necessary warnings nor Faithful Ministers let fall their Ministrations in the foresaid Cases on pretence of preserving unity or preventing Schism in the Church 2. Secondly it is another just ground to break off from them if they make unrighteous usurpations and incroachments the Terms and condition of their Communion Both Bishops and Churches may turn Tyrannical and Arrogant Usurpers upon their Brethrens Liberties not admitting their own Members to their Communion without acknowledging and submitting to their unjustly and illegally assumed powers nor other Churches unless they will give up their own rights and freedoms and become their Subjects And when they will allow Communion to none unless they are content to purchase it at such rates good Christians may pass them by and unite themselves to other Churches where they will be more justly and fairly dealt with The Communion of Christians is a Commuuion of Brethren upon Brotherly terms not of Captives who must submit to any terms or bear what hardships and incroachments are put upon them by their Conquerors They are not bound to purchase unity by enslaving of themselves or any brethrens communion by receiving their yoke and giving up their own rights and liberties as the Church of Rome demands all other Churches both of the East and West should do to purchase hers And thus St. Paul declares he would not give up their liberties when false brethren turn'd invaders thereof viz. the Judaizers in their pressing the Circumcision of Titus to whom he gave place by subjection no not for an hour when they sought to bring them into bondage Gal. 2. 4 5. CHAP. IV. Heresy a just Ground to break off Communion THe last ground which I shall mention of breaking off or of being set loose from the Communion either of Bishops or Churches is though none of the foresaid obstacles can be pleaded against the Terms of their Communion if yet 3. Thirdly Heresy can be justly objected to their persons and Doctrines Church Members are not bound to keep dependant on the persons of their Bishops nor one Church to keep Communion with other Churches if once they defect from the true worship and Doctrine of Christ. This worship and Doctrine are the Ground and Foundation of Christian Society and unity The Church is a Body of Men Associated for them And must be one Society by keeping united under their Bishops or Associated with other Churches in them They must keep one in standing together upon this bottom not in going off or departing from it For clearing these matters it is to be observed that our Saviours first end in coming into the world was to publish a Religion I am come a light into the world saith he of himself Jo. 12. 46. I must Preach the Gospel for therefore am I sent Luk. 4. 43. On this account he calls himself the Way the Truth and the Life Joh. 14. 6. And tells Pilate that for this end was he born and for this cause came he into the world that he should bear witness unto the Truth Joh. 18. 37. And this Truth or Religion lyes in his Doctrine of worship faith and Practice Or in his Teaching all his Disciples what way they are to worship God what they are to believe concerning him or other things which concern their Eternal Salvation and what they are to do for him Now this Doctrine was like to be most advantageously profess'd and this Worship to be best paid if it were not left to single persons or to scatter'd Families to do it separately by themselves But had its several professors incorporated into one Regular society and united body for the joynt profession and performance thereof Such Regular society would hold it out by more orderly and effectual Ministration and keep men to it by the Authority of Discipline and be a common help and spur to excite and aid each other mutually and carry them on and a cover and shelter to back embolden them therein A Regular Society or Church incorporated for the Profession thereof St. Paul says is a Pillar and Ground or Stay to publish and support it Accordingly when Religion was left to be born out by smaller societies and sometime even by single families as in the Patriarchical Age we see it was sometimes almost lost and always made a very small progress But when a whole Nation was incorporated into one Church for the profession and payment of it as it was among the Jews it spread further in power and influence and gain'd more proselytes And lastly when all Nations as fast as they turn'd Christians were embodyed in one society for the same intent as a Light set upon a candlâ—stick or as a City placed on a hill it desplayed its force far and near and strengthen'd incomparably more hearts in it and drew more eyes after it And therefore our Lord intended and ordered in the next place that all who embraced this Religion should incorporate or unite together in one Church or Society for the Profession of it Accordingly he has made baptism wherein every professor takes upon him this Religion to incorporate him or enter him a member of this Church Baptism as St. Paul notes uniteing us all in one body and as many as are baptized into Christ are all one in Christ Jesus And requires of every professor of this Religion that he Keep on professing it in the unity of this Church And that all of his Religion pay this worship and profess this Doctrine not separately by themselves but socially in joynt Communion with others So that all who come to embrace the Christian Religion must perform the worship and profession thereof in Christian Society or in the Unity and Communion of Christs Holy Catholick Church But we are first to be all of this Religion and then to profess and perform it in the Unity and Communion of this Church The Doctrine and Worship I say which makes us Christians are the Foundation of that Society and Unity which is to be upheld in the Christian Church Thus on Peters Confession our Lord declares he would build his Church Mat. 16. 16 18. And the Uniteing of Christians into one Temple St. Paul says is by their being built on the Apostles and prophets i. e. On their Doctrines about worship faith and practice Eph. 2. 20. 21. And when our Saviour prays so earnestly ly for the Unity of his Church at what time he was about to leave it he limits it to this that they may be kept one in Gods Name Joh. 17. 11 and calls the Gathering or Uniteing together of Christians in Congregations wherein he will be in the midst of them their gathering together in his Name Mat. 18. 20. In his Name that is in his Doctrine or Profession of Faith and Worship Name with relation to Masters and Teachers being usually put for Doctrine As to bear my Name before the Gentiles is to bear my Doctrine Act. 9. 16. and teaching in
Review from Rome or at Rome for all Matters Ecclesiastical and Temporal Ecclesiastical by his Bishops Temporal by his Judges says Bishop Bramhall So that the Legal Supremacy of our Kings in spiritual Matters lyes in their power of doing them all without any Interposition of Forreign Bishops who are none of their Subjects by their own Bishops and Clergy whom they can command and compel to do their duties therein as their civil Soveraigns And this way the civil Soveraignty doth not drown or swallow up the spiritual powers of Ecclesiasticks but supposes them all the while peculiarly and immediately vested therewith But only retains its own secular power over their Persons as well as others whereby it can oblige them to a due discharge of their sacred powers according to the Rules of their spiritual Functions as occasion requires It lyes moreover 2. Secondly In the Subordination of Ecclesiastical Courts and Causes wherein Ecclesiasticks are content to act subordinately on the score of their secular mixtures and jurisdictions as in Beneficiary Matters Censures and other things of that Cognizance To give more leisure and encouragement to the Ministers of Religion in attending their spiritual Administrations the civil State has endowed their spiritual Cures with temporal Benefices or Preferments And to beget a greater Regard and a more general and aweful Observance of Ecclesiastical Determinations the civil power as I before observed is annexed and mingled with the spiritual in these Causes and a Concurrence is therein made of Temporal and Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions The Matters cognizable there are not only mere spiritual but some of them of a temporal Nature Such are all Causes Testamentary or about Wills the Causes of Matrimony and Divorces and those about Right of Tythes Oblations and Obventions the Knowledge whereof by the goodness of Princes of this Realm says the Statute for Restraint of Appeals and by the Laws and Customs of the same appertaineth to the spiritual Jurisdiction of this Realm And the Canons and Rubricks which are to rule all Proceedings are not only the Prescriptions of Bishops and Priests but Royal and civil Injunctions Like as also the Antient Canons were by the piety of the Primitive Emperors We decree that the holy Ecclesiastical Canons either those passed in the four General Councils or those confirmed by them be in place of Laws says the Emperor Justinian Our own Laws will have the Divine Canons not to be of less force or effect than Laws and what the sacred Canons forbid that also do our Laws coerce and abolish says the Code And as it was in the case of those Antient Canons under those Emperors so in case of ours too under our Kings the Judgments and Sentences upon them rest not in mere spiritual but draw on temporal Effects and Incapacites which effect the Sufferers in their Persons and Estates as well as in their spiritual Concerns As subjecting them to a Writ of Imprisonment rendring them uncapable to commence or carry on a Suit at Law or the like Now for the favour of this State-Concurrence in all these Causes that under the Union of two such different Powers there may be no clashing the Church submits to act in subordination and the King in all these Causes and mixt Jurisdictions is supreme That is no Synod of Ecclesiasticks is to meet for making Canons or Constitutions but when