RICHARD BAXTER'S Catholick Theologie : PLAIN , PURE , PEACEABLE : FOR PACIFICATION Of the DOGMATICAL WORD-WARRIOURS , Who , 1. By contending about things unrevealed or not understood , 2. And by taking VERBAL differences for REAL , and their arbitrary Notions for necessary Sacred Truths , deceived and deceiving by Ambiguous unexplained WORDS , have long been the Shame of the Christian Religion , a Scandal and hardning to unbelievers , the Incendiaries , Dividers and Distracters of the Church , the occasion of State Discords and Wars , the Corrupters of the Christian Faith , and the Subverters of their own Souls , and their followers , calling them to a blind Zeal , and Wrathful Warfare , against true Piety , Love and Peace , and teaching them to censure , backbite , slander , and prate against each other , for things which they never understood . In Three BOOKS . I. PACIFYING PRINCIPLES , about Gods Decrees , Fore-Knowledge , Providence , Operations , Redemption , Grace , Mans Power , Free-will , Justification , Merits , Certainty of Salvation , Perseverance , &c. II. A PACIFYING PRAXIS or Dialogue , about the Five Articles , Justification , &c. Proving that men here contend almost only about Ambiguous words , and unrevealed things . III. PACIFYING DISPUTATIONS against some Real Errors which hinder Reconciliation , viz. About Physical Predetermination , Original Sin , the extent of Redemption , Sufficient Grace , Imputation of Righteousness , &c. Written chiefly for Posterity , when sad Experience hath taught men to hate Theological Logical Wars , and to love , and seek , and call for Peace . ( Ex Bello Pax. )

LONDON , Printed by Robert White , for Nevill Simmons at the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard . MDCLXXV .

1 Tim. 6. 3 , 4 , 5 , 6. If any man teach OTHERWISE , and consent not to wholsome words , the words of our Lord Jesus Christ , and to the doctrine which is according to Godliness , he is PROUD , KNOWING NOTHING , but DOTING about Questions , and STRIFES of WORDS , whereof cometh envy , strife , railings , evil surmisings , perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds , and destitute of the truth , supposing that gain is godliness , ( or thinking that godliness is advantage ; ) from such turn away .

2 Tim. 2. 22 , 23 , 24. Follow righteousness , saith , charity , peace , with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart : But foolish and unlearned Questions avoid , knowing that they do gender strifes : and the servant of the Lord must not strive . V. 15 , 16 , 17. Study to shew thy self approved unto God , a workman that needeth not be ashamed , RIGHTLY DIVIDING the word of truth : But shun profane and vain bablings : for they will increase to more ungodliness , and their word will eat as doth a canker .

2 Tim. 2. 14. Charging them before the Lord , that they STRIVE not about WORDS , to no profit , to the subverting of the hearers .

1 Cor. 8. 2 , 3. If any man think that he knoweth any thing , he knoweth nothing as he ought to know : But if any man LOVE GOD , the same is KNOWN OF HIM .

Jam. 3. 1 , 13 , &c. My Brethren , Be not Many Masters , knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation — Who is a wise man , and indued with knowledge among you ? Let him shew out of a good conversation his WORKS with meekness of wisdom . But if ye have bitter zeal ( or envying ) and strife in your hearts , Glory not , and Lye not against the truth . This WISDOM descendeth not from above , but is earthly , sensual , devilish : For where envying and strife is , there is confusion and every evil work : But the wisdom from above is first pure , then peaceable , gentle , easie to be intreated , full of mercy and good fruits , without partiality , and without hypocrisie : And the fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make Peace .

Acts 15. 28. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us But not to Church-Tyrants , Dogmatists or superstitious ones . to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things —

Phil. 3. 15 , 16 , 17. Let us as many as be perfect be thus minded : and if in any thing ye be otherwise ( or diversly , or contrarily ) minded , God shall reveal even this unto you . Nevertheless whereto we have already attained , let us walk by the same rule , let us mind the same thing .

