drove the Macedonian hereticks not out of the Citty onely but out of the Country too I cannot blame Gratianus the Emperour that hee interdicted all assemblies to the Manichees Photinians Eunomians And if he had extended his Banne against those other forenamed hereticks it had beene yet better for the Church Hierom's word is a good one It is not cruelty that wee thus doe for Gods cause but Piety But if there be any who with full consent embrace all the Articles of Christian Beleeâ—e and yet erre not contumaciously in some such dangerous consequences as doe in mine understanding though not their owne threaten ruine to the foundation by them yeelded as I dare not exclude them from the Church of God so I dare not professe to abhorre their Communion God forbid wee should shut up Christian brother-hood in so narrow a compasse as to barre all misbeleevers of this kind out of the family of God Doe but turne over that charitable and irrefragable discourse of Christianography Let your eyes but walke over those ample territories and large regions which in most of the parts of the habitable world but especially in Europe Africa and Asia professe the blessed name of God our Redeemer and looke to be saved by his blood and then aske your heart if you dare entertaine so uncharitable a thought as to exclude so many millions of weake but true beleevers out of the Church below or out of heaven above you shall there see Grecians Russians Georgians Armenians Iacobites Abassines and many other sects serving the same God acknowledging the same Scriptures beleeving in the same Saviour professing the same faith in all fundamentall points aspiring to the same Heaven and like Bees though flying severall wayes and working upon severall meadowes or gardens yet in the evening meeting together in the same hive Now if I liv'd in the community of any of these diverse sects of Christians I should hold it my duty to comply with them in all not unlawfull things and if any of them should live in the community of our Church I should labour by all good meanes to reclaime him from his erroneous opinion or superstitious practice when I had wrought upon him my utmost rather then let goe my hopes and interest in him I would goe as farre to meet him without any angariation save that of charity as the line of a good conscience would permit me herein following the sure patterne of our blessed Apostle whose profession it is Though I be free from all men yet have I made my selfe servant unto all that I might gaine the more unto the Iewes I became as a Iew that I might gaine the Iewes And to them under the Law as under the Law that I might gaine them that are under the Law To them that are without Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gaine them that are without Law To the weake I became weake that I might gaine the weake I am made all things to all men that I might by all meanes save some I doe much feare the Church of Rome hath a hard answere to make one day in this particular Who imperiously and unjustly challenging unto it selfe the title of the Church Catholike shutteth all other Christian professions out of doores refusing all Communion with them and so neglecting them as if they had no soules or those soules cost nothing Amongst the rest I shall give but two instances The great Prince of the Abassine Christians having heard of the fame of the Europaean Churches sends some of his nation of whom he had a great opinion to Rome to be informed of the substance and rites of Religion there professed Zago Zaba was one of the number they with great labour and hazard arrived there made knowne their great errand but were so farre slighted that they were not so much as admitted to Christian society and after many yeares vayne hope were turn'd home disregardfully not much wiser then they came without any other newes save of the scorne and insolence of those who should have instructed them A carriage much sutable to that which they still beare to the Greeke Church a Church which as for extent it may compare with theirs so for purity of doctrine I dare say if that be her voyce which her last Patriarch Cirill of Constantinople hath acquainted the world with all as I was also confidently assured by the late learned Bishop of Saribaris as far exceeding the Roman Church as the Roman doth the Russian or Ethiopick which it most contemneth Let any the most curious eye traveâ—l over that learned confession of faith which after all devises and illusions is proved sufficiently to be the genuine act of that worthy Patriarch and by him published in the name of the whole Greeke Church and let him tell me what one blemish or mole hee can finde in that faire body save onely that one clause concerning the third person of the blessed Trinity The holy Spirit proceeding from the Father by the Sonne wherein there can be no danger whiles he addes in the next words Being of the same substance with the Father and the Sonne and concludes These three