Sequestrations BEfore I saw Mr. Baxters late Treatise called The Grotian Religion it was to me nec beneficio nec injuria neither known for good nor hurt I acknowledge the very Title of his Book did not please me Different Opinions do not make different Religions It is the Golden Rule of Justice not to do thus to another which a man would not have done to himself He would take it unkindly himself to have his own Religion contradistinguished into the Prelatical Religion from which he doth not much dissent so he might have the naming of the Prelates and the Presbyterian Religion which he doth profess for the present and the Independent Religion which he shaketh kindly by the hand and the Anabaptistical Religion which challengeth Seniority of all Modern Sects And then to have his Presbyterian Religion subdivided either according to the number of the Churches into the English Religion and the Scotish Religion and the Gallician Religion and the Belgian Religion and the Helvetian Religion and the Allobrogian Religion of all the names of the Reformers into the Calvinistical Religion and Brownistical Religion Zuinglian Religion and Erastian Religion c. For all these have their differences And so himself in his Preface to this very Treatise admits those things for pious Truths for which we have been branded with the names of Papists and Arminians and have been plundered and spoiled of all that we had Let himself be judge whether this be not to have the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ with respect of persons Iam. 2. 1. The Church of Christ is but one one Fold and one Shepherd Christian Religion is but one one Lord one Faith one Hope Then why doth he multiply Religions and cut the Christian Faith into shreds as if every Opinion were a fundamental Article of Religion Let him remember that of St. Hierome If you shall hear those who are said to be Christians any where to be denominated not from the Lord Iesus Christ but from some other person know that this is not the Church of Christ but the Synagogue of Antichrist So much for the Title of Mr. Baxters Book now for his design His main scope is to shew that Grotius under a pretence of reconciling the Protestant Churches with the Roman Church hath acted the part of a Coy-duck willingly or unwillingly to lead Protestants into Popery And therefore he held himself obliged in duty to give warning to Protestants to beware of Grotius his followers in England who under the name of Episcopal Divines do prosecute the design of Cassander and Grotius to reconcile us to the Pope Page 2. And being pressed by his adversary to name those Episcopal Divines vir dolosus versatur in generalibus he gives no instance of any one man throughout his Book but of my self I shall borrow a word with him of himself a word of Grotius and a word or two concerning my self First for himself he doth but wound himself through Grotius his sides and in his censuring Grotius teach his own Fellows to serve him with the same sawce Grotius and Mr. Baxter both prosecute the same design of reconciliation but Mr. Baxters object is the British World and Grotius his Object is the Christian World Mr. Baxter as well as Grotius in prosecuting his design doth admit many things which the greater part of his own Fellows do reject As that Praeterition is an act of justice in God Praef. Sect. 7. That God giveth sufficient grace in the Jesuits sense to those that perish Sect. 8. That Redemption is universal They the Synod of Dort give more to Christs Death for the Elect than we but no less that he knows of to his Death for all than we Sect. 10. He is as much for Free-will as we They all profess that Man hath the natural faculty of Free-will Sect. 11. He who had all his other Treatises which I did never see in probability might find much more of the same kind I do not dislike him for this but rather commend him for unwrapping himself as warily as he could without any noise out of the endless train of Error And for other points wherein he is still at a default I hope a little time and better information may set him right in those as well as these But others of his own Party do believe all these points which he admits to be as downright Popery as any is within the Walls of Rome And with the same freedom and reason that he censures Grotius they may censure him for the Popes stalking Horse or Coy-duck to reconcile us to Rome Neither can he plead any thing for himself which may not be pleaded as strongly or more strongly for Grotius He may object that those things which he admitteth are all evident Truths but sundry of those things which are admitted by Grotius are Popish Errors This is confidently said but how is he able to make it good to other men Grotius took himself to have as much reason as Mr. Baxter and much more learning and reading than Mr. Baxter But still if his Fellows do no more approve of what he saith than he approveth of that which Grotius saith they have as good ground to censure him as he hath to censure Grotius Those very points which are admitted by Mr. Baxter are esteemed by his Fellows to be as gross and fundamental Errors as any of those other supernumerary points which are maintained by Grotius But to come up closer to him What if those other points disputed between Grotius and him be meer logomachies or contentions about words or mistaken Truths He himself confesseth as much now of all the Arminian tenets Pref. Sect. 15. I am grown to a very great confidence that most of our contentions about those Arminian points are more about words than matter Again in the same Section The doctrine