Phil. 2. 1 , 2 , 3 , 4. If there be any consolation in Christ , if any comfort of love , if any fellowship of the Spirit , if any bowels and mercies , fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded , having the same Love , being of one accord , of one mind : Let nothing be done through strife , or vain glory ; but in lowliness of mind , let each esteem other better than themselves : Look not every man on his own things , but every man also on the things of others : Let this mind be in you , which was also in Christ Jesus — Who — made himself of no reputation .

1 Cor. 1. 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14. Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye speak the same thing , and that there be no divisions among you : but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind , and in the same judgement : For it hath been declared to me of you brethren — that there are contentions among you — that every one of you saith , I am of Paul , and I of Apollos , and I of Cephas , and I of Christ : Is Christ divided ? Was Paul crucified for you ? or were you baptized into the name of Paul ? I thank God , that I baptized none of you , &c.

THAT the Churches of Christ are dolefully tempted and distracted by Divisions , no man will deny that knoweth them : That the Clergie is not only greatly culpable herein , but the chief cause , cannot be hid . But which part of the Clergie it is , and what be their dividing Errors and Crimes , and how they should be cured , is indeed easie for the truly faithful and impartial Spectators to perceive , but exceeding hard ( as experience tells us ) to make the Guilty throughly know , and harder to do much effectually for the cure . For the error and sin which is the true cause , is its own defence , and repelleth and frustrateth the Remedies . And so each party layeth it from themselves , on others , and hate all that accuse them , while they are the sharpest ( and perhaps most unjust ) accusers of the rest .

I shall here freely tell the Reader the History of my own Conceptions of these matters , and then my present thoughts of the Causes of all these Calamities , and the Cure .

I. I was born and bred of Parents piously affected , but of no such knowledge or acquaintance as might engage them in any Controversies , or disaffect them to the present Government of the Church , or cause them to scruple Conformity to its Doctrine , Worship or Discipline : In this way I was bred my self , but taught by my Parents and God himself , to make conscience of sin , and to fear God , and to discern between the Godly and the notoriously wicked : For which my Parents and I were commonly derided as Puritans , the Spirit of the Vulgar being commonly then fired with hatred and scorn of serious godliness , and using that name as their instrument of reproach , which was first forged against the Nonconformists only ; And the Clergie where I lived , being mostly only Readers of the Liturgie , and some others that rather countenanced than reproved this course , I soon confined my Reverence to a very few among them that were Learned and Godly ( but Conformists ) and for going out of my Parish to hear them , my reproach increased : About eighteen or nineteen years of age I fell acquainted with some persons , half Conformists and half Non-conformists , who for fear of severities against private Meetings , met with great secresie only to repeat the publick Sermons , and Pray , and by Pious Conference edifie each other . Their Spirits and Practice was so savoury to me , that it kindled in me a distaste of the Prelates as Persecutors , who troubled and ruined such persons , while ignorant Drunkards and Worldlings were tolerated in so many Churches , yea , and countenanced for crying down such persons , and crying up Bishops , Liturgie and Conformity : Before I was aware , my affections began to solicite my understanding , to judge of the Things and Causes by the Persons ( where the difference was very great ) . But yet my first Teachers kept my judgement for Conformity as Lawful , though not Desirable had we Liberty , till I was ordained . But soon after a new acquaintance provoked me to a deeper study of the whole Controversie than I had undertaken before ; which left me perswaded , that the use of Liturgie and Ceremonies was lawful in that case of necessity , except the Baptismal use of the Cross , and the subscription to all things , &c. But in 1640. the Oath called [ Et Caetera ] being offered the Ministry , forced me to a yet more searching Study of the case of our Diocesane Prelacie ( which else I had never been like to have gainsaid . ) At a meeting of Ministers to debate the case , it fell to Mr. Christopher Cartwrights lot and mine to be the Disputers ; and the issue of all ( that and my studies ) was , that I setled in the approbation of the Episcopacy asserted by Ignatius , yea , and Cyprian , but such a dissent from the English frame , as I have given account of in my Disputations of Church Government .

