spake with honour of the Bishops of England I derived the Episcopal dignity from the very cradle of the Church I condemned Aerius I affirmed that St. James was Bishop of Hierusalem from whom the succession of the Bishops of that City was derived by a long row of Bishops Mr. Blondel in his needless Apology for St. Hierome made a very necessary Apology for himself and sent it to Mr. Rivet to be added as an Appendix to his Book in the Impression of it by whose neglect it was omitted And now having mentioned Doctor Rivet I shall make bold to add that he himself did intreat a Noble Earl yet living to procure him a dignity or Prebend in England as his Brother Mouline and Vossius had The Earl answered that he could not hold any such place in England without subscribing to Episcopacy and the Doctrine and Discipline of the English Church And he replied that he was most ready to subscribe to them both with his hand and heart I conclude that all Divines throughout the Christian World who maintain a necessity of Holy Orders ever were and still are Episcopal Divines except some weaker and wilful Brethren who for their Antiquity are but of Yesterday and for their Universality come much short of the very Donatists in Africk condemned by all moderate and rational persons of their own Communion And therefore Mr. Baxter might have done better to have given his pretended Designers a lower and more distinctive name than that of Episcopal Divines It will not help him at all which he saith pag. 21. It is not all Episcopal Divines which I suspected of a compliance with Grotius and Cassander no not all of the later strein c. I extended it to none of the new Episcopal Party but such as I there described His distinction of Episcopal Divines into Old and New is but a Chimera of his own brain without any ground neither doth he bring one grain of reason to make it good And by his plain Confession here it appeareth that this great design is but his own suspicion To accuse men of a design to introduce the Pope into England meerly upon suspicion is a liberty or rather license to be abhorred of all conscionable Christians Yet of the old Episcopal Divines he nameth many Bishop Jewel Pilkinson Hall Carlton Davenant Morton Abbot Usher Potter Downham Grindal Parker Hooper Farrar Cranmer Latimer Ridley and forty more Bishops here p. 103. as if so many names blended together confusedly in an heap as an hotchpotch were able like a Medusas head to transform reasonable men into stocks and stones If he had made his forty up an hundred he might have found instances enough to have made it good and sundry of them no way inferiour to any whom he nameth and superiour to many In commemorating some and pretermitting others he sheweth sometimes want of judgement always respect of persons What his description was of New Episcopal Divines I do not know having never seen any Treatise of his but this of the Grotian Religion neither should I have meddled with that if he had not brought me publickly upon the Stage neither do I much regard But howsoever he describeth them he instanceth in no man but my self either because he is not able to name any or because he thinks it easiest to leap over the hedge where it is lowest Have I not great reason to thank him for being so mindful of me in my absence As for my part I profess ingeniously before God and Man I never knew of any such design I am confident there never was any such design and I am certain that I neither had nor could have an hand in any such design either for Italian Popery or French Popery or any Popery unless he call the Doctrine and Discipline of the Primitive Church Popery unless our Holy Orders and Liturgy and Articles be Popery Other Popery he shall never be able to prove against me nor I hope against any true Episcopal Divines His design like the Phoenix is much talked of by himself but never was seen I know as little of any such distinction between Old and New Episcopal Divines All the World seeth evidently that all the material differences which we have with them are about those Holy Orders and that Liturgy and those Articles and those Rites which we received from those Old Episcopal Divines Non tellus cimbam tellurem cimâ—a reliquit We have not left our Predecessors but They have left both us and our Predecessors and the Church of England And it fareth with Mr. Baxter as it doth with new Sailers who by the deception of their sight suppose that the Land leaveth them terraeque urbesque recedunt when in truth it is they themselves that leave the Land In a word his supposed design and his pretended distinction are meer fansies which never had any being in the nature of things Where did these designers ever meet together to contrive their Plot They are never likely to do any great actions who want sinews to knit them together When or where had ever any of them any intercourse or correspondence with Rome or any that belonged to Rome by word or writing It was a sensless silly Plot to design the Introduction of the Pope into England without his own knowledge or consent upon terms never accorded never so much as treated upon Thus have we seen melancholick persons out of a strong fantasie imagine that they see Ships and Minotaures in the Clouds The proofs of such accusations as this is ought to have been clearer than the Noon-day light not ungrounded or ill grounded jealousies and suspicions of credulous and partial persons CHAP. V. This Plot was as weakly fathered upon the Bishop of Derry ANd as he erred in fathering his imaginary Plot upon Episcopal Divines in general so he made an ill choice of me the meanest of those Episcopal Divines for his only instance who have only read so much of Grotius as to enable me to judge that Mr. Baxter doth him wrong I hope unwittingly If ever I should attempt the reconciling of Controversies among Christians it must be in another way then Grotius taketh I mean more Scholastical I will confess that freely which Mr. Baxter neither doth know nor ever could know but by me that about thirty years since when my body was stronger and my wits fresher when I had some Books and Notes of mine own and could have had what supply soever I desired and opportunity to confer with whomsoever I pleased I had then a design indeed to do my weak endeavour to disabuse the Christian World by the right stating and distinguishing of Controversies between the Church of Rome and us And to shew First How many of them are meer Logomachies or contentions about words without any just ground Secondly How many of them are Scholastical subtleties whereof ordinary Christians are not capable and consequently no points of Faith Thirdly How many of them are not the
or Schismatical Sermons or Heretical Sermons or for intruding himself into the Sacred Office of a Preacher without Lawful calling or for some Abuse of his function Even so the Buyers and Sellers might have pleaded that they innocent People were whipped by Christ for furnishing Gods People with Sacrifices And Uzza might have pleaded much better that he lost his life for seeking to support the Ark of God from falling Doth he think that we are such silly Birds to be catched with such empty chaff as this is Or not to be able to distinguish between an action and the the obliquity of it The Pharisees Prayer the Harlots Vow the Traitors Kiss were commendable actions in general as well as his Preaching of Lectures But either the incapacity of the person or a sinister intention or a defective manner or a contempt of lawful authority might render and did render all these actions sinful and punishable Apollos watering is necessary as well as Pauls planting especially until the plants have taken good root But after whole Nations have been long radicated in Christianity and have framed to themselves Liturgies and other Books of devotion for the publick and private Worship of God And Catechisms which comprehend all necessary and essential points of Faith and all the parts of new obedience to phantasie that without weekly Sermons all Religion is extinct is as much as to perswade us that no man can possibly write except he have his Master perpetually by him to hold his hand or that a Field cannot yield a good crop except it be sowen over and over again every month of the two a private guide seemeth to be more necessary to a grounded Christian than a publick Preacher But if