Schism p. 32. The only Steps by which we can mutually move to Peace I with all submission conceive to be these 1. That we all would seriously study Self-denial and that with a peculiar Eye and regard to Accommodation one perhaps of Popularity another of a particular Humor another of somewhat else All of whatsoever good Conscience tells us is less valuable than common Vnion p. 33. But notwithstanding what I have said of the Excellency both of the Common-Prayers and of Cathedral Performances I do conceive the Alteration of an Expression or here and there of a whole Prayer or two by Law or dispensing with some Ceremonies in loco I do not conceive such Relaxation as this would break the Harmony and Beauty of our Worship or disturb the Vnion and Peace of our Church There are some Collects and perhaps some Rubricks too which with all duty and submission I humbly conceive might be altered for the better pag. 118 119. This honourable Embassador of Peace speaks home and from his heart and shall for ever sit high in the esteem of all the Sons of Peace Here are Proposals conditional indeed with the consent of Authority as they should be that will certainly be imbraced by Dissenters But now if the Church should condescend if I may call that a Condescension which is done for Christ as far as it can without Schism and the Dissenters as far as they can with a good Conscience What shall be done if they cannot come up to a full and perfect closure Shall the Dissenter have no benefit by his Consent to the great things and the greatest number of things in which they agree already shall he be not only excluded but punished altho he continue peaceable in his Dissent In such a case here is an apparent Necessity of mutual Forbearance in Love and of the Bond of Peace to keep in the Vnity of the Spirit And here I cannot without a great respect to another Conformist of Worth and Quality as I am informed repeat the Words which are like a healing Plaister to a heart bruised between our grating Differences The way to make National Religion most National is by comprehending all the Differences that can be reconciled with true Religion while they that dissent in some things receive one another with a good peaceable holy and publick Temper of Mind as the great Argument and Inducement of which we should all pray for the Acceptance of the holy Service of all that call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Apostle distinguishes Christians but immediately unites them again both theirs and ours they and we whatever smaller Distinctions make the They and the We are both one in our Lord Jesus Christ We ought to pray for the common Benefit of all so united though not bound up in the same common Form with us for a gracious Audience and Reception of their and our Worship of God that so the Spirit of Love and Vnion in the main may convey all our Services into one before God where indeed if they are as he requires they meet stript of all their outward Circumstances Form and Ceremony Faith and Obedience being alone able to mount thither with them And Services so raised can by no means be spared for small Differences in a National Religious Interest for the Angels of all such behold the Face of our Father in Heaven Thus that excellent Person The whole Duty of Nations p. 61. who writes himself a Minister of the Catholick Church as it is National in England The same Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation breaths forth in peaceable Discourses of true Protestant Christian Gentlemen of excellent Learning and hearty Concernment for their and our Religion taking several ways The Learned Sir Thomas Overbury hath proposed many Questions of great Weight and discoursed upon them piously and smartly Sir John Mallet hath drawn up the Contents that might be Heads of useful and necessary Discourses for Gentleness towards Protestant Dissenters tho he himself and Family come duely to Church-Service and Sacraments Letter to the Author of the Guide to the English Juries printed after it and use some of the Common-Prayers in his Family The Author of the Appendix to Mr. Hunt's Argument hath discovered a good Will to Peace and Accommodation But most fully and of set-purpose a very learned and true Christian Gentleman that holds constant Communion with the Church of England hath turned aside answering the Title of his Book like a good Samaritan to help up a bleeding Church and powr a Composition of choice Preparations to heal her Wounds But alas have not and do not our Sins separate between us and our God Oh! how are they increased that make that Separation O! how hot are they against a Separation that is both curable and tolerable in comparison of theirs If their Assemblies if their Exercises were called seditious and Twenty Pounds upon the Houses of their Assemblies and but 5 s. upon every one that communicates in their Sins it would be more pleasing to God and more for the Establishment and Prosperity of the Kingdom than their Prosecutions of Dissenters in point of Ceremony many of these consult keep their Meetings