and his and are under a political oeconomy of the same nature and he that understood it very well said That Satan was not divided against Satan because if he were his kingdom could not stand But it hath stood firm and undivided ever since it was first formed before the sensible Creation it was never yet shaken with intestine Divisions there was never two or three opposite Soveraigns at one time in that cursed Hierarchy nor two or three Pretenders to the Chair of Lucifer And therefore I hope bare Unity or want of Divisions will never hereafter pass among considering men for a mark of a truly Catholick Church And as it is among Spirits so 't is among men The worst Fraternities have sometimes the firmest Union as we of this Nation very well remember the Time when those of the great Rebellion boasted that God had united the Hearts of his People in his Cause as one Man nevertheless those pretended People of God whose Hearts and Hands were so united that we could not break their Bonds of Union asunder were no better then a Band of Rebels and their Cause downright Rebellion against God and the best of Princes tho' they acted in it as if they had been all informed with one common Soul. The like hath often happened in Ecclesiastical Societies The Samaritans who had neither Sadduces nor Pharisees nor Essenes nor Herodians nor Cabalists nor Carraites among them for that Reason had a firmer Union among themselves then the Church of the Jews had and yet they were not the true Church So among the ancient Christians the Novatians lived in perfect Peace and Unity among themselves when there were many Feuds and Contentions among the Catholicks Which shews that bare Unity is not a good Test whereby to try Churches or if it were I am confident the Church of England upon a fair tryal would carry the Garland from the Roman and appear to be the more Catholick Church Could there be found any fit and indifferent Judge between them I durst as far as I am concerned put the merit of the Controversie between us and the R. Cs. upon this single point of Union and would engage to render my self a Proselyte if their Church carried the Cause Perhaps they may think his a very bold Challenge because of the great number of Sectaries that have gone out from us but then they are to consider that as the Protestants which in several Parts of Europe under several Denominations have gone out from them are now nothing unto them so neither are the Congregational Sects which went off from us any thing or of any account to us But take our Church and theirs as they are precisely in themselves without any regard to their respective Separations and I am very confident for all their boastings of Union that the Church of England will be found to have both more potential and actual Union in it then the Church of Rome For first as to potential Union however the Church of Rome is actually united it hath the seeds of Division in its Bowels and as Rebeckah once had different Nations so has she different Churches struggling in her Womb. The Principle of the Pope's Supremacy is it self sufficient were there no more to cause continual Feuds and Factions in the Popedom and * In his excellent Tracts De causis dissentionum in Ecclesiis de primatu Papae ad calcem Salmasii de primatu Papae Nilus Bishop of Thessalonica did most judiciously assign it for the cause of all the Divisions that then tore the Catholick Church into pieces the Bishops of Christendom not being able to endure the Usurpation nor other Churches contrary to their fundamental Liberty to be Subjects to the Roman Church The exercise of this usurped Power of the Pope's being the supream ordinary of the Universal Church is that which makes the Roman Bishops themselves sigh and murmur in private and say with Spalatensis where they can say it safely Frater noster ille est Collega Coepiscopus nobiscum and however they conceal their Resentments as the Spanish Prelates did before the Council of Trent yet they are willing upon the first opportunity to assert their Apostolical Equality and like the English Prelates at the time of the Reformation will be glad when they can do it with a prospect of success to cast off the Yoke which makes Christendom groan and which neither they nor their Predecessor were able to bear Let but Christian Princes say the word and then we shall see what the Bishops will do or let there be but a free and general Council indeed and then let us see if the Pope shall not be told in both ears That the Church Universal is a great Colledge and the Government of it Aristocratical that the Episcopat is one but that it is divided among all Bishops whereof every one hath his share that the Apostles received equal Power and Authority from the same Masters that the Bishops were their Successors and that the other Bishops receive their Authority no more from the Successor of St. Peter then he doth from them but that all receive it alike from Jesus Christ When it shall be safe the Bishops of the Roman Church will talk and write as much to this purpose as ever the English Divines did who in asserting this Doctrine follow the Example of their Ancestors before the Reformation I mean the Saxon Bishops one of whom in his Advice to his Clergy speaks thus * Ge sceolon eac Æ¿itan þat eoÆ¿re hades syndan þa aesteran hadar aester urum hadum and us þa nystan gelice þa biscopas syndan ongeÆ¿rixle þara Apostola on þaere haligþa gesomnunge sÆ¿a syndan þa maesse preostas on þam geprixle â—pister þegna þa Bâ—scâ—opas Aapones and þa maesse preostas Æ¿one had his suna Spelm. Concil uol 1. p. 586. Ye ought to know that your Order is next after and next to ours for as the Bishops are in the place and stead of the Apostles over the holy Church so are the Priests in the place of the Disciples The Bishops are of the Order of Aaron and the Priests have the Order of his Sons This Doctrine in all likelihood will one day revive against the Soveraign Pontif for the Spirit of the Archbishop of Granata will for ever be upon the learned Prelates who like Elastick Bodies under pressure are under a constant inclination to recover their liberty and will recover it as soon as they can The next dividing Principle in the Church of Rome is The Doctrine of Transubstantiation which is a Doctrine more full of Contradictions then perhaps any other which Men or Angles can invent It is contrary to all the Senses and Reason of Man to the plain and obvious sense of those very words upon which it is grounded to the Belief of the ancient Catholick Church to the Principles of almost all Sciences It multiplies the hypostatical Union it makes Christ to
