distinction that he still retains Unity As he is One so we call him GOD the Deity the Divine Nature and other Names of the same signification as he is distinguished so we call him Trinity Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost In this Trinity there is One Essence Two Emanations Three Persons or Relations Four Properties Five Notions A Notion is that by which any Person is known or signified The One Essence is GOD which with this relation that it doth generate or beget makes the Person of the Father The same Essence with this Relation that it is begotten makes the Person of the Son The same Essence with this relation that it proceedeth maketh the Person of the Holy Ghost The Two Emanations are to be begotten and to proceed or to be breathed out The Four Properties are First Innascibility and Inemanability the second is to generate these belong to the Father the third is to be begotten this belongs to the Son the fourth is to proceed or to be breathed out this belongs to the Holy Spirit The five Notions are first Innascibility the second is to beget the third is to be begotten the fourth Spiratio passiva to be breathed out the fifth Spiratio activa or to breath and this Notion belongs to the Father and the Son alike for Pater filius spirant Spiritum sanctum Hence it evidently follows that he who acknowledgeth thus much can never possibly scruple the Eternal Deity of the Son of God And then he ingenuously concludes If any Man think this Confession to be defective for I can conceive no more in this point necessary to be known let him supply what he conceives deficient and I shall thank him for his labour But to proceed The confutation of this Treatise of Schism will appear to be necessary not only to wipe off the aspersions of the Papists but to silence the Objections of Factious Persons who often take Arguments from it to defend themselves in their separation as will appear by that which followeth Mr. Hales had said p. 207. That the Church might be in any number more or less in any place Country or Nation it may be in all and for ought I know it may be in none without prejudice to the Definition of the Church or the truth of the Gospel This strange notion is contrary to what Mr. Hales delivers in his Golden Remains p. 260. When we appeal saith he to the Churches Testimony we content not our selves with any part of the Church actually existent but add unto it the perpetually successive testimony of the Church in all Ages since the Apostles time And p. 186. This succession of the Church is sufficient to prove where our Church was before Luther This strange notion I say That the Church visible may totally decay prevailed too far with Mr. Chillingworth who saith p. 239. It is not certain that the truth of the Article of the Holy Catholick Church depends upon the Actual existence of a Catholick Church but rather upon the right that the Church of Christ or rather to speak properly that the Gospel of Christ hath to be universally believed and therefore the Article may be true though there were no Church in the World Now though this were only a probleme which Mr. Chillingworth defends not but in the 14. p. of his Preface overthroweth saying I believe that our Saviour ever since his Ascension hath had in some place or other a visible true Church on Earth and that there will be such a Church to the Worlds end yet his Adversary p. 779. of Infidelity Unmasked falls heavily on him and tells him that this notion is not only against the Scripture Eph. 4. 11. but against all Protestants and all Christians and sends him to Calvin 's Institutions l. 4. c. 1. and to Volkelius whom he calls his Socinian Brother de verâ Rel. l. 6. c. 5. who prove a Succession of Pastors and Doctors to have been always in the Church Remansit Doctorum Pastorúmque officium nec non alia quaedam And indeed Dr. Potter whom Mr. Chillingworth defended had said truly That it was an error in the nature and matter of it properly Heretical to say the Church remained only in the party of Donatus and that it was much worse to say she remained no where for this were to overthrow the Article of the Catholick Church and is little less than blasphemy saith Arch-bishop Laud. Again Mr. Hales p. 218. said It is alike unlawful to make profession of known or suspected falshoods as to put in practice unlawful or suspected actions This argument Mr. Chillingworth improveth p. penult of his Preface to Charity maintained If a Church says he supposed to want nothing necessary require me to profess against my Conscience that I believe some error though never so small and innocent which I do not believe and will not allow me her communion but upon this condition in this case the Church for requiring this condition is Schismatical and not I for separating from the Church Mr. Baxter speaks much more like a Conformist in this case than either Mr. Hales or Mr. Chillingworth If a Church saith he p. 464. of Reasons for Christ Relig. S. 15. which in all other respects is purest and best will impose any sin upon all that will have any local communion with it though we must not separate from that Church as no Church yet must we not commit that sin but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their communion And I think it is more rational peaceably to dissent until we are actually excluded than presently to pronounce that Church Schismatical which requires such conditions of our communion For if that which I believe to be an error being if an error but small and innocent be required of me by a Church which maintaineth all necessary things I ought rather to submit to or at least peaceably with-hold my communion from that Church than to violate its communion by my separation because that Church which GOD hath preserved in all necessary truths may probably know that which I believe to be an error and but a small one if an error to be an important truth or if she be mistaken in such small things it is not schismatical in her to require my profession who may well be resolved of my doubt when so many wiser and better than my self after mature deliberation think fit to require it For as Mr. Hooker saith p. 100. In all right and equity that which the Church hath so long received and held for good that which publick approbation hath ratified must carry the benefit of presumption with it to be accounted meet and convenient And p. 55. This Opinion That the Authority of Man affirmatively in matters Divine is nothing worth being once inserted into the minds of the vulgar sort GOD knows what it may grow unto Thus much we see It hath already made Thousands so head-strong even in gross and palpable Errors that a Man
â—MPRIMATUR GVIL JANE Nov. 24. 1677. Mr. HALES's TREATISE OF SCHISM Examined and Censured By THOMAS LONG B. D. and Prebendary of EXETER To which are Added Mr. BAXTER's ARGUMENTS FOR Conformity WHEREIN The most Material Passages OF THE TREATISE of SCHISM ARE ANSWERED LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1678. Mr. HALES's TRACT OF SCHISM AND Schismaticks Printed by the Original Copy EXAMINED AND CENSURED Who is it can think to gain acceptance and credit with reasonable Men by opposing not only the present Church conversing in Earth but the uniform consent of the Church in all Ages Mr. Hales in his Miscellanies set forth by Mr. Garthwait Anno 1673. p. 260. LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1678. TO THE Right Reverend Father in GOD THOMAS LORD BISHOP OF EXETER IT was prophesied of our Saviour that the Government should be upon his shoulders Is 9. 6. and though he have devolved that burden upon mortal men which is Angelicis humeris formidandum yet doth he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put under his shoulder and help them to bear it or they would soon sink under it For however it fares with the Church whether it be under persecution none are so much exposed to a fiery trial as they or whether it enjoy peace and plenty Pride and contention swels up some corrupt members to the daily vexation of their Heads Governors And how blameless soever their Persons be their Office is made a Crime Better things might have been expected from the Author of the Treatise hereafter considered wherein there is so much contempt poured out upon the Episcopal Office and on all Church authority and administrations that the Ink is not more black than the Calumny But where should the impetus of discontent and faction vent it self but against those rocks that are set by God Himself to give check and bounds unto it Now that in the Apostles days this sacred Order was appointed among other great ends as a remedy against Schism is acknowledged by such as are its reputed Adversaries In the Church of Alexandria from the time of St. Mark the Evangelist they were continued as a bulwork against Schism saith St. Hierom in his Epistle to Evagrius And in the Church of Corinth when Men begun to say I am of Paul and I of Apollo this Office was appointed that the seeds of Schism might be taken away saith the same Father on the first Chap. to Titus And he tells the Luciferians in a Dialogue with them That unless an eminent and uninterrupted power be by all given to the chief Pastors there will be as many schisms as there are Priests In all this St. Hierom followeth the more ancient Fathers Passibus aequis for Ignatius advised the Trallians to do nothing without their Bishop Which advice he repeating again tells them It is not my word but the Word of God and if ye suspect me to say this as understanding that there are Divisions among you he is my witness for whom I am in bonds that it was not man but the Spirit that declared this to me St. Clemens in his Epistle to the Corinth p. 57. says That the Apostles foreseeing that Divisions would arise as Christ had foretold did establish Bishops And the 32. Canon of the Apostles ordained That if any Presbyter or Deacon should make conventions without his Bishop he should be deposed In the 4th Oecumenical Council of Calcedon consisting of 630. Fathers there was read an Ancient Canon of the Council of Antioch to this effect If any Presbyter or Deacon contemning his Bishop shall separate and erect another Altar and will not obey the Bishop calling him home once and again we do utterly condemn such a one Which Canon being read by Aetius an Arch-Deacon the Fathers with one consent proclaimed This is a righteous Canon of the Holy Fathers In the Second Council of Carthage by the Eighth Canon it was provided That if any Presbyter lifted up with pride should make a Schism against his Bishop let him be accursed But in defiance of all these Canons and curses they have been accounted the only blessed Men in our times who have most vehemently decryed this holy Order and successfully maintained a Faction against them To whom if they are yet capable of any Counsel I would commend the moderation of Mr. Calvin who speaking of Popish Bishops Instit l. 4. c. 10. S. 6. saith If they were true Bishops I would yield them though not so much authority as they do require yet as much as is requisite for the well-ordering of Ecclesiastical Government And what he means by true Bishops he explaineth S. 1. The form of the Ancient Church sets before our eyes a pattern of the Divine institution for the order of governing his Church For though the Bishops of those times did set forth many Canons in which they seemed to express more than was expressed in the Holy Scripture yet they composed their whole Oeconomy with such caution according to that only rule of God's Word that you may easily perceive that they held nothing in this respect differing from the Word of God And in S. 4. he repeats the same Si rem intuemur reperiemus veteres Episcopos non alium regendae Ecclesiae formam voluisse fingere ab eâ quam Deus verbo suo praescripsit With how much truth and reverence doth this Learned man speak of those ancient Bishops of whom he says not only that they did not actually swerve from God's Word as to their Government but that they would not This Candor is much wanting in such as pretend to be Mr. Calvin's Disciples with whom this Sacred Function and all its Administrations are defamed as Antichristian and Popish and a Covenant for extirpating them root and branch is still pertinaciously adhered to But though the authority of these men be despised yet methinks that of our Saviour who hath made them his Ambassadors and Apostolus cujusque is est quisque and hath told us Luke 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me should not be rejected nor those severe penalties under which he exacts our obedience to his Officers be slighted For whoever will not hear the Church is to be accounted as a Heathen or Publican and Mark 6. 11. Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of Judgment than for them And though wicked men do securely despise the censures of the Church yet hath Christ said Matth. 18. 18. of his Officers Whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven which authority the Church of God would not have exercised in the purest and most primitive times by so many and dreadful Anathema's if their great Lord had not authorized them or if they had not experienced the good effects
