duty It now remaine's that J proceed to set downe the way and meanes whereby such a Reconciliation may be compassed and the rents and distractions of the said Churches may with most conveniencie and speed bee made up which I shall doe rather to testifie that vehement desire zeale which I have to so good a work than out of any opinion that those famous Churches which alwaies have abounded with store of learned and pious Divines can any way stand in need of advice herein from me or any other forraigne Divine whatsoever Seeing therefore that the fore-mentioned Controversies may be agitated either betwixt severall and distinct Churches whereof one is no way subordinate to the other or else betwixt such particular men as are members of the same Church and subjects to one the same Prince J will speak first of divers Churches independent one upon another and afterwards of particular men in one the same Church and show how Peace and Unitie may be made and preserved amongst them For the first I conceive there 's no readier and better way for reducing of two different Churches to the same Communion than is that usuall one of procuring a faire and peaceable Conference amongst Divines of both sides authorised and appointed there unto by their Princes For if any one imagine that a Councell being once held of all the Reformed Churches there will out of hand within the compasse of some few moneths or yeares yea or in one age an end be put to all disputes whatsoever which have of a long time troubled and busied the Learned so as that they shall all joyne and agree in the same opinion about all such points of controversie this with submission to better judgements seemes to me very unlikely For so dull and dim-sighted is the eye of our understanding that it can hardly peirce into the depth of such subtle and intricate Questions no not when it is alone free and undisturbed in it's contemplations but being distracted by the stirs tumults of disputation so far unable are we to penetrate into the quick of them that many times we cannot so much as discerne and perceive them no not when we look upon them with a fixt and steddy eye And to speak plainly what I conceive in this matter the cheife use of Councells especially of Generall Councells is to maintaine and defend those necessary and plaine points of Faith against the oppositions of Hereticks rather than to discusse or determine nice controversies of lesser moment and use To returne then to that faire freindly Conference which but now I commended for the likeliest and fittest meanes of obtaining an Union if it could be undertaken with such an intention mannaged in such sort as it ought to be wee have good cause to hope that we shall in a short time see a blessed Peace and Union established amongst the Germane Churches This therefore must carefully be remēbred by all such as shall be present parties to such a Meeting that the end why they are called together is not that like Adversaries they should strive for the mastery but rather that they should like Brethren search out and make use of all lawfull and warrantable meanes for the setling of Peace and Unitie For if once they fall a crossing and contending one with another they will never be able to perswade much lesse to procure any agreement betwixt such Churches as are at ods and opposition Let them therefore carefully keep off and forbeare to enter the intricate Labyrinths of ordinary disputes let their meeting aime at this one end to make it appeare to their Churches how that there 's no just cause why they should any longer stand out and refuse to joyne hands and be united To effect this let it in the first place be set downe how farre the Church Catholike hath declared herselfe in each Controversie what hath been by her defined and required to be beleived generally by all sub Anathemate For about points fundamentall there may sometimes arise such doubts and disputes as are no way fundamentall and such as that the ancient Fathers of the Church had they been raised in their times would never have attempted a decision of them to the hazard of breeding or fostering a Schisme betwixt severall Churches For instance that God is One in Essence and Three in Persons distinguished one from another that the Sonne is begotten of the Father that the holy Ghost is the Spirit of both Father and Sonne that these three Persons are coeternall and coequall all these are fitly determined and reckoned in the number of Fundamentalls but now if any man should peremptorily affirme and maintaine that all those Schoole-nicities touching the manner of the Sonne 's generation and the procession of the holy Ghost are likewise fundamentall and of equall necessity with the former ought to be determined one way that man should deserve but litle thanks from Christ and his Church by such his rash and inconsiderate assertion So likewise that our Lord Jesus Christ is both God and Man that he hath both natures divine and humane inseparably united in one Person and that we have salvation onely by this God incarnate all this is fundamentall or rather 't is that firme immoveable foundation whereon the whole Catholike saving Faith is built but yet notwithstanding we must not think that whatsoever may be questioned and debated about the ineffable manner of that union betwixt the two natures or the manner how his body is present in the blessed Sacrament as also concerning the Communication of Properties unto the humane nature by vertue of its union with the Divinity or touching the actions and operations of his Humanity depending upon the said Union wee must not I say imagine that all these belong to Fundamentall Faith but rather to Theologicall Science or perhaps not so neither but onely to the vaine curiosity of some particular Divines Let them therefore make this their first and maine businesse carefully to distinguish betwixt fundamentall points and others that are not so and let them not think that whatsoever is appendant and bordering upon a fundamentall point must therefore forthwith be it selfe fundamentall When this is once done their next care must be that these fundamentalls be expressed and published after a breife and perspicuous manner and propounded to the publike acceptation and approbation of all the Churches Certa semper sunt in paucis saith Tertullian certaine and undoubted Trueths are not many and they are such as may be delivered in a few words whatsoever is necessary for a Christian man's salvation to be knowne by him and whatsoever is conducible to render us holy or eternally happy it is all of it plaine and obvious Here 's no use either of subtle acute distinctions or of any long and tedious explications which are oftimes used not for the building up of Christians in the fundamentall faith but rather to favour
