much they do not cease to be Saints but onely grow to be naughty Saints Let others sin never so little as to the eye of the World they do not cease to be ungodly but onely grow to be moral and civil men If it is true what you have told us that your heart is desperately mortally wicked and that you are conscious to your self of being Proud and Selfish and Hypocritical you doe not well to call your self the least of Saints whilest you make us believe that you are no Saint at all As for the lives of those men The contrary lives of Anti-puritanes Psaâ— 15.4 whom I am for they are such as are for God and for his persecuted spouse for the keeping of Promises and Oathes although it be outwardly to their hurt they are such whose great learning is far inferiour to their lives such whose enemies are not able to defame them without calumnie such whose converse is so unblameable that their enemies confess they are moral men and are fain to tell them they have not grace in their hearts because they see nothing in their actions which is ungracious In a word they are such who rather chuse to suffer affliction with the people of God Heb. 11.25 then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season If there are any who are not such I never was for them I never will be yet scandalous livers may suffer wrong in some cases wherein 't is a duty to plead their right You say that Fitz Simmons a petulant Iesuite divideth us English Protestants into Formalists and Puritanes and inveigheth against the Puritanes as their greatest enemies You were sorry that mine did use so much of his language and that the Iesuite and his formalists should accord about so â—ad a work Sect. 23. The Accuser's concurrence with the Iesuite Sect. 4. Here you argue against me and your self and not at all against me unless against your self also for you confess that the Iesuite doth call the men of my way by the name of Formalists in which calumniating language you do fully close with him If I must be blamed for using one word which is also used by a Iesuite much more must you Sir who accord with a Iesuite in another I say much more because you do what you condemn And is not Formalist as scandalous as reproachful a title to the Prelatists as Puritane is to the Presbyterians nay do not you use it as a word of obloquy then mark the summe of the whole matter Master Baxter may freely declaim against Prelatists that is the regular sons of the Church of England calling them Formalists Arminians Cassandrian Papists or what he pleases But Master Pierce must not dare to say there is any such thing or name as Puritane in the World It were better his right hand were used as Cranmer's Sect. 24. It were better he were in the state of David before Nathan came to him Sect. 20. What a priviledge is this that you must have the inclosing of contumelious language unto your self If mine were such you are not fit to be my Reprover but I have shewed you that mine was none Sect. 5. Be it so Fitz Simmons his Artifice discovered and the Puritanes serviceableness to the Papists that Fitz Simmons did rail against Puritanes as his greatest enemies though you cite no page where that is visible what do you mean to prove by it that the Puritanes are really his greatest enemies then all is true that Fitz Simmons saith But if they really are not Fitz Simmons lies which sure he may being a Iesuite especially if he holds their prodigious Doctrine of Probability The Iesuists use to say that which is most for their turn and t is for cunning mens interest to rail at them most that do them most service which the Puritanes certainly have done in destroying or suppressing the greatest enemies of the Papists the unchangeable men of the Church of England For this I have frequently your own confession You say the Papists had a hand in â—asting out of our Bishops p. 95. and in the killing of our King p. 106.108 Do men endeavour the destruction of their enemies or their friends Again you say that the Papists are crept in among all sects Quakers Seekers Anabaptists Millenaries Levellers Independents and * For this last you cite the News book Presbyterians p. 99 100. To what end but to cherish and abet each Sect Do men cherish and abet their greatest enemies or their friends It hath indeed been the cunning of certain Papists to pretend great kindness to Episcopal men nay to the XXXIX Articles of the Church of England of which you have Franciscus de Sanâ—tâ Clarâ for an Example nay to whisper among the people that his Grace of Canterbury was a Papist nay farther to offer him a Cardinall's Hat or any thing else in the World to make it believ'd that the Prelatists were Popishly affected that as such they might be hated and so destroyed Consider how you have help'd them in this design and then I shall hope you will do so no more Consider also the insufficiencie of your arguing and abstain from such arguing for time to come Your self at one time or other have inveigh'd against all and yet you would be thought to be hardly an enemy unto any The Iansenians and the Iesuites do inveigh against each other as much as may be yet both against Protestants for both are Papists Salmaâ—us inveighed against our Eâ—glish Presbyterians as the worst creatures to be imagined and yet himself was no Papist or Episcopal Divine but a more peaceable Presbyterian then those against whoâ— he had whet his pen. You might have saved me the lâ—bour of this whole Section had you consider'd what I said on the like occasion in page 98. Chapt. 3. of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 You say I was to blame that I would not give you my description of a Puritane that you might know my meaning that a Puritane is not the same thing to one man as to another whereupon you reckon up your several notions of a Puâ—itane § 23. King James his description of a Puritane Sect. 6. As you do not cite any page wherâ—in I uâ—ed the word Puritane so I suppose if you had done it you could not have spoken what now you speak for I cannot remember that I ever used that word when I did not abundantly unfold my meaning even as much as you have done when you have spoken of Papists or Presbyterians of which you know there are many sorts How many sorts are there of Independents of whom you many times speak without declaring distinctly which sort you mean Yet it appears by my writings that I have meant by Puritanes what was meant by King Iames with whom you confess that a Puritane was a turbulent seditious Seperâ—tist or Non-Conformist But you might have confessed much more had you been pleas'd for he *
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-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
a contrary design nor can I imagin from what Familiar you may have received your Intelligence I grant he continued a perfect Papist for all he labour'd to reconcile the Church of England's Doctrine with that of Rome But then you must grant by the same reason that Grotius continued a perfect Protestant for all he proposed a Reconcilement of the Tridentine Articles with the Augustan If St. Clara did the former to draw the Protestants to be Papists Grotius also did the later to draw the Papists to be Protestants Can the designs of Grotius and St. Clara be both the same when Grotius endeavour'd so to moderate and soften Popery as to rob it thereby of all its poyson whilst St. Clara made it his business to infuse a poyson into the Articles of the Church of England Behold a strange partiality The poor Protestants of England must suffer on both sides It pleaseth a Papist to interpret our English Articles as a Pacifick and thereupon our Archbishop must needes be warping towards Popery An eminent Protestant doth the same by the Romish Articles which by analogy should infer that the Pope is warping towards the Protestants But still it must be quite otherwise this must also become an Argument against the Prelatists of England who if they approve of that Protestant's Labours or but refuse to raile at him for being turn'd unto the Papists must needes be turn'd Papists as well as he 4. Why do you say that I assure you of Grotius his Followers here in England If you meane here are Pursuers of his pacifick design I shall confidently challenge you to name One man who is employed at present in any such enterprise Not but that we do desire and wish for Peace as much as any but seeing the Papists are more invasive and more at enmity with us then ever we find it more needfull to betake our selves to our defence then either to offer them Termes of peace or to expect such from them as we can yield to If you have read the late writings of Bishop Bâ—amhall and Dr. Hammond two impregnable Propugners of the Protestant cause and let the Reverend Dean Cosins be ever remembred as a third you cannot but know that the Prelatists are more the adversaries of Rome than the Presbyterians 5. You aske in thâ—se words Is it any more proof that Grotius was a Protestant for joyning with them than that they are Papists who joyn with him ibid. Thus whilst you aske if it is any more proof you implicitly confess it to be as much that it must be as much you cannot modestly deny and even this Ad Hominem will serve the turn For t is plain you make them all Papists who joyn with Grotius whilst you call them the Grotian Cassandrian Papists and therefore according to your reasoning Grotius who joyn'd with our Episcopal Divines must have been a prelatiâ—al English Protestant 6. What you adde of the late King doth serve to prove him a Protestant and what you adde of Dr. Bayly doth serve to speak him a Papist but what of this Grotius was not that Doctor any more than that King Our Episcopal Divines made a discovery of the cheat and reckon'd Bayly no other than what they found him rather a man of the sword than a true pacifick Though t was observed by learned Montague that our Puritans were the men who did commonly turn Papists yet he did not conclude they were the likelier to be Papists who never turn'd Dr. Bezier â—leared from aâ— implicit Câ—â—â—â—y No to argue in such sort is your own peculiar Sect. 24. What you cite from I. B. to shew the judgement of those on whom the Iudgment of Grotius had any influence p. 390. is every way to your prejudice For 1. The Author is Dr. Bezier a French Protestant by birth and by education not one whit the likelier to have been poâ—ishly affected for having been prefer'd by the Bishop of Durham to be a Prebend in that Church the Bishop himself being so contrary and that in your knowldge 2. It is more then you know that the Judgment of Grotius had any influence upon His or that he ever took Grotius into consideration Take heed of sâ—eaking things out of your meer Imagination Dr. Bezier is a person of whose practice in France I have been an Eye-witness and that I know did evince him a sober Protestant But 3. Why should not a Frenchman preferr'd in England have leave to wish for the ancieâ—t Vnion so as each injoying their true Liberties they might reform all Errors in point of Doctrin for Themselves 4. The design of that Tract being to prove against the Papists that in casting out the Papacy we are not guilty of Schism or Heresie urging Barnes his Book as a good Confession on their side and his monstrous usage for that Confession what need was there of more than to clear the Liberties of our Church 5. Since the Gallican Church had the same Liberties with the British He could not take a fitter hint to expresse his wish for our Vnion 6. * Si utraque pars absque pre judicio sese mutuò intelligeret pars extrema de rigore suo vellet remittere ea Britannicae Ecclesiae cum Gallicanâ consensio non foret adeo improbabilis atque primâ fronte videtur Ecclesiam utramque vel alterutram ignorantibus I. B. de Antiq. Eccl. Britanâ— libert p. 34 35. What he speaks in their favour is only this That if the French Church would uâ—derstand us rightly and would thereupon remit of her present Rigor which you know implies a Reformation our Agreement would be likelier than appears at first sight to such as have not a knowledge of either Churche And will not you say as much as this of that or any other part of the Roman Church certainly these are to be thought those very tolerable terms upon which you profess for the French Papists that you would run with the forewardest to meet them p. 390. Sect. 25. Your odd Resolution Pacificks are not a Cause of Discord that bellum discordia non sunt nisi à pacificis propter pacem p. 392. can onely be verified through the wilfulness of the unreconcileable For Love of Peace by it self would never be apt to make war If any contention shall arise about the meanes of union that again must be charged on them that diâ—â—ike the mean's propos'd and yet propose no better nor more probâ—ble perhaps much worse and more unlikely to take a confortable effect whereas the Pacifici if they really propose the very best meanes they can and do the utmost that in them lye's to live peaceably with all men as they cannot be blame-worthy for doing no more so 't is their coâ—fort if they miscarry that they have freed their own soules Of the Pope's Primacy Sect. 26. You seem to forget the thing in Question when you inveigh against an opinion of the necessity of an
then from almost any Writer in those subjects that ever you read Hardly any can speak higher unless I except Dr. Owen who saith that Grotius was almost-wise above the pitch of humane Nature if that is the meaning of his Latin ultra humanitatem pene sapuisse and that in * In omni literatura all manner of learning insomuch that he thinks there is nothing comparable to him if that is his meaning by Quicquam ei simâ—le esse vix credo Yet this Gentleman and you have been so far from avowing the being Followers of Grotius that ye are the onely men amongst us who have shewed your selves his publick Enemies Although ye vehemently dâ—ffered between your selves yet ye agreed in this that ye were both against Grotius Nay in this your Agreement ye differ'd too with a witnesse For he would have Grotius a Socinian and you a Papist Now a Papist and a Socinian are not onely so different but so utterly irreconcileable that nothing but Grotius his moderation can afford any excuse to one or other of his Accusers You have justified Grotius from the Heresie of Socinianism which you confesse he hath too often been charged with p. 89. And so you have sided with the Prelatists against the man before mentioned He again hath freed Grotius from the suspicion of being a Papist if no Socinian can be a Papist as you know none can and so hath sided with the Prelatists against your self I mean by Prelatists the unchangeable Divines of the Church of England Such as those two Reverend and Righteous men Dr. Hammond and Mr. Thornâ—ike whom I onely single out for this one reason because they have vindicated Grotius from each extreme of the Calumny which betwixt you two hath been cast upon him And to prepare you for the evidence with which I shall afterwards entertain you as well as to give you some ground to suspect your own judgment by letting you see how it differ's from such as theirs I think it as usefull as it is pertinent to give you some of their words There is no colour for this suggestion of Grotius his closeing with the Roman interest as far as Grotius his writings give us to judge Dr. Hammonds words in his second Defâ—nce of Grotius p. 5. and farther then those I have no perspective to examin his Heart For the Fomenters of the Divisions in Christendom being the onely persons whom he professed to oppose the irreconciliabiles qui aeterna cupiunt esse dissidia 't is consequent that the pacificatory interest was the onely one by him espoused and pursued most affectionately And I could never yet discern by any pregnant indication that this is the Roman interest We have seen two men of repute now amongst us censure Grotius his Labours upon the Scriptures Mr. Thorndikes words in his Epilogue to the Tragedy of the Church of England Epist. to the Reader p. 5. The one hath made him a Socinian the other a Papist Both could have given us no better Argument that he was Neither then this that he cannot be Both. I do but instance in an eminent person who must needs be a Papist though never reconciled to the Church of Rome who must needs be a Socinian though appealing to the originall consent of the whole Church Upon what Termes should there be any such thing as Papists or Socinians I remember an Admonition of his bitter Adversary Dr. Rivet that the See of Rome will never thank him for what he writ And from hence I inferred as charity obliged me to infer that the common good of Christianity and of God's Church obliged him to that for which he was to expect thanks on no side Thiâ— for certain Grotius never lived by maintaining Division in the Church whether any body doth so or not I say not their Master will judge them for it if they do Now Sir let me tell you that unlesse you think you have read more or can better judge in your Reading of Grotius his writings then the so venerable persons who speak before us you ought at least to suspend your censure untill you shall find by all that follows upon whose Misadventure you ought to place it If you shall possibly say that these are two of the English Followers of whom you speak you cannot do Grotius a greater pleasure they having both given blows to the Church of Rome more then all the whole party with whom you joyne To calumniate Grotius confeâ—sed odious You say you do confesse it an odious thing to calumniate so Learned a man as Grotius and all others of his mind and way and that you must needs repâ—nt and recant if you be guilâ—y of so great a Crime Sect. 1. Sect. 4. I would very fain know which are the men of his way as that is distinguished from his mind and seems to signifie his practice And what way it is which here you allude to obscurely but do not name I for my part can think of none but his not communicating in France with either Papists or Protestants And amongst us here in England I know nothing like it except the way of the Presbyterians many of whom for diverse yeares have been so averse unto Communions that in their Churches the world knows they have not had any at all yet even this way of his is sufficient to evidence his being no Papist As I shall shew most clearly in due time and place Repentance promised ex hypothesi Sect. 5. Because you promise Repentance and Recantation if you be found to be guilty of so great a Crime as you call it to calumniate such a man as Grotius I will first set down how far forth you have accused him next I will manifest his innocence of that whereof he stands charged and then I will leave you to consider whether you ought not to make him some Reparations You do not content your self to say Groâ—ius accused of turning Papist he was a Favourer of the Papists and one who thought not so hardly of them as other Protestants have done or that he was strongly inclin'd that way and put the best interpretation upon their Doctrins that they were capable of bearing that the Peace of Christendom might not seem so impossible as some would make it or that he stood in a preparedness of mind to reconcile himself unto the Papists upon condition the Papists also would reconcile themselves unto the moderate Protestants and the moderate Protestants unto them for this had been to say no more then I can say of Thuanus that he favoured the Protestants on all occasions although he remained a Papist still But you have said in grosse Termes That he took it for his glory to be a Roman Catholick Sect. 2. That hâ— turned Papist p. 11. That he dropt by thiâ— meanes into a deplorable Schism Ibid. So as if I shall demonstrate that there was never any such thing and that Grotius did not turn Papist no
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.
