moderation like an Episcopal Divine Ego Hieronymus Zanchiuâ— septuagenarius cum tota familia mea testatum hoc volo toti Ecclesiae Christi in omnem aeternitatem The same Zanchy did acknowledge in the seventieth year of his age that the Church of Rome was a true Church of Christ however defiled with innovations because she retained the fundamentals of Christianity See Zanchy's Preface to his * Edit Neostadii Palat. A.D. 1585. Confession and compare it with what he saith in the Confession it self Art 8. de Eccles. Milit. p. 149. and again with his p. 157. where he doth not scruple to use these words †Non ab Ecclesiâ Rom. simpliciter in omnibus defecimus sed in illis duntaxat rebus in quibus ipsa defecit ab Apostolicâ atque adâ—ò a seipsâ veteri purâ Ecclesiâ neque alio discessimus animo c. ut supra Zanch. ib. p. 157. We have not simply and in all things made a defection from the Church of Rome but in those things alone wherein she hath departed from the Church Apostolical and so by consequence from her ancient and purer self Nor have we left her even so but with an intention to return as soon as she shall return her self to that pitch of integrity from which she fell All which being considered either let Grotius have been a Protestant as well as Zanchy and Blondel or let them both have been Papists as well as Grotius No other Primacy to the Popedom did he allow but what †Farente Melanchthone Primatum secundum Canonas necessarium esse ad retinendam unitatem Discuss p. 255.256 Melanchthon thought necessary to conserve the unity of the Church Nor would he have all to joyn with Rome as Rome now stands which yet you confidently suggest p. 35. but upon friendly condescensions on either side implying * Vide inter alia compluscula Grot. Animadv in Animadv A. Riveti p. 35. Vot pro pa. 7 8 9. Discuss p. 160.161.18.20 etiam p. 71 72. Reformation in some particulars and mutual forbearance in many others You confesse that Bishop Bramhall allowes the Pope to have his old Patriarchal power and his Primacy of order and somewhat else p. 22. whom yet you take not to be a Papist p. 23. Nor can I see that Grotius allowes him more And as Principium unitatis or Concordiae coagulum you will certainly allow it as well as Grotius Arg. 16. If you compare one passage of his Discussio p. 256. with his Epistle to Cordesius p. 352. you will find him so steadfastly and pertinaciously a Protestant that the largest offers of a King could not make him any thing else You say the French moderation is acceptable to all good men you think that many such Papists are blessed souls now with Christ and you pronounce that Nation an honorable part of the Church of Christ p. 10. yet all the advantages in the world could never work upon Grotius to have communion even with them no not at that point of time when the Calvinists had deprived him of his liberty of his livelihood Gratias ago summas Regi quod in me etiam absentem beneficia sua depluere voluerit amicis quod meis commodis tam perseveranter invigilent Caeterum ego ex quo Gallias reliqui nullam cur tali beneficio utar probabilem causam video ideoque comiter excusari volo Epist. 143. ad Cordes p. 352. and in preparednesse of minde of his very life In the depth of his poverty immediately after his bonds and banishment and confiscation of goods he refused the great offers which daily courted him in France I pray observe in what words he confuted that calumny which Rivet was bold to cast upon him Si Grotius tanto viro invitante voluisset id promittere quod eum promisisse fingit D. Rivetus poterat ille per malos Calvinistas exutus patriâ exutus bonis ampla illa honorum commodorum promissa adipisci quae à Rege Galliae nunquam aut habuit aut speravit neque illi opus fuisset exire Galliâ rebus alterius regni operam suam addicere Et nunc quoque cum omnia adferat ad pacem Ecclesia restituendam quae potest nihil illi dat Gallia si dare velit nihil iâ—le accipiat Discuss p. 256. Here you see the great reason why he went out of France when courted in it and why he chofe to serve a poorer because a Protestant State As he never had been brought to accept of any thing from France so you see he resolved he never would Arg. 17. That Grotius did never once communicate with any part of the Church of Rome Discuss p. 59 60 61. is a manifest sign he was never of them and he gives such reasons for his own abstinence from all communion in France with either Papists or Presbyterians as could not possibly be prâ—tended by any Romanist whatsoever and so they prove him by consequence to have been none for whose excuse or defence they were pretended Arg. 18. Whilest you say he turn'd Papist you cleerly grant him to have been Protestant it lies upon you then to prove that he renounced the one in exchange for the other and you must shew both when and where he did it For whosoever turns Papist is ever bound by them to whom he turns to make an abrenunciation of all other Churches upon which he is solemnly reconciled and received into the bosom of that at Rome of which you have the Queen Christina and the late Minister of Montanbaâ— exhibited as examples in the Weekly Newes-book Had Grotius been such a Convert in their language or such an Apostate in ours the Church of Rome had been proudeâ— of it then of a thousand such Queens as now I mentioned and their Gazetts had told us of it with great ambition But in the whole that you have said in a matter of Fact too you have not pretended any such thing how unadvisedly soever you have impli'd it Arg. 19. Notwithstanding all that I have urged to prove that Grotius was no Papist I shall adde one Argument from the signal manner of his Death which will also be much confirmed from the place and manner of his burial they are both attested by Doctor Quistorp a Lutheran Divine and so no Papist at the earnest entreaty of an eminent person as known a Protestant as Quistorp and they are published by both to embalm the memory of that Phoenix of learned men as learned Quistorp doth fitly call him Had Grotius been a Papist uâ—on his death-bed he would not have admitted much less have sent for a Protestant Minister to assist him in his last and greatest triall Nor would the chief Pastor of Rostock the publick Professor of Divinity have given his Narrative to the World with so much Eulogie as he hath done much lesse would he have buried him in the most honorable place of the chiefest Temple nor
wilfully aver or very weakly p. 384. because of the reasons so lately rendred Sect. 10. You confess that Grotius doth charge the Papists with the Causes of the Divulsions p. 385. But you add that he chargeth the Protestants much more You must distinguish of Protestants as I have told you over and over The true and regular Reformers he never chargeth but onely the subverters of Church and State who us'd the Title for a pretense As our Saviour charged the Scribes and Pharisees not with pouring out prayers as if to pray were a sin but with using them as a cloak as some have us'd the word * Gal. 5.13 Liberty for an occasion to the flesh to cover their †Mat. 23.14 devouring of widow's Houses If he charged the Papists but not with Popery the second part of your evasion why doth he frequently complain of the lust and Tyranny of the Pope and the Corruptions of the Papists in point of Doctrine as well as manners exhorting Princes and Bishops if the Pope will not joyn to reform without him Sect. 11. You say the things were but two which Grotius found faulty in the Papists Vot pro. Pace p 7.8 And those you lamely represent too p. 385. Read again Vidi à Scholasticis multa introducta dogmâ—ta non ex Conciliorum Universalium Auctoritate Dogmata verò in Conciliis stabilita minus ab illis commode explicata praeterea inter Ecclesiae praepositos eum invaluisse Typhum Avaritiam mali exempli mores ut ii and you will find them to be Three for first he saith that by the Schoolmen many opinions were introduced and that from a liberty of arguing not at all from the Authority of Generall Councils Mark the Councils which he was for 2. That the opinions established by the Councils were by those very Schoolmen incommodiously expounded These are two distinct things to forge New Doctrins and to misinterpret the old ones which you have confounded in your Recital 3. That Pride and Avarice and manners of ill example had prevailed in such a measure among the Governors of the Church of which remember the Pope was chief that they were neither sollicitous as they ought to press upon the people those wholsome Tenets nor to Reforme those vices which raign'd amongst them But rather made use of the Peoples Ignorance and withall of their Superstition which arising out of their ignorance administred nourishment unto their vices to promote their selâ—ish and sordid Interest Now Sir observe what you have done You have not onely hudled up the things that are different and distinct but you have ended with an caetera which cut 's off the Prime of your Accompt As if you durst not make it known to your English Readers how deeply Grotius had charged the Popish Prelates and Schoolmen for fear your bitterness towards Grotius should lose its sting and that in the act of its exercise or execution To what purpose do you ask if the Council at Lateran and Florence did not decree that the Pope is above a Generall Councill when you knew that Grotius was quite against it They are the Generall Councils which Grotius had in great Reverence of which the Lateran and Florentine you know were None unless your knowledg is less then I would very fain think it Grotius was constant to the Rules of Wise Vincentius of Lyra and adhered to those things which were alwaies and every where perseveringly deliver'd in what Church soever he Chanâ—'d to find them which whosoever doth not cannot be a true Christian. He did not hold all in the Council of Trent as you often calumniate but never prove but told us what might be done for the love of Peace for the Accomodating of that to the Protestant Synod at Augusta I thank you for your promise never to call me an Arminian but not for making me a Papist in the very next period If you are grieved that in these Churches I and the men of my mind have leave given us to be Rectors you may ease your self by a Course at Law For you are never like to do it by writing Books though 't is said of you as of him in Scotland That you can put them out as oft as your Belly akes Whilst you say that such professors as Master Hickman and your self cannot have licence to be Rectors no nor so much as to escape the strappado in my Church you either meane you are departed from the true Church of England or that I am revolted to that of Rome If the first you confesse your own Schism If the second God will rebuke you for your Slander Sect. 12. When you have done with my Advertisement Compare this with Sect. 14. you have not yet done with me And for want of new forces to make a stand against Evidence of Truth and Reason you repete a great part of your Grotian Religion as if you thought a Repetition were aequipollent to a Reply First you scruple not to say That Grotius his Religion is that which is conteined in the Council of Trent with all the rest p. 386. Yet in the passage which you translate there are these things against you * Inveniet ea commode convenienter â—um S. S. tum veterum Doctorum locis ad marginem positis posse explicari Discuss p. 14. 1. He saith that those Acts may be commodiously explained by the marginall Citations both out of Scripture and Ancient Doctors not that they ought to be received in gross without such commodious explications where by the way you may amend your gross mistake in the Translation by carrying the adverbs to the verb which you have link't unto the substantive miâ—taking the Ablative for the Dative Case plural Quorum Actâ— si quis leget animo ad pâ—cem propenso Is inveniet c. And by this you have perverted the Author's sense 2. He saith that this may be done in any man's judgement who hath a mind propense to Peace In order to the unity and peace of Christendom all the most favourable Constructions must be put upon the Doctrins of either party And by whom is this to be said but by a Professed Reconciler 3. So far is Grotius from turning Papist though such commodious explications should be allow'd him as some have taken the Covenant and Engagement too in their own sence who would not take it in the Imposers that nothing less will content him no not in order to publick Peace than a Removall and * Tollantur ea quae cum pia ista Doctrinâ pugnant c. Abolition of those Corruptions in the Church Ibid. which had obteined their Introduction by evill manners and customes not by antient tradition or the Auctority of Councils 4. He doth not say he is content with what he hath but that he †Hâ—bebit id quo possit eâ—â—e contentus shall have that wherewith he may be contented upon this * Quod si
