accept of It must be a Worship not only in Spirit opposite to the way of carnal Sacrifices and the Numerousness of Jewish Ceremonies and external Rites but also in Truth opposite to all false superstitious or otherwise sinful ways which really are not Worship but Prophaneness For in Christianity the true Worshippers as our Lord says are they who worship God in Spirit and in Truth Jo. 4. 23 24. Yea as he adds the Father seeketh such to worship him v. 23. And if he seeketh such Worshippers his devoted Servants who have no other aim but to find him and to be found by him must seek out such Assemblies where such Worship is paid to him And thus also St. Peter says of those Sacrifices the joynt-communion wherein is to bind us together into one spiritual House that they must be such spiritual Sacrifices as are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Pet. 2. 5. So that the Unity in Worship and Prayers which we are bound to keep with other Christians or Assemblies is only whilst they meet to put up Holy Prayers coming in among them as live stories to make part of their spiritual House whilst they offer up such Sacrifices as may be fit to find acceptance as we heard from St. Peter And thus the Peace which St. Paul orders us to pursue is with those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart not with those who as the Gnosticks were like enough to do prophaned him by a sinful Worship or impure Petitions 2 Tim. 2. 22. And the bond of external Peace is where we may lawfully keep the unity of the spirit which is not to be kept in sinful Offices but only in pure ones Eph. 4. 3. or where in following after the things which make for Peace we may withal follow such things wherewith we may edifie not corrupt and ensnare one another Rom. 14. 19. Particularly as to the Pactors who are the Heads of those Assemblies one chief Character of theirs as they are set over us and chief ground of our Dependance and Obligations to keep under them is as they are Ministers of Prayers And that as they minister such Prayers as are fit to serve the necessary ends and purposes of all Prayer that is to worship and honour God and to benefit us or to bring down Blessings from him And if we who must seek out for Prayers are tyed to them as Ministers of holy and acceptable Prayers that Obligation towards them ceases when instead of administring such they fall to minister profane ones And thus there is a just Ground to break off or a Liberty of seperating from Assemblies even of Rightful Pastors for pure Christian Administrations Not for Purity from mere Defects or for Administrations more edifying which is the Pretence of our Anti-Episcopal Dissenters but for Purity from Sin and wicked Mixtures That is that they may have a Worship and Religious Service without mixture either of Idolatry or of Immorality That they may meet with nothing to reproach or dishonour God therein or to disturb and wound a pious Affection when they should be most helped and encouraged in exercise thereof being come to serve and worship him When they are thus barr'd out by any wicked mixtures unless necessity and want of better drive them to make shift therewith they are no longer tyed to resort to such Offices but are free to seek out for better at the hands of any other Regular and Authorised Pastors and ought to communicate in them if they can have them For sinful Prayers are a sinful Sacrifice as the Oblations of blemished of blind and lame and sick for Sacrifice were among the Jews Mal. 1. 8. Levit. 22. 19 20 22. Deut. 15. 21. And whatever Toleration it might meet with in want of better yet if any man hath in his Flock a Male or one fit to make a legal and perfect Offering cursed be he saith the Prophet that voweth and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing Mal. 1. 13 14. But the Ground of this breaking off is higher still if 2. They do not only put impious and unlawful things into their sacred Offices or Confessions but admit none to communion in any of the good parts unless they particularly concur in these corrupt ones too The former sets men loose that they lawfully may and where they have opportunities of better ought to break off from them But this drives and necessitates them that they must do so and can not for the supply of any Necessities stay to associate and assemble with them And thus it is when any Bishops will admit no Members or when any Churches will admit no other Churches to communicate with them unless they will agree to believe or profess some false Doctrine or partake and go along with them in those particular and unlawful Matters or evil Worship wherewithal they have clogged and corrupted their Communion Now when this is the Case nothing can legitimate Communion with such Bishops or Churches For though it is the duty and ought to be the desire and care of all good Christians to keep up the external Unity of the Church both under their own Bishops and with other Churches Yet must not this ever carry them to unite or to go along with them in ill things To be one with them in these Matters is to partake with them in their Sins which is not the Unity and Communion of Saints or Christians but of the ungodly or of evil-doers In such Points the more united any Society is the worse it is Such is the Union of all Infidel Churches who unite in utterly denying and opposing the Christian Faith And of Hereticks who incorporate under their seducing Heads to undermine or pervert it Yea even the infernal Spirits are united Polities without which Satans Kingdom could not stand as our Saviour says being associated and knit together to despite God and all that bears his Image But all this Union or Agreement of Men in damnable Errors or Wickedness is only combining against God and their own Souls And our Blessed Lord came not to bind up but to break such Combinations which the World then was full of I came not to send Peace but rather Divisiâ—n saith he that is to call People to break off from Error and Wickedness and to divide from the Adherers to ungodly ways Luk. 12. 51. So that the lamentableness of Mens not going all one way is true here where the Generality go the right way But when they are going wrong in ways of Guilt and Destruction to unite in Sin and Misery is a deplorable thing and there 't is best when the most divide and stand off from them Nor may they be wanting to their duty in some Points to keep on united to them in others They must not purchase Unity by sinfull Omissions or buy peace with the loss of innocence And therefore as I observed the watchmen must not be wanting in giving
of mistake and Ignorance Of Zeal against Popery alledg'd therein The Con 〈…〉 PART I. Of the Duty of Pastors to Exercise their Spiritual Powers and to afford the People Orthodox and Holy Ministrations CHAP. I. Of the Differences here Treated of and of the Schism consequent thereon REvolutions of States and Kingdoms when they have put them into the Possession of New Masters are wont to bring on New Oaths of Allegiance for Security of the New Possessors and also to bring on Alterations of Publick Prayers and Liturgies so far at least as concerns the Cause and Interest of the Governing Persons that Religious as well as Civil Offices and Ministrations may espouse and serve their Cause who have got the Power into their Hands These Impositions of such New Oaths and of such Alterations and Ordering of the Publick Worship pursuant to the Design thereof are usually followed with Acts of State for Deprivation of those Bishops and Clergy who Refuse and Stand off from the same and for Substituting opposite or Anti-Bishops and other Clergy that will conform thereto into their Places And when these are executed accordingly especially in much disputed Cases it may be an afflictive Sight to many good Christian Minds in just acknowledgement to the extraordinary and perhaps generally celebrated Merits of Some and in due Compassion to the hard Measure of all the Sufferers But it will be much more impressive and lamentable on the Score of that terrible Rent and Schism thereby like to ensue in such Churches which is so generally and deservedly dreaded and bewailed by all Sincere Promoters of Unity and unfeigned Lovers of Peace and of the Prosperity of the Church This Breach being thus made on One Side The Sufferers will be press'd to Submit in Regard to the Deprivation of the State And moreover supposing themselves injured they will be put in Mind of the justly magnified excellency of the Desirableness and Necessity of Unity and will be call'd upon as Good Pastors who prefer the Flock before themselves to give up Private Claims to Publick Peace and Personal Quarrels and Pretences to the Advantage and Edification of the Church And this Preference of Peace to private Interests they must own to be the Duty of all good Pasters and as becomes such profess to set these things above all Worldly Profits and Considerations being ready when call'd thereto To lay down even their Lines for the Sheep after the Example of the Great Shepheard And 't is not improbable but that at such times they may wish withal that their Admonishes had been as ready to follow this Advice as they are to give it and had like good and conscionable Christians reflected seasonably and