for me to desire you to define what you meant by it when considered as Catholick and Universal when in a more restrained Sence seeing as I had shewn you seem to have no other Idea of it but as particular visible nay and that national too or at least as being the only true Church within the Nation or City where one resides Here I shew'd that you applied that to the Visible National Church which belongs to the Invisible as well as Visible Church where it lay not upon me to prove that the Influences and Operations of the Holy Spirit are not confined to the Visible Church 'T was enough to have shewn that you had no ground for what you had said from the Text which will not bear that restraint And the same thing is obvious of what you call my Attempt to prove Congregational Churches from 1 Cor. 14. 23. For how can you prove that one ought to communicate with the National Church and not communicate with any other Congregation from what proves no more than that you ought to meet in some publick Place of Worship even according to your own Argument in the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet which is no beter than to argue that because you must go to some Church therefore you must to this Not being concern'd for Congregational Churches more than others I should not give my self the trouble to examine what you say against them did not you oblige me to a small Diversion to observe how wonderfully you prove that it is very plain that the Apostle in 1 Cor. cap. 14. means no more but that all the Members of the Church do worship God in the publick Assembly of the Church tho not all in the same Assembly and Congregation where to oppose aright you should have made it in those publick Assemblies which meet together in one place for there is no doubt but successive Assemblies must be meant or else there could be no Provision for more than one Meeting and then how can you without begging the Question maintain that when the Women are commanded to keep silence in the Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it might not be spoke of several successive Assemblies still in one place Nor are you more happy in encountring the difficulty upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You say indeed it is very plain that it does not always signify one place And who says it does when Circumstances determine it another way but how can you affirm it to be so here without still begging the Question For your purpose you instance in Acts 4. 26 27. The Kings of the Earth stood up and the Rulers were gathered together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against the Lord and against his Christ c. This you say well signifies no more than an Agreement and Conspiracy in one Design But would not the most proper Inference from this Quotation be that as a Conspiracy may by a Figure be called a Meeting together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore t is not to be proved from that Text which prohibits a forsaking the assembling together that those who live in a Church need actually to assemble together but if they agree in the same Lord the same Faith the same Baptism they may be said to gather together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You cite another Text Acts 2. 44. And all that believed were together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indeed this signifies no more then that they were together and being together may be granted not to refer to their religious Assemblies but their common Abode but what is this to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If therefore the whole Church come together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where one would think 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not added for nothing but must signify the same place And to my thinking there is another Passage in this Epistle to the Corinthians which regards them as a Church that used to assemble together in one place which is where the Apostle directs them to excommunicate a notorious Sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 When ye are met together and my Spirit c. Do you think that there was any need of a Miracle to pronounce the Sentence of Excommunication and that it must be done in the very same moment in distant Congregations I may be bold to say that neither Scripture nor the Homilies take notice of your fancied Catholick or National Communion If you say that what we find in the Homilies to this purpose being spoke in a Church already constituted must relate to the present Constitution so may it be said of the Apostle's Exhortation to that Church to which he wrote which for ought yet appears was a single Independent Congregation Yet it may be a Question whether such Limitation can be supposed to have been intended in the following Words which you may read in the Homilies Churches are not destitute of Promises for as much as our Saviour Christ saith Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst among them A great number therefore coming to Church together in the Name of Christ have there that is to say in their Church their God and Saviour Christ Jesus present among the Congregation of his faithful People by his Grace by his Favour and godly Assistance according to his most and comfortable Promise Now concerning the Place where the People of God ought to resort together and where especially they ought to celebrate and sanctify the Sabbath-Day that Place is called the Temple or Church because the Company or Congregation of God's People which is properly called the Church doth there assemble themselves The holy Patriarchs for a great Number of Years had neither Temple nor Church to resort unto In the time of Christ and his Apostles there were no Temples nor Churches for Christian Men for why they were always or for the most part in Persecution Vexation and Trouble so that there could be no Liberty nor Licence obtained for that purpose yet God delighted much that they should often resort together in one Place c. But then speaking of the building of Churches afterwards it says And to these Temples have Christians customably used to resort c. True it is that the chief and special Temples of God wherein he hath greatest Pleasure and most delighteth to dwell are the Bodies and Minds of true Christians and the chosen People of God according to the Doctrine of Holy Scriptures c. Yet this notwithstanding God doth allow the material Temple made with Lime and Stone c. How far this agrees with your Notion That such Temples of God cease to be so if they are divided from or shut out of these material Temples I cannot see nor how you have brought your Notion of a Church into Conformity with the 19th Article which I before mentioned but you thought fit to
