OF Christian Communion To be kept on In the Unity of Christs Church and among the Professors of Truth and Holiness AND Of the Obligations both of Faithful Pastors to Administer Orthodox and Holy Offices and of Faithful People to Communicate in the same Fitted for Persecuted or Divided or corrupt States of Churches when they are either born down by Secular Persecutions or broken with Schisms or Defiled with Sinful Offices and Ministrations In three Parts Printed Anno Dom. 1693. THE PREFACE Reader 'T IS a sad thing when any Kingdoms are divided about the Payment of their Allegiance and Civil Duties which must needs bereave vast Numbers of the Innocence and more of the Comforts and Quietness of Humane Life But it is still worse when this grows into a Division of Churches and Breach of Religious Communions For besides that Religion is the chief of all things which can concern us and whereon we must Build all our Hopes of Good in another Life Religious Exercises and Assemblies should be the properest Cordial to Revive our Spirits and the best and surest Refuge for us to flee unto in the greatest civil Distractions But such Division of Churches and Communions unsettles and distracts the Hearts of Good and Pions People about this and makes them at a Loss where to serve God and say their Prayers And this must put all who pretend to seriousness or a Religious Spirit on shewing Compassion and some on endeavouring Relief and on reaching out such things as may direct and be of use to them in a Safe and Conscionable Guidance of their Steps at such times And this is the Design of this Treatise Wherein my Business is not at all to Dispute the particular Titles to any Crowns or to examine the Claims of the several Pretenders to them In that I leave every Honest Mind to other ways of Informing and Satisfying themselves and of Forming such Judgments thereof as Truth and Justice shall happen to require in their particular Case But when by those Ways they are come to be resolved therein I endeavour to shew them what things lie most upon Conscience either their Pastors or their own as to Church Ministrations and what way they are to take about Religious Offices and Communion on such unhappy Divisions These Matters I Treat of not as they are State Points like one who seeks only to be a Stickler in Civil Differences or to help those who on such Breaches Study only to make a Bustle in State Parties But as they are Matters of Religion and concern all who would keep in the Favour of God and in the right Way to Heaven For my Design and Study all along is to shew how they who desire nothing more than to save their immortal Souls may keep free from Guilt and Eternal Danger in these particulars My great Care for them and for my self in these Matters being how we may truly and acceptably Serve God more than any Temporal Interest or the Cause of any Persons or Parties in this World And this I offer to the Conscientious who prefer Religion before Worldly Ends and Eternity before this Life And who in these Differences are Willing and Desirous to take the sure Way to Future Peace and Everlasting Bliss however the same may expose them here to Worldly Difficulties Uncomfortableness and Persecutions As for the Ways and Practices here spoken off I have given warning of their Gullt and Danger with planeness And this is necessary in all good Christians especially in Ministers who are not to call Evil Good or to give soft Names to ill things and to palliate Unrighteousness instead of exposing and exploding it which were to take part with Wickedness and to sew Pillows for the Bolstring up of Sinners I am sensible what need there is of Charity and Candor at all times especially on the Bursting out of Differences And how indispensable Christian Duties these are not only in Men at Ease but in Confessors and Sufferers for Righteousness towards their Persecutors If I keep not Charity though I give my Body to be Burned and Suffer Martyrdom it Profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13. 13. And when we see Men inapparently Wicked and Ungodly Ways or Unrighteous Things done 't is the part of this Charity and Candor to shew Favour and Easiness in Judging of the Dispositions of Mind wherewith they do them Ascribing them so far as it can find any reasonable Colour or Pretence thereof to the most excusable Principles As to their being Mislead by the plausible Arguings of Deceivers or to an Error of their Judgments rather than to their acting all the while against their own Belief and Convictions And to their being over-awed by Fear of Princes or of Popular Violence or being Forced by Worldly Wants and Necessities rather than to their doing the same willingly and of themselves or out of Malice As our Blessed Lord whilst he hung upon the Cross most Candidly imputes the Wickedness of his Crucifiers to their Ignorance Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luke 23. 34. It is also the Part thereof freely to encourage and Friendly to desire and endeavour their Return rejoycing to have them see their Folly rather than to see them suffer for it And without Upbraiding them with the Remembrance of former Errors Amicably to Welcome and carry on the Change when through the Blessing and Grace of God they are wrought upon by whatever Methods of Providence and begin to come to themselves But whist it is so Favourable in judging of the inward Dispositions of the Persons 't is no Part of this Charity and Candor either to think or to speak Favourably of the Ungodly or Unrighteous things themselves whch are set up or driven on at such Times The unlawful Practices themselves it censures with Justice being a Charity that is Pure and Pious and that is careful for God and for the Duties of an Holy Religion in the First Place Out of Love to God and Religion it cannot Favour Vices or softer and take part with any Sin Yea and out of Love to Men it cannot speak softly of destructive Courses or represent any ungodly Ways or Things as less Dishonourable and Offensive to God or as less Dangerous to Souls than in the End they will find them So that they are mightily Mistaken who think it any Part of true Christian Charity and Candor to befriend ungodly Practices or to minee and soften unlawful and unrighteous Things which were to conspire with Sin and Wickedness against God and Religion and to betray the Souls of Men instead of befriending them I am also sincerely and conscientiously srudious of Peace and to keep Men unreproveable in that is one intent though not the only one of these Papers And before open Breaches are made the Love of Peace will spend it self in endeavours to prevent them But if they are made already as they are to a great Hight when the Espousers of ill
Church or spiritual city wherein Christians are incorporated into one Body is not only the Church of one place or Country wherein all the Members may Embody and Associate under the same Governors as the Church of Rome Alexandria or Antioch But the collection of all particular Christian Societys or the whole number of independant Churches Existing in all times and diffused through all places For all these our Saviour has ordained to be one Society or Spiritual Body Of them he speaks or of all that do or shall believe on him when he prays to his Father that they all may be one Joh. 17. 11. 20. 21. And of them St Paul speaks when he says both of Jews and Gentiles distributed into so many distinct Churches that by the Cross of Christ they are all reconciled to God in one Body Eph. 2. 16. And when he says of Baptism which being duly received in any Church makes a man free of all other Christian Churches that by one spirit we are all baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles 1 Cor. 12. 13. And of the Unity of this Church or Collection of all Believers do those Scriptures speak which represent all that are in Heaven and all that are in Earth as one whole Family Eph. 3. 15. As one House-hold 1 Tim. 3. 15. and Gal. 6. 10. or as one City Heb. 12. 22. Whence accordingly all who are at any time in this world are said to have their Citizenship or Corporation in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. And all who are admitted into Christs Church here to be Fâ—llow-Citizens with the Saints and Domesticks with Prophets and Apostles and with all others who are gone to God before Eph. 2. 19. What is the one Body saith St Chrysostom on the words of St. Paul there is one Body 'T is all believers of every place saith he both those who now are and who formerly have been and who hereafter shall be And as to the Union of these Spiritual bodys or societies both the Members of each particular Church must keep Unity or make one society with their own Church And every particular and independant Church with its Members must keep Unity and make one society with all other particular and independant Churches The Members keep Unity with their own Church by due dependance and subjection or by keeping subject and dependant on their own Lawful Bishops And one particular Church keeps Unity with all other independant and sister Churches by Fraternal Communion or the Communion of Saints in the Holy Catholick Church profess'd in the Creed that is by their readiness to Unite with their Religious Assemblies to own their Members and to ratify their Church Acts as if they were their own or had been sped by themselves And this way of fraternal communion as well as the other of keeping under the same visible Governors by due dependance and subjection is a way to Unite them not only as a Sect who all hold and profess the same Doctrines and Opinions but also as a Society or as one Body For by this bond of fraternal communion they stand obliged not only to Unity of Doctrine as men of the same sect but to unity as of internal so of external society and incorporation as fellow citizens For such are the obligations of receiving mutually each others Member as their own free denizens of admitting of their baptismal claims and Church Priviledges of Ratifying of their Church-Acts and Censures of Associating with their Church services and Assemblies and of standing together as one body and brotherhood for the same common Tenets and Religious interests as if they were incorporated under the same External Heads or were the members of the same particular Church And this is to unite them in the great things of society particularly of a spiritual society which lyes mightily in communion in spiritual acts and offices And accordingly Uniting in the same Sacraments which are the Highest Acts of Church Communion is set out for a way of Uniting all in one body or corporation We being many are one body by being all partakers of that one bread 1 Cor. 10. 17. And we are all baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12. 13. So that all Christian Churches who under one common Father as Domesticks or under one Lord and King as Fellow-citizens are incorporated upon one Charter or New-covenant to live by the same Laws and out of the same Hopes and in enjoyment of the same Church-rights and Priviledges and have one common Form of Incorporation to Naturalize or Enfranchise them thereinto viz. One Baptism are to transact as one society by keeping up one fraternal Communion among themselves Now both this Union of subjection towards their own Church and its Lawful Heads and of fraternal communion towards all other equal and independant Churches all good Christians are bound to keep up unless some obstacles happen in either which are of force to put a bar thereto or give discharge thereof And such obstacles either in our own Bishops or in other equal and independant Churches are Heresy when once openly profess'd by them Or their fixing unlawful Terms of Communion puting sinful things into their sacred offices or not allowing any to Communicate with them without believing or professing some false Doctrine or partaking with them in some evil worship or thing Or Tyrannical Usupation on their Brethrens Libertys not admitting other Churches to their Communion unless they will give up their own rights and freedoms and become their Subjects When such exceptions lye against any Bishops or against any Churches they have lost their claims of union But all Church-Members are bound I conceive by all the numerous and earnest commands of keeping Unity to continue subject to their Lawful Bishops as all Churches are by the same to keep up Communion with other Churches if they cannot produce any such just obstacles in bar thereof Now Schism is a sinful breach of this union of Church Society Either in the Members of any particular Church when they unjustly break off their subjection and dependance upon their own Church Or in any Particular Churches when they unduly break off Fraternal Communion with other Churches denying to Assemble with them or Communicating with such as stand Excommunicated by or have made a Schism from them First One Great way of Schism is in respect of Particular Members when against the Gospel duty and Commands of Unity they unduely throw off their subjection and dependance upon their own Bishops and break off from the Unity of their own Church One way of Uniteing Societies or Bodys of Men is by uniteing them under the same Heads They are all one Body and Members one of another as keeping under and being United to the same Head and Governor Thus of the Association of Man and Wife which is the Original Society and makes a Family which is the ground work of all other Societies it is said that they two
to officiate in another City without their own Bishops Letters commendatory says the Great Council of Chalcedon And the Granting of these Letters was reserved to the Bishops Without their own Bishops Letters commendatory is the Expression of the now cited Canon of Chalcedon And others under the Episcopal Order are restrained from granting them Even those Câ—untry Presbyters whom Balsamon on the Canon calls Protopapas and who as being in the Country where the Bishops were not usually at hand to write them had more pretence of granting them as Zonaras intimates And who else but the Bishops of the several Churches should be capable to grant these Letters For since the Church stands and is fixed upon the Bishops as St. Cyprian tells the Lapsi it is not for any without the Bishop to write Letters as they had done to himself in the Name of the Church But more especially was the Grant thereof reserved to the Primates and Metropolitanes who were to write and receive Synodical Letters and to keep up Communion between the Churches of several Provinces Thus St. Basil expresses his Communion with all Churches by all Churches sending communicatory Letters to him and receiving the same from him And on the Deposition of Marcianus at Arles St. Cyprian desires Stephen Bishop of Rome to signifie to him who was substituted in his place that he might know to whom he should send the Brethren and direct his communicatory Letters And this the Synod of Antioch gives us a Reason of their writing to Dyonisius of Rome and Maximus of Alexandria and to all other Bishops on their placing of Domnus in the See of Antioch upon the Deposition of Paulus Samosatenus Which say they We therefore signifie to you that you may write your communicatory Letters to him and receive the like from him So that none who were out of Communion with their own Bishops and Metropolitanes could be allowed to communicate any whereelse CHAP. III. Of just Grounds to break off Communion particularly of making impious and unlawful things or unrighteous Usurpations and Incroachments the Terms of their Communion FRom what I have said in the Two preceding Chapters without inquiring further into any lower degrees and instances thereof I think it may competently appear what Schism is and who the Persons are that may justly be charged therewith either as breaking off from their own Church by unjustly throwing off and dividing from their own Orthodox and Lawful Bishops or as breaking off from other Churches by unjustly refusing Communion to their Members or by unjustly granting it to their Schismaticks or Excommunicates And more particularly that they are guilty of this great and dangerous Sin of Schism who unjustly turn Subjects or side with Anti-Bishops set up over them against their own Orthodox and Lawful Bishops Yea though such Defectors to the Anti-Bishops make the greatest Numbers or are set up by the civil State as the civilly establish'd or endowed Church And that all other Churches and their Members are guilty of the same who shall own and come in to them and admit them into their Communion and keep on Communion with them I say they are Schismaticks who by any of these ways shall break off from others unduly and without just Cause But some things are a just Ground to breako ff either Dependance and Subjection to our own Bishops or Communion with other Churches Some things as I come next to shew not being to be born nor otqers to be parted with for the Love of external Peace and Union And when these can be justly and duly alledged for standing off 't is always justifiable and commonly necessary to break Communions However to break off Resorting to their Assemblies though at the same we should still allow their Members to resort to ours For this later many times may be allowed longer where it can be done without scandal especially before the Church has proceeded judicially to censure and excommunicate the offending Parties as it was allow'd to the Romanists and accepted by them for several years in the beginning of Q. Elizabeths Reign and also to the Dissenters in later days And if there are such Pleas for breaking off either from any Persons or Churches there is no Breach of Gospel-Union nor Blame of Schism in such Cases And of these I shall now 2. In the Second Place give some Account That when we see any Persons or People breaking off either Subjection to their former Bishops or Ecclesiastical Concord and Fraternal Communion with other Churches we may understand where Schism is and where it is not to be charged and be more clear in several Matters of Importance in this Argument Now such just Ground there is for the Members of any Church to break off Communion either with their own Bishops or with other Churches when they can alledge either some things against the Terms of their Communion or others against their Persons and Doctrines 'T is a just Ground to break off from them if they make impious and unlawful things or unrighteous Usurpations and Incroachments the Terms of their Communion Or though nothing of this can be alledged against the Terms if Heresie can be justly objected to their Persons These I say are just Grounds and give a Liberty to break off from the Communion of any Persons or Churches And I chuse rather to express it by this giving them a Liberty than by imposing on them a conscionable Necessity to do so For some Grounds give a Liberty to break Communion either with their own Bishops or with other Churches which do not in conscience necessitate Men as Unrighteous Usurpations and Incroachments when they are made the condition thereof For though Men need not submit to them yet if they are pleased to do it they ordinarily may do so without Sin and suffer such Incroachments in then own Wrong Besides the Duty of uniting with any particular Persons or Churches is bound upon us by certain Things or Qualifications in those Persons or Churches which oblige us to their Communion and Dependance And as the Being and Presence of those Things and Qualifications binds it on so doth the Failure thereof unbind the same and set Men at Liberty to go off from them I say to go off from them not to go off from all and hold on communicating with none For when they are no longer bound to communicate with such particular Bishops or Churches yet are they still bound thereto with others or under a general obligation to Communion I mean when they have opportunity for the same which is presupposed to all obligation of actual Exercise and Discharge thereof by this like as it is by all other Affirmative Duties The Communion of Saints professed in the Creed obliges us to communicate as we have opportunity in all Christian Offices with all true Christians who still retain those Qualifications I spoke of Though it leaves us free to stand off from any others who have
