all places that ever he knew for men to live in swearing cursing drunkenness than to have instructed a Mans family and restrained Children and Servants from dancing on the Lords-day and to have gone to the next Parish to hear a Sermon when there was none at home Quicquid ostendat mihi sic incredulus odi I am sory to find so much gall where so much piety is professed Who did ever forbid a man to instruct his own family Let him buâ— name one instance for his credits sake or command any Person to dance â—pâ—n the Lords day or restrain a man fr om going to the next Parish to hear a Sermon if there was no more in it then he pretendeth Here are I know not how many fallacies heaped together No cause is put for a cause and that which is respectively true for that which is absolutely true No man was ever punished for instructing his own family but it may be for holding unlawful Conventicles or for instructing them in seditious schismatical or heretical principles Nor for going to the next Parish to hear a Sermon Thousands did it daily and never suffered for it But it may be for neglecting or deserting his own Parish Church and gadding up and down after non-conformists or after Persons justly suspended or deprived for heterodox Doctrine or labouring to introduce foraign Discipline without Law against Law and strange unknown forms of serving God and administering his holy Sacraments according to their own private phantasies Nor for restraining their Children or Servants from dancing on the Lords day but it may be for taking upon them as busy Bodies and pragmatically controlling the Acts of their Soveraign Prince and lawful superiours which the Laws of God and Man nature and nations Church and Kingdom did allow and for restraining the liberty of their fellow subjects and seeking to introduce new Law without a calling or beyond their calling which the Church of God and Kingdom of England never knew If Mr. Baxter think that no recreations of the body at all are lawful or may be permitted upon the Lords day he may call himself a Catholick if he please but he will find very few Churches of any Communion whatsoever old or new reformed or unreformed to bear him company No no even among the Churches of his own Communion which he calleth the holiest Parts of the Church upon Earth he will find none at all to join with him except the Churches of New England and Old England and Scotland whereinto this opinion hath been creeping by degrees this last half Century of years or somewhat more Before that time even our greatest Disciplinarians in England abhorred not private recreations so they could practise them without scandal And Calvin himself disdained not to countenance and encourage the Burgers of Geneva by his own presence and example at their publick recreations as Bowling and Shooting upon the Lords Day after their devotions at Church were ended In Germany Switzerland France and the Low Countrys all the Churches of his own Communion do enjoy their recreations And in sundry of them their Prayers and Sermons on the afternoon of the Lords Day are but lately introduced whereas formerly not the vulgar only but the most eminent persons did use to bestow the whole afternoon upon their recreations But it may be his pick is not against recreations in general but against dancing in particular Indeed dancing was disliked at Geneva not only upon the Lords Days but upon the other days of the week And if their manner of Dancing there or any where else was so obscene as hath been in use in former Ages in some places not undeservedly No man can be so absurd as to affirm all sorts of Dancing to be unlawful as Miriams Dance and that of the Virgins of Shilo and Iephtha's Daughter and David There is no time for any thing that is absolutely unlawful But there is a time to Dance Eccles. 3. 4. On the other side it is as great an extream to affirm that all sorts of Dances are unlawful Not only consciencious Christians but even modest Heathens have disliked some sorts of Dances And as there are some sorts of Dances unlawful so there may be great danger of abuse in the use of Lawful Dances But where there is no lawful or direct prohibition ther of God or man we may advise a Brother or a Friend to beware of danger but we have no Authority to restrain him except he will of his own accord As for the publick Dances of our Youth on Country Greens upon Sundays after the Dutys of the Day were done I see nothing in them but innocent and agreeable to that under sort of people But if any man out of prudence or conscience or scrupulosity do disaffect them either because they were sometimes used promiscuously or for any other reasons I think it easier to regulate those recreations which should be allowed than to brawl about them perpetually until the end of the World Among all the imputations and aspersions which were cast upon the Governmentt of our late dread Soveraign King Iames and King Charles there was none that had more colour of truth or found more applause among some sorts of persons whose Zeal exceeded their discretion than their Proclamations to tolerate publick recreations upon the Lords Day though there was no Law of God or man to prohibit them The very truth is this King Iames making his Progress through Lancashire about forty years since or more a Country at that time abounding with Papists and Non-Conformists the Country People preferred a Petition to his Majesty that whereas after their hard weekly labours ended they had evermore for time immemorial injoyed the liberty to recreat themselves upon Sundays of late some scrupulous Ministers upon their own heads without any Law or Lawful Authority did restrain them Therefore they humbly besought his Majesty to restore them to their ancient Liberty His Majesty prudently weighing what advantage might be raised to the Protestant Religion in those superstitious