into several branches they have put a stop to their conquests and had no further thought than to maintain themselvs both those whom they have forsaken and such as have forsaken them And it is not only from the ill example of this division that strangers to the Faith are driven from it They are led thereunto by the very intrigues and stratagems of the Christians who are so separated and divided among themselves Their Division creates such animosity one against the other that they do their utmost endeavour to hinder those who have an earnest desire to embrace Christianity from entring into any other Christian communion but their own There are others who go further for they hold it as a true Maxime That it is better for a Jew or Mahometan to persist in his old Errour than to thrust himself into some of the Christian Societies which they disapprove So that as it is impossible for Iron equally drawn between two Loadstones to move either towards the one or the other So these different solicitations which Christians make to draw Infidels to them leaves them in a neutral state not knowing which side they should take nor to which they should determine their Judgments CHAP. VI. The Fifth Effect of this Division Trouble in Church and State THe Evil of this Division is not limited only to particular persons but all Societies as well Ecclesiastical as Civil have too great a feeling of it For we dayly see strange Tempests happen in both which had no other cause for the forming of them than this sad disunion And has not the Church much reason to complain that those who are called her Children should tear out her Bowels That she can expect nothing but death even from those to whom she hath given life Since they to whom she continually administers the sacred Milk of her pure Doctrine and of her wholsome Instructions do give her so many grievous wounds as they form Sects in her In multiplying they dismember Her and each striving to draw her to their side at last nothing is seen to remain but her mangled and broken pieces And what is more these deplorable Reliques of the Church have likewise been so miserably handled that she is no longer to be known insomuch that they might rather be taken for the parts of some mishapen Monster than for the Members of the Divine Spouse of Jesus Christ washed in the Blood of her dear Lord and clothed with the Sacred Robe of his Righteousness But that I may not be thought to aggravate these things and raise them with an Hyperbole Let us but consider the present face of the Church Is it not true that we shall have much ado to meet any one of these Societies which call themselves a Church and attribute the truth solely to themselves where these ill Characters are not to be seen First a certain high conceited Opinion of the Principles they have embraced which creates in them a blind perswasion without examining it and whereof not any solid reason can be given Birth Education Worldly Interests and other engagements of this nature together with a kind of negligence and a fear of being accounted inconstant and unsetled if they should turn to another party These things I say have ordinarily a greater influence for the establishment of them in their Religion than Reason and Conscience have All which is followed by a certain obstinacy not to call it self-conceitedness in maintaining their belief at any rate whatsoever There are those who many times do hazard on this occasion all that they hold dearest in the World even to their very lives which passes in every One of these Societies for an exquisit Zeal and an examplary devotion Nor is there any one of these Sects which has not a Catalogue of its Confessors and that cannot produce its Roll of Martyrs But how many are there of these Martyrs who if they had been demanded to give a reason of the Doctrine for which they made so much constancy appear would have been gravelled and have little to answer to the least argument that might have been proposed to them Many times false Opinions are maintained with as much heat as the True Also Illusions and Impostures do make as strong Impression upon our Spirits as real Objâ—cts Now this obstinacy draws after it an extreme aversion to all other Religions and even to all other Christian Societies It either accuses them of blindness or of stupidity or of malice 'T is nothing else say they but fleshly interest that seems a Foundation of their Doctrine They reproach them that their Opinions are altogether destructive to true Piety that they hurry Men into Superstition and to Idolatry or else to Libertinisme or Atheisme And some there are who are pointed out by others as if they were frightful Monsters In a word any protestation or any declaration which they make that it is the Doctrine they loath and not the Persons who take it up That it is the Error they detest but that they have charity and compassion for such as are misled is enough with them Which yet shall never make me believe But that the precedent qualities are accompanied with a great Animosity of Spirit against those who are not of the same Opinion For how can we sincerely love those whom we look upon as Enemies to God and Disciples of Satan whose Lot and Portion is Hell where they shall be made a Prey to the Devils Are there not likewise very dreadful Examples in what manner they have reciprocally treated one another in those places where they are mingled together The weak employ such armes as are most convenient against their Adversaries which are injuries and reproaches the powerful straight pass to action there is no craft nor subtilty no violence nor cruelty which these People sâ—t not a work utterly to exterminate such as follow a different profession from theirs The Roman Catholick persecutes the Protestant in those places where he is strongest The Protestant he requites him where he has the Power and Authority in his own hands And amongst Protestants those who are of different Opinions are not treated more favourably Heretofore the Christians complained much that the Pagans would force them to sacrifice to their Gods and quit their Religion Tertul. Apolog. 28. They grounded not their complaint on any other Reason than this that Religion as they affirmed ought to be an act of a pure and free Mind But now a days Christians do the same thing towards Christians We have seen times where tortures and the cruelest punishments have been used by Christians for afflicting other Christians and for no other cause but their not being of the same judgments and perswasions And now after this who can take it ill that I have no more represented the Church as the Ship which the Son of God conveyeth safe amidst the stormes wherewith she is continually battered But to the lamentable wracks of a Vessel dasht in pieces not by
have reason to separate our selves from those who did depart from them But seeing that this sacred Word is contented to give us for this purpose certain general Precepts For St. Paul plainly tells us that These things must be done with Order and Decency Liberty is given without doubt to Christians to dispose of these according as they shall think convenient having regard to the circumstances of Places of Times and of Persons in keeping always within the Bounds of Decency and Order For besides that the Scripture has thus declared it self hereupon The nature of the thing seems palpably to lead us to the same There is no Body who does not put a great difference between that which is essential to a thing and that which is meerly accidental All acknowledg it is on the preservation of the first that the subsistence of its subject does absolutely depend that it can be very well maintained without the second and that also more conveniently Likewise that we should act quite otherwise for the first than we should for the other So to preserve health or to recover it though we strictly observe the Diet which is obsolutely requisite we can freely and without prejudice change the Relishes and Tinctures which we give to the Fod and to the Medicines This being once well setled every one sees how unreasonable a thing it would be to separate about the occasion of any difference which might happen in outward matters and accidentals to Religion should there be any Schisme in the Church concerning the Order which is to be amongst its Governours Must this Holy Union be broken because some would have the Church be governed by Bishops and others would have an equality amongst its Pastors Must we because of some diversity in the Habits of those who officiate in the Church break the knot which should tye all Christians together Is it just that for the Ornaments of the Temples the postures wherein private Persons should be during the acts of Devotion and other such Ceremonies the peace of the Church should be ruined and the Unity of its Members Has not the Primitive Church made it well appear that there was no such matter of scruple when it freely changed the practice according as the times and occasions required it Did not Tertullian one of its principal Doctors teach us that the Rule of Faith continuing firm and constant other things which regard the Discipline do sometimes suffer alterations and changes Were the Temples always set out in this magnificence which they are in at present among Christians Were Fastings always after the same manner observed Were the Garments of Ministers of the Church always in the sâ—me mode Have they at all times and in all places received the holy Eucharist after the same fashion as to their outward Gestures Has there not always been great diversity in the practice of these things and can we not still be able to suffer it without being forced to separate and dismember the Church as we do at this present time I confess that in certain Ceremonies some things may fall out to be practiseâ— which would directly oppose to the Fundamental Points of Religion But it would be easy to give a Remedy to this Evil following the Order which I shall propose We should in this case look back to the very Precept it self upon which we should all agree together For if we all accord in what concerns the Doctrine we shall find no great difficulty to accord or at least to maintain a charitable judgment in the use of the Ceremony If we were once but well Reunited together in the Opinions which we should have of the Doctrine I am assured that we should bear with one another in things which are not of that importance If we joyned in the main essential matters the necessaries would not easily separate us Behold then how this happy means of Peace must be ordered It is by establishing immediately with great care the bounds which are to be given to these two things That is First that a right distinction be made between what serves for the outward conduct of the Actions of true Believers and the essence and internal concern of a good Christian Next that we labour and seek out by all the ways imaginable how we may be Reunited in what respects the essence of Christianity But for that which respects the outward Government and the Ceremonies of the Church some liberty should be given to the particular Societies of Christians Herin regard must be had to the difference of Places and Climates where they dwell which often create more disgust to one sort of Government than to another Also there should be considered the diversity of their Politique Government which may imprint some stamps of its Character upon that of the Church Lastly We should likewise have in consideration what these Societies may have practised hitherto with success in this respect and leave them the entire disposal thereof after having represented to them what shall be judged more prositable and more commodious for them This diversity must not alter the peace of the Church It is not just that agreeing together in the essential Points we should break the bonds of our amity for things which are not essential How many Brothers are there who although they be of different employments yet for all this leave not off their living together as Brothers and making up one and the same Family I would therefore have an accomodation made herein according to the Customes and Practices of the Places in which they live That in all parts where they should inhabit and sojourn they might be subject to the Community of Christians which should be there established without condemning or blaming other Customes That we should rather believe charitably that every one has followed herein the Order which has been supposed to be most convenient and most requisite to Salvation seeing that still the Principal which is comprehended in few Articles continues firm Thus St. Paul was accustomed to do 1 Cor. 10.33 Endeavouring to please and accommodate all matters without seeking after particular conveniencies but only the Salvation of many And when he saw any who would be contentious in these things He only answered them thus 1 Cor. 11.16 We have no such Custome Showing that it argues a contentious spirit and an enemy to the Peace of the Church to be unwilling to follow Order and Custome in things of this nature We should always six here that we ought not barely upon account of humane Institutions to separate one from another seeing we break with those who embrace the same Doctrine which we do clearly taught us in the Word of God under pretence that they have not the same practice with us in the outward part of Religion CHAP. V. The Fourth meanes To distinguish between that which the Scripture proposes to us to believe as Doctrine of Salvation and that which it delivers to us as Histories of things which have