My genius was inquisitive , and earnestly desirous to know the truth : my helps for Piety were greater than my helps for Learning , of which I had not much besides Books : sickness helpt my seriousness , keeping me still in expectation of death . All my reverenced acquaintance ( save one ) cryed down Arminianism as the Pelagian Heresie , and the Enemy of Grace : I quickly plunged my self into the study of Dr. Twisse , and Amesius , and Camero , and Pemble , and others on that subject : By which my mind was setled in prejudice against Arminianism , without a clear understanding of the case : whereupon I felt presently in my mind , a judgement of those that were for Arminianism ; as bad or dangerous adversaries to the Church ; and specially of the then ruling Bishops : which yet I think I had not-entertained , had I not taken them withal for the great Persecutors of Godly able Ministers , and serious Christians , not only for Ceremonies , but for holy practices of life .

Being under these apprehensions , when the Wars began , though the Cause it self lay in Civil Controversies , between King and Parliament , yet the thoughts that the Church and Godliness it self was deeply in danger by Persecution and Arminianism , did much more to byass me to the Parliaments side , than the Civil interest ( which at the heart I little regarded ) : At last ( after two years abode in a quiet Garrison ) upon the Invitation of some Orthodox Commanders in Fairfax's Army , and by the Mission of an Assembly of Divines , I went ( after Naseby Fight ) into that Army as the profest Antagonist of the Sectaries and Innovators , who we all then ( too late ) saw designed those changes in the Church and State which they after made . I there met with some Arminians , and more Antinomians : These printed and preached as the Doctrine of Free Grace , that all men must presently believe that they are Elect and Justified , and that Christ Repented and Believed for them ( as Saltmarsh writeth ) . I had a little before engaged my self as a Disputer against Universal Redemption , against two antient Ministers in Coventry ( Mr. Cradock and Mr. Diamond ) that were for it . But these new notions called me to new thoughts : which clearly shewed me the difference between Christs part and Mans , the Covenant of Innocency with its required Righteousness , and the Covenant of Grace with its required and imputed righteousness : I had never read one Socinian , nor much of any Arminians ; but I laid by prejudice , and I went to the Scripture , where its whole current , but especially Matth. 25. did quickly satisfie me in the Doctrine of Justification : and I remembred two or three things in Dr. Twisse ( whom I most esteemed ) which inclined me to moderation in the five Articles : 1. That he every where professeth , that Christ so far dyed for all , as to purchase them Justification and Salvation conditionally to be given them , if they believe . 2. That he reduceth all the Decrees to two , de fine & de mediis , as the healing way . 3. That he professeth , that Arminius and we and all the Schoolmen are agreed , that there is no necessity consequentis laid on us by God in Predestination , but only necessity consequentiae or Logical ( but in Election I shall here suspend . ) 4. That the Ratio Reatus in our Original Sin , is first founded in our Natural propagation from Adam , and but secondarily from the positive Covenant of God . 5. That Faith is but Causa dispositiva Justificationis , and so is Repentance . These and such things more I easilier received from him , than I could have done from another : But his Doctrine of Permission and Predetermination , and Causa Mali , quickly frightned me from assent . And though Camero's moderation and great clearness took much with me , I soon perceived that his Resolving the cause of sin into necessitating objects and temptations , laid it as much on God ( in another way ) as the Predeterminants do . And I found all godly mens Prayers and Sermons run quite in another strain , when they chose not the Controversie as pre-engaged .