hath been done may be done again and upon supposition this should happen I would fain know of from the Roman Communion would be a good Argument against the Trueness or Goodness of the Church of Rome Wherefore methinks is point of Prudence they should not take up Arguments against us which they do not know how soon we may have occasion to retort upon themselves They should remember that they cannot secure their Church against Contigencies that are common to all Churches and that to flesh should glory in the presence of God who sometimes chooses the weak things of the World to confound the mighty and things that are not to bring to nought things that are It is his Prerogative to do whatsoever he pleaseth in Heaven and Earth and who knows his Counsels who knows what secrets of Providence are in the Wombs of their Causes ready for the birth In the next place I address my self to our dissenting Brethren whose Divisions and Separations from the Church of England and from one another are now become popular and plausible Arguments in the mouths of the R. Cs. to unsettle weaker judgments among us and bring them over to theirs which they call the one Catholick Church I beseech them therefore by the Sacred Names of Vnity and Charity to consider ho'w different the Church of England and her Children now appear from what they mis-apprehended them to be Great numbers of them took up an Aversion to the Church because they thought her Popish in her Constitution and her Children especially the Clergy Popish in their Affections but now seeing by Experience how much they were mistaken methinks they should be willing to make Reparation methinks the sense of their former mistake should help to overcome their present prejudice and make them willing to be better informed and bring their old Scruples with Minds desirous of satisfaction to the Test to see if indeed they are such as will justifie their separation from a Church which they acknowledge to be Orthodox in her Doctrine and which they could never yet prove enjoyned any one thing in her Worship which God and forbidden or to have forbidden any thing in it which he had enjoyned Is not this the time for them to peruse the Books that have been lately written with the greatest Candor and meekness for their better Information And doth not the Zeal which they have always professed against Popery oblige them to have a good opinion of her Divines who have all along been contending earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Doth not God by the Voice of his Providence call upon them as plainly as if it were by a Voice from Heaven to consider whither their Divisions tend and should not the serious consideration of the dismal Effects that may follow upon them if they continue in them make them doubly afraid of the sinfulness of Schism What a dreadful account will they have to make at the Day of Judgment if it should then appear that the Church gave them no just occasion to separate from her They must then answer to God for all the direful Consequences of their Separation and therefore it concerns them all to look upon her whom they have pierced it concerns them all as they would not die in so fatal a Mistake and be responsable for the downfal of the Church to examine impartially if the Communion of the Church of England be not truly Catholick and whether she is not such a Church as hath fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ If she be such a Church as the Divines of all reformed Churches abroad will tell them she is then they must be guilty of Schism which is a separation without a just cause from the Church as a Church without any regard unto the State. For Schism or Separation without a just cause is a pure spiritual Crime and was reckoned a damnable Sin before the Church Christian was united to the Empire as also in those unhappy Intervals of Persecution when the Church and Empire were dis-united again For example it was a damnable Sin when St. Paul charged the Ephesians to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace because there was but one God and one Lord and one Faith and one Baptism and one Body of Christ It was a damnable Sin when he told the Corinthians That we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body and that as the natural body was made one by the union of many members in it so also was the body meaning the Body politick of Christ It was a damnable Sin when St. Ignatius taught the Churches That nothing should be done without the leave of the Bishop or in opposition to him and that that was only a valid Eucharist which was administred by him or by one licensed and appointed by him and that makers of Schism could not inherit the Kingdom of God. It was a damnable Sin when St. Cyprian called private Meetings in opposition to the publick Conventicles of the Devil and said that private Altars were no Altars and that if a Schismatick should die for Christ he could be no Martyr nor have any right to the Crown of Martyrdom for which he alledges the words of the Apostle Tho' I give my body to be burned and have not charity it prositeth nothing Dionysius Alexandrinus in his Ep. to the Arch-Schismatick Novatus writes unto him in this manner If thou wast constraind as thou saist against thy will to separate from the Church thou oughtest to declare the same by returning willingly to it again Thou shouldst have suffered any thing rather then rend the Church of God neither is that Martyrdom which a man shall suffer for refusing to rend the Church less glorious then that which Christians daily suffer for denying to sacrifice unto Devils Yea in my judgement it is a more glorious sort of Martyrdom for in the one a man suffers Martyrdom only for his own Soul but in the other for the Vniversal Church Wherefore perswade the Brethren or constrain them to return to Vnion such a meritorious act would be greater then the crime of seducing them and thou wouldest be more commended for that then ever thou wert censured for this However if thou canst not perswade the rebellious and disobedient to return to the Church at least save thine own soul by embracing Peace and Vnity thy self So great a Sin did the ancient Fathers account Schism before the happy union of the Church and Empire when the Meetings of the Schismaticks were as much tolerated by the State as the Meeting of the Catholicks and upon the same Principle Donatism and Arianism were counted as damnable Schism every jot under the Reigns of those Emperors who granted toleration to them as under the Reigns of those who made Laws against them Nay all the Laws which Constantius and Valens made in favour of Arianism and for the establishment of it did not alter its
