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A34541 The point of church-unity and schism discuss'd by a nonconformist, with respect to the church-divisions in England. Corbet, John, 1620-1680. 1679 (1679) Wing C6260; ESTC R37663 30,758 79

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right of such a Church or Bishop or of any precept or precedent thereof in Scripture For every particular Church mentioned in Scripture was but one distinct stated Society having its own proper and immediate Bishop or Bishops Elder or Elders Pastor or Pastors who did Personally and immediately Superintend over the whole Flock which ordinarily held either at once together or by turns Personal present Communion with each other in Gods Worship But a Diocess consists of several stated Societies to wit the Parishes which are Constituted severally of a proper and immediate Presbyter or Elder having cure of Souls and commonly called a Rector and the People which are his proper and immediate charge or cure And the People of the Diocess do not live under the Personal and immediate oversight of their Diocesan but under his Delegates and Substitutes Nor do they ordinarily hold Personal present Communion with each other in Gods Worship either at once together or by turns Nevertheless which way soever a Diocess be considered I have nothing to object against submission to the Government of the Diocesan as an Ecclesiastical Officer established by the Law of the Land under the Kings Supremacy There is nothing in the nature of the Office of Presbyterate which according to the Scripture is a Pastoral Office that shews it ought to be exercised no otherwise than in Subordination to a Diocesan Bishop Christ who is the Author and only proper giver of all Spiritual Authority in the Church hath not so limited the said Office and men cannot by any act of theirs enlarge or lessen it as to its nature or essential state or define it otherwise than it is stated of Christ in his word No power Ecclesiastical or Civil can discharge any Minister of Christ from the exercise of his Ministery in those circumstances wherein Christ commands him to exercise it nor any Christians from those duties of Religion to which the Command of Christ obligeth them As the Magistrate is to judge what Laws touching Religion are fit for him to enact and execute so the Ministers of Christ are to use a judgment of discretion about their own Pastoral acts and all Christians are to do the same about their own acts of Church-Communion The too common abuse of the judgment of discretion cannot abrogate the right use thereof it being so necessary that without it men cannot act as men nor offer to God a reasonable Service CHAP. II. Of true Church-Unity WHen the names of Unity and Schism are by partiality and selfishness commonly and grosly abused and misapplied the nature of the things to which those names do of right belong ought to be diligently inquired into and clearly and distinctly laid open For a groundwork in this inquiry I fix upon two very noted texts of Scripture The one is Eph. 4. 3. Indeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace The other is Rom. 16. 17. Mark them that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine that ye have learned and avoid them The former guides us to the knowledge of true Church-unity and the latter shews us the true nature of Schism By the former of these Texts all Christians are obliged to maintain that Spiritual Unity which they have one with another under Christ their Head by the Holy Ghost in all due acts of holy Communion in Peace and Concord Several important things are here to be taken notice of 1. There is a Spiritual unity between all Christians in the form of one mystical Body as there is a natural unity between all the members of the natural Body The members being many are one body and members one of another 2. This Unity is under Christ as the Head of it What the head is to the natural Body that is Christ and much more to his mystical Body the Church 3. This Unity of Christians one with another under Christ is by the Holy Ghost and therefore called the Unity of the Spirit The Spirit of Christ the Head doth seize upon and reside in all the Faithfull by which they become Christs mystical Body and are joyned one to another as fellow-fellow-members 4. This Unity of the Spirit among Christians is witnessed maintained and strengthened by their holy communion of Love and Peace one with another but is darkened weakened and lessened by their uncharitable Dissentions Hence it is evident that the Unity here commended is primarily that of the Church in its internal and invisible State or the Union and Communion of Saints having in themselves the Spirit and Life and Power of Christianity T is the unity of the Spirit we are charged to keep in the bond of Peace But concord in any external order with a vital Union with Christ and holy Souls his living members is not the unity of the Spirit which is to partake of the same new Nature and Divine Life Secondarily it is the Unity of the Church in its external and visible State which is consequent and subservient to the internal and stands in the profession and appearance of it in the professed observation of the duties arising from it Where there is not a credible Profession of Faith unfeigned and true Holiness there is not so much as the external and visible Unity of the Spirit Therefore a sensual Earthly generation of men who are apparently lead by the Spirit of the World and not by the Spirit that is of God have little cause to glory in their adhering to an external Church order whatsoever it be Holy love which is unselfed and impartial is the Life and Soul of this unity without which it is but a dead thing as the Body without the Soul is dead And this love is the bond of perfectness that Cement that holds altogether in this mystical Society For this being seated in the several members disposeth them to look not to their own things but also to the things of others and not to the undue advancement of a Party but to the common good of the whole Body Whosoever wants this love hath no vital Union with Christ and the Church and no part in the Communion of Saints The Church is much more ennobled strengthened and every way blessed by the Communion of holy love among all its living members or real Christians than by an outside uniformity in the minute circumstances or accidental modes of Religion By this love it is more beautifull and lovely in the eyes of all intelligent beholders than by outward pomp and ornament or any worldly splendor The Unity of the Church as visible whether Catholick or particular may be cons●dered in a three-fold respect or in three very different points The first and chief point thereof is in the essentials and all weighty matters of Christian Faith and Life The second and next in account is in the essentials and integrals of Church state that is in the Christian Church-Worship Ministery and Discipline considered as of Christs institution and abstracted from all things
