II. decrees of the Council of Trent must down, with the same CHA P. assurance as the Holy Trinity. Nor need you distinguish between heresy and schism, when once the Church shall have pronounced. Thus save they the labour of proving transubstantiation, purgatory, prayers to saints, Latin service, the half-communion, and other points of difference, all of them too tough to be overcome. All of them are clearly gained, by the prejudice, which men have imposed upon themselves, that the Church which enjoins them cannot err. 11 Whereas nothing can be more evident than that which I proposed at the beginning;-that it cannot be tried which side is the true Church, but by going to trial upon the particulars in difference. charge of and anti christ. § 4. But they who charge the pope to be antichrist and What we the papists idolaters, the higher their charge, the more to do get by the must they have to persuade common reason, that so great a idolatry part of mankind should expect to be saved by professing to contradict that which themselves profess. And suppose that a prejudicate zeal can transport a man, to think the wisest people upon earth (those that govern the see of Rome), and all those whom their wisdom carries along, so far out of their wits, as to contradict by their profession that which themselves profess :—when all this is done, every text of the Scripture, that cannot be expounded to this supposition, will be a peremptory bar to their pretence. And how much is there of the Apocalypse itself, that is acknowledged not to be fulfilled, as yet, in that sense? how much of the rest of the Scripture, that cannot without violence be reconciled to it1? And when a novice, grounded upon this supposition, is forced from his ground upon remonstrance of such reasons; how ready is he to fall into the snare of the missionaries? Whether or no this be the reason of that, which wise men have observed, that the passage from the one extreme to the other is more easy and frequent amongst us, than from the mean to the extreme ;--let men of discretion judge. Let not them lead the people by the nose, to believe that they can prove their supposition when they cannot: and then expect, that it be maintained by them, that own the Church of Rome 1 See Review of Rt. of Ch. in Chr. St., c. v. § 29-52: Epilogue, Bk. I. Of the Pr. of Chr. Tr., c. xxiii. § 129; and Conclusion, § 41: and below, Reformation of the Ch. of England CHAP. for a true Church; and therefore must contradict themselves if they maintain it. II. Immoderate charges vain on both sides. [2 Sam. xvi. 21.] The charge § 5. It is then Achitophel's counsel that hath prevailed on both sides. For make the quarrel irreconcileable, and nothing but conquest must end it. But what joy have they of their expectation, on either side? In all troubles of Christendom since Luther's time, what gaping hath there been for the sack of Rome, and the downfall of the pope, upon a prophecy, ten for one more probably fulfilled in the sack of Rome by the Goths and Vandals many hundred years ago? And all the civil blood, all that abominable desolation in religion, which we have seen, our late usurper seemeth to have accompted mere godliness, in order to that work, which God had designed him for; as he thought himself inspired to believe". 12 Nay, did not some of the Reformation prick up their ears, and begin to think well of his Christianity for that work's sake? And yet this expectation hath not been more vain, than the deep designs of the see of Rome, to reduce the Reformation to the obedience thereof by conquest, do now after a long trial appear desperate for the future. Now if the parties be willing to abate of their charges, as they have reason to do, there is a way for both to come off with credit. For the charge of heresy naturally shrinks into the measure of schism, whensoever they shall be pleased to explain themselves. And they seem to do it; at least, as many of them as now insist upon the charge of schism P. Let our people follow their example, and extend the idolatry they charge them with to all superstition: and I will undertake to find them idolaters in all professions; namely, all those that commit idolatry to their own imaginatious. § 6. As for the mutual imputation of schism, it is a civil of schism, and a moderate challenge, in comparison of those. For schism sides, mo- is nothing but civil war in the Church. And in civil wars, on both derate, as to the Church. by Cromwell of a Protestant Congregation de propaganda fide, in Burnet, Hist. of His Own Time, Bk. i. vol. i. p. 132. Oxf. 1823. Morland was Cromwell's "Commissioner Extraordinary for the affairs of the Piedmontese valleys." Pe. g. the Bishop of Chalcedon, Dr. Holden, Knott, Scot, Serjeant, &c., and especially Sancta Clara. See Life of Abp. Bramhall (prefixed to his Works vol. i. Oxf. 1842), p. xxvii. notes e, f. 13 II. as in all wars, though it be rather impossible than difficult to CHAP. name a war that shall be just on both sides, yet it is easy to find a war that is unjust on both sides. St. Augustin commends the saying of one in his time, that declaimed upon the rape of Lucrece; "Mira res," said he, " duo fuerunt et adulterium unus commisit”—“ A strange thing," that, a man lying with a woman, only "the one should commit adultery.” I will not compare war with adultery; which carries sin in the name of it. For I will not say, that all war is sin. But he, that can look upon the mischiefs either of civil war in the world or of schism in the Church with the heart of a Christian, will not think strange, that both sides should be schismatics to God, though only one part can be schismatics to the Church. For when the cause may