by his Writ he convenes them Nor are any Agreements of theirs when assembled to be publish'd as Canons or Ordinances till he approves or ratifies them Nor any of those introduced formerly to be executed and put in use further than they consist with the Kings prerogative Royal and with the Laws Customs and Statutes of the Realm All which are provided for in the Statute of Submission And when Canons are thus made by his Ratification it submits also that in certain Cases which are declared by other Acts they may be relaxed by his Royal Dispensation and that as in making Canons so also in granting Dispensations from them he shall be supreme That no Persons shall be elected Bishops of beneficed and temporally endowed Churches but who have the Kings Letters missive as is provided in another Statute or who are of his Nomination That when Ecclesiasticks sit to judge in their Courts by those Laws all their Proceedings in that Judicature shall be subject to the Kings Prohibition to stop their further hearing of a Cause which by Allowance or Custom is of another Cognizance or to his Commission of Review upon Appeals made to him after they have given sentence So that in these Courts there is a subjection and subordination to the King both as to the Laws they proceed by which are the Kings Laws as not passing or being introduced without his Approbation or Sufferance and as to the Judgments there passed according to them And because of this subordination of the Bishops and Clergy in their pure spiritual Jurisdictions for the Civil Soveraigns addition of such Temporal or State Concurrence the King is declared supream in all these Causes Thus much is declared in the Passages already mention'd from the Statutes settling the Kings supremacy And thus 't is said in another Statute of the Review of the Institution of a Christian Man that King Henry 8th set it forth as supream Head of the Church of England because he call'd the Convocation together to frame and publish â—â— by his Consent And thus in his Declaration prefix'd to the 39 Articles of Religion King Charles the First sets forth his supremacy over the Church by this subordination of the Church-men and because in making any Canons or Constitutions they must have his License for their Assembling and their Orders and Agreements confirmed by his Approbation and executed all with subordination to the Laws and Customs of the Land for preservation whereof they are subject to the Temporal Prohibition And in respect of both these parts of civil power viz Both in having this civil command of spiritual persons and this civil power over spiritual causes by reason of such secular mixtures it lyes moreover in having the same 3. Thirdly in opposition and bar of all other earthly dependance especially of all Foreign jurisdiction and appeals He is the one Supream Head of all both Spiritual and Temporal next under God saith the Statute for Restraint of Appeals And the claim of Supremacy in the Queens injunctions is so as no other Foreign Power shall or ought to have any Superiority over them And the Thirty Seventh Article of Religion the first of King James the Firsts Canons and especially the Oath of Supremacy doth most fully disclaim and exclude all Foreign jurisdiction herein And the extending of the Kings Power of Judicature over all Persons Ecclesiasticks as well as others thereby is for excluding all Foreign Powers from being Judges in our Kings Dominions as we heard from King James's Apology for the Oath of Allegiance The Foreign jurisdiction and
to spiritual Powers and to the Work of the Ministry in their own Churches For Ordination as well as Baptism is not only in respect to the Church of such a Place but to Christ's Church at large Limitations there are as to the Exercise of these Powers as may make for the preservation of Order and Union And in care of Unity and Peace Bishops and Priests of any Church must observe these in acting Episcopally or Sacerdotally whilst they converse in other Churches But having any where received a Lawful and Canonical Ordination they are to be owned as Ministers of Christ wheresoever they come and need no more to be Ordained than other Members need to be baeptised over again So that they are Schismaticks and break this Unity of the Body appointed to be kept up between all particular Churches and their Members who reject the Members or Canonical Ministers of any other Orthodox Churches As they do who Unchurch them or deny Communion to their Members unless they will submit to unrighteous Claims and Usurpations or joyn in unlawful Worship or erroneous Doctrines or who reject their Lawful and Canonical Ministers unless they will receive new Orders which are so many Breaches of that Brotherhood which Christ has Ordained among Churches and are the making of a Schism in the Catholick Church 2. All Orthodox Bishops and Churches are to refuse each others Schismaticks and Excommunicates as if they were their own Schismaticks or Excommunicates And upon their Reconciliation and Re-union to their own Churches to let them in and receive them again as if they had been immediately reconciled and re-united to themselves Which ways of mutually receiving or rejecting of priviledging or debarring Members make that Unity of Discipline which by Order of Christ and according to the Sense and Belief of the Primitive Fathers is one great way of compacting the vast number of Christian Societies into one Body or of keeping up the Unity of Christs Church All we Christians are incorporated or made one Body says Tertullian as by the Belief of the same Religion and the Covenant of Hope so by the Unity of Discipline And when any one Bishop or Church has done any thing We are all thought to have done the same by appearing associated and united in the same consent of consure and discipline say the Clergy of Rome to St. Cyprian 1. They are to refuse each others Schismaticks as if they were their own Schismaticks For as the holding on civil Communion with Traytors is judged Treason So is holding on spiritual Communion with Schismaticks judged Schism They must take part and keep one with the Church And so whilst the Breach lasts must disclaim and keep off from those separate Members who stand divided and broke off from it avoiding those that cause Divisions as St. Paul orders Rom. 16. 17. Accordingly St. Basil lets the Neocaesareans know when they seemed about to break and divide from him and from his Church of Caesarea that if any avoided or broke off from his Communion they would be broke off withal from the Universal Church which held Communion with him We ought not to have Communion in Prayers with any Heretick or Schismatick says the Council of Laodicea Nor ought they who are not of the Assemblies of one Church to be received or allowed to assemble in another Church says the Council of Antioch If he who is not to be received in one Church be received without commendatory Letters in another let both him who is Received and his Receivers be excommunicated say the Apostolical Canons Whosoever says St. Cyprian speaking of the Schism of Felicissimus who had schismatically broken off and divided from himself shall joyn himself to his Conspiracy and Faction may know that he can no longer communicate with us in the Church since he thereby voluntarily chuses rather to separate himself from the Church 2. They are to refuse each others Excommunicates as if they were their own Excommunicates For whatsoever is this way regularly bound in Earth our Lord declares shall be ratified or stand bound in Heaven Mat. 18. 18. Jo. 20 23. And if it is confirmed in Heaven it must stand good and not be thwarted or reversed by any of his Followers here on Earth When the Members among any Societies of Christians for their disorderly walking and not hearing of the Church are cast out thereof they are thrown not only out of the Church of that place but out of Christ's Church at large whereof all other Churches are Members or out of all Christian Churches into the state of Heathens and Publicans as our Lord says Mat. 18. 17. Accordingly Synesius Bishop of Ptolemais in his sentence of Excommunication denounced against Andronicus and Thoas and their Complices says Let no Temple of God be open to them but let every Religious Place or Chappel be shut against them And St. Basil bids the Neocaesareans take heed how they break communion with him because after once he should exclude them no other Catholick Churches which all owned him and held communion with him would any longer own or communicate with them Till they are regularly absolved and reconciled again all other Bishops and Sister-Churches are bound to refuse and repel such Excommunicates as they come to their knowledge Thus Synesius requires of all Sister-Churches and of all Christians to shun the communion of Andronicus and Thoas and their Adherents And 't is not lawful to communicate with Persons out of communion says the Council of Antioch If any either of Clergy or Laity is excommunicated by his own Bishop let none else receive him to communion till his own Bishop has received him again or a Synod has cleared him say the FATHERS of that Council again And concerning those either of the Clergy or Laity who are excluded from communion by the Bishops which are in every Province let the Sentence be valid according to the Canon which decrees That they who are cast out by some shall not be admitted by others says the Great Council of Nice Thus when any Persons or Churches are schismatically or by means of just Censure and Penalty out of Communion with one Orthodox Church by the Rules of Catholick Communion and Accord among Churches according to the mind of Christ and of the Primitive Church ought they to be out of the communion of all Orthodox Churches And if any either Christians or Churches will still hold on communion with such Persons by the foresaid Rules of Union and the Canons of the Catholick Church they are thereby made like unto them and turn makers of a Schism and are to lose the benefit of Communion themselves If any says Synesius in his Excommunicatory Sentence of Andronicus c. shall contemn our Church as being the Church of a small City receiving those whom it has cast out as if Observance were not due to it by reason of its Poverty Let
