that subordination which God had appointed and not submitting themselves to the Superiour Authority of the Priesthood And Sir it may be worth your observation that this Plea of the Doctor and that of the Hebrew Rebels have the same sense for just thus they plead Numb 16. 3. All the Congregation is holy every one of them that is in the Doctor 's phrase Do we not own Moses his Laws the same points of faith the same acts of Worship But this plausible plea would not prevail nor mitigate the provocation for God punished one Schism with another The earth rent and swallowed them up and with open mouth taught the rest of the Church to keep Unity and Order as well as the profession of a true Religion Therefore the Answer is very easie to the Doctor 's ruffling Question Do we not own Christ his Gospel the same points of faith the same acts of Worship where is the separation then Why Sir the separation is in dividing from the communion of all the Bishops and Episcopal Presbyters who in a constant line succeeding the Apostles have only a just and regular Authority to govern and guide the Christian Church The Doctor in the beginning of pag. 34. tells us That a controversie among them of the same communion is the chief if not the only notion of Schism that the Scripture gives us I confess the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schism in its general notion signifies any manner of separation or division and therefore I do acknowledge that those dissentions that were within the bowels of the Apostolick and Catholick Church were called Schisms both in the Scripture and in the Writings of the antient Fathers but this does not hinder but that the same word may be used to signifie a separation from the Catholick Church for if a wound in the body may be called a Schism sure Amputation or the cutting off from the body is the greatest rent and Schism in the World For though there were indeed divisions in the Church of Corinth where some were for Paul and some for Apollos and some for Cephas this at the worst was but a faction or a breach of charity but it was not properly Schism in the highest sense of the word for they still setled themselves under the Government and Ministry of the Apostles or some Presbyters ordained by the hands of the Apostles But those Conventicles that crept into houses and formed Assemblies distinct from the communion of the Apostolick Church those that heaped to themselves Teachers which as the phrase imports were not set over them by Apostolick Order and Institution those that despised Dominion and sake evil of those Dignities which did superintend the Government of the Church These men St. Jude tell us were those that did separate themselves that is were Schismaticks and just so are their Brethren the Sectaries of England Before I proceed to the next enquiry that concerns the Schism from the Church of England it will be necessary to state the right notion of the Catholick Church according to the sense of the antient Councils and Fathers The Doctor and his Complices are for Comprehension and give us a very wide notion of the Catholick Church for they will have all men that profess the name of Christ though in some things Hereticks and Schismaticks too yet to be included within the boundaries of the Catholick Church But I observe the Antients would not endure this Comprehension for they reckoned none to be in the communion of the Catholick Church but those who confessed the common faith delivered to the Saints and kept themselves under the Orders and Government of the Bishops who were the Apostles Successors and therefore oft-times in Councils and antient Epistles we find this Superscription To the Catholick Church in Antioch To the Catholick Church of Alexandria To the Catholick Church of Rome c. this still being used in contradistinction from the Novatians Arrians and Donatists which the antient Church look'd upon as Schismaticks and extra Ecclesiam Now having advanc'd thus far the way is prepared for the second enquiry Whether our Non-conformists are guilty of Schism from the Church of England And I doubt not but to prove the Affirmative The Church of England adhere to that Creed which was delivered by the Apostles professed by the antient Primitive Church and confirm'd by the first four General Councils it hath preserv'd the Unity of Government by a succession of Bishops in the Apostolick line as appears from the undoubted Archives and Records of England Therefore we are secured that it is in the Unity of the Catholick Church and a most excellent part of it Now as our Christianity obliges us to be members of that body of Christ the Catholick Church So the eternal reasons of Peace and Order bind us to communicate with that part of the Catholick Church in which our lot hath plac'd us except it can manifestly appear that that part is so corrupted that we cannot communicate with it without evident hazard of our salvation It were an unpardonable disorder for a Native of England dwelling in London to contemn the Laws of our Prince and to govern himself by the Placaets of the United Provinces and it were as great a confusion for those who live within the Jurisdiction of the Church of England to submit themselves to the Orders and Government of Rome or Geneva Before the Papal Usurpation of Universal Monarchy the Patriarchs of the Christian Church had their distinct Limits and Jurisdictions The Patriarch of Constantinople had his peculiar Primacy or Regiment and was not to intermeddle with the Province of Alexandria and so the Bishop of Rome had his peculiar Jurisdiction and was allowed no inspection over Constantinople Antioch or Alexandria and these distinct boundaries were fixed by a Canon of the Council of Nice and because it conâ—utes both the Papal Supremacy and Puritanical Anarchy I will give you the copy of that Canon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Let the antient customs be in force Let the Bishop of Alexandria have the Jurisdiction of Aegypt Libya and Pentapolis as likewise the Bishop of Rome was accustomed to have in his Province and so let the Churches of Antioch and other Provinces keep their peculiar priviledges And so the Christians dwelling under these distinct Patriarchates were obliged to a respective obedience to their peculiar Provincial and to divide themselves from their proper Patriarch or Bishop was accounted Schism in the antient Church Timothy being constituted Bishop of all the Diocess of Ephesus the Christians residing within that Precinct were obliged by the rules of Order to submit themselves to his peculiar inspection and it had been Schism to have disobeyed him or separated themselves from his Jurisdiction St. Ambrose observed this decorum himself as he tells us by St. Augustin in an Epistle of his ad Januarium Cum Romae sum jejuno Sabbato cum hic sum non
