spoiling all the Trade of England But Sir I hope this dreadful Harangue will not fright you for all is but noise and canting for I dare assure you the Execution of the Law will no way hinder the advancement of the Gospel nor hazard one soul in England for Christianity will be soberly preach'd in England though all these men be silenc'd And besides I should think by the principles of Calvinism that the salvation of souls were more fix'd and fatal than to depend upon the silence or preaching of a few Non-conforming Ministers You know Sir the Decree of peremptory Election was dated long before that Reprobate Act of Uniformity and therefore there is no fear of losing one of the elect though these men be struck dumb and as for the Reprobates all the Oratory of Dr. O. and Mr. H. and the rest of those mighty men can never alter their sadder fate And therefore I think I may conclude from their own Divinity that there is no necessity laid upon them to preach the Gospel Mr. H. solemnly propounds this weighty Question Which will be most for the glory of God either for the Non-conforming Teachers to preach the Gospel to their meetings or to keep the Union of their Parish Churches To which Question there is a very easie Answer for no doubt the God of order is more glorified by Unity Peace and Obedience to our Governours than by disorder and confusion And therefore I shall conclude this by inverting the Argument They may live in the communion of the Church without the least hazard of their salvation and necessity is laid upon them to obey their Governours and wo be unto them if they preach the Gospel in Conventicles and by walking disorderly trouble the peace and order both of Church and State But there is one Plea more for this Schism or Separation call it which you please and that is cunningly insinuated in that famous definition of Schism by Mr. Hales cited pag. 17. Schism is an unnecessary separation from that part of the visible Church of which we once were members That their separation is unnecessary let the Doctor himself judge who pag. 9. tells us they differ from us only in the insignificant fringes and laces of Forms and Ceremonies Now I fancy it were a very unnecessary and undutiful thing for a Son to disown and desert his Mother only because the fringe and lace of her garment did not please his eye But the mysterie lyes in the last words of the distinction A separation from that part of the Church of which we once were members Now Sir there are vast numbers of persons in England who were never baptized by the Ministery of the Church of England or had any communion with her and then by the judgement of Mr. Hales cannot be charg'd with Schism or separation from her But this is already answer'd for I have prov'd that they are bound in duty to live in communion with those Bishops and Priests or that part of the Catholick Church under which they reside and if they never were in the communion of this Church they have been the longer in disorder and disobedience and that is a very ill method of excusing the crime By this Sophistry Schism can only be the sin of the first generation Novatus and his contemporaries that first departed from the communion of the Catholick Church were indeed Schismaticks but then those who were baptiz'd and educated by that faction were never in the communion of the Catholick Church and so by this argument were free from Schism and so downwards from generation to generation Now this looks like Magick for it teaches us an art how to split the Church into a thousand pieces and to continue this division for ever and yet in a little while there should be no dis-union for it is only the adventure of the first Authors to break off from the Catholick Church but then as many as they propagate to the end of the world are no Schismaticks because they never had any personal communion Now Sir having asserted that the Unity of the Catholick Church consists not only in the unity of faith but in a succession of Bishops and Priests and a regular obedience to their inspection and conduct give me leave to reflect and consider what direful conclusions our Adversaries may draw from this notion First This will be accused of too much kindness to the Church of Rome for they having continued their succession of Bishops from St. Peter this will acquit them from Schism and place them within the body of the Catholick Church I hope Sir it will not offend if we be as kind to the Pope as we are to the Devil and allow him his due No doubt the Church of Rome is in the communion of the Catholick Church but yet this is no argument for any to desert the Church of England and remove to that of Rome for our Apostolick Succession of Bishops is as authentick as theirs and our Doctrine more Pure Primitive and Catholick and therefore it is irrational for the Romish Church to accuse us of Schism for whatever they can justly plead for their Unity will equally establish ours with the Catholick Church I cannot better represent the present State of the Catholick Church than by an allusion to the Jewish Temple The Church of England we are able to prove is the purest part of the Catholick Church being most refined from error and superstition and therefore that may be resembled to the Sanctum Sanctorum The Greek Church though something defiled yet still preserving the Apostolick faith and succession of Patriarchs and