conferring Orders as is evident from St. Paul's Epistles directed to them and though there were many Presbyters in the Dioceses of Ephesus and Crete yet none had Authority to ordain Elders or Priests but only Timothy and Titus Linus by Apostolick Consecration succeeded the Apostles in the Chair of Rome Symeon governed the Church of Jerusalem or the Diocess of Palestine next after St. James Anianus succeeded St. Mark in the Church of Alexandria And this Succession was propagated with so much care and certainty that Irenaeus tells us He could name all the Successors of the Apostles in the several Apostolick Churches unto his dayes Habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis Successores eorum usque ad nos And this line of Apostolick Succession of Bishops hath continued through all Ages of the Church to our present times So that he who is out of this line of Apostolick Succession and exercises any Ministerial Office without the Commission of Episcopal Ordination is but a Lay-Impostor and a Schismatick from the Catholick Church And all other Societies of Christian people who totally withdraw themselves from the Government of their Bishops who are the Apostles Successors and from the Ministry of those Presbyters lawfully set over them by Episcopal Ordination and Institution and cast themselves into any other Model of Government are guilty of Schism This was the formal Notion of Schism in the sense of the antient Church Irenaeus Bishop of Lugdunum who convers'd with Polycarpus the Disciple of St. John may in reason be allowed to understand the Primitive and Apostolick Notion of Schism better than our Doctor at the distance of sixteen hundred years He in his Book Adversus Hereses exhorts the Christian World to hearken only to those Priests who were in the Communion of the Catholick Church and who those are he there describes Quapropter eis qui in Ecclesia sunt Presbyteris obaudire oported iis qui successionem habent ab Apostolis sicut ostendimus qui cum Episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum secundum placitum Patris accepêrunt Reliquos vero qui absistunt à principali successione quocunque loco colliguntur suspectos habere vel quasi Haereticos malae sententiae vel quasi scindentes elatos sibi placentes aut rursus ut Hypocritas quaestus gratia vanae gloriae hoc operantes Qui autem scindunt separant unitatem Ecclesiae eandem quam Hieroboam poenam percipiunt à Deo Ignatius the second Bishop of Antioch in succession from St. Peter in his Epistles ad Trallianos ad Smyrnenses and in those to the Philippians Ephesians and Philadelphians frequently charges them to keep themselves in the unity and communion of the Christian Church by a regular obedience to the Bishops and by communication with the Priests who were set over them by the Authority of Episcopal Order and to disobey those Bishops and their Presbyters and to separate from them is in those Epistles charg'd with Schism Athanasius brands Ischyras for a Schismatick and justifies the charge from this reason that Ischyras did usurp a Ministerial Authority without a regular Ordination from the Bishops of the Catholick Church and gathered to himself a distinct Congregation separate from the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Alexandria in whose Province he lived St. Cyprian in his fortieth Epistle ad populum Carthaginensem de quinque Presbyteris Schismaticis exhorts them to have no communion with those who had divided themselves from their Bishops for he tells them in that Epistle That to be sine Episcopis was to be extra Ecclesiam And in his Book de Unitate he gives us this notion of Schism Contemptis Episcopis derelictis Dei Sacerdotibus constituere aliud Altare or Conventicula diversa constituere That it was Schism to contemn and forsake the Bishops and Priests of God and to set up another Altar or to settle distinct Conventicles And this he accounts so foul a crime that he tells us in the same discourse Talis etiamsi occisi in confessione fuerint Macula ista nec sanguine abluitur inexpiabilis gravis culpa discordiae nec passione purgatur That Martyrdom it self cannot expiate the guilt of Schisim And when Maximus Urbanus Sydonius and Macarius return'd from the Novatian faction into the communion of the Church they express it thus Episcopo nostro pacem fecimus they had reconcil'd themselves to the Bishop and this was enough to assure St. Cyprian they had renounc'd their Schism and were restor'd to the Churches communion I will end this with the assertion of St. Augustine Radix Christianae societatis per sedes Apostolorum successiones Episcoporum certâ per orbem propagatione diffunditur i. e. the root or foundation of unity or communion in the Christian Church is founded in the several Seats of the Apostles and diffused through the Christian World by the certain propagation or succession of Bishops Therefore in the judgement of St. Augustine all those persons or societies that have divided themselves from the Bishops and Priests of the Apostolick succession are but wild plants and no branches of the Catholick stock I could fill many Pages more with Testimonies of the same nature but such numerous Quotations would look like Pedantick impertinence and I doubt not but those Authorities I have already mentioned will perswade you to believe That a total separation from the Orders and Government of Bishops was constantly adjudg'd to be Schism by the concurrent sentiments of the antient Church And now Sir having examined these Testimonies I may proceed to sentence That seeing the Teachers of our Non-conforming Congregations in England were never regularly Ordain'd to any Ministerial Function by the hands of the Bishops deriving their Authority from Apostolick succession and seeing their Leaders and their blind Proselytes have wholly withdrawn themselves from the Conduct Government of Episcopal Authority I shall therefore adventure to pronounce them Schismaticks not only from the Church of England but from the whole Corporation of the Catholick Church Therefore that which the Doctor so Magisterially asserts at the end of his seventeenth Page is no Axiom of Divinity for I have already prov'd that a man may be Schismatick from the whole Catholick Church on earth without Heresie or Apostasie The premises being considered will furnish us with an Answer to that passionate Harangue pag. 21. Do we not own Christ his Gospel the same points of faith the same acts of Worship where is the Separation then This St. Augustine tells us was the same Plea of the Donatists and might have been urged by the Novatians and Schismatick Presbyters of Carthage but it would not acquit them from Schism nor will it vindicate our English Sectaries Corah and his confederate Mutineers were neither Hereticks nor Apostates but men of the same Creed with Moses and Aaron their crime was the violating
