minde and might promote and further it 2 To this may be further added what must necessarily be confes't by all men that a true and right order'd Charity is of as great necessity for the attaining of Salvation to all Churches and to every particular member in any Church as is the true and entire Profession of sound and saving Faith our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus make's this the badge and cognizance whereby to distinguish and discerne betwixt his true Disciples and such as are spurious and counterfeit by this shall all men know that yee are my Disciples if yee love one another Now I leave it to every man's conscience to judge what manner of Charity that is which see's and suffer's Christian Churches without all just cause and necessity to stand still at distance and defiance one with another and perpetually to shunne a Reconciliation and Union Is it not enough for us to separate from the hay and stubble I meane from the Errours of other Churches but must we by a voluntary separation forsake the Churches themselves which as yet have not forsaken Christ or his Truth 3 Further yet we see how that both Zuinglians and Lutherans as they are usually termed confesse that those Churches which hold with either side doe notwithstanding still remaine true Christian Churches true members of the Church Catholike whereof Christ is the head The renowned Princes in their Preface prefixt to the Forme of Agreement plainly professe that it was farre from their thoughts and intentions to condemne such persons as erred through the weaknesse of their judgement provided that they did not defame and blaspheme God's Trueth much lesse to condemne whole Churches living either under the Romane Empire or elsewhere nay they did not doubt but that there were many pious religious men living in those Churches though they agreed not with them in all Points of Religion Moreover when it was objected to Lucas Osiander how that he had sometimes termed Calvinists the Divel's Martyres hee forthwith purged himselfe from that aspersion thus They that have heard my Sermons will say that they never heard from me any reproachfull termes against the blessed Martyrs of Christ yea my owne writings publisht to the world will witnesse for me that J termed those which were massacred in France on S. Bartholomewe's day holy Martyres This then would be seriously thought upon whether or no it will stand with the Policy Piety and the duty of Christian Churches for every petty errour to deny the right hand of fellowship and brotherly love to those Churches who in the mean time notwithstanding such errours may continue Christ's blessed Martyrs and holy Brethren They who acknowledge Christ for their elder brother must of necessity whether they will or no have all Christs brethren joyned to them in a most sure and fast knot of consanguinity and communion 4 Besides I am very confident that both the Saxon and Helvetian all other Churches which joyne with either of those two will professe that they desire to have and to retaine a brotherly Communion and Peace with this our Church of England as also with the Scottish Jrish and all other forraigne Churches of the Reformation And truely we for our parts although we doe not assent to them in all points of controverted Divinity yet doe we account of them as our Brethren in Christ and doe solemnely protest that we entertaine a holy and brotherly Communion with them And if they be like affected towards us with what reason then and equitie doe the German Churches deprive themselves of that brotherly Communion one with another which yet they are not afraid to entertaine with forraigne Churches What therefore Moses said long since to the two Israelites that were striving together the same may truly be said to the Germane Churches quarrelling and contending one with another but cannot so truely be disproved Sirs yee are brethren why doe yee wrong one to another 5 Last of all that which all good men are bound to beg of Almighty God in their prayers to him questionlesse they are bound likewise to imploy their best care and endeavours for the procuring of it Now who is there that doe's not daily solicite God for the flourishing and peaceable estate of his Church Who is there that make's it not a part of his daily prayers that God would be pleased to remove out of the way whatsoever doth disquiet and disturbe her peace or any way let and hinder her spirituall growth and edification This was King David's wish it should be the wish of all good Princes and Divines and generally of all Christians Neither did David wish onely the happinesse and prosperity of Gods Church but hee carefully sought to doe it good and as much as in him lay he did procure and effect it All this was but duty in him to doe and can it be lesse then dutie in us And here I should but trifle away the time should I goe about to play the Oratour and expresse at large to the Germane Churches the blessings that accompany Peace Unitie the many miseries calamities of a long-continued Schisme and Division That speech of Prudentius is a most certaine trueth scissura domestica turbat Rem populi titubatque foris quod dissiditiktùs civill and intestine broiles alwaies prove the undoing of a people nor doe things ever goe right abroad when there is dissention at home What may make most for the good and advantage of their Churches let it be their care to consider and resolve this with themselves that what ever it be it is not onely to be sought after with their prayers but with the utmost diligence and endeavours of every one of them in particular Neither let any unexperienced men amongst them thinke or hope that they shall ingratiate themselves with Papists and so live more peaceably by them and suffer lesse harme from them by refusing to enter into freindship and fellowship with Calvinists as they terme them What is to be hoped for expected from them we may learne from Osiander Papists saith he spare neither Lutherans nor Zuinglians but condemne both of them to fire and faggot in all those places where the Pope that raging and ravenous beast of Rome beare's rule and sway They that are most in favour with them can at best but hope for that kindnesse from them which Vlysses in Homer obtained of Polyphemus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be devoured last after he had lookt on and seene all his freinds and companions devoured before him They will perhaps destroy the Calvinists first but the Lutherans must look to follow after them none are like to escape in the end if once the Papists have them at their mercy What hitherto hath been said is to show that a Communion and Reconciliation of the Germane Churches is a thing not only possible but in obedience to Gods commandement a necessary
