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
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
their best Intentions and Resolutions So that they may easily believe themselves passionately concerned for the love of Truth and the Glory of God whilst all their mighty zeal and passion may be nothing else than Eruptions of pride and vanity And wherever this Delusion rules it is the most impetuous and most importunate Principle in the world No sort of men so boisterous and irresistible as those whose imaginations are overcome with the vehemence of its delight And this is the case of our peevish and Grubstreet Divines they have when time was been looked upon as Authors of esteem and credit in the world and were once admired and applauded for the deep and the solid men of the Age and as they have walked the Streets have sometimes had the pleasure of a this is that Demosthenes from the more knowing and judicious Tankard-bearers And in all Assaults and Challenges from the Enemies of the precisest and most refined sort of Orthodoxy they have been called forth to defend the Cause and in all Tryals of controversial Skill have ever come off with success and victory Truth has always hung upon their Pens and they have been courted and consulted as the Oracles of their Age Learned men have submitted themselves to their Iudgment and their Writings have stood or fell at their Tribunal and in all the nice and more difficult Controversies their Decree has determined what is Orthodox and what Heretical Now these men must needs lye under vehement temptations of being very troublesome and pragmatical and upon every trifling occasion of annoying the publick with perpetual Pamphlets and Scribles And I cannot divine what other provocation Mr. B. had to meddle with Grotius or Bishop Bramhall then that they were learned enough to despise the Ignorance of the highest knowledge that he or any of his Brethren coul'd pretend to And certainly he must have been bravely flusht and perch't in his own conceit that could prevail with himself to venture upon three or four days study to bolt forth such bold and rash censures against two such great Wits and great Scholars Had he then been furnished with Learning enough to understand the vast disproportion between his own and their abilities he would rather have trembled at their Names than have attempted their Reputations Mr. B. must not think himself undervalued by being placed so many degrees below them for alas it is not every Rabbi that is sufficiently qualified to sit at their Feet And I doubt not but the opportunities he has since had to emprove and raise himself to an higher form of Learning have convinced him of the confidence and unadvisedness of that undertaking as the rudeness and extravagance of his own Party has taught him more candour and civility towards the Church of England And therefore this Treatise was not published to impair his E steem in the least but for a Correction of his scribling humour and a warning to their Rat-Divines that are so perpetually nibling and gnawing other mens Writings that by this example they may learn how easie a thing it is to blast such hasty Conceptions and be a little frighted from being so very pert and forward at such uncivil Attempts For upon Perusal of it I cannot imagine any man either so partial or so ignorant as not to grant that our Authour has with Smartness enough and considering all Circumstances Modesty too much not only answered but baffled all such Accusations of his Adversary as are at all material in themselves or pertinent to the Cause and that without condescending to play with him at his Systematical and Push-pin Divinity But the main Reason that put me upon the Publication of it was thereby to give some check to their present disingenuitâ— for though Mr. B. have learnt more modesty then to be so prodigal as formerly in sending abroad his hard â— ensures and positive Decrees against every Body and upon every Occasion yet others that pretend to as great an Interest and Authority with the holy Brotherhood still persevere in the same rudeness and incivility towards the Church of England and upon every flight accident are beating up the Drums against the Pope and Popish Plots they desery Popery in every common and usual chance and a Chimney cannot take Fire in the City or the Suburbs but they are immediately crying Iesuites and Fireballs And as for all those that wear Canonical habits and walk in Cassocks and Girdles they are aâ— least Pensioners to his Holiness and let them protest or pretend what they please they are Popelings in their Hearts and Worshippers of the Beast in secret and own him too shamefully in their open and avowed Practices In so much that the great Scribler of the Party J. O. blushes not to charge them with a total Apostasie from the Reformation and to plead this in justification of their Nonconformity We fear not says Shamefacedness to own that we cannot Conform to Arminianism Socinianism on the one hand he might as well have added all the Isms in the Old Testament Perizzitism Hivitism Jebusitism Hittitism c. or Popery on the other and why not Sorcery and Extortion too with what new or specious Pretences soever they may be blended This is his old Modesty and brawny-faced Confidence who beside this humble melting broken hearted Secret One could have vented such lofty strains of Candour and Ingenuity But the Viper is so swell'd with Venom that it must either burst or spit its Poison The Dunghil is his only Magazine and Calumny his only Weapon and he has no other Apology to justifie the Rudeness and Incivility of his Scriblings but by such loud and thundering Falsifications And though he has been so often and so shamefully corrected for these base and unworthy Arts yet 't is not in his power to forbear them when they are the result of his Humour and Genius For had his Complexion been capable of a Blush or a modest Thought I dare say he