agree in a Third agree also together If therefore we all receive the Word of God as our Soveraign Rule might we not probably hope that we may be Re-united in other things which are but dependances on that especially if after we have cast away from us all our passions and prejudicate Opinions we bring only with us a true Zeal and an ardent Charity Moreover being perswaded that the Doctrine contained in these Holy Scriptures is Divine that it is true that it is infallible and that it is perfectly Holy we shal without doubt conclude that it is our Soveraign Rule That it prescribes to us what we should all believe and receive for our Salvation And as this word expresly forbids us to add diminish or alter any thing in the Doctrine which it lays open to us we should look upon all other Doctrines received in any other Society of Christians us very suspicious We should not receive them tili after a careful examination of them and upon sure conditions how specious soever the pretences were under which they would make them pass to us Although they should give them to us meerly as Explications Illustrations and consequences drawn from this word we should however look upon them but as Essays of Man's wit whose infirmity appears in all his actions All his meditations his application his reasoning his Humility his Prayers and his Fastings cannot hinder but that there will remain still great weaknesses of Flesh which wil render him lyable to contempt and errour There is none but God only who is able to declare to Us the things which are of God because there is none but God who knows God as an excellent Author of our times has very well expressed What Men say of Him is but babbling Whatsoever they bring thither of their own is but weak and doubtful De divinis etiam vera dicere periculosum est We must go to the very Truth it self and ascend up to the Fountain Head We must suspect all the Waters which have not passed through this Channel although they appear never so excellent Oh that we had but made known with a little diligence amongst Christians the value of this important Principle as we have sown the seeds of Division that we had avoided unprofitable questions and disputes And had made Christian Religion easy and intelligible as carefully as Particular Doctors have taken upon them the liberty of expounding this Scripture Every one giving it the sence which his Genius or rather his capricious Fancy or Interest suggested to him Every one having drawn the consequences from it which must favour his inclinations Nay and without sticking there every one has endeavoured to give to these consequences an authority equal to that of the Original from whence he pretends to have drawn them In this very manner have we seen Disputes and Contentions arise also Heresies Schismes Divisions and different Communions Every Society has made his particular confession which they pretend ought to be of as great authority as the very Creed of the Apostles themselves And thus as this Practice has strengthened it self in the Church after the same rate also has Division been strengthened and augmented It is therefore absolutely necessary for the establishing a good Peace in the Church to reject all Inventions of Men and 〈◊〉 to lend an Ear but to God only speaking in his Word It is thus that the great Persons have practised who lived in the most pure Age of the Church They have ever confined their mindes to the Holy Scriptures as to the only Foundation of our Faith and of our Salvation CHAP. IV. The Third means Rightly to distinguish between the Doctrines which the Holy Scriptures propound to be believed by true Christians and what regards only the outward Government of the Church and its Ceremonies THis Sacred Word which we have said is the only Foundation of the Churches subsistence and of the Union of its Members offers Us three sorts of things to be learnt by Us. It declares to Us First what we are to believe for the Peace of our Consciences and for obtaining Salvation and Eternal life It teaches us next what relates to the Government of the Church in the Exercise of its Discipline and in the outward Practice of its Ceremonies And Lastly it gives Us saving Precepts which serve for the Direction of our Lives and Manners Not only to be the outward Guide of our Actions and of our Words But also of our Affections Inclinations and most secret Motions of our Souls This distinction being well established and all its Members truly considered We shall find that in the right management hereof there will be no occasion of quarrelling unless it be about the Rules proposed to our Faith For as to what concerns the Precepts of Virtue they are so clearly laid open in the Holy Scriptures that in them there can be no ground for Controversie All Christians know that God will be most highly loved and adored All agree that we must honour Father and Mother according to the Commandment of God All accord in this Point that the Law of God forbids Murder Adultery Lying c. All acknowledg that these Laws are not meerly established to Rule the outward Form of Men in Society But that they oblige us to conform the most secret thoughts and inclinations of our hearts to the Purity and Sanctity which they command After this we need not any other Rule than that Abridgment of the Law which the Son of God has reduced to these two admirable Precepts To love God with all our affections and our Neighbour as our selves The Observation which might be made from hence would Rule as every one may perceive all our actions Insomuch that no Person could defire any thing more for the living holily and justly I know very well that there have been certain Doctors formerly amongst Christians who by their interpretations have gone aside from the strict observation of these Laws But they have not only wanted the approbation of others as well of their own Communion as strangers But also they themselves have always made profession of acquiescing as others in these sacred and inviolable Rules They did not pretend to weaken them by their interpretations they only sooth'd Men's consciences with a favourable sence which they give to the circumstances of particular actions Behold here one of the principal Articles of Faith Nay I dare say the most important and wherein consists the very Essence of Religion which can give no cause of Division As to the Rules which the Holy Scriptures afford us for the Government of the Church relating to its Discipline and to its Ceremonies 'T is a strange thing that they should have so often given occasion of Disputes and been the cause of separation and division If the Holy Pen-men had punctually prescribed and ordered every thing that ought to be done in this matter we should be obliged indispensibly to observe them And we should
