Keys delivered unto them and thereby were invested in their Persons with the Ministerial Authority yet upon the same terms it must be farther proved That it was Christ's Intention that the same power should continue in their Successors or it makes no more to the purpose for a settled Ministery than it does for a fixed Episcopacy and this same Argument which overthrows a Superiority of Church-men over one another for want of an Express of Christs intention to continue it always overthrows also the Ministry it self both having the same bottom and alike promises This the Independant and Socinian saw and consider'd full well and upon your own grounds reject them both together with the two Sacraments because there are no express Texts declaring their Perpetuity But this is agreeable enough with the Rector of Sutton who as he makes all Gospel-Laws for Church-Government an Escheat to Westminster-Hall so is he to be supposed to receive none as perpetually obliging except those that are made and conveyed in the Hall-Phrase and by its Precedents with an express Declaration Entailing them upon the Heirs and Successors for ever But because Apostolical practice still presses you hard whose force apart from the Act and Donation of our Saviour seems to infer a divine Right the matter of Fact being apparent and beyond contradiction That the Apostles were invested with a Superiority beyond Bishops and Presbyters and did accordingly execute it Hereupon with a deep design but very Superficial Policy that is easily seen through and baffled you place their juridical consistorial Acts and Practices amongst those other Acts and Practices of theirs that were purely occasional and with regard to the present times and circumstances such as abstaining from Blood and things strangled eating or not eating the order of Widows the Love-Kiss Celibacy St. Paul's working with his own Hands Preaching the Gospel freely Circumcising Timothy c. all which are confessedly mutable and did alter in a very little time both in their Practice and Obligation But your Error is not only in ranging these quite different Practices under the same head and order whose distant natures are so plain and obvious but in that you do not consider that the Lord's Day and Infant-Baptism will for the same reason come under that head of Indifferencies and Practices mutable and therein besides the ill consequences in Religion you plainly contradict your self who tell us at the same time and in the same Section and in doing of it dart your self through with your own Weapon That tho' there be no particular express Revelation for the Lord's Day and Infant-Baptism yet Practice Apostolical or of Persons guided by an Infallible Spirit is sufficient to enact and declare them perpetually obliging For surely Apostolical practice guided by an infallible Spirit is equally manifest son a Superiority in the Ministry as for those two It is far more notorious and frequent but your Plot that was laid against the Immutability of Episcopacy engaged you to take no notice of it vid. Part I. Sect. 3. Part. II. § 20. Farther yet That you may be every ways secure in your design and wholly baffle and defeat all Plea for a divine and immutable Right from Apostolical Practice in the point of Episcopacy you go on in a sure way treading Antiquity under your Foot and impleading the most holy Primitive Bishops and Confessors of Defectiveness Ambiguity Partiality and Repugnancy that hereby you may root out their Order and destroy it from the Face of the Earth and you say in so many words That we cannot have that certainty of Apostolical Practice as to constitute a Divine Right It is not my business to argue points but to collect your particular Opinions or rather to write the History of your Theology otherwise I might here reply by demanding How and by what hands it is that we have any certainty of the Apostolical Writings or know their minds and intentions there The Church hath all along received the Canon and Sense of the Scriptures from the Faith and certainty of Antiquity and the repute and integrity of these holy Bishops Martyrs and Confessors Our Church of England certainly does so and they are her Rule in Reforming as to both and when the Authority of some Books of the New Testament were called in question the Tradition of Faith alone declared them Canonical and they remain such upon that Testimony in the account of the whole Christian World to this day And why then is the same evidence defective and less authoritative concerning their practice and sense in the point of Government But thus you expose the Scriptures their Authority their Sense to every Atheist and Enthusiust to uncertainties and conjectures or at the best to the intemperance of each violent heady and sceptical undertaker And thus it comes to pass that so much work is made for a Nicephorus Calisthus a Simeon Metaphrastes the very Jacobus de Voragine of the Greek Church those Tinkers that think to mend a hole and make three instead of it you taking away hereby the great evidence and muniments of our Christianity both as to the matter of Fact and the intent of it that which is next to the Foundation is cast down and what can the Righteous do Hence so many Whimsies and Forgeries of Mens Brains and monstrous Opinions fill up our Bodies of Divinity and your many forms of Government as by Divine Right are no less portentous than any of them as Geographers do Maps with some fabulous Creatures of their own Inventions Our Church of England I say in her Reformation supposes certainty and sufficiency in the Records of the Primitive Church and that matter of Fact is faithfully transmitted down unto us with the true sense of the Scriptures and Apostolical Practice both in matter of Doctrine and Government and her Reformation is receiv'd by the Civil Power and made Law in the Kingdom upon these terms alone viz. As bottom'd on the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament and what the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops have thence collected particularly in the Four first General Councils or any other Council X. Elizabethae Cap. I. Sect. xxxvi And yet upon a Scandalous Interpretation of Eusebius Hist Eccles Lib. 3. Cap. 4. perverting his Sense quite contrary to his plain words and design which is to set forth the Succession of Bishops immediately from the Apostles over the known Parts of Christendom you blast the credit of all Antiquity and that with as much show of rancor and contempt as the scornfullest manner of expressing your self can declare What becomes then with our Rector of Sutton of our unquestionable Line of Succession of Bishops of several Churches and the large Diagram made of Apostolical Churches with every ones name set down in his order as if the Writer had been Clarenceaux to the Apostles themselves Is it come to this at last that we have nothing certain but what we have in the Scriptures And must then