that this Union of the Reformed Churches we speake of is not a thing impossible is confirmed further from that agreement amongst the Polonian Churches begun of late at Sendomire ever since carefully by them kept and observed it is true they could not bury all controversies but they could banish all contentions and establish so perfect a peace as that they refused not to admit of each other into their publike Congregations to the preaching of the word and Administration of the Sacraments Which holy brotherly concord of those Churches that most wise Prince Lodowick Electour and Count Palatine did not only by his letters to them congratulate but desired of Almighty God in his prayers that the Germane Churches also might be blessed with it What therefore was long since said to that blessed peace-maker King Solomon concerning the building of the Temple at Jerusalem the same say I to all moderate and peaceable Divines concerning the uniting of the Reformed Churches arise yee Worthies and be doing and the Lord will be with you Never despaire but that may be now effected which all men will grant hath been done heretofore But least this groundlesse bugbeare of a fancied impossibility should yet slacken the endeavours either of Princes or Divines or any other pious and well affected Christians and deterre them from proceeding herein I will recount all those lets and hinderances which render the peace and union of Churches utterly impossible to be obtained from whence it will easily appeare that there 's no one of them here to hinder why the Germane Churches notwithstanding some points of difference amongst them may not setle a firme peace amongst themselves and being once setled preserve it inviolable Now the first and maine Obstacle that hinders those Churches which agree not in all points of Religion from entertaining a Communion amongst themselves is the usurping and exercising of a tyrannicall power and authority one over another For if any one Church will take upon her to domineer and lord it over the faith of other Churches so as not to acknowledge any for her brethren nor admit of any into her fellowship and Communion but such onely as will be content to beleive and speak just as shee will have them all hope is then taken away of ever obtaining or preserving any agreement in any differences or disputes whatsoever For the sacred Scriptures forbid us thus to enslave our selves to any humane authoritie and our sole Lord and Master Christ Jesus forbid's us to acknowledge any upon earth for a Lord over our Faith and Conscience and that Church which enter's into a Communion with another upon these termes doth not hereby purchase a Peace but rather resigne's up her selfe to a most unjust slavery Onely the Church of Rome is come to that height of pride madnesse that she will take upon her to exclude from the communion of Saints damne to the pit of Hell all such Churches as will not submit their necks to that Antichristian yoake of absolute and blind obedience God of his goodnes ever keep off this Popish folly and fury from setting foot in the Protestant Churches which if it should once take place that union of our Churches which we are all bound to pray for would bee no longer either to be hoped or wisht for But blessed be God for it it is well known there 's not any of the Reformed Churches but doe from their soules detest and abhorre all such Antichristian ambition and desire of Soveraignety And thus have I removed out of the way the maine Obstacle which usually occasion's a perpetuall division rent betwixt such Churches as differ in some points and thereby make's an union of those Churches to become impossible A second let or hinderance which may render the said union of different Churches for example the Saxon and Helvetian Churches impossible is the approbation and practice of Jdolatry in the one the utter detestation of it in the other That of the Prophet Hosea is well knowne though Israel play the harlot yet let not Judah offend come yee not unto Gilgal neither goe yee up to Beth-aven Likewise also that of the Apostle what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols And a number of places more to the same purpose Neither is that saying of Tertullian touching this matter unworthy our observation Idolatry saith he is become the grand and generall sin of whole mankinde the Epidemicall disease of the whole world Since therefore God so severely chargeth us to keepe our selves from Idols all kinde of Idolatry though never so speciously colour'd over wee may well call that morally impossible which cannot be performed without some staine and tincture of Idolatry and without a high and hainous offence against the sacred Majestie of God Here then we may behold that grand let whereby the Reformed Churches to their great greife of heart are forced to shunne a Communion with the Church of Rome For so farre in love is shee with her Idolls and so rigorously doth shee impose the worshipping of them upon all her children that no man can be admitted into her Communion at least not continue in it unlesse he will become a notorious and down-right Idolater If the