shall be mouth'd by the most vicious persons to disguise an ugly perhaps a treasonous design and novi homines men of yesterday shall dare to trifle with that Scepter which dignified them and problem the Right of their Prince in the face of his Throne when Englishmen shall Italianize and shoot those envenom'd arrows their filthy Pasquils to wound their Prince in his reputation which is the soul of his Throne O then I think if it awakens not all the Sentinels of the Government sure they are in their dead sleep or infatuated for destruction When I consider the ill-boding circumstances attending the Church of England her prodigious rents her assiduous and impudent Adversaries accompanied perhaps with too much Supinity in some of her most Principal members and when it comes into my mind that Miracles are ceased too then each moment spur on my thoughts to expect when Religion now on tiptoes to be gone should turn her back upon us and that the ultimate failure of the Faith is at hand ready to be the Harbinger to the Catholick Doom But Sir not to trouble your more Serene Meditations with such melancholy reflections give me leave to Alarm you to Muster your notions and by your Animadversions upon this Doctor undeceive the deluded multitude in this weighty subject of Schism the Dam of our Mischiefs and which threaten the ruine of our Church and with that the unhinging that excellent temper of Government which has been the envy of the Nations SIR I am yours c. W. C. Honoured Sir THat Kingship and Episcopacy have been the antient and continued Government of this Nation in State and Church ever since our Primitive Christianity is evident from undoubted Records But the Gentlemen of our New English Interest mock at the two old Grandsires Monarchy and Hierarchy and begin to hope that they are come to their decrepit Age and not far from a Grave and they are preparing for their funeral It is now scandalous to be Loyal to our Prince or Regular to the Church You will be thought a mean-spirited Gentleman for expressing any regard to a Minister of Religion And you have no way to redeem your Honour but either to turn Atheist or list your self a Member of the New Interest And now Sir can it be reconcil'd to Friendship to ship your Friend when the Clouds look black and threaten a Storm But since you are as kind to me as you are to your self and are pleas'd to embarque with me I am resolv'd to adventure and am prepar'd for Tempest and that worst of Hurricanes the madness of the People I think it highly necessary to demonstrate our Non-conformists to be Schismaticks for though meer State Interest may legitimate many severities against those Persons and Principles that are Antipodes to the establish'd Government yet if that were truth which the Doctor pretends to prove That the Sectaries of England were as much in the family of Jesus or in the Communion of the Catholick Church as the Church of England it would puzzle my Reason to make a Substantial Apology for our Penal Laws But if we can make it evident that these men walk disorderly and are Separatists from the Catholick Church it will then appear that our Laws are so far from Rigor or Persecution that they are more charitable provisions and only design'd to compell men to come in to that Society where their Eternal Interest will be most rationally and manifestly secur'd When I first open'd the Doctor' s Plea you sent me mine eye chanc'd upon a very pleasant passage to this effect viz. That theGreek Church call the Church of Rome Schismatick and the Church of Rome return the Schismatick upon the Greek Church The Church of England make the Romish Church the Schismatick and the Church ofRome charge the Schism upon the Church ofEngland Again The Church of England call her Dissenters Schismaticks and the Dissenters think the Church to be Schismaticks from them and so we have call'd one another Schismaticks Round and therefore Schism is but Vox praeterea nihil nothing but a meer noise and Nick-name which every Party cast upon all them who are not of their Society But let us try the Strength of this Argument by translating it to another circulating word and that is Infidelity The Mahometan calls himself Musalman which my Persic Dictionary assures me signifies Faithful or Believer in God yet we Christians call the Mahometans Infidels and they call us Unbelievers We call the Jews Infidels and they return the same name upon us and the Mahometans too Both Christian Jew and Mahomentan pronounce all Pagans to be Infidels and ten to one but they are as stout and peremptory as the rest of Mortals and think all Mankind Infidels but themselves Thus the whole World have call'd one another Infidels Round and therefore Infidelity is but a meer empty noise and there is no such thing in the World as a True Religion I appeal to any sober Judgement if there be not as much Logick in this as there was in the other I hope it will be an easie discovery to find out the square of the Doctor 's Circle and to fix the Notion of Schism upon a certain Basis And therefore Sir in obedience to your Request I shall discuss that great Question Whether the Non-conformists in England meeting together for the Worship of God in places distinct from the Parochial Churches are not Schismaticks To this I shall answer in the Affirmative and shall consider this Separation First With respect to the whole Catholick Church Secondly With relation to the Church of England First To be a Member of the Catholick Church there is required a double Unity First An Unity of Faith or Doctrine a total separation from this we grant to be Apostasie a disowning any one fundamental Article makes a man a Heretick But in this does not consist the formal notion of Schism Secondly There is requir'd an Unity of Order or Government which St. Cyprian calls Unitas Ecclesiastica Now a Separation from this Unity hath the formality of Schism And for a right understanding of this I must look back to the first Origine of this Unity The Holy Jesus the great Author and Founder of our Religion was sent of God and all power in Heaven and Earth committed to him Now before his Ascension that he might not leave his Disciples to the end of the World to be governed by every pretender to Revelation which would have exposed his Kingdom upon Earth to eternal confusions and impostures he solemnly ordains and consecrates the Apostles his immediate Delegates upon earth John 20. 22. As my Father sent me even so send I you by vertue of which Commission the power of Ordaining Governing and conferring Orders did rest only in the Apostles They took care to continue this Succession and therefore Timothy was by the Apostles ordain'd Bishop of Ephesus and Titus of Crete and both invested with power of Jurisdiction and
