spoiling all the Trade of England But Sir I hope this dreadful Harangue will not fright you for all is but noise and canting for I dare assure you the Execution of the Law will no way hinder the advancement of the Gospel nor hazard one soul in England for Christianity will be soberly preach'd in England though all these men be silenc'd And besides I should think by the principles of Calvinism that the salvation of souls were more fix'd and fatal than to depend upon the silence or preaching of a few Non-conforming Ministers You know Sir the Decree of peremptory Election was dated long before that Reprobate Act of Uniformity and therefore there is no fear of losing one of the elect though these men be struck dumb and as for the Reprobates all the Oratory of Dr. O. and Mr. H. and the rest of those mighty men can never alter their sadder fate And therefore I think I may conclude from their own Divinity that there is no necessity laid upon them to preach the Gospel Mr. H. solemnly propounds this weighty Question Which will be most for the glory of God either for the Non-conforming Teachers to preach the Gospel to their meetings or to keep the Union of their Parish Churches To which Question there is a very easie Answer for no doubt the God of order is more glorified by Unity Peace and Obedience to our Governours than by disorder and confusion And therefore I shall conclude this by inverting the Argument They may live in the communion of the Church without the least hazard of their salvation and necessity is laid upon them to obey their Governours and wo be unto them if they preach the Gospel in Conventicles and by walking disorderly trouble the peace and order both of Church and State But there is one Plea more for this Schism or Separation call it which you please and that is cunningly insinuated in that famous definition of Schism by Mr. Hales cited pag. 17. Schism is an unnecessary separation from that part of the visible Church of which we once were members That their separation is unnecessary let the Doctor himself judge who pag. 9. tells us they differ from us only in the insignificant fringes and laces of Forms and Ceremonies Now I fancy it were a very unnecessary and undutiful thing for a Son to disown and desert his Mother only because the fringe and lace of her garment did not please his eye But the mysterie lyes in the last words of the distinction A separation from that part of the Church of which we once were members Now Sir there are vast numbers of persons in England who were never baptized by the Ministery of the Church of England or had any communion with her and then by the judgement of Mr. Hales cannot be charg'd with Schism or separation from her But this is already answer'd for I have prov'd that they are bound in duty to live in communion with those Bishops and Priests or that part of the Catholick Church under which they reside and if they never were in the communion of this Church they have been the longer in disorder and disobedience and that is a very ill method of excusing the crime By this Sophistry Schism can only be the sin of the first generation Novatus and his contemporaries that first departed from the communion of the Catholick Church were indeed Schismaticks but then those who were baptiz'd and educated by that faction were never in the communion of the Catholick Church and so by this argument were free from Schism and so downwards from generation to generation Now this looks like Magick for it teaches us an art how to split the Church into a thousand pieces and to continue this division for ever and yet in a little while there should be no dis-union for it is only the adventure of the first Authors to break off from the Catholick Church but then as many as they propagate to the end of the world are no Schismaticks because they never had any personal communion Now Sir having asserted that the Unity of the Catholick Church consists not only in the unity of faith but in a succession of Bishops and Priests and a regular obedience to their inspection and conduct give me leave to reflect and consider what direful conclusions our Adversaries may draw from this notion First This will be accused of too much kindness to the Church of Rome for they having continued their succession of Bishops from St. Peter this will acquit them from Schism and place them within the body of the Catholick Church I hope Sir it will not offend if we be as kind to the Pope as we are to the Devil and allow him his due No doubt the Church of Rome is in the communion of the Catholick Church but yet this is no argument for any to desert the Church of England and remove to that of Rome for our Apostolick Succession of Bishops is as authentick as theirs and our Doctrine more Pure Primitive and Catholick and therefore it is irrational for the Romish Church to accuse us of Schism for whatever they can justly plead for their Unity will equally establish ours with the Catholick Church I cannot better represent the present State of the Catholick Church than by an allusion to the Jewish Temple The Church of England we are able to prove is the purest part of the Catholick Church being most refined from error and superstition and therefore that may be resembled to the Sanctum Sanctorum The Greek Church though something defiled yet still preserving the Apostolick faith and succession of Patriarchs and Presbyters may be compar'd to the Middle Temple The Church of Rome like the Outward á Court is most profan'd with the Tables of the Money-changers and defil'd by abominable superstitions but yet though it be filthy it is a part of the building and within the Area of the Temple But for any to desert the Church of England to communicate with that of Rome is such a frantick humour as for a man to quit the neatest appartment and exchange for the most sluttish room in the same house Secondly That which will raise the greatest clamour is That by this notion I unchurch all the forreign Reform'd Churches who have no Bishops of the Catholick line to govern them and ordain their Ministers To this I answer That if any of the forreign Churches have continued a succession of Presbyters who can derive their Origination from Episcopal Ordination it something lessens their dis-union and gives them a remote alliance to the Catholick Church yet this is but private charity and will not justifie them from Schism by the Canons of the antient Church But if any of them have a Ministry which have no other Orders than their own Usurpation or popular Election I know not how to acquit them from being Schismaticks from the Catholick Church And why do not the States of Holland send their Professors from Leyden
it would be happy if all Christians would quietly enjoy their Differences of Opinion and be so far of one mind as to go up together to the Temple to pray and communicate with the Catholick Church in Sacris The Church of England retains no Sacraments but those which have the manifest Authority of Divine Institution All the Prayers of this Church are immediately directed to the Eternal God and all presented in the Name of Jesus We Petition for nothing but what the Religion of Jesus allows us to supplicate And therefore I see no reason why all the People of this Nation who are not Atheists and Anti-christian should not communicate with us in those confessed Services of Prayers Praises and Sacramentals And this is all that is required by that Tyrannical Act of Uniformity And therefore that great Popular Orator in his late Harangue to the House of Lords has imposed a Fallacy upon us For he passionately complains against the Law for devesting the People of their Properties only because they cannot agree with Church-men in some uncertain Opinions of Religion I hope it will not amount to Scandalum Magnatum to say that this is meer Sophistry For our Laws prosecute no man for difference of Opinion no so far from this that the very Act against Conventicles allows our Dissenters not only their different Opinions but the quiet use and enjoyment of their several Religions in their own Families nay it granted them a further Favour and Liberty that they might receive four or five more of the same dissenting Brotherhood to make the exercise more full and satisfying Here was nothing prohibited but noise and multitude But they might notwithstanding that Law have peaceably enjoyed their different Opinions and Property too that great Fundamental of State Religion The Church doth not put the souls of men upon the Rack or command an exact consent to all her Publick Articles but indulges a difference of Opinion it only provides for the Beauty Order and Solemnity of Publick Worship by enjoyning all the Christians of this Kingdom to communicate with us in those common Sacra that all sober Christians acknowledge to be of universal obligation But here your Doctor would Rejoyn that it is as far from Cornwall to Berwick as from Berwick to Cornwall and demand a Reason why we do not exercise as much charity to others as we expect to our selves or why we should not with as much Reason be obliged to communicate with their Assemblies as to expect them to be present at ours For our Author was so kind to Dissenters as he tells us He sees no Reason why we should not mix with those divided Assemblies where there was nothing done but what True Piety and Devotion would brook If I may credit my own conscience I have a very serious love and veneration for all True Piety and Devotion But I am resolved to have no communion with Conventicles and will faithfully acquaint you with my Reasons for that Resolve First My ears are not fitted for the unintelligible Rapsodies of Enthusiastick Divinity Nothing impresses upon me but what my Reason and Judgement can give a sober account of And I am sure there are many Assemblies in England called Religious Meetings whose chiefest Devotions consist in nothing but Froth and Groans to borrow an odd phrase from our Author Secondly I will appeal from our Author to Mr. Hales who towards the end of this Tract gives us a very Orthodox Definition of a Conventicle A Conventicle is a Congregation of Schismaticks or all Meetings upon unnecessary separation and concludes that it is not lawful no not for Prayer for Hearing for Conference or for any other Religious Office whatsoever for the People to Assemble otherwise than by Publick Order is allowed Now since I can enjoy a communion with the Catholick Church and all the advantages of Christianity without going to a Conventicle I think it were neither Piety nor Devotion for me to communicate with those Congregations which our Author grants to be unlawful Assemblies Had I lived in the dayes of Dioclefian I would have been a member of the Ecclesia Subterranea and have assembled with the Catholick Christians in Caves and Grotto's which necessity had consecrated into Holy Places But since it is my happy Lot to live in that Age and Kingdom where Christianity may be confessed above ground since a just Authority hath opened our Churches seeing I may offer all the Publick Devotions that God requires in those Solemn Places which the Law appoints Since I can at the same time be both Devout towards God and Obedient to my Governours I resolve I will have no communion with those Assemblies which the Law of the Nation and the Canons of the Church make irregular Sir I assure you it adds some cheerfulness to my Publick Devotions that I can at the same time both give unto God the things that are God's and to Caesar the things that are Caesar's Thirdly I resolve I will never be a member of our separate Congregations because in them I cannot be assured of my compleat communion with the Catholick Church or the advantages of a Regular Priesthood I question not but God may pardon without the Absolution of a Priest and give a man possession of eternal life without the seal or title of a Sacrament but salvation is a matter of such vast importance that I would never adventure it upon extraordinary Methods in concerns of Religion and everlasting interest I love to enjoy all the security that God hath given to mankind In that great Schism of Israel some of the most sober and considering Jews were not satisfied with their communion in that new Church of Israel though it was established by the Law of Jeroboam but returned to worship at Jerusalem yet the Tribes of Israel retain'd the same Creed with those of Judah and the Calves of Dan and Bethel were not design'd for Idols but set up in imitation of the Cherubims in the Temple but these wise men were dissatisfied because their Priests were not of the Aaronical Line and had no other Consecration or Authority but what was deriv'd from the Patents of Jeroboam and they could not be assured that God would accept their Oblations from the hands of those men who had no Regular Priesthood Now there is great Reason to believe that there should be as much order in the Kingdom of Jesus as there was in the Jewish Polity and therefore I am assur'd both by Reason and Sacred Oracles that there is an Evangelical Priesthood that hath succeeded that of Aaron That there is a peculiar Order of men who have receiv'd this Priestly Authority by a Regular Ordination from the Apostles Successors And I esteem these men according to St. Paul's Injunction as the Stewards of the manifold Mysteries of God and the Ministers of Reconciliation and therefore without an inevitable necessity I will never live without the advantage and satisfaction of their Ministerial Authority St.