particulars As That the Church hath no declarative Power in matters of Faith or supposing any Article obscure to us or inverted and involved by Hereticks so that the matter of it hath not been explicitly acknowledged in all Ages of the Church anteceeding when the present Church gives the true meaning of it according to the tradition of Faith evidencing thereby the Sense of the Article or which is the same the sense of Scripture on which the Article is founded and engages the assent of all Christians thereunto That hereby she creates a new Article of Faith pag. 75 945. as if there were no mean betwixt the Power of the single Church of Rome who resolves all her actings into her own immediate Authority and the true Power of the Catholick Church of God which determines antecedent truths that were tho' less known or misinterpreted from the beginning and when the reason of her decree is not from her own Authority but the Tradition of Faith delivering the sense of the Holy Ghost down unto us That the Church representing and the Church diffusive are all one nothing can make the Church teaching and representative but the belief of what is necessary to Salvation Pag. 86 87. I thought a distant Power by Ordination had constituted the Pastors of the Church You go on at the same confused rate Pag. 251 252. I 'll only write out your words at large and let the Reader judge of them That which being supposed a Church is and being distroyed it ceaseth to be is the formal constitution of it but thus it is as to the Church The belief of Fundamentals makes it a Church and the not believing them makes it cease to be a Christian Church I speak of an essential not an organical Church And I know not who those persons are who out of those places Luk. 10.16 Matth. 28.19 20. Joh. 14.16 do infer the perpetuity of an organical Church nor if they did doth it thence follow they must suppose an infallible assistance beyond an essential 't is strange that nothing should be found betwixt these two in your own sense of them to constitute Pastors of Christ's own sending to make it an organical Church for I cannot imagine what necessity can be supposed of infallibility in order to that which may be sufficiently constituted without it The perpetuity of the Church doth rather argue the infallibility of the promise than of the Church Supposing then that the promises by you insisted on should be so far extended as to imply a perpetuity of a Christian Church what doth that argue but only this that to make it appear that promise is infallibly true there shall always be a Succession of Christians in the World Suppose I grant that the being of a Christian Church doth suppose the assistance of God's Spirit is there no assistance but what is infallible If not no one can be a Christian without infallibility for we speak of no other assistance but what is necessary to make Men Christians for what makes them such severally take them conjunctly makes them a Church But if you besides what assistance is requisite to make Men Christians do suppose somewhat more to make them a Church I pray name what it is And whatever it be it will not be own'd by such who infer a Perpetuity But if in order to that no more be meant as no more can be meant than what is necessary to make Men Christians then infallibility will grow so cheap and common I add and Church-Power and Offices together with it it will not be worth challenging by you for your Church neither will a Ministry be worth challenging by us either But this is agreeable enough with the Title you still give the Archbishop in this Treatise and as if he had no other Prelation but what is derived from his Majesty and is purely Secular you call him his Lordship only I much question Whether it might not have discomposed the Calm that most exemplary Prelate died in upon the Scaffold at Tower-Hill if he could then have been aware that he should have had such a Vindicator I cannot here but repeat it again tho' it be so very Offensive How gladly I should see the Church of Rome opposed and our common Christianity not struck at with the same blow and hand Surely the due Power of God's Church might have been vindicated and Rome's Usurpations rejected without this intermingling all as one both Priest and People as you have done here most Scandalously And at the same rate you dispute also against the Monarchical Government of the Church and an infallible judge Pag. 464. because Christ no where that we read of took care that we should be freed from all kind of Controversies and we no where find such a State of Christian Church described or promised where Men shall be of one mind only that peace and brotherly love continue is all that Christians are bound to and that every Man have the same Vnderstanding Which Arguments conclude as forcibly against any other Government even that of our Saviour himself and his Apostles were they upon Earth again and in the same circumstances as when here before Nay you have used these very Arguments against all manner of Government in your Irenicum And farther Pag. 172. you infer Because it is not in the Power of the Church of Rome judicially and authoritatively to determine what Books belong to the Canon of Scripture and what not Therefore the Church in this case is but a Jury of grand Inquest to search into matters of Fact and not a Judge upon the Bench to determine in point of Law And thereby take away all judicial Power from the Church to oblige her Members or Subjects by for their assent and submission to her Acts and Decrees upon a due search of matter of Fact and full evidence of the Truth and Certainty of those Articles Rules and Canons enjoin'd and commanded And thus you particularly affront the Practice of our own Church she having made it Law that only such a certain number of Books of the Old and New Testament be accounted and received as Canonical and withal requiring Subscription thereunto as a judge upon a Bench to be sure by all that are admitted by her into holy Orders And as you have before concluded That whatever Power can be supposed by Christ to be promised and derived to his Church from Matt. 28.19 20. c. is that which each private Christian partakes of So again Pag. 516. you say That whatever Power can be supposed in a General Council must be first in the Church diffusive and from thence be derived to the Council Which in effect is thus That the Bishops of Christendom who by right are only to sit in Council and such Presbyters as have sat and acted there did it only as their Substitutes and by virtue of their deputation receive their Power either from the Presbyters and Deacons or which is worse from the Laity
the agreement of it in making the Foundations of its being that is Believing in Christ and walking in him to be the grounds of its Communion From whence it necessarily follows that whatsoever Church imposeth the belief of other things as necessary Articles of Faith and not only agreements for the Churches Peace which were not so antecedently necessary to the being of the Catholick Church doth as much as in it lies break the Vnity of it and those Churches who desire to preserve its Vnity are bound thereby not to have Communion with it so long as it doth so To which you add That nothing ought to be imposed as a necessary Article of Faith to be believed by all but what may be evidently propounded to all persons as a thing which God did require the explicite belief of As also That nothing ought to be required as a necessary Article of Faith but what hath been believed and received for such by the Catholick Church of all Ages All which whoso please may read more at large from Page 48. to Page 57. I having only digested it and put in as narrow a room and with as much perspecuity as I could For since the rule is He that gives must take I venture to be so bold as to tell you It is there all along very roughly and incoherently both as to matter and form even contradictorily put together by you tho' not altogether so unintelligibly but that it is plain and evident that you have quite