, sed abolla rogat. Non quicunque capit saturatas murice vestes: Nec nisi deliciis convenit iste color.

Such garments are not fit for every shoulder, they are marks of honor, and the delicacies of the greatest and the worthiest Men. But that the white garment was given to Religion, it had besides the honour to the persons, the * 1.166 signification and embleme of a precept: It signified purity and truth, which

in Philostratus in the image of Amphiaraus is said to be clothed with gar∣ments of snow, and cover'd with the purest whitenesse; anda 1.167 Clemens Alex∣andrinus writes that Caeus the Sophister in the description of vertue and vice, describ'd vertue in a white robe; and so doesb 1.168 Themistius invest truth, sitting upon an adamant, holding a bright splendor in her hand, and clothed with an albe. Concerning this S. Clement of Alexandria* 1.169 spake much, even as much as the thing it self will bear: for it being nothing but the colour of a garment, is not to be prov'd to be necessary, & therefore not to be valued in such a quality: but yet neither is the custome of that colour to be de∣spis'd, because that colour is a good embleme, and hath as much advantage as a colour can have; and therefore there can be no reason to despise the thing, or peevishly to goe against the custome, where it is quitted from abuse. But I shall adde this to it, which is warranty enough for the Churches choice, that the Primitive Christians, who were free enough from any superstitious fancy concerning it, did neverthelesse particularly affect and chuse this colour. They saw that the Saints in the Revelation had 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 white garments, and they were dipt in the bloud of the Lamb: and S. Anthony to represent himself a Christian did goe in white, as S. Athanasius tells of him.† 1.170 Eunapius tells that the Monks in Egypt went in black; and that many Christians that liv'd in other places did so too, for modesty sake and gravity, in humility and abjection, who please, may see demonstrated by many instances in Baronius:* 1.171 & that is a good precedent to warrant the custome of the ordinary Clergy habit. But yet it is evident that very many Christians were pleas'd rather to use the simple and native colour of truth,* 1.172 the embleme of purity; and Synesius writing to one John the Monk that chose to goe in a black coat, writes that which is enough to be said in this whole affaire, Atqui nihilo deterius erat si candida foret: splendidissimae quippe naturae dicatum ac consecratum id potius fuerit quod in his quae sensu percipiuntur purius atque lucidius est. Sed si pullum ideo colorem probâsti, quod id aliorum qui ante te usurpârunt imitatione feceris; laudo quicquid Dei causâ suscipitur, But it had been no worse if you had chosen the white, as that which is agreeable to the nature of splendor and puri∣ty, and brighter and purer to the eyes. But if you chose the black garment because it was the custome of others that went before you, it is well; I commend any thing that is done for God,* 1.173 and for the cause of piety. Colorem album Deo maximè decorum, said Cicero, quòd sit index puritatis & nitelae, omnemque fucum excludat veritate nativâ contentus, The white garment is most come∣ly for religion, as being content with it's native simplicity, and an indica∣tion of brightnesse and purity. Upon this account it is a custome of clothing the bodies of dead in white;* 1.174 for they that are dead are justified from sins, and they are candidates of immortality. But it may be this was too much to be said of so small a thing: I instanc'd in this, to shew that this colour was intended for an exteriour honour to religion, and that is sufficient (say the lawyers) to make a custome reasonable; and if it be reasonable, it must be complied with.

7. A custome whose reason is not known,* 1.175 yet if it be of an immemo∣rial time, and does transmit a right to Ecclesiastical persons, is not without great reason and evident necessity or publick utility to be refus'd. Thus it is a custome in the Church of England that certain rights be paid to the Rector of the Church if the corps be interred in the Chancel: and though

in some places this did run into great abuse, which was excellently reprov'd by that learned and good man Sir Henry Spelman 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, in his learned and pious Tract de Sepultura; yet the thing was not wholly to be blamed for the abuse sake, and the rights of any man are not easily to be snatched away because he cannot prove how he came by them, if he have had them long in possession. The thing was to have been reformed; but not after the new manner, that is, wholly taken away. Consuetudo cujus initii memoria non sit in contrarium praesumitur rationabilis, say Geminianus, Cardinal Alexander and Panormitan; and they instance in a Prelate receiving money beyond his procurations in his visitation. For though the reason of it be not now known, yet it is presum'd at first▪ there was a reason; & though we have lost the record, yet he must not loose his right; unless that right of his be manifestly other mens wrong. But this instance is to be under∣stood so, that the Sepulture be first perform'd, and the charity and the ecclesiastical right be done to the dead; for these things cannot be con∣tracted for: but when the piety is performed, the oblations of the faithful which at first were voluntary, and afterwards came into custome, and so transferred a right, may be receiv'd by the Rector, but must not be detai∣ned by the heire. Here in Ireland there is a custome of receiving oblations at the baptisme of infants; but if the Priest refuses to baptise the child till he be secur'd of the money, he is a direct Simoniac, for he contracts and takes a price for the Sacrament: but if he confer the Sacrament, to which he is tied by his charge and by the laws of God and Man, then afterwards he hath a right to the oblation which by law or custome was to be given. But the office is to be done without it: for the Infant hath a right to the Sacrament before the Priest hath a right to the offering; and that came in by the laws of God, this by the customes of Men.

