necessary warnings nor Faithful Ministers let fall their Ministrations in the foresaid Cases on pretence of preserving unity or preventing Schism in the Church 2. Secondly it is another just ground to break off from them if they make unrighteous usurpations and incroachments the Terms and condition of their Communion Both Bishops and Churches may turn Tyrannical and Arrogant Usurpers upon their Brethrens Liberties not admitting their own Members to their Communion without acknowledging and submitting to their unjustly and illegally assumed powers nor other Churches unless they will give up their own rights and freedoms and become their Subjects And when they will allow Communion to none unless they are content to purchase it at such rates good Christians may pass them by and unite themselves to other Churches where they will be more justly and fairly dealt with The Communion of Christians is a Commuuion of Brethren upon Brotherly terms not of Captives who must submit to any terms or bear what hardships and incroachments are put upon them by their Conquerors They are not bound to purchase unity by enslaving of themselves or any brethrens communion by receiving their yoke and giving up their own rights and liberties as the Church of Rome demands all other Churches both of the East and West should do to purchase hers And thus St. Paul declares he would not give up their liberties when false brethren turn'd invaders thereof viz. the Judaizers in their pressing the Circumcision of Titus to whom he gave place by subjection no not for an hour when they sought to bring them into bondage Gal. 2. 4 5. CHAP. IV. Heresy a just Ground to break off Communion THe last ground which I shall mention of breaking off or of being set loose from the Communion either of Bishops or Churches is though none of the foresaid obstacles can be pleaded against the Terms of their Communion if yet 3. Thirdly Heresy can be justly objected to their persons and Doctrines Church Members are not bound to keep dependant on the persons of their Bishops nor one Church to keep Communion with other Churches if once they defect from the true worship and Doctrine of Christ. This worship and Doctrine are the Ground and Foundation of Christian Society and unity The Church is a Body of Men Associated for them And must be one Society by keeping united under their Bishops or Associated with other Churches in them They must keep one in standing together upon this bottom not in going off or departing from it For clearing these matters it is to be observed that our Saviours first end in coming into the world was to publish a Religion I am come a light into the world saith he of himself Jo. 12. 46. I must Preach the Gospel for therefore am I sent Luk. 4. 43. On this account he calls himself the Way the Truth and the Life Joh. 14. 6. And tells Pilate that for this end was he born and for this cause came he into the world that he should bear witness unto the Truth Joh. 18. 37. And this Truth or Religion lyes in his Doctrine of worship faith and Practice Or in his Teaching all his Disciples what way they are to worship God what they are to believe concerning him or other things which concern their Eternal Salvation and what they are to do for him Now this Doctrine was like to be most advantageously profess'd and this Worship to be best paid if it were not left to single persons or to scatter'd Families to do it separately by themselves But had its several professors incorporated into one Regular society and united body for the joynt profession and performance thereof Such Regular society would hold it out by more orderly and effectual Ministration and keep men to it by the Authority of Discipline and be a common help and spur to excite and aid each other mutually and carry them on and a cover and shelter to back embolden them therein A Regular Society or Church incorporated for the Profession thereof St. Paul says is a Pillar and Ground or Stay to publish and support it Accordingly when Religion was left to be born out by smaller societies and sometime even by single families as in the Patriarchical Age we see it was sometimes almost lost and always made a very small progress But when a whole Nation was incorporated into one Church for the profession and payment of it as it was among the Jews it spread further in power and influence and gain'd more proselytes And lastly when all Nations as fast as they turn'd Christians were embodyed in one society for the same intent as a Light set upon a candlâ—stick or as a City placed on a hill it desplayed its force far and near and strengthen'd incomparably more hearts in it and drew more eyes after it And therefore our Lord intended and ordered in the next place that all who embraced this Religion should incorporate or unite together in one Church or Society for the Profession of it Accordingly he has made baptism wherein every professor takes upon him this Religion to incorporate him or enter him a member of this Church Baptism as St. Paul notes uniteing us all in one body and as many as are baptized into Christ are all one in Christ Jesus And requires of every professor of this Religion that he Keep on professing it in the unity of this Church And that all of his Religion pay this worship and profess this Doctrine not separately by themselves but socially in joynt Communion with others So that all who come to embrace the Christian Religion must perform the worship and profession thereof in Christian Society or in the Unity and Communion of Christs Holy Catholick Church But we are first to be all of this Religion and then to profess and perform it in the Unity and Communion of this Church The Doctrine and Worship I say which makes us Christians are the Foundation of that Society and Unity which is to be upheld in the Christian Church Thus on Peters Confession our Lord declares he would build his Church Mat. 16. 16 18. And the Uniteing of Christians into one Temple St. Paul says is by their being built on the Apostles and prophets i. e. On their Doctrines about worship faith and practice Eph. 2. 20. 21. And when our Saviour prays so earnestly ly for the Unity of his Church at what time he was about to leave it he limits it to this that they may be kept one in Gods Name Joh. 17. 11 and calls the Gathering or Uniteing together of Christians in Congregations wherein he will be in the midst of them their gathering together in his Name Mat. 18. 20. In his Name that is in his Doctrine or Profession of Faith and Worship Name with relation to Masters and Teachers being usually put for Doctrine As to bear my Name before the Gentiles is to bear my Doctrine Act. 9. 16. and teaching in
are not only set up but justified 1. In some particular Cases especially of general Concern CHAP. IV. More of the Cases wherein Faithful Bishops and Ministers are bound to stick to their Pastoral Powers and Ministrations THey are still more bound to this Ministration when 2. This Justification of immoral Practices is by eluding and vacating of moral Precepts opposite thereto by Doctrinal Salvo's Instances of these Salvo's How they vacate the respective moral Precepts Such Salvo's make a Change in moral Doctrine though Men still own the Duties under their general Names The Duty of Pastors to defend and bear up moral Duties against such Salvo's by their Ministrations shewn at large And this when such corrupt Salvo's are only the Doctrines of the Pastors not the Determinations of the Church They are more strictly obliged thereto if the immoral Practices justified by such Salvo's are 1. extreamly Scandaelous to Religion 2. Generally Preach'd up by Seducers Or 3. Come strongly recommended to carnal Passions and Interests chiefly if driven on by general Persecutions CHAP. V. Of the Obligations to actual Ministration which lie upon them in the foresaid Cases THese deduced from their Office and Characters as they relate 1. To God and stand in Place 1. Of his Messengers 2. Of his Ministers and Ambassadors The various Obligations laid on them thereto by this 3. Of his Co-workers 2. As they relate to Religion as they are Ministers and Stewards of its Word and Mysteries The Obligations arising hence CHAP. VI. More of the Obligations to actual Ministration which lie upon them in the foresaid Cases 3. AS they relate to the Souls of Men and are set over the Church 1. As Watch-men 2. As Overseers 3. As Guides or Leaders 4. As Pastors or Shepheards 5. As Doctors or standing Teachers of the Church As Lights of the World and the Salt of the Earth Their Obligations to such exercise in the foresaid Cases from all the foresaid Characters Different Degrees in this Obligation A Spirit of Love and Zeal to Christ and his Church which stand not upon strict Terms the Spring and Principle of this Exercise How this clears the Duty of deprived Bishops and Clergy as to this Exercise on such Revolutions Answerable to this Obligation of the Pastors to afford such Ministrations at such Times is the Peoples Obligation to adhere to them and attend on them for Participation thereof PART II. Of Deprivations by Civil States or Ecclesiastical Synods CHAP. I. Of the Force of State Deprivations in the foresaid Cases THE Plea of a Deprivation of State represented in Bar of their Ministrations in the foresaid Cases Concerning which 1. This is to be press'd only under a supposed Legal and Rightful State 2. It s Deprivation is no conscionable Discharge from their Spiritual Ministrations in the foresaid Cases This is meant only of pure Spiritual Ministrations Not 3. of any Temporal Accessions and Inforcements of those Ministrations over which the State has Power because it conferr'd them As also over some other Powers belonging to the Church whilst it kept separate which it gives up to the State during its Incorporation with it These it gives up 1. with a Salvo to the Interests of Religion and of Souls 2. Only whilst it continues protected not when the State puts True Religion under Persecution CHAP. II. Of the Kings Ecclesiastical Supremacy Received and Asserted by our Church It lies not in his being invested with or having a Sovereign Disposal of the Powers of Orders But 1. in