has not wanted for Means and Opportunities of learning better Manners But he is so far from being reformed by the sharpest Rebukes and Corrections that they only provoke him to greater Sullenness and more enraged Abuses and in stead of being brought to Tears and Repentance he improves in the Boldness and Insolence of his Aspersions It is not sufficient now adays to represent us Papists Socinians and Hereticks that is an easie and an ordinary Slander he was able to face that out when he was but a Novice and unexperienced in the Arts of Malice and Confidence These were his common Performances twenty or thirty years ago But now his Mightiness scorns to stoop his Prowess to such low and creeping Atchievements they become not the Courage and the Confidence of so Renowned a Wight he disdains to vent a Slander that is not too big for any Mans Throat or Conscience but his own And now things are come to that desperate pass in the Church of England that they are not contented
to be Jesuites and Socinians themselves but O Tempora O Mores they will force all others that desire to be admitted into her Communion to submit to Popish and Heretical Subscriptions and there is no other cause of the Independent Separation than that they dare not in Conscience conform to Popery and Socinianism Dear Heart How could I hug and kiss thee for all this love and sweetness Well fare poor Macedo for a modest Fool He could never have rubb'd his Forehead to such a burnisht Confidence as to venture upon such notorious and palpable Forgeries so contradictory both in themselves and to every Man 's own Knowledge and Experience For in the Name of Truth what new Doctrines have we made necessary to Conformity over and above the old Articles which yet he is so far from bringing under this Indictment that he makes our departure from them the very Charge of our Apostasie So that how wild and wanton soever we may be in our own Sentiments there is nothing to be found in Nature of so daring and desperate a Confidence beside the great and renowned J. O. as to belch in the face of the Sun such foul and uncleanly Railings But he is a Man of that inveterate and incurable Pride that there is no rancour spiteful or disingenuous enough to be admired at in him But now that I have seized him I cannot let him pass without taking notice to the World of another eminent instance of his Ravishing Candour and Ingenuity That when he had without any Provocation though that he never needs in a publick and solemn way undertaken the Defence of the Fanatick Cause and when he had reason done him in a particular Rejoinder to all his Pretences and Exceptions such as they were he could think of satisfying his People and salving his Reputation by Scribling over the very same stuff again and presenting it to the World in a new Pamphlet and under another Title without regarding how comfortably it had been exposed and baffled by a loving Friend even for his own dear sake For whoever will be at the idle pains to peruse his late Discourse of Evangelical Love Church Peace and Unity will never be able to find one syllable to the purpose beside a perpetual Repetition of the old worn-out Story of Unscriptural Ceremonies and some frequent Whinings and sometimes Ravings about his hard usage in being so severely chastised and innumerable Suggestions that all that are or pretend to be Loyal to the present Setlement of the Church of England are not so upon any Principles of Integrity or Conscience but purely for their own seoular and carnal Ends i. e. in plain English they are all downright Knaves These are the most pertinent passages I can meet with in the Book but they are not very new some others indeed I meet with somewhat newer but then they are not very pertinent It is a very new discovery to demonstrate that the Church of England is desperately Schismatical because the Independents are resolved one and all to continue separate from her Communion and though it is not as new yet it is as odd an Observation that all Parties in Christendom except only the little Flock of their own Secret Ones are profest Rebels to the most necessary and indispensable Institutions of the Lord Christ that none of them ought to be suffered to live in an open and habitual contempt of his Laws particularly that the Church of England is as little to be endured as the Church of Rome because they persecute those that are better than themselves and St. John tells us Revel 21. 8. Murther is as bad as Idolatry If it will do him or his cause any kindness we will let these pass for New Lights and wonderful pat to the business of Toleration Did ever Man write or speak with such a fluent Vein of looseness and impertinency Is it credible that any Creatures that pretend to common sense and the shapes of Men could ever accept much less admire such dull and intolerable Bungling And yet it is rare and admirable to the Wits of the Congregation and the Doctor is a wonderfully precious and convincing Man But the truth is he has an Advantage above most of his Neighbours for Writing Non-sense in that his common Readers despair beforehand to understand the Categoricalness of his Logick Otherwise he abounds so plentifully with Absurdities and Incoherences in every Page that there is nothing to keep him from being despicable even to the Apron-men of his own Dispensation but a peculiar Uncouthness and Obscurity of stile whereby as they cannot hope to carry along with them the Thread and Connexion of the Discourse so neither dare they presume to observe its Flaws and Weaknesses but if their Prejudices so incline them they suppose at all adventure some extraordinary depth of Reason and Metaphysicks that Men of their Education are neither able to fathom nor obliged to understand And he may take his Liberty as much and as long as he pleases to amuse his own gazing and admiring Drove with this profound and wonderful Non-sense provided he will be advised not to lay out his