When I lost the freedom of my Cell which was my Colledge yet I found some degree of it in my quiet Countrey Personage But I am weary of the noise and oppositions of this place and indeed God and Nature did not intend me for Contentions but for Study and Quietness And My Lord my particular Contests here with Mr. Travers have prov'd the more unpleasant to me because I believe him to be a good Man and that beliefe hath occasioned me to examine mine own Conscience concerning his opinions and to satisfie that I have consulted the holy Scripture and other Laws both Humane and Divine Whether the the Conscience of him and others of his Iudgment ought to be so far complied with us as to alter our Frame of Church-Government our manner of Gods worship our praising and praying to him and our establishe Ceremonies as often as their tender Consciences shall require us And in this Examination I have not onely satisfied my self but have begun a Treatise in which I intend the satisfaction of others by a demonstration of the reasonableness of our Laws of Ecclesiastical Policy and therein laid a hopeful foundation for the Churches Peace and so as not to provoke your Adversarie Mr. Cartwright nor Mr. Travers whom I take to be mine but not my enemy God knows this to be my meaning To which end I have searched many Books and spent many thoughtful hours and I hope not in vain for I write to reasonable men But My Lord I shall never be able to finish what I have begun unless I be remov'd into some quiet Countrey Parsenage where I may see Gods Blessings Spring out of my Mother Earth and eat mine own Bread in peace and privaty A place where I may without disturbance Meditate my approaching Mortality and that great account which all flesh must at the great day give to the God of all Spirits this is my design and as these are the desires of my heart so they shall by Gods assistance be the constant indevors of the uncertain remainder of my life And therefore if your Grace can think me and my poor labors worthy such a favour Let me beg it that I may perfect what I have begun which is a blessing I cannot hope for in this place About the time of this request to the Bishop the Parsonage or Rectory of Boscom in the Diocess of Sarum and six miles from that City became void The Bishop of Sarum is Patron of it but in the vacancy of that See which was three years betwixt the death of Bishop Peirce and Bishop Caldwells admission into it the disposal of that and all Benefices belonging to it during the time of this said vacancy came to be disposed of by the Archbishop of Canterbury and he presented Richard Hooker to it in the year 1591. And Richard Hooker was also in this said year Instituted Iuly 17. to be a minor Prebend of Salisbury the Corps to it being nether-Havin about ten miles from that City which Prebend was of no great value but intended chiefly to make him capable of a better preferment in that Church In this Boscum he continued till he had finished four of his eight proposed Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity and these were enter'd into the Register Book in Stationers-Hall the 9th of March 1592. but not printed till the year 1594. and then with the beforementioned large and affectionate Preface which he directs to them that seek as they term it the Reformation of the laws and orders Ecclesiastical in the Church of England of which Books I shall yet say nothing more but that he continued his laborious diligence to finish the remaining four during his life of all which more properly hereafter but at Boscum he finisht and publisht but only the first four being then in the 39 year of his Age. He left Boscum in the year 1595. by a surrender of it into the hands of Bishop Caldwell and he presented Benjamin Russel who was Instituted into it 23 of Iune in the same year The Parsonage of Bishops Borne in Kent three miles from Canterbury is in that Archbishops gift but in the latter end of the year 1594. Doctor William Redman the Rector of it was made Bishop of Norwich by which means the power of presenting to it was pro ca vice in the Queen and she presented Richard Hooker whom she loved well to this good living of Borne the 7 of Iuly 1595. in which Living he continued till his Death without any addition of Dignity or Profit And now having brought our Richard Hooker from his Birth-place to this where he found a Grave I shall only give some account of his Books and of his behaviour in this Parsonage of Borne and then give a rest both to my self and my Reader His first four Books and large Epistle have been declared to be printed at his being at Boscum Anno 1594. Next I am to tell that at the end of these four Books there is printed this Advertisement to the Reader I have for some causes thought it at this time more fit to let go these first four Books by themselves than to stay both them and the rest till the whole might together be published Such generalities of the cause in question as are here handled it will be perhaps not amiss to consider apart by way of Introduction unto the Books that are to follow concerning particulars in the mean time the Reader is requested to mend the Printers errors as noted underneath And I am next to declare that his fifth Book which is larger than his first four was first also printed by it self Anno 1597. and dedicated to his Patron for till them he chose none the Archbishop These Books were read with an admiration of their excellency in This and their just same spread it self into forain Nations And I have been told more than forty years past that Cardinal Alen or learned Doctor Stapleton both English men and in Italy when Mr. Hookers four Books were first printed meeting with this general fame of them were desirous to read an Author that both the Reformed and the Learned of their own Church did so much magnifie and therefore caused them to be sent for and after reading them boasted to the Pope which then was Clement the eighth that though he had lately said he never met with an English Book whose Writer deserved the name of an Author yet there now appear'd a wonder to them and it would be so to his Holiness if it were in Latin for a poor obscure English Priest had writ four such Books of Laws and church Polity and in a Style that exprest so Grave and such Humble Majesty with clear demonstration of Reason that in all their readings they had not met with any that exceeded him and this begot in the Pope an earnest desire that Doctor Stapleton should bring the said four Books and looking on the English read a part of them to
applying of them unto cases particular is not without most singular use and profit many ways for mens instruction Besides be they plain of themselves or obscure the evidence of Gods own testimony added unto the natural assent of Reason concerning the certainty of them doth not a little comfort and confirm the same Wherefore in as much as our actions are conversant about things beset with many circumstances which cause men of sundry wits to be also of sundry judgments concerning that which ought to be done Requisit it cannot but seem the Rule of Divine Law should herein help our imbecillity that we might the more infallibly understand what is good and what evil The first principles of the Law of Nature are easie hard it were to finde men ignorant of them But concerning the duty which Natures Law doth require at the hands of Men in a number of things particular so far hath the Natural Understanding even of sundry whole Nations been darkned that they have not discerned no not gross iniquity to be sin Again being so prone as weare â—o fawn upon our selves and to be ignorant as much as may be of our own deformities without the feeling Sense whereof we are most wretched even so much the more because not knowing them we cannot as much as desire to have them taken away How should our festered sores be cured but that God hath delivered a Law as sharp as the two-edged sword piercing the very closest and most unsearchable corners of the heart which the Law of Nature can hardly Humane Laws by no means possibly reach unto Hereby we know even secret concupiscence to be sin and are made fearful to offend though it be but in a wandring cogitation Finally of those things which are for direction of all the parts of our life needful and not impossible to be discerned by the Light of Nature it self are there not many which few mens natural capacity and some which no mans hath been able to finde out They are saith St. Augustine but a few and they endued with great ripeness of wit and judgment free from all such affairs as might trouble their Meditations instructed in the sharpest and the subtilest points of Learning who have and that very hardly been able to finde out but onely the Immortality of the Soul The Resurrection of the Flesh what Man did ever at any time dream of having not heard it otherwise then from the School of Nature Whereby it appeareth how much we are bound to yield unto our Creator the Father of all Mercy Eternal Thanks for that he hath delivered his Law unto the World a Law wherein so many things are laid open clear and manifest as a Light which otherwise would have been buried in darkness not without the hazard or rather not with the hazard but with the certain loss of infinite thousands of Souls most undoubtedly now saved We see therefore that our soveraign good is desired naturally that God the Author of that natural desire had appointed natural means whereby to fulfil it that Man having utterly disabled his Nature unto those means hath had other revealed from God and hath received from Heaven a Law to teach him how that which is desired naturally must now supernaturally be attained Finally we see that because those latter exclude not the former quite and clean as unnecessary therefore together with such Supernatural duties as could not possibly have been otherwise known to the World the same Law that teacheth them teacheth also with them such Natural duties as could not by Light of Nature easily have been known 13. In the first Age of the World God gave Laws unto our Fathers and by reason of the number of their days their memories served in stead of Books whereof the manifold imperfections and defects being known to God he mercifully relieved the same by often putting then in minde of that whereof it behoved them to be specially mindful In which respect we see how many times one thing hath been iterated unto sundry even of the best and wisest amongst them After that the lives of Men were shortned means more durable to preserve the Laws of God from oblivion and corruption grew in use not without precise direction from God himself First therefore of Moses it is said that he wrote all the words of God not by his own private motion and device For God taketh this act to himself I have written Furthermore were not the Prophets following commanded also to do the like Unto the holy Evangelist St. Iohn how often express charge is given Scribe write these things Concerning the rest of our Lords Disciples the words of St. Augustine are Quidquid ille de suis factis dictis nos legere voluit hoc scribendum illis tanquam suis manibus imperavit Now although we do not deny it to be a matter meerly accidental unto the Law of God to be written although writing be not that which addeth authority and strength thereunto Finally though his Laws do require at our hands the same obedience howsoever they be delivered his providence notwithstanding which hath made principal choice of this way to deliver them who seeth not what cause we have to admire and magnifie The singular benefit that hath grown unto the World by receiving the Laws of God even by his own appointment committed unto writing we are not able to esteem as the value thereof deserveth When the question therefore is whether we be now to seek for any revealed Law of God otherwhere then onely in the Sacred Scripture whether we do now stand bound in the sight of God to yield to Traditions urged by the Church of Rome the same obedience and reverence we do to his Written Law honoring equally and adoring both as Divine Our answer is No. They that so earnestly plead for the Authority of Tradition as if nothing were more safely conveyed then that which spreadeth it self by report and descendeth by relation of former Generations unto the Ages that succeed are not all of them surely a miracle it were if they should be so simple as thus to perswade themselves howsoever if the simple were so perswaded they could be content perhaps very well to enjoy the benefit as they account it of that common Error What hazard the Truth is in when it passeth through the hands of report how maimed and deformed it becometh they are not they cannot possibly be ignorant Let them that are indeed of this minde consider but onely that little of things Divine which the Heathen have in such sort received How miserable had the State of the Church of God been long ere this if wanting the Sacred Scripture we had no Record of his Laws but onely the memory of man receiving the same by report and relation from his Predecessors By Scripture it hath in the Wisdom of God seemed meet to deliver unto the World much but personally expedient to be practised of certain men
greatness and in regard thereof to fear him By being glorified it is not meant that he doth receive any augmentation of glory at our hands but his Name we glorifie when we testifie our acknowledgement of his glory Which albeit we most effectually do by the vertue of obedience nevertheless it may be perhaps a Question Whether S. Paul did mean that we sin as oft as ever we go about any thing without an express intent and purpose to obey God therein He saith of himself I do in all things please all men seeking not mine own commodity but rather the good of many that they may be saved Shall it hereupon be thought that St. Paul did not move either hand or foot but with express intent even thereby to further the common salvation of men We move we sleep we take the cup at the hand of our friend a number of things we oftentimes do only to satisfie some natural desire without present express and actual reference unto any Commandment of God Unto his glory even these things are done which we naturally perform and not only that which morally and spiritually we do For by every effect proceeding from the most concealed instincts of Nature his power is made manifest But it doth not therefore follow that of necessity we shall sin unless we expresly intend this in every such particular But be it a thing which requireth no more then onely our general presupposed willingness to please God in all things or be it a matter wherein we cannot so glorifie the Name of God as we should without an actual intent to do him in that particular some special obedience yet for any thing there is in this sentence alledged to the contrary God may be glorified by obedience and obeyed by performance of his will and his will be performed with an actual intelligent desire to fulfil that Law which maketh known what his will is although no special clause or sentence of Scripture be in every such action set before mens eyes to warrant it For Scripture is not the onely Law whereby God hath opened his will touching all things that may be done but there are other kinde of Laws which notifie the will of God as in the former Book hath been proved at large nor is there any Law of God whereunto he doth not account our obedience his glory Do therefore all things unto the glory of God saith the Apostle be inoffensive both to the Iews and Grecians and the Church of God even as I please all then in all things not seeking mine own commodity but manies that they may be saved In the least thing done disobediently towards God or offensively against the good of men whose benefit we ought to seek for as for our own we plainly shew that we do not acknowledge God to be such as indeed he is and consequently that we glorifie him not This the blessed Apostle teacheth but doth any Apostle teach that we cannot glorifie God otherwise then onely in doing what we finde that God in Scripture commandeth us to do The Churches dispersed amongst the Heathen in the East part of the World are by the Apostle S. Peter exhorted to have their conversation honest amongst the Gentiles that they which spake evil of them as of evil doers might by the good works which they should see glorifie God in the day of visitation As long as that which Christians did was good and no way subject unto just reproof their vertuous conversation was a mean to work the Heathens conversion unto Christ. Seeing therefore this had been a thing altogether impossible but that Infidels themselves did discents in matters of life and conversation when believers did well and when otherwise when they glorified their Heavenly Father and when not It followeth that somethings wherein God is glorified may be some other way known then onely but the sacred Scripture of which Scripture the Gentiles being utterly ignorant did notwithstanding judge rightly of the quality of Christian mens actions Most certain it is that nothing but onely sin doth dishonoar God So that to glorifie him in all things is to do nothing whereby the Name of God may be blasphemed nothing whereby the salvation of Jew or Grecian or any in the Church of Christ may be let or hindred nothing whereby his Law is transgrest But the Question is Whether only Scripture do shew whatsoever God is glorified in 3. And though meats and drinks be said to be sanctified by the Word of God and by Prayer yet neither is this a Reason sufficient to prove That by Scripture we must of necessity be directed in every light and common thing which is incident unto any part of Mans life Onely it sheweth that unto us the Word that is to say the Gospel of Christ having not delivered any such difference of things clean and unclean as the Law of Moses did unto the Jews there is no cause but that we may use indifferently all things as long as we do not like Swine take the benefit of them without a thankful acknowledgement of his liberality and goodness by whose Providence they are enjoyed And therefore the Apostle gave warning beforeshifhed to that need of such as should enjoyed to abstain from meats which God hath streased to be received will thanksgiving by them which believe and know the Truth For every creature of God in good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving because it sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer The Gospel by not malling many things unclean as the Law did hath sanctified those things generally to asked which particularly each man unto himself must sanctifie by a reverend and holy the â—â— which will hardly be down so far as to serve their purpose who have imagined the World in such sort to sanctifie all things that neither food saw he tastest nor Principle on nor in the World any thing done but this deed must needs be sin in them which do not first know it appointed unto them by Scripture before they do it 4. But to come unto that which of all other things in Scripture is most stood upon that place of S. Paul they say is of all other most clear where speaking of those things which are called indifferent in the end he concludeth That whatsoever is not of faith of sin his Faith is not But th respect of the Word of God therefore whatsoever is not done by the Word of God is sin Whereunto the answer that albest the name of Faith being properly and strictly taken it must needs have reference unto some uttered word as the Object of belief nevertheless sith the ground of credit is the credibility of things credited and things are made credible either by the known condition and quality of the utterer or by the manifest likelihood of Truth which they have in themselves hereupon it riseth that whatsoever we are perswaded of the same we are generally said to
them that so to do were so sin against their own souls and that they put forth their hands to iniquity whatsoever they go about and have not first the sacred Scripture of God for direction how can it chuse but bring the simple a thousand times to their wits end how can it chuse but vex and amaze them For in every action of common life to since out some seâ—tence clearly and infallibly setting before our eyes what we ought to do seem we in Scripture never so expert would trouble us more then we are aware In weak and tender minds we little know what misery this strict opinion would breed besides the stops it would make in the whole course of all mens lives and actions make all things sin which we do by direction of Natures light and by the rule of common discretion without thinking at all upon Scripture Admit this Position and Parents shall cause their children to sin as oft as they cause them to do any thing before they come to years of capacity and be ripe for Knowledge in the Scripture Admit this and it shall not be with Masters as it was with him him in the Gospel but servants being commanded to go shall stand still till they have errand warranted unto them by Scripture Which as it standeth with Christian duty in some cases so in common affairs to require it were most unfit Two opinions therefore there are concerning sufficiency of holy Scripture each extreamly opposit unto the other and both repugnant unto truth The Schools of Rome teach Scripture to be unsufficient as if except Traditions were added it did not contain all revealed and supernatural Truth which absolutely is necessary for the children of men in this life to know that they may in the next be saved Others justly condemning this opinion grow likewise unto a dangerous extremity as if Scripture did not only contain all things in that kinde necessary but all things simply and in such sort that to do any thing according to any other Law were not only unnecessary but even opposite unto salvation unlawful and sinful Whatsoever is spoken of God or things appertaining to God otherwise then as the truth is though it seem an honour it is an injury And as incredible praises given unto men do often abate and impair the credit of their deserved commendation so we must likewise take great heed lest in attributing unto Scripture more then it can have the incredibility of that do cause even those things which indeed it hath most abundantly to be less reverendly esteemed I therefore leave it to themselves to consider Whether they have in this First Point overshot themselves or not which God doth know is quickly done even when our meaning is most sincere as I am verily perswaded theirs in this case was OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity Book III. Concerning their Second Assertion That in Scripture there must be of necessity contained a Form of Church Polity the Laws whereof may in no wise be altered The Matter contained in this Third Book 1. WHat the Church is and in what respect Laws of Polity are thereunto necessarily required 2. Whether it be necessary that some particular Form of Church Polity be set down in Scripture sith the things that belong particularly to any such Form are not of necessity to salvation 3. That matters of Church Polity are different from matters of Faith and Salvation and that they themselves so teach which are out Reprovers for so teaching 4. That hereby we take not from Scripture any thing which thereunto with the soundness of truth may be given 5. Their meaning who first urged against the Polity of the Church of England that nothing ought to be established in the Church more then is commanded by the Word of God 6. How great injury men by so thinking should offer unto all the Churches of God 7. A shift notwithstanding to maintain it by interpreting Commanded as though it were meant that greater things onely ought to be found set down in Scripture particularly and lesser framed by the general Rules of Scripture 8. Another Device to defend the same by expounding Commanded as if it did signifie grounded as Scripture and were opposed to things sound out by the light of natural reason onely 9. How Laws for the Polity of the Church may be made by the advise of men and how those being nor repugnant to the Word of God are approved in his sight 10. The neither Gods being the Author of Laws nor yet his committing of them to Scripture is any Reason sufficient to prove that they admit no addition or change 11. Whether Christ must needs intend Laws unchangeable altogether or have forbidden any where to make any other Law then himself did deliver ALbeit the substance of those Controversies whereinto we have begun to wade be rather of outward things appertaining to the Church of Christ then of any thing wherein the nature and being of the Church consisteth yet because the Subject or Matter which this Position concerneth is A Forms of Church Government or Church-Polity It therefore behoveth us so far forth to consider the nature of the Church as is requisite for mens more clear and plain understanding in what respect Laws of Polity or Government are necessary thereunto That Church of Christ which we properly term his body Mystical can be but one neither can that one be sensibly discerned by any man inasmuch as the parts thereof are some in Heaven already with Christ and the rest that are on earth albeit their natural persons be visible we do not discern under this property whereby they are truly and infallibly of that body Only our minds by intellectual conceit are able to apprehend that such a real body there is a body collective because it containeth an huge multitude a body mystical because the mystery of their conjunction is removed altogether from sense Whatsoever we read in Scripture concerning the endless love and the saving mercy which God sheweth towards his Church the only proper subject thereof is this Church Concerning this Flock it is that our Lord and Saviour hath promised I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hands They who are of this Society have such Marks and Notes of distinction from all others as are not objects unto our sense only unto God who seeth their hearts and understandeth all their secret cogitations unto him they are clear and manifest All men knew Nathaniel to be an Israelite But our Saviour piercing deeper giveth further Testimony of him then men could have done with such certainty as he did Behold indeed an Israelite in whom there is no guile If we profess as Peter did that we love the Lord and profess it in the hearing of men charity is prone to believe all things and therefore charitablemen are likely to think we do so as long as they see