of them Did the Apostle in vain derive a power to the Church of Corinth 1 Epist ch 5. v. 5. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to deliver such a one as the Incestuous person unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Or can we think the Records of the several Churches in those first Ages which relate the divers painful and languishing Distempers of Body as well as the anguish and trouble of Mind which seized on such as by the Censures of the Church were cast out of Christian communion into the power of Satan to be false or forged The Divine Judgments which pursue such as in our times have been deservedly ejected or do wilfully depart from the Church-communion who are for the most part given up to a reprobate sense and being possessed with a spirit of Giddiness and perversness do as Cain run up and down from the Presence of God in his Publick Worship like Vagabonds from one Faction to another till they fall into unnatural and diabolical practices and straying from Christ's Fold are made a Prey unto the Devil do evidently demonstrate that the Church-censures are not bruta fulmina but have powerful effects for the conversion or confusion of contumacious offenders But non tali Auxilio That Sacred Function which your Lordship sustains in our Church needs not so weak an Apology as I can make for it I have only endeavoured as I was able to silence the reproaches and contradictions of unreasonable Men by whose strivings the burden of Government which of it self is weighty enough is made to sit more uneasie on the shoulders of our spiritual Guides Against whom it is no difficult work to maintain that assertion of Dr. Hammond in his answer to the Catholick Gentleman p. 134. That as long as any particular Bishop remains in due subordination to his Canonical Superiors so long the departure of any Clergy-man that is under his Jurisdiction from that obedience which canonically he owes to him is in him that is thus guilty of it an act of Schism But this comes not now under consideration My present endeavours I do lay at your Lordships feet as an acknowledgment of that great happiness which we of your Lordships Diocess do injoy under your Government in which Authority and Meekness Candor and Courage Piety and Prudence are so duly tempered that though each of them be visible yet it is hardly discernable which is most prevalent That free and favourable access which your Lordship hath vouchsafed me in more private concerns hath incouraged me to this publick Address for the service of the Church hoping that the Work may find the like gracious acceptance as the Author hath both which as they really need so they humbly beg your Lordships pardon and protection which will be a sufficient Sanctuary against all Adversaries of the truths which he defends and therein of EXON New-Years Day 1677. Your Lordships most Humble and Obedient Servant THO. LONG when all other arguments have failed to cut the Gordian knot of our present peace and unity in pieces It is my endeavour by the following Exercitations to take this Sword out of the Enemies hands or at least to blunt the edge of it and make it unserviceable to evil designs When I first apprehended it I only let it fall on the Anvil by its own weight and every one may perceive how it yielded to that gentle Examination wherefore I was encouraged by a severer censure to lay it on the Anvil again and I hope with a few strokes I have so broken it that there is scarce an Artist among the Factions can so solder it as to make it hurtful or formidable again I could wish they would at last turn this and other such Swords into Plow-shares as Men of Evangelical Spirits ought to do and study to be quiet and do their own business But I think it not enough to deprive our Adversaries of this Weapon I shall attempt to vindicate the fame and reputation of the Venerable Mr. Hales of whose authority the Churches adversaries do often make use to the maintenance of Faction against her as sometime they did of the King 's for raising a Rebellion against Him It is an aggravation of sorrow that the Church like the Eagle should receive its most dangerous wounds by the darts which are feathered from her own wing And that that learning and piety which is wanting in the adverse party to inforce their own arguments and support their cause should be supplied by the Revolt as in the Apostates to Popery or the Captivity as in the case of Mr. Hales of some unsetled and unwary Sons of the Church of whose parts and reputation the Enemies on both sides have made more advantage than of their own This hath been the beginning and growth of Errors and Schismes when Men of subtile parts and popular esteem raise doubts and arguments against the truth and instill them into weaker judgments and unstable minds who are apt for want of understanding to take their Sophistry for solid reasoning and through affection to their Persons to adhere to them as to the most faithful guides and jurare in verba magistri But it is a very preposterous method to judge of the cause according to the reputation of such as espouse it S. Augustine gives us a safer rule nec causa causae nec persona personae praejudicet Let both causes and persons stand or fall according to their own merit That little which I can gather concerning Mr. Hales all which and a great deal more I charitably believe he did well deserve is to this effect compiled by Mr. Lloid in his Memoires p. 606. In writing of which it seems he consulted the present Bishop of Chester and Mr. Faringdon his familiar friends Mr. Hales was born in Kent and bred Fellow of Merton Colledge where he was chosen Greek Professor of Oxford Sir Dudley Carleton made him his Chaplain when he was at the Hague about the business of the Synod of Dort whereof being sent thither to that purpose he wrote a daily and exact account completed as appears in his Remains by Dr. Balcanquel At which Synod he hearing Episcopius well pressing as he thought that of Saint John 3. 16. he said There I bad John Calvin good night After this he was Fellow of Eaton and then Prebendary of Windsor in the first of which places he was Treasurer but which is strange such was his integrity and charity to his loss in point of Estate And Fellow such his prudence in avoiding the Oaths of the times without any snare to his Conscience A person of so large a capacity so sharp quick piercing and subtile a wit of so serene and profound a judgment beyond the ordinary reach built upon unordinary notions raised out of strange observations and comprehensive thoughts within himself and of so astonishing an industry that he became the
Hales in this posthumous piece but with that inimicus homo whoever he be that hath sown tares among the good seed and wrapt up poyson in his Golden Remains And necessary it is that such noxious and unsavory weeds should be rooted out and not suffered to defile the grave of so Candid a person or made use of as a shelter for unclean creatures to hide themselves and croak under them as the Transproser doth who having raked a heap of them together from p. 175. to p. 183. fancieth himself as secure on that dunghil as if he were in some inchanted Castle The first thing that is obnoxious in the Treatise of Schism is p. 191. of the Posthumous works where it is said that Heresie and Schism as they are in common use are two Theological Mormo's or Scarcrows And what the Author means by common use you may be informed p. 213. where he says Arrianism Eutychianism Nestorianism Photinianism Sabellianism and many more you may add Socinianism too which is but a compound of those are but names of Schism howsoever in the common Language of the Fathers they were called heresies So that our Author explodes the Judgment of all the Fathers who condemned those things for Heresies which he thinks do scarce deserve the name of Schisms And a new notion of Heresies is brought in by him p. 214. Indeed Manicheism Valentinanism Marcionism Mahometanism are truly and properly heresies for we know that the Authors of them received them not but minted them themselves and so knew that which they taught to be a lye but can any man avouch saith our Author that Arrius and Nestorius and others that taught erroneously concerning the Trinity or the person of our Saviour did maliciously invent what they taught and not rather fall upon it by error and mistake Till that be done and that upon good evidence we will think no worse of all parties than needs we must and take these Rents in the Church to be but Schisms upon matter of Opinion If this be true in vain did the Bishops of the Primitive Church assemble in the Councils of Nice Ephesus and other places to condemn and suppress the Opinions of Arrius Nestorius and other Heresiarcha's And the fears and jealousies of the present Church concerning the growth of heresies are groundless for though the erring spirits of this age should revive all the dangerous tenets of Arrius Eutychius Nestorius Photinus and Sabellius and all the blasphemies of Manes Valentinian Marcion or Mahomet himself yet seeing they did not invent these errors themselves but fell on them by mistake though they adhere to them never so tenaciously and wilfully defend them they deserve but the name of Schismaticks And until some such persons as Simon Magus Montanus or Mahomet shall set up for a new God or a Holy Ghost or a Messias in direct opposition to the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour we need not trouble the world with the odious names of Heretick or Schismatick which are but Theological Scarcrows For p. 215. we are told that the Rents in the Church occasioned by those heresies were at the worst but Schisms upon matter of Opinion In which case saith our Author it is not a point of any great depth of Understanding to discover what we are to do so be it distemper and partiality do not intervene I do not yet see that opinionum varietas Opinantium unitas are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that men of different Opinions in Christian Religion may not hold communion in Sacris and if occasion require I may go to an Arrian Church if there be no Arrianism exprest in their Liturgy This is expresly contrary to what I quoted from p. 229. It is not lawful for prayer hearing c. and as contrary to the Holy Scriptures Rom. 16. 