the pattern of the primitive Church that is the original Standard according to which the local Standard was made If he refuse both these let him not say that he will be tryed by the Scripture but he will be tryed by himself that is to say he himself will and can judge better what is the true sense of the Scripture than either his national Church or the primitive and universal Church This is just as if a man who brings his commodities to a market to be sold should refuse to have them weighed or measured by any Standard local or original and desire to be tried by the Law of the Land according to the judgement of the by-standers Not that the Law of the Land is any thing more favourable to him than the Standard but only to decline a present sentence and out of hope to advantage himself by the simplicity of his Judges Yet Mr. Baxter acquits me that I am no Papist in his judgement though he dare not follow me pag. 22. What soever I am this is sure enough he hath no authority to be my Judge or to publish his ill grounded jealousies and suspicions to the world in Print to my prejudice Although he did condemn me yet I praise God my conscience doth acquit me and I am able to vindicate my self But if he take me to be no Papist why doth he make me to be one of the Popes Factors or stalking horses and to have an express design to introduce him into England He himself and an hundred more of his confraternity are more likely to turn the Popes Factors than I am I have given good proof that I am no reed shaken with the wind My conscience would not give me leave to serve the times as many others did They have had their reward He bringeth four reasons in favour of me why he taketh me to be no Papist I could add fourscore reasons more if it were needful First because I disown the fellowship of that party more than Grotius did pag. 23. It is well that he will give me leave to know mine own heart better than himself Secondly because I give them no more than some reconcileable members of the Greek Church would give them And why some members I know no members of the Greek Church that give them either more or less than I do But my ground is not the authority of the Greek Church but the Authority of the Primitive Fathers and general Councils which are the representative Body of the Universal Church Thirdly because I disown their Council of Trent and their last 400. years determinations Is not this enough in his judgement to acquit me from all suspicion of Popery Erroneous opinions whilst they are not publickly determined nor a necessity of compliance imposed upon other men are no necessary causes of Schisme To wane their last 400. years determinations is implicitely to renounce all the necessary causes of this great Schisme And to rest satisfied with their old Patriarchal power and dignity and Primacy of order which is another part of my proposition is to quit the Modern Papacy both name and thing And when that is done I do not make these the terms of Peace and Unity as he doth tax me injuriously enough It is not for private Persons to prescribe terms of publick accommodations but only an introduction and way to an accommodation My words are expresly these in the conclusion of my answer to Monsieur Militiere If you could be contented to wave your last 4â—0 years determinations or if you liked them for your selves yet not to obtrude them upon other Churches If you could rest satisfied with your old Patriarchal power and your Principium unitatis a primacy of order much good might be expected from free Councils and conferences of moderate Persons What is here more than is confessed by himself that if the Papists will reform what the Bishop requires them to reform it will undoubtely make way for nearer Concord p. 28. I would know where my Papistry lieth in these words more than his They may be guilty of other errours which I disown as well as their last 400. years determinations and yet those errours before they were obtruded upon other Churches be no sufficient cause of a separation But what I own or disown he must learn from my self not suppose it or suspect it upon his own head His last reason why he forbeareth to censure me as a Papist is my two knocking arguments as he stileth them against the Papal Church But if he had weighed those two arguments as he ought he should have forborn to censure me as he doth for one that had a design to reconcile the Church of England to the Pope But I will help Mr. Baxter to understand my meaning better I meddle not with the reconciliation of opinions in any place by him cited but only with the reconciliation of Persons that Christians might joyn together in the same publick devotions and service of Christ. And the terms which I proposed were not these nor positively defined or determined but only represented by way of query to all moderate Christians in the conclusion of my just Vindication in these words I determine nothing but only crave leave to propose a question to all moderate Christians who love the peace of the Church and long for the reunion thereof In the first place if the Bishop of Rome were reduced from his universality of Soveraign Iurisdiction jure Divino to his principium unitatis and his Court regulated by the Canons of the Fathers which was the sense of the Councils of Constance and Basile and is desired by many Roman Catholicks as well as we Secondly if the Creed or necessary points of faith were reduced to what they were in the time of the four first Oecumenical Councils according to the decree of the third general Council Who dare say that the faith of the primitive Fathers was insufficient Admitting no additional Articles but only necessary explications And those to be made by the Authority of a general Council or one so general as can be convocated And lastly supposing that some things from whence offences have either been given or taken which whether right or wrong do not weigh half so much as the unity of Christians were put out of the Divine offices which would not be refused if animosities were taken away and charity restored I say in case these three things were accorded which seem very reasonable demands whether Christians might not live in an holy Communion and come in the same publick worship of God free from all Schismatical separation of themselves one from another notwithstanding diversities of opinions which prevail even among the members of the same particular Churches both with them and us Yet now though I cannot grant it yet I am willing to suppose that I intended not only a reconciliation of mens minds but of their opinions also and that those conditions which he mentioned had been my
of Grotians is that they are for a visible head of the Universal Church whether Pope or General Council They who are for the Headship of a General Council are no fit instruments for the introduction of the Popes tyrannical power It seemeth he rejecteth the Authority of General Councils either past or to come as well as Popes so dare not we If under the name of the Universal Church he include the Triumphant Church we know no head of the Universal Church but Christ. If he limit it to the Militant Church we are as much against one single Monarch as he we dislike all tyrannical power in the Church as well as he yet we quarrel with no man about the name of Head or a Metaphorical expression But if he think that Christ left the Catholick Church as the Ostrich doth her Eggs in the Sand without any care or provision for the governing thereof in future Ages he erreth grosly So the Catholick Church should be in a worse condition than any particular Church yea than any Society in the World like the Cyclops Cane where no man heard or heeded what another said Particular Churches have Soveraign Princes and Synods to order them but there never was an universal Monarch And if he take away the Authority of General Councils he leaveth no humane helps to preserve the Unity of the Universal Church what is this but to leap over the backs of all second Causes The first Council was of another mind It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Act. 15. 28. And so have all the Churches of the World from Christs time until this Age. His fifth note of Grotians To dery the sufficiencie of Scripture in all things necessary to salvation might well have been spared for we all maintain it as well as he but he shuffles into the question such impertinent and confused generalities about the Peace of the Churâ—â— and Traditions as deserve no answer The sufficiency of Scripture is not inconsistent either with prudential Government or the necessary means of finding out the right sense of Scripture When he expresseth himself more distinctly he may expect a Categorical answer His last mark is that they will not be perswaded to joyn on any reasonable terms for the healing of our present divisions This dependeth upon his own interpretation what he judgeth to be reasonable terms We have seen his dexterity in making wounds and would be glad to have experience of his skill in healing them He complains only of illegal Innovations Dare he stand to the ancient Laws If he dare the Controversie is ended If he like not this for we know their exceptions were against the Laws themselves not against illegal Innovations let them name those Laws which they except against and put it to a fair trial whether there be any thing in any of them which is repugnant to the Laws of God or of right reason If they will but do this seriously without prejudice the business is ended I will make bold to go yet one step higher though our Laws be unblamable yet if the things commanded be but of a middle or indifferent nature we are ready to admit any terms of peace which we can accept with a good conscience so as we may neither swerve from the analogy of Faith nor renounce the necessary principles of Government nor desert the communion and ancient and undoubted customs of the Universal Church Such an accord would be too much loss both to you and us He would perswade us that there are two sorts of Episcopal Divines in England the old and the new And that there is much more difference between the old and the new than between the old and the Presbyterians Sect. 67. O confidence whither wilt thou what is the power of prejudice and pride The contrary is as clear as the light we maintain their old Liturgy their old Ordinal their old Articles their old Canons their old Laws Practices and praescriptions their old Doctrine and Discipline against them Then