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
with so great a Schismatick God charges him expresly Vers 9. to eat no bread nor drink water in that place now an old Prophet that dwelt in Bethel pretends a new Revelation and that with such cunning delusion as he prevailed with the young Prophet to go back and dine with him at Bethel but that entertainment cost him his life Verse 24. The reason of this severity was very just and equitable for God had given him an express command not to eat in that place and that charge was reveal'd to him by some such manifest way of Divine Revelation that he was as much ascertain'd it was the Word of the Lord as he was assur'd of his own being And therefore he was justly punish'd for disobeying a plain command and hearkning to a pretended Revelation which was not personally reveal'd to him and of the truth of which he could not be so much secur'd as he was of his former Vision Thus obedience to Governours in general is as manifest a Law of God as was ever given to the World and we are in no particular to disobey them except we can produce another Divine Law of equal evidence and Authority which prohibits our obedience in that particular or else I believe from the process of the former story it is displeasing to God to transgress such a plain certain Law without a manifest prohibition from Heaven but only out of niceness of fancy or private judgement And if the Church should part with all those things which Dissenters judge to be sinful there could be neither Church nor Government for we must throw off our Hoods and Surplice to gratifie the scrupulous Puritan we must strip our selves stark-naked to satisfie the Fanaticism of the Adamites nay we must part not only with Rites and Ceremonies but the whole Liturgie and Hierarchy of the Church because some fancy them to be Anti-christian nay the Creed is not secure we must expunge the Article of Christs Divinity to humour the Socinians we must blot out the Propitiation of Christ the Doctrine of the Trinity and the Resurrection of the body to gratifie the Quakers and so we must not only deface the front and out-side of the Temple but even raze it to the ground because it does not please the eye of these men of Babel nay we must renounce our reason and our senses too to satisfie the Papists in the Doctrine of Transubstantiation and so by this method at length we must neither be men nor Christians But let us put the case at the worst and suppose what these men fancy were really true That there were some things enjoyn'd by the Church which were really sinful I confess this would be a difficult and unhappy circumstance but yet it would not justifie a total separation and the erecting of new modell'd Churches for I have prov'd before that we are bound by the eternal reasons of Peace and Order to communicate with those Bishops and that part of the Catholick Church under which we live and if it should so happen that some things evidently sinful were enjoyn'd by this Church then we might remove into some other part of the Catholick Church that were of a sounder constitution But if we continued within the Jurisdiction of this Church I think we should be oblig'd to communicate with it in Publick Confession of Faith in Devotions and Sacraments and as far as we could without manifest sin We might with peace and patience enjoy a pure conscience in our own family but it could never be lawful by any rule of Christianity to make a total separation and to set up another form of Church-Government in opposition to that under whose Jurisdiction we live But Mr. H. in the Appendix hath discover'd a new Argument to vindicate the Non-conformists in upholding Conventicles distinct from the Assemblies of the Church of England The summ of his new Invention amounts to thus much That necessity is laid upon them by Divine Law to preach the Gospel as for their communion with our Churches it is but an humane establishment Now seeing they cannot preach in our Assemblies the necessity of a Divine Law obliges them to teach in Conventicles Now Sir to encounter this Gigantick reason we must enquire the truth of his first Postulatum Whether any such necessity be laid upon these men to preach the Gospel Indeed I have met with a Geneva Divine that stoutly believes that necessity was laid upon Cain to be a Murderer and upon Judas to be a Traytor Now I confess if this Divinity be true they may be under the unavoidable fate of Schism and Rebellion and then we ought to pity and excuse them and lay the guilt in Heaven But I will suppose Mr. H. to be too good and modest for to accuse God to acquit himself And the necessity he pretends is founded in their call to the Ministry Now Sir there will be a necessity for us to enquire the truth of this Divine Call for the Parliament were a very Jewish Sanhedrim to forbid these men to speak openly in the name of Jesus if they were certainly sent of God But I shall ask them the same Question concerning their Mission that our Saviour asked the Jews concerning John's Baptism Was it from Heaven or of men If they shall say from men then they must shew us their orders from the hands of the Bishops the Apostles Successors who only have Authority with Titus to ordain Elders or Priests in every City If they say from Heaven they must then bring us very serious credible Witnesses to assure us that they were called by a voice from the clouds as St. Paul was in his way to Damascus And yet if this were done we live in such a Sceptick Age that men would not credit the Boast of Revelation without the credentials of a Miracle And I confess I cannot blame the Christian World for this suspecting humour for so many impostures and delusions have been imposed upon the World by this pretence that 't is prudence not to be too credulous Now Sir you may observe that these fanciful Visions and Revelations have strangely swelled these men for they are no less in their own opinion than the great Apostles of Christ and therefore with St. Paul they cry out Necessity is laid upon us and wo be unto us if we preach not the Gospel that is Sir That the Kingdom of England are still Jews and Barbarians and except these chief Apostles preach the Gospel there is no hopes of their conversion from Gentilism or Judaism Nay pag. 5 6. he tells us That there is such a necessity for these men to preach in Conventicles that the everlasting welfare of thousands of mens souls depend upon it Wo wo to the King and Parliament that should dare to stop the mouths of these men upon whose breath depends the salvation of thousands of souls Why Sir this is far more mischievous than shutting up the Exchequer breaking the East-India Company or