him of Schism this Tract Intitul'd A Plea for the Non-conformists tending to justifie them against the clamorous charge of Schism by a Doctor of Divinity whom the Dissenters call Dr. Owen And whether I may attribute it to the slighting or carelesness of our Clergie I know not but as yet I have neither seen or heard of an Answer to it Sir The true Friendship I have for you and your abilities which I am no stranger unto prompts me to put this Plea into your handling and beg your Animadversions upon it Supposing the Doctor has much wandered from that Notion of Schism deliver'd down to us from the Primitive Fathers the sense of which Sacred Priests I shall alwayes rather espouse in any point I find so clearly determin'd by them than the crude and partial if not Enthusiastick Writings of some Moderns whose heads seem rather flatus't with a prejudic'd Interest than ballac'd with an Apostolick Sobriety When I reflect upon this Intrigue of the present Dissenters from the Church of England in confounding the Notion of Schism with that of Heresie and by that jejune project would evade that Scandal of being Schismaticks a discrimination esteemed so odious and perilous among all good Catholicks in all Ages of the Christian Church I can fancy no other reason they can have than this viz. lest their Proselytes and followers should be justly affrighted at the dangerous guilt of Schism and Separation and consult their return to that Fold which they have deserted which is certainly their safest Interest Another Stratagem which has not been less useful for them than the former is their contemning an Apostolical Succession of Priesthood and thereby lessening the hazard of a Schismatick condition in the opinion of the people This unchristian humour they continually instill into the Populacy and inforce it with this Anti-Apostolick Maxim That there is no difference between a Priest and a Laick but that the first reads the Prayers of the Church and Preaches Morally as they call it and the other is gifted with continual Revelations for that they must mean if any thing by praying by the Spirit in their notion I must confess I am as yet unconverted to these Opinions and have an awful respect to your Sacred Order and I could be as easily Proselyted to Atheism as to think a Knipperdolling or an Hugh Peters were as true Priests of the Living God as a Tertullian or a Chrysostom Sir As an obedient Son of the Church of England and a Loyal Subject to my Soveraign and so oblig'd to be very solicitous of the Welfare of Church and State give me leave to sigh out some thoughts which have been and are afflictive to my Solitudes and may detect if not the causes at least the encouragements of our Schisms When I see the admir'd providence of our indulgent Prince so eminently expressed in his Royal Amnestie and Act of Oblivion for the obliterating all Animosities and Rancours which might still ferment in the hearts of men so Diametrically opposite and who had espoused Cases as contradictory as best and worst contemned and flouted by an undutiful and unchristian humour of persisting in the same stubborness wherewith they have check'd two Glorious Princes and Mated a third God bless the fourth and wherewith they brought upon our Church and Kingdom the late horrid and lamentable confusions Indignation prompts me to think that Sincere Religion cannot reside in an ungrateful heart nor true Piety and Loyalty where there are no Symptoms of their repentance And let me appeal to common sense and reason what a frightful face of Government there would appear in this Nation if all His Majesties evil-disposed Subjects should as boldly resolve to perpetrate all those Crimes prohibited by the Common and Statute Laws of this Realm as the Dissenters do temerariously transgress or fraudulently evade those Statutes relating to Conformity When I see some of your Sacred Order fly at a Dignity a Bishoprick and when they have truss'd it quarry and prune themselves upon it and live as if a Diocess were only designed to Gorge and Aggrandize the Bishop and he not concern'd to be a faithful Shepherd to his flock but negligent if not wholly careless in no small part of his Episcopal Function and Paternal charge witness the omission of that Solemn Office of Confirmation nor obliged to moderate over and inspect the manners of his inferiour Clergie who are in Law but his Curates and whose vices and disorders reflect a Blot upon himself and a Scandal to the Church then I think the longer time runs its sand will be the fuller of dust and I am ready to renounce my Philosphy and believe that Gold may rust and we have too many Rosy-Crucians in Divinity to make their Remarques When our Parochial Clergie shall out of good nature tepidity or perjury omit if not all at least some part of the Divine Service to curry their Males and coaks their Females when to please a weak Sister the Cross after Baptism must not be used and for a bribe the Sacrament shall be Administred to a sitting Bumkin and the Priest shall civilly be from home when a thing departed is to have the Burial of an Ass when every Parish shall have a singular Directory and every waxen Priest shall assume a Papism to dispense with Oath Canons and Statutes and the Diocesan shall be demurely compos'd into a posture of consent with closed eyes and folded arms are we then like to be blest with one faith and one way When too many of our Nobility and Gentry shall assume that honour and glory to list themselves in and be reputed Sons of our Church of England but by their Profaneness Debauchery and prodigious vice live Antipodes to that holy Profession and act below the dictates of uneducated nature then I think this must be influential upon the Manners of the Populacy and create an inclination to Schism if not an absolute contempt of Religion in them who are commonly capable of no other direction in their Morals and Piety than the vertuous examples of their Superiours When too many of our Nobility and Gentry shall desert their antient Seats and Countrey Interests to enjoy an urbane effeminacy immerge in the gulfs of Luxury and to enervate in the Venereal Laboratories of the Town with the greater Security to their names and less observation of the world this must be reputed no small cause of Schism in their Tenants and Dependents who in many Lordships and places of the Nation want nothing more than the antique Hospitality of England and the Orthodox practice of their Landlords and Patrons to secure them against the cantings of the Wolves and to shame them into a conformable obedience and were it seriously consider'd how easie and natural the motion is from immorality and Atheism to disloyalty and civile Apostasie these Monsters would be proscrib'd the Courts of Princes to learn humanity among flocks and herds But when the Sacred Name of Jesus