says they have them if they will use them and the Acts of Orders are not Nullities which are done by them There is no Question now to be made saith he and it has been a thing discussed considered and established through the whole World that they who are broken off from the Unity of the Church do for all that retain both their Baptism and their Orders or Power of Baptizing When correcting the Error of their Schism they are received to the Unity and Peace of the Church if it seem needful or expedient to have them bear their former Offices their Prelates are not to be Ordain'd again but as their former Baptism so their former Ordination remains intire in them For their Fault lay in their Schism which is corrected by their being settled anem in the peace of Uâ—ity not in the holy institutions either of Bapism or Orders which wheresoever they are really are of validity Yea and when on such reception to the Communion of the Church it seems expedient not to admit them to the administration of their former Orders yet even there adds he is not the power of Orders withdrawn from them but remains still lodged in them Which also may appear from hence because on their Reconciliation they are not made to stand among the Penitents as other Offenders among the people are and there to receive penance and absolution by imposition of hands Which is omitted towards them not because it would be an injury to their persons Schism being as Criminal if not more Criminal in them than it is in others but because it would be an injury to their Orders which Orders therefore must be still inherent in them at that time to give them that Exemption For no person in Holy Orders as Bishops Priests and Deacons was lyable or ever made to do penance by the ancient Rules and Discipline of the Church And before them St. Cyprian and the Africanes of his Age together with Firmilian of Caesarea in Cappadocea carryed the effect of Schism so far as quite to set asi e all Ministerial Acts of Schismaticks And on that Account they equally null'd both their Ordinations and their Baptisms The powers of Baptizing and Ordaining and of doing other Ministerial Acts are powers of the Holy Ghost And by Schism in their Account the Schismaticks fell from the Grace of the Holy Ghost and having lost it themselves were no longer empowered to confer it on others either in Baptism or Ordination being thence forward as to these powers as meer Lay-men as St. Basil recites their Opinion But this St. Basil thinks was a straining things too far and others of Asia as he says were altogether of another Opinion So in his Canonical Epistle which was received into the Code of the Universal Church by the sixth Council in Trullo he admits those Ministerial Acts and Baptisms when done by Bishops or by others of their Ordination in a Schism Yea and even Cyprian and those Africanes who were for nulling these Acts and Baptisms of Scismaticks seem to have been for this only in regard to their own Communion or by denying Communion to them in their own Churches in way of asserting Discipline and Canons but not to have thought them naturally and essentially null in themselves And this I think is plain from hence Because though in care to keep up Discipline they null'd these Acts as to their own Communion in the case of any of their own Members Yet they declare that if any other Churches admit them they will not break Communion with them on account thereof We judge none nor will exclude any from our Communion who shall be of another Opinion says St. Cyprian at the Head of the Council of Carthage when they made this Determination And again in another Council when they writ to Stephen of Rome to concur with them in rejecting not only the Baptism but the Ordination of Men in Heresie or Schism and in receiving them when they returned to the Church only to Lay-communion They declare that if any of their Brethren who have imbihed another Opinion are still for sticking to their former Sentiments they are not forcing any nor for breaking Communion with those who are for preserving that Bond of Concord and Peace which ought to be upheld in the College of Bishops So that if any Persons of such Baptism or Ordination came to them with Communicatory Letters from any other Bishops they would admit them to all Acts whether of Lay or Clerical Communion in Carthage and Africk which they had been admitted to at home the denyal whereof as I shewed before had been to break Communion with other Churches which they disclaim And if they would admit them to communicate thus with them in their Churches they could not think either their Baptisms or Ordinations null in themselves For the Communion professed in the Creed is a Communion of Saints or Christians who are listed or made Christians by Baptism and Clergy-men by Ordinaetion and there is no admission of Un-baptized Persons to those Acts which are proper to the Faithful or of Un-ordained Persons to those Priviledges and Functions which are peculiar to the Clergy in the Church 〈◊〉 Christ. But against all this it may be Objected that there it to be but one Bishop at once in a Church as St. Cyprian alledges and as the great Council of Nice afterwards provides and that the Bishop in the Church is the Principle of Unity And that the admission of the Ordination of Anti-bishops will be against the Nature of the Spiritual Monarchy the Nature of Monarchy not admitting of two at once And as the Throne can hold but one so the Electors where the Monarchy goes by Election can chuse but one who being once chosen they can elect no more nor can confer the same powers on any other till the Throne becomes vacant again But as to the Bishops being the principle of Unity that respects the Peoples Duty of holding Communion with him his being the Principle of Unity to the Church binding the Church to depend on him and incorporate under him and to communicate with him And as to this the Members who are already subject to a rightful Bishop are not to admit of a second Bishop That is if such an one is set up they are not to unite themselves to him and turn over to his Communion as I think may sufficiently appear from what I have above discoursed on that Point but are to stand off from him as from one that makes a Schism And thus every Church as a Spiritual Monarchy is not to be possessed by two at once since all must adhere to one And though the second who is set up in opposition be a Bishop yet he is not their Bishop nor may any of them break off from their rightful Head to joyn in his Communion But though the Anti-bishop in any
him either as his Mouth unto his People or as their Mouth unto Himself in publick Assemblies or Congregations Such likewise are those set and solemn Times for worship which he has instituted both among Jews and Christians and which are all design'd for publick worship in Joynt-Assemblies Yea even our Prayers which are the Acts of worship express communion and joynt-society being put up according to his appointment in the plural number he having taught us to say Our Father which art in Heaven and give us this day c. which speaks the communion and concurrence of more besides our selves And the Holy Sacraments those most eminent Acts and Instances of worship are ordained for Asts of society and partnership or of communion therein We are all baptized into one body And We being many are one bread and one body And The bread which we break is the communion of the body of Christ and the cup of blessing which we bless is the communion of the blood of Christ as St. Paul says And because by their institution they are not only to be Acts of worship but of publick worship or of joynt-concurrence or communion therein therefore doth our Church allow no Sacrament even to the Sick without three or two at the least to make a Congregation and condemns the private and solitary Masses of the Church of Rome which are eaten by the Priest alone Such is the natural obligation and such the necessity and importance of publick worship which is one of the greatest visible supports of Religion without which 't is to be feared it would sink and be in danger to fail in the Earth Whereas the paying of this worship in Church-Unity and dependance on a Bishop though it be a duty too yet is a duty more of positive obligation For to have Bishops and to pay all our publick worship in communion with them is no natural duty which always was incumbent on all men but came in with Christianity by positive Institution or particular Revelation And besides though important in it self yet in comparison it is of less importance not only the natural parts of the Ministration but the positive too as the Holy Sacranients c. being I conceive of more Weight And though the want of this Union under our own Bishops by the opposite Passions and angry Tempers which Schism introduces doe greatly eat out true devotion yet doth it not make so wide a breach and waste therein as the want of any Ministerial Offices at all would do Now in any competition of Duties the Rule is that things of positive obligation shall give way to things of natural obligation and positives of less importance to positives of more importance in those cases and times where we can not do both The natural there takes place of the positive and the greater sets aside the less Particularly as to the keeping up Religion and Church-unity and Association if in any case we can not maintain both but a competition happens to arise between them the care of Church-unity must give way to the care of Religion We must look then to keep up as much Church-unity as we may do in keeping up Religion which being once lost Church-unity and association signifies nothing And not begin the other way to content our selves with keeping up so much of Christian Religion as we do in strict observance of the Rules of Church-society and Union For Christs first and chief design was to plant and preserve the Religion And that Church-unity which is either valuable or desireable in the sight of God is Church-unity with true Religion not Church-unity without it and we are tyed to keep up Church-union for Religion's not Religion for Union's sake as I shewed before And therefore the duty and obligation to communicate in some Ministerial Offices will be a fair excuse for doing this out of the way of Church-unity or dependance on our own Bishops when both can not have place And thus I think the Scripture determines in such cases and that 2. These abatements are what God himself has been willing to make on such necessity in other like duties He has not required that men should stick so fast to those duties or parts of duty which are inferior or subservient or appendages unto others as that for their sakes they should drop other duties which are principal or superiour to them nor is he willing that in care of preserving their practice of lesser Vertues inviolable they should at any time let the weightier fall So that to think he will abate and relax something of the duty of Church-union when that is necessary to keep on the more important duty of publick Ministration and that he doth not the the People up to such strict care of communicating in the Unity of the Church as must drop and let fall all communion in Ministerial Offices when they are not to be had but at the hands of those who minister in breach thereof is only to think that he is ready to make the same equitable allowance on any competition in these as he doth on like competitions in other duties And that Almighty God is willing to make these abatements on such necessity and competitions I conceive may sufficiently appear by the following Instances Circumcision and Sacrifice and the Sabbath are all positive duties But Circumcision and Sacrifice being of more importance they were to take place of the Sabbath and whensoever it so fell out that they could not observe both men might be excused in breaking the Sabbath Rest to labour in Circumcision as they did whensoever the eighth Day of the Childs Age which was appointed for his Circumcision fell to be on the Sabbath Day or in Sacrifices with the labour whereof the Priests in the Temple continually prophaned the Sabbath and were blameless as our Lord determines And God himself declares I will have Mercy before Sacrifice which imports according to our Lords allegations and applications of it that Men should drop the duty of Sacrifice to attend the duty of Mercy when for the time they must let one fall and could not pay both So making the necessity of performing natural duties an excuse for the omission of positive and the necessity of performing more important duties an excuse for the omission of less important when there is a necessity of letting one fall Thus also it was a positive duty and rule among the Jews that the Priests should kill the Sacrifice according to what is said in the Law Lev. 1. 4 5. The People who brought it as it is there order'd were to lay their hands upon the head of the Sacrifice But it was left to the Priests to kill it as Josephus relates Whence the Priests were able to give the number of the Paschal Sacrifices at any Passover as they did to Cestius Gallus as the same Author testifies And this is the account of the Jewish Doctors
a Wrong to Religion And there they must go on for the sake of Gospel-worship and doctrines which are Christs Cause though they would be content to suffer and sit still so far as it is their own And accordingly the Council of Constantinople entituled Prima Secunda excepts the Case of Heretical Prelates promoting or pushing on any Heresies when it requires Inferiors to stay for a synodical Cognizance before they break off dependance from their Prelates in all other Cases Though Synods therefore are the most Venerable Ecclesiastical Judicature here on Earth yet is all the Obligation and Authority of their decisions or sentences within this Compass They have no Effect or Force against the Truth as St. Paul says or against any for adhering to it So that they are to affect none who have Christ and his Truth plainly on their side Nor do their judgments and definitions bar those who are concerned to take Notice of them from examining and judging for themselves whether they strike at any part of Christian Truth and Religion before they pay Obedience to them I grant there ought to be great deference to their determination and all private Persons are to use great modesty and care in judging after them and need to look that the blow and destruction thereby made to any necessary Truth or Practice of our holy Religion be very plain before they over-look and disregard what they order But still judge they must because in all their belief and practice in these things it is not any implicit dependance on men or a blind obedience to any humane sentence or decision but observance of the Truth it self or of what Christ has appointed in his Word that must justifie them And therefore if on an humble and diligent examination and by plain evidence it appear that in their definitions of Articles or censure of Persons they strike at the Truth and seek the overthrow of any part of Religion their Acts are to be esteemed as of no effect and all concerned Parties both Clergy and People are to go on doing the same in Religious Ministration and Communion as if there were no such thing More just and authoritative Synods they will be like to seek and appeal from these in a regular way to others more general which in external way of humane judicature shall reverse their unjust sentences But suffering all in the Cause of Truth and Religion they will not desist in the mean time but go on notwithstanding any such synodical Anathema or Deprivation in true spiritual Ministrations and Communion PART III. Of Schism CHAP. I. Of the Nature of Schism And of the Schism of Particular Members from their own Church in throwing off Subjection and Dependance on their own Bishops BY what I have offer'd about the Authority and effect of State-deprivations yea or even of the depositions of Synods too I think it may appear how the faithful Ministers of Christ are not disabled or discharged by any such deprivations from the exercise of their spiritual Ministrations whereto they stand bound by so many Obligations in the forementioned Cases But besides the deprivation of State some think the maintenance of Unity in the Church when that is like to be broken thereby ought to stop them of that Exercise And therefore for a further clearing of their duty in those Cases I shall procede 2. Secondly to shew That the preservation of external Communion and Peace in the Church ought not to debar or put by their due discharge thereof Admit say some that it were their duty to go on in their Ministrations for the service of Religion and of Souls in those cases where this can be done in maintenance of Unity and whilst the Church continues one Yet what will you say if such Ministration must unavoidably make or keep up a Schism Do not we all own that to be one of the greatest Banes to Religion and a most sinful and mischievous thing And if otherwise they ought to be held on ought not such Ministrations to be let fall rather than a Schism shall be made or kept up in the Church thereby That there will be a Schism in the Church in such cases is most apparent And that Schism is most dreadful to the Church full of Guilt as it is both the Breach of Unity and the Bane of Charity and an In-let of continual miseries and disturbances is no less apparent But in pressing the consideration thereof upon particular persons or parties for prevention or redress it is to be enquired first who makes it That will shew who ought to mend it but if they will not it may be enquired next who else can cure it Or what the sufferers in love of peace and preferring the Publick before themselves should give up for the Cure thereof that they may duly prize external Unity but not over-value it Or if through the Error or inflexibleness which God avert of those who are the Authors thereof it be already made and cannot be remedyed all are to consider lastly how they are to carry themselves towards the Makers of it and with whom they are to hold Communion To Clear these Points I shall say something I. To the Nature of Schism to shew when a Schism is made and by whom II. To those things which may be a just ground to disunite and break off either from any Persons or Churches without blame of Schism some things not being to be born nor others to be parted with for the love of external Peaâ—e and Union III. To the Communion of good Christians under a Schism and how they are to carry it towards Schismaticks 1. First I shall say something to the Nature of Schism to shew when a Schism is made and by whom Schism lyes in Breach of Union or in Making two or many out of one Schisms says St. Cyprian which cut or break the Unity or tear and divide that which should be kept together as one Body By Schism as St. Chrysostom notes One Church is broken into many Churches and the Unity thereof is abolish'd Accordingly the Members are call'd upon to be joyn'd together in the same mind and in speaking the same things that there be no Schisms 1 Cor. 1. 10. Not to set up an Independance among themselves and act separately but with mutual dependance and conjunction that there be no schism in the body 1 Cor. 12. 25. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 schisms are usually render'd divisions as 1 Cor. 10. and c. 11. 18. This Union which Schism breaks is the union of a society For the Church is a society of men Associated and incorporated together for the work and purposes of Religion 'T is call'd a Family or †Household or City which are all words Expressive of Society St Paul Styles it the City of the living God Heb. 12. 22. And tells the Christians at Ephesus that they are Fellow-Citizens with the Saints Eph. 2. 19. This
unless their Clergy whom they can resort to for the same would receive Episcopal Ordination And since in the place where their Lot is faln they can not have Episcopal Communion they will be excused for wanting it Though worshipping God or communicating in Ministerial Offices is a natural duty yet the confining this to the communion of a Bishop is a positive Limitation And necessity though it can discharge no natural duties yet may sometimes excuse and supersede positives So that when they can not communicate in Ministerial Offices under Bishops they will be excused I hope for communicating in the same without them And as to the Clergy though I will not here discuss or determine their case yet is this necessity where it can be justly and fully pleaded thought by many to bid fair for excusing warranting them in Ministring without Episcopal Powers For at one time the Priest hood belonged to the First-born At first it was lodged in the Patriarks And thus we read of Abraham that he would command and instruct his Children and his House-hold after him in the true Religion Gen. 18. 18. And of him and Jacob and Job and other Patriarks offering Sacrifices And from the Patriarks it came to be vested in the First-born till the Levites among the Jews were appropriated and given to God in exchange for them Numb 3. 41. And this limiting it afterwards to one Tribe or Family as the Line of Aaron among the Jews or to men Episcopally called and Ordained as it is among the Christians were Limitations of positive institution And therefore necessity which supersedes or excuses the want of positives though it leave them still under the force of Naturals is thought to bid fair towards taking off the exactness of these latter Restraints and bearing men out in parting from them in those things where they can not avoid it so long as they still keep close to them in others where they can if they have this necessity honestly and fairly to plead for themselves Now if this necessity of Peoples communicating in Ministerial Offices will excuse their communicating with Ministers who have no Bishops I see not but it should do the same in point of communicating with Ministers who are broke off from their own Bishop For surely it is a more flagrant breach of Union to break off from Episcopacy it self than from any particular Bishop and a deeper Schism to cast off all Bishops than to cast off one And therefore that necessity of communicating in Ministerial Offices which is allow'd to legitimate and excuse the one will not be denyed to legitimate and excuse the other too 4. Besides this of Gods People having held and practised thus under the greatest Schisms of former times in further confirmation of this Liberty I observe Lastly how it has done the same to give Relief in some other compassionable cases about communion which have only like Plea for abatements as this case has For great purposes and what will be alleadged greater than preventing a total want of publick worship and Ministerial Offices the Church has abated in shunning the communion of Schismaticks especially before they are cut off by judicial Censures and of excommunicate persons For in abatement of this keeping off from their communion it has allow'd men to communicate with them at the beginning ere Schism yea or Heresie it self is fully formed and whilst it is capable of being prevented An Heretick St. Paul orders not to be rejected from communion before he has had a first and second Admonition So that till then in hopes of prevention they might Communicate with him And accordingly the Catholicks did for a good while Communicate with the Arians after the bursting out of that Heresy whilst by that forbearance and by the other parties seeking still in their definitions to come as near as they could to the truth they conceived hopes of remedy or cure thereof There being no breach of communion on account of their different judgements for some time but all Assembling together and joyning in the fame ministrations as Sozomen says Or after the Breach of Communion is made and different Churches are set up tho' we do not go to theirs it has allow'd them to come to our Assemblies in hopes to cure them Thus at the beginning of our Reformation after the division from their Church notwithstanding their Adherence to the Pope and all their Errors both in worship and Doctrines the Papists were allowed for several years under Queen Elizabeth to come to our Churches And the Dissenters from the Episcopal Communion among us are all Schismaticks but yet they have not been driven out thereof but allow'd to joyn with us in publick offices when they would come into our Churches as still they have been invited and encouraged to do if they were not under sentence of Excommunication from the Bishops Courts Yea though their offences were lyable to ipso Facto Excommunications by several Canons Such ipso Facto Excommunications being only sententia lata ab ipso jure a sentence pass'd by the Law which as the Canonists say needs sententiam latam a judiâ—e another sentence pass'd by the judge an ipso facto excommunication by any Canons not barring men from Communion till there be a declaratory sentence as Lyndwood notes Thus also they who in Heathen Persecutions fell to sacrifice to Idols were Segregated or shut out from Communion by the Primitive Canons And with men excluded it is made unlawful to Communicate by the Canons of the Apostles and others as I shew'd before And Gaius Diddensis and his Deacon were Suspended from Communion themselves for Communicating with Lapsers And yet in great need thereof and when there was hopes thereby to recover them when in prison the Egyptian Martyrs did in great Charity Communicate with them both at their Common Tables and in Prayers as Dionysius Alexandrinus reports In these and other Rules of Discipline where there are great Reasons for Favor and abatements the Church it self would have no want thereof In things that will not bear extremities or the Rigor of Law as the Fathers in the Council in Trullo and St. Basil also in his Canons say they are to Relax and make abatements according to Custom and the form received Thus on great reason have some equitable abatements of the Rigor of the foresaid Rules for shunning of Communion with men fall'n into Heresy or Schism or other depriving crime still been made in the Church and some reasonable liberties indulged in those cases It was thought reasonable to recede thus and to take these Liberties when put thereto to serve other peoples necessities must it not needs be to the full as much so when put thereto to serve our own It was allowable to serve the spiritual wants of the offenders Can it be less so to serve those of innocent men So that as it suits as I shew'd before with the reason