parts by his favourable condescension Granted their request upon two conditions First That no such recreations should be used in time of Divine Service or Sermon either forenoon or afternoon Secondly That none should enjoy that liberty but those that had been actually twice at the Church that Day both at morning and evening Prayers And by this prudent condescension he gained the People from Popery to the Protestant Religion The very making this Objection the principal accusation against those two pious Princes is an evident proof of the innocency of their Reigns He proceedeth In some places it was much more dangerous for a Minister to Preach a Lecture once or twice on the Lords Day or to expound the Catechism than never to Preach at all He must excuse us if we can not give credit to what he saith Never any man suffered any where in the Church of England simply for Preaching but it may be for Preaching seditious Sermons
Sequestrations BEfore I saw Mr. Baxters late Treatise called The Grotian Religion it was to me nec beneficio nec injuria neither known for good nor hurt I acknowledge the very Title of his Book did not please me Different Opinions do not make different Religions It is the Golden Rule of Justice not to do thus to another which a man would not have done to himself He would take it unkindly himself to have his own Religion contradistinguished into the Prelatical Religion from which he doth not much dissent so he might have the naming of the Prelates and the Presbyterian Religion which he doth profess for the present and the Independent Religion which he shaketh kindly by the hand and the Anabaptistical Religion which challengeth Seniority of all Modern Sects And then to have his Presbyterian Religion subdivided either according to the number of the Churches into the English Religion and the Scotish Religion and the Gallician Religion and the Belgian Religion and the Helvetian Religion and the Allobrogian Religion of all the names of the Reformers into the Calvinistical Religion and Brownistical Religion Zuinglian Religion and Erastian Religion c. For all these have their differences And so himself in his Preface to this very Treatise admits those things for pious Truths for which we have been branded with the names of Papists and Arminians and have been plundered and spoiled of all that we had Let himself be judge whether this be not to have the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ with respect of persons Iam. 2. 1. The Church of Christ is but one one Fold and one Shepherd Christian Religion is but one one Lord one Faith one Hope Then why doth he multiply Religions and cut the Christian Faith into shreds as if every Opinion were a fundamental Article of Religion Let him remember that of St. Hierome If you shall hear those who are said to be Christians any where to be denominated not from the Lord Iesus Christ but from some other person know that this is not the Church of Christ but the Synagogue of Antichrist So much for the Title of Mr. Baxters Book now for his design His main scope is to shew that Grotius under a pretence of reconciling the Protestant Churches with the Roman Church hath acted the part of a Coy-duck willingly or unwillingly to lead Protestants into Popery And therefore he held himself obliged in duty to give warning to Protestants to beware of Grotius his followers in England who under the name of Episcopal Divines do prosecute the design of Cassander and Grotius to reconcile us to the Pope Page 2. And being pressed by his adversary to name those Episcopal Divines vir dolosus versatur in generalibus he gives no instance of any one man throughout his Book but of my self I shall borrow a word with him of himself a word of Grotius and a word or two concerning my self First for himself he doth but wound himself through Grotius his sides and in his censuring Grotius teach his own Fellows to serve him with the same sawce Grotius and Mr. Baxter both prosecute the same design of reconciliation but Mr. Baxters object is the British World and Grotius his Object is the Christian World Mr. Baxter as well as Grotius in prosecuting his design doth admit many things which the greater part of his own Fellows do reject As that Praeterition is an act of justice in God Praef. Sect. 7. That God giveth sufficient grace in the Jesuits sense to those that perish Sect. 8. That Redemption is universal They the Synod of Dort give more to Christs Death for the Elect than we but no less that he knows of to his Death for all than we Sect. 10. He is as much for Free-will as we They all profess that Man hath the natural faculty of Free-will Sect. 11. He who had all his other Treatises which I did never see in probability might find much more of the same kind I do not dislike him for this but rather commend him for unwrapping himself as warily as he could without any noise out of the endless train of Error And for other points wherein he is still at a default I hope a little time and better information may set him right in those as well as these But others of his own Party do believe all these points which he admits to be as downright Popery as any is within the Walls of Rome And with the same freedom and reason that he censures Grotius they may censure him for the Popes stalking Horse or Coy-duck to reconcile us to Rome Neither can he plead any thing for himself which may not be pleaded as strongly or more strongly for Grotius He may object that those things which he admitteth are all evident Truths but sundry of those things which are admitted by Grotius are Popish Errors This is confidently said but how is he able to make it good to other men Grotius took himself to have as much reason as Mr. Baxter and much more learning and reading than Mr. Baxter But still if his Fellows do no more approve of what he saith than he approveth of that which