and Friend YOur Reverend Mr. Prior in the late absence of your Lordship sent me a sharp Letter full of thundrings of Eternal Damnation against me and all those who forsaking your Church embrace ours Truly I trembl'd at so rash a Judgment of a prudent Man. But in regard it is lawful at all times and in all places to repel Force by Force to resist an unjust Aggressor and to Answer modestly to one that proposes a hard Question Nay since it is our Duty to convince Gainsayers Tit. 1. 9. I could not think it a piece of Injustice to oppose the foresaid Mr. Prior with the Treatise annex'd that he may be certainly assur'd that he has judg'd of our Differences as a Blind Man doth of Colours or as the Shoemaker did of the Picture drawn by Apelles All that I beg of your Reverend Worship is this That you will be pleas'd so to order the Matter that this necessary Answer may be deliver'd to his hands by which he may understand that it is the part of a Fool to Triumph before the Victory and of one that is far from a Christian to Judge so prepost'rously of the Salvation of his Neighbor I had Answer'd sooner had I not bin hinder'd by my public Duties and Transcribing a Copy of this Original Writing which I intend shall shortly wear a German Cloak to the end that all People may understand it Farewel and continue your Favour to The most faithful Observer of your Lordship in all good Offices J. H. Dalhusius In the mean time the Lord Abbot having Intelligence of my Design that he might remove the impending Burd'n from his Prior the strength of whose Shoulders he did not well understand was at first unwilling to receive this Answer of mine till tyr'd with the Importunity of the Messenger he took it and retir'd into the next Room Where he did not keep it long but by his Servant sent it me back the same day with these words upon the outside Paper BY reason of Strangers that are with me and other necessary Occasions I have not leisure to Answer the Enclosed as it ought to be be pleased therefore to receive back again what you have thought good to write but what is not convenient for us to read So may the Reverend Inspector live to the years of Nestor Your Brother Charles Abbot of Rommersdorff But the Lord Abbot was not so fearful to keep the Answer as an Abbot of the same Order of the neighbouring Abbey of Seinen Gulichius was daring to accept it with a cheerful Mind and willing Hand after I had address'd him in the following short Oration writing after this manner Most Reverend most Famous and most Learned Lord Abbot my most esteemed Favourer and Friend TOward the beginning of the Year I found my self involv'd in new Contentions of which the Author and Beginning is the Worshipful Prior in Rommersdorff whose Name is John Casper Baldem who in Answer to a Writing which ought to have bin instead of a pleasing New-Years-Gift gave me to understand That my self more especially and all those whom you unjustly call Vncatholic are unavoidably subjected to Eternal Damnation It was but just therefore that I should Answer him according to the Matter which such a rash Judgment requir'd Presently I did that which is just and this day took care that the Original Writing at my urgent Request might be deliver'd to the Prior himself by the Lord Prelate Charles Wirtzius in hopes the Lord Abbot as my singular Friend would have bin so favourable and sincere as to have deliver'd him the Original Copy which I sent But Right Reverend Abbot seeing the Consideration of your most Exquisite Learning and the Justice of your Friendship contracted four years since may seem to demand so much that I should inform you at least by a Copy of your business in some measure importing the Honour of your Order and that you should not remain Ignorant according to the Greek Proverb in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what Good or Ill is done within our Houses I thought it necessary to impart to you the Nature of our Quarrel In the mean time by the love of Jesus Christ I conjure you that laying aside inveterate Prejudices you would peruse this present Treatise and afterwards with an Answer first to be communicated to the Brothers in Rommersdorff to oblige the longing Expectations of him who am was and will be to the end of my Life Heddesdorff Jan. 14. 