Persons in one Essence we call the most holy Trinity ever to be blessed glorified and adored of every creature This errour of his Greek Church as it is now minced is rather a Problem of Scholasticall Divinity then an heresie in the Christian faith In all the rest shew me any the most able and sincere Divine in the whole Christian world that can make a more cleare and absolute declaration of his faith then that Greeke Church hath done by the hand of her worthy and renouned Prelate yet how uncharitably is she barred out of doores by her unkinde sister of Rome How unjustly branded with heresie in so much as it is absolutely forbidden to the Grecian Priests to celebrate their Masses and divine Services in the Roman fashion Neither may the Romans officiate in the Grecian manner under the payne of perpetuall suspension And if a woman of the Latine Church be given in marriage to a Greeke shee may not be suffered to live after the Grecian fashion A solaecisme much like to that of the Russian Churches who admit none to their Communion be hee nver so good a Christian if he doe not submit himselfe to their matriculation by a new Baptisme Sure those Christians that thus carry themselves towards their deare brethren dearer perhaps to God then they have either no bowels or no braynes and shall once finde by the difference of the smart whether ignorance or hard-heartednesse were guilty of this injurious measure Next to the persons the limits of this approach or remotenesse are considerable which must be proportioned according to the condition of them with whom we have to deale If they be professed enemies to the Christian name Beware of dogs beware of the
vvhich cannot but naturally abhorre paine and torture What malefactor vvas ever in the vvorld that vvas not troubled to thinke of his execution There is a sorrow that lookes not at the punishment but the sinne regarding not so much the deserved smart as the offence that is more troubled with a Fathers frowne then with the whip in a strangers hand with the desertions of God then with the feare of an hell Under this sorrow and sometimes perhaps under the mixture of both doth God suffer his dearest ones to dwell for a time numbring all their teares and sighes recording all their knocks on their breasts and stroakes on their thighes and shakings of their heads and taking pleasure to view their profitable and at last happy self-conflicts It is said of Anthony the holy Hermite that having beene once in his desart beaten and buffeted by Divells he cryed out to his Saviour O bone Iesu ubi eras O good Iesus where wert thou whilâ—s I was thus handled and received answer Iuxta te sed expectavi certamen tuum I was by thee but stayed to see how thou wouldest behave thy selfe in the combat Surely so doth our good God to all his he passeth a videndo vidi upon all their sorrowes and will at last give an happy issue with the temptation In the meane time it cannot but concerne us to temper this mixed sorrow of ours with a meet moderation Heare this then thou drouping soul thou are dismayed with the haynousnesse of thy sinnes and the sense of Gods anger for them dost thou know with whom thou hast to doe hast thou heard him proclaim his own style The Lord the Lord mercifull and gratious long suffering and abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquities and transgressions and sinnes and canst thou distrust that infinite goodnesse Lo if there were no mercy in heaven thou couldst not be otherwise affected Looke up and see that glorious light that shines about thee With the Lord there is mercy and with him is plentious redemption And is there plentious redemption for all and none for thee Because thou hast wronged God in his justice wilt thou more wrong him in his mercy and because thou hast wronged him in both wilt thou wrong thy selfe in him Know O thou weak man in what hands thou art He that said Thy mercy O Lord is in the heavens and thy faithfulnesse reacheth unto the clouds said also Thy mercy is great above the heavens and thy truth reacheth unto the clouds It is a sure comfort to thee that he cannot faile in his faithfulnesse and truth thou art upon earth and these reach above thee to the clouds but if thy sinnes could be so great and high as to over-look the clouds yet his mercy is beyond them for it reacheth unto heaven and if they could in an hellish presumption reach so high as heaven yet his mercy is great above the heavens higher then this they cannot If now thy hainous sinnes could sink thee to the bottome of hell yet that mercy which is above the heavens can fetch thee up againe Thou art a grievous sinner we know one that said he was the chiefe of sinners who is now one of the prime Saints in heaven Looke upon those whom thou must confesse worse then thy selfe Cast back thine eyes but upon Manasseh the lewd son of an holy Parent See him rearing up Altars to Baal worshipping all the host of heaven building Altars for his new Gods in the very