Presbyters may be compar'd to the Middle Temple The Church of Rome like the Outward á Court is most profan'd with the Tables of the Money-changers and defil'd by abominable superstitions but yet though it be filthy it is a part of the building and within the Area of the Temple But for any to desert the Church of England to communicate with that of Rome is such a frantick humour as for a man to quit the neatest appartment and exchange for the most sluttish room in the same house Secondly That which will raise the greatest clamour is That by this notion I unchurch all the forreign Reform'd Churches who have no Bishops of the Catholick line to govern them and ordain their Ministers To this I answer That if any of the forreign Churches have continued a succession of Presbyters who can derive their Origination from Episcopal Ordination it something lessens their dis-union and gives them a remote alliance to the Catholick Church yet this is but private charity and will not justifie them from Schism by the Canons of the antient Church But if any of them have a Ministry which have no other Orders than their own Usurpation or popular Election I know not how to acquit them from being Schismaticks from the Catholick Church And why do not the States of Holland send their Professors from Leyden
were of none at all Sir There are many impertinencies in that little Book which I thought not worthy the examination and which your Judgement will easily answer from the grounds of this discourse Such is his branding Parish Churches for a Popish invention which any sober man would rather have thought to have been the contrivance of Reason and convenience for we find this invention elder than the Pope for they were founded in the Province of Alexandria in the dayes of Athanasius as Athanasius and Epiphanius inform us Such another impertinence is his tedious Harangue about Separation from Parochial Organical Churches which no way concern the constitution of the Catholick Church or the Church of England for though deserting our Parish Church in some circumstance may be a disorder yet it is no Schism if we communicate with any other regular Assembly of the same communion Athanasius does not accuse Ischyras of Schism for separating from his Parochial Congregation and Priest but for erecting a Conventicle and dividing from the Bishop and the whole Catholick Church in Alexandria As for Mr. H's Discourse about the Obligation of Humane Laws I shall refer him for an Answer to St. Paul and Bishop Sanderson and when they are answered we must enquire further I take no notice of the Railery against Ceremonies The necessity of them in Publick Worship and the Authority of the Church in enjoyning them is substantially prov'd by Mr. Hooker and lately by Mr. Falkner and if their Reasons will not prevail I will not pretend to work a Miracle or hope to open the eyes of them who are resolv'd to be blind Sir I hope that these Papers will satisfie you that these men are Schismaticks and assure you that I am Sir Your faithful Friend and Servant R. C. Honoured Sir THere lately came to my hand the Works of Mr. Hales Entituled Golden Remains The most Sacred of these Reliques is a little Tract of Schism which you find celebrated by the High and Mighty Transproser and applauded by your Doctor of Divinity and is the fam'd Sanctuary of our dividing Parties Therefore having some Months since presented you with my thoughts concerning Schism I thought my self oblig'd to an impartial perusal of this Famous Tract for fear I might through weakness of judgement have impos'd an error upon you and my self I found the Remains of Mr. Hales prefac'd with so vast an Encomium of the Author that I address'd my self to his Tract of Schism with a very awful reverence resolving to submit to the clearest Reasons and not to be asham'd to be convinc'd by a Person of that admir'd Acuteness But having with the most strict intention consider'd that Discourse I find my notion of Schism left untouch'd But because our Non-conformists so oft Appeal to this Tractate I resolv'd to consider how far it could serve their Interest and justifie their Separation First therefore he informs us That there are two things which serve to compleat a Schism 1. The choice of a Bishop in opposition to the former 2. The erecting of a Church or Oratory for the dividing parties to meet in Now I acknowledge this notion of Schism to be both Antient and Orthodox Schism being consider'd as a breach of charity or a dissolving of that Bond of Peace which we are so often solemnly changed to preserve inviolate And without a great and evident necessity this Dividing must be very displeasing unto the Prince of Peace who did command us to be One even as He and the Father are One. Of this nature was the Schism of the Arrians Miletians and Donatiss at their first dividing They set up Altar against Altar had Bishops of their own party and their peculiar Oratories and would have no communion with the Bishops or Assemblies of that standing part that alwayes called themselves the Catholick Church The Church of England by the title of long prescription and the establishment of a Law is the standing Church of this Nation with which all the people of this Kingdom are bound to communicate But our Non-conformists have chosen to themselves Pastors in opposition to the Bishops and Priests of the Church of England and