business or curiosity of travelling brought Christians of different nations together upon the first acknowledgement of this faith which shewed that they were Christians they run into each others embraces and found that they agreed in the same points of religion as if they had been bred up under the same masters and had spent their whole time together And indeed it could scarce be otherwise through the piety innocence zeal and constancy of those times not as if there were no opinions started about which they might have different sentiments for that in such great variety and disproportion of understanding and temper was scarce possible but they held fast to the Apostolical doctrine and tradition and provided that their faith in Christ was entire and orthodox in lesser matters liberty of judgment was allowed without censure No one was oppressed with unjust suspicions and prejudices they shunned not such an ones company as if he had been excommunicated but received and embraced him as a Brother and fellow Christian. The holy Apostles who by their unwearied diligence and preaching had form'd and establisht Churches every where that they might make just provisions for the Christians of all ages after their decease thought it highly concerned them to commit to writing the doctrine of faith which they had taught that in case any doubt should arise in aftertimes and new doctrines should be introduced by wanton and over curious wits desirous and over apt to innovate in matters of religion under a pretense of Apostolical tradition these infallible oracles might be consulted as the measure and standard of divine truth Accordingly to these sacred writings they had recourse as to the only rule of faith they derived all the streams of saving truth from these uncorrupt springs here was the tryal whether any one was sound or reprobate concerning the faith so the great truths of Religion were preserved entire there was no trouble given to any one upon the accompt of any subtle or nice questions All equally enjoyed the same right of communion they were present at the same holy offices of religion with a most agreeable piety they all were partakers of the same holy Sacrament from which if any were by the strict discipline of the Church debarred it was wholly to be imputed to the miscarriages of life whereof they were guilty which the Church desired to amend and make them sensible of by this severe course and method But when the pertinaciousness of Hereticks relying upon the quirks and subtilty of unsound wit would in no wise acquiesce in Scriptural propositions of faith when with a sacrilegious boldness they would break into the very secrets of heaven which were above the capacity of humane understanding fully to make out and comprehend when despising and rejecting the revelations of Scripture they disclaimed the profession and acknowledgment of the truths and mysteries of the Christian religion and when by their evil designs arts and practices the weaker sort of Christians whom they had infected with their corrupt and poisonous doctrine were drawn away from the profession of the true faith it then became necessary and most worthy the serious thoughts and care of Constantine the great and the other pious Emperors to call General Councils in order to prevent those disturbances and breaches of the Churches peace which were likely to arise from the change and alteration of faith and all the industry of those great men who were summoned to attend and assist at those solemn and venerable assemblies was laid out and imployed not in inventing and making new Articles but in interpreting and explaining the old ones for both their zeal and piety forbad that they should give way to any innovation or suffer the ancient Catholick faith which was at first delivered to be antiquated and the profession of it disused For to use the words of Vincentius Lirinensis what other thing has the Church of Christ designed and effected by the decrees of Councils but that that which was before simply believed might now be believed with greater diligence that which before was more rarely and gently preached might now be preached with greater zeal and concern and that which was held and maintained more securely might now be studied and maintained with greater care and solicitude So that to stop the mouth of heresy and to give it its deaths wound those Heroes mostly and chiefly relying upon the authority of the sacred scripture and calling in to their aid and assistance the constant practice and consent of the Orthodox Christians of the preceding ages and antient and Catholick tradition made a most excellent provision for the security of the Christian faith which Arius Macedonius Nestorius and the other infamous Haeresiarchs had with their false glosses perverted by laying down short forms and professions of faith that so the several mysteries of it upon the belief of which the true religion and the happiness of its Professors depend might be better and more easily admitted and understood By this Test the Catholick Church distinguished those of her communion from the hereticks and by this unity of faith united their hearts in love and affection all who made profession of her doctrine in what part of the world soever they were being acknowledged and received for friends for brethren for Catholicks For there was no need of any other character or recommendation and hence that pious and laudable custom and practice of keeping up and maintaining this Ecclesiastical communion by the Epistolae formatae which were usually sent from one Bishop to another nor did the Bishop of Rome exempt himself upon their instalment had their original nor was there any other proof exacted or demanded of their retaining the profession of the true Christian faith than a firm and hearty assent to those antient Creeds How happy it had been for the Catholick Church if the terms of communion had continued thus enlarged the meanest capacity may easily be sensible of for most assuredly if the antient faith the profession of which has saved so many myriads of Christians had been preserved uncorrupt and entire from the encumbrance and addition of novel opinions which owe their original and propagation to meer phantasy and superstition and secular interest and if all who acknowledge that Faith might have been present at the publick worship and service of God upon the same conditions as in the first ages according to the rules established by the supream Ecclesiastical authority there had not been that great confusion every where in the world as now there is By this just and easy method schism might have been prevented and a liberty of judgment being allowed in matters no way fundamental and essential to faith an eternal peace had been established Of the violation of which we justly accuse the Roman Church which having wholly neglected and laid aside the rules of primitive Antiquity has as mistress of the faith of all Christians obtruded new articles under the specious pretense and