case so stood that the Germane Churches could not enter into and enjoy a blessed Unity and Peace one with another except they must be required and bound either to practise an Idolatrous worship or at the least to beleive and professe that such practice is not unlawfull I would not stick to affirme that a Communion which cannot be had but upon such hard conditions is indeed impossible to bee had since as Lawyers use to speake wee can doe onely so much as may lawfully be done by us And here we have just cause to blesse God that the Reformed Churches although they have not the happinesse to agree in all matters of lesser moment yet doe they all of them by his grace unanimously conspire joyne together against Idolatry so as not onely to condemne but also to beat downe and abolish it insomuch that if at this very houre they were all disposed and desirous to joyne hands and strike a league of amity and union it might be done without any the least danger of Idolatry Away then with that pretended impossibility of a Reconciliation grounded upon the perill of Idolatry nor let any such false surmises weaken the heart or hands of any religious Christian from going on with so good a worke The third last Obstacle which doth block up the way to an union render's it impossible is the differing of severall Churches about some fundamental point of Faith necessary to be knowne and beleived by every christian upon paine perill of eternall damnation so as that the one side doth solidly hold and maintaine it the other heretically denie's and oppose's it For to be at peace with Heretickes who goe about to undermine and subvert the
duty It now remaine's that J proceed to set downe the way and meanes whereby such a Reconciliation may be compassed and the rents and distractions of the said Churches may with most conveniencie and speed bee made up which I shall doe rather to testifie that vehement desire zeale which I have to so good a work than out of any opinion that those famous Churches which alwaies have abounded with store of learned and pious Divines can any way stand in need of advice herein from me or any other forraigne Divine whatsoever Seeing therefore that the fore-mentioned Controversies may be agitated either betwixt severall and distinct Churches whereof one is no way subordinate to the other or else betwixt such particular men as are members of the same Church and subjects to one the same Prince J will speak first of divers Churches independent one upon another and afterwards of particular men in one the same Church and show how Peace and Unitie may be made and preserved amongst them For the first I conceive there 's no readier and better way for reducing of two different Churches to the same Communion than is that usuall one of procuring a faire and peaceable Conference amongst Divines of both sides authorised and appointed there unto by their Princes For if any one imagine that a Councell being once held of all the Reformed Churches there will out of hand within the compasse of some few moneths or yeares yea or in one age an end be put to all disputes whatsoever which have of a long time troubled and busied the Learned so as that they shall all joyne and agree in the same opinion about all such points of controversie this with submission to better judgements seemes to me very unlikely For so dull and dim-sighted is the eye of our understanding that it can hardly peirce into the depth of such subtle and intricate Questions no not when it is alone free and undisturbed in it's contemplations but being distracted by the stirs tumults of disputation so far unable are we to penetrate into the quick of them that many times we cannot so much as discerne and perceive them no not when we look upon them with a fixt and steddy eye And to speak plainly what I conceive in this matter the cheife use of Councells especially of Generall Councells is to maintaine and defend those necessary and plaine points of Faith against the oppositions of Hereticks rather than to discusse or determine nice controversies of lesser moment and use To returne then to that faire freindly Conference which but now I commended for the likeliest and fittest meanes of obtaining an Union if it could be undertaken with such an intention mannaged in such sort as it ought to be wee have good cause to hope that we shall in a short time see a blessed Peace and Union established amongst the Germane Churches This therefore must carefully be remēbred by all such as shall be present parties to such a Meeting that the end why they are called together is not that like Adversaries they should strive for the mastery but rather that they should like Brethren search out and make use of all lawfull and warrantable meanes for the setling of Peace and Unitie For if once they fall a crossing and contending one with another they will never be able to perswade much lesse to procure any agreement betwixt such Churches as are at ods and opposition Let them therefore carefully keep off and forbeare to enter the intricate Labyrinths of ordinary disputes let their meeting aime at this one end to make it appeare to their Churches how that there 's no just cause why they should any longer stand out and refuse to joyne hands and be united To effect this let it in the first place be set downe how farre the Church Catholike hath declared herselfe in each Controversie what hath been by her defined and required to be beleived generally by all sub Anathemate For about points fundamentall there may sometimes arise such doubts and disputes as are no way fundamentall and such as that the ancient Fathers of the Church had they been raised in their times would never have attempted a decision of them to the hazard of breeding or fostering a Schisme betwixt severall Churches For instance that God is One in Essence and Three in Persons distinguished one from another that the Sonne is begotten of the Father that the holy Ghost is the Spirit of