Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n
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A62920
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A vindication of Mr. H's Brief enquiry into the true nature of schism from the exceptions of T.W. the citizen of Chester, and sincere lover of truth.
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Tong, William, 1662-1727.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing T1876A; ESTC R220899
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35,683
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99
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better evidence that the Church of England is a true Church than they have of such a continued Succession that they can as soon demonstrate such an unbroken Line as that their Ministry and Sacraments are true and that they have no better proof that Dissenters are Schismaticks than they have of this nor any better defence of all the Severities they have used against them than this and if it should happen that in almost 1700 years there has been the least breach made upon this Line all that they have said and done against Dissenters becomes due to themselves Would any man in the World that was not hired to betray the Churches Cause have put it to such an Issue I am sure no wise man would venture his Estate upon it And yet this man has chosen to fix his Church and Faith and Salvation upon no better a Foot than this For in how many cases may this Line be broken and all that Apostolick Power conveyed there be spilt and lost if there should happen a vacancy in any of those things he calls Apostolical Churches and Sees for some years and the succeeding As the Northumbrian Bishops by the Abbot of Hy. Incumbent be a person ordained by an Abbot who was no Bishop as is allowed in the Roman Church through which this Authority must be conveyed to us does not this make an Intercision in the Line of Episcopal Ordination be so indispensable it must do so I desire to know of this man or any other that encourage him to write little Books whether this Line of Succession may be continued in a Schismatical Church and the Apostolical Power conveyed thereby if by Schism Men and Societies are cut off from the Universal Church as this Man frequently affirms in his Book then such Schismatical Churches are no Churches nor parts of the Universal Church and so cannot be the Subjects of this Apostolical power and if this power cannot be derived through a Schismatical Church then he must grant either that the Church of England has not this power or that the Papal Churches through which this Line and Power runs are not Schismatical and if they be not his own Church must be so for separating from them for he allows Separation utterly unlawful unless from a Schismatical Church But after all though by this continued Line of Apostolical Episcopal Succession he would Exclude all the Reformed Churches beyond Sea that have not those Governours he will allow to be Scripture Bishops Supposing this same Line he makes such a splutter about were certain or necessary which it is not yet till this Man has proved the English Prelacy to be nearer a-kin to the Scripture Episcopacy than the Pastoral Office which is the Episcopacy we contend for we stand as fair for any advantage this Notion may afford as his Party does for we reverence and maintain Ministerial Ordination and so are in the Line still if such a Line there be which yet we are no way concerned to prove because we look upon Ordination to be no more but a publick Approbation of Ministerial Abilities by competent Judges and we doubt not but the Ministers that have such Qualifications themselves are the most competent Judges thereof in others but if there should happen a case wherein such Persons could not be had As if a company of Christians should be cast upon a remote Island or if all the Pastors in a Countrey should be put to Death or all turn Hereticks we doubt not but it would be lawful for a Man of the best Qualifications being chosen by the rest and approved and set apart by the most competent Judges amongst them to Administer in Holy Ordinances to them and that he would be a true Minister of Jesus Christ sufficiently Authorized to the Work and a Lay-person no longer but if we assent to the Whimsey of a constant Succession as if power were conveyed like Water in a Conduit after a Physical manner by contact passing through the Finger ends of the Prelate into the Noddle of the Person Ordained then can no necessity make the practice aforesaid warrantable and so the Substance must fail and perish for want of the Ceremony which is contrary to Reason and the Notions Men have of the Goodness of God This conceit of an entire Apostolical Line was forg'd upon the same Anvil with that of an uninterrupted Succession of English Monarchs from the Eldest Son of Noah whereby a Patriarchal Right descends inseparable from the Person Sacred and Irresistible which has tortured the Ears of all Men of Sence and Sobriety in these late Times The Leud and Extravagant Caresses that have happen'd between Ambitious Princes and Aspiring Church-men have produc'd such Twins as these that lately threatned the Kingdom with a dismal Fate No less pretences than those of Patriarchal and Apostolical Powers were sufficient for the Usurping an Absolute Empire over the Civil and Religious Rights of Men but as we have seen the One deserted exposed to just contempt and renounced by the very Authors thereof not in words only but in actions famous and publick throughout the World so we doubt not they will to deal with the other it being of the same extract and calculated to serve the very same interest and design His fourth page is taken up with proving that to love as Christians in Scripture Sence is to love as Members of Christ and obliges us to preserve the Body from Rents and Schisms which we never deny but wonder at some Men who notwithstanding all their talk for Peace and Unity have so little real Love for it as to Excommunicate and Damn all those that cannot comply with those Ceremonies which themselves acknowledge have no Moral goodness in them and therefore can be but idle incumbrances upon the Worship of God which as one says of Friendship and Heraldry is noblest when plainest bravest when alone Certainly such unreasonable Stiffness cannot have much in it of that love which is the Characteristick of Christs Disciples but these Gentlemen think to excuse their aversation to us by saying we are not Christians we are out of the Catholick Church this is to make one gross act of Uncharitableness to excuse for another but we thank God they are not to be our final Judges For our further Conviction we are told The Communion of Saints is one External visible Communion of the Christian Church which is so far from explaining the thing that it makes it much darker We hold Communion in Essentials with every Church of Christ upon Earth and in Integrals with all sound Churches and we know few Churches that hold Communion in all accidentals nor was such a Communion ever pretended to be necessary This word Communion not rightly understood nor the sence of it carefully distinguisht has strangely misled some Men and is at the bottom of all those clamours that have fill'd the Ears of our Rulers and the whole Nation against us and this Man seems as little
