be equally engaged in the Schism yet you may safely upon your occasions communicate with either so be you flatter neither in their Schism For why might it not be lawful to go to Church with the Donatist or to celebrate Easter with the Quartodeciman if occasion so require since neither Nature nor Religion nor Reason doth suggest any thing to the contrary For in all publick Meetings pretending Holiness so there be nothing done but what true Devotion and Piety brook why may not I be present in them and use communication with them Nay what if those to whose care the execution of the publick Service is committed do something either unseemly or suspicious or peradventure unlawful what if the garments they wear be censured as nay indeed be superstitious what if the Gesture of adoration be used at the Altar as now we have learned to speak What if the Homilist or Preacher deliver any Doctrine of the truth of which we are not well perswaded a thing which very often falls out yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained personally to bear a part in them our selves The Priests under Eli had so ill demeaned themselves about the daily Sacrifice that the Scripture tells us they made it to stink yet the People refused not to come to the Tabernacle nor to bring their Sacrifice to the Priest For in these Schisms which concern Fact nothing can be a just cause of refusal of Communion but only to require the execution of some unlawful or suspected act For not only in Reason but in Religion too that Maxim admits of no release Cautissimi cujusque Praeceptum quod dubitas ne feceris Long it was ere the Church fell upon Schism upon this occasion though of late it hath had very many for until the second Council of Nice in which concilable Superstition and Ignorance did conspire I say untill that Rout did set up Image-worship there was not any remarkable Schism upon just occasion of Fact All the rest of Schisms of that kind were but Wantonness this was truly serious In this the Schismatical Party was the Synod it self and such as conspired with it For concerning the use of Images in Sacris First It is ackowledged by all That it is not a thing necessary Secondly It is by most suspected Thirdly it is by many held utterly unlawful Can then the enjoyning of the practice of such a thing be ought else but abuse Or can the refusal of Communion here be thought any other thing than duty Here or upon the like occasion to separate may peradventure bring personal trouble and danger against which it concerns every honest Man to have Pectus benè praeparatum further harm it cannot do So that in these cases you cannot be to seek what to think or what you have to do Come we then to consider a little of the second sort of Schism arising upon occasion of variety of opinion It hath been the common disease of Christians from the beginning not to content themselves with that measure of Faith which God and Scriptures have expresly afforded us but out of a vain desire to know more than is revealed they have attempted to discuss things of which we can have no light neither from Reason nor Revelation neither have they rested here but upon pretence of Church-authority which is none or Tradition which for the most part is but figment they have peremptorily concluded and confidently imposed upon others a necessity of entertaining Conclusions of that nature and to strengthen themselves have broken out into Divisions and Factions opposing Man to Man Synod to Synod till the Peace of the Church vanished without all possibility of recall Hence arose those ancient and many separations amongst Christians occasioned by Arrianism Eutychianism Nestorianism Photinianism Sabellianism and many more both ancient and in our time all which indeed are but names of Schism howsoever in the common Language of the Fathers they were called Heresies For Heresie is an act of the Will not of Reason and is indeed a Lye not a mistake Else how could that known speech of Austine go for true Errare possum Haereticus esse nolo Indeed Manichaeism Valentianism Marcionism Mahometanism are truly and properly Heresies For we know that the Authors of them received them not but minted them themselves and so knew that which they taught to be a Lye But can any Man avouch that Arrius and Nostorius and others that taught erroneously concerning the Trinity or the Person of our Saviour did maliciously invent what they taught and not rather fall upon it by erorr and mistake Till that be done and that upon good Evidence we will think no worse of all Parties than needs we must and take these Rents in the Church to be at the worst but Schisms upon matter of Opinion In which case what we are to do is not a point of any great depth of understanding to discover so be Distemper and Partiality do not intervene I do not yet see that Opinionum Varietas Opinontium Unitas are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that Men of different opininions in Christian Religion may not hold communion in Sacris and both go to one Church Why may I not go if occasion require to and Arrian Church so there be no Arrianism exprest in their Liturgy And were Liturgies and publick Forms of Service so framed as that they admitted not of particular and private fancies but contained only such things as in which all Christians do agree Schisms on Opinion were utterly vanished For consider of all the Liturgies that are or ever have been and remove from them whatsoever is scandalous to any Party and leave nothing but what all agree on and the event shall be that the Publick Service and Honour of God shall no ways suffer