necessary for decision of Controversies rising between man and man and for correction of faults committed in the Affairs of God unto the due execution whereof there are three things necessary Laws Judges and Supream Governours of Judgements What Courts there shall be and what causes shall belong unto each Court and what Judges shall determine of every cause and what Order in all Judgements shall be kept of these things the Laws have sufficiently disposed so that his duty who sitteth in any such Court is to judge not of but after the same Law Imprimis illud observare debet Iudex ne aliter judicet quam legibus constitutionibus aut moribus proditum est ut Imperator Iustinianaus which Laws for we mean the positive Laws of our Realm concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs if they otherwise dispose of any such thing than according to the Law of Reason and of God we must both acknowledge them to be amiss and endeavour to have them reformed But touching that point what may be objected shall after appear Our Judges in Causes Ecclesiastical are either Ordinary or Commissionary Ordinary those whom we term Ordinaries and such by the Laws of this Land are none but Prelates onely whose Power to do that which they do is in themselves and belonging to the nature of their Ecclesiastical calling In Spiritual Causes a Lay-Person may be no Ordinary a Commissionary Judge there is no lett but that he may be and that our Laws do evermore referr the ordinary Judgement of Spiritual Causes unto Spiritual Persons such as are termed Ordinaries no man which knoweth any thing of the Practice of this Realm can easily be ignorant Now besides them which are Authorized to judge in several Territories there is required an universal Power which reacheth over all imparting Supream Authority of Government over all Courts all Judges all Causes the operation of which Power is as well to strengthen maintain and uphold particular Jurisdictions which haply might else be of small effect as also to remedy that which they are not able to help and to redress that wherein they at any time do otherwise than they ought to do This Power being sometime in the Bishop of Rome who by sinister Practises had drawn it into his hands was for just considerations by Publick consent annexed unto the Kings Royal Seat and Crown from thence the Authors of Reformation would translate it into their National Assemblies or Synods which Synods are the onely helps which they think lawful to use against such Evils in the Church as particular Jurisdictions are not sufficient to redress In which Cause our Laws have provided that the Kings supereminent Authority and Power shall serve As namely when the whole Ecclesiastical State or the Principal Persons therein do need Visitation and Reformation when in any part of the Church Errours Schismes Herusies Abuses Offences Contempts Enormities are grown which men in their several Jurisdictions either do not or cannot help Whatsoever any Spiritual Authority and Power such as Legates from the See of Rome did sometimes exercise hath done or might heretofore have done for the remedies of those Evils in lawful sort that is to say without the violation of the Laws of God or Nature in the deed done as much in every degree our Laws have fully granted that the King for ever may do not onely be setting Ecclesiastical Synods on work that the thing may be their Act and the King their Motioner unto it for so much perhaps the Masters of the Reformation will grant but by Commissions few or many who having the Kings Letters Patents may in the vertue thereof execute the premises as Agents in the right not of their own peculiar and ordinary but of his supereminent Power When men are wronged by inferiour Judges or have any just cause to take exception against them their way for Redress is to make their Appeal and Appeal is a present delivery of him which maketh it out of the hands of their Power and Jurisdictions from whence it is made Pope Alexander having sometimes the King of England at advantage caused him amongst other things to agree that as many of his Subjects as would might have appeal to the Court of Rome And thus saith one that whereunto a mean Person at this day would scorn to submit himself so great a King was content to he subject to Notwithstanding even when the Pope saith he had so great Authority amongst Princes which were farr off the Romans he could not frame to obedience nor was able to obtain that himself might abide at Rome though promising not to meddle with other than Ecclesiastical Affairs So much are things that terrifie more feared by such as behold them aloof off than at hand Reformers I doubt not in some Causes will admit Appeals but Appeals made to their Synods even as the Church of Rome doth allow of them so they be made to the Bishop of Rome As for that kinde of Appeal which the English Laws do approve from the Judge of any certain particular Court unto the King as the onely Supream Governour on Earth who by his Delegates may give a final definitive Sentence from which no farther Appeal can be made Will their Plat-form allow of this Surely forasmuch as in that estate which they all dream of the whole Church must be divided into Parishes in which none can have greater or less Authority and Power than another again the King himself must be but a common Member in the Body of his own Parish and the causes of that onely Parish must be by the Officers thereof determinable In case the King had so much favour or preferment as to be made one of those Officers for otherwise by their positions he were not to meddle any more than the meanest amongst his Subjects with the Judgement of any Ecclesiastical Cause how is it possible they should allow of Appeals to be made from any other abroad to the King To receive Appeals from all other Judges belongeth to the highest in power of all and to be in power over All as touching Judgment in Ecclesiastical Causes this as they think belongeth onely to Synods Whereas therefore with us Kings do exercise over all Things Persons and Causes Supream Power both of voluntary and litigious Jurisdictionsâ— so that according to the one they incite reform and command according to the other they judge universally doing both in farr other sort than such as have ordinary Spiritual power oppugned we are herein by some colourable shew of Argument as if to grant thus much to any Secular Person it were unreasonable For sith it is say they apparent out of the Chronicles that judgement in Church-matters pertaineth to God Seeing likewise it is evident out of the Apostles that the High-Priest is set over those matters in Gods behalf It must needs follow that the Principality or direction of the Iudgment of them is by Gods ordinance appertaining to the High-Priest and
age For though I were now delivered from the torments of men yet could I not escape the hand of the Almighty neither alive nor dead But such was the stream of those times that all men gave place unto it which we cannot but impute partly to their own over-sight For at the first the Emperor was theirs the determination of the Council of Nice was for them they had the Arians hands to that Council So great advantages are never changed so far to the contrary but by great error It plainly appeareth that the first thing which weakned them was their security Such as they knew were in heart still affected towards Arianism they suffered by continual nearness to possess the mindes of the greatest about the Emperor which themselves might have done with very good acceptation and neglected it In Constantines life time to have setled Constantius the same way had been a duty of good service towards God a mean of peace and great quietness to the Church of Christ a labor easie and how likely we may conjecture when after that so much pains was taken to instruct and strengthen him in the contrary course after that so much was done by himself to the furtherance of Heresie yet being touched in the end voluntarily with remorse nothing more grieved him then the memory of former proceedings in the cause of Religion and that which he now foresaw in Iulian the next Physician into whose hands the body that was thus distempered must fall Howbeit this we may somewhat excuse in as much as every mans particular care to his own charge was such as gave them no leisure to heed what others practised in Princes Courts But of the two Synods of Arimine and Selencia what should we think Constantius by the Arians suggestion had devised to assemble all the Bishops of the whole World about this controversie but in two several places the Bishops of the West at Arimine in Italy the Eastern at Selencia the same time Amongst them of the East there was no stop they agreed without any great ado gave their sentence against Heresie excommunicated some chief maintainers thereof and sent the Emperor word what was done They had at Arimine about Four hundred which held the truth scarce of the adverse part Fourscore but these obstinate and the other weary of contending with them Whereupon by both it was resolved to send to the Emperor such as might inform him of the cause and declare what hindred their peaceable agreement There are chosen for the Catholick side such men as had in them nothing to be noted but boldness neither gravity nor learning nor wisdom The Arians for the credit of their faction take the eldest the best experienced the most wary and the longest practised Veterans they had amongst them The Emperor conjecturing of the rest on either part by the quality of them whom he saw sent them speedily away and with them a certain Confession of Faith ambiguously and subtilly drawn by the Arians whereunto unless they all subscribed they should in no case be suffered to depart from the place where they were At the length it was perceived