sedulously concur unanimously and lay Spies in wait to apprehend the Preachers of the Word of Salvation These breath out Threatnings and what they will do But if this chanee to fall into any of their Hands I will present one warning more and a notable Example to them William Lantgrave of Hasse Casp Peucer Historia Carcerum Part 2. pag. 773. made Intercession with Augustus the Elector of Saxony for Dr. Peucer Prisoner a long time for his dissent in the Vbiquitarian Controversy The Elector promised his release if Anne his Duchess would be willing and desired him to try her first she replied according to her Obstinacy If she lived he should not be released Which Answer of hers the Lantgrave and other wise Men did thus interpret That the Dutchess should shortly dy that Peucer by her Death might be released and so it proved according to their Interpretation she died saith Dr. Peucer in that very moment in which I dreamed in my Sleep of a great and noble Funeral and a Bell ringing and as the Bell-rope brake that Verse of the Psalm came into my Mind Our Soul is escaped as a Bird out of the Snare of the Fowler the Snare is broken and we are escaped And among what Prodigies she died is known to all I am confident if the Persecutors of our peaceable and religious Nonconformists were studious to prepare for Death they would forbear this Work and as it is dreadful for any of them to dy in their Sins unrepented of and to dy in this Sin so let them take heed that some of the greatest of them do not fall by an apparent Hand of God I do profess if I had any Friend engaged in this horrid Work I would perswade him if possible to forbear
Salvation our Baptismal Vow Hypocrites and Formalists are the first Rank of Dissenters and Schismaticks that conform not unto the Laws of Christ and Terms of Salvation 2. A conscientious walking after the Spirit Sensual Men that have not the Spirit are the notorious Separatists 3. A studious search into and keeping to the holy Gospel wherein we are taught as the way to Union 1. A setting up or rather acknowledgment of God as in all and above all 1 Cor. 3. 2. An Imitation of Jesus Christ Phil. 2.5 in Humbleness of Mind and Condescention 3. Unity of Mind in the Lord Phil. 4.2 1 Cor. 1.10 not contentious striving in Parties as if Christ were divided 4. By Charity which suffereth long is kind envieth not vaunteth not it self is not pussed up seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh none Evil rejoyceth not in Iniquity but rejoyceth in the Truth By these Divine Effects and Properties of Charity we may lay our Divisions upon the Head of Uncharitableness Charity keeps all together as in a Bond of Perfectness Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly Love in Honour preferring one another Rom. 12.10 Rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and weep with them that weep ver 15. 1 Cor. 12.25 26. 5. By Self-denial This is the individual Property and Effect of true Faith and Love and by Consequence the necessary Qualification of a Disciple By this we seek God's Glory and not our own pray that God's Kingdom may come and his Will be done as if we had no Interest nor Concernment in this World but the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom nor Work to do but to do his Will Except we deny our selves we cannot condescend not seek the good of all but please our selves we cannot have a Care of one another as of our selves we shall not seek the things that be of Christ but our own This Factious this Schimatical Self must be denied or we can never be healed nor grow in one 6. If we would unite we must not aggravate Divisions nor multiply Schisms in our own Fancies Opinions and uncharitable Affections looking upon diversity of Opinions as hideous Errors upon Errors as damnable judging others as Deceivers and deceived and admiring our selves as if priviledged with a little Infallibility censuring our Brethren reviling reproaching suppressing and persecuting of them Our Union lies in a Point it is in the Head And they were counted Schismaticks who separated from the Catholick Church by Cyprian ad magnum c. August c. in the Essentials of Christianity of Faith and Worship and in Amen as the Sum of our Prayers An so Schism pernitious Schism lies in a narrower Compass than most Men I will not say would have it but than most do lay it in Schism is a Breach of Union but then it is a Breach of that Union which ought to be among Christians from the Nature and Laws of Christianity But according to some the weaker side is always the Schismatical And so I come to the last Head to shew wherein Schism lies or what Schism is It hath many Branches and Degrees but I 'll take the most authentick Notion of it from the prime Doctors and Fathers of the Church of England by which I dare say our Protestant Dissenters will be tried and judged Hear the Canon and let it be the Reed to measure our Schism by we may stand to their Rule who made our Canons Anno 1603. Can. ix The Title is Authors of Schisms in the Church of England censured Whosoever shall hereafter