Grotius saith they have as good ground to censure him as he hath to censure Grotius Those very points which are admitted by Mr. Baxter are esteemed by his Fellows to be as gross and fundamental Errors as any of those other supernumerary points which are maintained by Grotius But to come up closer to him What if those other points disputed between Grotius and him be meer logomachies or contentions about words or mistaken Truths He himself confesseth as much now of all the Arminian tenets Pref. Sect. 15. I am grown to a very great confidence that most of our contentions about those Arminian points are more about words than matter Again in the same Section The doctrine of the divine decrees is resolved into that of the divine operations Let us agree of the last and we agree of the former And almost all the doctrine of the divine operations about which we differ dependeth on the point of Free-will and will be determined with that And how far we differ if at all in the point of Free will c. I see Truth is the daughter of Time Now our Arminian Controversies are avowed to have been but contentions about words Now it is become a doubtful case and deserving an if whether we have any difference at all about Free-will or no. The wind is gotten into the other dore since we were prosecuted and decried as Pelagians and enemies of Grace because we maintained some old innocent Truths which the Church of England and the Catholick Church even taught her Sons before Arminius was born Some of their greatest Sticklers do owe a great account to God and a great reparation to us for those groundless calumnies which they cast upon us at that time For the present I only lay down this disjunctive Conclusion Either Mr. Baxter and his Fellows have changed
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
of Grotians is that they are for a visible head of the Universal Church whether Pope or General Council They who are for the Headship of a General Council are no fit instruments for the introduction of the Popes tyrannical power It seemeth he rejecteth the Authority of General Councils either past or to come as well as Popes so dare not we If under the name of the Universal Church he include the Triumphant Church we know no head of the Universal Church but Christ. If he limit it to the Militant Church we are as much against one single Monarch as he we dislike all tyrannical power in the Church as well as he yet we quarrel with no man about the name of Head or a Metaphorical expression But if he think that Christ left the Catholick Church as the Ostrich doth her Eggs in the Sand without any care or provision for the governing thereof in future Ages he erreth grosly So the Catholick Church should be in a worse condition than any particular Church yea than any Society in the World like the Cyclops Cane where no man heard or heeded what another said Particular Churches have Soveraign Princes and Synods to order them but there never was an universal Monarch And if he take away the Authority of General Councils he leaveth no humane helps to preserve the Unity of the Universal Church what is this but to leap over the backs of all second Causes The first Council was of another mind It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Act. 15. 28. And so have all the Churches of the World from Christs time until this Age. His fifth note of Grotians To dery the sufficiencie of Scripture in all things necessary to salvation might well have been spared for we all maintain it as well as he but he shuffles into the question such impertinent and confused generalities about the Peace of the Churâ—â— and Traditions as deserve no answer The sufficiency of Scripture is not inconsistent either with prudential Government or the necessary means of finding out the right sense of Scripture When he expresseth himself more distinctly he may expect a Categorical answer His last mark is that they will not be perswaded to joyn on any reasonable terms for the healing of our present divisions This dependeth upon his own interpretation what he judgeth to be reasonable terms We have seen his dexterity in making wounds and would be glad to have experience of his skill in healing them He complains only of illegal Innovations Dare he stand to the ancient Laws If he dare the Controversie is ended If he like not this for we know their exceptions were against the Laws themselves not against illegal Innovations let them name those Laws which they except against and put it to a fair trial whether there be any thing in any of them which is repugnant to the Laws of God or of right reason If they will but do this seriously without prejudice the business is ended I will make bold to go yet one step higher though our Laws be unblamable yet if the things commanded be but of a middle or indifferent nature we are ready to admit any terms of peace which we can accept with a good conscience so as we may neither swerve from the analogy of Faith nor renounce the necessary principles of Government nor desert the communion and ancient and undoubted customs of the Universal Church Such an accord would be too much loss both to you and us He would perswade us that there are two sorts of Episcopal Divines in England the old and the new And that there is much more difference between the old and the new than between the old and the Presbyterians Sect. 67. O confidence whither wilt thou what is the power of prejudice and pride The contrary is as clear as the light we maintain their old Liturgy their old Ordinal their old Articles their old Canons their old Laws Practices and praescriptions their old Doctrine and Discipline against them Then tell us no more of old Episcopal Divines and new Episcopal Divines we are old Episcopal Divines one and all out of his own words I condemn him The old sort of Episcopal Divines that received the publick