overthrown the Jesuite For as I said before If all Articles of Faith necessary to Salvation be antecedent to the being of the Church and its Governors the Pastors of it they cannot then how great soever that Power is wherewith they are enstated by Christ be conceived to have created any one of them But the main doubt is How you will answer for those many and palpable injuries our common Christianity suffers thereby and rescue your self from the perverser conclusions which are the immediate result of your Arguing As 1. That a Man may be a Christian and not a Church Member 2. That true Faith and Obedience may be attained out of the Church 3. That the being of the Church is not necessary to Salvation 4. That the Church is a subsequent Combination for Acts of Worship 5. That Church Officers are not of the essence of the Church 6. That the exercise of the Communion of the Catholick Church adds only to her perfection And by consequence 7. That the Church doth not cease to be a Church without it any other ways than a Man ceaseth to be a Man without a Hand or a Foot. 8. That the Union of the Catholick Church depends upon its agreement in the Foundation or in that assent and belief which is antecedaneous unto it Or thus 9. That Schism which is a breach of the Churches Union does not relate to Church Officers in their Church Laws and Canons 10. That all necessary Articles of Faith are antecedent to the Catholick Church and consequently that Article of the Holy Catholick Church in our Creed 11. That the being of a Ministry is not the object of a Christian Man's Faith so as necessarily to be believed by him 12. That that Church which imposeth it as such as much as in it lies breaks the Unity of the Church And other Churches are not bound to have Communion with it so long as it does so 13. That the Church Explanations of Faith are not a necessary object of Faith. 14. That the Church ought not to explicate any one Article of Faith or deliver and recommend it in any other words for the assent of Faith than those we find in Scripture 15. That when any such Explication of Faith is made it must be made evident to all persons that God did command that Explication and require the explicite belief of it 16. That the determinations of Faith made by any Council but more particularly by the Four first General Councils are an Usurpation and Imposition upon Christendom because there is no Declaration of God's will that those higher Articles should be so explained and imposed on Christians as in those Councils they are determined 17. That Athanasius and the Homoousians were the imposers upon the Church of God in that great Controversie betwixt them and the Arians 18. That Universality as to persons time and place is not that which makes a necessary Article of Faith because all necessary Articles of Faith are supposed by you to have been antecedent to the Catholick Church as to persons time and place and consequently you must either say That the Article of the Catholick Church is no necessary Article or object of Faith or those conditions are not necessary to the making such 19. That the placing some Books of the New Testament in the Canon which were not once there for some time of the Church is an imposition 20. That all the Laws and Definitions of the Church concerning the highest Articles of Faith oblige no otherwise than when concerning an ordinary Ceremony 21. That there is no more guilt in denying the Doctrine of one Substance than in not standing up when the Nicene Creed is said supposing that a Rubrick hath injoyned it 22. That the Church of England hath put the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds into her Church service and enjoined them for an instance of her Confession of Faith when she does not require that we believe them or if she do she goes beyond her Authority 23. That she greatly erres not only in imposing the Athanasian Creed for our Confession of Faith which either she does not require us to believe or if she does we ought not to believe but turns out the Apostles Creed upon certain days to bring that in its room 24. That her breach of trust together with the affront is much more unpardonable because the Athanasian Creed is commanded to be said in the room of the Apostles on the highest days and in the highest Offices of our Christian Service and Worship viz. The great Festivals of the Year as Christmas-day Easter-day Ascension-day Whitsunday Trinity-Sunday when a more particular signal Confession of our Faith with the greatest Zeal and Ardency Courage and Resolution is implied to be a Christian Man's Duty And lastly That herein and hereby you give support and countenance to the many Sectaries that are among us as Anabaptists Socinians Independents Quakers who upon these very grounds that you have laid down to oppose the Church of Rome quite fling off the Ministry or Church of God as altogether useless as to its publick Acts of Worship or Decrees and Declarations Or else they to be sure look upon it as that which cannot be supposed absolutely necessary to Salvation And indeed the consequence comes unavoidable upon you for if that which is necessary to the Salvation of all Men be antecedent to Church Society or Ecclesiastical Communion and attainable without it you will find very little left whereby to
or Believers in common The Presbyters indeed make the lower House of Convocation in our Church of England but the reason of that is from a particular Law in our Kingdom which imbodies no Canons giving to them the Secular protection but such as pass the Votes of all the inferior Clergy of the Nation represented by the Presbyters that sit there as well as the Votes of the upper Clergy or Bishops Such Stuff have you put together and yet there is worse for you add The utmost then can be supposed in this case is That the parts of the Church may voluntarily consent to accept the decrees of such a Council and by that voluntary act or by the Supreme Authority enjoining it such decrees may become Obligatory As pure Irenicum as any in the World. I 'll add but one instance more by which it will farther appear how you run against or at least evade the true Power of the Bishops and Pastors of the Church vested in them by Christ for the obliging the whole and it is that of Schism which in prosecution of your foregoing notion you assert pag. 290. to be a violation of that Communion which Christians are obliged to upon the acknowledgment of the truth of Christian Religion or upon owning Christianity the way to true Happiness Quisquis ille est qualiscunque est Christianus non est qui in Ecclesia Christi non est Cypr. de Novato Ep. 52. Inde enim schismata haereses oboriuntur dum Episcopus qui unus est Ecclesiae preest superba quorundam praesumptione contemnitur Et homo dignatione Dei honoratus indignus hominibus judicatur Idem Ep. 171. Et non attendisti inter schismaticos haereticos quam magna distantia sit inde est quod ignoras quae sit sancta Ecclesia omnia miscuisti Optat. cont Parmen Donatist lib. 1. Catholicum facit simplex verus intellectus singulare verum sacramentum unitas animorum Schisma verò sparso coagulo pacis generatur deserta matre Catholica impii filii dum foras exeunt se separant à radice matris Ecclesiae invidiae falcibus amputati errando rebelles abscedunt nec possunt novum aliquid aut aliud agere quam quod jamdudum apud suam matrem didicerunt Haeretici veritatis exules sacri symboli desertores c. de se nosci voluerunt ideo falsum habent Baptisma Vobis vero