and Hatred imaginable and made the Song of the Drunkard some thousands of Families as can be made to appear crush'd and almost ruin'd Houses rifled Prisons fill'd and many forced to leave their Native Countrey and all this acted against them by the very Men they had let into the Nation contrary to the minds of a more wary and politick Party who have not failed frequently to upbraid them with it over these things we are willing to draw a Curtain did not this Man and such as he force us to speak the naked truth in our own defence It is necessary indeed that these Men should render us odious as can be imagined for all the World must own either we are the worst of Men or they that have treated us so barbarously must be so themselves But blessed be God we have a King upon the Throne that understands and loves the true Interest of England too well to regard such calumnies as these which indeed our former Princes knew to be false though to serve a wretched Interest they would sometimes seem to believe them I now return with T.W. to Mr. H's Book he would fain have Mr. H. to make this Conclusion if having one Minister in admiration above another be Schism how much more am I a Schismatick who am no Minister but keep up a Communion separate from the Church of God That is to say if Mr. H. in compliment to this Man will own his Ordination to be invalid and his Congregation no part of the Church of God then T. W. will prove him a Schismatick but what if Mr. H. will not grant this why then the Man must prove it and that 's more than he can do I am sure he has not yet done any thing like it Mr. H. and the Citizen are both agreed in this That is Schism which breaks or slackens the Bond by which the Members are knit together but they are not agreed what this Bond is Mr. Henry says 't is true Love and Charity the Unity of the Spirit and Bond of Peace not an Act of Uniformity obliging to Communion in the same Modes and Ceremonies T. W. does not think fit to say that an Act of Uniformity is the Bond but says the breach of Communion breaks the Bond by which the Members are knit together which according to his own sence is but to say the breach of Communion breaks Communion for he makes Communion and the Bond the same this is to be attributed to his Ignorance in the meaning of this term Communion which I have before taken notice of if he mean for us to meet and Worship God in places different from theirs and without the Ceremonies they use does necessarily destroy Love and Charity we must tell him it is only with such Men as himself that are captivated to a Party for all Men of Sence and Sobriety can retain Christian Love and Charity for all that agree with them in Essentials and Integrals of Religion notwithstanding lesser differences Mr. H. says if the Bond of Unity betwixt the Members of Christ be Love and Charity then it is not an Act of Uniformity in point of Communion in the same Modes and Ceremonies this T.W. says is a manifest contradiction but I am perswaded no Man alive besides himself can find it out I hope Communion in the same Modes and Ceremonies is not the only or the Essential Communion of Saints by this every Church would Damn all the rest for their different Modes of Worship the Bond by which the Members are united must be something common to all Christians which the Ceremonies cannot be therefore our not joining with them in these cannot necessarily break that Bond so long as we retain that which is Common and Essential to Christianity that is Faith and Charity the breach of the former is Heresie and of the latter Schism Mr. H's Definition of Schism is this Schism is an uncharitable Distance Division or Alienation of Affiction amongst those who are called Christians and agree in the Fundamentals of Religion occasioned by their different apprehensions about little things T.W. says he has condemned him out of his own Mouth In good time How does that appear why breach of Christian Communion is certainly the breach of Christian Charity the old blunder Sir we hold Communion with you in all that 's necessary either to the being or welfare of a Church and by your unnecessary Trifles you break with us and not we with you if any breach there be From the Definition of Schism Mr. H. infers There may be Separation of Communion where there is no Schism for thus we all agree there may be difference of apprehension and yet no Schism provided it do not eat out Christian Love but be managed amicably as betwixt the Arminians and the Calvinists in the Church of England and adds if this difference in Opinion be about Modes of Worship there must be distinct Communion Here T. W. exclaims against him for illogical reasoning in bringing an instance to justifie Separate Communion from Schism where there was no Separate Communion at all But a little consideration would have spoil'd this Triumph Mr. H's arguing is this If there may be different apprehensions about Doctrinal matters without breach of Charity why may there not be different apprehensions about matters of Worship and terms of Conformity without breach of Charity and consequently without Schism If I may love and honour a Man that is not of my mind nor expresses himself after my manner about the Divine Decrees the Operations of Grace and the Consistency thereof with the freedom of Mans Will c. why may I not likewise love and honour that Man that differs from me about a stinted Form the Cross in Baptism Bowing at the Altar and Name of Jesus are these things of greater importance than the former Oh but says he you break Communion about these things for you will not join with us in them What must I join with things I judge unlawful Is there that fatal necessity laid upon me that I must either be a Hypocrite or a Schismatick And has God made it necessary to Salvation to know that all these things are lawful if you will not suffer me to Communicate with you except I join with you in those things we must Worship God in another place with those that will not so impose upon us and yet we will love as Christians still here 's no breach of Charity on our side and if so no Schism for if the formal nature of Schism be breach of Charity as Mr. H. has proved and this Man cannot deny without giving the Lie to Scripture as he has done then Separate Communion may be without Schism and the reason of the Consequence is because Separate Communion may be without breach of Charity T. W. says it cannot for it is naturally and infallibly the cause of the hottest and fiercest Contentions and highest breach of Charity That is to say T. W.