have erected their distinct Congregations to confront our Church Assemblies and therefore by Mr. Hales's definition they are guilty of compleat Schism But Sir it must be observ'd that these men have run further than the Arrians Miletians and Donatists did at their first dividing for though they had so little charity as for a matter of dispute to divide from the communion of the other part of the Church yet they had so much Prudence as they preserv'd to themselves some Bishops and Priests who had receiv'd their Consecration and Orders from the Catholick Church and when their Bishops and Priesthood were worn out the Factions expir'd for they were not arriv'd to such a height of Fanaticism as to think themselves a Church without the Government and Priesthood of the Apostolick line No they were so sacred and curious in this that I find the Arrians cavilling at the Ordination of Athanasius as not being Catholick and Canonical just as the Papists objected against us the Naggs-head Consecration And by the way that was the most weighty and considerable attempt that ever Rome made upon the Church of England and could they clearly have invalidated and disannull'd our succession of Bishops and Priesthood all the learning of England could not have prov'd us a Catholick Church But this Cavil was with demonstration confuted by that elaborate Piece of Mr. Mason Arch-Deacon of Norfolk Sir I hope that the merit of this Digression will beg its own pardon But to return to our English Sectaries according to Mr. Hales's notion it would be indeed a very unhappy Schism in the Church of England for the Bishop of Norwich and his Presbyters and Jurisdiction to divide from the communion of the Archbishop of Canterbury and to set up a Church of the East Angles divided from that of the West But supposing this there were yet left to us this satisfaction that we were still under the Government and Ministry of that Bishop and Priesthood of whose Consecration and Orders we were sufficiently assur'd and though this would be an unlucky Faction in the English Hierarchy yet it would be no Schism from the Catholick Church But our Separatists are run to a further distance for they have not set up Altar against Altar or one Bishop in opposition to another but have thrown off all the Bishops and Priests of the Apostolick Succession and have erected a Synagogue against the Church and set up a Lay-Elder in opposition to the Bishop and Priest And this is not only a disobedience against the Laws and a Schism from the establish'd Church of England but is a separation from the Catholick Church And seeing our Sectaries have no Priesthood I believe their Conventicles to be no more a Church than a Club of Mechanicks in a Coffee-house For though some of these
Chrysostome in his Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 highly magnifies the Office and Authority of a Priest for speaking of that order of men he tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That God hath invested the Priests with such Authority as he never conferred upon Angels or Arch-Angels For to which of the Angels did he say at any time What ever ye bind on Earth is bound in Heaven and whose sins ye Remit they are Remitted For as the Father gave Power to the Son to Remit sins so the Son of God hath committed the same Power to his Ministers on Earth I believe the Power of Absolution which was conferred upon the Christian Priesthood by the Commission of our Lord is not so large as the Pope would extend it nor yet so inconsiderable as the Puritan fancies it I believe our Saviour did not trifle when he granted that Charter to the Apostles but sure there is something in that Authority that is solemn and momentous and whatever it be I resolve to enjoy the benefit of it And therefore I declare that I would sooner travel from London to Larissa to communicate with the Greek Church where I might be assured of Priestly Authority than walk from Temple-Barr to Westminster to joyn with a Lay-Conventicle I know no Rule in the World that can rationally assure me of Ministerial Authority but a Sacerdotal succession from the Apostles As for the Pretension of Inspiration it is no more than Mahomet and Manes and every Impostor have pretended Their Argument from Gifts and Qualifications weighs nothing with me A Jew under the Mosaical Oeconomy might have hired an Hebrew Butcher who might have slain his Lamb or Goat and have dress'd it and laid it upon an Altar with as much art and exactness as the eldest Priest in the Temple but then it had been no Sacrifice nor have ever been accepted of God as a Legal Attonement no it was the Priests offering Sacrifice that made them Peace-offerings it was the Priests sprinkling the blood upon the Altar of the Lord and his burning the Fat that was an essential Requisite to render the Oblation a sweet savour unto the Lord. Angels and Arch-Angels are Wise Zealous and Holy Spirits but all their excellencies do not make them Priests though in another sense they are Ministring Spirits To conclude this since I can no way be rationally secured of my Relation to Christ or of my participation of all the advantages of Christianity but by a commâ—nion with the Catholick Church and its Ministerial Authority I do therefore assure you that I have a greater value for my communion with the Priests and the Temple than for that ador'd Diana of English Property