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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91322	Dissertatio de pace, &c. Or, A discourse touching the peace & concord of the Church. Wherein is elegantly and acutely argued, that not so much a bad opinion, as a bad life, excludes a Christian out of the kingdom of heaven; and that the things necessary to be known for the attainment of salvation, are very few and easie: and finally, that those, who pass amongst us under the name of hereticks, are notwithstanding to be tolerated.; Dissertatio de pace. English	Przypkowski, Samuel, 1592-1670.; Biddle, John, 1615-1662,	1653 (1653)	Wing P4133; Thomason E1495_1; ESTC R203302	40,192	82

filthiness of sin for which in the whole Universe there had been no place unless God had left to intelligent creatures a free and entire will Unless I say God had discharged the will from all condition of servitude all proof of vertue had perished together with the license of sinning Although very many had rather acknowledge God the author of sin then the bounteous giver of this liberty Of which liberty notwithstanding it is an evident signe that we abuse it alone to the license of sinning so that the failing of our understanding deservedly seemeth worthy of commiseration and pardon whereas the pravity of our will deserveth hatred and punishment It is therefore no wonder if God punisheth this rather then the other with eternal destruction because in this there is place for guilt in the other onely for imbecillity But he never punished imbecillity and ignorance for contumacie especially with extreme and everlasting punishment Likewise in the Law of Moses whereof he was so severe an exactor as that he ratified the reverence of one ceremony with the blood of a man that went to gather sticks Num. 15. yet did he leave pardon for error and a refuge for ignorance and that in the most grievous crimes which concern the life and safety of a man The rigor of the Mosaick Law pardoneth his offence who killed a man unawares and granteth him a repeal after the death of the High-Priest And why should not also the lenity of the Christian Covenant absolve the fault of such as erre after the death of Christ our High-Priest whose yoke is sweet and burthen light and who refuseth not to disburthen and case us of the fardle of our sins who hath left on record in the latter end of his Testament how worthy he accounted errors of pardon whilst in the most cruel nick of his death he prayed for those that erred Luke 23. Indeed to pray for them who sin unto death it is not lawful nor would the Lord ever have done that amidst the sacrilegious boldness of so great a crime had he not taken pity on their unhappie ignorance Forgive them saith he For what reason Because they know not what they do Now if in the ignorance of so great a murder there remained even in our Saviours judgement some place for pardon shall we with our censures damn to eternal punishment the meer clouds of the minde and harmless ignorance But you will say Shall we hold that ignorance and errors are never punished with everlasting destruction What shall become of the souls of so many thousand Infidels what of those barbarous Brasilians and others of that sort the greatest part whereof have not had so much as a suspicion touching God and Christ Shall we say that these shall be punished for contumacie who know not any law from whose obedience they may revolt Shall not the ignorance of God and Christ in them undergo everlasting punishment In the first place I deny that they are in any sort punished to whose ears the sound of the saving doctrine never came and say that they are onely left in that wretched condition to which they were liable by their very birth For inasmuch as the punishment of our first parent derived the most wretched state of eternal death to his posterity God might according to his wisdom and good-pleasure exempt whom he would from this misery leaving the rest in the same For who shall prescribe a law to his absolute power or set bounds to his clemency Those therefore to whom he hath revealed his law he punisheth as rebels unless they obey not with any new kinde of punishment especially after death but onely by leaving them in their miserable state together with the rest Others to whom he hath not vouchsafed so great a benefit he leaveth indeed in the same state but doth not therefore punish For the reason of eternal death as it is to be called a punishment consisteth not in the appointment of a new punishment but in a certain ademption of the Divine Grace which might free them out of the servitude of the old punishment which certainly is not taken away from them to whom it was never offered But some one will reply Why should those wretched Ignorants be in the same condition with the impious and disobedient As if God were unjust towards those because he useth clemency towards these Doth the Lord of the vine yard do wrong to the labourers when he recompenseth the unequal merits of sundry persons with one reward not by taking somewhat away from them that were more deserving but onely