and not to please our selves saith the same Apostle That Church pleaseth it selfe too much which scorns and disdaines other Churches as unworthy of her Communion for some weaknesse in their understanding which are found guilty neither of Tyranny Idolatry nor any deadly Heresie Not so the Fathers of the ancient Church whose desire and care in making agreement betwixt particular Churches scattered over the whole world may be observed in the Centurists through every hundred of yeares But that very fitly serveth our purpose which Optatus Milevitanus hath written Lib. 2. c. 7. That the Churches through the whole world by the intercourse of Formall letters might agree in the fellowship of one Communion Now in those formall peaceable or Synodall letters nothing else was contained besides the confession of the Catholike Faith established in the Creeds and briefly explained against Heritiques by the generall consent of the universall Church in the Nicene Calcedonian and other Councels Of infinite other questions which may arise and be canvassed betwixt the private Doctors of dispersed Churches no Church either required or expected a forme of absolute consent from other Churches For if without this the brotherly Communion betwixt particular Churches were adjudged impossible to the cementing and sodering thereof we should not stand in need of Synodall Epistles or briefe formes of confessions but of huge volumes of controversies But if we refuse to learn of the ancient Fathers yet now at last let us learn of our Enemies that the brotherly communion of Mindes Duties of Courtesie and Sacraments is not impossible betwixt those Churches which defend contrary opinions about controversies never to be decided I will say nothing of the wranglings of Thomists and Scotists nothing of the Dominicans and Jesuites There is at this day a controversie beaten and bandied betwixt the Churches of the Romish Religion of more moment than all those things whereabout Protestants doe strive if they were rouled up in one bundle I mean that of the infallible Judge in all questions of the Christian Faith The Spanish and Italian Churches defend the Pope to be this Supreame Judge warranted with the irresistable authority of Christ himselfe and so inspired and inlightned with the spirit of truth that in all his decrees and determinations wherewith he intendeth to bind the whole Church he can in no wise erre and be deceived But on the other side the French Churches cry him downe justle him out of his infallible chaire and conclude him to be so subject to error that if in matters of faith or manners he refuseth to obey and to be ordered by the judgement and Authority of a generall Councell they voice him to be counted for a Schismatique and a Heretick and one to be deposed See agreat difference about the very Pillar of the Catholike faith Yet in this brawling about opinions there is no breaking off of brotherly communion betwixt the Churches themselves Tell it not in Gath nor publish it in the streets of Ascalon that the Philistines were more forward than the Israelites to preserve Peace and unity betwixt them Lastly if such controversies should make an union betwixt particular Churches impossible I faine would have one shew to me even but two Churches whereof one is not subject to the other which must not of necessity be alienated pluckt asunder and as it were with a partition wall divided each from other For except we return to this point that we only admit and allow of this Separation from other Churches for dissenting in Fundamentals the communion of the Catholike Church anciently so highly extold August de unit Feles cap. 12. will be but a bare name fained title to which the heart of the thing it selfe will never answer The Donatists of old were wont to say that the Church had perished out of the whole world besides and onely remained in the party of Donatus The Romanists in this point are pure down-right Donatists who shout it out that the Catholikc Church is found only in the part of the Pope of Rome It is our duty to detest such Schismaticall wickednesse and to keep and professe brotherly Communion with all Christian Churches which we adjudge not as yet to be disjoyned from Christ the Head by Heresie or Idolatry or not at all to be shunned by other Churches for usurpation of Tyranny What hitherto hath been disputed about those Obstacles which make the communion of divers Churches betwixt themselves impossible and also of those different opinions which no wayes cause the same all aime at this end That if it could be agreed betwixt Divines that those controversies which so long have troubled and tyred the Protestant Churches are not of such importance that whether one come off to this or that side in their opinions he is not to be judged to depart from Christ and the Fundamentall Faith and to fall into a Heresie contrary to the foundation we would confesse that brotherly union may be made up and kept betwixt all Protestant Churches even whilest these dissentions rather of the Schooles than the Churches doe still remaine It is not my purpose to engage my selfe in the controversies themselves only I would desire that the most learned and famous Divines of the Dutch Churches would be entreated with peaceable mindes and calme affections to runne over all those controversies which are in agitation betwixt them seeing the Judgement perisheth when the matter is passed into the affections The chief and almost the mother of all the rest is that controversie which as yet remains undetermined of the manner of the presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Lords Supper And as touching this point the every way most learned Bucer after serious weighing and considering of the matter expressed himselfe thus that In the thing it selfe and meaning there was an agreement only some variety in the words In Epist ad Lutherum Contra. Robert Atringen alibi Hosp Hist Sacrpa 144. and manner of speaking Luther said formerly If you beleeveâ— and teach that the true body and true blood of our Lord is exhibited given and taken in the Lords Supper and not the bread and wine only and that this receiving and exhibiting is done truly and not imaginarily we are agreed At the same time Bucer with his associates did grant That the true body and true blood of the Lord were exhibited given and taken with the visible signes Bread Wine James Andrews wrote formerly Wee neither are of opinion of the Capernaites nor doe we receive the Transubstantiation of the Papists nor doe we establish a Physicall or Locall presence or inclusion of the body and blood of Christ in the holy Supper Neither doe those words Substantially Corporally Orally signifie to us any thing else besides the true presence and eating of the Body and blood in the holy Supper Now let us heare what was the Judgement of the Helvetian Churches Hosp Anno 1536. â—ag 145. Although they deny
Protestant Church can be named which professeth not with the Eucharist the true Presence of the Body and Bloud of Christ although it acknowledgeth the very manner of the Presence to be Supernaturall and plainly divine And sets down that the same doth consist not in any Physicall touch or contact but in a lively influence and mysticall Union and that most reall and neer It is a Fundamentall point That the Bread and Wine were the means ordained by Christ by which those which duely eat this bread being consecrated and drinke this wine eat the lively Flesh of Christ and drinke his saving blood to the Salvation of their soules The agreement of all Protestants in this point is so well known we need not take paines to prove it It is a Fundamentall That Bread and Wine are present in the Supper and are eaten and drunke in a locall naturall sensible manner but that Christs Flesh and Bloud are present and partaken of in a Divine admirable manner and not to be searched out So James Andrewes Col. Momp p. 17. 18. Concerning the manner wee can only say this That it is Supernaturall and imcomprehensible to humane reason and therefore there is no disputing thereof A little after Pag. 25. in not is marg The manner is heavenly supernaturall insomuch as it is wholly spirituall And as the Church is a mysticall body with Christ so also this receiving is done in a Mysterie In the Conference lately had at Lipsigh the Saxons did grant That the manner of the receiving which they defended to be done by vertue of the Elements was notwithstanding heavenly supernaturall and knowne to God alone None is ignorant that Calvin Bucer and all the rest were in the same opinion Col. Mompelg p. 66. Beza saith expresly The manner of the Receiving is a Mystery to be beleeved which exceedeth the capacity of mans wit and understanding Hitherto the Doctors and Churches well agree amongst themselves Secondly nothing can be conceived contrary to the Fundamentall doctrine of this Sacrament which is not rejected and damn'd of all Protestant Churches they are point blanck against all erroenous doctrines of the bare representation of the Body and Blood of Christ parted from the true and reall exhibiting of him of the prodigious Transubstantiation of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ the Accidents only remaining safe without a Subject Of the Locall and naturall presence of the Body and Blood of Christ in the Lords Supper Of the Locall Consubstantiation Coexistency or Inexistency of the Body and blood of Christ with the earthly Elements or in the same These and if there be any other which oppose or fight against the very nature of a Sacrament and the truth of the Body of Christ are condemned by the common assent not only of the Helvetian but Lutheran Churches Col. Mompel p. 16. Let James Andrewes speake for all the rest Wee doe not determine a Physicall or Locall presence of the Body and blood of Christ in the holy Supper These words Substantially pag. 183. Corporally Really Orally signifie nothing else to us but the true presence and eating of the Body and Blood of Christ We reject all Physicall Consubstantiation whether it be visible or invisible and only teach such a Conjunction as is Sacramentall The same was the opinion of the Saxons in the conference at Lipsigh to which these of Brandenburg and Hessland did subscribe Thirdly nothing remaineth undecided in this Controversie which can be called a Fundamentall point or for which the Brotherly Communion of Churches cannot be established For that word Orally which is used of the Saxons and is disallowed of other Churches is so used of these that they bring in no Fundamentall errour and is so rejected of those that they overthrow no fundamentall Doctrine For they that defend the Orall eating as well of the Body of Christ as of the bread notwithstanding denie such a Presence of the Body of Christ as is Locall to mens mouthes without which an Orall eating cannot properly be performed For that body cannot be eaten with the mouth betwixt which and mens mouthes there is granted a great distance of place That cannot be eaten with the mouth of the Body which is so present to the place of the mouth that it is not locally present to the