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
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
their best Intentions and Resolutions So that they may easily believe themselves passionately concerned for the love of Truth and the Glory of God whilst all their mighty zeal and passion may be nothing else than Eruptions of pride and vanity And wherever this Delusion rules it is the most impetuous and most importunate Principle in the world No sort of men so boisterous and irresistible as those whose imaginations are overcome with the vehemence of its delight And this is the case of our peevish and Grubstreet Divines they have when time was been looked upon as Authors of esteem and credit in the world and were once admired and applauded for the deep and the solid men of the Age and as they have walked the Streets have sometimes had the pleasure of a this is that Demosthenes from the more knowing and judicious Tankard-bearers And in all Assaults and Challenges from the Enemies of the precisest and most refined sort of Orthodoxy they have been called forth to defend the Cause and in all Tryals of controversial Skill have ever come off with success and victory Truth has always hung upon their Pens and they have been courted and consulted as the Oracles of their Age Learned men have submitted themselves to their Iudgment and their Writings have stood or fell at their Tribunal and in all the nice and more difficult Controversies their Decree has determined what is Orthodox and what Heretical Now these men must needs lye under vehement temptations of being very troublesome and pragmatical and upon every trifling occasion of annoying the publick with perpetual Pamphlets and Scribles And I cannot divine what other provocation Mr. B. had to meddle with Grotius or Bishop Bramhall then that they were learned enough to despise the Ignorance of the highest knowledge that he or any of his Brethren coul'd pretend to And certainly he must have been bravely flusht and perch't in his own conceit that could prevail with himself to venture upon three or four days study to bolt forth such bold and rash censures against two such great Wits and great Scholars Had he then been furnished with Learning enough to understand the vast disproportion between his own and their abilities he would rather have trembled at their Names than have attempted their Reputations Mr. B. must not think himself undervalued by being placed so many degrees below them for alas it is not every Rabbi that is sufficiently qualified to sit at their Feet And I doubt not but the opportunities he has since had to emprove and raise himself to an higher form of Learning have convinced him of the confidence and unadvisedness of that undertaking as the rudeness and extravagance of his own Party has taught him more candour and civility towards the Church of England And therefore this Treatise was not published to impair his E steem in the least but for a Correction of his scribling humour and a warning to their Rat-Divines that are so perpetually nibling and gnawing other mens Writings that by this example they may learn how easie a thing it is to blast such hasty Conceptions and be a little frighted from being so very pert and forward at such uncivil Attempts For upon Perusal of it I cannot imagine any man either so partial or so ignorant as not to grant that our Authour has with Smartness enough and considering all Circumstances Modesty too much not only answered but baffled all such Accusations of his Adversary as are at all material in themselves or pertinent to the Cause and that without condescending to play with him at his Systematical and Push-pin Divinity But the main Reason that put me upon the Publication of it was thereby to give some check to their present disingenuitâ— for though Mr. B. have learnt more modesty then to be so prodigal as formerly in sending abroad his hard â— ensures and positive Decrees against every Body and upon every Occasion yet others that pretend to as great an Interest and Authority with the holy Brotherhood still persevere in the same rudeness and incivility towards the Church of England and upon every flight accident are beating up the Drums against the Pope and Popish Plots they desery Popery in every common and usual chance and a Chimney cannot take Fire in the City or the Suburbs but they are immediately crying Iesuites and Fireballs And as for all those that wear Canonical habits and walk in Cassocks and Girdles they are aâ— least Pensioners to his Holiness and let them protest or pretend what they please they are Popelings in their Hearts and Worshippers of the Beast in secret and own him too shamefully in their open and avowed Practices In so much that the great Scribler of the Party J. O. blushes not to charge them with a total Apostasie from the Reformation and to plead this in justification of their Nonconformity We fear not says Shamefacedness to own that we cannot Conform to Arminianism Socinianism on the one hand he might as well have added all the Isms in the Old Testament Perizzitism Hivitism Jebusitism Hittitism c. or Popery on the other and why not Sorcery and Extortion too with what new or specious Pretences soever they may be blended This is his old Modesty and brawny-faced Confidence who beside this humble melting broken hearted Secret One could have vented such lofty strains of Candour and Ingenuity But the Viper is so swell'd with Venom that it must either burst or spit its Poison The Dunghil is his only Magazine and Calumny his only Weapon and he has no other Apology to justifie