Church of England in her Liturgy or Common-Prayer commonly called Divine Service is Communion with the Church-Visible in Solemn and Publique Worship and then the Conclusion must be Therefore Communion with the Church of England in her Liturgy and Common-Prayer is an Essential part of the sanctification of the Sabbath or Lords day and a positive indispensable duty c. and by consequence Non-Communion c. must be a breach of duty and therefore a sin viz SCHISM REMONS Honoured Friend My Answer to this shall be threefold Viz 1. By way of Concession 2. By way of Distinction 3. By way of Retortion 1. By way of Concession That the Church of England That is the Community of Christians in this Nation concorporated by Baptism professing the true God and Jesus Christ and subjected to the Word and Sacraments c. is a true Church cannot in justice be denyed Her Primitive Constitution being by History Times Index and our best Intelligencer touching Antiquity known to have been Apostolical administers to me no occasion of doubt in the thing But whoever were the Seminary Founders thereof whether Simon Zelotes or Joseph of Arimathea Christs Immediate Emissaries or Aristobolus or Augustine the Monk 't is no matter of Faith only let none despise-his Birth-right as Esau did his O what a happinesse is it that our Native Land should be a thus Consecrated Soil and that we should be by birth in this respect Sons of the Church Visible Church Members The Inroades of Popery into this Iland since the Sun of Righteousnesse first rose herein have been both various and violent and what they may further be God knows but God hath safe-kept his English-Ark in the midst of that Deluge the Rock of Ages hath hitherto been her Ararat By no Antichristian Inundations was she ever as yet totally overwhelmed Popery spoiled her Beauty but did not destroy her Being Mr. Crofton turning Confessor hath acknowledged this Churches present Corruptions as well in Things viz Worship and Ordinances therein administrable by as in Persons both Ministers and People Visible Members the Integral Parts thereof But a True Church is one thing a Pure Church another Here is the New-Creature Hereafter onely the Pure-Creature Now the question is not about Church-purity alas Adulterate Mixtures and Innovations in the Worship of God are a too too plain confutation of this now but Church-Entity the Truth and Being of the Church which our English Donatists Mr. Crofton may know whom I mean having formerly well nigh confounded did like their Progenitors most sacriledgiously monopolize the Church of Christ in this Nation confining the Formality and therefore the Truth and very Essence of a Church within the narrow compasse of their Confederate Members as if it had not been possible for their Ark to contain a Cham or for Tares to grow within their Inclosure God will I hope humble them for it Truth we must needs ascribe to the Church of England while She professedly owns the Faith of Christ and the True Religion For the Truth of Religion proves the Entity or Being as the Power of Religion the Purity of a Church while She owns the Head she must not be disowned for a Part of the Body the Church Catholick-Visible while She separates not from Christ we have no warrant totally and positively to separate from Her She may be Christs Spouse viz Visibly and Professedly though not a Chast-Virgin-Spouse a Wife though an Adulteresse retaining her Affinity though not her Virginity Corruptions in the Church are either 1. Personal or 2. Real Real again either or 1. Substantial and Intrinsecal 2. Circumstantial and Extrinsecal The latter is Mr. Croftons own distinction though possibly he and I may differ in the application of it Personal Corruptions in Scandalous Professors or Visible Church Members Ministers as well as others the Hophnie's and Phinehas's of our age defile a Church Corruptions Objective and Real though onely Circumstantial and Extrinsecal in Outward Rites and Ceremonies or corrupt Modes and Methods of Administration as the Antiquated Jewish Vestments Crosse in Baptisme Kneeling at the Supper c. adulterate a Church Corruptions Substantial and Intrinsecal which are Church-wasting Corruptions the very Vitals and Intrinsecals of Religion being by them destroyed do ipso facto actually divorce a Church from Christ those are the steps of Church-Apostacy when the Wife becomes a Lewd-Woman Single Fornication in the first Adultery in the second A Bill of Divorce in the last The Church of England is too truly chargeable with the two first but not with the last as is the Church of Rome she having