The Dying Mans Testament to the Church of Scotland, Part 4 · Chapter 12
CHAP. XII. What to do for union in points not doctrinall, but about matters of fact or personall faults.
IF the difference be not doctrinall in point of judgment, at least only, but being in matter of fact, as personall faults and corruptions; whereby the one is ready to object to the other some bypast failings, and miscarriages: whereupon by inconsiderat upbraidings, pressing of Censures, or condemnation of what hath been done, the Churches peace is in hazard to be broken, and men like to be rent and divided in their communion. And oftentimes such things prove exceeding fashious, where men wilfully, or imprudently pursue such things without respect to the Churches peace. This often waited upon a time of darknesse, or persecution, when men, being in the dark, and in a distemper, were led away by tentation, and overtaken with many faults, and sometimes amongst others, made to juffle with, and trample one upon another (as it were) not knowing what they were doing; and when this time was over, some were ready to carp at what was past in the dark, and to quarrell at others for such juffling, when they were so through-other. This indeed was ordinary, but most unbecoming grave men, to make that a ground of contending, which inadvertently was done byContests about these, are of several sorts. others in the dark (as the great Basilius saith) In nocturno tempore, & densis tenebris. Such contests are of four sorts.
First▪ Sometimes in generall, there is a dissatisfaction with the constitution of the Church, in respect of the grossenesse of the Officers and MembersDissatisfaction from constitution of Officers and Members. thereof. This cannot be removed upon the one side only, because tares cannot but be in the Church, and that discernably, as Cyprian saith; it is removed then by meeknesse and tendernesse upon the one side towards such as have withdrawn, and by their yeelding to return who have withdrawn, which when it came to passe, hath been matter of gladnesse to all the Church. Amongst Cyprians Epistles (Epist. 50. edit. Pameli) mention is made of Urbanus, Maximus, and others of the Church of Rome, who being Confessors and imprisoned in the time of persecution, and after their delivery finding many grosse Members to be in the Church, and meeting with the doctrine of Novatus that commended separation to the godly for their more comfortable communion together, that they came to be tickled therewith, and for a time to separate from the communion of Cornelius, and others of the Clergy, pretending there could be no communion in such an evil constituted Church; but afterward, finding the great hurt that came thereby to the Church, they overcame their own affections and inclinations, and out of respect to the good of the Church, did unit, which was exceedingly welcomed by all, as their Epistle to Cyprian, and his to them, do manifest. And as their fall sheweth, that it is not impossible, but that zealous Ministers, who have keeped out against defection, may be overtaken with such a fault; So it giveth a sweet copie of Christian deniednesse and tendernesse by others to be followed in the like case. Their words to Cyprian are worthy the observing. Nos habito consilio utilitatibus Ecclesiae, & paci magis consulentes, omnibus rebus praetermiss…s, & Iudicio Dei servatis, cum Cornelio Episcopo nostro, pariter & cum universo Clero pacem fecisse, cum gaudio etiam The alleaging of faults either not true, or not cear.universae Ecclesiae, prona etiam omnium charitate.
A second sort of such contests, are, When faults are alleaged which either are not true, or cannot be proven, although possibly they may be both grosse and true, for both of these did the Novatians and Donatists trouble the Church, insisting long in charging many crimes upon men particularly upon Cecilianus and Osius, which they could never be able to make out, although they alleaged that such faults were cloaked by the Catholicks, and that they were not to be communicated with. In this case the Orthodox took three wayes to remove such a difference. 1. By pleading forbearance of awakening such contests, and exhorting rather to keep union, than to hazard to break it upon such grounds, and so (as Augustine saith) ut quaedam incerta crimina pro certa pace Deo dimitterentur, Cont. Epist. Parm. lib. 1. cap. 3. 2. If that could not be acquiesced in, they admitted the thing to proof, over, and over again, that by lawfull triall it might be decided, as we will find in the former instances, the same case of Cecilianus was often tryed, even after he was absolved. It is true the Donatists did not acquiesce, but did separate, (for which cause they were ever accounted most grosse Schismaticks) yet is it of it self, a way wherein men may satisfyingly acquiesce. A third way sometimes used, was, That when divisions were like to be occasioned by dissatisfaction with a particular person against whom things could not be judicially made out so as to found a Sentence, nor yet possibly was there so full satisfaction with him in every thing, as by owning of him to hazard a rent, where a people were stumbled by him, they did without judiciall processing, or Censuring, interpose with the Bishop to cede, and wrote to the people to choose another. So in that Council of Carthage, Canon. 91. letters are written to Maximianus (called Episcopus Bagiensis) and the people, that he might cede the Bishoprick, and they might choose another; yet there is no mention of any made-out accusation, or Sentence, but that for the good of the Church, Synodo placuit, &c. There is mention made elswhere in history of a Bishop of that place, of that name, who had been a Donatist, and did return to the communion of the Church; but, if this be he, or what was the cause of this appointment, is neither certain, nor of great concernment in this.
