the Turks they gave her no succour at all but left her in miserie here and adjudged her as they doe us to death and damnation hereafter What shall we do for our Sister so long as we acknowledge her for our Sister we should be willing to doe something for her in the day when she shall be spoken of for as yet no body speaks for her no body laments her but lets her alone as if she deserved no pitty no succour no commiseration the Romanists have perswaded so many that she is schismaticall and hereticall in her tenents But all those who esteem of her as a sister I hope will doe something for her in the day when she shall be spoken for when her cause shall be pleaded and she cleared from holding such dangerous and damnable Doctrines then certainly she will have many to pitty her many to help her But the confining of salvation to your own Partie hath not onely sharpened the pens of many Writers to much bitterness and condemning one another but also hath unsheathed the swords of many Princes and Potentates to the great and lamentable effusion of much Christian blood S. Paul thought it a strange thing in his time for a Brother to go to Law with a Brother I speak to your shame saith he Is it so that there is not a wise man amongst you no not one that is able to judge between his Brethren but Brother goeth to Law with Brother and that under the Infidels 1 Cor. 6.5.6 What if S. Paul had lived in these daies wherein not only a Brother goeth to Law with a Brother but a Brother goeth to War with a Brother yea and which is more maketh that to be a motive unto his War to wit Religion which should be a forcible means of peace and reconcilement Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum Is it possible that Religion should ever be the true Mother of so much mischief No no our true Mother the Holy Catholick Church doth not further such designs but lament them and doth more justly complain then Rebecca did when twins strove in her womb seeing it is so why am I thus For she could be content would her children but strive and struggle one with another but when they come to blows and blood yea much effusion of blood as we see at this day how can she be but like Rabel weeping for her children and not be comforted because they are not Mat. 1. When was that ever more truly fulfilled then novv they that kill you shall think they do God good service Ioh. 16.2 Do you not think you have done God good service in those many massacres in France in every of which how many thousands of poor Christians have you swept away with such a suddain destruction that had they been willing you gave them not so much time as to repent them of their Protestancy Do you not think that you had done God good service if that horrible design of the Gun-powder-Treason had taken effect a prodigie not to be spoken of without horrour and amazement void of all humanity as well as Christianity But do what you can call us Heretiques Schismatiques and what other disgracefull name you can invent imprison us banish us strangleous stifle us burn us hang us we are yet your Brethren Certainly our Saviour never intended to begin or propogate his Church by this means he could as esily have sent forth mighty men of war to compell others to believe in him as poor Fishermen who catch none but such as come to net or are fairly allured to lay hold on the bait If this open hostility were used against the Turks the common enemy of the Christian name there were some pretence for it and therefore we read that Moses Exod. 2. when he saw the Israelite and the Egyptian fight he did not say why strive you but drew his sword and slew the Egyptian but when he saw the two Israelites fight he said ye are brethren why strive ye What a glorious sight would it be to see the red Cross once again advanced as it was in the daies of Constantine and if we did not see it written in Heaven I hope we should find it true upon earth in hoc signo vinces Unto this holy war I suppose all they would come who have promised to fight under Christ's banner And set aside for a while this private interest of Protestant and Papist and Grecian and Lutheran and Calvinist and Arminian and Socinian and if there be any other division amongst us and take upon us that generall livery of Christianity and so joyn together to rescue our Brethren from that wild Boar of the Forrest which hath laid wast this goodly vine and afterwards we might see how we could decide the Controversies amongst Christians For whosoever is in the right I hope we are all well enough perswaded that he is in the wrong Could Herod and Pilate otherwise deadly enemies be made friends and agree together to condemn Christ and shall not those who are already Brethren and therefore should be friends combine together to save Christ I say to save Christ for so long as we save and preserve his members wee save and preserve him but so long as we suffer his members to be thus persecuted and oppressed hee cannot choose but suffer with them But we in steed of bandying against the common enemy muster up our forces one against another and find that to be true by lamentable experience there is no greater hatred then of Brethren that are fallen out Seeing then that all Christians are Brethren I say Brethren as having one Father of us all Brethren as having one Faith one Lord one Baptism whereby wee are born into the Catholick Church and one food by the Sacrament of the Eucharist which makes us grow to be perfect men in Christ seeing we are all these waies Brethren I may well say as Moses did ye are Brethren why strive ye of if ye must needs be striving about matters of Religion strive and strive earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints Jud. 3. And because I say we are Brethren I would not have you think we like not the cause we have in hand or that we are ready to yeeld unto you and presently joyn hands with you as some of you Imagine and many of our side causelesly suspect but this is all we would have the breach no greater than it is and would not have the world believe because we differ in some things that we agree in nothing And although we call you Brethren we will not wink at your faults or joyn with you in them but this doth put us in mind to admonish you more gently of them as brethren though you rage never so fiercely against us for by this means we shall express our charity towards you and so heap coals of fire upon your head God he knows we are far enough from yielding to you as