for this one thing of allowing the Pope such a Primacy as Grotius speakes of but denying him the Prerogative of being the universal Pastor or the Supreme head and Governour of the Catholick Church And Grotius give 's a good reason in his following words * Qui quidem Primatus non tam Episcopi est quà m ipsius Ecclesiae Romanae caeteris omnibus praelatae communi consensu c. Discuâ—â— p. 15. Because the Priviledge of the said Primacy was by the common consent of the Antient Church ascribed rather to the Church then to the Bishop of Rome as having been the most eminent of all the Churches in the world I say the most eminent in two respects In respect of the Purity of her Faith when first she was planted by the two chiefest of the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and in respect of the City Rome being consider'd as the †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Cod. Can. Eccl. Vniv. Can. 206. Seat of the Western Empire So farre is this one consideration from shewing favour unto the Papacy that 't is a principal Bulwark set up against it 1. It follow 's unavoidably that the Pope cannot pretend to the granted Primacy from the words of Christ unto St. Peter but onely from the common consent of the Church and so it is not by Divine but Eccclesiastical right 2. It is not granted unto the Pope who may at any time erre as Liberius did but to the pure unerring Roman Church such as Zanchie the Presbyterian doth acknowledge her to have been which when the present Church of Roâ—e shall appear to be by such an impartial Reformation of her Corruptions as may reduce her to her Primitive and purer self we shall be ready to pay her Her Ancient Honour Nor do we gratify her at all as now she is by acknowledging with the Fathers that she was Primitively pure because we are able to demonstrate the several growths of her Corruption The light and evidence of which as it doth justify our deparâ—ure so doth it make us unexcusable if we preposterously return Sect. 22. There is nothing more strange Grot. his design had no influence on our English changes Discuss p. 16. than that from words so innocent as those you cite out of Grotius in your p. 389. you should conclude his Design to have had an influence upon England in the changes which occasion'd our late civil Wars For the Book you cite was the last he wrote and so it was not very far from the final conclusion of all our Wars or suppose it had been a great deal sooner yet I am left to admire at what you are willing to infer Grotius tells us that his Labours for the peace of the Church were not displeasing to many equal impartial men not onely in Paris and all France In Angliâ non pauci placidi pacisque amantes Insanientibus Brownistis quibuscum D.R. quà m Angliae Episcopis convenit c. but in Germany Poland and England too And that the men to whom his pains was pleasing here in England were men of mild Tempers and Lovers of peace Such as to whom he opposeth the raging Brownist better suiting with Mr. Rivet then with the Bishops of England From hence you conclude I wonder why He had Episcopal Factors here in England If you mean Factors to bring in Popery I demand your proof or your repentance if Factors for Peace you have my pardon T is pity so many sheets of paper as you have written and printed on this one Subject should all conclude with nothing better than a confident begging of the Question Yet mark the bottom of the Invention with which you have been so long a brooding There is a party of Prelatists here in England who are Factors for Grotius and so Papists this you know is the scope of all when first it is apparent that Grotius himself was no such thing And secondly the Prelatists are not agreeable to Grotius in that for which he was most suspected to wit his thinking that the Bull of Pius Quintus may for peace be subscrib'd in a commodious sense Wherein as I am not of Grotius his mind I being not able to subscribe it in any sense I can imagin so neither am I of Mr. Baxter's that Grotius for this oâ—inion may be concluded an arrant Papist no I find great reason to conclude the contrary For had he been really a Papist he might have subscribed those Articles without a commodious interpretation And you have no pretense of proof that he ever subscribed them at all He onely spake as an Agitator a studious Contriver of publick peace for which he made propositions but all conditional and shew'd how far he might go to so great an End He had no Church-preferment offer'd to â—im from hence Sect. 23. Whereas you say some tell you that Grotius had Church-preferment here offered him and thought to have accepted it p. 389. you give me occasion to suspect that either you hear amiss what you are told or do ill remember what you hear or imperfectly relate what you remember 1. At best it is but a hear-say and such as if it were true would prove him a Protestant in grain 2. But Grotius was not a Church-man and was a great deal too old to quit his secular imployments for the taking of orders here in England whereby to be capable of Church-preferment 3. All that lookes like truth in it I think is this that the King of England having heard of his incomparable Merits and of his Love to our English Church did determin to offer him if ever the times should prove Peaceable some very honourable condition within this Realm Perhaps the Provostship of Eton might have been suitable to the purpose having been given a little before to some excellent persons of the Laity Sir Henry Savile Mr. Murrey and after that to Sir Henry Wotton Yet this at most was but a purpose which was never advanc'd unto an actuall offer 2. Your conceived objection is not so strange but your answer to it is somewhat stranger For what can you mean by the Church of England of the second Edition then in the Press Dating this as it must be dated about the end of the war a little before the death of Grotius nor long before the death of the King I know not what you will do for any good meaning of your words was the Church of England then Popish or was she not if Popish was she such either in capite or in membris I need not tell you your unhappiness let your answer be what it will You have * Grot. Rel. p. 105.106 freed the King from the suspicion of being a Papist although you make him much inclined to a Reconciliation If she was not then Popish you see how well you have written against your own writings 3. I never heard that St. Clara was the Queen's Ghostly Father Franciscusâ— Sancta had
no more then Mr. Baxter himself who yet hâ—th been branded for a Papist as well as Grotius and by an eminent Presbyterian also that is by one of your own party I shall at once open a way to shew the Nullity of your reasons and the Necessity of your Repentance of which you have made me to live in hope My Reasons oâ— Argumeâ—ts are these that follow Arg. 1. In his Epistle to Laurentius Proved to be none by 19. Arguments Gâ—ot Animadv in Animadv Riveti p. 83. who had written against him as a Papist whilest yet he liv'd as you have done after his Death intitling his Book Grotius Papizans he doth exâ—resly disown the charge facile videbis noâ— Grotium Papizare sed Laurentiadem nimis Calvinizare Now when I find him expresly disowning Popery even after his Notes upon Cassander who certainly knew his own mind best and when I find you declaring that every man shall by you be taken for that which he professeth to be p. 23. and again that you would take men to be of the Religion which they professe p. 98. and that you will believe the profession of Gâ—otius p. 89. I know not how you can chuse but see your error But come we from writing to word of mouth Arg. 2. There lives a Person of great Honour and of great Romark for his Wisdom as well as for hiâ— great Learning and Moderation and the eminent imployments he hath been in who hath affirmed in my hearing and not in my hearing onely That being conversant with Grotius during his Embassy in France he took his time to ask Grotius why hâ— did not communicate with either party Gâ—otius made him this Answer That with the Papiâ—ts he could not because he was not of their mind with the Calvinists he could not not onely because of his Embassy from Swedeland where they were not Followers of Calvin bâ—t alsâ— because he was deterrâ—d by their pernicious Doctrins of God's Decrees To this he added That he would gladly communicate with the Church of England if his condition of Embassador would well permit expressing an ample * This part will be attested by a Reverend person of our Churâ—h Mr. Matthias Turner who was personally conversant with Gâ—otius some yeares in France and whose excellent skill In Greek and Hebrew did make him the fitter for such converse so will it also by a great Personage distinct from him in my Text. Approbation of our Doctrine and Discipline as also heartily wishing to live and dye in that Communion I do not name that Noble person who is the Author of this Relation because I have not yet ask'd his leave If you can must to my integrity I need not say more if not I can prove it by so unquestionable a witness as I am very confident you cannot but trust However you find it to be agreeable to what himself whilst he was living made known in print and you shall find it agreeable to that which followes For Arg. 3. Many are able to attest that 't was the last advice which he thoughâ— it his duty to give his wife that she would declare him to dye in that Communion in which he desired than she her self would still live This she manifested accordingly by coming on purpose to our Church at Sir Richard Brown's House the King of England's Resident them in France where from the hands of Mr. Croâ—deâ— she received the * Of this Sir Thomas Dâ—râ—l professeth himsâ—lf an Eye-witness and that her two daughters â—â—â—â—ived with her Sacrament of the Lord's Supper And this iâ—mediately after her Husband's Death as soon as Reasons of state did cease to hinder Arg. 4. This is agreeable with the reports which I and others have met with in the publick place of his conversation for divers years towards his last I took my pension in Paris neer Cleromont College in which Pâ—taâ—â—ius hâ—d then a being and all I could learn from â—y inquiry was truly this that all took Grotius for a person of imparallel'd abilities in every kind but yet extremely to be lamented as one who could not be brought into the bosom of the Church that is to say they could not perswade him to be a Papist And I was lately assured by Mr Castiglio a learned person and a religious and so a very true speaker that in a conference which he had with some Augustine Friers with whom he travelled he found that Groâ—ius was an heretick in their â—steem as much as any other Protestants who were not followers of Calvin And I am very much mistaken if that which Mr Knott hath cited from Grotius p. 167. against Mr Chillingworth is not purposely ciâ—ed as from one of our own sidâ— I have also been told by a worthy person ofâ— a message sent from Grotiâ—s to Doctor Cousâ—nâ— that he should die in the Faith of the Church of England But because I want the same evidence of this which I am sure I have of other things I do not urge it as any new Argument Arg. 5. But it is to meâ— another Argument and of very great moment that so judicious an Author as Doctoâ— Hammond Dr. Ham. Cont. of Def. of H. Grot. p. 25. in his Continuation of the Defence of Grotiuâ— did think he had gâ—ound sufficient to say what follows viz. That Grotiuâ— had alwayes a sigâ—al valâ—e and kindness for this ouâ— Englisâ— Church and Natioâ— expressing his opinion that of all Churches in the world it was the most careful observer and transcriber of Primitive antiquity and more then intimating his desire to end his dâ—â—yâ—s in the bosâ—mâ— and comâ—uniâ—â— of our Mâ—râ—eâ— Now because it is added by so credible a speaker as Doctor Hammond that * Ibid. of this he wants not store of witnesses who from time to time had heard it from his own moâ—â—h whil'st he was Ambassadour in France and even in his return to Sweden immediately before his death and because my witnesses befoâ—e mentioned are distinct from his who yet agree in the thing attested I have added his intelligence as a very good Argument to back mine own which having said I proceed to argue as I began from several testimonies of Grotius concerning himself Gâ—ot Aâ—nal l. 1. p. 8 9 10 11 12. Arg. 6. As in his Annals de rebus Belgicis he strictly censures the corruptions which by little and little the Popes had obtruded upon the Church and discovers the Need of Reformation into which Christendom had been brought by the power and prevalence of those corruptions so likewise in his Histories which I have reason to believe were some of the last things he perfected he clearly sides with our Englâ—sh Protestants against the pretentions of Religion which came from Rome Pâ—aemium addidit sceleri scelerum immunitatem etiam apud Deum atque alia id genus ludibria quae rudibus seculis haud invalida nunc tantùm in specâ—em dantur in speciem accipiuntur c.
