That this Church of England had no dependence upon the Authority of the Church of Rome which She might not lawfully throw off and that She does not owe any Subjection to the Bishop of Rome but had just Power without asking his leave or staying for his Consent to Reform Her self And withal that the Church of Rome ought to have Reformed Her self as we have done since there were most necessary Causes for so doing the Communion of that Church being defiled with the profession of those damnable Errors and the practice of those Superstitions and Idolatries which we have done away To this purpose we challenge those of that Communion with the particulars of their Doctrine of Transubstantiation their Sacrifice of the Mass their Service in an unknown Tongue their half Communion their Worship of Images their Adoration of the Host and the rest of those Abominations whereof the Communion of that Church doth in great part Consist We acknowledge that we separated from them in these things when we Reformed our selves but in so doing we were not guilty of Schism from the Church of Rome and that if nothing else were to be said because this Church owes no Subjection to that but withal that the Causes of the Reformation being so necessary as we pretend them to be the Separation of Communion that ensued upon our being and their hating to be Reformed was on our side just and necessary upon that account also and therefore not Schismatical So that our Answer is twofold 1. That the Church of England being by no kind of Right subject to the Roman or any Forreign Bishop had full Power and Authority without asking leave of Forreigners to Reform her self And this we say would have cleared her from the Imputation of Schism if the causes of the Reformation had not been so necessary as indeed they were If before the Reformation there had been no Unlawful conditions of Communion required in the Western Churches and all the fault that could have been found in them had amounted to no more than bare Inconveniences and Imprudence in the manner of their Discipline or in ordering the outward Mode of Worship it had yet been free for the Church of England to have Reformed those lesser faults within her self though no other Church would have done the like And though for such defects remaining in other Churches abroad she ought not to have Separated from their Communion yet she might very justly and Commendably free her self from them at home But if a Forreign Church suppose that of Rome should hereupon have abstained from the Communion of this Church till we had returned to the former Inconvenient though Lawful Rites and Customs that Forreign Church had been guilty of Schism in so doing And if the Church of England not willing to part with her Liberty and to prostitute her Authority to the Usurpation of the See of Rome should have adher'd to her own Reformation she had not been guilty of the breach of Communion following that her Resolution because she had done nothing but what was within the compass of her just Power to do and in which she was not liable to be controuled by any other Church We say with St. Cyprian that the Episcopal Government of the Church ought to be but one spread abroad amongst Bishops many in number but heartily agreeing together But with the same excellent Man we say too that it is Equal that every one of them should have a part of the Flock assigned to him which he is to Govern remembring that he is to give an account of his management to God Which he said in asserting the Freedom of the African Churches from Subjection to the Roman This we think is justly applicable to our Case The Church of England is a National Church once indeed under the Usurpation of the Roman Bishop and at length rescued from that servitude we are at present United together by Common Rules for Government and Worship Consulted upon and agreed unto by the Bishops and Presbyters in Convocation and then made Laws to all the particular Churches of this Kingdom by the Authority of the Soveraign These Laws shew the Reformation of the Church And they do not want any Authority they ought to have for wanting the consent of the Roman Bishop upon whom we have neither Ecclesiastical nor Civil Dependence For if any one single Bishop of the African Church might determin Causes and judge matters of Ecclesiastical cognisance which yet was seldom done in things of moment without the advice of Collegues when the Church had rest from Persecution and this without allowing Appeals to Rome much more may the Bishops of a whose Christian Kingdom confederate together to order Church matters Independently upon the See of Rome especially being required thereunto by their Christian Soveraign to whom they all owe Subjection and Obedience in all things saving their Common Christianity So that if the Causes of the Reformation had not been so weighty as indeed they were yet considering the Authority by which it was effected our Separation from Rome thereupon ensuing was wholly Guiltless on our part it being necessary unless we would submit to the Unjust and Tyrannous Claims of a Forreign Bishop 2. To the charge of Schism laid against us by the Romanist we Answer also that the conditions of Communion required in the Roman Church were many of them Vnlawful to be submitted unto since we could not Communicate with her without professing Doctrines that are plainly contrary to Gods Word nor without doing several things that are clearly and particularly forbidden by it And since it is not in the Power of any Man or Church to dispense with our Obligations to the Laws of God we could not be obliged to preserve Communion with the Bishop of Rome and his Adherents upon those