saith doth not weigh one grain in the Scale of Reason Our Case-Divinity will hardly excuse this from downright Calumny But that is their only weapon and their only strength and Skill hath ever laid in idle and malitious suggestions CHAP. IV. This Plot weakly Fathered upon Episcopal Divines I Mused some while why he should rather father his imaginary design of reducing the Pope into England upon Episcopal Divines than upon any other Divines For in the first place this is certain that both Presbyterian Divines and Independent Divines and Millenary Divines and Anabaptistical Divines and each sort of their Divines if any of them may be allowed that Title have all of them and every one of them contributed more to the reducing of the Pope into England than Episcopal Divines ever did or were likely ever to do Men do naturally preferr Antiquity in Religion before Novelty Order and Uniformity before Confusion Comeliness and Decencie before sordid Uncleanliness Reverence and Devotion before Prophaneness and over-much Sawciness and familiarity with God Christian Charity before Unchristian Censures Constancy before Fickleness and frequent Changes they love Monuments of Piety and delight not in seeing them defaced and demolished they are for Memorials of ancient Truth for an outward splendor of Religion for helps of Mortification for adjuments of Devotion all which our late Innovators have quite taken away Nature it self doth teach us that God is to be adored with our Bodies as well as with our Spirits What comfort can men have to go to the Church where they shall scarcely see one act of corporeal devotion done to God in their whole lifes These are the true Reasons why the Roman Emissaries do gain ground daily upon them why so many apostate from them If the Pope have a fairer game in England he is beholden to them for it not to the Magistrates Sword much less to Episcopal Divines Some may perhaps urge that this advantage is accidental to Episcopal Divines therefore I propose a second consideration That Episcopal Divines cannot be the Popes Stalking Horses nor promoters of the Papacy without deserting their principles about Episcopacy Episcopal rights and Papal claims are inconsistent This appeared evidently in the Council of Trent in the debating of that great Controversie about Episcopal Right whether it be divine or humane Thus much the Spanish Polonian and Hungarian Divines saw well enough And consulting seriously about the Reformation of the Church they could find no better ground to build so noble a Fabrick upon than the Divine Right of Bishops as the Archbishop of Granato well observed Hist. Conc. Trid. l. 7. p. 588. Father Lainer the General of the Jesuits saw this well enough and concluded that it is a meer contradiction to say the Pope is head of the Church and the Government Monarchical and then say that there is a power or jurisdiction in the Church not derived from him but received from others that is from Christ. Hist. Conc. Trid. ibid. The Popes Legats themselves found this out at last when it was almost too late l. 7. p. 609. Octob. 19. When the question was set on foot in the beginning the Legats thought that the aim was only to make great the Authority of Bishops and to give them more reputation But before the second Congregation was ended they perceived very late by the voices given and reasons used of what importance and consequence it was For it did imply that the Keys were not given to St. Peter only that the Council was above the Pope and the Bishop equal to him who had nothing left but a preheminence above others c. the dignity of Cardinals was quite taken away and the Papal Court reduced to nothing But before the Papalins discovered this the Party bent for a serious Reformation was grown numerous and potent in the Council The Divine Right of Bishops was inserted into the Anathematisms Fifty nine of the prime Fathers voted for it besides all those whom either an Epidemical or a Politick Catarrh deteined at home notwithstanding all the disswasions and perswasions threatnings and promises and other Artifices used by the Papalins whereof the chiefest and that which saved the Court of Rome from utter ruine at that time was to represent to the Italian Bishops whose number was double to all the rest of the Christian World in that Council a very unequal composition how much they were concerned in the preservation of the Papacy as being the only honour which the Italian Nation had above all other Nations This I urge to shew that Episcopal Divines cannot be Papalins without betraying their own Principles The very name of Episcopal Divines renders this dedesign less probable Thirdly In stiling them Episcopal Divines he doth tacitely accuse himself to be an Anti-Episcopal or at least no Episcopal Divine What odious consequences do flow from thence and how contrary it is to the title of Catholick which he gives himself in the Frontispiece of this Treatise I had much rather he should observe himself than I collect Catholick and Anti-Episcopal are contradictory terms