call this a sinful Term in that Respect be pleas'd to consider again how a Church commanding things sinful and admitting none into Communion with it but upon those sinful Terms can avoid the Imputation of being Schismatical in its Frame and essential Constitution any more than the Independents for requiring a new Church-Covenant If you say the Church may quit those Terms and still continue a sound Church so may they and yet continue Independent But if I ought to learn my Catechism from our Church it self rather than from any Doctor in it I should think that whereever there is any Congregation or Fellowship of God's faithful and elect People built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ being the Head Corner-stone that must be such a Church as cannot possibly differ in its essential Frame and Constitution from any other sound Church But when you say 'T is impossible that a Church which is not Schismatical should excommunicate Schismatically 't is worth enquiring whether you mean That tho it does enjoin Terms sinful and unlawful in themselves and excommunicate them who cannot comply in such Matters it has by that exercise of its Power of the Keys deprived those Dissenters of Catholick Communion as not being Schismatical in its essential Frame and Constitution Being excellent good at leaving out the Force of any Question to which you are loth to give a direct Answer you say my three first Queries relating to the meaning of the Text come onely to this Whether every particular Church may not be called the Body of Christ Whereas it was Whether it might not be an entire Body And you yield my Question yet you say all the Churches in the World are but one Body and must be but one Communion Which if you will allow to be by virtue of a mystical or spiritual Union need not be disputed Yet it being a Question Whether you would yield a particular Church to be a proper Body of Christ why might I not ask Whether it may not at least be taken so in a Metaphorical Sence And surely you who have been charg'd to turn the Priesthood of our Saviour from proper into Metaphorical might well enough understand what I meant by this Word But if you consider the Force of the Question upon the Text it is to know your Warrant for arguing that it is always Schism to refuse the Communion of any sound Church where-ever you find it whether it has Authority over you or no from a Text which only charges Schism upon Members of the same particular Church or Body of Christ with which they did actually communicate For my 4th Query from the Text of the Nature of Schism you condemn me to the Drudgery of examining the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet But as you speak not directly to it I shall here take it for unanswered yet I shall not deny it some Consideration in its due time But thus you say you have honestly answered all my Queries in my first Letter And truly the Judgment of Charity obliges me to hope that you have according to the Intention of your own Mind And yet 't is a very difficult thing to believe that you should not have discernment enough of your self to see through all your false Colours If they are Errors of your Understanding I hope God will not call you to so severe an Account for them as you threaten to well-meaning Dissenters My second Letter you may if you please term peevish for conjuring you as a Protestant Divine to answer my Doubts categorically and that without referring me to what Mr. D. or any profest Papist had writ on that Subject But perhaps very few Men that observe the Neighbourhood of the Doctrines through Mediums not far differing leading to the like End will much condemn the Caution which I there gave you Wherefore to vindicate my self to you I shall give a taste of your Agreement with Popish Mediums And since you disown D lism shall as much as conveniently may be strip your Positions of what is directly his way And perhaps it will not seem improbable that you should have borrowed some of those Arguments which I look upon as tending to or proceeding from Uncharitableness from the Author of Charity maintained by Catholicks His Labour is to prove all Protestants Schismaticks because they withdrew from the Communion of the visible Church that is in his Sence the Church of Rome and those that were in Communion with her And he cites St. Austin to prove That not a diverse Faith but the divided Society of Communion doth make Schismaticks From whence he argues That the Catholick or Universal Church is one Congregation or Company of Faithful People and therefore implies not only Faith to make them faithful Believers but also Communion or common Union to make them one in Charity which excludes Separation and Division He goes on By the Definition of Schism may be inferred that the Guilt thereof is contracted not only by Division from the Universal Church but also by a Separation from a particular Church or Diocess which agrees with the Universal You would prove That Men as they would avoid the Sin of Schism must communicate with the National Church or with some Church that is in Communion with it and reject the Communion of all other Parties and Sects of Christians Indeed you will say that you qualify it if the National Church be sound that is if there be nothing sinful in its Constitution and Worship Yet 't is a Question whether your Arguments go not as far as the Jesuit's For you suppose with him that there must be some particular Church with which we must communicate under Church-Officers Or to use your own Words We must of necessity join in the actual and visible Communion of the Church Suppose the Dissenters say with Mr. Chillingworth We don't leave the Church but only its external Communion You look upon that as absurd and wonder that they should assign Reasons why they cannot communicate with us and yet at the same time will not own that they have made any Separation Nay you affirm That for two Churches to renounce each others Communion or at least to withdraw ordinary Communion from each other from a profest Dislike and yet still to continue in a State of Communion with one another is a downright Contradiction Well be it so then it seems Protestants by withdrawing from the Communion of the Romish Church put themselves out of a State of Communion with the Christian Church just as Dissenters do Yet our great Champion thought he had furnish'd us with a litle Armour which might repel all the Jesuit's Batteries and could not understand it to be a Contradiction to say One leaves the Church by ceasing to be a Member of it by ceasing to have those Requisites which constitute a Man a Member of it as Faith and Obedience But we leave the external Communion of
Presbyters of another I take leave to inform you that the Stat. 14. of this King cap. 4. has provided that every Person which was not then in holy Orders by Episcopal Ordination or should not be so ordained before a Day prefixt should be utterly disabled and ipso facto depriv'd from all manner of Ecclesiastical Promotions and that none for the future should be admitted to any such Promotion nor should presume to consecrate and administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper unless Episcopally ordained The Penalty indeed is not made to extend to Foreigners of Reformed Churches allowed here but quere whether the Declaration of Disability does not If you say by the Lutheran Church you mean only those religious Societies of Lutherans which are in Sweden and Denmark under Bishops or at least that have Superintendents or Generales ordained and ordaining Episcopally which surely some Lutheran Societies want you may avoid the Consequence as to such and all others of the Reformation which are without Episcopal Orders by denying them to be Christian Churches if you please for then indeed it would not follow from your condemning such Societies that you thereby refuse Communion with a sound Church This brings me to our Churches Sence and Application of this Matter O says it how the Church is divided O how the Cities be cut and mangled O how the Coat of Christ which was without Seam is all to rent and