those things to be true which are false Truly we are very injurious to mortality if we suppose the errors and failings of our minde to be crimes You will say They sin of set purpose and fall not casually but by a voluntary slip But who told you so Or who hath discovered unto you their intimate counsels Certainly not charity which is an enemy to evil surmises but bitterness and malignity of spirit which is apt to make a sinister construction of anothers meaning Although they had no evident proof of their innocency yet in a doubtful matter and such as is known onely to the judge of hearts it became us not to make any sad decree against them How much less can they be condemned when there appeareth nothing that might invite and drive them to so wretched and dangerous malice we should at least here make use of that notable saying of Piso's For what advantage is this done For if they be neither seised with a longing after honours and riches nor with an itch of pleasures nor can have any hopes of earthly solace and if they conform their life to the prescript of that most holy Law where lyeth the incitement to so great improbity as that they should purposely procure to themselves so many troubles together with eternal destruction CHAP. IX An Answer to the Objection about rejecting the Consent of the Church for the Authority of the Scripture onely BUt you will say that they have been so daring as to question a Mystery for so many ages since received by all the Christian world with great applause venerable for its very antiquity and ratified by the authority of so many Holy Fathers and Councels and so are come to the very height of wickedness in attempting to discuss with sacrilegious curiosity such things as ought to be believed The reprehension then is this that they have begun to make a doubt of so certain a thing But what Is it unlawful to busie your wit about a thing of undoubted truth that after a more strict examination you may the sooner impetrate assent from your self Certainly it is a disparagement to the Truth if we suppose her to be afraid of mens judgments For neither is it unbecoming her to plead for herself at the bar of Reason that she may bravely overcome and draw the very judge to her side whereas if she decline the tryal of this court she suffers not a little in the confidence of her cause For though we may not enquire into the truth of the Divine Oracle yet we both may and ought into the true meaning thereof and they are slanderers who say that the Socinians believe not the words of the Scripture because they doubt of the received sense But what if they seem also to have just causes of doubting For they conceive that the Holy Fathers and the consent of so many ages do adde more dignity and veneration then stress to the doctrine of the Trinity How well grounded this conceit is I dispute not However certain it is that they are not the first who have charged the publike authority of the Church and the consent of many Synods and ages with the suspicion of most grievous crimes For since they see the foresaid authority in many other things of great moment not onely accused but also convicted of falshood what so hainous crime have they committed who dare not entrust their faith and opinion of Divine things unto her For of sixteen ages the twelve latter cannot warrant many things to the greatest part of Christians It cannot be denyed that the Socinians going farther then others do also reject the consent of the four former but especially of the third and fourth ages For since the Truth hath found little assurance in humane authority for so many ages of the lowest antiquity they thought that their opinions were to be squared onely by the rule of the holy Scripture Wherein truly they could not erre so greatly but that they had a far greater cause of erring For what could the faith of the Church being once suspected ratifie to them how could they know that the Christian world hath groaned under the darkness of errors no longer then for ten or twelve ages Or that those ancient times had any priviledge above the following ones so that they could not erre They saw them to be men yea such men as were alas defiled for a great part with vices and crimes Nor could they be ignorant of the factions amongst the Nicene Fathers nor of their evident ambition nor of the evil arts of sundry others nor of the shameful errors of men otherwise most holy And though it were to be held that about the three hundredth yeer of Salvation the Church did still retain the primitive Truth yet in so many dissentions and so many adverse Councels they judged that at least the choyce of the truer opinion did pertain to themselves In chusing which they ought not to follow the judgement of the successive Church which had been already justly condemned in many points of faitâ— but the infallible rule of the holy Scripture For how could the Church warrant unto them the opinion of others when she was not able to make good her own Besides they called to minde the genius of that age and the dispositions of those Fathers concerning whom that great man Justus Lipsius in our age wrote that many did then so put-on Christ by an outward profession that in their minde they did not put-off Plato And therefore they not without cause suspected that in many heads of doctrine plain words were wrested to forrain and Philosphical senses whilst the Fathers did with ingenious comments tack the mysteries of their Philosophy to the word of God that they might not seem to have learned in vain For what should be the cause say they that touching the received explication of the holy Trinity Plato and Trismegistus speak more clearly then the sacred Scripture Or what reason should there be why the Scripture should more timorously and obscurely deliver so holy a Mystery then the foresaid Philosophers These and the like things though they do not acquit them of error yet do they clear them from the imputation of rashness For nothing is more certain then that the doctrine of Christ is not built on so weak a foundation as some constitute in humane authority Now did we heretofore wrest these arms out of the hands of Papists that we our selves might use them against others Certainly it becometh not us either to take their weapons or deliver ours up to them but when we are summoned to the tribunal of the holy Scripture onely we ought not to yield this pâ—aise to the Adversaries that they should seem to hope better then we concerning the equity and favour of so great a judge CHAP. X. An Answer to three other Objections a Comparison of Calvin 's Doctrine touching Fatal Predestination with the Doctrine of others BUt it will be further objected
