The Protestants Plea for a Socinian: Justifying His Doctrine from Being Opposite to Scripture or Church Authority; and Him from Being Guilty of Heresie, or SchismR. H.
Religion
The Protestants Plea for a Socinian: Justifying His Doctrine from Being Opposite to Scripture or Church Authority; and Him from Being Guilty of Heresie, or Schism
R. H.
Socinianism -- Early works to 1800
Next, _as to matter of Faith_: We hold that all separation from all
particular Churches in such a thing, wherein the _unity_ of the
Catholick Church doth not consist, is no separation from the whole
Church, nor is any thing more, than our suspension from the Communion
of particular Churches, till such their error is reformed; For, as
Doctor _Stillingfleet_[84]----_There can be no separation from the
whole Church, but in such things, wherein the unity of the whole
Church lies:--Whoso therefore separates from any particular Church as
to things not concerning their being, is only separated from the
Communion of that Church, and not the Catholick._ Now, that for which
we have separated from other Churches, we conceive not such, as is
essential, or concerns the being of a Church so, that without it we or
they cannot still retain the essence thereof; we declare also our
readiness to joyn with them again, if this error be corrected, or at
least not imposed: And [85](as Dr. _Stillingfleet_ saith)----_Where
there is this readiness of Communion, there is no absolute separation
from the Church as such, but only suspending Communion, till such
abuses be reformed_, [or not pressed upon us]. And as Bishop
Bramhall[86]----_When one part of the universal Church separateth it
self from another part, not absolutely or in essentials, but
respectively in abuses, and innovations, not as it is a part of the
universal Church, but only so far as it is corrupted and degenerated_
[whether in doctrin or manners] _it doth still retain a Communion not
only with the Catholick Church, and with all the Orthodox members of
the Catholick Church, but even with that corrupted Church, from which
it is separated, except only in such Corruptions._
§. 32.
_Prot._ Saving better Judgments, methinks a separation (if causeless)
from the Communion of all other Churches, or from those who are our
Superiors, in a lesser matter than such a Fundamental or essential
point of Christianity as destroys the being of a Church, should be
_Schism_; and the smaller the point for which we separate, the greater
the guilt of our separation. Were not the Donatists Schismaticks in
rejecting the Catholick Communion, requiring their conformity in such
a point, in which St. _Cyprian_'s error before the Church's defining
thereof was very excusable; and the African Congregations in his time
not un-churched thereby?
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