courts of the house of the Lord causing his sonnes to passe through the fire trading with witches and wicked spirits seducing Gods people to more then Amoritish wickednesse filling the streets of Jerusalem with innocent bloud say if thy sinne can be thus crimson yet behold this man a no lesse famous example of mercy then wickednesse And what is the hand of God shortned that he cannot now save Or hath the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy cleane gone for ever hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies O man say justly on This is mine infirmity thine infirmity sure enough and take heed if thou persist to distrust that it be not worse These misprisons of God are dangerous The honour of his mercy is justly deare to him no marvell if he cannot indure it to be questioned when the temptation is blowne over heare what the same tongue sayes The Lord is mercifull and gratious slow to anger and plentious in mercy He will not alway chide neither will he keep his anger for ever He hath not dealt with us after our sinnes nor rewarded us after our iniquities For as the heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy towards them that feare him Oh then lay hold on the large and illimited mercy of thy God and thou art safe What cares the debtor for the length of a bill that is crossed what cares the condemned person for the sentence of death whiles hee hath his pardon sealed in his bosome Thou art an hainous sinner Wherefore came thy Saviour wherefore suffered he If thy sinne remaine wherefore serves his bloud If thy debt bee still called for wherefore was thine obligation cancelled If thou be still captive to sin and death wherefore was that deare ransome paid why did he stretch forth his blessed hands upon the crosse but to receive thee why did he bow downe his head but to invite thee why vvas his precious side opened but that he might take thee into his heart Thou despisest him if thou trustest him not Iudas and thou shall sin more in despairing then in betraying him Oh then gather heart to thy selfe from the merits from the mercies of thine All-sufficient Redeemer against all thy sinfulnesse For who is it that shall be once thy Judge before what Tribunall shalt thou appeare to receive thy sentence Is it not thy Saviour that sits there He that dyed for thee that he might rescue thee from death shall he can he doome thee to that death from which he came to save thee Comfort thy self then with these words and if thou wouldst keep thy soule in an equall temper as thou hast two eyes fixe the one of them upon Gods justice to keep thee low and humble and to quit thee from presumption fixe the other upon his transcendent mercy to keepe thee from the depth of sorrow and desperation §. XIV Of the moderation of the Passion of Feare SOrrow is for present and felt evils Feare is onely of evils future A passion so afflictive that even the expectation of a doubtful mischief that may come is more grievous to us sometimes then the sense of that mischiefe when it is come That which Torquemade reports of a Spanish Lord in his knowledge I could second with examples at home of some who have been thought otherwise
the Iesuite Theodore Beza denyes that the body of Christ can be substantially in many places at once Therefore he denies Gods Omnipotence The Protestant ascribes to God more then a meere permission of evill therefore hee makes him the Author of sinne Contrarily no meane one of ours inferres a Papist makes Christ a creature therefore hee is an Arrian Makes Christ of meale therefore not of the blessed Virgin therefore an Apollinarist Consequences which the disputant thinks to make good but the accused on either part detests Thus the honest and ingenuous Christian is drawne from a commendable search of necessary truthes into a wild chase of envious inferences And now the quarrell is indeed fallen off from Divinity and is removed to the Schooles of Logique naturall Philosophy Metaphysicks and not hee that hath the most truth must carry it but he that can bring the most skilfull Sophistry What is it that distracts the Reformed Churches of Christendome but this injurious conceit of inconsequent inferences The humanity of Christ saith one part is omnipresent therefore saith the other no humanity at all sith this is onely proper to the Deity The ubiquity of Christs humane nature is denyed saith the other therefore the personall union is destroyed Away with these rigid illations when wee have to doe with brethren Each holdeth his owne both disclayme the inferences and in their sence may For as learned Bucer gravely It is our part to see not what doth of it selfe follow upon any Opinion but what followes in the conscience of those who hold that opinion which wee thinke contrary to a fundamentall Article Were this rule held how happy were the Church how certaine our peace when we have done our best there will be errours enow in the Church wee need not to make them more This