MODERATION AND UNITY OF TIIOTESTANT PRINCirLKS. 317
Christ and the gospel, theu- own faith, obedience, and sufferings, could not possibly do them an}^ good in their station and condition. This is that Aleeto,
" Cui ti'istia bella,
Iraquo, insidiojque, et crimiua noxia cordi.
Odit et i25se pater Pluton; odere sorores
Tartarean monstruni : Tot sese vertit in ora,
Tarn saevae facies, tot pullulat atra colubris." Virg. JFa\. Tii. 325.
Wherever this opinion takes place, which indeed bids defiance to the goodness of God and the blood of Christ with a gigantic boldness, for men to talk of moderation, luiity, and peace, is to mock others, and to befool themselves in things of the greatest importance in the world. " Altera manu ostentant panem, altera lapidem ferunt." For my own part, I have not any firmer persuasion in and about these things, nor that yields more satisfaction and contentment unto my mind in reflections upon it, than this, — that if a man sincerely believe all that, and only that, wherein all Christians in the world agree, and yield obedience unto God according to the guidance of what he doth so believe, not neglecting or refusing the knowledge of any one truth that he hath sufficient means to be instructed in, he need not go unto any church in the world to secm^e his salvation. " Hie murus aheneus esto," Hor. Ej). i. 1, 60. It is true it is the duty of such a man to join himself unto some church of Christ or other, which walks in professed subjection unto his institutions, and in the observation of his appoint- ments; but to think that his not being of, or joining Avith, this or that society, should cut him off from all hopes of a blessed eternity, is but to entertain a viper in our minds, or to act suitably to the principles of the old serpent, and to put forth the venom of his poison. Some of the ancients, indeed, tell us that out of the catholic church there is no salvation; and so say I also, but, withal, that the belief mentioned of the truths generally embraced by Christians in their present divisions in the world (I still speak of the most famous and numerous societies of them), and its profession, do so constitute a man a member of the catholic church, that whilst he walks answer- ably to his profession, it is not in the power of this or that, no, not of all the churches in the world, to divest him of that privilege. Nor can all these cries that are in the world, " We are the church, and v\'e are the church; you are not the church, and you are not the cliurch," persuade me but that as every assembly in the general notion of it is a church, so every assembly of Christians that ordinarily iiieet to Avorship God in Christ according to his appointment is a church of Christ, —
" Ha3C, mi pater,
Te dicere a3quom fuit, et id defeudere." Tor. Adcl. iv. 5, 40.
320 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
he is God/' I know not. Let tlie reader, if lie please, consult your expressions where you have placed them ; I shall stain paper with them no more. And you do but trifle with us, when you tell us that " you know not the pope, nor have any such acquaintance with him as to know whether he be a good man or no," — as though your per- sonal acquaintance with this or that pope belonged at all to our ques- tion; although I must needs say that it seems very strange unto me that you should hang the weight of religion and the salvation of your own soul upon one of whom you know not so much as whether he be a good man or no. For my part, I am persuaded there is no such hardship in Christian religion, as that we should be bound to believe that all the safety of our faith and salvation dei^ends on a man, and he such a one as concerning wdiom we know not whether he be a good man or no. The apostle lays the foundation of our hope on better ground, Heb. i. 1-3. And yet, whatever opinion you may have of your present pope, you are forced to be at this indifferency about his honesty, because you are not able to deny but that very many of his predecessors, on whose shoulders the weight of all your religion lay, no less than you suppose it doth on his Avho now sways the papal scej)tre, were very brutes, — so far from being good men as that they may be reckoned amongst the worst in the world. Pro- testants, as I said, are persuaded that their faith is laid up in better hands. With the latter part of my words, as by you set down, you play sophistically, that you might say something to them (as to my knowledge, I never observed any man so hard put to it to say some- what, were it right or wrong); which seems to be the utmost of your design. You feign the sense of my words to be, " That the poj)e doth no other thing in the world but seek our good;" and confute me by saying, " That he hath a general solicitude for all churches." But, sir, I said not, "He doth nothing but seek our good ;" but only, " He seeks nothing but our good, and never did us harm." And you may quickly see how causelessly you fall into a contemplation of your accuracy in your " Fiat," and of the looseness of my expressions in the " Animadversions;" for although I acknowledge that discourse to have been written in greater haste than perhaps the severer judg- ments of learned men might well allow of, as is also this return unto your epistle, being both of them proportioned rather unto the merits of your discourse than that of the cause in agitation between us, yet I cannot see that you or any man else hath any just cause to exce])t against this expression of my intention, which yet is the only one that in that kind falls under your censure. For whereas I say that the pope seeks nothing but our good, and that he never did us harm, would any man living but yourself understand these words any other- wise but with reference unto them of whom I speak? — that is, as to