Doctrine of the Nation contained in the 39. Articles Homilies c. I wholly acquitted from my jealousies of this compliance Sect. 12. If they be old Episcopal Divines who maintain the Doctrine of the 39. Articles and Homilies then we are all old Episcopal Divines In acquitting all them he acquitteth all us If he can shew any thing that I have written contrary to these I retract it if he cannot let him retract his words He might have taken notice of my submission of whatsoever I writ to the Oecumenical essential Church and to its Representative a free general Council and to the Church of England or a National English Synod to the determinations of all which and each of them respectively according to the distinct degrees of their Authority I yield a conformity and compliance or to the least and lowest of them an acquiescence Pref. to the Reply to Bish. Chalc. So far am I and always have been from opposing the Church of England wittingly He maketh a shew as though he could make it appear that the Grotian design was the cause of all our Wars and changes in England but it is but a copy of his countenance How should the Grotian design be the cause of all our Wars when our War began before Grotius himself began his design or to write of the reconciliation of Protestants and Papists which was in the years 1641 and 1642. But without all controversie either the Grotian design was the cause of our Wars or the design and more than the bare design of his own Party The World knows well enough and I leave it to his own conscience to tell him whether of the two was the right Mother of the Child Though he fail in his proofs against Episcopal Divines yet he produceth sundry other reasons to prove that there was such a Plot on foot to introduce Popery into England but they do not weigh so much as a Feather nor signifie any thing more than this how easily men believe those things which they wish He saith Franciscus à Sancta Claras design and Grotius his design seem the very same and their Religion and Church the same Sect. 73. Nay certainly that is more than seemingly their Religion and Church was not the same unless he mean the same Christian Religion and in that sense his own Religion is the same with theirs but in his sense they were not the same This is begging of the question which he ought to prove Grotius was not of the French Communion And for their designs the World is so full of feigned Plots and designs that I do not believe that either of them had any design except that general and pacificatory design which he himself professeth and extolleth every where I
wish every mans Books had as much learning and ingenuity in them as A Sancta Clara's have Yet if he conclude from hence that I and he are of the same Communion he doth me wrong Judge Reader how partial men are to deny that liberty to another which they assume to themselves He proceedeth This A Sancta Clara is still the Queens Chaplain c. And we have reason to believe the Queen to be so moderate as to be of the same Religion Whether he be the Queens Chaplain or not is more than I know The Queen hath had many Servants of Mr. Baxters own Communion who have had more influence upon her Counsels than ever A Sancta Clara had He hath reason to believe that the Queen and he were of the same Religion but no reason to prove that so seriously and so weakly which all men acknowledge that either the Queen or he had any hand in the pretended design of Grotius and his Followers no man can believe From the Queen he passeth over to the King what to do to accuse him of Popery He cannot prove it nor all the World to help him Yea he professeth openly that he believeth no such thing Not only his Conference with the Marquess of Worcester but his Life and Death and that Golden Legacie which he left to his Son do proclaim the contrary to all the World What is his aim then To shew how far he was inclined to a reconciliation That is the duty of every good Christian But did he preferr peace before truth Had he any design to introduce Papal Tyranny into England That is the crime whereof he accuseth those whom he nick-nameth Grotians The Devil himself cannot justly object any such thing against him He cites the Articles of the Spanish and French matches but is not able to cite one word out of them which maketh for his purpose And this alone that there is nothing in them for his purpose is a convincing proof against him that all his pretended design is but a dream I may well call it his design for it is the phantasm of his own brain and never had any existence in the nature of things He mentions the Kings Letter to the Pope written in Spain If he himself had been there at that time upon the same condition the King was at that time he would have redeemed his liberty with writing three Letters to the Pope such as that was or else he had been much to be blamed But what is there in the Letter Is there any thing of the Grotian design No I warrant you Observe how all his conjectural reasons make directly against himself Perhaps the King calls the Pope Most Holy Father a great crime indeed to make such a civil address which the common use of the World hath made necessary He who will converse with a Fryer in a Roman Catholick Country must do little less and he that will write to the Great Turk must do more Such compellations do not shew always what men are but what they ought to be or what they are or would be esteemed Next he tells us of the choice of Agents for Church and State Very trifles Kings must chuse their Agents according to the exigence of their affairs But if the qualifications of Agents did always demonstrate the resolutions of Princes I could more easily prove King Charles a Presbyterian than he a Grotian and bring more instances for my self I am confident he cannot instance in any one Agent for Church or State that ever had his Grotian design