AN Apologetical Vindication OF THE Church of England IN ANSWER To Those who reproach HER WITH THE ENGLISH HERESIES AND SCHISMS Or suspect HER not to be a Catholick Church Upon their Account London Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church yard MDCLXXXVII THE INTRODUCTION EVER since the Dissenters left the Church of England and formed themselves into Separate Churches the Roman Catholicks have not been wanting to take advantage from her sad Misfortune to expose her at home and abroad as a Church that amidst so many monstrous Sects and so many opposite and irreconcileable Communions can have no right to the glorious Title of Catholick nothing really answerable to the true Idaea of a Church nor any pretensions to the Promises of Christ especially those two of preserving his Church against the Powers of Hell and of sending his Spirit of Truth which is but one to guide her into all Truth They endeavour to make the World believe That a Church so over-run with Heresies and Schisms and so shatter'd and torn with intestine Divisions as ours is cannot be a true or good Church nay they will ask us by a figure of Reproach Where they shall find her among such a Crowd of Dissenters And thus using all manner of Artifice on the one hand in setting forth the many Divisions in Religion among us and on the other the great Unity in Doctrine and Worship among themselves they hope to unsettle us yet more and make our People suspect or believe that ours is not a part of the One Catholick and Apostolick Church It is now one of their Common Places to talk of our Schisms and argue from them upon all occasions in diminution of the Church of England They generally begin there when they first attack any of her Sons or Daughters and when ever we engage with them or they with us in a Dispute about the Two Churches we must be content to hear of our Divisions at both Ears Sometimes they seem to lament them sometimes to upbraid us with them and sometimes to dispute down-right upon them but be their Style and Method never so different when they speak or write of the English Heresies and Schisms their common Aim and Design is the same viz. to bring us out of conceit with our Church and perswade us that a Church so full of imbred Divisions in Religion hath not the Characters of Christ's Spouse no Marks of his Favour nor any Similitude with the Catholick Church that heavenly Hierusalem which is as a City that is at peace and unity in it self We are told That it is a sad thing to consider what a world of Heresies are crept into this Nation where every man thinks himself as competent a Judge of the Scriptures as the very Apostles themselves and that that part of the Nation which looks most like a Church dares not bring the true Arguments against other Sects for fear they should be turned against themselves Your Church saith another hath Unity or not if not then she is not the Church of Christ If she hath why are there so many Sects and Schisms among you Saith another who not long since was one of her Priests What would I have once given to have found such an Union among Protestants nay to have found one County in my own dear Countrey or perhaps one single Family so united a Brotherhood And in another place he professes That he cannot tell how the Church of England is able to find her self in an innumerable Huddle of ten times more Dissenters Dissemblers whereof he himself was many years one and Indifferents than her number is able to make At this rate and to this purpose they are also apt to talk in their private Conversation For where I live the Place rings with their Reflections on the Church of England upon the account of our English Separations and having not heard that any thing is yet published to help the People to defend themselves and the Honour of our Church against them I thought I could not better spend the Christmas Vacation than to write a short Tract on purpose to shew That the English Heresies and Schisms are in reality no diminution to the Honour of the Church of England and that the Consideration of them ought to scandalize no man against her or make us believe that she is in any degree less Catholick and Apostolick than her greatest Admirers take her to be This is the main Design of my present Undertaking and that I may omit nothing of moment which ought to be spoken of such a Subject in such a short Treatise I will proceed in the following Method I. I will shew from Reason and the History of the Christian Religion that all Churches are subject to the Misfortune of Schisms and Divisions II. That Schisms and Divisions and the consummation of them in opposite Communions are no good Argument against the Truth or Goodness or Reputation of a Church III. That bare Unity or want of Schisms and Divisions in Religion are no sound Argument for the Truth or Goodness or Reputation of a Church After I have demonstrated these three Propositions I will make enquiry into the true Causes of Schisms and Divisions and more particularly into the Causes of these in England Then I will say something of the Prevention and Cure of them And in the Conclusion make such Addresses to the People of the Roman Communion to the People of the Church of England and to the Dissenters from it as I hope may become a good Christian and the Author of such a peaceful and charitable Discourse as I hope the Reader will find this to be AN Apologetical Vindication OF THE Church of England Chap. I. Shewing from Reason and the History of the Christian Religion that all Churches are subject to the Misfortune of Schisms and Divisions 1. I Will shew from Reason and the History of the Christian Religion that all Churches are subject to the sad misfortune of Schisms and Divisions and to the consummation of them in opposite Communions This to argue first from Reason is as demonstrable of Ecclesiastical as Civil or Military Societies men being as subject by their own evil Passions and the Temptations of the Devil to mutiny and make Insurrections in Churches as in Camps or Cities or other Fraternities of men Nay it being more for the Interest of Satan and also more easie to divide a Church then a Kingdom or a Camp men are so much the more in danger of being tempted to do the one rather then the other and accordingly we find that Churches are more infected with intestine Divisions then States and Kingdoms and whereas formerly one Emperor was able to quell many Mutinies and Rebellions a succession of Christian Emperors sometimes were not able to quell one Schism Wherefore to pursue my Argument as Christian Armies are subject to Mutinies because they consist of Souldiers which may be tempted to Mutiny and Christian