mouth When therefore they allow of such a distance and give such a Location to the Body of Christ it is plaine that they passe and transferre the Orall eating which is truly and properly affirmed of the bread alone by a new and figurative manner of speech to the Flesh of Christ locally remaining in the Heavens and not locally present to the mouthes of men Moreover when they remove from this Orall eating all champing and chewing of the body of Christ the letting down of the thing chewed into the stomack the increasing and nourishing of the body of man by this flesh thus chewed it is evident however they thinke fit to retaine this forme of speech yet they meane nothing by this Orall eating that is joyned with the Capernaites rending of the Flesh of Christ with their teeth or agreeable with the signification of the words as they sound to mens eares in the Latine They only seeme to desire to affirme this That this Orall eating which truly properly usually and immediately is affirmed of the eating of the Bread may by the force of the consecrated bread comming between by a new unusuall mysticall and plainly heavenly signification of Orall eating be fitted and applyed to the Flesh of Christ Now as touching those who on the other side contend That the eating of the Flesh of Christ is not to be called an Orall eating but rather a Mentall Spirituall or Personall because the Person eating the bread with his mouth with his minde together eates the true and lively flesh of Christ Yet they denie not but that the visible bread is the Instrument or means appointed by Christ which the person useth to the cating of the Invisible bread but they thinke that the eating of that thing is properly called Orall which may be done by the Teeth and instruments in the mouth but that the eating of that thing cannot be called Orall which is neither locally present to the mouth neither if it were present could it be subject to any Act of mans mouth because of the Glorious and impassible nature which it hath Betwixt these Opinions I see some contrariety about the propriety of words and phrase of speech but of the maine and of the Truth of the Catholique Faith either none at all or at least so little that notwithstanding there may be place for the establishing of Brotherly Communion betwixt the Churches This of the first Controversie we passe to the Second Of the Person of Christ and Communication of his Properties IT is easie to shew out of their Writings who have handled this Controversie that there is a full Consent betwixt Reformed
Foundation of Religion Catholike Faith But if we should let the matter run on so long till all the controverted Problemes betwixt Protestants bee counted Fundamentall long since they have grown to too numerous hereafter they may grow to an almost numberlesse multitude For this solemne course and practice is observed of many that what they themselves have added to any Fundamentall Axiom as over weight and what they beleeve to be a consequence of the same this they presently require of all to be counted in the number of Fundamentalls If we grant to any particular Churches or to their Doctors this power of creating and multiplying Fundamentalls all hope is past of the certainty of the Catholike Faith all hope is gone of the Brotherly communion of the Catholike Church The mad error of the Church of Rome may confirme the Truth of our opinion who by stuffing a medley of uncertain opinions into the Creed of Trent by the same deed did both shake the immoveable certainty of the Catholike Faith and the Union of the Catholike Chuch so much desired of all we ought not therefore to mingle controversies lately born betwixt us with the foundations of Catholike Faith which are few and published by the preaching of the Apostles through the Christian world and received by the joynt consent of Christians In the last place that these things whereabout we contend Reas 6 were never counted in the number of Fundamentalls plainly appeares out of the very Augustane confession penned by Ph. Melancthon and approved and commended by Luther It is not likely that the Authors of so solemne a confession would have omitted any Fundamentall Doctrine of the Christian Faith without the knowledge and beleife whereof Salvation could not be attained by Christ Jesus But in this confession none of those points doe appeare about which so fierce a strife hath been been maintained betwixt the Helvetian and Saxon Churches In the third Articles of the Union of the two Natures in Christ in the tenth Article of the presence of the Body and Bloud of Christ in the Lords Supper they have established nothing which is not approved by the consent of all the Protestants And if we should run over the rest of the Articles we shall finde very few things after the last correction of which there is any dissenting betwixt the Protestant Churches nothing of so great moment that it should bring in a Schisme into the Church But grant some things to be in this confession to which other Churches cannot afford their consent it sufficeth to the retaining of Peace that they consent in all things necessary to be known for the Salvation of Christians For the confessions of particular Churches are not streitned to fundamentals alone but sometimes are extended to the declaring of their judgement of all heads of Divinity as they conceive it expedient for the Aedification of their people in Truth and Piety Therefore their errour is not to be born with who what ever they finde in their confessions will have it counted so fundamentall that they