three Synods consisting of many Elderships Deacons Women Church-servants or Widows free consent of the people unto actions of greatest moment after they be by Churches or Synods orderly resolved All this Form of Polity if yet we may term that a form of building when men have laid a few Rafters together and those not all of the foundest neither but howsoever all this Form they conclude is prescribed in such sort that to adde to it any thing as of like importance for so I think they mean or to abrogate of it any thing at all is unlawful In which resolution if they will firmly and constantly persist I see not but that concerning the points which hitherto have been disputed of they must agree that they have molested the Church with needless opposition and henceforward as we said before betake themselves wholly unto the tryal of particulars whether every of those things which they esteem as principal be either so esteemed of or at all established for perpetuity in holy Scripture and whether any particular thing in our Church Polity be received other then the Scripture alloweth of either in greater things or in smaller The Matters wherein Church Polity is conversant are the Publick Religious Duties of the Church as the Administration of the Word and Sacraments Prayers Spiritual Censures and the like To these the Church standeth always bound Laws of Polity are Laws which appoint in what manner these duties shall be performed In performance whereof because all that are of the Church cannot joyntly and equally work the first thing in Polity required is A difference of Persons in the Church without which difference those Functions cannot in orderly sort be executed Hereupon we hold That Gods Clergy are a State which hath been and will be as long as there is a Church upon Earth necessarily by the plain Word of God himself a State whereunto the rest of Gods people must be subject as touching things that appertain to their Souls health For where Polity is it cannot but appoint some to be Leaders of others and some to be led by others If the blinde lead the blinde they both perish It is with the Clergy if their persons be respected even as it is with other men their quality many times far beneath that which the dignity of their place requireth Howbeit according to the Order of Polity they being The lights of the World others though better and wiser must that way be subject unto them Again for as much as where the Clergy are any great multitude order doth necessarily require that by degrees they be distinguished we hold there have ever been and ever ought to be in such case at leastwise two sorts of Ecclesiastical Persons the one subordinate unto the other as to the Apostles in the beginning and to the Bishops always since we finde plainly both in Scripture and in all Ecclesiastical Records other Ministers of the Word and Sacraments have been Moreover it cannot enter into any Mans conceit to think it lawful that every man which listeth should take upon him charge in the Church and therefore a solemn admittance is of such necessity that without it there can be no Church Polity A number of Particularities there are which make for the more convenient Being of these Principal and Perpetual parts in Ecclesiastical Polity but yet are not of such constant use and necessity in Gods Church Of this kinde are times and places appointed for the Exercise of Religion Specialties belonging to the Publick Solemnity of the Word the Sacraments and Prayer the Enlargement or Abridgement of Functions Ministerial depending upon those two Principals beforementioned To conclude even whatsoever doth by way of Formality and Circumstance concern any Publick Action of the Church Now although that which the Scripture hath of things in the former kinde be for ever permanent yet in the latter both much of that which the Scripture teacheth is not always needful and much the Church of God shall always need which the Scripture teacheth not So as the Form of Polity by them set down for perpetuity is three ways faulty Faulty in omitting some things which in Scripture are of that nature as namely the difference that ought to be of Pastors when they grow to any great multitude Faulty in requiring Doctors Deacons Widows and such like as things of perpetual necessity by the Law of God which in Truth are nothing less Faulty also in urging some things by Scripture Immutable as their Lay-Elders which the Scripture neither maketh Immutable nor at all teacheth for any thing either we can as yet finde or they have hitherto been able to prove But hereof more in the Books that follow As for those marvellous Discourses whereby they adventure to argue That God must needs have done the thing which they imagine was to be done I must confess I have often wondred at their exceeding boldness herein When the question is Whether God have delivered in Scripture as they affirm he hath a compleat particular Immutable Form of Church Polity why take they that other both presumptuous and superfluous labor to prove he should have done it there being no way in this case to prove the Deed of God saving onely by producing that evidence wherein he hath done it But if there be no such thing apparent upon Record they do as if one should demand a Legacy by force and vertue of some Written Testament wherein there being no such thing specified he pleadeth That there it must needs be and bringeth arguments from the love or good will which always the Testator bore him imagining that these or the like proofs will convict a Testament to have that in it which other men can no where by reading finde In matters which concern the Actions of God the most dutiful way on our part is to search what God hath done and with meekness to admire that rather then to dispute what he in congruity of Reason ought to do The ways which he hath whereby to do all things for the greatest good of his Church are more in number then we can search other in Nature then that we should presume to determine which of many should be the fittest for him to chuse till such time as we see he hath chosen of many some one which one we then may boldly conclude to be the fittest because he hath taken it before the rest When we do otherwise surely we exceed our bounds who and where weare we forget And therefore needful it is that our Pride in such cases be contrould and our Disputes beaten back with those Demands of the blessed Apostle How unsearchable are his Iudgments and his Ways past finding out Who hath known the Minde of the Lord or who was his Counsellor OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity BOOK IV. Concerning their Third Assertion That our Form of Church-Politie is corrupted with Popish Orders Rites and Ceremonies banished out of certain Reformed Churches whose example
men as contrariwise the ground of all our happiness and the seed of whatsoever perfect vertue groweth from us is a right opinion touching things divine this kind of knowledge we may justly set down for the first and chiefest thing which God imparteth unto his People and our duty of receiving this at his merciful hands for the first of those religious Offices wherewith we publickly honour him on earth For the instruction therefore of all sorts of men to eternal life it is necessary that the sacred and saving truth of God be openly published unto them Which open publication of heavenly mysteries is by an excellency termed preaching For otherwise there is not any thing publickly notified but we may in that respect rightly and properly say it is preached So that when the School of God doth use it as a word of Art we are accordingly to understand it with restraint to such special matter as that School is accustomed to publish We find not in the World any People that have lived altogether without Religion And yet this duty of Religion which provideth that publickly all sorts of men may be instructed in the fear of God is to the Church of God and hath been always so peculiar that none of the Heathens how curious soever in searching out all kinds of outward Ceremonies like to ours could ever once so much as endeavour to resemble herein the Churches care for the endless good of her Children Ways of teaching there have been sundry always usual in Gods Church For the first introduction of youth to the knowledge of God the Jews even till this day have their Catechisms With Religion it fareth as with other Sciences the first delivery of the Elements thereof must for like consideration be framed according to the weak and slender capacity of young Beginners unto which manner of teaching Principles in Christianity the Apostle in the sixth to the Hebrews is himself understood to allude For this cause therefore as the Decalogue of Moses declareth summarily those things which we ought to do the Prayer of our Lord whatsoever we should request or desire so either by the Apostles or at the least-wise out of their Writings we have the substance of Christian Belief compendiously drawn into few and short Articles to the end that the weakness of no mans wit might either hinder altogether the knowledge or excuse the utter ignorance of needful things Such as were trained up in these Rudiments and were so made fit to be afterward by Baptism received into the Church the Fathers usually in their Writings do term Hearers as having no farther communion or fellowship with the Church than only this that they were admitted to hear the Principles of Christian Faith made plain unto them Catechizing may be in Schools it may be in private Families But when we make it a kind of Preaching we mean always the publick performance thereof in the open hearing of men because things are preached not in that they are taught but in that they are published 19. Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles were in their times all Preachers of Gods Truth some by Word some by Writing some by both This they did partly as faithful Witnesses making meer relation what God himself had revealed unto them and partly as careful Expounders Teachers Perswaders thereof The Church in like case Preacheth still first publishing by way of Testimony or relation the truth which from them she hath received even in such sort as it was received written in the sacred volumes of Scripture Secondly by way of explication discovering the mysteries which lye hid therein The Church as a Witness preacheth his meer revealed Truth by reading publickly the Sacred Scripture So that a second kind of preaching is the reading of holy Writ For thus we may the boldlier speak being strengthened with the examples of so reverend a Prelate as saith that Moses from the time of antient Generations and Ages long since past had amongst the Cities of the very Gentiles them that preached him in that he was read every Sabbath day For so of necessity it must be meant in as much as we know that the Jews have alwayes had their weekly Readings of the Law of Moses but that they always had in like manner their weekly Sermons upon some part of the Law of Moses we no where find Howbeit still we must here remember that the Church by her publick reading of the Book of God preacheth only as a Witness Now the principal thing required in a Witness is Fidelity Wherefore as we cannot excuse that Church which either through corrupt translations of Scripture delivereth instead of divine Speeches any thing repugnant unto that which God speaketh or through falsified additions proposeth that to the people of God as Scripture which is in truth no Scripture So the blame which in both these respects hath been laid upon the Church of England is surely altogether without cause Touching Translations of Holy Scripture albeit we may not disallow of their painful travels herein who strictly have tyed themselves to the very Original letter yet the judgment of the Church as we see by the practise of all Nations Greeks Latines Persians Syrians AEthiopians Arabians hath been ever That the fittest for publick Audience are such as following a middle course between the rigor of literal Translators and the liberty of Paraphrasts do with greatest shortness and plainness deliver the meaning of the Holy Ghost Which being a labour of so great difficulty the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for So that except between the words of translation and the mind of Scripture it self there be Contradiction every little difference should not seem an intolerable blemish necessarily to be spunged out Whereas therefore the Prophet David in a certain Psalm doth say concerning Moses and Aaron that they were obedient to the word of God and in the self-same place â—or allowed Translation saith they were not obedient we are for this cause challenged as manifest Gain-sayers of Scripture even in that which we read for Scripture unto the people But for as much as words are resemblances of that which the mind of the Speaker conceiveth and Conceits are Images representing that which is spoken of it followeth that they who will judge of words should have recourse to the things themselves from whence they rise In setting down that Miracle at the sight whereof Peter fell down astonished before the feet of Jesus and cryed Depart Lord I am a Sinner the Evangelist St. Luke saith the store of the Fish which they took was such that the Net they took it in brake and the Ships which they loaded therewith sunk St. Iohn recording the like Miracle saith That albeit the Fishes in number were so many yet the Net with so great a weight was not broken Suppose they had written both of one Miracle Although there be in their
for such their particular Invocations and Benedictions as no Man I suppose professing truth of Religion will easily think to have been without Fruit. No there is no cause we should doubt of the benefit but surely great cause to make complaint of the deep neglect of this Christian duty almost with all them to whom by tight of their place and calling the same belongeth Let them not take it in evil part the thing is true their small regard hereunto hath done harm in the Church of God That which Error rashly uttereth in disgrace of good things may peradventure be sponged out when the print of those evils which are grown through neglect will remain behinde Thus much therefore generally spoken may serve for answer unto their demands that require us to tell them Why there should be any such confirmation in the Church seeing we are not ignorant how earnestly they have protested against it and how directly although untruly for so they are content to acknowledge it hath by some of them been said To be first brought in by the seigned Decretal Epistles of the Popes or why it should not be utterly abolished seeing that no one title thereof can be once found in the whole Scripture except the Epistle to the Hebrews be Scripture And again seeing that how free soever it be now from abuse if we look back to the times past which wise men do always more respect then the present it hath been abused and is found at the length no such profitable Ceremony as the whole silly Church of Christ for the space of these Sixteen hundred years hath through want of experience imagined Last of all Seeing also besides the cruelty which is shewed towards poor Country people who are fain sometimes to let their Ploughs stand still and with increble wearisome toyl of their feeble bodies to wander over Mountains and through Woods it may be now and then little less then a whole half score of miles for a Bishops blessing which if it were needful might as well be done at home in their own Parishes rather then they is purchase it with so great loss and so intolerable pain There are they say in Confirmation besides this Three terrible points The first is Laying on of hands with pretence that the same is done to the example of the Apostles which is not onely as they suppose a manifest untruth for all the World doth know that the Apostles did never after Baptism lay hands on any and therefore Saint Luke which saith they did was much deceived But farther also we thereby teach men to think Imposition of Hands a Sacrament belike because it is a principle ingrafted by common Light of Nature in the Mindes of Men that all things done by Apostolick example must needs be Sacrament The second high point of danger is That by tying Confirmation to the Bishop alone there is great cause of suspition given to think that Baptism is not so precious a thing as Confirmation For will any man think that a Velvet Coat is of more price then a Linnen Coyf knowing the one to be an ordinary Garment the other an Ornament which onely Sergeants at Law do wear Finally To draw to an end of perils the last and the weightiest hazard is where the Book it self doth say That Children by Imposition of Hands and Prayer may receive strength against all temptation Which speech as a two-edged sword doth both ways dangerously wound partly because it ascribeth Grace to Imposition of Hands whereby we are able no more to assure our selves in the warrant of any promise from God that his Heavenly Grace shall be given then the Apostle was that himself should obtain Grace by the bowing of his knees to God and partly because by using the very word strength in this matter a word so apt to spred infection we maintain with Popish Evangelists an old forlorn distinction of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon Christs Apostles before his Ascension into Heaven and augmented upon them afterwards a distinction of Grace infused into Christian men by degrees planted in them at the first by Baptism after cherished watred and be it spoken without offence strengthned as by other vertuous Offices which Piety and true Religion teacheth even so by this very special Benediction whereof we speak the Rite or Ceremony of Confirmation 67. The Grace which we have by the holy Eucharist doth not begin but continue life No man therefore receiveth this Sacrament before Baptism because no dead thing is capable of nourishment That which groweth must of necessity first live If our Bodies did not daily waste Food to restore them were a thing superfluous And it may be that the Grace of Baptism would serve to Eternal Life were it not that the state of our Spiritual Being is daily so much hindered and impaired after Baptism In that life therefore where neither Body nor Soul can decay our Souls shall as little require this Sacrament as our Bodies corporal nourishment But as long as the days of our warfare last during the time that we are both subject to diminution and capable of augmentation in Grace the Words of our Lord and Saviour Christ will remain forceable Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you Life being therefore proposed unto all men as their end they which by Baptism have laid the Foundation and attained the first beginning of a new life have here their nourishment and food prescribed for continuance of life in them Such as will live the Life of God must eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man because this is a part of that diet which if we want we cannot live Whereas therefore in our Infancy we are incorporated into Christ and by Baptism receive the Grace of his Spirit without any sense or feeling of the gift which God bestoweth in the Eucharist we so receive the gift of God that we know by Grace what the Grace is which God giveth us the degrees of our own Increase in holiness and vertue we see and can judge of them we understand that the strength of our life begun in Christ is Christ that his Flesh is Meat and his Blood drink not by surmised imagination but truly even so truly that through Faith we perceive in the Body and Blood sacramentally presented the very taste of Eternal Life the Grace of the Sacrament is here as the food which we eat and drink This was it that some did exceedingly fear lest Zwinglius and Occolampadius would bring to pass that men should account of this Sacrament but onely as of a shadow destitute empty and void of Christ. But seeing that by opening the several opinions which have been held they are grown for ought I can see on all sides at the length to a general agreement concerning that which alone is material namely The Real Participation of Christ and of
were properly theirs and are not by us expedient to be continued According to the Rule of which general directions taken from the Law of God no less in the one then the other the practice of the Church commended unto us in holy Scripture doth not onely make for the justification of black and dismal days as one of the Fathers termeth them but plainly offereth it self to be followed by such Ordinances if occasion require as that which Mordecai did sometimes devise Esther what lay in her power help forward and the rest of the Jews establish for perpetuity namely That the Fourteenth and fifteenth days of the Moneth Adar should be every year kept throughout all Generations as days of Feasting and Joy wherein they would rest from bodily labor and what by gifts of Charity bestowed upon the poor what by other liberal signs of Amity and Love all restifie their thankful mindes towards God which almost beyond possibility had delivered them all when they all were as men dead But this Decree they say was Divine not Ecclesiastical as may appear in that there is another Decree in another Book of Scripture which Decree is plain noâ— to have proceeded from the Churches Authority but from the mouth of the Prophet onely and as a poor simple man sometime was fully perswaded That it Pontius Pilate had not been a Saint the Apostles would never have suffered his name to stand in the Creed so these men have a strong opinion that because the Book of Esther is Canonical the Decree of Esther cannot be possibly Ecclesiastical If it were they ask how the Jews could binde themselves always to keep it seeing Ecclesiastical Laws are mutable As though the purposes of men might never intend constancy in that the nature whereof is subject to alteration Doth the Scripture it self make mention of any Divine Commandment Is the Scripture witness of more then onely that Mordecai was the Author of this Custom that by Letters written to his brethren the Jews throughout all Provinces under Darius the King of Persia he gave them charge to celebrate yearly those two days for perpetual remembrance of Gods miraculous deliverance and mercy that the Jews hereupon undertook to do it and made it with general consent an order for perpetnity that Esther secondly by her Letters confirmed the same which Mordecai had before decreed and that finally the Ordinance was written to remain for ever upon Record Did not the Jews in Provinces abroad observe at the first the Fourteenth day the Jews in Susis the Fifteenth Were they not all reduced to an uniform order by means of those two Decrees and so every where three days kept the first with fasting in memory of danger the rest in token of deliverance as festival and joyful days Was not the first of these three afterwards the day of sorrow and heaviness abrogated when the same Church saw it meet that a better day a day in memory of like deliverance out of the bloody hancs of Nicanor should succeed in the room thereof But for as much as there is no end of answering fruitless oppositions let it suffice men of sober mindes to know that the Law both of God and Nature alloweth generally days of rest and festival solemnity to be observed by way of thankful and joyful remembrance if such miraculous favors be shewed towards mankinde as require the same that such Graces God hath bestowed upon his Church as well in latter as in former times that in some particulars when they have faln out himself hath demanded his own honor and in the rest hath lest it to the Wisdom of the Church directed by those precedents and enlightned by other means always to judge when the like is requisite About questions therefore concerning Days and Times our manner is not to stand at bay with the Church of God demanding Wherefore the memory of Paul should be rather kept then the memory of Daniel We are content to imagine it may be perhaps true that the least in the Kingdom of Christ is greater then the greatest of all the Prophets of God that have gone before We never yet saw cause to despair but that the simplest of the people might be taught the right construction of as great Mysteries as the Name of a Saints day doth comprehend although the times of the year go on in their wonted course We had rather glorifie and bless God for the Fruit we daily behold reaped by such Ordinances as his gracious Spirit maketh the ripe Wisdom of this National Church to bring forth then vainly boast of our own peculiar and private inventions as if the skill of profitable Regiment had left her publick habitation to dwell in retired manner with some few men of one Livery We make not our childish appeals sometimes from our own to Forein Churches sometime from both unto Churches ancienter then both are in effect always from all others to our own selves but as becometh them that follow with all humility the ways of Peace we honor reverence and obey in the very next degree unto God the voice of the Church of God wherein we live They whose wits are too glorious to fall to so low an ebb they which have risen and swoln so high that the Walls of ordinary Rivers are unable to keep them in they whose wanton contentions in the cause whereof we have spoken do make all where they go a Sea even they at their highest float are constrained both to see and grant that what their fancy will not yield to like their judgment cannot with reason condemn Such is evermore the final victory of all Truth that they which have not the hearts to love her acknowledge that to hate her they have no cause Touching those Festival days therefore which we now observe their number being no way felt discommodious to the Commonwealth and their grounds such as hitherto hath been shewed what remaineth but to keep them throughout all generations holy severed by manifest notes of difference from other times adorned with that which most may betoken true vertuous and celestial joy To which intent because surcease from labor is necessary yet not so necessary no not on the Sabbath or Seventh day it self but that rarer occasions in mens particular affairs subject to manifest detriment unless they be presently followed may with very good conscience draw them sometimes aside from the ordinary rule considering the favorable dispensation which our Lord and Saviour groundeth on this Axiom Man was not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath ordained for Man so far forth as concerneth Ceremonies annexed to the principal Sanctification thereof howsoever the rigor of the Law of Moses may be thought to import the contrary if we regard with what severity the violation of Sabbaths hath been sometime punished a thing perhaps the more requisite at that instant both because the Jews by reason of their long abode in