that there had not been in the Catholicks either at Arimine or at Selencia so much foresight as to provide that true intelligence might pass between them what was done Upon the advantage of which Error their adversaries abusing each with perswasion that other had yielded suprized both The Emperor the more desirous and glad of such events for that besides all other things wherein they hindred themselves the gall and bitterness of certain Mens writings who spared him little for honors sake made him for their sakes the less inclinable to that truth which he himself should have honored and loved Onely in Athanasius there was nothing observed throughout the course of that long Tragedy other then such as very well became a wise man to do and a righteous to suffer So that this was the plain condition of those times The whole World against Athanasius and Athanasius against it Half an hundred of years spent in doubtful trial which of the two in the end would prevail the side which had all or else the part which had no friend but God and Death the one a Defender of his Innocency the other a Finisher of all his Troubles Now although these Contentions were cause of much evil yet some good the Church hath reaped by them in that they occasioned the learned and sound in Faith to explain such things as Heresie went about to deprave And in this respect the Creed of Athanasius first exhibited unto Iulius Bishop of Rome and afterwards as we may probably gather sent to the Emperor Iovinian for his more full information concerning that truth which Arianism so mightily did impugn was both in the East and the West Churches accepted as a treasure of inestimable price by as many as had not given up even the very ghost of belief Then was the Creed of Athanasius written howbeit not then so expedient to be publickly used as now in the Church of God because while the heat of division lasteth truth it self enduring opposition doth not so quietly and currantly pass throughout all mens hands neither can be of that account which afterwards it hath when the World once perceiveth the vertue thereof not onely in it self but also by the conquest which God hath given it over Heresie That which Heresie did by sinister interpretations go about to pervert in the first and most ancient Apostolick Creed the same being by singular dexterity and plainness cleared from those Heretical corruptions partly by this Creed of Athanasius written about the year Three hundred and forty and partly by that other set down in the Synod of Constantinople Forty years after comprehending together with the Nicene Creed an addition of other Articles which the Nicene Creed omitted because the controversie then in hand needed no mention to be made of them These Catholick Declarations of our Belief delivered by them which were so much nearer then we are unto the first publication thereof and continuing needful for all men at all times to know these Confessions as testimonies of our continuance in the same Faith to this present day we rather use them any other gloss or paraphrased devised by our selves which though it were to the same effect notwithstanding could not be of the like authority and credit For that of Hilary unto St. Augustine hath been ever and is likely to be always true Your most religious wisdom knoweth how great their number is in the Church of God whom the very authority of mens names doth keep in that opinion which they hold already or draw unto that which they have not before held Touching the Hymn of Glory out usual conclusion to Psalms the glory of all things is that wherein their highest perfection doth consist and the glory of God that divine excellency whereby he is eminent above all things his omnipotent
is freely given the fruit of their Bodies bringeth into the World with it a present interest and right to those means wherewith the Ordinance of Christ is that his Church shall be sanctified it is not to be thought that he which as it were from Heaven hath nominated and designed them unto Holiness by special priviledge of their very Birth will himself deprive them of Regeneration and Inward Grace onely because necessity depriveth them of outward Sacraments In which case it were the part of Charity to hope and to make men rather partial then cruel Judges if we had nor those fair apparancies which here we have Wherefore a necessity there is of Receiving and a necessity of Administring the Sacrament of Baptism the one peradventure not so absolute as some have thought but out of all peradventure the other more straight and narrow then that the Church which is by Office a Mother unto such as crave at her hands the Sacred Mystery of their new Birth should repel them and see them die unsatisfied of these their Ghostly desires rather then give them their Souls Rights with omission of those things which serve but onely for the more convenient and orderly Administration thereof For as on the one side we grant that those sentences of holy Scripture which make Sacraments most necessary to eternal life are no prejudice to their Salvation that want them by some inevitable necessity and without any fault of their own So it ought in reason to be likewise acknowledged that for as much as our Lord himself maketh Baptism necessary necessary whether we respect the good received by Baptism or the Testimony thereby yielded unto God of that Humility and meek Obedience which reposing wholly it self on the absolute Authority of his Commandment and on the Truth of his Heavenly Promise doubteth not but from Creatures despicable in their own condition and substance to obtain Grace of inestimable value or rather not from them but from him yet by them as by his appointed means Howsoever he by the secret ways of his own incomprehensible Mercy may be thought to save without Baptism this cleareth not the Church from guiltiness of Blood if through her superstuous scrupulosity lets and impediments of less regard should cause a Grace of so great moment to be withheld wherein our merciless strictness may be our own harm although not theirs towards whom we shew it and we for the hardness of our hearts may perish albeit they through Gods unspeakable Mercy do live God which did not afflict that Innocent whose Circumcision Moses had over-long deferred took revenge upon Moses himself for the injury which was done through so great neglect giving us thereby to understand that they whom Gods own Mercy saveth without us are on our parts notwithstanding and as much as in us lieth even destroyed when under unsufficient pretences we defraud them of such ordinary outward helps as we should exhibit We have for Baptism no day set as the Jews had for Circumcision neither have we by the Law of God but onely by the Churches discretion a place thereunto appointed Baptism therefore even in the meaning of the Law of Christ belongeth unto Infants capable thereof from the very instant of their Birth Which if they have not howsoever rather than lose it by being put off because the time the place or some such like circumstance doth not solemnly enough concur the Church as much as in her lieth wilfully casteth away their Souls 61. The Ancients it may be were too severe and made the necessity of Baptism more absolute then Reason would as touching Infants But will any man say that they notwithstanding their too much rigor herein did not in that respect sustain and tolerate defects of Local or of Personal Solemnities belonging to the Sacrament of Baptism The Apostles themselves did neither use nor appoint for Baptism any certain time The Church for general Baptism heretofore made choice of two chief days in the year the Feast of Easter and the Feast of Pentecost Which Custom when certain Churches in Sicily began to violate without cause they were by Leo Bishop of Rome advised rather to conform themselves to the rest of the World in things so reasonable then to offend mens mindes through needless singularity Howbeit always providing That nevertheless in apparent peril of death danger of siege streights of persecution fear of shipwrack and the like exigents no respect of times should cause this singular defence of true safety to be denied unto any This of Leo did but confirm that sentence which Victor had many years before given extending the same exception as well unto places as times That which St. Augustine speaketh of Women hasting to bring their children to the Church when they saw danger is a weak proof That when necessity did not leave them so much time it was not then permitted them neither to make a Church of their own home Which answer dischargeth likewise their example of a sick Jew carried in a Bed to the place of Baptism and not baptized at home in private The casue why such kinde of Baptism barred men afterwards from entring into holy Orders the reason wherefore it was objected against Novatian in what respect and how far forth it did disable may be gathered by the Twelfth Canon set down in the Council of Neocaesarea after this manner A man which hath been baptized in sickness is not after to be ordained Priest For it may be thought That such do rather at that time because they see no other remedy then of a voluntary minde lay hold on the Christian Faith unless their true and sincere meaning be made afterwards the more manifest or else the scarcity of others inforce the Church to admit them They bring in Iustinians Imperial Constitution but to what purpose seeing it onely forbiddeth men to have the Mysteries of God administred in their Private Chappels lest under that pretence Hereticks should do secretly those things which were unlawful In which consideration he therefore commandeth that if they would use those private Oratories otherwise then onely for their private Prayers the Bishop should appoint them a Clerk whom they might entertain for that purpose This is plain by latter Constitutions made in the time of Leo It was thought good saith the Emperor in their judgment which have gone before that in Private Chappels none should celebrate the holy Communion but Priests belonging unto greater Churches Which Order they took as it seemeth for the custody of Religion lest men should secretly receive from Hereticks in stead of the food the ban of their Souls pollution in place of expiation Again Whereas a Sacred Canon of the Sixth Reverend Synod requireth Baptism as others have likewise the holy Sacrifices and Mysteries to be celebrated onely in â—emples hallowed for publick use and not in private Oratories which strict Decrees appear to have been made heretofore in regard