separate themselves from the Communion of Saints as it is approved by the Apostles Rules in the Church of England and combine themselves together in a new Brotherhood accounting the Christians who are conformable to the Doctrine Government Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England to be prophane and unmeet for them to joyn with in Christian Profession let them be excommunicated and not restored but by the Arch-bishop after their Repentance and publick Revocation of such their wicked Errors Here 's the Nature of eulpable Separation opened 1. It is a Separation from the Communion of Saints 2. Communion of Sains approved by the Apostles Rules 3. Combination in a new Brotherhood 4. The Reason of such Separation and Combination accounting the Christians who are conformable c. to be profane and unmeet for them to joyn with in Christian Profession The Nonconformists both of Denominations Presbyterian and Congregational do declare 1. That they believe and hold Communion of Saints 2. That the Apostle's Rules are the Rules of that Communion 3. That conforming Ministers and Christians are true Churches a true and excellent part of the Catholick Church 4. That they separate not from any Christians because they are or that are Christians conformable to the Doctrine c. There is not a conformable Christian in England or in the whole World but they that are sincere Christians among them do and must hold Communion with them in the Christian Profession The Reason of their Combinations is because of some Injunctions required of them alien from the Apostles Rules as we are Christians and keep to the Apostles Rules they do not judg us to be unmeet for Christian Profession with them As this is clear from the declared Doctrines of the Nonconformists so it is clear in the Practice of many of them as more than my self can testify who have had of them communicate in Prayer Preaching and Sacraments with us There may be some who ignorantly weakly and passionately upon Prejudice and Unacquaintance may be too far estranged from us but as many of these as are Christians dare not withdraw from Christian-Communion with us or judg us unmeet for Christian Profession with them these are to be pittied and rectified but if they believe with the Heart and confess with the Mouth Jesus Christ the Schism is verbal and oral but not fundamental and in the Heart A Man may be shy of another Man's Company through Unacquaintance and Suspition but if he will not keep the same Pace or the same Track in the way to Heaven I 'll own him for a Fellow-Traveller if I see him go on in the beaten Path of Christianity tho not hand in hand with me If he suspect me for a Robber I 'll assure him of my Honesty if I can that we have the Comfort of good Company There are not so many that declare themselves bound for Heaven that I must cut off them that do because we have some Jars and Disputations upon our Journey Let us learn Moderation from the highest Fathers of the Church in their days and learn this Canonical Notion of a Schismatick A Schismatick from the Church is He that separates from the Communion of Saints according to the Apostles Rules as from Christians unmeet for Christian Profession because they conform i. e. as from no Christians but prophane because they conform to the Doctrine Government and Ceremonies of the Church of England
K. CHARLES I. ΕΙΚ. ΒΑΣΙΛ 27. To the Prince of Wales BEware of exasperating any Factions by the Crossness and Asperity of some Mens Passions Humours and private Opinions imployed by you grounded only upon Differences in lesser Matters which are but the Skirts and Suburbs of Religion Wherein a charitable Connivance and Christian Toleration often dissipates their Strength whom rougher Opposition fortifies THE Conformist's Third Plea FOR THE Nonconformists Argued from the King's Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs Grounded upon the approved Doctrine AND Confirmed by the Authorities of many Eminent Fathers and Writers of the Church of England By the Author of the two former PLEAS Lord Bishop of Cork's Protestant Peace-maker Pag. 128. To these who ask What need of more Vnion I return What need of more Holiness What need of Godliness Charity Justice Are these Christian Duties and is not Vnion and Peace as much so I am and must be in the mind that the Strength of the Protestant Cause both here at home and throughout Christendom lies in the Vnion of Protestants and the Glory Purity and Fower of Christianity in this World stands or falls with Protestantism LONDON Printed by J. D. for Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXII A PREFACE to the Christian and Peaceable Reader that seeks the things that be of Christ A Zeal for Peace and Vnion hath overcome all Discouragements arising from many Causes and inspired me to a Boldness prevailing against much Fear even to publish the secret Workings of my Heart As long as the Church dare shew her Face my Notions are not afraid of the Light they can receive no Luster from my Name let them go forth in that Light and Power which