THE OPINIONS OF CERTAINE REVErend and Learned Divines concerning the Fundamentall Points of the true Protestant Religion and the Right Government of Reformed Churches Wherein is declared the plaine Path-way to a Godly and Religious Life EPHES. 4. 15. Speake the truth in love Published by Authoritie Printed for Ch. Downes 1643. To The godly and Christian Readers Grace and Peace AS there is nothing more pleasing to God than to be truly zealous for his glorie so no way better to attaine that zeale than to read and meditate upon Gods Commandements and strive to live in love and charitie with all men which that you may the better performe I beseech you peruse these ensuing Discourses and the Lord give you understanding in all things T. I. Psal. 120. WHen I was in trouble I called upon the Lord he heard me Deliver my soule O Lord from lying lips from a deceitfull tongue What reward shall bee given or done unto thee thou false tongue even mightie and sharp arrowes with hot burning coles Wo is me that I am constrained to dwell with Mesech and to have mine habitation among the tents of Kedar My soule hath long dwelt among them that be enemies unto peace I labour for peace but when I speak unto them thereof they make them ready to battell THE OPINION OF THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD IOHN DAVâ—NANT Bishop of Sarisbury To his learned and worthy friend Mr IOHN DURY T IS well worthy the consideration of all pious Divines which God speakes by his Prophet Zachary love the Truth and Peace With which that of the Apostle also suite's well {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} speake the truth in love Wee may not so hotly pursue after Trueth as that in the mean time we wholly neglect Peace nor may we desire such a Peace as will not consist with the Trueth Those Divines therefore who quarrell and contend so much for the Faith and Religion they may talke what they list but hee that love's not both Trueth and Peace love's indeed neither nor hath he any true affection or desire to either of them who desire 's them not both For if it be true which Philosophers tell us that each naturall body doth no lesse desire it's unitie than it 's being I see no reason why the spirituall and mysticall body the Church Catholique should not with as great a zeale study to preserve her unitie seeing if that be once dissolved and lost shee is so farre from being a Church that she cannot so much as be imagined one Let us then on God's name be as earnest and eager in desiring defending the Trueth as the best but withall let us not forget that of Saint Paul that if it be possible and as much as in us lie's we live peaceably with all men J say with all men in an externall and civill but with all Christian men in a spirituall and Ecclesiasticall peace This is the earnest desire of our Saviour Christ and 't is the joynt wish prayer of his whol Church that all they who professe themselves beleivers in Christ might be united and knit together into one body that they might be all of one heart and of one soule This being so surely those pious and peacemaking Divines are highly to bee commended who of late have imployed themselves and their endeavours about the reeonciling of the Reformed Churches For my owne part I would to God I were able to contribute any thing that might further and promote so good and godly a worke What I can I shall willingly at your request Sir doe it and shall impart unto you what my thoughts were when J lately meditated with my selfe hereupon In the first place therefore it would bee considered whether or no it be possible to establish such an union amongst all the Reformed Churches so as that they shall account of one another not as friends only but as Brethren and exhibit mutually each to other the signes fruites and effects not onely of an outward and generall freindship but of a more intimate spirituall amity and communion For if this fraternall spirituall union we so much desire cannot be had we may then desist things impossible doe not binde us to the having or seeking of them but if it may possibly be procured 't were a great pitty and a shame that so good a worke and so well-pleasing to God as this is should be either opposed or delayed Now when I say that it would first be considered whether or no this Union we treate of be possible my meaning is whether or no such an Union may stand with a diversity of Opinions amongst private Doctors in these severall Churches touching those much-controverted points which have of a long time to the great greife of all good men much troubled the Germane Churches For although it were to be wished that Divines would fairely and fully agree amongst themselves about all those Controversies yet for so many different mindes to concurre all in the same Opinion is as I conceave a thing scarce to be hoped for much lesse to be effected in one age But that these said Churches notwithstanding such disputes as hang undecided may neverthelesse entertaine amongst themselves a Christian Charitie and correspondence is apparent from hence that as often as Divines of both sides have set themselves seriously about this work they still prevailed in it as much as they desired and they might no doubt have prevailed further if they themselves had not wilfully stood in their own way Witnesse Luther himselfe and the Helvetians betwixt whom though they differed in their opinions about the presence of Christs body a freindly agreement notwithstanding was made at Marpurge Luther there professing that he would not by any meanes permit the adverse party that honour to outstrip him in their desires of amitie and peace Which peace after that it had by I know not what mischeivous devices been somewhat disturbed and diminished was againe renewed confirmed by them whereat Luther himselfe rejoyced and upon a strict examination of the Helveticke confession held it very requisite that they should lovingly joyne hearts and hands together But here if any one think that this was no such entire and perfect Union as that which now I affirm to be possible I will grant him this but then I must adde withall that it was not any impossibility in the thing it selfe but rather the wilfull opposition of some amongst them possest with some jealousies and suspitions which was the cause why that godly and good worke was not brought to full perfection For as for Bucer and some other eminent Divines of the same opinion with him they did not only sue for an absolute and perfect agreement but besides they offered to make it appeare that it was very fit such an Union should be concluded neither did they omit any thing that might make for the furthering of it Moreover
foundation of our Christian faith what is it else but to revolt from Christ the rocke on which the Church is founded built Of this last Obstacle because it is of speciall use and moment I shall treate somewhat more at large In the first place therefore I conceive that to be a Fundamentall point which by the ordination of God revealing such a truth is of such necessity unto salvation to be knowne and assented unto as that a bare Ignorance much more a wilfull Opposition of it carries with it a certaine perill of exclusion from the kingdome of heaven Divines now-adaies have no Commission to invent or coine any new Articles of this nature and obtrude them on Gods Church that which was not fundamentall in the Apostolicall and Primitive times all our assertions and altercations and Anathema's will never bee able to make it such These first and fundamentall Trueths collected out of the whole body of the Scriptures put together in the Apostles Creed make up that Rule of Faith which S. Austin terme's pusillis magnisque communem a common Rule for all men both great small and which is by him accounted necessary to bee beleived constantly by all Concerning the which that speech of Hilary also is much to the same effect 't is our safest and best course to hold fast that first onely-Evangelicall Faith which we made confession of at our Baptisme And to these fundamentall Trueths the Apostle I beleive had an eye when he stiled Titus his owne sonne {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} after the common Faith This common Faith laid downe in the Apostles Creed proposeth to all Christians to be beleived by them the wonderfull Production of all creatures out of nothing the unsearchable mysterie of the glorious Trinitie the fruit benefit that redound's to miserable