THE RECONCILER OR An Epistle Pacificatorie of the seeming differences of opinion concerning the true being and visibilitie of the Roman Church ENLARGED With the addition of Letters of Resolution for that purpose from some famous Divines of our CHVRCH By Ios Exon. LONDON Printed for NATH BVTTER 1629. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE AND truly religious my singular good Lord Edward Earle of Norwich My ever honoured Lord I Confesse my charity led me into an error Your Lordshippe well knowes how apt I am to be overtaken with these better deceits of an over kinde credulitie I had thought that any dash of my pen in a sudden and easie advertisement might have served to have quitted that ignorant scandall which was cast upon my mis-taken assertion of the true visibility of the Romane Church The issue proves all otherwise I finde to my griefe that the misunderstanding tenacitie of some zealous spirits hath made it a quarrell It cannot but trouble me to see that the position which is so familiarly current with the best reformed Divines which hath beene so oft and long since published by mee without contradiction yea not without the approbation and applause of the whole representative body of the Clergie of this kingdome should now be quarrelled and drawne into the detestation of those that know it not As one therefore that should thinke it corosive enough that any occasion should be taken by ought of mine to ravell but one thred of that seamless coat I doe earnestly desire by a more full explication to give cleare satisfaction to all Readers and by this seasonable reconcilement to stop the flood-gates of contention I know it will not be unpleasing to your Lordship that through your honourable and pious hands these welcome papers should be transmitted to many Wherein I shall first beseech yea adjure al Christians under whose eies they shall fall by the dreadfull name of that GOD who shall judge both the quicke and the dead to lay aside all unjust prejudices and to allow the words of Truth and Peace I dare confidently say Let us be understood and we are agreed The searcher of all harts knows how far it was from my thoughts to speak ought in favour of the Roman Synagogue If I have not sufficiently branded that Strūpet I justly suffer Luthers broad word is by me already both safely cōstrued sufficiently vindicated But doe you not say It is a true visible Church Doe you not yeeld some kinde of communion with these clients of Antichrist What is if this be not favour Marke well Christian Reader and the Lord give thee understanding in all things To beginne with the latter No man can say but the Church of Rome holds some Truths those truths are Gods and in his right ours why should not wee challenge our owne wheresoever we finde it If a verie Devill shall say of Christ Thou art the Sonne of the living God wee will snatch this truth out of his mouth as usurped and in spight of him proclaime it for our own Indeed there is no communion betwixt light and darknesse but there is communion betwixt light and light Now all truth is light and therefore symbolizeth with it selfe With that light therefore whose glimmering yet remaines in their darknesse our clearer light will and must hold communion If they professe three Persons in one Godhead two natures in one person of Christ shall we detrect to joine with them in this Christian veritie We abhorre to have any communion with them in their errors in their idolatrous or superstitious practices these are their owne not ours If we durst have taken their part in these this breach had not beene Now who can but say that wee must hate their evill and allow their good It is no countenance to their errors that we imbrace our owne truths It is no disparagement to our truths that they have blended them with their errors Here can be no difference then if this communion bee not mis-taken no man will say that we may sever from their common truths No man will say that we may joyne with them in their hatefull errours For the former Hee that saith a theefe is truly a man doth hee therein fauour that theefe He that saith a diseased dropsied dying bodie is a true though corrupt body doth he favour that disease or that living carcasse It is no other no more that I say of the Church of Rome Truenesse of being and outward visibility are no praise to her Yea these are aggravations to her falshood The advantage that is both sought and found in this assertion is onely ours as we shall see in the sequell without any danger of their gain I say then that she is a true church but I say withall shee is a false Church True in existence but false in beleefe Let not the homonymie of a word breed jarres where the sense is accorded If we doe not yeeld her the true being of a Church why do we call her the Church of Rome What speake we of or where is the subject of our question who sees not that there is a morall trueness and a naturall He that is morally the falsest man is in nature as truly a man as the honestest and therefore in this regard as true a man