of this Division That it makes men irreligious and causes Atheism 35 CHAP. V. The Fourth Effect of this Division That it keeps back all those who are without and breeds in them a dislike of Christian Religion 44 CHAP. VI. The Fifth Effect of this Division Trouble in Church and State The Second Part. Of the Causes of this Division which is among Christians CHAP. I. THat the frame and temper of mens Minds doth much contribute to this evil p. 69 CHAP. II. That there has never yet been made a true distinction in Christian Religion of what is really essential and fundamental and what is not 80 CHAP. III. That men have departed from the true fundamentals of Christian Religion to take up others which have nothing of solidity in them and which put these divisions among Christians 88 CHAP. IV. That the dislike which has been had at the simplicity of Christian Religion has been an occasion that meâ— have given it a different â—â—â—â—ct frâ—m that which it had in its â—â—â—inning 97 CHAP. V. That many do make use of Religion to serve their particular interests and the advantages of a temporal life 106 The Third Part. Of the proper means to reunite all Christians into one sole communion CHAP. I. Of the ill means that has been made use of hitherto for putting a remedy to the evil of this Division 117 CHAP. II. The first mean To lay aside all prejudices and to throw off all particular interests that so nothing may be proposed by us but the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls 128 CHAP. III. The second means That we should not have for our direction more than one known and generally approved Rule for all Christians to walk by 142 CHAP. III. The third means Rightly to distinguish between the Doctrines which the Holy Scriptures propound to be believed by all true Christians and what regards only the outward Government of the Church and its ceremonies 150 CHAP. V. The fourth means To distinguish between that which the Scriptures proposes to us to believe as Doctrine of Salvation that which it delivers to us as Histories of things which have happened and that which it reports to us as predictions of things to come 163 CHAP. VI. Fifth Advice Touching the Mysteries of Christian Religion which we must believe as being revealed in the Holy Scriptures and concerning the distinction which must be made of them 170 CHAP. VII What ways must be follow'd to facilitate the execution of this design 186 CHAP. VIII Answers to the Objections and Difficulties which may be formed against this design 199 CONCLUSION Profits and advantages which might be hoped for from this Project 218 THE RE-VNITING OF CHRISTIANITY The First Part. Of the Division which is among Christians and of its Consequencies CHAP. I. Of the Nature and Greatness of this Division WHen St. Paul said That it was necessary there should be Heresies amongst us to the end that such as are approved might be made manifest His words must not be taken as if he would by an extravagant Paradox Authorize the diversity of Opinions in Christianity For his design was never to favour the Authors of Sects and Heads of Patties by imposing silence to those who would remedy Divisions and put a stop to their sad consequencies But he declares plainly what we must expect from the ill disposition of the spirits of Men from the high esteem which they have of their own sufficiency and from their inclination to render themselves considerable by some singular Opinions in matters of Religion He designs by the same means to make us see how the providence of God which draws good out of evil and light out of the thickest darkness takes occasion from thence to distinguish such as appeartain to him making appear by this contradiction of sinners the constancy of the Servants of God and their generous resistance to all sorts of temptations and tryals It is in this sence also that Jesus Christ declares to us the necessity of scandals and tribulations arising in the Church and that he is come to kindle the Fire-brand of War in the World and to put Divisions in States and Families for otherwise the Gospel which is the Ministry of Grace and a Word of Reconciliation and Peace does not of it self propose any thing but union amity and concord Nature although sprung from the same Original with Grace hath inclinations quite distinct It is not pleased but in diversity and seems not to subsist but by the contrariety of qualities which occur in its works whereas Grace is not preserved but by the entire correspondence of those who â—â—ve a share therein and by the conformity of their Opinions We cannot divide our selves in its Principles without destroying it to us For such a separation is to give it such grievous wounds as will force it to retire from those who are not more careful to improve it by such wayes as are most suitable to its nature Now is it not a most deplorable thing that an occasion should be taken of making use of a Doctrine of Peace for the miserable tearing in pieces a Body whose Members ought to be perfectly united Is it not a shameful thing that this unhappy Pro and Con should be introduced to make the same havock in the Church which it ordinarily makes in the World Philosophy never saw so many Sects Paganisme so many different Devotions Mahometisme so many contradictory Opinions concerning their Alcoran as we have Sects Heresies and Schismes in Christianity about the understanding of its fundamental Law which is the Gospel As soon as the sprouts of this Holy Seed began to appear upon the face of the Earth we saw at the same time an infinite number of unprofitable and choaking Tares spring up sufficient to destroy that in its birth which would bring with it Salvation and Life Almost in the sight of the Holy Apostles those Sacred Confidents of our Soveraign Master there arose such as vaunting themselves to have embraced his Doctrine would have represented him after their fancies and set him forth as their own whimsies and caprichioes suggested to them And presently afterwards would make their particular Sentiments pass for general and infallible Rules and have pretended that all others were obliged to submit themselves thereto Thus the Blood of Jesus Christ which still reeking should warm the hearts of Christians with a Holy Charity as well as with an Ardent Zeal could not choak the Seeds of these miserable Divisions Insomuch that in the Third Age St. Epiphanius numbers up Four-score several Heresies or rather different Opinions which had crept in amongst the Christians and yet not mentioning the divers Branches into which these Heresies were sub divided There is scarcely any one Article of Faith or any speculation of Christianity whereon strange Opinions have not been advanced which in time have made Sects and different Religions And we know that every particular Combination has appropriated to it self the
others those who would enter into this Holy Communion But forasmuch as this is one of the most powerful means to attain to this end and which deserves more important considerations I reserve it to a particular Treatise if this first Work still be favourably entertain'd CHAP. VIII Answers to the Objections and Difficulties which may be formed against this Design THere can be no advantage proposed which meets not with its Difficulties We cannot fetch Gold out of a Mine but with much trouble The Earth is not made fertile but when it is digged and plowed with great care and the success of the most admirable enter prizes is not obtained but by surmounting with industry all the obstacles which are met with in the execution of them And yet this trouble we have in attaining thâ—se most excellent goods is that which contributes much to their glory It is a poor common Vertue which findes no resistance in its operations The praise of Heroick Virtue consists in the conquering of great difficulties So that this project would be less admirable than it is if it could be effected without pain and if the execution thereof were easy But what objections may be made to this and difficulties met with herein will be altogether such as that we shall be easily able to Answer the One and Remedy the other Some will presently say That to attempt this is in a manner to go about to hinder an effect which must necessarily happen That it is as if one should undertake to stop the course of the Stars and hinder the Revolution of the Seasons That Jesus Christ and his Apostles have foretold there should be Heresies Dissentions and Schismes in the Christian Church That this is permitted by the Providence of God to make evident the Zeal and Constancy of his Faithful Servants Insomuch that it would be to strive against the Eternal Decrees and Rules appointed in the Counsel of God to endeavour to prevent the division or dissention among Christians But for satisfying this Objection besides what has been said upon this Point at the beginning of this Treatise There is but one thing to consider which is that this Prediction is not only grounded upon a Decree of God for the ordering of things which should happen in his Church but upon an effect of the evil disposition of the Spirits of Men which is cause of the Disunion And that hinders Us not from labouring to remedy this cause and put a stop to these deplorable effects So that what Jesus Christ has foretold us of the Fire which he was come to kindle in the Earth by the Preaching of his Gospel hinders not his Servants from â—â—â—â—â—ng with great affection to extinguish it and to stay the great burning which this Flame might cause Moreover if it were so that 〈…〉 out because it has been foretold Yet it does not import thus much that it should abide continually Is it not enough that it has taken place for so many Ages Is it not time to stop its Course and see an end of it So will the Prophesie have had its accomplishment in our Fathers days and we shall in ours enjoy the calm after all these Tempests Let us add hereunto that this very word which foretells us these Divisions makes us also hope for an estate of Peace and Quiet in the Church It makes times of refreshment and ease to succeed all these great disturbances and assures us that there shall be such a firm Peace in the Earth that we shall see those Creatures which are the greatest Enemies one to the other that is to say those Spirits wherein is the most contrariety dwell and unite together Who knows but that we may live to enjoy those happy times Who knows but that in our days we may see this general Peace among all Christians And I durst promise that by the assistance and bounty of God This shall come to pass if our Sins do not put a hinderance to it and our particular Interests more sway us than the general good of Christendom It must be said in the second place that this Design of bringing all Christians to acknowledg but so small a Number of Heads in Christian Religion approved by every one is directly opposite to the Apostles Doctrine and to the Practice of the Primitive Christians