and by him to us Joh. 14. 16. being of old the great promise of the Covenant Is 59. 21. Ezek. 11. 17. cap. 26. 36. Now in the participation of the Divine nature consists the Vnion of the Saints with Christ Ioh. 6. 5. our Saviour tells us that it arises from eating his flesh and drinking his Blood he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him This he expounds v. 63. it is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth not By the quickning Spirit inhabitation in Christ and Christ in it is intended And the same he manifests in his prayer that his Church may be one in the Father and the Sonne as the Father is in him and he in the Father Ioh. 17. 21. for the Spirit being the Love of the Father and of the Son is vinculum Trinitatis and so here of our Union in some resemblance The unity of members in the body naturall with one head is often chosen to set forth the union of the Church 1 Cor. 12. 12. 1 Cor. 11. 3. Eph 5. 23. Col. 1. 19. now every man can tell that union of the head and members whereby they become all one body that and not another is onenesse of soule whereby the whole is animated which makes the body be it lesse or greater to be one body That which answers hereunto in the mysticall body of Christ is the animation of the whole by his spirit as the Apostle fully 1 Cor. 15. 45. The union between husband and wife is also chosen by the Holy Ghost to illustrate the union between Christ and his Church For this cause shall a man forsake his Father and his Mother and cleave to his Wife and they two shall be one flesh this is a great mystery but I speake concerning Christ and his Church Eph. 5. 31 32. The union between man and wife we have Gen. 2. 24. they be no more twaine but one flesh of Christ and his Church that they are one spirit For he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. See also another similitude of the same importance Ioh. 15. 5. Rom. 11. 16 17. This I say is the fountain radicall union of the Church Catholick in its selfe with its head and formall reason of it Hence flowes a double consequentiall Vnion that it hath also 1. Of Faith All men united to Christ by the inhabitation of the same Spirit in him and them are by it from and according to the word taught of God Is 54. 13. Ioh. 6. 45. so taught every one of them as to come to Christ v. 46. that is by bilieving by faith They are so taught of God as that they shall certainly have that measure of knowledge and faith which is needfull to bring them to Christ and to God by him And this they have by the unction or Spirit which they have received 1 Ioh. 2. 21 27. accompaning the Word by vertue of Gods Covenant with them Is 59. 29. And hereby are all the members of the Church Catholick however divided in their visible profession by any differences among themselves or differenced by the severall measures of gifts and graces they have received brought to the perfection aymed at to the unity of the Faith to the acknowledgement of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ Eph. 4. 13. Nor was this hidden from some of the Papists themselves Ecclesia sancta corpus est Christi una spiritu vivificata unita fide una sanctificata saith Hugo de Victore de sacram lib. 2. as he had said before in the former Cap. sicut scriptum est qui non habet Spiritum Christi hic non est ejus qui non habet Spiritum Christi non est membrum Christi in corpore uno Spiritus unus nihil in corpore mortuum nihil extra corpus vivum See to the same purpose Enchirid. Concil Colon in Symbol With peculiar reference to the members themselves there is another necessary consequence of the union mentioned and that is the mutuall love of all those united in the head as before towards one another and of every one towards the whole as so united in the head Christ Jesus There is an increase made of the body to the edifying it selfe in love Eph. 4. 16. And so it becomes the bond of perfectnesse to this body of Christ I cannot say that the members or parts of this Church have their union in themselves by Love because they have that with and in Christ whereby they are one in themselves Ioh. 17. 21 23. they are one in God even in Christ where their life is hid Col. 3. 3. but it is the next and immediate principle of that communion which they severally have one with another and the whole body in and with it selfe I say then that the communion which the Catholick Church the mysticall body of Christ hath with and in it selfe springing from the union which it hath in and with Christ and in it selfe thereby consists in love exerting it selfe in inexpressible variety according to the present state of the whole its relation to Christ to Saints and Angells with the conditions and occasions of the members of it respectively 1 Cor. 12. 26 27. What hath been spoken concerning the union and communion of this Church will not I suppose meet with any contradiction Granting that there is such a Church as that we speake of Coetus praedestinatorum credentium the Papists themselves will grant that Christ alone is its head and that its union ariseth from its subjection to him and dependance on him Their modesty makes them contented with constituting the Pope in the roome of Christ as he is as it were a politicall head for government they have not as yet directly put in their claime to his office as a mysticall Head influencing the body with Life and Motion though by their figment of the Sacraments communicating grace ex opere operato and investing the originall power of dispencing them in the Pope only they have contended faire for it But if any one can informe me of any other union or communion of the Church described as above then these laid downe I shall willingly attend unto his instructions In the mean time to carry on the present discourse unto that which is aimed at it is manifest that the breach of this union must consist in these two things 1. First the casting out expelling and looseing that spirit which abiding in us gives us this union 2. The losse of that love which thence flowes into the body of Christ and believers as parts and members thereof This being the state of the Church under the first consideration of it certainly it would be an extravagancy scarcely to be parallel'd for any one to affirme a breach of this union as such to be Schisme under that notion of it which we