but I can instance in many who have had contrary and worse designs I shall not stick to tell him with grief that which hath been in a great part the cause of all our woes In some Courts it hath been esteemed a singular policie to nourish two Parties upon pretence that the one might ballance the other and the one watch over the other But it proveth too often true that the one Party is disgusted and ordinarily the weaker and worser Party doth countenance heterodox and seditious persons to augment the number of their dependents which evermore tendeth to manifest sedition By this means the rents of the Church have been perpetuated and enlarged and Subjects have been debauched with destructive and seditious Principles the evil influence whereof we have felt to our cost He proceedeth to the Residence of the Popes Nuncios in England It may be during all the Kings reign there were one Nuncio and his Proctor or Deputy or two Nuncios at the most And if we had never had them it had been the better not so much for any great hurt they did but for that opportunity which his own peevish Party got from thence to raise jealousies and Panick fears among the Rabble Unless he could have told something that the Popes Nuncio did in England tending to that end which he pretends he might as well have instanced in the King of Morocco's Ambassadour and said that he came over to convert us to be Turks I thought he would have produced the Popes Bull to his Nuncio to reconcile us to Rome or at least have discovered some secret Cabal or Conferences between him and those Episcopal Divines whom he accuseth He knoweth well there was no such thing and therefore it were much better to be silent than to urge so many things and to fail in every one of them His next instance is in the Jesuits Colledge which had been much better omitted for his credit Did the King found the Colledge No such thing Was he a Benefactor to it Nor that Did he give the Jesuits a license of Mortmain to purchase Lands for themselves to that use Not so much What did he then did he know of the Jesuits and the Colledge and connive at them and it O no. So soon as ever it was discovered it was suppressed By the same equity he might accuse an innocent Prince of all the crimes that are committed in hugger mugger throughout his Kingdom and make him Head even of the Presbyterian Rebellion The last of his odious instances hath less shew of truth in it than any of the rest how vain or empty soever they have been that is the illegal innovations in worship so resolvedly gradatim introduced Perhaps he calls the execution of old Laws Innovations because they themselves had taken the boldness to disuse them It were better to spare this charge lest they get a round peal of their own Innovations rung out in their ears Theirs are Innovations indeed To conclude Doth he think that such disloyal and uncharitable insinuations as these are salved by pretending that he hath not the least desire to perswade men that he was a Papist or that he would not have other men to believe it As if he should say Here are violent presumptions indeed that the King had Popish inclinations yet my charity will not give me leave to believe it other men may judge as they find cause when all he
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
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
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
body as this It is no wonder if Grotius suffer wrong by him when my words are at the best so grosly mistaken who live to interpret my self First I give no leave to the Pope and Church of Rome to hold to themselves their last 400. years determinations But if they will hold them I have no power to help it or hinder it My words are these If you could be contented to wave your last 400. years determinations or if you liked them for your selves yet not to obtrude them upon other Churches As if one should say If Ieroboam will forbear to commit Idolatry himself or if he will not yet if he will forbear to compell others to commit Idolatry I may come to live in Israel no moderate man will say that he giveth leave to Ieroboam to commit Idolatry Secondly he pretends most untruly that I make these to be the terms or conditions of a peace which I mention only as preparatives My words are not then we may unite and cement our selves together but then much good might be expected from free Councils and conferences of moderate persons He himself saith as much as I say Thirdly if they do not obtrude their last 400. years determinations upon other Churches then they wave their ligislative power and take away from their Canons the nature of Laws then they make them no longer points of Faith but probable opinions It was not the erroneous opinions of the Church of Rome but the obtruding them by Laws upon other Churches which warranted a separation He who will have no communion with a Church which hath different or erroneous opinions in it so long as they are not obtruded must provide a ladder to climb up to Heaven by himself And this is that which I said expresly in that very place cited by him We might yet live in hope to see an union if not in all opinions yet in Charity and all necessary points of saving truth Let the Church of Rome do that which I require that is the Apostolical Discipline and Apostolical Creed without addition and it shall become an Apostolical and Catholick Church and have true Faith His fourth Exception is this That the Pope should hold his Patriarchal power is a meer innovation and humane institution as is his Primacy of order and such priviledges The Council of Chalcedon avers it And therefore it is no necessary thing to be conceded for the Churches peace That the Patriarchal dignity is an humane institution all men who understand themselves do acknowledge That it is a meer innovation all men who understand themselves