fidelity and trustiness of Gods servants faithfully accomplishing the will of our Master is required as a part of our Christian Faith Now all those good things which moral men by the light of Nature do are a part of Gods will written in their hearts wherefore so far as they were conscientious in performing them if Salvianus his reason be good so far have they title and interest in our Faith And therefore Regulus that famous Roman when he endured infinite torments rather then he would break his Oath may thus far be counted a Martyr and witness for the truth For the Crown of Martyrdom sits not onely on the heads of those who have lost their lives rather then they would cease to profess the Name of Christ but on the head of every one that suffers for the testimony of a good conscience and for righteousness sake And here I cannot pass by one very general gross mistaking of our Age. For in our discourses concerning the Notes of a Christian man by what Signes we may know a man to be one of the visible company of Christ we have so tied our selves to this outward profession that if we know no other vertue in a man but that he hath Cond his Creed by heart let his life be never so profane we think it argument enough for us to account him within the Pale and Circuit of the Church on the contrary side let his life be never so upright if either he be little seen in or peradventure quite ignorant of the Mystery of Christ we esteem of him but as dead and those who conceive well of those moral good things as of some tokens giving hope of life we account but as a kind of Maâ—ichecs who thought the very Earth had life in it I must confess that I have not yet made that proficiency in the Schools of our Age as that I could see why the Second Table and the Acts of it are not as properly the parts of Religion and Christianity as the Acts and Observations of the first If I mistake then it is St. Iames that hath abus'd me for he describing Religion by its proper Acts tells us that True Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is To visit the fatherless and the widow in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted of the world So that the thing which in an especial refine Dialect of the new Christian Language signifies nothing but Morality and Civility that in the Language of the Holy Ghost imports true Religion Wherefore any difference that the holy Ghost makes notwithstanding the man of vertuous dispositions though ignorant of the Mystery of Christ be it Fabricius or Regulus or any ancient Heathen man famous for sincerity and uprightness of carriage hath as sure a claim and interest in the Church of Christ as the man deepest skill'd in most certainly believing and openly professing all that is written in the holy Books of God if he endeavour not to shew his faith by his works The Antients therefore where they found this kind of men gladly received them and converst familiarly with them as appears by the friendly entercourse of Epistles of S. Basil with Libanius of Nazianzen and Austin with sundry others and Antiquity hath either left us true or forged us false Epistles betwixt S. Paul himself and Seneca Now as for the admitting of any of these men to the discussing of the doubts in our Religioâ—s Mysteries who either know not or peradventure contemn them there needs not much be said by a Canon of one of the Councels of Carthage it appears it had sometimes been the erroneous practise of some Christians to Baptize the dead and to put the Sacrament of Christs Body into their mouths Since we have confest these men to be in a sort dead as having no supernatural quickening grace from above to put into their hands the handling of the word of life at all much more of discussing of the doubtful things in it were nothing else but to Baptize a carcase and put the Communion bread into the mouth of the dead Wherefore leaving this kind of weak person to your courteous acceptance Let us consider of another one quite contrary to the former a true Professor but a man of prophane and wicked life one more dangerously ill then the former have we any Recipe for this man May seem for him there is no Balm in Gilead he seems like unto the Leper in the Law unto whom no man might draw near And by so much the more dangerous is his case because the condition of conversing with Heathen men be they never so wicked is permitted unto Christians by our Apostle himself whereas with this man all commerce seems by the same Apostle to be quite cut off For in the 1 Cor. 6. St. Paul having forbidden them formerly all manner of conversing with Fornicators infamous persons and men subject to grievous crimes and considering at length how impossible this was because of the Gentiles with whom they lived and amongst whom necessarily they were to converse and trade he distinguishes between the fornicators of this world and the fornicators which were Brethren I meant not saith the blessed Apostle expounding himself that ye should not admit of the fornicators of this world that is such as were Gentiles for then must ye have sought a new world So great and general a liberty at that time had the world assumed for the practise of that sin of Fornication that strictly to have forbidden them the company of fornicatours had almost been to have excluded them the society of mankind But saith he If a brother be a fornicatour or a thief or a railer with such a one partake not no not so much as to eat Wherefore the case of this person seems to be desperate for he is not onely mortally sick but is bereft of all help of the