them they onely considered as prudent men that Anabaptisme had its rise from the same Principles the Puritanes hold and its growth from the same courses they took together with the natural tendency of those Principles and Practices thithâ—rward And that it was no vain fear the unhappy event hâ—th proved and justified them since what they feared is come to passe and that in a very high degree Thus you see that Presbyterians and the prime of that party even such as Master Cartwright in Queen Elizabeth's dâ—yes were stiled Puritanes and Disciplinarians by these unquestionable men And I wish you would read once at least every week that most excellent Preface of Doctor Sanderson See Sect. XVII and compare it with XXI where he saith the right English Protestant is in the middle between the Papist and the Puritan you will find him placing the Church of England and the regular sons of the Church of England in the middle betwixt the two extremes Papists and Puritanes highly applauding the Episcopal Divines as the greatest enemies of Rome and converters of Papists from that Church to this which hardly ever a Presbyterian was known to be You will find him shewing how your party have been the great promoters of the Roman interest among us and that by many more waies then one You will find him confuting your Book of Concord p. 46. shewing how you and your brethren have hardened the Papists Sect. XVIII and betrayed the Protestant cause Nay how Libertinism it self hath over spread the whole face of the land by the means of fiery turbulent Presbyterians Sect. XX. You will find him discovering that dangerous point wherein the very mysterie of Puritanism consisteth they are his own words and from whence as from a fountain so many acts of sinful disobedience issue How the enemies of our Prelacy are both multiplied Sect XXIII and divided into Fractions and Factions not more opposite to truth many of them then to one another their opposition to the Truth being the onely property wherein the Factions do all agree Ibid. Yea you will find him express his fears which are extremely to be heeded proceeding from so good and so wise a man that our Atheists are more numerous then either our Papists or our Sectaries and perhaps go masking in all their vizors since the pretended Reformation you so much talk of Sect. XXIV To put an end to this Paragraph you will find him distinguishing as I have many times done as well before as since he did it between the moderate and the rigid Scotized through-paced Presbyterians The former he professeth to love and honour but such he saith the madness and obstinacy of the later that it is vain think of doing any good upon them by Argument But becauâ—â— you may objeâ—t that Doctor Sanderson is one of the neâ— Episcopal Divines or say of him as you did of Grotius thâ—â— he is an exasperâ—â—ed man as having been cast out of hiâ— own by the barbarous violence of your Reformers I will adâ— some judgments to which you cannot have such exceptions Sect. 10. Bishop Andrews of blessed memory hath described a branch of the old Cathari or Puritanes Bishop Andrews his judgment of Puritanes in his Sermon of worshipping imaginations p. 29. A.D. 1592. published by supreme Aâ—thâ—rity who call themselves Apostolici for an extraordinary desire above other men to have discipline and all things to the exact pattern of the Apostles dayes He citeth Epiphanius for the Catharists Haeresâ— 6â— so that it seems he thought Puritanes a sort of Hereticks revived He calls it fitly Cacozâ—lia an apish imitation to retain all in use thâ—n seeing divers things even then were onely temporary He also shews them to be a parcel of the Donatists for pressing all things alike which they found in Scripture Both which he tells us have not a little harmed the Church * Ib. p. 30. He discovers their Hypocrisie and Superstition so unfit are the Puritanes to accuse others of it with another riot and licentious liberty which he saith is a great deal worse then the former In a word he doth conclude them to be partly Idols and partly Idolaters †See from p 32 to the end for besides their vain imaginations touching the Apostles fellowship Lay-Elders and the rest of the Presbyterian inventions to which he saith a great number of the deâ—eived people bow down and worship p. 34. and besides their babling after the manner of the Papists yea of the Heathen in their long and pretendedly extemporary prayers in wâ—h he saith they err no less then either Papists or the Heathens do p. 37. He concludes of all their tricks together w ch he condemned in particular throughout his Sermon These are of many imaginations some set up and magnified by some and by others worshipped and adored under the names of the Apostles1 Doctrine,2 Government,3 Sacraments,4 Prayers In divers others of hiâ— Sermons he sets them out in their proper colours * See his second Sermon of sending the Holy Ghost p. 610. As mistaking their humours and misterming them the spirit calling that the spirit of zeal whâ—ch is indeed a hot humour onely flowing from the gall Another windy humour they have proceeding from the spleen supposed to be the wind Act. 2.3 4. with which being filled they term themselves THE GODLY BRETHREN I wish saith He it were not needful to make this Observation But you shall easily know it for an Humour Non continetur termino suo it s own limits will not hold it They are ever mending Churches States Superiours mending all save themselvs alieno non suo is the note to distinguish an humour by (b) Ezek. 13.13 Many follow their own ghost in stead of thâ— Holy Ghost For even that ghost taketh upon it to inspire And (c) Mat. 16.2 flesh and bloud we know have their revelations Having set up and shrin'd the worldly spirit in their hearts up shâ—ll all the golden Calves to uphold the present estate down shall Christ ne veniant Romani that the Romans come not and carry us all away †See his ninth Sermon of the same p. 694. Again he calls them the Automata the Spectra the Puppets of Religion Hypocrites Wiâ—h some spring within the eyes are made to rowle and their lips to wag and their brest to give a sob all is but Hero's Pneumatica 2 Pet. 3.5 a vizor not a very face an oâ—tward shew of godliness but no inward power of it at all And are there not somewhere in the World some such as will receive none other spirit or Holy Ghost but their own ghost and the Idol of their own conceit the vision of their own heads the motions of their own spirits And if you hit not on that that is there in their hearts they reject it be it what it will That make their brests the sanctuary That in effect say with the old Donatists Quod
when the Question being put whether Grotius de Facto turn'd Papist or not you tell the world I am a Papist because I think that he was none There may be men of both parties of both opinions in point of Fact whilst yet they retain their Parties too Nay the Question may be put to a Mahumetan or a Iew who retaining their own Religions may judge impartially of a Christian whether they think he either changed or changed not his Religion for that of the Iews or the Mahumetans It was lately a Question twixt Dr. Bernard and my self whether the Primate of Armagh had chang'd his Judgment wherein though He was of one mind and I of another yet I did not infer that He was a Calvinist nor He that I was an Arminian The Question being not put concerning what we approve but concerning the Truth of the thing done So in the Case of Grotius it is not disputed by you and me whether Grotius did well in turning Papist for if he turn'd Papist we both condemn him but whether he actually did or did not turn Papist And to say he did when he did not is not to oppose but to make a Papist He * look back on ch 1. p. 11. Arg. 1. affirm'd that he did not and I believe his affirmation But it is not Popery to take a man upon his word if it is you are a Papist for the very same reason for certainly there are Papists whom you believe when they tell you that they are Papists Behold the Case in another Colour The Iansenians do profess to detest the severall propositions which were condemned by Pope Innocent but †Consulatur Mysterium Iesuit approving the Pope's Sentence they deny the Fact to wit that Iansenius affirm'd the Contrary where by the way let it be noted that either Austin and Iansenius are of the Judgment that I am for Or their greatest friends and Abettors are no less Oppugners of the Calvinists than the Molinists themselves will you say they love what they detest because they deny that Iansenius said it you will be hooted at if you do as a very strange Creature And yet you have done as absur'd a thing For I am aâ— different from a Papist as any Protestant can be of the Church of England Yet because I deny that Grotius turn'd Papist you make no scruple to call me Papist for my reward A Calumny favouring of as much weakness as if St. Basil should have pronounced Athanasius himself to have turned Arian for conceiving all to be Orthodox in Dionysius his Writings of Alexandria in which St. Basil was of opinion that something of Arianism was couched Fourthly your Accusation is the more hainous because it reacheth to the Dâ—shonourning of the Ablest Protestants in the world who deny that Grotius turn'd Papist as well as I. In particular Doctor Hammond must needes be One of your Grotian Papists for having vindicated Grotius from the charge of Popery although he hath written against the Papists O how infinitely better than you have done and to much better purpose than all the men of your way Another of your Papists is Mr. Thorndike whose Learned book against Popery and Puritanism together I pray be sure to understand before you Answer Nay Arnoldus Poelenburg the Presbyterian but one of the learnedst of that way as being a Follower of Arminius and not of Calvin must pass with you for a Papist as you with your fellow * Note once for all that â— call you Presbyterian onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Presbyterians because he hath lately made it appeare that Grotius dyed a true Protestant I shall give you his words in their proper Place Sect. 5. Having discover'd to you the guilt Mr. Grandâ—n's Advantage I now proceed to acquaint you with the unskilfullness of your Crime Mr. Crandon you call a Iudicious Paedagogue from whence I conclude that he Teacheth School He was one of those Brethren who * Disp. of Sacram 5. p. 486. told the world you are a Papist and one of the worst sort of Papists and what the particular Bookes were which had made you a Papist and what Emissaries you have in all parts of the Land Now observe the Rod which you have made and the severall Twiggs of correction out of whicâ—â—t is compos'd and how you have put this Rod into the hands of Mr. Crandon who being a Paedagogue know's how to lay it oâ— especially when he finds you so bare and naked Do noâ— kick at the Expression For you have told us your needes and what it is that must do you good Too much respect it seeme's destroys you And though it is crosse to my Inclinations yet I can put on Severity for an hower or two when I think it may tend to so good a purpose as to make you for ever cast off your Railing The Accuser of Protestants proved a Papist by 14. Arguments according to his own logick In the Person of Mr. Crandon and by the force of your Logick against your self It will be easie to prove you an arrant Papist in a Disguize For 1. We have your Confession that some of the Brotherhood it self have publickly laid it to your charge who being judicious and godly men would never have accus'd you of such a Crime if they had dot had Grounds and Reasons for it 2. You have not hetherto clear'd your self as you would certainly have done if you had been able For though you have writ against the Papists a great deal more then enough yet that is no more then a Blindation to escape the rigor of the Law How could you hold a Sequestrasion if you did not act the Presbyterian Dr. Taylor writ against Papists and yet you know what you have * Disp. with Mr. Tombes p. 397 call'd him Dr. Hammoâ—d and Mr. Thorndike have writ against Papists But you know what they are for defending Grotius Archbishop Laud writ against them in an unanswerable manner And yet you know how you have slurr'd him for having †Praef. to Grot. Rel. Sect. 25. befriended the Grotian Plot. Nay 3. Your Bookes against Popery become an Argument to prove you its greatest Friend Because they are Arm'd with so much weakness as is a trecherous strength against the Protestant Cause Some are hired to resist that they may certainly be beaten and led in Triâ—mph We who know how Caligula did hire the Gaules â—an guesse at the use of your Key for Catholicks Had you intended them any Hurt you would have left them to the rigor of Abler Pens For you were told by Dr. * Prâ—f Sect. 17. Sanderson That the sufficient Disputants with the Papists are the Episcopall Divines 4. You have vilified the Protestants of every Sect and Division and the best in the greatest measure Neither Bolsec nor Fevardentius have gone beyond you †Look back on Ch. 1. Sect. 12. You have declared in point of Discipline against the Episcopal
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
vent and exercise Your third plot is to get down the learned judicious Godly painful Ministers such as by name I lately mentioned Chap. 6. Sect. 9. at least to take away their publick Maintenance that the people may take such Ministers as will humour them most and do their work best cheap The fourth part of the plot is to hinder the Union of other Protestants with Episcopal Divines and the regular exercising of Discipline or maintaining of Church-Order that the Papists may say we have no Church no Government c. and that by division we may be disabled from opposing them The fifth part of it is to keep afoot a party of learned Men who under the Name of Presbyterians may keep an Interest in the people and partly draw them from Unity and from obeying their Superiours by pretending a Necessity to abolish Episcopacy and Presbytery and to set up Presbytery in its stead or somewhat else without a Name expressed at random by The Scepter and Way of Christ thereby to widen our Breaches and so prepare a way for Popery The Bishop of Canterbury cleared from his Accuser his Accuser from himself Thus you see how exactly your Satyrs fit you which you have fram'd against the soundest of all the Protestants in the world whom you will needs because you will call Grotian Papists If you deny your being a Papist we are not bound to believe you in case we believe you when you avow the having * Disp. 5. of Sacr. p. 484. Hypocrisie in your heart When you proclaim your self an Hypocrite for so you did from the Press or I had not read it you cannot blame me for my Belief For either your proclamation was true or false if true you are an Hypocrite because you say it in sincerity if false you are an Hypocrite because you are not when you say you are Besides you were not angry with Dr. Owen although he told you of your Hypocrisie a little before you told him much less may your Anger break out on me for having onely believed what you have told me Adde one thing more The Bishop of Canterbury protested before God and his holy Angels and that upon the fatal Scaffold even immediately before he laid his Neck upon the Block that he had never any hâ—nd in any Dâ—â—gn whatsoever to bring in Popery or to alâ—er he Râ—ligion by Lâ—â— estâ—blish't He never told you of any Hypocrisie in his heart much less at the Instant of his Departure yet how have you and Mr. Hickman done your worst to desile his spotless memorie And if you cannot believe Him nay if you cannot believe me when I profess to be a Son of the Protestant Church here in England atteâ—ted to by the Blood of our English Martyrs who were Prelates and Prelatists not Presbyterians How can you hope to find credit whilst you profess what I have done Yet in conclusion I must tell you I do not believe you are a Papist how much soever some of your Brethren have charg'd you with it I have onely spoken in this Section by a Prosopopoeia to shew you the follie of your reasonings whilst you dispute against Grotius and call us Papists who think him None Sect. 6. Now to the Testimonie you * Disp. of Ch. gov and wor. Pref. p. 3â— bring from Claud. Sarravius Grotius his second vindication I oppose a better Testimonie from Arnoldus Poelenburgius a learned Protestant of the Lâ—w Countâ—ies in the North part of Holland a person acquainted with Grotius his Wife and Children and one who dedicates his Book to William Grotius an Eminent Lawyer now in Holland made much more eminent by being Brother to Hugo Grotius Arnoldus Poelenburg having premised how great a Man in all points this Hugo was so great that This Age hath not brought forth a greater Hâ—s wonderful knowledge in the Law His unfathomable Depth in the Things of God His exact Command of all story both ancient and modern as well sacred as secular His Incredible evolution of Books for number not to be reckond His stupendious Comprehension of all the languages in the world by which a person of his Importance might be advantaged or adorn'd His poetical Supereâ—â—inence His Eloâ—â—tion not to be equall'd Hiâ— weight of matter and blessed stile His singular Temperance and Modesty and other vertues His being persecuted at home for sticking to God and a good Conscience His being sued to from abroad by Kings and Princes and principal persons of the world and last of all His being envied for his unimitable performances by such as thought him too happy for one single Man as yet in viâ I say Arnoldus Poelenburg having premised a page or two to thiâ— purpose proceeds to vindicate his Memorie from the Aspersion under Debate Arnol. Poelent Pastoris Ecclesiae Remon Hornanae in Epist praef Dissertationi Epistolicae p. 13 14. Ad Papismi criminationem facilis est Responsie Nam sicut is qui duobus viris de possessionum Terminis inter se litigantibus Arbitrum se offert vix alterutrius odium effugit quia uterque sibi plurimum vindicat quisque suspicatur sibi minus attributum quà m Justitia flagitabat Ita qui partes in Religionis Negotio dissidentes componere satagit vix poterit quin ab alterâ parte pro hoste habeatur quia in diversae partis homines liberalior fuisse visus est D. Grotium autem nobis ad extremum usque addictum fuisse satis liquet ex illo posthumo scripto cui maximè Adversariâ— ejus infensi sunt Ibi enim D. Vtenbogardi aliorumquè Antistitum nostrorum non sine laudis Elogio meminit Praeterea Uxor Ipsius Honestissima Matrona cùm post fata Mariti ex illo glorioso non minus quà m diuturno exilio Hagam Comitis reversa sedem Doâ—icilii ibi collocaret statim illa se nostrae Ecclesiae adjunxit sacram synaxin nobiscum celebravit denique affirmavit Maritum suum neque in Galliis UNQUAM neque extra Gallias alicubi Templum Pontificiorum frequentasse aut eorum sacris interfuisse Puto hoc Argumenti satis esse quod Defectionem ad Pontificios meditatus non fuerit Quod nonnulli aut Malevoli homines aut certè nimium suspicaces opinantur His wife his Witness Here is a witness beyond exception even the Friend of his †Deut. 13.6 Bosom a very honourable Matron in herself and therefore fit to be believed although she had been but a common Friend whereas we know she was more than a common Wife for she contriv'd his safety with the utmost hazard of her own She was * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 5.23 Quia uxoris salus à viro dependet sicut Ecclesiae salus est à Chriâ—â—o Beza in locum The Saviour of the Body in the words and sense of the Apostle Concerning Husbands An Individual Partner and Companion in all his Sufferings One who endeared
