saith doth not weigh one grain in the Scale of Reason Our Case-Divinity will hardly excuse this from downright Calumny But that is their only weapon and their only strength and Skill hath ever laid in idle and malitious suggestions CHAP. IV. This Plot weakly Fathered upon Episcopal Divines I Mused some while why he should rather father his imaginary design of reducing the Pope into England upon Episcopal Divines than upon any other Divines For in the first place this is certain that both Presbyterian Divines and Independent Divines and Millenary Divines and Anabaptistical Divines and each sort of their Divines if any of them may be allowed that Title have all of them and every one of them contributed more to the reducing of the Pope into England than Episcopal Divines ever did or were likely ever to do Men do naturally preferr Antiquity in Religion before Novelty Order and Uniformity before Confusion Comeliness and Decencie before sordid Uncleanliness Reverence and Devotion before Prophaneness and over-much Sawciness and familiarity with God Christian Charity before Unchristian Censures Constancy before Fickleness and frequent Changes they love Monuments of Piety and delight not in seeing them defaced and demolished they are for Memorials of ancient Truth for an outward splendor of Religion for helps of Mortification for adjuments of Devotion all which our late Innovators have quite taken away Nature it self doth teach us that God is to be adored with our Bodies as well as with our Spirits What comfort can men have to go to the Church where they shall scarcely see one act of corporeal devotion done to God in their whole lifes These are the true Reasons why the Roman Emissaries do gain ground daily upon them why so many apostate from them If the Pope have a fairer game in England he is beholden to them for it not to the Magistrates Sword much less to Episcopal Divines Some may perhaps urge that this advantage is accidental to Episcopal Divines therefore I propose a second consideration That Episcopal Divines cannot be the Popes Stalking Horses nor promoters of the Papacy without deserting their principles about Episcopacy Episcopal rights and Papal claims are inconsistent This appeared evidently in the Council of Trent in the debating of that great Controversie about Episcopal Right whether it be divine or humane Thus much the Spanish Polonian and Hungarian Divines saw well enough And consulting seriously about the Reformation of the Church they could find no better ground to build so noble a Fabrick upon than the Divine Right of Bishops as the Archbishop of Granato well observed Hist. Conc. Trid. l. 7. p. 588. Father Lainer the General of the Jesuits saw this well enough and concluded that it is a meer contradiction to say the Pope is head of the Church and the Government Monarchical and then say that there is a power or jurisdiction in the Church not derived from him but received from others that is from Christ. Hist. Conc. Trid. ibid. The Popes Legats themselves found this out at last when it was almost too late l. 7. p. 609. Octob. 19. When the question was set on foot in the beginning the Legats thought that the aim was only to make great the Authority of Bishops and to give them more reputation But before the second Congregation was ended they perceived very late by the voices given and reasons used of what importance and consequence it was For it did imply that the Keys were not given to St. Peter only that the Council was above the Pope and the Bishop equal to him who had nothing left but a preheminence above others c. the dignity of Cardinals was quite taken away and the Papal Court reduced to nothing But before the Papalins discovered this the Party bent for a serious Reformation was grown numerous and potent in the Council The Divine Right of Bishops was inserted into the Anathematisms Fifty nine of the prime Fathers voted for it besides all those whom either an Epidemical or a Politick Catarrh deteined at home notwithstanding all the disswasions and perswasions threatnings and promises and other Artifices used by the Papalins whereof the chiefest and that which saved the Court of Rome from utter ruine at that time was to represent to the Italian Bishops whose number was double to all the rest of the Christian World in that Council a very unequal composition how much they were concerned in the preservation of the Papacy as being the only honour which the Italian Nation had above all other Nations This I urge to shew that Episcopal Divines cannot be Papalins without betraying their own Principles The very name of Episcopal Divines renders this dedesign less probable Thirdly In stiling them Episcopal Divines he doth tacitely accuse himself to be an Anti-Episcopal or at least no Episcopal Divine What odious consequences do flow from thence and how contrary it is to the title of Catholick which he gives himself in the Frontispiece of this Treatise I had much rather he should observe himself than I collect Catholick and Anti-Episcopal are contradictory terms From Christs time till this day there was never any one Catholick in the Eastern Southern or Northern Churches who professed himself to be Anti-Episcopal but only such as were cast out for Hereticks or Schismaticks The same I say of the Western Church for the first 1500. years Let him shew me but one formed Church without a Bishop or the name of one Lay Presbyter in all that time who exercised or challenged Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction or the power of the Keys in the Church before Calvins return to Geneva in the year 1538. after he had subscribed the Augustine Confession and Apology for Bishops and I will give him leave to be as Anti-Episcopal as he will I will shew him the proper and particular names of Apostles Evangelists Bishops Presbyters Deacons in Scriptures in Councils in Fathers in Histories if he cannot name one particular Lay-Elder it is because there never was any such thing in rerum natura for 1500 years after Christ. I will add one thing more for the honour of Episcopal Government that all the first Reformers did approve it and desired it if they could have had it Second Reformations are commonly like Metal upon Metal which is false Heraldry After the Waldenses the first Reformers were the Bohemian Brethren and both these were careful to retain Episcopacy Take their own Testimony in the Preface of their Book called Ratio Disciplinae Ordinisque Ecclesiastici in unitate fratrum Bohemorum lately translated out of Bohemian into Latine and published by themselves And whereas the said Waldenses did affirm that they had lawful Bishops and a lawful uninterrupted succession from the Apostles unto this day they created three of our Ministers Bishops solemnly and conferred upon them power to Ordain Ministers From that time this Order is continued in all their Churches until this day The next Reformers were the Lutherans These retained Bishops name and thing
to so great a proportion as the Britannick Churches alone And if one secluded out of them all those who want an ordinary succession without their own faults out of invincible ignorance or necessity and all those who desire to have an ordinary succession either explicitely or implicitely they will be reduced to a little slock indeed But let him set his heart at rest I will remove this scruple out of his mind that he may sleep securely upon both ears Episcopal Divines do not denie those Churches to be true Churches wherein salvation may be had We advise them as it is our duty to be circumspect for themselves and not to put it to more question whether they have Ordination or not or deserve the general practice of the universal Church for nothing when they may clear it if they please Their case is not the same with those who labour under invincible necessity What mine own sense is of it I have declared many years since to the World in print and in the same way received thanks and a publick acknowledgment of my moderation from a French Divine And yet more particularly in my Reply to the Bishop of Chalcedon Pref. p. 4. and cap. 1. p. 71. Episcopal Divines will readily subscribe to the determination of the learned Bishop of Winchester in his Answer to the second Epistle of Molineus Nevertheless if our form of Episcopacie be of Divine Right it doth not follow from thence that there is no salvation without it or that a Church cannot consist without it He is blind who does not see Churches consisting without it he is hard hearted who denieth them salvation We are none of those hard-hearted persons we put agreat difference between these things There may be something absent in the exteriour Regiment which is of Divine Right and yet salvation be to be had This mistake proceedeth from not distinguishing between the true nature and essence of a Church which we do readily grant them and the integrity or perfection of a Church which we cannot grant them without swerving from the judgment of the Catholick Church The other part of his assumption is no truer than the former We do acknowledge the Church of Rome to be Metaphysically a true Church as a Thief is a true Man consisting of soul and body so did Bishop Morton Bishop Hall Bishop Davenant old Episcopal Divines