by adding somewhat to them that were less deserving Mat. 20. But if something may be added to their reward who are less deserving without wrong to those who are more deserving something also may be taken away from their punishment who are more deserving without wrong to them who are less deserving Suppose that one hath promised liberty to Titius his captive upon a certain condition without promising any thing to Sejus Titius for his contumacie loseth the reward receiving nothing from his master but remaining captive and miserable together with Sejus Can Sejus now complain that he being innocent endureth the same things with Titius who was disobedient Titius may rather acknowledge the clemencie of his master who would content himself with the meer ademption of the reward As therefore innocent Sejus is not punished by his master although he be left in the same misery with guilty Titius so neither shall the ignorant Brasilians be hereafter punished by not receiving that which was never promised to them These may rather ponder on the grievous punishment of their contumacie who see their Salvation and pine away for having forsaken it We have I suppose shewn sufficiently that such Ignorants whereof we speak are not punished But if we grant that they also are punished shall they be presently punished for their ignorance As if that ignorance were that which ought to be punished and is not it self rather a certain punishment Who knoweth not that God oftentimes avengeth wickedness and crimes with errors Who would not reckon such ignorance amongst the horrid punishments of God This therefore will remain to be enquired further for what causes he hath punished them with so great blindness But who hath known the thoughts of the Lord or who hath been his counsellour There is no cause why any one should fish this secret out of me but that I certainly know that God proceedeth slowly and unwillingly to punishment and that every one is undoubtedly the author of his own destruction Of all them that were wicked and included under sin the most high God might take pity on some and punish others So that the cause of this punishment should as it seemeth be sought-for not in the ignorance but the wickedness of men and in the special good-pleasure of the wise God Let us proceed further Suppose those barbarous Brasilians to be punished for ignorance What is this

herein which though it be not the cause of our Salvation yet is it at least the way and an evident argument and most certain signe thereof Now if it shall be made plainly to appear that they who are not able to extricate themselves out of those perplexed and craggie Questions whereof we have spoken may notwithstanding in the mean time love God and the Lord Jesus Christ with all the powers of their minde what cause will there be why we should not think that the same persons may be saved Logicians say that the next and immediate cause as they term it cannot be hindered but it will out of hand produce the effect Let us therefore in the first place consider the next cause of this Love and then we shall see whether it may be in men so erring The perfit Love of any one is bred in the minds of the lovers chiefly for three causes concurring together 1. From the firm and constant memory of such benefits as are past and from the sense of such as are present For gratitude also is a part of Love 2. From a certain hope and confidence of Supreme Happiness to be obtained from the beloved thing if you come to enjoy it For love languisheth without desire 3. And finally from a perfit apprehension as far as may be of the soverain beauty and excellencie of the object which is the true and principal cause of the Love it self Now forasmuch as neither the perfit Love of God nor the perfit perception of his Excellencie can fully happen to us in this life we mean not an absolute perfection of both but such as is the chiefest in its kinde namely as great as can exist in this state of mortality Nor do I understand what can be further required unto perfit love For who seeth not that our will can no more abstain from loving a perceived beauty then fire from burning stubble put unto it Which beauty if it be perfitly seen a perfit love also will arise but if no more then perfitly in its kinde a love also perfit it its kinde will arise Certainly if any one denyeth that soverain Love necessarily proceedeth from such a cause he subverteth the Principles of Nature which dictateth even to children that whatsoever seemeth good or beautiful will also prove very pleasing and so Love will be increased according to the measure of the apprehended beauty It remaineth that we consider whether such a perfit perception of the Excellencie of God and his Christ accompanied with those two helping causes may not be in them who comprehend not those hidden and abstruse Mysteries of the Divine Essence Which if it be in us who do not erre it may also be in them or it will be necessary to shew a reason of the Prerogative which we have above them in this behalf And first let us speak of God the Father As for the remembrance of his favours