tell us no more of old Episcopal Divines and new Episcopal Divines we are old Episcopal Divines one and all out of his own words I condemn him The old sort of Episcopal Divines that received the publick Doctrine of the Nation contained in the 39. Articles Homilies c. I wholly acquitted from my jealousies of this compliance Sect. 12. If they be old Episcopal Divines who maintain the Doctrine of the 39. Articles and Homilies then we are all old Episcopal Divines In acquitting all them he acquitteth all us If he can shew any thing that I have written contrary to these I retract it if he cannot let him retract his words He might have taken notice of my submission of whatsoever I writ to the Oecumenical essential Church and to its Representative a free general Council and to the Church of England or a National English Synod to the determinations of all which and each of them respectively according to the distinct degrees of their Authority I yield a conformity and compliance or to the least and lowest of them an acquiescence Pref. to the Reply to Bish. Chalc. So far am I and always have been from opposing the Church of England wittingly He maketh a shew as though he could make it appear that the Grotian design was the cause of all our Wars and changes in England but it is but a copy of his countenance How should the Grotian design be the cause of all our Wars when our War began before Grotius himself began his design or to write of the reconciliation of Protestants and Papists which was in the years 1641 and 1642. But without all controversie either the Grotian design was the cause of our Wars or the design and more than the bare design of his own Party The World knows well enough and I leave it to his own conscience to tell him whether of the two was the right Mother of the Child Though he fail in his proofs against Episcopal Divines yet he produceth sundry other reasons to prove that there was such a Plot on foot to introduce Popery into England but they do not weigh so much as a Feather nor signifie any thing more than this how easily men believe those things which they wish He saith Franciscus à Sancta Claras design and Grotius his design seem the very same and their Religion and Church the same Sect. 73. Nay certainly that is more than seemingly their Religion and Church was not the same unless he mean the same Christian Religion and in that sense his own Religion is the same with theirs but in his sense they were not the same This is begging of the question which he ought to prove Grotius was not of the French Communion And for their designs the World is so full of feigned Plots and designs that I do not believe that either of them had any design except that general and pacificatory design which he himself professeth and extolleth every where I
return to the ancient and Apostolical simplicity a thing very easie and very practicable were not Interest and Ignorance engaged against it Not that he was so vain or so presuming as to hope to see it effected in his own days He too well understood with how many invincible Prejudices it was obstructed he therefore only designed to declare his Iudgment to the Wise and the Unprejudicate and so to leave it to Posterity and some happy Iuncture of Affairs to accomplish what he could only advise and wish for But by this plain dealing with all Parties it is not to be doubted because it always so happens in the like cases but that he must displease and disoblige all but more especially he raised the Choler and enraged the Zeal of the Geneva Faction that Waspish Sect being according to the humour and spirit of their Founder never able to bear the least Affron or Contradiction And then immediately there was no gainsaying but that he must be as arrant a Papist as Antichrist himself This cry they smels of a Spanish-Popish-Iesuitical-Arminian Plot. It is a plain Prosecution of the Cardinal of Lorrains design that allowed annual Pensions even to the Lutheran Ministers themselves to revile and preach down Mr. Calvin thereby to reduce the People to Popery That crafty Statesman knew well enough that he was the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their Mystery of Iniquity and were he but once removed out of the way the Apostolical Chair would quickly be restored to its ancient Empire and Soveraignty over the Christian World And hence the Alarm is given to the People both from the Pulpit and the Press to stand upon their Guard against such dangerous and Babylonish Attempts These moderate and lukewarm men are but the Forerunners of the man of Sin and do but prepare the ways for his Entrance by removing the strongest and most stubborn Opposition against him And what though he deal as roundly and much more severely with the Church of Rome that is but a meer disguise for his present turn those hard Conditions are easily shaken off when once the Protestant cause and interest is utterly expired And therefore he and his Partizans may publish as many Books as they please against their present abuses and corruptions but the most charitable design they can be supposed to aim at is to bring in a more refined and a more cunning Popery And when this surmise is once voted and noised abroad and vouch'd by publick fame or their own vulgar Tales it is in vain to remonstrate to their rudeness and disingenuity It is not no it cannot be doubted of by any but such as are either privy or at least well-wishers to the design such indeed may pretend or counterfeit a Disbelief to cover their intentions and to escape suspicion And by this Artifice they begin first to seize upon all men in their Wits either for madmen or for parties in the Plot. And then the common people dare not but believe it in their own defence lest they should be suspected to have lost their Understanding as well as their Religion And by this rude and boiterous Confidence are they able as oft as they please to raise any disingenuous and spiteful surmise into popular Reputation and by strength of face and forehead to bear out the credit of the largest and most abusive Lyes And it is well known what strange and monstrous stories they obtruded upon the Multitude against the King the Bishops and the Church of England in defyance even to common sense and the most undenyable Experience But no man was more vehemently charged and more confidently condemned of this Attempt than this Reverend Prelate partly because he was a zealous and resolute Assertour of the publick Rites and Solemnities of the Church against all their wild and fanatick Pranks partly because he expunged some of their dear and darling Articles not only from the Christian Faith but from the Protestant Cause in that they were so far from being or pretending to be of Apostolical Antiquity that they were much younger than the Reformation it self or at best were but the Opinions of some private Doctors and were never establish'd into Articles by any publick Laws or Councils or if they were voted for Orthodox Doctrines in any meeting in Germany or Geneva they were never received for such in the Church of England and therefore ought not to be charged upon the Protestant Cause as such much less upon the English Reformation when it was never any part of its design to model new Bodies of Orthodoxy nor to exchange the old School-Doctors for Calvinian Systems and Syntagms but meerly to clear the Christian Faith of all Corruptions and innovations and reform it into its primitive and uncorrupted simplicity And if any Errours or fond Opinions should have escaped her first Observation she reserves a power in herself to review her own Decrees and either to ratifie or abolish them as they shall upon mature deliberation appear consonant to this Rule and agreeable to this design This was ever the Doctrine of the sober and intelligent men of the Church of England as well as her own declared sense They would never submit to any Authority of a later date than the four first general Councils and as for all forrain Churches of the modern stamp they were so far from being determined by them that they censured all their proceedings and rejected all their Doctrines that fell short of or went beyond their own standard of Prudence and Moderation But this was not to be endured by the fierce and fiery Calvinists to have all their Orthodox stuff cut off at one blow had they spent so much pains and gained so much reputation by their skill in Polemick Theology and must they now throw away all their Problems Subtilties and Distinctions and must all their deep and solid Learning be at last despised as a silly and impertinent piece of Duncery This certainly must needs be very grievous and somewhat provoking to great Clerks Men care not to be convinced that they have wasted so much Oyl and Sweat to no purpose And though they are not able to justifie the Follies and Errors of their Education yet being flush'd with the Glory that they have gain'd among their own party by their skill and ability in contending for their Opinion it is easie to imagine how stubbornly they will struggle in its defence rather than quit the support of their pride and self-conceitedness This Itch is so incident and delightful to humane Nature that where it is not over-ruled by an habitual Integrity and Discretion it is the most powerful not to say the only motive of all our Actions and has such a strict and undiscernable Influence upon our most serious thoughts that if well-meaning men are not very careful or very curious in observing and preventing its inward motions it will quickly prevail over their Understandings insinuate into all their designs and poyson
