Controversies of the Churches but of particular Persons or Parties in those Churches as well Protestants against Protestants and Roman Catholicks against Roman Catholicks as Protestants against Roman Catholicks Those Controversies which each Church doth tolerate within it self ought not to be any cause of Schism between the Churches Fourthly How many of our Controversies are about Rites and Ceremonies and things indifferent in their own nature in the use of which every particular Church under the Universal Church hath free liberty in it self and dominion over its own Sons When all these empty Names and Titles of Controversies are wiped out of the Roll the true Controversies between us may be quickly mustered and will not be found upon a serious enquiry to be either so exclusive of salvation to those who err invincibly and hold the truth implicitely in the preparation of their minds nor altogether so irreconcileable as some persons have imagined The two dangerous extremes are to clip away something from saving Truth whereof I do not find the Church of Rome to have been guilty and to obtrude erroneous or at the best probable opinions for Articles of Faith whereof I find many in the Church of Rome to have been most guilty Next to these are the practical abuses of the Court of Rome These were my thoughts in my younger days which age and experience hath rather confirmed and radicated in me than altered which if they had been known I deserved rather to have been cherished and encouraged than to be branded by any man as a Factor for the Pope Truly Mr. Baxter could hardly have fixed upon a Subject more improper for such a charge When I was commanded to preach to our Northern Synod where every one designed to discharge that duty chuseth some controversie between the Church of Rome and us my Subject was the Popes unlawful Usurpation of Jurisdiction over the Britannick Churches When I disputed in Cambridge for the Degree of Doctor my Thesis was taken out of Nilus that the Papacy as it was challenged and usurped in many places and as it had been sometimes usurped in our Native Country was either the procreant or conservant cause or both procreant and conservant cause of all the greater Ecclesiastical Controversies in the Christian World When our late King Charles of blessed memory was in Spain and Religion in England seemed to our Country people though without any ground to be placed in aequilibrio or reduced to a measuring cast I adventured with more zeal than discretion to give two of their Roman Champions in our Northern parts Mr. Hungate a Jesuite and Mr. Houghton a secular Priest one after another two meetings at North-Allerton and came off without any dishonour to the Church of England and stopped the Carrier of the Romish Emislaries at that time in those parts When I was last in Ireland and the Romanists had wrested some part of the power of the Sword into their hands they prosecuted no English Protestant more than my self and never left untill they had thrust me out of the Kingdom as conceiving me to be a great impediment to them in their making of Proselytes It was but an ill requital if I had been one of their Factors Since I came into exile these sixteen years where have my weak endeavours ever been wanting to the Church of England who hath had more Disputes with their Seculars and Regulars of all sorts French Italian Dutch English in Word in Writing to maintain the honour of the English Church And after all this am I traduced as a Factor for Popery because I am not a Protestant out of my wits or because my assertions of known Truth are not agreeable to the gust of Innovators Blessed are we when men revile us and persecute us and say all manner of evil against us falsly for Christs sake for great is our reward in heaven But doth he think in earnest that my way of reconciliation is the ready way to introduce the Papal tyranny into England Nay directly on the contrary it is the ready way to exclude the Papal tyranny out of England for ever and to acquit us for evermore from all the Extortions and Usurpations of the Roman Court and to free us from all their Emissaries who now make a prey of such as are unsetled among us by the means of doubtful and give me leave to speak my mind freely impertinent Disputations And this I am ready to make good against any Innovator of either side who shall oppose it This is hard measure to be offered to me from him who professeth himself to be so great a lover of the Unity of the Church p. 6. which is but his duty if it be true as I hope it is But let him take heed that his love of Unity prove not to be self-love which insinuateth it self strangely into the most holy actions and designs All men could be contented to have others united to themselves and to chop off or stretch out the Religion of their Brethren as Procrustes did his Guests according to the measure of his own Bed I doubt not but he would be well pleased to have Independency stretched up to an ordained Ministery as he calleth it and Episcopacy let down to a Presbyterian parity or rather to an empty shew of equality For I never yet observed but one or two single popular Presbyters ruled the whole Consistory and had more absolute Arbitrary power than ever any Bishop pretended unto If this be all his love and desire of Unity to have Antiquity Universality and the perpetual Regiment of the Church to be levelled and moduled according to private fantasies it is meer self-love no love of Unity But I hope better though I sear worse If he dare refer all differences between us to be tried by the publick Standard we shall quickly see whether he or I follow Peace and Unity with swifter paces I offer him two Standards to be tried by First the Doctrine of the Church of England set down by those old Episcopal Divines whom he pretendeth to be more propitious to him than to me If he submit to this Standard all differences between him and me are at an end And then to what purpose hath so much plundering and so much effusion of Christian blood been unless it be to shake the dregs to the top of the Urinal But if he like not this Standard as I much fear he will not I offer him another that is the Pattern of the Primitive Church both for Doctrine and Discipline But it may be he will dislike this more and when all is done admit no Standard but the Scripture I am ready to joyn with him in this also But if he and I differ about the sense of the Scripture all men acknowledge that the Scripture consisteth not in the words but in the sense how shall we be tried what is the sense by the judgement of the Church of England that is the Standard of the place or by
