shall be mouth'd by the most vicious persons to disguise an ugly perhaps a treasonous design and novi homines men of yesterday shall dare to trifle with that Scepter which dignified them and problem the Right of their Prince in the face of his Throne when Englishmen shall Italianize and shoot those envenom'd arrows their filthy Pasquils to wound their Prince in his reputation which is the soul of his Throne O then I think if it awakens not all the Sentinels of the Government sure they are in their dead sleep or infatuated for destruction When I consider the ill-boding circumstances attending the Church of England her prodigious rents her assiduous and impudent Adversaries accompanied perhaps with too much Supinity in some of her most Principal members and when it comes into my mind that Miracles are ceased too then each moment spur on my thoughts to expect when Religion now on tiptoes to be gone should turn her back upon us and that the ultimate failure of the Faith is at hand ready to be the Harbinger to the Catholick Doom But Sir not to trouble your more Serene Meditations with such melancholy reflections give me leave to Alarm you to Muster your notions and by your Animadversions upon this Doctor undeceive the deluded multitude in this weighty subject of Schism the Dam of our Mischiefs and which threaten the ruine of our Church and with that the unhinging that excellent temper of Government which has been the envy of the Nations SIR I am yours c. W. C. Honoured Sir THat Kingship and Episcopacy have been the antient and continued Government of this Nation in State and Church ever since our Primitive Christianity is evident from undoubted Records But the Gentlemen of our New English Interest mock at the two old Grandsires Monarchy and Hierarchy and begin to hope that they are come to their decrepit Age and not far from a Grave and they are preparing for their funeral It is now scandalous to be Loyal to our Prince or Regular to the Church You will be thought a mean-spirited Gentleman for expressing any regard to a Minister of Religion And you have no way to redeem your Honour but either to turn Atheist or list your self a Member of the New Interest And now Sir can it be reconcil'd to Friendship to ship your Friend when the Clouds look black and threaten a Storm But since you are as kind to me as you are to your self and are pleas'd to embarque with me I am resolv'd to adventure and am prepar'd for Tempest and that worst of Hurricanes the madness of the People I think it highly necessary to demonstrate our Non-conformists to be Schismaticks for though meer State Interest may legitimate many severities against those Persons and Principles that are Antipodes to the establish'd Government yet if that were truth which the Doctor pretends to prove That the Sectaries of England were as much in the family of Jesus or in the Communion of the Catholick Church as the Church of England it would puzzle my Reason to make a Substantial Apology for our Penal Laws But if we can make it evident that these men walk disorderly and are Separatists from the Catholick Church it will then appear that our Laws are so far from Rigor or Persecution that they are more charitable provisions and only design'd to compell men to come in to that Society where their Eternal Interest will be most rationally and manifestly secur'd When I first open'd the Doctor' s Plea you sent me mine eye chanc'd upon a very pleasant passage to this effect viz. That theGreek Church call the Church of Rome Schismatick and the Church of Rome return the Schismatick upon the Greek Church The Church of England make the Romish Church the Schismatick and the Church ofRome charge the Schism upon the Church ofEngland Again The Church of England call her Dissenters Schismaticks and the Dissenters think the Church to be Schismaticks from them and so we have call'd one another Schismaticks Round and therefore Schism is but Vox praeterea nihil nothing but a meer noise and Nick-name which every Party cast upon all them who are not of their Society But let us try the Strength of this Argument by translating it to another circulating word and that is Infidelity The Mahometan calls himself Musalman which my Persic Dictionary assures me signifies Faithful or Believer in God yet we Christians call the Mahometans Infidels and they call us Unbelievers We call the Jews Infidels and they return the same name upon us and the Mahometans too Both Christian Jew and Mahomentan pronounce all Pagans to be Infidels and ten to one but they are as stout and peremptory as the rest of Mortals and think all Mankind Infidels but themselves Thus the whole World have call'd one another Infidels Round and therefore Infidelity is but a meer empty noise and there is no such thing in the World as a True Religion I appeal to any sober Judgement if there be not as much Logick in this as there was in the other I hope it will be an easie discovery to find out the square of the Doctor 's Circle and to fix the Notion of Schism upon a certain Basis And therefore Sir in obedience to your Request I shall discuss that great Question Whether