shall be mouth'd by the most vicious persons to disguise an ugly perhaps a treasonous design and novi homines men of yesterday shall dare to trifle with that Scepter which dignified them and problem the Right of their Prince in the face of his Throne when Englishmen shall Italianize and shoot those envenom'd arrows their filthy Pasquils to wound their Prince in his reputation which is the soul of his Throne O then I think if it awakens not all the Sentinels of the Government sure they are in their dead sleep or infatuated for destruction When I consider the ill-boding circumstances attending the Church of England her prodigious rents her assiduous and impudent Adversaries accompanied perhaps with too much Supinity in some of her most Principal members and when it comes into my mind that Miracles are ceased too then each moment spur on my thoughts to expect when Religion now on tiptoes to be gone should turn her back upon us and that the ultimate failure of the Faith is at hand ready to be the Harbinger to the Catholick Doom But Sir not to trouble your more Serene Meditations with such melancholy reflections give me leave to Alarm you to Muster your notions and by your Animadversions upon this Doctor undeceive the deluded multitude in this weighty subject of Schism the Dam of our Mischiefs and which threaten the ruine of our Church and with that the unhinging that excellent temper of Government which has been the envy of the Nations SIR I am yours c. W. C. Honoured Sir THat Kingship and Episcopacy have been the antient and continued Government of this Nation in State and Church ever since our Primitive Christianity is evident from undoubted Records But the Gentlemen of our New English Interest mock at the two old Grandsires Monarchy and Hierarchy and begin to hope that they are come to their decrepit Age and not far from a Grave and they are preparing for their funeral It is now scandalous to be Loyal to our Prince or Regular to the Church You will be thought a mean-spirited Gentleman for expressing any regard to a Minister of Religion And you have no way to redeem your Honour but either to turn Atheist or list your self a Member of the New Interest And now Sir can it be reconcil'd to Friendship to ship your Friend when the Clouds look black and threaten a Storm But since you are as kind to me as you are to your self and are pleas'd to embarque with me I am resolv'd to adventure and am prepar'd for Tempest and that worst of Hurricanes the madness of the People I think it highly necessary to demonstrate our Non-conformists to be Schismaticks for though meer State Interest may legitimate many severities against those Persons and Principles that are Antipodes to the establish'd Government yet if that were truth which the Doctor pretends to prove That the Sectaries of England were as much in the family of Jesus or in the Communion of the Catholick Church as the Church of England it would puzzle my Reason to make a Substantial Apology for our Penal Laws But if we can make it evident that these men walk disorderly and are Separatists from the Catholick Church it will then appear that our Laws are so far from Rigor or Persecution that they are more charitable provisions and only design'd to compell men to come in to that Society where their Eternal Interest will be most rationally and manifestly secur'd When I first open'd the Doctor' s Plea you sent me mine eye chanc'd upon a very pleasant passage to this effect viz. That theGreek Church call the Church of Rome Schismatick and the Church of Rome return the Schismatick upon the Greek Church The Church of England make the Romish Church the Schismatick and the Church ofRome charge the Schism upon the Church ofEngland Again The Church of England call her Dissenters Schismaticks and the Dissenters think the Church to be Schismaticks from them and so we have call'd one another Schismaticks Round and therefore Schism is but Vox praeterea nihil nothing but a meer noise and Nick-name which every Party cast upon all them who are not of their Society But let us try the Strength of this Argument by translating it to another circulating word and that is Infidelity The Mahometan calls himself Musalman which my Persic Dictionary assures me signifies Faithful or Believer in God yet we Christians call the Mahometans Infidels and they call us Unbelievers We call the Jews Infidels and they return the same name upon us and the Mahometans too Both Christian Jew and Mahomentan pronounce all Pagans to be Infidels and ten to one but they are as stout and peremptory as the rest of Mortals and think all Mankind Infidels but themselves Thus the whole World have call'd one another Infidels Round and therefore Infidelity is but a meer empty noise and there is no such thing in the World as a True Religion I appeal to any sober Judgement if there be not as much Logick in this as there was in the other I hope it will be an easie discovery to find out the square of the Doctor 's Circle and to fix the Notion of Schism upon a certain Basis And therefore Sir in obedience to your Request I shall discuss that great Question Whether the Non-conformists in England meeting together for the Worship of God in places distinct from the Parochial Churches are not Schismaticks To this I shall answer in the Affirmative and shall consider this Separation First With respect to the whole Catholick Church Secondly With relation to the Church of England First To be a Member of the Catholick Church there is required a double Unity First An Unity of Faith or Doctrine a total separation from this we grant to be Apostasie a disowning any one fundamental Article makes a man a Heretick But in this does not consist the formal notion of Schism Secondly There is requir'd an Unity of Order or Government which St. Cyprian calls Unitas Ecclesiastica Now a Separation from this Unity hath the formality of Schism And for a right understanding of this I must look back to the first Origine of this Unity The Holy Jesus the great Author and Founder of our Religion was sent of God and all power in Heaven and Earth committed to him Now before his Ascension that he might not leave his Disciples to the end of the World to be governed by every pretender to Revelation which would have exposed his Kingdom upon Earth to eternal confusions and impostures he solemnly ordains and consecrates the Apostles his immediate Delegates upon earth John 20. 22. As my Father sent me even so send I you by vertue of which Commission the power of Ordaining Governing and conferring Orders did rest only in the Apostles They took care to continue this Succession and therefore Timothy was by the Apostles ordain'd Bishop of Ephesus and Titus of Crete and both invested with power of Jurisdiction and
conferring Orders as is evident from St. Paul's Epistles directed to them and though there were many Presbyters in the Dioceses of Ephesus and Crete yet none had Authority to ordain Elders or Priests but only Timothy and Titus Linus by Apostolick Consecration succeeded the Apostles in the Chair of Rome Symeon governed the Church of Jerusalem or the Diocess of Palestine next after St. James Anianus succeeded St. Mark in the Church of Alexandria And this Succession was propagated with so much care and certainty that Irenaeus tells us He could name all the Successors of the Apostles in the several Apostolick Churches unto his dayes Habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis Successores eorum usque ad nos And this line of Apostolick Succession of Bishops hath continued through all Ages of the Church to our present times So that he who is out of this line of Apostolick Succession and exercises any Ministerial Office without the Commission of Episcopal Ordination is but a Lay-Impostor and a Schismatick from the Catholick Church And all other Societies of Christian people who totally withdraw themselves from the Government of their Bishops who are the Apostles Successors and from the Ministry of those Presbyters lawfully set over them by Episcopal Ordination and Institution and cast themselves into any other Model of Government are guilty of Schism This was the formal Notion of Schism in the sense of the antient Church Irenaeus Bishop of Lugdunum who convers'd with Polycarpus the Disciple of St. John may in reason be allowed to understand the Primitive and Apostolick Notion of Schism better than our Doctor at the distance of sixteen hundred years He in his Book Adversus Hereses exhorts the Christian World to hearken only to those Priests who were in the Communion of the Catholick Church and who those are he there describes Quapropter eis qui in Ecclesia sunt Presbyteris obaudire oported iis qui successionem habent ab Apostolis sicut ostendimus qui cum Episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum secundum placitum Patris accepêrunt Reliquos vero qui absistunt à principali successione quocunque loco colliguntur suspectos habere vel quasi Haereticos malae sententiae vel quasi scindentes elatos sibi placentes aut rursus ut Hypocritas quaestus gratia vanae gloriae hoc operantes Qui autem scindunt separant unitatem Ecclesiae eandem quam Hieroboam poenam percipiunt à Deo Ignatius the second Bishop of Antioch in succession from St. Peter in his Epistles ad Trallianos ad Smyrnenses and in those to the Philippians Ephesians and Philadelphians frequently charges them to keep themselves in the unity and communion of the Christian Church by a regular obedience to the Bishops and by communication with the Priests who were set over them by the Authority of Episcopal Order and to disobey those Bishops and their Presbyters and to separate from them is in those Epistles charg'd with Schism Athanasius brands Ischyras for a Schismatick and justifies the charge from this reason that Ischyras did usurp a Ministerial Authority without a regular Ordination from the Bishops of the Catholick Church and gathered to himself a distinct Congregation separate from the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Alexandria in whose Province he lived St. Cyprian in his fortieth Epistle ad populum Carthaginensem de quinque Presbyteris Schismaticis exhorts them to have no communion with those who had divided themselves from their Bishops for he tells them in that Epistle That to be sine Episcopis was to be extra Ecclesiam And in his Book de Unitate he gives us this notion of Schism Contemptis Episcopis derelictis Dei Sacerdotibus constituere aliud Altare or Conventicula diversa constituere That it was Schism to contemn and forsake the Bishops and Priests of God and to set up another Altar or to settle distinct Conventicles And this he accounts so foul a crime that he tells us in the same discourse Talis etiamsi occisi in confessione fuerint Macula ista nec sanguine abluitur inexpiabilis gravis culpa discordiae nec passione purgatur That Martyrdom it self cannot expiate the guilt of Schisim And when Maximus Urbanus Sydonius and Macarius return'd from the Novatian faction into the communion of the Church they express it thus Episcopo nostro pacem fecimus they had reconcil'd themselves to the Bishop and this was enough to assure St. Cyprian they had renounc'd their Schism and were restor'd to the Churches communion I will end this with the assertion of St. Augustine Radix Christianae societatis per sedes Apostolorum successiones Episcoporum certâ per orbem propagatione diffunditur i. e. the root or foundation of unity or communion in the Christian Church is founded in the several Seats of the Apostles and diffused through the Christian World by the certain propagation or succession of Bishops Therefore in the judgement of St. Augustine all those persons or societies that have divided themselves from the Bishops and Priests of the Apostolick succession are but wild plants