Talent to the disturbance of his Neighbours But if he will be venting his Gall and his Ignorance against the establisht Laws and Constitutions of the Commonwealth he must not take it ill if his shameful folly not to name something worse be discovered and laid open to the World And therefore in my Opinion it would be very good advice if he would be perswaded to give over this thread-bare Controversie of Church-Government and spend the remainder of his Days in embellishing and illustrating that great and important Discovery with which he has so lately obliged the World viz. That the Determination of a Septimary Portion in the Hebdomadal Revolution is or is not I care not whether an addition of the Law Decalogical to the Law Natural Ah! What Edifying Doctrine is this to the White-Aprons It could be no less to them than a Demonstrative Evidence of the Morality and Divine Institution of the Lords Day and doubtless they would with the Iews sooner Rost themselves than a small Ioint of Mutton upon the Day of Sacred Rest. He may I say trifle with his own Proselytes after this rate as much and as long as he pleases and no body will be much concerned to disabuse People so resolved to abuse themselves But if he will not be satisfied with the Priviledge of being learnedly impertinent unless he may make use of his Liberty to discompose the Publick Peace he may thank himself for what will follow For he will be sure to encounter to his cost too many Persons that love their Country too well to suffer it to be over-run and debaucht by such shallow Mountebanks and Impostors But my just Indignation against this Mans insolent and insufferable Behaviour transports me into too vehement and smart Resentments of his vile and dirty Practices yet because he is so forward
tender am I of the Laws of Good Nature and Civility even towards all that have forfeited their Right in them could I ever have discovered the least appearance of Integrity either in his Writings or Actions or the least tokens of Repentance for his former Crimes or the least ground of hope for his future Reformation but when nothing appears but reprobate Hardness and Impenitence and an obstinate persisting in his old Rancour his case is desperate and when Men are past Grace they are past Mercy too And thus having done him Right and his Pamphlet Reason and prevented the Design of escaping the Disgrace of his Overthrow by sending abroad new Challenges before he had discharged himself of his old Engagements it is high time to return to the Argument upon which I was entring when he came in my way to divert me viz. To consider what likelihood or how much Danger there is of the Return of Popery into this Nation For my own part I know none but the Nonconformists boisterous and unreasonable Opposition to the Church of England for if ever that be Re-erected it must be upon the Ruines of this as long as this stands in Power and Reputation it will easily beat back and baffle all the Attempts of Rome and all its Adherents Our Reformation is Establisht upon such unblameable Grounds and Principles that all the Learning and Wit of our Adversaries was never able to fasten any Reproach or Dishonour upon the Constitution it self and next to the Puritan Cause there was never any so unequally managed as the Controversie between us and the Romanists their most plausible Reasonings are evidently no better than little Tricks and Sophisms and seem intended by themselves rather to abuse the Simple than to satisfie the Wise in so much that it is very hardly credible that those Persons who have lately appeared in the Cause can notwithstanding all their seeming Zeal and Earnestness be really in good earnest in their Pretences but 't is somewhat more wonderful that they should have the Confidence to suppose the World should be so simple as to think them so when they can boast such idle talk for Demonstration as themselves unless their Skulls are stufft with Mud and Saw-Dust cannot but know to be meer Trifling and arrant Sophistry And no wonder for every Cause must be defended as it can their Innovations are so undeniable and the Design of our Reformation so apparently Apostolical that those People must needs argue at a strangely wild rate that will be Demonstrating against Experience and Ocular Inspection and nothing could preserve them from being hiss'd out of the Pit but that they are extreamly confident and most Readers sufficiently ignorant so that the Church of England may safely defie all their Opposition she does not stand upon such trembling Foundations as to be thrust down with Bullrush-spears with sure Footings and Oral Traditions with Labyrinths and Castles in the Air. If there be any danger from them it lies more remote and out of view and if ever they get any Ground or Advantage of us they will be bound to make their Acknowledgments to the Puritans and the strength of their Assistance Not that these are a whit more considerable and dead-doing Enemy than the other they are Triflers beyond contempt and when they have in their mighty Zeal done their poor utmost and spent all their Ammunition a Man must be very splenetick that can refrain from laughing at the folly and the childishness of their Attempts No their strength lies in other Weapons and their danger arises from other Interests their Faction may be made use of as Instruments to dissolve and unravel the establish'd frame of things but they can never be able to set up any of their own Models and crazy Fancies in lieu of it they are too humorous and extravagant ever to be reduced to practice a little Experience quickly brought them all into the scorn and contempt of the common People and it would be a pleasant speciacle to see either the Classical or the Congregational Discipline Establish'd by Authothority But alas they are only excellent at their old Destruction-Work and beside that their Conceits are too freakish to be ever setled upon any lasting bottom they