faln from them and tyes us up no further to communicate with them 1. First 'T is always a just Ground to break off from them if they make impious or unlawful things the Terms or Conditions of their own Members or of others keeping on communion with them I do not say it is the only Ground having mentioned others but it is always a just Ground thereof And thus it is 1. When they put impiâ—us or unlawful things into their saecred Offices and mix sinful Matters in that Body of Prayers or Administration of Sacraments which they call others to communicate with What Allowances may be made herein for a generally corrupt state of the Church and how far in necessity and want of others good People may be at liberty still to resort to such I shall consider afterwards But such mixture of Sin and Prophanation in what they are called to communicate in I think sets People loose and leaves them no longer bound to them For the Communion which all Christians are obliged to seek in the Catholick Church is the Communion of Saints This Saintship though it be not always in Reality must at least be always in Profession The Persons must all be profest Saints whom we communicate with And the Things and Offices must all be of profess'd Saintship which we are call'd to communicate in And such those publick Offices are not that have any gross Sins or Wickednesses which are all so many Prophanations for the matter of them This Saintship wherein this Communion is to be held lyes more especially in Faith and Worship And where they fail in either of these we are not bound to communion with any Assemblies It is so plainly where they fail in point of Faith For Heresie which is a corruption of Faith will set us loose as I shall shew hereafter from the communion of any Persons or Churches And Corruptions of Worship are to the full not only as offensive but as openly dishonourable to God who is not more aspersed or provoked by a false belief and confession than by a corrupt and wicked worship So that among those whose business in Religious Assemblies is to see God honour'd and to seek that he may be appeas'd any gross Sins made the matter of Worship which are a corruption of Worship will do the same They not only set God's faithful People free to stand off from such corrupt Offices but oblige his faithful Pastors to standâ—up for him and to minister or afford better out of a just sense of the Peoples needs and jealousie for God's Honour as I shew'd before Besides our chief Obligations to unite our selves to any Religious Assemblies is as they are Assemblies for Worship We as so many live Stones are joyn'd together and built into a Spiritual House to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices as St. Peter says 1 Pet. 2. 5. Yea and as they are purely for Worship not partly for worshipping and partly for prophaning God there being Obligation enough on the Servants of God to meet together to see him publickly honoured but none to see him publickly profaned And therefore we are not obliged to make part of such Assemblies as put up sinful Matters and gross Wickedness in their publick Offices For Worship is a Profession of Honour and Reverence But Sin and Wickedness are Professions of Irreverence and Reproach and so are not Worship but Profanations So that the Obligations incumbent on God's Servants to meet there where Offerings are to be made that are for his Honour yea only such as are for his Honour will not bind them but if they can serve him any where else rather forbid them to meet there where these Prophanations are Thus is the Matter of Religious Meetings or the Worship and Service there performed the chief thing that carryes the Obligation to them I say the chief but not the only thing For we are Members of a Church as well as Professors of a Religion and as Christians are incorporated into a Society as well as instructed in a Doctrine And both these bind us to Religious Assemblies For as good Christians we ought to meet there to shew our Adherence to the Church as a Society or our Union to it as Members as well as to put up Prayers to God by JESUS CHRIST or to pay our Religious Worship and Service That is our Christianity obliges us to meet together both to present our Religious Oblations and Acknowledgments to Almighty God and to do it in dependance on our Lawful Pastors or in the Unity of the Church But this Obligation to these Meetings as thereby keeping Union with the Church as a Society is but a Secondary Obligation and that of paying truly Christian and acceptable Worship is the first and chief therein For the end why Christians were formed into a Society was to keep up the Profession and Payment of that Holy Doctrine and Worship which are necessary or peculiar to them as they are a Sect or Religion And the Members are bound to stick to it whilst it stands upon this Doctrine and Worship not when it starts off from it It is the Religion which recommends the Church And we are to chuse our Church or Assemblies for the Religions not our Religion for the Churches sake So that their falling off from pure Christian Worship and Doctrine which are necessary to the Religion to its honouring God or our acceptance by it loosens the bond of Union to any Assemblies and sets Men free to joyn with any others regularly empowered who stick faster to them Agreeably to all this we find Faith and Worship spoke of as the Great Ligaments that are to bind and unite us to any Church Of the Ligament of Faith I shall treat in its proper place And as for Worship which lyes partly in confessions of Faith but more especially in Prayers and Sacraments it is a Ligament too and Prayers and Sacraments are set off as compacting us into one Body or cementing us into one spiritual House Thus of Prayers St. Peter says we are set together as one spiritual House to send up spiritual Sacrifices 1 Pet. 2. 5. And of the Sacraments it is declared that we are all baptized into one Body 1 Cor. 12. 13. and that we are one Body by partaking all of one Bread 1 Cor. 10. 17. and by having been made all to drink into one Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 13. therein referring to the one Loaf whereof we all eat and to the one Cup whereof we all drink in the Holy Eucharist Now as that Faith which is to unite and bind us to any Churches or Assemblies is not any Erroneous or Heretical Tenets as I shall shew anon but the Orthodoâ—c and Right Faith So is that Worship which is to do the same not any sinful and prophane but a truly Christian and Holy Worship or such an Oblation of Prayers and Administration of Sacraments as Christ has instituted and appointed and will not reject and punish but
OF Christian Communion To be kept on In the Unity of Christs Church and among the Professors of Truth and Holiness AND Of the Obligations both of Faithful Pastors to Administer Orthodox and Holy Offices and of Faithful People to Communicate in the same Fitted for Persecuted or Divided or corrupt States of Churches when they are either born down by Secular Persecutions or broken with Schisms or Defiled with Sinful Offices and Ministrations In three Parts Printed Anno Dom. 1693. THE PREFACE Reader 'T IS a sad thing when any Kingdoms are divided about the Payment of their Allegiance and Civil Duties which must needs bereave vast Numbers of the Innocence and more of the Comforts and Quietness of Humane Life But it is still worse when this grows into a Division of Churches and Breach of Religious Communions For besides that Religion is the chief of all things which can concern us and whereon we must Build all our Hopes of Good in another Life Religious Exercises and Assemblies should be the properest Cordial to Revive our Spirits and the best and surest Refuge for us to flee unto in the greatest civil Distractions But such Division of Churches and Communions unsettles and distracts the Hearts of Good and Pions People about this and makes them at a Loss where to serve God and say their Prayers And this must put all who pretend to seriousness or a Religious Spirit on shewing Compassion and some on endeavouring Relief and on reaching out such things as may direct and be of use to them in a Safe and Conscionable Guidance of their Steps at such times And this is the Design of this Treatise Wherein my Business is not at all to Dispute the particular Titles to any Crowns or to examine the Claims of the several Pretenders to them In that I leave every Honest Mind to other ways of Informing and Satisfying themselves and of Forming such Judgments thereof as Truth and Justice shall happen to require in their particular Case But when by those Ways they are come to be resolved therein I endeavour to shew them what things lie most upon Conscience either their Pastors or their own as to Church Ministrations and what way they are to take about Religious Offices and Communion on such unhappy Divisions These Matters I Treat of not as they are State Points like one who seeks only to be a Stickler in Civil Differences or to help those who on such Breaches Study only to make a Bustle in State Parties But as they are Matters of Religion and concern all who would keep in the Favour of God and in the right Way to Heaven For my Design and Study all along is to shew how they who desire nothing more than to save their immortal Souls may keep free from Guilt and Eternal Danger in these particulars My great Care for them and for my self in these Matters being how we may truly and acceptably Serve God more than any Temporal Interest or the Cause of any Persons or Parties in this World And this I offer to the Conscientious who prefer Religion before Worldly Ends and Eternity before this Life And who in these Differences are Willing and Desirous to take the sure Way to Future Peace and Everlasting Bliss however the same may expose them here to Worldly Difficulties Uncomfortableness and Persecutions As for the Ways and Practices here spoken off I have given warning of their Gullt and Danger with planeness And this is necessary in all good Christians especially in Ministers who are not to call Evil Good or to give soft Names to ill things and to palliate Unrighteousness instead of exposing and exploding it which were to take part with Wickedness and to sew Pillows for the Bolstring up of Sinners I am sensible what need there is of Charity and Candor at all times especially on the Bursting out of Differences And how indispensable Christian Duties these are not only in Men at Ease but in Confessors and Sufferers for Righteousness towards their Persecutors If I keep not Charity though I give my Body to be Burned and Suffer Martyrdom it Profiteth me nothing 1 Cor. 13. 