and no branches of the Catholick stock I could fill many Pages more with Testimonies of the same nature but such numerous Quotations would look like Pedantick impertinence and I doubt not but those Authorities I have already mentioned will perswade you to believe That a total separation from the Orders and Government of Bishops was constantly adjudg'd to be Schism by the concurrent sentiments of the antient Church And now Sir having examined these Testimonies I may proceed to sentence That seeing the Teachers of our Non-conforming Congregations in England were never regularly Ordain'd to any Ministerial Function by the hands of the Bishops deriving their Authority from Apostolick succession and seeing their Leaders and their blind Proselytes have wholly withdrawn themselves from the Conduct Government of Episcopal Authority I shall therefore adventure to pronounce them Schismaticks not only from the Church of England but from the whole Corporation of the Catholick Church Therefore that which the Doctor so Magisterially asserts at the end of his seventeenth Page is no Axiom of Divinity for I have already prov'd that a man may be Schismatick from the whole Catholick Church on earth without Heresie or Apostasie The premises being considered will furnish us with an Answer to that passionate Harangue pag. 21. Do we not own Christ his Gospel the same points of faith the same acts of Worship where is the Separation then This St. Augustine tells us was the same Plea of the Donatists and might have been urged by the Novatians and Schismatick Presbyters of Carthage but it would not acquit them from Schism nor will it vindicate our English Sectaries Corah and his confederate Mutineers were neither Hereticks nor Apostates but men of the same Creed with Moses and Aaron their crime was the violating
that subordination which God had appointed and not submitting themselves to the Superiour Authority of the Priesthood And Sir it may be worth your observation that this Plea of the Doctor and that of the Hebrew Rebels have the same sense for just thus they plead Numb 16. 3. All the Congregation is holy every one of them that is in the Doctor 's phrase Do we not own Moses his Laws the same points of faith the same acts of Worship But this plausible plea would not prevail nor mitigate the provocation for God punished one Schism with another The earth rent and swallowed them up and with open mouth taught the rest of the Church to keep Unity and Order as well as the profession of a true Religion Therefore the Answer is very easie to the Doctor 's ruffling Question Do we not own Christ his Gospel the same points of faith the same acts of Worship where is the separation then Why Sir the separation is in dividing from the communion of all the Bishops and Episcopal Presbyters who in a constant line succeeding the Apostles have only a just and regular Authority to govern and guide the Christian Church The Doctor in the beginning of pag. 34. tells us That a controversie among them of the same communion is the chief if not the only notion of Schism that the Scripture gives us I confess the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schism in its general notion signifies any manner of separation or division and therefore I do acknowledge that those dissentions that were within the bowels of the Apostolick and Catholick Church were called Schisms both in the Scripture and in the Writings of the antient Fathers but this does not hinder but that the same word may be used to signifie a separation from the Catholick Church for if a wound in the body may be called a Schism sure Amputation or the cutting off from the body is the greatest rent and Schism in the World For though there were indeed divisions in the Church of Corinth where some were for Paul and some for Apollos and some for Cephas this at the worst was but a faction or a breach of charity but it was not properly Schism in the highest sense of the word for they still setled themselves under the Government and Ministry of the Apostles or some Presbyters ordained by the hands of the Apostles But those Conventicles that crept into houses and formed Assemblies distinct from the communion of the Apostolick Church those that heaped to themselves Teachers which as the phrase imports were not set over them by Apostolick Order and Institution those that despised Dominion and sake evil of those Dignities which did superintend the Government of the Church These men St. Jude tell us were those that did separate themselves that is were Schismaticks and just so are their Brethren the Sectaries of England Before I proceed to the next enquiry that concerns the Schism from the Church of England it will be necessary to state the right notion of the Catholick Church according to the sense of the antient Councils and Fathers The Doctor and his Complices are for Comprehension and give us a very wide notion of the Catholick Church for they will have all men that profess the name of Christ though in some things Hereticks and Schismaticks too yet to be included within the boundaries of the Catholick Church But I observe the Antients would not endure this Comprehension for they reckoned none to be in the communion of the Catholick Church but those who confessed the common faith delivered to the Saints and kept themselves under the Orders and Government of the Bishops who were the Apostles Successors and therefore oft-times in Councils and antient Epistles we find this Superscription To the Catholick Church in Antioch To the Catholick Church of Alexandria To the Catholick Church of Rome c. this still being used in contradistinction from the Novatians Arrians and Donatists which the antient Church look'd upon as Schismaticks and extra Ecclesiam Now having advanc'd thus far the way is prepared for the second enquiry Whether our Non-conformists are guilty of Schism from the Church of England And I doubt not but to prove the Affirmative The Church of England adhere to that Creed which was delivered by the Apostles professed by the antient Primitive Church and confirm'd by the first four General Councils it hath preserv'd the Unity of Government by a succession of Bishops in the Apostolick line as appears from the undoubted Archives and Records of England Therefore we are secured that it is in the Unity of the Catholick Church and a most excellent part of it Now as our Christianity obliges us to be members of that body of Christ the Catholick Church So the eternal reasons of Peace and Order bind us to communicate with that part of the Catholick Church in which our lot hath plac'd us except it can manifestly appear that that part is so corrupted that we cannot communicate with it without evident hazard of our salvation It were an unpardonable disorder for a Native of England dwelling in London to contemn the Laws of our Prince and to govern himself by the Placaets of the United Provinces and it were as great a confusion for those who live within the Jurisdiction of the Church of England to submit themselves to the Orders and Government of Rome or Geneva Before the Papal Usurpation of Universal Monarchy the Patriarchs of the Christian Church had their distinct Limits and Jurisdictions The Patriarch of Constantinople had his peculiar Primacy or Regiment and was not to intermeddle with the Province of Alexandria and so the Bishop of Rome had his peculiar Jurisdiction and was allowed no inspection over Constantinople Antioch or Alexandria and these distinct boundaries were fixed by a Canon of the Council of Nice and because it conâ—utes both the Papal Supremacy and Puritanical Anarchy I will give you the copy of that Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Let the antient customs be in force Let the Bishop of Alexandria have the Jurisdiction of Aegypt Libya and Pentapolis as likewise the Bishop of Rome was accustomed to have in his Province and so let the Churches of Antioch and other Provinces keep their peculiar priviledges And so the Christians dwelling under these distinct Patriarchates were obliged to a respective obedience to their peculiar Provincial and to divide themselves from their proper Patriarch or Bishop was accounted Schism in the antient Church Timothy being constituted Bishop of all the Diocess of Ephesus the Christians residing within that Precinct were obliged by the rules of Order to submit themselves to his peculiar inspection and it had been Schism to have disobeyed him or separated themselves from his Jurisdiction St. Ambrose observed this decorum himself as he tells us by St. Augustin in an Epistle of his ad Januarium Cum Romae sum jejuno Sabbato cum hic sum non
jejuno and so St. Augustin counsels Januarius Sic etiam tu ad quam forte Ecclesiam veneris ejus morem serva which plainly concludes that Christian peace and order requires that we should conform to the Rites and Canons of that Church in whose Jurisdiction we live The five Presbyters of Carthage were by St. Cyprian sentenced for Schismaticks because being within the Diocess of Carthage and so under his inspection they notwithstanding gathered to themselves Assemblies and exercised Ministerial Offices without his Authority And for the same reason Athanasius accused Ischyras of Schism for modelling a Congregation in Mareoles without any subjection or dependance upon him the Bishop of Alexandria unto whose Jurisdiction that Countrey belonged for he shews us his Title in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. All the Presbyters of this Province have their peculiar Cures or Parishes but all the Churches of this Region are under the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Alexandria And the very same thing Epiphanius tells us in his second Book adversus Haereses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That there were several Parochial Churches in which the Inhabitants might assemble with greater convenience and these Congregations were under the Ministery of peculiar Presbyters but all these Presbyters and their respective Churches were governed by the Superintendence of the Arch-bishop of Alexandria and this was the universal model of unity and order in all other Provinces of the Catholick Church Now the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York have as much Jurisdiction over the Christians in England as Athanasius had over the Province of Alexandria or St. Cyprian in the Diocess of Carthage for beside the Right of Church-Government which their succession from the Apostles give them they are impowr'd to exercise their Jurisdiction by the Laws of our Christian Prince and therefore those Societies of Christians living under the Jurisdiction of the Arch-bishops and Bishops of England and yet do separate from their communion and Government are Schismaticks from the Church of England To conclude this if the Novatians and Donatists if the five Presbyters of Carthage if Ischyras in Alexandria were Schismaticks if from the Ascension of our Lord to his second Advent there was or can be a Schismatick then the Sectaries of England are Schismaticks not only from the Church of England but from the whole Catholick Church Having thus stated the antient notion of Schism and found it a henous impiety though our Non-conformists sport with it as an Ecclesiastical Scarecrow I shall next do them the justice to examine the Doctors Plea and see how well he vindicates them from the guilt of Schism First He denyes that there is any such creature as a National stated governing Church of England If the Doctor means by all these rumbling Epithets of stated National governing organical Church of England that there is no such distinct organical Church in England that is a separate body from the Catholick Church I am then of his opinion But if he means that the Bishops of England have no power