man of his Benefice but death cession or deprivation It knoweth no deprivation but for crimes committed against Law and that Law more ancient than those Crimes where there is no Law there is no transgression and where there is no transgression there can be no deprivation The Law of England knoweth no deprivation but by persons to whom the ancient Law of England hath committed the power of depriving So every way their Sequestrations are unlawful and they who hold them are like Moths which inhabit in other mens Garments Of all the Commandments the eighth is most dangerous other Commandments oblige to Repentance but that obligeth both to Repentance and Restitution His instances of a Physitian and a Commander and a Pilot who hold their Offices ad voluntatem Domini so long as their Masters think fit are not appliable to a Benefice which is the inheritance of the present Incumbent and his Successors Sequestration may have place during the vacancie of a Benefice or until the decision of some Process depending or for the discharge of some Duty which by Law is incumbent upon the Benefice but such lawless Arbitrary Sequestrations as these were are plain Robbery by all Laws of God and Man CHAP. II. Of Grotius and what Communion he was of NExt for Grotius and others of his charitable way I acknowledge freely that I preferr one page of Wicelius or Cassander or Grotius for true judgment before all the Works of Taulerus and ten more such Authors Yet I have read sundry of them and sometimes have approved more of their piety than of their judgment and at other times repented of the loss of my time Yea I do preferr these three before an hundred yawning wishers for Peace whilest they do nothing that tendeth to the procuring of Peace Particularly I do admire the two former for this reason because their clearer judgments did pierce so deep into the Controversies of Religion before they were rightly stated And their free spirits dared to tell the World impartially what was amiss according to the dictates of their Consciences though with the hazard of their lifes without any other motive than the discharge of their duties And if any of them be reviled for their Charity the greater is their Reward in Heaven Yet I cannot pin my Religion to any of their Sleeves Plato is my friend and Socrates is my friend but Truth is my best friend Perhaps I may disapprove some things in Grotius his Works or some parts of them more than Mr. Baxter himself He extolleth his Book of the right of the Soveraign Magistrates in sacred things But when I did read it he seemed to me to come too near an Evastian and to lessen the power of the Keys too much which Christ left as a Legacie to his Church It may be he did write that before he was come to full maturity of judgment and some other things I do not say after he was superannuated but without that due deliberation which he useth at other times wherein a man may desire Grotius in Grotius Or it may be that some things have been changed in some of his Works as I have been told by one of his nearest friends and that we shall shortly see a more authentick Edition of them all This is certain that some of those things which I dislike were not his own judgment after he was come to maturity in Theological matters But whereas Mr. Baxter doth accuse him as a Papist I think he doth him wrong Nay I am confident he doth him wrong and that he oweth a reparation to his memory I have read all that he alledgeth to prove him a Papist but without any conviction or alteration in my judgment And I believe that one who delighteth in such kind of contentions would find it no difficult task to clear all his Objections and demonstrate the contrary out of the Writings of Grotius himself and others of the most learned and judicious Protestants Sometimes he accuseth him of that which is not true at all sub modo as it is alledged Nothing can be so truly said but that it may be depraved by misrelation or misinterpretation or inconsequent inferences At other times he accuseth him of that for Popery which is no Popery the greater and better and sounder part of Protestants being Judges Yet if Grotius his Genius had been somewhat less critical and so much more Scholastical he had not laid so open to Mr. Baxters accusations Unum hoc maceror doleo sibi deesse It shall suffice me to say that he was a person of rare parts of excellent Learning of great Charity and of so Exemplary a Life that his fiercest Adversaries had nothing to object against him of moment but were forced to rake into the faults of his Family which whether true or false was not so ingeniously done But lest any man might chance unawares to hit his own spiritual Mother out of a mistake I will endeavour to give some further light what was the Religion of Grotius He was in affection a friend and in desire a true Son of the Church of England And upon his Death-bed recommended that Church as it was legally established to his Wife and such other of his Family as were then about him obliging them by his Authority to adhere firmly to it so far as they had opportunity And both my self and many others have seen his Wife in obedience to her Husbands commands which she declared publickly to the World to repair often to our Prayers and Sacraments and to bring at least one of his Grand-children to Sir Richard Browns house then Resident for the King in Paris to be baptized into the Faith and Communion of the Church of England and be made a Member thereof as it was accordingly If any man think that he knoweth Grotius his mind better by conjectural consequences than he did himself or that he would dissemble with his Wife and Children upon his Death-bed he may enjoy his own opiniâ—n to himself but he will find few to joyn with him CHAP. III. No Grotian Design in England ANother branch of his Discourse is concerning the Grotian Design in England He pretends that there was a Party of Grotius his followers in England who prosecuted his design of reconciling us to the Pope under the name of Episcopal Divines Pag. 2. That Grotius had a Pacificatory design all men acknowledge and he himself extolleth it as much as any of us Pr. S. 3. For his Pacificatory design in general I take it to be one of the most Christian noble blessed works that any man can be imployed in That Grotius was a Stalking-Horse for the Pope or had any design but in order to Peace and Truth or that he had any Party in England who followed him further than he followed the Truth after all Mr. Baxters pretences we have no reason to believe This is his own absurd and groundless presumption For certainly Grotius could have no thoughts of