From Christs time till this day there was never any one Catholick in the Eastern Southern or Northern Churches who professed himself to be Anti-Episcopal but only such as were cast out for Hereticks or Schismaticks The same I say of the Western Church for the first 1500. years Let him shew me but one formed Church without a Bishop or the name of one Lay Presbyter in all that time who exercised or challenged Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction or the power of the Keys in the Church before Calvins return to Geneva in the year 1538. after he had subscribed the Augustine Confession and Apology for Bishops and I will give him leave to be as Anti-Episcopal as he will I will shew him the proper and particular names of Apostles Evangelists Bishops Presbyters Deacons in Scriptures in Councils in Fathers in Histories if he cannot name one particular Lay-Elder it is because there never was any such thing in rerum natura for 1500 years after Christ. I will add one thing more for the honour of Episcopal Government that all the first Reformers did approve it and desired it if they could have had it Second Reformations are commonly like Metal upon Metal which is false Heraldry After the Waldenses the first Reformers were the Bohemian Brethren and both these were careful to retain Episcopacy Take their own Testimony in the Preface of their Book called Ratio Disciplinae Ordinisque Ecclesiastici in unitate fratrum Bohemorum lately translated out of Bohemian into Latine and published by themselves And whereas the said Waldenses did affirm that they had lawful Bishops and a lawful uninterrupted succession from the Apostles unto this day they created three of our Ministers Bishops solemnly and conferred upon them power to Ordain Ministers From that time this Order is continued in all their Churches until this day The next Reformers were the Lutherans These retained Bishops name and thing
body as this It is no wonder if Grotius suffer wrong by him when my words are at the best so grosly mistaken who live to interpret my self First I give no leave to the Pope and Church of Rome to hold to themselves their last 400. years determinations But if they will hold them I have no power to help it or hinder it My words are these If you could be contented to wave your last 400. years determinations or if you liked them for your selves yet not to obtrude them upon other Churches As if one should say If Ieroboam will forbear to commit Idolatry himself or if he will not yet if he will forbear to compell others to commit Idolatry I may come to live in Israel no moderate man will say that he giveth leave to Ieroboam to commit Idolatry Secondly he pretends most untruly that I make these to be the terms or conditions of a peace which I mention only as preparatives My words are not then we may unite and cement our selves together but then much good might be expected from free Councils and conferences of moderate persons He himself saith as much as I say Thirdly if they do not obtrude their last 400. years determinations upon other Churches then they wave their ligislative power and take away from their Canons the nature of Laws then they make them no longer points of Faith but probable opinions It was not the erroneous opinions of the Church of Rome but the obtruding them by Laws upon other Churches which warranted a separation He who will have no communion with a Church which hath different or erroneous opinions in it so long as they are not obtruded must provide a ladder to climb up to Heaven by himself And this is that which I said expresly in that very place cited by him We might yet live in hope to see an union if not in all opinions yet in Charity and all necessary points of saving truth Let the Church of Rome do that which I require that is the Apostolical Discipline and Apostolical Creed without addition and it shall become an Apostolical and Catholick Church and have true Faith His fourth Exception is this That the Pope should hold his Patriarchal power is a meer innovation and humane institution as is his Primacy of order and such priviledges The Council of Chalcedon avers it And therefore it is no necessary thing to be conceded for the Churches peace That the Patriarchal dignity is an humane institution all men who understand themselves do acknowledge That it is a meer innovation all men who understand themselves do deny How should that be a meer innovation which was not first constituted but confirmed as an ancient Ecclesiastical custom in the first general Council of Nice and approved by all the general succeeding Councils of the Church and particularly by the Council of Chalcedon which he mentioneth which equalled the Patriarch of Constantinople to the Patriarch of Rome This form of Government is allowed by the Canons of the Apostles as I have shewed elsewhere This Patriarchal Government Calvin himself did not only allow but assert it to be such a Form as God hath prescribed in his Word Cal. Iust. l. 4. c. 4. S. 4. What wonder is it if they lose ground daily to the