to London to receive Consecration from the hands of our English Bishops and so engraft themselves again into the unity of the Catholick Church this they might easily do without being oblig'd to any subscriptions to Papal power or innovations if their omission of this arise from a contempt and abhorrence of Episcopacy I have no Apology for them neither would I be in the communion of those Churches for all the Bank of their East-India Company If any of the forreign Churches be under such unhappy circumstances that they can justly plead a necessity for having no Bishops or Priests of the Apostolick Succession I have great compassion for them and question not but God accepts them for I receive that as an indisputable Maxim That where there is an inevitable necessity there can be no guilt though the fact it self be never so much irregular But as for those Churches in general I have St. Pauls Charity Those that are without let God judge Thirdly Our squeamish Sectaries are offended at the Hierarchy of England because it derives its succession from the Bishops of Rome To which I have a double Answer First That I make not the Chair of Rome the sole Head or Origine of this Catholick succession for the Episcopal or Apostolick power of Government and Ordination was equally conferred upon all the Apostles by the general commission of our High Priest Jesus and therefore a succession of Bishops and Priests from any of these Apostles is enough to assert our unity with the Catholick Church You know the twelve Apostles are made the twelve foundation-stones of the Christian Temple and that part of the Church which in a right line is built upon St. James is as much in the unity and compact of the building as that which stands upon St. Peter Secondly Let us grant it that we claim our succession from the line of Rome this will no way prejudice the Episcopacy of England I hope it was no dishonour to the Holy Jesus that there were some of his Genealogy that had no very good fame in the World it was sufficient that by that line it was made evident our Lord sprung from Judah and it is enough for the Bishops of England to make it evident they sprung from the Apostles and though some of their line were men of impious lives or erroneous opinions that no way lessened their power of propagation nor invalidates the Authority of our succession Thus I have consider'd Schism as a separation from the Bishops and Priests of the Apostolick line and I see no reason to recant this notion And therefore the Appendixer is vastly mistaken pag. 9. when he tells us That if the Parliament did legitimate their Meetings there were an end of the Schism for they might indeed by a Law of Toleration acquit them from all the Temporal penalties of a separation but it would exceed all the Omnipotency of Parliaments to discharge them from the guilt of Schism for they must first compel their Teachers to take Episcopal Orders and bring in all the Conventicles into the communion of the Catholick Church and place them under the Government of their proper Bishops or else they would still be Schismaticks non obstante Statuto Before I conclude I will consider some grand Absurdities that will follow from the denyal of this notion First The profound Fanaticks in England clamour against the whole Hierarchy and will have the whole race of Arch-bishops and Bishops to be Anti-christian Now Sir I 'le appeal to your judgement if this be not blasphemy for then all the holy Bishops that assembled in the first four General Councils that did assert the truth of Christianity against Pagans Jews and Hereticks and those many Bishops of the antient Church that headed the noble Army of Martyrs must be damn'd as limbs of Antichrist Nay I cannot see how to defend Timothy and Titus from being Anti-christian too and if these Propagators of the Christian Faith were Anti-christian where shall we enquire for Christianity Nay this were a sure foundation for Atheism for how can it be reconcil'd to the Providence of a God or the care of Jesus that he should plant a Kingdom upon earth with a promise of his presence and most careful providence and yet to suffer his own Kingdom to be enslav'd under the usurpation of an Anti-christian yoke for sixteen hundred years together if this were true too many wise men would conclude with the fool in the Psalmist That there is no God Secondly If this succession of Bishops and Presbyters be not necessary to preserve our unity with the Catholick Church then the Keys must be thrown away and excommunication is but an idle impertinence for if there be not a certain body or corporation of Christians known by a succession of power and Priesthood from the Apostles how can it be known when a person is cast out of the Church for if the Christian Church be like a Wilderness where every family may pitch their Tent where they please there is no use of Keyes to so wide a desert Thirdly if this succession be not necessary how can any rational man be ever satisfied in the administration of Ministerial Offices as Sacraments and Absolution when there is no certain rule in the world by which he can rationally be assured of the regular Authority of him that ministers To conclude this if this notion of unity be disown'd then every Conventicle is a true Church and every man whom himself or the people fancy inspir'd must be receiv'd for a Prophet and God must lose one of his Titles The God of Order and Confusion must be believ'd to be an Ordinance of Heaven Before I conclude give me leave to reverse the Doctor and make his Front the Rear Sir the phrase may be allow'd for if I mistake not the Author has been a man of War and understands very well the Martial Dialect The Harangue with which the Doctor prefaces his Plea may justly be inverted It was doubtless one of the greatest infelicities that ever befell the whole body of people in these three Nations that when in the year 1662. Religion was so happily setled in Faith Worship and Government according to the pattern of the antient Catholick Church in the first three Centuries and though this Religion was ratified by the very hand of God and the dry bones reviv'd by the Miracle of an unexpected Restitution that yet there should be amongst us so many thousands of such perverse and sullen Tempers as not to be perswaded into the Churches communion neither by Law Reason nor Miracle I cannot discern the Doctors ingenuity in his second Section where he originates the Act of Uniformity in the anger ambition and covetousness of Church-men and allows our Governours not one grain of Prudence or Piety in the composure of that Law He first takes notice of the anger that rested in the bosom of Church-men who had been sufferers Methinks those men who had