they acknowledge themselves together with us to be obliged unto him perpetually making mention of his infinite mercies the chiefest whereof consisteth in taking us for his children As for the certain expectation of a very great benefit what vaster hope what lavisher wish can be fained then that which they together with us desire and expect from the most high God There remaineth behinde the contemplation of his beauty and majestie I confess there is nothing in humane matters so exact that can lend a shadow to the image of so great a Majesty Nevertheless as touching God the Father they do in a maner agree with us For we are able to conceive nothing so great and sublime touching him which they also do not conceive Nor doth it follow that because they do not reach the curious subtilty in the received distinction of Persons therefore they cannot according to their capacity conceive the beauty of the Divine Countenance not to be seen by profane mindes and consequently dedicate and worship the image of that unspeakable Majesty within the Sanctuary of their breast As if it were a hard matter to have all maner of high conceptions touching him whom you certainly know and continually think to be the source and original of all goodness and beauty although you do not comprehend doctrines snarled and entangled with so many knots Enough seemeth to be already spoken touching God the Father But what if they have like yea the same causes with us of Love towards the Son of God will any thing hinder them from being as capable of this love as we our selves are Let us begin from Hope Do not they expect the same bountiful right hand of the Lord Jesus which will hereafter reach out a heavenly reward to all the faithful Do they not luxuriate in this wish And who can chuse but feel his heart wounded with the love of Christ who setteth Christ before his eyes as giving him the pay of his warfare But you will say that in making an estimate of his favours they seem to be injurious to him whilst they affirm that the Fathers anger towards us was appeased without the entermise of Christ and that no price properly so called was paid for our sins For I perceive that almost all who in the article of the Holy Trinity dissent from us are of that opinion I defend not the opinion of the men nevertheless I perceive that they judge a Redemption properly so called to be both absurd and impossible What derogation therefore is it either to gratitude towards the Lord Jesus or to the holy memory of his merits if they imagine that he did not those things for our sakes which could at no hand be done when in the mean time he abundantly performed all other things which might proceed from him toward us For no other thing is required to the most strict obligation of a benefit then that the benefactor do for ones sake all that he is able But they acknowledg that the Lord Jesus did for our salvation spare no pains yea not his very life And though they do not think that his blood was spilt to appease God and therefore not so rigidly to make satisfaction for our sins yet do they hold that it was spent and given for our sakes so that although they assert another special scope and effect of his death then we do nevertheless they seem to acknowledge the same merit in general And who would not be imbued with a most tender affection towards him whom he supposeth to have undergone a most bitter death for his life's sake who would not most ardently love him whom he thinketh perpetually busied in conferring benefits upon him To which if you adde an expectation of Supreme Happiness from his hands it cannot now happen otherwise but that the minde should melt in the resentment of a most delicate flame I come now to the excellency of the Lord Jesus which being imperfitly conceived by them seemeth unable to excite a perfit love of it self For how great a diminution is it of his

very love of the Father forgive them this error For he gave a notable proof of his meekness when he prayed for his ignorant murtherers as we also did before hint What think we will not he do for the love of the Father who for the love of Men forgave so great an injury to his enemies Now if he out of love to mankinde doubted not to assume the form of a servant and really to endure extreme disgraces certainly he will bear with the errors of men who do not conceive worthily enough of his Majestie and Dignity especially that which is past Will he who for the sakes of men did of his own accord debase himself to the lowest condition punish them for this very thing namely because they out of ignorance think more meanly of his condition then is fit Especially when he himself by his debasement did in a maner give an accasion of such ignorance Certainly it is incredible that he who of his own accord underwent for the sins of men a reproachful kinde of death will not pardon to humane weakness a simple opinion that derogates something from his ancient Excellencie if so be the error be harmless and removed from all sin of malice More might be said on this occasion but neither is it my intention to say all things and what hath