Preachers shall not content themselves to sow the Wheat over again but shall sow Tares above the Wheat If they shall seek to introduce new Doctrines new Disciplines and new Forms of Worship by popular Sermons different from and destructive to those which are established by Law who can blame the Magistrates Political and Ecclesiastical if they begin to look about them A seditious Oratour is dangerous every where but no where more than in the Pulpit Then blame not Magistrates if they punish seditious or Schismatical Preachers more than one who is no Preacher All Laws and all prudent Magistrates regard publick dangers more than particular defects Yet farther supposing them to be both faulty the fault of a Reader is purae negationis a meer omission of duty extenuated many times by invincible necessity but the fault of a seditious Preacher is purae dispositionis a fault of a perverse disposition Then he may cease to wonder why Preachers are sometimes punished more for Preaching ill than for being silent and recall to his mind the practice of that prudent Schoolmaster who exacted but a single salary from such of his Scholars as had never been taught but a double salary from those who had been mistaught because he must use double diligence with them first to unteach them what they had learned amiss and then to teach them I have much more respect for those poor Readers whom he mentioneth every where with contempt I hope they may do and many of them do God good and acceptable service in his Church and co-operate to the Salvation of many Christian Souls by reading the Holy Scriptures and the Liturgy and Homilies of the Church and administring the Holy Sacraments And I have heard wise men acknowledge that if it had not been for these very Readers in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign when Preaching was very rare England had hardly been preserved as it was both from Popery and from Atheism Their very Reading is a kind of Preaching Act. 15. 21. Moses of old time hath in every City them that Preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day And their reading of Homilies doth yet approach nearer to formal Preaching Or if it come short of Preaching in point of efficacy it hath the advantage of Preaching in point of security The private conceits of new fangled Preachers by being vented publickly as the Word of God have done much hurt which the reading of publick Homiles never did Let not this Apology for Readers occasion him or any other man presently to condemn me for a Loiterer in my calling Those who have known me will acquit me Let this be considered and acknowledged that as Readers Talents are mean so are their Benefices And this is the great comfort that they have that they are below a Sequestration The fire of Zeal which driveth able Scholars out of their great Churches never lights upon their little Chappels So the great Flyes are catched in their publick Nets whilst the lesser pass through and through them without any danger or fear of being entangled Nondum sinitus orestes His invective is not yet done Hundreds of Congregations had Ministers that never Preached and such as were common Drunkards and openly ungodly c. I know not how it comes to pass that in this last Age the Pastors of Churches have got the name of Ministers that is Servants or Deacons and they that are Ministers or Deacons indeed have got the name of ruling Elders Those whom he accounteth for no Freachers were Preachers in an inferiour degree And our Canons provideth that the meanest Churches or Chappels throughout England which had cure of Souls should have formal Sermons at least four times in every year If some common Drunkards or ungodly persons were crept into the English Church it is no wonder Among the twelve Apostles there was one Iudas What may be expected among twelve thousand This is just the manner of Flies to leave the whole Body which is sound and dwell continually upon one little sore I have seldom observed that ever any man who had a good cause which would bear out it self did make such impertinent objections as this or sling dirt in the face of an Adversary in the stead of weapons He saith no more of the English Church than God by his holy Prophets hath said of his own Church no more than may be justly retorted and said of any Church in the world even upon his Presbyterian Churches in particular with as much and much more truth as it could ever be objected against the Church of England He addeth when yet the most learned Godly powerful painful peaceable men that durst not use the old Ceremonies or the new must be cast aside or driven way c. Comparisons are odious But such superlatives are incredible and argue nothing but the Writers pride and partiality and little regard to what he writeth Let Mr. Baxter sum up into one Catalogue all the non-conformists throughout the Kingdom of England ever since the beginning of the resormation who have been cast aside or driven away at any time because they durst not use the old Ceremonies or the new or rather because they found it advantagious to them to disuse them I dare abate
be able to expose them to popular Scorn and Infamy for 't is manifest that their Principles will never much take in the World in that the generality of Men are not to be work't off from their natural sense of Religion that ever did and ever will keep the strongest Party in spite of all Opposition and whoever attempts against it must of necessity be run down with Reproach and Disgrace and that transports them beyond all bounds to be thus contemptuously kept under by ignorant and ill-bred Fops and it becomes the great exercise of their Wit and their Drink to entertain the Company with pleasant Stories of Priests and Black-coats This humour has prevail'd so far in our Age beyond what it could ever arrive to in former times that it is become in some degree Gentile and fashionable every Man now has Wit and Pride enough to despise a Parson and he is no Vertuoso that does not in his common and Table-talk call and prove them Cheats and Impostors and some Persons that one would think should have more Breeding or more Sobriety affect the extravagance out of meer wantonness and others that are no declared Enemies to the Cause of Religion are yet well enough content for other reasons to have its Officers kept low and despicable but for some reason or other they meet with disrespect enough on all hands And now though this ill usage signifies very little to those against whom it is intended because it falls upon an Order of Men that are above its regard and resentment in that the Clergy of the Church of England know themselves far enough from being obnoxious to any contempt but what Sacriledge has made unavoidable and though we take them under all the Disadvantages that Plunder and Robbery and Reformation as some Men have managed it has brought upon them they are at this very time vastly the farthest off from being justly contemptible to mention no other Order or Profession of Men of any Clergy in the World the preheminence is so evident that it clears the comparison from all possible suspicion of its being either proud or odious But though this unkindness be able to do them so little harm yet it falls very heavy in its mischievous Consequences upon the Publick For all wise States have hitherto always given the deepest respect to the Presidents of the sacred Rites and setled the greatest Priviledges and Immunities upon the Church as well for Reasons of State as for the Ends of Devotion In that no Government can support it self without the Assistance of Religion and the Assistance of Religion is ever proportioned to the Power and Interest of the Clergy its Esteem as it is in all other Arts Sciences and Professions depends upon the Reputation of those whose Office it is to dispense its Mysteries and Publick Solemnities they have always and every where found the same Fate and the same Entertainment so that to make the Priestly Order any way contemptible is to enervate the force of Religion upon the Consciences of Subjects and thereby to destroy the greatest Strength and most lasting Security of the Civil Government So interwoven are the Cause of God and the Prince and the Priest that no Man can be an Enemy to one without proclaiming Hostility to all Is not this wise work then and fit to be endured in a Christian-Commonwealth