8. A Custome Ecclesiastical that is but of a legal and presum'd reaso∣nableness does oblige us to a conformity.* 1.176 I call that a legal or presum'd reasonableness, when the law in certain cases does suppose it reasonable; and though it be not known to be naturally or precisely so, yet because it is not known to be unreasonable, but there is a probability to conjecture that it entred upon a right cause, it is permitted and allowed. This happens in two cases. The first is when a Custome is besides the law, and not against it. For if it be against a law, it ought not to prevaile at all, unless it be precisely reasonable, that is, unless the law in the changing of affairs or in it self at first be unreasonable; for in that case a custome that is naturally reasonable may be admitted, and if it be, must be observed. But if it be only besides the law, and not against it, then it is presum'd to be reasonable, hoc ipso quod introducta est, say the Doctors, therefore because it is intro∣duc'd: and the reason is, because every thing is presumed to be reasonable that is done generally, unless it be known to be unreasonable; and the very interests of peace and the reputation and honour of mankind require this, without any more inquiry; save onely that this be added, that if the custome introduc'd besides law be either universal, or of an immemorial beginning, the law presumes the more strongly of the reasonableness of it, and therefore in these cases it ought to prevail the rather. For to this sense is that rule of S. Austin, Illa quae non scripta sed tradita custodimus, quae qui∣dem toto terrarum orbe observantur, dantur intelligi vel ab ipsis Apostolis,* 1.177 vel plenariis Conciliis, quorum est in Ecclesia saluberrima authoritas, commendata atque statuta retineri, Those things which are delivered to us not by writing,

but by tradition [or custome] which are observed in all the world, we under∣stand them to be either retain'd by the appointment or commendation of the Apostles, or some General Councils, whose authority in the Church is of great use.] That is, when the custome is universal and immemorial. For the first we presume it to be very reasonable, it could not else have easily pre∣vail'd upon the whole Church: and for the second we suppose it to have had a very good beginning; for it addes moments to the custome, that when we know nothing to the contrary, we presume the best of its original. Not that we ought to conclude or to believe a Custome to have come from the Apostles, if it be universal or immemorial; but that we ought to re∣gard and reverence it as if it did, because we know not in some cases whether it did or no. * But if it be either one or other, it is sufficient to oblige us to retain it, or to comply with it so long as it is retained. Thus the solemn daies of Rogation which we observe in the Church of England were not of an immemorial beginning; for they were first us'd by the Bishops of Vienna, Mamertus, Isicius and Avitus; but yet they were quickly universal,* 1.178 non per Gallias tantummodo, sed penè per totum orbem, not onely in France, but in almost all the world, said Alcimus Avitus in his time: and therefore this custome is not to be neglected by any single person, where the Church still retains it; for this is sufficient to make a legal presump∣tion of its reasonableness.

* The other case is, that a Custome is presum'd reasonable when the nature of it is such that it can have no positive and natural unreasonableness, but is capable of some extrinsic and accidental decency and fittingness. The custome that is actually in the practice and manners of a Church is pre∣sum'd reasonable: and this is of use but in small matters, but yet such which little and great men sometimes make great matters of; I mean pre∣sidencies and priorities of place, sittings in the quire, precedencies in Coun∣cils. Now in these cases Custome ought to prevail, for where there is no reason in the thing, there Custome is a reason sufficient; and if a law ought to prevail though there be no reason known for it, then so must Custome, because this is esteemed as a law. Capit. Consuetudo 1. dist. & l. de quibus, ff. de legibus. And it is remarkable, that although in the intro∣ducing of a Custome, it concerns the Governours of Churches to take care that it be reasonable; yet when it is introduc'd that care is over, and then they are to take care to keep unity and to avoid scandal. Praestat illic esse ubi nihil licet quam ubi omnia, said one, It is better to be under a Tyranny then under an Anarchy; it is better to be too much restrain'd then to be too loose: and if a Custome hath seiz'd upon us, it is better to stand still under that arrest, then to break the gentlest cords of a man, and inter into licentiousness. Perniciosior temeritas quam quies. It is not good to move any stirs in a quiet Church, for certainly peace is better then that which is onely a little better then a custome. And we see it by a sad experience, that those who are enemies and stubborn to the innocent Customes of a Church, intend nothing but to get the government into their own hands. Genus hominum potentibus infidum, sperantibus fallax; as Tacitus said of the Astrologers, we have too much reason to say of them, They are a sort of men that deceive their own confidents, and are no sure friends to their Su∣periors: for to difavow Customes is a great dishonour to the Govern∣ment, and a reproach to the ministery of laws; and to their disciples they preach liberty, that themselves onely may rule them absolutely. Quanto majore libertatis imagine teguntur, tanto eruptura ad infensius servitium;

Tacitus said it of such persons: by the exempting fools from the just rule of their superiors, they make them their own slaves. But to rebel against the Customes of a Church is an accusation not onely of the Rulers, but a condemnation of the whole society of the faithful.

