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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61632	The unreasonableness of separation, or, An impartial account of the history, nature, and pleas of the present separation from the communion of the Church of England to which, several late letters are annexed, of eminent Protestant divines abroad, concerning the nature of our differences, and the way to compose them / by Edward Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1681 (1681)	Wing S5675; ESTC R4969	310,391	554

present at those assemblies that are held under a Government that we do not approve and that that would be to approve outwardly what we inwardly condemn For besides that it would be necessary to examin well the question whether these oppositions do not proceed from a conscience mistaken by a precipitate judgment since that the best men are often subject to fram to themselves such scruples as are not altogether lawfull at the bottom Further than this it is necessary to distingush three kinds of things the one those which the conscience approves and admits of and in which it does fully acquiesce the other which she looks upon as intolerable and destructive to the glory of God and the true faith or true piety and the hopes of salvation and others lastly which are between these that is to say such as we do not fully approve as to the truth but yet we do not believe them mortal enemies to true piety and salvation in a word such as we look upon as stains and tolerable infirmities I affirm that when we find things of this second rank in any Assemblies or those which the Conscience judges such we cannot be present there and the whole question will be reduced to this to know whether we be not mistaken where we ought to take good heed that we do not make a rash judgment But to imagine that we cannot with a good Conscience be present at Assemblies but onely when we do fully and generally approve of all things in them it is certainly not to know neither the use of charity nor the laws of Christian society This principle would overturn all Churches for I cannot tell whether there be any whose government discipline outward form usages and practices be of such perfection that there is nothing at all in them to blame and however it be as the judgments of men are very different this would be to open the gate to continual separations and to abolish all Assemblies It is therefore certain that Conscience does not oblige us to withdraw from the Assemblies but on the contrary it obliges us to join with them when the things that offend us are tolerable and do not hinder the salutary efficacy of the Word of the Divine Worship and of the Sacraments 'T is the favour of this charitable patience that justifies our being present at those things which we do not perfectly approve See what St. Paul says to the Philippians chap. 3. If in any thing ye be otherways minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing This is very far from saying as soon as ye have the least contrary sentiment separate your selves Conscience will not allow you to remain together Consilia separationis says St. Augustin against Parmenian inania sunt perniciosa plus perturbant infirmos bonos quam corrigant animosos malos What deadly effects would not such a separation produce if it were established amongst you As the dispositions of men are one should quickly see to spring from hence a difference of interests of parties of opinions even in respect of the civil society mutual hatred and all the other sad consequences which a division not tempered with charity does naturally produce I let alone the scandal which all the Reformed Churches of Europe would receive by 〈…〉 which their Adversaries would have and we advantages which they would draw from it which in all appearance would not be small I have too good an opinion of those Gentlemen who believe that the Presbyterian Government is to be preferred before the Episcopal not to be perswaded that they make wise and serious reflections upon all these things and many more which their own knowledge furnishes them with and that conscience and the love of the Protestant Religion will always hinder them from doing any thing that may be blamed before God and men For in fine I cannot believe that there is any one amongst them that looks upon your Episcopacy or your Discipline or certain Ceremonies which you observe as blots and capital errours which hinder a man from obtaining salvation even with facility in your Assemblies and under your Government The question here is not about the Esse or the bene Esse but onely about the melius Esse that they dispute with you and this being so justice charity the love of peace prudence and zeal for Religion in the general will never allow that they should divide themselves from you But my Lord since you have put the pen into my hand upon this subject I beseech you pardon my freedom if it go so far as to tell you what I think you also ought to doe on your part I hope then that on these opportunities that God presents unto you you will make all the world see and convince the most incredulous that you have piety zeal and the fear of God and that you are worthy labourers and worthy servants of Jesus Christ. This is the tetimony which all good men do already give you and none how