In this case I wrote my first Book called Aphorisms of Justification and the Covenants , &c. And being young , and unexercised in writing , and my thoughts yet undigested , I put into it many uncautelous words ( as young Writers use to do , ) though I think the main doctrine of it sound . I intended it only against the Antinomians ; But it sounded as new and strange to many . Upon whose dissent or doubtings , I printed my desire of my friends Animadversions , and my suspension of the Book , as not owned by me , nor any more to be printed , till further considered and corrected : Hereupon I had the great benefit of Animadversions from many , whom I accounted the most judicious and worthy persons that I had heard of : First my friend Mr. John Warren began : next came Mr. G. Lawson's , ( the most judicious Divine that ever I was acquainted with , in my judgement , ( yet living ) , and from whom I learned more than from any man ) : next came Mr. Christopher Cartwright's ( then of York ; the Author of the Rabbinical Comment . on Gen. chap. 1 , 2 , 3. and of the Defence of King Charles against the Marquess of Worcester ) . Answers and Rejoinders to these took me up much time : next came a most judicious and friendly MS. from Dr. John Wallis ; and another from Mr. Tombes ; and somewhat I extorted from Mr. Burges : the answers to which two last are published . To all these Learned men I owe very great thanks : and I never more owned or published my Aphorisms ( but the Cambridge Printer stole an Impression without my knowledge ) . And though most of these differed as much from one another ( at least ) as from me ; yet the great Learning of their various Writings , and the long Study which I was thereby engaged in , in answering and rejoyning to the most , was a greater advantage to me , to receive accurate and digested conceptions on these subjects , than private Students can expect .

My mind being thus many years immerst in studies of this nature , and I having also long wearied my self in searching what Fathers and Schoolmen have said of such things before us , and my Genius abhorring Confusion and Equivocals , I came by many years longer study to perceive , that most of the Doctrinal Controversies among Protestants ( that I say not in the Christian World ) are far more about equivocal words , than matter ; and it wounded my soul to perceive what work both Tyrannical , and unskilful Disputing Clergie-men had made these thirteen hundred years in the world ! And experience since the year 1643. till this year 1675. hath loudly called to me to Repent of my own prejudices , sidings and censurings of causes and persons not understood , and of all the miscarriages of my Ministry and life , which have been thereby caused ; and to make it my chief work to call men that are within my hearing to more peaceable thoughts , affections and practices : And my endeavours have not been in vain , in that the Ministers of the Countrey where I lived , were very many of such a peaceable temper ( though since cast out ) , ( and a great number more through the Land by Gods Grace ( rather than any endeavours of mine ) are so minded . ) But the Sons of the Coal were exasperated the more against me , and accounted him to be against every man , that called all men to Love and Peace , and was for no man as in a contrary way .

And now looking daily in this posture , when God calleth me hence , ( summoned by an incurable Disease to hasten all that ever I will do in this World , ) being uncapable of prevailing with the present Church disturbers , I do apply my self to posterity , leaving them the sad warning of their Ancestors distractions , as a Pillar of Salt , and acquainting them what I have found to be the cause of our Calamities , and therein they will find the Cure themselves .

II. I Have oft taken the boldness ( constrainedly ) to say , that I doubt not but the Contentions of the Clergie have done far more hurt to the Christian World , than the most bloody Wars of Princes . And I must reduce the Causes to these three Heads :

I. The Abuse of POWER , II. Of WISDOM , III. Of GOODNESS ; or of the Names of these : the three great Principles of Humanity .

That is , I. By Clergie TYRANNY , II. By OPINIONISTS or Dogmatists , III. By SUPERSTITION and HYPOCRISIE , or PRACTICAL BLIND ZEAL .

But among all these sorts , selfish PRIDE , IGNORANCE and UNCHARITABLENESS or want of LOVE are the great effectual Causes . And departing from CHRISTIAN SIMPLICITY , in Doctrine , Worship , Church-government , and Conversation , is the grand instrumental means of most of our Schisms , Distractions and Calamities .

