The Grotian Religion Discovered, Section 47 – Section 65

The Grotian Religion Discovered · Section 47 – Section 65

p. 70SECT XLVII.

ONly one point of his judgement more §. 47.I shall rehearse, concerning the Holy Scripture, Discus. p. 171. Afflatu Dei locutos quae locuti sunt, scripsisse quae scribere jussi sunt, Prophetas, toto animo agnoscit Grotius; Idem judicat de Apocalypsi & Apostolorum praedictionibus Christi dicta omnia quin Dei sint dicta dubitari nefas. De scriptis historicis, & moralibus Hebraeorum sententiis, aliud putat; satis est quod pio animo Scripta sint, & optima fide, & de rebus summis. Quos libros tales judicavit p. 71Synagoga, ii sunt Canonici Haebraeis. Quos tales Ecclesia Christiana, ii sunt Canonici Christianis. Ne{que} Esdras ne{que} Lucas Prophetae fuere, sed viri graves, Prudentes, qui nec fallere vellent, nec falli se sinerent. Dix…tne Lucas [Factum est ad Lucam verbum Domini, & dixit ei Dominus] ut solent Prophetae? Nihil. tale. Quid ergo? [Quoniam quidem multi conati sunt ordinare narrationem quae de nobis completae sunt rerum] Dicit se non praecepto, sed aliorum exemplo, adductum ut scriberet.—Quomodo assecuto? ex ipsis testibus, non ex revelat…one.—Longe ergo aliter acti Prophetae; aliter Lucas, cujus tamen tam pium Consilium spiritui sancto potest ascribi. Haec ipsa veritas est, non blasphemia.—Pag. 172. Quae autem sint literae eximie sacre sive d…v…nitus inspiratae, exposuerat Grotius ex Secunda Petri, nempe sermo Propheticus, sine Prophetia Scr…pturae, id{que} scriptis libris consignata.—And page 177. Speaking of the books of the New Testament, he saith [Quod ne in illis quidem scriptis ea sit certitudo, quam à Traditionibus abesse queritur D. Rivetus.] I make no Comment on any of these words, or collection from them, but leave them to the Readers judgement.

p. 72SECT. XLVIII.

ONE thing he tells me Discus. p. 172. §. 48.that I knew not before, that the learned Papists themselves are not agreed, what Canon of Scripture it is that the Council of Trent hath established: There are Particulae quaedam excepted by Grotius from the honour of ancient reverence, [quas an in authoritatem Ecclesiasticam receperit Synodus Tridentina, docti nunc quo{que} dubitant. And yet poor Protestants have no hope of Unity, or Peace, nor can the Holy Scriptures be understood but by the Determination of such Synods, or other judge, that can no better themselves be understood. The Papists it seems cannot tell which is the Canonical Scripture, after the Councill of Trent hath undertaken the decision of it!

SECT. XLIX.

THE next point by which I leave you §. 49.to judge whether Grotius was a Papist, is, His constant joyning himself with them under the name of Catholikes, and applauding p. 73their Jesuites, and reproaching the very Reformation itself, and the Protestant Churches, and his disowning, if not nullifying them. Read his Discussion throughout and judge. Pag. 10. He tells us that the Greek Church, are easily reconciled to the Roman, as the Council of Florence declareth, yea that they have the same Sacraments and opinions, adding to this falshood a Calumny against their Patriark Cyril (as if his blood did not satisfie the cruel Papists, unless they also destroy his surviving reputation) [Sed sumenda est Ecclesia Graeca, non qualem ex suo capite Cyrillus nuper inductus pretio confinxerat, sed qualis est revera, qualem nobis exhibent scripta Jeremiae.—] Should he not have proved this as well as said it, that he was pretio inductus, if he could? We do not think that all the Greek Church was so much Reformed as Cyril; and we have as little reason to think that that they were all so deformed as Jeremias. Neither of them was the Greek Church, though both were Patriarks: We have fuller helps to know their minds, then by either of them. And I suppose the Papists know by experience, that the Reconciliation is not so easie as Grotius pretends: And whether Protestants and Papists are p. 74liker to Purchase a Consent from them by money, is an easie matter for any many of common reason that knows them to discern. Thomas à Jesu, and Possevine, and many more Papists will trulyer tell us of the distances between them, then Grotius hath done. Though for my part, I make no doubt, but among us all, they are pretended in Doctrinals to be much greater then they are, by men that understand not the state of the Controversies.