so did Mr. Primrose and other Presbyterian Divines so doth he himself in this very Treatise What a weakness is it to accuse Episcopal Divines of that which he himself maintaineth But we all denie that the Church of Rome is morally a true Church because it is corrupted and erroneous we make it to be a living Body but sick and full of ulcers So we neither destroy the body out of hatred to the ulcers nor yet cherish the ulcers out of a doting affection to the body And therefore he had no reason in the world to suspect Episcopal Divines of a plot or design to introduce Popery into England which they look upon as the very Gangrene of the Church He pleadeth a reason why he doth not name those Episcopal Divines who had this design for fear of doing them hurt Sect. 70. As if it were not less hurtful to discover the nocent if he knew any such than to subject the innocent both to suspition and censure by his general descriptions I cannot excuse his first intimation of such a design because he had no ground at all for it but I can easily excuse his silence now upon another reason because I am confident there neither are nor ever were any such designers among the Episcopal Party Whereas he ought to prove his intention that there was such a design in the place thereof he gives us some symptomes or signs whereby to know the designers This is one great fault in his Discourse But the worst is they are all accidental notes which may either hit or miss there is not one essential mark among them His first mark is They are those that actually were the Agents in the English illegal Innovations which kindled all our troubles in this Land and were conformable to the Grotian design Those last words and were conformable to the Grotian design were well added though they be a shameful begging of the question and signifie the same thing by it self A strange kind of proof for without these words all the World will take him and his Party to be the illegal Innovators and no body but them The Episcopal Divines hold their old Canons their old Articles their old Liturgy their old Ordinal still without any change They took the Protestation against Innovations without any difficulty and are ready to take it over and over again Their fault was that they could not swallow down New Covenants to innovate His Party have changed Canons Articles Liturgy all things and yet have the confidence cry Innovators first His second mark is They bend the course of their Writings to make the Roman Church honourable and to vindicate them from Antichristianism and to make the reformed Churches odious This is a poor note indeed as if men were obliged out of hatred to the Church of Rome to deny it that honour which is justly due unto it or out of affection to the Protestant Churches to justifie their defects What reward did ever any English Protestant get from Rome for doing them this honour I know no man who honours the Church of Rome more than himself He calls Cassander Thaulerus Ferus Blessed souls with Christ He esteems the French Nation to be not only an erroneous but an honourable part of the Church of Christ p. 10. Episcopal Divines have learned to distinguish between that great Antichrist and lesser Antichrists between the Court of Rome and the Church of Rome which he confounds I dare not swear that the Pope is that great Antichrist but I dare swear that I never had any design to bring Popery into England I hope I never shall have and that all genuine Episcopal Divines may take the same Oath His third note of distinction whereby to know an English Grotian is this They labour to prove the Church of Rome a true Church because of their succession and the Reformed Churches to be none for want of that succession Sect. 71. This note is already answered Elsewhere he presseth this point further thus that he would gladly know what Church hath power to make a new Canon the observation whereof shall be essential to a Church or Pastor I answer that he doth doubly mistake the question which is not whether the Catholick Church can make new Essentials but whether it can declare old Essentials Not whether the Canons of the Universal Church of this Age have divine Authority but whether they do oblige Christians in conscience and whether it be not timerarious presumption for a particular person or Church to slight the Belief or Practice of the Universal Church of all succeeding Ages His fourth note
in the Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark and the thing under another name of Superintendents in Germany The Confession of Saxony is subscribed by seventeen Superintendents Harm Conf. Sect. 19. p. 290. The Snevick Confession complaineth of great wrong done to their Churches as if they did seek to reduce the power of Ecclesiastical Prelates to nothing Sect. 11. p. 65. And in Chap. 33. Of the Rights of the Civil Magistrate they declare most plainly for the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of Bishops There cannot be a more luculent Testimony for the Lutherans approbation of Bishops than the Augustine Confession it self cap. 7. de Potest Eccles. It is not now sought that the Government be taken away from Bishops but this one thing is desired that they will suffer the Gospel to be purely taught and release some few observances which cannot be kept without sin And the Apologie for the same Confession Cap. de numero usu Sacrament This our will shall excuse us both before God and all the World that it may not be imputed to us that the Authority of Bishops was taken away by our means I need not say any thing of the Britannick Churches He knoweth well they never wanted Bishops from their first Conversion until these late Tumults wherein our Native Country was purpled with the Blood of English Subjects to take them away by force and Rebellion The next Reformation was the Zuinglian or Helvetian in Switzerland wherein as they erected no new Bishopricks so they pulled down no old ones There was a kind of necessity laid upon them to want Bishops in their own Territories because the Bishop of Constance under whose Jurisdiction they were was of another communion and lived out of their Territories But they would gladly have had him to have continued their Bishop still They made their addresses to him they courted him they besought him to joyn with them or but to tolerate them For proof of this I produce that famous Letter written by Zuinglius himself and ten others of their principal Reformers to the same Bishop of Constance recorded in the Works of Zuinglius in all humility and observance beseeching him to favour and help forward their beginnings as an excellent work and worthy of a Bishop They call him Father Renowned Prelate Bishop They implore his clemency wisdom learning that he would be the first fruits of the German Bishops to favour true Christianity springing up again They beseech him by the common Christ by one Christian Liberty by that Fatherly affection which he did owe unto them by whatsoever was divine and humane to look graciously upon them or if he would not grant their desires to connive at them so he should make his Family yet more illustrious and have the perpetual tribute of their praises so he would but shew himself a Father and grant the requests of his obedient sons They conclude God Almighty long preserve your Excellency The last Reformation of those which he approveth was that of Calvin How farr Calvin and his Party were Episcopal or Anti-Episcopal in their desires let their own testimonies bear witness First Calvin himself acknowledgeth that he subscribed the Augustine Confession formerly mentioned or the Apology for it both which are for Bishops And in his 190. Epistle to the King of Polonia he representeth Episcopal Government as fittest for Monarchies where having shewed the regiment of the Primitive Church by Patriarchs Primats Bishops in these words Indeed the ancient Church instituted Patriarchs and gave certain Primacies to particular Provinces that Bishops might remain bound one to another by this bond of Concord He proceedeth thus As if at this day one Arch-bishop should be over the illustrious Kingdom of â—olonia c. And farther there should be a Bishop in each City or Province to attend peculiarly to the preservation of Order as nature itself doth dictate to us that in every Colledge one ought to be chosen upon whom the principal care of the Colledge should rest And in his Institutions having described at large the Regiment of the Primitive Church and shewed the end of Arch-bishops and the constitution of Patriarchs he concludeth that some called this kind of Government an Hierarchy by a name improper or at least not used in the Scripture But if we pass by the name and look upon the thing itself we shall find that the ancient Bishops did go about to devise no other form of governing the Church than that which God hath prescribed in his Word lib. 4. Inst. c. 4. Sect. 4. And in his Answer to Cardinal Sadolet on the behalf of the City of Geneva as it is cited by Archbishop Bancroft for I cannot procure the first Edition at present and in the later Editions they have made a shift to purge it out Talem nobis Hierarchiam c. If they make tender of such an Hierarchie to us wherein Bishops may retain their eminence