seriously themselves upon these Duties of Peace and Unity before they had acted so much against them in rushing Head long as they may alledge into that Breach which in the End the generality see so great cause to lament but which the Sufferers have no Power to Remedy Or that in Just and Necessary Remorse for what they have done they would penitently return whence they are fallen and seeing their Error so unhappily over-looked before by coming into the old Paths re-unite themselves to then Brethren again But on the Other hand they will be ready to put their Brethren and Accusers in Mind that neither a State Deprivation nor a Synodical Deprivation had there been one can discharge a Bishop from standing up to keep off Damage and Danger to Religion and to the Souls of Men or from preventing their being nursed up in immoral Practices and Devotions And that True and Faithful Pastors are not so straightly bound to keep up external Unity and Peace as to keep up necessary Truth and Righteousness and holy and unpolluted Worship in the Church Their Charge is first To provide against all things that endager or destroy the Souls of Men and damnifie Religion and when that is done then to look how they may provide against all Schism or breach of external Unity with their Compastors or Brethren but never seek to salve and secure this by letting those alone Besides as to Peace and Union instead of carrying themselves off from Truth and Righteousness at such times or any good People off from them they will alledge that they oblige all who will make Conscience thereof and observe them as they ought to stick to them For the Unity which Christ requires is to keep united upon the Profession of true Doctrine and holy Worship not of any damnable Errors and Corruptions thereof And under our own Lawful and Canonical Bishops and Pastors not under any opposite or Anti-Bishops and Pastors Schismatically set up against them and violently intruding into their Places The determination of this Debate at all such times on all such Emergencies is both of highest account and of most general Concernment And the design of these Papers is to set down those things whereon in my Judgment the clearing of it must depend and by the help whereof Sincere Christians in such Divisions may be enabled to resolve both what is the Duty of the Sulfering Bishops and Clergy in those Cases and also what is the Peoples Duty and with which of the concern'd Parties Men who desire nothing so much as to please God and to keep a good Conscience ought to unite and joyn themselves As to the deprived Bishops and Clergy at such times the question is Whether not withstanding their Deprivation they are Bound still to go on in the Exercise of their Ministry Or sitting down under it and letting fall their Spiritual Ministrations they Should content themselves to keep United the Anti-Bishops and to their Adberents as Lay Communicants If it be their Duty still to insist on their Spiritual Powers and as they can and at their Perils to exercise their respective Ministrations those Churches are unavoidably left in a State of Flagr anâ— Schism For the opposite or Anti-Bishops are set up against them in their respective Churches as New Heads And if the Old Ones are not only still in place and Bishops of their Flocks 〈◊〉 and still bound to stick thereto and to act as Heads of those Churches each Church will stand divided between Two Heads which drawing opposite Parties and Members after them must unavoidably make two Bodies and roâ—d one into two Churches And besides one having the Protection and Countenance of the State and the other wanting it they must not by divided and separate Ministrations One in the way of an Incorporate Church encouraged by Legal Places and Preferments and foâ—â—â—fied by secular Laws and Priviledges But the Other in the way of a Destitute or Persecured Church stript of the Publick Churches and of secular Benefices and of all Temporal Aids and Methods directing and fortifying the Spiritual Jurisdiction in the Ecolesiastical Courts and left meerly to its Spiritual Powers When the State deprives them they must take up with what is independantly and originall their own and
proper Remedies and to Strengthen that which is Diseased Feeding it with wholesome Doctrine or Proper Aliment as Grotious says upon it to bring again that which was Driven away and to Seek that which was lost if happily by seasonable and needful Warning and Admonition they may recover it Ezek. 34. 4. And if they take up with Feeding of themselves and Neglect by these ways to Feed the Flocks at such times he denounces Woes to them ver 2. and declares he will require his Flock at their Hand ver 10. I do not say Immoral Practices are a Cause for Pastors to Seperate Communions For Immorality whilst confined to Practice and Conversation and not crept into Worship and Prayers doth not hinder all Communion in Divine Service Nor are we to seperate from any Church in Divine Offices because of a Mixture of Persons or of their having Moral and Immoral Livers among them as I observed before But they are an obliging Call to them to Minister the Word to put a stop to them And if they cannot be allowed to do this in Communion with others they must do it however by breaking off from them and Officiating by themselves And such Breach to say nothing of other Grounds is consequential upon the Ministrations of the deprived Pastors on such Revolutions They are by their Deprivation Secluded from Ministring in the Authorized and Established Churches and so must act seperately and Minister by themselves if they are bound to Minister the Word at all 2. When ill or immoral Practides are not only set up but Justified And then ill Practices are turn'd into ill Principles and become Doctrines There may 〈◊〉 Defection from Duties in Practice whilst Men retain their Principles Their Love of this World and the Strength of Corrupt Passions carrying them too oft to act and do all against their Judgments But if their Opinion is brought over and in Judgment they are reconciled to ill Ways since all Judgment iâ—â—pon Principle that is by change of Principles Their Judgment then is perverted by ill and Corrupt Doctrines Which having imbibed to corrupt and alledging to clear and justifie themselves they will teach and propagate among others And when by venting corrupt Principles and Propositions False Guides set up for Teachers of ill Things 'T is high time for True and Faithful Guides to open their Mouths and to strive for Truth and Righteonsness against them They are ill Watch-Men if they are a sleep or silent at such a Time And ill Shepheards if they take no care to lay wholesome things before the Flocks and to drive away unwholesome when the Speakers of Perverse Things are endeavouring to Poyson them And Unfaithful Stewards and Dispensers of the Word if instead of dispensing it out they smother and suppress it when the Church is in the greatest need to be informed thereof Particularly they are obliged to this Ministration when the ill and Immoral Practices are Justified 1. First In some particular Cases especially if those Cases are of general Concern that draw in great Numbers of Persons And may prove of long Continuance to hold them on for a considerable Time in the Repetition of the same Immoral Practices Both which happen in Case of Injustice to dispossessed Princes and of turning Allegiance against them which concern all the Subjects of such Princes and will continue so to do till the Competition ceaseth Now these Immoralities in particular Cases are the Immoralities that will destroy Souls when those Cases happen It is in particular Cases that particular Persons are Guilty of them and liable to be condemned for them So 't is in particular Cases that they need to be warned against them and shew'd the Danger of them And the giving them this Warning in such particular Cases as they come is the Business of the Watch-Man For he is set to Watch particular Cases and against particular Occurrences and is to call out and give warning as oft as he espies any Harm or Danger approaching therein And if any perish in those Cases for want of his giving them Notice God tells him He will require their Blood at his Hands The Watch-Man must have both his Eyes abroad to espie these Dangers and his Tongue free to proclaim and give warning of them Being set to drive any approaching Evils away by giving the Alarm for People to Arm against them and to keep out of their Way And if like Men asleep they take no Notice of Vices when catching and over-runing their Flocks nor open their Mouths against them the Scripture brands and upraids them as it did the Prophets and Watch-Men of Israel with the Name of Dumb Dogs that cannot Bark It being the Office of Priests and Prophets to reprehend and open their Mouths against approaching Vices as it is of Dogs set to watch the House to open theirs and Bark against approaching Thieves as Grotius comments upon it Isa. 56. 