SECT. L.

SO Discuss. p. 48. Haec, de quo Deo sit gratia, §. 50.Catholici ita non credunt, quanquam multi qui Catholicos se dicunt, ita vivunt, quasi ista crederent; sed Protestantes quidem ex vi dogmatum, Catholici ex lapsu Disciplinae.] Here (as throughout oft) Catholicks and Protestants are opposed. Indeed many Catholicks have wicked lives, but it is the Protestants only that have the Doctrine that makes men wicked: For pag. 28. he told us, that God hath suffered their manners at Rome to be corrupted, but the Doctrine is not corrupted. It were a hard censure of Grotius, to judge him p. 75such a dissembler, or so unwise as after all this to be a Protestant. I must needs vindicate him from such unjust imputations.

SECT. LI.

DIscuss. pag. 71. he tels us what it is §. 51.that he aimeth at. The Churches that joyn with Rome have not only the Scriptures, but the Dogmata explained in the Councils, and the Popes Decrees against Pelagius, &c. [Receperunt etiam constitutiones egregias Conciliorum & Patrum, in quibus abundè est unde vitia corrigantur: sed non omnes iis utuntur quantum oportet. Manent illae plerumque conditae in chartis, ut in vagina gladius: Et hoc est quod omnes pietatis & pacis amantes corrigi velint:] and tells us of the example of Car. Borromaeus, as oft he doth. So that Borromaeus Reformation is plainly it that Grotius would be contented with. I am as ready as another to think that this Cardinal was a Saint indeed; (and it seemeth Saints are rare at Rome even among the Clergy and the Cardinals, when this one mans Piety and Reformation must be noted by a Canonization.) But I am confident that the Pope p. 76would never have Sainted him, had he been better then he was, if he had not taken him for a Papist: We have his Canons at large in B…nnius, in which are many things that shew him to be a Christian, and not a few that shew him to be a Papist. And the Papists would take it for no small injury, if you would …ob them of this Saint.

SECT. LII.

HEnce it is that the Protestant's is falsly §. 52.called by him [a new Religion] and [non multis seculis per manus tradita.] Discuss. pag. 206. Whereas we desire nothing more then to appeal to Antiquity, and let the eldest carry it, and the newest be cast out. Of all new things, we have no mind of a new God, or a new Gospel, or Religion.

SECT. LIII.

HEnce is it also that he often reproacheth §. 53.the Reformation, as an impious, tumultuary, rebellous thing. Discuss. p 16. [Vitia qu… agnoscit optimus Cassander (that p. 77is, among the Papists) agnoscit & Grotius. Si, qui secessionem fecerunt (that is, the Protestants) partem eorum abstluerunt, invexere alia, seditiones, vim contra Principes, imperiorum mutationes suo ex usu, morem frangendi aedes sacras, altaria, imagines, bella excitandi & fovendi sub Sancto Evangelii nomine invexerunt quidam (that the Calvinists in special) & dogmata in id comparata ut homines, de misericordia Dei nimium sibi pollicentes, in peccatis indormiscerent.] How true this Charge is, I shall briefly touch upon anon. But here you see his mind.

SECT. LIV.