England * In ist's Remediis quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 medici vocant parum est auxilii Neque potest partium unitas nisi à corpoâ—is unitate sperari Non possum non laudare praeclarum Aâ—gliae Canonem An. Dom. 1571. c. De Imperio sum po circa sacra cap. 6 witness his sixth Chapter De Imperio summarum potestatum circa sacra wherein he doth not onely insist upon the same means of union for which he pleads in his later writings but exceedingly commends our English Canon agreed upon in the yeâ—r 1571. exactly tending to the very same end Inprimis verò videbunt Concionatores nequid unquam dâ—ceant pro Concione quod à populo religiosè teneri credi velint nisi quod consentaneum sit Doctrinae Veteris ac Novi Testamenti quodque ex illâ ipsâ Doctrinâ Catholiâ—â— Patres Veteres Episcopi collegerint Because the Scripture is made a Lesbian Rule by a great variety of Professors who are irreconcileable amongst themselves therefore no Exposition ought to be taken for authentick so soon as that which hath been made by the Catholick Fathers and Ancient Bishops of the Church In a word it doth appear as well by * Casauâ— Epist. 220. Hu. Gro. 1612 Epist. 221. c. Casaubon's and Bishop Overall's Epistles to Grotius as from his to them and to Thuaâ—us and divers others that his desires of union were no other then what were common to him with the soberest Protestants in the World in particular with Melanchthon whom he proposeth as his exemplar in all his writings of that affair Nay in two Epistles to Duraeus which a learned Mr. Clement Barksdale in his Mâ—morials of Grotius admirer of his Works hath very usefully made English he is as palpably a Protestant as Cardinal Bellarmin was a Papist for he clearly justifies our breach with Rome and heartily wisheth our agreement amongst our selves however hindered by those who defile themselves with a proud conceit of being holier and purer then their Fathers and Brethren of the Church He unites his Consultations with both our English Embassadors how our union may be accomplished to which he exhorts so much the rather because he observes that our Division doth strengthen Popery and make Proselytes for Rome Such were Grotius his Counsels no longer since then in the year of our Lord 1637. And though you confidently say that He mentions the Protestants with distaste as pretended Reformers p. 33. yet I know the contrary to be a very great truth * Traxit in auxilium sui Reformâ—torum Principes Pontificlorum fervidiores meam praesentiam aliis de causis suspectant Epist. 172. p. 422. A.D. 1635. Foâ— how severely soever he useth to speak of the rebellious and sacrilegious who by their Heathenish practises and oâ—inions had put a publick disgrace on the Reformation in pretending themselveâ— the Authors of it yet of regular Protestants he never speaks without love and reverence and simply calls them the Reformed in opposition to Pontificians who stand in need of Reformation That unavowable sort of Protestants whom he reproves with sharpness the meek and moderate †Look forward on ch 5. sect 9. Dr. Sanderson rebuketh as sharply as he hath done yet he is not the likelier to be a Papist Arg. 14. From many places of his Discussio printed in the year 1645. as well as from its whole design his aversion to Papism doth very sufficiently appear And as that is the book from whence you draw your objections so from that very book you could not have fail'd of satisfaction had you impartially either read or considered all * Discuss p. 10. His desire that the rules of Vincentius Lirinensis might be observed was common to him with King Iames Isaac Casaubon yea with Gregory Calixtâ—s and Doctor Reynolds against Hart. †Nec aliud desiderat Confessio Augustanâ— Diâ—unt enim qui eam amplexi sunt Principes Civitates de nullo Articulo Fidei dissentire se c. sed paucos abusus à se omitti qui novi sunt contra voluntatem Canonum vitio Temporum recepti ib. p. 14. He would not onely have the Canons of the Council of Trent to be commodiously expounded in order to peace but also in order to reformation he would have all taken away which evil customes and manners have introduced In a word he would have that then which the Augustan Confession desires no more And many moderate Papists desired no less He allowes the Pope no * Ibid. p. 1â— other Primacy then is allowed by the Canons of oecumenical Councils and may consist with the rights of the several Patriarchs of the East disapproving his usurpations no lesse then Casaubon himself †Ibid. p. 15. He loves to style that Vsurper by the modest name of the Bishop of Rome and fastens the Primacy which he allowes nâ—t so much on the Pope as the Church of God for Zanchy himself doth so expresse her Arg. 15. To prove he speaks as a Peace-maker which he was not as a Papist which he was not he cites the Declarations of some chief * Ibid. p. 69. Protestants in the behalf of such a Primacy as he and they have thought due to the Roman Prelate Not onely King Iames who granted as much in a manner as Cardinal Perron exacted of him in order to the Unity and Peace of Christendom nor onely Bucer a moderate Protestant but even Blondel the Patron of Presbyterians and even Calvin himself are brought in speaking to his advantage to whom I might adde Franciscus Iunius and our learned Mountague in his Appeal to Caesar. The words of Blondel are very remarkable Non negari à Protestantibus dignitatem Sedis Apostolicae Romanae neque Primatum ejus super Ecclesias vicinaes imâ—o aliquatenus super omnes sed referri hoc ab iis ad jus Ecclesiasticum Nor can I remember I ever read that Grotius pretended to any more For obedience due from all seculars unto the Bishops of the Churâ—h he cites the * Ibid. p. 70. Augustan Confession For the want of reformation in the Presbyterian Churches he cites the †Ibid. p. 73. Confession of Mr. Rivet For the admitting of such words as Transelementation and Transubstantiation with their convenient explications in order to Peace and Reconcilement * Ibid. p. 77. he cites Modreviâ—s and our King Iames. For the Protestants return to the Church of Rome upon condition that that Church will also return unto the Primitive he cites the Prayers and Protestation of learned Zanchy Ab Ecclesiâ Româ—nÃ¥ non aliâ— discessimus animo quà m ut si correcta ad priorem Ecclesiae formam redeat nos quoque ad illam revertamuâ— communionem cum illâ in suis porrò coetibus habeamus Apud Grot. p. 14. apud ipsum Zanch. in Confess Art 19. p. 157. who notwithstanding his being a Presbyterian concluded his
design as this is would make the unity and peace of the Church seem impossible and our Divisions desperate Turpe est Doctori quem culpa redarguit ipsum It should seem by this that in your judgment the true discipline of Christ hath been revealed onely to you or at least that you onely have found it out by your industry Nor are you onely a Presbytâ—rian but an Episcopal Divine an Erastian alsâ— and Independent or if you are not all you are neither Nor indeed can you be either in point of Diâ—ciâ—line unless you are professedly against the Scripture When you say you would cleave to any party that you could perceive were in the right p. 24. you do but say in effect that you cleave to none you having declared your belief that none of those entire wayes is the Scripture-way But why was a National League and Covenant both sworn and fought for and persecutions made use of for non-conformity to the Covenant Why were men so expensive of Blood and Conscience for the pulling down of Episcopacy so well establish'd and for the setting up of a Scotish Presbytery in the room if the former was partly and the lâ—ter but partly the way of Christ's discipline May not the Independents and the Erastians do as much against Presbyterie as Presbyterians have done against the Prelâ—cy of the Church and cite your judgment as one defensative of their own Of all the Ministers in the land the Presbyterians who were Preachers within the Province of London A. D. 1647. and * See the book intâ—tuled A tâ—stimoâ—â— to the tâ—uâ—h of Iâ—â—us Christ and compare it with the Covenanâ— as well as with the â—â—dâ—rs for To. â—raâ—onâ— protested so much against all toleration which did not well comport with their solemn League and Coveâ—ant will least of all thank you for your discovery 'T is true you have also your Pacisick Deâ—ign but so little hath it of Catholicism and so impossible it is to prove effectual that after your having accused Grotius it onely serves to make you fall under your own condemnation When you say that Christ's and the Scripture way is parcell'd out between four parties and that every party hath a piece of the truth in peculiar that is to say not common to it with any one of the other three and so that the whole of the Truth must be compounded of four Ingredients some of your readers will reflect on the onceit of Tamerlane that Religion ought to be like a Posie which smells best when made up of the most variety And I have read that Mahomet of the Tribe of Ishmael thought fit to make up his new Religion Celrenus p. 347. Baronius ad A. D. 629 630. by borrowing and blending with his Inventions one parcel from the Pagans another from the Iews a third from the Arians a fourth from the Nestorians a fifth from the Manichees that so he might with the greater ease reconcile them all unto himself And with pardon to the comparison which is not intended to run on four feet if in the Medlie which you propose the component parts will so temper and correct each other that the whole will be grateful to every party you will not onely grow famous as the first Discoverer of the thing but nature being thus changed and tamed our Lambs will dwell safely within the neighbourhood of the Wolf and the Leopard inoffensively lie down with the Kid. You who have given in your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after serious study of the point both in Antiquity and the Scriptures may speak unexpectedly in your account But you have left me to wonder and I suppose some thousands more which ingredient of the four shall be praedominant in the mixture or which shall be the Basis of all the structure so as to give satisfaction to every party or whether in the mixture all parts can be equal and a Structure erected without a Basis. If four distinct parties have the Truth of Christ's Discipline divided betwixt them unlesse it be equally divided they will not all own an equal right to the inheritance on every side Else when the Presbyterian Ministers were so hard put to it by his * See Reliquiae sacrae Carolinae in the Papers which passâ—d c. at Newport p. 275 367 368 369. Majesty at the Isle of Wight to give in their Answer to these Queres 1. Whether there be a certain Form of Government left by Christ or his Apostles to be observed by all Christian Churches 2. Whether it bind perpetually or be upon occasion alterable in whole or in part 3. Whether that certain form of Government be the Episcopal Presbyterian or some other differing from them both and we know how shamefully they did again and again decline answering the Queres though they confessed them to be of great importance your quadri-partite way might have serv'd their turn had it not been for their usual boast that since the times of Christianity their own is the onely Divine Model in the World To the glory of which priviledge the Episcopal party laying claim with fairer reasons for their pretension how will you do for the share of the other two the Independent and the Erastian and reconcile Extremes of so great a distance If I say not in civility that the terms imply a contradiction yet I know there are of your Presbyterians who will say that the mention of such terms doth carry in the Forehead it s own confusion Sect. 13. Your following reasons of dislike from p. 15. to p. 19. are at least as feeble as your two first Grotius doth not cut off the holiest parts of the Church they having nothing to support them but your particular wants of apprehension if not the strength of your prejudice against Grotius his Doctrine and Design For first when you say that in the name of a peace-maker he divideth and cutteth off the holiest parts of the Church on earth p. 15 16. it is gratis dictum without so much as a shew of proof and a pitiful begging of the Question which no man living will grant you who is not partially addicted to all you say You fitly confesse in a Parenthesis you do but speak your own judgment And what is your judgment compar'd with that of immortal Grotius who knowingly judged those men to be the greatest subverters of Church and State and that incessantly by their Principles as well as frequently by their Practice even as often as they have power to reduce their Principles into Practice whom you affirm without scruple as without colour of excuse to be the holiest part of the Church on earth What you say and but say of my reproching Puritans throughout my book very politickly forbearing to cite so much as one page or passage doth not belong to this place and shall be duly spoken of in a peculiar Chapter And when you tell me that Grotius doth make the name of the Reformed or