spightfull soever he be dares to contradict it and I do not doubt but that you will carry on your calling to the end But besides this my Lord I hope you willnot be wanting in the duties of charity and the spirit of peace and that when the dispute shall be onely of some temperaments or of some Ceremonies that are a stumbling-block and which in themselves are nothing in comparison of an intire reunion of your Church under your holy Ministry you will make it seen that you love the Spouse of your Master more than your selves and that it is not so much from your greatness and your Ecclesiastical dignity that you desire to receive your glory and your joy as from your pastoral vertues and the ardent care you take of your Flocks I hope too that those you have chosen and called to the holy Ministry and those which hereafter you shall with a prudent diseretion call unto it being governed not onely by sweetness but likewise by severity of discipline when severity shall be necessary will tread in your steps and happily follow the example which you shall give them that they may be themselves for an example and edification to the Churches that are committed to them I conclude my Lord with very earnest prayers which I present to God with all my heart that it would please him always to preseve unto you the light of his Gospel and to pour out upon the whole body of your Ministry an abundant measure of his unction and heavenly benediction of which that of the old Aaron was but a shadow that it may be not the emblem and image of brotherly concord like the unction of old but the cause and bond of it I pray him that he would more and more bring back the heart of the Children to the Fathers and of the Fathers to the Children that your Church may

large as the exercise thereof at some times appeareth to have been the exercise thereof being variable according to the various conditions of the Church in different times And therefore his Majesty doth not believe that the Bishops under Christian Princes do challenge such an amplitude of Iurisdiction to belong unto them in respect of their Episcopal Office precisely as was exercised in the Primitive times by Bishops before the days of Constantine The reason of the difference being evident that in those former times under Pagan Princes the Church was a distinct Body of it self divided from the Common-wealth and so was to be governed by its own Rules and Rulers the Bishops therefore of those times though they had no outward coercive power over mens Persons or Estates yet in as much as every Christian man when he became a Member of the Church did ipso facto and by that his own voluntary Act put himself under their Government they exercised a very large Power of Jurisdiction in spiritualibus in making Ecclesiastical Canons receiving accusations converting the accused examining Witnesses judging of Crimes excluding such as they found guilty of Scandalous offences from the Lord's Supper enjoyning Penances upon them casting them out of the Church receiving them again upon their Repentance c. And all this they exercised as well over Presbyters as others But after that the Church under Christian Princes began to be incorporated into the Common-wealth whereupon there must of necessity follow a complication of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Power the Iurisdiction of Bishops in the outward exercise of it was subordinate unto and limitable by the Supreme Civil Power and hath been and is at this day so acknowledged by the Bishops of this Realm 4. The due exercise of Discipline is a work of so much prudence and difficulty that the greatest Zealots for it have not thought it fit to be trusted in the hands of every Parochial Minister and his particular Congregation Calvin declares that he never thought it convenient that every Minister should have the power of Excommunication not onely because of the invidiousness of the thing and the danger of the example but because of the great abuses and Tyranny it may soon fall into and because it was contrary to the Apostolical Practice And to the same purpose Beza delivers his judgment who likewise gives this account of the Discipline of Geneva that the Parochial Ministers and Elders proceed no farther than Admonition but in case of Contumacy they certify the Presbytery of the City which sits at certain times and hears all Causes relating to Discipline and as they judge fit either give admonition or proceed to suspension from the Lord's Supper or which is a rare case and when no other remedy can prevail they go on to publick Excommunication Where we see every Parochial Church is no more trusted with the Power of Discipline than among us nay the Minister here hath no power to repel but all that he can doe there is to admonish and how come then their Parochial Churches to be true and not ours Besides why may not our Ministers be obliged to certify the Bishop as well as theirs to certify the Presbytery since in the African Churches the matter of Discipline was so much reserved to the Bishop that a Presbyter had no power to receive a Penitent into the Communion of the Church without the advice and direction of the Bishop and Saint Augustin proposed it that whosoever received one that declined the judgment of his own Bishop should undergoe the same censure which that person