we find him complaining in the 1st Chapter That all they in Asia had turned away from him especially Phygellus and Hermogenes In the 2d Chapter he warns him against Hymenaeus and Philetus who had overthrown the faith of some teaching that the resurrection was past And in the last we find him complaining of Demas and Alexander the Copper-smith for resisting his Apostolical Authority and doing of him much mischief and so dangerous a Schismatick he was that he did Timothy beware of him and pray'd God to reward him according to his works When he wrote to Titus Hereticks were so common in the Church that he said unto him An Heretick after the first and second admonition reject And in his Ep. to the Hebrews we find that there were many among the Primitive Christians who fell back into Judaism and embraced Gnosticism not only after they were illuminated or baptized but after they were made partakers by Baptism of the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost and the Powers of the World to come They apostatized maliciously and out of spite to Christ forsook the Church for as the Apostle observed they did despite unto Spirit of Grace counting the bloud of the Covenant an unholy thing whereby they put him that shed it to open shame and as it were crucified him afresh I have already observed out of the 2d Ep. of St. Peter what dangerous and damnable Heresies there were in his time I refer the gentle R.C. Reader to the 2d Chap. of his 2d Ep. and to the Ep. of St. Jude for a full description of them and then will entreat him to tell me if this Church of England in the midst of all the Dissenters and their widest Doctrines be in any worse condition then the most primitive Catholick Church I desire him also to accompany me to the * Johannes vero in Apocalypsi Idolothyta edentes slupra committentes jubetur castigare Tertull. in praescript Haeret. 33. Revelation of St. John and there I will shew him a Synagogue of Satan in the apostolical Church of Smyrna and in that of Sardis those who held the doctrine of the Nicolaitans and the doctrine of Balaam teaching that it was lawful to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication The like there were in the Church of Thyatira whom the Spirit sets forth under the name of Jezabel And in the church of Ephesus the mother-Church of them all there were numbers of counterfeit Apostles which said they were Apostles and were not but upon tryal were found lyars These were all Apostolical Churches and therefore it is a wonder to me that any man should think it fair and reasonable to reproach the Church of England with the English Heresies and Schisms or to think it jusitisiable to forsake or undervalue her Communion upon that account The Church Catholick to this time and all the Catholick Churches in it were governed by the apostles who undoubtedly had the personal gift of Infallibility or by their Disciples and immediate Successors upon whom the Spirit of God was visible in many * Euseb H. E. l. 3. c. 38. miraculous gifts and who were chosen to be Bishops by the particular ‖ Clement Epad Corinth ed. Oxon. 42. designation of the Holy Ghost I say the whole Church then and every part of it was God's House and God's Building and God's Temple which was built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner Stone and yet we find that God's Husbandry abounded then with Tares and that his Building in almost all the Apartments of it was shaken into pieces by Divisions even whilst those Husbandmen and Architects were alive who were Labourers with God and had the Spirit of God without which no man searcheth the deep things of God. The Church with all the Powers which Christ lest unto it was not able to secure it self from Heresies and Schisms and an innumerable huddle of Dissenters as is evident from St. John who in his general Ep. to the Church Catholick bids the Faithful try the Spirits before they believed them because many false Prophets were gone out into the World. And if it were so in the green Tree what must it be in the dry If Churches water'd and planted by the Apostles and Apostolick men who wrought Miracles were so infested with Divisions can we expect that Churches planted and governed by their Successors at this distance should be exempted from them But let us go on to examine the Apostolick Age and the Ages nearest unto it and then we shall find that the former Times were not better then these For in the Church of Jerusalem which was the Mother of all Churches and the Church wherein St. Peter made his first Sermon this primogenial Church which for * Euseb E. H. l. 4. c. 5. 15 Successions was governed by the ‖ Euseb E. H. l. ◠◠c. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Kindred of our Lord continued no longer †Euseb E. H. l. 4. c. 22. undeflowred with Heresie and Schism then she was under the inspection of James our Lord's Brother who was her first Bishop For when he died Simeon the Son of Cleophas was chosen to succeed him because he was our Lord's Cousin-german by the Mothers side But * Euseb H. E. l. 4. c. 22. Thebuthis being offended because he was not chosen Bishop in this vacancy began to corrupt the Church which hitherto had remained a pure Virgin with vain Doctrines which he took from the seven Sects of which that of Simon surnamed Magus was one who divided the Unity of the Church saith Hegesippus by strange adulterous Doctrines against God and Christ No Bishop ever suffer'd more by Sectaries then this good old Simeon did in those Times for without any regard to his pray hairs who was sixscore years old ‖ Euseb E. H. l. 3. c. 33. they accused him before Atticus Proconsul of Syria under Trajan for being a Christian and descended of the Royal Family of David and so procured him after many Torments to be put to death St. Ignatius who was St. John's Scholar and Bishop of the Church of Antioch wrote Epistles to several Churches and in that to the Church of Smyrna we find that there were Hereticks among them who would not believe that Jesus Christ had a true and real Body and upon that account abstained from the holy Eucharist and the Prayers of the Church This Sect as unreasonable as it was was one of the first which the Devil sowed in the field of the Church St. John alluded to it in the beginning of his first Ep. general where he saith That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes and which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with