for the witty People to be so much concerned to make the Profession of the Clergy vile and despicable especially when this whole Design is at last founded upon no milder Supposition than that Iesus Christ himself is the great and leading Impostor for if he were seriously vested with any Authority from Heaven their Commission from him is too evident to be called into question so that if the Power they claim by vertue of his Grant be forged and insignificant Usurpation it is only because be abused the World with Tales and false Pretences to a Divine Authority i. e. only because he was the lewdest and most prostigate Impostor that ever appeared amongst Mankind And this no doubt is a notable piece both of Policy and Good-manners to be own'd yes or endured in a Christian-Commonwealth But yet however passing by this horrid Blaspemy against our Blessed Saviour and if our Religion were nothing else but as all Religion is lately defined the Belief of Tales publickly allowed and the Priesthood only a Succession of Cheats and Iuglers yet after all this they are and must be allowed necessary Instruments in the State to awe the common People into fear and Obedience because nothing else can so effectually enslave them as the dread of invisible Powers and the dismal Apprehensions of the World to come and for this very reason though there were no other it is fit they should be allowed the same Honour and Respect as would be acknowledged their due if they were sincere and honest Men because unless that be supposed they can never bring that assistance that is absolutely necessary to the support of Government and the preservation of Society But so far are they from being allowed that Respect and Reputation that is necessary to the usefulness of their Function that they are even Out-lawed from the common Rights of Iustice and Humanity One would wonder how People should so combine in such an inhumane and imprudent baseness but that the reason is so very plain and obvious The old Probity and Integrity of our Nation is fled and gone and what remains of it has taken Sanctuary in the Church and its Friends that are assaulted by a Fanatick Rage on one hand and a base-natured Atheism on the other and then no wonder if they are treated accordingly when they are faln into the hands of such Salvages and Cannibals And in truth when I consider the temper of both these sorts of Men that the one hates Peace and the other hates Mankind and withal some present and some probable Circumstances of things it were easie to represent to view a black and gloomy prospect of things but it is to no purpose to affright our selves with distant Miseries and it is better to leave the care of future Events to the Wisdom of Providence sufficient to the day is the evil thereof only let me desire thee Reader to consider whether that Nation be according to Humane Accounts likely to continue long in a firm and setled Condition of Peace a great part of whose Inhabitants are tainted with such malignant Principles as make them to delight in Mischief and Confusion Atheism and Enthusiasm are apart and by themselves the most desperate and dangerous causes of Misery and Calamity to Mankind but when they combine Interests and join Forces against a common Enemy what Government can withstand their Fury in that there is no Wickedness that is necessary to the carrying on the Cause that one of them will not undertake and be able to go through with They are provided with all sorts of Pretences and prepared for all kinds of
Sequestrations BEfore I saw Mr. Baxters late Treatise called The Grotian Religion it was to me nec beneficio nec injuria neither known for good nor hurt I acknowledge the very Title of his Book did not please me Different Opinions do not make different Religions It is the Golden Rule of Justice not to do thus to another which a man would not have done to himself He would take it unkindly himself to have his own Religion contradistinguished into the Prelatical Religion from which he doth not much dissent so he might have the naming of the Prelates and the Presbyterian Religion which he doth profess for the present and the Independent Religion which he shaketh kindly by the hand and the Anabaptistical Religion which challengeth Seniority of all Modern Sects And then to have his Presbyterian Religion subdivided either according to the number of the Churches into the English Religion and the Scotish Religion and the Gallician Religion and the Belgian Religion and the Helvetian Religion and the Allobrogian Religion of all the names of the Reformers into the Calvinistical Religion and Brownistical Religion Zuinglian Religion and Erastian Religion c. For all these have their differences And so himself in his Preface to this very Treatise admits those things for pious Truths for which we have been branded with the names of Papists and Arminians and have been plundered and spoiled of all that we had Let himself be judge whether this be not to have the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ with respect of persons Iam. 2. 1. The Church of Christ is but one one Fold and one Shepherd Christian Religion is but one one Lord one Faith one Hope Then why doth he multiply Religions and cut the Christian Faith into shreds as if every Opinion were a fundamental Article of Religion Let him remember that of St. Hierome If you shall hear those who are said to be Christians any where to be denominated not from the Lord Iesus Christ but from some other person know that this is not the Church of Christ but the Synagogue of Antichrist So much for the Title of Mr. Baxters Book now for his design His main scope is to shew that Grotius under a pretence of reconciling the Protestant Churches with the Roman Church hath acted the part of a Coy-duck willingly or unwillingly to lead Protestants into Popery And therefore he held himself obliged in duty to give warning to Protestants to beware of Grotius his followers in England who under the name of Episcopal Divines do prosecute the design of Cassander and Grotius to reconcile us to the Pope Page 2. And being pressed by his adversary to name those Episcopal Divines vir dolosus versatur in generalibus he gives no instance of any one man throughout his Book but of my self I shall borrow a word with him of himself a word of Grotius and a word or two concerning my self First for himself he doth but wound himself through Grotius his sides and in his censuring Grotius teach his own Fellows to serve him with the same sawce Grotius and Mr. Baxter both prosecute the same design of reconciliation but Mr. Baxters object is the British World and Grotius his Object is the Christian World Mr. Baxter as well as Grotius in prosecuting his design doth admit many things which the greater part of his own Fellows do reject As that Praeterition is an act of justice in God Praef. Sect. 7. That God giveth sufficient grace in the Jesuits sense to those that perish Sect. 8. That Redemption is universal They the Synod of Dort give more to Christs Death for the Elect than we but no less that he knows of to his Death for all than we Sect. 10. He is as much for Free-will as we They all profess that Man hath the natural faculty of Free-will Sect. 11. He who had all his other Treatises which I did never see in probability might find much more of the same kind I do not dislike him for this but rather commend him for unwrapping himself as warily as he could without any noise out of the endless train of Error And for other points wherein he is still at a default I hope a little time and better information may set him right in those as well as these But others of his own Party do believe all these points which he admits to be as downright Popery as any is within the Walls of Rome And with the same freedom and reason that he censures Grotius they may censure him for the Popes stalking Horse or Coy-duck to reconcile us to Rome Neither can he plead any thing for himself which may not be pleaded as strongly or more strongly for Grotius He may object that those things which he admitteth are all evident Truths but sundry of those things which are admitted by Grotius are Popish Errors This is confidently said but how is he able to make it good to other men Grotius took himself to have as much reason as Mr. Baxter and much more learning and reading than Mr. Baxter But