HEnce also he hath so many Elogies §. 54.for the Jesuites, and so many censures for the moderate Protestants, whom he sometime most highly honoured for their Learning and Moderation. Petavius is vir eximius, and his Books de dogmat. Theolog. are libri eximii. Discuss. p. 11. And pag. 12. benè ostendit liber à summae eruditionis viro Jacobo Sirmondo nuper editus. (Salmasius hath given another Character of him, de Eccles. suburbicariis: and yet no man p. 78greater with Grotius a little before then Salmasius.) And p. 91. Sunt autem inter Jesuitas, qui in Gallia vivunt viri eruditi, rerum antiquarum & nostrorum quoque temporum periti— And so proceeds to shew their peaceableness, and to vindicate the Society of Jesuites, from the dishonour of the writings of Mariana, Santarellus and Becanus, and to charge Pareus writings on others. I would not have the greatest adversaries defrauded of their due praise. But the injustice and partiality shews the meaning of the man. What men greater with him a while before then Casaubone and Scaliger, (and the foresaid Salmasius)? But Discuss. p. 20. [Casaubonus hostiliter à quibusdam tractatus, ut erat bili… non expers, nimis ostendit sibi suas injurias leves non videri (one would think that mutato nomine de se fabula—) praesertim instigante Scaligero, qui multa locutus eleganter, moderate pauca. Men change with Grotius as he changed himself.

p. 79SECT. LV.

YEA Augustine himself escapeth not §. 55.his censures, though he be above them, because he was not of his mind. Discuss. 96. [Sapientiores fuere semper Romani Episcopi, quam ut Augustini omnia probarent.] Doubtless they approved not all that was Augustines, for he approved not all himself. But, 1. They approved more then Grotius did. 2. O that either semper, or saepenumero, or but aliquando, the Roman Popes had proved Augustines. 3. As they were wiser then to approve all that Augustine wrote, so are the Protestants wiser then to approve all that is the judgement of the Pope. But saith he, pag. 97. Ʋt dicam quod sentio, puto Augustinum, adeo non cum prioribus, ne secum quidem per omnia posse conciliari: ita contranitendi studio se in illas ambages induxit, ut non invenerit qua se extricaret: Paucis Scripturae adductus locis, quae facilè commodam interpretationem recipiunt, locis aliis & pluribus & clarioribus, per quae Deus significatur omnium salutem velle, interpretationes dat violentas, & nunc has, nunc illas, incertus quo se vertat. Ʋt dicam aliquid amplius, fuit utilis p. 80Augustinus ad monita danda piae vitae, ad interpretandas Scripturas satis infaelix, certè Graecis multis inferior.] If the Dominicans only were Papists, I would say that Grotius was none.

SECT. LVI.

AND Discuss. 139, 140. & passim, §. 56.he rejecteth our Churches as wanting a Succession of Bishops from the Apostles, which he saith the Catholicks (that is, the Papists have. [Semper apud Catholicos ista praescriptio valuit: Vos à vobis orti estis: non potestis Episcopos ostendere, quorum series ad Apostolos ordinatores decurrat.] Would you think this were the same man that wrote de Imperio sum. Potest. or that gave it as one Argument, upon the reading of Clements Epist. to the Corinth. that it was genuine, [Quod nusquam meminit exsortis illius Episcoporum auctoritatis, quae Ecclesiae consuetudine post Marci mortem Alexandriae, atque eo exemplo alibi, introduci coepit; sed plane ut Paulus Apostolus ostendit Ecclesias communi Presbyterorum, qui iidem omnes & Episcopi ipsi Pauloque dicuntur, Consilio fuisse gubernatas?] Epist. 162. ad Bignon. p. 397.

p. 81Well, are the Romanists more blessed then we in their succession? Yes, saith he in the next words, (Disc. p. 139.) [In electionibus saepe valuere, quod dolendum est, gratia aulae, seditio plebis, arcanae nunditiationes—At non propterea intercidit Ordinatio per Episcopos cujusque temporis, ad illos ab Apostolis factos Episcopos scandens; quam radicem & matricem Ecclesiae Catholicae vocat. Cyprian. Ep. 45. Aut si alicubi intercidit, id vitium postea sanatum est ab aliis Ecclesiis legitimae ordinationis tramitem retinentibus.] But this will not heal the Roman intercisions, who receive Power from no other Churches, but all from them: nor de facto, have they alwaies had this remedy from other Churches: Of which elsewhere.