both Father and Sonne that these three Persons are coeternall and coequall all these are fitly determined and reckoned in the number of Fundamentalls but now if any man should peremptorily affirme and maintaine that all those Schoole-nicities touching the manner of the Sonne 's generation and the procession of the holy Ghost are likewise fundamentall and of equall necessity with the former ought to be determined one way that man should deserve but litle thanks from Christ and his Church by such his rash and inconsiderate assertion So likewise that our Lord Jesus Christ is both God and Man that he hath both natures divine and humane inseparably united in one Person and that we have salvation onely by this God incarnate all this is fundamentall or rather 't is that firme immoveable foundation whereon the whole Catholike saving Faith is built but yet notwithstanding we must not think that whatsoever may be questioned and debated about the ineffable manner of that union betwixt the two natures or the manner how his body is present in the blessed Sacrament as also concerning the Communication of Properties unto the humane nature by vertue of its union with the Divinity or touching the actions and operations of his Humanity depending upon the said Union wee must not I say imagine that all these belong to Fundamentall Faith but rather to Theologicall Science or perhaps not so neither but onely to the vaine curiosity of some particular Divines Let them therefore make this their first and maine businesse carefully to distinguish betwixt fundamentall points and others that are not so and let them not think that whatsoever is appendant and bordering upon a fundamentall point must therefore forthwith be it selfe fundamentall When this is once done their next care must be that these fundamentalls be expressed and published after a breife and perspicuous manner and propounded to the publike acceptation and approbation of all the Churches Certa semper sunt in paucis saith Tertullian certaine and undoubted Trueths are not many and they are such as may be delivered in a few words whatsoever is necessary for a Christian man's salvation to be knowne by him and whatsoever is conducible to render us holy or eternally happy it is all of it plaine and obvious Here 's no use either of subtle acute distinctions or of any long and tedious explications which are oftimes used not for the building up of Christians in the fundamentall faith but rather to favour
infirmities of the weake not to please our selves That Church therefore doe's but too much please indulge her selfe which despise's other Churches as unworthy of her fellowship and communion not for any Tyranny that they exercise nor any Idolatry which they approve or practise nor any damnable Heresie which they maintaine but meerely for some mistakes or infirmity of their knowledge This was not the practice of the Fathers in the Primitive Church whose care and diligence in procuring preserving Peace amongst particular Churches disperst and scattered over the whole world stand's upon record in Ecclesiasticall Storie and may be observed in each severall age of the Church But of all other that of Optatus Milevita nus fit's best to our purpose that all the Churches throughout the whole world were by the help and entercourse of those letters by them called Formatae kept in one Communion and fellowship Now those Formatae or Synodicall letters contained nothing at all save onely a bare Confession of the Catholike Faith delivered in their generall Creeds and breifely explained afterwards in opposition to some Heretickes by the unanimous consent of the Church universall met together in generall Councells held at Nice Chalcedon and other places As for those infinite other questions which might be raised and debated amongst private Doctours of each side no Church ever required or expected from others an absolute universall consent therein For if such an universall agreement in all points had been deemed so necessary as that Unity Peace could not possibly have been maintained betwixt particular Churches without it there would then have been more need of huge and high-swollne Volumes of Controversies than of such breife Confessions and Synodicall letters as they made use of for that purpose But if wee refuse to learne of the ancient Fathers of the Church yet let us at length learne thus much from our very adversaries that it is not a thing impossible for severall Churches to live charitably and peaceably together and use the same Service and Sacraments although they differ one from another about some Controversies wherein 't is meerely in vaine ever to look for an universall agreement To say nothing of the contentions betwixt the Thomists and Scotists neither of those between the Dominicans and Jesuites there is one controversie hotly and violently disputed amongst Popish Churches which if taken single and by it selfe is of greater moment than all ours put together I meane that concerning the Infallible Judge in all matters of Faith The Churches of Spaine and Italy will have the Pope to be this supreme Judge authorised by Christ himselfe and so farre illuminated and assisted with an infallible Spirit as that he cannot possibly erre in such Decrees and Determinations as hee give's out with an intention to binde the whole Church On the other side the French Churches deny the Pope any such priviledge throwing him downe from his Chaire of Infallibility and making him liable to errour as well as other men so farre forth that should he refuse to submit to the authoritie and judgement of a generall Councell either in matters of Faith or of Practice they will tell you he 's to be esteemed a Schismaticke and a Hereticke and to be deposed thereupon Behold here a great difference amongst them about the very foundation and the maine pillar of the whole Catholike Faith And yet notwithstanding this so great a variety of opinions they still hold together