1681. The sincere Observer of Your Worship in all good Offices Here we stopt most Worthy Reader proceeding no farther for the Reverend Abbot of Seinen Gulichius has hitherto left me nothing but the desire of a future Answer But to the end the Church of the Protestants so often nay daily after the manner of Baldem in the Desks and Pulpits of the Monks abandon'd to the Infernal Devils may be furnish'd with farther Arms against such a Customary Damnation and that the Innocence and Eternal Salvation of it may be more and more asserted and established with Triumphant Arguments and Reasons we thought it worth our while to publish this Orthodox Answer wrested and extorted from us by the Force of a Fire-breathing Quill and drawn out of the dark shades of my Study I will not here meddle with any Man besides the Prior my Antagonist who because he has spoken what he pleas'd shall hear perhaps what he will not like so well I shall only speak of Errors I shall spare Persons and which is the chiefest thing of all I shall examin and correct all things by the Rule of Christian Charity and Invincible Truth In the mean time Reader make use of this necessary Answer to the Advancement of God's Glory the Establishment of thy own Faih and the Encrease of the true Catholic Church May it please the God of Peace to heal these Divisions that so Christians being recal'd to Truth and Charity may once more constitute one Sheepfold under one Shepherd Christ Not Antichrist Amen To the Right Reverend the BISHOPS The Reverend and Learned PASTORS And To All and Singular the MEMBERS Of the Reformed English Church The AUTHOR wishes The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ The Love of God the Father And the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost Most Honoured Lords and Dearly Beloved Brethren in Christ IN like manner as the Jews of old when they past their little Children through the Fire in Honour of Moloch that they might not be mov'd with their pitiful Outcries and Lamentations endeavour'd to deafen and silence those doleful and ruthful Moans and Shrieks of the distressed Infants with variety of Sounds and Noises loud and shrill such are the labours of the Followers of the Church of Rome to leave no Stone unturn'd to stop the Mouths of the Detectors of their False Doctrins And in regard they are not able to compass their Ends by the way of Truth they not only rage with Fire and Sword against the Orthodox but persecute
Prodigal If Frugal he must be Covetous If Prudent he is a Coward If Magnanimous and Sedate in the midst of the raging Waves he is pronounced Rash and Bold Such is that Judgment of yours most Learned Mr. Prior which you give in your Letters of Me and all the Protestants rather with a blind Fury then a quick Understanding That is to say that we are all Damn'd to Eternity and that unless we return to Peter's Ship by submitting our selves to the Pope we are adjudg'd in this Life to the Torments of Hell. You are not the only Person who lye under this Mistake for there are not wanting among ye those that in their Harangues to the People in affrighting terms do pawn their own Salvation upon it that all the Protestants are Damn'd By vertue of which precipitate Condemnation the hatred of many is kindled against us for it is a difficult matter to love those whom they believe to be so hated of God that they are already destin'd to the Flames of Hell And in regard there is but little difference between a Damn'd Person and the Devil it is but rational that they should abhor such Persons as the Devil who by an anticipated Sentence are already numbred among the Damn'd Nay those of your Party who either out of Duty or Inclination are better and more tenderly affected towards us are wont to look upon us with Horror and a kind of Commiseration saying That they are very sorry that Men of such excellent Endowments and otherwise born to Vertue should be out of the way of Salvation and willingly throw themselves headlong into Hell. For these Reasons therefore I thought it necessary to examin by the Rule of Charity and Truth this Judgment so frequently given and inculcated against us to the end that if it be found to be rash and prohibited by the Sentence of Christ not only you Mr. Prior may be brought to remit somewhat of your rigor and blush at what you have so unjustly written but that we our selves also slighting and contemning this preposterous Judgment may continue cheerful and constant in the Truth of God saying to our Prior and such like supercilious Censurers as He what St. Paul said to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 4. 3. With us it is a very small thing that we should be judged of you or of mans judgment It is better to be condemn'd by a Physitian then a Judge by Men then by God. Wherefore as no Man can be a Judge in his own Cause it is not for the Accuser to pass Sentence upon the Guilty So that it might be sufficient to plead in Opposition to this unjust Judgment that Mr. Prior would sit Judge in his own proper Cause and that being carried away with various Affections he never regarded what was true and honest but what was profitable and convenient This Judgment certainly is not to be imputed to Equity and pure Reason but to Anger and Hatred As Parents are wont to love their Children tho' Maim'd and Lame so your Doctors are so preposterously