the Rudeness and Incivility of his Scriblings but by such loud and thundering Falsifications And though he has been so often and so shamefully corrected for these base and unworthy Arts yet 't is not in his power to forbear them when they are the result of his Humour and Genius For had his Complexion been capable of a Blush or a modest Thought I dare say he has not wanted for Means and Opportunities of learning better Manners But he is so far from being reformed by the sharpest Rebukes and Corrections that they only provoke him to greater Sullenness and more enraged Abuses and in stead of being brought to Tears and Repentance he improves in the Boldness and Insolence of his Aspersions It is not sufficient now adays to represent us Papists Socinians and Hereticks that is an easie and an ordinary Slander he was able to face that out when he was but a Novice and unexperienced in the Arts of Malice and Confidence These were his common Performances twenty or thirty years ago But now his Mightiness scorns to stoop his Prowess to such low and creeping Atchievements they become not the Courage and the Confidence of so Renowned a Wight he disdains to vent a Slander that is not too big for any Mans Throat or Conscience but his own And now things are come to that desperate pass in the Church of England that they are not contented
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
man of his Benefice but death cession or deprivation It knoweth no deprivation but for crimes committed against Law and that Law more ancient than those Crimes where there is no Law there is no transgression and where there is no transgression there can be no deprivation The Law of England knoweth no deprivation but by persons to whom the ancient Law of England hath committed the power of depriving So every way their Sequestrations are unlawful and they who hold them are like Moths which inhabit in other mens Garments Of all the Commandments the eighth is most dangerous other Commandments oblige to Repentance but that obligeth both to Repentance and Restitution His instances of a Physitian and a Commander and a Pilot who hold their Offices ad voluntatem Domini so long as their Masters think fit are not appliable to a Benefice which is the inheritance of the present Incumbent and his Successors Sequestration may have place during the vacancie of a Benefice or until the decision of some Process depending or for the discharge of some Duty which by Law is incumbent upon the Benefice but such lawless Arbitrary Sequestrations as these were are plain Robbery by all Laws of God and Man CHAP. II. Of Grotius and what Communion he was of NExt for Grotius and others of his charitable way I acknowledge freely that I preferr one page of Wicelius or Cassander or Grotius for true judgment before all the Works of Taulerus and ten more such Authors Yet I have read sundry of them and sometimes have approved more of their piety than of their judgment and at other times repented of the loss of my time Yea I do preferr these three before an hundred yawning wishers for Peace whilest they do nothing that tendeth to the procuring of Peace Particularly I do admire the two former for this reason because their clearer judgments did pierce so deep into the Controversies of Religion before they were rightly stated And their free spirits dared to tell the World impartially what was amiss according to the dictates of their Consciences though with the hazard of their lifes without any other motive than the discharge of their duties And if any of them be reviled for their Charity the greater is their Reward in Heaven Yet I cannot pin my Religion to any of their Sleeves Plato is my friend and Socrates is my friend but Truth is my best friend Perhaps I may disapprove some things in Grotius his Works or some parts of them more than Mr. Baxter himself He extolleth his Book of the right of the Soveraign Magistrates in sacred things But when I did read it he seemed to me to come too near an Evastian and to lessen the power of the Keys too much which Christ left as a Legacie to his Church It may be he did write that before he was come to full maturity of judgment and some other things I do not say after he was superannuated but without that due deliberation which he useth at other times wherein a man may desire Grotius in Grotius Or it may be that some things have been changed in some of his Works as I have been told by one of his nearest friends and that we shall shortly see a more authentick Edition of them all This is certain that some of those things which I dislike were not his own judgment after he was come to maturity in Theological matters But whereas Mr. Baxter doth accuse him as a Papist I think he doth him wrong Nay I am confident he doth him wrong and that he oweth a reparation to his memory I have read all that he alledgeth to prove him a Papist but without any conviction or alteration in my judgment And I believe that one who delighteth in such kind of contentions would find it no difficult task to clear all his Objections and demonstrate the contrary out of the Writings of Grotius himself and others of the most learned and judicious Protestants Sometimes he accuseth him of that which is not true at all sub modo as it is alledged Nothing can be so truly said but that it may be depraved by misrelation or misinterpretation or inconsequent inferences At other times he accuseth him of that for Popery which is no Popery the greater and better and sounder part of Protestants being Judges Yet if Grotius his Genius had been somewhat less critical