hath been done may be done again and upon supposition this should happen I would fain know of from the Roman Communion would be a good Argument against the Trueness or Goodness of the Church of Rome Wherefore methinks is point of Prudence they should not take up Arguments against us which they do not know how soon we may have occasion to retort upon themselves They should remember that they cannot secure their Church against Contigencies that are common to all Churches and that to flesh should glory in the presence of God who sometimes chooses the weak things of the World to confound the mighty and things that are not to bring to nought things that are It is his Prerogative to do whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven and Earth and who knows his Counsels who knows what secrets of Providence are in the Wombs of their Causes ready for the birth In the next place I address my self to our dissenting Brethren whose Divisions and Separations from the Church of England and from one another are now become popular and plausible Arguments in the mouths of the R. Cs. to unsettle weaker judgments among us and bring them over to theirs which they call the one Catholick Church I beseech them therefore by the Sacred Names of Vnity and Charity to consider ho'w different the Church of England and her Children now appear from what they mis-apprehended them to be Great numbers of them took up an Aversion to the Church because they thought her Popish in her Constitution and her Children especially the Clergy Popish in their Affections but now seeing by Experience how much they were mistaken methinks they should be willing to make Reparation methinks the sense of their former mistake should help to overcome their present prejudice and make them willing to be better informed and bring their old Scruples with Minds desirous of satisfaction to the Test to see if indeed they are such as will justifie their separation from a Church which they acknowledge to be Orthodox in her Doctrine and which they could never yet prove enjoyned any one thing in her Worship which God and forbidden or to have forbidden any thing in it which he had enjoyned Is not this the time for them to peruse the Books that have been lately written with the greatest Candor and meekness for their better Information And doth not the Zeal which they have always professed against Popery oblige them to have a good opinion of her Divines who have all along been contending earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Doth not God by the Voice of his Providence call upon them as plainly as if it were by a Voice from Heaven to consider whither their Divisions tend and should not the serious consideration of the dismal Effects that may follow upon them if they continue in them make them doubly afraid of the sinfulness of Schism What a dreadful account will they have to make at the Day of Judgment if it should then appear that the Church gave them no just occasion to separate from her They must then answer to God for all the direful Consequences of their Separation and therefore it concerns them all to look upon her whom they have pierced it concerns them all as they would not die in so fatal a Mistake and be responsable for the downfal of the Church to examine impartially if the Communion of the Church of England be not truly Catholick and whether she is not such a Church as hath fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ If she be such a Church as the Divines of all reformed Churches abroad will tell them she is then they must be guilty of Schism which is a separation without a just cause from the Church as a Church without any regard unto the State. For Schism or Separation without a just cause is a pure spiritual Crime and was reckoned a damnable Sin before the Church Christian was united to the Empire as also in those unhappy Intervals of Persecution when the Church and Empire were dis-united again For example it was a damnable Sin when St. Paul charged the Ephesians to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace because there was but one God and one Lord and one Faith and one Baptism and one Body of Christ It was a damnable Sin when he told the Corinthians That we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body and that as the natural body was made one by the union of many members in it so also was the body meaning the Body politick of Christ It was a damnable Sin when St. Ignatius taught the Churches That nothing should be done without the leave of the Bishop or in opposition to him and that that was only a valid Eucharist which was administred by him or by one licensed and appointed by him and that makers of Schism could not inherit the Kingdom of God. It was a damnable Sin when St. Cyprian called private Meetings in opposition to the publick Conventicles of the Devil and said that private Altars were no Altars and that if a Schismatick should die for Christ he could be no Martyr nor have any right to the Crown of Martyrdom for which he alledges the words of the Apostle Tho' I give my body to be burned and have not charity it prositeth nothing Dionysius Alexandrinus in his Ep. to the Arch-Schismatick Novatus writes unto him in this manner If thou wast constraind as thou saist against thy will to separate from the Church thou oughtest to declare the same by returning willingly to it again Thou shouldst have suffered any thing rather then rend the Church of God neither is that Martyrdom which a man shall suffer for refusing to rend the Church less glorious then that which Christians daily suffer for denying to sacrifice unto Devils Yea in my judgement it is a more glorious sort of Martyrdom for in the one a man suffers Martyrdom only for his own Soul but in the other for the Vniversal Church Wherefore perswade the Brethren or constrain them to return to Vnion such a meritorious act would be greater then the crime of seducing them and thou wouldest be more commended for that then ever thou wert censured for this However if thou canst not perswade the rebellious and disobedient to return to the Church at least save thine own soul by embracing Peace and Vnity thy self So great a Sin did the ancient Fathers account Schism before the happy union of the Church and Empire when the Meetings of the Schismaticks were as much tolerated by the State as the Meeting of the Catholicks and upon the same Principle Donatism and Arianism were counted as damnable Schism every jot under the Reigns of those Emperors who granted toleration to them as under the Reigns of those who made Laws against them Nay all the Laws which Constantius and Valens made in favour of Arianism and for the establishment of it did not alter its
