[75]Rat. Account. p. 73.

[76]Stillingfl. p. 99.

[77]Stillingfl. p. 74.

[78]Ib. p. 99.

[79]Stillingfl. p. 73.

[80]See Still. p. 479.

CONFERENCE V.

His Plea, for his not being guilty of Schism.

  1. That the Socinian Churches have not forsaken the whole Church Catholick, or the external Communion of it: but only left one part of it that was corrupted; and reformed another part, (i.e.) themselves. Or, that he, and the Socinian Churches, being a part of the Catholick, they have not separated from the whole, because not from themselves. §. [28].
  2. That their separation being for an error unjustly imposed upon them as a condition of Communion, the Schism is not theirs, who made the separation; but theirs who caused it. §. [29].
    Besides that, whatever the truth of things be; yet so long as they are required by any Church to profess they believe, what they do not, their separation cannot be said causless, and so Schism. §. [32].
  3. That though he and his party had forsaken the external Communion of all other Churches, yet not the internal; in which they remain still united to them: both in that internal Communion of Charity, in not condemning all other Churches as non-Catholick; and in that of Faith, in all Essentials and Fundamentals, and in all such points, wherein the Unity of the Church Catholick consists. §. [30].
  4. That the doctrin of Consubstantiality for which they departed, is denyed by them to be any Fundamental; nor can the Churches, from which they depart for it, be a competent Judge against them, that it is so. §. [34].
  5. That, though they are separaters from the Roman, yet not from the Reformed Churches, which Churches leave men to the liberty of their own judgment; nor require any internal assent to their doctrins (in which thing these blame the tyranny of the Roman Church) save only conditional, if any be convinced of the truth thereof; or, not convinced of the contrary. §. [35].
  6. In fine, that for enjoying and continuing in the Protestant Communion he maketh as full a profession of conformity to her Doctrins as Mr. Chillingworth hath done in several places of his book, which yet was accepted as sufficient. §. [41].