and so much more Scholastical he had not laid so open to Mr. Baxters accusations Unum hoc maceror doleo sibi deesse It shall suffice me to say that he was a person of rare parts of excellent Learning of great Charity and of so Exemplary a Life that his fiercest Adversaries had nothing to object against him of moment but were forced to rake into the faults of his Family which whether true or false was not so ingeniously done But lest any man might chance unawares to hit his own spiritual Mother out of a mistake I will endeavour to give some further light what was the Religion of Grotius He was in affection a friend and in desire a true Son of the Church of England And upon his Death-bed recommended that Church as it was legally established to his Wife and such other of his Family as were then about him obliging them by his Authority to adhere firmly to it so far as they had opportunity And both my self and many others have seen his Wife in obedience to her Husbands commands which she declared publickly to the World to repair often to our Prayers and Sacraments and to bring at least one of his Grand-children to Sir Richard Browns house then Resident for the King in Paris to be baptized into the Faith and Communion of the Church of England and be made a Member thereof as it was accordingly If any man think that he knoweth Grotius his mind better by conjectural consequences than he did himself or that he would dissemble with his Wife and Children upon his Death-bed he may enjoy his own opiniâ—n to himself but he will find few to joyn with him CHAP. III. No Grotian Design in England ANother branch of his Discourse is concerning the Grotian Design in England He pretends that there was a Party of Grotius his followers in England who prosecuted his design of reconciling us to the Pope under the name of Episcopal Divines Pag. 2. That Grotius had a Pacificatory design all men acknowledge and he himself extolleth it as much as any of us Pr. S. 3. For his Pacificatory design in general I take it to be one of the most Christian noble blessed works that any man can be imployed in That Grotius was a Stalking-Horse for the Pope or had any design but in order to Peace and Truth or that he had any Party in England who followed him further than he followed the Truth after all Mr. Baxters pretences we have no reason to believe This is his own absurd and groundless presumption For certainly Grotius could have no thoughts of
introducing any Popish errours into England who looked upon the Church of England as the right medium of reconciliation Neither were there any genuine Sons of the Church of England who thought upon any change either in Doctrine or Discipline We may fafely take our Oaths of the truth thereof It was his own Party only his own Party who were plotting and contriving a change underhand and cried out against other mens feigned innovations to conceal their own real innovations But how doth he make it appear that Grotius had such a Party of followers in England who sought to reconcile us to the Pope If it be sufficient to accuse no man can be innocent Let him speak out distinctly we fear not his charge would they reconcile us to the Pope and Papacy as it is now established Let him not say it for shame they abhor it Or would they reduce the Pope to what he was from the beginning and so reconcile us All good Christians joyn with them in so pious an Act. If his own meaning do agree with his words he himself doth not quarrel the Pope for his just rights but for his Innovations If he mean it not it is a double shame His first Reason to prove that there was such a Party of Grotians in England who nourished such a Design is taken from Grotius his own words P. 96. Paris knows and many throughout France many in Poland and Germany not a few in England quiet persons and lovers of Peace that Grotius his labours for Peace have not displeased many moderate persons He addeth that Rivet agreed better with the Brownists than with the Bishops of England For pity sake let him shew us wherein the strength of his Argument doth lie He may as well perswade us that we see a Dragon flying in the air as that there is any design of introducing the Pope couched in these words Doth the strength of his Argument perhaps lie in this that there were lovers of Peace in England So there were all over Christendom before Grotius was born France Germany Poland all Christendom shake hands with us in this He himself professeth that he is resolved to speak for Peace whilest he hath a tongue to speak and to write for Peace whilest he hath an hand to write p. 6. Or doth the strength of his Argument lie in this that Rivet agreed better with the Brownists than with the Bishops of England Whether he did or did not whether it be true or false what doth this concern Episcopal Divines Such are his proofs against Grotius always halting on one side most commonly on both sides I am afraid this great mountain-design will prove but a ridiculous Mouse in the conclusion He asketh What if he had named Bishop Goodman and all the rabble described in the Legenda lignea which are more than Doctor Vane and Doctor Goffe and Doctor Baily and H. P. de Cressie c. p. 99. I answer First If he had named these for Episcopal Divines of the Church of England of whom he held it necessary to admonish his Readers that they might beware of them as Promoters of the Grotian design he had made himself guilty of one of the grossest and silliest calumnies that ever was For some of these were dead and all of them apostated to the Church of Rome before he gave his warning And