Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	church_n	communion_n	schism_n	2,211	5	10.6231	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62284	The reformation of the Church of England justified according to the canons of the Council of Nice, and other general councils, and the tradition of the Catholick Church being an answer to a paper reprinted at Oxford, called (The schism of the Church of England) demonstrated in four arguments, formerly proposed to Dr. Gunning and Dr. Pearson the late bishops of Ely and Chester, by two Catholick disputants, in a celebrated conference upon that point : in which answer the unworthy and false dealings of the papists are shewed, and the charge of schism returned upon them, and the Church of England proved truly Catholick and apostolick in her doctrine and constitution / by Dr. Saywell.	Saywell, William, 1643-1701.	1688 (1688)	Wing S804; ESTC R34023	26,158	36

in Queen Elizabeth's Reign did possess the Places of Lawful Bishops yet living or united themselves to such as did possess them therefore they were Schismatical and no Lawful Bishops of the Church of England For as soon as these Lawful Bishops were turned out others were put into their Places and not only so but contrary to all Rule and ordorly Government in the Church For the most certain Fundamental Constitution of the Church in all Ages and the constant Order of all Societies which is always tacitly supposed tho' not formally observed is that while particular Churches keep to the Faith and Unity of the Catholick Church as ours had done all things ought to be managed by the Archbishop and Bishops of the Province and so by the Chief Governors and main Body of the Society or else things cannot be Regularly done but here the Archbishop and the Major Part of the Bishops are set aside and others put into their Places while they were yet alive and Dr. Burnet adds that of the inferiour Clergy who were Sixteen Thousand Twelve Thousand were likewise turned out so there could be nothing Regularly done by the Convocation either in the Upper or Lower House And further they were not content with the present Possession but secretly said in their Minds These are the Heirs come let us kill them and their Inheritance shall be ours therefore after they had bereaved them of their Bishopricks and their Livings they quickly took away many of their Lives And are not all these Men Schismaticks with a Witness and all those that were Ordained by them into other Mens Places and Government It matters not to our business to pursue all the Successions and Changes in Queen Mary's Days I will rather proceed to consider the State of the Bishopricks after Queen Mary's Death when Queen Elizabeth restored the Church to that Regular Constitution which was settled before by the undoubted Lawful Archbishops and Bishops in King Edward's Days Bishopricks void by Death Archbishop Poole of Canterbury Bishop King of Oxford Bishop Capon of Salisbury Bishop Parfew of Hereford Bishop Holyman of Bristol Bishop Glin of Bangor Bishop Brookes of Glocester Bishop 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Norwich void Rochester void Bishops in Possession of the other Bishopricks but uncanonically for the Reasons above named Bishop Bonner of London Bishop Thirlby of Ely. Bishop White of Winchester Bishop Watson of Lincoln Bishop Pool of Peterburgh Bishop Bourne of Bath and Wells Bishop Turbervill of Exeter Bishop Bayne of Lichfield and Coventry Bishop Christophorson of Chichester Bishop Pates of Wonchester Bishop Goldwell of St. Asaph Bishop Kitchin of Landaffe Who conformed In the Province of York Archbishop Heath of York Bishop Tunstall of Durham Bishop Scot of Chester Bishop Oglethorp of Carlisle 'T is confessed that 14 or 15 were turned out or went away in Queen Elizabeth's Days but according to our Author 's own Argument they were Schismaticks and no Lawful Bishops because they came into the Places of Lawful Bishops while they were alive or else were ordained by and communicated with such Schismaticks I add they usurped their Places by turning out the Metropolitans and Major Part of the Bishops of each Province and so could have no Lawful Authority or Jurisdiction Queen Elizabeth therefore set them aside and so removed this Violence and Usurpation And being willing to restore all things as they were settled in King Edward's Reign she calls back the Bishops that were still alive which were only Five in number Bishop Barlow Scory Coverdale Kitchin and Thirlby And all but Thirlby concurred in settling the Reformation so we had still the Major Part of the Lawful Bishops to renew the Succession and they did Ordain Archbishop Parker and others and it has been Regularly continued ever since Thus the Authority of our present Bishops as to Order and Jurisdiction is beyond dispute One Objection was insisted upon by Queen Mary and