particulars As That the Church hath no declarative Power in matters of Faith or supposing any Article obscure to us or inverted and involved by Hereticks so that the matter of it hath not been explicitly acknowledged in all Ages of the Church anteceeding when the present Church gives the true meaning of it according to the tradition of Faith evidencing thereby the Sense of the Article or which is the same the sense of Scripture on which the Article is founded and engages the assent of all Christians thereunto That hereby she creates a new Article of Faith pag. 75 945. as if there were no mean betwixt the Power of the single Church of Rome who resolves all her actings into her own immediate Authority and the true Power of the Catholick Church of God which determines antecedent truths that were tho' less known or misinterpreted from the beginning and when the reason of her decree is not from her own Authority but the Tradition of Faith delivering the sense of the Holy Ghost down unto us That the Church representing and the Church diffusive are all one nothing can make the Church teaching and representative but the belief of what is necessary to Salvation Pag. 86 87. I thought a distant Power by Ordination had constituted the Pastors of the Church You go on at the same confused rate Pag. 251 252. I 'll only write out your words at large and let the Reader judge of them That which being supposed a Church is and being distroyed it ceaseth to be is the formal constitution of it but thus it is as to the Church The belief of Fundamentals makes it a Church and the not believing them makes it cease to be a Christian Church I speak of an essential not an organical Church And I know not who those persons are who out of those places Luk. 10.16 Matth. 28.19 20. Joh. 14.16 do infer the perpetuity of an organical Church nor if they did doth it thence follow they must suppose an infallible assistance beyond an essential 't is strange that nothing should be found betwixt these two in your own sense of them to constitute Pastors of Christ's own sending to make it an organical Church for I cannot imagine what necessity can be supposed of infallibility in order to that which may be sufficiently constituted without it The perpetuity of the Church doth rather argue the infallibility of the promise than of the Church Supposing then that the promises by you insisted on should be so far extended as to imply a perpetuity of a Christian Church what doth that argue but only this that to make it appear that promise is infallibly true there shall always be a Succession of Christians in the World Suppose I grant that the being of a Christian Church doth suppose the assistance of God's Spirit is there no assistance but what is infallible If not no one can be a Christian without infallibility for we speak of no other assistance but what is necessary to make Men Christians for what makes them such severally take them conjunctly makes them a Church But if you besides what assistance is requisite to make Men Christians do suppose somewhat more to make them a Church I pray name what it is And whatever it be it will not be own'd by such who infer a Perpetuity But if in order to that no more be meant as no more can be meant than what is necessary to make Men Christians then infallibility will grow so cheap and common I add and Church-Power and Offices together with it it will not be worth challenging by you for your Church neither will a Ministry be worth challenging by us either But this is agreeable enough with the Title you still give the Archbishop in this Treatise and as if he had no other Prelation but what is derived from his Majesty and is purely Secular you call him his Lordship only I much question Whether it might not have discomposed the Calm that most exemplary Prelate died in upon the Scaffold at Tower-Hill if he could then have been aware that he should have had such a Vindicator I cannot here but repeat it again tho' it be so very Offensive How gladly I should see the Church of Rome opposed and our common Christianity not struck at with the same blow and hand Surely the due Power of God's Church might have been vindicated and Rome's Usurpations rejected without this intermingling all as one both Priest and People as you have done here most Scandalously And at the same rate you dispute also against the Monarchical Government of the Church and an infallible judge Pag. 464. because Christ no where that we read of took care that we should be freed from all kind of Controversies and we no where find such a State of Christian Church described or promised where Men shall be of one mind only that peace and brotherly love continue is all that Christians are bound to and that every Man have the same Vnderstanding Which Arguments conclude as forcibly against any other Government even that of our Saviour himself and his Apostles were they upon Earth again and in the same circumstances as when here before Nay you have used these very Arguments against all manner of Government in your Irenicum And farther Pag. 172. you infer Because it is not in the Power of the Church of Rome judicially and authoritatively to determine what Books belong to the Canon of Scripture and what not Therefore the Church in this case is but a Jury of grand Inquest to search into matters of Fact and not a Judge upon the Bench to determine in point of Law And thereby take away all judicial Power from the Church to oblige her Members or Subjects by for their assent and submission to her Acts and Decrees upon a due search of matter of Fact and full evidence of the Truth and Certainty of those Articles Rules and Canons enjoin'd and commanded And thus you particularly affront the Practice of our own Church she having made it Law that only such a certain number of Books of the Old and New Testament be accounted and received as Canonical and withal requiring Subscription thereunto as a judge upon a Bench to be sure by all that are admitted by her into holy Orders And as you have before concluded That whatever Power can be supposed by Christ to be promised and derived to his Church from Matt. 28.19 20. c. is that which each private Christian partakes of So again Pag. 516. you say That whatever Power can be supposed in a General Council must be first in the Church diffusive and from thence be derived to the Council Which in effect is thus That the Bishops of Christendom who by right are only to sit in Council and such Presbyters as have sat and acted there did it only as their Substitutes and by virtue of their deputation receive their Power either from the Presbyters and Deacons or which is worse from the Laity