that subordination which God had appointed and not submitting themselves to the Superiour Authority of the Priesthood And Sir it may be worth your observation that this Plea of the Doctor and that of the Hebrew Rebels have the same sense for just thus they plead Numb 16. 3. All the Congregation is holy every one of them that is in the Doctor 's phrase Do we not own Moses his Laws the same points of faith the same acts of Worship But this plausible plea would not prevail nor mitigate the provocation for God punished one Schism with another The earth rent and swallowed them up and with open mouth taught the rest of the Church to keep Unity and Order as well as the profession of a true Religion Therefore the Answer is very easie to the Doctor 's ruffling Question Do we not own Christ his Gospel the same points of faith the same acts of Worship where is the separation then Why Sir the separation is in dividing from the communion of all the Bishops and Episcopal Presbyters who in a constant line succeeding the Apostles have only a just and regular Authority to govern and guide the Christian Church The Doctor in the beginning of pag. 34. tells us That a controversie among them of the same communion is the chief if not the only notion of Schism that the Scripture gives us I confess the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schism in its general notion signifies any manner of separation or division and therefore I do acknowledge that those dissentions that were within the bowels of the Apostolick and Catholick Church were called Schisms both in the Scripture and in the Writings of the antient Fathers but this does not hinder but that the same word may be used to signifie a separation from the Catholick Church for if a wound in the body may be called a Schism sure Amputation or the cutting off from the body is the greatest rent and Schism in the World For though there were indeed divisions in the Church of Corinth where some were for Paul and some for Apollos and some for Cephas this at the worst was but a faction or a breach of charity but it was not properly Schism in the highest sense of the word for they still setled themselves under the Government and Ministry of the Apostles or some Presbyters ordained by the hands of the Apostles But those Conventicles that crept into houses and formed Assemblies distinct from the communion of the Apostolick Church those that heaped to themselves Teachers which as the phrase imports were not set over them by Apostolick Order and Institution those that despised Dominion and sake evil of those Dignities which did superintend the Government of the Church These men St. Jude tell us were those that did separate themselves that is were Schismaticks and just so are their Brethren the Sectaries of England Before I proceed to the next enquiry that concerns the Schism from the Church of England it will be necessary to state the right notion of the Catholick Church according to the sense of the antient Councils and Fathers The Doctor and his Complices are for Comprehension and give us a very wide notion of the Catholick Church for they will have all men that profess the name of Christ though in some things Hereticks and Schismaticks too yet to be included within the boundaries of the Catholick Church But I observe the Antients would not endure this Comprehension for they reckoned none to be in the communion of the Catholick Church but those who confessed the common faith delivered to the Saints and kept themselves under the Orders and Government of the Bishops who were the Apostles Successors and therefore oft-times in Councils and antient Epistles we find this Superscription To the Catholick Church in Antioch To the Catholick Church of Alexandria To the Catholick Church of Rome c. this still being used in contradistinction from the Novatians Arrians and Donatists which the antient Church look'd upon as Schismaticks and extra Ecclesiam Now having advanc'd thus far the way is prepared for the second enquiry Whether our Non-conformists are guilty of Schism from the Church of England And I doubt not but to prove the Affirmative The Church of England adhere to that Creed which was delivered by the Apostles professed by the antient Primitive Church and confirm'd by the first four General Councils it hath preserv'd the Unity of Government by a succession of Bishops in the Apostolick line as appears from the undoubted Archives and Records of England Therefore we are secured that it is in the Unity of the Catholick Church and a most excellent part of it Now as our Christianity obliges us to be members of that body of Christ the Catholick Church So the eternal reasons of Peace and Order bind us to communicate with that part of the Catholick Church in which our lot hath plac'd us except it can manifestly appear that that part is so corrupted that we cannot communicate with it without evident hazard of our salvation It were an unpardonable disorder for a Native of England dwelling in London to contemn the Laws of our Prince and to govern himself by the Placaets of the United Provinces and it were as great a confusion for those who live within the Jurisdiction of the Church of England to submit themselves to the Orders and Government of Rome or Geneva Before the Papal Usurpation of Universal Monarchy the Patriarchs of the Christian Church had their distinct Limits and Jurisdictions The Patriarch of Constantinople had his peculiar Primacy or Regiment and was not to intermeddle with the Province of Alexandria and so the Bishop of Rome had his peculiar Jurisdiction and was allowed no inspection over Constantinople Antioch or Alexandria and these distinct boundaries were fixed by a Canon of the Council of Nice and because it conâ—utes both the Papal Supremacy and Puritanical Anarchy I will give you the copy of that Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Let the antient customs be in force Let the Bishop of Alexandria have the Jurisdiction of Aegypt Libya and Pentapolis as likewise the Bishop of Rome was accustomed to have in his Province and so let the Churches of Antioch and other Provinces keep their peculiar priviledges And so the Christians dwelling under these distinct Patriarchates were obliged to a respective obedience to their peculiar Provincial and to divide themselves from their proper Patriarch or Bishop was accounted Schism in the antient Church Timothy being constituted Bishop of all the Diocess of Ephesus the Christians residing within that Precinct were obliged by the rules of Order to submit themselves to his peculiar inspection and it had been Schism to have disobeyed him or separated themselves from his Jurisdiction St. Ambrose observed this decorum himself as he tells us by St. Augustin in an Epistle of his ad Januarium Cum Romae sum jejuno Sabbato cum hic sum non