Those who dispute so strongly against the Errours which arose in their times Those who condemned with so much indignation all who did not conform to the Holy Doctrine which they received from the Lord Is there any likelihood that they would have hearkened to these Propositions of beating with one another and a charitable condescending in these Points of Religion Would St. Paul have listened to such an accommodation who writ with so much sharpness against the Galatians who had suffered themselves to be seduced by certain false Teachers Would St. John who refused to have any converse with Heretiques have approved of this Overture To which I answer that what perswaded these Holy Men to act on this manner was that they regarded not so much the diversity of Opinions which they disapproved as the evil dispositâ—on of those who went about to establish those ill Opinions They well saw that what these Persons were about to contrive was not out of a spirit of simplicity and humility They observ'd nothing in all their conduct but particular Interests of Worldly honour profit authority and rule which all their endeavours carried them to These now are Motives against which we can never make too much Zeal and Indignation appear But we see they dealt clearly otherwise with such poor People as had been seduced by these crafty Wits than they did with these Incendiaries these spirits of Lying They treated those with mildness but these they condemned with severity They bare with the first and had charity for them but they had a Holy and Just anger for the second They allowed some Liberty to the former but granted nothing to the Latter 〈…〉 also how St. Paul that Zealous 〈◊〉 of God is not afraid in 〈…〉 question of the Resurrection 〈◊〉 our Bodies so important in Râ—ligioâ— oâ— sâ—â—ing a great value on this holy and charitable bearing with one another To this might be added that these Holy Men have been immediately inspired by the spirit of God to acknowledg and make known to others these Heavenly truths And this being so they might condemn with boldness and with knowledg of the Cause those who rejected the truth which appeared to them in the open Day Whereas at present we not having these Lights and this Supernatural and Miraculous Assistance are obliged to keep our selves strictly to the express termes of the Doctrine contained in the Holy Scriptures Morcover it might be Objected that this Design is of dangerous consequence That it is to give to every one a liberty of having what Opinion he pleases and also in matters of importance such as have hitherto divided Mens spirits That it is to give an
Name of a Church and boasted to be the Spouse of the Son of God to the utter exclusion of all others They have also gone further for besides the Heavenly Doctrine contained in the Gospel where they have taken occasion of raising disputes They have forged such as have been meerly humane concerning which there hath also been miserable Divisions And as though these Men had climbed up to Heaven to consult the very Mouth of God himself they have Preached up their Doctrines as Oracles and Fundamental Truths After which they have had no great trouble to engage their Followers to suffer the most cruel Torments and even Death it self in defence of their Opinion and after that have confidently enrolled them in their own Legend as Martyrs of Jesus Christ though they suffered only to advance the glory and reputation of some Arch-Heretique So God to chastize the rashness and confound the vanity of their thoughts has permitted that Division should ruine their work as heretofore it defeated the insolent designs of those who would erect the Tower of Babel After that we have once forsaken the Royal Road which God has prescribed us we run into all by paths and separate our selves one from another each of us fancying to be in the most commodious and safest way Can you likewise believe that a separation is sometimes made about Subjects not only light and trivial but in some sort ridiculous and which do redound to the shame of those who made them serviceable to the ends of their Schisme and Division What contentions have there not been among Christians namely on what Day the Celebration of Easter should be observed If in the Communion Bread leavened or unleavened should be made use of If the Body of Jesus Christ was corruptible after its conception or not If we may say that one of the Trinity was Crucified If the Church can condemn and excommunicate one that is dead If the Hallelujah might be Sung in Lent and other Questions of the like nature Behold here what are ordinarily the subjects which cause these most real calamities Behold that which separates those who with one consent should advance the glory of their common Master But to come to our times and more neerly to touch upon the evil which troubles us at present and which has given me occasion of laying open my sence to contribute to a Remedy Is it not a lamentable thing and of sad Example to see Christians so miserably divided as they are at this Day For to let pass the divers Sects of Christians which are in the East and who have more cause to grieve for their lamentable Divisions than for their miserable state under the rigorous Yoke of the Mahometans such are the Greeks of Armenia and Circassia the Nestorians Jacobites Maronites Cophtes Christians of St. Thomas c. People who are looked upon as Hereticks or Schismaticks and who believe that out of their particular communion there is no Salvation to be expected Let us insist only upon this deplorable condition of the Christians of Europe in these Countreys wherein we live There is no heart so hard that does not sigh to behold so strange a dis-union There is no truly Christian Soul that does not grieve to see the effects of the implacable sudes and hatreds which are amongst those who are looked upon as Brethren Since they are thereby exposed to the continual insolencies of the sworn Enemies of Christianity Since this great breach which is made in the Western Church by the separation of the Protestants from the Communion of the Church of Rome what Bloody Wars How many Murders and Massacres What changes and subversions is in States has there not been seen insomuch that they have not stuck to have recourse to the common Enemy to draw in succour against those with whom they should have entertain'd a true Brotherly affection And that which is most deplorable is that this division hath been followed by an infinite company of others and as a fruitful Mother hath produced an incredible number of Monsters which resemble it These two great Branches growing out one from the other have also sprouting out of them a vast company of lesser Branches which although not equal in strength bring forth fruits altogether as dangerous as their Mother Among Protestants how many several Sects in Germany in England in France in the Low-Countreys c. There needs but some diversity in the habits of Preachers some difference in the Ceremonies or in the Ornaments of Churches or of the Government thereof to form a Sect. A simple dissenting in the Liberty which every one gives himself of expounding according to his Fancy the misteries which are above his reach is sufficient to cause a separation The manner of explaining the subject of Predestination and oâ— Reconciling God's Grace with the Motions of the Will of Man makes us look upon those who are of a different Opinion as such People as are in the high-way of Damnation and with whom we must not entertaâ—â— any Communion Nor may they who have lived in Communion with the Church of Rome insult at this Division of the Protestants and pretend that union and concord have continued amongst them without any division For although they all submit themselves in appearance to the Authority of one only Head and that they look upon him as the Center wherein all the Lines of their Society do meet and are reunited nevertheless we are not ignorant how great the number of their dissentions are and how little the union is amongst their Doctors 〈◊〉 that if the fear of a Superior Authority seems to retain them in one and the same Society their hatreds are but the more fermented within They do not less condemn one another of Heresie and of being out of the way of Salvation And the Exâ—mples of our Age have shown us that when oppertunities have been presented of making their aversions appear how far they have carried it being always desirous that their particular Opinions might prevail over all others Therefore it is not any particular interest that I here endeavour to advance But it is the general interest of all Christian Societies It is the good and the union of all those who march under the Standard of the Cross I design to reunite together all the Christians of the East and West Greeks and Romans Catholicks and Protestants and all the divers Branches whereinto these latter are subdivided CHAP. II. The first Effect of this Division Disquiet of Mind and Trouble of Conscience WEre there no other Evil in this Division than the very Division it self and that deformity which it causes in Christian Societies Were there no other harm done by it than the disfiguring the Face of Christianity and the blemishing its beauty that renders it so considerable it would be so great a cause of grief as to oblige us to endeavour with all our power to remedy so great a mischief But besides all this this unhappy
malice Charity is not envious but envy raigns particularly in division where each party respects the obligation of their proper Interests Charity is not insolent nor puffed up with Glory whereas Division is fierce proud and insupportable It inspires those who possess it with a desire to abase and oppress others if it be possible that they may raise up themselves and Rule without Competitor Charity seeks not its own ends is not dispiteful and thinks no evil These ill qualities are the true Characters of Division in which it hath no other end than the advancement of its own party to the detriment of all others Charity rejoyces not in injustice but altogether in the truth Division oppresses the truth and is never pleased but with unrighteousness and violence Charity endures believes hopes and bears all things Division causes suspicions and jealousies to arise gives ill interpretations to actions and even to the most innocent words and drives us into passion and impatience into murmuring and extravagances And to draw the last Line to this parallel God grant that as Charity never fails but is maintained in the very ruine of all that which is most Glorious and most firm in Society so on the other side by the rule of contraries that we may quickly see this unhappy Division utterly decay and cease by a perfect uniting of all Christians CHAP. IV. The Third Effect of this Division That it makes Men Irreligious and causes Atheisme IN all Divisions which tear in pieces Kingdomes and Monarchies each side at the first does boast by their Manifestoes and Declarations that they took not up Armes but for the Publick Good and for maintaining the Crown and Authority of the Prince And although those Parties be so contrary and averse that their Swords are drawn and in a readiness to decide their quarrel yet both of them have the confidence to alledge in their Vindication the Justice of their cause and interest of their Soveraign whilst in the end all tend to the utter subversion of the State and total change of the Government And it will many times happen in these contests that the most mutinous and most sedicious do make themselves Masters of Soveraign Authority So is it ordinarily seen that in the division of Opinions in Religion every one protests that no other Argument or Interest perswades him to follow the Religion that he embraces but the real love of truth and desire of his Salvation All those who would be the promoters and spreaders of some new Opinion show an extraordinary Devotion and Zeal at the beginning But by little and little all that degenerates and all the overtures which Division makes serve but as so many doors by which at last Impiety Irreligion and Atheisme do slip in 'T is amidst these differences that we commonly see some new Religion thrust in it self among us which differs but very little from the disclaiming of all