be visibly decided (as in the schism of the Donatists), then the one side are schismatics, the other is the Church. But when it cannot (as perhaps it will prove between the Reformation and the Church of Rome); then, if the blame of the schism fall on both sides, both sides shall be schismatics to God, neither to the Church. schism, as § 7. But though I make it a moderate charge, as to the The sin of Church, when one side challenges the other to be schismatics ; to God, yet, as to God, the sin of schism is of a horrible tincture. For horrible. a heretic or an apostate, in the sight of God, destroys only his own soul. But he, that causeth division in the Church, either peremptorily destroys, or probably hinders, the salvation of all that are parties to it. So the authors of schism must answer for all the souls that perish by it. How the means of salvation depend upon the unity of the Church, is a thing, that must appear by proving that God hath ordained it for that purpose. But if so it prove, then may every man see, how heavy a charge the crime of schism will prove in God's sight. The mischief of heresy will lie in the schism which it involveth, when division falls out upon a point of faith. Now breach of charity, in hindering the salvation of all that divide, is abundantly enough to destroy salvation; though more than enough, if upon a point of faith, which is heresy to the Church. § 8. But he, that would consider first, how much the ex- The schism cessive charges on both sides contribute to the division of the of the De Civit. Dei, quoted in Rt. of Ch. in Chr. St., c. v. § 37. note p. Donatists lies to be apostates. [2 Macc. vi. 18-31, vii. 1-42. CHAP. Church; then, how much the division of the Church to the II. ruin of Christianity: let him compare our present divisions in charging the Catho- with the schism of the Donatists; the case whereof is thus to be stated'. It was pretended, that Cæcilianus was made bishop of Carthage by traitors and apostates. For those, that were called "traditores" for delivering the Scriptures and other utensils of God's service to their persecutors for present safety, they accompted no less than apostates, for betraying the common Christianity. And that upon this accompt. If Eleazar and the Maccabees had redeemed their lives by eating swine's flesh, their crime had not been the bare breach of that precept; it had been apostasy: because done at the instance of him, that pressed them to forsake the Law. So the crime of those, that delivered such goods to persecutors, they justly took to be the crime of apostasy; as done at the instance of persecutors, that pressed all to depart from Christianity. And when the rest of the Church did acknowledge Cæcilianus and communicate with him as bishop of Carthage, then did they openly forsake the whole Church; as guilty of the same apostasy, for communicating with apostates, and rejecting them, because they rejected apostates. And had they 14 not reason on their side, if the Church of Afric under Cæcilianus had been really apostates? Admitting the visible unity of the Church, it is not to be avoided. For this unity must be founded upon supposition of Christianity. If Christianity be evidently renounced, they, who acknowledge manifest apostates members of God's one Church, must be accompted apostates themselves by them, that would indeed be members of it. But there was great difference between professed apostasy, and the crime of those, who, dissembling their Christianity to save their lives, had been permitted to hold their degrees in the Church; professing it as well as the best when the danger was past. For though the rule of the Church allowed not, that they should hold their degrees in the Church; yet it was found necessary to abate of the rule, that unity (for which the rule was provided) might be preserved. And, being allowed to hold their degrees in the Church for that See the history in Optatus, De Schism. Donatistarum, lib. i. cc. 16, sq. pp. 16, sq. ed. Dupin: and Dupin's Hist. Donatistarum, prefixed to that edition; or that of H. Valesius subjoined to his Eusebius. II. reason, there was difference enough between them and apo- CHA P. All this, supposing the matter of fact ;-that those, who ordained Cæcilianus, were indeed such as had given up such goods; which, if it were true, never appeared to the Church to be true. Whereas they, who began the schism by ordaining another bishop of Carthage against him, were divers ways convicted to be such themselves. conse schism. § 9. But it is strange to consider, how the Donatists ab- The sad horred the Catholics, merely upon this supposition, without quences any other occasion of difference either in faith or in the of this rites and customs of the Church. For it is the ground, why they rebaptized all those whom they seduced from the Catholic Church; as baptized by apostates. Whereas the Catholics, taking them for schismatics, as they were, sought only to win them upon such terms as the reconciling of schismatics to the Church requires". But it is hard to relate the slanders, the murders, the violences, the mischiefs, which this division brought forth; and that, so far as I can understand, till Christianity was utterly destroyed in Afric by the Mahu THEY THAT HOLD BY ONE VISIBLE CHURCH ARE TO OWN THE CONSEQUENCES ALL this while, you see, I take it not for granted, that it They that hold by is one visible Church which our Creed professeth. But I say, those who take it for granted and admit not the due conse- Church are See Epilogue, Bk. I. Of the Pr. of Chr. Tr., c. viii. § 6, 7, 24, 25, c. x. § 40; and Bk. III. Of the Laws of the Ch., c. x. § 32: Due Way of Composing one visible to own the |