9. A Custome in the administration of a Sacrament introduc'd against the analogy and mystery,* 1.179 the purpose and signification of it, ought not to be complied with. I instanc'd before in a Custome of the Church of Eng∣land of sprinkling water upon infants in their baptisme; and I promised to consider it again.* 1.180 Baptizabant enim veteres, non manibus suis aquam bap∣tizando aspergentes, sed trinâ immersione hoc Evangelii sequentes, Ascendit ex aqua, ergo descenderat. Ecce immersio, non aspersio; said Jeremy the Pa∣triarch of CP. Straightway Jesus went up out of the water, saith the Gospel: He came up, therefore he went down. Behold an immersion, not an aspersion. And the Ancient Churches following this of the Gospel, did not in their baptismes sprinkle water with their hands, but immerg'd the Catechu••en, or the infant. And therefore we find in the records of the Church, that the persons to be baptized were quite naked; as is to be seen in many pla∣ces, particularly in the 11^th Mystagogic Catechisme of S. Cyril of Jeru∣salem: and S. Dyonis* 1.181 describes the ritual in the same manner. The Bishop puts his hand upon the Catechumen's head, and giving a sign to the Priests, commands that they write the name of the Catechumen and of his God-father; which being written he saies the office or prayers, which when the whole Church hath perform'd together with him, he dev••sts him of his garments by the Mini∣sters. And the same thing out of the same Author is observed by Elias Cretensis in his notes upon the fourth Oration of S. Gregory Nazianzen, and is reported also by S. Ambrose in his tenth Sermon. Nudi in seculo na∣scimur, nudi etiam accedimus ad lavacrum, We are born naked, and naked we enter into the waters of baptisme. All which are a perfect conviction that the Custome of the Ancient Churches was not sprinkling, but immersion, in pursuance of the sense of the word in the Commandement, and the exam∣ple of our Blessed Saviour. * Now this was of so sacred account in their esteem, that they did not account it lawful to receive him into the Clergy who had been onely sprinkled in his baptisme; as we learn from the Epi∣stle of Cornelius to Fabius of Antioch,* 1.182 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, It is not lawful that he who was sprinkled in his bed by reason of sickness should be admitted into holy orders. Nay it went further then this, they were not sure that they were rightly Christned yea or no who were onely sprinkled; as appears in the same Epistle of Cornelius in Eusebius, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, which Nicephorus thus renders [if at least such a sprinkling may be called baptisme:] and this was not onely spoken in diminution of Novatus and indignation against his person, for it was a formal and a solemn question made by Magnus to S. Cyprian, an habendi sint Christiani legitimi,* 1.183 eo quod aquâ sa∣lutari non loti sunt, sed perfusi, Whether they are to be esteemed right Chri∣stians who were onely sprinkled with water, and not washed or dipped. He answers, that the Baptisme was good when it is done necessitate cogente, & Deo indulgentiam suam largiente, in the case of necessity, God pardo∣ning and necessity compelling. And this is the sense and law of the Church of England; not that it be indifferent, but that all infants be dipped, except in the case of sickness, and then sprinkling is permitted. And of this sprinkling, besides what is implyed in the former testimonies, there was

some little use in the Primitive Church. Quis enim tibi tam infidae poenitentiae viro asperginem unam cujuslibet aquae commodabit?* 1.184 saies Tertullian speaking to an impenitent person: Who will afford thee so much as one single sprinkling of water? (meaning) for his baptism. And Surius in the life of S. Laurence tells that as he was going to his Martyrdome, one Romanus a soul∣dier brought to him a pitcher of water that he might be baptized of him as he went; which in that case must needs have been done by powring water upon him. Fudit aquam super caput ejus: so did S. Laurence also to Lucillus,* 1.185 he powred water upon his head. And Walafridus Strabo from these very examples concludes that in cases of necessity it is lawful to use sprinkling. He addes also, that it is lawful to doe it when there is a great multitude of persons at once to be baptized: and Aquinas supposes the Apostles did so when the 3000 and when the 5000 were at once con∣verted and baptized. But this is but a conjecture, and hath no tradition and no record to warrant it: and therefore although in cases of need and charity the Church of England does not want some good examples in the best times to countenance that permission, yet we are to follow her com∣mand, because that command is not onely according to the meaning and intent of the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in the Commandement, but agrees with the mystery of the Sacrament it self; For we are buried with him in baptisme, saith the Apostle. In aqua tanquam in sepulchro caput immergentibus vetus homo se∣pelitur & submergitur, deinde nobis emergētibus nouns resurgit inde: so S. Chry∣sostom,* 1.186 The old man is buried and drowned in the immersion under water, and when the baptized person is lifted up from the water, it represents the resurrection of the new man to newness of life. In this case therefore the contrary Custome not onely being against an Ecclesiastical law, but against the analogy and mysterious signification of the Sacrament, is not to be complied with, unless in such cases that can be of themselves suffi∣cient to justify a liberty in a ritual and ceremony; that is, a case of ne∣cessity.

And of the same consideration is it,* 1.187 that the baptisme be performed with a trine immersion, and not with one onely. In England we have a custome of sprinkling, and that but once. To the sprinkling I have al∣ready spoke; but as to the number, though the Church of England hath made no law, and therefore the custome of doing it once is the more indif∣ferent and at liberty, yet if the trine immersion be agreeable to the analo∣gy of the mystery, and the other be not, the Custome ought not to prevail, and is not to be complied with, if the case be evident or declar'd. Now in this particular the sense of Antiquity is clear. Nam nec semel, sed ter ad singula nomina in personas singulas tingimur,* 1.188 saith Tertullian: Dehinc ter mergitamur, We are thrice put under water, not once; at the mention of every person we are dipped. The very same words we read in S. Hierom against the Luciferians. But more largely it is explicated by S. Ambrose. Thou wert asked,* 1.189 Doest thou believe in God the Father Almighty? and thou didst say, I doe believe: and thou wert plunged, that is, buried. Thou wert asked again, Doest thou believe in our Lord Jesus Christ? and thou saidest, I doe believe: and thou wert dipped or plunged; and therefore thou art buried together with Christ. The third time thou wert asked, Doest thou believe in the Holy Spirit? and thou saidest, I doe believe: and the third time thou wert plunged; that thy three-fold confession might wash away the many lapses of thy former life. S. Denis says that the trine immersion signifies the Divine

