unity of the Faith which was once delivered to the saints under that head also comprehending the institutions of Christ of his Apostles and of the Vniversal Church of the first and purest ages whether in Government or other the like observances and practises The second is an offence against external peace and Communion Ecclesiastical The third and last is the want of that charity which is due from every Christian to every Christian Beside these I cannot foresee any other species of schisme and therefore the vindicating our Reformation from all grounds of charge of any of these three will be the absolving the whole task undertaken in these sheets § 3. 1. A departure from the Unity of Doctrines or Traditions Apostolical For the first it may be considered either in the Bullion or in the coyn in the grosse or in the retail either as it is a departure from those rules appointed by Christ for the founding and upholding his truth in the Church this Vnity of Doctrine c. or else as it is the asserting any particular branch of Doctrine contrary to Christs and the Apostolical pure Churches establishment § 4. Our Church vindicated from this in two branches And here it is first suggested by the Romanist that by casting out the authority of the Bishop of Rome we have cast off the head of all Christian Vnity and so must needs be guilty of Schisme in this first respect To which the answer is obvious 1. In the first Christs Rules for upholding the truth that that Bishop of Rome was never appointed by Christ to be the head of all Christian unity or that Church to be the conservatory for ever of all Christian truth any more then any other Bishop or Church of the Apostles ordaining or planting and whatever can be pretended for the contrary will be easily answered from the grounds already laid and cleared in the former part of this discourse concerning the Vniversal Pastorship of S. Peter's successors which must not be here so unnecessarily repeated § 5. 2 dly That the way provided by Christ and his Apostles for the preserving the unity of the faith c. in the Church is fully acknowledged by us and no way supplanted by our Reformation That way is made up of two acts of Apostolical providence First their resolving upon some few heads of special force and efficacie to the planting of Christian life through the world and preaching and depositing them in every Church of their plantation 2. Their establishing an excellent subordination of all inferior officers of the Church to the Bishop in every city of the Bishops in every Province to their Metropolitanes of the Metropolitanes in every region or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Patriarchs or Primates allowing also among these such a Primacie of Order or dignity as might be proportionable to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the scripture and agreeable to what is by the antient Canons allowed to the Bishop of Rome And this standing subordination sufficient for all ordinary uses and when there should be need of extraordinary remedies there was then a supply to be had by congregating Councels Provincial Patriarchal General as hath formerly been shewed And all this it is most certain asserted and acknowledged by every true son of the Church of England as zealously as is pretended by any Romanist And from hence by the way that speech of the learned and excellent Hugo Grotius which I discern to be made use of by the Romanists and look'd on with jealousie by others will I suppose receive its due importance and interpretation in his Rivet Apologet Discuss p. 255. Restitutionem Christianorum in unum idémque corpus c. § 6. As for the subjection and dependence of this Church to the Monarchick power of the Bishop of Rome this will never be likely to tend to the unity of the whole body unlesse first all other Churches of Christians paid that subjection too and were obliged and so by duty morally ascertain'd alwaies to continue it which it is evident the Eastern Churches had not done long before the time of our pretended departure and 2. unlesse the Bishop of Rome were in probability able to administer that vast Province so as would be most to the advantage of the whole body For which whether he be fitly qualified or no as it is not demonstrable in the causes so is it to be looked on as a Politick Probleme the truth of which belongs to prudent persons and and such as are by God intrusted with the Flock to judge of i. e. to the Princes the nursing Fathers of every Church who are prudentially and fatherly to determine for themselves and those that are under them what is most ordinable to that end and cannot be obliged to conclude farther then the motives or premises will bear to decree what they doe not reasonably and cordially believe § 7. In the Second Particular doctrines Lastly for the particular doctrines wherein we are affirmed by the Romanists to depart from the Vnity of the Faith and so by departing from the unity to be schismatical as heretical by departing from the faith this must be contested by a strict survey of the particular doctrines wherein as we make no doubt to approve our selves to any that will judge of the Apostolical doctrine and traditions by the Scriptures and consent of the first 300 years or the four General Councels The Church of Englands temper in respect of particular doctrines the most competent witnesses of Apostolical traditions so we shall secure our selves of our innocence in this behalf by that principle acknowledged in our Church and owned as the rule by which we are concluded in any debate or controversie That whatever is contrary to the doctrine or practises of those first and purest ages shall by us assoon as it thus appears be renounced and disclaimed also Which resolution of rulinesse and obedience will I suppose conserve us in