in him to which every Man may attain by his personal Capacity antecedent to the being of a Church and Church-Governors Or in the words of Mr. Hales made your own by citing of them in your Irenicum pag. 108. Schism is but a Theological Scar-crow set up by such as hold a Party in Religion And by consequence the Church of England is upon the same terms in respect of the Church of Rome as the Dissenters are in respect of the Church of England The Impositions of both are alike Anti-Christian which is again the very Doctrine of the Irenicum Your Answer to several Treatises c. is the next of your Writings that I have pitcht upon whence to inform my self and others of your particular Judgment in these points of Church-Power and its Obligation And that which I hence report will be so much more satisfactory because in your Answer to Mr. Cressy's Epistle Apologetical c. you refer him hither from pag 260. to pag. 291. as those Pages in which you maintain as much Authority in the Church of England as ever the Church of England challenged to her self But here you have left the Church in the same condition you had placed her in before and altogether without Power to make her Declarations Law whether in Council or out of it and the Office assigned by you to her Pastors is to Teach Instruct Propose and Recommend engaging them in Toil and Labour enough in order to the search of Truth but they are no where vested with an Authority to oblige the whole Body of Christians or the Church diffusive Each Private Man is left at Liberty to receive or reject according to his Eye-sight and as he apprehends the Reasons Motives Tradition Context Criticism or inward Revelation of that which is delivered And you say withal That the ancient Church did not pretend to more Authority as is to be seen in the Pages foregoing As for that branch of Authority you assign her in making Rules and Canons about matters of Order and Decency in the Church it is no more than in effect you had said before in your Irenicum and accordingly you refer to it in the point in the Preface to the Vnreasonableness of Separation where notwithstanding you contend with all might and main sometimes against the Laws themselves as Anti-Christian sometimes against the execution of them that they be not imposed upon doubtful Consciences as I have already shew'd And you have since been engaged for a Toleration or Non-execution of Church-Laws in the said Preface pag. 83 84 85. then when you had Preached but a little before against Separation and this is the last and all the account that I can give of you in this affair He that is most favourable to you must yield that you are wavering and unfixed in your Judgment And did you really believe that there is an advantage on the side of Authority which ought to over-rule the Practice of such who are the Members of that Church where the Authority is exercised as you speak you would also be so kind to Dissenters as to urge with more constancy upon them their duty in obeying as a Private Man you ought to propose nothing less unto them Tho' I cannot see why we should less doubt of your good will to them and their Cause when you drew up those Terms and Articles of Toleration than of Coleman's kindness to the Papists when he drew up his Declaration for Dissolving the Long Parliament in order to a Toleration also And it will be difficult to determine which of the two was more presumptuous I know what course the Ancient Church would have taken with a Private Presbyter who after a full debate in Council seconded with a Church Sanction and confirmed by the Imperial Constitution should have dared to have made Proposals or draw up Rules and Limitations and make them publick in opposition thereunto and yet this was not your first attempt of this nature your good will to Comprehension Latitudinarian Principles hath all along been manifest and notorious Those many Meetings which you and your Church of England and Mr. Baxter and his Church of England had were not so private but that some took notice of them where you made Proposals for altering the Church Government setled and confirmed by all that is sacred in Church and State. And the reason is plain why those Men afterwards dealt so severely with you of which you complain in the above-mentioned Preface upon that Sermon which was Preached before my Lord Mayor because after your healing Condescensions in private you appear'd a Revolter and Apostate and they were to deal with you as one that had broken his Faith. If some other had Preached that Sermon they might possibly have born with him he acting according to his principles when you were not to be endured tu Brute their Friend with whom they took sweet Council together concerning the House of God. I add farther 1. That in your Treatise of the Vnreasonableness of Separation you no where that I could take notice of have pressed Christians to Obedience as they are a Corporation imbodied under Governors and Laws of their own which is the original and fundamental Obligation to submission