with so great a Schismatick God charges him expresly Vers 9. to eat no bread nor drink water in that place now an old Prophet that dwelt in Bethel pretends a new Revelation and that with such cunning delusion as he prevailed with the young Prophet to go back and dine with him at Bethel but that entertainment cost him his life Verse 24. The reason of this severity was very just and equitable for God had given him an express command not to eat in that place and that charge was reveal'd to him by some such manifest way of Divine Revelation that he was as much ascertain'd it was the Word of the Lord as he was assur'd of his own being And therefore he was justly punish'd for disobeying a plain command and hearkning to a pretended Revelation which was not personally reveal'd to him and of the truth of which he could not be so much secur'd as he was of his former Vision Thus obedience to Governours in general is as manifest a Law of God as was ever given to the World and we are in no particular to disobey them except we can produce another Divine Law of equal evidence and Authority which prohibits our obedience in that particular or else I believe from the process of the former story it is displeasing to God to transgress such a plain certain Law without a manifest prohibition from Heaven but only out of niceness of fancy or private judgement And if the Church should part with all those things which Dissenters judge to be sinful there could be neither Church nor Government for we must throw off our Hoods and Surplice to gratifie the scrupulous Puritan we must strip our selves stark-naked to satisfie the Fanaticism of the Adamites nay we must part not only with Rites and Ceremonies but the whole Liturgie and Hierarchy of the Church because some fancy them to be Anti-christian nay the Creed is not secure we must expunge the Article of Christs Divinity to humour the Socinians we must blot out the Propitiation of Christ the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Resurrection of the body to gratifie the Quakers and so we must not only deface the front and out-side of the Temple but even raze it to the ground because it does not please the eye of these men of Babel nay we must renounce our reason and our senses too to satisfie the Papists in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation and so by this method at length we must neither be men nor Christians But let us put the case at the worst and suppose what these men fancy were really true That there were some things enjoyn'd by the Church which were really sinful I confess this would be a difficult and unhappy circumstance but yet it would not justifie a total separation and the erecting of new modell'd Churches for I have prov'd before that we are bound by the eternal reasons of Peace and Order to communicate with those Bishops and that part of the Catholick Church under which we live and if it should so happen that some things evidently sinful were enjoyn'd by this Church then we might remove into some other part of the Catholick Church that were of a sounder constitution But if we continued within the Jurisdiction of this Church I think we should be oblig'd to communicate with it in Publick Confession of Faith in Devotions and Sacraments and as far as we could without manifest sin We might with peace and patience enjoy a pure conscience in our own family but it could never be lawful by any rule of Christianity to make a total separation and to set up another form of Church-Government in opposition to that under whose Jurisdiction we live But Mr. H. in the Appendix hath discover'd a new Argument to vindicate the Non-conformists in upholding Conventicles distinct from the Assemblies of the Church of England The summ of his new Invention amounts to thus much That necessity is laid upon them by Divine Law to preach the Gospel as for their communion with our Churches it is but an humane establishment Now seeing they cannot preach in our Assemblies the necessity of a Divine Law obliges them to teach in Conventicles Now Sir to encounter this Gigantick reason we must enquire the truth of his first Postulatum Whether any such necessity be laid upon these men to preach the Gospel Indeed I have met with a Geneva Divine that stoutly believes that necessity was laid upon Cain to be a Murderer and upon Judas to be a Traytor Now I confess if this Divinity be true they may be under the unavoidable fate of Schism and Rebellion and then we ought to pity and excuse them and lay the guilt in Heaven But I will suppose Mr. H. to be too good and modest for to accuse God to acquit himself And the necessity he pretends is founded in their call to the Ministry Now Sir there will be a necessity for us to enquire the truth of this Divine Call for the Parliament were a very Jewish Sanhedrim to forbid these men to speak openly in the name of Jesus if they were certainly sent of God But I shall ask them the same Question concerning their Mission that our Saviour asked the Jews concerning John's Baptism Was it from Heaven or of men If they shall say from men then they must shew us their orders from the hands of the Bishops the Apostles Successors who only have Authority with Titus to ordain Elders or Priests in every City If they say from Heaven they must then bring us very serious credible Witnesses to assure us that they were called by a voice from the clouds as St. Paul was in his way to Damascus And yet if this were done we live in such a Sceptick Age that men would not credit the Boast of Revelation without the credentials of a Miracle And I confess I cannot blame the Christian World for this suspecting humour for so many impostures and delusions have been imposed upon the World by this pretence that 't is prudence not to be too credulous Now Sir you may observe that these fanciful Visions and Revelations have strangely swelled these men for they are no less in their own opinion than the great Apostles of Christ and therefore with St. Paul they cry out Necessity is laid upon us and wo be unto us if we preach not the Gospel that is Sir That the Kingdom of England are still Jews and Barbarians and except these chief Apostles preach the Gospel there is no hopes of their conversion from Gentilism or Judaism Nay pag. 5 6. he tells us That there is such a necessity for these men to preach in Conventicles that the everlasting welfare of thousands of mens souls depend upon it Wo wo to the King and Parliament that should dare to stop the mouths of these men upon whose breath depends the salvation of thousands of souls Why Sir this is far more mischievous than shutting up the Exchequer breaking the East-India Company or
