Conformifts are pretended to be punish'd for Hypocrify, fomething else must be meant. But when all State Hypocrites fhall be debar'd from Places,theOccafional Conformifts think, their Country won't want their Service: and fo will willingly fee themfelves laid afide. Tho they are afraid if the Exclufion fhould be in general of all Hypocrites, it wou'd go with us here as it did at Rome in times of extraordinary difficulty; and that there would be more Places than Candidates and Officers to fupply 'em: Oras it went, at the Trial of the Woman taken in Adultery, and brought before our Saviour, there would be too many convicted Criminals, to leave any to be Judges. Thus the Occafional Conformifts, in the first place, think they have remov'd the Bar, that's laid against their Plea to a Toleration: And the Diffenters defire in the 2d place to be heard to the Charge of Schifm that's made against theirs: And in this cafe they deny the Fact, and difallow of the confequence, as the Occafional Conformifts did in the other; and neither think themfelves guilty of Schifm, nor that Schifm forfeits a Man's Right to a Toleration. They in the firft place deny the Fact, and plead that they are not guilty of Schifm, as it is defcrib'd and blam'd in the Holy Scriptures. For Nonconformity does not diffolve the Ty, by which he's united to the Myftical Body of Chrift. Love to all the Members of that Sacred Body, has made him One with it: And till Uncharitableness fhall break that Band, he thinks he can never be divided from it. He loves all the Members of this Holy Community, he honours 'em: He has a con cern for 'em, and a ftudious defire to ferve 'em: He halves their Sorrows, and receives a fenfible Pleasure from their Joys. He envys not their Honors, and chearfully bears their Reproach and Shame. And whilft he feels this Sympathy with all the Members, he hopes he may be pretty fecure, that he partakes of that Life and Spirit H 2 which which animates and cements the Whole: and that he's not a benum'd or dead Member, which receives none of that Influence from the Head, that directs and governs all the living ones. He may indeed endeavor to be serviceable to himself, and useful to his Fellow-Members, in a way different from fome others of 'em. But he's not much concern'd at the Clamors rais'd against him for this Difference, whilft he don't manage it uncharitably: Since differences of Gifts may proceed from the fame Spirit, and different 'Administrations from the fame Head and Lord and all of 'em may be for the profit and advantage of the 'Whole.' And if after all he should be mistaken; and this Difference should not be fo ferviceable, as an entire Uniformity would be; yet he thinks a meer Miftake concerning the best way of being serviceable, can't rend and divide him from this myftical Community. And he's conscious of no defign to differve his Fellow Members, or not to ferve 'em at all. For whence does it neceffarily follow, that a Diffenter manages his Differences from the Eftablish'd Church uncharitably, or that he has selfish Ends to ferve by em; or that they proceed from over. valuing himself, or undervaluing his Brother; from being fond of one Christian, or neglecting, defpifing, hating and envying another. * He that is uncharitable in fuch *Thefe feveral Inftances of Schifm are fo many Iuftances of Uncharitableness:. And therefore St. Paul with the greatest propriety, prefcribes Charity as the cure of Schifm, in 1 Cor. Chap. 13. after he had elegantly defcrib'd the nature of Schijm in the 12th And no Remedy could reach the whole of the cafe so effectually. For Charity is contrary to every Spring and Inftance of Schifm: For 1ft it feeketh not its own; 2dly, is not puffed up, nor vaunts it felf; 3dly, is kind; 4thly, re joiceth only in the Truth; 5thly, envieth not; 6thly, does not behave it felf) unfeemly For it thinks no Evil, fuffers long, is not eafily provok'd: Ch. 13. Ver. 4, 5,6. The feveral Inftances of Schifm, which we have mention'd, and to which Charity is oppos'd, may be found in most or all the Places of Scripture, where Schifm fuch Inftances, and from fuch indulged Lufts as thefe, is only concern'd for himself, or for fome particular Members of Chrift's Body, in oppofition to others; but can never be truly concern'd for 'em all: fince he's not concern'd for 'em as Members of that Body, but as Members paffing under fome peculiar Denomination; and confequently must be the Schifmatick that is defcrib'd and reprimanded in the Holy Scriptures. If any Diffenter fhould be uncharitable in these respects, and from fuch Principles, he muft neceffarily come under this is spoken of. (ft.) A Difference, that as fuch wou'd be no Schifm, becomes Schifm when it is uncharitably manag'd; and this is commonly an Ingredient of most Schifms Spoken of in Scripture. In the 1 Cor. 1. 11. 'tis call'd Contention; and in the 3.3. Strife. The (2d) Inflance of Schifm is defcrib'd 16 Rom. 17, 18. where we are told, that those that caufe Divifions, ferve not our Lord Jefus Chrift; but by good words and fair fpeeches deceive the Hearts of the Simple. The (3d) In-, Jtance of Schifm we are forbid in Rom. 12.3. where St. Paul thro the Grace given him commands every Man that was among them, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think foberly of himself, according as God had dealt to every man the measure of Faith. The Pride of the Rich, in. eating their Love Feafts before the Poor, was poffibly the Schifm that St. Paul repri mands 2 Cor. 18. 