the Father of Lights and the God of Peace hath given and shall give unto them and if they may but give any Light to discover the way of Peace let me not only ly in Obscurity which I love because fittest for me but be disgraced by them who speak all manner of Evil of me If I have not forsaken and betrayed the Truth I have not forsaken nor betrayed the Church and when you come to see the Weapons which I handle and the Leaders and Authorities which I follow in the following Treatise as well as the Cause for which I plead I hope you will be convinced that as far as I have pleaded for the Nonconformist Brethren I have not run from my Colours There is common Truth a large and spacious ground to take them in and to build up one and the same Fabrick upon it comfortable to all true Christians receptive of all the Family of God and impregnable against all their and our Enemies It is some Relief and Comfort to see many lift up their Feet i. e. come and view the Desolations of the Church of Christ among us to be affected with them and some in whom is an excellent Spirit are contriving to bring the separate Apartments under one Roof and within one Line and Wall And these do stand upon the Rock of Evangelical Principles when not supported by the Arm of Flesh But no sooner do Arbitrators move for a Reconciliation but others do all they can to thrust them from them without respect to their Persons or due Reverence to Truth and Reason He that interposeth in this Difference doth at the Peril of Opposition The R. Rev. Author of the first Naked Truth hath found this true though his Quality and Person were more than guest at yet the Episcopal Staff could not bear off the Lashes of several Junior Writers from the Back of Naked Truth But Truth be it never so naked can bear Blows and Lashes as it hath always born the Violence of Storms and Times Truth cannot long be confined within Doors but will appear in open view whatever its Entertainment be whether Scorns Contradictions Laughter and Mockery Abuses and Scourgings or Approbation and Honour The Appearance of such a Book as that Naked Truth at such a time was like a Comet it drew the Eyes of all that could to look upon it it was a Divine Manifestation of a Primitive Christian-Spirit of Love And certainly as that pious Endeavour hath encreased his Comforts so he hath not lost all his Labour for since that we have had more Overtures of Peace than we heard of in the many Years of Discord and Troubles from the Learned in the Church of England The Nonconformists have born all the Blame and Scorn and Sufferings of our Divisions and have offered as much towards Peace and Accommodation as was possible for them to offer But partly their Writings and the doleful State of Religion have drawn out some Wishes and Concessions from some Men of Eminency in the Church towards Peace and Accommodation And tho these as yet seem too little yet there is much to be gathered from them first as to their Propensity to Peace 2. The Influence which their Concessions may have upon austerer Tempers 3. Because they being satisfied in the Point of Conformity as to their own Practice do yet for a greater Good and Peace incline to a Comprimise The Learned Dean of St. Paul's hath with submission to Authority made some Proposals and I hope would yield to more if the Composure were put into his hand Even Dr. Sherlock who is currantly thought to have writen the Defence of Dr. Stillingfleet Pag. 103. doth wish with all his Heart that some Expressions were altered to prevent any Scandal to the scrupulous or to the profane this he writes only for the Office of Burial of the Dead which he calls an excellent Office supposing the due Exercise of Church-Discipline to cast all notorious Sinners and Schismaticks out of the Communion of the Church which the Church supposeth to be done I am of his Mind Pag. 102. concerning the Excellency of that Office It is most comfortable to the Minister and most Comfort to all true Christians when we can use it upon good Evidences concerning the Dead But as the visiting of the Sick hath been too often to me the most uncomfortable Office of my Ministry so it hath been a great Addition of Sorrow to commit those Bodies to the Earth concerning whom I had no hope of their resting in Christ O what dejecting Stories could I write of too many but I forbear If he be so sensible of the ill use which may be made of that excellent Office and do so heartily wish that some Expressions were altered to prevent Scandal to the scrupulous and prophane methinks for the same Reasons he might wish more Alterations might be made in other things and Offices Most frank and generous are those Expressions of the Right Reverend and Pious Bishop of Cork Protestan-Peacemaker p. 29. We are ready to sacrifice all we can otherwise i.e. without Schism to the publick Peace and Safety what most of the Dissenters would be at no Liturgy no Episcopacy no Vniformity may not be cannot be without