noverit Vae illis iterum poeitentiam agant nec ament gloriam hominum magis quam gloriam Dei. P Vergerius in Annot in Catalogum Haereticorum p. 262. Dissemblers and Indifferents in Italy Spain and Portugal and even in Rome it self If a Mahumetan Pagan or Jew should argue thus against them as they argue against us they must either renounce their own Consequences or sink under the weight of them nay if an Atheist or Infidel of any other kind should take that advantage against Christianity from the Schisms and Divisions of it which they do against the best Church of Christendom the Church of England I appeal to their own Consciences whether they must not deny their own Conclusions or expose and betray the Cause of Christ The Pagans argued so against Christianity in the primitive Times because so many Sects grew up with it and therefore the variety of Heresies and Schisms which have sprung up in England since the Reformation can be no Argument against the Church It is no blemish to her to be in the same condition with the best and purest Churches in the best and purest Times it was so when the Apostles governed the Church and the Spirit of God bid the Christians Try all things and hold fast that which is good Hitherto I have proved that Divisions and Separations can be no good Argument or matter of just reproach against any Church because they are incident to all Churches as I have shewed by a sufficient Enumeration of Particulars and this will farther appear if we consider that they may be Arguments for as well as against a Church and a cause of just praise and commendation of it as well as of just reproach When they are just and reasonable then indeed they are good Arguments against the Church where they arise and give men just cause to reproach it but when they are not just and reasonable but proceed from mistake in those that make them or from worse Causes they they are good Arguments against the dividing Parties and just matter of reproach to them but none at all to the Church Wherefore it argues want of Ingenuity or great weakness of Judgement in men to exclaim against a Church upon the score of Divisions and Separations before they have examined whether the Church or the Separatists are in the fault In Reason and Charity this ought first to be done before either the Church or the Separators or both be condemned but our Adversaries of the Roman Church without any regard to the Case betwixt the Church of England and the Dissenters loudly defame her in all Places with the Dissentions and Separations and object to our People the great difficulty and uncertainty of finding out among so many opposite Churches and Religions which is the right if there be any such and therefore exhort them to take Sanctuary in that Church which is at unity in it self and looks so like the one Catholick Church But God be praised the People of the Church of England are generally better instructed then to be imposed upon with such loose Talk. They understand very well that as Separations from corrupt and impure Churches is a necessary duty so as long as there are Devils to tempt men there will also be unjust Separations from found and Catholick Churches and that therefore Separations and Divisions in the general can neither make for or against any Church They know very well that Churches like natural Bodies are of different Tempers and Constitutions and that when any of them chances to undergo a separation of Parts the particular nature and constitution of it must be examined before a man can safely conclude whether the blamable Parts went off or remained with the Church In the separation of Gold from the drossie and spurious Parts of Wine from the Lees of Wheat from the Chaff and of the excrementitious Parts from the Chyle and Bloud the base and impure and unprofitable Parts go off and the good and pure and profitable stay behind but in the separation of Wheat from Tares of Flower from the Bran and in all Chymical Separations the good the generous and spiritual Parts go off and the refuse and feculent stay behind I have made use of this familiar Comparison to shew how Separations and Divisions in the general can be no rational Argument for or against any Church until it be known what king of Body that Church was before the Separation sound or corrupt pure or impure Catholick or not Catholick Apostolical or un Apostolical And when this is once stated then it will appear whether the Divisions and Separations which were made from her make for her or against her I say when it is first known what kind of Church a divided Church was before the beginning of the Division then it may be known whether the Division objected against it be an Argument for or against the Trueness Soundness and Purity of it but to argue pro or con from Separations before this is stated is but to talk at Random which it doth not become men of Learning and Ingenuity to do According to this Rule the Divines of England first proved that the Communion of the Roman Church was not pure and Apostolical and thence justified the Separation of the Church of England from it as necessary and on the contrary they have proved that the Communion of the Church of England is pure and Apostolical and thence condemn the Separation of the Dissenters from it as needless They argue à priori against both on the one hand proving that the Wheat went off from the Tares and on the other that the Chaff went off from the Wheat But to argue à posteriori and in general against a Church meerly upon the score of Divisions before we examine the Constitution of the divided Church and state the Case between her and the Dividers doth become no men especially no Church-men but such as having a weak Cause must make use of popular for want of found Arguments and make the best they can of Sophistry when Reason is not on their side CHAP. III. That bare Vnity or want of Schisms and Divisions in Religion are no sound Argument of the Truth Goodness or Reputation of a Church III. HAving shew'd in the second Chapter That Divisions and Separations are no Argument against the Trueness or Reputation of any Church I proceed to shew in this That bare Vnity or want of Divisions is no Argument for the Trueness or Reputation of a Church and this I shall endeavour to demonstrate three ways First By shewing That it is not the Unity but the things in which a Church is united that truly recommend and justifie a Church Secondly That Church-Unity may be the effect of culpable Causes And thirdly That all Churches true or false Catholick or not Catholick are united in themselves and particularly that the Church of England hath more potential and actual Union in it then that of the Church of Rome