sinners from the Incarnation Passion Resurrection and Glorification of Christ what follow's thereupon the Redemption of mankind the Sanctification of the Elect the Communion of Saints the Remission of sins the Resurrection of mens bodies and the Glorifying of the Faithfull He that beleive's all which wee have here comprised in this short Creed and endeavour's to lead his life according to the Commandements and Precepts of our Saviour Christ cannot justly be denied the title of a Christian nor expelled the fellowship and communion of any Christian Church whatsoever On the other side He that shall deny or oppose any one of the said Articles although he arrogate to himselfe the name of a Christian yet is he to be excluded and banished the society of all orthodoxe and sound Christians Besides these there are I confesse many other Trueths contained in the Scriptures and deducible from thence by good and solid consequence which are very profitable to be knowne and of singular use to further us in the knowledge of Divinity but they are then only and not otherwise necessary to be beleived under paine of forfeiture of our salvation or communion with the Church when 't is clearely evidenced unto us that they are contained in Gods word or may necessarily be inferred from it In these points therefore if any particular Church cannot make the Trueth which she her selfe beleive's so cleare and manifest to other Churches as thereby to winne them over to the same beleife shee must forsake them in their Errours but by no meanes may she because of such errours deny them her charity and Communion I adde further that if it should happen that two Churches should vary about some particular place of holy Writ the one conceiving that it confirme's a fundamentall point of Faith and the other thinking that it doth not so yet is not such a difference as this a sufficient cause why they should fall at odds and separate one from another so long as they agree both of them in the Point it selfe and acknowledge it to have cleare solid foundation in other places of God's word And last of all this may be added yet further that 't is not a thing impossible nor any way contrary to the duety of good Christians to entertaine a communion with those Churches which hold such a doctrine as seemes to us inconsistent with some fundamentall Trueth so that in the meane while they doe expresly beleive professe that fundamentall Trueth it selfe For 't is utterly against all Charity yea and Reason too that a man should be thought meerely for some consequences which he neither apprehend's nor grants to deny and reject a fundamentall point which yet he strongly beleive's , expresly affirme's yea and if need so required would not stick to seale the trueth of it with his dearest blood How much truer and more charitable is that opinion of a grave and moderate Divine We must not saith he so much consider what will follow in the thing it selfe from every assertion as what will follow from it in the apprehension and judgement of those who maintaine any such assertion as seeme's to us repugnant to some fundamentall point of Faith For as he who assent's to the trueth of some Principle cannot therefore be said properly to beleive and understand whatsoever and abler Schollar can by consequences infer from that Principle so neither can he who maintaine's a false Opinion justly bee thought to hold all those absurdities which a nimble head easily observe's to adhere unto or follow upon that erroneous Opinion of his We may indeed urge and presse these consequences upon our Brethren to see if haply wee can by this meanes beat them off their errour but malitiously to fasten them upon them as though they were their profest Opinions this we may not doe How farre this extend's and of what excellent use it is to the setling of a brotherly union amongst the Reformed Churches all wise men and such as unfainedly desire the peace of Gods Church will easily perceive For if it once be granted that a Peace and Union is not impossible that is not unlawfull save onely with such as actually disbeleive some fundamentall point of Faith or maintaine some such Heresy as strike's at the heart of Religion and cut's off the Abettors of it from having any communiō with Christ then will it follow that betwixt a sound and a diseased Church betwixt two Churches whereof one is more the other lesse pure there may be such a brotherly communion as we desire among the Germane Churches Let therefore the Orthodoxe Churches separate themselves from all such as have plaid the Apostates fallen away from fundamentall Faith but let them not separate from those which erre onely in points of lesser moment and such as doe not cut off the maintainers of them from being members of the mysticall body of Christ the sole author and fountaine of our salvation The Apostle command's us to receive not reject such as are weake in the Faith And the same Apostle tel's us how that we which are strong ought to beare the
infirmities of the weake not to please our selves That Church therefore doe's but too much please indulge her selfe which despise's other Churches as unworthy of her fellowship and communion not for any Tyranny that they exercise nor any Idolatry which they approve or practise nor any damnable Heresie which they maintaine but meerely for some mistakes or infirmity of their knowledge This was not the practice of the Fathers in the Primitive Church whose care and diligence in procuring preserving Peace amongst particular Churches disperst and scattered over the whole world stand's upon record in Ecclesiasticall Storie and may be observed in each severall age of the Church But of all other that of Optatus Milevita nus fit's best to our purpose that all the Churches throughout the whole world were by the help and entercourse of those letters by them called Formatae kept in one Communion and fellowship Now those Formatae or Synodicall letters contained nothing at all save onely a bare Confession of the Catholike Faith delivered in their generall Creeds and breifely explained afterwards in opposition to some Heretickes by the unanimous consent of the Church universall met together in generall Councells held at Nice Chalcedon and other places As for those infinite other questions which might be raised and debated amongst private Doctours of each side no Church ever required or expected from others an absolute universall consent therein For if such an universall agreement in all points had been deemed so necessary as that Unity Peace could not possibly have been maintained betwixt particular Churches without it there would then have been more need of huge and high-swollne Volumes of Controversies than of such breife Confessions and Synodicall letters as they made use of for that purpose But if wee refuse to learne of the ancient Fathers of the Church yet let us at length learne thus much from our very adversaries that it is not a thing impossible for severall Churches to live charitably and peaceably together and use the same Service and Sacraments although they differ one from another about some Controversies wherein 't is meerely in vaine ever to look for an universall agreement To say nothing of the contentions betwixt the Thomists and Scotists neither of those between the Dominicans and Jesuites there is one controversie hotly and violently disputed amongst Popish Churches which if taken single and by it selfe is of greater moment than all ours put together I meane that concerning the Infallible Judge in all matters of Faith The Churches of Spaine and Italy will have the Pope to be this supreme Judge