been spoken will suffice courteous judgements As for moody dispositions we may sooner wish then hope to bring them from their inbred prejudices Now let us descend to such things as are more special CHAP. VIII A General Apologie for the Socinians that they are not of such a Perswasion out of Ambition Avarice Pleasure or Superstition nor offend out of any Malice but onely out of the Care of their Salvation AY me what contumacie is this and scorning to obey that we men depart from our heavenly allegiance in nothing sooner then that which hath most accurately been enjoyned and prescribed Doth that unhappie exile of heaven solliciting the earth to a society of rebellion tempt us in that part chiefly where he may make us most guilty of Treason Or rather did the Divine Providence more strictly command that wherein he most suspected our obedience Whatsoever it be certainly the more frequently mutual love and good-will is enjoyned us in the sacred Oracles the more obstinately do we refuse it And which is the more to be lamented we follow them as guides herein who ought at no hand to go before us I mean the Ministers and Teachers of Religion who being cozened with the zeal of inhumane piety make it a part of our duty to hate dissenters A great part of them beginneth to hate the persons before the vices and which is a thing very unjust under a pretence of the publike cause they exercise private hatred Yea further to an inexpiable and most hateful War the bare name of parties is sufficient and in a preposterous order the judgement here followeth hatred and enmity as elsewhere it doth love Besides it is prejudicial to the truth to have been uttered or defended by such as erre nor is vertue valued at her worth in them who have been once blasted with the suspicion and prejudice of errors No honesty guilty of the least heresie is safe in the Church of Rome nor is the honesty of a Catholike more gently dealt withal amongst Protestants who being themselves also divided into sundry factions with proud determinations denounce heaven or hell to one another There is no remembrance of mortality no pardon to mistaking anywhere Although you offend not in your maners yet is it a capital offence to trip in the understanding of Divine matters Yet hath the publike hatred of the world more easily conspired against no sort of men then against those who commonly pass under the name of Socinians or Photinians Certainly an unhappie race of men and amidst so many injuries and reproaches honest in a maner gratis For neither do I excuse the errors which they hold The thing I wonder at is this How men so distant from all ambition and avarice and innocent in all the parts of their life should be so grievously mistaken To aim at high matters is the undoing of very many wits born and framed to the best things But this vice arising from the desire of glory hath there no place if other lusts be absent where ambition findeth not room enough for her swelling to expatiate in For what man being well in his wits would promise to himself a name of renown amongst the most contemned and universally-hated part of the ignoble vulgar Who would seek after the rays of an illustrious fame amidst the darkness of obscurity who might finde it in the light and sun-shine As we see very many of them might do whom neither the splendor of their birth nor their wit and learning exempteth from a voluntary debasement Nor can you justly charge them with avarice a great part of whom doth generously despise all means of growing rich and you shall hardly finde anywhere either poorer men or such as by the rule of their sect are necessitated to give more then they There remaineth superstition whose timorous nature always condemneth anothers liberty in that which she her self doth with a scrupulous religion refuse Certainly Superstition is either banished from amongst them or hath there put-off that which was in her nature most odious since they in all their doctrines so dissent from others as that they exclude none either from eternal Salvation or from brotherly communion but such a one as is a patron of manifest vice Which very carriage wipeth away even the least suspicion of pride which never debaseth her self unto so great modesty as not to prescribe that truth which she arrogateth to her self to be held and observed by all others almost under a form so that I am utterly unable to finde out the cause why they should expose themselves to the cruel hatred of all and to dangers unless it be an ardent desire to please God and study of true piety In which regard they are worthy of more pardon if any disaster befall them in the search of sublime things For indeed I cannot apprehend what it is that inflameth us with so implacable prejudice against them when neither the sweetness of fame nor the spur of riches nor the allurements of a dissolute life but onely the sollicitous care of their salvation hath cast them into these straits We ought rather to favour the wretches and reach forth a saving right hand to them even against their will Whereas now on the contrary we reject them suing for our favour and had rather hate abominate then instruct them in a friendly maner But by what right or for what demerit of theirs Is it because they defend things which they conceive to be true with so great prejudice to their honour and security What would we have them sacrifice their faith and conscience on the pleasure of others Or is it because they think

