Protestant Churches desire all to meet in one brotherly Communion not so much as the least spot or staine of Idolatry were to be feared on either side Away therefore with all pretence of Impossibility drawn from this Reason neither let it make mens mindes or endeavours step aside from this so holy a purpose and designe The third and last obstacle whence the Communion of divers Churches betwixt themselves is held impossible is the asserting and defending of some Fundamentall Article necessary to be known and beleeved to the salvation of Christians on the one side which is sound and Catholique and the denying and opposing the same on the other side which is Hereticall For to grow together into one with Hereticks subverting the foundations of the Christian Faith is to start off from Christ the Foundation of the Christian Church Concerning this hinderance because it is a matter of greatest moment we must dispute somewhat more largely Therefore in the first place I conceive that is to be counted a Fundamentall Article which through the will of God revealing it to the attaining of Salvation and eternall happinesse is so necessary to be known and beleeved that from the Ignorance and much more from the opposing thereof men runne the manifest hazard of losing eternall Life This care and charge lyes not upon the Divines of our age that they should forge new and fundamentall Articles of the Catholique Faith for Christian people That which was not Fundamentall in the times of the Apostles and Primitive Church cannot with all our Affirmings wranglings and Cursings become Fundamentall These first Beleevables which we have gathered and brought together out of the whole body of the Scriptures into the Apostles Creed Epist 57. ad Dardan makes up that Rule of Fundamentall Faith which Auâ—ustine cals common to small and great and determines that it must be maintained of all with Perseverance whereof Hilary almost to the same purpose It is most safe for us to retaine that first and sole Evangelicall Faith confessed and understood in Baptisme Ad Constan August And I think the Apostle had an eye to these Fundamentall Articles when he calls Titus Titus 14. mine owne son after the common Faith This common faith comprised in the Apostles Creed proposeth to all Christians to beleeve the admirable workmanship of all Creatures made of nothing the unsearchable Mystery of the Trinity which is to be adored the benefit of Christ Incarnated Suffering Rising againe Glorified bestowed on miserable sinners and those things which flow from thence the Redemption of mankinde the Sanctification of Gods peculiar people the Communion of the Saints betwixt themselves the forgivenes of sinnes the Resurrection of the bodyes and the Glorification of the faithfull Who so believeth all things which we have contained in this short Creed and endeavours to lead his life conformable to the precepts of Christ is not to be dashed out of the lift of Christans nor to be driven from the Communion of other Christians members of what Church soever On the other side He that filcheth away or carpeth at any of these Articles though he challengeth to himself the name of Christian is to be driven and kept off from the Communion of those which rightly beleeve yet I acknowledge that besides these Articles many Doctrines are contained in the holy Scriptures out of the holy Scriptures may be deduced by firme consequence which are very profitable to be known and conduce much to proficiency in Divine knowledg but then at last are to be â—eld under the perill of losing Salvation or Communion when they are manifestly declared and understood to be contained in the Scriptures or necessarily to follow out of them In these things if any Church cannot so cleere the truth of her opinion to other Churches as to draw them to the same opinion shee ought to cast off their errors but ought not to cast off brotherly Communion with them because of these errours To these I adde that although some place of Scripture may seem to these Churches to establish a Fundamentall Article seems not unto others yet in this diversity of opinions there is not cause just enough to break off the Communion so be it both sides piously beleeve the same Article and acknowledge it to be cleerly and solidly sounded on other places of holy Scripture Lastly and this also must be added It is neither impossible nor swarving from the duty of good Christians to retain communion with those Churches who seem to us to follow some opinion which truly cannot hold together with a fundamentall Article so be it as in the meane time they professe the same Article and with both armes as we say embrace it For it abhors from the rule of Charity yea from sound reason that any for those Consequences by himselfe neither understood nor granted should be conceived to have denied or rejected a fundamentall Article which he firmly beleeves explicitly affirmes and if need were would Seale and Signe the truth thereof with his own blood More true and favourable is the judgement of a great and peaceable Divine Bucere It is not our part to have respect to that which of it selfe followeth of any opinion