the unity of the Faith and render us approveable to God though our ignorance thus unaffected should betray us to some misunderstandings of those first times and be an instrument much more probable to lead us into all truth then the supposed infallibility of the Church of Rome can be imagined to be which as it leaves the proudest presumer really as liable to error as him that acknowledgeth himself most fallible so it ascertains him to persevere incorrigible whether in the least or greatest error which by fault or frailty he shall be guilty of § 8. This consideration of the humble docible temper of our Church together with our professed appeal to those first and purest times to stand or fall as by those evidences we shall be adjudged as it necessarily renders it our infelicity not our crime if in judging of Christ's truth we should be deemed to erre so may it reasonably supersede that larger trouble of the Reader in this place which the view and examination of the severals would cost him
1. § 16. In this matter as much as concerns the Ordination of those new Bishops that it was performed regularly according to the Antient Canons each by the Imposition of the hands of three Bishops hath been evidently set down out of the Records and vindicated by M r Mason in his Booke de Minist Anglic and may there be view'd at large if the Reader want satisfaction in that point § 17. The Creation of new Bishops in Queen Elizabeth's time vindicated As for the second remaining part of the objection which alone is pertinent to this place it will receive answer by these degrees First that the death of Cardinal Pool Archbishop of Canterbury falling neer upon the death of her Predecessor Queen Mary it was very regular for Queen Elizabeth to assigne a successor to that See then vacant Archbishop Parker 2 dly that those Bishops which in Queen Mary's daies had been exiled and deprived and had survived that calamity were with all justice restored to their dignities 3 dly that the Bishops by her deprived and divested of their dignities were so dealt with for refusing to take the oath of Supremacy formed and enjoyned in the daies of Henry the VIII and in the first Parliament of this Queen revived and the statutes concerning it restored to full force before it was thus imposed on them So that for the justice of the cause of their deprivation it depends Immediatly upon the Right and power of the Supreme Magistrate to make laws to impose oathes for the securing his Government and to inflict the punishments prescribed by those laws on the disobedient but Originally upon the truth of that decision of the Bishops and Clergie and Vniversities in the reigne of Henry the VIII that no authority belonged in this Kingdome of England to the Bishop of Rome more then to any other forein Bishop The former of these I shall be confident to look on as an undoubted truth in the maintenance of which all Government is concerned and hath nothing peculiar to our pretensions which should suggest a vindication of it in this place And the second hath I suppose been sufficiently cleared in the former chapters of this discourse which have examined all the Bishop of Romes claims to this Supremacy And both these grounds being acknowledged or till they be invalidated or disproved supposed to have truth and force in them the conclusion will be sufficiently induced that there was no injustice in that Act of the Queens which divested those Bishops which thus refused to secure her Government or to approve their fidelity to their lawful Soveraign § 18. Fourthly that those Bishops being thus deprived it was most Regular and Necessary and that against which no objection is imaginable that of their due Ordination being formerly cleared that other Bishops should be nominated and advanced to those vacant Sees and that what should be for the future acted by those new Bishops in Convocation was regular Synodical and valid beyond all exception in respect of the formality of it § 19. Fiftly that as by the Vniform and joynt consent of these Bishops thus constituted a Declaration of certain Principal Articles of Religion was agreed on and set out by Order of both Archbishops Metropolitans and the rest of the Bishops for the Vnity of doctrine to be taught and holden of all Parsons Vicars and Curates c. and this not before the third year of that Queens reigne So before this time there had not been as farre as appears any debate in any former Convocation of that Queens reigne concerning Religion only an offer of a disputation betwixt eight Clergie-men on each side which came to nothing but all done by the Parliaments restoring what had been debated and concluded by former Synods in the reigns of King Henry the eight and Edward the sixt without any new deliberation in any present Synod By this means were revived the Statutes for the Regal Supremacy as also of the book of Common-prayer as it was in the time of Edward the sixt with few alterations which included the abolition of the Romish Missalls And so all this again as farre as it concerned Queen Elizabeth's part in the Reformation is regularly superstructed on the forementioned foundation of Regal Supremacy with the concurrence and advise of Synods which hath been in the former part of this discourse I hope sufficiently vindicated § 20. And that being granted it cannot be here necessary or pertinent to descend to the consideration of each several matter of the Change thus wrought in this Church either as branches of the Reformation or under the name or title of it For our present enquirie being no farther extended then this whether the true Church of England as it stands by Laws established have in Reforming been guilty of Schisme as that signifies in the first place a recession and departure from the obedience of our lawful Superiours and this