their wayes returned with little satisfaction so that at the last committing themselves and their cause to God they chose them Elders from among themselves and set them apart by fasting and prayer which was the foundation of all those Churches which for piety zeale and suffering for Christ have given place to none in Europe What was the way of the first Reformation in this Nation and what principles the Godly Learned men of those daies proceeded on how farre what they did may be satisfactory to our Consciences at the present as to our concurrence in them who from thence have the Truth of the Gospell derived downe to us Whether ordinary officers be before or after the Church and so whether a Church state is preserved in the preservation of Officers by a power forraigne to that Church whereof they are so or the Office be preserved and consequently the Officers inclusively in the preservation and constitution of a Church These I say with sundry other things of the like importance with inferences from them are to be considered to the bottome before a full Resolution can be given to the enquiry coucht in this objection which as I said to do is not my present businesse This taske then is at its issue and close some Considerations of the manifold miscarriages that have insued for want of a due and right apprehension of the thing we have now been exercised in the Consideration of shall shut it up It is not impossible that some may from what hath been spoken begin to apprehend that they have been too hasty in judging other men Indeed none are more ready to charge highly then those who when they have so done are most unable to make good their charge si accusasse sufficiat quis erit innocens what reall Schismes in a morall sense have ensued among brethren by their causelesse mutuall imputation of Schisme in things of institution is knowne And when men are in one fault and are charged with another wherein they are not it is a ready way to confirme them in that wherein they are There is more darknesse and difficulty in the whole matter of instituted worship then some men are aware of not that it was so from the beginning whilst Christianity continued in its naked simplicity but it is come occasionally upon us by the customes darknesse and invincible prejudices that have taken hold on the minds of men by a secret diffusion of the poyson of that grand Apostacy It were well then that men would not be so confident nor easily perswaded that they presently know how all things ought to be because they know how they would have some things to be which suite their temper and interest Men may easily perhaps see or think they see what they doe not like and crie out Schisme and Separation but if they would a little consider what ought to be in this whole matter according to the mind of God and what evidences they have of the grounds and principles whereon they condemne others it might make them yet swift to heare but slow to speake and take off from the number of Teachers among us some are readie to think that all that joyne not with them are Schismaticks and they are so because they goe not with them and other reason they have none being unable to give any solid foundation of what they professe what the cause of Unity among the people of God hath suffered from this sort of men is not easily to be expressed 2. In all differences about Religion to drive them to their rise and spring and to consider them as stated originally will ease us of much trouble and labour Perhaps many of them will not appeare so formidable as they are represented He that sees a great River is not instantly to conclude that all the water in it comes from its first rise spring the addition of many brookes showers and landfloods have perhaps swelled it to the condition wherein it is every difference in Religion is not to be thought to be as big at its rise as it appeares to be when it hath passed through many Generations and hath received additions and aggravations from the disputings and contendings of men on the one hand and the other ingaged What a flood of Abominations doth this businesse of Schisme seem to be as rolling down tous through the writings of Cyprian Austin and Optatus of old the Schoolemen decrees of Popish Councells with the contrivances of some among our selves concerned to keep up the swelled notion of it Goe to its rise and you will find it to be though bad enough yet quite another thing then what by the preâ—udices accrewing by the addition of so many generations it is now generally represented to be The great maxime To the Law and to the Testimonie truly improved would quickly cure all our distempers in the meane time let us blesse God that though our outward man may possibly be disposed of according to the apprehension that others have of what we doe or are our Consciences are concerned only in what he hath appointed How some men may prevaile against us before whom we must stand or fall according to their corrupt notion of Schisme we know not the Rule of our Consciences in this as in all other things is eternall and unchangable Whilst I have an uncontrolable faithfull witnesse that I transgresse no limits prescribed to me in the Word that I doe not willingly break or dissolve any Vnity of the Institution of Jesus Christ my minde as to this thing is filled with perfect peace Blessed be God that hath reserved the sole soveraingty of our Consciences in his hand and not in the least parcelled it out to any of the sons of men whose tender mercies being oftentimes cruelty it selfe they would perhaps destroy the soule also when they doe so to the body seeing they stay there as our Saviour witnesseth because they can proceed no farther Here then I professe to rest in this doth my Conscience acquiesce whilst I have any comfortable perswasion on grounds infallible that I hold the Head and that I am by faith a member of the mysticall body of Christ whilst I make profession of all the necessary saving Truths of the Gospell whilst I disturbe not the peace of that particular Church whereof by my own consent I am a member nor doe raise up nor continue in any causeles differences with them or any of them with whom I walke in the fellowship and order of the Gospell whilst I labour to exercise faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ and love towards all the Saints I doe keep the Unity which is of the appointment of Christ and let men say from principles utterly forraigne to the Gospell what they please or can to the contrary I am no Schismatick 3. Perhaps the discoverie which hath been made how little we are many of us concerned in that which having mutually charged it on