He proceeds: [At quomodo ordinati in Ecclesia, in quibus non observati Canones Ecclesiae? Quomodo Ecclesia quae non ab Apostolis derivata, sed ex se nata est?— It seems that the observation of the Scripture, without the Canons, will not prove us ordained in the Church, though some Churches never had a vote in making those Canons. I would we knew which Canons are Essential to the Church and which not; For sure I am that the Papists have cut off p. 82many. And I would knew what Church it is that hath Power to make a new Canon, the observation of which shall be Essential to a Church, or Pastor, or Church-member; and so to make us a new kind of Church. And for Apostolical Succession, in the necessary part, we are afore-hand with the Papists; and in the not-necessary part they are more grosly defective then we, as I shall elsewhere shew. But by all this we see, that we are no Churches or Ministers, in the esteem of Grotius (if I understand him) but the Papists are.

SECT. LVII.

IT was this gross abuse of the Protestant §. 57.Churches, that many among us have been guilty of, and still are, that occasioned me to give that warning in my Christian Concord as I did, concerning the promoters of Grotius his design. Those that unchurch either all or most of the Protestant Churches, and maintain the Roman Church and not theirs, to be true, do call us to a moderate jealousie of them, and to the defence of our Churches: Of which I have said somewhat in my Second sheet for the Ministry, p. 83and hope, God willing, to say more. Had we no better proof our Ministry, then a Roman Succession is to them, we should think as hardly of our Case as Grotius did in this.

SECT. LVIII.

TO all these I must add, that the design §. 58.of Grotius, while he pretended to Moderation, and Catholicism, and Liberty, doth seem to me to have been Schismatical, Partial and Cruel: I speak not of his desire of the blood of any particular person; but of his motion in general, and the effect that it was framed and fitted to procure. That Popery is a meer Schism, and Papists a Sect, I have proved in two or three writings against them. That it was Grotius his wish, that there might have been no Puritane left in the world, and that he had more for this then empty wishes, Mr. Pierce tells us, pag. 92. But I shall charge Grotius with no mans words but his own. Discuss. pag. 1, 2. speaking of his Catholick Peace, he saith of Rivet, [Non illum, qualis est, ad pacem invitaverat Grotius: nam{que} ad eam, siquando illa Dei beneficio restituatur, admitti p. 84D. Rivetus, & qui ei sunt similes, nunquam potuerunt: obstant dogmata ab E…clesia vetere damnata, & noxia: obstat ardens ejus studium ad convellendum ordinem illum regiminis, quo nititur pax Ecclesiae: obstat libertas quam defendit pro novis opinionibus erigendi novas Ecclesias, &c.] Grotius his Catholick Church and Peace then is too narrow to hold such as Rivet, and such as hold the opinions that he held, and such as are against the Government that Grotius was for; and such as must have the liberty of particular Churches exempt from the persecuting power of his Catholicks, because of a difference in some opinions. But, without a Spirit of Prophesie, I dare foretell, that the Church shall never have Catholick Peace upon such terms as these: Nor is it truly the Catholick Church that shuts out such as Grotius here describeth. Alas when I look to Russia, and most of the Greek Churches, and to Armenia, Syria, Ethiopia, &c. how incomparably below Rivet and the rest that Grotius here excludeth, are millions and millions, that yet are members of the Catholick Church, had I not more charity to the Papists, then Grotius to the Protestants, I must take few of them to be members meet for Catholick p. 85Peace. Peace-makers on such terms as these, are not the least Peace-breakers.

SECT. LIX.

