that this Union of the Reformed Churches we speake of is not a thing impossible is confirmed further from that agreement amongst the Polonian Churches begun of late at Sendomire ever since carefully by them kept and observed it is true they could not bury all controversies but they could banish all contentions and establish so perfect a peace as that they refused not to admit of each other into their publike Congregations to the preaching of the word and Administration of the Sacraments Which holy brotherly concord of those Churches that most wise Prince Lodowick Electour and Count Palatine did not only by his letters to them congratulate but desired of Almighty God in his prayers that the Germane Churches also might be blessed with it What therefore was long since said to that blessed peace-maker King Solomon concerning the building of the Temple at Jerusalem the same say I to all moderate and peaceable Divines concerning the uniting of the Reformed Churches arise yee Worthies and be doing and the Lord will be with you Never despaire but that may be now effected which all men will grant hath been done heretofore But least this groundlesse bugbeare of a fancied impossibility should yet slacken the endeavours either of Princes or Divines or any other pious and well affected Christians and deterre them from proceeding herein I will recount all those lets and hinderances which render the peace and union of Churches utterly impossible to be obtained from whence it will easily appeare that there 's no one of them here to hinder why the Germane Churches notwithstanding some points of difference amongst them may not setle a firme peace amongst themselves and being once setled preserve it inviolable Now the first and maine Obstacle that hinders those Churches which agree not in all points of Religion from entertaining a Communion amongst themselves is the usurping and exercising of a tyrannicall power and authority one over another For if any one Church will take upon her to domineer and lord it over the faith of other Churches so as not to acknowledge any for her brethren nor admit of any into her fellowship and Communion but such onely as will be content to beleive and speak just as shee will have them all hope is then taken away of ever obtaining or preserving any agreement in any differences or disputes whatsoever For the sacred Scriptures forbid us thus to enslave our selves to any humane authoritie and our sole Lord and Master Christ Jesus forbid's us to acknowledge any upon earth for a Lord over our Faith and Conscience and that Church which enter's into a Communion with another upon these termes doth not hereby purchase a Peace but rather resigne's up her selfe to a most unjust slavery Onely the Church of Rome is come to that height of pride madnesse that she will take upon her to exclude from the communion of Saints damne to the pit of Hell all such Churches as will not submit their necks to that Antichristian yoake of absolute and blind obedience God of his goodnes ever keep off this Popish folly and fury from setting foot in the Protestant Churches which if it should once take place that union of our Churches which we are all bound to pray for would bee no longer either to be hoped or wisht for But blessed be God for it it is well known there 's not any of the Reformed Churches but doe from their soules detest and abhorre all such Antichristian ambition and desire of Soveraignety And thus have I removed out of the way the maine Obstacle which usually occasion's a perpetuall division rent betwixt such Churches as differ in some points and thereby make's an union of those Churches to become impossible A second let or hinderance which may render the said union of different Churches for example the Saxon and Helvetian Churches impossible is the approbation and practice of Jdolatry in the one the utter detestation of it in the other That of the Prophet Hosea is well knowne though Israel play the harlot yet let not Judah offend come yee not unto Gilgal neither goe yee up to Beth-aven Likewise also that of the Apostle what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols And a number of places more to the same purpose Neither is that saying of Tertullian touching this matter unworthy our observation Idolatry saith he is become the grand and generall sin of whole mankinde the Epidemicall disease of the whole world Since therefore God so severely chargeth us to keepe our selves from Idols all kinde of Idolatry though never so speciously colour'd over wee may well call that morally impossible which cannot be performed without some staine and tincture of Idolatry and without a high and hainous offence against the sacred Majestie of God Here then we may behold that grand let whereby the Reformed Churches to their great greife of heart are forced to shunne a Communion with the Church of Rome For so farre in love is shee with her Idolls and so rigorously doth shee impose the worshipping of them upon all her children that no man can be admitted into her Communion at least not continue in it unlesse