retaining his civil Power over all Persons whether Lay-Men or Ecclesiasticks In Virtue of this civil Power over the Persons of Ecclesiasticks he can command them faithfully to discharge their Spiritual Functions 2. In the Subordination of Ecclesiastical Courts and Causes wherein Ecclesiasticks are content to act subordinately on the Score of their secular Mixtures and Jurisdictions And in holding all this 3. in Opposition and Bar of all other Earthly Dependance especially of all Forreign Iurisdiction and Appeals This Supremacy excludes not Spiritual Ministrations of deprived Clergy in the foresaid Cases This may be collected from their Adversaries Concessions CHAP. III. Remarques on the Preceeding Account of the Force of State Deprivations and Instances of Deprivations alledg'd to the contrary considered and cleared up THE preceeding Account of the Force of State Deprivations is not 1. To deny the civil Power the Cognizance of Bishops and Ministers in civil Matters Nor any Iust Power over Ecclesiasticks 2. Nor to set the Church above the State as the Papal Usurpations pretend to do Nor to mistake or overlook the Condition of an incorporate Church The Deprivation of Abiathar by Solomon considered and cleared As also the frequent Depositions of the Jewish High Priests by the Roman Governours And of the Greek Patriarchs by the Turks And of the Popish Bishops by a Commission of State pursuant to an Act of Parliament in Queen Mary's Days CHAP. IV. Of Deprivations by Synods in the foresaid Cases DEprivation of Bishops most fit and pr per for Synods Their Deprivation no Discharge from Ministrations in the foresaid Cases as shown by reasons And by the Practice of the Church This is meant when Synods deprive for the cause of the Truth not of other mere Personal â—rimes where the Injured must acquiesce till relieved by regular Sentence â—hat regard is to be had to the Decisions of Synods in these Cases PART III. Of SCHISM CHAP. I. Of the Nature of Shism And of the Schism of particular Members from their own Church in throwing off Subjection and Dependance on their own Bishops OF the Union of a Society which Schism breaks One way of Uniting Societies is by Uniting them under the same Heads These in Church Societies are the Bishops Union of particular Members to their own Church is in Keeping Subject and Dependant on their own Lawful Bishops And their Schism lies in breaking off from them especially in seting up Opposite or Anti-Bishops against them So 1. in such Oppositions the Anti-Bishop and his Adherents make the Schism if the former Bishop was Orthodox and is still Rightful Bishop of the Church Of George the Cappadocian and Athanasius 2. The Unity of the Church doth not go with the greatest Numbers What distinguisheth Meetings in the Unity of the Church from Schismatical Conventicles Schismaticks too oft the more Numerous Party Much less doth it go with Places of Assemblies 3. Therefore in pressing Ecclesiastical Unity Men must be press'd to keep United to their own Orthodox Rightful Bishop not to any Opposite Bishop The Gospel Precepts of Love and Peace c. all on this Side and not to be urged the other way Such a Schism not to be cared by the Recessions of the Suffering Bishops in the foresaid Cases CHAP. II. Of the Schism of particular Churches from other Sister Churches by rejecting Fraternal Communion therewith UNity of one Body to be kept up among all particular Churches This is chiefly by the Union and Accord
hear them Mistaught by Seducers and instead of stopping their Mouths give way to Gain-Sayers whose Lips did not preserve and keep up Knowledge among the People but suppress and conceal it from them and who instead of Seeking shun'd the Seasons of Ministring the Word and of giving Gods People the Necessary Instructions How will they hope to approve themselves at that Day as having been the Lights of the World if they held this Light as Dark-Lanthorns ministring none to the World but letting it sit still in Darkness Or as the Salt of the Earth if by pure and wholsome Ministrations they did not season the Inhabitants thereof but suffer'd them for want of Seasoning to run into Spiritual Corruption and Putrefaction If they appear then to have been such Salt as did nothing to keep out Corruption they will be in Place of Salt without Savour as our Blessed Lord says or of Insipid Salt And such instead of being set by and carefully laid up he declares to be Good for nothing but to be cast out and troden under Foot Mat. 5. 