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cause_n	know_v	see_v	true_a	2,582	5	4.3510	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81931	A summary discourse concerning the work of peace ecclesiasticall, how it may concurre with the aim of a civill confederation amongst Protestants: presented to the consideration of my Lord Ambassadour Sr. Thomas Rovv, &c. at Hamburg in the yeare MDCXXXIX. By Mr. John Dury, a faithfull and indefatigable solicitour of the gospel of peace amongst Protestants: now put to the presse for the information of such as are able to countenance, and willing to help forward the negotiation of some issue.	Dury, John, 1596-1680.	1641 (1641)	Wing D2889; Thomason E167_13; ESTC R4299	30,514	57

as to such as are conscionably and honestly affected towards peace and unitie and towards these some further means either in private or in publick may be used that they may give occasion unto their Clergie to break off silence and declare their resolutions towards peaceable endeavours And if either of these means take or take not at last the Acts may be sent to some chief Universities of both sides and submitted unto their judgements After all which both the Acts and the judgements thereof may be published in print with a Preface to remonstrate unto the rulers of Christian States what the true causes and remedies of schismes are and how by amiable and conscionable treaties amongst sober and godly Divines all inconvenients of strifes and endlesse disputes might be taken out of the way with an exhortation and entreaty towards them to choose out and authorize fit men to go with consent and liking of their brethren about such a work for the generall good of Christendome and particular of Protestant Churches If then any Prince or State be stirred up to take this resolution and will give occasion to others to enter with some of his Clergy upon these thoughts the matter may be further prepared by certain degrees of publick meetings whereof it is not yet time to speak And this is the first way taken from the ground of former treaties The second way of proceeding in this businesse may take the rise from the circumstances of this present time and then it will have a relation unto the publick dangers of Protestant Churches and States and to the necessity of a brotherly league and confederation betwixt the same against their common enemies Here then all such as have reall intention to frame such a League to support the Protestant cause and to restore the house Palatine in Germany I suppose will easily be perswaded to further the spirituall part of this League that is to say to care for the soul of their conjunction as well as for the bodily part thereof Here then there should be a purpose of negotiating for a league with the German Princes and Lutheran States and the Ambassadour that is to labour in it should have one with him authorized and instructed by eminent authority to treat with the Lutheran Clergy about the work of Ecclesiasticall Reconcilement who might have some instructions to some such effects as these may be First to do nothing without foreknowledge and expresse consent of the Ambassadour sent to make the league Secondly to treat with none obligatorily but with such Divines as shall expressely be named to that effect by that Prince or State with whom the Ambassadour should be in treaty for the other conjunction Thirdly to treat of matters onely preparatorily by way of consultation with a reference to some other future treaties which in due time might be taken in hand Fourthly to treat onely of means and wayes belonging to the scope of religious agreement in matters of difference which have bred disputes and publick scandalls to which effect he should be authorized to testifie a willingnesse in the Church from whence he cometh to advance unity amongst all Christians and chiefly to try by what means in due time a more strict and near Ecclesiasticall agreement might be brought to passe amongst Protestants Fifthly to avoid and decline all particular occasions of dispute and debatement about matters controversall Sixthly to make such proposall of particular means and wayes of agreement as will be then found expedient to be mentioned by those from whom he cometh and will probably be entertained by those to whom he is sent Such like instructions being given to one that is acquainted with the persons humours and controversies of Lutheran Divines and by some experience can foresee prevent and answer their scruples jealousies doubts shifts and difficulties no doubt a publick treaty might very easily be brought to passe to great good purpose about the work of Reconciliation For if the minds of one or two Divines about every Prince should in this manner be drawn and prepared really to affect or at least not to disaffect the purpose of a further treaty at some friendly meeting the way of coming together might without great difficulty be so contrived that by little and little all matters might be composed and settled in unitie without all occasion of strife and dispute And the chief motive why a Theologicall treaty in this kind ought to be intended and urged as a thing most necessary amongst Protestants may be alledged by the Ambassadour of the Civill League to be this That seeing in a faithfull confederation and brotherly league for mutuall defence betwixt two parties for each others lives liberties and rights there ought not to be any known cause of doubt concerning the sinceritie of mutuall love and upright intentions betwixt the confederates left untaken away lest the reall effect thereof be disappointed and seeing it is notoriously known that one of the greatest causes by which mutuall love and sincere intentions can be broken off hath been existent and is not yet truly taken away from the spirits of Lutheran Divines who have esteemed hitherto all Reformed Protestants no better then damnable hereticks therefore to take away this cause of disjunction and of breach in true love it will be necessary to permit chief Divines of both sides to treat in a friendly manner that they may receive satisfaction one from another in matters of doubt and that they may take away the causes of mistakes and future breaches and confirm their love one towards another And to this effect it might also be intimated that whiles such intentions of brotherly reconcilement are in agitation it would be fit a course should be taken to forbid railing accusations and odious imputations from the pulpit on both sides in hope that the grounds thereof will shortly be taken away to the full content of every one Hitherto the preparatives of a publick treaty have been spoken of but in case no such amiable treaties can be produced then remaineth the last attempt which may be intended that the pretext of schisme whereby many many damnable errours are laid to the charge of the Reformed Churches can be taken away and the Lutheran Divines made to take notice that all Reformed Protestants are wronged by such imputations To do this as formerly so now acquaintance must be made with the ring-leaders of that side which chiefly uphold the division and when the matters of duty belonging to mutuall edification are without prejudice proposed a question must be made concerning the causes which hinder the work of Reconcilement to know in particular what they are what may be thought a sufficient and requisite means to take thē out of the way To which question a short and friendly answer from him with whom the treaty is begun must be procured in writing wherein as well the Catalogue of those things which are laid to the charge of the Reformed Churches as also the

