and blesseth Patience and Sufferings and Martyrdom either upon pretence to plant it where it now is not or to reform it where it has been planted is of all other kinds of Contentions or Wars the most Turkishly Antichristian And therefore to avoid Quarrels and Blood 't was Hezekiah the King who here reforms the Church of Iudea But yet durst he adventure alone upon an attempt so sacred and so great No you 'l easily find in the circumstances of the Text that he had both a Council and withal a Rule to direct him for if you read the 30 and the 31 of the 2d of Chron. you 'l see this Reformation was made in the time of a most solemn Passover where the Priests and Levites the Princes and the People met and when Saith the Text chap. 30. ver 30. Hezekiah had spoke comfortable words to all the Levites that taught the good knowledg of the Lord. Yea Iosephus seems to put into this Kings mouth a Synodical Oration in the ninth of his Antiquities I say when upon the Kings encouragement the Levites had once taught that good Knowledg then upon such counsel such direction as this then came the Reformation For so Moses was plain in the blessing he gave upon the whole Tribe of Levi They shall teach Iacob thy judgments and Israel thy Law Deut. 33. at the 10. And as he had a Council so 't is as plain by the self-same words he had a Rule too to go by 't was the good Knowledg of the Lord which is in Moses phrase his Iudgments and his Law And lest he should perhaps err in the Interpretation of that sacred Text he had the help of the best Comment too as you but now heard from the 22d of Ioshua 't was the sense and practice of the Hebrew Church whilst she was yet Primitive That the Church of England was reformed by the Power Royal by a Power that made use of the like Counsel and like Rule is a truth I think none here doubts of if any do 't will be soon clear'd both from our Stories and our Laws that first Our Liturgy which Reform'd Gods Publick Service was compos'd by Bishops and others of great Knowledg in Antiquity many whereof attained the Honour of Martyrdom And then the Book of our Articles which reformed the Theological Tenets the common Doctrines of our Church were Compiled by Synods by Convocations by the two Solemn Provincial Councils of London or if you will the two National because both our Provinces concurr'd in the same truth in the years 52 and 62. And that our Rule was the same they here used in Iewry Gods word interpreted by the Sense and Practice of the Ancient Church appears in the next Synod after where 't is decreed in plain words That whosoever undertakes to teach any truth as necessary to salvation which he is not able to make good by Text as 't was understood by the Fathers and the Ancient Church shall be expos'd to Ecclesiastical Censure and Canonical Correction And we cannot think our Church would enjoyn a Rule to her Sons which yet she had not kept her self In this Point then we are hand in hand with Iudah the same Power the same Council the same Rule I go to the next following The Extent of the Reformation 't was only set up in his own Territories Iudah and Ierusalem Indeed Hezekiah wrote Letters and sent to the remains of the Ten Tribes to joyn in this great Action with him but they for the most part contemn'd his Message and slighted his Attempt 2 Chron. 30. The King did exceeding well For 't was to be much wished that in a Design so highly pious as this all Israel would have been unanimous But yet if Ephraim and others will refuse to hear Iudah must mend alone How generally a Reformation was desir'd in these parts of Christendom by men of the choicest Note both for Learning and Piety 't were no hard Task at all to shew you Nay in the very Council of Trent Ten several Kingdoms and States desir'd the Cup for the People both by their Ambassadors and their Prelates Many press'd for a Redress of Service in an unknown Tongue many for many other particulars All were refus'd and the Reason plain Order was there taken you may guess by whom that there were more Italian Prelates sometimes by Twenty sometimes by an Hundred than there were of all the World besides so that in effect all this Christendom would have reformed her self had not Italy oppos'd it Nor can that be call'd a General Council 't was but Patriarchal at the largest since the Bishops of the East and other great Churches were not there no nor those Three long since so most famous Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria and Antioch who though they may be deceiv'd in that Tenet of the Procession of the Holy Ghost yet whatever Error they are in in that point they are in no Heresie as is confess'd by P. Lombard himself and has been oft made unanswerably good by Men as well vers'd in controversal Points as any Christendom has bred But 't is the Artifice of the Western Church to perswade the World that those ancient parts are now fallen from the Church that so within the Curtains of their own Patriarchate she may have General Councils and an universal Church and so though she now make not near a Third part of the Christian World yet with the Donatist she dares profess her self the only Catholick Church and so damns all Mankind without her Neither yet do I deny nay I affirm it rather That a true General Council could best prescribe Remedies unto so large a Disease but to convoke that was extreamly difficult and we are all sure 't was not done For what Christian Princes can now