the Non-conformists in England meeting together for the Worship of God in places distinct from the Parochial Churches are not Schismaticks To this I shall answer in the Affirmative and shall consider this Separation First With respect to the whole Catholick Church Secondly With relation to the Church of England First To be a Member of the Catholick Church there is required a double Unity First An Unity of Faith or Doctrine a total separation from this we grant to be Apostasie a disowning any one fundamental Article makes a man a Heretick But in this does not consist the formal notion of Schism Secondly There is requir'd an Unity of Order or Government which St. Cyprian calls Unitas Ecclesiastica Now a Separation from this Unity hath the formality of Schism And for a right understanding of this I must look back to the first Origine of this Unity The Holy Jesus the great Author and Founder of our Religion was sent of God and all power in Heaven and Earth committed to him Now before his Ascension that he might not leave his Disciples to the end of the World to be governed by every pretender to Revelation which would have exposed his Kingdom upon Earth to eternal confusions and impostures he solemnly ordains and consecrates the Apostles his immediate Delegates upon earth John 20. 22. As my Father sent me even so send I you by vertue of which Commission the power of Ordaining Governing and conferring Orders did rest only in the Apostles They took care to continue this Succession and therefore Timothy was by the Apostles ordain'd Bishop of Ephesus and Titus of Crete and both invested with power of Jurisdiction and conferring Orders as is evident from St. Paul's Epistles directed to them and though there were many Presbyters in
the Dioceses of Ephesus and Crete yet none had Authority to ordain Elders or Priests but only Timothy and Titus Linus by Apostolick Consecration succeeded the Apostles in the Chair of Rome Symeon governed the Church of Jerusalem or the Diocess of Palestine next after St. James Anianus succeeded St. Mark in the Church of Alexandria And this Succession was propagated with so much care and certainty that Irenaeus tells us He could name all the Successors of the Apostles in the several Apostolick Churches unto his dayes Habemus annumerare eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis Successores eorum usque ad nos And this line of Apostolick Succession of Bishops hath continued through all Ages of the Church to our present times So that he who is out of this line of Apostolick Succession and exercises any Ministerial Office without the Commission of Episcopal Ordination is but a Lay-Impostor and a Schismatick from the Catholick Church And all other Societies of Christian people who totally withdraw themselves from the Government of their Bishops who are the Apostles Successors and from the Ministry of those Presbyters lawfully set over them by Episcopal Ordination and Institution and cast themselves into any other Model of Government are guilty of Schism This was the formal Notion of Schism in the sense of the antient Church Irenaeus Bishop of Lugdunum who convers'd with Polycarpus the Disciple of St. John may in reason be allowed to understand the Primitive and Apostolick Notion of Schism better than our Doctor at the distance of sixteen hundred years He in his Book Adversus Hereses exhorts the Christian World to hearken only to those Priests who were in the Communion of the Catholick Church and who those are he there describes Quapropter eis qui in Ecclesia sunt Presbyteris obaudire oported iis qui successionem habent ab Apostolis sicut ostendimus qui cum Episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum secundum placitum Patris accepêrunt Reliquos vero qui absistunt à principali successione quocunque loco colliguntur suspectos habere vel quasi Haereticos malae sententiae vel quasi scindentes elatos sibi placentes aut rursus ut Hypocritas quaestus gratia vanae gloriae hoc operantes Qui autem scindunt separant unitatem Ecclesiae eandem quam Hieroboam poenam percipiunt à Deo Ignatius the second Bishop of Antioch in succession from St. Peter in his Epistles ad Trallianos ad Smyrnenses and in those to the Philippians Ephesians and Philadelphians frequently charges them to keep themselves in the unity and communion of the Christian Church by a regular obedience to the Bishops and by communication with the Priests who were set over them by the Authority of Episcopal Order and to disobey those Bishops and their Presbyters and to separate from them is in those Epistles charg'd with Schism Athanasius brands Ischyras for a Schismatick and justifies the charge from this reason that Ischyras did usurp a Ministerial Authority without a regular Ordination from the Bishops of the Catholick Church and gathered to himself a distinct Congregation separate from the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Alexandria in whose Province he lived St. Cyprian in his fortieth Epistle ad populum Carthaginensem de quinque Presbyteris Schismaticis exhorts them to have no communion with those who had divided themselves