all of them in one and the same brotherly communion O for Sion's sake let it not be told in Gath nor published in the streets of Ashkelon that the Philistines should be better affected and more desirous of Peace and Unity amongst themselves than the Israel of God is â—ast of all if an union may not consist with a diversity of Opinions in some controversies of lesser moment I would gladly that any man would show me but two Churches in the whole Christian world except they be such whereof one is subordinate to the other which must not necessarily hereupon be divided and as it were by a wall of partition separated froÌ„ each other Unlesse therefore we will grant that a separation from other Churches is not to be made save onely upon a difference in Fundamentalls the Communion of the Church Catholike aunciently so much famed and talked of will be found in the end to be nothing else but an aery and empty sound or name void of all trueth and reality The Donatists of old were wont to say that the Church was perished from off the whole earth save onely from the part of Donatus in whom alone they said it was preserved and our adversaries of Rome herein right Donatists tell us that the Church Catholike is of no larger extent than the Romane As for our selves it become's and behove's us to detest this Schismaticall and factious humour and to foster and cherish a brotherly Communion with all such Christian Churches as neither Heresie nor Idolatry hath cut off from Christ our head and such as have not exercised any usurped Tyranny over other Churches All that hath hitherto beene said touching the lets hinderances which render a Communion of severall Churches impossible as also touching diversity of Opinions which may well consist with such a Reconciliation aymes at this that if once it were agreed upon amongst Divines that all those controversies whereabout the Reformed Churches have of a longtime busied and wearied themselves are of that nature that a man may safely be of either opinion and still remaine in Christ holding the substance of saving Faith without incurring any damnable Heresy then must we needs grant that an union and agreement amongst all Protestant Churches may be made and maintained notwithstanding all such Controversies as being indeed not so properly any differences of our Churches as of our Schooles It is not my purpose to enter the lists of those Controversies onely I doe pray and earnestly intreat those learned reverend Divines of Germany that laying aside all passion partialitie they would in the spirit of meeknesse calmely and candidly discusse all those severall controversies which are agitated amongst them for if once we let loose the raines to Passion Judgement must needs give place The maine controversie and which indeed is the fountaine from whence all the rest in a manner are derived is that which stands yet undecided concerning the manner how Christ's body and blood are present in the Eucharist Touching which point the learned a Bucer having well waighed the matter give's in at last this verdict that they agreed in the thing it selfe all the difference was meerely in words and manner of expression 'T was once the speech of b Luther if you beleive teach that in the holy Supper the very body and the very blood of Christ is offered given and received and not the bare signes of bread and wine and that such receiving thereof is true and
reall not imaginary onely the strife betwixt us is ended At that very same time c Bucer his Adherents granted that the very body and blood of our Lord is offered given and received together with the visible signes of bread and wine Iacobus Andreae saith we neither hold with the Capernaites nor admit of Popish Transubstantiation nor maintaine we any Physicall or locall presence and inclusion of Christs body and blood in the blessed Sacrament nor doe we by those words substātially corporally orally understand any thing else but only a true reall presence and participation of his body and blood in this Sacrament Now let us heare the judgement of the Helvetians herein Although they deny that there 's any Transubstantiation of the Elements or any locall inclusion of Christ's body in the bread or any Conjunction of his body and blood with the outward elements remaining after the Sacrament is ended yet they willingly grant that by vertue of a mysticall sacramentall union the bread is Christ's body that his body is truely present and received together with the bread J doe not knowe what two things can possibly be more like than is this Opinion of the Helvetians with that of the Lutherans But if any man suspect that there may privily lurke a diversity of meanings under these so-concording expressions yet are we still to urge and enquire whether that diversity be such and so great as to render the Peace and Union of those Churches utterly impossible and to give just occasion for a perpetuall rent and division amongst them I assure my selfe learned judicious Divines when they are out of the heat of Controversy and look indifferently into the matter will think farre otherwise of it Now as for those other Controversies concerning the ubiquity of Christ's body the Communication of Properties other such like all springing from that former touching the Sacrament he that doth seriously ponder with himselfe what is granted and what denied of each side will easily perceive that neither the one nor the other doth so much as call in question much lesse oppose or overthrow any necessary and fundamentall point of Faith since both sides hold and professe whatsoever the Church Catholike in her Creeds and Generall Councells hath declared to be beleived in these points and whatsoever hath been by her in like manner condemned as erroneous is equally rejected by both But yet notwithstanding all this that we see now and then some men catching at consequences and taking advantage from thence to charge Heresy one upon another it is a