torn O Body mystical of Christ where is that holy Unity out of which whosoever is he is not in Christ If one Member be pulled from another where is the Body If the Body be drawn from the Head where is the Life of the Body We cannot be joined to Christ our Head except we be glued with Concord and Charity to one another For he that is not of this Unity is not of the Church of Christ which is a Congregation or Vnity together not a Division St. Paul saith that as long as Emulation or Envying Contention and Factions or Sects be among us we be carnal and walk according to the fleshly Man And St. James saith If ye have bitter Emulation or Envying and Contention in our Hearts glory not of it for where Contention is there is Vnstedfastness and all evil Deeds And why do we not hear St. Paul which prayeth us whereas he might command us I beseech you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you speak all one Thing and that there be no Dissention among you but that you will be one whole Body of one Mind and of one Opinion in the Truth If his Desire be reasonable and honest why do we not grant it If his Request be for our Profit why do we refuse it And if we list not to hear his Petition of Prayer yet let us hear his Exhortation where he saith I exhort you that you walk a becomes the Vocation in which you be called with all submission and meekness with lenity and softness of Mind bearing one another by Charity studying to keep the Vnity of the Spirit by the Bond of of Peace For there is one Body one Spirit one Faith one Baptism There is saith he but one Body of the which he can be no lively Member that is at variance with the other Members There is one Spirit which joineth and knitteth all Things in one and how can this Spirit reign in us when among our selves we be divided There is but one Frith and how can we then say He is of the Old Faith and he is of the New Faith There is but one Baptism and then shall not all they which be baptized be one Contention causeth Division wherefore it ought not to be among Christians whom one Faith and Baptism joineth in an Unity If all Differences in Opinions be here forbid as cutting Men off from Christ's Body it may be said perhaps that Schism cannot possibly be avoided But what seems intended by the Apostles and by our Church is That notwithstanding such Differences Men should be united in the same Faith by the Bond of Charity which you may call a magical Vnion when Men divide from each other in their Opinions if you please Certain it is neither the Scriptures nor our Church speak of dividing Communions yet there is no doubt but that may be Schism in a divided Communion which is in a joint And whoever want true Christian Charity they are the Schismaticks whether in communion with a Visible Church or withdrawing from it Having shewn what Account the Scriptures and our Church give of Schism it may not be improper to shew in what sence it has been taken by some of the greatest Eminency in our Church I had before shewn how Dr. Stillingfleet had defended our Church against the Imputation of Schism in dividing Communion from the Papists and how the Primitive Fathers ought to be understood when they write of this That Schism did not lie in a voluntary Departure out of any particular Church upon the account of any Thing extrinsecal and accidental Christian Charity to be sure is essential I shall only subjoin the Testimony of Mr. Hooker and if I have these two on my side I shall think my self sufficiently well back'd The Apostle affirmeth plainly saith he of all Men Christian that be they Jews or Gentiles bond or free they are all incorporated into one Company they all make but one Body the Vnity of which visible Body and Church of Christ consisteth in that Vniformity which all several Persons thereunto belonging have by reason of that one Lord whose Servants they all profess themselves that one Faith which they all acknowledg that one Baptism wherewith they are all initiated The Visible Church of Christ is therefore one in outward Profession of those Things which supernaturally appertain to the very Essence of Christianity and are necessarily required in every particular Man Let all the House of Israel know for certain faith Peter that God hath made him both Lord and Christ even this Jesus whom ye have crucified Christians therefore they are not which call not him their Master and Lord. But this extraordinary Person could not think himself obliged in Charity to his own Soul and to deliver himself from the Guilt of the Blood of Dissenters to instruct them in the Necessity of one Communion in Accidentals if they would continue Christians Nay he thought that altho they should be excommunicated yet even that could not cut them off from Christ's Body His Words are these As for the Act of Excommunication it neither shutteth out from the Mystical nor clean from the Visible Church but only from Fellowship with the Visible in Holy Duties But you it seems have considered this Matter better than Mr. Hooker and affirm That every Bishop and Presbyter shuts out of the Catholick Church by Excommunication And this leads me to the Notion of a true or sound Church And surely it was not impertinent
A Seasonable VINDICATION OF THE Truly Catholick Doctrine OF THE Church of England IN REPLY TO Dr. Sherlock's ANSWER to Anonymus his three Letters concerning Church-Communion Errare possum Haereticus aut Schismaticus esse nolo LONDON Printed for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-yard 1683. Anonymus his REPLY to Dr. Sherlock's Answer to his Three Letters about Church-Communion SIR BEING neither Prophet nor Prophet's Son nor having any outward Sign whereby I might judg of your pleasure to teach me my Catechism in private I by publishing my Objections against your Discourses about Church-Communion have given you the opportunity of glutting and satiating your Revenge according to your own decent Expression of Divine Justice and insulting over the Ignorance of an ill-taught Lay-man who knew not what it was to press Dr. Sherlock to explain himself in a Matter wherein his own Brethren such as are as far from the Imputation of Deism or Socinianism as himself and are not likely to contemn the Notion of a Church and of the Evangelical Priesthood and Sacraments have been highly dissatisfied as he himself well knows You blame me for offering no Argument to disprove any Thing you say nor shewing wherein lay the Weakness of your Arguments As if it were nothing to urge to a Man the plain Consequences of his Doctrine which as you know who teaches us is a plain way of Reasoning which all Men allow of to convince Men of the Vnsoundness of their Doctrines This perhaps I may have done in the first and second Letters And for my third where you say I run nothing but Dregs and Lees and where you think little new but Repetitions of old Queries perhaps some will belive it was not altogether impertinent to shew wherein your Art lay in applying that to a Church in one Sence which belong'd to it in another But admit all this were nothing to the disproof of what you undertook I think it had been enough if I had only put such Questions as might oblige you to explain your self And if your Discourse stood in need of it you may well think your self concerned in my Queries and ought to thank me for putting you upon a Purgation Which you have made in such a manner as if your Trial had been by Fire Truly I should have been glad