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A29731
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An apologie for lay-mens writing in divinity with a short meditation upon the fall of Lucifer / written by Sr. Richard Baker, Knight.
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Baker, Richard, Sir, 1568-1645.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing B500; ESTC R9490
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28,497
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268
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God and in the Flock of Christ For indeed though Sâ—â—ntamini Scripturâ—s be said to all and all in Generall are Commanded to search Yet all doe not Search but the greatest number are willing to take their â—ase and leave Searching to them that will Againe of those that doe Search all doe not find but whether by Carelesnesse or by being Dymme Sighted in stead of Finding they oftentimes Loose themselves Againe of those that doe Find All find not matter of worth but matter perhaps of Difficulty or Curiosity perhaps Straw or Stubble fitter to be burnt then brought into the Barne Againe of those that find matter of worth All is not presently such that seemes such in their owne Eyes It must not therefore be done heere as was done in Israell when there was no King every one to doe and write what hee list but wee have Reges and Regentes Men Positos quasi in Specula set as it were in Sentinell to whose Care it is Committed Vt Ne Quid Ecclesia Detrimenti capiat that the Church bee not any way endammaged who amongst their other Honorary functions are to over-looke such Searchers and to Examine what It is they finde and if they finde their Findings to be for substance such as Recedes not from Analogie of Scripture and for Use such as may Conduce to the edification of the Faithfull Then It is their Parts of Private to make it Publick and to receive it though but as the poore widdowes mite into the Gazophylacium of the Church that so not so much as the Fragments of Christs Loâ—ves may be lost but all gathered up and put into Baskets This Restraint of Publishing Bookes without Licence is no doubt a laudable Custome in the Discipline of the Church but yet a Custome of which it may be said Non suit Sic ab Initio For in the first times and even to these last times both Cleargy men and Laymen might write what they list and Publish what they writ which perhaps made Salomon say Faciendi Libros nullus est Finis but now at last the Doctrine of the Gospell being thoroughly sifted and setled It hath seemed good to the Governours of the Church to make a Restraint yet so that even those who allow not Lay men to Reade the Scriptures without Licence yet with Licence allow them to write of Scripture and would it not be strange if our Church which allowes Lay men to Reade the Scriptures without Licence should not with Licence allow them to write But because my selfe a Layman speaking for lay men may bee thought partiall in the Cause or rather because Reasons have not their strength so much in themselves as from the person that delivers them heare what Cleargymen them selves say and what allowance they give to Laymens writing Take Saint Austin One of the soundest Fathers and of the soundest times who though hee have written no Treatise hereof of purpose yet he hath a passage in him that sufficiently expresseth what his Opinion is For in his Second Epistle Ad Petrum presbyterum De Anima mentioning a Laymans work in Divinity which this Peter had Commended to him he writes thus Absit ut erubescam Presbyter a Presbytero Discere si tu Presbyter non erubuisti à Laico praedicanda Imitanda humilitate vera Didicisse An humblenesse he accounts it in a Clergie man to learne of a Lay man but yet an Humblenesse worthy to bee praysed and fit to bee practised About his time and soundnesse is also Saint Hierome who upon the Epistle to the Colossians writes thus Hie Ostenditur verbum Christi non sufficienter sed abundanter etiam Laicos debere habere Docere se invicem vel Monere But come to our owne times which as by mens curiosity they are fuller of Scruples so by growth in Divine Knowledge they are fuller of Resolutions and Heare what Doctors of the Church at this day say Andrew Ryvet Professor of Divinity in the University of Leyden Delivers his Opinion in these words Agnoscimus in Ecclesia sub Deo Vnico Iudice Independenti Duo Iudicia Dependentia subalterna quorum Vnum est Publicum Al â—d Privatum Hoc quidem Omnibus Fidelibus Concessum