devoted to their own pre-conceived Opinions that they hate all Men who go about to impugn or correct them and that so much the more by how much the greater force they find in the same Opinions to establish their Authority in the World and to encrease and preserve their Earthly Riches The Condition of the Protestants in this respect resembles the Condition of our Savior while he was upon the Earth For because he oppos'd himself against the Corruptions both of Manners and Doctrin which abounded in the Church and propounded a sort of Justice quite different from the Pharisaical Pride and rejecting unwritten Traditions labour'd to cleanse the House of God and restore all things to the Primitive Fountains of Purity and Truth therefore he was accounted a Samaritan and proclaim'd a Seditious Person a Demoniac a Blasphemer Turbulent and an Innovator The same things befal the Reformed for therefore are they unjustly condemn'd because they desire that the Temple may be cleans'd that Abuses and Corruptions may be reform'd which Time Ambition Avarice Negligence Ignorance and other Pests have brought into the Church that the Justice of our Savior may be fully acknowledg'd that unprofitable intolerable and superstitious Traditions may be cut off and all things as much as may be restor'd to the Primitive state of the Church and the Exemplar and Pattern of purest Antiquity And indeed if you would but lay aside your Affections and give never so little attention to the Word of God you would there find how unlawful 't is for you to give any such Judgment upon Christians and to devote them to Maledictions whom Christ has redeemed with his Blood whose Faith is conformable to the Scripture and who repose their whole Confidence in the Grace and Mercy of God and the Merits and Cross of Christ Certainly the Point of Eternal Salvation is of a higher Nature then to be wrested away by little blind miserable Animals to their Tribunal or that any Man should presume to pronounce any thing concerning it beyond the revealed Will of God. For God has assum'd it to himself his Sentence is to be expected and not to be anticipated by our Judgment For what Mortal was ever privy to his Secrets or whom did he ever permit the perusal of the Book of Life and the Catalogue of Election St. James c. 4. of his Epistle v. 11 12. positively admonishes us to condemn that Law which condemns his Brother and that he who judges of the Law is not a Doer of the Law but a Judge And that Men for this reason should not invade the Laws of God he adds There is one Lawgiver who is able both to save and to destroy who art thou shat judgest another Excellent also was the saying of the Ethnic Poet Those things which it concerns us not to know let us not take care to believe let Secret things be left to God. Many are number'd among Wolves in this World whom Christ will joyn to his Sheep at the last Judgment Many who are weigh'd in the Ballance of human Censure are rejected as Brass which the Touch-stone of Divine Judgment will demonstrate to have bin fine Gold. First therefore I would fain know of you Mr. Prior upon what ground you come to be more certain of the Damnation of others then of your own Salvation For if it be a piece of Arrogance as you commonly teach against us for any Man to assure himself that he is the Son of God and Heir of Heaven certainly it must be a great piece of rashness to determin as to others that they are the Sons of Wrath and Hell. I rather am of Opinion that the Religion of the Protestants is so far from being an Obstacle to Salvation that it rather serves in a high measure to promote Salvation I confess there is no hope of Salvation beyond the Pale of Christian Religion so that Salvation cannot be obtained in the Communion
of Ethnics Mahometans and Jews no not in the Society of those who retaining the Name of Christ nevertheless subvert the Foundation of Salvation such as formerly were the Ebionites Borborites Manichaeans Arrians and at this day the Socinians or if there be or were any other such like Monsters in Religion But in our Religion what is there to be discover'd that subverts the Fundamental Articles of Christianity but rather on the other side what serves in a high degree to support them Does it not admit the Scriptures of the old and New Testament to be of Divine Inspiration and the Three more solemn Creeds the Apostolic Athanasian and Nicene together with the Four Oeconomic Councils of Nicaea Chalcedon Ephesus and Constantinople Does it not adore in truth One God Three in One the Father Son and Holy Ghost Does it not acknowledg one Christ God and Man for the Mediator between God and Men the Redeemer of Souls a Prophet Priest and King of the Church Does it teach any thing concerning God which is repugnant to his Majesty his Glory and his Power Can it be