things have proceeded to set up Anti-Bishops which divide Church Societies till by pouring in Oil they can be Cured and Closed again one chief Business left then for the Love of Peace and Union is to see that Peace and Unity be kept with the Right Side And this I have here endeavour'd to assist the Children of Peace in the best I can For it would be a fatal Mistake indeed to have the very Love and Desire of Peace abused to the Maintenance of Dividers and to see well-meaning Men whilst at such Times they are designedly Labouring to avoid Schisms to run Headlong into them As they must do if they mistake their Side wherewith this Peace and Unity is to be kept and instead of the true Body take part with the Seditious and joyn themselves to those Members who are broken off on such Divisions Besides the Peace and Union which we are to seek in this World must be such as may give us Peace at the last It is not being at Peace in such Ways as will fill our Souls in the End with Eternal Horrors And therefore it is not to be sought by our Violation of any Parts of Righteousness nor by our consenting or giving way to the Suppression thereof or letting fall our Zeal for the same So that we must not seek to compass it by Neutrality and Luke-warmness for Gods Holy Commandments And much less by Treachery in giving up them and the Souls of Men whose Eternal Weal depends upon the Observance thereof as the Purchase of external Unity with any Society When Worldly Peace can no longer be kept together with Righteousness it is no Peace for Christians or for Men who would prefer the Peace of God and of their own Conscience before any false forced Shows of Peace Unity with any other Persons And these Endeavours to direct Men whose Care is to keep Peace and Unity with any Societies how they may keep them with the Right Side when they are broken into Parties and in such things and by such Compliances as will not intercept their Future Comforts Methinks should be acceptable to all sincere Lovers thereof who would be directed how they may wisely pursue what they love and â—ot miss of their own Desires and would fix at last on such a Peace and Union as will not Deceive them or End in Ruine In treating of these Matters I endevour to clear and confirm what I offer thereupon by the Authority of the Sacred Scriptures and from the Reason and Nature of the things Discoursed of And moreover from the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church Shewing what the Holy Apostles and their Successors of the first and best Ages would have said to Men in the Cases and Breaches here proposed and how as I conceive they would have determined their own Practice had they been tryed therewith and placed in such Circumstances This I shew from their own Rules which they gave out to others and acted by themselves in their own Circumstances And it would be a strange and very Criminal Innovation for any now in our Days to sleight their Ways For we all know that our Holy Religion doth not begin with us and that we are not the First Christians but only their Successors and that too at a great Distance We all profess to be their Followers and should think we have best provided for our own Safety when we have taken the Way to be found in their Company In confirming any Points from their Doctrine or Practice I have given their own Words in the Margin that the Learned Reader having the very Words and Passages I Build upon before him may be the better Enabled and with more Ease to himself to judge of the use which I make of them and of the Inferences which I draw from them But in the Body of the Book I have only given the Translation or put the Sence or Purport of the same that the unlearned Reader may not be discouraged or hindred by the Intermixtures of an unknown Tongue but peruse the whole without Interruption Thro' the whole I am sincerely Careful so far as I am able to satisfie Conscientious and truly Religious Minds what Way they are to take for Sacred Offices and Church Communion on such unhappy Divisions And seeking their Satisfaction in these Matters I have offer'd the best I can to Resolve those Points which I thought they were most like to be unsatisfied in and to clear up those things which seemed to me most liable to mislead them and either to Answer or Obviate those Objections which are already made or so far as I can at present Foresee may probably hereafter start up in their Way to unsettle them about the same All which as I have labour'd in with an Humble Dependance on God's Grace and Assistance so I now humbly recommend to his Blessing Desiring nothing more than that he may Graciously Accept the same and Pardon all the oversights and well-meant Failures and Mistakes which shall happen to be found therein and direct and turn this Work Poor and Defective as it is to the Uses and Interest of Truth and Godliness and to the Edification and Service of his Holy Church THE CONTENTS PART I. Of the Duty of Pastors to exercise their Spiritual Powers and afford the People Orthodox and holy Ministrations CHAP. I. Of the Differences here Treated of and of the Schism consequent thereon SOme Grand Allegations of both Parties under the Differences here Treated of Of a State of Schism thereby When the Sufferers may and when they may not Remedy this by Receeding and Letting fall their Pastoral Claims and Ministrations CHAP. II. Of the Immoral Ways introduced by a wrong Payment of Allegiance UNder State Deprivations Bishops and Clergy still retain their Spiritual Powers To be inquired then whether they are still bound to exercise and make use thereof A Representation of the immoral ways which are brought in by a wrong Payment of Allegiance The same are incurr'd by Paying it to any as a mere King in Fact Of these Immoralities as appearing not only in Practice but in Worship and Devotions Of the Care to Nurse People up therein at such times CHAP. III. Of the Cases wherein Faithful Bishops and Ministers are bound to stick to their Pastoral Powers and Ministrations THis they are bound to when there is need thereof in the Cause of Religion and for the Safety of Souls It lies on them to see the Faithful supplied and the Churches provided 1. With a Sinless and Unpolluted Worship This in Respect of Immoralities as well as of Idolatry and Superstition in Worship Though they cannot afford it free from the Company of immoral Practicers yet they ought to afford it free of immoral Prayers 2. With the Ministration of all necessary Truth not only in Faith but also in Practice More particularly 1. When dangerous and immoral Practices are setting up especially if like to become general 2. When they
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
of mistake and Ignorance Of Zeal against Popery alledg'd therein The Con 〈…〉 PART I. Of the Duty of Pastors to Exercise their Spiritual Powers and to afford the People Orthodox and Holy Ministrations CHAP. I. Of the Differences here Treated of and of the Schism consequent thereon REvolutions of States and Kingdoms when they have put them into the Possession of New Masters are wont to bring on New Oaths of Allegiance for Security of the New Possessors and also to bring on Alterations of Publick Prayers and Liturgies so far at least as concerns the Cause and Interest of the Governing Persons that Religious as well as Civil Offices and Ministrations may espouse and serve their Cause who have got the Power into their Hands These Impositions of such New Oaths and of such Alterations and Ordering of the Publick Worship pursuant to the Design thereof are usually followed with Acts of State for Deprivation of those Bishops and Clergy who Refuse and Stand off from the same and for Substituting opposite or Anti-Bishops and other Clergy that will conform thereto into their Places And when these are executed accordingly especially in much disputed Cases it may be an afflictive Sight to many good Christian Minds in just acknowledgement to the extraordinary and perhaps generally celebrated Merits of Some and in due Compassion to the hard Measure of all the Sufferers But it will be much more impressive and lamentable on the Score of that terrible Rent and Schism thereby like to ensue in such Churches which is so generally and deservedly dreaded and bewailed by all Sincere Promoters of Unity and unfeigned Lovers of Peace and of the Prosperity of the Church This Breach being thus made on One Side The Sufferers will be press'd to Submit in Regard to the Deprivation of the State And moreover supposing themselves injured they will be put in Mind of the justly magnified excellency of the Desirableness and Necessity of Unity and will be call'd upon as Good Pastors who prefer the Flock before themselves to give up Private Claims to Publick Peace and Personal Quarrels and Pretences to the Advantage and Edification of the Church And this Preference of Peace to private Interests they must own to be the Duty of all good Pasters and as becomes such profess to set these things above all Worldly Profits and Considerations being ready when call'd thereto To lay down even their Lines for the Sheep after the Example of the Great Shepheard And 't is not improbable but that at such times they may wish withal that their Admonishes had been as ready to follow this Advice as they are to give it and had like good and conscionable Christians reflected seasonably and seriously themselves upon these Duties of Peace and Unity before they had acted so much against them in rushing Head long as they may alledge into that Breach which in the End the generality see so great cause to lament but which the Sufferers have no Power to Remedy Or that in Just and Necessary Remorse for what they have done they would penitently return whence they are fallen and seeing their Error so unhappily over-looked before by coming into the old Paths re-unite themselves to then Brethren again But on the Other hand they will be ready to put their Brethren and Accusers in Mind that neither a State Deprivation nor a Synodical Deprivation had there been one can discharge a Bishop from standing up to keep off Damage and Danger to Religion and to the Souls of Men or from preventing their being nursed up in immoral Practices and Devotions And that True and Faithful Pastors are not so straightly bound to keep up external Unity and Peace as to keep up necessary Truth and Righteousness and holy and unpolluted Worship in the Church Their Charge is first To provide against all things that endager or destroy the Souls of Men and damnifie Religion and when that is done then to look how they may provide against all Schism or breach of external Unity with their Compastors or Brethren but never seek to salve and secure this by letting those alone Besides as to Peace and Union instead of carrying themselves off from Truth and Righteousness at such times or any good People off from them they will alledge that they oblige all who will make Conscience thereof and observe them as they ought to stick to them For the Unity which Christ requires is to keep united upon the Profession of true Doctrine and holy Worship not of any damnable Errors and Corruptions thereof And under our own Lawful and Canonical Bishops and Pastors not under any opposite or Anti-Bishops and Pastors Schismatically set up against them and violently intruding into their Places The determination of this Debate at all such times on all such Emergencies is both of highest account and of most general Concernment And the design of these Papers is to set down those things whereon in my Judgment the clearing of it must depend and by the help whereof Sincere Christians in such Divisions may be enabled to resolve both what is the Duty of the Sulfering Bishops and Clergy in those Cases and also what is the Peoples Duty and with which of the concern'd Parties Men who desire nothing so much as to please God and to keep a good Conscience ought to unite and joyn themselves As to the deprived Bishops and Clergy at such times the question is Whether not withstanding their Deprivation they are Bound still to go on in the Exercise of their Ministry Or sitting down under it and letting fall their Spiritual Ministrations they Should content themselves to keep United the Anti-Bishops and to their Adberents as Lay Communicants If it be their Duty still to insist on their Spiritual Powers and as they can and at their Perils to exercise their respective Ministrations those Churches are unavoidably left in a State of Flagr anâ— Schism For the opposite or Anti-Bishops are set up against them in their respective Churches as New Heads And if the Old Ones are not only still in place and Bishops of their Flocks 〈◊〉 and still bound to stick thereto and to act as Heads of those Churches each Church will stand divided between Two Heads which drawing opposite Parties and Members after them must unavoidably make two Bodies and roâ—d one into two Churches And besides one having the Protection and Countenance of the State and the other wanting it they must not by divided and separate Ministrations One in the way of an Incorporate Church encouraged by Legal Places and Preferments and foâ—â—â—fied by secular Laws and Priviledges But the Other in the way of a Destitute or Persecured Church stript of the Publick Churches and of secular Benefices and of all Temporal Aids and Methods directing and fortifying the Spiritual Jurisdiction in the Ecolesiastical Courts and left meerly to its Spiritual Powers When the State deprives them they must take up with what is independantly and originall their own and
not expect from it the Benefits and Assistances of any secular mixtures which were derived to them by Incorporation As to this point of Schism several good Minds may think that though by setting up opposite or Anti-Bishops against them in their respective Sees others have already made it yet may it be in the Power of the seinjured Sufferers by their Receding and Submission thereto to remedy and put an end to it And 't is like many Serious and hearty Lovers of Peace and of those Churches may at such times be apt to wish that for the sake of Unity they would do so Indeed where they may be free to do as they please that is when no part of Faith or good Practice is like to suffer by it nor the safety and welfare of those Souls committed to them is haâ—â—rded thereby much may be said to good Pastors not to insist too much on their Personal Rights and Privileges but to forego and give them up for the Peace and Tranquility of the Church Their Spiritual Powers are committed to them not as to Lords of Gods Heretage therewith to seek and serve themselves but as to Stewards that look after it for another or as Sheepheards thereby to serve and Benefit their Flocks Their Powers are all a Ministry to promote Religion and serve the Church by parting with any thing of their own for its good as their Great Master did not to please or aggrandize their own Persons being given them for Edification or wherewith to build up the Church not for Destruction or the pulling of it down Accordingly the Pastoral Spirit is a generous Publick Spirit Nothing is more opposite thereto than narrow private Aims and seeking of themselves nor more required thereby than neglect or denial of themselves for the Safety and Profit of their Flocks and Care or Sollicitude for others It lies as the Blessed Apostle saith in Naturally caring for the Churches In Seeking not their own things but the things which are Iesus Christs In not seeking their own Profit but the Profit of many that they may be saved In making themselves Servants to all when thereby they could Profit the State of Religion and their Flocks though it were by Incumbring and Prejudicing themselves becoming all things to all Men that by all means they may save some And therefore when it has only been a cause of their own Persons or Personal Claims but not of Religion or of the Interest of the Church Good and Holy Bishops have thought it became the Pastoral Spirit rather to receed and sit down under the Injuries than that for their Sakes a Fatal Schism should be kept on in the Church If this Schism be for my Sake send me away or I will depart whither you please and do what the People would have me that the Flock of Christ with the Presbyters over it may be kept in Peace Was what St. Clemens Romanus St. Paul's Fellow Labourer recommended to the Heads of Parties in the Church of Corinth and press'd by the Example of Moses who was* content to be blotted out of the Book of Life to save the Israelites and of those Kings who even among Heathens devoted themselves to Death for the Preservation of their own Countries We ought to endure any thing rather than hat the Church of Christ should be divided Yea 't is not only as Glorious but more Glorious in my Judgment to suffer Mantyrdom for keeping out Schism in the Church than for not Sacrificing to Idols saith Dionysius of Alexandria to Novatus on the division made at Rome If I am any way the cause of your Division I am not better than the Prophet Jonah Throw me into the Sea so that thereby the Tempest of those Troubles may cease from you Whatever you see needful to that end I chuse to suffer Tho' I am blameless and have been no cause of these Troubles yet for your Unanimity and Peace-sake I am content to be thrust out of the Throne and to be expell'd the City says Gregory Nazianzen in his Speech to the Synod on the contest of Maximus Cynicus for his See of Constantinople And we are ready to leave this Prelacy to whom you will provided that way the Church may continue one said St. Chrysostom when at Constantinople others as he complains had unlawfully ascended the Episcopal Throne and thereupon a Seperation was made from him But in Cases where the injured Sufferers are still bound to insist on their Powers and to stand up for Religions Sake and the Churches this way of curing a Schism by their receeding has no place And therefore this Obligation to exercise their Ministries I have fixed the Debate upon in the case of such deprived Bishops and Ministers For if they stand bound in Duty at such times to exercise their Ministrations though never so desirous of Peace and Unity they cannot oure that Schism which others have made by letting their Ministrations fall And besides it 's directly meeting that Pretence and fully answering it I think it plainest to be apprehended and more powerful to operate on the Minds of those who are to be directed and resolved in this Dispute CHAP. II. Of the Immoral ways introduced by a wrong payment of Allegiance THE Bishops and Clergy who are deprived by the State when they cannot comply with the foresaid Changes and Impositions on such Revolutions notwithstanding the deprivation of State still retain their Episcopal and Sacâ—rdâ—tal Powers That is they are as true Bishops and Priests as they were before They are still endowed with the Powers of Orders and their use thereof would be as valid tho' not as to secular Claims and Privileges which are the Gift of Princes yet as to the real Effects of the Covenant of Grace or to purely Spiritual purposes as they would have been had they not been so deprived For these Powers are not derived from the State nor from any secular Authority They are called the Powers and Keys not of any Kingdom of this World but of the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 16. 19. Iesus Christ was a Spiritual King disclaiming all secular Authority or Power of the Sword and declaring his Kingdom was not of this World nor to be upheld by his Servants Fighting with the Sword And he instituted all Church Powers yea these he instituted before the Church came to be Incorporated with the State and made no new Institution or alteration therein afterwards And when secular Powers turn'd Christians they became the Members of an empower'd Church and were let in by Ministers and privileged to claim Ministrations from Powers antecedently received from Christ and not at all needing to be received from them nor capable of being conferr'd by them as having never been confer'd on them Nor are these Powers to be held only during the Will and Pleasure of the State For then they could not be retained against its Mind And
so not in a state of Persecution when the secular Power sets it self to root out the Church and all Church-Powers and Ministrations Whereas these Powers were given to the Church bearing Christ's Cross and labouring under Persecutions and to continue in it always even to the end of the World under whatever circumstances as well when secularly Oppressed as when Protected Accordingly these spiritual Powers were held on by the Apostles when the secular Rulers declared against their Apostolical Authority and forbid them to Preach any more iâ— the Name of Jesus And by the Bishops and Clergy in all the succeeding Persecutions For all Persecutions of the Church were Persecutions of all Church Administrations and of Bishops and Priests in a more especial manner who were chief Actors and at the Head thereof Yea especiall Edicts and Prosecutions were made against them for being vested with these Authorities as the Title of St. Cyprian 's Proscription was for being Episcopus Christianorum or a Christian Bishop which Authorities therefore would no longer have belonged to them could a Persecuting Power have deprived or bereaved them thereof And this retaining their spiritual Powers will be allowed by their Adversaries who acknowledge that the deprivation of State is no Degradation to divest them of their Character or spiritual Powers conferr'd in Orders but only a debaring them of exercise thereof in their Dominions and in way of an incorporate Church under State Encouragements So that if they do exercise their Ministry there will be no want of Spiritual Powers to render their Acts Nullities or of no effect and validity before Christ. But only want of secular Benefices and enforcements to them and of submission as they alledge to the secular Power or of secular Obedience And having still their Episcopal and Ministerial Powers 't is next to be considered whether they stand bound to exercise and make use thereof 'T is not to be brought into this Question what is to be done herein on Worldly Arguments as they stand deprived of their Livelihoods and way of Maintenance how hard soever this may fall either upon themselves or their Families Which however it may abate or excuse especially to compassionate Natures yet is no justification of things that are otherwise unjustifiable on principles of Religion and Conscience But what is to be done on conscionable Arguments that are to rule their Determinations as Christians especially as Divines or that they may faithfully discharge their duty What is to be done by spiritually minded and mortified Men who are raised above this World and prefer God and Religion before themselves Nor is the Dispute Whether the Ministerial Powers be such a burthen that Men must be always pressing and obtruding the exercise thereof without any regard to the wants of the Place or the needs of the Church Necessity is laid upon me and woe be to me if I preach not the Gospel was spoke in the want of true Preachers when the Harvest was Great but the Labourers were Few It spoke a necessity introduced not merely by the Power of Orders but also by the circumstances of Times and Persons when the exercise thereof was necessary in want of Preachers for the use of the Church But in plenty of true Preachers there would not have been the same necessity nor would they have been bound to this exercise in place where there was no need of their Gifts but the same were exercised by others In this surplusage of Supplies for Church-uses and necessities the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets and their Powers must either be exercised or forborn and suspended as makes most for Order and Edification and the Peace of the Church But this exercise the deprived Bishops and Clergy are bound to in Duty and Conscience at such times If there is a need of their Ministrations then to provide for Religion and the Souls of Men or to prevent Men from being nursed up in destructive Ways as Immoral Practices and Immoral Worship and Devotions must be confessed to be To clear this it may not be amiss to consider First What Immoralities come in by a wrong payment of Allegiance to corrupt Religion and to endanger Souls Secondly What Provision good and faithful Pastors ought to make against such Dangers and Corruptions by the exercise of their Ministry First I shall briefly consider what Immoralities come in by a wrong Payment of Allegiance to corrupt Religion and to endanger Souls Whether this is actually the case of any Kingdom and the Allegiance required of them by their New Governors be directed and paid wrong I do not here discuss That makes another dispute viz. about the Right to the Crown contested betwixt the two Competitors in those Countries and the Lawfulness or Unlawfulness of the New Oaths of Allegiance consequent thereupon which is exacted on such changes And this it is no part of the design of these Papers to argue or meddle with But when this really is the case in any Revolution as in this World God knows it is too often or among those Subjects who believe this is their case and that their Allegiance is call'd for to the Wrong against the Right Person Such as these are the Immoralities that will every-where corrupt Religion and endanger Souls whilst such wrong Payment lasts and which should be thought to do so among them viz. Then all that time whilst they are violently transferring their Allegiance from him to whom it still Remains rightfully due would Men in the general Practice of those Nations be wickedly disobeying and forceably resisting Gods Authority or the Father of the Fifth Commandment which extends to civil as well as natural Parents Then would they all that while be most openly and horribly breaking through all former Oaths of Allegiance Then would all who have promised and pay their Allegiance to drive out their ejected Prince out of any part of his Right or to keep him out thereof be actors of bare faced Iniquity and heinously unrighteous coveting and invading their Neighbours Goods And all force used against him or any other Persons for their adhering to his Cause would in Gods Account be oppression and unjust Violence all Spoils and Seisures of their Goods would be Thefts and Robberies and all shedding of their Blood all Cries and Clamours for it or rejoycing in it would be horrible Murders which not only they who acted but they who Wish'd or Prayed for or gave Thanks for when accomplished would be Guilty of All which are most dangerous and destructive ways and amount to a general Breach of Gods Commandments and to an open wast of Moral Honesty and Justice And all these would be the Dangers to Mens Souls in any Kingdom were the Translation of Allegiance such an unrighteous Perversion really and in it self Or they would be met with like Pastoral Provisions as if they were so Dangerous should the deprived Pastors believe and apprehend it to be such