volumus sanctum est that they will have holy and nothing else Men causelesly puffed up with their fleshly mind Col. 2.18 * ib. p. 696. It is an old worn error of the Donatists and but new dressed over by some fâ—natical spirits in our dayes that teach in Corners one that is not himself inwardly holy cannot be the means of holiness to another And where they dare too that one that is not in state of grace can have no right to any poâ—session or place for they of right belong to none but to the true children of God that is to noâ—e but themselves And These the Bishop there call's Fond ignorant men Again * See his tenth Serm on the sâ—me p 703. Not onely mission but submission is a sign of one truly called to this business But of all prâ—positions they indure not super all equal all even at least Their spirit is not subject to the spirit of the Prophets nor of the Apostles neither if they were now alive but bear themselves so high do tam altum sapere as if this spirit were underling and their spirit above the Holy Ghost There may be a spirit in them there is none upon them that indure no super none above them You see how Puritanes were described by that so eminently judicious and godly Prelate who long before his preferments had been †See a brief view of the Church of England as it stood in the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth and King James p. 143. earnestly dealt with by a great person being his Patron to hold up a side which was even then falling and to maintain certain state points of Puritanism but he had too much 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as my Author alludes unto his name to be either scar'd with a Counsellors frown or blown aside with his breath and therefore answered his Tempter plainly It was against his learning and conscience too His Patron seing he would be no Fryer Pinkie to be taught in a Closet what he should say at Saint Paul's dismissed him then with some disdain but after did the more reverence his integrity and became no hinderer to his ensuing greatness Sect. 11. Now since the Author of this Relation was Sir Iohn Harrington of Kelston Sir John Harrington's judgment of Puritanes Ibid. p. 7.8 a knowing person in those times of which he hath left a view behind him it will be pertinent to observe his private judgement of those old Puritanes who then disquieted the Church When the Puritanes saith he whom some defined to be Protestants scared out of their wits did begin by the plot of some great ones but by the pen of Master Cartwright to defend their New Discipline their endeavour was to reduce all in shew at least unto the purity but indeed unto the poverty of the Primitive Church Ib. p. 150. That is to say they were sacrilegious For speaking after of the same men This saith he was the true Theorique and Practique of Puritanism One impugning the Authority of Bishops secretly by such Lectures as that which was lately founded by a sacrilegious Grandee and read by Dr. Reynolds The other impoverishing their livings openly The judgment of Q. Eliz. and her Privy Counsel and of Archb. Bancroft p. 12.13 and Archbishop Whitgift ib. p. 7.8 by such leases as would yield good fines to the Procurers He inferrs the judgement of Queen Elizabeth and her Councel in that he saith the learned Bancroft obtained the favour of Queen and State for his endeavours to sâ—ppress those fantastical Novellers And 't is known that his reward was the Archbishoprick of Canterbury Dr. Whitgift also though a great Anti-Arminian was then an eminent Confuter of Cartwright's Writings And as a step to his Archbishoprick was first rewarded with the Bishoprick of Worcester Of Iudge â—opham Nay Judge Popham who was unwilling to have them called Puritanes was yet accustomed to call them seditious Sectaries which he would not have done had he not judged them to be such Having said how the Queen did approve the books of Dr. Bancroft I did not add the opinion he had of Puritanes because his two books have done that for me the one discovering their discipline the other their dangerous positions in point of Doctrine more especially that Doctrine which hath a tendency to the subversion of Church and State Ib. p. 118.119 I will not give you my whole accompt of that Author but onely in brief put you in mind how the Puritanes in Cambridge had courted Dr. Iohnstill to abet that party and how they reviled him in their pulpits because he would not joyn with them yet he was after made Bishop of Bath and Wells How every one made reckoning that the Mannor-house and Park of Banwel should be made the reward of some Courtier which suspicion was increas'd in that Sir Thomas Henage was said to have an oare in the matter being an old Courtier and a zealous Puritane whose conscience if it were such in the Clergy as it was found in the Dutchy might well have digested a better booty * Ib. 135. in Doctor Herbert Westphaling Bishop of Hereford How Queen Elizabeth at Oxford had school'd Dr. Reynolds for his preciseness willing him to follow her laws and not to go before them But it seems he had forgot it when he went last to Hampton Court so as there he received a better schooling The Lord Keeper Puâ—kering's judgment of Puritanes by the direction of Q. Elizabeth delivered in the House of Lords in Parliament â—ssembled Sect. 12. Very remarkable are the words of the Lord Keeper Puckering touching the parity of the danger to Church and State which the Puritanes and the Iesuites had brought on both Remarkable I say as having been uttered in Parliament by the special command of Queen Elizabeth And here the fitter to be inserted because they are not to be had but from his own hand-writing from which by the favour of a most noble Gentleman I got about a year ago â—his following transcript A transcript not of the whole but of as much as concerns the case in hand And especially you are commanded by her Majesty to take heed that no ear be given nor time afforded to the wearisomâ— sollicitations of those that commonly be called Puritanes wherewithal the late Parliaments have been exceedingly importuned which sort of men whilest in the giddinesse of their spirits they labour and strive to advance †Mark who thâ—y were that were theâ— called Puritanes a new eldership They do nothing else but disturb the good repose of the Church and the Common-wealth which is as well grounded for the body of Religion it self and as well guided for the discipline as any Realm that professeth the truth And the same thing is already made good to the world by many the writings of learned and * Mark who they were that were so esteemed godly men neither answer'd nor answerable by
opposing the Gospel Such service for the Papists was then done by the Puritanes whose Libels were cited and applauded by those of Rome even Hacket himself hath an Apology made for him although as execrable a miscreant as most have been of that paste (d) p. 256. The libellous Pamphlets of Martin-Mar Prelate thâ—t early Puritane in Queen Elizabeth's dayes were urged by the Papists as Authentick Witnesses and sufficient Evidences foâ— the disgrace and condemnation of the protestant-Protestant-Church So true was that which I shew'd you fâ—om the Lord Keeper Puckering that the Puritanes do joyn and concur with the Iesuites Thâ—ir rebâ—llious Principles What (e) p. 138 139. â—â—3 Principles of Rebellion were scattered abroad among thâ— peoâ—le by the Puritane leaders in seveâ—al Countreyâ— â—uch as Wickliff Clesselâ—us Knox and Winram that excellent Examen will quickly tell you p. 178.179 And what Heathâ—niâ—h Notes the Genevians put uâ—on â—he Bâ—ble (g) p. 151. How Felton a zealous Puritane comâ—itâ—ed his murder upon thâ— Duke How Covetousâ—ess and Non-conformity were so married together that 't was not eaâ—e to divorce them (h) p. 153. How an Act of Parliament wâ—s made against Puritanes 23 Eliz. c. 3. (i) p. 156. And a High-Commission enforced to curb them (k) p. 158. How mock-ordinations were made at Antwerp by a mongrel sort of Presbyterians consisting of two blew Aprons to each Cruel Nightcap In a word it will tell you their sabbatizing their downfall their essayes to rise their disappointments their new attempts by the way of Lecturing in which the Iesuites went before them their pride without parallel their malice without measure and thâ—ir acts of injustice without remorse Sect. 15. That irresistible Champion of the Protestant Church against her Adversaries of Rome Bishop Montague ' s judgmeâ—t of Puritanes I mean the learned Bishop Montague who was imployed by King Iames to write the Annals of the Church Catholick and all along as he went to reform Baronius on the one side as the Magdeburgenses on the other doâ—h often justifie and distinguish the Church of England no less from the Puritane then Popish party He calls them in one place * Religiosi nebulones nostrates Deum Ecclesiam emulgentes aiunt Deum culâ—u merè spirituali 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Montac in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad An. Chr. 2. See his Appello Caesarem â—art 2. c. 1. p. 11â— 111 112. the sacrilegious hypocrites of our Countrey who rob God and the Church under colour of spirituality saying that God is well pleased with no other worship then what is spiritual In another place he speaks of them as our Saviour spake of the Pharisees Ecclesia Anglicana recte quicquid vacillent Puritani 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He had long before noted That many were arrant Puritanes in heart who for preferment did conform holding with the Hare and running with the Hound And that many once Puritanes turn'd often Papists Fleeting being commonly from one extreme to another Men of moving violent quick-silver gun-powder spirits can never rely upon midling courses but dum furor in cursu est run on headlong into Extremes And so I may avow I will not be a Papist in haste because I never was a Puritane in earnest or in jeast having found it true in my small Observation that our Revolters unto Popery were Puritanes avowed or addicted first Ib. p. 113. A little after he calls the Iesuites the Puritane-Papists and for the Protestant-Puritanes he doth not reckon them as Members of the Church of England but onely an overweening-faction which was wont to be shrowded under the Covert of the Church of England and to publish their many idle dreams fancies and furies unto the World under pretext of the doctrine of our Church And our Opposites of the Romish side did accordingly â—harge our Church with them which words when I compare with divers things before mentioned I am apt to think that many Papists did call themselves of the Church of England and acted their parts on our English Theater under the name and disguise of the Puritane-party that so they might help the real Puritanes to bring our Protestant Church into disgrace and misery Sect. 16. To this I will adde some words of Grotius because he was so great an honour to the true Protestant Religion Grotius his judgment concerning Puritanes Serenissimi si per Puritanos liceaâ— Potentissimi Regis Britanniarum beneficio c. Discuss Riv. Apol. p. 57. not more for his learning then moderation who speaking of the King of Britain and of some obligations received from him thought fit to say The most serene and if the Puritanes will suffer him the most potent King of England words most worthy your consideration as having been written in the year 1645. when you cannot but remember how much his Majesty was promised to be made the mightiest King in Christendom It is but seldom that Grotius doth name the word Puritane although sometimes * Rex Iacobus se Puritanis semper exosum fuifse dicit non alio Nomine quà m quod Rex effeâ— Ibid. pag. 92. he names it too but he gives us so often a just accompt of their Tenâ—ts which have commonly broken forth into Blood and Rapine that I need not stay longer upon his exact judgment Mr. Thorndike 's judgment of Puritanes In his Epilogue to the Trag. of the Church of England Conâ—lus p. 405. Ib. p. 423. I will conclude my whole Catalogue with what I lately met with in my perusal of Master Thorndike It is evident saith he that Preachers and People are overspread with a damnable Heresie of Antinomians and Enthusiasts formerly when Puritanes were not divided from the Church of England called Etonists and Grindeltons according to several Countreys c. well had it been had that most pious and necessary desire to restore publick penance been seconded by the zeal and compliance of all estatesâ— and not stifled by the tâ—res of Puritanisme growing up with the Reformation of it In fine if any thing may have been defective or amisse in that order which the Church of England establisheth it is but justice to compare it with both extremes which it avoideth meaning Popery on one hand and Puritanisme on another If you read his whole Book you will probably return to the Church of England by being convincâ—d that you have left her If you will read but some part you will find him shewing what I shall now but say from him Id. lib. 1. p. 77. viz. 1 That the Scotish Presbyterians have done like them who oblige subjects to depose their Soveraign if the Pope excommunicate them making both subjects and Soveraigns the Popes vassals Ib. p. 78. Conclus p. 4â—4 them to rule and those to obey at his discretion who can excommunicate them 2 That it is Puritanism or Popery for subjects to fight against their Soveraign yea a Branch of Puritanism