feare not to ranke those forreign Churches which in all and every thing will not admit the same to be the Rule of saving Faith among damned Hereticks overthrowers of the Foundation in a word amongst wicked men estranged from the holy brotherhood of good Christians Nothing could be done or thought of more injurious For if we weigh the confessions or disputes of all Reformed Churches and place on one side those things wherein they exactly agree and set on the other side those things which are in controversie wee shall perceive that the former out of the very Nature and Quality of the points themselves belong to the foundations of Faith and Piety the later either to the no wise necessary speculations of subtile braines or if they have any soliditie in them to the true inferences of the more skilfull Divines out of well grounded Propositions But those things which in this manner are built upon the foundation are not to be made equall with the fundamentalls themselves nor are they to bee accounted to erre in fundamentalls which swarve somewhat herein from the right line of Truth CHAP. XI Chap. 11 That there is no Controversie betwixt Protestants about Fundamentalls is shewn by instancing in three particular questions which are conceived before all other of greatest moment to the disjoynting of Churches BEFORE wee enter into this dispute wee must premise this firme and unmoveable rule That Christian Churches are not to be disjoynted which agree in all things necessary to be known or done to the Salvation of Christian men For no Authority lyes in one particular Church to make enquiry into others or office to compell other particular Churches to the rule of their owne confessions or power to dissolve the bands of brotherly Unity betwixt their owne and other Churches whatsoever which consent in the same common Faith that is in fundamentalls and the saving Articles of the Christian Religion Let us see therefore whether the Protestants agree so farre forth and let us take example only from those three controversies Of the Presence of the Body and bloud of Christ in the Eucharist Of the Communication of Properties in the person of Christ God and man Of Divine election and preterition according to the good pleasure of the Divine will For if in these questions by occasion whereof mighty surges and billows of contention have been blown up betwixt the Saxon and Helvetian Churches so much bee confessed on both sides as is necessary to know to Salvation All the rest may be left indifferent in the middle or to be disputed of betwixt learned men with peaceable mindes the brotherly Communion betweene Churches being no whit broken or torne a pieces Wee will begin from that which gave beginning to all the rest namely from the Presence of the Body of Christ in the Lords Supper and the eating of the same First of all nothing can be conceived fundamentall which is not by joint consent admitted by or received on both sides This is Fundamentall That the Body and Bloud of Christ are so truly present in the Administration of the Sacrament that Communicants may partake of them so as to draw life from thence and they may justly be condemned who so receive Bread and Wine as that withall they receive not the Flesh and Bloud of Christ to the Salvation of their Soules Hospin ad annum 1544. p. 191 Of this there is no dissention For Bucer grants That the Body of the Lord in the Eucharist is truly present and partaken off An annum 1540. p. 178 Calvin saith Wee all confesse with one mouth that we when we receive the Sacrament by Faith according to the Lords institution In Cons Mompelg p. 66. are made truly partakers of the Substance of the Body of Christ Beza saith we deny not the Body of Christ to be truly present to bee truly given and received I passe by the rest because no
it self and which wil take it in very ill part that her parts are pluckt and broken asunder on any colour whatsoever We ascribe it therefore to be an act of Piety that they are fearefull to sin against the Glory of God but wee account it to be from want of wisedome that they esteeme the division of the Protestant Churches as either a necessary or fit or lawfull meanes to the advancing of the Glory of God Those Churches cannot entertaine Brotherly Communion betwixt themselves Arg. 2 Coll. Mempelg p. 567. whose Doctors doe mutually arraigne one another as guilty of horrible errors and the worst Heresies But the Doctors of the Protestant Churches have done and yet doe this in their writings Therefore the brotherly communion betwixt the Churches can neither be retained nor renewed Whatsoever by angry adversaries Ans is branded with the name of Heresie is not presently to bee recounted in the Catalogue of Heresies for my part I conceive that none can free or defend the Divines of these or those sides from all errors in their controversall Writings We therefore who know well to mollifie the harsh speeches of our own Divines with a fovourable interpretation ought not any more to wrest the crooked opinions of our Adversaries and to make foule and horrible Heresies out of their errours whatsoever Hitherto it may be added which all men skilled in controversies know to be most true that those foule Heresies which the Protestants charge one another with for the most part are not expresly found in the writings of the Doctors themselves nor are affirmed of them in very words but are forcibly racked out of other words of theirs by I know not what small threads of consequencies whilest they themselves disclaim them curse such Heresies from their