Whereas to load our Publick Forms with the Private Fancies upon which we differ is the most sovereign way to perpetuate Schism unto the Worlds end Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading of Scriptures Exposition of Scripture Administration of Sacraments in the plainest and simplest manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgy though nothing either of private Opinion or of Church Pomp of Garments of prescribed Gestures of Imagery of Musick of matter concerning the Dead of many superfluities which creep into the Churches under the name of Order and Decency did interpose it self For to charge Churches Liturgies with things unnecessary was the first beginning of all superstition and when scruples of Conscience began to be made or pretended then Schisms began to break in If the spiritual Guides and Fathers of the Church would be a little sparing of incumbring Churches with superfluities and not over rigid either in reviving obsolete Customs or imposing new there were far less danger of Schism or Superstition and all the inconvenience were likely to ensue would be but this they should in so doing yield a little to the imbecilities of Inferiors a thing
unto me But thus much will I say that the benefit of that sacred Influence is confined to those happy Souls in whom it is and cannot extend it self to the Church in publick And if any Catholick except against you for saying so warrant your self and me out of Aquinas whose words are these Innititur fidei natura revelationi Apostolis Prophetis factae qui Canonicos Libros scripserunt non autem Revelationi siqua fuit aliis Doctoribus factae It being granted then that Churches can err it remains then in the second place to consider how far they may err I answer for Churches as I did before for private Persons Churches may err in Fundamentals if they list for they may be heretical for Churches may be wicked they may be Idolaters and why then not heretical Is Heresy a more dangerous thing than Idolatry For whereas it is pleaded that Churches cannot fall into Heresie because of that promise of our Saviour That the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church is but out of mistake of the meaning of that place and indeed I have often mused how so plain a place could so long and so generally be misconstrued To secure you therefore that you be not abused with these words hereafter for they are often quoted to prove the Church's Infallibility I shall endeavour to give you the natural meaning of them For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gates of Hell is an Hebraism for in the Hebrew Expression the Gates of a thing signifies the thing it self as the gates of Sion Sion it self and by the same proportion the gates of Hell signifies Hell it self Now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we English Hell as in no place of Scripture it signifies Heresie so very frequently in Scripture it signifies Death or rather the state of the dead and indifferently aplied to good and bad Let us then take the Word in that meaning for what greater means can we have to warrant the signification of a Scripture-word than the general meaning of it in Scripture So that when our Saviour spake these words he made no promise to the Church of persevering in the Truth but to those that did persevere in the Truth he made a promise of Victory against Death and hell And what he there says sounds to no other purpose but this That those who shall continue his although they dye yet Death shall not have the Dominion over them but the time shall come that the bands of Death shall be broken and as Christ is risen so shall they that are his rise again to Immortality For any help therefore that this Text affords Churches may err in Fundamentals But to speak the Truth I much wonder not only how any Churches but how any private Man that is careful to know and follow the Truth can err in Fundamentals For since it is most certain That the Scripture contains at least the Fundamental Parts of Christian Faith how is it possible that any Man that is careful to study and believe the Scripture should be ignorant of any necessary part of his Faith Now whether the Chucrh of Rome err in Fundamentals yea or no To answer this I must crave leave to use this Distinction To err in Fundamentals is either to be ignorant of or deny something to be Fundamental that is or to entertain something for Fundamental which is not In the first sense the Church of Rome entertaining the Scriptures as she doth cannot possibly be ignorant of any principal part of Christian Faith all her error is in entertaining in her self and obtruding upon others a multitude of things for Fundamentals which no way concern our Faith at all Now how dangerous it is thus to do except I know whether she did this willingly or wittingly yea or no is not easy to define If willingly she doth it it is certainly high and damnable presumption if ignorantly I know not what mercies God hath in store for them that sin not out of malicious wickedness Now concerning the merriment newly started I mean the requiring of a Catalogue of Fundamentals I need no answer no more but what Abraham tells the rich Man in Hell Habent Mosen Prophetas They have Moses and the Prophets the Apostles and the Evangelists let them seek them there for if they find them not there in vain shall they seek them in all the World besides But yet come a little nearer to the Particulars If the Church of Rome would needs know what is Fundamental in our conceit and what not the Answer as far as my self in Person am concerned in the Business shall