Schismaticis quamvis in Catholica non sitis haec negari non possunt quia nobiscum vera communia traxistis Sacramenta ibid. the very Schism in the days of St. Paul at Corinth For if he that cometh Preacheth another Jesus whom we have not Preached or if ye receive another Spirit which ye have not received or another Gospel which ye have not accepted ye might well bear with him 2 Cor. 11.4 Immanes non habentes Dei dilectionem suam utilitatem potius considerantes quam unitatem Ecclesiae propter modicas quaslibet causas magnum gloriosum corpus Christi conscindunt dividunt quantum in ipsis est interficiunt pacem loquentes bellum operantes vere liquantes culicem camelum diglutientes Nulla enim ab iis tanta fieri potest correptio quanta est Schismatis corruptio Irenaeus l. 4. c. 62. Sed crimine Schismatis à quo immanissimo Sacrilegio nemo vestrum se dicere potest immunem quamdiu non communicat unitati omnium gentium Aug. l. 2. Cont. Petil. Donatist c. 96. Quid ergò prodest homini vel sana fides vel sanum fortasse solum fidei Sacramentum Vbi letali vulnere Schismatis perempta est sanitas charitatis per cujus solius peremptionem etiam illa integra trabuntur ad mortem Idem l. 1. de Baptismo contra Donatist c. 8. Nobiscum enim estis in Baptismo in Symbolo in caeteris dominicis Sacramentis in Spiritu autem unitatis in ipsa denique Catholica Ecclesia nobiscum non estis Ep 48. Vincentio Quisquis ab hac Ecclesia Catholica fuerit separatus quantumlibet laudabiliter se vivere existimet hoc solo scelere quod à Christi unitate disjunctus est non habebit vitam sed ira Dei manet supra eum Ep. 152. And so in the Apostles Canons Can 31. The Schismatick is he that altare aliud erigit nolente Episcopo Can. 6. Conc. Constant 2. Gen. The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are called Schismaticks tho' of a sound Faith. Schisma est recessio à proprio Episcopo Can. 13. Conc. 1 2 Constantinop And to the same effect Can. 10. Conc Carthag 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contra proprium Episcopum I 'll add but this one Authority more and it is St. Basil ad Amphiloc Can. 1. Haereses quidem eos qui omnino abrupti sunt in ipsa fide sunt abalienati Schismata autem propter aliquas Ecclesiasticas causas medicabiles questiones inter se dissident Schisma autem est de penitentia dissentire ab iis qui sunt ex Ecclesia Haereses autem ut Manichaeorum Valentinorum Marcionistarum c. statim enim de ipsa in deum fide est dissentio herein contradicting all the ancient Fathers Doctors and Teachers of the Church of God and the whole current of Theology who still speak of Schism as a breach of the Laws and Canons Ecclesiastical of which those are guilty who receive and own the Foundation or the Scriptures as the indispensable Rule of Faith and Manners but recede from their Pastors or Bishop that break the outward peace when owning the same Articles of Faith and for little things make divisions And in this respect it is that St. Austin lays such blame upon the Donatists telling them That a true Faith will avail them nothing nay that they are worse than Idolaters Dr. Hammond in his Book of Schism considers it also in this Ecclesiastical notion and therefore concludes us to be no Schismaticks not because retaining your essentials or being of a Church consisting in a belief in Christ and walking in him but because keeping those due Subordinations in which our Christianity placed us in respect of our Church-Governors whether to the Deacon or Presbyter or Bishop Metropolitan Exarch or Patriarch as also that due co-ordination as fellow Christians without breaches of Charity made upon one another And to what end you should give this notion of it differing both from the Church of God and our own Doctors is not conceiveable only that you designed thereby to gratifie and comply with those amongst us whose Maxime is That to strike a Schismatick is to hit a Saint That Schism in this Church-Sense of it is a meer Chimera invented only by Church-men to keep the People in Dependence and Subjection unto them that Vnity does not consist in Vniformity but in owning the general Truths of the Gospel and obeying them or believing in Christ and walking
thus argue That where the Church hath defined nothing in her Councils it is to no purpose to object that such Doctrines are taught in it for those who defend their Separation from the Communion of a Church by reason of its Corrupt and Erroneous Doctrines must make it appear those are taught by it and the belief of them also exacted by its subjects To whom he thus replies But supposing there were no such foundation for this Doctrine in the Council of Trent as we see there is would there be no danger to Men's Salvation if their Confessors generally told them these things and they knew it to be the general Opinion among them Is there no danger of falling into the Ditch when the blind lead the blind unless a General Council expresly allow of it Is there no danger of Empiricks and Mountebanks unless the whole College of Physicians approve them And then he adds farther I confess when we debate the causes of separation from their Communion we think it then reasonable to alledge no more than what they impose on all to believe and practise and we have enough of all Conscience without going any farther but when we present the hazard of Salvation to particular Persons we may then justly charge them with pernicious Doctrines and Practices which are received and allow'd among them although not decreed by the Church in Councils For otherwise it would be just as if one should say to a Man that asked him whether he might safely Travel through such a Country Yes without doubt you may for although there be abundance of Thieves and High-way Men yet the Prince or the State never approved them nor gave them liberty to rob Travellers Do you think any Man would venture his Person or his Purse on no better security yet such security is all they can give as to the Roman Church for they dare not deny the bad consequence of the Doctrines and Practices charged upon them but only say The Church hath not decreed them 2. When Doctor Jeremy Taylor published some Tenents concerning Original Sin which opposed the Doctrine of our Church Doctor Warner Lord Bishop of Rochester wrote a Treatise against him and detected his error as openly as he had divulged it A great deal might have been pleaded in the Doctor 's behalf as much nay more than can be pleaded for any Man now a days such was his eminency in all Learning his great and daily service for the Church in her present distress he standing almost alone in the gap and in opposition to her many Enemies ready to devour her and still gaping with their Mouths upon her She was at a very low Ebb and the Channels were seen at God's chiding at the rebuke of the blast of his Displeasure But none of these things moved the excellent Bishop or diverted his purpose He knew full well that such breaches were advantageous to the common Enemy and therefore the healing them by due Argument and Authority was the only way to stop their Mouths And I have been informed those few Bishops surviving in that dismal overthrow of our Church Summon'd the Doctor to the house of Doctor Duppa at Richmond who was then Lord Bishop of Sarum where he submitted and made his acknowledgment 3. When some Puritanes at Frankford had opposed the Government and Liturgy of our Church and set up their own in its room Doctor Cox first and then Dr. Horn undertook them notwithstanding they were