DISSERTATIO de Pace c. OR A DISCOURSE Touching the PEACE CONCORD OF THE Church Wherein is elegantly and acutely argued That not so much a bad Opinion as a bad Life excludes a Christian out of the kingdom of heaven and that the things necessary to be known for the attainment of salvation are very few and easie and finally that those who pass amongst us under the name of Hereticks are notwithstanding to be tolerated LONDON Printed by Ja Coâ—trel for Rich. Moone at the seven stars in Paul's Church-yard 1653. The Publisher TO THE READER THe Author of this Discourse Christian Reader a man as it appeareth both pious and learned knowing that of all the Families and Societies of Christians they are most hated who by their Profession and Writings maintain the Opinion of Socinus touching the Essence and Office of Christ endeavoured by this Discourse to abate the hatred of certain Zelots against the Socinians not that he approved their Doctrine for he once and again disowns it but because he was perswaded that if the harsh judgements of men were once mitigated concerning the most odious Opinion of all the heat of that bitter zeal wherewith Christians are generally incited to persecute dissenters in Religion would by degrees evaporate But if thou Christian Reader dost from thy heart aspire to the knowledge of GOD and his Son Jesus Christ wherein as Christ himself testifieth eternal life doth consist Iohn 17. 3. fetch not the beginning thereof either from Socinus a man otherwise of great understanding in the mystery of the Gospel nor from his Adversaries but being mindful of those words Luke 10. 22. None knoweth who the Son is but the Father and who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him Lay aside for a while Controversal Writings together with those prejudicate Opinions that have been instilled into thine unwary Understanding and closely applying thy self to the search of the New Covenant most ardently implore the Grace of Christ that he would be pleased to manifest Himself and the Father to thee and make no doubt but the true Light will at length illuminate the eyes of thy minde that thou mayst walk in the way that leadeth unto Life Farewel The Contents CHAP. I. THe lot of Truth and Innocencie in this world A Ghess of the Author touching himself CHAP. II. What things concerning God and Christ are necessary to be known unto salvation and what are the parts of True Faith CHAP. III. That sincere Love towards God and Christ is sufficient to Salvation and that the same may be in such as erre CHAP. IIII. That though Faith and the Holy Spirit be the Gifts of God yet erring persons have and may have them CHAP. V. That nothing but Disobedience and Unbelief exclude a man from Eternal Salvation and that such as erre are free from these Whether bare Errors of the Understanding damn a man CHAP. VI. That the things necessary to be known unto Salvation are few and very simple and easie to be understood by the simplest Such is not the common doctrine touching the Trinity CHAP. VII That there is not in this life a perfect knowledge of God and of Divine Mysteries but in the other life and that Faith Hope and Charity are sufficient to Salvation CHAP. VIII A General Apologie for the Socinians that they are not of such a Perswasion out of Ambition Avarice Pleasure or Superstition nor offend out of any Malice but onely out of the Care of their Salvation CHAP. IX An Answer to the Objection about rejecting the Consent of the Church for the Authority of the Scripture onely CHAP. X. An Answer to three other Objections a Comparison of Calvin's Doctrine touching Fatal Predestination with the Doctrine of others CHAP. XI Reasons and Examples for tolerating Hereticks and who are true Hereticks CHAP. XII What Hereticks are to be excommunicated what not and a fuller Apologie for those who in our Age pass for Hereticks A DISCOURSE Touching the PEACE CONCORD OF THE Church CHAP. I. The lot of Truth and Innocencie in this world A Ghess of the Author touching himself TRUTH was never called into question but Innocencie was fain to plead for her self at the same bar nor hath the one been more hated then the other always envied Indeed we men are very prone to evil and therefore hate not onely the open freedom of a true judgement but also the tacite censure of another's integrity Nor is this a crime peculiar to our Age. 'T was heretofore the disposition of Wickedness no less to fear the mute innocencie of another then the living voice of a reprover nor can it be otherwise hereafter but that vertue should become a goad to their senses whose mindes have been seized with vices But though our wickedness may seem to have a kind of right to detest such Truth as toucheth the ulcers of ours sins yet why should we abominate her that casts a harmless eye towards heaven Is it because as both these cure the two diseases of the minde our Errors namely and our Vices so we are delighted with both those Distempers Undoubtedly here lies the pinch We are more enamoured of our Errours then of all our darlings either because they wink at the scapes and dalliance of our affections or because we are enraged against dissenters with obstinate prejudice and frantick affectation of parties Howbeit we never erre with greater delight then about the sense of divine matters and are so far from acknowledging those slips the witnesses of humane imbecillity that we account them for Oracles Nor is our rashness content to have pleased her self herein but obtrudeth her notions upon others against their wills and the license of determining is wont to assume so much to it self that it excludeth a liberty of dissenting in the smallest tittle After the judgements of mankinde had been oppressed in this maner the Church for many ages was overspread with thick darkness whilst the greatest part had neither liberty to utter what they understood nor list to understand what they might not utter And though there have been so many windes and storms of Contention in the Christian world yet have they not to this very day been able to dispel so great a fog so that amidst the clouds dispersed over all the skie there are some few who through the intervals behold the whole face of the sun whilst others see afar off some gleams of the light but shall ere long discover the very sun it self The Truth being thus muffled with errors hath not yet shewn her self to all with a full countenance although she hath aforehand darted out the rays of her light unto a great part of men But whatsoever is to come hereafter divine things are at present envelloped with gross darkness Yet is there nothing that more obscureth the Mystery of Eternal Salvation then the ignorance of the way that leadeth us to the top of so great happiness For as all
way that bringeth us to heaven methinks such contemplations as these are out of the road of our journey For indeed what maketh us sufficiently yea abundantly fitted for Eternal life but Faith working by Love for which onely we shall be pronounced just But if one may have this Faith although he have a wrong conceit touching the Mystery of the Holy Trinity what hinders but that he may together with this Errour be received both into Heaven and into the Church Now lest any one should be deceived in the notion of Error I do not now give so milde a name to their wickedness who whilst the Truth was yet clear and open in the Church and called into doubt by none did first spread darkness over this Article but to their failing who in our times Do fear the Greeks even when they offer Gifts that is who having been cozened with so many lyes and cheats of Antichrist dare not believe him even when he seemeth to speak Truth as shall be further made appear by the sequele of the Discourse Moreover that perfit Faith is not taken away by that error we shall easily perceive if we enquire into every part thereof Nor verily shall you finde in the whole compass of our Faith that more duties are required of believers then Assent to the Promises of Jesus Christ and Obedience to his Precepts The first of which the Apostle James chap. 2. very aptly intimateth to be the Body of Faith and the second the Soul thereof To the belief of the Promises that plain Confession is sufficient which passeth under the name of The Apostles Creed and if there be any thing else requisite I see not what can be added besides the Reverence due to the holy Scriptures to which if credence be