still if his Fellows do no more approve of what he saith than he approveth of that which Grotius saith they have as good ground to censure him as he hath to censure Grotius Those very points which are admitted by Mr. Baxter are esteemed by his Fellows to be as gross and fundamental Errors as any of those other supernumerary points which are maintained by Grotius But to come up closer to him What if those other points disputed between Grotius and him be meer logomachies or contentions about words or mistaken Truths He himself confesseth as much now of all the Arminian tenets Pref. Sect. 15. I am grown to a very great confidence that most of our contentions about those Arminian points are more about words than matter Again in the same Section The doctrine of the divine decrees is resolved into that of the divine operations Let us agree of the last and we agree of the former And almost all the doctrine of the divine operations about which we differ dependeth on the point of Free-will and will be determined with that And how far we differ if at all in the point of Free will c. I see Truth is the daughter of Time Now our Arminian Controversies are avowed to have been but contentions about words Now it is become a doubtful case and deserving an if whether we have any difference at all about Free-will or no. The wind is gotten into the other dore since we were prosecuted and decried as Pelagians and enemies of Grace because we maintained some old innocent Truths which the Church of England and the Catholick Church even taught her Sons before Arminius was born Some of their greatest Sticklers do owe a great account to God and a great reparation to us for those groundless calumnies which they cast upon us at that time For the present I only lay down this disjunctive Conclusion Either Mr. Baxter and his Fellows have changed
introducing any Popish errours into England who looked upon the Church of England as the right medium of reconciliation Neither were there any genuine Sons of the Church of England who thought upon any change either in Doctrine or Discipline We may fafely take our Oaths of the truth thereof It was his own Party only his own Party who were plotting and contriving a change underhand and cried out against other mens feigned innovations to conceal their own real innovations But how doth he make it appear that Grotius had such a Party of followers in England who sought to reconcile us to the Pope If it be sufficient to accuse no man can be innocent Let him speak out distinctly we fear not his charge would they reconcile us to the Pope and Papacy as it is now established Let him not say it for shame they abhor it Or would they reduce the Pope to what he was from the beginning and so reconcile us All good Christians joyn with them in so pious an Act. If his own meaning do agree with his words he himself doth not quarrel the Pope for his just rights but for his Innovations If he mean it not it is a double shame His first Reason to prove that there was such a Party of Grotians in England who nourished such a Design is taken from Grotius his own words P. 96. Paris knows and many throughout France many in Poland and Germany not a few in England quiet persons and lovers of Peace that Grotius his labours for Peace have not displeased many moderate persons He addeth that Rivet agreed better with the Brownists than with the Bishops of England For pity sake let him shew us wherein the strength of his Argument doth lie He may as well perswade us that we see a Dragon flying in the air as that there is any design of introducing the Pope couched in these words Doth the strength of his Argument perhaps lie in this that there were lovers of Peace in England So there were all over Christendom before Grotius was born France Germany Poland all Christendom shake hands with us in this He himself professeth that he is resolved to speak for Peace whilest he hath a tongue to speak and to write for Peace whilest he hath an hand to write p. 6. Or doth the strength of his Argument lie in this that Rivet agreed better with the Brownists than with the Bishops of England Whether he did or did not whether it be true or false what doth this concern Episcopal Divines Such are his proofs against Grotius always halting on one side most commonly on both sides I am afraid this great mountain-design will prove but a ridiculous Mouse in the conclusion He asketh What if he had named Bishop Goodman and all the rabble described in the Legenda lignea which are more than Doctor Vane and Doctor Goffe and Doctor Baily and H. P. de Cressie c. p. 99. I answer First If he had named these for Episcopal Divines of the Church of England of whom he held it necessary to admonish his Readers that they might beware of them as Promoters of the Grotian design he had made himself guilty of one of the grossest and silliest calumnies that ever was For some of these were dead and all of them apostated to the Church of Rome before he gave his warning And Bishop Goodman in particular was branded by the Church of England for his inclination to Roman Errours Secondly I answer that if he had named these he had wounded his own Party more than Episcopal Divines Abate only Bishop Goodman whom I did never know and of the rest whom he nameth not one was throughly a genuine Episc pal Divine Excuse me for telling the truth plainly many who have had their education among Sectaries or Non-Conformists have apostated to Rome but few or no right Episcopal Divines Hot water freezeth the soonest He addeth That Grotius himself assures him whom he hath reason to believe that there were not a few such among the Prelatical men How not a few such as these who have apostated from the Church of England For ingenuities sake let him tell us where Grotius saith any such thing Grotius hath not one word to his purpose when it is duly examined But this it is to confute Books in less time than wise or modest men would require to read them Hitherto he is not able to shew us any tolerable reason of his warning But he sheweth us the occasion p. 82. Those that unchurch either all or most of the Protestant Churches and maintain the Roman Church and not theirs to be true do call us to a moderate jealousie of them This is farr enough from proving his bold suggestion that they have a design to introduce the Pope into England So though all he say were true yet he can conclude nothing from thence to make good his accusation or insinuation I wish he would forbear these imperfect Enthymematical forms of arguing which serve only to cover Deceit and set down both his Propositions expresly His assumption is wanting which should be this But a considerable Party of Episcopal Divines in England do Unchurch all or most of the Protestant Churches and maintain the Roman Church to be a true Church and them to be no true Churches I can assent to neither of his Propositions nor to any part of them as true sub modo as they are alledged by him First I cannot assent to his major Proposition That all those who make an ordinary personal uninterrupted succession of Pastors to be of the integrity of a true Church which is the ground of of his exception have therefore an intention or can be justly suspected thereupon to have any intention to introduce the Pope The Eastern Southern and Northern Churches are all of them for such a personal succession and yet all of them utter enemies to the Pope Secondly I cannot assent to his minor Proposition that either all or any considerable part of the Epispal Divines in England do Unchurch either all or the most part of the Protestant Churches No man is hurt but by himself They Unchurch none at all but leave them to stand or fall to their own Master They do not Unchurch the Swedish Danish Bohemian Churches and many other Churches in Poloma Hungaria and those parts of the World which have an ordinary uninterrupted succession of Pastors some by the names of Bishops others under the name of Seniors unto this day I meddle not with the Socinians They unchurch not the Lutheran Churches in Germany who both assert Episcopacie in their Confessions and have actual Superintendents in their practice and would have Bishops name and thing if it were in their power Let him not mistake himself those Churches which he is so tender of though they be better known to us by reason of their Vicinity are so far from being all or the most part of the Protestant Churches that being all put together they amount not