was impossible to be done Juâ—t as if it should be said that I created my Parents or sqâ—ar'd the Circle Indeed I have read of Apollonius Tyanaeus that he could tell at Ephesus what in that very houre was done at Rome the Devill was such a Familiar to him But that I should speak a thing in England whilst my Body and my Soule were both in France is the wildest Invention I ever heard of It is my comfort that I suffer the most Incredible of Slanders which are as Innocent in one sense as they are criminal in another And that I suffer for well doing even to those very persons from whom I suffer But that a Sermon of Love should procure me more Hatred than All the Actions of my whole Life would seem as wonderfull a Thing as that Elijah with water should set the green wood on fire but that I consider what Age we live in And that the Fire is more common which comes from Hell then that which Elijah pray'd down from Heaven Besides I know it is part of the Chrâ—stians Lot which I take in good part and doe thank God for it But it were well if most men would make a Covenant with their Eares A Cavâ—at against Raisers of false Râ—ports not to listen to meer Rumors which doe not bring their warrant with them And another Covenant with their Lips not to utter such Rumors without all reason For through a defect of these two what Calumnies have been raised upon men of all sorts which with one sort or other have found great welcome and entertainment I will give you an Instance in some particulars which are many wayes pertinent to my present Enterprise It was dogmatically affirmed by the whole Assembly of Divines in a Letter which they sent to all the Protestant Churches beyond the Seas That the King and his party had an intent to set up Popery and even to extirpate the true Reformed Religion See Biblioth Râ—gia part 1. Sect. â— p. 58.59 to p. 65. And that they had not onely attempted but in great measure prevailed for the putting thereof in execution A thing so far from being true that the King protested his intentions were directly contrary and from the Primate of Armagh received the Sacrament upon it solemnly wishing that that Sacrament might be his damnation if his heart did not joyn with his lips in that protestation He also declared the same thing to all the Transmarine Protestant Churches Nay it was part of his last words the sincerity of which he also sealed with his blood And now you publickly confess as Mr. Prin had done before you in his Signal Memento p. 12. You do not believe he was a Papist but a moderate Protestant and that his Conference with the Marquess of Worcester may satisfie men for that p. 106. By the same excess of injustice Archbishop Bancroft Archbishop Laud Archbishop Usher Bishop Bramhal and Doctor Cousins have been exhibited to the people as downright Papists though as great adversaries to Rome as Rome hath had since the Reformation How many others in particular and the Prelatists in general have been traduced you know very well and Doctor Sanderson hath told you with what injustice It was not onely the saying of Doctor Bernard Of the judgm of the late Archbishop of Arm. p. â—61 concerning the late Archbishop of Armagh that some of the simpler sort hearing of a conjunction of Popery and Prelacy have thought they could not be parted in him but it was also the complaint of the Primate himself that exceptions were taken against his Letter Ibid. p. 19. as if he had thereby confirmed Papism and Arminianism Which yet I believe was as far from truth as what was said by your Adversaries of you or by you of Grotius Bishop Wren Bishop Pierce and Doctor Taylor Bolsec in vitâ Calvini Pref. to Disp. against Master Tombes Exam Hist. p. 204. or by Bolsec of Mr. Calvin that he was eaten up of Lice or by the Papists of the Waldenses that they were Sorcerers and Witches or by some of Saint Austin that he was a Manichaeâ—n or by the Puritanes of Bishop Andrews that he was guilty of superstition or by the same of Bishop Montague that he was turned unto the Papists or by Standish of Erasmus that he denied the Resurrection and blasphemed Christ's miracles as dâ—ne by Magick or by Bellarmine of the same that he was a friend to Arianism or by Mr. Hickman of myâ—self that the printed Doctrines of Zuinglius c. who were dead and buried before I was born were the meer Chimaera's of my brain I pray consider these things and set a guard upon your pen from this time forwards You say I must be supposed to mean by a Puritane a man that feareth God c. Sect. 23. Sect. 21. I more admire at this speech A confident corrupting of plain words then at all the rest that have fallen from you for your own conscience is my witness and so are all my Readers eyes that my notion of a Puritane hath been ever agreeable with those which I have lately set before you from Bishop Andrews and Bishop Hall Doctor Cleark and Doctor Sanderson with divers others beyond exception How can you hope to be believed in what you say of nine Oaths in a breath and drinking healths unto the Divel when you can wilfully corrupt the plainest words that can be spoken And say I MUST be supposed to mean a man that feareth God whereas there is not so much as any circumstance of any the least probability that I should mean as you say but the contrary is as visible as the Sun at noon that I mean such Puritanes as have a right to that Title Neither fearing God nor hating covetouness neither seeking God's Kingdom nor the righteousness thereof but making a stalking-horse of Religion whereby to come at their carnal ends You say I deviate lamentably from Catholicism in my uncharitable censures of the Puritanes and Presbyterians That it s no Catholick Church which cannot hold such men as these â—or a Catholick Disposition that cannot embrace theÌ„ with that unfeigned special love that 's due to Christians Sect. 24. Sect. 22. Still you lamentably beat upon the very same hoof How some Puritanes have excommunicated themselves standing still a great deal faster theâ— some can gallop With unsignificant Repetitions naked affirmations and want of any thing like a proof you are able to advance another Section concerning Puritanes and Presbyterians not referring to any word which I had spoken of either nor to any one page where my Censure may appear to have been uncharitable My opinion is you durst not cite my words or pages for then your foule dealing had been too viâ—â—ble to the Reader Nay then you must have written another book to some purpose not This which you know is to none at all Had you answered my Book or any little part of it I must
Presbyterian Independent and Erastian as not the Scriptural way nor the way of Christ. And if all Protestants are reducible to those 4. Heads as sure they are then 't is clear that you write against all the Protestants and make men run into Popery by way of Refuge Or if you fright them also from thence by your winding-sheet or your Key you leave them to be nothing but Iewes and Heathens And I would very fain know what sort of Christians in all the world you have not endeavour'd to Disgrace at one time or another either in earnest or in jest I do seriously profess I can think of none 5. You do exceedingly commend the very same sort of Papists and with the same kind of Praises which Grotius give 's them You say * Grot. Rel. p. 10. when you read their publick writings you think they are now Blessed Soules with Christ. You read them with a great deal of Love and honour to the writers The French moderation is acceptable to all good men That Nation is an honourable ☜ part of the Church of Christ in your Esteem Much more must yoâ— honour the Pacificatory Endeavours of any that attempt the healing of the Church Can you blame Mr. Crandon or any reall Presbyterian for thinking or saying you are a Papist when they read such stuffe and compare it with what you say against Grotius will they not shrug or shake their heads with a Totus Mundus exerâ—et Histrioniam 6. Why should you labor to deceive the vulgar people into a Belief that the ablest Protestants in the land are Grotian Papists in the number of which I am far from reckoning my self unless it were to this end that the simple ones may flye from such as are Protestants indeed and shelter themselves under the Papists for feare of Popery I mean the Papists who march about eject the Protestants and succeed them as well in the profits of their Places as in the priviledge of their Pulpits under the Title and Maske of Presbyterians So very fitly was it said by our Learned and Reverend * See his Unanswerable Preface to the second Edition of his first Sermons Dr. Sanderson That your Party have been the great Promoters of the Roman Interest among us that you have hardened the Papists and betrayed the Protestant Cause 7. You refuse to joyne with us Protestants in the Publick Liturgy of the Church and to Communicate with us in the Sacrament of Eucharist according to the prescription of Lawes and Canons which doth the rather become an Argument of your being turn'd Papist Because in all such sâ—tatutes as have been made since the first year of Queen Elizabeth against Popish Recusants The refusing to be present at Common-Prayer or to receive the Sacrament according to the Formes and Rights mentioned in that Book is expressed as the most proper legal Character whereby to distinguish a Popish Recusant from a true Protestant In so much that Use hath been made of that very Character in sundry Acts since the beginning of the long Parliament for the taxing of double Payments upon Recusants Which very Argument was used by †Reasons of the present Iudgment c. p. 34. the University of Oxford against the Ordinance for the Directory imposed on them 8. In that you profess your self a Protestant and yet declare against all four waies Episcopal Presbyterian Independent and Erastian giving out that the way of Christ must be compounded of all fower you help to justifie the Papists in the reproaches which they cast upon our Religion Ib. p. 5. That we know not what our Religion is That since we left them we know not where to stay and that our Religion is a * Harding confut of Apology part 6. ch 2. Parliamentary Religion Would you have done them so great a service if you had not been of their side A likely matter 9. Your not allowing the Civil Magistrate to be Supreme in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil doth very clearly discover your partialitie to A Pope The Oath of Supremacy here in England was purposely framed for such as You. 10. It was observed by Bishop Bramhall against * p. â—5 Militiere that the private whispers and printed insinuations of Papists touching the Church of England's coming about to shake hands with the Roman in the points controverted was merely devised to gull some silly Creatures whom they found too apt to be caught with chaâ—f And That Art which was us'd to begin our Breach you have craftily continued to make it wider For intus existens prohibet Alienum whilst the Episcopal Protestants are kept from being cast out the Roman Religion can never enter 11. You are a Papist as much as Grotius though you should prove as much a Protestant as Grotius was But you do every where contend that Grotius was a Papist and so at least in that Notion you must needs be a Papist as well as He. 12. You †Grot. Relig. profess to approve of pacificatory Attempts between us and the Papists p. 30. and that you are zealously desirous of it p. 20. and that you honour the peaceable Dispositions of the late Episcopal Divines p. 21. Which being duly compar'd with all you say against Grotius and against the late Episcopal Divines and this again being compar'd with what you have written both for and against the Directory as well as for and against the Common-prayer and against the very Covenant which you pretended to be for and for Episcopacy it self which yet you Covenanted against may lay a ground of Suspicion that you have gotten a Dispensation to use your Tongue and your pen as you see occasion you having been both for and against the Papists as well as for and against the Presbyterians 13. Whilst you labour to prove that Grotius turn'd Papist you are doing the Papists a special service by robbing our Churches of such a prop and by tempting as many to turn Papists as do believe that Grotius knew what was best Whereas the true Protestants on the contrary are encouraged to adhere to the Church of England however disgraced and forsaken by a revolting people by the Iudgment of Grotius that she was neerest unto the Primitive in point of purity and pious Order 14. The Design which is laid by you and others for the Introduction of Poperie is driven on by those means which you have * See your Christian Concord p. 46 47. acknowledged your self to be proper and suitable to the work notwithstanding you have hid them with other Names The first part of the plot is to blow up the sparkes of Schism and Haeresie that our Church being divided may become odious and men be prepared for a Remove The second is An Incessant Indeavour to infect all persons especially those in power Civil or Military with the opinion of Libertinism for which look back on Chap. 3. that so your Doctrines and Practises may have
the Catholicks have from Antiquity If some of the soberest of the Jesuites such as Peâ—avius and Sirmondus would for the love they bear to peace subscribe the Augustan Confession it might be much for the honour but could not be for the prejudice of our Religion for if we rejoyce for the Conversion of now and then a Iew why not for that of a Iesuite also Again supposing that Grotius had been able in his own sense to subscribe the Trent Articles in order to the peace and unity of Christendom it would no more be an Evidence of his being turnd Papist than of any Papist's turning Protestant who should subscribe the Augustan Confession * Compare this with Sect. 12. The very utmost of your Objections against Grotius is that he design'd to deal with the Articles of Trent as Sancta Clara with the Articles of the Church of England to wit by drawing them aside to another Sence than what is most obvious in the words themselves And admit it were so indeed yet 1. He had better grounds for it than Sancta Clara to wit the places of Scripture and Ancient Doctors in the Margin which may be used as a Key to unlock their meaning when it is Doubtful And if the meaning of the Text is truely agreeable to the Margin there is then a just ground of publick peace in case the Scripture and Antiquity do contain a good meaning which I hope you will not refuse to grant me 2. But however you must be minded that this is a thing which the Papists do most of all blame in our Reconciler to wit his assuming so great a liberty as to misinterpret their Definitions Just as we who are Protestants do lay a blame upon Sancta Clara for misexpounding our Articles against our mind From whence notwithstanding the Papists were never so irrational as to conclude that Franciscus à Sanctâ Clarâ turn'd Protestant Much less may we infer that Grotius turn'd Papist from his making their Doctrins comply with Scripture who had wrested the Scripture to serve their Doctrins 3. If he could find a sense in the words of Trent which being agreeable to Scripture and to the Protestant Confession might be by Protestants subscribed to what hurt were it to us or gain to them Even This would evince him to be no â—apist For if he were what need could there be of such commodious Explications 4. Adde to this as I said before Sect. 12. his Quâ—d si praeterea Quod sâ— praetereâ— tollantur ista quae cum piâ istâ Doctrinâ pugnant c. But if besides not and if as you translate it noting this to be required yet further towards a peace before the peace-Maker himself can rest contented that all the Errors of the Papacy be taken away which having never been introduced by Authority of Councils or ancient Tradition meaning no other Councils then what are ancient agreeable to the Tradition which comes immediately after he resolves may be Reformed by Kings and Bishops in their several Regions without the making of any Breach in the Church of God 5. And once for all let it be noted That Grotius his use of that * Especially taking in an old Tradition c. p. 386. phrase which you lately perverted to your own ends is onely to signify against the Romanist's Errors that they are not introduced by antient Tradition and therefore wanting that Authority