In the same sense therefore that wee say the Devill is a true though false spirit that a cheater it a true though false man wee may must say that the Church of Rome is a true though false Church Certainely there hath beene a true errour and mis-taking of the sense that is guiltie of this quarrell As for the visibility there can be no question Would God that Church did not too much fill our eie yea the world There is nothing wherein it doth more pride it selfe than in a glorious conspicuitie scorning in this regard the obscure paucitie of their opposers But you say What is this but to play with ambiguities That the Church of Rome is it selfe that is a Church that it is visible that it is truly existent there can be no doubt but is it still a part of the truly existent visible church of Christ Surely no otherwise than an hereticall and Apostaticall Church is and may be Reader whosoever thou art for Gods sake for thy soules sake marke where thou treadest Else thou shalt bee sure to fall either into an open gulfe of uncharitablenesse or into a dangerous precipice of errour There is no feare nor favour to say that the Church of Rome under a Christian face hath an Antichristian heart overturning that foundation by necessarie inferences which by open profession in avoweth That face that profession those avowed principles are enough to give it claime to a true outward visibilitie of a Christian Church whiles those damnable inferences are enough to feoffe it in the true style of heresie and Antichristianisme Now this heresie this Antichristianisme makes Rome justly odious and execrable to God to Angels and
Men but cannot utterly dischurch it whiles those main principles maintaine a weake life in that crazie and corrupted bodie But is not this language different from that whereto our eares and eies have beene inured from the mouthes and pens of some reverend Divines and professors of our Church Know Reader that the streame of the famous Doctors both at home and abroad hath runne strongly my way I should have feared and hated to goe alone what reason is there then to single out one man in a throng Some few worthie Authors have spoken otherwise in the warmth of their zealous contention yet so as that even to them durst I appeale for my Iudges for if their sound differ from me their sense agrees with me that which as I touched in my Advertisement so I am now readie to make cleare by the instance of learned Zanchius whose pregnant testimonies compared together shall plainly teach us how easie a reconcilement may bee made betwixt these two seemingly-contrarie opinions That worthie Author in his profession of Christian Religion which hee wrote and published in the 70. yeare of his age having defined the Church of Christ in generall and passed thorow the properties of it at last descending to the subdivision of the Church militant comes to inquire how particular Churches may be knowne to be the true churches of Christ wherof he determines thus Illas igitur c. Those Churches therefore doe wee acknowledge for the true Churches of Christ in which first of all the pure doctrine of the Gospell is preached heard admitted and so onely admitted that there is neither place nor eare given to the contrarie For both these are the just propertie of the flocke or sheepe of Christ namely both to heare the voice of their owne Pastor and to reject the voice of strangers Iohn 10. 4. In which secondly the Sacraments instituted by Christ are lawfully and as much as may bee according to Christs institution administred and received and therefore in which the Sacraments devised by men are not admitted and allowed In which lastly the discipline of Christ hath the due place that is where both publiquely and privately charitable care is had both by admonitions corrections and at last if need be by excommunications that the Commandements of God be duly kept and that all persons live soberly iustly and piously to the glory of God and edification of their neighbour Thus hee wherein who sees not how directly he aymes both at the justifying of our Churches and the casheering of the Roman which is palpably guiltie of the violation of these wholsome rules And indeed it must needes be said if we bring the Roman Church to this touch she is cast for a meer counterfeit shee is as farre from truth as truth is from falshood Now by this time you goe away with an opinion that learned Zanchie is my professed adversarie and hath directly condemned my position of the truenesse and visibilitie of the Roman Church Have but patience I beseech you to read what the same excellent Author writes in his golden Preface to that noble worke De natura Dei where this question is clearly punctuall decided There you shall finde that having passed through the wofull and gloomie offuscations of the Church of God in all former ages he descending to the darknesse of the present Babylon concludes thus Deinde non potuit Satan c. Moreover Satan could not in the verie Roman Church doe what he listed as hee had done in the Easterne to bring all