A VINDICATION OF Mr. H's Brief Enquiry Into the true Nature OF SCHISM FROM The Exceptions of T. W. THE Citizen of CHESTER AND Sincere Lover of Truth LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the lower end of Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1691. A Vindication of M. H's brief Enquiry into the True Nature of Schism c. THAT man must be a great stranger in England that knows not what unhappy flames have been kindled amongst us about matters of Church-Government and Worship and he must be as great an Enemy that would not contribute his utmost to the extinguishing of them A great deal has been writ on both sides to convince the World where the fault of our Division lies The word Schism has been tost like a Tennis-ball from one side to another till by such motion those violent heats have been caused that have much endangered both our Church and State Great endeavours have been used to fasten the guilt upon such as impose unnecessary suspected Terms of Communion and it has been fiercely retorted upon those that refuse to comply with such Terms and after all the Difference remains and for ought we see is like to do so still Some have fancied the severe Execution of Penal Laws by Fines Imprisonment Exile c. would have put an End to that Separation which they thought proceeded from a Factious humour not to be tamed any other way but Experience has convinc'd them of a quite contrary Effect Others have perswaded themselves when-ever such Enforcements were laid aside the Controverted Ceremonies would of course fall into contempt for being by acknowledgment things purely indifferent that is to say meer trifles without any native worth or strength they cannot be rationally supposed to stand any longer than they had those external props to bear them up and herein they have not been altogether disappointed for they hear of five or six of the Clergy and those not of the meanest sort that have chosen to quit their Preferments for the ease of their Consciences now they may Preach the Gospel without bearing that burthen and were our present Liberty improved to a Comprehension more such Instances might be expected and the World would then see whether all this troublesom Zeal for the things in Controversie has proceeded from the real value of the things themselves or the valuation of those external Advantages affixed to them But since neither Disputings nor Penal Laws have hitherto brought English Protestants to an exact Uniformity it is worth every honest mans Enquiry how under these different Modes of Worship all men may be induced to live quiet and peaceable lives as becomes those whose Interests are so inseparably united both by a Sacred and Civil Tie Mr. M. H. has made a very modest and ingenious attempt that way from which we expect the greater success because he has certainly hit upon the true cause of our Animosities which as all other Wars and Fightings proceed from our Lusts which war in our minds were these as entirely subject to Reason and Virtue as the Gospel would have them to be it would not be in the power of greater Controversies than ours to make us run so fiercely one upon another breaking all the Bonds which our Religion natural Relation and Civil Concernments have laid upon us And because a great deal of harm is many times done by a mistaken Scripture word and it is necessary to take the Weapon out of the Gladiators hand He has given us so clear an Account of the true import of the word Schism as it is used in Sacred Writings as does acquit all the sober moderate peaceable men and only falls upon the fiery proud censorious Bigots of both Perswasions In so healing an Enterprize as this he could fear no opposition except from two sorts of persons The furious Zealot who will find himself too deeply concerned to be quiet and easie And the Debauchee who makes use of the Controversie only as a blind to cover his own leudness and a pretence to act his malice against the more serious Professors of Practical Religion Whether that T.W. who has encountred this peaceable Design belongs to the former or latter sort of men I shall leave to his own Conscience and those that are better acquainted with him to determine but by the complexion of his Book he seems to have a mixture of both Before I proceed to the Examination of his Pamphlet I think my self obliged to do Mr. H. that Justice as to assure the Reader he has acted no part at all in this Reply nor ever saw one word of it before it came out of the Press and therefore is not chargeable with any Errours whereof it may be guilty The Gentleman begins his Preface imperiously enough and is very liberal in bestowing his Titles of Honour and Disgrace The Episcopal Clergy he vouchsafes to salute Learned and Pious the Dissenters Fools and Schismaticks as if 't were his Province to make an oracular decision of the Controversie and to give Laurels or Halters at his pleasure But as it is to be hoped the Clergy he speaks of will not value themselves their Piety or Learning over-much upon the bare sentence of a person that is so little a Judge of either so it cannot be expected the Dissenters should immediately confess themselves Fools and Schismaticks because the Citizen has pronounced them such It is no new thing to them to be called Names to be represented as Rebels and Traitors unfit for Humane Society and it has been formerly an unsufferable crime