was not the fashion in the plaine dealing world of the first ages of Christianity No heresie was then feoffed upon any man but upon open and acknowledged conviction and if he cleared himselfe from the maine crimination hee was pronounced innocent Looke into the records of times The contagion of Arrius beginning at the obscure Church of Baucalis soone reach't to Alexandria and there instantly infected seaven hundred virgins twelve Deacons seaven Priests and offered to diffuse it selfe into the very Episcopall Throane at last by Miletus his relation the Archbishop Alexander is made acquainted with the rumor of that heresie he presently sends for Arrius and charges him with the crime That impudent mouth sticks not to confesse his wicked error but there openly casts up the poyson of his damnable doctrine before his Governour The holy Bishop no lesse openly reproves him urges and aggravates the sacrilegious impiety of his opinion And finding him to second his error with contumacies expels him from his Church followes him as was meet with seventy letters of caution to other Churches yet still the mischiefe spreds The godly Emperour Constantine is informed of the danger hee calls a Synode Arrius with his all wicked Pamphlets is there cryed downe and condemn'd to banishment I doe not finde those holy fathers nibling at consequences strain'd out of his Thalia or some other of his abhominable papers but charging him with the right-downe positions of heresie such as these blasphemies concerning Christ Time was when hee was not Hee was made of things that were not He was not begotten of the Substance of the Father In time not from Eternity not true God of God but created of nothing Here were no tricks of inferences no quirkes of Sophismes no violent deduction of unyeelded sequels the heresie proclaymed it selfe and was accordingly sentenced Such were the proceedings with the Apollinarists in the third Councell of Rome and in the first Generall Councell of Constantinople with the Macedonians and where not in the cases of heresie And if for all the rest we would see a modell of the old Theologicall simplicity in the censures of this nature we need but to cast our eye upon that profession of faith and Anathematâ—me which Damasus ingeniously wrote to Paulinus whether Bishop of Thessalonica as Theodoret would have it or as others of Antioch wee pronounce Anathema saith he to those who doe not with full liberty proclaime the Holy Ghost to be of one power and substance with the Father and the Sonne We pronounce Anathema to them who follow the error of Sabellius saying That the Father is one and the same person with the Son Wee pronounce Anathema to Arrius and Eunomius who with a like impiety but in a forme of words unlike affirme the Sunne and the holy Spirit to be creatures We pronounce Anathema to the Macedonians who comming from the stocke of Arrius have not varyed from his impiety but from his name We pronounce Anathema to Photinus who renuing the heresie of Ebion confesses our Lord Iesus Christ made only of the Virgin Mary Wee pronounce Anathema to those that maintaine two Sonnes one before all worlds the other after the assuming of flesh from the Virgin Thus he Is there any man here condemned for an heretick but hee who dirctly affirmes confesses maintaines opinions truly damnable Neither indeed is it just or equall that a man should by the malice of an enemy be made guilty of those crimes which himselfe abhorres What I will owne is mine what is cast upon me is my adversaries And if I be by deductions fetch 't into such errour the fault is not in my faith but in my Logick my braine may erre my heart doth not Away then ye cruell Tortors of Opinions Dilaters of Errours Delators of your brethren Incendiaries of the Church haters of peace Away with this unjust violence Let no man beare more then his owne burden Presse an â—â—ring brother if ye please in way of Argument with such odious Consectaries as may make him weary of his Opinion but hate to charge him with it as his owne frame not imaginary monsters of error with whom you may contend Hee that makes any man worse then hee is makes himselfe worse then hee §. XII The eighth rule of Moderation To keepe opinions within their owne bounds not imputing private mens conceits to whole Churches EIghtly it will be requisite to a peaceable moderation that we should give to every opinion his owne due extent not casting private mens conceits upon publicke Churches not fathering single fancies upon a Community All men cannot accord in the same thoughts there was never any Church under heaven in which there was not some Ahimaaz that would run alone In all waters lightly there are some sorts of fish that love to swim against the streame there is no reason that the blame of one or few should be diffused unto all If a Pope John the 22 shall maintaine that the soules of the blessed shall sleep till the resurrection If a Dominicus a Soto shall hold that the whole Christian faith shall be extinguished in the persecutions of Antichrist shall wee impute these