directions All that I do remember or meet with I shall produce The first place is in the Frontispiece of his Book Neither is that his own judgement but the judgement of King Iames related by Mr. Casaubon in his Epistle to Cardinal Peron in these words The King judgeth that the number of things absolutely necessary to salvation is not great Wherefore his Majesty thinks there is no more compendious way to Peace than to distinguish diligently things necessary from things not necessary and to endeavour to procure an agreement about necessary things and that place may be given to Christian liberty in things not necessary The King calleth those things simply necessary which either the Word of God commmandeth expresly to be beloved or done or which the ancient Church did draw out of the Word of God by necessary consequence If this distinction were used to decide the present Controversies and divine right were ingeniously distinguished from positive or Ecclesiastical right it seemeth not that the contention would be long or sharp between pious and moderate men about things absolutely necessary For they are both fâ—â— as we said even now and are for the most part approved by all who desire to be called Christians And his most renowned Majesty thinketh this distinction to be of so great moment to diminish the Controversies which trouble the Church so much at this day that he judgeth it the duty of all who are studious of Peace to explain it diligently and teach it and urge it This is an excellent way indeed but it is a general way not a particular way It was King Iames his way not Mr. Chillingworths What King Iames pointed at in general I pursue in particular But that prudent Prince was far enough from dreaming that there could be no reconciliation of Christendom except all humane right were destroyed or taken away This is Mr. Baxters own unbeaten way I find a second passage to this purpose in Mr. Chillingworths answer to the Preface nu 23. Notwithstanding all your errours we do not renounce your communion totally and absolutely but only leave communicating with you in the practice and profession of your errours The trial whereof will be to propose some Form of Worshipping God taken wholly out of Scripture And herein if we refuse to join with you then and not till then may you justly say we have utterly and absolutely abandoned your communion This might serve for a coverfew to hide the flame of our contentions from breaking out whilst we are at out devotions But it hath nothing of reconciliation in it and hath as little probability of a pacification We desire not half so much as this of them to change their whole Liturgy but only to leave out some of their own latter additions which never were in any of the Primitive Liturgies By being taken wholly out of the Scripture either it is intended that it shall be all in the words and phrase of Scripture That will weigh little I have never observed any thing more repugnant to the true sense of Scripture than some things which have been expressed altogether in the phrase of Scripture Or it is intended that the matter of the Liturgy shall be taken wholly out of the Scripture But this hath so little of an expedient in it that it will leave the Controversie where it is Both Parties do already contend that their respective Forms are taken out of the Scriptures He hath another passage much to the same purpose in his answer to the third Chapter part 1. n. 11. If you would at this time propose a Form of Liturgy which both sides hold Lawful and then they Protestants would not join with you in this Liturgy you might have some colour to say that they renounced your communion absolutely First remedy regardeth only a communion in Publick Worship without any respect to an union in Faith and Discipline Secondly even in the point of Publick Worship it leaves the difference where it was what is a Lawful Form Those things which the Romanists hold to be necessary the Protestants shun as superstitious excesses And that Form which the Protestants would allow the Romanists cry out on as defective in necessary dutys and particularly wanting five of their Sacraments Nay certainly to call the whole frame of the Liturgy into dispute offers too large a field for contention And is nothing so likely a way of Peace as either for us to accept of their Form abating some such parts of it as are confessed to have been added since the Primitive times and are acknowledged not to be simply necessary but such as charitable Christians ought to give up and Sacrifice to an Universal Peace and would do it readily enough if it were not for mutual animosities of both Parties and the particular Interests of some persons Or if they should say to us as Father Paul Harvis a Romanist violent enough hath often said to me that if we had retained the Liturgy used in Edward the sixths time he would not have forborn to come to our communion To procure peace there must be condescension on both sides I find a third place part 1. cap. 4. n. â—9 To reduce Christians to unity of Communion there are but two ways that may be conceived probable The one by taking away diversity of opinions touching matters of Religion The other by shewing that the diversity of opinions which is among the several Sects of Christians ought to be no hinderance to their unity in communion The former of these is not to be hoped for without a Miracle Then what remains but that Christians be taught that their agreement in the high points of Faith and obedience ought to be more effectual to win them in one communion than their difference in things of less moment to divide them I must crave leave to dissent from Mr. Chillingworth in his former conclusion That diversity of opinions among Christians touching matters of Religion cannot be taken away without a Miracle A great many of those Controversies which raised the highest animosities among Christians at the first Reformation are laid aside already by moderate and judicious persons of both Partys without any Miracle and are only kept on foot by some blunderers who follow the old Mode when the Fashion is grown out of date either out of prejudice or pride or want of judgement or altogether And as many Controversies of the greatest magnitude are already as good as reconciled So more may be There is no opposition to be made against evident truth I hope Mr. Baxter will be of my mind who confesseth that He is grown to a great deal of confidence that most of our contentions about Arminian Points are more about Words than Matter And doubteth whether there be any difference at all in the point of Free-will praef sect 5. And affirmeth that the difference between Protestants and many Papists about certainty of Salvation except the point of perseverance is next to none And