would do therein according to their prejudicate Opinions which they have been possessed with formerly admitted Whence is it therefore that we should take the Foundation of this distinction but from the Moush of God Himself speaking to Us in his Holy Word True it is we find not any passage in the Holy Scriptures that declares in formal termes which are the Fundamental Doctrines to distinguish them from others But the nature of the thing tells us we may establish this distinction by the very Word of God For if all Christians receive as unquestionable truths all that which has been revealed to Us in the Word of God If they all acknowledg that it would be an unpardonable crime but to call in doubt any of these Sacred Oracles seeing it would be to suspect Him of falshood who is truth it self They must by consequence own that whatsoever is clearly proposed to Us in the Word of God and is also received by a general consent is a Fundamental Point of Christianity They must acquiesce in this Doctrine as being immediately issued out from God or else utterly renounce Christianity Whereas if there be Doctrines which have not been so clearly revealed to Us they give occasion to the Doctors to interpose their Judgment and give place to different Sences We have likewise the liberty of examining these divers Opinions We may compare them together to retain that which we shall judg most conformable to the Analogy of Faith We may search out that which shall agree best with the Fundamental Points which gives most consolation to the Soul and affords the greatest Motives to Piety But we must not put these last truths in the same rank with the first nor must we oblige Christians to acquiesce there in the same degree of Faith As to the first we should receive them as so many Oracles delivered from the Mouth of God without any mixture of humane infirmity whereas the second which have passed through the Discourses of Men may have been altered by the weakness of their Judgment They may be tainted with the defects and imperfections of humane wit And these are those truths or rather those Doctrines which I do not allow to be Fundamental Otherwise we should give to Man and to Reason an Authority which appertains to none but to God alone and his Word And to the end we may clear this matter by Examples which may make it both known and understood by every one It is certain that these are Fundamental Doctrines in Christianity Viz. That there is One God That he hath sent his only Son into the World That whosoever believes in Him may have Eternal Life That Jesus Christ dyed for our Sins and arose again for our Justification That He shall come in his Glory to judg both the quick and the dead and such other truths as all Christians admit of as being most distinctly and plainly taught us in the Holy Scriptures But as for those Doctrines which determine the Order of the Eternal Decrees of God that tell us punctually what is the Object of Predestination that Expound how the two Natures are united in the Person of Jesus Christ that comprehend and fadome the Mystery of the Trinity that pretend to discover the means by which the Holy Ghost operates in the hearts of the Faithful and other things of the like Nature I maintain that although the Learned Men should say never so many excellent things concerning these matters and what they say might be approved as being judged reasonable They must not nevertheless be made to pass as of equal authority with the truths which are clearly revealed to us in God's Word They ought indeed to be received but in such manner as that we should be all ready to quit and renounce them in case any one should make us see some error therein Otherwise it is but to make way for Division Since every Doctor will make his particular Opinions to pass for so many Fundamental Truths And will reject all others as Errors which utterly overthrow Salvation The adverse Parties will not be less Zealous in maintaining their contrary Opinions which will be followed by a lamentable separation and division Here it is that we should value the Precept of Saint Paul 1 Thes 5. Prove all things and hold fast that which is Good Here it is also that the saying of the same Apostle might take place 1 Cor. 3. That there is but one sole Foundation of Christian Religion which is Jesus Christ That Man might build upon it Gold Silver precious Stones Wood Hay or Stubble But that every Man's work shall be made manifest For it shall be tryed by Fire which will consume the evil works although the workers may be preserved Let us in the next place hear what the excellent Author of that Treatise of the Imitation of Christ says What will it avail thee though thou canst dispute concerning the depth of the Mystery of the Trinity if in the mean time thou shalt be destitute of the Grace of Humility which may make Thee acceptable to the Trinity The profound Discourses of Divines make not a Man more Holy and more Just I had rather feel the true effects of repentance than know how to give a diffinition of it This distinction being setled the ready way will be open to us by which we may attain to a perfect Reunion of all Christians in one Confession of Faith In the first place I suppose that we must have a strong Faith having suppressed all particular Interests which have no regard but to temporal things That we must for some time have cast away all those prejudicate Opinions which are so many bars and hinderances of agreement After this I require that we should adhere without varying to the certain and infallible Rule which is the Voice of God speaking to us in his Word That according to this Word we bear one with the other in the divers practice of its Ecclesiastical Discipline and in the different use of its Ceremonies That we should not look upon these outward things but as accidentals to Religion and which ought not to be established but according to the general Rule of Order and Decency I next require that we all rest in the Truth of the Sacred Histories leaving a Liberty to learned Men of declaring their Opinions upon the difficulties which are therein met with to follow without constraint that Party which shall be judged most reasonable That we read not the Prophesies and Predictions contained in the Holy Scriptures but with Humility without determining any thing as by authority upon their sence and the times of their accomplishment That we carefully distinguish between the Doctrines so clearly established in the Word of God that all Christians are obliged to receive them And those which have need for their enlightning of the Labour and Meditation of Men to clear them That we admit not of any other than the first for Fundamentals and unvariable And that as