13. So that all the Parts and Offices the Titles and Characters of their own Sacred Powers do most fully and lowdly proclaim to them the Duty of exercising their Spiritual Functions and discharging their Holy Ministrations in the foresaid Cases And let them but look to any of those Marks of Power and Care which God has put upon them or to any of those Stations wherein he hath placed them and they will effectually Remind them how much they are obliged to stir up the Gift that is in them when they see Religion wronged and the Souls of Men endanger'd by Immoral Worship and Doctrines or by other great Invasions on Christian Worship Faith or Practice Indeed the Necessity of supplying the Church with this Pure Worship Faith and Practice is thought by some to go a great Way in conferring the Ministerial Powers on those who otherwise would not have them And this is the Plea for the Collation of the Ministerial Powers by Ordination of Presbyrers without Episcopal Imposition of Hands in some Foreign Churches But not to examine that here whatever force and Effect it have in that Case of Conferring the Ministerial Powers on those who have them not it must needs be a sure Call to the Exercise thereof to those who have them and are Endowed therewith I do not say all Men are equally bound by the foresaid Characters to exercise these Gifts nor that the same Men are equally bound to it in all Places The Blessed Apostles had General Commissions and were sent out expresly to all Nations Mat. 28. 19. Other Bishops have a more limited Inspection and ought to be more especially Watchful over their own Diocesses having more particularly undertaken the Charge thereof But yet so as to be the Bishops of the Catholick Church and for the Preservation of the Catholick Worship and Faith who are therefore under Obligation of keeping these up as far as they can when they are Sinking and Over-Born in other Places Indeed in this Ministration they are not to stand on Punctilio's of Obligation doing no more than it can be proved they are bound to do in Rigor of Justice But they are to shew Zeal and Affection which doth not weigh Grains but thinks that a Call where it can do Religion and its Master any considerable Service and that the more of this it can do the better it is The Spirit of Love and Zeal is the Spirit which God requires in Pastors to direct and Influence their Spiritual Exercises and Administrations Lovest thou me says Christ to Peter repeating this to him Three Times when he charged him with the Pastoral Office of Feeding his Sheep and his Lambs Jo. 21. 15 16 17. By the putting on of Hands in Orders the Spirit which God hath given us is the Spirit of Love to Christ and his Church and of Power or Firmness and Fearlesness of what Evil may befal our selves in prosecution thereof says St. Paul 2 Tim. 1. 7. The Charge of Feeding the Flock or the Over-Sight which they take is not an unwilling Charge such as will go no further than it is compell'd but requires a VVilling and a Ready Mind that on any Call is free and prompt of it self to Discharge it 1 Pet. 5. 2. And this Spirit of Love and Zeal and Power which is the Principle of their Ministrations stands not upon strict Terms But being full of Care for Christ and for the Good of Souls and Fearless of what may thereby befal our selves doth more or less according as it's Measure and Degree is St. Paul had a great Measure thereof and according to the Degree of it's working in him mightily he laboured and strove Earnestly in the work of the Ministry that he might present every Man perfect in Christ Col. 1. 28 29. He disputed not nicely how far he was bound but would readily go beyond the strict Terms counting whatever were the Over-plus that it was to be expected from this Principle of Love and Zeal in his Master's Cause and would abundantly be made up by a surpassing Recompence If I do this thing willingly or beyond strict Command or Necessity says he speaking of some things in the course of his Ministration which he was not strictly bound to I have a Special Reward for so doing 1 Cor. 9. 15 17. And proportionable to the Degree of this Love and Zeal in others will the Measure of their Service and Ministrations be likewise They will still in any Places be more Active to keep up the Catholick Faith and Worship according as they are more perfect in this Ministerial or Pastoral Spirit And thus at length I think it may fully appear that Christ's Faithful Ministers are on many Accounts Obliged not to suppress their Ministrations but to supply the Church therewith when that is Necessary to prevent a Peoples being nursed up in Irreligious and destructive Ways like as are not only Idolatry and Speculative Heresies but also Immoral Doctrines and Practices and Immoral Worship and Devotions And therefore should those things prove Immoralities which on any Revolution happen to be justified in any Kingdom and are every where Press'd and Recommended to the Peoples Practice and are salved by the foresaid or such like new Doctrines and are brought into Prayers and publick Offices and Devotions in those Countries The deprived Bishops and Clergy in that State would be under all these Obigations to exercise their Functions and to Minister to the Church in those Cases And this would absolutely set aside the Argument from the forecited Sayings of Clemens and Dionysius and Chrysestom and Nazianzen for the cessation of Rightful Bishops to the intruding Anti-Bishops For these Cessations are in a Cause that concerns only Personal Rights not that touches the Interests of Religion or the Salvation of Souls And without examining the Truth of the particular Histories wherein are Errors enough as others have made appear it