essence and beatitude of God in a Trinity of Persons.* 1.190 S. Athanasius says it signifies the death, burial, and resurrection of our Blessed Saviour, together with his being three dayes in the grave. And this thing was so the practice and custome of the Church, that in the Canons of the Apostles* 1.191 (as they are called) he that does not use trine immersion is to be deposed from his dignity. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, It is impious and ungodly to immerge but once in baptisme; so Zonaras upon that Canon: and S. Chry∣sostome derives it from Christs institution, Omnibus mysteriis velut signum imponens Dominus, in tribus mersionibus aquae unum baptisma discipulis suis tradidit, Our Lord did as it were impose a signe upon every mystery, and de∣livered one baptisme to his Disciples in three immersions or dippings: and therefore says, that though this descended by tradition, yet it hath the au∣thority of a law. And the same thing we find affirmed by Pope Pelagius, as he is cited by Gratian de consecrat.* 1.192 dist. 4. And Theodoret speaking of the heretic Eunomius, who first of all without authority and against reason did use but single immersion, he says that he subverted the rite of holy bap∣tisme which at first was delivered by our Lord and his Apostles.

Now in these particulars it is evident that the Ancient Churches did otherwise then we doe:* 1.193 but that is not sufficient to force us to break the Ecclesiastical custome which is of long abode with us. But when they say, these things are to be done by Divine precept, we are to consider that upon it's own account: and though some of the Fathers did say so, yet it can ne∣ver be proved to be so; and it were strange that there should be a Divine Commandement of which there is no mention made in the four Gospels, nor in the Acts or Epistles of the Apostles. But then that there is in dip∣ping, and in the repetition of it more correspondencie to the analogy and mystery of the Sacrament, is evident; the one being a Sacrament of the death and burial of Christ, the other a confession of, and an admission to the faith and profession of God in the most Holy Trinity: and therefore I say, it is sufficient warrant that every single person break that custome of sprinkling which is against the Ecclesiastical Law; and it is also a sufficient reason to move the Church to introduce a contrary custome to the other of single immersion, concerning which as yet there is no law. But because there is even in sprinkling something of the analogy of the mystery, as is rightly observed by Aquinas and Dominicus à Soto; and because it is not certain that the best representation and the most expressive ceremony is re∣quir'd; therefore the Church upon great cause may lawfully doe either: but because it is better to use dipping, and it is more agreeable to the myste∣ry to use it three times, and that so the Ancient Church understood it, therefore these things are a sufficient warrant to acquit us from the obliga∣tion of the contrary custome; because a custome against which there is so much probability, and in which there is no necessity and no advantage, is to be presumed unreasonable.

But if the custome of single immersion should by some new-arising necessity become reasonable, then it not onely might be retained,* 1.194 but ought to be complied with. Thus it hapned in Spain in the year DC, the Arrian Bishops finding their advantage in the readily-prepared custome of trine im∣mersion, used it and expounded it to signify the substantial difference of the Son and the Holy Ghost from the Father. Upon this Leander the Bishop of Sevil gives advice and notice to S. Gregory Bishop of Rome; who com∣mends

Leander for using a single immersion, which he did to signify the Uni∣ty of nature in the Divinity, & that he might not comply with the Arrians: and this was afterwards brought into custome, and then into a law by the fourth Council of Toledo.* 1.195 But unlesse such an accident happen, and that the reason be changed, every Church is to use her first customes, those which be right, and agreeable to the sense and purpose of the Sacrament. But otherwise an evil custome is better broken then kept.

RULE XVI. The Decrees and Canons of the Bishops of Rome oblige the conscience of none but his own sub∣jects.

THis must needs follow from divers of the former discourses:* 1.196 for if Bi∣shops in their spiritual capacity have no power of making laws of ex∣ternal regiment without the leave of their Princes, or the consent of their people, then supposing the Popes great pretence were true, that he is the head or chief of the Ecclesiastical order, that from him they receive im∣mediately all the spiritual power they have, yet this will afford him no more then what Christ left to the whole order; of which I have already given accounts.

But in this there will be the lesse need of inquiry,* 1.197 for since the Bishop of Rome by arts which all the world knows had raised an intolerable Em∣pire, he us'd it as violently as he got it, and made his little finger heavier then all the loyns of Princes: and in the Council of Trent, when in the 25^th Session the Fathers confirmed and commanded the observation of all Canons,* 1.198 General Councils, Apostolical ordinances made in favour of Ec∣clesiastical persons and Ecclesiastical liberty, they at once by establishing the Popes Empire, destroyed it quite, for they made it impossible to obey, and the Consciences of people were set at liberty, because they were com∣manded every man to beare a steeple upon his back. For first there were an infinite number of Apostolical ordinances,* 1.199 saith Cardinal Cusanus, which were never received even when they were made. Then let it be considered what there is to be done to Gratian's decretum, which is made part of the Popes law: and who knows in that Concordantia discordantiarum, that contradictory heap of sayings, which shall, and which shall not oblige the Conscience? But then the Decretals of Gregory the 9^th and of Boniface the 8^th, the Clementines and Extravagants, all those laws in that book which is called Collectio diversarum constitutionum & literarum Romanorum Pontificum, and in another called Epistolae decretales Summorum Pontificum in three volumes, and in another called Eclogae Bullarum & motuum propriorum, and in another called Summa Pontificum, and in the seventh book of the Decretals not long since composed, and in their Rules of Chan∣cery, their Penitentiary taxes, and some other books of such loads as these that I need not adde to this intolerable heap: but that a Christian Bishop should impose, and a Council of Christian Bishops and Priests should tie upon the Consciences of men such burdens which they can never reckon,

never tell over, never know, never understand; and that they should doe it then when a Christian Emperour had given advice that the Decrees and Canons should be reduc'd to a less number, and made to conform to the laws of God, is so sad a story, so unlike the spirit of Christ and to go∣vernment Apostolical, that it represents the happiness of Christendome that they are not oblig'd to such laws, and the unhappiness that would be upon them if the Pope had the rule and real obligations of the Consciences of Christendome.