Imprimatur G. Jane R. P. D. Henr. Episc Lond. Ã sac domesticis May 17. 1676. THE NOTION OF SCHISM Stated according to the ANTIENTS And considered with Reference to the NON-CONFORMISTS And the PLEAS for SCHISMATICKS examined Being Animadversions upon the Plea for the Non-Conformists With Reflections on that Famous Tract of Schism Written by M r. Hales In Two Letters to a very Worthy Gentleman LONDON Printed by R. W. for William Oliver and George Rose Booksellers in Norwich and are to be sold by them there and Nath. Brooks at the Angel in Cornhill and R. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard 1676. TO THE READER THE Plea for Non-conformists tending to vindicate them from Schism came to my hands long after its Edition and then by accident too But the Schism being still continued I hope you will not think it too Late or Impertinent to publish these Animadversions upon that Tract Now should I protest against all Vanity and Popularity disavow all Interest and Sinister designs should I tell you in most Solemn and Sacred protestations that I have no other end in the publication of these Papers but the Honour of God and the Peace of his Church yet it were still at your mercy to credit these Asseverations or receive them as the usual pretensions of every Author Therefore I resolve against the Impertinence of an Apologie and leave you to the common liberty of Censure If I meet with the fate of St. Paul to pass through good as well as bad Report I shall have Honour and content enough If thou art a sound and sober member of the Church of England I know thy Temper cannot be Sullen or Ill-natur'd it is thy Genius to be Candid and Generous and thy Religion makes thee Charitable and therefore I am assured that thy Balms cannot break my Head and if these Papers may in any measure contribute towards thy firmer settlement in the Communion of this Church my principal End is then effected If thou art a Dissenter from this established Church but hast not lost that Christian Temper of Modesty and Humility read on there is hope of thy recovery that thou wilt not dye a Schismatick But if thou art one who hast given up thy Name and thy Reason too to the Leader of a Conventicle let me beseech thee to read no further for this little Discourse will but provoke thy Passion I have no Hope to prevail upon Pertinacious resolutions I never yet cleansed a Leper nor raised the Dead but if I had I should notwithstanding Despond of ever perswading any Obstinate or Passionate man for it does not appear to me evident in all the History of the Gospel that our Lord among his many Mighty Works and Miracles ever cured Perverseness If thou art a Romish Recusant let me intreat thee to Suffer thy Reason to recover its Liberty and not alwayes be in Vassallage to those Roman Dictators I know there are many of that Religion in this Nation who are Gentlemen of Complaisant Converse and Ingenuous Education but I wonder that ye who pretend so much Abhorrence of Fanaticism and boast of Loyalty to your Prince should yet degrade your selves to the same Level with the Basest Sectaries and live in constant Rebellion to the Laws of your Natural Soveraign There is great Reason that the Kings of England should ever have a peculiar Jealousie upon your Party for though your Bodies and Estates are Subjects of England yet your Souls or Religion are under the Empire of a Forreign Jurisdiction and as long as ye continue so there is no Reason in the world that can give the Crown sufficient Security for your lasting Allegiance As for those of your Religion who live under the Laws of the Romish Dominions I have great Charity for them for they can plead submission to their own Superiours and I am apt to believe that Plea may be very considerable when they come to appear before the Prince of Peace and the God of Order But for you whose Lot hath cast you under the Government of the Kingdom and Catholick Church of England and yet to Divide from their Jurisdiction and subject your selves to the Canons of a Forreign Church is not only a Disobedience against the Laws of this Church and State but a Violation of the Antient Canons of the Catholick Church and is so great a Disorder and unreasonableness that the Penalties inflicted for your Recusancy are as Just as they are Severe and ye merit no Compassion Indeed if your deserting the Romish would put you out of the Catholick Church I would never upon those hard terms perswade you into our Communion Our Profession of Faith ye will acknowledge to be the antient Catholick and Apostolick Creed I know your principal Prejudice is against the Succession of our Bishops and the Authority of our Priesthood But let me beseech you to do so much Right to us and so much Justice to your selves as impartially to peruse Mr Mason's Vindication of the Ministry of the Church of England and if his Transcript of those Acts and Monuments of our Church will not satisfie you let some of your subtilest Jesuits convict that Author of Falshood or Imposture and I will acknowledge that we are no Catholick Church and you no Schismaticks There are many of your Religion persons of great Honour and Estates in this Kingdom who may easily have the Advantage to view and examine the Original Records of the Consecration of our English Bishops in that great Crisis of our Reformation and methinks in so weighty a matter where your Estates if not some raster Interest are highly concern'd ye should be strictly inquisitive and not so blindly acquiesce in a popular Mistake and Jesuitical delusion In the mean time I charge you with the guilt of Schism in Dividing from the Church of England and if you think your selves injur'd by this Indictment let any of your Romish Champions be the Doctor 's Second and publish a Plea for your Vindication and though I am none of the Worthies of England yet I will engage for a Reply If any of you shall think fit to require it I dare undertake to prove that the Canons of the Romish Church do no more oblige any Subject of England than our Statute Laws do bind the Poles or Moscovites and that it is as great a Disorder and Impertinence for the Bishop of Rome to excommunicate any of the people of England as it were for the Lord Chief Justice of England to outlaw Don Juan of Austria And now Reader I leave you to enjoy your Humour to be Candid or Clamorous as your fancy inclines you To be wounded with the Arrows of Bitter Words is a very easie kind of Martyrdom and say what you please I am resolv'd to be unconcern'd and subscribe my self Your Christian Friend R. C. Worthy Sir I Not long since receiv'd from the hand of a Non-conforming Pastor by way of Answer to my impeaching