Religion Just so was it by means of the divers Sects which heretofore sprang up in the Church that the Doctrin of Mahomet has taken such footing in the World Every one knows how wide the Division of the Eastern and Western Churches was at that time And I do not believe but that the great diversity of Judgments and Religions which we see at present in Christianity hath been the cause of this coldness and want of Devotion amongst us in what we call Christian Society Insomuch that Piety and Religion seem only to be left in full Authority amongst Women and the Vulgar This Evil arises from hence that the greatest part of Men either cannot or will not give themselves the trouble of searching into these different Opinions to determine which they might close with so they choose rather to believe nothing absolutely than to be always in suspence about what they ought to believe As the great diversity of Medicines which are prescribed to a Patient do very often make him refuse all thinking it better to resign up all to venture at once rather than stand so long about making his choice of the Remedies which are proposed to him Some go towards it but with such a kind of negligence and natural sloath that makes them apprehend a great deal of trouble in it And these esteem it better to suspend all manner of action than undertake any thing that requires so much care and intensness of thought concerning it These are like lazy Souldiers who suffer themselves to be kill'd rather than they 'l couragiously take up their Armes and stand to their own defence Or those who out of a desperate Fury thrust a Dagger into their own Breasts for fear least their Enemy is pressing upon them to do it There are others who dare not venture upon this tryal through the distrust which they have of themselves and of their own power They do not feel themselves strong enough to sustain such a weight nor able to break through all those difficulties which they meet with This obliges some blindly to follow the first that is presented them and suffer themselves to be led by those who pretend to have skill herein Supposing they are in a good condition if they put themselves under the conduct of their Leaders And others stand Newters not daring to adhear to any Party out of a Distrust which they have of all such as offer themselves to them And this it is that causes Irreligion and Atheisme Yet are there some whose Fault is not neglect of examining these different Questions but the true Reason of it is because they are not indeed capable of it Such are all Pesants and Mechanicks and others who know nothing more than what belongs to their employments and who being taken out of that are as if they were in an unknown Country where they are ignorant both of the wayes and Language It puts them to a stand as though they had neither sense nor Motion They make all their Devotion and all the Service which they should pay to God to consist in the well observing these outward actions of Religion in which they have been trained up Witness the poor Christians of Muscovia all whose Religion is no more than just a showing to those who desire to be informed of their belief the Image of some Saint which they carry about with them And others also who think that if they know but how to make the sign of the Cross aright may pass for very good Christians Therefore if instead of puzelling our selves about so many questions and controversies we would study to bring back the Christian Doctrin to its true Principles which are but few in number and easy for all sorts of Persons to comprehend it would be the ready way to make true Christians who would know what is really essential in their Doctrine and so would quickly be brought to a true piety and to the fear of God which is the only design of Christian Religion Here it may also be added that this great diversity of
the rage and fury of contrary Elements but by the negligence of those within her and misunderstanding of her Conductors This Evil is also very communicative 'T is like a Gangrene which never stays in one place but corrupts all the neighbouring parts States and all Bodies Politique are very sensible of the effects of this Division We might say of this evil as of the Leprosie described by Moses that it not only infects Men but the very Towns and Places where they dwell I dare affirm that of Thirty Wars which have happened in Europe within these Hundred and fifty years five and twenty have had the differences of Religion for the occasions of them or at least that they have either been accompanied or followed by some Interests of Religion If any would throw the Apple of Discord into a Nation to trouble it and raise civil Wars at home to the end that Foreiners might have an opportunity of attacking it They need but use means to cause some differences to be moved about the Government of the Church Find some fault with the Ornaments of the Altars Cloath in a different manner those who are to administer Divine Service or introduce some diversity in the Liturgy and in the Publique Prayers This will be sufficient to disturb the Peace of a Nation and absolutely turn it upside down Examples of this are so fresh and so dreadful amongst us that I need not produce them to confirm what I lay before you If we would favour the Rebellion of any Country or back the pretensions of some Usurper 'T is but publishing that the reason why we take up arms in their favour is to give Liberty to weak and tender Consciences and to be instrumental in giving poor distressed Christians a freedom of praying to God Almighty and to perform all the Exercises of Devotion without constraint There is nothing impossible to be effected under this specious pretence There is no manner of excess and violence which on these occasions they do not dress up in the Cloke of Piety and Zeal Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Moreover there are no sewds to be compared to those which spring from dissenting in Religion And till these cease and an union be made we must never expect to see that the States of Christendom should agree together to resist the common Enemies of their Profession put a stop to their progress Who prevail by means of our Divisions and advance their Conquests by help of our misunderstandings If one only place scituate in an Island which was all Enemies to it were capable to withstand for so long a Time the whole Ottoman Power What would it do if the Armies of all Christians were joyned together to Repress the insolency of an enemy detesting so much the Name of a Christian I am perswaded that he is not victorious but because we do not defend our selves He gains no ground but meerly for want of our Opposition and gives us no wounds but by those gashes which wo give our selves If we would stir by Agreement for the glory of our common Master all those advantages which we promise our selves from the Victories we gain over our Fellow-brethren are not comparable to those which would accrue to us by our Conquests of strangers And let not those Christian Princes whose Territories lye far distant from Constantinople flatter themselves in their own thoughts with the advantage of their scituation For those Frontiers which serve at present for a Bulwark to Christendom being once mastered by the Turks they will easily force a passage into the heart of the most remote Countrys If they but once have a liberty of entering upon our Borders and Confines they will soon strike up an Alarm within the very Bowels of Europe And it is too well known how some of these parts have lately been weakned I wish with all my heart that the Drums and Trumpets of these Infidels may be a means to gather Us once more together and be as a signal to put us in mind of uniting our selves quickly and labouring altogether for our own preservation In the last place this consideration might be added to the precedent ones to make us see the Evil that this Division causes in States Let us suppose that in a Kingdom or any other Christian State those who Govern it should perceive that they have been mistaken in the Opinion which they have held and that seeing they have not the truth on their side they are in danger of losing their Souls I dare affirm that the Nature of this Division is such that it would be almost impossible to procure their own Salvation and the Salvation of those who are under their Authority The Interests of State are so mixed and woven with those of Religion The intrigues and alliances which are made with those of the same communion are so strong that in going about to separate them it would endanger a loss of all As for Example who does not conceive that if a King who is a Roman Catholick should come to believe that the Foundations of his Religion are not sound that as the Protestants alledg they contain certain Principles that are prejudicial to the Salvation of Souls this Prince would not meet with impregnable difficulties to set his Conscience at rest Is it not certain that so soon as he should discover his Thoughts his Subjects would rise up in Rebellion against Him The whole Body of his State would oppose his Designs and his Allies would forsake him to side with that Party that should be against Him The same might be said of Protestant Princes The Politicians who oppose themselves to any change or innovation in Religion of what nature so ever it be who look upon it as a Flame that must be quenched in the instant would render all the endeavours of a Prince unprofitable that should have any such thoughts Therefore by this it is evident that it is the Ground and Interest of all Christian States to endeavour the healing of these Divisions as well for their own subsistence and preservation as for the safety and quiet of the Consciences of those who Govern them THE REVNITING OF CHRISTIANITY PART II. Of the Causes of this Division which is among Christians CHAP. I. That the Frame and Temper of Men's Minds doth much contribute to this Evil. WHatsoever things pass through the Hands of Men they alwayes savour of that quality which is predominant in them As Waters take their Tincture from the Channels through which they run if the Channels be impure the Waters quickly lose that Purity which from the Fountain Head they deriv'd So Christian Doctrine the same which was given us by the Son of God and proposed to us by his Apostles is most pure and most Holy But it has been much abused by the ill qualities of such as have handled it since those blessed Times It hath passed through soul hands which have made it lose much of its Original