him to Herself by her so many great effects of her Love and Loyalty which have made her a pattern to other women and hereafter will make her a proverb too that he could not conceal his Religion from Her whom he had worthily seated so near his Heart What need we more in so clear a Case The Wife of Grotius was both a Protestant herself as well at her residence in Paris as at her return unto the Hague and hath constantly †Look back on ch 1. Sect. 5. p. 12 13. affirmed to all desirous of Information that her Husband and herself were never divided in their Religion That he did never * Neque in Galliis unquam neque extra Gallias alicubi c. at any time †Neque in Galliis unquam neque extra Gallias alicubi c. in any part of the world so much as permit himself to be * Aut eorum sacris Interfuisse present at any papistical Devotions Never was there a Wife of greateâ— Wisdom and Gravity and Christian courage in the esteem of an Husband than she in his Never was there a Husband who left behind him a greater Monument of honour gratitude to a wife And could he think you be a Papist without her Knowledge Or could he think you turn Papist without his own He made profession to Laurentius who writ the Grotius Papizans which you are now so unskilfull as to object that he was not turn'd Papist as had been slanderously reported which having told you of already ch 1. p. 11 12. I will incourage you to believe whatsoever his Wife hath affirmed of him by letting you see how much he prized her Nos quoque si quisquam multum debere fatemur Sylvae Grotian◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Augusti Thuani Franciscum Filium p. 5 6 Conjugio Memini post tot tua vota precesque Cynthia cùm nonum Capto mihi volveret orbem Qualem te primum Conjux fidissima vidi Carceris in Tenébris Lachrymas absorpserat Ingens Vis Animi neque vel gemitu Te Luctus adegit Consentire malis Rursus nova vincula sed quae Te Sociâ leviora tuli dum milite clausos Nos Mosa tristi Vahalis circumstrepit undâ Heic Patriam toties inania jura vocanti Et proculcatas in nostro corpore leges Tu solamen eras Heic jam Te viderat alter Et post se mediâ plus parte reliquerat Annus Cum mihi jura mei per Te solerte reperto Reddita Tu postquam jam caeca acceperat Alvus Dulce oâ—iâ—s opposâ—â—s libabas oscula claustris Atque ita semoto foribus custode locuta es Summe Pater rigido si non Adamante futurum Stat tibi sed precibus potìs es gaudesque moveri Hoc quod nostra Fides lucem servavit in istam Accipe Depositum tantisque exolve periclis Conjugii testor Sanctissima jura meaeque Spem sobolis Non huc venio pertaesa malorum Sed miserata virum possum sine Conjuge possum Quamvis dura pâ—ti Si post exempla ferocis Ultima saevitiae nondum deferbuit ira In me tota ruat vivam crudele sepulchrum Me premat triplicis cingat custodia Valli Dum meus aetheriae satietur pastibus Aurae Grotius Casus narret Patriaeque suosque Dixerat atque oculis fugientia vela secutis Addit Abi Conjux neque Te nisi Libera cernam Quod mea si auderet Famam spondere Camaena Acciperet quantis virtutem laisdibus istam Posteritas A Rejoynder to as much of the Key for Catholicks as pretend's to be â— Reply to my old Advertisement Sect. 7. I now pass on as you direct me to the latter part of your Key for Catholicks of which your Pen hath made great Boast But every man's cause is not the best who hath the fondest opinion of his performance For then there were no disputing with you You would be constantly in the right which part soever you undertook You say the Business of Grotius is it upon which you are to meddle with me p. 382. And first you promise me to yield what I told you That for the very same reasons upon which you conclude that Grotius is a Papist you must also conclude him to be a Protestant unless you think as hardly of the Augustan Confession as you seem to do of the Councill of Treâ—t But you will not performe it till the Greek Calends For you condition with me to prove That a Protestant is one who holdeth to the Council of Trent c. And are you fitted to be a Disputant whose strength is onely to be sturdy in a meer begging of the Question welfare thâ— Down-right Dr. Kendal for faithfully telling you in his Book That A little more of the Vniversity would have done you no harm See and wonder at your unhappinesâ— which was Rivet's as well as yours You objected against Grotius his having set out the Canons of the Trent Council in his Conciliatory Design To which I answered that he did equally set out the Articles of the Protestant Council at Augusta So as if that doth prove him a Papist This must prove him also a Protestant Whereas indeed they both prove him a Reconciler You confess it is not Popery to be a Peace-maker Nay you pretend at least to be one your self You often wish for peace and union between us and the Papists But how can Peace be ever made betwixt two Adversary parties without a mutuall Collation of both their Doctrines which if they are thought so to differ as to be quite irreconcilable who would labour to reconcile them When * At Grotius non eam Bullam solam edidit sed confess nem Augusâ— nam existimans comâ—â—dè acceptas Doctrinas Tridentinam Augustanam inter se non ita pugre ut multi credidere Discuss p. 7. Grotius told Rivet that he had put forth the Doctrines as well of the Augustan as the Tridentine Council because he believed they differed less than many others did apprehend he conceived the Papists Doctrines might be made to conforme unto the Protestants not the Protestants unto the Papists meaning not the Presbyterian but sober Protestanâ—s such as those at Augusta remember That for in the very same page as in twenty others which I have met with He pleads for the Reforming of Popish Errors whether the Pope will or no by Kings and Bâ—shops within thâ—ir Bounds But never yet could I find that he acknowledg'd the least Error in either the Discipline or Doctrine of sober Protestants such as the Followers of Melanchthon and the unchangeable Sons of the Church of England The words of Grotius Ibid. which have open'd shall stop your mouth Licuerit sanè Regibus legitime constitutis Episcopis intra suos fines quaedam corrigere quae videbantur corrigenda There he approves of the Reformationâ— in the Dukedom of Saxonie and here in England
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
The New Discoverer DISCOVER'D By way of Answer to Mr. BAXTER his Pretended Discovery of the GROTIAN RELIGION With the Several Subjects therein Conteined To which is added AN APPENDIX Conteining a Rejoynder to diverse Things both in the Key for Catholicks and in The book of Disputations about Church-Government and Worship c. TOGETHER WITH A Letter to the Learned and Reverend Dr. Heylis Concerning Mr. Hickman and Mr. Bagshaw By THOMAS PIERCE Rector of Brington 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrian Ep. l. 4. c. 5. Their own Tongues shall make them fall Psal. 64.8 LONDON Printed by I. G. for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivye-lane 1659. A Preadvertisement to the Reader CHRISTIAN READER IF thou desirest to know the Reason why I begin to Mr. Baxter with more respect than thou allow'st him whereas I treat him in my Appendix with little more than he deserves making almost as great a difference in my stile to him as is observable in his to me be pleased to accept of this hasty but just accompt I was indulgent in the beginning to mine own particular Inclinations but at the end I consulted his greatest Needs My Inclinations would ever lead me to speak as * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 15.2 pleasingly as I may but that my Iudgment sometimes corrects them and makes them give way to my * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 15.2 Neighbour's profit His bitter Enmity against my person which he hath sturdily concluded in a state of Damnation and so by consequence a Reprobate after his way of reasoning though blessed be God his Conclusion is not deduced from any premises save what his Passion and his Fancy have shapâ—d out to him I say his Enmâ—ty to my person did onely move me to forgive and to use him gently But when I beheld him a second time as the bitterest Adversary of Truth reviling the Fathers of the Church and the Church herself more than any Presbyterian I ever met with unless I except Mr. Hickman with whom I shall reckon in due time for his great uncleannesse I durst not * Gal. 1.10 seek to please men so as to cease to be the servant of Iesus Christ. And therefore however I have begun my ensuing papers with what was most pleasant for me to write yet have I suffer'd my self at last to adde such things in the Conclusion as I found Mr. Baxter had need to read For if after my having been very liberal I find my Client so much the worse the likeliest method to make him better is to become for the future but strictly just He is a different man in his book of Government and Worship and in the later part of his Key for Catholicks from what he was in his Discovery of the Grotian Religion for so it seems he was pleas'd to word it and that did make him the fitter for somewhat a different Entertainment †Grot. Rel. â—râ—f Sect. 3. It is not long since he made profession that if any should gather from his Discourse my being such my self as he affirmed Grotius to have been he protested against all such Accusations as no part of his intention but in his two last Volumes his mind is changed or else his Members have prevailed against his mind so far forth as to accuse me of downright Popery and of having a hand in the Grotian plot which if we may prudently believe him is to bring Popery into the Land and together with that a Persecution He takes it ill that I am suffer'd to have a * Key for Cath. p 385 386. Rectory here in England and thereupon bewrayes his judgment that I am fitter for the * Key for Cath. p 385 386. Strappado which whilst he saith that such as he cannot escape in my Church implying me to be one of the bloodiest Papists whether Spanish or Italian he doth not say he doth abundantly insinuate his kindnesse to me Had I a heart to return him Evil for Evil I might fitly proclaim him either a Iesuite or a Iew. For without question he is either as much as I am a Papist but I will not vie slanders with men of Toung nor try the strength of my Invention to beat an Enemy at his own weapon for this were onely to be at strife who should be the most impious No let the Rigid Presbyterian take such victories to himself without receiving the trouble of being contended with at all I may often times punish but never wrong him and when I punish the Malefactor I spare the Man * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Agapeâ— Diac. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 83. Vengeance is a thing which I leave to God I being fully content with a Vindication 'T is true I prove him to be a †See Append. Sect. 5. Papist by fourteen Arguments but they are Arguments onely ad Hominem and professedly urged by a Prosopopoeia and onely in order to his Conviction that more may be said against him than he can say against Grotius and that his injuries to Grotius do onely prove his own hurts And having thus proved him to be a Papist I freely * Ibid p. 175. professe to believe him none I hope his Calumnies of Grotius and the Episcopal Divines will now obtaine the less credit with his most credulous Admirers for that he hath poured out the same and a great deal worse against a person of great remarke amongst the Counsellours of State * Compare The Vindication of Sir Henry Vane with Mr. Baxter's unchristian usage of him in his Key for Catholicks The Vani or Vanists for he is pleas'd to speak in both Dialects are made the burden of his invective in his Key for Catholicks In his Dedicatory Epistle which some have call'd his Court-Flattery he make's a grievous complaint against ten sorts of men of whom he declare's he is very jealous The third of these are the Vani whom God by wonders confounded in new England but have here prevailed far in the dark To explain his meaning in the Epistle he tell 's us †Key for Catâ— p. 330 331. plainly in the Book that the first sort of Iuglers or Hiders of their Religion under whom the Papists do now manage their principal design are the Vani whose Game was first plaid openly in America in New-England where God gave his Testimonies against them from heaven upon their two Prophetesses Mrs. Hutchinson and Mrs. Dyer the later brought forth a Monster with the parts of Bird Beast Fish and Man The former brought forth many neer 30. Monstrous Births at once and was after slain by the Indians This providence he add's should have awakened the Parliament to a wise and godly jealousie of the Counsells and Designs of him that was in New-England the Master of the Game and to have carefully searched how much of his Doctrine and design were from heaven and how much of them he brought with him from Italy or at least
was begotten by the Progenitor of Monsters And lest his Readers should be to seek on whom he fasten's such ugly calumnies he frequently * Ibid. p. 319 329 338. nameth Sir Henry Vane neither regarding the Quality or Learned parts of that Knight nor any the least Reverence or Care of Truth Of this and many the like prancks I am particularly concern'd to take some notice first because Mr. Baxter hath coupled †Ibid. p. 391. the Vani with Mr. P. And both with four sorts of men by whom the Popish design is kept on foot to wit the Seekers the Infidels the Behmenists and the Quakers Next because mine own sufferings have taught me to look with indignation on other Men's how little soever their principles agree with mine And though I suppose Sir Henry Vane is very far from being partiall to the Episcopal Divines with whom I will rather choose to suffer the greatest hardships than embrace the * Iamâ—s 4.4 Friendship of the world †H b. 11. â—5 or enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a season yet are we bound to do him right and to be sensible of his wrongs and to afford him that deference which both his Birth and his Breeding have made his due When St Paul had to do with a person of honour amongst the Heathen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aâ—ts 26.25 he was so civil as to call him most noble Festus And he is sure a grosse Christian who think 's it his duty to be a Clown I cannot tell what judgement that Learned Gentleman may be of but he hath this commendation as well as Grotius that he is hated by Mr. Baxter beyond all measure and is sufficiently averse to the Presbyterians Christian Reader have the patience to be pre-admonish'd of one thing more The greatest abuse and the most groundlesse which I have suffer'd from Mr. Baxter in no less than three distinct Volumes is his indeavour to represent me as an Enemy to Purity and pious life Which however he hath done in as grosse a manner as if he had tryed to what Extremities both of absurdity and Falshood depraved Man may be transported by abusing the Liberty of his Will which God could never predetermine to such uncleannesse yet some at least of his Followers who have never yet seen him without his Vizard have been betrayed by that confidence with which he hath written against his Conscience to incourage his calumnies with their belief As for reason or proof he hath not offer'd any thing towards it but to supply that defect he hath thought it enough to declaim against me for being supposed to have declaim'd against Puritâ—nes neither naming any one passage in any papers which I had publish'd nor so much as referring to any page where any such passage was to be found I received letters of inquiry where I had written against Puritanes that Mr. Baxter should so largely rebuke me for it before the world My answer was that I never did it for ought I was able to remember and that untill Mr. Baxter could shew me where I should not believe I had been forgetfull Indeed I * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch 3. p. 75. cited that part of King Iames his Letter which told the Bishops they had to do with two sorts of Enemies Papists and Puritanes and will'd them to goe forward against the one and the other But it appeare's by these words not that I or Archbishop Spotswood by whom the Letter is recorded but that King Iames who writ the Letter had sharply written against Puritanes In so much that Mr. Baxter hath dealt with me as he hath also dealt with Sir Henry Vane whom he †Key for Cath. p. 331. supposeth to have brought Corrupt Opinions out of Italy when it appeare's that Sir Henry was never there But now admit that I had written against the Puritanes before his clamour was put in print as very possibly I did though I professe I know not where and much desire to be inform'd yet I had done no other thing than had been donby the most eminent in point of Piety Learning Iudgment and Moderation from the dayes of Queen Elizabeth to these our own And if I am an Enemy to Religion for having cited the words of others what will be said by Mr. Baxter of Archbishop Whitgift Archbishop Bancroft Judicious Hooker Judge Popham Bishop Andrews Bishop Carleton Bishop Hall Dr. Sanderson with divers others whom I have cited in the first Chapter of this Book whose just severity to the Puritanes may serve to put Mr. Baxter to shame and silence If he means no more than this that I have cited out of the Writings of English and Scotish Presbyterians their own * ☞ See The Selâ— Revenger exemplified ch 3. p. 77 78 79 80 81 82 c. Confessions of their own principles and practise too he should have honestly told his Readers that I had written no worse of the Presbyterians than themselves had written of themselves Nor should he have called them Puritanes whom I had called Presbyterians as themselves in their Writings have call'd themselves unless he was willing to acknowledge that they were both the same thing Observe good Reader how the Case stands between us It is confessed by Mr. Knox that Iames Melvin with two more did privately murder the Archbp. of St. Andrews which the same Mr. Knox doth withall commend for a Godly Fact This Confession I †Ibid. p. 8â— observed and shewed his page where it is printed Again by 52. Ministers of the Province of London it was confessed from the presse too that instead of a Reformation they had a Deformation in Religion having open'd the very Flood-gates to all Impiety and profanenâ—sse c. This Concession I * Ibid p. 81. observed and shew'd the page where it was printed That proceeded from the Scotish this from the English Presbyterians What may now be the reason that Mr. Baxter pursues me with so much Rancor Was it my fault that the things were printed without my knowledge or consent and printed by the Authors from whom I had them Or may not a man relate a passage as he find's it printed before his eyes Which was worst of the two that Mr. Knox the Presbyterian commended Murder or that a man of the Church of England did fairly cite his commendation Let it be judg'd by my writings and by the Authors whom I produce whether I am so like an Enemy to Christian purity as they who say it are Friends and Fautors to the most Heathenish Impurity to be imagin'd And because I have met with a sort of men who having been led by blind guides have stuck so fast in the ditch of error as to believe the word Puritane is of a faire signification and import's a man of a pious life I think it my duty to declare before I admit them to read my Book that whensoever I shall be found to speak severeâ—y concerning
Sect. 10. A strange way of arguing in the behalf of Cruelty It s consequence subversive of all humane society Sect. 11. Concerning Vsurpers and Restitution Sect. 12. What sequestrations are misliked and what not Sect. 13. Of growing Luâ—ty on Sequestrations and self-denial in usurpation CHAP. VII Of the Dort-Synod and the Remonstrants Sect. 1. A confessed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sect. 2. The Synodists unexcusable by standing out after yielding Sect. 3. Of grace which is really not verbally sufficient Sect. 4. Austin confessedly against the Synod of Dort Sect. 5. The extent of grace Sect. 6. The Synod of Dort parallel'd with the Iesuites even by its own Advocates Sect. 7. The Deniall of originall pravity falsely charged on the Remonstrants Sect. 8. How much there is in the will of man Sect. 9. To convert a sinner no breach of charity Sect. 10. Who it is that abuseth the choisest of Gods servants Sect. 11. Made appeare by an example The Contents of the APPENDIX Concerning severall Subjects both in The Key for Catholicks and in the Book of Disputations of Church-Government and Worship SECT I. The chief occasion of the Appendix Sect. 2. Mr. Baxters charge of Popery attended with self-contradictions Sect. 3. Made the more hainous in four respects Sect. 4. He is shew'd his Danger as well as guilt Sect. 5. Himself proved to be a Papist by fourteen Arguments according to his own Logick Grotius vindicated and cleared from all appearance of Popery from Sect. 6. to Sect. 26. The testimony of Poelenburg opposed to that of Sarravius Mr. Baxters confounding a Primacy of order with a supremacy of power And the New Canons of Rome with the antient Canons of General Councils His many and grievous mistakes in translating Grotius his Latin whether from wilfulness or weakness is referred unto the Reader Grotius his design had no influence on our English changes No Church-preferment was offer'd to him Franciscus à Sanctâ Clarâ had a contrary design Dr. Bezier cleared from an implicit Calumny The Popes Primacy allow'd by all sorts of Protestants as well as Grotius Bishop Andrews Bishop Bramhall Dr. Hammond c. A conjecture passed upon the letters which Mr. Baxter saith were sent to him of the real presence in the Lords Supper Material and formal Idolatry Two sorts of Pâ—pists The granted Primacy a Bulwarke against Popery Pacificks are not a cause of discord The Priâ—acy of the Pope how it removeth the whole mistake Sect. 29. By whom our Breaches were firâ—t made and are ever since widened The wrong sore rubb'd by Mr. Baxter and Presbyterians gall'd upon the Prelatists backs The Prelatists beaten for being abused yet are earnest desirers of Reconcilement The Church of England justified by the Confessions of her Desertors The Presbyterian separatists apparently unexcusable They are obnoxious to men of all sides for their sin of schisme Especially to the Episcopal whose sufferings have made them the more conformable to the Primitive Christians Sect. 30. Lay-Elders condemn'd by such as had sworn to assert them Sect. 31. A Calumny cast upon our Preachers to the sole disgrace of the Calumniator Once a day Preaching and Catechizing a great deal better then Prateing twice The Accuser most criminall The Presbyterian Readers are many more then the Episcopal And their Preaching much worse if we may credit their own confessions An agreement in point of Raileing between the Quakers and Presbyterians Sect. 32. A fair Confession how far a Protestant may go and be still a Protestant Sect. 33. Of Bishops and Presbytery Bishop Hall's censure of the disturbers of setled Government in the Church The Lord Primate's censure of Presbyterian Ordinations as invalid and Schismatiâ—al Dr. Holdsworth's sufferings a Declaration of his judgement Sect. 34. The Presbyterian excuses are Aggravations of their offences Sect. 35. Bishop Prideaux confessed a Moderate man though the sharpest Censor of our English Presbyterians He doth Characterize them by Ravenous Wolves By ambitious low shrubs conspiring against the goodly Oake By a petulant Ape on the house top By the greedy Dog and the Sacrilegious Bird in the common Fable By Baltasar and Achan By the title Smectymnuan importing a monster with many heads By the Bramble consuming the Cedar of Lebanon Bishop Prideaux us'd worse then any scandalous Minister Sect. 36. A vindication of Bishops and Doctor Hammond's Paraphrase Sect. 37. A Refutation of the prime Argument for Presbyterian Ordinations Mr. Baxter proved to be an Heathen by his own Art of Syllogizing Sect. 38. Presbyterians are not Bishops by having Deacons under them Sect. 39. Immoderate virulence towards those of the Episcopal way Mr. Thorndike's judgement of Presbyterian Ordinations Sect. 40. A parallel case between the Pharisees of old and our modern Puritans Sect. 41. What hath been meant by the word Puritan by Learned men The Lord Chancellor Egertoâ—'s judgement of Puritans Bishop Bramhall's judgement of the same Bishop Hall of Pharisaism and Christianity Sect. 42. The Presbyterian Directory exceedingly abominable The Kings reasons against the Directory And his reasons for the Common Prayer Sect. 43. Concerning Coppinger and Hacket and the communication of their Design to the Presbyterian Ministers Sect. 44. Dr. Steward's Sermon at Paris And Dr. Heylin's Antipuritanism To the Reverend Mr RICHARD BAXTER Reverend Sir Sect. 1. AFter so many of my indeavours to disappoint the open enemies of Truth and Reason thereby to rescue poor Christians from the worst kind of thraldom in which too many have been held by the Mythologie of the Turks whose desperate Doctrine of God's Decrees doth seem to me more terrible then all their Armies by how much the bondage of a man's Spirit is more to be fear'd then that of his Flesh for the effecting of which Rescue I verily thought you had laboured with me till what you rais'd with one hand you also ruin'd wâ—h the other which made me think many times of Penelope's Web I pleas'd my self with an opinion that my Disputes were all ended and that a liberty would be allowed me to pass the remnant of my dayes in my proper Element I take the words of old Hesiod as if they were spoke unto my self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For although perhaps I may not say I have as great an averseness to all Contention as that of the Fish unto the Fire yet am I not able to indure it but when I steadfastly believe it to be a Duty And being perswaded that it is mine I dare not shrink from a discharge how much soever it may cost me in self-denials That alone is the time of my being imployed in my proper Element when I am studying the Doctrine and Life of Christ as both are ordinable to practice when I am preaching the glad tidings of the Gospel of Peace as one to whom is committed the Word of Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.19 when I am teaching the Ignorant admonisâ—ing the Guilty procuring settlement to the Doubtful and binding up the broken-hearted when I am anxiously pressing