all Churches and evermore had was judged by the making of the aforesaid Act a just cause wherefore they should be mentioned in that case as a requisite part of that rule wherewith Dominion was to be limited But of this we shall further consider when we come unto that which Soveraign Power may do in making Ecclesiastical Laws Unto which Supream Power in Kings two kinds of adversaries there are which have opposed themselvs one sort defending That Supream power in causes Ecclesiastical throughout the world appertaineth of Divine Right to the Bishop of Rome Another sort That the said power belongeth in every national Church unto the Clergy thereof assembled We which defend as well against the one as against the other That Kings within their own Precincts may have it must shew by what right it must come unto them First unto me it seemeth almost out of doubt controversie that every independent multitude before any certain form of Regiment established hath under God Supream Authority full Dominion over it self even as a man not tyed with the band of subjection as yet unto any other hath over himself the like power God creating mankind did endue it naturally with power to guide it self in what kind of Society soever he should chuse to live A man which is born Lord of himself may be made an others servant And that power which naturally whole societies have may be derived unto many few or one under whom the rest shall then live in subjection Some multitudes are brought into subjection by force as they who being subdued are fain to submit their necks unto what yoak it pleaseth their Conquerors to lay upon them which Conquerors by just and lawful Wars do hold their power over such multitudes as a thing descending unto them Divine Providence it self so disposing For it is God who giveth victory in the day of War and unto whom Dominion in this sort is derived the same they enjoy according to the Law of Nations which Law authorizeth Conquerours to reign as absolute Lords over them whom they vanquish Sometimes it pleaseth God himself by special appointment to chuse out and nominate such as to whom Dominion shall be given which thing he did often in the Common-wealth of Israel They which in this sort receive power immediately from God have it by meer Divine Right they by humane on whom the same is bestowed according to mens discretion when they are left freely by God to make choice of their own Governours By which of these means soever it happen that Kings or Governors be advanced unto their Estates we must acknowledg both their lawful choice to be approved of God and themselves to be Gods Lievtenants and cofess their Power which they have to be his As for Supream Power in Ecclesiastical affairs the Word of God doth no where appoint that all Kings should have it neither that any should not have it for which cause it seemeth to stand altogether by humane Right that unto Christian Kings there is such Dominion given Again on whom the same is bestowed at mens discretions they likewise do hold it by Divine Right If God in his revealed Word hath appointed such Power to be although himself extraordinarily bestow it not but leave the appointment of persons to men yea albeit God do neither appoint nor assign the person nevertheless when men have assigned and established both Who doth doubt but that sundry duties and affairs depending thereupon are prescribed by the Word of God and consequently by that very right to be exacted For example sake the power which Romane Emperors had over foreign Provinces was not a thing which the Law of God did ever Institute Neither was Tiberius Caesar by especial Commission from Heaven therewith invested and yet paiment of Tribute unto Caesar being now made Emperor is the plain Law of Jesus Christ unto Kings by humane Right Honor by very Divine Right is due mans Ordinances are many times proposed as grounds in the Statutes of God And therefore of what kind soever the means be whereby Governors are lawfully advanced to their States as we by the Laws of God stand bound meekly to acknowledg them for Gods Lieutenants and to confess their Power his So by the same Law they are both authorized and required to use that Power as far as it may be in any State available to his Honor. The Law appointeth no man to be a husband but if a man hath betaken himself unto that condition it giveth him power Authority over his own Wife That the Christian world should be ordered by the Kingly Regiment the Law of God doth not any where command and yet the Law of God doth give them which once are exalted unto that place of Estate right to exact at the hands of their Subjects general obedience in whatsoever affairs their power may serve to command and God doth ratifie works of that Soveraign Authority which Kings have received by men This is therefore the right whereby Kings do hold their power but yet in what sort the same doth rest and abide in them it somewhat behoveth further to search where that we be not enforced to make overlarge discourses about the different conditions of Soveraign or Supream Power that which we speak of Kings shall be in respect of the State and according to the nature of this Kingdom where the people are in no subjection but such as willingly themselves have condescended unto for their own most behoo◠and security In Kingdoms therefore of this quality the highest Governor hath indeed universall Dominion but with dependency upon that whole entire body over the several parts whereof he hath Dominion so that it standeth for an Axiom in this case The King is Major singulis universis minor The Kings dependency we do not construe as some have done who are of opinion that no mans birth can make him a King but every particular person advanced to such Authority hath at his entrance into his Raign the same bestowed on him as an estate in condition by the voluntary deed of the people in whom it doth lie to put by any one and to preferr some other before him better liked of or judged fitter for the place and that the party so rejected hath no injury done unto him no although the same be done in a place where the Crown doth go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by succession and to a person which is capital and hath apparently if blood be respected the nearest right They plainly affirm in all well appointed Kingdoms the custom evermore hath been and is that children succeed not their Parents till the people after a sort have created them anew neither that that they grow to their Fathers as natural and proper Heirs but are then to be reckoned for Kings when at the hands of such as represent the Kings Majesty they have by a Scepter and a Diadem received as it were the investure of Kingly power Their
know that what Ceremonies we retain common unto the Church of Rome we therefore retain them for that we judge them to be profitable and to be such that others instead of them would be worse So that when they say that we ought to abrogate such Romish Ceremonies as are unprofitable or else might have other more profitable in their stead they trisle and they beat the Air about nothing which toucheth us unless they mean that we ought to abrogate all Romish Ceremonies which in their judgment have either no use or less use than some other might have But then must they shew some commission whereby they are authorized to sit as Judges and we required to take their judgment for good in this case Otherwise their sentences will not be greatly regarded when they oppose their Me thinketh unto the Orders of the Church of England as in the Question about Surplesses one of them doth If we look to the colour black methinks is the more decent if to the form a garment down to the foot hath a great deal more comeliness in it If they think that we ought to prove the Ceremonies commodious which we have retained they do in this Point very greatly deceive themselves For in all right and equity that which the Church hath received and held so long for good that which publike approbation hath ratified must carry the benefit of presumption with it to be accounted meet and convenient They which have stood up as yesterday to challenge it of defect must prove their challenge If we being Defendents do answer that the Ceremonies in question are godly comely decent profitable for the Church their reply is childish and unorderly to say that we demand the thing in question and shew the poverty of our cause the goodness whereof we are fain to beg that our Adversaries would grant For on our part this must be the Answer which orderly proceeding doth require The burden of proving doth rest on them In them it is frivolous to say we ought not to use bad Ceremonies of the Church of Rome and presume all such bad as it pleaseth themselves to dislike unless we can perswade them the contrary Besides they are herein opposite also to themselves For what one thing is so common with them as to use the custome of the Church of Rome for an Argument to prove that such and such Ceremonies cannot be good and profitable for us inasmuch as that Church useth them Which usual kind of disputing