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holds the necessary heads of religion, gives it a right, in my sense, to a true visibility: that it holds foul errors, whereby the doctrine is corrupted, makes it false in belief, while it hath a true being.

This, then, may give sufficient light to that passage in my sixth page*, whereat some have heedlessly stumbled. That, which I cited from Luther out of Cromerus, I find also alleged by Doctor Field + out of Luther himself. The words are, that "under the Papacy is the very kernel of Christianity; much good, yea all." Know, Reader, the words are Luther's, not mine: neither doth he say, "in" the Papacy, but “under "it; under it, indeed, to trample upon, not to possess; or, if to possess, yet not to enjoy. Their fault is not in defect of necessary truths, but in excess of superfluous additions. Luther explicates himself: for his "kernel" is the several Articles of Christian Belief; his "all good," is Scrip tures, Sacraments, Creeds, Councils, Fathers: all these they have; but, God knows, miserably corrupted. That they thus have them, is no whit worse for us, and little better for themselves: would to God they were theirs, as well in true use as in possession!

It was an ill descant, that a nimble Papist made upon those words of Luther, which yield them the Kernel of Christianity. "If we have the kernel," saith he, "let them take the shell." Soft, friend, you are too witty. Luther did not give you the kernel, and reserve us the shell: he yielded you both kernel and shell, such as it is; but the shell rotten, the kernel worm-eaten. Make much of your kernel; but, as you have used it, it is but a bitter morsel. Swallow that if you please; and save the shell in your pocket.

Neither think to go away with an idle misprision: "We are a True Visible Church: what need we more? why should we wish to be other than we are?"-Alas, poor souls! a true visibility may, and doth, stand with a false belief. Ye may be of a True Visible Church, and yet never the nearer to heaven. It is your interest in the true mystical body of Christ, that must save your souls; not in the outwardly visible: your errors may be, and are, no less damnable, for that ye are by outward profession Christians; yea, so much the more. Woe is me, your danger is more visible than your Church. If ye persist wilfully in these gross corruptions, which do by consequent raze that foundation, which ye profess to lay, ye shall be no less visible spectacles of the wrath of that Just God, whose Truth and Spirit ye have so stubbornly resisted. The God of Heaven open your eyes, to see the glorious light of his truth; and draw your hearts to the love of it: and make your Church as truly sound, as it is truly visible!

Thus, in a desire to stand but so right as I am in all honest judgments, I have made this speedy and true Apology; beseeching all readers in the fear of God, before whose bar we shall once give an account of all our overlashings, to judge wisely and uprightly of what I have written: in a word, to do me but justice in their opinions; and, when I beg it, favour. Farewell, Reader; and God make us wise and charitable!

* See page 230 of this Volume. EDITOR. † Append. ubi suprà,

THE

RECONCILER.

AN

EPISTLE PACIFICATORY

OF THE

SEEMING DIFFERENCES OF OPINION,

CONCERNING THE

TRUENESS AND VISIBILITY OF THE ROMAN CHURCH,

BY JOSEPH, BISHOP OF EXETER.

THE RECONCILER.

TO THE

-RIGHT HONOURABLE AND TRULY RELIGIOUS, MY SINGULAR GOOD LORD,.

EDWARD,

EARL OF NORWICH.

MY EVER HONOURED LORD:

I CONFESS my charity led me into an error. Your Lordship well knows, how apt I am, to be overtaken with these better deceits of an overkind credulity. I had thought, that any dash of my pen, in a sudden and easy Advertisement *, might have served to have quitted that ignorant scandal, which was cast upon my mistaken assertion of the true visibility of the Roman Church. The issue proves all otherwise. I find, to my grief, that the misunderstanding tenacity of some zealous spirits hath made it a quarrel.

It cannot but trouble me, to see that the position, which is so familiarly current with the best Reformed Divines, and which hath been so oft and long since published by me without contradiction, yea not without the approbation and applause of the whole representative body of the Clergy of this Kingdom, should now be quarrelled, and drawn into the detestation of those that know it not.

As one, therefore, that should think it corrosive enough, that any occasion should be taken by ought of mine to ravel but one thread of that seamless coat, I do earnestly desire, by a more full explication, to give clear satisfaction to all readers; and, by this seasonable Reconcilement, to stop the floodgates of contention.

I know it will not be unpleasing to your Lordship, that, through your honourable and pious hands, these welcome papers should be transmitted to many. Wherein, I shall first beseech, yea adjure, all Christians under whose eyes they shall fall, by the dreadful Name of that God who shall judge both the quick and the dead, to lay aside all unjust prejudices; and to allow the words of truth and peace. I dare confidently say, Let us be understood, and we are agreed.

The Searcher of all Hearts knows how far it was from my * Alluding to the "Apologetical Advertisement," immediately preceding.

EDITOR.

POLEMICAL WORKS.

thoughts, to speak ought in favour of the Roman Synagogue. If I have not sufficiently branded that strumpet, I justly suffer. Lu ther's broad word is by me already both safely construed, and sufficiently vindicated.

Obj. "But, do you not say, It is a True Visible Church? Do you not yield some kind of communion with these clients of Antichrist? What is, if this be not, Favour?"

Resp. Mark well, Christian Reader, and the Lord give thee understanding in all things.

To begin with the latter. No man can say, but the Church of Rome holds some truths: those truths are God's; and, in his right, ours: why should not we challenge our own, wheresoever we find it? If a very Devil shall say of Christ, Thou art the Son of the Living God, we will snatch this truth out of his mouth, as usurped; and, in spite of him, proclaim it for our own. Indeed, there is no communion betwixt light and darkness; but there is communion betwixt light and light. Now, all truth is Light; and therefore symbolizeth with itself: with that light therefore, whose glimmering yet remains in their darkness, our clearer light will and must hold communion. If they profess Three Persons in one Godhead, Two Natures in one Person of Christ; shall we detract to join with them in this Christian Verity? We abhor to have any communion with them in their errors, in their idolatrous or superstitious prac tices these are their own, not ours. part in these, this breach had not been: now, who can but say, If we durst have taken their that we must hate their evil, and allow their good? It is no countenance to their errors, that we embrace our own truths: it is no disparagement to our truths, that they have blended them with their errors. Here can be no difference then, if this communion be not mistaken. No man will say, that we may sever from their common truths: no man will say, that we may join with them in their hateful errors.

For the former; he, that saith a thief is truly a man, doth he therein favour that thief? He, that saith a diseased, dropsied, dying body is a true, though corrupt, body, doth he favour that disease, or that living carcase? It is no other, no more, that I say of the Church of Rome. Trueness of being and outward visibility are no praise to her: yea, these are aggravations to her falsehood. The advantage, that is both sought and found in this assertion, is only ours; as we shall see in the sequel, without any danger of their gain. I say then, That she is a True Church; but I say, withal, she is a False Church: true, in existence; but false, in belief. Let not the homonymy of a word breed jars, where the sense is accorded. If we do not yield her the true being of a Church, why do we call her the Church of Rome? What speak we of? or where is the subject of our question? Who sees not, that there is a moral trueness, and a natural? He, that is morally the falsest man, is in nature as truly a man as the honestest; and therefore, in this regard, as true a man. Devil is a true, though false, spirit; that a cheater is a true, though In the same sense therefore, that we say the false, man; we may and must say, that the Church of Rome is

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