forbearance in the latitude of it as prescribed to us by Christ and it will evidently beare no proportion thereunto So that such differences though arising on reall miscarriages and faults of some because they might otherwise be handled and healed and ought to be so cannot be persisted in without the contempt of the immediate Authority of Jesus Christ If it were considered that he standeth in the Congregation of God Ps 82. 1. That he dwells in the Church in glory as in Sinai in the Holy place Ps 68. 17 18. walking in the mid'st of the Candlesticks Rev. 1. 13. with his eyes upon us as a flame of fire v. 14 his presence and Authority would perhaps be more prevalent with some then they seem to be Againe His wisdome whereby he hath ordered all things in his Church on set purpose that Schisme and divisions may be prevented is no lesse despised Christ who is the Wisdome of the Father 1 Cor. 1. 24. The stone on which are seaven eyes Zech 3. 9. upon whose shoulders the government is laid Is 9. 6 7. hath in his infinite wisdome so ordered all the Officers Orders Gifts Administrations of and in his Church as that this evill might take no place To manifest this is the designe of the Holy Ghost Rom. 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1. Cor. 12. Eph. 4. 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. The consideration in particular of this Wisdome of Christ suiting the Officers of his Church in respect of the places they hold of the Authority wherewith from him they are invested the way whereby they are entered into their Function distributing the Gifts of his Spirit in marveilous variety unto severall kinds of usefulnesse and such distance and dissimilitude in the particular members as in a due correspondencie and proportion give comelinesse and beauty to the whole disposing of the order of his worship and sundry ordinances in especiall to be expressive of the highest Love and Vnion pointing all of them against such causelesse divisions might be of use were that my present intendment The Grace and Goodnesse of Christ whence he hath promised to give us one heart and one way to leave us peace such as the World cannot give with innumerable others of the like importance are disregarded thereby So also is his prayer for us with what Affection and Zeale did he powre out his soule to his Father for our union in love That seems to be the thing his heart was chiefely fixed on when he was leaving this World Joh. 17. what weight he layes thereon how thereby we may be known to be his Disciples and the World be convinced that he was sent of God is there also manifested How farre the exercise of Love and Charity is obstructed by it hath been declared The consideration of the Nature Excellency Property Effects Usefulnesse of this Grace in all the Saints in all their ways its especiall designation by our Lord and Master to be the bond of union and perfection in the way and Order instituted for the comely celebration of the Ordinances of the Gospell will adde weight to this aggravation It s constant growing to farther evill in some to Apostacy it selfe its usuall and certaine ending in strife variance debate evill surmisings wrath confusion disturbances publick and private are also to be laid all at its doore What farther of this nature and kind may be added as much may be added to evince the heinousnesseâ— of this sinne of Schisme I shall willingly subscribe unto so that I shall not trouble the Reader in abounding in what on all hands is confessed It is incumbent upon him who would have me to goe farther in the description of this evill then as formerly stated to evince from Scripture another notion of the name or thing then that given which when he hath done he shall not find me refractory In the meane time I shall both consider what may be objected against that which hath been delivered and also discusse the present state of our divisions on the usuall principles and common acception of Schisme if first I may have leave to make some few inferences or deductions from what hath already been spoken and as I hope evinced On supposition that the Church of Rome is a Church of Christ it will appeare to be the most Schismaticall Church in the World I say or supposition that it is a Church and that there is such a thing as a Schismaticall Church as perhaps a Church may from its intestine differences be so not unfitly denominated that is the state and condition thereof The Pope is the head of their Church severall nations of Europe are members of it Have we not seen that head taking his flesh in his teeth tearing his body and his limbs to pieces Have some of them thought on any thing else but arise Peter kill and eate all their dayes Have we not seen this goodly head in disputes about Peters Patrimony and his own Jurisdiction wage warre fight and shed blood the blood of his own members Must we believe Armies raised and battailes fought Townes fired all in pure love and perfect Church order not to mention their old altare contra altare Anti-Popes Anti-Councells look all over their Church on their Potentates Bishops Friars there is no end of their variances What do the Chiefest choisest pillars eldest sonnes and I know not what of their Church at this day doe they not kill destroy and ruine each other as they are able let them not say these are the divisions of the Nations that are in their Church not of the Church for all these Nations on their hypothesis are members of that one Church And that Church which hath no meanes to prevent its members from designed resolved on and continued murthering one of another nor can remove them from its society shall never have me in its communion as being bloudily Schismaticall Noâ— is there any necessity that men should forgoe the respective civill interests by being members of one Church Prejudicate apprehensions of the nature of a Church and its Authority lye at the bottome of that difficulty Christ hath ordained no Church that enwraps such interests as on the account whereof the members of it may murther one another Whatever then they pretend of Vnity and however they make it a note of the true Church as it is a property of it that which is like it amongst them is made up of these two ingredients subjection to the Pope either for feare of their lives or advantage to their livelyhood and a conspiracy for the destruction and suppression of them that oppose their interests wherein they agree like those who maintained Hierusalem in its last Siege by Titus they all consented to oppose the Romans and yet fought out all other things among themselves That they are not so openly clamorous about the differences at present as in former Ages is meerely from the pressure of Protestants round about them