but to that which followeth in their consciences who hold that Point which we conceive opposite to a fundamentall Article For even as he that believeth any true Principle doth not presently believe and understand all those things which learned Men by consequences may deduce from the same so he that holds any false opinion doth not instantly hold all those things which those of better sight do perceive to be conjoyned with or â—oâ—lowing after that false opinion It is lawfull therefore to urge such consequences to snatch our brethren from their Errors but odiously to charge them therewith as if they were their own proper Doctrines it is unlawfull How farr this spreads it selfe and how forcible it is to establish brotherly union betwixt Reformed Churches Wise men and lovers of the Peace of the Church may easily observe For if it be granted that Communion onely is impossible that is unlawfull with those Congregations which explicity reject any fundamentall Article or defend an Heresie which stabs the Heart and cuts asunder Communion with Christ himselfe that also will follow that this brotherly Communion which we so much desire betwixt the German Churches may be establishes between Churches which are found and those which are not so well in health between Churches of a more and of a lesse refined Standard Therefore lâ—t those Churches which stick to the foundation depart from those which by Apostacy slide back from it but in the meane time from those which erre in matters of lighter moment neither disjoyn from Christ the fountain of life let them not depart Rom. 14.1 Rom. 15.1 The Apostle commands us to receive the weake in faith not to cast them off Wee that are stronger ought to beare the infirmities of the weake
which may be seen in the large prospect of the Scriptures are not to bee ranked with Fundamentals this is to be added in the third place that our Faith is so subject and tyed to the whole word of God that every one is bound to embrace every Truth which hee sees revealed in the holy Scriptures or duly derived from them For although out of the nature or matter of a Proposition we are not bound and obliged to beleeve and know it under the perill of losse of Eternall Life Yet notwithstanding because of the authority of the revealer so oft as it shall appeare unto us that such a proposition is revealed in Scripture we are bound not to refuse it For whatsoever he should pretend on the contrary who at his pleasure shall trample on a proposition which he understands to bee founded on the Scripture he is to be accounted one that gives not that beleefe which he ought to any proposition For Instance sake That Christ is God and Man is a plaine Fundamentall Article which if not at all beleeved we can neither beleeve in Christ himselfe nor so worship God as to be restored into his favour and admitted into his Kingdom But many things are expresly mentioned in Scripture of this Christ himselfe Incarnated which are not Fundamentall also many things may bee deduced from this Fundamentall Article Christ is God and Man which are not to be reckoned as Fundamentals If notwithstanding they be perceived and understood to bee placed in or duly deduced from the Scriptures hee contemnes God speaking in the Scriptures who beleeves not such Propositions But as often as it shall happen not out of the perversnesse of the Will but weaknesse of the Judgement that he being deceived with an Imagination Aug lib 4. ad Vinc. Vict. cap. ult that Truth and Piety are on his side shall affirme or deny any thing repugnant to the Scriptures even in those his Tenets which thorough his Ignorance are not Catholique his heart and mind notwithstanding is Catholique because it is prepared for amendment on better information Of such therefore we may rightly say Heb. 5.14 Rom. 14.1 that they have their Senses not so well exercised in heavenly matters that they are weak and children in Faith that they are not to be taken along with us to doubtfull Disputes but we cannot truly call them forraigners estranged from Christ Apostates from the Faith such as are to be separated from Brotherly Communion with the Godly However therefore let it be taken for granted that the Romish Prelats do not deny any Fundamentall point truly and properly so called hence notwithstanding it appeares that they both hurt the Unity of the Catholique Faith and hinder the Union of the Catholike Church For what Church soever shall patch their own uncertain opinions to the fundamentall Articles of the Christian Faith must needs mishape and deforme the body of the Catholique Faith by joyning to it so many members both useles and monstruous But as for those which use the same and inforce them on other Churches to be beleeved under the necessity of Salvation it manifestly appeares that they alone are guilty of the rents in the Catholique Church Herein the pride of the Romish Church swels so big that it leaves no room to receive the Truth but I hope that all Protestant Churches will at length consent in this to renew the Brotherly Communion betwixt them and not to thrust their private opinions on others That attempt of the Papists to shut out