But 'tis too visible, with what Partiality to his own Opinion he applies the venerable Ireneus's Cenfure (of all inexcufable Schifmaticks in his Time) to the fingle Perfons of fuch Impofers only, as he is pleas'd to call them; that is, to all Ecclefiaftical Authority whatsoever,which fhould determine any thing in thefe difficult Points, which no way wound the Effentials of Religion, let their Confiderations of Unity, Peace, or Order, in it, be what they will; and notwithstanding the Right and Practice he had own'd (you fee) before in Primitive Provincial Synods to do fo. And that S. Cyprian and his African Province drew up a folemn Decree in fuch a Cafe, (as our learned Author himself allows the Cafe to be) for the Obfervation of all belonging to them, i have fhewn at large before.

But I fhall leave Ireneus's own Words with the Reader, that he may judge how the Byafs of an Author's Mind must be fet, to apply fuch general Language to any fpecial Senfe he has firft prepar'd for it, which the Holy Father himself gives no manner of Occafion for. The Words are these :

The Spiritual Man (fays he) will judge, or difcern those who make Schifms, who are inhumane

Enq. p. 158.

not

Difcipulus vere fpiritualis recipiens fpiritum Dei •judicabit eos qui fchifmata operantur, qui funt immanes, non habentes Dei dilectionem, fuamq; utilitatem potius confiderantes, quàm unitatem Ecclefiæ, propter modicas & quaflibet caufas magnum & glorioTum corpus Chrifti confcindunt & dividunt, &, quantum in ipfis eft, interficiunt; pacem loquentes, & bellum operantes, vere liquantes culicem, & çamelum tranfglutientes. Iren 1. 4. cap. 59. $62.

not having the Love of God, but preferring their own Advantage before the Unity of the Church, for trivid and flight Causes, rend and divide the great and glorious Body of Chrift, and as much as in them lies, deftroy it; who speak Peace, but wage War, truly ftraining at a Gnat, and Swallowing a Camel.

Here's a fearful Character of Schifmaticks, every one fees; but the Enquirer thinks he fees more; he difcerns a special Kind of Schifmaticks mark'd out here, to whom he frankly applies it all; and thofe are Impofers of Non-effentials (as I hinted but now) be their Authority what it will, or the Articles they decree never fo innocent or useful in their Kind. In fuch Cafes, all inferiour Members of a Church, by his Conftruction of the Place, may be left at Liberty to disturb the Peace, and rend the Unity of the Church for fuch meer Non-effential Points, and be all the while innocent and blameless in it; for the whole Guilt is removed †(you see) from them, and placed where it cannot touch them. But, what one Syllable is there in Irenaus's Words, which looks that way? unless we will be great Impofers ourselves, and oblige the Reader to believe, that there could be no Inhumanity, or Want of the Love of God in it, if any Subordinate Members of a Church fhould break the Unity (and disobey their Spiritual Superiors too) for fuch flight Matters as Ireneus fpeaks of there; or that it could not be faid of them, that they preferr'd their own Advantage before the Church's

Unity,

+ Eng. Ibid.

Unity, who from being Subjects in it, make themselves Heads and Governors of Faction and a Party, by excepting against Non-effential Matters, and forming a Schifm upon it: Or that it could not be fuppofed, that fuch mean and ordinary Schifmaticks fhould make Profeffions of Peace and Piety, whilst they wage War against the Church of God: Or laftly, that to firain at a Gnat, and fwallow a Camel, could with no Propriety of Speech be faid of them, with whom a harmless Non-effential will not down, and yet the dreadful Guilt of Schifm be easily digested by them...

The Words make no Diftinction of Perfons from one end to t'other; nor exempt any from the common Guilt of the fame unna tural Schifm, where the Caufe of Controver fie and Divifion is the fame ; that is for flight or Non-effential Matters; and 'tis ftrange to think the venerable Author of them (who held the highest Station in the Church) fhould mean to clear all other Members of it, and leave them free to rend the great and glorious Body of Chrift, for fuch lender Matters as he was speaks ing of, except himself alone, or fuch as he

was.

Had his first Words been fairly translated, there could have been no Umbrage for fuch a Conftruction; for the Schifmaticks Irenaus cenfures, are, in his own exprefs Terms, fuch as actually make or form a Schifm, upon fome flender Occafion or other, and not fuch

Qui fchifmata operanture

fuch as fhould more remotely caufe (or occafion) fuch a Schifm to be made, as the Enquirer has render'd them; and by that flight Turn alone, made them fo plausibly countenance his own peculiar Application.

But I'll leave the Quotation now to speak for itself, and only excufe myself for differing in one Particular more from the learned Enquirer, in tranflating that first Sentence of it. He renders it thus, That at the Laft Day, Chrift Shall judge those who cause the Schifms (there fpoken of;) and I doubt not, but all fuch Schifmaticks will fadly find it fo. But Irenans's Senfe, I conceive to be this, that the Spiritual Man will judge (or dif cern) those who actually make fuch Schifms, &c. And my Reafon for it, is, because the Holy Father for nine or ten fhort Chapters to gether, was fpeaking in one continued Difcourfe of this particular Judge, who fhould try and difcern all Sorts of Adverfaries to the Truth: And in the Fifty Third Chapter, where he first began it, he expreffes by Name the Spiritual Difciple, who fhould fo difcern and judge all, and himself be judg'd of no Man (according to the facred Text,

Cor. ii. 15.) And anfwerable to that, in the Sixty Second Chapter, where he speaks of judging Schifmaticks amongst the rest, (in the Words of this Quotation before us) he fhuts up the whole Difcourfe with repeating that Claufe again, but he himself will be judg'd or difcern'd by no Man, which made it plain to me, that the Spiritual Man was the Judge spoken of, A a

from

from one end to t'other; and therefore I trans flated it fo.

f

Some little Attention then feems to have been wanting here, both as to the Context and Application of this Primitive Father's Words: But take them in what Senfe we will, they are an evident Inftance of that awful Senfe which the first and beft of Chriftians had of the dreadful Sin of Schifm; not much unlike to what the learned Enquirer has † obferv'd from S. Cyprian to the fame Purpofe; and fince his Enquiry was profeffedly written to heal fuch unhappy Divisions in the Church, and my Heart tells me I had no other Ends in all my Obfervations upon it, I fhall leave the Authorities of both those ancient Fathers to the ferious Confideration of the Sons of Peace, as no unfuitable Conclufion to this whole Difcourfe.

S. Cyprian's Words are very close and affecting indeed: The Schifmatick (fays he) * can no longer have God for his Father, who has not the Church for his Mother, but is out of the Number of the Faithful; and tho' he should die for the Faith, yet fhould he never be faved.

And Ireneus's Senfe is this, that Schifm is fucha Rending and Dividing of the great and

+ Enq. p. 180.
* Alienus eft.

glorious

habere jam non poteft Deum patrem, qui Ecclefiam non habet matrem, tales etiamfi pccifi in confeflione nominis fuerint, macula ifta nec fanguine abluitur. De Unit.

Magnum & gloriofum corpus Chrifti confcindu & dividunt, &, quantum in ipfis eft, interficiunt. Ire abi fupra.