they might substitute another in its roome Thus by their subtilty they Arm the Secular Power against those who would promote Doctrines perchance were innocent or better Founded than theirs CHAP. II. That there has never yet been made a true distinction in Christian Religion of what is really Essential and Fundamental and what is not ALthough the minds of those who have embraced Christianity may be diversly disposed yet they all agree in this one Point that there are certain Doctrines in Religion which are Essential and Fundamental and others likewise of less importance They all acknowledge that there are some from which they cannot depart without doing a manifest prejudice to Religion and to the Salvation of Souls and that there are also others to which they may adhere without wounding their consciences But there could never yet any Boundaries be agreed upon which should be established for the right setling all People in their proper and natural Limits Every one would make his own Opinion pass for Fundamental and absolutely necessary to Salvation Whereas had we but well distinguished betwixt these two sorts of Doctrines had we but laid good Foundations to keep these Tenets hereafter from being confused this Evil of which we complain might easily be remedied and all Parties might be Re-united as I undertake to make appear to You in the Third Part of this Treatise In the mean time who does not evidently see that for want of knowing rightly how to distinguish between these two sorts of Doctrines the greatest part of the Divisions which are amongst Christians is observed to arise How many questions are there as unprofitable as curious which have made a separation in Men's Judgments How many persons without ever having exammed or understood them have sided some with one and some with the other only that they might not be suspected to be without Religion without Devotion and without Knowledg How many Disputes likewise are there which have no other Foundation than certain different terms and expressions whilst all agree in the substances and make all their quarrels but about words 'T is certain that would they examine the Foundation of their Contentions without passion and without prejudice they would be ashamed for having lost so much time and exprest so much heat about a thing which merited it not Every one knows how many disputes the subject of Grace hath caused amongst the Roman Catholicks 'T is well known with what ardour the Defenders of an Irrespective Science which they attribute to God have maintained their Doctrine against those who establish an Absolute Decree This is that which has formed two Parties amongst their Doctors This Difference has continued and is renewed in our time betwixt the Jansenists and the Jesuits although under other terms There is no person ignorant unto what a degree of Division they have come about this business and the strange consequences which are apprehended from it In the mean time how a new Doctor who hath caused the Memoires of Grace to be printed maintains that all the difference is but only in words He undertakes to put an end to it by showing that they all agree in the Foundations and are all in the same mind with St. Augustin Fulgentius St. Thomas Aquinas all the School men and the Council of Trent If it be so who will not suspect that the like thing may not possibly have happened in many other points wherein to our misfortune different Opinions have made a separation and division I place in the rank of Questions which are not essential and fundamental in Religion such as are made about the business of the Government of the Church and the Ceremonies instituted for ruling the exteriour part of its Worship For how much stir has been made concerning those things which have no other ground than the general Rule proposed by St. Paul namely That all things be done with Order and Decency in the Church 'T is sufficient thersore that in these Matters we have always before our eyes that which may advance the Glory of God and edifie his Church For indeed we may dress in a different manner the proper means for obtaining so good an end The use and application of this general Rule might be left to the Liberty of each particular Church to do what they should judg most expedient according to the Circumstances of the Place times dispositions of Mens Spirits and such like They should only take heed of introducing in these things some practice which might be directly opposite to any of the essential and fundamental Doctrines Some require that the Teachers of the Church should be equal and others would have a Superiority and Inferiority amongst them Some are for an outward Pomp in the Church and others would have a great plainness Some believe that the Ornaments of the Places of Devotion breed a respect to the exercise and others think that the meanness of the place takes off the thoughts of the faithful from material carnal things to lift them upward to those which are Coelestial and Divine Some love Musick and the sound of melodious Instruments in Divine Service and others say that it disturbs the mind and carries away the devotion which should be fixt in those Holy places Some are of Opinion that the Riches of the Ministry their Train and outward Pomp gains them the veneration of the People who are apt otherwise to despise them Others judg that the poverty and simplicity of the Ministers of the Church does better accord with the Genius of the Gospel and produce more saving effects in the minds of Men than all Worldly splendour It is in these kinds of Questions and Differences that I shall let you see we should bear one with another for I hold that there may happen occasions where one of these practices may be most expedient and most edifying and others or that which is opposite to it may likewise prove of very great benefit always provided that order and decency be preserved Thus must there be a mutual Toleration amongst Christians and a charitable and brotherly support one towards another CHAP. III. That Men have departed from the true Fundamentals of Christian Religion to take up others which have nothing of Solidity in them and which put these Divisions amongst Them 'T Is a general Opinion amongst all Christians that it is from God alone that we must receive the Articles of our Faith and the Rule of our Actions They agree also in this that it is in his Word contain'd in the Old and New Testament that those two things are compriz'd and that it is from thence as from two Fountains that they must be drawn down to us The Councils themselves namely those which are called General and to which some Christians do attribute as much authority and infallibility as to the Holy Scriptures confirm this truth For they have never undertaken to decide any point of Religion but by the Holy Scriptures They have concluded that
they ought to ascend up thither for establishing of any Doctrine which must have power and authority amongst Christians And yet have we departed insensibly from this principle We have quitted this saving Tenet by attributing to Man that which is not due but to God alone We have made such Doctrines as are meerly humane to pass crowded amongst those which are handed down to us from God Just as they put off false Money by making it glister as much as may be and then mixing it amongst such as is currant Coin that it may not be suspected This is it that has given scope to contentions and afterwards been the grand cause of Division Some have been of Opinion that whatsoever specious pretences and whatsoever plausible names have been given to the decisions of the most famous Assemblies are all this while but Humane Sentiments which ought to be examined before they are received They say that they are but particular Men who have proposed their Opinions in these Assemblies That many times in these occasions 't is the credit readiness of wit eloquence or some force of argument more specious than solid which makes these Opinions pass for Articles of Faith That those particular Persons who compose these Assemblies may be mistaken notwithstanding all their Lights and Knowledge That by consequence a Company of them how numerous soever they be are subject to defects and to the errours of the Members whereof they are composed Lastly That the very diversity which is sometimes sound in the decisions made by them justifies enough their Opinion and makes us see that all these decisions are subject to tryal Others who are of a different sence maintain that without the decisions of the Councils we should have but an imperfect Rule of our Belief That the Holy Scripture does not comprehend all that which is taught us in the Church That there are also many things in the Holy Scriptures that have need of explaining and interpretation That on these occasions there is none to whom we can have better recourse than to the Church to whom God has promised the ordinary conduct of his Spirit That the Church cannot make her Voice be better understood and declare to us her sence in a fashion more authentique than when she is represented and as it were united in these Solemn Assemblies They are perswaded that when such an Assembly is lawfully gathered it does of Right enjoy an Infallibility equal to that of the Holy Scripture that it is God himself who speaks as much in one as the other In the mean time both one and the other agree in this point that the Scripture is infallible that it is the foundation of the truth and the soveraign Rule of all Holiness The latter also pretend that although they plead in favour of the authority and infallibility of the Church they find argument enough in the Scriptures for maintaining their doctrine and confounding of Errour But let us for the present lay by this controversy of the Authority of the Church and return back to that principle which all agree upon It may be we may draw Rules and Directions enough from thence so that we shall not be obliged to enter upon this other Dispute which shall be more particularly examined in the third Part of this Treatise Let us therefore only hear what Tertullian says upon this Subject Apolog. Chap. 47. Where giving a Reason of the Divisions which he saw in his time about Christian Religion He says that Those who have separated themselves from the Communion of the Church have in the doing it violated their faith to Jesus Christ For he it is that hath taught us the rule of truth which he caused to be delivered to us by those holy Men who had the happiness to hear his Word and receive his divine Instructions That all which is not conformable to that Rule has been invented by new Doctors who came not till after those Blessed Disciples of the Son of God In this manner hath this worthy Man ascended up to the very Fountain Head of this Evil and discovered the Original of those miserable Divisions And St. Augustin in that remarkable passage against Maximin the Arrian Let us lay aside said he all prejudices which we may conceive I from the Council of Nice and thou from that of Arimini Let us both one and the other be guided by the Authority of the Holy Scripture which is no partial witness but is as well common to one as to the other Therefore as when a Man hath once given way to some dangerous Principle what care soever he takes to avoid the ill consequences therof he is sure to fall insensibly upon them Likewise whatsoever corrective may be brought for the taking away from the Antimony its malignant qualities there shall nevertheless break forth some ill effects of it So this Doctrine being once setled that Men must be consulted and followed concerning the Articles of Faith we do give them by little and little an Authority which appertains only to him who is truth it self The consequence of which is that we become in a condition of acquiescing blindly on whatsoever the Caprichio's of Men can invent in matters of Religion Every one believes himself to have as much right herein as his Companion Every one endeavours to make his particular Opinions pass for essential truths Every one condemns as Heretiques and as People out of the way of Salvation all those who do not submit themselves absolutely to their Rule In brief every one maintains that there is no true Church but that which receives the Opinions which he has promoted to whom alone belongs the Right of Governing all that which concerns Religion And although many make a difficulty of attributing insallibility to the Church nevertheless they hold that they ought to submit to these decisions at least if they themselves cannot pass for Deciders All which has much contributed to the forming of Division and to the fomenting it after it is kindled CHAP. IV. That the dislike which has been had at the simplicity of Christian Religion has been an occasion that Men have given it a different aspect from that which it had in its beginning I Do not believe that there is any Christian who will not agree with me that Christianity was never more pure more Holy and more proper to induce its Professors to Vertue than in its Birth That was a time wherein the saving Principles of the Gospel were only received from the mouth of the Son of God and from those holy Men whom he had inspired This was the true Golden Age of the Church abounding in Saints in Confessors and in Martyrs And I believe that this truth will also be granted me that then at that time when Christian Religion was so pure and exempt from Errour its Doctrine was also most simple and most naked It was free from all those subtil questions which some caused to be statted up in the succeding