of Government over the Christians in England it is a very foul mistake to speak in the modestest phrase for I have already prov'd that the Arch-bishops and Bishops have as much Jurisdiction in their respective Provinces and Dioceses of England as any other Patriarchs and Bishops of the Catholick Church ever had in theirs and if the Act of Uniformity be a Law I am sure there is such an establish'd being as a National Church In Pag. 30. his gravity drolls and gives us a very merry Argument to prove that there is no such creature as a National Church of England for sayes he Whoso will erect a stated National governing Church in England must find us an Officer clothed with Authority to excommunicate from Michael ' s Mount in Cornwall to Carlisle in Berwick Now Sir let this pass for a piece of wit though it is as wide from reason as Cornwall from Berwick What though the Bishop of Antioch could not excommunicate from Antioch to Constantinople and from thence to the borders of Persia must there therefore be no governing Church in Greece and might the Christians in Antioch by that Logick separate themselves from the communion and jurisdiction of their proper Patriarchs without Schism If our Author could have prov'd that there were any Provinces or Natives of England that were de jure exempt from the Canons of this Church and the jurisdiction of the English Bishops then there had been something of argument But if the Doctor for contumacy and disorder should be excommunicated from Church of England in Berwick I am sure without absolution de jure he could not communicate with any Assembly of the Church in England though he travail'd from Berwick to Carlisle and from thence to Mount Michael in Cornwall and this I fancy does strongly conclude That the Church of England is such a part of the Catholick Church which hath a proper and peculiar jurisdiction over all the Christians in this Kingdom Our Doctor pag. 10. sect 12. owns it as a confess'd principle That every individual member of the Church Catholick visible is bound in duty both to God and his own soul to joyn himself to some particular Society of Christians with which he may enjoy all the Ordinances of God so as may be for his souls advantage Well then why do they not communicate with the Church of England where all the Ordinances of God are observ'd and solemniz'd with as much gravity and faithfulness as in any other part of the Catholick Church To this he answers pag. 11. That the business is so stated by the Act of Uniformity that they cannot communicate with us without doing what they judge to be sinful There is nothing can justly be called sinful but what transgresses some manifest Law of God or Nature and could the Doctor have prov'd that any thing practised or enjoyn'd by the Church of England did violate any of those Divine Rules his Plea had been allowed and his Party might vindicate their Non-conformity But to Transgress a plain Law of God to disobey the Orders of our Governours and yet to give us no better reason for it than to say they fancy the things are sinful is so far from excusing that it aggravates the guilt For First Their disobedience is an affront to their Governours and then the doing this only upon the account of their own judgement or fancy is an affront to God for private conscience to usurp the Soveraignty of God and to lay such Divine Obligations upon the soul and mind which God never impos'd The nature and guilt of this disobedience is exactly represented by the story of the young Prophet 1 Kings 13. he was sent to prophesie against the Altar in Bethel now Jeroboam having cast off all the Priests and Levites of the Aaronical line and erected a new model of Religion therefore that the young Prophet might have no communion
were of none at all Sir There are many impertinencies in that little Book which I thought not worthy the examination and which your Judgement will easily answer from the grounds of this discourse Such is his branding Parish Churches for a Popish invention which any sober man would rather have thought to have been the contrivance of Reason and convenience for we find this invention elder than the Pope for they were founded in the Province of Alexandria in the dayes of Athanasius as Athanasius and Epiphanius inform us Such another impertinence is his tedious Harangue about Separation from Parochial Organical Churches which no way concern the constitution of the Catholick Church or the Church of England for though deserting our Parish Church in some circumstance may be a disorder yet it is no Schism if we communicate with any other regular Assembly of the same communion Athanasius does not accuse Ischyras of Schism for separating from his Parochial Congregation and Priest but for erecting a Conventicle and dividing from the Bishop and the whole Catholick Church in Alexandria As for Mr. H's Discourse about the Obligation of Humane Laws I shall refer him for an Answer to St. Paul and Bishop Sanderson and when they are answered we must enquire further I take no notice of the Railery against Ceremonies The necessity of them in Publick Worship and the Authority of the Church in enjoyning them is substantially prov'd by Mr. Hooker and lately by Mr. Falkner and if their Reasons will not prevail I will not pretend to work a Miracle or hope to open the eyes of them who are resolv'd to be blind Sir I hope that these Papers will satisfie you that these men are Schismaticks and assure you that I am Sir Your faithful Friend and Servant R. C. Honoured Sir THere lately came to my hand the Works of Mr. Hales Entituled Golden Remains The most Sacred of these Reliques is a little Tract of Schism which you find celebrated by the High and Mighty Transproser and applauded by your Doctor of Divinity and is the fam'd Sanctuary of our dividing Parties Therefore having some Months since presented you with my thoughts concerning Schism I thought my self oblig'd to an impartial perusal of this Famous Tract for fear I might through weakness of judgement have impos'd an error upon you and my self I found the Remains of Mr. Hales prefac'd with so vast an Encomium of the Author that I address'd my self to his Tract of Schism with a very awful reverence resolving to submit to the clearest Reasons and not to be asham'd to be convinc'd by a Person of that admir'd Acuteness But having with the most strict intention consider'd that Discourse I find my notion of Schism left untouch'd But because our Non-conformists so oft Appeal to this Tractate I resolv'd to consider how far it could serve their Interest and justifie their Separation First therefore he informs us That there are two things which serve to compleat a Schism 1. The choice of a Bishop in opposition to the former 2. The erecting of a Church or Oratory for the dividing parties to meet in Now I acknowledge this notion of Schism to be both Antient and Orthodox Schism being consider'd as a breach of charity or a dissolving of that Bond of Peace which we are so often solemnly changed to preserve inviolate And without a great and evident necessity this Dividing must be very displeasing unto the Prince of Peace who did command us to be One even as He and the Father are One. Of this nature was the Schism of the Arrians Miletians and Donatiss at their first dividing They set up Altar against Altar had Bishops of their own party and their peculiar Oratories and would have no communion with the Bishops or Assemblies of that standing part that alwayes called themselves the Catholick Church The Church of England by the title of long prescription and the establishment of a Law is the standing Church of this Nation with which all the people of this Kingdom are bound to communicate But our Non-conformists have chosen to themselves Pastors in opposition to the Bishops and Priests of the Church of England and have erected their distinct Congregations to confront our Church Assemblies and therefore by Mr. Hales's definition they are guilty of compleat Schism But Sir it must be observ'd that these men have run further than the Arrians Miletians and Donatists did at their first dividing for though they had so little charity as for a matter of dispute to divide from the communion of the other part of the Church yet they had so much Prudence as they preserv'd to themselves some Bishops and Priests who had receiv'd their Consecration and Orders from the Catholick Church and when their Bishops and Priesthood were worn out the Factions expir'd for they were not arriv'd to such a height of Fanaticism as to think themselves a Church without the Government and Priesthood of the Apostolick line No they were so sacred and curious in this that I find the Arrians cavilling at the Ordination of Athanasius as not being Catholick and Canonical just as the Papists objected against us the Naggs-head Consecration And by the way that was the most weighty and considerable attempt that ever Rome made upon the Church of England and could they clearly have invalidated and disannull'd our succession of Bishops and Priesthood all the learning of England could not have prov'd us a Catholick Church But this Cavil was with demonstration confuted by that elaborate Piece of Mr. Mason Arch-Deacon of Norfolk Sir I hope that the merit of this Digression will beg its own pardon But to return to our English Sectaries according to Mr. Hales's notion it would be indeed a very unhappy Schism in the Church of England for the Bishop of Norwich and his Presbyters and Jurisdiction to divide from the communion of the Archbishop of Canterbury and to set up a Church of the East Angles divided from that of the West But supposing this there were yet left to us this satisfaction that we were still under the Government and Ministry of that Bishop and Priesthood of whose Consecration and Orders we were sufficiently assur'd and though this would be an unlucky Faction in the English Hierarchy yet it would be no Schism from the Catholick Church But our Separatists are run to a further distance for they have not set up Altar against Altar or one Bishop in opposition to another but have thrown off all the Bishops and Priests of the Apostolick Succession and have erected a Synagogue against the Church and set up a Lay-Elder in opposition to the Bishop and Priest And this is not only a disobedience against the Laws and a Schism from the establish'd Church of England but is a separation from the Catholick Church And seeing our Sectaries have no Priesthood I believe their Conventicles to be no more a Church than a Club of Mechanicks in a Coffee-house For though some of these
