courage them in their Sins, much lefs to make their Sin their Commendation: For this were to help them forward to Deftruction. The beft Charity is, whether they will hear or forbear, to cry out against their Sin, and if poffible to make them fo fenfible of it, that they may forfake it.

(13.) It may feem ftrange, that a Man of our Author's Parts, Age and Learning, fhould be guilty of fuch wild loofe Reafoning: But at laft, I think he hath discovered to us the Mother-miftake, which hath misled him, and which with him doth pafs for an undoubted Axiom, viz. That many may be in the Communion of Saints, who do not hold external Communion one with another, (p. 24, 25.) Now this is fomewhat ambiguously spoken, as most Oracles are. For there can be no Chriftian whatfoever, who can be faid to be ftrictly and immediately in external Communion with all true Churches; and therefore there can be no Chriftians whatsoever, but in fome fenfe may be faid not to have external Communion one with another; if therefore we will understand his Propofition in fuch a fenfe as may be to the prefent purpofe, by not holding Communion one with another, muft be meant not holding Communion with any true Church whatfoever; and then barring extraordinary cafes, to which I fee not how our prefent Difpute hath any relation, I fhall at this time only offer two things in anfwer hereto. 1, That our right to, and intereft in the Myftical or Invisible Church, is by becoming Members of the Vifible Church. And this. I think our Author cannot well deny, who to the being of a Chriftian requires not only the acknowledgment of one Lord, and one Faith, but alfo of one Baptifm. For to what end requires he Baptifm, unlefs to be admitted into the Visible Church, except he have any fuch Enthusiastical Notion of Baptifm, which he hath not yet difcovered,

F 2

and

and, I hope, he is not tainted with? And as the Right to the Myftical comes by being Members of the Vifible Church; fo the Covenants are fealed to us, and the gracious Influences defcend from the Head to the Members by means of the Adminiftrations of those, who have authority from Chrift to difpenfe his Ordinances, and blefs the People in his Name. Nor is it to any purpose to fay, that befides the good, there are bad in the Visible Church, who receive no benefit by these Difpenfations; for it is their own fault that they do not; and even the Good and Sound have not the Covenants fealed to them, nor receive any of thefe Benefits and Influences but by means of these Adminiftrations. And to deny this, is to render the whole Ministry of the Gospel useless and infignificant. Now I defire to know, how this can confift with a Man's being in the Communion of Saints, without being in Communion with any Church of God on Earth? How he can have the Covenants fealed to him, who deprives himself of all the means of it? 2dly, This Affertion overthrows all Communion, all Order, all Government, and destroys the Church it felf, as it is a Body, to which the Promifes are made, and crumbles it into Atoms. For if many may be of fuch Communion without external Communion, there is no reafon to deny the reft the fame privilege, and fo all may be fo. At this rate every Man may feparately fet up for himself, and then what becomes of the Church as a Society? What ufe is there of any Miniftry? This is the utmoft of Confufion, and makes the Profeffion of Chriftianity the moft abfurd and unaccountable thing in the World. But perhaps I may have occafion to fpeak farther of this hereafter. In conclufion of this Topick, I defire the Reader only to take notice, that though our Author doth

take

take fome pains to extenuate the Sin of Schifm, yet he grants it to be a Sin, but doth not compare it with Murther or Adultery, that he might prove it by Scripture to be a leffer or a greater Sin, which was his bufinefs to have done, and which he had obliged himself to, by the Propofition he had laid down.

CHAP. V.

The Author's Inconfiftency in his pretended Designs, §. A general Answer to his Question, Are they damn'd? 2. The Queftion unreasonable, 3. An Answer to the Inftance of the Pharifees and Sadducees, 4. To the Difpute among the Difciples, 5, To the feveral Inftances of the murmuring Grecians, the Jews contending with Peter, the Contention at Antioch with Paul and Barnabas, 6. To the Divifions among the Corinthians, 7. His Inftance in Diotrephes, &c. full against himself, 8. The Difference in the Church of Rome concerning Meats and Days confidered, 9. The Opinion (if true) That St. Peter and St. Paul were at the fame time Bifbops of Rome no Precedent for the future, 10. His Guefs from Clemens Romanus proved groundless, and St. Jerom's Miftake fhewn, 11. The different Obfervation of Eafter cleared, 12. The Novatian Schifm, both at Rome and Carthage, confidered, 13. The Contest between St. Cyprian and Stephen Bishop of Rome examined, and found to make nothing for his purpose, 14. The Cafe of Origen and bis Writings as little, 15, So alfo the Difference between Petrus Alexandrinus and Meletius, 16, Nor the Bishop's mutual Accufations burnt by the Emperor Conftantine, any thing affect this matter, 17. The Cafe of F 3