Romanists who have the confidence to affirm that Patriarchal power is an innovation and cite the great Council of Chalcedon for it He proceedeth to his fifth exception Multitudes that live in the western Nations of the World will still dissent both from the Popes Patriarchal power and more from his way of exercising it And so will be forced to fall under the reproach of Schismaticks by these tâ—rms and that for obeying the Laws of Christ. If the Pope as Patriarch of the West should impose on us only and not on the East the Doctrines and worship and Ceremonies which he now imposeth on the Papists except the excepted before doth any man of reason think that the Reformed Churches would ever yield to them or ought to do it We will unite on Christs terms and that will be a more sure and general Union and not on such humane devises as these Let those that made the Pope our Patriarch maintain his power for Christ did not Still weaker and weaker Multitudes that live in the Western parts of the World will not only dislike the Popes Patriarchal power but his Presbyterian Discipline and his holy orders the Creed the Lords Prayer the Sacraments c. must a man therefore quit his just right because some dislike it Their dislike is but scandal taken but the quitting of that which is right for their satisfaction should be scandal given Whether is the worse By the way I desire him to consider two things First how they are forced to fall under the reproach of Schismaticks If they be forced any way it is by their own wilful humours or erroneous conscience Other force here is none If there be any force it is they which force themselves Secondly I would have him to consider whether is the worse and more dangerous condition for Christians to fall under the reproach of Schismaticks which hath no sin in it but is a means many times to reduce men into the fold of the Catholick Church or for Christians to fall into Schisme it self Whosoever shall oppose the just power of a Lawful Patriarch lawfully proceeding is a material Schismatick at least and if his errour be vincible such as he might conquer and come unto the knowledge of the truth if he did his endeavour he is a formal Schismatick His reasons of their falling under the reproach of Schismaticks for obeying the Laws of Christ I confess I do not understand Doth he think that Patriachal power is contrary to the Laws of Christ and that all the Primitive Churches and Councils and Christians did transgress the Laws of Christ in this particular Surely he cannot think it Or is it his Zeal to admit nothing in the Church grounded upon prudence and experience and the Law of nature but only that which in commanded by Christ in Holy Scripture If that be it I refer him to Doctor Sanderson in his Preface before his 20. Sermons to whom he professeth very great reverence I had rather suspect that I understand him not than Imagine him to be guilty of such an absurd conclusion To his question if the Pope as Patriarch of the West should impose upon us which he imposeth upon the Papists should the reformed Churches yield to them I answer God forbid but his whole discourse is grounded upon a Cluster of mistakes First the Pope hath no right to the Patriarchate of all the West Particularly he is not our Patriarch Other Churches in the West might find out Primates or Patriarchs of their own as well as we if they sought diligently for them Secondly a single Patriarch hath not legislative power to impose Laws in his own Partriarchate nor power to innovate any thing
with some Papists in the point of perseverance also Sect. 64. The second conclusion was borrowed by Mr. Chillingworth from my Lord Primate That our agreement in the high and necessary Points of Faith and obedience ought to be more effectual to unite us than one difference in opinions to divide us Concerning which there is no need of my suffrage for it is just mine own way My second demand in my proposition of Peace was this That the Creed or necessary points of Faith might be reduced to what they were in the time of the four first Oecumenical Concils according to the decree of the third General Council Who dare say that the faith of the Primitive Fathers was insufficient c. I do profess to all the World that the transforming of indifferent opinions into necessary Articles of Faith hath been that insana laurus or cursed Bay-tree the cause of all our brawling and contention Judge Reader indifferently what reason Mr. Baxter had to disallow my terms of Peace as he is pleased to call them and allow Mr. Chillingworths when my terms are the very same which Mr. Chillingworth proposeth and my Lord Primate before him and King Iames before them both CHAP. VIII The true reasons of the Bishops abatement of the last 400. years Determinations IN his one and fortieth Section he hath these words He will not with Bishop Bramhall abate us the determinations of the last 400. years though if he did it would prove but a pitiful patch for the torn condition of the Church When I made that proposition that the Papists would wave their last 400. years determinations I did it with more serious deliberation than he bestowed upon his whole Grotian Religion Begun April 9. 