Congregations may retain Imposition of hands as a mockery of Ordination yet the imposing of Lay-hands have no more power to confer Priesthood than I to have to constitute a Judge of Oyer and Terminer Mr. Hales makes Schism and Sedition of a very resembling nature He tells us That Sedition is a Lay Schism and Schism is an Ecclesiastical Sedition Now 't is true it would be a great Sedition to set up a Prince of the Blood in opposition to our Soveraign who by long and Legal Investiture hath been possessed of Regal Supremacy But it would be Sedition of a deeper dye to renounce all Allegiance to our Prince and to cast off the whole Royal Line and to set up a Forreigner or one who had no alliance to the Royal Blood Thus if to set up one Bishop in opposition to another though both be of the same Apostolick succession if this be a Schism and a great disorder then sure for our Sectaries to cast off all the Bishops and Priests of the Catholick Church and to set up such Teachers and Governours who have no relation to the Sacerdotal Line this must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the outmost and most Schismatical separation from the Catholick Church But Mr. Hales proceeds and gives us a distinction of Schism There is a Schism where only one part is the Schismatick for where the occasion is necessary there not he that separates but he that is the cause of the Separation is the Schismatick This shall be allowed to be Orthodox too and when our Non-conformists can demonstrate that it is necessary for them to separate from the Church of England we will take off the Indictment and absolve them from Schism But they must prove this necessity from weightier Topicks than Fringe and Lace They must make it evident that they cannot communicate with us without manifest dishonour to God affront to Jesus and his holy Religion and evident hazard of their salvation But this can never be prov'd but from the New Gospel of private Conscience for I am sure the Church of England is so happily constituted that there is no Law nor Canon in the four Evangelists or in the Apostolick Acts or Epistles that will justifie a separation from it much less vote it to be necessary Secondly Our Author tells us That there is a Schism in which both parties are the Schismaticks for where the occasion of Separation is unnecessary neither side can be excused from the guilt of Schism An instance of this he gives us in that great division between the Eastern and WesternChurches about the Observation of Easter I confess I can make no Defence for the Churches of the East or West for that uncharitable division upon the account of a different Ceremony for sure the several parts of the Catholick Church might have enjoy'd their peculiar Rites and usages and yet preserv'd an entire peace and universal communion I am of St. Austin's mind Totum hoc genus liberas habet observationes nec Disciplina ulla est in his melior gravi prudentique Christiano quam ut eo modo agat quo agere viderit Ecclesiam ad quamcunque forte devenerit But how this Instance of the Paschal Schism should be improv'd to serve the Interest of our English Sectaries I can no way discern He that can from hence extract a Plea for our Non-conformists must have greater skill in Theological Chymistry than I dare pretend to For though this unhappy controversie occasioned a breach of charity and communion yet here was no departure from the Catholick Church on either side nor any violation of Order and Government for the Christians of the East observ'd the Canons and Customs of the Eastern Church and submitted themselves to the Government and Ministery of those Bishops and Priests in whose Jurisdiction they liv'd and so likewise in the West vice versa And would our Non-conformists learn but so much Order and Obedience there were an end of the Schism Thus I have consider'd the Theorems of our Admir'd Author and I find no mischief in them but there are still behind such a Train of consequences as in my opinion are of very evil insinuation and do no way merit to be reckon'd among his Golden Remains I cannot approve of his severe Censure upon the Antient Church upon the account of the Paschal difference for he interprets that Breach to be a just judgement of God But then Sir mark the Provocation because sayes he that through sloth and blind obedience men examin'd not the things which they were taught but like Beasts of Burden patiently couch'd down and indifferently underwent whatever their Superiours laid upon them I abhorr the Barbarity of rifling Sepulchres or disturbing the Ashes of the Dead But I wish our ingenious Author had invented some kinder Emblems for the Antient Christians than Ass and Camel For though they were so humble and peaceable as quietly to submit to the Orders of their Spiritual Governours yet they were not so tame as to truckle to an Idol though commanded to couch by Imperial Injunctions I will never plead for a brutish inadvertency or a blind and unchristian obedience to our Superiours The Church provides by a Canon that all Christians should once be Catechumeni instructed in the plain Fundamentals of Faith and Piety and therefore it is not intended that men should be impos'd upon in matters that concern their common salvation and there is great reason that in things of that moment men should be cautious and inquisitive But I believe that Apostolick Canon Let all things be done in Decency and Order hath left a great scope to the wisdom of our Superiours to order the publick Administrations of Religion And in institutions of this nature the people being secured of all the pure necessaries to salvation I don't think they are oblig'd to any further examination their greatest duty in this case is a quiet submission The Gentile Christians of Antioch knew themselves to be free'd from all Jewish or Levitical Observances but yet when the Council at Jerusalem for prudential Reasons and considerations enjoyn'd them the Abstinence from Blood and things offered to Idols we don't read that they enquir'd any further but quietly obeyed that Canon and yet I hope those primitive Christians deserv'd a better name and character than Beasts of Burden in matters of this nature I cannot yet discern the guilt or irreligion of a blind obedience I could wish that all Christians would keep the common Faith and practise the plain Rules of Christian Religion and these things being preserv'd entire I see no mischief if in other things we should leave our Superiours to govern and submit even with blind obedience and not trouble our selves and the World with nice and scrupulous examinations Blind or unexamining obedience to our Superiours with those limitations I have stated would so much assure the peace and order of the Church that if it were not a vertue yet I am sure it
Imprimatur G. Jane R. P. D. Henr. Episc Lond. Ã sac domesticis May 17. 1676. THE NOTION OF SCHISM Stated according to the ANTIENTS And considered with Reference to the NON-CONFORMISTS And the PLEAS for SCHISMATICKS examined Being Animadversions upon the Plea for the Non-Conformists With Reflections on that Famous Tract of Schism Written by M r. Hales In Two Letters to a very Worthy Gentleman LONDON Printed by R. W. for William Oliver and George Rose Booksellers in Norwich and are to be sold by them there and Nath. Brooks at the Angel in Cornhill and R. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1676. TO THE READER THE Plea for Non-conformists tending to vindicate them from Schism came to my hands long after its Edition and then by accident too But the Schism being still continued I hope you will not think it too Late or Impertinent to publish these Animadversions upon that Tract Now should I protest against all Vanity and Popularity disavow all Interest and Sinister designs should I tell you in most Solemn and Sacred protestations that I have no other end in the publication of these Papers but the Honour of God and the Peace of his Church yet it were still at your mercy to credit these Asseverations or receive them as the usual pretensions of every Author Therefore I resolve against the Impertinence of an Apologie and leave you to the common liberty of Censure If I meet with the fate of St. Paul to pass through good as well as bad Report I shall have Honour and content enough If thou art a sound and sober member of the Church of England I know thy Temper cannot be Sullen or Ill-natur'd it is thy Genius to be Candid and Generous and thy Religion makes thee Charitable and therefore I am assured that thy Balms cannot break my Head and if these Papers may in any measure contribute towards thy firmer settlement in the Communion of this Church my principal End is then effected If thou art a Dissenter from this established Church but hast not lost that Christian Temper of Modesty and Humility read on there is hope of thy recovery that thou wilt not dye a Schismatick But if thou art one who hast given up thy Name and thy Reason too to the Leader of a Conventicle let me beseech thee to read no further for this little Discourse will but provoke thy Passion I have no Hope to prevail upon Pertinacious resolutions I never yet cleansed a Leper nor raised the Dead but if I had I should notwithstanding Despond of ever perswading any Obstinate or Passionate man for it does not appear to me evident in all the History of the Gospel that our Lord among his many Mighty Works and Miracles ever cured Perverseness If thou art a Romish Recusant let me intreat thee to Suffer thy Reason to recover its Liberty and not alwayes be in Vassallage to those Roman Dictators I know there are many of that Religion in this Nation who are Gentlemen of Complaisant Converse and Ingenuous Education but I wonder that ye who pretend so much Abhorrence of Fanaticism and boast of Loyalty to your Prince should yet degrade your selves to the same Level with the Basest Sectaries and live in constant Rebellion to the Laws of your Natural Soveraign There is great Reason that the Kings of England should ever have a peculiar Jealousie upon your Party for though your Bodies and Estates are Subjects of England yet your Souls or Religion are under the Empire of a Forreign Jurisdiction and as long as ye continue so there is no Reason in the world that can give the Crown sufficient Security for your lasting Allegiance As for those of your Religion who live under the Laws of the Romish Dominions I have great Charity for them for they can plead submission to their own Superiours and I am apt to believe that Plea may be very considerable when they come to appear before the Prince of Peace and the God of Order But for you whose Lot hath cast you under the Government of the Kingdom and Catholick Church of England and yet to Divide from their Jurisdiction and subject your selves to the Canons of a Forreign Church is not only a Disobedience against the Laws of this Church and State but a Violation of the Antient Canons of the Catholick Church and is so great a Disorder and unreasonableness that the Penalties inflicted for your Recusancy are as Just as they are Severe and ye merit no Compassion Indeed if your deserting the Romish would put you out of the Catholick Church I would never upon those hard terms perswade you into our Communion Our Profession of Faith ye will acknowledge to be the antient Catholick and Apostolick Creed I know your principal Prejudice is against the Succession of our Bishops and the Authority of our Priesthood But let me beseech you to do so much Right to us and so much Justice to your selves as impartially to peruse Mr Mason's Vindication of the Ministry of the Church of England and if his Transcript of those Acts and Monuments of our Church will not satisfie you let some of your subtilest Jesuits convict that Author of Falshood or Imposture and I will acknowledge that we are no Catholick Church and you no Schismaticks There are many of your Religion persons of great Honour and Estates in this Kingdom who may easily have the Advantage to view and examine the Original Records of the Consecration of our English Bishops in that great Crisis of our Reformation and methinks in so weighty a matter where your Estates if not some raster Interest are highly concern'd ye should be strictly inquisitive and not so blindly acquiesce in a popular Mistake and Jesuitical delusion In the mean time I charge you with the guilt of Schism in Dividing from the Church of England and if you think your selves injur'd by this Indictment let any of your Romish Champions be the Doctor 's Second and publish a Plea for your Vindication and though I am none of the Worthies of England yet I will engage for a Reply If any of you shall think fit to require it I dare undertake to prove that the Canons of the Romish Church do no more oblige any Subject of England than our Statute Laws do bind the Poles or Moscovites and that it is as great a Disorder and Impertinence for the Bishop of Rome to excommunicate any of the people of England as it were for the Lord Chief Justice of England to outlaw Don Juan of Austria And now Reader I leave you to enjoy your Humour to be Candid or Clamorous as your fancy inclines you To be wounded with the Arrows of Bitter Words is a very easie kind of Martyrdom and say what you please I am resolv'd to be unconcern'd and subscribe my self Your Christian Friend R. C. Worthy Sir I Not long since receiv'd from the hand of a Non-conforming Pastor by way of Answer to my impeaching
