A90287:104
A review of the true nature of schism, with a vindication of the Congregational…A review of the true nature of schisme, with a vindication of the Congregationall…
A review of the true nature of schism, with a vindication of the Congregational churches in England, from the imputation thereof unjustly charged on them by Mr D. Cawdrey, preacher of the Word at Billing in Northampton-shire. / By John Owen D.D.A review of the true nature of schisme, with a vindication of the Congregationall churches in England, from the imputation thereof unjustly charged on them by Mr D. Cawdrey, preacher of the Word at Billing in Northampton-shire. / By John Owen D.D.
Oxford: printed by Henry Hall printer to the University for Thomas Robinson, 1657
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
What I have offered in my Treatise, as evidence that Protestants are not guilty of the breach of this union, and that where any are, their crime is not Schism but Apostasy, either as to profession or conversation, I leave to the judgment of all candid, sober, and ingenious Readers; for such as love strife, and debates, and disputes, whereof the world is full, I would crave of them, that if they must choose me for their Adversary, they would allow me to answer in person, vivâ voce, to prevent this tedious trouble of writing, which for the most part is fruitless and needless. Some exceptions our Author lays in, against the Properties of the profession by me required, as necessary to the preservation of this union: as to the first of professing ⟨p. 111⟩all necessary saving Truths of the Gospel, he excepts that the Apostles were ignorant of many necessary truths of the Gospel for a season, and some had never heard of the holy Ghost. Act. 29. and yet they kept the union of the Catholic Church. And yet our Author before he closeth this chapter, will charge the breach of this union on some, whose errors cannot well be apprehended to lie in the denial of any necessary truth of the Gospel, that is, indispensably necessary to salvation. As to his instance of the Apostles, he knows it is one thing not to know clearly and distinctly for some season, some truths in hypothesi, and another to deny them being sufficiently and clearly revealed in thesi; and for those in the Acts, it is probable they were ignorant of the dispensations of the holy Ghost, with his marvellous effects under the Gospel, rather then of the person of the holy Ghost: for even in respect of the former it is absolutely said that the holy Ghost was not yet, because Jesus was not yet glorified. I shall not pursue his other exceptions, being sorry that his ⟨p. 112⟩judgment leads him to make them; that which alone bears any aspect to the business in hand, he insists on pag. 99. in these words. I have intimated and partly proved, that there may be a breach of union, with respect to the Catholic Church upon other considerations (namely besides the renunciation of the profession of the Gospel:) As first, there is a bond that obliges every member of this Church, to join together in exercising the same Ordinances of worship:
What I have offered in my Treatise, as evidence that Protestants are not guilty of the breach of this union, and that where any are, their crime is not Schisme but Apostacy, either as to profession or conversation, I leave to the judgment of all candid, sober, and ingenious Readers; for such as love strife, and debates, and disputes, whereof the world is full, I would crave of them, that if they must chuse me for their Adversary, they would allow me to answer in person, vivâ voce, to prevent this tedious trouble of writing, which for the most part is fruitlesse and needlesse. Some exceptions our Author laies in, against the Properties of the profession by me required, as necessary to the preservation of this union: as to the first of professing