noverit Vae illis iterum poeitentiam agant nec ament gloriam hominum magis quam gloriam Dei. P Vergerius in Annot in Catalogum Haereticorum p. 262. Dissemblers and Indifferents in Italy Spain and Portugal and even in Rome it self If a Mahumetan Pagan or Jew should argue thus against them as they argue against us they must either renounce their own Consequences or sink under the weight of them nay if an Atheist or Infidel of any other kind should take that advantage against Christianity from the Schisms and Divisions of it which they do against the best Church of Christendom the Church of England I appeal to their own Consciences whether they must not deny their own Conclusions or expose and betray the Cause of Christ The Pagans argued so against Christianity in the primitive Times because so many Sects grew up with it and therefore the variety of Heresies and Schisms which have sprung up in England since the Reformation can be no Argument against the Church It is no blemish to her to be in the same condition with the best and purest Churches in the best and purest Times it was so when the Apostles governed the Church and the Spirit of God bid the Christians Try all things and hold fast that which is good Hitherto I have proved that Divisions and Separations can be no good Argument or matter of just reproach against any Church because they are incident to all Churches as I have shewed by a sufficient Enumeration of Particulars and this will farther appear if we consider that they may be Arguments for as well as against a Church and a cause of just praise and commendation of it as well as of just reproach When they are just and reasonable then indeed they are good Arguments against the Church where they arise and give men just cause to reproach it but when they are not just and reasonable but proceed from mistake in those that make them or from worse Causes they they are good Arguments against the dividing Parties and just matter of reproach to them but none at all to the Church Wherefore it argues want of Ingenuity or great weakness of Judgement in men to exclaim against a Church upon the score of Divisions and Separations before they have examined whether the Church or the Separatists are in the fault In Reason and Charity this ought first to be done before either the Church or the Separators or both be condemned but our Adversaries of the Roman Church without any regard to the Case betwixt the Church of England and the Dissenters loudly defame her in all Places with the Dissentions and Separations and object to our People the great difficulty and uncertainty of finding out among so many opposite Churches and Religions which is the right if there be any such and therefore exhort them to take Sanctuary in that Church which is at unity in it self and looks so like the one Catholick Church But God be praised the People of the Church of England are generally better instructed then to be imposed upon with such loose Talk. They understand very well that as Separations from corrupt and impure Churches is a necessary duty so as long as there are Devils to tempt men there will also be unjust Separations from found and Catholick Churches and that therefore Separations and Divisions in the general can neither make for or against any Church They know very well that Churches like natural Bodies are of different Tempers and Constitutions and that when any of them chances to undergo a separation of Parts the particular nature and constitution of it must be examined before a man can safely conclude whether the blamable Parts went off or remained with the Church In the separation of Gold from the drossie and spurious Parts of Wine from the Lees of Wheat from the Chaff and of the excrementitious Parts from the Chyle and Bloud the base and impure and unprofitable Parts go off and the good and pure and profitable stay behind but in the separation of Wheat from Tares of Flower from the Bran and in all Chymical Separations the good the generous and spiritual Parts go off and the refuse and feculent stay behind I have made use of this familiar Comparison to shew how Separations and Divisions in the general can be no rational Argument for or against any Church until it be known what king of Body that Church was before the Separation sound or corrupt pure or impure Catholick or not Catholick Apostolical or un Apostolical And when this is once stated then it will appear whether the Divisions and Separations which were made from her make for her or against her I say when it is first known what kind of Church a divided Church was before the beginning of the Division then it may be known whether the Division objected against it be an Argument for or against the Trueness Soundness and Purity of it but to argue pro or con from Separations before this is stated is but to talk at Random which it doth not become men of Learning and Ingenuity to do According to this Rule the Divines of England first proved that the Communion of the Roman Church was not pure and Apostolical and thence justified the Separation of the Church of England from it as necessary and on the contrary they have proved that the Communion of the Church of England is pure and Apostolical and thence condemn the Separation of the Dissenters from it as needless They argue à priori against both on the one hand proving that the Wheat went off from the Tares and on the other that the Chaff went off from the Wheat But to argue à posteriori and in general against a Church meerly upon the score of Divisions before we examine the Constitution of the divided Church and state the Case between her and the Dividers doth become no men especially no Church-men but such as having a weak Cause must make use of popular for want of found Arguments and make the best they can of Sophistry when Reason is not on their side CHAP. III. That bare Vnity or want of Schisms and Divisions in Religion are no sound Argument of the Truth Goodness or Reputation of a Church III. HAving shew'd in the second Chapter That Divisions and Separations are no Argument against the Trueness or Reputation of any Church I proceed to shew in this That bare Vnity or want of Divisions is no Argument for the Trueness or Reputation of a Church and this I shall endeavour to demonstrate three ways First By shewing That it is not the Unity but the things in which a Church is united that truly recommend and justifie a Church Secondly That Church-Unity may be the effect of culpable Causes And thirdly That all Churches true or false Catholick or not Catholick are united in themselves and particularly that the Church of England hath more potential and actual Union in it then that of the Church of Rome