that the Chiefs of the Party are only the Remainders of the old Rebellion and the Republican Faction and such as profess no great kindness to Monarchy or Sovereign Princes These that are so stein'd with Guilt and Disloyalty are they that are every where so zealous to make their Cabals of Zeal and their Musters of Reformation or at least to keep up the Cause and themselves above despair by keeping up a factious and discontented Party that if ever opportunity should favour them may have Strength and Interest enough to act over their old Designs of Zeal and Reformation Now at present it is the Way and the Wisdom of these Men to bend all their Forces against the Ecclesiastick State not only to disguise their Intentions but to remove the main hindrance of their Designs For 't is the Church that is the best part of every Commonwealth and when all Projects are tried Religion is the best Security of Peace and Obedience The Power of Princes would be but a very precarious thing without the Assistance of Ecclesiasticks and all Government does and must owe its quiet and continuance to the Churches Patronage 't is the Authority that has over the Consciences of Subjects that chiefly keeps the Crown upon the Princes Head and were it not for the Restraints of Conscience that are tied on by the Hands of the Priest and the Laws of Religion Man would be a monstrously wild and ungovernable Creature For though the World be kept in some tolerable Order notwithstanding there are too many Persons in it of Atheistical and Irreligious Principles yet of all Subjects these are the most dangerous and disloyal because 't is impossible to bring them under any effectual Engagements of Duty and Allegiance and hence it is that all Seditions and Treasons are headed and managed by such Leaders At least though they are not able to do so very much mischief because their Party is not very considerable yet were all Mankind of their Humour and Perswasion nothing could be more insecure and destitute of help than the Condition of Princes because no Man according to their Principles could be so foolish as to think himself any way obliged to venture Life and Fortune for the sake of their Interest and whenever they are attempted Subjects would be determined as to their Loyalty by the chance of Success and not by any antecedent Obligations and whenever the Princes Affairs were brought into any straight or danger they must leave him to shift for himself and revolt to an Usurper for their own Safety and Interest But those only are Loyal Subjects and true Friends and Servants to the Establisht Government that think it their Duty to adhere to their Prince in all Fortunes and to assist and serve him against all Enemies and 't is their Numbers every where that keep the World in that little order and security that it enjoys for beside the useful and advantagious Offices that they do to the Crown by their own immediate Service 't is their known and sworn Fidelity that in a great measure keeps back wicked and seditious Men from attempting it too lightly Every aspiring Mind or neglected Grandee would be presently venturing at the Throne if it stood naked and unguarded of the Assistances of Loyalty but when they are assured that howsoever their Designs may succeed that there is so strong a Party unalterably resolved to make Head against them and all their Attempts 't is that that chiefly makes such Projects and Practices not so very frequent or easie Now 't is nothing but Conscience and Religion that can awe the Minds of Men to any sense of this Duty and they ever are and ever must be Govern'd by Ecclesiasticks other Persons may tamper with them and inveigle some stragling People but still the main Body of a Nation and especially the sober part of it will chuse to submit themselves to their Conduct whose Publick Profession it is to guide Souls and instruct Consciences so that to them and the discharge of their Duty do all Princes plainly owe the main Strength and Seourity of their Government This Obligation of kindness to the Ecclesiastical State is common to all Civil States and so much as they discountenance the Power and Reputation of the Church so much do they disadvantage the Interest of their own Authority But this reason of State is of greater force and more peculiar usefulness in reference to the present Constitution of the Kingdom of England The Nation is manifestly divided into two opposite Parties the Church of England and the Body of the Nonconformists The former whereof is the greatest Example of Loyalty that perhaps ever appeared in the Christian World Its Clergy are the most Zealous Assertours of the Rights of Princes they have all along undauntedly maintain'd their Supremacy against all Assaults and Invasions they have possest the Peoples Conscienecs with a religious Awe and Reverence of Government they have restrained them from all Attempts of Rebellion or of taking up Arms upon any Pretence whatsoever under the greatest and most dreadful Penalties they have secured them from being abused with the Impostures of Zeal and Superstition and have carefully prevented all the Shifts and Excuses of Disobedience and after they have made Subjection a prime and indispensable Duty they do not evacuate the Efficacy of their Doctrine by juggling Reserves and Limitations And thus are the People train'd up in a Conscience of their Loyalty and take it in together with their Religion and are as strongly principled against the hateful sin of Rebellion as against Witchcraft or Idolatry And of this our Princes have had sufficient proof and experience ever since the Reformation They have ever found all their Subjects of the Communion of the Church of England modest and peaceable and were never troubled with Disputes and Remonstrances Plots and Disturbances from any of her Friends And when Rebellion broke forth and the Royal Power was invaded and oppressed with what Zeal and Devotion did they appear in its Defence and for its Recovery and what Numbers sacrificed Lives and Fortunes out of meer sense of Duty and Allegiance For though it is not to be doubted but that some might engage themselves in the Royal Cause for other ends yet 't is manifest from too many sad Circumstances that the true and hearty Sons of the Church were acted by Principles of Conscience and Religion and whilst others might be bought over by the Rebels and Usurpers no Temptation could prevail upon their Minds but they were constant and impregnable in all Conditions They forsake their Prince You must first force them to renounce their Faith their Loyalty stands upon their Religion and they were Martyrs as well as Souldiers for his Cause and in his Service This is the peculiar Genius and these the distinguishing Principles of the Church of England and as far as they are admitted into the Minds of Men so far do they work in them this religious