to which they lay a dishonest claim they are unquestionably fit to be taken away Discuss p. 71. Sect. 15. What you recite out of Grotius in your p. 387. Must receive its true sense from the words of the Author before and after You must observe the Resolution both in France and else where * Inâ—eâ—im in Galliâ alibi Duo constare video neque pro Concilio universali lâ—abendum id quod à Patriarchalibus fedibus aut omnibus aut plurimis est improbatum c. That no one Council is to be reckon'd for universall which is disliked either by all or by the major part of the Patriarchal Sees This then must assure us what his Notion is of Councils when he speakes of them in gegerall without naming which And for the passage which you cite I pray Sir tell me Hath not France the Scriptures and the Dogmata that is the Doctrins in this place not the opinions as you translate it explained in the four Oecumenical Councils and also the Decrees against Pelagius If so why do you quarrell if not why do you say that you esteem that Nation an honorable part of the Church of Christ Grot. Rel. p. 10. If you did not strive to deceive your Reader why did you not faithfully translate the passage but purposely leave out the speciall words which would have served to clear their Author you know his sentence is plainly this That in those Churches which joyne with the Roman In Ecclesiis illis non Scriptura tantùm manet sed dogmata explicata in Magnis Synodis Nicaena Constantinop Ephesinâ Chalcedonensi Discuss p. 71. not onely the Scripture doth still remain but the Doctrins also explained in the GREAT COUNCILS Those of Nice Constantinople Ephesus Chalcedon and the Things decreed against Pelagius by the Bishops of Rome But in your Translation you neither express the word Great which is of vast consequence nor do you name so much as one of the four Great Councils As if you were willing that your Readers should imagin he might meane some partiall and trivial Councils and lay as much weight upon such as those as if indeed he had been a Papist Now concerning the Canons of those great Councils for Reformation of manners in the Bishop of Rome which Grotius call's for that reason Egregious Constitutions They are also received by Rome it self And were they put in execution there could not be any such thing as Popery Because according to those Canons the Bishop of Rome must quit his claim to the Universality of his Pastorship or to his being an Vniversal Iudicial Head and must leave the Church to be govern'd by her severall Primates Hence it t is that such wise and pacifick Protestants as Melanchthon Isaac Casaubon Grotius and Bishop Bramhall do still exact a Reformation Secundum Canones Yet this is but one of those many things for which good Canons have been enacted And thus you see at every turne how very little you were qualified to intermeddle in these Things Sect. 16. The next passage you translate in as fraudulent a manner as any other Discuss p. 48. Read and Repent what you have done These are the things which thanks be to God the Catholicks do not thus believe though many that call themselves Catholicks so live as if they did believe them But Protestants so live by force of their Opinions and Catholicks by the decay of Discipline p. 387. First you omit the word Quidam which is of greatest moment to shew the meaning of the
universal visible Head p. 302. For the Primacy allow'd unto the Pope by the learnedst Adversaries of Popery Melanchthon and Bishop Bramhall Dr. Hammond and Bloâ—del as well as Grotius is not an universal Headship as that signifie's Pastorship but at the most a Patriarchate of the west which does not imply but exclude a Monaâ—chy and is exactly reconcileable with an Aristocratick Government of the Church And even this is but according to the Ancient Canons by which he is qualified if he please to advance the Honour of Christianity but not to hinder or obstruct it Again this Primacy thus allow'd is not so properly the Proposal as the Concession of the Protestants with a proviso that the Pope will require no more And for the buying of Peace I told you long since how great a price is to be paid How it removeth the whole mistake Sect. 27. To conclude the whole subject and to remove the cause of your Mistakes to make it very hard for you to persevere in your impertinence or to make you unexcusable in case you do so I give you warning to distinguish between the New Romish Canons and the * Note that the four Generaâ—l Councils were confirmed in Engl. by Act of Parlament in the first year of Queen Eliz. as Dr. Featly well observed in his Letter to the late Primate Ancient Canons of the universal Church between a Primacy of Order and a Supremacy of Power and not to delude your self any longer by fixing your thoughts upon the one when Grotius and other Protestants do not approve but of the oâ—â—er You profess to approve of the Pacifick design It was Grotius his judgement that the likelyest way to make it take a good effect is to take from the Pope his universal Supremacy over the Church and to make him content himself with a Primacy of Order aâ— that Principium unitatis for the peace of Christendom which Melanchthon King Iames Isaaâ— Casaubon Bishop Bramhall Dr. Hammond David Blondel and all intelligent Protestants have still allow'd him By this meanes the whole Church should have one Common Regiment under Bishops and Metropolâ—tans and Primates and Patriarchs which as it iâ— much cast down if not destroyed by the universall Monarchy of the Pope so it well consists with his Primacy according to the Canons of Generall Councils Upon these precise termes an universal peace might be begun if all Protestants would agree under the Government of Bishops and the Popes descend from their usurpations and all other things might be reformed by the Supreme Magistrates and Bishops in their respective places of jurisdiction Now this being the utmost that Grotius pretend's towards a Peace you are highly injurious whilst you joyne the Grotians and the French Papists in making the Pope to be the ordinary judicial Head p. 380. For the Ancient Canons make him but one although the first of five Patriarchs and allow every Primate to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his own Province as Dr. Hammond hath made apparent in his most satisfactory Treatise concerning Schism which hath been twice or thrice rail'd at but never answer'd * Dr. Hammond of Schisme Chap. 5. Sâ—ct 6. p. 100. Especially from the Canon of the Ephesine Council in the particular cause of the Archbishop of Cyprus over whom the Patriarch of Antioch though he extended his Patriarchate over all the Orient was adjudged to have no manner of Power I hope you see your obligation to make amends for your Calumny in which you cannot persevere without incurring the danger of calumniating others as well as Grotius Ibid. ch â— p. 59. even the ablest Supporters of the Protestant cause For Dr. Hammond hath told us as well as Grotius and sure I am that they were both of the same Religion That if we respect order and primacy of place the Bishop of Rome had it among the Patriarchs as the Patriarchs among the Primates that City of Rome being the Lady of the World and the seat of the Empire Ibid. ch 5. p. 100. Sect. 5. Again speaking of the preeminence of the Roman See heretofore though he denies her any supreme Authoritative power over other Primates yet he allows her a precedence or priority of place in Councils an eminence in respect of Dignity which is perfectly reconcileable with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Independence the no-subordination or subjection of other Primates Thus our Reverend Dr. Hammond whom I am verily perswaded you will not dare to call Papist for fear of derision from your most popular Admirers However you do acknowledge that Bishop Bramhall is a right Protestant and he hath told you very lately * Bishop Bramhall in his Schisme Garded c. p. 4. That the main Controversie nay he thinks he might say the onely necessary Controversie between them and us is about the extent of papal power If the Pope would content himself with his exordium Unitatis which was all that his primitive predecessors had and it is as much as a great part of his Sons will allow him at this day we are not so hard-hearted or uncharitable for such an innocent Title or Office to disturb the peace of the Church Nor do we envy him such a preeminence among Patriarchs as St. Peter had by the confession of his own party among the Apostles †Ibid. p. 24 25 26. Primatus Pâ—tro datur ut una Christi Ecclesia una Cathedra monstratur Cyprian Epist. ad Actonium de Uuiâ—ate Ecclesiae Together with this compare his citation of Bishop Andrews expressing his own sense and the sense of King Iames yea and the sense of the Church of England To which having added the like sense of St. Cyprian he doth thus very briefly conclude his own * p. 26. This primacy neither the Ancients nor â—e do deny to St. Peter of Order of Place of Preeminence If this first Movership would serve his turn this Controversy were at an end for our parts A Câ—njecture passed upon some Lâ—tters Sect. 28. It is not amiss to take notice of the applauding Letters of which you boast p. 393. and to conjecture at their design if there were any such things Some who saw in your Aphorismes and in some other things which you had publish'd more of Truth and Moderation than in other writings of Presbyterians were willing to pardon many things which they saw amiss in you for the love of that Truth of which they found you a Patronizer No doubt but that Charity which hopeth all things did make them hope that more study would daily discover more Truth which for want of good study you had not hitherto discern'd and which as soon as you had learn't might serve to rescue your Inward man from all schismatical and factious wayes In which charitable hope if they were very much mistaken theirs was the error but yours the fault and you alone are accomptable for having so guiltily deceived their expectations
to our invitations we cannot do less than declare that we cannot help it We are no rigid exactors of Reparation Do but return to our Communion and we are satisfied Do but accept of our forgiveness and we are pleas'd If you cannot agree with us in every act of our obedience to the established Canons of the Church at least come back to that station from whence you fell and no small matter shall ever part us The Church of England jâ—stified by the Confessions of her Deserters 4. You profess to be for Bishops as well as we p. 5. you acknowledge a stinted Liturgy is in it self lawful and that in some parts of pâ—blick holy service it is ordinarily necessary and that in the parts where it is not of necessity it may not onely be submitted to but desired when the peace of the Church requireth it that the Ministers and Churches which earnestly desire it should not by the Magistrate be absolutely forâ—idden the use of a convenient prescribed Liturgy c. p. 358.359 Nay farther yet you do acknowledge That the use of the Surplice bâ—ing commanded by the Magistrate you would obey him and wear that Garment if you could not be dispensed with Yea though secundarily the whiteness be to signify purity and so it be made a teaching sign yet would you obey p. 409.410 Next for kneeling at the Sacrament you say that as sinfully as this gesture was imposed you did for your part obey the imposers and would do if it were to do again rather then disturb the peace of the Church or be deprived of its Communion p. 411. You confess you see no reason to scruple at the lawfulness of the Ring in Marriage Ibid. You say that Organs or other Instruments of Musick in God's worship being a help partly natural and partly artificial to the exhilarating of the spirits for the prâ—yse of God you know no argument to prove them simply unlawfull but what would prove a cup of wiâ—e unlawfull or the Tune and Meter and melody of singing unâ—awfull p. 412. Again for Holy-daies you confess That some time for God's worship besides the Lord's-day must be appointed and God having not told us which the Magistracy may on fit occasions Ibid. Nay for the great Holy-daies of tâ—e Church to which you have the most aversion such as celebrate the memorial of Christ's Nativity Circumcision Fasting Transfiguration Ascension and the like you freely profess to be resolved if you live where such Holy-daies as these are observed to censure no man for observing them nor would you deny them liberty to follow their judgement if you had the power of their Liberties c. p. 416. Yea more if you lived under a Government that perâ—mptorily commanded it you would observe the outward rest of such a Holy-day and you would preach on it and joyn with the Assemblies in Gods worship on it p. 417. For the name and form of an Altar you think it a thing indifferent whether the Table stand this way or that way The primitive Churches you confess used commonly the names of Sacrifice and Altar and Priest and you think lawfully and you will not be he that shall condemn them p. 417. Last of all for the Cross in Baptisme which you have most suspected to be unlawfull you dare not peremptorily say it is unlawfull nor will you condemn the Ancients and Moderns that use it nor will you make any disturbance in the Church about it p. 418. 