Bishop Goodman in particular was branded by the Church of England for his inclination to Roman Errours Secondly I answer that if he had named these he had wounded his own Party more than Episcopal Divines Abate only Bishop Goodman whom I did never know and of the rest whom he nameth not one was throughly a genuine Episc pal Divine Excuse me for telling the truth plainly many who have had their education among Sectaries or Non-Conformists have apostated to Rome but few or no right Episcopal Divines Hot water freezeth the soonest He addeth That Grotius himself assures him whom he hath reason to believe that there were not a few such among the Prelatical men How not a few such as these who have apostated from the Church of England For ingenuities sake let him tell us where Grotius saith any such thing Grotius hath not one word to his purpose when it is duly examined But this it is to confute Books in less time than wise or modest men would require to read them Hitherto he is not able to shew us any tolerable reason of his warning But he sheweth us the occasion p. 82. Those that unchurch either all or most of the Protestant Churches and maintain the Roman Church and not theirs to be true do call us to a moderate jealousie of them This is farr enough from proving his bold suggestion that they have a design to introduce the Pope into England So though all he say were true yet he can conclude nothing from thence to make good his accusation or insinuation I wish he would forbear these imperfect Enthymematical forms of arguing which serve only to cover Deceit and set down both his Propositions expresly His assumption is wanting which should be this But a considerable Party of Episcopal Divines in England do Unchurch all or most of the Protestant Churches and maintain the Roman Church to be a true Church and them to be no true Churches I can assent to neither of his Propositions nor to any part of them as true sub modo as they are alledged by him First I cannot assent to his major Proposition That all those who make an ordinary personal uninterrupted succession of Pastors to be of the integrity of a true Church which is the ground of of his exception have therefore an intention or can be justly suspected thereupon to have any intention to introduce the Pope The Eastern Southern and Northern Churches are all of them for such a personal succession and yet all of them utter enemies to the Pope Secondly I cannot assent to his minor Proposition that either all or any considerable part of the Epispal Divines in England do Unchurch either all or the most part of the Protestant Churches No man is hurt but by himself They Unchurch none at all but leave them to stand or fall to their own Master They do not Unchurch the Swedish Danish Bohemian Churches and many other Churches in Poloma Hungaria and those parts of the World which have an ordinary uninterrupted succession of Pastors some by the names of Bishops others under the name of Seniors unto this day I meddle not with the Socinians They unchurch not the Lutheran Churches in Germany who both assert Episcopacie in their Confessions and have actual Superintendents in their practice and would have Bishops name and thing if it were in their power Let him not mistake himself those Churches which he is so tender of though they be better known to us by reason of their Vicinity are so far from being all or the most part of the Protestant Churches that being all put together they amount not
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
the pattern of the primitive Church that is the original Standard according to which the local Standard was made If he refuse both these let him not say that he will be tryed by the Scripture but he will be tryed by himself that is to say he himself will and can judge better what is the true sense of the Scripture than either his national Church or the primitive and universal Church This is just as if a man who brings his commodities to a market to be sold should refuse to have them weighed or measured by any Standard local or original and desire to be tried by the Law of the Land according to the judgement of the by-standers Not that the Law of the Land is any thing more favourable to him than the Standard but only to decline a present sentence and out of hope to advantage himself by the simplicity of his Judges Yet Mr. Baxter acquits me that I am no Papist in his judgement though he dare not follow me pag. 22. What soever I am this is sure enough he hath no authority to be my Judge or to publish his ill grounded jealousies and suspicions to the world in Print to my prejudice Although he did condemn me yet I praise God my conscience doth acquit me and I am able to vindicate my self But if he take me to be no Papist why doth he make me to be one of the Popes Factors or stalking horses and to have an express design to introduce him into England He himself and an hundred more of his confraternity are more likely to turn the Popes Factors than I am I have given good proof that I am no reed shaken with the wind My conscience would not give me leave to serve the times as many others did They have had their reward He bringeth four reasons in favour of me why he taketh me to be no Papist I could add fourscore reasons more if it were needful First because I disown the fellowship of that party more than Grotius did pag. 23. It is well that he will give me leave to know mine own heart better than himself Secondly because I give them no more than some reconcileable members of the Greek Church would give them And why some members I