all from the Catholique Church and eternall Salvation which in all things give not their assent to the Creed of Trent ever seemed to me so desperate and foule that all the water of the Ocean powred upon Rome can not wash away the staintherof Wee desire that all which wee have spoken be understood of casting them off from Brotherly Communion who either out of obstinacy or ignorance contradict the Scriptures in any Principle of Catholique Faith which not at all being known we can neither have Union with Christ nor Adoption by him into the Son of God which not at all being beleeved we can neither rightly perform Gods worship nor from him obtaine Eternall Salvation Such things are neither denied nor unknown of any which challenge to themselves the name of Christians save only those 2 Cor. 4.3 4. in whom the God of this world hath blinded their mind lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should shine unto them Moreover neither are the things which we have said so to be taken as if thereby leave and liberty were given to Christian people to set up their rest in fundamentals and to go no further in searching the Scriptures as if it were lawfull to sleight any Doctrine which we confesse not to be fundamentall 2 Tim. 3.16 Yea all Scripture given by Inspiration of God is prositable for Doctrine for reproofe for correction for instruction in righteousnes We must therefore endeavour Col. 3.16 that the Word of God may dwell in us plentifully in all wisdome that we go on to perfection and not always make our abode only in Fundamentals In the words of Saint Augustine wee thus call upon all Christians Epist. 222. Let every one of you gaine to himselfe as much Knowledge of Faith as he can greater if he desires more lesse if lesse yet so that he gives not off from his journey till he attaine unto perfection Last of all I would not have these things which are spoken in generall of the doctrinall foundations of the Christian Faith to be so understood as if this care and duty did not lye upon Doctors and Pastors to instruct their people in every Doctrine of the Scripture wherby they may bee furthered and edifyed in Faith and Piety but that principally they urge and inculcate these Fundamentals as of principall moment to Salvation This was the judgement of Luther in his Preface to the greater Catechisme where he willingly confesseth himselfe to be a Scholar of the Catechisme Tom. 5. p. 645. Surely great is the unhappinesse of Christian people where by reason of the noyse and over much heat of controversies they have scarce leave or leasure to heare or thinke of the Fundamentall and saving Doctrin of the Scriptures and not at all to doe those deeds most necessarily required by Gods Commandements Now as concerning forreigne Churches I deny not but that other Churches may and ought to confute their errors although they contradict not the Foundations of the Christian Faith Nazian orat in S. Epiph. But let their Errours be confuted and not the Parties erring be traduced let the matter be handled by Arguments not by Outcries by Reasons not by Railing nor let them contend about Words when the divers sound of Syllables may be brought to Spell and make up the same Sense To shut up all in a word we must so dispute of all Points not Fundamentall with the Doctours of other
Church conceive the Roman may be hindered and broken off and yet by no default of ours as often as it shall demand and require that we should approve or exercise any Idolatrous Acts in the publike service of God or should command or compell us to acknowledge or receive any doctrines repugnant to Scriptures or Godly mens consciences Yet in the meane time that Church which is counted no whit sound or Orthodox is to be esteemed a visible Church of Christ and to be ranked amongst the particular Christian Churches Yea as much as lies in us wee are to afford to the same all offices of brotherly Charity although our Actuall and outward Communion with the same be neither suffered of them nor may be retained of us because of the false doctrine and superstitious worships prevailing in the same Now out of those things which we before have disputed concerning the difference of Fundamentall points from those which are not Fundamentall we will endeavour to shew that those things are not Fundamentall about which hitherto there hath been such strife with so great heate of mens minds betwixt Protestants Those points onely are to be owned for Fundamentall Reas 1 which being overthrown or not at all beleeved no congregation of men can worship God so as to obtaine from him Pardon Grace and Glory But no point controverted is of this nature Therefore not Fundamentall None will call our Major Proposition into question because it is cleere that those who start asunder from the very foundations of saving Faith are not capable of those benefits which are promised to the Faithfull alone As touching the Minor If any dare affirme that no hope of pardon Grace or Glory doth shine to them who are otherwise minded than the rest in these controverted Doctrines him I conceive to sin more against charity than any of the Protestant Churches sin against