proper Remedies and to Strengthen that which is Diseased Feeding it with wholesome Doctrine or Proper Aliment as Grotious says upon it to bring again that which was Driven away and to Seek that which was lost if happily by seasonable and needful Warning and Admonition they may recover it Ezek. 34. 4. And if they take up with Feeding of themselves and Neglect by these ways to Feed the Flocks at such times he denounces Woes to them ver 2. and declares he will require his Flock at their Hand ver 10. I do not say Immoral Practices are a Cause for Pastors to Seperate Communions For Immorality whilst confined to Practice and Conversation and not crept into Worship and Prayers doth not hinder all Communion in Divine Service Nor are we to seperate from any Church in Divine Offices because of a Mixture of Persons or of their having Moral and Immoral Livers among them as I observed before But they are an obliging Call to them to Minister the Word to put a stop to them And if they cannot be allowed to do this in Communion with others they must do it however by breaking off from them and Officiating by themselves And such Breach to say nothing of other Grounds is consequential upon the Ministrations of the deprived Pastors on such Revolutions They are by their Deprivation Secluded from Ministring in the Authorized and Established Churches and so must act seperately and Minister by themselves if they are bound to Minister the Word at all 2. When ill or immoral Practides are not only set up but Justified And then ill Practices are turn'd into ill Principles and become Doctrines There may 〈◊〉 Defection from Duties in Practice whilst Men retain their Principles Their Love of this World and the Strength of Corrupt Passions carrying them too oft to act and do all against their Judgments But if their Opinion is brought over and in Judgment they are reconciled to ill Ways since all Judgment iâ—â—pon Principle that is by change of Principles Their Judgment then is perverted by ill and Corrupt Doctrines Which having imbibed to corrupt and alledging to clear and justifie themselves they will teach and propagate among others And when by venting corrupt Principles and Propositions False Guides set up for Teachers of ill Things 'T is high time for True and Faithful Guides to open their Mouths and to strive for Truth and Righteonsness against them They are ill Watch-Men if they are a sleep or silent at such a Time And ill Shepheards if they take no care to lay wholesome things before the Flocks and to drive away unwholesome when the Speakers of Perverse Things are endeavouring to Poyson them And Unfaithful Stewards and Dispensers of the Word if instead of dispensing it out they smother and suppress it when the Church is in the greatest need to be informed thereof Particularly they are obliged to this Ministration when the ill and Immoral Practices are Justified 1. First In some particular Cases especially if those Cases are of general Concern that draw in great Numbers of Persons And may prove of long Continuance to hold them on for a considerable Time in the Repetition of the same Immoral Practices Both which happen in Case of Injustice to dispossessed Princes and of turning Allegiance against them which concern all the Subjects of such Princes and will continue so to do till the Competition ceaseth Now these Immoralities in particular Cases are the Immoralities that will destroy Souls when those Cases happen It is in particular Cases that particular Persons are Guilty of them and liable to be condemned for them So 't is in particular Cases that they need to be warned against them and shew'd the Danger of them And the giving them this Warning in such particular Cases as they come is the Business of the Watch-Man For he is set to Watch particular Cases and against particular Occurrences and is to call out and give warning as oft as he espies any Harm or Danger approaching therein And if any perish in those Cases for want of his giving them Notice God tells him He will require their Blood at his Hands The Watch-Man must have both his Eyes abroad to espie these Dangers and his Tongue free to proclaim and give warning of them Being set to drive any approaching Evils away by giving the Alarm for People to Arm against them and to keep out of their Way And if like Men asleep they take no Notice of Vices when catching and over-runing their Flocks nor open their Mouths against them the Scripture brands and upraids them as it did the Prophets and Watch-Men of Israel with the Name of Dumb Dogs that cannot Bark It being the Office of Priests and Prophets to reprehend and open their Mouths against approaching Vices as it is of Dogs set to watch the House to open theirs and Bark against approaching Thieves as Grotius comments upon it Isa. 56. 10. It is the part of Stewards and Rulers of the House who are set to attend all particular Cases that may arise and concern the Family and still to Dispense and Deliver out what Portion of Food each Case or Occasion may make Needful or proper for the House-Hold It is the Office of Pastors and Shepheards to have an Eye to circumstances of Time and Place and to Watch over their Flocks in particular Cases The Needs of their Flocks their Sicknesses and Strayings lye all in particular Cases And as the Work and Duty of Shepheards lies in Feeding of their Flocks it will be their Duty to administer this Food when they need it and their Care and Provision must be for those particular Cases which are in want thereof Their Feeding of their Flocks must be by Strengthning them in any Case where they see them Diseased or Healing them where they find them Sick or Seeking after them when they are Lost and bringing them back at any Time when they are gone Astray or are Driven away as God tells the Shepheards of Israel Ezek. 34. 3 4. And if they Neglect by due Ministrations to feed them in these Cases where they are in so great want to be Fed he tells them they are no Shepheards but that his Flock is without a Shepheard v. 5. Or that they are such Shepheard as Feed not his Flock but Feed themselves ver 2 8. It is the Duty of Ministers of the Word who are to watch and mark Seasons and not to let the People want it in any Case when they need to be Warned and Instructed by it They are to Preach the Word and to be instant in it in Season yea and even out of Season 2 Tim. 4. 2. To see that none of the Family Starve or go astray for want thereof in a trying Time but that all have what Portion of it they need in due Season Luk. 12. 42. They are constituted Pastors and Teachers to Minister the Word for perfecting the Saints and for Edifying the Body of
Teach others therein 2 Tim. 2. 2. And having received such Sacred Trusts they must shew a strict Fidelity in Discharge thereof St. Paul directs Timothy to commit them to Faithful Men 2 Tim. 2. 2. And saith Christ committed the Gospel to his Trust and put him into the Ministry of it counting him Faithful 1 Tim. 1. 11 12. And all this Fidelity is to be the Fidelity of Ministers who are intrusted not only with the private Keeping and Profession but with the publick Ministration of these Articles and Gospel Duties So that their Keeping and holding fast to them is their Keeping and Holding to the Preaching and Ministration of them and by that same Preaching and Ministration are they to defend them in the present Age and to deliver them over to Posterity And therefore when any Moral Duties or Precepts deposited and intrusted with them are endanger'd and Attempts are made to elude or vacate them They are tryed how true they will prove to their Trusts of Ministerial Keeping and Defending and transmitting of them down And then they must not desert them but stand up and act for them by a Faithful Administration If others treacherously reject them or bend their Wits to vacate them and render them of no effect they must not run in to give their Voice with them nor by their uncontesting Silence and base yielding betray and give up that Sacred Depositum which was intrusted to their Custody and Maintenance This ministerial Maintenance and Administration of Moral Precepts when thus changed and vacated by corrupt Salvo's God expected from all True Prophets and Faithful Shepheards among the Jews In the Prophet Jeremiah we are told of False Prophets and Pastors who by such Salvo's had Poyson'd Peoples Morals They had corrupted them in point of Oaths drawing them generally into Swearing or Perjury as Caestalio and Arias Montanus and others because of which as 't is there said The Land Mourns And also in point of Iustice abetting a Course of Evil or Violence as the Margin and of Unrighteous Force Jer. 23. 10. This Corruption of Practice was by Corruption of Principles For they had made them first to believe that there is no Sin in these their Doings which they had studied to shelter by Salvo's of their own Invention from the censure of those Laws which seemed plainly to forbid them They commit Adultery and walk in Lies i. e. in Lying Salvo's and Adulteration of moral Duties making the Preservation of Gods Worship and Temple a Shelter for these Vices and Immoralities as Grotius Notes And by such Adulterations they strengthen the Hands of Evil Doers in these Ways that none of them doth return from his Wickedness ver 14. And these Salvo's invented from Time to Time as need was were not more a Defection from the Truth than from their own profess'd Principles The Prophets being taxed therein for causing the People to err as by their Lyes so by their Lightness ver 32. But now when the False Prophets and unfaithful Shepheards set themselves by such corrupt Salvo's to clude and vacate moral Precepts God expected of all the True and Faithful Shepheards that they should stand up against them for Ministration and Maintenance thereof They should have stood in his Council and have caused his People to hear his Word to turn them from those evil ways which the False Teachers labour'd to strengthen and encourage them in by their Lying Salvo's ver 22. If any Prophets had his Word he expected they should speak it Faithfully ver 28. That his VVord should be in them like a Fire bursting out with Violence and not sparing any that stood in its way as the False Prophets those false and flattering Accomodators were wont to do and like an Hammer that breaks the Rock in Pieces striking on the most obdurate when the other in their soothing ways were wont to stroak them ver 29. In Ezekiel God complains of the False Prophets for Daubing over Immoral Practices with untemper'd Mortar i. e with corrupt Salvo's to cover them from the Censure and Condemnation of moral Precepts Ezek. 13. 10 11. c. Their Daubing was by such Covers or Plasters as were Visions of Peace or to shew the Evil-Doers how they did not break with God and moral Duties by these their immoral Practices ver 15 16. This he also calls making Kerchiefs or Vales their end being to hide all Appearance of Sin and Deformity in these Actings and saith they fitted them to every Stature ver 18 21. And by these Lies or Lying Salvo's they made Men believe that there was no Breach of moral Precepts in these immoral Practices nor any Danger of Death thereby and so strengthned the Hands of the VVicked that he should not return from his wicked VVay by promising him Life though he went on therein ver 22. But if any true Prophets who saw this should keep silence or out of selfish Subtlety should Skulk and keep out of those Dangers which attend the ministerial Reproof thereof at such Times God brands them as being like Foxes in the Desert for not having gone up into the Gaps or Breaches to repair them and for not having made up the Hedge for the House of Israel by fencing it again with sound Doctrine and with the Conscience of moral Duties to keep out all further Eruption of such immoral Practices ver 4 5. And elsewhere by the same Prophet he denounces woes to them and declares he will require his Flock at their Hands if instead of Feeding only themselves they do not as becomes good Shepheards Feed their Flocks and that by the due exercise of their Ministrations for Strengthning the Diseased or for Healing the Sick or for Reducing the Scatter'd or Recovering the Lost as the needs of the Flock shall require Ezek. 34. 2 3. 4. 10. The Priests saith Zephaniah have done Violence to the Law forecing it with corrupt Glosses and Expositions to bear with immoral and unlawful Practices Zeph. 3. 4. They have violated my Law or as the Margin from the Hebrew offered Violence to it i. e. stopp'd its Mouth by Wicked Salvo's not suffering it to condemn those evil Deeds against which it is design'd saith God by Ezekiel Ezek. 22. 26. These corrupt Salvo's and doctrinal Perversions of Gods Laws are grievously complained of by the Holy Prophets and still grew up among the Jews to perfect the Wickedness and to hasten on the Ruin of that Church But whensoever these Attempts were made by False Prophets and Seducers to pervert the Laws of God it was incumbent on his true Ministers to oppose them therein and to Minister those Laws and Duties to the People in their true meaning And they still incur the Censure of Shepheards that Feed not the Flock but themselves of †Blind VVatch-Men and Dumb Dogs if they are silent and sit still on such Occasions The like our Saviour Christ also expected from his Disciples when they found such Salvo's
advanced for Practices against any of his Commandments The Pharisees had invented many doctrinal Salvo's to justifie Men in the Breach of moral Duties and to vacate several of Gods Holy Commandments Thus they dealt by the Breach of Oaths which they cleared by several arbitrary Limitations and nice Distinctions of their own about the Obligation of them or Mens becoming Debtors i. e. bound by them Mat. 23. 16 18. And by the Denial of Relief or Help to Parents which they said was discharged of the Obligation laid by the Fifth Commandment and free from Sin if it was salved by the Vow Corban i. e. if they had made a Vow before that they would never Relieve them Mat. 15. 4. 5. 6. Thus Frustrating the Commandments of God as he tells them and making them of none effect through their undermining Salvo's and Traditions Mat. 15. 6. and Mark 7. 9 13. Not to mention their Limiting the Obligation of all Righteousness to external Acts or other ways of their exempting many Offences forbid by their own Law as well as by that of the Blessed Iesus But when the Ministers of Christ met with these Salvo's it was their Part not to suffer them but to rescue moral Precepts from being corrupted and Mens Consciences and Practices from being insnared by them They were to beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees in these and other Points not only as private Christians to beware of imbibing it themselves but. as Pastors of suffering others to be tainted or corrupted therewith When by these and such like Glosses the Lawyers had taken away the Key of Knowledge and shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men as our Lord saith they as Ministers of that Kingdom were to unlock and open it to them and to make these Duties which were the Paths thereof plane for all who were sincerely desirous to walk in them They that are made Pastors and put in Station to be Great in the Kingdom of Heaven must both do the some themselves and teach others to observe even the least of Christs Commandments when others not only transgress them in their own Practice but teach Men to transgress them Mat. 15. 19. St. Paul afterwards speaks of False Apostles who corrupted the VVord of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that adulterated it as Vintners do their VVines by corrupt Mixtures blending their own Arbitrary Salvo's and Conceits therewith or Mixing their own Doctrines with Gods as St. Chrysostom comments 2 Cor. 2. 17. Who handled the VVord of God deceitfully 2. Cor. 4. 2. And spoke Lies in Hypocrisie pretending them consistent with or sometimes promotive of Duty and Piety 1 Tim. 4. 2. And perverted the Gospel of Christ Gal. 1. 17. But when the true Ministers met with any of these corrupt Infusions and Adulterations of Christian Doctrines instead of Treacherously conniving at these Adulterations they were by a purer and more sincere Ministration to cure and teach Men better They were to make full Proof of their Ministry in Preaching the VVord and to reprove and rebuke all that was contrary to it among those that would heap to themselves Teachers of Errors and Adulterations of the Truth according to their own Lusts 2 Tim. 4. 2 3 5. When others fell to speak Lies in Hypocrisie they were not to neglect the Gift that was in them that is their Pastoral Power and Function but to stir it up and put the Brethren in Remembrance of the pure and saving Christian Truths and Duties that they may discharge the part of Good Ministers of Iesus Christ 1 Tim. 4. 2. 6. 14. When Vain Tâ—lkers and Deceivers started up Teaching Things they ought not for Filt by Lucres sake they were call'd upon not only to hold fast the Faithful VVord as they had been taught and to keep to it themselves but also by Sound Doctrine to exhort and teach others and to convince and stop the Mouths of Gain-Sayers Tit. 1. 9 10. 11. Thus are the Faithful Ministers of Christ obliged to Feed the Church with the pure Administration of Moral or other Gospel Duties when the False Guides by doctrinal Salvo's and undermining Propositions are shewing Men how they may securely Vacate and Transgress them They are not to connive at such Corruptions and Adulterations of moral Precepts but to cry out and warn against them Nor to smother and keep up the real and injured Duties but to Preach and Minister them out to those Souls who are like to perish through their Ignorance and Breach thereof And this as they will answer Gods repeated Calls and Injunctions or approve themselves True and Faithful to their Ministerial Trusts To neglect it or fail therein would be Treachery and Falseness to that Sacred Doctrine which had been deposited with them and to those Souls which had been committed to them And this Ministration they are bound to tho' these corrupt Salvo's are only the Doctrines of the Pastors and Teachers as those foremention'd Salvo's of the False Prophets and of the Pharisees too I suppose were among the Jews and are not yet made the Determinations of the Church 'T is not enough on such Justification of Immoral Practices or advancement of Immoral Salvo's by the Guides of Souls to say the Church hath not altered its Articles nor justified nor salved the ill things so by any Synodical Confession For 't is a call to them for their Ministration if these things are done by the Churchmen Their Ministration is to provide against the dangers of Souls And they are allways endangered by damnable Practices whosoever teach them whether their particular Guides or whole Synods But particular Guides are the Directors which the generality of Men have for their Consciences and Practices So that the Consciences and Practices of the generality are endangered when they fall generally to teach them the Breach of Moral Duties by corrupt Salvo's And then true Guides are to warn them of these Dangers VVhen Speakers of perverse things shall arise from among themselves the Pastors are bid to take heed to their Flocks and to feed them with the VVord of Truth and Righteousness Act. 20. 28 30. And instead of abating this Obligation it will add to it if amidst all this Prevarication of the Church Men by such corrupt Salvo's the Church it self continues right in these Points and says the same it did in its publick Acts and Articles For then in these Ministrations those Faithful Pastors have as the Authority of Truth so also the Authority of their own Church on their Side Therein they only minister out among the Members what their own Church teaches and show themselves as Faithful Ministers of Christ in standing up for his Truths So Faithful Ministers of their own Church in standing up for its Doctrines As to the Point of separation from the Church I Grant that true Ministers must not separate from a Church for any Doctrines if the Church it self holds and maintains them tho' the