and conformity arising from the nature of that Kingdom which Christ erected by the promulgation of the Gospel of which Kingdom every true Christian is a Subject I do not deny but that your performance is competently well done upon your principles and so far as it reacheth You have abundantly set forth the reasonableness of our Book of Common-Prayer in the Administration of the Sacraments and other Rites and Ceremonies and urged Obedience thereunto from the destructive consequences that must inevitably follow in that Church or Society of Christians which retains not an Vniformity of Worship and more especially this reasonable one that we have in our Church of England But all is left still as matter of Dispute like the Corporation it self as Arbitrary and at the pleasure of its Subjects to retain or reject them and he that sees not with your Eyes by your own principles hath no Obligation for Obedience and Conformity to any one Rubrick Law or Injunction therein contained And it is observable in your Epistle Dedicatory that you beg pardon indeed of your Superiors for going beyond your bounds in your projects of accommodation But it is not for any one reason relating to them as your Governors or because you have been injurious thereby to their Power and Government in the Church of God which you in so doing had inroaded and invaded But because forsooth the Dissenters would not come up to you and their untractableness rendred your Project useless admit you had jump'd together and united in the project What then Why you had never begged their pardon And it was success not design was wanting by your own confession The very case of Coleman Besides is not this a delicate Apology for your self After
thus argue That where the Church hath defined nothing in her Councils it is to no purpose to object that such Doctrines are taught in it for those who defend their Separation from the Communion of a Church by reason of its Corrupt and Erroneous Doctrines must make it appear those are taught by it and the belief of them also exacted by its subjects To whom he thus replies But supposing there were no such foundation for this Doctrine in the Council of Trent as we see there is would there be no danger to Men's Salvation if their Confessors generally told them these things and they knew it to be the general Opinion among them Is there no danger of falling into the Ditch when the blind lead the blind unless a General Council expresly allow of it Is there no danger of Empiricks and Mountebanks unless the whole College of Physicians approve them And then he adds farther I confess when we debate the causes of separation from their Communion we think it then reasonable to alledge no more than what they impose on all to believe and practise and we have enough of all Conscience without going any farther but when we present the hazard of Salvation to particular Persons we may then justly charge them with pernicious Doctrines and Practices which are received and allow'd among them although not decreed by the Church in Councils For otherwise it would be just as if one should say to a Man that asked him whether he might safely Travel through such a Country Yes without doubt you may for although there be abundance of Thieves and High-way Men yet the Prince or the State never approved them nor gave them liberty to rob Travellers Do you think any Man would venture his Person or his Purse on no better security yet such security is all they can give as to the Roman Church for they dare not deny the bad consequence of the Doctrines and Practices charged upon them but only say The Church hath not decreed them 2. When Doctor Jeremy Taylor published some Tenents concerning Original Sin which opposed the Doctrine of our Church Doctor Warner Lord Bishop of Rochester wrote a Treatise against him and detected his error as openly as he had divulged it A great deal might have been pleaded in the Doctor 's behalf as much nay more than can be pleaded for any Man now a days such was his eminency in all Learning his great and daily service for the Church in her present distress he standing almost alone in the gap and in opposition to her many Enemies ready to devour her and still gaping with their Mouths upon her She was at a very low Ebb and the Channels were seen at God's chiding at the rebuke of the blast of his Displeasure But none of these things moved the excellent Bishop or diverted his purpose He knew full well that such breaches were advantageous to the common Enemy and therefore the healing them by due Argument and Authority was the only way to stop their Mouths And I have been informed those few Bishops surviving in that dismal overthrow of our Church Summon'd the Doctor to the house of Doctor Duppa at Richmond who was then Lord Bishop of Sarum where he submitted and made his acknowledgment 3. When some Puritanes at Frankford had opposed the Government and Liturgy of our Church and set up their own in its room Doctor Cox first and then Dr. Horn undertook them notwithstanding they were little better than banished Men and the Marian Persecution raged at home which made England too hot for them all No pleas of Peace and Unity ought to prevail for the complying with and countenancing those who oppose the received Doctrines and Constitutions of that Church whereof they are Members every good and knowing Man will withstand such to the face although they do in many things unite with him against the common Adversary And those that understand the nature and constitution of the Church of Christ as a distinct Society and its obligations upon Christians believe also its Laws equally established and binding when the Secular Power frowns upon and disowns her as when it maintains and protects her and that confusion in all things as you are pleased to express it or a Laxation of outward