not as yet I pray God she never may with her degenerated from a Christian Church into an Antichristian See nor her Members with hers from Professors to Persecutors of the Faith not holding the True Head but setting up ANOTHER NAME being in Doctrine damnably Heretical in Worship grossely Idolatrous in both Antichristian The Essentials Constitutive of a True Church are 1. the Head 2. the Body 3. the Vnion that is between them which three concurring in the Church of England Christ being her professed Head she being Christs professed Body and the Catholick-Faith being the Vnion-Bond whereby they are coupled together She cannot in justice be denyed to be a True though the Lord knows far from a Pure Church Vid. Jun. lib. de Ecclesia Herein I agree with Mr. Crofton 2. By way of Distinction Two things are here to be distinguished viz. 1. Communion with the Church-Visible 2. Solemn and Publick Worship 1. There is a twofold Communion viz. One by Profession Another by Participation 1. Church-Communion by way of Common Profession of the same true Religion Faith Doctrine and institured worship of Christ by vertue whereof all the Members of the Church Catholick Visible throughout the World are concorporated and embodyed one with another and all of them with Christ as a Publick Head Catholick Faith being the ground of Catholick Communion the main Ligament of the great Body Mystical is not only a Duty but a Priviledge too indispensably necessary to salvation Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus is a severe Maxim not more known then true no Salvation ordinarily without the Churches Line of Communication The Church is Gods Inclosure Cant. 9.12 his Nursery planted with the Trees of Righteousnesse without whose Pale and Boundaries all that die doe perish Ah my Dear Friend Let me rather be a Myrtle in the Vineyard then a Cedar in the Forrest 'T were better England should be unpeopled then unchurched A Church-lesse People is a Christ-lesse People and if Christ-lesse then Hope-lesse Ephes 2.12 Christ is the Head of the Body the Church Coll. 1.18 No Vnion with this Head without Communion with this Body Christ must be professed or else never possessed no Saint-State without a Church-State no Call by the Spirit without a Call by the Word first so that no Word no Life Rom. 10.13 14. Whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord
breach in tantum though not in totum a breach in yet 't is no interruption or breach of Vnion but rather a temporary intermission of Comfortable Communion What though the Trees of Righteousnesse have their Autumn-season their fall of the leaf the trees of the Vineyard as well as those of the Forrest There is still an Indeficient principle of life in them by vertue of their incision and ingrasture into their Common Root Christ the Tree of Life This is both defensive and offensive Armour against our Arminian Adversaries who daringly assert a Schism and Seperation here de possibilis that is that 't is possible for the truly Faithfull totally and finally to apostatize from Christ and thus of true Converts to become very Cast-awayes sad doctrine Might we receive what they obtrude for Orthodoxy verily we might betake our selves to our pen and write our faith vain all our prayers lost and our selves of all men most miserable If the foundation be destroyed what can the Righteous do But now here is the Beleevers Fort-Royal namely his Inviolable Conjunction with his Living Head Christ this is an impregnable bottom of Saint-stability groud of Christian-perseverance and guard against their total-final Apostacy Quatenus unimur munimur this Vnity is our Safety By vertue of this to speak a big word the State of grace is equally safe though not equally comfortable with the State of glory and the Spiritual State of the weakest equally safe though not equally comfortable with that of the strongest Beleever salvation being annexed to a Real Vnion with Christ which is grounded on the truth of Faith not to comfortable Communion with him which ordinarily attends the raised degrees and strength of Faith Conclude we then all the Members yea the very meanest of the Church Invisible to be in this sense Invincible Obeunt non pereunt dye they must perish they shall not cannot None of them is lost The second is that Vnion and Communion wherein all the Members of the Church Catholick-Visible the Professors of the true Religion throughout the world are by vertue of their Common Profession of One Lord One Faith Eph 4.5 One Baptisme Gospel-doctrine and worship united amongst themselves and joyntly concorporated with