will always be supplanting each other by their mutual Squabbles and Animosities so that though they can never compass their own giddy Designs yet by their perpetual and restless Opposition to the Church they may possibly be the occasion of its utter Ruine and Dissolution and by that Change may probably make way for the Introduction of Popery And this is most likely to be effected by these Means and upon these Accounts I. By creating Disorders and Disturbances in the State For the present Fanaticks are so little Friends to the present Government that their Enmity to that is one of the main Grounds of their Quarrel to the Church They are generally fermented with a Republican Leven and are faln out with Monarchy it self as one of the greatest Instruments and Supports of Antichrist and no Liberty with them either of the Subject oâ— of Conscience but in a Commonwealth and that is a mighty piece of their Zeal and their Project to reform the Government of Church and State to the Platform of the Low-Countries T is the Good Old Cause that is the strongest Band and Endearment of the present Schism and the greatest Agents in and for Conventicles are Officers and Chaplains of the old Army And the warmest and most zealous of them such as have given the World no great ground to suspect either from their profess'd Principles or open Practices that they have the least Concern or Tenderness for Religion But this is the only plausible Device that is left them to rally and randevouz the People of God into a Body by themselves and distinct from the rest of the Nation and so keep up a Party always ready and prepared for their Purposes that if ever they may gain any hopes or advantages of recovering the Kings Power or the Bishops Lands for confident Men despair of nothing they may play the holy Brotherhood upon Demands and Attempts either of the old or some other new thorough-godly Reformation and enrage their Fiery Spirits against the Abominations and Idolatries of the Whore and Antichrist Though the danger here is not very formidable because Fanaticism it self is so much worn into Contempt unless among the meer Rabble that 't is never likely to gather strength enough to grapple with the Royal Power but yet whatsoever Power it has if it have any lies in the Old Army and the Old Cause And if we observe the true Patriots of the Godly Party in every County we shall find them generally such Persons as were never much concerned to give his Majesty any great assurance of their Loyalty and Allegiance and there are very few if any of any considerable Interest or Estate among them that was not raised by Plunder and Sequestration so
be able to expose them to popular Scorn and Infamy for 't is manifest that their Principles will never much take in the World in that the generality of Men are not to be work't off from their natural sense of Religion that ever did and ever will keep the strongest Party in spite of all Opposition and whoever attempts against it must of necessity be run down with Reproach and Disgrace and that transports them beyond all bounds to be thus contemptuously kept under by ignorant and ill-bred Fops and it becomes the great exercise of their Wit and their Drink to entertain the Company with pleasant Stories of Priests and Black-coats This humour has prevail'd so far in our Age beyond what it could ever arrive to in former times that it is become in some degree Gentile and fashionable every Man now has Wit and Pride enough to despise a Parson and he is no Vertuoso that does not in his common and Table-talk call and prove them Cheats and Impostors and some Persons that one would think should have more Breeding or more Sobriety affect the extravagance out of meer wantonness and others that are no declared Enemies to the Cause of Religion are yet well enough content for other reasons to have its Officers kept low and despicable but for some reason or other they meet with disrespect enough on all hands And now though this ill usage signifies very little to those against whom it is intended because it falls upon an Order of Men that are above its regard and resentment in that the Clergy of the Church of England know themselves far enough from being obnoxious to any contempt but what Sacriledge has made unavoidable and though we take them under all the Disadvantages that Plunder and Robbery and Reformation as some Men have managed it has brought upon them they are at this very time vastly the farthest off from being justly contemptible to mention no other Order or Profession of Men of any Clergy in the World the preheminence is so evident that it clears the comparison from all possible suspicion of its being either proud or odious But though this unkindness be able to do them so little harm yet it falls very heavy in its mischievous Consequences upon the Publick For all wise States have hitherto always given the deepest respect to the Presidents of the sacred Rites and setled the greatest Priviledges and Immunities upon the Church as well for Reasons of State as for the Ends of Devotion In that no Government can support it self without the Assistance of Religion and the Assistance of Religion is ever proportioned to the Power and Interest of the Clergy its Esteem as it is in all other Arts Sciences and Professions depends upon the Reputation of those whose Office it is to dispense its Mysteries and Publick Solemnities they have always and every where found the same Fate and the same Entertainment so that to make the Priestly Order any way contemptible is to enervate the force of Religion upon the Consciences of Subjects and thereby to destroy the greatest Strength and most lasting Security of the Civil Government So interwoven are the Cause of God and the Prince and the Priest that no Man can be an Enemy to one without proclaiming Hostility to all Is not this wise work then and fit to be endured in a Christian-Commonwealth for the witty People to be so much