10. It is the part of Stewards and Rulers of the House who are set to attend all particular Cases that may arise and concern the Family and still to Dispense and Deliver out what Portion of Food each Case or Occasion may make Needful or proper for the House-Hold It is the Office of Pastors and Shepheards to have an Eye to circumstances of Time and Place and to Watch over their Flocks in particular Cases The Needs of their Flocks their Sicknesses and Strayings lye all in particular Cases And as the Work and Duty of Shepheards lies in Feeding of their Flocks it will be their Duty to administer this Food when they need it and their Care and Provision must be for those particular Cases which are in want thereof Their Feeding of their Flocks must be by Strengthning them in any Case where they see them Diseased or Healing them where they find them Sick or Seeking after them when they are Lost and bringing them back at any Time when they are gone Astray or are Driven away as God tells the Shepheards of Israel Ezek. 34. 3 4. And if they Neglect by due Ministrations to feed them in these Cases where they are in so great want to be Fed he tells them they are no Shepheards but that his Flock is without a Shepheard v. 5. Or that they are such Shepheard as Feed not his Flock but Feed themselves ver 2 8. It is the Duty of Ministers of the Word who are to watch and mark Seasons and not to let the People want it in any Case when they need to be Warned and Instructed by it They are to Preach the Word and to be instant in it in Season yea and even out of Season 2 Tim. 4. 2. To see that none of the Family Starve or go astray for want thereof in a trying Time but that all have what Portion of it they need in due Season Luk. 12. 42. They are constituted Pastors and Teachers to Minister the Word for perfecting the Saints and for Edifying the Body of
advanced for Practices against any of his Commandments The Pharisees had invented many doctrinal Salvo's to justifie Men in the Breach of moral Duties and to vacate several of Gods Holy Commandments Thus they dealt by the Breach of Oaths which they cleared by several arbitrary Limitations and nice Distinctions of their own about the Obligation of them or Mens becoming Debtors i. e. bound by them Mat. 23. 16 18. And by the Denial of Relief or Help to Parents which they said was discharged of the Obligation laid by the Fifth Commandment and free from Sin if it was salved by the Vow Corban i. e. if they had made a Vow before that they would never Relieve them Mat. 15. 4. 5. 6. Thus Frustrating the Commandments of God as he tells them and making them of none effect through their undermining Salvo's and Traditions Mat. 15. 6. and Mark 7. 9 13. Not to mention their Limiting the Obligation of all Righteousness to external Acts or other ways of their exempting many Offences forbid by their own Law as well as by that of the Blessed Iesus But when the Ministers of Christ met with these Salvo's it was their Part not to suffer them but to rescue moral Precepts from being corrupted and Mens Consciences and Practices from being insnared by them They were to beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees in these and other Points not only as private Christians to beware of imbibing it themselves but. as Pastors of suffering others to be tainted or corrupted therewith When by these and such like Glosses the Lawyers had taken away the Key of Knowledge and shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against Men as our Lord saith they as Ministers of that Kingdom were to unlock and open it to them and to make these Duties which were the Paths thereof plane for all who were sincerely desirous to walk in them They that are made Pastors and put in Station to be Great in the Kingdom of Heaven must both do the some themselves and teach others to observe even the least of Christs Commandments when others not only transgress them in their own Practice but teach Men to transgress them Mat. 15. 19. St. Paul afterwards speaks of False Apostles who corrupted the VVord of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that adulterated it as Vintners do their VVines by corrupt Mixtures blending their own Arbitrary Salvo's and Conceits therewith or Mixing their own Doctrines with Gods as St. Chrysostom comments 2 Cor. 2. 17. Who handled the VVord of God deceitfully 2. Cor. 4. 2. And spoke Lies in Hypocrisie pretending them consistent with or sometimes promotive of Duty and Piety 1 Tim. 4. 2. And perverted the Gospel of Christ Gal. 1. 17. But when the true Ministers met with any of these corrupt Infusions and Adulterations of Christian Doctrines instead of Treacherously conniving at these Adulterations they were by a purer and more sincere Ministration to cure and teach Men better They were to make full Proof of their Ministry in Preaching the VVord and to reprove and rebuke all that was contrary to it among those that would heap to themselves Teachers of Errors and Adulterations of the Truth according to their own Lusts 2 Tim. 4. 2 3 5. When others fell to speak Lies in Hypocrisie they were not to neglect the Gift that was in them that is their Pastoral Power and Function but to stir it up and put the Brethren in Remembrance of the pure and saving Christian Truths and Duties that they may discharge the part of Good Ministers of Iesus Christ 1 Tim. 4. 2. 6. 14. When Vain Tâ—lkers and Deceivers started up Teaching Things they ought not for Filt by Lucres sake they were call'd upon not only to hold fast the Faithful VVord as they had been taught and to keep to it themselves but also by Sound Doctrine to exhort and teach others and to convince and stop the Mouths of Gain-Sayers Tit. 1. 9 10. 11. Thus are the Faithful Ministers of Christ obliged to Feed the Church with the pure Administration of Moral or other Gospel Duties when the False Guides by doctrinal Salvo's and undermining Propositions are shewing Men how they may securely Vacate and Transgress them They are not to connive at such Corruptions and Adulterations of moral Precepts but to cry out and warn against them Nor to smother and keep up the real and injured Duties but to Preach and Minister them out to those Souls who are like to perish through their Ignorance and Breach thereof And this as they will answer Gods repeated Calls and Injunctions or approve themselves True and Faithful to their Ministerial Trusts To neglect it or fail therein would be Treachery and Falseness to that Sacred Doctrine which had been deposited with them and to those Souls which had been committed to them And this Ministration they are bound to tho' these corrupt Salvo's are only the Doctrines of the Pastors and Teachers as those foremention'd Salvo's of the False Prophets and of the Pharisees too I suppose were among the Jews and are not yet made the Determinations of the Church 'T is not enough on such Justification of Immoral Practices or advancement of Immoral Salvo's by the Guides of Souls to say the Church hath not altered its Articles nor justified nor salved the ill things so by any Synodical Confession For 't is a call to them for their Ministration if these things are done by the Churchmen Their Ministration is to provide against the dangers of Souls And they are allways endangered by damnable Practices whosoever teach them whether their particular Guides or whole Synods But particular Guides are the Directors which the generality of Men have for their Consciences and Practices So that the Consciences and Practices of the generality are endangered when they fall generally to teach them the Breach of Moral Duties by corrupt Salvo's And then true Guides are to warn them of these Dangers VVhen Speakers of perverse things shall arise from among themselves the Pastors are bid to take heed to their Flocks and to feed them with the VVord of Truth and Righteousness Act. 20. 28 30. And instead of abating this Obligation it will add to it if amidst all this Prevarication of the Church Men by such corrupt Salvo's the Church it self continues right in these Points and says the same it did in its publick Acts and Articles For then in these Ministrations those Faithful Pastors have as the Authority of Truth so also the Authority of their own Church on their Side Therein they only minister out among the Members what their own Church teaches and show themselves as Faithful Ministers of Christ in standing up for his Truths So Faithful Ministers of their own Church in standing up for its Doctrines As to the Point of separation from the Church I Grant that true Ministers must not separate from a Church for any Doctrines if the Church it self holds and maintains them tho' the