person striving to have his own will and humour doth thereby form a Schism Thus have I shewed the instrumental Causes which the devil uses in sowing Differences and Divisions and making Separations and Schisms in Churches And perhaps of such men acted and inspired by the Devil as much as of the Devils themselves St. Peter is to be understood 1 Ep. 5.8 where he exhorted the Christians to be sober and vigilant because their adversary the devil as a roaring lion walked about seeking whom he might devour whom saith he resist steadfast in the faith If the Devil had so many Instruments of dividing the Catholick Church then methinks it should not seem strange that he hath so many now Nay methinks the Gentlemen of the Roman Communion out of the particular Veneration they have for St. Peter whom the whole Christian World ought to honour should not so delight to upbraid the Church of England with the English Heresies and Schisms it being evident from this and other Passages in his Catholick Epistle cited in the first Chapter that there were almost as many and altogether as great Division while he governed in the Church as there are now in England and most other Parts of the Christian World. Wherefore all that can justly be concluded upon the Church of England from the English Heresies and Schisms if we consider the instrumental Causes of them is no more then this That there are and have been many ignorant over curious ambitious convetous and contentious men among us which as I shewed before hath been the common Calamity of all Churches and what is common to all Churches at least according to our Logick can be no just matter of reproach against any one I am so confident that there is no Inconsequence in this way of Apologizing for the Church of England that I believe our Adversaries cannot find a better way of Apologizing for the Divisions that have formerly risen or may hereafter arise in the Church of Rome If they were reproached by others as they reproach us they could not but say that the Causes of Divisions are common to all Churches and therefore craving leave to set the Church of England in the midst of all other Churches I desire that Church may cast the first Stone at her which hath remained from the beginning a pure Virgin without Heresie or Schism If there be a Church in any corner of the Earth which is exempted from the common Causes of Divisions or of so happy a Constitution as not to be capable of suffering by them let that Church come forth and reproach the Church of England with the English Heresies and Schisms but let not the Church of Rome do it which hath so many old Scars to shew and so many and great Rents yet visible in many parts of her Coat as none of her most curious Workmen with all their art and skill will probably ever be able to make up I have said thus much by way of Apology for the Church of England from considering the general Causes of Church Divisions and Separations and shall find yet more to plead for her upon making a more particular Enquiry into the Causes of our English Heresies and Schisms Now in this Enquiry no man that knows the state of Great Britain betwixt the beginning of the great Rebellion and his late Majesty's happy Restauration but must needs look upon the ruine of the Church and State to have been such a Cause of Heresies and Schisms as perhaps never happened before to any Church in the World. Was it any wonder to see Errors and Heresies and Blasphemies abound among us in a Time of such strange Disorder and Confusion when there was no King nor Priest in Israel Can we imagine the Devil should be idle in such an Opportunity Or can our Adversaries imagine that the like would not happen in any other Church or Kingdom of the Roman Religion should God in judgment dissolve the Government of them as he did that of ours I refer the candid Roman-Catholick Reader to Mr Edwards his Gangraena for an Account of the Errors Heresies Blasphemies Sects and Opinions that sprung up in the British Isle In a few years after the Church of England was pulled down and her Liturgy cast out of the Churches and Liberty of Conscience as they called it was set up in its stead He was a Minister of the Presbyterian Party and a mighty Bigot for the Cause and yet he could not but acknowledge that there came in a Deluge of Heresies and Impieties after the removal of the Prelates and I appeal to any man of Ingenuity if it be Reasonable or Christian or Gentile to reproach our Church with Sects that arose among us when she was fast bound in misery and the Iron entred into her Soul. Were not her Pastors driven from their Flocks when the Wolves entred in and all the time she was in the House of Bondage was it not a time of Liberty for every man to do what was good in his own Eyes Nay I desire those that are most petulant in upbraiding us with our Divisions to tell me truly if they do not think that as many and as monstrous Swarms of Errours and Heresies would breed in Spain or Italy as there did in the late Times of Confusion in England if the Divine Providence which God prevent should suffer the same Tragedy to be acted in those Countries that was acted in ours How would Sects verminate any where in Twenty Years of such Confusion Methinks our Adversaries should have the Ingenuity to consider this but since they seem not to do it I hope they cannot find fault with us for putting them in mind of it by way of Apology for our Church There are many other special Causes of our English Divisions which might fall under consideration but for brevity sake I shall mention but one which is this That we have reason to suspect that our Divisions both in the beginning and progress of them may have been influenced from abroad I do not know whether this will pass for mis-representing but some Observations have been made to this purpose And if the Gentlemen of the R. Communion know or believe it to be true I beseech them by our Common Saviour Jesus Christ they would no longer upbraid the Church of England with the English Heresies and Schisms In Foxis and Firebrands in Ravialac Redivinus p 72. of the 2d Edition fol. 1682. And in several Letters which passed between the Archbishop of Armagh and other eminent persons which may be seen in a late printed Collection of Letters If the Tares which were sowen in the Field of our Church were indeed brought from other Places then I hope they will grant that it is not ingenuous for them of all other Christians to reproach us with them but rather to blame those who sowed them and who transplanted those strange Plants which are not of our heavenly Father's planting into the Vineyard of