so as they refuse not to be under Christ and have their dependence upon him as their only Head and refer themselves to him and observe such a brotherly society among themselves and be bound together with no other bond but the truth then I confess that they deserve all sorts of curses or anathemas if there be any who do not observe it with reverence and the highest obedience Lay all these together If the Law of Nature which is divine Law written in our hearts by God himself and needing no other promulgation do dictate that in every Society there ought to be one upon whom the principal care of the Society should rest If the ancient Bishops devised no other form of governing the Church by Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops than that which God had prescribed in his Word If they deserve the severest curses and anathemas who shall not regard such an Hierarchy with reverence and obedience where Christ is acknowledged to be the only Head of his Church where the Pastors are freed from all Oaths and Obligations to the Bishop of Rome let him be his own Judge what they deserve who have destroyed the Church of England Before Calvin Farellus offered the Bishop of Geneva terms to retain his Bishoprick if he would give way to the Reformation Beza his Successor was not for the divine Right of Bishops in express terms by the Evangelical Law But he was for the precedencie of one Clergy man above the rest by the Law of Nature From Geneva let us pass over into France where we find Monsieur Mouline as high or higher than any of them in his third Epistle to the Bishop of Winchester I am not so brazen-faced as to give sentence against those lights of the ancient Church Ignatius Polycarpus Cyprian Augustine Chrysostom Basil the two Gregories Nissene Nazianzene Bishops as against men wrongfully created or as usurpers of an unlawful Office The venerable antiquity of those Primitive Ages shall always weigh more with me than any mans new-fangled Institution And a little after in the same Epistle I
of Rome about a Primacy of order but about a Supremacy of Power I shall declare my sense in four conclusions First that St. Peter had a fixed Chair at Antioch and after that at Rome is a truth which no man who giveth any credit to the ancient Fathers and councils and Historiographers of the Church can either deny or well doubt of Secondly that St. Peter had a Primacy of order among the Apostles is the unanimous voice of the primitive Church not to be contradicted by me which the Church of England and those old Episcopal Divines whom he pretendeth to honour so much did never oppose The learned Bishop of Winchester acknowledgeth as much not only in his own name but in the name of the Church and King of England both King and Church knowing it and approving it Resp. ad Apol. Bellar. cap. 1. Neither is it questioned among us whether St. Peter had a Primacy but what that Primacy was and and whether it were such an one as the Pope doth now challenge to himself and you challenge to the Pope But the King doth not deny Peter to have been the prime and Prince of the Apostles He who should trouble himself and others to oppugn such a received innocent truth seemeth to me to have more leisure than judgement But on the other side it is as undoubtedly true and confessed by the prime Romanists themselves that St. Peter had no supremacy or superiority of power and single Jurisdiction over any other Apostle To this purpose I have laid down these four grounds in my Book of Schisme Garded pag. 27. First that each Apostle had the same power by virtue of Christs Commission Secondly that St. Peter never exercised a single Jurisdiction over the rest of the Apostles Thirdly that St. Peter had not his Commission granted to him and his Successours as any ordinary Pastor and the rest of the Apostles as Delegates for term of life Fourthly that during the History of the Acts of the Apostles the Soveraignty of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction rested not in any single Apostle but in the Apostolical Colledge Hitherto there is no cause of controversie between him and me or between any persons of judgement and ingenuity My third assertion is that some Fathers and Schoolmen who were no sworn vassals to the Roman Bishop do affirm that this Primacy of order is fixed to the Chair of St. Peter and his Successours for ever As for instance Gerson for a Schoolman that learned Chancellour of Paris who sided with the council against the Pope and left his enmity to the innovations of the Court of Rome as an hereditary legacy to the School of Sorbone Auferibilis non est usque ad consummationem saeculi vicarius sponsus Ecclesiae The vicarial Spouse of the Church this was the language of that Age whereby he meaneth not the person of any particular Pope but the Office of the Papacy ought not to be taken away untill the end of the World And among the Fathers I instance in St. Cyprian whose publick opposition to Pope Stephen is well known who seemeth not to dissent from it In his Epistle to Antonianus he calls the See of Rome the place and Chair of Peter Ep. 52. And in his 55. Epistle to Cornelius They dare sail and carry Letters from Schismatical and profane persons to the Chair of Peter and the principal Church from whence Sacerdotal unity did spring And in his De unitate Ecclesiae Although he give equal power to all his Apostles after his Resurrection c. Yet to manifest an unity he eonstituted one Chair and by his own authority disposed the original of that unity beginning from one And a little after The Primacy is given to Peter to demonstrate one Church of Christ and one Chair Every one is free for me to take what exceptions he pleaseth to the various lections of any of these places or to interpret the words as he pleaseth Always there seemeth to be enough to me in St. Cyprian to declare his own mind without taking any advantage from any suppositious passages Whether it be a truth or an error it concerneth not me I am sure it is none of mine error if it be one who neither maintain nor grant such a Primacy of order to be due to the Chair of St. Peter and his Successours by the institution of Christ. But only dispute upon suppositions that although there were such a beginning of unity which Calvin and Beza require in all Societies by the Law of Nature And although the Bishop of Rome had such a Primacy of order either by divine right or humane right yet it would not prejudice us nor advantage them at all Neither in truth is it worth contending about or to be ballanced with the peace of the Church and of the Christian World They who undervalue the Fathers may stile their sayings untruths when they please I have weighed my grounds over seriously to stumble at a Straw My fourth and last conclusion is that supposing still but not granting that any such Primacy of order or beginning of unity about which we have no Controversie was due to the Chair of St. Peter by divine right or much rather by humane right yet this supposed Chair of St. Peter is not fixed to Rome As for divine right we have the plain consession of Bellarmine it is not to be sound either in Scripture or Tradition that the Apostolick See is so fixed to Rome that it cannot be removed Bell. de Rom. Pont. l. 4. c. 4. And for humane right there needeth no proof For whatsoever is constituted by humane right may be repealed by humane right This is my constant way everywhere I do altogether deny a supremacy of Power and Jurisdiction over us in the exteriour Court which only is in controversie between us and the Pope And whatsoever Jurisdiction he hath elsewhere I regulate by the Canons of the Fathers I suppose a Primacy of order but grant it not farther than it hath been granted by the Canons of the Catholick Church And as it was acquired by humane right so it may be taken away by humane right To confound a Primacy of order with a Supremacy of Power divine right with humane right a legislative Power with an executive Power is proper to blunderers So in his two first Exceptions I suffer two palpable injuries In the first Exception he chargeth me upon suspicion directly contrary to my assertion In the second Exception he confoundeth a Primacy and a Supremacy order and power and maketh me to fix that to the See of Rome which I maintain to be unfixed His third Exception is this That the Pope should hold to himself and his Church his last 400. years determinations and so continue as the Bishop here concludes to be no Apostolical Orthodox Catholick Church nor to have true Faith is an unlikely thing to stand with the unity and concord which he mentioneth We shall cement but sorrily with such a