Churchmen should generally and shamefully defect from them But this Ministration of those deserted Doctrines is not to separate from it but to stick Firm and Constant to it yea and to keep it up still as a Visible Body for all its true Members to Adhere to And I hope true and faithful Ministers of a Church may stand by it in maintenance and ministration of the Truths and Laws of God tho' that continue on a Breach and keep them at a distance from those Revolting Pastors who have defected and seperated themselves from both The foresaid Justification of Immoral Practices in such particular Cases and maintainance thereof by Doctrinal Salvo's will make the Consciences of Transgressors Easy and in Rest at Sin They will by this Means see no Breach of Duty in what they do nor danger of Punishment for doing it They are taught in these Cases to call Evil Good and to put Darkness for Light whereto such Heavy Woes are denounced by the Prophet and so under the greatest Load and Danger of Sin and Guilt think themselves Safe and Innocent This God calls Speaking Peace to the wicked or to those who should have no Peace but Terror and Indignation in their present Evil Ways And Sewing Pillows to bolster up Evil Doers to make them Easy and at Rest in their Unrighteousness And Strengthning the Hands of the VVicked making them bold and forward in their Ungodly Courses and barring their Repentance and Return from their Wickedness by leaving in them no Conscience of Guilt no Relentings or Remorse for their going on therein Now all this is a direct Ministration to destroy Souls And whilst False Prophets and Devouring VVolves are ministring Lies for their Destruction it is evidently and highly Incumbent on true and faithful Pastors who are set to Save Souls to minister the word of Truth for their Salvation Accordingly amidst all these Preachers of Peace and Strengthners of Evil Doers God tells the Prophets of Israel that they should not like Subtile Foxes have studied only how to slip aside and shun danger by silently Conniving at these Doings But ought to have gone up into the Gaps and have made up the Hedges Seeing they were publick Ministers deputed by God to act for him and for the good of Souls their part had been to stand in his Counsel and to have caused his People to hear his Words and thereby to have turned them from the Evil of their Doings When the People run thus to do Evil in such Cases without any Sence of Guilt or by calling Evil Good they heap up Sin and Death to themselves and know it not and so Perish for want of Knowledge But the Priests Lips must keep up Knowledge among the People and they must have the Knowledge of the Law at his Mouth Mal. 2. 7. And if my People are destrayed for lack of Knowledge because thou hast rejected Knowledge and the Communication thereof to my People I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no Priest to me saith God Hos. 4. 6. Such is the Obligation incumbent on true Pastors to Minister moral Truths when immoral Practises are justified in particular Cases and all the moral Duties opposite thereto are vacated and taken off by undermining Propositions and Doctrinal Salvo's And they are still more strictly obliged to this Ministration if the Practises justified by such Salvo's are 1. In immoralities of Great and general ill Fame and in things extreamly Scandalous to Religion All gross Violations of common Honesty and Justice and Breach of Faith especially when confirmed by Solemn Oaths and renouncing of Duty and Subjection to Superiours more particularly to Patents and Princes and such others are immoralities that all Sober Men think they ought to account Scandalous and of highest Reproach For the Duties transgressed thereby are generally known to be of greatest Importance for keeping up Society and for securing the Comforts of humane Life Which therefore all Mankind that feel such need of Society and would find Comfort in Life cry up and utterly decry the Breaches of them So that these Immoralities are sure to bring the most general Infamy upon any thing that is Guilty of them yea and upon Religion it self should it ever be found or represented as allowing or giving Countenance thereto Now the Ministers of Religion are to be especially careful to preserve its good Name and to keep up an honourable Opinion and Reverence for it among Men. He has nothing of the Ministerial Care or of a Ministerial Spirit who is careless and unconcern'd how ill and irreverently Men think of Religion Indeed if they would keep Religion if self up in the World they must keep up this Reverence and good Opinion of it For if once Mankind come to think ill or despicably of it they are never like to trouble themselves much therewith nor to Labour after much thereof And if they would preserve Religion reputable and secure of Mens Reverence and honourable Opinion they must watchfully keep all those things out of it which deservedly loose and lessen Mens good Opinion They must have a jealous Care to preserve it pure not admitting or justifying any thing that in the common Sense of Mankind is Infamous or of bad Name And therefore if any such things as all the foremention'd immoralities are in an High-Degree offer to creep in or if Satans Ministers are Busie to introduce them they must Oppose and Minister against them with all their Might and presently disclaim and purge them out that Religion may be clear of them They must Watch as far as they are able to keep them out of the Practice of Men least from such Practice of its Professors the Lookers on should Harbour a Presumption or Suspition as if Religion had some Toleration or Allowance for them Let Servants count their own Masters worthy of all Honour and Let Wives be keepers at Home and obedient to their own Husbands c. that the Word of God and his Doctrine be not Blasphemed faith St. Paul directing Timothy and Titus in that Pastoral and Ministerial Care which they should have of the Church But when these ill and infamous things appear not only in Practice but in Doctrines and come not as the blamed and prevaricating Acts of Professors but as Justified and Preached up by their Guides and Leaders Then Religion is more directly and planely brought in and the true Ministers thereof are more highly obliged to oppose them in its behalf to prevent its incurring any Scandal or Reproach thereby Or 2 If they are generally Preached up by Seducers and Men are every where Taught and perswaded to them Instead of giving any Discharge to those few Faithful Ministers that remain at such times the general falling away and Corruption of others adds to their Obligation For God and these moral Truths then have more need of their Ministration And they can have no Pretence left of puting off this Service to other
came under Roman Subjection of the Chief-priests by the Roman Procurators who made such frequent Changes among them sometimes Annual as Josephus notes In all these State-deprivations of Jewish High-priests I say there was only a change of Persons but Matters of Religion went on in every thing the same and Men were taught the same doctrines and trained up in the same Practices and held on in the same Prayers Sacrifices Temple Synagogue-Service under both And where it doth not affect the state of Religion or the interest of Souls but only their own personal Claims and Priviledges God's faithful Ministers may be free as has been observed to secure Protection and civil benefits to the Church by not breaking with the State but acquiescing under its deprivations But what voluntary deference were thus payable to a deprivation of State in a case which doth not touch Religion or the Souls of Men must not be expected in other cases which do touch and damnisie and endanger both And thus it is in the fore-mentioned cases wherein I have been asserting the necessity of holding on their spiritual Ministrations and not yielding to be stop'd thereof by any State-deprivations 3. And this also clears the Instance of the submission of the Greeks on the frequent deprivations of their Patriarks by the Turkish Governours The Benefits of Incorporation which they propose to secure thereby are not the most tempting lying not so much in being priviledged and beneficed by the State as in not being persecuted but tolerated under it And their submission for keeping on this State benefit such as it is is not without detriment to the Church tho' their breaking with the State they fear would be more detrimental the Turks as learn'd Travellers inform us making the new Advancements for Money to be levied on the Church by the New Patriark to the countenance and growth of Great Corruption and to the bringing of the Church in debt But as to the course of Religious Ministrations they are the same under both Patriarks Religion or the Word and Prayers and Sacraments are administer'd alike without Alteration and the Souls under their Charge are fed with the same Doctrines both of Faith and good Life and are nursed up in the same Practices and serve God in the same Prayers and publick Offices in both cases And therefore those deposed Patriarks are not driven by insisting on their spiritual Powers and Ministrations to break this partial Incorporation such as it is for the support of pure Faith Worship and Practice or for the Interest of Religion and of Souls as I have shewn true and faithful Pastors are in the fore-mentioned cases 4. The Fourth and Last Instance is of Queen Maries Popish Bishops deposed by a Commission of the Queens Council without a competent and lawful Synod and principally for a State-crime viz. refusing the Oath of Supremacy which was made a cause of deprivation by a preceding Act of her Parliament under Queen Elizabeth And of our Reformed Bishops coming into their Sees upon such deprivation during the others Lives As to this Case of the Marian Bishops or of other Popish Bishops under Edward the sixth Two Things are to be Noted in their Removal and Ejection out of their Dioceses One is from the Temporalities the Benefices and Preferments thereof And these temporal endowments as I have observed are directly subject to the temporal Power So that the Act of Parliament and the Proceedings of the Council and the Commission of the lawful State took away all Claim to the Temporalities and deprived them of their Bishopricks as they were Temporal Free-holds The Other is from the spiritual adherence and dependance of the People upon them as on Heads of Church-Unity and Communion for Religious Ministrations And this there was no need for the State to deprive the Popish Bishops of for they had already deprived themselves of it by their own Corruptions both in Doctrines and Devotions Adulterations of Religion and corrupt Ministrations of the Word of Prayers and Sacraments break the Ligaments which tye on People to this adherence to any Bishops or Pastors yea though they were Apostles themselves Though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have Preached unto you let him be Anathema or accursed saith St. Paul Gal. 1. 