whole heart But good men ought to deale fairely and not to fasten Hereticall sense on other mens words when the Writers themselves which are the best expounders of their own words can and use to reduce them to a Catholike sense Moreover let it be taken for granted which indeed is not to be granted that these Doctors were convicted of those horrible errors whereof they use to be accused namely That they make God the author of sinne That they make numberlesse men to bee created to destruction and damnation That they make Christs Body and Bloud absent in the Lords Supper and that others also are justly condemned for bringing in a double Omnipotency into the Church one created and another increated of the Capernaits rending and mangling of the flesh of Christ of Christs flesh immense infinite yet for these errors of the Doctors were it lawfull for no man to breake off that Brotherly communion which Christ Jesus our elder Brother will have preserved safe and sound betwixt all parts of his Catholike Church which thing we so much the more confidently affirme because whatsoever may be determined concerning the private Doctors most sure it is that all the foresaid errours and others of the same kinde were ever by the joynt consent of all learned and unlearned blackd and branded with the note of Hereticall wickednesse in all Protestant Churches Wherefore what was anciently said of Augustine to the Donatists which ill hated the brotherly Unity of Churches Epist 50. If Caecilian hath sinned Christ hath not therefore lost his inheritance that being a little altered may be used of us If Luther did erre If Calvin did slip into an error Christ therefore hath not lost his Unity nor ought those Christian Chruches wherin Luther or Calvin discharged the function of a Doctor to lose their Brotherly Communion Lastly whereas all particular Churches are gathered together out of men subject to error it is more than probable that there is no Church to be found on the Earth in which either those that teach others or are taught by others are free from all error If therefore any Protestant Church hath determined to have no brotherly communion with any in which their famous Doctors have grievously erred it may safely communicate which none under heaven yea not it selfe with it selfe Therefore for the Errors of the Doctors the Separations of the Churches are not to bee made or allowed They that sit in the Chaire either Doctorall or pastorall Arg. 3 discharge a publike office and their Doctrines are to be accounted the Doctrines of the Churches wherein they live especially when their writings are set forth in print whereby they are made publike and are approved with the expresse at least with the silent suffrage and consent of those Churches wherein they serve When therefore the Doctors maintaine foule and damnable Heresies the whole Church is presumed to be guilty of the same and therefore brotherly Communion is to bee broken off no lesse with the Churches themselves than with their Hereticall Doctors I answer Ans That the Protestant Doctors which on both sides accuse and are accused of some horrible opinions published in their writing were never convicted by their adversaries of so horrible a crime by any publike or legall judgement Yea none can be named of those foule Heresies which they themselves that are accused to maintaine them have not confuted and condemned in their writings Let any that can produce any of those foule Heresies which hee exclaimes to be publikely defended by Luther or Calvin by those they call Lutherans or Calvinists one may easily shew that they have been rejected and condemned of the same John Gerard a most learned man and most famous in the Church of God hath vindicated Luther from such accusations Calvin whilst he lived cleered himselfe and since his death many of ours have cleered him Therefore the very foundation of this argument shaketh as for those things which are built upon it they likewise doe totter every one of them For whosoever sits in the Doctorall Chaire is not therefore to be presumed to teach nothing besides the doctrine stamped with the Church marke and as it were confirmed under their authentical seal Neither if more writers should consent in the same error is the consent of the whole Church presently involved For by sending forth their bookes abroad into the world they make them to be of common Right that any may buy them but not of publike authority All may read them but all ought not to approve and beleeve every thing in them That the matter is thus 't is plaine from hence Because the writings of particular Doctors which have lived in the same Church have not the same agreement which is pretended chiefely in these questions which are in the controversie and if one Doctor let fall that which may bend toward so me pernicious Heresie it may easily be shewn that the same was reproved and amended by some other Therefore with no colour of reason are whole Churches convicted guilty of Heresie and to be cut off from the Brotherly communion with others for the errours of their private Doctors whether falsly or truly objected