authorised by Christ himselfe and so farre illuminated and assisted with an infallible Spirit as that he cannot possibly erre in such Decrees and Determinations as hee give's out with an intention to binde the whole Church On the other side the French Churches deny the Pope any such priviledge throwing him downe from his Chaire of Infallibility and making him liable to errour as well as other men so farre forth that should he refuse to submit to the authoritie and judgement of a generall Councell either in matters of Faith or of Practice they will tell you he 's to be esteemed a Schismaticke and a Hereticke and to be deposed thereupon Behold here a great difference amongst them about the very foundation and the maine pillar of the whole Catholike Faith And yet notwithstanding this so great a variety of opinions they still hold together all of them in one and the same brotherly communion O for Sion's sake let it not be told in Gath nor published in the streets of Ashkelon that the Philistines should be better affected and more desirous of Peace and Unity amongst themselves than the Israel of God is â—ast of all if an union may not consist with a diversity of Opinions in some controversies of lesser moment I would gladly that any man would show me but two Churches in the whole Christian world except they be such whereof one is subordinate to the other which must not necessarily hereupon be divided and as it were by a wall of partition separated froÌ„ each other Unlesse therefore we will grant that a separation from other Churches is not to be made save onely upon a difference in Fundamentalls the Communion of the Church Catholike aunciently so much famed and talked of will be found in the end to be nothing else but an aery and empty sound or name void of all trueth and reality The Donatists of old were wont to say that the Church was perished from off the whole earth save onely from the part of Donatus in whom alone they said it was preserved and our adversaries of Rome herein right Donatists tell us that the Church Catholike is of no larger extent than the Romane As for our selves it become's and behove's us to detest this Schismaticall and factious humour and to foster and cherish a brotherly Communion with all such Christian Churches as neither Heresie nor Idolatry hath cut off from Christ our head and such as have not exercised any usurped Tyranny over other Churches All that hath hitherto beene said touching the lets hinderances which render a Communion of severall Churches impossible as also touching diversity of Opinions which may well consist with such a Reconciliation aymes at this that if once it were agreed upon amongst Divines that all those controversies whereabout the Reformed Churches have of a longtime busied and wearied themselves are of that nature that a man may safely be of either opinion and still remaine in Christ holding the substance of saving Faith without incurring any damnable Heresy then must we needs grant that an union and agreement amongst all Protestant Churches may be made and maintained notwithstanding all such Controversies as being indeed not so properly any differences of our Churches as of our Schooles It is not my purpose to enter the lists of those Controversies onely I doe pray and earnestly intreat those learned reverend Divines of Germany that laying aside all passion partialitie they would in the spirit of meeknesse calmely and candidly discusse all those severall controversies which are agitated amongst them for if once we let loose the raines to Passion Judgement must needs give place The maine controversie and which indeed is the fountaine from whence all the rest in a manner are derived is that which stands yet undecided concerning the manner how Christ's body and blood are present in the Eucharist Touching which point the learned a Bucer having well waighed the matter give's in at last this verdict that they agreed in the thing it selfe all the difference was meerely in words and manner of expression 'T was once the speech of b Luther if you beleive teach that in the holy Supper the very body and the very blood of Christ is offered given and received and not the bare signes of bread and wine and that such receiving thereof is true and
minde and might promote and further it 2 To this may be further added what must necessarily be confes't by all men that a true and right order'd Charity is of as great necessity for the attaining of Salvation to all Churches and to every particular member in any Church as is the true and entire Profession of sound and saving Faith our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus make's this the badge and cognizance whereby to distinguish and discerne betwixt his true Disciples and such as are spurious and counterfeit by this shall all men know that yee are my Disciples if yee love one another Now I leave it to every man's conscience to judge what manner of Charity that is which see's and suffer's Christian Churches without all just cause and necessity to stand still at distance and defiance one with another and perpetually to shunne a Reconciliation and Union Is it not enough for us to separate from the hay and stubble I meane from the Errours of other Churches but must we by a voluntary separation forsake the Churches themselves which as yet have not forsaken Christ or his Truth 3 Further yet we see how that both Zuinglians and Lutherans as they are usually termed confesse that those Churches which hold with either side doe notwithstanding still remaine true Christian Churches true members of the Church Catholike whereof Christ is the head The renowned Princes in their Preface prefixt to the Forme of Agreement plainly professe that it was farre from their thoughts and intentions to condemne such persons as erred through the weaknesse of their judgement provided that they did not defame and blaspheme God's Trueth much lesse to condemne whole Churches living either under the Romane Empire or elsewhere nay they did not doubt but that there were many pious religious men living in those Churches though they agreed not with them in all Points of Religion Moreover when it was objected to Lucas Osiander how that he had sometimes termed Calvinists the Divel's Martyres hee forthwith purged himselfe from that aspersion thus They that have heard my Sermons will say that they never heard from me any reproachfull termes against the blessed Martyrs of Christ yea my owne writings publisht to the world will witnesse for me that J termed those which were massacred in France on S. Bartholomewe's day holy Martyres This then would be seriously thought upon whether or no it will stand with the Policy Piety and the duty of Christian Churches for every petty errour to deny the right hand of fellowship and brotherly love to those Churches who in the mean time notwithstanding such errours may continue Christ's blessed Martyrs and holy Brethren They who acknowledge Christ for their elder brother must of necessity whether they will or no have all Christs brethren joyned to them in a most sure and fast knot of consanguinity and communion 4 Besides I am very confident that both the Saxon and Helvetian all other Churches which joyne with either of those two will professe that they desire to have and to retaine a brotherly Communion and Peace with this our Church of England as also with the Scottish Jrish and all other forraigne Churches of the Reformation And truely we for our parts although we doe not assent to them in all points of controverted Divinity yet doe we account of them as our Brethren in Christ and doe solemnely protest that we