Persons that have no regard to Truth or Modesty or Sobriety towards God or Man and shall be sure to be accounted with at the Day of Iudgment to the great Relief of his tender Heart That are animated by their secular Interest or desire of Revenge that are unacquainted with the Spirit of the Gospel and the Christian Religion that are incompassionate towards the Infirmities of others whereof yet none in the World give greater Instances than themselves that have no thoughts but of Rage and Destruction and that had they Power would render all Christians like the Moabites Ammonites and Edomites that is are for nothing less than Massacres and cutting of Throats c. Sweet Sir Enough enough of these healing Words we are vanquisht for ever with these generous strains of Meekness and Civility Did ever Man pass by such unparallel'd Injuries and Provocations with so much Gallantry and Greatness of Mind What execrable Miscreants must they be that could treat so brave an Adversary with Rudeness and Incivility or assault such an Heroick Ingenuity with ignoble and unhandsom Arts He is too hard for us at all Weapons there is no contending with a Person of such an Adamantine Honour he rebukes us with his Endearments and strikes us dead with his sweet and kissing Looks We yield we yield we cannot resist all this kind and melting Goodness He has requited our Malice with so fair and â—ivil a Character that it were a notorious Calumny to paint any thing but the Devil himself in blacker Colours And if but one half of this Enamouring Description that he has bestowed upon his Adversaries in the very Pangs of Love and Compassion were true or credible no Man that is yet unhang'd unless he had been marked thrice at least with the Honourable Brand of Authority would ever be so mad as to change condition with such cast and irreclaimable Wretches However we accept his kind Offer and his Good Meaning and seeing he is willing to respite his Revenge to the Day of Iudgment Ah sweet Day when these People of God shall once for all to their unspeakable comfort and support wreak their Eternal Revenge upon their reprobate Enemies it is agreed upon for we are not so fierce and fiery but we can wait with as much patience as he for satisfaction And therefore let us by mutual consent forbear all this unnecessary Courtship and Complement for the future and fall on bluntly upon the Argument without hugging and kissing before we draw Sword It is a pretty point of Honour for young Gentlemen but we that are a more sullen sort of Combatants may without any great inconvenience spare the Ceremony And now upon this Proposal it will be found that these intemperate Reflections as he calls them are so far from making the Book unanswerable that they are the only thing to which he has ventured to make any Reply so that it is plain this is not the Reason but purely the Pretence of his Reluctancy For alas the Evidence of the Cause is so bright and convictive as prevents all tolerable Mistakes or Exceptions and as for his bold and bare-faced Falsifications they arâ— all spent in the former Engagement and all his jugling shifts have been so sufficiently laid open to the World that they can never do him or his Cause any service for the future And setting these aside the Argument of the Controversie is so plain and easie that it is not capable of any farther Doubt or Disputation For all their Exceptions especially as they concern the Church of England relate either to the Power it self or to the Matters of the Command the first are directly levell'd against the very Being of Authority and Magistrates of what kind soever according to their general Pretences must not dare to put any Restraints upon their Subjects Consciences lest they invade the Divine Prerogative overthrow the Fundamental Liberties of Humane Nature and undo honest Men only for their Loyalty to God and their Religion Now if this Right be claimed without Restraint or Limitation then the Consequence is unavoidable That Subjects may whenever they please cross with the Authority of their Governours upon any pretence that can wear the Name or make a shew of Religion But this is so grosly absurd that J. O. nor any Man else in his Wits never had the Courage to assert it And then the Necessity of a Sovereign Power in Matters of Religion is granted and all Arguments that prove it in general necessary to Peace and Government are allowed or at least not contradicted for whoever admits an Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction howsoever bounded and limited admits it and that is enough to the first Assertion of a Supreme Authority over the Conscience in Matters of Religion But then say they there are some particular things exempted from all Humane Cognizance which if the Civil Magistrate presume to impose upon the Consciences of his Subjects as he ventures beyond the Warrant of his Commission so he can tie no Obligation of Obedience upon them seeing they can be under no Subjection in those things where they are under no Authority Now this pretence resolves it self thus that they do not quarrel his Majesties Ecclesiastical Supremacy but they acknowledge it to be the undoubted Right of all Sovereign Princes as long as its Exercise is kept within due bounds of Modesty and Moderatiâ—n Which being granted all their general Exceptions against the Sufficiency of the Authority it self are quitted and they have now nothing to except against but the excess of its Iurisdiction So that having gained this ground the next thing to be assigned and determined is the just and lawful bounds of this Power and that has been already distinctly enough described as to all the most material Cases that can probably occur in Humane Life all which may be summ'd up in this one general Rule viz. That Governours take care not to impose things apparently evil and that Subjects be not allowed to plead Conscience in any other case this is the safest and most easie Rule to secure the Quiet of all that are upright and peaceable and all that refuse Subjection to such a gentle and moderate Government make themselves uncapable of all the Benefits of Society in that if we stop not their Liberty of Remonstrating to the Commands of Authority at this Principle we shall for ever be at an utter loss for making any certain Provisions for the Peace and Security of Commonwealths So that if they will attempt any thing here to any purpose they must again either cancel all Ecclesiastical Power or confine it within narrower bounds of Iurisdiction both which are equally absurd and dangerous the former we have already cashiered as flat Anarchy and the latter is no less because there is no end of the Follies and Impostures or at least the Pretences of Religion so that if they may be suffered to over-rule the Power of Princes then can Princes claim no Power over any
the greatest Pest and most dangerous Enemy of the Commonwealth and whoever wishes well to his Country can never do it greater service than by beating down the Interest and Reputation of such Sons of Belial Had he ever given us any Symptoms of Modesty or Remorse for his old Impostures would he have been true to his own Doctrine of wheeling about with Providence would he but deign to give any Engagements of Loyalty and Allegiance only whilst it is in fashion and reputation and acknowledge his good old Principles to have become wicked and abominable because they are now and so long have been disowned by Providential Revolutions Nay did he not give us manifest Tokens of Rage and Indignation at the disappointment of his former Designs did he not employ all his Industry to discompose our present Setlement did he not make it his business in private and as far as he dares in publick to keep up the old Schism and to keep back the People from returning to Peace and Sobriety did he not train up Nurslings of the Cause in Principles of Enthusiasm and Sedition did he not always thrust forward to appear in the Head of the Mutiny did he not set up his Flag of Defiance against the Church of England and bestir himself with all his Zeal and Power against all Endeavours of Peace and Reconciliation did he not enflame and exasperate the Minds of his Disciples against the Establisht way of Worship and Discipline and chuse rather than see it perfectly setled to let loose Antichrist and call in the Turk in a word did he not shew himself past all hopes of Reformation by his incorrigible Boldness and Confidence he might be allowed some Grains of Mercy and Tenderness But if he be a Person of such a gangren'd Temper and malignant Spirit no body that is not concerned and involved in the same guilt himself can ever be concerned to have such a Caitiff spared Especially when by his Zeal and Pragmaticalness he has advanced himself to some considerable Power and Reputation with his Party in so much that great Numbers of silly People run greedily into Schismatical courses for no other reason than because J. O. steers and drives them He is to his great content become the Head of the Faction and the Oracle of the separate Churches and is consulted in all Cases of Conscience and in all Projects of Anarchy and his bare Authority and Nod is to the Disciples a satisfactory Determination of all Enquiries And if it be so it is not only fit but necessary to take down such an aspiring Mind from its heighth and loftiness to take off all his demure and hypocritical Disguises and to shew him to the deluded People in his own Colours and if it be possible to disabuse them by letting them see that the only thing that lies at the bottom of all his Tumultuatingness of Spirit is Pride and Ambition I ever had so good an Opinion of the well-meaning of the Vulgar sort that I am confident great Multitudes would quickly return to themselves and to their Duty did they but see into the Dishonesty of their Leaders and into the Designs of their Practices and I can scarce judge so severely of any Member of his own Rendevouz as to believe he would ever have entrusted his Soul and its Eternal Interest to his Conduct had he but understood the Rankness of his Blasphemies against the Divine Providence And that is one of the chiefest Arts they make use of to keep their People fast to their Communion viz. To bar up their Minds against all ways of being undeceived if they do but light upon a Book that reflects upon their Reputation it is immediately wrested out of their hands and they are frighted from perusing it because as they inform them it is stuff't with nothing but Railing and Wicked and Ungodly Opinions But were they so hardy as notwithstanding their frightful Tales to examine and judge impartially it is not to be doubted but that their Conventicles would quickly moulder away if they did not suddainly vanish and disappear so that at last nothing will be found more serviceable towards the cure of our Schisms and Divisions than to deal plainly and sincerely with the People in acquainting them with the Blasphemous Doctrines and Seditious Practices of these Achitophels And therefore I would advise J. O. for the future to forbear all Publick Attempts against the Church and if he will not he will find all the Rebuke he has hitherto suffered to be but the beginnings of his sorrows and will be brought to the Sledge oftner than he is aware of for if he be not taken down with open and continual Disgraces his Pride will quickly grow raging