1658. And finished April 14. 1658. My reason was to controul a common errour received by many that those errours and usurpations of the Church of Rome which made the breach between them and us were much more ancient than in truth they were What those errours and usurpations were cannot be judged better than by our Laws and Statutes which were made and provided as remedies for them I know they had begun some of their gross errours and usurpations long before that time and some others not long before but the most of them and especially those which necessitated a separation after that time Those errours and usurpations which were begun before that time if they be rightly considered were but the sinful and unjust actions of particular Popes and Persons and could not warrant a publick separation from the Church of Rome I deny not but that erroneous opinions in inferiour points rather concerning faith than of faith and some sinful and unwarrantable practices both in point of Discipline and devotion had crept into the Church of Rome before that time But erroneous opinions may be and must be tolerated among Christians so they be not opposite to the ancient Creed of the Church nor obtruded upon others as necessary points of saving faith Neither is any man bound or necessitated to join with other men in sinful and unwarrantable opinions or practices until they be established and imposed necessarily upon all others by Law Whilst it was free for any man to give a fair interpretation of an harsh expression or action without incurring any danger there was no necessity of separation But when these tyrannical usurpations were justified by the decrees of Councils and imposed upon Christians under pain of Excommunication when these erroneous opinions were made necessary Articles of saving faith extra quam non est salus without which there is no salvation when these sinful and unwarrantable practices were injoined to all Christians and when all these unjust usurpations erroneous opinions and sinful and unwarrantable practices were made necessary conditions of Communion with the Church of Rome so that no man could Communicate with the Roman Church but he that would submit to all these usurpations believe all these erroneous opinions and obey all their sinful injunctions then there was an absolute necessity of separation Then if any man inquire when and how this necessity was imposed upon Christians I answer all this was ratified and done altogether or in a manner altogether by these last 400. years Determinations beginning with the Council of Lateran in the days of Innocent the third after the twelve hundreth year of Christ when Transubstantiation was first defined and ending with the Council of Trent So though these were not my terms of peace but preparatory demands yet if these demands be granted our concord would not only be nearer which he acknowledgeth but the peace allmost as good as made and Christians were freed from their unjust Canons and left to their former liberty When they had granted so much it were a shame for them to stick at a small remainder CHAP. IX An Answer to sundry aspersions east by Mr. Baxter upon the Church of England I Have done with all that concerneth my self in Mr. Baxters Grotian Religion But I find a bitter and groundless invective in him towards the conclusion of his treatise wherein he laboureth to cast dirt upon his spiritual Mother the Church of England which out of my just and common duty I cannot pass over in silence He saith p. 75. That this Grotian design in England was destructive to Godliness and the prosperity of the Churches What Churches doth he mean By the Laws of England Civil and Ecclesiastical we ought to have but one Church It was never well with England since we had so many Churches and so many Faiths I am afraid those which he calls Churches were Conventicles He proceedeth that it animated the impious haters of piety and common civility First he ought to have proved that there was such a design in England which he neither hath done nor ever will be able to do That which never had any being but in his Imagination never had any efficacy but in his Imagination He addeth that men were hated for Godliness sake That is to exprest his sense truly were restrained in their seditious and Schismatical courses which he stileth Godliness Fallit enim vitium specie virtutis umbra And troubled and suspended and driven out of the Land though most of them twenty for one were conformists How Conformist and yet persecuted If this be not a contradiction yet it is incredible that so many men should be silenced and suspended every where without Law Certainly there was a Law pretended Certainly there was a Law indeed and that Law made before they were either punished or ordained I will put the right case fairly to Mr. Baxter if he have any mind to determine it Let him tell us who is to be blamed he that undertaketh an office of his own accord which he cannot or will not discharge as the Law injoineth or he that executeth the Law upon such as had voluntarily confirmed it by their own oaths or subscriptions or both He proceedeth that it was safer in