little better than banished Men and the Marian Persecution raged at home which made England too hot for them all No pleas of Peace and Unity ought to prevail for the complying with and countenancing those who oppose the received Doctrines and Constitutions of that Church whereof they are Members every good and knowing Man will withstand such to the face although they do in many things unite with him against the common Adversary And those that understand the nature and constitution of the Church of Christ as a distinct Society and its obligations upon Christians believe also its Laws equally established and binding when the Secular Power frowns upon and disowns her as when it maintains and protects her and that confusion in all things as you are pleased to express it or a Laxation of outward reward or penalties gives no liberty to any one man to choose his own way but much less does it authorize and indemnifie any one particular Doctor or more to draw up new Schemes and Modes of Worship or make easier Terms than were before required for the bringing Men in unto them Under these circumstances Dissenters are least of all to be born with and tenderness towards them is to have no place And it is judiciously observed by the Author of Religion and Loyalty Part 1. p. 566. that under the Reign of Julian the Apostate the Church more strictly united than she had done before in executing her Discipline and that power which Christ had enstated on her she then put an end to the vexatious Arian Controversie established the Nicene Faith over all the Christian World and prevented new Schisms and Factions that were at that time breaking out in the Christian World. And then to be sure the Eusebian Latitude-Trimmers had no favour shewed them because of the present Confusion 4. The Romish Doctors themselves gave us these like instances and the most sober of them do not think that their Unity in which they so much boast is violated or any occasion of Scandal and Offence given to those which are without in that the errors of particular Doctors tho' otherwise deserving from their Church are openly taken notice of and refuted but on the other hand conclude such proceedings necessary and useful for the preserving their Faith laudable in the unity and peace of it It is but the other day that Mr. White and Mr. Sargent who are known to have been great Zealots for Rome in this Kingdom published some Tenents injurious as it was thought to the Romish Faith for this they were severely censured and a Book came out against them Autore M. Lomino Theologo Printed at Gaunt 1675. whose Title is Blackloanae Haeresis Historia Confutatio so called from Blacklo a name by which White used sometimes to be called Upon this Publication the Blackloists made great clamors and not only they but the Roman Catholicks at large and who were not engaged in the Controversie As That these were not times for Catholicks to write one against another admonishing that Tempori ac Haeresi cedendum way is to be given to the Time and the Heresie together the danger of Schism is now hanging over our heads and that the Orthodox will be hereby laugh'd at by the Protestants because disagreeing To whom Lominus in his Preface gives this answer which being of so full weight and able to satisfie any Man in this or the like case I will here Transcribe thus Translated Doleo vehementer hoc unicum Blackloistarum effugium ultimum
utique morientis jam sectae gemitum quo commiserationem movent imprudentibus tam patienter audiri Itane vero nec detegendi nec damnandi sunt Novatorum errores ne scilicet Pharisaicum arripiant scandalum Haeretici dicantque imperiti Ecclesiam ob haereseôn censuram esse dividendam Ad quid ergo supra muros Jerusalem posuit Dominus custodes qui tota die nocte non tacebunt ad quid sunt Episcopi Pastores nisi ut Haeresi obstent ac invigilent gregi rationem pro animabus sibi commissis reddituri si oportet haereses esse oportet ut haeresum oppugnatores in Ecclesia non taceant Fas ne erit Thomae Albio Joanni Sargentio fidei Christianae fundamenta convellere non licebit Georgio Leyburno Archiepiscopo Dubliniensi hos scriptores illorum fautores redarguere ac monere fideles ut sibi caveant à lupis ovina pelle contectis Diuturna Schismata in Haeresin tandem converti testatur maximus Ecclesiae Doctor Hieronymus at nemo qui Orthodoxus est dixerit per haeresum detectionem ac damnationem nem gigni Schismata Fidei Catholicae unitas corporisque Ecclesiae compago integritas non in eo consistit ut nullus à fide cadat nullus Haeresin doceat sed in eo maximè ut casus non dissimuletur aut pravum dogma cum sana Doctrina non confundatur rescindi oportet membrum putridum priusquam corpus corrumpatur exeat igitur expellaturque à nobis innovator etsi olim noster fuerit Scio charitati Christianae maximè consentaneum esse ut infirmos in fide foveamus sed charitati Christianae minimè contrarium est imo valde conforme ut alienos à fide calamo censuris feriamus Eoque vel baculo pastorali insigniti sunt Episcopi Apostolorum Successores Dum baculo calamo utitur Ecclesia contra haereticos sana una est fides nec tam delicatae sunt oportet fidelium aures ut disputantium sono ac strepitu contra ingruentes haereses offendantur in castris sumus in castris inquam Ecclesiae militantis merito irridetur is miles qui armorum strepitum non ferens praeliorum id genus adhortamenta reformidat I much lament this only refuge of the Blackloists as the last groan of a dying sect thereby to move pity from imprudent People is heard so patiently Is it so then are the errors of the Novellists to be neither detected nor condemned lest that Hereticks may take a Pharisaical Scandal and those that are unskilful say The Church will be divided by reason of the censure of Heresies To what purpose then hath the Lord placed Watch-men upon the Walls of Jerusalem that shall not hold their peace day nor night For what use are the Bishops and Pastors unless to withstand Heresie and watch over the Flock as those that are to give an account of the Souls committed to them If there must be Heresies it is fit that the oppugners of Heresies in the Church do not hold their Tongues Shall it be lawful for Thomas White and John Sargent to pull in pieces the Foundations of the Christian Faith and shall it not be lawful for George Leyburn and the Arch-Bishop of Dublin to reprove these Writers and their Abetters and to warn believers that they take heed to themselves by reason of Wolves in Sheeps clothing That eminent Doctor of the Church Jerome doth witness that daily Schisms at length turn into Heresie But none that is Orthodox hath said that Schisms are produced by the detection and condemnation of Heresies The unity of the Catholick Faith and close joyning together of the Body of the Church and its integrity doth not consist in this That none fall from the Faith or none teach Heresie but herein especially That the Fall be not dissembled or that their corrupted Doctrine be not confounded with the sound a rotten Member ought to be cut off rather than the Body be destroyed let then the Innovator go out and be expelled from us though heretofore he was ours I know it is mostly agreeing with the Christian Faith that we nourish the weak in the Faith but it is no ways contrary to Christian Charity but every ways conforming that we strike with the Pen and Censures such as are Strangers to the Faith. And therefore the Bishops and Successors of the Apostles have also a Pastoral Staff committed unto them When the