opinions to the See or Church If an Alphonsus a Castro shall hold hereticks and Apostates after they are once baptiz'd to be true members of the Catholicke Church Or a Catharinus or Vasquez shall teach the Commandement that forbids worshipping of Images to be meerely temporary If a Durant shall revive Pelagianisme in denying that there is any need of the divine ayde either of generall or speciall concourse in humane actions If a Richardus Armachanus shall second the Novatians in teaching that there is no pardon to be obtained by the penitent for some haynous sinnes If an Occham shall teach that the visible signes are not of the Essence of a Sacrament Or a Iohannes Parisiensis or Cornelius a Lapide little differing from the condemned error of Rupertus Tuitiensis shall teach that the Sacramentall bread is hypostatically assumed by the word Is there any so unjust Arbiter of things as to upbrayd these Paradoxes to the Roman Church who professeth their dislike Thus if a Knox or Buchanan or Goodman shall broach exorbitant and dangerous opinions concerning the Successions and rights of Kings and lawlesse power of subjects Why should this be layd in our dish more then a Suarez or Mariana in theirs If a Flaccius Illiricus shall uphold a singular error concerning Grace and Originall sinne If some ill-advised followers of Zuinglius shall hold the Sacramentall elements to be onely bare signes serving meerely for memory and representation If some Divines of ours shall defend the rigid opinions concerning Predestination If some phantasticall heads shall crye downe all decent Ceremonies and all set formes of devotion why should the Church suffer double in those things which it bewayles Surely as the Church is a collective body so it hath a tongue of her owne speaking by the common voyce of her Synodes in her publicke Confessions Articles Constitutions Catechismes Liturgies what she sayes in these must passe for her owne but if any single person shall take upon him unauthorised to be the mouth of the Church his insolence is justly censurable And if an adversary shall charge that private opinion upon the Church he shall be intolerably injurious Indeed as it is the best harmony where no part or Instrument is heard alone but a sweet composition and equall mixture of all so is it the best state of the Church where no dissenting voyce is heard above or besides his fellowes but all agree in one common sound of wholesome doctrine But such as mans naturall selfe-love is this is more fit to be expected in a Platonicall speculation then in a true reality of existence for whiles every man is apt to have a good conceit of his owne deeper insight and thinkes the prayse and use of his knowledge lost unlesse he impart it 〈◊〉 commeth to passe that not contayning themselves within their owne privacies they vent their thoughts to the world and hold it a great glory to be the Authours of some more then common-piece of skill And to say truth the freedome and â—ase of the Presse hath much advanced this itching and disturbing humour of men whiles only the penne was imployed bookes were rare neither was it so easie for a man either to know anothers opinion or to diffuse his owne now one onely day is enough to fill the world with a Pamphlet and suddainly to scatter whatsoever conceit beyond all possibility of revocation So much the more need there is for those that sit at the helme whether of Church or State to carry a vigilant eye and hard hand over these Common tel-tales of the world and so to restraine them if it were possible that nothing might passe their stampe which should be prejudiciall to the common peace or varying from the received judgement of the Church But if this task be little lesse then impossible since by this meanes every man may have ten thousand severall tongues at pleasure how much more happy were it that the sonnes of the Church could obtaine of themselves so much good nature submissive reverence as to speake none but their mothers tongue The forme of tongues in the first descent of the Holy Ghost was fiery and cloven and that was the fittest for the state of the first plantation of the Gospell intimating that fervour and variety which was then both given and requisite Now in the enlarged and setled estate of his Evangelicall Church the same spirit descends and dwels in tongues coole and undivided Cor unum via una One heart one way was the Motto of the Prophet when he foretels the future coalition of Gods people And one mind one mouth was the Apostles to his Romanes Let us walke by the same Rule Let us mind the same thing is his charge to his Philippians But if any wrangler affect to bee singular and will needes have a minde of his owne let him stand but for what hee is let him goe only for a single figure let him not by a misprision take up the place of thousands §. XIII The ninth rule of Moderation The