of Rome about a Primacy of order but about a Supremacy of Power I shall declare my sense in four conclusions First that St. Peter had a fixed Chair at Antioch and after that at Rome is a truth which no man who giveth any credit to the ancient Fathers and councils and Historiographers of the Church can either deny or well doubt of Secondly that St. Peter had a Primacy of order among the Apostles is the unanimous voice of the primitive Church not to be contradicted by me which the Church of England and those old Episcopal Divines whom he pretendeth to honour so much did never oppose The learned Bishop of Winchester acknowledgeth as much not only in his own name but in the name of the Church and King of England both King and Church knowing it and approving it Resp. ad Apol. Bellar. cap. 1. Neither is it questioned among us whether St. Peter had a Primacy but what that Primacy was and and whether it were such an one as the Pope doth now challenge to himself and you challenge to the Pope But the King doth not deny Peter to have been the prime and Prince of the Apostles He who should trouble himself and others to oppugn such a received innocent truth seemeth to me to have more leisure than judgement But on the other side it is as undoubtedly true and confessed by the prime Romanists themselves that St. Peter had no supremacy or superiority of power and single Jurisdiction over any other Apostle To this purpose I have laid down these four grounds in my Book of Schisme Garded pag. 27. First that each Apostle had the same power by virtue of Christs Commission Secondly that St. Peter never exercised a single Jurisdiction over the rest of the Apostles Thirdly that St. Peter had not his Commission granted to him and his Successours as any ordinary Pastor and the rest of the Apostles as Delegates for term of life Fourthly that during the History of the Acts of the Apostles the Soveraignty of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction rested not in any single Apostle but in the Apostolical Colledge Hitherto there is no cause of controversie between him and me or between any persons of judgement and ingenuity My third assertion is that some Fathers and Schoolmen who were no sworn vassals to the Roman Bishop do affirm that this Primacy of order is fixed to the Chair of St. Peter and his Successours for ever As for instance Gerson for a Schoolman that learned Chancellour of Paris who sided with the council against the Pope and left his enmity to the innovations of the Court of Rome as an hereditary legacy to the School of Sorbone Auferibilis non est usque ad consummationem saeculi vicarius sponsus Ecclesiae The vicarial Spouse of the Church this was the language of that Age whereby he meaneth not the person of any particular Pope but the Office of the Papacy ought not to be taken away untill the end of the World And among the Fathers I instance in St. Cyprian whose publick opposition to Pope Stephen is well known who seemeth not to dissent from it In his Epistle to Antonianus he calls the See of Rome the place and Chair of Peter Ep. 52. And in his 55. Epistle to Cornelius They dare sail and carry Letters from Schismatical and profane persons to the Chair of Peter and the principal Church from whence Sacerdotal unity did spring And in his De unitate Ecclesiae Although he give equal power to all his Apostles after his Resurrection c. Yet to manifest an unity he eonstituted one Chair and by his own authority disposed the original of that unity beginning from one And a little after The Primacy is given to Peter to demonstrate one Church of Christ and one Chair Every one is free for me to take what exceptions he pleaseth to the various lections of any of these places or to interpret the words as he pleaseth Always there seemeth to be enough to me in St. Cyprian to declare his own mind without taking any advantage from any suppositious passages Whether it be a truth or an error it concerneth not me I am sure it is none of mine error if it be one who neither maintain nor grant such a Primacy of order to be due to the Chair of St. Peter and his Successours by the institution of Christ. But only dispute upon suppositions that although there were such a beginning of unity which Calvin and Beza require in all Societies by the Law of Nature And although the Bishop of Rome had such a Primacy of order either by divine right or humane right yet it would not prejudice us nor advantage them at all Neither in truth is it worth contending about or to be ballanced with the peace of the Church and of the Christian World They who undervalue the Fathers may stile their sayings untruths when they please I have weighed my grounds over seriously to stumble at a Straw My fourth and last conclusion is that supposing still but not granting that any such Primacy