will also effectually put by all the Force of the Greek Manuscript in the Publick Library at Oxford or of the Collection of Instances of Injured Bishops resting under unjust Deprivations and keeping in the Communion of the new Intruders into their Places lately Translated by Mr. Hody For those Instances of Acquiescence and Communion are brought as the Author of the Manuscript several Times professes for Instances thereof only whilst the hitruders were Orthodox And so are no Instances for Acquiescence in the Cause and Oppression of pure Worship and Doctrine or of the Interest of Souls But only in Competition of Persons where the publick Offices to be administred the Doctrines to be taught and upheld and the Practices to be Pressed and Justified under them were the same under both And therefore there can be no pressing Silence or Cessation on the Deprived Bishops and Clergy at such times with any Appearance of Truth and Reason but by clearing those things which they stick at and which they see everywhere imposed on Worship and Practice of all Immorality and Unrighteousness Which on such Revolutions and Change of Masters they can never do who profess to transfer Allegiance and to do all on the Plea of a King de facto leaving the Dispossessed Prince to be still King de Iure By which in their own Account they are acting all the while against Right and against him that has it which is to be as St. Paul says of Stubborn Hereticks convict of their own Consciences or Self-Condemned Tit. 3. 10 11. So that all those Brethren who on such Occasions have profess'd this must condemn their own Principle and all the complyance they have paid thereupon before they can accuse the Deprived Pastors for holding on still in their Spiritual Administrations or can perswade them to forbear But that which alone can be effective to purge the things in Debate of this Immorality and Unrighteousness is the Clearing of the Legal Right which the publick Acts of such times I think are not wanting to Assert as the Ground of all that is then call'd for either in Practice or in Worship And the Discussion of this is no Part of my Design or Purpose in these Papers To conclude this Point of their Obligations to these Ministrations I only add in the last Place that if for keeping up pure Worship Doctrine and Practice Christ's Faithful Pastors are bound to afford these Ministrations in the forementioned Cases his Faithful People will in the same Cases stand bound to adhere to them and to attend on them for Participation thereof This Obligation will appear 1. From that Adherence they owe to the things themselves They are bound to Purity of Worship Belief and Practice that they may Propitiate and please God and Benefit their own Souls thereby As Christians or as Men Professing Christian Religion they are obliged to Unite themselves to these and to stick by them And that in Church Society and under Pastoral Administrations to keep up a Communion of Saints in such pure Worship and Professions And this must be under such Bishops and Ministers as retain and stand true to them when others fall off from them As Members of a Church 't is true good Christians stand obliged to adhere to their own Bishops For the Bishops are the Heads of Church-Societies and 't is the Duty of Members to stick and keep United to the Heads of their respective Bodies But this as I shall shew hereafter is only whilst they keep to those things wherein they are bound to head them that is to pure Christian Worship and Doctrines It is for the having these Administred that they are obliged to be under any Pastors or to adhere to them And so they must still adhere to such as do Administer the same Which if their own Bishops fail to do they are to stand off from them to hold on with such pure Worship and Doctrine and to have the Administration thereof from such other Bishops and Pastors as keep True and Firm thereto whereof I shall speak more at large in its proper Place 2. From the Duty on their Part in all the foresaid Relations For those Relations carry Duties on both sides and call as the true Pastors to Feed and Minister to the Church so all True Members of the Church to seek their Food from the Ministrations of such true Pastors As it is the Part and Office of the One to Administer them So is it of the Other to attend on their Administration for Participation thereof If they are Christs True Shepheards to whom should his Sheep adhere but to his Shepheards and know and hear their Voice and not give Ear to the Call and Voice of Strangers Jo. 10. 3 4 5. If they are the Faithful Guides of Souls to whose Ministerial Conduct and Direction should the People of God commit their Souls but to theirs who will lead them out and carry them on only in Safe and Right Ways If they are the Trusty Watchmen under whose Watch and Guard should Men who seek nothing but to save their Souls place themselves but under those whose Eyes are always open to see and their Voice lift up faithfully to admonish and warn them of their Dangers If they are the true Teachers to whom should the Schollers and Disciples of Christ Resort for Instruction but to them and attend as Obedient Learners on their Preaching and Exhortation If they are Christ's Faithful Ministers his People must keep close to their Ministrations and adhere to them as to his trusty Officers and Representatives here on Earth And if they are to be Fed with the Ministration of Holy Worship and Doctrines and to be instructed and bore up only in Righteous and Good Practices if they must take Care to be Warned and Guided Taught and Helped on only in these Things which are the things alone that are fit to please God and to save their Pretious Souls To whom must they Cleave and keep United for them all but to those Shepheards who daily provide them with this Food and to those Guides who conduct them in these Ways and to those Watchmen who fail not to give them 〈…〉 tain them with these 〈…〉 Supply them 〈…〉 in each they will see 〈…〉 to show them their own Duty as 〈…〉 their Ministers And how 〈…〉 so they themselves do to follow as the Priests are to Administer so are the 〈…〉 ly to Attend on them and to 〈…〉 to their Ministrations 〈…〉 foresaid Cases 3. From the 〈…〉 which they towards â—â— who call them 〈…〉 the People from 〈…〉 and from Good and Righteous to 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 the Scripture calls or comprehends under the Title 〈…〉 and Seâ—â—cers and Wâ—lves and makers of Divisions and 〈…〉 Prephets and False-Teachers and the like Now â—s the 〈…〉 good Christians not to associate themselves with 〈…〉 off from them not to follow Seducers but to beware of them not to run after the Wolves
offices and dutys as to their Rooms Spiritual doth appertain And Queen Elizabeths injunctions disclaim all challenging of any Authority and Power of Ministry of Divine Service in the Church by Vertue of the Supremacy And the 37th Article of Religion declares That thereby we give not our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments And the Statute of Queen Elizabeth says The Oath of Supremacy shall be taken and expounded in such form as is set forth in the Queens Admonition annexed to her Injunctions They are the Ministers of God in their Dominions as St. Paul says But that is as Kings not as Priests So that the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters doth not imply the Power of the Keys which the King has not says Mr. Mason And by the Supremacy we do not attribute to the King the power of the Keys or Ecclesiastical Censures as Bishop Andrews observes We never gave our Kings the power of the Keys or any part of either the Key of Order or the Key of Jurisdiction purely spiritual says Bishop Bramhall And this bounding of their Claims and Pretences of Power is suitable to what we find among those Godly Jewish Kings and Christian Emperors to whom our Churches Articles and Canons about Supremacy refer As to the Jews it appertaineth not unto thee O Uzziah to burn incense unto the Lord but to the Priests that are consecrated thereto say the Priests to King Uzziah when he would assume to himself the Priests Office for which God miraculously smote him with a Leprosie upon the place 2 Chron. 26. 16 18 19 20. And the Lord hath chosen you to stand before him to serve and minister unto him and to burn incense says King Hezekiah to the Levites 2 Chron. 29. 11. And the like appears of the godly Christian Emperors who were told by their Holy Bishops and profess'd of themselves That they were no Priests and that their power of Empire did not swallow up the Sacerdotal powers God hath intrusted the Affairs of the Kingdom in your hands but those of the Church in ours And as we may not lawfully take upon us to act as Kings so neither have you Authority O Emperor to burn incense or usurp the Priests Office said the Great Hosius in his Epistle to the Emperor Constantius To you it appertains externally to punish but to us to judge and determine what is Heretical and impious say Elusius and Sylvanus and the other Bishops to the same Constantius The Royal Purple makes men Emperors but it doth not make them Priests says St. Ambrose to the Emperor Theodosius As Christians and Godly Emperors they used their Imperial Power and Soveraignty about Church-Matters But that was not privative to deny the Pastors of the Church or to bereave them of their Power but Cumulative to add the Imperial Power which was of another kind to the Spiritual thereby to back their Acts and to make them bind the faster Thus when they sent Count Candidianus to the Great Council of Ephesus the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian declare in their Letter to the Council That it was to keep good Order and to see fair Debates but with Orders not to intermeddle in determining Questions of Faith and Ecclesiastical Matters which say they is lawful only for the Bishops And when the Emperor Marcian came in person at the passing the Definitions of the Great Council of Chalcedon it was not as he tells them in his Speech to the Council to make Demonstration of his own Power therein but to give greater firmness to what they had done in the Exercise of theirs Which he doth by Ratifying the same by secular Penalties as by Banishment of Citizens Disbanding of Souldiers and Deposition of Clery and by other Punishments after the Determinations of the Council had been read and the Bishops had owned and subscribed the same before him When the Imperial Purple came to confirm a Pastoral Act it gave a new Authority to that which had Authority in it self before or as Justinian speaks in his Confirmation of the Episcopal Sentence or Anathemaon Zoaras which says he having a validity from it self or Authenticalness of its own the Crown makes yet more valid or of more Authority by adding to it a secular Penalty The Episcopal or Spiritual Authority is by too many unjustly slighted and therefore the Secular Authority is both humbly call'd in and piously comes in to its help since those irreligious Contemners of the Spiritual Power will stand more in awe of the Secular Coming in by their Secular Authority to help and back the Church in those things wherein men would otherwise contemn the Authority of the Bishops as the Fathers express it in the Council of Carthage So that the Imperial Power even whilst employ'd about Church-Ministrations all the time supposes but doth not swallow up the Pastoral Powers nor doth its Ecclesiastical Supremacy lye nor was ever thought so to do either by our Church or by those Times whereto it refers in their being vested with or having a soveraign Disposal of the Powers of Orders But 2. Secondly it lyes 1. First In retaining their civil Power over all Persons whether Lay-men or Ecclesiasticks The Civil State was first in Being and men were Subjects of the State when Christianity came to be proposed to them and planted among them The Church is in the Common-wealth not the Common-wealth in the Church as Optatus says And when men became Members or Ministers of the Church they did not thereby cease to be Subjects of the State or owe ever the less Duty unto it Let every Soul be subject unto the Higher Power is meant of Ecclesiasticks as well as others It takes in all tho' an Apostle tho' an Evangelist tho' a Prophet or whosoever else as St. Chrysostom notes And therefore Princes may lay their civil Commands and inflict their civil Punishments upon Ecclesiasticks as well as upon their other Subjects They may put them under Fines or Imprisonments or banish them out of their Dominions or any parts thereof as Claudius did the Jews from Rome or as Domitian did St. John into Patmos where he wrote his Revelations and as Constantius and Valence did the Orthodox Bishops in the Arian Persecutions And true Pastors are bound to submit to this like as other Subjects are either from Heathen or Heretical Emperors and even in hard and unjust Cases as in the foresaid Instances And if any under sentence of Banishment inflicted on certain Persons not on the whole Cause return into his own Country without Leave of the civil Power if being caught he suffer for it he dies not as a Christian but as a Malefactor says St. Cyprian So that Bishops and Ministers are no exempt Persons but are to own their Kings as their civil Soveraigns and are as much bound to pay Obedience to their civil Laws and are
under the Cognizance of their civil Courts as others are And this civil Subjection of Ecclesiastical Persons against the Papal Exemptions thereof is the main thing in the Ecclesiastical Supremacy claimed by our Kings In the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth and in the Canons of King James this Supremacy is called the highest Power under God whereto all Men within the same Realms by God's Law owe most Loyalty and Obedience afore and above all other Powers and Potentates in Earth Her Majesty say the Injunctions again thereby neither doth nor ever will challenge any other Authority than was lately used and was of antient time due to the Imperial Crown of this Realm that is under God to have the soveraignty and rule over all manner of Persons born within her Dominions of what Estate either Ecclesiastical or Temporal soever they be so as no other Foreign Power shall or ought to have any superiority over them By Supremacy or chief Government says the 37th Article of Religion we give only that prerogative which we see to have been always given to all godly Princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself that is that they should rule all States and Degrees committed to their Charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the civil Sword the Stubborn and Evil-doers And the Oath of Supremacy as King James the First declared only extended to the Kings Power of Judicature over all Persons as well Civil as Ecclesiastical excluding all foreign Powers and Potentates to be Iudges within his Dominions All which plainly make the Ecclesiastical Supremacy to lye mainly in having Bishops and Ministers or the Ecclesiastical State who were broke off from it by the Papal Exemption under the same common Obligation to the civil Soveraign with other Subjects or under the Tye of civil Subjection In vertue of this civil power over their Persons as his Subjects he can command them faithfully to discharge their Duties and Functions And that not only as Subjects in civil Matters but as Ministers in divine Offices For as he is the civil Soveraign the Temporal Magistrate is the Keeper of both Tables being to keep his Subjects in Godliness as well as in Honesty as St. Paul says And is to use the civil Sword for sins against Religion as well as for sins against the State and in his way to punish Ministers for Neglect or Abuse of their spiritual Functions as well as for Breach of the civil Peace Thus good Kings as Hezekiah and Josiah employed their temporal power to cut off corrupt administrations and to reform Abuses of Worship and Religious Offices in the Jewish Church As Constantine and other good Christian Kings and Emperors did afterwards in other Nations And the 37th Article of our Church declares That by his Supremacy the King with the civil Sword may restrain the stubborn and evil-doers whether Laicks or Ecclesiasticks And on this Account Constantine calls himself the Minister of God for the Coercion and Punishment of wicked Bishops And at his Entertainment of the Bishops tells them That God has appointed them the Bishops of things within the Church and him the Bishop of things without it and that it belongs to him as Bishop of Bishops to see they discharge their duties and be pious Thus the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian say That God by setting them to reign had made them the Bond both of the piety and of the external welfare and security of those who are subject to them the connexion betwixt which two their study was to preserve inviolable And in this Kings saith St. Austin according as God commands them do serve the Lord as they are Kings when they enjoyn good things and prohibit evil things in their Kingdoms And that not only in Matters pertaining to humane society but also in Matters pertaining to our Holy Religion And thus by means of his civil Power over Spiritual Persons has the King the like Power over Spiritual Acts Functions viz. as he can require and by the civil Sword compel them whom Christ has empowered thereto in his Dominions to exercise the same I mean to exercise them according to the Rules of God's Word and of their own Spiritual Function his Power lying in calling them to do their duties not to any Neglect or Breach thereof As we see was observed not only by the Godly Jewish Kings but also by the Primitive Emperors whose civil Laws and Edicts in these Matters still followed the spiritual Rules and Duties and were a secular Enforcement to drive all Ecclesiasticks to keep them not to Transgress them Our Laws do not disdain to follow the Sacred and Divine Canons the civil power in these Matters enforcing that which the Church had first prescribed says the Emperor Justinian And accordingly in the Civil Law for Restraint of Excommunications we forbid our Bishops saith he to Excommunicate any without a just Cause be shewn for it We forbid all Bishops and Presbyters saith another Law to exclude any from the Communion before Proof of such a Cause for which this is commanded to be done by the Ecclesiastical Canons So by his Imperial Power over their Persons commanding their Ministrations and limitting them therein to their own Rules And thus the King like as the Jewish Kings and Primitive Emperors were is supreme in these spiritual Acts and Administrations as in his Dominions they are all to be sped and administer'd not by independant Forreigners but by his own Subjects or as having the supream earthly Command of Bishops and Priests who are bound in civil Obedience to him as their Temporal Soveraign to exercise them when he requires it And this way he can give Final Justice to all his Subjects in all spiritual as well as temporal Matters having Authority to command his Bishops and Clergy to do it in the one as well as his Judges and temporal Ministers to do it in the other And by this power of doing it by their Means or Ministrations is his Supremacy set off Thus in the Statute for the Restraint of Appeals the King is declared to be the one supream Head endowed with plenary Power and Authority to render Final Justice in all Causes because the spirituality or his Bishops and Clergy can administer and determine all that belongs to their spiritual Offices and the Judges and other his temporal Ministers can do the like for Tryal of Property and Conservation of civil Peace The Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical Matters doth not imply the power of the Keys which he has not but he may command those who have them to use them rightly says Mr. Mason This Supremacy is preserved if he take care that those who have the power of Ecclesiastical Censures do exercise them says Dr. Burhil He has plenary power to render final Justice that is to receive the last Appeal of his own Subjects without any fear of any