Physician Yet notwithstanding all this we may not give him over for gone for when we have well search'd our boxes we shall find a Recipe even for him too Think we that our Apostles meaning was that we should acquaint our selves onely with the good and not the bad as Physicians in the time of Pestilence look onely to the sound and shun the diseas'd Our Saviour Christ familiarly converst eat and drank with Publicanes and sinners and gives the reason of it because he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Is Christ contrary to Paul This reason of our Saviour concerns every one on whom the duty of saving of Souls doth rest It is the main drift of his message and unavoidably he is to converse yea eat and drink with all sorts of sinners even because he is to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance Necessary it is that some means be left to reclaim notorious offenders let their disease be never so dangerous Nescio an in extremis aliquid tentare medicina sit certe nihil tentare perditio est Who
parts of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of piety that cost them nothing but hardly shall ye draw them on to any part of piety that doth require but the cost of an half-peny Beloved we that have the oversight of ye in Christ are witnesses of your labour of frequenting of prayers of hearing of thirsting after Sermons all this is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you are very free of it because it costs you nothing but we would be very glad and should give up our account with much more joy might we but understand a little more of that part of piety which consists in bestowing of these good blessings which godliness I doubt not hath gained you Seldome speaks the Scripture of laying up for this is a thing which of our selves we can fast enough practise there needs no great pains to teach where Scholars are so willing to learn But Scripture oftentimes and earnestly deals with us concerning the laying them out as being an hard lesson and long we are a learning it To use them that they may steed us in our last and greatest extremities with them to purchase us freinds that shall receive us into their eternal Tabernacles this indeed is to make true profit of them and this is performed by godliness alone In the first profit of piety namely of bringing in unto us the things of this world godliness hath others that partake with her For honest labour and industry is a thing so pleasing unto God that he gives it a blessing in the meer Moral and Heathen man Impossible it is that a diligent man should not thrive be the man what he will But this second profit of laying them out to make them eternally profitable unto us by charitable dispending them this we owe alone to godliness Beloved of a Christian man's labour and industry there is a double profit one from men and another from God alone In the first the world with godliness may have a great share but in the second it hath no part at all Godliness in the first can bear a great stroke but it wholly and solely effects the second Thirdly there is yet a further profit of godliness which doth accrue unto us For it makes to men not onely their wealth and riches profitable unto them but likewise all those inward endowments of body and soul which God bestows upon men For whereas there are in us as we are meer natural men and strangers unto the covenant of grace many excellent things without godliness they are all nothing worth In the fall of our first Parents some things we did utterly lose and some excellent things did still remain but the profit of them was quite lost They are unto natural men now as the Rain-bow was unto the world before the Floud the same still but of no use It is a wonderful thing to see what gifts of wisdom of temperance of moral and natural conscience of justice of moral uprightness do remain not onely in the Books and Writings but even in the Lives and conversations of many Heathen men utterly devoid of the true knowledge of God yet what profit reap'd they of these things since all the good that doth remain in the natural man can never further him one foot for the purchasing his eternal good Suppose ye unto your selves some such man as Epictetus was let him have all graces that are piety onely excepted let him wear out himself with studies pine himself with temperance keep his hands clean from corruption his heart from unchaste desires Nay yet more let us add unto these the patient enduring of all disgrace of loss of goods of banishment yea of torment of body for Goodness sake For so we find that not onely Christianity but even Moral goodness amongst Heathen men sometimes endured a persecution Our Books are full of the commendation of Regulus a famous Roman who did undergo a kind of Moral Martyrdom for his conscience sake and with great patience for a long time all the unspeakable torments of body which a most cruel perfidious and bloudy people could lay upon him onely because he would not break his Oath Let us I say suppose some one man in whom all these things concurre and what shall these profit him when having put off this body of flesh he shall find one and the same place provided for him and the wickedest wretch that ever lived Indeed I cannot think that in this one place there is the same degree of punishment inflicted upon Epictetus and Regulus and upon Nero and Iulian. The Gospel distinguishes and tells us that there is a servant that shall be beaten with many stripes and a servant that shall be beaten with few stripes All these great graces in Heathen