he will become a notorious and down-right Idolater If the case so stood that the Germane Churches could not enter into and enjoy a blessed Unity and Peace one with another except they must be required and bound either to practise an Idolatrous worship or at the least to beleive and professe that such practice is not unlawfull I would not stick to affirme that a Communion which cannot be had but upon such hard conditions is indeed impossible to bee had since as Lawyers use to speake wee can doe onely so much as may lawfully be done by us And here we have just cause to blesse God that the Reformed Churches although they have not the happinesse to agree in all matters of lesser moment yet doe they all of them by his grace unanimously conspire joyne together against Idolatry so as not onely to condemne but also to beat downe and abolish it insomuch that if at this very houre they were all disposed and desirous to joyne hands and strike a league of amity and union it might be done without any the least danger of Idolatry Away then with that pretended impossibility of a Reconciliation grounded upon the perill of Idolatry nor let any such false surmises weaken the heart or hands of any religious Christian from going on with so good a worke The third last Obstacle which doth block up the way to an union render's it impossible is the differing of severall Churches about some fundamental point of Faith necessary to be knowne and beleived by every christian upon paine perill of eternall damnation so as that the one side doth solidly hold and maintaine it the other heretically denie's and oppose's it For to be at peace with Heretickes who goe about to undermine and subvert the
foundation of our Christian faith what is it else but to revolt from Christ the rocke on which the Church is founded built Of this last Obstacle because it is of speciall use and moment I shall treate somewhat more at large In the first place therefore I conceive that to be a Fundamentall point which by the ordination of God revealing such a truth is of such necessity unto salvation to be knowne and assented unto as that a bare Ignorance much more a wilfull Opposition of it carries with it a certaine perill of exclusion from the kingdome of heaven Divines now-adaies have no Commission to invent or coine any new Articles of this nature and obtrude them on Gods Church that which was not fundamentall in the Apostolicall and Primitive times all our assertions and altercations and Anathema's will never bee able to make it such These first and fundamentall Trueths collected out of the whole body of the Scriptures put together in the Apostles Creed make up that Rule of Faith which S. Austin terme's pusillis magnisque communem a common Rule for all men both great small and which is by him accounted necessary to bee beleived constantly by all Concerning the which that speech of Hilary also is much to the same effect 't is our safest and best course to hold fast that first onely-Evangelicall Faith which we made confession of at our Baptisme And to these fundamentall Trueths the Apostle I beleive had an eye when he stiled Titus his owne sonne {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} after the common Faith This common Faith laid downe in the Apostles Creed proposeth to all Christians to be beleived by them the wonderfull Production of all creatures out of nothing the unsearchable mysterie of the glorious Trinitie the fruit benefit that redound's to miserable sinners from the Incarnation Passion Resurrection and Glorification of Christ what follow's thereupon the Redemption of mankind the Sanctification of the Elect the Communion of Saints the Remission of sins the Resurrection of mens bodies and the Glorifying of the Faithfull He that beleive's all which wee have here comprised in this short Creed and endeavour's to lead his life according to the Commandements and Precepts of our Saviour Christ cannot justly be denied the title of a Christian nor expelled the fellowship and communion of any Christian Church whatsoever On the other side He that shall deny or oppose any one of the said Articles although he arrogate to himselfe the name of a Christian yet is he to be excluded and banished the society of all orthodoxe and sound Christians Besides these there are I confesse many other Trueths contained in the Scriptures and deducible from thence by good and solid consequence which are very profitable to be knowne and of singular use to further us in the knowledge of Divinity but they are then only and not otherwise necessary to be beleived under paine of forfeiture of our salvation or communion with the Church when 't is clearely evidenced unto us that they are contained in Gods word or may necessarily be inferred from it In these points therefore if any particular Church cannot make the Trueth which she her selfe beleive's so cleare and manifest to other Churches as thereby to winne them over to the same beleife shee must forsake them in their Errours but by no meanes may she because of such errours deny them her charity and Communion