deserved and it was allowed by the Council Alipius Saint Augustins great Friend and Legat of the Province of Numidia proposed the case of a Presbyter under the censure of his Bishop who out of pride and vain-glory sets up a separate Congregation in opposition to the Order of the Church and he desired to know the judgment of the Council about it and they unanimously determined that he was guilty of Schism and ought to be anathematized and to lose his place And this was the Iudgment even of the African Bishops for whom Mr. Baxter professeth greater reverence than for any others and saith their Councils were the best in the world and commends their Canons for very good about Discipline But he pretends that a Bishop's Diocese there was but like one of our Parishes which I have already refuted at large by shewing that there were places at a considerable distance under the care of the Bishops So that the bringing the full power of Discipline into every Parochial Church is contrary to the practice of Antiquity as well as of the Reformed Churches abroad which plead most for Discipline and would unavoidably be the occasion of great and scandalous disorders by the ill management of the Power of Excommunication as was most evident by the Separatists when they took this Sword into their hands and by their foolish and passionate and indiscreet use of it brought more dishonour upon their Churches than if they had never meddled with it at all And in such a matter where the honour of the Christian Society is the chief thing concerned it becomes wise men to consider what tends most to the promoting of that and whether the good men promise themselves by Discipline will countervail the Schisms and Contentions the heart-burnings and animosities which would follow the Parochial exercise of it The dissenting Brethren in their Apologetical Narration do say That they had the fatal miscarriages and shipwrecks of the separation as Land-marks to forewarn them of the rocks and shelves they ran upon and therefore they say they never exercised the Power of Excommunication For they saw plainly they could never hold their People together if they did since the excommunicated party would be sure to make friends enough at least to make breaches among them and they holding together by mutual consent such ruptures would soon break their Churches to pieces Besides this would be thought no less than setting up an Arbitrary Court of Iudicature in every Parish because there are no certain Rules to proceed by no standing determination what those sins and faults are which should deserve excommunication no method of trials agreed upon no security against false Witnesses no limitation of Causes no liberty of Appeals if Parochial Churches be the onely instituted Churches as Mr. Baxter affirms besides multitudes of other inconveniencies which may be easily foreseen so that I do not question but if Mr. Baxter had the management of this Parochial Discipline in any one Parish in London and proceeded by his own Rules his Court of Discipline would be cried out upon in a short time as more arbitrary and tyrannical than any Bishop's Court this day in England Let any one therefore judge how reasonable it is for him to overthrow the being of our Parochial Churches for want of that which being set up according to his own principles

que Dieu vous presente vous ferez voir à toute la terre en convaincrez les plus incredulez que vous aves de la pietè du zele de la crainte de Dieu que vous estez de dignes ouvriers de dignes serviteurs de Iesus Christ. C'est deja le temoignage que vous rendent les gens de bien que nul quelque mal intentionnè qu'il soit n'ose contredire je ne doute pas que vous ne poussiez vostre vocation jusqu'an bout Mais outre cela Monseigneur j'espere que vous ne defaudrez point aux devoirs de la charitè de l'esprit de paix que quand il ne s'agria que de quelques temperamens ou de quelques Ceremonies qui servent d'achoppement qui en elles mesmes ne sont rien en comperaison d'une entiere reünion de vostre Eglise sous vostre saint Ministere vous ferez voir que vous aymez l'Epouse de vostre Maitre plus que vous mesmes que ce n'est pas tant de vostre grandeur de vostre dignitè Ecclesiastique que vous desirez tirer vostre gloire vostre joye que de vos vertus Pastorales des soins ardens que vous avez de vos troupeaux I'espere aussi que ceux que vous avez choisis appellez au S. Ministere ceux que desormais vous y appellerez avec un prudent discernement reglez non seulement par la donceur mais aussi par la severitè de la Discipline quand la severitè sera necessaire marcheront sur vos traces suiront heureusement l'exemple que vous leur donnerez pour estre eux-mesmes en exemple en edification aux Eglises qui leur sont commises Ie finis Monseigneur par des prieres tres-ardentes que je présente à Dieu de tout mon coeur afin qu'il luy plaise de vous conserver à jamais le flamebeau de son Evangile de repandre sur tout le corps de vostre Ministere une abondante mesure de son onction de sa benediction celeste dont celle de l'ancien Aaron n'estoit que l'ombre afin qu'elle soit non l'embleme l'image de la concorde fraternelle comme cette ancienne mais qu'elle en soit la cause le lien Ie le prie qu'il veu●lle de plus en plus ramener le coeur des enfans aux peres des peres aux enfans afin que vostre Eglise soit heuereuse agreable comme un Eden de Dieu Ie le prie enfin qu'il vous conserve vous Monseigneur en parfait longue santè pour sa gloire pour le bien l'avantage de cette grande considerable pertie de son champ qu'il vous a donnè cultiver que vous cultivez si heureusement Ie vous demande aussi le secours de vos saintes prieres la continuation de l'honneur de vostre affection en vous Protestant que je seray toute ma vie avec tout le respect que je vous dois Monseigneur Vostre tres-humble tres-obeissant Serviteur Fils en Jesus Christ CLAVDE Paris Novemb. 