together but three days after they assembled again reciting against Damasus those words of our Lord Fear not those who can kill the body but are not able to kill the soul Then they sang out of the Psalms The dead bodies of they servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the air and the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the field their blond have they shed like water on every side of Jerusalem and there was no man to bury them And often meeting together in the Church of Liberius they cryed out O Christian Emperor let all the Bishops meet at Rome let them try the Cause between Vrsinus and Damasus and drive the Murderer from St. Peter's Chair These Complaints of the People coming to the ears of the Emperor he called back Ursinus from Banishment the People met him with great joy but Damasus by bribing the Court gets him banished again After this he invited the Bishops of Italy to a Feast upon his Birth-day Some of them came whom he would have perswaded both by good words and money to depose Vrsinus but they desired to be excused telling him that they came to celebrate his Birth-day and not to condemn a man unheard This Account which I have given of the Schism between Damasus and Vrsinus is taken our of the Preface of Marcellinus a Roman Presbyter and Faustinus a Roman Deacon before the Libellus precum or humble Supplication which they presented to the Emperors Valentinian Theodosius and Arcadius I refer the Reader to it in the †A. D. 1628 Oxford-Edition of Faustinus and if he please to consult it there he will find all that I have written and some more remarkable passages which for brevity sake I thought fit to omit I know very well that Baronius hath said all he can to render this Account suspected because it invalidates the Title of Damasus and interrupts the lawful Succession to St. Peter's Chair First He pleads that Marcellinus and Faustinus were Hereticks and that their testimony is no more to be believed then the testimony of Thieves against those they have robbed But was the Luciferian Heresie so called an Heresie indeed * August de Heres ad Quodv Luciferianos a Larcifero Caralitano Episcopo exortos celeriter nominatos nec Epiphanius nec Philaster inter hereticos posuiticredo tantummodo schisma non haeresin eos condidisse credentes St. Augustine observes that neither Epiphanius nor Philastrius put the Luciferians in the number of Hereticks and is very willing to excuse them from Heresie Or if it were a Heresie was it of such a nature as to deprave and infatuate the Souls of men and to deprive them at once both of truth and common sense in making of them write a heap of Lyes to the Emperor while Damasus was alive with many more eye-witnesses of the Schism whom they might conclude would have publickly exposed their Account if it had been false Was not Lucifer himself a very holy and excellent Person notwithstanding the severity of his opinion and a great Champion of the Church against the Arians and might not those who stood up with him for the strictness of Church-discipline and purity of Communion out of hatred to Arianism notwithstanding their excusable error be as holy men as he I am confident no unprejudiced man that will observe what an excellent strain of Piety and Zeal runs through their Works can suspect them capable of writing such gross Forgeries as the Preface indeed contains if it be not true But Baronius objects that they assert Vrsinus to have been ordained Bishop before Damasus contrary to St. Hierom in his Chronicon who saith that Damasus was ordained first But by his favour their words in the Preface do not necessarily import so much as the learned Annotator in the Oxford Edition hath observed but if they did why is not their Testimony as good against St. Hierom as St. Hierom's is against theirs and why may not he be supposed to have strain'd a little in favour of his Master Damasus who had so obliged him as well as they to have prevaricated out of hatred to him secondly He opposes the Autority of Ruffinus against them who relates the Story in favour of Damasus But was not Ruffinus as learned men observe a very careless and oscitant Historian How many Mistakes doth the learned Valesius observe in his History in his Annotations upon Socrates and which is it most reasonable to believe an unaccurate man that writes by hear say and at a distance and in a general History or men that with great accuracy write of any Fact which they had all the means of knowing exactly and could not unless they would wilfully mistake Thirdly He most frigidly objects that Vrsinus must needs have been the schismatical Bishop because he was ordained by the Bishop of Tibur and not of Ostia to whom he saith it did belong to ordain the Bishops of Rome It is true it was the custom of the Metropolitans and Patriarchs to be ordained by some of their neighbouring com-provincial Bishops as St. Aug. observes in defence of Cecilian's Ordination against the Donatists and this he proves by the example of the Bishop of Ostia who usually ordained the Bishop of Rome But what tho' that Bishop did usually ordain the Roman Bishops Non expectaverit Cecilianus ut princeps à principe ordinaretur cum aliud habeat Ecclesiae Catholicae consuetudo ut non Numidiae sed propinquiores Episcopi Episcoporum Ecclesiae Carthaginis ordinent sicut nec Romanae Eccliesiae ordinat aliquis Episcopus Metropolitanus sed de proximo Ostiensis Episcopus Aug. in brev collat diâ—â— 32. â— 3 doth it follow from thence that he was Judg of their election and that if the See was vacant or the Bishop of it sick or absent or superannuated and could not or had no mind and would not do that office that another for example the bishop of Tibur might not do it as well Some of these perhaps might be the Case when Vrsinus was elected for we do not read that the Bishop of Ostia ordained Damasus or if he had for certain ordained him might not Damasus have corrupted him as well as the Courtiers and Magistrates of Rome or Preface saith he would have engaged the Bishops of Italy to condemn Vrsinus and methinks if his had been the juster Cause he should for his reputation have committed the hearing of the whole Matter to a Council of Bishops and got him and his Party condemned as Cornelius got Novatus and his but this he never did which is no small presumption that his Election was not so justifiable and his Right so clear as Baronius would have it to be But whether it were or no doth not directly concern my present Design which is chiefly to shew what a violent dangerous and scandalous Schism this was which happened in the Roman Church It was so violent that according to *