to have found it done with such Charity and Candor as becomes a Messenger of the Prince of Peace and might have given some reasonable satisfaction that you aim at something better than running down at any rate those who have the misfortune to think otherwise than you do You complain indeed that I have not treated you with that Civility which I owe your Person or your Profession nay as good as tell me I have been scandalously rude when you wish for my own sake I had carried my self better Truly if it be such Rudeness to charge a Clergy-man with what one takes to be the Import of his Doctrine and calling it uncharitable or owing to ill Principles where he believes it so I confess my self guilty Yet I appeal to all unbiass'd Men whether those foul Representations of Christianity which I still conceive to lurk within the former general Assertions were animadverted on with that Severity which ought to have been But yet it seems you were resolved to be even with me in the worst Sence Wherefore to pass by the telling me in effect that a Fool may ask more Questions than a wise Man can answer but that mine are very foolish and impertinent Questions generally nothing to the purpose which is such a Rebuke as if you should bid me ask no more with a dirty Face you insinuate That I espouse a Schism or Faction only to shew my Wit in defending it and to make my self considerable by espousing a Party and am no hearty Lover of the Church of England that it is not in my Nature to be civil to a Clergy-man That I disown part of the due Authority of Bishops That I think of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as a very indifferent Ceremony That I designed to affront Dr. Stilling fleet and Dr. Tillotson whom I greatly reverence and particularly would charge the former with endeavouring to prove all Church-Communion needless That I excuse Dissenters upon such Principles as tendâ— to undermine Christianity c. But these Insinuations to which I shall not give their due Epithete were not enough for your purpose but you must come to a positive Charge which you scatter up and down your Answer as that I never spare any Man's Reputation to serve my Designs and that my Reproaches and Commendations are but different Ways of Abuse Nay you are so indiscreet to charge upon me what I chiefly write against and blame you for which is That where two Churches are not in Communion with each other they cannot both belong to the same Body but that it is evident that one of these mast needs be cut off from Christ's Body Where you take advantage of the Printer's Mistake putting it is for is it which I made by way of Question as manifestly appears by the Coherence But the dreadfullest part of your Charge is in the ghostly Counsel which you vouchsafe me where you tell me It is evident I have a great Spite at the whole Order of the Clergy That I am guilty of too plain a Contempt of all Church-Authority That tho I pretend to be in Communion with the Church of England I make the Church it self a very needless and insignificant Thing for I know no necessity of communicating with any Church That I will not allow it to be Schism to separate from the Church And that I think it a pretty indifferent thing whether Men be baptized or not or by whom Then to deal plainly with me you think I have more need to be taught my Catechism than to set up for a Writer of Books And that the Consequence of the Way I am in is no less than a Contempt of all revealed and instituted Religion And what of most Men I should not have expected from Dr. Sherlock my Notions are condemned as owing to Deists and Socinians And thus Sir in the Spirit of Meekness and Charity you have drawn up a very fair Charge You may treat me with as much scorn and contempt as you please and I shall consider it but as your natural Infirmity where God Almighty makes allowances we ought But I ought not to be silent under such Reproaches of which your own Conscience cannot but acquit every Thing that I have said or wrote to you And further no reasonable Man can think me concerned to vindicate my self The most solemn Protestations concerning my more private Thoughts would be but scoffed at by them who are resolved to believe the worst And my Comfort is no Orthodox Clergy-man that knows me will be so
uncharitable But to bring Compurgators of such whose Friendships as they are dulce decus meum so they are praesidium too against such fatal Miscarriages would but expose their venerable Names to such Usage as I have met with But be that never so hard for once I will set an Example to a Clergy-man and shew that I can contain my self after all these causeless Calumnies tho you cannot bear to be told of the Truth Wherefore I shall calmly shew I. How groundless both your open and imply'd Accusations are against me II. What cause I had to put you upon explaining your self III. How unsatisfactory your Explanation is in its own Nature So much of your Charge as I am concern'd to answer particularly resolves it self into these general Heads 1. My Want of Love to the Church of England and taking part with Dissenters out of Zeal for their Cause or Vain-Glory 2. That I have a Spite at the whole Order of Clergy-men and disown part of the Power of Bishops 3. That I designed to affront Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Tillotson 4. That I discover a Contempt of all Church-Authority and think the Church it self an insignificant Thing 5. And lastly That I am guilty of Deism and Socinianism And That my Principles tend to undermine Christianity and to the Contempt of all revealed Religion First Article In the first Article you would argue me guilty of Hypocrisy in pretending to be in constant Communion with the Church of England when I want that Love for it which is essential to Union and Communion with it or of a great deal of Vanity in labouring to shew my Wit in the Defence of a Cause which I my self know to stand in need of Wit and Artifice But if it happen that the Church of England is no more concerned in your Censures than perhaps you may think your self to be in the Doctrine of its Articles or Homiles And that it gives you no warrant to call the Dissenters Schismaticks and such as are deprived of the Influences of the Divine Spirit while they scruple Conformity My taxing you with want of Charity towards Dissenters will be as far from the suspicion of such a Zeal for them as implies a Dis-esteem of our Church or such a Defence of their Cause as may be imputed to Wantonness or Vanity that it may be more like the Act of that Samaritan who took care of the poor Man who had been most barbarously used by Thieves and could meet with no pity from the Priest and the Levite who past by on the other side Whatever you think of this Matter I am bold to affirm that our Church no-where warrants your Assertions either in its Articles Homilies or Canons Indeed in the Canons of King James the Authority of which as to us Lay-men I need not here enquire into I find Schismatici mentioned in some of the Titles but not in any of the Canons to be sure by no means applied in your manner But then you tell me No Man who had any kindness for the Church with which he pretends to hold Communion would make such a vile Insinuation as if profest Atheists were admitted to Communion But certainly there may be a profest Atheist tho he doth not profess himself so at the time of his communicating for want of that Euphemia which one cannot