verity Yea I dare adde this if any converse or persisteth in this errour alone he more shakes the foundation of the Protestant Truth than those whom he rashly chargeth to have violated the foundation for other errours whatsoever in controversall Divinity Those Points Reas 2 whereabout Protestants contend were neither Preached to the whole world by the Apostles as all those things were which were absolutely necessary to be known and believed to the salvation of Christians neither were they for such recommended by the succeeding Churches universally to Christian People whatsoever therefore divers Churches diversly determined concerning the Truth of these opinion yet ought they all to agree in this That they ought not to be reckoned with the fundamental articles of the Christian Faith If any man can cast and contrive any head of controverted divinity betwixt Protestant Churches into a short and no whit doubted of Proposition and truly affirme thereof This Proposition was maintained by the Apostles was received of the Vniversall Church amongst the Articles of Catholike and saving Faith I yeeld up the bucklers and grant the cause I will call it a Fundamentall Doctrine and I will pronounce those Churches which reject it to have fallen off from the Foundation and I will adjudge them unworthy of Brotherly communion with other Churches But if no Protestant can doe this none ought to call that a fundamentall Doctrine which himselfe defends or to challenge the Divines of other Churches being of another opinion of overthrowing the Foundation much lesse for this cause to deny the Rites of brotherly communion to whole Churches The affirming of Fundamentall Doctrines is so cleerly set down in the holy Scriptures Reas 3 that none of the unlearned much lesse of the learned can fall into the contrary damned opinions except they bee very negligent in learning the Catholike Faith or such as will not learne the Faith it selfe which is manifest in the Scriptures which is truly observed of Augustine De Agone Christi 6.28 But it is plaine to all that in these Doctrines whereabout Protestant Churches dissent that at the least on the one side numberlesse Christians are deceived and they men godly pious and most desirous of the Truth yea many Divines of the first ranke being versed and exercised in reading and meditating of the Scriptures through the whole course of their life Neither let any here object against me that the modern Anti-Trinitarians daily doe search the Scriptures and yet neverthelesse persist in the obstinate deniall of a Fundamentall Article for they are not only negligent in learning the Catholike Faith and drawing it out of holy Scriptures but also they are wilfully contemptuous in opposing the Catholike Faith and furiously bold in recalling the manifest Doctrine of the Scripture to the account of their doating and giddy Reasons subject to an erroneous Vertigo therefore to them agrees that of the Apostle 2 Thes 2.11 For this cause God shall send them strong delusion c. But none can passe the same sentence upon those Christians which adhere either to the Saxon or Helvetian Churches None therefore ought to set downe that those Doctrines are Fundamentall or necessato be known to Salvation in which it is probable that now this side now that side is deceived but impossible that both should be in the right as often as they contradict one another It is no Fundamentall point which Reas 4 cannot otherwise bee extracted or deduced out of the Scriptures than by the hard and long pathes of controversies alwayes untraceable to simple Christians sometimes scarce sometimes not at all evident even to the learned themselves Such are all those things which are in controversie betwixt Protestant Churches whose connexion with the Foundations of the Catholike Faith the Disputants on both sides say they see plainly necessary but the Adversaries on both sides cry it down that they see no connexion at all but plaine people ignorant of the art of Logick oftentimes give a blinde assent to their Doctors being themselves in the meane time altogether uncertaine of the strength of such consequences Things that in this manner are by their Doctors extracted and propounded to Christians may sometimes be true but can never be fundamētall that is absolutely necessary for every Christian to be known and beleeved for the obtaining of eternall life For even as they may enjoy the light and benefit of the Sun who cannot perceive the Mathematicall demonstrations of the bignesse and motions thereof so those may enjoy the light and benefit of fundamentall Doctrines to Salvation who cannot behold the Theologicall inferences and deductions drawn out of them Therefore they are not Fundamentalls but things rightly deduced in some mens Judgements from the Fundamentalls which are so much urged to be beleeved from the Divines which strive amongst themselves It is not the part of wise Divines Reas 5 so to swell and increase the number of Fundamentall points that all Christians as well learned as unlearned should be wholly uncertaine and ignorant what and of what kinde those be which are adjudged properly to belong to the