actions and manners of men must not regulate our judgements concerning the cause NInthly neither doth it a little conduce to Moderation to know that the facts and manners of men may not be drawne to the prejudice of the cause for howsoever it commonly holds that impious opinions and loose life goe still together yet it is no trusting to this rule as if it did not admit of exceptions There have been those whose errours have beene foule and yet their conversation faultlesse I remember what Bernard said of Peter Abailardus that hee was Iohn without and Herod within And of Arnoldus of Brixia Would God his doctrine were so sound as his life is strict And elsewhere Whose conversation is Honey his opinion Poyson whose head is a Doves his tayle a Scorpions Epiphanius when he speakes of the hereticke Hierax an hereticke with a witnesse who denyed the resurrection of the flesh which he granted to the soule could say He was a man truly admirable for his exercise in pietie and such an one as besides the governance of his owne could draw other mens soules to the practise of Godlinesse And Augustine speaking somewhere of Pelagius and some others of his Sect I remember acknowledgeth that the carriage of their life was faire and unblamable And those that are the bitterest enemies to the Waldenses or poore men of Lyons give great testimonie to the integritie and inoffensivenesse of their conversation So on the contrarie there are many whose Religion is sound but their life impure As Caesar said of old Wee have enow of these Birds at home Such as like Ants follow the track of their fellowes to their common hillocke going on those right wayes of Opinion whereinto example education have put them yet stayning their profession by leud behaviour I have read that a rich Iew being askt why hee turn'd Christian laid the cause upon the vertue of our
and spightfull provocations in differences of Religion IT shall be our eleventh rule for Moderation that wee refraine from all rayling termes and spightfull provocations of each other in the differences of Religion A charge too requisite for these times wherein it is rare to finde any writer whose inke is not tempered with gall and vineger any speaker whose mouth is not a quiver of sharpe and bitter words It is here as it is in that rule of Law The breach of peace is begun by menacing increased by menacing but finished by this battery of the tongue Wherein wee are like those Egyptians of whom the Historian speakes who having begun their devotion with a fast whiles the Sacrifice was burning fell upon each others with blowes which having liberally dealt on all hands at last they sat downe to their feast thus doe we after professions of an holy zeale wee doe mercilesly wound each other with reproaches and then sit downe and enjoy the contentment of our supposed victory Every provocation sets us on and then as it useth to be with scolds every bitter word heightens the quarrell Men doe as we use to say of Vipers when they are whipt spit out all their poyson These uncharitable expressions what can they bewray but a distempered heart from which they proceed as the smoake and sparkes flying up show the house to be on fire or as a corrupt Spittle showes exulcerate lungs By this meanes it falls out that the truth of the cause is neglected whiles men are taken up with an idle yet busie prosecution of words Like as in thrashing the straw flyes about our eares but the corne is hid And it hath beene an old observation that when a man falls to personall rayling it argues him drawne utterly dry of matter and despayring of any farther defence as we see and find that the dogge which running back falls to bauling and barking hath done fighting any more I have both heard and read that this practice is not rare amongst the Iewes to brawl in their publike Synagogues and to bang each other with their holy Candlesticks and censers in so much that this scandall hath indangered the setting off some of theirs to Mahometisme And I would to God it were only proper unto them and not incident unto too many of those who professe to be of the number of them to whom the Prince of Peace said My peace I leave with you It is the caveat which the blessed Apostle gives to his Galathians and in them to us If yee bite and devoure one another take heed yee be not consumed one of another Lo here it is the tongue that bites and so bites as that after the fashion of a mad dogges teeth both rage and death followes And if any man thinke it a prayse with the Lacedaemonian in Plutarch to bite like a Lion let him take that glory to himselfe and be as he would seeme like a Lion that is greedy of his prey and as a young Lion that lurketh in secret places But withall let him expect that just doome of the God of Peace Thou shalt tread upon the Lion and the Adder the young Lion and the Dragon shalt thou trample under feet Certainely it is in vaine for us to expect any other measure from the exasperated and unruly mindes