13. And when we see Men inapparently Wicked and Ungodly Ways or Unrighteous Things done 't is the part of this Charity and Candor to shew Favour and Easiness in Judging of the Dispositions of Mind wherewith they do them Ascribing them so far as it can find any reasonable Colour or Pretence thereof to the most excusable Principles As to their being Mislead by the plausible Arguings of Deceivers or to an Error of their Judgments rather than to their acting all the while against their own Belief and Convictions And to their being over-awed by Fear of Princes or of Popular Violence or being Forced by Worldly Wants and Necessities rather than to their doing the same willingly and of themselves or out of Malice As our Blessed Lord whilst he hung upon the Cross most Candidly imputes the Wickedness of his Crucifiers to their Ignorance Father forgive them for they know not what they do Luke 23. 34. It is also the Part thereof freely to encourage and Friendly to desire and endeavour their Return rejoycing to have them see their Folly rather than to see them suffer for it And without Upbraiding them with the Remembrance of former Errors Amicably to Welcome and carry on the Change when through the Blessing and Grace of God they are wrought upon by whatever Methods of Providence and begin to come to themselves But whist it is so Favourable in judging of the inward Dispositions of the Persons 't is no Part of this Charity and Candor either to think or to speak Favourably of the Ungodly or Unrighteous things themselves whch are set up or driven on at such Times The unlawful Practices themselves it censures with Justice being a Charity that is Pure and Pious and that is careful for God and for the Duties of an Holy Religion in the First Place Out of Love to God and Religion it cannot Favour Vices or softer and take part with any Sin Yea and out of Love to Men it cannot speak softly of destructive Courses or represent any ungodly Ways or Things as less Dishonourable and Offensive to God or as less Dangerous to Souls than in the End they will find them So that they are mightily Mistaken who think it any Part of true Christian Charity and Candor to befriend ungodly Practices or to minee and soften unlawful and unrighteous Things which were to conspire with Sin and Wickedness against God and Religion and to betray the Souls of Men instead of befriending them I am also sincerely and conscientiously srudious of Peace and to keep Men unreproveable in that is one intent though not the only one of these Papers And before open Breaches are made the Love of Peace will spend it self in endeavours to prevent them But if they are made already as they are to a great Hight when the Espousers of ill
things have proceeded to set up Anti-Bishops which divide Church Societies till by pouring in Oil they can be Cured and Closed again one chief Business left then for the Love of Peace and Union is to see that Peace and Unity be kept with the Right Side And this I have here endeavour'd to assist the Children of Peace in the best I can For it would be a fatal Mistake indeed to have the very Love and Desire of Peace abused to the Maintenance of Dividers and to see well-meaning Men whilst at such Times they are designedly Labouring to avoid Schisms to run Headlong into them As they must do if they mistake their Side wherewith this Peace and Unity is to be kept and instead of the true Body take part with the Seditious and joyn themselves to those Members who are broken off on such Divisions Besides the Peace and Union which we are to seek in this World must be such as may give us Peace at the last It is not being at Peace in such Ways as will fill our Souls in the End with Eternal Horrors And therefore it is not to be sought by our Violation of any Parts of Righteousness nor by our consenting or giving way to the Suppression thereof or letting fall our Zeal for the same So that we must not seek to compass it by Neutrality and Luke-warmness for Gods Holy Commandments And much less by Treachery in giving up them and the Souls of Men whose Eternal Weal depends upon the Observance thereof as the Purchase of external Unity with any Society When Worldly Peace can no longer be kept together with Righteousness it is no Peace for Christians or for Men who would prefer the Peace of God and of their own Conscience before any false forced Shows of Peace Unity with any other Persons And these Endeavours to direct Men whose Care is to keep Peace and Unity with any Societies how they may keep them with the Right Side when they are broken into Parties and in such things and by such Compliances as will not intercept their Future Comforts Methinks should be acceptable to all sincere Lovers thereof who would be directed how they may wisely pursue what they love and â—ot miss of their own Desires and would fix at last on such a Peace and Union as will not Deceive them or End in Ruine In treating of these Matters I endevour to clear and confirm what I offer thereupon by the Authority of the Sacred Scriptures and from the Reason and Nature of the things Discoursed of And moreover from the Doctrine and Practice of the Primitive Church Shewing what the Holy Apostles and their Successors of the first and best Ages would have said to Men in the Cases and Breaches here proposed and how as I conceive they would have determined their own Practice had they been tryed therewith and placed in such Circumstances This I shew from their own Rules which they gave out to others and acted by themselves in their own Circumstances And it would be a strange and very Criminal Innovation for any now in our Days to sleight their Ways For we all know that our Holy Religion doth not begin with us and that we are not the First Christians but only their Successors and that too at a great Distance We all profess to be their Followers and should think we have best provided for our own Safety when we have taken the Way to be found in their Company In confirming any Points from their Doctrine or Practice I have given their own Words in the Margin that the Learned Reader having the very Words and Passages I Build upon before him may be the better Enabled and with more Ease to himself to judge of the use which I make of them and of the Inferences which I draw from them But in the Body of the Book I have only given the Translation or put the Sence or Purport of the same that the unlearned Reader may not be discouraged or hindred by the Intermixtures of an unknown Tongue but peruse the whole without Interruption Thro' the whole I am sincerely Careful so far as I am able to satisfie Conscientious and truly Religious Minds what Way they are to take for Sacred Offices and Church Communion on such unhappy Divisions And seeking their Satisfaction in these Matters I have offer'd the best I can to Resolve those Points which I thought they were most like to be unsatisfied in and to clear up those things which seemed to me most liable to mislead them and either to Answer or Obviate those Objections which are already made or so far as I can at present Foresee may probably hereafter start up in their Way to unsettle them about the same All which as I have labour'd in with an Humble Dependance on God's Grace and Assistance so I now humbly recommend to his Blessing Desiring nothing more than that he may Graciously Accept the same and Pardon all the oversights and well-meant Failures and Mistakes which shall happen to be found therein and direct and turn this Work Poor and Defective as it is to the Uses and Interest of Truth and Godliness and to the Edification and Service of his Holy Church THE CONTENTS PART I. Of the Duty of Pastors to exercise their Spiritual Powers and afford the People Orthodox and holy Ministrations CHAP. I. Of the Differences here Treated of and of the Schism consequent thereon SOme Grand Allegations of both Parties under the Differences here Treated of Of a State of Schism thereby When the Sufferers may and when they may not Remedy this by Receeding and Letting fall their Pastoral Claims and Ministrations CHAP. II. Of the Immoral Ways introduced by a wrong Payment of Allegiance UNder State Deprivations Bishops and Clergy still retain their Spiritual Powers To be inquired then whether they are still bound to exercise and make use thereof A Representation of the immoral ways which are brought in by a wrong Payment of Allegiance The same are incurr'd by Paying it to any as a mere King in Fact Of these Immoralities as appearing not only in Practice but in Worship and Devotions Of the Care to Nurse People up therein at such times CHAP. III. Of the Cases wherein Faithful Bishops and Ministers are bound to stick to their Pastoral Powers and Ministrations THis they are bound to when there is need thereof in the Cause of Religion and for the Safety of Souls It lies on them to see the Faithful supplied and the Churches provided 1. With a Sinless and Unpolluted Worship This in Respect of Immoralities as well as of Idolatry and Superstition in Worship Though they cannot afford it free from the Company of immoral Practicers yet they ought to afford it free of immoral Prayers 2. With the Ministration of all necessary Truth not only in Faith but also in Practice More particularly 1. When dangerous and immoral Practices are setting up especially if like to become general 2. When they
