tion, without any special mandate left in Scripture for the doing of them. Praying directly towards the East is conceived to be of that condition; why may we not conclude the like of setting up the altar along the wall? Many things come into our minds by a successional tradition, for which we cannot find an express command, which yet we ought to entertain, ex vi Catholicæ consuetudinis; of which traditions there are many, which still retain their force among us in England. This Church (the LORD be thanked for it) hath stood more firm for apostolical traditions, than any other whatsoever of the Reformation.-Antid. Lincoln, p. 87'.

COMMISSIONERS OF A.D. 1662.-Appointed to review the Book of Common Prayer.

Ancient Liturgies in the Church, St. Chrysostom's, St. Basil's, St. James's and others, and such things as are found in them all consistent with Catholic and Primitive doctrine, may well be presumed to have been from the first, especially since we find no original of these Liturgies from General Councils.-Reply to Presbyterians, § 16.

PEARSON, BISHOP AND DOCTOR.-On the Creed.

As our religion is Catholic, it holdeth fast that 'faith which was once delivered to the saints,' and since preserved in the Church; and therefore I expound such verities, in opposition to the heretics arising in all ages, especially against the Photinians, who of all the rest have most perverted the articles of our Creed, and found out followers in these latter ages, who have erected a new body of divinity in opposition to the Catholic theology. Against these I proceed upon such principles as they themselves allow, that is, upon the word of God delivered in the Old and New Testament, alleged according to the true sense, and applied by right reason; not urging the authority of the Church which they reject, but only giving in the margin the sense of the primi

As extracted in "the Canterburians' self-conviction," 1640. p. 63.

tive Fathers, for the satisfaction of such as have any respect left for antiquity, and are persuaded that CHRIST had a true Church on the earth before these times.-Preface.

BARROW, PRESBYTER AND DOCTOR.

It can indeed no wise be safe to follow any such leaders (whatever pretences to special illumination they hold forth, whatever specious guises of sanctity they bear) who in their doctrine or practice deflect from the great beaten roads of holy Scripture, primitive tradition, and Catholic practice, roving in by-paths suggested to them by their private fancies and humours, their passions and lusts, their interests and advantages: there have in all ages such counterfeit guides started up, having debauched some few heedless persons, having erected some napaovvaywyds or petty combinations against the regularly settled corporations; but never with any durable success or countenance of Divine Providence; but like prodigious meteors, having caused a little gazing, and some disturbance, their sects have soon been dissipated, and have quite vanished away: the authors and abettors of them being either buried in oblivion, or recorded with ignominy; like that Theudas in the speech of Gamaliel, who "rose up boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men about four hundred joined themselves; who were slain, and all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to nought."-Works, vol. iii. p. 206.

BULL, BISHOP AND DOCTOR.-Apol. pro Harm. i. 6.

God knows the secrets of my heart; so far am I from the itch of originality in Theological Doctrines, . . . that whatever are sanctioned by the consent of Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops, though my own small ability attain not to them, yet I will embrace them with all reverence. In truth, I had already learned by no few experiments, in writing my Harmony while yet a young man, what now in my mature age I am most thoroughly persuaded of, that no one can contradict Catholic

consent, however he may seem to be countenanced for a while by some passages of Scripture wrongly understood, and by the illusions of unreal arguments, without being found in the end to have contradicted both Scripture and sound reason. I daily deplore and sigh over the unbridled license of prophesying which obtained for some years in this our England, . . . . under the tyranny of what some considered a wretched necessity. In a word, my hearty desire is this, Let the ancient customs, doctrines remain in force 1.

STILLINGFLEET, BISHOP.-Grounds of Protestant Religion.