5. After all these acknowledgments many more in other places I wonder how you can excuse your departure from us The Pâ—esbyterian Sepâ—râ—tists apparently unexcusable or what should keep you from your return Will you not live in Communion with us because we observe the Rites and Orders of the Church which you confess to be very innocent Or do you abandon what is innocent because we use it Are our Bishops the worse for being derived from the Apostles as our Reverend Dr. Gauden hath lately proved by an induction Are they the worse for being in England ever since the first time that Christianity was planted Or the worâ—e for being setled by the fundamental Lawes of the British land They are not the worse for being approved and contended foâ— unto the death by the learnedst part and the most pious of the Reformed Churches of which our Confessors and Martyrs do make up a great and a noble Army That our Church was a true established Church in the year of our Lord 1641. You have so plentifully granted that 't is too late to deny They that * See Bishop Hali's peacemâ—ker Sect. 7. p. 58. flye out from a true established Church and run waies of their own raising and fomenting Sects and Schisms amongst God's people are sent for their Doom by our late Reverend Bishop Hall to those notable words of the Apostle Rom. 16.17 18. And whether or no the Presbyterians have not thus flown out judge I pray by the †See Dr. Ham. of Schism ch 11. p. 178 181. last Chapter of Dr. Hammond's Treatise concerning Schism Or let the men of that way but lay their hands upon their hearts Now when you seem to have profited not a little by that excellent Preface of Dr. Sanderson wherein you are personally concerned in coming up so far as hath been shew'd to the most disputable things of the Church of England what can make you stand off at so great a distance what kind of answer will you return unto your own expostulations Shall the breach be healed or would you have it to continue If it must continue tell us why and how long Would you have it go with us to Eternity Do you censure us to Hell Or will you not goe with us to Heaven I pray return to us in time rather than wish you had done it when 't is too late Thâ—y are obnoxious to men of all sides for thâ—ir sin of Schism 6. You cannot charge any sort of men for having separated from you without incurring the same charge for having separated from us When Mr. Cawdry writ against Independency and gave it the Title of A great Schism I could not but smile at the retortion which Dr. Owen very speedily and â—itly made him Nay it is publickly declared by a great Body of congregationals * Praef. p. 13. That they did not break from the Presbyterians but the Presbyterians rather from them You are so far from agreeing with one another that you can never be expected to be at unity with your selves unless by being reconcil'd to the Church of England whose Calamities have obscâ—r'd but not destroyed Her The sin of Schism is contracted saith the Judicious Dr. Hammond either by some irregularity of Actions loco supra citato contrary to the standing Rule and Canons of this Church or by Disobedience to some commands of Ecclesiastical Superiours And then by whom it is contracted I need not tell you But Blessed be God as
the chief Fathers and Pillars of the Church of which the Dioeces of London can have but one And so the plain Country-man doth no exactly understand you Sect. 32. Whil'st you say that some Protestants A fâ—ir Confessiâ—n how far a Protâ—stant mâ—y go and be still a Protestant as Bishop Bramhall and many more do hold the Pope may be obeyed by the Transmarine Western Churches as the Patriarch of the West and be taken by us all to be the Principium unitatis to the Catholick Church and the Roman determinations still may stand except those of the last 400. yeares and those if they obtrude them not on others p. 7. You help your Reader to conclude that Grotius might well have been a Protestant by the very allowance of his accuser And supposing my Reader to be intelligent I shall make no other use of your large Concession Sect. 33. You very confidently say Of Bishâ—ps â—nd Presbytery that in the pulished judgments of Bishop Hall Bishop Usher Dr. Holdsworth Forbes and others they would have all Presbyters to be Governours of the Churches one of them having a stated Presidency or Moderatorship and this will content them p. 9. I know not what they have declared in other parts of their writings which I have never yet seen Nor am I sure I know your meaning by the word Presbyters Presidency and Governours of the Churches much less am I sure that you your self do know theirs But I know what Bishop Hall hath done and suffer'd for that Episcopacy which had been established in this land with Christianity it self and had also been confirmed by 32. Acts of Parlament nor need I tell you how much an Act doth differ from an Ordinance and was abundantly provided for by Magna Charta which by statute is * 25. of Edw. 1. ch 1 2. declared the Common Lâ—w of the land I say I know what he hath done against the many-headed Smectymnuus in which are compendiously represented the chiefest sâ—icklers for the Presbytery as Dr. Gauden hath expressed in that crooked low shrub which ambitiously supplanted the well-grown Cedar Again I know what he hath suffered by his imprisonment in the Tower where yet the reason of his imprisonment made it a comfortable restraint I farther know what he was for when he writ his Peace-maker See Bishop Hall's Peace-maker p. 48 49 c. to wit the Primitive Government universally agreed upon by all antiquity for which he refers you to the writings of Clemens and Ignatius He makes use of the Confessions both of Camero and Beza of Marlorate and Calvin that in a Calvin Inst. l. 4. â— 4. very City there was chosen one Bishop least an equality in thâ— Clergy should engender strife That the Bishop was indeed the very b Marlorat in Apoc. 2. Prince of the Clergy That he was above the Presbyters in point of c Beza de Grad Minist Evang. order That being chosen by the Colledge of the Presbyters he was to be their President and that not without some d I. Camer Myrothâ—c in Tim 4 14. Authority over the rest Now though the Bishop doth consent that he be call'd a Moderator a President a Superintendent an Overseer or by any other such name if the name of a Bishop is displeasing as thinking it pity that words should break square where the things are agreed yet saith he for the fixedness or change of this person Bishop Hall p. 50. let the antient and universal practice of God's Church be thought worthy to oversway And he had said a little * p. 48. before that the President must be constant as well as oâ—e Now had you sworn in taking the Scotish Covenant to change the name of a Bishop and there had stopt you might have cited the Peace-maker with much more reason than now you do But you swore to endeavour the extirpation of the thing of Church-Government it self by law establish'd For that you might not be mistaken you explain'd the word Prelacy by the word Church-Government c. by a good token that in conclusion you superstitiously held it for Anchristian And because you often take the confidence to cite that Treatise of Bishop Haâ—l as if it had yielded you some fig-leaves to cover the shame of your undertakings I pray observe your concernments in his Epistle before the book I will but put you in mind when the Book was first printed to wit in the yeaâ— 1647. and who were the very first men who did quieta movere and then I will give you his Golden Paragraâ—h It is felony by our Municipal Lawes for a man to burn but the frame of a Building intended for an house Bâ—shop Hâ—ll's ceâ—sure of the Dâ—stuâ—bers â—f sâ—tled Goveâ—nment in the Church how hainously flagitious shall the God of heaven account it to set fire on his complete spirituall House the Chuâ—ch whereof every believer is a living stone Doubtless how slight soever the world mak's of theâ—e spiritual distempers it shall be easier in the day of judgement for Theeves and Whoremongers and Adulterers then for the breakers of publick Peace Never was there any so fearfull vengeance inflicted upon any Malefactors as upon Corah and his Combination Surely if we consider the sin it self other offenses had been far more hainous but in that it was a presumptuous mutiny tending to the affront of allowed Authority to the violation of Peace and to the destruction of community the earth could not stand under it hell only is fit to receive it Now Sir consider with your self both what you have done in these times and with what success You did not open your mouthes wider against Moses and Aaron pretending they had taken too much upon them than all the people of the earth have open'd theirs against you Presbytery like Corah was swallow'd up quick If the Bishops you were against did differ so little as you pretend from those very Bishops which you are for why was the publick peace broken for private interesses and ends Let me tell you in the words of the right Reverend Bishop Hall thâ—t you and others of your way who were born and bred under Authority * Ubi supra p. 93 94. should have contented your selves to be Disciples rather than Iudges and have entertained reverent thoughts of those that were set over you not more for the Gravity and Wisdom of their persons then for the Authority of their Places Even Timothie's youth may not be contemned Hereupon it was that holier antiquity even from the daies of great and gracious Constantine thought it very conducible to the good success of the Gospel to put respects of honour upon the sacred Messengers of God Damas. Epist. de Chorâ—piscopis It is too true an observation of Damasus where the name of Church-Governours is grown contemptible the whole state of the Church must needs be perturbed Could you expect any thing less from the common people than
that they should pay you in your own Coin and say yee took too much upon you and that all the Congregation was at least as holy as themselves Had your spirituall Superiours been more venerable in yours yee had not certainly been so vile in the Peoples eyes Th Lord Primate's censure of Presbyterian Ordinations as Iâ—valid and Schismaticall Published by Dr. B. p. 125.126 2. Next for his Grace of Armagh whom I can never find you calling by a higher Title then Bishop Usher I shall but mind you how he hath pleaded for the Prelacy of England in other workes and onely recite his words at length out of that very piece in which you seem to have taken the greatest pleasure For even there he hath concluded your Ordinations by Presbyters to be invalid in as much as they were made where Bishops might have been had there being nothing but necessity in case Bishops cannot be had which in the judgement of the Primate can make such valid And that you may not flatter your self his Grace intended such a necessity as against all reason you sometimes offer to pretend you shall read him subjoyning these following words Holding as I do that a Bishop hath Superiority in degree above a Presbyter you may easily judge that the ordination made by such Presbyters as have severed themselves from those Bishops unto whom they had sworn Canonical obedience cannot possibly by me be excused from being Schismaticall You see what necessity the Primate admitted for an excuse and in what respect you are unexcusable For besides that you are not under any necessity of ordaining Presbyters without a Bishop no necessity can happen but what will be of your own making and such an home-made necessity will but aggravate the wickedness of them that made it I make no doubt but you will say the same thing if a power succeeding shall deal with you and your Function as you have dealt with your Superiours I shall not add more of the Primate now than that the Reduction of Episcopacy is a posthumous work and yet pretend's to no other modell than what may stand with the preeminence both of Bishops and Archbishops 3. Dr. Holdsworth's Iudgement is as well known Dr. Holdsworth's sufferings a declaration of his judgement as what he suffered for his judgement during the memorable Reign of the Presbyterians Which puts me in mind of what was said by that learned Gentleman Mr. Morrice * The Nâ—w-inclosures broken down Sect. â—1 p. 212. the digladiations about Discipline have laid open Doctrin to those destructive wounds it bleed's under the discountenancing and depressing of so many learned Champions of the truth hath been the leaving the Church without a Guard When you were swearing and fighting to level the Bishops with the ground for want of merit and suâ—ficiency to seat your selves among the Bishops you had not the patience to consider or not the prudâ—nce to believe that you were laying out your strength as blinded Sampson did his to pull down a house upon your heads by laying your hands upon its Pillars Iudg. 16.29 But now you are taught by sad experience that what you covenanted against was even the glory and support of your own profession you will I hope be so just as to blame yourselves if you shall live to suffer as heavy things as you have done Sect. 34. Whereas you say in your excuse The Presbyterian excuses are aggravations of their offences that some of your party did not swear obedience to the Bishops or did not disobey such Bishops as Bishop Vsher assureth us were the Bishops of the Antient Churches and that the Schism is not such as makes men uncapable of our Communion and that since Bishop Prideaux dyed there hath been none in his place p. 12.13 I briefly answer first that you speak against your knowledge unless you know not what you did when admitted into the Priesthood And that I may not repeat two or three pages of what I have said in another book I refer you for a sight of your great and manifold obligations to obey your Ordinary with reverence and other chief Ministers unto whom the Government and Charge was committed over you to acknowledge the order of our Church as then it stood to be according to the will of our Lord Iesus Christ to approve of Bishops and Archbishops to use the Common prayer to observe the Traditions and Ceremonies of the Church and all according to the Lawes of this Realm I say I refer you for a sight of your great and manifold obligations to my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch 2. p. 51.52 53. Next I must mind you that the Lord Primate did onely speak of Communion with the Transmarine Protestans in France and Holland upon this supposition that he were in those Countries But our English Presbyterians were under another consideration He never received the blessed Scrament at any one of your hands nor would he ever hold Communion with any one of your Revolting Scotizing Churches But if you return to our Communion from which you fell by transgression both our Armes and our hearts are alwaies open to receive you And that you may do it so much the sooner let me admonish you of the disorder which the Lord Primate wonder'd at in your late Presbyterian ordinations A disorder so great that it sufficeth of it self without your other imperfections to say no harder things of them to make a nullity in the things that you most confide in * See the Primates judgement of Ordinat by Pres. set out by Dr. Bern. p. 136.137 138 139. To give the Seal of Ordination as some are pleas'd to call imposition of Hands without any express Commission annexed or Grant of Authority to the person the Primate was wont to say seemed to him to be like the putting of a Seal to a blanck Your Presbyterian Ordinations he judg'd no better and the reasons of it at large you may find in those pages which I have cast into the Margin What Bishops there were in the Antient Churches or what the Primate thought of them it matter 's not Your disobedience was not the better for being acted against those to whom you had promis'd to yield obedience And those alone are the Bishops which here t is pertinent to speak of for they alone were the Bishops to whom the men of this Age had sworn Canonical obedience through the Non performance of which obedience you had extorted from the Lord Primate that heavy censure If since the Death of Bishop Prideaux none hath succeeded in his place remember what I said lately of self-created necessity and do not imagin your Sin is lessen'd by a principall part of its aggravation Add to this that there are Bishops though not perhaps in your County And where Bishops are to be had you were forbid by the Primate to ordain without them Sect. 35. Whereas you say of Bishop Prideaux Bishop Prideaux