Bishops and Heads of Union in those dioceses according to his Rules and Principles of Union And then how shall a mere command of state dissolve the tye made by him or break communion betwixt their Bishop and them Whilst Christ by conscionable obligations of Church Unity bids them adhere to their Bishop and keep one with him must they give ear to the state that bids them divide from him I think on second thoughts he will not make Church Union or the dependance of people on their Bishops so unsettled or precarious a thing as either to have no fixt and conscionable principles ingaging and holding all good Members thereto of its own or to have it in the power of a secular state when it pleases to set them aside and over-rule them CHAP. III. Remarques on the Preceding Account of the Force of State-Deprivations and instances of Deprivations alledg'd to the contrary consider'd and clear'd up FRom what I have said in the foregoing Chapters about the power of the Civil State and the effect of its Deprivations I think it may appear that the Bishops and Ministers of Christ continue still invested with their Ministerial Powers and can receive no discharge from the exercise thereof in the formention'd Cases by any State Deprivations And of this I observe from what has been hitherto discoursed 1. First That this is not to deny the Civil Power the Cognizance of Bishops and Ministers in Civil matters Allegiance 't is true is a civil matter and most nearly concerns the civil peace Indeed it is not only Civil but also Religious For when men are requir'd to Swear it and in all Churches to pray conformably to it Solemn Oaths and Prayers are most sacred and Religious Acts. And Allegiance in it self is a moral duty for due payment whereof all stand answerable to God in the last judgment as well as a civil or state-duty for which they are answerable to the state in judicatures of this world But it is such a matter of Religion I say as is also a civil matter subject to civil Cognizance or a point of State too And if this is refused to a Rightful state it is not only an offence against Morality and Religion which spiritual Judicatures and Synods may punish with Canonical Depositions But also an offence against the state which such Rightful state may punish by state punishments as it may all other state offences and in Ecclesiasticks when they are guilty thereof as in all other persons And among these punishments by Deprivation though not of mere spiritual powers the state having no Authority to take away those mere spiritual powers which it never gave yet of all that is Temporal in Church-Ministrations so as that such refusers shall no longer hold benefices and preferments or state endowments Yea and even as to those mere spiritual powers it may make them of themselves to forbear any further exercise thereof to keep state-favors and endowments to the Church when their deprivation is in a case that concerns only their own personal rights and priviledges but not the Truths or cause of Christ as was before observed But if at any time or in any Kingdom this should be refused to an Usurping State which has no Legal Right but which calls for this Allegiance Oaths and solemn Prayers and Religious services conformable thereto against him who has the Right Then such refusal is neither a Religious nor a Civil offence neither against God nor Gods Vicegerent Divine or Humane Laws but a due obedience to both And this brings on the Case of all the foresaid immoralities Damnifying Religion and endangering Souls wherein faithful Bishops and Clergy whatever they incur by standing to their Spiritual Ministrations must not let them fall â—n regard to any Deprivation of Usurping Powers Nay nor in regard to the most rightful States should they issue out against them state-deprivations to stop their Ministrations against any such like immoralities or other irreligious and endangering ways And this Limitation of the regard they ought to have to his deprivation is not to deny the Rightful Civil Soveraign any part of his just power over Ecclesiasticks But only to deny him such a power as would leave our Saviour Christ himself who is his Master as well as theirs â—o have no power over them Or such a power as should enable him to discharge them of what Christ has given in charge to them to take away what powers he confers or to loose what he has tyed on But under all this discharge of their foresaid Ministrations notwithstanding his inhibitions and deprivations it allows the Civil Magistrate as much Power over their persons to mulct banish or put them to death on just cause as they are his Subjects as over any others And to have power also over the mixt way of administrations so as to be able to deprive them though not of all exercise of their spiritual powers yet from holding or exercising them with Temporal jurisdictions effects and priviledges after the way of an incorporate Church And to have those other foremention'd Prerogatives of conveneing Synods passing Canons sending prohibitions to stop any process in prejudice of the Prerogative or of the Laws c. Which for the favor and continuance of those secular mixtures have accrued by incorporation and belong to Christian Kings And these things which are allow'd are as much as any of them can claim of Ecclesiasticks as they are Kings And on the other side those things which are denyed are such as they would abhor to challenge or desire who would own any subjection to Christ or bound their pretensions as Christian Kings 2. Secondly nor is it to set the Church above the State as the Papal Usurpation pretended to do But only to set Almighty God and his blessed Son Jesus Christ above it Not leaving subjects whether Laicks or Ecclesiasticks in complyance with any the most rightful state to disobey God Nor Ministers to let fall any Services and Ministrations of Religion or cure of Souls which Christ calls them to exercise yea not only when the state is consenting but when it gain-says it and doth all it can either to disable or discourage them from it he not having thought fit to stand to the courtesy of any civil state whether or no the Ministry of saving Souls should be prosecuted and whether he should be served and have a Church on Earth But at the same time it sets God and Religion above their Power it subjects all both Laicks and Ecclesiasticks to the same in other things Allowing every rightful civil state the chief civil power over all Ecclesiastical Persons And the chief civil power over all Ecclesiastical Causes so far forth and so long as they are mixed and compounded with civil benefices and jurisdictions And a civil power to compel Church Men by civil penalties to do the duty of their Spiritual Ministrations and to hold them under a necessity of not resisting by Arms but of
and private Claims and mastering all private resentments as mortifyed and most publick spirited Men they can make an end thereof by letting fall their own pretensions And why will many good Minds and sincere Lovers of Peace say should they not do this for the Love of Peace and for Religions sake and the Churches Their Adversaries indeed can not have the face to ask it And others who may move better therein would be modest in pressing liberality on Losers and not go too far in urging them who have suffered so much already from the Invaders as if they had not taken enough from them to fall upon themselves and throw them what remains Yet they think it would be a noble Pitch in Vertue full of Glory and Goodness if of themselves they would prefer Publick-Weal before private Passions and Advantages and be full of Care for others when that needs to be shewn in caring least for themselves Which Heavenly-mindedness and publick-spiritedness and Mortification to private Interests God and the Church they conceive must needs take most kindly at their hands But as to this the suffering Bishops can not take this way of Cure by giving up their Claims where they are bound in duty to insist on them And that they are bound to do as I have already shewn at large in the forementioned Cases By their quitting there they would surrender the Souls of their Charge to become a Prey to Wolves and Seducers and to be trained up in wicked and corrupt Doctrines Prayers and Practices And this is not to be true to their Pastoral Trusts 'T is not faithfully to discharge their Cure of Souls but perfidiously to throw it off So that be they never so mortified and negligent of themselves and zealously studious of Unity and the Churches Peace yet in Fidelity to Christ and to the People whom he has entrusted to their Charge they must hold on their spiritual relation I conceive and diligently discharge it the best they can at such times and not desert but stick to the Church over which the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers Besides the exercise of their spiritual Ministrations is loudly call'd for in such Cases and bound on them and the suffering Clergy their Brethren by all the Powers and Characters of the Ministerial Office as I think may fully appear from what I have said on that point before And not only the continuance of their former Relation as the true Bishops still of those places but this very exercise must in consequence keep up a schism in the Church at such times For this exercise of their Ministrations must be in separate Bodyes The state incorporateing and espousing the Anti-Bishops and their Adherents will give them the Publick Churches And Depriving and Persecuting the other and their Followers will also be sure to keep them out thereof So their Ministrations if they go on Ministring at all as 't is plain they ought must be in separate places and Assemblies Yea and by different ways of exercise the spiritual administrations of one being purely spiritual in the way of a destitute and persecuted but those of the other being mixt in the way of an incorporate and endowed Church And therefore in all the foremention'd cases where the suffering Bishops are still bound for the interest of Religion and of Souls to insist upon their Episcopal Claims and their Relation to their Churches and with their brethren of the other Clergy still to go on in a faithful discharge of their Ministrations this way of Cure can have no place But as the Anti-Bishops by breaking off from them and from those Christian Principles and Practices whereto they stand firm have made the Schism so they alone by a Penitential return are capable to mend it It not admitting of Remedy in those Cases and under such state of things from any other hands And this may be sufficient as to the true and suffering Bishops and shew how little the Arguments from the desirableness and duty of Union will affect them in those cases When the Church is Rent by such a deplorable schism as the precedent discourse shews who make it so this I think is enough to shew who can mend it and to whom alone the lovers of peace and unity are to apply themselves for remedy at such times CHAP. II. Of the Schism of Particular Churches from other Sister-Churches by their rejecting of Fraternal Communion therewith BEsides this first way of Schism viz. of particular Members breaking off unjustly from the Unity of their own Church by throwing off their due Subordination and Subjection to their own Bishops There is a second as I observed above viz. of particular Churches breaking off unjustly from the Communion of other Sister-Churches And this is by rejecting Fraternal Communion with them denying to worship God in their Assemblies or to admit their Members to worship in ours or communicating with those who stand Excommunicated by them or have made a Schism from them Our Lord is not only for having the Christians of every Place of Country to keep Unity with their own particular Church but also as I noted before for having all particular Churches to keep up the Unity of one Body among themselves All his Sheep he has gathered into one Flâ—ck Joh. 10. 16. All the Assemblies both of Jews and Gentiles he has reconciled to God in one Body Eph. 2. 14 16. calling all his Followers to profess Christianity in one Body as St. Paul says Col. 3. 15. Accordingly Baptism which makes them all Christians lists or inrolls them all in one Corporation we being all baptised into one Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. And the Holy Eucharist which is the other Great Sacrament and solemn Undertaking of Christianity confederates them into one spiritual Corporation we being all made in that to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 13. and tho' many being one Body as partaking therein of one Bread 1 Cor. 10. 16 17. This Union of all Christians and Christian Congregations into one Society under Jesus Christ makes that Body the Church whereof he is the Head Col. 1. 18. which the Scripture sometimes expresses by one Temple Eph. 2. 21. or spiritual House 1 Pet. 2. 5. or one Family and Houshold Eph. 2. 19. c. 3. 15. as I observed above And which is that one Holy Catholick Church betwixt all the parts whereof the Communion of Saints is to be maintained as all Christians profess in the Creed This Union of all particular Churches as one Body under himself our Lord has appointed to be kept up by all the Members thereof as occasion is but chiefly by the Union and Accord of the Bishops and Pastors who are the respective Heads of those particular Churches This whole Church is made one Body by one Spirit Eph. 4. 4. so the Unity thereof is call'd the Unity of the Spirit v. 3. And one great means of the Spirits keeping up this Unity is by the Ministration of Pastors and
Teachers which he gave as Gifts for the edifying or compacting and building up all Christians into this Body of Christ v. 8. 11 12. To these Pastors the Spirit has given different Offices Rom. 12. 4. One having the Office of ministring another of teaching another of ruling v. 6 7 8. Or different Administrations 1 Cor. 12 5. setting some in the Church in the station of Apostles some of Teachers some of Governments v. 28. placing some in higher some in lower stations according to the measure of that Grace or Office the Word Grace being often used to express Ministerial Powers which he saw fit to commit to them Eph. 4. 7. 11. But all those different Offices are set for keeping all Christians in one Body Rom. 12. 4. 5. and all the Diversity of Ministries is to continue them the Body of Christ and to cement the Members who are many into one Body 1 Cor. 12. 27 28. v. 12. 20. and all the variety of Gifts i. e. of Offices v. 11. or distributions of higher or lower stations are for edifying or laying together the Members into this Body and for preserving the Unity thereof Eph. 4. 4 8 12. The Head of this Body is Jesus Christ himself And from Christ the Head all the Body is knit together says St. Paul by those joynts and bands which minister neurishment i. e. by the Pastors who are set to feed it Col. 2. 19. From Christ the Head says he again the whole Body is fitly joyn'd and compacted together by those joynts which make supplies according to their measure or according to their several stations in the work of the Ministry Eph. 4. 15 16. And on account of this use of their uniting all Christians under Christ the Head into this one Body or all the several Societies of Christians into one Church when this one Church is compared to a Natural Body they are represented as the Joynts and as the Bands or Ligaments which unite and compact the Members as they are by St. Paul in these places And thus it was in the Opinion of the Ancient Church who placed the Unity of all Churches in the Unity and Accord of all the Bishops thereof The Catholick Church which is one saith St. Cyprian is cemented or coupled together by the glue or joynt accord of its Bishops adhering mutually to one another All faithful People are joyn'd together into the solid Unity of one Body by the glue of this Concord And to fall from this Concord and separate from the College of Bishops is to separate from the Bond of the Church as he elsewhere says To keep up this Unity in the whole Church they believed all BISHOPS strictly obliged to keep Unity among themselves We Bishops who preside in the Church ought above all Men to keep firmly united that we may maintain the Episcopate it self one and undivided They looked upon the Bishops of all the several independant Churches to be as so many Members of one great Fraternity or College Optatus calls them the College of Bishops And before him St. Cyprian styles them the College and Corporation of Priests and calls all other Bishops his Collegues Particular Bishopricks are all Members one of another and all together as he says are to make but one Great Episcopate And among this Multitude of Bishops as there is but one Church so there is but one Chair And as three Persons in the sacred Trinity make up but one God wherein the power of all three is one and undivided So doth all the great Diversity of Prelates make up but one Priesthood says Symmachus Now this Unity the Bishops and Pastors keep up among several Churches not by the Subjection of all other Bishops to some one or more set up above all the rest Particularly not by the paramount Authority and Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome which is neither to be found in Scripture nor is agreeable to the Accounts thereof nor to the Belief and Practice of the Primitive Church nor to the Universal Diffusedness designed for Christs Church under all the Divisions of Kingdoms and Interruptions of secular Accord and Correspondence here on Earth But by maintaining Fraternal Concord and Communion among themselves They cement into one Episcopate concordi mâ—merositate by their Concord under this Numerosity as we are told by St. Cyprian They are bound or coupled into one body by the glue of mutual Concord as he says again Which Ecclesiastical Concord and Fraternal Communion lyes in owning each other and all the Christians of their several Churches as Brethren and Members and in ratifying the great Acts of Society pass'd among them as if they had been pass'd among themselves And in having this Communion not Arbitrary and Discretionary which may be fixt at will upon their own terms and either kept up or rejected as they please But a Communion kept on out of bounden Duty and by Rules being to give account to Christ the chief Bishop for the breach thereof To this it is requisite that they profess the same true Faith and Christian Worship This is the Foundation of all other Communion among them The one Body being made up of those who hold to the one Faith Eph. 4. 4. and the Communion in this Body being required between those who communicate in this one Faith and Worship as shall be shewn more fully afterwards And among all Orthodox Bishops and Churches who profess the true Christian Faith and Worship the Rules of Communion and Correspondence required by Christ for keeping up this Unity of his Body are such as these 1. That all Orthodox Bishops and Churches receive each others Members as if they were their own Members All the Members of Christ's Church are Fellow-Citizens or enfranchised Denizens wheresoever they come and upon any new Change of Place or Christian Country have no need of a new Naturalization They ought to find a home in all Churches and may claim their Baptismal Priviledges or the benefits of the Christian Coporation or Society and can not justly be repulsed or denyed the same as being free of the whole Body For Baptism which makes them Members by the institution of Christ incorporates them all not only into those several Churches or Congregations where they receive it but into the whole Body or Fraternity We are all baptized whether we be Jews or Gentiles into one Body says St. Paul 1 Cor. 12. 13. And accordingly no Church must exclude them as Strangers or Forreigners but own and receive them as Fellow-citizens as Members as Domesticks as Brethren and of the same Family with themselves And this is necessary to maintain that Brotherhood which Christ has constituted among all his Members every Christian being Brother to another so that Brother is usually put to signifie a Christian in the Holy Scripture They must also own and receive their Orders when they have been lawfully call'd
accept of It must be a Worship not only in Spirit opposite to the way of carnal Sacrifices and the Numerousness of Jewish Ceremonies and external Rites but also in Truth opposite to all false superstitious or otherwise sinful ways which really are not Worship but Prophaneness For in Christianity the true Worshippers as our Lord says are they who worship God in Spirit and in Truth Jo. 4. 23 24. Yea as he adds the Father seeketh such to worship him v. 23. And if he seeketh such Worshippers his devoted Servants who have no other aim but to find him and to be found by him must seek out such Assemblies where such Worship is paid to him And thus also St. Peter says of those Sacrifices the joynt-communion wherein is to bind us together into one spiritual House that they must be such spiritual Sacrifices as are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Pet. 2. 5. So that the Unity in Worship and Prayers which we are bound to keep with other Christians or Assemblies is only whilst they meet to put up Holy Prayers coming in among them as live stories to make part of their spiritual House whilst they offer up such Sacrifices as may be fit to find acceptance as we heard from St. Peter And thus the Peace which St. Paul orders us to pursue is with those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart not with those who as the Gnosticks were like enough to do prophaned him by a sinful Worship or impure Petitions 2 Tim. 2. 22. And the bond of external Peace is where we may lawfully keep the unity of the spirit which is not to be kept in sinful Offices but only in pure ones Eph. 4. 3. or where in following after the things which make for Peace we may withal follow such things wherewith we may edifie not corrupt and ensnare one another Rom. 14. 19. Particularly as to the Pactors who are the Heads of those Assemblies one chief Character of theirs as they are set over us and chief ground of our Dependance and Obligations to keep under them is as they are Ministers of Prayers And that as they minister such Prayers as are fit to serve the necessary ends and purposes of all Prayer that is to worship and honour God and to benefit us or to bring down Blessings from him And if we who must seek out for Prayers are tyed to them as Ministers of holy and acceptable Prayers that Obligation towards them ceases when instead of administring such they fall to minister profane ones And thus there is a just Ground to break off or a Liberty of seperating from Assemblies even of Rightful Pastors for pure Christian Administrations Not for Purity from mere Defects or for Administrations more edifying which is the Pretence of our Anti-Episcopal Dissenters but for Purity from Sin and wicked Mixtures That is that they may have a Worship and Religious Service without mixture either of Idolatry or of Immorality That they may meet with nothing to reproach or dishonour God therein or to disturb and wound a pious Affection when they should be most helped and encouraged in exercise thereof being come to serve and worship him When they are thus barr'd out by any wicked mixtures unless necessity and want of better drive them to make shift therewith they are no longer tyed to resort to such Offices but are free to seek out for better at the hands of any other Regular and Authorised Pastors and ought to communicate in them if they can have them For sinful Prayers are a sinful Sacrifice as the Oblations of blemished of blind and lame and sick for Sacrifice were among the Jews Mal. 1. 8. Levit. 22. 19 20 22. Deut. 15. 21. And whatever Toleration it might meet with in want of better yet if any man hath in his Flock a Male or one fit to make a legal and perfect Offering cursed be he saith the Prophet that voweth and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing Mal. 1. 13 14. But the Ground of this breaking off is higher still if 2. They do not only put impious and unlawful things into their sacred Offices or Confessions but admit none to communion in any of the good parts unless they particularly concur in these corrupt ones too The former sets men loose that they lawfully may and where they have opportunities of better ought to break off from them But this drives and necessitates them that they must do so and can not for the supply of any Necessities stay to associate and assemble with them And thus it is when any Bishops will admit no Members or when any Churches will admit no other Churches to communicate with them unless they will agree to believe or profess some false Doctrine or partake and go along with them in those particular and unlawful Matters or evil Worship wherewithal they have clogged and corrupted their Communion Now when this is the Case nothing can legitimate Communion with such Bishops or Churches For though it is the duty and ought to be the desire and care of all good Christians to keep up the external Unity of the Church both under their own Bishops and with other Churches Yet must not this ever carry them to unite or to go along with them in ill things To be one with them in these Matters is to partake with them in their Sins which is not the Unity and Communion of Saints or Christians but of the ungodly or of evil-doers In such Points the more united any Society is the worse it is Such is the Union of all Infidel Churches who unite in utterly denying and opposing the Christian Faith And of Hereticks who incorporate under their seducing Heads to undermine or pervert it Yea even the infernal Spirits are united Polities without which Satans Kingdom could not stand as our Saviour says being associated and knit together to despite God and all that bears his Image But all this Union or Agreement of Men in damnable Errors or Wickedness is only combining against God and their own Souls And our Blessed Lord came not to bind up but to break such Combinations which the World then was full of I came not to send Peace but rather Divisiâ—n saith he that is to call People to break off from Error and Wickedness and to divide from the Adherers to ungodly ways Luk. 12. 51. So that the lamentableness of Mens not going all one way is true here where the Generality go the right way But when they are going wrong in ways of Guilt and Destruction to unite in Sin and Misery is a deplorable thing and there 't is best when the most divide and stand off from them Nor may they be wanting to their duty in some Points to keep on united to them in others They must not purchase Unity by sinfull Omissions or buy peace with the loss of innocence And therefore as I observed the watchmen must not be wanting in giving