way by the faith of Abraham the other way except we do the works of Abraham we are not righteous Of the one St. Paul To him that worketh not but believeth Faith is counted for Righteousness Of the other St. Iohn Qui facit Iustitiam justus est He is righteous which worketh Righteousnesse Of the one St. Paul doth prove by Abrahams Example that we have it of Faith without Works Of the other St. Iames by Abrahams Example that by Works we have it and not onely by Faith St. Paul doth plainly sever these two parts of Christian righteousness one from the other For in the sixth to the Romans thus he writeth Being freed from sin and made Servants to God ye have your fruit in Holinesse and the end everlasting life Ye are made free from sin and made Servants unto God this is the righteousness of Iustification ye have your Fruit in Holiness this is the righteousness of Sanctification By the one we are interessed in the right of inheriting by the other we are brought to the actual possession of eternal bliss and so the end of both is everlasting life 7. The Prophet Habakh doth here term the Jews Righteous men not onely because being justified by Faith they were free from sin but also because they had their measure of fruits in Holiness According to whose example of charitable Judgement which leaveth it to God to discern what we are and speaketh of them according to that which they do profess themselves to be although they be not holy men whom men do think but whom God doth know indeed to be such yet let every Christian man know that in Christian equity he standeth bound for to think and speak of his Brethren as of men that have a measure in the fruit of Holinesse and a right unto the Titles wherewith God in token of special favour and mercy vouchsafeth to honour his chosen Servants So we see the Apostle of our Saviour Christ do use every where the name of Saints so the Prophet the name of Righteous But let us all be such as we desire to be termed Reatus impii est pium nomen saith Salvianus Godly names do not justifie godless men We are but upbraided when we are honored with names and Titles whereunto our lives and manners are not suitable If indeed we have our fruit in Holiness notwithstanding we must note that the more we abound therein the more need we have to crave that we may be strengthened and supported Our very vertues may be snares unto us The enemy that waiteth for all occasions to work our ruine hath found it harder to overthrow an humble Sinner than a proud Saint There is no man's case so dangerous as his whom Sathan hath perswaded that his own righteousness shall present him pure and blamelesse in the sight of God If we could say we were not guilty of any thing at all in our Consciences we know our selves farr from this innocency we cannot say we know nothing by our selves but if we could should we therefore plead not guilty before the presence of our Judge that sees further into our hearts than we our selves can do If our hands did never offer violence to our Brethren a bloody thought doth prove us Murtherers before him If we had never opened our mouth to utter any scandalous offensive or hurtful word the cry of our secret cogitations is heard in the ears of God If we did not commit the sins which daily and hourly either in deed word or thoughts we do commit yet in the good things which we doe how many defects are these intermingled God in that which is done respecteth the minde and intention of the doer Cutt off then all those things wherein we have regarded our own glory those things which men do to please men and to satisfie our own liking those things which we do for any by-respect not sincerely and purely for the love of God and a small score will serve for the number of our righteous deeds Let the holiest and best things which we do be considered we are never better affected unto God than when we pray yet when we pray how are our affections many times distracted how little reverence do we shew unto the grand Majesty of God unto whom we speak How little remorse of our own miseries How little taste of the sweet influence of his tender mercies do we feel Are we not as unwilling many times to begin and as glad to make an ends as if in saying Call upon me he had set us a very burthensome task it may seen somewhat extream which I will speak therefore let every one judge of it even as his own heart shall tell him and no otherwise I will but onely make a demand If God should yield unto us not as unto Abraham If fifty forty thirty twenty yea or if ten good Persons could be found in a City for their sakes that City should not be destroyed but and if he should make us an offer thus large Search all the Generations of men sithence the Fall of our Father Adam finde one man that hath done one Action which hath past from him pure without any strain or blemish at all and for that one man's onely action neither Man nor Angel shall feel the torments which are prepared for both Do you think that this ransome to deliver Men and Angels could be found to be among the Sons of men The best things which we do have somewhat in them to be pardoned How then can we do any thing meritorious or worthy to be rewarded Indeed God doth liberally promise whatsoever appertaineth to a blessed life to as many as sincerely keep his Law though they be not exactly able to keep it Wherefore we acknowledge a dutiful necessity of doing well but the meritorious dignity of doing well we utterly renounce We see how farr we are from the perfect righteousness of the Law the little fruit which we have in holiness it is God knoweth corrupt and unfound we put no confidence at all in it we challenge nothing in the world for it we dare not call God to reckoning as if we had him in our debt-Debt-books our continual suit to him is and must be to bear with our infirmities and pardon our offences 8. But the People of whom the Prophet speaketh were they all or were the most part of them such as had care to walk uprightly Did they thirst after righteousness did they with did they long with the righteous Prophet Oh that our ways were so direct that we might keep thy Statutes Did they lament with the righteous Apostle Oh miserable men the good which we wish and purpose and strive to do we cannot No the words of the other Prophet concerning this People do shew the contrary How grievously hath Esay mourned over them O sinful Nation laden with Iniquity wicked Seâ—d corrupt Children All which notwithstanding so wide are the bowels of his Compassion enlarged
SVNT MELIORA MIHI RICHARDVS HOOKER Exoniensis scholaris sociusque Collegij Corp. Chrisli Oxon̄ deinde Londi Templi interioris in sacris magister Rectorque huius Ecelesiae scripsit octo libros Politiae Ecclesiasticae Angelicanae quorum tres desiderantur Obijt An̄ Dō M.DC. III. AEtat suae L. Posuit hoc pijssimo viro monumentum Ano. Dō M. DC XXX V Guli Comper Armiger in Christo Iesu quem genuit per Evangelium 1 Corinth 4. 15. OF THE LAWES of ECCLESIASTICAL Politie Eight Bookes By RICHARD HOOKER LONDON Printed for Andrew Crooke at the greene Dragon in S Pauls Church-yard 1666. THE WORKS OF Mr. Richard Hooker That Learned and Judicious Divine IN EIGHT BOOKS OF Ecclesiastical Polity Compleated out of his own Manuscrips Never before Published With an account of his LIFE and DEATH Dedicated to the Kings most Excellency Majesty CHARLES IId. By whose ROYAL FATHER near His Martyrdom the former Five Books then onely extant were commended to His Dear Children as an excellent means to satisfie Private Scruples and settle the Publick Peace of this Church and Kingdom JAM 3. 17. The Wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good works without partiality and hypocrisie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Multitadio investiganda verilalis ad proximos divertunt errores Min. Fel. LONDON Printed by Thomas Newcomb for Andrew Crook at the Green-Dragon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1666. To the KINGS most Excellent MAJESTY CHARLES II d By the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most Gracious Soveraign ALthough I know how little leisure Great Kings have to read large Books or indeed any save onely Gods the study belief and obedience of which is precisely commanded even to Kings Deut. 17.18,19 And from which whatever wholly diverts them will hazard to damn them there being no affairs of so great importance as their serving God and saving their own Souls nor any Precepts so wise just holy and safe as those of the Divine Oracles nor any Empire so glorious as that by which Kings being subject to Gods Law have dominion over themselves and so best deserve and exercise it over their Subjects Yet having lived to see the wonderful and happy Restauration of Your Majesty to Your Rightful Kingdoms and of this Reformed Church to its just Rights Primitive Order and Pristine Constitution by Your Majesties prudent care and imparallel'd bounty I know not what to present more worthy of Your Majesties acceptance and my duty then these Elaborate and Seasonable Works of the Famous and Prudent Mr. Richard Hooker now augmented and I hope compleated with the Three last Books so much desired and so long concealed The publishing of which Volume so intire and thus presenting it to Your Majesty seems to be a blessing and honor reserved by Gods Providence to add a further lusture to Your Majesties glorious Name and happy Reign whose transcendent favor justice merit and munificence to the long afflicted Church of England is a subject no less worthy of admirasion then gratitude to all Posterity And of all things next Gods grace not to be abused or turned into wantonness by any of Your Majesties Clergy who are highly obliged beyond all other Subjects to Piety Loyalty and Industry I shall need nothing more to ingratiate this incomparable Piece to Your Majesties acceptance and all the English Worlds then those high commendations it hath ever had as from all prudent peaceable and impartial Readers so especially from Your Majesties Royal Father who a few days before he was Crowned with Martyrdom commended to His dearest Children the diligent Reading of Mr. Hookers Ecclesiastical Polity even next the Bible as an excellent means to settle them in the Truth of Religion and in the Peace of this Church as much Christian and as well Reformed as any under Heaven As if God had reserved this signal Honor to be done by the best of Kings and greatest Sufferers for this Church to Him who was one of the best Writers and ablest Defenders of it To this Compleated Edition is added such particular accounts as could be got of the Authors Person Education Temper Manners Fortunes Life and Death which is now done with much exactness and proportion That hereby Your Majesty and all the World may see what sort of Men are fittest for Church-work which like the Building of Solomons Temple is best carried on with most evenness of Iudgement and least noise of Passion Also what manner of Man he was to whom we all ow this Noble Work and durable Defence Which is indeed at once as the Tongues of Eloquent Princes are to themselves and their Subjects both a Treasury and an Armory to inrich their friends and defend them against the Enemies of the Church of England Arare composition of unpassionate Reason and unpartial Religion the mature product of a Indicious Scholar a Loyal Subject an Humble Preacher and a most Eloquent Writer The very abstract and quintessence of Laws Humane and Divine a Summary of the Grounds Rules and Proportions of true Polity in Church and State Vpon which clear solid and safe Foundations the good Order Peace and Government of this Church was anciently setled and on which while it stands firm it will be flourishing All other popular and specious pretensions being found by late sad experiences to be as novel and unfit so factious and fallacious yea dangerous and destructive to the Peace and Prosperity of this Church and Kingdom whose inseparable happiness and interests are bound up in Monarchy and Episcopacy The Politick and Visible managing of both which God hath now graciously restored and committed to Your Majesties Soveraign Wisdom and Authority after the many and long Tragedies suffered from those Club Masters and Tub-Ministers who sought not fairly to obtain Reformation of what might seem amiss but violently and wholly to overthrow the ancient and goodly Fabrick of this Church and Kingdom For finding themselves not able in many years to Answer this one Book long ago written in defence of the Truth Order Government Authority and Liberty in things indifferent of this Reformed Church agreeable to Right Reason and True Religion which makes this well tempered Peice a File capable to break the Teeth of any that venture to bite it they conspired at last to betake themselves to Arms to kindle those horrid fires of Civil Wars which this wise Author foresaw and foretold in his admirable Preface would follow those sparks and that smoak which he saw rise in his days So that from impertinent Disputes seconded with scurrilous Pamphlets they fled to Tumults Sedition Rebellion Sacriledge Parricide yea Regicide Counsels Weapons and Practices certainly no way becoming the hearts and hands of Christian Subjects nor ever sanctified by Christ for his Service or his Churches good What now remains but Your Majesties perfecting and preserving that in this Church which you have with
much prudence and tenderness so happily begun and prosecuted with more zeal then the establishment of Your own Throne The still crazy Church of England together with this Book its great and impregnable Shield do further need and humbly implore Your Majesties Royal Protection under God Nor can Your Majesty by any generous instance and perseverance most worthy of a Christian King more express that pious and grateful sense which God and all good Men expect from Your Majesty as some retribution for his many miraculous mercies to Your Self then in a wise speedy and happy setling of our Religious peace with the least grievance and most satisfaction to all Your good Subjects Sacred Order and Uniformity being the centre and circumference of our Civil Tranquillity Sedition naturally rising out of Schism and Rebellion out of Faction The onely cure and antidote against both are good Laws and Canons first wisely made with all Christian Moderation and Seasonable Charity next duly executed with Iustice and Impartiality which sober Severity is indeed the greatest Charity to the Publique Whose Verity Vnity Sanctity and Solemnity in Religious Concernments being once duly established must not be shaken or sacrificed to any private varieties and extravagancies Where the internals of Doctrines Morality Mysteries and Evangelical Duties being as they are in the Church of England sound and sacred the externals of decent Forms Circumstances Rites and Ceremonies being subordinate and servient to the main cannot be either evil or unsafe neither offensive to God nor good Christians For the attaining of which blessed ends of Piety and Peace that the sacred Sun and Shield of the Divine Grace and Power directing and protecting may ever shine upon Your Majesties Person and Family Counsels and Power is the humble Prayer of Your Sacred Majesties most Loyal Subject and devoted Servant IOH. EXON TO THE READER I Think it necessary to inform my Reader that Doctor Gauden the late Bishop of Worcester hath also lately wrote and publisht the Life of Master Hooker and though this be not writ by design to oppose what he hath truly written yet I am put upon a neccessity to say That in it there be many Material Mistakes and more Omissions I conceive some of his Mistakes did proceed from a Belief in Master Thomas Fuller who had too hastily published what be hath since most ingenuously retracted And for the Bishops Omissions I suppose his more weighty Business and Want of Time made him pass over many things without that due Examination which my better Leisure my Diligence and my accidental Advantages have made known unto me And now for my self I can say I hope or rather know there are no Material Mistakes in what I here present to you that shall become my Reader Little things that I have received by Tradition to which there may be too much and too little Faith given I will not at this distance of Time undertake to justifie for though I have used great Diligence and compared Relations and Circumstances and probable Results and Expressions yet I shall not impose my Belief upon my Reader I shall rather leave him at liberty But if there shall appear any Material Ommission I desire every Lover of truth and the Memory of Master Hooker that it may be made known unto me And to incline him to it I here promise to acknowledge and rectifie any such Mistake in a second Impression which the Printer says he hopes for and by this means my weak but faithful Endeavours may become a better Monument and in some degree more worthy the Memory of this Venerable Man I confess that when I consider the great Learning and Vertue of Master Hooker and what satisfaction and Advantages many Eminent Scholars and Admirers of him have had by his Labours I do not a little wonder that in Sixty years no man did undertake to tell Posterity of the Excellencies of his Life and Learning and the Accidents of both and sometimes wonder more at my self that I have been perswaded to it and indeed I do not easily pronounce my own Pardon nor expect that my Reader shall unless my Introduction shall prove my Apology to which I refer him The Copy of a Letter writ to Mr. Walton by Dr. King Lord Bishop of Chichester Honest ISAAC THough a Familiarity of Forty years continuance and the constant experience of your Love even in the worst times be sufficient to indear our Friendship yet I must confess my affection much improved not onely by evidences of private respect to those very many that know and love you but by your new demonstration of a Publick Spirit testified in a diligent true and useful Collection of so many Material Passages as you have now afforded me in the Life of Venerable Mr. Hooker Of which since desired by such a Friend as yourself I shall not deny to give the Testimony of what I know concerning him and his learned Books but shall first here take a fair occasion to tell you that you have been happy in chusing to write the Lives of three such Persons as Posterity hath just cause to honour which they will do the more for the true Relation of them by your happy Pen of all which I shall give you my unfeigned Censure I shall begin with my most dear and incomparable Friend Dr. Donne late Dean of St. Pauls Church who not only trusted me as his Executor but three days before his death delivered into my hands those excellent Sermons of his which are now made publick professing before Dr. Winniff Dr. Montford and I think your self then present at his bed-side that it was by my restless importunity that he had prepared them for the Press together with which as his best Legacy he gave me all his Sermon-Notes and his other Papers containing an Extract of near Fifteen hundred Authors How these were got out of my hands you who were the Messenger for them and how lost both to me and your self is not now seasonable to complain but since they did miscarry I am glad that the general Demonstration of his Worth was so fairly preserved and represented to the World by your Pen in the History of his Life indeed so well that beside others the best Critick of our later time Mr. Iohn Hales of Eaton Colledge affirm'd to me He had not seen a Life written with more advantage to the Subject or more reputation to the Writer than that of Dr. Donnes After the performance of this task for Dr. Donne you undertook the like office for our Friend Sir Henry Wolton betwixt which two there was a Friendship begun in Oxford continued in their various Travels and more confirm'd in the religious Friendship of Age and doubtless this excellent Person had writ the Life of Dr. Donne if Death had not prevented him by which means his and your Pre-collections for that Work fell to the happy manage of your Pen A Work which you would have declin'd if imperious perswasions had not
been stronger then your modest resolutions against it And I am thus far glad that the first Life was so impos'd upon you because it gave an unadvoidable cause of writing the second If not 't is too probable we had wanted both which had been a prejudice to all lovers of Honor and ingenuous Learning And let me not leave my Friend Sir Henry without this Testimony added to yours That he was a Man of as florid a Wit and elegant a Pen as any former or ours which in that kinde is a most excellent Age hath ever produced And now having made this voluntary observation of our two deceased Friends I proceed to satisfie your desire concerning what I know and believe of the ever-memorable Mr. Hooker who was Schismaticorum Malleius so great a Champion for the Church of Englands Rights against the Factious Torrent of Separatists that then ran high against Church-Discipline and in his unanswerable Books continues still to be so against the unquiet Disciples of their Schism which now under other names carry on their design and who as the proper Heirs of their Irrational Zeal would again rake into the scarce-closed Wounds of a newly bleeding State and Church And first though I dare not say I knew Mr. Hooker yet as our Ecclesiastical History reports to the honor of Ignaâ—ius That he lived in the time of St. Iohn and had seen him in his childhood so I also joy that in my minority I have often seen Mr. Hooker with my Father then Lord Bishop of London from whom and others at that time I have heard most of the material passages which you relate in the History of his Life and from my Father received such a Character of his Learning Humility and other Vertues that like Jewels of unvaluable price they still cast such a lustre as Envy or the Rust of Time shall never darken From my Father I have also heard all the circumstances of the Plot to defame him and how Sir Edwin Sandys outwitted his Accusers and gained their confession and could give an account of each particular of that Plot by that I judge it fitter to be forgotten and rot in the same Grave with the malicious Authors I may not omit to declare That my Fathers knowledge of Mr. Hooker was occasioned by the Learned Dr. Iohn Spencer who after the death of Mr. Hooker was so careful to preserve his unvaluable Sixth Seventh and Eighth Books of ECCLESIASTICAL POLITT and his other Writings that he procured Henry Iackson then of Corpus-Christi Colledge to transcribe for him all Mr. Hookers remaining written Papers many of which were imperfect for his Study had been rifled or worse used by Mr. Clark and another of principles too like his But as these Papers were they were endeavored to be compleated by his dear Friend Dr. Spencer who bequeathed them as a precious Legacy to my Father after whose death they rested in my hand till Dr. Abbot then Archbishop of Canterbury commanded them out of my custody authorising Dr. Iohn Barkham his Lordships Chaplain to require and bring them to him to Lambeth At which time I have heard they were put into the Bishops Library and that they remained there till the Martyrdom of Archbishop Laud and were then by the Brethren of that Faction given with the Library to Hugh Peters as a reward for his remarkable service in those sad times of the Churches confusion And though they could hardly fall into a fouler hand yet there wanted not other endeavors to corrupt and make them speak that Language for which the Faction then fought which was To subject the Soveraign Power to the People I need not strive to vindicate Mr. Hooker in this particular his known Loyalty to his Prince whilst he lived the sorrow expressed by King Iames for his death the value our late Soveraign of ever-blessed Memory put upon his Works now the singular Character of his worth given by you in the passages of his life especially in your Appendix to it do sufficiently clear him from that imputation And I am glad you mention how much value Robert Stapleton Pope Clement the Eighth and other eminent Men of the Romish perswasion have put upon his Books having been told the same in my youth by persons of worth that have travelled Italy Lastly I must again congratulate this undertaking of yours as now more proper to you then any other person by reason of your long knowledge and alliance to the worthy family of the Cranmers my old friends also who have been men of noted wisdom especially Mr. George Cranmer whose prudence added to that of Sir Edwin Sandys proved very useful in the compleating of Mr. Hookers matchless Books one of their Letters I herewith send you to make use of if you think fit And let me say further you merit much from many of Mr. Hookers best friends then living namely from the ever-renowned Archb. Whitgist of whose imcomparable worth with the Character of the times you have given us a more short and significant account then I have received from any other Pen. You have done much for Sir Henry Savile his contemporary and familiar friend amongst the surviving Monuments of whose Learning give me leave to tell you so two are omitted his Edition of Euclid but especially his Translation of King Iames his Apology for the Oath of Allegeance into elegant Latine Which flying in that dress as far as Rome was by the Pope and Conclave sent unto Franciscus Snarez to Salamanca he then residing there as President of that Colledge with a command to answer it When he had perfected the work which he calls Defensio Fidei Catholica it was transmitted to Rome for a view of the Inquisitors who according to their custom blotted out what they pleased and as Mr. Hooker hath been used since his death added whatsoever might advance the Popes Supremacy or carry on their own interest commonly coupling together Depâ—nere Occidere the deposing and killing of Princes Which cruel and unchristian Language Mr. Iohn Salikell his Amanuensis when he wrote at Salamanca but since a Convert living long in my Fathers-house often professed the good old man whose Piety and Charity Mr. Salikell magnified much not onely disavowed but detested Not to trouble you further your Reader if according to your desire my approbation of your work carries any weight will finde many just Reasons to thank you for it and for this circumstance here mentioned not known to many may happily apprehend one to thank him who is Chichester Novemb. 13. 15. Sir Your ever-faithful and affectionate Old Friend Henry Chichester THE LIFE OF Mr. Richard Hooker THE INTRODUCTION I Have been perswaded by a Friend that I ought to obey to write The Life of RICHARD HOOKER the happy Author of Five if not more of the Eight Learned Books of The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity and though I have undertaken it yet it hath been with some unwillingness foreseeing that it must prove