8. Or instead of sticking to his Communion break off from it and have no more Religious Commerce with such than was to be held with those whom the Synagogue or Church had Anathematized or cut off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he elsewhere uses it and in the Ecclesiastical Style speaking one excommunicate for so we Christians are wont to call a Sentence against the speakers of impious things says Sâ—crates When therefore any Bishops and Pastors instead of Heading Christian Truths appear at the Head of Unchristian Errors the People are discharged from their obligation and dependance upon them and are to unite themselves as they can to others who still keep firm to that necessary Gospel-Truth and Worship which they have forsaken as shall be shewn more fully afterwards And this was done by the Popish Bishops who fed the People with false Doctrines and polluted Prayers and Ministrations which left no need of any thing more to deprive them of the Peoples Communion and Dependance these Papal Corruptions of Religious Ministrations being enough to discharge and drive them away of themselves So that the Reformed Bishops when they were set at the Heads of those Diocesses call'd none away nor made them break off from any just and due spiritual dependance on their former Bishops whose own Heretical Doctrines and Corrupt Ministrations had made the People cease from depending any longer in Conscience upon them They wanted only to be lawfully empowered and regularly ordained themselves by Episcopal Imposition of Hands as all those reformed Bishops plainly were and the People were free from any Obligations to the Old Ones because of their Errors and corrupt and dangerous Ministrations both lawfully might unite themselves to them and were in duty bound so to do And thus coming to Head a People whose dependance was broke off from others by their spiritual corruptions and depravations of Religion they were no spiritual Intruders And coming into Benefices and Temporalities made vacant by the deprivation of a Lawful State they were guilty of no civil Usurpation and Injustice And this is enough to justifie the Advancement of those first Reformers Tho' where Bishops are Orthodox and deprived for their adherence to Truth and Righteousness both in their private Practice and publick Ministrations the People are still left spiritually to depend on them and are not to be taken off by any deprivation though of the most rightful state as in the above-mentioned Cases 'T is true as to the Popish Bishops themselves they thought otherwise of their own Worship and Doctrines and took them for Christian and Gospel-ways and Truths
the Cause of Athanasius Pope Julius gave Notice of the time appointed for it to the Eastern Bishops who had been Deposing Athanasius at Antioch and substituting Gregory in his place writing to them to send some of their number to clear the justice of their sentence and proceedings in that cause This is plain from Athanasius who says it was held after the Letters sent by Eusebius and after both the Eusebians and he himself had been cited to appear at it And also from Pope Julius 's Letters to them on the Request and at the Conclusion of the Roman Synod wherein he mentions the return of his Presbyters Elpidius and Philoxenus who were sent with the former Letter and the answer they had brought him from Eusebius and the Orential Bishops But before this first Letter to notifie the time appointed for the Roman Synod to the Orentials Julius on plain appearance that their sufferings were not for any other pretended Crimes but only on account of the Orthodox Faith had embraced the Communion of Athanasius and the other Deposed Bishops For Sozomen relates that on his receiving them to Communion he writ that Letter to the Orientals taxing their unjust sentences and attempts upon the Nicene Faith and calling them to the Synod to be held at Rome there to justifie their proceedings against them And in the Letter which the Orientals sent back to him which he received as I have now shewn before the sitting of the Roman Synod and which was read to the Bishops therein Assembled they complain of his having Communicated with Athanasius and his Adherents which they said was a Reproach cast on their Synods and an Abrogation of their sentence So that his disregard of the Synodical Deprivations of Athanasius and the other Orthodox Bishops Deposed in the Synods of Tyre or Antioch was not on account of their having been regularly reversed by any Superior External Judicature But it was as having been of no force and effect in themselves because passing on Christs Faithful Pastors for their Fidelity and Firmness to the True Christian Faith Besides when the Synod at Rome sate in the cause of Athanasius and the other Orthodox Bishops and Synodically admitted them to Communion I do not see how in the Regular way of External Judicature this could take off the Deprivations by the foremention'd Synods For the Synod at Rome was inferior in Number of Bishops Consisting as Athanasius says only of about Fifty Bishops Whereas the Synod of Tyre besides the Egyptians who came along with Athanasius Consisted of sixty Bishops met there from divers places says Socrates and the Synod of Antioch which again Deposed him and the other Orthodox Bishops consisted of Ninty seven as Sozomen reports And moreover the Synod of Rome consisted of Bishops who lived more remote and further off and were Subjects of another Prince viz. Constans Whereas the Synods which deprived them Consisted of the Neighbouring Bishops some of them Comprovincials to the accused parties and were Subjects of their own Emperor viz. Constantius whose censure may seem more concluding on the Fellow-Bishops of their own Empire So that Julius and his Fifty Bishops in the Roman Synod could not reverse the Depositions of those former Synods in Regular way of outward Judicatures But yet finding whatever other things were pretended that in reality they had been deposed in those Synods for their Firmness to the Nicene aith in prejudice whereof there lyes no power of depriving in any Synods before any Superior or more general Council had reversed their depositions in Regular way of External Judicature they took part and Communicated with Athanasius and the other Deprived Bishops And this the Faithful Aegyptians both Clergy and People had done without any regard to the Deprivation of those Synods all the time of Athanasius's forced absence from them and are applauded by Pope Julius for the same For in his Letter to the Church of Alexandria after the Synod of Sardica on the Restitution of Athanasius to his See he extols them for their firm and constant adherence to the right Faith and to him their Bishop who had been so glorious a Confessor and Maintainer thereof all the while he was violently torn from them and another obtruded on their Church in his room And like to this has been the Practice I think of all times For still as Errors and Corruptions in Doctrine Worship and Practice prevailed and became general in any places on any considerable opposition made to them by Christs faithful Ministers to silence Gain-sayers they have had the establishment of Synods And these Synods have anathematized the Truth condemned and deposed the Preachers and excommunicated and cast out the Adherents and Practicers thereof But yet the Preachers and Ministers of God's Worship and Truth have still held on their Ministrations and God's faithful People have stuck to them therein And under all the depositions and excommunications of Councils or Churches they have kept Communion with one another in these necessary Truths and Ways of God which Corrupt and Apostate Councils have anathematized Or else under that power of Error which has so often tyrannized over the Truth more especially in the Arian Persecutions and in the several steps and advancements of the Papal Corruptions the pure Worship and Doctrine of Christ had perish'd and all Face of a true and unadulterated Church had long since failed from off the Earth This I say in case of Depositions or other Censures for the Cause of the necessary Truths or Worship of Jesus Christ. In deprivations for other things or on pretence of mere personal Crimes the Case I grant may be otherwise For in them though the Sentence be unjust it is a personal Wrong and affects the sufferers themselves And in private sufferings 't is reasonable to bear much for Orders sake and to be tyed up to ways of Order for Redress So that such sufferers shall be bound to rest under the judicial Injustice till they can have it reversed in like sort as it was laid on viz. in way of Judiâ—ature or by Regular Appeals And accordingly in all depositions for such private or personal Crimes this is required by the Antient Canons If a Bishop Presbyter or Deacon say the Councils of Carthage and Sardica and the same Determinations says Balsamon are to be taken as meant of Lay-men too be deposed on pretence of his Idleness and Neglects let him not dare say they to go on or to assert his former Right of Communion during the time of his Excommunication till his Cause has had a new Cognizance and Examination or been heard over again And if before such re-hearing he presume to do otherwise he shall be judged say the Fathers at Cartharge thereby to have given sentence of Condemnation against himself But in Depositions or Excommunications for doctrinal Truths and spiritual Ministrations there is not only a Wrong to themselves but