I adde further that if it should happen that two Churches should vary about some particular place of holy Writ the one conceiving that it confirme's a fundamentall point of Faith and the other thinking that it doth not so yet is not such a difference as this a sufficient cause why they should fall at odds and separate one from another so long as they agree both of them in the Point it selfe and acknowledge it to have cleare solid foundation in other places of God's word And last of all this may be added yet further that 't is not a thing impossible nor any way contrary to the duety of good Christians to entertaine a communion with those Churches which hold such a doctrine as seemes to us inconsistent with some fundamentall Trueth so that in the meane while they doe expresly beleive professe that fundamentall Trueth it selfe For 't is utterly against all Charity yea and Reason too that a man should be thought meerely for some consequences which he neither apprehend's nor grants to deny and reject a fundamentall point which yet he strongly beleive's , expresly affirme's yea and if need so required would not stick to seale the trueth of it with his dearest blood How much truer and more charitable is that opinion of a grave and moderate Divine We must not saith he so much consider what will follow in the thing it selfe from every assertion as what will follow from it in the apprehension and judgement of those who maintaine any such assertion as seeme's to us repugnant to some fundamentall point of Faith For as he who assent's to the trueth of some Principle cannot therefore be said properly to beleive and understand whatsoever and abler Schollar can by consequences infer from that Principle so neither can he who maintaine's a false Opinion justly bee thought to hold all those absurdities which a nimble head easily observe's to adhere unto or follow upon that erroneous Opinion of his We may indeed urge and presse these consequences upon our Brethren to see if haply wee can by this meanes beat them off their errour but malitiously to fasten them upon them as though they were their profest Opinions this we may not doe How farre this extend's and of what excellent use it is to the setling of a brotherly union amongst the Reformed Churches all wise men and such as unfainedly desire the peace of Gods Church will easily perceive For if it once be granted that a Peace and Union is not impossible that is not unlawfull save onely with such as actually disbeleive some fundamentall point of Faith or maintaine some such Heresy as strike's at the heart of Religion and cut's off the Abettors of it from having any communiō with Christ then will it follow that betwixt a sound and a diseased Church betwixt two Churches whereof one is more the other lesse pure there may be such a brotherly communion as we desire among the Germane Churches Let therefore the Orthodoxe Churches separate themselves from all such as have plaid the Apostates fallen away from fundamentall Faith but let them not separate from those which erre onely in points of lesser moment and such as doe not cut off the maintainers of them from being members of the mysticall body of Christ the sole author and fountaine of our salvation The Apostle command's us to receive not reject such as are weake in the Faith And the same Apostle tel's us how that we which are strong ought to beare the
reall not imaginary onely the strife betwixt us is ended At that very same time c Bucer his Adherents granted that the very body and blood of our Lord is offered given and received together with the visible signes of bread and wine Iacobus Andreae saith we neither hold with the Capernaites nor admit of Popish Transubstantiation nor maintaine we any Physicall or locall presence and inclusion of Christs body and blood in the blessed Sacrament nor doe we by those words substātially corporally orally understand any thing else but only a true reall presence and participation of his body and blood in this Sacrament Now let us heare the judgement of the Helvetians herein Although they deny that there 's any Transubstantiation of the Elements or any locall inclusion of Christ's body in the bread or any Conjunction of his body and blood with the outward elements remaining after the Sacrament is ended yet they willingly grant that by vertue of a mysticall sacramentall union the bread is Christ's body that his body is truely present and received together with the bread J doe not knowe what two things can possibly be more like than is this Opinion of the Helvetians with that of the Lutherans But if any man suspect that there may privily lurke a diversity of meanings under these so-concording expressions yet are we still to urge and enquire whether that diversity be such and so great as to render the Peace and Union of those Churches utterly impossible and to give just occasion for a perpetuall rent and division amongst them I assure my selfe learned judicious Divines when they are out of the heat of Controversy and look indifferently into the matter will think farre otherwise of it