do deny How should that be a meer innovation which was not first constituted but confirmed as an ancient Ecclesiastical custom in the first general Council of Nice and approved by all the general succeeding Councils of the Church and particularly by the Council of Chalcedon which he mentioneth which equalled the Patriarch of Constantinople to the Patriarch of Rome This form of Government is allowed by the Canons of the Apostles as I have shewed elsewhere This Patriarchal Government Calvin himself did not only allow but assert it to be such a Form as God hath prescribed in his Word Cal. Iust. l. 4. c. 4. S. 4. What wonder is it if they lose ground daily to the Romanists who have the confidence to affirm that Patriarchal power is an innovation and cite the great Council of Chalcedon for it He proceedeth to his fifth exception Multitudes that live in the western Nations of the World will still dissent both from the Popes Patriarchal power and more from his way of exercising it And so will be forced to fall under the reproach of Schismaticks by these tâ—rms and that for obeying the Laws of Christ. If the Pope as Patriarch of the West should impose on us only and not on the East the Doctrines and worship and Ceremonies which he now imposeth on the Papists except the excepted before doth any man of reason think that the Reformed Churches would ever yield to them or ought to do it We will unite on Christs terms and that will be a more sure and general Union and not on such humane devises as these Let those that made the Pope our Patriarch maintain his power for Christ did not Still weaker and weaker Multitudes that live in the Western parts of the World will not only dislike the Popes Patriarchal power but his Presbyterian Discipline and his holy orders the Creed the Lords Prayer the Sacraments c. must a man therefore quit his just right because some dislike it Their dislike is but scandal taken but the quitting of that which is right for their satisfaction should be scandal given Whether is the worse By the way I desire him to consider two things First how they are forced to fall under the reproach of Schismaticks If they be forced any way it is by their own wilful humours or erroneous conscience Other force here is none If there be any force it is they which force themselves Secondly I would have him to consider whether is the worse and more dangerous condition for Christians to fall under the reproach of Schismaticks which hath no sin in it but is a means many times to reduce men into the fold of the Catholick Church or for Christians to fall into Schisme it self Whosoever shall oppose the just power of a Lawful Patriarch lawfully proceeding is a material Schismatick at least and if his errour be vincible such as he might conquer and come unto the knowledge of the truth if he did his endeavour he is a formal Schismatick His reasons of their falling under the reproach of Schismaticks for obeying the Laws of Christ I confess I do not understand Doth he think that Patriachal power is contrary to the Laws of Christ and that all the Primitive Churches and Councils and Christians did transgress the Laws of Christ in this particular Surely he cannot think it Or is it his Zeal to admit nothing in the Church grounded upon prudence and experience and the Law of nature but only that which in commanded by Christ in Holy Scripture If that be it I refer him to Doctor Sanderson in his Preface before his 20. Sermons to whom he professeth very great reverence I had rather suspect that I understand him not than Imagine him to be guilty of such an absurd conclusion To his question if the Pope as Patriarch of the West should impose upon us which he imposeth upon the Papists should the reformed Churches yield to them I answer God forbid but his whole discourse is grounded upon a Cluster of mistakes First the Pope hath no right to the Patriarchate of all the West Particularly he is not our Patriarch Other Churches in the West might find out Primates or Patriarchs of their own as well as we if they sought diligently for them Secondly a single Patriarch hath not legislative power to impose Laws in his own Partriarchate nor power to innovate any thing
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
can be united upon any other principles but these I am come to his tenth and last Exception It would be an exceeding dishonour to God and injury to the Souls of many millions of men if but under the Popes Patriarchal Iurisdiction in the West the Papists way of Worship were set up and their Government exercised as now The good will of Rome or the name of peace would not recompense the loss of so many thousand Souls as some one of the Papal abuses might procure for instance their driving the people from the Scriptures and other means of knowledge All along he buildeth upon a wrong Foundation It is one thing to set up or to approve the setting up of a false way of Worship which I do not justifâ—e And another thing to tolerate it when and where it is not in our power to hinder it as both he and I must do whether we will or no. I do not only give no consent to the setting up of any unlawful Form of Worship where it is not but I wish it taken away where it is set up already But if it be without the sphere of my activity I must let it alone perforce If a Shepherd when it is past his skill to cure his rotten Sheep shall do his uttermost to preserve that part of his Flock which is sound from infection he deserveth to be commended for those he saved not to be accused as the cause why so many perished that were past his skill and power to cure In a gâ—eat Scathfire it is wisdom not only to suffer those Houses to burn down which are past quenching but sometimes to pull down some few Houses wherein the fire is not yet kindled to free all the rest of the City from danger If the Pope within his own