being cleared in the Negative by this one evidence that all was done by those to whom and to whom only the rightful power legally pertained viz the King and Bishops of this Nation supposing as now regularly we may having competently proved it and answered all the colours that have been offered against it that the Pope had no right to our obedience and consequently that our departure from him is not a departure from our obedience to our superiours it is presently visible that all other matters will belong to some other heads of Discourse and consequently must be debated upon other principles All variation from the Church of Rome in point of Doctrine if it should as I believe it will never be proved to be unjust falling under the head of Heresie not of schisme and for acts of sacrilege and the like impieties as certainly Henry the eighth and some others cannot be freed from such they are by us as freely charged upon the actors as by any Romanist they can be But yet sacrilege is no more schisme then it is adulterie and the Church on which one sin hath been committed cannot be from thence proved to be guilty of every other CHAP. VIII Of the Second sort of Schisme as that is an Offence against mutual Charity This divided into three species and the first here examined § 1. BUT beside that first species of schisme as it is an offence against the subordination which Christ hath by himself and his Apostles setled in the Church from the guilt of which I have hitherto indevoured to vindicate our Church another was taken notice of as it signifies an offence against the mutual unity and peace and charity which Christ left among his Disciples And to that I must now proceed as farre as the Accusations of the Romanist give us occasion to vindicate our innocence § 2. Three branches of the second sort of Schisme And for method's sake this branch of Schisme may be subdivided into three species The first is a breach in the doctrines or Traditions a departure from the
an offence against that charity due from every Christian to every Christian examined § 1. Contrary to charity due from all to all LAstly as Schism is an offence against that charity which is due from every Christian to every Christian so it will be best distributed according to what we see noted by by the Apostle Rom. 14. in the Jewish and Gentile Christians 1. Judging 2. Despising into the judging and the despising of others either of which was if not formally Schism yet soon improveable into it when it would not be repressed by the Apostles admonitions Separating the effect of both The Jewish Christians we know judged and damned all that would not observe the Mosaical law and would not associate or communicate with the Gentiles and the like height Diotrephes and some of the Gentile believers who began with the other branch that of vilifying the weak Jew at last arrived to not receiving forbidding to receive and casting out the brethren 3 Joh. 10. And whether the Romanists or we are thus guilty will soon be discernible § 2. Of Judging separating the Romanists guilty ex Confesso For the former that of judging and so separating from their brethren if yet we may be allowed that title it is evident by their own acknowledgment how guilty they are and how guiltlesse we § 3. It hath been a special motive and argument to gain proselytes to their party for some years that by our Confession there is salvation to be had among them but in their judgment no possible hope of it for us This weapon of their's used so studiously against us to anticipate and prejudge in general whatsoever can be particularly said to assert our doctrines and practises will certainly be as usefull in our hands as Goliah's sword in David's to give this wound I wish it may not prove as fatal to our vaunting enemies For certainly if there be any truth in that motive then are they professedly the men that judge their brethren and as confessedly we the men that doe not judge them And if S. Cyprian's rule be true who had as well considered the nature of Schism and as diligently armed the Christians of his age against it and given us as sure rules to judge by in this matter as any that they that maintain any difference in opinion against other Christians must if they will avoid the evil of schism manage it with this temper neminem damnantes neminem à communione nostrâ arcentes never condemn any or forbid them our communion then is the schism because the uncharitableness on their parts not on ours And it is not the saying we are Hereticks and so certainly excluded salvation Schismaticks and so out of the Church the way to salvation that can give this sanguinarie judgment any meeker a title For that we are such being as much denied as any thing and that negative offered to be proved and vindicated by all those evidences by which any matter of doctrine from whence this question depends can duly be cleared this unproved affirmation that we are such is certainly a petitio principii a begging of the question a supposing that in the debate which they know we are as farre from confessing as they from having proved and that is the most certain proof that such judging is uncharitable I wish there were not many other as pregnant indications of it § 4. And for that of despising or setting at nought the brother which is the Ap Of despising We are guiltlesse of it ostles argument also that they walk not charitably and the effect whereof is evident the casting them out of the Church if the cause may be concluded by the effect the guilt lies on the Romanists side not on ours as hath formerly appeared And truly we are so sensible of the many prepossessions and strong prejudices which by the advantage of education the prescribed credulity to all that the Church shall propose the doctrine of infallibility the shutting up the scriptures