SO Discuss. p. 5. he professeth it his duty §. 59.to perswade the Swedes, Ne tam inquietum hominum genus in terras suas unquam admittant. And saith that Magistratus omnes sibi ab illis timere debent; nam nisi ad Prava ista Consilia exequenda, & praesertim ad opprimendos alios, se ministris Calvinistis satellites praebeant, hi illos dimovebunt per plebem, per militem, aut quovismodo.] By these and many other passages, I find that Grotius his Catholick Peace, is too narrow and too uncatholick to reach to the Calvinists. As for such reproaches as these here mentioned, as I have said more to the like, against the Papists in my Key for Catholicks, concerning the late proceedings here in England so I desire the Reader to peruse but what Rivet hath said to Silvester on that subject, and Bishop Ʋsher in his Sermon before the Parliament, and Bishop Bilson, besides abundance more. And then judge whether it be the Protestants or Papists that best deserve this charge.

p. 86SECT. LX.

AND if after all this there be any § 60.doubt of Grotius his meaning, Mr. Pierce may have some further light from his last Epist. ad Gallos, to the Jesuite Petavius, which begins, [Saepe tibi molestus esse cogor, & ad opem antehac faeliciter mihi cognitam refugere. Postremo libello meo pro pace scripto, opposuit Rivetus Examen, quod mitto—Sumpsi hanc ultimam operam mea antehac dicta & famam quoque à Ministris allatratam tuendi. In eo scripto, siquid est aut Catholicis sententiis discongruens aut caeteroqui à veritate alienum, aut minus idoneum ad pacem, de eo abs te viro eruditissimo & cujus judicium plurimi facio, moneri percupio. Rogo permittas mihi lumen de lumine accendere.] Had there been any thing in Grotius his writings against Rivet, that Petavius had thought to be dissonant from the Catholick opinions, you may conjecture by this, that we had never seen it.

p. 87SECT. LXI.

I Have now done one half of the work §. 61.that Mr. Pierce hath called me to, in giving in the Reasons why I take Grotius to have been a Papist. If I have made it good, I have no cause to retract my former judgement, and the warning that I gave concerning him to others: Yet I desire that none be so injurious as to interpret my warning of others as intended to the reproach of him: …or 1. I think it no reproach to any man to say that he is of that Church which he saith he is of himself, and to take him to be of the mind that he professeth himself to be of: but rather it would be a reproach to him, if any man shall say that he is such a dissembler as to be of a Party or Religion contrary to his open voluminous profession. 2. And my censuring Grotius to be a Moderate Papist, intimateth not so much uncharitableness in me to him, as it would have done in him to have taken me for a Protestant: For have much more charity (I dare boldly say it) for moderate Papists, then Grotius had for any Protestants that will not be p. 88Reconciled to the Pope, if we may judge of his Charity by his words. And yet I will not take it for a reproach to be called a Protestant. Even as in case I should say Mr. Pierce were an Arminian, or Prelatical, or of Grotius mind (which yet I do not) this were not such a note of uncharitableness in me, as it were in him to judge me but a Puritane or a Presbyterian; Because an Arminian, yea or a Grotian Papist, is not near so deformed, and odious a creature in my eyes, as a Puritane or a Presbyterian seemeth to be, by the Pourtraiture and Characters vouchsafed them by Mr. Pierce. And yet I will take it for no reproach to be called a Puritane or a Presbyterian, by him that intends not these names for a reproach. Though I cannot say that I am either, or that I am not, till I better understand the signification of the terms; especially with the speaker.

p. 89SECT. LXII.

YEA I must say that my thoughts have §. 62.ever justified Grotius from that Heresie which he hath too oft been charged with; viz. Socinianism. I never could perceive that he was of that sect: but whatever he hath said or done that way, I have reason to think, was no more then the Jesuites ordinarily would have done: and that he complyed much more with the Jesuites then the Socinians: For it is his own profession; (and I will believe him) and his doctrines signifie it. Indeed the Jesuites themselves are not neer so far from the Socinians as the Reformed Churches are; but have many opinions complying with them, which when men find in Grotius, they mistake him (I think) for a Socinian. If he oft say that Imputed …ighteousness is unknown to Scriptures, and that Justitia imputata frigus injecit & plebi & plebis ducibus, &c. (Discus. p. 170.) or that Christ satisfied by meriting that we by Conversion should satisfie, &c. No such passages as these will prove him a Socinian any more then all the Jesuites are Socinians. And the doctrine of the Trinity he expresly p. 90owns, however he deal with particular Texts of Scripture that concern it. Nor do I know of any Passage in his Explication of that doctrine in which he gives so much occasion of offence this way, as Thom. White (Instit. Theolog.) and many other Papists do, that are on the side that Grotius disliked; much more as the Jesuites do.