to London to receive Consecration from the hands of our English Bishops and so engraft themselves again into the unity of the Catholick Church this they might easily do without being oblig'd to any subscriptions to Papal power or innovations if their omission of this arise from a contempt and abhorrence of Episcopacy I have no Apology for them neither would I be in the communion of those Churches for all the Bank of their East-India Company If any of the forreign Churches be under such unhappy circumstances that they can justly plead a necessity for having no Bishops or Priests of the Apostolick Succession I have great compassion for them and question not but God accepts them for I receive that as an indisputable Maxim That where there is an inevitable necessity there can be no guilt though the fact it self be never so much irregular But as for those Churches in general I have St. Pauls Charity Those that are without let God judge Thirdly Our squeamish Sectaries are offended at the Hierarchy of England because it derives its succession from the Bishops of Rome To which I have a double Answer First That I make not the Chair of Rome the sole Head or Origine of this Catholick succession for the Episcopal or Apostolick power of Government and Ordination was equally conferred upon all the Apostles by the general commission of our High Priest Jesus and therefore a succession of Bishops and Priests from any of these Apostles is enough to assert our unity with the Catholick Church You know the twelve Apostles are made the twelve foundation-stones of the Christian Temple and that part of the Church which in a right line is built upon St. James is as much in the unity and compact of the building as that which stands upon St. Peter Secondly Let us grant it that we claim our succession from the line of Rome this will no way prejudice the Episcopacy of England I hope it was no dishonour to the Holy Jesus that there were some of his Genealogy that had no very good fame in the World it was sufficient that by that line it was made evident our Lord sprung from Judah and it is enough for the Bishops of England to make it evident they sprung from the Apostles and though some of their line were men of impious lives or erroneous opinions that no way lessened their power of propagation nor invalidates the Authority of our succession Thus I have consider'd Schism as a separation from the Bishops and Priests of the Apostolick line and I see no reason to recant this notion And therefore the Appendixer is vastly mistaken pag. 9. when he tells us That if the Parliament did legitimate their Meetings there were an end of the Schism for they might indeed by a Law of Toleration acquit them from all the Temporal penalties of a separation but it would exceed all the Omnipotency of Parliaments to discharge them from the guilt of Schism for they must first compel their Teachers to take Episcopal Orders and bring in all the Conventicles into the communion of the Catholick Church and place them under the Government of their proper Bishops or else they would still be Schismaticks non obstante Statuto Before I conclude I will consider some grand Absurdities that will follow from the denyal of this notion First The profound Fanaticks in England clamour against the whole Hierarchy and will have the whole race of Arch-bishops and Bishops to be Anti-christian Now Sir I 'le appeal to your judgement if this be not blasphemy for then all the holy Bishops that assembled in the first four General Councils that did assert the truth of Christianity against Pagans Jews and Hereticks and those many Bishops of the antient Church that headed the noble Army of Martyrs must be damn'd as limbs of Antichrist Nay I cannot see how to defend Timothy and Titus from being Anti-christian too and if these Propagators of the Christian Faith were Anti-christian where shall we enquire for Christianity Nay this were a sure foundation for Atheism for how can it be reconcil'd to the Providence of a God or the care of Jesus that he should plant a Kingdom upon earth with a promise of his presence and most careful providence and yet to suffer his own Kingdom to be enslav'd under the usurpation of an Anti-christian yoke for sixteen hundred years together if this were true too many wise men would conclude with the fool in the Psalmist That there is no God Secondly If this succession of Bishops and Presbyters be not necessary to preserve our unity with the Catholick Church then the Keys must be thrown away and excommunication is but an idle impertinence for if there be not a certain body or corporation of Christians known by a succession of power and Priesthood from the Apostles how can it be known when a person is cast out of the Church for if the Christian Church be like a Wilderness where every family may pitch their Tent where they please there is no use of Keyes to so wide a desert Thirdly if this succession be not necessary how can any rational man be ever satisfied in the administration of Ministerial Offices as Sacraments and Absolution when there is no certain rule in the world by which he can rationally be assured of the regular Authority of him that ministers To conclude this if this notion of unity be disown'd then every Conventicle is a true Church and every man whom himself or the people fancy inspir'd must be receiv'd for a Prophet and God must lose one of his Titles The God of Order and Confusion must be believ'd to be an Ordinance of Heaven Before I conclude give me leave to reverse the Doctor and make his Front the Rear Sir the phrase may be allow'd for if I mistake not the Author has been a man of War and understands very well the Martial Dialect The Harangue with which the Doctor prefaces his Plea may justly be inverted It was doubtless one of the greatest infelicities that ever befell the whole body of people in these three Nations that when in the year 1662. Religion was so happily setled in Faith Worship and Government according to the pattern of the antient Catholick Church in the first three Centuries and though this Religion was ratified by the very hand of God and the dry bones reviv'd by the Miracle of an unexpected Restitution that yet there should be amongst us so many thousands of such perverse and sullen Tempers as not to be perswaded into the Churches communion neither by Law Reason nor Miracle I cannot discern the Doctors ingenuity in his second Section where he originates the Act of Uniformity in the anger ambition and covetousness of Church-men and allows our Governours not one grain of Prudence or Piety in the composure of that Law He first takes notice of the anger that rested in the bosom of Church-men who had been sufferers Methinks those men who had