Church not only a governing head to give it Rules and Lawes but as it were a Naturall head unto the body which is influenced by him with a new spirituall life which Bellarmine professeth against as any requisite condition to the members of the Catholick Church which he pleadeth for In that same which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his bodies sake which is the Church which assertion is exactly paralell to that of 2 Tim. 2. 10. Therefore I endure all things for the Elects sake that they may obtaine Salvation so that the Elect and the Church are the same persons under severall considerations and therefore even a particular Church on the account of its participation of the nature of the Catholick is called Elect 1 Pet. 5. 13. and so the Church Mat. 16. 18. is expounded by our Saviour himselfe Mat. 22. 24. But to prove at large by a multiplication of Arguments and testimonies that the Catholick Church or Mysticall body of Christ consists of the whole number of the Elect as Redeemed Justifyed Sanctifyed Called Believing and yeilding obedience to Christ throughout the world I speake of it as Militant in any one Age and of them only were as needlessly actum agere as a man can well devise It is done already and that to the purpose uncontroulably terque quaterque And the substance of the doctrine is delivered by Aquinas himselfe p. 3. Q. 8. A. 3. In briefe the summe of the inquiry upon this head is concerning the matter of that Church concerning which such glorious things are spoken in Scripture namely that it is the Spouse the Wife the Bride the Sister the only one of Christ his Dâ—ve undefiled his Temple Elect Redeemed his Sione his Body his new Jerusalem concerning which inquiry the Reader knowes where he may abundanly find satisfaction That the asserting the Catholick Church in this sence is no new Apprehension is known to them who have at all looked backward to what was past before us Omnibus consideratis saith Austin puto me non temere dicere alios ita esse in domo dei ut ipsâ— etiam sint eadem domus Dei quae dicitur aedificari supra petram quae unica columba appellatur quae sponsa pulchra sine macula ruga hortus conclusus fons signatus patens aquae vivae paradisus cum fructu pomorum alios autem ita constat esse in domo ut non pertineant ad compagem domus Sed sicut esse palea dicitur in frumentis de Bapt. lib. 1. cap. 51. who is herein followed by not a few of the Papists hence saith Biel. accipitur etiam Ecclesia pro tota multitudine praedestinatorum in Canon Miss Lec 22. In what sence this Church is invisible was before declared Men elected redeemed justifyed as such are not visible for that which makes them so is not But this hinders not but that they may be so upon other Consideration sometimes to more sometimes to fewer yea they are so alwayes to some Those that are may be seen and when we say they are visible we do not intend that they are actually seen by any that we know but that they may be so Bellarmine gives us a description of this Catholick Church as the name hath of late been used at the pleasure of men and wrested to serve every designe that was needfull to be carryed on to the interest which he was to contend for but in it self perfectly ridiculous He tells us out of Austine that the Church is a living Body wherein is a body and a soule thence saith he the soule is the internall graces of the spirit Faith Hope and Love the body is the externall profession of Faith some are of the soul and body perfectly united to Christ by faith and the profession of it some are of the soule that are not of the body as the Catechumeni which are not as yet admitted to be members of the visible Church but yet are true believers Some saith he are of the body that are not of the soul who having no true grace yet out of hope or temporall feare doe make profession of the faith and these are like the haire nailes and ill humours in an humane body Now saith Bellarmine our definition of a Church comprizeth only this last sort whilst they are under the head the Pope which is all one as if he had defined a man to be a dead creature composed of haire nailes and ill humours under an hat but of the Church in this sence so farre It remaineth then that we enquire what is the Vnion which the Church in this sense hath from the wisdome of its head Jesus Christ That it is one that hath an union with its head and in it selfe is not questioned It is one sheepfold one Body one spouse of Christ his only one as unto him and that it might have onenesse in it selfe with all the fruits of it our Saviour praies Joh. 17. 19 20 21 22 23. the whole of it is described Eph. 4. 15 16. may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the body to the edifying it selfe in love And of the same importance is that of the same Apostle Col 2. 19. not holding the head from which all the body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God Now in the union of the Church in every sense there is considerable both the formalis ratio of it whence it is what it is and the way and meanes whereby it exerts it selfe and is usefull and active in communion The first in the Church as now stated consists in its joynt holding the head and growing up into him by vertue of the communication of supplies unto it therefrom for that end purpose That which is the formall Reason and cause of the Union of the members with the Head is the formall Reason and Cause of the Union of the members with themselves The Originall Vnion of the members is in and with the Head and by the same have they union with themselves as one body Now the inhabitation of the same Spirit in him and them is that which makes Christ Personall and his Church to be one Christ mysticall 1 Cor. 12. 12. Peter tells us that we are by the promises made partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we have communion with it that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is no more but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I cannot easily consent Now it is in the person of the Spirit whereof we are by the promise made partakers he is the Spirit of promise Eph. 1. 13. promised by God to Christ Act. 2. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