Christ as One Entire Body Catholick Now to apply this to our purpose 1. The Vnion that is between Christ and the Catholick Visible-Church considered as a Collective Body of Professors is also un-interruptible admits of no breach She in this sense can neither by Universal Apostacy fall off nor by any Violence be broken off from her Common Head Christ True The Church hath her Moon-like waxings and weanings gradual though not substantial Changes SIONS Sun hath his Apogaeums and Perigaeums The Waters of the Sanctuary their Reciprocations they often ebb as well as flow The Churches Glory is frequently what by Intestine Corruptions and Divisions what by forreign Combinations against her and Torrents of persecution clouded and eclipsed insomuch that an ICHABOD might often seem best to become her whom yet her Lord hath dignified with this title of honour Christ-Mystical But the Light of the Church though often eclipsed was never as yet extinguished being continually renewed by the Auxiliary influences of the great Sun of Righteousnesse The Truth hath in no age wanted either Patron or Proselyte The Visible Church surely was very Consumptive when the whole Body seemed to be contracted to one Member abridged in a single Elijah that second Jerub-baal a Champion-Zealot for the Truth and yet even then were there no less than 7000 Non-Conformists in Israel 1 King 19.10.14.18 God had got their Hearts and now Baal shall not so much as have a knee Reflect we upon the Primitive Churches Sanguine Complexion under the Tyranny and ten Persecutions of the Heathenish Heroes when the whole earth was * Aug. in Psa 118. Vid. Corn. Tacit. Lib. 5. Annal. Tertul. Apolog advers Gent. purpled and scarleted with Martyr-blood when the very name of Christian was a Crime when he that professed himself a Christian dyed by a Sanguinary Law enacted to that purpose without either self-defence or conviction when thousands were dispatched being nominis tantum et sectae rei guilty of a meer name Christian When Dioclesian that Infernal Wolf having upon a Hell-devised Oracle or Prophecy viz That if the Christians were but once cut off the Roman Empire would wonderfully flourish caused no lesse than 17000 to be massacred in one moneth did most wickedly boast De delet◠nomine Christiano That he had everlastingly rased out of memory and utterly abolished the very name of a Christian yet could not the sword of violence ever intersect the line of Church-Succession yea the more they were mowed down the more they multiplyed Plures efficimur quoties metimur saith that Christian-Mecaenas * Apolog. adver Geut Tertullian Againe who could have expected any to have appeared for the patronage of the Truth under the Torrid Zone of Antichristian persecution and yet behold even then hath Christ his two Witnesses Rev. 11. Two though but two though the least number yet a number though a small yet a competent number a Quorum of Witnesses by whose testimony the opposed Truth should be protected and established so impossible a thing it is that Christ should ever be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a Witnesse Call we to mind Modern Persecutors That English Lionnesse Q. M. with her Wolf and Leopard Brethren in iniquity Bloody Charis the fifth and the Duke of Alva both which died their souls red with blood they having destroyed of Protestants the one 50000 in the Low Countries the other 18000 in Belgia in six years time the French Massacre Anno 1572. Even all the conflicts between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent since the quarrel was first begun in Paradise which hath been fiercely pursued well nigh six thousand years All that time hath God uninterruptedly maintained a continued Series and Succession of Persons notwithstanding Captivities and hostile Cruelties Patriarks Prophets and all the Old-Testament-Professors Apostles Fathers Councels Confessors Martyrs and all New-Testament-Saints in and by whom the true Religion hath been professed preserved and successively though not alwayes very successefully propagated kept by some guarded by others and through good providence transmitted by all to us Isa 53.10 'T is impossible that Christ should want a Seed a Church or that Church a Guardian and Defendor of the Faith For the Church to be Christ-lesse and for Christ to be Church-lesse are equall impossibilities The Church Militant is Christs Sublunary Kingdom which admits of no Interregna or Vacancy There is in her though not an Infallibility yet an Indeficiency Subject she is to Corruption within but not to Interruption to Obstruction from without but not to destruction She is a house built upon a Rock Mat. 16.18 and this Rock is Christ the Foundation as well as Founder of his Church therefore she must needs