return to the ancient and Apostolical simplicity a thing very easie and very practicable were not Interest and Ignorance engaged against it Not that he was so vain or so presuming as to hope to see it effected in his own days He too well understood with how many invincible Prejudices it was obstructed he therefore only designed to declare his Iudgment to the Wise and the Unprejudicate and so to leave it to Posterity and some happy Iuncture of Affairs to accomplish what he could only advise and wish for But by this plain dealing with all Parties it is not to be doubted because it always so happens in the like cases but that he must displease and disoblige all but more especially he raised the Choler and enraged the Zeal of the Geneva Faction that Waspish Sect being according to the humour and spirit of their Founder never able to bear the least Affron or Contradiction And then immediately there was no gainsaying but that he must be as arrant a Papist as Antichrist himself This cry they smels of a Spanish-Popish-Iesuitical-Arminian Plot. It is a plain Prosecution of the Cardinal of Lorrains design that allowed annual Pensions even to the Lutheran Ministers themselves to revile and preach down Mr. Calvin thereby to reduce the People to Popery That crafty Statesman knew well enough that he was the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to their Mystery of Iniquity and were he but once removed out of the way the Apostolical Chair would quickly be restored to its ancient Empire and Soveraignty over the Christian World And hence the Alarm is given to the People both from the Pulpit and the Press to stand upon their Guard against such dangerous and Babylonish Attempts These moderate and lukewarm men are but the Forerunners of the man of Sin and do but prepare the ways for his Entrance by removing the strongest and most stubborn Opposition against him And what though he deal as roundly and much more severely with the Church of Rome that is but a meer disguise for his present turn those hard Conditions are easily shaken off when once the Protestant cause and interest is utterly expired And therefore he and his Partizans may publish as many Books as they please against their present abuses and corruptions but the most charitable design they can be supposed to aim at is to bring in a more refined and a more cunning Popery And when this surmise is once voted and noised abroad and vouch'd by publick fame or their own vulgar Tales it is in vain to remonstrate to their rudeness and disingenuity It is not no it cannot be doubted of by any but such as are either privy or at least well-wishers to the design such indeed may pretend or counterfeit a Disbelief to cover their intentions and to escape suspicion And by this Artifice they begin first to seize upon all men in their Wits either for madmen or for parties in the Plot. And then the common people dare not but believe it in their own defence lest they should be suspected to have lost their Understanding as well as their Religion And by this rude and boiterous Confidence are they able as oft as they please to raise any disingenuous and spiteful surmise into popular Reputation and by strength of face and forehead to bear out the credit of the largest and most abusive Lyes And it is well known what strange and monstrous stories they obtruded upon the Multitude against the King the Bishops and the Church of England in defyance even to common sense and the most undenyable Experience But no man was more vehemently charged and more confidently condemned of this Attempt than this Reverend Prelate partly because he was a zealous and resolute Assertour of the publick Rites and Solemnities of the Church against all their wild and fanatick Pranks partly because he expunged some of their dear and darling Articles not only from the Christian Faith but from the Protestant Cause in that they were so far from being or pretending to be of Apostolical Antiquity that they were much younger than the Reformation it self or at best were but the Opinions of some private Doctors and were never establish'd into Articles by any publick Laws or Councils or if they were voted for Orthodox Doctrines in any meeting in Germany or Geneva they were never received for such in the Church of England and therefore ought not to be charged upon the Protestant Cause as such much less upon the English Reformation when it was never any part of its design to model new Bodies of Orthodoxy nor to exchange the old School-Doctors for Calvinian Systems and Syntagms but meerly to clear the Christian Faith of all Corruptions and innovations and reform it into its primitive and uncorrupted simplicity And if any Errours or fond Opinions should have escaped her first Observation she reserves a power in herself to review her own Decrees and either to ratifie or abolish them as they shall upon mature deliberation appear consonant to this Rule and agreeable to this design This was ever the Doctrine of the sober and intelligent men of the Church of England as well as her own declared sense They would never submit to any Authority of a later date than the four first general Councils and as for all forrain Churches of the modern stamp they were so far from being determined by them that they censured all their proceedings and rejected all their Doctrines that fell short of or went beyond their own standard of Prudence and Moderation But this was not to be endured by the fierce and fiery Calvinists to have all their Orthodox stuff cut off at one blow had they spent so much pains and gained so much reputation by their skill in Polemick Theology and must they now throw away all their Problems Subtilties and Distinctions and must all their deep and solid Learning be at last despised as a silly and impertinent piece of Duncery This certainly must needs be very grievous and somewhat provoking to great Clerks Men care not to be convinced that they have wasted so much Oyl and Sweat to no purpose And though they are not able to justifie the Follies and Errors of their Education yet being flush'd with the Glory that they have gain'd among their own party by their skill and ability in contending for their Opinion it is easie to imagine how stubbornly they will struggle in its defence rather than quit the support of their pride and self-conceitedness This Itch is so incident and delightful to humane Nature that where it is not over-ruled by an habitual Integrity and Discretion it is the most powerful not to say the only motive of all our Actions and has such a strict and undiscernable Influence upon our most serious thoughts that if well-meaning men are not very careful or very curious in observing and preventing its inward motions it will quickly prevail over their Understandings insinuate into all their designs and poyson
introducing any Popish errours into England who looked upon the Church of England as the right medium of reconciliation Neither were there any genuine Sons of the Church of England who thought upon any change either in Doctrine or Discipline We may fafely take our Oaths of the truth thereof It was his own Party only his own Party who were plotting and contriving a change underhand and cried out against other mens feigned innovations to conceal their own real innovations But how doth he make it appear that Grotius had such a Party of followers in England who sought to reconcile us to the Pope If it be sufficient to accuse no man can be innocent Let him speak out distinctly we fear not his charge would they reconcile us to the Pope and Papacy as it is now established Let him not say it for shame they abhor it Or would they reduce the Pope to what he was from the beginning and so reconcile us All good Christians joyn with them in so pious an Act. If his own meaning do agree with his words he himself doth not quarrel the Pope for his just rights but for his Innovations If he mean it not it is a double shame His first Reason to prove that there was such a Party of Grotians in England who nourished such a Design is taken from Grotius his own words P. 96. Paris knows and many throughout France many in Poland and Germany not a few in England quiet persons and lovers of Peace that Grotius his labours for Peace have not displeased many moderate persons He addeth that Rivet agreed better with the Brownists than with the Bishops of England For pity sake let him shew us wherein the strength of his Argument doth lie He may as well perswade us that we see a Dragon flying in the air as that there is any design of introducing the Pope couched in these words Doth the strength of his Argument perhaps lie in this that there were lovers of Peace in England So there were all over Christendom before Grotius was born France Germany Poland all Christendom shake hands with us in this He himself professeth that he is resolved to speak for Peace whilest he hath a tongue to speak and to write for Peace whilest he hath an hand to write p. 6. Or doth the strength of his Argument lie in this that Rivet agreed better with the Brownists than with the Bishops of England Whether he did or did not whether it be true or false what doth this concern Episcopal Divines Such are his proofs against Grotius always halting on one side most commonly on both sides I am afraid this great mountain-design will prove but a ridiculous Mouse in the conclusion He asketh What if he had named Bishop Goodman and all the rabble described in the Legenda lignea which are more than Doctor Vane and Doctor Goffe and Doctor Baily and H. P. de Cressie c. p. 99. I answer First If he had named these for Episcopal Divines of the Church of England of whom he held it necessary to admonish his Readers that they might beware of them as Promoters of the Grotian design he had made himself guilty of one of the grossest and silliest calumnies that ever