thus related In quem alium crediderunt Gentes universae nisi in ipsum qui jam venit Cui enim alii Gentes crediderunt Parthi Medi Elamitae qui habitant Mesopotamiam Armeniam Phrygiam immorantes Aegyptum regionem Africae quae est trans Cyrenem Romani incolae tunt in Hierusalem Iudei Gentes caeterae ut jam Getulonum varietates Maurorum nulli fines Hispanarum omnes termini Galliarum diversae Nationes Britanorum inaccessa loca Romanis Christo vero subdita Sarmatarum Dacorum Germanorum Seytharum abditarum multarum Gentium Provinciarum Insâ—larum multarum nobis ignotarum quae enumerare non possumus in quibus omnibus locis Christi nomen qui jam venit regnaâ— ad Iudaeos Some have sayd and doe yet say that the Church in this sence is a Visible Organicall Politicall body That its visible is confessed both its matter and farme bespeakes visibility as an unseparable Adjunct of its subsisting That it is a body also in the generall sence wherein that word is used or a society of men embodyed by the profession of the same Faith is also granted Organicall in this businesse is an ambiguous terme The use of it is plainly Metaphoricall taken from the members instruments and Organs of a naturall body Because Paul hath said that in one body there are many members as eyes feet hands yet the body is but one so is the Church It hath been usually said that the Church is an Organicall body What Church Paul speakes of in that place is not evident but what he alludes unto is The difference he speaks of in the individuall persons of the Church is not in respect of Office Power and Authority but gifts or graces and usefullnesse on that account such an Organical body we confesse the Church Catholick visible to be in it are persons indued with varietie of gifts and graces for the benefit and ornament of the whole An Organicall Politicall body is a thing of another nature a Politick body or Common-wealth is a Society of a certain portion of mankind united under some forme of Rule or government whose supreame and subordinate administration is committed to severall persons according to the Tenor of such Laws and Customes as that Society hath or doth consent unto This also is said to be Organicall on a Metaphoricall account because the Officers and Members that are in it and over it hold proportion to the more noble parts of the body Kings are said to be Heads Councellors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the constitution of such a Common-wealth distâ—â—ctly as such it is required that the whole hath the same Laws but not that only Two Nations most distinct and different on the account of other ends and interests may yet have the same individuall Laws and customes for the distribution of Justice and preservation of peace among themselves An entire forme of Regiment and government peculiar thereunto is required for the constitution of a distinct Politicall Body In this sence we denie the Church whereof we speake to be an Organicall Politicall Body as not having indeed any of the requisites thereunto Not one Law of Order the same individuall Morall Law or Law for Morall duties it hath but a Law given to the whole as such for Order Polity Rule it hath not All the members of it are obliged to the same Law of Order and Polity in their severall Societies But the whole as such hath no such Law it hath no such head or Governour as such Nor will it suffice to say that Christ is its head for if as a visible Politicall body â—t hath a Politicall Head that Head also must be visible The Commonweal of the Jews was a Politicall body of this God was the Head and King hence their Historian saith their Government was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and when they would choose a King God said they rejected him who was their politicall Head to whom a sickle was paid yearly as Tribute called the sickle of the Sanctuary Now they rejected him not by asking a King simply but a King after the manner of the Nations yet that it might be a visible Politicall Body it required a visible supreame Magistrate to the wholeâ—… which when there was none all Polity was dissolved amongst them Judg. 21. Christ is the head of every particular Church its Lawgiver and Ruler but yet to make a Church a visible Organicall Politicall Body it 's required that it hath visible Governours Rulers and of the whole Nor can it be said that it is a Politicall body that hath a supreame Government Order in it as it is made up and Constituted of particular Churches and that in the Representatives convened doth the supream visible power of it consist for such a Convention in the judgement of all ought to be Extraordinary only in ours is utterly impossible and de facto was not among the Churches for 300 years yea never besides the visible Catholick Church is not made up of particular Churches as such for if so then no man can be member of it but by vertue of his being a Member of some visible Church which is false profession of the Truth as before stated is the formall Reason and Cause of any Persons Relation to the Church visible which he hath thereby whether he belong to any particular Church or no. Let it be evidenced that the Universall Church whereof we speake hath any Law or Rule of Order and Government as such given unto it or that it is in possibility as such to put any such Law or Rule into execution that it hath any homogeneous Ruler or Rulers that have the care of the Administration of the Rule and Government of the whole as such committed to him or them by Jesus Christ that as it hath the same common spirituall and known Orders and Interests and the same Specificall Ecclesiasticall Rule given to all its Members so it hath the same Politicall interest Order and Conversation as such or that it hath any one cause constitutive of a Politicall Body whereby it is such or hath at all the forme of an Instituted Church or is capable of any such forme and they that doe so shall be farther attended to CHAP. VI. Romanists charge of Schisme on the account of separation from the Church Catholick proposed to consideration The importance of this plea on both sides The summe of their charge The Church of Rome not the Church Catholick Not a Church in any sence Of Antichrist in the Temple The Catholick Church how intrusted with interpretation of Scripture Of intepretation of Scripture by Tradition The interest of the Romane Church herein discharged All necessary truths believed by Protestants No contrary principle by them manifested Profane persons no members of the Church Catholick Of the late Romane Proselyts Of the Donatists Their businesse reported and case stated The Present