know no members of the Greek Church that give them either more or less than I do But my ground is not the authority of the Greek Church but the Authority of the Primitive Fathers and general Councils which are the representative Body of the Universal Church Thirdly because I disown their Council of Trent and their last 400. years determinations Is not this enough in his judgement to acquit me from all suspicion of Popery Erroneous opinions whilst they are not publickly determined nor a necessity of compliance imposed upon other men are no necessary causes of Schisme To wane their last 400. years determinations is implicitely to renounce all the necessary causes of this great Schisme And to rest satisfied with their old Patriarchal power and dignity and Primacy of order which is another part of my proposition is to quit the Modern Papacy both name and thing And when that is done I do not make these the terms of Peace and Unity as he doth tax me injuriously enough It is not for private Persons to prescribe terms of publick accommodations but only an introduction and way to an accommodation My words are expresly these in the conclusion of my answer to Monsieur Militiere If you could be contented to wave your last 4â—0 years determinations or if you liked them for your selves yet not to obtrude them upon other Churches If you could rest satisfied with your old Patriarchal power and your Principium unitatis a primacy of order much good might be expected from free Councils and conferences of moderate Persons What is here more than is confessed by himself that if the Papists will reform what the Bishop requires them to reform it will undoubtely make way for nearer Concord p. 28. I would know where my Papistry lieth in these words more than his They may be guilty of other errours which I disown as well as their last 400. years determinations and yet those errours before they were obtruded upon other Churches be no sufficient cause of a separation But what I own or disown he must learn from my self not suppose it or suspect it upon his own head His last reason why he forbeareth to censure me as a Papist is my two knocking arguments as he stileth them against the Papal Church But if he had weighed those two arguments as he ought he should have forborn to censure me as he doth for one that had a design to reconcile the Church of England to the Pope But I will help Mr. Baxter to understand my meaning better I meddle not with the reconciliation of opinions in any place by him cited but only with the reconciliation of Persons that Christians might joyn together in the same publick devotions and service of Christ. And the terms which I proposed were not these nor positively defined or determined but only represented by way of query to all moderate Christians in the conclusion of my just Vindication in these words I determine nothing but only crave leave to propose a question to all moderate Christians who love the peace of the Church and long for the reunion thereof In the first place if the Bishop of Rome were reduced from his universality of Soveraign Iurisdiction jure Divino to his principium unitatis and his Court regulated by the Canons of the Fathers which was the sense of the Councils of Constance and Basile and is desired by many Roman Catholicks as well as we Secondly if the Creed or necessary points of faith were reduced to what they were in the time of the four first Oecumenical Councils according to the decree of the third general Council Who dare say that the faith of the primitive Fathers was insufficient Admitting no additional Articles but only necessary explications And those to be made by the Authority of a general Council or one so general as can be convocated And lastly supposing that some things from whence offences have either been given or taken which whether right or wrong do not weigh half so much as the unity of Christians were put out of the Divine offices which would not be refused if animosities were taken away and charity restored I say in case these three things were accorded which seem very reasonable demands whether Christians might not live in an holy Communion and come in the same publick worship of God free from all Schismatical separation of themselves one from another notwithstanding diversities of opinions which prevail even among the members of the same particular Churches both with them and us Yet now though I cannot grant it yet I am willing to suppose that I intended not only a reconciliation of mens minds but of their opinions also and that those conditions which he mentioned had been my
only terms of peace and concord let us see what exceptions Mr. Baxter is able to bring against them CHAP. VI. Mr. Baxters exceptions answered HE saith he cannot consent that these which I grant should be made the terms of union pag. 25. What then Suppose I did name improper terms of pacification not only in Mr. Baxters judgement which I ought not altogether to depend upon but in very deed Is there no remedy but I must needs be the Popes Stalking Horse presently and have a design to reconcile England to him This is over severe My design is rather to reconcile the Pope and his party to the Church of England than the Church of England to the Pope He may make use of my way if it like him Much good may it do him If not he ought to thank me for my good will and propose a better expedient himself if he can But I must tell him before hand that if it be a general one like those which he hath hitherto proposed it will signify nothing Observe Reader how he is every way mistaken I make