of the divine decrees is resolved into that of the divine operations Let us agree of the last and we agree of the former And almost all the doctrine of the divine operations about which we differ dependeth on the point of Free-will and will be determined with that And how far we differ if at all in the point of Free will c. I see Truth is the daughter of Time Now our Arminian Controversies are avowed to have been but contentions about words Now it is become a doubtful case and deserving an if whether we have any difference at all about Free-will or no. The wind is gotten into the other dore since we were prosecuted and decried as Pelagians and enemies of Grace because we maintained some old innocent Truths which the Church of England and the Catholick Church even taught her Sons before Arminius was born Some of their greatest Sticklers do owe a great account to God and a great reparation to us for those groundless calumnies which they cast upon us at that time For the present I only lay down this disjunctive Conclusion Either Mr. Baxter and his Fellows have changed
Persons that have no regard to Truth or Modesty or Sobriety towards God or Man and shall be sure to be accounted with at the Day of Iudgment to the great Relief of his tender Heart That are animated by their secular Interest or desire of Revenge that are unacquainted with the Spirit of the Gospel and the Christian Religion that are incompassionate towards the Infirmities of others whereof yet none in the World give greater Instances than themselves that have no thoughts but of Rage and Destruction and that had they Power would render all Christians like the Moabites Ammonites and Edomites that is are for nothing less than Massacres and cutting of Throats c. Sweet Sir Enough enough of these healing Words we are vanquisht for ever with these generous strains of Meekness and Civility Did ever Man pass by such unparallel'd Injuries and Provocations with so much Gallantry and Greatness of Mind What execrable Miscreants must they be that could treat so brave an Adversary with Rudeness and Incivility or assault such an Heroick Ingenuity with ignoble and unhandsom Arts He is too hard for us at all Weapons there is no contending with a Person of such an Adamantine Honour he rebukes us with his Endearments and strikes us dead with his sweet and kissing Looks We yield we yield we cannot resist all this kind and melting Goodness He has requited our Malice with so fair and â—ivil a Character that it were a notorious Calumny to paint any thing but the Devil himself in blacker Colours And if but one half of this Enamouring Description that he has bestowed upon his Adversaries in the very Pangs of Love and Compassion were true or credible no Man that is yet unhang'd unless he had been marked thrice at least with the Honourable Brand of Authority would ever be so mad as to change condition with such cast and irreclaimable Wretches However we accept his kind Offer and his Good Meaning and seeing he is willing to respite his Revenge to the Day of Iudgment Ah sweet Day when these People of God shall once for all to their unspeakable comfort and support wreak their Eternal Revenge upon their reprobate Enemies it is agreed upon for we are not so fierce and fiery but we can wait with as much patience as he for satisfaction And therefore let us by mutual consent forbear all this unnecessary Courtship and Complement for the future and fall on bluntly upon the Argument without hugging and kissing before we draw Sword It is a pretty point of Honour for young Gentlemen but we that are a more sullen sort of Combatants may without any great inconvenience spare the Ceremony And now upon this Proposal it will be found that these intemperate Reflections as he calls them are so far from making the Book unanswerable that they are the only thing to which he has ventured to make any Reply so that it is plain this is not the Reason but purely the Pretence of his Reluctancy For alas the Evidence of the Cause is so bright and convictive as prevents all tolerable Mistakes or Exceptions and as for his bold and bare-faced Falsifications they arâ— all spent in the former Engagement and all his jugling shifts have been so sufficiently laid open to the World that they can never do him or his Cause any service for the future And setting these aside the Argument of the Controversie is so plain and easie that it is not capable of any farther Doubt or Disputation For all their Exceptions especially as they concern the Church of England relate either to the Power it self or to the Matters of the Command the first are directly levell'd against the very Being of Authority and Magistrates of what kind soever according to their general Pretences must not dare to put any Restraints upon their Subjects Consciences lest they invade the Divine Prerogative overthrow the Fundamental Liberties of Humane Nature and undo honest Men only for their Loyalty to God and their Religion Now if this Right be claimed without Restraint or Limitation then the Consequence is unavoidable That Subjects may whenever they please cross with the Authority of their Governours upon any pretence that can wear the Name or make a shew of Religion But this is so grosly absurd that J. O. nor any Man else in his Wits never had the Courage to assert it And then the Necessity of a Sovereign Power in Matters of Religion is granted and all Arguments that prove it in general necessary to Peace and Government are allowed or at least not contradicted for whoever admits an Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction howsoever