be Impregnable and Invincible The Gates of Hell shall not prevaile against her A promise ever made good to the Whole Body of the Catholick-Visible as it is to every Individual Member of the catholick-invisible-Catholick-Invisible-Church 2. That the Vnion which is between Christ and Particular Visible Professors and Churches parts of the Church Catholick-Visible may be broken and interrupted is a truth that hath been verified in many sad experiences forasmuch as all are not Israel that are called Israel Many Particular Churches and Councels however our Neighbours in the Church of Rome amongst the rest of their Romish strange-fire ascribe an Infallibility and unerring Quality to them yet are known to have so far degenerated as to become instead of Churches of Christ Synagogues of Satan witnesse the Churches of Asia which though once recorded for Golden Candlesticks Rev. 2. yet are at this day the Receptacles of Mahometan Idolatry Judea that degenerate Vine Rome that Adulterate See c. But this is not only Schism but Apostacy being a degeneracy from the true Catholick-Apostolick Faith and a Separation from or not holding of the head from which all the body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God Col. 2.19 which is inconsistent not onely with the Vnity but with the Verity and very Being of a true Church whence those Churches are deservedly called Apostatical as well as Schismatical and Renegadoes or Fugitives from the Faith of Christ such as Parphyrie Julian miserable Spira and such like who have of Visible and Professed Members of the Body become Enemies to the Head some of them turning open Persecutors of that Faith whereof they were once Professors are not barely called Separatists but branded for cursed Apostates 3. The Communion wherein the Members of this great Corporation the Church Catholick-Visible are by vertue of their Common Profession of the true Religion and Faith of Christ united one with another is subject to a twofold Schism or breach viz 1. A breach in the Church and 2. A breach from the Church The first consists in Intestine Divisions and differences either 1. in point of Judgement and that principally about matters either of Discipline or Worship if the Errour be in a point fundamental or incorrigibly persisted in it is then Heresie which St. Augustine calls Schisma inveteratum or else 2. in point of Charity and Christian Love The second consists in a degeneracy from the true Religien and a voluntary relinquishing of a Church-state but this is as I have said above of not holding of the Head not Schisme onely but Apostacy a Cat holick and Vniversal Separation for one that thus relinquisheth Christs Body-Catholick separates from it Tanquam Membrum ab Integro as a Member from the Whole now as a Leg or Arm when lost ceaseth to be a member of the body Natural to which it was united even so a Professor thus degenerated ceaseth In statu quo without recovery by repentance to be a Member of this Body Mysticall Whereas many are most justly condemned for Separatists I shall not need to name any who yet while they hold the Head and professedly own the Catholick-Apostolick Faith of Christ cannot be disowned for Members of the Body Branches in the Vine Part of the Mystical Building the Church Catholick-Visible Church-Communion is distinguishable into 1. Real 2. Pesonal There is a Real Community and a Personal Society now though those Separatists refuse by way of Personal Association to communicate with that Church from which they separate yet they continue a Real Saint-Communion and Fellowship with her in the Enjoyment of the same Objective Ordinances Prayer Word and Sacraments and therefore notwithstanding their Separation from a Particular they cease not to be Members of the Catholick Church Real Community being maintained though Personal Society be unjustly denyed The Third Church-Vnion is that Social-Local-Joynt-Fellowship wherein the Members of a Particular Church are united one with another not only by the Profession of the same Faith and Religion all the Members of the Catholick and Vniversal Church are thus united but in the participation of the same Ordinances Administrations and instituted worship of Christ in a particular place where there is fitting opportunity of executing and yielding due observance to Rules of Joynt-Communion which is not a thing possible for the Vniversal Church now through numerosity and