in an unknown language the impossibility that the multitude should search or examine tradition with their own eyes the prosperous flourishing estate of the Roman Church and the persecutions and calamities and expressions of God's displeasure on the Church of England the literal sound of Hoc est corpus meum for their principal espoused doctrine of Transubstantiation and som other the like means are infused into the multitude of men and women that are brought up without any knowledge of ours in a firm belief of all their pretensions that we are as farre from setting them at nought or despising them as from that which by their doing it first is made impossible for us to be guilty of the casting them out of the Church § 5. I foresee not any objection which may give me temptation or excuse farther to enlarge on this matter And professe not to know any other branch of Schism or colour of fastening that guilt upon our Church made use of by any which hath not been either prevented in the grounds of this discourse or distinctly taken notice of and competently vindicated as farre as the design'd brevity would permit CHAP. XI Concerning the present Persecution of the Church of England and the advantages sought from thence § 1. OUr Establishment being thus freed from Schism I shall not now entertain my self with any fear that the Persecution which we are under will involve us in it The Romanists argument frō our present condition of Persecution Yet can I not but take notice of the style that some Romanists have in these last years on this occasion chosen to make use of calling us the late Church of England The interpretation whereof is to my understanding this that the calamities under which now we suffer have made us cease to be a Church And therefore having learned and abundantly experimented what scandal the Crosse hath alwaies carried along with it how willing enemies are to take advantage and ground arguments on afflictions and how ordinary it is for friends to take impressions from such sensible carnal motives and being secured by the storie of the Antient Gnosticks that it is neither scandalous excesse of fear nor want of charity to think it possible that this as other antient heresies may now as in a Platonick year if not carefully warded return on us as in a revolution I shall therefore conclude this paper with an attempt to remove this prejudice The utmost whereof being formed into an objection is this that it is absolutely necessary to communicate with some one visible Church that now the Church of England is not such and consequently that it must be cast off and the Roman Church so illustriously visible be taken up in stead of it § 2. Answered To this reserve I shall make my returns by these degrees First that by the making this objection or drawing any argument against any member of the Church of England from the present 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or improsperous
of any Church be indeed agreeable to truth but yet be really apprehended by him to whom they are thus proposed to be false and disagreeable it will even in that case be hard to affirm that that man may lawfully thus subscribe contrary to his present perswasions For though it be certain that he that thus erres be obliged to use all probable means to reform and deposite his error and as long as he remains in it is so farre guilty of sin as he wants the excuse of invincible ignorance and being obliged to charity and peace as farre as it is possible and in him lies he cannot be freed from offending against that obligation if he doe not communicate with those the condition of whose communion contains nothing really erroneous or sinful and so though such a man on that side be or may be in several respects criminous yet it is as evident on the other side that he that professes to believe what he really doth not believe that subscribes with his hand what he rejects in his heart or that doth that which is under the scandal of doing so is farre from being guiltless he certainly offends against the precept of sincerity and veracity yea and of charity to his brethren in respect of the scandal hath added hypocrisie to his error and so which way soever he turns he is sure to sin the worst and most unhappy kinde of straight he remains in error and schisme on the one side and by flying from that he advances to lying and hypocrisie on the other and the desire of avoiding one of these cannot justifie the other § 9. This I say in case the error be really on the mans not on the Churches side But if as in the case proposed the errors be supposed to be wholly on the Churches side and withall indispensably required to be subscribed by all and so the conditions of that communion being exacted of him who cannot without sin undertake them be to him really and unexcusably unlawful then certainly to that man in that case it is no crime not to communicate when he is thus excluded from communicating with that Church but a crime and a great one thus by testifying against the truth and his own conscience to qualifie himself for that communion The admission of such guilts as these hypocrisie and lying against conscience and due grounds of conviction is too high a price to be paid even for peace or communion it self § 10. A meek son of the Church of Christ will certainly be content to sacrifice a great deal for the making of this purchase and when the fundamentals of the Faith and superstructures of Christian practise are not concerned in the concessions he will cheerfully expresse his readiness to submit or deposit his own judgment in reverence and deference to his superiours in the Church where his lot is fallen But when this proves unsufficient when peace with the brethren on earth will not be had at a cheaper rate then this of a voluntary offending against