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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44486	A tract concerning schism and schismaticks wherein is briefly discovered the original causes of all schism / by the ever-memorable Mr. John Hales ...	Hales, John, 1584-1656.	1700 (1700)	Wing H279; ESTC R174	9,812	17

A TRACT CONCERNING SCHISM AND Schismaticks Wherein is briefly Discovered The Original Causes of all Schism By the Ever-memorable Mr. JOHN HALES Of Eaton College c. LONDON Printed in the Year MDCC A Tract concerning Schism HEresie and Schism as they are commonly used are two Theological Scare-crows with which they who use to uphold a Party in Religion use to fright away such as making Inquiry into it are ready to relinquish and oppose it if it appear either erroneous and suspicious for as Plutarch reports of a Painter who having unskilfully painted a Cock chased away all Cocks and Hens that so the Imperfection of his Art might not appear by Comparison with Nature so Men willing for Ends to admit of no Fancy but their own endeavour to hinder an Inquiry into it by way of Comparison with somewhat with it peradventure truer that so the Deformity of their own might not appear But howsoever in the common Manage Heresie and Schism are but ridiculous Terms yet the Things in themselves are of very considerable Moment the one offending against Truth the other against Charity and therefore both deadly when they are not by Imputation but indeed It is then a Matter of no small Importance truly to descry the Nature of them and they on the contrary strengthen themselves who through the Iniquity of Men and Times are injuriously charged with them Schism for of Heresie we shall not now treat except it be by Accident and that by occasion of a general Mistake spread through all the Writings of the Ancients in which their Names are familiarly confounded Schism I say upon the very Sound of the Word imports Division Division is not but where Communion is or ought to be Now Communion is the Strength and Ground of all Society whether Sacred or Civil whosoever therefore they be that offend against the common Society and Friendliness of Men if it be in Civil Occasions are guilty of Sedition and Rebellion If it be by reason of Ecclesiastical Difference they are guilty of Schism So that Schism is an Ecclesiastical Sedition as Sedition is a Lay Schism Yet the great Benefits of Communion notwithstanding in regard of divers Distempers Men are subject to Dissention and Disunion are often necessary For when either false or uncertain Conclusions are obtruded for Truth and Acts either unlawful or ministring just Scruple are required of us to be perform'd in these Cases Consent were Conspiracy and open Contestation is not Faction or Schism but due Christian Animosity For the opening therefore of the Nature of Schism something may be added by way of Difference to distinguish it from necessary Separation and that is that the Cause upon which Division is attempted proceed not from Passion or from Distemper or from Ambition or Avarice or such other Ends as Humane Folly is apt to pursue but from well weighed and necessary Reasons and that when all other Means having been tried nothing will serve to save us from guilt of Conscience but open Separation so that Schism if we would define it is nothing else but an unnecessary Separation of Christians from that part of the visible Church of which they were once Members Now As in Mutinies and Civil Dissentions there are two Attendants in Ordinary belonging unto them one the Choice of one Elector or Guide in place of the general or ordinary Governor to rule and guide the other the appointing of some publick Place or Rendezvous where publick Meetings must be celebrated So in Church-dissentions and Quarrels two Appurtenances there are which serve to make Schism compleat First in the Choice of a Bishop in opposition to the former a thing very frequent amongst the Ancients and which many times was the Cause and Effect of Schism Secondly The erecting of a new Church and Oratory for the dividing parts to meet in publickly For till this be done the Schism is but yet in the Womb. In that late famous Controversie in Holland De Praedestinatione auxiliis as long as the disagreeing Parties went no farther than Disputes and Pen-combats the Schism was all that while unhatch'd but as soon as one Party swept an old Cloyster and by a pretty Art suddenly made it a Church by putting a now Pulpit in it for the separating Party there to meet now what before was a Controversie became a formal Schism To know no more than this if you take it to be true had been enough to direct you how you are to judge and what to think of Schism and Schismaticks yet because of the Ancients by whom many are more affrighted than hurt much is said and many fearful Dooms pronounced in this Case We will descend a little to consider of Schism as it were by way of Story and that partly farther to open that which we have said in General by instancing in Particulars and partly to disabuse those who reverencing Antiquity more than needs have suffer'd themselves to be scar'd with Imputation of Schism above due measure for what the Ancients spake by way of Censure of Schism in General is most true for they saw and it is no great matter to see so much that unadvised and open Fancy to break the Knot of Union betwixt Man and Man especially amongst Christians upon whom above all other kind of Men the Tye of Love and Communion doth most especially rest was a Crime hardly pardonable and that nothing absolves Men from the Guilt of it but true and unpretended Conscience Yet when they came to pronounce of Schism in Particular whether it was because of their own Interest or that they saw not the Truth or for what other cause God only doth know their Judgments many times to speak most gently were justly to be suspected Which that you may see we will range all Schism into two Ranks First is a Schism in which only one Party is the Schismatick for where Cause of Schism is necessary there not he that separates but he that is the cause of separation is the Schismatick Secondly 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 But you will ask Who shall be the Judge what is necessary Indeed it is a Question which hath been often made but I think scarcely ever truly answered not because it is a Point of great depth and difficulty truly to assoil it but because the true Solution of it carries sire in the tail of it for it bringeth with it a piece of Doctrine which is seldom pleasing to Superiors to you for the present this shall suffice If so be you be anima defaecato if you have cleared your self from Froath and Growns if neither Sloth nor Fear nor Ambition nor any tempting Spirit of that nature abuse you for these and such as these are the true Impediments why both that and other Questions of the like danger are not truly answer'd if all this be