wish every mans Books had as much learning and ingenuity in them as A Sancta Clara's have Yet if he conclude from hence that I and he are of the same Communion he doth me wrong Judge Reader how partial men are to deny that liberty to another which they assume to themselves He proceedeth This A Sancta Clara is still the Queens Chaplain c. And we have reason to believe the Queen to be so moderate as to be of the same Religion Whether he be the Queens Chaplain or not is more than I know The Queen hath had many Servants of Mr. Baxters own Communion who have had more influence upon her Counsels than ever A Sancta Clara had He hath reason to believe that the Queen and he were of the same Religion but no reason to prove that so seriously and so weakly which all men acknowledge that either the Queen or he had any hand in the pretended design of Grotius and his Followers no man can believe From the Queen he passeth over to the King what to do to accuse him of Popery He cannot prove it nor all the World to help him Yea he professeth openly that he believeth no such thing Not only his Conference with the Marquess of Worcester but his Life and Death and that Golden Legacie which he left to his Son do proclaim the contrary to all the World What is his aim then To shew how far he was inclined to a reconciliation That is the duty of every good Christian But did he preferr peace before truth Had he any design to introduce Papal Tyranny into England That is the crime whereof he accuseth those whom he nick-nameth Grotians The Devil himself cannot justly object any such thing against him He cites the Articles of the Spanish and French matches but is not able to cite one word out of them which maketh for his purpose And this alone that there is nothing in them for his purpose is a convincing proof against him that all his pretended design is but a dream I may well call it his design for it is the phantasm of his own brain and never had any existence in the nature of things He mentions the Kings Letter to the Pope written in Spain If he himself had been there at that time upon the same condition the King was at that time he would have redeemed his liberty with writing three Letters to the Pope such as that was or else he had been much to be blamed But what is there in the Letter Is there any thing of the Grotian design No I warrant you Observe how all his conjectural reasons make directly against himself Perhaps the King calls the Pope Most Holy Father a great crime indeed to make such a civil address which the common use of the World hath made necessary He who will converse with a Fryer in a Roman Catholick Country must do little less and he that will write to the Great Turk must do more Such compellations do not shew always what men are but what they ought to be or what they are or would be esteemed Next he tells us of the choice of Agents for Church and State Very trifles Kings must chuse their Agents according to the exigence of their affairs But if the qualifications of Agents did always demonstrate the resolutions of Princes I could more easily prove King Charles a Presbyterian than he a Grotian and bring more instances for my self I am confident he cannot instance in any one Agent for Church or State that ever had his Grotian design but I can instance in many who have had contrary and worse designs I shall not stick to tell him with grief that which hath been in a great part the cause of all our woes In some Courts it hath been esteemed a singular policie to nourish two Parties upon pretence that the one might ballance the other and the one watch over the other But it proveth too often true that the one Party is disgusted and ordinarily the weaker and worser Party doth countenance heterodox and seditious persons to augment the number of their dependents which evermore tendeth to manifest sedition By this means the rents of the Church have been perpetuated and enlarged and Subjects have been debauched with destructive and seditious Principles the evil influence whereof we have felt to our cost He proceedeth to the Residence of the Popes Nuncios in England It may be during all the Kings reign there were one Nuncio and his Proctor or Deputy or two Nuncios at the most And if we had never had them it had been the better not so much for any great hurt they did but for that opportunity which his own peevish Party got from thence to raise jealousies and Panick fears among the Rabble Unless he could have told something that the Popes Nuncio did in England tending to that end which he pretends he might as well have instanced in the King of Morocco's Ambassadour and said that he came over to convert us to be Turks I thought he would have produced the Popes Bull to his Nuncio to reconcile us to Rome or at least have discovered some secret Cabal or Conferences between him and those Episcopal Divines whom he accuseth He knoweth well there was no such thing and therefore it were much better to be silent than to urge so many things and to fail in every one of them His next instance is in the Jesuits Colledge which had been much better omitted for his credit Did the King found the Colledge No such thing Was he a Benefactor to it Nor that Did he give the Jesuits a license of Mortmain to purchase Lands for themselves to that use Not so much What did he then did he know of the Jesuits and the Colledge and connive at them and it O no. So soon as ever it was discovered it was suppressed By the same equity he might accuse an innocent Prince of all the crimes that are committed in hugger mugger throughout his Kingdom and make him Head even of the Presbyterian Rebellion The last of his odious instances hath less shew of truth in it than any of the rest how vain or empty soever they have been that is the illegal innovations in worship so resolvedly gradatim introduced Perhaps he calls the execution of old Laws Innovations because they themselves had taken the boldness to disuse them It were better to spare this charge lest they get a round peal of their own Innovations rung out in their ears Theirs are Innovations indeed To conclude Doth he think that such disloyal and uncharitable insinuations as these are salved by pretending that he hath not the least desire to perswade men that he was a Papist or that he would not have other men to believe it As if he should say Here are violent presumptions indeed that the King had Popish inclinations yet my charity will not give me leave to believe it other men may judge as they find cause when all he
Controversies of the Churches but of particular Persons or Parties in those Churches as well Protestants against Protestants and Roman Catholicks against Roman Catholicks as Protestants against Roman Catholicks Those Controversies which each Church doth tolerate within it self ought not to be any cause of Schism between the Churches Fourthly How many of our Controversies are about Rites and Ceremonies and things indifferent in their own nature in the use of which every particular Church under the Universal Church hath free liberty in it self and dominion over its own Sons When all these empty Names and Titles of Controversies are wiped out of the Roll the true Controversies between us may be quickly mustered and will not be found upon a serious enquiry to be either so exclusive of salvation to those who err invincibly and hold the truth implicitely in the preparation of their minds nor altogether so irreconcileable as some persons have imagined The two dangerous extremes are to clip away something from saving Truth whereof I do not find the Church of Rome to have been guilty and to obtrude erroneous or at the best probable opinions for Articles of Faith whereof I find many in the Church of Rome to have been most guilty Next to these are the practical abuses of the Court of Rome These were my thoughts in my younger days which age and experience hath rather confirmed and radicated in me than altered which if they had been known I deserved rather to have been cherished and encouraged than to be branded by any man as a Factor for the Pope Truly Mr. Baxter could hardly have fixed upon a Subject more improper for such a charge When I was commanded to preach to our Northern Synod where every one designed to discharge that duty chuseth