others to justify the Deprivation of the Protestant Bishops and others of the Clergy because some of them were married Men and perhaps they married after Orders which was threatned with Deposition by many ancient Canons To which I Answer that living in a Married Estate is not by Divine Authority inconsistent with the Exercise of the Priesthood but was always allowed in the Church and ever practised in the Greek Church till this Day and has been oftentimes dispensed withal in the Roman Church for secular Ends. So that the allowing Marriage before or after Orders is a Circumstance that depends upon the Discretion of the Church and if for some Reasons Clergy-men were heretofore prohibited to marry after Orders yet in this long Interval of General Councils upon the great Experience of the Mischiefs and Inconveniences that came by forbidding it particular Churches may dispense with that Rigour accordingly this Provincial and National Church and the Law of the Land which had much better Authority than the Pope had left every body to their Liberty to marry or not to marry as they saw good and so they that did marry offended against no Law of God and Man and therefore were unjustly Deposed from their Bishopricks upon that Account But then our Author says that they in Queen Mary's Days were Lawful Bishops and he proves it from the Confession of Protestants who grant that the Church of Rome and all those of her Communion are true Churches of Christ. Now as to the first Part of the Argument I Answer In time of great Schism and tumultuous Proceedings there may be so far the Remains of a true Church that many Pious Christians who are not at all or else ignorantly ingaged in the Schism may be saved but we have no Reason to say that the Popish Bishops in Queen Mary's Days were Lawful Bishops or the governing Part were then the National Church of England the true Right and Authority of the Church was in those Lawful Bishops that were made in King Edward's Days and that was the true Church of England which did adhere to them and their Constitutions But then the Author does Object that Protestants do grant that the Church of Rome and all those of her Communion are true Churches of Christ. Never was People's Charity more abused than ours of the Church of England has been in this kind to justify the Errors and Schism of the Church of Rome and all upon a mere and generally wilful Mistake In short therefore 't is true and we do acknowledge that the Substance of the Christian Religion is professed by the Church of Rome tho' mingled with Errors And so many that honestly and sincerely serve God in her Communion may be saved but yet many may be damned for too pertinaciously maintaining and propagating the Errors of the Church of Rome especially those that desert and refuse Obedience to the Bishops of the Church of England setting up Altar against Altar and so keeping up a Schism amongst us where they have such plentiful Means of being better

give no right to the Bishops or Authority to the Decrees they ordained and tho' all the Art and Cruelty imaginable was used to cut off a future Succession by burning imprisoning and banishing the Lawful Bishops yet it pleased God so to order it that the major Part of the Lawful undoubted Bishops who were made in King Edward's Reign and which lived till Queen Elizabeth's days joyned again in continuing the Succession of Bishops and restoring the Reformation settled in Convocation which has been preserved without Interruption to this very Day And those Bishops that were set aside in Queen Elizabeth's Reign were either justly deposed in King Edward's Days and never rightly restored or else were ordained by them who had no Authority to give them Jurisdiction in this Nation and so had no further right than the Civil Magistrate could give which the same Power had again taken away So that the Ordination of Archbishop Parker was so far from being irregular that it was made by those who only had proper Right and Title to ordain For the rest of King Edward's Bishops being Dead the sole Authority did Regularly devolve on the few that were left And the Queen the Nobility and Gentry the Clergy and the Main Body of the Nation were so well satisfied of the unlawful Authority of those Bishops that were set aside and the undoubted Right of those who ordained Archbishop Parker that of about 9400 Clergy above 9200 did with great Joy receive the Bishops and the Reformation and the rest of the Nation even those that were formerly zealous for the Church of Rome did joyn with them in Prayers and Sacraments and there was an Universal Agreement and Concurrence in the Communion of the Church of England for 10 or 11 Years together so that there was no other Penal Law but that of 12 d. a Sunday to stir up lazy People to mind their Duty and we might have continued so till this Day in that happy Concord had not