him of Schism this Tract Intitul'd A Plea for the Non-conformists tending to justifie them against the clamorous charge of Schism by a Doctor of Divinity whom the Dissenters call Dr. Owen And whether I may attribute it to the slighting or carelesness of our Clergie I know not but as yet I have neither seen or heard of an Answer to it Sir The true Friendship I have for you and your abilities which I am no stranger unto prompts me to put this Plea into your handling and beg your Animadversions upon it Supposing the Doctor has much wandered from that Notion of Schism deliver'd down to us from the Primitive Fathers the sense of which Sacred Priests I shall alwayes rather espouse in any point I find so clearly determin'd by them than the crude and partial if not Enthusiastick Writings of some Moderns whose heads seem rather flatus't with a prejudic'd Interest than ballac'd with an Apostolick Sobriety When I reflect upon this Intrigue of the present Dissenters from the Church of England in confounding the Notion of Schism with that of Heresie and by that jejune project would evade that Scandal of being Schismaticks a discrimination esteemed so odious and perilous among all good Catholicks in all Ages of the Christian Church I can fancy no other reason they can have than this viz. lest their Proselytes and followers should be justly affrighted at the dangerous guilt of Schism and Separation and consult their return to that Fold which they have deserted which is certainly their safest Interest Another Stratagem which has not been less useful for them than the former is their contemning an Apostolical Succession of Priesthood and thereby lessening the hazard of a Schismatick condition in the opinion of the people This unchristian humour they continually instill into the Populacy and inforce it with this Anti-Apostolick Maxim That there is no difference between a Priest and a Laick but that the first reads the Prayers of the Church and Preaches Morally as they call it and the other is gifted with continual Revelations for that they must mean if any thing by praying by the Spirit in their notion I must confess I am as yet unconverted to these Opinions and have an awful respect to your Sacred Order and I could be as easily Proselyted to Atheism as to think a Knipperdolling or an Hugh Peters were as true Priests of the Living God as a Tertullian or a Chrysostom Sir As an obedient Son of the Church of England and a Loyal Subject to my Soveraign and so oblig'd to be very solicitous of the Welfare of Church and State give me leave to sigh out some thoughts which have been and are afflictive to my Solitudes and may detect if not the causes at least the encouragements of our Schisms When I see the admir'd providence of our indulgent Prince so eminently expressed in his Royal Amnestie and Act of Oblivion for the obliterating all Animosities and Rancours which might still ferment in the hearts of men so Diametrically opposite and who had espoused Cases as contradictory as best and worst contemned and flouted by an undutiful and unchristian humour of persisting in the same stubborness wherewith they have check'd two Glorious Princes and Mated a third God bless the fourth and wherewith they brought upon our Church and Kingdom the late horrid and lamentable confusions Indignation prompts me to think that Sincere Religion cannot reside in an ungrateful heart nor true Piety and Loyalty where there are no Symptoms of their repentance And let me appeal to common sense and reason what a frightful face of Government there would appear in this Nation if all His Majesties evil-disposed Subjects should as boldly resolve to perpetrate all those Crimes prohibited by the Common and Statute Laws of this Realm as the Dissenters do temerariously transgress or fraudulently evade those Statutes relating to Conformity When I see some of your Sacred Order fly at a Dignity a Bishoprick and when they have truss'd it quarry and prune themselves upon it and live as if a Diocess were only designed to Gorge and Aggrandize the Bishop and he not concern'd to be a faithful Shepherd to his flock but negligent if not wholly careless in no small part of his Episcopal Function and Paternal charge witness the omission of that Solemn Office of Confirmation nor obliged to moderate over and inspect the manners of his inferiour Clergie who are in Law but his Curates and whose vices and disorders reflect a Blot upon himself and a Scandal to the Church then I think the longer time runs its sand will be the fuller of dust and I am ready to renounce my Philosphy and believe that Gold may rust and we have too many Rosy-Crucians in Divinity to make their Remarques When our Parochial Clergie shall out of good nature tepidity or perjury omit if not all at least some part of the Divine Service to curry their Males and coaks their Females when to please a weak Sister the Cross after Baptism must not be used and for a bribe the Sacrament shall be Administred to a sitting Bumkin and the Priest shall civilly be from home when a thing departed is to have the Burial of an Ass when every Parish shall have a singular Directory and every waxen Priest shall assume a Papism to dispense with Oath Canons and Statutes and the Diocesan shall be demurely compos'd into a posture of consent with closed eyes and folded arms are we then like to be blest with one faith and one way When too many of our Nobility and Gentry shall assume that honour and glory to list themselves in and be reputed Sons of our Church of England but by their Profaneness Debauchery and prodigious vice live Antipodes to that holy Profession and act below the dictates of uneducated nature then I think this must be influential upon the Manners of the Populacy and create an inclination to Schism if not an absolute contempt of Religion in them who are commonly capable of no other direction in their Morals and Piety than the vertuous examples of their Superiours When too many of our Nobility and Gentry shall desert their antient Seats and Countrey Interests to enjoy an urbane effeminacy immerge in the gulfs of Luxury and to enervate in the Venereal Laboratories of the Town with the greater Security to their names and less observation of the world this must be reputed no small cause of Schism in their Tenants and Dependents who in many Lordships and places of the Nation want nothing more than the antique Hospitality of England and the Orthodox practice of their Landlords and Patrons to secure them against the cantings of the Wolves and to shame them into a conformable obedience and were it seriously consider'd how easie and natural the motion is from immorality and Atheism to disloyalty and civile Apostasie these Monsters would be proscrib'd the Courts of Princes to learn humanity among flocks and herds But when the Sacred Name of Jesus
with so great a Schismatick God charges him expresly Vers 9. to eat no bread nor drink water in that place now an old Prophet that dwelt in Bethel pretends a new Revelation and that with such cunning delusion as he prevailed with the young Prophet to go back and dine with him at Bethel but that entertainment cost him his life Verse 24. The reason of this severity was very just and equitable for God had given him an express command not to eat in that place and that charge was reveal'd to him by some such manifest way of Divine Revelation that he was as much ascertain'd it was the Word of the Lord as he was assur'd of his own being And therefore he was justly punish'd for disobeying a plain command and hearkning to a pretended Revelation which was not personally reveal'd to him and of the truth of which he could not be so much secur'd as he was of his former Vision Thus obedience to Governours in general is as manifest a Law of God as was ever given to the World and we are in no particular to disobey them except we can produce another Divine Law of equal evidence and Authority which prohibits our obedience in that particular or else I believe from the process of the former story it is displeasing to God to transgress such a plain certain Law without a manifest prohibition from Heaven but only out of niceness of fancy or private judgement And if the Church should part with all those things which Dissenters judge to be sinful there could be neither Church nor Government for we must throw off our Hoods and Surplice to gratifie the scrupulous Puritan we must strip our selves stark-naked to satisfie the Fanaticism of the Adamites nay we must part not only with Rites and Ceremonies but the whole Liturgie and Hierarchy of the Church because some fancy them to be Anti-christian nay the Creed is not secure we must expunge the Article of Christs Divinity to humour the Socinians we must blot out the Propitiation of Christ the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Resurrection of the body to gratifie the Quakers and so we must not only deface the front and out-side of the Temple but even raze it to the ground because it does not please the eye of these men of Babel nay we must renounce our reason and our senses too to satisfie the Papists in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation and so by this method at length we must neither be men nor Christians But let us put the case at the worst and suppose what these men fancy were really true That there were some things enjoyn'd by the Church which were really sinful I confess this would be a difficult and unhappy circumstance but yet it would not justifie a total separation and the erecting of new modell'd Churches for I have prov'd before that we are bound by the eternal reasons of Peace and Order to communicate with those Bishops and that part of the Catholick Church under which we live and if it should so happen that some things evidently sinful were enjoyn'd by this Church then we might remove into some other part of the Catholick Church that were of a sounder constitution But if we continued within the Jurisdiction of this Church I think we should be oblig'd to communicate with it in Publick Confession of Faith in Devotions and Sacraments and as far as we could without manifest sin We might with peace and patience enjoy a pure conscience in our own family but it could never be lawful by any rule of Christianity to make a total separation and to set up another form of Church-Government in opposition to that under whose Jurisdiction we live But Mr. H. in the Appendix hath discover'd a new Argument to vindicate the Non-conformists in upholding Conventicles distinct from the Assemblies of the Church of England The summ of his new Invention amounts to thus much That necessity is laid upon them by Divine Law to preach the Gospel as for their communion with our Churches it is but an humane establishment Now seeing they cannot preach in our Assemblies the necessity of a Divine Law obliges them to teach in Conventicles Now Sir to encounter this Gigantick reason we must enquire the truth of his first Postulatum Whether any such necessity be laid upon these men to preach the Gospel Indeed I have met with a Geneva Divine that stoutly believes that necessity was laid upon Cain to be a Murderer and upon Judas to be a Traytor Now I confess if this Divinity be true they may be under the unavoidable fate of Schism and Rebellion and then we ought to pity and excuse them and lay the guilt in Heaven But I will suppose Mr. H. to be