concerned to make the Profession of the Clergy vile and despicable especially when this whole Design is at last founded upon no milder Supposition than that Iesus Christ himself is the great and leading Impostor for if he were seriously vested with any Authority from Heaven their Commission from him is too evident to be called into question so that if the Power they claim by vertue of his Grant be forged and insignificant Usurpation it is only because be abused the World with Tales and false Pretences to a Divine Authority i. e. only because he was the lewdest and most prostigate Impostor that ever appeared amongst Mankind And this no doubt is a notable piece both of Policy and Good-manners to be own'd yes or endured in a Christian-Commonwealth But yet however passing by this horrid Blaspemy against our Blessed Saviour and if our Religion were nothing else but as all Religion is lately defined the Belief of Tales publickly allowed and the Priesthood only a Succession of Cheats and Iuglers yet after all this they are and must be allowed necessary Instruments in the State to awe the common People into fear and Obedience because nothing else can so effectually enslave them as the dread of invisible Powers and the dismal Apprehensions of the World to come and for this very reason though there were no other it is fit they should be allowed the same Honour and Respect as would be acknowledged their due if they were sincere and honest Men because unless that be supposed they can never bring that assistance that is absolutely necessary to the support of Government and the preservation of Society But so far are they from being allowed that Respect and Reputation that is necessary to the usefulness of their Function that they are even Out-lawed from the common Rights of Iustice and Humanity One would wonder how People should so combine in such an inhumane and imprudent baseness but that the reason is so very plain and obvious The old Probity and Integrity of our Nation is fled and gone and what remains of it has taken Sanctuary in the Church and its Friends that are assaulted by a Fanatick Rage on one hand and a base-natured Atheism on the other and then no wonder if they are treated accordingly when they are faln into the hands of such Salvages and Cannibals And in truth when I consider the temper of both these sorts of Men that the one hates Peace and the other hates Mankind and withal some present and some probable Circumstances of things it were easie to represent to view a black and gloomy prospect of things but it is to no purpose to affright our selves with distant Miseries and it is better to leave the care of future Events to the Wisdom of Providence sufficient to the day is the evil thereof only let me desire thee Reader to consider whether that Nation be according to Humane Accounts likely to continue long in a firm and setled Condition of Peace a great part of whose Inhabitants are tainted with such malignant Principles as make them to delight in Mischief and Confusion Atheism and Enthusiasm are apart and by themselves the most desperate and dangerous causes of Misery and Calamity to Mankind but when they combine Interests and join Forces against a common Enemy what Government can withstand their Fury in that there is no Wickedness that is necessary to the carrying on the Cause that one of them will not undertake and be able to go through with They are provided with all sorts of Pretences and prepared for all kinds of
with some Papists in the point of perseverance also Sect. 64. The second conclusion was borrowed by Mr. Chillingworth from my Lord Primate That our agreement in the high and necessary Points of Faith and obedience ought to be more effectual to unite us than one difference in opinions to divide us Concerning which there is no need of my suffrage for it is just mine own way My second demand in my proposition of Peace was this That the Creed or necessary points of Faith might be reduced to what they were in the time of the four first Oecumenical Concils according to the decree of the third General Council Who dare say that the faith of the Primitive Fathers was insufficient c. I do profess to all the World that the transforming of indifferent opinions into necessary Articles of Faith hath been that insana laurus or cursed Bay-tree the cause of all our brawling and contention Judge Reader indifferently what reason Mr. Baxter had to disallow my terms of Peace as he is pleased to call them and allow Mr. Chillingworths when my terms are the very same which Mr. Chillingworth proposeth and my Lord Primate before him and King Iames before them both CHAP. VIII The true reasons of the Bishops abatement of the last 400. years Determinations IN his one and fortieth Section he hath these words He will not with Bishop Bramhall abate us the determinations of the last 400. years though if he did it would prove but a pitiful patch for the torn condition of the Church When I made that proposition that the Papists would wave their last 400. years determinations I did it with more serious deliberation than he bestowed upon his whole Grotian Religion Begun April 9. 1658. And finished April 14. 