accused of any Opinion that subverts good Manners or that sins against the Law of God or public Honesty The aim of Religion is to inform Men how to live well and bear Death with confidence to the end that after they have lived in the fear of God they may die in his favour And this is that which a Christian may easily attain in our Religion for it most powerfully excites a faithful Man to fear God and love his Neighbor It propounds no Article of Faith from whence various Corollaries may not be deduc'd for performance of our Duties and Reformation of our Lives and administers most sweet and those most effectnal Consolations to a Christian against the assaults of all Temptations and Death particularly advancing the Certainty of Redemption through Christ into the number of the Sons of God by his Merit and Favour so that they themselves who deal so rigorously by us so often as any one is to be prepar'd for Death insensibly come over to our side and tacitly renounce their own Opinions as is to be seen in Conson Agoniz written by Viguerrus For then they do not comsort the dying Person with heaps of his own proper Merits but exhort him to put all his hope and confidence in the Mercy of God and the Satisfaction of Christ Nor do they scare their doubtful Consciences with the Terror of Purgatory but comfort it with the hopes of soon obtaining Everlasting Rest and admonish the sick Person often to repeat the words of David Into thy hands I commend my Spirit The Bishop of Toledo is reported to have written to the Pope that the Emperor Charles V declar'd upon his Death-bed that he plac'd all the Hopes of his Salvation in one Redeemer and Saviour Jesus Christ and in his Merits adding withal that he look'd upon Luther's Opinion concerning Justification to be very true To which as the Famous John Crocius my Tutor formerly at Marpurgh reports in his Anti-Wigelius p. 451. they make the Pope to return this Answer That he would not celebrate his Funeral Obsequies because he held with Luther in such a Principal Point of Religion Maximilian II when the Bishop of Naples D. Lambert Gruterus came to him then lying under the Pangs of Death would not suffer him to be admitted but upon promise first That he would talk of nothing else but of the Merits of Christ his Blood and Sâ—eat The Bishop was as good as his word and made a long Oration concerning the Merits of Christ full of Consolation and when the Emperor was ask'd Whether he intended to die in that Faith He made Answer I shall do no otherwise As Crato relates in his Funeral-Oration and Chytraeus Chron. Sax. The Head and Summ of Christian Religion is Christ Crucify'd 1 Cor. 2. 2. Other Foundation can no Man lay then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3. 11. So that for the obtaining of Salvation there is no other Rule of Faith to be acknowledg'd then the Word of Christ resounding in Scriptures nor any other Merit to be pleaded before God but his Death nor any other Purgatory but his Blood nor any other Propitiatory Sacrifice for our Sins but that which he offer'd once upon the Cross nor any other Head of the Church nor any other Mediator with God but Himself Behold the Foundations of our Faith Why should you deny us Eternal Salvation Moreover it would be very cruel and altogether repugnant to Christians to condemn to the Torments of Hell so many Myriads of Christians living in the East under the Patriarchs of Antioch Alexandria Jerusalem and Constantinople The Georgians Armenians Abissines Egyptians Greeks whose Churches the Apostles founded Martyrs water'd with their Blood the most Learned of the Fathers cultivated with their Instructions so many Councils honour'd with their Decisions and which are able to vye their Titles of Antiquity and Succession with Rome it self Now if the way to Salvation is not to be deny'd to these Christians dispers'd over the East and retaining the Foundations of Christianity tho' believing nothing of the Fire of Purgatory the Pomp of Papal Dignity Transubstantiation of the Bread into the Body of Christ Communion under One Kind the Use of Latin or a Foreign Tongue in Publick Worship the necessary Celibacy of the Ministry Auricular Confession and the like why may not Salvation be obtain'd in the Society of the Reformed Churches which are gather'd to Christ in the West tho as to those Points they have renounc'd the Roman Communion Then there is another thing which you Romanists confess of your own accords that our Church Reform'd according to the Word of God leads all the Members of its Communion directly to Christ that they may obtain Salvation in him and by him that they feed the starving Consciences with the Spiritual Bread of the Divine Word and Sacramental Eucharist call Sinners to Repentance and recommend to every one Piety towards God and Charity towards our