this That every proper Political Church must have a constitutive Head and the Doctor both leaves out the words proper Political and brings in the term Visible Therefore the Catholick Church says he must have a constitutive visible Head The Interposer now to take off the shame from the Doctor hath taken the right Course I say for he comes and does worse and that is puts in a fifth term into the Argument if every Church when he should say every proper Political Church only if he speaks to Mr. Baxter must have a visible subordinate constitutive Head then must the Catholick Church have such a one but that not having such a one a National Church as well as the Catholick may be without a constitutive Head I was in a horrible fright when I heard four and five terms and began to blush at it but if this be all the Business I shall be able to bear this shame very well As for the Deans leaving out the terms proper Political I gave a reasonable account of that in the Defence which Mr. H. takes no notice of For Mr. B. defines a proper Political Church to be a Church which has one constitutive Regent Head and therefore the Dean denies that a National Church is a proper Political Church considered as a Church in Mr. B's sence of the Words and this certainly was reason enough to leave it out and yet to gratifie Mr. H. we will take it in if he will but allow the Catholick Church to be as proper Political a Church as the National Church is and then the Argument runs thus If a National Church as a proper Political Church must have a National constitutive Regent Head as essential to it then the Catholick Church as a proper Political Church must have a Catholick visible Regent Head essential to it And thus I think it comes much to one and let Mr. B. and Mr. H. take their choice But what shall we do with the Deans fourth term the visible Head time was when Mr. B. and Mr. H. thought this no inconvenience at all nor any surreptitious fourth term crept into the Argument but learnedly disputed that Christ is the visible Head of the Catholick Church and therefore the Catholick Church hath a visible Head as well as the National Church But let us briefly consider whether visible be a fourth Term or only added as a necessary Explication of Mr. B's Proposition if he mean any thing by it For I think Logicians distinguish between a fourth Term and an additional explication of the Terms Mr. B. disputes that every proper Political Church and therefore a National Church must have a constitutive Regent Head Does he mean by this constitutive Regent Head a visible Head on Earth or an invisible Head in Heaven If he means Christ as an invisible Head in Heaven then there is no Dispute between us for we will readily grant that Christ is the Head of the National as well as of the Catholick Church If he means a visible Head on Earth then Visible is no fourth Term but only an explication of what Mr. B. means by a constitutive Regent Head And then the Argument holds good from a National to the Catholick Church That if a National Church as a proper Political Church must have a visible Constitutive Regent Head on Earth essential to it then the Catholick Church as a proper Political Church must have a visible constitutive Regent Head on Earth essential to it or Mr. B's Argument is not true that every proper Political Church must have a visible Regent Head on Earth essential to it Thus I think the Dean is once more defended but I must speak one good word for my self too as Charity obliges me Mr. H. says I bring in a fifth Term subordinate visible Head But this is only a farther explication of Mr. B's Terms to prevent their cavilling evasions Mr. B. says every proper Political Church must have a constitutive Regent Head does he mean this of Christ as the supreme Head of his Church or of men whether Civil or Ecclesiastical Persons as a subordinate Head under Christ if the first there is no dispute between us for Christ is the Head of every part of his Church If the second a subordinate Head then subordinate is neither a fourth nor a fifth Term but included in a constitutive Regent Head and I think I need not spend time to prove that Mr. H's instance of adding Monarchical to a visible subordinate constitutive Regent Head is not a parallel case because Monarchical would be properly a fourth Term as not being necessarily involved in a constitutive Regent Head as Visible and Subordinate are for a constitutive Regent Head may be either Monarchical or Collective but signifies neither determinately unless it be expressed I shall only observe how Mr. B. and Mr. H. are apparently guilty of this fallacy themselves of introducing a fourth and a fifth Term in answer to the Deans Argument If a National Church as a proper Political Church must have a constitutive Regent Head then the Catholick Church as a proper Political Church must have a constitutive Regent Head Yes saith Mr. B. and Mr. H. so it hath for Christ is the constitutive Regent Head of the Catholick Church Where we plainly see that in the Antecedent by a constitutive Regent Head they understand a Visible Subordinate and Mr. H. says an accidental Head of the Church and in the Consequent a supreme invisible Head of the Church which is as fallacious a way of answering as it is of arguing And now I leave the Reader to judge where the shame which Mr. H. so much talks of must at last rest But Ignorance and Insensibility 〈◊〉 as great a security to some men against shame as Impudence is to others CHAP. V. Concerning that one Communion which is essential to the Catholick Church