not without great sin and mischief for such a rent is a sin against the Head dividing the unity of the spirit against the body hindring of its growth wounding it with pain maiming it with impotency depriving it of perfection against particular members in that it doth with-draw that measure whereby another member should have been supplied and doth drain and divert the fulness of Christ against a mans own soul in that as a branch cut off from the Vine he must needs become dry cease to be fruitful and grow worse and worse till he return back to be a new engrafted In a word if one man cannot grow in Christ whilst another is at a stand or doth decay and wither and the very juice and chyle that doth administer unto growing be speaking of the same truth and the only way of digesting this truth to making encrease of the body be the edifying of it self in love We may easily perceive how this unity of the spirit doth constrain the Church if it be possible to maintain the unity of her Body for she cannot keep the unity of spirit without it but if she cannot possibly do so then earnestly to desire and endeavour the return of her scattered and divided Members Now to say the truth the dissenting Brethren have been alwaies sensible of the weight of this argument and to break the force or rebate the edge of it they pretend divers matters as it were for their excuse since it cannot be denied but we were first a Church or else they could not have derived from Us as they do and that we were the first in possession of the faith as viz. 1. That they agree with Us in the unity of faith believing the same Doctrine of salvation 2. In the unity of the spirit having the same desires about the saving of themselves and others 3. In the bond of charity as we are all members they say of the same Catholick Church and as Protestant Professors members of one another 4. Then that variety of opinion and union in the point of charity are not inconsistent 5. Nay that divers Order Discipline and Communion need not break the bond of charity unless by accident of mens corruptions which if they should be observed and humoured the Gospel it self could never have been preached for our Lord foretold that it would be an occasion of division 6. And for schism rightly understood that they look upon it as an heinous sin even as we do In which several pretences as they give us little cause of satisfaction so they give us a just and necessary occasion of returning somewhat more than is like to sort to their favour We must confess that when the Church is so divided that in the judgment of charity many godly persons do divide themselves from the body and in the judgment of the Church many men of eminent gifts and graces that were known to be such whilst they remained in her communion do desert her communion it cannot but prove an inexplicable inconvenience both to the Church and Them for if all believe and teach the same Doctrine of Salvation whence ariseth so much caution whom we hear such exceptions heats and scruples If we do not all believe the same Doctrine as it is to be doubted that we do not for as much as there seemeth not only to be a divers scope and drift in the pressing of many points of importance but that we fear our dissenting Brethren do not close with Us in one of the 12 articles of the Apostles Creed though some of them do not scruple at standing up when the whole is rehearsed in our Churches viz. I believe the Holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints putting such a construction upon it as is far from the consent not onely of our Church but of all Ages as we conceive I say how can we then grow up together into him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body is fitly joyn'd together unto one encrease If they could hold still the same charity inviolable without the same Order Discipline and Communion as others do pretend whence should arise such animosities and contentions It cannot be altogether from mens corruptions as at the first propagation of the Gospel but if it do arise partly from the corruptions frailties and partialities of such as break without necessity partly from the passions of such as are offended justly as we conceive howsoever unjust or extravagant they may be when they are provoked let them joyn the whole verse together It is necessary that offences come but wo be to them by whom they come But as we conceive the nature of the thing it self doth necessarily infer a breach of charity suppose men more good or perfect than either They or We can find or our Ancestors before us or the Posterity to come for it cannot be that there should be two Communions wherein it is supposed to be unlawful for one to joyn with another but that one Party to the other must needs be as the Jew or the Samaritan But if it be granted that these two parties cannot possibly have perfect charity with one another which if the nature of the thing did not hinder the just judgements of God by reason of the violation of his own Ordinance would do it then it must needs follow that the body cannot edifie it self in love and so the Church must needs retain an earnest desire to be restored to its best estate when it was in Union for though we may remain possibly Members of the Catholick Church still yet because we doubt of our consent in the Catholick Faith we cannot be united nor joyn in perfect charity and though we be all Protestants and so members of one another we can take no greater benefit or priviledg thereby than English men when they are in civil wars with one another To deal ingeniously this is the charity of the Church she looketh upon such good men whom in charity we way esteem so in some measure as do divide and separate from Us and such as they may draw with them to belong to the body still not only of the Catholick Church but of such particular Churches from which they do recede or within whose Precincts they may chance to fall Therefore she is not rash to excommunicate them but useth all her care and power and tenderness to reclaim and to reduce them having arms ever open to embrace them and to restore them to her peace and to indulge them in what she may to oblige them the faster to her self So far are we from looking upon them as other Churches or that their schisms can make them such or as free from our charge though they renounce Us or as fallen from the hope of the Gospel with all their followers into an inevitable state of damnation though we cannot reduce them as the Papists judge of Us that we own even these as a part of the