Ages It was not subjected to the burthensome observation of so many Ceremonies which are as strange habits and ornaments wherewith it has been since cloathed There are to be found amongst us two sorts of Persons which have much contributed to this Evil. The first are those subtil Spirits who besides their own natural wit are still more refined in the Schools of the Philosophers The second are such as are pleased at some showe and appearance who have not yet been able to quit the inclinations which the World has inspired them with for these outward things and who cannot forbear the having some esteem for the pomp of the Jewish and Pagan Ceremonies The first sort have thought that Christian Religion would be much more considered if it should contain many Misteries which were obscure and difficult to comprehend Judging that as plainness causes contempt obscurity would gain it respect and veneration They have formed difficulties upon all the points of Religion to exercise their wits on and to show their skill and learning which they bring with them from the Schools They have caused doubts to arise from the things which are most easy In a word they have changed the Christian School into a School of Branglings and Disputes Which heretofore caused a certain Person to say that the Philosophers had been the Patriarches of the Heretiques The other Spirits who are for having some show in Religion fancy that if the Christian Church were but reduced into the simplicity which it had in its first rise it would have but a few Followers They see that Men naturally do love that which pleases the Senses and which conveys devotion into the heart by the Eyes and Eares It is from this notion that all these several different Ceremonies are crept in amongst us which we see practised among Christians They have retained Jewdaisme nay more they have brought in such Paganisme as they have deemed most proper to imprint by outward objects some inward Motives to Devotion and Zeal They have imagined that they could with profit make use of those things which the others abused They have supposed that that was the way to sanctifie the profane Vessels of the Egiptians and bring back that to its true use which nourished the Pagan Superstition In the mean time how specious soever the Reasons and Pretences are which one and the other alledg in their own favour These are they who have given the first stroke to the Peace and Union of the Church For if at first they had religiously kept themselves to the small number of Rules which the Gospel prescribes us they had never soparated into so many Sects as have been formed concerning such questions as the curiosity of Men has caused to be raised Jesus Christ tells us that his Yoke is easy to bear He invites all even to the very little Children to believe in Him which he would not have done if the Faith had certainly brought with it all those abstruce Rules and Misteries which are proposed to us now The Holy Scriprures do present but very few Doctrines in comparison of the Exhortations to Vertue which are there made us And the Gospel is not given us but that we should believe that Jesus is the Messias and that in believing it we may have life through his Name John 20. To be lawfully Baptized It is sufficient to believe from the Heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Acts 8. Saint Paul reduces all his preaching to this only Point That Jesus Christ is the Messias foretold by the Prophets that he was to be crucified and rise again from the dead Acts 17. The same reports that the extent of his knowledg is to know Jesus Christ and Him Crucified The Epistle to the Hebrews requires not more of him that would approach neer to God but the knowledg of two things that there is one God and that he is the Rewarder of those who seek after Him And St. James makes pure Religion and blameless before God to consist in visiting the Widow and Fatherless in their afflictions and in keeping themselves from being defiled by this World As if they would have said that the Principal design of Religion is to bend all ones study to Sanctity to Purity and to Charity The Creed of the Apostles contains whatsoever is Essential in the Rules of Christian Religion And what that teaches us is sufficient for the Consolation of our Souls and to induce us to a holy Life Let us but examine all the Apologies of the first Christians written on purpose to discover their Opinions in Religion They justifie all that which I assert They comprehend but a very few Articles of Faith as concerning the existence of God the Incarnation of our Lord his Birth Life Death and Resurrection Hence it is that they have defended themselves from the accusations which were brought against them that they have resisted the strongest temptations and sustained with courage the most violent Persecutions If they had continued in that course and had not consulted the Schools of Plato and Aristotle concerning the Rules of Religion there had been no change made then had there been no separation in Christianity If the wit of Man had not been ambitious to mix his own with the Divine Oracles the Church would have still been in its innocency and in its purity Such are all these new Opinions which being destitute of the evidence of truth have separated Mens Spirits and caused this unhappy Division And as to this matter of Ceremonies and of the outward show of the Church If they had considered them as simple Ornaments which are nothing of the Essence of Religion If they had not multiplyed them to so vast a number If herein they had kept up themselves to the simplicity of their practice in the Primitive Church They had had no occasion for any contests concerning these things and every one might have easily found wherewithall to be satisfied But since they have without measure increased the number of Ceremonies So that they have not left Christians the Liberty of making the least step in Religion without upholding it by some Ceremony They have put things to a tryal Every one has pretended to have a right to speak his sence thereof which has made many to separate and given occasion of Division CHAP. V. That many do make use of Religion to serve their particular Interests and the advantages of a temporrl Life THe greatest Evil which Reigns in Society is that a right distinction has never been made between the solid and true goods and those which have no foundation but in the imagination of Man We often prefer a Worldly interest before all the advantages of the Soul and the hopes of that which is to come Sometimes also after a most wicked and detestable manner there are those who make Religion and an appearance of Devotion serve for the obtaining or preserving some temporal and passing good Insomuch that as it is
undertaken the Cure After having made known the extent the depth and the consequences found out the causes and traced them up to their very source Order directs us to come to the remedies which are requisite to the curing thereof But before we propose them it will not be at all from the purpose to say something of those which hitherto have been unprofitably employed therein And I do not wonder that we could never yet see any success of whatsoever has been done for stopping the course of so great disorder Men have always built upon this wrong Foundation That this Evil was of it self incurable and that therefore they could only study how they might stop the course of its most pernicious symptoms They have believed it was but like going about to save a sick Persons Life that was given over by the Physicians They never thought of a means of reducing all the Societies of Christians into One. They have imagined that the difference of their Opinions was too great and concerning matters too important ever to bring it about that all the ends should be made to meet together They have fancied that the Alienation of Mens minds was too inveterate the prejudices too many the interests too disserent and too deeply rooted reasonably to hope that either one or other would make the first advance towards such an agreement Insomuch that every one has supposed it was enough for him to strenthen himself in his Opinions and to establish them by good Reasons and to weaken those which are opposite to them that they may draw to their sides such as should reject them It is on this Foundation that all those have hitherto worked to whom God has bestowed any great Talents and who have had any Name in Divinity All these disputes conferences and volumes of Controversies are not employed but to this end viz. to maintain the Doctrine which they have embraced and to induce others to the receiving of it But in this all these great inconveniences have never been considered That those very same who write and who dispute with so much heat and subtilty are many times us much byassed as others and their passions are as violent as those in vulgar Persons That oft-times they alledg on both sides very specious Reasons and such as cause new difficulties to arise of which they cannot easily clear themselves That all private Persons have not the time and conveniences requisite to be able to read over these kind of Writings and hear these Disputes That of those likewise who are in a condition to apply themselves hereto There are but few who bring not some strong conceipts in favour of those Opinions which they have followed before Insomuch that on these occasions we see but few who give not all the applause to the Doctors of their Communion and esteem not the others as consuted and bafled Teachers So as I dare boldly say that all these Writings and all these Disputes being far off from producing any good effects shall but cause the minds of Men to be more wedded to their Opinions and remove them further off from any sincere Reconciliation Let us say then with Saint Augustine Epist 122. That this Evil has more need of tears and lamenting than of large Writings and great Volumes Many times the Discourses which have been us'd for obliging the vanquished party to follow another profession have served but still more to animate the Parties and fortisie them in their separation Therefore many seeing the small success of this Remedy which has been endeavoured have judged that they ought to change their Method and work the Cure after another way For effecting of which they have distinguished between such Societies of Christians whom they have believed to have gross and dangerous Opinions and others whom they supposed not to lye in so great Errour As to the first they have given them over as sick Persons in so deplorable a condition that their Disease is stronger than all Remedies But they have made some steps towards the assistance of the latter they have offered them a hand of Reconciliation and made them hope to meet together in certain terms and expressions whereon they should agree This is it that all those have endeavoured who have hitherto applyed themselves to the Reuniting of the Roman Catholicks and Protestants This is the way which they have followed who would have agreed the Lutherans with the Calvinists and these again with the Arminians and others who are gone out of their Communion And yet after a world of trouble and writings composed on this Subject these designs have proved abortive and these essayes unprofitable For not to say any thing of the distinction which they make between pernicious Doctrines and those which are not so which is only contriv'd by their own sentiments whereby they are already pre-engaged Is it not true as I have observed in the Preface that they are particular interests that have slipt in and diverted the blessing of God from a design where another End was pursu'd than his Glory As also that they have rather endeavoured herein to lull a sleep and give some kind of present ease to this Evil than to cure it perfectly by any effectual Remedy There has been made a certain mixture of Doctrines and a composition of things which can never be incorporated together whereas they ought to have laboured to purifie Christian Religion and separate it from that mixture of all strange things and bring it back to its first simplicity Indeed they have failed herein for want of looking up to the Fountain Head of this Evil to discover what first made this separation among Christians of what communion soever they are We ought therefore since it is so to find out a means how to propound to all Christians in general something wherewith to satisfie them in the overtures which shall be made them and cause them all to understand the Interest which they have to reunite themselves in one and the same Principle In short Some there are who have fancied that Councils and General Assemblies might put a good period to this Evil by their Authority and great Learning but many times Interests and prejudicate Opinions raign as well in these Assemblies as amongst the particular Persons which compose them For we ordinarily see that these kind of companies make Mens spirits more obstinate in their first sentiments and cause a less disposition to an Agreement We see besides that these same Assemblies are very seldome formed but under the Authority of one of the Sects of Christians and that whatsoever is proposed therein is to fortifie them the more against others and to fix them more and more in their first Opinions This is that which has caused many absolutely to reject all Assemblies of this kind and has been the ground of that common saying that Every General Council begets a Warre Therefore for the right management of this Designe all Christians generally should agree