Cor. 10.12 seem to themselves to stand the more I would have them to take heed lest they fall Sect. 5. Hereupon I ask you Did you promise in your Title-page to vindicate David as an Adulâ—erer or as a Murderer or as one who repented of all his wickednâ—ss If the former you are professedly a Pleader for gross impiety if the latter you have not spoken to the purpose nor resisted any thing at all but what was the fruit of your private fancy Sect. 6. The same I may say of S. Peter also Of Peter Puritans and Sequestrations in the Title-page For I spake against nothing in all his life except his cowardize and his perjurie and his flat denial of the Lord Iesus for which he hated himself and did not write a vindication I onely spake of such Puritans as I described to be hypocrites having onely a form of godliness but denying the power of it the impurest creatures in the sight of God and good men as for other reasons so for this also that they are the * Pro. 30.12 Isa. 65.5 purest in their own I spake of such Sequestrations as were confessed to be unlawful by eminent Ministers of your own party and that in print nay detested by your self if I may credit your own words p. 111. Of all which when you profess to take upon you a vindication I know not how you will free your self from siding with sin on the one side or from strange impertinence on the other I will have so fair an opinion of you as to think you incurr'd this inconveniâ—nce by writing hand over head as egged on by the heat of your present interest and passion which gave you not time to consider that you were writing against your interest and against your intentions of writing for it If this were the worst as it is really the best that I am able to make of so bad a matter I shall be very glad of it and hope that as you have offended through too much haste so you will make amends for it at greater leisure I say I hope it so much the rather because if you find you are mistaken you have offered me your promise of recantation Sect. 7. You see how willing I am to put the best construction upon your words that your words will bear which course I wish you would have taken with me and Grotius in stead of the worst that you could fancy either of his words or mine I shall hope to overcome you in nothing more then in the measure of my civility and candid usage And therefore I pray do me the justice whenever you find your self afflicted with any portion of my Discourse to consider from whence the affliction riseth It shall not arise from any such bitterness of words or ceâ—sures as you and others have poured out against me you indeed much less then others but from the nature of your own matter from the condition of your own failings and from the evidence of the conviction which my conscience forbids me to let you want Sect. 8. I shall begin with your Preface and in that with your thoughts of Grotius which lying scattered up and down in many parts of your Book I shall endeavour to gather up as far as my leisure will permit and occasion serve to be considered by themselves in the following Chapter I shall direct my speech unto your Reverend self not upon any other motive then a civil compliance with your example The former half of your book which you call a Preface being onely divided into Sections and the later hâ—lf being printed with a notification of the pages I think it will be my easiest way so to distinguish in my citations as to note the Sections onely of the former and onely the pages of the later It is in order to my ease that I resolve on this course and in order to yours that I take this care to advertise you CHAP. I. Concerning Grotius his Religion and Design Sect. 1. IN the entrance of your Preface you professe to render mâ— that accompt of your thoughts of Grotius and his English followers which I was pleased to demand and make your duty And that you had much rather have been excused from stirring in this unpleasing business any more Sect. 1. I had wonderâ—d that in your Title-page you should say you did what you did at Mr. Pierce his invitation I wonder more that in your preface you would say you did it at my demand Truly if I did either it is more then I know And I may say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where and when and by whom did I demand any such thing Two lines in a letter will suffice you to answer this easie Question Sect. 2. It is well you call them your thoughts of Grotius which may be strangely mistakeâ— and yet your thoughts still It had been more for your interest if you had not pretended in your Title to an undoubted Discovery of the Grotian Religion meaning his being turn'd Papist as you have often explain'd your self For now we have it under your hand that you hâ—ve but discovered your thoughts of Grotius This indeed is a modest and proper speech because your thoughts are such private and hidden things that God alone can discern them whilst you are silent we silly mortalls cannot come at them but by that discovery which you are pleaâ—'d to make of thâ—m But Grotius whilst he was living was at once a publick and a most Exemplary person much more are his writings since his Translation To make a Discovery of the Sun who is best discerned by his own Light were to suppoâ—e the world is Blind and he alone quick sighted who undertakes to â—hew him to all the rest But to discover what a man thinkes of the Sun or Moon as to the nature of his substance his sphaere and motion hath nothing in it either of singular or absurd It is for want of a better thing that I content my self with this Resemblance in comparing Grotius unto the Sun His works give Light unto the world They all lye open as well to me as to your self You are led by some Reasons to think that Grotius was a Papist and I have met with many more which make me know him to have been none Of his Engiâ—sh â—ollowers Sect. 3. But what do you mean by his English Followers Hath any English-man of late either dead or alive written any Design of pacification between the Protestant and Popish parties All that can be said is this that the unwavering men of the Church of England do love the writings of Grotius much more then those of the Presbyterians and more then the Presbyterians love them Now if to read his Books and to admire them doth make us fit to be reckon'd amongst his Followers your self must passe for one of the chiefe because you tell me p. 4. You must iâ— gratitude professe that you have learnt more from Grotiuâ—
Christ in the Eucharist speaking of the most moderate whom he ever concludes the most worthy Protestants And with them he demonstrates how the most moderate Papists may be agreed by a commodious explication of words and meanings on either fide Nor doth he say in that place that the Protestants Article should be conformed to the Papists but that This should be made to comply with That Si quiescant Scholasticae Disputationes quid est cur non verba Concilii Tridentini explicari commode possint c. aut etiam recipi illa formula quam ex Actis Possiacenis desumpsi quam omnes qui ibi â—â—m erant Protestantes excepto unâ— P. Mart. approbarunt Animadv p. 29 30. Nay he addes expresly that the whole Protestant Form should be received and accepted as he had taken it out of the Acts agreed upon at Poissy where excepting Peter Martyr not one dissented Arg. 10. After this when he speaks to the twenty-first Article he reckons himself with the Protestants by way of discrimination from all the Papists comprehending even the French as well as the Spanish and Italian If we should count them all Idolaters who live in Communion with the Romanists it would extremely hinder our wish'd-for union Videbam mulâ—um obstare concordiae si omnes eos qui in communione sunt Romana pro Idololatris haberâ—mus gnarus Idololatriam esse eminentissimum seculi crimen ib. p. 43 44. This he renders for the reason why he who laboured a Reconcilement which would have carried with it a Reformation was not in reason to accuse the whole Universe of Papists without exception of the greatest crime in the world making them odious to others as well as implacable in themselves and most of all with the Reconciler It being his office not to widen breaches but to contract them nor to imbitter but emolliate the minds of men especially of the great and prevailing party The words of Grotius have this rational importance I saw it would hinder out Reconcilement if we who are Protestants should repute for Idolaters even all that are of the Roman Church or Communion though too many of them indeed are such This appears by the word omnes coâ—pared with habeâ—emus and with the person's Religion to whom he speaks Arg. 11. In his Votum pro pace he professeth that even the moderate and most peaceable Romanists were of a different communion from that whereof he professeth himself to be Verti me ad eos legendos qui etsi fuere in Communione diversa animum tamen magis ad sananda quà m ad fovenda divortia appulere Vo. pro pace p. 9. * p. 7 8 9. He deploreth the superstition with other corruptions and abuses which he saw had invaded the Church of Rome He saith Cassander's Consultation was commended to him by †p. 10 Gâ—saubon a famous Protestant And that his labour thereupon was approved in France * ibid. by both the opposite parties He shews what †Prompta sunt in Galliis Hispaniisque Remedia quibus impediantur Papae â—e aut Regum aut Episcoporum jura invadant p. 12. Remedies there are to cure the Popes of their Disease to put Hooks in their Nostrills and in despight of their ambition to preserve the just Rights of Kings and Bishops Nay he acknowledgeth the * ibid. Right of the Kings of Britain about all Ecclesiastical both Things and Persons which for a Papist to have done would have implied a contradiction But any thing will be Popery with them that out-act their Master Calvin who †Et illam mutationem quae Buceri Consilio in Anglia erat instituta Papismi accusavit pag. 115. accused that change in the Church of England which was made by the advice of so known a Protestant as Bucer of no lesser a crime then downright Papisme which unreasonable censure of our Church whether hiâ— passion or his judgement extorted from him and whether it was not a contradiction to what he spake of her at other times I leave you to guesse by his large Epistle to the Protector and that you know was in the dayes of King Edward the sixth But if to accuse were sufficient it iâ— sufficient that Mr. Calvin was accused of Iudaisme by one by another of Turcisme by a third Redolens plane Calvini spiritum contumeliosum illú ac turbulentuÌ„ Animadv p. 81. Quum sciam quà m inique virulente tractaverat viros multo se meliores c. ibid. pag. 9. of Fratricide by almost all the Latherans of the Arian heresie and even by Grotius himself who hardly ever spake in passion or without a just ground of a coâ—tumelious and turbulent spirit and of virulently handling such men as were much his betters Aâ—g 12. In his Epistles to the French-men of either party he doth so frequently and so clearly discover himself to be a Protestant that out of them it were easie to write a volume in his defence To give you an instance in as few as I may and not in as many as I am able * Epist. 154 Iohanne Cordefio p. 378. Epist. 166. Eidem p. 408. He writes against the seven Sacraments I mean against the number of them and against four of that number so tenaciously retained by all Rome He speaks sâ—arply of the †Epist. 154. p. 377. Iesuits from his meer humanity to one of the best of which order you hastily conclude him to be a Papist p. 86. and would have theâ—r evil Arts set out to the life as an anonymous Iansenian hath lately done If his esteem of Petavius a lover of unity and moderation could make you think him a Papist you must also suppose him to be a Protestant for disesteeming many more of the very same Order especially when he reckons that he and they are of two Religions as indeed he doth in one Epistle Dubium est apud meos an apud Iesuitas magis vapulem c. Epist. 14. pag. 36 37. Hotm Villerio where he also calls the Pope the Patriarch of the West and shews what it is which he would have towards a peace even the spirit of Melanchâ—hon on the one side and of Cassander on the other and a mutual forbearance with one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in things which are not simply necessary Will not every good Protestant desire the same yet he went farther and accounted them of * Apud meos quidem quod illud apud ipfos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 defendo posse in unaquaque Ecclesia ferri eos qui dissideant in rebus non plane necessariis â—bid his party who would not hear of any such thing Such was his moderation towards that sort of men who had none at all Arg. 13. I find that Grotius his desire of helping forward the peace of Christendom was the same in the former as in the later part of his life and so was his love to the Church of
peace with their King to wit if he would comply with them in all things and they with him in nothing at all where as if we make a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by mutual Offices of Friendship and not a Conquest by acts of Force there must be Abatements and Allowances on either side They are not worthy to be imploy'd in making Amity or Union who understand not how much 't is worth There are a great many truths of so small importance that one would part with them all for a dram of charity and I should think thâ—t to purchase the peace of Christendom no Protestant Merchants can bid too high so long as they part not with old Fundamentals nor do accept new Articles of Faith nor acknowledge subjection to a power which whensoever it pleaseth may do both the one and the other Now by your way of arguing that Grotius turn'd Papist because in order to reconcilement he offered allowances to the Papists which he would not yield upon other terms as many peaceable Christians will rather part with some petie rights then perpetuate contention by sutes at Law Thuanus also turn'd Protâ—stant and so did Cassander and Hofmiesterus and hundreds more whom I could name who did offer at least as much on the same condition of reconcilement they for that side as he for this This must therefore be considered by all that read his pacificatory writings and it ought to be esteemed the â—oblest submission in the World to part with the utmost of ones own right Plusquam humanae virtutis est tantae spei mâ—derari velut manibus conclusam fortunam dimittere that may in conscience be parted with for the redemption of such a peace as cannot otherwise be purchased The victorious Emperour Charles the fifth thought good to quit some of his Empire not driven by necessity but drawn by love for the setling of Religion and Peace in Germany so did Philip his Son the potent King of Spain and Arch-Duke Albert his son in Law make an humble offer of reconcilement to the Hollanders which for fourty years together they had denied them By De Ney the Franciscan by Lewis Verreich the Arch-Dukes Secretary and even by Spinola himself with divers others whom Grotius * Epist. ad Clariss Virum N. P. de pace Germanica Sane in privatis quoque negotiis transactiones dato allquo aliquo retento ut nostri loquuntur jurisconsulti perficiuâ—tur quanto magis ubi de salute publica pacis incomparabili bono agitur omnes de jure suo cedere debent names as it were justifying himself by way of anticipation they even supplicated for peace to their natural subjects The same Philip the second did even buy reconcilement with Henry the fourth King of France when that lofty King would not bid any thing towards it Yet Lewis his Son the Duke of Mantâ—a's Renitency notwithstanding gave a portion of Monferrat to the Duke of Savoy as a price laid down in exchange for Amity and Peace Nay the Emperour Ferdinand the second was content to yield a good part of Hungary and so to purchase one peace though it was but to exclude or break another After all these examples which do put me in mind of the Christian-like Doctrine in †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Hierocl p. 61. Hierocles however he was a Heathen and writ a Book against Christ let me adde one more which is neerer home and more to my purpose then all the rest and which I shall earnestly recommend to your most serious consideration When his Majesty at the Treaty in the Isle of Wight did offer for three years the confirmation of the Directory and the Form of Church-Government presented to him and the leasing out of the Bishops lands as far as 99. years will you say he was turn'd a Presbyterian I know you will not because they were offers upon condition of publick * Nec deerunt rationes quibus pulsis suâ ditione Principibus satisfieri possit qui magni beneficii loco habebunt in partem saltem missarum ditionum restitui Praeterea compensationibus mutuâ permutatione res expediri poterit Idem in Eâ—ist ead Potior esse debet sâ—ae salutiâ— quà m alieni damni pâ—iorqâ—e conservandi quà m profâ—râ—ndi Regâ—i ratio Ibid. peace not absolute concessions at all adventure And conditio non impleta non obligat fidem is a very good rule in the Civil Law Nor did he offer what he thought best precisely consider'd in it self but what he thought to be the fittest in that juncture of time when he found himself plac'd 'twixt two evils whereof in great wisdom he chose the least For although he offer'd towards the setling of a peace no less then 100000 pounds to be raised out of the Bâ—shops lands yet first it was onely towards the settlement of a peace and a little of that is worth money next it was with a Proviso That the inheritance and propriety should still continue to the Church thirdly the peace being denied him he also denied to confirm his offer into a Grant Nor would he ratifie the Directory no not so much as for a day wch for the buying of peace had else obtain'd for three years But for the Solemn League and Covenant as he neither would sign it or consent to it himself so would he not have it to be imposed upon the consciences of others no not in order to any ends whether personal safety or publick peace This is just the Case of Grotius excepting that it differs to his advantage for he offer'd not so much and he ask'd for more Nay farther yet if Grotius turn'd Papist by seeking to reconcile the Council of Trent with the Protestant Articles of the Augustan Confession then did Franciscus à Sanctâ Clarâ by your Logick turn Protestant because you * Christ. Concord p. 46. confesse he did endeavour to reconcile the Articles of the Church of England with the Council of Trent The absurdity of the consequence is in both cases alike Again you confeâ—se †Ibid. p. 45. a little before that Grotius his design had many favorites both of the better sort of Paâ—ists and of the colder sort of Protestants from whence I gather this comfort that however I am a favourer of Grotius his design I am yet allow'd to be a Protestant though one of them whom you call the colder party that is to say as I interpret I am none of those hot-headed furious men who not understanding what spirit they are of on supposition that they are Christians are for fire from heaven if not from hell too upon all that are not of their perswasion But as your better sort of Papists are sure the colder so your colder sort of Protestants are sure the better it being clear that by the colder you mean the more moderate and it is much for their honour that they are lovers of Reconcilement the most of