demands and he calls them grants or concessions I propose some terms as preparatory to a treaty and he calls them terms of peace He saith he cannot consent to these terms and yet he hath consented to them already that if they would reform what the Bishop requires them to reform it will undoubtely make way for nearer concord To make them adaequate terms or conclusive Articles of Peace was never any part of my meaning All the exceptions which he bringeth against my way are taken out of my answer to Monsieur Militier I have seen some silly exceptions against it from a Jesuit and have answered them but he is the first Protestant that I have met with who doth disapprove it If the efficacy or influence of it upon him be different from what it is upon others I cannot help it Books have their success according to the prejudice or qualifications of their Readers On this side the seas it hath been more happy to confirm many to convert some and particularly the Transcriber of the Copy which was brought to the Press who was then one of their Proselytes to irritate no Man but the common Adversaries who vented their splene against it weekly in their Pulpits as thinking that the easiest way of confutation Thus one sucks honey and another poison out of the same flower He pretendeth that the old Episcopal Divines are of his partie some of them have approved it and thanked me for it If they be not of his party I hope he will not suspect them at Geneva as Factors for Popery They have allowed it and translated it into French and Printed it without any fear of introducing Popery into their City by it God forbid that we should esteem the practice of the Primitive times to be Popish They who admit that for a conclusion need not wonder if the more rational persons turn Apostates But it has ever been the trade of this proud and envious race of men to fasten an hated name upon every thing they understand not And it is to be feared this great Divine may in time write a Book to prove Greek the Language of the Beast and he may as reasonably do it as charge me with Popery only because I pretend to more knowledge in Antiquity than he knows himself to be guilty of His first particular Exception is this If when he excludeth Universality of Iurisdiction by Christs institution he intend to grant them which yet I know not an Universality of Iurisdiction by humane institution as agreement then it would be but to set up an humane Popery instead of a pretended Divine But this I charge not on him as his judgement though some will think it intimated p. 25. If he do not charge it on me then why doth he publish his own or other mens thoughts in Print to my disadvantage I know not how to acquit the Printing of groundless jealousies and suspicions of innocent Persons from downright calumny Especially suspicions of such things which the Persons suspected had publickly disclaimed in Print long before any such suspicion was broached These are my very words in my replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon p. 249. It were a hard condition to put me to prove against my conscience that the Universal Regency of the Pope is of humane right who do absolutely deny both his Divine right and humane right And in my Schisme garded p. 15 I have made it evident that the Popes Authority which he did sometime exercise in England before the Reformation when they permitted him and which he would have exercised always de futuro if he could have had his own will was a meer usurpation and innovation If I deny both the Popes divine right and humane right to Soveraign Jurisdiction and regulate his powers by the Canons of the Church If I make the Papacy a meer usurpation and innovation he hath no need to fear my setting up of an humane Popery But I have just cause to require reparation of him So his first exception is a false groundless suspicion But doth he make no difference indeed between a Divine Papacy and an Humane Papacy So it seemeth by his words If the Pope do hold a Soveraign power in the Church by divine institution then whatsoever he doth though he draw millions of Souls to Hell after him yet it is not in the power of a general council to call him to an account or to depose him or to reform him But if his right be only humane all this may justly be done and hath been done If he have a Soveraignty by divine right he may give his non obstantes to the Canons of the Fathers at his pleasure then all power in the Church is derived from him But if he hold the Papacy not from Heaven but from men then other Bishops do not derive their power from him singlely but he from them jointly then he is stinted and limitted by their Canons and cannot dispense with them further than the Church is pleased to confer a dispensative power upon him within the bounds of his own Patriarchate Against divine right there is no prescription but against humane right men may lawfully challenge their ancient liberties and immunities by prescription A Papacy by divine right is unchangeable but a Papacy by humane right is alterable both for person and place and power So an humane Papacy if it grow burthensom is remediable But a pretended divine Papacy when and where and whilst it is acknowledged is irremediable So much a pretended divine Papacy is worse than an humane His second exception follows But that St. Peter hath a certain fixed Chair to which a primacy of order is annexed and an headship of unity is not a truth and therefore not a principle necessary to heal the Church Whether it be a truth or no is not much material We have no Controversie with the Church