lived there I know not upon what occasion the Jesuits having fallen into some great trouble The Ambassadours of England and Holland who otherwise are their mortal Enemies as he says were the first who spake in their favour and made their business be dispatched with all the good success which they could desire What hinders Us here in Europe in the middest of Christianity that we cannot do that by a motive of Charity which they in the Levant do by the Principle of the Interest of Trade and civil Affairs and that we drawing again one towards another should not agree at last in the Fundamental Points which may Unite Us altogether And although this Design should not be so readily brought to perfection Meditation would be very advantagious and very conducing to it Particular Persons who shall have tasted of it would draw much satisfaction from it They would be disabused as to many of their preconceived Opinions They would finde themselves discharged of a heavy Yoke They would unmask Christian Religion and discover its beauteousest Face as being most pure and most plain They would love it and dwell together in its profession with singular comfort I shall also add this same that if the Proposition should not succeed so happily for all Christians in general it might take effect in many particular States of Europe I mean amongst those Christians where there are diversities of Opinions and Professions Could we not at least in these places labour herein for some good accommodation And would not the Fruit which grows thence be capable of inviting others to take a share in it The Conclusion The Profits and Advantages which might be hoped for from this Design HE must be very dim-sighted who cannot plainly see the signal advantages which may be expected from so-excellent a Design It would be an admirable means for advancing the Glory of God to establish his Doctrine in the purity and simplicity which is natural to it Men have been desirous to supply by their prudence the defects which they thought they had observed in the conduct of providence They thought that God had not in His Word explained Himself neither clear enough nor amply enough to be understood without assistance Thence proceeded all these expositions Paraphrases Commentaries Questions and Disputes which have opprest almost choaked the most excellent and most holy Doctrine that ever appeared in the World If therefore we can but once rid her of this Burthen she will appear in all her luster again and establish in its ancient purity the service of Him who is manifested by Her Under the old Covenant God rejected the Worship which the most supersticious amongst the Jews offered him and that because they had modell'd it according to their fancies and had rather endeavoured the observance of these outward things than the solidity and essence of true Piety God refuses his Graces to those who have no mind to receive them meerly simple and pure as they are To mix them with ours is absolutely to spoil them And now seeing we are so unhappy at this present as not to enjoy the communication of the Graces of Heaven nor that blessed commerce which the first Christians had with God who doubts but that this must needs come from hence that we have quitted their simple and innocent carriage in Divine Service We have undertaken to serve Him after our manner and we have endeavoured to know Him only by such Ideas which our Caprichious fancies have fashion'd of Him This has properly been the cloud which has intercepted our sight of Him This certainly has been the Sin which being the most capital of all has made Him conceal Himself from us and the provocation which has obliged his Justice to chastize by the deprivement of his Graces those who have neglected the simplicity of his Doctrine We must therefore re-enter into that first estate of simplicity humility and charity to recover that which we have lost that is to say God and his Graces And this is what we should hope for from the execution of this Design The second advantage which we may expect is that we should find it much easier to extirpate Vice and to procure the Reformation of Manners in Society We are driven to a necessity of certain Disputes and strange Controversies whilst we should be rooting out the passions which choak the Fruit of the Doctrin of the Gospel We make sallies out upon the Enemy whilst Sedition molests us within Let us cast away these unprofitable Questions We have enough to do to make Answer to the Reproaches of our own Consciences We shall never think of reforming our manners whilst we spend the chiefest of our time in maintaining these impertinent Discourses We shall not be able to defend our selves from ill examples if we employ our Armes in vindicating of indifferent Opinions which cannot so long be debated Pro Con without prejudice to Salvation Especially since this diversity of Opinions destroys as it hath been proved both Charity which is the foundation of Christian vertues and humility which is the soul of them The fire of this Division must first be extinguished before we can proceed with success towards the Correction of Manners and Reformation of Life Therefore it is this that all good Christian Souls do sigh after We might have great reason to hope that the State would have also a considerable advantage by this design People would become more tractable and submit with more willingness to the Orders of their Governours when they should see themselves united with them in the same Profession It has been lways observed that mens Affections have never been straightly linked together where their Minds have been divivided by different Opinions Moreover all those subtilties which we cause to arise about Religion do ordinarily make peoples spirits inquisitive proud standing upon punctilio's obstinate and by consequence more difficult to be brought to Reason and their Obedience Every parcular man pretends to have a right of taking cognisance of those Controversal Matters to inrerpose his judgment therein and then with great vehemency ro defend them After this in Affairs of State they will take the same liberty which they gave themselves in those of Religion They believe that if it be permitted them to controll the Opinions of their Governours in the Church where the Service of God is it should likewise be free for them to examine the Conduct of those who are set over them in State Thus the Reunion which I propose will be a powerful means to hold every one in his Duty All Princes of Christendom would draw considerable advantages from this design besides the Obedience of their Subjects of which I have now been speaking They might strictly unite themselves together For these Jealousies these Distrusts and these Divisions which ordinaiily arise from diversiry of Professions coming absolutely to cease all these different Interests which separate them would unite in one and the Fruit would be common
to them all This Interest would carry them on jointly to oppose themselves to the Enemies of the Name of Christian and take over them all advantage which reason justice could allow Is it not a strange thing that since the Roman Catholicks the Protestants and the Greeks have so rent and torn each other we see that the Mahometans have made so great a progress amongst them by reason of their Divisions If when the Turks came to fix themselves in Hungary and then afterwards attacqued the State of the Venetians all Christendom with one accord had opposed themselves to their designs Had they reaped those advantages which now they have obtained over those two States Is it not a very astonishing not to say a shameful thing that some neighbouring Countries to those dreadful-Enemies of all Christians do think themselves obliged to treat with them and that also upon disadvantagious Terms meerly out of the Distrusts and Jealousies which they have of other Christians They shamefully make Peace with the Turks to turn their Arms against the Christians esteeming it to be running to that which is the most pressing necessity Thus the common Enemy advances and gets much ground every day by reason of our Divisions To stop this evil I see no other more effectual remedy than to hasten this Agreement of Opinions which without doubt will be followed by that of affections The common People will find herein this satisfaction that they shall no more be troubled in Religion with so great a number of Questions and diversity of Opinions proposed to them as necessary to Salvation Hereby will be banished from hence all those Scruples of Conscience those Troubles those Alarms and those Distrusts so directly opposite to the Genius of Christian Religion and to the Peace which the Eternal Soh of God has procured for us Thus the simple Artificers the Labourers and those who are most unlearned and ignorant would be guided in the way of Salvation and be led to the enjoyment of eternal Blessedness The Doctors by this means would not have any advantage over the people in the Knowledge and practise of things necessary to Salvation It might be said that hitherto there have been as it were two different Religions in one and the same Religion The first is of the learned and Scholars the other that of the common People Women and Children Yet Jesus Christ never had a double Auditory he never instructed the Pharises and the Doctors of the Law otherwise than the common People And when he chose Successors to supply his room they were poor Fishermen who had more concern in the instructing and saving of such as were like them in condition than boasting their subtilty in the Disputes of the Schools and confounding such as thought to have the advantage over others in arguing I am also persuaded that those particularly who are employed in Ecclesiastical Charges and called to teach others will here find great advantage They will no more tread upon those Thorns which heretofore they met with in all those critical and unprofitable Questions They will have no more those Distrusts and Alarms which they gave themselves doubting if they were not in a wrong way and if they misled not others They will not fear the encountring a Doctrine which is truer than that they profess Let them say what they will this thought oftentimes makes their hearts ake who amongst them have tender Consciences Therefore seeing themselves delivered from all those unquietnesses they would acquit themselves of their Charge with much more Joy They would labour with pleasure for the Advancement of the Glory of God They would bend all their thoughts to stir up every one to a good life and they themselves would be Examples to others of Vertue Piety and Charity 'T is often seen that amidst the Contentions which the Doctors raise about some Niceties of Doctrinal Points there is little or no Zeal for the Glory of God They grow so passionate for the getting of some advantage in a Dispute until at last they let themselves be mastered and vanquished by their own Passions Many times strangâ— Controversies make us forget that business that we should have with our selves and some study more how to speak well and dispute well than how to live well Lastly who does not see that if we bring this design about it will prove an excellent means to draw to the Gospell many people who look not upon it now but with aversion and contempt This Simplicity this Beauty and this Facility which is observed in Christian Religion