some controversie between the Church of Rome and us my Subject was the Popes unlawful Usurpation of Jurisdiction over the Britannick Churches When I disputed in Cambridge for the Degree of Doctor my Thesis was taken out of Nilus that the Papacy as it was challenged and usurped in many places and as it had been sometimes usurped in our Native Country was either the procreant or conservant cause or both procreant and conservant cause of all the greater Ecclesiastical Controversies in the Christian World When our late King Charles of blessed memory was in Spain and Religion in England seemed to our Country people though without any ground to be placed in aequilibrio or reduced to a measuring cast I adventured with more zeal than discretion to give two of their Roman Champions in our Northern parts Mr. Hungate a Jesuite and Mr. Houghton a secular Priest one after another two meetings at North-Allerton and came off without any dishonour to the Church of England and stopped the Carrier of the Romish Emislaries at that time in those parts When I was last in Ireland and the Romanists had wrested some part of the power of the Sword into their hands they prosecuted no English Protestant more than my self and never left untill they had thrust me out of the Kingdom as conceiving me to be a great impediment to them in their making of Proselytes It was but an ill requital if I had been one of their Factors Since I came into exile these sixteen years where have my weak endeavours ever been wanting to the Church of England who hath had more Disputes with their Seculars and Regulars of all sorts French Italian Dutch English in Word in Writing to maintain the honour of the English Church And after all this am I traduced as a Factor for Popery because I am not a Protestant out of my wits or because my assertions of known Truth are not agreeable to the gust of Innovators Blessed are we when men revile us and persecute us and say all manner of evil against us falsly for Christs sake for great is our reward in heaven But doth he think in earnest that my way of reconciliation is the ready way to introduce the Papal tyranny into England Nay directly on the contrary it is the ready way to exclude the Papal tyranny out of England for ever and to acquit us for evermore from all the Extortions and Usurpations of the Roman Court and to free us from all their Emissaries who now make a prey of such as are unsetled among us by the means of doubtful and give me leave to speak my mind freely impertinent Disputations And this I am ready to make good against any Innovator of either side who shall oppose it This is hard measure to be offered to me from him who professeth himself to be so great a lover of the Unity of the Church p. 6. which is but his duty if it be true as I hope it is But let him take heed that his love of Unity prove not to be self-love which insinuateth it self strangely into the most holy actions and designs All men could be contented to have others united to themselves and to chop off or stretch out the Religion of their Brethren as Procrustes did his Guests according to the measure of his own Bed I doubt not but he would be well pleased to have Independency stretched up to an ordained Ministery as he calleth it and Episcopacy let down to a Presbyterian parity or rather to an empty shew of equality For I never yet observed but one or two single popular Presbyters ruled the whole Consistory and had more absolute Arbitrary power than ever any Bishop pretended unto If this be all his love and desire of Unity to have Antiquity Universality and the perpetual Regiment of the Church to be levelled and moduled according to private fantasies it is meer self-love no love of Unity But I hope better though I sear worse If he dare refer all differences between us to be tried by the publick Standard we shall quickly see whether he or I follow Peace and Unity with swifter paces I offer him two Standards to be tried by First the Doctrine of the Church of England set down by those old Episcopal Divines whom he pretendeth to be more propitious to him than to me If he submit to this Standard all differences between him and me are at an end And then to what purpose hath so much plundering and so much effusion of Christian blood been unless it be to shake the dregs to the top of the Urinal But if he like not this Standard as I much fear he will not I offer him another that is the Pattern of the Primitive Church both for Doctrine and Discipline But it may be he will dislike this more and when all is done admit no Standard but the Scripture I am ready to joyn with him in this also But if he and I differ about the sense of the Scripture all men acknowledge that the Scripture consisteth not in the words but in the sense how shall we be tried what is the sense by the judgement of the Church of England that is the Standard of the place or by
only terms of peace and concord let us see what exceptions Mr. Baxter is able to bring against them CHAP. VI. Mr. Baxters exceptions answered HE saith he cannot consent that these which I grant should be made the terms of union pag. 25. What then Suppose I did name improper terms of pacification not only in Mr. Baxters judgement which I ought not altogether to depend upon but in very deed Is there no remedy but I must needs be the Popes Stalking Horse presently and have a design to reconcile England to him This is over severe My design is rather to reconcile the Pope and his party to the Church of England than the Church of England to the Pope He may make use of my way if it like him Much good may it do him If not he ought to thank me for my good will and propose a better expedient himself if he can But I must tell him before hand that if it be a general one like those which he hath hitherto proposed it will signify nothing Observe Reader how he is every way mistaken I make demands and he calls them grants or concessions I propose some terms as preparatory to a treaty and he calls them terms of peace He saith he cannot consent to these terms and yet he hath consented to them already that if they would reform what the Bishop requires them to reform it will undoubtely make way for nearer concord To make them adaequate terms or conclusive Articles of Peace was never any part of my meaning All the exceptions which he bringeth against my way are taken out of my answer to Monsieur Militier I have seen some silly exceptions against it from a Jesuit and have answered them but he is the first Protestant that I have met with who doth disapprove it If the efficacy or influence of it upon him be different from what it is upon others I cannot help it Books have their success according to the prejudice or qualifications of their Readers On this side the seas it hath been more happy to confirm many to convert some and particularly the Transcriber of the Copy which was brought to the Press who was then one of their Proselytes to irritate no Man but the common Adversaries who vented their splene against it weekly in their Pulpits as thinking that the easiest way of confutation Thus one sucks honey and another poison out of the same flower He pretendeth that the old Episcopal Divines are of his partie some of them have approved it and thanked me for it If they be not of his party I hope he will not suspect them at Geneva as Factors for Popery They have allowed it and translated it into French and Printed it without any fear of introducing Popery into their City by it God forbid that we should esteem the practice of the Primitive times to be Popish They who admit that for a conclusion need not wonder if the more rational persons turn Apostates But it has ever been the trade of this proud and envious race of men to fasten an hated name upon every thing they understand not And it is to be feared this great Divine may in time write a Book to prove Greek the Language of the Beast and he may as reasonably do it as charge me with Popery only because I pretend to more knowledge in Antiquity than he knows himself to be guilty of His first particular Exception is this If when he excludeth Universality of Iurisdiction by Christs institution he intend to grant them which yet I know not an Universality of Iurisdiction by humane institution as agreement then it would be but to set up an humane Popery instead of a pretended Divine But this I charge not on