17. Titus 3. 10. Ephes 5. 11. What error and confusion would these wilde notions bring into the Church if false Prophets and Deceivers should be permitted to teach and the People not restrained from hearing them although they should teach such damnable Doctrines as denyed the Lord that bought them I shall appeal therefore from the Author to Mr. Hales who tells us p. 192. However Heresie and Schism are but ridiculous terms in the common manage yet the things in themselves are of very considerable moment the one offending against truth the other against Charity and therefore both deadly So deadly that I cannot compare them better than to that Italian who designed to kill his enemy body and soul for Truth being the very Soul of the Church and Peace and Unity the great organ or instrument by which it becomes visible and prosperous the toleration of Heresie and Schism will be as destructive to the Church here as they will certainly be to the Authors of them without repentance hereafter There is a lesser mistake in our Author's definition of Schism p. 195. by which he excuseth all such from the guilt of Schism as do separate from that part of the visible Church whereof they were not once members On which account all such children as were born of Schismatical Parents though they defend the schism never so obstinately are not guilty whereas it is the duty of all Christians to live in communion with that part of the Catholick Church in which they reside and not to suffer themselves as our Author expresseth it like beasts of burthen to be imposed upon by their Predecessors The Schism of the Donatists is by our Author acknowledged to be a complete Schism upon the grounds mentioned p. 196. I demand therefore whether such children as were born to the Donatists and persisting in the opinions and practices of their Fore-fathers troubled the Churches of Africa 300. years together were guilty of Schism or no or whether such as among us were born of Anabaptistical or Quaking Parents and still persist in and propagate Church-divisions are complete Schismaticks or not And if we should try them by our Author 's own rules I am sure they will be found guilty The next error of our Author is his allowing of Separation upon Scruples and suspicions as p. 194. he says When either Acts unlawful or ministring just Scruple are required of us to be performed consent were conspiracy and open contestation is not faction or schism but due Christian animosity This just Scruple he calls p. 201. a strong suspicion and p. 218. Where suspected Opinions are made a piece of the Church-Liturgy he that separates is not the Schismatick It is like our Author forgat what he said a little before p. 217. that when Scruples of conscience began to be made or pretended then Schisms began to break in as also what is said p. 209. What if the Preacher deliver any Doctrine of the truth of which we are not well perswaded yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained personally to bear a part in some suspected Act. Against this error of our Authors I affirm That
the Scruples and suspicions of private Christians concerning the lawfulness of Actions required by their Superiors cannot warrant their separation Because their obedience to Superiors in things not unlawful is their duty and to omit a certain duty upon a bare suspicion is dangerous and sinful And for a full answer to this error I desire it may be considered what a scrupulous Conscience is which I take to be such an act of the practical understanding as resolves what is or what is not to be done but with some fear and anxiety lest its determination be amiss And it differs from a doubting Conscience which assents to neither part of the question but remains unresolved as doubting of the true sense of the rule in which case it is resolved that in all things doubtful we are to take the safest course And doubtless that wherein the generality of wise and good Men as well Ancient as Modern are agreed is much more safe than that in which a few less knowing prejudicated and guilty persons pretend to be doubtful But where there are only groundless fears and scruples concerning some circumstance annexed to a known duty it is the sense even of our Non-conformists That if we cannot upon serious endeavours get rid of our Scruples we ought to act against them And this is so lawful and necessary that we cannot otherwise have either grace or peace See more to this purpose in a Sermon at Cripplegate on Acts 24. 26. p. 18 19. And if scruple and suspicion were a just plea for Separation then every discontented Person that is resolved to contemn his Superiours every one that is affectedly ignorant and lazy or refractory to better information every one that hath melancholy humours and temptations or wants true Christian Humility or Charity may make separation and yet be guiltless So that this Opinion of our Author's would be an Apology for all Separatists which being allowed there neither was nor can be any such sin as Schism For I suppose it is sufficiently known that neither the Doctrine or Worship of any Church is so well constituted but some unquiet spirits have raised scruples and suspicions concerning them And unless the Church have power to command things lawful and no way repugnant to the Word of God though some giddy Persons may scruple at them it is impossible that it should preserve it self from confusion The Apostles I am sure did practise this in the Synod at Hierusalem Acts 15. And St. Paul silenceth the objections of contentious and scrupulous Persons with the Custome of the Churches of God 1 Corinth 11. 16. Every Congregation that pretends to have the face of a Church requires the obedience of its Members to all Orders for publick Worship as well as their consent to their Articles of Faith and without this it could not subsist I shall conclude this with Mr. Baxter's advice in his Dispute of Ceremonies Ch. 15. S. 3. That the Duty of obeying being certain and the sinfulness of the thing commanded being uncertain and only Suspected we must go on the surer side And the Author of the Sermon on Acts 24. 16. gives a good reason for it saying If a Christian should forbear praying or receiving the Sacrament every time his scrupulous conscience tells him he had better wholly omit the duty than perform it in such a manner he would soon find to his sorrow the mischief of his scruples And he adviseth In all known necessary duties always do what you can when you cannot do what you would Our Author p. 202. falls on an Ancient controversie concerning the observation of Easter of which he gives us this imperfect account That it being upon error taken for necessary that an Easter must be kept and upon worse than Error if I may so speak for it was no less than a point of Judaism forced upon the Church thought further necessary that the ground for the keeping the time of that Feast must be the rule left by Moses to the Jews there arose a stout question whether we ought to Celebrate with the Jews on the 14th of the Moon or the Sunday following This matter though most unnecessary most vain yet caused as great a combustion as ever was in the Church the West separating from and refusing Communion with the East for many years together An impartial relation of the ground of this controversie as it lies in Church History will sufficiently discover how odiously it is represented First then whereas he says it was upon error taken for necessary that an Easter must be kept I answer if it were an error the Church had it from the Apostles themselves for although the contending parties differed among themselves in the day yet both agreed on the necessity of observing Easter in Commemoration of our Saviour's Resurrection And the Controversie concerning the day puts it out of controversie that there ought to be a day observed Some learned men have thought the setting a-part of an Easter day to be grounded on 1 Cor. 5. 8. where S. Paul speaking of the Christian Passover says Let us keep the Feast and Grotius observes that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answereth to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to abstain from all work for the offering up of holy things to God If the observation of any day be necessary unto Christians this of Easter is because it is the Mother and ground of our weekly Sabbath and is supposed to be the same which S. John calls the Lords day Rev. 1. 10. But we need not seek express authority from Scripture to make it necessary the practice of the Apostles testified by such early and authentick witnesses and the continued celebration of it in all the Churches of God do evince that it was not taken up on an Error no more than the observation of the Weekly Sabbath Mr. Hales says enough to resolve this objection in his Golden Remains set forth by Mr. Garthwait 1673. p. 260. on the question how we may know the Scriptures to be the word of God When saith he we appeal to the Churches testimony we content not our selves with any part of the Church actually existent but add unto it the perpetually successive testimony of the Church in all Ages since the Apostles times viz. since its first beginning and out of both these draw an argument in this question of that force as that from it not the subtilest Disputer can find an escape For who is it that can think to find acceptance and credit with reasonable men by opposing not only the present Church conversing in earth but the uniform consent of the Church in all ages So that the Church in all Ages agreeing that an Easter must be kept it was not taken up upon Error Nor secondly was it upon worse than error i. e. as our Author affirms a point of Judaism grounded on the Law of Moses to the Jews that the observation thereof was by some Churches solemnized