shall be mouth'd by the most vicious persons to disguise an ugly perhaps a treasonous design and novi homines men of yesterday shall dare to trifle with that Scepter which dignified them and problem the Right of their Prince in the face of his Throne when Englishmen shall Italianize and shoot those envenom'd arrows their filthy Pasquils to wound their Prince in his reputation which is the soul of his Throne O then I think if it awakens not all the Sentinels of the Government sure they are in their dead sleep or infatuated for destruction When I consider the ill-boding circumstances attending the Church of England her prodigious rents her assiduous and impudent Adversaries accompanied perhaps with too much Supinity in some of her most Principal members and when it comes into my mind that Miracles are ceased too then each moment spur on my thoughts to expect when Religion now on tiptoes to be gone should turn her back upon us and that the ultimate failure of the Faith is at hand ready to be the Harbinger to the Catholick Doom But Sir not to trouble your more Serene Meditations with such melancholy reflections give me leave to Alarm you to Muster your notions and by your Animadversions upon this Doctor undeceive the deluded multitude in this weighty subject of Schism the Dam of our Mischiefs and which threaten the ruine of our Church and with that the unhinging that excellent temper of Government which has been the envy of the Nations SIR I am yours c. W. C. Honoured Sir THat Kingship and Episcopacy have been the antient and continued Government of this Nation in State and Church ever since our Primitive Christianity is evident from undoubted Records But the Gentlemen of our New English Interest mock at the two old Grandsires Monarchy and Hierarchy and begin to hope that they are come to their decrepit Age and not far from a Grave and they are preparing for their funeral It is now scandalous to be Loyal to our Prince or Regular to the Church You will be thought a mean-spirited Gentleman for expressing any regard to a Minister of Religion And you have no way to redeem your Honour but either to turn Atheist or list your self a Member of the New Interest And now Sir can it be reconcil'd to Friendship to ship your Friend when the Clouds look black and threaten a Storm But since you are as kind to me as you are to your self and are pleas'd to embarque with me I am resolv'd to adventure and am prepar'd for Tempest and that worst of Hurricanes the madness of the People I think it highly necessary to demonstrate our Non-conformists to be Schismaticks for though meer State Interest may legitimate many severities against those Persons and Principles that are Antipodes to the establish'd Government yet if that were truth which the Doctor pretends to prove That the Sectaries of England were as much in the family of Jesus or in the Communion of the Catholick Church as the Church of England it would puzzle my Reason to make a Substantial Apology for our Penal Laws But if we can make it evident that these men walk disorderly and are Separatists from the Catholick Church it will then appear that our Laws are so far from Rigor or Persecution that they are more charitable provisions and only design'd to compell men to come in to that Society where their Eternal Interest will be most rationally and manifestly secur'd When I first open'd the Doctor' s Plea you sent me mine eye chanc'd upon a very pleasant passage to this effect viz. That theGreek Church call the Church of Rome Schismatick and the Church of Rome return the Schismatick upon the Greek Church The Church of England make the Romish Church the Schismatick and the Church ofRome charge the Schism upon the Church ofEngland Again The Church of England call her Dissenters Schismaticks and the Dissenters think the Church to be Schismaticks from them and so we have call'd one another Schismaticks Round and therefore Schism is but Vox praeterea nihil nothing but a meer noise and Nick-name which every Party cast upon all them who are not of their Society But let us try the Strength of this Argument by translating it to another circulating word and that is Infidelity The Mahometan calls himself Musalman which my Persic Dictionary assures me signifies Faithful or Believer in God yet we Christians call the Mahometans Infidels and they call us Unbelievers We call the Jews Infidels and they return the same name upon us and the Mahometans too Both Christian Jew and Mahomentan pronounce all Pagans to be Infidels and ten to one but they are as stout and peremptory as the rest of Mortals and think all Mankind Infidels but themselves Thus the whole World have call'd one another Infidels Round and therefore Infidelity is but a meer empty noise and there is no such thing in the World as a True Religion I appeal to any sober Judgement if there be not as much Logick in this as there was in the other I hope it will be an easie discovery to find out the square of the Doctor 's Circle and to fix the Notion of Schism upon a certain Basis And therefore Sir in obedience to your Request I shall discuss that great Question Whether the Non-conformists in England meeting together for the Worship of God in places distinct from the Parochial Churches are not Schismaticks To this I shall answer in the Affirmative and shall consider this Separation First With respect to the whole Catholick Church Secondly With relation to the Church of England First To be a Member of the Catholick Church there is required a double Unity First An Unity of Faith or Doctrine a total separation from this we grant to be Apostasie a disowning any one fundamental Article makes a man a Heretick But in this does not consist the formal notion of Schism Secondly There is requir'd an Unity of Order or Government which St. Cyprian calls Unitas Ecclesiastica Now a Separation from this Unity hath the formality of Schism And for a right understanding of this I must look back to the first Origine of this Unity The Holy Jesus the great Author and Founder of our Religion was sent of God and all power in Heaven and Earth committed to him Now before his Ascension that he might not leave his Disciples to the end of the World to be governed by every pretender to Revelation which would have exposed his Kingdom upon Earth to eternal confusions and impostures he solemnly ordains and consecrates the Apostles his immediate Delegates upon earth John 20. 22. As my Father sent me even so send I you by vertue of which Commission the power of Ordaining Governing and conferring Orders did rest only in the Apostles They took care to continue this Succession and therefore Timothy was by the Apostles ordain'd Bishop of Ephesus and Titus of Crete and both invested with power of Jurisdiction and