Now as for those other Controversies concerning the ubiquity of Christ's body the Communication of Properties other such like all springing from that former touching the Sacrament he that doth seriously ponder with himselfe what is granted and what denied of each side will easily perceive that neither the one nor the other doth so much as call in question much lesse oppose or overthrow any necessary and fundamentall point of Faith since both sides hold and professe whatsoever the Church Catholike in her Creeds and Generall Councells hath declared to be beleived in these points and whatsoever hath been by her in like manner condemned as erroneous is equally rejected by both But yet notwithstanding all this that we see now and then some men catching at consequences and taking advantage from thence to charge Heresy one upon another it is a matter that deserve's not so much our wonder as our pitty we all of us know 't is the common custome of hot and eager disputants especially when through long agitation of the matter they are inflamed with choller and passion and besides I have already showne in breife what we are to think of such Heresies as are fastned upon men meerely for such consequences as they themselves neither apprehend nor grant For the present this alone may suffice to show the Possibility of a Reconciliation that there 's no one Opinion expresly maintained by either side which is directly contrary to the substance of Faith or destructive of Salvation salutis devoratorium to make use of Tertullian's expression nay whatsoever is such is plainly and expresly condemned by both If of later times any new Differences have been raised amongst those Churches touching Predestination Freewill and the like these can no way be made a sufficient ground of Schisme and separation betwixt them For in all these there is nothing of fundamentall and necessary beleife save onely this that the free grace goodnesse of God in the Predestination of miserable men in the conversion of sinfull men in the freeing of their captivated wills in a word in the finall Perseverance and Salvation of his Elect be so farre forth acknowledged and extoll'd as that whatsoever makes any way for the enstating of them in grace and glory and whatsoever is done by them in reference thereunto all must be ascribed to the speciall grace and mercy of Almighty God on the contrary whatsoever concerne's the corruption of man's nature his obstinacie in sinne the pravitie and servitude of his corrupt will in short whatsoever praecipitate's plunge's wretched men into Hell and everlasting perdition all this we must thank our selves our sins for by no meanes impute any part of it to God So long as these things stand firme and unshaken as without doubt they doe though in the meane time their manner of apprehensions and expressions yea though their Opinions be different in other points which are onely superstructions and belong not to the foundation yet are not these of such moment as that a perpetuall Breach and Division should be made and continued betwixt whole Churches for such petty matters If therefore this were but once agreed upon amongst Divines that their jarres and contentions are not nor ever were about any fundamentall points and such as are of absolute necessity to be known and beleived by all that will be saved then must it also be granted for a manifest trueth that 't is no way impossible but an agreement and Communion may be established this dangerous Schisme utterly rooted out and a blessed Peace setled and preserved amongst the German Churches And thus having proved that a Reconciliation is possible it remaine's that in the next place we consider whether or no Princes Doctors and Pastors of Gods Church and in generall all Christians bee not bound in duty by the law of God every man to endeavour according to his utmost power and ability that such an union may with all convenient speed be setled and established amongst the Reformed Churches 1 And that all men are so bound seeme's to be intimated by that of S. Paul which I alledged before if it be possible as much as in you lie's live peaceably with all men If so great care and diligence must be had to maintaine a civill and externall peace with all sorts of men then surely a spirituall Ecclesiasticall peace amongst Christians is much rather to be sought after and preserved where therefore there is no utter impossibility to hinder why such an Union may not be obtained such men can in no wise be excused who either out of negligence or wilfulnesse disobey the Commandements of God herein Nor can any man justly here pretend that Discords and diversities of Opinions cannot as yet be composed and setled for if it be possible that the Schisme it selfe the Rent betwixt these Churches may be taken away as without all question it may I had rather that a mil-stone were hanged about my neck and that I were drowned in the depth of the Sea than that I should willingly be any hinderance to so good a work so well-pleasing to God and so necessary to the removall of Scandall nay than that I should not with my whole