former Chapter how can they by their way of arguing maintain the Church of Antioch to have been Catholick in the Time of Paulus Samosatensis who revived the Heresie of Theodotus and taught that Christ by nature was no more then a meer man For this Reason he held Communion with the Followers of Artemon the Author of this damnable Heresie teaching that Christ was from the Earth and damning the Hymns which used to be sung in Churches to his honour as novel Composures and letting his Followers chant forth Hymns to his own praise in the Church and tell the People that he was an Angel sent from God. Was there ever such an heretical and blasphemous Archbishop in the Church of England since the Reformation as this But if there had been more then one such the Church of England nevertheless would have been a truly Catholick Church as this of Antioch then was in the judgement of the Council that deposed Paul. For in that excellent * Euseb H.E. l. 7. c 30. Epistle which the Council wrote to the Bishops and Presbyters of the whole Catholick Church under Heaven they tell them after a long recital of Paul's Impieties that they were necessitated to depose him and ordain another in his stead over the Catholick Church I might also ask them upon their way of treating the Church of England upon the score of the English Heresies and Schisms what they can say for the Church of Constantinople in the Time of Macedonius and Nestorius who were both Patriarchs of that Church and both fell into Heresie and Schism When a Bishop and much more a Patriarch leads the Flock into by-paths the Schism is more deplorable but yet it is not the Apostasie and Secession of one or two or more Bishops if that should happen that can destroy the Catholick and Apostolick nature of any Provincial Patriarchal or National Church For as I observed before it is not the number of Communicants but the cause or soundness of Communion that makes a true Church and therefore were there both for kind and number ten times as many more opposite Sects and Communions as there are in this Nation and Bishops at the Heads of them all yet upon supposition that the Church of England is sound and Apostolical in Doctrine Worship and Discipline that * Vna est pars in quâ sunt multi Episcopi sed ubi sunt multi illic sacra fides Christi violata est ubi verò paucissimi sunt fides Christi vindicatur Libell precum p 9 12 13. small number adhering to her Communion must be the true Church Nay if all the Bishops of England but one should fall away from the Church of England that †Non dubitandum est paucos Episcopos esle pretiosos merito consessionis inviolabilis sidei multos vero nullifieri merito haereseos in causâ religiouis sacrae fidei non numerus numero comparandus est sed pura illa Apostolica fides probata exiliis probata cruciatibus licet unlus Multorum infidelitatibus praeponenda est ibid. one Bishop and the Flock adhering to him would be the true Church of England and as true and Catholick a Church as if there were not one Dissenter in the Land. The learned Papists know this very well and therefore I wonder that men pretending to Letters and Ingenuity should argue against the Church of England from the English Heresies and Schisms Furthermore if this be a good way of arguing against Churches then the Church of the Jews was twice involved in the consequences of it once by the Schism of Corah and then by that of Jeroboam who set up a Priesthood and Altar a Bethel in opposition to that of Jerusalem and by the separation out off ten Tribes in twelve from the true Church of God. Nay if this modish way of arguing be true then the separation of th Church of England and other National Churches from that of Rome are as strong Arguments against it as the Sects and Schisms among us are against the Church of England There is no difference in the Case because they say that all the Protestant Churches are schismatical for falling off from them as we say the Congregational Churches are for falling off from ours and if ours indeed is not a Catholick Church but apparently under God's displeasure because forsooth they can tell us of the Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists and Quakers then we may by just consequence say as much of theirs because we can tell them of the Waldenses Albigenses and Wiccliffians of old and of late of the Lutherans Calvinists and Church of England-men who are all Separatists from the Communion of Rome As those we repute Schismaticks sprang out of our Church and Communion so those whom they repute Schismaticks sprang out of theirs and therefore would not any man wonder that they should so far forget themselves as to use such Arguments against the Church of England and make such Reflections upon it as may be easily retorted upon themselves to overthrow their own Pretensions to Catholicism and weaken the Cause and Reputation of their Church The Church of Rome say they is the Catholick Church and the Church which Christ left upon Earth and the Church of England hath separated from it and therefore say we in their loose way of discoursing the separation of the Church of England is a good Argument against the Goodness and Reputation of that Church which Christ left upon Earth Nay say they Christ can have but one Church upon Earth and we believe none can be that Church but that which is called the Roman Catholick Church but then say we a world of Heresies and Schisms have been bred in that one Church the Catholick Church of Rome and therefore it is long since this one Church of Christ was one or a true and good Church Your Church say the two late Converts to us hath Vnity or not if not then she is not the Church of Christ if she hath why are there so many Sects and Schisms among you Now not to provoke such Gentlemen to * A Net for the Fishers of Men p. 111. paint and rip up the Sores of Protestancy your Church may a Turk say to them hath Unity or not if not then she is not the Church of Christ if she hath why are there so many Sects among you You say you are the one Catholick Church but what shall we do to find it in such and buddle of Dissenters as are in the Empire France Great Britain Sweden Denmark and other Northern Countreys and of * Ex to ordine scilicet Cardinalium sunt quatuor aut quinque quorum nomina possum proferre si vellem quibus reverâ probetur nostra doctrina saltem magna ex parte Romana exosa sit Sed vae illis cum filius Dei enunciaverit fore ut is qui nôrit voluntatem Domini non fecâ—…it vapulet pluribus quam qui non