it would be happy if all Christians would quietly enjoy their Differences of Opinion and be so far of one mind as to go up together to the Temple to pray and communicate with the Catholick Church in Sacris The Church of England retains no Sacraments but those which have the manifest Authority of Divine Institution All the Prayers of this Church are immediately directed to the Eternal God and all presented in the Name of Jesus We Petition for nothing but what the Religion of Jesus allows us to supplicate And therefore I see no reason why all the People of this Nation who are not Atheists and Anti-christian should not communicate with us in those confessed Services of Prayers Praises and Sacramentals And this is all that is required by that Tyrannical Act of Uniformity And therefore that great Popular Orator in his late Harangue to the House of Lords has imposed a Fallacy upon us For he passionately complains against the Law for devesting the People of their Properties only because they cannot agree with Church-men in some uncertain Opinions of Religion I hope it will not amount to Scandalum Magnatum to say that this is meer Sophistry For our Laws prosecute no man for difference of Opinion no so far from this that the very Act against Conventicles allows our Dissenters not only their different Opinions but the quiet use and enjoyment of their several Religions in their own Families nay it granted them a further Favour and Liberty that they might receive four or five more of the same dissenting Brotherhood to make the exercise more full and satisfying Here was nothing prohibited but noise and multitude But they might notwithstanding that Law have peaceably enjoyed their different Opinions and Property too that great Fundamental of State Religion The Church doth not put the souls of men upon the Rack or command an exact consent to all her Publick Articles but indulges a difference of Opinion it only provides for the Beauty Order and Solemnity of Publick Worship by enjoyning all the Christians of this Kingdom to communicate with us in those common Sacra that all sober Christians acknowledge to be of universal obligation But here your Doctor would Rejoyn that it is as far from Cornwall to Berwick as from Berwick to Cornwall and demand a Reason why we do not exercise as much charity to others as we expect to our selves or why we should not with as much Reason be obliged to communicate with their Assemblies as to expect them to be present at ours For our Author was so kind to Dissenters as he tells us He sees no Reason why we should not mix with those divided Assemblies where there was nothing done but what True Piety and Devotion would brook If I may credit my own conscience I have a very serious love and veneration for all True Piety and Devotion But I am resolved to have no communion with Conventicles and will faithfully acquaint you with my Reasons for that Resolve First My ears are not fitted for the unintelligible Rapsodies of Enthusiastick Divinity Nothing impresses upon me but what my Reason and Judgement can give a sober account of And I am sure there are many Assemblies in England called Religious Meetings whose chiefest Devotions consist in nothing but Froth and Groans to borrow an odd phrase from our Author Secondly I will appeal from our Author to Mr. Hales who towards the end of this Tract gives us a very Orthodox Definition of a Conventicle A Conventicle is a Congregation of Schismaticks or all Meetings upon unnecessary separation and concludes that it is not lawful no not for Prayer for Hearing for Conference or for any other Religious Office whatsoever for the People to Assemble otherwise than by Publick Order is allowed Now since I can enjoy a communion with the Catholick Church and all the advantages of Christianity without going to a Conventicle I think it were neither Piety nor Devotion for me to communicate with those Congregations which our Author grants to be unlawful Assemblies Had I lived in the dayes of Dioclefian I would have been a member of the Ecclesia Subterranea and have assembled with the Catholick Christians in Caves and Grotto's which necessity had consecrated into Holy Places But since it is my happy Lot to live in that Age and Kingdom where Christianity may be confessed above ground since a just Authority hath opened our Churches seeing I may offer all the Publick Devotions that God requires in those Solemn Places which the Law appoints Since I can at the same time be both Devout towards God and Obedient to my Governours I resolve I will have no communion with those Assemblies which the Law of the Nation and the Canons of the Church make irregular Sir I assure you it adds some cheerfulness to my Publick Devotions that I can at the same time both give unto God the things that are God's and to Caesar the things that are Caesar's Thirdly I resolve I will never be a member of our separate Congregations because in them I cannot be assured of my compleat communion with the Catholick Church or the advantages of a Regular Priesthood I question not but God may pardon without the Absolution of a Priest and give a man possession of eternal life without the seal or title of a Sacrament but salvation is a matter of such vast importance that I would never adventure it upon extraordinary Methods in concerns of Religion and everlasting interest I love to enjoy all the security that God hath given to mankind In that great Schism of Israel some of the most sober and considering Jews were not satisfied with their communion in that new Church of Israel though it was established by the Law of Jeroboam but returned to worship at Jerusalem yet the Tribes of Israel retain'd the same Creed with those of Judah and the Calves of Dan and Bethel were not design'd for Idols but set up in imitation of the Cherubims in the Temple but these wise men were dissatisfied because their Priests were not of the Aaronical Line and had no other Consecration or Authority but what was deriv'd from the Patents of Jeroboam and they could not be assured that God would accept their Oblations from the hands of those men who had no Regular Priesthood Now there is great Reason to believe that there should be as much order in the Kingdom of Jesus as there was in the Jewish Polity and therefore I am assur'd both by Reason and Sacred Oracles that there is an Evangelical Priesthood that hath succeeded that of Aaron That there is a peculiar Order of men who have receiv'd this Priestly Authority by a Regular Ordination from the Apostles Successors And I esteem these men according to St. Paul's Injunction as the Stewards of the manifold Mysteries of God and the Ministers of Reconciliation and therefore without an inevitable necessity I will never live without the advantage and satisfaction of their Ministerial Authority St.