invaded the Rights and Revenues of the Loyal Clergy should have been content with the publick remission and charity of the Act of Indemnity and not expect a Miracle that the Act of Oblivion should quite destroy the Church-mens memories for these ploughers had ploughed such deep furrows upon the Churches back that it was impossible such impressions should soon wear out The Doves were driven from their nest and their feathers of Gold pluck'd off by those ravening Vultures and they were forc'd in the Psalmists language to lye among the pots And yet after all this they must not so much as reflect upon all those rapines nor express any prudent caution against these Birds of prey but they must presently be accused of having too much gall His next charge is against the Zeal of Church-men to continue some Bishops the repute of Martyrs who had suffer'd for the vigorous inforcing of some of the things now enjoyn'd I observe the Doctor very warily covers the Blood of Charles the First but dares dip his fingers in that of the Bishops and yet I believe the King as well as the Bishop is left out from his Martyrologie Had the Bishops impos'd such Rites and Innovations as had been inconsistent with the reverence of Religion and the nature of Christianity had they urged such Observances which had never been practis'd in the Catholick Church nor required by the Church of England truly then the blood of Arch-bishop Laud should have no Rubrick in my Kalendar for then he had suffered as an evil doer But when those things required were founded upon good reasons of Religion the custom of the antient Church and enjoyn'd by the just Authority of this Nation I think the Arch-bishop who had the hard fate to fall in doing of his duty may in a sober sense be said to suffer for righteousness sake and be allowed the honour of some kind of Martyrdom Sir I do here declare my self an eternal enemy to that Religion which can consecrate Sacriledge hallow Rebellion and sanctifie Rapine and Injustice Nor will I ever have any communion with those men who Canonize the most infamous Traytors and Murderers for Saints and condemn the best King and Bishop in the World for Malefactors I don't see but by the Theorems of this Jewish Divinity Barabbas might have been Sainted and Christ recorded for an Impostor The next accusation brought against Church-men is their desire of filthy Lucre. I confess covetousness is one of the greatest shames of humane Reason and that it is a most absurd impertinence to see Spiritual men to fond upon the things of earth But if that must be called a desire of filthy Lucre when a man perhaps a little too passionately desires and enjoyes his own just Rights and Properties then sure it was the foulest Lucre for those men no invade the Revenues of the Church to which they had no Title neither by the Law of God nor the Statutes of the Nation Sure none but a Pharisee could have overseen so vast a beam in his own eye and taken such great notice of a little spot in his Brothers The Acts of Uniformity and that against Private Meetings are describ'd as Severe and Tragick as if they had been the Edicts of Nero or Dioclesian I do believe had the very same Laws been by the Roman Emperours imposed upon the Catholick Church in the first three hundred years they would have made a Jubilee and have been celebrated by the antient Christians with Hymns and Hallelujahs The Sentiments of these men differ so much from the judgement of the antient Christians as if they were not of the same Religion And Sir you may remember some Ordinances of Parliament that did more bloody execution than all the Laws and Canons Royal of England Sure you have not forgot when Loyalty to our Prince and faithfulness to the establish'd Religion was damn'd for Malignancy and the Loyal Nobility Gentry and Clergy of England were condemn'd to Axes and Halters Plunderings and Sequestrations Prisons and Banishment And yet all these Tragick Scenes must have a silken curtain drawn over them and must be interpreted as expresses of holy zeal and Rigour and Persecution charg'd only upon the Acts of Uniformity and that against Conventicles From pag. 3. to pag. 7. the Doctor labours to assert the great numbers of Non-conformists and insinuates that the prudence of our Governours could never have passed the Act of Uniformity if they had not been mis-informed that the numbers of Non-conformists were very inconsiderable I confess in State Logick number is a weighty argument and in Politicks it must be thought imprudence to disoblige a numerous party who are able to affront their Governours and cast away their cords from them Cum plurimi peccant impunes sunt But whether the establishing parties and divisions by a Law do consist with the Piety of a Christian Prince I shall leave to your Judgement to enquire But I see by the Doctor 's Maxims of Prudence if the World run after the Beast it is but the duty and wisdom of the Kings of the Earth to fall down and worship him and if the Arrian faction be great and popular it is Prudence in Constantius to Arrianize It is worth observing how these men to serve their Interest can quit their old impropriation of the little flock and to make themselves formidable will appear as the Syrians that cover the Land But this Popish Argument of Number is never urg'd but upon design for it is confess'd Multitude is no infallible argument of truth for Anti-christ will out poll us He complains that there is a vast number of Atheistical livers that seldom or never resort to Publick worship and yet these escape the Indictments of Law Censures of the Church but all the arrows are made ready against the servants of the Living God Whether the Title of the Servants of God which these men appropriate to themselves be not a Presumption I shall leave to be examin'd by Omniscience But I am sure they are guilty of some actions of so bad a tincture that may make the World justly suspect they wear the Livery of another Master But if there be a remisness of Government in England or a connivance to Atheâ—istical Separatists it is our complaint and lamentation as well as theirs The Doctor in the same Section makes the number of the Atheists in England not inferiour to the Non-conformists And then by the late insinuation their number will likewise plead for Toleration and it will not be prudence to molest them And where there are many Sectaries it is no wonder there should be as many Atheists You know Sir it was remarqued by a very observing Gentleman That there were more Atheists in the Seven Provinces than in the rest of Christendom we must now except England and he gives us this reason for his conjecture That there were so many Religions that there were great numbers of men that