territories or other Christian Princes by his means within their territories will maintain a way of Worship which I do not approve must I therefore nay may I therefore make War upon them to compell them to be of my Religion So we shall never have any peace in the World whilst there are different Religions in the world for every one takes his own Religion to be best But what certainty hath he that so many thousands yea millions of Souls are lost because they live in such places as are subject to the Pope God is a merciful God and looks upon his poor Creatures with all their prejudices Or how doth this agree with what he saith elsewhere that the French moderation is acceptable to all good men And that Nation is an honourable part of the Church of Christ in his esteem It is no very honourable part of the Church of Christ if so many millions of Souls run such extream hazard in it p. 10. His marginal note of their streams of blood and Massacres might have been spared for fear of putting some of them upon a parallel between theirs and ours And for his instance of driving the people from the Scriptures he escapeth fairly if none of them cast it in his teeth that the promiscuâ—us licence which they give to all sorts of people qualified or unqualified not only to read but to interpret the Scriptures according to their private spirits or particular fancies without any regard either to the analogy of Faith which they understand not or to the interpretation of the Doctors of former Ages is more prejudicial I might better say pernicious both to particular Christians and to whole Socities than the over rigorous restraint of the Romanists Whereof a man need require no farther proof but only to behold the present face of the English Church Truth commonly remaineth in the modest And so I have shewed him how little weight there is in his ten Exceptions At the conclusion of his Exceptions he hath this clause Besides most of the evils that I charged before on the Grotian way as censures persecutions c. would follow upon this way It may follow in his erroneous opinion but in truth and really no inconveniency at all doth follow upon what I say The third cause of his dislike of the Grotian way was Because it is uncharitable and censorious cutting off from the Catholick united Society the reformed Churches that yield not to his terms and will not be reconciled to the Pope of Rome Let them take heed that they cut not off themselves for I neither cut them off nor declare them to be cut off If they will not be reconciled to the Pope of Rome upon warrantable and just terms such as were approved by the Primitive Church such as those are which I propose for any thing he doth say or can say to the contrary it is his own unchaâ—itableness not mine Some men would call it Schismatical obstinacy But this reason hath been fully answered before The fourth reason of his dislike of this design is Because it is a trap to tempt and engage the Souls of millions into the same uncharitable censorious and reproachful way When a false Center of the Churches unity is set up and impossible or unlawful terms of concord are pretended thus to be the only terms they that believe this will uncharitably censure all those for Schismaticks or Hereticks that close not with them on these terms His first office should have been to have proved that my way is uncharitable censorious or reproachful and that my terms are impossible and unlawful which he neither doth nor attempteth to do nor ever will be able to do And until he do it or go about it all his reasons are a pure begging of the question and no better and consequently deserve no answer The fifth reason of his dislike is because it tendeth to engage the Princes of Christendom in a persecution of their Subjects that cannot comply with these unwarrantable terms And that is likely to be no small number nor the worser part but the soundest and wisest and holiest men For if Princes be once perswaded that these be the only terms and so that the dissenters are factious Schismatical and unpeaceable men no wonder if they silence the Ministers and persecute the people It is an easier thing to call them unlawful and unwarrantable terms twenty times than to make it good once It is a fault in Rhetorick and in Logick also to use common reasons such as may be retorted against our selves by an Adversary Such a reason is this and may be urged with as much shew of reason against all Writers of Controversies whatsoever and against Mr. Baxter himself in particular with as much colour of truth as he urgeth it against Grotius or me That if Princes be once perswaded that those terms which he proposeth be true and the contrary errours no wonder if they silence the Ministers and persecute the People Or if they be once perswaded by him that his new Discipline is the Scepter of Christ prescribed in the Gospel then the Episcopal Divines and the Independents are sure to suffer This srivolous pretense will fit
Powers Is not this like to prove a fair accommodation wherein the first Article must be to renounce the light of natural reason and the experience of so many ages since Christs time and the prudential Constitutions of all our primitive Guides These are such terms of peace as can please no body but Sequestrators and such as live like Moths in other mens garments Neither would his pretented Divine terms be more favourable to innovations than humane terms but only that this way affordeth wranglers a longer time to prevaricate before Controversies can be maturely determined If ever there were an Universal reconciliation of all Christians the first act which they ought to do after their Union is to cast out all such pernicious principles as this form among them before they thrust out all reason and humane right out of the World His second rule is the terms of peace must be things necessary