SECT. LXIII.

I Dare boldly say that he was an unjust §. 63.man in his Censures of the Doctrines of the Calvinists, pretending the differences to be much greater between them and the Lutherans then they are, and putting a more odious Vizor on the face of their doctrines of Faith, Justification, Certainty of Salvation, Election, Perseverance, effectual Grace, &c. then beseemed any judicious man, that understood the state of the Controversies, or the strength of an argument, and had any Christian Charity left. Or else we should never have had it over again, after ful Confutations, that it was [Editum saepe, & à nonnullis defensum; Pecca fortiter, sed p. 91crede fortius, & nihil nocebunt tibi centum homicidia, & mille strupa] When I read such passages (Discus. p. 217, 218.) my conscience is in a strait, whether it be my duty to open the falshood and abomination of such inhumane Calumnies in their colours in faithfulness to the Church and servants of the Lord; or whether I should forbear, because the partial and offended will take it to be railing and reproach. But because I am more blamed by others, for too much plainess or keeness, then for defect, I will sit down by their judgement, and forbear. Only I must profess that if I were in every point of doctrine of Grotius mind, I think I should abhor this dealing with an adversary. And indeed, as far as I am able to judge through all his later writings, it was the too much dearness of his Remonstrants Opinions, and thinking the distance between him & his adversaries greater then it was, and his too highly esteeming his espoused conceits, and too odious thoughts of the contrary way, that inclined him so strongly to fall in with the Jesuites, as finding them to agree with him where the Calvinists differed in points which he thought to be of such exceeding moment. But of the Dominicans he expresseth p. 92lower thoughts; though in this he applaudeth them that they deny certainty of Salvation, though they agree with Rivet in other ponts. Discus. p. 95.

SECT. LXIV.

IF after all this noise and bitter accusation of the Reformed Churches which §. 64.he poureth out, it should be made appear, that the difference between the Protestants and many Papists in certainty of Salvation (excepting the point of perseverance) is next to none; yea Alvarez. in Respons. ad Object. saith that some Jesuites, naming Gregory de Valentia, do maintain not only a cerrainty of perseverance it self, but a necessity in the confirmed; and if it shall be made appear that in the very points of imputed Righte…sness, of Free will, of Reprobation, of universal Redemption, the difference between the Remonstrants and the Synod of Dort, is incomparably smaller then Grotius makes it, and so that his alienation and censures run upon a meer mistake, that he odiously aggravates the opinions that deserve it not, or that were far ne…rer his own then he imagined; what a dishonour would this be p. 93to his bitter censures, reproaches and clamours, and to his factious uncharitable way of Pacification, that must exclude men as uncapable of the Churches Peace, that the Lord of the Church and Peace will not exclude? and that on such mistakes he should change his Church or Religion, was none of his honour. But then I must add, that when he takes all unmeet expressions that he can find in any Divines, as if they were the common doctrine of that party, he is guilty of his own mistakes, and deals as he would not do by the Papists.

SECT. LXV.

THE second part of my task is yet behind, §. 65.which is set me by Mr. Pierce, which is to give some account of my suspicions, and the warning I give of the Grotian party and design in England But here I must expect that neither Mr. P. nor any moderate man will presently charge me with motioning a persecution of all that I prove guilty; or understand me as if I were provoking the Magistrate to rigor against them. May we not so much as know our danger, nor give warning p. 94of it, nor bid men take heed, but we are presently persecuting them that we are in danger of? It were a hard case with the Church, if men may do their worst to undermine our Churches and Religion, and we might not take notice of it, nor be called on to avoid it, for fear of dishonouring the Miners or disturbing them. We hate persecution, and yet we love the Church and our souls.