Church uses the Staff and the Pen against Hereticks the Faith is one and sound neither ought the Ears of the Faithful to be so delicate as to be offended with the sound and noise of those that dispute against Heresies coming in upon us we are in the Tents of the Church militant and that Souldier is deservedly laught at who not enduring the noise of Armes fears the provocations of Battels of that nature But why should I wonder at your dealings with me since you are so bold with the best of Kings and Men I mean Charles the First and the Martyr whom you hale in as a Party to that most false Assertion which he always opposed viz. That the Form of Church-Government is mutable Or that there is no certain Form of Government prescribed in the Word It is the least that he meant by those Words that you take the confidence to produce or that any Man can interpret him to have meant by them and this will appear all along in his several Writings and Declarations of his Judgment in the point I will at present for evidence of it confine my self to his Majesty's final answer concerning Episcopacy deliverd in to the Commissioners of Parliament the first of Novemb. 1648. where he contends for the Immutability of the two Orders of Bishops and Presbyters to whom he assigns distinct appropriated incommunicable Offices and Acts and bottoms it first upon the Scriptures and then upon this very Apostolical primitive Practice which you say he recommended only as a decent rule to your Arbitrary Modellers of Church-Government to be followed by them as they shall be pleased resolving in his own practice never to vary from it Or in the true application of your Words Whose sufferings could never make him warp from what his judgment directed And the injury you have done to his Sacred Memory and Reputation as also to the Church of England will be farther notorious to him that consults the Twelfth and last Chapter of his Royal answer where he tells the Commissioners That until one of these three things can be clearly evidenced unto him viz. Either that there is no certain Form of Church-Government prescribed in the Word or If there be that the Civil Power may change the same as they see cause or If it be unchangeable that it was not Episcopal but some other he thinks himself excusable in the judgment of all reasonable Men if he cannot as yet be induced to the utter abolishment of that Government in the
it is brought for and bind no farther than the Party concerned doth judge the Sentence equal and just So that these too will help us no ways to end Controversies in the Church any farther than the persons engaged are willing to account that just which shall be judged in their Case And the Power of the State is no more Juridical and Obligatory than the Power of the Church And in pursuance to this it is laid down as a rule Part I. c. 6. § 6. pag. 117. Where any Church retaining purity of Doctrine doth require the owning of and conforming to any unlawful or suspected Practice Men may lawfully deny conformity c. Whereby you evidently take away the Obligation of all Laws because a suspicion of unlawfulness gives Men a lawful ground for their denial of Obedience and Conformity to them which the ignorant always may have not to say will have and the wisest may always pretend to And it is not in the power of the Law-giver to teach and convince them nor consequently to punish and coerce them You argue on to this purpose in the same Section That as it justified our separation from Rome because the Pope commanded things unlawful as conditions of Communion so it will justifie other Mens Non-conformity in things supposed by them unlawful and it may be as lawful to withdraw Communion from one as the other It is the highest Vsurpation to rob Men of their Liberties of Judgments That every one hath a judicium privatae discretionis which is the rule of Practice as to himself And though we freely allow a Ministerial Power under Christ in the Governors of the Church yet that extends not to an obligation upon Men to go against the dictates of their own reason and conscience Their Power is only directive and declarative and in matters of duty bind no more than reason and evidence brought from Scripture by them doth A Man hath not the Power over his own Vnderstanding much less can others have if Governors must be Judges what things are lawful in this case what not the Power will be absolute for to be sure what ever they command they will say is lawful If every private Person must judge as when all is said every private Man will be his own Judge in this case in things concerning his own welfare then he is no farther bound to obey than he judgeth the thing to be lawful which is commanded And at last after other Arguings of this nature you conclude So that Let Men wind and turn themselves which way they will by the very same Arguments that any will prove separation from the Church of Rome lawful because she required unlawful things as conditions of her Communion it will be proved lawful not to conform to any suspected or unlawful Practice required by any Church-Governors upon the same terms if the thing so required be after serious and sober enquiry judged unwarrantable by a Man 's own Conscience You particularly accuse the present Government and Governors of our Church because not complying to offers of union and accommodation as wanting of that tenderness and prudence that was visible in the first Primitive Church in our Church at the composure of her Liturgy and in the French Churches at the making of theirs I will repeat your own Words because I would not lie under a suspicion of doing you injury Were we so happy but to take off things granted unnecessary by all and suspected by many and judged unlawful by some and to make nothing the Bonds of our Communion but what Christ hath done viz. one Faith one Baptism c allowing a Liberty for matters of indifferency and bearing with the weakness of those who cannot bear things which others count lawful we might indeed be restored to a true primitive lustre far sooner than by furbishing up some few antiquated Ceremonies which can derive their Pedigree no higher than some ancient Custom and Tradition God will convince Men one day that the union of the Church lies more in the unity of Faith and Affection than uniformity of doubtful Rites and Ceremonies Were there that Spirit of mutual condescension which was most certainly in the first and primitive Church in the Apostles time our breaches as to this thing too might soon be closed up and the voice of Schism be heard among us no more Certainly those Holy Men in the composing our Liturgy who did seek by any means to draw in others at such a distance from their Principles as the Papists were did never intend by what they did for that end to exclude any truly tender consciences from their Communion That which they laid a bate for them was never intended by them as a hook for those of their own profession The same reason which at that time made them yield so far to them then would now have perswaded them to alter and lay aside those things which yield matter of offence to any of the same profession with themselves now It cannot but be looked upon as a token of God's severe displeasure against us if any fair offers of union and accommodation be coldly embraced and entertained Neither is this all but you have equally obliged the Faction in other parts of your Book and censured our Church after the same manner Your words are these pag. 64. I am