greatly offend against by one single Word of no ill signification I am sure you of all Men have no reason to press hard upon me in this Particular Third Article That I may be depriv'd of the Patronage of two such great Luminaries of our Church as Dr. Stillingfleet and Dr. Tillotson you tax me with a Design of affronting Dr. S. and dealing with the other great Man at the same rate Secret Things belong to God but I am sure you could have no Revelation from above of any such Design nor can any thing that I have said look that way Assure your self I cited the Words against the absolute Necessity of Church-Communion whence you ground your Reflection in the same Sence as I receive them which is in their utmost Latitude but by no means as if they would set aside all Government in the Church But you are certainly guilty of the Affront against them if you think there is any harm in the Quotations or as if I expose their Failings thereby I will not here return upon you That you never spare any Man's Reputation to serve your Design c. which would come as properly from me as it did from you But when you were upon such Authorities you would have done well to have reconciled your self to Dr. Stillingfleet's Sence of Schism which if his Judgment be valuable in competition with Dr. Sherlock's lies not in a voluntary Departure out of any particular Church but the true Catholick Church And the Reason which he gives for it is the Ground which I go upon If you will teach me my Catechism better in this Point I am very ready to learn Fourth Article The fourth Article has many in the Belly of it for under the supposed Contempt of Church-Authority are in your Sence contained 1. The thinking the Church it self an insignificant Thing and that no causeless Separation from it can be a Schism 2. A despising the Evangelical Priesthood as you call it 3. The looking upon the Sacraments as very indifferent Ceremonies 1. In the first you as is usual with you would take advantage of your own Confusion in blending together the Notion of the Catholick and of a particular Church For tho one may think that it signifies not much or is not one's Duty to communicate with every particular sound Church yet it is no doubt always his Duty to communicate actually or in Inclination with the Church of Christ in that which essentially constitutes it his Church Nay and there may be a Schismatical Separation even upon the account of lesser Matters But my Question is Whether there may not be a Separation causeless in the Nature of the Thing occasioning it tho not in relation to the Party's Conscience who scruples it and that without Schism But as Dr. Stillingfleet rightly distinguishes between what is necessary to Salvation and what is necessary to the Government of the Church my receiving his Sence has sufficiently anticipated and removed this Imputation unless you will fix it upon him too 2. But for the second If by an Evangelical Priesthood you mean such as is necessary to offer up Sacrifices for us I know of no such upon Earth by the Gospel-Institution 3. For the third which may take in what may seem omitted on the foregoing Head I desire to be inform'd what one Passage has faln from me which looks like an excusing the Contempt or Neglect of the Sacraments or of them to whom ordinarily it belongs to administer them Yet methinks you do not duly consider that a Thing may be one's Duty by virtue of a positive Command and
justify the Pertinency of my Questions to you and shew II. What Cause I had to put you upon explaining your self concerning the Notions of Church-Communion My apparent Design being to do this you have no reason to blame me for not giving you your own Words with that dependance and connection in which the whole Strength of the Discourse consists for had that been never so well laid together I ought to believe it to proceed upon some false Ground as being contrary to those Notions which must be antecedent to the Belief of all revealed Religion You know one who thinks himself not concern'd what Consequences are charged upon his Hypothesis so that he prove it positively true Perhaps you may may be as confident of yours as he was of his 'T was enough for me to oblige you to speak plainly what your Notion was I must confess I did suspect it of D lism which indeed you overthrow in that Book to which you refer me for my Satisfaction but would establish one much weaker and with less shew of Reason That which made me suspect your Principle to be that way was Your asserting the absolute Necessity for every Man who lives here as he would be a Member of Christ's Body to communicate with the National Church because of its being a sound part of the Catholick Church To which end you held 1. That 't is as necessary for every Man to communicate with some particular visible sound Church as to be a Christian 2. That the only visible way God has of forming a Church is by granting a Church-Covenant which is the Divine Charter whereon the Church is founded and investing some Persons with Power and Authority to receive others according to the Terms and Conditions of the Covenant and by such Covenant-Rites and Forms of Admission as he is pleased to institute which under the Gospel is Baptism is under the Law it was Circumcision 3. That no Man can be a Member of the Church or in Covenant with God who is not visibly admitted into God's Covenant by Bapptism 4. That which makes any thing in a strict Sence an Act of Church-Communion is that it is performed in the Fellowship of the Apostles or in Communion with the Bishops and Ministers of the Church supposes that we ought to communicate with a sound Church whether it has Authority over us or no which wants no more to expose it than to retort some of your own Words For your way of arguing is as if a Man should say there is a divine Law to obey Civil Magistrates Therefore into whatever Government you come whether as Ambassador from a Foreign Prince or otherwise you are bound to live according to the Laws of that Government in every respect as much as a Native And for Foreigners to enjoy several Immunities from Taxes and the like is contrary to the Fundamental Laws of Government But you are positive that Obedience to the Church of England is a Duty incumbent on those which are or ought to live in Obedience to this particular Church That is they who ought to live in Obedience ought to live in Obedience which is a greater Blunder surely than my speaking only of Power and Censures when I was talking of Communion For surely the submitting to the Churches Terms of Communion is submitting to its Power Well however this Submission you say may be called a Part of the Divine Covenant Which gives me occasion to mind you of what our Homilies say about Obedience to Human Laws God hath appointed his Laws whereby his Pleasure is to be honoured His pleasure is also that all Mens Laws not being contrary unto his Laws shall be obeyed and kept as good and necessary for every Common-Weal but not as Things wherein principally his Honour resteth And all Civil and Man's Laws either be or should be made to bring Men the better to keep God's Laws that consequently or following God should be the better honoured by them Howbeit the Scribes and Pharisees were not content that their Laws should be no higher esteemed than other positive and Civil Laws nor would not have them called by the Name of Temporal Laws but Holy Traditions and would have them esteemed