give safe conduct to the Bishops and Patriarchs of those remoter parts of the Church So then if neither a true General Council nor free Patriarchal could be had were 't not strange Imprudence to refuse a Cure because we could not use the best Physicians In this case no doubt it unquestionably holds what Gerson the Learned Chancellor of Paris has spoken out without Limitation and he as Bell. affirms was Vir doctus pius he was a learned and a good man too and you shall hear that good mans words Nolo tamen dicere c. I will not say faith he but the Church may be reformed by parts yea this is necessary and to effect it Provincial Councils may suffice and in some things Diocesan 't is in his Tract de Gen. Con. unius obed And indeed Particular Churches have gone farther in this kind than our dear Mother e're dream'd of For four things there are chiefly of Synodical Cognizance Articles of Faith Forms of Divine Worship Theological Conclusions for the Peace of each Church and the points of Ceremony Only these Three last were the Subject of our Reformation we still adhering unto the Three Creeds which are the
THE ENGLISH CASE Exactly set down by HEZEKIAH's REFORMATION IN A Court Sermon AT PARIS By Dr. Steward then Dean of Westminster and of His Majesties Chappel Now published for the brief but full Vindication of the Church of ENGLAND from the Romanists Charge of Schism LONDON Printed for William Canning at his Shop in the Temple-Cloysters M DC LXXX VII A PREFACE SOme Truths as some Excellencies are so much beholding to their own Light that the shortest and most transient glimps can command our Assent to the one and give us a sufficient knowledge of the other Such is that of the inward worth of this Author who as he was many ways qualified for that piece of ancient character 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eunap de Alypio in vit Iambl p. 29. nature and austerity afforded him so small a portion of body and God's blessing on great faculties and equal diligence so rich endowments of Mind that he approached to some nearness to be all Soul so will he be most fully pourtrayed on the least Table Any thing that was truly his that past under his last hand in his maturer Age carries those Signatures on it whereby being dead he yet speaketh articulately to those that knew him and intelligibly if they please to believe it to those which knew him not And this single Sermon of his which is here offered the Reader vndertakes to make good what hath been said Others have been willing to gather up all his Reliques which they can retrieve from any Coast that nothing which is so well qualified to receive may want its due veneration And the publick is much obliged to this their diligence But for the compleat Image of this true Son of the English Church his temper and the reasons of his unmoved constancy to our Persecuted Mother it will be competently drawn from this one appearance of him Conformable is the frame of the English Reformation so strongly guarded and secured inwardly from its own Principles Antiquity and Purity of so straight and so clean so plain and unintricate a making so clear and chrystalline both in its spring and streams that the simplest colours and the quickest hand will give us the justest prospect the vitallest picture of it This one parallel of Hezekiah's taking away the high-places c. being here perspicuously brought home by an uniform concurrence of suitable circumstances to the English Platform superceeding the Readers solicitude by supplying the want of any larger collection of discourses and vindications in the point of Schism or Heresie or Non-Communion with the Catholick Church Thus much was useful to he premised of the intrinsick value of this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to engage the indifferent Readers survey not to anticipate his judgment of it But the more extrinsick circumstances of the Place and Preacher and Auditory and Design of it may deserve some farther reflection in order to those which were not foreseen nor consequently at all considered by the designer The Scene was Paris and if I mistake not L' Hostel de Blinville there the place whither the most Illustrious then Prince of Wales his Highness with his Family assembled for the Divine Offices of the Lords day The avow'd Design for the fortifying of all his English Auditors against the infusions to which that Clime not the remoter of Rome or Madrid might possibly subject them The Preacher as great a Prelatist as any whom unkind or jealous Brethren have ever blasted under that title His love and desire of the Peace of the Church so ardent and his Intercessions so constant for the Return of it that he was unwilling to be known to posterity by any other monument than this that He daily pray'd for the peace of the Church 2 Kings XVIII 22. But if ye say unto me We trust in the Lord our God is not that he whose high places and whose Altars Hezekiah hath taken away and hath said to Iudah and Ierusalem Ye shall worship before this Altar in Ierusalem YOU may please to observe that Detraction sometimes mistakes her aim and by a weak assault commends that good which it intends to villisie Thus this Commander was here sent to rail down Hezekiah that his cruel Tongue might make as 't were the Preface unto his Master's Sword. But so fond was his attempt that no studied Parasite could have more flatter'd him So that methinks this Prince's Worth ne're