Church of England against their wills and are ever ready to regain their good will and to reduce them to a better state for though we speak it soft and mildly we do judg indeed that these do much interrupt and disturb the way of salvation to themselves and others and do much impeach and prejudice those amongst our selves who before did run well and would yet proceed to do so if they did not object their rubbs and impediments in the way We answer further that whereas it is truely said Opinionum varietas opinantium unitas non sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Variety of opinions and unity of Opiners are not inconsistent Our Church alloweth a greater latitude in this kind than any of those that do pretend a latitude only to palliate their own restraints for amongst them if one be for Lay-Elders and another against it one for the power of Pastors another for the power of the People one for laying on of hands after baptism and another against it nay one for free-will and another for free-grace and so in certain lesser questions it hath been found enough to divide and sub-divide them into Parties Churches feuds and animosities whereas in our Church great variety of opinions may and do consist very well with the Unity of the Church Every Scholar knows how ingenious men do abound in their own senses even in the Schools and it is not at all to the prejudice of the Church but may be rather to her benefit that certain points be not carried otherwise in extremes but that there may be here a little and there a little and one to ballance with another But when this rule of variety or diversity of opinion is traduced to a contrariety of establishment they must give us leave to assume that such a diversity is utterly inconsistent with the Unity of the Church In vain therefore do they declaim in general against schism as much as we could wish being sensible of what Pamelius hath delivered viz. Schismatis nomen in Ecclesia semper ignominiosum publiceque damnatum In Tert. de praescript ad◠Haeret. that the name of schism hath been alwaies ignominious in the Church and on all hands condemned whilst they defend in particular all the Sects at this day besides the Quakers to be true particular Churches that a man may safely joyn with any of them to do better that separation is no schism that the Church which imposeth though it be but things indifferent is the schismatical Church if it will not vary from her orders for the satisfaction of the weak or scrupulous and that in such cases the schismatical Churches which are so called are the truer and purer Churches of Christ and have all Church power within themselves to all intents and purposes for where can we now find a Schism which is culpable or a Church which can stand if she must vary from her order upon all demands or any possibility either of a Church or of a Schism By all which it seems that some of our dissenting Brethren do misdoubt themselves as lyable unto this charge of schism and would either cloak it neatly if they could or if it come to the worst defend that schism is no such sin as they sometimes granted and that they may lawfully live in schism especially when their maintenance ariseth that way as some have put themselves upon that exegency and so are bound to maintain that which maintaineth them framing their lives and doctrines according to their interests Not to grate any further upon that point wherein they are so tender there remaineth yet another word about the Unity of the Spirit that they have the same desires if not more intense and earnest than we our selves for the good of souls for the saving of themselves and others We do not doubt but that there is a zeal of God amongst many of them though not according unto a right knowledge not because they are more weak or ignorant than We but only otherwise perswaded or inclined howsoever it hath happened to them We trust that many of them do sincerely mean as they profess And so far as this is true we acknowledge the working of one and the same spirit in them and Us We look upon them as a part of the body and wherein they are not only not against Us but for Us that they are so far One with us But then if they do really believe that we have the same spirit amongst us or some of us at least why should they so magnifie the same spirit in themselves above the same in Us as if there were not the same power and purity of the spirit amongst Us to conveigh grace unto the hearers or to make them perfect that do come unto Us which Query we have the more reason to put home to our Brethren since they may seem now to cease from their instance upon the work of conversion a gift which they thought almost singular to themselves before as a thing below their Auditories or to preach against prophaneness wherein they were once the Boanerges's of the Age seeing their followers must be taken for no such and it may be cannot well bear it so that all their writings of late which are the reports of their Preachments to such as cannot hear them do run in a new strain which is much different from that way which they did admire and applaud before Again if they do acknowledg such an Unity of Spirit with Us how can they think or pretend as they do to be compleat without Us and to have no need of Us 1 Cor. 12.15 c. how happeneth it that they do so little weigh what the Apostle saith that one member hath need of another And if the foot shall say because I am not the hand I am not of the body is it therefore not of the body And if the ear shall say because I am not the eye I am not of the body is it therefore not of the body The eye cannot say unto the hand I have no need of thee Nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you That there should be no schism in the body but the members should have the same care one for another But if these members separate from the body can each member which is separated subsist by it self or any few that joyn together presently constitute themselves an entire Body a complete Church Or can any of their Officers which was but as an hand or a foot before make it self an heart or an head in a New Church and think that in truth they are such if they be not altogether useless Judg. 9.15 which cannot but put us in mind of Jotham's Parable and though we shall abstain from applying the prickles of it to our Brethren yet we doubt that it is this ambition of some hand or foot or other which thinks it self worthy of a better place that is one of the sad occasions