not only for a right and true worshipping of God as God's Laws be indeed but also for the most high honouring of God to which the Commandments of God should give place St. Paul speaking of those who scrupled eating some Meats upon their apprehension that they were unclean which he tells them was a causless Scruple in the Nature of the Thing tho not as to their Consciences assures them that He that doubteth is damned if he eat because he eateth not of Faith for whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin If you will say this was spoke where there was no humane Law to determine its Indifference I desire you to consider whether such an Answer savours not of that Pharisaism which our Church condemns But certain it is if active Obedience in the Matter which one scruples which is Submission to the Power of the Church be or may be called Part of the Divine Covenant which unites us to God and to each other there can be no Suspension of Communion because of doubt but he is out of God's Covenant and must be damn'd continuing so who does not actually conform to those very Things which he conscienciously scruples nay and the Church may excommunicate him while he is under this Doubt For you know who teaches us that it is impossible that a Church which is not Schismatical in its Terms that is as seems there meant which imposes nothing in it self contrary to God's Law can excommunicate schismatically Indeed the Excommunication according to that Notion does but declare the State he was in before for by not actually obeying that part of the Divine Covenant the Man was depriv'd of all other possible Means of Salvation agreeably to which the Defender of Dr. Stillingfleet says 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 which that Author plainly doth but immediatly before it makes the Communion of the Church absolutely necessary to Salvation This shews that my Consequence was rightly inferr'd when I argued That if Submission to the Power and Censures of the Church be part of the Divine Covenant then as he who is not admitted into this Church is no Member of the Catholick and has no Right to any of the Benefits of being a Member of Christ's Body so it is with every one who is excluded by Church-Censures tho excommunicated for a slight Contempt or Neglect nay for a wrongful Cause Your Answer to this is of one who lives in England and renounces Communion
it is not the Duty of every one tho a licensed Stranger to communicate with this Church Now to avoid the Question here you have a pretty Notion whereby you would make French Protestants to have no Church calling them an Ecclesiastical Colony belonging to the Church abroad But all Church-Power being exercised amongst themselves here you have no more ground to call them an Ecclesiastical Colony in respect of the French Church than you may call ours so in respect of any other to which we might have formerly belonged especially since they cannot meet with the Mother-Church in France for Acts of Worship and therefore have your own allowed Distinction from that But if these refuse to communicate with our Church you make Schismaticks of them only excuse them as being exempted from the Jurisdiction of this Church But this you condemn as being contrary to the Practice of the Primitive Church and besides consider not what you said to Mr. Humphreys his Project nor your charging the Dissenters with Schism for not communicating with each other notwithstanding that one cannot pretend Jurisdiction over the other and so must be in the same case with those that are priviledged or exempted Wherefore the French Protestants are beholden to you for a good Lift. But taking it for granted that 't is the Duty of these French Protestants to communicate with our Church when ever they are required you take no notice of the Consequence from your Tenent which is that they ought notwithstanding an Exemption for else it follows that our Church is too streight in its Terms of Communion And you cannot surely but remember where we are taught That Vnion to the Body consists in Vnion to that Part which is next 2. But I ask'd you further Whether it does not follow from the Obligation to communicate or to be ready to communicate with any true Church where Distance does not hinder that a Member of the Church of England is not obliged to constant Communion with that Church but may occasionally communicate with the French Church nay with Dissenters too if he believes that any of their Congregations is a true Member of the Catholick Church Here I lie under your sore displeasure for turning your own Artillery upon you And you think No Man in his Wits ever understood this Question in any other Sence than that whatever Church I can occasionally communicate with I am also bound to communicate constantly with whenever such Reasons as are necessary to determine my Communion to a particular Church make it my Duty so to do And a very doughty Question this is for surely 't is beyond dispute that whatever necessarily determines my Communion to a particular sound Church makes constant Communion with it my Duty and is no more than that what makes it my Duty makes it my Duty But the Question is Whether any thing necessarily determines my Communion to a particular Church and what it is And thus I might leave you upon your Mistake of the Question But I think 't is demonstrable from what you your self say that the Place does not determine my Communion with a sound Church no not so much as ordinarily You distinguish between a State of Communion and Acts of Communion But unless a Man tho he has sufficient Opportunities may be in a State of Communion without any actual Communion I know not what is meant by saying No Act of Communion more peculiarly unites us to any particular Church than to the whole Christian Church and that 't is no Interruption of our Communion with the Church of England to communicate actually with any Church that is in Communion with it And yet a Member as a Member is in constant Communion Perhaps indeed if the Communion of Churches is suppos'd to be upon the Catholick essential Terms actual Communion with a Church which is in Communion with this is no Interruption or Suspension of Communion with this But admit now that the French Church which you say is in Communion with ours would be ready if required to hold communion with us in every Point wherein we may seem to differ but yet should keep up their separate Meetings or Assemblies and an English Protestant believing that he may receive most Benefit from their Preachers should never actually communicate with our Church but always with that would he be in a State of Communion with our Church or no And tho the Civil Power has made a Distinction of Parishes and some other Places appointed or allowed by its Laws in one of which it requires the Sacraments to be received at such and such times If they receive not in any of these Places will the receiving with the French Church justify them and free them from the danger of being excommunicated as Schismaticks If it will not as you must acknowledg then either the French Church is not in communion with us whereas you say they are in communion with us or else communicating with a Church in communion with ours is not a Communion with our Church Nay and you say that according to the Laws of Catholick Communion nothing but Distance of Place can suspend our Obligation to actual Communion But if I may communicate