up these things seem to mee must be observed by the Divines of both parties First what things hitherto have been spoken or written rather bitterly and perversly than truly and with good consideration of the adversaries in the very heat of contention Let all those things be mutually pardoned for the publike good and be buried in eternall oblivion And if such bookes shall chance to be reprinted againe let it not be done except all the gall be purged out whence the evill of Brotherly contention may againe arise Secondly whereas no man can patiently endure to have himselfe branded with the mark of Heresie we must take heed least any be defamed with the name of Nestorian Eutychian or any other damned Heretick who expresly condemnes the damnable Doctrines of those Hereticks for they cannot abide firmely in Brotherly Communion who persist to exasperate one another with such rayling speeches for some difference in opinion Moreover it were to be wished that those firnames of Lutherans Zwinglians Calvinists were packt away and utterly abolished which are rather the Ensignes of faction Epiphan Her 42.70 than badges of Brotherly Union and which never pleased the ancient Fathers Epiphanius would not that the Christians should weare any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no By-name but should only be called by the name of Christians Nazianz. Orat. 30. Institut lib. 4. cap. 30. Wee ought not to be called Petrians or Paulines but Christians saith Nazianzen But of all Lactantius most seveerly saith They leave off to be Christians who omitting the name of Christ have put on humane and outward names But that I may speak as the matter is particular Churches rather have these firnames put upon them than that they put them on themselves or desire to be cloathed therewith Thirdly as much as may be let all hard and undetermined controversies be removed from Sermons preached to the people and bookes written in the Mother tongue and let them rather be counted amongst exercises fit for the Schoole then for food for mens Soules For these subtile questions and intricate controversies may without any discommodity be wanting in the Pulpits but charity which is wont to be wounded by the discussing of such questions cannot be wanting from the hearts of Christians without the extreame perill of their soules The Soules of common people doe play and not profit with such questions and when they have done playing with them not at all understanding these controversies they begin to fall a fighting and skirmishing betwixt selves Lastly If it shall please the Doctors themselves for time to come to enter discourse or to set forth their writings concerning these controversies Orat. 3. de Pace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let them meet together not in an hostile manner but in a rationall way as Nazianzen doth wisely admonish Let both aime at this not to conquer or shame their brethren by what means soever but gently and courteously to instruct them and as it were leading them by the hand to bring them back into the way of truth He that in this manner shall be freed from his errour will never count himself conquered but better taught nor will he be confounded as overcome and cast down of his Enemy but will rejoyce as one helped and relieved of his Brother For no man that reapes benefit hath cause to blush Hitherto we have made the draught of the manner of making Peace and preserving Union betwixt different Churches standing upon equall terms of Jurisdiction But because it may and often doth happen that some both learned and unlearned may live under the Government of the same Prince or Church which are forbidden by their conscience either rightly informed or erroneous from subscribing to the common judgement in these controversies let us make enquiry what is to bee done concerning these Now as touching the Ministers of Churches if they desire to make provision for their weak Brethren in these Articles of Religion or if they be willing that their briefe forms of Confession be received and approved of all subject unto them let them not cast into them the nice points of difficult controversies or decisions of subtile questions but rather let them be ordered to the popular capacity the edification of the unlearned the Salvation of all They must well weigh the wisdome of our Ancestours whose ancient Confessions if we had not on set purpose to disturb the Church interlined and stuffed with new opinions no man well in his wits would have been found who would not willingly have subscribed unto them Neither is there any need at all that we should clog and burthen the publike confessions of the Church with such additions when God himselfe hath decreed to bring his people to a blessed life not through the rough and rugged places of hard and long questions but by the plaine even and short way of Faith and Charity To what purpose therefore are disputes and strifes about words What make the subtleties of the Schoolemen in the Confessions of the Church All the Salvation of Christians consists in beleeving and worshipping In orat unum esse Christum as of old it was gravely said of great Athanasius To these things it may be added that they can scarce or not at all preserve Peace unviolated with other Churches not at all subject unto them who for the same Doctrine they professe persecute those which are under them and persist to cut them off as Hereticks from their Communion They may seem truly silently to upbraid Heresie to other Churches and by this very deed to intimate as much that though with their mouth they acknowledge them for Brethren yet in their hearts they much detest and abhorre them Lastly unlesse the briefe formes of publike Confession be restrained and confined to doctrines necessary and not to all controverted betwixt the Protestants themselves this inconvenience will follow thence that many Pastors learned pious and peaceable will be excluded and quite shut out nor shall they be able to doe any service