to endeavour their own vindication and these men have been so long accustomed to a hectoring abusive kind of Language that they have forgotten how to speak with common civility to persons that are almost as good men as themselves Little shifts restless spirits buoying up a Faction have been decantate terms to do the work of a common Foe in ruining those that were more early aware of the advances of Popish Designs than some of their Neighbours But 't is some what strange such words should be heard at this time a-day when our Governours and almost the whole Nation are convinc'd how much this kind of Language and the Severities that were kindled thereby have contributed to those great evils from which the Nation is but lately escaped He musters against us the great names of Hooker Bramhall Hammond Sanderson and divers more but why should he leave out his Modern men Why should Parker Dryden L'Estrange with their learned elaborate and Orthodox Writings come in for their share of Honour I know none so weak as to set Mr. H's Book in comparison with these 't is evident his subject and design is variant from theirs but if we thought fit to imitate his Pedantry we could tell him of Reynolds Cartwright Blondell Ames Daille Owen Baxter c. whether these men have not done as much to prove the Imposers Schismaticks as the former to prove Dissenters such
then must all the Successors of the Apostles have the same power the Rule is known à quatenus ad omne It is plain by this that Apostolical Succession in the sence of those times was not any such fine Aerial Thread as this Man speaks of but Conformity to the Apostles model in Government and Worship and those that best observe that are in the truest sence the Apostles Successors whether the Line has been broke by intervening Hereticks and Schismaticks or no. We all grant that for Persons wilfully to withdraw themselves from such particular Churches as are framed according to Scripture Rules and impose no new or needless terms is to act Schismatically because such wilful Separation when no cause is given cannot be without breach of Charity with our Fellow Christians which is the Scripture Notion of Schism and this Mr. Henry himself grants and calls it Separation for Separation's sake which T.W. might have taken notice of had he designed fair dealing But this is not at all proved to be our case We earnestly desire Episcopacy may be reduced to its proper Sphere that every particular Church may have its Bishop and Presbyters and so power within it self to admonish suspend and reject scandalous Persons we desire the Rules of the Gospel may be carefully lookt into and a Model of Government and Worship taken from thence such as may be likely to answer the great Ends of Church Societies that nothing may be imposed but what is either expresly commanded or has a natural and proper tendency to promote that which is so then would the Worship of God appear like it self rational grave and majestical becoming reasonable Creatures to offer and a Being of perfect Simplicity and Spirituality to receive nor would we as we are accused under pretence of Spirituality reject the natural decorum of an Action in Divine Worship but only lay aside those Formalities that are over and above natural decency which in civil converse are counted foppish and daily grow out of repute betwixt Man and Man and are no where so improper as in the Service of God It is certainly a very odd Custom these Men have taken up against us if they find in any of the Fathers the word Bishop they presently transfer it a Diocesan Prelate if they read of Breaking off from the Communion of the Bishop it must be immediately applyed to the practice of Dissenters in England When alas till the Extent of Power way of coming into Office and Charge terms of Admission c. be proved to be tantamount to what they now are bare words will conclude nothing at all And yet without so much as offering to prove any thing of this T.W. will needs perswade Mr. H. to confess himself a Schismatick and so out of the Catholick Church and possibility of Salvation Though we need not concern our selves to soften or extenuate the fault of Schism no such thing being proved against us yet it may not be amiss to take notice how this eager Man over-shoots himself in these matters he first makes all those Churches Schismatical that do not agree with the Primitive Catholick Church in Faith Worship and Government without adjusting the measures of such Agreement as if every little difference made a Schism which would bear hard upon all the Churches at this day in the World And when he has done this he cuts off all these Schismatical Societies from being parts of the Catholick Church or under a possibility of Salvation It must needs follow from hence that Popish Churches to say nothing of others must be Schismatical for they vary notoriously from the Primitive in Faith Government and Worship as I suppose this Man will grant all those Churches therefore since this Variation were no parts of the Catholick Church that is no Churches at all and by consequence according to him their Bishops must be but Lay-Impostors their Ordinations null and void the Line of Communication broken the Apostolical Power lost and all England in a state of Damnation and all this is the Effect of over-great earnestness to prove the Dissenters Schismaticks We have with a great deal of Patience