and the practicableness of it IN the eighth Chapter of the Defence I briefly stated what the Communion is which is essential to the Catholick or Universal Church and what place there can be for this Catholick Communion in this broken and divided state of the Church which we see at this day Mr. B. in his Answer Chap. 6. attempts to say something to it but it is such a something as needs no farther answer for it all proceeds upon his own blundering or wilful mistakes about the nature of Christian Communion and a supreme Regent Head of the Catholick Church And both these I have discoursed so fully already that I cannot excuse my self to my Reader should I repeat over the same things again and therefore I shall only briefly consider some few new Objections he has started which though they are very trifling yet may disturb an injudicious Reader I asserted That Catholick Communion strictly so called Defence p. 595. consists 1. In the agreement and Concord of the Bishops of the Catholick Church among themselves and with each other Here Mr. Baxter 1 plays the Critick He
unam Ecclesiam non babere Ib. cap. 21. though they have the same Sacraments Non reclè foris habitur tamen habitur sic non reclè foris datur tamen datur Ib. l. 1. cap. 1. Nay 3ly He denies That Hereticks have any Sacraments of their own Magis ergò quia pro Ecclesiae honore atque unitate pugnamus non tribuamus Haereticus quicquid aâ—â—a eos ejus agnoscimus l. 4. cap. 2. but have usurped the Sacraments of the Church which are not rightly had nor rightly given out of the Communion of the Church though they are not to be repeated when they are once given but to be compleated by Reconciliation to the Church But 4ly Schismaticks retaining the Christian Faith and Christian Sacraments among them though they are out of the Church are not Heathens and Infidels but in some sense Christians Itaque 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 sed gravius â—â—â—riant vulnere Schismatis l. 1. cap. 8. and therefore he acknowledges that the Donatists do cure those whom they Baptize of Infidelity and Idolatry but wound them more grievously with Schism And therefore 5ly He owns them to be united to the Catholick Church as far as they retain any thing of the Catholick Church among them such as the same common Faith and the same Sacraments but yet 6ly That what-ever they retain of the Catholick Church though they believe the same Articles of Faith observe the same Rules of Worship have the same Sacraments rightly and duly administred among them excepting their Schism yet nothing of all this will avail them to Salvation unless they return to the Communion of the Catholick Church So that though we should not agree what Name to call Schismaticks by whether Christians at large upon account of their Profession without any relation to the Church whose Communion they have forsaken or whether we say they are out of the Church as having forsaken its Communion or that in some sense they belong to the Church as retaining its Faith and Sacraments or whether we own them Members of the visible Church as that may include the whole Number of Christian Professors as distinguished from the one Catholick visible Church which contains only Catholick Christians who live in Christian unity and Communion the Difference is not great while with St. Austin we own but one Catholick Church and Catholick Communion wherein Salvation is to be had This is all I ever intended to prove and I think no body need prove more to deter any man from Schism who loves his Soul CHAP. III. Concerning the Necessity of Catholick Communion HAving thus vindicated my Notion of Catholick Communion from the Exceptions of Mr. Baxter and Mr. Lob before I proceed any farther it will be highly expedient to discourse something briefly of the necessity of it for I find Mr. Lob mightily puzled to conceive that those who believe in Christ and repent of their sins and lead an holy Life in all Godliness and Honesty as they suppose many may do who separate from the Church of England and do not live in Catholick Communion according to my Notion of it should for this Reason be excluded from all the ordinary Means of Salvation They look upon the Christian Religion to be like a System of Philosophy and if men be careful to believe such Laws without any regard to a Church-state or Church-unity and Communion their Condition is very safe and they have a Right and Title to all the Promises of the Gospel Holiness of Life and a good Temper of Mind is the only thing Christ designed to promote by his Gospel and if men be holy however they came by it or whatever they are besides it matters not This is very plausible and a prevailing Notion in our days which makes a great many well-disposed men extreamly indifferent what Church they are of so they be but watchful over their Hearts and Lives in other Matters For will any man say that a holy man shall not go to Heaven when all the Promises of the Gospel are made to such Persons When Godliness hath the Promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come Where is the Man who has so much Courage as to repeat the Case which St. Austin puts of a Man Constiuamus ergò aliquem castum continentem non avarum non Idolis servientem hospitalitarem indigentibus ministrantem non cujusquam inimicum non contentiosum patiemem quietum 〈◊〉 Emâ—lantem nulli invidentem sabrium fragalem sed Haereticum nulli utique dubium est 〈…〉 solum quod haereticus est Regnun Dei non â—â—ssedibit August de baptismo l. 4. cap. 18. Who is Chast Continent void of Covetousness no