Thus it is when it sha Excommunicate any for adhereing to any necessary Christian Doctrines Worship or Practices For all who would hold to Christ must Neglect such Censures and though any Church or Synod throws such persons out of its Communion they are joyfully to well come and receive them into theirs For when our Lord Arthorizes and gives validity to Church Censures saying they shall be bound in Heaven and bidding us look on all who will not hear the Church as Heathâ—ns and Publicans He limits this validity to those censures which pass upon men not for any parts of righteousness but for real offences If thy Brother Trespass against thee and will not hear thee tell it unto the Church So that some real offence or Trespass must still be the ground of the process Mat. 18. 15. 17. It must be for not hearing the Church when it calls us to his Truths and Precepts not when it sets up to carry us from them For there if it use censures it acts of it self and not by his Commission It opens or shuts by an Erring Key and must not expect that what is so bound or loosed on earth shall be Ratifyed in Heaven By such perverse Censures the Church only deprives it self of the Communion of Faithful Christians but doth not deprive them of Communion with Christ or with one another The unjust Excommunications of the Jewish Sinhedrim when they cast Christs Disciples out of their Synagogues only estranged or cut off themselves says Photius but brought those Disciples so much nearer to their Lord and Master And so now says he when the imitators of the Jews Excommunicate the Followers of the Apostles they thereby only Conjoyn and Unite them the more to those Divine Apostles to whom they are more closely and exactly knit both in Faith and Life by the Communion of sufferings But they miserably cut off themselves both from their Doctrine and from our Orthodox Faith And therefore instead of bemoaning themselves under such Excommunications and seeking to have them take off by Complying with the Church our Blessed Saviour fortifies his â—râ—â— followers against them and bids them not only patiently to rest under tâ—em but triumphaâ—â—ly to re oyce therein They shall put you out â— the 〈◊〉 ues says he to â—â—em and Cautions them not be offended thereat when it should happen or not to fall off from him or his ways to recover the Liberty of the Sâ—nagogues again Joh. 16. 1. 2. When they shall seperate you from their company by Excommunications and Anathema's and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the Son of Mans sake rejoyce ye in that day and leap for joy for behold Great is your Reward in Heaven for in the like manner did their Fathers unto the Prophets Luk. 6. 22 23. And thus the Holy Apostles and Faithful Adherers to Gods Truth and Worship and good Christian Practices did in all times when for such Adherence they fell under the Anathema's of Synods or the Excommunication of Churches during the Papal or any other former or later Persecutions They joyfully received such sentences and always owned one another and held Communion in Adherence to Gods word and ways among themselves when they were cast out of the communion of such corrupt and Apostatizing Synods or Churches And 't is the same when it shall deprive or discharge any Faithful Bishops and Ministers from supporting such necessary Doctrines worship and practices by their Ministrations as Christ requires For then notwithstanding such deprivations and discharge by Churches and Synods CHRIST'S Faithful Ministers must hold on Ministring and his faithful People must hold on Communicating and Adhereing to them therein Thus as our LORD Notes their Fathers had Separated and cast out the Old Prophets from Prophesying in their Company or Assemblies Who still went on Preaching and Ministring the Word which they were sent out to publish And thus the Sanhedrim that great Synod of the Jewish Church discharged the Apostles from Ministring Christianity or Preaching any more in Christs Name who told them they could by no means desist thereupon but must hold on their Ministration being to Ovey God rather than men Act. 4. 18 19 20. Thus also several Synods Deprived Athanasius and the other Orthodox Bishops who were the stout Asserters and Maintainers of the Divinity of our Lord against the Arians Such was the Synod of Tyre And such also was the Synod of Antioch whose Deprivations of Athanasius and the other Orthodox Bishops were a Blow made at the Nicene Faith though their Canons being good and according to Primitive Usage were by Orthodox Councils afterwards taken into the Book of Ecclesiastical Canons out of which several of them are repeated verbatim in the great Council of Chalcedon and are there among the Canons of others Synods taken in to be Canons of the Universal Church And such likewise were the deprivations of other Synods assembled in that Cause afterwards Now under these Synodical deprivations the great Business of those suffering Bishops was to shew that whatever other Immoralities or Personal Crimes were pretended against