matter that deserve's not so much our wonder as our pitty we all of us know 't is the common custome of hot and eager disputants especially when through long agitation of the matter they are inflamed with choller and passion and besides I have already showne in breife what we are to think of such Heresies as are fastned upon men meerely for such consequences as they themselves neither apprehend nor grant For the present this alone may suffice to show the Possibility of a Reconciliation that there 's no one Opinion expresly maintained by either side which is directly contrary to the substance of Faith or destructive of Salvation salutis devoratorium to make use of Tertullian's expression nay whatsoever is such is plainly and expresly condemned by both If of later times any new Differences have been raised amongst those Churches touching Predestination Freewill and the like these can no way be made a sufficient ground of Schisme and separation betwixt them For in all these there is nothing of fundamentall and necessary beleife save onely this that the free grace goodnesse of God in the Predestination of miserable men in the conversion of sinfull men in the freeing of their captivated wills in a word in the finall Perseverance and Salvation of his Elect be so farre forth acknowledged and extoll'd as that whatsoever makes any way for the enstating of them in grace and glory and whatsoever is done by them in reference thereunto all must be ascribed to the speciall grace and mercy of Almighty God on the contrary whatsoever concerne's the corruption of man's nature his obstinacie in sinne the pravitie and servitude of his corrupt will in short whatsoever praecipitate's plunge's wretched men into Hell and everlasting perdition all this we must thank our selves our sins for by no meanes impute any part of it to God So long as these things stand firme and unshaken as without doubt they doe though in the meane time their manner of apprehensions and expressions yea though their Opinions be different in other points which are onely superstructions and belong not to the foundation yet are not these of such moment as that a perpetuall Breach and Division should be made and continued betwixt whole Churches for such petty matters If therefore this were but once agreed upon amongst Divines that their jarres and contentions are not nor ever were about any fundamentall points and such as are of absolute necessity to be known and beleived by all that will be saved then must it also be granted for a manifest trueth that 't is no way impossible but an agreement and Communion may be established this dangerous Schisme utterly rooted out and a blessed Peace setled and preserved amongst the German Churches And thus having proved that a Reconciliation is possible it remaine's that in the next place we consider whether or no Princes Doctors and Pastors of Gods Church and in generall all Christians bee not bound in duty by the law of God every man to endeavour according to his utmost power and ability that such an union may with all convenient speed be setled and established amongst the Reformed Churches 1 And that all men are so bound seeme's to be intimated by that of S. Paul which I alledged before if it be possible as much as in you lie's live peaceably with all men If so great care and diligence must be had to maintaine a civill and externall peace with all sorts of men then surely a spirituall Ecclesiasticall peace amongst Christians is much rather to be sought after and preserved where therefore there is no utter impossibility to hinder why such an Union may not be obtained such men can in no wise be excused who either out of negligence or wilfulnesse disobey the Commandements of God herein Nor can any man justly here pretend that Discords and diversities of Opinions cannot as yet be composed and setled for if it be possible that the Schisme it selfe the Rent betwixt these Churches may be taken away as without all question it may I had rather that a mil-stone were hanged about my neck and that I were drowned in the depth of the Sea than that I should willingly be any hinderance to so good a work so well-pleasing to God and so necessary to the removall of Scandall nay than that I should not with my whole
Divines should be summoned and sought for by Invitatory Letters that the freindly laudable Conference which was begun at Liâ—swich should be reassumed and prosecuted with like modesty as it had formerly been be gun that all such Diâ—ines of note eminence as cannot be present at that meeting should send over their Opinions and advice that all the Fundamentalls of Religion necessary for Salvation should be determined and all other Points laid aside and turned over to the Schooles if need should require that in the meane time men's tongues and pens should be enjoyned moderation or else silence that lastly publike Prayers should be solemnly made in the Churches of both sides for the successe of this good worke Let but these things be done with an upright heart in the feare of God and wee need not doubt of a happy issue it is God's own Cause he will not be wanting to himselfe For you Mr Dury who have hitherto with such zeale such unwearied paines so many dangers so great charges prosecuted this Designe so well pleasing to God his Angells and men truly you have deserved so well of the whole Church as that all good men must acknowledge themselves much indebted to you Goe on worthy Sir with your great undertakeings and put a period to this good worke or rather may the great God of Heaven Earth doe this for you and us all and may he still preserve and prosper you in these travailes and labours of yours Farewell from Your loving freind JOS EXON THE OPINION OF THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD IAMES USHER Lord Arch-Bishop of ARMAGH and Primate of Ireland with some other Reverend Bishops in IRELAND REverend and much respected Brother in Christ Wee had long since by