Idolater Hospitable and Bountisul to those in Want Enemy to no Man not Contentious but Patient Quiet without Emulation or Envy Sober Frugal but a Heretick which in St. Austin's Language in that Place signifies a Schismatick of such a Person he says That no man doubts but for this very Cause that he is a Schismatick he shall not inherit the Kingdom of God This it seems was not St. Austin's private Opinion but the received Opinion of all Christians in his days that which no Body then doubted of which makes it at least worthy of our most serious and impartial Enquiry and were men once throughly satisfied of the danger of Schism and the absolute necessity of Catholick Communion a great many wanton Scruples which now divide and subdivide the Church would vanish of themselves for they would be then afraid to venture their Souls in a Schism And therefore to make this as plain and evident as possible I can I shall proceed by these following Steps only premising That the whole design of this Discourse is pure Charity to the Souls of men not to triumph in their Ruine and Misery for God forbid I should ever rejoyce in the thoughts of any Man's Damnation for then I am sure I should never go to Heaven my self 1. I observe then in the first Place That though holiness of Life is the necessary Condition yet it is not the meritorious Cause of our Salvation Without holiness we shall never see God But that holiness carries any man to Heaven is in vertue of the meritorious Sacrifice and Intercession of Christ and therefore unless we have a Covenant-Interest in this Sacrifice nothing else can secure us of our Reward 2. That Catholick Charity which is exercised in Catholick Communion is a principal Part of Evangelical Holiness without which nothing else will be accepted by God Love and Charity is the great Gospel-Command and the peculiar Badge of the Christian Profession and Christian Charity as it is distinguished from good Nature and an obliging Temper and Conversation which is indeed a necessary moral Vertue but not that which is peculiarly called Christian Charity does unite all Christians together in one Body is such a Kindness for one another as answers to that Tenderness and Sympathy
which the Members of the Natural Body have for each other So that Christian-charity necessarily preserves Christian-unity and Communion and whoever rends and divides the Church is void of this Christian-charity This I have already proved at large in my Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet Defence p. 183. c. both from Scripture and the Ancient Fathers and it were easie to add numerous Quotations more to this purpose This is the principal thing St. Augustine insists on he frequently applies that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. where he shews how unavailable all other Attainments are without Charity Aug. de baptismo l. 1. cap. 9. l. 3. cap. 16. alibi passim to signifie such a Charity as preserves the Peace and Communion of the Church and does every where assert that that man is void of Charity who does not love the Peace and Unity of the Church if then Christian Charity be so necessary a part of Christian Holiness and consists in preserving the Peace and Unity and Communion of the Christian Church whatever other good Qualities Schismaticks may have they want the chief branch of Holiness without which no man shall see God and therefore though a holy man shall never miscarry or fall short of Heaven yet a Schismatick with all his other good Qualities may 3. Since the best men must be saved by Christ and not by their own Righteousness or Merits we must expect to be saved by Christ only in such a way as he himself has appointed It is all free Grace and therefore we must be contented to receive it in such a way as he is pleased to give it He is a Debtor to no man and therefore may well be allowed to make his own terms Heaven is a supernatural State of Happiness which the best Man setting aside the consideration of his many Imperfections and Defects cannot challenge as the Reward of his best Services and therefore God is under no other Obligation to bestow Heaven on any man but his own Promise made to us in Christ Jesus and therefore can be obliged no farther than his own Promise reaches If any hard and pityable Case happens he has the soveraign Power in his own hand and can do as he himself pleases but we must expect no more from him than he has promised The not considering this is apt to confound mens Notions concerning the undertaking of our Saviour and our Redemption by him It runs some men into Socinianism to deny the Satisfaction of Christ and others who cannot be so subtil as to distinguish themselves out of so plain and express an Article of our Faith and therefore do heartily and sincerely believe the Satisfaction of our Saviour that he dyed as a true and proper Sacrifice to expiate our sins and purchase Eternal Life for us yet have no clear Conceptions of the Reason of this which will not well comply with those other Notions they have of God and his natural Obligation not to call it natural Necessity to love and reward good men I do as firmly believe God's Goodness to good men and his Love to true Holiness where-ever he sees it as I do any Article of my Creed but then I consider that Heaven is a supernatural Happiness and not the natural Reward of an earthly Creature as man by Nature is And therefore the best man considered as a Man has no more reason to expect That God as a Reward of his Vertue should translate him from Earth to Heaven than that he should give