reward or penalties gives no liberty to any one man to choose his own way but much less does it authorize and indemnifie any one particular Doctor or more to draw up new Schemes and Modes of Worship or make easier Terms than were before required for the bringing Men in unto them Under these circumstances Dissenters are least of all to be born with and tenderness towards them is to have no place And it is judiciously observed by the Author of Religion and Loyalty Part 1. p. 566. that under the Reign of Julian the Apostate the Church more strictly united than she had done before in executing her Discipline and that power which Christ had enstated on her she then put an end to the vexatious Arian Controversie established the Nicene Faith over all the Christian World and prevented new Schisms and Factions that were at that time breaking out in the Christian World. And then to be sure the Eusebian Latitude-Trimmers had no favour shewed them because of the present Confusion 4. The Romish Doctors themselves gave us these like instances and the most sober of them do not think that their Unity in which they so much boast is violated or any occasion of Scandal and Offence given to those which are without in that the errors of particular Doctors tho' otherwise deserving from their Church are openly taken notice of and refuted but on the other hand conclude such proceedings necessary and useful for the preserving their Faith laudable in the unity and peace of it It is but the other day that Mr. White and Mr. Sargent who are known to have been great Zealots for Rome in this Kingdom published some Tenents injurious as it was thought to the Romish Faith for this they were severely censured and a Book came out against them Autore M. Lomino Theologo Printed at Gaunt 1675. whose Title is Blackloanae Haeresis Historia Confutatio so called from Blacklo a name by which White used sometimes to be called Upon this Publication the Blackloists made great clamors and not only they but the Roman Catholicks at large and who were not engaged in the Controversie As That these were not times for Catholicks to write one against another admonishing that Tempori ac Haeresi cedendum way is to be given to the Time and the Heresie together the danger of Schism is now hanging over our heads and that the Orthodox will be hereby laugh'd at by the Protestants because disagreeing To whom Lominus in his Preface gives this answer which being of so full weight and able to satisfie any Man in this or the like case I will here Transcribe thus Translated Doleo vehementer hoc unicum Blackloistarum effugium ultimum
so may Princes and Governors also and that by the Authority of God committed unto them and the People also by their Election For as we read that Bishops have done it so Christian Emperors and Princes usually have done it And the People before Christian Princes were commonly did elect their Bishops and Priests In the New Testament he that is appointed to be a Bishop or Priest needeth no Consecration by the Scripture for Election or appointing thereunto is sufficient If it fortuned a Prince Christian learned to Conquer certain Dominions of Infidels having none but the Temporal learned Men with him it is not against God's Law that he and they should Preach and Teach the Word of God there And also to make and constitute Bishops and Priests that the Word of God should be there Preached and the Sacrament of Baptism and others be administred But contrary they ought indeed so to do and there be Histories that witness That some Christian Princes and Lay-men unconsecrate have done the same A Bishop or Priest by the Scripture is neither commanded nor forbidden to Excommunicate But where the Law of any Region giveth him Authority to Excommunicate there they ought to use the same in such Crimes as the Laws have Authority in And where the Laws of the Region forbid them there they have no Authority at all And they that be no Priests may also Excommunicate if the Law allow thereunto Leviathan pag. 295 c. Christian Kings are still the Supream Pastors of their People and have power to Ordain what Pastors they please to Teach the Church that is to Teach the People committed to their Charge Again let the Right of choosing them be in the Church for so it was in the time of the Apostles themselves even so also the Right will be in the Civil Sovereign Christian For in that he is a Christian he allows the Teaching and in that he is a Sovereign which is as much as to say the Church by representation the Teachers he Elects are Elected by the Church And when an Assembly of Christians choose their Pastor in a Christian Common-wealth it is the Soveraign that Elects him because it is done by his Authority in the same manner as when a Town choose their Mayor it is the act of him that hath the Sovereign Power For every act done is the act of him without whose consent it is invalid Seeing then in every Christian Commonwealth the Civil Sovereign is the Supreme Pastor to whose charge the Flock of his Subjects is committed and consequently that it is by his Authority that all other Pastors are made and have Power to teach and perform all other Pastoral Offices It follows also that it is from the Civil Sovereign That all other Pastors derive their Right of Teaching Preaching and other Functions pertaining to that Office and that they are but his Ministers in the same manner as Magistrates of Towns Judges in Courts of Justice and Commanders of Armies are all but Ministers of him that is the Magistrate of the whole Commonwealth Judge of all Causes and Commander of the whole Militia which is always the Civil Sovereign If a Man therefore should ask a Pastor in the execution of his Office as the Chief Priests and Elders of the People Matth. 