Thus it is when it sha Excommunicate any for adhereing to any necessary Christian Doctrines Worship or Practices For all who would hold to Christ must Neglect such Censures and though any Church or Synod throws such persons out of its Communion they are joyfully to well come and receive them into theirs For when our Lord Arthorizes and gives validity to Church Censures saying they shall be bound in Heaven and bidding us look on all who will not hear the Church as Heathâ—ns and Publicans He limits this validity to those censures which pass upon men not for any parts of righteousness but for real offences If thy Brother Trespass against thee and will not hear thee tell it unto the Church So that some real offence or Trespass must still be the ground of the process Mat. 18. 15. 17. It must be for not hearing the Church when it calls us to his Truths and Precepts not when it sets up to carry us from them For there if it use censures it acts of it self and not by his Commission It opens or shuts by an Erring Key and must not expect that what is so bound or loosed on earth shall be Ratifyed in Heaven By such perverse Censures the Church only deprives it self of the Communion of Faithful Christians but doth not deprive them of Communion with Christ or with one another The unjust Excommunications of the Jewish Sinhedrim when they cast Christs Disciples out of their Synagogues only estranged or cut off themselves says Photius but brought those Disciples so much nearer to their Lord and Master And so now says he when the imitators of the Jews Excommunicate the Followers of the Apostles they thereby only Conjoyn and Unite them the more to those Divine Apostles to whom they are more closely and exactly knit both in Faith and Life by the Communion of sufferings But they miserably cut off themselves both from their Doctrine and from our Orthodox Faith And therefore instead of bemoaning themselves under such Excommunications and seeking to have them take off by Complying with the Church our Blessed Saviour fortifies his â—râ—â— followers against them and bids them not only patiently to rest under tâ—em but triumphaâ—â—ly to re oyce therein They shall put you out â— the 〈◊〉 ues says he to â—â—em and Cautions them not be offended thereat when it should happen or not to fall off from him or his ways to recover the Liberty of the Sâ—nagogues again Joh. 16. 1. 2. When they shall seperate you from their company by Excommunications and Anathema's and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the Son of Mans sake rejoyce ye in that day and leap for joy for behold Great is your Reward in Heaven for in the like manner did their Fathers unto the Prophets Luk. 6. 22 23. And thus the Holy Apostles and Faithful Adherers to Gods Truth and Worship and good Christian Practices did in all times when for such Adherence they fell under the Anathema's of Synods or the Excommunication of Churches during the Papal or any other former or later Persecutions They joyfully received such sentences and always owned one another and held Communion in Adherence to Gods word and ways among themselves when they were cast out of the communion of such corrupt and Apostatizing Synods or Churches And 't is the same when it shall deprive or discharge any Faithful Bishops and Ministers from supporting such necessary Doctrines worship and practices by their Ministrations as Christ requires For then notwithstanding such deprivations and discharge by Churches and Synods CHRIST'S Faithful Ministers must hold on Ministring and his faithful People must hold on Communicating and Adhereing to them therein Thus as our LORD Notes their Fathers had Separated and cast out the Old Prophets from Prophesying in their Company or Assemblies Who still went on Preaching and Ministring the Word which they were sent out to publish And thus the Sanhedrim that great Synod of the Jewish Church discharged the Apostles from Ministring Christianity or Preaching any more in Christs Name who told them they could by no means desist thereupon but must hold on their Ministration being to Ovey God rather than men Act. 4. 18 19 20. Thus also several Synods Deprived Athanasius and the other Orthodox Bishops who were the stout Asserters and Maintainers of the Divinity of our Lord against the Arians Such was the Synod of Tyre And such also was the Synod of Antioch whose Deprivations of Athanasius and the other Orthodox Bishops were a Blow made at the Nicene Faith though their Canons being good and according to Primitive Usage were by Orthodox Councils afterwards taken into the Book of Ecclesiastical Canons out of which several of them are repeated verbatim in the great Council of Chalcedon and are there among the Canons of others Synods taken in to be Canons of the Universal Church And such likewise were the deprivations of other Synods assembled in that Cause afterwards Now under these Synodical deprivations the great Business of those suffering Bishops was to shew that whatever other Immoralities or Personal Crimes were pretended against them as several were most impudently pretended against all Ground and Reason yet in reality and truth their deprivations were for the Cause of the Faith or for their firmness in maintaining the Divinity and Consubstantiality of Christ with the Father This Athanasius and Paulus plead for themselves teaching That their Depositions were not for any other Cause but for the subversion of the Orthodox Faith as is related by Socrates and Sozomen And what they made appear to the Emperor Constans was That they suffered not for the Crimes or ill Lives they were accused of as the sentence of Deposition did contain but for their thinking and teaching differently from the Synods their Dâ—posers about the Faith And when it was once clear to any Persons or Churches that they were deprived for the cause of the Faith they were not hindred by any Authority of external Judicature in the Synods their deposers but readily received and communicated with them as Christs true Bishops still in those places For notwithstanding these Synodical Deprivations Athanasius was all the while own'd and adher'd to by the Faithful Aegyptians as Paulus also was by the Faithful Constantinopolitanes And when they came to Rome on their giving full satisfaction in this Point Julius the Bishop of Rome received them to Communion Hearing the Cause of each says Sozomen and finding them all to agree in the Nicene Faith which he saw undermined and struck at by their Deprivers he received them to Communion as being of the same Belief with himself This Reception of Athanasius and others who stood deprived by the Synods of Tyre and Antioch c. to his Communion was before the Synod of Rome wherein the Orientals should have justified their Proceedings had acquitted and received them For before the Synod was held at Rome in