of hostile brethren whose hatred is commonly so much greater as their interest is more They whose fires would not meet after death are apt in life to consume one another This is the stale and knowne Machination of him whose true title is The accuser of the brethren That old Dragon when he saw the woman flying to the wildernesse to avoyde his rage what doth hee Hee casts out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that hee might cause her to be carryed away of the flood what are these waters which he casts out of his mouth but sclanderous accusations lyings detractions cruell persecutions of the tongue And shall wee that professe the deare name of one common Saviour so farre second the great enemy of mankinde as to derive some cursed Channels from those Hellish floods of his for the drenching of the flourishing valleyes of Gods Church Shall wee rather imitate him then the blessed Archangell of God who contending with the Divell and disputing about the body of Moses durst not bring against him a rayling accusation but sayd The Lord rebuke thee Nay shall wee dare to doe that to Brethren which the Angell durst not doe to the Divell When we heare and see fearefull thundring and lightning and tempest we are commonly wont to say that ill spirits are abroad neither doubt I but that many times as well as in Iobs case God permits them to rayse these dreadfull blustrings in the ayre right so when wee see these flashes and heare these hideous noyses of contention in Gods Church wee have reason to thinke that there is an hand of Satan in their raysing and continuance For as for God we know his courses are otherwise When it pleased him to make his presence knowne to Elijah first there passed a great and strong wind which rent the Mountaines and brake the Rockes in peeces but the Lord was not in the Winde After that Winde came an Earthquake but the Lord was not in the Earthquake After the Earthquake a Fire but the Lord was not in the Fire but after the Fire came a still small Voyce and therein was the Almightie pleased to expresse himselfe Loe as Saint Ambrose observes well the Divell is for noyse Christ for silence Hee that is the Lyon of the Tribe of Iuda delights in the style of the Lambe of God and is so tearmed both by Iohn the Baptist his forerunner in the dayes of his flesh and by Iohn the Evangelist his Apostle in the state of his glory Neither was the holy Spirit pleased to appeare in the forme of a Falcon or Eagle or any other bird of Prey but of a Dove the meeknesse and innocence whereof our Saviour recommended for a Patterne to all his followers If there be any therefore who delight to have their Beakes or Tallons imbrued in blood let them consider of what spirit they are sure I am they are not of his whose so zealous charge it is Put on as the Elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindnesse humblenesse of mind meeknesse long-suffering Forbearing one another forgiving one another if any man have a quarrell against any even as Christ forgave you even so also doe yee And above all things put on Charitie which is the bond of perfectnesse And let the Peace of God rule in your hearts §. XVI The twelfth rule of Moderation That how-ever our judgements differ wee should compose our affections towards Vnitie and Peace WHich divine counsell of the blessed Apostle leades me to the twelfth and last rule of Moderation viz. That if wee
cannot bring our judgements to conspire in the same truth with others yet wee should compose our affections to all peace to all tender respects and kind offices to our dissenting Brethren What if our braines be divers yet let our hearts be one I cannot but commend the exemplarie disposition of the Christians of Constantinople in the dayes of Constantius when the famous Church of the Resurrection was there to be erected the Novatians men women children though a Sect diversly affected brought Stones and Mortar to the building of it joyning with the Orthodox Christians against the Arrians communicating with them in three other Churches and were upon the point of a full unitie and concord had not some few wrangling spirits of the Novatian partie put in a Claw and cross'd so faire hopes Had the matter been so slight as he conceived it was good counsell which the Emperour gave to Bishop Alexander Ac tametsi c. Although you saith he differ from each other in a point of small moment as wee cannot all be of one minde in every thing yet it may be so ordered by you that there may be a sincere concord betwixt you and that there be a mutuall communion and consociation betwixt all your people And the same temper hath beene laudably observed and professed by diverse late Worthies in the Church Concerning the administration of the Sacrament to the sick in case of extremitie Calvin in an Epistle to Olevianus gives reasons of that practice but withall addes Scis frater alium esse apud nos morem You know brother the fashion is otherwise with us I beare with it