Congregations may retain Imposition of hands as a mockery of Ordination yet the imposing of Lay-hands have no more power to confer Priesthood than I to have to constitute a Judge of Oyer and Terminer Mr. Hales makes Schism and Sedition of a very resembling nature He tells us That Sedition is a Lay Schism and Schism is an Ecclesiastical Sedition Now 't is true it would be a great Sedition to set up a Prince of the Blood in opposition to our Soveraign who by long and Legal Investiture hath been possessed of Regal Supremacy But it would be Sedition of a deeper dye to renounce all Allegiance to our Prince and to cast off the whole Royal Line and to set up a Forreigner or one who had no alliance to the Royal Blood Thus if to set up one Bishop in opposition to another though both be of the same Apostolick succession if this be a Schism and a great disorder then sure for our Sectaries to cast off all the Bishops and Priests of the Catholick Church and to set up such Teachers and Governours who have no relation to the Sacerdotal Line this must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the outmost and most Schismatical separation from the Catholick Church But Mr. Hales proceeds and gives us a distinction of Schism There is a Schism where only one part is the Schismatick for where the occasion is necessary there not he that separates but he that is the cause of the Separation is the Schismatick This shall be allowed to be Orthodox too and when our Non-conformists can demonstrate that it is necessary for them to separate from the Church of England we will take off the Indictment and absolve them from Schism But they must prove this necessity from weightier Topicks than Fringe and Lace They must make it evident that they cannot communicate with us without manifest dishonour to God affront to Jesus and his holy Religion and evident hazard of their salvation But this can never be prov'd but from the New Gospel of private Conscience for I am sure the Church of England is so happily constituted that there is no Law nor Canon in the four Evangelists or in the Apostolick Acts or Epistles that will justifie a separation from it much less vote it to be necessary Secondly Our Author tells us That there is a Schism in which both parties are the Schismaticks for where the occasion of Separation is unnecessary neither side can be excused from the guilt of Schism An instance of this he gives us in that great division between the Eastern and WesternChurches about the Observation of Easter I confess I can make no Defence for the Churches of the East or West for that uncharitable division upon the account of a different Ceremony for sure the several parts of the Catholick Church might have enjoy'd their peculiar Rites and usages and yet preserv'd an entire peace and universal communion I am of St. Austin's mind Totum hoc genus liberas habet observationes nec Disciplina ulla est in his melior gravi prudentique Christiano quam ut eo modo agat quo agere viderit Ecclesiam ad quamcunque forte devenerit But how this Instance of the Paschal Schism should be improv'd to serve the Interest of our English Sectaries I can no way discern He that can from hence extract a Plea for our Non-conformists must have greater skill in Theological Chymistry than I dare pretend to For though this unhappy controversie occasioned a breach of charity and communion yet here was no departure from the Catholick Church on either side nor any violation of Order and Government for the Christians of the East observ'd the Canons and Customs of the Eastern Church and submitted themselves to the Government and Ministery of those Bishops and Priests in whose Jurisdiction they liv'd and so likewise in the West vice versa And would our Non-conformists learn but so much Order and Obedience there were an end of the Schism Thus I have consider'd the Theorems of our Admir'd Author and I find no mischief in them but there are still behind such a Train of consequences as in my opinion are of very evil insinuation and do no way merit to be reckon'd among his Golden Remains I cannot approve of his severe Censure upon the Antient Church upon the account of the Paschal difference for he interprets that Breach to be a just judgement of God But then Sir mark the Provocation because sayes he that through sloth and blind obedience men examin'd not the things which they were taught but like Beasts of Burden patiently couch'd down and indifferently underwent whatever their Superiours laid upon them I abhorr the Barbarity of rifling Sepulchres or disturbing the Ashes of the Dead But I wish our ingenious Author had invented some kinder Emblems for the Antient Christians than Ass and Camel For though they were so humble and peaceable as quietly to submit to the Orders of their Spiritual Governours yet they were not so tame as to truckle to an Idol though commanded to couch by Imperial Injunctions I will never plead for a brutish inadvertency or a blind and unchristian obedience to our Superiours The Church provides by a Canon that all Christians should once be Catechumeni instructed in the plain Fundamentals of Faith and Piety and therefore it is not intended that men should be impos'd upon in matters that concern their common salvation and there is great reason that in things of that moment men should be cautious and inquisitive But I believe that Apostolick Canon Let all things be done in Decency and Order hath left a great scope to the wisdom of our Superiours to order the publick Administrations of Religion And in institutions of this nature the people being secured of all the pure necessaries to salvation I don't think they are oblig'd to any further examination their greatest duty in this case is a quiet submission The Gentile Christians of Antioch knew themselves to be free'd from all Jewish or Levitical Observances but yet when the Council at Jerusalem for prudential Reasons and considerations enjoyn'd them the Abstinence from Blood and things offered to Idols we don't read that they enquir'd any further but quietly obeyed that Canon and yet I hope those primitive Christians deserv'd a better name and character than Beasts of Burden in matters of this nature I cannot yet discern the guilt or irreligion of a blind obedience I could wish that all Christians would keep the common Faith and practise the plain Rules of Christian Religion and these things being preserv'd entire I see no mischief if in other things we should leave our Superiours to govern and submit even with blind obedience and not trouble our selves and the World with nice and scrupulous examinations Blind or unexamining obedience to our Superiours with those limitations I have stated would so much assure the peace and order of the Church that if it were not a vertue yet I am sure it