be no other than this Let her observe what Points they are wherein we agree with her and let her think if she please that we account of them as Fundamentals especially if they be in the Scriptures and on the other hand let her mark in what Points we refuse Communion with her and let her assure her self we esteem those as no Fundamentals If she desire a List and Catalogue made of all those she is at leisure enough for ought I know to do it her self Last of all Concerning the imputation of Rebellion and Schism against Church-Authority with which your Catholick Disputant meant to affright you all that is but meerly Powder without Shot and can never hurt you For since it hath been sufficiently evidenced unto us That the Church of Rome hath adulterated the Truth of God by mixing with it sundry Inventions of her own it was the Conscience of our duty to God that made us to separate For where the Truth of God doth once suffer there Union is Conspiracy Authority is but Tyranny and Churches are but Routs And suppose we that we mistook and made our Separation upon Error the Church of Rome being right in all her Ways though we think otherwise yet could not this much prejudice us For it is Schism upon wilfulness that brings danger with it Schism upon mistake and Schism upon just occasion hath in it self little hurt if any at all SIR I Return you more than I thought or you expected yet less than the Argument requir'd If you shall favour me so much as carefully to read what I have carefully written you shall find at least in those points you occasioned me to touch upon sufficient ground to plant your self strongly against all Discourse of the Romish Corner-creepers which they use for the Seducing of unstable Souls Be it much or little that I have done I require no other reward than the continuance of your good Affection to Your SERVANT whom you know A TRACT Concerning the Power of the KEYS AND Auricular Confession IN opening the Point concerning the Doctrine of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven I will follow those Lines that Tract which your self hath been pleased to set me Yet first ere I come to your particulars I will discover as far as generality will give me leave what it is which we intend when we use
think no sin to be little which in Men spiritually sick is Error saluberrimus and you can never err For natural Physick is only Physick but spiritual Physick is both Physick and Diet and may be indifferently administred both to the sick and the sound Repentance perchance only excepted of which upon occasion assure your self can hardly take too much What reason now can you give me why you should desire to dive into any Man's Breast scire Secreta Domûs Except it be that which follows in the next Verse indè teneri as I must confess I suspect it is The truth is some mistaken Customs of the ancient Church the craft and power of the Clergy the simplicity and ignorance of the Laity these begat the Tragelaphus of which we now speak It may be you take the practice of the ancient Church and the Point of Excomunication to make somewhat for you When those Cards shall come to be play'd though that of Church-custom is not greatly material which way soever it looks I believe you will not find the Game you look for Indeed I was once minded to have considered something of that But I think you look for a Letter not for a Book and I perceive my self already to have gone beyond the compass of a Letter Another Parley therefore if you please shall put an end to those and other Scruples if any do arise And for the present give I pray you a little respite unto Yours J. H. From my Study this 8 Day of March 1637. A TRACT Concerning SCHISM Heresie and Schism as they are in common use are two Theological 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or scare-crows which they who uphold a Party in Religion use to fright away such as making inquiry into it are ready to relinquish and oppose it if it appear either erroneous or suspicious For as Plutarch reports of a Painter who having unskilfully painted a Cock chased away all Cocks and Hens that so the imperfection of Art might not appear by comparison with Nature so Men willing for ends to admit of no fancy but their own endeavour to hinder an inquiry into it by way of comparison of somewhat with it peradventure truer that so the deformity of their own might not appear But howsoever in the common manage Heresie and Schism are but ridiculous Terms yet the things in themselves are of very considerable moment the one offending against Truth the other against Charity and therefore both deadly where they are not by imputation but in deed It is then a matter of no small importance truly to descry the nature of them that so they may fear who are guilty of them and they on the contrary strengthen themselves who through the iniquity of Men and times are injuriously charged with them Schism for of Heresie we shall not now treat except it be by accident and that by occasion of a general mistake spread throughout all the writings of the Ancients in which their names are familiarly confounded Schism I say upon the very sound of the word imports Division Division is not but where Communion is or ought to be Now Communion is the strength and ground of all Society whether Sacred or Civil Whosoever therefore they be that offend against this common Society and Friendliness of Men and cause separation and breach among them If it be in civil occasions are guilty of Sedition or Rebellion if it be by occasion of Ecclesiastical difference they are guilty of Schism So that Schism is an Ecclesiastical