poor souls staggered by reason of the peril and were forced by fear to comply somewhat with the Heathen Sacrificers which much afflicted them in their consciences and they afterwards most humbly sought the peace of the Church and to be restored to her Communion But one Novatus a Presbyter opposed their restitution and upon the question raised a division in the Church and after that pretending unto more purity erected another Church if such a pretension may be but so named in opposition to the General Assembly calling themselves the Church of Martyrs So did he seek to scatter or divide those poor Members which the Church would have gathered and set in joynt by repentance and confession and such holy discipline as was necessary both to comfort them in respect of the time past and to confirm them for the time to come and many of these that were thus restored became afterwards constant even unto the death It was to be known therefore by the point of charity if there were no other evidence which was the true Church and the other hath left to this day by the special providence of God the mark of heresie and schism upon it self which is never to be obliterated Once again and so to surcease from further instances About the year of our Lord 356. towards the latter end of the reign of Constantine the Persecution having long ceased for his Reign was long there arose one Donatus who wrote somewhat after the copy of Novatus and the Arians supplying the rest by occasion interest the humour of the Africans and his own ambition He condemned other Churches as impure rebaptized such as joyned unto him and entitled salvation unto them alone And these have also left the like mark and brand upon their followers for ever Let the Sects of latter times whose names I spare repute amongst themselves or give account to the world if they think fit what their judgment is concerning these Parties or those Churches or what they think concerning this Antiquity whereof we speak which is of the first and best times if there be any to be approved in their sense or concerning the posterity that is to come what they think or what these would have them judge or whether they make any matter of it about themselves I have done with the in-artificial arguments that are so called which yet should be the strongest by reason of such authority whereon they do rely but that power and authority may not be divided from one another which those that are given to division do affect and that you may the better hold my method whilst I my self do not shew to affect dividing from the common way I proceed to the reasons of the point If you would know why the true Church doth so earnestly desire the return of her scattered and divided Members some of her reasons are these that follow The first is the unity of the spirit Reas 1 that doth inspire the whole body enforcing unto unity love and sympathy mutually and reciprocally in all the Members This unity of the spirit is the great and earnest desire that is put into the hearts of all Saints in their conversion to save themselves and others 1 Tim. 4.15 and to edifie one another in their most holy faith Now because there is but one way to save our selves and the same is the way to save others also this maketh the desire of the Church the more intense to gather and to bind unto it self all that do belong unto the election of grace To enlighten them that are yet in darkness to confirm the weak to stir up them that faint and are like to yield to weariness and to reduce them that go astray for there is but one Lord one Faith one Hope one Baptism and one Truth The way to save our selves is to walk in this Unity by one and the same spirit so that we come to save others by the same Acts whereby we save our selves and by the Communion of the body come to receive those benefits which we could not attain unto by a solitary faith or private life Wherefore the desires of the Church for unity cannot but be intense and earnest being thus conversant about the common salvation which is much endangered and disturbed by division insomuch that even they that are in the right way can scarcely be saved by reason of the breaches impairments and decayes of piety which the others make Now true it is that this one spirit which is given unto all that do believe is distributed amongst them according to variety of gifts and measures but the same that are given unto every one to profit himself the same are also given unto him to edifie another whether they be gifts of knowledge or gifts of grace as they use to distinguish the gifts of sanctity from any other kind God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith Ro. 12 3. c. and we are every one members one of another having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us according to the proportion of faith And 1 Cor. 12.4 c. the manifestation of the spirit is given unto every man to profit withal There are diversities of giftes but the same spirit God hath so tempered the body together that one member shall have need of another that there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care one for another And again it is said Eph. 4 11. c. that there are divers gifts given for the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledg of the Son of God unto perfect men unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ That speaking the truth in love we may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh encrease of the body unto the edifying of it self in love From which and many other passages in the writings of this Apostle that which we have said may seem to be abundantly proved and many other things might be inferred and applied fit to be seriously considered and layed to heart as viz. That the gifts and graces of private men are not only profitable but necessary to the Church as well as those of her Ministers or Elders and that the measures of faith and hope and love and zeal are distrubted unto every one according to the exigency of the Church the Body which is the fulness of Christ and that by such graces we are more strongly joyned unto one another than by any other gifts though they be of miracles That one Member cannot want another or divide it self from the Body but that a rent and schism will follow in the Body