Iustice upon them though they were such scandalous and refractory Delinquents against his Laws but that must past all doubt and controversie declare him of their Side and for their Cause and the Lord must needs walk sweetly with his own People in ways of Plunder and Sequestration But if that were enough to make them presume his Favour and Approbation be has we may presume too done enough since to clear his own Providence and dash their Confidence and they may assure themselves that his Majesty understands both himself and them too well to be over-fond of their Friendship or trust too confidently to their Good-will But if they will be making such ill use of his Mercy as to insult over or to disrespect his Loyal Subjects they will find to their own cost and shame that he too can call them to their Songs upon Sigionoth as well as Divine Providence so that unless we will be guilty of a Iealousie as ungrounded and as unmannerly as their Presumption we may rest satisfied in the present Security of the Church of England under the Protection of a Wise and a Gracious Prince especially when beside the impregnable Confidence that we have from his own Inclinations it is so manifest that he can never forsake it either in Honour or Interest But should it ever so happen hereafter that any King of England should be prevailed with to deliver up the Church he had at the same time as good resign up his Crown and the reason is already very plain because there are none heartily Loyal to this but those that are so to that when 't is so notorious from Experience that the Crown of England never had any Cordial Friends but the Lovers of and Adherents to the Church-Interest and so evident from Mens Principles that it never shall have And then what must become of that unhappy Prince that should deliver it up to the Rage and Rapine of its and his implacable Enemies He is in the very same forlorn condition as if be were forced to flee from all his Friends to a Kirk-Army for Sanctuary and Protection i. e. be is certainly Sold and Sacrificed II. The second way whereby the Fanatick Party may at last work the Ruine of the Church is by the Assistance of Atheism and Irreligion Prophaness is in our days become as zealous and implacable a thing as Enthusiasin and Men are not content barely to neglect all acknowledgment of Duty to their Creator unless they may have the Liberty to affront and defie him too They scorn to be abused themselves with the Tales and Legends of Knavish Priests nor will they great Heroes suffer the World to be imposed upon by their bold and insolent Impostures It is not by any means to be endured to see such despicable Fellows insult over the free-born Minds and well-bred Understandings of Gentlemen away with all their Superstitious Cheats and Fopperies they will undertake to instruct Mankind in wiser and more Gentleman-like Principles And thus are these Caitiffs become as fierce and malicious Enemies to all Setlement of the Church as the most distempered and fiery sort of Fanaticks and they will piece Interest with any Party to pluck down any Church-faction that is uppermost and are as brisk and forward at hammering Reformation-work as the giddy rascal Multitude and rather than the Cause should miscarry for want of Zeal they themselves will not stick to turn Preachers of Sedition nor when the People are enraged to lead them on to act it The Atheists of former times because they expected nothing in the Life to come resolved without any farther trouble to enjoy all the Comforts of this and therefore they never thrust themselves into Publick Cares and Concerns but studied all the Arts of an idle a jolly and a pleasant Life and minded nothing but Wine and Love and Poetry But those of our Age are a sort of Devillish and Malicious Wretches whose proud and arrogant Minds make them love Mischief for Mischiefs sake they have so mean an opinion of other Men in comparison to themselves that they treat them just after the same rate as we do Insects and Vermin and will for the ostentation of their own Power and Greatness sport themselves in those Miseries and Ruines they are able to draw upon the World and will not stick to destroy Kingdoms if it lie in their Power only to gratifie their Insolence And no wonder when all the rankest Principles of Injustice and Ill-nature lie at the bottom of their Irreligion They are taught in the first place that they may and ought to use all the ways of Fraud and Violence for the Advancement of their own Power and Safety that the greater and more enormous Injuries they do to Mankind the more are they fear'd and that fear is their only security and the result of all their Principles is That every Wise Man will by any means consult his own Interest and Security and that his Interest and Security consists chiefly in the prebeminence of his Strength above other Men so that the more he oppresses them the more he acts up to the Laws of Nature and Principles of Wisdom And then being insolent as well as ill-natured they care not what Mischiefs they do out of meer Humour and Wantonness and the more extravagant they are in their Injuries and Oppressions their Power is so much the more considerable they scorn an ordinary Vice almost as much as to say their Prayers but if they can invent any new and unheard-of Wickedness that Vulgar Sinners have not the Wit to light upon nor the Courage to venture at that is an heighth of Bravery and only fit to be attempted by Men of their Parts and Breeding so that they love Mischief if not altogether as the Devils do for its own sake yet at least and that is almost as bad out of Pride and Singularity they cannot brook it to be inferiour to any Man in any thing that they are pleased to pretend to and yet are they pleased to pretend to every thing And from hence it is that they can be no real Friends to any Government only because the Supremacy of Power did not happen to fall to their share and they can never have any hearty kindness for their Prince though for no other reason than because he is their Superiour a little affront or neglect from him shall disoblige them for ever they are implacable in their revenge and every slight displeasure immediately puts them upon nothing less than thoughts of Treason and Rebellion But the great Object of their Hatred and Indignation is the Priestly Office their proud Spirits cannot bear it to see such mean and contemptible Fellows brave it with so much Awe and Authority over the Minds of the Peoples but they are past all patience that they should dare to pretend to vie Wisdom with themselves and undertake publickly to convict such mighty Wits of Folly and Ignorance and prevail so far as to