into several branches they have put a stop to their conquests and had no further thought than to maintain themselvs both those whom they have forsaken and such as have forsaken them And it is not only from the ill example of this division that strangers to the Faith are driven from it They are led thereunto by the very intrigues and stratagems of the Christians who are so separated and divided among themselves Their Division creates such animosity one against the other that they do their utmost endeavour to hinder those who have an earnest desire to embrace Christianity from entring into any other Christian communion but their own There are others who go further for they hold it as a true Maxime That it is better for a Jew or Mahometan to persist in his old Errour than to thrust himself into some of the Christian Societies which they disapprove So that as it is impossible for Iron equally drawn between two Loadstones to move either towards the one or the other So these different solicitations which Christians make to draw Infidels to them leaves them in a neutral state not knowing which side they should take nor to which they should determine their Judgments CHAP. VI. The Fifth Effect of this Division Trouble in Church and State THe Evil of this Division is not limited only to particular persons but all Societies as well Ecclesiastical as Civil have too great a feeling of it For we dayly see strange Tempests happen in both which had no other cause for the forming of them than this sad disunion And has not the Church much reason to complain that those who are called her Children should tear out her Bowels That she can expect nothing but death even from those to whom she hath given life Since they to whom she continually administers the sacred Milk of her pure Doctrine and of her wholsome Instructions do give her so many grievous wounds as they form Sects in her In multiplying they dismember Her and each striving to draw her to their side at last nothing is seen to remain but her mangled and broken pieces And what is more these deplorable Reliques of the Church have likewise been so miserably handled that she is no longer to be known insomuch that they might rather be taken for the parts of some mishapen Monster than for the Members of the Divine Spouse of Jesus Christ washed in the Blood of her dear Lord and clothed with the Sacred Robe of his Righteousness But that I may not be thought to aggravate these things and raise them with an Hyperbole Let us but consider the present face of the Church Is it not true that we shall have much ado to meet any one of these Societies which call themselves a Church and attribute the truth solely to themselves where these ill Characters are not to be seen First a certain high conceited Opinion of the Principles they have embraced which creates in them a blind perswasion without examining it and whereof not any solid reason can be given Birth Education Worldly Interests and other engagements of this nature together with a kind of negligence and a fear of being accounted inconstant and unsetled if they should turn to another party These things I say have ordinarily a greater influence for the establishment of them in their Religion than Reason and Conscience have All which is followed by a certain obstinacy not to call it self-conceitedness in maintaining their belief at any rate whatsoever There are those who many times do hazard on this occasion all that they hold dearest in the World even to their very lives which passes in every One of these Societies for an exquisit Zeal and an examplary devotion Nor is there any one of these Sects which has not a Catalogue of its Confessors and that cannot produce its Roll of Martyrs But how many are there of these Martyrs who if they had been demanded to give a reason of the Doctrine for which they made so much constancy appear would have been gravelled and have little to answer to the least argument that might have been proposed to them Many times false Opinions are maintained with as much heat as the True Also Illusions and Impostures do make as strong Impression upon our Spirits as real Objâ—cts Now this obstinacy draws after it an extreme aversion to all other Religions and even to all other Christian Societies It either accuses them of blindness or of stupidity or of malice 'T is nothing else say they but fleshly interest that seems a Foundation of their Doctrine They reproach them that their Opinions are altogether destructive to true Piety that they hurry Men into Superstition and to Idolatry or else to Libertinisme or Atheisme And some there are who are pointed out by others as if they were frightful Monsters In a word any protestation or any declaration which they make that it is the Doctrine they loath and not the Persons who take it up That it is the Error they detest but that they have charity and compassion for such as are misled is enough with them Which yet shall never make me believe But that the precedent qualities are accompanied with a great Animosity of Spirit against those who are not of the same Opinion For how can we sincerely love those whom we look upon as Enemies to God and Disciples of Satan whose Lot and Portion is Hell where they shall be made a Prey to the Devils Are there not likewise very dreadful Examples in what manner they have reciprocally treated one another in those places where they are mingled together The weak employ such armes as are most convenient against their Adversaries which are injuries and reproaches the powerful straight pass to action there is no craft nor subtilty no violence nor cruelty which these People sâ—t not a work utterly to exterminate such as follow a different profession from theirs The Roman Catholick persecutes the Protestant in those places where he is strongest The Protestant he requites him where he has the Power and Authority in his own hands And amongst Protestants those who are of different Opinions are not treated more favourably Heretofore the Christians complained much that the Pagans would force them to sacrifice to their Gods and quit their Religion Tertul. Apolog. 