bounded and limited admits it and that is enough to the first Assertion of a Supreme Authority over the Conscience in Matters of Religion But then say they there are some particular things exempted from all Humane Cognizance which if the Civil Magistrate presume to impose upon the Consciences of his Subjects as he ventures beyond the Warrant of his Commission so he can tie no Obligation of Obedience upon them seeing they can be under no Subjection in those things where they are under no Authority Now this pretence resolves it self thus that they do not quarrel his Majesties Ecclesiastical Supremacy but they acknowledge it to be the undoubted Right of all Sovereign Princes as long as its Exercise is kept within due bounds of Modesty and Moderatiâ—n Which being granted all their general Exceptions against the Sufficiency of the Authority it self are quitted and they have now nothing to except against but the excess of its Iurisdiction So that having gained this ground the next thing to be assigned and determined is the just and lawful bounds of this Power and that has been already distinctly enough described as to all the most material Cases that can probably occur in Humane Life all which may be summ'd up in this one general Rule viz. That Governours take care not to impose things apparently evil and that Subjects be not allowed to plead Conscience in any other case this is the safest and most easie Rule to secure the Quiet of all that are upright and peaceable and all that refuse Subjection to such a gentle and moderate Government make themselves uncapable of all the Benefits of Society in that if we stop not their Liberty of Remonstrating to the Commands of Authority at this Principle we shall for ever be at an utter loss for making any certain Provisions for the Peace and Security of Commonwealths So that if they will attempt any thing here to any purpose they must again either cancel all Ecclesiastical Power or confine it within narrower bounds of Iurisdiction both which are equally absurd and dangerous the former we have already cashiered as flat Anarchy and the latter is no less because there is no end of the Follies and Impostures or at least the Pretences of Religion so that if they may be suffered to over-rule the Power of Princes then can Princes claim no Power over any
spake with honour of the Bishops of England I derived the Episcopal dignity from the very cradle of the Church I condemned Aerius I affirmed that St. James was Bishop of Hierusalem from whom the succession of the Bishops of that City was derived by a long row of Bishops Mr. Blondel in his needless Apology for St. Hierome made a very necessary Apology for himself and sent it to Mr. Rivet to be added as an Appendix to his Book in the Impression of it by whose neglect it was omitted And now having mentioned Doctor Rivet I shall make bold to add that he himself did intreat a Noble Earl yet living to procure him a dignity or Prebend in England as his Brother Mouline and Vossius had The Earl answered that he could not hold any such place in England without subscribing to Episcopacy and the Doctrine and Discipline of the English Church And he replied that he was most ready to subscribe to them both with his hand and heart I conclude that all Divines throughout the Christian World who maintain a necessity of Holy Orders ever were and still are Episcopal Divines except some weaker and wilful Brethren who for their Antiquity are but of Yesterday and for their Universality come much short of the very Donatists in Africk condemned by all moderate and rational persons of their own Communion And therefore Mr. Baxter might have done better to have given his pretended Designers a lower and more distinctive name than that of Episcopal Divines It will not help him at all which he saith pag. 21. It is not all Episcopal Divines which I suspected of a compliance with Grotius and Cassander no not all of the later strein c. I extended it to none of the new Episcopal Party but such as I there described His distinction of Episcopal Divines into Old and New is but a Chimera of his own brain without any ground neither doth he bring one grain of reason to make it good And by his plain Confession here it appeareth that this great design is but his own suspicion To accuse men of a design to introduce the Pope into England meerly upon suspicion is a liberty or rather license to be abhorred of all conscionable Christians Yet of the old Episcopal Divines he nameth many Bishop Jewel Pilkinson Hall Carlton Davenant Morton Abbot Usher Potter Downham Grindal Parker Hooper Farrar Cranmer Latimer Ridley and forty more Bishops here p. 103. as if so many names blended together confusedly in an heap as an hotchpotch were able like a Medusas head to transform reasonable men into stocks and stones If he had made his forty up an hundred he might have found instances enough to have made it good and sundry of them no way inferiour to any whom he nameth and superiour to many In commemorating some and pretermitting others he sheweth sometimes want of judgement always respect of persons What his description was of New Episcopal Divines I do not know having never seen any Treatise of his but this of the Grotian Religion neither should I have meddled with that if he had not brought me publickly upon the Stage neither do I much regard But howsoever he describeth them he instanceth in no man but my self either because he is not able to name any or because he thinks it easiest to leap over the hedge where it is lowest Have I not great reason to thank him for being so mindful of me in my