too good and modest for to accuse God to acquit himself And the necessity he pretends is founded in their call to the Ministry Now Sir there will be a necessity for us to enquire the truth of this Divine Call for the Parliament were a very Jewish Sanhedrim to forbid these men to speak openly in the name of Jesus if they were certainly sent of God But I shall ask them the same Question concerning their Mission that our Saviour asked the Jews concerning John's Baptism Was it from Heaven or of men If they shall say from men then they must shew us their orders from the hands of the Bishops the Apostles Successors who only have Authority with Titus to ordain Elders or Priests in every City If they say from Heaven they must then bring us very serious credible Witnesses to assure us that they were called by a voice from the clouds as St. Paul was in his way to Damascus And yet if this were done we live in such a Sceptick Age that men would not credit the Boast of Revelation without the credentials of a Miracle And I confess I cannot blame the Christian World for this suspecting humour for so many impostures and delusions have been imposed upon the World by this pretence that 't is prudence not to be too credulous Now Sir you may observe that these fanciful Visions and Revelations have strangely swelled these men for they are no less in their own opinion than the great Apostles of Christ and therefore with St. Paul they cry out Necessity is laid upon us and wo be unto us if we preach not the Gospel that is Sir That the Kingdom of England are still Jews and Barbarians and except these chief Apostles preach the Gospel there is no hopes of their conversion from Gentilism or Judaism Nay pag. 5 6. he tells us That there is such a necessity for these men to preach in Conventicles that the everlasting welfare of thousands of mens souls depend upon it Wo wo to the King and Parliament that should dare to stop the mouths of these men upon whose breath depends the salvation of thousands of souls Why Sir this is far more mischievous than shutting up the Exchequer breaking the East-India Company or
to London to receive Consecration from the hands of our English Bishops and so engraft themselves again into the unity of the Catholick Church this they might easily do without being oblig'd to any subscriptions to Papal power or innovations if their omission of this arise from a contempt and abhorrence of Episcopacy I have no Apology for them neither would I be in the communion of those Churches for all the Bank of their East-India Company If any of the forreign Churches be under such unhappy circumstances that they can justly plead a necessity for having no Bishops or Priests of the Apostolick Succession I have great compassion for them and question not but God accepts them for I receive that as an indisputable Maxim That where there is an inevitable necessity there can be no guilt though the fact it self be never so much irregular But as for those Churches in general I have St. Pauls Charity Those that are without let God judge Thirdly Our squeamish Sectaries are offended at the Hierarchy of England because it derives its succession from the Bishops of Rome To which I have a double Answer First That I make not the Chair of Rome the sole Head or Origine of this Catholick succession for the Episcopal or Apostolick power of Government and Ordination was equally conferred upon all the Apostles by the general commission of our High Priest Jesus and therefore a succession of Bishops and Priests from any of these Apostles is enough to assert our unity with the Catholick Church You know the twelve Apostles are made the twelve foundation-stones of the Christian Temple and that part of the Church which in a right line is built upon St. James is as much in the unity and compact of the building as that which stands upon St. Peter Secondly Let us grant it that we claim our succession from the line of Rome this will no way prejudice the Episcopacy of England I hope it was no dishonour to the Holy Jesus that there were some of his Genealogy that had no very good fame in the World it was sufficient that by that line it was made evident our Lord sprung from Judah and it is enough for the Bishops of England to make it evident they sprung from the Apostles and though some of their line were men of impious lives or erroneous opinions that no way lessened their power of propagation nor invalidates the Authority of our succession Thus I have consider'd Schism as a separation from the Bishops and Priests of the Apostolick line and I see no reason to recant this notion And therefore the Appendixer is vastly mistaken pag. 9. when he tells us That if the Parliament did legitimate their Meetings there were an end of the Schism for they might indeed by a Law of Toleration acquit them from all the Temporal penalties of a separation but it would exceed all the Omnipotency of Parliaments to discharge them from the guilt of Schism for they must first compel their Teachers to take Episcopal Orders and bring in all the Conventicles into the communion of the Catholick Church and place them under the Government of their proper Bishops or else they would still be Schismaticks non obstante Statuto Before I conclude I will consider some grand Absurdities that will follow from the denyal of this notion First The profound Fanaticks in England clamour against the whole Hierarchy and will have the whole race of Arch-bishops and Bishops to be Anti-christian Now Sir I 'le appeal to your judgement if this be not blasphemy for then all the holy Bishops that assembled in the first four General Councils that did assert the truth of Christianity against Pagans Jews and Hereticks and those many Bishops of the antient Church that headed the noble Army of Martyrs must be damn'd as limbs of Antichrist Nay I cannot see how to defend Timothy and Titus from being Anti-christian too and if these Propagators of the Christian Faith were Anti-christian where shall we enquire for Christianity Nay this were a sure foundation for Atheism for how can it be reconcil'd to the Providence of a God or the care of Jesus that he should plant a Kingdom upon earth with a promise of his presence and most careful providence and yet to suffer his own Kingdom to be enslav'd under the usurpation of an Anti-christian yoke for sixteen hundred years together if this were true too many wise men would conclude with the fool in the Psalmist That there is no God Secondly If this succession of Bishops and Presbyters be not necessary to preserve our unity with the Catholick Church then the Keys must be thrown away and excommunication is but an idle impertinence for if there be not a certain body or corporation of Christians known by a succession of power and Priesthood from the Apostles how can it be known when a person is cast out of the Church for if the Christian Church be like a Wilderness where every family may pitch their Tent where they please there is no use of Keyes to so wide a desert Thirdly if this succession be not necessary how can any rational man be ever satisfied in the administration of Ministerial Offices as Sacraments and Absolution when there is no certain rule in the world by which he can rationally be assured of the regular Authority of him that ministers To conclude this if this notion of unity be disown'd then every Conventicle is a true Church and every man whom himself or the people fancy inspir'd must be receiv'd for a Prophet and God must lose one of his Titles The God of Order and Confusion must be believ'd to be an Ordinance of Heaven Before I conclude give me leave to reverse the Doctor and make his Front the Rear Sir the phrase may be allow'd for if I mistake not the Author has been a man of War and understands very well the Martial Dialect The Harangue with which the Doctor prefaces his Plea may justly be inverted It was doubtless one of the greatest infelicities that ever befell the whole body of people in these three Nations that when in the year 1662. Religion was so happily setled in Faith Worship and Government according to the pattern of the antient Catholick Church in the first three Centuries and though this Religion was ratified by the very hand of God and the dry bones reviv'd by the Miracle of an unexpected Restitution that yet there should be amongst us so many thousands of such perverse and sullen Tempers as not to be perswaded into the Churches communion neither by Law Reason nor Miracle I cannot discern the Doctors ingenuity in his second Section where he originates the Act of Uniformity in the anger ambition and covetousness of Church-men and allows our Governours not one grain of Prudence or Piety in the composure of that Law He first takes notice of the anger that rested in the bosom of Church-men who had been sufferers Methinks those men who had
Chrysostome in his Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 highly magnifies the Office and Authority of a Priest for speaking of that order of men he tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That God hath invested the Priests with such Authority as he never conferred upon Angels or Arch-Angels For to which of the Angels did he say at any time What ever ye bind on Earth is bound in Heaven and whose sins ye Remit they are Remitted For as the Father gave Power to the Son to Remit sins so the Son of God hath committed the same Power to his Ministers on Earth I believe the Power of Absolution which was conferred upon the Christian Priesthood by the Commission of our Lord is not so large as the Pope would extend it nor yet so inconsiderable as the Puritan fancies it I believe our Saviour did not trifle when he granted that Charter to the Apostles but sure there is something in that Authority that is solemn and momentous and whatever it be I resolve to enjoy the benefit of it And therefore I declare that I would sooner travel from London to Larissa to communicate with the Greek Church where I might be assured of Priestly Authority than walk from Temple-Barr to Westminster to joyn with a Lay-Conventicle I know no Rule in the World that can rationally assure me of Ministerial Authority but a Sacerdotal succession from the Apostles As for the Pretension of Inspiration it is no more than Mahomet and Manes and every Impostor have pretended Their Argument from Gifts and Qualifications weighs nothing with me A Jew under the Mosaical Oeconomy might have hired an Hebrew Butcher who might have slain his Lamb or Goat and have dress'd it and laid it upon an Altar with as much art and exactness as the eldest Priest in the Temple but then it had been no Sacrifice nor have ever been accepted of God as a Legal Attonement no it was the Priests offering Sacrifice that made them Peace-offerings it was the Priests sprinkling the blood upon the Altar of the Lord and his burning the Fat that was an essential Requisite to render the Oblation a sweet savour unto the Lord. Angels and Arch-Angels are Wise Zealous and Holy Spirits but all their excellencies do not make them Priests though in another sense they are Ministring Spirits To conclude this since I can no way be rationally secured of my Relation to Christ or of my participation of all the advantages of Christianity but by a commâ—nion with the Catholick Church and its Ministerial Authority I do therefore assure you that I have a greater value for my communion with the Priests and the Temple than for that ador'd Diana of English Property And if any unhappy circumstance should ever put me upon the experiment I would desert this to enjoy the other Sir if ever the Christian World become wise and sober this very consideration would repair the Breaches of the Catholick Church and prove the final Ruine of Fanatick Conventicles Our Author passionately declaims against the