28. They grounded not their complaint on any other Reason than this that Religion as they affirmed ought to be an act of a pure and free Mind But now a days Christians do the same thing towards Christians We have seen times where tortures and the cruelest punishments have been used by Christians for afflicting other Christians and for no other cause but their not being of the same judgments and perswasions And now after this who can take it ill that I have no more represented the Church as the Ship which the Son of God conveyeth safe amidst the stormes wherewith she is continually battered But to the lamentable wracks of a Vessel dasht in pieces not by
Ages It was not subjected to the burthensome observation of so many Ceremonies which are as strange habits and ornaments wherewith it has been since cloathed There are to be found amongst us two sorts of Persons which have much contributed to this Evil. The first are those subtil Spirits who besides their own natural wit are still more refined in the Schools of the Philosophers The second are such as are pleased at some showe and appearance who have not yet been able to quit the inclinations which the World has inspired them with for these outward things and who cannot forbear the having some esteem for the pomp of the Jewish and Pagan Ceremonies The first sort have thought that Christian Religion would be much more considered if it should contain many Misteries which were obscure and difficult to comprehend Judging that as plainness causes contempt obscurity would gain it respect and veneration They have formed difficulties upon all the points of Religion to exercise their wits on and to show their skill and learning which they bring with them from the Schools They have caused doubts to arise from the things which are most easy In a word they have changed the Christian School into a School of Branglings and Disputes Which heretofore caused a certain Person to say that the Philosophers had been the Patriarches of the Heretiques The other Spirits who are for having some show in Religion fancy that if the Christian Church were but reduced into the simplicity which it had in its first rise it would have but a few Followers They see that Men naturally do love that which pleases the Senses and which conveys devotion into the heart by the Eyes and Eares It is from this notion that all these several different Ceremonies are crept in amongst us which we see practised among Christians They have retained Jewdaisme nay more they have brought in such Paganisme as they have deemed most proper to imprint by outward objects some inward Motives to Devotion and Zeal They have imagined that they could with profit make use of those things which the others abused They have supposed that that was the way to sanctifie the profane Vessels of the Egiptians and bring back that to its true use which nourished the Pagan Superstition In the mean time how specious soever the Reasons and Pretences are which one and the other alledg in their own favour These are they who have given the first stroke to the Peace and Union of the Church For if at first they had religiously kept themselves to the small number of Rules which the Gospel prescribes us they had never soparated into so many Sects as have been formed concerning such questions as the curiosity of Men has caused to be raised Jesus Christ tells us that his Yoke is easy to bear He invites all even to the very little Children to believe in Him which he would not have done if the Faith had certainly brought with it all those abstruce Rules and Misteries which are proposed to us now The Holy Scriprures do present but very few Doctrines in comparison of the Exhortations to Vertue which are there made us And the Gospel is not given us but that we should believe that Jesus is the Messias and that in believing it we may have life through his Name John 20. To be lawfully Baptized It is sufficient to believe from the Heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Acts 8. Saint Paul reduces all his preaching to this only Point That Jesus Christ is the Messias foretold by the Prophets that he was to be crucified and rise again from the dead Acts 17. The same reports that the extent of his knowledg is to know Jesus Christ and Him Crucified The Epistle to the Hebrews requires not more of him that would approach neer to God but the knowledg of two things that there is one God and that he is the Rewarder of those who seek after Him And St. James makes pure Religion and blameless before God to consist in visiting the Widow and Fatherless in their afflictions and in keeping themselves from being defiled by this World As if they would have said that the Principal design of Religion is to bend all ones study to Sanctity to Purity and to Charity The Creed of the Apostles contains whatsoever is Essential in the Rules of Christian Religion And what that teaches us is sufficient for the Consolation of our Souls and to induce us to a holy Life Let us but examine all the Apologies of the first Christians written on purpose to discover their Opinions in Religion They justifie all that which I assert They comprehend but a very few Articles of Faith as concerning the existence of God the Incarnation of our Lord his Birth Life Death and Resurrection Hence it is that they have defended themselves from the accusations which were brought against them that they have resisted the strongest temptations and sustained with courage the most violent Persecutions If they had continued in that course and had not consulted the Schools of Plato and Aristotle concerning the Rules of Religion there had been no change made then had there been no separation in Christianity If the wit of Man had not been ambitious to mix his own with the Divine