But of these things the world hath been long full of complaint;* 1.200 as appears in the writings of thea 1.201 Cardinal of Cusa, inb 1.202 Marsilius of Padua,c 1.203 in Aventinus, ind 1.204 Albericus Rosate, ine 1.205 Gregory Hambourg, inf 1.206 Matthew of Paris,g 1.207 Matthew of Westminster,h 1.208 Nicolaus de Clemangiis,i 1.209 Franciscus Dua∣renus, k 1.210 the Cardinal of Cambray, and many others both collected by Gol∣dastus, and the Catalogus testium veritatis by Illyricus. Insomuch that if the people had not been ignorant and superstitious, qui facilius vatibus quam Ducibus parent suis, and more willing to obey their Priests then their Prin∣ces, and if the Princes had not been by such means over-powered, these De∣crees and Canons would have been as easily rejected as many others have been. For if by the Papal sanction they doe oblige the Conscience, then they all oblige. If they all oblige, how comes it to pass that, as Cusanus saies, infinite numbers of them are rejected when they are newly made? And if so many of them may be rejected, then which of them shall oblige? If they oblige by the authority of the Pope, that is alike in them all: If by the condition of the matter, then they bind as they agree with our duty to God and to Princes, with the publick good, and the edification of the Church; and then the authority it self is nothing.

And it is no trifling consideration,* 1.211 that the body of the Canon law was made by the worst and the most ambitious Popes. Alexander the third, who made Gratian's decree to become law, was a schismatical Pope, an An∣tipope, and unduly elected: The rest were Gregory the ninth, Boniface the eighth, Clement the fifth, John the 22, persons bloudy and ambitious, trai∣tors to their princes, and butchers of Christendome by the sad warres they rais'd, and therefore their laws were likely to be the productions of vio∣lence and warre, not of a just and peaceable authority.

But to come nearer to the point of Conscience;* 1.212 who made the Bishop of Rome to be the Ecclesiastical law-giver to Christendome? For every Bishop hath from Christ equal power, and there is no difference but what is introduc'd by men, that is, by laws positive, by consent, or by violence. Ad Trinitatis instar, cujus una est atque individua potestas,* 1.213 unum est per di∣versos Antistites sacerdotium, said Pope Symmachus. As is the power of the holy Trinity, one and undivided; so is the Episcopacy, divided a∣mongst all the Bishops,* 1.214 but th•• power is the same. So S. Cyprian, Una est Ecclesia per totum mundum in multa membra divisa: item Episcopatus unus, Episcoporum multorum concordi numerositate diffusus, As there is but one Church in the whole world divided into many members, so there is but one Bishoprick parted into an agreeing number of Bishops. And again, Let no man deceive the Brotherhood with a lie, let no man corrupt the truth of faith with a

perfidious praevarication:* 1.215 Episcopatus unus est, cujus à singulis in solidum pars tenetur, There is but one Bishoprick, and every one of us hath his share: a part of the flock is given to every Pastor. Now if one were the universal Bishop over all, then these zealous words of S. Cyprian had not been reconcilable to truth and sense: for then the unity of the Church had been by a unity of subordination, not by an identity of office and a partition of charge. To the same purpose is that of Pope Damasus,* 1.216 writing to the African Bishops to require their aide in a matter of discipline, Nos excusare non possumus, si ejus Ecclesiam quae nobis generaliter commissa est in quantū praevalemus puram à tam illicitis superstitionibus non custodiamus, quia non aliter unus grex & unus Pastor sumus, nisi quemadmodum Apostolus docet, id ipsum dicamus omnes, &c. The Church is committed to us in common, and we have no other way of being one flock and one shepherd, but by speaking the same things] that is, consenting and joyning in the common government. This is the same which S. Hierom affirm'd, Omnis Episcopus, sive Romae fuerit, sive Eugubii, sive Constantinopoli, sive Rhegii, sive Alexandriae, sive Tanais, ejusdem est meriti, ejusdem sacerd••tii: It is all one, there is no difference in worthiness and power, whether he be Bishop of Rome or Eugubium, Con∣stantinople or Rhegium, Tanais or Alexandria. For as it was with the Apo∣stles,* 1.217 so with their successors; Hoc utique erant caeteri Apostoli quod erat Petrus, pari consortio praediti & honoris & potestatis, What Peter was that the rest of the Apostles were; He was the Vicar of Christ on earth, and so were they, and so are their successors. Caput enim Ecclesiae Christus est, Christi autem Vicarii Sacerdotes sunt, qui vice Christi legatione funguntur in Ecclesia, said Pope Hormisda: and S. Cyprian calls the Bishop, unum ad tem∣pus vice Christi Judicem,* 1.218 the Deputy and vicegerent of Christ. S. Peter had the Keyes given him, so had the Apostles, and so have their Successors; S. Peter was the pillar of the Church, and so were the other Apostles; He was a foundation, and so were they; for Christ hath built his Church upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. He was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, and every one of them was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, a rock, and Christ was the Corner-stone. And what they were in their perpetual office, that the Bishops are. Antistitem puriorem caeteris esse oportet, ipsius enim [Christi] personam habere videtur, est enim vicarius ejus,* 1.219 ut quod caeteris licet, illi non liceat, quia necesse habet quotidie Christi vicem agere, said S. Austin. A Bishop ought to be more holy then others, because he hath the person of Christ, he is his Vicar, what is lawful to others is not lawful for him, for he every day is in his place or stead. Adde to this, that the power which the Bishops have, they have it immediately from Christ, they are successors of the Apostles, of all, not of Peter onely, many Apostolical Churches which were established by others being suc∣ceeded in as well as Rome; that these things are evident in matter of fact, and universally affirmed in antiquity clearly and without dispute.