those things to be true which are false Truly we are very injurious to mortality if we suppose the errors and failings of our minde to be crimes You will say They sin of set purpose and fall not casually but by a voluntary slip But who told you so Or who hath discovered unto you their intimate counsels Certainly not charity which is an enemy to evil surmises but bitterness and malignity of spirit which is apt to make a sinister construction of anothers meaning Although they had no evident proof of their innocency yet in a doubtful matter and such as is known onely to the judge of hearts it became us not to make any sad decree against them How much less can they be condemned when there appeareth nothing that might invite and drive them to so wretched and dangerous malice we should at least here make use of that notable saying of Piso's For what advantage is this done For if they be neither seised with a longing after honours and riches nor with an itch of pleasures nor can have any hopes of earthly solace and if they conform their life to the prescript of that most holy Law where lyeth the incitement to so great improbity as that they should purposely procure to themselves so many troubles together with eternal destruction CHAP. IX An Answer to the Objection about rejecting the Consent of the Church for the Authority of the Scripture onely BUt you will say that they have been so daring as to question a Mystery for so many ages since received by all the Christian world with great applause venerable for its very antiquity and ratified by the authority of so many Holy Fathers and Councels and so are come to the very height of wickedness in attempting to discuss with sacrilegious curiosity such things as ought to be believed The reprehension then is this that they have begun to make a doubt of so certain a thing But what Is it unlawful to busie your wit about a thing of undoubted truth that after a more strict examination you may the sooner impetrate assent from your self Certainly it is a disparagement to the Truth if we suppose her to be afraid of mens judgments For neither is it unbecoming her to plead for herself at the bar of Reason that she may bravely overcome and draw the very judge to her side whereas if she decline the tryal of this court she suffers not a little in the confidence of her cause For though we may not enquire into the truth of the Divine Oracle yet we both may and ought into the true meaning thereof and they are slanderers who say that the Socinians believe not the words of the Scripture because they doubt of the received sense But what if they seem also to have just causes of doubting For they conceive that the Holy Fathers and the consent of so many ages do adde more dignity and veneration then stress to the doctrine of the Trinity How well grounded this conceit is I dispute not However certain it is that they are not the first who have charged the publike authority of the Church and the consent of many Synods and ages with the suspicion of most grievous crimes For since they see the foresaid authority in many other things of great moment not onely accused but also convicted of falshood what so hainous crime have they committed who dare not entrust their faith and opinion of Divine things unto her For of sixteen ages the twelve latter cannot warrant many things to the greatest part of Christians It cannot be denyed that the Socinians going farther then others do also reject the consent of the four former but especially of the third and fourth ages For since the Truth hath found little assurance in humane authority for so many ages of the lowest antiquity they thought that their opinions were to be squared onely by the rule of the holy Scripture Wherein truly they could not erre so greatly but that they had a far greater cause of erring For what could the faith of the Church being once suspected ratifie to them how could they know that the Christian world hath groaned under the darkness of errors no longer then for ten or twelve ages Or that those ancient times had any priviledge above the following ones so that they could not erre They saw them to be men yea such men as were alas defiled for a great part with vices and crimes Nor could they be ignorant of the factions amongst the Nicene Fathers nor of their evident ambition nor of the evil arts of sundry others nor of the shameful errors of men otherwise most holy And though it were to be held that about the three hundredth yeer of Salvation the Church did still retain the primitive Truth yet in so many dissentions and so many adverse Councels they judged that at least the choyce of the truer opinion did pertain to themselves In chusing which they ought not to follow the judgement of the successive Church