29. Stilo Novo My Lord MOnsieur de L' Angle having given me the Letter which you have been pleased to write me I was surprized to see by that that you had done me the honour to write me another which I have not received and to which I had not failed to make an answer You do me a great deal of honour to desire that I should tell you my thoughts of the difference that has troubled you so long betwixt those they call Episcopal and those they name Presbyterians Although I have already explained my self about this divers tims both by Letters which I have written upon this Subject to several persons and in my Book too of the Defence of the Reformation where speaking of the distinction betwixt the Bishop and the Priest I have said expresly That I do not blame those that observe it as a thing very ancient and that I would not that any one should make it an occasion of quarrel in those places where it is established pag. 366. And though I otherwaies know my self sufficiently not to believe that my opinion should be much considered I will not forbear to assure you upon this occasion as I shall always do upon any other of my Christian esteem my respect and my obedience This I shall do the rather because I shall not simply tell you my private thoughts but the opinion of the generality of our Churches First then my Lord we are so very far from believing that a man cannot live with a good Conscience under your Discipline and under your Episcopal Government that in our ordinary practice we make no difficulty neither to bestow our Chairs nor to commit the care of our Flocks to Ministers received and ordained by my Lords the Bishops as might be justified by a great number enought of Examples both old and new And a little while since Mr. Duplessis that was ordained by my Lord Bishop of Lincoln has been established and called in a Church of this Province And Monsieur Wicart whom you my Lord received to the Holy Ministery did us the honour but some months agoe to preach at Charenton to the general edification of our Flock So that they who in this respect do impute unto us any opinions distant from peace and Christian concord do certainly do us wrong I say Peace and Christian concord for my Lord we believe that the obligation to preserve this Peace and this Brotherly concord which make up the external unity of the Church is of a necessity so indispensable that St. Paul has made no difficulty to join it with the internal unity of the same Faith and the same Regeneration not onely as two things which ought never to be separated but likewise as two things depending the one upon the other because if the external unity be as it were the Daughter of the internal she is likewise the preserver of it Walk says he Ephes. 4. worthy of the calling wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another in love Endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace On the one side he makes this brotherly love which joins us one with another to depend upon our common vocation and on the other side he teaches us that one of the principal means to preserve our common vocation intire which he calls the unity of the spirit is to keep peace among our selves According to the first of these maximes we cannot have peace or Ecclesiastical communion with those that have so degenerated from the Christian vocation that one cannot perceive in them a true and saving Faith especially when with mortal errours they

be happy and pleasant as the Paradise of God Lastly I pray that he would preserve you my Lord in perfect and long health for his glory and the good and advantage of that great and considerable part of his field which he has given you to cultivate and which you do cultivate so happily I desire too the help of your holy prayers and the continuance of the honour of your affection protesting to you that I will be all my life with all the respect that I owe you My Lord Your most humble and most obedient Servant and Son in Iesus Christ CLAUDE FINIS A Catalogue of some Books Printed for Henry Mortclock at the Phoenix in St. Paul's Church-Yard A Rational account of the Grounds of Protestant Religion being a Vindication of the Lord Archbishop of Canterburie's Relation of a Conference c. from the pretended answer of T. C. wherein the true grounds of Faith are cleared and the false discovered the Church of England Vindicated from the Imputation of Schism and the most Important particular Controversies between us and those of the Church of Rome throughly examined The Second Edition corrected by Edw. Stillingfleet D. D. Folio Sermons preached upon several occasions with a Discourse annexed concerning the True Reason of the Sufferings of Christ wherein Crellius his Answer to Grotius is considered by Edw. Stillingfleet