Sequestrations BEfore I saw Mr. Baxters late Treatise called The Grotian Religion it was to me nec beneficio nec injuria neither known for good nor hurt I acknowledge the very Title of his Book did not please me Different Opinions do not make different Religions It is the Golden Rule of Justice not to do thus to another which a man would not have done to himself He would take it unkindly himself to have his own Religion contradistinguished into the Prelatical Religion from which he doth not much dissent so he might have the naming of the Prelates and the Presbyterian Religion which he doth profess for the present and the Independent Religion which he shaketh kindly by the hand and the Anabaptistical Religion which challengeth Seniority of all Modern Sects And then to have his Presbyterian Religion subdivided either according to the number of the Churches into the English Religion and the Scotish Religion and the Gallician Religion and the Belgian Religion and the Helvetian Religion and the Allobrogian Religion of all the names of the Reformers into the Calvinistical Religion and Brownistical Religion Zuinglian Religion and Erastian Religion c. For all these have their differences And so himself in his Preface to this very Treatise admits those things for pious Truths for which we have been branded with the names of Papists and Arminians and have been plundered and spoiled of all that we had Let himself be judge whether this be not to have the faith of our Lord Iesus Christ with respect of persons Iam. 2. 1. The Church of Christ is but one one Fold and one Shepherd Christian Religion is but one one Lord one Faith one Hope Then why doth he multiply Religions and cut the Christian Faith into shreds as if every Opinion were a fundamental Article of Religion Let him remember that of St. Hierome If you shall hear those who are said to be Christians any where to be denominated not from the Lord Iesus Christ but from some other person know that this is not the Church of Christ but the Synagogue of Antichrist So much for the Title of Mr. Baxters Book now for his design His main scope is to shew that Grotius under a pretence of reconciling the Protestant Churches with the Roman Church hath acted the part of a Coy-duck willingly or unwillingly to lead Protestants into Popery And therefore he held himself obliged in duty to give warning to Protestants to beware of Grotius his followers in England who under the name of Episcopal Divines do prosecute the design of Cassander and Grotius to reconcile us to the Pope Page 2. And being pressed by his adversary to name those Episcopal Divines vir dolosus versatur in generalibus he gives no instance of any one man throughout his Book but of my self I shall borrow a word with him of himself a word of Grotius and a word or two concerning my self First for himself he doth but wound himself through Grotius his sides and in his censuring Grotius teach his own Fellows to serve him with the same sawce Grotius and Mr. Baxter both prosecute the same design of reconciliation but Mr. Baxters object is the British World and Grotius his Object is the Christian World Mr. Baxter as well as Grotius in prosecuting his design doth admit many things which the greater part of his own Fellows do reject As that Praeterition is an act of justice in God Praef. Sect. 7. That God giveth sufficient grace in the Jesuits sense to those that perish Sect. 8. That Redemption is universal They the Synod of Dort give more to Christs Death for the Elect than we but no less that he knows of to his Death for all than we Sect. 10. He is as much for Free-will as we They all profess that Man hath the natural faculty of Free-will Sect. 11. He who had all his other Treatises which I did never see in probability might find much more of the same kind I do not dislike him for this but rather commend him for unwrapping himself as warily as he could without any noise out of the endless train of Error And for other points wherein he is still at a default I hope a little time and better information may set him right in those as well as these But others of his own Party do believe all these points which he admits to be as downright Popery as any is within the Walls of Rome And with the same freedom and reason that he censures Grotius they may censure him for the Popes stalking Horse or Coy-duck to reconcile us to Rome Neither can he plead any thing for himself which may not be pleaded as strongly or more strongly for Grotius He may object that those things which he admitteth are all evident Truths but sundry of those things which are admitted by Grotius are Popish Errors This is confidently said but how is he able to make it good to other men Grotius took himself to have as much reason as Mr. Baxter and much more learning and reading than Mr. Baxter But still if his Fellows do no more approve of what he saith than he approveth of that which Grotius saith they have as good ground to censure him as he hath to censure Grotius Those very points which are admitted by Mr. Baxter are esteemed by his Fellows to be as gross and fundamental Errors as any of those other supernumerary points which are maintained by Grotius But to come up closer to him What if those other points disputed between Grotius and him be meer logomachies or contentions about words or mistaken Truths He himself confesseth as much now of all the Arminian tenets Pref. Sect. 15. I am grown to a very great confidence that most of our contentions about those Arminian points are more about words than matter Again in the same Section The doctrine of the divine decrees is resolved into that of the divine operations Let us agree of the last and we agree of the former And almost all the doctrine of the divine operations about which we differ dependeth on the point of Free-will and will be determined with that And how far we differ if at all in the point of Free will c. I see Truth is the daughter of Time Now our Arminian Controversies are avowed to have been but contentions about words Now it is become a doubtful case and deserving an if whether we have any difference at all about Free-will or no. The wind is gotten into the other dore since we were prosecuted and decried as Pelagians and enemies of Grace because we maintained some old innocent Truths which the Church of England and the Catholick Church even taught her Sons before Arminius was born Some of their greatest Sticklers do owe a great account to God and a great reparation to us for those groundless calumnies which they cast upon us at that time For the present I only lay down this disjunctive Conclusion Either Mr. Baxter and his Fellows have changed