seems more fair than in the mouth of Rabshakeh He 's there tax'd for demolishing the High Places and for the Subversion of so many Altars Actions that were enjoyn'd him by Moses as if a Man should accuse Henoch of Godliness or Abraham of his Belief who would not take such Accusations as these for no less than artificial Praises as if some Orator had laboured to commend these by an Irony Hâ—noch a good man but godly Abraham holy no doubt but that he was faithful and Hezekiah a virtuous gallant Prince wer 't not he 's so Religious I could in Charity thus interpret these Words of Robshakeh were he not a Servant unto the King of Ashur but to speak truth His Commission makes it plain that he came to Rail only his more friendly malice objects goodness instead of Sin as if here Detraction had been suborn'd to commend an Enemy You may thus far trust Rabshakeh for in my Text he speaks exact Truth to spite the poor King of Iudah This you 'l easily find in the precedent parts of this Chapter and withal you 'l there see the Hebrews in a lamentable estate and yet indeed not so sad as ours Their fenced Cities all taken by the Arms of Assyria vers 13. The Treasures of the King and of the Temple too all consumed vers 15. Ierusalem it self the City Royal besieg'd 't was not yet lost 't was not so bad here vers 17. and now Rabshakeh is sent to perswade the King into Chains He tells him there was no hope in his own strength for though Assyria it self should be so kind as to lend him Horses yet so low was he brought he could scarce find so many Troopers No hope in Egypt his old known Confederates they were a meer broken Reed Nay he dares add more No hope at all in God neither for though Hezekiah had indeed but reformed the Old Church yet in Rabshakeh's sense he had set up a New one he had forsaken God and thrown down his Altars and remov'd his High Glorious Places and upon this false Supposition what a Rise is here taken by this fighting Orator But if ye say unto me We trust in the Lord our God is not this he c. You see then 't is no strange thing at all to find a Reformed Church oppressed by Arms or by Orators But since my Text here is a part of Rabshakeh's speech I shall leave the Soldier and only follow him in this part of his Oration Where for my more clear proceeding I shall a little invert the order of the words and shall
runs with this abatement He walkt in the ways of David his Father but the High Places were not taken away the People still offer'd Sacrifice in the tops of the High Places It 's thus said of no less than Seven Solomon and Asa Iehosaphat Iehoash Amaziah Azariah and Iothan Cardinal Cajetan thinks this gross Corruption was as general as if the Iews resolv'd to make null Moses Law by an Hebrew Custom to the contrary and they had don 't without doubt were our Sins as well able to abrogate a Law as we well know they are to break it This is plain that the Cardinal conceiv'd this Abuse was grown into a Custom National which had there spread it self over all sorts and kind of Persons So that it found no open no constant Opposition at all from any body of men then considerable Had it 't is clear enough That Customs thus oppos'd can put Humane Laws in no danger But I need not quote such Authorities the very word there us'd where the Text speaks of those Kings infers this Truth strongly enough But the High places were not taken away the People still offer'd Sacrifice in the High Places For that Word the People when it 's put singly and without opposition implies without doubt the whole Nation which it points at Thus when God commands Moses Speak now in the ears of the people Or in those Words to Pharaoh Let my people go No doubt but that Word did point at each several Iew and though sometime it may well bear a sence less general yet it then implies so much the far greater Number that commonly what remains is neither a part eminent nor considerable Nay to go no farther than my Text 't is plain enough from these Words of Rabshakeh who having taken so many Cities had now spent some good time in Iewry that this Corruption was so universally spread without any visible any noted part to oppose it that he conceived it the only true Service of the God of Israel With what Face else could He have told the Iews They had no hopes in their God because their King had quite overturned his Religion Had there indeed been any Number of Note that had oppos'd this Corruption is 't at all probable it would have been conceal'd in these Hebrew Histories Their Pen men we know were all Zealous enough to preserve the Honour of Iudea and yet in this particular we find a still total silence And if any man will needs hold the contrary they who call so much for Catalogue of Names might in Justice demand of this grand Undertaker to shew a List of those Iews who from Age to Age whilst this Corruption held did not at all worship in High Places But you 'l demand perhaps For how long a time was the Hebrew Church thus corrupted And indeed Learned Men differ here Some think this abuse began in the times of Othoniel and Ehud Judges Others plac'd it in the days of Gideon admit either of these conjectures and 't will be plain in Chronology that this forbidden worship held no less than six hundred Years for all agree Hezekiah was the first who durst be so good in those bad times as to reform this corruption But grant we do abate of this since great Clerks conceive that from the time