itself
From the very beginning of the Reformation there have been various attempts for a composition of the differences between the church of Rome and those who were departed from it. Councils of princes conventions of divines, imperial edicts, sedate consultations
VOL. XIV. ^^
54:6 THE STATE AND FATE OF
of learned men, have all been made use of unto tliis end ; and all in vain. And it was for a while the judgment of most Avise men, that the council of Trent had rendered all reconciliations, so much as by a pretence of any condescension on the part of Rome, utterly impossible; for it hath bound itself and all the world that will own its authority, under solemn curses, not to make any change or alteration in the present state of the papal church, though the salvation of all men living should depend thereon.
Yet notwithstanding the fixing of this impassable gulf between the two churches or religions, some persons professing the protestant religion, either angry at their station and disappointments in the world, or ambitious above their station in the protestant church, though of the highest dignity attainable in it, or out of an itch or curiosity of venting their conciliatory notions, as they suppose them, and so to entitle themselves unto the name of peace-mahers, have, in the foregoing and present age, revived the same fruitless design ; but hitherto without success.
But it must be confessed that at present things are more prepared for the plying of this engine, and making it effectual unto the ruin of the protestant religion, than they were in former ages; whereof I shall give some instances.
Sundry learned men, who have made themselves of great name and reputation therehy, have, in their public writings, granted a patriarchal primacy in the west unto the bishop of Rome, which is meet to be restored ; and therewithal they have relinquished the true grounds of the Reformation. For whereas the real causes and rea- sons of it were the idolatry, heresies, and t}Tanny of the church of Rome, — which every private Christian might understand, and was bound to separate from in his own person, were there no other of his mind in the world but himself alone, and had right so to do, — they have resolved it into the power of a national church in that patriar- chate, with their supreme civil ruler, to reform itself from such things as they esteem abuses. Now, as this is a matter wherein the con- sciences of the people or private Christians are not concerned, so it is built on sundry arbitrary presumptions that have not the least coun- tenance given unto them from the word of God. And as this endea- vour tends directly to divert the minds of men from the true causes and reasons of the Reformation, whereon all the martyrs died, so it leads directly upon a relief against the pretended abuses to return unto the ipope as a head of unity and peace unto all churches, at least in these western parts of the world; which is all that at present is pleaded for by many of the Papists themselves. " For the dispute," they say, " about the pope, his power and infallibility, you need not trouble yourselves. Let the bishop of Rome in his succession from St
THE PROTESTANT RELIGION. 547
Peter be acknowledged as a head of unity and peace unto all Chris- tians, with a patriarchal power, and no more shall be required of you :" that is, at present; for the pope will be pope whilst he is so, — that is, until he is utterly cast out of the church. But by such concessions as these, the way is preparing for a composition as unto the outward order and rule of the church.
As unto the internal part of religion, in doctrines of faith, there is no small advance towards a reconciliation, in the mtrodnction of novel opinions into the protestant profession; for although, on their first entrance among us, they were publicly protested against by the Com- mons of England in parliament, as introductory of Popery, yet their prevalency since hath been so great as that their abettors are ready to avow them as the doctrine of the present church. Yet are they all of them opposite unto the fundamental principles of the Reforma- tion, which were to exalt the grace of God and debase the pride of men ; from the contempt of which principles all the abominations of the Papacy did arise. And this progress towards a reconciliation is daily im2:»roved by the endeavours of some to lessen all the doctrinal differences between the Papists and Protestants, and to make them appear as things not worth the striving or contending about.
The same work is carried on by the labours and endeavours of many in their public writings to divert the making aj^plication of Scripture prophecies and predictions of an apostatical, antichristian church-state unto the church of Rome. The persuasion hereof (as it is a most undoubted truth, wherein the souls of men are concerned) is the principal means of preserving the body of the people in an aversation unto Popery. If you can once persuade them that the pope is not antichrist, that the church of Rome is not that idolatrous, tyrannical state foretold in the Scripture, many would be very indif- ferent how you treat with them, or what composition you shall make for yourselves. But it is hoped that the broad light which ariseth from the evidence the pope and his church for many ages have given of themselves so to be, by their idolatries, persecutions, murders, Luciferian pride, tramjoling on the power and persons of kings and all sorts of persons, in conjunction with the characteristical notes of times, places, rise, progress, nature, and actings of that church-state in the Scripture, will not easily be extinguished.