sheweth that they do not disallow onely those Romish Ceremonies which are unprofitable but count all unprofitable which are Romish that is to say which have been devised by the Church of Rome or which are used in that Church and not prescribed in the Word of God For this is the onely limitation which they can use sutable unto their other Positions And therefore the cause which they yield why they hold it lawful to retain in Doctrine and in Discipline some things as good which yet are common to the Church of Rome is for that those good things are perpetual Commandments in whose place no other can come but Ceremonies are changeable So that their judgement in truth is that whatsoever by the Word of God is not changeable in the Church of Rome that Churches using is a cause why Reformed Churches ought to change it and not to think it good or profitable And lest we seem to father any thing upon them more then is properly their own let them read even their own words where they complain That we are thus constrained to be like unto the Papists in any their Ceremonies yea they urge that this cause although it were alone ought to move them to whom that belongeth to do them away forasmuch as they are their Ceremonies and that the Bishop of Salisbury doth justifie this their complaint The clause is untrue which they add concerning the Bishop of Salisbury but the sentence doth shew that we do them no wrong in setting down the state of the question between us thus Whether we ought to abolish out of the Church of England all such Orders Rites and Ceremonies as are established in the Church of Rome and are not prescribed in the Word of God For the Affirmative whereof we are now to answer such proofs of theirs as have been before alledged 5. Let the Church of Rome be what it will let them that are of it be the people of God and our Fathers in the Christian Faith or let them be otherwise hold them for Catholicks or hold them for Hereticks it is not a thing either one way or other in this present question greatly material Our conformity with them in such things as have been proposed is not proved as yet unlawful by all this S. Augustine hath said yea and we have allowed his saying That the custome of the people of God and the decrees of our forefathers are to be kept touching those things whereof the Scripture hath neither one way nor other given us any charge What then Doth it here therefore follow that they being neither the people of God nor our Forefathers are for that cause in nothing to be followed This Consequent were good if so be it were granted that only the custom of the people of God and the Decrees of our forefathers are in such case to be observed But then should no other kind of latter Laws in the Church be good which were a gross absurdity to think S. Augustines speech therefore doth import that where we have no divine Precept if yet we have the custom of the people of God or a Decree of our forefathers this is a Law and must be kept Notwithstanding it is not denied but that we lawfully may observe the positive constitutions of our own Churches although the same were but yesterday made by our selves alone Nor is there any thing in this to prove that the Church of England might not by Law receive Orders Rites or Customs from the Church of Rome although they were neither the people of God nor yet our forefathers How much lesse when we have received from them nothing but that which they did themselves receive from such as we cannot deny to have been the people of God yea such as either we must acknowledge for our own forefathers or else disdain the race of Christ 6. The Rites and Orders wherein we follow the Church of Rome are of no other kind that such as the Church of Geneva it self doth follow them in We follow the Church of Rome in mo things yet they in some things of the same nature about which our present controversie is so that the difference is not in the kind but in the number of Rites onely wherein they and we do follow the Church of Rome The use of Wafer-cakes the custom of Godfathers and Godmothers in Baptism are things not commanded nor forbidden in the Scripture things which have been of old and are retained in
the forbidding of the latter had no other reason then dissimilitude with that people they which of their own heads alledge this for reason can shew I think some reason more then we are able to find why the former was not also forbidden Might there not be some other mystery in this Prohibition then they think of Yes some other mystery there was in it by all likely-hood For what reason is there which should but induce and therefore much less inforce us to think that care of dissimilitude between the People of God and the Heathen Nations about them was any more the cause of forbidding them to put on Garments of sundry stuff then of charging theâ— withal not to sow their Fields with Meslin or that this was any more the cause of forbidding them to eat Swines-flesh than of charging them withal not to eat the flesh of Eagles Hawks and the like wherefore although the Church of Rome were to us as to Israel the Egyptians and Canaanites were of old yet doth it not follow that the wisdom of God without respect doth teach us to erect between us and them a partition wall of difference in such things indifferent as have been hitherto disputed of 7. Neither is the example of the eldest Churches a whit more available to this purpose Notwithstanding some fault undoubtedly there is in the very resemblance of Idolaters Were it not some kind of blemish to be like unto Infidels and Heathens it would not so usually be objected men would not think it any advantage in the causes of Religion to be able therewith justly to charge their Adversaries as they do Wherefore to the end that it may a little more plainly appear what force this hath and how far the same extendeth we are to note how all men are naturally desirous that they may seem neither to judge nor to do amiss because every Error and Offence is a stain to the beauty of Nature for which cause it blusheth thereat but glorieth in the contrary from whence it riseth that they which disgrace or depress the credit of others do it either in both or in one of these To have been in either directed by a weak and unperfect rule argueth imbecillity and imperfection Men being either led by reason or by imitation of other mens examples if their Persons be odious whose example we chuse to follow as namely if we frame our opinions to that which condemned Hereticks think or direct our Actions according to that which is practised and done by them it lyes as an heavy prejudice against us unless somewhat mightier then their bare example did move us to think or do the same things with them Christian men therefore having besides the common light of all men so great help of heavenly direction from above together with the Lamps of so bright examples at the Church of God doth yield it cannot but worthily seem reproachful for us to leave both the one and the other to become Disciples unto the most hateful sort that live to do as they do only because we see their example before us and have delight to follow it Thus we may therefore safely conclude that it is not evil simply to concur with the Heathens either in opinion or in action and that conformity with them is only then a disgrace when either we follow them in that they think and do amiss or follow them generally in that they do without other reason than only the liking we have to the pattern of their example which liking doth intimate a more universal approbation of them than is allowable Faustus the Manichee therefore objecting against the Jews that they forsook the Idols of the Gentiles but their Temples and Oblations and Altars and Priest hoods and all kind of Ministry of holy things they exercised even as the Gentiles did yea more superstituosly a great deal against the Catholick Christians likewise that between them and the Heathens there was in many things little difference From them saith Faustus ye have learned to hold that one only God is the Author of all their Sacrifices you have turned in Feasts of charity their Idols into Martyrs whom ye honour with the like Religious offices unto theirs The Ghosts of the dead ye appease with Wine and Delicates the Festival days of the Nations ye celebrate together with them and of their kind of life ye have utterly changed nothing S. Augustines defence in behalf of both is that touching the matters of Action Jews and Catholick Christians were free from the Gentiles faultiness even in those things which were objected as tokens of their agreement with the Gentiles and concerning their consent in opinion they did not hold the same with the Gentiles because Gentiles had so taught but because Heaven and Earth had so witnessed the same to be truth that neither the one sort could erre in being fully perswaded thereof nor the other but erre in case they should not consent with them In things of their own nature indifferent if either Councils or particular men have at any time with sound judgement misliked conformity between the Church of God and Infidels the cause thereof hath been somewhat else then onely affectation of dissimilitude They saw it necessary so to do in respect of some special accident which the Church being not alway subject unto hath not still cause to do the like For example in the dangerous days of tryal wherein there was no way for the truth of Jesus Christ to triumph over Infidelity but through the constancy of his Saints whom yet a natural desire to save themselves from the flame might peradventure cause to joyn with Pagans in external Customs too far using the same as a cloak to conceal themselves in and a mist to darken the eyes of Insidels withal for remedy hereof those Laws it might be were provided which forbad that Christians should deck their houses with Boughs as the Pagans did use to do or rest those Festival days whereon the Pagans rested or celebrate such Feasts as were though not Heathenish yet such that the simpler sort of Heathens might be beguiled in so thinking them As for Tertullians judgment concerning the Rites and Orders of the Church no man having judgment can be ignorant how just exceptions may be taken against it His opinion touching the Catholick Church was as un-indifferent as touching our Church the opinion of them that favour this pretended Reformation is He judged all them who did not Montanize to be but carnally minded he judged them still over-abjectly to fawn upon the Heathens and to curry favour with Inâ—idels Which as the Catholick Church did well provide that they might not do indeed so Tertullian over-often through discontentment carpeth injuriously at them as though they did it even when they were free from such meaning But if it were so that either the judgment of those Councils before alledged or of Tertullian himself against the Christians are