of order or beginning of unity about which we have no Controversie was due to the Chair of St. Peter by divine right or much rather by humane right yet this supposed Chair of St. Peter is not fixed to Rome As for divine right we have the plain consession of Bellarmine it is not to be sound either in Scripture or Tradition that the Apostolick See is so fixed to Rome that it cannot be removed Bell. de Rom. Pont. l. 4. c. 4. And for humane right there needeth no proof For whatsoever is constituted by humane right may be repealed by humane right This is my constant way everywhere I do altogether deny a supremacy of Power and Jurisdiction over us in the exteriour Court which only is in controversie between us and the Pope And whatsoever Jurisdiction he hath elsewhere I regulate by the Canons of the Fathers I suppose a Primacy of order but grant it not farther than it hath been granted by the Canons of the Catholick Church And as it was acquired by humane right so it may be taken away by humane right To confound a Primacy of order with a Supremacy of Power divine right with humane right a legislative Power with an executive Power is proper to blunderers So in his two first Exceptions I suffer two palpable injuries In the first Exception he chargeth me upon suspicion directly contrary to my assertion In the second Exception he confoundeth a Primacy and a Supremacy order and power and maketh me to fix that to the See of Rome which I maintain to be unfixed His third Exception is this That the Pope should hold to himself and his Church his last 400. years determinations and so continue as the Bishop here concludes to be no Apostolical Orthodox Catholick Church nor to have true Faith is an unlikely thing to stand with the unity and concord which he mentioneth We shall cement but sorrily with such a
can be united upon any other principles but these I am come to his tenth and last Exception It would be an exceeding dishonour to God and injury to the Souls of many millions of men if but under the Popes Patriarchal Iurisdiction in the West the Papists way of Worship were set up and their Government exercised as now The good will of Rome or the name of peace would not recompense the loss of so many thousand Souls as some one of the Papal abuses might procure for instance their driving the people from the Scriptures and other means of knowledge All along he buildeth upon a wrong Foundation It is one thing to set up or to approve the setting up of a false way of Worship which I do not justifâ—e And another thing to tolerate it when and where it is not in our power to hinder it as both he and I must do whether we will or no. I do not only give no consent to the setting up of any unlawful Form of Worship where it is not but I wish it taken away where it is set up already But if it be without the sphere of my activity I must let it alone perforce If a Shepherd when it is past his skill to cure his rotten Sheep shall do his uttermost to preserve that part of his Flock which is sound from infection he deserveth to be commended for those he saved not to be accused as the cause why so many perished that were past his skill and power to cure In a gâ—eat Scathfire it is wisdom not only to suffer those Houses to burn down which are past quenching but sometimes to pull down some few Houses wherein the fire is not yet kindled to free all the rest of the City from danger If the Pope within his own territories or other Christian Princes by his means within their territories will maintain a way of Worship which I do not approve must I therefore nay may I therefore make War upon them to compell them to be of my Religion So we shall never have any peace in the World whilst there are different Religions in the world for every one takes his own Religion to be best But what certainty hath he that so many thousands yea millions of Souls are lost because they live in such places as are subject to the Pope God is a merciful God and looks upon his poor Creatures with all their prejudices Or how doth this agree with what he saith elsewhere that the French moderation is acceptable to all good men And that Nation is an honourable part of the Church of Christ in his esteem It is no very honourable part of the Church of Christ if so many millions of Souls run such extream hazard in it p. 10. His marginal note of their streams of blood and Massacres might have been spared for fear of putting some of them upon a parallel between theirs and ours And for his instance of driving the people from the Scriptures he escapeth fairly if none of them cast it in his teeth that the promiscuâ—us licence which they give to all sorts of people qualified or unqualified not only to read but to interpret the Scriptures according to their private spirits or particular fancies without any regard either to the analogy of Faith which they understand not or to the interpretation of the Doctors of former Ages is more prejudicial I might better say pernicious both to particular Christians and to whole Socities than the over rigorous