him as his judgement though some will think it intimated p. 25. If he do not charge it on me then why doth he publish his own or other mens thoughts in Print to my disadvantage I know not how to acquit the Printing of groundless jealousies and suspicions of innocent Persons from downright calumny Especially suspicions of such things which the Persons suspected had publickly disclaimed in Print long before any such suspicion was broached These are my very words in my replication to the Bishop of Chalcedon p. 249. It were a hard condition to put me to prove against my conscience that the Universal Regency of the Pope is of humane right who do absolutely deny both his Divine right and humane right And in my Schisme garded p. 15 I have made it evident that the Popes Authority which he did sometime exercise in England before the Reformation when they permitted him and which he would have exercised always de futuro if he could have had his own will was a meer usurpation and innovation If I deny both the Popes divine right and humane right to Soveraign Jurisdiction and regulate his powers by the Canons of the Church If I make the Papacy a meer usurpation and innovation he hath no need to fear my setting up of an humane Popery But I have just cause to require reparation of him So his first exception is a false groundless suspicion But doth he make no difference indeed between a Divine Papacy and an Humane Papacy So it seemeth by his words If the Pope do hold a Soveraign power in the Church by divine institution then whatsoever he doth though he draw millions of Souls to Hell after him yet it is not in the power of a general council to call him to an account or to depose him or to reform him But if his right be only humane all this may justly be done and hath been done If he have a Soveraignty by divine right he may give his non obstantes to the Canons of the Fathers at his pleasure then all power in the Church is derived from him But if he hold the Papacy not from Heaven but from men then other Bishops do not derive their power from him singlely but he from them jointly then he is stinted and limitted by their Canons and cannot dispense with them further than the Church is pleased to confer a dispensative power upon him within the bounds of his own Patriarchate Against divine right there is no prescription but against humane right men may lawfully challenge their ancient liberties and immunities by prescription A Papacy by divine right is unchangeable but a Papacy by humane right is alterable both for person and place and power So an humane Papacy if it grow burthensom is remediable But a pretended divine Papacy when and where and whilst it is acknowledged is irremediable So much a pretended divine Papacy is worse than an humane His second exception follows But that St. Peter hath a certain fixed Chair to which a primacy of order is annexed and an headship of unity is not a truth and therefore not a principle necessary to heal the Church Whether it be a truth or no is not much material We have no Controversie with the Church
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
without the consent of his Bishops Thirdly my former exceptions as he stileth them or rather my preparatory conditions do virtually comprehend all the gross errours of the Roman Church both in Discipline and Doctrine leaving no difference in necessary points of faith but only in opinions So if my conditions be observed there is no place left for any such supposition Lastly I observe what an unsound kind of arguing this is to deny a man his just right as Patriarchal power was the Bishop of Romes just right for fear lest he may abuse it All factions use to miscal their own terms Christs terms to cancel all humane right under the notion of humane devises is both inconsistent with the Law of Christ and the welfare of all Societies They who made the Bishop of Rome a Patriarch were the Primitive Fathers not excluding the Apostles and Christian Emperours and Oecumenical Councils What Laws they made in this case we are bound to obey for conscience sake until they be repealed Lawfully by virtue of the Law of Christ. A fairer plea than I know any for their own Consistory where Lay-men usurp the power of the keys contrary to the Law of Christ. His sixth exception is the same with the fifth only there it is proposed hypothetically If the Pope as Patriarch of the West should impose And here it is repealed categorically many things in Doctrine and worship which on these terms would be imposed both on East and West and prevail in most of the Churches at this day are sins against God and therefore how small so ever they may be are not to be consented unto for unity If there be any grain of truth in this proof it is so indefinite so conjectural and so accidental that it requireth no answer How should a man either affirm or deny or distinguish of many things without specifying any one thing in particular I assent thus far in general that no man can be obliged to do a sin against God and that whatsoever humane Ordinance doth necessarily and essentially produce sin is unlawful But until he tell us in particular what these many things are or at least some one of them and prove evidently that it is a sin against God indeed and not in his opinion only and that it is infallibly true that it would be imposed which would be an hard task to undertake without the gift of Prophesy and lastly that the imposition of some such sinful thing or things is not an arbitrary or accidental abuse of that Lawful power which I admit but floweth naturally or essentially from it I say until he do all this all that he doth say signifieth nothing and so I leave his many things as just nothing And come unto his seventh exception The Aethiopian and other Churches that were still without the verge of the Roman Empire will never alknowledge thus much to the Pope seeing that even those humane Constitutions which gave him his Primacy of Order determined of no more than the Roman World and had nothing to do beyond Euphrates How did the Popes lay any claim or meddle any further And abundance among the Eastern Churches will deny this Primay This exception was made in the dark and therefore the errours that abound in it may more easily be pardoned as proceeding from the not knowing of the true State of the Aethiopick and other Eastern Churches Both the Aethiopick and all other Eastern Churches do unanimously admit this form of Government by Patriarchs which I acknowledge The Aethiopians have a Patriarch of their own and so have all the other Eastern Churches And particularly the Albuna or Patriarch of Aethiopia is under the Partriarch of Alexandria named by him and ordained by him from time to time So untrue it is that the Oecumenical Constitutions of general Councils extended not beyond Euphrates The Aethiopick and all other Eastern Churches do submit to the Council of Nice and other Oecumenical Councils by which Patriarchal Government was confirmed They all acknowledge the Patriarch of Rome to be the chief Patriarch whilst he behaveth himself well and to have a Primacy of order among the Patriarchs They know no points of faith but those which are contained in the ancient Creed as we find at large in the Historical Description of Aethiopia by Francis Alvares They all deny the Popes Supremacy of power as we do And when the Pope songht to introduce it into Aethiopia by the mediation of the King of Portugal Claudius then Emperour of Aethiopia returned this answer Se quidem fraterna in Lusitanum Regem voluntate esse ac fore caeterum nihil sibi minus in mentem venisse quam ut ideirco à Majorum institutis ac tot saeculorum spatio corroborata religione deficeret That he ought all good will to the King of Portugal as his Brother but it was the least part of his thought therefore to Apostate from the orders and Religion of his Ancestors received and radicated in Aethiopia throughout so many ages Pet. Maffei Hist. Jud. l. 16. p. 749. His eighth Exception is There is no hope of uniting the Churches on any terms but what are necessary and divine for its vain to think that things humane and unnecessary should be consented to by all Much less things sinful In the name of God why is it not possible that the Churches should be united upon some humane or prudential terms Are there not common principles of natural equity