will also effectually put by all the Force of the Greek Manuscript in the Publick Library at Oxford or of the Collection of Instances of Injured Bishops resting under unjust Deprivations and keeping in the Communion of the new Intruders into their Places lately Translated by Mr. Hody For those Instances of Acquiescence and Communion are brought as the Author of the Manuscript several Times professes for Instances thereof only whilst the hitruders were Orthodox And so are no Instances for Acquiescence in the Cause and Oppression of pure Worship and Doctrine or of the Interest of Souls But only in Competition of Persons where the publick Offices to be administred the Doctrines to be taught and upheld and the Practices to be Pressed and Justified under them were the same under both And therefore there can be no pressing Silence or Cessation on the Deprived Bishops and Clergy at such times with any Appearance of Truth and Reason but by clearing those things which they stick at and which they see everywhere imposed on Worship and Practice of all Immorality and Unrighteousness Which on such Revolutions and Change of Masters they can never do who profess to transfer Allegiance and to do all on the Plea of a King de facto leaving the Dispossessed Prince to be still King de Iure By which in their own Account they are acting all the while against Right and against him that has it which is to be as St. Paul says of Stubborn Hereticks convict of their own Consciences or Self-Condemned Tit. 3. 10 11. So that all those Brethren who on such Occasions have profess'd this must condemn their own Principle and all the complyance they have paid thereupon before they can accuse the Deprived Pastors for holding on still in their Spiritual Administrations or can perswade them to forbear But that which alone can be effective to purge the things in Debate of this Immorality and Unrighteousness is the Clearing of the Legal Right which the publick Acts of such times I think are not wanting to Assert as the Ground of all that is then call'd for either in Practice or in Worship And the Discussion of this is no Part of my Design or Purpose in these Papers To conclude this Point of their Obligations to these Ministrations I only add in the last Place that if for keeping up pure Worship Doctrine and Practice Christ's Faithful Pastors are bound to afford these Ministrations in the forementioned Cases his Faithful People will in the same Cases stand bound to adhere to them and to attend on them for Participation thereof This Obligation will appear 1. From that Adherence they owe to the things themselves They are bound to Purity of Worship Belief and Practice that they may Propitiate and please God and Benefit their own Souls thereby As Christians or as Men Professing Christian Religion they are obliged to Unite themselves to these and to stick by them And that in Church Society and under Pastoral Administrations to keep up a Communion of Saints in such pure Worship and Professions And this must be under such Bishops and Ministers as retain and stand true to them when others fall off from them As Members of a Church 't is true good Christians stand obliged to adhere to their own Bishops For the Bishops are the Heads of Church-Societies and 't is the Duty of Members to stick and keep United to the Heads of their respective Bodies But this as I shall shew hereafter is only whilst they keep to those things wherein they are bound to head them that is to pure Christian Worship and Doctrines It is for the having these Administred that they are obliged to be under any Pastors or to adhere to them And so they must still adhere to such as do Administer the same Which if their own Bishops fail to do they are to stand off from them to hold on with such pure Worship and Doctrine and to have the Administration thereof from such other Bishops and Pastors as keep True and Firm thereto whereof I shall speak more at large in its proper Place 2. From the Duty on their Part in all the foresaid Relations For those Relations carry Duties on both sides and call as the true Pastors to Feed and Minister to the Church so all True Members of the Church to seek their Food from the Ministrations of such true Pastors As it is the Part and Office of the One to Administer them So is it of the Other to attend on their Administration for Participation thereof If they are Christs True Shepheards to whom should his Sheep adhere but to his Shepheards and know and hear their Voice and not give Ear to the Call and Voice of Strangers Jo. 10. 3 4 5. If they are the Faithful Guides of Souls to whose Ministerial Conduct and Direction should the People of God commit their Souls but to theirs who will lead them out and carry them on only in Safe and Right Ways If they are the Trusty Watchmen under whose Watch and Guard should Men who seek nothing but to save their Souls place themselves but under those whose Eyes are always open to see and their Voice lift up faithfully to admonish and warn them of their Dangers If they are the true Teachers to whom should the Schollers and Disciples of Christ Resort for Instruction but to them and attend as Obedient Learners on their Preaching and Exhortation If they are Christ's Faithful Ministers his People must keep close to their Ministrations and adhere to them as to his trusty Officers and Representatives here on Earth And if they are to be Fed with the Ministration of Holy Worship and Doctrines and to be instructed and bore up only in Righteous and Good Practices if they must take Care to be Warned and Guided Taught and Helped on only in these Things which are the things alone that are fit to please God and to save their Pretious Souls To whom must they Cleave and keep United for them all but to those Shepheards who daily provide them with this Food and to those Guides who conduct them in these Ways and to those Watchmen who fail not to give them 〈…〉 tain them with these 〈…〉 Supply them 〈…〉 in each they will see 〈…〉 to show them their own Duty as 〈…〉 their Ministers And how 〈…〉 so they themselves do to follow as the Priests are to Administer so are the 〈…〉 ly to Attend on them and to 〈…〉 to their Ministrations 〈…〉 foresaid Cases 3. From the 〈…〉 which they towards â—â— who call them 〈…〉 the People from 〈…〉 and from Good and Righteous to 〈…〉 and 〈…〉 the Scripture calls or comprehends under the Title 〈…〉 and Seâ—â—cers and Wâ—lves and makers of Divisions and 〈…〉 Prephets and False-Teachers and the like Now â—s the 〈…〉 good Christians not to associate themselves with 〈…〉 off from them not to follow Seducers but to beware of them not to run after the Wolves
suffering with patience under them when they punish and persecute them not for breaking but for faithfully performing of the same And this is to leave the civil power to be chief in all civil matters and to have several Prerogatives of Soveraignty in spiritual so long as they proceed with civil mixtures That is to be supream in all which it can call its own Though at the same time it is not to be held superior to Christ nor must be thought intrusted with the Supreme Disposal of the matters of Religion wherein men are empower'd of Christ by another sort of Commission And from all these 't is plain that it is no Revival of the abolished Papal Usurpations For these lay not in the Bishops asserting as is aforesaid of their own pure spiritual powers or of their own indefeasible obligations notwithstanding any state inhibitions and deprivations to exercise them for the service of Religion and the Church as Christ requires they should in the foremention'd and other like Cases For this is no more than has been done by the Holy Apostles and by all faithful Bishops and Ministers in all Ages But in their claiming an independancy on the state in the exercise of spiritual powers and Ministrations mixed and endowed with the borrowed adjuncts of secular benefices and jurisdictions And in their professing a dependance therein upon the Pope seeking to him for investitures and confirmations and making him the last judge by Appeals As also depending on him for conveneing Synods for passing and confirming Canons and granting dispensations from them and for other Matters which for their civil endowments of Churches were granted to Christian Princes and by incorporation accrued to the Crown And Lastly in their Challenging an Exemption of their persons from Civil Cognizance so as not to be answerable in Civil Courts and Coercible there by civil penalties even for state-matters and offences And the Retrenching of these Usurpations was the business of our Reformers But as for the independance of the Ecclesiasticks mere spiritual powers and their obligations to exercise them in any Case as may answer the Command of Jesus Christ and not the contrary inclination or inhibition of the Civil Magistrate they were as far from intending as from needing to Reform it Yea soon after they were most glorious Asserters thereof in all their Ministrations for the service of Souls and for the support of Truth which they discharged against the deprivations and inhibitions of the state as Confessors and Martyrs during all the persecutions of Queen Marys Reign 3. Thirdly Nor is this to mistake or to over-look the condition of an incorporate Church But only not to over-value the Civil Benefits of Incorporation and at the same time to under-value their Obligations to Christ to the Ministeries of Religion and to the Souls of Men. It is necessary that Pastors and People should keep obedient and true to Christ But it is not necessary that they should keep in the favour of Princes and continue a Church incorporate Nay it is necessary they should cheerfully take up the Cross and be content to be a Church persecuted when they can no longer enjoy the secular benefits of Incorporation without yielding to an irreligious and ill Ministration nor hold on Ministring to the necessary service of Souls and of pure Religion without incurring Persecution For then