and insupportable I know he will complain of this as the most intemperate Language that was ever poured upon him by any Adversary but 't is no matter for that as long as I know them and have proved them to be Words of Truth and Sobriety they proceed not from Passion or Revenge but from an upright and composed Mind that upon mature Iudgment chuses this way of procedure as most proper and rational against such an enormous and irreclaimable Offendor I have not skill enough in the Tricks of Hypocrisie to protest my Friendship and Charity to my Enemies in the coarsest Expressions of Rancour and Bitterness as this meek-spirited Man always does with heaping up all the Recriminations that he tells us he might but will not retort and so in one breath vents his Malice and boasts his Charity and were it not for this demure way of darting his Revenge it is manifest from the Genius of his Mind and Writings that Death it self would scarce be more disgustful than an hearty forgiveness otherwise he would not always issue out his Pardons with such spiteful and stabbing Intimations But for my own part I love nothing more than a frank and an open Integrity and endeavour nothing more than to deal clearly and undisguisedly with all Men and therefore having plainly enough told him his own and nothing but his own as to his Principles I need not to protest my unfeigned Love and Charity towards his Person I am too well assâ—red of the Uprightness of my Purposes to condescend to such faint and mis-giving Expressions for it is nothing else but a diffidence of their own Sincerity that puts Men upon such needless Appeals and Protestations And therefore in stead of that I shall only add That I do not in the least tax his private Conversation and for any thing I ever will know for I scorn ever to enquire he may live as becomes a good and an honest Man among his Neighbours and Acquaintance the only thing I lay to his Charge is his insolent and unpardonable Behaviour towards the Publick and 't is purely for the sake and in the behalf of that that I account with him so severely for his old Arrears Which yet I should willingly have spared so
that the Chiefs of the Party are only the Remainders of the old Rebellion and the Republican Faction and such as profess no great kindness to Monarchy or Sovereign Princes These that are so stein'd with Guilt and Disloyalty are they that are every where so zealous to make their Cabals of Zeal and their Musters of Reformation or at least to keep up the Cause and themselves above despair by keeping up a factious and discontented Party that if ever opportunity should favour them may have Strength and Interest enough to act over their old Designs of Zeal and Reformation Now at present it is the Way and the Wisdom of these Men to bend all their Forces against the Ecclesiastick State not only to disguise their Intentions but to remove the main hindrance of their Designs For 't is the Church that is the best part of every Commonwealth and when all Projects are tried Religion is the best Security of Peace and Obedience The Power of Princes would be but a very precarious thing without the Assistance of Ecclesiasticks and all Government does and must owe its quiet and continuance to the Churches Patronage 't is the Authority that has over the Consciences of Subjects that chiefly keeps the Crown upon the Princes Head and were it not for the Restraints of Conscience that are tied on by the Hands of the Priest and the Laws of Religion Man would be a monstrously wild and ungovernable Creature For though the World be kept in some tolerable Order notwithstanding there are too many Persons in it of Atheistical and Irreligious Principles yet of all Subjects these are the most dangerous and disloyal because 't is impossible to bring them under any effectual Engagements of Duty and Allegiance and hence it is that all Seditions and Treasons are headed and managed by such Leaders At least though they are not able to do so very much mischief because their Party is not very considerable yet were all Mankind of their Humour and Perswasion nothing could be more insecure and destitute of help than the Condition of Princes because no Man according to their Principles could be so foolish as to think himself any way obliged to venture Life and Fortune for the sake of their Interest and whenever they are attempted Subjects would be determined as to their Loyalty by the chance of Success and not by any antecedent Obligations and whenever the Princes Affairs were brought into any straight or danger they must leave him to shift for himself and revolt to an Usurper for their own Safety and Interest But those only are Loyal Subjects and true Friends and Servants to the Establisht Government that think it their Duty to adhere to their Prince in all Fortunes and to assist and serve him against all Enemies and 't is their Numbers every where that keep the World in that little order and security that it enjoys for beside the useful and advantagious Offices that they do to the Crown by their own immediate Service 't is their known and sworn Fidelity that in a great measure keeps back wicked and seditious Men from attempting it too lightly Every aspiring Mind or neglected Grandee would be presently venturing at the Throne if it stood naked and unguarded of the Assistances of Loyalty but when they are assured that howsoever their Designs may succeed that there is so strong a Party unalterably resolved to make Head against them and all their Attempts 't is that that chiefly makes such Projects and Practices not so very frequent or easie Now 't is nothing but Conscience and Religion that can awe the Minds of Men to any sense of this Duty and they ever are and ever must be Govern'd by Ecclesiasticks other Persons may tamper with them and inveigle some stragling People but still the main Body of a Nation and especially the sober part of it will chuse to submit themselves to their Conduct whose Publick Profession it is to guide Souls and instruct Consciences so that to them and the discharge of their Duty do all Princes plainly owe the main Strength and Seourity of their Government This Obligation of kindness to the Ecclesiastical State is common to all Civil States and so much as they discountenance the Power and Reputation of the Church so much do they disadvantage the Interest of their own Authority But this reason of State is of greater force and more peculiar usefulness in reference to the present Constitution of the Kingdom of England The Nation is manifestly divided into two opposite Parties the Church of England and the Body of the Nonconformists The former whereof is the greatest Example of Loyalty that perhaps ever appeared in the Christian World Its Clergy are the most Zealous Assertours of the Rights of Princes they have all along undauntedly maintain'd their Supremacy against all Assaults and Invasions they have possest the Peoples Conscienecs with a religious Awe and Reverence of Government they have restrained them from all Attempts of Rebellion or of taking up Arms upon any Pretence whatsoever under the greatest and most dreadful Penalties they have secured them from being abused with the Impostures of Zeal and Superstition and have carefully prevented all the Shifts and Excuses of Disobedience and after they have made Subjection a prime and indispensable Duty they do not evacuate the Efficacy of their Doctrine by juggling Reserves and Limitations And thus are the People train'd up in a Conscience of their Loyalty and take it in together with their Religion and are as strongly principled against the hateful sin of Rebellion as against Witchcraft or Idolatry And of this our Princes have had sufficient proof and experience ever since the Reformation They have ever found all their Subjects of the Communion of the Church of England modest and peaceable and were never troubled with Disputes and Remonstrances Plots and Disturbances from any of her Friends And when Rebellion broke forth and the Royal Power was invaded and oppressed with what Zeal and Devotion did they appear in its Defence and for its Recovery and what Numbers sacrificed Lives and Fortunes out of meer sense of Duty and Allegiance For though it is not to be doubted but that some might engage themselves in the Royal Cause for other ends yet 't is manifest from too many sad Circumstances that the true and hearty Sons of the Church were acted by Principles of Conscience and Religion and whilst others might be bought over by the Rebels and Usurpers no Temptation could prevail upon their Minds but they were constant and impregnable in all Conditions They forsake their Prince You must first force them to renounce their Faith their Loyalty stands upon their Religion and they were Martyrs as well as Souldiers for his Cause and in his Service This is the peculiar Genius and these the distinguishing Principles of the Church of England and as far as they are admitted into the Minds of Men so far do they work in them this religious