them as several were most impudently pretended against all Ground and Reason yet in reality and truth their deprivations were for the Cause of the Faith or for their firmness in maintaining the Divinity and Consubstantiality of Christ with the Father This Athanasius and Paulus plead for themselves teaching That their Depositions were not for any other Cause but for the subversion of the Orthodox Faith as is related by Socrates and Sozomen And what they made appear to the Emperor Constans was That they suffered not for the Crimes or ill Lives they were accused of as the sentence of Deposition did contain but for their thinking and teaching differently from the Synods their Dâ—posers about the Faith And when it was once clear to any Persons or Churches that they were deprived for the cause of the Faith they were not hindred by any Authority of external Judicature in the Synods their deposers but readily received and communicated with them as Christs true Bishops still in those places For notwithstanding these Synodical Deprivations Athanasius was all the while own'd and adher'd to by the Faithful Aegyptians as Paulus also was by the Faithful Constantinopolitanes And when they came to Rome on their giving full satisfaction in this Point Julius the Bishop of Rome received them to Communion Hearing the Cause of each says Sozomen and finding them all to agree in the Nicene Faith which he saw undermined and struck at by their Deprivers he received them to Communion as being of the same Belief with himself This Reception of Athanasius and others who stood deprived by the Synods of Tyre and Antioch c. to his Communion was before the Synod of Rome wherein the Orientals should have justified their Proceedings had acquitted and received them For before the Synod was held at Rome in
the Cause of Athanasius Pope Julius gave Notice of the time appointed for it to the Eastern Bishops who had been Deposing Athanasius at Antioch and substituting Gregory in his place writing to them to send some of their number to clear the justice of their sentence and proceedings in that cause This is plain from Athanasius who says it was held after the Letters sent by Eusebius and after both the Eusebians and he himself had been cited to appear at it And also from Pope Julius 's Letters to them on the Request and at the Conclusion of the Roman Synod wherein he mentions the return of his Presbyters Elpidius and Philoxenus who were sent with the former Letter and the answer they had brought him from Eusebius and the Orential Bishops But before this first Letter to notifie the time appointed for the Roman Synod to the Orentials Julius on plain appearance that their sufferings were not for any other pretended Crimes but only on account of the Orthodox Faith had embraced the Communion of Athanasius and the other Deposed Bishops For Sozomen relates that on his receiving them to Communion he writ that Letter to the Orientals taxing their unjust sentences and attempts upon the Nicene Faith and calling them to the Synod to be held at Rome there to justifie their proceedings against them And in the Letter which the Orientals sent back to him which he received as I have now shewn before the sitting of the Roman Synod and which was read to the Bishops therein Assembled they complain of his having Communicated with Athanasius and his Adherents which they said was a Reproach cast on their Synods and an Abrogation of their sentence So that his disregard of the Synodical Deprivations of Athanasius and the other Orthodox Bishops Deposed in the Synods of Tyre or Antioch was not on account of their having been regularly reversed by any Superior External Judicature But it was as having been of no force and effect in themselves because passing on Christs Faithful Pastors for their Fidelity and Firmness to the True Christian Faith Besides when the Synod at Rome sate in the cause of Athanasius and the other Orthodox Bishops and Synodically admitted them to Communion I do not see how in the Regular way of External Judicature this could take off the Deprivations by the foremention'd Synods For the Synod at Rome was inferior in Number of Bishops Consisting as Athanasius says only of about Fifty Bishops Whereas the Synod of Tyre besides the Egyptians who came along with Athanasius Consisted of sixty Bishops met there from divers places says Socrates and the Synod of Antioch which again Deposed him and the other Orthodox Bishops consisted of Ninty seven as Sozomen reports And moreover the Synod of Rome consisted of Bishops who lived more remote and further off and were Subjects of another Prince viz. Constans Whereas the Synods which deprived them Consisted of the Neighbouring Bishops some of them Comprovincials to the accused parties and were Subjects of their own Emperor viz. Constantius whose censure may seem more concluding on the Fellow-Bishops of their own Empire So that Julius and his Fifty Bishops in the Roman Synod could not reverse the Depositions of those former Synods in Regular way of outward Judicatures But yet finding whatever other things were