21.23 asked our Saviour By what Authority dost thou these things and who gave thee this Authority he can make no other just answer but That he doth it by the Authority of the Commonwealth given him by the King or Assembly that representeth it All Pastors except the Supreme execute their charges in the Right that is to say by the Authority of the Civil Sovereign that is Jure Civili But the King and every other Sovereign executeth his Office of Supreme Pastor by immediate Authority from God that is to say in God's Right or Jure Divino But if every Christian Sovereign be the Supreme Pastor of his own Subjects it seemeth that he hath also Authority not only to Preach which perhaps no Man will deny but also to Baptize and to Administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and to Consecrate both Temples and Pastors to God's Service There is no doubt but any King in case he were skilful in the Sciences might by the same Right of his Office read Lectures of them himself by which he authorizeth others to read them in the University And lastly concludes That Imposition of Hands is not needful for the authorizing a King to Baptize and Consecrate or Exercise any part of the Pastoral Function every Sovereign before Christianity having the Power of Teaching and Ordaining Teachers but it only directed them in the way of Teaching Truth And consequently they needed no Imposition of Hands besides that which is done in Baptism to authorize them to exercise any part of the Pastoral Function as namely to Baptize and Consecrate So that upon the whole matter whereas before you only contended that the sole Power of making Laws relating to Religion was subjected in the Magistrate taking it quite out of the hands of Church-Men now you place in him the whole Priesthood and allow its Offices to have no force excepting by the Power which is derived from him and the dispute is brought to this issue not that the King may govern the Church by a parity or imparity of Officers but that he may govern it without any or consecrate whom he please And this you deliver not only as your own Sense but as the Synodical Resolution of the Church of England in the days of Edward VI. and Queen Elizabeth Fifthly After that you have thus invested the Magistrate with all Church-Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the full latitude and extent of it You at length abdicate the Magistrate himself and take from him in effect all Power in Religious things placing it in Believers in common who are supposed to have a Power antecedent to all positive Injunctions which you call a Liberty of Judgment and Liberty of Practice That is in my plain way of expressing my self they are under no Obligation either to take notice of what he says or to obey what he commands or to abstain from what he prohibits and so are their own Law-givers It is you say the Princes duty to defend and protect the publickly owned and professed Religion of a Nation to restrain Men from acting publickly tending to the subversion of it pag. 39. But it is no bodies duty to obey him unless he please or cannot help it And consequently the enactments of Empires are not Laws but Canons like the decrees of Councils as you have termed them and as the use of the Assemblies of the Pastors of the Church are the Common Council of the Church to the King so the Assembly of the King and his Ministers of State are the Council to the People as Elective Synods so Elective Parliaments are a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which will never be Sovereign enough to cure the distemper that
St. Cyprian with St. Augustin and St. Jerom are brought for farther instances of this supposed admirable Temper in the Primitive Church and for freely allowing Liberty to Dissenters from them in matters of Liberty and Practice whom you hope our Church of England then upon its re-establishment will follow in not imposing Rites but leaving Men to be won by the observing the true order and decency of Churches whereby those that act upon a true principle of Christian ingenuity may be sooner drawn to a compliance in all lawful things than by force and rigorous Impositions notwithstanding those Testimonies of St. Austin c. speak as if they had foreseen the case of our Church and had design'd so to determine on her side as to stop the mouths of all gain-sayers For as they allow of different Rites in things not unlawful in distinct Churches so they as strictly require compliance from all the Members of a Church with the Rites of its own Church and they are so far from allowing any difference as to these matters in one and the same particular Church that in case any of their Members travel to another Church they are directed to comply with the lawful Rites of that Church although different from the Rites of that Church of which they more particularly own themselves that so no division might be made And this I take to be the Doctrine of the Church of England and the very way of arguing and the occasion and the design of those Testimonies do so palpably confirm it that nothing but a Man who had Sacrificed his Judgment either to his Passion or the humour of a Party would have set himself to pervert them thus quite contrary to their meaning 5. You tell us That those who first brake this Order in the Church were Arians Donatists and Circumcellians whilst the true Church was known by its Pristine Moderation and Sweetness of Deportment towards all its Members So that the worst of Hereticks the worst of Christians and the worst of Men and such were these three Sects are the only persons to be found in all Antiquity that restrained Men by Laws from being of what Religion they pleased and reduced them to an Vniformity in the Worship of God. Or thus That Church-Laws laying limits to Mens practice in God's Service are from the same rise as Usurpation Rebellion Murder Burglary Schism Sacrilege Church-robbing Spoiling Men