II. Church, which is much more than we would desire to be CHAP. granted us; and 2. to forsake all that are fallible, though they be not actually in error, which is in effect to forsake the communion of all but saints, and angels, and God in heaven, for they only have the privilege of impeccable and infallible,—yet it absolutely acknowledges that it would be lawful to separate from, and forsake the even universal Church of Christ, in case, or on supposition that we could not be permitted to communicate with it, without lying, and dissembling, and equivocating in matters of faith, which he there acknowledges to be the denying God on earth. conditions commu 7. Now to return to our present consideration, of this Severe there is no question, but that, as it is said to be customary of some among the kings of the Huns, as soon as they have any Churches' children, and so no need of their brethren's assistance, to nion. banish all their brethren out of their dominions, and not to admit them again without putting out their eyes, (ovкéтI ἄλλως τὴν ἐπὶ τῆς χώρας ξυγχωρεῖν αὐτοῖς διατριβὴν, ἀλλ ̓ ἢ TÀS ÖĻEIS ÈKKEVTηleîow, saith Cinnamus, Hist. lib. i. [p. 8,]) so it is possible, (I wish it were not justly supposable,) for a particular Church so to fence and limit, to guard and restrain their communion, to require such severe conditions of all whom they will admit or tolerate within their Church, that some men cannot without putting out their eyes, or wilful acknowledgment of untruths, others without committing sin against conscience, undergo the conditions thus required, nor consequently be admitted to communion with it. As in case any unsound or untrue position be entered Make cominto the confession or catechism of any Church, and all the with them members of that communion be explicitly required to believe impossible. and acknowledge the truth of every branch of that con- prescribing fession, and so that confession be really the condition, and subscripaccordingly in the reputation of men esteemed the tessera errors. or 'symbol' of that communion, then he that shall enter this communion thus conditionated, must certainly either actually subscribe, or, which, as to the scandal of the action, is equivalent, be reasonably supposed to acknowledge that untruth; and if in some persons blameless ignorance may be supposed sufficient for the excusing or alleviating that fault, yet, 1. he that hath means of discovering that un munion Such are tion of CHAP. truth, and criminously neglects to make use of those means, II. and 2. he that hath discovered the truth, and yet thus profess Or profession against eth himself to believe the contrary, will not be thus excusable. And it is not here sufficient to object the supposable levity of the error, or intellectual falsity; for how light, and inconsiderable, and extrinsical to the foundation soever the error be supposed to be, yet if there be obstinacy in continuing in it against light and conviction, or if there be falseness in professing or subscribing contrary to present persuasions, or scandal and ill example, temptation and snare to others, in seeming to do so; these certainly are sins, and neither light nor inconsiderable, nor reconcilable with that fabric of Christian practice which ought to be superstructed on that foundation. 8. Nay, if the errors be really on the other side, if the doctrines so proposed, as the condition of the communion of conscience. any Church, be indeed agreeable to truth, but yet be really apprehended by him to whom they are thus proposed to be false and disagreeable, it will even in that case be hard to affirm that that man may lawfully thus subscribe, contrary to his present persuasions; for though it be certain, that he that thus errs be obliged to use all probable means to reform and deposit his error, and, as long as he remains in it, is so far guilty of sin, as he wants the excuse of invincible ignorance, and being obliged to charity and peace, as far as it is possible and in him lies, he cannot be freed from offending against that obligation, if he do not communicate with those, the condition of whose communion contains nothing really erroneous or sinful; and so though such a man, on that side, be, or may be in several respects criminous, yet it is as evident on the other side, that he that professes to believe what he really doth not believe, that subscribes with his hand what he rejects in his heart, or that doth that which is under the scandal of doing so, is far from being guiltless; he certainly offends against the precept of sincerity and veracity,-yea and of charity to his brethren in respect of the scandal,-hath added hypocrisy to his error, and so which way soever he turns, he is sure to sin, (the worst and most unhappy kind of strait,) he remains in error and schism on the one side, and by flying from that he advances to lying and hypocrisy on the other, and the desire of avoiding one of CHAP. these cannot justify the other. 9. This I say, in case the error be really on the man's, not on the Church's side; but if, as in the case proposed, the errors be supposed to be wholly on the Church's side, and withal indispensably required to be subscribed by all, and so the conditions of that communion being exacted of him, who cannot without sin undertake them, be to him really and inexcusably unlawful, then certainly to that man in that case it is no crime not to communicate, when he is thus excluded from communicating, with that Church, but a crime, and a great one, thus, by testifying against the truth and his own conscience, to qualify himself for that communion. The admission of such guilts as these, hypocrisy, and lying against conscience and due grounds of conviction, is too high a price to be paid even for peace or communion itself. 