Chrysostome in his Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 highly magnifies the Office and Authority of a Priest for speaking of that order of men he tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That God hath invested the Priests with such Authority as he never conferred upon Angels or Arch-Angels For to which of the Angels did he say at any time What ever ye bind on Earth is bound in Heaven and whose sins ye Remit they are Remitted For as the Father gave Power to the Son to Remit sins so the Son of God hath committed the same Power to his Ministers on Earth I believe the Power of Absolution which was conferred upon the Christian Priesthood by the Commission of our Lord is not so large as the Pope would extend it nor yet so inconsiderable as the Puritan fancies it I believe our Saviour did not trifle when he granted that Charter to the Apostles but sure there is something in that Authority that is solemn and momentous and whatever it be I resolve to enjoy the benefit of it And therefore I declare that I would sooner travel from London to Larissa to communicate with the Greek Church where I might be assured of Priestly Authority than walk from Temple-Barr to Westminster to joyn with a Lay-Conventicle I know no Rule in the World that can rationally assure me of Ministerial Authority but a Sacerdotal succession from the Apostles As for the Pretension of Inspiration it is no more than Mahomet and Manes and every Impostor have pretended Their Argument from Gifts and Qualifications weighs nothing with me A Jew under the Mosaical Oeconomy might have hired an Hebrew Butcher who might have slain his Lamb or Goat and have dress'd it and laid it upon an Altar with as much art and exactness as the eldest Priest in the Temple but then it had been no Sacrifice nor have ever been accepted of God as a Legal Attonement no it was the Priests offering Sacrifice that made them Peace-offerings it was the Priests sprinkling the blood upon the Altar of the Lord and his burning the Fat that was an essential Requisite to render the Oblation a sweet savour unto the Lord. Angels and Arch-Angels are Wise Zealous and Holy Spirits but all their excellencies do not make them Priests though in another sense they are Ministring Spirits To conclude this since I can no way be rationally secured of my Relation to Christ or of my participation of all the advantages of Christianity but by a commâ—nion with the Catholick Church and its Ministerial Authority I do therefore assure you that I have a greater value for my communion with the Priests and the Temple than for that ador'd Diana of English Property And if any unhappy circumstance should ever put me upon the experiment I would desert this to enjoy the other Sir if ever the Christian World become wise and sober this very consideration would repair the Breaches of the Catholick Church and prove the final Ruine of Fanatick Conventicles Our Author passionately declaims against the Supremacy and Ambition of Bishops I confess Pride and Ambition are greatly inconsistent with the humble nature of Christianity and are strange indecencies in Spiritual Governours and I will never make an Apology for Vice and Disorder But this ought not to be urged as a Reason for the extirpation of Episcopacy Our Lord did not suspend nor degrade his Apostles because there was a strife among them who should be the greatest Nor would it be just or charitable to charge all Bishops with these evil imputations I observe one famous Instance of Humility in the Chair of Rome and that Sir you know is the most Principal Seat of Ambition Gregory Bishop of Rome who in the year of our Lord 596. sent Augustina into England to convert the Saxons in his Epistle to Eulogius Bishop of Alexandria disowns the ambitious Title of Universal Supremacy Indicare quoque vestra Beatitudo studuit jam se quibusdam non scribere superba vocabula que ex vanitatis radice prodierunt mihi loquitur dicens sicut jussistis Quod verbunt jussionis peto à meo Auditu removere quâ—â—scio quis sum qui estis Loco enim mihi Fratres estis moribus Patres non ergo jussi sed quae utilia visa sunt indicare curavi ecce in praefatione Epistolae quam ad me ipsum qui prohibui direxistis superbae Appellationes verbum Universalem me Papam dicentis imprimere curastis Quod peto dulcissima mihi fanctitas vestra ultra non faciat quia vobis subtrahitur quod alteri plus quam ratio exigit praebetur And we must not look upon this Modesty as the Poor spirited humour of this single Bishop for he assures us in the same Epistle that it was the constant humility of his Predecessors Recedant verba quae vanitatem inflant charitatem vulnerant quidem in Sancta Chalcedonensi Synodo atque post à subsequentibus Patribus hoc Decessoribus meis oblatum vestra sanctitas novit sed tamen nullus eorum uti hoc unquam vocabulo voluit But Sir our Author not only protests against the Ambition but the Authority of Bishops for he tells us They do but abuse themselves and others that would perswade us that Bishops by Christs institution have any Superiority over other men than that of Reverence He grants that there is a greater Reverence due to them than to other men but how this should become a duty without supposing a just superiority to exact it I cannot understand I will not here ingage in the Controversie about the Divine Right of Episcopacy But I am sure the Apostles had a Superiority over the Seventy Disciples by Christs Institution and I am certain that the Antient Catholick Church did esteem Bishops as the Apostles Successors The first we meet with in Ecclesiastical History that ever denyed the Superiority of Bishops was Aenius a discontented Arian and Epiphanius records him for a Heretick and brands his Opinion as a Diabolical Delusion Sir there remains nothing more considerable in our Author only the old Puritan Cavil against all Pomp and Gestures Garments and Musick in Publick Worship I confess I dislike the gaudy Pageantry and numerous Ceremonies of the Ordo Romanus and I as much abhorr the Rudeness of a Conventicle Sir I have neither mind nor leisure to examine the Scruples of nicer fancies but I will propound these Queries and reserve them for future consideration 1. Whether the Governours of the Catholick Church have not as much Authority to make Institutions in matters indifferent as the Apostles Whether the Womans Veil or the Holy Kiss were more Jure Divino than the Surplice or Sign of the Cross 2. Whether a Pompous Superstition in Publick Worship be not more pardonable than a Rude Forlorness Or whether a Sancy Rudeness will not sooner introduce Atheism than the most Glorious Superstition 3. Whether the awful Adorations of the Jews the Glory of the Tabernacle and the Temple the Ornaments of the Priests and the Musick were Leviticall or rather founded upon Moral Reasons 4. Whether a Publick Oratory or Church that is set apart for the more Solemn Worship of the Eternal God may not without Superstition be as Glorious and Magnificent as the Stadthouse in Holland except Imagery Whether a Respect to God will not as much justifie one as a Relation to the States will vindicate the other Sir Whenever you please to command I shall enquire for Resolution in the mean I rest Sir Your Affectionate Friend and Servant R. C. FINIS Lib. 3. adv Haer. cap. 3. Lib. 4. cap. 43. ☞ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epad Philadelph And exhorting to obey the Bishops and Priests he tells them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Ep. ad Trall Epist 42. Pag. 34. Aug. Ep. 113. Tom. 1. p. 781. ad p. 802. Epiphan adv Haeres Tom. 2. p. 727. Pag. 30. Page 10. Sect. 12. Pag. 11. Pag. 3 4 5 6. Pag. 4. Page 2. Page 2. Page 2. Page 4. Sect. 5. Page 9. Page 2. Page 1. Epist 118. Page 3. Niceph. l. 8. c. 25. Lang. Int. 〈◊〉 Tom. 1. Lib. 10. Cap. 5. Sect. 1. Tom. 1. lib. 16. cap. 5. sect 5. What authority have we for Infant Baptism the Lords Day the dispensing the Eucharist to Women but the Authority and Practice of the Antients Lev. 17. 5 6.