of their Possessions all manner of Profanation of Holy Things and Persons forcing Mankind to Heterodoxies in Religion Immorality in Manners and Rebellion in Government Perjury Hypocrisie Deceit for these were the constant Practices of those three Sects and the Laws and Rules that they proceeded by in their pretended Reformations and attempts to reduce what they called Christianity And the Canons Rubricks and Injunctions of our Church and the whole Christian World beside take away and invade Christian Property and Liberty equally as those worst of Hereticks and Schismaticks did I do not now wonder that you have shew'd so much dislike to that part of Dr. Parker's Book of Religion and Loyalty where he makes it appear That Eusebius and his followers that Spawn of the Arian Heresie were for Comprehension and therefore opposed the Holy Athanasius and the first Council of Nice because limiting the Christian profession of Faith to Laws and Canons and denounced the Anathema's of the Church against all such as should violate them 6. And lastly You magnifie the indulgence which was granted at Breda by King Charles II. as the effect of his excellent Prudence and Moderation when it was purely his misfortune and necessity that engaged him to it occasion'd by a sort of Men in this Nation no ways behind the Arians Donatists and Circumcellians those Cut-throats of Christendom and therefore the Wisdom of the Nation to whom he at first referr'd it immediately advised him against its farther establishment and it was re-called Neither was he the first Christian Prince that complyed with the like necessity the very Gentile Worship having been indulged for some time and for the same reasons and by good Emperors by Constantine himself as is evident in Church-Story And your self would deride your own inference if another did make it viz. That therefore the Heathen Worship ought not afterward to have been silenced and that the succeeding Imperial Laws to that purpose were unwarrantable Innovations And so you have my account of this your unlucky Book I own that it was not my first design to make it thus publick and I had not done it now had I not been provoked to it in part by your indirect and unscholar-like dealings with me in that instead of an answer to matter of Fact and Argument you have only Libelled me to a principal Bishop of our Church in a Two-Penny Paper to which is tacked and therein your farther disingenuity appears one of your Four-Penny Sermons that it may with the greater dispatch and advantage be posted over the Kingdom and I be certainly condemned by Bell Book and Candle of those even your Female Admirers into whose hands the main Controversie never came nor indeed are they competent judges of it And whether my stile or your usage of me in this affair be more Barbarous I appeal to the common Reader You have out-done Dr. Burnet's rudeness who only cried me about London Streets tho' these Artifices never take long and a due discovery only breaks their Necks more surely But I was mostly prevailed with in that you have not only defamed me but vindicated this Book to that eminent Bishop your Diocesan as serviceable to the Church of England and designed to that end by you If this be to serve our Church by using and urging all sorts of Arguments whereby her Form of Government by Bishops is represented without any bottom and foundation as from Christ cheap and contemptible their Offices rendred suspicious to the Civil Magistrate and as his Supplanter their abetters and maintainers slighted and ridicul'd their manner of Worship vilified and described as set up in opposition to the Primitive Example their power wholly taken from them and a Liberty granted to all Pretenders In a word Where your chief design seems to be levelled against them then you have done it in the Irenicum and yet these are not all the Heterodoxies and dangerous Doctrines therein contained It is a Hotch-potch or mixture of all Religions in which something is to be found for the defence of each Sect that hath infested us since the Reformation and only the Church of England is constantly opposed I may safely say It has perverted many Thousands should I add Millions I did not exceed which otherwise would have been true Sons and Adherers to her Doctrine and Worship and Discipline It is the very center of Puritanism and Epitome of Fanatick madness rendring us guilty of the same Schism in respect of the Dissenters as the Church of Rome is charged with in respect of us If it be objected
this that treats of the same subject And it may be expected to find some amends here if ever you have made or design'd any because it seems to be added to the Irenicum on purpose to rectifie what appear'd amiss or to supply something wanting in it Now he that duly and seriously considers it will find the whole performance to consist of these two Heads And that you there assert the Church a distinct Society from the State always to subsist by a Charter from Christ in the outward visible profession of Christianity tho' the Powers and Laws of the World are against it and this in opposition to the Leviathan who says That the precepts of the Gospel are not Law till enacted by Civil Authority And your arguments are common but good by which you prove it which he that treats on the same point cannot well omit all agreeing so far that really own Christianity Again you farther assert That our Saviour by a special Charter also hath enabled some of this Society to govern commanding all the Members of it to obey and which comes to the very point now in hand But this Power which is fixed by you on the Pastors of the Church is also limited to the Power of Excommunication as the argument of it answering to the Title speaks but you leave all other Acts and Offices of the Church where you had placed them before in the main Treatise