absence As for my part I profess ingeniously before God and Man I never knew of any such design I am confident there never was any such design and I am certain that I neither had nor could have an hand in any such design either for Italian Popery or French Popery or any Popery unless he call the Doctrine and Discipline of the Primitive Church Popery unless our Holy Orders and Liturgy and Articles be Popery Other Popery he shall never be able to prove against me nor I hope against any true Episcopal Divines His design like the Phoenix is much talked of by himself but never was seen I know as little of any such distinction between Old and New Episcopal Divines All the World seeth evidently that all the material differences which we have with them are about those Holy Orders and that Liturgy and those Articles and those Rites which we received from those Old Episcopal Divines Non tellus cimbam tellurem cimâ—a reliquit We have not left our Predecessors but They have left both us and our Predecessors and the Church of England And it fareth with Mr. Baxter as it doth with new Sailers who by the deception of their sight suppose that the Land leaveth them terraeque urbesque recedunt when in truth it is they themselves that leave the Land In a word his supposed design and his pretended distinction are meer fansies which never had any being in the nature of things Where did these designers ever meet together to contrive their Plot They are never likely to do any great actions who want sinews to knit them together When or where had ever any of them any intercourse or correspondence with Rome or any that belonged to Rome by word or writing It was a sensless silly Plot to design the Introduction of the Pope into England without his own knowledge or consent upon terms never accorded never so much as treated upon Thus have we seen melancholick persons out of a strong fantasie imagine that they see Ships and Minotaures in the Clouds The proofs of such accusations as this is ought to have been clearer than the Noon-day light not ungrounded or ill grounded jealousies and suspicions of credulous and partial persons CHAP. V. This Plot was as weakly fathered upon the Bishop of Derry ANd as he erred in fathering his imaginary Plot upon Episcopal Divines in general so he made an ill choice of me the meanest of those Episcopal Divines for his only instance who have only read so much of Grotius as to enable me to judge that Mr. Baxter doth him wrong I hope unwittingly If ever I should attempt the reconciling of Controversies among Christians it must be in another way then Grotius taketh I mean more Scholastical I will confess that freely which Mr. Baxter neither doth know nor ever could know but by me that about thirty years since when my body was stronger and my wits fresher when I had some Books and Notes of mine own and could have had what supply soever I desired and opportunity to confer with whomsoever I pleased I had then a design indeed to do my weak endeavour to disabuse the Christian World by the right stating and distinguishing of Controversies between the Church of Rome and us And to shew First How many of them are meer Logomachies or contentions about words without any just ground Secondly How many of them are Scholastical subtleties whereof ordinary Christians are not capable and consequently no points of Faith Thirdly How many of them are not the
Controversies of the Churches but of particular Persons or Parties in those Churches as well Protestants against Protestants and Roman Catholicks against Roman Catholicks as Protestants against Roman Catholicks Those Controversies which each Church doth tolerate within it self ought not to be any cause of Schism between the Churches Fourthly How many of our Controversies are about Rites and Ceremonies and things indifferent in their own nature in the use of which every particular Church under the Universal Church hath free liberty in it self and dominion over its own Sons When all these empty Names and Titles of Controversies are wiped out of the Roll the true Controversies between us may be quickly mustered and will not be found upon a serious enquiry to be either so exclusive of salvation to those who err invincibly and hold the truth implicitely in the preparation of their minds nor altogether so irreconcileable as some persons have imagined The two dangerous extremes are to clip away something from saving Truth whereof I do not find the Church of Rome to have been guilty and to obtrude erroneous or at the best probable opinions for Articles of Faith whereof I find many in the Church of Rome to have been most guilty Next to these are the practical abuses of the Court of Rome These were my thoughts in my younger days which age and experience hath rather confirmed and radicated in me than altered which if they had been known I deserved rather to have been cherished and encouraged than to be branded by any man as a Factor for the Pope Truly Mr. Baxter could hardly have fixed upon a Subject more improper for such a charge When I was commanded to preach to our Northern Synod where every one designed to discharge that duty chuseth some controversie between the Church of Rome and us my Subject was the Popes unlawful Usurpation of Jurisdiction over the Britannick Churches When I disputed in Cambridge for the Degree of Doctor my Thesis was taken out of Nilus that the Papacy as it was challenged and usurped in many places and as it had been sometimes usurped in our Native Country was either the procreant or conservant cause or both procreant and conservant cause of all the greater