our father which is in heaven in this case the Christian must be content to live without it and though he would rejoice to sell all that he hath to purchase that jewel yet his conscience the health and peace of that which is interrupted by every wilful sin is a commodity that must not be parted with whatsoever the acquisition be which is in his view and thus offers it self in exchange for it § 11. Application to the Church of Rome in relation to the present Church of England The evidence of which is I conceive so demonstrative and irresistible that it will be justly extended much farther then the present case of the Church of England gives me any temptation to extend it For in case our Ancestors had unjustly and criminously made a separation from the Church of Rome which it shall anon appear that they have not and we their successors in that schisme should unfeignedly confess and repent and desire to reform that sin and uprightly discharge our conscience in neglecting no means that patience humility charity could suggest to us in order to obtaining our reconciliation yet if that cannot be obtained by all these submissions without that harder condition of renouncing or professing or seeming in common reputation of men to renounce any part of Divine truth or Christian practise which we verily believe to be the truth and our duty it would not be our guilt but only our unhappiness that we were thus forced to continue in that separation The reason is evident from the former grounds we must not sin that we may give glory to God such is confession fruits of repentance Jos 7.19 a penitent thief must not lie to enable himself to make restitution nor the contrite schismatick commit any new sin such certainly is hypocrisie lying professing contrary to present perswasion to complete his repentance for the old § 12. If this last be conceived as it is not the present case of the Church of England so to be an impossible unsupposeable case not only upon the Romanists grounds who I presume will not acknowledge any such hard condition as is the profession of an untruth to be required to any mans reconciliation and readmission to their communion but upon this other score because if any false profession be now required to our re-admission the same was formerly required to our continuance in their communion and consequently our Ancestors departure then could not be supposed as in this last fiction of case it is a schismatical departure I shall not need to give any more distinct answer to this then 1. That we that acknowledge not the Church of Rome to be infallible may be allowed to make a supposition which is founded in the possibility of her inserting some error in her Confessions and making the explicite acknowledgment of that the peremptory indispensable condition of her communion 2. That it is possible also though not by us pretended that she should since that supposed departure of our Ancestors introduce some new doctrines and consequently some new errors and those now be supposeable to lie in the way to our return though they had no part before their birth in driving us from them 3. That that may be by the Church of Rome permitted and allowed to those that have alwaies remained in their communion which to them that have departed and either in their persons or posterity desire to return to it will not be permitted by them It being more ordinary to indulge liberties to sons that have alwaies continued in the family then to grant them to offenders and suppliants that expect favours and graces and restauration to privileges 4. That those which have had their education out of the Communion of the Church of Rome may very possibly probably come to discern that which in that communion would never have been for want of representation discerned by them and consequently may observe some errors in her doctrine
and communicate it to another And therefore may as freely bestow the power of Primate and chief Metropolitan of England or which is all one of a Patriarch on the Bishop of Canterbury having formerly thought fit to grant it to the Bishop of Rome as he or any of his Ancestors can be deemed to have granted it to the Bishop of Rome And then as this being by this means evidenced to be no more then an act of regal power which the King might lawfully exercise takes off all obligation of obedience in the Bishops to the Pope at the first minute that he is by the King divested of that power or declared not to have had it de jure but only to have assumed it formerly which freedome from that obedience immediately clears the whole businesse of schisme The reasonablenesse of revoking it as that is a departure from the obedience of the lawful superiour so will there not want many weighty reasons deducible from the antient Canons as well as the maximes of civil government why the King who may freely place the Primacy where he please should choose to place it in a Bishop and subject of his own nation rather then in a forein Bishop farre removed and him not only independent from that King but himself enjoying a Principality or territorie which it is too apparent how willing he is to enlarge unlimitedly and to improve the concessions which are either acknowledged or pretended to be made him to that purpose § 11. And here it is not amisse to observe in the reign of Queen Mary Title power of Supreme head of the Church retained by Queen Mary who was no way favourable to the Reformation in points of doctrine and Liturgie and made all speed to repeal what had been done in King Edward's time in that matter yet 1. that she left not the title of Supreme head till the third Parliament of her reigne and 2. that in the second Parliament authority is granted her to make and prescribe to all such Cathedral and Collegiate Churches as were erected by Henry the VIII