and further the different opinions of private Doctors In a word here 's no use of any Metaphysicall formalities and abstracted notions which serve only to perplex and confound the learned and to deterre such as are unlearned from embracing the Catholike Faith but doe not any way encline the hearts either of one or other to yeild assent and beleife to the fundamentall points of Faith After they have proceeded thus far having drawn up a breife and plaine Forme of all such Points as are by them judged to appertaine unto the substance of that common Faith which is necessary to be known and professed by all Churches having passed by left undecided all such points as are not so generally received agreed upon in the next place moderate peaceable Divines should labour to exhort and perswade all the rest that they would quietly lay aside all controversies and contentions about such points as good Christians may safely be ignorant of without hazard of their salvation and that they would not quarrell any longer about thē to the danger of the Church the losse of her Peace and the scandall of Schisme which is thereby like to fall upon her Of what good use and necessity this advice is may be clearely seen from the rashnesse of the Church of Rome and her clean contrary practice herein who being not content with those Articles delivered in the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed will needs obtrude upon the Christian world those other new-coin'd Articles of the Trent-conventicle and hath thereby ministred occasion of a perpetuall rent and Schisme amongst the Churches How much more prudently did that blessed Martyr and most learned Father of his Times S. Cyprian behave himselfe who professeth that he would not for difference in opinion contend or strive with any man nor would he break the peace of our Lord with his Brethren or cast off any man from his communion because he was of a different minde from him By which his Christian charity and moderation S. Cyprian though in an errour deserved better of the Church than Stephen Bishop of Rome who was in the right and did by his unquiet spirit as much as in him lay to rend and teare asunder the Churches Thus warranted by the example of this blessed Martyr and likewise by the judgement of S. Austin herein I need not stick to affirme that amongst the Doctors and Divines of Germany those who are in the errour and yet are willing and desirous to retaine a brotherly Communion with the rest are freer further from Schisme in Gods sight than they who are in the Trueth withall disdaine and deny to entertaine such a Communiō with other Churches which seek and sue for it If therefore they can but get an universall consent in all Fundamentalls though in other things there bee some difference amongst private Doctors yet let them all joyne their votes and voices in this prayer to God nulla salus bello pacemte poscimus omnes no safety can be had or hoped for in warre therefore give peace in our time ô Lord But if any here shall demand what course is to be taken about such Controversies as cannot be decided and agreed upon that they may not give any occasion whereby this Peace and Union of the Churches should be hindered or being obtained should afterwards be disturbed and lost I will set down some few rules which to me seeme worthy the observation and practice of Divines on both sides First that whatsoever tart and bitter passages have formerly slipt from Adversaries either by word or writing amids the heat of disputation they should all be pardond on both sides for the publike good and for ever after buried in silence and oblivion And if it happen that any of those books and writings should afterwards be reprinted before they passe the Presse let them first be purged of all gall bitternesse which otherwise would but rub up and renew the old sore of strife contention amongst brethren Secondly Because no man can with patience heare himselfe branded with Heresie heed must be taken that none be slandered with the name of Nestorian Eutychian or any other condemned Hereticke so long as he doth expresly denie and disclaime the damn'd Opinions of such Hereticks seeing it is utterly impossible that ever they should continue firme in a brotherly Communion and concord who for every petty difference in Opinion cease not by such reproachfull and reviling termes to provoke and exasperate one another And it were to be wished further that those siding names of Lutherans Zuinglians Calvinists were all laid aside which are badges rather of Faction than any fraternall Union anh such as the ancient Fathers could never approve of Epiphanius would not allow Christians to beare any {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} any other name added over above to the name of Christian but rest content with that Non Petrianos non Paulinos vocari nos oportet sed Christianos who ought not to be called either Petrians or Paulians but Christians saith Nazianzen But of all others Lactantius is the most severe and rigorous herein Christiani esse desierunt qui Christi