From hence it must needs follow that by the law of Christ one Bi∣shop is not superior to another.* 1.220 Concerning which I need no other testi∣mony then that excellent saying of S. Cyprian in the Council of Carthage, It remains (saith he) that we all speak what every one of us does think, judging no man, and refusing to communicate with no man that shall happen to be of a differing judgment. Neque enim quisquam nostrum se Episcopum Episcopo∣rum constituit, aut tyannico terrore ad obsequendi necessitatem collegas suos adegit; quando habeat omnis Episcopus pro licentia libertatis & potestatis suae arbitrium proprium, tanquam judicari ab alio non possit, cum nec ipse possit

alterum judicare: sed expectemus universi judicium Domini nostri Jesu Christi, qui unus & solus habet potestatem & praeponendi nos in Ecclesiae suae gubernatione, & de actu nostro judicandi, For none of us makes himself a Bi∣shop of Bishops, or by tyrannical terror compels his collegues to a necessity of complying: for every Bishop hath a liberty and power of his own arbitrement, neither can he be judged by any one, nor himself judge any other; but we all must expect the judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ, who by himself and alone hath power of setting us over the government of his Church, and of judging us for what we doe. Now if all Bishops be equal in their power, then the Pope can by the laws of Christ make laws no more then any Bishop can; and what the legislative of the Bishop is, I have already declar'd and prov'd: and therefore for these and infinite other reasons the Consciences of Chri∣stians may be at peace as to the Canons of the Popes, out of his temporal jurisdiction. Concerning which other reasons who please to require them may find enough in* 1.221 Spalatensis, in the replies of our English Prelates in the questions of supremacy and allegeance, in Chamier, Moulin, Gerard, and divers others. I have the less need to insist upon any more particulars, because I write in a Church where this question is well understood, and sufficiently determin'd to all effects of Conscience. I onely adde the saying of Aeneas Sylvius who was himself a Pope,* 1.222 Ante Concilium Nicenum quis∣que sibi vivebat, & parvus respectus habebatur ad Ecclesiam Romanam, Before the Nicene Council every man lived to himself (that is, by his proper mea∣sures, the limits of his own Church) and little regard was had to the Church of Rome.

Notes

• * 1.1

  1.
• * 1.2

  2 Cor. 2. 9.
• * 1.3

  2.
• * 1.4

  3.
• * 1.5

  4.
• * 1.6

  Consult. Art. 23.
• * 1.7

  Novel. 123. c. 12, 13.
• * 1.8

  Lib. 32. contra Faustum Ma∣nich. c. 13.
• * 1.9

  Lib. 2. Chap. 2. Rule 2.
• * 1.10

  5.
• * 1.11

  6.
• * 1.12

  Reginald. prax. fori poenit. l. 4. c. 12. sect. 3. p. 148. n. 133.
• * 1.13

  1.
• * 1.14

  2.
• * 1.15

  3.
• a 1.16

  Apol. 2. ad Anton.
• b 1.17

  lib. 4. Ad. haer. c. 34.
• c 1.18

  lib. 8. contr. Celsum.
• d 1.19

  Mystag. Catech. 3. & 4.
• e 1.20

  in. Johan. lib. 10. c. 13.
• f 1.21

  lib. De spir. S. cap. 27.
• g 1.22

  lib. 2. Contr. Par.
• h 1.23

  in 2. Tim. Hom. 2. Serm. de prodit. Jud.
• i 1.24

  de Sacram. lib. 4. c. 4.
• k 1.25

  Ep. 1. & Ep. 85. ad Evagrium, & in Sophon. c. 3.
• l 1.26

  de Trinit. lib. 3. c. 4. contra Faust. Manich. lib. 20. cap. 13. & Serm. 28. de verbis Domini.
• m 1.27