on the 14th day of the Moon For the Eastern Churches alledging the practice of S. John and Philip for the 14th day had a better ground for it than a Jewish custom namely that of Christian Charity and Baronius notes it as worthy of our observation that the Apostles had anciently appointed that though Easter were observed on the Lords day by the generality of Christians yet they should gently tolerate the Judaizing Converts which were of the circumcision and were in great numbers in the Eastern parts See Baronius's Annals ad Ann. 167. p. 168. Now the Western Churches pleaded for their practice which was the observation of the Sunday following the Authority of S. Peter and S. Paul who had fully convinced the Gentile converts that all Jewish rites were to be laid aside as having had their full completion in Christ but yet as in other like cases they were instructed to bear with the Jews as for some time they did for the first time that this controversie was agitated was between Anicetus Bishop of Rome and Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna who according to the custom of other Asian Churches celebrated Easter day on the 14th of the Moon For which practice Polycarp alledged the Authority of S. John And Irenaeus in an Epistle mentioned by Eusebius l. 5. c. 18. tells us that Polycarp came to Rome to discourse with Anicetus concerning this and other different observations between the Eastern and Western Churches and having after some conference amicably agreed other controversies they still differed about this observation but without any violation of the bond of Charity for they communicated together Anicetus giving leave to Polycarp to perform the offices of Divine Worship in his Church and it was then concluded That both Churches should be at liberty to observe the Ancient customes delivered to them from their Predecessors But about the year of Christ 198. Victor Bishop of Rome revives the controversie with Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus who was then 65 years old and came within a little time of S. John being cotemporary with Polycarp Victor pleads that the custom of his Church was derived from the Apostles S. Peter and S. Paul and that all his Predecessors had celebrated Easter on the Lords day See Eusebius lib. 5. ch 21 22 23. And Nicephorus l. 4. c. 36. Polycrates in his Epistle mentioned by Eusebius l. 5. c. 24. replies That all the Provinces of Asia observed it according to an Ancient tradition received long before i. e. before the second Century from S. John and S. Philip from Polycarp Bishop of Smyrna from Thraseas Bishop of Eumenia Sagaris of Laodicea Papirius and Melito Bishops of Sardis who always practised according to the same Canon and all the Bishops of Asia then living consented to and subscribed his Epistle Upon this Victor beginneth to storm and threatneth to Excommunicate the Bishops of Asia as Heterodox and to that end he assembleth the Bishops under his Jurisdiction who with one consent declared for peace desiring his forbearance and disliking his too great severity The Epistle of Irenaeus to Victor on this occasion is yet extant in which he declares That although for his part he was resolved to observe the Feast of Easter on the Sunday according to the practice of the Western Church in which he lived yet he could not approve that the Eastern Church should be Excommunicated for observing an Ancient custom and mindeth Victor that the Bishops before him had never broken the Churches peace on this occasion But no mediation would prevail Victor was Victor still and proceeds to denounce an impotent sentence against the Asian Churches Baronius says something to excuse the severity of Victor viz. That as long as those Churches were Catholick and incorrupt they of Rome thought it expedient to tolerate that custom but when from that custom Schism and Heresie brake in upon the Asian Churches for Montanus having diffused his Heresie through Asia those Asians began to plead that they had received this Tradition from their Paraclete that the Pascha ought to be celebrated on the 14th of the Moon and on no other day and that all such as practised otherwise were in an error then Victor thought it his duty to restrain this error 2. This Opinion of keeping Easter after the Asian manner was taken up by many Hereticks and so spread it self that it invaded the very bosom of the Roman Church and pluckt thence one Blastus who in the face of that Church maintained the Asian against the Roman Custom Tertullian speaks of this Blastus in his book de Praescriptionibus c. 53. saying that he endeavoured to bring in Judaism affirming that the Christian Pascha was not to be kept otherwise than was prescribed by the Law of Moses And this opinion of Blastus drew away so many after him that Irenaeus wrote a book of Schism directed purposely against Blastus but could not recal him And now let the indifferent Reader judge whether the subject of this controversie were most unnecessary most vain as our Author declaims Victor indeed did prosecute it with too much heat insomuch that the Cardinal knows not what to say in his excuse An verò quod potestate jure faciebat recténe fecerit dubitatum est saith the Cardinal Doubtless the Asian Churches were sui juris not under the jurisdiction of Victor or if they had been yet was he not unblameable in Excommunicating all the Churches of Asia for the fault of some few that had crept in among them whom in due time they would have restrained by their own authority He was also too precipitate in not yielding to the mediation of his own Bishops in behalf of those Churches And lastly he was much more culpable for imposing this observation on the Asian Churches as a matter of Faith and judged them to be heterodox and excommunicate that would not submit Baronius his words ad annum Christi 198. p. 191. of the Antwerp edition are Totius Asia Ecclesias cum aliis finit imis tanquam alterius fidei opinionis à communi unitate Ecclesia amputare conatur Nor were the Asian Churches without fault for yielding so long to a Jewish Ceremony which might long ere that time have been decently buried as other Jewish customes had been And also for suffering some among them to teach a necessity of observing the Christian Pascha on the 14th day and no other So that to conclude though the Roman Church was in this particular stronger in the Faith yet as our Author saith they should have born with the imbecillity of their weaker Brethren a thing which he observes S. Paul would not refuse to do p. 218. To which I say that S. Paul did comply for a while with the Jewish Converts in the Case of Circumcision but when some of them pleaded for a necessity of Circumcision he thunders against that Opinion as loudly as Victor did against this saying That if they were Circumcised i. e. with an Opinion of the
necessity of it Christ should profit them nothing Gal. 5. 2. Now from this History as our Author had contrived it he drew several wilde inferences As first p. 203. In this fantastical Hurry I cannot see saith he but all the World were Schismaticks To which I reply That all the World were not concerned in it there being some Nations that differed from both these in the observation of Easter as Socrates l. 5. c. 21. hath observed for even among the Jewish Converts some that agreed on the 14th day differed in the Moon and Venerable Bede observes that our Nation which the Pope pretends to have been his Converts did in those primitive times observe their Easter on the 14th day which by the way is an argument that we at first received the Christian Faith not from the Church of Rome who exploded this custome but more Anciently from Joseph of Arimathea or from St. Philip who as many good Authors affirm planted the Christian Religion in our neighbour Nation of France and as the Asian Churches affirm was one of them that taught them this custom nor do we read that they were condemned for Hereticks for so doing Neither did those Eastern Churches who differed in the Moneth anathematize each other and Socrates ubi supra gives this reason for it They that agree in the same Faith may differ from each other in respect of Rites as the Reformed Churches do at this day And though the Roman Church did excommunicate the Asian yet were they never the more Schismaticks for that being they were sui Juris not under the Roman power And according to our Authors definition of schism they being never members of that Church from which they were excommunicate could not be guilty of schism notwithstanding Victors rigor We say therefore they were still members of the Catholick Church And as for the Roman Church what should make them Schismaticks For though Victor did arrogate too much as to the manner of his proceedings yet as to the matter his prosecution against a Jewish ceremony when it grew into an Opinion of being necessary to be observed was his duty and approved by the practice of St. Paul himself And while there was a controversie between their Governors the People and Clergy too of both Parties continued in due subjection to their Superiors and in mutual charity to one another So that the Separatists of our Age can have no excuse for their Schism from this instance But our Author infers Secondly that this fell out through the ignorance or which he mentioneth also the malice of their Governors and that through the just judgment of God on the People because through sloth and blind obedience they examined not the things which they were taught but like beasts of burthen patiently couched down and indifferently underwent whatsoever their Superiors laid upon them To which I Answer It doth not appear there was any charge of ignorance to be imputed to Victor or his People for the reasons above mentioned much less of malice Our present Sectaries do call their opposition to Ceremonies more innocent than that by the name of zeal and love to the cause of God Nor was there any thing imposed on the Churches of either side that concerned their Faith nor any custome or rite de novo but only the Asian Churches were desired to translate the custome of observing Easter from a day which gave offence not only to the Church of Rome but several other Churches Petavius says the difference was not de Catholico dogmate sed de Ritu seu Ritûs potiùs tempore And if the Superiors in the Asian Churches had thought the Alteration fit as shortly after they did it had doubtless been the Peoples duty to submit for every Church hath power in those things which are indifferent and much more in such things as give offence to other Churches to appoint and alter rites and ceremonies for the publick Worship of God and the People shew themselves not beasts of burthen but Christ's Free-men in submitting to their Governors as far as Christian liberty doth permit If Victor had imposed new Articles of Faith as Pius Quintus did in the Council of Trent doubtless those Primitive Christians would have resisted even to bloud of which they gave too many instances when they constantly endured all manner of torments rather than they would renounce the Faith once delivered to them Our Author therefore needed to ask pardon for wounding the reputation of these Ancient Worthies in cool bloud as well as for massacring at once the authority of all the Fathers in the heat of a temptation p. 204. where he says thus You may plainly see the danger of our appeal to Antiquity for resolution in controversies of Faith and how small relief we are to expect from thence for if the discretion of the chiefest Guides of the Church did in a point so trivial so inconsiderable so mainly fail them as not to see the truth in a subject wherein it is the greatest marvel how they could avoid the sight of it Can we without the imputation of extreme grossness and folly think so poor spirited persons competent Judges of the questions now on foot in the Churches Pardon me I know not what temptation drew that note from me To this I reply 1. Whoever he be that so contemptuously rejects the Authority and trampleth on the reputation of the Fathers hath sufficiently excused those that shall slight his own This is the Author 's own sense Golden Remains p. 260. 2. I refer it to the judgment of the Reader whether Victor Bishop of Rome condemning some of the Asian Churches for adhering too tenaciously to a Jewish ceremony which was of ill consequence to those and other neighbouring Churches were not more excusable than a private person living many hundred years after the fact and never rightly knowing or else wrongfully representing it insolently and causlesly condemning the Ancient Fathers not of one or two Ages or parts of the Church but all in general as if the failing of one man in a point so trivial and inconsiderable as our Author calls it were sufficient reason to condemn them all for indiscreet and poor spirited persons And to impute extreme grossness and folly to all that should think them competent Judges of our differences This is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beyond that of Abailardus who was wont to say that the Fathers for the most part did think this or that to be right but I think otherwise as if his single authority could out-weigh all theirs 3. He must pretend to have some new light for his guide and be either an Enthusiast or Socinian that can see any danger in appealing to Antiquity for resolution in controverted points of Faith For seeing there is scarce any point of Faith but some unhappy Wits have controverted it and in defence of their Opinions have put the Scriptures on the rack to make them speak their own sense how can