him know that he thereby makes a Schism in the Church which Christ is for having kept one And whether he be Bishop Priest c. he shall be the same to us as Andronicus himself is If any shall communicate wîth one out of communion he himself shall be shut out of communion say the Apostolical Canons If any Bishop or Presbyter receive to communion those who are deservedly cast out of the Church for their crimes he shall be lyable to like Punishments says the Council of Carthage And if any Bishop Priest or other of the Clergy appear to communicate with Persons out of communion the shall also stand excommunicate himself as one who confounds the Canons and Order of the Church say the Fathers in the Synod of Antioch The Reason of all this is because Christians as I said and as the African Fathers observe though dispersed over the most distant Places and Countries are but one Society and though multiplyed into the greatest Number of Assemblies yet all these make but one Body We ought to signifie to each other what is acted in any of our Churches says Alexander Bishop of Alexandria in his Synodical Epistle to all Churches upon his Deposition of Arius and his Adherents that whether one Member or Church suffer or rejoyce all the other Members or Churches may suffer or rejoyce with it or give mutual support and confirm each others Acts and Sentences And this because the Catholick Church is but one Body and we are commanded in the Holy Scriptures to keep up therein the bond of Uaanimity and Peace And Synosius threatning the Receivers of those whom he and his Church had put under Excommunication taxes them therein as I have observed for making a Schism in the Church which Christ is for having kept one The several Orthodox and Regular Churches of Christendom are all Members one of another And from that Communion which ought to be among Members of the same Body what belongs to one belongs to all and what is broke off from one is broke off from all The Canon says Balsamon speaking of the 2d Canon of the Council of Antioch which forbids the communicating of other Churches with those who communicate not with their own Church says all Temples and Oratories wheresoever they are make but one Church And therefore if any Person is cast out of the Church and regularly shut out of the Temples and Oratories of the Orthodox in one Country he ought to be shut out of the Temples and Oratories of all and not to be received to communion by the Clergy of other Countries And like Regard all particular Churches are bound to have to each others Reconciliation and Re-union of Members as to their separation and exclusion of them As in binding so also in loosing our Lord ratifies the Acts of his Officers and Vice gerents in all Churches Whatsoever you shall loose or remit on Earth the same shall be loosed or remitted in Heaven Mat. 18. 18. Jo. 20. 23. And in relaxing or remitting censures as well as in laying of them upon Offenders among their respective Charges Orthodox Bishops act in the Person of Christ as St. Paul says 2 Cor. 2. 10. or as Judices vice Christi Judges that sit in Christs place as St. Cyprian notes of them Till their own Bishop has received them or a Synod has cleared them no other Bishop must receive them to communion says the Canon of Antioch before cited And after he has once received them into his Communion no other Bishops must reject them from theirs They are then re-united again to the Body and are Brethren and Members and as such must be admitted to the Communion of Saints by all other Orthodox Members of the same Body and Brotherhood in all places And thus again they are Schismaticks and break that Unity of one Body which Christ has appointed among all Churches who unduly receive and associate with any other Orthodox and Lawful Churches Schismaticks or Excommunicates If they would keep one with all Orthodox Churches as they must look upon all who are duly united to them as united to themselves so must they look upon all who are duly seperated and broke off from them as seperated and broke off from themselves And to do otherwise is to break this one Communion which is to bind all Orthodox Christians into one Body and to make a Schism in the Catholick Church And in further care and provision for the maintenance of this Catholick Accord and Communion among all Churches by the Ancient Rule of the Church all Orthodox Bishops and Churches were to keep up an Intercourse by communicatory Letters Since the Catholick Church is but one Body and we are commanded in Scripture to keep up the Bond of Unanimity and Peace therein the consequence hereof is that we write or signifie to each other what is transacted in any of our Churches that all the rest as Members may bear their part in the same says Alexander Bishop of Alexandria in his Synodical Epistle which I cited before And Siricius of Rome and together with him the whole World is united in one Communion and Society with us by the Intercourse of communicatory Letters says Optatus of the Church of Africk as it stood divided from the Donatists By these Letters an Account was given to other Churches of any Bishops Advancement when he was Ordained Bishop of his Church or of his own Faith to shew that he and his Church were Orthodox and so duly qualified for Union with other Orthodox Churches and fit to be owned as Members of the Body and admitted as Partners in the Communion of Saints And of their own Members or Ministers their Schismaticks or Excommunicates that among all who should come to them from thence other Churches might know whom they were to receive and whom they were to reject as either of the same or of a different Body with themselves And also of any other Church-Acts or Concerns wherein they could either claim the ratification or desired the concurrence or needed the aid council or support or could bear the burdens help the wants or congratulate the well-fare or prosperity of one another Now as to these communicatory Letters certifying each others Members or Ministers Schismaticks or Excommunicates c. the Catholick Rule of the Ancient Church was That no Strangers or Forreigners should be admitted to the Communion of any Church without them If they who came were Clergy-men they were to bring commendatory Letters testifying their Orders Or if Laity pacifical and communicatory declaring they were in Communion with their own Churches No Stranger or Forreigner shall be received without pacifical Letters say the Council of Antioch And no foreign Bishops Priests or Deacons shall be received without commendatory Letters say the Canons of the Apostles If there come any strange or unknown Clergy let them not by any means be any where received
to spiritual Powers and to the Work of the Ministry in their own Churches For Ordination as well as Baptism is not only in respect to the Church of such a Place but to Christ's Church at large Limitations there are as to the Exercise of these Powers as may make for the preservation of Order and Union And in care of Unity and Peace Bishops and Priests of any Church must observe these in acting Episcopally or Sacerdotally whilst they converse in other Churches But having any where received a Lawful and Canonical Ordination they are to be owned as Ministers of Christ wheresoever they come and need no more to be Ordained than other Members need to be baeptised over again So that they are Schismaticks and break this Unity of the Body appointed to be kept up between all particular Churches and their Members who reject the Members or Canonical Ministers of any other Orthodox Churches As they do who Unchurch them or deny Communion to their Members unless they will submit to unrighteous Claims and Usurpations or joyn in unlawful Worship or erroneous Doctrines or who reject their Lawful and Canonical Ministers unless they will receive new Orders which are so many Breaches of that Brotherhood which Christ has Ordained among Churches and are the making of a Schism in the Catholick Church 2. All Orthodox Bishops and Churches are to refuse each others Schismaticks and Excommunicates as if they were their own Schismaticks or Excommunicates And upon their Reconciliation and Re-union to their own Churches to let them in and receive them again as if they had been immediately reconciled and re-united to themselves Which ways of mutually receiving or rejecting of priviledging or debarring Members make that Unity of Discipline which by Order of Christ and according to the Sense and Belief of the Primitive Fathers is one great way of compacting the vast number of Christian Societies into one Body or of keeping up the Unity of Christs Church All we Christians are incorporated or made one Body says Tertullian as by the Belief of the same Religion and the Covenant of Hope so by the Unity of Discipline And when any one Bishop or Church has done any thing We are all thought to have done the same by appearing associated and united in the same consent of consure and discipline say the Clergy of Rome to St. Cyprian 1. They are to refuse each others Schismaticks as if they were their own Schismaticks For as the holding on civil Communion with Traytors is judged Treason So is holding on spiritual Communion with Schismaticks judged Schism They must take part and keep one with the Church And so whilst the Breach lasts must disclaim and keep off from those separate Members who stand divided and broke off from it avoiding those that cause Divisions as St. Paul orders Rom. 16. 