was For some of these were dead and all of them apostated to the Church of Rome before he gave his warning And Bishop Goodman in particular was branded by the Church of England for his inclination to Roman Errours Secondly I answer that if he had named these he had wounded his own Party more than Episcopal Divines Abate only Bishop Goodman whom I did never know and of the rest whom he nameth not one was throughly a genuine Episc pal Divine Excuse me for telling the truth plainly many who have had their education among Sectaries or Non-Conformists have apostated to Rome but few or no right Episcopal Divines Hot water freezeth the soonest He addeth That Grotius himself assures him whom he hath reason to believe that there were not a few such among the Prelatical men How not a few such as these who have apostated from the Church of England For ingenuities sake let him tell us where Grotius saith any such thing Grotius hath not one word to his purpose when it is duly examined But this it is to confute Books in less time than wise or modest men would require to read them Hitherto he is not able to shew us any tolerable reason of his warning But he sheweth us the occasion p. 82. Those that unchurch either all or most of the Protestant Churches and maintain the Roman Church and not theirs to be true do call us to a moderate jealousie of them This is farr enough from proving his bold suggestion that they have a design to introduce the Pope into England So though all he say were true yet he can conclude nothing from thence to make good his accusation or insinuation I wish he would forbear these imperfect Enthymematical forms of arguing which serve only to cover Deceit and set down both his Propositions expresly His assumption is wanting which should be this But a considerable Party of Episcopal Divines in England do Unchurch all or most of the Protestant Churches and maintain the Roman Church to be a true Church and them to be no true Churches I can assent to neither of his Propositions nor to any part of them as true sub modo as they are alledged by him First I cannot assent to his major Proposition That all those who make an ordinary personal uninterrupted succession of Pastors to be of the integrity of a true Church which is the ground of of his exception have therefore an intention or can be justly suspected thereupon to have any intention to introduce the Pope The Eastern Southern and Northern Churches are all of them for such a personal succession and yet all of them utter enemies to the Pope Secondly I cannot assent to his minor Proposition that either all or any considerable part of the Epispal Divines in England do Unchurch either all or the most part of the Protestant Churches No man is hurt but by himself They Unchurch none at all but leave them to stand or fall to their own Master They do not Unchurch the Swedish Danish Bohemian Churches and many other Churches in Poloma Hungaria and those parts of the World which have an ordinary uninterrupted succession of Pastors some by the names of Bishops others under the name of Seniors unto this day I meddle not with the Socinians They unchurch not the Lutheran Churches in Germany who both assert Episcopacie in their Confessions and have actual Superintendents in their practice and would have Bishops name and thing if it were in their power Let him not mistake himself those Churches which he is so tender of though they be better known to us by reason of their Vicinity are so far from being all or the most part of the Protestant Churches that being all put together they amount not
spake with honour of the Bishops of England I derived the Episcopal dignity from the very cradle of the Church I condemned Aerius I affirmed that St. James was Bishop of Hierusalem from whom the succession of the Bishops of that City was derived by a long row of Bishops Mr. Blondel in his needless Apology for St. Hierome made a very necessary Apology for himself and sent it to Mr. Rivet to be added as an Appendix to his Book in the Impression of it by whose neglect it was omitted And now having mentioned Doctor Rivet I shall make bold to add that he himself did intreat a Noble Earl yet living to procure him a dignity or Prebend in England as his Brother Mouline and Vossius had The Earl answered that he could not hold any such place in England without subscribing to Episcopacy and the Doctrine and Discipline of the English Church And he replied that he was most ready to subscribe to them both with his hand and heart I conclude that all Divines throughout the Christian World who maintain a necessity of Holy Orders ever were and still are Episcopal Divines except some weaker and wilful Brethren who for their Antiquity are but of Yesterday and for their Universality come much short of the very Donatists in Africk condemned by all moderate and rational persons of their own Communion And therefore Mr. Baxter might have done better to have given his pretended Designers a lower and more distinctive name than that of Episcopal Divines It will not help him at all which he saith pag. 21. It is not all Episcopal Divines which I suspected of a compliance with Grotius and Cassander no not all of the later strein c. I extended it to none of the new Episcopal Party but such as I there described His distinction of Episcopal Divines into Old and New is but a Chimera of his own brain without any ground neither doth he bring one grain of reason to make it good And by his plain Confession here it appeareth that this great design is but his own suspicion To accuse men of a design to introduce the Pope into England meerly upon suspicion is a liberty or rather license to be abhorred of all conscionable Christians Yet of the old Episcopal Divines he nameth many Bishop Jewel Pilkinson Hall Carlton Davenant Morton Abbot Usher Potter Downham Grindal Parker Hooper Farrar Cranmer Latimer Ridley and forty more Bishops here p. 103. as if so many names blended together confusedly in an heap as an hotchpotch were able like a Medusas head to transform reasonable men into stocks and stones If he had made his forty up an hundred he might have found instances enough to have made it good and sundry of them no way inferiour to any whom he nameth and superiour to many In commemorating some and pretermitting others he sheweth sometimes want of judgement always respect of persons What his description was of New Episcopal Divines I do not know having never seen any Treatise of his but this of the Grotian Religion neither should I have meddled with that if he had not brought me publickly upon the Stage neither do I much regard But howsoever he describeth them he instanceth in no man but my self either because he is not able to name any or because he thinks it easiest to leap over the hedge where it is lowest Have I not great reason to thank him for being so mindful of me in my absence As for my part I profess ingeniously before God and Man I never knew of any such design I am confident there never was any such design and I am certain that I neither had nor could have an hand in any such design either for Italian Popery or French Popery or any Popery unless he call the Doctrine and Discipline of the Primitive Church Popery unless our Holy Orders and Liturgy and Articles be Popery Other Popery he shall never be able to prove against me nor I hope against any true Episcopal Divines His design like the Phoenix is much talked of by himself but never was seen I know as little of any such distinction between Old and New Episcopal Divines All the World seeth evidently that all the material differences which we have with them are about those Holy Orders and that Liturgy and those Articles and those Rites which we received from those Old Episcopal Divines Non tellus cimbam tellurem cimâ—a reliquit We have not left our Predecessors but They have left both us and our Predecessors and the Church of England And it fareth with Mr. Baxter as it doth with new Sailers who by the deception of their sight suppose that the Land leaveth them terraeque urbesque recedunt when in truth it is they themselves that leave the Land In a word his supposed design and his pretended distinction are meer fansies which never had any being in the nature of things Where did these designers ever meet together to contrive their Plot They are never likely to do any great actions who want sinews to knit them together When or where had ever any of them any intercourse or correspondence with Rome or any that belonged to Rome by word or writing It was a sensless silly Plot to design the Introduction of the Pope into England without his own knowledge or consent upon terms never accorded never so much as treated upon Thus have we seen melancholick persons out of a strong fantasie imagine that they see Ships and Minotaures in the Clouds The proofs of such accusations as this is ought to have been clearer than the Noon-day light not ungrounded or ill grounded jealousies and suspicions of credulous and partial persons CHAP. V. This Plot was as weakly fathered upon the Bishop of Derry ANd as he erred in fathering his imaginary Plot upon Episcopal Divines in general so he made an ill choice of me the meanest of those Episcopal Divines for his only instance who have only read so much of Grotius as to enable me to judge that Mr. Baxter doth him wrong I hope unwittingly If ever I should attempt the reconciling of Controversies among Christians it must be in another way then Grotius taketh I mean more Scholastical I will confess that freely which Mr. Baxter neither doth know nor ever could know but by me that about thirty years since when my body was stronger and my wits fresher when I had some Books and Notes of mine own and could have had what supply soever I desired and opportunity to confer with whomsoever I pleased I had then a design indeed to do my weak endeavour to disabuse the Christian World by the right stating and distinguishing of Controversies between the Church of Rome and us And to shew First How many of them are meer Logomachies or contentions about words without any just ground Secondly How many of them are Scholastical subtleties whereof ordinary Christians are not capable and consequently no points of Faith Thirdly How many of them are not the