sure it is contrary to the Primitive Practice and Moderation then used to Suspend or Deprive Men of their Ministerial Function for not Conforming in Habits Gestures c. which you incomparably prove out of Walafridus Strabo Because there was no distinction of Habits in the Church in the Primitive times and then to be sure there was no Suspensions and Deprivations for not wearing them And you again pretty handsomely gird our Church and Church-men as Publick-Prayer-Readers and for not answering the end of their Ordination which is To be Dispensers of God's holy Word That the Apostles were not sent forth to Pray but to Preach and therein Ministers of the Gospel are to succeed them That Prayer among our Church-men is esteemed as Sarah and Preaching almost undergoes the hardship of Hagar to be lookt upon as the Bond-woman of the Synagogue and to be turned out of doors That they are setting up the honour of one Person and make the Offices of the Church a matter of State and Dignity more than Employment consulting their Ease and Honour judging of the Service of God rather by the practice of the Church when it came to enjoy Ease and Plenty than by the ways and practices of the first and purest Apostolical times when the Apostles who were best able to judge of their own Duty looked upon themselves as most concern'd in the Preaching of the Gospel pag. 333. by which every one knows what you mean and that you hereby design'd to disgrace the daily Sacrifice and Common-Prayers of our Church even to turn them out of it and at that time when the Authority of the Kingdom the miraculous
Providence of God making way concurr'd to their restauration like another Sanballat using this common high-way insinuation thereunto taken from the scandalous Rabble and worst of our Enemies And I have been credibly told That your self did neither Subscribe nor Read the Service-Book till that fatal as some call it St. Bartholomew and you had otherwise been deprived of your Rectory of Sutton And this subject you reassume in your Preface spending a great part of it with a vehement zeal and ardency in defence of Libertinism so far as That no Church Laws ought to be enjoyned as Terms of Communion but those which Christ hath himself given us or those that were immediately directed by the guidance of the Spirit of God. Those things you say are sufficient for that which are laid down as the necessary Duties of Christianity by our Lord and Saviour in his Word which are sufficient for Salvation Would there be ever the less Peace and Vnity in a Church if diversity were allow'd as to practices supposed indifferent Yea there would be so much the more as there was a mutual forbearance and condescension as to such things The Vnity of the Church is an Vnity of Love and Affection c. Doctrines that are justly called Damnable by the Vniversity of Oxford and condemned with certain pernicious Books in their Judgment and Decree past in Convocation July 21. 1683. as destructive to the sacred Persons of Princes their State and Government and of Humane Society and presented to his late Majesty of blessed Memory July 24. in the Twenty first and Twenty second Propositions and in these words viz. It is not lawful for Superiors to impose any thing in the Worship of God that is not Antecedently necessary The Duty of not offending a weak Brother is inconsistent with all humane authority of making Laws concerning indifferent things But yet you endeavour to make them good from these several Topicks 1. From the Design and Example of our Saviour whose business was to ease Men of their former Burthens and not to lay on more The Duties he required were no other but such as were necessary He that came to take away the unsupportable Yoke of the Jewish Ceremonies certainly did never intend to gall the Necks of his Disciples with another instead of it What Charter hath Christ given the Church to bind Men up to more than himself hath done Or to exclude those from his Society who may be admitted into Heaven 2. From the Example of his Apostles who do not warrant any such rigorous Impositions either We never read of the Apostles making Laws but of things supposed necessary When the Council of the Apostles met at Jerusalem for deciding a case that disturbed the Churches Peace we see they would lay on no other burthen besides the necessary things Acts xv 29. It was not enough for them that the things would be necessary when they had required them but they looked on an antecedent necessity either absolute or for the present state which was the only ground of their imposing those Commands upon the Gentile Christians All that the Apostles required as to these was a mutual forbearance and condescension towards each other in them 3. You parallel the Laws of our Church as to indifferencies and in limiting of them in particular practices with those Impositions of Rome as to the Rule of Faith and her other Idolatrous Superstitious Practices 4. From the Example of the Primitive Church which you say deserves greater imitation by us in nothing more than in that admirable temper moderation and condescension which was used in it towards all the members of it It was never thought by her worth the while to make any standing Laws for Rites and Customs that had no other original but Tradition much less to suspend Men her Communion for not observing them And you instance in that objected case related by Sozomen Eccl. Hist l. 7. c. 19. and the same is in Socrates Hist l. 5. c. 22. which every one rallies our Church withal that can but read the Historian in English or the Libellers of our Church who in their Pamphlets represent her to them as you do here to her disadvantage It is granted that these Churches there mentioned as Antioch Rome Aegypt Thessaly and Caesarea did differ from one another in divers Customs and Rites as in times of Fasting manner of Meats c. and therein they were not to judge or condemn one another But you must prove that Antioch Rome c. did allow different Rites in their particular Churches which you cannot do from that place the contrary is evident there For the examples you bring That there were divers Rites and Customs not only in different Churches but in different places belonging to the same Church and many Cities and Villages in Aegypt differ'd from the Mother Church of Alexandria prove nothing against us For the Diocess of Aegypt as the Notitia informs us had abundance of Provinces in it which had also their distinct Metropolitans and Laws And Alexandria however it might be the Patriarchical See or Mother Church in relation to them all was otherwise but the first Church in one of these Provinces called Provincia Aegypti primae and so a Sister Church And Socrates farther tells us That the People of Thebais which is a distinct Province also of Aegypt with its Metropolitan had this different custom from Alexandria And those whom he calls Neighbours to the Alexandrians were in all likelihood another of the Aegyptian Provinces Socrates plainly severs them one from another as distinct Provinces All this will be fully exemplified in the Diocess of Carthage in the days of St. Cyprian where there were several Provinces with their particular Bishops whose Primate he was But yet every one of those Bishops had his distinct and appropriated Power in his Province Neque quisquam nostrum se Episcopum Episcoporum constituit Quando habet omnis Episcopus libertatis suae arbitrium proprium c. Vid. Concil Carthag de haeret baptizand inter opera Cypriani But then tho' the Bishop had this Power in his own Province to establish what Rites and ways of Worship he judged most convenient yet no Man but your self or with your design ever hence asserted that each Village or Parish Church in the Province had the same Power or might erect their own mode of Worship also I remember immediately after the Conference at the Savoy which was the first Summer upon his late Majesty's happy return there came forth a large stitch'd Quarto containing the Dissenters Reasons and Argumentations against the re-establishment of our Church it was without a name but drawn up as was supposed by Richard Baxter And one of his principal heads which he much insisted on was this passage in Sozomen and Socrates I fear me you had been dabling here and so transcribed it for authentique History in their sense of it a thing in those days too usual with you And yet