1658. My reason was to controul a common errour received by many that those errours and usurpations of the Church of Rome which made the breach between them and us were much more ancient than in truth they were What those errours and usurpations were cannot be judged better than by our Laws and Statutes which were made and provided as remedies for them I know they had begun some of their gross errours and usurpations long before that time and some others not long before but the most of them and especially those which necessitated a separation after that time Those errours and usurpations which were begun before that time if they be rightly considered were but the sinful and unjust actions of particular Popes and Persons and could not warrant a publick separation from the Church of Rome I deny not but that erroneous opinions in inferiour points rather concerning faith than of faith and some sinful and unwarrantable practices both in point of Discipline and devotion had crept into the Church of Rome before that time But erroneous opinions may be and must be tolerated among Christians so they be not opposite to the ancient Creed of the Church nor obtruded upon others as necessary points of saving faith Neither is any man bound or necessitated to join with other men in sinful and unwarrantable opinions or practices until they be established and imposed necessarily upon all others by Law Whilst it was free for any man to give a fair interpretation of an harsh expression or action without incurring any danger there was no necessity of separation But when these tyrannical usurpations were justified by the decrees of Councils and imposed upon Christians under pain of Excommunication when these erroneous opinions were made necessary Articles of saving faith extra quam non est salus without which there is no salvation when these sinful and unwarrantable practices were injoined to all Christians and when all these unjust usurpations erroneous opinions and sinful and unwarrantable practices were made necessary conditions of Communion with the Church of Rome so that no man could Communicate with the Roman Church but he that would submit to all these usurpations believe all these erroneous opinions and obey all their sinful injunctions then there was an absolute necessity of separation Then if any man inquire when and how this necessity was imposed upon Christians I answer all this was ratified and done altogether or in a manner altogether by these last 400. years Determinations beginning with the Council of Lateran in the days of Innocent the third after the twelve hundreth year of Christ when Transubstantiation was first defined and ending with the Council of Trent So though these were not my terms of peace but preparatory demands yet if these demands be granted our concord would not only be nearer which he acknowledgeth but the peace allmost as good as made and Christians were freed from their unjust Canons and left to their former liberty When they had granted so much it were a shame for them to stick at a small remainder CHAP. IX An Answer to sundry aspersions east by Mr. Baxter upon the Church of England I Have done with all that concerneth my self in Mr. Baxters Grotian Religion But I find a bitter and groundless invective in him towards the conclusion of his treatise wherein he laboureth to cast dirt upon his spiritual Mother the Church of England which out of my just and common duty I cannot pass over in silence He saith p. 75. That this Grotian design in England was destructive to Godliness and the prosperity of the Churches What Churches doth he mean By the Laws of England Civil and Ecclesiastical we ought to have but one Church It was never well with England since we had so many Churches and so many Faiths I am afraid those which he calls Churches were Conventicles He proceedeth that it animated the impious haters of piety and common civility First he ought to have proved that there was such a design in England which he neither hath done nor ever will be able to do That which never had any being but in his Imagination never had any efficacy but in his Imagination He addeth that men were hated for Godliness sake That is to exprest his sense truly were restrained in their seditious and Schismatical courses which he stileth Godliness Fallit enim vitium specie virtutis umbra And troubled and suspended and driven out of the Land though most of them twenty for one were conformists How Conformist and yet persecuted If this be not a contradiction yet it is incredible that so many men should be silenced and suspended every where without Law Certainly there was a Law pretended Certainly there was a Law indeed and that Law made before they were either punished or ordained I will put the right case fairly to Mr. Baxter if he have any mind to determine it Let him tell us who is to be blamed he that undertaketh an office of his own accord which he cannot or will not discharge as the Law injoineth or he that executeth the Law upon such as had voluntarily confirmed it by their own oaths or subscriptions or both He proceedeth that it was safer in
wish every mans Books had as much learning and ingenuity in them as A Sancta Clara's have Yet if he conclude from hence that I and he are of the same Communion he doth me wrong Judge Reader how partial men are to deny that liberty to another which they assume to themselves He proceedeth This A Sancta Clara is still the Queens Chaplain c. And we have reason to believe the Queen to be so moderate as to be of the same Religion Whether he be the Queens Chaplain or not is more than I know The Queen hath had many Servants of Mr. Baxters own Communion who have had more influence upon her Counsels than ever A Sancta Clara had He hath reason to believe that the Queen and he were of the same Religion but no reason to prove that so seriously and so weakly which all men acknowledge that either the Queen or he had any hand in the pretended design of Grotius and his Followers no man can believe From the Queen he passeth over to the King what to do to accuse him of Popery He cannot prove it nor all the World to help him Yea he professeth openly that he believeth no such thing Not only his Conference with the Marquess of Worcester but his Life and Death and that Golden Legacie which he left to his Son do proclaim the contrary to all the World What is his aim then To shew how far he was inclined to a reconciliation That is the duty of every good Christian But did he preferr peace before truth Had he any design to introduce Papal Tyranny into England That is the crime whereof he accuseth those whom he nick-nameth Grotians The Devil himself cannot justly object any such thing against him He