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A65399
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A reply by T.W. citizen of Chester, to a Vindication of Mr. M.H's Brief enquiry into the true nature of schism, from the exceptions of T.W. &c. By a person who conceals his name
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T.W. citizen of Chester.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing W128; ESTC R219277
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46,420
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51
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explain by shewing wherein this Communion doth more particularly consist In my p. 5. viz. in the same Articles of Faith The Communion of Saints in Faith I nam'd the Apostles Nicene and Atharasian Creeds which have been received and used in the Catholic Church from the times they were first published and appoint'd by the Authority of the Church the Creeds are Compendiums and brief Comprehensions of the Objects of our Christian Faith and do contain all things necessary to be believ'd every Article being a principle of the Christian Religion which every Christian is bound to profess and is the Test to distinguish between Heretics and sound Christians and now this profession and agreement of Christians in these Articles of Faith may be truly called the Communion of Saints in point of Faith But my Adversary is not very fond of these Creeds and why not in Scripture says he Why every one who truly believes the Scripture believes the Articles of Faith and every one who believe the Articles believe the Scripture He says They are but Human composition They were Composed by those to whom the Care and Authority of the Church was committed and every Article for the benefit of all even the meanest Christians being formed and Collected out of Sacred Scripture are of Divine Authority He says I shut out the Greek and other Eastern Churches This is but his own Conception for they agree with us in all Articles of Faith they do not indeed express the Article of the Holy Ghost in the very same words but they acknowledge that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father by the Son which differs not in sense and they Worship the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity so that in Articles of Faith we and they hold Communion Well! I perceive thô my Adversary relishes not and speaks with but indifferent Respect of the Creeds yet he says however he is so far in Communion with us so in this he will be no Schismatic or rather no Heretic The Communion 〈◊〉 Saints 〈◊〉 the Eucharist Another particular which I mentioned requir'd in this Communion is partaking all at the same Table which thô it be not individually yet Spiritually it is the same and being every where called the Lords Table could be no otherwise meant but that this Gent. will be very witty and take exceptions at every thing The Apostle calls it the Lords Table The Cup of Blessing which we bless 1 Cer. 10.21 v. 16. v. 17. is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ We being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread All true Christians partaking at the Lords Table are one Body in the Apostles Sense the bread not only signifieing the Body of Christ but the Unity of the partakers also and this is the Communion of Saints at the Lords Table Here says he we are with him still I wonder at his confidence he would say sure hâ—re we ought to be with them for they are not with us By comparing our Church with the Primitive Churches I have proved her to be a Church truly Catholic her Jurisdiction as truly Apostolical as they were from whence it follows as I have said that her Orders are to be equally obey'd her Unity and Peace as strictly maintained and what soever was Schism in any of them must be so in her To refuse Communicating with any of them at the Lords Table and to have set up another Table in opposition to any of them must in this Gentlemans judgment have been criminous Schism then of necessity it holds true against our Dissenters they refuse Communion with that Church which most certainly holds true Communion with the Universal Catholic Church and consequently with the Son of God who is the Head thereof and the Principle and proper Object of all Christian Communion Our Dissenters have set up a separate Table in opposition thereto rob'd her of her Members and broke her Unity all this being notoriously the breach of Christian Charity is in this Gent. and Mr. Hery's Sense too Schism which Mr. Hery calls an Arch-Rebel but not so properly as an Infamous Rebellion in Christs Kingdom and thus they are Schismatics in Separating from the Communion of Saints at the Lords Table What he talks here of deriving our Succession from the Church of Rome is already answered A third particular required in this Communion I affirmed to be Communion of Saints in the same Prayers the joyning all in the same holy Prayers and Supplications Intercessions and giving of thanks according to St. Paul's express Command To this he says I cannot mean that in those Dutys we must necessaryly use the very same words c. for then I exclude all the World but them of my own perswasion and a great many of them too I exhort therefore saith St. Paul that first of all Supplications Prayers 1. Tim. 2. v 1.2 Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all min for Kings and all that are in Authority c. Here is a sufficient ground from Holy Scripture for Liturgies or Forms of Prayers in the public Worship and Service of God and St. Paul gives his reason for it in his Ep. to the Romans that we might with one mind and one mouth Glorifie God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 15. v. 6. According to this command Forms of Prayers or Liturgies were Composed early in the Catholic Churches and have been used ever since that there might be an Unity in their Supplications and Prayers and in their Thanksgivings and Praises that nothing should be omitted nor any thing more in our Petitions express'd but what our holy Religion requires that there should be no rudeness or undecency in words in which respects conceived and Extempore prayers are very liable to be faulty and in these they were all obliged to joyn where ever they came together for the public Worship and Service of God Herein they had Communion with God the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ who was in the midst of them Mat. 28. v. 20. and in whose name they were presented and with one another Uniting all in the same Prayers here is the Communion of Saints in holy Prayers It is true that the Respective Provincial or Diocesan Churches had not every one their set Forms of Prayers or Liturgies in the very same words every Bishop having power to Compose a Form for that Church of which he was Over-seer Yet they were the same for substance so that every Christian was obliged to Communicate not only with the Bishop or his Presbyters under whose Jurisdiction he lived but all Catholics coming to remote Churches did as bound by the Rules of Catholic Unity Communicate with their Fellow-Christians to what Church soever they came That in this the Church of England as in the former particulars holds Communion with the Primitive Catholic Church will appear Pream Quinto