that the Ark was parted from the Tabernacle which was no less than ninety years from the days of Eli the Priest when the Ark went Captive to Philistia until they both met again in the Temple of Solomon 't was lawful to sacrifice at more than one only altar because God had promised his more immediate Presence as well before the Ark as before the Tabernacle For this reason I say though perhaps it hold not grant we abate of that time what I find established by common consent will prove large enough to support all my whole intention For no man dares deny the Text is so plain in that Catalogue of Kings I related that this corruption held from the days of Solomon unto the Reign of King Hezekiah and so no less than upon the Point of three hundred years as is plain by the computation of Arias Montanus and by the most exact in Chronology So then three things are here very considerable first the Nature of this Corruption 't was in the Censure of Gods Law no less than the sin of Murther and in the Censure of the Iews it deserved no less than the Revenge of a plain Civil War. Secondly the Extent of this Corruption it had spread it self throughout the whole face of Iudea so that all that was at that time God's Visible Church was at once involv'd in this Error For I need not now speak of the Ten Tribes their high places were made waste as is plain enough from the Calves of Dan and of Bethel Thirdly the Continuance of this Corruption it held probably for six but no man can deny that it remained in the Church of Iewry upon the point of three Centuries of years Hence 't will follow clearly the whole Visible Church may be so far corrupted that though she forsake not God and so run in Non Ecclesiam to be no Church at all yet for a long time she may do Publick Worship in a most gross forbidden manner and this kind of Abuse may be so dangerous that upon its full discovery both Prince and People may be in conscience bound to embrace Reformation Has God's Church of the Law been so foully blemished and may that of the Gosyel boast of a more constant Beauty Are the Promises of this kind more large to us than they were to that Church wherein God's own Son was born She in as plain Terms was then call'd the Spouse of God I will betroath thee unto me for ever saith the Lord Hos. 2. His People and his Flock We are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hands Psal. 95. Yea his Sons and his Daughters Thou shalt call me my Father saith the Lord and shalt not depart from me Jer. 3. 19. True the Gates of Hell shall not so prevail but Christ will still have a Church and could the Gates of Hell prevail against her that was betrothed God's own Spouse for ever That is at least till Christ came No they could not prevail to make her run in non Ecclesiam to become no true Church at all and yet they might prevail to make her run in Corruptam Ecclesiam into a Church so much corrupt in her Publick Worship that she might much need a Reformation And indeed 't is a strange thing that any Christian Church which God has plac't among Gentiles should be so puffed up with a thought of her own strength that she cannot fail in this particular For 't is a Truth clear in the Text that there 's no Church of Gentiles but like a Branch from the Vine it may be quite cut from Christianity And which is worth observing St. Paul has indited this self-same Truth
Faith of the Church Catholick But whence came Filioque in Two of these Three Creeds if not in a Provincial Synod In a General no man thinks it did And some Learned men ascribe that Addition of Faith to the Eighth Synod of Toledo And if a Provincial of Spain may thus decide Points of Faith I understand not why a National of England may not be heard in far less matters Nay in the Fourth of Toledo 't was challeng'd by the Fathers as the proper Right of a National Synod that it might decide Points of Faith as clearly appears in the 3. Can. of that Council You see then the Parallel still holds Hezekiah reform'd but his Two Tribes and our English Princes but their own Territories I come to the last of this Second General The manner of the Reformation He did as well teach the truth as reform the corruptions He took away the high places and he said Ye shall c. Ye shall worship before one altar so his words are set down 2 Chron. 32. at the 12th He did not only remove their Errors as if that past Triumph might suffice them but for the future he enjoin'd the People to employ their Devotion according to God's sacred Law. And did not we so too Witness our Catechisms and our Liturgy our many Forms of Devotion to God and our many enlargements of those Moral Duties we owe to the several ranks of our Neighbours 'T is then but a Calumny and a fond one too to call our Faith a Negative Religion as if to believe that some Men are erroneous were the sole Article of all our Churches Creed Truth is we may thank them for it that 't is with us as with Iudah our Profession must needs now contain some Negatives High places are not allowable maim'd Sacraments must not be suffered nor Images ador'd but yet they may soon see our Positive Tracts are more large than our Polemicks and that we have taken more pains to make men good than to make them Learned or Judicious I heartily wish I could in this regard as well defend some Sons of our Church as I am sure I can our Church it self For many mens ill carriage seem to divide the two clauses here which are so nearly join'd