Controversies of the Churches but of particular Persons or Parties in those Churches as well Protestants against Protestants and Roman Catholicks against Roman Catholicks as Protestants against Roman Catholicks Those Controversies which each Church doth tolerate within it self ought not to be any cause of Schism between the Churches Fourthly How many of our Controversies are about Rites and Ceremonies and things indifferent in their own nature in the use of which every particular Church under the Universal Church hath free liberty in it self and dominion over its own Sons When all these empty Names and Titles of Controversies are wiped out of the Roll the true Controversies between us may be quickly mustered and will not be found upon a serious enquiry to be either so exclusive of salvation to those who err invincibly and hold the truth implicitely in the preparation of their minds nor altogether so irreconcileable as some persons have imagined The two dangerous extremes are to clip away something from saving Truth whereof I do not find the Church of Rome to have been guilty and to obtrude erroneous or at the best probable opinions for Articles of Faith whereof I find many in the Church of Rome to have been most guilty Next to these are the practical abuses of the Court of Rome These were my thoughts in my younger days which age and experience hath rather confirmed and radicated in me than altered which if they had been known I deserved rather to have been cherished and encouraged than to be branded by any man as a Factor for the Pope Truly Mr. Baxter could hardly have fixed upon a Subject more improper for such a charge When I was commanded to preach to our Northern Synod where every one designed to discharge that duty chuseth some controversie between the Church of Rome and us my Subject was the Popes unlawful Usurpation of Jurisdiction over the Britannick Churches When I disputed in Cambridge for the Degree of Doctor my Thesis was taken out of Nilus that the Papacy as it was challenged and usurped in many places and as it had been sometimes usurped in our Native Country was either the procreant or conservant cause or both procreant and conservant cause of all the greater Ecclesiastical Controversies in the Christian World When our late King Charles of blessed memory was in Spain and Religion in England seemed to our Country people though without any ground to be placed in aequilibrio or reduced to a measuring cast I adventured with more zeal than discretion to give two of their Roman Champions in our Northern parts Mr. Hungate a Jesuite and Mr. Houghton a secular Priest one after another two meetings at North-Allerton and came off without any dishonour to the Church of England and stopped the Carrier of the Romish Emislaries at that time in those parts When I was last in Ireland and the Romanists had wrested some part of the power of the Sword into their hands they prosecuted no English Protestant more than my self and never left untill they had thrust me out of the Kingdom as conceiving me to be a great impediment to them in their making of Proselytes It was but an ill requital if I had been one of their Factors Since I came into exile these sixteen years where have my weak endeavours ever been wanting to the Church of England who hath had more Disputes with their Seculars and Regulars of all sorts French Italian Dutch English in Word in Writing to maintain the honour of the English Church And after all this am I traduced as a Factor for Popery because I am not a Protestant out of my wits or because my assertions of known Truth are not agreeable to the gust of Innovators Blessed are we when men revile us and persecute us and say all manner of evil against us falsly for Christs sake for great is our reward in heaven But doth he think in earnest that my way of reconciliation is the ready way to introduce the Papal tyranny into England Nay directly on the contrary it is the ready way to exclude the Papal tyranny out of England for ever and to acquit us for evermore from all the Extortions and Usurpations of the Roman Court and to free us from all their Emissaries who now make a prey of such as are unsetled among us by the means of doubtful and give me leave to speak my mind freely impertinent Disputations And this I am ready to make good against any Innovator of either side who shall oppose it This is hard measure to be offered to me from him who professeth himself to be so great a lover of the Unity of the Church p. 6. which is but his duty if it be true as I hope it is But let him take heed that his love of Unity prove not to be self-love which insinuateth it self strangely into the most holy actions and designs All men could be contented to have others united to themselves and to chop off or stretch out the Religion of their Brethren as Procrustes did his Guests according to the measure of his own Bed I doubt not but he would be well pleased to have Independency stretched up to an ordained Ministery as he calleth it and Episcopacy let down to a Presbyterian parity or rather to an empty shew of equality For I never yet observed but one or two single popular Presbyters ruled the whole Consistory and had more absolute Arbitrary power than ever any Bishop pretended unto If this be all his love and desire of Unity to have Antiquity Universality and the perpetual Regiment of the Church to be levelled and moduled according to private fantasies it is meer self-love no love of Unity But I hope better though I sear worse If he dare refer all differences between us to be tried by the publick Standard we shall quickly see whether he or I follow Peace and Unity with swifter paces I offer him two Standards to be tried by First the Doctrine of the Church of England set down by those old Episcopal Divines whom he pretendeth to be more propitious to him than to me If he submit to this Standard all differences between him and me are at an end And then to what purpose hath so much plundering and so much effusion of Christian blood been unless it be to shake the dregs to the top of the Urinal But if he like not this Standard as I much fear he will not I offer him another that is the Pattern of the Primitive Church both for Doctrine and Discipline But it may be he will dislike this more and when all is done admit no Standard but the Scripture I am ready to joyn with him in this also But if he and I differ about the sense of the Scripture all men acknowledge that the Scripture consisteth not in the words but in the sense how shall we be tried what is the sense by the judgement of the Church of England that is the Standard of the place or by
only terms of peace and concord let us see what exceptions Mr. Baxter is able to bring against them CHAP. VI. Mr. Baxters exceptions answered HE saith he cannot consent that these which I grant should be made the terms of union pag. 25. What then Suppose I did name improper terms of pacification not only in Mr. Baxters judgement which I ought not altogether to depend upon but in very deed Is there no remedy but I must needs be the Popes Stalking Horse presently and have a design to reconcile England to him This is over severe My design is rather to reconcile the Pope and his party to the Church of England than the Church of England to the Pope He may make use of my way if it like him Much good may it do him If not he ought to thank me for my good will and propose a better expedient himself if he can But I must tell him before hand that if it be a general one like those which he hath hitherto proposed it will signify nothing Observe Reader how he is every way mistaken I make demands and he calls them grants or concessions I propose some terms as preparatory to a treaty and he calls them terms of peace He saith he cannot consent to these terms and yet he hath consented to them already that if they would reform what the Bishop requires them to reform it will undoubtely make way for nearer concord To make them adaequate terms or conclusive Articles of Peace was never any part of my meaning All the exceptions which he bringeth against my way are taken out of my answer to Monsieur Militier I have seen some silly exceptions against it from a Jesuit and have answered them but he is the