restraint of the Romanists Whereof a man need require no farther proof but only to behold the present face of the English Church Truth commonly remaineth in the modest And so I have shewed him how little weight there is in his ten Exceptions At the conclusion of his Exceptions he hath this clause Besides most of the evils that I charged before on the Grotian way as censures persecutions c. would follow upon this way It may follow in his erroneous opinion but in truth and really no inconveniency at all doth follow upon what I say The third cause of his dislike of the Grotian way was Because it is uncharitable and censorious cutting off from the Catholick united Society the reformed Churches that yield not to his terms and will not be reconciled to the Pope of Rome Let them take heed that they cut not off themselves for I neither cut them off nor declare them to be cut off If they will not be reconciled to the Pope of Rome upon warrantable and just terms such as were approved by the Primitive Church such as those are which I propose for any thing he doth say or can say to the contrary it is his own unchaâ—itableness not mine Some men would call it Schismatical obstinacy But this reason hath been fully answered before The fourth reason of his dislike of this design is Because it is a trap to tempt and engage the Souls of millions into the same uncharitable censorious and reproachful way When a false Center of the Churches unity is set up and impossible or unlawful terms of concord are pretended thus to be the only terms they that believe this will uncharitably censure all those for Schismaticks or Hereticks that close not with them on these terms His first office should have been to have proved that my way is uncharitable censorious or reproachful and that my terms are impossible and unlawful which he neither doth nor attempteth to do nor ever will be able to do And until he do it or go about it all his reasons are a pure begging of the question and no better and consequently deserve no answer The fifth reason of his dislike is because it tendeth to engage the Princes of Christendom in a persecution of their Subjects that cannot comply with these unwarrantable terms And that is likely to be no small number nor the worser part but the soundest and wisest and holiest men For if Princes be once perswaded that these be the only terms and so that the dissenters are factious Schismatical and unpeaceable men no wonder if they silence the Ministers and persecute the people It is an easier thing to call them unlawful and unwarrantable terms twenty times than to make it good once It is a fault in Rhetorick and in Logick also to use common reasons such as may be retorted against our selves by an Adversary Such a reason is this and may be urged with as much shew of reason against all Writers of Controversies whatsoever and against Mr. Baxter himself in particular with as much colour of truth as he urgeth it against Grotius or me That if Princes be once perswaded that those terms which he proposeth be true and the contrary errours no wonder if they silence the Ministers and persecute the People Or if they be once perswaded by him that his new Discipline is the Scepter of Christ prescribed in the Gospel then the Episcopal Divines and the Independents are sure to suffer This srivolous pretense will fit
Powers Is not this like to prove a fair accommodation wherein the first Article must be to renounce the light of natural reason and the experience of so many ages since Christs time and the prudential Constitutions of all our primitive Guides These are such terms of peace as can please no body but Sequestrators and such as live like Moths in other mens garments Neither would his pretented Divine terms be more favourable to innovations than humane terms but only that this way affordeth wranglers a longer time to prevaricate before Controversies can be maturely determined If ever there were an Universal reconciliation of all Christians the first act which they ought to do after their Union is to cast out all such pernicious principles as this form among them before they thrust out all reason and humane right out of the World His second rule is the terms of peace must be things necessary not unnecessary We are beholden to King Iames not to him for this prudent direction But by setting it down so imperfectly he makes it his own There are two sorts of necessary things Something 's are absolutely necessary to the being of the Church Some other things are respectively necessary to the well-being of the Church The terms of peace ought to extend to both these to the former ever more to the later as far as it may be Or yet more distinctly Some things are necessary necessitate medii as necessary means of salvation without which no Church can consist Concerning these there is little or no need of reconciliation where there is no difference Secondly Some other things are necessary necessitate precepti as commanded by God or by the Church of God Both these are necessary in their several degrees and