Supremacy and Ambition of Bishops I confess Pride and Ambition are greatly inconsistent with the humble nature of Christianity and are strange indecencies in Spiritual Governours and I will never make an Apology for Vice and Disorder But this ought not to be urged as a Reason for the extirpation of Episcopacy Our Lord did not suspend nor degrade his Apostles because there was a strife among them who should be the greatest Nor would it be just or charitable to charge all Bishops with these evil imputations I observe one famous Instance of Humility in the Chair of Rome and that Sir you know is the most Principal Seat of Ambition Gregory Bishop of Rome who in the year of our Lord 596. sent Augustina into England to convert the Saxons in his Epistle to Eulogius Bishop of Alexandria disowns the ambitious Title of Universal Supremacy Indicare quoque vestra Beatitudo studuit jam se quibusdam non scribere superba vocabula que ex vanitatis radice prodierunt mihi loquitur dicens sicut jussistis Quod verbunt jussionis peto à meo Auditu removere quâ—â—scio quis sum qui estis Loco enim mihi Fratres estis moribus Patres non ergo jussi sed quae utilia visa sunt indicare curavi ecce in praefatione Epistolae quam ad me ipsum qui prohibui direxistis superbae Appellationes verbum Universalem me Papam dicentis imprimere curastis Quod peto dulcissima mihi fanctitas vestra ultra non faciat quia vobis subtrahitur quod alteri plus quam ratio exigit praebetur And we must not look upon this Modesty as the Poor spirited humour of this single Bishop for he assures us in the same Epistle that it was the constant humility of his Predecessors Recedant verba quae vanitatem inflant charitatem vulnerant quidem in Sancta Chalcedonensi Synodo atque post à subsequentibus Patribus hoc Decessoribus meis oblatum vestra sanctitas novit sed tamen nullus eorum uti hoc unquam vocabulo voluit But Sir our Author not only protests against the Ambition but the Authority of Bishops for he tells us They do but abuse themselves and others that would perswade us that Bishops by Christs institution have any Superiority over other men than that of Reverence He grants that there is a greater Reverence due to them than to other men but how this should become a duty without supposing a just superiority to exact it I cannot understand I will not here ingage in the Controversie about the Divine Right of Episcopacy But I am sure the Apostles had a Superiority over the Seventy Disciples by Christs Institution and I am certain that the Antient Catholick Church did esteem Bishops as the Apostles Successors The first we meet with in Ecclesiastical History that ever denyed the Superiority of Bishops was Aenius a discontented Arian and Epiphanius records him for a Heretick and brands his Opinion as a Diabolical Delusion Sir there remains nothing more considerable in our Author only the old Puritan Cavil against all Pomp and Gestures Garments and Musick in Publick Worship I confess I dislike the gaudy Pageantry and numerous Ceremonies of the Ordo Romanus and I as much abhorr the Rudeness of a Conventicle Sir I have neither mind nor leisure to examine the Scruples of nicer fancies but I will propound these Queries and reserve them for future consideration 1. Whether the Governours of the Catholick Church have not as much Authority to make Institutions in matters indifferent as the Apostles Whether the Womans Veil or the Holy Kiss were more Jure Divino than the Surplice or Sign of the Cross 2. Whether a Pompous Superstition in Publick Worship be not more pardonable than a Rude Forlorness Or whether a Sancy Rudeness will not sooner introduce Atheism than the most Glorious Superstition 3. Whether the awful Adorations of the Jews the Glory of the Tabernacle and the Temple the Ornaments of the Priests and the Musick were Leviticall or rather founded upon Moral Reasons 4. Whether a Publick Oratory or Church that is set apart for the more Solemn Worship of the Eternal God may not without Superstition be as Glorious and Magnificent as the Stadthouse in Holland except Imagery Whether a Respect to God will not as much justifie one as a Relation to the States will vindicate the other Sir Whenever you please to command I shall enquire for Resolution in the mean I rest Sir Your Affectionate Friend and Servant R. C. FINIS Lib. 3. adv Haer. cap. 3. Lib. 4. cap. 43. ☞ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epad Philadelph And exhorting to obey the Bishops and Priests he tells them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Ep. ad Trall Epist 42. Pag. 34. Aug. Ep. 113. Tom. 1. p. 781. ad p. 802. Epiphan adv Haeres Tom. 2. p. 727. Pag. 30. Page 10. Sect. 12. Pag. 11. Pag. 3 4 5 6. Pag. 4. Page 2. Page 2. Page 2. Page 4. Sect. 5. Page 9. Page 2. Page 1. Epist 118. Page 3. Niceph. l. 8. c. 25. Lang. Int. 〈◊〉 Tom. 1. Lib. 10. Cap. 5. Sect. 1. Tom. 1. lib. 16. cap. 5. sect 5. What authority have we for Infant Baptism the Lords Day the dispensing the Eucharist to Women but the Authority and Practice of the Antients Lev. 17. 5 6.
would be a lesser crime than Pride Schism or obstinate disobedience Our Author reflects again upon the Paschal Schism in these words We may plainly see the danger of our Appeal to Antiquity for Resolution in controverted points of Faith and how small Relief we are to expect from them for if the Direction of the chiefest Guides and Directors of the Church did in a point so Trivial so mainly fail them can we without the imputation of great Grossness and Folly think so poor-spirited Persons competent Judges of the Questions now on foot between the Churches Pardon me I know what temptation drew that note from me Now Sir you may perceive that the Author was very sensible that there was some such guilt in this passage as would stand in need of pardon And therefore if you dare adventure the scandal of giving pardon to a man after he is dead you may remit this guilty passion of Mr. Hales for my part I have charity for him because he tells us that this expression was drawn from him by some vehement Temptation And you know that a very great Apostle under a Temptation denyed the Son of God and if this Good man in such a Hurricane Renounced all the Fathers of the Church this should plead for our compassion What that particular Temptation was that occasioned this Ecstasie he was not pleas'd to acquaint us and therefore I cannot determine but give me leave to conjecture I find Mr. Hales had the ill Destiny to be a member of the Belgick Synod and he informs us in his Epistles that it was sometimes his Province to refute the Arguments of the Remonstrants Hoste absente Now perhaps observing that those poor-spirited Antients would not be pressâ—d into the States service but were all of a different opinion from that Synod who knows but this unlucky contradiction and his conversing too much with Dammannus might put him into an unwary heat and make him Reprobate all Antiquity Our Church has so much Reverence for the Antients as in her publick Articles to own the Authority of the first four General Councils and King James himself would never impose upon us the Novel Decrees of Dort I confess Sir ever since I understood Greek I have had the Grossness and Folly as Mr. H. interprets it to have more value for the Judgement of St. Cyril of Jerusalem St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Chrysostome than for the opinion of Bogermanus Sybrandus Beza or Gomarus I have been so silly as to think the Antient Catholick Council of Nice that was but three Centuries remov'd from the Apostles did merit more Authority and esteem in the Christian Church than that partial and Modern Assembly of Dort And I cannot yet alter my Perswasion But I would gladly quit my self from those ugly imputations of Grossness and Folly I must therefore examine the Arguments of Mr. Hales by which he invalidates the Authority of the Antients First He accuses them for Poor-spirited Persons Indeed they never were so daring as to be so bold with the Attributes of God as the Dutch Professors were in the Synod of Dort or as Beza was in Geneva but yet these poor-spirited men had the Resolution to be Martyrs for the Name of Jesus and that Sir I should think is a very divine and noble piece of Gallantry Besides some of them left to the World their Golden Remains excellent Monuments of their Prety and Learning as worthy as our Authors Secondly But his great Argument against Appealing to the Judgement of the Antients is their indiscretion about that trivial matter of the observation of Easter The Churches of the East and West were not without some plausible reasons for their different observance of that Festival and though they will not amount to a substantial Apology for that Controversie yet they will something help to lessen the vastness of the Indiscretion for the Eastern Church had been taught by the Apostles an innocent complyance to the Jews in those Quarters that they might not scandal them by a sudden and total departure from all the Mosaical Rites and Observances and therefore the Christians in the East governed them by St. Pauls Rule of complaisance to the Jews they so far became Jews as to celebrate their Easter Festival upon the fourteenth Month when the Jews observ'd their Paschal And though I confess that Reason was out of force in two or three Centuries yet Sir you know Custom has a Great Empire upon wiser creatures than Beasts of Burden and therefore it was no Prodigy of imprudence nor any Divine Judgement if they were so tenacious of an Antient custom that had a very innocent and Apostolick Foundation The Western Church being at a great distance from Palestine was never oblig'd to that complyance to the Jews But being left to their Christian Liberty and assured by an infallible Oracle That our Lord arose from the Dead upon the first day of the Week therefore they judged it most apposite and rational to celebrate the Anniversary Feast of the Resurrection upon a Dies Dominicus This appear'd so reasonable to that excellent Prince Constantine the Great that with great Resolution he oppos'd the Jewish complyance of the Eastern Christians and in his General Epistle concerning the Transactions of the Council of Nice he disswades the Christian Church from that custom Itaque nihil vobis commune sit cum infestissima Judaeorum Turba Domini Percussoribus And besides his Imperial Ratification of the Canon of Nice he inforces a General Uniformity in the Observation of Easter by a very plausible Reason in the same Epistle Unam esse Catholicam suam Ecclesiam voluit cujus tametsi partes in multis variisque sunt dispersae locis uno tamen spiritus hoc est Divino Arbitrio fovetur Consideret porro sanctitatis vestrae solertia quam grave sit indecorum per eosdem Dies alios quidem jejuniis intentos esse alios verò vacare conviviis All I design by this is to shew that there was so much Plausibility on each side that there was something in the case more than Trifle and not such monstrous Grossness and Folly as our Author represents But grant this Controversie to be trivial and the Antients indiscreet in the manage of it yet I cannot discern the Logick of his conclusion that therefore they are not to be appeal'd unto in any controversie of Religion The sense of this Argument amounts to thus much Because the wisest and most learned men have sometimes their mistakes and indiscretions therefore their Judgement is never to be regarded in any matter of moment I fancy the World would find vast inconveniencies by such a consequence Sir I request you to lend me your Italian Boccaline for the Conventions of Parnassus have now as much Authority as the four first General Councils and sure there will not be so much Grossness and Folly in Appealing to the Sentence of Apollo as in consulting the Judgement of the poor-spirited