entertaine a holy and brotherly Communion with them And if they be like affected towards us with what reason then and equitie doe the German Churches deprive themselves of that brotherly Communion one with another which yet they are not afraid to entertaine with forraigne Churches What therefore Moses said long since to the two Israelites that were striving together the same may truly be said to the Germane Churches quarrelling and contending one with another but cannot so truely be disproved Sirs yee are brethren why doe yee wrong one to another 5 Last of all that which all good men are bound to beg of Almighty God in their prayers to him questionlesse they are bound likewise to imploy their best care and endeavours for the procuring of it Now who is there that doe's not daily solicite God for the flourishing and peaceable estate of his Church Who is there that make's it not a part of his daily prayers that God would be pleased to remove out of the way whatsoever doth disquiet and disturbe her peace or any way let and hinder her spirituall growth and edification This was King David's wish it should be the wish of all good Princes and Divines and generally of all Christians Neither did David wish onely the happinesse and prosperity of Gods Church but hee carefully sought to doe it good and as much as in him lay he did procure and effect it All this was but duty in him to doe and can it be lesse then dutie in us And here I should but trifle away the time should I goe about to play the Oratour and expresse at large to the Germane Churches the blessings that accompany Peace Unitie the many miseries calamities of a long-continued Schisme and Division That speech of Prudentius is a most certaine trueth scissura domestica turbat Rem populi titubatque foris quod dissiditiktùs civill and intestine broiles alwaies prove the undoing of a people nor doe things ever goe right abroad when there is dissention at home What may make most for the good and advantage of their Churches let it be their care to consider and resolve this with themselves that what ever it be it is not onely to be sought after with their prayers but with the utmost diligence and endeavours of every one of them in particular Neither let any unexperienced men amongst them thinke or hope that they shall ingratiate themselves with Papists and so live more peaceably by them and suffer lesse harme from them by refusing to enter into freindship and fellowship with Calvinists as they terme them What is to be hoped for expected from them we may learne from Osiander Papists saith he spare neither Lutherans nor Zuinglians but condemne both of them to fire and faggot in all those places where the Pope that raging and ravenous beast of Rome beare's rule and sway They that are most in favour with them can at best but hope for that kindnesse from them which Vlysses in Homer obtained of Polyphemus {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to be devoured last after he had lookt on and seene all his freinds and companions devoured before him They will perhaps destroy the Calvinists first but the Lutherans must look to follow after them none are like to escape in the end if once the Papists have them at their mercy What hitherto hath been said is to show that a Communion and Reconciliation of the Germane Churches is a thing not only possible but in obedience to Gods commandement a necessary
brother He that is a proficient is never ashamed Hitherto have I laid down the meanes and manner how an Union may be setled and continued betwixt severall and independent Churches But because it may and often doth happen that there are divers men both learned and unlearned living in the same Church and within the Dominions of the same Prince whose consciences whether rightly or misinformed will not suffer them to subscribe to the common and more generally received Opinion in these Controversies let us in the next place enquire what course is best to be taken concerning such men And here the Governours of each severall Church if they have any regard respect to the safety of their weak Brethren they must see that they doe not intermixe with the publike Confessions and Articles of Religion which they would have received and assented unto by all such as live under their Jurisdiction any curious and unnecessary Controversies nor any decisions of nice and subtle Questions but rather they must take care that such publike Confessions be framed and temper'd to the capacity of the common people so as they may instruct edify the ignorant and promote the salvation of all Herein they should doe well to consider the wisdome of our Fore-fathers whose ancient Confessions unlesse we corrupt stuffe them with new Opinions of our own on purpose to disturb the publike Peace no sober and discreet man will refuse to subscribe unto them Neither is there any necessity why we should burden our publike Confessions with any such additions of our own since God himselfe hath ordained to bring his people to heaven and happines not through the rough knotty paths of perplex'd intricate Disputes but by the smooth and compendious way of Faith Charity Why then such strifes and contentions about words What make Schoole-nicities amongst Church-Confessions the Salvation of Christians is wholy placed in beleiving and serving God as that great Athanasius sometimes gravely spake Adde to this that they will have much adoe to maintaine a firme peace with other Churches who cease not to persecute men and expell them their Communion as if they were Hereticks onely because they maintain that Doctrine which those other Churches hold and professe for in so doing what doe they else but tacitly charge Heresy upon other Churches whom though in word they acknowledge for their Brethren yet they hereby show that in their hearts they much disapprove and dislike them Lastly unlesse the publike Confessions of Churches be cnofined to such Points onely as are fundamentall and generally received by all the Reformed Churches this inconvenience must of necessity follow thereupon that many learned pious and peaceable Ministers shall be driven out disenabled from exercising the Ministery in those Churches wherein they live But if any man doubt whether or no such men may lawfully entertaine a holy and spirituall Communion one with another in the same Church who yet agree not amongst themselves in all Points of Divinity this as I conceive is a matter out of all doubt and question For as touching that blessed Communion which is betwixt Christians at the receiving of the Lord's Supper it consist's cheifly in these particulars that by the common bond of the blessed Spirit we are all united to that sole head of the Church Christ Jesus that by the same Spirit and by Faith and Charity we are united amongst our selves and linked together as it were into one body that lastly like men fed at the same table we are all of us nourished up unto eternall life with the same quickning food to wit the body and blood of Christ in all these particulars doe they professe a Communion whosoever approach and are admitted to that holy Table But now as we doe not by this mutuall Communion professe our selves to have attained all of us either to perfection or to an equall measure of knowledge in Divinity so neither doe we hereby professe that there is an absolute and exact agreement amongst us about all Points of Divinity or that we are all of us in one and the same Opinion about all Disputes and Controversies If no Communion could be had amongst Christians but upon such hard termes as these I beleive it would hardly be found betwixt S. Peter and S. Paul