Neighbor There is also another thing which they acknowledge that our Reformed Church both has and administers the true Baptism of Christ and by means of that Spiritually begets Sinners which are to be Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven seeing that by their own Confession our Children dying after Baptism receiv'd in our Churches ascend to Joys Celestial as may be collected from Bellarmin lib. 1. de Bapt. cap. 11. In the mean time I beseech you Venerable Sir can you tell me what Motives they were that lead you headlong into so absurd a Precipice Or what I beseech you were the Impulsive Causes and Pregnant Reasons of so preposterous and unseasonable a Damning of our Souls If you are Ignorant as I shrewdly conjecture you are I will tell you what they are from your own Doctors who have written variously concerning this Question that is to say That we are therefore to be Damn'd and are
the Novatians and Donatists made a Schism in the Church because they wou'd not submit to Bishops of Places Canonically instituted but set up Bishops of their own chusing who for that they were destitute of Canonical Election wanted a lawful Calling But there was no such thing could be said of our first Pastors in the Work of Reformation For they were not elected and constituted hand over head in Opposition to others already Canonically instituted as the Novatians in the Roman See oppos'd Novatus against the Council but were lawfully and canonically constituted in their Functions according to all the Ceremonies then us'd in the Church and by the nature of their Calling by which they knew themselves bound to propagate the Truth were constrain'd in their Consciences to oppose themselves against the Abuses and Corruptions at that time crept into the Church and to apply themselves to a Reformation But as they were lawfully Call'd so they could impart that Calling to others and by that means it is deriv'd to us and so by us may be deriv'd to our Successors For they are not to be thought to have lost their Calling for opposing themselves against the Abuses of that Church wherein they receiv'd it Nay they had bin unworthy of it had they not oppos'd themselves against those Corruptions that were so well known to them For every Church that confers upon any Man the sacred Function of the Public Ministry seems to say to him what Trajan the Emperor was wont to say to the Person whom he created Master of the Horse by the delivery of a Sword Vse this in my defence if my Commands are just but if unjust make use of it against me Thus a Pastor Canonically ordaind ought to make use of his Calling to support the Doctrin of the Church wherein he receiv'd it if it be conformable to Truth but if not to oppose it Nor does their being Excommunicated deprive them of their Calling because it was unjust and made use of to support the Errors which they impugned and to keep up in the Temple the Money-Changers Tables which they endeavour'd to overturn Nay the very Romanists themselves confess that the Character of the Clergy is indelible and that an Excommunicated Person may Consecrate Preach and administer the Sacraments effectually Neither is it to be said that the first Reformers were meer Presbyters that could not confer their Calling upon others in regard that Ordination belongs only to the Bishops For in regard the sacred Scriptures do not so plainly teach us what is the difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop and that some of yours particularly Medina confess that the Function of Ordaining may as well belong to a Presbyter as a Bishop you ought not to make any great difficulty in this Case in regard the Dispute is not yet determin'd To which I add That in several places the Reformation began from the Bishops who therefore held their former Dignity in the Reformation which they held before And it is a wonder Mr. Prior that you and yours should carp at the Calling of our Pastors to prove our want of Succession of Pastors when your selves acknowledg that any Man without Orders without a Character without any Call may Consecrate the Eucharist I am contented with one unanswerable Argument Your Durandus in his Rationale lib. 4. cap. 35. § 7. also the Author of the Curates Manual de Sacr. Eucharist cap. 10. and many others give this Reason for the Secreta i. e. the speaking the words of Consecration so low as not to be heard being introduc'd in the Canon of the Mass Because that formerly when the Canon was repeated with a loud Voice the People readily learnt the Rites of Consecrating whence it came to pass that the Shepherds in the Country laying the Bread upon a Stone and repeating over it the Canon and Words of the Consecration presently changed their Bread into Flesh Now either this must be a Fable which however you frequently make use of to