Illud Vero solis in Ecclesia Ordinatis We acknowledge there are in the Church under God the only Independent Iudgeâ— Two Dependant subalternate Iudgements whereof the one is Publique the other Private This granted to all the Faithfull That onely to Pastours ordained in the Church With him concurres in Opinion Daniel Chamyere a learned Divine and a famous writer of late time who Declares himselfe in these words Pronuntiamus cuilibet Christiano vt legere sic Interpretari scripturas servatis tamen diversarum Vocationum gradibus ut Pastores tanquam Pastores in hac re suo publico officio fungantur Privati autem privatas suas partes expleant and then addes Et quia Deus sui Spiritus Dena variè distribuit Docuit Experientia Nullius hominis Fidelis in hoc negotio aut voluntatem Damnandam aut Conatum Detestandum Wee pronounce it lawful for every Christian as to Read so to Interpret Scripture yet observing the degrees of severall callings namely that Pastors exercise their publike Function as Pastours Private men their Private parts and then addes and seeing God doth diversely distribute the Gifts of his Spirit Experience hath taught us that in this kind neither the will of any Faithfull man is to bee Condemned nor his Endeavour to be Despised To these may bee added Infinite other all Pedibus euntes in eandem sententiam all agreeing as an Unisone in Musick in this Tenet And now that you have heard how it is De Iure Looke into the Registers of Time and see how it is De Facto and what the Practice in the Church hath alwayes beene Under the Law the Scribes and Pharises were no Priests yet who greater Glossists who more frequent Interpretours of Scripture then They Vnder the Gospell after the Apostles and in the Primitive time of the Church how many Lay men doth Saint Hierome in his Catalogue of famous Ecclesiasticall writers Record amongst others Arâ—stides Hegesippus Iustinus Modestus Musonus Heraclius Apollonius Maximus of whom some writ Apologies for the Christian Religion some Disputations for convincing of Haereticks All Arguments of Scripture and Poynts of Divinity After these men to our time have runne out many Hundred yeeres yet not so many dayes in these hundreds of yeeres as lay men writers in matter of scripture that if I should stand to reckon them up Ante Diem Clauso Componet Vesper Olympo But come to our last Age and lest you should thinke it a Locall Errour and but of some One Country Look into all Countryes and see how the Practise hath gone Looke into Italie there you shall see Picus Mirandula an Earle and a meere Layman looke into France there you shall see Philip Mornay a
Baron of that Country a meere Lay-men looke into our own Country of England here you shall see Sir Thomas More a Chauncellour of the Kingdome and a meere Layman Alk of them writing Treatises in Divinityâ— handling Arguments of Scripture I name but One in a Country where but for tediousnesse I might name a Hundred And now looking back upon the Arguments that have been brought upon the Reasons the Authorities the Examples for the lawfullnesse of Lay mens writing in Divinity I seeme mee thinkes to have offended rather in Excesse then in Defect of shewing it at least to have said so much that whom it cannot satisfie yet it may perswade and whom it cannot perswade yet it may satisfie and serve sufficiently both Impellere volentem and Nolentem trahere AN ADDITION TO THE APOLOGIE ANd now having spoken sufficiently in Iustification of Lay mens wtiting in Divinitye It will not be unsit to say something in celebration of their study for enabling them to write that it may appeare they come unto it if not in Sauls Armour yet at least with Davids weapons with a Sling and with stones sufficient for overthrowing of any Goliah and then if it can bee proved that Lay men may attaine to as much perfection in Knowledg as Clergy men may It cannot be doubted but they may as well be allowed to communicate their knowledge to others by writing as clergy men are And if in this I shall seeke to Parallell them and make them go Passabus â—quis as fast a pace as they there is none can iustly take exception seeing there is none can challenge any Prerogative and Comparisons are never odious where the Endeavours only and not the Merits or the Merits onely and not the Persons or the Persons only and not the callings are compared And we may bee allowed to say that if a Clergy man bee Pedibus celer Pernicibus alis a Lay man is not behinde him in the like Instruments of speed and therefore may make equall progresse in