much as the Hem of Christs Garment If they do wherefore should I doubt but that Vertue may proceed from Christ to save them No I will not be afraid to say to such a one You erre in your opinion but be of good comfort you have to do with a Merciful God who will make the best of that little which you hold well and not with a captions Sophister who gathereth the worst out of every thing in which you are mistaken But it will be said The admittance of Merit in any degree overthroweth the Foundation excladeth from the hope of Mercy from all possibility of Salvation And now Mr. Hookers own words follow What though they hold the truth sincerely in all other parts of Christian Faith Although they have in some measure all the Vertues and Graces of the Spirit Although they have all other Tokens of Gods Children in them Although they be far from having any proud opinion that they shall be saved by the worthiness of their Deeds Although the onely thing that troubleth and molesteth them be a little too much dejection somewhat too great a fire arising from an erronious conceit That God will require a worthiness in them which they are grieved to finde wanting in themselves Although they be not obstinate in this Opinion Although they be willing and would be glad to forsake it if any one Reason were brought sufficient to disprove it Although the onely cause why they do not forsake it ere they die be their ignorance of that means by which it might be disproved Although the cause why the ignorance in this point is not removed be the want of knowledge in such as should be able and are not to remove it Let me die says Mr. Hooker if it be ever proved That simply an Error doth exclude a Pope or Cardinal in such a case utterly from hope of life Surely I must confess That if it be an Error to think that God may be merciful to save men even when they err my greatest comfort is my error Were it not for the love I bear to this Error I would never wish to speak or to live I was willing to take notice of these two points as supposing them to be very material and that as they are thus contracted they may prove useful to my Reader as also for that the Answers be Arguments of Mr. Hookers great and clear Reason and equal Charity Other Exceptions were also made against him as That he prayed before and not after his Sermons that in his Prayers be named Bishops that be kneeled both when he prayed and he when he received the Sacrament and says Mr. Hooker in his Defence other Exceptions so like these as but to name I should have thought a greater fault then to commit them And 't is not unworthy the noting that in the menage of so great a Controversie a sharper reproof then this and one like it did never fall from the happy Pen of this humble Man That like it was upon a like occasion of Exceptious to which his Answer was Your next Argument consists of Railing and of Reasons to your Railing I say nothing to your Reasons I say what follows And I am glad of this fair occasion to testifie the Dove-like temper of this meek this matchless Man and doubtless it Almighty God had blest the Dissenters from the Ceremonies and Discipline of this Church with a like measure of Wisdom and Humility instead of their pertinacious Zeal then Obedience and Truth had kissed each other then Peace and Piety had flourished in our Nation and this Church and State had been blest like Ierusalem that is at unity with it self but that can never be expected till God shall bless the common people with a belief That Schism is a sin and that there may be offences taken which are not given and that Laws are not made for private men to dispute but to obey And this also maybe worthy of noting That these Exceptions of Mr. Travers against Mr. Hooker were the cause of his transcribing several of his Sermons which we now see Printed with his Books of his Answer to Mr. Travers his Supplication and of his most learned and useful Discourse of Iustification of Faith and Works and by their Transcription they fell into the hands of others that have preserved them from being lost as too many of his other matchless Writings have been and from these I have gathered many observations in this Discourse of his Life After the publication of his Answer to the Petition of Mr. Travers Mr. Hooker grew daily into greater repute with the most Learned and Wise of the Nation but it had a contrary effect in very many of the Temple that were zealous for Mr. Travers and for his Church Discipline insomuch that though Mr. Travers left the place yet the Seeds of Discontent could not be rooted out of that Society by the great Reason and as great Meekness of this humble Man For though the Cheif Benchers gave him much Reverence and Incouragement yet he there met with many neglects and oppositions-by-those of Mr. Travers judgment insomuch that it turned to his extream grief And that he might unbeguile and win them he designed to write a deliberate sober Treatise of the Churches power to make Cannons for the use of Ceremonies and by Law to impose an obedience to them as upon Her Children and this he proposed to do in Eight Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity intending therein to shew such Arguments as should force an assent from all Men if Reason delivered in sweet Language and void of any provocation were able to do it And that he might prevent all prejudice he wrote before it a large Preface or Epistle to the Dissenting Brethren wherein there were such Bowels of Love and such a Commixture of that Love with Reason as was never exceeded but in Holy Writ and particularly by that of St. Paul to his dear Brother and Fellow-Laborer Philemon Then which none ever was more like this Epistle of Mr. Hookers So that his dear Friend and Companion in his Studies Doctor Spencer might after his Death justly say What admirable height of Learning and depth of Iudgment dwelt in the lowly minde of this truly humble Man great in all wise mens eyes except his own With what gravity and majesty of Speech his Tongue and Pen uttered Heavenly Mysteries whose eyes in the Humility of his Heart were always cast down to the ground How all things that proceeded from him were breathed as from the Spirit of Love as if he like the Bird of the Holy Ghost the Dove had wanted Gall Let those that knew him not in his Person judge by these living Images of his Soul his Writings The Foundation of these Books was laid in the Temple but he found it no fit place to finish what he had there designed and therefore solicited the Archbishop for a remove to whom he spake to this purpose My Lord
him in Latin which Doctor Stapleton did to the end of the first Book at the conclusion of which the Pope spake to this purpose There is no Learning that this man hath not searcht into nothing too hard for his understanding This man indeed deserves the name of an Author his Books will get Reverence by Age for there is in them such seeds of Eternity that if the rest be like this they shall last till the last Fire shall consume all Learning Not was this high the only testimony and commendations given to his Books for at the first coming of King Iames into this Kingdom he inquired of the Archbishop Whiâ—gift for his friend Mr. Hooker that writ the Books of Church Polity to which the answer was that he dyed a year before Queen Elizabeth who received the sad news of his Death with very much Sorrow to which the King replyed and I receive it with no less that I shall want the desired happiness of seeing and discoursing with that Man from whose Books I have received such satisfaction Indeed my Lord I have received more satisfaction in reading a Leaf or Paragraph in Mr. Hooker thought it were but about the fashion of Churches or Church Musick or the like but especially of the Sacraments then I have had in the reading particular large Treatises written but of one of those subjects by others though very Learned Men and I observe there is in Mr. Hooker no affected Language but a grave comprehensive cleer manifestation of Reason and that back't with the Authority of the Scripture the Fathers and Schoolmen and with all Law both Sacred and Civil And though many others write well yet in the next Age they will be forgotten but doubtless there is in every page of Mr. Hookers Book the Picture of a Divine Soul such Pictures of Truth and Reason and drawn in so sacred colours that they shall never fade but give an immortal memory to the Author And it is so truly true that the King thought what he spake that as the most Learned of the Nation have and still do mention Mr. Hooker with Reverence so he also did never mention him but with the Epithite of Learned or Iudicious or Reverend or Venerable Mr. Hooker Nor did his Son our late King Charles the first ever mention him but with the same Reverence enjoyning his Son our now gracious King to be studious in M. Hookers Books And our learned Antiquary Mr. Cambden mentioning the Death the Modesty and other Vertues of Mr. Hooker and magnifying his Books wisht that for the honour of this and benefit of other Nations they were turn'd into the Universal Language Which work though undertaken by many yet they have been weary and forsaken it but the Reader may now expect it having been long since begun and lately finisht by the happy pen of Doctor Earl now Lord Bishop of Salisbury of whom I may justly say and let it not offend him because it is such a truth as ought not to be conceal'd from Posterity or those that now live and yet know him not that since Mr. Hooker died none have liv'd whom God hath blest with more innocent Wisdom more sanctified Learning or a more pious peaceable primitive Temper so that this excellent person seems to be only like himself and our venerable Richard Hooker and only fit to make the learned of all Nations happy in knowing what hath been too long confin'd to the language of our little Island There might be many more and just occasions taken to speak of his Books which none ever did or can commend too much but I decline them and hasten to an account of his Christian behaviour and Death at Borne in which place he continued his customary rules of Mortification and Self-Denyal was much in Fasting frequent in Meditation and Prayers injoying those blessed Returns which only Men of strict lives feel and know and of which Men of loose and Godless lives cannot be made sensible for spiritual things are spiritually discerned At his entrance into this place his Friendship was much sought for by Doctor Hadrian Saravia then one of the Prebends of Canterbury a German by birth and sometimes a Pastor both in Flanders and Holland where he had studied and well considered the controverted points concerning Episcopacy and Sacriledge and in England had a just occasion to declare his Judgement concerning both unto his Brethren Ministers of the Low Countryes which was excepted against by Theodor Beza and others against whose exceptions he rejoyned and thereby became the happy Author of many Learned Tracts writ in Latin especially of three one of the Degrees of Ministers and of the Bishops Superiority above the Presbytery a second against Sacriledge and a third of Christian obedience to Princes the last being occasioned by Gretzerus the Jesuit And it is observable that when in a time of Church tumults Beza gave his reasons to the Chancellor of Scotland for the abrogation of Episcopacy in that Nation partly by Letters and more fully in a Treatise of a three-fold Episcopacy which he calls Divine Humane and Satanical this Doctor Saravia had by the help of Bishop Whitgift made such an early discovery of their intentions that he had almost as soon answered that Treatise as it became publique and therein discovered how Beza's opinion did contradict that of Calvins and his adherents leaving them to interfere with themselves in point of Episcopacy but of these Tracts it will not concern me to say more than that they were most of them dedicated to his and the Church of Englands watchful Patron Iohn Whitgift the Archbishop and printed about the year in which Mr. Hooker also appeared first to the world in the Publication of his four Books of Ecclesiastical Polity This friendship being sought for by this Learned Doctor you may believe was not denied by Mr. Hooker who was by fortune so like him as to be engaged against Mr. Travers Mr. Cartwright and others of their Judgment in a controversie too like Doctor Saravia's So that in this year of 1595. and in this place of Borne these two excellent persons began a Holy Friendship increasing dayly to so high and mutual affections that their two wills seemed to be but one and the same and designs both for the glory of God and peace of the Church still assisting and improving each others vertues and the desired comforts of a peaceable Piety which I have willingly mentioned because it gives a foundation to some things that follow This Parsonage of Borne is from Canterbury three miles and near to the common Road that leads from that City to Dover in which Parsonage Mr. Hooker had not been twelve moneths but his Books and the Innocency and Sanctity of his Life became so remarkable that many turn'd out of the road and others Scholars especially went purposely to see the Man whose Life and Learning were so much admired and alas as our Saviour said of St. Iohn Baptist
George Cranmer of whom I have spoken and shall have occasion to say more was one of the Witnesses to it One of his elder Daughters was married to one Chalinor sometime a Schoolmaster in Chichester both dead long since Margaret his youngest Daughter was married unto Ezekiel Chark Batchelor in Divinity and Rector of S. Nicholas in Harbledown near Canterbury whoâ— died about 16 years past and had a Son Ezekiel now living and in Sacred Orders being at this time Rector of Waldron in Sussex she left also a Daughter with both whom I have spoken not many months past and find her to be a widow in a condition that wants not but far from abounding and these two attested unto me that Richard Hooker their Grandfather had a Sister by name Elizabeth Harvey that liv'd to the Age of 121 years and died in the moneth of September 1663. For his other two Daughters I can learn little certainty but have heard they both died before they were Marriageable and for his Wife she was so unlike Iepthaes Daughter that she staid not a comely time to bewail her Widdow-hood nor liv'd long enough to repent her second Marriage for which doubtless she would have found cause if there had been but four months betwixt Mr. Hookers and her death But she is dead and let her other infirmities be buried with her Thus much briefly for his Age the year of his Death his Estate his Wife and his Children I am next to speak of his Books concerning which I shall have a necessity of being longer or shall neither do right to my self of my Reader which is chiefly intended in this Appendix I have declared in his Life that he proposed eight Books and that his first four were Printed Anno 1594. and his fifth Book first printed and alone Anno 1597. and that he liv'd to finish the remaining three of the proposed eight but whether we have the last three as finisht by himself is a just and Material Question concerning which I do declare That I have been told almost forty years past by one that very well knew Mr. Hooker and the affaires of his Family that about a moneth after the death of Mr. Hooker Bishop Whitgist then Archbishop of Canterbury sent one of his Chaplains to enquire of Mrs. Hooker for the three remaining Books of Polity writ by her Husband of which she would not or could not give any account and I have been told that about three moneths after the Bishop procured her to be sent for to London and then by his procurement she was to be examined by some of her Majesties Council concerning the disposal of those Books but by way of preparation for the next days examination the Bishop invited her to Lambeth and after some friendly questions she confessed to him that one Mr. Charke and another Minister that dwelt near Canterbury came to her and desired that they might go into her Husbands Study and look upon some of his Writings and that there they two burnt and tore many of them assuring her that they were writings not fit to be seen and that she knew nothing more concerning them Her lodging was then in Kingstreet in Westminster where she was sound next morning dead in her Bed and her new Husband suspected and questioned for it but was declared innocent of her Death And I declare also that Doctor Iohn Spencer mentioned in the Life of Mr. Hooker who was of Mr. Hookers Colledge and of his time there and betwixt whom there was so friendly a friendship that they continually advised together in all their Studies and particularly in what concern'd these Books of Polity this Doctor Spencer the three perfect Books being lost had delivered into his hands I think by Bishop Whitgift the imperfect Books or first rough draughts of them to be made as perfect as they might be by him who both knew Mr. Hookers hand-writing and was best acquainted with his intentions And a fair Testimony of this may appear by an Epistle first and usually printed before Mr. Hookers five Books but omitted I know not why in the last impression of the eight Printed together in Anno 1662. in which the Publishers seem to impose the three doubtful as the undoubted Books of Mr. Hooker with these two Letters I.S. at the end of the said Epistle which was meant for this Iohn Spencer in which Epistle the Reader may find these very words which may give some Authority to what I have here written And though Mr. Hooker hastened his own Death by hastening to give Life to his Books yet he held out with his eyes to behold these Benjamins these Sons of his right Hand though to him they prov'd Benonics Sons of pain and sorrow But some evil disposed minds whether of Malice or Covetousness or wicked blind Zeal it is uncertain as soon as they were born and their Fathers dead smother'd them and by conveying the perfect Copies left unto us nothing but the old imperfect mangled droughts dismembred into pieces no favour no grace not the shadow of themselves remaining in them had the Father lived to behold them thus defaced he might rightly have named them Benonies the Sons of Sorrow but being the learned will not suffer them to die and be buried it is intended the world shall see them as they are the learned will find in them some shadows and resemblances of their Fathers face God grant that as they were with their Brethren dedicated to the Church for messengers of Peace so in the strength of the little breath of Life that remaineth in them they may prosper in their work and that by satisfying the Doubts of such as are willing to learn they may help to give an end to the calamities of these our Civil Wars I. S. And next the Reader may note that this Epistle of Doctor Spencers was writ and first Printed within four years after the death of Mr. Hooker in which time all diligent search had been made for the perfect Copies and then granted not recoverable and therefore indeavoured to be compleated out of Mr. Hookers rough draughts as is exprest by the said Doctor Spencer since whose death it is now fifty years And I do profess by the Faith of a Christian that Doctor Spencers Wife who was my Aunt and Sister to George Cranmer of whom I have spoken told me forty years since in these or in words to this purpose that her Husband had made up or finisht Mr. Hookers last three Books and that upon her Husbands Death-bed or in his last sickness he gave them into her hand with a charge they should not be seen by any Man but be by her delivered into the hands of the then Archbishop of Canterbury which was Doctor Abbot or unto Doctor King Bishop of London and that she did as he injoyn'd her I do conceive that from Doctor Spencers and no other Copy there have been divers Transcripts and wereto be found in several places as namely
in Sir Thomas Bodlies Library in that of Doctor Andrews late Bishop of Winton in the late Lord Conwayes in the Archbishop of Canterburies and in the Bishop of Armaghs and in many others and most of these pretended to be the Authors own hand but much disagreeing being indeed altered and diminisht as Men have thought fittest to make Mr. Hookers Judgment suit with their Fancies or give authority to their corrupt designs and for proof of a part of this take these following testimonies Doctor Barnard sometime Chaplain to Doctor Usher late Lord Archbishop of Armagh hath declar'd in a late Book called Clavi Trabales Printed by Richard Hodgkinson Anno 1661. that in his search and examination of the said Bishops Manuscripts he there found the three written Books which were the supposed sixth seventh and eighth of Mr. Hookers Books of Ecclesiastical Polity and that in the said three Books now printed as Mr. Hookers there are so many Omissions that they amount to many Paragraphs and which cause many incoherencies the Omissions are by him set down at large in the said Printed Book to which I refer the Reader for the whole but think fit in this place to insert this following short part of them First as there could be in Natural Bodies no Motion of any thing unless there were some first which moved all things and continued Unmoveable even so in Politick Societies there must be some unpunishable or else no Man shall suffer punishment for sith punishments proceed always from Superiors to whom the administration of Iustice belongeth which administration must have necessarily a Fountain that deriveth it to all others and receiveth not from any because otherwise the course of Iustice should go infinitely in a Circle every Superiour having his Superiour without end which cannot be therefore a well spring it followeth there is a Supreme head of Iustice whereunto all are subject but it self in subjection to none Which kinde of Preheminency if some ought to have in a Kingdom who but the King shall have it Kings therefore or no man can have lawfull power to Iudge If Private men offend there is the Magistrate over them which Iudgeth if Magistrates they have their Prince if Princes there is Heaven a Tribunal before which they shall appear on Earth they are not accomptable to any Here says the Doctor it breaks off abruptly And I have these words also attested under the hand of Mr. Fabian Phillips a man of note for his useful Books I will make Oath if I shall be required that Doctor Sanderson the late Bishop of Lincoln did a little before his Death affirm to me he had seen a Manuscript affirmed to him to be the hand-writing of Mr. Richard Hooker in which there was no mention made of the King or Supreme Governors being accomptable to the People this I will make Oath that that good Man attested to me Fabian Phillips So that there appears to be both Omissions and Additions in the said last three printed Books and this may probably be one Reason why Doctor Sanderson the said Learned Bishop whose writings are so highly and justly valued gave a strict charge near the time of his Death or in his last Will that nothing of his that was not already Printed should be Printed after his Death It is well known how high a value our Learned King Iames put upon the Books writ by Mr. Hooker as also that our late King Charls the Martyr for the Church valued them the second of all Books testified by his commending them to the reading of his Son Charls that now is our Gratious King and you may suppose that this Charls the First was not a stranger to the pretended three Books because in a discourse with the Lord Say when the said Lord required the King to grant the truth of his Argument because it was the Judgement of Mr. Hooker quoting him in one of the three written Books the King replyed they were not allowed to be Mr Hookers Books but however he would allow them to be Mr. Hookers and consent to what his Lordship proposed to prove out of those doubtful Books if he would but consent to the Iudgment of Mr. Hooker in the other five that were the undoubted Books of Mr. Hooker In this Relation concerning these three doubtful Books of Mr. Hookers my purpose was to enquire then set down what I observ'd and know which I have done not as an engaged Person but indifferently and now leave my Reader to give Sentence for their Legitimation as to himself but so as to leave others the same Liberty of believing or disbelieving them to be Mr. Hookers and 't is observable that as Mr. Hooker advis'd with Doctor Spencer in the design and manage of these Books so also and chiefly with this dear Pupil George Cranmer whose Sister was the Wife of Doctor Spencer of which this following Letter may be a Testimony and doth also give authority to some things mentioned both in this Appendix and in the Life of Mr. Hooker and is therefore added GEORGE CRANMERS LETTER UNTO Mr. RICHARD HOOKER February 1598. WHat Posterity is likely to judge of these matters concerning Church Discipline we may the better conjecture if we call to mind what our own Age within few years upon better Experience hath already judged concerning the same It may be remembred that at first the greatest part of the Learned in the Land were either eagerly affected or favourably inclined that way The Books then written for the most part savoured of the Disciplinary Stile it sounded everywhere in Pulpits and in common phrase of mens speech the contrary part began to fear they had taken a wrong course many which impugned the Discipline yet so impugned it not as not being the better form of Government but as not being so convenient for our State in regard of dangerous Innovations thereby like to grow one man alone there was to speak of whom let no suspition of flattery deprive of his deserved Commendation wâ—o in the defiance of the one part and courage of the other stood in the gap and gave others respite to prepare themselves to the defence which by the sudden eagerness and violence of their Adversaries had otherwise been prevented wherein God hath made good unto him his own Impress Vincit qui patitur for what contumelious indignities he hath at their hands sustained the world is witness and what reward of Honour above his Adversaries God hath bestowed upon him themselves though nothing glad thereof must needs confess Now of late years the heat of men towards the Discipline is greatly decayed their Judgements begin to sway on the other side the Learned have weighed it and found it light wise men conceive some fear left it prove not only not the best kind of Government but the very bane and destruction of all Government The cause of this Change in Mens Opinions may be drawn from the general nature of Error disguised and