The Church of England doth very piously declare her consent with the ancient Catholic Church, in not admitting any thing to be delivered as the sense of Scripture, which is contrary to the consent of the Catholic Church in the four first ages. Not as though the sense of the Catholic Church were pretended to be any infallible rule of interpreting Scripture in all things which concern the rule of faith; but that it is a sufficient prescription against anything which can be alleged out of Scripture, that if it appear contrary to the sense of the Catholic Church from the beginning, it ought not to be looked on as the true meaning of the Scripture. All this security is built upon this strong presumption, that nothing contrary to the necessary Articles of Faith should be held by the Catholic Church, whose very being depends upon the belief of those things which are necessary to salvation. As long therefore as the Church might appear to be truly Catholic by those correspondencies which were maintained between the several parts of it, that what was refused by one, was so by all; so long this unanimous and uncontradicted sense of the Catholic Church ought to have a great sway upon the minds of such who yet profess themselves members of the Catholic Church. From whence it follows, that such doctrines may well be judged destructive to the rule of faith, which were so unanimously condemned by the Catholic Church within that

1 Concil. Nicæn. Can.

time. And thus much may suffice for the first inquiry, viz. What things are to be esteemed necessary, either in order to Salvation, or in order to Ecclesiastical Communion ?-p. 55.

KENN, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.

As for my religion, I die in the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith, professed by the whole Church before the disunion of East and West; more particularly I die in the Communion of the Church of England, as it stands distinguished from all Papal and Puritan Innovations, and as it adheres to the doctrine of the Cross. His last Will.

Beveridge, BISHOP.-Preface to Codex Canonum Eccles. Prim vindicatus ac illustratus.

To such a degree of temerity has this our senseless age advanced, that there is scarcely any thing in Christianity itself which is not either called into doubt in private, or made matter of controversy in public. So much so, that even those doctrines and rites which, during many ages back, and from the very beginnings of the Church, have every where been received, at last in these our days come into hazard, and are assailed, just as if we were the first Christians, and all our ancestors had assumed and borne the mere name of CHRIST, and nothing more; or at least, as if all had been constantly involved in the gravest errors, whoever before this time embraced the faith made known in the Gospel. Forsooth in these full late times, it seems new lights are boasted of, new and greater gifts of the HOLY SPIRIT are pretended, and therefore new forms of believing, new forms of praying, new forms of preaching, new forms in the use of ecclesiastical administrations, are daily framed and commonly adopted. And, what is most absurd, nothing now is esteemed of before novelty itself, but the newer any thing is, so much the greater number and the more does it please, and the more anxiously is it defended. Hence these tears, hence so many horrible schisms in the Church! VOL. IV.-78.

F

For whilst individuals, indulging, beyond what is meet, their abilities, or rather their own wanton fancies, devote themselves to the introduction of novelties into religion, the whole body, through the infinite diversity of opinions, comes to be rent into contrary schools and factions.

But if we will only even now recollect ourselves, and weigh things with that temperate and fair spirit which is right, it will at once be clear that we, who now inhabit this and other countries around, are not either the first or the only worshippers of CHRIST, but only a small part of that great body whose head is CHRIST: inasmuch as that body, by the exceeding mercy of GoD, hath been spread abroad into all parts of the earth, and that from the very times of the Apostles; so that there is no age, and scarcely any country, in which there have not been very many who, by the faith which we profess, have attained unto heaven. According to this view, if we attentively survey this vast body of all Christians of every age, which is commonly called the Catholic or Univesral Church, as constituted every where and always, we shall find in it certain fixed, and, as it were, common principles, which run through the whole, and connect all its parts both with each other and with the head. The first of these, and that from which the rest arise, is, that Holy Scripture, or the Old and New Testament, is divinely inspired. In this all Christians every where agree, and have always agreed; and therefore he who denies it is pronounced unworthy of their fellowship, and of their name. Still further, this Holy Scripture, although in these precepts, which are absolutely necessary for every man's salvation, it be most clear and evident to all, yet, as to what respects doctrine and external discipline of the Church, it is not, from its very depth, received by all in one and the same sense, but "the divine sayings of this same Scripture are by one man interpreted in one way, and by another in another; so that it would seem to admit almost as many meanings as there are men," as formerly Vincent of Lirins observed, and as is more than sufficiently proved from the case of heretics and schismatics, inasmuch as, among them, every individual elicits his own erroneous opinions and practices out of the holy Scriptures interpreted after his own manner.

In