once denyed the certainty of our Salvation is brought into danger Now whether both or one of these compleat the whole nature of that Faith which is due to the Divine Promises certainly experience it self testifieth that such as erre in the knowledge of the foresaid Mystery may excellently discharge this part of Faith For they without any exception give credence to the holy Scripture and to the Apostles Creed And therefore what is wanting to beget in them a full belief that God cannot chuse but perform his promise For that the things aforesaid are sufficient to the belief hereof is even from hence manifest God hath promised us Salvation by his Son To rely on this promise it is enough if we be perswaded that God both can and will give unto us what he hath promised For by this means all the causes of distrust being pared away there will be no ground left to doubt of so great a Promise But whilst they believe the holy Scriptures and their Abridgement the Apostles Creed they cannot in the least doubt concerning the power or will of God when notwithstanding they may mistake in the knowledge of his Essence Wherefore this first part of Faith is not taken away by that Error As for Obedience to the Precepts of Christ certainly this can much less be taken away by such mistakings For neither was it the purpose of God by giving his Commandments to exercise the sharpness of our Wit but the goodness of our Will And therefore how blinde soever our Knowledge is in abstruser things yet may our Will be conformed to the obedience of the Divine Law then which nothing is more manifest and open Nor doth the Piety of sundry erring persons here need an Advcoate in that it sufficiently pleadeth for it self and oftentimes sheweth its Faith even in silent works which very many vainly boasting of cannot finde in their life and actions Neither indeed hath any thing been enjoyned us wherein our vertue and obedience may not shew themselves For what need is there to invite us with rewards to those things which we willingly perform of our own accord But they buy Happiness at a very cheap rate who spend nothing but the labour of their Wit upon it For he that is never so wicked and careless of his Salvation may know some truth concerning God Nor can we boast of our obedience in such things unless we admit the damned Spirits to a share in our praise Besides the nature of all Precepts ought to be such as that it might evidently appear to all who are to perform them that they are prescribed But how manifest this doctrine touching the Trinity is the incredible height of the very thing it self sheweth and how manifestly it is prescribed the labours and contentions of so many Fathers and Councels heretofore testifie Yea though somthing in this point were never so much enjoyned to be known and believed yet none refuseth to believe those things that are expresly extant in the holy Scriptures nor is there any one so impious as to contradict them All the controversie is about meanings and consequences wherein an error and failing doth no more infer disobedience and consequently damnation then the simplicity of an obsequious servant who not rightly understanding the command of his Master did yet obey as far as he was able But if we may believe the Promises of Jesus Christ and obey his Precepts although we are mistaken in such a maner what shall we want to the full possession of a lively Faith Is there yet any thing in the nature of Faith uncomprehended in those two parts But there is a wonderful silence in the Sacred Oracles concerning that third part nor do I see how that Faith is not perfit which is lively or how that is not lively which consisteth in a maner of its body and soul But you will say that we are necessarily to believe many things which are neither the very Precepts nor the Promises To which I answer that they so belong to one of these that without them neither can be rightly performed of which sort is the Omnipotencie of God and the like attributes as also the Creation Providence c. which though they be neither the Precepts nor the Promises yet cannot the belief of the Promises consist without them so that an error in them is not now dangerous but altogether pestilent and pernicious But it hath been clearly proved that errors about those doctrines touching which the whole Discourse hath been set on foot subvert neither member of Faith at least in their own nature and unavoidably CHAP. III. That sincere Love towards God and Christ is sufficient to Salvation and that the same may be in such as erre LEt us adde an Appendix to this argument which may even be in stead of a new reason Who therefore dares to condemn him to the punishment of Eternal Death in whom liveth the sincere Love of his Creator and Redeemer or what more certain pledge of Eternal Happiness is there then to love God and the Lord Jesus Christ with the whole heart and with all the powers of the minde This indeed is too too manifest inasmuch as the sum of our Obedience lieth
to our errors Their ignorance taketh away all faith religion and piety We speak of the bare errors of the mind which are so far from weakning faith or religion that they ought under the penalty of everlasting destruction to be free even from all contagion of wickedness Finally admit that the Brasilians are punished for the bare ignorance of their minde which notwithstanding we do not grant shall we therefore say that the same ignorance is punished by God with so grievous and bitter a punishment in our erroneous ones The punishment of those doth infinitely differ from the punishment of these It is an easie matter to lose such things as the minde with a flattering hope never promised to it self The reward of eternal Life is not promised to them no hope of immortality given them no taste of everlasting joy offered to them they never endeavoured to enter in thorow the strait gate to deny themselves they have not attempted to bear their cross to follow their Saviour thorow the afflictions of this world But the greatest part of them who erre through the bare imbecillity of their wit have omitted nothing to the most certain hope of Salvation and to all the toyl of a pious life and to the tolerance of Christs cross Shall we imagine that these shall for their meer ignorance and the mistakes of their understanding be discarded from the forethought and foretasted expectation of eternal joy Shall we think that their labours shall be in vain and their hope and faith vanish into smoke Certainly this would be a most wretched condition and not to be compared with that punishment of those Barbarians So that it can at no hand seem probable to any man who setteth before his eyes the infinite grace and mercy of God especially under the new Covenant that ignorance should have so severe a punishment inflicted on it CHAP. VI. That the things necessary to be known unto Salvation are few and very simple and easie to be understood bâ— the simplest Such is not the common doctrine touching the Trinity THere are not wanting some amongst so many families of Christians who imâ—gine certain particular men whom they call Reprobates to be by name excluded from the Heavenly Inheritance yet do the opinions of almost all dissenting parties herein agree that the way to Salvation is beforehand shut-up and obstructed to no sort of men And indeed not without good reason For since they are all equal in the sight of the most high God and no mans dignity exempteth him out of the condition of the rest there is no respect of persons with God no regard of eminencie