Acts xxiv. 16.

ART. keeping a good conscience in all things, is laid thus, to do it XXXIV. first towards God, and then towards man. So that a schism that is occasioned by any Church's imposing unlawful terms of communion, lies at their door who impose them, and the guilt is wholly theirs. But without such a necessity, it is certainly, both in its own nature, and in its consequences, one of the greatest of sins, to create needless disturbances in a Church, and to give occasion to all that alienation of mind, all those rash censures, and unjust judgments, that do arise from such divisions. This receives a very great aggravation, if the civil authority has concurred by a law to enjoin the observance of such indifferent things; for to all their lawful commands we owe Rom.xiii.5. an obedience, not only for fear, but for conscience sake; since the authority of the magistrate is chiefly to be employed in such matters. As to things that are either commanded or forbidden of God, the magistrate has only the execution of these in his hands; so that in those, his laws are only the sanctions and penalties of the laws of God. The subject matter of his authority is about things which are of their own nature indifferent; but that may be made fit and proper means for the maintaining of order, union, and decency in the society: and therefore such laws as are made by him in those things, do certainly bind the conscience, and oblige the subjects to obedience. Disobedience does also give scandal to the weak. Scandal is a block or trap laid in the way of another, by which he is made to stumble and fall. So this figure of giving scandal, or the laying a stumbling-block in our brother's way, is applied to our doing of such actions as may prove the occasions of sin to others. Every man, according to the influence that his example or authority may have over others, who do too easily and implicitly follow him, becomes thereby the more capable of giving them scandal; that is, of drawing them after him to commit many sins: and since men are under fetters, according to the persuasions that they have of things, he who thinks a thing sinful, does sin if he does it, as long as he is under that apprehension; because he deliberately ventures on that Rom. xiv. which he thinks offends God; even while he doubts of it, or makes a distinction between meats, (for the word rendered doubts, signifies also the making a difference,) he is damned (that is, self-condemned, as acting against his own sense of things) if he does it. Another man, that has larger thoughts and clearer ideas, may see that there is no sin in an action, about which others may be still in doubt, and so upon his own account he may certainly do it: but

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ART.

if he has reason to believe that his doing that may draw others, who have not such clear notions, to do it after his XXXIV. example, they being still in doubt as to the lawfulness of it, then he gives scandal, that is, he lays a stumbling-block in their way, if he does it, unless he lies under an obligation from some of the laws of God, or of the society to which he belongs, to do it. In that case he is bound to obey; and he must not then consider the consequences of his actions; of which he is only bound to take care, when he is left to himself, and is at full liberty to do, or not to do, as he pleases.

This explains the notion of scandal, as it is used in the Epistles: for there being several doubts raised at that time, concerning the lawfulness or obligation of observing the Mosaical Law, and concerning the lawfulness of eating meats offered to idols, no general decision was made, that went through that matter; the Apostles having only decreed, that the Mosaical law was not to be imposed on the Gentiles; but not having condemned such as might of their own accord have observed some parts of that Law, scruples arose about this; and so here they gave great caution against the laying a stumbling-block in the way of Rom. xiv. their brethren. But it is visible from this, that the fear of 13. giving scandal does only take place where matters are free, and may be done or not done. But when laws are made, and an order is settled, the fear of giving scandal lies all on the side of obedience: for a man of weight and authority, when he does not obey, gives scruples and jealousies to others, who will be apt to collect from his practice, that the thing is unlawful: he who does not conform himself to settled orders, gives occasion to others, who see and observe him, to imitate him in it; and thus he lays a scandal or stumbling-block in their way; and all the sins which they commit through their excessive respect to him, and imitation of him, are in a very high degree to be put to his account, who gave them such occasion of falling.

The second branch of this Article is against the unalterableness of laws made in matters indifferent; and it asserts the right of every national Church to take care of itself. That the laws of any one age of the Church cannot bind another, is very evident from this, that all legislature is still entire in the hands of those who have it. The laws of God do bind all men at all times; but the laws of the Church, as well as the laws of every state, are only provisions made upon the present state of things, from the fitness or unfitness that appears to be in them, for the great

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

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

An obstinate adhering to things, only because they are ancient, when all the ends for which they were at first introduced do cease, is the limiting the Church in a point in which she ought still to preserve her liberty: she ought still to pursue those 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 such general laws as have been made by greater bodies, by General Councils for instance, or by those Synods whose canons were received into the body of the canons of the Catholic Church; whether these, I say, may be altered by National Churches; or whether the body of Christians is so to be reckoned one body, that all the parts of it are bound to submit, 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 correspondence together: but this difference is to be observed between the Christian and the Jewish religion, that the one was tied to one nation, and to one place, whereas the Christian religion is universal, to be spread to all nations, among people of different climates and languages, and of different customs and tempers; and therefore, since the power in indifferent matters is given the Church only in order to edification, every nation must be the proper judge of that within itself. 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 considered only as national synods, under one civil policy. The Christians of Persia, India, or Ethiopia, were not subject to the canons made by them, but were at full liberty to make rules and canons for themselves. And in the primitive times we see a vast diversity in their rules and rituals. They were so far from imposing general rules on all, that they left the Churches at full liberty: even the Council of Nice made very few rules that of Constantinople and Ephesus made fewer: and though the abuses that were growing in the fifth century, gave occasion to the Council of Chalcedon to make more canons, yet the number of these is but small: so that the tyranny

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

The corruptions that did afterwards overspread the Church, together with the Papal usurpations, 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; so 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 subordination of Churches and Sees, together with the privileges and exemptions of them, these did all flow from the divisions of the Roman empire into dioceses and provinces, out of which the dignity and the dependences of their cities did arise.

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; since the foundation upon which that was built is sunk and gone. Every empire, kingdom, or state, is an entire body within itself. The magistrate has that authority over all his subjects, that he may keep them all at home, and hinder them from entering into any consultations or combinations, but such as shall be under his direction: he may require the pastors of the Church under him to consult together about the best methods for carrying on the ends of religion; but neither he nor they can be bound to stay for the concurrence of other Churches. In the way of managing this, every body of men has somewhat peculiar to itself; and the pastors of that body are the properest judges in that matter. We know that the several 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 soon as the Roman empire was broken, we see this variety did increase. The Gallican Churches had their missals different from the Roman: and some Churches of Italy followed the Ambrosian. But Charles the Great, in compliance with the desires of the Pope, got the Gallican Churches to depart from their own missals, 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 usages, which perhaps were begun under the Heptarchy, when the nation was subdivided into several kingdoms.

:

It is therefore suitable to the nature of things, to the

ART. authority of the magistrate, and to the obligations of the XXXIV. pastoral care, that every Church should act within herself

as an entire and independent body. The Churches owe not only a friendly and brotherly correspondence to one another; but they owe to their own body government and direction, and such provisions and methods as are most likely to promote the great ends of religion, and to preserve the peace of the society both in Church and State. Therefore we are no other way bound by ancient canons, but as the same reason still subsisting, we may see the same cause to continue them, that there was at first to make them.

Of all the bodies of the world, the Church of Rome has the worst grace to reproach us for departing in some particulars from the ancient canons, since it was her ill conduct that had brought them all into desuetude: and it is not easy to revive again antiquated rules, even though there may be good reason for it, when they fall under that tacit abrogation, which arises out of a long and general disuse of them.