from their Bishops for he tells them in that Epistle That to be sine Episcopis was to be extra Ecclesiam And in his Book de Unitate he gives us this notion of Schism Contemptis Episcopis derelictis Dei Sacerdotibus constituere aliud Altare or Conventicula diversa constituere That it was Schism to contemn and forsake the Bishops and Priests of God and to set up another Altar or to settle distinct Conventicles And this he accounts so foul a crime that he tells us in the same discourse Talis etiamsi occisi in confessione fuerint Macula ista nec sanguine abluitur inexpiabilis gravis culpa discordiae nec passione purgatur That Martyrdom it self cannot expiate the guilt of Schisim And when Maximus Urbanus Sydonius and Macarius return'd from the Novatian faction into the communion of the Church they express it thus Episcopo nostro pacem fecimus they had reconcil'd themselves to the Bishop and this was enough to assure St. Cyprian they had renounc'd their Schism and were restor'd to the Churches communion I will end this with the assertion of St. Augustine Radix Christianae societatis per sedes Apostolorum successiones Episcoporum certâ per orbem propagatione diffunditur i. e. the root or foundation of unity or communion in the Christian Church is founded in the several Seats of the Apostles and diffused through the Christian World by the certain propagation or succession of Bishops Therefore in the judgement of St. Augustine all those persons or societies that have divided themselves from the Bishops and Priests of the Apostolick succession are but wild plants and no branches of the Catholick stock I could fill many Pages more with Testimonies of the same nature but such numerous Quotations would look like Pedantick impertinence and I doubt not but those Authorities I have already mentioned will perswade you to believe That a total separation from the Orders and Government of Bishops was constantly adjudg'd to be Schism by the concurrent sentiments of the antient Church And now Sir having examined these Testimonies I may proceed to sentence That seeing the Teachers of our Non-conforming Congregations in England were never regularly Ordain'd to any Ministerial Function by the hands of the Bishops deriving their Authority from Apostolick succession and seeing their Leaders and their blind Proselytes have wholly withdrawn themselves from the Conduct Government of Episcopal Authority I shall therefore adventure to pronounce them Schismaticks not only from the Church of England but from the whole Corporation of the Catholick Church Therefore that which the Doctor so Magisterially asserts at the end of his seventeenth Page is no Axiom of Divinity for I have already prov'd that a man may be Schismatick from the whole Catholick Church on earth without Heresie or Apostasie The premises being considered will furnish us with an Answer to that passionate Harangue pag. 21. Do we not own Christ his Gospel the same points of faith the same acts of Worship where is the Separation then This St. Augustine tells us was the same Plea of the Donatists and might have been urged by the Novatians and Schismatick Presbyters of Carthage but it would not acquit them from Schism nor will it vindicate our English Sectaries Corah and his confederate Mutineers were neither Hereticks nor Apostates but men of the same Creed with Moses and Aaron their crime was the violating
that subordination which God had appointed and not submitting themselves to the Superiour Authority of the Priesthood And Sir it may be worth your observation that this Plea of the Doctor and that of the Hebrew Rebels have the same sense for just thus they plead Numb 16. 3. All the Congregation is holy every one of them that is in the Doctor 's phrase Do we not own Moses his Laws the same points of faith the same acts of Worship But this plausible plea would not prevail nor mitigate the provocation for God punished one Schism with another The earth rent and swallowed them up and with open mouth taught the rest of the Church to keep Unity and Order as well as the profession of a true Religion Therefore the Answer is very easie to the Doctor 's ruffling Question Do we not own Christ his Gospel the same points of faith the same acts of Worship where is the separation then Why Sir the separation is in dividing from the communion of all the Bishops and Episcopal Presbyters who in a constant line succeeding the Apostles have only a just and regular Authority to govern and guide the Christian Church The Doctor in the beginning of pag. 34. tells us That a controversie among them of the same communion is the chief if not the only notion of Schism that the Scripture gives us I confess the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schism in its general notion signifies any manner of separation or division and therefore I do acknowledge that those dissentions that were within the bowels of the Apostolick and Catholick Church were called Schisms both in the Scripture and in the Writings of the antient Fathers but this does not hinder but that the same word may be used to signifie a separation from the Catholick