men may serve to lighten their weight of punishment to diminish their number of stripes they may procure them less inconvenience but they bring them no positive profit at all Add but onely godliness to these things and forthwith they shall become exceeding profitable This alone is that which gives them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a loveliness and beauty which is of force to attract and draw the favour of God unto them Those natural graces they are at the most onely as it were the matter and body of a Christian man a thing of it self dead without life but the soul and life that quickens this body is godliness They are of the same kindred and brotherhood with godliness and God is the common Father unto them all yet without godliness they find no entertainment at God's hands As Ioseph said unto his brethren Ye shall not see my face unless your younger brother be with you The same is the countenance of God towards these they shall never come to have any part of that blessed Vision of God wherein all happiness doth consist except this Brother be with them And as the same Ioseph when his brethren came to him accompanied with their brother Benjamin gave portions to every one of them but Benjamin's part was five times more then theirs so when these shall come to appear before God accompanied with this Brother they shall every one of them receive worthy portions from him for Godliness sake but the portion of Godliness shall be five times more then any of the rest Fourthly and last of all there is yet one further profit of Godliness For whereas hitherto we have shewed that godliness makes that which we do possess profitable unto us it shall now appear that godliness makes even the want of them advantagious unto us That which makes all things profitable unto us that makes even Nothing it self profitable so that in respect of godliness it is alike gainful unto us either to enjoy the things of the world or not to have them For I verily perswade my self that it is as meritorious if I may use the word as great a part of Religious Worship to know how to want these things for God's sake as to know how to abound and
require answer I will take up in order as they lie in the Paper And first I find one phrase of speech which is very predominant and runs almost through the veins of the Discourse it is this That Christians loath Christians abhor men women and children cry out against such kind of Marriages But who are those Christians of whom he speaks If he means the better sort of Learned and Iudicious Divines he is certainly deceived for I have shewed already the contrary and let him for any information if he can produce for himself some one Protestant Learned Divine If he mean some of the ordinary sort I answer 't is the fault of their Guides who ought better to have informed them And whereas toward the latter end of the Discourse we are told of a dying woman afflicted in conscience because she had married her Cousin First I ask of what weight the judgment of a silly woman is Secondly I answer that this proves not the thing to be unlawful Now let our Acts be what they will good or bad yet if we do them supposing them to be unlawful we sin It is a Ruled Case amongst the Canonists Conscientia erronea ligat habentem He that doth a good action taking it to be unlawful to him it is unlawful If therefore against her conscience though peradventure mis-informed she married her Cousin she deserved the torment of mind and yet Marriage between Cousin-germans may be lawful enough Wherefore I pray you advise those concerning whom this question is proposed that if they find in themselves any doubt concerning the lawfulness of the action they forbear to attempt it until all scruple be removed But I see that the main foundation of this discourse is laid in these words of Moses You shall not approach to any that is near of kin to uncover her nakedness where by near of kin First and Second Cousins amongst the rest are thought to be meant For answer to which we say That the enumeration of particulars which Moses in that place maketh is a sufficient comment upon those words and those who are reckon'd up expresly together with all others in whom the same reason is found are to be esteemed for near of Kin and besides them no other I say those in whom the same reason is found Because some Degrees there are which are not mentioned by Moses and yet are confessed to be prohibited It is not forbidden a woman to marry her mother's sister's husband yet it is not lawful for the man is forbidden to marry his father's brother's widow Now the samo reason is there betwixt a man his father's brother's widow which is betwixt a woman and her mother's sister's husband and therefore both are understood as alike forbidden though both be not alike expressed But for a full answer to these words I refer the Authour of this Discourse to Francisc. Hottoman a learned Civilian and an earnest Protestant who in his disputation de jure Nuptiarum cap. 6. hath these words Qui vero propinquorum numero sint non cujusque hominis nati sed solius dei judicium est qua de causa eadem lege illos ordine nominatim enumerat ut facile intelligatur quos non enumerat propinquorum numero habendos non esse quoniam ut dici solet quod le ge prohibitoria vetitum non est per missum intelligitur Now the better to work us to a conceit that such marriages are unlawful the examples of the Gentiles are called to help and we are informed that Plutarch a grave Writer tells us of one who was greatly endangered by marrying his