He vieweth not the mindes of men thorow those coverings of the body or thorow the dress and ornament of the outward fortune but naked and sequestred from all disguises and therefore the condition which is for the most part without the verge of the man himself ought to difference none before him As for the counsel therefore of the great God all are alike destinated to Eternal Happiness whether they be men or women yong or old clad in scarlet or courser wool having so much land that they cannot count it or having no land to count in short whether they be born to rule or servitude exercise liberal or manual arts all are promiscuously and in the same degree called to that Heavenly Inheritance How few of all these can penetrate into those abstruser secrets of sublime doctrines And therefore by the most wise counsel of God the heads necessary to salvation are so ordered that they may without any pains be understood and comprehended by all Howbeit that doctrine touching which the present discourse is intended is so intricate and hard and doth so far surpass the apprehension of the simpler sort that very few of them can promise Salvation to themselves if it be prejudicial to any one to have a misunderstanding of these things For the question is not concerning the Holy Trinity which all confess and adore even they who are nicknamed Samosatenians but touching the difference of Essences and Persons touching the communication of properties touching those Mysteries which no man ever saw nor sufficiently understood These things rise-up so high above our imbecillity and so great a crop of thorns and bryars springeth up when they begin once to be discussed that nature seldom produceth so happie a wit as can in good earnest rid himself out of that brake If any one of the duller sort and who seemeth acute enough for so subtil things stick in those bryars why should we impute that to his wickedness which is due to the weakness of his wit The very sublimity of the things argueth their difficulty as also the excellencie of the object which never was never will be comprehended by the minde of man And therefore not long after the Apostles times a great bickering about these things disturbed the whole world and did so exercise the wits of the Fathers that after so many toils and Councels neither did all agree with one another nor every one with himself By so much easier a task it is to search the Majesty of God then comprehend it Which curiosity how fatal it proved to the world let us believe the complaint of Hilary who pronounceth the Bishops of France happie in that they had neither forged nor received nor known any other Confession then that old and most simple one which had from the age of the Apostles been received in all Churches O that we had rather be happie with those French Bishops then by being over-wise disturb the quiet of the Church or banish out of heaven such souls as are incapable of so great Mysteries How many men truely pious and simple shall you finde who are not able to maintain and defend their own opinion though sometimes true If these happen to doubt of the truth or through imprudencie to slip in such matters shall they presently be excluded from the entrance both of Heaven and the Church as enemies of God and Christ What shall the wretches do whilst oftentimes they hang in suspense between a great shew of probability on both sides And why should not the knowledge of such things as are altogether requisite to Salvation be as obvious to the simple as to learned wits Hath God paved an easier way to Salvation for the learned and ingenious then for others Nor is it very material that the ruder sort may apprehend by the teaching of the more learned what they perhaps cannot of themselves attain unto For since amongst the learned themselves there are so many controversies either the ruder sort shall judge of them by their own understanding which is all one for it is as hard to determine between the arguments on both sides as between true and false opinions or shall hand over head follow the authority of others But if the choice of the true opinion exceedeth their ability so that they are altogether enforced to follow others without any
that the Socinians impiously contradict the manifest words of the sacred Scripture and scornfully reject the clear Truth coming-in upon them To which I answer That whatsoever pains and travel they undertake in this business is employed not against the holy Trinity as they are unjustly defamed nor against the Sacred Scripture but against the Humane Explications of both Hence we may see that they willingly assent and give credit to all the Sacred Oracles touching this matter onely rejecting certain interpretations and forms sprung-up certain ages after They believe that they are according to the command of Christ to be baptized into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Matth. 28. They believe those three sacred Witnesses in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit 1 Joh. 5. They acknowledge that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was a God Joh. 1. yet such a one to whom all power in heaven and earth was given as he speaketh of himself Matth. 28. It would be tedious to reckoâ— up all the Scripture-testimonics of this kinde to which they give credence without any exception Those hard and subtil opinions concerning the Essence and Person of God concerning the communication of properties and others of that batch they either understand not or think them repugnant to the simple and plain word of God Give us leave say they to be ignorant of such things as are believed with danger In these so subtil and thorny explications if they after the maner of men chance to erre shall they presently be termed the enemies of God and Christ Shall there be found no pardon for an error in so great difficulty of things no excuse for weakness which notwithstanding we ingeniously seek even for the greatest crimes though we be never so well provided of means to avoid them Are they who out of ignorance and error violate the Edicts of Princes acquitted from the crime of treason and shall he that offendeth about the Divine Oracles in our opinion have no refuge for his weakness in the mercy of the Heavenly Father But you will reply that their Blasphemies are horrid wherein impiety leaveth no place for pity and reproachful against the Son of God and overthrowing the foundation of our faith To which I answer that if there have been any amongst them of a more intemperate tongue or quill they are infamous not onely with us but also with them But what is here meant by the Foundation of Faith I do not sufficiently perceive It hath been abundantly evidenced before that such errors do necessarily take away neither our Faith nor our Salvation For it is not the foundation of Salvation to know his Essence who hath promised the salvation to us so that we have no impious and contumelious opinion of him as the ignorance of the nature of the promiser taketh not away the certainty of the promise unless he hath promised us anything under the condition of such knowledge As for the knowlege of the Father they therein do in a maner agree with us They likewise adore and reverence with Divine worship the Son of God as the author and mediator of their Salvation the heir and Lord of the Universe and the General of our warfare But you will here reply that they deny his eternity I answer that they together with holy Paul care not much to know any thing but Jesus Christ and him crucified and had rather with