First then It is not bare Vnion but the things in which a Church is united that must truly recommend and justifie it to the Christian World and prove it to be the Church of God. This is a self-evident Proposition which all the Churches in the World will admit at first hearing and the very Test by which when Disputes arise they must be content to be tryed For as to this Particular it is just in Ecclesiastical as it is in Civil Law and Government where it is not the Union but the Things or Cause in which men are united that distinguish lawful from unlawful Societies and Meetings otherwise if bare Union and Agreement how strict soever were a Sign of or a good Argument for the true and Catholick Church then Aaron the high Priest at the Head of that Congregation which worshipped the golden Calf was the true Church of the Jews He was their supream and lawful Pastor and they were very unanimous in making the Calf after his direction and in building an Altar before it and in oftering up Burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings to use the new phrase in the presence of it They sate down to eat and drink before it and said with one unanimous Acclamation These be thy Gods O Israel which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt I believe there never was a more perfect Union and Agreement in the Church of Rome then among the Communicants of this sinful Congregation nevertheless it was no Schism to divide from them because they united in a sin Their Union was their Crime because the object of it was highly criminal and God was provoked to consume them because they agreed in a thing that was so abominable in his eyes So the Corahites were as firmly united under Corah as the true Church was under Moses and Aaron Two hundred Princes of the Assembly with a great number of People were firmly united together in a Cause wherein they stuck together to the death even till the Earth opened her mouth and swallowed them up and they went down alive into Hell. So likewise the ten Tribes were as firmly united at Bethel as the two were at Hierusalem they had number as well as union to plead but notwithstanding both their number and union they were but a great Schism because they united in Innovations contrary to the will of God. So to pass from the Jews to the Christians there hath been at several times as strict an Union among Hereticks and Schismaticks as among the Catholicks The Novatians in particular were remarkable for their Concord Unity and Unanimity So were the Arians generally all of one Communion and very unanimous against the Homousian Doctrine and yet they were but a great prevailing Schism when they were at the highest and had almost gained the whole Christian World. From these Examples it is plain that in passing judgement upon Churches we are not to look at the Union so much as the Cause in which they are united We are to consider if their Doctrine and Discipline be Apostolical and their terms of Communion truly Catholick and if they be so then their Union in them is holy and laudable and such as makes them true Churches of God. A concurrence of these things is the genuine badge of a * Ad bane it aque for mam probabuntur ab illis Ecclesiis quae licet nullum ex Apostolis vet Apostolicis Autorem suum proserant ut multò posteriores quae denique quotidie instituuntur tamen in câdem fide conspirantes non minùs Apostolicae deputantur pro consanguinitate doctrinae Tertull. de praescript Haeres truly Catholick and Apostolical Church and if those of the Roman Communion would have us admire their Union and be made Converts by it they must first make it appear to us that they are united in these things Otherwise their Unity instead of being an Argument for their Church is a strong Argument against it to prove that it is but a Conspiracy and an over-grown Schism from the one Catholick and Apostolical Church But secondly Church-unity may be the effect of culpable Causes and by culpable Causes I mean only such as in a great measure make the embracing of any Religion an inspontaneous or unwilling action and these are only two Ignorance and Compulsion when men either are of a Religion which they would not be of if they knew the faults of it or when knowing the faults of it they would certainly forsake it were they not under force but left to their own free choice First then Church-unity may be the effect of Ignorance which was one great cause of the Unity and Agreement of almost all Mankind in Paganism and therefore their ignorance of the Gentiles is called darkness in the New Testament as where our Lord is compared to the Day-spring or Sun-rising which gave light to them that sate in darkness and in the shadow of death So the Apostle of the Gentiles told them It was their duty to shew forth the Praises of him who had called them out of darkness into his marvellous light and truly their spiritual darkness was so great that God did in some measure excuse their gross error in thinking that the Godhead could be like unto Gold or Silver or Stone graven by Art or man's device Tho' men who were worthy and absurd Idaea's of him yet as the Apostle told the Athenians The times of their former ignorance God winked at but then commanded all the Gentiles every where at their utmost peril to repent There never was a more strict and general Union among the Jews or Christians then there was among the Greeks For Paganism was become the Catholick Religion or Superstition as Catholick signifies universal and was spread far and wide upon the Earth and yet as the Apologetical Writers replied to the Greeks when they argued from the extent of their Religion and the consent of Mankind in it their great agreement in Idolatry was the effect of their Ignorance as plainly appeared from the preaching of the Gospel upon which they forsook those dumb Idols unto which they were carried even as they were led and turned from their former Vanities and Superstition unto the living God. They worshipped the Gods and observed their impure Rites because they knew no better but when their Understandings came to be well informed then they made a new and manly choice such as proceeded from all the Principles of humane Actions and plainly shewed that Ignorance had hitherto been the Mother of their Idol-devotion and by consequence that the choice of their former Religion wanted a sufficient measure of knowledge to make it a rational and truly willing choice I wish those who pride themselves so much in the Unity of the Roman Catholicks would consider how far the Sons and Daughters of the Church of England may use this Plea in their own defence against their so much celebrated Union It is certain that upon the Preaching and Writing of the