Church for if a wound in the body may be called a Schism sure Amputation or the cutting off from the body is the greatest rent and Schism in the World For though there were indeed divisions in the Church of Corinth where some were for Paul and some for Apollos and some for Cephas this at the worst was but a faction or a breach of charity but it was not properly Schism in the highest sense of the word for they still setled themselves under the Government and Ministry of the Apostles or some Presbyters ordained by the hands of the Apostles But those Conventicles that crept into houses and formed Assemblies distinct from the communion of the Apostolick Church those that heaped to themselves Teachers which as the phrase imports were not set over them by Apostolick Order and Institution those that despised Dominion and sake evil of those Dignities which did superintend the Government of the Church These men St. Jude tell us were those that did separate themselves that is were Schismaticks and just so are their Brethren the Sectaries of England Before I proceed to the next enquiry that concerns the Schism from the Church of England it will be necessary to state the right notion of the Catholick Church according to the sense of the antient Councils and Fathers The Doctor and his Complices are for Comprehension and give us a very wide notion of the Catholick Church for they will have all men that profess the name of Christ though in some things Hereticks and Schismaticks too yet to be included within the boundaries of the Catholick Church But I observe the Antients would not endure this Comprehension for they reckoned none to be in the communion of the Catholick Church but those who confessed the common faith delivered to the Saints and kept themselves under the Orders and Government of the Bishops who were the Apostles Successors and therefore oft-times in Councils and antient Epistles we find this Superscription To the Catholick Church in Antioch To the Catholick Church of Alexandria To the Catholick Church of Rome c. this still being used in contradistinction from the Novatians Arrians and Donatists which the antient Church look'd upon as Schismaticks and extra Ecclesiam Now having advanc'd thus far the way is prepared for the second enquiry Whether our Non-conformists are guilty of Schism from the Church of England And I doubt not but to prove the Affirmative The Church of England adhere to that Creed which was delivered by the Apostles professed by the antient Primitive Church and confirm'd by the first four General Councils it hath preserv'd the Unity of Government by a succession of Bishops in the Apostolick line as appears from the undoubted Archives and Records of England Therefore we are secured that it is in the Unity of the Catholick Church and a most excellent part of it Now as our Christianity obliges us to be members of that body of Christ the Catholick Church So the eternal reasons of Peace and Order bind us to communicate with that part of the Catholick Church in which our lot hath plac'd us except it can manifestly appear that that part is so corrupted that we cannot communicate with it without evident hazard of our salvation It were an unpardonable disorder for a Native of England dwelling in London to contemn the Laws of our Prince and to govern himself by the Placaets of the United Provinces and it were as great a confusion for those who live within the Jurisdiction of the Church of England to submit themselves to the Orders and Government of Rome or Geneva Before the Papal Usurpation of Universal Monarchy the Patriarchs of the Christian Church had their distinct Limits and Jurisdictions The Patriarch of Constantinople had his peculiar Primacy or Regiment and was not to intermeddle with the Province of Alexandria and so the Bishop of Rome had his peculiar Jurisdiction and was allowed no inspection over Constantinople Antioch or Alexandria and these distinct boundaries were fixed by a Canon of the Council of Nice and because it conâ—utes both the Papal Supremacy and Puritanical Anarchy I will give you the copy of that Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Let the antient customs be in force Let the Bishop of Alexandria have the Jurisdiction of Aegypt Libya and Pentapolis as likewise the Bishop of Rome was accustomed to have in his Province and so let the Churches of Antioch and other Provinces keep their peculiar priviledges And so the Christians dwelling under these distinct Patriarchates were obliged to a respective obedience to their peculiar Provincial and to divide themselves from their proper Patriarch or Bishop was accounted Schism in the antient Church Timothy being constituted Bishop of all the Diocess of Ephesus the Christians residing within that Precinct were obliged by the rules of Order to submit themselves to his peculiar inspection and it had been Schism to have disobeyed him or separated themselves from his Jurisdiction St. Ambrose observed this decorum himself as he tells us by St. Augustin in an Epistle of his ad Januarium Cum Romae sum jejuno Sabbato cum hic sum non