nomine omisso humana externa vocabula induerunt they have left off to be Christians who take up forraigne titles and humane appellations instead of the name Christian though to say the trueth such names are rather fasten'd and father'd on particular Churches by others than by themselves either desired or owned Thirdly that all profound and controverted Points be let alone and not medled with in Sermons preached to the common people or in any such books as are publisht in the Vulgar tongue let them be accounted rather the exercise and busines of the Schooles than any fit food nourishment for men's soules Such perplex'd Disputes may very well be spared in the Pulpit but Charity which usually is impaired by the handling and discussing of them cannot be spared or wanting amongst Christians without the utmost danger and hazard of their soules The common people doe but play and sport with such Controversies they are no whit profited by them and in the end not well understanding them they give over sporting and fall a quarrelling and contending about them Last of all if Divines shall hereafter have a minde to disperse or publish and Discourses about these Points let them doe it according to that grave advice of Greg. Nazianzen {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with reasons not revilings let their aimes intentions be not to non-plus and baffle but rather fairely and freindly to informe and reduce their straying brother into the way of Trueth Hee that shall after this manner be brought to see and forsake his Errour will not thinke himselfe vanquished but instructed nor will he be abasht and asham'd like one over matcht overcome by his Adversary but rather rejoyce as one better'd and benefited by his
duty It now remaine's that J proceed to set downe the way and meanes whereby such a Reconciliation may be compassed and the rents and distractions of the said Churches may with most conveniencie and speed bee made up which I shall doe rather to testifie that vehement desire zeale which I have to so good a work than out of any opinion that those famous Churches which alwaies have abounded with store of learned and pious Divines can any way stand in need of advice herein from me or any other forraigne Divine whatsoever Seeing therefore that the fore-mentioned Controversies may be agitated either betwixt severall and distinct Churches whereof one is no way subordinate to the other or else betwixt such particular men as are members of the same Church and subjects to one the same Prince J will speak first of divers Churches independent one upon another and afterwards of particular men in one the same Church and show how Peace and Unitie may be made and preserved amongst them For the first I conceive there 's no readier and better way for reducing of two different Churches to the same Communion than is that usuall one of procuring a faire and peaceable Conference amongst Divines of both sides authorised and appointed there unto by their Princes For if any one imagine that a Councell being once held of all the Reformed Churches there will out of hand within the compasse of some few moneths or yeares yea or in one age an end be put to all disputes whatsoever which have of a long time troubled and busied the Learned so as that they shall all joyne and agree in the same opinion about all such points of controversie this with submission to better judgements seemes to me very unlikely For so dull and dim-sighted is the eye of our understanding that it can hardly peirce into the depth of such subtle and intricate Questions no not when it is alone free and undisturbed in it's contemplations but being distracted by the stirs tumults of disputation so far unable are we to penetrate into the quick of them that many times we cannot so much as discerne and perceive them no not when we look upon them with a fixt and steddy eye And to speak plainly what I conceive in this matter the cheife use of Councells especially of Generall Councells is to maintaine and defend those necessary and plaine points of Faith against the oppositions of Hereticks rather than to discusse or determine nice controversies of lesser moment and use To returne then to that faire freindly Conference which but now I commended for the likeliest and fittest meanes of obtaining an Union if it could be undertaken with such an intention mannaged in such sort as it ought to be wee have good cause to hope that we shall in a short time see a blessed Peace and Union established amongst the Germane Churches This therefore must carefully be remēbred by all such as shall be present parties to such a Meeting that the end why they are called together is not that like Adversaries they should strive for the mastery but rather that they should like Brethren search out and make use of all lawfull and warrantable meanes for the setling of Peace and Unitie For if once they fall a crossing and contending one with another they will never be able to perswade much lesse to procure any agreement betwixt such Churches as are at ods and opposition Let them therefore