i. e. excepting the Offices of Teaching and Administring the Sacraments in the hands of the Civil Magistrate So that as I said above the Power over Sacred Things is annexed entirely to the Civil Power And the Church Governors are only to administer in the Offices of them without any Power whereby to punish offenders against the Laws of Religion And this is with Dr. Stillingfleet To defend the fundamental Rights of the Church or his asserting the just Power of the Magistrate in Ecclesiasticks as well as Civils in opposition to the extravagances of those who screwed up the Church-Power to so high a peg that it was thought to make perpetual discord with the Commonwealth and others that melted down all Spiritual Power into the Civil State and dissolved the Church into the Commonwealth as you tell us in the entrance to the Treatise And so tho' the discourse as to the main is Sound and Orthodox yet in the present design of it it is a collusion and fallacy put upon the Reader It seems of the same nature with that lye of Ananias and it is to the Holy Ghost whereby as he kept back part of that possession which he sold for the use of the Church and said it was the whole so have you kept back part of the Power of the Church and said you have given in the whole And the reply that Peter gave to Ananias may not unfitly be returned to you also Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine Heart Thou hast not lyed unto Men but unto God. Acts 5.1 2 3 4. The next Treatise that I have made enquiry into for the finding out your after judgment in these points is Your Vindication of Archbishop Laud in which I find little amends for these your Erroneous Irenicum Doctrines but rather an evident confirmation of many of them if not doing worse In your First Part. Cap. 2. Sect. 2 3 4 5 c. your work is to overthrow that Erroneous Assertion in the Church of Rome viz. That the Definitions of the Church are to be believed to be as necessary to Salvation as the Articles of the Creed In order to which you take a most secure and effectual way and assert That the Being of the Church it self is not necessary to Salvation meaning thereby the Church Organical consisting of set Officers as may be gather'd from your following Discourse tho' you ought to have set out the opposition in the entrance of it for want of which the terms in your conclusion are perplexed and involved and you talk of a Church antecedent to a Church and of a true Church out of a true Church without any Specifications for the proving of which you take a great deal of pains to inform us what things are necessary to the Salvation of Men as such or considered in their single and private Capacities or in your own words and sense out of the Church Society or Ecclesiastical Communion And having concluded That believing in Christ and walking in him or an hearty assent to the Doctrine of Christ and a conscientious walking according to the precepts of it are that Faith and Duty indispensably necessary to the Salvation of Private Persons You then add That that which we call the Catholick Church or as you farther speak the being of a Church supposes this antecedent belief in Christians as to these things necessary to Salvation it being only a combination of Men together upon that belief and for the performance of those Acts of Worship which are suitable thereto You go on and say whatever Church owns these things where by a Church you can only mean those which are not a Church but out of the combination and in their private capacities or antecedent to it but you are to look to your terms not I which are antecedently necessary to the being of a Church cannot so long cease to be a true Church where the contradiction recurs and you ought thus to have expressed it That Men in their private and personal capacities believing these necessary things cannot cease to be true Christians tho' out of that Church and Combination for such is your meaning because it retains the foundation of the being of the Catholick Church Again the distinction that you use is equally unintelligible and contradictory viz. Here we must distinguish those things in the Catholique Church which give it its being from those things which are the proper acts of it as the Catholique Church As to this latter the solemn Worship of God in the way prescribed by him is necessary in order to which there must be supposed lawful Officers set in the Church Sacraments duely Administred but these I say are rather the exercise of the Catholique Church than that which gives it its being which is the belief of that Religion whereon its subsistence and unity depends and as long as a Church retains this it keeps its being tho' the integrity and perfection of it depend upon the due exercise of all Acts of Communion in it How these things can be said to be in the Catholick Church and give it its being as Faith c. whose being you told us a little before supposed them and to which they are antecedent you not I are to make out when you can Or how the exercise of Church Communion is the perfection of Faith and good Works I have always learnt the contrary viz. That Faith and good Works are the perfection of Church Communion in attendance to the ordinances You say farther That the Vnion of the Catholique Church depends upon