bottom of his 35 p. he says Ignatius charges the Bishop to take Coâ—â—nizance of every Member of his Church not excepting the very Servants and that it was the Custom then in every Congregation to receive the Sacrament every Lords day and that they never received it but from the Hand of the Bishop Hence he concludes that such Bishops must be the Pastors of single Congrezations and adds that this Argument has been copiously mannaged by Blundel Baxter Owen Clarkson and others This Gent. as in all other Quotations leaves me to find this I have met with the passage in St. Ignatius's Ep. to Polycarp Bishop of the Smyrmans where he saith Converse with all man by man as God shall enaâ—â—e thee he saith further Let nothing be done without thy Sentence c. A little farther he saith Let Congregations be gather'd more frequently and take the names of all Persons Let neither Men nor Maid Servants be despised by thee And in the same Ep. he saith Be mindful of the Bishop that God may be mindful of you I could give my Life for those persons who are Subject to the Bishop Presbyters and Deacons Let the Reader consider all the parts together and then Judge how reasonably Congregational Bishops can be hence inferr'd 1. It is evident that Polycarp was not Bishop of one Single Congregation only by these words call the Congregations together c. in the Plural Number 2. His Jurisdiction and Authority over the Congregations is manifest in these words Let nothing be done without thy Sentence 3. The Subjection 〈◊〉 to the Bishop from these Congragations contain'd in this Exhortation to them Be mindful of the Bishop that God may be mindful of you 4. The Distinction of the three Sacred Orders in the Church about which these men have made such a bussle in the world are plainly set down and overthrows all their pretentions to Congregational Bishops for saith he J could give my life for these persons who are Subject to the Bishop Pres yters and Deacons Here is a plurality of Congregations and a plurality of Presbyters and Deacons and but one Bishop From his not reading or concealing the most material parts in this Ep. wherein lye the true Sentiments of St. Ignatius how Triumphantly does he conclude for Congregational Bishops whereas the whole is altogether against it Then he glories in the copious management of this Argument by Blundel Baxter Owen Clarkson and others Alass all these have been judiciously Answered by Bramhal Hammond Morris Stillingfleet Dodwell c. In his 36. p. saith he It is observable in the passage cited out of Irenaeus the Presbyters are said to have their Succession from the Apostles and infers from thence that the Presbyters are the Apostles Successors as well as Bishops and must conseq ently have the same power How frequently in the writings of the Fathers and in Scripture are Bishops called Presbyters as that word signifies Seniority or Dignity and are not they sometimes called Deacons too but as it would be very absur'd to infer from hence an Equality of Bishops and Deacons so would it be unreasonable to conclude concerning Bishop and Presbyter That our Author is mistaken in St. Irenaeus's sense of the word Presbyter appears by the words immediately subjoyned which are these Qui cum Episcopatus Successione Charisma veritatis certum Secundum placitum Patris acceserâ—nt L. 4. C. 43. Who that is the Presbyters above mentioned with the Succession of Episcopacy have received the Infallible Gift of Truth according to the Will of the Father It is plain that no other can be here ment but those of the highest Order in the Church Bishops My Author p. 37. accuseth me that I designed not fair dealing with Mr. H-ry it was a great omission in me I therefore take his thô very sharp Rebuke very kindly Mr. H-ry in his 19 p. Parag. 6. very Orthodoxly saith Separation from Communion with those that we have joyned our selves to without a Cause give me leave to call it Separation for Separation sake without any regard had to any think amiss in the Church we Separate from or any thing better in that we joyn our selves to is Schism Then he proves the truth of this Proposition from his own description of Schism and then concludes When we quite cast off Communion with our Brethren out of Ambition Animosity to their persons affectation of Novelty and Singularity and the like Now our Author lest this truth so plainly set down by Mr. H-ry should carry too sharp an edge upon 'em in p. 37. brings in his Insinuation as he in vain supposeth to guard them from the stroke they must naturally receive from the applying of it to them For says he We all grant that for persons wilfully to with-draw themselves from such particular Churches as are framed according to Scripture Rules and impose no new and needless Terms is to act Schismatically because such wilfull Separation cannot be without the breach of Charity The difficulties which my Author which indeed are none at all would put lyes in Churches framed according to Scripture Rules c. It is Schism in Mr. H-ry's Judgment to Separate from a Church without any regard had to any thing amiss Let it be Examined if in our Church there be any thing amiss Are not all the Arcicles of saving Faith truly taught No just cause of Separation the Holy Sacraments duly Administred the Moral precepts and all the Rules of the Christian Religion plainly and constantly recommended unto us and prest upon us for our Excercise in the whole Course of our lives in the Sermons of our Clergy in all our Churches are not all things pertaining to a Godly Life and Salvation by our Church fully exhibited to us so as that no man can miscarry but by his own fault Here then sure can be nothing amâ—ss Can these men maintain and justifie then the truth of their Doctrine and separate themselves from us without pronounceing themselves Schismatics either their Doctrin is not true or these men are Schismatics in practice by their own shewing All the false and shiftless pretence they have is that the Church of England is not framed according to Scripture Rules and imposeth new and needless terms and therefore Separation from such a Church is no Schism That our Church is truly Apostolical and as truly framed as Jerusalem Antioch Alexandria and all other Primitive Churches according to Scripture Rules according to Christ Jesus's own Institution is fully proved in these papers So that that Objection is clearly Answered and is indeed vain and frivolous Now let his other as vain and frivolous Objection be considered viz. the Imposing new and needless Terms by which is I suppose meant Geremonies I must here crave leave to mention what I have before viz. the Love-â—cast the Holy kiss had no intrinsic vertue in them were no Essentials of Religion see his p. 2. mere Ceremonies and as this Gent. calls our