these Passages to inform those who seem not to know or remember these things Yet I cannot go on without leaving some Animadversions and Remarks upon them 1. We might have seen the disagreeing Parties running into an Union under the King as their supream lawful Head and Governour The reputed Presbyterian comprehending a great powerful considerate substantial part of the Kingdom most close and deliberate in Counsel active in Endeavours fervent in Prayer with their Ministers for the Restauration of the King and the ancient Government watching all Opportunities and using all means to engage General Monk and his well disciplined and most Presbyterian part of the Army to declare for the restoring the secluded Members in order to a free Parliament and that in order to bring back the King The most eminent of the Royal Party declaring a Reconcilableness and Oblivion of all Sufferings acknowledging the Hand of God in them all And the King to compleat and perfect all by laying a Top-stone as well as the Foundation of the Temple of Peace gathers all Parties into himself some by Comprehension in a wider Constitution others by a safe indulgent Toleration which if granted had been desired by the least and most inconsiderable part of the Nation for the Dissenters had been fewer than now they are because abundance had been taken into the proposed Settlement The Sects have much encreased since that time of Papists if not other Denominations The King and his wise Council had a perfect full view of all Interests and did weigh out proper Preparatives for an healing Effect 2. It is a Shame and Grief to think that a divided Nation can be sooner composed and settled than a broken divided Church who have besides the Motives and Principles of Nature the most gracious Reconciler for their Law-giver the most perfect Laws of Love the most indulgent Government under the strict and indispensible Duty of Self-denial opposite to Self-seeking and should have the least Consideration and Regard of a wordly Interest because They that are of Christ they are not of this World and having nothing to do but to promote enlarge and build up Christ's Kingdom upon Earth and for all their Self-denial Services and Sufferings have the Promises of Eternal Life an everlasting Kingdom and Thrones in it It is a most afflicting Meditation that Church-Divisions are most difficultly healed What an humbling Thought is this that a temporal Interest divides wordly Men in whom Self prevails and yet worldly Men can unite under general Common Laws because it is their Interest to unite and yet they who of all Men are under the greatest Obligations to unite that declare they are not of this World that teach the way of Peace to others cannot find it themselves But it is not Religion and Light that divide but it is Darkness and the Spirit of this World If to us to live were Christ then Christian Faith and Love would make us more heavenly and by Consequence more united Popery could never have that Compass to work our Ruine in had we agreed as we should have done Pardon this Excursion I 'll return The Church is rent from the Top to the Bottom the King surveys it and hath a Proposal in his Mind which will not only repair the Breaches but propagate Religion as he often said he seems to be fond of it he speaks so often of it It was meditated and formed in his Royal Mind while he was in Breda that it may not be thought an hasty and immature Production he gives it full time and cherisheth it And what is it but his Declaration about Ecclesiastical Affairs It was beheld as the most Royal Issue of an happy Mind as the First-born of Church-Peace after the most affectionate Conjunction of a most well-come King to a Kingdom that longed for him Observe 1. He offers himself as an Umpire and Reconciler 2. He declares to his great Satisfaction and Comfort that while he was in Holland he found the principal Assertors of the Presbyterian Opinion full of Affection to him Zeal for the Peace of the Church and State neither Enemies to Episcopacy nor Liturgy but modestly desiring Alterations without shaking Foundations and to the same purpose over again pag. 8. 3. He thinks himself to be competent to make his Proposal and determine many things in difference as above-said and pag. 4. of the Declaration 4. He expressed some great Considence in the Bishops We have not the least doubt but that the present Bishops will think the present Concessions made by us to allay the present Distempers very just and reasonable and will very chearfully conform themselves thereto pag. 10. 5. He conjured all his loving Subjects to acquiesce in and submit to that his Declaration concerning those Differences pag. 18 19. 