17. Accordingly St. Basil lets the Neocaesareans know when they seemed about to break and divide from him and from his Church of Caesarea that if any avoided or broke off from his Communion they would be broke off withal from the Universal Church which held Communion with him We ought not to have Communion in Prayers with any Heretick or Schismatick says the Council of Laodicea Nor ought they who are not of the Assemblies of one Church to be received or allowed to assemble in another Church says the Council of Antioch If he who is not to be received in one Church be received without commendatory Letters in another let both him who is Received and his Receivers be excommunicated say the Apostolical Canons Whosoever says St. Cyprian speaking of the Schism of Felicissimus who had schismatically broken off and divided from himself shall joyn himself to his Conspiracy and Faction may know that he can no longer communicate with us in the Church since he thereby voluntarily chuses rather to separate himself from the Church 2. They are to refuse each others Excommunicates as if they were their own Excommunicates For whatsoever is this way regularly bound in Earth our Lord declares shall be ratified or stand bound in Heaven Mat. 18. 18. Jo. 20 23. And if it is confirmed in Heaven it must stand good and not be thwarted or reversed by any of his Followers here on Earth When the Members among any Societies of Christians for their disorderly walking and not hearing of the Church are cast out thereof they are thrown not only out of the Church of that place but out of Christ's Church at large whereof all other Churches are Members or out of all Christian Churches into the state of Heathens and Publicans as our Lord says Mat. 18. 17. Accordingly Synesius Bishop of Ptolemais in his sentence of Excommunication denounced against Andronicus and Thoas and their Complices says Let no Temple of God be open to them but let every Religious Place or Chappel be shut against them And St. Basil bids the Neocaesareans take heed how they break communion with him because after once he should exclude them no other Catholick Churches which all owned him and held communion with him would any longer own or communicate with them Till they are regularly absolved and reconciled again all other Bishops and Sister-Churches are bound to refuse and repel such Excommunicates as they come to their knowledge Thus Synesius requires of all Sister-Churches and of all Christians to shun the communion of Andronicus and Thoas and their Adherents And 't is not lawful to communicate with Persons out of communion says the Council of Antioch If any either of Clergy or Laity is excommunicated by his own Bishop let none else receive him to communion till his own Bishop has received him again or a Synod has cleared him say the FATHERS of that Council again And concerning those either of the Clergy or Laity who are excluded from communion by the Bishops which are in every Province let the Sentence be valid according to the Canon which decrees That they who are cast out by some shall not be admitted by others says the Great Council of Nice Thus when any Persons or Churches are schismatically or by means of just Censure and Penalty out of Communion with one Orthodox Church by the Rules of Catholick Communion and Accord among Churches according to the mind of Christ and of the Primitive Church ought they to be out of the communion of all Orthodox Churches And if any either Christians or Churches will still hold on communion with such Persons by the foresaid Rules of Union and the Canons of the Catholick Church they are thereby made like unto them and turn makers of a Schism and are to lose the benefit of Communion themselves If any says Synesius in his Excommunicatory Sentence of Andronicus c. shall contemn our Church as being the Church of a small City receiving those whom it has cast out as if Observance were not due to it by reason of its Poverty Let
are not only set up but justified 1. In some particular Cases especially of general Concern CHAP. IV. More of the Cases wherein Faithful Bishops and Ministers are bound to stick to their Pastoral Powers and Ministrations THey are still more bound to this Ministration when 2. This Justification of immoral Practices is by eluding and vacating of moral Precepts opposite thereto by Doctrinal Salvo's Instances of these Salvo's How they vacate the respective moral Precepts Such Salvo's make a Change in moral Doctrine though Men still own the Duties under their general Names The Duty of Pastors to defend and bear up moral Duties against such Salvo's by their Ministrations shewn at large And this when such corrupt Salvo's are only the Doctrines of the Pastors not the Determinations of the Church They are more strictly obliged thereto if the immoral Practices justified by such Salvo's are 1. extreamly Scandaelous to Religion 2. Generally Preach'd up by Seducers Or 3. Come strongly recommended to carnal Passions and Interests chiefly if driven on by general Persecutions CHAP. V. Of the Obligations to actual Ministration which lie upon them in the foresaid Cases THese deduced from their Office and Characters as they relate 1. To God and stand in Place 1. Of his Messengers 2. Of his Ministers and Ambassadors The various Obligations laid on them thereto by this 3. Of his Co-workers 2. As they relate to Religion as they are Ministers and Stewards of its Word and Mysteries The Obligations arising hence CHAP. VI. More of the Obligations to actual Ministration which lie upon them in the foresaid Cases 3. AS they relate to the Souls of Men and are set over the Church 1. As Watch-men 2. As Overseers 3. As Guides or Leaders 4. As Pastors or Shepheards 5. As Doctors or standing Teachers of the Church As Lights of the World and the Salt of the Earth Their Obligations to such exercise in the foresaid Cases from all the foresaid Characters Different Degrees in this Obligation A Spirit of Love and Zeal to Christ and his Church which stand not upon strict Terms the Spring and Principle of this Exercise How this clears the Duty of deprived Bishops and Clergy as to this Exercise on such Revolutions Answerable to this Obligation of the Pastors to afford such Ministrations at such Times is the Peoples Obligation to adhere to them and attend on them for Participation thereof PART II. Of Deprivations by Civil States or Ecclesiastical Synods CHAP. I. Of the Force of State Deprivations in the foresaid Cases THE Plea of a Deprivation of State represented in Bar of their Ministrations in the foresaid Cases Concerning which 1. This is to be press'd only under a supposed Legal and Rightful State 2. It s Deprivation is no conscionable Discharge from their Spiritual Ministrations in the foresaid Cases This is meant only of pure Spiritual Ministrations Not 3. of any Temporal Accessions and Inforcements of those Ministrations over which the State has Power because it conferr'd them As also over some other Powers