Protestants a note of reproch to those that will not be reconciled to the Pope you do not onely beg the Question and speak without an offer of reason for it but as contrary to truth as if you had affected its opposition For I have made it appear that he did honour the name of Protestant and reckoned himself with the Reformed But he noted with a black coal those rebellious Schismaticks in the Protestant Churches if yet I may so speak without implying a contradiction for they cease to be of our Church by their separating themselves from our Communion who usurp'd the title of the Reformed and help'd to justifie the Papists in all their clamours by still pretending to be Râ—formers of our most excellent Reformation I can prove by your own Logick that you your self are a reviler of the Protestant name by throwing such Cart-loads of dirt upon the Regular Sons of the Church of England who will ever be esteemed do what you can the most judiciously-reformed of all the Protestants in the World Again you dishonour the Proâ—estant name by calling the irreâ—onciliaâ—iles the holiest men and by pleading so much for Puritanes as the godliest part of the Protestants who call a Rebellion a Reformation and stick the term of Christian purity on the most palpable hypocrisie to be imagined For these alone are the Puritanes whom both Grotius and Bisâ—op Andrews Bishop Hall and Doctor Sanderson and indeed the most renowned of all the Protestants in the World have taught us to know and to avoid under that very name And therefore let me intreat you to be so just for the future even to those whom you are pleased to single out for your Adversaries as to suffer their own words to be the interpreters of their own meaning Sect. 14. The next reason of your dislike p. 16. is but an uncharitable Assertion without so much as pretending to any proof that Grotius his way was uncharitable His way is not uncharitable and a trap to ingage the souls of millions in the same But they that read and understand him do know the contrary that Peace and Loyalty and Obedience and mutual Love were all the traps wherein Grotius would very fain have engaged the souls of men You think not so ill of his design as your Fathers and Superiours do think of yours yet iâ— it lay in your power you would engage the souls of millions in it And if you may be so zealous in your contrivance much more may Grotius be allow'd to have been in his you having confessed you are not worthy to be so much as nam'd with him and that a small measure of humility may make you serious in your profession p. 4. And if you fall so very short both of his learning and of his judgment take my word you fall shorter of his integrity of life if you will but allow me to take your own And I shall cite your own words in their proper place Sect. 15. As your fourth reason so called was the same in substance with your third It doâ—h not tend to persâ—cution so now your fifth if not your sixth is the same in substance with the two former As affirming a tendency in the design of Grotius to engage the Princes of Christâ—ndom in a persecution of their subjects that cannot coâ—ply with these unwarrantable terms p. 17. In this you say no more of Grotius then any man living may say of you or indeed of any man living But as you nakedly say it with a great deal of confidence in stead of reason so is it known to all the World to whom the meekness of Grotius is not utterly unknown that he was as far from such â— project as he was from being a Prâ—sbyterian If to hinder subjects from treading all under their feet as well their Soveraigns as fellow subjects must passe with you for a persecution then was Grotius as guilty as you expresse him for he indeed exhorted Prinâ—es to beware of those Ministers who taught the people to be rebellious and to call it by the fine title of setting Christ upon his Throne He would not have Sacrilege and Murder and all manner of Rapine to be freely exercised and used as the proper means of Reformation He could not indure that the filthiest fruits of the flesh should be ascribed to the suggestions of Gods good Spirit And if men are grown to such a pitch of impiety as not to be satisfied with less then with a liberty of Conscience to cut mens throats they ought not to call it a persecution to be happily bound to some good behaviour What you adde of the attempts of pride when men have such high thoughts of their own imaginations and devices that they think the Churches wounds can be healed by no other plaister but by this of their compounding p. 17 18. is so unduly appli'd to Grotius that it hath many reflexions upon your self for you know you have been a great promissor in your dayes You mislike the Plaister proposed by Grotius and that of some late Episcopal Divines which yet you prefer before that of Grotius p. 21. you mislike the â—lâ—ister of Bisâ—op Bramhal p. 22 25. and indeed what is there which in other men you do not publickly dislike But you like your own Plaister as abundantly sufficient to heal the wounds of the Church at least as better then other mens It appears by what I have cited from you in the twelfth Section of this Chapter and by what you said in your Preface to your book of Sacraments Iam. 3.5 and by what you now say in your Grotian Religion p. 29. that though the Tongue is a little member yet it boasteth great things It doth not engage in a way of sin Sect. 16. You say the sixth reason of your dislike of Grotius his Pacification and all such as his is because it engageth the Church of Christ in a way of sin both in false Doctrine Discipline and Worship p. 18. still a confident affirmer of what your interest or your passion suggesteth to you without the appearance of any ground excepting your absolute Decree to reprobate Grotius and his Design But 't is enough that I deny what you think it enough but to affirm and do know that Grotius his Pacification was as much superiour unto your own in all imaginable respects as you and your Writings are confessedly inferiour to him and his A little while since you were professing that you distaste not Grotius his Pacificatory designs and that if you could find such a heart within you you would cast it in the dust and condemn it to shame and sorrow and recantation p. 18. yet now you say in plain terms that you dislike his pacification p. 18. nay you vehemently dislike it as appears by the enormities with which you charge it It was the Motto of King Iames who had it out of Christ's School Beati pacifici Blessed are the Peace-makers And therefore
Grotius as a pacifick was much esteemed by that King Nor can he be one of Christ's family who doth not love Pacification But if by that word you mean his Pacificatory deâ—ign how came you to dislike at your eighteenth page what but twelve pages before you highly liked If you say you distinguish his particular way from his design it seems your quaâ—rel is onely this that having chosen a good end he did not jump with your humour in chusing the means of its attainment But methinks for this you should never have us'd him as you have done because he knew not you were an Oracle and so he could not consult you concerning the course he was to take You do avow your approbation of Pacificatory attempts between us and the Papists p. 30. where then lay the fault when Grotius attempted such a pacification with the greatest Industry and Wisdom that God had given him Had you been as Grotius in point of poweâ— and prudence to say no more you would have taken his course and so if Grotius had been as you he would no doubt have taken yours But Grotius being as he was one of the wisest and most learned of all mankind and you continuing as you are neither the wisest nor the most learned what matter of wonder can it be if he was otherwise advis'd then you would have him If you do really take Grotius to have been so learned and so judicious as you expresse p. 4. and do as really judge your self unworthy to be named with him as in the page I now cited you have acknowledged methinks it is pity that your whole Book should be little else then a preferring your opinion before his judgment your jealousies and fears before his knowledge and your fortuitous conjectures before his exact deliberations Whereas you add that you abhor their disposition who can despise or violate the Churches Peace for every pety conceit of their own which they have called by the name of â—ruth or Duty p. 19. you oblige your self and your party to do some very severe penance for having violated the Peace of the Church of England which for so many happy years had been establish'd The Presbyterian way of Discipline was a pety conceit of their own as you at least must acknowledge who have written against it as hath been * Look back on Sect. 12. shewed The Common-Prayer book you †Look on what shall be said ch 6. sect 9. num 2. confess was more perfect then the Directory which was therefore another of the pety conceits for which the peace of the Church was despised and violated Nay you complain to * Of Inf. ch memb and Bapt. p. 122 123. Mr. Tombs that plain duties were wiped out and excellent things taken from us which we were in actual possession of Your National-Covenant it self you must acknowledge was a pety conceit of your own for which you have cause to repent if we may credit your †Ibid. p. 123. own words Why then did you violate the Churches peace or if you abhor your self for it why do you not make us some satisfaction You are often an admirer of Bishop Davenant who had told you all in good time * Sent. Daven ad Duraeum p. 39. Aâ—hort ad Pac. Eccl. cap. 11. p. 148 149. that rather then have troubled the peace and quiet of the Church under which you lived in subâ—ection and of which you did profess you all were members you should quietly have deparâ—ed into some other Church to which you could have been pleased to yield obedience or have remained in ours without disturbance Nay this said the Bishop you should hâ—ve done thoâ—gh you had thought your opinions had been of such moment as that salvation it self depended on them How much moâ—e should you have done it when the things you stood uâ—on so stifly were pety conceits of your own and coâ—fessed such at long running however magnified at your first setting out I ever apâ—lauded those dissenting and dissatisfied brethren who peaceably went into New-England and other parts of America until I was taught that they intended a very unpeaceable return Be not angry at your Mâ—n â—r but meekly receive the admonition not at all for my sake but Bishop Davenant's And if according to your own Doctrine Truth ought to be suspended for love of peace then be not offended with this consequence that you must judge the way of Grotius or Bishop Bramhall very much worthier to be followed then your own or Mr. Chillingworths p. 29. in case they are likelier to take effect This I say you must do unless you can give some better reason then I am able to expect for your refusal Sect. 17. Now that you see what you have gotten by the six Reasons of your Dislike Mens thoughts of Grotius must be esteemed by their words for such it was in your power to call them though not in power to make them such be pleas'd to reflect on your profession p. 9. that your thoughts of Grotius are not either bitter censorious or uncharitable In which profession if there is Truth why would you write what you never thought Did you think it was enough to think well of the man whilest you spake as ill of him as it was possible for you to speak If your expressions are so bitter when you are full of sweet thoughts I wonder what words you could have us'd in case your thoughts had been bitter too Or what advantage could you aim at in pouring out so many bitter censorious words and in professing at the same time a contrariety of your thoughts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But perhâ—ps you may deny that there is bitterness in your words and therefore that shall be tried before I leave you If you forget what is past it will be good for your memory to look before you Sect. 18. For now I hasten to conclude my Vindication of Grotius The conclusion And I hasten so much the rather because I hear it will be done in an elaborate manner and ex professo by a great admirer of his perfections and because I hope I have said enough to make you sensible of your mistake For methinks you should not take leasure in trying to make men believe that the learnedst of mortalls at last turnd Papist or in case that that is too bold a word one so richly accomplished with all variety of secular and sacred knowledge joyned to wonderful endowments of Grace and Nature but for nothing more remarkable then acuteness of research and depth of judgement Now that a person of such importance should in the full maturity of all these excellencies forsake the Protestant Religion in exchange for the Papistâ— would be a greater advantage to our adversaries then I am willing to afford them and I heartily wish you had not done it For the Roman Catholicks are too apt to take such honours unto themselves when they
can find the least ground or occasion for them Had Grotius really been a Papist how many Protestants had we lost by the powerful attractive of his example Nay if Mr. Crandon and others durst call you Papist and one of the worst sort of Papists even before you contended for Grotius his turning from us to Rome how much more will they call you such if you shall possibly persist as you have begun to do the Papists so great a service I do assure you for my selâ— that if it lay in my power to prove an Apostasie of Grotius from us to Rome although the Pope should reward it with a Cardinal's Cap I would not yield the Church of Rome so great advantage so great is my love to the Church of England I know it is not your meaning to serve and gratifie the Romanists because you speak as ill of Grotius as if he were not worth having You say he was * Christ. Conc. p. 45. exasperated by his imprisonment c. That he was too much †Grot. Relig. Praef. Sect. 5. guilty of uncharitable censures That he was a * Ibid. Sect. 2. Dissembler if not a Papist a p. 11. That he dropt into a deplorable Schism b p. 15 16. That his way is uncharitable and censorious woundeth under pretense of healing in the name of a Peace-maker he divideth and cuts off the holiest parts of the Church on earth c p. 16. That his Design is a Trap to tempt and engage the souls of millions into the same uncharitable censorious and reprochful way d p. 17. That it tendeth to engage the Princes of Christendom in a persecution of their subjects that cannot comply with uncharitable terms e p. 17 1â— That this is the unhappy issue of the attempts of pride when they have such high thoughts of their own devices and depart from the word of God and the simplicity of the Faith p. 18. That his Design engageth the Church of Christ in a way of sin both in false Doctrine Discipline and Worship g p. 73. You imply that he calumniated the Patriarch Cyril You say of him expresly h p. 78. That the injustice and partiality shews the meaning of the man i p. 83. That his Design was Schismatiâ—al Partial and Cruel k p. 90. That you dare boldly say he was an unjust man c. putting a more odious vizor on the face of the Calvinists Doctrines of Faith Iustification c. then beseemeth any judicious man that understood the state of the Controversies or the strength of an Argument and had any Christian charity left l p. 91. You reproch him further with falshood and abomination of inhumane caâ—umnies wiâ—h too high an esteem of his espoused conceits and too odious thoughts of the contrary way m p. 92. with noise and bitter accusation poured out against the Reformed Churches with censures running upon meer mistake and odiously aggravating the opinions that deserve it not and that were far neerer his own then he imagined n p. 92 93 with bitter censures reproches clamours and a factions uncharitable way of pacification Again you say o p. 93. he is guilty of his own mistakes upon which he changed his Church and Religion Thus you speak of that holy and learned man in such a strange and amazing strain that Mr. Hickman himself could hardly have used a greater virulence And yet you pretend great honour to him yea a debt of * p. 4. Gratitude which you owe him for the great benefit of his works †p. 5. Yea that if you might be partial for any man it were very likely to be for Grotius Leaving your readers to imagine how vile a creature that man must be of whom his very partial and obliged and thankful Client or Disciple was forced to publish such ugly things And as if this were not sufficient you say you ever stopt your ears against the accusation of the blemishes commonly reported of his life in some points and suspended your censures of him p. 5. By which unchristian Paralipsis you leave your Readers to imagine that he was a very scandalous ungodly liver which is accounted by some the very worst way of slandering where notoreity of Fact doth not excuse it I therefore shall antidote your Readers if they are mine with this short Declaration That by all I have been able to learn of Grotius either from other mens writings or from his own or from those excellent persons who had many years enjoyed a friendship with him I cannot but value his godly life by many degrees above his learning You have done your self a shrewder turn then I could possibly have wish'd you by writing so bitterly of so good c so great a Christian. And though I hope you will acâ—nowledge that I oppose you in his defence without distemper yet do I heartily wish you had not writ against him that so I might not have been obliged thus to write against you That Grotius may be defended you will not deny having defended him * Append. to Aphor. p. 138. to p. 145. your self against the attempts of a modern Doctor And as you have defended him in one case I have but defended him in another CHAP. II. An acknowledgmâ—nt of charity Sect. 1. YOu very readily acknowledge my brotherly and moderate dealing with your self and you say you must acknowledge my gentleness and charity Sect. 4. I am glad my charity gentleness and moderation were so conspicuous in my Writings that you could not but see them and so undeniable that you could not but acknowledge them to all the World even at that very time too when you made it apparent how willing you were to find faults For you accuse me in the same breath of wanting charity to others and of making my learning subservient to partial interest or passion But you name not where or when or wherein or towards whom I had shew'd such passion or partiality which had you been able to have done I am forbid to believe you would have spar'd me If I was partial to you Sir by being more brotherly more moderate more charitable and gentle then you seem to your self to have deserved you ought in all reason to have * 2 Cor. 12.13 forgiven me this wrong Had others deserved no worse of me then your self had then done my gentle dealing with others had been as signal And had you been eitheâ— as slanderous or as blasphemous as others were the exâ—reâ—sions of my dislike had been as freely distributed unto your self as to any others with whom I dealt I must not be unwilling to â—lear mine own innocence as to the calumnies câ—st uâ—on me much less to clear God from the evil reporâ—s brought up against him for fear the friendâ— of the malefactors should accuse me as you have done of partial interest and passion Sect. 2. Nor did you onely say this
of many scandalous sins such as you may see a good account of both in my * See in particular Introduct p. 7 8 9 10 11. and the places there referred to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 †See Ch. 3. p. 73.77 to p. 83. I did carefully distinguish betwixt the Rigid and Moderate Presbyterians I condemn'd the former out of their Writings but the later I * At the end of my premonition to my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 declared to be of their number whom I do very unfeignedly both love and honour which I have also made apparent by my inviolable friendship with divers of theâ— in a word I did timely preadmonish my Readers and your self as one of them That my words cannot reach â—nto all Presbyterians indiscriminately but to such and such onely of whom the Authors by me cited are found to speak That what I say from the History of Master Knox I mean of those whom Master Knox himself meant who was a Chieftain of the Party That when I name Paraeus Buchanan Hacket and the like it is plain I mean them If when no body is named any one or more persons shall name themselves as one in the World hath very publickly done and apply my words to their particulars which I had left onely in common to be seized on by none but the proper owners they will be in that case their own Accusers And now that you see how I am innocent The accuser is the most criminal observe how ill you were qualified for my Accuser For if you reckon amongst your brethren the regular sons of the Church of England you have condemned them more then any man I ever heard of and reviled them even for that for which their Reward will be great in heaven Mat. 5.12 Luk. 6.23 To repeat your bitterness not onely to your Brethren but to your right Reverend Fathers and Superiours Heb. 13.17 who are over you in the Lord were to write a large volume in this one Paragraph It shall suffice me to put you in mind what wants of charity you have shew'd in your Reformed Pastor in your Christian Concord and not to rake into all your books in your Grotian Religion from p. 109. unto the end what your charity was to Grotius hath been shewn already and what to me will be seen anon If you mean by your Brethren the several Sectaries of the times you have condemned them all as they have all condemned you the Presbyterians not excepted Of very many instances I shall detain you but with a few You have condemned Master Colyer Append. to Apâ—or p. 99. Sprigs and Hobson for abominable Pamplets And all the approvers of the Marrow of Modern Divinity You have highly condemned both Doctor Twiss and Master Pemble as hath been shew'd †Ibid. p. 163 164. Nay many of your Divines are condemned by you for fighting against Iesuites and Arminians with the Antinomian weapons and for running thereby into the WORSE EXTREME Having called Maccovius an excellent Doctor you yet profess to be ashamed to confute so * Ibid. 147. senseless an Assertion as his is After Master Tombes had condemned you for a Railer †See your history of the Conception and Nativity of your book intitled Plain Scripture Proof c. you did condemn him also of stark brazen-faced and unconscionable dealing grosser then you had found in any Iesuiteâ— * Ibid. p. 174. Edit 1. p. 175. of playing the Devils part yea worse yea very far worse in several respects then if it were the Devil that did it †Ib. p. 202 203. of covetousness liberty in sinning and many more things then I have leisure to repeat You have condemned your own men whom you call the Godly * Disp. 3. of Sacram. p. 330. for disobedience to their guides in these times for Schism and for doing much hurt to the Church Nay you have publickly condemned your own long-Parliament and your whole Assembly of Divines for the iniquities of their (a) See Edit 3. of your plaâ—â— Script proof c. p. 120 121 122 123. and Append. to Aphor. p. 107. Solemn League and Covenant and of their Directory of their too great enmity to Episcopacy of their (b) Grot. Relig. p. 111 112. cruelty and injustice to Episcopal men of their (c) Plain Scrip. proof p. 120.122 discarding the practice of Confirmation and of their contentions for Presbyterie which you declare against as (d) Ibid. 227.228 unscriptural in a great part of it which as I have in part made bare already so I shall do it more largely in due time and place Lastly speaking of your Antagonists who were especially Presbyterians (e) Disp. 5. of Sacr. p. 516. You marvel what 's the matter that the Wasps of the Nation are gathered about your ears Sir You see my fair dealing in laying no more to your charge then I have cited your Writings for and I have done it so much the rather because you have charged me in general without producing the least proof which was so unhansom a dealing with me that I have shew'd you by my example how you ought to have dealt with your very enemies of whom you confessed that I was none Yet mark how you proceed You little suspect that the uncharitable passages in this very learned book of yours are as probable a symptome of the absence of charity as the sin of David or Peter was Sect. 20. Sect. 3. Thus again you affirm Wants of charity examin'd found to be in the Aâ—cuser without the least shew of proof that there is any want of charity in any one the least passage throughout that book unless you can think it a want of charity to others that I had some for my self in confuting some calumnies then cast upon me And I can now evince mine innocence as to that whereof I was accused from the very handwritings of my Accusers But having received some satisfaction and a little of that will serve my turn when I am wronged I will not causelessely revive what I have long since buried with my forgiveness So little do you oblige me by calling my book very learned whilest you also call it very uncharitable that as soon as you have upbraided my wants of charity you do immediately compell me to tax your own For you shut up your Section with these incomparable expressions If I must needs chuse one of the two I had ☜ rather die in the state of David before Nathan spake to him which was a state of Impenitence added to Murder and Adultery then of Mr. Pierce who hath committed no such sin c. Sect. 20. Sect. 4. Twice I have told you of this already but very briefly and till you seriously repent you cannot be told of it too often Yet will I not grieve you with repetition but onely adde those things which may probably convince
