gument, which would release us from our obligations to respect the laws of life or property, wherever those laws might happen to be irregularly observed, or easily evaded. The consent or licence of the Bishop of London, being the element essential to all profitable (+) Communion with the Church, it follows, that either its direct refusal by the Bishop, or its neglect or abjuration by a particular Chaplain, must be alike fatal to the preservation of assured and sound Churchmembership, and freedom from the sin of Schism. It may be, that for temporary or political purposes, (*) «In multis erant mecum: Baptismum habebamus utrique, Evangelium utrique legebamus: erant in eo mecum; in schismate non mecum, in hæresi non mecum. Sed in his paucis in quibus non mecum, NON PROSUNT multa in quibus mecum. Etenim videte, fratres, quam multa enarravit Apostolus Paulus (1 Cor. XIII), unum dixit (caritatem) si defuerit, frustra sunt illa». S. AUGUST. in Psal. LIV. Salus extra Ecclesiam non est; et ideo quæcunque ipsius Ecclesiæ habentur extra Ecclesiam (i. e. in schismate) non valent ad salutem aliud est habere, aliud utiliter habere'. S. AUGUST. contra Donatist. IV. 24. «Omnia illa quæ laudantur in Ecclesia, nihil illis prosunt, quia conscindunt unitatem, id est, tunicam illam charitatis». S. AUGUST. in Joann. Evang. Tract. XIV. «SAINT AUGUSTINE c. Crescon. ii. 16, compares the sacramental graces of the Church, when diffused in schismatic congregat gations, to the rivers of Eden flowing out of Eden: these graces are then waters of Paradise, but not in Paradise ». WORDSW. Theoph. Anglic, P. III. ch. iii. some subaltern of Civil Government may try from time to time, in this her most defenceless quarter, to thwart or trample on the principles and constitution of the Church. But if Churchmen will but quietly and soberly be firm to their duty, such attempts are sure soon to be baffled and defeated in their turn. The Church will but rise the brighter and the stronger from a struggle, in which she has been vindicated mainly by the constancy and patience of her members; whose charity, enduring all things which concern them only personally, and in temporal matters, leads them thus so much the more earnestly to contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints'. G. 1. It might have well seemed needless, under ordinary circumstances, to do more than point out the absurdity of pretending to be Episcopal, i. e. to belong to the Church of England, without having (confessedly) an E iscopus or Bishop. However, let us see what the ancient Church decre d on this point: what it held and RULED concerning those who acted without the sanction or concurrence of the Bishop. « We include under the name of HERETICKS those who pretend indeed to hold the sound faith, but who have separated themselves from, and formed congregations in opposition to, our canonical Bishors ». 5. Canon of the 1.st Ecumenical COUNCIL OF 2. The authority of this determination of the 2.d of the FIRST FOUR GENERAL COUNCILS, the decrees of which are universally received by all branches of the Church, upon all members of the Church of England, has been ruled a d settled thus BY LAW: the Supremacy act (1 Eliz. cap. 1) declaring, that none « shall have any authority or power to determine or judge any matter or cause to be heresy but only such as heretofore had been determined, ordered, adjudged to be heresy by the authority of the Canonical Scriptu.es, or by the First Four General Councils, or any of them, or by any other General Council, wherein the same was declared heresy by the express and plain words of the said Canonical Scriptures ». See also Hooker, Eccl. Pol VIII. ii. 17, quoted supra p. 19. The following quotations are not less decisive with regard to the teaching of the Church of England on this point of SCHISM. 3. And first from Bishop Jeremy Taylor: «SECT. XLV!. For they are SCHISMATICKS that separate from their B shop. The Reason which S. Hierome (Jerome) gives, presses this business to a further particular. For if an eminent dignity, and an unmatchable power be not given to him, tot efficientur schismata, quot Sacerdotes. So that he makes Bishops therefore necessary, because without them the Unity of a Church cannot be preserved; and we know that unity, and being, are of equal extent, and if the unity of the Church depends upon the Bishop, then WHERE THERE IS NO BISHOP, NO PRFTENCE TO A CHURCH; and therefore TO SEPARATE FROM THE BISHOP MAKES A MAN AT LEAST A SCHISMATICK. For unity which the Fathers press so often, they make to be dependent on the Bishop. Nihil sit in vobis quod possit vos dirimere, sed Unimini Episcopo, subjecti Deo per illum in Christo (saith S. Ignatius, Epist. ad Magnes.) Let nothing divide you, but be united to your Bishop, being subject to God in Christ through your Bishop. And it is his conge to the people of Smyrna to whom he writ in his epistle to Polycarpus, opto vos semper valere in Deo nostro Jesu Christo, in quo manele per unitalem Dei et EPISCOPI, Farewell in Christ Jesus, in whom remain by the Unity of God and of the BISHOP ( Ad Ephes). Quanto vos beatiores judico qui dependetis ab illo (Episcopo) ut Ecclesia a Domino Jesu et Dominus a Patre suo, ut omnia per unitatem consentiant. Blessed people are ye that depend upon your Bishop, as the Church on Christ, and Christ on God, that all things may consent in Unity. Neque enim aliunde hæreses obortæ sunt, aut nala sunt schismata, quam inde quod Sacerdoti Dei non obtemperatur, nec unus in Ecclesia ad tempus Sacerdos, et ad tempus Judex vice Christi cogitatur. Hence come SCHISMS, hence spring HERESIES that the Bishop is not obeyed, and admitted alone to be the high Priest, alone to be the Judge (S. Cyprian, Ep 55). The same S. Cyprian repeats again, and by it we may see his meaning clearer. Qui vos audit, me audit &c. Inde enim hæreses et schismata obortæ sunt et oriuntur, dum Episcopus qui unus est, et Ecclesiæ præcest superba quorundam praesumptione contemnitur, et komo dignatione Dei honoratus, indignus omnibus iudicatur (Epist. 69). The pride and peevish haughtiness of some factious people that contemn their Bishop is the cause of all heresy and Schism. And therefore it was so strictly forbidden by the Ancient Canons, that any Man should have any meetings, or erect an Altar out of the communion of his Bishop, that if any man proved delinquent in this particular, he was punished with the highest censures, as appears in the 32 Canon of the Apostles, in the 6.th Canon of the Council of Gangra, the 5.th Canon of the Council of Antioch, and the great Council of Chalcedon, all which I have before cited. The sum is this, THE BISHOP IS THE BAND AND LIGATURE OF THE CHUCHES UNITY; and SEPARATION FROM THE BISHOP IS, as Theadoret's expression is, A SYMBOL OF FACTION; and HE THAT SEPARATES IS A SCHISMATICK. ... But LET THE CASE BE WHAT IT WILL BE no separation from a Bishop, ut sic, can be lawful >>. JER. TAYLOR, Episc. Asserted, Sect. 46. 4. The great, and not less learned than saintly Hammond is equally clear and conclusive: « Sect. 6. Having seen what the unity is (to which communion superadds no more but the relation of external association, whether by assembling for the worship of God in the same place, where the matter is capable of it, or whether by letters communicatory, by which we maintain external communion with those which are most distant from us) it will be easy to discern what schism is, viz. the breach of that unity (and communion), and what be the sorts or species of it, either those that offend against the subordination which Christ hath by himself, and his Apostles, |