pretended that in reality they had been deposed in those Synods for their Firmness to the Nicene aith in prejudice whereof there lyes no power of depriving in any Synods before any Superior or more general Council had reversed their depositions in Regular way of External Judicature they took part and Communicated with Athanasius and the other Deprived Bishops And this the Faithful Aegyptians both Clergy and People had done without any regard to the Deprivation of those Synods all the time of Athanasius's forced absence from them and are applauded by Pope Julius for the same For in his Letter to the Church of Alexandria after the Synod of Sardica on the Restitution of Athanasius to his See he extols them for their firm and constant adherence to the right Faith and to him their Bishop who had been so glorious a Confessor and Maintainer thereof all the while he was violently torn from them and another obtruded on their Church in his room And like to this has been the Practice I think of all times For still as Errors and Corruptions in Doctrine Worship and Practice prevailed and became general in any places on any considerable opposition made to them by Christs faithful Ministers to silence Gain-sayers they have had the establishment of Synods And these Synods have anathematized the Truth condemned and deposed the Preachers and excommunicated and cast out the Adherents and Practicers thereof But yet the Preachers and Ministers of God's Worship and Truth have still held on their Ministrations and God's faithful People have stuck to them therein And under all the depositions and excommunications of Councils or Churches they have kept Communion with one another in these necessary Truths and Ways of God which Corrupt and Apostate Councils have anathematized Or else under that power of Error which has so often tyrannized over the Truth more especially in the Arian Persecutions and in the several steps and advancements of the Papal Corruptions the pure Worship and Doctrine of Christ had perish'd and all Face of a true and unadulterated Church had long since failed from off the Earth This I say in case of Depositions or other Censures for the Cause of the necessary Truths or Worship of Jesus Christ. In deprivations for other things or on pretence of mere personal Crimes the Case I grant may be otherwise For in them though the Sentence be unjust it is a personal Wrong and affects the sufferers themselves And in private sufferings 't is reasonable to bear much for Orders sake and to be tyed up to ways of Order for Redress So that such sufferers shall be bound to rest under the judicial Injustice till they can have it reversed in like sort as it was laid on viz. in way of Judiâ—ature or by Regular Appeals And accordingly in all depositions for such private or personal Crimes this is required by the Antient Canons If a Bishop Presbyter or Deacon say the Councils of Carthage and Sardica and the same Determinations says Balsamon are to be taken as meant of Lay-men too be deposed on pretence of his Idleness and Neglects let him not dare say they to go on or to assert his former Right of Communion during the time of his Excommunication till his Cause has had a new Cognizance and Examination or been heard over again And if before such re-hearing he presume to do otherwise he shall be judged say the Fathers at Cartharge thereby to have given sentence of Condemnation against himself But in Depositions or Excommunications for doctrinal Truths and spiritual Ministrations there is not only a Wrong to themselves but
a Wrong to Religion And there they must go on for the sake of Gospel-worship and doctrines which are Christs Cause though they would be content to suffer and sit still so far as it is their own And accordingly the Council of Constantinople entituled Prima Secunda excepts the Case of Heretical Prelates promoting or pushing on any Heresies when it requires Inferiors to stay for a synodical Cognizance before they break off dependance from their Prelates in all other Cases Though Synods therefore are the most Venerable Ecclesiastical Judicature here on Earth yet is all the Obligation and Authority of their decisions or sentences within this Compass They have no Effect or Force against the Truth as St. Paul says or against any for adhering to it So that they are to affect none who have Christ and his Truth plainly on their side Nor do their judgments and definitions bar those who are concerned to take Notice of them from examining and judging for themselves whether they strike at any part of Christian Truth and Religion before they pay Obedience to them I grant there ought to be great deference to their determination and all private Persons are to use great modesty and care in judging after them and need to look that the blow and destruction thereby made to any necessary Truth or Practice of our holy Religion be very plain before they over-look and disregard what they order But still judge they must because in all their belief and practice in these things it is not any implicit dependance on men or a blind obedience