and of your own accord forsaken and renounced the communion of this Church cast off your subjection to the Bishops and Rulers rejected the forme of worship appointed in that Church that great bond of its communion and set up separated Churches of your own according to your pleasures and so are properly Schismaticks This I say if I mistake not is the summe of the charge against us on the account of of our late attempt for Reformation and reducing of the Church of Christ to its primitive institution which we professe our aime in singlenesse of heart to have been and leave the judgement of it unto God To acquit our selves of this imputation I shall declare 1. How farre we owne our selves to have been or to be members or Children as they speake of the Church of England as it is called or esteemed 2. What was the subjection whein we or any of us stood or might be supposed to have stood to the Prelates or Bishops of that Church And then I shall 3. Put the whole to the issue and enquiry whether we have broken any bond or order which by the institution and appointment of Jesus Christ we ought to have preserved entire unviolated not doubting but that on the whole matter in difference we shall finde the charge mannaged against us to be resolved wholy into the Pruâ—ence and interest of some men wherein our Consciences are not concerned As to the first proposall the severall considerations that the Church of England may fall under will make way for the determination of our Relation thereunto 1. There being in this Country of England much people of God many of his Elect called and Sanctified by and through the Spirit and blood of Christ with the washing of water and the Word so made true living members of the mysticall body or Catholick Church of Christ holding him as a spirituall Head receiving influences of life and grace from him continually they may be called though improperly the Church of England that is that part of Christs Catholick Church militant which lives in England In this sense it is the desire of our soules to be found and to abide members of the Church of England to keep with it whilst we live in this world the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Hierusalem which is above is the Mother of us all and one is our Father which is in Heaven one is our Head Soveraigne Lord and Ruler the dearly beloved of our Soules the Lord Jesus Christ If we have grieved offended troubled the least member of this Church so that he may justly take offence at any of our waies we professe our readinesse to lye at his or their feet for Reconciliation according to the mind of Christ If we bear not love to all the Members of the Church of England in this sense without dissimulation yea even to them amongst them who through mistakes and darknesse have on severall accounts designed our harme and ruine if we rejoyce not with them and suffer not with them however they may be differenced in and by their opinions or walkings if we desire not their good as the good of our own Soules and are not ready to hold any communion with them wherein their and our Light will give and afford unto us peace mutually if we judge condemne despise any of them as to their Persons Spirituall state and Condition because they walk not with us let us be esteemed the vilest Schismaticks that ever lived on the face of the Earth But as to our membership in the Church of England on this account we stand or fall to our own master 2. The Rulers Governors Teachers and Body of the People of this Nation of England having by Laws Professions and publick Protestations cast off the Tyranny Authority Doctrine of the Church of Rome with its Head the Pope joyntly assented unto and publickly professed the doctrine of the Gospell as expressed in their publick Confession variously attested and confirmed declaring their profession by that publick confession Preaching Laws and Writings suitable thereunto may also be called on good account the Church of England In this sense we professe ourselves members of the Church of England as professing and adhering to that Doctrine of Faith in the Unity of it which was here established and declared as was before spoken As to the attempt of some who accuse us for everting of fundamentalls by our doctrine of Election by the free grace of God of effectuall Redemption of the Elect only conversion by the irresistible efficacy of Grace and the associate doctrines which are commonly known we suppose the more sober part of our Adversaries will give them little thanks for their pains therein If for no other Reason yet at least because they know the cause they have to mannage against us is weakned thereby Indeed it seems strange to us that we should be charged with Schisme from the Church of England for endeavouring to reforme our selves as to something relating to the worship of God by men everting and denying so considerable a portion of the Doctrine of that Church which we sacredly retaine entire as the most urgent of our present Adversaries doe In this sense I say we still confesse our selves members of the Church of England nor have we made any separation from it but do daily labour to improve and carry on the light of the Gospell which shines therein and on the account whereof it is renowned in the world 3. Though I know not how proper that expression of Children of the Church may be under the New Testament nor can by any meanes consent unto it to the urging of any obedience to any Church or Churches whatsoever on that account no such use being made of that consideration by the Holy Ghost nor any parallell unto it insisted on by him yet in a generall sence so farre as our receiving our Regeneration and new birth through the grace of God by the preaching of the Word and the saving truths thereof here professed with the seale of it in our baptisme may be signified by that expression we owne our selves to have been and to be Children of the Church of England because we have received all this by the administration of the Gospell here in England as dispensed in the severall Assemblyes therein And are contented that this concession be improved to the utmost Here indeed are we left by them who renounce the Baptisme they have received in their infancy repeat it again amongst themselves Yet I suppose that He who upon that single account will undertake to prove them Schismaticall may find himselfe intangled Nor is the case with them exactly as it was with the Donatists They doe the same thing with them but not on the same Principles The Donatists rebaptized those who came to their societies because they professed themselves to believe that all Administration of Ordinances not in their Assemblyes was null