usual method of Art is not for them But with those that profess more than ordinary and common knowledge of good from evil with them that are able to put a difference between things naught and things indifferent in the Church of Rome we are yet at controversie about the manner of removing that which is naught whether it may not be perfectly helpt unless that also which is indifferent be cut off with it so far till no Rite or Ceremony remain which the Church of Rome hath being not found in the Word of God If we think this too extreme they reply that to draw men from great excess it not amiss though we use them unto somewhat less then is competent and that a crooked stick is not straightned unless it be bent as far on the clean contrary side that so it may settle it self at the length in a middle estate of evenness between both But how can these comparisons stand them in any stead When they urge us to extreme opposition against the Church of Rome do they mean we should be drawn unto it only for a time and afterwards return to a mediocrity Or was it the purpose of those Reformed Churches which utterly abolished all Popish Ceremonies to come in the end back again to the middle point of evenness and moderation Then have we conceived amiss of their meaning For we have always thought their Opinion to be that utter inconformity with the Church of Rome was not an extremity whereunto we should be drawn for a time but the very mediocrity it self wherein they meant we should ever continue Now by these comparisons it seemeth clean contrary that howsoever they have bent themselves at first to an extreme contrariety against the Romish Church yet therein they will continue no longer then onely till such time as some more moderate course for establishment of the Church may be concluded Yea albeit this were not at the first their intent yet surely now there is great cause to lead them unto it They have seen that experience of the former Policy which may cause the Authors of it to hang down their heads When Germany had stricken off that which appeared corrupt in the Doctrine of the Church of Rome but seemed nevertheless in Discipline still to retain therewith very great conformity France by that rule of policy which hath been before mentioned took away the Popish Orders which Germany did retain But process of time hath brought more light into the world whereby men perceiving that they of the Religion in France have also retained some Orders which were before in the Church of Rome and are not commanded in the Word of God there hath arisen a Sect in England which following still the very self-same Rule of policy seeketh to reform even the French Reformation and purge out from thence also dregs of Popery These have not taken as yet such root that they are able to establish any thing But if they had what would spring out of their stock and how far the unquiet wit of man might be carried with rules of such policy God doth know The trial which we have lived to see may somewhat teach us what posterity is to fear But our Lord of his infinite mercy avert whatsoever evil our swervings on the one hand or on the other may threaten unto the state of his Church 9. That the Church of Rome doth hereby take occasion to blaspheme and to say our Religion is not able to stand of it self unless it lean upon the staff of their Ceremonies is not a matter of so great moment that it did need to be objected or doth deserve to receive answer The name of blasphemy in this place is like the shoo of Hercules on a childs foot If the Church of Rome do use any such kind of silly exprobration it is no such ugly thing to the eat that we should think the honour and credit of our Religion to receive thereby any great wound They which hereof make so perillous a matter do seem to imagine that we have erected of late a frame of some new Religion the furniture whereof we should not have borrowed from our Enemies lest they relieving us might afterwards laugh and gibe at our poverty whereas in truth the Ceremonies which we have taken from such as were before us are not things that belong to this or that Sect but they are the ancient Rites and Customs of the Church of Christ whereof our selves being a part we have the self-same interest in them which our Fathers before us had from whom the same are descended unto us Again in case we had been so much beholden privately unto them doth the reputation of one Church stand by saying unto another I need thee not If some should be so vain and impotent as to mar a benefit with reproachful upbraiding where at the least they suppose themselves to have bestowed some good turn yet surely a wise bodies part it were not â—o put out his fire because his fond and foolish Neighbour from whom he borrowed peradventure wherewith to kindle it might haply cast him therewith in the teeth saying Were it not for me thou wouldest freez and not be able to heat thy self As for that other Argument derived from the secret affection of Papists with whom our conformity in certain Ceremonies is said to put them in great hope that their whole Religion in time will have re-entrance and therefore none are so clamorous amongst us for the observation of these Ceremonies as Papists and such as Papists suborn to speak for them whereby it clearly appeareth how much they rejoyce how much they triumph in these thiâ—… our answer hereunto is still the same that the benefit we have by such Ceremonâ—… over-weigheth even this also No man that is not exceeding partial can well dâ—… but that there is most just cause wherefore we should be offended greatly at the Church of Rome Notwithstanding at such times as we are to deliberate for our selves the freer our minds are from all cistempered affections the sounder and better is our judgement When we are in a fretting mood at the Church of Rome and with that angry disposition enter into any cogitation of the Orders and Rites of our Church taking particular survey of them we are sure to have always one eye fixed upon the countenance of our Enemies and according to the blithe or heavy aspect thereof our other eye sheweth some other suitable token either of dislike or approbation towards our own Orders For the rule of our Judgement in such case being only that of Homer This is the thing which our Enemies would have what they seem contented with even for that very cause we reject and there is nothing but it pleaseth as much the better if we espy that is galleth them Miserable were the state and condition of that Church the weighty affairs whereof should be ordered by those deliberations wherein such an humour as
this were predominant We have most heartily to thank God therefore that they amongst us to whom the first consultations of causes of this kind fell were men which aiming at another mark namely the glory of God and the good of this his Church took that which they judged thereunto necessary not rejecting any good or convenient thing only because the Church of Rome might perhaps like it If we have that which is meet and right although they be glad we are not to envy them this their solace we do not think it a duty of ours to be in every such thing their Tormentors And wherein it is said that Popery for want of this utter extirpation hath in some places takenroot and flourished again but hath not been able to re-establish it self in any place after provision made against it by utter evacuation of all Romish Ceremonies and therefore as long as we hold any thing like unto them we put them in some more hope than if all were taken away as we deny not but this may be true so being of two evils to choose the less we hold it better that the Friends and Favourers of the Church of Rome should be in some kind of hope to have a corrupt Religion restored then both we and they conceive just fear lest under colour of rooting out Popery the most effectual means to bear up the state of Religion be removed and so a way made either for Paganism or for extreme Barbarity to enter If desire of weakning the hope of others should turn us away from the course we have taken how much more the care of preventing our own fear with-hold us from that we are urged unto Especially seeing that our own fear we know but we are not so certain what hope the Rites and Orders of our Church have bred in the hearts of others Fort it is no sufficient Argument therefore to say that in maintaining and urging these Ceremonies none are so clamorous as Papists and they whom Papists suborn this speech being more hard to justifie than the former and so their proof more doubtfull then the thing it self which they prove He that were certain that this is true must have marked who they be that speak for Ceremonies he must have noted who amongst them doth speak