him wings to flie in the Air and to visit the several Planets all that can be expected from God upon account of the Goodness or Justice of his Nature is to bestow such a Happiness on innocent or deserving Creatures as their Natures were made for that is an earthly Happiness on an earthly Creature which was all that was promised Adam in Paradice an immortal happy Life in this World So that if we consider the State of mankind we shall find that the whole Work of our Redemption is wholly owing to free Grace that is that which was neither due to our Natures nor what we could reasonably expect from God considered only as our Maker Man in Innocence was but an earthly Creature 1 Cor. 15. the first Adam was of the Earth and earthy And an earthly Creature cannot challenge as his natural Birth-right an heavenly and divine state of Life For Flesh and Blood though innocent and pure cannot inherit the Kingdom of God A gross earthly Body cannot ascend into Heaven nor dwell in those pure Regions of Light and therefore such a Creature can no more challenge Heaven as its natural Portion and Inheritance than it can that God should change its Nature and refine an earthy into a spiritual Body If we consider man in his lapsed State he has forfeited even an earthly Immortality and cannot now challenge an immortal Life in this World much less in the next For what natural Reason can there be when we suffer Death as the Punishment of sin for God to raise our dead Bodies out of the Dust again into an immortal Life So that whatever may be the Reward of Vertue in this World an immortal Life after Death cannot be the natural Reward of it for then it could not be in the Evangelical Notion of it the Gift of God or the Purchase of Christ And we may consider farther that as man is now designed for a supernatural state of Happiness in Heaven so much advanced above the original state of humane Nature so there is required a divine Holiness and Vertue to fit and qualifie him for this supernatural Happiness Upon this account our Saviour so earnestly presses the Necessity of the new Birth that we must be born of Water and of the Spirit if we would enter into Heaven For that which is born of the Flesh is Flesh but that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Whereby our Saviour signifies to us that we must attain to such a pitch of Goodness as is as much above the original Attainments of an earthly and fleshly Nature as Heaven is above the Earth For that saying of our Saviour That which is born of the flesh is flesh is true in a state of Innocency Innocent flesh is flesh still and therefore we must be born into a diviner State than innocent flesh if we would enter into Heaven that is we must attain to such a divine and spiritual frame of Mind as raises us above this World and prepares us for an Angelical state of Life For there are different degrees of Vertue fitted to the different states of a reasonable Nature Unless we will say that the Vertue of a Man and of an Angel is the same That degree of Vertue which is sufficient to teach a Man to use the good things of this World innocently and happily is not sufficient to raise a Man above the World and to make him contemn all bodily Pleasures and earthly Satisfactions
Christian Church considered as a Church is not armed with any secular coercive Power and if it have no spiritual Power neither how shall it maintain and preserve it self against all the oppositions of Men and Devils and yet it can have no spiritual Power if men may as well be saved out of the Church as in it For who then will regard the Unity of the Church value its Censures or reverence its Authority and Government Spiritual Power is exercised upon the Souls and Consciences of men and respects the Happiness of the other World as temporal Power Governs the outward man and respects this present Life now all the Power Christ hath given to his Church is that which we call the Power of the Keys to take in or to shut out of the Church which is no Power at all if the Communion of the Church be so indifferent a thing that men may be as safe out of the Church as in it All the Censures of the Christian Church which are purely Spiritual only respect Church-communion and therefore their Authority too depends upon the necessity of this Communion Some were cast out of the Church others received into the Number of Penitents of which Albaspinaeus reckons four degrees in the Primitive Church which were the different Degrees of their Separation from Christian Communion now how easily may a man who believes no necessity of Catholick Communion despise all this Authority and all these Censures and there can be no necessity of it if our Souls be not greatly endangered by the want of it And yet our Saviour calls this Power of receiving in and shutting out of the Church The Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven 16 Mat. 19 and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven Now how can the Keys of the Church to let in or to shut out be called the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven unless there be a necessary Relation between the Communion of the Church on Earth which is also called the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven that those who are in the Communion of the Church and have a Right to be in it have a Title also to the Kingdom of Heaven and that those who are out of the Church either by their own Choice or by a just Censure have no Title to the Kingdom of Heaven and shall never enter into it That the Church on Earth and the Church in Heaven