because it is not availeable for us to contend Luther though a man of a hot and stiffe spirit yet writing to the Cities and Churches of Helvetia hath thus Insuper ut dilectio amicabilis concordia c. Moreover that there may be a perfect and friendly love and concord betwixt us wee shall not fayle to doe whatsoever lyes in our power especially I for my part will utterly blot out of my thoughts all the offence that I had conceived and will promise all love and fidelitie to you And shuts up with a fervent prayer that God by the grace of his holy Spirit would glew their hearts together through Christian love and purge out of them all the drosse and dregs of humane diffidence and divellish malice and suspition to the glory of his holy Name the salvation of many Soules to the despight of the Devill of the Pope and all his adherents And before that time in the Conference of the Divines on both parts at Marpurge Oct. 3. 1529. passing through all the points wherein there seemed any difference and sticking onely at the last concerning the Sacrament they shut up thus Quanquam verò c. And although wee could not at this time agree whether the true Body and Bloud of Christ be in the Bread and Wine corporally yet each part shall hold and maintaine so farre as his Conscience will allow true Christian love with other and both parts shall continually pray unto Almightie God that he will by his Spirit confirme us in the true sense and understanding thereof To which were subscribed the names of those ten eminent Divines following Luther Melanchton Iustus Ionas Osiander Brentius Agricola Oecolampadius Zuinglius Bucer Hedio Thus Thus it should be amongst Divines amongst Christians who hope to meet in one Heaven If it must be with us as with the Sava and Danuby two famous Rivers in the East that they run threescore miles together in one Channell with their waters divided in very colour from each other yet let it be as it is in them without noyse without violence If wee be children as wee pretend of our Father Abraham let us take up his peaceable suggestion to his Nephew Let there be no strife I pray thee betwixt thee and mee betwixt thy Heard-men and my Heard-men for wee are brethren Macarius was in his time accounted a very holy man yet I reade that after hee had macerated himselfe with long devotion hee had an answer from God of the acceptance of his Prayers but withall an intimation that after all his endeavours hee came short of the merit of two Women in the Citie which were two Wives of two Brethren which had lived fifteene yeeres together in one house without the least discord This sweet and peaceable disposition cannot but be graciously accepted of God betwixt us that are Brethren in the wide House of his Church It is not for Christians to be like unto Thistles or Tazels which a man cannot touch without pricking his fingers but rather to Pitosella or Mouse-eare in our Herball which is soft and silken in the handling although if it be hard strained it yeelds a juice that can harden Metalls to cut Iron But if wee meet with a kind of men who are disposed to be quarrelsome like to that Cercyon in Suidas who would needs wrestle with every man he met the best way is to doe as some have advised when we are provoked to fight with women to runne away Shun prophane and vaine babling saith the Apostle as for peace if it flye from us wee must run after it Follow peace with all men as he to his Hebrewes But if after all our quickest paces it will not be overtaken if we still fall upon those who are enemies to peace rabid children who love to heare themselves crie Salamanders who love the fire of contention muddie Eeles who delight most in troubled waters be they such as are under our power wherefore are Censures but for such spirits Even he that could say Shall I come to you with a Rod or with the spirit of meekenesse said also I would they were even cut off that trouble you It is well commended by the Historian in Proclus Bishop of Constantinople that hee shewed himselfe mild and gentle to all and by this meanes woon more then others did by roughnesse and severitie and it is a sure rule that it is an easier account that shall be given for mercie then for crueltie And certainely this course is first to be taken The Chirurgian stroakes the arme before hee open's the Veine But where lenitie prevailes not wee are cruell to the Church if wee strike not home when singing will not still the Childe the Rod must If they bee such as are without the reach of our Authoritie wee must first doe our best to make them sensible of the wounds they give to our common Mother and those Rubs which they lay in the way of the Gospel since it cannot be otherwise now then the Historian noteth in those first Ages of the Church that the difference of Opinions whereof one arose out of another was a great hinderance to many in pitching upon our holy Profession And as Optatus of old betwixt our Licet and their Non licet Christian soules cannot