justify private perfons, who upon that do withdraw from ART. the communion of the Church: for after all that has XXXIII. been faid, the divine precept is to every man, to try and examine bimfelf, and not to try and cenfure others. All order and government are deftroyed, if private perfons take upon them to judge and cenfure others; or to feparate from any body, because there are abuses in the ufe of this authority.

Private confeffion in the Church of Rome had quite deftroyed the government of the Church, and fuperfeded all the ancient penitentiary canons; and the tyranny of the Church of Rome had fet many ingenious men on many fubtle contrivances, either to evade the force of thofe canons, to which fome regard was ftill preferved, or to maintain the order of the Church, in oppofition to the appeals that were made to Rome and while fome pretended to fubject all things to the Papal authority, others ftudied to keep up the ancient rules. The encroachments that the temporal and fpiritual courts were making upon one another, occafioned many difputes; which being managed by fuch fubtle men as the Civilians and Canonifts were, all this brought in a great variety of cafes and rules into the courts of the Church: fo that, inftead of the first fimplicity, which was evident in the conftitution of the Church, not only for the first three centuries, but for a great many more that came afterwards, there grew to be fo much practice, and fo many fubterfuges in the rules and manner of proceeding of thofe courts, that the Church has long groaned under it, and has wished to fee that effected, which was defigned in the beginnings of the Reformation. The draught of a reformation of those courts is ftill extant; that fo inftead of the intricacies, delays, and other diforders that have arisen from the canon law, we might have another fhort and plain body of rules; which might be managed, as anciently, by Bishops, with the affiftance of their Clergy. But though this is not yet done, and that, by reafon of it, the tares grow up with the wheat, we ought to let them grow together till the great harvest comes, or, at least, till a proper harvest may be given to the Church by the providence of God; in which the good may be diftinguifhed and feparated from the bad, without endangering the ruin of all; which muft certainly be the effect of people's falling indifcreetly to this, before the time.

ARTICLE XXXIV.

Of the Traditions of the Church.

It is not necellazp that Tzaditions and Ceremonies be in all Plates one, or uttezly like; for at all times thep have been divezfe, and may be changed according to the divezlity of Countzies and Men's Hamnezs, la that nothing be ordained against God's Word. Whosoever through his private Judgment, willingly and purposely doth openly break the Traditions and Cezemonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to the Word of God, and be ozdained and approved by common Authority, ought to be rebuked openly (that others map fear to do the like) as one that of fendeth against the common Dzder of the Church, and huztech the Authority of the Magiftrate, and woundeth the Confciences of weak Brethren. Every pazticular oz national Church hath Authority to ordain, change, and abolish Cezemonies or Rites of the Church, ozdained only by Men's Authority; fo that all things be done to edifying.

THIS

HIS Article confifts of two branches: the first is, that the Church hath power to appoint fuch rites and ceremonies as are not contrary to the word of God; and that private perfons are bound to conform themfelves to their orders. The fecond is, that it is not neceffary that the whole Church fhould meet to determine fuch matters; the power of doing that being in every national Church, which is fully empowered to take care of itself; and no rule made in fuch matters is to be held unalterable, but may be changed upon occafion.

As to the first, it hath been already confidered, when the first words of the twentieth Article were explained. There the authority of the Church in matters indifferent was stated and proved. It remains now only to prove, that private perfons are bound to conform themselves to fuch ceremonies, especially when they are alfo enacted by the civil authority. It is to be confidered, that the Chriftian religion was chiefly defigned to raife and purify the na ture of man, and to make human fociety perfect: now brotherly love and charity does this more than any one virtue whatfoever: it raises a man to the likeness of God;

it gives him a divine and heavenly temper within himfelf, ART. and creates the tendereft union and firmeft happiness poffible XXXIV. among all the focieties of men: our Saviour has fo enlarged the obligation to it, as to make it, by the extent he has given it, a great and new commandment, by which all the world may be able to know and diftinguith his followers from the reft of mankind: and as all the Apoftles infift much upon this in every one of their Epiftles, not excepting the fhorteft of them; fo St. John, who writ laft of them, has dwelt more fully upon it than upon any other duty whatsoever. Our Saviour did particularly intend that his followers should be affociated into one body, and join together in order to their keeping up and inflaming their mutual love; and therefore he delivered his prayer to them all in the plural, to fhew that he intended that they fhould use it in a body: he appointed Baptifm as the way of receiving men into this body, and the Eucharift as a joint memorial that the body was to keep up that of his death. For this end he appointed Paftors to teach and keep his followers in a body: and in his last and longest prayer to the Father, he repeats this, that they might be one; that Joh. xvii. they might be kept in one (body), and made perfect in one, in 11. 21, 22, five feveral expreffions; which thews both how neceffary a part of his religion he meant this fhould be, and likewife intimates to us the danger that he forefaw, of his followers departing from it; which made him intercede fo earnestly for it. One expreffion that he has of this union, fhews how entire and tender he intended that it fhould be; for he prayed that the union might be fuch as that between the Father and bimfelf was. The Apoftles ufe the figure of a body frequently, to exprefs this union; than which nothing can be imagined that is more firmly knit together, and in which all the parts do more tenderly fympathize with one another.