certaine I am the Church of Corinth must of necessitie have fallen in peices and in these times of ours there would not easily be found many Divines of note and eminence which could with a safe conscience communicate together at the same holy Sacrament and Supper of our Lord It is therefore the duty of all Church-Governours as being conscious to themselves of the common infirmities of all men both themselves others to take heed least while they exact of their People a too strict and punctuall Confession of more than what 's necessary they thereby wound and weaken the sweet Peace and Unity of Christendome than which nothing more necessary So much for Church-Governours Come we in the next place to such Ministers and other Christians of what state and condition soever as desire to continue in the Communion of those Churches wherein they live but yet their Consciences will not permit them to allow professe all the common and received Opinions of the said Churches Such men must see that they show themselves teachable and tractable and not persist after a proud and pertinacious manner in defence of those Opinions wherein they dissent from their Church Now such a one is to be accounted teachable and tractable who lends a willing and attentive eare to the instructions and information of the Church who doe's not dissent from her out of any perverse and peevish humour but meerely out of the weaknesse of his judgement being not able in such profound Points to discerne that Trueth which men of greater learning and more acute wits easily see and perceive And because it is the peculiar prerogative of Almighty God to search the hearts it behoves us Christians to encline alwaies to the more favourable and more charitable side and where we have not cleare and evident reasons for the contrary we ought to judge of every man that he denies his assent rather out of conscience than contumacy and perversenesse They who thus behave themselves are not to be excluded and expelled the Communion of those Churches wherein they live for petty mistakes and errours in their Opinions but yet with this caution and condition that they take not upon them to oppose the received Opinion of the Church or to publish spread their own private Opinion amongst the common people Nor can they justly dislike of this caution or take it ill whosoever have a desire to live peaceably in the Communion of the Church for admit that the private Opinion of some Divine or any other Christian be true and the publike judgement of the Church erroneous yet neverthelesse if the Errour be such as doe's not prejudice a Christian
gratuitous Next that they would not in the patronizing and vindicating of Divine Grace suffer themselves to be outstript by Papists nay Jesuites and the prime Doctors too of that sect Bellarmine Tolet Pererius Suarez Salmeron Maldonat who have all of them exploded this Doctrine of Praedestination upon the foresight of Faith and Workes as pure Pelagianisme Last of all it is some wisdome for a man to profit by his enimy there came out a book two yeares agon written by Will de Gibieuffe of the Oratorian Order Priest and Doctor of the Sorbon dedicated to the present Pope Vrban wherein are inserted the words of Pope Clement the eighth concerning the Auxilia Gratiae the summe whereof is this that this whole Doctrine ought to be squared and conformed to S. Austin's judgement in the Point of Grace that the same S. Austin ought be acknowledged and followed as a guide and leader for asmuch as that good Father seeme's to have omitted nothing which concernes the said Controversies and because saith he many of our Praedecessours have stood up so stoutly for that Doctrine of S. Austin concerning Grace as if they desired to have it continued in the Church as her right of inheritance it is not meet I should suffer her to be deprived of this her patrimony Thus farre that Pope unto whose judgement J will not say for the authority but the trueth of it I nothing doubt but Calvin himselfe were he now living would subscribe And he that shall read Calvin's writings will quickly grant that in these Controversies he had more than an ordinary share of S. Austin's Legacy Thus you see Sir how that partly your importunity who are such an earnest Factour for Peace and partly my own zeale in so necessary a Cause have made me exceed the accustomed bounds of a Letter wherein if you finde not much judgement yet may you behold my care desires for Christian Peace The author of all true peace our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen and enable you by the power of his holy spirit cheerefully to goe thorough with this so waighty an employment for the publike Peace of his Church Farewell THOMAS DURHAM Postscript That we should thus first seek and sue for brotherly love unity is so farre from being any prejudice to our cause as that it is rather to be counted an honour to us in that we herein follow the precept and practice of God himselfe of whom the Evangelist saith 1. Joh. 4. 10. He first loved us THE OPINION OF THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD IOSEPH HALL Bishop of EXCETER THose Articles of Religion wherein the Divines of both sides doe fully agree are abundantly sufficient both for a Christian man's salvation and likewise for the establishing of a firme lasting Peace in the Churches of God As for the rest I would not have them reckoned amongst the Apostle's {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} foolish Questions doubtlesse they are such as may perhaps not unfitly bee sent to the Divinity-Schooles there to bee throughly discussed but by no meanes ought they to disquiet the Peace either of any Christian soule or of God's holy Church What doe we professing Christian Charity and love if we still obstinately refuse to indulge our Brethren this litle liberty of dissenting from us in doubtfull difficult Schoole-questions Seeing wee know very well that our good and gracious Saviour passed over with silence and toleration great and greivous Errours in comparison of these if it be granted that these are Errours and that too even in such as were of his owne houshold and retinue There are but three things about which the reverend Divines of both sides professe themselves to differ THE first is whether or no our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be truly omniscient omnipotent and omnipresent not only according to his Divinity but also according to his humane nature by vertue of the personall Union That the Lord Jesus to wit God and Man is in both his natures omniscient omnipotent and omnipresent is confest on each side this being granted the word according is a meere Schoole-nicity How farre the vertue of that hypostaticall union extend's it selfe the holy ghost is silent and a Christian may safely be ignorant of it Let the Doctors if they list dispute and busie their braines as much as they please about this matter it will be enough for a Christian to knowe that he hath a Saviour who is both God and man to whom all these attributes truely belong and appertaine Nay even Divines themselves have enough wherein they may rest satisfied so long as this be granted on both sides that even the humane nature considered personally is omniscient omnipresent omnipotent which wee all of us roundly and readily professe without any doubt or scruple O what enimies are we to Peace if we will yet needs quarrell amongst our selves ◠In all this I wish we would carefully remember that usefull distinction of John Gerson esse quaedam de necessitate fidei quadam verò de fidei devotione that there are some things essentiall and necessary