which had been already justly condemned in many points of fait● but the infallible rule of the holy Scripture For how could the Church warrant unto them the opinion of others when she was not able to make good her own Besides they called to minde the genius of that age and the dispositions of those Fathers concerning whom that great man Justus Lipsius in our age wrote that many did then so put-on Christ by an outward profession that in their minde they did not put-off Plato And therefore they not without cause suspected that in many heads of doctrine plain words were wrested to forrain and Philosphical senses whilst the Fathers did with ingenious comments tack the mysteries of their Philosophy to the word of God that they might not seem to have learned in vain For what should be the cause say they that touching the received explication of the holy Trinity Plato and Trismegistus speak more clearly then the sacred Scripture Or what reason should there be why the Scripture should more timorously and obscurely deliver so holy a Mystery then the foresaid Philosophers These and the like things though they do not acquit them of error yet do they clear them from the imputation of rashness For nothing is more certain then that the doctrine of Christ is not built on so weak a foundation as some constitute in humane authority Now did we heretofore wrest these arms out of the hands of Papists that we our selves might use them against others Certainly it becometh not us either to take their weapons or deliver ours up to them but when we are summoned to the tribunal of the holy Scripture onely we ought not to yield this p●aise to the Adversaries that they should seem to hope better then we concerning the equity and favour of so great a judge CHAP. X. An Answer to three other Objections a Comparison of Calvin 's Doctrine touching Fatal Predestination with the Doctrine of others BUt it will be further objected

that the Socinians impiously contradict the manifest words of the sacred Scripture and scornfully reject the clear Truth coming-in upon them To which I answer That whatsoever pains and travel they undertake in this business is employed not against the holy Trinity as they are unjustly defamed nor against the Sacred Scripture but against the Humane Explications of both Hence we may see that they willingly assent and give credit to all the Sacred Oracles touching this matter onely rejecting certain interpretations and forms sprung-up certain ages after They believe that they are according to the command of Christ to be baptized into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Matth. 28. They believe those three sacred Witnesses in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit 1 Joh. 5. They acknowledge that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was a God Joh. 1. yet such a one to whom all power in heaven and earth was given as he speaketh of himself Matth. 28. It would be tedious to recko● up all the Scripture-testimonics of this kinde to which they give credence without any exception Those hard and subtil opinions concerning the Essence and Person of God concerning the communication of properties and others of that batch they either understand not or think them repugnant to the simple and plain word of God Give us leave say they to be ignorant of such things as are believed with danger In these so subtil and thorny explications if they after the maner of men chance to erre shall they presently be termed the enemies of God and Christ Shall there be found no pardon for an error in so great difficulty of things no excuse for weakness which notwithstanding we ingeniously seek even for the greatest crimes though we be never so well provided of means to avoid them Are they who out of ignorance and error violate the Edicts of Princes acquitted from the crime of treason and shall he that offendeth about the Divine Oracles in our opinion have no refuge for his weakness in the mercy of the Heavenly Father But you will reply that their Blasphemies are horrid wherein impiety leaveth no place for pity and reproachful against the Son of God and overthrowing the foundation of our faith To which I answer that if there have been any amongst them of a more intemperate tongue or quill they are infamous not onely with us but also with them But what is here meant by the Foundation of Faith I do not sufficiently perceive It hath been abundantly evidenced before that such errors do necessarily take away neither our Faith nor our Salvation For it is not the foundation of Salvation to know his Essence who hath promised the salvation to us so that we have no impious and contumelious opinion of him as the ignorance of the nature of the promiser taketh not away the certainty of the promise unless he hath promised us anything under the condition of such knowledge As for the knowlege of the Father they therein do in a maner agree with us They likewise adore and reverence with Divine worship the Son of God as the author and mediator of their Salvation the heir and Lord of the Universe and the General of our warfare But you will