and yet you know not how to frame your Resolution and settle your self for that doubt I will say no more of you than was said of Papias St. John's own Scholar Your Abilities are not so good as I presumed But to go on with what I intended and from that that diverted me that you may the better judge of the nature of Schisms by their occasions you shall find that all Schisms have crept into the Church by one of these three ways either upon matter of Fact or upon matter of Opinion or point of Ambition for the first I call that matter of Fact when something is required to be done by us which either we know or strongly suspect to be unlawful So the first notable Schism of which we read in the Church contained in it matter of Fact for it being upon Error taken for necessary that an Easter must be kept and upon worse than Error if I may so speak for it was no less than a Point of Judaism forced upon the Church upon worse than Error I say thought farther necessary that the Ground of the Time for keeping of that Feast must be the Rule left by Moses to the Jews there arose a stout Question Whether we were to celebrate with the Jews on the fourteenth Moon or the Sunday following This matter tho' most unnecessary most vain yet caused as great a Combustion as ever was in the Church the West separating and refusing Communion with the East for many Years together In this fantastical Hurry I cannot see but all the World were Schismaticks neither can any thing excuse them from that Imputation excepting only this that we charitably suppose that all Parties did what they did out of Conscience a thing which befel them through the ignorance of their Guides for I will not say through their Malice and that through the just Judgment of God because through Sloth and blind Obedience Men examined not the things which they were taught but like Beasts of Burthen patiently couch'd down and indifferently underwent whatsoever their Superiors laid upon them By the way by this we may plainly see the danger of our Appeal to Antiquity for Resolution in controverted Points of Faith and how small Relief we are to expect from thence for if the Discretion of the chiefest Guides and Directors of the Church did in a Point so trivial so inconsiderable so mainly fail them as not to see the Truth in a Subject wherein it is the greatest Marvel how they could avoid the Sight of it Can we without the Imputation of great Grossness and Folly think so poor-spirited Peasons competent Judges of the Questions now on foot betwixt the Churches Pardon me I know what Temptation drew that Note from me The next Schism which had in it matter of Fact is that of the Donatists who were perswaded at least pretended so that it was unlawful to converse or communicate in Holy Duties with Men stained in any notorious Sin for howsoever that Austin do specifie only the Thurificati Traditores and Libellatioi c. as if he separated only from those whom he found to be such yet by necessary proportion he must referr to all notorious Sinners Upon this he taught that in all Places where Good and Bad were mix'd together there could be no Church by reason of Pollution co-operating away from Sinners which blasted righteous Persons which conversed with them and made all unclean On this Ground separating himself from all that he list to suspect he gave out that the Church was no where to be found but in him and his Associates as being the only Men among whom wicked Persons found no Shelter and by consequence the only clean and unpolluted Company and therefore the only Church Against this St. Augustine laid down this Conclusion Vnitatem Ecclesiae per totum mundum dispersae praeceptam non esse disserendam which is indeed the whole Summ of that Father's Disputation against the Donatists Now in one part of this Controversie one thing is very remarkable The Truth was there where it was by meer Chance and might have been on either side the reason brought by either Party notwithstanding For tho' it were de facto false that pars Donati shut up in Africk was the only Orthodox Party yet it might be true notwithstanding any thing St. Augustine brings to confute it and on the contrary tho' it were de facto true that the Part of Christians dispersed over the whole Earth were Orthodox yet it might have been false notwithstanding any thing St. Augustine brings to confirm it For where or amongst whom or how many the Church shall be or is is a thing indifferent it may be in any Number more or less it may be in any Place Country or Nation it may be in all and for ought I know it may be in none without the Prejudice to the Definition of a Church or the Truth of the Gospel North or South many or few dispersed in many Places or confined to one None of these do either prove or disprove a Church Now this Schism and likewise that former to a wise Man that well understands the Matter in Controversie may afford perchance Matter of Pity to see Men so strangely distracted upon Fancy but of doubt or trouble what to do it can yield none for tho' in this Schism the Donatist be the Schismatick and in the former both Parties be equally engaged in the Schism yet you may safely upon your Occasions communicate with either if so be you flatter neither in their Schism For why might it not be lawful to go to Church with the Donatist or to celebrate Easter with the Quartodeciman if occasion so require since neither Nature nor Religion nor Reason doth suggest any thing of moment to the contrary For in all Publick Meetings pretending Holiness so there be nothing done but what true Devotion and Piety brook why may I not be present in them and use communion with them Nay what if those to whom the execution of the publick Service is committed do something either unseemly or suspicious or peradventure unlawful what if the Garments they wear be censured nay indeed be suspicious what if the Gesture or Adoration to be used to the Altars as now we have learned to speak what if the Homilist have preached or delivered any Doctrine of the Truth of which we are not well perswaded a thing which very often falls out yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained personally to bear part in them our selves The Priests under Ely had so ill demeaned themselves about the daily Sacrifices that the Scripture tells us they made them to stink yet the People refused not to come to the Tabernacle nor to bring their Sacrifice to the Priest For in those Schisms which concern Fact nothing can be a just cause of refusing of Communion but only to require the execution of some unlawful or suspected Act for not only in Reason