and awful Regard toward Sovereign Princes And though sometimes it may so fall out that they may have other Reasons and Motives to determine them to their Loyalty yet there are no Enforcements so powerful and irresistible as Convictions of Conscience All others may and often do fail but this never can But now as for the dissenting Party their Religion spends it self another way their Preachers fill the Peoples Heads with Wind and Phrases possess their Fancies with Dreams and Visions and spend most of their Pulpit-sweat in making a noise about Faith Communion with God Attendance upon Ordinances that as they manage them with some other fluttering and Romantick Stories serve only to appease their natural sense of Religion and to stroak them into a very civil and kind Opinion of themselves But as for the Duty of Respect and Obedience to Superiours being a Paultry Moral Vertue it is a Topick that has very little or no place among their Cases of Conscience and though the Scripture be so very plain and pregnant in this Article and abounds with so many clear and express Determinations of the indispensableness of the Duty yet they can rarely find either a Text or an Occasion as many as there are of both to discourse it in their Pulpits and recommend it to their People And if at any time it so falls out that they cannot avoid it they will make hard shift but before they have done they will be too cunning for their Text for be that never so plain and positive they will so over-reach and draw it in with Tricks and Distinctions that before they part it shall be perfectly wheel'd about to the Long Parliament side They still Preach Obedience with so much Caution and under so many Reserves as utterly abates its Obligation for they make the People so tender and timorous of their own Complyance and so jealous of the Commands of their Superiours that they are scarce more afraid of doing what God has expresly forbidden than they are of what the Magistrate expresly requires and they are taught to dispense with their Duty and Obedience towards their Governours upon no greater or wiser Pretence than that they only fear and suspect lest possibly their Commands should cross with the Divino Laws And they are exhorted above all things to keep their Consciences i. e. themselves free from the Usurpation of all Humane Powers that is in effect they are forbidden to make any Conscience of Subjection to Princes for 't is only Conscience that is capable of the Obligation of Laws so that if that be exempt the whole Man is at Liberty And how little sense they have of this Duty or concern to discharge it is very observable from their own most publick solemn Devotions where though they strain and wink hard for the largest and foulest Confessions of sins and arreign themselves of all the Crimes they can think of and rake together whether they ever did or did not commit them And withal though most of them be pretty well concerned in the Guilt of this Wickedness if a Wickedness at all yet it has no place in their Catalogues of Vice and they never deign so much as to take notice of it to Almighty God or to beg his pardon for it and could never yet be prevailed upon so much as to acknowledge it but among the Infirmities of his People and that is a shrewd ground of suspicion when People that are or would seem to be so tender in all other Cases are so sullen and insensible in this Nay what is worse than all this they instruct the People in all the Doctrines and Pretences of Disloyalty for Rebellion never appears bare-faced but always comes forth mask'd with popular and plausible Demands now they furnish them with such Principles and Maxims as will easily excuse all Disorders and Disobedience such as the Preservation oâ— the true Religion and the Maintenance of their Fundamental Laws and Liberties not against the Prince by no means but against his evil Council And whenever they have a Mind to make Trial of their Princes Patience or Courage they are provided with Aphorisms of all sorts to warrant all the Pranks and Frolicks of the Experiment This has been often enough and from time to time represented to the Publick but if we will not attend to other Mens Information yet it is mad and wilful sottishness if we will wink against our own smarting and dear-bought Experience and yet that we must shamefully do if we can put any Confidence in the Loyalty of these holy Men. For their Practices have never shamed their Principles and though some of them are so modest as to excuse and deny their own Vertues yet it must be confest that they have never failed to behave themselves as becomes the holy Brotherhood They have like the great Hercules from their very Cradle laid hold upon all occasions to affront and grapple with the Royal Authority they have always been forward to dispute and to abate the Sovereign Prerogative and industrious to raise Iealousies against the Government and the Integrity of their Prince And our Princes have all along complained of those Disrespects and Abuses that have been put upon them by the Puritan Party and its Abettors and have at length to some purpose felt the Kindness and Civility of these Right-godly and Religious Rebels This is the true and undeniable Character of the Leading Faction and as for all the other Clans and Sub-divisions they were meerly spawn'd out of the Presbyterian Disorders and bred out of the very Dregs of their Rebellion and were never distinguished from any other Parties of Men but by their Confederated Zeal and Fierceness for the Republican Usurpation against Monarchy and C. S. and yet since his Majesties Restauration would never be provoked to make the least Acknowledgments of their former Disloyalty or to offer any Engagements of their future Allegiance Now let us lay all this together and ten times as much more that I am forced to omit in haste and then consider how peaceable such People are likely to prove that are first poisoned with such Principles of Anarchy and Sedition and then managed by Leaders of such bloody and ambitious Designs The People themselves are of such a peevish and envious Humour both from their Temper and their Principles that no Government can ever please or oblige them they are a sort of Creatures that love to lie at catch for Opportunities of discontent and it is a satisfaction to their proud and peevish Minds if they can but affront their Superiours This is the natural Genius of the Party and the several Brotherhoods are made up of People of this Complexion and Men List themselves into the separated and discontented Churches only to gratifie this snarling and waspish Humour Pride and Ill-nature are the Fundamental Principles of all their Zeal and they are rude and restive to Authority not always out of disaffection but out of a wanton and
folly of these shuffling and half-witted Principles and to shew that when all tricks are tried there is no lasting Wisdom or Policy beside true and generous Honesty for though Falshood and Cunning may make shift to subsist awhile yet it is soon discover'd and then it is never after trusted Reputation is one of the greatest Strengths and best Securities of Interest and when that is gone suspected Power is but a lamentable weak and tottering thing it has no support beside it self and all its pretended Allies are its real Enemies and first or last it is entangled in such Streights and Embroilments from which it can never be able to disengage it self but in violent and illegal ways And then the easiest and first Attempt of Oppression is by Sacriledge and Church-Plunder The Ecclesiastick Order are a tame and helpless sort of Men and if you think good to invade their Propriety they have no remedy to relieve themselves but Patience and a contented Poverty and whenever Exigences of State require it you may easily stop one Gap with their Endowments This is so common and so natural that it is always the first Effect of ill Government unless only in such places where Church-men have scrued up themselves to a Superiority or Equality of Interest with the secular Power and are by that means able to hold their own It is true the small Remainders of our Church-Revenues are pretty well secured not only by the slender Account they would amount to for Sacriledge has already devoured the whole Harvest and has only scattered a few Gleanings to the Church and Church-men nor only by their dependance upon the Crown whereby his Majesty keeps the most considerable Order of Men in the Commonwealth at his Service and that at no Charge nor only because the Tribute that returns back to his Exchequer in First-Fruits Tenths c. is so considerable a Proportion of the Revenue that their Sale and Alienation would amount but to very little more for if ever they should be brought to Market they would go off at a very low Rate and at a very few years Purchase It is possible they may pretty well enrich the Buyer or rather Adventurer but all the advantage the Seller can ever gain by it will be to alienate his perpetual Inheritance only to receive three or four years Rent at one Payment which is the very same with the Providence of Fools and the Policy of Prodigals But beside this security which the Church has as well as all other Beggars that it is not worth the robbing it has at present an impregnable Affiance in the Wisdom the Honour and the Piety of a Gracious Prince that is not capable of attending to such Counsels should they be suggested to him though certainly no Man that is worthy to be admitted to His Majesty favour or privacy can be supposed so fool-hardy or presumptuous as to offer such weak and dishonourable Advice to so wise and able a Prince so that it is secure of Protection during his Life and Reign But yet Princes are mortal and we are sure though we had no Text to vouch it that they must die like Men and then if ever hereafter and some time or other it must happen the Crown should chance to settle upon a young and unexperienced Head this is usually the first thing in which such Princes are abused by their Keepers and Guardians and then the Church must by all means be reformed and new modelled i. e. in Court-stile plundered or demolish'd only to build great Houses for two or three Favourites or Flatterers And now when this is done there is nothing can bid so fair for the next turn as Popery because beside many other Reasons there is nothing left to stand in Competition with it for some publick and establish'd Religion the Kingdom must and will have but when the Church of England is destroyed it must either have that or none For Fanaticism howsoever useful it may be to the Designs of Rebels and Usurpers is too untoward and intractable to be ever much doated upon by any setled Authority And thus these extravagant People by the Assistance and under the Patronage of Rebellion Atheism and Sacriledge may possibly endanger a Change of Religion and by being employed as Iourney-men or rather Tools to destroy the Church of England may sooner than we are aware of make a free and unobstructed passage for the return of Popery in Glory and Triumph I know no other grounds of fear or danger from them beside these already mentioned unless this may prove one at last that by their wanton and unreasonable peevishness to the ingenuous and moderate Discipline of the Church of England they give their Governours too much reason to suspect that they are never to be kept in order by a milder and more gentle Government than that of the Church of Rome and force them at last to scourge them into better manners with the Briers and Thorns of their Discipline And thus Reader having sufficiently tired both thee and my self too it is high time to request thy pardon for presenting thee with such a Rhapsody of hasty and hudled Thoughts I have nothing to say in my own excuse but that I never intended to have been so tedious but so many warm and glowing Meditutions started up in my way as without much musing made my Heart burn and the fire kindle and that has heated me into all this wild and rambling Talk as some will be forward enough to call it though I hope it is not altogether idle and whether it be or be not I have now neither leisure nor patience to examine and therefore if thou meet with any passages that would have confest this for me though I had kept my own Counsel I can only cast my self upon thy Candour and offer Security never to offend again in the like kind And now after this I have no other Favour to request than what concerns thee as much as my self viz. To beg thy hearty Prayers and Endeavours for the Peace and Prosperity of the Church of England for when that is gone it will be very hard to find out another with which if thou art either honest or wise thou wilt be over-forward to join Communion ERRATA In the Preface Page 13. line 4. for strict read secret Pag. 1â— lin 26. for his read this Pag. 5â— lin 8. for beyond read below Pag. â—6 l. 13. before the read are In the Book Page 1. line 〈◊〉 for it read he Pag. 10. lin 8. read annum Pag 18. lin 18. read Erastian Pag. 30. lin 21. for deserve read desert Pag. 34. lin 25. before cry read to Pag. 38. lin 2. for Cane read Cave Pag. 40. lin 12. for too read to Bishop Bramhalls Vindication of himself and the Episcopal Clergy from the Presbyterian Charge of Popery as it is managed by Mr. Baxter in his Treatise of the Grotian Religion CHAP. I. Of Mr. Baxter and his Books and