3dly You have read the King's Character of the Reforming Divines so I 'll call them rather than Presbyterian and they made it good they strictly followed the Orders in the King's Commission made their Exceptions which they were impowered to do explained and shewed the Reasonableness of them when answered they replied when called to dispute they disputed and when they saw all was but dashing against a Wall they petition for Peace both the King and Bishops Now to all them that speak slightly or scornfully These Men these kind of Men as if they were some Monsters rolling in a troubled Sea and not suffering the Ark of Christ's Church to rest here is some account if not Satisfaction given But after our great hopes of Church-Peace and Union what followed but a dismal Breach a Wound that lies a bleeding and they upon whom the Pinacles of the Temple fell and bruised and crushed are now instead of a cleanly Hospital to live in threatned with Bridewel and Prisons and with that dreadful Sentence of Abjuration And Christian Reader if you do as I do here Grief doth make you stop That any Magistrate that hath taken the Sacrament to prove himself a Protestant dare menace or admonish any Christian Minister to do what he cannot do or forswear his native Country And wo be to England when a Minister of Christ successful in his Work not imaginary but real shall be carried to the Sea-side and swear he will never return to his Native Country and that such Ministers shall not have as much as a mean House or Barn to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in But who made the Breach who hindred the hopeful Closure self-willed obstinate Nonconformists The Nonconformity to the Law of Love Peace Meekness Forbearance hath done the Mischief The King's Declaration would have done what the Act of Uniformity could not do but we may look and find the first Cause to lie between them both To lay this open compare but some words in the King's Commission with some of the Answers of the Anti-reforming Commissioners and then judg impartially The King according to his Declaration gave his Commission to an equal number of Divines of both
Agreeable with this is that Description of Schism given us by that clear and very learned Dr. Barnaby Potter Answer to Charity mistaken Sect. 3. p. 76. Whosoever professes himself to forsake the Communion of any one Member of the Body of Christ must confess himself consequently to forsake the whole And therefore her Communion we forsake not no more than the Body of Christ whereof we acknowledg the Church of Rome a Member tho corrupted And this clears us from the Imputation of Schism whose Property it is witness the Donatists and Luciferians to cut off from the Body of Christ and the hope of Salvation the Church from which it separates I must confess when the Jusuit-Knot frames an Argument from this Description of Schism the Rational Mr. Chillingworth denies the Syllogism saying it is all one as to prove that because a Man hath a Feaver therefore he hath the Plague and makes this to be but one Property of a Schism But be it so if this be a Vindication of the Protestants from being Schismaticks because of our Separation from Rome it will as clearly vindicate our Protestant Nonconformists from the charge of Schism from the Established Church for they do not cut off from the Body of Christ and hope of Salvation the Church of England Indeed the Separation with which they are charged is not from it as from a Church but as Separation in a Church fundamentally and essentially the same but differing in Accidents and Modes which must needs be the lowest kind of Difference and not comparable to that in Corinth which our Famous Dr. Rainolds De Lib. Apocryphis Praelect 1. calls only Schisma nascens for the Conformists and Nonconformists are all one in Christ none of the Nonconformists have been ever heard to divide and cry I am of Paul and I am of Apollo c. Our imposed Accidents are the dividing things among us And certainly if the Nonconformists do sin grievously in refusing Communion with us in them agreeing in all the Parts of Christian Catholick Communion with us It will be a remarkable Act of Charity and Goodness in our Governours to deliver them from so great a Sin by reducing the fore-quoted Doctrine of our Church in the Homily of Fasting into Practice for those be the things at which they stumble it will be a Charity to take them out of the way Or if they will not remove them then I 'll conclude it is hard to call them Schismaticks who are all one with us as far as we are all one with all Reformed and Christian Churches remembring the Words of the Learned Dr. Stillingfleet Pag. 359. in his Defence of Arch-bishop Land Before the imposing Humor came into particular Churches Schism was defined by the Fathers and others to be a voluntary Departure out of the Church yet that cannot in Reason be understood of any particular but the true Catholick Church FINIS ERRATA PAge 1. line 10. dele to me P. 4. l. 22 after c. add which P. 5. l. 21. after Bishops add 3 and dele And P. 8. l. 32. del that P. 9. l. 16. del only l. 37. r. Church-Order Ib. 1. for P. 10. r. of the National c. P. 11. l. 18. after Country add they are unfit P. 15. l. 4. r. 1660. P. 24. l 40. for they r. we P. 16. l. 4. r. dispositive l. 29. r. Anti-reforming P. 31. Marg. r. are for is P. 39. l. 40. r. is P. 40. l. 15. r. Preachers P. 57. l. 10. after Order add 2. The Preface and some other Sheets the Author did not revise therefore the Printer desires the Reader to correct or pardon what Errata he finds therein