Oracles the Church would have still been in its innocency and in its purity Such are all these new Opinions which being destitute of the evidence of truth have separated Mens Spirits and caused this unhappy Division And as to this matter of Ceremonies and of the outward show of the Church If they had considered them as simple Ornaments which are nothing of the Essence of Religion If they had not multiplyed them to so vast a number If herein they had kept up themselves to the simplicity of their practice in the Primitive Church They had had no occasion for any contests concerning these things and every one might have easily found wherewithall to be satisfied But since they have without measure increased the number of Ceremonies So that they have not left Christians the Liberty of making the least step in Religion without upholding it by some Ceremony They have put things to a tryal Every one has pretended to have a right to speak his sence thereof which has made many to separate and given occasion of Division CHAP. V. That many do make use of Religion to serve their particular Interests and the advantages of a temporrl Life THe greatest Evil which Reigns in Society is that a right distinction has never been made between the solid and true goods and those which have no foundation but in the imagination of Man We often prefer a Worldly interest before all the advantages of the Soul and the hopes of that which is to come Sometimes also after a most wicked and detestable manner there are those who make Religion and an appearance of Devotion serve for the obtaining or preserving some temporal and passing good Insomuch that as it is
undertaken the Cure After having made known the extent the depth and the consequences found out the causes and traced them up to their very source Order directs us to come to the remedies which are requisite to the curing thereof But before we propose them it will not be at all from the purpose to say something of those which hitherto have been unprofitably employed therein And I do not wonder that we could never yet see any success of whatsoever has been done for stopping the course of so great disorder Men have always built upon this wrong Foundation That this Evil was of it self incurable and that therefore they could only study how they might stop the course of its most pernicious symptoms They have believed it was but like going about to save a sick Persons Life that was given over by the Physicians They never thought of a means of reducing all the Societies of Christians into One. They have imagined that the difference of their Opinions was too great and concerning matters too important ever to bring it about that all the ends should be made to meet together They have fancied that the Alienation of Mens minds was too inveterate the prejudices too many the interests too disserent and too deeply rooted reasonably to hope that either one or other would make the first advance towards such an agreement Insomuch that every one has supposed it was enough for him to strenthen himself in his Opinions and to establish them by good Reasons and to weaken those which are opposite to them that they may draw to their sides such as should reject them It is on this Foundation that all those have hitherto worked to whom God has bestowed any great Talents and who have had any Name in Divinity All these disputes conferences and volumes of Controversies are not employed but to this end viz. to maintain the Doctrine which they have embraced and to induce others to the receiving of it But in this all these great inconveniences have never been considered That those very same who write and who dispute with so much heat and subtilty are many times us much byassed as others and their passions are as violent as those in vulgar Persons That oft-times they alledg on both sides very specious Reasons and such as cause new difficulties to arise of which they cannot easily clear themselves That all private Persons have not the time and conveniences requisite to be able to read over these kind of Writings and hear these Disputes That of those likewise who are in a condition to apply themselves hereto There are but few who bring not some strong conceipts in favour of those Opinions which they have followed before Insomuch that on these occasions we see but few who give not all the applause to the Doctors of their Communion and esteem not the others as consuted and bafled Teachers So as I dare boldly say that all these Writings and all these Disputes being far off from producing any good effects shall but cause the minds of Men to be more wedded to their Opinions and remove them further off from any sincere Reconciliation Let us say then with Saint Augustine Epist 122. That this Evil has more need of tears and lamenting than of large Writings and great Volumes Many times the Discourses which have been us'd for obliging the vanquished party to follow another profession have served but still more to animate the Parties and fortisie them in their separation Therefore many seeing the small success of this Remedy which has been endeavoured have judged that they ought to change their Method and work the Cure after another way For effecting of which they have distinguished between such Societies of Christians whom they have believed to have gross and dangerous Opinions and others whom they supposed not to lye in so great Errour As to the first they have given them over as sick Persons in so deplorable a condition that their Disease is stronger than all Remedies But they have made some steps towards the assistance of the latter they have offered them a hand of Reconciliation and made them hope to meet together in certain terms and expressions whereon they should agree This is it that all those have endeavoured who have hitherto applyed themselves to the Reuniting of the Roman Catholicks and Protestants This is the way which they have followed who would have agreed the Lutherans with the Calvinists and these again with the Arminians and others who are gone out of their Communion And yet after a world of trouble and writings composed on this Subject these designs have proved abortive and these essayes unprofitable For not to say any thing of the distinction which they make between pernicious Doctrines and those which are not so which is only contriv'd by their