together with the perfect Unity of the Professors thereof will be a powerful Loadstone to attract to it all these who hitherto have rejected it When they shall see that this holy Religion is not made to consist meerly in Ceremonies that is to say in outward grimaces which most commonly terrifie and keep off those that are well inclined towards it rather than invite them to follow it When they shall never more hear talk of all those critical and troublesome Questions which are risen up in Christianity When they shall observe no more particular interests predominant in the Spirit of Christians When they shall be convinced that there is nothing but the Love of God Charity towards our Neighbour and the desire of living well which inspires them Lastly when they shall see in the Faces of these Christians the marks of true Peace and Comfort which the Christian possesses within They must have deprived themselves of all sence of Vertue they must have extinguished utterly all sparks of Reason and turn sworn enemies of their own good if they desire not to enter into a Society which hath all these advantages I doubt not also but those blessed Spirits who continually stand before the Throne of God will be concerned in the Advantages of this holy Union for if they so much interest themselves in the conversion of a poor sinner that they rejoyce and sing aloud in the Quire of Glory will they not make a solemn Festival in Heaven for the reuniting of all Christians upon earth I am also persuaded that God seeing we all bend our Course toward him with the same heart and the same affections will certainly come to meet and receive us He will embrace us in his mercies and speak to us in the motions of his loving kindness especially if we say to him with the Author of that Treatise of the Imitation of Christ Lib. 1. C. 3. I am weary with hearing and reading so many things It is in thee alone O my God that all is included which I desire or wish for Let all Doctors hold their peace let all Creatures keep silence in thy presence and be thou pleased alone to speak to me I wish with all my heart that all these considerations may make such an impression upon the spirits of all those who shall read this Writing that every one may afterwards contribute according to his power to the advancement of this great work and that God would favour in such manner our attempts with his Grace that we might suddainly see a happy success therein to his Glory and the good of all Christians And because my voice is too weak to awaken them and draw them out of the estate where I behold them now I wish they would hear that of the great Apostle of the Gentiles whose Voice and Stile all Christians know He calls to them thus in Ephes 4. Be ye kind one to another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace There is but one body and one spirit even as you are called to one hope of your vocation There is but one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in you all This great servant of God likewise beseeches them all with words capable to work upon the hardest hearts speaking to the Philippians Chap. 2. If says he there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels of mercy if any compassion make my Joy compleat that ye be of the same opinion having the same charity being of the same courage and acquiescing in the same thing Neither let any thing be done amongst you with strife or vain glory But rather esteeming one the other in humility of spirit more excellent than himself not every one regarding his own particular interest but that also which appertains to others Let there be therefore one mind in you like that which was also in Jesus Christ To whom with the Father be Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS These Books are Printed and Sold by William Gilbert at the Half Moon in Saint Pauls Church-yard Folio THe Annals of the Old and New Testament by James Vsher Doctor in Divinity Arch-Bishop of Armagh Danielis Sennerti opera omnia 3. Tom. Venet. Poeta Graeci Veteres Carminis Heroici Scriptores qui extant omnes 2 Tom. Biblia Graeca Francosurti Book of Martyrs by J. Fox 3 Vol. Alexander de Ales. 4 Vol. Quarto Jani Alexandri Ferrarii Caenobitae Augustiniani Euclides Catholicus sive demonstratio Romanae fidei ex primis certis evidentibus Principiis Mathematica methodo connexis continua seriv propositionibus deducta Regal Protomartyr or the Memorial of the Martyrdom of King Charles the first in a Sermon preached upon that occasion by John Allington Rector of Vppingham Learn to lie warm or an Apology for that Proverb It is good sheltring under old Hedg containing Reasons wherefore a young Man should marry an old Woman Miltons History of England from the first traditional beginning to the Norman Conquest The Way to get Wealth by Gervase Markham Octavo Discourse of Evangelical Love Church Peace and Unity English Rogue or the Witty Extravagant in four parts Hools Greek Testament The last and now only compleat Collection of the newest and choisest Songs and Poems that are now extant at Court Theatres and elsewhere with above forty new Songs never before in Print which are now added to this second part of Wistminster Drollery Duodecimo Hungarian Rebellion an Historical Relation of the late wicked Practices of the three Counts Nadasti Serini and Frangepani tending to subvert the Government of his present Imperial Majesty of Hungary and introduce the Mahometan with their Arraignment Condemnation and manner of Execution By P. A Gent. FINIS
together upon all things which regard their common good they should all work upon the same Principle and if they convene any Assembly for the attaining to so good an end no Christian Society should be suffered to prevail by its Authority and power over the rest But all should have the Liberty of proposing their Opinions to be afterwards determined by that which shall be for the common good CHAP. II. The first meanes To lay aside all prejudices against others and to throw off all particular Interests that so nothing may be proposed by us but the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls WE have already shown that there is nothing ruines more the Peace of the Church than the Interest of particular persons That the greatest obstruction to this Re-union is our prejudice against other Societies which in time strengthens our preconceived Opinions Therefore what we should do out of hand for the successfull carrying on of this design is to cast off all particular Interests and all these prejudices I mean not to own any but the true and lawful Interests that all should meet in one point which is that of the glory of God our own Salvation and the good of those with whom we desire to be rejoined And it is farther requisite to lay aside all those prepossessions of Spirit which may render us less inclinable to those propositions of peace that may be offered us And I am perswaded that were we free from such pre-engagements and prejudices we should favourably hearken to all overtures of reconciliation which should be made us As for the lawful Interests which I speak of are fit to be proposed in this affair they are such as have no regard to any imaginary good but are real solid and essential to Man Also this same good is never separated from the Interests of the Glory of God and the establishment of truth I exclude therefore out of the rank of right motives which should guide us in the search of the true Christianity First of all whatsoever has relation to the advantages and commodities of the present life I put into this number them who thurst after honours riches pleasures and whatsoever is the object of any carnal desire Hither I also refer whatsoever contributes to the satisfaction of our inordinate passions where they revolt from the obedience which they owe to reason I am certain that this Principle will be approved by every one There is no Man who will not confess that things so different can never be match'd together All will agree in the general Thesis that as there is no Union betwixt Light and Darkness So we cannot joyn the strict holiness of the Coelestial Doctrine with the impure liberty of our Passions But there often slip in certain particular Interests the which being more secret and such as do pass more dexterously under the lavour of some specious pretence are not yet less prejudicial to the peace of the Church Such is an inconsiderate and turbulent Zeal in Men which because it seems exempt from those other gross interests of which we have been speaking they appear as though they had only piety for their rule and measure in all their Motions 'T is for the most part observed that this Zeal is nothing but a meer obstinacy and self-conceitedness which can never depart from that which it hath once received This Interest which ordinarily arises either from ignorance from an inveterate custome or from some other such motive engages us so much the more in division by how much it is covered with the appearance of Devotion And I am perswaded that many of those who read this part if they consider it with themselves will confess that I touch upon a String which though small yet is not at all the less intelligible To thâ—se apparent Interests I joyn those of some particular Persons who being willing to pass for sworn Enemies of inconstancy and levity persevere in the profession which they have followed from their Infancy They call it rashness and Inadvertency to depart so readily from those Tenets in Religion which they first embraced and they hold that before they can do it they must be fully convinced of the falseness thereof and the evident peril which they incur by retaining them Wherefore so long as they find any appearance or probability they cannot believe it stands with their prudence to abandon them I have known some of these who have been so strongly prepossessed with this Opinion that they could not forbear showing a less esteem of such as had embraced their sentiments than of those who had still persisted in the contrary party To these specious Interests I must yet add one more and that is a disposition of Spirit which we find many to have who being entred into a Communion believe it would be a shameful thing should it be said of them that they have examined their Religion too late They imagin that should they confess they have continu'd in an errour to these Years and that they had never in all this time perceived the weakness of their former profession People would take all the rest to be want of discretion irreligion and impiety To flatter themselves herein they endeavour to make some kind of superficial consideration which they have made of the Rules of their Sect pass for an exact and profound search into the reasons of their belief After which they maintain it with confidence as not at all doubting but that they are in the right way There are some others who are directly opposite to those of whom I have now been speaking These are such as are inconstant and bid defiance to whatsoever they have formerly believed who imagine that all new Opinions which are proposed to them are far better than those wherein they have been brought up They are like those of whom an Ancient says that out of fear they make all their prudence consist in following every other councel but their own So these timorous Spirits in Religion embrace the first Opinions which are propounded to them and prefer always new Doctrines before those which were received before We should therefore check all those bad inclinations which nature education age ignorance and example may give us For whilst we listen to any one of these voices we shall be but in an ill condition to entertain the propositions of an Agreement All these propositions will at the first instant appear suspicious to us and at last we shall reject them absolutely After this to do well we must cast away from us all these unhappy prejudices against others and high conceipts of our own Opinions which cause almost all the diforders that ordinarily happen in the Church These are so many clouds which darken the understanding and hinder Men from seeing distinctly the Objects upon which they should make their judgment They are a painted Glasses which represent to us all that we look on the clear contrary way as dyed with