first Protestant that I have met with who doth disapprove it If the efficacy or influence of it upon him be different from what it is upon others I cannot help it Books have their success according to the prejudice or qualifications of their Readers On this side the seas it hath been more happy to confirm many to convert some and particularly the Transcriber of the Copy which was brought to the Press who was then one of their Proselytes to irritate no Man but the common Adversaries who vented their splene against it weekly in their Pulpits as thinking that the easiest way of confutation Thus one sucks honey and another poison out of the same flower He pretendeth that the old Episcopal Divines are of his partie some of them have approved it and thanked me for it If they be not of his party I hope he will not suspect them at Geneva as Factors for Popery They have allowed it and translated it into French and Printed it without any fear of introducing Popery into their City by it God forbid that we should esteem the practice of the Primitive times to be Popish They who admit that for a conclusion need not wonder if the more rational persons turn Apostates But it has ever been the trade of this proud and envious race of men to fasten an hated name upon every thing they understand not And it is to be feared this great Divine may in time write a Book to prove Greek the Language of the Beast and he may as reasonably do it as charge me with Popery only because I pretend to more knowledge in Antiquity than he knows himself to be guilty of His first particular Exception is this If when he excludeth Universality of Iurisdiction by Christs institution he intend to grant them which yet I know not an Universality of Iurisdiction by humane institution as agreement then it would be but to set up an humane Popery instead of a pretended Divine But this I charge not on him as his judgement though some will think it intimated p. 25. If he do not charge it on me then why doth he publish his own or other mens thoughts in Print to my disadvantage I know not how to acquit the Printing of groundless jealousies and suspicions of innocent Persons from downright calumny Especially suspicions of such things which the Persons suspected had publickly disclaimed in Print long before any such suspicion was broached These are my very words in my replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon p. 249. It were a hard condition to put me to prove against my conscience that the Universal Regency of the Pope is of humane right who do absolutely deny both his Divine right and humane right And in my Schisme garded p. 15 I have made it evident that the Popes Authority which he did sometime exercise in England before the Reformation when they permitted him and which he would have exercised always de futuro if he could have had his own will was a meer usurpation and innovation If I deny both the Popes divine right and humane right to Soveraign Jurisdiction and regulate his powers by the Canons of the Church If I make the Papacy a meer usurpation and innovation he hath no need to fear my setting up of an humane Popery But I have just cause to require reparation of him So his first exception is a false groundless suspicion But doth he make no difference indeed between a Divine Papacy and an Humane Papacy So it seemeth by his words If the Pope do hold a Soveraign power in the Church by divine institution then whatsoever he doth though he draw millions of Souls to Hell after him yet it is not in the power of a general council to call him to an account or to depose him or to reform him But if his right be only humane all this may justly be done and hath been done If he have a Soveraignty by divine right he may give his non obstantes to the Canons of the Fathers at his pleasure then all power in the Church is derived from him But if he hold the Papacy not from Heaven but from men then other Bishops do not derive their power from him singlely but he from them jointly then he is stinted and limitted by their Canons and cannot dispense with them further than the Church is pleased to confer a dispensative power upon him within the bounds of his own Patriarchate Against divine right there is no prescription but against humane right men may lawfully challenge their ancient liberties and immunities by prescription A Papacy by divine right is unchangeable but a Papacy by humane right is alterable both for person and place and power So an humane Papacy if it grow burthensom is remediable But a pretended divine Papacy when and where and whilst it is acknowledged is irremediable So much a pretended divine Papacy is worse than an humane His second exception follows But that St. Peter hath a certain fixed Chair to which a primacy of order is annexed and an headship of unity is not a truth and therefore not a principle necessary to heal the Church Whether it be a truth or no is not much material We have no Controversie with the Church
without the consent of his Bishops Thirdly my former exceptions as he stileth them or rather my preparatory conditions do virtually comprehend all the gross errours of the Roman Church both in Discipline and Doctrine leaving no difference in necessary points of faith but only in opinions So if my conditions be observed there is no place left for any such supposition Lastly I observe what an unsound kind of arguing this is to deny a man his just right as Patriarchal power was the Bishop of Romes just right for fear lest he may abuse it All factions use to miscal their own terms Christs terms to cancel all humane right under the notion of humane devises is both inconsistent with the Law of Christ and the welfare of all Societies They who made the Bishop of Rome a Patriarch were the Primitive Fathers not excluding the Apostles and Christian Emperours and Oecumenical Councils What Laws they made in this case we are bound to obey for conscience sake until they be repealed Lawfully by virtue of the Law of Christ. A fairer plea than I know any for their own Consistory where Lay-men usurp the power of the keys contrary to the Law of Christ. His sixth exception is the same with the fifth only there it is proposed hypothetically If the Pope as Patriarch of the West should impose And here it is repealed categorically many things in Doctrine and worship which on these terms would be imposed both on East and West and prevail in most of the Churches at this day are sins against God and therefore how small so ever they may be are not to be consented unto for unity If there be any grain of truth in this proof it is so indefinite so conjectural and so accidental that it requireth no answer How should a man either affirm or deny or distinguish of many things without specifying any one thing in particular I assent thus far in general that no man can be obliged to do a sin against God and that whatsoever humane Ordinance doth necessarily and essentially produce sin is unlawful But until he tell us in particular what these many things are or at least some one of them and prove evidently that it is a sin against God indeed and not in his opinion only and that it is infallibly true that it would be imposed which would be an hard task to undertake without the gift of Prophesy and lastly that the imposition of some such sinful thing or things is not an arbitrary or accidental abuse of that Lawful power which I admit but floweth naturally or essentially from it I say until he do all this all that he doth say signifieth nothing and so I leave his many things as just nothing And come unto his seventh exception The Aethiopian and other Churches that were still without the verge of the Roman Empire will never alknowledge thus much to the Pope seeing that even those humane Constitutions which gave him his Primacy of Order determined of no more than the Roman World and had nothing to do beyond Euphrates How did the Popes lay any claim or meddle any further And abundance among the Eastern Churches will deny this Primay This exception was made in the dark and therefore the errours that abound in it may more easily be pardoned as proceeding from the not knowing of the true State of the Aethiopick and other Eastern Churches Both the Aethiopick and all other Eastern Churches do unanimously admit this form of Government by Patriarchs which I acknowledge The Aethiopians have a Patriarch of their own and so have all the other Eastern Churches And particularly the Albuna or Patriarch of Aethiopia is under the Partriarch of Alexandria named by him and ordained by him from time to time So untrue it is that the Oecumenical Constitutions of general Councils extended not beyond Euphrates The Aethiopick and all other Eastern Churches do submit to the Council of Nice and other Oecumenical Councils by which Patriarchal Government was confirmed They all acknowledge the Patriarch of Rome to be the chief Patriarch whilst he behaveth himself well and to have a Primacy of order among the Patriarchs They know no points of faith but those which are contained in the ancient Creed as we find at large in the Historical Description of Aethiopia by Francis Alvares They all deny the Popes Supremacy of power as we do And when the Pope songht to introduce it into Aethiopia