I. Only by Pride cometh Contention , Prov. 13. 10. The Church-TYRANT is Proud of his Superiority and Wealth : The OPINIONIST is Proud of his supposed Knowledge and Theological Wisdom ; on which account the Gnosticks troubled the Church of old . The HYPOCRITE and the ( honester ) ignorant Zealot , is Proud of his supposed Holiness or Goodness : And for an eminency and precedency and praise in each of these , they all conspire ( while they disagree among themselves ) to trouble the Church of Christ : In a word , Selfishness , Ignorance and want of Love , are the Causes of mens personal ruine and damnation , and the same are the Causes of the Churches divisions , and all the miseries of the World .

II. And that IGNORANCE is a Common cause even in the Gnostick Dogmatists that cry down Ignorance , Error and Heresie , needs no other proof , than the diversity of Opinions which such contend for : Every side pretend , that it is ORTHODOXNESS , FAITH or the Great Truths of God , which they defend ; And in one Countrey or with one Party , one thing is Orthodoxness and the Truth , and another thing in another Countrey or Party , and another thing with a third , &c. And did they all but know what is Truth and the Will of God indeed , they would cease their Contentions ; and all the Sects would meet in Unity .

III. And did men but LOVE their neighbours as themselves , and were as easily perswaded to think well of , and deal gently with their neighbours as themselves , and as hardly drawn to condemn , hate , hurt or injure them , I need not tell you how easily , quickly and universally we should be healed .

But before I speak of the Instrumental Means , I will fullier open the three forementioned Causes .

I. Religious Clergie-TYRANNY hath so notoriously , so long , and so greatly made havock both of Piety , and Peace , that he that is not an utter stranger to Church-History cannot be ignorant of it . I need not tell any Learned man , how many even moderate Papists , much more Protestants have thought , that Constantine and other Emperours that over-exalted the Clergie , poured out Poyson into the Church : making great preferments a bait to invite all the worst of men , to be seekers and invaders of Church Offices and Power , and to corrupt those that otherwise would have been useful men : especially when ( Christians having first made them their Arbitrators , in obedience to St. Pauls counsel ) they were made the Legal Judges of the Causes of all contentious Christians , and so set up Secular Magistratical Courts . I need not tell them what work almost every General Council ( as those of one Empire were called ) did make ! what work even the first at Nice had made , had not Constantine burnt their Bills of accusation against each other , and personally lamented their divisions , and driven them on to peace ! what work was made in that at Chalcedon , and that at Ephesus , and so of others ! what a horrid scandal the case of John and Dioscorus was , and the murder of Flavianus , and many others ! nor yet how the controversies against the Nestorians , Eutychians , and Monothelites were managed ! I need not tell them , how soon Victor began at Rome , nor what Socrates and others say of Cyril and Theophilus at Alexandria ; nor yet how Nazianzene was used at Constantinople ; nor how copiously and vehemently he accuseth the Bishops , and wisheth that there were no such inequalities among them , as gave them advantage to do hurt ; nor what he saith against their Councils : nor yet of the quarrels of Basil and Anthymius , nor of Basils sharp complaints of the Roman and other Western Prelates : I need not tell them of the Usage of Chrysostome , even by such men as Theophilus , Epiphanius and their partakers ; nor of the dividing of the Constantinopolitan Christians thereupon ; nor how the violent Prelates made Separatists and Non-conformists of Chrysostoms adherents , by the name of Joannites ; and how unlikely that Schism was to have been healed , had not wiser Bishops succeeded , who restored Concord by honouring Chrysostoms Name and Bones , and dealing kindly with his followers : I need not tell them of the sad work made at Ariminum and Syrmium , and oft at Rome , Constantinople and every great Episcopal Seat : nor of the bloodshed between Competitors , at the Election of Damasus ; nor of the separation of St. Martin from the Synod of Bishops led by Ithacius and Idacius ; nor of the difference of him and Ambrose from the rest about the complyances with Maximus . The World knoweth of the doleful Rupture that hath continued between the Roman and the Greek Church about a thousand years ; And of the many Schisms at Rome by various Anti-Popes , even at once above forty years together ; And of the reason of the calling of the Councils of Constance and Basil to end them ; And how the King of Rome keeps up his Kingdom to this day ; what work he hath made with Frederick , the Henries , and other German Emperours ; what divisions this caused among the Clergie ; what blood he caused to be shed for Jerusalem , and how many thousands of the Waldenses have at divers times been slaughtered ; what work the Inquisition hath made in Spain and Belgia and elsewhere ; and the flames of Persecution in England , and almost in all Christian Lands ; what work the Holy League did make in France , and the English Bishops in many a War with their Kings ; besides the case of Becket and such others ; By whose instigation two hundred thousand Protestants were lately murdered in Ireland , and many again in Piedmont ; I say to tell such things as these to those that are acquainted with Church History , is vain . And I would those that yet think cruelty the best way to set up themselves ( or Religion , if that must bear the name ) and to repress their adversaries ( or Schisms , ) would but ( among many others ) read the Epistle of great Thuanus before his Works to Henry King of France .