Neither ought we to love him thus with an ordinary kind of love in wishing him well and doing him good for so we ought to love and doe good to all but there is a more strict tie of love that lies upon us Christians one to another and therefore although the Apostle wisheth us to doe good to all men yet especially tot he houshold of faith Gal 6 10. that is to such as be Christians Were this precept of the Apostle practised as it ought to be there would not be so much uncharitableness nor peradventure so much dissention amongst Christians Why can we not consider one another as united in this blessed name of Christian and set aside for a time those names of faction division why should we not rejoyce awhile in those things wherein we agree and not alwaies be wrangling about those things wherein we differ Of what moment those opinions are wherein we disagree I am not able to determine this I dare be bold to say that the points wherein we are friends are of far greater consequence than those are wherein we fall out And yet we so eagerly contend one with another and damn each other to the pit of hell as though our differences were very important and our agreement not worth the talking of For my part I should be loath to exclude any visible Christian Church from all hopes of salvation and if I must needs offend I had rather give account to a mercifull God for too much mildness and Charity than too much fierceness and severity yet I hope to make it appear that my opinion of Charity shall not exceed the bounds of verity A chief cause of the continuance of these dissentions is that men mind not so much the common cause of Christianity as their own particular engagements nor study how they may agree one with another as how to uphold the side they are on whereas would they set aside prejudice and partiality and cast an equall eye upon all the Churches they would not spy so many faults abroad and so few at home but would freely confess there might be greater concord amongst Christians than now there is No other Unity doe I labour for at this time but that of Charity that Christians would not for some differences in opinion pronounce such an heavy sentence upon one another as is that of Damnation If God should deal with us as wee deal with one another if he should censure us all as we censure one another I know not who should be saved The Papist damning the Protestant and some among us the Papists and both of them any other that shall differ from them both But my hope is and my hearty prayer to God shall be that he would be more mercifull to all these than they are one to another When I consider with my self the manifold distractions of Christians about Religion and the great fierceness and violence used on all sides every one thinking his own opinion truest and consequently damning all others that differ from him I could not but call to mind that prophecy of our blessed Saviour Mat. 24.12 concerning these latter and worser times Because iniquity shall abound saith he the love of many shall waxe cold for although Charity of it self be of a hot and diffusive nature yet now clean contrary to the nature of it it is in most men grown cold it being the nature of cold to contract and combine to congeal and draw into a narrow room thus is it now with our Charity For whereas like the heat in our naturall bodies it should diffuse it self into all the members thereof unto the whole Christian Church yet I know not how it hath taken cold for men contract their love now into a very small compass and narrow room that is to no more than to such who jump with them in the same Opinion about Religion leaving others who differ from them to nothing but death and damnation For not only in severall Countries but in the same Kingdome in the same City nay in the same Family there are severall Religions or at the least several Opinions about Religion reigning So that what Saint Austine complained of in his time is truly verified in these Epist 147. Thou seest saith he with how great and miserable distraction Christian houses and families are divided and troubled husbands and wives can agree well enough to goe to bed together bnt they cannot agree to goe to Christs Altar together There they swear peace one to another but here they can have no peace Parents and Children live well enough together in one house of their own but one house of Gods will not hold them both Their desire is that those should succeed them in their own inheritance who yet they think have no inheritance with Christ Masters and servants divide the Common Lord and Master of us all who yet took upon him the form of a servant that so he might free all I say never more fully verified than in these daies For in how many families shall we observe this great division the Husband goes to Church and the Wife staies at home or the Wife goes to Church and the Husband staies at home and so between Parents Children Masters and Servants The Father will give his Son the portion of his land who yet thinks he shall have no portion in the land of the living The great division of the Christian world was first between the East and West Churches and this West hath been since subdivided into the Roman and the Reformed Religion So that the division amongst Christians which is considerable is but into three parts the Eastern the Romanist and our Reformed All Christian Churches and so far forth the members of them brethren and sisters and not only Christian Churches but also Catholike and Orthodox in these points wherein they agree one with another and with the Primitive Church Why may it not be with these Churches as it was with those seven Churches of Asia which S. John wrote unto in which there were some things commendable and other things amiss they were encouraged in the former and reproved for the latter And although some of them were better than others yet you shall sacre find one of them to which he doth not say haben adversus te pauca I have a few things against thee And yet we shall find that Christ himself was in the midst of all these seven churches for he was in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks Revel 1.13 and bad in his right hand seven stars Rev. 1.16 For writing to the Church of Ephesus he maketh this one of his attributes Apoc. 21. These things saith he who who holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks So that our Saviour walked in the midst of all these Churches even in that luke-warm Church of Laodicea which he threatned to spue out of his mouth And let Rome tell