him making a New Body under him which apparently destroys Union and makes two out of one And thus we fee it doth in all Societies If an Opposite General is set up by a mutinous Party it divides the Army or if an opposite King is set up in a Realm it makes a Sedition and divides the Kingdom Or if the same is done in a College a Family or other Societies as well as in a Church opposite Heads do unavoidably make opposite Bodies and visibly destroy the Unity of any Society by breaking into two Societies or into as many as there shall be opposite Heads thereof Accordingly the Ancients place the Schism of Church-Members in breaking off from Rightful Bishops or setting up others in the same Church against them Thus in the Apostolical Canous the Schism of Presbyters of other Clergy or Laicks is express'd by their setting up another Altar and assembling separately in contempt of the Bishop So also the Council of Carthage declares concerning any Presbyters who should do the same after they had been sentenced and segregrated by their Bishops that therein they are Makers of Schisms And the second General Council rejects men as Schismaticks tho' they give out that they confess the Right Faith if they assemble and hold Congregations in opposition to their Canonical Bishops Hence says St. Cyprian come Schisms and Heresies because Men envy and contemn their Bishops They have risen and do rise from this viz. from some proud Persons presumptuous contempt of the Bishop who is one and presides over the Church Especially if they set up an Anti-Bishop and oppose a second Bishop to the first or to one Canonically Ordained already and rightfully possess'd of the same Church This was the Case of Novatianus whom the three Italian Bishops which he call'd to Rome for that purpose ordained Bishop of Rome against Cornelius who was already the Rightful and Canonical Bishop of that place This setting up of Anti Bishops St. Cyprian tells them is erecting an Adulterous Head a second Bishop being no more to be admitted to the same Church than a second Husband to the same Wife whilst the former lives and a spurious or adulterate Chair And bids them know that after once a Bishop is lawfully made and Ordained in any Church they can no ways set up another Bishop against him in the same place He calls it erecting unlawful Priesthoods and opposing against the True Altar and Holy Sacrifice a False and Profane Altar Sacrilegious Sacrifices And he aggravates the Novatian Schism by saying they had not only broke off from the Bishop and Church but had proceeded against the Ordinance of God and Catholick Unity to set up against him another Bishop an adulterous and contrary Head And on like setting up of Anti-Bishops after others were first in place Optatus Charges the Donatists with Schism afterwards These setters up of opposite or Anti-Bishops first break off themselves from their own Bishop before they can set another up against him And being broke off from their Bishop they are broke off from the Church which is in Episcopo as I shewed before or goes along with the Bishop those Members only making the true Body which adhere and keep to the Head and those ceasing to be any longer of the Body who are separated from the Head And therefore these opposite or Anti-Bishops and opposite Altars that blessed Martyr still says are foris and extra Ecclesiam and have receded ab Ecclesia that is are not within but without the Church Now from this Account of Church-Union in any particular Churches and of Schism which lyes in the unjust Breach thereof I shall observe these three Things 1. First That when a second or opposite Bishop is set up in any Church against a former Orthodox one who is still Bishop thereof the Anti-Bishop and they who set him up and adhere to him make the Schism For the other with his Adherents as the same Head and Members abide still where they were and are still the same Church But the Anti-Bishop and his Followers are gone out from them which Optatus gives as a plain Proof against the Donatist Bishops that the Schism lay at their doors They have broke themselves off and by erecting themselves into an opposite Head and Body make a new and opposite Church Consenting to set up another Bishop they consented therein to set up another Church as I observed before from St. Cyprian So that they rend that Body which by keeping wholly to one Bishop before was but one into several pieces and break one Church into two Churches This I say they do if the former Bishop is Orthodox For if he is Heretical Heresie as I shall shew dissolves the Union and cancels the Obligation of Adherence between such Head and Members They are bound to own him as their Head and to be one with him as his true and genuine Members whilst he is at the Head of Christian Doctrines and necessary Truths but not when he falls off from them into damnable Heresies and Unchristian Errors And if he is still the rightful Bishop of that Church If he voluntarily quits his Right and Relation to them and gives it up by his own Resignation they are no longer bound to adhere to him For these Unions and Dependances are contracted by the consent of Mens own Wills and are kept up betwixt these Heads and Members not by natural but voluntary Communications So that if a Bishop throws up his own Relation and will no longer preside over them as Head of a Church they are no longer bound to keep in Dependance and Subjection or to stick to him as Members thereof Or if he loses it against his Will by a just sentence and deprivation that also discharges the Members from their Union and Dependance and sets them free to receive and to unite themselves to another in his place But if neither Death has put an end to his Relation nor he has thrown it up by his own Resignation nor is deprived thereof by the finishing of a Regular Process and Synodical Sentence against him he is still the Bishop of his CHURCH and will bar and keep out any other Person from being Ordained a Bishop over them A Bishop can by no means be constituted in that Church whose own Bishop is yet alive and stands vested with his proper Honour unless of his own accord he renounce his Bishoprick And as to making a vacancy by deprivation it behoves first that the cause of him who is to be cast out of his Bishoprick be canonically examined and the Process against him be fully brought to an end And then after he is canonically deposed another may be promoted to his Bishoprick say the Fathers in the Council of Constantinople But if even a Synod of Bishops shall deprive an Orthodox Bishop of any Church for adhering to the
Souls endangered by such Salvo's it was the Duty of true Prophets and Priests among them and would be so in all other places on like occasions by their preaching and Ministrations to keep up sound knowledge among the People in these Points yea tho' such preaching and ministrations made a Breach between them and those defecting Teachers And it was the Peoples duty to follow any among them who would teach them better when they could have such Teachers as they had in our Blessed Lord and his Apostles Whatever Allowance under the favour of Necessity men may have to keep on with such of which Plea of necessity I shall say more hereafter yet where there is choice of others more Orthodox they are no longer tyed to such Pastors as openly and obstinately preach up damnable practices to disgrace Religion and endanger Souls Bear they may for a time in hopes of Reformation and because it is easier to prevent than to patch up Breaches wise Lovers both of Peace and Truth would not be hasty in coming to extreamities But if still they will persist and go on in such pernicious Ways and Doctrines good People and Pastors may withdraw themselves from their Communion as St. Paul says in the places already cited And the Reasons of breaking off on such defections from necessary points either of faith or practice are still more urgent if there is no Liberty left in any Churches for other Pastors to stand up ministerially or exercise their Ministry in defence of those necessary points whilst they continue with and adhere to them For then the Concealment