But is it only the old Bishops , Greeks and Papists , that have made such havock in the Churches ? Even those that pretended to moderation did by the German Interim make many hundred Churches desolate . And the ten years imprisonment of Caspar Peucer ( vid. Histor. Carcer . ) and the silencing of many and many faithful Ministers , and the banishment of many , doth shew with what Spirit , many of the Lutherans carryed on their work . And doubtless , had the Calvinists in Belgia been as wise and peaceable as the English Delegates were at the Synod of Dort , and been as far from Tyranny as they should have been , matters had never come so oft to Blood or Tumult among them as they have done , nor Grotius and the Arminians had so much to say against them . I will not meddle with the matters of this Island in our times , seeing they sufficiently speak themselves .

But how cometh this Clergie Tyranny to be so common , so long and so powerful in the World , to make Parties , and draw Princes into Wars ?

1. It must be remembred , that true Godliness is not common in the World : Too many take up Christianity , as in the Eastern parts the posterity of the old famous Christians are now Mahometans .

2. The Gospel and true Spirit of Christianity is contrary to the minds and worldly interests of carnal , ambitious , covetous , voluptuous men . So that they profess a Religion which their own hearts abhorr as to its serious practice .

3. Every unrenewed man hath such a worldly fleshly nature , and is voluptuous , proud and covetous : And none of them love to be reproved or crossed in their way .

4. Church Honours , Dignities and great Revenues , and Clergie-ease in an idle life , are a great bait or temptation to a carnal mind : And the worse men are , the more they will desire and seek Church preferments , and make all the friends they can to get them ; And the more self-denying men will not do so , ( but perhaps avoid them . )

5. The diligent seekers are liker to obtain and find , than the neglecters and avoiders : And so the Churches to be usually in the power of the worser sort of men , and Religion to be under the Government of its enemies .

6. Men in power , and the Major Vote , have great advantage to execute their own wills , and to put Laws on others , and bring them under what Characters they please ; and so to affix the names of Hereticks or Schismaticks on them , if they fulfil not all their wills : yea , to silence them , and suppress their Writings , and make them to be little understood in the World , yea , or by their neighbours round about them .

7. The Vulgar ( as they are for the Conquerour in the Wars , so ) usually are for the upper and stronger side in peace , that have Power to hurt them , and have the Major Vote ; And also easily believe them , and think men that suffer , are like to be guilty of what they are accused .

8. Godliness being against a worldly mind and interest , and the Rabble usually for it , hence ariseth a Conspiracy of carnal Clergie-men , and the Rabble , against those that are most seriously Godly , as if they were their enemies , and a surly , proud , intractable sort of people . As Sulpitius Severus describeth Ithacius and his followers , ( and even Mr. Hooker out of him Eccl. Pol. Praefat. )

9. Such men in Power never want flatterers at their ears , to praise all that they do , and to exasperate them by slandering and reviling sufferers .