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
can love And if you love not Grotius nor the Episcopal Divines the reason is they are no true Christians Sect. 24. You say A wilfâ—ll Imposture or else a Patrâ—nâ—ge of Iâ—piâ—ty You had rather your right hand were us'd as Cranmer 's then you should have written against Puritanes what I have done Sect. 24. yet still you name not a page where I have done it nor a word that I have spoken Nor do you speak of the Puritanes of whom I spake or if you do you are a Patron of impiety If you would not have written as I have done against Puritanes how much less would I as you against Episcopal Divines Have not I chosen so well as you Then follow you your own * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 course and let me follow mine If they were Christians in deed whose works I shew'd you out of their words the frighted Pagan will cry out Sit anima mea cum Philosophis And so perhaps some frighted Protestants Sint animae nostrae cum Pontificiis But what will you say of your self if you have written against Puritanes at least as sharply as I have done I know you have not given them that very name but you have lash'd them shrewdly to whom the word Puritane of right belongs which shews how little you have been scared with that terrible saying of our Lord Mat. 18.6 which you apply in such sort as if you understood not its true importance For to rebuke men for sin is not at all to scandalize them in Scripture phrase nor in the phrase of any Scholar who knows the English of the word Scandalum They are rather scandalized who have pillowes sow'd under their * Ezek. 13.18 Armholes who are flatter'd and commended and soothed up in their sins He that saith to the wicked thou aâ—t righteous him shall the people curse nations shall abhor him Prov. 24.24 To offend a little one in English is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Scriâ—ture-Dialect If you make men to â—in by your example or incourage them in sinning by your instructions as by instructing them to believe that being once Regenerate they cannot pessibly be otherwise although their sins should be as David's deliberate Murder and Adulâ—ery c. you are truly said in such case to offend those little ones in the faith to scandalize them to gall them to make them stumble See Dr. Hamond hiâ— learned Treatise concerning Scandal if you are not too haughty for my Advice CHAP. VI. Of Episcopal Divines the Archb. of Câ—nt Sect. 1. THere is little remarkable in your next Section but what hath been spoken to already or what may be satisfied with very few words You implicitely accuse me of injustice iâ— calâ—ing my book A vindication of Episcopal Divines from Mr. Baxter Sect. 25. whereas you cannot be ignorant that I call'd my book by another name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that the words which you mentioâ— â—erâ— oâ—ly a part of the General Contenâ—s as faâ— as a Title-page was fit to hold them You might hâ—ve said as truly that I call'd my Book A vindicatioâ— of Mr. Bâ—xter from Mr. Barlee foâ— that was also one part aâ— your eyes can witnesse 'T is true I said in that Book thâ—t you spake in general against Episcopal Divines But I also said in your Vinâ—ication That your words were wrested beyond your meâ—ning in being applied to my particular ch 3. p. 100. But now that I find you so unthâ—nkful for my brotherly dealing I must tell you that my dealing was much more bâ—oâ—hâ—râ—y thâ—n you * Look back on ch 1. sect 6. towards the end deserved For when your words were so general as to include the Bishops the Kings Chaplains and oâ—her Doctors who stay in England under the name of Episcopal Diviâ—es to do the Pope the better Service and when they were also so particular as to point out for Papists as firm Protestâ—nts as live Bishop Wren Bishop Pierce c. I know not how a True Protestant can misse your Censure if he performes the whole part of an Episcopal Divine in so avowed a manner as to arrive at your knowledge Nor caâ— I think you will deny that you include those Prelatists who will not approve of your Association by allowing a meer Presbyter the Prelatical Power to excommunicate Which I believe will be allowed you by no Episcopal Dâ—vine And then forsooth they must all be Papists You forgot your self much when you directed me for Instruction about the Bishop of Canterbury to the several writings of Mr. Prin his most exasperated Enemy at that time of the day when his Eyes were not opened as now they are But if you will read his Rome's Master-piece you will see that pious Bishop designed to Death by the Papists not to be revenged upon his being of their side you may be sure but because they saw him too strong an Enemy to Rome so far from helping on the Introduction of Popery that they found it could never be introduced so long as a Primate of his Wisdome Vigilance Zeale to the Protestant Religion and the Glory of God was permitted to enjoy both Life and Greatnesse You talk of I know not what matters of Fact which you must specifie first before you prove And you must doe your poore utmost to make some proof before you can be fit for a Confuâ—ation Sect. 2. You begin your next Section Sequestrations misliked by their very Abâ—ttors I should say in a strange manner but that it is such as you are used to and with which you have forced me to be acquainted For you say I expresse with reproach and bitternesse my dislike of Ministers living on Sequestrations And that you perceive I doe it without distinction Sect. 26. But you produce not one word of reproach or bitternesse nor refer to any page where your Reader may try before he trusts you Much lesse do you shew that I expresse my Dislike without Distinction To have quoted my words had been just but not at all for your Interest For then your Readers would hâ—ve found that the * See and coâ—sider my Self-revenger Exem ch 3. sect 1. p. 69 70. reproachfull expressions were but repeated by me from an Eminent man of your own Tribe Who went away with my Reproof for having us'd his own party with so much Rigour Which yet I have since been sorry for because he was of my Iudgment in what he spake against Sequestraâ—ions my Dislike of which iâ— the same with his And I will say in his words that to cast a Brother out of his Livelyhood or to seize upon that which is anothers is an unneighbourly unscholarly unchristian thing I am far from favouring any Minister who is so ignorant or ungodly as you expresse And I know there is a time when Ministers ought to be suspended ab officio beneficio But even then I must say as Mr. Barlee hath done I am for justa
your own Brotherhood you have endeavour'd to exâ—ose to shame and laughter before you censure those men who give you Examples of Moderation Who it is that abuseth the choicest of Gâ—d's Servants Sect. 10. I know not well what you mean by the choicest of Godâ— servants it being become in these Times a most equivocal Expression If you mean King Iames his Puritans I have spent a whole Chapter for the Rectification of your mistake If such as truly serve God who have also writen against Puritanes whereof I have given you a speoimen in Bishop Andrews Doctor Sanderson and other Episcopal Divines you know that Those are the men whom I am constantly defending If God hath any choice servants in any sense you are certainly the man who have writ against them for you have writtâ—n even with bitterness against your own Saints as in your calmer moods you sometimes call them But your Bitterness to the Bishops and to the Regular Sons of the Church of England and to all persons of honour in any part of the Land who either partake of the Common Prayer or attend to the preaching of the Eâ—iscoâ—al Clergy I say your Bitterness â—o These is so ineffably great that moâ—tal man cannot express it but by reâ—eating your own Termes I should proceed to shew you your frightful self from the Ten last pages of your Grotian Relâ—gion but that I see you have reprinted the substance of thâ—m in your Enormous Preface to your New Book of Church Gâ—vernment and Worship which I intend to consisider towards the end of my Appendix Sect. 11. It shall suffice in this place to put you in mind of your Malignity to a profound and pious Episcopal Divine Made appear by an Example whose Certificate touching the Primate I was constrain'd to make publick You call him a man of the New Way a Grotian-papist 't is thought you mean You say he blasted a good business by an unpeaceable writing and did not onely foment a Schism but fomented it by poor Insufficient Reasonings p. 118. Pretty words for a conclusion to your Grotian Religion But such as will sufficiently put their speaker to Rebuke as soon as your Readers shall be inform'd that your Bolt was shot at Mr. Gunning For how can you hope to be believ'd when you shall let flie your Censures of other men after the liberty you have taken to write so grosly of Mr. Gunning The world will conclude you extremely incontinent of your Passion when they shall find you throwing it out in three such palpable Contradictions as that Mr. Gunning was the Author of an unpeaceable writing that Mr. Gunning was guilty of Fomenting a Schism and that any thing poor or insufficient fell from Mr. Gunning Had you been honour'd with the Advantage of having sate for some years at his learned Feet you had certainly attain'd a greater measure of Understanding than to have mention'd his Writing with such irreverence AN APPENDIX Conteining a Rejoynder to Diverse Things both in The Key for Catholicks and in The Book of Disputations of Church-Government and worship c. WHilst I was drawing towards an End of what I thought fit to advertise you The chief Occasion of this Appendix concerning the principall Misadventures of your Grotian Religion my Stationer sent me two bookes at least as bitter and as irrational as the worst of that stuff which was laid before me It seemes my silence was hurtfull to you And what I intended in my Advertisment behind my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for nothing more than a promise that I would Answer you at leisure with an addition of Reasons for my Delay you fall upon with as much confidence and that in two Bookes at once as if you had hope'd that That Promise had been the onely Performance that I had meant you So very little is my Concernment in what you Intitle a Reply wherein you add little or nothing to your Grotian Religion how much soever you borrow from it That I might wel have abstained from giving you the Trouble of this Appendix by referring you to my Answer as a sufficient Rejoynder to your Reply but that I heare you are a scorner and so unhappily inclinable to flatter your self with your misfortunes as to think you are fear'd when you are but pityed and passed by Some men must be dealt with if not for other mens sakes yet for their owne if not because they deserve Resistance yet because they may want it to check their Pride It being pity in my opinion so to despise any mans weaknesse as to make him dream he is irresistible The Patient's acknowledgment of his Disease Sect. 2. This is the chief consideration by which I am moved to this Appendix there being nothing more visible in your two last Bookes than that you are sick of a shrewd Disease which having swell'd up to your Throat and broken out at your mouth doth serve to justify the charge which was fram'd against you by Dr. Owen without the Help of your own †See your Disp. of right to Sacram. 5. p. 486. Where you also confess you are Hypocriticall Making bolder with your self than I should ever have allow'd you by my consent Acknowledgment that you are proud and selfish Very faine would I follow my Inclinations to treat you as gently in the Conclusion as in the Beginning of my Book And what incredible pleasure should I have taken in the present Discussion of Diverse Truths had you but left me the possibility to be as respectfull towards your self as you must acknowledg me to have been towards a Couple of your Superiours by name D. Reynolds and Dr Bernard But so throughly have you convinc't me by your * Key for Catholicks from p. 381 to p. 194. Five Disp. of Church Gov. and Worship Preface from p. 16. to p. 38. two late Volumes of the irrefragable Orthodoxie and Truth of what you have put upon Record in another Place to wit †Disp. 5. of Sacram. p. 486. That your Pride neede 's sharper Reprehensions then your friends have ever us'd about you I do but Echo your own words that I must Cross my Inclinations and change my stile for no other end then to serve your Needes For you give it me under your hand both that your Malady is dangerous and that it needs a rough Cure You are not like Alexander's †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diod. Sic. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bâ—cephalus to be subdued with soft usage My Brotherly Gentleness you * Grot. Rel. Praef. Sect. 4. spake of hath but inrag'd you my Moderation which you * Ibid. acknowledged hath made you Fierce my Charity towards you which you * Ibid. applauded hath accidentally Occasion'd your greatest Hatred For not to speak yet of your innocent Railing which I may therefore call Innocent because it is too gross to hurt me mark how desperately you strike both at my Lively-hood and my Life
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
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
Their hopes of your Amendment as well in some things as in others were very discreet as well as sanguine for who could easily have suspected that the Presbyterians by their Railing at you and all thâ—t came from you should more oblige you to their side than others reduce you into the way by gentle usage What if some of those Epistlers might write in Latin as it is credibly reported it was not to buffet but to oblige you and therefore you should not have entertained them as so many Messengers of Satan Yet since I can but conjecture I shall address my request to every one of those persons whom you accuse of their applauding and flattering Letters for this you know is the language with which you publickly requite them for all their favours that they will clear their Intentions from this Aspersion and say in the uprightnesse of their Hearts whether they sent you kind Letters to drive on an Interest of their own or onely to perfect your Reformation Sect. 29. From the second part of your Key for Catholicks By whom our Breaches were first made and are ever since widened I now return to your long Preface before your five Disputations of Church-Government and Worship where you shew your good breeding to the best part of the Nobility as well as of the Gentry and Commons of this land who still adhere unto the Prelacy so long established in the Church You say indefinitly to some that they speak to the shame of their understandings and uncharitableness but you beseech them to bear it if you touch the sore for your work is healing p. 2. You charge them all with want of charity to their brethren meaning thereby the Presbyterians and you adventure to judge of the reasons why In some there are confused apprehensions of the case In some a co-interest and consociation with the Divines of their way In some as stiffnesse and stoutness of disposition In too many miserable soules it is meer ungodliness and eâ—mity to that way of piety which appeares in many they differ from In the best of them it is too bad a remisness of charity and want of zeal for the Churches Peace c. p. 23. Thus you bestow your gentle touches as you please to call them upon your honourable worshipfull beloved Countrymen the Nobility Gentry and Commons of this land who adhere to Prelacy p. 1. But they must not presume to take it ill For you say they have a sore which MUST be touch'd and that you will do it as gently as the case will bear p. 2. The wrong sore â—ubb'd Presbyterians gall'd â—pon the Prelatists backs 1. Now I pray Sir reflect upon the yeares that are pass'd and compare them with the state of things at present consider the Acts of many full Parliaments and compare them with the Ordinance of less than one read the Articles and Canons of the Church of England and compare them with the medlings of the divided Assembly of Divines remember by whose power your Assembly-men sate and against whose prohibition they boldly acted with which compare their proceedings in contempt of that power by which they were called an Assembly recollect what you have publish'd against the Directory the Covenant the Presbyterian-worthies and way of Discipline and compare it all with your confessions of Disobedience to Governours doing hurt to the Church taking excellent things from us which we were in actuall possession of and when you have done tell me truly whether before you were awar you have not been rubbing the wrong sore and galled the Presbyterians upon the Prelatist's backs For since you take in the Clergy of the Episcopal way and say we separate from you for other men's doing p. 10. I shall desire to know of you who are the Schismaticks and Separatists and so the breakers of charity and peace and brotherly union We who continue and persevere in the good old way of the Church of England in which we were born and baptiz'd and to which we have vow'd a due conformity and obedience Or you and your darling Presbyterians who have departed from our Assemblies and separated your selves from our Communions receded meanly from your subscriptions and bound your selves by an oath to extirpâ—te your Fathers who were over you in the Lord whom you had solemnly promis'd you would reverently obey For brevities sake I refer you to my 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch 2. p. 50 51 52. 2. Again The Prelatists beaten for being abused I would gladly be inform'd which sort of men are most unpeaceable and injurious We who sought not your goods Or you who bereaved us of our own We who would fain have sate still in Peace Or you who ruin'd us whilst you had power with the specious stile of Reformation We who complain'd when we were wronged Or you who wroâ—g'd us For pity do not beat us the first time for nothâ—ng and then a second time beat us for being beaten If we did you any injury by having suffer'd extremely without a cause it was not ours but your fault For all we suffer'd was against our wills We did no more Court then deserve such usage We would fain have injoy'd the many and excellent Advantages both spirituall and temporall which by the Petition of right and the great Charter and other Lawes of the Land as well as by the Statutes and Lawes of God were as undoubtedly our own as whatsoever it is which you are able to call yours And will you hate us so far as not to be able to forgive us because you have wrong'd us in such a measure as that you can never make us amends When the Fox in the Fâ—ble is resolv'd to prey upon the Lamb he quickly make's it a Malefactor But when men are sadly beaten for nothing else but their refusing to break the peace they cannot certainly break it by being beaten 3. Once more I would know Yâ—t are earnest Desirers of Reconcilement who are averse to a Reconcilement We who earnestly desire it Or you who widen our breaches with as little regret as at first you made them We who labour to reduce you to your ancient Order and Uniformity or you who have improved one single Schism into an hundred Notwithstanding the hainous and horrid things which you have done and we suffer'd God and the world is our witness we do not shut you out from our Communion Our Chappels and Church-dores lye open to you We contend for your Fellowship and daily pray for your comming in if you by name should have occasion to pass this way and present your self with other Guests at the holy Supper of our Lord no man on earth should be more welcome But if you and your Partners will continue your severall separations and shut your selves out from our Communion as it were judging your selves unworthy of the Kingdom of God and excommunicating your selves without our consents and against our wills and in despight