to the first ages are hugely encreased and multiplied as is too too manifest from the present state and condition of the Roman Church and the obscure confessions of other Churches what other effect can we expect should proceed from this mighty industry and zeal but that Christendom being divided into so many parties and factions all just hope of union should be wholly removed and taken away when the effecting of it hereby seems to be rendred morally impossible 3. The arrogant pretensions of the Popes unbounded power contributes not a little to the heightning and augmenting the difference in Christendom It does not seem at this day to comport with the greatness of the Roman Church to be content to be included within the antient limits of the Suburbicary regions For not satisfied with a Primacy of order or with her antient Patriarchate to whose jurisdiction the Britannick Churches were not of right subject or with her other privileges conferred upon her out of a respect to the Imperial city as if the spirit of the old Romans were infused into her she proudly affects an empire over the whole body of Christians throughout the world If the other Patriachs who owe that honour and dignity to the same original the favour of Princes and the decrees and constitutions of general Councils in the assignment of which as it is most evident from the 28th Canon of the Council of Chalcedon they had onely a regard to the privileges and dignities of cities to which the Ecclesiastical government was accommodated defend their rights and liberties against the attempts and encroachments of the Bishop of Rome if they will not submit to a forraign yoke unless they with a base and a most unbecoming flattery adore Rome as their Mistress and Patroness and obey her decrees and orders presently there is an end of them they are arraigned and accused as guilty of schism nor shall they be thought worthy of the honour and favour of her communion When some time after the Empire was divided into East and West there seemed to be a kind of agreement at least and a fair and amicable correspondence kept up the ambition and pride of the Bishops of Rome who would needs busy and interest themselves in the affairs of the Greek Church spoiled all For to no other cause can the original of that sad and fatal separation be ascribed altho it was afterward heightned and the wound festered more and more when the article of the procession of the holy Spirit from the Son was added to the Constantinopolitan Creed without ever so much as consulting the Oriental Bishops who upon the knowledge of it soon after vehemently opposed it justly alledging that it was utterly unlawful so to do it being expresly against the 7th canon of the council of Ephesus But things were more securely advanced and carryed on in the Western Empire by the artifice and policy of the Popes of Rome for the opposition which was made now and then by two or three honest and stout men to their tyrannical and arbitrary proceedings signified little or nothing and was run down with noise violence and power When then they had no regard to the canons of antient Councils by which the Catholick Church was formerly governed when they had trodden under their feet all divine and humane law and right when they had arrogated to themselves the disposition of all Church-affairs and had usurpt a power over all Christians and nothing for the future was to be admitted and believed but what was agreeable to the Bulls and decrees of the Roman Court can any one wonder when things were brought to this pass that Christendom should at last awaken from its deep lethargy and grown sensible of the miserable slavery of its condition should complain of the exercise of this usurped unjust and tyrannical power and seriously think of recovering its true antient original hristian liberty In the mean time what did they at Rome did they enter upon serious counsels and resolutions honestly and effectually to satisfy the requests and demands of Kings Princes and Republicks concerning a Reformation which were continually sent thither by their Ambassadors and Agents did they restore their ill-gotten goods which they had seized upon most unjustly and as unjustly had detained by force and violence I mean the common rights and privileges belonging to the Bishops and to all Christian people nothing less they exclaim they rage they are furious and mad and let fly their thunderbolts of excommunication from the Vatican hill and devote men to hell and damnation only for this unpardonable fault because they were at last quite tyred with and weary of the slavery which they had laboured under for so many years This is that which troubles and grieves them now at Rome and which they are endeavouring with so much art and policy to effect and bring about and this is that which unless God shall vouchsafe to avert the omen and open the eyes of all such who are deluded by the witchcrafts and sorcery of Rome to forsake her communion which is so dangerous to their salvation will make the schism irreconcileable and eternal For as things stand at present there can be no peace and accommodation with Rome unless we part with our liberties and our laws and our consciences and our religion the true Christian religion and every thing which is dear to us nor yet such is the restlesness of that party and especially of the Jesuits that if the counsels of such fiery Bigots may prevail we shall never be at quiet unless we submit our necks once more most stupidly to the Roman yoke which our Popish Ancestors even both before and after they were enlightned with the knowledge of the truths of God threw off with great indignation as not being able to bear it Lastly we are convinced by sad experience that these differences about religion which have divided Christendom into so many sects to the great disturbance of its peace and quiet owe no small part of their original to the great decay of true solid piety through idleness and carelesness and to the departure from the most holy rules of living which Christ our blessed Lord and master has prescribed us which is every where so visible I need not here labour in the proof of this by heaping up arguments when the fact is so evident nor shall I tragically exclaim or inveigh against the unmanly softness the luxury the prophaneness the wickedness of the age and the evil lives of Christians this reflexion deserving our sighs and tears rather than satyre and invective I do not here mean so much those whose wicked corrupt principles and most scandalous lives sufficiently shew that they have no sense of any religion but I chiefly intend such as make a fair shew of Christianity how little of true piety is found about them but how much of superstition and immoderate zeal for the peculiar tenents of their sect by which they