to any humane sentence or decision but observance of the Truth it self or of what Christ has appointed in his Word that must justifie them And therefore if on an humble and diligent examination and by plain evidence it appear that in their definitions of Articles or censure of Persons they strike at the Truth and seek the overthrow of any part of Religion their Acts are to be esteemed as of no effect and all concerned Parties both Clergy and People are to go on doing the same in Religious Ministration and Communion as if there were no such thing More just and authoritative Synods they will be like to seek and appeal from these in a regular way to others more general which in external way of humane judicature shall reverse their unjust sentences But suffering all in the Cause of Truth and Religion they will not desist in the mean time but go on notwithstanding any such synodical Anathema or Deprivation in true spiritual Ministrations and Communion PART III. Of Schism CHAP. I. Of the Nature of Schism And of the Schism of Particular Members from their own Church in throwing off Subjection and Dependance on their own Bishops BY what I have offer'd about the Authority and effect of State-deprivations yea or even of the depositions of Synods too I think it may appear how the faithful Ministers of Christ are not disabled or discharged by any such deprivations from the exercise of their spiritual Ministrations whereto they stand bound by so many Obligations in the forementioned Cases But besides the deprivation of State some think the maintenance of Unity in the Church when that is like to be broken thereby ought to stop them of that Exercise And therefore for a further clearing of their duty in those Cases I shall procede 2. Secondly to shew That the preservation of external Communion and Peace in the Church ought not to debar or put by their due discharge thereof Admit say some that it were their duty to go on in their Ministrations for the service of Religion and of Souls in those cases where this can be done in maintenance of Unity and whilst the Church continues one Yet what will you say if such Ministration must unavoidably make or keep up a Schism Do not we all own that to be one of the greatest Banes to Religion and a most sinful and mischievous thing And if otherwise they ought to be held on ought not such Ministrations to be let fall rather than a Schism shall be made or kept up in the Church thereby That there will be a Schism in the Church in such cases is most apparent And that Schism is most dreadful to the Church full of Guilt as it is both the Breach of Unity and the Bane of Charity and an In-let of continual miseries and disturbances is no less apparent But in pressing the consideration thereof upon particular persons or parties for prevention or redress it is to be enquired first who makes it That will shew who ought to mend it but if they will not it may be enquired next who else can cure it Or what the sufferers in love of peace and preferring the Publick before themselves should give up for the Cure thereof that they may duly prize external Unity but not over-value it Or if through the Error or inflexibleness which God avert of those who are the Authors thereof it be already made and cannot be remedyed all are to consider lastly how they are to carry themselves towards the Makers of it and with whom they are to hold Communion To Clear these Points I shall say something I. To the Nature of Schism to shew when a Schism is made and by whom II. To those things which may be a just ground to disunite and break off either from any Persons or Churches without blame of Schism some things not being to be born nor others to be parted with for the love of external Peaâ—e and Union III. To the Communion of good Christians under a Schism and how they are to carry it towards Schismaticks 1. First I shall say something to the Nature of Schism to shew when a Schism is made and by whom Schism lyes in Breach of Union or in Making two or many out of one Schisms says St. Cyprian which cut or break the Unity or tear and divide that which should be kept together as one Body By Schism as St. Chrysostom notes One Church is broken into many Churches and the Unity thereof is abolish'd Accordingly the Members are call'd upon to be joyn'd together in the same mind and in speaking the same things that there be no Schisms 1 Cor. 1. 10. Not to set up an Independance among themselves and act separately but with mutual dependance and conjunction that there be no schism in the body 1 Cor. 12. 25. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 schisms are usually render'd divisions as 1 Cor. 10. and c. 11. 18. This Union which Schism breaks is the union of a society For the Church is a society of men Associated and incorporated together for the work and purposes of Religion 'T is call'd a Family or †Household or City which are all words Expressive of Society St Paul Styles it the City of the living God Heb. 12. 22. And tells the Christians at Ephesus that they are Fellow-Citizens with the Saints Eph. 2. 19. This