both of them ought to be taken in consideration in a reconciliation but especially the former yet not excluding the later Every thing ought to be loosed by the same Authority by which it was bound Thirdly There are other things which though they be neither necessary means of salvation nor necessarily Commanded by God or man yet they are necessary by a necessity of convenience out of pious and prudential considerations Huic hîc nunc to this or that Church at this or that time in this or that place The greatest consideration that ought to be had of these things is to leave every Church free to determine their own necessities or conveniences yet with a regard to unity and uniformity His Third rule is the terms of peace must be ancient according to the primitive simplicity and neither new nor yet too numerous curious or abstruse His first rule doth virtually comprehend both his later rules and renders them superfluous For if nothing be admitted into the terms of peace but Divine truths they can neither be unnecessary nor new nor too numerous curious or abstruse And this way of his rightly expressed and understood is the same in effect with my way which he pretendeth to impugn He admitteth no truths but Divine and excludeth all humane rights which is more than he ought to do I distinguish divine right from humane right and give unto the Law of God both written and unwritten and to the Laws of the Church and to the Laws of Caesar their respective dues He admitteth none but necessary truths I admit no truths in point of Faith but these which the blessed Apostles judged to be necessary and comprehended in the Creed I reject all new coined Articles of saith all usurpations in point of Discipline all innorations in point of worship He proposeth for a Pattern of union the simplicity of the ancient and primitive Church So do I before the faith was adulterated by the addition of new Articles or the Discipline translated into a new Monarchical way or the publick worship of God was corrupted by the injunction of sinful or supernumerary rites I wish he had expressed himself more clearly what he means by the primitive simplicity I hope it is not his intention that either the house of God or the publick service of God should be fordid and contemptible He cannot be ignorant that so far as the persent condition of times and places and Persons and affairs will bear it there ought to be some porportion between that great God whom we serve and that service which we perform unto him God was acceptably served by the Primitive Christians both in their Cells Vaults homely Oratories in times of persecution and likewise in stately and magnificent Temples and Cathedrals when God had given peace and plenty to his Church Wisdom is justified of her Children Yet even in those times of persecutions a man would wonder at that external splendour wherewith those devouter souls served God where they had means and opportunity Neither do I perfectly understand what his aim is where he would not have the terms of peace to be curious or abstruse I conjecture it reflecteth upon the School-men And if his meaning only be that he would not have our Catechisms or accommodations to be pestered and perplexed with the obscure terms and endless disputations of the Schools I do readily assent But if he think that in the work of reconciliation there is no need of a Scholastick Plain to take away the crabbed knots and to smooth the present Controversies of the Christian World I must dissent from him We find by daily experience that the greatest differences and such as made the most Noise and the deepest breach in the Christian World being rightly and Scholastically stated do both become easy and intelligible and now appear to have been meer mistakes one of another And when many other questions are rightly handled after the same manner I presume they will find the like end When I was a young Student in Theology Doctor Ward declared his mind to me to this purpose that it was impossible that the present Controversies of the Church should be rightly determined or reconciled without a deep insight into the Doctrine of the Primitive Fathers and a competent skill in School Theology The former affordeth us a right pattern and the second smootheth it over and plaineth away the knots Though he himself do deal only in Generals yet he telleth us that Mr. Chillingworth hath already particularly told the World a way of unity It is well if he have but if it prove as general as his own way it will not conduce much to the Peace of Christendom What hath Mr. Chillingworth told us or where hath he told it Had it not been worthy of his labour to have repeated the words or cited the place What a deal of vanity is it to write whole Treatises in confutation of others to no purpose and when he comes to the main business or to the only necessary and satisfactory point to be mute It is long since I read over Mr. Chillingworth but I remember no such particular reconciliatory way told by him to all the World but only some general intimations or