Terms But because Catholick Communion ought to be preserved they ought to have put away those Scandals from amongst themselves which since they have not done though the Separation is equal on both sides yet the Schism is not ours but theirs only And therefore we farther say that if the Corruptions of the Roman Church which God forbid should ever come to be establisht in this Church of England again by the same Authority that has abolisht them it were not only Lawful but a necessary Duty to separate from the Communion of this Church in that Case We have that Reverence of Church Authority and of the Supreme Magistrate that we will submit to their Determinations in all things wherein God has left us to our own Liberty But if they Command us to do things contrary to his Determination and to take that liberty which he has not given us we must remember that we are to obey God rather than Man We have that sense also of the mischief of Divisions and Separations and of the Duty of maintaining Church-Communion that if the Laws of God be but observed we are not only ready to comply
from her because it is most necessary not to deny the Truths or break the Laws of God Therefore also by saying that we Separated for greater purity we mean not that we have forsaken but some Corruptions only of the Roman Worship as if our Communion were now indeed purer then theirs though not so pure as it ought to be This is not our meaning For we contend that this Church hath purged away all those Practices and abolisht all those Rules relating to Gods Worship which are contrary to his Word and by Consequence that there is no Impurity left in the conditions of our Communion so that any Man whose Conscience is rightly informed may Communicate with us without Sin Wherefore this comparative expression of Separating for greater purity from the Roman Church respecteth the State of that Church supposing indeed that all the conditions of that Churches-Communion were not impure but withal implying that some of them and those truly not a few were so And therefore that her Communion was not pure enough for any Christian to join in it with a good Conscience Thus I have shewn what we understand by Separating for greater purity and how we maintain this Plea in Answer to the Church of Rome Now therefore although the Dissenters use the same Plea in Words in Answer to us yet if they do not understand the same thing by it that we do nor attempt to make it out by shewing wherein our Communion is Corrupted with such conditions as oblige the Members of this Church to do what God hath forbidden or to neglect what he hath Commanded them to do or to contradict what he hath revealed This Plea I say if it be not made out by such particulars as these is by them weakly brought to justify their Separation from us by our example in Separating from Rome And though the general pretence may serve to delude Injudicious People who have not learnt to distinguish between Reasons and Colours yet it will neither acquit them before God nor in the Judgment of Wise Men who can easily discern and will Impartially consider the Difference of the Case It is indeed a plausible Colour for their Separation from us that we Separated from Rome for greater purity and but a Colour unless they could shew wherein our Communion is Impure or which is all one what are those conditions thereof which be Sinful or Repugnant to the Laws of God But what is it that they mean by this greater purity of Worship for which they Separate Wherein doth this purity consist Let Reasonable Men Judge Extemporary Prayers are more pure than Forms of Prayer To Receive the Communion Sitting or Standing is more pure than to Receive it Kneeling To omit the Sign of the Cross after Baptism is more pure than to use it And the Ministers Praying in a Coat or a Cloak is more pure then to Pray in a Surplice But till they can shew that our way in any of these instances is forbidden by God either they cannot justly pretend that it is Impure or at least they must confess that they mean by Impurity something else when they charge it upon us than what we mean by it when we charge it upon the Communion of the Romish Church and therefore that they do not use the same Plea against us that we produce against that For with us Impurity is Sin and an Impure Communion is a Communion in which we cannot Communicate without Sin i. e. without transgressing the Law of God But as far as I can see Impurity with them must go for something else that is either for doing things that God hath not forbidden or for the omitting of things that he hath not Commanded And if the Church hath Power in Indifferent things and that be pure against which there is no Law their pretence of Separating for greater purity is altogether groundless unless they can prove that they cannot have Communion with us without neglecting to do what God Commands or doing what he forbids Therefore the former discourse concerning Terms of Communion shews that there is a vast difference between this Plea as it is used by us and as it is used by the Separatists against us For we do not Separate from the Communion of the Roman Church upon this principle that the Church hath no Power to make Orders for the Worship of God in matters that are left to our Liberty or to prescribe Rites and Ceremonies that are not contrary to Gods Word But upon this principle as far as we can Judge do the Dissenters Separate from us and the main controversie we have with them is whether it be within the compass of Human Authority to prescribe in things of this sort and consequently whether it be part of the Duty of Christians to submit unto and in their Practice to comply with such