belonging to the Church whilst it kept separate which it gives up to the State during its Incorporation with it These it gives up 1. with a Salvo to the Interests of Religion and of Souls 2. Only whilst it continues protected not when the State puts True Religion under Persecution CHAP. II. Of the Kings Ecclesiastical Supremacy Received and Asserted by our Church It lies not in his being invested with or having a Sovereign Disposal of the Powers of Orders But 1. in retaining his civil Power over all Persons whether Lay-Men or Ecclesiasticks In Virtue of this civil Power over the Persons of Ecclesiasticks he can command them faithfully to discharge their Spiritual Functions 2. In the Subordination of Ecclesiastical Courts and Causes wherein Ecclesiasticks are content to act subordinately on the Score of their secular Mixtures and Jurisdictions And in holding all this 3. in Opposition and Bar of all other Earthly Dependance especially of all Forreign Iurisdiction and Appeals This Supremacy excludes not Spiritual Ministrations of deprived Clergy in the foresaid Cases This may be collected from their Adversaries Concessions CHAP. III. Remarques on the Preceeding Account of the Force of State Deprivations and Instances of Deprivations alledg'd to the contrary considered and cleared up THE preceeding Account of the Force of State Deprivations is not 1. To deny the civil Power the Cognizance of Bishops and Ministers in civil Matters Nor any Iust Power over Ecclesiasticks 2. Nor to set the Church above the State as the Papal Usurpations pretend to do Nor to mistake or overlook the Condition of an incorporate Church The Deprivation of Abiathar by Solomon considered and cleared As also the frequent Depositions of the Jewish High Priests by the Roman Governours And of the Greek Patriarchs by the Turks And of the Popish Bishops by a Commission of State pursuant to an Act of Parliament in Queen Mary's Days CHAP. IV. Of Deprivations by Synods in the foresaid Cases DEprivation of Bishops most fit and pr per for Synods Their Deprivation no Discharge from Ministrations in the foresaid Cases as shown by reasons And by the Practice of the Church This is meant when Synods deprive for the cause of the Truth not of other mere Personal â—rimes where the Injured must acquiesce till relieved by regular Sentence â—hat regard is to be had to the Decisions of Synods in these Cases PART III. Of SCHISM CHAP. I. Of the Nature of Shism And of the Schism of particular Members from their own Church in throwing off Subjection and Dependance on their own Bishops OF the Union of a Society which Schism breaks One way of Uniting Societies is by Uniting them under the same Heads These in Church Societies are the Bishops Union of particular Members to their own Church is in Keeping Subject and Dependant on their own Lawful Bishops And their Schism lies in breaking off from them especially in seting up Opposite or Anti-Bishops against them So 1. in such Oppositions the Anti-Bishop and his Adherents make the Schism if the former Bishop was Orthodox and is still Rightful Bishop of the Church Of George the Cappadocian and Athanasius 2. The Unity of the Church doth not go with the greatest Numbers What distinguisheth Meetings in the Unity of the Church from Schismatical Conventicles Schismaticks too oft the more Numerous Party Much less doth it go with Places of Assemblies 3. Therefore in pressing Ecclesiastical Unity Men must be press'd to keep United to their own Orthodox Rightful Bishop not to any Opposite Bishop The Gospel Precepts of Love and Peace c. all on this Side and not to be urged the other way Such a Schism not to be cared by the Recessions of the Suffering Bishops in the foresaid Cases CHAP. II. Of the Schism of particular Churches from other Sister Churches by rejecting Fraternal Communion therewith UNity of one Body to be kept up among all particular Churches This is chiefly by the Union and Accord
afford him their Ministrations at such Times As Gods publick Agents and Ordinary Ambassadors their Instructions are to preserve the things of God safe Then they must see to guard his Worship from Sinful and Polluted Mixtures and his Laws from elusive Glosses and undermining Salvo's and the Practices of his People from damnable Unrighteousness and Immoralities And what sort of Agents would they shew themselves should they refuse to Minister and Act for him what trusty Ambassadors should they fail to pursue their Instructions when all these Wrongs and Violences are offer'd to his Affairs and are attempted to be obtruded upon his Worship his Precepts and his People at such times As his Ambassadors they are Ambassadors for Peace and carry the Word of Reconciliation to a People that has offended him And when God and any People are at Enmity by reason of the foresaid Worship and Practices would they approve themselves fit to be intrusted with this Ambassage of Peace or to be Faithful in the Discharge thereof who should not so much as tell the Offenders that God and they are at Difference nor minister and propose from him the true Terms of making up the Breach By failing to Minister this Word when they are sent on purpose with it and have undertaken the Administration of it would they not prove themselves down-right Enemies and basely Treacherous and False to both And is any Failure or Falshood more Fatal as well as more inexcusable than theirs would be in this Case As Christ's Representatives and as Sustaining his Person and Place they are to say what he would say to any Offenders and to act as he would act in these Cases were he visibly to appear and immediately to manage and administer his own Affairs They must come into Christ's Care and Administration when they come to sustain his Person For his Part on Earth as he declares was to Minister to his Church Representing him they must endeavour as they can to supply the want of his Presence and that must be by affording Religion and his People what Ministrations he would afford to them were he among â—â—â—m And this must imply the foresaid Exercise of their Spiritual Ministries in the above-mention'd Cases For were he on Earth at such Times he would surely see no want of these Ministrations to preserve or rescue his Worship from being polluted his Laws from being vacated and the Practice of his People from such Ways of Sin and Death as are then offer'd to be obtruded on them To Minister against all these was his Business when he was upon the Earth and would be so were he to appear again And ought to be the Business of all that represent and appear for him If they neglect the Ministry and Care of these things and let them alone what other Ministries are there left then for them to represent this great Minister of God and Bishops of our Souls in If then they do not Minister his Word to the Church in his Name what becomes of the Communication which they are to keep up between his Church and Him For he is to speak to them by his Representatives and says he that hears them hears him Luk. 10. 16. And if his Representatives are silent at such Times and say nothing from Him that instead of faithfully Maintaining is to drop and make an end of this way of Communication Thus doth their very Office and Station of being Gods Ordinary and Standing Ministers and Publick Agents and Ambassadors and Representatives oblige them to actual Administrations in the foresaid Cases Their Office lies in supplying such Administrations which are the Trust they have receiv'd from Christ and the Business which they are set for He hath committed to us the Administration of this Reconciliation saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 5. 18. This faithful supply of such Administrations is call'd fulfilling their Ministry as in St. Pauls Caution to Archippus Col. 4. 