establish your Figment of Transubantiation or else you must allow that any Man may Consecrate and Celebrate the most August of all Sacraments tho' neither Call'd nor Ordain'd as we cannot believe those Shepherds to have bin But as the Crime of Schism is falsely laid to our Charge so are we most falsely said to be without the Church without which there is no Salvation We have separated indeed from the Roman Communion but it does not thence follow that we are out of the Church of God in regard that by the Grace of God we are Members of the Catholic Church professing Christianity baptiz'd in the Name of the most holy Trinity in all things adhering to the Head and Foundation Christ Jesus Cardinal Hosius in his Confession acknowledges That the Church is there where-ever the Belief of the Mediator is We have a Belief of a Mediator through the favour of God and therefore we are hated at Rome becaose we acknowledg Christ to be the only Mediator Besides that we have not departed from your Roman Church unless in such things wherein she first departed from the Word of God and the Purity of Antiquity adhering still to the same Communion of Faith and Charity with Her in the Fundamentals of Christianity and knowing that we and the Members of your Communion are Brethren in Baptism as the Israelites and Jews were Brethren in Circumcision tho' in External Worship they differ'd very much Nor can any probable Reason be invented to convince us that any Man ought to be subject to the Bishop of Rome and retain his Communion to the end he may be in a Church out of which there is no Salvation So many Christians as are within the ancient Patriarchates of the East and who exceed you Romanists far in number are not rashly to be said to be out of the Church of Christ because they refuse to be under the Pope's Yoke The Churches of Asia were not excluded from the Covenant of Christ by the rash Excommunication of Pope Victor because they separated from him upon the difference about Easter-day The Roman Clergy separated from their Pope Liberius who had subscrib'd to Arianism without incuring the blame of Schism or the loss of Salvation The Famous St. Cyprian Bishop and Martyr whom your Church afterwards worshipt among the rest of her Saints dy'd out of the Communion and Subjection to the See of Rome divided from her both in Faith and Affection by reason of his Doctrin of Re-baptizing Heretics was very hardly thought of by Stephen Bishop of Rome and yet no Man hitherto made any doubt but that he obtain'd Salvation And therefore 't is an idle thing to exact from us Subjection to the See of Rome to the end we may be in the Church and obtain Salvation especially if the Papacy be now Extinct and that there has bin no lawful Pope for a long time Now this is easily prov'd For that I may pass over in silence so many Schisms
Ship which carry'd the Mother of the Gods which many Mariners hawling all together could not stir Plutarch also in Coriolanus relates that the Image of Fortune spoke and often as the same Author relates in the same Life the Images and Statues were seen to Sweat Bleed and Weep St. Austin likewise tells us of many such Portents that happen'd among the Gentiles lib. 10 de civitate Dei. Tacitus also Hist lib. 4. relates of Vespasian that by his single Touch he restor'd Sight to the Blind and Strength to the Lame Bellarmin cap. 14. de Not. Eccles That both their Diseases proceeded from the Devil who having seiz'd the Eye of the one and the Leg of the other hindred the Use of their Limbs to the end he might seem to heal when he ceas'd to hurt I do not see why the Protestants may not use the same Exception against so many Miracles which the Romanists seign by the Touch either of their Images or their Reliques But I shall here furl my swelling Sails Mr. Prior being ready to explain and enlarge my self whensoever you shall be pleas'd to re-assume and examin this Matter II. Miracles do not of necessity follow Truth For tho' they were necessary in the time of Infant Christianity yet the true Religion being now establish'd and setled over all the World if not manifestly profitable they cease however to be absolutely necessary So that St. Austin lib. 2. de civitate Dei with very great reason said Whoever still enquires after Prodigies to confirm his Belief is himself a great Prodigy I forbear any more let it suffice me only to produce the Fathers of the Second Nicene Council act 4. Why do our Images at this day work no Miracles I answer with the Apostle Miracles are not for Believers but for the Vnbelievers Now then if the Protestants embrace the Doctrin of Christ and his Apostles the Miracles of Christ and his Apostles are sufficient for them Which would be necessary again were they to follow some new and never heard of Gospel before Nor does the difference whatever it