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
he goes on p. 179. the Church of England is not invisible It is still preserved in Bishops and Presbyters rightly ordained and multitudes rightly baptized none of which have fallen off from their profession 7. To your preposterous Demands then Especially to the Eâ—iscopal whose sufferings have made them the more coâ—formable to the primitive Christians why we separate from you and refuse to go to your Communion the first and shortest Answer is this that we are passively separated because you actively are separatists We by remaining as we were are parted from you and you by your violent departure have made our Difference unavoidable We are divided by necessity and you by choice we from you our Dividers but you from us and between your selves You like Demas having forsaken us and having embraced this present world it is our lot as it was Paul's to be unâ—voidably forsaken It is God's own Method to turn away from his Deserters When the Times are changed by some and others are changed by the Times you must at least excuse if not commend us that we * Prov. 24. â—1 meddle not with those who are given to change For you to go from us and then to chide us for being parted is the greatest injustice to be imagin'd because it requires us to verifie the two Extremes of a contradiction A second Answer I shall give you in better words than mine own even the same which Dr. Hammond once gave the Papists Sâ—e Dr. Hammond of Schism p. 180 181. The Night-meetings of primitive Christians in Dens and Caves are as pertinent to the justifying of our Condition as they can be of any and 't is certain that the forsaking of the Assemblies Heb. 10.25 is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our wiâ—ful fault v. 26. but onely our unhappy Lot who are forced either not to frequent the Assemblies or else to incourage and incur the scandal of seeming to approve the practises of those that have departed from the Church That we do not decline Order or publick communion and consequently are not to be charged for not enjoying those Benefits of it which we vehemently thirst after is evident by the extensive Nature of our persecution the same Tempeâ—t having with us thrown out all Order and Form Bishops and Liturgy together And to that Curstnesse of theirs not to any Obstinateness or Vnreconcileableness of ours which alone were the guilt of non-Communion is all that unhappiness of the constant Sons of the present English Church to be imputed Lâ—y-elders condemned by such as had sworn to assert them Sect. 30. I am glad to find you thinking that unordained Elders wanting power to preach or administer the Sacraments are not Officers in the Church of God's Appointment and that as far as you can understand the greater part if not three parts for one of the English Ministers that we stand at a distance from are of this mind and so far against Lay-Elders as well as we of whom you confess your self one and Mr. Vines another p. 4. But I am not glad to find you excusing what you condemn 'T is true ye all swore when ye took the Covenant to preserve the Discipline and Government in the Church of Scotland and to reforme the Church of England in Discipline and Government according to the example of the best Reformed Churches of which the Scotish was implied to be the chief yea to bring the Churches in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and Uniformity in Church-government c. Lay-elders in Scotland were pretended to be by Divine right The Platforme of Geneva was highly magnified that I say not blasphemously for the Pattern shew'd in the Mount The Scepter of Christ and Evangelium Regni Dei were noted expressions of their Device But since you have printed your own opinion that therâ— were no such Lay-elders of God's appointment you should rather have recanted your having sworn the Scotish Covenant than have tryed by all means to make the best of so bad a matter Whilst you believe a fourth part of the Presbyterians are directly against the other three in thinking Lay-elders of God's appointment you give us to hope that your Kingdom will never stand And indeed if you will read but the first 5. Chapters of Bishop Bancrofts Survey of the pretended Holy Discipline you will find that no Sect hath been more divided against it self See what is said by Dr. Gauden in his excellenâ— * p. 17. Dendrologia concerning the Pertness and Impertinenâ—y the Arrogancy and Emptiness the Iuvenility and Incompetency the Rusticity and Insolency of some Ruling and Teaching Elders too the disagreement that was found betwixt High-shoes and the Scepter of Church-government especially mark what he †p. 18. saith of the Decoy and Fallacy the Sophistry and Shooing-horn of bringing in Lay-elders by Divine Right and perhaps when you have done you will hardly excuse your own Excuses much less the manner in which you make them for to excuse the Lay-eâ—ders as men not preaching Sect. 31. You say A Calumny cast upon our Preachers to the sole disgrace of the Calumniator In that our Readers are much like them p. 4. And again you speak of our Ignorant Drunken Worldly Readers and Lazy Preachers that once a day would preach against doing too much to be saved p. 16. But 1. that any have so preaâ—hed of the regular Clergy is your ungrounded Intimation for which you are answerable to God They have commonly been accused of having preached for the doing too much to be saved Their earnest pressing for the Necessity of Universal Obedience to the Law of Christ which carries along with it all manner of good works hath very frequently procured them the name of Papists Socinians Pelagians Moralists any thing in the world to express the dislike of your Presbyterians The Antinomians are the chief men who preach against doing too much to be saved and as the Fautors of that Heresie you your self have accused both Mr. Pemble and Dr. Twisse who were not Prelatists but Presbyterians And such were they who applauded The Marrow of modern Divinity which you have sharâ—ly written against for the like dangerous positions Nay you your self are more liable to undergo your own censure than any Prelatist I ever heard of for teaching the people how greaf a wickedness may well coâ—sist with their being Godly Of this I have given so many Examples that I shall adde but one more You put the Question Wâ—ether if men live many years in swearing or the like sin See Disp. of right to Sacram 3. p. 330. it is not a certain sign of ungodliness To which you answer in these words A godly man may long be guilty of them as 't is known some well-reputed for Godliness are in Scotland Reputation doth much with many even that are godly to make sin seem great or small With us now a swearer is reputed so great a sinner that he is
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
with which you have any the least Agreement Reduce your proof then a second time into a syllogisme truly made and your case will be alter'd but nothing mended Your fall into the Fire will indeed be regular but you will get no more by it than if you continue in the frying-pan For your truly form'd Syllogism will be but thus whosoever hath none but a Deacon or Deacons to attend him is a Primitive Bishop A Presbyter hath â—one but a Deacon or Deacons to attend him Therefore a Presbyter is a Primitive Bishop Here the matter is as untoward as the Form was before The Major proposition being admirably false For though a man may be a Bishop who hath no more to attend him when no more are to be had and that because no more are needfull which is the thing that Dr. Hammond hath often taught you yet his having no more doth not prove him to be a Bishop which was the thing to be proved from Dr. Hammond When Ignatius reckons the Three Orders Bishops Priests and Deacons 't is as impossible for him to meane that Priests are Bishops as that Deacons are Priests For though every Bishop is a Priest it can no more follow that every Priest is a Bishop than it can possibly follow that every Animal is a man because it is true that every man is an Animal A Primitive Bishop and a meer Presbyter may have a Conversion per Accidens and another conversion by Contraposition but a simple conversion they cannot have To say they can without proof is but the begging of the Question which being sure to be denyed you I shall advise you to beg no more I will conclude this subject with a remarkable passage of Mr. Thorndike And I will do it so much the rather because the weightiness and the price of that excellent Volume may probably keep it from the perusal of vulgar Readers who onely meddle with the cheapest Bookes Mr. Thorndik's judgement of Presbyt Ordinations c. In his Epilogue to the Tragoed Of the Ch. of Engl. Concl. p. 408. The Presbyterians sometimes pleade their Ordination in the Church of England for the authority by which they ordaine others against the Church of England to do that which they received authority from the Church of England to do provided that according to the order of it A thing so ridiculously senseless that common reason refuseth it Can any state any society do an act by virtue whereof there shall be right and authority to destroy it Can the Ordination of the Church of England proceeding upon supposition of a solemn promise before God and his Church to execute the ministry a man receiveth according to the order of it inable him to do that which he was never ordained to do Shall he by failing of his promise by the act of that power which supposed his promise receive authority to destroy it Then let a man obtaine the Kingdom of Heaven by transgressing that Christianity by the undertaking whereof he obtained right to it They are therefore meer Congregations voluntarily constituted by the will of those all whosâ— acts even in the sphere of their ministry once received are become voide by their failing of that promise in consideration whereof they were promoted to it Voide I say not of the crime of Sacriledge towards God which the usurpation of Core constituteth but of the effect of Grace towards his people For the like voluntary combining of them into Presbyteries and Synodes createth but the same equivocation of words when they are called Churches to signifie that which it visible by their usurpation in point of fact not that which is invisible by their authority in point of right For want of this authority whatsoever is done by virtue of that usurpation being voide before God I will not examine whether the form wherein they execute the Offices of the Church which they think fit to exercise agree with the ground and intent of the Church or not Onely I charge a peculiar nullity in their consecrating the Eucharist by neglecting the Prayer for making the elements the dody and blood of Christ without which the Church never thought it could consecrate the Eucharist Whether having departed from the Church Presbyteries and Congregations scorne to learne any part of their duty from the Church least that might seem to weaken the ground of their departure or whether they intend that the elements remaine meer signes to strengthen mens faith that they are of the number of the elect which they are before they be consecrated as much as afterwards the want of consâ—cration rendering it no Sacrament that is ministred the ministring of it upon a ground destructive to Christianity renders it much more Immoderatâ— viâ—ulence towards those of the Episcopal way Sect. 39. I now returne to your long Preface from whence I stept into your book that the things of one Nature might be consider'd together in one Head That for which I am next to complain of you unto your self is your immoderate bitternesse to the Episcopal way and to the men of all qualities who dare to own it Many Gushes of it there are of which I will here transcribe a few * Praef. to Disp. of Church-Gov p. 17. We see that most of the ungodly in the land are the forwardest for your waies You may have almost all the Drunkards Blasphemers and Ignorant haters of godliness in the Country to vote for you and if they durst againe to fight for you at any time The spirit of prophaneness complyeth with you Ibid. and doteth on you in all places that ever I was acquainted in * Grot. Rel. p. 113. should one of you now pretend to be the Bishop of a Diocess you would have a small Clergy and none of the best and the people in most Parishes that are most ignorant drunken prophane unruly with some civil persons of your mind c. * P. 114. The cause of their love to Episcopacy is because it was a shadow if not a shelter to the Prophane heretofore and did not trouble them with discipline and because they troubled and kept under the Puritanes whom they hated But if you did not exercise Discipline on them your Churches would be but the very sinks of all other Churches about you to receive the filth that they all cast out and so they would be so great a reproach to Episcopacy that would make it vile in the eyes of sober men So that a Prelatical Church would in the common account be near kin to an Alehouse or Tavern to say no worse * â— 11â— So that for my part were I your enemy I would wish you a toleration but being really a friend to the Church and you I shall make a better motion c. Whilst you rail at this rate not onely without but against all reason nor onely beside but against your own knowledge as if it were your design to be voted for an ill
Directory exceedingly Aâ—ominable that I was and would continue by the grace of God assisting me free from the great Abomination of the Presbyterian Directory And aske what Papist would talk as Mr. P. doth and not be able to name one thing in it that is abominable p. 33. Perhaps the Papists have kindness for it as tending to the disgrace of the Protestant name and acting here in Disguizes might likely have instigated your brethren to that work of Schism and Disobedience But to all sound Protestants 'tis an Abominable thing as you must needes have known by your experience if you know but the English of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or of the easier word Abomination T was an Abominable Directory for all those reasons to be collected First from Mr. Hooker's Ecclesiasticall Polity the writings of Archbishop Whitgift Bishop Bilson Dr. Cosens Bishop Buckridge Bishop Morton Dr. Burges before the Directory was made of which you are minded by Dr. Heylin * P. 64 65. by whom you lately had the Honour to be exceedingly well instructed Secondly and chiefly from Dr. Hammond's view of the Directory unanswered and unanswerable Thirdly from the Preface of Dr. Sanderson so often cited Attempt an answer if you are able Fourthly from Dr. Heylin his History of Liturgies Fiftly from a large Preface before a Liturgy very commonly thought to be Dr. Taylor 's How truely or falsely I cannot tell wherein amongst thirty one Enormities justly imputed unto the Directory it is observed to be composed to the dishonour of the Reformation accusing it of darkness and intolerable inconvenience A Direction without a Rule A Rule without restraint A prescription leaving an indifferency to a possibility of licentiousness Into which Heresie and Blasphemy may creep without prevention Which still permit's children in many cases to be unbaptiz'd And suffer's them not to be confirm'd at all Ioyne's in Marriage as Cacus did his Oxen. Will not do piety to the dead Never thinks of absolving Penitents Recites no Creed but entertain's Arians Macedonians Nestorians Manichees or any other Sect for ought appeares to the contrary Consigns no publick Canon of Communion but leaves that as casual and fantastick as any other lesser offices Never thanks God for the Redemption of the world by the Nativity Passion Resurrection Ascension of our Lord but condemns the memoriall even of Scripture-Saints and that of the miraculous blessings of Redemption of mankind by Christ himself wiâ—h the same accusation it condemns the legends and portentous stories of the Roman Calendar Leaves no signaâ—ure of piety upon the Lords day and yet its Compilers do inâ—oyne it to a Iudaical Superstition Implicitly undervalues the Lords Prayer as never injoyning and but once permitting it Without Auctority and never establish'd by act of Parlament But it is farther yet abominable for being made and put in use by a spirit of opposition to the best Liturgy in the world by Law establish'd for being highly Schismatical and so far perniâ—ious to the Soules of men as it beguiled them of the nourishment which their Mother the Church had provided for them and which by Law unrepealed became their due Again Abominable it was by being a work of Disobedience to the Supreme Governour of the Land who by a purposed Proclamation did most strictly command the publick use of the Common Prayer and as strictly forbid the use or Admission of the Directory Of which anon I may tell you more Farther your Directory was abominable for the Reasons given in against it by the University of Oxford Sect. 9. p. 32.33 34. And for those of Mr. Thorndike in his Epilogue to the Tragoedy of the Church of England and for what your self Mr. Baxter have writ against it Which I do not here recite because I have done it * Look back on ch 6. p. 147. elsewhere See Biblioth Reg. Sect. 4. p. 335 336. 2. Having mention'd a Proclamation set out against the Directory by the then-confessed Supreme Magistrate I will in order to your conversion and for the benefit of them who may chance to read me and may also need such information set out the Reasons which are there rendred for the prohibition of the Directory and for the constant use of the Common Prayer The Reasons against the former are no more then fivâ— I. It is a meanes to open the way The Kings Reasons against thâ— Directory and give the liberty to all ignorant factious or evil men to broach their own Fancies and Conceits be they never so wicked and erroneous and to mislead people into Sin and Rebellion and to utter those things even in that which they make for their Prayer in their Congregations as in Gods presence which no conscientious man can assent to say Amen to II. And let the Ministers be never so pious and religious yet it will break that uniformity which hitherto hath been held in God's Service and be a meanes to raise Factions and Divisions in the Church III. And those many Congregations in this Kingdom where able and religious Ministers cannot be maintained must be left destitute of all help and meanes for their publick Worship and Service of God IV. No reason is given for this alteration but onely inconveniency alledged in generall and whether pride and avarice be not the ground whether Rebellion and Destruction of Monarchy be not the intentions of some and Sacriledge and the Churches possessions the aimes and hopes of others and these new-Directories the meanes to prepare and draw the people in for all we leave to him who searches and knowes the hearts of men V. And this alteration is introduced by colour of Ordinances of Parliament made without and against our consent and against an express act of Parliament still in force and the same Ordinance is made as perpetuall binding Lawes inflicting penalties and punisâ—ments which was never before these times so much 〈◊〉 pretended to have been the use or power of Ordinances of Parliament to which we are to be parties On the contrary the Reasons for the book of Common Prayer are eight or nine in that prâ—clamation The Kings Reasons for the Liturgy 1. It was compiled in the times of Reformation by the most pious and learned men of that age 2. Defended and confirmed with the Martyrdome of many 3. Was first established by Act of Parliament in the time of King Edward the sixt 4. And never repealed or laid aside save onely in that short time of Queen Marie's Reign upon the return of Popery and Superstition 5. In the first year of Queen Elizabeth it was again revived and established by Act of Parliament 6. The repeal of it then was declared by the whole Parliament to have been to the great decay of the due honour of God and discomfoâ—t of the professors of the truth of Christ's Religion 7. Ever since it hath been used and observed for above four-score years together in the best times of peace and plenty that