or Believers in common The Presbyters indeed make the lower House of Convocation in our Church of England but the reason of that is from a particular Law in our Kingdom which imbodies no Canons giving to them the Secular protection but such as pass the Votes of all the inferior Clergy of the Nation represented by the Presbyters that sit there as well as the Votes of the upper Clergy or Bishops Such Stuff have you put together and yet there is worse for you add The utmost then can be supposed in this case is That the parts of the Church may voluntarily consent to accept the decrees of such a Council and by that voluntary act or by the Supreme Authority enjoining it such decrees may become Obligatory As pure Irenicum as any in the World. I 'll add but one instance more by which it will farther appear how you run against or at least evade the true Power of the Bishops and Pastors of the Church vested in them by Christ for the obliging the whole and it is that of Schism which in prosecution of your foregoing notion you assert pag. 290. to be a violation of that Communion which Christians are obliged to upon the acknowledgment of the truth of Christian Religion or upon owning Christianity the way to true Happiness Quisquis ille est qualiscunque est Christianus non est qui in Ecclesia Christi non est Cypr. de Novato Ep. 52. Inde enim schismata haereses oboriuntur dum Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesiae preest superba quorundam praesumptione contemnitur Et homo dignatione Dei honoratus indignus hominibus judicatur Idem Ep. 171. Et non attendisti inter schismaticos haereticos quam magna distantia sit inde est quod ignoras quae sit sancta Ecclesia omnia miscuisti Optat. cont Parmen Donatist lib. 1. Catholicum facit simplex verus intellectus singulare verum sacramentum unitas animorum Schisma verò sparso coagulo pacis generatur deserta matre Catholica impii filii dum foras exeunt se separant à radice matris Ecclesiae invidiae falcibus amputati errando rebelles abscedunt nec possunt novum aliquid aut aliud agere quam quod jamdudum apud suam matrem didicerunt Haeretici veritatis exules sacri symboli desertores c. de se nosci voluerunt ideo falsum habent Baptisma Vobis vero Schismaticis quamvis in Catholica non sitis haec negari non possunt quia nobiscum vera communia traxistis Sacramenta ibid. the very Schism in the days of St. Paul at Corinth For if he that cometh Preacheth another Jesus whom we have not Preached or if ye receive another Spirit which ye have not received or another Gospel which ye have not accepted ye might well bear with him 2 Cor. 11.4 Immanes non habentes Dei dilectionem suam utilitatem potius considerantes quam unitatem Ecclesiae propter modicas quaslibet causas magnum gloriosum corpus Christi conscindunt dividunt quantum in ipsis est interficiunt pacem loquentes bellum operantes vere liquantes culicem camelum diglutientes Nulla enim ab iis tanta fieri potest correptio quanta est Schismatis corruptio Irenaeus l. 4. c. 62. Sed crimine Schismatis à quo immanissimo Sacrilegio nemo vestrum se dicere potest immunem quamdiu non communicat unitati omnium gentium Aug. l. 2. Cont. Petil. Donatist c. 96. Quid ergò prodest homini vel sana fides vel sanum fortasse solum fidei Sacramentum Vbi letali vulnere Schismatis perempta est sanitas charitatis per cujus solius peremptionem etiam illa integra trabuntur ad mortem Idem l. 1. de Baptismo contra Donatist c. 8. Nobiscum enim estis in Baptismo in Symbolo in caeteris dominicis Sacramentis in Spiritu autem unitatis in ipsa denique Catholica Ecclesia nobiscum non estis Ep 48. Vincentio Quisquis ab hac Ecclesia Catholica fuerit separatus quantumlibet laudabiliter se vivere existimet hoc solo scelere quod à Christi unitate disjunctus est non habebit vitam sed ira Dei manet supra eum Ep. 152. And so in the Apostles Canons Can 31. The Schismatick is he that altare aliud erigit nolente Episcopo Can. 6. Conc. Constant 2. Gen. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are called Schismaticks tho' of a sound Faith. Schisma est recessio à proprio Episcopo Can. 13. Conc. 1 2 Constantinop And to the same effect Can. 10. Conc Carthag 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contra proprium Episcopum I 'll add but this one Authority more and it is St. Basil ad Amphiloc Can. 1. Haereses quidem eos qui omnino abrupti sunt in ipsa fide sunt abalienati Schismata autem propter aliquas Ecclesiasticas causas medicabiles questiones inter se dissident Schisma autem est de penitentia dissentire ab iis qui sunt ex Ecclesia Haereses autem ut Manichaeorum Valentinorum Marcionistarum c. statim enim de ipsa in deum fide est dissentio herein contradicting all the ancient Fathers Doctors and Teachers of the Church of God and the whole current of Theology who still speak of Schism as a breach of the Laws and Canons Ecclesiastical of which those are guilty who receive and own the Foundation or the Scriptures as the indispensable Rule of Faith and Manners but recede from their Pastors or Bishop that break the outward peace when owning the same Articles of Faith and for little things make divisions And in this respect it is that St. Austin lays such blame upon the Donatists telling them That a true Faith will avail them nothing nay that they are worse than Idolaters Dr. Hammond in his Book of Schism considers it also in this Ecclesiastical notion and therefore concludes us to be no Schismaticks not because retaining your essentials or being of a Church consisting in a belief in Christ and walking in him but because keeping those due Subordinations in which our Christianity placed us in respect of our Church-Governors whether to the Deacon or Presbyter or Bishop Metropolitan Exarch or Patriarch as also that due co-ordination as fellow Christians without breaches of Charity made upon one another And to what end you should give this notion of it differing both from the Church of God and our own Doctors is not conceiveable only that you designed thereby to gratifie and comply with those amongst us whose Maxime is That to strike a Schismatick is to hit a Saint That Schism in this Church-Sense of it is a meer Chimera invented only by Church-men to keep the People in Dependence and Subjection unto them that Vnity does not consist in Vniformity but in owning the general Truths of the Gospel and obeying them or believing in Christ and walking