17. For to intrust his things with them as Ministers or Agents is to trust that they will act therein and Administer the same unto his People Accordingly they who have received a Ministry are required to wait on their Administration Ro. 12. 6 7. Or every Man as he hath received the Gift of Preaching or Ministry c. even so to Minister the same one to another as good Stewards of the Manifold Grace of God 1 Pet. 4. 10 11. Thus also they are call'd to Preach the Word and Discharge these Ministrations against Teachers Preaching to please Mens Lusts and against People heaping up such Teachers to themselves that they may thereby fulfil or make full Proof of their Ministry 2 Tim. 4. 2 3 5. And are bid not to neglect the Gift that is in them by Imposition of Hands but to be the Peoples Monitors against the Speakers of Lies in Hypocrisie that they may be good Ministers of Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 4. 2 6 14. And to approve themselves as the Ministers of God by the Word of Truth and by the Armor of Righteousness in the midst of Afflictions and Persecutions 2 Cor 6. 4 5 7. Their Administration must from Time to Time keep up what God would have kept up both in his Peoples Practice and in Doctrine in Worship and Devotion They shall Teach my People the Difference between the Holy and Prophane and shall cause them to discern between the Unclean and the Clean. And they shall keep my Laws and my Statutes in all mine Assemblies or see that all things be done in those Assemblies according to them as Theodoret expounds it Ezek. 44. 23 24. 3. Of his Fellow-workers or Co-adjutors We as Workers together with God beseech you saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 6. 1. We are Labourers together with God the chief Worker And ye are Gods Husbandry whom as Co-labourers we Cultivate Planting what is Profitable and Rooting out every hurtful Weed Ye are Gods Building which we as Work-Men together with him are Spiritually to Rear and Build up or to Repair the same when any part thereof is Broken down 1 Cor. 3. 9. Now when any such Breaches are made upon the Worship or the Laws of God and upon the Practice of his People in all the foresaid Cases God is sure to be at Work with Men. His Providence outwardly throws i Hindrances and awakening Alarms and his Holy Spirit is inwardly Busie in their Hearts by raising Holy Thoughts and Suggestions to prevent the fall of some and to recover and raise up others who are already faln and to set both the Celebration of his own Worship and the Sence of his Precepts and the Practice of his People at Rights again And whilst he is thus Working and plying them both with inward Motions and with outward Accidents or Occurrences his Ministers as Fellow-workers should joyn their Ministration to carry on the same Work in them And how are they Fellow-labourers if at such times whilst he holds on Labouring they give it off How
Deceivers who for filthy Lucres Sake Teach things which they ought not and to convince Gain Sayers Tit. 1. 9 10 11. And to be ready with all faithful Diligence to banish and drive away all erroneous and strange Doctrine contrary to Gods Word and to call upon others to do the same As all Bishops according to our Form of Consecration Solemnly Promise in their Ordination Now sustaining the Office and standieg in Place of such Teachers to the Church the Ministers of Christ must necessarily be bound to a diligent Discharge of their Ministrations or to Administer the Word in the forementioned Cases For then both the Prayers and Religious Service and the Lives and common Practice of the People is corrupted by heinous Immoralities And they want to be Taught and Shew'd that there is any Harm in either False Teachers having justified to them the Immoralities in both and by vacating moral Precepts and by Broaching corrupt and immoral Doctrines having labour'd to leave in them no Conscience thereof And when People are thus Untaught or Mistaught in great and concerning Parts of the Depositum they who would faithfully Discharge the Part of true Teachers must take Care to Teach them better If they are to attend on it to Labour and give themselves wholly to it how can they let it fall at such a Time not appearing at all or appearing very negligent therein If they are to continue in Teaching these Things they must not flinch from it and give it off if they are to do it in and out of Season they must not sure be wanting when the Season is so pressing if against Deceivers and Gain-Sayers they ought in no wise to fail when those Gain-Sayers are so busie at Work for Perversion thereof So that as Faithful Teachers of Christs Church they are not to suffer the People to perish for want of saving Knowledge but are duly to Administer the Word in the foresaid Cases I might also further Note the Necessity and Obligation they lie under to the foremention'd Ministrations from their being set up by our Saviour as the Light of the VVorld Mat. 5. 14. and as the Salt of the Earth ver 13. For as the Light of the VVorld they must shine out and give Light abroad Men not Lighting a Candle to put it under a Bushel that it may shine only to it self but put it on a Candle-Stick that it may shine out and give Light to others ver 15. And such Light they give to the World by their Ministrations when they Minister the Gospel and all the Doctrines and Duties of it with the Knowledge whereof the World is to be enlightned And as the Salt of the Earth they must keep the Religious Service and Morals of Men from being corrupted since the use of Salt is to keep out Putrefaction and Rottenness And this also is by their Ministrations For by their Constancy in Administring Sound and Wholesome Things they Season the Church keeping it up in Purity and Soundness and keeping out all Adulterations and Corruptions when Endeavours are used to introduce them by Seducers And thus by all the Characters of the Ministerial Function and the Parts of their Office do the Bishops and Pastors of Christs Church stand bound to an actual Discharge of their Ministrations in the foremention'd Cases And cannot Drop or let them fall without those Characters and Offices flying in their Faces For how will they answer it to God as having acted the Part of his Faithful Messengers to a People so endanger'd and depraved by polluted Worship Doctrines and Practices if they have stood Dumb and Speechless and instead of Ministerial Uttering and Delivering have suppress'd and kept back the Word and Message they were charged with How as having well discharged the Place of Ministers Ambassadors of Publick Agents and Representatives of God and Christ If they have been such Representatives as would not act or order any thing in their Names Such Ambassadors as would pursue no Instructions Such Publick Agents as refused to acts and such Ministers and Officers as would not Minister or Officiate in their Masters Business and Affairs yea even in those of most Importance and in their greatest Exigencies How as having been Co-workers and Fellow-Helpers if whilst he was so busie at Work with an endanger'd and depraved People by his Spirit and Providence they gave over working and left him to do it by himself making him no Help or Furtherance by their Ministrations How will they hope to approve themselves before him to have been Good and Faithful Ministers and Stewards of Religion and its Mysteries if they have not been both Faithful Keepers and Faithful Dispensers thereof will Religion and its Misteries be judged to have been well kept when it was suffer'd to be spoiled and rifled and when the brightest Gems of this inestimable Depositum have been broken embezel'd or made away and its choicest Flowers pick'd out and not only base but poysonous