shall be mouth'd by the most vicious persons to disguise an ugly perhaps a treasonous design and novi homines men of yesterday shall dare to trifle with that Scepter which dignified them and problem the Right of their Prince in the face of his Throne when Englishmen shall Italianize and shoot those envenom'd arrows their filthy Pasquils to wound their Prince in his reputation which is the soul of his Throne O then I think if it awakens not all the Sentinels of the Government sure they are in their dead sleep or infatuated for destruction When I consider the ill-boding circumstances attending the Church of England her prodigious rents her assiduous and impudent Adversaries accompanied perhaps with too much Supinity in some of her most Principal members and when it comes into my mind that Miracles are ceased too then each moment spur on my thoughts to expect when Religion now on tiptoes to be gone should turn her back upon us and that the ultimate failure of the Faith is at hand ready to be the Harbinger to the Catholick Doom But Sir not to trouble your more Serene Meditations with such melancholy reflections give me leave to Alarm you to Muster your notions and by your Animadversions upon this Doctor undeceive the deluded multitude in this weighty subject of Schism the Dam of our Mischiefs and which threaten the ruine of our Church and with that the unhinging that excellent temper of Government which has been the envy of the Nations SIR I am yours c. W. C. Honoured Sir THat Kingship and Episcopacy have been the antient and continued Government of this Nation in State and Church ever since our Primitive Christianity is evident from undoubted Records But the Gentlemen of our New English Interest mock at the two old Grandsires Monarchy and Hierarchy and begin to hope that they are come to their decrepit Age and not far from a Grave and they are preparing for their funeral It is now scandalous to be Loyal to our Prince or Regular to the Church You will be thought a mean-spirited Gentleman for expressing any regard to a Minister of Religion And you have no way to redeem your Honour but either to turn Atheist or list your self a Member of the New Interest And now Sir can it be reconcil'd to Friendship to ship your Friend when the Clouds look black and threaten a Storm But since you are as kind to me as you are to your self and are pleas'd to embarque with me I am resolv'd to adventure and am prepar'd for Tempest and that worst of Hurricanes the madness of the People I think it highly necessary to demonstrate our Non-conformists to be Schismaticks for though meer State Interest may legitimate many severities against those Persons and Principles that are Antipodes to the establish'd Government yet if that were truth which the Doctor pretends to prove That the Sectaries of England were as much in the family of Jesus or in the Communion of the Catholick Church as the Church of England it would puzzle my Reason to make a Substantial Apology for our Penal Laws But if we can make it evident that these men walk disorderly and are Separatists from the Catholick Church it will then appear that our Laws are so far from Rigor or Persecution that they are more charitable provisions and only design'd to compell men to come in to that Society where their Eternal Interest will be most rationally and manifestly secur'd When I first open'd the Doctor' s Plea you sent me mine eye chanc'd upon a very pleasant passage to this effect viz. That theGreek Church call the Church of Rome Schismatick and the Church of Rome return the Schismatick upon the Greek Church The Church of England make the Romish Church the Schismatick and the Church ofRome charge the Schism upon the Church ofEngland Again The Church of England call her Dissenters Schismaticks and the Dissenters think the Church to be Schismaticks from them and so we have call'd one another Schismaticks Round and therefore Schism is but Vox praeterea nihil nothing but a meer noise and Nick-name which every Party cast upon all them who are not of their Society But let us try the Strength of this Argument by translating it to another circulating word and that is Infidelity The Mahometan calls himself Musalman which my Persic Dictionary assures me signifies Faithful or Believer in God yet we Christians call the Mahometans Infidels and they call us Unbelievers We call the Jews Infidels and they return the same name upon us and the Mahometans too Both Christian Jew and Mahomentan pronounce all Pagans to be Infidels and ten to one but they are as stout and peremptory as the rest of Mortals and think all Mankind Infidels but themselves Thus the whole World have call'd one another Infidels Round and therefore Infidelity is but a meer empty noise and there is no such thing in the World as a True Religion I appeal to any sober Judgement if there be not as much Logick in this as there was in the other I hope it will be an easie discovery to find out the square of the Doctor 's Circle and to fix the Notion of Schism upon a certain Basis And therefore Sir in obedience to your Request I shall discuss that great Question Whether the Non-conformists in England meeting together for the Worship of God in places distinct from the Parochial Churches are not Schismaticks To this I shall answer in the Affirmative and shall consider this Separation First With respect to the whole Catholick Church Secondly With relation to the Church of England First To be a Member of the Catholick Church there is required a double Unity First An Unity of Faith or Doctrine a total separation from this we grant to be Apostasie a disowning any one fundamental Article makes a man a Heretick But in this does not consist the formal notion of Schism Secondly There is requir'd an Unity of Order or Government which St. Cyprian calls Unitas Ecclesiastica Now a Separation from this Unity hath the formality of Schism And for a right understanding of this I must look back to the first Origine of this Unity The Holy Jesus the great Author and Founder of our Religion was sent of God and all power in Heaven and Earth committed to him Now before his Ascension that he might not leave his Disciples to the end of the World to be governed by every pretender to Revelation which would have exposed his Kingdom upon Earth to eternal confusions and impostures he solemnly ordains and consecrates the Apostles his immediate Delegates upon earth John 20. 22. As my Father sent me even so send I you by vertue of which Commission the power of Ordaining Governing and conferring Orders did rest only in the Apostles They took care to continue this Succession and therefore Timothy was by the Apostles ordain'd Bishop of Ephesus and Titus of Crete and both invested with power of Jurisdiction and