examined T. W's Notions of the Church of Communion and Unity and whether there be any thing observable in them besides Ignorance Confusion and Contradiction is left to the Judgment of the Reader That which remains is to view the Remarks he has made upon Mr. H's Book The Instance of Eldad and Medad was never designed to run of all four but thus far 't is to the purpose as it proves that God has not limited his People in Religious Actions so nicely to the publick places as some would pretend and that even good Men are apt too severely to censure such actions when managed out of the usual Method before they fully understand the reason of the thing and that meek and humble Men like Moses who are more concerned for the Substance than Circumstances of Religion would not deny the Church the advantage of those Gifts which God has bestowed upon Men even though the exercise of them might seem to derogate from their own Grandeur those general Inferences naturally follow from the place and the application of them is not improper as this Man fancies whatever the Office of this Man was to be yet doubtless this Act of prophecying was of a Sacred rather than a Civil nature and though under that Oeconomy the Priests were principally engaged in the Ceremonial part of Worship yet in the Moral part the Prophets often bore a share which was discovering the mind of God to the People and pressing them to Obedience and it is to this rather than the Priestly Office that a Gospel Minister succeeds If these Men demand we should give as signal proof of our Authority to the Bishops as Eldad and Medad could to Moses I hope we may expect that the Bishops should give as signal proof of their Authority as Moses could do but if extraordinary Commission need not be pretended in the one case we suppose there 's as little need of it in the other and we are ready to give satisfaction to all the World of the ordinary Warrant which consists in suitable Qualifications enquired into and approved by such as the Scripture calls Bishops Upon Mr. H's bare mentioning of the Worshippers of the Diana of their own opinion T. W. charges him with saucy Language but Mr. H. needs not come to this Man to learn how to speak the reflection Mr. H. made was general that there are such cannot be denied and let it fall where 't is due but why must this of Necessity be spoke of the Bishops such an invidious innuendo in the last Reign might have cost a Man dear of which Mr. Baxter is a memorable Instance But T.W. will answer for the Bishops and they are certainly very happy in such an Advocate that if the Punctilio's of Opinion do not cause a separate Communion they will not censure that for
Interest acknowledge there were the greatest Encroachments imaginable made upon the Liberties of the Subject from the very first appearance of that unhappy Prince in the Government the Foundation whereof was laid in his Fathers Reign For when King James the first Ascended Englands Throne the Prelatick Party dreading lest the Puritans would have too great a share of his Favours upon the account of his Education and the Influence the Scottish Nobility and Ministry might have upon him bent all their Studies to create in him a prejudice against them and finding no Bait was so like to take with him as the extending of his Authority and enlarging the Prerogative which had perhaps been too much limited by his Antient Subjects they flattered the Ambition and Vices of that Prince and thereby made him entirely their own and this was indeed the true Origine of all the misfortunes of Succeeding times for when once the Fence is broke and the Land-mark removed 't is hard to fix it again but the loosned Hind will wander endlesly Buoy'd up with expectations of an Absolute Power his Son begins a Fatal Reign during which there was not one Parliament from his very first year to his Exit that did not seriously remonstrate the Grievances of the Nation and humbly Petition they might be redress'd The Levying of Tunnage and Poundage without Act of Parliament the Illegal Imprisonment of Peers Extravagant Dispositions of Crown Lands were the Early Complaints of his Reign Granting Commissions to require Money under the Title of a Loan Imprisoning Persons of Quality that refused to pay that which they had no pretence of Law to demand and denying them the Priviledge of Habeas Corpus when they moved for it Menacing of Parliament telling them if they would not grant him sufficient Sums of Money for his Occasion he would take some other course openly in Parliament threatning those Gentlemen that opposed these Violences calling them Vipers and sending at one clap seven worthy Gentlemen to the Tower whereof Denzen Holles and the Great Selden were two and this for no other Crime but in a Parliamentary way opposing the Kings Arbitrary proceedings The suspicious actions of the Marquess of Hamilton in raising Forces discovered to my Lord Rhees Maccay to be designed for England in the Seventh year of this Reign the whole Story which had a very ill Aspect all those can tell who have any Acquaintance with the History of those Times The breaking to pieces that brave and pious design of buying up Impropriations for the maintenance of a preaching Ministry and consiscating to the Kings use vast Sums of Money given by well-disposed Persons for that purpose the greatest piece of Sacriledge that was ever heard of The Declaration