all Church-men of any Fidelity or Conscience must shew themselves Ministers of Christ not of Princes and Guides that watch for Souls not for Benefices and secular accessions And like their Great Master and all good and holy Bishops who were call'd by him as we all are to spiritual Ministeries under whatever Persecutions of Princes despise all state-favors and preferments in this world in comparison of fulfilling that Spiritual Ministry and most sacred Trust which they have received from the Lord and whereof one day they must give a most strict account And therefore it is a very ill-grounded reasoning which the aforesaid Author of the Vindication of their Majesties-Authority c. uses to Authorize the deprivation of suffering Bishops at such times for state-matters by a mere Act of State thinking it well proved if it is as certain aâ—d evident as that the Church is and must be incorporated into the State For in the aforesaid Cases for the service of Christ and the sake of Religion and of Souls the Church is bound to break with the State and to lay aside all thoughts of continuing incorporated and submit to be persecuted It is then call'd to bear Christs Cross for its stedfastness in his Service and Ministrations not to seek or court state-favors by ceasing to Minister what is good or consenting to Minister what is ill in complyance with Princes And if instead of being certain and evident it must 't is certain and evident the Church must not be any longer incorporate when it cannot purchase it but on these Terms Then in all the foresaid Cases there is an end of all Arguments to perswade acquiescence for the preservation of the incorporation of Churches in Christian Kingdoms But though this Principle of Faithfully exercising their pure spiritual Minstrations in the foresaid Cases without accepting any discharge thereof from mere state-deprivations excludes all over-rateing of civil incorporation or placing the Favor of Princes above the Favor of God and benefices and preferments above the interest of Religion and of Souls Yet doth it at the same time allow to an incorporate state all that really doth belong to it And therefore in these Ministrations after deprivation by a rightful state it claims nothing that came to Church-men by incorporation But it s Spiritual Ministrations Christs Church then discharges without the encouragement of state-benefices and preferments without claiming the convenience of the establish'd places for a free holding of its Religious Assemblies or the guard and assistance of any of the foremention'd Civil Laws jurisdictions or other secular mixtures and state accessions for the strengthning and furtherance of its exercise of any spiritual Functions And what more should they look at in this state of incorporation than to see that as they do not let fall any spiritual service which was not given up nor can be stopped thereby So when devested thereof that they do not challenge any worldly benefices powers or other endowments which are dependant thereupon And this is not to make the claims and exercise of Ecclesiastical Powers by Bishops and Pastors the same in all points at this day in an incorporate Church as they were by the Ancient Canons whilst the Church was separate from the state under the Gentile Persecutions It asserts them the same as to Ministring all that is necessary in Religion and in Care of Souls which the Pastors are as much empowerd and as much obliged to look to under incorporation as before it And to be the same also in other points given up and accruing to the State at the incorporation of the Church as
a Wrong to Religion And there they must go on for the sake of Gospel-worship and doctrines which are Christs Cause though they would be content to suffer and sit still so far as it is their own And accordingly the Council of Constantinople entituled Prima Secunda excepts the Case of Heretical Prelates promoting or pushing on any Heresies when it requires Inferiors to stay for a synodical Cognizance before they break off dependance from their Prelates in all other Cases Though Synods therefore are the most Venerable Ecclesiastical Judicature here on Earth yet is all the Obligation and Authority of their decisions or sentences within this Compass They have no Effect or Force against the Truth as St. Paul says or against any for adhering to it So that they are to affect none who have Christ and his Truth plainly on their side Nor do their judgments and definitions bar those who are concerned to take Notice of them from examining and judging for themselves whether they strike at any part of Christian Truth and Religion before they pay Obedience to them I grant there ought to be great deference to their determination and all private Persons are to use great modesty and care in judging after them and need to look that the blow and destruction thereby made to any necessary Truth or Practice of our holy Religion be very plain before they over-look and disregard what they order But still judge they must because in all their belief and practice in these things it is not any implicit dependance on men or a blind obedience to any humane sentence or decision but observance of the Truth it self or of what Christ has appointed in his Word that must justifie them And therefore if on an humble and diligent examination and by plain evidence it appear that in their definitions of Articles or censure of Persons they strike at the Truth and seek the overthrow of any part of Religion their Acts are to be esteemed as of no effect and all concerned Parties both Clergy and People are to go on doing the same in Religious Ministration and Communion as if there were no such thing More just and authoritative Synods they will be like to seek and appeal from these in a regular way to others more general which in external way of humane judicature shall reverse their unjust sentences But suffering all in the Cause of Truth and Religion they will not desist in the mean time but go on notwithstanding any such synodical Anathema or Deprivation in true spiritual Ministrations and Communion PART III. Of Schism CHAP. I. Of the Nature of Schism And of the Schism of Particular Members from their own Church in throwing off Subjection and Dependance on their own Bishops BY what I have offer'd about the Authority and effect of State-deprivations yea or even of the depositions of Synods too I think it may appear how the faithful Ministers of Christ are not disabled or discharged by any such deprivations from the exercise of their spiritual Ministrations whereto they stand bound by so many Obligations in the forementioned Cases But besides the deprivation of State some think the maintenance of Unity in the Church when that is like to be broken thereby ought to stop them of that Exercise And therefore for a further clearing of their duty in those Cases I shall procede 2. Secondly to shew That the preservation of external Communion and Peace in the Church ought not to debar or put by their due discharge thereof Admit say some that it were their duty to go on in their Ministrations for the service of Religion and of Souls in those cases where this can be done in maintenance of Unity and whilst the Church continues one Yet what will you say if such Ministration must unavoidably make or keep up a Schism Do not we all own that to be one of the greatest Banes to Religion and a most sinful and mischievous thing And if otherwise they ought to be held on ought not such Ministrations to be let fall rather than a Schism shall be made or kept up in the Church thereby That there will be a Schism in the Church in such cases is most apparent And that Schism is most dreadful to the Church full of Guilt as it is both the Breach of Unity and the Bane of Charity and an In-let of continual miseries and disturbances is no less apparent But in pressing the consideration thereof upon particular persons or parties for prevention or redress it is to be enquired first who makes it That will shew who ought to mend it but if they will not it may be enquired next who else can cure it Or what the sufferers in love of peace and preferring the Publick before themselves should give up for the Cure thereof that they may duly prize external Unity but not over-value it Or if through the Error or inflexibleness which God avert of those who are the Authors thereof it be already made and cannot be remedyed all are to consider lastly how they are to carry themselves towards the Makers of it and with whom they are to hold Communion To Clear these Points I shall say something I. To the Nature of Schism to shew when a Schism is made and by whom II. To those things which may be a just ground to disunite and break off either from any Persons or Churches without blame of Schism some things not being to be born nor others to be parted with for the love of external Peaâ—e and Union III. To the Communion of good Christians under a Schism and how they are to carry it towards Schismaticks 1. First I shall say something to the Nature of Schism to shew when a Schism is made and by whom Schism lyes in Breach of Union or in Making two or many out of one Schisms says St. Cyprian which cut or break the Unity or tear and divide that which should be kept together as one Body By Schism as St. Chrysostom notes One Church is broken into many Churches and the Unity thereof is abolish'd Accordingly the Members are call'd upon to be joyn'd together in the same mind and in speaking the same things that there be no Schisms 1 Cor. 1. 10. Not to set up an Independance among themselves and act separately but with mutual dependance and conjunction that there be no schism in the body 1 Cor. 12. 25. And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 schisms are usually render'd divisions as 1 Cor. 10. and c. 11. 18. This Union which Schism breaks is the union of a society For the Church is a society of men Associated and incorporated together for the work and purposes of Religion 'T is call'd a Family or †Household or City which are all words Expressive of Society St Paul Styles it the City of the living God Heb. 12. 22. And tells the Christians at Ephesus that they are Fellow-Citizens with the Saints Eph. 2. 19. This