would be a lesser crime than Pride Schism or obstinate disobedience Our Author reflects again upon the Paschal Schism in these words We may plainly see the danger of our Appeal to Antiquity for Resolution in controverted points of Faith and how small Relief we are to expect from them for if the Direction of the chiefest Guides and Directors of the Church did in a point so Trivial so mainly fail them can we without the imputation of great Grossness and Folly think so poor-spirited Persons competent Judges of the Questions now on foot between the Churches Pardon me I know what temptation drew that note from me Now Sir you may perceive that the Author was very sensible that there was some such guilt in this passage as would stand in need of pardon And therefore if you dare adventure the scandal of giving pardon to a man after he is dead you may remit this guilty passion of Mr. Hales for my part I have charity for him because he tells us that this expression was drawn from him by some vehement Temptation And you know that a very great Apostle under a Temptation denyed the Son of God and if this Good man in such a Hurricane Renounced all the Fathers of the Church this should plead for our compassion What that particular Temptation was that occasioned this Ecstasie he was not pleas'd to acquaint us and therefore I cannot determine but give me leave to conjecture I find Mr. Hales had the ill Destiny to be a member of the Belgick Synod and he informs us in his Epistles that it was sometimes his Province to refute the Arguments of the Remonstrants Hoste absente Now perhaps observing that those poor-spirited Antients would not be pressâ—d into the States service but were all of a different opinion from that Synod who knows but this unlucky contradiction and his conversing too much with Dammannus might put him into an unwary heat and make him Reprobate all Antiquity Our Church has so much Reverence for the Antients as in her publick Articles to own the Authority of the first four General Councils and King James himself would never impose upon us the Novel Decrees of Dort I confess Sir ever since I understood Greek I have had the Grossness and Folly as Mr. H. interprets it to have more value for the Judgement of St. Cyril of Jerusalem St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Chrysostome than for the opinion of Bogermanus Sybrandus Beza or Gomarus I have been so silly as to think the Antient Catholick Council of Nice that was but three Centuries remov'd from the Apostles did merit more Authority and esteem in the Christian Church than that partial and Modern Assembly of Dort And I cannot yet alter my Perswasion But I would gladly quit my self from those ugly imputations of Grossness and Folly I must therefore examine the Arguments of Mr. Hales by which he invalidates the Authority of the Antients First He accuses them for Poor-spirited Persons Indeed they never were so daring as to be so bold with the Attributes of God as the Dutch Professors were in the Synod of Dort or as Beza was in Geneva but yet these poor-spirited men had the Resolution to be Martyrs for the Name of Jesus and that Sir I should think is a very divine and noble piece of Gallantry Besides some of them left to the World their Golden Remains excellent Monuments of their Prety and Learning as worthy as our Authors Secondly But his great Argument against Appealing to the Judgement of the Antients is their indiscretion about that trivial matter of the observation of Easter The Churches of the East and West were not without some plausible reasons for their different observance of that Festival and though they will not amount to a substantial Apology for that Controversie yet they will something help to lessen the vastness of the Indiscretion for the Eastern Church had been taught by the Apostles an innocent complyance to the Jews in those Quarters that they might not scandal them by a sudden and total departure from all the Mosaical Rites and Observances and therefore the Christians in the East governed them by St. Pauls Rule of complaisance to the Jews they so far became Jews as to celebrate their Easter Festival upon the fourteenth Month when the Jews observ'd their Paschal And though I confess that Reason was out of force in two or three Centuries yet Sir you know Custom has a Great Empire upon wiser creatures than Beasts of Burden and therefore it was no Prodigy of imprudence nor any Divine Judgement if they were so tenacious of an Antient custom that had a very innocent and Apostolick Foundation The Western Church being at a great distance from Palestine was never oblig'd to that complyance to the Jews But being left to their Christian Liberty and assured by an infallible Oracle That our Lord arose from the Dead upon the first day of the Week therefore they judged it most apposite and rational to celebrate the Anniversary Feast of the Resurrection upon a Dies Dominicus This appear'd so reasonable to that excellent Prince Constantine the Great that with great Resolution he oppos'd the Jewish complyance of the Eastern Christians and in his General Epistle concerning the Transactions of the Council of Nice he disswades the Christian Church from that custom Itaque nihil vobis commune sit cum infestissima Judaeorum Turba Domini Percussoribus And besides his Imperial Ratification of the Canon of Nice he inforces a General Uniformity in the Observation of Easter by a very plausible Reason in the same Epistle Unam esse Catholicam suam Ecclesiam voluit cujus tametsi partes in multis variisque sunt dispersae locis uno tamen spiritus hoc est Divino Arbitrio fovetur Consideret porro sanctitatis vestrae solertia quam grave sit indecorum per eosdem Dies alios quidem jejuniis intentos esse alios verò vacare conviviis All I design by this is to shew that there was so much Plausibility on each side that there was something in the case more than Trifle and not such monstrous Grossness and Folly as our Author represents But grant this Controversie to be trivial and the Antients indiscreet in the manage of it yet I cannot discern the Logick of his conclusion that therefore they are not to be appeal'd unto in any controversie of Religion The sense of this Argument amounts to thus much Because the wisest and most learned men have sometimes their mistakes and indiscretions therefore their Judgement is never to be regarded in any matter of moment I fancy the World would find vast inconveniencies by such a consequence Sir I request you to lend me your Italian Boccaline for the Conventions of Parnassus have now as much Authority as the four first General Councils and sure there will not be so much Grossness and Folly in Appealing to the Sentence of Apollo as in consulting the Judgement of the poor-spirited