for the Catholick Faith fearing the Displeasure of the Emperor did set his Hand to the Arian Confession and in the Reign of Valentinian when the ‖ Socrat. H. E. l. 4. c. 15 16 17. Catholicks were so contumeliously used by the Arians and were afflicted with most insufferable Evils they turned Arians apace to avoid the violence of the Persecution tho' they ought to have endured it to the end When Complaints signified nothing but to end in the ruine of the Complainers and the most eminent of the orthodox Clergy were burnt alive for presenting a Petition to the Emperor then all the World almost became Arian on the sudden and was externally united in the Arian Faith. But as he is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the flesh so in this forced Conformity all were not Arians that seemed to be Arians but many were so in external Communion who hated Arianism in their hearts And the like success that the Arians had against the Catholicks by methods of Severity have some * Eò enim nostris temporibus redactares est ut Ecclesiasticae controversiae non Theologis ampliùs non Conciliis sed tortoribus sed carnificibus sed sicariis sed sanguinarris sed parricidis defendendae Romae an t Româ committantur Anton de Dominis in Consilio severe Popes and Princes had against those that have divided or attempted to divide the Roman Church which made Cardinal Soderinus tell Adrian †Hist Council Trent l. 1. the 6th That the best way of rooting out Hereticks was by Crusâ—â—â—… and by exciting Princes and People to root them out and to that end he bid him remember that by these means Innocent the 3d. and his Successors happily subdued the Alhigenses of Languedoc the Waldenses Picards poor men of Lyons Arnoldists Speronists and Pâ—â—vines of whom there remained nothing but the very Names And it should seem that Pope ‖ P. P. Vergerius in Secret. Pont. Act. 2. Tamen scio cum Paulus III. anti paucos annos literas gravissimas Breve appellamus ad Caesarem Rom. Regem dedisset in quibus erat scriptum illos consultiùs esse facturos si bello contra Turcas omisso bellum adornarent contra Lutheranos quippe qui essent Turcis ipsis lange perniciosiores deteriores c. Paul the 3d. was of that Cardinal's opinion who in a Brief to the Emperor Charles the 5th and his Brother Ferdinand King of the Romans tells them That it were more advisedly done if they would clap up a Peace with the Turks and bend all their Force against the Lutherans who were far worse and more pernicious than the very Turks * Hist Council Trent l. 5. So Paul the 4th importuned the Kings of France and Spain to settle the Inquisition in their Dominions as the only means to extirpate Heresies and at his Death he recommended nothing to the Cardinals but the Office of the holy Inquisition which he said was the only Expedient to preserve the Church exhorting them to employ all their Endeavours to get it established in Italy and wheresoever else they could He used to say It was the principal Secret and Mystery of the Papacy but whether it were so or no it cannot be denied but that the Union of the Roman Church is in a great measure beholding to it where it is most entire †Id. l. 4. After the Death of that Pope Philip the 2d King of Spain rooted out Lutheranism which had taken happy Root in that Kingdom by extream Severity He no sooner arrived from Flanders at Sevill Id. l. 5. on the 24th day of September 1559. but he caused Johannes Pontius Count of Bayleno with a Preacher and some others of the Colledge of St. Isidore where the Religion was entred together with some Ladies of Quality in all 13 Persons to be burnt for Lutherans as also the Statue of Constantinus Pontius Confessor to his Father Charles who served him in his Retirement and held him in his Arms when he expired Afterwards at Valladolid he caused 28 of the prime Nobility of the Countrey to be burned in his presence The Spaniards especially the Nobility had at that time a great aversion to the See of Rome but this extream Severity of Philip made them conceal their inward Resentments and every one who knows that piece of History must confess that the Church of Rome is obliged for its Unity in Spain to the memory of that Prince and the continuance of the Inquisition from his Time till now The Heresie as 't is mis-called was rooted out of the Low-Countreys by the destruction of 50000 Persons And we know by what Methods it hath been since extirpated in other Places where thousands of Souls who would have counted Death a mercy have been brought to subscribe a Confession contrary to their former Religion which they still believe in their hearts P. P. Vergerius saith That in that Age the Age of the Reformation * Quantus est numerus nostrâ aetate non modâ—â—orum qui mortis carcerum atque triremium sed etiam qui exitiorum tulerunt serunt etiamnum martyria Qui jam migrârunt ad dominum deum nostrum per vestra inquam martyria sunt fermè millia centum Cum his vero conjunguntur voces circiter 15000 exulum qui desertâ patriâ desertis parentibus desertis amicis atque bonis alibi vivunt P. P. Vergerius Annot in Catalog Haeret. almost 100000 Souls had been put to death for refusing Communion with the Roman Church besides those that were condemned to Prisons Gallies and Banishment And these Instances are enough without any more to make it appear That the Unity of the Roman Church is in great part the effect of Force and Compulsion which much diminishes the Reputation of it and might prevail with our Neighbours of the Roman Communion if they considered it aright not to admire it and talk of it so much and ring us in the Ears with it in all Places as if it came not at all from Violence but altogether by Inspiration from the Spirit of God. But in the last place Bare Unity or want of Divisions is so far from being an Argument for the Trueness or Honour of any Church that it is a common Affection which belongs to all Churches true or false good or bad Catholick or un-Catholick small or great as they are Societies of men and besides the Church of England hath more Union both potential and actual in it then the Church of Rome To prove the first Part of this Assertion we need but remember That it is Union and Agreement under certain Laws and Rules of Government which makes all Societies among Men and Angels and wicked Societies are many times as well formed and as firmly united as the pure the holy and the good Lucifer and his angels are a Guild or Colledge of Spirits as well as Michael