Cousin-german certainly it was great want of examples which moved the Gentleman to make choice of this A worse for his purpose he could not easily have found For indeed it is true that Plutarch tells us that some one who or when he tells not was publickly question'd for it but withall he tells us that he was absolved and a Law made that for ever after no man should be question'd for so doing More of these examples were not likely much to prejudice our cause For certainly they that absolved the party and made a Law that no man ever after should be molested on the like occasion in likelihood could do it upon no reason but upon conceit that the accusation was founded upon an errour But what the authority of Plutarch cannot do that peradventure the judgment of St. Ambrose St. Augustine St. Gregory and no less then Ten Councils will effect for all these are brought and urged to discountenance all marriage betwixt near Cousins First for St. Ambrose and St. Austine no marvel if they speak suspiciously concerning this kind of Marriages since they lived at the time when the Law made by Theodosius in prejudice of them was as yet unrepealed Indeed St. Ambrose would make us believe that such Marriages are against the Law of God but in that point he was deceived St. Austine speaks more cautelously concerning this kind of marriages and acknowledging that by the Law of God they were permitted observes that they had been but lately prohibited by humane Authority And as for St. Gregory it is well known that the Bishops of Rome had already began to enlarge their Phylacteries and taken upon them to make Laws faâ— more then they needed and now looking bigger then their Fellows All Councils especially in the West were made with some respect to what they had decreed No marvel therefore if so many Councils are brought to cry down Marriages with First and Second Cousins which the Popes had already discountenanced we should rather much have marvelled if any Council had appeared in favour of them All therefore that these Councils have said in this point is in a sort to pass for nothing else but the will of the Bishop of Rome to which how much we are to attribute I leave to the Authour of the Discourse to judge And should we attribute any thing to St. Gregory his greatest Authority makes nothing against our cause For he in his Answer to Austin our English Prelate forbids the Laws onely against First Cousins against Second and Third he hath no quarrel nay his words sound quite contrary Vnde necesse est saith he ut in tertia which is the case vel in quarta generatione Fideles sibi licite Conjungantur So that this Authority of St. Gregory may well enough return to the place where it was taken for any harm it is likely to do The same may be said to St. Ambrose and St. Austine that in the case they may be admitted without any danger For what they say concerns onely First Cousins which falls a Degree short of the case There is yet one reason of some consequence remains For we are informed that it must needs be that Marriage betwixt First Cousins is forbidden because a Degree farther off is forbidden For this purpose we are ask'd Is not thy Father's Brother's Widow farther off then thy
me not no Church either Ancient or Modern ever gave When it was objected what if they were in danger of death their answer was that the want of Baptism would not prejudice them with God except we would determine as the Papists do that Baptism is necessary to salvation Which is as much to undervalue the necessity of Baptism as the Church of Rome doth over-value it Here followed a recitation of all that had been done since the business of the Catechism had been set on foot amongst the rest was registred the exceptions of the Remonstrants of Vtrecht and it was added atque iis est à Praeside satisfactum Those of Vtrecht excepted against that word satisfactum they had said they an answer given them but no satisfaction For they persisted in their former opinion and forthwith that word was altered Here was a doubt moved whether it were not fit that some of the especial Reasons brought by the Synod in the Question of the Baptism of Infants should not be added to the Decree It was answered That Reasons were obnoxious to cavil and exceptions and it was not for the Authority of the Synod to Reason but to Decree After this the Praeses signified to the Synod that the time prefixt for the appearance of the Remonstrants was now expiring and yet nothing was signified concerning their appearance neither to the Secular President nor Ecclesiastical Wherefore naming them all he thought good to cite them to appear It was answer'd by those of Vtrecht that they did provide and would shortly be forth coming In the mean while to take up the time Mr. Praeses thought good to commend to the Synod the consideration redress of those abuses which were in Printing Every man was suffered to print what he listed whence came abundance of blasphemous heretical obscene and scandalous Pamphlets Many here delivered their opinions others required farther time to think of it The English first thought fit that the States General should be requested to take the care of this into their hands That there should be Censors to approve all such Books as should go to the Press That no man should print but such as were known to be of the Reformed Religion Unto this advice divers things were added by others as that there should be a set number of Printers that they should be sworn that there should be certain Laws prescribed unto them that they should print no Heretical