and Suppression of necessary Truths is made a condition of Communion and other Pastors if they will hold on with them must suffer that good thing which has been committed to their Trust to be extinguish'd without standing up according to their duty and solemn undertaking to minister the same Which will make it necessary for all who will choose to stand by Christ and his Truths rather than by such his Apostatizing Servants and Corrupters thereof to depart from them When therefore the Bishops and Pastors of any Church fall off from ministring necessary Christian Doctrine or Worship and especially when they come to allow their Communion to none who will go on administring the same they thereby loosen the bands of Union and break that spiritual dependance and relation which the People and other inferiour Pastors ought to have upon them They are no longer the true Joynts to compact the Members nor the Head of Unity to keep together the Body of the Church And thus it was at the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth with the Popish Bishops whose corrupt Worship and Doctrine yea and rigorous exaction of complyance with both from all who expected to hold Communion with them had set their Churches at liberty to go off from them as I formerly observed and to seek more Orthodox Bishops in their room And so it would be in the case of other Bishops especially of those who espouse a Schism and communicate with Anti-Bishops in opposition to the true Bishops if they fall from ministring necessary Christian Truths whether of Faith or of Moral Doctrine and Worship as in the fore-mentioned Cases And when the Church is thus loosed of its dependance on their Persons by the defection of such erring Bishops It may be free to unite it self to other Orthodox Bishops Either to receive such an one for its own local Bishop as was done at the Reformation by substituting Orthodox and Reformed Bishops into the Sees of Popish Bishops Or till it can have that by receiving the Benefit of Episcopal and Priestly Acts from any other Orthodox Bishops and Clery as they can be met with It may fetch all Orthodox Ministrations and spiritual Functions from other places when it cannot have them from an Orthodox Pastor or in the Unity of the Church at home This it may do says St. Cyprian in this Case As well as the Mariners when their own Port is sanded or otherwise insecure may pass it by and put in at another Or as well as the Travellers when their own Inn is beset with Thieves may take up their Lodging at another which is more safe And as the People of such defecting Bishops and Pastors may seek out and unite themselves to others for all necessary Ministrations so may those other Orthodox Bishops and Clergy who are sought to be free to receive and supply them This is plain of both because the Church whereof the one are Members and the other are Bishops or Priests is a Catholick Church For being Catholick its Baptisms and Ordinations are Catholick and make as the one Christians so the other Bishops and Priests that must be owned for such over all the Christian Church and not only in some limited Parts or Districts thereof And betwixt the Members of this Catholick Church there is to be a Communion of Saints so that the one may receive as Members and the other administer all spiritual Acts and Functions as Pastors as there is opportunity and as need requires When the Orthodox Members of such defecting Pastors come to them considering the Catholicism of the Church tho' never so far remote in place they must own them as their Brethren and professing the Communion of Saints they must receive them to their Communion When shuning the Rocks in their own defecting Church they seek a more safe harbour in theirs 't is their part to receive them with a prompt humanity and to give them such reception as was given to him who had faln among Thieves in the Gospel not only to let them in but to take all due and needful care of them saith St. Cyprian Yea and as Christian Bishops they are to look upon this Reception and these Ministrations as one part of their Episcopal Charge For they are Bishops of the Catholick Church as well as of their own Sees and have relation to the whole Church as well as to their own Diocess The Administration he has received is not only for his own Flock but for the Church in common says St. Ignatius of the Bishop of Philadelphia And Christ has committed to you not only your own but the Universal Church says Eleutherius to the Gallicane Bishops And though as being more especially Bishops of that place they have more particular Obligation to look after their own Flocks Yet as Catholick Bishops they must be concerned for the whole Church and look on it or any destitute parts thereof as their own as occasion requires It behoves us all to extend our Care and watch over the Body of the whole Church whose Members are disposed through each of the varicus Provinces say the Presbyters and Deacons of Rome to Cyprian on his informing them of the Deposition of Privatus Lambesitanus the Heretick And unum Gregem pascimus though we be many Pastors yet we are to look upon all as one Flock says St.
Doctrine or to be one with them in Error and Wickedness is not Charity but destruction to those who are seduced by them If such defection from pure Worship and Doctrine is their Case the guilt of making a division lyes plainly at their doors In such Breaches St. Paul notes the Dividers from the Doctrine as making the Schism and not the faithful Adherers to it who refuse to break off from it in order to their keeping on with them Mark those as causing the Divisions or Offences who go contrary to the Doctrine which ye have learned saith he Rom. 16. 17. And divisions made by such defection are incureable by any thing but their own repentance and return to their former ways Their Brethren can not heal or close them by following them in their desection because that is to be false to Truth and to their own and others Souls which are all in danger of perishing by straying from the same Nay should they do as they desire and all come over that would only be a false and seeming Cure but really make the Breach wider For the whole Body of Christians from the beginning to the end are but one Church And those Christian Societies which make up this one Church are the several Churches of all times and places All true Christians which now are or formerly have been or hereafter shall be are all Members of one and the same Body as I formerly shewed So that the Unity which good Christians are to aim at is to appear of one Society and Communion with the whole Body of faithful Christians from first to last with all the faithful who have kept to this Unity and are now in Heaven as well as with all who either now are or hereafter shall be in earth doing the same Or to be found united and in the Communion of that Body or general Collection and Assembly of Saints who shall all appear together as one Body that has kept up the Faith and Unity of the Church in opposition to all Heretical or Schismatical Oppugners thereof at the last Day And they are lamentably out and take their Aim too narrow who look only at keeping an external Union with the Assemblies and Religious Societies of their own place and time though that be in breaking off from the Way and Communion of all the faithful Christians of other places at that time and of all that are gone before them and will make them appear separately from the general Assembly and great Collection of Saints at the last Day Now true Doctrine and Worship as I have shewn are among the chief Ligaments in this Body of Christs Holy Catholick Church And if even any regular Bishops or Metropolitanes with their respective Societies or Churches break off from any necessary Truths or Worship of Christ they break off at the same time from all this great Body of faithful Christians of all other other places and times who are all united and incorporated in them and stand upon them And if these defectors appear to make the Generality or great Number in their own particular Times and Countries yet are they but a handful compared to that General Body or Collection on the other side whom they have defected and broke from and who will stand all in one compact Body against them at the last Day viz. the Catholick Church of all Times and Places So that those few faithful among them who continue sirm and stand out against their defection do not go off from the main Body or greatest Numbers but stick to them the Catholick Church of all Ages and Countries which makes the vast Body and infinitly the greatest Number being in reality with them The Catholick Church consisting of our Saviour Christ of Apostles and Prophets Martyrs and Confessors and of all the truly Faithful who have gone before us are now or shall be after us when all is done will make the Body And those few Faithful Christians sticking to this when the numerous Defectors in those Countries start from it stick to the Body So that as the Council of Constantinople declares of those who break off Communion with their Bishops yea before Synodical Sentence when once they openly teach any Heresie condemn'd by the Holy-Fathers or Councils by so doing they do not rend the Unity of the Church by