Cities and Kingdoms to Rebellion because they consist of Subjects that may be tempted to rebel so all Christian Churches are subject to Schisms and Heresies because they consist of Members that may be drawn in to begin and carry on Heresie and Schism The Catholick Church notwithstanding its holiness and all the particular Churches in it are Bodies politick that like other Corporations consist of peaceable and unpeaceable dutiful and undutiful Members and it is really no stranger that a Diotrephes Montanus or Novatus should prove a Schismatick then that Judas should prove a Thief and a Traitor or the lustful Corinthian commit Incest in the Church of God. What hinders that this or that Member of a Church may not become a Schismatick as well as a Murderer Drunkard or Adulterer Is it not consistent with the wisdom of God or the honour and oeconomy of the Catholick or a Catholick Church to leave the Members of it in a capacity to commit Schism Fieri vero haec dominus permittit patitur manent propriae libertatis arbitrio ut probatorum sides integra manifeslâ luce clarescat Cypr. de Vnit Eccles Doth the nature of a true Church require or hath God any where promised to over-rule the free wills of orthodox Christians so that they shall not fall into Schism as well as other sins Hath he either made them impassible as to this single vice or restrain'd the Devil from tempting them to it If he hath let those who upbraid us with our Divisions shew it and if he hath not then it must follow that the Clergy and Laity of all the Churches in the World being left as free to commit Schism as Rebellion or any other wickedness all Churches whatsoever must be subject to the sad misfortune of Heresie and Schism The natural Body is not more subject to Diseases then the Body politick of the Church is subject to Divisions though she have the honour to have Christ for her Head yet is she not exempted from having her Peace broken or her Unity divided That is only the priviledge of the Church triumphant where Charity is perfected and therefore to pass from Reason to the History of the Christian Religion we find as many Cautions and Exhortations in the Scriptures against Heresies and Schisms as against any other mortal sin What an excellent Admonition against Schism did St. Paul give the Bishops and Presbyters of Ephesus or rather all the Bishops of Asia Minor assembled at Miletus Take heed saith he unto your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers For I know that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock Also of your selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears The Apostle knew very well that God in his wisdom thought it not fit to prevent Heresies and Schisms in the most Apostolical Churches by his Almighty power but to suffer them as well as other sins for the manifestation of the good from the bad and that in such a mixture as a Church must be they were necessary to sift the Wheat from the Tares to separate the Gold from the Dross and distinguish those that are sincere stedfast and genuine Sons of any Catholick Church from those that are not Thus in his 1. Ep. to the Church of Corinth which I suppose was a very Apostolical Church he tells them that God thought fit to let Heresies and Divisions arise among them that the faith and constancy of some and instability vanity and hypocrisie of others might be made more evident I hear saith he that when you come together into the Church there are divisions among you and I partly believe it for there must be also heresies or dividing into Sects among you that they which are * Avolent quantum volent paleae levis fidei quocunque afflatu tentationum co purior Massa frumenti in horreâ domini reponetur Tertull de praescript Haer. 3. approved may be made manifest among you So saith St. John of the Antichrists which in his time arose in the Catholick Church They went out from us but they were not of us for if they had been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us And our Blessed Lord who was the Founder of the Church and may be presumed to have best understood the nature of it had no other notion thereof then as of a Body Corporate that was subject like other Societies to the great inconvenience of intestine Divisions and falling into opposite Sects and Schisms It must needs be saith he considering the nature and future estate of the Church that offences come but wo unto the man by whom the offence cometh And in his Sermon on the Mount saith he unto his Disciples Beware of false Prophets which come to you in sheeps-cloathing but inwardly they are ravening wolves And in the 24th Chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel ‖ Memores simus tam dominicarum praenuntiationum quà m Apostolicarum literarum quae nobis faturas haereses praenuntiarunt sugiendas praefinierunt Tertull. ibid. Instruit dominus multos esse venturos sub pellibus ovium rapaces Lupos ibid. he foretold the sad condition of the primitive Church before the destruction of Jerusalem that about that period there should arise false Christs and false Prophets and should shew great signs and wonders and deceive if it were possible the very Elect. This prediction of the Blessed Jesus was fulfilled in the time of the Apostles who were all infallable Guides of the Church for St. Paul in his 2. Ep. to the Thessalonians saith That the mystery of iniquity was then a working and the wicked one to be revealed whose coming was after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders and with all deceitfulness to bring them that perish to commit unrighteousness because they receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved So St. Peter in his 2. Ep. general to the Catholick Church tells the Christians That as there were false Prophets in the Church of the Jews so there should be false Teachers among them who should privily bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and that many should follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the truth should be evil spoken of Every one that is versed in Ecclesiastical Story knows that these Apostles mean Simon Magus who was baptiz'd by Philip and the rest of the Ring leaders of the Gnostical Heresies who were all Magicians as well as Hereticks and wrought wonders to prove that Jesus was not the Christ For this Reason they are called * Johannes in Ep. eos maximè Antichristos vocat qui
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
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