to so great a proportion as the Britannick Churches alone And if one secluded out of them all those who want an ordinary succession without their own faults out of invincible ignorance or necessity and all those who desire to have an ordinary succession either explicitely or implicitely they will be reduced to a little slock indeed But let him set his heart at rest I will remove this scruple out of his mind that he may sleep securely upon both ears Episcopal Divines do not denie those Churches to be true Churches wherein salvation may be had We advise them as it is our duty to be circumspect for themselves and not to put it to more question whether they have Ordination or not or deserve the general practice of the universal Church for nothing when they may clear it if they please Their case is not the same with those who labour under invincible necessity What mine own sense is of it I have declared many years since to the World in print and in the same way received thanks and a publick acknowledgment of my moderation from a French Divine And yet more particularly in my Reply to the Bishop of Chalcedon Pref. p. 4. and cap. 1. p. 71. Episcopal Divines will readily subscribe to the determination of the learned Bishop of Winchester in his Answer to the second Epistle of Molineus Nevertheless if our form of Episcopacie be of Divine Right it doth not follow from thence that there is no salvation without it or that a Church cannot consist without it He is blind who does not see Churches consisting without it he is hard hearted who denieth them salvation We are none of those hard-hearted persons we put agreat difference between these things There may be something absent in the exteriour Regiment which is of Divine Right and yet salvation be to be had This mistake proceedeth from not distinguishing between the true nature and essence of a Church which we do readily grant them and the integrity or perfection of a Church which we cannot grant them without swerving from the judgment of the Catholick Church The other part of his assumption is no truer than the former We do acknowledge the Church of Rome to be Metaphysically a true Church as a Thief is a true Man consisting of soul and body so did Bishop Morton Bishop Hall Bishop Davenant old Episcopal Divines so did Mr. Primrose and other Presbyterian Divines so doth he himself in this very Treatise What a weakness is it to accuse Episcopal Divines of that which he himself maintaineth But we all denie that the Church of Rome is morally a true Church because it is corrupted and erroneous we make it to be a living Body but sick and full of ulcers So we neither destroy the body out of hatred to the ulcers nor yet cherish the ulcers out of a doting affection to the body And therefore he had no reason in the world to suspect Episcopal Divines of a plot or design to introduce Popery into England which they look upon as the very Gangrene of the Church He pleadeth a reason why he doth not name those Episcopal Divines who had this design for fear of doing them hurt Sect. 70. As if it were not less hurtful to discover the nocent if he knew any such than to subject the innocent both to suspition and censure by his general descriptions I cannot excuse his first intimation of such a design because he had no ground at all for it but I can easily excuse his silence now upon another reason because I am confident there neither are nor ever were any such designers among the Episcopal Party Whereas he ought to prove his intention that there was such a design in the place thereof he gives us some symptomes or signs whereby to know the designers This is one great fault in his Discourse But the worst is they are all accidental notes which may either hit or miss there is not one essential mark among them His first mark is They are those that actually were the Agents in the English illegal Innovations which kindled all our troubles in this Land and were conformable to the Grotian design Those last words and were conformable to the Grotian design were well added though they be a shameful begging of the question and signifie the same thing by it self A strange kind of proof for without these words all the World will take him and his Party to be the illegal Innovators and no body but them The Episcopal Divines hold their old Canons their old Articles their old Liturgy their old Ordinal still without any change They took the Protestation against Innovations without any difficulty and are ready to take it over and over again Their fault was that they could not swallow down New Covenants to innovate His Party have changed Canons Articles Liturgy all things and yet have the confidence cry Innovators first His second mark is They bend the course of their Writings to make the Roman Church honourable and to vindicate them from Antichristianism and to make the reformed Churches odious This is a poor note indeed as if men were obliged out of hatred to the Church of Rome to deny it that honour which is justly due unto it or out of affection to the Protestant Churches to justifie their defects What reward did ever any English Protestant get from Rome for doing them this honour I know no man who honours the Church of Rome more than himself He calls Cassander Thaulerus Ferus Blessed souls with Christ He esteems the French Nation to be not only an erroneous but an honourable part of the Church of Christ p. 10. Episcopal Divines have learned to distinguish between that great Antichrist and lesser Antichrists between the Court of Rome and the Church of Rome which he confounds I dare not swear that the Pope is that great Antichrist but I dare swear that I never had any design to bring Popery into England I hope I never shall have and that all genuine Episcopal Divines may take the same Oath His third note of distinction whereby to know an English Grotian is this They labour to prove the Church of Rome a true Church because of their succession and the Reformed Churches to be none for want of that succession Sect. 71. This note is already answered Elsewhere he presseth this point further thus that he would gladly know what Church hath power to make a new Canon the observation whereof shall be essential to a Church or Pastor I answer that he doth doubly mistake the question which is not whether the Catholick Church can make new Essentials but whether it can declare old Essentials Not whether the Canons of the Universal Church of this Age have divine Authority but whether they do oblige Christians in conscience and whether it be not timerarious presumption for a particular person or Church to slight the Belief or Practice of the Universal Church of all succeeding Ages His fourth note