the

the Audeans confidered, 18. And alfo that of Liberius and Fœlix, and of Damafus and Urficinus, 19. And that of Lucifer Calaritanus, 20. And of Aerius, 21. Of Prifcillian, 22. The Divifions at Antioch after the Depofition of Euftathius, 23. The Cafe of the Donatifts, 24. Of St. Chryfoftom and the Joannites, 25. Of the Acephali or Hæfitantes, 26. Of Austin and the Britons, 27. Of impofing the Gregorian Liturgy, 28. Of Ignatius and Photius, 29. Of the Schifm between the Greek and Latin Churches, 30. Of feveral in the Popedom, 31. Of the Albigenfes and Waldenfes, 32. Of the Jefuits and fecular Priefts, &c. 33. The Author's Inconfiftency, 34. Of the Lutherans and Calvinifts, and the Remonftrants and Antiremonftrants, 35. His Partiality to the Hugonots, 36. And Malice against Epifcopacy, 37. And the Non-jurors, 38. A general Anfwer to the Cafe of Proteftant Dif fenters, 39.

(1.) Wfor his principal Argument and chief

E come now to that, which he intended

Flourish, and which gives the Title to his Book; and thus he lays it down.

This horrid Opinion cuts off a great part of Chrift's Church, and damns Multitudes of excellent Perfons in all Ages and Places, as will be evident (he faith) by his fhort Hiftory of Schifms.

In compofing this he hath pick'd and cull'd, and made a Hodgpodge rather than a Hiftory: But before we can come to it, he is pleafed to entertain us with a Preamble, of which notice muft be taken, or he will think himself wronged. He tells us, That he writes not this to make Schifm seem afmall thing, or to encourage any to run into it, or continue in it. Truly if this be not his Defign, I know not what is, unless it be to quite lofe Schifm

by

by jumbling us all together, and making us fuch a Gallimaufry, as the World yet never knew. If to leffen Schifm, and canonize Schifmaticks, be not to encourage it, and make it a fall thing, I would fain know what is? If this be not the Defign carry'd on throughout his whole Book, let any indif ferent Perfon judge. But, if you can believe it, it is much lefs his Defign to beget in any low Thoughts of Antiquity, which (he faith) he doth greatly Reverence and Value, (p. 25.) And is it not an undeniable Evidence of that his Reverence and Value, to condemn their received and approved Notion, as Horrid, Abominable and Foolish? I remember I once faw a Serjeant dragging a Gentlewoman to th' Gaol, and all the while he told her, he had a great refpect for her, and meant her no hurt. If you will know fome Men's Meaning, you must read it backward. At laft he is pleafed to tell us what his Defign is, viz. To fhew the troublesome State of the Church of God all along, and the fore Conflicts it hath bad. Now this troublefome State, and thefe fore Conflicts were caufed chiefly by Schifmaticks and Hereticks; and if this had been brought as a Reafon to prove Schifin as great a Sin as Murther or Adultery, and that we ought to do all we honeftly can to extirpate fo mifchievous and turbulent an Evil, I think it might have pafs'd mufter: But to alledge this as his motive to reprefent Schifmat ticks as white Boys, and very charitable Chriftians, is fuch a Paradox as I have feldom met with. Indeed there have been Men, who have writ in praife of the French Pox, and brought many fubtil Reafons to prove, That it is good to be in debt, wherein they have fhewed abundance of Wit; but never any Man thought them to be ferious, and in full earnest, as our Author feems to be all along. This certainly is docte delirare, but not ingeniofe infanire. The ftate of the Church in St. Cyprian's