A third sort of contests of this kind, are, WhenPleading for such as are most justly censured, or censurable. crimes are grosse and clear, and men are either justly censurable, or Censured; some (possibly honestly minded) may be engaged to do for them, by their insinuating upon them, and giving misinformations and prejudices, and so be brought to endeavour the preventing or removing of Sentences against, or from, such as justly deserve the same. In this case we find a threefold way of composure. 1. An endeavourThe justness of the Sentence to be cleared. used to clear to others the justice of such a Sentence when it hath been traduced. Thus when Basilides, and Martialis, were justly deposed by a Synod of Spain, they did, by false pretexts, engage the Clergie of Rome to owne them, and write for their recovery, which did exceedingly offend the Bishops of Spain; whereupon they wrote to Cyprian and these in Africk for advice, who, being met in the Synod, approved their deposition, and advised them not to readmit them, because none such who had any blemish and were not holy, ought to minister in the holy things, and that rather they should bear with Stephanus his mistake, who out of ignorance and misinformation was led to side with such: Thus Cyprian hath it in his Epistles to the Church of Spain, Epist. 68. So that schism was stopped, and the Churches continued to acknowledge the lawfully ordained Bishops that succeeded these. And the readmission of such, had neither been in it self lawfull, nor yet had compassed the end of obtaining peace in these Churches where the people wasOr, the Sentence recalled, when the person might be profitable stumbled by their carriages. A second way was, When the men were orthodox and profitable, though failing in some grosse particular, yet when they were owned by others in the Church, Synods did not stand, for concord, to remove such Sentences, as was formerly instanced in the case of Ostus: Augustine also in a certain Epistle, 164. doth approve the not-censuring of one Optatus, lest thereby a schism should be occasioned, because of manies adhering to him. We will find also a third way, That when men have been Sentenced, and some have continued to owne them, and others to oppose them, such have been brought to submit themselves, and so the division hath been removed; It was so in that hot contest that continued long between the Bishops of Rome, and the Church of Africk, in the case of Apiratus Bishop of Sica, &c. who being deposed by the Synod of Carthage, was pressed to be admitted by the Bishops of Rome, whom by no means these of Africk would admit; at last, these that were Sentenced, came to acknowledge the Sentence; whereby the division was stopped.
A fourth sort of contests or divisions for matters ofMutuall upbraidings for failings. fact, is, When both sides have had their failings in a time of darknesse and tentation, some one way, and some another, and after some breathing they fall, by mutual upbraidings, to hazard the Churches peace; one casting up this fault to him, and he again upbraiding him with another. The way taken to prevent this, is most satisfying, when both, acknowledgingRemoved by a mutuall forgiving. their own guilt to other, did forgive one another, and joyn cordially for the good of the work. In the debates with the Donatists there is much mention made, not without great commendation of the practice of a Synod, which is called Concilium Cirtense, wherein the members did mutually confesse their faults, and (saith he, to wit, Augustine, in the conference formerly cited) Sibi invicem ignoscebant ne schisma fieret. And by the scope of the Catholicks in urging that example, and by the vehemency used by the Donatists in denying the same, it would seem, that they looked upon this as a most excellent and satisfying way of removing differences amongst godly men, when every one acknowledgeth their own fault, and doth not upbraid but forgive one another, endeavouring to have the rememberance of bypast miscarriages rather forgiven and buried in oblivion, than mentioned. Because good men being but men, usually there are failings on both sides, and the denying of it, provoketh others to insist the more thereon, as the acknowledging thereof doth stop the upbraiding of them with the same; and usually it is to be seen, that the best men had rather mention their own faults in their acknowledgements, than hear the same done by any other. Beza, Epist. 23. also hath such an advice as this to a Church that had fallen into division, Utinam utraque pars acquiescere malit, quam si curiose nimium & foreign quis sit in majori culpa, inquiratur.