points of Faith delivered in the Scriptures be better understood and confirmed than by the joynt consent of such Ancient Doctors who conversed with the Apostles or their immediate Successors and are rightly called Apostolici many of which were Persons of great Learning and Eloquence and so could not be charged with ignorance And doubtless they were very industrious in inquiring into the grounds of the Christian Faith for which they forsook all temporal accommodations and most of them their lives and against all opposition have not only handed down to us the Scriptures themselves pure and incorrupt but the proper and genuine sense of them We do not make them Judices but Indices fidei not the Authors but the witnesses to confirm and give evidence in matters of Faith 4. The Papists do calumniate the Reformed Divines as if they rejected the judgment of the Fathers whereas they do with one consent and none more readily than they of the Church of England appeal to their Authority for confirmation of the Faith which they profess I could easily fill a Volume with the testimonies of our Modern Divines concerning the authority of the Ancients how competent Judges they are of the questions now on foot The naming of some few will resolve us whether our Author's Opinion or theirs deserves the imputation of grosness and folly Calvin in his controversie with Pighius de libero Arbitrio says The controversie between me and Pighius would soon be ended if he would declare the tradition of the Church in the certain and perpetual consent of the Holy and Orthodox Bucer says as much on Matth. 1. concerning the consent of the Church about the perpetual Virginity of the Holy Virgin Mary That to doubt of that consent unless some plain Oracle of Scripture doth inforce it is not the part of them that have learned what the Church of Christ is When Zanchy was 70. Years old and had long studied the point He tells us in these words Hoc ego ingenuè profiteor talem esse meam conscientiam ut à veterum Patrum sive dogmatibus sive scripturarum interpretationibus non facilè nisi manifestis scripturarum testimoniis vel necessariis consequentiis apertisque demonstrationibus convictus atque coactus discedere queam Sic enim acquiescat mea conscientia in hac mentis quiete cupio etiam mori Epistola ad Confess fidei p. 47. Gualter in his Preface to Peter Martyr's common places says From hence come all kinds of evils the pest of disputatiousness the violation of all bonds of Charity and shaking the fundamentals of Faith because we do not reverence the Ancients as much as we ought Nor fear I to affirm that the chief cause of the Contentions of our Age is because most Divines insist on the Opinions of their present Masters and read their Books not enquiring what learned Antiquity did think or what errors and heresies were condemned by it As for the Divines of our own Church it may be sufficient to mention Bishop Jewel's Chalengee and how well he discharged it If any learned man of our adversaries said that learned Bishop or all the learned men that be alive be able to bring any one sufficient sentence out of any old Catholick Doctor or Father or out of any old General Council or out of the Holy Scriptures of God or any one example of the Primitive Church whereby it may be clearly and plainly proved that there was any private Mass in the world for 600 years after Christ or that c. to the number of 27. Articles now in controversie between us and the Church of Rome I am content to yield and to subscribe And in his Apologie for the Church of England he says We came as nigh as possibly we could to the Apostolical Churches and the Ancient Bishops neither did we direct our Doctrine only but our Sacraments and form of Publick Prayers to their rites and institutions And after him the Church provided by her constitutions Imprimis videant Concionatores ne quid unquam pro concione doceant quod à populo religiosè teneri credi volunt nisi quod consentaneum sit Veteri Novo Testamento quódque ex iis docuerint Antiqui Patres veteres Episcopi collegerint I add only that of the Royal Martyr in his discourse with Henderson 3d. paper When you and I differ about the sense of the Scriptures and I appeal to the unanimous consent of the Fathers and the Primitive Church you ought to find a more competent Judge or to rest in him that is proposed by me And this shall serve to assoil that question which our Author saith carryeth fire in the tail of it and brings with it a piece of Doctrine which is seldom pleasing to Superiors p. 200. But the fire proves an Ignis fatuus and our Author himself brings water enough to extinguish it for in p. 65. he saith If Aristotle and Aphrodiseus and Galen and the rest of those excellent men whom God hath endued with extraordinary portions of natural knowledge have with all thankful and ingenious men throughout all generations retained their credit intire notwithstanding it is acknowledged that they have all of them in many things swerved from the Truth Then why should not Christians express the same ingenuity to those who have laboured before us in the exposition of the Christian Faith and highly esteem them for their works sake their many infirmities notwithstanding From this general contempt of the Fathers our Author proceeds p. 206. to cast a slurr on S. Augustine For having mentioned S. Augustines argument which he maintained against the Donatists which was Unitatem Ecclesiae per totum Orbem dispersae propter nonnullorum peccata non esse deserendam i. e. that the Unity of the Church spread over the whole world ought not to be forsaken for the sins of some few that were in its communion he adds that though it were de facto false that Donatus his party shut up in Africa was the only Orthodox party yet it might have been true notwithstanding any thing S. Augustine brings to confute it And contrarily though it were de facto true that the part of Christians dispersed over the face of the Earth were the Orthodox yet it might have been false notwithstanding any thing S. Augustine brings to confirm it As if that learned Father who was as close and exact a disputant as the Church hath enjoyed ever since had wholly mistaken the question or were unable to urge one argument pro or con i.e. either for confutation of that wretched Schism or for defence of the Catholick Church That learned Father wrote a very large Volume against those Schismaticks which contains so much both of wit and Argument that there would not need any thing else to be said for the confutation of Schismaticks to the worlds end if his arguments were well understood and applyed And when our Author proves the Donatists in two
lines to be complete Schismaticks first for choosing a Bishop in opposition to the former secondly for erecting new places for the dividing party to meet in publickly I wonder with what confidence he could deny that S. Augustine had done so much in so many writings and disputations But when I consider how palpably this Author contradicts himself I cease to wonder that he should oppose and contemn that Great man For p. 208. he seems with some passion to interrogate Why might it not be lawful to go to Church with the Donatists and p. 215. why may I not go if occasion require to an Arrian Church when p. 229. he says expresly that it is not lawful no not for prayer hearing conference c. to assemble otherwise than by publick order is allowed And if our Author knew not that as well the Schism of the Donatists as the heresie of the Arrians was often condemned and forbidden by the Emperors and Councils of that age he was very ignorant indeed But the reason which our Author gives why S. Augustine said nothing to the question is as strange as any thing else S. Augustine saith our Author brought nothing to prove that the Orthodox were the true Church or the Donatists were Schismaticks For the Church may be in any number in any place country or nation it may be in all and for ought I know it may be in none without prejudice to the definition of a Church or the Truth of the Gospel He might as well have told us of a Church in Utopia which is the same with a Church in no place country or nation What Idea of the Church our Author conceived I cannot imagine but that which he expresseth concerning it is as contrary to the truth of all the Prophecies of the Old Testament as well as the description of it in the New from whence the definition is taken as light is to darkness For Acts 2. 41. ad finem the Church is described to be a number of men not all nor none called out of the world by the preaching of the Apostles and joyning themselves to their Spiritual guides by Baptism and breaking of Bread by publick Prayers and hearing the Word These in verse 47. are expresly called the Church and to this Church the Lord added daily such as should be saved Now such Churches were by Christ's commissions to be planted in all Nations which we believe was really effected and the truth thereof is still apparent that God hath given his Son the heathen for his inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for hs possession and therefore to say that a Church may be in none either number or place for I suppose the Author intends both because if it may exist in no place it must not consist of any number nor so much as admit of one as contrary to sense and Reason as to the Truth of the Gospel And is such a fancy as that of Mrs. Trask who having shifted from one Conventicle to another in New-England and at last on pretence of impurity in their ordinances and members separated from them all affirmed that she alone was the Church and Spouse of Christ But I think Mr. Hales himself sufficiently refutes this fancy of our Author Page 185 186. of his Golden Remains he tells us that to prove the existence of our Church before Luther all that is necessary to be proved in the case is nothing else but this that there hath been from the Apostles times a perpetual succession of the Ministry to preach and to baptize of which by the providence of God there remains very good evidence to the world and shall remain Having told us that the Church may be in no place that is in effect that there may be no Church he doth with the more confidence affirm p. 213. That Church Authority is none and tradition for the most part but figment Answ As to traditions in general I defend them not nor can any man else but for such as bear the Characters which Vincentius Lirinensis describes quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus we have all reason imaginable to inforce the imbracing of such traditions as have been received and delivered to us by all the Churches of Christ in all ages and in all places unless we were of the Authors opinion that Church authority is none and this can never be made good but by proof of our Authors fiction of a Church in Utopia For if our Saviour did out of mankind redeem a Church by his own bloud if he planted it by his Apostles and promised his presence with it to the end of the world if he made it the ground and Pillar of Truth and promised to hear her prayers and to bind in heaven what they bound on earth and that the gates of Hell i.e. neither persecutions nor heresies nor schisms should prevail against it doubtless there is a Church and that Church hath some authority granted to her by her dear Redeemer to defend that peace and unity as well as those truths which he bequeathed to her Did our Saviour take care for the Church of the Jews only or did he not also mind the Christian Church when Matt. 18. 17. he enjoyns us even in private differences among our selves much more in those which concern the publick peace of the Church as in the case of scandals mentioned in the context v. 7. to go tell the Church and if any should neglect to hear the Church that he should be unto us as an heathen man and a Publican i.e. Excommunicate from that holy Society which punishment being spiritual doth clearly evince that the causes submitted to the judgment of the Church were spiritual also But I demand farther did the Apostles usurp more authority than was given them when they assembled together Acts 15. 6. about the case of Circumcision and after the difference had been fully debated by Peter Paul Barnabas and S. James in the presence of the Elders and the multitude they all agreed and that by the approbation of the Holy Ghost v. 28. to impose upon the Churches certain constitutions as necessary to be observed at that time for the peace of the Church If they did not then the Church had some authority And so when S. Paul pleaded the custom of the Churches of God against contentious persons in the Church of Corinth 1 Epist c. 11. v. 16. And doth not the same Apostle tell us that when our Saviour ascended up on high Eph. 4. 11. he placed rulers and governors in his Church whose care it should be to provide that the people should not be thenceforth as children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive v. 14. If Church authority be none to what end did S. Paul injoyn Timothy to see that women should keep silence in the Church 1 Tim. 2. 12. not only