cites the Articles of the Spanish and French matches but is not able to cite one word out of them which maketh for his purpose And this alone that there is nothing in them for his purpose is a convincing proof against him that all his pretended design is but a dream I may well call it his design for it is the phantasm of his own brain and never had any existence in the nature of things He mentions the Kings Letter to the Pope written in Spain If he himself had been there at that time upon the same condition the King was at that time he would have redeemed his liberty with writing three Letters to the Pope such as that was or else he had been much to be blamed But what is there in the Letter Is there any thing of the Grotian design No I warrant you Observe how all his conjectural reasons make directly against himself Perhaps the King calls the Pope Most Holy Father a great crime indeed to make such a civil address which the common use of the World hath made necessary He who will converse with a Fryer in a Roman Catholick Country must do little less and he that will write to the Great Turk must do more Such compellations do not shew always what men are but what they ought to be or what they are or would be esteemed Next he tells us of the choice of Agents for Church and State Very trifles Kings must chuse their Agents according to the exigence of their affairs But if the qualifications of Agents did always demonstrate the resolutions of Princes I could more easily prove King Charles a Presbyterian than he a Grotian and bring more instances for my self I am confident he cannot instance in any one Agent for Church or State that ever had his Grotian design but I can instance in many who have had contrary and worse designs I shall not stick to tell him with grief that which hath been in a great part the cause of all our woes In some Courts it hath been esteemed a singular policie to nourish two Parties upon pretence that the one might ballance the other and the one watch over the other But it proveth too often true that the one Party is disgusted and ordinarily the weaker and worser Party doth countenance heterodox and seditious persons to augment the number of their dependents which evermore tendeth to manifest sedition By this means the rents of the Church have been perpetuated and enlarged and Subjects have been debauched with destructive and seditious Principles the evil influence whereof we have felt to our cost He proceedeth to the Residence of the Popes Nuncios in England It may be during all the Kings reign there were one Nuncio and his Proctor or Deputy or two Nuncios at the most And if we had never had them it had been the better not so much for any great hurt they did but for that opportunity which his own peevish Party got from thence to raise jealousies and Panick fears among the Rabble Unless he could have told something that the Popes Nuncio did in England tending to that end which he pretends he might as well have instanced in the King of Morocco's Ambassadour and said that he came over to convert us to be Turks I thought he would have produced the Popes Bull to his Nuncio to reconcile us to Rome or at least have discovered some secret Cabal or Conferences between him and those Episcopal Divines whom he accuseth He knoweth well there was no such thing and therefore it were much better to be silent than to urge so many things and to fail in every one of them His next instance is in the Jesuits Colledge which had been much better omitted for his credit Did the King found the Colledge No such thing Was he a Benefactor to it Nor that Did he give the Jesuits a license of Mortmain to purchase Lands for themselves to that use Not so much What did he then did he know of the Jesuits and the Colledge and connive at them and it O no. So soon as ever it was discovered it was suppressed By the same equity he might accuse an innocent Prince of all the crimes that are committed in hugger mugger throughout his Kingdom and make him Head even of the Presbyterian Rebellion The last of his odious instances hath less shew of truth in it than any of the rest how vain or empty soever they have been that is the illegal innovations in worship so resolvedly gradatim introduced Perhaps he calls the execution of old Laws Innovations because they themselves had taken the boldness to disuse them It were better to spare this charge lest they get a round peal of their own Innovations rung out in their ears Theirs are Innovations indeed To conclude Doth he think that such disloyal and uncharitable insinuations as these are salved by pretending that he hath not the least desire to perswade men that he was a Papist or that he would not have other men to believe it As if he should say Here are violent presumptions indeed that the King had Popish inclinations yet my charity will not give me leave to believe it other men may judge as they find cause when all he
saith doth not weigh one grain in the Scale of Reason Our Case-Divinity will hardly excuse this from downright Calumny But that is their only weapon and their only strength and Skill hath ever laid in idle and malitious suggestions CHAP. IV. This Plot weakly Fathered upon Episcopal Divines I Mused some while why he should rather father his imaginary design of reducing the Pope into England upon Episcopal Divines than upon any other Divines For in the first place this is certain that both Presbyterian Divines and Independent Divines and Millenary Divines and Anabaptistical Divines and each sort of their Divines if any of them may be allowed that Title have all of them and every one of them contributed more to the reducing of the Pope into England than Episcopal Divines ever did or were likely ever to do Men do naturally preferr Antiquity in Religion before Novelty Order and Uniformity before Confusion Comeliness and Decencie before sordid Uncleanliness Reverence and Devotion before Prophaneness and over-much