here reply that they deny his eternity I answer that they together with holy Paul care not much to know any thing but Jesus Christ and him crucified and had rather with so great an Apostle rest in the simplicity of this knowledge then either with Arius to ascend to non-enliti●s or with Athanasius to co-essentialities As for the honour which they give to the Holy Spirit the greatness thereof appeareth in that they scarce distinguish him from the Supreme Father Shall they then be said to blaspheme against these if they be somewhat mistaken in the other knowledge of them Indeed many opinions are drawn out of their doctrines that the wretches may be loaded with more envie and that by them who whilst they are so vigilant in other mens errors are fast asleep in their own But if all the chaff were to be sifted out of humane opinions I would wish that a great part of the Reformed Churches would labour to defend their own cause before they undertake to oppose that of others but those above all who have from the age of Chrysippus recalled down to these very times that secret and inevitable law of Fate and who hold also that the sins and destruction of mankinde and finally all and singular motions and impulsions of our will proceed from the Decree of Eternal Destiny to whom this false perswasion also seemeth to be fatal From which opinion if we lay aside prejudice more and more shameful errors will be deduced then out of the books of Socinians For which is more reproachful unto God to hold that he is one as well in Person as Essence or that I may clothe naked injustice with soft words to bring-him-in punishing men for not doing those things which by his own procurement were impossible Is it more absurd to conceive that there is one Essence of the Father another of the Son then that God I shudder to speak it hath one thing open in his tongue and another thing contrary thereunto shut-up in his breast This is reproach enough to the most high God although we do not adde that this dissimulation is joyned with deceit Is the dignity of the Holy Spirit more traduced whilst he is said to be onely the vertue and power of God then the goodness of God whilst he is held the author of sin which consequence doth also flow by a fatal and inevitable flux from that doctrine of Fate For he that decreed men should necessarily sin certainly would have them sin otherwise he would have decreed every thing against his owne desire Now he whose decree and will the event doth immutably follow may certainly be termed the cause of that event whether he effect it by himself or by another Finally is it a greater derogation to the dignity of Christ to deny two natures in him lest we should make him two persons then to the wisdome of God to affirm that he would perswade men to that whereto nevertheless he hath not perswaded them namely that he would give salvation unto all when notwithstanding he hath designed it onely to a few Truly if we look more narrowly into the matter the doctrine of the Socinians touching the Holy Trinity is not to be accounted so much evil and impious in its owne nature as imperfect and maimed For it seemeth to ascribe to the Holy Trinity nothing false or absurd but only to take away something that is true namely the divine nature of Christ and the proper person of the Holy Spirit Whereas this doctrine touching the fatal predestination of particular men laboureth not with any defect but with manifest ptavity For it not onely offereth injury to God by most unworthy calumnies but also

striketh at the foundation of our faith For to omit security and despair with which two rams it battereth the wall of our piety it wonderfully weakneth the very belief of Gods promises whilest it bringeth-in God wickedly dissembling the more is the grief CHAP. XI Reasons and Examples for tolerating Hereticks and who are true Hereticks TO what purpose speak I these things namely to shew that there is no cause why we should not think that they ought to be tolerated in the Church whose tenets either by themselves or for their absurd consequences seem scarce tolerable so that they do not wilfully ascribe some impious thing to God and testifie their love towards the Lord Jesus Christ by obeying his commandments For although both the patrons of the forecited opinions did build unprofitable yea damnable tenets as it were hay and stubble upon our foundation which is Jesus Christ yet as it hath been also shewn at the beginning the tenets which they through error have brought in shall be destroyed by fire whilest they themselves in the mean time unless some other thing hinder shall as the Apostle testifieth 1 Cor. 3. obtain pardon and salvation Neither indeed ought we to refuse or scorn their communion whom God will receive into the society of eternal happiness nor should we hate them on earth to whom eternal love in heaven is due We are unworthy to bear the title of Gods children if we disdain to be their brethren whose Father God desireth to be But if we be afraid of the contagion of such errors either in behalf of our selves or rather of the weaker ones in the first