to teach but command 1 Tim. 4. 11. to give charge concerning widows 1 Tim. 5. 1 7. how to receive accusations against Elders 1 Tim. 5. 19. how to ordain 1 Tim. 5. 22. and see that they held fast the form of sound words 2 Tim. 1. 13. to suppress striving about vain words and prophane bablings such as were the discourses of Hymenaeus and Philetus which did eat as a canker and overthrew the faith of some 2 Tim. 2. 14 16. to rebuke authoritatively such as would not endure sound doctrine but agreeably to their own lusts did heap up teachers to themselves having itching ears 2 Tim. 4. 2 3. And in like manner that Titus should suffer no man to despise his authority Titus 2. 15. but diligently discharge the duties for which the Apostle setled him in Crete i. e. to set in order things which were wanting and to ordain Elders in every City Titus 1. 5. and to reject hereticks after a second admonition Titus 3. 10. Besides we find the Spirit of God commending the Angel of the Church of Ephesus for shewing her hatred against the Nicolaitans and blaming the Angel of the Church of Pergamus for tolerating the Doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans and the Angel of Thyatira for permitting the Doctrine and practice of Jezebel Rev. 2. 6. c. Nor did I ever hear yet of any Conventicle that pretended to have the face of a Church that did not exercise some authority over their members for as the Synod of Dort declared No order nor peace can be preserved in the Church if it should not be lawful for it so to judge of its own members as to restrain within bounds wavering and unsetled spirits This hath been the practice of the Churches of all Ages the particulars to which their authority did extend are not now to be reckoned nor the arguments for vindication thereof necessary to be insisted on I shall shut up this with that of Beza de pace Ecclesiae Neque enim Dei gratiâ ignoro Ecclesiam esse veritatis testem extra quam non sit salus Orthodoxorum consensum in Synodis adversùs Haereticos plurimi fieri par est Patrum in interpretandis Scripturis in refutandis erroribus in admonendis populis labores adeò non contemni oportet ut secundo à Scripturis loco meritò habeantur These things do certainly infer that Church-authority is something However our Author p. 224. dares to tell us that They do but abuse themselves and others that would perswade us that Bishops by Christ's institution have any superiority above other Men further than of Reverence And the reason which he gives for it is this For we have believed him that told us that in Jesus Christ there is neither high nor low and that in giving honour every Man should be ready to prefer another before himself Which reasons do as certainly conclude against Magistrates as Bishops viz. that there is no obedience no tribute or homage due to them by Christ's institution nothing further than an airy superiority of reverence which if the other were denyed would be but a mockery Like that wherewith the late Royal Martyr was Reverenced when the Usurpers robbed him of all that God and the Laws invested him withall and gave him only the superiority of reverence in a Noble Death But as to Bishops let our Author's Assertion Answer it self For first It grants that Bishops were by Christ's institution because by his institution they had a superiority of reverence above other Men. 2ly This superiority was grounded on their Office as Bishops that is Overseers of the Flock committed to their charge which Office was assigned to them by the Holy Ghost Acts 20. 28. And now I would have the Reader consider whether those that by the institution of Christ and of the Holy Ghost were made Rulers and Governors of the Church have no other superiority above other Men beside that of reverence There is more expressed Hebr. 13. 17. in these words Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves And when St. Paul instructs Timothy in the office of a Bishop he tells him how he should learn to rule the House of God 1 Tim. 3. 4. by ruling well his own house having his children in subjection with all gravity Again when he chargeth Timothy 1 Ep. 5. 17. to provide that those Presbyters that did not only rule well but laboured above others in the Word and Doctrine should be counted worthy of double honour he intended somewhat more than a superiority of Reverence namely an Honorary maintenance such as was the portion of the elder Brother under the Law not a precarious Eleemosynary stipend but that which was as due to them as the hire is to the labourer and I suppose that this is by Christ's institution the Apostle assuring us that as it was setled by a Divine institution under the Law Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel 1. Cor. 9. 14. Besides the Apostle grounds the superiority of Reverence on that of the office of governing labouring and watching for the Souls of the People So 1 Thessal 5. 12 13. We besseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love for their works sake And that the Apostles were superior in office not only to the People but to the 72. Disciples and to the Deacons is clearly evinced by the Scriptures for upon the miscarriage of Judas another being to take his office Acts 1. 20. the Apostles met together and in a solemn assembly after prayer and supplication the lot fell on Matthias who was one of the 72. Disciples and had accompanied the Apostles all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among them And this method was to continue by Saint Paul's advice to Timothy 1. Ep. 3. 13. where such as had used the office of a Deacon well are said to purchase to themselves a good degree i. e. as the Assembly expound it doth deservedly purchase to himself the honour of a higher office in the Church And whereas we read Acts 1. 3. that our Saviour Christ after his Resurrection conversed 40. days with his Apostles speaking of the things pertaining to the Kingdom of God i. e. the teaching and governing of his Church and when he ascended up on high he gave some Apostles some Prophets c. not only for the work of the Ministry but preventing of false Doctrines and Schisms Ephes 4. 11-14 compared with 1 Cor. 12. 25 28 29. it is evident there was a superiority of office as well as of reverence given to the Teachers Governors of the Church For God hath set these several orders in his Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets c. all are not Apostles nor all Prophets nor all Teachers there were some even by God's institution above
others in place and office as well as in reverence whereof we cannot expect a better proof than the Universal practice of the Churches of Christ even in the Apostles days and immediately after their decease For unless we could conceive that all the Churches should even in those Primitive times conspire together to cast off some other government appointed by Christ and admit of this to which they could have no temptation or inclination the People and Bishops both being then as sheep appointed to the slaughter we must needs conclude that a superiority of office and government as well as of reverence was their due Now not only the Persons that were set over the Churches and had the Characters of Episcopal Power and Jurisdiction are plainly recorded in the Writings of the Ancients but their power and superiority over Presbyters and Deacons their supreme care and inspection of the affairs of the Church are so fully explained as if they had been written on purpose to prevent the objections of these later days For instance we read in Authentick Authors of St. James at Hierusalem St. Mark at Alexandria Timothy at Ephesus Titus at Crete Crescens at Galatia Archippus at Caloss Epaphroditus at Philippi Gaius at Thessalonica Apollos at Corinth Linus and Anacletus at Rome Ignatius at Antioch Papias at Hierapolis Dionysius Areopagita at Athens Yea the Ancients tell us particularly who were those seven Angels of the Asian Churches that are either approved or reprehended for their government Viz. Antipas at Pergamus Polycarp at Smyrna Carpus at Thyatira Sagaris at Laodicea Melito at Sardis Onesimus at Ephesus And Ignatius gives the Angel of the Church of Philadelphia the like character as the Spirit of God doth though I find not his name It were no great difficulty to set down the Successors of divers of these Bishops through many ages of the Church together with the dignity and power they had as well over Presbyters as People Ignatius and Clemens Tertullian and Irenaeus Eusebius and Clemens Alexandrinus speak largely of them I shall hope to satisfie the Reader with a passage or two out of St. Hierome who is thought no Friend of Episcopacy yet in his Epistle to Evagrius he says Whatever Aaron and his Sons and the Levites could vindicate to themselves in the Temple the same may Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons challenge to themselves in the Christian Church Here you have a plain distinction of Orders And in his Epistle to Riparius you have a distinction of Power for speaking of Vigilantius an Heretical Presbyter he saith Miror sanctum Episcopum in cujus parochia esse Presbyter dicitur acquiescere ejus furori non virgâ Apostolicâ virgâque ferreâ confringere vas inutile tradere in interitum carnis ut spiritus salvus fiat I wonder the holy Bishop in whose Diocese the Heretical Presbyter is said to be doth not restrain his madness and with his Apostolical rod as with an Iron rod break that unprofitable Vessel and deliver him for the destruction of the flesh that his Soul may be saved So that there was a sub and supra by Christ's institution it did not all come from composition and agreement of Men among themselves as Mr. Hobs and our Author do affirm But if there were indeed a superiority of reverence due to Bishops by Christ's institution I fear the Author sinned against that institution when he spake so irreverently of them as in Page 226. speaking of contentions between Bishops Private and indifferent Persons may as securely be spectators of those contentions in respect of any peril of conscience as at a Cock-fight where Serpents fight who cares who hath the better the best Wish is that both may perish in the fight I know not under what temptation the Author was when he wrote this nor did he himself consider from what spirit it came St. Jude tells us v. 9. that Michael the Archangel when contending with the Devil he disputed about the body of Moses durst not bring against him a railing accusation but this Author whether Aerius revived or the Ghost of that Monster Smectymnuus become incarnate no Archangel I am sure doth not only despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities but breaths out fire and utter destruction against Episcopacy root and branch Who the contending Bishops were of whom he speaks I have told you in the controversie between Victor and Polycrates the one contending too violently for a truth the other too tenaciously defending an ancient but erroneous custome The errors of both would extract pity and prayers from any Christian spirit that were sensible of humane infirmities When there arose a contention among Christ's own Disciples Luk. 9. 