Schism but study to free or defend it against Schisms or Divisions So at such times they must bespeak their Brethren as St. Cyprian did the Confessors who sided with the Schismatick Novatian Because we can not leave the Church and come over to you which instead of patching up would be to break and divide the Churches Concord and Unanimity We beseech you by all the ways we can that you would return and come back again to your Mother the Church an̄d to our Fraternity By keeping then to the necessary Doctrines and Worship of Christ of the Catholick Church and of our own Church we keep united to them and so far as we break off from these we answerably break off from them And therefore the running in of more into such defection instead of closing up the Schism would increase it It would only make the more People guilty of dividing and standing off from Christ and from the Catholick Church as that contains all Orthodox Christians and Right Churches who are gone before us or are now or shall be after us Yea from all their Ancestors during all the Successions of them to their unhappy defection in their own Church And even from themselves in all their own best dayes whilst they stood true to their own pure Worship and Orthodox Principles Which is such a way of healing Schisms as Rebellion is of remedying Grievances that is instead of taking any off it brings abundance more upon us And this makes the Charge of Schism stronger and more aggravated in the fore-mentioned Cases where the Corruptions of Doctrine and Worship make them a corrupt Church as well as the setting up of Anti-Bishops makes them a Schismatical Church There is plainly a Schism in making of Anti-Bishops which is a setting up of opposite Altars But it is a more wicked and ungodly Schism when these opposite Altars are set up for wicked and ungodly purposes to head sinful and unchristian Worship and Doctrines That Schism is complicated with Heresie or other dangerous depravation of Religion It is not only making a Breach in the Church but withal it is forming a Party against Truth and Holiness It is giving Religion a second Blow to maintain a former and setting up one ill thing to secure a worse It seeks to confederate Men in the Breach of Unity that it may hold them fast in Breach of Piety or Moral Honesty And a Schism so set up to strike at Religion is more impious in the sight of God and of all good men and the Guilt thereof is more flagrant And besides 't is incureable by any but themselves For the Schismaticks run into such
a Breach to maintain a Quarrel against Truth and Righteousness And in that they must go by themselves for none who will take any due care of their precious Souls ought to bear them company So there can be no Re-union till they return from their wicked and ungodly Schism to the way of Truth and Righteousness which they had forsaken CHAP. V. Of the Communion of good Christians or with whom they are to joyn in Divine Offices under a Schism HAving said thus much to shew on any division of Churches whilst faithful Pastors stand firm to their Ministrations in the fore-mentioned Cases who make the Schism and who can cure it I now proceed 3. In the Third place to Treat of the Communion of good Christians under a Schism and how they are to carry themselves towards Schismaticks As for their Communion 't is plain in division between Right and Wrong both as to the Church-Heads and Religious Doctrines and Worship they ought to take the right side As they who are at the Head of that are the Canonical and Rightful Bishops they are bound to communicate with them For the Rightful Bishops being the true Heads of Union the Members must keep true to their Head and hold Communion therewith And this they are ty'd to by all the Gospel-precepts about Union which require their being one or one Body or keeping the Bond of Peace in Churches For this Unity and Peace of Churches must bind them to keep united and at Peace with their Bishops who under Christ are the Governours and Spiritual Heads thereof And by that grand Vertue of Charity so often and earnestly required of the Members and that above all things that they may edifie or build up one another into a spiritual Society For this Charity which is the Bond to bind the Members together not only in private Affections but into one common Body or Church must bind them all to these Rightful Bishops who are the Heads and Rulers of that Body that by keeping united to those Bishops they may keep one Society and not be broken into several Societies And accordingly St. Cyprian presses that Charity which St. Paul makes so necessary to the acceptance of all other Vertues even Faith or Martyrdom it self as indispensably obliging all good Christians to keep in the Communion of their true and rightful Bishops as I observed before And as these true and rightful Bishops are at the Head of necessary Gospel-worship and Doctrines when their Opposers fall off from them good Christians are yet more bound to hold to their Communion They are tyed thereto then not only for the rightful Bishops but also for pure Worship and necessary Truths sake For true Christians must seek to communicate in these And that must be by communicating in the Ministrations of those Pastors which hold to them Besides these in any competition arê Christ's true Shepherds and trusty Watch-men and faithful Guides and uncorrupt Teachers and faithful Ministers because they are the Men who faithfully minister his Word and give his Warnings and dispense that Food which is to keep those Souls alive whom he has given them the Care of And all these are no idle Characters but speak answerable Obligations in the People as I have shewn before to attend on their Ministrations and unite themselves to them And this the Scripture requires in those Precepts which command us in glorifying God to have one mind and mouth to be perfectly joyn'd together in the same mind and judgment and speak the same things and the like For this speaking the same is speaking the same with those who speak right not with those who speak wrong And this Union of minds and judgments must be in uniting with men of Orthodox minds or that hold all necessary Christian Doctrines For if any fall off from these we must not be of one mind with them but of different minds I add moreover that Association and Union of Church-Members under Bishops is for visible Profession and Ministration of pure Worship and Doctrine And therefore they must unite with those Bishops who profess and administer the same Yea their care of their own Safety no less than the love of Truth will make them fly to such Pastors As the Saylors do to the next safe Port when their own is sanded or the Travellers to the next secure Inn when their old one is beset with Thieves as St. Cyprian observes in this Case And as they are thus to hold Communion and unite themselves to those rightful Bishops who keep to pure Worship and Doctrine So are they on the other hand to stand off from those who make the Schism to maintain a sinful Worship or corrupt Doctrine I do not say they are to look on these Schismaticks and Defectors as quite faln from the Relation and Title of Brethren A Schismatical or Excommunicate Christian is still a Christian not an Infidel or Heathen And whilst they continue Christians they retain though not so much Claim as others yet some Claim to Christian Brotherhood albeit they have lost their Claim to Communion Have no Company or Communion with the segregated Man saith St. Paul yet count him not as an Enemy but admonish him as a Brother 2 Thes. 3. 14. 15. And Optatus calls the Schismatical Donatists Brethren tho' they would not call the Catholicks so or be call'd so by them And says that they can not but be our Brethren though they are no good Brethren because we and they have one spiritual Nativity Their Baptism which is the Christians Birth being a valid Baptism though administred in a Schism and the Catholick Church as St. Austin says thereby generating Sons uâ—to God which Sons must be our Brethren For Brotherhood they looked on as consequent on Nativity and going along with it but Communion as going with spiritual society and conversation Though at other times by Brotherhood they understood not only the spiritual Nativity but also the spiritual society and communion of Brethren And then Hereticks and Schismaticks were shut out from that Name and Salutation But though as not having faln from their Baptism and Christianity they may on the score of their common Nativity still admit them to be Christian Brethren Yet as being schismatical and defecting Brethren they must reject and stand off from their Communion They must disown the erroneous and schismatical Bishops and Ministers disclaiming all Ecclesiastical Dependance upon them And hold off from their Religious Assemblies and not come to joyn in their Prayers and Sacraments and sacred Offices Church-communion lying mainly in joyning in these Assemblies and sacred Offices as Excommunication lyes in the excluding and debarring from the participation thereof They are to avoid them as they are Associates or Adherents of Anti-Bishops and makers of a Schism For the Scripture-direction is to mark those which cause Divisions and Offences and to avoid them Ro. 16. 17.