jejuno and so St. Augustin counsels Januarius Sic etiam tu ad quam forte Ecclesiam veneris ejus morem serva which plainly concludes that Christian peace and order requires that we should conform to the Rites and Canons of that Church in whose Jurisdiction we live The five Presbyters of Carthage were by St. Cyprian sentenced for Schismaticks because being within the Diocess of Carthage and so under his inspection they notwithstanding gathered to themselves Assemblies and exercised Ministerial Offices without his Authority And for the same reason Athanasius accused Ischyras of Schism for modelling a Congregation in Mareoles without any subjection or dependance upon him the Bishop of Alexandria unto whose Jurisdiction that Countrey belonged for he shews us his Title in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. All the Presbyters of this Province have their peculiar Cures or Parishes but all the Churches of this Region are under the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Alexandria And the very same thing Epiphanius tells us in his second Book adversus Haereses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That there were several Parochial Churches in which the Inhabitants might assemble with greater convenience and these Congregations were under the Ministery of peculiar Presbyters but all these Presbyters and their respective Churches were governed by the Superintendence of the Arch-bishop of Alexandria and this was the universal model of unity and order in all other Provinces of the Catholick Church Now the Arch-bishops of Canterbury and York have as much Jurisdiction over the Christians in England as Athanasius had over the Province of Alexandria or St. Cyprian in the Diocess of Carthage for beside the Right of Church-Government which their succession from the Apostles give them they are impowr'd to exercise their Jurisdiction by the Laws of our Christian Prince and therefore those Societies of Christians living under the Jurisdiction of the Arch-bishops and Bishops of England and yet do separate from their communion and Government are Schismaticks from the Church of England To conclude this if the Novatians and Donatists if the five Presbyters of Carthage if Ischyras in Alexandria were Schismaticks if from the Ascension of our Lord to his second Advent there was or can be a Schismatick then the Sectaries of England are Schismaticks not only from the Church of England but from the whole Catholick Church Having thus stated the antient notion of Schism and found it a henous impiety though our Non-conformists sport with it as an Ecclesiastical Scarecrow I shall next do them the justice to examine the Doctors Plea and see how well he vindicates them from the guilt of Schism First He denyes that there is any such creature as a National stated governing Church of England If the Doctor means by all these rumbling Epithets of stated National governing organical Church of England that there is no such distinct organical Church in England that is a separate body from the Catholick Church I am then of his opinion But if he means that the Bishops of England have no power of Government over the Christians in England it is a very foul mistake to speak in the modestest phrase for I have already prov'd that the Arch-bishops and Bishops have as much Jurisdiction in their respective Provinces and Dioceses of England as any other Patriarchs and Bishops of the Catholick Church ever had in theirs and if the Act of Uniformity be a Law I am sure there is such an establish'd being as a National Church In Pag. 30. his gravity drolls and gives us a very merry Argument to prove that there is no such creature as a National Church of England for sayes he Whoso will erect a stated National governing Church in England must find us an Officer clothed with Authority to excommunicate from Michael ' s Mount in Cornwall to Carlisle in Berwick Now Sir let this pass for a piece of wit though it is as wide from reason as Cornwall from Berwick What though the Bishop of Antioch could not excommunicate from Antioch to Constantinople and from thence to the borders of Persia must there therefore be no governing Church in Greece and might the Christians in Antioch by that Logick separate themselves from the communion and jurisdiction of their proper Patriarchs without Schism If our Author could have prov'd that there were any Provinces or Natives of England that were de jure exempt from the Canons of this Church and the jurisdiction of the English Bishops then there had been something of argument But if the Doctor for contumacy and disorder should be excommunicated from Church of England in Berwick I am sure without absolution de jure he could not communicate with any Assembly of the Church in England though he travail'd from Berwick to Carlisle and from thence to Mount Michael in Cornwall and this I fancy does strongly conclude That the Church of England is such a part of the Catholick Church which hath a proper and peculiar jurisdiction over all the Christians in this Kingdom Our Doctor pag. 10. sect 12. owns it as a confess'd principle That every individual member of the Church