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england_n	bishop_n	church_n	reformation_n	2,930	5	8.7259	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49123	Mr. Hales's treatise of schism examined and censured by Thomas Long ... ; to which are added, Mr. Baxter's arguments for conformity, wherein the most material passages of the treatise of schism are answered.	Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Mr. Baxter's arguments for conformity against separation.	1678 (1678)	Wing L2974; ESTC R10056	119,450	354

that Church as no Church yet must we not commit that sin but patiently suffer them to exclude us from their Communion Of the Doctrine of the Church of England As for the Doctrine of the Church of England the Bishops and their Followers from the first Reformation begun by King Edward the Sixth were sound in Doctrine adhering to the Augustane method expressed now in the Articles and Homilies they differed not in any considerable point from those whom they called Puritans but it was in the form of Government Liturgy and Ceremonies that the difference lay The Independents as well as the Presbyterians offer to Subscribe the XXXIX Articles as distinct from Prelacy and Ceremony And when I was in the Country I knew not of one Minister to ten that are now silenced that was not in the main of the same Principles with my self Mr. Baxter's Reasons for Obedience in Lawful things page 483. of his five Disputations § 1. LEST Men that are apt to run from one extream into another should make an ill use of that which I have before written I shall here annex some Reasons to perswade Men to just obedience and preserve them from any sinful nonconformity to the commands of their Governours and the evil effects that are like to follow thereupon § 2. But first I will lay together some Propositions for decision of the Controversie How far we are bound to obey Mens Precepts about Religion Especially in case we doubt of the lawfulness of obeying them and so cannot obey them in faith § 3. Briefly 1. We must obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all things lawful which belong to their offices to command 2. It belongs not to their office to make God a new worship But to command the Mode and Circumstances of worship belongeth to their office for guiding them wherein God hath given them general rules 3. We must not take the Lawful commands of our Governours to be unlawful 4. If we do through weakness or perversness take Lawful things to be unlawful that will not excuse us in our disobedience Our error is our sin and one sin will not excuse another sin Even as on the other side if we judge things unlawful to be lawful that will not excuse us for our disobedience to God in obeying men 5. As I have before shewed many things that are miscommanded must be obeyed 6. As an erroneous judgment will not excuse us from Obedience to our Governours so much less will a doubtfulness excuse us 7. As such a doubting erring judgment cannot obey in plenary faith so much less can he disobey in faith For it is a known Command of God that we obey them that have the Rule over us but they have no word of God against the act of obedience now in question It is their own erring judgment that intangleth them in a necessity of sinning till it be changed 7. In doubtful cases it is our duty to use God's means for our information and one means is to consult with our Teachers and hear their words with teachableness and meekness 8. If upon advising with them we remain in doubt about the lawfulness of some Circumstance of order if it be such as may be dispensed with they should dispense with us if it may not be dispensed with without a greater injury to the Church or cause of God than our dispensation will countervail then is it our duty to obey our Teachers notwithstanding such doubts For it being their office to Teach us it must be our duty to believe them with a humane faith in cases where we have no Evidences to the contrary And the Duty of Obeying them being certain and the sinfulness of the thing commanded being uncertain unknown and only suspected we must go on the surer side 9. Yet must we in great and doubtful cases not take up with the suspected judgment of a single Pastor but apply our selves to the unanimous Pastors of other Churches 10. Christians should not be over-busie in prying into the work of their Governours nor too forward to suspect their determinations But when they know that it is their Rulers work to guide them by determining of due Circumstances of worship they should without causless scruples readily obey till they see just reason to stop them in their obedience They must not go out of their own places to search into the Actions of another Man's office to trouble themselves without any cause § 4. And now I intreat all humble Christians readily to obey both Magistrates and Pastors in all lawful things and to consider to that end of these Reasons following Reas 1. If you will not obey in Lawful things you deny authority or overthrow Government it self which is a great ordinance of God established in the fifth Commandment with promise And as that commandment respecting societies and common good is greater than the following commands as they respect the private good of our neighbours or are but particular means to that Publick good whose foundation is laid in the fifth commandment so accordingly the sin against this fifth commandment must be greater than that against the rest § 5. Reas 2. In disobeying the lawful commands of our Superiors we disobey Christ who ruleth by them as his officers Even as the disobeying a Justice of Peace or Judge is a disobeying of the soveraign Power yea in some cases when their sentence is unjust Some of the ancient Doctors thought that the fifth commandment was the last of the first Table of the Decalogue and that the Honouring of Governors is part of our Honour to God they being mentioned there as his officers with whom he himself is honoured or dishonoured obeyed or disobeyed For it is God's Authority that the Magistrate Parent and Pastor is endued with and empowred by to rule those that are put under them § 6. Reas 3. What confusion will be brought into the Church if Pastors be not obeyed in things lawful For instance If the Pastors appoint the Congregation to Assemble at one hour and the People will scruple the time and say it is unlawful and so will choose some of them one time and some another what disorder will here be and worse if the Pastors appoint a Place of worship and any of the People scruple obeying them and will come to another place what confusion will here be People are many and the Pastors are few and therefore there may be some unity if the People be Ruled by the Pastors but there can be none if the Pastors must be ruled by the People for the People will not agree among themselves and therefore if we obey one part of them we must disobey and displease the rest And their ignorance makes them unfit to rule § 7. Reas 4. Moreover disobedience in matters of Circumstance will exclude and overthrow the substance of the worship it self God commandeth us to pray If one part of the Church will not joyn with a stinted form of