own sentiments whereby they are already pre-engaged Is it not true as I have observed in the Preface that they are particular interests that have slipt in and diverted the blessing of God from a design where another End was pursu'd than his Glory As also that they have rather endeavoured herein to lull a sleep and give some kind of present ease to this Evil than to cure it perfectly by any effectual Remedy There has been made a certain mixture of Doctrines and a composition of things which can never be incorporated together whereas they ought to have laboured to purifie Christian Religion and separate it from that mixture of all strange things and bring it back to its first simplicity Indeed they have failed herein for want of looking up to the Fountain Head of this Evil to discover what first made this separation among Christians of what communion soever they are We ought therefore since it is so to find out a means how to propound to all Christians in general something wherewith to satisfie them in the overtures which shall be made them and cause them all to understand the Interest which they have to reunite themselves in one and the same Principle In short Some there are who have fancied that Councils and General Assemblies might put a good period to this Evil by their Authority and great Learning but many times Interests and prejudicate Opinions raign as well in these Assemblies as amongst the particular Persons which compose them For we ordinarily see that these kind of companies make Mens spirits more obstinate in their first sentiments and cause a less disposition to an Agreement We see besides that these same Assemblies are very seldome formed but under the Authority of one of the Sects of Christians and that whatsoever is proposed therein is to fortifie them the more against others and to fix them more and more in their first Opinions This is that which has caused many absolutely to reject all Assemblies of this kind and has been the ground of that common saying that Every General Council begets a Warre Therefore for the right management of this Designe all Christians generally should agree
lived there I know not upon what occasion the Jesuits having fallen into some great trouble The Ambassadours of England and Holland who otherwise are their mortal Enemies as he says were the first who spake in their favour and made their business be dispatched with all the good success which they could desire What hinders Us here in Europe in the middest of Christianity that we cannot do that by a motive of Charity which they in the Levant do by the Principle of the Interest of Trade and civil Affairs and that we drawing again one towards another should not agree at last in the Fundamental Points which may Unite Us altogether And although this Design should not be so readily brought to perfection Meditation would be very advantagious and very conducing to it Particular Persons who shall have tasted of it would draw much satisfaction from it They would be disabused as to many of their preconceived Opinions They would finde themselves discharged of a heavy Yoke They would unmask Christian Religion and discover its beauteousest Face as being most pure and most plain They would love it and dwell together in its profession with singular comfort I shall also add this same that if the Proposition should not succeed so happily for all Christians in general it might take effect in many particular States of Europe I mean amongst those Christians where there are diversities of Opinions and Professions Could we not at least in these places labour herein for some good accommodation And would not the Fruit which grows thence be capable of inviting others to take a share in it The Conclusion The Profits and Advantages which might be hoped for from this Design HE must be very dim-sighted who cannot plainly see the signal advantages which may be expected from so-excellent a Design It would be an admirable means for advancing the Glory of God to establish his Doctrine in the purity and simplicity which is natural to it Men have been desirous to supply by their prudence the defects which they thought they had observed in the conduct of providence They thought that God had not in His Word explained Himself neither clear enough nor amply enough to be understood without assistance Thence proceeded all these expositions Paraphrases Commentaries Questions and Disputes which have opprest almost choaked the most excellent and most holy Doctrine that ever appeared in the World If therefore we can but once rid her of this Burthen she will appear in all her luster again and establish in its ancient purity the service of Him who is manifested by Her Under the old Covenant God rejected the Worship which the most supersticious amongst the Jews offered him and that because they had modell'd it according to their fancies and had rather endeavoured the observance of these outward things than the solidity and essence of true Piety God refuses his Graces to those who have no mind to receive them meerly simple and pure as they are To mix them with ours is absolutely to spoil them And now seeing we are so unhappy at this present as not to enjoy the communication of the Graces of Heaven nor that blessed commerce which the first Christians had with God who doubts but that this must needs come from hence that we have quitted their simple and innocent carriage in Divine Service We have undertaken to serve Him after our manner and we have endeavoured to know Him only by such Ideas which our Caprichious fancies have fashion'd of Him This has properly been the cloud which has intercepted our sight of Him This certainly has been the Sin which being the most capital of all has made Him conceal Himself from us and the provocation which has obliged his Justice to chastize by the deprivement of his Graces those who have neglected the simplicity of his Doctrine We must therefore re-enter into that first estate of simplicity humility and charity to recover that which we have lost that is to say God and his Graces And this is what we should hope for from the execution of this Design The second advantage which we may expect is that we should find it much easier to extirpate Vice and to procure the Reformation of Manners in Society We are driven to a necessity of certain Disputes and strange