have offered up himself a propitiatory sacrifice before he was offered upon the Cross In a word the Contradictions involved in it are almost innumerable by which it equally choaks the learned and unlearned and as it hath made so it will for ever make Dissenters in great abundance and no man nor any Church can ever want a just pretence of dividing from the Church of Rome as long as it is an Article of her Faith. These two Principles without naming any more naturally tend to making of Divisions after Divisions among them notwithstanding all the actual Union of which they boast But the Church of England hath no such dividing Principles theoretical or practical in her Constitution nothing is required to Communion with her but what is primitive and Apostolical and how much soever she hath been or is broken and divided yet her Communion is truly Catholick and tends to Peace and Coalescence and even now her Wounds are closing apace and ready to heal of themselves And as the Church of England hath more potential Union in her then that of Rome so hath she more actual Union too for her Clergy and People have no such fierce and bitter Contentions among them as there are betwixt the Irish Remonstrants and Anti-Remonstrants the Molinists and Jansenists as well as Thomists and Scotists and Jesuites some of which opposite Parties will not communicate with one another And as for the Difference among them concerning the Judge of Controversies and whether the Pope be subject or superior to a general Council it tends naturally and by due rational consequence to the dissolution of their Communion and who knows but we may live to see the Comedy of Basil acted over again and one part of the Roman Church declaring for a general Council and the other for the Pope Nay I may say that at this present the Clergy of the Church of England have been and are united to Admiration and Envy and better then the Clergy often happened to be in the ancient Catholick Church Had our Bishops ever such Broils among them as happened betwixt the Bishops of the Eastern and Western Churches about no greater a Matter then the keeping of Easter And between Cpyrian and Dionysius and Firmilian three Metropolitans and their Adherents on the on side and the Bishop of Rome and his on the other about re-Baptization when they made no bones of * Vid. â—â— Firmiliani contra Ep. Stephani in cyprian edit Rigalt p. 143. taxing the Pope with Inhumanity Insolence and Folly Or had we ever reason to take up that Complaint against them which †H. E. l. 3. â— 1 Eusebius made against the Bishops of the Catholick Church before the Dioclesian Persecution That they were as it were at War among themselves and wounded one another with words as with Darts and Spears nay that they dashed and split like capital Vessels one upon another striving for preheminence and enlarging the bounds of their Diocesses which causes great Factions among the People Or to descend to more particular Instances Was there ever such a tragical Quarrel between any of our Archbishops or Bishops since the Reformation as happened between Theophilus Patriarch of Alexandria and John Chrysostom Patriarch of Constantinople Epiphanius who sided with Theophilus and Chrysostom ‖ Socrat. l. 6. c. .14 cursed one another * Socrat. l. 16. c. 17. much Bloud was s hed on both sides and the Cathedral Church of Constantinople with the Senate-house were burnt in the Quarrel down to the ground Sozom. l. 8. c. 21. Sozomen protests he was ashamed to tell many things which happened in this Quarrel lest Infidels should come to the knowledge of them and saith †An. 400. n. 31. Baronius going to tell the Story of it I shall now describe a cursed Persecution not of Pagans against Christians or of Hereticks against Catholicks or of wicked against good men but what is monstrous and prodigious of Saints and holy men one against another to proceed Did the Bishops of England since the Reformation ever accuse one another in written Libels before the King as the Å¿tar; Sozom. l. 1. c. 17. Bishop in the Nicene Council did before the Emperor Or is there now any occasion of using against them the words which †Vit. Nazianz. â—â—aeâ—ixa operibus Nazianz. Gâ—aeâ—è â—…tis Paris 1630. Nazianzen spoke in a Council of Constantinople which went about to depose him It is a shame my fellow-Pastors of Christ's Flock and not befitting you to fall to war among your selves while you are to teach others peace and perswade them to live in unity To conclude How many such sharp Contentions have happened among our Bishops as we read happened between Paul and Barnabas Acts 15. 39. and between Paul and Peter Gal. 2.11 where we read that because Peter was to be blamed he withstood him to his very face Had the Clergy and People of our Communion been long or often exercised by such Broils as these the R. Cs. would have had a fair pretence to reproach us with want of Unity but the God of Union be praised for it we have no such Feuds and Contentions among us but quite contrary are as fast cemented among our selves in Love and Union as I believe any Church of the like extent ever was in the World. CHAP. IV. An Enquiry into the True Causes of Schisms and Divisions HAving shewed from several Arguments in the foregoing Chapter That bare Vnity or want of Divisions is no Argument for the Trueness or Reputation of a Church I shall for the farther advantage of my Plea proceed in this to make enquiry into the Causes of Divisions and Schisms and more particularly into the Causes of these in England with which the Christians Roman Communion are pleased so to upbraid our Church Now in this enquiry into the Causes of Divisions and Schisms I should very much forget both the ancient Jewish and Christian Theology if I did not in the first place name the Devil by whom we are not to understand any single evil Spirit but the whole society of apostate Angels who are most malicious and implacable Enemies of God and of Man for God's sake and of the Church above all other Societies of Men. This Doctrine we have not only from the Scriptures of the Old and New. Testament but from the most ancient primitive Christian Writers who as it were with one voice ascribe unto the Devil Idolatry Persecution Heresie and Schism He is meant by the Enemy in our Saviour's Parable who took his opportunity while men slept to sowe Tares in the Field of the Church And accordingly St. Paul who was not ignorant of his devices calls Heresies the doctrines of Devils 1 Tim. 4.1 saith he The Spirit speaketh expresly that in the latter days some shall depart from the truth giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of Devils And in Ephes 6.12 saith he Put on the whole armour of God that ye