Christs Name is filling Jerusalem with his Doctrine Act. 5. 28. ver 41. And the Priests and Rulers forbidding the Apostles to speak to any Man in his Name is forbidding them any more to preach his Doctrine Act. 4. 17. 18. And so when our Lord prays to his Father that his Disciples may be kept in his Name to the end that they may be one he notes the necessity of continuing in his Doctrine to their keeping his so much desired Union Jo. 11. 17. Accordingly he adds that they may be one as we are viz. he and the Father For their Unity is by this way among others viz. by keeping to the same Word or Doctrine he teaching them what he had from his Father v. 8. And this is to be kept one after his departure as they had been kept one before as he continues to pray v. 12. For before they had been united in his Word which he gave unto them and which they had received and kept v. 6. 8. Thus also St. Paul tells us that the giving of Pastors and Teachers to Edâ—fie or compact us all into one Body of Christ is for edifying us in the Unity of the Faith and of the Acknowledgment of the Son of God Eph. 4. 11 12 13. And that the Church is to be one Body in holding to the oâ—e Faith Eph. 4. 4 5. And this has been the currant sense of the Christian Church The Vertue which keeps the Church together is Faith saith the Pastor Hermes as he is cited by Clemens of Alexandria We are constituted one Body of Christ and Members â—re of another by having the same Faith with him and with one another say the Fathers in the sixth general Council By the joyning of Charity and Faith Christ binds us up â—â—to one Body in himself saith St. Gregory the Great And we Christians are a Society says Tertullian incorporated on a Belief of the same Religion Or as he elsewhere expresses it confederated in the Fâ—llowship of the same Profession As to Points of Faith I understand this more particularly of those Points which are more important and call'd Fundamental and are all contain'd in the Apostles Creed These are the necessary and grand Points of the Christian Religion and the Belief thereof makes us Christians and accordingly they are all profess'd in our Baptism when we take this Profession upon us And this Faith is one necessary Bond of Union to keep Christians together in one Society Their first care must be to keep to this Faith which makes them Christians and in this Belief of the Christian Religion their next care must be to keep to any particular Society or Christian Church Other Points of Belief which are more remote from the Foundation do not so generally influence Mens Salvation nor so necessarily break off Communion but that Men may hold on joyning in the same Offices notwithstanding their embracing of some erroneous Opinions And under such Errors Peace and one Communion were pressed by the Apostles I conceive on the Churches in their Days But these being more necessary and essential to the Religion are more necessary also to the keeping of Society and Communion which is to be kept up among those who are united and agreed in this Religion And since all Church Association is to be on this bottom of Chrian Worship and Doctrine good Christians Unity or Dependance on their Bishops or one Churches Communion with other Churches is only to be whilst the Bishops and Churches themselves keep united to Christian Worship and Doctrines 'T is to their Bishops as to their Spiritual Teachers on whom they are to attend as obedient Disciples and so whilst they instruct and train them up in God's Truths not in ungodly Errors 'T is to them as they are Christs Ministers and so whilst they minister his Word not their own As joynts Eph. 4. 16. Col. 2. 19. And joynts are to compact or pin the Materials or Members together whilst they rest upon the Ground and Bottom viz. the Doctrine not when they start aside and go off from it And of an Heretick St. Paul says that he is turned aside or like a corner-stone started out of the Building So that the other Parts are no longer to be knit together into one spiritual House by him When People come at first to be Church-Members and to unite under their Bishops the Doctrine and Worship is first laid as the Ground-work for both the Head and Members to stand upon Thus we see it was in the first Formation of Churches and setting up external Union and Dependance under Bishops The Christian Doctrine was first taught and received which was the Foundation laid I have laid the Foundation says St. Paul when he had planted the Faith 1 Cor. 3. 10. And on the Foundation so laid a Church was raised and Bishops chosen out of the first-Fruits of the Converts as St. Clemens says and set over those that believed And ever since before Men receive Baptism to make them Church-members there is a Profession made of the Doctrine of the Apostles both in Faith or the Articles of the Creed and in Practice or the Commandments So that 't is Bishops heading of this Doctrine and Worship which bring Members to incorporate and unite under them And as their heading it brings People to them so their rejecting or defecting from it loosens the Tye and sets them free to go off again Their Fellowship with the Apostles and our Obligation to hold Fellowship with them is tyed to their keeping the Apostolical Declarations of what they had heard or seen 1 Jo. 1. 3. And in the Account of the Communion of the Primitive Christians the Fellowship of the Apostles and of the Bishops their Sucessors is linked to the Apostles Doctrine and to their breaking of Bread and Prayers Act. 2. 42. If a Bishop then defects from Christian Doctrine and Worship or falls into Heresie or Unchristian Worship that is a Discharge of his People from their spiritual Dependance and Relation and supersedes the Obligation of keeping Unity under him If we the Apostles or even an Angel from Heaven should preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have already preached unto you let him be Aâ—athema or Accursed that is have no more communion and commerce with him than with those whom the Synagogue or Church has cut off Anathema being the Word for one excommunicate both in the Scripture and in the constant Language of the Church Gal. 1 8 9. And this he says as St. Chrysostom notes not only against those who subvert the whole Gospel but against those who go a little beside it or overthrow any Parts thereof And if a Church defects from the same it sets other Churches loose in like manner from the Obligation of holding on communion with them Unity of Faith binds them mutually to observe the Rules of fraternal communion and defection in Faith
opportunity of siding and closeing with it So that where they can have no assemblies for right communion the making a shift with the other for that time speaks no opposition against them I grant to stand quite off from them and to have no communion or correspondence with them in their separate ways is the clearest disclaiming of any Schism or Sedition And this as it may be payd so is more reasonably exacted under the settlement of a right Government But under others when the disobedient have got all into their hands and make the number in all places this way of disclaiming by refusing all communion and correspondence admits of some relaxation and abatements It doth so plainly in the Civil State where some dealings and correspondence of the dutiful and well affected with the Rebels which would have been sentenced as Rebellion in better times will not then be reputed rebellious And under like prevalence of Schisms which leave no opportunities of communicating with any else I think such abatements may also find place in the Church too Especially considering the necessity of publick communion and Church assemblies the great defectiveness and scarcities whereof had almost dropped and lost Religion in the Patriarchical Age. And also considering the necessity which our Religion in particular lays upon Communion the Communion of Saints being one of the things professed in the Creed which may make it more reasonable to presume such abatements in favour thereof when there is no opportunity of Ministerial Offices by any others to communicate with But that the necessity of having some Ministerial communion will be an excuse in such case for the faultiness of having this at the hands of one ministring in a Schism when it can not be had from others seems reasonable to me from considering the Nature and Importance of things and the abatements God himself has been willing to make on such necessity with other like Duties and I think it was so held and practised by the Church and People of God when they could have no Ministerial Offices but from Schismaticks and also to give Relief in some other compassionable cases about communion which have only like plea for abatements as this case has 1. As to the Nature and Importance of the things themselves publick worship or communion in Ministerial Offices is a duty more of natural and essential Obligation to pay such publick worship being naturally incumbent on all men And withal it is so important in it self For Communion in Ministerial Offices or in common and publick Worship must both declare or testifie the sence which Mankind have of their common or publick Lord and also sustain or bear it up in the World It is the way for God who most justly claims and expects the worship and service of all his reasonable Creatures not to be left without Witness but even in a degenerate and rebellious World to have some always visibly standing by him and paying him his due honour and homage It is also the way for him to preserve alive a sense thereof among all his other Subjects and Children whom he as a common Lord and Father is concerned continually to make acquainted therewith and to try with the power and influences thereof For by this means he sets forth his worship and truths as a Light to shine out to all that are in darkness and sets this light upon a candlestick