place we may not thereupon renounce brotherly love which we owe to them although they erre For we ought not to forsake a certain and clear duty lest an uncertain evil should happen nor to pursue even the most holy ends by unlawful means But secondly that fear is vain For if we have not the truth there is little danger to be feared from them much less if we have it For since they maintain their tenets with no arms nor with any force and think it not so much as lawful so to do nor set them off with any carnal allurements certainly the truth can never be by them either oppressed with force or overthrown with fraud inasmuch as the nature of truth is such that like to Eagles feathers she devoureth all other light plumage of opinions never withdrawing her self from us unless she be tyred either with our servitude or sins Which twain being not to be feared by us in a modest liberty of dissenting and study of true charity what cause is there why we should so warily sence our opinions from their tenets Let us rather be possessed with a certain hope that as earthen vessels being joyned with those of tin or silver are broken to pieces so also if God the author of peace shall bring bring back into the Church that happy tolerance all false opinions fighting hand to hand with the the true will be dashed to shivers and perish Otherwise if we so much fear that mutual patience and friendly conference we do not think well enough concerning the goodness of our cause Heretofore when the dawning of Gospel-light was returned Luther and his followers would have wished that they might be tolerated in the communion of the Roman Church But it concerned the Pope to secure his darkness from the approach of the morning Again when a dissension was risen up between the Lutherans and the Reformed who was it that refused the form of agreement that was offered but he that doubted of his cause Now also in the very reformed Church it self upon the dissention concerning Fate none are more displeased with tolerance then they that suspect the truth of their doctrine Would error were so circumspect in the cradle of its infancie as it is provident being once grown-up But it being blinde when it is born doth afterward become sharp sighted foreseeing its fate afar off and eschewing it and is never more ingenious to prolong its life then when it is pressed with the conscience of its owne weakness But you will say Shall we acknowledge a Heretick even for a brother when the Apostle Tit. 3. commandeth us to avoid him after two or three admonitions why shall we be more merciful then the Holy Spirit Let not that mercy turn to our misery when once the Lord beginneth to require at our hands the souls of so many seduced innocents Shall we not esteem him a Heretick who in so great a matter departeth from the sound doctrine of the Church do we not think our owne doctrine sound How often have they been admonished both with writings and disputations and yet nevertheless stick to their errors as to rocks I answer Let none please himself so much as to vie with the Apostolical meekness It is an incurable member that the Apostle enjoyneth to be cut off from the rest of the Churches body Howbeit there may be error in them that undertake the cure and they themselves may be overspread with much darkness For neither can the sound part be always discerned from the diseased one and the one doth oftentimes deceive us with the disguise and image of the other And though it be never so manifest what part is entangled with a true disease yet doth it sometimes remain to be scanned whether it be to be cut off or cured with mollifying remedies for those members onely ought to suffer amputation wherein the gangrene leaves no place for a milder medicine Nor is the Apostle of another minde when he commandeth many admonitions to be premised before excommunication And lest it should be doubtful whom he designed by the name of an Heretick he subjoyneth arguments thereupon which are indeed effects of the Heretick himself but unto us impulsive causes that we may avoid him For he saith that such a one is overturned and sinneth being condemned of himself And lest any one should think that these are indeed impulsive causes but not of our fact and our avoiding but onely of the Apostles injunction so that he indeed for these causes excludeth every Heretick from the communion of the Church but yet it is not necessary for us to have respect to them he premiseth the participle knowing to intimate that we also ought to know the causes why we discommon any of the citizens in that heavenly commonwealth nor hasten rashly to such Proscriptions but after we have certain knowledge of so great malice in them And truely although the Apostle had not added this yet did very charity and the analogie of our Religion dictate so much unto us For this is a great punishment nor to be inflicted but on such as sin evidently And forasmuch as in so great a matter no error can be little we ought first of all to be ascertained that the man to be condemned is worthy of so rigid a sentence namely such a one as is here painted out in