Deduction And if the Deduction is irregular why is your dealing the very same to prove your irregular Ordinations exactly regular 4. Come we now from the Form to the matter of your Syllogism Your major is proved from the words of Dr. Hammond that the * See the whole Annotation on Act. 11.30 B. p. 406. to p. 409. Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scripture times belonged principally if not onely to Bishops there being no evidence that any of the second Order were then instituted Which words if you observe them do not deny but suppose that as soon as any of the second order were admitted into the Church they were immediately subject unto the First that is to say to the Scripture-Bishops there having been given him in Scripture a twofold power first a power of ordaining inferiour Presbyters next of Governing or Ruling them when so ordained Had you but fairly transcribed the Doctor 's whole Period you must have added to your Citation these following words though soon after even before the writing of Ignatius Epistles there were such instituted in all Churches And had you read unto the end of that excellent Annotation you would have found Epiphanius for Bishop Timothy his power or jurisdiction over Presbyters from 1 Tim. 5.1 19. Where whatever the word Presbyter may be concluded to import whether a single Priest in the common notion of the word Presbyter subjected to the Bishop or a Bishop subjected to the Metropolitan it equally make's against you that Bishop Timothy had power to rebuke and to receive an Accusation against a Presbyter which no meer Presbyter can pretend to have over another This would imply a contradiction to wit that an equall is not an equall because a Ruler and a Judge to the very same person to whom he is an equall The same use is to be made of what is cited from Theophylact concerning Titus * Ibid. to wit that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iudgement as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ordination of so many Bishops was committed to him And I pray Sir remember one special Emphasis which evidently lye's on the Doctor 's words Which do not run thus the Title of Presbyters in Scripture times belonged onely to the Bishops but if not onely yet at least Principally to them And therefore however the case might be whether onely or not onely all the course of his arguing will be equally cogent and unresistible 5. Now for your minor that most of your Ordainers are such Pastors you prove it by saying first they are Pastors But this is petitio principii with a witnesse to say they are because they are And 't is a gross transition ab Hypothesi ad Thesin to say they are such Pastors because they are Pastors The word Pastor in our dayes doe's commonly signify a Priest to whom is committed a Cure of Soules And when I have lately so us'd it it hath been onely in complyance with that vulgar Catachresis But in the use of Scripture and antient Writers Pastor signifies him to whom the charge of the Flock is Originally intrusted whereas our English acception of the word Rector which is not the Scriptural or antient stile is wholly extended to a deputed or partiary Government in the Church to wit a Government over part of the Pastors Diocess which Pastor in the old stile hath the plenary charge committed to him Your error therefore was very great in confounding the Pastors with the Rectors of the people unless you spake with the vulgar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and supposing that so you did you spake completely besides the purpose And whereas you say in your Margin Mr. T. P. call's himself Rector of Brington I know not what you can mean by it unless an unkilfull intimation that I arrogate to my self somewhat more then is my due And therefore to undeceive either your self or your Readers I must tell you that in all Records which concern this Church or its Incumbent in all Leases and Compositions and Iudgments of Law in all Directions and Orders which have ever been sent by Supreme Authority the Church hath been stiled the Rectory and the Incumbent the Rector of it You may gather the reason from Mr. Sparrow's Learned Rationale upon the Book of Common Prayer The chief Rector oâ— a Parish called the Cardinal Priest of old quia incardinatus in Beneficio was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the rest under him his Clerks Where there were Chantries as there were in most Churches of England their assisting the Rector of the Church made up that Form of speech the Priest and Clerks And Brington being a Parish consisting of five distinct Members hath occasion'd the Rector in all times to be at the charge of an Assistant I have told you what I mean whensoever I write my self Rector of Brington If Mr. Cawdrey hath meant more when he hath written himself as publickly the Rector of Billing I leave him to give you a Reason for it Having done with your Argument and with your persoâ—all reflection I shall observe but one thing more to wit that whilst you say most of your Ordainers are such Pastors as Dr. Hammond spake of in Scripture-times which yet I hope you will retract you imply a confession that some are not Nor can I see by what meanes you will excuse your selves unto your selves for having admitted of such Ordainers As for your second and third sentences in your Sect. 5. p. 199. You have an answer included in what went before and so you will have in that which follows For Sect. 38. In your seventh Chapter Presbyterians are not Bishops by having Deacons under them p. 203. Sect. 18. You again pretend to fetch an Argument from the words of the Reverend Dr. Hammond Your naked affirmation is express'd in these words Where there are no such Presbyters with a President it is yet enough to prove him a Bishop that he hath Deacons under him or but one Deacon Your pretended proof of this assertion is from the words of Doctor H. which now ensue When the Gospel was first preached by the Apostles and but few converted they ordained in every City and Region no more but a Bishop and one or more Deacons to attend him there being at the present so small store out of which to take more and so small need of ordaining more Reduce this proofe into a Syllogisme which may serve your interest in any measure and it will be like your former most dishonourably false For thus you must form it do what you can if you intend to make it in imitation of a proof A primitive Bishop had no more then a Deacon or Deacons to attend him A Presbyter hath no more then a Deacon or Deacons to attend him therefore a Presbyter is a Primitive Bishop Here you see are three affirmatives in the second Figure And by an Argument so form'd I will prove you to be anything either Fish or Fowle
were much contemn'd by one another To say that Mr. Calvin ascribeth Sin to Gods impulse and that Dr. Twisse defendeth Zuinglius affirming God to be the Author of Adultery and Murder and to cite their pages wherein their words are to be seen is to discover their Doctrines and no farther to meddle with the men When the most learned Mr. Hales even whilst he was a Calvinist not yet converted by †See Mr. Farindon's Accompt prefixt to Hales his Remains Episcopius told in one of his Letters tâ— Sir Dudley Carleton how Gomarus pleaded for this poâ—ition * See Mr. Hales his Letter of Decemb. 12.1618 p. 47. that God did predestine men to Sin we cannot say that Mr. Hales did load that Synodist with obloqâ—y by relating the story with his dislike and saying he mended the Question as Tinkers mend Kettles making it worse then it was before But what can be possibly so absurd which Mr. Bagshaw will not dare to put in print when he is Angry He sayes I seem to be enamour'd upon my numerous issue when yet his very Calumny implies his self-Contradiction For he concludeâ— me the Father of the severall Reflections oâ— his Discourse although he knows I never own'd them And could he think it my Issue upon which I was enamour'd but would not own Had I indeed been the Author of all those Bookes of which by enemies and friends I have been suspected Mr. Bagshaw might have call'd it a numerous issue And of some of those many he might suppose me to be enamour'd could I have had but the madnesse to think them mine I have disowned so many Bookes since Oxford was visited with the Plague not because I conceiv'd them unworthy of me but because I would not be overvalued nor offend like the old or the new Bathyllus Perhaps indeed I am the Author of as many things which shall be namelesse as those to which I have put my name But doe's it follow I am the Author of those Reflections for which Mr. Bagshaw hath rail'd against me as if I had really been one of his Quondam-Masters I deny that sequel and let him prove it if he is able Or can I seem to be enamour'd of a numerous issue who would not be thought to be the parent of as many as I may but of as few as I think I must But I am probably to be blam'd for taking notice so much at large of so lewd a writer Whose inhumanity towards me without the least shadow or shew of reason I having never provok'd him in any kind unlesse it were by my peaceable and passive silence as it hath antidoted the venome which he hath spit at Mr. Busby so to be hated by such a person with such a person as Mr. Busby will I doubt not procure me his Readers Love Having now done with Mr. Bagshaw I bid him heartily Farewell Nor do I say it as a complement or word of Course but as wishing him Repentance and change of Life Of the other Oxonian I take no leave as having given him no more then a Salutation and as supposing he may deserve a more elaborate entertainment If Sir I have tyr'd you with too much length I will not detain you any longer than whilst I may humbly desire your pardon and very heartily commend you to the special guidance of the Almighty in whom I am and shall be ever Your sincerely affectionate and humble Servant THOMAS PIERCE Brington Iuly 7. 1659. THE END ERRATA PAge 3. l. 36. for â—â— r. nor p. 12. l. 8. r. France p. 19. l. 29. after all r. of p. 21. l. 32. for Mr. r. Dâ— p. 28. l. 28. for concluding r. unconcluding p. 37. in mâ—rg l. 5. for missarum r. amissarum p. 41. l. 7. r. brains p. 42. l. 11. r. conceit p. 49. l. 34. for leasure r. pleasure p. 56. l. 26 for was r. t was p. 57. l 16. after agree r. not p. 93. l. 32. dele to p. 100. in marg l. 5. r. p. 40.41.42 p. 108. l. 16. r. Dr. Iohn Still p. 111. l. 8. r. zeal p. 117. in marg l. 7 after Râ—sticano r. p. 209. Hâ—nnoviae Edit A. D. 1611. p. 120. l. 6. after wâ—re r. both p. 147. in maâ—g l. 6. for p. 123. r. â—22 p. 170. l. 20. for do r. not p. 217. l. 21. after Them begin the Thirty first Section p. 219. l. 29. for and r. not p. 221. l. 15. for no. r. not p. â—â—â— l. 17. for very r. every p. 228. l. 7. r. pullitiei Books Printed for and sold by Richard Royston Books written by Dr. Hammond A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New-Testament by H. Hammond D. D. in fol. the second Edition enlarged 2. The Practical Catechism with other English Treatises in two volumes in 4. 3. Dissertationes quatuor quibus Episcopatus Iura ex S. Scripturis Primaeva Antiquitate adstâ—uuntur contra sententiam D. Blondelli aliorum in 4. 4. A Letter of Resolution of six Queries in 12. 5. Of Schism A defence of the Church of England against the exceptions of the Romanists in 12. 6. Of Fundamentals in a notion referring to practice in 12. 7. Paraenesis or a seasonable exhortation to all true sons of the Church of England in 12. 8. A Collection of several Replies Vindications published of late most of them in defence of the Church of England now put together in four Volumes Newly published in 4. 9. The Dispatcher Dispatch'd in Answer to a late Roman Catholick Book intituled Schism Dispatch'd in 4. new 10. A Review of the Paraphrase and Annotations on all the Books of the New-Testament with some additions and alterations in 8. 11. Some profitaâ—le directions both for Priest and people in two Sermons 8. new Books and Sermons written by J. Taylor D. D. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Course of Sermons for all the Sundays of the year together with a discourse of the Divine Institution Necessity Sacredness and Separation of the Office Ministerial in fol. 2. The history of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ third Edition in fol. 3. The Rule and Exercises of holy living in 12. 4. The Rule and Exercises of holy dying in 12. 5. The Golden Grove or A Manuall of daily Prayers fitted to the daies of the week together with a short Method of Peace and Holiness in 12. 6. The Doctrine and Practice of Repentance rescued from popular Errors in a large 8. newly published 7. A Collection of Polemical and Moral discourses in fol. 8. A Discourse of the Nature Offices and Measure of Friendship in 12. new 9. A Collection of Offices or forms of prayer fitted to the needs of all Christians together with the Psalter or Psalms of David after the Kings Translations in a large octavo newly published 10. Ductor Dubitantium or Cases of Conscience fol. Now in the Press Books written by Mr. Tho. Pierce Rector of Brington 1. THe Sinner impleaded in his