Catholick visible is bound in duty both to God and his own soul to joyn himself to some particular Society of Christians with which he may enjoy all the Ordinances of God so as may be for his souls advantage Well then why do they not communicate with the Church of England where all the Ordinances of God are observ'd and solemniz'd with as much gravity and faithfulness as in any other part of the Catholick Church To this he answers pag. 11. That the business is so stated by the Act of Uniformity that they cannot communicate with us without doing what they judge to be sinful There is nothing can justly be called sinful but what transgresses some manifest Law of God or Nature and could the Doctor have prov'd that any thing practised or enjoyn'd by the Church of England did violate any of those Divine Rules his Plea had been allowed and his Party might vindicate their Non-conformity But to Transgress a plain Law of God to disobey the Orders of our Governours and yet to give us no better reason for it than to say they fancy the things are sinful is so far from excusing that it aggravates the guilt For First Their disobedience is an affront to their Governours and then the doing this only upon the account of their own judgement or fancy is an affront to God for private conscience to usurp the Soveraignty of God and to lay such Divine Obligations upon the soul and mind which God never impos'd The nature and guilt of this disobedience is exactly represented by the story of the young Prophet 1 Kings 13. he was sent to prophesie against the Altar in Bethel now Jeroboam having cast off all the Priests and Levites of the Aaronical line and erected a new model of Religion therefore that the young Prophet might have no communion
were of none at all Sir There are many impertinencies in that little Book which I thought not worthy the examination and which your Judgement will easily answer from the grounds of this discourse Such is his branding Parish Churches for a Popish invention which any sober man would rather have thought to have been the contrivance of Reason and convenience for we find this invention elder than the Pope for they were founded in the Province of Alexandria in the dayes of Athanasius as Athanasius and Epiphanius inform us Such another impertinence is his tedious Harangue about Separation from Parochial Organical Churches which no way concern the constitution of the Catholick Church or the Church of England for though deserting our Parish Church in some circumstance may be a disorder yet it is no Schism if we communicate with any other regular Assembly of the same communion Athanasius does not accuse Ischyras of Schism for separating from his Parochial Congregation and Priest but for erecting a Conventicle and dividing from the Bishop and the whole Catholick Church in Alexandria As for Mr. H's Discourse about the Obligation of Humane Laws I shall refer him for an Answer to St. Paul and Bishop Sanderson and when they are answered we must enquire further I take no notice of the Railery against Ceremonies The necessity of them in Publick Worship and the Authority of the Church in enjoyning them is substantially prov'd by Mr. Hooker and lately by Mr. Falkner and if their Reasons will not prevail I will not pretend to work a Miracle or hope to open the eyes of them who are resolv'd to be blind Sir I hope that these Papers will satisfie you that these men are Schismaticks and assure you that I am Sir Your faithful Friend and Servant R. C. Honoured Sir THere lately came to my hand the Works of Mr. Hales Entituled Golden Remains The most Sacred of these Reliques is a little Tract of Schism which you find celebrated by the High and Mighty Transproser and applauded by your Doctor of Divinity and is the fam'd Sanctuary of our dividing Parties Therefore having some Months since presented you with my thoughts concerning Schism I thought my self oblig'd to an impartial perusal of this Famous Tract for fear I might through weakness of judgement have impos'd an error upon you and my self I found the Remains of Mr. Hales prefac'd with so vast an Encomium of the Author that I address'd my self to his Tract of Schism with a very awful reverence resolving to submit to the clearest Reasons and not to be asham'd to be convinc'd by a Person of that admir'd Acuteness But having with the most strict intention consider'd that Discourse I find my notion of Schism left untouch'd But because our Non-conformists so oft Appeal to this Tractate I resolv'd to consider how far it could serve their Interest and justifie their Separation First therefore he informs us That there are two things which serve to compleat a Schism 1. The choice of a Bishop in opposition to the former 2. The erecting of a Church or Oratory for the dividing parties to meet in Now I acknowledge this notion of Schism to be both Antient and Orthodox Schism being consider'd as a breach of charity or a dissolving of that Bond of Peace which we are so often solemnly changed to preserve inviolate And without a great and evident necessity this Dividing must be very displeasing unto the Prince of Peace