in my Text. They like well to remove High Places and Altars in this regard none shall shew more Zeal than they nay under pretences of such corruptions as these if you please remove Church and all But when we once come to this Ye shall worship before one altar ye shall bow down ye shall bend your selves for so the word here imports ye shall be devout and religious and this not only in your inmost thoughts but in your outward Forms of Deportment they like no such Reformation 't is enough to save them that they have learned to hate Rome and that they are no superstitious Persons Let not such men deceive themselves 'T will one day rise up in Judgment 't will plead against them and severely too that they have been bred Members of such a reform'd Church and yet neither in their Devotions nor their Lives themselves have they shew'd the least Reformation What good will it do these to have been so Christianly allow'd the Blessed Cup in the Sacrament when yet either they come not at all or come in their sins to receive it What will it avail thee to have God's Service perform'd in a Language thou understand'st when either very seldom thou hearest it read or dost not heed at all though thou hear it How will that poor man whom perhaps thou now pitiest plead against thee at that Last Bar of Christ's Judgment I indeed came seldom and with small Devotion to that Sacrament because I was there robb'd of that sacred Cup which I know Thou thy self had'st left me I seldom came to God's Publick Service and being there I fix'd my Mind on some secular Lusts because I could not understand it And in punishment shall I be equall'd to him who was allowed the Cup and in Divine Service might have understood both all Hymns and Prayers Believe it the Reformation was made not to boast of but to use And he who shall declare that he likes the thing and yet is no whit the better for it runs at the best but into a kind of Covetousness a sin St. Paul call'd Idolatry for with such miserable Churls he loves indeed to have the power of this great Wealth and yet he doth ne're mean to use it But we ought to know that when Hezekiah has once removed these High Places here 't is to this great end especially that thenceforth we should be the more carefully devout before that allowed Altar at Ierusalem And yet when we have done this we must look for Scorns and Reproaches For if Iudah or any Child of hers be grown good you may surely expect there will be straight work for Rabshakeh as you 'l see in my last part The Reformation censur'd it 's tax'd of Novelty and Schism and the like But if ye say We trust in the Lord our God is not that he c. 'T was in St. Hierom's time an Hebrew Traditon that this Rabshakeh was born a Iew so that Father upon the 36th of Esay Indeed so it often falls out that Iudah has no man a more bitter Enemy than when one of the Circumcision becomes a Fugitive Nor has our Mother-Church been by any more violently oppos'd than by the hands who have left her by the hands of those sicklemen whose persons she did once baptize But leave the Man come to his Words If ye say unto me We trust in the Lord c. You see Rabshakeh himself was grown so much a Divine as to aver openly That he who puts his Hand to overturn that Religion he professes yea that puts his Hand to overturn it too at the same time while he likes it pretend what he will he trusts not in God he trusts perhaps in the Syrians or in Egypt He goes on Is not this he whose altars c. He Iudah's old God and therefore 't was no less than plain Novelty to leave him These High Places and Altars as he conceiv'd were his too And to leave off to communicate in that Service they once us'd what can this be less than a Schism And have not we been long since nay are we not reproached even unto this day with the very self-same Imputations They have set up a new Church they are wicked Schismaticks So that should the most modest man entertain that Dream of Pythagoras of the transmigration of Souls from one body to another he would not stick at all to affirm that he who was once Rabshakeh was since some tart Pen-man of this latter Century I 'le speak first of that Tax the reproach of Novelty And I beseech you mark how Rabshakeh has here fram'd his Words He strives to lay all upon this Present King Hezekiah took away and Hezekiah said No mention that
this Fact was enjoyn'd by Moses aud practis'd too by the Hebrew Church whilst she was the Primitive Thus let but Rabshakeh once tell the tale and a Church larely reform'd shall indeed appear to be but a late founded Church Ignorance may perhaps excuse this Commander here in my Text but some Learned men in our times are more extreamly to blame for you 'l soon see how fond are their main Exceptions do but suppose their Words put into the Mouth of Rabshakeh when as here in my Text at Ierusalem he be-spake the besieg'd men upon the Wall Hear O ye Iews will your aged Synagogue at length turn Novelist Your Fathers worshipp'd in these High Mountains but ye now say Ierusalem's the place where was the Church before Hezekiah Was 't no where or invisible Were your Predecessors blinded with one joint consent Or are ye only become more clear of sight what than Solomon the wise or Asa the religious Does your God sometime forsake his Church or will for Hundreds of Years suffer it to be so constantly obscur'd Let not this pure Prince deceive you still with these fond upstart toys for 't is your Iudah's