Christian doctrine is not violated so long as they are not ranked with the fundamental articles of faith so long as they do not impose them upon other Churches who are no way subject to a forraign jurisdiction much less upon the whole body of Christians in all the parts of the Universe under the pretence of Apostolical authority and under the heavy penalty of an Anathema But that there should be no difference put between the novel opinions of the Schoolmen and the Oracles of Scripture that the same deference and honour should be paid to humane authority very obnoxious to passion and error which only infallible truth can justly challenge that the phansies of private men as they were at first should many ages after by a pretended Church-power be reckoned as fundamentals and lastly that we should be obliged to profess our assent to rash sanctions and definitions which a corrupt part of the Church for secular ends and advantages hath decreed and established this this is that which scandalizeth Christendom and obstructs its peace This was the just complaint of the former century which made way for the Reformation and which a conviction of the truth and reasonableness of it extorted from the mouths of several Romanists who yet had not the courage to relinquish the communion of that Church though confessedly corrupt in matter of doctrine discipline and worship This was the trouble and heart-breaking of several excellently learned and pious persons in those times and doth still distract the minds of all good men even of considering Romanists not infatuated with superstition and furious bigotry who pray for the restoration of Catholick unity among all Christians But such a schism so detestable so deplorable and so big with dismal effects consequences and events has been brought into the Church by corrupt interest by base and disingenuous artifice and subtilty and by the highest immodesty and by downright force and violence and this confirmed by the free holy oecumenical council of Trent as they call it when God knows it was neither free nor holy nor oecumenical as that all hope of reconciliation among the different professions and perswasions of Christians is taken away unless the Authors of this schism shall offer terms of an accommodation fit to be accepted that is by annulling or suspending for ever the authority of the Tridentine council which is a thing not to be expected from them or rather unless the Princes of the Roman Communion shall force the Pope to call another Council and in case of refusal shall assemble several Bishops and Doctors of their respective countries to debate the controversies which are now on foot and to determine them by Scripture primitive Antiquity and Apostolical Tradition It will yield just matter of astonishment to the serious Reader to consider that the institution of the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist which Christ left to his Church in remembrance of his passion and death and for a pledge of his love and as a mark and token of the mutual love of Christians and of their faith in him crucified whom that Sacrament does truly and efficaciously represent and exhibit should by the subtilty of the Devil and the perverse disputings of interested persons be so far abused and perverted that they should hence take occasion of envying eternal salvation purchased by his precious bloud and of denying it too as much as in them lyes to such as are partakers of those holy mysteries according to his original institution For what other reason can be alledged for that fury which under the notion and pretext of zeal has taken up arms as if the cause of God were concerned in it and has brought that great confusion upon the world unless because they have different notions and sentiments about this tremendous mystery and disagree somewhat in their explications of it What great quantity of Christian bloud has been spilt by an enraged party upon the accompt of these unhappy Sacramentary quarrels which have ended in bloudy wars and Massacres What great havock and wast have they made both by fire and sword of thousands of their Fellow Christians beyond the fury and madness of the Heathen persecutions who were in all other points innocent and were therefore burnt and had their throats cut only for this one great crime because they would not admit believe and acknowledge contrary to scripture reason sense and experience the portentous and extravagant fiction of Transubstantiation There is no Christian but believes Christ to be really and truly that is spiritually and to all the real effects and benefits of his Passion and death and by the efficacy of his grace and Spirit present under the sacred Symbols which yet retain their true and natural substance as well as qualities and that he receives the mystical body of Christ after the consecration according to the words of the institution upon which the faith of all Christians is founded and what has been professed in all ages and justly esteemed the badge of Christian communion by all sober persons whose judgments have not been perverted by passion and unjust prejudice If every one without any curious enquiry into this mystery had contented himself with the plain and simple belief of it and with all due care had intended the worthy partaking of it if the Church of Rome had not first of all in the Lateran council and after that in the council of Trent rashly determined the manner of the presence of Christ in the sacrament if the Lutherans and others had onely determined for themselves without prescribing to or condemning others and if an explicite belief of this monstrous opinion had not been made a necessary term and condition of communion how might we have adored before the same altars from which we are now excluded as profane unworthy and excommunicate persons and from which we have reason to abstain and fly as the primitive Christians did from the sacrifices of Idolaters and have been present at the most solemn services of religion with the same zeal to the great advantage of Christian charity and devotion No Priest would then have been afraid to admit any devout lay-person approaching the holy sacrament with due preparation and no lay-person would then also have been afraid to receive it from the hand of such a Priest rightly ordained and constituted The like may be said of many other points of religion which without any prejudice to the doctrine of Faith are disputed and controverted but whilst all other interpretations and expositions being laid aside men boldly decree and determine this or that opinion to be de fide whilst the niceties of the Schoolmen and the positions of contentious and Polemical Theology which idle men relying too much upon their subtil wit and false and sophistical way of arguing have introduced are in such esteem and vogue with some as to be lookt upon as necessary appendages of the Christian religion and whilst articles of faith which were altogether unknown