to Faith other some things which shee piously and devoutly beleives but yet they are not of such necessity as the other the former are such as may not so much as bee once doubted of but these latter may admit of an {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} we may safely either suspend our assent unto them or positively dissent from them The second Article wherein they differ is concerning the manner of receiving Christ in the Eucharist Both agree that Christ's body is truly and really given taken and eaten in this Sacrament together with the outward Elements All the question is concerning Vnworthy receivers An unworthy Question truly it is that the publike Peace should any way be disturbed about it We willingly grant both of us that even such as are Vnworthy doe eat that which by a sacramentall Union is Christ's body and that therefore they are guilty of the body and blood of Jesus Christ What doe wee now making any more adoe about the manner of their eating whether it be Orall or not Let Christians make this their care that they thēselves may be found worthy Communicants and let them not trouble themselves to knowe how those which are unworthy are partakers of Christ How farre the vertue of that Sacramental Union extends it selfe and whether the manner of this eating be Orall or Spirituall let the Schools dispute it Christians need not be too curious in enquiring after it nor is it fit wee should disquiet the Churche's Peace by refusing to indulge mutually one another a liberty of Opinion in such nice Points The third Article is that fatall Point of Praedestination about which Divines of both sides expresse themselves variously but yet modestly and discreetly In many things and such as are of most moment their judgements on both sides are the same as that election is most free proceeding from the meere
mercy of God that God found not any cause or occasion in those whom hee elected the sight whereof might move him to chuse them rather than others but that he did from all eternity reprobate and praedestinate to eternall damnation such as persevere and persist in their sinnes and infidelity not by any rigid and absolute decree without having any respect or regard to sin but out of his most just judgement so as all the cause the blame of it ought to be sought for in the men themselves In this they are at a stand that the foresight of Faith and Perseverance is by the reverend Divines of Saxony placed before the act of God's Election so as God did from everlasting foreordaine such as he fore-saw would in time beleive c. Certainly of all the Questions about Praedestination this concerning the order of his Decree is least materiall seeing we know assuredly that the infinite all-wise disposer of things performes all this with one single most simple act There is nothing more certain than that God did foresee who would beleive and that he did praedestinate such as should be saved let but this then be granted which they of Saxony willingly professe that Faith is the sole gift of God and that whatsoever good there is in the Elect all of it doth originally proceed from the free grace meere mercy of God which was bestowed on them in Jesus Christ from all Eternity I say let this be granted and doubtlesse there can be no danger in that Opinion of Praevision or fore-sight God from everlasting fore-saw that which he himselfe from everlasting decreed to bestow in time upon such as should beleive All this is sound and safe nor is there any cause why any further strife contention should be made here about In all this I embrace and applaud this Christian and brotherly moderation and holy desires of Peace thus it becomes Christians thus it becomes Divines I am much deceived if this modest and seasonable appeasing and calming of men's minds doe's not promise a firme and perpetuall Peace to God's Church Thou God of Peace in thy good time accomplish it give eare to the prayers of thy People and grant that all Christians may be of one heart and one way till at length we come by Thee who art the Way to Thee who art the Life Amen Amen From the Palace at Exceter Febr. 25. 1634. Which is the humble daily and devout prayer of JOS EXON Afterwards the same Mr John Dury sent unto the Ld Bishop of Exceter a Coppy of a certaine pious and peaceable Decree made published by a generall vote at a publike Meeting of the States in Franckfort requesting his Opinion concerning the meanes and manner how this good worke might be advanced where unto he had returned him this Answer TO HIS MOST FAITHfull learned and loving freind Mr JOHN DURY all happinesse SIR IHave read over with a great deale of delight the Transcript you sent me of that Decree for Peace which was lately signed by all the Protestant States and Delegates assembled at Franckfort than which Decree nothing in my Opinion could possibly have been devised more full of prudence and religion nor doe I see as the case now stand's what more could be once hoped for or what could possibly have beene proposed and resolved upon that might more conduce to the advancement of the publike Peace which all good men so much wish and desire Thus it was meet that the holy Citizens of God's Church that pious Princes and Peeres should thus carefully provide for the Peace and safety of Christendome And blessed be God the bestower of every good gift the Author of Peace who did put into their noble hearts those holy desires and purposes may the same good God be pleased at length to finish this his owne work so hopefully begun and crowne it with successe And truely neither our prayers nor our utmost endeavours shall ever be wanting hereunto neither know I well upon what hopes it is but methinkes my mind doth confidently promise and praesage a happy issue to this holy enterprise For indeed what a small and slender hedge is it which now divide s and part 's us We doe all of us of the Reformation receive and approve the same Scriptures the same Creeds the same Augustane Confession onely in one Article the sense is so doubtfully expressed that the Author himselfe did not thinke it safe to adhere to the letter of it The foundation of the Christian Faith is amongst us all one and the same entire and unshaken there 's not so much as one stone in it or the least peice of coement about which any question either is or can be made Upon this Foundation there are built certain Points of Schoole-divinity about which alone we so hotly contend but what are these to a Christian What are these to Salvation In what a safe and quiet state might the affaires of Christendome have been if such nice Disputes of curious and over-busie heads had never been heard of if learned men could have contented thēselves with some generall formes of expressing the Trueth and not presently to have sifted Divinity so over-nearly as they have done But seeing these strifes which are not onely unprofitable but very hurtfull and prejudiciall to both sides are thus unfortunately raised what better advice can be thought upon for the setling and composing of these stirres than that the Faith be brought back againe to its primitive simplicitie and plainenesse by the publike authority and joynt consent of the Christian Church And that in this confused mixture and multiplicity of matters of beleife the Christian world be taught warily to distinguish betwixt the genuine and proper Articles of Faith and the lesse necessary additions of Schoole-conclusions which truely in this very businesse is a matter of no great difficulty to performe This especially is fundamentall Christ is both God and Man and so likewise this Christ God and Man is truely omniscient omnipotent omnipresent now if any shall adde further Jesus Christ according to his humane nature is omniscient omnipotent omnipresent truely that word according seemes to be farre off from the Foundation 't is a Scholasticall notion and to be turned over to profest Divines but it is not fit the Salvation of plaine and illiterate Christians should be made to hang and depend upon such a subtle and nice Point as this is Can these knowe or are they bound to know how farre the vertue of the hypostaticall Union extend's it selfe or what the bounds are either of those faculties or operations which flow from that union of the two natures Certainely if God had intended this for a necessary Point to be knowne by all men he would not so sparingly and obscurely have revealed unto his Church a mystery so fundamentall and important I dispute not the trueth of the Point nor is this pertinent to my purpose onely I question whether it