for Sports on the Lords day and Suspending and Depriving of Ministers for not reading it the Hectoring such Judges and Justices of the Peace as made Orders of Court against Rioting and Revelling on that Sacred Day The Exacting of a new invented Tax call'd Ship Money in the Twelfth year of his Reign and proceeded to give Judgment against the Defaulters The Extravagant and Tyrannical proceeding of the Star-Chamber the Suspending of Bishop Williams ab Officio Beneficio by the mischievous malice of Archbishop Laud of Blessed Memory And to fill up the measure the imposing the English Liturgy upon Scotland added to the many Violations of the Constitution of that Kingdom these are the known occasions of that unhappy Breach betwixt that King and his Parliament which I have taken a more particular notice of not to vindicate our selves for the challenge has been often made to Name four Persons in that whole Parliament that were not in full and compleat Communion with the Church of England as by Law Established when the War begun but to vindicate the Nation for it was a general and common case and those Men have been very disingenuous and unjust to their Countrey who have put such false and dismal Colours upon a War to which the Nation was forced in defence of those Priviledges which they had derived from their Ancestors by a Title as Sacred and Inviolable as the greatest Monarch has unto his Crown 't is true indeed the Bishops were many of them great Sufferers their Honour and Interest obliged them to stand by the King and his Courtiers and to vindicate those Extravagancies where of they were the principal Causes and Instruments and that was the reason of the Parliaments readiness to lay that Order wholly aside that had for the support of their own Grandeur abetted and consecrated the violation of the Laws and Liberties of England I am no way obliged to defend all the Irregularities and Distractions that happened upon that War when once the Sword is drawn and Men are flush'd with Blood and Victory it 's impossible they should be kept within due Bounds and not be too severe upon those who had acted the first part upon that Tragical Scene every Body knows the Complexion of that War was at length greatly changed and it was pursued far beyond the first design but the blame of all belongs to those that were the first Aggressors and made it necessary by force to withstand that Torrent of Arbitrariness that bore down all Legal Fences before it And yet 't is notoriously false that all the Episcopal Clergy were then Silenced and Sequestred there were many of them conniv'd at and preach'd all along those Times indeed there were many of them as they are now notoriously Debauch'd and lamentably ignorant and it will be hard to perswade us that the removing of such is any great Curse to the Nation there was an allowance given for the maintaining of those that lost their Places for refusing to submit to the Powers that then were during that time it cannot be proved that the Presbyterians ever varied from the true Interest of the Nation but always endeavoured to maintain the Balance betwixt an unlimited Monarchy on the one hand and Popular fury and confusion on the other and thousands of them lost their lives upon that Score and at length by their Address and Interest under God the Nation was prepared to receive the Banished Prince the solemn Promises fair Words and great Assurances that were made them by the Church and Court Party upon the Treaty of Restoration are very well known and the speedy and bare-fac'd violation of all is not to be parallel'd in Story in little more than two years time two thousand of these Ministers were turn'd out of their Office and Livings when Scandal or Insufficiency were never so much as pretended only because they would not declare their Assent and Consent to three Books of Humane Composure and all and every thing therein contained and made uncapable of teaching Schools and a while after Banished five Miles from the places of their former Ministry and from Corporations that there might be no possibility of escaping to Starve and ever since treated with the greatest Scorn
Udal Barrow c. as Dr. Fuller himself testifies That Great Princess had something of the â—â—re in her and there wanted not Prelaâ—â—ck Breath to blow the Spark into a flame Mr. Baxter's Censure of a Universal Toleration which he would twit us with agrees with the sence of every wise and good Man in England but surely there 's a great deal of difference betwixt tolerating all how Erroneous soever their Tenets may be and giving ease to such as only differ from you in Ceremonies which your selves confess might well be spared if this Man knows no Medium betwixt tolerating the grossest Heresies and Blasphemous Opinions and tying all Men up to the very same Punctilio with our selves he shall never be a Privy Councillor He falls very foul on Mr. H. for saying the Unthinking Mobile are so well taught as to know no other Churches but the publick places of Worship are easily induc'd to believe we leave the Church This he says is highly reproachful as if the Pastors of the Church seduc'd the people to believe that which is false Mr. H. does not charge them with having seduced them to believe what is false but they are indeed very many of them justly chargeable with not having sufficiently taught them what is true for our most common Experience