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A75279
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A vindication of the Church of England from the foul aspersions of schism and heresie unjustly cast upon her by the Church of Rome. In two parts
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Altham, Michael, 1633-1705.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing A2935A; ESTC R229441
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47,990
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70
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the Primitive Pastours and Governours of the Church we readily comply with We believe all the Articles contained in those three ancient Creeds viz. that commonly called the Apostles the Nicene and the Athanasian We are willing to submit to all the Decisions and the Determinations of the four first General Councils and to any Council that is lawfully called and truly free and general We are ready to receive all Traditions that are truly Apostolical and we are willing to embrace any other truth as yet unknown to us whensoever or by whomsoever it shall be duly made out to be so And whilst we this doe we cannot truly be charged to have broken Communion with the Catholick Church nor justly reputed Schismaticks therefrom And as for the Church of Rome she being only a particular Church hath no jurisdiction at all over the Church of England and consequently no more power to censure us than we have to censure her for in this case the rule holds Par in parem non habet imperium Equals have no Authority over one another And therefore for her to impose her new Articles of Faith upon the Church of England and because she refuseth to receive them and joyn Communion with her upon those terms presently cry out Schism Schism is so idle so vain so unaccountable a Clamour as I am perswaded the Learned among them cannot but disapprove it For whilst we hold the Catholick Faith entire and maintain Communion with the One Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church therein though we differ from the Church of Rome or any other particular Church in some Doctrines Yet is it impossible that we should be guilty of a Schismatical Separation either from her or them SECT VII II. Of Worship as it is a Bond of Communion BY Worship here I mean Publick Worship and that considered only in its Substantials and Essentials not as it is clothed with particular Modes Rites and Ceremonies Otherwise it can be no Bond of Communion The substantial and essential Parts of Publick Worship I take to be these viz. Prayer reading the Holy Canon interpreting the same and the administration of the blessed Sacraments Now these in divers Churches may be performed in different Manners and with different Rites and Ceremonies and yet those Churches notwithstanding this may still hold Communion with the Catholick Church and consequently be guilty of no Schismatical Separation therefrom nor from one another But if we by Worship understand the established Publick Worship of a particular Church then are we to consider it not as abstracted from but clothed with such Modes Rites and Ceremonies as are thought convenient by that Church And if any one who is a Member of such a Church shall upon any pretended offence taken against any such Modes Rites and Ceremonies separate himself from the Publick Worship I do not see how he can be acquitted from the guilt of Schism And this I take to be the case not only of the Protestant Dissenters from the Church of England as they call themselves but of English Roman Catholicks too For that they did hold actual Communion with us many years together in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Reign and neither then nor ever since did pretend to take any offence at the Substantials of our Worship is very plain and evident And that it was not we that separated from them but they that separated from us is as manifest and therefore it will concern them more than us to clear themselves from the sin of Schism And for this I know no other Plea they can make use of than their obedience to the Universal Pastour of God's Church which Plea is to be considered under the next great Bond of Communion viz. Government SECT VIII III. Of Government as it is a Bond of Communion THat our great and Universal Pastour the Lord Jesus Christ did found and constitute a Church and that he did not leave it without Laws and Rules to be governed by nor without proper Governours invested with Power and Authority to exert and execute those Laws we stedfastly believe But that he ever did delegate all his Power to any One or substitute any One Person to be the Universal Pastour of the Church after him we cannot believe because we have no ground for it either in Scripture or in any primitive and authentick Antiquity And indeed how should we for till the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople began to envy one another's Greatness and to strive for Supremacy which was about 600 years after Christ the Church was never acquainted with any such name or thing as is now claimed And no sooner did it adventure to peep abroad but warning was given against it as Antichristian and that by one of their Popes And when afterwards it was publickly usurped it was condemned by a General Council and they are not yet agreed among themselves where to fix it And therefore they cannot in reason expect that we should build our Faith upon such an uncertain Foundation or make that a Bond of Communion in the Church which the Church from 600 years and upwards knew nothing of That Government is a Bond of Communion in the Christian Church we acknowledge and that it was never lodged in the hands of any one Person since our Saviour I think is very plain and evident But where then doth it reside This will best be known by considering how it is derived That it was united in the Person of our Blessed Saviour will be acknowledged on all hands and where he left it there we are to look for it Now that he left it with his Apostles and made them equal sharers therein I think is very plain notwithstanding that pretence which is made by our Adversaries that it was lodged in Peter alone a pretence which hath been so often and so miserably baffled and which if it were true would doe them no service that I wonder they are not ashamed to bring it upon the stage any more And that from the Apostles it was derived to their Successours the Bishops and Pastours of God's Church is the received opinion of all Antiquity Episcopatus unus est cujus à singulis in solidum pars tenetur Cypr. de Vnitate Ecclesiae Edit Oxon. p. 108. And that it now lies dispersed among all the Pastours and Bishops of particular Churches unless they be lawfully called and assembled in Synods or Councils under the Power Protection and Assistance of Civil Authority we verily believe This is the notion we have of the visible and external Government of the Catholick Church and as it hath been so if there were occasion for it may it still be made appear to have been the very notion that all the World except those who have submitted to the Usurpation of Rome ever had and still have of it to this day Now the Laws and Rules by which this Government is administred are to be found in the Holy Scriptures in the Usages and Customs of