Upon all these confiderations we may very certainly gather, that the diffolving this union, the dislocating this body, and the doing any thing that may extinguish the love and charity by which Chriftians are to be made fo happy in themfelves, and fo ufeful to one another, and by which the body of Chriftians grows much the firmer and ftronger, and fhines more in the world; that, I fay, the doing this upon flight grounds, must be a fin of a very high nature. Nothing can be a juft reafon either to carry men to it, or to juftify them in it, but the impofing on them unlawful terms of communion; for in that cafe it is certain, that we must obey God rather than man; that we muft feek truth and peace together; and that the rule of

keeping

23.

ART. ends of religion, or for the good of mankind. All thefe XXXIV. things are fubject to alteration, therefore the power of the

Church is in every age entire, and is as great as it was in any one age fince the days in which he was under the conduct of men immediately infpired. So there can be no unalterable laws in matters indifferent. In this there neither is nor can be any controversy.

An obftinate adhering to things, only becaufe they are ancient, when all the ends for which they were at first introduced do ceafe, is the limiting the Church in a point in which the ought ftill to preferve her liberty: fhe ought ftill to pursue thofe great rules in all her orders, of doing all things to edification, with decency, and for peace. The only question that can be made in this matter is, whether fuch general laws as have been made by greater bodies, by General Councils for inftance, or by thofe Synods whofe canons were received into the body of the canons of the Catholic Church whether thefe, I fay, may be altered by National Churches: or whether the body of Chriftians is fo to be reckoned one body, that all the parts of it are bound to fubmit, in matters indifferent, to the decrees of the body in general? It is certain, that all the parts of the Catholic Church ought to hold a communion one with another, and mutual commerce and correfpondence together: but this difference is to be observed between the Chriftian and the Jewish religion, that the one was tied to one nation, and to one place, whereas the Christian religion is univerfal, to be fpread to all nations, among people of different climates and languages, and of different customs and tempers; and therefore, fince the power in indifferent matters is given the Church only in order to edification, every nation muft be the proper judge of that within itfelf. The Roman empire, though a great body, yet was all under one government; and therefore all the councils that were held while that empire stood, are to be confidered only as national fynods, under one civil policy. The Chriftians of Perfia, India, or Ethiopia, were not fubject to the canons made by them, but were at full liberty to make rules and canons for themselves, And in the primitive times we fee a vaft diverfity in their rules and rituals. They were fo far from impofing general rules on all, that they left the Churches at full liberty: even the Council of Nice made very few rules: that of Conftantinople and Ephefus made fewer: and though the abufes that were growing in the fifth century, gave occafion to the Council of Chalcedon to make more canons, yet the number of thefe is but fmall; fo that the tyranny

of

of fubjecting particular Churches to laws that might be inconvenient for them, was not then brought into the Church.

The corruptions that did afterwards overfpread the Church, together with the papal ufurpations, and the new Canon Law that the Popes brought in, which was totally different from the old one, had worn out the remembrance of all the ancient canons; fo it is not to be wondered at, if they were not much regarded at the Reformation. They were quite out of practice, and were then scarce known. And as for the fubordination of Churches and Sees, together with the privileges and exemptions of them, these did all flow from the divifions of the Roman empire into diocefes and provinces, out of which the dignity and the dependencies of their cities did arife.

But now that the Roman empire is gone, and that all the laws which they made are at an end, with the authority that made them; it is a vain thing to pretend to keep up the ancient dignities of Sees; fince the foundation upon which that was built is funk and gone. Every empire, kingdom, or ftate, is an entire body within itself. The magiftrate has that authority over all his fubjects, that he may keep them all at home, and hinder them from entering into any confultations or combinations, but fuch as fhall be under his direction: he may require the paftors of the Church under him to confult together about the beft methods for carrying on the ends of religion; but neither he nor they can be bound to ftay for the concurrence of other Churches. In the way of managing this, every body of men has fomewhat peculiar to itfelf; and the paftors of that body are the propereft judges in that matter. We know that the feveral Churches, even while under one empire, had great varieties in their forms, as appears in the different practices of the Eastern and Western Churches: and as foon as the Roman empire was broken, we fee this variety did increase. The Gallican Churches had their miffals different from the Roman and fome Churches of Italy followed the Ambrofian. But Charles the Great, in compliance with the defires of the Pope, got the Gallican Churches to depart from their own miffals, and to receive the Roman; which he might the rather do, intending to have raised a new empire; to which a conformity of rites might have been a great step. Even in this Church there was a great variety of ufages, which perhaps were begun under the Heptarchy, when the nation was fubdivided into feveral kingdoms.

It is therefore fuitable to the nature of things, to the authority

ART.

XXXIV.