such statutes and orders as should seem good to her and that statute never repealed but expired 3. that in her third Parliament it was with much difficulty obtained that the supremacie of the Pope should be acknowledged the matter being urged by her as that which concerned the establishing the Matrimonie of her Mother and her legitimation which depended upon the absolute power of the Pope 4. that in the 4 th year of her reigne when the Pope sent Cardinal Petow to be his Legate in England and to be Bishop of Sarisbury she would not permit him to come into the Land neither could he have that Bishoprick which as it was some check to the Pope's absolute supremacy and an assertion and vindication of the Regal power so being added to the former it will be lesse strange that this Supreme power of the Popes should be by the Bishops in the reigne of Henry VIII disclaimed and ejected § 12. Upon this bottome the foundation of Reformation being laid in England the superstructure was accordingly erected by the King and Bishops and Clergie in Convocation but this not all at once but by distinct steps and degrees Somewhat in the reigne of this Henry the VIII as in the number of the Sacraments the use of the Lords Prayer c. in the English tongue and the translation of the Bible all resolved on in Synod the King which duly assembled it presiding in it by his Vicar General § 13. This was much farther advanced in the time of his son Edward the VI. who being a childe The advance of the Reformation in K ng Edward's daies and the Laws and Constitution of this Realm committing the exercise of the Supreme power in that case into the hands of a Protector what was thus regularly done by that Protector cannot be doubted to be of the same force and validity as if the King had been of age and done it himself Or if it should it would be an unanswerable objection against all hereditary successive Monarchy a maim in that form of Government which could no way be repaired there being no amulet in the Crown which secures the life of each King till his successor be of age nor promise from heaven that the children of such Princes shall by succeeding to the Crown advance by miracle to the years and abilities of their Parents So irrational is the scoffe and exception of some that what was done in King Edward's daies being the Acts of a childe is as such to be vilified and despised § 14. In the Reign of this Prince many Changes were made in the Church and Recessions from the Doctrines and practises of Rome Beside that of Images the lawfulnesse of the marriage of the Clergie was asserted a body of an English Liturgie formed and setled for publick use the Eucharist appointed to be administred to the people in both kindes c. and though Bishop Gardner of Winchester and Bishop Bonner of London made opposition against these changes and for some misbehaviours herein were imprison'd and two more moderate learned men Bishop Tunstal of Durham and Bishop Day of Chichester upon another score yet Archbishop Cranmer and the rest of the Bishops making up the farre greater number joyned with the Supreme power in the Reformation And as it is no great marvell that there should be some so few dissenters so the punishment inflicted on them will not be deemed excessive by any that shall compare it with the farre severer executions the fire and fagot which were soon after in Queen Mary's daies inflicted on Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley and Bishop Latimer as the reward of their disputing in the Synod against Transubstantiation and the like cruelties on multitudes more and the Exiles and deprivations which befell so many others in her Reigne However this can be no prejudice to the regularity of the Reformation in the reigne of King Edward wrought as hath been said by the Supreme power with the consent of the major part of Bishops § 15. In Queen Elizabeth's That which afterward followed in the beginning of Qu. Elizabeth's reigne may be thought more distant and lesse reconcileable to our pretensions not that of her sex her being a woman for so was Qu. Mary before which acted so vigorously for the contrary way and the constitution of our Monarchy invests equally either sex in the plenitude of Regal power in sacred as well as civil affairs and it was but to raise envie against the Reformation that Queen Elizabeth's sex as before King Edward's non-age hath by some been thought fit to be mention'd and cannot by any sober judgment be admitted to have any force in it but because as it is from our histories more pertinently objected most of the Bishops were by her divested of their dignities and new created in their stead To this therefore in the last place I must apply my self to give satisfaction And
it being thus farre evident that it is our avowed wish and our care should it be denied to be our lot a special mark of the Church of England's Reformation to preserve the Vnity of the Apostolical Faith and Primitive practises as intire as we would have done Christ's body or garment and the probability being not weak on our side that the fact of the crucifying souldiers which hath so much of our abhorrence and detestation shall never be our choice our known or wilfull guilt or if it be that we so farre recede from our Profession CHAP. IX The Second species of this Schisme examined as it is an offence against external peace or Communion Ecclesiastical § 1. This Church free from breach of Communion Ecclesiastical NOW for the second branch of this second sort of Schism as it is an offence against external peace or communion Ecclesiastical This cannot with any colour be charged on us As appears by six Considerations of whom these 6 things are manifest and that by the tenure of our Reformation 1. The first that we have alwaies retained the form of Government in and under