be so much the more difficult but yet no worse then either is preconceived or hath been experimented For in both these I have been at as low an ebbe when I first did begin this Negotiation as I am likely ever to be And now seeing I have served out my apprenticeship I hope I shall not prove lesse industrious happy at the latter end in continuing my trade then at first I was in learning how to begin the same It is some advantage in framing a resolution to have experience of extremities wherein Gods providence hath been seen I can desire no more to be at rest in respect of future contingents and in respect of present matters I thank God for contentednesse I will make no further preliminary discourses for I fear me these have been too long Therefore I intend now to come to my proper subject which at this time is A generall Discourse touching a concurrence of the work of Peace Ecclesiasticall with the aim of a civill Confederation amongst Protestants IN this matter two things are to be considered First What the concurrence The heads of this deliberation of endeavours towards the work of Ecclesiasticall reconcilement may contribute unto the aim of a civill Confederation Secondly How this concurrence may be set a work most effectually and profitably towards the scope which ought to be intended in such a negotiation Concerning the first THe spirituall work of Ecclesiasticall reconciliation Are described is a negotiation whereby the spirits of spiritual persons are wrought upon by spirituall means tending to induce them to peaceable dispositions toward those with whom they are at variance for matters of Religion The aim of a civill Confederation I suppose to be a purpose of joyning the Protestant States together in counsels and actions of peace and war tending to their mutuall preservation That these two And their concurrence supposed businesses may concurre as well as Religion and civill prudence are able to stand together is out of all doubt but what the first may contribute unto the last and how the concurrence must be framed are two things which are now to be thought upon And to this it is needlesse to reckon up all the benefits which spirituall concord bringeth unto the Church of God and all that happinesse which redoundeth from the blessed and peaceable estate of the Church to the Common-wealth of which a volume might be written But it will suffice at this time to intimate that whatsoever the soul of a man is able to contribute unto his body the same in a proportionable way may be contributed by the work of spirituall reconciliation of souls unto the civill Confederation of the bodies of Protestant States And to shew this briefly we will make the comparison onely in two things which all Naturalists confesse to be effects of the souls of men towards their bodies Namely First that the soul frameth the body and maketh it up for it self so that it receiveth no true naturall life and being without the soul Secondly That when the body is framed then the same soul still supporteth the being thereof so that without the continuance of the soul therewith it is neither permanent in life nor in substance Both these effects must flow from the souls of Clergie men by the work of spirituall reconcilement unto the aim of a civill confederation as really and truly in the body of the Protestant State as they do in this outward world from living souls unto their naturall bodies For neither can a civill confederation be truly framed amongst Protestants nor when it is framed can it be faithfully maintained except the foundation thereof be layd in the minds of the Clergy The Which is proved ground of this position is clear from reason backed with experience which hath taught us for the space of these hundred years by-past that except the schisme Ecclesiasticall and causes thereof be taken out of the way it will not be possible either to make a true and constant league or to confirm it when it is made For it is evident that the leagues of Protestants By Experience which by reason of necessitie and imminent dangers were hitherto made up have been continually broken to pieces by reason of their differences in Religion which bred jealousies from whence their counsels were distracted and their spirits alienated one from another The causes of these jealousies And by Reason come partly from the very nature and propertie of all rents and controversies about spirituall matters which command so powerfully over the soul that all other affections must stoop thereunto partly from the hot and unreasonable disposition of most Lutheran Divines who by clamours and partiall practices cease not either to prevent all manner of conjunction in maintaining that it is not lawfull to confederate with Hereticks or else to break it off and weaken the effect of it when it is brought to passe by reason of the same position For this position stiffly maintained maketh the breach to become a matter of conscience For when the one side as the Lutherans do ceaseth not to charge the other with the crime of heresie and the other side as the Reformed do useth no sufficient means to take away this imputation it must needs follow that such Rulers of State as give credit to their Clergy and are religiously set must be possessed with an aversenesse from those whom they imagine to be guilty of so great a crime From hence then it is manifest how necessary this work of spirituall reconciliation is unto the Protestant cause For if the preservation both of Church and State ought to be a matter of necessitie and if this preservation cannot be hoped for without a civill league or a civill league either well framed and faithfully kept afoot except such imputations as these be taken out of the way it followeth that the one can have no being without the other Neither can indeed a blessing from heaven be expected upon the civill league without the other reconcilement because it is just before God to divide the hearts and counsels of those which are not confederates together in him by his truth chiefly then when for his truths sake they are set upon and know themselves bound in conscience to preferre the care of Religion to all other intentions From whence we see that the benefit which may redound from the bond of Ecclesiasticall peace towards the civill league is the greatest that can be thought on to conserve State and Religion So that to aim at a temporall league without the spirituall reconcilement of affections in a religious way is to undertake a work which God will never blesse and which will betray the cause for which it is undertaken Thus then I conclude That it will be a matter of absolute necessitie to make these endeavours to concurre together Concerning the second BUt how must this concurrence be framed what Points to be considered in the second