may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil for we wrestle not against flesh and bloud but against principalities and powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickednesses or wicked spirits in high places All these are several expressions for that society of apostate Spirits which make up the kingdom of darkness as is plain from the 1 st and 2d Verses of the 11 th Chapter of the same Epistle where he saith Ye were dead in trespasses and sins wherein you walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience who cannot be perswaded to believe the Gospel Wherefore the Combates for which Christians are to fortifie themselves are not only against humane Enemies but the powers of darkness the whole society of Devils who were the Gods of the Gentile World. They are always plotting and contriving against the Church and when they cannot hurt it with Idolatry Polytheism or Persecutions then they strive to get Altar set up against Altar in it and distract it with Heresie and Schism Accordingly St. Ignatius in his Ep. to the Ephesians calls Heresies and false Doctrines Herbs or Plants of the Devil 's planting and tells them in the same Epistle That to meet often together and receive the holy Eucharist in peace and concord was the only way to weaken the powers of Satan and prevent the ruine and destruction he would otherwise bring upon them by Division and to convince them how malicious and vigilant an enemy he is to the Church he tells them That there were three Mysteries of the Christian Religion which were kept from his knowledge The Virginity of Mary her bringing forth or the Nativity of her Son and the Death of our Lord. Had Satan come to the knowledge of these Mysteries unless God had chained him and his evil angels up they would have made ill use of them against the great design of man's Redemption and accordingly many learned men have given his for one Reason of the obscurity of the Prophecies and why God was pleased so artificially to conceal many things in them lest Satan coming to the knowledge of them should endeavour to prevent or obstruct the fulfilling of them or enervate the certainty and demonstration of them after they were fulfilled Thus Justin Martyr in his first commonly called the second Apology observes That he did before-hand to the best of his skill teach and institute many things among the Pagans which had some semblance with the future Mysteries of the Christian Religion that so when they came to pass they might not seem such divine and wonderful Mysteries as indeed they are The like is observed by * Tertâ—ll depâ—â—â— script Haeres 〈◊〉 40. Tertullian after him and made out by many particular Instances to which I remit the curious Reader which shews That he hath a great and active spite against the Church of God more especially against such parts of it as are pure in Doctrine or Worship to sow Heresies and Schisms among them and divide the unity of their Communion And therefore the same St. Ignatius in his Ep. to the Trallesians bids them beware of Separations and Divisions as of the Snares of the Devil and in his Ep. to the Philadelphians he prays them in his wonted phrase to abstain from the evil Herbs which Christ never cultivated because they were not of his heavenly Father's planting meaning the Weeds of false Doctrines which Satan had sowed among them and which he saith did not only cause different Parties among them but a perfect separation of many from the Church So Justin * P. 403. Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho ascribes all the impious and blasphemous Doctrines which were then taught in the Name of Christ to the Inspirations of the unclean spirit of the Devil and accordingly when St. Polycarp met Marcion the Heretick he told him He knew him to be the eldest Son of the Devil as being a man who was acted with diabolical Impulse and Inspirations and Tertullian in the Book above-cited saith expresly That the Devil is the Author of Heresie as well as Idolatry The like is observed by St. Cyprian and Theodoret who ascribe all Heresies to the invention and artifice of the Devil and all the Histories of Heresies and Schisms in Ecclesiastical Writers are still ushered in with prefatory Complaints of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the envious and wicked Devil whose business hath been from the beginning to deceive and molest the Church of God. Nay the purer any Church is in Doctrine and Worship the more we may be sure he will stickle against it and endeavour to weaken and disgrace it by intestine Divisions and perswade the dividing Parties to form themselves into opposite Schisms Indeed where Churches are already corrupted in Doctrine and Worship and firmly adhere to those Corruptions 't is his interest to let them alone and not to hazard the Reformation of them by stirring up Contentions and Divisions in them but in Churches where the Doctrine and Worship are kept pure and Apostolical by the care and vigilance of the Pastors in Churches where the Scriptures are openly taught and read and the whole Worship of God but more especially the holy Sacraments are duly administred by lawful Ministers and the Communion of Saints carefully maintained In such pure and Apostolical Churches as these he hath no other game to play but to get them as far as he can extirpated by Persecutions or where that fails to make Mutinies and Divisions and Schisms in them and so to weaken the common Interest of the whole by dividing it into parts Where he cannot unite the Members of a Church in pernicious Doctrines and Practices he will labour hard to dissolve them by pernicious Schisms where he cannot unite them against Truth he will strive to divide them against Charity and where they will not agree he will make them if he can differ to their own destruction And therefore considering him as the principal Cause of Divisions all that can be concluded upon that Consideration against any particular Church is only this That the Members of it are subject like the Members of all other Churches to be deceived and drawn away by the Devil and if upon special enquiry it be found that she is pure and Apostolical in her Doctrine Worship and Discipline all that can then be concluded is no more then this That the Devil is become her particular Enemy and hath a particular spite against her upon the account of her Excellence and Worth. This is the worst Consequence that can be drawn from Divisions and Separations against such a Church as ours and we are willing to admit it we are willing to acknowledge that the Devil hates the Church of England more then many Churches and if those that object our Divisions to us