Sedition as Sedition is a Lay-Schism Yet the great benefit of Communion notwithstanding in regard of divers distempers Men are subject to Dissension and Disunion are often necessary For when either false or uncertain Conclusions are obtruded for Truth and Acts either unlawful or ministring just scruple are required of us to be perform'd in these cases Consent were conspiracy and open Contestation is not Faction or Schism but due Christian Animosity For the further opening therefore of the nature of Schism something must be added by way of difference to distinguish it from necessary Separation and that is that the causes upon which Division is attempted proceed not from Passion or Distemper or from Ambition or Avarice or such other Ends as humane folly is apt to pursue but from well weighed and necessary Reasons and that when all other means having been tryed nothing will serve to save us from guilt of Conscience but open Separation So that Schism if we would define it is nothing else but an unnecessary Separation of Christians from that part of the visible Church of which they were once Members Now as in Mutinies and Civil Dissensions there are two Attendants in ordinary belonging unto them one the choice of one Elector or Guide in place of the General or ordinary Governour to rule and guide the other the appointing of some publick place or Rendezvous where publick Meetings must be celebrated So in Church-Dissensions and Quarrels two Appurtenances there are which serve to make a Schism compleat First The choice of a Bishop in opposition to the former a thing very frequent amongst the Ancients and which many times was both the cause and effect of Schism Secondly The erecting of a new Church and Oratory for the Dividing-party to meet in publickly For till this be done the Schism is but yet in the Womb. In that late famous Controversy in Holland De Praedestinatione Auxiliis as long as the disagreeing Parties went no further than Disputes and Pen-combats the Schism was all that while unhatched but as soon as one Party swept an old Cloyster and by a pretty Art suddenly made it a Church by putting a new pulpit in it for the separating Party there to meet now what before was a Controversy became a formal Schism To know no more than this if you take it to be true had been enough to direct how you are to judge and what to think of Schism and Shismaticks yet because in the Ancients by whom many Men are more affrighted than hurt much is said and many fearful Dooms are pronounced in this case will we descend a little to consider of Schisms as it were by way of Story and that partly further to open that which we have said in general by instancing in particulars and partly to disabuse those who reverencing Antiquity more than needs have suffered themselves to be scared with imputation of Schism above due measure for what the Ancients spake by way of censure of Schism in general is most true for they saw and it is no great matter to see so much that unadvisedly and upon fancy to break the knot of Union betwixt Man and Man especially amongst Christians upon whom above all other kind of Men the tye of Love and Communion doth most especially rest was a Crime hardly pardonable and that nothing Absolves a Man from the guilt of it but true and unpretended Conscience yet when they came to pronounce of Schisms in
particular whether it were because of their own interests or that they saw not the Truth or for what other cause God only doth know their Judgments many times to speak most gently are justly to be suspected Which that you may see we will range all Schism into two ranks For there is a Schism in which only one Party is the Schismatick for where cause of Schism is necessary there not he that separates but he that occasions the separation is the Schismatick Secondly There is a Schism wherein both Parties are the Schismaticks For where the occasion of separation is unnecessary neither side can be excused from the guilt of Schism But you will ask Who shall be the Judge what is necessary Indeed that is a Question which hath been often made but I think scarcely ever truly answered not because it is a Point of great depth or difficulty truly to assoil it but because the true solution carries fire in the tail of it For it bringeth with it a piece of Doctrine which is seldom pleasing to Superiours To you for the present this shall suffice If so be you be Animo defoecato if you have cleared your self from froath and grounds if neither sloth nor fears nor ambition nor any tempting Spirits of that nature abuse you for these and such as these are the true Impediments why both that and other Questions of the like danger are not truly answered if all this be and yet you see not how to frame your resolution and settle your self for that doubt I will say no more of you than was said of Papias St. John's own Scholar you are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your abilities are not so good as I presumed But to go on with what I intended and from which that interloping Question diverted me that you may the better judge of the nature of Schisms by their occasions you shall find that all Schisms have crept into the Church by one of these three ways either upon matter of Fact or matter of Opinion or point of Ambition For the first I call that matter of Fact when something is required to be done by us which either we know or strongly suspect to be unlawful So the first notable Schism of which we read in the Church contained in it matter of fact for it being upon Error taken for necessary that an Easter must be kept and upon worse