perswaded Answ Yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained to bear a part in them our selves The Priests under Eli had so ill demeaned themselves about the daily Sacrifice that they made it to stink yet the People refused not to come to the Tabernacle nor to bring their Sacrifices to the Priests for in Schismes which concern fact nothing can be a just cause of refusal of Communion but only the requiring of the execution of some unlawful or suspected Act. Q. What may we do when some Persons in a Church teach erroneous Doctrines suppose of Arius and Nestorius concerning the Trinity or the Person of our Saviour Answ What to do in this case is not a point of any great depth of understanding to discover so be it distemper and partiality do not intervene I do not see that Opinionum varietas Opinantium unitas are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or that Men of different Opinions in Christian Religion may not hold communion in Sacris in the publick Worship This Argument holds à fortiori if I may keep communion with such as teach false Doctrines much more with such as practise only suspected Ceremonies p. 226. Q. What is your Opinion of Conventicles Answ It evidently appears 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 Q. Is not this name sometime fixed upon good and honest Meetings p. 227. Answ It is and that perchance not without good reason For first it hath been at all times confessed necessary that God should have not only inward and private devotion when Men either in their Hearts or Closets or within their private Walls pray praise confess and acknowledge but that all these things should be done in publick by troops and shoals of Men from whence proceeded publick Temples Altars Forms of Service appointed Times and the like which are required for open Assemblies Q. What is the reason of the severe Censures and Laws against private Meetings Answ When it was espied that ill affected persons abused private Meetings whether religious or civil to evil ends religiousness to gross impiety and the Meetings of Christians under Pagan Princes when for fear they durst not come together in open view were charged with soul imputations as by the report of Christians themselves it plainly appears as also civil Meetings under pretence of Friendship and neighbourly visits sheltered treasonable attempts against Princes and Common-weals Hence both Church and State joyned and joyntly gave order for forms times places of publick Concourse whether for civil or religious ends and all other Meetings whatsoever besides those of which both time and place were limited they censured for routs and riots and unlawful Assemblies in the State and in the Church for Conventicles Q. Is it not lawful then for Prayer hearing conference and other religious Offices for People to Assemble otherwise than by publick Order is allowed Answ No for why should Men desire to do that suspiciously in private which warrantably may be performed in publick p. 230. Q. I pray you Sir What general Rules are fit to be observed for the discovering and avoiding of Schisme Answ Take heed of entertaining scruples of Conscience about things of little moment for when scruples of Conscience began to be made or pretended then Schismes began to break in p. 217. Q. What other Rule is necessary to be observed Answ That you do not endeavour to advance one Bishop against another much more a Presbyter against the Bishop which in St. Cyprian's language is Erigere Altare contra Altare to set up Altar against Altar to which he imputeth the Original of all Church disorders and if you read him you would think he thought no other Church-tumult to be a Schisme but this For the general practice of the Church was never to admit more than one Bishop at once in one See but it fell out among the Ancients sometime by occasion of difference in Opinion sometimes because of difference among those who were interessed in the choice of Bishops that two Bishops and sometime more were set up and all Parties striving to maintain their own Bishop made themselves several Congregations and Churches each refusing to participate with others And seeing it is a thing very convenient for the peace of the Church to have but one Bishop in a See at once Their punishment sleeps not who unnecessarily or wantonly go about to infringe it HAving by a brief Analysis of the Treatise of Schism extracted the genuine sense of the Author who as the Transproser says p. 175. was one of the Church of England and as such I have endeavoured to represent him it is obvious to every one that shall read that Tract that instead of Answering Mr. Hooker's or Mr. Parker's Tracts of Ecclesiastical Polity it hath fully refuted it self and all other cavils of the Schismaticks who by these two assertions of his will for ever lye under a just condemnation The One is p. 209. What if those to whose care the Execution of the publick service is committed do something either unseemly or suspicious or peradventure unlawful what if the Garments they wear be censured as nay indeed be Superstitious what if the gesture of Adoration be used at the Altar what if the Homilist or Preacher deliver any doctrine of the truth of which we be not well perswaded yet for all this we may not separate except we be constrained personally to bear a part in them our selves Then may not any of the Laity who are not required to bear a part in such things separate from our Congregations and by consequence neither may their Leaders draw them into a separation The second Assertion is p. 229. It is not lawful no not for prayer for hearing for conference for any other religious office whatsoever for people to assemble otherwise than by publick order is allowed This conclusion our Author infers from substantial premises I confess I was so tender of the reputation and memory of Mr. Hales who as the Transproser says was not only one of the Church of England but most remarkable for his sufferings in the late times and for his Christian patience under them which befel him as Mr. Parker observes p. 148. when he had declared himself of another Opinion and obtained leave of Arch-bishop Laud who converted him to call himself his Grace's Chaplain that naming him in his publick prayers the greater notice might be taken of the Alteration which doubtless was the cause why so eminent a person was by the iniquity of those times reduced to those necessities under which the Transposer observes he lived p. 176. that I resolved at first not to make any reflection on such passages as discovered the Author to be guilty of so many Passions infirmities and contradictions I shall not deal therefore with Mr.

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