Learning in equall time and thus farre there will appeare no Inequality betweene them It is the saying of a Heathen man though of a Heathen man yet a true saying Diâ— omnia Laboribus vendunt which wee may Christianly translate God sâ—lls all things to men for labour meaning that he looâ—es for no other mony from us for his wares but onely our labour If then it can bee proved that Lay men lay out as much of this mony with God as Clergy men doe how can it bee doubted but that lay men may have as much of Gods wares as Clergy men have For when David saith Blessed is the man that meditates in the Law of God day and night doe wee thinke he meanes it not as well of Lay men as of Clergy men and as well that they are Blessed in it as Blessed for it And what are then the Incitamenta Laborum the Initements to labor for with whom the greatest Incitements are form them we may expect tâ—e greatest Labour One great Incitement to Labour is Spes Lucri Hope of Gaine as it is said â—â—cri causa Currit Mercator ad Indos the Merchant for his profit will runne from one End of the world to another Another great Incitement to Labour is Reputation as It is said Honos alit Artes Omnesque Incenduntur ad studia Gloria Honour is the Fomenter of Arts and glory an Incentive to Studie and these indeed are eminent in Clergy men in Lay men Little or None at all but then the Lay man hath another In citement more forcible then Both these and that is The Love of Learning and the Delight he takes in studie for where this love is all labâ—â—rs seeme easie all time seemes short as was seene in David who though nothing be more deare then Life and nothing maintaines Life but Food yet his Love to meditating in the Law of God made him forget oftentimes to eat his bread This Love is that which onely makes the good stomacke where the digestion is as good as the Appetite is great and each of them makes way to the continuance of the other which in the Clergy man commonly is not so For the End of his study being set upon profit and preferment that profit and Preferment once gotten the study abates where the Lay man that studies for love never slacks his Inteâ—â—ion but the more it is enjoyed the more it increaseth Yet I speak not this as though Clergy men may not study out of love too but because Lay men have no other Incentive of their study but their love and then is love most forcible when is sincere it is not mingled with any By respectsâ— The end of a thing is alwayes more Intentively aymed at then the Medium to that Ende and seeing Clergye men for the most part make profit and preferment the End of their studies Learning but the Medium what marveile if they seldome attaine to more then a mediocrity of Knowledge so much as may serve to make then capable of Preâ—erment and then give over studying as thinking that further Learning would bee but superfluous that all this while they may bee rather said to have studied the Politicks then Divinity but the Lay man having no end in his study but his study and seeking not Learning for Preferment but accounting the Learning it selfe to bee his Preferment he never thinkes he hath enough though he have never so much and It may bee said of him in a good sense which is said of a Coveious man in a bad Quo plus btbuntur plus sitiuntur aquae the more he drinkes the more he thirsts desires to drinke the more learning hee attaines the more hee labours to attaine more and Now which of these Two is the likelier man to attaine to that height of Learning of whom It may be said Iamque arce Potitus Ridet anhelam tes duri ad saftigia montis Besides the Clergie man hath many actions Incident to his calling which call him away from actions of Study many ImploymeÌ„ts which are as rubs in his course of Learning where the Lay man is free to bee Totus in Libris wholly at his Booke and hath nothing to doe but Hoc agere having both his mind and time at liberty and Now which of these Two is the likelier man to make the greater progresse in the course of Learning Againe the Cleargy man oftentimes enters upon the study of Divinity ut Fors oâ—â—â—cerit illi rather by Caâ—â—alâ—y and chance then by his owne choice as perhaps more Inclined to some other study where the Lay man being free and at liberty enters into it by the only propension of his liking and as his naturall Inclination Leades him and Now which of these Two is the likelier man to attaine the greater Perfection in Divinity Hee that enters into the study if not against his will at least Inuita Minerva or Hee that enters into it