than Error if I may so speak for it was no less than a point of Judaism forced upon the Church upon worse than Error I say thought further necessary that the ground for the time of our keeping that Feast must be the rule left by Moses to the Jews there arose a stout Question Whether we were to celebrate with the Jews on the 14th Moon or the Sunday following This matter though most unnecessary most vain yet caused as great a Combustion as ever was in the Church the West separating and refusing Communion with the East for many years together In this fantastical Hurry I cannot see but all the World were Schismaticks neither can any thing excuse them from that imputation excepting only this that we charitably suppose that all Parties out of Conscience did what they did A thing which befel them through the ignorance of their Guides for I will not say their malice and that through the just judgment of God because through sloth and blind obedience Men examined not the things which they were taught but like Beasts of Burden patiently couched down and indifferently underwent whatsoever their Superiours laid upon them By the way by this you may plainly see the danger of our appeal unto Antiquity for resolution in controverted points of Faith and how small relief we are to expect from thence For if the discretion of the chiefest Guides and Directors of the Church did in a Point so trivial so inconsiderable so mainly fail them as not to see the Truth in a Subject wherein it is the greatest Marvel how they could avoid the sight of it can we without imputation of extreme grosness and folly think so poor-spirited Persons competent Judges of the Questions now on foot betwixt the Churches Pardon me I know not what Temptation drew that Note from me The next Schism which had in it matter of fact is that of the Donatist who was perswaded at least so he pretended that it was unlawful to converse or communicate in holy Duties with Men stained with any notorious Sin For howsoever Austin and others do specify only the Thurificati Traditores and Libellatici and the like as if he separated only from those whom he found to be such yet by necessary proportion he must refer to all notorious Sinners Upon this he taught that in all places where good and bad were mixt together there could be no Church by reason of Pollution evaporating as it were from Sinners which blasted righteous Persons who conversed with them and made all unclean On this ground separating himself from all whom he list to suspect he gave out that the Church was no where to be found but in him and his Associates as being the only Men among whom wicked Persons found no shelter and by consequence the only clean and unpolluted Company and therefore the only Church Against this Saint Augustine laid down this Conclusion Unitatem Ecclesiae per totum orbem dispersae propter nonnullorum peccata non esse deserendam which is indeed the whole sum of that Father's Disputation against the Donatist Now in one part of this Controversie betwixt St. Augustine and the Donatist there is one thing is very remarkable The Truth was there where it was by meer chance and might have been on either side any Reasons brought by either Party notwithstanding For though it were de facto false that pars Donati shut up in Africk was the only Orthodox Party yet it might have been true notwithstanding any thing St. Augustine brings to confute it and on the contrary though it were de facto true that the part of Christians dispersed over the Earth were Orthodox yet it might have been false notwithstanding any thing St. Augustine brings to confirm it For where or amongst whom or amongst how many the Church shall be or is is a thing indifferent it may be in any Number more or less it may be in any Place Country or Nation it may be in All and for ought I know it may be in none without any prejudice to the definition of the Church or the Truth of the Gospel North or South many or few dispersed in many places or confined to one none of these either prove or disprove a Church Now this Schism and likewise the former to a wise Man that well understands the matter in Controversie may afford perchance matter of pity to see Men so strangely distracted upon fancy but of doubt or trouble what to do it can yield none For though in this Schism the Donatist be the Schismatick and in the former both Parties
which St. Paul would never have refused to do Mean while wheresoever false or suspected Opinions are made a piece of the Church Liturgy he that seperates is not the Schismatick For it is alike unlawful to make profession of known or suspected falshoods as to put in practice unlawful or suspect actions The third thing I noted for matter of Schism was Ambition I mean Episcopal Ambition shewing it self especially in two heads one concerning Plurality of Bishops in the same See another the Superiority of Bishops in divers Sees Aristotle tells us that Necessity causeth but small faults but Avarice and Ambition were the Mothers of great Crimes Episcopal Ambition hath made this true For no Occasion hath produced more frequent more continuing more sanguinary Schisms than this hath done The Sees of Alexandria of Constantinople of Antioch and above all of Rome do abundantly shew thus much and our Ecclesiastical Stories witness no less of which the greatest part consists in the factionating and tumultuating of great and potent Bishops Socrates Apologizing for himself that professing to write an Ecclesiastical Story he did oft-times interlace the actions of secular Princes and other civil businesses tells us That he did thus to refresh