man of his Benefice but death cession or deprivation It knoweth no deprivation but for crimes committed against Law and that Law more ancient than those Crimes where there is no Law there is no transgression and where there is no transgression there can be no deprivation The Law of England knoweth no deprivation but by persons to whom the ancient Law of England hath committed the power of depriving So every way their Sequestrations are unlawful and they who hold them are like Moths which inhabit in other mens Garments Of all the Commandments the eighth is most dangerous other Commandments oblige to Repentance but that obligeth both to Repentance and Restitution His instances of a Physitian and a Commander and a Pilot who hold their Offices ad voluntatem Domini so long as their Masters think fit are not appliable to a Benefice which is the inheritance of the present Incumbent and his Successors Sequestration may have place during the vacancie of a Benefice or until the decision of some Process depending or for the discharge of some Duty which by Law is incumbent upon the Benefice but such lawless Arbitrary Sequestrations as these were are plain Robbery by all Laws of God and Man CHAP. II. Of Grotius and what Communion he was of NExt for Grotius and others of his charitable way I acknowledge freely that I preferr one page of Wicelius or Cassander or Grotius for true judgment before all the Works of Taulerus and ten more such Authors Yet I have read sundry of them and sometimes have approved more of their piety than of their judgment and at other times repented of the loss of my time Yea I do preferr these three before an hundred yawning wishers for Peace whilest they do nothing that tendeth to the procuring of Peace Particularly I do admire the two former for this reason because their clearer judgments did pierce so deep into the Controversies of Religion before they were rightly stated And their free spirits dared to tell the World impartially what was amiss according to the dictates of their Consciences though with the hazard of their lifes without any other motive than the discharge of their duties And if any of them be reviled for their Charity the greater is their Reward in Heaven Yet I cannot pin my Religion to any of their Sleeves Plato is my friend and Socrates is my friend but Truth is my best friend Perhaps I may disapprove some things in Grotius his Works or some parts of them more than Mr. Baxter himself He extolleth his Book of the right of the Soveraign Magistrates in sacred things But when I did read it he seemed to me to come too near an Evastian and to lessen the power of the Keys too much which Christ left as a Legacie to his Church It may be he did write that before he was come to full maturity of judgment and some other things I do not say after he was superannuated but without that due deliberation which he useth at other times wherein a man may desire Grotius in Grotius Or it may be that some things have been changed in some of his Works as I have been told by one of his nearest friends and that we shall shortly see a more authentick Edition of them all This is certain that some of those things which I dislike were not his own judgment after he was come to maturity in Theological matters But whereas Mr. Baxter doth accuse him as a Papist I think he doth him wrong Nay I am confident he doth him wrong and that he oweth a reparation to his memory I have read all that he alledgeth to prove him a Papist but without any conviction or alteration in my judgment And I believe that one who delighteth in such kind of contentions would find it no difficult task to clear all his Objections and demonstrate the contrary out of the Writings of Grotius himself and others of the most learned and judicious Protestants Sometimes he accuseth him of that which is not true at all sub modo as it is alledged Nothing can be so truly said but that it may be depraved by misrelation or misinterpretation or inconsequent inferences At other times he accuseth him of that for Popery which is no Popery the greater and better and sounder part of Protestants being Judges Yet if Grotius his Genius had been somewhat less critical and so much more Scholastical he had not laid so open to Mr. Baxters accusations Unum hoc maceror doleo sibi deesse It shall suffice me to say that he was a person of rare parts of excellent Learning of great Charity and of so Exemplary a Life that his fiercest Adversaries had nothing to object against him of moment but were forced to rake into the faults of his Family which whether true or false was not so ingeniously done But lest any man might chance unawares to hit his own spiritual Mother out of a mistake I will endeavour to give some further light what was the Religion of Grotius He was in affection a friend and in desire a true Son of the Church of England And upon his Death-bed recommended that Church as it was legally established to his Wife and such other of his Family as were then about him obliging them by his Authority to adhere firmly to it so far as they had opportunity And both my self and many others have seen his Wife in obedience to her Husbands commands which she declared publickly to the World to repair often to our Prayers and Sacraments and to bring at least one of his Grand-children to Sir Richard Browns house then Resident for the King in Paris to be baptized into the Faith and Communion of the Church of England and be made a Member thereof as it was accordingly If any man think that he knoweth Grotius his mind better by conjectural consequences than he did himself or that he would dissemble with his Wife and Children upon his Death-bed he may enjoy his own opiniâ—n to himself but he will find few to joyn with him CHAP. III. No Grotian Design in England ANother branch of his Discourse is concerning the Grotian Design in England He pretends that there was a Party of Grotius his followers in England who prosecuted his design of reconciling us to the Pope under the name of Episcopal Divines Pag. 2. That Grotius had a Pacificatory design all men acknowledge and he himself extolleth it as much as any of us Pr. S. 3. For his Pacificatory design in general I take it to be one of the most Christian noble blessed works that any man can be imployed in That Grotius was a Stalking-Horse for the Pope or had any design but in order to Peace and Truth or that he had any Party in England who followed him further than he followed the Truth after all Mr. Baxters pretences we have no reason to believe This is his own absurd and groundless presumption For certainly Grotius could have no thoughts of
to so great a proportion as the Britannick Churches alone And if one secluded out of them all those who want an ordinary succession without their own faults out of invincible ignorance or necessity and all those who desire to have an ordinary succession either explicitely or implicitely they will be reduced to a little slock indeed But let him set his heart at rest I will remove this scruple out of his mind that he may sleep securely upon both ears Episcopal Divines do not denie those Churches to be true Churches wherein salvation may be had We advise them as it is our duty to be circumspect for themselves and not to put it to more question whether they have Ordination or not or deserve the general practice of the universal Church for nothing when they may clear it if they please Their case is not the same with those who labour under invincible necessity What mine own sense is of it I have declared many years since to the World in print and in the same way received thanks and a publick acknowledgment of my moderation from a French Divine And yet more particularly in my Reply to the Bishop of Chalcedon Pref. p. 4. and cap. 1. p. 71. Episcopal Divines will readily subscribe to the determination of the learned Bishop of Winchester in his Answer to the second Epistle of Molineus Nevertheless if our form of Episcopacie be of Divine Right it doth not follow from thence that there is no salvation without it or that a Church cannot consist without it He is blind who does not see Churches consisting without it he is hard hearted who denieth them salvation We are none of those hard-hearted persons we put agreat difference between these things There may be something absent in the exteriour Regiment which is of Divine Right and yet salvation be to be had This mistake proceedeth from not distinguishing between the true nature and essence of a Church which we do readily grant them and the integrity or perfection of a Church which we cannot grant them without swerving from the judgment of the Catholick Church The other part of his assumption is no truer than the former We do acknowledge the Church of Rome to be Metaphysically a true Church as a Thief is a true Man consisting of soul and body so did Bishop Morton Bishop Hall Bishop Davenant old Episcopal Divines so did Mr. Primrose and other Presbyterian Divines so doth he himself in this very Treatise What a weakness is it to accuse Episcopal Divines of that which he himself maintaineth But we all