the least to the greatest give heed unto him as the great power of God Though he renounced the Devil at his Baptism yet he kept fast hold of his Soul by this evil Affection which was the gall of bitterness that poisoned his mind the bond of iniquity whereby Satan held him when he made him the first of his Apostles the first of those very Antichrists who in that Age of Miracles came after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders to deceive if it were possible the very Elect. The fourth sort of Instruments which Satan employs in making Divisions and Schisms are covetous men who love to be at the Head of a Sect or Party because it is the ready way to get a good Maintenance and become rich There were such as these in the Apostles days as is plain from that notable passage 1 Tim. 6.5 where he mentions perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is Godliness and from such saith he withdraw thy self for we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out There were such men as these in the Church of Corinth who made Parties among the People for their own ends which gave the Apostle occasion to rebuke them in words to this effect * 2. ep cap. II. ver 19 20 As wise as you think your selves to be you do with pleasure bear with fools nay ye suffer worse then fools for you love men that bring you into bondage you love men that devour you and take Presents of you nay you love them best that insult over you and as it were smite you on the face So St. Jude tells us That the Gnostical Hereticks ran greedily after the Error of Balaam for reward And in the Apostle's Epistle to Titus we find him forewarning him of certain unruly and vain talkers and deceivers whose mouths saith he must be stopped who subvert whole houses teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucres sake So †2 Mand. 12.2 St. Hermas who was St. Paul's Scholar and wrote not long after him speaks of false Spirits in his Time who received Reward for their Divination and if they do not receive saith he they do not continue long to prophesie So ‖ Euseb H. E. l. 5. c. 18. Montanus the Heretick and false Prophet after he had gathered a great concourse of People together at the Place which he called the New Jerusalem he appointed Collectors of Money who under the Name of Offerings took Gifts and Presents of the People and his pretended Prophetesses took not only Gold and Silver but fine Cloaths by way of Present nay saith Apollonius those who are called Prophets among the Montanists take Money not only of the rich but of the poor and Orphans and Widows and therefore saith he either let them deny that their Prophets take Money which we will prove by an hundred Testimonies or else let them deny that they are true Prophets because they take Gifts So I shewed in the first Chapter that Natalis the Confessor was hired with Money to be a Bishop of that schism in Rome which taught that Christ was a meer man saith the Historian of him Being tempted with the Bait of Primacy among those of that Sect and of filthy Lucre which is the destruction of many men he was scourged all night long by the holy Angels and rose betimes in the morning and having put on Sackcloath and Ashes he went in great hast and with tears in his eyes cast himself down before Zephyrinus the Bishop and fell down not only before the feet of the Clergy but of the Laity also and after much entreaty and shewing the Stripes which he had received when he was a Confessor he was admitted into the Communion of the Church Before he was beaten by the Angels our Lord frequently admonished him of his Sin by Visions in his Sleep being unwilling that a Confessor for Christianity should perish in Heresie and Schism but the love of Preheminence and Money so bewitched him that he was fain to use severer Methods with him and give him a Thorn in the Flesh before he would repent He was constrained to lash him out of the Circle in which he stood enchanted by the Devil and as it were by force and violence break the double Chain of Ambition and Convetousness with which he had bound himself to Satan and save him by a Miracle as great as his Sin. The last sort of men by which the Devil propagates and promotes Divisions and Schisms are contentious and litigious men as it is written by the Apostle If any man be contentious we have no such custom nor the Churches of God. I confess there is a contentious Disposition which is the effect of Ambition and so is co-incident with the third particular Cause which I assigned of Heresie and Schism but then there is a contentious Disposition of another sort which proceeds from a sophistical disputatious Humour and a little sort of pride in men that makes them love to oppose and contradict every thing for contradictions sake This contentious Humour is most visible in men who are hot and cholerick and it naturally puts them upon Controversies and Disputes and maintaining Paradoxes and calling received Doctrines into question and opposing things that are established and rather then sit down and be quiet it will be opposite to it self and be against that for which it was before This restless unquiet sort of Spirit hath bred much mischief in all Societies but especially in the Church of God. It seems to me to have been the Temper of the Elder Arius who as the * Socrat. l. I. c. 5. Historian tells us was expert in Logical Subtilties and †Ex 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of a contentious humour opposed his Bishop discoursing a little too curiously about the mystery of the holy Trinity If this litigious humour at any time happen to be for the Truth it is not out of love to Truth but with a design to oppose others as we read of some who preached the Gospel not out of good intent but meerly to oppose the Apostle Some indeed saith he preach Christ of meer envy and strife and some also of good will the one preach Christ of contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds but the other of love knowing I am set for the defence of the Gospel To conclude this litigious Humour is expressed in Greek by a word which signifies the love of Contention because it is the delight and pleasure of contentious men to be of a Party and live in the dust of Controversie they are no longer easie and happy than they are engaged in some Quarrel And therefore saith they are engaged in some Quarrel And therefore saith Theophylact on Galat. 5.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. All Heresie proceeds from the love of Contention and the contentious