so great an Apostle rest in the simplicity of this knowledge then either with Arius to ascend to non-enlitiâ—s or with Athanasius to co-essentialities As for the honour which they give to the Holy Spirit the greatness thereof appeareth in that they scarce distinguish him from the Supreme Father Shall they then be said to blaspheme against these if they be somewhat mistaken in the other knowledge of them Indeed many opinions are drawn out of their doctrines that the wretches may be loaded with more envie and that by them who whilst they are so vigilant in other mens errors are fast asleep in their own But if all the chaff were to be sifted out of humane opinions I would wish that a great part of the Reformed Churches would labour to defend their own cause before they undertake to oppose that of others but those above all who have from the age of Chrysippus recalled down to these very times that secret and inevitable law of Fate and who hold also that the sins and destruction of mankinde and finally all and singular motions and impulsions of our will proceed from the Decree of Eternal Destiny to whom this false perswasion also seemeth to be fatal From which opinion if we lay aside prejudice more and more shameful errors will be deduced then out of the books of Socinians For which is more reproachful unto God to hold that he is one as well in Person as Essence or that I may clothe naked injustice with soft words to bring-him-in punishing men for not doing those things which by his own procurement were impossible Is it more absurd to conceive that there is one Essence of the Father another of the Son then that God I shudder to speak it hath one thing open in his tongue and another thing contrary thereunto shut-up in his breast This is reproach enough to the most high God although we do not adde that this dissimulation is joyned with deceit Is the dignity of the Holy Spirit more traduced whilst he is said to be onely the vertue and power of God then the goodness of God whilst he is held the author of sin which consequence doth also flow by a fatal and inevitable flux from that doctrine of Fate For he that decreed men should necessarily sin certainly would have them sin otherwise he would have decreed every thing against his owne desire Now he whose decree and will the event doth immutably follow may certainly be termed the cause of that event whether he effect it by himself or by another Finally is it a greater derogation to the dignity of Christ to deny two natures in him lest we should make him two persons then to the wisdome of God to affirm that he would perswade men to that whereto nevertheless he hath not perswaded them namely that he would give salvation unto all when notwithstanding he hath designed it onely to a few Truly if we look more narrowly into the matter the doctrine of the Socinians touching the Holy Trinity is not to be accounted so much evil and impious in its owne nature as imperfect and maimed For it seemeth to ascribe to the Holy Trinity nothing false or absurd but only to take away something that is true namely the divine nature of Christ and the proper person of the Holy Spirit Whereas this doctrine touching the fatal predestination of particular men laboureth not with any defect but with manifest ptavity For it not onely offereth injury to God by most unworthy calumnies but also
striketh at the foundation of our faith For to omit security and despair with which two rams it battereth the wall of our piety it wonderfully weakneth the very belief of Gods promises whilest it bringeth-in God wickedly dissembling the more is the grief CHAP. XI Reasons and Examples for tolerating Hereticks and who are true Hereticks TO what purpose speak I these things namely to shew that there is no cause why we should not think that they ought to be tolerated in the Church whose tenets either by themselves or for their absurd consequences seem scarce tolerable so that they do not wilfully ascribe some impious thing to God and testifie their love towards the Lord Jesus Christ by obeying his commandments For although both the patrons of the forecited opinions did build unprofitable yea damnable tenets as it were hay and stubble upon our foundation which is Jesus Christ yet as it hath been also shewn at the beginning the tenets which they through error have brought in shall be destroyed by fire whilest they themselves in the mean time unless some other thing hinder shall as the Apostle testifieth 1 Cor. 3. obtain pardon and salvation Neither indeed ought we to refuse or scorn their communion whom God will receive into the society of eternal happiness nor should we hate them on earth to whom eternal love in heaven is due We are unworthy to bear the title of Gods children if we disdain to be their brethren whose Father God desireth to be But if we be afraid of the contagion of such errors either in behalf of our selves or rather of the weaker ones in the first place we may not thereupon renounce brotherly love which we owe to them although they erre For we ought not to forsake a certain and clear duty lest an uncertain evil should happen nor to pursue even the most holy ends by unlawful means But secondly that fear is vain For if we have not the truth there is little danger to be feared from them much less if we have it For since they maintain their tenets with no arms nor with any force and think it not so much as lawful so to do nor set them off with any carnal allurements certainly the truth can never be by them either oppressed with force or overthrown with fraud inasmuch as the nature of truth is such that like to Eagles feathers she devoureth all other light plumage of opinions never withdrawing her self from us unless she be tyred either with our servitude or sins Which twain being not to be feared by us in a modest liberty of dissenting and study of true charity what cause is there why we should so warily sence our opinions from their tenets Let us rather be possessed with a certain hope that as earthen vessels being joyned with those of tin or silver are broken to pieces so also if God the author of peace shall bring bring back into the Church that happy tolerance all false opinions fighting hand to hand with the the true will be dashed to shivers and perish Otherwise if we so much fear that mutual patience and friendly conference we do not think well enough concerning the goodness of our cause Heretofore when the dawning of Gospel-light was returned Luther and his followers would have wished that they might be tolerated in the communion of the Roman Church But it concerned the Pope to secure his darkness from the approach of the morning Again when a dissension was risen up between the Lutherans and the Reformed who was it that refused the form of agreement that was offered but he that doubted of his cause Now also in the very reformed Church it self upon the dissention concerning Fate none are more displeased with tolerance then they that suspect the truth of their doctrine Would error were so circumspect in the cradle of its infancie as it is provident being once grown-up But it being blinde when it is born doth afterward become sharp sighted foreseeing its fate afar off and eschewing it and is never more ingenious to prolong its life then when it is pressed with the conscience of its owne weakness But you will say Shall we acknowledge a Heretick even for a brother when the Apostle Tit. 3. commandeth us to avoid him after two or three admonitions why shall we be more merciful then the Holy Spirit Let not that mercy