who did command us to be One even as He and the Father are One. Of this nature was the Schism of the Arrians Miletians and Donatiss at their first dividing They set up Altar against Altar had Bishops of their own party and their peculiar Oratories and would have no communion with the Bishops or Assemblies of that standing part that alwayes called themselves the Catholick Church The Church of England by the title of long prescription and the establishment of a Law is the standing Church of this Nation with which all the people of this Kingdom are bound to communicate But our Non-conformists have chosen to themselves Pastors in opposition to the Bishops and Priests of the Church of England and have erected their distinct Congregations to confront our Church Assemblies and therefore by Mr. Hales's definition they are guilty of compleat Schism But Sir it must be observ'd that these men have run further than the Arrians Miletians and Donatists did at their first dividing for though they had so little charity as for a matter of dispute to divide from the communion of the other part of the Church yet they had so much Prudence as they preserv'd to themselves some Bishops and Priests who had receiv'd their Consecration and Orders from the Catholick Church and when their Bishops and Priesthood were worn out the Factions expir'd for they were not arriv'd to such a height of Fanaticism as to think themselves a Church without the Government and Priesthood of the Apostolick line No they were so sacred and curious in this that I find the Arrians cavilling at the Ordination of Athanasius as not being Catholick and Canonical just as the Papists objected against us the Naggs-head Consecration And by the way that was the most weighty and considerable attempt that ever Rome made upon the Church of England and could they clearly have invalidated and disannull'd our succession of Bishops and Priesthood all the learning of England could not have prov'd us a Catholick Church But this Cavil was with demonstration confuted by that elaborate Piece of Mr. Mason Arch-Deacon of Norfolk Sir I hope that the merit of this Digression will beg its own pardon But to return to our English Sectaries according to Mr. Hales's notion it would be indeed a very unhappy Schism in the Church of England for the Bishop of Norwich and his Presbyters and Jurisdiction to divide from the communion of the Archbishop of Canterbury and to set up a Church of the East Angles divided from that of the West But supposing this there were yet left to us this satisfaction that we were still under the Government and Ministry of that Bishop and Priesthood of whose Consecration and Orders we were sufficiently assur'd and though this would be an unlucky Faction in the English Hierarchy yet it would be no Schism from the Catholick Church But our Separatists are run to a further distance for they have not set up Altar against Altar or one Bishop in opposition to another but have thrown off all the Bishops and Priests of the Apostolick Succession and have erected a Synagogue against the Church and set up a Lay-Elder in opposition to the Bishop and Priest And this is not only a disobedience against the Laws and a Schism from the establish'd Church of England but is a separation from the Catholick Church And seeing our Sectaries have no Priesthood I believe their Conventicles to be no more a Church than a Club of Mechanicks in a Coffee-house For though some of these
Congregations may retain Imposition of hands as a mockery of Ordination yet the imposing of Lay-hands have no more power to confer Priesthood than I to have to constitute a Judge of Oyer and Terminer Mr. Hales makes Schism and Sedition of a very resembling nature He tells us That Sedition is a Lay Schism and Schism is an Ecclesiastical Sedition Now 't is true it would be a great Sedition to set up a Prince of the Blood in opposition to our Soveraign who by long and Legal Investiture hath been possessed of Regal Supremacy But it would be Sedition of a deeper dye to renounce all Allegiance to our Prince and to cast off the whole Royal Line and to set up a Forreigner or one who had no alliance to the Royal Blood Thus if to set up one Bishop in opposition to another though both be of the same Apostolick succession if this be a Schism and a great disorder then sure for our Sectaries to cast off all the Bishops and Priests of the Catholick Church and to set up such Teachers and Governours who have no relation to the Sacerdotal Line this must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the outmost and most Schismatical separation from the Catholick Church But Mr. Hales proceeds and gives us a distinction of Schism There is a Schism where only one part is the Schismatick for where the occasion is necessary there not he that separates but he that is the cause of the Separation is the Schismatick This shall be allowed to be Orthodox too and when our Non-conformists can demonstrate that it is necessary for them to separate from the Church of England we will take off the Indictment and absolve them from Schism But they must prove this necessity from