prescriptions They will not deny that we shew the Church of Rome where the Scripture forbids what that Church requires and this through all those instances of their Corruption in Worship for which we pretend it necessary for us to depart from her Communion Now if the Dissenters can shew the like of any condition in our Communion I promise to recant all that I have said in behalf of the Church of England under this head of the purity of her Communion and instead of Vindicating my Defence of our Church as to this particular to depart from her Communion in that thing whatever may come of it from this time forwards And I trust that through the Grace of God I should not for the sake of any Worldly Interest either resist the Evidence of any clear Argument tending to my conviction or act in contradiction to a convinced conscience and judgment in a matter of this high nature But to deal plainly the Dissenters seem to be very sensible of the uncasiness of this task that is of proceeding in the same method to convince us of Vnlawful Terms of Communion which we use against the Church of Rome They go another way to work and it would make an Indifferent Man suspect their cause to see what shifts they use to make good their pretence They demand of us where Scripture Commands or what need there is of those things which our Church requires They pretend that the Liberty of Christians does in great part consist in this that they ought not by Man to be determined to any practice in Gods Worship to which God or the Nature of the thing has not determined them They say that the appointment of Significant Rites and Ceremonies is a derogation from the Royalty of Christ and the sufficiency of the Scriptures And to give some countenance to these pretences they would perswade us that the Scripture it self intimates some such thing as if nothing were to be done in Gods Worship but what is by God himself Commanded excepting always those circumstances necessary to action the choice whereof must yet be left to every Man and as
with which they agree in the Substance of Faith and Worship and from differing with Authority for the future about things Indifferent The Cause of the Separation as it is managed by themselves is so very Slight that one would hope they should be of themselves something afraid to venture their being Schismaticks upon it and consequently that they should be ready to consider what has been said to shew that there is indeed no Just Cause given them to Separate from our Church and that there is no Reason to call any thing Popery which they dislike in our Communion as some of them have done to the great disadvantage of the Protestant Religion since as much as in them lay they have made the World believe that the Cause of Popery is better than it is and that it doth not consist only of Opinions and Practices that cannot be defended but of some also that may And it is not the least kindness that the indiscreet Zeal of some Protestants hath done to the Church of Rome that they have inveighed against some things which may be easily justified as if they also were Popish Corruptions And the Learned Men of that Church have not been behind hand in making use of this advantage and that by straining their utmost Wit to represent the Protestant Religion under such Colours as if it stood in Opposition to Episcopacy and Liturgy and to all Ecclesiastical Canons and Constitutions And I am perswaded the Dissenters cannot do the Protestant Religion a greater kindness than by forbearing to give them this occasion for the Future For let a Cause be never so good in it self it is never likely to thrive in their hands who instead of pressing their Adversaries with what they can never maintain are still forward to deny what they are well able to prove As for the Papists amongst us their mistakes in Faith and Worship are so Gross and Foul that if they would give themselves a little time to Consider what has and what may farther be said to convince them I do not doubt but all of them that are endued with a Competent Understanding and an Honest Sense of things would soon feel those palpable Errors into the belief and practise of which they have been hitherto deluded by an unreasonable deference to the Authority of the Church of Rome and no longer stand off from the Communion of the Church of England The bigger any fault is one would think it should be more easily spied Now these Men Separate from us meerly because we have abandoned those wicked Doctrines and Practices which are of themselves a most necessary Cause of Separation from any Church in the World that should Impose them And therefore they of all Men are the most Notorious Schismaticks that can be imagined And I beseech God to open their Eyes to see it and to recover into the way of Truth all such as have Erred and are Deceived that those who have hitherto been obstinate may prove all things and that those who can be perswaded to Consider these things may hold fast that which is good Rom. 15. 5 6. And the God of Patience and Consolation grant us to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That We may with one Mind and one Mouth Glorify God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Amen FINIS ERATA Page 18. line 18. for Term read Form p. 15. l. 31. for cppear r. appear p. 25. l. 27. r. l Cor. 14. Ad Antonianum Ep. 52. Ad Cornclium Ep. 55. Case on behalf of Diss P. 5. P. 17. P. 16. 17. P. 9. P. 20. c. Case on behalf of Diss P. 2. P. 3. P. 3. Case P. 29 30. Case in behalf of Dissenters P. 2. P. 3. P. 36. P. 3. Preface to the Liturgy Ad Januarium Ep. 119. Ep. 118. Ad Casulanum Ep. 86. Ep. 86. Ep. 119. Lactant. lib 2. De Origine Erroris Sect. 7. 1 Thess 5. 21.