and corrupt Weeds put in their Places Or will they be deem'd to have been their Faithful Ministers and Dispensers who have not Minister'd or Dispenced them onâ— to others but concealed and kept them up to themselves Or Dispensers of them by Church Ministrations at the Head of visible Societies who have not Pastorally Administred them to any Churches or headed any Societies of Faithful Upright Christians in the free and stedfast Profession and observance thereof How can they expect at the Great Day of Accounts to pass for Men that have acquitted themselves as Good VVatchmen if all the Time whilst Sin and Death were advancing to make the People their Prey they could spie no Enemy or if they did would speak of none nor warn against them Or for Trusty Over-seers if they over-looked the most pressing Wants of their Charge or gave no Caution nor made any Supply or Provision for them They are ill Over-seers that over-look when they should espie their Peoples Necessities or Dangers And over-see not as Keepers and Guardians but Conspirators and Betrayers if when they see them they will not discover them but let them silently and securely run into Destruction Can they imagine he will call them Faithful Guides who left a People that were Ignorant of the true Way to guide themselves or to be misguided by Seducers who would not shew the right Way when all Endeavours were used to make them go wrong nor when they saw them Straying would call out to them to come back again Or that he will repute them Good Shepheards who have taken no Care to Feed their Flocks with Spiritual Ministrations nor to Guard and Arm them against Wolves and Seducers nor to keep them together when they are in Danger to be Scatter'd nor to bring them back when they are straying from the Fold Or that he will receive and welcome them as constant and faithful Teachers of his Church who have let Men Sin and Perish for want of Teaching and could silently sit by and
state if supposed to pass on Bishops and Ministers would be no conscionable discharge from keepeng on their spiritual Ministrations against such immoralities as are set down in the aforesaid cases For Jesus Christ who gave them their Ministerial Powers requires them as his Ministers and as Pastors of his Church to exercise them for him and for the Souls of Men as I have shewn when those Cases happen And if the State forbids what he commands they are to hear or obey no state or Power on earth against him But must answer as the Apostles did to the Jewish Rulers in this Case whether it be lawful in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judge ye Act. 4. 18. 19. 20. And thus it must needs be in men who are call'd to be his Ministers under persecuting States and to be Ministers of a Religion which is a Doctrine of the Cross and bids them expect and prepare to bear Crosses under oppressive powers as is plainly the Case of Gospel-Ministers For if they must be his Ministers and administer this Religion in persecutions they must hold on Ministring when the state where they live breaks with them and both most strictly forbids and most cruelly persecutes them for so doing And thus the First Ministers did who were to plant Christianity against all the Edicts and Oppositions of the Heathen or Jewish Magistrates And so did all the Faithful Bishops and pastors thereof who in all the succeeding persecutions of the Church stuck firm to their Ministrations against all the inhibitions and oppressive force of secular Rulers or else our holy Religion had perish'd long since and had never descended pure and perfect as it is to our days And so must all others do in any present or succeeding Tryals which as they always have done so always will seek to suppress Christs worship and Truth by suppressing the pastoral administrations thereof that by their Ministry it may not fail in the Church but be held on the same and continued down to the worlds end But this I say as to their pure spirtual Powers and Ministrations which they neither did nor could receive from the Civil State on which he never conferr'd it but which they hold independantly of Christ Jesus That is what spiritual powers they have received from Christ by imposition of Hands continued down from the Apostles for the feeding and governing of his Church by Administration of the Word of Prayers and Sacraments by leting into the Church and excluding out of it and for providing a constant succession of the same Ministrations by Empowering or Ordaining others These mere spiritual powers they must exercise as his Ministers without regard to any deprivation or inhibition of Worldly Princes For Earthly Kings cannot deprive them of these mere spiritual powers because they have them not from them but Minister therein not by theirs but by Christs Commission If Secular Princes gave them their Commissions to exercise their spiritual Authorities they might recall them If they were the fountain of these powers and could make or ordain Bishops they might have more plea to unmake and deprive them But not originally proceeding from them but from Christ himself by a way of his own prescribing in a succession of Apostolical imposition of Hands through all Ages of the Church They cannot be reversed by their deprivation Nor are the Bishops and Pastors to be debarr'd the exercise thereof in any Case where Christ requires it at their inhibition because they are Christs Servants more than theirs and must obey God rather than man But 3. Thirdly as for any Temporal accessions and enforcements of these mere spiritual Ministrations which the Church receives when once it is shone upon by earthly powers and made incorporate or free of the State These Accessions are borrowed Powers and the Gift of Princes and under the deposition of a Lawful state the Bishops and Ministers of Christ must not challenge or pretend to them As to these I observe 1. That the civil state hath Power over these Temporal Accessions secular endowments because it confer'd them When Kings and Queens turn Christians they come not in only as members to partake in these mere spiritual Ministrations but as Patrons by their secular power to back and Promote them They must shew themselves Nursing-Fathers and Nursing-Mothers as was foretold by the Prophet and serve the Lord as Kings that is by employing their Kingly Power to encourage and advance his service doing him those services which none can do but themselves as St. Austin tells them Thus to give encouragement and leisure for the Ministers to attend on these Ministrations without distraction the civil State endows them with benefices or worldly freeholds Honors and priviledges It also allots them publick and Authorized places for these Ministrations and makes Civil Laws requiring people duly to resort to them and punishing all disturbers of them and such as carry themselves indecently thereat It likewise adds a secular jurisdiction to the spiritual extending the spiritual jurisdiction to the Cognizance of Wills Marriages Benefices c. which are Civil matters and backing it by Temporal Accessions in the spiritual parts thereof making a mixture and Concurrence of Religious and civil powers in the spiritual Courts For thus the Ruâ—ricks it passes into Laws and the Canons also which are the Rules of exercising that jurisdiction it binds on the Subjects with the Kings Approbation and Ratification or with a Civil strengthing And the Spiritual censures or judgements according to these Rules it backs with civil penalties as imprisonment or with putting men under civil incapacities as to plead in an Action at Law or the like Now all these Temporal Helps and Accessions come not to the Bishops and Ministers immediately from Christ or as they are Ministers of Religion For His Kingdom is not of this world Nor was he whilst on earth any judge in civil matters Nor doth he confer any such worldly powers or grant any such commissions But all these secular benefices and fortifications in all the parts of the spiritual Ministry are the gifts of Princes They flow from their favour to the Church or from their taking upon them to be its Temporal Patrons or it's Nursing Fathers and Nursing Mothers And as the Bishops and Ministers of Christ hold them only by their commission So may they lose them by their recalling it So that although the state has no power either to give or to deprive the Ministers of Christ of their mere spiritual powers Yet has it a direct Authority to grant or deprive them of these Temporal Additionals And therefore the Bishops and Ministers of Christ in an incorporate Church when they are deprived by their Rightful Prince or by a Legal State must exercise their mere spiritual powers in the foresaid Cases without any of these civil effects or mixtures That is they can only Administer the Word and prayers and Sacraments