multitude though once it was viz when the whole Catholick-Christian Church consisted of about but 120. Members in all Act. 1.15 Now This Comunion may admit of a twofold breach viz. 1. Schism in the Church 2. Separation from the Church as the breach in the Church Catholick before The first is a breach either 1. in point of Judgement and Opinion or 2. in point of Charity and Christian Affection the too too frequent issue and result of the other 't is chiefely the former I presume that Sr. Augustine calls Dissidium Congregationis Church-dissention the latter he calls Odium Fraternum Brother-hatred and dis-affection both sad Church-Rents What when Lot and Abraham Brethren are at strife when Brethren fall out by the way Separation from the Church is either 1. Partial 2. Total 1. Negative 2. Positive 1. A Partial Separation when we decline Communion with the Church in some Ordinances but joyn with her in others as in Prayer but not in hearing of the Word or in both those but not in the Saerament 2. A Total Separation is an Vniversal declension of Communion with a Church in every Ordinance 1. Negative Separation when we withdraw from Communion with some Church not joyning with any other but continuing in hopes and expectation of the happy amendment of that Church from which we withdraw with a purpose of returning to her when reformed 2 Positive Separation when we do not only decline Communion with a Church but divide into several Parties Combinations and new Conventions as probably 't was amongst the Corinthians One saying I am of Paul another I am of Apollo a third I am of Cephas c. 1 Cor. 1.12 embodying in several Church-wayes setting up Altar against Altar and Threshold against Threshold Separation from the Church may be Culpable or Inculpable Lawful or Vnlawful and that more or lesse according to its Grounds and Causes Now the only lawfull Grounds or Causes of a Total-Positive Separation are usually reckoned three viz. 1. Intolerable Persecution from Persons 2. Damnable Heresie in poynt of Doctrine 3. Grosse Idolatry in poynt of Worship These are the Grounds of our just Departure from the Tyrannical Heretical Idololatrical Church of Rome O happy Divorce may the Lord perpetuate it that we may never say a Confederacy to her again Isa 8.12 but upon Gods own Terms of Accommodation Let them return unto thee but return not thou unto them Jer. 15.19 Again when the Corruptions of a Church are such as that one cannot communicate with her without sin unavoydably That seems to me to be a just
being preached by him as Prophet John 4.21 Insomuch that Two or Three wheresoever met in his Name have the Solemn promise of his presence now Mat. 18.20 whereas if the Solemnity of his worship were tied to any one place his presence and the Concomitant blessing of his worship should be tied to that place also Who would have thought that * Vid. lib. 3. De Cultu Sanctorum Bellarmine that great Light of the Romish Firmament the chief Atlas of that Orbe should have been so much in the dark as to think that Prayer or any other part of worship performed in a Material Church c. is of more Efficacy then if it were celebrated elsewhere as if Stone and Timber did contribure vertue to our devotion or Prayers Efficacy depended on Locality I wish there be not many Bellarmines in this respect foolish Superstionaries that cry The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord Jer. 7.4 c. like their silly blind Pharisaical Progenitors But Sir You and I are taught of God assured by Holy Record that Prayer or any other part of Divine Worship in what place soever performed will be accepted of God through Christ so he be but worshipped according to his own Canon viz. In Spirit and in Truth John 4.24 Let none then presently conclude from a necessary declension of Local Society in a Publique place a breach of Real Community in True Solemn Publique Worship which may indeed be maintained in any place indifferently Yet 3. The Church of England while she holds the Head Christ and professeth the True Religion being a True Church a Part of the Church Catholick-Visible as is acknowledged and a Publique Place being dictated by the light of nature and judged by men to whose Prudential Determination the Conveniency or Inconveniency of Place of worship as a Natural Circumstance is left though it be a meer matter of Indifferency under the Gospel and in it self to be fittest for Publique Joynt-Communion and therefore though not sanctified yet prudentially sequestred and devoted thereunto I must needs own my self called to communicate and in answer to that call I do