things to such passe as that it should no more have the forme of a Christian Church For in spight of Satan that Church retained still the chief foundations of the faith although weakned with the doctrines of men it retained the publique preaching of the word of God thogh in many places mis-understood and mis-construed the invocation of the name of Christ though joyned also with the invocation of dead men the administration of Baptisme instituted by Christ himselfe howsoever defiled with the addition of many superstitions So as together with the symbole of the covenant the Covenant it selfe remained still in her I meane in all the Churches of the West no otherwise than it did in the Church of Israel even after that all things were in part profaned by Ieroboam and other impious and Idolatrous Kings upon the defection made by them from the Church and Tribe of Iuda For neither doe I assent to them which would have the Church of Rome to have no lesse ceased to be the Church of Christ than those Easterne Churches which afterwards turned Mahumetan what Church was ever more corrupt than the Church of the ten Tribes yet we learne from the Scriptures that it was still the Church of God And how doth S. Paul call that Church wherein Antichrist hee saith shall sit the Temple of God neither is it any Baptisme at all that is administred out of the Church of Christ The wife that is an Adulteresse doth not cease to be a wife unlesse being despoiled of her mariage-ring she be manifestly divorced The Church of Rome therefore is yet the Church of Christ but what manner of Church Surely so corrupted and depraved and with so great tyrannie oppressed that you can neither with a good conscience partake with them in their holy things nor safely dwell amongst them Thus he againe Wherein you see hee speakes as home for me as I could devise to speake for my selfe and as appositely professeth to oppose the contrarie Looke now how this learned Author may be reconciled to his owne pen and by the very same way shall my pen bee reconciled with others Either he agrees not with himselfe or else in his sense I agree with my gainsayers Nothing is more plaine then that hee in that former speech and all other classicke Authors that speake in that Key meane by a True Church a sound pure right beleeving Church so as their vera is rather verax Zanchie explicates the terme whiles he joines veram puram together so as in this construction it is no true Church that is an unsound one as if truth of existence were all one with truth of doctrine In this sense whosoever shall say the Church of Rome is a true Church I say he calls evill good and is no better than a teacher of lyes But if we measure the true being of a visible Church by the direct maintenance of fundamentall principles though by consequences indirectly overturned and by the possession of the word of God and his Sacraments though not without soule adulteration what judicious Christian can but with mee subscribe to learned Zanchius that the Church of Rome hath yet the true visibilitie of a Church of Christ what should I need to press the latitude and multiplicity of sense of the word Church there is no one term that I know in all use of speech so various If in a large sense it be taken to comprehend the
were such as serued fitly to leade the Reader into that Sense which vnder the word True comprehendeth only Truth of Beeing or Existencie and not the Due Qualities of the thing or subiect you haue beene causelesly traduced But on the other side if that Proposition comes in ex abrupto or stands solitarie in your discourse you cannot maruell though by taking the word True according to the more ordinarie acception your true meaning was mistaken In briefe your Proposition admits a True sense in that sense is by the best learned in our Reformed Church not disallowed For The Beeing of a Church does principally stand vpon the Gratious Action of God calling men out of Darknesse and Death vnto the Participation of sight and life in Christ Iesus So long as God continues this Calling vnto any people though they as much as in them lies Darken this light and corrupt the meanes which should bring them to life and saluation in Christ yet where God Calls men vnto the Participation of life in Christ by the word by the Sacraments there is the true Being of a Christian Church let men bee neuer so false in their Expositions of GODS Word or neuer so vntrustie in mingling their owne Traditions with Gods Ordinances Thus the Church of the Iewes lost not her Being of a Church when shee became an Idolatrous Church And thus vnder the gouernment of the Scribes and Pharisees who voided the Commandements of God by their owne Traditions there was yet standing a true Church in which Zacharias Elizabeth the Virgin Mary and our Sauiour himselfe was borne who were mēbers of that Church and yet participated not in the corruptions thereof Thus to grant that the Roman was and is a True Visible Christian Church though in doctrine a false and in practice an Idolatrous Church is a true assertion