Ecclesiastical Controversies in the Christian World When our late King Charles of blessed memory was in Spain and Religion in England seemed to our Country people though without any ground to be placed in aequilibrio or reduced to a measuring cast I adventured with more zeal than discretion to give two of their Roman Champions in our Northern parts Mr. Hungate a Jesuite and Mr. Houghton a secular Priest one after another two meetings at North-Allerton and came off without any dishonour to the Church of England and stopped the Carrier of the Romish Emislaries at that time in those parts When I was last in Ireland and the Romanists had wrested some part of the power of the Sword into their hands they prosecuted no English Protestant more than my self and never left untill they had thrust me out of the Kingdom as conceiving me to be a great impediment to them in their making of Proselytes It was but an ill requital if I had been one of their Factors Since I came into exile these sixteen years where have my weak endeavours ever been wanting to the Church of England who hath had more Disputes with their Seculars and Regulars of all sorts French Italian Dutch English in Word in Writing to maintain the honour of the English Church And after all this am I traduced as a Factor for Popery because I am not a Protestant out of my wits or because my assertions of known Truth are not agreeable to the gust of Innovators Blessed are we when men revile us and persecute us and say all manner of evil against us falsly for Christs sake for great is our reward in heaven But doth he think in earnest that my way of reconciliation is the ready way to introduce the Papal tyranny into England Nay directly on the contrary it is the ready way to exclude the Papal tyranny out of England for ever and to acquit us for evermore from all the Extortions and Usurpations of the Roman Court and to free us from all their Emissaries who now make a prey of such as are unsetled among us by the means of doubtful and give me leave to speak my mind freely impertinent Disputations And this I am ready to make good against any Innovator of either side who shall oppose it This is hard measure to be offered to me from him who professeth himself to be so great a lover of the Unity of the Church p. 6. which is but his duty if it be true as I hope it is But let him take heed that his love of Unity prove not to be self-love which insinuateth it self strangely into the most holy actions and designs All men could be contented to have others united to themselves and to chop off or stretch out the Religion of their Brethren as Procrustes did his Guests according to the measure of his own Bed I doubt not but he would be well pleased to have Independency stretched up to an ordained Ministery as he calleth it and Episcopacy let down to a Presbyterian parity or rather to an empty shew of equality For I never yet observed but one or two single popular Presbyters ruled the whole Consistory and had more absolute Arbitrary power than ever any Bishop pretended unto If this be all his love and desire of Unity to have Antiquity Universality and the perpetual Regiment of the Church to be levelled and moduled according to private fantasies it is meer self-love no love of Unity But I hope better though I sear worse If he dare refer all differences between us to be tried by the publick Standard we shall quickly see whether he or I follow Peace and Unity with swifter paces I offer him two Standards to be tried by First the Doctrine of the Church of England set down by those old Episcopal Divines whom he pretendeth to be more propitious to him than to me If he submit to this Standard all differences between him and me are at an end And then to what purpose hath so much plundering and so much effusion of Christian blood been unless it be to shake the dregs to the top of the Urinal But if he like not this Standard as I much fear he will not I offer him another that is the Pattern of the Primitive Church both for Doctrine and Discipline But it may be he will dislike this more and when all is done admit no Standard but the Scripture I am ready to joyn with him in this also But if he and I differ about the sense of the Scripture all men acknowledge that the Scripture consisteth not in the words but in the sense how shall we be tried what is the sense by the judgement of the Church of England that is the Standard of the place or by
directions All that I do remember or meet with I shall produce The first place is in the Frontispiece of his Book Neither is that his own judgement but the judgement of King Iames related by Mr. Casaubon in his Epistle to Cardinal Peron in these words The King judgeth that the number of things absolutely necessary to salvation is not great Wherefore his Majesty thinks there is no more compendious way to Peace than to distinguish diligently things necessary from things not necessary and to endeavour to procure an agreement about necessary things and that place may be given to Christian liberty in things not necessary The King calleth those things simply necessary which either the Word of God commmandeth expresly to be beloved or done or which the ancient Church did draw out of the Word of God by necessary consequence If this distinction were used to decide the present Controversies and divine right were ingeniously distinguished from positive or Ecclesiastical right it seemeth not that the contention would be long or sharp between pious and moderate men about things absolutely necessary For they are both fâ—â— as we said even now and are for the most part