by the mediation of the King of Portugal Claudius then Emperour of Aethiopia returned this answer Se quidem fraterna in Lusitanum Regem voluntate esse ac fore caeterum nihil sibi minus in mentem venisse quam ut ideirco à Majorum institutis ac tot saeculorum spatio corroborata religione deficeret That he ought all good will to the King of Portugal as his Brother but it was the least part of his thought therefore to Apostate from the orders and Religion of his Ancestors received and radicated in Aethiopia throughout so many ages Pet. Maffei Hist. Jud. l. 16. p. 749. His eighth Exception is There is no hope of uniting the Churches on any terms but what are necessary and divine for its vain to think that things humane and unnecessary should be consented to by all Much less things sinful In the name of God why is it not possible that the Churches should be united upon some humane or prudential terms Are there not common principles of natural equity which reason dictateth to all mankind That is one mistake Secondly the Law of Nature is a divine Law And though Patriarchal Regiment be no express principle of the Law of Nature yet it is very agreeable to it and grounded upon it Thirdly though no humane ordinances be absolutely necessary to salvation as those supernatural truths which are revealed in holy Scripture are yet they may be respectively necessary to the well-being of Religion Lastly in his conclusion much less things sinful he disputes upon that which is not granted nay more which is absolutely denyed Mr. Baxter will never be able to prove that any thing which is sinful is contemned in my reconciliatory Propositions His ninth Exception signifieth as little as the rest There is no union to be had but upon the terms on which the Churches have sometimes been united For a new way of union is not to be expected attempted But never was the Church united on such concessions as these and therefore never will be I Deny his assumpsion altogether And if I were to chuse a reason or medium whereby to demonstrate my way of reconciliation to be good I could not fix upon a better than this The Catholick Church hath been united on these same principles which I suppose the same Faith without any addition the same Ecclesiastical Discipline without any variation the same Form of serving God publickly And since the dispersion of the Church all over the World it never was united upon any other principles but these nor
with some Papists in the point of perseverance also Sect. 64. The second conclusion was borrowed by Mr. Chillingworth from my Lord Primate That our agreement in the high and necessary Points of Faith and obedience ought to be more effectual to unite us than one difference in opinions to divide us Concerning which there is no need of my suffrage for it is just mine own way My second demand in my proposition of Peace was this That the Creed or necessary points of Faith might be reduced to what they were in the time of the four first Oecumenical Concils according to the decree of the third General Council Who dare say that the faith of the Primitive Fathers was insufficient c. I do profess to all the World that the transforming of indifferent opinions into necessary Articles of Faith hath been that insana laurus or cursed Bay-tree the cause of all our brawling and contention Judge Reader indifferently what reason Mr. Baxter had to disallow my terms of Peace as he is pleased to call them and allow Mr. Chillingworths when my terms are the very same which Mr. Chillingworth proposeth and my Lord Primate before him and King Iames before them both CHAP. VIII The true reasons of the Bishops abatement of the last 400. years Determinations IN his one and fortieth Section he hath these words He will not with Bishop Bramhall abate us the determinations of the last 400. years though if he did it would prove but a pitiful patch for the torn condition of the Church When I made that proposition that the Papists would wave their last 400. years determinations I did it with more serious deliberation than he bestowed upon his whole Grotian Religion Begun April 9. 1658. And finished April 14. 1658. My reason was to controul a common errour received by many that those errours and usurpations of the Church of Rome which made the breach between them and us were much more ancient than in truth they were What those errours and usurpations were cannot be judged better than by our Laws and Statutes which were made and provided as remedies for them I know they had begun some of their gross errours and usurpations long before that time and some others not long before but the most of them and especially those which necessitated a separation after that time Those errours and usurpations which were begun before that time if they be rightly considered were but the sinful and unjust actions of particular Popes and Persons and could not warrant a publick separation from the Church of Rome I deny not but that erroneous opinions in inferiour points rather concerning faith than of faith and some sinful and unwarrantable practices both in point of Discipline and devotion had crept into the Church of Rome before that time But erroneous opinions may be and must be tolerated among Christians so they be not opposite to the ancient Creed of the Church nor obtruded upon others as necessary points of saving faith Neither is any man bound or necessitated to join with other men in sinful and unwarrantable opinions or practices until they be established and imposed necessarily upon all others by Law Whilst it was free for any man to give a fair interpretation of an harsh expression or action without incurring any danger there was no necessity of separation But when these tyrannical usurpations were justified by the decrees of Councils and imposed upon Christians under pain of Excommunication when these erroneous opinions were made necessary Articles of saving faith extra quam non est salus without which there is no salvation when these sinful and unwarrantable practices were injoined to all Christians and when all these unjust usurpations erroneous opinions and sinful and unwarrantable practices were made necessary conditions of Communion with the Church of Rome so that no man could Communicate with the Roman Church but he that would submit to all these usurpations believe all these erroneous opinions and obey all their sinful injunctions then there was an absolute necessity of separation Then if any man inquire when and how this necessity was imposed upon Christians I answer all this was ratified and done altogether or in a manner altogether by these last 400. years Determinations beginning with the Council of Lateran in the days of Innocent the third after the twelve hundreth year of Christ when Transubstantiation was first defined and ending with the Council of Trent So though these were not my terms of peace but preparatory demands yet if these demands be granted our concord would not only be nearer which he acknowledgeth but the peace allmost as good as made and Christians were freed from their unjust Canons and left to their former liberty When they had granted so much it were a shame for them to stick at a small remainder CHAP. IX An Answer to sundry aspersions east by Mr. Baxter upon the Church of England I Have done with all that concerneth my self in Mr. Baxters Grotian Religion But I find a bitter and groundless invective in him towards the conclusion of his treatise wherein he laboureth to cast dirt upon his spiritual Mother the Church of England which out of my just and common duty I cannot pass over in silence He saith p. 75. That this Grotian design in England was destructive to Godliness and the prosperity of the Churches What Churches doth he mean By the Laws of England Civil and Ecclesiastical we ought to have but one Church It was never well with England since we had so many Churches and so many Faiths I am afraid those which he calls Churches were Conventicles He proceedeth that it animated the impious haters of piety and common civility First he ought to have proved that there was such a design in England which he neither hath done nor ever will be able to do That which never had any being but in his Imagination never had any efficacy but in his Imagination He addeth that men were hated for Godliness sake That is to exprest his sense truly were restrained in their seditious and Schismatical courses which he stileth Godliness Fallit enim vitium specie virtutis umbra And troubled and suspended and driven out of the Land though most of them twenty for one were conformists How Conformist and yet persecuted If this be not a contradiction yet it is incredible that so many men should be silenced and suspended every where without Law Certainly there was a Law pretended Certainly there was a Law indeed and that Law made before they were either punished or ordained I will put the right case fairly to Mr. Baxter if he have any mind to determine it Let him tell us who is to be blamed he that undertaketh an office of his own accord which he cannot or will not discharge as the Law injoineth or he that executeth the Law upon such as had voluntarily confirmed it by their own oaths or subscriptions or both He proceedeth that it was safer in