weightier Topicks than Fringe and Lace They must make it evident that they cannot communicate with us without manifest dishonour to God affront to Jesus and his holy Religion and evident hazard of their salvation But this can never be prov'd but from the New Gospel of private Conscience for I am sure the Church of England is so happily constituted that there is no Law nor Canon in the four Evangelists or in the Apostolick Acts or Epistles that will justifie a separation from it much less vote it to be necessary Secondly Our Author tells us That there is a Schism in which both parties are the Schismaticks for where the occasion of Separation is unnecessary neither side can be excused from the guilt of Schism An instance of this he gives us in that great division between the Eastern and WesternChurches about the Observation of Easter I confess I can make no Defence for the Churches of the East or West for that uncharitable division upon the account of a different Ceremony for sure the several parts of the Catholick Church might have enjoy'd their peculiar Rites and usages and yet preserv'd an entire peace and universal communion I am of St. Austin's mind Totum hoc genus liberas habet observationes nec Disciplina ulla est in his melior gravi prudentique Christiano quam ut eo modo agat quo agere viderit Ecclesiam ad quamcunque forte devenerit But how this Instance of the Paschal Schism should be improv'd to serve the Interest of our English Sectaries I can no way discern He that can from hence extract a Plea for our Non-conformists must have greater skill in Theological Chymistry than I dare pretend to For though this unhappy controversie occasioned a breach of charity and communion yet here was no departure from the Catholick Church on either side nor any violation of Order and Government for the Christians of the East observ'd the Canons and Customs of the Eastern Church and submitted themselves to the Government and Ministery of those Bishops and Priests in whose Jurisdiction they liv'd and so likewise in the West vice versa And would our Non-conformists learn but so much Order and Obedience there were an end of the Schism Thus I have consider'd the Theorems of our Admir'd Author and I find no mischief in them but there are still behind such a Train of consequences as in my opinion are of very evil insinuation and do no way merit to be reckon'd among his Golden Remains I cannot approve of his severe Censure upon the Antient Church upon the account of the Paschal difference for he interprets that Breach to be a just judgement of God But then Sir mark the Provocation because sayes he that through sloth and blind obedience men examin'd not the things which they were taught but like Beasts of Burden patiently couch'd down and indifferently underwent whatever their Superiours laid upon them I abhorr the Barbarity of rifling Sepulchres or disturbing the Ashes of the Dead But I wish our ingenious Author had invented some kinder Emblems for the Antient Christians than Ass and Camel For though they were so humble and peaceable as quietly to submit to the Orders of their Spiritual Governours yet they were not so tame as to truckle to an Idol though commanded to couch by Imperial Injunctions I will never plead for a brutish inadvertency or a blind and unchristian obedience to our Superiours The Church provides by a Canon that all Christians should once be Catechumeni instructed in the plain Fundamentals of Faith and Piety and therefore it is not intended that men should be impos'd upon in matters that concern their common salvation and there is great reason that in things of that moment men should be cautious and inquisitive But I believe that Apostolick Canon Let all things be done in Decency and Order hath left a great scope to the wisdom of our Superiours to order the publick Administrations of Religion And in institutions of this nature the people being secured of all the pure necessaries to salvation I don't think they are oblig'd to any further examination their greatest duty in this case is a quiet submission The Gentile Christians of Antioch knew themselves to be free'd from all Jewish or Levitical Observances but yet when the Council at Jerusalem for prudential Reasons and considerations enjoyn'd them the Abstinence from Blood and things offered to Idols we don't read that they enquir'd any further but quietly obeyed that Canon and yet I hope those primitive Christians deserv'd a better name and character than Beasts of Burden in matters of this nature I cannot yet discern the guilt or irreligion of a blind obedience I could wish that all Christians would keep the common Faith and practise the plain Rules of Christian Religion and these things being preserv'd entire I see no mischief if in other things we should leave our Superiours to govern and submit even with blind obedience and not trouble our selves and the World with nice and scrupulous examinations Blind or unexamining obedience to our Superiours with those limitations I have stated would so much assure the peace and order of the Church that if it were not a vertue yet I am sure it