many deep and profound points of Doctrine as being the main original ground whereupon the Precepts of duty depend many Prophecies the clear performance whereof might confirm the World in belief of things unseen many Histories to serve as Looking-glasses to behold the Mercy the Truth the Righteousness of God towards all that faithfully serve obey and honor him yea many intire Meditations of Piety to be as Patterns and Precedents in cases of like Nature many things needful for Explication many for Application unto particular occasions such as the Providence of God from time to time hath taken to have the several Books of his holy Ordinance written Be it then that together with the principal necessary Laws of God there are sundry other things written whereof we might haply be ignorant and yet be saved What shall we hereupon think them needless shall we esteem them as riotous Branches wherewith we sometimes behold most pleasant Vines overgrown Surely no more then we judge our hands or our eyes superfluous or what part soever which if our Bodies did want we might notwithstanding any such defect retain still the compleat Being of Men. As therefore a compleat Man is neither destitute of any part necessary and hath some parts whereof though the want could not deprive him of his essence yet to have them standeth him in singular stead in respect of the special uses for which they serve In like sort all those writings which contain in them the Law of God all those venerable Books of Scripture all those Sacred Tomes and Volumes of holy Writ they are with such absolute perfection framed that in them there neither wanteth any thing the lack whereof might deprive us of life nor any thing in such wise aboundeth that as being superfluous unfruitful and altogether needless we should think it no loss or danger at all if we did want it 14. Although the Scripture of God therefore be stored with infinite variety of matter in all kindes although it abound with all sorts of Laws yet the principal intent of Scripture is to deliver the Laws of Duties Supernatural Oftentimes it hath been in very solemn manner disputed whether all things necessary unto salvation be necessarily set down in the holy Scriptures If we define that necessary unto salvation whereby the way to salvation is in any sort made more plain apparent and easie to be known then is there no part of true Philosophy no Art of account no kinde of Science rightly so called but the Scripture must contain it If onely those things be necessary as surely none else are without the knowledge and practise whereof it is not the will and pleasure of God to make any ordinary grant of salvation it may be notwithstanding and oftentimes hath been demanded how the Books of holy Scripture contain in them all necessary things when of things necessary the very chief is to know what Books we are bound to esteem holy which point is confest impossible for the Scripture it self to teach Whereunto we may answer with truth that there is not in the World any Art or Science which proposing unto it self an end as every one doth some end or other hath been therefore thought defective if it have not delivered simply whatsoever is needful to the same end but all kindes of knowledge have their certain bounds and limits each of them presupposeth many necessary things learned in other Sciences and known beforehand He that should take upon him to teach men how to be eloquent in pleading causes must needs deliver unto them whatsoever Precepts are requisite unto that end otherwise he doth not the thing which he taketh upon him Seeing then no man can plead eloquently unless he be able first to speak it followeth that ability of speech is in this case a thing most necessary Notwithstanding every man would think it ridiculous that he which undertaketh by writing to instruct an Orator should therefore deliver all the Precepts of Grammar because his Profession is to deliver Precepts necessary unto eloquent speech yet so that they which are to receive them be taught beforehand so much of that which is thereunto necessary as comprehendeth the skill of speaking In like sort albeit Scripture do profess to contain in it all things which are necessary unto salvation yet the meaning cannot be simply of all things which are necessary but all things that are necessary in some certain kinde or form as all things that are necessary and either could not at all or could not easily be known by the light of Natural discourse all things which are necessary to be known that we may be saved but known with presupposal of knowledge concerning certain Principles whereof it receiveth us already perswaded and then instructeth us in all the residue that are necessary In the number of these Principles one is the Sacred Authority of Scripture Being therefore perswaded by other means that these Scriptures are the Oracles of God themselves do then teach us the rest and lay before us all the duties which God requireth at our hands as necessary unto salvation Further there hath been some doubt likewise whether containing in Scripture do import express setting down in plain terms or else comprehending in such sort that by reason we may from thence conclude all things which are necessary Against the former of these two constructions instance hath sundry ways been given For our belief in the Trinity the Co-eternity of the Son of God with his Father the proceeding of the Spirit from the Father and the Son the duty of Baptizing Infants These with such other principal points the necessity whereof is by none denied are notwithstanding in Scripture no where to be found by express literal mention onely deduced they are out of Scripture by collection This kinde of comprehension in Scripture being therefore received still there is no doubt how far we are to proceed by collection before the full and compleat measure of things necessary be made up For let us not think that as long as the World doth endure the wit of man shall be able to sound the bottom of that which may be concluded out of the Scripture especially if things contained by collection do so far extend as to draw in whatsoever may be at any time out of Scripture but probably and conjecturally surmized But let necessary collection be made requisite and we may boldly deny that of all those things which at this day are with so great necessity urged upon this Church under the name of Reformed Church Discipline there is any one which their Books hitherto have made manifest to be contained in the Scripture Let them if they can alledge but one properly belonging to their cause and not common to them and us and shew the deduction thereof out of Scripture to be necessary It hath been already shewed how all things necessary unto salvation in such sort as before we have maintained must needs be possible for
otherwise they seem when by heat of contention they are divided into many slips and of every Branch an heap is made Surely as now we have drawn them together choosing out those things which are requisite to be severally all discust and omitting such mean Specialities as are likely without any great labour to fall afterwards of themselves I know no cause why either the number or the length of these Controversies should diminish our hope of seeing them end with concond and love on all sides which of his infinite love and goodness the Father of all peace and unity grant Unto which Scope that our endeavour may the more directly tend it seemeth fittest that first those things be examined which are as seeds from whence the rest that ensue have grown And of such the most general is that wherewith we are here to make our entrance A Question not moved I think any where in other Churches and therefore in ours the more likely to be soon I trust determined the rather for that it hath grown from no other root then only a desire to enlarge the necessary use of the Word of God which desire hath begotten an Error inlarging it further then as we are perswaded soundness of truth will bear For whereas God hath left sundry kindes of Laws unto men and by all those Laws the actions of men are in some sort directed They hold that one only Law the Scripture must be the Rule to direct in all things even so far as to the taking up of a Rush or Straw About which point there should not need any question to grow and that which is grown might presently end if they did yield but to these two restraints The first is Not to extend the actions whereof they speak so low as that Instance doth import of taking up a Straw but rather keep themselves at the least within the compass of Moral Actions Actions which have in them Vice of Vertue The second Not to exact at our hands for every action the knowledge of some place of Scripture out of which we stand bound to deduce it as by divers Testimonies they seek to enforce but rather as the truth is so to acknowledge that it sufficeth if such actions be framed according to the Law of Reason the general Axiomes Rules and Principles of which Law being so frequent in Holy Scripture there is no let but in that regard even out of Scripture such duties may be deduced by some kind of Consequence as by long circuit of Deduction it may be that even all Truth out of any Truth may be concluded howbeit no man bound in such sort to deduce all his actions out of Scripture as if either the place be to him unknown whereon they may be concluded or the reference unto that place not presently considered of the action shall in that respect be condemned as unlawful In this we dissent and this we are presently to examine 1. In all parts of knowledge rightly so termed things most general are most strong Thus it must be inasmuch as the certainty of our perswasion touching particulars dependeth altogether upon the credit of those Generalities out of which they grow Albeit therefore every cause admit not such Infallible Evidence of proof as leaveth no possibility of doubt or scruple behinde it yet they who claim the general assent of the whole world unto that which they teach and do not fear to give very hard and heavy sentence upon as many as refuse to embrace the same must have special regard that their first Foundations and Grounds be more then slender probabilities This whole Question which hath been moved about the kinde of Church Regiment we could not but for our own resolution sake endeavour to unrip and sist following therein as near as we might the conduct or that judicial Method which serveth best for invention of Truth By means whereof having found this the Head Theorem of all their Discourses who plead for the change of Ecclesiastical Government in England namely That the Scripture of God is in such sort the rule of humane actions that simply whatsoever we do and are not by it directed thereunto the same is sin we hold it necessary that the proofs hereof be weighed Be they of weight sufficient or otherwise it is not ours to judge and determine onely what difficulties there are which as yet with-hold our assent till we be further and better satisfied I hope no indifferent amongst them will scorn or refuse to hear First therefore whereas they alledge That Wisdom doth teach men every good way and have thereupon inferred that no way is good in any kinde of action unless Wisdom do by Scripture lead unto it See they not plainly how they restrain the manifold ways which Wisdom hath to teach men by unto one onely way of teaching which is by Scripture The bounds of Wisdom are large and within them much is contained Wisdom was Adams Instructor in Paradise Wisdom endued the Fathers who lived before the Law with the knowledge of holy things by the wisdom of the Law of God David attained to excel others in understanding and Solomon likewise to excel David by the self-same wisedome of God teaching him many things besides the Law The ways of well-doing are in number even as many as are the kindes of voluntary actions so that whatsoever we do in this World and may do it ill we shew our selves therein by well-doing to be wise Now if wisdom did teach men by Scripture not only all the ways that are right and good in some certain kinde according to that of S. Paul concerning the use of Scripture but did simply without any manner of exception restraint or distinction teach every way of doing well There is no Art but Scripture should teach it because every Art doth teach the way how to do something or other well To teach men therefore Wisdom professeth and to teach them every good way but not every good way by one way of teaching Whatsoever either men on Earth or the Angels of Heaven do know it is as a drop of that unemptiable Fountain of Wisdom which Wisdom hath diversly imparted her treasures unto the World As her ways are of sundry kinds so her manner of teaching is not meerly one and the same Some things she openeth by the Sacred Books of Scripture some things by the glorious works of Nature with some things she inspireth them from above by spiritual influence in some things she leadeth and traineth them onely by worldly experience and practice We may not so in any one special kinde admire her that we disgrace her in any other but let all her ways be according unto their place and degree adored 2. That all things be done to the glory of God the blessed Apostle it is true exhorteth The glory of God is the admirable excellency of that Vertue Divine which being made manifest causeth Men and Angels to extol his
that in truth they never meant any otherwise to tie the one then the other unto Scripture both being thereunto equally tied as far as each is required in the same kinde of necessity unto Salvation If therefore it be not unlawful to know and with full perswasion to believe much more then Scripture alone doth teach if it be against all Sense and Reason to condemn the knowledge of so many Arts and Sciences as are otherwise learned then in Holy Scripture notwithstanding the manifest Speeches of ancient Catholick Fathers which seem to close up within the bosom thereof all manner good and lawful knowledge wheresore should their words be thought more effectual to shew that we may not in deeds and practice then they are to prove that in speculation and knowledge we ought not to go any further then the Scripture Which Scripture being given to teach matters of belief no less then of action the Fathers must needs be and are even as plain against credit besides the relation as against practice without the injunction of the Scripture S. Augustine hath said Whether it be question of Christ or whether it be question of his Church or of what thing soever the question be I say not if we but if an Angel from Heaven shall tell us any thing beside that you have received in the Scripture under the Law and the Gospel let him be accursed In like sort Tertallian We may not give our selves this liberty to bring in any thing of our will nor chuse any thing that other men bring in of their will we have the Apostles themselves for Authors which themselves brought nothing of their own will but the Discipline which they received of Christ they delivered faithfully unto the people in which place the name of Discipline importeth not as they who alledge it would fain have it construed but as any man who noteth the circumstance of the place and the occasion of uttering the words will easily acknowledge even the self-same thing it signifieth which the name of Doctrine doth and as well might the one as the other there have been used To help them farther doth not S. Ierome after the self-same manner dispute We believe it not because we read it not yea We ought not so much as to know the things which the Book of the Law containeth not saith S. Hilary Shall we hereupon then conclude that we may not take knowledge of or give credit unto any thing which sense or experience or report or art doth propose unless we finde the same in Scripture No it is too plain that so far to extend their Speeches is to wrest them against their true intent and meaning To urge any thing upon the Church requiring thereunto that Religious Assent of Christian Belief wherewith the words of the Holy Prophets are received to urge any thing as part of that supernatural and celestially revealed Truth which God hath taught and not to shew it in Scripture this did the ancient Fathers evermore think unlawful impious execrable And thus as their Speeches were meant so by us they must be restrained As for those alledged words of Cyprian The Christian Religion shall finde that out of this Scripture Rules of all Doctrines have sprung and that from hence doth spring and hither doth return whatsoever the Ecclesiastical Discipline doth contain Surely this place would never have been brought forth in this cause if it had been but once read over in the Author himself out of whom it is cited For the words are uttered concerning that one principal Commandment of Love in the honour whereof hespeaketh after this sort Surely this Commandment containeth the Law and the Prophets and in this one Word is the Abridgement of all the Volumes of Scripture This Nature and Reason and the authority of thy Word O Lord doth proclaim this we have heard out of thy month herein the perfection of all Religion doth consist This is the first Commandment and the last This being written in the Book of Life is as it were an everlasting lesson both to Men and Angels Let Christian Religion read this one Word and meditate upon this Commandment and out of this Scriptrue it shall finde the Rules of all Learning to have spring and from hence to have risen and hither to return whatsoever the Ecclesiastical Discipline containeth and that in all things it is vain and bootless which Charity confirmeth not Was this a sentence trow you of so great force to prove that Scripture is the onely Rule of all the actions of men Might they not hereby even as well prove that one Commandment of Scripture is the onely rule of all things and so exclude the rest of the Scripture as now they do all means besides Scripture But thus it fareth when too much desire of contradiction causeth our speech rather to pass by number then to stay for weight Well but Tertullian doth in this case speak yet more plainly The Scripture saith he denieth what it noteth not which are indeed the words of Tertullian But what the Scripture reckoneth up the Kings of Israel and amongst those Kings David the Scripture reckoneth up the sons of David and amongst those sons Solomon To prove that amongst the Kings of Israel there was no David but only one no Solomon but one in the sons of David Tertullians Argument will fitly prove For inasmuch as the Scripture did propose to reckon up all if there were moe it would haue named them In this case the Scripture doth deny the thing it noteth not Howbeit I could not but think that man to do me some piece of manifest injury which would hereby fasten upon me a general Opinion as if I did think the Scripture to deny the very Reign of King Henry the Eighth because it no where noteth that any such King did reign Tertullians speech is probable concerning such matter as he there speaketh of There was saith Tertullian no second Lamech like to him that had two wives the Scripture denieth what it noteth not As therefore it noteth one such to have been in that Age of the World so had there been moe it would by likelihood as well have noted many as one What infer we now hereupon There was no second Lamech the Scripture denieth what it noteth not Were it consonant unto reason to divorce these two Sentences the former of which doth shew how the latter is retrained and not marking the former to conclude by the latter of them that simply whatsoever any man at this day doth think true is by the Scripture denied unless it be there affirmed to be true I wonder that a case so weak and feeble hath been so much persisted in But to come unto those their Sentences wherein matters of action are more apparently touched the Name of Tertullian is as before so here again pretended who writing unto his Wife two Books and exhorting her in the one to live a Widow
it self could not reach unto Yet those things also we believe knowing by Reason that the Scripture is the Word of God In the presence of Festus a Roman and of King Agrippa a Jew St. Paul omitting the one who neither knew the Jews Religion not the Books whereby they were taught it speaks unto the other of things foreshewed by Moses and the Prophets and performed in Jesus Christ intending thereby to prove himself so unjustly accused that unless his Judges did condemn both Moses and the Prophets him they could not chuse but acquit who taught onely that fulfilled which they so long since had foretold His cause was easie to be discerned what was done their eyes were witnesses what Moses and the Prophets did speak their Books could quickly shew It was no hard thing for him to compare them which knew the one and believed the other King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets I know thou dost The question is how the Books of the Prophets came to be credited of King Agrippa For what with him did authorise the Prophets the like with us doth cause the rest of the Scripture of God to be of credit Because we maintain That in Scripture we are taught all things necessary unto Salvation hereupon very childishly it is by some demanded What Scripture can teach us the Sacred Authority of the Scripture upon the knowledge whereof our whole Faith and Salvation dependeth As though there were any kinde of Science in the World which leadeth men unto knowledge without presupposing a number of things already known No Science doth make known the first Principles whereon it buildeth but they are always either taken as plain and manifest in themselves or as proved and granted already some former knowledge having made them evident Scripture teacheth all supernaturally revealed Truth without the knowledge whereof Salvation cannot be attained The main principal whereupon our belief of all things therein contained dependeth is That the Scriptures are the Oracles of God himself This in it self we cannot say is evident For then all men that hear it would acknowledge it in heart as they do when they hear that every whole is more then any part of that whole because this in it self is evident The other we know that all do not acknowledge when they hear it There must be therefore some former knowledge presupposed which doth herein assure the hearts of all Believers Scripture teacheth us that saving Truth which God hath discovered unto the World by Revelation and it presumeth us taught otherwise that it self is Divine and Sacred The question then being By what means we are taught this some answer That to learn it we have no other way then onely Tradition as namely that so we believe because both we from our Predecessors and they from theirs have so received But is this enough That which all mens experience teacheth them may not in any wise be denied And by experience we all know that the first outward Motive leading men so to esteem of the Scripture is the authority of Gods Church For when we know the whole Church of God hath that opinion of the Scripture we judge it even at the first an impudent thing for any man bred and brought up in the Church to be of a contrary minde without cause Afterwards the more we bestow our labor in reading or hearing the Mysteries thereof the more we finde that the thing it self doth answer our received opinion concerning it So that the former enducement prevailing somewhat with us before doth now much more prevail when the very thing hath Ministred further Reason If Infidels or Atheists chance at any time to call it in question this giveth us occasion to sift what reason there is whereby the testimony of the Church concerning Scripture and our own perswasion which Scripture it self hath confirmed may be proved a truth infallible In which case the ancient Fathers being often constrained to shew what warrant they had so much to relie upon the Scriptures endeavored still to maintain the authority of the Books of God by Arguments such as unbelievers themselves must needs think reasonable if they judged thereof as they should Neither is it a thing impossible or greatly heard even by such kinde of proofs so to manifest and clear that point that no man living shall be able to deny it without denying some apparent Principle such as all men acknowledge to be true Wherefore if I believe the Gospel yet is reason of singular use for that it confirmeth me in this my belief the more If I do not as yet believe nevertheless to bring me into the number of Believers except Reason did somewhat help and were an Instrument which God doth use unto such purposes what should it boot to dispute with Infidels or godless persons for their conversion and perswasion in that point Neither can I think that when grave and learned men do sometime hold that of this Principle there is no proof but by the testimony of the Spirit which assureth our hearts therein it is their meaning to exclude utterly all force which any kinde of Reason may have in that behalf but I rather incline to interpret such their speeches as if they had more expresly set down that other motives and enducements be they never so strong and consonant unto Reason are notwithstanding ineffectual of themselves to work Faith concerning this Principle if the special Grace of the Holy Ghost concur not to the enlightning of our mindes For otherwise I doubt not but men of wisdom and judgment will grant That the Church in this point especially is furnished with Reason to stop the mouths of her impious Adversaries and that as it were altogether bootless to alledge against them what the Spirit hath taught us so likewise that even to our own selves it needeth Caution and Explication how the testimony of the Spirit may be discerned by what means it may be known lest men think that the Spirit of God doth testifie those things which the spirit of error suggesteth The operations of the Spirit especially these ordinary which be common unto all true Christian men are as we know things secret and undiscernable even to the very soul where they are because their nature is of another and an higher kinde then that they can be by us perceived in this life Wherefore albeit the Spirit lead us into all truth and direct us in all goodness yet because these workings of the Spirit in us are so privy and secret we theresore stand on a plainer ground when we gather by Reason from the quality of things believed or done that the Spirit of God hath directed us in both then if we settle our selves to believe or to do any certain particular thing as being moved thereto by the Spirit But of this enough To go from the Books of Scripture to the sense and meaning thereof because the Sentences which are by the Apostles recited out of the Psalms to prove
Reasons and Arguments by way of generality to prove that Christ hath set down all things belonging any way unto the Form of ordering his Church and hath obsolutely forbidden change by Addition or Diminution great or small for so their manner of disputing is We are constrained to make our Defence by shewing That Christ hath not deprived his Church so far of all Liberty in making Orders and Laws for it self and that they themselves do not think he hath so done For are they able to shew that all particular Customs Rites and Orders of Reformed Churches have been appointed by Christ himself No They grant that in Matter of Circumstance they alter that which they have received but in things of Substance they keep the Laws of Christ without change If we say the same in our own behalf which surely we may do with a great deal more truth then must they cancel all that hath been before alledged and begin to enquire afresh Whether we retain the Laws that Christ hath delivered concerning Matters of Substance yea or no. For our constant perswasion in this point is as theirs That we have no where altered the Laws of Christ further then in such Particularities onely as have the nature of things changeable according to the difference of times places persons and other the like circumstances Christ hath commanded Prayers to be made Sacraments to be ministred his Church to be carefully taught and guided Concerning every of these somewhat Christ hath commanded which must be kept till the Worlds end On the contrary side in every of them somewhat there may be added as the Church shall judge it expedient So that if they will speak to purpose all which hitherto hath been disputed of they must give over and stand upon such particulars onely as they can shew we have either added or abrogated otherwise then we ought in the Matter of Church Poliâ—y Whatsoever Christ hath commanded for ever to be kept in his Church the same we take not upon us to abrogate and whatsoever our Laws have thereunto added besides of such quality we hope it is as no Law of Christ doth any where condemn Wherefore that all may be laid together and gathered into a narrow room First So far forth as the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ and his Invisible Spouse it needeth no External Polity That very part of the Law Divine which teacheth Faith and Works of Righteousness is it self alone sufficient for the Church of God in that respect But as the Church is a Visible Society and Body Politick Laws of Polity it cannot want Secondly Whereas therefore is cometh in the second place to be enquired what Laws are fitest and best for the Church they who first embraced that rigorous and strict opinion which depriveth the Church of Liberty to make any kinde of Law for her self inclined as it should seem thereunto for that they imagined all things which the Church doth without commandment of holy Scripture subject to that reproof which the Scripture it self useth in certain cases when Divine Authority ought alone to be followed Hereupon they thought it enough for the cancelling of any kinde of Order whatsoever to say The Word of God teacheth it not it is a device of the Brain of Man away with it therefore out of the Church St. Augustine was of another minde who speaking of Fasts on the Sunday saith That he which would chuse out that day to fast on should give thereby no small offence to the Church of God which had received a contrary Custom For in these things whereof the Scripture appointeth no certainty the use of the People of God or the Ordinances of our Fathers must serve for a Law In which case if we will dispute and condemn one sort by anothers custom it will be but matter of endless contention where for as much as the labor of reasoning shall hardly be at into mens heads any certain or necessary truth surely it standeth us upon to take heed lest with the Tempest of Strife the Brightness of Charity and Love be darkned If all things must be commanded of God which may be practised of his Church I would know what commandment the Gileadites had to erect that Altar which is spoken of in the Book of Ioshua Did not congruity of Reason enduce them thereunto and suffice for defence of their Fact I would know what commandment the Women of Israel had yearly to mourn and lament in the memory of Iephâ—hahs daughter what commandment the Iews had to celebrate their Feast of Dedication never spoken of in the Law yet solemnized even by our Saviour himself what commandment finally they had for the Ceremony of Odors used about the Bodies of the Dead after which custom notwithstanding sith it was their custom our Lord was contented that his own most precious Body should be intombed Wherefore to reject all Orders of the Church which Men have established is to think worse of the Laws of Men in this respect then either the judgment of wise men alloweth or the Law of God it self will bear Howbeit they which had once taken upon them to condemn all things done in the Church and not commanded of God to be done saw it was necessary for them continuing in defence of this their opinion to hold that needs there must be in Scripture set down a compleat particular Form of Church Polity a Form prescribing how all the affairs of the Church must be ordered a Form in no respect lawful to be altered by Mortal Men. For Reformation of which over-sight and error in them there were that thought it a part of Christian love and charity to instruct them better and to open unto them the difference between Matters of perpetual necessity to all Mens salvation and Matters of Ecclesiastical Polity The one both fully and plainly taught in holy Scripture the other not necessary to be in such sort there prescribed The one not capable of any Diminution or Augmentation at all by Men the other apt to admit both Hereupon the Authors of the former opinion were presently seconded by other wittier and better learned who being loth that the Form of Church Polity which they sought to bring in should be otherwise then in the highest degree accounted of took first an exception against the difference between Church Polity and Matters of necessity to Salvation Secondly Against the Restraint of Scripture which they say receiveth injury at our hands when we teach that it teacheth not as well Matters of Polity as of Faith and Salvation Thirdly Constrained thereby we have been therefore both to maintain that distinction as a thing not onely true in it self but by them likewise so acknowledged though unawares Fourthly And to make manifest that from Scripture we offer not to derogate the least thing that Truth thereunto doth claim in as much as by us it is willingly confest That the Scripture of God is a