of such dismembring But when they have dismembred and divided to the utmost let others observe that the use whereof they are if they be of any good use is but the same of which they were before in their proper places and being distorted to the places which they usurp they do but move like members our of joynt and will soon be impaired for want of the body notwithstanding their pretences to completeness among themselves And we could shew of how little use men of eminent gifts and parts before have been for many years since they left their stations in the Church the leaving of us as we conceive occasioning the dereliction of the spirit unto them so that they are left to themselves in matters of great concern to their own good and the good of others But I will conclude my answer and this first reason 1 Joh. 2.18 c. with applying of a passage of St. Augustine upon that place Little childrens it is the last time and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come even now are there many Antichrists 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 Non possunt exire foras nisi Antichristi c. None saith he can go out of the Church but Antichrists They which are not contrary unto Christ cannot go forth for he which is not contrary unto him doth abide in his Body and is accounted a member Whosoever do not abide with us but do go out it is manifest that they are Antichrists And how is that to be proved by their lye Who is a lyer but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ Let us ask the several Hereticks of our times what Heretick do you find that denieth Jesus to be the Christ Some as he proceedeth are gone out from us and are become Donatists Let us ask them whether Jesus be the Christ they presently confess that Jesus is the Christ If therefore he be the Antichrist that denieth Jesus to be the Christ neither can they call Us Antichrists nor We them because we both confess the same Wherefore if neither call one another Antichrists we are not gone out from one another we remain in Unity But if we remain in unity Quid faciunt in hâc civitate duo altaria What mean two divers Churches in this City Quid faciunt divisae domus What means the scattering of houses divisa conjugia husband and wife going two waies Quid facit communis lectus divisus Christus What meaneth this that husband and wife are one in all but Christ Vult nos fateri quod verum est An ipsi a nobis exierunt an nos ab ipsis sed absit ut nos ab ipsis Habemus enim testamentum dominicae hareditatis Dabo tibi gentes hareditatem tuam Quisquis huic haereditati non communicat foràs exiit saith he we must confess the truth Are they gone out from Us or We from them God forbid that it should be We from them for We have the Testament of the Lords Inheritance saying I will give thee the Nations for thine Inheritance whosoever doth not communicate with this Inheritance he is gone forth and in fact and deed he is against Christ though in word he do confess him Such as act preposterously for Christ and for the Cause of Christ do but hinder where they make a shew to help and pull down where they seem to build or at least build that which must be pulled down again although they may possibly work with a good intention But under this pretext there are many that do act from a different temper which is one thing that our Brethren will be loth to bear and therefore I will compound with them for some abatement that they may hear my next reason with the more patience The true Church doth earnestly desire the return of her scattered and divided Members Reas 2 by reason of her sense of pain and loss through such dissipation or division she doth not feel nor yet conceipt herself to be compleat without them but rather maimed and deprived The Physical Philosopher saith that dolor est solutio continul pain is the solution or division of that which was entire As if it be a wound or rent the parts are distermined from one another if it be a bruise the circling of the blood and spirits are interrupted from which ensueth an ach or a sting in the parts affected or in the whole body which is called pain The Members of the Church may be divided either by a bruise or a wound or a dislocation or in a word by dismembring in each of which degrees the Church doth suffer a divers pain or loss It is a bruise when heresies are broached which tend to division It is a wound when a breach is made thereby It is a dislocation when the Church comes by this means to lose her influence so that she cannot move her limbs It is a dismembring when the part unsound is either cut off by censure or cutteth of its self by rashness Because I cannot touch upon all the cases there is a threefold pain and a threefold loss which are worthy to be mentioned 1. There is a pain of inflammation in the Church when certain Tenents are given out that tend unto a new way contrary to the constitution or establishment And though in truth there be no time nor place wherein the enemy doth not cast abroad the wild-fire of heresie and schism yet at sometimes the minds of men are more disposed than at others to receive these sparks and to kindle in combustion When the Arrian Heresie first brake forth Socr. l. 1. c. 6. there arose every where saith my Historian no small tumult for then a man might have seen not only the Presidents and chief Rulers of the Churches inveighing one against another with opprobrious terms but also the lay-multitude severed asunder into two parts the one favouring the one side the other favouring the other side and the case became so hainous and so shameful that the Christian Religion came to be derided openly even in the publick Plays and Shews And has it not happened thus amongst us by reason of some factious Doctrines that have been far and wide dispersed We allowed a great latitude unto opinion before according unto every mans sense and conscience and now we come to tax other points which tend to division and do not come within the Verge of that latitude though the maintainers of them do pretend indeed that they ought to do We must not doubt to instance in a few particulars instead of all the rest What could follow but a miserable inflammation when there were subjects apt to receive such opinions as some of these viz. That our National Church is no true Church or if it be a Church in any sense that it is improperly so called That it hath no power of binding