and of greater vse and necessitie in our Controuersie with Papists about the Perpetuitie of the Christian Church then is vnderstood by those who gainsay it This in your Reconciler is so wel explicated as if any shall continue in traducing you in regard of that Proposition so explained I thinke it wil be only those who are better acquainted with wrangling then reasoning and deeper in loue with strife then truth As for the aspersion of Arminianisme I can testifie that in our Ioint imployment at the Synod of Dort you were as farre from it as my selfe And I know that no man can imbrace it in the Doctrine of Predestination and Grace but he must first desert the Articles agreed vpon by the Church of England nor in the point of perseuerance but he must vary from the common Tenet and receiued opinion of our best approued Doctors in the English Church I am assured that you neither haue deserted the one nor will vary from the other And therefore be no more troubled with other mens groundlesse suspitions then you would be in like case with their idle Dreames Thus I haue inlarged my selfe beyond my first intent But my loue to your selfe and the assurance of your constant loue vnto the Truth inforced me thereunto I rest alwayes Ian 30. 1628. Your louing Brother IO. SARVM ¶ To the Reuerend and learned Master Doctor PREDEAVX professor of Diuinitie in Oxford and Rector of EXCETER Colledge WOrthy Master Doctor Predeaux All our litle world here takes notice of your worth and eminencie who haue long furnished the Diuinitie Chaire in that famous Vniuersitie with mutuall grace and honour Let me intreate you vpon the perusall of this sorie sheete of Paper to impart your selfe freely to me in your censure and to expresse to mee your cleare iudgement concerning the true being and visibilitie of the Romane Church you see in what sence I professe to hold it neither was any other euer in my thoughts Say I beseech you whether you thinke any learned Orthodoxe Diuine can with any colour of reason maintaine a contradiction herevnto And if you find as I doubt not much necessitie and vse of this true and safe Tenet helpe me to adde if you please a further supplie of Antidotes to those Popish spiders that would faine sucke poyson out of this herbe It was my earnest desire that this satisfactorie reconcilement might haue stilled all tongues and pens concerning this ill-raysed brabble but I see to my griefe how much men care for themselues more then peace I suffer and the Church is disquieted your learning and grauitie will be ready to contribute to a seasonable pacification In desire and exspectation of your speedie answere I take my leaue and am Your very louing friend and fellow-labourer IOS EXON Right Reuerend Father in GOD VPon the receite of your Reconciler which it pleased you to send me I tooke occasion as my manifolde distractions would permit to peruse what had beene said on both sides concerning the now-being of the Romane Church VVherin I must professe that I could not but wonder at the needlesse exceptions against your Tenet you affirming no new thing in that passage misliked in your Old Religion And this your Aduertisement afterward so fully and punctually cleareth and your Reconciler so acquitteth with such satisfying ingenuitie that I cannot imagin they haue considered it well or meane wel that shal persist to oppose it For who perceiues not that your Lordship leaues no more to Rome then our best Diuines euer since the Reformation haue granted If their speeches haue beene sometimes seemingly different their meaning hath beene alwayes the same that in respect of the common Truths yet professed among the Papists they may and ought to bee tearmed a True visible Church in opposition to Iewes Turkes and Pagans who directly denie the Foundation howsoeuer their Antichristian aditions make them no better then the Synagogue of Sathan This being agreed vpon by those whose Iudgement wee haue good reason to follow cited in your Aduertisement and by others they doe an ill office to our Church in my opinion who set them at ods in this point that are so excellently reconciled and giue more aduantage to the Aduersarie by quarrelling with our worthies then the Aduersarie is like to get by our acknowledgment that they are such a miserable Church as we discouer them to be VVhat I haue thought long since in this behalfe it appeareth in my Lecture De Visibilitate Ecclesiae and as often as this hath come in question in our publicke Disputes we determine here no otherwise then your Lordship hath stated it And yet wee trust to giue as little vantage to Poperie as those that doe detest it and are as circumspect to maintaine our receiued Doctrine and Discipline without the least scandall to the weakest as those that would seeme most forward That distinction of Romes case before and since the Councell of Trent holds not to dis-Church it but shewes it rather to be more incureable now then heretofore Neither find I any particulars obiected which those worthy men haue not sufficiently cleared that haue iustifyed