approved by all who desire to be called Christians And his most renowned Majesty thinketh this distinction to be of so great moment to diminish the Controversies which trouble the Church so much at this day that he judgeth it the duty of all who are studious of Peace to explain it diligently and teach it and urge it This is an excellent way indeed but it is a general way not a particular way It was King Iames his way not Mr. Chillingworths What King Iames pointed at in general I pursue in particular But that prudent Prince was far enough from dreaming that there could be no reconciliation of Christendom except all humane right were destroyed or taken away This is Mr. Baxters own unbeaten way I find a second passage to this purpose in Mr. Chillingworths answer to the Preface nu 23. Notwithstanding all your errours we do not renounce your communion totally and absolutely but only leave communicating with you in the practice and profession of your errours The trial whereof will be to propose some Form of Worshipping God taken wholly out of Scripture And herein if we refuse to join with you then and not till then may you justly say we have utterly and absolutely abandoned your communion This might serve for a coverfew to hide the flame of our contentions from breaking out whilst we are at out devotions But it hath nothing of reconciliation in it and hath as little probability of a pacification We desire not half so much as this of them to change their whole Liturgy but only to leave out some of their own latter additions which never were in any of the Primitive Liturgies By being taken wholly out of the Scripture either it is intended that it shall be all in the words and phrase of Scripture That will weigh little I have never observed any thing more repugnant to the true sense of Scripture than some things which have been expressed altogether in the phrase of Scripture Or it is intended that the matter of the Liturgy shall be taken wholly out of the Scripture But this hath so little of an expedient in it that it will leave the Controversie where it is Both Parties do already contend that their respective Forms are taken out of the Scriptures He hath another passage much to the same purpose in his answer to the third Chapter part 1. n. 11. If you would at this time propose a Form of Liturgy which both sides hold Lawful and then they Protestants would not join with you in this Liturgy you might have some colour to say that they renounced your communion absolutely First remedy regardeth only a communion in Publick Worship without any respect to an union in Faith and Discipline Secondly even in the point of Publick Worship it leaves the difference where it was what is a Lawful Form Those things which the Romanists hold to be necessary the Protestants shun as superstitious excesses And that Form which the Protestants would allow the Romanists cry out on as defective in necessary dutys and particularly wanting five of their Sacraments Nay certainly to call the whole frame of the Liturgy into dispute offers too large a field for contention And is nothing so likely a way of Peace as either for us to accept of their Form abating some such parts of it as are confessed to have been added since the Primitive times and are acknowledged not to be simply necessary but such as charitable Christians ought to give up and Sacrifice to an Universal Peace and would do it readily enough if it were not for mutual animosities of both Parties and the particular Interests of some persons Or if they should say to us as Father Paul Harvis a Romanist violent enough hath often said to me that if we had retained the Liturgy used in Edward the sixths time he would not have forborn to come to our communion To procure peace there must be condescension on both sides I find a third place part 1. cap. 4. n. â—9 To reduce Christians to unity of Communion there are but two ways that may be conceived probable The one by taking away diversity of opinions touching matters of Religion The other by shewing that the diversity of opinions which is among the several Sects of Christians ought to be no hinderance to their unity in communion The former of these is not to be hoped for without a Miracle Then what remains but that Christians be taught that their agreement in the high points of Faith and obedience ought to be more effectual to win them in one communion than their difference in things of less moment to divide them I must crave leave to dissent from Mr. Chillingworth in his former conclusion That diversity of opinions among Christians touching matters of Religion cannot be taken away without a Miracle A great many of those Controversies which raised the highest animosities among Christians at the first Reformation are laid aside already by moderate and judicious persons of both Partys without any Miracle and are only kept on foot by some blunderers who follow the old Mode when the Fashion is grown out of date either out of prejudice or pride or want of judgement or altogether And as many Controversies of the greatest magnitude are already as good as reconciled So more may be There is no opposition to be made against evident truth I hope Mr. Baxter will be of my mind who confesseth that He is grown to a great deal of confidence that most of our contentions about Arminian Points are more about Words than Matter And doubteth whether there be any difference at all in the point of Free-will praef sect 5. And affirmeth that the difference between Protestants and many Papists about certainty of Salvation except the point of perseverance is next to none And