in their own continuance they cannot be so yet in their Authority Lawes and Canons they may I must say that besides the very many Reasons I have to call into question the Power of Lawmaking for the whole Society of Christians in the World in all the Generall Councells that have been or possibly can be on the Earth the dispute about the Title of those Assemblies which pretend to this honour which are to be admitted which excluded are so endlesse the Rules of judging them so darke lubricous and uncertaine framed to the interest of contenders on all hands the Lawes of them which de facto have gone under that Title and Name so innumerable burthensome uncertain and frivolus in a great part so grossely contradictory to one another that I cannot suppose that any man upon second thoughts can abide in such an assertion If any shall I must be bold to declare my affection to the doctrine of the Gospell maintained in some of those Assemblies for some hundreds of years and then to desire him to prove that any Generall Councell since the Apostles fell asleep hath been so convened and mannaged as to be enabled to claime that Authority to it selfe which is or would be due to such an Assembly instituted according to the mind of Christ That it hath been of Advantage to the Truth of the Gospell that Godly Learned men Bishops of Churches have convened and witnessed a good Confession in reference to the Doctrine thereof and declared their abhorrencie of the Errors that are contrary thereunto is confessed That any man or men is are or ever were entrusted by Christ with Authority so to convene them as that thereupon and by vertue thereof they should be invested with a new Authority Power and Jurisdiction at such a convention and thence should take upon them to make Laws and Canons that should be Ecclesiastically binding to any Persons or Churches as theirs is not as yet to meattended with any convincing evidence of Truth And seeing at length it must be spoken I shall doe it with submission to the thoughts of good men that are any way acquainted with these things and in sincerity therein commend my Conscience to God that I doe not know any thing that is extant bearing clearer witnesse to the sad degeneracy of Christian Religion in the profession thereof nor more evidently discovering the efficacy of another Spirit than what was powred out by Christ at his Ascension nor containing more hay and stubble that is to be burned and consumed then the stories of the Acts and Laws of the Councells and Synods that have been in the World 2. But to take them as they are as to that alone wherein the first Councells had any evidence of the presence of the Holy Ghost with them namely in the declaring the doctrine of the Gospell it falls in with that which I shall give in for the bond of union unto the Church in the sense pleaded about 3. Such an Assembly arising cumulative out of particular Churches as it is evident that it doth it cannot first and properly belong to the Church Generall as such but it is only a means of communion between those particular Churches as such of whose representatives I mean vertually for formally the persons convening for many years ceased to be so it doth consist 4. There is nothing more ridiculous then to imagine a Generall Councell that should represent the whole Catholick Church or so much as all the particular Churches that are in the World and let him that iâ— otherwise minded that there hath been such an one or that it is possible there should be such a one prove by instance that such there have been since the Apostles times or by Reason that such may be in the present Age or be justly expected in those that are for to succeed and we will as we are able crowne him for his discovery 5. Indeed I know not how any Councell that hath been in the World these 1300 years and somewhat upwards could be said to represent the Church in any sence or any Churches whatever Their convention as is known hath been alwaies by Imperiall or Papall Authority the persons convened such and only they who as was pretended and pleaded had right of suffrage with all necessary Authority in such conventions from the Order Degree and Office which personally they hold in their severall Churches Indeed a Pope or Bishop sent his Legate or Proxie to Represent or rather personate him his Authority But that any of them were sent or delegated by the Church wherein they did preside is not so evident I desire then that some man more skilled in Laws and Common usages then my selfe would informe me on what account such a convention could come to be a Church Representative or the persons of it to be representatives of any Churches Generall grounds of Reason and Equity I am perswaded cannot be pleaded for it The Lords in Parliament in this Nation who being summoned by Regall Authority sate there in their own personall right were never esteemed to represent the body of the people supposing indeed all Church power â—â—n any particular Church of whatever extract or composition to be solely vested in one single person a collection of those persons if instituted would bring together the Authority of the whole But yet this would not make that Assembly to be a Church Representative if you will allow the name of the Church to any but that single person But for men who have but a partiall power Authority in the Church and perhaps separated from it none at all without any delegation from the Churches to convene and in their own Authority to take upon them to represent those Churches is absolute presumption These severall pretensions being excluded let us see wherein the Vnity of this Church namely of the great society of men professing the Gospell and obedience to Christ according to it throughout the World doth consist this is summoned up by the Apostle Eph. 4. 5. one Lord one Faith one Baptisme It is the Vnity of the doctrine of Faith which men professe in subjection to one Lord Jesus Christ being initiated into that profession by Baptisme I say the saving doctrine of the Gospell of Salvation by Jesus Christ and obedience through him to God as professed by them is the bond of that union whereby they are made one body are distinguished from all other societies have one head Christ Jesus which as to profession they hold and whilest they doe so are of this body in one professed hope of their calling Now that this Vnion be preserved it is required that all those grand and necessary Truths of the Gospell without the knowledge whereof no man can be saved by Jesus Christ be so farre believed as to be outwardly and visibly professed in that variety of waies wherein they are or may be called out thereunto There is a proportion