for Secular as Sacred uses was commanded to make not to sanctifie but the Unction of the Tabernacle the Table the Laver the Altar of God with all the instruments appertaining thereunto this made them for ever holy unto him in whose service they were imployed But what of this Doth it hereupon follow that all things now in the Church from the greatest to the least are unholy which the Lord hath not himself precisely instituted for so those Rudiments they say do import Then is there nothing holy which the Church by her Authority hath appointed and consequently all positive Ordinances that ever were made by Ecclesiastical Power touching Spiritual affairs are prophane they are unholy I would not with them to undertake a Work so desperate as to prove that for the Peoples instruction no kinde of Reading is good but only that which the Jews devised under Antiochus although even that he also mistaken For according to Elius the Levite out of whom it doth seem borrowed the thing which Antiochus forbad was the Publick reading of the Law and not Sermons upon the Law Neither did the Jews read a Portion of the Prophets together with the Law to serve for an interpretation thereof because Sermons were not permitted them But instead of the Law which they might not read openly they read of the Prophets that which in likeness of matter came nearest to each Section of their Law Whereupon when afterwards the liberty of reading the Law was restored the self-same Custom as touching the Prophets did continue still If neither the Jews have used publickly to read their Paraphrasts nor the Primitive Church for a long time any other Writings than Scripture except the Cause of their not doing it were some Law of God or Reason forbidding them to do that which we do why should the latter Ages of the Church be deprived of the Liberty the former had Are we bound while the World standeth to put nothing in practice but onely that which was at the very first Concerning the Council of Laodicea is it forbiddeth the reading of those things which are not Canonical so it maketh some things not Canonical which are Their Judgment in this we may not and in that we need not follow We have by thus many years experience found that exceeding great good not incumbred with any notable inconvenience hath grown by the Custome which we now observe As for the harm whereof judicious men have complained in former times it came not of this that other things were read besides the Scripture but that so evil choyce was made With us there is never any time bestowed in Divine Service without the reading of a great part of the holy Scripture which we acount a thing most necessary We dare not admit any such Form of Liturgy as either appointeth no Scripture at all or very little to be read in the Church And therefore the thrusting of the Bible out of the House of God is rather there to be feared where men esteem it a matter so indifferent whether the same be by solemn appointment read publickly or not read the bare Text excepted which the Preacher haply chuseth out to expound But let us here consider what the Practise of our Fathers before us hath been and how far-forth the same may be followed We find that in ancient times there was publickly read first the Scripture as namely something out of the Books of the Prophets of God which were of old something out of the Apostles Writings and lastly out of the holy Evangelists some things which touched the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ himself The cause of their reading first the old Testament then the New and always somewhat out of both is most likely to have been that which Iustin Martyr and Saint August observe in comparing the two Testaments The Apostles saith the one hath taught us as themselves did learn first the Precepts of the Law and then the Gospels For what else is the Law but the Gospel foreshewed What other the Gospel than the Law fulfilled In like sort the other What the Old Testament hath the very same the New containeth but that which lyeth there at under a shadow in here brought forth into the open Sun Things there prefigured are here performed Again In the Old Testament there is a close comprehension of the New in the New an open discovery of the Old To be short the method of their Publick readings either purposely did tend or at the least-wise doth fitly serve That from smaller things the mindes of the Hearers may go forward to the Knowledge of greater and by degrees climbe up from the lowest to the highest things Now besides the Scripture the Books which they called Ecclesiastical were thought not unworthy sometime to be brought into publick audience and with that Name they intituled the Books which we term Apocryphal Under the self-same Name they also comprised certain no otherwise annexed unto the New than the former unto the Old Testament as a Book of Hermes Epistles of Clement and the like According therefore to the Phrase of Antiquity these we may term the New and the other the Old Ecclesiastical Books or Writings For we being directed by a Sentence I suppose of Saint Ierom who saith That All Writings not Canonical are Apocryphal use not now the Title Apocryphal as the rest of the Fathers ordinarily have done whose Custom is so to name for the most part only such as might not publickly be read or divulged Ruffinus therefore having rehearsed the self-same Books of Canonical Scripture which with us are held to be alone Canonical addeth immediately by way of caution We must know that other Books there are also which our Fore-fathers have used to name not Canonical but Ecclesiastical Books as the Book of Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Toby Judith the Macchabees in the Old Testament in the New the Book of Hermes and such others All which Books and Writings they willed to be read in Churches but not to be alleadged as if their authority did binde us to build upon them our Faith Other Writings they named Apocryphal which they would not have read in Churches These things delivered unto us from the Fathers we have in this place thought good to set down So far Ruffinus He which considereth notwithstanding what store of false and forged Writings dangerous unto Christian Belief and yet bearing glorious Inscriptions began soon upon the Apostles times to be admitted into the Church and to be honoured as if they had been indeed Apostolick shall easily perceive what cause the Provincial Synod of Laodicea might have as then to prevent especially the danger of Books made newly Ecclesiastical and for feat of the fraud of Hereticks to provide that such Publick readings might be altogether taken out of Canonical Scripture Which Ordinance respecting but that abuse which grew through the intermingling of
Lessons Human with Sacred at such time as the one both affected the Credit and usurped the Name of the other as by the Canon of a later Council providing remedy for the self-same Evil and yet allowing the old Ecclesiastical Books to be read it doth more plainly and clearly appear neither can be construed nor should be urged utterly to prejudice our use of those old Ecclesiastical Writings much less of Homilies which were a third kinde of Readings usual in former times a most commendable Institution as well then to supply the casual as now the necessary defect of Sermons In the heat of general Persecution whereunto Christian Belief was subject upon the first promulgation thereof throughout the World it much confirmed the courage and constancy of weaker mindes when publick relation was made unto them after what manner God had been glorified through the sufferings of Martyrs famous amongst them for Holiness during life and at the time of their death admirable in all mens eyes through miraculous evidence of Grace divine assisting them from above For which cause the Vertues of some being thought expedient to be annually had in remembrance above the rest this brought in a fouth kinde of Publick Reading whereby the lives of such Saints and Martyrs had at the time of their yearly Memorials solemn recognition in the Church of God The fond imitation of which laudible Custom being in later Ages resumed where there was neither the like cause to do as the Fathers before had done nor any Care Conscience or Wit in such as undertook to perform that Work some brainless men have by great labour and travel brought to pass that the Church is now ashamed of nothing more than of Saints If therefore Pope Gelasim did so long sithence see those defects of Judgment even then for which the reading of the Acts of Martyrs should be and was at that time forborn in the Church of Rome we are not to marvail that afterwards Legends being grown in a manner to be nothing else but heaps of frivolous and scandalous vanities they have been even with disdain thrown out the very Nests which bred them abhorring them We are not therefore to except only Scripture and to make confusedly all the residue of one sute as if they who abolish Legends could not without incongruity retain in the Church either Homilies or those old Ecclesiastical Books Which Books in case my self did think as some others do safer and better to be left publickly unread nevertheless as in other things of like nature even so in this my private Judgement I should be loath to oppose against the force of their Reverend Authority who rather considering the Divine excellency of some things in all and of all things in certain of those Apocrypha which we publickly read have thought-it better to let them stand as a lift or marginal border unto the Old Testament and though with Divine yet as Human compositions to grant at the least unto certain of them publick audience in the House of God For in as much as the due estimation of heavenly Truth dependeth wholly upon the known and approved authority of those famous Oracles of God it greatly behoveth the Church to have always most especial care lest through confused mixture at any time Human usurp the room and Title of Divine Writings Wherefore albeit for the Peoples more plain instruction as the antient use hath been we read in our Churches certain Books besides the Scripture yet as the Scripture we read them not All men know our professed opinion touching the difference whereby we sever them from the Scripture And if any where it be suspected that some one or other will haply mistake a thing so manifest in every man's eye there is no lett but that as often as those Books are read and need so requireth the style of their difference may expresly be mentioned to barr even all possiblity of Error It being then known that we hold not the Apocrypha for sacred as we do the holy Scripture but for human compositions the subject whereof are sundry Divine matters let there be reason shewed why to read any part of them publickly it should be unlawful or hurtful unto the Church of God I hear it said that many things in them are very frivolous and unworthy of publick audience yea many contrary plainly contrary to the holy Scripture Which hitherto is neither sufficiently proved by him who saith it and if the proofs thereof were strong yet the very allegation it self is weak Let us therefore suppose for I will not demand to what purpose it is that against our Custom of reading Books not Canonical they bring exceptions of matter in those Books which we never use to read suppose I say that what faults soever they have observed throughout the passages of all those Books the same in every respect were such as neither could be construed nor ought to be censured otherwise than even as themselves pretend Yet as men through too much haste oftentimes forget the Errand whereabout they should go so here it appeareth that an eager desire to take together whatsoever might prejudice or any way hinder the credit of Apocryphal Books hath caused the Collector's Pen so to run as it were on Wheels that the minde which should guide it had no leisure to think whether that which might haply serve to with-hold from giving them the Authority which belongeth unto Sacred Scripture and to cut them off from the Canon would as effectually serve to shut them altogether out of the Church and to withdraw from granting unto them that publick use wherein they are only held as profitable for instruction Is it not acknowledged that those Books are Holy that they are Ecclesiastical and Sacred that to term them Divine as being for their excellency next unto them which are properly so termed is no way to honour them above desert yea even that the whole Church of Christ as well at the first as sithence hath most worthily approved their fitness for the publick informations of Life and manners Is not thus much I say acknowledged and that by them who notwithstanding receive not the same for any part of Canonical Scripture by them who deny not but that they are Faulty by them who are ready enough to give instances wherein they seem to contain matter scarce agreeable with holy Scripture So little doth such their supposed Faultiness in moderate mens Judgments inforce the removal of them out of the House of God that still they are judged to retain worthily those very Titles of Commendation than which there cannot greater be given to Writings the Authors whereof are Men. As in truth if the Scripture it self ascribing to the Persons of Men Righteousness in regard of their manifold vertues may not rightly be construed as though it did thereby clear them and make them quite free from all faults no reason we should judge
it absurd to commend their Writings as Reverend Holy and Sound wherein there are so many singular Perfections only for that the exquisite Wits of some few peradventure are able dispersedly here and there to finde now a word and then a sentence which may be more probably suspected than easily cleared of Error by as which have but conjectural knowledge of their meaning Against immodest Invectives therefore whereby they are charged as being fraught with outragious Lyes we doubt not but their more allowable censure will prevail who without so passionate terms of disgrace do note a difference great enough between Apocryphal and other Writings a difference such as Iosephus and Epiphanius observe the one declaring that amongst the Jews Books written after the days of Artaxerxe were not of equal credit with them which had gone before in as much as the Jews sithence that time had not the like exact succession of Prophets the other acknowledging that they are profitable although denying them to be Divine in such construction and sense as the Scripture it self is so termed With what intent they were first published those words of the Nephew of Jesus do plainly enough signifie After that my Grand-father Jesus had given himself to the reading of the Law and the Prophets and other Books of our Fathers and had gotten therein sufficient judgment he purposed also to write something pertaining to Learning and Wisdom to the intent that they which were desirous to learn and would give themselves to these things might profit much more in living according to the Law Their end in writing and ours in reading them is the same The Books of Iudith Toby Baruch Wisdome and Ecclesiasticus we read as serving most unto that end The rest we leave unto men in private Neither can it be reasonably thought because upon certain solemn occasions some Lessons are chosen out of those Books and of Scripture it self some Chapters not appointed to be read at all that we thereby do offer disgrace to the Word of God or lift up the Writings of men above it For in such choice we do not think but that Fitness of Speech may be more respected than Worthyness If in that which we use to read there happen by the way any Clause Sentence or Speech that soundeth towards Error should the mixture of a little dross constrain the Church to deprive herself of so much Gold rather than learn how by Art and Judgment to make separation of the one from the other To this effect very fitly from the counsel that St. Ierem giveth Lata of taking heed how she read the Apocrypha as also by the help of other learned men's Judgments delivered in like case we may take direction But surely the Arguments that should binde us not to read them or any part of them publickly at all must be stronger than as yet we have heard any 21. We marvel the less that our reading of Books not Canonical is so much impugned when so little is attributed unto the reading of Canonical Scripture it self that now it hath grown to be a question whether the Word of God be any ordinary mean to save the Souls of men in that it is either privately studied or publickly read and so made known or else only as the same is preached that is to say explained by a lively voyce and applyed to the People's use as the Speaker in his Wisdom thinketh meet For this alone is it which they use to call Preaching The publick reading of the Apocrypha they condemn altogether as a thing effectual unto Evil the bare reading in like sort of whatsoever yea even of Scriptures themselves they mislike as a thing uneffectual to do that good which we are perswaded may grow by it Our desire is in this present Controversie as in the rest not to be carried up and down with the waves of uncertain Arguments but rather positively to lead on the mindes of the simpler sort by plain and easie degrees till the very nature of the thing it self do make manifest what is Truth First therefore because whatsoever is spoken concerning the efficacy or necessity of God's Word the same they tye and restrain only unto Sermons howbeit not Sermons read neither for such they also abhor in the Church but Sermons without Book Sermons which spend their life in their birth and may have publick audience but once For this cause to avoid ambiguities wherewith they often intangle themselves not marking what doth agree to the Word of God in it self and what in regard of outward accidents which may befall it we are to know that the Word of God is his Heavenly Truth touching matters of eternal life revealed and uttered unto Men unto Prophets and Apostles by immediate Divine Inspiration from them to us by their Books and Writings We therefore have no Word of God but the Scripture Apostolick Sermons were unto such as heard them his Word even as properly as to us their Writings are Howbeit not so our own Sermons the exposition which our discourse of Wit doth gather and minister out of the Word of God For which cause in this present question we are when we name the Word of God always to mean the Scripture only The end of the Word of God is to save and therefore we term it the Word of Life The way for all men to be saved is by the knowledge of that Truth which the Word hath taught And sith Eternal life is a thing of it self communicable unto all it behooved that the Word of God the necessary mean thereunto be so likewise Wherefore the Word of Life hath been always a Treasure though precious yet easie as well to attain as to finde lest any man desirous of life should perish through the difficulty of the way To this and the Word of God no otherwise serveth than only in the nature of a Doctrinal Instrument It saveth because it maketh wise unto Salvation Wherefore the ignorant it saveth not they which live by the Word must know it And being it self the Instrument which God hath purposely framed thereby to work the knowledge of Salvation in the hearts of men what cause is there wherefore it should not of it self be acknowledged a most apt and a likely mean to leave an apprehension of things Divine in our understanding and in the minde an assent thereunto For touching the one sith God who knoweth and discloseth best the rich tresures of his own Wisdom hath by delivering his Word made choice of the Scriptures as the most effectual means whereby those treasures might be imparted unto the World it followeth That no man's understanding the Scripture must needs be even of it self intended as a full and perfect discovery sufficient to imprint in us the lively Character of all things necessarily required for the attainment of Eternal Life And concerning our assent to the Mysteries of Heavenly truth seeing that the Word of God for the Author's sake
the Holy Ghost And the end of all Scripture is the same which Saint Iohn proposeth in the writing of that most Divine Gospel namely Faith and through Faith Salvation Yea all Scripture is to this effect in it self available as they which wrote it were perswaded unless we suppose that the Evangelists or others in speaking of their own intent to instruct and to save by writing had a secret Conceit which they never opened to any a Conceit that no man in the World should ever be that way the better for any Sentence by them written till such time as the same might chance to be preached upon or alledged at the least in a Sermon Otherwise if he which writeth doth that which is forceable in it self how should he which readeth be thought to do that which in it self is of no force to work Belief and to save Believers Now although we have very just cause to stand in some jealousie and fear lest by thus overvaluing their Sermons they make the price and estimation of Scripture otherwise notified to fall nevertheless so impatient they are that being but requested to let us know what causes they leave for mens incouragement to attend to the reading of the Scripture if Sermons only be the power of God to save every one which believeth that which we move for our better learning and instruction-sake turneth unto anger and choler in them they grow altogether out of quietness with it they answer fumingly that they are ashamed to defile their Pens with making answer to such idle questions yet in this their mood they cast forth somewhat wherewith under pain of greater displeasure we must rest contented They tell us the profit of Reading is singular in that it serveth for a Preparative unto Sermons it helpeth prettily towards the nourishment of Faith which Sermons have once ingendred it is some stay to his minde which readeth the Scripture when he findeth the same things there which are taught in Sermons and thereby perceiveth how God doth concurr in opinion with the Preacher besides it keepeth Sermons in memory and doth in that respect although not feed the Soul of man yet help the retentive force of that stomack of the minde which receiveth ghostly â—ood at the Preachers hands But the principal cause of writing the Gospel was that it might be preached upon or interpreted by publick Ministers apt and authorized thereunto Is it credible that a superstitious conceit for it is no better concerning Sermons should in such sort both darken their Eyes and yet sharpen their Wits withall that the only true and weightly cause why Scripture was written the cause which in Scripture is so often mentioned the cause which all men have ever till this present day acknowledged this they should clean exclude as being no cause at all and load us with so great store of strange concealed causes which did never see light till now In which number the rest must needs be of moment when the very chiefest cause of committing the Sacred Word of God unto Books is surmised to have been lest the Preacher should want a Text whereupon to scholie Men of Learning hold it for a slip in Judgement when offer is made to demonstrate that as proper to one thing which Reason findeth common unto moe Whereas therefore they take from all kindes of teachings that which they attribute to Sermons it had been their part to yield directly some strong reason why between Sermons alone and Faith there should be ordinarily that coherence which causes have with their usual effects why a Christian man's belief should so naturally grow from Sermons and not possibly from any other kinde of teaching In belief there being but these two operations Apprehension and Assent Do only Sermons cause Belief in that no other way is able to explain the mysteries of God that the minde may rightly apprehend or conceive them as behooveth We all know that many things are believed although they be intricate obscure and dark although they exceed the reach and capacity of our Wits yea although in this World they be no way possible to be understood Many things believed are likewise so plain that every Common Person may therein be unto himself a sufficient Expounder Finally to explain even those things which need and admit explication many other usual ways there are besides Sermons Therefore Sermons are not the only ordinary means whereby we first come to apprehend the Mysterys of God Is it in regard then of Sermons only that apprehending the Gospel of Christ we yield thereunto our unfeigned assent as to a thing infallibly true They which rightly consider after what sort the heart of man hereunto is framed must of necessity acknowledge that who so assenteth to the words of Eternal life doth it in regard of his Authority whose words they are This is in man's conversion unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first step whereat his race towards Heaven beginneth Unless therefore clean contrary to our own experience we shall think it a miracle if any man acknowledge the Divine authority of the Scripture till some Sermon have perswaded him thereunto and that otherwise neither conversation in the bosome of the Church nor religious Education nor the reading of Learned mens Books nor Information received by conference nor whatsoever pain and diligence in hearing studying meditating day and night on the Law is so far blest of God as to work this effect in any man how would they have us to grant that Faith doth not come but only by heating Sermons Fain they would have us to believe the Apostle Saint Paul himself to be Author of this their Paradox only because he hath said that it pleaseth God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them which believe and again How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard How shall they hear without a Preacher How shall men preach except they be sent To answer therefore both Allegations at once The very substance of what they contain is in few but this Life and Salvation God will have offered unto all his will is that Gentiles should be saved as well as Jews Salvation belongeth unto none but such as call upon the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ. Which Nations as yet unconverted neither do not possibly can do till they believe What they are to believe impossible it is they should know till they bear it Their Hearing requireth our Preaching unto them Tertullian to draw even Painyms themselves unto Christian Belief willeth the Books of the Old Testament to be searched which were at that time in Ptolemics Library And if men did not lift to travel so far though it were for their endless good he addeth that in Rome and other places the Jews had Synagogues whereunto every one which would might resort that this kinde of Liberty they purchased by payment