be of necessity to be beleived Let us view a comparison betwixt things humane divine although what similitude can there bee'twixt Earth and Heaven Man consists of a soule and a body united one to the other and yet notwithstanding each part hath its severall properties and actions which are usually attributed and that very rightly too to the whole the whole man hath the use of sense doth understand eat walke sleep dye thus much even sense reason doth unanswerably evince will any man hereupon say that this also is of equall necessity to be knowne man according to his body hath the use of sense and reason and according to his soule he doth eat walke sleep and dye Truly the same that Reason is in respect of intelligible matters the same is Faith in things spirituall and divine I am not ignorant how much they differ in their Subjects yet neverthelesse the necessity of the things which are either to be known or beleived is alike different in both Such Trueths therefore as are certaine such as are necessarily to be beleived and apparently fundamentall let us all unanimously embrace and professe them as for the rest let Divines if they please busie their heads with them but let not the plaine common sort of Christians trouble themselves about them more than needs But if it may seeme to make any thing for the publike Peace that we come as neare as we can one to another in the formes and manner of expression let us but say as * Hier Zanchy sometimes alledged out of Innocent and the Schoole-men that even Christ's humane nature according to its personall essencâ— is omni present c. and I see no reason why both sides may not nay will not readily consent and agree to it Here let us fixe let neither side proceed any further beyond this and wee are safe In the Point of the Sacrament this is certaine and fundamentall that the true and essentiall body and blood of Christ is truely present offered and received in that holy Supperâ— but whether or no it be corporally present in the Bread Wine whether or no by a supernaturall vertue of the conseâ—rated Elements it be orally received and eaten even by wicked and unworthy Communicants this is a matter of Theologicall Dispute and such as in the judgement of Luther Melanchthon Justus Jonas Ofiander Brentius Stephanus Agricola yea of Oecolampadius Zuinglius Buâ—er Hediâ— ought not to infriâ—ge Christian love and Charity And upon this promising signe was begun that famous Agreement at Marpurge in the yeare 1529. That likewise is well worthy to be kept in perpetuall memory which is related concerning the meeting at Witemberge in the yeare 1536 by Ludovicus Rabus Pastor at Vlme in his History of Martyrs with whom agree's Iohn Swiccius Pastor at Constance cited by Hospinian who was there present at that time and 't is to be seen likewise in the English writings of Bucer there were present at that Meeting of the one side Capito Bucer Musculus and the rest of the more eminent Divines out of the cheife Imperiall Cities in high Germany of the other side Luther Philip Ionas Pomeranus Cruciger with other Doctors Preachers of Witemberge and after some expostulations and divers Speeches to and fro wherein both sides freely fairely delivered their Opinions at length Luther stepping a litle aside with his Associates and conferring with them about it concluded with these words If yee beleive and teach that in the holy Supper the very body and the very blood of Christ is offered given and received and not the bare â—ignes bread and Wine and that such giving and receiving is true and reall not onely imaginary the strife betwixt us is at an end and we doe acknowledge receive you as our deare Brethren in the Lord All this Bucer Capito and the rest plainely and freely affirmed whereupon they joyned hands and so parted Indeed the waters were then calme and quiet not tossed with any stormy and tempestuous winds and therefore they did clearely shew and represent the face of Trueth Why doe not we in like manner now at last begin to be wise And having passed those tempestuous and troublesome times which afterwards followed why doe we not sit downe and rest our selves in this old and safe harbour of Peace and Unity Concerning the Point of Praedestination how doth the Church of Christ groane under the burden of a number of huge high-swolne Volumes Yet when wee have done all we can and wearied our selves and the Christian world with our wrangling pens this will still remaine to be knowne and beleived by all men 1 that God from all eternity out of his meere good pleasure did immutably elect some unto Salvation 2. that none were elected by God nor shall be saved who doe not beleive in Jesus Christ and persevere in this Faith 3. that none can beleive in Christ save onely they whom God is pleased to enable hereunto and to worke it in them by the effectuall grace of his Spirit 4. that God did not damne no nor reprobate any man but with an eye to sin so that all the cause the blame of men's Damnation lie's in themselves but the cause of Election and Salvation is in the meere grace and mercy of God Now all this is confeston both sides â— know right well there are infinite Questions Controversie a raised about this Point Let every man on God's name enjoy his owne Opinion I will not prescribe to any man For my selfe if any man be desirous to know what my Opinion herein is I freely professe my selfe to adhere to the Articles of the Church of England and to the judgement of our English Divines who voted in the Synod at Dort wherein my selfe was presen 〈…〉 But what is there in this profound Point about which vulgar and illiterate Christians need to trouble themselves save onely that plaine obvious Trueth confest by all For the rest let Divines dispute them in the Schooles but it were well if they would forbeare to medle with them in the Pulpit How are the very same Controversies and others of greater waight and moment still on foot in the Church of Rome and yet so warily and wisely doe they carry the matter that the publike Peace is notwithstanding preserved amongst them Let vs learne wisedome from them who professe nought but enmity towards us Would but Christian Princes by their Authority decree Divines fairely and moderately containe and keep themselves within these bounds of Disputation and Controversie bounds indeed larg and spatious enough wee should have a lasting firme Agreement the Church would flourish in Peace and Tranquillity and lastly Trueth would bebome victorious and triumph over the common Enimy That this may be brought to passe as we all wish and desire it should the honourable States and Delegates did very wisely propose and advise that a publike Meeting of peaceable