denie that the Church of Rome is morally a true Church because it is corrupted and erroneous we make it to be a living Body but sick and full of ulcers So we neither destroy the body out of hatred to the ulcers nor yet cherish the ulcers out of a doting affection to the body And therefore he had no reason in the world to suspect Episcopal Divines of a plot or design to introduce Popery into England which they look upon as the very Gangrene of the Church He pleadeth a reason why he doth not name those Episcopal Divines who had this design for fear of doing them hurt Sect. 70. As if it were not less hurtful to discover the nocent if he knew any such than to subject the innocent both to suspition and censure by his general descriptions I cannot excuse his first intimation of such a design because he had no ground at all for it but I can easily excuse his silence now upon another reason because I am confident there neither are nor ever were any such designers among the Episcopal Party Whereas he ought to prove his intention that there was such a design in the place thereof he gives us some symptomes or signs whereby to know the designers This is one great fault in his Discourse But the worst is they are all accidental notes which may either hit or miss there is not one essential mark among them His first mark is They are those that actually were the Agents in the English illegal Innovations which kindled all our troubles in this Land and were conformable to the Grotian design Those last words and were conformable to the Grotian design were well added though they be a shameful begging of the question and signifie the same thing by it self A strange kind of proof for without these words all the World will take him and his Party to be the illegal Innovators and no body but them The Episcopal Divines hold their old Canons their old Articles their old Liturgy their old Ordinal still without any change They took the Protestation against Innovations without any difficulty and are ready to take it over and over again Their fault was that they could not swallow down New Covenants to innovate His Party have changed Canons Articles Liturgy all things and yet have the confidence cry Innovators first His second mark is They bend the course of their Writings to make the Roman Church honourable and to vindicate them from Antichristianism and to make the reformed Churches odious This is a poor note indeed as if men were obliged out of hatred to the Church of Rome to deny it that honour which is justly due unto it or out of affection to the Protestant Churches to justifie their defects What reward did ever any English Protestant get from Rome for doing them this honour I know no man who honours the Church of Rome more than himself He calls Cassander Thaulerus Ferus Blessed souls with Christ He esteems the French Nation to be not only an erroneous but an honourable part of the Church of Christ p. 10. Episcopal Divines have learned to distinguish between that great Antichrist and lesser Antichrists between the Court of Rome and the Church of Rome which he confounds I dare not swear that the Pope is that great Antichrist but I dare swear that I never had any design to bring Popery into England I hope I never shall have and that all genuine Episcopal Divines may take the same Oath His third note of distinction whereby to know an English Grotian is this They labour to prove the Church of Rome a true Church because of their succession and the Reformed Churches to be none for want of that succession Sect. 71. This note is already answered Elsewhere he presseth this point further thus that he would gladly know what Church hath power to make a new Canon the observation whereof shall be essential to a Church or Pastor I answer that he doth doubly mistake the question which is not whether the Catholick Church can make new Essentials but whether it can declare old Essentials Not whether the Canons of the Universal Church of this Age have divine Authority but whether they do oblige Christians in conscience and whether it be not timerarious presumption for a particular person or Church to slight the Belief or Practice of the Universal Church of all succeeding Ages His fourth note
of Rome about a Primacy of order but about a Supremacy of Power I shall declare my sense in four conclusions First that St. Peter had a fixed Chair at Antioch and after that at Rome is a truth which no man who giveth any credit to the ancient Fathers and councils and Historiographers of the Church can either deny or well doubt of Secondly that St. Peter had a Primacy of order among the Apostles is the unanimous voice of the primitive Church not to be contradicted by me which the Church of England and those old Episcopal Divines whom he pretendeth to honour so much did never oppose The learned Bishop of Winchester acknowledgeth as much not only in his own name but in the name of the Church and King of England both King and Church knowing it and approving it Resp. ad Apol. Bellar. cap. 1. Neither is it questioned among us whether St. Peter had a Primacy but what that Primacy was and and whether it were such an one as the Pope doth now challenge to himself and you challenge to the Pope But the King doth not deny Peter to have been the prime and Prince of the Apostles He who should trouble himself and others to oppugn such a received innocent truth seemeth to me to have more leisure than judgement But on the other side it is as undoubtedly true and confessed by the prime Romanists themselves that St. Peter had no supremacy or superiority of power and single Jurisdiction over any other Apostle To this purpose I have laid down these four grounds in my Book of Schisme Garded pag. 27. First that each Apostle had the same power by virtue of Christs Commission Secondly that St. Peter never exercised a single Jurisdiction over the rest of the Apostles Thirdly that St. Peter had not his Commission granted to him and his Successours as any ordinary Pastor and the rest of the Apostles as Delegates for term of life Fourthly that during the History of the Acts of the Apostles the Soveraignty of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction rested not in any single Apostle but in the Apostolical Colledge Hitherto there is no cause of controversie between him and me or between any persons of judgement and ingenuity My third assertion is that some Fathers and Schoolmen who were no sworn vassals to the Roman Bishop do affirm that this Primacy of order is fixed to the Chair of St. Peter and his Successours for ever As for instance Gerson for a Schoolman that learned Chancellour of Paris who sided with the council against the Pope and left his enmity to the innovations of the Court of Rome as an hereditary legacy to the School of Sorbone Auferibilis non est usque ad consummationem saeculi vicarius sponsus Ecclesiae The vicarial Spouse of the Church this was the language of that Age whereby he meaneth not the person of any particular Pope but the Office of the Papacy ought not to be taken away untill the end of the World And among the Fathers I instance in St. Cyprian whose publick opposition to Pope Stephen is well known who seemeth not to dissent from it In his Epistle to Antonianus he calls the See of Rome the place and Chair of Peter Ep. 52. And in his 55. Epistle to Cornelius They dare sail and carry Letters from Schismatical and profane persons to the Chair of Peter and the principal Church from whence Sacerdotal unity did spring And in his De unitate Ecclesiae Although he give equal power to all his Apostles after his Resurrection c. Yet to manifest an unity he eonstituted one Chair and by his own authority disposed the original of that unity beginning from one And a little after The Primacy is given to Peter to demonstrate one Church of Christ and one Chair Every one is free for me to take what exceptions he pleaseth to the various lections of any of these places or to interpret the words as he pleaseth Always there seemeth to be enough to me in St. Cyprian to declare his own mind without taking any advantage from any suppositious passages Whether it be a truth or an error it concerneth not me I am sure it is none of mine error if it be one who neither maintain nor grant such a Primacy of order to be due to the Chair of St. Peter and his Successours by the institution of Christ. But only dispute upon suppositions that although there were such a beginning of unity which Calvin and Beza require in all Societies by the Law of Nature And although the Bishop of Rome had such a Primacy of order either by divine right or humane right yet it would not prejudice us nor advantage them at all Neither in truth is it worth contending about or to be ballanced with the peace of the Church and of the Christian World They who undervalue the Fathers may stile their sayings untruths when they please I have weighed my grounds over seriously to stumble at a Straw My fourth and last conclusion is that supposing still but not granting that any such Primacy of order or beginning of unity about which we have no Controversie was due to the Chair of St. Peter by divine right or much rather by humane right yet this supposed Chair of St. Peter is not fixed to Rome As for divine right we have the plain consession of Bellarmine it is not to be sound either in Scripture or Tradition that the Apostolick See is so fixed to Rome that it cannot be removed Bell. de Rom. Pont. l. 4. c. 4. And for humane right there needeth no proof For whatsoever is constituted by humane right may be repealed by humane right This is my constant way everywhere I do altogether deny a supremacy of Power and Jurisdiction over us in the exteriour Court which only is in controversie between us and the Pope And whatsoever Jurisdiction he hath elsewhere I regulate by the Canons of the Fathers I suppose a Primacy of order but grant it not farther than it hath been granted by the Canons of the Catholick Church And as it was acquired by humane right so it may be taken away by humane right To confound a Primacy of order with a Supremacy of Power divine right with humane right a legislative Power with an executive Power is proper to blunderers So in his two first Exceptions I suffer two palpable injuries In the first Exception he chargeth me upon suspicion directly contrary to my assertion In the second Exception he confoundeth a Primacy and a Supremacy order and power and maketh me to fix that to the See of Rome which I maintain to be unfixed His third Exception is this That the Pope should hold to himself and his Church his last 400. years determinations and so continue as the Bishop here concludes to be no Apostolical Orthodox Catholick Church nor to have true Faith is an unlikely thing to stand with the unity and concord which he mentioneth We shall cement but sorrily with such a