please very much more then the Church of Rome We are willing to look upon the many Heresies and Schisms among us as the effects of his Revenge against her for the damage he hath sustained by her as * Videns ille idola derelicta per nimiùm credentium populum sedes suas as templa deserta excogitaverit novam fraudem ut sub ipso Christiani nominis titulo fallat incautos hereses invenit schismata quibus subverteret sidem veritatem corrumperet scinderet unitatem Cyprian de Vnit Eccles St. Cyprian thought the Heresies and Schisms of his Time were purposely invented by him to be revenged of the Christian Religion for destroying his Worship among the Gentiles All this we are willing to admit upon the Theory that ariseth from considering the first Cause of Divisions and Separations and let those who love to reproach the Church of England with the English Divisions Religion make the best of it they can But then to proceed farther in this Enquiry After we have found out the principal we must look after the instrumental Causes of Divisions and Separations and they according to the Ancients who spoke what they knew to be true by long Experience and Observation were ignorant over-curious ambitious covetous and contentious men These are the proper Instruments by which the Devil acts in broaching false Doctrines and making Divisions and Separations He is a sagacious Spirit and can find out the weak and blind side of every man where he will be sure to ply him with Darts of Temptation as a skilful General will be sure to attack the weakest part of the Wall or that part of it which is least defended when he storms a Town The first Instrument then by which Satan works in making Schisms and Divisions are ignorant men or men ignorant in the Scriptures whose Ignorance makes them confident and think they understand the Scriptures when for want of knowing the received sence of them they do not This St. Chrysostom complains of in one of his Sermons * Hom. 37 T. 5. p. 245. Saith he The ignorance of the Scriptures is a dangerous Precipice and a deep Gulf of destruction and a great betrayer of mens Salvation It is that which hath brought forth Heresies and which turns all things upside down So in his †T. 3. p. 1. Preface to St. Paul's Ep. to the Romans saith he A thousand Evils come from ignorance of the Scriptures and the manifold sorts of Heresies have sprung from thence To this purpose speaks a more ancient Author in Answer to this Query Why God if he was able to do it did not root out all Errors and Heresies ‖ Author respons ad Orthodoxos in resp ad 1. Quaest Saith he When God abrogated Judaism he introduced the New instead of the Old Testament and if all those who embrace Christianity do not agree in thier Opinions but some believe right and some otherwise this is not the fault of God nor to be ascribed to any defect of care or power in him but the fault of their own carelessness and negligence nor ought any man to be offended at the small number of orthodox Christians because it is written That many are called but few chosen and that streight and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that find it It is observable that these ancient Fathers did not lay the blame of Heresies and Schisms upon the free and common use of the Scriptures but upon the careless and negligent reading of them and to ignorant mens presuming they understood them when they did not The fault was not in the Scriptures but in those who through ignorance abused them the Scriptures were always common in all Churches and Languages and I dare say boldly saith * De praescript Heret § 39. Tertullian That the Scriptures are so contrived by the will of God that they should afford occasion for Heresies because I read that there must be Heresies and Heresies cannot be without the Scriptures What I have observed out of these ancient Fathers is no more in effect then what St. Peter observed of the Epistles of St. Paul which are one great part of the Scriptures Saith he Account that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation even as our beloved Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you as also in all his Epistles speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction The Scriptures it seems suffered very much by unlearned men in the Time of St. Peter and yet he did not order them to be kept from the People neither in the Church of Rome nor any other Churches He knew that they were holy true just and good and were designed by God for publick use and benefit and if ignorant men by the instigation of the Devil and their own natural Enthusiasm did misuse them and draw false Doctrines from them it was at their own peril and the fault was in their own giddiness and presumption and not in the Word of God. They should have only meddled with the plain Passages of them which contain all things necessary to Salvation and not with those which are hard to be understood No! if they had had a mind to understand the difficult Places of them they should have consulted the Apostles or those whom the Apostles set over them about the Apostolical Doctrine or Tradition and if they did not but as ignorant men are apt to do would precipitate themselves into Errors and make Doctrines to themselves which the Church never taught that was their own fault and could not without very much harm to Christianity supersede the use of the Word of God. God in his great wisdom intended it for the common Rule or Canon of the ancient Catholick Faith and if unlearned men will be so head strong and Enthusiastical as not to try their Conceptions by it but it by their private Conceptions it nevertheless remains a Standard and Rule and no less then their Souls must be the price for their Heresies and Schisms The Devil understands this very well and therefore being a subtil and cunning Spirit he is never wanting to tempt Sciolists and men that want true Learning especially those who are by nature powerfully enclined to Enthusiasm to wrest the Scriptures * Sequamur universitatem antiquitatem consentionem Vincent Lirin adversus Haeres c. 3. against the consent of universal Antiquity to their own admired Notions and that being done it is no difficult matter to perswade them to set up for Teachers altho' they have really need that one teach them again which be the first Principles of the Oracles of God and are such as have need of Milk and not of strong Meat The second sort of Instruments by which Satan works are over-curious