the Pope excommunicated and deposed the Queen and prohibited all her Subjects under Pain of an Anathema to own her Soveraignty and submit to the Bishops of the Church of England Upon which many separated from our Communion and have disturbed our Government ever since So that it is plain the Schism is on the side of the Papists who upon pretence of Papal Authority did withdraw themselves from the Communion of their own Bishops and make a formal division in the Church which was before united in Peace and Truth But suppose there was some circumstantial defect in the Succession of some of our first Bishops as to matter of Form in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign after so many of their Predecessors had been unjustly turned out and destroyed in Queen Mary's Days their Misfortunes do not at all concern the present Bishops of the Church of England for if the Matter of our Reformation and the Constitution of our Church be Sound and Catholick as it is beyond all possible Contradiction and the Consecration of our Bishops was Valid as to the matter of Order there being no Regular Succession of Bishops continued on by those who were set aside in Queen Elizabeth's Reign because they knew it was in vain when they saw the Kingdom so well settled and the People so unanimously joyning with the Reformed Bishops after all those Popish Bishops were Dead there could be nothing required in Reason to give the Protestants a full Right and Authority but the Reception of the Queen and the whole Kingdom and that they had long before and all the Bishops for many Successions since that Time came into vacant Places and the Bishops that now are were none of them Born and come into none but void Places and so are as Firmly and Canonically settled as any Bishops in the World. This being the true Account of the Reformation of the Church of England I proceed now to consider the Argument in the pretended Conference with Bishop Gunning and Bishop Pearson so many Years ago and lately Reprinted by Henry Cruttenden at Oxon. And first it begins with a Definition of Schism in this Manner Schism is a Voluntary Separation of one Part from the whole true visible Hierarchical Church of Christ And then he goes on to a Syllogism in this manner Whoever make a Voluntary Separation of themselves from the whole true visible Church of Christ are Schismaticks But all those of the English Protestant Party make a Voluntary Separation of themselves from the whole true visible Church of Christ. Therefore all those of the English Protestant Party are Schismaticks He goes about to prove that we separate from the visible Church because we separate from the Roman and Greek Churches and all others in Communion with them and this seems to be the full Substance and Design of the first Argument Now to avoid all doubt and entring into Disputes about Foreign Churches whose Case is in some Regard much different from ours of the Church of England I shall therefore instead of the Protestant Party proceed to Answer for the Protestants of the Church of England I will not go to examine the definition of Schism any one that desires further Satisfaction about it may look into the Conference it self as it is printed where it is learnedly and acutely examined by the Bishops themselves In Answer therefore to the major Proposition it is so far from being true that we separate from the visible Church of Christ that we separate from no true Church or Society of Christians in the World. But to the better stating of this Matter we must consider that there is a twofold Communion one of Coordination and another of Subordination Churches Coordinate i. e. of several Provinces several Nations and Countries owe no Obedience one to another and are not bound to observe the same Rites and Customs and to agree in all School-disputes and Niceties concerning Theological Opinions no more than several Kingdoms are bound to have the same Laws and Constitutions This is acknowledged by all sober Divines in all Ages Accordingly several Churches and Countries have had their peculiar Rules and Orders still living in Peace and Unity and so might it be at this Day did not the Church of Rome by Force and Subtilty go about to enslave all Mankind to their private Errors and Impositions As therefore several Kingdoms do maintain Peace one with another and give all friendly Assistance if there be Occasion for their mutual Happiness and Defence yet keep to their own Laws and Customs in other Matters so tho' we differ in some Opinions and Practices from Rome and other Churches yet we retain that Christian Charity and Respect for them which one Coordinate Church or Kingdom ought to have for another and so there is no Schism made at all by us nor so much as any Separation but what distance of Place and difference of Circumstances do necessarily make Neither do we send Emissaries Abroad to