his Reader who otherwise were in danger to be cloy'd by reading so much of the Acts of unquiet and unruly Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which as a Man might say they made Butter and Cheese one of another For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that I may shew you a cast out of my old Office and open you a Mystery in Grammer properly signifieth to make Butter and Cheese Now because these are not made without much agitation of the Milk hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a borrowed and translated signification signifies to do things with much agitation and tumult But that I may a little consider of the two Heads which I but now specified The first I mentioned was the Plurality of Bishops in one See For the general practice of the Church from the beginning at least since the original of Episcopacy as now it is was never to admit at once more than one Bishop in one See And so far in this point have they been careful to preserve Unity that they would not suffer a Bishop in his See to have two Cathedral Churches which thing lately brought us a Book out of France De Monogamia Episcoporum written by occasion of the Bishop of Langres who I know not upon what fancy could not be content with one Cathedral Church in his Diocess but would needs have two which to the Author of that work seems to be a kind of spiritual Polygamy It fell out amongst the Ancients very often sometimes upon occasion of difference in Opinion sometimes because of difference amongst those who were interessed in the choice of Bishops that two Bishops and sometimes more were set up and all Parties striving to maintain their own Bishop made themselves several Churches several Congregations each refusing to participate with others and many times proceeding to mutual Excommunication This is that which Cyprian calls Erigere Altare contra Altare to this doth he impute the Original of all Church disorders and if you read him you would think he thought no other Church-Tumult to be a Schism but this This perchance might plead some excuse For though in regard of Religion it self it matters not whether there be one or more Bishops in the same Diocess and sometimes two are known to have sat at once for Epiphanius reckoning up the Bishops of Rome makes Peter and Paul the first and St. Austin acknowledgeth that for a time he sat fellow Bishop with his Predecessor though he excuseth it that he did so by being ignorant that the contrary had been decreed by the Council of Nice yet it being a thing very convenient for the Peace of the Church to have it so neither doth it any way savour of Vice or Misdemeanor their Punishment sleeps not who unnecessarily and wantonly go about to infringe it But that other Head of Episcopal Ambition concerning Supremacy of Bishops in divers Sees one claiming Superority over another as it hath been from time to time a great Trespasser against the Churches Peace so it is now the final Ruin of it The East and the West through the fury of the two prime Bishops being irremediably separated without all hope of Reconcilement And besides all this mischief it is founded in a vice contrary to all Christian humility without which no Man shall see his Saviour For they do but abuse themselves and others that would perswade us that Bishops by Christ's Institution have any Superiority over other Men further than of Reverence or that any Bishop is Superiour to another further than positive order agreed upon amongst Christians hath prescribed For we have believed him that hath told us That in Jesus Christ there is neither high nor low and that in giving honour every Man should be ready to prefer another before himself which sayings cut of all claim most certainly to Superiority by title of Christianity except Men can think that these things were spoken only to poor and private Men. Nature and Religion agree in this that neither of them hath a hand in this Heraldry of secundum sub supra all this comes from Composition and Agreement of Men among themselves Wherefore this abuse of Christianity to make it Lacquey to Ambition is a vice for which I have no extraordinary name of Ignominy and an ordinary I will not give it least you should take so transcendent a vice to be but trivial Now concerning Schism arising upon these Heads you cannot be for behaviour much to seek for you may safely communicate with all Parties as Occasion shall call you and the Schismaticks here are all those who are heads of the Faction together with all those who foment it for private and indifferent Persons they may be Spectators of these contentions as securely in regard of any peril of Conscience for of danger in Purse or Person I keep no account as at a Cock fight Where Serpents fight who cares who hath the better The best Wish is that both may perish in the fight Now for Conventicles of the nature of which you desire to be informed thus much in general It evidently appears that all Meetings upon unnecessary Occasions of Separation are to be stiled so that in this sense a Conventicle is nothing else but a Congregation of Schismaticks Yet Time hath taken leave sometimes to fix this Name upon good and honest Meetings and that perchance not altogether without good reason For with publick Religious Meetings thus it fares First it hath been at all times confessed necessary that God requires not only inward and private Devotion when Men either in their Hearts and Closets or within their private walls pray praise confess and acknowledge but he further requires all those things to be done in Publick by troops and shoals of Men and from