Souls endangered by such Salvo's it was the Duty of true Prophets and Priests among them and would be so in all other places on like occasions by their preaching and Ministrations to keep up sound knowledge among the People in these Points yea tho' such preaching and ministrations made a Breach between them and those defecting Teachers And it was the Peoples duty to follow any among them who would teach them better when they could have such Teachers as they had in our Blessed Lord and his Apostles Whatever Allowance under the favour of Necessity men may have to keep on with such of which Plea of necessity I shall say more hereafter yet where there is choice of others more Orthodox they are no longer tyed to such Pastors as openly and obstinately preach up damnable practices to disgrace Religion and endanger Souls Bear they may for a time in hopes of Reformation and because it is easier to prevent than to patch up Breaches wise Lovers both of Peace and Truth would not be hasty in coming to extreamities But if still they will persist and go on in such pernicious Ways and Doctrines good People and Pastors may withdraw themselves from their Communion as St. Paul says in the places already cited And the Reasons of breaking off on such defections from necessary points either of faith or practice are still more urgent if there is no Liberty left in any Churches for other Pastors to stand up ministerially or exercise their Ministry in defence of those necessary points whilst they continue with and adhere to them For then the Concealment and Suppression of necessary Truths is made a condition of Communion and other Pastors if they will hold on with them must suffer that good thing which has been committed to their Trust to be extinguish'd without standing up according to their duty and solemn undertaking to minister the same Which will make it necessary for all who will choose to stand by Christ and his Truths rather than by such his Apostatizing Servants and Corrupters thereof to depart from them When therefore the Bishops and Pastors of any Church fall off from ministring necessary Christian Doctrine or Worship and especially when they come to allow their Communion to none who will go on administring the same they thereby loosen the bands of Union and break that spiritual dependance and relation which the People and other inferiour Pastors ought to have upon them They are no longer the true Joynts to compact the Members nor the Head of Unity to keep together the Body of the Church And thus it was at the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth with the Popish Bishops whose corrupt Worship and Doctrine yea and rigorous exaction of complyance with both from all who expected to hold Communion with them had set their Churches at liberty to go off from them as I formerly observed and to seek more Orthodox Bishops in their room And so it would be in the case of other Bishops especially of those who espouse a Schism and communicate with Anti-Bishops in opposition to the true Bishops if they fall from ministring necessary Christian Truths whether of Faith or of Moral Doctrine and Worship as in the fore-mentioned Cases And when the Church is thus loosed of its dependance on their Persons by the defection of such erring Bishops It may be free to unite it self to other Orthodox Bishops Either to receive such an one for its own local Bishop as was done at the Reformation by substituting Orthodox and Reformed Bishops into the Sees of Popish Bishops Or till it can have that by receiving the Benefit of Episcopal and Priestly Acts from any other Orthodox Bishops and Clery as they can be met with It may fetch all Orthodox Ministrations and spiritual Functions from other places when it cannot have them from an Orthodox Pastor or in the Unity of the Church at home This it may do says St. Cyprian in this Case As well as the Mariners when their own Port is sanded or otherwise insecure may pass it by and put in at another Or as well as the Travellers when their own Inn is beset with Thieves may take up their Lodging at another which is more safe And as the People of such defecting Bishops and Pastors may seek out and unite themselves to others for all necessary Ministrations so may those other Orthodox Bishops and Clergy who are sought to be free to receive and supply them This is plain of both because the Church whereof the one are Members and the other are Bishops or Priests is a Catholick Church For being Catholick its Baptisms and Ordinations are Catholick and make as the one Christians so the other Bishops and Priests that must be owned for such over all the Christian Church and not only in some limited Parts or Districts thereof And betwixt the Members of this Catholick Church there is to be a Communion of Saints so that the one may receive as Members and the other administer all spiritual Acts and Functions as Pastors as there is opportunity and as need requires When the Orthodox Members of such defecting Pastors come to them considering the Catholicism of the Church tho' never so far remote in place they must own them as their Brethren and professing the Communion of Saints they must receive them to their Communion When shuning the Rocks in their own defecting Church they seek a more safe harbour in theirs 't is their part to receive them with a prompt humanity and to give them such reception as was given to him who had faln among Thieves in the Gospel not only to let them in but to take all due and needful care of them saith St. Cyprian Yea and as Christian Bishops they are to look upon this Reception and these Ministrations as one part of their Episcopal Charge For they are Bishops of the Catholick Church as well as of their own Sees and have relation to the whole Church as well as to their own Diocess The Administration he has received is not only for his own Flock but for the Church in common says St. Ignatius of the Bishop of Philadelphia And Christ has committed to you not only your own but the Universal Church says Eleutherius to the Gallicane Bishops And though as being more especially Bishops of that place they have more particular Obligation to look after their own Flocks Yet as Catholick Bishops they must be concerned for the whole Church and look on it or any destitute parts thereof as their own as occasion requires It behoves us all to extend our Care and watch over the Body of the whole Church whose Members are disposed through each of the varicus Provinces say the Presbyters and Deacons of Rome to Cyprian on his informing them of the Deposition of Privatus Lambesitanus the Heretick And unum Gregem pascimus though we be many Pastors yet we are to look upon all as one Flock says St.