  Dial. 1.
• n 1.28

  Serm. 5. de Paschate.
• o 1.29

  Dial. l. 4. ••. 58.
• p 1.30

  de Fide. l. 4. c. 14.
• q 1.31

  in 1 Cor. cap. 10.
• r 1.32

  lib. de Corpore Domini.
• * 1.33

  4.
• * 1.34

  5.
• * 1.35

  6.
• * 1.36

  Epist. 85.
• * 1.37

  Panormitan. in capit. Majores in princip. in 5¹⁰ Notab.
• * 1.38

  7.
• * 1.39

  8.
• * 1.40

  9.
• * 1.41

  10.
• * 1.42

  11.
• * 1.43

  1.
• * 1.44

  2.
• * 1.45

  1 Cor. 7. 40.
• * 1.46

  3.
• * 1.47

  4.
• * 1.48

  5.
• * 1.49

  Epist. 54, ad Marcell.
• * 1.50

  Serm. 6. de 40^ma
• * 1.51

  Serm. 9.
• * 1.52

  Origin. l. 6. c. 19. p. 83. a.
• * 1.53

  Biblioth. PP. Graecolat. T. 1. p. 839.
• * 1.54

  6.
• * 1.55

  7.
• * 1.56

  Epist. 119. ad Januar. in Psal. 110.
• * 1.57

  in Isai. l. 16. c. 58.
• * 1.58

  in Jonae cap. 3.
• * 1.59

  8.
• * 1.60

  Vide Bellar. lib. 1. de cleric. c. 28. §. quinta propositio.
• * 1.61

  S. Aug. in Psal. 90.
• * 1.62

  Homil. in Matth. 47.
• * 1.63

  9.
• * 1.64

  lib. 5. cap. 22. Grae. 21. Latin.
• * 1.65

  de vita contem∣plat. lib. 2. cap. 24.
• * 1.66

  lib. De jejun. cap. 13.
• * 1.67

  Cap. 2.
• * 1.68

  Cathemet. hymn. 8.
• * 1.69

  in Marc. cap. 2.
• * 1.70

  Epist. 68. ad Casulanum.
• * 1.71

  10.
• * 1.72

  Collat. 22. c. 30.
• * 1.73

  Cap. 9.
• * 1.74

  in Vet. Test. T. 5. Hom. in eos qui Pascha jejunent.
• * 1.75

  Epist. 119. ad Januar.
• * 1.76

  apud Euseb. lib. 5. cap. 26.
• * 1.77

  in Galat. l. 2.
• * 1.78

  de Offic. Ec∣cles. l. 1. c. 36.
• † 1.79

  de Instit. Cleric. lib. 2. cap. 20.
• * 1.80

  Homil. 10. in Genes.
• * 1.81

  11.
• * 1.82

  ubi suprà, cap. 34.
• † 1.83

  de Divin. offic. l. 4. c. 9.
• * 1.84

  12.
• * 1.85

  Sozom. l. 7. cap. 19. Petav. in not •• ad Epiph. p. 361. Tertull. de je∣jun. c. 15.
• * 1.86

  Cap. 14.
• * 1.87

  Dissert. ad Ignat. cap. 12.
• * 1.88

  de Verbo Dei lib. 4. c. 11.
• * 1.89

  13.
• * 1.90

  lib. 5. c. 22.
• * 1.91

  Hist. lib. 12. c. 32.
• * 1.92

  lib. de Orat. c. 14.
• * 1.93

  Vide lib. 2. Chapt. 2. Rule 6. Numb. 55, 56.
• * 1.94

  14.
• * 1.95

  15.
• * 1.96

  apud Socrat. lib. 2. Hist. cap. 3.
• * 1.97

  lib. 5. Haeretic. fabul. cap. 29.
• * 1.98

  lib. 5. Hist. cap. 26.
• * 1.99

  lib. de Jejun. c. 14.
• * 1.100

  lib. de Jejun. cap. 2.
• * 1.101

  16.
• * 1.102

  Epist. can. ad Basil.
• * 1.103

  lib. 3. Exp. fi∣dei & hae••••s. 75.
• * 1.104

  17.
• * 1.105

  Epist. 54. ad Marcel.
• * 1.106

  lib. de jejun. c. 15.
• * 1.107

  lib. 4. de offic. Eccles. c. 37.
• a 1.108

  lib. 4. de in∣stit. ••••••ic. c. 1.
• b 1.109

  lib. 6. Ratio∣nal. de 1^a 40^mae Dominic.
• c 1.110

  Hist. lib. 5. c. 22.
• d 1.111

  lib. 7. cap. 19.
• * 1.112

  in notis ad Tertull. de jejun.
• * 1.113

  A. D. 460. Can. 50.
• * 1.114

  18.
• * 1.115

  Collar. 21. cap. 28.
• * 1.116

  ubi suprà
• * 1.117

  19.
• * 1.118

  Collat. 21. c. 27.
• * 1.119

  lib. 40. Homil. Hom. 16.
• * 1.120

  Hac clausula inseritur in loco non suo: oportuit enim p••st narrationem de Ecclesiis Grac•• & Alex∣andrina interseri. Videat lector Hugonem Menar∣dum in notis ad Gregor. Sacram. qui etiam aliter emendat hunc locum satis mendosum.
• * 1.121

  lib. 5. c. 22. Homil. 16. ad pop. Antioch.
• * 1.122

  lib. 7. c. 19. lib. 12. c. 34.
• * 1.123

  Epist. 118. ad Januar.
• * 1.124

  Serm. 4. de 40^ma
• * 1.125

  20.
• * 1.126

  21.
• * 1.127

  contr. Faustum Manich. l. 30. cap. 5.
• * 1.128

  22.
• * 1.129

  de j••juniis & 40^ma
• * 1.130

  23.
• * 1.131

  Stromat. 7.
• * 1.132

  Co••••a ••••ych. •• 2. 13, 15.
• * 1.133

  24.
• * 1.134

  1.
• * 1.135

  2.
• * 1.136

  Vide Surium in Epist. ad le∣ctorem, ante Concil. Ferrar. tom. 4. Concil.
• * 1.137

  in Tract. de Concil. Basil. circa princ. n. 6. Vide etiam Ni∣colaum de Cle∣mangiis
• * 1.138