us never so much of her infallibility and unerring chair yet questionless there is none of our Churches no not the best of them that our Saviour may not say to her habeo adversus te pauca I have a few things against thee And as those severall Churches though some of them very faulty yet were all severall members of Christ and helped to make up one body why may it not be so in these Churches I speak of For first they all agree in that one and only foundation of Religion Jesus Christ as the Apostle calleth him No other foundation can any other man lay than that which is layd to wit Jesus Christ and this no doubt is a sure and good foundation and this maketh them to be Christan Churches they are all baptized into Christ and look to be saved by his sufferings And think not this to be a small matter for St. Paul desired to know nothing else I esteemed not saith he to know any thing among you but Jesus Christ and him crucified and it worked upon his affection as much as upon his understanding God forbid that I should rejoyce saith he save in the crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ Gal. 6.14 that is in Christ crucified Besides this one foundation they all embrace the two Testaments the three Creeds and the four first generall Councills and many other very materiall points The discord amongst us Christians hath been long agoe objected to us and certainly there hath nothing so much drawn some out of the Church and kept others from comming into the Church as these quarrels amongst our selves Unto whom I briefly answer If they like not our differences let them joyn with us in those things wherein we agree and that is to be Christians to believe in Christ and him crucified and those other principall points whereof I spake and to strive to imitate Christ to their power and then our discords will less trouble them It is true we have not all built alike upon this foundation but some no question have built wood and straw as well as silver and gold yet all of us no doubt do strive to imitate Christ as neer as we can both in our doctrine and in our practice and certainly in these superstructures of Religion good intentions must go far or else it will go hard with many of us not that they altogether excuse the fault but doubtless they take off much from the punishment There is a difference between the East and West Churches in what kind of bread the Eucharist is to be received the East receiving in unleavened bread the West in leavened bread And herein though they differ among themselves yet they both strive to imitate Christ because the one Church thought our Saviour used then the bread that was leavened the other that which was unleavened Either Church is the less blameable because they think both that they follow our Saviours example S. Austin in like manner doth prettily reconcile a difference between some concerning the time how often we should receive the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper for some it seems in his time thought we were bound to receive the Eucharist every day others but now and then Some saith he Epist 118. communicate daily others but upon certain daies some will omÃt no day others will only receive on the Sabbath and the Lords day There is a freedome to be used in both these Some will say we must not daily receive the Sacrament because we ought to select and set apart some daies wherein we must live more carefully and religiously and so come to the Sacrament more worthily and with greater devotion On the other side another tells us yea but if the plague sore of sin and violence of the disease beso great and dangerous such soveraign medicines as these are not to be deferred Of both these saith he Iet every man take his choice and do that which he thinks in his conscience he may best and most piously perform for neither of these dishonour the body and blood of our Saviour but rather both of them do strive to honour this saving Sacrament For Zacheus rejoyced greatly to entertain our Saviour in his house The Centurion said Lord I am not worthy thou shouldest come under my roof both of these did worship and honour our Saviour though after a diverse and as it were a contrary manner both of them being miserable by reason of sin both of them obtaining mercy for their sins Thus one man to honoun Christ dares not receive every day another also to honour Christ dares not omit any day And although these be but petty differences yet why may I not apply it to controversies of greater moment especially seeing that ancient Father S. Salvian lib. 5. de Providentia hath found a good intention in the Arians the most pernitious and most dangerous hereticks accounted that ever have been in the Church They whom we account hereticks saith he account not themselves hereticks for they so much esteem themselves good Catholicks that they defame us with the note and appellation of heresie That therefore which they be to us the very same are we to them We are certain that they injure the divine generation in that they say the Son is lesse and inferior to the Father They think us likewise injurious to the Father because we make the Son equall unto him The true honour of God is among st us but they think that to be the honour of the Deity to believe as they believe They are undutifull but they think it the greatest duty of their Religion They are impious but they think this to be true piety They erre therefore but they erre with a very good mind and intention not with a hatred but with a good affection towards God verily believing that they honour and love God Although they have not the right Faith yet they notwithstanding think this to be perfect love towards God In what manner they shall be punished in the day of Judgement for this very error of false opinion no man can tell but the Judge himself A good lesson for the hot-spurs of these times with whoÌ„ it is a very easie matter to pronounce damnation upon the very least disagreement in Religion whereas this good Father would not determine any thing concerning these great hereticks the Arrians but leaves them to the mercy of the Judge not being able to discern what they did deserve You see that this holy Father finds out a good intention even in these hereticks And if there was a good intention amongst those that were so grossly erroneous why may there not be good intentions found out amongst us also who are not at such great odds and acknowledged on all sides to have no such dangerous opinions amongst us I speak not this any whit to countenance that opinion of the Arrians which is creeping into the Church again but leave them to stand or fall to their own master and