the Church-Catholick visible 3. For a particular Church of some place wherein the instituted worship of God in Christ is celebrated according to his minde From the Rise nature of the things themselves doth this distinction of the signification of the word Church arise for whereas the Church is a society of men called out of the world It is evident there is mention of a twofold call in Scripture one effectuall according to the purpose of God Rom. 8. 28. the other only externall The Church must be distinguished according to its answer and obedience to these calls which gives us the two first states and considerations of it And this is confessed by the ordinary glosse ad Rom. 8. Vocatio exterior fit per Praedicatores est communis bonorum malorum interior vero tantum est Electorum And whereas there are Lawes and externall rules for joynt communion given to them that are called which is confessed the necessity of Churches in the last acceptation wherein obedience can alone be yeilded to those Laws is thereby established In the first sence the Church hath as such the properties of perpetuity invisibility infallibility as to all necessary meanes of Salvation attending of it not as notes whereby it may be known either in the whole or any considerable part of it but as certaine Adjuncts of its nature and existence Neither are there any signes of lesse or more certainty whereby the whole may be discerned or known as such though there are of the Individualls whereof it doth consist In the second the Church hath perpetuity visibility infallibility as qualifyed above in a secondary sence namely not as such not as visible and confessing but as comprizing the individualls whereof the Catholick Church doth consist For all that truely believe professe though all that professe doe not truely believe Whether Christ hath had alwayes a Church in the last sence and Acceptation of the word in the world is a most needlesse enquiry nor are we concerned in it any farther then in other matters of fact that are recorded in story though I am apt to believe that although very many in all Ages kept up their station in Relation to the Church in the two former acceptations yet there was in some of them scarce any visible Society of worshippers so far answering the institution of Christ as to render them fit to be owned and joyned withall as a visible particular Church of Christ but yet though the notions of men were generally corrupt the practice of all professours throughout the world whereof so little is recorded at least of them that did best is not rashly to be determined of Nor can our Judgement be censured in this by them who think that when Christ lay in the Grave there was no Believer left but his Mother and that the Church was preserved in that one person So was Bernard minded Tractat. de pass Dom. ego sum vitis sâ—la per illud triste sabbathum stetit in fide salvata fuit Ecclesia in ipsa sola Of the same minde is Marsilius in Sent. Quaest 20. Art 3. as are also others of that sort of men see Bannes in 2. 2. Thom. Quaest. 1. Art 10. I no way doubt of the perpetuall existence of innumerable Believers in every age and such as made the profession that is absolutely necessary to salvation one way or other though I question a regular association of men for the celebration of instituted worship according to the mind of Christ The 7000 in Israel in the dayes of Elijah were members of the Church of God and yet did not constitute a Church state among the ten Tribes But these things must be farther spoken to I cannot but by the way reminde a learned Person with whom I have formerly occasionally had some debate in print about Episcopacy and the state of the first Churches of a mistake of his which he might have prevented with a little enquiry into the judgement of them whom he undertook to confute at a venture I having said that there was not any ordinary Church Officer instituted in the first times relating to more Churches in his Office or to any other Church then a single particular Congregation He replyes that this is the very same which his memory suggested to him out of the Saints Beliefe printed 12 or 14 yeares since where instead of that Article of the Apostolick Symbole the holy Catholick Church this very Hypothesis was substituted If he really believed that in professing I owned no instituted Church with Officers of one denomination in Scripture beyond a single sence v. 24. saith the Apostle I fill up that Congregation I renounced the Catholick Church or was any way necessitated so to doe I suppose he may by what hath now been expressed be rectifyed in his Apprehension If he was willing only to make use of the advantage wherewith he supposed himselfe accommodated by that expression to presse the perswasion owned in the minds of ignorant men who could not but startle at the noyse of denying the Catholick Church it may passe at the same rate that most of the reports in such discourses are to be allowed at But to proceed In the first sence the word is used Mat. 16. 28. upon this rock will I build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevaile against it this is the Church of the Elect redeemed justifyed sanctifyed ones that are so built on Christ and these only and all these are interested in the promise made to the Church as such in any sence but is peculiarly made therein to every one that is truely properly a part member of that Church Who and who only are interested in that promise Christ himselfe declares Joh. 6. 40. Joh. 10 28 29. Joh. 17. 20 24. they that will apply this to the Church in any other sence must know that it is incumbent on them to establish the promise made to it unto every one that is a true member of the Church in that sence which whatever be the sence of the promise I suppose they will find difficult worke of Eph. 5. 25 26 27. Christ loved the Church and gave himselfe for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himselfe a Glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing He speakes only of those whom Christ loved antecedently to his dying for them whereof his love to them was the cause who they are is manifest Joh. 10. 15. Joh. 17. 17. And those on whom by his death he accomplished the effects mentioned of washing cleansing and sanctifying bringing them into the Condition promised to the bride the Lambs wife Rev. 19. 8. which is the new Jerusalem Rev. 21. 2. of elected saved ones v. 27. Col. 1. 18. containes an expression of the same light and evidence Christ is the head of the body the