Controversies whilst we should be rooting out the passions which choak the Fruit of the Doctrin of the Gospel We make sallies out upon the Enemy whilst Sedition molests us within Let us cast away these unprofitable Questions We have enough to do to make Answer to the Reproaches of our own Consciences We shall never think of reforming our manners whilst we spend the chiefest of our time in maintaining these impertinent Discourses We shall not be able to defend our selves from ill examples if we employ our Armes in vindicating of indifferent Opinions which cannot so long be debated Pro Con without prejudice to Salvation Especially since this diversity of Opinions destroys as it hath been proved both Charity which is the foundation of Christian vertues and humility which is the soul of them The fire of this Division must first be extinguished before we can proceed with success towards the Correction of Manners and Reformation of Life Therefore it is this that all good Christian Souls do sigh after We might have great reason to hope that the State would have also a considerable advantage by this design People would become more tractable and submit with more willingness to the Orders of their Governours when they should see themselves united with them in the same Profession It has been lways observed that mens Affections have never been straightly linked together where their Minds have been divivided by different Opinions Moreover all those subtilties which we cause to arise about Religion do ordinarily make peoples spirits inquisitive proud standing upon punctilio's obstinate and by consequence more difficult to be brought to Reason and their Obedience Every parcular man pretends to have a right of taking cognisance of those Controversal Matters to inrerpose his judgment therein and then with great vehemency ro defend them After this in Affairs of State they will take the same liberty which they gave themselves in those of Religion They believe that if it be permitted them to controll the Opinions of their Governours in the Church where the Service of God is it should likewise be free for them to examine the Conduct of those who are set over them in State Thus the Reunion which I propose will be a powerful means to hold every one in his Duty All Princes of Christendom would draw considerable advantages from this design besides the Obedience of their Subjects of which I have now been speaking They might strictly unite themselves together For these Jealousies these Distrusts and these Divisions which ordinaiily arise from diversiry of Professions coming absolutely to cease all these different Interests which separate them would unite in one and the Fruit would be common
to them all This Interest would carry them on jointly to oppose themselves to the Enemies of the Name of Christian and take over them all advantage which reason justice could allow Is it not a strange thing that since the Roman Catholicks the Protestants and the Greeks have so rent and torn each other we see that the Mahometans have made so great a progress amongst them by reason of their Divisions If when the Turks came to fix themselves in Hungary and then afterwards attacqued the State of the Venetians all Christendom with one accord had opposed themselves to their designs Had they reaped those advantages which now they have obtained over those two States Is it not a very astonishing not to say a shameful thing that some neighbouring Countries to those dreadful-Enemies of all Christians do think themselves obliged to treat with them and that also upon disadvantagious Terms meerly out of the Distrusts and Jealousies which they have of other Christians They shamefully make Peace with the Turks to turn their Arms against the Christians esteeming it to be running to that which is the most pressing necessity Thus the common Enemy advances and gets much ground every day by reason of our Divisions To stop this evil I see no other more effectual remedy than to hasten this Agreement of Opinions which without doubt will be followed by that of affections The common People will find herein this satisfaction that they shall no more be troubled in Religion with so great a number of Questions and diversity of Opinions proposed to them as necessary to Salvation Hereby will be banished from hence all those Scruples of Conscience those Troubles those Alarms and those Distrusts so directly opposite to the Genius of Christian Religion and to the Peace which the Eternal Soh of God has procured for us Thus the simple Artificers the Labourers and those who are most unlearned and ignorant would be guided in the way of Salvation and be led to the enjoyment of eternal Blessedness The Doctors by this means would not have any advantage over the people in the Knowledge and practise of things necessary to Salvation It might be said that hitherto there have been as it were two different Religions in one and the same Religion The first is of the learned and Scholars the other that of the common People Women and Children Yet Jesus Christ never had a double Auditory he never instructed the Pharises and the Doctors of the Law otherwise than the common People And when he chose Successors to supply his room they were poor Fishermen who had more concern in the instructing and saving of such as were like them in condition than boasting their subtilty in the Disputes of the Schools and confounding such as thought to have the advantage over others in arguing I am also persuaded that those particularly who are employed in Ecclesiastical Charges and called to teach others will here find great advantage They will no more tread upon those Thorns which heretofore they met with in all those critical and unprofitable Questions They will have no more those Distrusts and Alarms which they gave themselves doubting if they were not in a wrong way and if they misled not others They will not fear the encountring a Doctrine which is truer than that they profess Let them say what they will this thought oftentimes makes their hearts ake who amongst them have tender Consciences Therefore seeing themselves delivered from all those unquietnesses they would acquit themselves of their Charge with much more Joy They would labour with pleasure for the Advancement of the Glory of God They would bend all their thoughts to stir up every one to a good