46. which should be the greatest And when the dispute about circumcision somewhat like this arose between Paul and Barnabas and them that came down from Judaea did Christ or his Apostles think themselves as unconcerned at these contentions as at a Cock-fight or had it been a fit option to wish that they might all perish How destructive are the curses of such men when their prayers their best wishes are for destruction There appears more of the Serpent in this rash vote than in all Victor's contention But our Author thinks he may be well excused for this uncharitable vote against Bishops seeing they had so little charity as by their frequent contests to make butter and cheese of one another p. 220. It is a sad story to read the great violences acted by some Bishops and the indignities and tortures indured by others in that period of time to which Socrates confines his History for in the close of it he says it contained the History of 140. Years from the beginning of Constantine's Empire unto the 17. consulship of Theodosius In all which time Socrates relates with as much sorrow as our Author seems to do with merriment what agonies and convulsions the Arian Heresie made in some Churches and the Schism of the Donatists in others where the Factions being cruel and implacable as often as they got any power did not only make butter and cheese but shed the bloud of the Orthodox and more peaceable Bishops There are still some such as would gladly reduce them again to butter and cheese and like vermin corrode and devour them too If any be of the Authors mind I hope and pray that God would give them repentance that they may live so peaceably under the Bishops of the Church here that they may live eternally with the Bishop of their Souls hereafter Or if they shall despise my advice I intreat them to consider that of Mr. Hales p. 223. It being a thing very convenient for the peace of the Church to have but one Bishop in one See at one time neither doth it any way savour of vice or misdemeanor their punishment sleeps not who unnecessarily and wantonly go about to infringe it I meet with one observation more fit to be animadverted on under this head which
resolved by Tharasius malum perpetuò idem est aequale That evil is alway the same which sounding too Stoical one Epiphanius a Deacon and representative of Thomas Arch-Bishop of Sardinia solves it by saying That it held true especially in causes Ecclesiastical Aquibus decretis cùm parvis tùm magnis errare idem est siquidem in utrisque lex divina violatur for to erre from such decrees whether in small matters or great is a contempt of the Divine law But John a Monk Deputy for the Oriental thrones pronounceth this heresie worse than all other heresies and of all evils the worst as disturbing the whole Oeconomy of Christ However their penitents being but few for we find not above three or four mentioned they restore three of them to their dignities and one other Gregory Bishop of Neocaesareae who was judged to be a chief Leader of the Iconoclastae was admitted only to the Communion of the Church not to his Bishoprick although he declared for Image-worship But the Anathema is denounced against many others who abhorred this Idolatrous practice professing they did reject all images made by the hands of men and worshipped that only Qua filius Dei in Sacramento panis vini ante passionem seipsum expressit as did the whole Council of Frementum Theodosius Bishop of Ephesus Sisinnius of Pastilla Basilius and others And shortly after Charles the Great assembleth a Council of the Bishops of Italy France and Germany at Francfort Anno 792. of the transactions whereof we have four books yet extant in which we have not only the Canons of that Council but many Imperial Edicts for the taking away of Images and forbidding any worship to be given them Sir Henry Spelman p. 305. of his first Volume of Councils acquaints us that Charles the Great sent a book to Offa King of the Mercians wherein Images were decreed to be worshipped by this Synod of Nice of which he tell us from Hoveden That in that book many things disagreeing and contrary to the true faith were found especially that Images ought to be worshipped which the Church of God doth utterly condemn And that Alcuinus Master to Charles the Great but by birth a Britan in an Epistle written in the name of the Bishops and Princes of England and sent back to Charles the Great did wonderfully overthrow that opinion of the Nicene Council by testimonies of Holy Scripture which moved him to call that Synod of Francfort consisting of 300 Fathers who refuted and condemned this decree of worshipping Images which is the cause saith that Author why the Monuments of that Synod are suppressed And I suppose that all the Reformed Churches especially the Church of England cannot but abhor those that established so great an iniquity by a Law I remember the learned Doctor Jackson p. 113. of his Treatise of the Church saith that by the self same stroke by which this Council did de facto thrust all other out of the visible Church that would not worship Images they declared themselves to be excommunicated de Jure from the Holy Catholick Church and by consequence from Salvation When therefore our Author endeavours by his Rhetorical flourishes to make such destructive errors to dwindle into schisms and allows only the names of schism p. 213. to Arrianism Eutychianism c. I thought I had just cause to except against his first Paragraph especially when I found how much it took not only with the Fanaticks and some witty men of our days but with persons of real worth and learning one of which whom I forbear to name repeats the whole clause in a book of good note in these words It is very well observed by a learned and judicious Divine quoting the Tract of Schism which he calls that little but excellent Tract of Schism that heresie and schism as they are commonly used are two Theological Scar crows with which they who use to uphold a party in Religion use to fright away such as making inquiry into it are ready to relinquish and oppose it if it appear either erròneous or suspicious For as Plutarch reports of a Painter who having unskilfully painted a Cock chased away all cocks and hens that so the imperfection of his Art might not appear by comparison with nature so men willing for ends to admit of no fancy but their own endeavour to hinder an enquiry into it by way of comparison of somewhat with it peradventure truer that so the deformity of their own might not appear This story of a Cock I shall Answer with another of a Hen for I have seen a Countrey-man with the picture of a Hen Pheasant artificially drawn on a stained cloth and a little Pipe to call the Cock-pheasants to draw them from place to place until in pursuit of their pleasures they have been taken in a Snare The reputation of the Author is as a Pipe which calls unwary Persons to view the Pictures on that stained cloth whereof they that grow too fond may follow them to their own destruction Our Author page 215. gives his advice for the composing of Liturgies Were Liturgies and publick forms of service so framed as that they admitted not of particular and private fancies but contained only such things as in which all Christians do agree schisms on opinion were utterly vanished For consider of all Liturgies that are or ever have been and remove from them whatsoever is scandalous to any Party and leave nothing but what all agree on and the event shall be that the publick service and honour of God shall no way suffer Whereas to load our publick forms with the private fancies upon which we differ is the most soveraign way to perpetuate Schism to the Worlds end Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading of Scriptures Exposition of Scripture Administration of Sacraments in the plainest and simplest manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgy though nothing either of private opinion or of Church-pomp of Garments of prescribed Gestures of Imagery of Musick of matter concerning the Dead of many superfluities which creep into the Churches under the Name of Order and Decency did interpose it self for to charge Churches and Liturgies with things unnecessary was the first beginning of all Superstition We have a Devonshire Proverb He that builds his house by every ones chop Shall never see his Ouice drop If every Man's fancy should be complied with in the framing of a Liturgy it is most certain we should never have any seeing as there is scarce any part against which some do not except so others are offended at the very form as being a stinting of the Spirit and the opposing of a Directory to the Ancient Liturgy shews that this was the sense of the Presbyterians themselves which appears also by this that when they had in the Grand Debate given in their Objections to the Liturgy some of the Brotherhood had prepared another form but a great part of their Brethren objected many