metriments and jests unanswered likewise wherewith they have pleasantly moved much laughter at our manner of serving God Such is their evil hap to play upon dull spirited men We are still perswaded that a bare denyal is answer sufficient to things which meer fancy objecteth and that the best Apology to words of scorn and petulancy is Isaac's Apology to his Brother Ismael the Apology which patience and silence maketh Our Answer therefore to their Reasons is no to their Scoffs nothing 31. When they object that our Book requireth nothing to be done which a Childe may not do as lawfully and as well as that man wherewith the Book conteneth it self Is it their meaning that the service of God ought to be a matter of great difficulty a Labour which requireth great learning and deep skill or elsē that the Book containing it should teach what men are fit to attend upon it and forbid either men unlearned or Children to be admitted thereunto In setting down the form of Common-Prayer there was no need that the Book should mention either the learning of a fit or the unfitness of an ignorant Minister more than that he which describeth the manner how to pitch a field should speak of moderation and sobriety in diet And concerning the duty it self although the hardness thereof be not such as needeth much Art yet surely they seem to be very farr carried besides themselves to whom the dignity of Publick Prayer doth not discover somewhat more fitness in men of gravity and ripe discretion than in children of ten years of age for the decent discharge and performance of that Office It cannot be that they who speak thus should thus judge At the board and in private it very well becommeth Children's innocency to pray and their Elders to say Amen Which being a part of their vertuous education serveth greatly both to nourish in them the fear of God and to put us in continual remembrance of that powerful grace which openeth the mouths of Infants to sound his praise But Publick Prayer the service of God in the solemn Assembly of Saints is a work though easie yet withal so weighty and of such respect that the great facility thereof is but a slender argument to prove it may be as well and as lawfully committed to Children as to men of years howsoever their ability of learning be but only to do that in decent order wherewith the Book contenteth it self The Book requireth but orderly reading As in truth what should any Prescript form of Prayer framed to the Minister's hand require but only so to be read as behoveth We know that there are in the world certain voluntary Over-seers of all Books whose censure in this respect would fall as sharp on us as it hath done on many others if delivering but a form of Prayer we should either express or include an thing more than doth properly concern Prayer The Ministers greatness or meanness of knowledge to do other things his aptness or insufficiency otherwise than by reading to instruct the flock standeth in this place as a Stranger with whom our form of Common-Prayer hath nothing to do Wherein their exception against easiness as if that did nourish Ignorance proceedeth altogether out of a needless jealousie I have often heard it inquired of by many how it might be brought to pass that the Church should every where have able Preachers to instruct the People what impediments there are to hinder it and which were the speediest way to remove them In which consultation the multitude of Parishes the paucity of Schools the manifold discouragements which are offered unto mens inclinations that way the penury of the Ecclesiastical estate the irrecoverable loss of so many Livings of principal value clean taken away from the Church long sithence by being appropriated the daily bruises that Spiritual promotions use to take by often falling the want of somewhat in certain Statutes which concern the state of the Church the too great facility of many Bishops the stony hardness of too many Patrons hearts not touched with any feeling in this case such things oftentimes are debated and much thought upon by them that enter into any discourse concerning any defect of knowledge in the Clergy But whosoever be found guilty the Communion Book hath surely deserved least to be called in question for this fault If all the Clergie were as learned as themselves are that most complain of ignorance in others yet our Book of Prayer might remain the same and remaining the same it is I see not how it can be a lett unto any man's skill in Preaching Which thing we acknowledge to be God's good gift howbeit no such necessarie element that every act of Religion should he thought imperfect and lame wherein there is not somewhat exacted that none can discharge but an able Preacher 32. Two faults there are which our Lord and Saviour himself especially reproved in Prayer the one when ostentation did cause it to be open the other when superstition made it long As therefore Prayers the one way are faulty not whensoever they be openly made but when Hypocrisie is the cause of open Praying so the length of Prayer is likewise a fault howbeit not simply but where errour and superstition causeth more than convenient repetition or continuation of speech to be used It is not as some do imagine saith Saint Augustine that long Praying is that fault of much speaking in Prayer which our Saviour did reprove for then would not he himself in Prayer have continued whole nights Use in Prayer no vain superfluity of words as the Heathens doe for they imagine that their much speaking will cause them to be heard whereas in truth the thing which God doth regard is how vertuous their mindes are and not how copious their tongues in Prayer how well they think and not how long they talk who come to present their Supplications before him Notwithstanding for as much as in Publick Prayer we are not only to consider what is needful in respect of God but there is also in men that which we must regard we somewhat the rather incline to length lest over-quick dispatch of a Duty so important should give the World occasion to deem that the thing it self is but little accounted of wherein but little time is bestowed Length thereof is a thing which the gravity and weight of such actions doth require Beside this benefit also it hath that they whom earnest letts and impediments do often hinder from being Partakers of the whole have yet through the length of Divine Service opportunity sleft them at the least for access unto some reasonable part thereof Again it should be considered how it doth come to pass that we are so long For if that very Service of God in the Jewish Synagogues which our Lord did approve and sanctifie with the presence of his own Person had so large portions of the Law and the Prophets together with
endless thanks must have their beginning in a state which bringeth the full and final satisfaction of all such perpetual desires Again because our common necessities and the lack which we all have as well of ghostly as of earthly favors is in each kinde so easily known but the gifts of God according to those degrees and times which he in his secrets wisdom seeth meet are so diversly bestowed that it seldom appeareth what all receive what all stand in need of it seldom lieth hid we are not to marvel though the Church do oftner concur in suits then in thanks unto God for particular benefits Nevertheless lest God should be any way unglorified the greatest part of our daily Service they know consisteth according to the â— Blessed Apostles own precise rule in much variety of Psalms and Hymns for no other purpose but onely that out of so plentiful a treasure there might be for every mans heart no chuse out his own Sacrifice and to offer unto God by particular secret instinct what fitteth best the often occasions which any several either Party or Congregation may seem to have They that would clean take from us therefore the daily use of the very best means we have to magnifie and praise the Name of Almighty God for his rich Blessings they that complain of out reading and singing so many Psalms for so good an end they I say that finde fault with our store should of all men be least willing to reprove our scarcity of Thanksgivings But because peradventure they see it is not either generally fit or possible that Churches should frame Thanksgivings answerable to each Petition they shorten somewhat the reins of their censure there are no forms of Thanksgiving they say for release of those common calamities from which we have Petitions to be delivered There are Prayers set forth to be said in the common calamities and Universal scourges of the Realm as Plague Famine c. And indeed so it ought to be by the Word of God But as such Prayers are needful whereby we beg release from our Distresses so there ought to be as necessary Prayers of Thanksgiving when we have received those things at the Lords hand which we asked in our Prayers As oft therefore as any Publick or Universal scourge is removed as oft as we are delivered from those either imminent or present Calamities against the storm and tempest whereof we all instantly craved favor from above let it be a Question what we should render unto God for his Blessings universally sensibly and extraordinarily bestowed A Prayer of three or four lines inserted into some part of our Church Liturgy No we are not perswaded that when God doth in trouble injoyn us the duty of Invocation and promise us the benefit of Deliverance and profess That the thing he expecteth after at our hands is to glorifie him as our mighty and onely Saviour the Church can discharge in manner convenient a work of so great importance by fore-ordaining some short Collect wherein briefly to mention thanks Our custom therefore whensoever so great occasions are incident is by Publick Authority to appoint throughout all Churches set and solemn Forms as well of Supplication as of Thanksgiving the preparations and intended Complements whereof may stir up the mindes of men in much more effectual sort then if onely there should be added to the Book of Prayer that which they require But we err in thinking that they require any such matter For albeit their words to our understanding be very plain that in our Book there are Prayers set forth to be said when common calamities are felt as Plague Famine and such like Again that indeed so it ought to be by the Word of God That likewise there ought to be as necessary Prayers of Thanksgiving when we have received those things Finally that the want of such Forms of Thanksgiving for the release from those common calamities from which we have Petitions to be delivered is the default of the Book of Common Prayer Yet all this they mean but only by way of supposition if express Prayers against so many Earthly miseries were convenient that then indeed as many express and particular Thanksgivings should be likewise necessary Seeing therefore we know that they hold the one superfluous they would not have it so understood as though their mindes were that any such addition to the Book is needful whatsoever they say for Arguments sake concerning this pretented defect The truth is they wave in and out no way sufficiently grounded no way resolved what to think speak or write more then onely that because they have taken it upon them they must no remedy now be opposite 44. The last supposed fault concerneth some few things the very matter whereof is thought to be much amiss In a Song of Praise to our Lord Jesus Christ we have these words When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thoâ— didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers Which maketh some shew of giving countenance to their Error who think that the faithful which departed this life before the coming of Christ were never till then made partakers of joy but remained all in that place which they term the Lake of the Fathers In our Liturgy request is made that we may be preserved from sudden death This seemeth frivolous because the godly should always be prepared to die Request is made that God would give those things which we for our unworthiness dare not ask This they say carrieth with it the note of Popish servile fear and savoreth not of that confidence and reverent familiarity that the children of God have through Christ with their Heavenly Father Request is made that we may evermore be defended from all adversity For this there is no promise in Scripture and therefore it is no Prayer of Faith or of the which we can assure our selves that we shall obtain it Finally Request is made That God would have mercy upon all men This is impossible because some are the Vessels of Wrath to whom God will never extend his Mercy 45. As Christ hath purchased that Heavenly Kingdom the last perfection whereof is Glory in the life to come Grace in this life a preparation thereunto so the same he hath opened to the World in such sort that whereas none can possibly without him attain salvation by him all that believe are saved Now whatsoever he did or suffered the end thereof was to open the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven which our iniquities had shut up But because by ascending after that the sharpness of death was overcome he took the very local possession of glory and that to the use of all that are his even as himself before had witnessed I go to prepare a place for you And again Whom thou hast given me O Father I will that where I am they be also with me that my glory which thou hast given me they may
efficient cause in the work of Baptism What if the Ministers Vocation be a Matter of perpetual necessity and not a Ceremony variable as times and occasions require What if his calling be a principal part of the Institution of Christ Doth it therefore follow that the Ministers authority is of the Substance of the Sacrament and as incident into the nature thereof as the Matter and the Form it self yea more incident For whereas in case of necessity the greatest amongst them professeth the change of the Element of Water lawful and others which like not so well this opinion could be better content that voluntarily the words of Christs Institution were altered and Men baptized in the Name of Christ without either mention made of the Father or of the Holy Ghost nevertheless in denying that Baptism administred by private persons ought to be reckoned of as a Sacrament they both agree It may therefore please them both to consider That Baptism is an Action in part Moral in part Ecclesiastical and in part Mystical Moral as being a duty which men perform towards God Ecclesiastical in that it belongeth unto Gods Church as a publick duty Finally Mystical if we respect what God doth thereby intend to work The greatest Moral perfection of Baptism consisteth in mens devout obedience to the Law of God which Law requireth both the outward act or thing done and also that Religious affection which God doth so much regard that without it whatsoever we do is â—tateful in his sight who therefore is said to respect Adverbs more then Verbs because the end of his Law in appointing what we shall do is our own Perfection which Perfection consisteth chiefly in the vertuous disposition of the Minde and approveth it self to him not by doing but by doing well Wherein appeareth also the difference between Humane and Divine Laws the one of which two are content with Opus operatum the other require Opus operantis the one do but claim the Deed the other especially the Minde So that according to Laws which principally respect the heart of Men Works of Religion being not religiously performed cannot Morally be perfect Baptism as an Ecclesiastical work is for the manner of performance ordered by divers Ecclesiastical Laws providing That as the Sacrament it self is a gift of no mean worth so the Ministery thereof might in all circumstances appear to be a Function of no small regard All that belongeth to the Mystical Perfection of Baptism outwardly is the Element the Word and the serious Application of both unto him which receiveth both whereunto if we add that secret reference which this action hath to liâ—e and remission of sins by vertue of Christs own compact solemnly made with his Church to accomplish fully the Sacrament of Baptism there is not any thing more required Now put the Question Whether Baptism Administred to Infants without my Spiritual Calling be unto them both a true Sacrament and an effectual instrument of Grace or else an act of no more account then the ordinary Washings are The sum of all that can be said to defeat such Baptism is That those things which have no Being can work nothing and that Baptism without the power of Ordination is as a Judgment without sufficient Jurisdiction void frustrate and of no effect But to this we answer That the Fruit of Baptism dependeth onely upon the Covenant which God hath made That God by Covenant requireth in the elder sort Faith and Baptism in Children the Sacrament of Baptism alone whereunto he hath also given them right by special priviledge of Birth within the bosom of the holy Church That infants therefore which have received Baptism compleat as touching the Mystical Perfection thereof are by vertue of his own Covenant and Promise cleansed from all sin for as much as all other Laws concerning that which in Baptism is either Moral or Ecclesiastical do binde the Church which giveth Baptism and not the Infant which receiveth it of the Church So that if any thing be therein amiss the harm which groweth by violation of holy Ordinances must altogether rest where the Bonds of such Ordinances hold For that in actions of this nature it fareth not as in Jurisdictions may somewhat appear by the very opinion which men have of them The nullity of that which a Judge doth by way of Authority without Authority is known to all men and agreed upon with full consent of the whole World every man receiveth it as a general Edict of Nature whereas the nullity of Baptism in regard of the like defect is onely a few mens new ungrounded and as yet unapproved imagination Which difference of generality in mens perswasions on the one side and their paucity whose conceit leadeth them the other way hath risen from a difference easie to observe in the things themselves The exercise of unauthorised Jurisdiction is a grievance unto them that are under it whereas they that without Authority presume to Baptize offer nothing but that which to all men is good and acceptable Sacraments are food and the Ministers thereof as Parents or as Nurses at whose hands when there is necessity but no possibility of receiving it if that which they are not present to do in right of their Office be of pity and compassion done by others shall this be thought turn Celestial Bread into Gravel or the Medicine of Souls into Poyson Jurisdiction is a yoke which Law hath imposed on the necks of men in such sort that they must endure it for the good of others how contrary soever it be to their own particular appetites and inclinations Jurisdiction bridleth men against their wills that which a Judge doth prevails by vertue of his very Power and therefore not without great reason except the Law hath given him Authority whatsoever he doth vanisheth Baptism on the other side being a favor which it pleaseth God to bestow a benefit of Soul to us that receive it and a Grace which they that deliver are but as meer Vessels either appointed by others or offered of their own accord to this Service of which two if they be the one it is but their own honor their own offence to be the other Can it possibly stand with Equity and Right That the faultiness of their presumption in giving Baptism should be able to prejudice us who by taking Baptism have no way offended I know there are many Sentences found in the Books and writings of the Ancient Fathers to prove both Ecclesiastical and also Moral defects in the Minister of Baptism a bar to the Heavenly benefit thereof Which Sentences we always so understand as Augustine understood in a case of like nature the words of St. Cyprian When Infants baptized were after their Parents revolt carried by them in arms to the Stews of Idols those wretched Creatures as St. Cyprian thought were not onely their own ruine but their Childrens also Their Children whom this their Apostasie prophaned did lose
them Powers then gifts of Cures Aides Governments kindes of Languages Are all Apostles Are all Prophets Are all Teachers Is there power in all Have all grace to cure Do all speak with Tongues Can all interpret But be you desirous of the better graces They which plainly discern first that some one general thing there is which the Apostle doth here divide into all these branches and do secondly conceive that general to be Church-Offices besides a number of other difficulties can by no means possibly deny but that many of these might concurr in one man and peradventure in some one all which mixture notwithstanding their form of discipline doth most shun On the other side admit that Communicants of special infused grace for the benefit of Members knit into one body the Church of Christ are here spoken of which was in truth the plain drift of that whole Discourse and see if every thing do not answer in due place with the fitness which sheweth easily what is likeliest to have been meane For why are Apostles the first but because unto them was granted the Revelation of all Truth from Christ immediately Why Prophets the second but because they had of some things knowledge in the same manner Teachers the next because whatsoever was known to them it came by hearing yet God withal made them able to instruct which every one could not do that was taught After Gifts of Edification there follow general abilities to work things above Nature Grace to cure men of bodily Diseases Supplies against occurrent defects and impediments Dexterities to govern and direct by counsel Finally aptness to speak or interpret foreign tongues Which Graces not poured out equally but diversly sorted and given were a cause why not onely they all did furnish up the whole Body but each benefit and help other Again the same Apostle other-where in like sort To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith When he ascended up on high he led Captivity captive and gave gifts unto men He therefore gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the gathering together of Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edification of the Body of Christ. In this place none but gifts of Instruction are exprest And because of Teachers some were Evangelists which neither had any part of their knowledge by Revelation as the Prophets and yet in ability to teach were farr beyond other Pastors they are as having received one way less than Prophets and another way more than Teachers set accordingly between both For the Apostle doth in neither place respect what any of them were by Office or Power given them through Ordination but what by grace they all had obtained through miraculous infusion of the Holy Ghost For in Christian Religion this being the ground of our whole Belief that the promises which God of old had made by his Prophets concerning the wonderful Gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost wherewith the Reign of the true Messias should be made glorious were immediately after our Lord's Ascension performed there is no one thing whereof the Apostles did take more often occasion to speak Out of men thus endued with gifts of the Spirit upon their Conversion to Christian Faith the Church had her Ministers chosen unto whom was given Ecclesiastical power by Ordination Now because the Apostle in reckoning degrees and varieties of Grace doth mention Pastors and Teachers although he mention them not in respect of their Ordination to exercise the Ministery but as examples of men especially enriched with the gifts of the Holy Ghost divers learned and skilfull men have so taken it as if those places did intend to teach what Orders of Ecclesiastical Persons there ought to be in the Church of Christ which thing we are not to learn from thence but out of other parts of holy Scripture whereby it clearly appeareth that Churches Apostolick did know but three degrees in the power of Ecclesiastical Order at the first Apostles Presbyters and Deacons afterwards in stead of Apostles Bishops concerning whose Order we are to speak in the seventh Book There is an errour which beguileth many who doe much intangle both themselves and others by not distinguishing Services Offices and Orders Ecclesiastical the first of which three and in part the second may be executed by the Laity whereas none have or can have the third but the Clergy Catechists Exorcists Readers Singers and the rest of like sort if the nature onely of their labours and pains be considered may in that respect seem Clergy-men even as the Fathers for that cause term them usually Clerks as also in regard of the end whereunto they were trained up which was to be ordered when years and experience should make them able Notwithstanding in as much as they no way differed from others of the Laity longer than during that work of Service which at any time they might give over being thereunto but admitted not tyed by irrevocable Ordination we finde them alwayes exactly severed from that body whereof those three before rehearsed Orders alone are natural parts Touching Widows of whom some men are perswaded that if such as Saint Paul describeth may be gotten we ought to retain them in the Church for ever Certain mean Services there were of Attendance as about Women at the time of their Baptism about the Bodies of the sick and dead about the necessities of Travellers Way-faring men and such like wherein the Church did commonly life them when need required because they lived of the Alms of the Church and were fittest for such purposes Saint Paul doth therefore to avoid scandal require that none but Women well-experienced and vertuously given neither any under threescore years of age should be admitted of that number Widows were never in the Church so highly esteemed as Virgins But seeing neither of them did or could receive Ordination to make them Ecclesiastical Persons were absurd The antientest therefore of the Fathers mention those three degrees of Ecclesiastical Order specified and no moe When your Captain saith Tertullian that is to say the Deacons Presbyters and Bishops fly who shall teach the Laity that they must be constant Again What should I mention Lay-men saith Optatus yea or divers of the Ministery it self To what purpose Deacons which are in the third or Presbyters in the second degree of Priesthood when the very Heads and Princes of all even certain of the Bishops themselves were content to redeem life with the loss of Heaven Heaps of Allegations in a case so evident and plain are needless I may securely therefore conclude that there are at this day in the Church of England no other than the same Degrees of Ecclesiastical Order namely Bishops Presbyters and Deacons which had their beginning from Christ and his blessed Apostles themselves As for Deans Prebendaries Parsons Vicars Curates Arch-deacons