with some Papists in the point of perseverance also Sect. 64. The second conclusion was borrowed by Mr. Chillingworth from my Lord Primate That our agreement in the high and necessary Points of Faith and obedience ought to be more effectual to unite us than one difference in opinions to divide us Concerning which there is no need of my suffrage for it is just mine own way My second demand in my proposition of Peace was this That the Creed or necessary points of Faith might be reduced to what they were in the time of the four first Oecumenical Concils according to the decree of the third General Council Who dare say that the faith of the Primitive Fathers was insufficient c. I do profess to all the World that the transforming of indifferent opinions into necessary Articles of Faith hath been that insana laurus or cursed Bay-tree the cause of all our brawling and contention Judge Reader indifferently what reason Mr. Baxter had to disallow my terms of Peace as he is pleased to call them and allow Mr. Chillingworths when my terms are the very same which Mr. Chillingworth proposeth and my Lord Primate before him and King Iames before them both CHAP. VIII The true reasons of the Bishops abatement of the last 400. years Determinations IN his one and fortieth Section he hath these words He will not with Bishop Bramhall abate us the determinations of the last 400. years though if he did it would prove but a pitiful patch for the torn condition of the Church When I made that proposition that the Papists would wave their last 400. years determinations I did it with more serious deliberation than he bestowed upon his whole Grotian Religion Begun April 9. 1658. And finished April 14. 1658. My reason was to controul a common errour received by many that those errours and usurpations of the Church of Rome which made the breach between them and us were much more ancient than in truth they were What those errours and usurpations were cannot be judged better than by our Laws and Statutes which were made and provided as remedies for them I know they had begun some of their gross errours and usurpations long before that time and some others not long before but the most of them and especially those which necessitated a separation after that time Those errours and usurpations which were begun before that time if they be rightly considered were but the sinful and unjust actions of particular Popes and Persons and could not warrant a publick separation from the Church of Rome I deny not but that erroneous opinions in inferiour points rather concerning faith than of faith and some sinful and unwarrantable practices both in point of Discipline and devotion had crept into the Church of Rome before that time But erroneous opinions may be and must be tolerated among Christians so they be not opposite to the ancient Creed of the Church nor obtruded upon others as necessary points of saving faith Neither is any man bound or necessitated to join with other men in sinful and unwarrantable opinions or practices until they be established and imposed necessarily upon all others by Law Whilst it was free for any man to give a fair interpretation of an harsh expression or action without incurring any danger there was no necessity of separation But when these tyrannical usurpations were justified by the decrees of Councils and imposed upon Christians under pain of Excommunication when these erroneous opinions were made necessary Articles of saving faith extra quam non est salus without which there is no salvation when these sinful and unwarrantable practices were injoined to all Christians and when all these unjust usurpations erroneous opinions and sinful and unwarrantable practices were made necessary conditions of Communion with the Church of Rome so that no man could Communicate with the Roman Church but he that would submit to all these usurpations believe all these erroneous opinions and obey all their sinful injunctions then there was an absolute necessity of separation Then if any man inquire when and how this necessity was imposed upon Christians I answer all this was ratified and done altogether or in a manner altogether by these last 400. years Determinations beginning with the Council of Lateran in the days of Innocent the third after the twelve hundreth year of Christ when Transubstantiation was first defined and ending with the Council of Trent So though these were not my terms of peace but preparatory demands yet if these demands be granted our concord would not only be nearer which he acknowledgeth but the peace allmost as good as made and Christians were freed from their unjust Canons and left to their former liberty When they had granted so much it were a shame for them to stick at a small remainder CHAP. IX An Answer to sundry aspersions east by Mr. Baxter upon the Church of England I Have done with all that concerneth my self in Mr. Baxters Grotian Religion But I find a bitter and groundless invective in him towards the conclusion of his treatise wherein he laboureth to cast dirt upon his spiritual Mother the Church of England which out of my just and common duty I cannot pass over in silence He saith p. 75. That this Grotian design in England was destructive to Godliness and the prosperity of the Churches What Churches doth he mean By the Laws of England Civil and Ecclesiastical we ought to have but one Church It was never well with England since we had so many Churches and so many Faiths I am afraid those which he calls Churches were Conventicles He proceedeth that it animated the impious haters of piety and common civility First he ought to have proved that there was such a design in England which he neither hath done nor ever will be able to do That which never had any being but in his Imagination never had any efficacy but in his Imagination He addeth that men were hated for Godliness sake That is to exprest his sense truly were restrained in their seditious and Schismatical courses which he stileth Godliness Fallit enim vitium specie virtutis umbra And troubled and suspended and driven out of the Land though most of them twenty for one were conformists How Conformist and yet persecuted If this be not a contradiction yet it is incredible that so many men should be silenced and suspended every where without Law Certainly there was a Law pretended Certainly there was a Law indeed and that Law made before they were either punished or ordained I will put the right case fairly to Mr. Baxter if he have any mind to determine it Let him tell us who is to be blamed he that undertaketh an office of his own accord which he cannot or will not discharge as the Law injoineth or he that executeth the Law upon such as had voluntarily confirmed it by their own oaths or subscriptions or both He proceedeth that it was safer in