carefully keep off and forbeare to enter the intricate Labyrinths of ordinary disputes let their meeting aime at this one end to make it appeare to their Churches how that there 's no just cause why they should any longer stand out and refuse to joyne hands and be united To effect this let it in the first place be set downe how farre the Church Catholike hath declared herselfe in each Controversie what hath been by her defined and required to be beleived generally by all sub Anathemate For about points fundamentall there may sometimes arise such doubts and disputes as are no way fundamentall and such as that the ancient Fathers of the Church had they been raised in their times would never have attempted a decision of them to the hazard of breeding or fostering a Schisme betwixt severall Churches For instance that God is One in Essence and Three in Persons distinguished one from another that the Sonne is begotten of the Father that the holy Ghost is the Spirit of both Father and Sonne that these three Persons are coeternall and coequall all these are fitly determined and reckoned in the number of Fundamentalls but now if any man should peremptorily affirme and maintaine that all those Schoole-nicities touching the manner of the Sonne 's generation and the procession of the holy Ghost are likewise fundamentall and of equall necessity with the former ought to be determined one way that man should deserve but litle thanks from Christ and his Church by such his rash and inconsiderate assertion So likewise that our Lord Jesus Christ is both God and Man that he hath both natures divine and humane inseparably united in one Person and that we have salvation onely by this God incarnate all this is fundamentall or rather 't is that firme immoveable foundation whereon the whole Catholike saving Faith is built but yet notwithstanding we must not think that whatsoever may be questioned and debated about the ineffable manner of that union betwixt the two natures or the manner how his body is present in the blessed Sacrament as also concerning the Communication of Properties unto the humane nature by vertue of its union with the Divinity or touching the actions and operations of his Humanity depending upon the said Union wee must not I say imagine that all these belong to Fundamentall Faith but rather to Theologicall Science or perhaps not so neither but onely to the vaine curiosity of some particular Divines Let them therefore make this their first and maine businesse carefully to distinguish betwixt fundamentall points and others that are not so and let them not think that whatsoever is appendant and bordering upon a fundamentall point must therefore forthwith be it selfe fundamentall When this is once done their next care must be that these fundamentalls be expressed and published after a breife and perspicuous manner and propounded to the publike acceptation and approbation of all the Churches Certa semper sunt in paucis saith Tertullian certaine and undoubted Trueths are not many and they are such as may be delivered in a few words whatsoever is necessary for a Christian man's salvation to be knowne by him and whatsoever is conducible to render us holy or eternally happy it is all of it plaine and obvious Here 's no use either of subtle acute distinctions or of any long and tedious explications which are oftimes used not for the building up of Christians in the fundamentall faith but rather to favour
letters writ with his owne hand for the dishonesty of Westphalus forceth mee to speake thus foolishly so as to relate it in the very same expression which he himselfe used Afterwards when the Agreement was halfe finished at Marpurge and they were not yet departed from that meeting he affirme's that he retained the same esteeme of Occolampadius and Zuinglius as he formerly had done and he did there solemnly promise to account and respect them hence forth as Brethren Secondly what an intimate freindship familiarity there was betwixt Melanchthon Jacobus Andreae Brentius and our Divines the mutuall Salutations which passed betwixt them can abundantly witnes Melanchthon writing to Calvin begins his Letter after this manner Reverend and Christian Brother I trust we shall have a time to meet and conferre together And afterwards concluding I beseech the Sonne of God our Lord Jesus Christ the Guardian and keeper of his Church that he would guide and protect Thee and us All Farewell most deare Brother Besides what was observed concerning Melanchthon others by our Sturmius he himselfe will by no meanes conceale from us as though saith he Philip Melanchthon did not impart his Opinion touching the Sacrament to Peter Martyr afterwards to divers others with whom he still continued in love and freindship Further Jacobus Andreae and Brentius did unanimously adhere to the Opinion of Luther concerning the Eucharist of whom notwithstanding Calvin thus speaks your Letters worthy Sir and my much honoured Brother speaking to Jacobus Andreae were not a litle welcome to me for as much as I understand by them how that amids these