things against that and never as yet did that I hear of agree upon any other nor I think ever will For let it be considered that there is scarce any part of our Liturgy which some have not excepted against and you will find our Author's advice impracticable He himself would have no Absolution as appears not only by his omission of that Office when he enumerates the parts of a Liturgy but by telling us that the power of the Keys belongs to every one Clergy or Lay Male or Female not only for himself but for the benefit of others p. 172. and p. 183. that you may as well make your Muletter your Confessor as your Parish-Priest Others will have no confession Some are displeased at the Responses others cannot be reconciled to the Lord's Prayer against the use of which as the Leaders of one Faction have Printed so the Grandees of another have often preached The Reader knows what sort of People cannot joyn in the Gloria Patri the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds and it is well if they will stand to the Apostles The Te Deum and Magnificat are displeasing to some the Collects because they are too short and the Litany because it is too long to others Some are angry at the Prayer for Bishops others not very well pleased with those for the King If you read what our Author saith p. 60. concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as 1. that in the Communion there is nothing given but Bread and Wine 2. The Bread and Wine are signs indeed but not of any thing there exhibited but of something given long before 3. That Jesus Christ is eaten at the Communion-Table in no sense neither spiritually by vertue of any thing done there nor really nor metaphorically nor literally 4. The Spiritual eating of Christ of common to all places as well as the Lords Table you may see the Author was no friend to the Office for Administration of the Lord's Supper And it 's well known who are enemies to that of Baptism Our Author dislikes the consecration of Bishops to whom he denies any Superiority but that of reverence others oppose the Ordination of Priests It is sad to consider at what a Distance many of our People yet keep themselves and children from the Catechism and Confirmation and the burial of the Dead only that of Marriage they are pretty well reconciled to So that I say our Author's Proposals are impracticable if not impossible to be observed either to remove from our Liturgies whatever is i.e. seems scandalous to every Party or to leave nothing but what all agree on and I think we shall all agree sooner in an Universal character and language too than in such a Liturgy Our first Reformers have given us undeniable Proofs that they were very learned and very good Men and Bishop Jewel in their name professeth that they did consult the ancient Liturgies of the purest times and adapted ours to them The Papists condemn us for castrating as much as was thought sinful must we be still condemned for retaining what is decent If any thing in our Liturgy had been contrary to the Word of God I am confident the Church would have expunged it as soon as its adversaries had discovered it but if it be quarrelled at for requiring us to worship God according to the Apostolical injunction in Decency and order we had rather be accounted beasts of burden in submitting to the lawful Ordinances of our Superiors than wild Asses for kicking against our Masters It hath alway been the practice of the Church of God conform to the practice of the Holy Apostles Acts 15. when any opinions or practices contrary to Faith or Unity began to prevail to assemble in Councils and Synods that by conference and consulting with the Scriptures and Primitive customes they might raise a fence against the growing torrent and as well confirm their own as confute the opinions and practices of their adversaries as may be seen in the Decrees and Canons made in the first 600 Years And when by general consent and subscription these Decrees were approved they did as occasion required insert sometimes into the Liturgy such passages out of their own or former Articles as might help to instruct the People in the true Faith and be an antidote against those poisonous errors that were become Epidemical Hence first the Apostles Creed and the Gloria Patri c. and those being not express enough against prevailing errors the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds were inserted and some whole Articles were added to the Apostles Creed And if as our Author saith a man may go to an Arrian Church so there be no Arrianism exprest in their Liturgy why may not our Superiors require our communion in the Liturgy which is free from that and all other Doctrinal errors And whereas our Liturgy is in all things conform to our Articles of Doctrine which are so free from the exceptions either of Calvinists or Arminians as that both Parties appeal to it as to the standard whereby they would have their Opinions tryed as appears in the late quiquarticular controversies between Doctor Heylin and Mr. Hickman I see no reason why they may not upon our Author's grounds conform much rather to ours than unto Arrian Liturgies A Liturgy that hath past many fiery Trials first in the Marian days when the Composers of it imbraced it at their Martyrdom after which it appeared so inoffensive to the Papists themselves which I account no small commendation that for some Years after Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown they omitted not to frequent the use of it and in the beginning of our troubles when the Smectymnuans heated the Irons and made it pass the trial Ordeal its innocency was such that it came off untoucht And when in the Grand Debate their Successors thought to have blown it up by the fewel which they had heaped together in a mock-liturgy their plot was so confused and imperfect that a great part of the Brotherhood were of the Opinion that the old was better And I am still perswaded if it were put to the vote whether this Liturgy should be retained or any other formerly used in the Primitive or now in use among the Reformed Churches brought into its room they would give the like suffrage as I have heard Sr. Harry Martyne did when some of Cromwels Confidents had moved the question whether They should have a King or no King that if they must have a King they had rather have the Old Gentleman meaning King Charles of blessed memory than any other in the Nation Our Author begins to treat of Conventicles from p. 226. and continueth it to the end The substance of which I shall present to the Reader in these several and divers Periods First he says truly that all meetings upon unnecessary occasions of Separation are to be so stiled so that in this sense a Conventicle is nothing else but a congregation of schismaticks
which we translate Priests Sacrifice and Altars and our translation is not intolerable if Priest come from Presbyter I need not prove that if it do not yet all Ministers are subordinate to Christ in his Priestly office And the word Sacrifice is used of us and our offered Worship 1 Pet. 2. 5. Hebr. 13. 15 16. Phil. 4. 18. Eph. 5. 2. Ro. 12. 1. And Hebr. 13. 10. saith we have an Altar which word is frequently used in the Revelations in relation to Gospel-times We must not therefore be quarrelsome against the bare names unless they be abused to some ill use The Ancient Fathers and Churches did ever use all these words so familiarly without any question or scruple raised by the Orthodox or Hereticks about them that we should be wary how we condemn these words lest we give advantage to the Papists to tell their followers that all antiquity is on their side The Lords Supper is by Protestants truly called a Commemorative Sacrifice Of the Communion table c. Qu. 123. May the Communion Tables be turned Altarwise and railed in and is it lawful to come up to the rails to communicate Answ 1. God hath not given a particular command or prohibition about these circumstances but only general rules for edification unity decency and order 2. They that do it out of a design to draw men to Popery or to incourage men in it do sin 3. So do they that rail in the Table to signifie that Lay-Christians must not come to it but be kept at a distance 4. But where there are no such ends but only to imitate the Ancients that did thus and to shew reverence to the Table on the account of the Sacrament by keeping away dogs keeping boys from sitting on it and the professed doctrine of the Church condemneth Transubstantiation the real corporal-presence c. in this case Christians should take these for such as they are indifferent things and not censure or condemn each other for them 5. And to communicate is not only lawful in this case where we cannot prove that the Minister sinneth but even when we suspect an ill design in him which we cannot prove yea or when we can prove that his personal interpretation of the place name scituation and rail is unsound for we assemble there to communicate in and according to the professed doctrine of Christianity and the Churches and our own open profession and not after every private opinion and error of the Minister Of the Creed Qu. 139. What is the use and authority of the Creed is it of the Apostles framing or not Answ It s use is to be a plain explication of the Faith professed in the baptismal covenant And for the satisfaction of the Church that men indeed understand what they did in Baptism and professed to believe 2. It is the Word of God as to the matter of it whatever it be as to the order or composition of the words 3. It is not to be doubted but the Apostles did use a Creed commonly in their days which was the same with that now called the Apostles and the Nicene in the main 4. And it is easily probable that Christ composed a Creed when he made his Covenant and instituted baptism Matth. 28. 19. 5. That the Apostles did cause the baptizable to understand the three Articles of Christs own Creed and Covenant and used many explicatory words to make them understand it 6. It is more than probable that the matter opened by them was still the same when the words were not the same 7. And it is also more than probable that they did not needlesly vary the words lest it should teach men to vary the matter And lastly no doubt but this practice of the Apostles was imitated by the Churches and that thus the essentials of Religion were by the tradition of the Creed and Baptism delivered by themselves as far as Christianity went long before any book of the New Testament was written And the following Churches using the same Creed might so far well call it the Apostles Creed Of the Apocrypha Qu. 150. Is it lawful to read the Apocrypha or Homilies Answ It is lawful so be it they be sound doctrine and fitted to the peoples edification 2. So be it they be not read scandalously without sufficient differencing them from God's book 3. So they be not read to exclude or hinder the reading of the Scriptures or other necessary Church duty 4. So they be not read to keep up an ignorant lazy Ministry that can or will do no better 5. And especially if Authority command it and the Churches agreement require it Of the Oath of Canonical Obedience Qu. 153. May we lawfully swear obedience in all things lawful and honest either to Usurpers or to our lawful Pastors Answ If the King shall command us it is lawful So the old Nonconformists who thought the English Prelacy an unlawful office yet maintained that it is lawful to take the Oath of Canonical obedience because they thought it was imposed by the King and Laws and that we swear to them not as Officers claiming a divine right in the spiritual Government but as Ordinaries or Officers made by the King according to the Oath of Supremacy Of the Holiness of Churches Qu. 170. Are Temples Fonts Utensils Church-lands much more Ministers holy and what reverence is due to them as Holy Answ Temples Utensils Lands c. devoted and lawfully separated by man for holy uses are holy as justly related to God by that lawful separation Ministers are more holy than Temples Lands or Utensils as being nearlier related to holy things and things separated by God are more holy than those justly separated by man And so of Days every thing should be reverenced according to the measure of its holiness And this expressed by such signs gestures actions as are fittest to honour God to whom they are related And so to be uncovered in Church and use reverent carriage and gestures there doth tend to preserve due reverence to God and to his Worship 1 Cor. 16. 20. Of the power of the Magistrate in Circumstantials Those modes or circumstances of Worship which are necessary in genere but left undetermined by God in specie are left by God to humane prudential determination else an impossibility should be necessary It is left to humane determination what Place the publick Assemblies shall be held in And to determine of the time except where God hath determined already and what Utensils to imploy about the publick Worship Some decent Habit is necessary either the Magistrate or the Minister or associated Pastors must determine what I think neither Magistrate nor Synod should do more than hinder indecency if they do and tye all to one habit and suppose it were an indecent habit yet this is but an imprudent use of power it is a thing within the Magistrates reach he doth not an aliene work but his