Books especially the Books of David Georgius H. Nicolaus Socinus that no Libels no unlawful Pictures either obscene or made to any mans disgrace should be permitted that no Book should be Printed without the names of the Author Printer Place except the Synod or the Magistrates did in some cases otherwise think good that there should be care that the Correctors for the Press were good Scholars and many other things of the like nature Then were there read certain Canons made in some Synods before concerning this business Theodatus of Geneva told us that in his travails at Venice he had observed that there was a Colledge of sundry persons secular and spiritual to whose care was committed all the business of Printing He thought it fit there should be such Colledges here erected When all had spoken that would the Praeses told them that Adrian Smoutius had written a little Book in the Belgick Tongue unto the Synod and sent the Copies of it to him to be distributed And so requesting them to take in good part the good will of the man for want of more business the Synod brake up At length are we coming to the main battel The Armies have been in sight one of another and have had some parly The manner was this Upon Thursday the 6. of Decem. stylo novo The Synod being set in the morning the Praeses signified that there had come unto him in the name of the Remonstrants these four H. Leo Niellius Matthisius and Pinakerus to give notice that the Remonstrants were ready according to their Citation but because they had but lately come unto the Town that yet convenient lodgings were not provided their papers books and stuff were confused therefore they required respite either till Saturday or at least Friday morning The President of the Politicks replyed that they should come and personally make appearance before the Synod and there propose their mind and if the Synod approved their causes they might be deferred Upon this were two of the Deputies of Vtrecht sent forth to give them warning to provide for their present appearance In the mean while till they came the Praeses thought fit that such as in the former Session delivered not themselves concerning the Reformation of abuses in Printing should now doe it Here was little delivered besides what was said the day before only some few particulars as that order should be taken to repress this longing humour in many men of coming to the Press that there should be no impression of the Bible at any time without leave had Forreign Books brought out of other Countries should not be distracted here without peculiar leave after their being perused by the Censurers to ease the Censurers that they might not be troubled with reading too great a multitude of unprofitable Books it was thought fit that the Books should first be brought to the Classes and what they approved should be brought to the Censurers c. In the men while the Remonstrants came all that were cited by Letters and were admitted into the Synod There is in the midst of the Synod-House a long Table set as it seems for them for it hath hitherto been void no man sitting at it here Chairs and Forms being set they were willed to sit down The Praeses told them that he had commended to the Synod their suit of being a little respited but it was the will of the Deputies for the States that they should come before the Synod and propose their cause themselves Episcopius standing up spake to this effect First he prayed God to give a blessing to this meeting and to pour into their minds such conceits as best fitted men come together for such ends then he signified that according to their Citation they were now come ad collationem instituendam concerning that cause which hitherto with a good Conscience they had maintain'd As for the point of delay true it is they spake to the Praeses concerning a respite until Saturday or Friday by reason of that great distraction of their Books and Papers and want of convenient lodging but not as a petition to be moved in that behalf unto the Synod but only as a thing which out of common equity they might have presumed on without acquainting the Synod with it For they were ready even at that present to begin the business they came for without any farther delay But this they left to the Deputies Secular and Ecclesiastical to determine of Then were they requested to withdraw a little into a chamber
and in the name of the Palatine Churches required a Copy of these considerations upon the Catechism We have saith he a command from our Prince to see that nothing be done in prejudice of our Churches The Catechism is ours known by the name of the Palatine Catechism and from us you receiv'd it The Observations therefore upon it concern us we require therefore a draught of them with purpose to answer them and submit our answer to the judgement of the Synod This request of the Palatines was thought very reasonable These Considerations I speak of those on the Confession for those others I saw not are nothing else but Queries upon some passages of the Confession of little or no moment so◠that it seems a wonder unto many how these men which for so many years past in so many of their Books have threatned the Churches with such wonderful discoveries of falshood and error in their Confession and Catechism should at last produce such poor impertinent stuff There is not I perswade my self any writing in the world against which wits disposed to wrangle cannot take abundance of such exceptions After this did the Praeses put the Remonstrants in mind of the judgement of the Synod