common consent made ready an Answer to your former Letters which you writ unto us severally some Moneths agon but being desirous to have likewise a generall Subscription to it according to that agreement which should be betwixt fellow-brethren of the Clergy we deferred the sending of it somewhat the longer in hopes of a meeting You desire us now in your second Letter dated from London March 20. that we would give you our Opinion concerning the Conference at Lipswich the rather because that Conference is likely to have some effect and influence upon the busines you have in hand Thus therefore that meeting though it was called for other ends and reasons yet seeing it was holden with such good successe and that the cheife Divines of both sides had so faire freindly a Conference heard one another with such patience parted with such love and brotherly affection it is a very good signe that this matter is from the Lord and from this good beginning who can chuse but hope for a happy and successefull issue But yet notwithstanding they parted differing about three Points it is well that they differd but in three 't is better yet that even in those three Points they agreed in most things and such as are of greatest moment nor was their difference so much about the thing it selfe as about some Formes of expression which for the most part we cannot so easily forget and cast off after we have been long accustomed to them For seeing it is confest on both sides that Christ hath two natures in one person so inseparably united that neither can they be divided nor are they confounded but still remaine distinct and severall without all mixture or aequality so much as of their Properties to what end is it to quarrell about improper and figurative Propositions so likewise in the Eucharist seeing they both agree that the Faithfull doe eat not only the fruit and benefit but the very essence or Substance of Christ's body and that on God's part the Sacraments are exhibited entire perfect the thing signified together with the sign what doe they contending about Hypocrites and unbelievers 't is all one as if Physiâ—ions should fall a disputing about a dead man whether or no the Potion he tooke hath any operation upon him There remaines yet that other much controverted Question touching Praedestination and yet even in this too it would be no hard matter for them to be reconciled were but spleen and partiality laid aside and in the roome thereof a reverent and modest feare how we pry too farre into God's secret Counsells placed and planted seeing the best and ablest Divines of both sides acknowledge that in many Questions about this Mystery we must be faine to take up St Paul's exclamation O the depth and that 't is both lawfull sufficient for them to rest and hold together in those cleare undoubted Trueths namely that the Election of such as shall be saved was made in Christ that the destruction of all such as perish is from themselves that Salvation is from God that Faith yea even foreseen Faith is not from our selves it is the gift of God that we may not boast of any thing seeing we have nothing of our own all must be ascribed to God as S. Cyprian of old devoutly and pithily spake Thus you have both what we hope conceive of the Conference at Lipswich But the most principall and speciall thing which should be earnestly prest and inculcated is this that in Divine matters espocially in such high and difficult mysteries as these are which are rather to be adored than pried into we ought to have a certaine and set Rule to speake by as S. Austin sometimes prudently and piously counselled therefore it would be a very safe and good course for us to refraine from all novell and new-fangled expressions and to confine the liberty of Prophecying to such Formes and Phrases as the holy Scriptures doe furnish us withall It remaines that wee earnestly beseech the God of Peace to bruise Satan under our feet that shortly unto which God we heartily recommend you Reverend Brother rest May 14. Anno 1634. Your most affectionate friends JAMES ARMAGH WILLIAM KILMORE JOHN ARDAGH THE JUDGEMENT OF THE same right Reverend Father the Lord Arch-Bishop of ARMAGH delivered in a Sermon of his preached before K. IAMES at Wansted Iune 20th 1624. IF at this day wee should take a survay of the severall Professions of Christianity that have any large spread in any part of the world as of the Religion of the Romane and the Reformed Churches in our Quarters of the Aegyptians and Aethiopians in the South of the Grecians other Christians in the Easterne parts and should put-by the Points wherein they differ one from another and gather into one body the rest of the Articles wherein they doe all generally agree wee should finde that in those Propositions which without all Controversie are universally received in the whole Christian world so much trueth is contained as being joyned with holy obedience may be sufficient to bring a man unto everlasting salvation Neither have we cause to doubt but that as many as doe walke accorto this
from others or once thought thereupon themselves The generall Doctrine of each severall Church is laid downe and comprised in publike Confessions severall for each side Their's namely the Doctrine of the Lutheran party in the Augustane Confession as they terme it that of the other side in many severall Confessions diversly expressed according to the diversity of Countries and Kingdomes From these are we to judge and esteeme what is held and maintained by both seeing they doe all professe themselves to assent and adhere to these and that they will live dye in this Faith But for ought I know neither doe they so generally approve the writings of Brentius or Chemnitius nor doe these so farre magniâ—ie Piscator or Beza as if they would that whatsoever is affirmed by those men should be admitted and acknowledged as the common and necessary Faith of all Christians Nay so farre are they both of them