Doctrine or to be one with them in Error and Wickedness is not Charity but destruction to those who are seduced by them If such defection from pure Worship and Doctrine is their Case the guilt of making a division lyes plainly at their doors In such Breaches St. Paul notes the Dividers from the Doctrine as making the Schism and not the faithful Adherers to it who refuse to break off from it in order to their keeping on with them Mark those as causing the Divisions or Offences who go contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned saith he Rom. 16. 17. And divisions made by such defection are incureable by any thing but their own repentance and return to their former ways Their Brethren can not heal or close them by following them in their desection because that is to be false to Truth and to their own and others Souls which are all in danger of perishing by straying from the same Nay should they do as they desire and all come over that would only be a false and seeming Cure but really make the Breach wider For the whole Body of Christians from the beginning to the end are but one Church And those Christian Societies which make up this one Church are the several Churches of all times and places All true Christians which now are or formerly have been or hereafter shall be are all Members of one and the same Body as I formerly shewed So that the Unity which good Christians are to aim at is to appear of one Society and Communion with the whole Body of faithful Christians from first to last with all the faithful who have kept to this Unity and are now in Heaven as well as with all who either now are or hereafter shall be in earth doing the same Or to be found united and in the Communion of that Body or general Collection and Assembly of Saints who shall all appear together as one Body that has kept up the Faith and Unity of the Church in opposition to all Heretical or Schismatical Oppugners thereof at the last Day And they are lamentably out and take their Aim too narrow who look only at keeping an external Union with the Assemblies and Religious Societies of their own place and time though that be in breaking off from the Way and Communion of all the faithful Christians of other places at that time and of all that are gone before them and will make them appear separately from the general Assembly and great Collection of Saints at the last Day Now true Doctrine and Worship as I have shewn are among the chief Ligaments in this Body of Christs Holy Catholick Church And if even any regular Bishops or Metropolitanes with their respective Societies or Churches break off from any necessary Truths or Worship of Christ they break off at the same time from all this great Body of faithful Christians of all other other places and times who are all united and incorporated in them and stand upon them And if these defectors appear to make the Generality or great Number in their own particular Times and Countries yet are they but a handful compared to that General Body or Collection on the other side whom they have defected and broke from and who will stand all in one compact Body against them at the last Day viz. the Catholick Church of all Times and Places So that those few faithful among them who continue sirm and stand out against their defection do not go off from the main Body or greatest Numbers but stick to them the Catholick Church of all Ages and Countries which makes the vast Body and infinitly the greatest Number being in reality with them The Catholick Church consisting of our Saviour Christ of Apostles and Prophets Martyrs and Confessors and of all the truly Faithful who have gone before us are now or shall be after us when all is done will make the Body And those few Faithful Christians sticking to this when the numerous Defectors in those Countries start from it stick to the Body So that as the Council of Constantinople declares of those who break off Communion with their Bishops yea before Synodical Sentence when once they openly teach any Heresie condemn'd by the Holy-Fathers or Councils by so doing they do not rend the Unity of the Church by Schism but study to free or defend it against Schisms or Divisions So at such times they must bespeak their Brethren as St. Cyprian did the Confessors who sided with the Schismatick Novatian Because we can not leave the Church and come over to you which instead of patching up would be to break and divide the Churches Concord and Unanimity We beseech you by all the ways we can that you would return and come back again to your Mother the Church an̄d to our Fraternity By keeping then to the necessary Doctrines and Worship of Christ of the Catholick Church and of our own Church we keep united to them and so far as we break off from these we answerably break off from them And therefore the running in of more into such defection instead of closing up the Schism would increase it It would only make the more People guilty of dividing and standing off from Christ and from the Catholick Church as that contains all Orthodox Christians and Right Churches who are gone before us or are now or shall be after us Yea from all their Ancestors during all the Successions of them to their unhappy defection in their own Church And even from themselves in all their own best dayes whilst they stood true to their own pure Worship and Orthodox Principles Which is such a way of healing Schisms as Rebellion is of remedying Grievances that is instead of taking any off it brings abundance more upon us And this makes the Charge of Schism stronger and more aggravated in the fore-mentioned Cases where the Corruptions of Doctrine and Worship make them a corrupt Church as well as the setting up of Anti-Bishops makes them a Schismatical Church There is plainly a Schism in making of Anti-Bishops which is a setting up of opposite Altars But it is a more wicked and ungodly Schism when these opposite Altars are set up for wicked and ungodly purposes to head sinful and unchristian Worship and Doctrines That Schism is complicated with Heresie or other dangerous depravation of Religion It is not only making a Breach in the Church but withal it is forming a Party against Truth and Holiness It is giving Religion a second Blow to maintain a former and setting up one ill thing to secure a worse It seeks to confederate Men in the Breach of Unity that it may hold them fast in Breach of Piety or Moral Honesty And a Schism so set up to strike at Religion is more impious in the sight of God and of all good men and the Guilt thereof is more flagrant And besides 't is incureable by any but themselves For the Schismaticks run into such