in those Churches in which they live But if any doubt whether lawfully they may keep holy Communion amongst themselves in one and the selfe same Church who embrace not at all one and the self same opinion in every respect in all the heads of Doctrine in Divinity that I indeed conceive ought to be resolved on as a thing beyond all reach of doubting For as pertaining to that holy Communion which Christians have amongst themselves in the Lords Supper it chiefly consists in these things That with the common band of the holy Spirit wee are joyned to Christ the onely head of the Church That by the tyes of the selfe same holy Spirit and saving Faith and Charity we stick together amongst our selves and as it were are made up into one Body Lastly that as fellow-commoners we eate and drink the same living bread and drink to wit the flesh and blood of Christ to the salvation of our Soules In all these
against them because the common consent of the whole Church doth not in the same appeare Those who would not have the Churches themselves Arg. 4 to bee rent and torn asunder because of the controversies bandied betwixt Protestants they seem to be of this opinion that every one may be saved in his own Religion and that a promiscuous multitude of erroneous people may bee received into the same Church Militant and Triumphant but this must not be granted If we will speak with the Scriptures Answ the name of one Religion is to be fitted and applyed not to difficult questions but to the points of Christian Faith preached to all and received of all Christian Churches throughout the whole world They therefore embrace the true and one only Religion which believe those things of God of Christ of the Church of all other matters and doe them which are necessary to be known done to the attaining to Salvation Wee conceive not therefore that every one may be saved in his own Religion which he feignes to himselfe but believe that they may be saved in the Christian Religion and be received into the same Church both Militant and Triumphant who so farre forth agree in the Doctrine of the Gospell as it is required that the Faith of Christians be saving to those that beleeve and that the worship which they yeeld unto God be gratefull and accepted of him in Christ But they who thinke that the perfect consenting of Churches is necessary to their meeting together in the Communion of one Church Militant and Triumphant can scarce free and disengage themselves from their error who conceived the Catholique Church to reside in one determinate party They therefore who in things either to be done or be beleeved defend such points with which the saving of Soules and Spirituall worship of God cannot consist they are truly said to have made a defection from that which is the alone saving Religion but they who retaining all fundamentals of faith and Gods worship differ from others and erre in some consequences or Doctrines of lesse moment professe no new or other Religion but are convicted not as yet to have attained in that one onely Religion to perfect knowledge For such imperfection of knowledge God excludes none from the Church Militant neither ought we to doe it We ought not to retaine brotherly Communion with those Arg. 5 whom it is an heinous sin to admit to the Lords Supper together with our selves But it seemed unlawfull for the Lutherans in taking the Lords Supper to communicate with the Helvetian or French Churches See the pres to the confer at Mompelg For the holy Supper of the Lord amongst other ends hath this use that it should bee the note and badge of the Religion which every one professeth For they who communicate with any Church in the receiving of this Sacrament by this deed doe publikely professe that they embrace the doctrine of the same Church and reject the contrary and separate themselves from others We must therefore in no case sport and play with the receiving of the Lords Supper nor therin dissemble any thing from which our heart doth abhorre and therefore wee cannot communicate with those Churches which embrace not our Confession For by such communicating we should seem to derogate from our Confession and syncere Religion and either to Patronize or surely closely to favour the errors of other Churches It is more safe therefore to Imitate the Christian Emperours who when the Arians did request to be received into Communion with the Orthodoxe they would not grant it unto them before they did approve the doctrine of the Orthodoxe We make no strife about that which is affirmed in the first place Answ But as for the Assumption namely That it is unlawfull to admit any to the Lords Table except them alone who are ready to subscribe to the Confession of one the same particular Church this seemes to me ought not to be defended For the Principall use of the Lords Supper is to recount the death and Passion of Christ which he suffered for the Salvation of men and to receive eternall Life by the Partaking of his Flesh and Blood It serveth also to witnesse and confirme the Union which Christians ought to have betwixt themselves 1 Cor. 10.17 and with Christ Jesus their head Lastly we confesse that this Sacrament as also that other of Baptisme is the note and badge of that Religion which wee professe Aug. cont â—austum 19.12 For men can be united together into no name of Religion whether true or false unlesse they be bound together in some fellowship of signer and visible Sacraments But as Baptisme is indeed the badge of the Christian Religion we professe and not of the particular opinions and confessions