gives discharge from them Accordingly this the Clergy of Rome put the granting or denying communion upon in their Answer to Marcion Telling him they could not receive him to communion in their Church without his Fathers consent and allowance because his Father the Bishop of Sinope who had cast him out of communion was of the same Faith with themselves And this discharge such defection gives upon the evidence of the Fact it self before synodical Cognizance or judicial sentence and declaration thereof As for other Crimes which concern only the Persons or conversation of Bishops not their Doctrine or Ministrations they give no discharge to the Clergy or People who are subject to them before the offending Bishops are regularly deprived for the same by judicial sentence And if before synodical sentence any Clergy or People break off from their Bishops or Bishops from their Metropolitanes or Metropolitanes from their Patriarks on pretence of them they make a Schism and are censured by the Church for so doing If any Presbyter or Deacon says the Council of Constantinople on pretence of Crimes meaning such personal Crimes shall dare to withdraw themselves from 〈◊〉 Communion of their Bishop or Bishops from their Metropolitane or Presbyters Bishops or Metropolitanes from their Patriack before Synodical cognizance and perfect condemnation past upon him He makes a Schism and shall incuâ— the penalty of deposition But as for Heresie or any damnable corruptions of Doctrine or Ministrations they give this discharge as soon as the Bishop c. is notoriously guilty of them before any Synod has sate or Sentence has pass'd upon him Thus St. Jerome expounds that Passage an Heretick is condemned of himself Tit. 3. 10. 11. Which says he is therefore said of Hereticks because when other Offenders as Fornicators Adulterers Murderers are not cast out but by the Sentence of the Bishop or Church censures Hereticks on the other hand pass sentence upon themselves on their own accord receding from the Church which recession seems to be a condemnation of their own conscience As many as attempt any tâ—inâ— against those Constitutions of the Fathers which concern the Faith thereby without more ado incur and bring on themselves the Censures coâ—tained in the Canons says Thalassius Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia in the Great Council of Chalcedon When an Offence is only against the Canons of the Church the Desence of the Divine Canons we know is proper only to the Bishops but the Desence of the right Faith belongs not only to them but to every Orthodox Christian say the Holy Monks against the Patriark Anthimus faln to the Heresie of the Eutychians in their Libâ—l in the Council of Constantinople under Agapetus and Mennas Though no Synod has before condemned him yet he that has prevaricated and deserted the Orthodox Faith as Acacius he says had done by communicating with the Eutychians has enough for which he ought to be deny'd communion As also any one who before being a Catholick shall fall to communicate with any Heresie is justly thought to be thereby removed from our Society says Pope Gelasius Though in case of other Crimes they may not do it before Synodical Sentence yet in case of any Heresie condemn'd by the Holy Synods or Fathers they may depart and separate from the Communion of their Prelate say the foresaid Canons of Constantinople when once he comes to preach it publickly and to teach it bare-fac'd in the Church And then to withdraw from him before Synodical cognizance is not to incur the foresaid Canonical pains but to shew themselves worthy of that Honour which belongs to the Orthodox 'T is not to condemn Bishops say they but Pseudo-Bishops their Teachers not to rend the Unity of 〈◊〉 Church by a Schism but to study to free it from Schisms and Divisions So that in these Cases when the Defection of Doctrine and Worship is apparent and plain to their eyes and ears the People and Clergy may judge for themselves and withdraw from the Communion of such Heretical or Erroneous Pastors And accordingly the Apostolical Rules to the People are without staying for the declaration of a Synod if any turn a bringer of false Doctrine contrary to what they had delivered without more ado to hold him as Anathema or as one Excommunicate Gal. 1. 8. 9. and not to bid him God speed 2 Jo. 10. 11. By such defections then from Christian Doctrine or Worship the Ligaments of Union are broken towards the Governours of any Church or between one Church and another and there accrues a Liberty without any Breach of the Unity of the Church 1. For People to break off from their own Local Guides or for People and Clergy to break off from their own Bishops Tho' they were Apostles or Angels from Heaven they are to be held then as Anathema as St. Paul says that is not as Heads of Unity and Church-communion but as Excommunicate Men. If they cause Divisions from the Doctrines we have learned he bids the Church mark and avoid them Ro. 16. 17. The Peoples duty of adhering to and following them is no longer than they continue to be followers of Christ 1 Cor. 11. 1. c. 4. 18. But if they break off from his Truth and turn False Prophets however they come dress'd up in soft Pretences or in Sheeps-cloathing he tells us to beware of them and to fly them as Wolves Mat. 7. 15 16. to look to them and avoid them as St. Paul cautions against the Judaizers Phil. 3. 2. If they become bringers of False Doctrine bid them not God speed nor receive them into your Houses saith St. John 2 Jo. 10. 11. Thus when John of Jerusalem fell to erre in Point of Faith Epiphanius writ to the Monks as St. Jerom says that till he gave satisfaction in Point of Faith none of them should communicate with him And Ierom himself asks him where it is required that they should come under his Communion before such satisfaction were given And tells him 't is because of their difference in point of Faith that they may not communicate with him A People says St. Cyprian that would fear God and obey his Precepts ought to separate it self from an erring Prelate Such Persons if Metropolitanes are no longer to have neither any Authority over the Bishops of their Provinces nor the Communion of the Church as is decreed in the General Council of Ephesus They are to leave their Guides when they fall to misguâ—â— them and to stand off from their Persons lest they be corrupted with their Tenets And this is no more than is needful for them even in point of Caution being their keeping out of the way of Temptations which our Lord directs us to for a general Guard of all Vertues And standing off thus from Heretical Leaders they will approve themselves in the midst of Heresies by being stedfast in the Truth 1.
Cyprian in this case Though holding it in Partnership we are several Bishops yet as there is but one Church so there is but one Episcopate says he again whereof every particular Bishop holds a part but holds it so as to stand obliged and answerable on occasion not only for his own particular proportion but as Partners in a Bond each of them pro Solido as the legal Phrase is or for the whole Sum. Thus Eleutherius told the Gallicane Bishops That for this very Cause Christ had committed to them the Universal Church that they should labour for all and not neglect to afford Help to any as their Needs should require And Simplicius of Rome told Acacius of Constantinople That to approve himself faithful in his Episcopate he must strive for Catholick Unity and the Decrees of the Fathers not only in that Church where he presided but wheresoever he could And Chrysostom says St. Eustathius Bishop of Antioch had well learned by the Grace of the Holy Ghost that a Bishop of the Church ought to take care not of that Church alone over which he is specially appointed but of the Universal Church through the World This general Care has appeared conspicuous in the Lives and Labors of Holy and Faithful Bishops as of Cyprian Alexander and Cyril of Alexandria Eustathius of Antioch and Chrysostom And of the Great Athanasius who took as much care of all other Churches as he did of his own as St. Basil says Nor ought they to be hinder'd from such Ministration and Reception of the Members of other Churches by any Canonical Rules for Unity in the Church For that Heresie or Defection from Christian Doctrine whether in Faith or Practice and from Christian Worship which sets aside the Obligations of Unity towards those defecting Bishops and Pastors must also of course therewith set aside those Canonical Rules which are for maintenance thereof So that the Ecclesiastical Rules of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. of Clergy and People doing nothing in Church-communion without the Allowance of their Bishop and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. of ones not officiating or ordaining anothers Subjects or intermâ—dling in anothers Diocess are no Rules nor of Force towards such Persons And accordingly at Arles when Marcianus their Bishop was faln to the Novatians Cyprian thought it behoved him and other Bishops to see the Needs of the Faithful there supplyed That they might no longer be left a Prey for Wolves without all hopes after the Novatian Rigour of the Churches Peace and Communion after once they had faln And under the Arian Hereticks the Great Athanasius when out of his own District held Ordinations in other Churches as he passed through them as Socrates reports Even the Great Council of Constantinople in that very Canon which forbids Bishops to intermeddle either in Ordinations or in other Ecclesiastical Administrations without their own Precincts yet makes an Exception of those Churches that are in Barbarous Nations for whose Relief they might do this As Eminent Preachers when they went among them might still confirm those they had gained to the Faith in other Provinces according to their Custom Which though against the Canons the Council still allow'd say Balsâ—mon and Zonoras upon the Canon for the necessity of the thing And thus also Presbyters and People may hold Assemblies independant on their own Defecting Bishops or on any others The Apostolical Canons allowing Priests to have Meetings separate from their Bishops when they do it as condemning them of Impiety in Doctrine or of Injustice in Administration as deposing them for the sake of Truth or of a good thing c. And the Council of Constantinople though it forbids Inferiours before Synodical Sentence to cast off the Communion of their Superiour on pretence of Criminal Causes as Fornication Symony or Transgression of the Canons as Balsamon comments yet allows it in case of Heresie condemn'd by former Synods or by the Holy Fathers so soon as he begins bare-faced to teach it in the Church And the Council of Carthage when it Condemns Presbyters for setting up separate Altars from their Bishops makes this Exception unless they have against him a just Expostulation And an Allegation of False Doctrine or leading the Church wrong is such a just Expostulation as Balsamon observes upon the Canon These Rules for preserving Order and Concord among Bishops and Churches are binding towards any Bishops who are in the Unity of the Church and are Orthodox But if either they are faln to set up Unchristian Worship or Doctrine or as I observed before are turned Schismaticks or set up as Anti-Bishops in Christ's Church They bind none towards such Bishops They are no longer Heads of Union and so cannot claim the Benefit of these Rules for Unity which by their Schism or Defection is at an end towards them Thus doth Heresie or a defection from necessary Doctrine or Worship discharge Church Members from their Spiritual and Canonical dependance and union with their defecting Bishops and Pastors Priests are no longer tyed to such erring Bishops nor the People to either in such Cases So that a defection to sinful Worship and damnable Doctrine bereaves Men of all ArguÌ„ments from Scripture or Canons for their Subjects to depend on them or to unite with them If therefore in any division of a Church it can truly be Objected to one side that they are saln from holy and true Worship and Doctrine it is not for them to plead the duty of Union or to tell People of their Obligations to unite with them If before they were the true Heads and the Regular and Canonical Bishops of those places yet would their falling into those Unchristian Errors strip them of those Claims The Union taught by Christ and the Holy Scriptures and directed by the Rules and Canons of the Church supposes Men Orthodox but is not to unite with such defectors Nor is any Charity which they can pretend to in seeking to keep all others united to themselves the Charity which he requires For that Charity which is the end of the Commandment must be out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned as St. Paul says 1 Tim. 1. 5. It must be out of a pure heart and a good conscience and so is only a seeking to have them one with us whilst we go together in keeping the Commandments or in the practice of good things not like the Charity or Love of Thieves and Murderers that associates and binds them together in the practice of ill things as St. Chrysostom notes And it must also be out of faith unfeigned and so is a seeking to unite them to our selves not in dangerous Errors but only in Orthodox and Christian Doctrines Whereas the pains that is taken to bring all over to them in the Breach of Gods Laws and embracing of Unchristian
a Schism from other Catholick Bishops as if they made it from himself And if still he will Communicate and joyn himself to them he violates Unity and joyns in a Schism as any other Man would do who should do the same And being found in the Schism with them he would have been treated as they were and have fallen from the Communion of all other Orthodox and Catholick Bishops whose Rule was to refuse and shun the Communion of Schismaticks and of their adherents and partakers Communicating with men out of Communion he himself would be put out of Communion as the aforecited Councils say And thus it was with Marcianus Bishop of Arles when he fell to Communicate and joyn himself to Novatian who was set up as a Schismatical Anti-Bishop against Cornelius the Rightful and Canonical Bishop of Rome Thereby says St. Cyprian he himself became separate from our Communion and from the Fraternity of Catholick Bishops because Novatian was so to whom he joyned himself The Bishops met in Council in Africk answering him when he sought their Communion that not one of them could communicate with him since he had set up Altar against Altar at Rome and made a Schism from Cornelius who before was Legally Ordained the Bishop of that Church 4. Besides for surer maintenance of Union and to compact several Churches together into a closer dependance there are other Heads of Union among the Bishops themselves Such are Metropolitanes and Primates as Titus I conceive was left by St. Paul at Crete where he was to ordain Elders or Bishops in every City and Timothy at Ephesus where he is Directed how he shall exercise jurisdiction and receive accusations against Bishops which Metropolitanes and Primates are to Unite and incorporate many Bishops and their Dioceses into one Province or several Provinces by their Concurrence into one National Church And such an Head of Union the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury is among the Bishops in the English Church And the Ecclesiastical Union to be kept up among us is a Provincial yea a National Union We are to stand united by our Articles and Homilies Liturgy and Canons And these unite not only the Christians of each Diocess or District to their respective Bishops as so many Diocesan Churches but likewise the Bishops and People of all Diocesses into the Provinces of Canterbury and York and those two Provinces into one National Church Accordingly those Articles and Homilies Liturgy and Canons which are the Rules of keeping Unity among us are Provincial and National Acts pass'd by concurrence of Convocations of both Provinces where the Bishops and Clergy meet in Union with and dependance on their respective Metropolitanes who are the respective Heads thereof Now in care of Unity and the Communion of Saints the respective Bishops of each Province or Country are to keep dependant and united to their Metropolitanes The Bishops of every Nation ought to know him who is their Primate and to account him as their Head say the Apostolical Canons It behoves every Man to know his own proper measure say the Fathers in the Council of Constantinople and that neither a Presbyter contemn his own Bishop nor a Bishop contemn his own Metropolitane And bating the case of Heresie if any Bishop on pretence of other personal Crimes shall depart from the Communion of his Metropolitane before Synodical Sentence pass'd upon him he is guilty of Schism and though there is nothing else against him the Holy Synod decrees him to incur a Deposition And so strict was this dependance upon the Alexandrian Patriark or Metropolitane of Egypt binding them in all things to wait for his Sentence to do nothing without him nor beside or against his Approbation that on the deposition of their Metropolitane Dioscorus in the Council of Chaliedon the Egyptian Bishops pray they may not be compell'd to subscribe Pope Leo 's Epistles before they had a New Metropolitane to head them and accordingly their subscription was respitted by the Council till they should have got one And for maintenance of this Union of several Diocesses into one Province by a joynt-dependance of the several Bishops on their Metropolitane and adherence to him it has been the great Rule of the Catholick Church that none shall be made a Bishop of the Province without him In Consecration of Bishops the validity of all that is done shall be reserved to the Metropolitane says the great Council of Nice and if any one is Ordained a Bishop without his consent it determines and calls it a thing altogether manifest that he ought to be no Bishop It has likewise been another Rule thereof for the same purpose that no Synods for the common Concern of the Province be held without them The Metropolitanes being to summon the Bishops of the Province and it not being lawful for any to make Synods of themselves without them who have the Metropoles committed to them as the Council of Antioch declares Yea that no matters of common concern to the Church in any Country or Nation be transacted without him The Bishops of every Country and Nation being in duty bound to own him who is the chief among them c. and to do nothing that looks beyond their own Precincts or Diocesses or referring to the common state of the Church without his sentence as is Ordained in the Apostolical Canons and repeated in the Council of Antioch And the more firmly to secure this regard and dependance which for maintenance of this Provincial Union is due from Bishops to their Metroplitanes they make solemn Oath at their Ordination to pay all due Riverence and Obedience to him as in our own Office of Consecration And as there is this Provincial and National Union of Churches which is thus secured by the dependance of Bishops on their Meropolitanes so may there be National and Provincial Schisms or Breaches thereof And such there are when Bishops and their Clergy and People break off from their Metropolitane not falling or receding from his Ecclesiastical Authority over them and create to themselves an opposite Primate whom they set up against him For then they will make ordinations and hold Provincial or National Synods and dispatch matters of common or National concern without him so breaking all the Rules Provincial or National Union and dividing themselves from their Head as he is call'd in the Apostolical Canons And when once an Anti-Primate or Metropolitane is made the Head of a Schism it spreads it into all Dioceses which will own him and profess to bear Canonical Obedience and Subjection or adhere to him So that in such a Schism all Dioceses of the Province come in who do not disclaim the Schismatical Head and stand off from him 5. Lastly when there is not only a setting up of Schismatical and opposite Heads but moreover this is done in opposition to pure worship and Doctrine and to support unchristian
Church can not oblige or hold all the Members thereof to himself as the principle of Unity yet may he have all that is of the essence of Episcopacy For to be an Head of Union in the Church is not of the essence of a Bishop It may be separate from the Episcopal powers as it is in all Bishops falling into Heresie or Schism For they are no longer Heads of Union since none are bound to follow them but all are to break Communion with them But yet they are Bishops still and do not thereby fall from the powers of Ordination nor on their Re-union to the Church need to be Ordained again 'T is true one main use of Episcopacy is to be a means of Unity But yet it is not so for this use as to be nnll or cease when it misses or fails thereof Even as Baptism or the Eucharist are for Unity We being all baptized into one Body and being one Body as partaking all of one Bread as the Apostle says But yet they do not always cease or fail of their effects when administred in breach thereof and Baptism as was held by the ancient Church and as we all hold now is still valid though performed by Schismaticks When they miss of this they have other uses As the Sacraments besides keeping Unity among the Members enter and ratifie the Covenant of Grace And Episcopacy besides the use of keeping the Church one and unbroken is for administration of the Word of Prayers and Sacraments and for Ordaining others to do the same And though all these ought to be exercised in the Unity of the Church and 't is a great Sin when 't is otherwise yet such sinful Exercises are no Nullities as if the Persons had no powers or as if the Administrations had no effect at all In the State Monarchy I grant that the Regal Powers and this use of their being a principle of State-Unity are more closely and constantly connected And that as he who has the Regal Powers is the principle of State-Union so he who is no such principle and to whom the People are not bound to unite has truly no Regal Authority or Powers And in Elective Kingdoms if whilst the Throne is full the Electors whose power of choosing is only in Vacancies pretend to choose another they really confer no Regal power nor make a King but an Usurper This is because secular powers are more limited to Territories and Precincts and because no King can be a King at large but must only be a King of such or such a Place or Countries But in the Spiritual Monarchy 't is otherwise For the Collation and Reception of the Episcopal Powers is not with precise Limitation to such a particular place or Diocess but indefinite or with respect to the Church at large Or expressed as it is in our Form of Ordination by receiving of the Holy Ghost for the Office of a Bishop for the Church of God Which makes any person not a meer Local but a Catholick Bishop or one vested with Episcopal powers and under no want of inherent Authority to exercise Episcopal Acts if as a Conscientious Lover of Unity he be not otherwise restrained by Rules of maintaining Unity and Order in any part of the World The first Bishops being chosen from among the first Converts were first vested with powers and then by gathering more Profelites were to get Subjects and inlarge Territories being Ordain'd Bishops of those who should afterwards believe as St. Clement says And the Holy Apostles who stood vested with all the Episcopal powers were not tyed to any place but by Christs Commission were left equally and indefinitely to the whole Church And till the great Council of Chalcedon which was held about the Year of Christ 451. were the Periodeutai or Circuitors so called as Zonoras observes because they were to go about hither and thither to keep the Faithful in their Duty not having any fixt Place or Chair of their own At the Synod of Laodicea about the Year of Christ 36â— 't is left to these Periodeutas to supply the want of Fixt Bishops in those places and Countries that were not thought considerable enough to have a Bishop fixed among them And afterwards at the time of the Council of Chalcedon mention is again made of them As of one Balentius whom being a scandalous Liver Ibaâ— is accused in the Council to have Ordained Presbyter and Periodeutes And of one Alexander who in the same Council is styled the most Reverend Presbyter and Periodeutes This great Council of Chalcedon indeed forbids any Presbyter or Deacon to be Ordain'd absolutely or at large i. e. without having and declaring the appropriate place or seat wherein he is to officiate and vacates the Ordinations which shall be made otherwise And the same has been done since by the Canons of other Councils forbidding any to be Ordain'd sine Titulo without a Title to some certain Place or Benefice But these Local Limitations or Appropriations of place in giving Orders come not in for the necessity and essence of Ordination And therefore some are excepted therein and allowed still to be Ordain'd without them whose Ordinations are notwithstanding as valid as theirs who are Ordain'd with them Thus Fellows and Chaplains of Colleges and Masters of Arts who have been able to live five years of themselves in the Universities c. are excepted by our own Canon and they who have Patrimony and Provision of Maintenance of their own other ways are excepted by the Canon of the Council of Lateran And if such Limitation of place were of the essence of Ordination they could be but once placed as they are once Ordain'd and not remove from place to place without a new Ordination But they were brought in for a prudent provision to keep the Clergy from being burthensome or to prevent more entring into Orders than are requisite for the Churches Needs or can live upon its maintenance as appears by the Canons themselves Moreover Bishops when for this purpose and for maintenance of Unity and Order they are tyed up to places in their Administrations besides the local relation of Bishops of such a place who are to have a more special regard for their own proper Division they stand also as I have already shewed under another relation of Cathalik Bishops or of Bishops of the Church at large who as there is need of it and as occasion is offered are to have a general inspection and regard too for all the rest The collection of all Churches as St. Cyprian says is but one Episcopate and those many People who are fed and inspected by so many Pastors make all but one Flock Whereof particular Dividends are so intrusted to every single Bishop as to make them stand obliged and accountable not only for their own rata pars that is their proper share or division but as Partners in