which the Apostles founded Ecclesiastical assemblies or Communion viz that of the Bishop and his inferiour officers in every Church and so in that respect are in Ignatius his phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within the altar have no part of that breach of Ecclesiastical communion upon us which consists in casting out that order 2. The second That as we maintain that Order so we regularly submit to the exercise of it acknowledge the due authority of these Governors profess Canonical obedience to them submit to their Censures and Decrees and give our selves up to be ruled by them in all things that belong to their cognizance secundum Deum according to God 3. The third That the circumstances which are necessary to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the assembling our selves together for the publick worship whether 1. that of place our Churches consecrated to those offices or 2. that of time the Lords day and other primitive festivals and Fasts and in their degree every day of the week or 3. that of forms of Prayer and Praises celebration of Sacraments and sacramentals Preaching Catechizing c. or 4. that of Ceremonies such as the practise of the Primitive Church hath sent down recommended to us or lastly that of Discipline to binde all these performances upon every member of the Church in his office or place are all entered into our Confessions setled by Article as part of our establishment and so the want of either or all of those are not imputable to our Reformation § 2. The fourth Fourthly That in every of these three whatsoever the Romanist requires us to adde farther to that which we voluntarily and professedly receive 1. the supreme transcendent monarchick power of the Pope 2. the acknowledgment of and obedience to his supremacy 3. the use of more ceremonies festivals c. is usurpation or imposition of the present Romanists absolutely without Authority or Precedent from the antient Primitive Church from whom we are so unwilling to divide in any thing that we choose a conformity with them rather then with any later modell and if by receding from the Ordo Romanus in any particular we doe not approve our selves to come neerer to the first and purest times it is the avow'd Profession of our Church the wish and purpose of it which I may justly style part of our establishment to reduce and restore that whatsover it is which is most pure and Primitive in stead of it § 3. The fift Fiftly That as we exclude no Christian from our communion that will either filially or fraternally embrace it with us being ready to admit any to our assemblies that acknowledge the Foundation laid by Christ and his Apostles so we as earnestly desire to be admitted to the like freedome of external Communion with all the members of all other Christian Churches as oft as occasion makes us capable of that blessing of the one heart and one lip and would most willingly by the use of the antient method of literae Communicatoriae maintain this Communion with those with whom we cannot corporally assemble and particularly with those which live in obedience to the Church of Rome § 4. The sixt Sixtly that the onely hindrances that interpose and obstruct this desired freedome of external Communion are wholly imputable to the Romanists § 5. First their excommunicating and separating from their assemblies all that maintain communion with the Church of England which we know was done by Bull from the Pope about the tenth year of Q. Elizabeth before which time those English which had not joyned in our Reformation might and did come to our assemblies and were never after rejected by us but upon their avowed contumacie against the orders of our Church which consequently brought the censures on them and to that it is visibly consequent that we that were cast out cannot be said to separate as in the former part of this discourse hath been demonstrated § 6. Secondly their imposing such conditions on their Communion belief of doctrines and approbation of practises which we neither believe nor approve of and are ready to contest and maintain our Negatives by grounds that all good Christians ought to be concluded by that we cannot without sinning or seeming to sin against conscience without wilfull falling on one side or dissembling and unsound confession on the other side or at least the scandal of one of these accept of their communion upon such conditions as hath formerly been demonstrated also § 7. A consideration concerning our Church And in this matter it were very well worthy our considering how farre the Articles of our Church of England proceed in accord with the present Roman doctrines and practises and in what particulars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we cannot perswade our selves to consent to them and then to offer it to the Vmpirage of any rational arbitrator whether we that unfeignedly professe to believe so much and no more nor to be convinced by all the reasons and authorities proofs from Scripture or the first Christian writers those of the first three hundred years or the four General Councels produced by them being in full inclination and desire of minde ready to submit upon conviction are in any reason or equity or according to any example or precept of Christ or his Apostles or the antient Primitive Church to be required to offer violence to our mindes and to make an unsound profession or else for that one guilt of not doing so to be rejected as hereticks and denied the benefit of Christian Communion which we heartily desire to extend and propagate to them which deny it to us All this thus put together and applied to this present matter will certainly vindicate us from all appearance of guilt of this second branch of the second sort of Schisme CHAP. X. The third species of this Schism as