Sawciness and familiarity with God Christian Charity before Unchristian Censures Constancy before Fickleness and frequent Changes they love Monuments of Piety and delight not in seeing them defaced and demolished they are for Memorials of ancient Truth for an outward splendor of Religion for helps of Mortification for adjuments of Devotion all which our late Innovators have quite taken away Nature it self doth teach us that God is to be adored with our Bodies as well as with our Spirits What comfort can men have to go to the Church where they shall scarcely see one act of corporeal devotion done to God in their whole lifes These are the true Reasons why the Roman Emissaries do gain ground daily upon them why so many apostate from them If the Pope have a fairer game in England he is beholden to them for it not to the Magistrates Sword much less to Episcopal Divines Some may perhaps urge that this advantage is accidental to Episcopal Divines therefore I propose a second consideration That Episcopal Divines cannot be the Popes Stalking Horses nor promoters of the Papacy without deserting their principles about Episcopacy Episcopal rights and Papal claims are inconsistent This appeared evidently in the Council of Trent in the debating of that great Controversie about Episcopal Right whether it be divine or humane Thus much the Spanish Polonian and Hungarian Divines saw well enough And consulting seriously about the Reformation of the Church they could find no better ground to build so noble a Fabrick upon than the Divine Right of Bishops as the Archbishop of Granato well observed Hist. Conc. Trid. l. 7. p. 588. Father Lainer the General of the Jesuits saw this well enough and concluded that it is a meer contradiction to say the Pope is head of the Church and the Government Monarchical and then say that there is a power or jurisdiction in the Church not derived from him but received from others that is from Christ. Hist. Conc. Trid. ibid. The Popes Legats themselves found this out at last when it was almost too late l. 7. p. 609. Octob. 19. When the question was set on foot in the beginning the Legats thought that the aim was only to make great the Authority of Bishops and to give them more reputation But before the second Congregation was ended they perceived very late by the voices given and reasons used of what importance and consequence it was For it did imply that the Keys were not given to St. Peter only that the Council was above the Pope and the Bishop equal to him who had nothing left but a preheminence above others c. the dignity of Cardinals was quite taken away and the Papal Court reduced to nothing But before the Papalins discovered this the Party bent for a serious Reformation was grown numerous and potent in the Council The Divine Right of Bishops was inserted into the Anathematisms Fifty nine of the prime Fathers voted for it besides all those whom either an Epidemical or a Politick Catarrh deteined at home notwithstanding all the disswasions and perswasions threatnings and promises and other Artifices used by the Papalins whereof the chiefest and that which saved the Court of Rome from utter ruine at that time was to represent to the Italian Bishops whose number was double to all the rest of the Christian World in that Council a very unequal composition how much they were concerned in the preservation of the Papacy as being the only honour which the Italian Nation had above all other Nations This I urge to shew that Episcopal Divines cannot be Papalins without betraying their own Principles The very name of Episcopal Divines renders this dedesign less probable Thirdly In stiling them Episcopal Divines he doth tacitely accuse himself to be an Anti-Episcopal or at least no Episcopal Divine What odious consequences do flow from thence and how contrary it is to the title of Catholick which he gives himself in the Frontispiece of this Treatise I had much rather he should observe himself than I collect Catholick and Anti-Episcopal are contradictory terms From Christs time till this day there was never any one Catholick in the Eastern Southern or Northern Churches who professed himself to be Anti-Episcopal but only such as were cast out for Hereticks or Schismaticks The same I say of the Western Church for the first 1500. years Let him shew me but one formed Church without a Bishop or the name of one Lay Presbyter in all that time who exercised or challenged Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction or the power of the Keys in the Church before Calvins return to Geneva in the year 1538. after he had subscribed the Augustine Confession and Apology for Bishops and I will give him leave to be as Anti-Episcopal as he will I will shew him the proper and particular names of Apostles Evangelists Bishops Presbyters Deacons in Scriptures in Councils in Fathers in Histories if he cannot name one particular Lay-Elder it is because there never was any such thing in rerum natura for 1500 years after Christ. I will add one thing more for the honour of Episcopal Government that all the first Reformers did approve it and desired it if they could have had it Second Reformations are commonly like Metal upon Metal which is false Heraldry After the Waldenses the first Reformers were the Bohemian Brethren and both these were careful to retain Episcopacy Take their own Testimony in the Preface of their Book called Ratio Disciplinae Ordinisque Ecclesiastici in unitate fratrum Bohemorum lately translated out of Bohemian into Latine and published by themselves And whereas the said Waldenses did affirm that they had lawful Bishops and a lawful uninterrupted succession from the Apostles unto this day they created three of our Ministers Bishops solemnly and conferred upon them power to Ordain Ministers From that time this Order is continued in all their Churches until this day The next Reformers were the Lutherans These retained Bishops name and thing