is between the Reform'd Churches and the Lutherans whatever it be either in Ceremonies or some Points of Doctrin savour a jot more your precipitate Judgment concerning the Eternal Damnation of the Protestants For you Romanists your selves acknowledge that the Greek and Eastern Christians would be in the way of Salvation would they but submit to the Empire of the Pope tho' they retain'd their Ceremonies and Opinions differing in many Circumstances from the Rites and Doctrin of the Roman Church It is apparent from the Epistle of St. Austin to Januarius that all the Churches did not make use of the same Rites and Ceremonies In the Apostolic Churches also soon after the first dawn of Christianity Disputes and Contentions arose to pass by those that fell out between Cyril and Theodoret Chrysostom and Epiphanius St. Jerom and St. Austin nay between those very Men themselves that reproach the Lutherans and the Reformed with their differences which I would to God they were clos'd up There is the greatest difference among these Upbraiders not only as to Ceremonials as is apparent from so many Orders of Monks varying among themselves in Habit Rules and Public Worship but also as to Opinions as is evident from those most terrible Controversies about which your Theologists most sharply contend and quarrel one with another of the Authority of the Pope above a Council of a Council above the Pope of the Infallibility of the Bishop of Rome of his Power over Kings and Secular Princes the Conception of the Blessed Virgin of the sort of Adoration due to the Cross and Images of Predestination Grace Free-will and the like So that the Doctors of your Communion split themselves into various Sects according to which some are Thomists others Scotists others Real others Nominal others love to be call'd Jansenists and others Molinists Nay there is not any Article of the Christian Faith about which you have not rais'd Contentions and Disputes if not more sharp and eager yet of no less moment then all those which are stirring between the Reformed and the Lutherans And that diversity which you object against us is far inferior to your Dissentions nor is it concerned in the Fundamentals of Christianity in which the Reformed of both Parties are plainly agreed So that it is a kind of Miracle that there should be so little variance between so many Reformed Churches dispers'd all over Europe compos'd of various People and under several Princes tho' among them there is no Church which commands over others nor any intervening Political Tye to constrain them to such an Agreement in Matters of Faith. In the mean time there is no Schism between ours and the Lutheran Churches seeing that we neither separated from Them nor they from Us. In Poland the Brethren of the Helvetian Bohemian and Augustan Confession setting a laudable Example communicated before together by virtue of the Decree of Sendomir And in the Year 1631 in the National Synod of France a Decree was made for admitting the Lutherans as Brethren in Christ and Members of the same Mystical Body to our Communion of the Lord's Supper and for allowing them Brotherly Toleration in those Points wherein they differ from us And tho' they in their Anger pretend that we Err in Fundamentals which through the Mercy of God they will never be able to prove yet we judge more tenderly and better of them so disproving the Opinions which they obstinately defend that we deny them to be in themselves deadly or pernicious to Salvation or that they are such as ought not to hinder Christian Peace between us and them or prevent an Ecclesiastical Communion which might be obtain'd between Churches not agreeing in all things if the Foundation were sound Now we believe that to be a Fundamental Error wherein there is according to the ancient Phrase of the Synagogue a Denial of the Foundation which cannot comply with true Faith and Holiness For neither all Truths even those that are reveal'd are of the same necessity Neither are all Wounds which are given to Truth Mortal nor is every Disease an Epelipsie or the Falling-sickness St. Paul distinguishes between the Foundation and the Superstructure 1 Cor. 3. 11 12 13 14 15. He that meddles with Fundamentals is lyable to an Anathema Gal. 1. 8. In others there is room left for Exhortation Rom. 14. 1. Phil. 3. 15 16. Here the Gnat is not scrupulously to be strain'd at as there the Camel is not to be rashly swallowed We break Friendship with those that are openly Wicked but we bear with the blemishes and infirmities of Friends Nor is that presently to be thought of the necessity of Faith which yet may have a near Relation to it And therefore you canot blame us for offering our Communion to the Lutherans and rejecting the Papal For that between us and them there is not only a Harmony in the Foundation