turn to our misery when once the Lord beginneth to require at our hands the souls of so many seduced innocents Shall we not esteem him a Heretick who in so great a matter departeth from the sound doctrine of the Church do we not think our owne doctrine sound How often have they been admonished both with writings and disputations and yet nevertheless stick to their errors as to rocks I answer Let none please himself so much as to vie with the Apostolical meekness It is an incurable member that the Apostle enjoyneth to be cut off from the rest of the Churches body Howbeit there may be error in them that undertake the cure and they themselves may be overspread with much darkness For neither can the sound part be always discerned from the diseased one and the one doth oftentimes deceive us with the disguise and image of the other And though it be never so manifest what part is entangled with a true disease yet doth it sometimes remain to be scanned whether it be to be cut off or cured with mollifying remedies for those members onely ought to suffer amputation wherein the gangrene leaves no place for a milder medicine Nor is the Apostle of another minde when he commandeth many admonitions to be premised before excommunication And lest it should be doubtful whom he designed by the name of an Heretick he subjoyneth arguments thereupon which are indeed effects of the Heretick himself but unto us impulsive causes that we may avoid him For he saith that such a one is overturned and sinneth being condemned of himself And lest any one should think that these are indeed impulsive causes but not of our fact and our avoiding but onely of the Apostles injunction so that he indeed for these causes excludeth every Heretick from the communion of the Church but yet it is not necessary for us to have respect to them he premiseth the participle knowing to intimate that we also ought to know the causes why we discommon any of the citizens in that heavenly commonwealth nor hasten rashly to such Proscriptions but after we have certain knowledge of so great malice in them And truely although the Apostle had not added this yet did very charity and the analogie of our Religion dictate so much unto us For this is a great punishment nor to be inflicted but on such as sin evidently And forasmuch as in so great a matter no error can be little we ought first of all to be ascertained that the man to be condemned is worthy of so rigid a sentence namely such a one as is here painted out in
have these distempers cured without wounds and cauteries especially because the Truth unless it be oppressed by force or scorned by men who are blinde with the love of vices is never wont to be supplanted by those pernicious errors yea this daughter and foster-childe of time always growing stronger with very age doth with the beams of her light dissolve and melt all the waxen arguments of falshood unless one of those twain before mentioned doth hinder both which ought to be banished from the true Church of Christ For since by force or the allurement of our affections as well falshood as truth may be promoted if yet truth may be so promoted but by a free dispute in mutual love onely truth and falshood sometimes putteth on the vizoâ— of Truth it is a safer course to keep this way onely in the Church which having shut-out error lyeth open to truth then whilst we endeavour by all means to insinuate truth into men to leave and prepare an entrance for falshood And therefore to cashiere the lighter errors for the Objection speaketh not of the lightest the care and vigilancie of the Pastors is sufficient who will finde that the love due to erring persons will no whit retard them in pulling up false opinions according to their ability However should it never so much be granted that in the infancie of the Church and in her following growth these errors which outwardly appear somewhat light but inwardly contain very much were not tolerated yet will it not be evinced from thence that they ought not at this day to be tolerated in the old-age of the Church For they deceive and are deceived who model our times by the pattern of that flourishing age The crazie health of the Church cannot be restored with the same remedies Many things stifle a disease in the birth which when it is grown up do foment it When the Church was found and lusty in the prime flower of her age and whilst the colledge of the Apostles was yet living even violent remedies were to be used towards her because of her vigour Whereas now being spent with diseases and old age and become feeble she doth in a maner sink under the weight of her prevailing sickness and is never in more danger then when she falleth into the hands of cruel Physicians Heretofore her former vigor did admit the opening of a vein and taking away of blood but now after her strength hath been exhausted with so many maladies if there be any vital juyce remaining it cannot be let out but the very life and spirit will issue forth together Believe me ye that talk of nothing but launcets and cauteries will with your unseasonable Physick kill the Church if ye let out that little blood which is remaining in this nick of time when she seemeth to be almost a dying Whatsoever remedies have been invented for the health and conservation of the Church as this is touching the punishment of Hereticks should then as prudence teacheth be omitted when they bring more hurt and danger then profit For why desire we that the people of God should like a lump of mouldring stuff be further crumbled into infinite pieces What end of Schisms will there be if a promiscuous dissent be sufficient to make a rent Why take we pleasure to behold not the coat onely as a Great man wrote but the very body of Christ whereof he is the head to be cut and torn in pieces But let the respect of profit take place let us see whether it be lawful for us at this time to chase those erring persons from the communion of Christs Church For there is a wide difference between them and those hereticks that were contemporary with the Apostles For suppose them who now-a-days erre in matters of faith to make their appearance before the reverend consistory of the Apostles and their associates suppose them to be often convicted and admonished and nevertheless to persist obstinate though in the least error who would not detest their malice Certainly a very slight error would now be transmuted into the nature of a wicked crime And why so Because they durst resist the holy Spirit speaking by the Apostles and when they had no cause to question the doctrine and faith of that most sacred Councel unless they would withal question the whole Christian Religion yet did not give credence thereunto nor obey it and nevertheless would be accounted Christians What madness what wickedness what perversness was it when by this very incredulity they do sufficiently testifie that they were not Christians as who denyed belief to the Apostles and their associates and yet under a pretence of Christianity did pester the Church with deceit and lyes Besides the malice of such men was in the beginning far more manifest in that a blemish may sooner be discovered in a clean body then in one that is spotted And therefore it was an easie matter to espie and punish the wickedness of such men as did turn aside out of the common road that never had been called in question But now though we have a very strong perswasion concerning the certainty of our faith yet who hath herein given us caution or security that we cannot erre What Councel can