10. A meek son of the Church of Christ will certainly be content to sacrifice a great deal for the making of this purchase, and when the fundamentals of the faith and superstructures of Christian practice are not concerned in the concessions, he will cheerfully express his readiness to submit or deposit his own judgment in reverence and deference to his superiors in the Church where his lot is fallen. But when this proves insufficient, when peace with the brethren on earth will not be had at a cheaper rate than this of a voluntary offending against our Father which is in heaven; in this case the Christian must be content to live without it, and though he would rejoice to sell all that he hath to purchase that jewel, yet his conscience, the health and peace of that, which is interrupted by every wilful sin, is a commodity that must not be parted with, whatsoever the acquisition be, which is in his view, and thus offers itself in exchange for it. to the II. 11. The evidence of which is, I conceive, so demonstrative Appliand irresistible, that it will be justly extended much further cation than the present case of the Church of England gives me Church of Rome, in any temptation to extend it; for in case our ancestors had relation unjustly and criminously made a separation from the Church to the of Rome, which it shall anon appear that they have not, Church of England. HAMMOND. P present II. CHAP. and we their successors in that schism should unfeignedly confess, and repent, and desire to reform that sin, and uprightly discharge our conscience in neglecting no means that patience, humility, charity could suggest to us in order to obtaining our reconciliation, yet if that cannot be obtained by all these submissions without that harder condition of renouncing, or professing, or seeming, in common reputation of men, to renounce any part of divine truth or Christian practice, which we verily believe to be the truth and our duty, it would not be our guilt, but only our unhappiness, that we were thus forced to continue in that separation. The reason is evident from the former grounds. 19. We must Josh. vii. not sin, that we may give glory to God, (such is confession and fruits of repentance;) a penitent thief must not lie to enable himself to make restitution, nor the contrite schismatic commit any new sin, (such certainly is hypocrisy, lying, professing contrary to present persuasion,) to complete his repentance for the old. 12. If this last be conceived, as it is not the present case of the Church of England, so to be an impossible, unsupposable case, not only upon the Romanists' grounds, who I presume will not acknowledge any such hard condition, as is the profession of an untruth, to be required to any man's reconciliation and readmission to their communion, but upon this other score, because if any false profession be now required to our readmission, the same was formerly required to our continuance in their communion, and consequently our ancestors' departure then could not be supposed, as in this last fiction of case it is, a schismatical departure: I shall not need to give any more distinct answer to this, than 1. that we that acknowledge not the Church of Rome to be infallible, may be allowed to make a supposition, which is founded in the possibility of her inserting some error in her confessions, and making the explicit acknowledgment of that the peremptory indispensable condition of her communion; 2. that it is possible also, though not by us pretended, that she should since that supposed departure of our ancestors, introduce some new doctrines, and consequently some new errors, and those now be supposable to lie in the way to our return, though they had no part, before their II. birth, in driving us from them; 3. that that may be by the CHAP. Church of Rome permitted, and allowed to those that have always remained in their communion, which to them that have departed, and either in their persons or posterity desire to return to it, will not be permitted by them; it being more ordinary to indulge liberties to sons that have always continued in the family, than to grant them to offenders and suppliants, that expect favours, and graces, and restoration to privileges; 4. that those which have had their education out of the communion of the Church of Rome, may very possibly and probably come to discern that, which in that communion would never have been, for want of representation, discerned by them, and consequently may observe some errors in her doctrine or practice, which their ancestors at their very departure from them had not discerned, and then though those errors subscribed to by them, had the lenitive, or antidote of blameless ignorance, yet because those that now really discern that truth which their ancestors discerned not, cannot lawfully profess not to discern it, or profess against conscience to believe what they do not believe, it is therefore necessarily consequent, that the return of such to the peace of the Roman Church may by this means be rendered impossible, though their ancestors' continuance there lying under no such prejudice, their separation were acknowledged unlawful. CHAP. III. THE SEVERAL SORTS OF SCHISM. 1. THUS much hath been necessarily premised for the true notion of schism, taken from the origination of the word, as that includes, in the neuter sense, a recession or departure, in the reciprocal, a separating or dividing himself. 2. It is now time to proceed and enquire how many sorts there are of this schism in the ecclesiastical sense, or by how many ways the guilt of this sin of the flesh may be contracted. 3. In which enquiry it will be first necessary to consider, |