is but one Communion and that no men are transplanted into the Church in Heaven but from the Communion of the Church on Earth upon which account the Peace of the Church which was given to dying Persons under Censures was called the Viaticum or a kind of Pass into the other World And when our Saviour so expresly asserts whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven if by binding and loosing we will understand putting out or receiving into the Church it makes the Communion of the Church absolutely necessary to Salvation And I farther observe that what in St. Matthew is called the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and binding and loosing is in St. John called retaining or remitting sins Whosoever sins ye remit Joh. 20.23 they are remitted and whosoever sins ye retain they are retained And therefore if we expound this remitting and retaining sins by binding and loosing in the exercise of the Keys as in all reason we must then to remit sins is to restore men to the Peace and Communion of the Church and to retain them is to cast men out of the Church or to keep them under Church-censures which is a plain demonstration that sins are forgiven only in the Communion of the Church So that whatever other Reasons our Lord might have in confining Salvation ordinarily to the Communion of the Church among which the Promoting of Catholick Love and Charity among his Disciples and Followers is none of the least which as I observed before cannot be maintained and preserved in a Schism yet here is one manifest Reason for it that the Authority and Discipline and Government of the Church without which the Church cannot well subsist does wholly depend on it If Christ have instituted a Church and invested it with such Authority and Power as is necessary to preserve it self and to promote the great ends of Church-Society and the Church as a spiritual Society can have no other Power and has no other given it by Christ but what results from the necessity of Catholick Communion we need not wonder that the pardon of Sin and the assistances of the divine Grace and everlasting Life should be confined to the Communion of the Church because the Church cannot Preserve it self nor Govern its own Members can neither Instruct Reprove nor Censure with any Authority and Effect without this which by the way shows us how effectually those men who separate from the Church upon a pretence of purer Worship and a purer Discipline overthrow and contradict their own pretences and tear up the very foundations of all Church-authority for if separation from the Church be so slight and indifferent a Matter there can be no Authority in the Church for any man who is uneasie or humersom or ungovernable in the Communion of the Church may leave it if he pleases and joyn himself to some other Communion or set up a new Communion of his own without any danger and in this Case nothing can keep People together but some great Art and Cunning in their Guides or some secular Advantages or arbitrary Covenants and I think the Independents have great reason on their side to found a particular Church on a particular Church Covenant if there be no necessity of Catholick Communion as I have now described it for if there be no essential and inherent Authority in the Church there can be no other than what depends upon private Contracts Now may we not as well wonder why humane Laws inflict such severe Punishments upon Rebels whatever other good qualities they may have as that Christ should so severely punish Schismaticks who may upon other Accounts pass in the World for very good men the Reason of both is the same Government in Church and State is of such mighty Consequence to the temporal and spiritual Happiness of Mankind and Rebellion and Schism so destructive to all Government that those men deserve the severest Punishments who disturb the Peace and Establishment of Church or State and Schism is so much worse than Rebellion as the happiness of the Souls of men is of much greater Concernment than their temporal Ease and Felicity CHAP. IV. Concerning the Vnity of Church-Power ANd now I am come to the main seat of the Controversie between me and Mr. Lob Mr. Humphrey and Mr. Baxter not to
and were immediately baptized in great numbers cannot be supposed at that time to know more and yet this was accepted from them at that time and in that state of things and by the same reason will be accepted from those who want the opportunities of better instruction And if there be any baptized and nominal Christians who do not know thus much it is a great scandal to the Christian Church but I know not how we are more concerned for their Salvation than for Pagans and Infidels But as for those who deny any fundamental Article they are got above this state of a general and implicite Faith in Christ and err not for want of instruction but from a certain wantonness and pride of understanding They inquire into the particular Doctrines of Faith and understand what has been and is the general Faith of Christians in such matters for otherwise they would have no occasion to deny such Catholick Doctrines it appears they have a great conceit and confidence of their own knowledg that they dare oppose their private opinions and reasonings against the declared sence of the universal Church which is such unpardonable immodesty as admits of no excuse if they lose themselves in the Mazes and Labyrinths of their own making and mistake their way to Heaven And though such Persons may be otherwise very pious and useful men yet I do not see