oftenest or is most earnest he must have been both acquainted thorowly with the Religion of such and also privy to what conferences or compacts are passed in secret between them and others which kind of notice are not wont to be vulgar and common Yet they which alleadge this would have it taken as a thing that needeth no proof a thing which all men know and see And if so be it were granted them as true what gain they by it Sundry of them that be Popish are eager in maintenance of Ceremonies Is it so strange a matter to find a good thing furthered by ill men of a smister intent and purpose whose forwardness is not therefore a bridle to such as favour the same cause with a better and sincerer meaning They that seek as they say the removing of all Popish Orders out of the Church and reckon the state of Bishops in the number of those Orders do I doubt not presume that the cause which they prosecute is holy Notwithstanding it is their own ingenuous acknowledgement that even this very cause which they term so often by an excellency The Lords Cause is gratissima most acceptable unto some which hope for prey and spoyl by it and that our Age hath store of such and that such are the very Sectaries of Dionysius the famous Atheist Now if hereupon we should upbraid them with Irreligious as they do us with Superstitious favourers if we should follow them in their own kind of Pleading and say that the most clamorous for this pretended Reformation are either Atheists or else Proctors suborned by Atheists the Answer which herein they would make unto us let them apply unto themselves and there an end For they must not forbid us to presume our cause in defence of our Church-orders to be as good as theirs against them till the contrary be made manifest to the World 10. In the mean while sorry we are that any good and godly mind should be grieved with that which is done But to remedy their grief lyeth not so much in us as in themselves They do not wish to be made glad with the hurt of the Church and to remove all out of the Church whereat they shew themselves to be sorrowful would be as we are perswaded hurtful if not pernicious thereunto Till they be able to perswade the contrary they must and will I doubt not find out some other good mean to chear up themselves Amongst which means the example of Geneva may serve for one Have not they the old Popish custom of using God-fathers and God-mothers in Baptism the old Popish custom of administring the blessed Sacrament of the holy Eucharist with Wafer-cakes These things then the Godly there can digest Wherefore should not the Godly here learn to do the like both in them and in therest of the like nature Some further mean peradventure it might be to asswage their grief if so be they did consider the revenge they take on them which have been as they interpret it the workers of their continuance in so great grief so long For if the maintenance of Ceremonies be a corrosive to such as oppugn them undoubtedly to such as maintain them it can be no great pleasure when they behold how that which they reverence is oppugned And therefore they that judge themselves Martyrs when they are grieved should think withal what they are whom they grieve For we are still to put them in mind that the cause doth make no difference for that it must be presumed as good at the least on our part as on theirs till it be in the end decided who have stood for Truth and who for Error So that till then the most effectual medicine and withal the most sound to ease their grief must not be in our opinion the taking away of those things whereat they are grieved but the altering of that perswasion which they have concerning the same For this we therefore both pray and labour the more because we are also perswaded that it is but conceit in them to think that those Romish Ceremonies whereof we have hitherto spoken are like leprous Clothes infectious to the Church or like soft and gentle Poysons the venom whereof being insensibly penicious worketh death and yet is never felt working Thus they say but because they say it only and the World hath not as yet had so great experience of their Art in curing the Diseases of the Church that the bare authority of their word should perswade in a cause so weighty they may not think much if it be required at their hands to shew First by what means so deadly Infection can grow from
of them who in time of persecution had through fear betrayed their faith and notwithstanding thought by shift to avoid in that case the necessary Discipline of the Church wrote for their better instruction the book intituled De lapsis a Treatise concerning such as had openly forsaken their Religion and yet were loth openly to confess their fault in such manner as they should have done In which book he compareth with this sort of men certain others which had but a purpose only to have departed from the Faith and yet could not quiet their minds till this very secret and hidden fault was confest How much both greater in faith saith St. Cyprian and also as touching their fear better are those men who although neither sacrifice nor libel could be objected against them yet because they thought to have done that which they should not even this their intent they dolefully open unto Gods Priests They confess that whereof their conscience accuseth them the burthen that presseth their minds they discover they foreslow not of smaller and slighter evils to seek remedy He saith they declared their fault not to one only man in private but revealed it to Gods Priests they confest it before the whole Consistory of Gods Ministers Salvianus for I willingly embrace their conjecture who ascribe those Homilies to him which have hitherto by common error past under the counterfeit name of Eusebius Emesenus I say Salvianus though coming long after Cyprian in time giveth nevertheless the same evidence for his truth in a case very little different from that before alleadged his words are these Whereas most dearly beloved we see that pennance oftentimes is sought and sued for by holy souls which even from their youth have bequeathed themselves a precious treasure unto God let us know that the inspiration of Gods good Spirit moveth them so to do for the benefit of his Church and let such as are wounded learn to enquire for that remedy whereunto the very soundest do thus offer and obtrude as it were themselves that if the vertuous do bewailâ— small offences the others cease not to lament great And surely when a man that hath less need performeth sub oculis Ecclesiae in the view sight and beholding of the whole Church an office worthy of his faith and compunction for Sin the good which others thereby reap is his own harvest the heap of his rewards groweth by that which another gaineth and through a kind of spiritual usury from that amendment of life which others learn by him there returneth lucre into his cossers The same Salvianus in another of his Homilies If faults haply be not great and grievous for example if a man have offended in word or in desire worthy of reproof if in the wantonness of his eye or the vanity of his heart the stains of words and thoughts are by daily prayer to be cleansed and by private compunction to be scoured out But if any man examining inwardly his own Conscience have committed some high and capital offence as if by hearing false witness he have quelled and betrayed his faith and by rashness of perjury have violated the sacred name of Truth if with the mire of lustful uncleanness he have sullied the veil of Baptism and the gorgeous robe of Virginity if by being the cause of any mans death he have been the death of the new man within himself if by conference with Southsayers Wizards and Charmers he hath enthralled himself to Satan These and such like committed crimes cannot throughly be taken away with ordinary moderate and secret satisfaction but greater causes do require greater and sharper remedies they need such remedies as are not only sharp but solemn open and publick Again Let that soul saith he answer me which through pernicious shame fastness it now so abasht to acknowledge his Sin in conspectu fratrum before his brethren as he should have been abasht to commit the same What will be do in the presence of that Divine Tribunal where he is to stand arraigned in the Assembly of a glorious and celestial host I will hereunto adde but St. Ambrose's testimony For the places which I might alledge are more then the cause it self needeth There are many saith he who fearing the judgement that is to come and feeling inward remorse of conscience when they have offered themselves unto penitency and are enjoyned what they shall do give back for the only skar which they think that publick supplication will put them unto He speaketh of them which sought voluntarily to be penanced and yet withdrew themselves from open confession which they that were penitents for publick crimes could not possibly have done and therefore it cannot be said he meaneth any other then secret Sinners in that place Gennadius a Presbyter of Marsiles in his book touching Ecclesiastical assertions maketh but two kinds of confession necessary the one in private to God alone for smaller offences the other open when crimes committed are hainous and great Although saith he a man be bitten with conscience of Sin let his will be from thenceforward to Sin no more let him before he communicate satisfie with tears and prayers and then putting his trust in the mercy of Almighty God whose want is to yield godly confession let him boldly receive the Sacrament But I speak this of such as have not burthened themselves with capital Sins Them I exhort to satisfie first by publick penance that so being reconciled by the sentence of the Priest they may communicate safely with others Thus still we hear of publick confessions although the crimes themselves discovered were not publick we hear that the cause of such confessions was not the openness but the greatness of mens offences finally we hear that the same being now held by the Church of Rome to be Sacramental were the onely penitential Confessions used in the Church for a long time and esteemed as necessary remedies against Sin They which will find Auricular Confessions in St. Cyprian therefore must seek out some other passage then that which Bellarmine alledgeth Whereas in smaller faults which are not committed against the Lord himself there is a competent time assigned unto Penitency and that confession is made after that observation and tryal had been bad of the Penitents behaviour neither may any communicate till the Bishop and Clergy have laid their hands upon him how much more ought all things to be warily and stayedly observed according to the Discipline of the Lord in these most grievous and extream crimes S. Cyprians speech is against rashness in admitting Idolaters to the holy Communion before they had shewed sufficient Repentance considering that other offenders were forced to stay out their time and that they made not their publick confession which was the last act of Penitency till their Life and Conversation had been seen into not with the eye of Auricular Scrutiny but of Pastoral Observation according to that in the