which reason dictateth to all mankind That is one mistake Secondly the Law of Nature is a divine Law And though Patriarchal Regiment be no express principle of the Law of Nature yet it is very agreeable to it and grounded upon it Thirdly though no humane ordinances be absolutely necessary to salvation as those supernatural truths which are revealed in holy Scripture are yet they may be respectively necessary to the well-being of Religion Lastly in his conclusion much less things sinful he disputes upon that which is not granted nay more which is absolutely denyed Mr. Baxter will never be able to prove that any thing which is sinful is contemned in my reconciliatory Propositions His ninth Exception signifieth as little as the rest There is no union to be had but upon the terms on which the Churches have sometimes been united For a new way of union is not to be expected attempted But never was the Church united on such concessions as these and therefore never will be I Deny his assumpsion altogether And if I were to chuse a reason or medium whereby to demonstrate my way of reconciliation to be good I could not fix upon a better than this The Catholick Church hath been united on these same principles which I suppose the same Faith without any addition the same Ecclesiastical Discipline without any variation the same Form of serving God publickly And since the dispersion of the Church all over the World it never was united upon any other principles but these nor
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
directions All that I do remember or meet with I shall produce The first place is in the Frontispiece of his Book Neither is that his own judgement but the judgement of King Iames related by Mr. Casaubon in his Epistle to Cardinal Peron in these words The King judgeth that the number of things absolutely necessary to salvation is not great Wherefore his Majesty thinks there is no more compendious way to Peace than to distinguish diligently things necessary from things not necessary and to endeavour to procure an agreement about necessary things and that place may be given to Christian liberty in things not necessary The King calleth those things simply necessary which either the Word of God commmandeth expresly to be beloved or done or which the ancient Church did draw out of the Word of God by necessary consequence If this distinction were used to decide the present Controversies and divine right were ingeniously distinguished from positive or Ecclesiastical right it seemeth not that the contention would be long or sharp between pious and moderate men about things absolutely necessary For they are both fâ—â— as we said even now and are for the most part approved by all who desire to be called Christians And his most renowned Majesty thinketh this distinction to be of so great moment to diminish the Controversies which trouble the Church so much at this day that he judgeth it the duty of all who are studious of Peace to explain it diligently and teach it and urge it This is an excellent way indeed but it is a general way not a particular way It was King Iames his way not Mr. Chillingworths What King Iames pointed at in general I pursue in particular But that prudent Prince was far enough from dreaming that there could be no reconciliation of Christendom except all humane right were destroyed or taken away This is Mr. Baxters own unbeaten way I find a second passage to this purpose in Mr. Chillingworths answer to the Preface nu 23. Notwithstanding all your errours we do not renounce your communion totally and absolutely but only leave communicating with you in the practice and profession of your errours The trial whereof will be to propose some Form of Worshipping God taken wholly out of Scripture And herein if we refuse to join with you then and not till then may you justly say we have utterly and absolutely abandoned your communion This might serve for a coverfew to hide the flame of our contentions from breaking out whilst we are at out devotions But it hath nothing of reconciliation in it and hath as little probability of a pacification We desire not half so much as this of them to change their whole Liturgy but only to leave out some of their own latter additions which never were in any of the Primitive Liturgies By being taken wholly out of the Scripture either it is intended that it shall be all in the words and phrase of Scripture That will weigh little I have never observed any thing more repugnant to the true sense of Scripture than some things which have been expressed altogether in the phrase of Scripture Or it is intended that the matter of the Liturgy shall be taken wholly out of the Scripture But this hath so little of an expedient in it that it will leave the Controversie where it is Both Parties do already contend that their respective Forms are taken out of the Scriptures He hath another passage much to the same purpose in his answer to the third Chapter part 1. n. 11. If you would at this time propose a Form of Liturgy which both sides hold Lawful and then they Protestants would not join with you in this Liturgy you might have some colour to say that they renounced your communion absolutely First remedy regardeth only a communion in Publick Worship without any respect to an union in Faith and Discipline Secondly even in the point of Publick Worship it leaves the difference where it was what is a Lawful Form Those things which the Romanists hold to be necessary the Protestants shun as superstitious excesses And that Form which the Protestants would allow the Romanists cry out on as defective in necessary dutys and particularly wanting five of their Sacraments Nay certainly to call the whole frame of the Liturgy into dispute offers too large a field for contention And is nothing so likely a way of Peace as either for us to accept of their Form abating some such parts of it as are confessed to have been added since the Primitive times and are acknowledged not to be simply necessary but such as charitable Christians ought to give up and Sacrifice to an Universal Peace and would do it readily enough if it were not for mutual animosities of both Parties and the particular Interests of some persons Or if they should say to us as Father Paul Harvis a Romanist violent enough hath often said to me that if we had retained the Liturgy used in Edward the sixths time he would not have forborn to come to our communion To procure peace there must be condescension on both sides I find a third place part 1. cap. 4. n. â—9 To reduce Christians to unity of Communion there are but two ways that may be conceived probable The one by taking away diversity of opinions touching matters of Religion The other by shewing that the diversity of opinions which is among the several Sects of Christians ought to be no hinderance to their unity in communion The former of these is not to be hoped for without a Miracle Then what remains but that Christians be taught that their agreement in the high points of Faith and obedience ought to be more effectual to win them in one communion than their difference in things of less moment to divide them I must crave leave to dissent from Mr. Chillingworth in his former conclusion That diversity of opinions among Christians touching matters of Religion cannot be taken away without a Miracle A great many of those Controversies which raised the highest animosities among Christians at the first Reformation are laid aside already by moderate and judicious persons of both Partys without any Miracle and are only kept on foot by some blunderers who follow the old Mode when the Fashion is grown out of date either out of prejudice or pride or want of judgement or altogether And as many Controversies of the greatest magnitude are already as good as reconciled So more may be There is no opposition to be made against evident truth I hope Mr. Baxter will be of my mind who confesseth that He is grown to a great deal of confidence that most of our contentions about Arminian Points are more about Words than Matter And doubteth whether there be any difference at all in the point of Free-will praef sect 5. And affirmeth that the difference between Protestants and many Papists about certainty of Salvation except the point of perseverance is next to none And
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