this that treats of the same subject And it may be expected to find some amends here if ever you have made or design'd any because it seems to be added to the Irenicum on purpose to rectifie what appear'd amiss or to supply something wanting in it Now he that duly and seriously considers it will find the whole performance to consist of these two Heads And that you there assert the Church a distinct Society from the State always to subsist by a Charter from Christ in the outward visible profession of Christianity tho' the Powers and Laws of the World are against it and this in opposition to the Leviathan who says That the precepts of the Gospel are not Law till enacted by Civil Authority And your arguments are common but good by which you prove it which he that treats on the same point cannot well omit all agreeing so far that really own Christianity Again you farther assert That our Saviour by a special Charter also hath enabled some of this Society to govern commanding all the Members of it to obey and which comes to the very point now in hand But this Power which is fixed by you on the Pastors of the Church is also limited to the Power of Excommunication as the argument of it answering to the Title speaks but you leave all other Acts and Offices of the Church where you had placed them before in the main Treatise i. e. excepting the Offices of Teaching and Administring the Sacraments in the hands of the Civil Magistrate So that as I said above the Power over Sacred Things is annexed entirely to the Civil Power And the Church Governors are only to administer in the Offices of them without any Power whereby to punish offenders against the Laws of Religion And this is with Dr. Stillingfleet To defend the fundamental Rights of the Church or his asserting the just Power of the Magistrate in Ecclesiasticks as well as Civils in opposition to the extravagances of those who screwed up the Church-Power to so high a peg that it was thought to make perpetual discord with the Commonwealth and others that melted down all Spiritual Power into the Civil State and dissolved the Church into the Commonwealth as you tell us in the entrance to the Treatise And so tho' the discourse as to the main is Sound and Orthodox yet in the present design of it it is a collusion and fallacy put upon the Reader It seems of the same nature with that lye of Ananias and it is to the Holy Ghost whereby as he kept back part of that possession which he sold for the use of the Church and said it was the whole so have you kept back part of the Power of the Church and said you have given in the whole And the reply that Peter gave to Ananias may not unfitly be returned to you also Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine Heart Thou hast not lyed unto Men but unto God. Acts 5.1 2 3 4. The next Treatise that I have made enquiry into for the finding out your after judgment in these points is Your Vindication of Archbishop Laud in which I find little amends for these your Erroneous Irenicum Doctrines but rather an evident confirmation of many of them if not doing worse In your First Part. Cap. 2. Sect. 2 3 4 5 c. your work is to overthrow that Erroneous Assertion in the Church of Rome viz. That the Definitions of the Church are to be believed to be as necessary to Salvation as the Articles of the Creed In order to which you take a most secure and effectual way and assert That the Being of the Church it self is not necessary to Salvation meaning thereby the Church Organical consisting of set Officers as may be gather'd from your following Discourse tho' you ought to have set out the opposition in the entrance of it for want of which the terms in your conclusion are perplexed and involved and you talk of a Church antecedent to a Church and of a true Church out of a true Church without any Specifications for the proving of which you take a great deal of pains to inform us what things are necessary to the Salvation of Men as such or considered in their single and private Capacities or in your own words and sense out of the Church Society or Ecclesiastical Communion And having concluded That believing in Christ and walking in him or an hearty assent to the Doctrine of Christ and a conscientious walking according to the precepts of it are that Faith and Duty indispensably necessary to the Salvation of Private Persons You then add That that which we call the Catholick Church or as you farther speak the being of a Church supposes this antecedent belief in Christians as to these things necessary to Salvation it being only a combination of Men together upon that belief and for the performance of those Acts of Worship which are suitable thereto You go on and say whatever Church owns these things where by a Church you can only mean those which are not a Church but out of the combination and in their private capacities or antecedent to it but you are to look to your terms not I which are antecedently necessary to the being of a Church cannot so long cease to be a true Church where the contradiction recurs and you ought thus to have expressed it That Men in their private and personal capacities believing these necessary things cannot cease to be true Christians tho' out of that Church and Combination for such is your meaning because it retains the foundation of the being of the Catholick Church Again the distinction that you use is equally unintelligible and contradictory viz. Here we must distinguish those things in the Catholique Church which give it its being from those things which are the proper acts of it as the Catholique Church As to this latter the solemn Worship of God in the way prescribed by him is necessary in order to which there must be supposed lawful Officers set in the Church Sacraments duely Administred but these I say are rather the exercise of the Catholique Church than that which gives it its being which is the belief of that Religion whereon its subsistence and unity depends and as long as a Church retains this it keeps its being tho' the integrity and perfection of it depend upon the due exercise of all Acts of Communion in it How these things can be said to be in the Catholick Church and give it its being as Faith c. whose being you told us a little before supposed them and to which they are antecedent you not I are to make out when you can Or how the exercise of Church Communion is the perfection of Faith and good Works I have always learnt the contrary viz. That Faith and good Works are the perfection of Church Communion in attendance to the ordinances You say farther That the Vnion of the Catholique Church depends upon