of uncleanness they nourish the root out of which they grow they breed that iniquity which bred them The blot therefore of Sin abideth though the act be transitory And out of both ariseth a present debt to endure what punishment soever the evil which we have done deserveth an Obligation in the Chains whereof Sinners by the Justice of Almighty God continue bound till Repentance loose them Repent this thy Wickedness saith Peter unto Simon Magus beseech God that if it be possible the thought of thine heart may be pardoned for I see thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of Iniquity In like manner Solomon The Wicked shall be held fast in the cords of his own sin Nor doth God only binde Sinners hand and foot by the dreadful determination of his own unsearchable Judgment against them but sometime also the Church bindeth by the Censures of her Discipline So that when Offenders upon their Repentance are by the same Discipline absolved the Church looseth but her own Bonds the Chains wherein she had tyed them before The act of Sin God alone remitteth in that his purpose is never to call it to account or to lay it unto mens charge The stain he washeth out by the sanctifying Grace of his Spirit And concerning the punishment of Sinne as none else hath power to cast Body and Soul into Hell fire so none power to deliver either besides him As for the Ministerial Sentence of private Absolution it can be no more than a Declaration what God hath done It hath but the force of the Prophet Nathan's Absolution God hath taken away thy Sin Than which construction especially of words judicial there is not any thing more vulgar For example the Publicans are said in the Gospel to have justified God The Jews in Malachi to have blessed Proud men which sinne and prosper not that the one did make God righteous or the other the wicked happy But to bless to Justifie and to Absolve are as commonly used for words of Judgement or Declaration as of true and real efficacy Yea even by the opinion of the Master of Sentences It may be soundly affirmed and thought that God alone doth remit and retain Sinnes although he have given Power to the Church to do both But he one way and the Church another He only by himself forgiveth Sinne who cleanseth the Soul from inward blemish and looseth the Debt of Eternal death So great a Priviledge he hath not given unto his Priests who notwithstanding are authorized to loose and binde that is to say declare who are bound and who are loosed For albeit a man be already cleared before God yet he is not in the Church of God so taken but by the vertue of the Priests Sentence who likewise may be said to binde by imposing Satisfaction and to loose by admitting to the Holy Communion Saint Hierom also whom the Master of the Sentences alledgeth for more countenance of his own opinion doth no less plainly and directly affirm That as the Priests of the Law could only discern and neither cause nor remove Leprosies So the Ministers of the Gospel when they retain or remit Sin do but in the one judge how long we continue guilty and in the other declare when we are clear or free For there is nothing more apparent than that the Discipline of Repentance both Publick and Private was ordained as an outward mean to bring men to the vertue of inward Conversion So that when this by manifest tokens did seem effected Absolution ensuing which could not make served only to declare men innocent But the cause wherefore they are so stiff and have forsaken their own Master in this point is for that they hold the private Discipline of Penitency to be a Sacrament Absolution an external sign in this Sacrament the signs external of all Sacraments in the New Testament to be both causes of that which they signifie and signs of that which they truly cause To this opinion concerning Sacraments they are now tyed by expounding a Canon in the Florentine Council according to the former Ecclesiastical invention received from Thomas For his device it was that the mercy of God which useth Sacraments as Instruments whereby to work indueth them at the time of their Administration with supernatural force and ability to induce Grace into the Souls of men Even as the Axe and Saw doth seem to bring Timber into that fashion which the minde of the Artificer intendeth His Conceipt Scotus Occam Petrus Alliacensis with sundry others do most earnestly and strongly impugn shewing very good reason wherefore no Sacrament of the new Law can either by vertue which it self hath or by force supernatural given it be properly a cause to work Grace but Sacraments are therefore said to work or conferr Grace because the will of Almighty God is although not to give them such efficacy yet himself to be present in the Ministry of the working that effect which proceedeth wholly from him without any real operation of theirs such as can enter into men's Souls In which construction seeing that our Books and Writings have made it known to the World how we joyn with them it seemeth very hard and injurious Dealing that Bellarmine throughout the whole course of his second Book De Sacramentis in genere should so boldly face down his Adversaries as if their opinion were that Sacraments are naked empty and ineffectual signes whererein there is no other force than only such as in Pictures to stir up the minde that so by theory and speculation of things represented Faith may grow Finally That all the operations which Sacraments have is a sensible and divine Instruction But had it pleased him not to hud-wink his own knowledge I nothing doubt but he fully saw how to answer himself it being a matter very strange and incredible that one which with so great diligence hath winowed his Adversarys Writings should be ignorant of their minds For even as in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ both God and Man when his human nature is by it self considered we may not attribute that unto him which we do and must ascribe as oft as respect is had unto both natures combined so because in Sacraments there are two things distinctly to be considered the outward sign and the secret concurrence of Gods most blessed Spirit in which respect our Saviour hath taught that Water and the Holy Ghost are combined to work the mysterie of new birth Sacraments therefore as signs have only those effects before mentioned but of Sacraments in that by God's own Will and Ordinance they are signs assisted alwayes with the power of the Holy Ghost we acknowledge whatsoever either the places of the Scripture or the Authority of Councels and Fathers or the proofs and arguments of reason which he alledgeth can shew to be wrought by them The Elements and words have power of infallible signification for
the very foundation it self is straightway inferred As for Example if a man should say There is no Catholick Church it followeth immediately thereupon that this Iesus whom we call the Saviour is not the Saviour of the World because all the Prophets hear witnesse that the true Messias should shew light unto the Gentiles that is to say gather such a Church as is Catholick not restrained any longer unto one circumcised Nation In the second rank we place them out of whose Positions the denial of any the foresaid Articles may be with like facility concluded such as are they which have denied with Hebion or with Maercion his Humanity an example whereof may be that of Cassianus defending the Incarnation of the Son of God against Nestorius Bishop of Antioch which held That the Virgin when she brought forth Christ did not bring forth the Son of God but a sole and mere man out of which Heresie the denial of the Articles of the Christian saith he deduceth thus If thou dost deny our Lord Iesus Christ in denying the Son thou canst not choose but deny the Father for according to the voyce of the Father himself He that hath not the Son hath not the Father Wherefore denying him which is begotten thou deniest him which doth beget Again denying the Son of God to have been born in the Flesh how canst thou believe him to have suffered believing not his Passion what remaineth but that thou deny his Resurrection For we believe him not raised except we first believe him dead Neither can the reason of his rising from the dead stand without the faith of his death going before The denial of his Death and Passion inserreth the denial of his Rising from the Depth Whereupon it followeth that thou also deny his Ascension into Heaven The Apostle affirmeth That he which ascended did first descend so that as much as lieth in thee our Lord Iesus Christ hath neither risen from the depth nor is ascended into Heaven nor sitteth on the right hand of God the Father neither shall be come at the day of the final account which is looked for nor shall judge the Quick and the Dead And darest thou yet set foot in the Church Canst thou think thy self a Bishop when thou hast denied all those things whereby thou dost obtain a Bishoply Calling Nestorius confessed all the Articles of the Creed but his opinion did imply the denial of every part of his Confession Heresies there are of the third sort such as the Church of Rome maintaineth which be removed by a greater distance from the foundation although indeed they overthrow it Yet because of that weakness which the Philosopher noteth in mens capacities when he saith That the common sort cannot see things which follow in reason when they follow as it were afar off by many deductions therefore the repugnancy of such Heresie and the foundation is not so quickly or so easily found but that an Heretick of this sooner than of the former kinde may directly grant and consequently nevertheless deny the foundation of Faith 33. If reason be suspected tryal will shew that the Church of Rome doth no otherwise by teaching the Doctrine she doth teach concerning good works Offer them the very fundamental words and what man is there that will refuse to subscribe unto them Can they directly grant and directly deny one and the very self-same thing Our own proceedings in disputing against their works satisfactory and meritorious do shew not onely that they hold but that we acknowledge them to hold the foundation notwithstanding their opinion For are not these our Arguments against them Christ alone hath satisfied and appeased his Fathers wrath Christ hath merited Salvation alone We should do fondly to use such Disputes neither could we think to prevail by them if that whereupon we ground were a thing which we know they do not hold which we are assured they will not grant Their very Answers to all such Reasons as are in this Controversie brought against them will not permit us to doubt whether they hold the foundation or no. Can any man that hath read their Books concerning this matter be ignorant how they draw all their Answers unto these heads That the remission of all our sins the pardon of all whatsoever punishments thereby deserved the rewards which God hath laid up in Heaven are by the Blood of our Lord Iesus Christ purchased and obtained sufficiently for all men but for no man effectually for his benefit in particular except the blood of Christ be apply'd particularly to him by such means as God hath appointed that to work by That those means of themselves being but dead things onely the blood of Christ is that which puâ—teth life force and efficacy in them to work and to be available each in his kinde to our Salvation Finally that Grace being purchased for us by the blood of Christ and freely without any merit on desert at the first bestowed upon us the good things which we doe after Grace received be thereby made satisfactory and meritorious Some of their Sentences to this effect I must alledge for mine own warrant If we desire to hear foreign Judgements we finde in one this Confession He that could reckon how many the vertues and merits of our Saviour Iesus Christ hath been might likewise understand how many the benefits have been that are to come to us by him forsomuch as men are made Partakers of them all by means of his Passion by him it given unto us remission of our Sinnes Grace Glory Liberty Praise Salvation Redemption Iustification Iustice Satisfaction Sacraments Merits and all other things which we had and were behoveful for our Salvation In another we have these Oppositions and Answers made unto them All Grace is given by Christ Iesus True but not except Christ Iesus be applied He is the propitiation for our sinne by his stripes we are healed he hath offered himself up for in all this is true but apply it We put all satisfaction in the blood of Iesus Christ but we hold that the means which Christ hath appointed for us in the Case to apply it are our penal works Our Countrey-men in Rhemes make the like answer That they seek Salvation no other way than by the Blood of Christ and that humbly they doe use Prayers Fastings Almes Faith Charity Sacrifice Sacraments Priests onely as the means appointed by Christ to apply the benefit of his holy Blood unto them touching our good Works that in their own natures they are not meritorious nor answerable to the joyes of Heaven it commeth by the Grace of Christ and not of the Work it self that we have by well doing a right to Heaven and deserve it worthily If any man think that I seek to varnish their Opinions to set the better foot of a lame Cause formost Let him know that since I began throughly to understand their meaning I have found their halting greater
which lightned thus the eyes of their understanding giving them knowledge by unusual and extraordinary means did also miraculously himself frame and fashion their Words and Writings in so much that a greater difference there seemeth not to be between the manner of their knowledge than there is between the manner of their speech and ours When we have conceived a thing in our hearts and throughly understand it as we think within our selves â—re we can utter in such sort that our Brethren may receive instruction or comfort at our mouths how great how long how earnest meditation are we forced to use And after much travail and much pains when we open our lips to speak of the wonderful works of God our tongues do faulter within our mouths yea many times we disgrace the dreadful mysteries of our Faith and grieve the spirit of our Hearers by words unsavoury and unseemly speeches Shall a Wise-man fill his Belly with the Eastern winde saith Eliphaz shall a Wise-man dispute with words not comely or with talk that is not profitable Yet behold even they that are wisest amongst us living compared with the Prophets seem no otherwise to talk of God than as if the Children which are carried in arms should speak of the greatest matters of State They whose words do most shew forth their wise understanding and whose lips do utter the purest knowledge so long as they understand and speak as men are they not fain sundry ways to excuse themselves Sometimes acknowledging with the Wise-man Hardly can we discern the things that are on earth and with great labour finde we out the things that are before us Who can then seek out the things that are in Heaven Sometimes confessing with Iob the righteous in treating of things too wonderful for us we have spoken we wist not what Sometimes ending their talk as doth the History of the Macchabees if we have done well and as the Cause required it is that we desire if we have spoken slenderly and barely we have done we could But God hath made my mouth like a sword saith Esay And we have received saith the Apostle not the spirit of the World but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are given to us of God which things also we speak not in words which man's wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost doth teach This is that which the Prophets mean by those Books written full within and without which Books were so often delivered them to eat not because God fed them with Ink and Paper but to teach us that so oft as he imployed them in this heavenly Work they neither spake nor wrote any word of their own but uttered syllable by syllable as the Spirit put it into their mouths no otherwise than the Harp or the Lute doth give a sound according to the discretion of his hands that holdeth and striketh it with skill The difference is only this An instrument whether it be a Pipe or Harp maketh a distinction in the times and sounds which distinction is well perceived of the Hearer the Instrument it self understanding not what is Piped or Harped The Prophets and holy men of God not so I opened my mouth saith Ezekiel and God reached me a scroul saying Son of man cause thy Belly to eat and fill thy Bowels with this I give thee I ate it and it was sweet in my mouth as honey saith the Prophet Yea sweeter I am perswaded than either honey or the honey comb For herein they were not like Harps or Lutes but they felt they felt the power and strength of their own words When they spake of our peace every corner of their hearts was filled with joy When they prophesied of mournings lamentations and woes to fall upon us they wept in the bitterness and indignation of Spirit the arm of the Lord being mighty and strong upon them 5. On this manner were all the Prophesie of holy Scripture Which Prophesies although they contain nothing which is not profitable for our instruction yet as one Star differeth from another in glory so every word of Prophesie hath a treasure of matter in it but all matters are not of like importance as all Treasures are not of equal price The chief and principal matter of Prophesie is the promise of Righteousness Peace Holiness Glory Victory Immortality unto every Soul which believeth that Jesus is Christ of the Iew first and of the Gentile Now because the doctrine of Salvation to be looked for by Faith in him who was in outward appearance as it had been a man forsaken of God in him who was numbred judged and condemned with the wicked in him whom men did see busseted on the face scofft at by Souldiers scourged by Tormentors hanged on the Cross pierced to the Heart in him whom the eyes of many Witnesses did behold when the anguish of his Soul enforced him to roar as if his heart had rent in sunder O my God my God why hast thou forsaken me I say because the doctrine of Salvation by him is a thing improbable to a natural man that whether we preach to the Gentile or to the Jew the one condemneth our Faith as madnesse the other as Blasphemy therefore to establish and confirm the certainty of this saving Truth in the hearts of men the Lord together with their Preachings whom he sent immediately from himself to reveal these things unto the World mingled Prophesies of things both Civil and Ecclesiastical which were to come in every age from time to time till the very last of the latter dayes that by those things wherein we see daily their words fulfilled and done we might have strong consolation in the hope of things which are not seen because they have revealed as well the one as the other For when many things are spoken of before in Scripture whereof we see first one thing accomplished and then another and so a third perceive we not plainly that God doth nothing else but lead us along by the hand till he have settled us upon the rock of an assured hope that not one jot or tittle of his Word shall pass till all be fulfilled It is not therefore said in vain that these godless wicked ones were spoken of before 6. But by whom By them whose words if men or Angels from Heaven gainsay they are accursed by them whom whosoever despiseth despiseth not them but me saith Christ. If any man therefore doth love the Lord Jesus and wo worth him that loveth not the Lord Jesus hereby we may know that he loveth him indeed if he despise not the things that are spoken of by his Apostles whom many have despised even for the baseness and simpleness of their Persons For it is the property of fleshly and carnal men to honour and dishonour credit and discredit the words and deeds of every man according to that he wanteth or hath without If a man with gorgeous
Now I taste nothing sweet but the Bread which came down from Heaven to give life unto the World Now mine eys see nothing but Jesus rising from the dead Now my ears refuse all kinde of melody to hear the Song of them that hath gotten victory of the Beast and of his Image and of his Mark and of the number of his Name that stand on the Sea of Glass having the Harps of God and singing the Song of Moses the Servant of God and the Song of the Lamb saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes O King of Saints Surely if the Spirit have been thus effectual in the secret work of our Regeneration unto newness of life if we endeavour thus to frame our selves anew then we may say boldly with the blessed Apostle in the tenth to the Hebrews We are not of them which withdraw our selves to perdition but which follow Faith to the conservation of the Soul For they which fall away from the grace of God and separate themselves unto perdition they are fleshly and carnal they have not God's holy Spirit But unto you because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts to the end ye might know that Christ hath built you upon a Rock unmoveable that he hath registred your names in the Book of life that he hath bound himself in a sure and everlasting Covenant to be your God and the God of your Children after you that he hath suffered as much groaned as oft prayed as heartily for you as for Peter O Father keep them in thy Name O Righteous Father the World hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me I have declared thy name unto them and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them The Lord of his infinite mercy give us hearts plentifully fraught with the treasure of this blessed assurance of Faith unto the end 15. Here I must advertise all men that have the testimony of God's holy fear within their Breasts to consider how unkindly and injuriously our own Countrey-men and Brethren have dealt with us by the space of four and twenty years from time to time as if we were the men of whom St. Iude here speaketh never ceasing to charge us some with Scism some with Heresie some with plain and manifest Apostasie as if we had clean separated our selves from Christ utterly forsaken God quite abjured Heaven and trampled all Truth and Religion under our feet Against this third sort God himself shall plead our Cause in that day when they shall answer us for these words nor we them To others by whom we are accused for Schism and Heresie we have often made our reasonable and in the sight of God I trust allowable Answers For in the way which they call Heresie we worship the God of our Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets That which they call Schism we know to be our reasonable service unto God and obedience to his voyce which cryeth shrill in our ears Go out of Babylon my People that you be not Partakers of her sinnes and that ye receive not of her Plagues And therefore when they rise up against us having no quarrel but this we need not seek any farther for our Apology than the words of Abiah to Iereboam and his Army 2 Chron. 13. O Ieroboam and Israel hear you me Ought you not to know that the Lord God of Israel hath given the Kingdom over Israel to David for ever even to him and to his Sons by a Covenant of Salt that is to say an everlasting Covenant Jesuits and Papists hear ye me ought you not to know that the Father hath given all power unto the Son and hath made him the onely Head over his Church wherein he dwelleth as an Husband-man in the midst of his Vineyard manuring it with the sweat of his own brows not letting it forth to others For as it is in the Canticles Solomon had a Vineyard in Baalhamon he gave the Vineyard unto Keepers every one bringing forth the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of Silver but my Vineyard which is mine is before me saith Christ. It is true this is meant of the Mystical Head set over the Body which is not seen But as he hath reserved the Mystical Administration of the Church invisible unto himself so he hath committed the Mystical Government of Congregations visible to the Sonnes of David by the same Covenant whose Sons they are in the governing of the Flock of Christ whomsoever the Holy Ghost hath set over them to go before them and to lead them in several Pastures one in this Congregation another in that as it is written Take heed unto your selves and to all the Flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Neither will ever any Pope or Papist under the Cope of Heaven be able to prove the Romish Bishop's usurped Supremacy over all Churches by any one word of the Covenant of Salt which is the Scripture For the Children in our streets do now laugh them to scorn when they force Thou art Peter to this purpose The Pope hath no more reason to draw the Charter of his universal Authority from hence than the Brethren had to gather by the words of Christ in the last of St. Iohn that the Disciple whom Jesus loved should not dye If I will that he â—arry till I come what is that to thee saith Christ. Straitways a report was raised amongst the Brethren that this Disciple should not dye Yet Jesus said not to him He shall not dye but If I will that he â—arry till I come what is that to thee Christ hath said in the sixteenth of St. Matthew's Gospel to Simon the Son of Ionas I say to thee Thou art Peter Hence an opinion is held in the World That the Pope is universal Head of all Churches Yet Jesus said not The Pope is universal Head of all Churches but Ta es Petrus Thou art Peter Howbeit as Ieroboam the son of Nebat the servant of Solomon rose up and rebelled against his Lord and there were gathered unto him vain men and wicked which made themselves strong against Roboam the son of Solomon because Roboam was but a Childe and tender-hearted and could not resist them So the Son of Perdition and Man of Sin being not able to brook the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ which forbad his Disciples to be like Princes of Nations They bear rule that are called Gracious it shall not be so with you hath risen up and rebelled against his Lord and to strengthen his arm he hath crept into the Houses almost of all the Noblest Families round about him and taken their