with the French Church as being in communion with us then the Place does not determine even my ordinary presential or actual Communion to ours nor does it yet appear what does But you offer at it when you tell us 't is separate Power and Jurisdiction which determines this Matter but separate Communion would be Schismatical But still what Jurisdiction can there be to oblige me contrary to the Terms of Catholick Communion which according to your own concession will suffer me to wander Is it the Civil Power as it unites us under a National Church Pray remember how you run Mr. Humphreys down upon the Supposition that the Civil Power should take off the Obligation to Episcopal Communion Is it the Divine Right Pray consider Mr. D. again and then you may think your self beholden to me for bringing your Notions under the Protection of so ingenious a Person In the mean while be pleased to shew wherein you differ from him when you suppose you have found a National Church antecedent to any Human Authority For this is either as you make the Union of the Bishops to be the National Church or the Union of the Clergy and Laity together If you make it to consist in the Union of the Bishops then certainly to make that antecedent to Human Authority you must betake your self to D lism at least you have not yet invented any other way who a working Head may do Wonders If the Union be of Clergy and Laity together then it is by Consent which is Humane Contract or Agreement and is the same with Humane Law by you exploded And Consent you say is all that is necessary to unite a Body or Society in one Communion But then this
straggle into a Church which is not in Communion with our Bishops This Confinement to one Bishop you must say upon your grounds would be contrary to the Nature of Catholick Communion but we have your Authority for it that the other is not Yet it seems if Presbytery should have the Advantage of Authority they who refuse Communion with the National Church upon pretence of purer Ordinances and the Belief that Episcopacy is the Ordinance of God must be as bad as Murderers and Adulterers that is very Schismaticks And judg you whether 't would not be a barbarous Thing to make any Laws which shall ensnare Men in so great a Guilt But here you take notice of a Passage or two in my Preface The one That perhaps it is no Absurdity to suppose that Men may as well continue Members of the National Church notwithstanding their breaking many positive Laws made for the outward management and ordering of it tho not fundamental and necessary to its Being as he who incurs the Penalty of any Statute of the Realm about Civil Affairs may however be a sound Member of the State if he keep from Treason or other Capital Crimes This you answer by a begging and indeed mistaking the Question and will have it of a Schismatical Separation which you elswhere express by renouncing Communion And this you may compare to Treason and Rebellion in the State if you think fit But the Church is not much beholden to you for making that in which Conformity is expected fundamental and necessary to its Being And when you compare a Man that communicates sometimes with one true Church sometimes with another to a Man that joins sometimes with his Prince's Forces and sometimes with his Enemies the Comparison is either very impertinent or very uncharitable in supposing that a Church which differs from this in what is really accidental how essential soever you make it is Antichristian or an Enemy to Christ which surely no true Church is yet I must confess herein you agree with your self when you say There may be a true Church which is no Catholick Church that is no true part of the Catholick Church I add Nay possibly that there should be several Religious Assemblies living by different Customs and Rules and yet continuing Members of the National Church is not more inconsistent than that particular Places should have their particular Customs and By-Laws distinct from the Common-Law of the Land without making a distinct Government This you condemn without vouchsafing it a fair Hearing as nibling at that Healing Project for which you think you have sufficiently exposed Mr. Humphreys But I shall chuse the Protection of the great Protestant Champion Mr. Chillingworth and if you are resolved to wound him through my Side I will bear the Brunt of it as well as I can To reduce Christians to Unity there are but two Ways that may be conceived probable The one by taking away Diversity of Opinions touching Matters of Religion the other by shewing that the Diversity of Opinions which is among the several Sects of Christians ought to be no Hinderance to their Unity in Communion The first he looks on as not likely without a Miracle What then remains says he but that the other way must be taken and Christians must be taught to set an higher value upon those high Points of Faith and Obedience wherein they agree than upon Matters of less moment wherein they differ and understand that Agreement in those ought to be more effectual to join them in one Communion than their Difference in other Things of less moment to divide them When I say One Communion I mean in a common Profession of those Articles of Faith wherein all consent a joint Worship of God after such a way as all esteem lawful and a mutual Performance of all those Works of Charity which Christians owe one unto another And to such a Communion what better Inducement could be thought of than to demonstrate that what was universally believed of all Christians if it were joined with a Love of Truth and holy Obedience was sufficient to bring Men to Heaven For why should Men be more rigid than God Why should any Error exclude any Man from the Churches Communion which will not deprive him of eternal Salvation To the same Sence is the Passage I had in that Preface cited out of Dr. Tillotson's Sermon and you may as well ask him as me Is the Catholick Church then and Communion of Saints no part of our Creed Your Notion of Communion is a new Article But to re-assert what I had observed of your managing the Charge of Schism I had said People might not well understand what it is unless it be taken to lie wholly in want of Charity And in the Errata to avoid the Cavil of its being common such as we have for all Mankind I had added the Epithete of Christian I say further to my thinking as St. Paul speaks of it He supposes a continuance still of the same Body and ascribes it to Christians continuing such nay and communicating with each other And this you were not able to deny nay you well know that not only the Thing but the very Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had by that Apostle been applied to such Hence you would argue That I will not allow causless Separation from a sound Part of the Catholick Church to be Schism but place Schism wholly in want of Charity But 't is obvious that I do it no more than the Apostle himself does But besides it induces the Belief that Schism is not such a Crime as you imagine For if the Corinthians were Schismaticks whilst they continued in Communion with each other and yet were particular Members of Christ's Body then Schism does not cut off from Christ's Body nor do you rightly apply the Addition of Apostate Christian Further by what Authority do you apply that to a refusing Communion with any sound Church whatever upon your supposed Notion of Catholick Communion from a Text which mentions no other Schism but what was between them who liv'd in the same Communion And still beyond all this it seems demonstrable from the Text that the Causa formalis or that which constitutes Schism is not Separation tho it be causless unless it be accompanied with want of Charity For since there may be Schism where there is no Separation of Communion then it must be something which consists with joint Communion and find out something besides Want of Charity if you can The Apostle's Notion of Schism we have seen but I wonder by what Authority you affirm'd That Schism is nothing else but a Breach of Christian Communion and that where the Vnity of the Church is broken by distinct and opposite Communions there is the full Nature of Schism and where this is not there is either no Schism or only a partial Schism which is like a great