ended their days did not yet live himself to see the Presbyters of Alexandria othewise then subject unto a Bishop So that we cannot with any truth so interpret his words as to mean that in the Church of Alexandria there had been Bishops indued with Superiority over Presbyters from St. Marks time only till the time of Heraclas and of Dionysius Wherefore that St. Ierom may receive a more probable interpretation then this We answer that generally oâ— Regiment by Bishops and what term of continuance it had in the Church of Alexandria it was no part of his mind to speak but to note one onely circumstance belonging to the manner of their election which circumstance is that in Alexandria they used to chuse their Bishops altogether out of the colledge of their own Presbyters and neither from abroad nor out of any other inferior order of the Clergy whereas oftentimes elsewhere the use was to chuse as well from abroad as at home as well inferior unto Presbyters as Presbyters when they saw occasion This custome saith he the Church of Alexandria did always keep till in Heraclas and Dionysius they began to do otherwise These two were the very first not chose out of their Colledge of Presbyters The drift and purpose of S. Ieroms speech doth plainly show what his meaning was for whereas some did over-extol the Office of the Deacon in the Church of Rome where Deacons being grown great through wealth challenged place above Presbyters S. Ierome to abate this insolency writing to Evagrius diminisheth by all means the Deacons estimation and lifteth up Presbyters as far as possible the truth might bear An attendant saith he upon Tables and Widows proudly to exalt himself above them at whose prayers is made the body and blood of Christ above them between whom and Bishops there was at the first for a time no difference neither in authority nor in title And whereas after schisms and contentions made it necessary that some one should be placed over them by which occasion the title of Bishop became proper unto that one yet was that one chosen out of the Presbyters as being the chiefest the highest the worthiest degree of the Clergie and not out of Deacons in which consideration also it seemeth that in Alexandria even from St. Mark to Heraclas and Dionysius Bishops there the Presbyters evermore have chosen one of themselves and not a Deacon at any time to be their Bishop Nor let any man think that Christ hath one Church in Rome and another in the rest of the world that in Rome he alloweth Deacons to be honoured above Presbyters and otherwhere will have them to be in the next degree to the Bishop If it be deemed that abroad where Bishops are poorer the Presbyters under them may be the next unto them in honour but at Rome where the Bishop hath amplerevenâ—es the Deacons whose estate is nearest for wealth may be also for estimation the next unto him We must know that a Bishop in the meanest City is no less a Bishop then he who is seated in the greatest the countenance of a rich and the meanness of a poor estate doth make no odds between Bishops and therefore if a Presbyter at Engubium be the next in degree to a Bishop surely even at Rome it ought in reason to be so likewise and not a Deacon for wealths sake only to be above who by order should be and elsewhere is underneath a Presbyter But ye will say that according to the custom of Rome a Deacon presenteth unto the Bishop him which standeth to be ordained Presbyter and upon the Deacons testimony given concerning his fitness he receiveth at the Bishops hands Oraïnation So that in Rome the Deacon having this special preheminence the Presbyter ought there to give place unto him Wherefore is the custom of one City brought against the practice of the whole World The pancity of Deacons in the Church of Rome hath gotten the credit as unto Presbyters their multitude hath been cause of contempt Howbeit even in the Church of Rome Presbyters sit and Deacons stand an Argument as strong against the superiority of Deacons as the fore-alleadged reason doth seem for it Besides whosoever is promoted must needs be raised from a lower degree to an higher wherefore either let him which is Presbyter be made a Deacon that so the Deacon may appear to be the greater or if of Deacons Presbyters be made let them know themselves to be in regard of Deacons though below in gain yet above in Office And to the end we may understand that those Apostolical Orders are taken out of the Old Testament what Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple the same in the Church may â— Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons challenge unto themselves This is the very drift and substance this the true construction and sense of St. Ieroms whole discourse in that Epistle Which I have therefore endeavoured the more at large to explain because no one thing is less effectual or more usual to be alledged against the antient Authority of Bishops concerning whose Government St. Ieroms own words otherwhere are sufficient to show his opinion that this Order was not only in Alexandria so ancient but even an ancient in other Churches We have before alledged his testimony touching Iames the Bishop of Ierusalem As for Bishops in other Churches on the first of the Epistle to Titus thus he speaketh Till through instinct of the devil there grew in the Church factions and among the people it began to be profest I am of Paul I of Apollos and I of Cephas Churches were governed by the common advice of Presbyters but when every one began to reckon those whom himself had baptized his own and not Christs it was decreed IN THE WHOLE WORLD that one chosen out of the Presbyters should be placed above the rest to whom all care of the Church should belong and so the seeds of schism be removed If it be so that by St. Ieroms own Confession this order was not then begun when people in the Apostles absence began to be divided into factions by their Teachers and to rehearse I am of Paul but that even at the very first appointment thereof was agreed upon and received throughout the world how shall a man be perswaded that the same Ierom thought it so ancient no-where saving in Alexandria one only Church of the whole world A sentence there is indeed of St. Ieroms which bring not throughly considered and weighed may cause his meaning so to be taken as if he judged Episcopal regiment to have been the Churches invention long after and not the Apostles own institution as namely when he admonisheth Bishops in this manner As therefore Presbyters do know that the custom of the Church makes them subject to the Bishop which is set over them so let Bishops know that custom rather then the truth of any Ordinance of the Lord maketh them
and quite forgetting of strife together with the Causes that have either bred it or brought it up that things of small moment never disjoyn them whom one God one Lord one Faith one Spirit one Baptism bands of so great force have linked that a respectively eye towards things wherewith we should not be disquieted make us not as through infirmity the very Patriarchs themselves sometimes were full gorged unable to speak peaceably to their own Brother Finally that no strife may ever be heard of again but this Who shall hate strife most who shall pursue peace and unity with swiftest paces To The Christian Reader WHereas many desirous of resolution in some Points handled in this learned Discourse were earnest to have it Copied out to case so many labours it hath been thought most worthy and very necessary to be printed that not onely they might be satisfied but the whole Church also hereby edified The rather because it will free the Author from the suspition of some Errors which he hath been thought to have favoured Who might well have answered with Cremutius in Tacitus Verba mea arguuntur adeò factorum innocens sum Certainly the event of that time wherein he lived shewed that to be true which the same Author spake of a worse Cui deerat inimicus per amicos oppressus and that there is not minus periculum ex magna fama quà m ex mala But he hath so quit himself that all may see how as it was said of Agricola Simul suis virtutibus simul vitiis aliorum in ipsam gloriam praeceps agebatur Touching whom I will say no more but that which my Author said of the same man Integritatem c. in tanto viro referre injuria virtutum fuerit But as of all other his Writings so of this I will adde that which Velleius spake in commendation of Piso Nemo fuit qui megis quae agenda erant curaret sine ulla ostentatione agendi So not doubting good Christian Reader of thy assent herein but wishing thy favourable acceptance of this Work which will be an inducement to set forth others of his Learned labours I take my leave from Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford the sixth of July 1612. Thine in Christ Jesus HENRY IACKSON A LEARNED DISCOURSE OF Justification Works and how the Foundation of FAITH is overthrown HABAK. 