past upon the manner of propounding their Theses on the Articles Two things there were misliked First their propounding so many Negatives Secondly their urging so much to handle the point of Reprobation and that in the first place whereas the Synod required they should deliver themselves as much as was possible in Affirmatives and begin first from Election and from thence come to the point of Reprobation in its due place He required them therefore to signifie whether they would follow the Judgement of the Synod or their own They answered that they had given up their reasons to justifie their Proceeding and otherwise to proceed their Consciences would not permit them For saith Episcopius the point of Reprobation is that quod maximè nos aegrè habet that he could not endure that Doctrine concerning the absolute Decree of God that God should peremptorily decree to cast the greatest part of mankind away only because he would Corvinus answered that he could not salvâ Conscientiâ versari in Ministerio till that point were cleared Isaacus Frederici that praecipuum momentum was in that question others that in the question of Election they had no scruple all their doubt was in the point of Reprobation and therefore their Conscience would not suffer them to proceed farther in disputation till that matter were discust To this answer was made that the Synod did not refuse to handle the matter of Reprobation but thought it not fit to have it done in the first place But when this would not content them the Praeses proposed unto them whether they were resolved so to proceed or else to relinquish all farther disputation They replyed they resolved to break off all farther Treaty if that matter might not be handled It was told them that it should be treated of in its due place but the question was only de modo procedendi whether they should handle that first or no. Episcopius and some others of them gave answer that for the order they did not precisely stand upon modo de tota re agatur but this answer they stood not unto For when the Praeses told them again that it was the pleasure of the Synod first to handle of Election and then of Reprobation as much as should seem necessary and for the Churches good and withal charged them to answer roundly and Categorically whether they would proceed according to this order they answered No. Then did the Praeses require them to withdraw and give the Synod leave to advise of this The sum of that which past in the mean time was this That their pretence of Conscience was vain since it was not of any thing which concern'd Faith and good manners but only of order and method in disputing which could not at all concern the Conscience that the Disputation must begin from Election First because the order of Nature so requir'd to deal of the Affirmative before the Negative and again because that all Divines who ever handled this Question did hold the same order the Holy Ghost in Scripture had taken the same course That they should be assured in the name of the Synod that they should have liberty to discuss the question of Predestination throughout That whatsoever they pretended yet the true end of their so hotly urging the question of Reprobation was only to exagitate the Contra-Remonstrants Doctrine and to make way for their own Doctrine in point of Election Lydius observed that it had been the custome of all those who favoured Pelagianism to trouble the Church with the question of Reprobation D. Gomarus that saw that his Iron was in the fire for I perswade my self that the Remonstrants spleen is chiefly against him began to tell us that Episcopius had falsified the Tenent of Reprobation that no man taught that God absolutely decreed to cast man away without sin but as he did decree the end so he did decree the means that is as he predestinated man to death so he predestinated him to sin the only way to death ◠and so he mended the question as Tinkers mend Kettles and made it worse than it was before In summe the Synod caused a Decree to be penn'd to this purpose That it should be lawful for the Remonstrants to propose their Doubts both in the Question of Election and Reprobation but for the order in disputation which of the two should come first they should leave that to the Synod who thought it fitter to give than to riceive Laws and that whereas they pretended Conscience it was but vain since there was nothing in Scripture against this Command of the Synod nay that it was more agreeable with Conscience to obey than to withstand Then were the Remonstrants called in and after a short admonition better to advise themselves the Decree of the Synod was read unto them And when they began to urge their Conscience the Praeses Politicus spake to this purpose that there had heretofore been many Decrees made by the Delegates but they had been all neglected he therefore strictly warn'd them that no man should dare to withstand any Decrees either of the Magistrate or of the Synod either by open opposing against it of by sullen silence under pain of penalty according to the will of the Lords When Episcopius had said aegerrimè ferimus and would have said somewhat more he was enjoyn'd silence and so the Session ended Mr. Praeses telling us that the next Session we should come to the question si per Remonstrantes liceret Now concerning Monsieur Moulins Proposals of which your Lordship required to know what I thought I will deliver my self in my next Letter to your Honour In the mean time commending your Honour to Gods good protection I humbly take my leave Dort this