  Vide prooemiū pragmat. sanct.
• * 1.139

  Guil. Benedict. in repetit. cap. Raynutius.
• * 1.140

  Chapter 3. Rule 7. and Chapter 4. Rule 5.
• * 1.141

  3.
• * 1.142

  1.
• * 1.143

  Epist. 76. ad Casulanum Presbyter.
• * 1.144

  2.
• * 1.145

  lib. 3. c. 9.
• * 1.146

  lib. de Virg. veland.
• * 1.147

  see the Divine institution of the order and offices Minister. sect. 4.
• * 1.148

  Disput. 18. in 1 Cor. 11. in solut. 8^vi. dub.
• * 1.149

  3.
• * 1.150

  lib. 3. Paedagog. cap. 3.
• * 1.151

  lib. 8. Registri, Epist. 10.
• * 1.152

  4.
• * 1.153

  Epist. 86.
• * 1.154

  Epist. 118.
• * 1.155

  5.
• * 1.156

  lib. 5. Hist. cap. 21.
• * 1.157

  6.
• * 1.158

  Plaut. Trinum.
• * 1.159

  Baldus in l. observare, §. proficisci, cir∣ca fin. ff. de officio procon∣sul. & leg.
• * 1.160

  See the VI^th Rule of the last Chapter of this Book.
• * 1.161

  7.
• * 1.162

  8.
• * 1.163

  C. si Judex laicus desent. excommunicat. lib. 6.
• * 1.164

  9.
• * 1.165

  lib. 8. Epigr. 48.
• * 1.166

  Vide Liliú Gi∣raldum Syntag. 1. Deorum, ti∣tulo de Diis ex humanis actio∣nibus: & Char∣tarium lib. de Deorum••magi∣nibus.
• a 1.167

  lib. 2. Paedag. cap. 10.
• b 1.168

  Orat. 3. sub finem.
• * 1.169

  ubi suprà, & lib. 3. cap. 11.
• † 1.170

  sub finem vitae Aedesil.
• * 1.171

  An. Dom. 57. n. 77.
• * 1.172

  Epist. 146.
• * 1.173

  lib. 2. de Legib.
• * 1.174

  Videat lector, si, placet, Plutar∣chum lib. de Iside sub initi∣um, & 26. Rom. quaest. & Theodor. orat. 2. de Provid. & Eliam Creten∣sem in Nazian. orat. 4. in initio, Arrianum lib. 3. cap. 1. & Philon. Jud. lib. de plantat. Noae.
• * 1.175

  10.
• * 1.176

  11.
• * 1.177

  Epist. 11••. cap. 1.
• * 1.178

  Homil. de Rogat.
• * 1.179

  12.
• * 1.180

  Resp. 2. cap. 4.
• * 1.181

  Lib. de Eccl. Hi••••••••ch. cap. de Baptismo.
• * 1.182

  Apud Euseb. lib. 6. c. 43.
• * 1.183

  Epist. 76.
• * 1.184

  De Poenit. c. 6.
• * 1.185

  De rebus Eccle. cap. 26.
• * 1.186

  In illud 3. Johan. Nisi quis renatus &c.
• * 1.187

  13.
• * 1.188

  Adv. Praxeam c. 28. De corona milit. c. 15.
• * 1.189

  Lib. 2. de Sa∣cram. cap. 7.
• * 1.190

  in Dictis & in∣terpret. Script. qu. 91. Vide August: Homil. 4. & apud Gra∣tian. de Con∣secr. dist. 4. cap. 76.
• * 1.191

  Can. 49.
• * 1.192

  Lib. 4. Har••t. fabul.
• * 1.193

  14.
• * 1.194

  15.
• * 1.195

  Can. 5. aliàs 6.
• * 1.196

  1.
• * 1.197

  2.
• * 1.198

  Cap. 20.
• * 1.199

  Lib. 2. c. 11.
• * 1.200

  3.
• a 1.201

  Ubi supra.
• b 1.202

  In Defens. pacis part. 2. c. 23.
• c 1.203

  L. 7. Annal. Boiorum.
• d 1.204

  In ••. Bene à Zenone, C. de quadrien. prae∣script.
• e 1.205

  In Confut. Primat. •• apae 2. consider. prin∣cip.
• f 1.206

  In Henrico 3.
• g 1.207

  In parte 2. A. D. 1247.
• h 1.208

  Lib. de ruina & reparar. Eccl.
• i 1.209

  In Praefat. libri de sacris Ecclesiae Mini∣steriis, impres. 1551.
• k 1.210

  Alliacens. de Reformat. ••ccles. consid. 2. See also the Vergers Dream made in Latine in the time of Charls the fifth, and translated into French.
• * 1.211

  4.
• * 1.212

  5.
• * 1.213

  Baron. A. D. 499. n. 36.
• * 1.214

  Lib. 4. Epist. 2.
• * 1.215

  Lib. 4. Epist. 3. Lib. 1. Fp. 3.
• * 1.216

  Epist. 5.
• * 1.217

  Cyprian de unit. Eccles.
• * 1.218

  Vide S. Cypr. l. 1. ep. 3. & lib. 5. ep. 6. S. Ambrose in 1 Cor. 11.
• * 1.219

  In Quaest. Vet. & N. Test. q. ult. & ad fratres in Eremo, cap. 37.
• * 1.220

  6.
• * 1.221

  Lib. 2. Cap. 1, 5, 6.
• * 1.222

  Epist. 288.