The point of CHURCH-UNITY AND SCHISM Discuss'd BY A NONCONFORMIST With respect to the Church-Divisions IN ENGLAND LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns at the Lower end of Cheapside 1679. THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. Of the Church and its Polity WHat the Church is both in its invisible and visible state The state of the Church Catholick The state of particular Churches and their Pastors Elders or Bishops Of the partition of Churches by local bounds Of the Interests of Bishops or Pastors in any assigned circuit of Ground Of the association or combination of Churches Of a National Church Of the Interest of Civil Magistrates in the state of the Church Of a Diocese and a Diocesan Bishop Of exercising the Ministery without Subordination to a Diocesan Bishop No human power may prejudice Christs Interest in his Ministers or People All have a judgment of Discretion about their own acts CHAP. II. Of true Church-Unity The names of Unity and Schism should be rightly applied True Church-Unity is the Unity of the Spirit what is included therein True Unity is primarily of the Church in its mystical secondarily in its visible state Holy love is the Life and Soul of this Unity Church-Unity considered in three points 1. In the essentials and all weighty matters of Christian Faith and Life 2. In the essentials and integrals of Church-state 3. In the accidentals of Religion The different value of these different points of Unity The Rule of Unity is Gods Word Of the Scriptures sufficiency as a Rule thereof Of things left to human determination with the Pastors and Magistrates Interest therein The Rulers Wisdom in setling the right bounds of Unity The burden of things unnecessary not to be laid on the Churches Unity of external order is subservient to Faith and Holiness CHAP. III. Of Schism truly so called Schism is the violation of the Unity of the Spirit Separation and Schism are not of equal extent The violation of holy Love is the root of Schism Schism lies primarily in a breach made upon the Unity of the Church as mystical and secondarily as visible The highest point of Schism against the Church as visible is that which is about the essentials and weighty matters of Christian Faith and Life How both Persons and Churches may be guilty of it The next point of Schism is about the essentials and integrals of Church state This may be either against the Catholick or a particular Church Instances of both kinds The lowest point of Schism is about the accidentals of Religion How any are guilty or not guilty in this point A preposterous valuation made of the aforesaid different points tends to Schism The setting of other bounds of Unity than Gods word allows is to make a breach upon it Terms of Unity may be allowed of God as to the Submitters when they are not allowed as to the Imposers The danger of acting against conscience rationally doubting T is a false Unity that is set up to the hindrance of Faith and Holiness and not to adhere to it is no Schism but Duty Instances hereof Of the right of drawing together into new Congregations on such occasion What endeavour of Reformation is unlawfull to Subjects A difference between inimical separation and amicable necessary Segregation The objected inconveniences against the amicable Segregation answered The import of the Text Rom. 16. 17. opened CHAP. IV. Of the Schisms that were in the more ancient times of the Church and the different case of the Nonconformists in these times Of the Donatists Of the Novatians Whether the case of the present Nonconformists be the same with the case of these or any others anciently reputed Schismaticks The case of such Nonconformists as be more remote from accomodation with the Established Order The case of such of them as be more disposed to accommodation An Answer to objections against relaxing the terms of Conformity Of diverse other remarkable Schisms in the ancient times and the Nonconformists case different from theirs An appeal to Antiquity and to our Superiors CHAP. V. Of making a right estimate of the guilt of Schism and something more of the right way to Unity The great abuse of the name Schism and the bad consequence thereof The degree of the Schism to be duely considered for making an equal judgment of the guilt thereof Examples of Schismatical animosities in Worthies of ancient times Charity in censuring thence inferred True Unity is founded in true Holiness and promoted by impartiality and equity towards all real Christians and by the due exercise of true Church-Discipline and by removing the snares of Division and as by the equity and charity of Superiors so by the humility and due submission of Inferiors A Question considered about the warrantableness of submission to things not in themselves unlawfull but inexpedient Errata PAg. 2. lin 2. r. regeneration p. 12. l. 8. r. without ib. l. 16. r. and in p. 22. l. 6. r. due extent p. 25. l. 14. r. account of accidental p. 32. l. 16. r. injured Christians as are p. 33. l. 25. r. Segregation p. 42. l. 27. r. renouncing p. 47. l. 21. r. deposed The point of CHURCH-UNITY AND SCHISM Discuss'd CHAP. I. Of the Church and its Polity THe Church is a Spiritual Common-wealth which according to its primary and invisible State is a Society of regenerate Persons who are joyned to the Lord Christ their Head and one to another as fellow Members by a mystical Union through the Holy Spirit and are justified Sanctified and adopted to the inheritance of Eternal Life but according to its secondary and visible state it is a Society of Persons professing Christianity or Regeration and externally joyned to Christ and to one another by the Symbals of that Profession and made partakers of the external priviledges thereunto belonging There is one Catholick Church which according to the invisible Form is the whole company of true Believers throughout the World and according to its visible Form is the whole company of visible Believers throughout the World or Believers according to human judgment This Church hath one Head and Supream Lord even Christ and one Charter and System of Laws the Word of God and Members that are free Denizons of the whole Society and one Form of Admission or solemn Initiation for its Members and one kind of Ministery and Ecclesiastical Power This Church hath not the power of its own Fundamental Constitution or of the Laws and Officers and Administrations intrinsecally belonging to it but hath received all these from Christ its Head King and Lawgiver and is limited by him in them all Nevertheless it hath according to the capacity of its acting that is according to its several parts a power of making Secondary Laws or Canons either to impress the Laws of Christ upon its Members or to regulate circumstantials and accidentals in Religion by determining things necessary in genere not determined of Christ in specie As the