Powers Is not this like to prove a fair accommodation wherein the first Article must be to renounce the light of natural reason and the experience of so many ages since Christs time and the prudential Constitutions of all our primitive Guides These are such terms of peace as can please no body but Sequestrators and such as live like Moths in other mens garments Neither would his pretented Divine terms be more favourable to innovations than humane terms but only that this way affordeth wranglers a longer time to prevaricate before Controversies can be maturely determined If ever there were an Universal reconciliation of all Christians the first act which they ought to do after their Union is to cast out all such pernicious principles as this form among them before they thrust out all reason and humane right out of the World His second rule is the terms of peace must be things necessary not unnecessary We are beholden to King Iames not to him for this prudent direction But by setting it down so imperfectly he makes it his own There are two sorts of necessary things Something 's are absolutely necessary to the being of the Church Some other things are respectively necessary to the well-being of the Church The terms of peace ought to extend to both these to the former ever more to the later as far as it may be Or yet more distinctly Some things are necessary necessitate medii as necessary means of salvation without which no Church can consist Concerning these there is little or no need of reconciliation where there is no difference Secondly Some other things are necessary necessitate precepti as commanded by God or by the Church of God Both these are necessary in their several degrees and both of them ought to be taken in consideration in a reconciliation but especially the former yet not excluding the later Every thing ought to be loosed by the same Authority by which it was bound Thirdly There are other things which though they be neither necessary means of salvation nor necessarily Commanded by God or man yet they are necessary by a necessity of convenience out of pious and prudential considerations Huic hîc nunc to this or that Church at this or that time in this or that place The greatest consideration that ought to be had of these things is to leave every Church free to determine their own necessities or conveniences yet with a regard to unity and uniformity His Third rule is the terms of peace must be ancient according to the primitive simplicity and neither new nor yet too numerous curious or abstruse His first rule doth virtually comprehend both his later rules and renders them superfluous For if nothing be admitted into the terms of peace but Divine truths they can neither be unnecessary nor new nor too numerous curious or abstruse And this way of his rightly expressed and understood is the same in effect with my way which he pretendeth to impugn He admitteth no truths but Divine and excludeth all humane rights which is more than he ought to do I distinguish divine right from humane right and give unto the Law of God both written and unwritten and to the Laws of the Church and to the Laws of Caesar their respective dues He admitteth none but necessary truths I admit no truths in point of Faith but these which the blessed Apostles judged to be necessary and comprehended in the Creed I reject all new coined Articles of saith all usurpations in point of Discipline all innorations in point of worship He proposeth for a Pattern of union the simplicity of the ancient and primitive Church So do I before the faith was adulterated by the addition of new Articles or the Discipline translated into a new Monarchical way or the publick worship of God was corrupted by the injunction of sinful or supernumerary rites I wish he had expressed himself more clearly what he means by the primitive simplicity I hope it is not his intention that either the house of God or the publick service of God should be fordid and contemptible He cannot be ignorant that so far as the persent condition of times and places and Persons and affairs will bear it there ought to be some porportion between that great God whom we serve and that service which we perform unto him God was acceptably served by the Primitive Christians both in their Cells Vaults homely Oratories in times of persecution and likewise in stately and magnificent Temples and Cathedrals when God had given peace and plenty to his Church Wisdom is justified of her Children Yet even in those times of persecutions a man would wonder at that external splendour wherewith those devouter souls served God where they had means and opportunity Neither do I perfectly understand what his aim is where he would not have the terms of peace to be curious or abstruse I conjecture it reflecteth upon the School-men And if his meaning only be that he would not have our Catechisms or accommodations to be pestered and perplexed with the obscure terms and endless disputations of the Schools I do readily assent But if he think that in the work of reconciliation there is no need of a Scholastick Plain to take away the crabbed knots and to smooth the present Controversies of the Christian World I must dissent from him We find by daily experience that the greatest differences and such as made the most Noise and the deepest breach in the Christian World being rightly and Scholastically stated do both become easy and intelligible and now appear to have been meer mistakes one of another And when many other questions are rightly handled after the same manner I presume they will find the like end When I was a young Student in Theology Doctor Ward declared his mind to me to this purpose that it was impossible that the present Controversies of the Church should be rightly determined or reconciled without a deep insight into the Doctrine of the Primitive Fathers and a competent skill in School Theology The former affordeth us a right pattern and the second smootheth it over and plaineth away the knots Though he himself do deal only in Generals yet he telleth us that Mr. Chillingworth hath already particularly told the World a way of unity It is well if he have but if it prove as general as his own way it will not conduce much to the Peace of Christendom What hath Mr. Chillingworth told us or where hath he told it Had it not been worthy of his labour to have repeated the words or cited the place What a deal of vanity is it to write whole Treatises in confutation of others to no purpose and when he comes to the main business or to the only necessary and satisfactory point to be mute It is long since I read over Mr. Chillingworth but I remember no such particular reconciliatory way told by him to all the World but only some general intimations or
him all the rest of the Kingdom and only exhibite the martyrologies of London and the two Universities or a list of those who in these late intestine Wars have been haled away to prisons or chased away into banishment by his own party in these three places alone or left to the merciless world to beg their bread for no other crime then loyalty and because they stood affected to the ancient rites and ceremonies of the Church of England and they shall double them for number and for learning piety industry and the love of peace exceed them incomparably So as his party which he glorieth so much in will scarcely deserve to be named the same day And if he compare their persecutions the sufferings of his supposed Confessors will appear to be but flea bitings in comparison of theirs But after all this the greatest disparity remaineth yet untouched that is in the cause of their sufferings The one suffered for saith and the other for faction If he had contented himself to have rested in positive expressions of learned and pious and peaceable c. he had had no answer to this particular from me but silence It is the duty of a Controvertist to examine the merits of the cause not of the persons But his superlative expressions did draw me unwillingly to do this right to the Orthodox and Genuine Sons of the Church of England I will add but one word more that we have seen but little fruits of their peaceable dispositions hitherto but the contrary that they have made all places to become shambles of Christians God grant that we may find them more peaceable for the future FINIS Some Books Printed for and sold by Iames Collins at the Kings-Arms in Ludgate-street 1672. OBservations upon Military and Political Affairs by the most Honourable George Duke of Albemarle Folio Price 6. s. A Sermon preached by Seth Lord Bishop of Sarum at the Funeral of the Most Honourable George Duke of Albemarle Quarto Price 6. d. Philosophia Pia or A Discourse of the Religious tendences of the Experimental Philosophy to which is added a Recommendation and Defence of Reason in the affairs of Religion by Joseph Glanvil Rector of Bath Octavo Price 2. s. The Way to Happiness represented in its Difficulties and Encouragements and cleared from many popular and dangerous mistakes by J. Glanvil A Praefatory Answer to Mr. Henry Stubbe the Doctor of Warwick by Jos. Glanvil Octavo Price 1. s. 6. d. The Life and Death of Mr. George Herbert the excellent Author of the Divine Poems Written by Iz. Walton Octavo Price 1. s. A Discourse of the forbearance or penalties which a due Reformation requires by Herbert Thorndike one of the Prebendaries of Westminister Octavo A Private Conference between a rich Alderman and a poor Country Vicar made Publick wherein is discoursed the Obligation of Oaths which have been imposed on the Subjects of England Octavo 2. s. The Episcopacy of the Church of England justified to be Apostolical from the Authority of the Primitive Church and from the confessions of the most famous Divines beyond the Seas by the Right Reverend the late Lord Bishop of Duresm with a Preface written by Sir Henry Yelverton Baronet Octavo A Collection of Sermons preached before the King at White-hall by the Right Reverend Father in God Seth L. Bishop of Sarum now in the Press FINIS Discourse concerning Evangelical Love c. pag. 18. Defence of Eccles Pol. from p. 232. to p. 264.