greatest Fame that she 's thought very Ancient What Iew I wonder could this speech move unless 't were to laughter Where was their Church before Hezekiah In the same place and among the same People and 't was still the very self-same Church I say the same in truth of essence for so 's a Thief a True man but not in condition or in quality for formerly it was corrupt now reform'd by the Law of Moses formerly it had heen dangerously diseas'd but 't was now cured by Hezekiah Let them ask Naaman too where was he before Elisha had heal'd him Would he not divide the Question He was long before but he was withal Leprous And Palestine had still a Church but God knows 't was a corrupt one So then he who calls a reform'd Church new because 't is newly reform'd might as well call Naaman a child too because after his cure the Text plainly says his flesh came again like a child's But in earnest is our Age to be accounted from our recovery Or is a man no Older than his Health By this Philosophy they might perswade the Leper that he bore Office in the Syrian Court before he was a Year Old. Let therefore the Modern Rabshakeh's cease to upbraid us with such known petty Cavils our Church was no more invisible than that of Iudah and might as well be before Luther was as theirs before Hezekiah Secondly They tax us of Schism which is questionless a great sin being in frequent Texts very sharply condemn'd in Scripture 'T is then committed when there is a Scissure a Breach an uncharitable Division made betwixt those men especially which in point of Religion were once joyn'd aud linkt together So that were this Rupture is there is sin without doubt all the Question is on which side the Crime must lie sometimes it may lie on both but it ever lies on him that gives just cause of Division not ever on him that divides Abraham did divide from his Idolatrous Kindred and so did St. Paul from his old friends the Iews The Orthodox Christians were forc'd to do the like when Arrianism did prevail and yet in the opinon of these Rabshakehs themselves neither Abraham not St. Paul nor those old Christians were Schismatical Thus when Hezekiah once had reform'd the Church of Iudea no man can think a Conscientious Iew would at all communicate in the service of these High Places he did divide from it without doubt although before either by custom or ignorance or the like he did it frequently without Scruple And yet might such a Iew be held guilty of Schism no more sure than Hezekiah who both did and enjoyn'd the like and yet the Holy Ghost in this History here does in express terms commend him in the fourth verse of this Chapter he commends him as much for reforming the Church as he does for being like David So that to tax him were indeed to affirm that the Spirit of God commends a Schismatick himself for the very act of his schism Thus then they are not still they who divide but they who give or continue the just cause of Division who are guilty of that sin we speak of But yet since in Church-controversies 't is not so easie to judg what makes that just cause I nam'd and that no wise man can think it fit it should be left to each private judgment since in such divisions as these men are extreamly apt to forget all bonds of Peace and for possession sometimes of a little suppos'd truth quit indeed their whole Estate of Charity therefore the Ancients do oft define schism by these two grand notes or Characters First when men make Divisions in point of Religion against the consent of their lawful Pastors 't is so defined by St. Cyprian and St. Ierom and others Secondly when men cast out of the Church Catholick and so damn to Hell all that hold not their opinions And this St. Austin doth oft times call schism in the Donatists And now take Schism in what sense under what note you please our Mother Church is guiltless of that imputation First take it for a Division in Gods publick Service She did no more in that point than what was here done by Hezekiah since she had as clear Text and so as just cause To give the Cup to the People to turn their Devotions into a language they understood as this King here had to bring the Iews from their Old Mass in high places unto that one Altar at Ierusalem Nay the cause we had was more just than that of Iudah because the corruptions of the Western Church were all backt by Tyranny Men were constrain'd into Errors when yet we read not at all that if a pious Iew would have kept himself unto that one Altar at Ierusalem he was either checkt by their Kings or opprest by their Priests or condemn'd to Tophet by their Sanhedrim Secondly Take Schism for an opposition made against our lawful Pastors and our Church you 'l find was not guilty in this matter neither For at that time when the Reformation was made we were under our own Synods only and with what readiness they joyn'd in this grand Work you have heard in my second General 'T is true that for some hundreds of years we had been under a known Foreign Power but yet such a Power as came not amongst us but by the breach of a great General Council as is clear from the last Canon of the first of Ephesus A Power I say Patriarchal and so meerly of Ecclesiastical Right not of Divine Institution A Power which in the Ancient Church had been set up by Emperors as that of Iustiniana prima by Iustinian in his 11th Novel Nay 't was openly maintained in the great Council of Chalcedon that all the Patriarchs had gain'd their