communicate with her and that in the Place of Publique Assembly in all the Parts of Real-Solemn Divine Worship wherein I may without either let or sin And thus Sir 't is my known Practice which you are no stranger to to joyn with the present Assemblies in Prayer though not their Common-Prayer Praise or Singing of Psalms Hearing of the Word all which are Substantial parts of True Solemn Divine Worship what and yet a Separatist Judge how little I deserve that name while this is my practice and I exhort you and others to the like Onely give me leave to tell you that what was Reverend Beda's advice to him that should chance to read the Books of that Heretical Bishop Julian I desire and it may be so will you to improve in the hearing of ours Ita carpat botrum ut spinane caveat Take of the Cluster but beware of Prickles be sure they be of Canaans Grapes I would not willingly be starved but God keep me from being poysoned Take heed of Choaking chew before you swallow a Proselyting Romanist a Seminary Priest will tell you otherwise once swallow his Churches Infallibility and any thing will go down then there is no room left for dispute more no need of the true Ballance of the Sanctuary But I have not as yet laid finger upon the soar therefore consider 4. That the Church of Englands Liturgy or Common-Prayer the great apple of strife c. is a Part of this Real-Solemn worship of God and that Communion with her therein the thing urged is therefore a Positive Indispensable duty I must take leave at least till I see more cogent Arguments for it then have as yet been pleaded by the best that ever undertook the patronage of it utterly to deny This I know would seem strange to many what a Convocation-Master-piece the Summum quod sic of the Wit of men and Angels the Monopoly of Divine Service the Prayers of the Church c. and yet no Part of True Solemn Worship but that it is written for private satisfaction and by way of private Apology Sir 't is a fixed Principle with me which I should not fear to publish to the world had my tongue the liberty of mine Accusers in the case viz. That there is no True Divine Worship whereof God is not the Author as well as the Object the Alpha as well as the Omega What is not Instituted Worship is none of His Worship but meer Will-Worship for God will be worshipped Desuo his Soul loathing all that Service though possibly nick-named Divine wherein there is more of the Creature than of Himselfe more of Man than of God What Reason either from Scripture or Common Light can perswade me otherwise Now can Mr. Crofton say Bona fide 't is not a matter to be dallied withal that Liturgies or stinted Set-Forms of Prayer were ever Instituted by Christ Practised by the Apostles Intended in the Gospel or observed by the Primitive Christian Church in the best and purest ages after Christ whose Practice in the case was to be a Leading Case and an Imitable Example to all succeeding Churches In a word Can he prove Englands Common-Prayer part of Christs Instituted Worship Let him produce Authentick either Precept or President for it which will be a hard matter for him to do else surcease his censure for what other can it be then a meer Humane Ordinance Super-erogatory Worship Arbitrary Service even Scripture-bitten Will-Worship one of the justly condemned Commandements and Ordinances of men Col. 2.22 23. What is Will-Worship if this be not Yea but the Matter of it is good this is the ordinary plea but so is a great part of the Popish Missal with which it so much symbolizeth especially their Letany the first Edition of ours and so of the Turkish Alcoran But will that prove it a Divine Constitution Now the Question is not whether it be Divine Matter or not but whether a Divine Constitution or not and therefore I joyne Matter and Constitution together The Matter proves not its Legitimacy unless such a Frame Method Composure and Constitution of VVorship can be proved Jure Divino to be Christs Own Prayer is Christs own Institution I communicate with them in that but here is my Crime I joyne not with them in Prayer in such a Dresse or Form which though I neither question the Wisdome that composed it nor the Authority that imposed it yet I professedly declare is in my weak judgment meerly Humane and therefore I do not a little wonder that such a man as Mr. Crofton should become its Mecoenas and Advocate who cannot be ignorant of the unhappy occasion of the first introduction of such man-devised Forms and Frames into the Christian Church administred by the prevailing Arrian and Pelagian heresies above three hundred years after