not unnecessary We are beholden to King Iames not to him for this prudent direction But by setting it down so imperfectly he makes it his own There are two sorts of necessary things Something 's are absolutely necessary to the being of the Church Some other things are respectively necessary to the well-being of the Church The terms of peace ought to extend to both these to the former ever more to the later as far as it may be Or yet more distinctly Some things are necessary necessitate medii as necessary means of salvation without which no Church can consist Concerning these there is little or no need of reconciliation where there is no difference Secondly Some other things are necessary necessitate precepti as commanded by God or by the Church of God Both these are necessary in their several degrees and both of them ought to be taken in consideration in a reconciliation but especially the former yet not excluding the later Every thing ought to be loosed by the same Authority by which it was bound Thirdly There are other things which though they be neither necessary means of salvation nor necessarily Commanded by God or man yet they are necessary by a necessity of convenience out of pious and prudential considerations Huic hîc nunc to this or that Church at this or that time in this or that place The greatest consideration that ought to be had of these things is to leave every Church free to determine their own necessities or conveniences yet with a regard to unity and uniformity His Third rule is the terms of peace must be ancient according to the primitive simplicity and neither new nor yet too numerous curious or abstruse His first rule doth virtually comprehend both his later rules and renders them superfluous For if nothing be admitted into the terms of peace but Divine truths they can neither be unnecessary nor new nor too numerous curious or abstruse And this way of his rightly expressed and understood is the same in effect with my way which he pretendeth to impugn He admitteth no truths but Divine and excludeth all humane rights which is more than he ought to do I distinguish divine right from humane right and give unto the Law of God both written and unwritten and to the Laws of the Church and to the Laws of Caesar their respective dues He admitteth none but necessary truths I admit no truths in point of Faith but these which the blessed Apostles judged to be necessary and comprehended in the Creed I reject all new coined Articles of saith all usurpations in point of Discipline all innorations in point of worship He proposeth for a Pattern of union the simplicity of the ancient and primitive Church So do I before the faith was adulterated by the addition of new Articles or the Discipline translated into a new Monarchical way or the publick worship of God was corrupted by the injunction of sinful or supernumerary rites I wish he had expressed himself more clearly what he means by the primitive simplicity I hope it is not his intention that either the house of God or the publick service of God should be fordid and contemptible He cannot be ignorant that so far as the persent condition of times and places and Persons and affairs will bear it there ought to be some porportion between that great God whom we serve and that service which we perform unto him God was acceptably served by the Primitive Christians both in their Cells Vaults homely Oratories in times of persecution and likewise in stately and magnificent Temples and Cathedrals when God had given peace and plenty to his Church Wisdom is justified of her Children Yet even in those times of persecutions a man would wonder at that external splendour wherewith those devouter souls served God where they had means and opportunity Neither do I perfectly understand what his aim is where he would not have the terms of peace to be curious or abstruse I conjecture it reflecteth upon the School-men And if his meaning only be that he would not have our Catechisms or accommodations to be pestered and perplexed with the obscure terms and endless disputations of the Schools I do readily assent But if he think that in the work of reconciliation there is no need of a Scholastick Plain to take away the crabbed knots and to smooth the present Controversies of the Christian World I must dissent from him We find by daily experience that the greatest differences and such as made the most Noise and the deepest breach in the Christian World being rightly and Scholastically stated do both become easy and intelligible and now appear to have been meer mistakes one of another And when many other questions are rightly handled after the same manner I presume they will find the like end When I was a young Student in Theology Doctor Ward declared his mind to me to this purpose that it was impossible that the present Controversies of the Church should be rightly determined or reconciled without a deep insight into the Doctrine of the Primitive Fathers and a competent skill in School Theology The former affordeth us a right pattern and the second smootheth it over and plaineth away the knots Though he himself do deal only in Generals yet he telleth us that Mr. Chillingworth hath already particularly told the World a way of unity It is well if he have but if it prove as general as his own way it will not conduce much to the Peace of Christendom What hath Mr. Chillingworth told us or where hath he told it Had it not been worthy of his labour to have repeated the words or cited the place What a deal of vanity is it to write whole Treatises in confutation of others to no purpose and when he comes to the main business or to the only necessary and satisfactory point to be mute It is long since I read over Mr. Chillingworth but I remember no such particular reconciliatory way told by him to all the World but only some general intimations or