why we should deny the necessity of believing the Fundamentals of Christian Faith any more for their sakes than for the sake of devout and vertuous Jews and Heathens 2. Having thus as plainly as I can stated and notion of Fundamentals the next inquiry is concerning those Churches which professedly own all the Fundamentals of Christianity and yet together with the belief of all Fundamentals entertain such corrupt Doctrines as in their immediate and necessary consequences overthrow Foundations and whether such Churches may be said to err Fundamentally I will but briefly touch on this head and though I might give too many instances of it I shall at present confine my self to the Church of Rome I know no fundamental Article of our Faith that is expresly denyed by the Church of Rome She receives all the ancient Creeds professes the Faith of the holy Trinity the Incarnation the satisfaction of Christ's death his Intercession for us at the right hand of God but then she teaches such other corrupt Doctrines as all the wit of man cannot reconcile with this Faith As to shew this briefly with reference to the satisfaction and intercession of Christ The Doctrine of Christ's satisfaction seems many ways to be overthrown by the Church of Rome As by the propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass which is offered for the quick and for the dead For if Christ made a perfect satisfaction for sin by his death upon the Cross what need of repeating this Sacrifice every day which represents the Sacrifice of Christ to be as imperfect as the Sacrifices of the Law which could not take away sin nor make the comers thereunto perfect and therefore were repeated again every year Thus the Doctrine of humane Penances and Satisfactions especially the fire of Purgatory the merits of good Works and the superabundant merits of some eminent Saints which compose the Treasury of the Church and may be applyed by the Pope to other sinners to purchase their Pardon which is the Foundation of the Doctrine of indulgences seem mightily to disparage the satisfaction of Christ for if he have made a perfect atonement for all our sins we need not invent so many other ways of satisfaction And whoever considers what the Church of Rome teaches about the Intercession of Saints and Angels and the Virgin Mary could hardly think that she did believe that there is but one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus But I need not enumerate many particulars the truth of this being too evident and notorious The great Question then is this whether such a Church may be said to be guilty of Fundamental Errors for this sounds like a contradiction that a Church which believes all the fundamental Articles of that Christian Faith should yet be guilty of fundamental Errors And indeed if by fundamental Errors we mean such Errors as deny any fundamental Article so it is plain that a Church which owns and professes all Fundamentals cannot be guilty of fundamental Errors but if by fundamental Errors we mean such Errors as contradict the Fundamentals of Faith so she may be guilty of fundamental Errors because it is possible for a Church to believe two Doctrines which contradict each other when the Contradiction is not in express terms but consequential For all men or Churches do not see or will not own the immediate and necessary consequences of their own Doctrine as may easily be observed among a great many other men besides those of the Church of Rome And the use of this observation is very considerable upon many accounts but especially in our present Dispute about Catholick Communion as will appear by considering 3. How far and in what Cases we may communicate with such a Church as believes all the Fundamentals of Christian Faith and yet teaches such Doctrines as in their immediate and necessary consequences overthrow Foundations This is a very material difference between a Church which denies any fundamental Article of Faith and a Church which believes all Fundamentals but superadds some corrupt Doctrines which in their Consequences destroy Foundations that the first is never capable of Catholick Communion because she denies Catholick Doctrine which is the necessary condition of Catholick Communion but the second in some cases may be because she retains all saving knowledg i. e. all which is of absolute necessity to Salvation though intermixt with dangerous Errors Now to state this matter how far we may communicate with such a Church as professes all the fundamental Articles of Faith but yet superadds other very corrupt and dangerous Doctrines we may consider these two things 1. I think I need not tell any man that we must not purchase the Communion of such a Church by professing our Assent to any corrupt Doctrine though it be not a fundamental Error No one Church ought thus to impose upon another nor does any Church pretend to it but only the Church of Rome Every Church is bound to preserve her own Faith as pure and perfect as she can but she has not that Authority over any other Church as to impose upon their Faith An orthodox Church may and ought to admonish neighbour Churches of any doctrinal Corruptions but must not reject their Communion for every Error though of dangerous Consequence if it be not Fundamental The belief of all fundamental Articles of Faith does mightily qualifie the evil and malignant influence of many very corrupt Doctrines which is the true reason why many men are observed to live much better than they believe because though they have entertained a great many corrupt Doctrines which