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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

●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 the Venerable Mr. Hales improved such Notions and Arguments as are destructive to the Government and Peace of the Church of England it is not strange that Men of little Learning and great Prejudices should assume them whereby as far as they are able to justifie their Schismatical practices nor that the Scepticke of this Age should be fond of such Notions as may tend to the Subversion of what hath been so long and so well established among us We may rather wonder how so Villanous a Pamphlet as the Rehersal calls it yet so obnoxious to just exceptions should have continued so long in Vogue without a Confutation from some more Learned Hand that the Infection of it might proceed no farther but its weakness be made manifest to all Men. As for Doctor Parker he hath no less judiciously and successfully acquitted Himself against any thing objected by Master Hales or Marvel than Master Hooker To instance in that one particular of pretending Scruples of Conscience against the Commands of Publick Authority he faith more in One Page than all the Objectors will be able to Answer Though this pretence saith he might be allowed of in the Dayes of Queen Elizabeth when it was first started yet after so long time and so much enquiry it is intolerable For if after all their search and examination they have not been able to descry the evils they suspected this is a sufficient Principle of Presumption that their Jealousies are ungrounded so that if they are now able to object any certain crime against them then this Plea of a Doubtful Conscience ceaseth and the Certainty is to be pleaded in stead of the Doubt if not an Hundred and Fifty Years is a sufficient time to satisfie or to cancel scruples And a scrupulous Conscience is of a modest yielding and plyable temper as arising from a diffidence and distrust of it self And Doubts and Scruples are rarely imployed but upon trifling and inconsiderable matters the material parts of Duty being too plain and easie to be liable to so much uncertainty And therefore obedience to Authority being one of the greatest and most indispensable Duties of Mankind in that it is so absolutely necessary to their well being and injoyned upon them by the most Positive Precepts and severest Penalties of the Gospel Nor is it fit that in Doubtful cases of a Publick concern Men should talk too peremptorily of their private Perswasions because they are incompetent Judges of the Publick good and therefore are to be determined and over-ruled by the Judgment of those to whose care the management of Publick Affairs is intrusted unless in case of certain and unquestionable Disobedience to the Law of GOD For we are no otherway free from the Supreme Authority on Earth but as we are subject to a Superior in Heaven AN EXAMINATION OF Mr. HALES's TREATISE of SCHISM Q. WHat is the benefit of Communion Answ Communion is the strength and ground of all society Sacred and Civil whoever therefore causeth a breach if in civil occasions is guilty of Sedition or Rebellion if in Ecclesiastical differences is guilty of Schism so that Schism is an Ecclesiastical Sedition as Sedition is a Lay-schisme p. 193. Q. What is the definition of Schism Answ Schisme is an unnecessary separation of Christians from that part of the visible Church of which they were once Members Q. When is Separation necessary Answ Separation is then necessary when nothing will save us from the guilt of Conscience but open separation p. 195. Q. When is Schisme complete Answ These two things make Schism complete First The choice of a Bishop in opposition to the former 2ly The erecting a new Church and Oratory for the dividing Party to meet in publickly As in the late famous controversie in Holland de Praedestinatione as long as the disagreeing Parties went no further than disputes the Schisme was unhatched but as soon as one Party swept an old Cloyster and by a pretty Art suddenly made it a Church by putting a new Pulpit in it for the separating Party to meet in what before was a Controversie became a formal Schisme p. 197. Q. What is the danger of Schism Answ What the Ancients spake by way of censure of Schisme in general is most true and they spake most strange things of it for they saw that unadvisedly and upon fancy to break the knot of union betwixt man and man especially among Christians upon whom the tye of love and communion doth especially rest was a crime hardly pardonable and that nothing absolves a Man from the guilt of it but true and unpretended Conscience And p. 192. Heresie and Schisme are things of great moment the one offending against Truth the other against Charity and both are deadly Q. Was the Schisme of the Donatists any way excusable Answ No they were compleat Schismaticks upon the grounds before mentioned nor was there any necessary cause for their Separation for the occasion of the Schisme was an Opinion that where good and bad were mixed there could be no Church by reason of pollution evaporating as it were from sinners which blasted the righteous and made all unclean whereas in his Congregations he pretended that wicked persons found no shelter p. 206. Q. How was this Schisme of the Donatists refuted Answ By this one maxime of Saint Augustine which was irrefragably asserted Unitatem Ecclesiae per totum orbem dispersae propter nonnullorum peccata non esse deserendam That the unity of the Catholick Church is not to be forsaken for the sins of some that are within it p. 206. Q. Though in this Schism the Donatist was the Schismatick yet might not any one communicate with them if occasion so required if so be they did not flatter them in their Schisme for why might it not be lawful to go to Church with the Donatist if occasion so required since neither Nature nor Religion suggest the contrary why may I not be present at such publick Meetings as pretend Holiness so there be nothing done but what true Devotion and Piety brook Yea why may I not go to an Arian Church if occasion require so there be no Arianism expressed in the Liturgy Answ 1. You may not communicate with such because of the danger of Schisme before mentioned 2ly Because it is not lawful no not for prayer hearing conference or any other religious office whatsoever for People to Assemble otherwise than by publick order is allowed for why should Men desire to do that suspiciously in private which may be performed warrantably in publick p. 229 230. Q. But what if they to whose care the execution of the publick service is committed do some things unseemly suspicious or unlawful if their Garments be censured as or 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 are not well

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