sad and unhappy contentions wherein I am most unwillingly engaged you still continue like affected towards me as heretofore you have been Againe this your moderation of mind I embrace highly applaud Farewell worthy Sir and my much respected Brother I wish all happinesse to Brentius God Almighty ever guide and direct you by his blessed spirit strengthen and sustaine you by his power and shower downe his blessings in abundance upon you And againe in another Letter Brentius salute's you Thus were matters carried amongst theÌ„ and why should not We putting on bowells of meeknesse tread the steps of these Worthies Shall they breath out nothing but mildnesse and sweetnesse and wee nought but rage and fury God forbid I have done with the first Thesis I now proceed to the second The second THESIS That 't is possible for the most hot and rigorous spirits to be reconciled and agreed GIve mee leave to make use of that Maxime of Aristotle so frequently used in the Schooles but in a sense somewhat different Quae conveniunt in eodem Tertio inter se conveniunt such two things as agree in any one third agree likewise betwixt themselves In like manner I conceive that though we differ much in our Opinions about the Eucharist yet there are still remaining amongst us some common Principles and certaine notes or notions out of which any one who is not blinded with prejudice may draw an assertion One is the authority of Scripture sufficient of it selfe to challenge a beleife a second is the cleare light of Antiquity as cleare as the Sunne at mid-day But this is no fit place to discourse at large upon these Three other there are which in no wise may bee passed over seing they are such as are more proper and peculiar to the two adverse parts I wil begin with the first of theÌ„ The Augustane Confession is by the Divines of Saxony esteemed as an Oracle of undeniable and unquestionable authority now if our men allow and approve of that Confession â— doe not see what can possibly make more for the obtaining of a Reconciliation And for certaine Calvin herein agrees with them I desire saith hee as much as any man a sincere and true union so it be such as God hath approved in his word nor doe I reject the Augustane Confession whereunto I did once wittingly and willingly subscribe according to that interpretation which the Author thereof himselfe put upon it Againe I affirme saith hee that in that Confession as it was printed at Ratisbon there 's not so much as one word which is contrary to our Doctrine and if there be any ambiguity to be met with in the sense none is more â—it to be the Interpreter of it than the Author himselfe whose worth will easily obtaine him that honour with all pious and learned men So He. Neither is he singular in this but others there are though of the same Opinion with him concerning the Eucharist who will grant as much a I am of the number of those saith John Sturmius who concerning the receiving of the body blood of Christ approve of the Augustane Confession Hierome Zanchy hath a desire to bring in his verdict too b I professe saith hee that as often as I had occasion to speake any thing about this Point I did alwaies containe my selfe within the compasse of these three heads the first whereof is that in the Lord's Supper not onely bread and wine but the very body and blood of our Lord is truely offered us by Christ and likewise truely received truely eaten and drunke by us The second but this is done not by the mouth and teeth of our body but by a true and an actuall faith The last that therefore this is done by beleivers onely and by none others Now these heads are taken out of God's word nor are they repugnant to the Augustane Confession These things being so those worthy men have the more reason to be entreated by us that besides the said Augustane Confession which was anciently framed and ordained to be the common rule of Faith for all Protestants whereby they might be distinguished from Papists they would not obtrude upon us any other private Opinions of their own to the hinderance of the publike Peace A second Principle of the like nature which even Reason it selfe doth dictate is this that no Antecedent is to be urged and pressed the necessary consequent and sequell whereof may not bee granted by us But now it is well knowne that Luther to remove out of the way the perill of Idolatry did abolish all a worshipping at the celebration of the Eucharist which had formerly been practised and for the same end he abolisht the elevation of the host also that b Brentius likewise did with much earnestnesse oppose their Breaden God for so hee himselfe terme's it lastly that c Melanchthon did reject their Bread-worship in the Lord's Supper Those godly and learned men therefore are to be entreated that they would well weigh with themselves whether or no these same abuses which They with so great applause cryed down and abhorred be not for all that the genuine ofspring of that Vbiquity which at this day is maintained by them Thirdly least any man haply should pretend that no whit is to bee abated of that