which we embrace before others so also must we conclude of the Lords Supper For to the mutuall Communion of all Christians in the Eucharist it is not required that all who Communicate together should agree in the same confession either the English or the French or the Dutch but that they agree in one Profession of the Christian and Catholik Faith Let us leave these rigid and Tyrannicall domineerings to the Papists who adjudge all to be separated from their Communion which would not sweare unto the Confession of Trent Cyprianus Cornelius The holy Fathers did not doe soe but they kept the Lords peace with those Churches which were of different opinions from themselves removing none from the right Communion because he refused to consent to the private Judgement of another particular Church for they acknowledged the Catholike Faith received with an unanimous consent of the Catholike Church to be the certaine Aug. Ser. 181. and sole Rule of Faith by which Beleevers retaine the Catholike Vnity But let him who can shew that Particular Churches ever usurped this to themselves that they did cut off others from the Brotherly Communion with themselues for diversitie of opinions in matters not as yet determined by the Judgement of the Catholike Church Socrat. l. 5. c. 21. on one side or other Victor indeed attempted to doe this and after him Stephen Lib. 5. cap. 23. lib. 7. cap. 4. both Bishops of Rome But it is plaine out of Eusebius that this Separation was founded on no right and therefore highly displeased the pious and Godly Fathers Therefore farre be it from us that in the very Communion of the Lords Supper we should as it were proclaime war against all other Churches which will not make our particular Confession their owne or will not forsake their own that they may embrace ours If we conceive our Churches to be of the righter and truer opinion than other Churches in certaine Questions not as yet determined wee have just cause not to Communicate with them in their errorss but thence have no cause at all to Communicate with them in the Sacraments Forasmuch as no errour in which
men may erre preserving still the Faith whereby wee are Christians gives us power to depart from other Churches or to abhorre from holy and brotherly Communion with them Vid. Aug. contra Jul. Pelag. lib. 1. cap. 2. de peccat Orig. lib. 2. c. 23. Neither doe those Christians play with the Sacraments and incurre the guilt of dissembling when they celebrate one Lords Supper with them whom they know to differ from themselves in some heads of Doctrine in divinity For the Sacrament of the Eucharists is not instituted of Christ to this end that it should be a note or token of perfect Knowledge in all which are fellow-partakers of the same Therefore neither of perfect Agreement which perfect Agreement it is altogether impossible to finde in the imperfect Knowledge of Christians They therefore who use this moderation towards other Churches that they reject them not from Communion with them under pretence of difference in particular confessions even themselves also enjoy the same benefit amongst others Neither in the mean time doe they derogate any thing from their owne confession or favor and Patronize a strange one but they doe not at all challenge to themselves the power of dividing of Churches or dissolving of Brotherly Union betwixt Christians from that cause which neither Christ nor the Apostles nor the Primitive Church would ever have approved Lastly the Example fetch'd from the Arians is altogether divers and farre off from the matter in hand for we willingly grant that Brotherly Communion is to be denyed to them not onely of some one particular Church but even of all who durst denie the Eternall divinity of Christ For this is to overturne the most solid foundation of Christian Faith and mans Salvation But far different is the Reason and nature of those Controversies which are disputed of in the Protestant Churches and in which they differ and disagree amongst themselves For in none of these can any truly say That either the Foundation of mans salvation is overthrown or the Authoritie of the Catholike Church contemned or lastly that any particular Church ever was for errors in such points separated or to be separated from the Brotherly Communion of all Christians by the Judgement and power of the Catholike Church But this seems to have no doubt at all in it that one particular Church doth unjustly cut off any other from her Communion when for the same opinions according to the ancient discipline of the Catholike Church and rules Catholikely established she was not to be cut and cast off from all other Churches But through the love of Peace and desire of renewing concord betwixt most famous Churches I am carried much farther than at first I propounded to my selfe I will now turne my Speech to God himself whom I humbly beseech that at last he would be pleased to binde up the differences of all the Protestant Churches and to make them up into one and that he would shew unto all That it agrees with the nature of this One God to be worshipped in Unity Now I take my farewell of my most deare Brethren of the forrain Churches with the Exhortation of most holy Augustine If you will live of the Holy Spirit hold Charity love Verity desire Vnity that you may come to Eternity To the God of heaven who is the God of Peace to Jesus Christ our Lord who is the Prince of Peace to the Holy Spirit who is the Bond of Peace be Glory Honor and Thankesgiving for ever and ever Amen FINIS Imprimatur THO. WYKES April 8. 1641.