well distinguish it not the Universal though we take in the Churches of her subordination or correspondence This truth we might make good by authority if our very senses did not save us the labour 2. No particular Church to say nothing of the Universal since the Apostolick times can have power to make a fundamental point of Faith It may explain or declare it cannot create Articles 3. Onely an Errour against a point of Faith is Heresie 4. Those Points wherein we differ from Romanists are they which only the Church of Rome hath made fundamental and of Faith. 5. The Reformed therefore being by that Church illegally condemned for those Points are not Hereticks This I take to be a fair discharge for the Church of England from that foul aspersion which hath been cast upon her by the Church of Rome But Bishop Bramhal chargeth them more home and particularly in five Articles more and lays the sin at their door 1. The Church of Rome usurps an higher place and power in the Body Ecclesiastical than of right is due unto her 2. Se separateth both by her Doctrines and Censures three parts of the Christian World from her Communion and as much as in her lies from the Communion of Christ 3. She rebelleth against general Councils 4. She breaks or takes away all the lines of Apostolical Succession except her own and appropriates all Original Jurisdiction to her self 5. She challenges a temporal power over Princes either directly or indirectly which draws Sedition and Rebellion after it and is no small aggravation of their Schism These are the things we charge them with if they can truly plead not guilty thereunto then are we criminal But if they cannot if these things be really true then are they causally guilty of that Schism with which they would charge us and the whole weight with all the dreadfull consequences thereof will lie at their doors and be an heavy burthen upon them SECT XIV The Conclusion THat there is and for a long time hath been a great and grievous Schism in the Church and that those who have been guilty of it have miserably rent and torn and even eaten out the Bowels of their common Mother What considering Person can be ignorant and who can know it without tears of pity and prayers to God for the restoration of the Church's Peace and Unity This would much better become us than disputing about it and this I declare should have been my Province had not the daily and loud Clamours of the guilty Party so unjustly assaulted the Church of England and forced me from my Privacy to undertake this necessary and just Defence of my dear Mother It hath for a long time been matter of debate and a ball of contention where the cause of the Schism was to be sound The Church of Rome with great confidence and assurance hath laid it at the door of the Church of England and that Church upon better grounds hath charged the Church of Rome with it I pray God open both their and our Eyes that we may all see and know the things that belong unto our Peace that laying aside all rancour and animosity we may at last joyn hearts and hands to promote Truth and Holiness and study nothing more than to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace For my own part I have so great an abhorrence for the sin of Schism that I do seriously profess if I were convinced that the Church of England were guilty of the Schism I would rather chuse to suffer any thing elsewhere than continue in it but God be thanked I am otherwise perswaded and so well satisfied therein that as I have lived so I hope I shall die in the Communion of that Church But alas Perfect Peace and Unity are too great Blessings to be hoped for in this sinfull World they may be Objects of our Prayers but hardly of our Hopes However if we are what we pretend to be i. e. humble and obedient Christians it would well become us in our several Stations to observe the Apostle's Rule which bids us Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord Heb. 12. v. 14. Now the God of Peace who brought again from the Dead our Lord Jesus the great Shepherd of the Sheep through the Bloud of the Everlasting Covenant make us all perfect in all good Works to doe his Will working in us that which is pleasant in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be praise for ever and ever Amen Heb. 13. v. 20 21. FINIS A VINDICATION OF THE Church of England From the foul Aspersions of Schism and Heresie Unjustly cast upon Her by The Church of Rome PART II. After the way which they call Heresie so worship I the God of my Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets Acts 24.14 LONDON Printed by J. H. for Luke Meredith at the King's Head at the West End of St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII A VINDICATION OF THE Church of England c. The INTRODUCTION HEresie is a crime of so crimson a dye so heinous in it self and of so dangerous and destructive consequence both to the Heretick himself and to others that without great plain and pregnant proof to charge any Christian or Society of Christians therewith doth evidently betray a rash censorious malicious and unchristian temper in them that doe it I cannot but wonder therefore that the Church of Rome upon so light and insufficient grounds should be so liberal in bestowing this Character upon the Church of England and those of her Communion De corrupt artib Ludovicus Vives one of their own Men did long since complain of this saying Haeresis nomen rebus levissimis impingitur c. The name of Heresie is laid upon every light matter so would the Scotists deal with the Thomists if the custome of the Schools had not made the name so familiar It is a good caution and worthy to be attended to which Alphonsus de Castro De Haeres l. 1. c. 7. p. 79. another of their own Doctors gives in this case Idcirco fit c. Therefore it happeneth that they who so rashly pronounce and call every thing Heresie not considering what or whereof they speak are often smitten with their own dart and fall into the same pit which they themselves had digged for others For this I should rather call Heresie to advance the Writings of Men unto the same degree of honour with the Word of God which they do who think it altogether as impious to dissent from them as from the Scriptures of God. We freely confess with St. Austin Errare possumus We may mistake and be in an errour but we as fully resolve with that holy Father Haeretici esse nolumus We will never be guilty of Heresie We have too great an abhorrence for it and are too well acquainted with the mischief of it to run our selves