slight as not worth your Notice And therefore 't is not likely that the Homiles should be any more regarded Yet however it may not be amiss to mind you of what our Homilies teach us of a sound or true Church The Passage before cited proves that a particular Company or Congregation of God's People is the Church in proper speaking And then for the Catholick visible Church we have its Definition or Description in these words The true Church is an Universal Congregation or Fellowship of God's Faithful elect People built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus himself being the Head Corner-Stone And it has always three Rules or Marks whereby it is known 1. Pure and sound Doctrine 2. The Sacraments ministred according to Christ's Holy Institution And 3. The right use of Ecclesiastical Discipline These Notes tho ascribed to all in general are manifestly to be applied respectively to select Congregations or Fellowships of Christians For 't is not possible that all can be joyned in actual Communion But in these things they are to be ready to communicate with each other as if they were one entire Body in the first without any Limitation in the two last as the Church says of the Sacraments in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same And to prevent all affected Ignorance of our Churches Sense in this particular it assures us that Christ makes Intercession not only for himself and his Apostles but indifferently for all them that believe in him through their Words that is to wit for his whole Church I leave it to you run to the Parallel between what the Church teaches and what you would impose on us in this matter I shall not repeat the Particulars but shall only observe upon your Notion of Discipline 1. That according to you the Power of the Keys is absolute in Church-men's Hands from whose Power of binding and loosing you infer that Church-Communion is absolutely necessary to Salvation Whereas our Church says Christ ordained the Authority of the Keys to excommunicate notorious Sinners and to absolve them that are truly penitent 2. And secondly Whereas you affirm That every profess'd Christian who is received into the Church by Baptism is a Church-Member and all Church-Members have a common Right to Church-Priviledges That teaches otherwise Why says it cryed the Deacon in the Primitive Church if any be holy let him draw near Why did they celebrate these Mysteries the Quire-door being shut Why were the publick Penitents and Learners in Religion commanded to avoid Was it not because this Table received no unholy unclean or sinful Guests And this it enforces from the Example of our Blessed Saviour and the conforming Practice of the Primitive Church in these words According to this Example of our Saviour Christ in the Primitive Church which was most holy and godly and in the which due Discipline with Severity was used against the wicked open Offenders were not suffered once to enter into the House of the Lord nor admitted to Common-Prayer and the use of the holy Sacraments with other true Christians untill they had done open Penance before the whole Church Here I might well leave you to bethink your self of returning into the Bosom of our Church after you have divided from the Unity of its Doctrine And I might advise you to have a care of contending too eagerly in the maintaining your own Opinions for fear of running into the Formality of that which you take such pains to fright others from Tho it may be a good way to convert Schismaticks to convince them of the Errour of their Ways yet even that may be done schismatically at least the causless Imputation of it may return upon the forward Censurer But lest you should think I say this to avoid the notice of my shameful Baffle in the Story of Pope Victor which you will have to be a feigned Case told me by some body Be it known to you that the Authority which I had next at hand was a late learned Chronologist who has these words Romanae Ecclesiae Episcopus fuit Victor qui ab Anno Christi 192 sedit Annos 10 in Concilio statuit ut Pascha semper die Dominicâ celebrarètur atque adèo èxcommunicavit omnes Episcopos Ecclesias in Asiâ quae eâdem die Pascha non celebrabant Here I might as well think that the Bishop pronounc'd the Sentence of Excommunication in Council as he alone is said statuere what was done by common Consent and so we know Rex statuit is often used The Excommunication you contend to have been only his own Act not the Act of the Council And you cite Eusebius which calls that which I should take for an Exemplification of the Act of the Council his Letter I am sure Socrates his Expression of this favours me when he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he sent them the Sentence of Excommunication And the matter having been agreed on in a Council at Rome where he presided 't is certainly most probable that this was not of his own Head Nor is it in the least any Argument against me that other Bishops in Communion with him resented it ill Being those other Bishops Irenaeus particularly were not at that Council For as Eusebius himself shews as Victor presided at Rome Irenaeus did in France So that those of the same Communion were only such as agreed in that Doctrine of the account of time about which I shall not dispute whether Arithmetick was concern'd or no Yet I find it a long while since by an old Emperour called Questio temporis non Fidei But I find not in Eusebius that Irenaeus prevented this from taking effect as you affirm for the Sentence was actually pronounc'd as both Eusebius and Socrates inform us But when retracted or whether at all appears not But be it as you contend that this was only the Act of a Schismatical Bishop how comes it to pass that his Church was not concerned in this St. Cyprian says Qui cum Episcopo non sunt in Ecclesiâ non sunt And St. Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Both agree that there 's no being in the Church or in Christ unless they side with their Bishop And a Gentleman whose Authority I hope you will not except against says of St. Cyprian He makes all Bishops equal to have the whole Power in Solidum to be absolute Judges of their own Acts and be accountable to none but God Nay you your self have told us that it is essential to the Communion of particular Churches that their Governours should be in Communion with each other Wherefore the Asian and Latine Churches were in a State of Separation and the Laity of one side or other were necessitated to communicate in a Schism This Sir may supersede my enquiry into your Niceties upon a Case of your own making But