Taylor is much more decided in his condemnation of Rome:—“Now let any man judge whether it be not our duty, and a necessary work of charity, and the proper office of our ministry, to persuade our charges from the ‘immodesty of an evil heart,’ from having a ‘devilish spirit,’ from doing that ‘which is vehemently forbidden by the Apostle,’ from ‘infidelity and pride;’ and, lastly, from that ‘eternal woe which is denounced’ against them that add other words and doctrines than what is contained in the Scriptures, and say, ‘Dominus dixit, the Lord hath said it,’ and He hath not said it. If we had put these severe censures upon the Popish doctrine of tradition, we should have been thought uncharitable; but, because the holy fathers do so, we ought to be charitable, and snatch our charges from the ambient flame.”[440]
Bramhall, whose Protestantism went further than that of Thorndike or Heylyn, says:—“That Church which hath changed the apostolical creed, the apostolical succession, the apostolical regiment, and the apostolical communion, is no apostolical, orthodox, or Catholic Church. But the Church of Rome hath changed the apostolical creed, the apostolical succession, the apostolical regiment, and the apostolical communion. Therefore the Church of Rome is no apostolical, orthodox, or Catholic Church.”[441]
RESPECTING UNEPISCOPAL CHURCHES.
In reference to Protestant communities abroad, the same writer expresses his opinion thus:—
“I cannot assent that either all or any considerable part of the Episcopal Divines in England do unchurch either all or most part of the Protestant Churches. No man is hurt but by himself. They unchurch none at all, but leave them to stand or fall to their own master. They do not unchurch the Swedish, Danish, Bohemian Churches, and many other Churches in Polonia, Hungaria, and those parts of the world who have an ordinary, uninterrupted succession of pastors—some by the names of Bishops, others under the name of Seniors, unto this day. (I meddle not with the Socinians.) They unchurch not the Lutheran Churches in Germany, who both assert Episcopacy in their confessions, and have actual superintendents in their practice, and would have Bishops, name and thing, if it were in their power.... Episcopal Divines do not deny those Churches to be true Churches, wherein salvation may be had. We advise them, as it is our duty, to be circumspect for themselves, and not to put it to more question, whether they have ordination or not, or desert the general practice of the Universal Church for nothing, when they may clear it if they please. Their case is not the same with those who labour under invincible necessity.... This mistake proceedeth from not distinguishing between the true nature and essence of a Church, which we do readily grant them, and the integrity or perfection of a Church, which we cannot grant them, without swerving from the judgment of the Catholic Church.”[442]
“Wheresoever, in the world,” observes Cosin, “Churches bearing the name of Christ profess the true, ancient, and Catholic religion and faith, and invocate and worship, with one mouth and heart, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, if from actual communion with them I am now debarred, either by the distance of regions, or the dissensions of men, or any other obstacle; nevertheless, always in my heart, and soul, and affection, I hold communion and unite with them—that which I wish especially to be understood of the Protestant and well-reformed Churches. For the foundations being safe, any difference of opinion or of ceremonies—on points circumstantial, and not essential, nor repugnant to the universal practice of the ancient Church, in other Churches (over which we are not to rule)—we in a friendly, placid, and peaceable spirit, may bear, and therefore ought to bear.”[443]
Morley is cautious:—“Our Church is not so liberal of her anathemas as [Rome] is. We are sure our Church is truly apostolical, and that for government and discipline, as well as doctrine. Whether the Christian congregations in other Protestant countries be so or no, Ætatem habent, respondeant pro semetipsis et Domino suo stent vel cadent. In the mean time our Church hath declared, that no man shall be accounted or taken to be a lawful Bishop, Priest or Deacon in the Church of England, or suffered to exercise any of those sacred functions, except he be called, tried, examined, and admitted thereunto, according unto the form hereafter following; or unless he had formerly Episcopal consecration, or ordination.”[444]
RESPECTING UNEPISCOPAL CHURCHES.
Of Nonconformists, Thorndike speaks in distinct and decided terms. Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, are guilty of schism. This he asserts over and over again; and of his opinion respecting schism, he leaves us in no doubt. Schism may, indeed, be unjust on both sides,—a favourite idea with Thorndike;—and it may be such as that salvation may be had on both sides; but this lenient view of the subject, he expresses only in relation to the differences between the Eastern and the Western Churches, between the Church of England and the Church of Rome. Schism, as committed by Nonconformists, he ever represents in the darkest colours. Presbyterian baptism, he affirms, to be no baptism. Their service is an imposture; in opposing Episcopacy, and setting up their synods, they erect altar against altar. It is mere equivocation to call their congregations Churches, and their ordinances sacraments. It was unwarrantable, he maintains, under the Commonwealth, to communicate with Presbyterians and Independents; although the moral impossibility of communing with them could not justify communing with Papists. The theory of the Independents he holds to be more suitable to Christianity than that of the Presbyterians, but he says it is impracticable, without Scriptural authority, and not less free from schism.[445] He counts the doctrine of justification, as he supposed it to be held by some Nonconformists, no other than a dreadful heresy, worse even than the Romanist doctrine of justification. Yet we find, in one place, this cold gleam of charity:—“I confess, as afore I allowed the Church of Rome some excuse from the unreasonableness of their adversaries; so here, considering the horrible scandals given by that communion in standing so rigorously upon laws so visibly ruinous to the service of God, and the advancement of Christianity, and the difficulty of finding that mean in which the truth stands between the extremes (as our Lord Christ between the thieves, saith Tertullian), I do not proceed to give the salvation of poor souls for lost, that are carried away with the pretence of reformation in the change that is made, even to hate, and persecute, by word or by deed, those who cannot allow it.” The book in which this passage occurs was published in 1659.
Anabaptists, Thorndike pronounces to be schismatics, if not heretics:—“As for the ground of that opinion, which moves them to break up the seal of God, marked upon those that are baptized unto the hope of salvation upon the obligation of Christianity, by baptizing them anew, to the hope of salvation, without the obligation of Christianity; whether they are to be counted heretics therefore or not, let who will dispute. This, I may justly infer, they take as sure a course to murder the souls of those whom they baptize again, as of those whom they let go out of the world unbaptized.”[446]