life and they themselves would be Examples to others of Vertue Piety and Charity 'T is often seen that amidst the Contentions which the Doctors raise about some Niceties of Doctrinal Points there is little or no Zeal for the Glory of God They grow so passionate for the getting of some advantage in a Dispute until at last they let themselves be mastered and vanquished by their own Passions Many times strangâ— Controversies make us forget that business that we should have with our selves and some study more how to speak well and dispute well than how to live well Lastly who does not see that if we bring this design about it will prove an excellent means to draw to the Gospell many people who look not upon it now but with aversion and contempt This Simplicity this Beauty and this Facility which is observed in Christian Religion together with the perfect Unity of the Professors thereof will be a powerful Loadstone to attract to it all these who hitherto have rejected it When they shall see that this holy Religion is not made to consist meerly in Ceremonies that is to say in outward grimaces which most commonly terrifie and keep off those that are well inclined towards it rather than invite them to follow it When they shall never more hear talk of all those critical and troublesome Questions which are risen up in Christianity When they shall observe no more particular interests predominant in the Spirit of Christians When they shall be convinced that there is nothing but the Love of God Charity towards our Neighbour and the desire of living well which inspires them Lastly when they shall see in the Faces of these Christians the marks of true Peace and Comfort which the Christian possesses within They must have deprived themselves of all sence of Vertue they must have extinguished utterly all sparks of Reason and turn sworn enemies of their own good if they desire not to enter into a Society which hath all these advantages I doubt not also but those blessed Spirits who continually stand before the Throne of God will be concerned in the Advantages of this holy Union for if they so much interest themselves in the conversion of a poor sinner that they rejoyce and sing aloud in the Quire of Glory will they not make a solemn Festival in Heaven for the reuniting of all Christians upon earth I am also persuaded that God seeing we all bend our Course toward him with the same heart and the same affections will certainly come to meet and receive us He will embrace us in his mercies and speak to us in the motions of his loving kindness especially if we say to him with the Author of that Treatise of the Imitation of Christ Lib. 1. C. 3. I am weary with hearing and reading so many things It is in thee alone O my God that all is included which I desire or wish for Let all Doctors hold their peace let all Creatures keep silence in thy presence and be thou pleased alone to speak to me I wish with all my heart that all these considerations may make such an impression upon the spirits of all those who shall read this Writing that every one may afterwards contribute according to his power to the advancement of this great work and that God would favour in such manner our attempts with his Grace that we might suddainly see a happy success therein to his Glory and the good of all Christians And because my voice is too weak to awaken them and draw them out of the estate where I behold them now I wish they would hear that of the great Apostle of the Gentiles whose Voice and Stile all Christians know He calls to them thus in Ephes 4. Be ye kind one to another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace There is but one body and one spirit even as you are called to one hope of your vocation There is but one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in you all This great servant of God likewise beseeches them all with words capable to work upon the hardest hearts speaking to the Philippians Chap. 2. If says he there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels of mercy if any compassion make my Joy compleat that ye be of the same opinion having the same charity being of the same courage and acquiescing in the same thing Neither let any thing be done amongst you with strife or vain glory But rather esteeming one the other in humility of spirit more excellent than himself not every one regarding his own particular interest but that also which appertains to others Let there be therefore one mind in you like that which was also in Jesus Christ To whom with the Father be Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS These Books are Printed and Sold by William Gilbert at the Half Moon in Saint Pauls Church-yard Folio THe Annals of the Old and New Testament by James Vsher Doctor in Divinity Arch-Bishop of Armagh Danielis Sennerti opera omnia 3. Tom. Venet. Poeta Graeci Veteres Carminis Heroici Scriptores qui extant omnes 2 Tom. Biblia Graeca Francosurti Book of Martyrs by J. Fox 3 Vol. Alexander de Ales. 4 Vol. Quarto Jani Alexandri Ferrarii Caenobitae Augustiniani Euclides Catholicus sive demonstratio Romanae fidei ex primis certis evidentibus Principiis Mathematica methodo connexis continua seriv propositionibus deducta Regal Protomartyr or the Memorial of the Martyrdom of King Charles the first in a Sermon preached upon that occasion by John Allington Rector of Vppingham Learn to lie warm or an Apology for that Proverb It is good sheltring under old Hedg containing Reasons wherefore a young Man should marry an old Woman Miltons History of England from the first traditional beginning to the Norman Conquest The Way to get Wealth by Gervase Markham Octavo Discourse of Evangelical Love Church Peace and Unity English Rogue or the Witty Extravagant in four parts Hools Greek Testament The last and now only compleat Collection of the newest and choisest Songs and Poems that are now extant at Court Theatres and elsewhere with above forty new Songs never before in Print which are now added to this second part of Wistminster Drollery Duodecimo Hungarian Rebellion an Historical Relation of the late wicked Practices of the three Counts Nadasti Serini and Frangepani tending to subvert the Government of his present Imperial Majesty of Hungary and introduce the Mahometan with their Arraignment Condemnation and manner of Execution By P. A Gent. FINIS