opportunity of siding and closeing with it So that where they can have no assemblies for right communion the making a shift with the other for that time speaks no opposition against them I grant to stand quite off from them and to have no communion or correspondence with them in their separate ways is the clearest disclaiming of any Schism or Sedition And this as it may be payd so is more reasonably exacted under the settlement of a right Government But under others when the disobedient have got all into their hands and make the number in all places this way of disclaiming by refusing all communion and correspondence admits of some relaxation and abatements It doth so plainly in the Civil State where some dealings and correspondence of the dutiful and well affected with the Rebels which would have been sentenced as Rebellion in better times will not then be reputed rebellious And under like prevalence of Schisms which leave no opportunities of communicating with any else I think such abatements may also find place in the Church too Especially considering the necessity of publick communion and Church assemblies the great defectiveness and scarcities whereof had almost dropped and lost Religion in the Patriarchical Age. And also considering the necessity which our Religion in particular lays upon Communion the Communion of Saints being one of the things professed in the Creed which may make it more reasonable to presume such abatements in favour thereof when there is no opportunity of Ministerial Offices by any others to communicate with But that the necessity of having some Ministerial communion will be an excuse in such case for the faultiness of having this at the hands of one ministring in a Schism when it can not be had from others seems reasonable to me from considering the Nature and Importance of things and the abatements God himself has been willing to make on such necessity with other like Duties and I think it was so held and practised by the Church and People of God when they could have no Ministerial Offices but from Schismaticks and also to give Relief in some other compassionable cases about communion which have only like plea for abatements as this case has 1. As to the Nature and Importance of the things themselves publick worship or communion in Ministerial Offices is a duty more of natural and essential Obligation to pay such publick worship being naturally incumbent on all men And withal it is so important in it self For Communion in Ministerial Offices or in common and publick Worship must both declare or testifie the sence which Mankind have of their common or publick Lord and also sustain or bear it up in the World It is the way for God who most justly claims and expects the worship and service of all his reasonable Creatures not to be left without Witness but even in a degenerate and rebellious World to have some always visibly standing by him and paying him his due honour and homage It is also the way for him to preserve alive a sense thereof among all his other Subjects and Children whom he as a common Lord and Father is concerned continually to make acquainted therewith and to try with the power and influences thereof For by this means he sets forth his worship and truths as a Light to shine out to all that are in darkness and sets this light upon a candlestick or collects the bearers thereof into a body or City and places this City upon an Hill as our Saviour says to make it conspicuous and that it may force it self upon the observation of all who are at a distance And if any are willing to pay this Almighty Lord his due honour and homage it will train them up dayly in the knowledge and observance thereof If they are unwilling and averse thereto it will serve to make them willing by degrees For such dayly representation of God's publick worship and homage before their eyes will be a dayly reproof of their ungodly Violations or Neglects thereof and make them uneasie therein and by degrees awaken and stir up those natural and innate feeds of Truth and Piety which God has planted in all mens Souls though under such Neglects or irreligious ways they lye dormant and seems as if they were buryed or almost quite lost in theirs Or if after all they shall obstinately shut their eyes against this Light so shining out upon them and persist in their wickedness and irreligion it will clear the Justice of an Injured God when he comes to punish them for the same and leave them wholly without excuse Yea this publick worship is necessary at least as to a great part of Men or as to the keeping them up in any considerable Numbers to keep up Religion and Devotion not only among others but in their own breasts For Devotion is to be upheld and improved in our Spirits by exercise which as they have Provisions for and are call'd to so all devout People are careful to comply withal on the constant returns of these opportunities But though we need to use this exercise to keep it on we need use none at all to wear it off our minds which by meer neglect thereof will sink into forgetfulness of what is good and into sloth and indevotion of themselves Their progress therein is like that of heavy Weights up hill which need a constant hand to raise and carry them on but when that is once off have enough in their own Weight to make them roul down again And this all may find by their own experience mens pious affection as any heedful Observer will soon perceive unavoidably decaying and going back back for want thereof Which makes devout minds justly to dread the want of such opportunities for Ministerial Offices as a starving of their Religious affections And for this Reason among others St. Paul is earnest in pressing attendance on Religious Assemblies and cautions them against for saking the same because that would endanger the loss of Religion it self Not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is saith he to the persecuted Hebrews when he labours to fix them in holding fast the Christian Profession without wavering and to guard them against such things as would most dispose them to draw back and apostatize from it Heb. 10 23 25. 26. 39. And for these and such like Reasons publick worship is of so great account in God's sight that he has framed much of our Holy Religion with a particular eye to it and instituted several great and most important things for the sake of it Such is the Church it self which is instituted for joynt and publick worship The Society thereby introduced among us is to associate us in the common worship of that God whom we all confess and the Fellowship arising thence is to make us all Fellow-worshippers Such also is the Ministry which God has appointed for his publick Service or to minister unto
are styled by Theodorit speaking of this business and who first brought in the Doxology at the end of the Psalms which continues â—â—ll to be used at the reading thereof in our days But who whilst they shew'd Concurrence with the Arians in all the good parts of their Office thought fit to shew their standing off from them in their Corrupt and Derogatory Doxologys as oft as they came in the course of the publick service For when at the end of the Hymns the Arians Sung Glory be to the Father in the Son or as others Glory be to the Father by the Son in the Holy Ghost aiming by this change of particle to intimate dissimilitude and inferiority The Orthodox Sung Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost by that particle of Conjunction making the three Persons all alike in Receipt of this Glory or expressing their equality But whatever compliances may be made thus for a time yet as the sinful mixtures grow more fixed and the iniquity is more open and bare-faced when it greatly and evidently pollutes Devotions and corrupts mens Principles and Practices and is carryed on by all arts and endeavours to intrap and catch Souls there is more apparent necessity to stand off from them And then they are bound I conceive and as I think I have shewn to afford Gods faithful people more safe and salutary and Christian Administrations and the People without any hindrance from the Precepts of Peace and Union are to break off from the other and to joyn therein So that such unlawful matter in Prayers especially still as it grows more apparent and heinous and more firmly fixed therein is enough to carry people off notwithstanding their desires of Peace and Union from any Assemblies though they had not added Anti-Bishops to head their unlawful mixtures or made an open Schism in the Church As to this mixture of immoral Prayers then with such a service as is wanting in nothing else but has all that is necessary in worship if these additions might be let alone The desire of keeping Peace and Union in Assemblies or Churches whatever it may do for a while or in some cases will not alwayes get over them And if once the makers of immoral additions do moreover set up Anti-Bishops and make a Schism for maintenance thereof Unity is no longer in Duty to be kept but broke with them so that the desire of Unity will be no Reason to bear therewith but to do quite contrary after that time But there is besides another and a stronger ground of bearing viz. The Necessity of having some Ministerial Offices and Publick Devotion when they live under a want of better opportunities must take up either with these or none And this as it will excuse the Faultiness of Meeting with those who are in a Schism So I conceive will excuse men too in bearing with these corrupt matters and immoral Additions whilst they can be allowed sufficiently to signifie and express their Dissent from them They come then 't is true and as the forementioned Orthodox Christians did at Antioch under the Derogatoriness of the Arian Doxologies for the sake of many Good Prayers submit to be present at others whereby they will see Gods Worship prophaned and hear his sacred Name dishonoured and Libelled which is and ought to be a grievous Mortification to every Pious mind But they submit to be present at all this in the way of a Necessary Duty viz. attending on some Ministerial Offices And in want of all opportunities of having those more Pure in any other Places as was also the case of those Orthodox at Antioch where Constantius had refused to allow them so much as one Church And meeting it that way though they may see and hear it they are only aggrieved and wounded but not polluted thereby As Servants or any others are not polluted by hearing Gods Name Blasphemed or seeing other wickednesses committed which they are like to meet in the necessary duty and discharge of their attendance or stations who are not guilty of the evil that is uttered or acted especially if they are allowed to shew dislike and to be Reprovers of it So that when others are Guilty by concurring in these immoral Petitions he contracts no guilt by being present at them much against his will and in the necessary and due payment of some publick Devotion which he has no opportunities of paying any where else so long as he apparently singles out the Good and lets all the Bad alone Nor is his mere presence at these additional immoral Prayers an interpretative Profession of his concurrence in them 'T is too rigorous I think to make coming to any Religious Assemblies a profession of concurring in every particular which in any part of the ministration is professed or put up to God there Men are liable to have various apprehensions about some passages or other that may happen to be in the publick Service whether in the Professions which are made to God or in the Prayers which are put up to him And also about some Undertakings Events or Transactions of this World which may be brought as occasion is into the common Service and Devotion though all are not of one mind or belief about them And under this liableness to such variety of apprehensions about these matters we could never be able to keep up publick Communion especially to keep it up so fixt and constant and to keep all persons in one Communion as our Lord requires they should be kept upon these terms And they are more liable still to have the same variety of apprehension about Private Composures in Pulpit-Prayers which may be more Subject to the Tincture either of some particular opinions or expressions which all cannot Assent to or approve of Considering which it would be harder still to keep up such Communion under the Allowance of these Pulpit-Prayers of Private Composure which yet besides what they have been formerly or are at this time in other places are now allow'd of by our own Church In publick Fasts indeed or Thanksgivings where the very Meeting or Assembling is made significant of any purposes to be present at them is a profession of what is signified by them And it is insincere for those who abhor that Design which they are appointed to carry on to afford their presence or meet at them But I think it is not so with any particular passages and petitions in the ordinary Devotion at other times and that coming to Church Assemblies at such times which are for Devotion at large is no determinate and limited profession of concurrence in those passages from which though a man would profess to dissent yet might he still resort to the Assemblies for so many other purposes And of this difference betwixt these Two as to their being a profession of concurrence they who list may see more in a Book intituled Of Christian
Episcopal Throne and giving the other Possession thereof and barbarously enforcing submission and adherence to them from the Clergy and People as was done by Philagrius Syrianus and Heraclius to omit others But these Stateinhibitions and deprivations coming on him his Adherents not for any other Crimes alledged which were shameless Falshoods and assumed meerly as pretences but in reality only for his being a stout Asserter of the Orthodox Faith he still went on preaching and ministring the same and for all these State-ejections was stuck to therein by the faithful Aegyptians and by the Orthodox in all other places And thus also our own Ancestors continued to do on the States turning upon them and under Forfeiture of Incorporation and all the Penalties of a Bloody Persecution forbidding them to go on administring the Word and Worship of God according to the Reformation thereof made by King Edward in Queen Maries time For being to administer this Word and Worship in duty to God and in care of Souls they set light by the Benefits of Incorporation and civil Advantages and paid no regard to State-deprivations or inhibitions but went on faithfully to administer the same though at the â—eril of their Lives I Grant the desire of keeping on the publick benefits of incorporation may many times be a Reason for Bishops and Ministers voluntarily to rest under State-deprivations and inhibitions when 't is a Case only of personal rights and priviledges Such deprivations and inhibitions often affect persons only and not things when on the deprivation of one the same Ministrations would be kept up by others As was done in the depositions of High-Priests so common in later times among the Jews and of Patriarks so ordinary at present among the Greeks and may happen in other places In all which there is only a change of persons but no change in ministrations the Church being lead on in the same necessary Worship Doctrine and Practice under both And here to prevent a breach with the state and to keep on the way of spiritual ministrations with the benefit of Secular Accessions the Bishops and Pastors of an incorporate Church where it is not like to do the Church more hurt by an utter loss of its liberty in these points than the incorporation desired will compensate may think there is more cause for the Churches sake to rest under state-deprivations They may esteem it their parts to quit their own particular interests to advance the Churches and believe that the keeping on the publick benefits of incorporation will abundantly compensate for the wrongful encroachment made by such deprivation on a private person But in Cases which concern not only the personal rights and priviledges of Pastors but the substance of Religion or the safety of Souls and where Christ requires they should exercise their ministrations as I have shewn he doth in the foresaid Cases They must not let them fall in regard to any inhibitions or deprivations even of their Lawful Princes They must here slight all worldly benefit of protection and be willing if need require to undergo a persecution And go on faithfully in their ministrations as their bounden duty requires and as in these Cases Gods Faithful Ministers have done in all times 2. Secondly what is so given up by the Church for abridgement of its own power in spiritual ministrations is only whilst it keeps united to the state and receives protection not when it is separated from it again or falls under persecution Its recessions as I noted were on consideration of State benefits and as a grateful return for them whilst it was suffer'd to enjoy them They are all upon the score of its union and so cease when the State breaks off and turns it up to it self again For being made separate it is no longer under any former tyes of incorporation but acts again with the powers of a separate condition And thus it is when instead of protecting the State puts any necessary points of Doctrine or Worship or part of their ministration under persecution When it separates its protection it separates it self It drives out the Church when it drives out any of those things which the Church must stick to at all perils and when instead of incorporating or civilly protecting the ministrations thereof it falls to incorporate and to protect the ministration of error and wickedness in their place It disfranchises pure Worship and Doctrine when it enfranchises errors and corruptions contrary to them And by turning to persecute the necessary ministrations of pure Religion it breaks it self from them and thence forward they are no longer one but become two again So that whatever regard and complyance the Bishops and Ministers of Christ may shew to such deprivations and inhibitions of the State whereinto they are incorporated whilst it inhibits no necessary Ministrations to Religion or to the Souls of Men but in discharging all those they injoy the priviledges and protection thereof Yet are they not to be discharged thereby from ministring to the same in all the foresaid or other like Cases nor to be debarr'd of any of their spiritual powers after once the state breaks with them and instead of yielding them the benefits of incorporation puts them under persecution But then they must exercise these ministrations only according to what they have Received from Christ and from the Canons of the Church so far as they do not interfere with any innocent State Laws which restrain them as Good Subjects Not with any Civil fortifications and State Accessions CHAP. II. Of the Kings Ecclesiastical Supremacy Received and Asserted by our Church ANd all this agrees well with the Ecclesiastical Supremacy own'd by our Church and claimed by our Princes conformable to what was ascribed to and claimed by the Godly Kings among the Jews and the Godly Emperors in the Primitive Church Whose Ecclesiastical Soveraignty lyes not in their being invested with or in their having a Soveraign Disposal of the Powers of Orders But in retaining their Civil Soveraignty over all persons whether Laymen or Ecclesiasticks And in the subordination of Ecclesiastical courts and causes which are content to act in subordination on the score of their secular mixtures as in beneficiary matters censures c. And for Cognizance of either of these either of persons or causes in barring all Foreign Appeals 1. First It lyes not I say in their being invested with or having a Soveraign Disposal of the powers of orders For these our Kings do not pretend to have in their power or to be powers subjected and inherent in themselves But to be proper and Peculiar to spiritual persons Thus King Henry the eighth when he asserts his own Regal Supremacy over the Church leaves all proper spiritual powers and Functions to spiritual persons and in the statute for restraint of Appeals declares the spiritualty sufficient and meet to declare and determine all such doubts and to administer all such