we at this day imagine so uncorrupt as that of the Apostles or the Primitive Church And yet how many Proscriptions may you behold in this age how many Decrees whereby men for the slightest matters exclude one another out of heaven and the Church I speak not these things as if I thought any question were to be made concerning the soundness of the Orthodox Opinion but to make it plain first that we ought more timorously then the Apostles heretofore to condemn such as are tardy in this behalf and secondly that we should not in lighter matters be over-confident of our knowledge and perswasion and finally that even in weightyer things provided they do not subvert our faith in the Lord Jesus and the obedience of his commandments we may and are bound to tolerate the weakness of such as erre For what matters it for me certainly to know that I hold the saving doctrine in these points if this be not manifest to all Christians or if I cannot always very clearly demonstrate the fame to him that erreth Have not all a far juster cause of questioning the true opinion now-a-days then heretofore in the time of the Apostles And suitably a man may very easily slip in such things through imprudence which heretofore could not be done without the intervening of extreme impiety Nor is there need of malice for continuance in error where prejudice is sufficient and a suspicion of error firmly imprinted in the minde against the patrons of the true opinion Which certainly may easily seise even on an honest heart especially because every sect of Christians instil into their partisans at the first a hatred and abhorrencie of others from their very cradle sow in their hearts their own
tenets which having once taken root can hardly be pulled thence in their riper age Now what cruelty is it to cast out of the bosome and lap of the Church such persons as are studious of honesty and truth yea seek an agreement onely for those errors which have been implanted in them without any fault of theirs and do not overthrow salvation But they are Hereticks and to be avoided as such who are condemned of their own conscience Yea for the fore-alleadged causes they are not condemned of their own conscience And therefore neither now to be avoided nor Hereticks Or if we take no compassion on them yet let us at least take pity on the very truth which we defend whose growth we envie first because we drive others from a neerer prying into her and next because we teach by our own example that she if charged with false suspicions of right may and ought to be excluded by other Christian Churches FINIS The Postscript to the Reader LEst the following papers Christian Reader being left empty should beguile thy sight I have thought good in this place again to bespeak thee with a word or two By this time thou hast perceived our minde and drift which both the author of this Discourse had before his eyes when he wrote it and I also when I published the same for thy behoof and benefit If thou hast but a grain of candor in thy heart and wilt pass sentence according to the prescript of Truth thou wilt judge and call this Writing not Heretical but Peaceable But you will say What peace what agreement either can or ought a Christian man to have with Hereticks Good Reader we undertake not the patronage of Hereticks But before you exclude others out of the verge of Christian Charity and throw the thunderbolt of an Anathema upon them you should well weigh and consider to whom the crime of Heresie is justly to be imputed In passing censure upon Hereticks it was not so easie a matter to mistake in that Golden age wherein the Christian Church was founded by the Apostles and governed by themselves as is in this Age of ours For though in those beginnings of the Christian Church there did divers errors yea and heresies spring up nevertheless from that confusion of dissenting opinions there were not peculiar Churches distinguished by divers forms of Confessions and Ceremonies as yet started up but there was then one onely Christian Church and she truly Apostolical and in all points of doctrine which she professed of a sound belief Wherefore to contradict this Church and her doctrine was truly blasphemous truly heretical and whomsoever either the Apostles themselves or also other Apostolical Doctors of the Primitive Church declared Hereticks they might also deservedly be accounted such by all Christians and there was no danger of error in that censure no not among the more ignorant Christians as following the judgement of the very Holy Spirit by whom those Divine Governours of the Church were guided as appeared by most evident arguments But at this day inasmuch as there are alas so many and so various Churches of Christians which of all will be so bold as to ascend with like confidence to that of the Apostles to that sacred Tribunal from which she may pronounce sentence on the rest as Heretical It is out of controversie that such an authority can agree to no more then one of them For the true Church can be but one and onely the true one is able to judge and condemn all the rest as Heretical Now forasmuch as amongst all those Churches which will at this day be called Christians I justly here except the vain arrogancie of the Roman Church none dares undoubtedly to arrogate to it self the infallible certainty of the Apostolical Truth in all the heads of her Confession it may hence clearly enough appear that the censure of Heretical Pravity doth so evidently agree to none of them that we deservedly ought also to acquiesce in her determination I am not ignorant of what the greatest part of our Divines are here wont to reply That the Primitive Apostolical Church say they is ceased we do not deny yet inasmuch as we have the doctrine of that Church consigned in the monuments of the Evangelists and the Apostles we cannot chuse but pronounce them Hereticks who contradict the doctrine there expressed I also dear Friends easily permit that in this dispute of ours the Divine Writings of the Apostles stand in this stead so that he which contradicteth them â—e no less esteemed an heretick then he that heretofore contumaciously opposed the Apostles preaching by word of mouth But even thus can we not chalenge that censâ—rian râ—d against Hereticks For they whom ye place in the rank of Hereticks are so far from contradicting the Holy Scripture that they wage war against you out of the same and appeal to the judgement thereof not without a certain hope of victory in the examination of their cause inasmuch as they embrace the Scripture in all things with as great veneration of minde as you do nor amongst all the Christian Churches which are at this day extant shall ye shew any one that I know of which doth not religiously and from the heart yield an undoubted assent to all those things that are proposed and taught in the Holy Scripture Wherefore there is no cause why ye should condemn any one of them for heresie since they agree with you in giving due credence to the Sacred Writ And therefore whatsoever pretence ye seek for your carnal zeal against such as you call Hereticks yet to indifferent judgements can no other ground hereof appear then their dissent from your interpretation of the Holy Scripture as to the controverted doctrines But I will here bountifully grant you that ye have in all things hit the true sense of the Scripture and defend it Nevertheless it is further requisite that ye make this plain to them whom ye brand with the crime of Heresie But what here is the stress of your Arguments Ye appeal again to the Holy Scripture and from thence condemn Hereticks But they have already stricken this weapon out of your hands shewing that the Holy Scripture maketh for yâ—â— onely in your own sense and interpretation and that they are accordingly condemned by you not from the sacred Scripture but from your interpretation of the sacred Scripture And this is the circle of your arguing which they deservedly reject Draw-out therefore against Hereticks those truly Apostolical weapons not the Tâ—rasonical prating of the Chayr in the Vniversity but the power of the holy Spirit wherewith the Apostles being indued could deliver Blasphemers to Satan 1 Tim. 1. 20. and slay Hypocrites with the speaking of a word Act. 5. If ye want the powerful efficacie of this Spirit acknowledge your rashness and iniquity in condemning them to whom ye are not able with evident and sufficient arguments to demonstrate your interpretation of the holy Scripture and