ever this Kingdom enjoyed 8. It contains in it an excellent form of Worship and Service of God grounded upon the holy Scriptures and is a singular meanâ— and help to Devotion in all Congregations 9. That or some other of the like Form is simply necessary in those many Congregations which cannot be otherwise supplied by learned and able men and keeps up an uniformity in the Church of England Adde to this the confession of the Parliament-Commissiners at the Isle of Wight that if his Majesty would * See Biblioth Reg. Sect. 4. p. 353. not agree which depended meerly upon his will no other Government could be set up and by consequence no other Liturgy or any thing else in lieu of it Adde to that also their protestation p. 354 355 358. not to offer the least violence to his Majesties Conscience Who also protested it was his Conscience which enforced his Denial of their petition in that point I say petition because their stile was no other than * p. 354. We humbly beseech your Majesty p. 355. Adde to all his observation that his Conscience concurred fully with all other Parliaments except that One since the Reformation and that if he should give way to remove all Ecclesiastical Sanctions which by Law are exercised p. 356. by that rule even the Presbyters themselves might be taken away For questionless saith he and I pray Mr. Baxter observe his reason the Civil Sanction gives the legal acting power to all Divine Institutions otherwise the Christian Clergy would now be in little better case than they were before they were Christians 3. How Abominable your Directory hath appeared to all Protestants beyond the seas you may partly judge by a little Book intituled A Character of England sent it seems by a French Protestant residing here in England to a Nobleman of France Your Party is all along concerned from p. 12. to p. 23. But I took the more notice of what he saith p. 16. That the Religion of England is preaching and sitting still on Sundayes because our learned Mr. Thorndike hath often touched on that string shewing what care there hath been taken that there should be * Mr. Thorndike's â—â— to the Trag. of the â—b of Engl. Conclus p. 420. which compare with p. 405. two Sermons a Sunday with a prayer at the discretion of him that preaches provided nothing be done to signifie that humility of mind that reverence of heart that devotion of Spirit which the aweful Majesty of God is to be served with And he adds in that place what I beseech you to lay to heart that even the frequency of preaching which was the outside of the business even granting it to be by the true rule of Faith hath been so visibly so pitifully defective in the performance that he must have a hard heart for our coÌ„mon Christianity who can think that there is wherewith to defend it from the scorn of Vnbelievers had they nothing to do but to mind it 4. Let me conclude this subject with that signal prophesie of the holy Martyr Hippolitus That in the dayes of Antichrist Liturgy shall be extinguish'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bib. Patr. Grâ—c Tom. 2. p. 357. Psalmody shall cease Reading of the Scriptures shall not be heard In which three saith our Reverend and Religious * Preface p. 5. before his parapâ—rase and Annot. on the Psalmes Dr. Hammond as the publick service of God was by the Ancients thought to consist so the destroying of all and each of them must needs be a branch if not the whole body of Antichristianism a direct Contradiction to Christ who by his own prescription or practise of each of these impress'd a sacred character on each Concerning Coppinger Hâ—cket and the communication of their Design to the presbyterian Ministers Luke 11.2 Mat. 26.30 Luke 4.17 Sect. 43. I now proceed unto the last which is withall the most desperate instance of your Impiety Rashness and wilful Railing for which you are utterly unexcusable whether you spake in the dark or quite against your own Light concerning the Presbyterians Ministers in Queen Elizabeths time whom I had affirmed from Bishop Bancroft as he from letters which â—ass'd between them as well as from Messages and Confessions publickly taken in the Star-chamber to have been privately made acquainted with the bloody design of Mr. Hacket Coppinger Arthington and the rest of which you say they knew no more than either Augustin or Luther and that I might as honestly have said the One as the Other Nor doth your Daringness rest there but you or rather your furiousness for you could not certainly be your self when you flung about you in such a manner affirm I could not have uâ—tered more falshood then I had done if satan had dictated to me Thus you precipitate your passion not so much against me as against Archbishop Bancroft from whose Authority I spake and whom you fear not to call The most violent persecutor of the Puritans p. 34 35. Now Sir cool your self a little and honestly answer to my Dilemma Did you know the business whereof you spake or did you not If you knew it why did you write against your knowledge in so plain a matter of Fact or why did you not attempt to prove your Negative to wit That Cartwright and Traverse and the rest were not privy to the plot Why did you not consult with Bancroft's dangerous positions to which I referred in my Margin naming his chapters and his pages and specifying the year in which 't was printed that you might not be capable of an Error by any mistake of the Edition Nay why would you say in plain terms That you know not nor much regard what I have read in Bancroft as if you should have said you were resolv'd to give Mr. Pierce the Lie and to compare him with satan right or wrong without examining his Citations without knowing what he hath read and without regarding what is written by Learned Bancroft or upon what kind of Evidence that Book proceeds Do not you think there is a God or do you imagine he cannot see you or do you hope he will not judge you according to your works what should make you thus fearless I can never sufficiently admire if you knew the business whereof you spake And if you shall say you knew it not how durst you say at all adventure that if satan had dictated to me I could not have uttered more falshood I for my part had a perfect knowledge of what I writ And since the reading of your bâ—ldness which I could not have thought possible but that I have read it I have called the eyes of others to bare witness with mine own And in my necessary Defense I am enfoâ—ced to discover you to all that read me first by desiring them to compare my Self-Revenger Exemplified ch 3. p. 73. with the pages of my Aâ—thor referred to in the
to these expressions as if you had purposely reserved your whole stock of virulence for whosoever should happen to use you gently Dr. Heylin and I whilst you were capable did use you as gently as you could wish You have acknowledged our Candor and put it also upon Record Yet in how prodigal a manner have you bestow'd your whole stock upon him and me allowing me onely a treble portion for having most of all exceeded in my expressions of Love and Moderation Compare my first behaviour towards you which had something in it to oblige but nothing at all to provoke you with your acknowledgments of the same in the first addresse which you made unto me and call your self to an accompt what it was which could ingage you in such an uncharitable Requital You made Confession to * p. 281. Mr. Tombes of your guilt in this kind But pleaded too in your own excuse †Ibid. p. 274. that you had not the twentieth part of Mr. Calvin's keenness to Baldwin and Cassander * Ibid. p. 281. and that you are less Censorious now then ever Is this to the credit of Mr. Calvin that he was twenty times worse then Mr. Baxter in point of railing Never did Bolsec revile him more And if in your last three Volumes you have shew'd us the fruits of your amendment we do earnestly desire you to mend no more But if you meditate an answer either to me or to any else of the Church of England do not addict your self to Calumny and think it sufficient to call it keenness It was not keenness but Falshood which made me think it my duty to change my stile If it shall prove to do you good I shall change it again in your Commendation Deal but Faithfully with me and shew your Favour to whom you please For if you bring but Truth with you your greatest Freedom will â—ind most welcome For the Reverend and my much respected Friend Doctor Peter Heylin at Lacies Court in Abbingdon REVEREND SIR HAving so far comply'd with my inclinations as to begin with the second part of your Certamen Epistolare wherein you have excellently cleared our Common Mother from the Historical part of a dishonest Rhapsodie which Mr. Hickman the man of scorn as you have fitly * P. 19â— describ'd his Nature by the signification of his Name had most dishonorably purloined from those two Ordinary Collections Mr. Prinn's Antiarminianism and his Canterburie's Doom in which your pertinent observation you have many men's eyes to bear you witness who had long since observed as much in private as you have now made †P. 149 150. known in print and having read it quite over with as many degrees of satisfaction as our deplorable Filtcher hath done with grief I hold it my duty to send my thanks in as publick a manner of conveyance as that by which I received my obligation My obligation would have been weighty although it had lain upon me no otherwise than upon every true Son of the Church of England and even so you might have challenged my hearty thanks But that you were pleas'd to * P. 116. consider the multiplicity of my Employments and in that consideration to bear a part of my Burden that you were pleas'd to chastise so inconsiderable a Scribler and to do it chiefly at my incâ—tement notwithâ—tanding my being a stranger to you this I take to be a favour for which it is not sufficient to pay you thanks unless I also deâ—â—re your pardon I say your pardon so much the rather because I knew the Disparity between your persons I well consider'd it was below you to oâ—pose your strength to so much weakness I knew the man was unworthy of so much Favour as to fall under the weight of so Grave a hand Nay not to conceal any thing from you which stand's in need of an excuse I did esteem him the meanest Disputant that I had ever yet dealt with in these affaires I found Mr. Barlee some Formes above him and wonder'd why he made use of so poor a helâ—er Nay though I alwaies intended and still intend to call his Rhapsody to account not so much for the weakness as the extreme great wickedness of the thing yet did I intend it as nothing elâ—e but a resolute act of my Cond scension to which for the safety of his Disciples I shall cheerfully stooâ— as my Leisure serve 's me But being engaged with Mr. Baxter before Mr. Hickman had put his name to the English writings of other men as I shall manifest hereafter in greater meâ—â—ure then you imaginâ— and timely foreseeing iâ— would be late before my manifold Employments of greater moment would give me leave to descend to so mean a taske and having been importun'd by diverse persons to let out the wind of that Bladder which popular breath had puff'd up to so great a Bigness and verily thinking it unsafe as well for him as his poor Admirers to let him prosper in his impiety and pride himself in his unhappiness untill I could have leisure to mâ—ke him humbler and conceiving that Mr. Prinn was a Learned person as well as a person of yeares and Quality who could not cease to be the Author of all those Arguments of which Mr. Hickman is the Transcribâ—t by their being reprinted in any Plagiarie's Name and knowing well that those Arguments might very usefully be answer'd though not as filtch'd by Mr. Hickman yet as belonging to Mr. Prin and calling to mind the great Readiness as well as exactness of your Conceptions joyn'd to the zeal which you had shew'd for the Church of England and your personal concernment in diverse Calumnies and slanders which the Brasier as you call him had cast upon you I took upon me so great a Confidence how unhappily soever a stranger to you as to sollicite you to ingage against the Historicall way of arguing which yet you know I did acknowledge too much below you As for the part which is remaining concerning the positive entity of Sin in which alone I am peculiarly concern'd and which you tell me you * P. 149. leave to my sole management making me also a greater Complement then either my Modesty or my Merit is any way able to support I make no doubt but I shall publish such an accompt of that affaire as will noâ— faile of your approbation 'T were easie to do it in a few pages so as to give satisfaction to men of Learning but then it would not be so easie to vulgar Readers whom I do chiefly consider in what I publish that they may not be in danger to think that Sins are God's Creatures by thinking God is the Creator of all things reall And it being my purpose not onely to humble and put to silence but to Convince and convert so bold a Libertine I shall contentedly be as large in my intended enterprise as needes I must be to be pâ—rspicuous
that he should be a King yea and a Pope too the Apostolical See being translated to those parts Now Sir however it may suffice for your vindicationâ— that Mr. Hickman is thus evinced to have wrapp'd his own Talent if he hath any in a Napkin and to have swagger'd for a time by spending freely on others men's and though I shall purposely omit to send you the many and large passages which you know he hath plunder'd from Mr. Prinn even because they are so very many and withall so very large that to recite them would make a Volume yet to the end you may be able to grasp them all at one view and to find them with ease if need require I shall briefly set down a Directory both to the pages and to the lines Mr. Prinne Canterburie's Doom Mr. Hickman Concerning the English Jesuite's Book inscribed a Direction to be observed by N.N. See Epist. Ded. p. 6. l. 3 c. along for 2. pages Concerning Bishop Montagues Visitation-Articles See Pref. p. 3. l. 3 c. along for about 16. lines Concerning Bishop Lindsey See ib. p. 10. l. 5 c. along for about 11. lines Concerning the Church of England's supposed holding the Pope to be Antichrist See ib. p. 11. l. 4 c. along for several lines Concerning Dr. Abbot's Sermon at St. Peter's See Book p. 65. l. 8. along for 34. lines Concerning the Jesuite's Letter to the Rector at Bruxells See ib. p. 63. l. 20. along for about 11. lines Concerning the Historical Narration c. intituled to Cerberus and Champneys See ib. p. 18. l. 14. along for 43. lines Concerning Dr. Holland's pretended turning Dr. Laud out of the Schooles upon the score of Presbytery See ib. p. 23. l. 19 c. Concerning Archbishop Laud's Letter to Bishop Hall about Presbytery and the forrain Churches See ib. p. 24. l. 1. along for 10. lines Concerning Episcopacy being an Order or degree in Bishop of Exon's Letter See ib. l. 15. Concerning Images pretended to be forbidden in our times by the Homilies See Pref. p. 8. bot The Image of God the Father c. along for 7. lines Concerning Mr. Sherfield's case See ib. For taking down a glasse window c. along for about 6. lines Concerning a Gentleman's telling Mr. Hickman of the Archbishop's justifying the picturing of God the Father c. See ib. p. 9. along for about 5. lines Concerning Mr. Palmer of Lincolne-Colledge being coursely handled by the Regius P. and called Appellator c. for citing Bishop Montague's Appeal Concerning Mr. Damport See p. 45. l. 8 c. along for about 14. lines Concerning Mr. Pym's Report to the Commons about Mr. Montague's appeale See ib. p. 24. l. 1 c. That he had disturbed the peace of the Church c. along for 10. lines Concerning the Commons Declaration about the sense of the English Articles of Religion See ib. l. 16 c. along for 12. lines Concerning Mr. Montague's Appeale almost strangled in the wombe and such as wrote against it See ib. p. 23. l. 14 c. Concerning Dr. Bray's expunging a clause against worshipping of Images ta'ne out of one of the Homilies out of Dr. Featlye's Sermons See ib. p. 10. l. 18 c. Concerning the calling-in of Dr. Downhams Book of perseverance See p. 47. l. pen. c. Concerning the censure of Mr. Ford Thorn Hodges See ib. Mr. Prinne Ibid p. 114. l. 1. so on to the end Ibid p. 177. l. 4. so on to the end Ibid p. 360. on to the end Ibid p. 542. l. 28. 278. bott 276. l. 38. ib. l. 17. p. 275. l. 24. Ibid p. 155. l. 24. so on to end See also p. 410 411. ib. Ibid p. 159. l. 39. so on to the end Ibid p. 167. l. 37. c. 168. l. 38 c. p. 169. l. 35. 170. l. 17 c. ib. l. 39. p. 508. l. 7. Ã fin Ibid p. 389. l. 20 c. Ibid p. 274. l. 22. so on to the end Ibid p. 275. l. 25 c. Ibid p. 102. l. 7 c. Who in this window had made no lesse then 7 c. so on to the end ib. l. 24 c. The image of God the Father c. so on to the end and p. 103. l. 18 c. Ibid p. 103. l. 11 c. so on to the end Ibid p. 157. l. 28 c. From An Renati c. on to the end Ibid. p. 158. l. 41 c. 1 That he had disturbed c. so on to the end Ibid. p. 163. l. 18 c. We the Commons c. so on to the end Ibid. p. 157. l. 15. c. p. 159. l. 20 c. ib. l. 7 c. Ibid. p. â—08 l. 25 c. Ibid. p. 171. l. 30 c. Ibid. p. 174 l. 175. Mr. Prinne Anti-Arminianism Mr. Hickman Concerning Dr. Iohn Bridges's Book called a Defence of the Government c. and about his opinion that falling away is not grounded on our 16. Article See Pref. p. 45. l. antep Concerning Tyndallâ—s Frith's Barnes's works preserved put forth by Iohn Day and prefac'd by Mr. Fox See ib. p. 13. l. 19 c. Concerning Bishop Ponet's Catechism imposed by K. Edw. 6. on all Schools See ib. p. 16. l. 13. c. Concerning Questions and Answers about Predestination at the end of the Old Test. of Rob. Barkers Bible See ib. p. 17. l. 16. Concerning the English Articles agreed confirm'd c. in several Reigns See ib. p. 14. Concerning Dr. Iackson's Questions in Vesper and concerning Dr. Frewenâ—s Questions See ib. p. 28. l. 28. c. Concerning Bishop Carletons saying That albeit the Puritans troubled the Church about Discipline yet they did not so â—bout Doctrine See Book p. 42. l. 7. c. Concerning the University of Cambridge s Letter to the Chancellour for suppressing of Baro's Opinions See p. 66. l. 18 c. Concerning our Articles being Anti-Arminian because composed by such as were disciples of Bucer and Martyr See Pref. p. 18. l. 6. c. Concerning K. Iames's hard words of the Remonstrants See Book p. 39. l. 5. c. ib. l. 11. c. Mr. Prinne Ib. p. 202. l. 8. c. See also p. 6. l. 23. c. Ib. p. 79. l. 3 c. ib. l. 18. and ib. l. 20. Ib. p. 48. l. 31 c. see just before two leaves of the said Catechism from f. 37. to f. 41. see ib. p. 48. l. 28 c. Ib. p. 51. l. 1 c. and p. 54. l. 6 c. Ib. p. 4. Ib. p. 249. l. 12. and p. 250. l. 11 c. Ib. p. 262. l. 18 and p. 263. l. 7. ib. l. 16. Ib. p. 256. l. 18 c. see p. 253. l. 27 c. and p. 256. l. 18. Ib. p. 12. l. 3 c. Ib. p. 214. and p. 205. l. 26 c. and 206. l. 3 c. see also p. 89. l. 13. Having
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
own Court wherein are represented the great discouragements from sinning whiâ—h the Sinner receiveth from Sin it self in 12. new printed 2. The Badge and Cognizance of Châ—ists Disciples preached at S. Pauls Church before the Gentlemen of Wiltshire 4. 3. The Christians Rescue from the grand error of the heathen touching the fatal necessity of all events in 5. Books in 4. new The new Discoverer Discover'd by way of Answer to Mr. Baxter with a rejoynder to his Key for Catholicks and Disputations about Church-Government 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Church of England defended in two Treatises against the Fabulous and Scandalous imputations cast upon her in those two Points Of Succession of Bishops and Schism wherein the fable of the Nâ—gs-head-Ordination is detected and the accusation of Schism retorted By Iohn Bramhall D. D. Bishop of Derry The Law of Laws or the excellency of the Civil Law above all other humane Laws whatsoever shewing of how great use and necessiâ—y the Civil Law is to this Nation By Robert Wisemâ—n Dr. of the Civil Law 4. new The Grand conspiracy by Master I. Allington in 12. The History of the Church of Scotland by Dr. Spotswood Archbishop of S. Andrews in fol. Etymologicum parvum in 8. by Mr. Gregory School-master of Westminster The contemplation of heaven in a descant on the prayer in the garden in 12. The Magistrates Authority a Sermon by Master Lyford in 4. The Quakers wild questions objected against the Ministers of the Gospel by Master R. Sherlock in 4. The Communicants Guide by Master Grove in 8. The plain mans sense exercised by Master William Lyford in 4. Anglicisms Latiniz'd by Mr. Willis in 8. The persecuted Minister written by Mr. Lâ—ngly Minister of the Gospel 4. Lyfords Legacy in 12. The Catechism of the Church of England paraphrased by Richard Sherlock 3. Edition An Apology for the Ministry by William Lyford The Examination of Tilenus before the Triers in Utopia in 12. newly published The Calvinists Cabinet unlocked in answer to Mr. Baxter by Tilenus Junior New in 12. Examen Historicum or a discovery and Examination of the mistakes falsities and defects in some modern Histories 8. by P. Heylin D. D. New Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae The works of that Great Monarch and Glorious Martyr King Charls the first both Sacred and Civil together with a short view of his Life and Reign Certain Considerations of present Concernment touching this Reformed Church of England by H. Ferne. D. D. in 12. A Compendious Discourse upon the Case by Henry Ferne in 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ecclesiae Anglicanae Suspiria The Tears Sighs Complaints and Prayers of the Church of England setting forth her former Constitution compared with her present condition also the visible Causes and probable Cures of her Distempers in four Books newly extant in fol. By Iohn Gauden D.D. of Bocking in Essex Certamen Religiosum or a Conference betwixt the late King Charles and the late Lord Marques of Worcester concerning Religion Royalists defence printed at Oxon. 4. Mercurius Rusticus or the Country-mans complaint against Lieutenant Generall Cromwells plundering and defacing Cathedrals printed at Oxf. 8. The Regall apology printed at Oxon. Bishop Bramhalls faire warning to take heed of the Scotch Discipline 4. Sacro-sancta Regum Majestas written by the Archbishop of Tuam Doctor Sâ—uards Answer to Fountains Letter Episcopacy and Presbytery Considered by Henry Ferne D.D. A Sermon before his Majesty at the Isle of Wight by Henry Ferne D. D. Iudicium Universitâ—tis Oxoniensis de Solenni lége foedere Iuramento Negativo c. Fifty Sermons preached by the Learned and Reverend Iohn Donne D.D. Doctor Cozens Devotions c. The End of the Catalogue
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