D. D. Folio Irenicum A Weapon Salve for the Churches Wounds by Edw. Stillingfleet D. D. Quarto A Discourse concering the Idolatry Practised in the Church of Rome and the hazard of Salvation in the communion of it in Answer to some Papers of a Revolted Protestant with a particular Account of the Fanaticism and Divisions of that Church by Edw. Stillingfleet D. D. Octavo An Answer to several Late Treatises occasioned by a Book entituled a Discourse concerning the Idolatry practised in the Church of Rome and the hazard of Salvation in the Communion of it by Edw. Stillingfleet D. D. the first part Octavo A second Discourse in vindication of the Protestant Grounds of Faith against the pretence of Infallibility in the Rom. Church in Answer to the Guide in Controversies by R. H. Protestancy without Principles and Reason and Religion or the certain Rule of Faith by E. W. with a particular enquiry into the Miracles of the Roman Church by Edw. Stillingflect D. D. Octavo A Defence of the Discourse concerning the Idolatry practised in the Church of Rome in Answer to a Book cutituled Catholicks no Idolaters by Edw. Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of S. Paul's and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty THE END Arch-Bishop Whitgift's Defence of the Answer to the Admonition p. 423. Life of Bishop Jewel before his Works n. 34. Vita Juelli per Hum●red p. 255. Preface to 2d Vol. of Serm. Sect. 11. Preface to the First Volume Sect. 18. Acts and Monuments Tom. 3. p. 171. Foxes and Firebrands 1680. Church History l. 1. p. 81. History of Presbyter l. 6. p. 257. Annales Elizabethae A. D. 1568. V. Thom. à Iesu de natura divinae Orationis Defence of the Answer p. 605. Page 55. Fair warning second Part Printed by H. March 1663. Contzen Politic l. 2. c. 18 Sect. 6 Sect. 9. Coleman's Tr●al p. 101 Vindiciae libertatis Evangelii Or a Iustification of our present Indulgence and acceptance of Licences 1672. p. 12. Sacrilegious desertion rebuked and Tolerated Preaching Vindicated 1672. Answer to Sacrileg desert p. 171. 1672. Page 71. Page 72. Page 32. Page 250. Preface to the Defence of the Cure p. 17. Defence of the Cure of Divisions introduction p. 52 c. Sacrilegious desertion p. 103 104. Defence of the Cure p. 53. Dr. O. Vindication p. 4. Letter out of the Country p. 7. Pag● 4. Mischief of Impos end of the Preface Preface p. 11 13. Page 15. Mischief of Imposition Preface towards the end Christian Direct Cases Eccles. p. 49. Defence of Cure of Divis Introd p. 55. Ib. p. 88. Arch-Bishop Whitgift ' s Defence c. p. 423. Several Conferences p. 258 c. Orig. Sucr l. 2. ch 8. p. 220. Orig. Sacr. p. 367 368. Papers for Accommodation p. 51. Answer to R. Williams p. 129. Irenic p. 123. Page 5. Page 6 7. Page 8. Co. Iast 4. Part. 323 324. Acts and Monuments Vol. 3. p. 131. Mischief of Impositions Preface Fresh suit against Ceremonies p. 467. Pet. Martyr Epist. Theolog Hoopero Buc. r. Script Anglic. p. 708. Acts and Mon. Vol. 3. p. 319. Ridiey's Articles of Visitation 1550. Vindicat. of Nonconf p. 13. P. 35. 37. Iacob's Answer to Iohnson p. 20 21. Iohnson's Defence of his ninth Reason Bradford's Confer with the B● Acts and Mon. Vol. 3. p. 298. Iacob ' s Answer p. 82. Letters of the Martyrs p. 50. Plea for Peace p. 1●0 Page 19. Page 21. Calvin Ep. 164. Ep. 55. Ep. 165. Tr. of Fr. p. 30. Page 31. Letters of the Martyrs p. 60. Bonavent 〈◊〉 Ps. 21. Angel Roecha de Soll●●i Communione Summi Pontificis p. 33. 38. Calvin Epist. ad Sadolet De verâ Eccl. Reformatione c. 16. ●●●olamp Epist. f. 17. Bucer Scri●t ●●gl p. 479. Dialogue between a Soldier of Barwick and a-English Chaplain p. 5 6. Beza Epist. 23. Part of a Register p. 23. Beza Epist. 24. p 148. Gualter Ep. ded ad Hom. in 1 Ep. ad C●rinth Zanchii Epist l. 2. p. 391. See his Letter in Fullers Church-History l. 9. p. ●06 Bullinger Ep. ad Robert Winton in the Appendix to Bishop Whitgifts first Book Parker on the Cross Part. 2. cap. 9. Sect. 2. Vide Profane Schism of the Brownists Ch. 12. Giffords first Treatise against the Donatists of England Preface Gifford's Second Treatise Preface Answer to Giffords Preface Dangerous Positions c. l. 3. c. 5. The Second Answer for Communicating p. 20. Printed by John Windet A. D. 1588. Page 46. Answer to Ainsworth p. 13. Page 57. Preface to the Read●r p. 17. Brownists Apology p. 7. A. D. 1604. A Defence of the Churches and Ministry of England Middleburgh p. 3. A. D. 1599. Barrow's Observations on Gifford's last Reply n. 4. p. 240. Brownists Apol. p. 92. Brownists Apology p 7. Barrow ib. Barrow's Refutation of Giffard Preface to the Reader Sum of the Causes of Separation Ibid. Brownists Apology p. 7 8 9. Ainsworth's Counter-poyson p. 3. Ib. p. 87. T. Cs. Letter to Harrison against Separation in Defence of the Admonition to the followers of Brown p. 98 99. Page 106. Page 107. Page 91. Counterpoyson p. 117. Ball against Can p. 77. Giffard's Answer to the Brownists p. 55. Grave Confutation c. p. 9 10 11. ●rav●con●utation c. ● 12 13 15. Ibid. Pall against Can. Part. 2. p. 8. Giffard's Plain Declaration c. Preface Answ. to the Brown p. 10 11. Mr. Arthur Hildershams Letter against Separation Sect. 2. highly commended by Mr. J. Cotton in his Preface before his Commentaries on 4 John I● Sect. C 7 8. V. Bradshaw's Answer to Johnson Hildershams Letter Sect. 3. Grave Confutation