his colours Which not belonging unto men who go astray from the common road out of meer ignorance or injury of the times what shall we do to them that make use of this exception Shall they who in these calamitous times in this desolation of the Church being born a great while after the rise of Antichrist and not able fully to dispel the darkness of that long night turn aside into by paths be judged to sin out of perversity of minde Where now is that royal high-way thorow which the godly may pass securely on with an unerring foot to Salvation If it lie in the authority of the Church she hath now for many ages been beset with the snares of Antichrist We wonder that they are afraid of the suspected faith of the Church when they do the same after our example and in so great danger to fear even all the things that are safe is a point of prudence And we still dare to upbraid them with rashness in departing from the common doctrine when they seem to do it out of a just and well-grounded fear But if this way consisteth in the authority of the holy Scripture they do not stray from it whilst they together with us honour those Sacred books with due reverence But you will say that the right and orthodox sense of the Holy Scripture is rather the onely path that is able to bring us to the very citadel of Truth I confess that this way was heretofore worn with the publike going of Christians but now being first hidden with the springing briars of Antichrist and therefore trodden by very few and not as yet discovered by having all the brake cut down and besides called into doubt by so many intervening false paths it hath not as yet recovered the name and nature of a Royal high-way which it had for a long time lost And therefore the greater pardon is due unto such as deviate from the same For neither do they erre through desperate malice of heart who do not always walk therein amidst so many cross-ways and turnings Let any one reckon up to me all the sects of Christian Religion and I will say he is a brave fellow if he omit none In so great a concourse of opinions if they have not chosen the truer who will say that this is rather done out of improbity then out of ignorance For by what argument after so many errors have been introduced ought the Truth to lie open to their view By the unanimous consent of the Church O unanimous consent amidst six hundred different sects You will say that in the doctrine contrary unto them the greatest part are agreed But this is nothing since they have also agreed in very many errors So that we must again seek out a priviledge for the doctrine of the Trinity whereby it came to pass that though men erred in other points yet could they not mistake in this But if we suppose that they ought to examine all opinions by the rule of the Holy Scripture and afterwards to chuse the truer they have done both save that in the latter they have not followed that which indeed was but onely that which they thought to be truer Which certainly is an error and no malice nor can they be said to sin self-condemned in holding such an opinion for which they are ready to lose their life and fortunes For neither doth he condemn himself at least in his conscience who in the midst of cruel tortures hopeth for eternal life from God as the reward of defending the truth Wherefore since we are not certain that they are perverse and self-condemned but well assured that they are not such even from the death which they willingly undergo for their Errors and since such Errors as hath been before proved do not subvert eternal salvation it seemeth that they ought not to be segregated from the communion of the Church if they will testifie their love towards the Lord Jesus by obeying his commandments CHAP. XII What Hereticks are to be excommunicated what not and a fuller Apologie for those who in our Age pass for Hereticks BY this reckoning will some say How few Hereticks must be excommunicated who will not invent plausible pretences for his pravity There is no doctrine so absurd and pestilent which being palliated with that cloke of error may not creep into the Church To which I answer that there is no cause why we should be solicitous lest we should have no occasion to use this rigid law of excommunication Would the Church had even at this day no voluntary rebels against the Divine Majesty But neither in the times of the Apostles were there men wanting who subverted either our faith in God or the hope of immortality or the piety and love that is enjoyned us and such as did not by deductions and consequences but with open face as they say vent blasphemies and impieties Whose endeavour and impiety is not so obscure but that it is apparent that they were conscious to themselves of their pravity and fraud As if any one should deny the resurrection of the dead who seeth not that such a man after he hath viewed the clear and certain sentence of the Holy Scripture will be convicted in himself although he may perhaps dissemble it There is the same reason in the patron of some manifest vice All which being manifest for so are the works of the flesh and manifestly forbidden such a man hath no starting-hole in the ambiguity or obscurity of the Sacred Scripture unless he disbelieve the same and so overthrow all Religion Whosoever therefore bring into the Church such doctrines as do in their own nature subvert our Salvation and Faith they are deservedly commanded to depart together with the former not onely lest they should hurt others but also because they themselves as hath been shewn are of incorrigible malice and perversity and consequently self condemned For a Chirurgian doth not presently fear or cut-off an infected part because it may with its contagion hurt the rest of the body but would first have that very part cured of the infection which if it doth not succeed he then cuts it off as incurable But those doctrines that stand not within the boundaries of necessity to salvation are such that an errour in them especially in this disturbed state of things cannot be taxed of wilful pravity nor can it either damn its author or exclude him from the bosome of the Church But some one will here object Shall we brand with this spiritual censure the obstinate maintainer of none even the greatest error if so be it overthrow not our Salvation But there are many things which though in their own nature they take not from us our Salvation yet do they by degrees so undermine and weaken the same that afterwards it falleth down of its own accord And do you like it that such diseases should be cherished in the Church To which I answer that I would