it would be happy if all Christians would quietly enjoy their Differences of Opinion and be so far of one mind as to go up together to the Temple to pray and communicate with the Catholick Church in Sacris The Church of England retains no Sacraments but those which have the manifest Authority of Divine Institution All the Prayers of this Church are immediately directed to the Eternal God and all presented in the Name of Jesus We Petition for nothing but what the Religion of Jesus allows us to supplicate And therefore I see no reason why all the People of this Nation who are not Atheists and Anti-christian should not communicate with us in those confessed Services of Prayers Praises and Sacramentals And this is all that is required by that Tyrannical Act of Uniformity And therefore that great Popular Orator in his late Harangue to the House of Lords has imposed a Fallacy upon us For he passionately complains against the Law for devesting the People of their Properties only because they cannot agree with Church-men in some uncertain Opinions of Religion I hope it will not amount to Scandalum Magnatum to say that this is meer Sophistry For our Laws prosecute no man for difference of Opinion no so far from this that the very Act against Conventicles allows our Dissenters not only their different Opinions but the quiet use and enjoyment of their several Religions in their own Families nay it granted them a further Favour and Liberty that they might receive four or five more of the same dissenting Brotherhood to make the exercise more full and satisfying Here was nothing prohibited but noise and multitude But they might notwithstanding that Law have peaceably enjoyed their different Opinions and Property too that great Fundamental of State Religion The Church doth not put the souls of men upon the Rack or command an exact consent to all her Publick Articles but indulges a difference of Opinion it only provides for the Beauty Order and Solemnity of Publick Worship by enjoyning all the Christians of this Kingdom to communicate with us in those common Sacra that all sober Christians acknowledge to be of universal obligation But here your Doctor would Rejoyn that it is as far from Cornwall to Berwick as from Berwick to Cornwall and demand a Reason why we do not exercise as much charity to others as we expect to our selves or why we should not with as much Reason be obliged to communicate with their Assemblies as to expect them to be present at ours For our Author was so kind to Dissenters as he tells us He sees no Reason why we should not mix with those divided Assemblies where there was nothing done but what True Piety and Devotion would brook If I may credit my own conscience I have a very serious love and veneration for all True Piety and Devotion But I am resolved to have no communion with Conventicles and will faithfully acquaint you with my Reasons for that Resolve First My ears are not fitted for the unintelligible Rapsodies of Enthusiastick Divinity Nothing impresses upon me but what my Reason and Judgement can give a sober account of And I am sure there are many Assemblies in England called Religious Meetings whose chiefest Devotions consist in nothing but Froth and Groans to borrow an odd phrase from our Author Secondly I will appeal from our Author to Mr. Hales who towards the end of this Tract gives us a very Orthodox Definition of a Conventicle A Conventicle is a Congregation of Schismaticks or all Meetings upon unnecessary separation and concludes that it is not lawful no not for Prayer for Hearing for Conference or for any other Religious Office whatsoever for the People to Assemble otherwise than by Publick Order is allowed Now since I can enjoy a communion with the Catholick Church and all the advantages of Christianity without going to a Conventicle I think it were neither Piety nor Devotion for me to communicate with those Congregations which our Author grants to be unlawful Assemblies Had I lived in the dayes of Dioclefian I would have been a member of the Ecclesia Subterranea and have assembled with the Catholick Christians in Caves and Grotto's which necessity had consecrated into Holy Places But since it is my happy Lot to live in that Age and Kingdom where Christianity may be confessed above ground since a just Authority hath opened our Churches seeing I may offer all the Publick Devotions that God requires in those Solemn Places which the Law appoints Since I can at the same time be both Devout towards God and Obedient to my Governours I resolve I will have no communion with those Assemblies which the Law of the Nation and the Canons of the Church make irregular Sir I assure you it adds some cheerfulness to my Publick Devotions that I can at the same time both give unto God the things that are God's and to Caesar the things that are Caesar's Thirdly I resolve I will never be a member of our separate Congregations because in them I cannot be assured of my compleat communion with the Catholick Church or the advantages of a Regular Priesthood I question not but God may pardon without the Absolution of a Priest and give a man possession of eternal life without the seal or title of a Sacrament but salvation is a matter of such vast importance that I would never adventure it upon extraordinary Methods in concerns of Religion and everlasting interest I love to enjoy all the security that God hath given to mankind In that great Schism of Israel some of the most sober and considering Jews were not satisfied with their communion in that new Church of Israel though it was established by the Law of Jeroboam but returned to worship at Jerusalem yet the Tribes of Israel retain'd the same Creed with those of Judah and the Calves of Dan and Bethel were not design'd for Idols but set up in imitation of the Cherubims in the Temple but these wise men were dissatisfied because their Priests were not of the Aaronical Line and had no other Consecration or Authority but what was deriv'd from the Patents of Jeroboam and they could not be assured that God would accept their Oblations from the hands of those men who had no Regular Priesthood Now there is great Reason to believe that there should be as much order in the Kingdom of Jesus as there was in the Jewish Polity and therefore I am assur'd both by Reason and Sacred Oracles that there is an Evangelical Priesthood that hath succeeded that of Aaron That there is a peculiar Order of men who have receiv'd this Priestly Authority by a Regular Ordination from the Apostles Successors And I esteem these men according to St. Paul's Injunction as the Stewards of the manifold Mysteries of God and the Ministers of Reconciliation and therefore without an inevitable necessity I will never live without the advantage and satisfaction of their Ministerial Authority St.