And if any unhappy circumstance should ever put me upon the experiment I would desert this to enjoy the other Sir if ever the Christian World become wise and sober this very consideration would repair the Breaches of the Catholick Church and prove the final Ruine of Fanatick Conventicles Our Author passionately declaims against the Supremacy and Ambition of Bishops I confess Pride and Ambition are greatly inconsistent with the humble nature of Christianity and are strange indecencies in Spiritual Governours and I will never make an Apology for Vice and Disorder But this ought not to be urged as a Reason for the extirpation of Episcopacy Our Lord did not suspend nor degrade his Apostles because there was a strife among them who should be the greatest Nor would it be just or charitable to charge all Bishops with these evil imputations I observe one famous Instance of Humility in the Chair of Rome and that Sir you know is the most Principal Seat of Ambition Gregory Bishop of Rome who in the year of our Lord 596. sent Augustina into England to convert the Saxons in his Epistle to Eulogius Bishop of Alexandria disowns the ambitious Title of Universal Supremacy Indicare quoque vestra Beatitudo studuit jam se quibusdam non scribere superba vocabula que ex vanitatis radice prodierunt mihi loquitur dicens sicut jussistis Quod verbunt jussionis peto à meo Auditu removere quâ—â—scio quis sum qui estis Loco enim mihi Fratres estis moribus Patres non ergo jussi sed quae utilia visa sunt indicare curavi ecce in praefatione Epistolae quam ad me ipsum qui prohibui direxistis superbae Appellationes verbum Universalem me Papam dicentis imprimere curastis Quod peto dulcissima mihi fanctitas vestra ultra non faciat quia vobis subtrahitur quod alteri plus quam ratio exigit praebetur And we must not look upon this Modesty as the Poor spirited humour of this single Bishop for he assures us in the same Epistle that it was the constant humility of his Predecessors Recedant verba quae vanitatem inflant charitatem vulnerant quidem in Sancta Chalcedonensi Synodo atque post à subsequentibus Patribus hoc Decessoribus meis oblatum vestra sanctitas novit sed tamen nullus eorum uti hoc unquam vocabulo voluit But Sir our Author not only protests against the Ambition but the Authority of Bishops for he tells us They do but abuse themselves and others that would perswade us that Bishops by Christs institution have any Superiority over other men than that of Reverence He grants that there is a greater Reverence due to them than to other men but how this should become a duty without supposing a just superiority to exact it I cannot understand I will not here ingage in the Controversie about the Divine Right of Episcopacy But I am sure the Apostles had a Superiority over the Seventy Disciples by Christs Institution and I am certain that the Antient Catholick Church did esteem Bishops as the Apostles Successors The first we meet with in Ecclesiastical History that ever denyed the Superiority of Bishops was Aenius a discontented Arian and Epiphanius records him for a Heretick and brands his Opinion as a Diabolical Delusion Sir there remains nothing more considerable in our Author only the old Puritan Cavil against all Pomp and Gestures Garments and Musick in Publick Worship I confess I dislike the gaudy Pageantry and numerous Ceremonies of the Ordo Romanus and I as much abhorr the Rudeness of a Conventicle Sir I have neither mind nor leisure to examine the Scruples of nicer fancies but I will propound these Queries and reserve them for future consideration 1. Whether the Governours of the Catholick Church have not as much Authority to make Institutions in matters indifferent as the Apostles Whether the Womans Veil or the Holy Kiss were more Jure Divino than the Surplice or Sign of the Cross 2. Whether a Pompous Superstition in Publick Worship be not more pardonable than a Rude Forlorness Or whether a Sancy Rudeness will not sooner introduce Atheism than the most Glorious Superstition 3. Whether the awful Adorations of the Jews the Glory of the Tabernacle and the Temple the Ornaments of the Priests and the Musick were Leviticall or rather founded upon Moral Reasons 4. Whether a Publick Oratory or Church that is set apart for the more Solemn Worship of the Eternal God may not without Superstition be as Glorious and Magnificent as the Stadthouse in Holland except Imagery Whether a Respect to God will not as much justifie one as a Relation to the States will vindicate the other Sir Whenever you please to command I shall enquire for Resolution in the mean I rest Sir Your Affectionate Friend and Servant R. C. FINIS Lib. 3. adv Haer. cap. 3. Lib. 4. cap. 43. ☞ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epad Philadelph And exhorting to obey the Bishops and Priests he tells them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Ep. ad Trall Epist 42. Pag. 34. Aug. Ep. 113. Tom. 1. p. 781. ad p. 802. Epiphan adv Haeres Tom. 2. p. 727. Pag. 30. Page 10. Sect. 12. Pag. 11. Pag. 3 4 5 6. Pag. 4. Page 2. Page 2. Page 2. Page 4. Sect. 5. Page 9. Page 2. Page 1. Epist 118. Page 3. Niceph. l. 8. c. 25. Lang. Int. 〈◊〉 Tom. 1. Lib. 10. Cap. 5. Sect. 1. Tom. 1. lib. 16. cap. 5. sect 5. What authority have we for Infant Baptism the Lords Day the dispensing the Eucharist to Women but the Authority and Practice of the Antients Lev. 17. 5 6.