or collects the bearers thereof into a body or City and places this City upon an Hill as our Saviour says to make it conspicuous and that it may force it self upon the observation of all who are at a distance And if any are willing to pay this Almighty Lord his due honour and homage it will train them up dayly in the knowledge and observance thereof If they are unwilling and averse thereto it will serve to make them willing by degrees For such dayly representation of God's publick worship and homage before their eyes will be a dayly reproof of their ungodly Violations or Neglects thereof and make them uneasie therein and by degrees awaken and stir up those natural and innate feeds of Truth and Piety which God has planted in all mens Souls though under such Neglects or irreligious ways they lye dormant and seems as if they were buryed or almost quite lost in theirs Or if after all they shall obstinately shut their eyes against this Light so shining out upon them and persist in their wickedness and irreligion it will clear the Justice of an Injured God when he comes to punish them for the same and leave them wholly without excuse Yea this publick worship is necessary at least as to a great part of Men or as to the keeping them up in any considerable Numbers to keep up Religion and Devotion not only among others but in their own breasts For Devotion is to be upheld and improved in our Spirits by exercise which as they have Provisions for and are call'd to so all devout People are careful to comply withal on the constant returns of these opportunities But though we need to use this exercise to keep it on we need use none at all to wear it off our minds which by meer neglect thereof will sink into forgetfulness of what is good and into sloth and indevotion of themselves Their progress therein is like that of heavy Weights up hill which need a constant hand to raise and carry them on but when that is once off have enough in their own Weight to make them roul down again And this all may find by their own experience mens pious affection as any heedful Observer will soon perceive unavoidably decaying and going back back for want thereof Which makes devout minds justly to dread the want of such opportunities for Ministerial Offices as a starving of their Religious affections And for this Reason among others St. Paul is earnest in pressing attendance on Religious Assemblies and cautions them against for saking the same because that would endanger the loss of Religion it self Not forsaking the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is saith he to the persecuted Hebrews when he labours to fix them in holding fast the Christian Profession without wavering and to guard them against such things as would most dispose them to draw back and apostatize from it Heb. 10 23 25. 26. 39. And for these and such like Reasons publick worship is of so great account in God's sight that he has framed much of our Holy Religion with a particular eye to it and instituted several great and most important things for the sake of it Such is the Church it self which is instituted for joynt and publick worship The Society thereby introduced among us is to associate us in the common worship of that God whom we all confess and the Fellowship arising thence is to make us all Fellow-worshippers Such also is the Ministry which God has appointed for his publick Service or to minister unto
him either as his Mouth unto his People or as their Mouth unto Himself in publick Assemblies or Congregations Such likewise are those set and solemn Times for worship which he has instituted both among Jews and Christians and which are all design'd for publick worship in Joynt-Assemblies Yea even our Prayers which are the Acts of worship express communion and joynt-society being put up according to his appointment in the plural number he having taught us to say Our Father which art in Heaven and give us this day c. which speaks the communion and concurrence of more besides our selves And the Holy Sacraments those most eminent Acts and Instances of worship are ordained for Asts of society and partnership or of communion therein We are all baptized into one body And We being many are one bread and one body And The bread which we break is the communion of the body of Christ and the cup of blessing which we bless is the communion of the blood of Christ as St. Paul says And because by their institution they are not only to be Acts of worship but of publick worship or of joynt-concurrence or communion therein therefore doth our Church allow no Sacrament even to the Sick without three or two at the least to make a Congregation and condemns the private and solitary Masses of the Church of Rome which are eaten by the Priest alone Such is the natural obligation and such the necessity and importance of publick worship which is one of the greatest visible supports of Religion without which 't is to be feared it would sink and be in danger to fail in the Earth Whereas the paying of this worship in Church-Unity and dependance on a Bishop though it be a duty too yet is a duty more of positive obligation For to have Bishops and to pay all our publick worship in communion with them is no natural duty which always was incumbent on all men but came in with Christianity by positive Institution or particular Revelation And besides though important in it self yet in comparison it is of less importance not only the natural parts of the Ministration but the positive too as the Holy Sacranients c. being I conceive of more Weight And though the want of this Union under our own Bishops by the opposite Passions and angry Tempers which Schism introduces doe greatly eat out true devotion yet doth it not make so wide a breach and waste therein as the want of any Ministerial Offices at all would do Now in any competition of Duties the Rule is that things of positive obligation shall give way to things of natural obligation and positives of less importance to positives of more importance in those cases and times where we can not do both The natural there takes place of the positive and the greater sets aside the less Particularly as to the keeping up Religion and Church-unity and Association if in any case we can not maintain both but a competition happens to arise between them the care of Church-unity must give way to the care of Religion We must look then to keep up as much Church-unity as we may do in keeping up Religion which being once lost Church-unity and association signifies nothing And not begin the other way to content our selves with keeping up so much of Christian Religion as we do in strict observance of the Rules of Church-society and Union For Christs first and chief design was to plant and preserve the Religion And that Church-unity which is either valuable or desireable in the sight of God is Church-unity with true Religion not Church-unity without it and we are tyed to keep up Church-union for Religion's not Religion for Union's sake as I shewed before And therefore the duty and obligation to communicate in some Ministerial Offices will be a fair excuse for doing this out of the way of Church-unity or dependance on our own Bishops when both can not have place And thus I think the Scripture determines in such cases and that 2. These abatements are what God himself has been willing to make on such necessity in other like duties He has not required that men should stick so fast to those duties or parts of duty which are inferior or subservient or appendages unto others as that for their sakes they should drop other duties which are principal or superiour to them nor is he willing that in care of preserving their practice of lesser Vertues inviolable they should at any time let the weightier fall So that to think he will abate and relax something of the duty of Church-union when that is necessary to keep on the more important duty of publick Ministration and that he doth not the the People up to such strict care of communicating in the Unity of the Church as must drop and let fall all communion in Ministerial Offices when they are not to be had but at the hands of those who minister in breach thereof is only to think that he is ready to make the same equitable allowance on any competition in these as he doth on like competitions in other duties And that Almighty God is willing to make these abatements on such necessity and competitions I conceive may sufficiently appear by the following Instances Circumcision and Sacrifice and the Sabbath are all positive duties But Circumcision and Sacrifice being of more importance they were to take place of the Sabbath and whensoever it so fell out that they could not observe both men might be excused in breaking the Sabbath Rest to labour in Circumcision as they did whensoever the eighth Day of the Childs Age which was appointed for his Circumcision fell to be on the Sabbath Day or in Sacrifices with the labour whereof the Priests in the Temple continually prophaned the Sabbath and were blameless as our Lord determines And God himself declares I will have Mercy before Sacrifice which imports according to our Lords allegations and applications of it that Men should drop the duty of Sacrifice to attend the duty of Mercy when for the time they must let one fall and could not pay both So making the necessity of performing natural duties an excuse for the omission of positive and the necessity of performing more important duties an excuse for the omission of less important when there is a necessity of letting one fall Thus also it was a positive duty and rule among the Jews that the Priests should kill the Sacrifice according to what is said in the Law Lev. 1. 4 5. The People who brought it as it is there order'd were to lay their hands upon the head of the Sacrifice But it was left to the Priests to kill it as Josephus relates Whence the Priests were able to give the number of the Paschal Sacrifices at any Passover as they did to Cestius Gallus as the same Author testifies And this is the account of the Jewish Doctors