21, 22. The (4th) is forbid at Ver. 10. where St. Paul commands them to be kindly affectioned one to another, in honour preferring one another; and more exprefly in 1 Cor. 12. from the 12th Verse, to the end of that Chapter; where the Apoftle by the juft temperament of the Ufefulness and Comeli-" nefs of the feveral Parts of the Body, and the Sympathy and Care that each Mem-ber has thereupon of the whole, elegantly expreffes the nature of this Infiance of Schijm, which confifts in defpifing our Fellow Chriftians: And the Corinthians overvaluing their own Gifts, and defpifing those of their Brethren, was very probably the occafion of the 11, 12, 13, and 14 Chapters of his 1ft Epiltle to them, in which he fervently animates them against it. The Schifm of the Corinthians, that St. Paul reproves 'em for in the 1ft Chapter of his first Epifle,imay serve as a proof of the (sth). Inftance. In the 10th Verfe he befeeches 'em, that there be no Divifions among 'em but that they be perfectly, join'd together in the fame Mind, and in the fame Judgment; which was, that no Man should glory in particular Men, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, 1 Cor. 3. 21, 22. and that they should not think of [particular] men above what is written that no one of them thould be puffed up for one against another, but fhould think Paul and Apollos Ministers of Chrift, ch. 3. v. 5. and Stewards of the Myfteries of God, ch. 4. v. 1. An Inftance of the (6th) is in the Chap. 3. fince there were Envyings and Divifions amongst 'em. this unhappy Character. But there is no neceffity, be cause a Man diffènts from the Church, that he fhould deferve it, or that he should not because he conforms. Thefe are Crimes which Conformists and Nonconformists are equally capable of, fince they are not to be avoided by meer Conformity, nor perpetrated by a mistaken Non-confor-i mity but confift in Uncharitablenefs, founded in pronenefs to Strife; in felfifh Defigns; Pride or Infolence; Fondness of one Man, or Slight and Hatred to another. And fince these are the Springs, and the very Quinteffence of Schifm, 'tis not difficult to determine, which of the Two are most liable to the Guilt and the Temptation : Whether the Diffenters, who are expos'd to the Crofs by their Diffent, and who only beg leave to differ from the Eftablish'd Church themfelves, and to think their own Minifters and Churches better fuited to the Ends of their Edification, without condemning Conformity in others; or denying many of their Minifters the Character of Learning and Piety, or the Establish'd Church, that of a true one: Or They, whofe Conformity is accompany'd with Worldly Advantages, as well as Spiritual ones; and who would engrofs 'em both to themselves: Excluding other Men from the Divine Prefence in the next World, and from the regular and ordinary means of Grace in this. Thus we see the Schifm, that's fo feverely inveigh'd againft in the Holy Scripture, is Uncharitableness; and wherever that is not to be found, be there what other Differences or Separations you will, there is no Schifm. And fince the Diffenters are not chargeable with the Scripture Notion of Schifm, they care not under what charge' they ly of Schifm, of Mens making. They pay a great deference to the Judgment of the Fathers, and the Opinions of great Divines; but they have learnt to call no man Mafter but Chrift, and to ftand in awe of no Man's Judg 1.. to the Con the Primit.. Judgment but the Lord's, And therefore if Fathers or Divines wou'd teach 'em new Notions of Schifm, they can't receive 'em, in cafe they difagree with the Doctrines of their great Trophet. And if they fhou'd be con demn'd by them, yet they know their Lord, who will judg according to none but the Sacred Rule, will upon an Appeal to him reverse their Decifion. And yet the Diffenters think they are not chargeable with the Schifm, which 1 is defcrib'd and condemn'd by the Fathers and modern Enquiry inDivines, neither. Schifm, in the Opinion of the Fathers ftit. Discip. of the three firft Centurys, according to a very impartial Unity and Representations of the Notions and Practice of thofe Worship of Times, which has yet receiv'd no Answer, is an unnecef Church, fary Defertion of a lawful Bifhop. And a lawful Bishop Part 1. in their Writings, is the Paftor of a fingle Congregation, 214-218. P. 63--670. chofen by the Majority of the Members of that Church, approv'd by the neighbouring Paftors, and ordain'd by the Impofition of their Hands. And that which they took to be an unneceffary Desertion of this Bishop, was deferting him, tho he was not chargeable with Herefy, Apoftacy or Immorality. Now certainly, according to this Notion of Schifm, the Diffenters can't be chargeable with it, who bore fo violent a Perfecution, rather than be guil ty of this unneceffary Desertion of their lawful Bifhops, in 62: Since they were not ejected for Herefy, Apoftacy or Immorality; but for not conforming to impos'd Rites: A Compliance which wou'd never have been urg'd by the best of the Fathers, who always efteem'd Impofing Rites upon another Church, as an Act of Tyranny in the P. 213Impofer. Thus the Diffenters think they ftand clear'd from the Scriptural and Ecclefiaftical Charge of Schifm. But Divinity, which fhou'd indeed be nothing but an Account of the Scripture, but which happens ofther to be any thing befides, gives another Notion of Schifm. And tho it does not im port |