from this folly that they themselves freely reprove and censure their own men and mark out many passages in their writings as different from the common and received Doctrine of their Church Whence it follow's that the sayings of such men whosoever they be are unjustly and to speake the most favourably of it preposterously fatherd on the whole Church in which they lived And yet notwithstanding what else are all those Tenents with which Protestant Divines cast one another in the teeth with which they upbraid one another as if they were the publike and generall faults of the two adverse parts and for which they so labour to draw one another into envy contempt I say what else are they but the private Positions of some particular Doctors on both sides vented many times either in choler and passion or out of a vehement zeale to maintaine their Cause when they were hard pressed put to it either with the difficulty of the things themselves or the subtilty of an acute adversary and so spake rather out of necessity than judgement and premeditation For truely so sound and untainted are the publike Confessions of our Churches on each side that there is very litle and hardly any thing which either of them can finde wanting in the other's Confession Our Divines in Germany doe commend the Augustane Confession and no doubt but our Brethren the Lutherans will in like manner approve of ours for the farre greater part of it would they but once be pleased to read it over impartially without passion and prejudice Certainly neither in that Confession of theirs shall any man meet with that Vbiquity of Christ's body which wee condemne in Lutheranisme nor in this of ours that Stoicall Fate so much objected against us But a second fault there is very frequent amongst men of both sides and almost hereditary which ought as we conceive with all care and diligence to bee shun'd and avoided in this businesse namely that they who maintaine any Position should not bee thought to hold whatsoever seemes to us to follow thereupon by the rules of disputation For it often fall's out that he who hold's a Principle from which such a Conclusion is inferred may notwithstanding be utterly ignorant of that which is in ferred from his Principle For instance he that first observed the Loadstone to point towards the North Pole did not forth with perceive all the severall experiments that have been afterwards made from thence for the use and benefit of Navigation for Conclusions lye hid and buried in their Principles nor are they deduced thence without some paines and study He therefore who hold's some Principle and withall doth either not heed and regard it or else considers it but with an Intellect which is either dull or prepossessed with anger or affection or some other passion this man from that Principle of his which hee understand's doth not straightway understand whatsoever may be knowne and concluded from it Thus they who live in the Papacy having their mindes bewitched that I may so speake with the authority of their Leaders though they grant with us that the sinnes of men are most fully expiated by that sacrifice offered up by Christ on the Crosse yet can they not hence conclude although it evidently follow hereupon that their Sacrifice of the Altar is vaine and superfluous Now as he who understand's some one Trueth is sometimes ignorant of other Trueths which are consequent thereupon so likewise he who hath some erroneous Opinion must not therefore be thought to hold and maintaine all the absurdities that may be inferred from it for there 's the same account to bee made of consequences either way Thus Tertullian of old and many of the ancient Fathers taught that the humane soule is derived from the Father to the Sonne by way of propagation but that 't is mortall which followes upon the former this they were so farre from granting that they did alwaies expressely deny it As therefore wee doe not say that the Papists doe therefore deny their Sacrifice of the Altar because they grant as we doe the perfection and sufficiency of that Sacrifice which was offered up by Christ on the crosse though in all good consequence this overthrowes that sacrifice of theirs so neither doe we think that Tertullian others of the same Opinion touching the originall of man's soule ought to be charged for holding the Soule to be mortall because this latter errour seeme's to be deducible from the former Now then how extreme faulty in this kinde Divines of both sides have beene who is there that see's not For we commonly charge our Brethren the Lutherans with Eutychianisme though they in the meane time deny and disclaime it because this errour as we think follows upon their Doctrine concerning the Lord's supper they againe on the other side stick not to charge us with I knowe not what monstrous Opinions as if we made God the author of all sin and wickednesse assertions which we justly abhorre tremble at because they perswade themselves that this may be gathered from our Doctrine about God's Praedestination and Providence Wee will not here dispute whether these things be rightly inferred yea or no from our severall Tenents and Opinions on both sides it sufficeth that whatsoever they be whether justly or unjustly pin'd upon our Opinions they are denied by us both nor can we ever be induced by any arguments whatsoever to grant that they are agreeable and consonant to our Faith For so long as this is done as indeed it is it is manifest from what hitherto hath been delivered that neither can they without injustice and calumniation bee charged with Eutychianisme nor we with those monstrous and damnable Opinions although both these errours could by true solid consequence be concluded from our severall Positions which yet neither side will ever confesse for their own part Seeing therefore that all or most of those Doctrines which the one side taxeth in the other as pernicious and such as cannot consist with Salvation are but