assures us that there is amongst you a Debauched Ignorant Rabble that Rant and Swear against our Hearers upon this very account and never offer at any other reason but that they leave the Church for you to deny that there are such a Crew is to trample upon our Sences and perswade us we can neither hear nor see How many of the Privy Council Judges and Magistrates believe us to be Schismaticks we know not but we do not think any of them grounds the charge meerly upon our leaving the Churches which was all Mr. H. spoke of here when you have proved that the presence of God is as much confined to your Churches as it was to Jerusalem your instance may be worth something but when our Saviour tells us that Distinction was to be immediately laid aside 't was very impertinent to urge it now I do not know whether Mr. Dodwel may have hired you to cry his Books but he knows very well where to find his Answer though you do not Mr. Baxter has saved us that Labour in more Treatises than one He complains we rob their Parish Churches I suppose these men look upon all within the parochial Precincts to be their own Goods and Chattels but this cannot be pretended to be by Divine right and therefore the Transgression thereof cannot be the true Nature of Schism whilst men have Preachers thrust upon them without their Election or Consent which is perfectly contrary to Primitive Custom no wonder if they leave them and go to others they are better satisfied in Mr. H. very candidly endeavours to extenuate the difference betwixt Protestants who all believe the same Christian Faith and joyn in the same abhorrence of Papal Delusions to which the man replies by this a man may be an Arrian a Socinian or Atheist and yet free from Schism what do these believe the same Christian Faith with us I could almost blush for this mans gross disingenuity He 's now become such a perfect Humourist he cannot forbear Quarreling with us for not reading the Prayers made for the Wednesday Fast and asks us what account we can give to God and the Government for such Omission Sir You may know if you please that the Kings command to read those Prayers does not extend to us we are not mentioned nor designed therein and where there 's no Law there 's no Transgression We have reason to think the Government does not in the least question but that we are as hearty in our Prayers on this occasion as T. W. who was somewhat with the latest in testifying his Allegiance thereunto 'T is a gross Calumny that we impute our Prayers to the immediate Dictates of the Spirit of God much less the Levities and Impertinencies of them we do believe there is a gift of Prayer that is to be attained by the use of ordinary means and nevertheless is from God who is the Fountain of every good and perfect Gift and this is fully and excellently vindicated by that truly Pious and Worthy Bishop Dr. Wilkins The words you put in the Margin as charged upon Mr. H. are very false as many Persons of as untainted Reputation as your self can testifie You might have spared your Commendation of the Liturgy we grant there are many good Petitions therein but we know no reason to limit our selves unto it as if a man without the Gift of Miracles could not speak Sence in a Prayer but by a prescribed form of words but it were Presumption to attempt it when Miracles are ceased as our great Adversaries to conceited Prayers pretend which by the way is little less than Lampoon upon the common sence of English men I have now waited upon the Citizen through all those Passages of his Book which even he himself can think material and upon the whole I make little question but every sober unprejudiced Reader will joyn with me in these Reflections I. That Mr. M. H. has given us the true Scriptural Notion of Schism that is An uncharitable Alienation of Affection amongst professed Christians occasioned by their different Apprehensions about little things This was the very thing which St. Paul reproves as Schism in the Corinthians and no doubt he knew very well what he said and was acted by too good a Spirit to become a false Accuser of the Brethren To this T. W. has given no manner of Answer but instead of that peremptorily asserts that the formal Nature of Schism is diversity of Communion which both contradicts Scripture and leaves the matter still in Confusion and Darkness for since where-ever there is a diversity there must be two parties diverse this definition may make both or either of them Schismatical but does not determine which till all the Circumstances of the case be considered which makes it evident that the form of Schism lyes not in the distinction of Communion it self but in the true Causes of it which upon due search will be found to be one of these two either Uncharitableness or Unwilling mistake to lay so dreadful a charge as this of Schism is accounted upon an involuntary mistake seems very hard and not agreeable with the Nature of the Gospel that makes so large allowances for this kind of weakness and has commanded us all to do so It must therefore necessarily fall upon the former which having more of the perverseness of the Will in it and being much more contrary to the Nature of Christianity and to the Unity of the Spirit appears by all marks to be the real Criminal after which the Hue and Cry was sent II. That the design of Mr. H's Books appears to be honest and peaceable it is no way calculated