1. 4. The wicked doth compass about the righteous therefore perverse Iudgement doth proceed FOR the better manifestation of the Prophets meaning in this place we are first to consider the wicked of whom he saith that They compass about the righteous Secondly the righteous that are compassed about by them and Thirdly That which is inferred Therefore perverse judgement proceedeth Touching the first There are two kinds of wicked men of whom in the fist of the former to the Corinthians the blessed Apostle speaketh thus Do ye not judge them that are within But God judgeth them that art without There are wicked therefore whom the Church may judge and there are wicked whom God onely judgeth wicked within and wicked without the walls of the Church If within the Church particular persons be apparently such as cannot otherwise be reformed the rule of the Apostolical judgment is this Separate them from among you if whole Assemblies this Separate your selves from among them For what society hath light with darkness But the wicked whom the Prophet meaneth were Babylonians and therefore without For which cause we heard at large heretofore in what sort he urgeth God to judge them 2. Now concerning the righteous their neither it nor ever was any meer natural man absolutely righteous in himself that is to say void of all unrighteousness of all sin We dare not except no not the blessed Virgin her self of whom although we say with St. Augustine for the honour sake which we owe to our Lord and Saviour Christ we are not willing in this cause to move any question of his Mother yet for asmuch as the Schools of Rome have made it a question we may answer with Eusebius Emissenus who speaketh of her and to her in this effect Thou didst by special Prerogative nine months together entertain within the Closet of the Flesh the hope of all the ends of the Earth the honour of the World the common joy of Men. He from whom all things had their beginning had his beginning from thee of the Body he took the blood which was to be shed for the life of the World of thee he took that which even for thee be payed A peccati enim veteris nexu per se non est immunis ipsa genitrix Redemptoris The Mother of the Redeemer himself is not otherwise loosed from the bond of antient sinne than by redemption if Christ have paid a ransom for all even for her it followeth that all without exception were Captives If one have died for all then all were dead in sinne all sinful therefore none absolutely righteous in themselves but we are absolutely righteous in Christ. The World then must shew a righteous man otherwise not able to shew a man that is perfectly righteous Christ is made to us Wisdome Iustice Sanctification and Redemption Wisdom because he hath revealed his Fathers will Iustice because he hath offered up himself a Sacrifice for sin Sanctification because he hath given us his Spirit Redemption because he hath appointed a day to vindicate his Children out of the bonds of Corruption into liberty which is glorious How Christ is made Wisdom and how Redemption it may be declared when occasion serveth But how Christ is made the Righteousness of men we are now to declare 3. There is a glorifying Righteousness of men in the World to come as there is a justifying and sanctifying Righteousness here The Righteousness wherewith we shall be clothed in the World to come is both perfect and inherent That whereby here we are justified is perfect but not inherent That whereby we are sanctified is inherent but not perfect This openeth a way to the understanding of that grand question which hangeth yet in controversie between us and the Church of Rome about the matter of justifying Righteousness 4. First although they imagine that the Mother of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ were for his honour and by his special protection preserved clean from all sinne yet touching the rest they teach as we doe That Infants that never did actually offend have their Natures defiled destitute of Justice averted from God That in making man righteous none do efficiently work with God but God They teach as we do that unto Justice no man ever attained but by the Merits of Jesus Christ. They teach as we do That although Christ as God be the efficient as Man the meritorious cause of our Justice yet in us also there is some thing required God is the cause of our natural life in him we live but he quickneth not
towards the Gospel of Christ whose eyes are opened to see the Truth and his mouth to renounce all Heresie and Errour any wise opposite thereunto This one opinion of Merits excepted he thinketh God will require at his hands and because he wanteth therefore trembleth and is discouraged it may be I am forgetful and unskilful not furnished with things new and old as a wise and learned Scribe should be nor able to alledge that whereunto if it were alledged he doth hear a minde most williing to yield and so to be recalled as well from this as from other Errours And shall I think because of this onely Errour that such a man toucheth not so much as the hem of Christ's garment If he do Wherefore should not I have hope that vertue may proceed from Christ to save him Because his Errour doth by consequent overthrow his Faith shall I therefore cast him off as one that hath utterly cast off Christ one that holdeth not so much as by a slender thred No I will not be afraid to say unto a Pope or Cardinal in this plight Be of good comfort we have to do with a merciful God ready to make the best of a little which we hold well and not with a captious Sophister which gathereth the worst out of every thing wherein we erre Is there any Reason that I should be suspected or you offended for this speech Is it a dangerous thing to imagine that such men may finde mercy The hour may come when we shall think it a blessed thing to hear that if our sinnes were the sinnes of the Pope and Cardinals the bowels of the mercy of God are larger I do propose unto you a Pope with the neck of an Emperour under his feet a Cardinal riding his horse to the bridle in the blood of Saints but a Pope or a Cardinal sorrowful penitent dis-robed stript not onely of usurpec ' power but also delivered and recalled from Error and Antichrist converted and lying prostrate at the foot of Christ and shall I think that Christ shall spurn at him and shall I cross and gain-say the merciful promises of God generally made unto penitent sinners by opposing the name of a Pope or Cardinal What difference is there in the world between a Pope and a Cardinal and Iohn a Stile in this Case If we think it impossible for them if they be once come within that rank to be afterwards touched with any such remorse let that he granted The Apostle saith If I or an Angel from heaven preach unto c. Let it be as likely that S. Paul or an Angel from Heaven should preach Heresie as that a Pope or Cardinal should be brought so farr forth to acknowledge the truth yet if a Pope or Cardinal should what finde we in their Persons why they might not be saved It is not the Persons you will say but the Errour wherein I suppose them to dye which excludeth them from the hope of mercy the opinion of merits doth take away all possibility of Salvation from them What if they hold it onely as an Errour Although they hold the truth truly and sincerely in all other parts of Christian Faith Although they have in some measure all the Vertues and Graces of the Spirit all other tokens of God's Elect Children in them Although they be farr from having any proud presumptuous opinion that they shall be saved by the worthiness of their deeds Although the onely thing which troubleth and molested them be but a little too much dejection somewhat too great a fear rising from an erroneous conceit that God would require a worthinesse in them which they are grieved to finde wanting in themselves Although they be not obstinate in this perswasion Although they be willing and would be glad to forsake it if any one reason were brought sufficient to dispove it Although the onely lett why they doe not forsake it ere they dye be the ignorance of the 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 us should be able and are not to remove it Let me dye if ever it be proved that simply an Errour doth exclude a Pope or a Cardinal in such a case utterly from hope of life Surely I must confesse unto you if it be an Errour that God may be merciful to save men even when they erre my greatest Comfort is my Errour were it not for the love I bear unto this Errour I would never wish to speak nor to live 36. Wherefore to resume that mother-Sentence whereof I little thought that so much trouble would have grown I doubt not but that God was merciful to save thousands of our Fathers living in Papish Superstitions inasmuch as they sinned ignorantly Alas what bloody matter is there contained in this Sentence that it should be an occasion of so many hard Censures Did I say that thousands of our Fathers might be saved I have shewed which way it cannot be denied Did I say I doubt not but they were saved I see no impiety in this Perswasion though I had no reason for it Did I say Their ignorance did make me hope they did finde mercy and so were saved What hindreth Salvation but Sinne Sinnes are not equal and Ignorance though it doth not make Sinne to be no Sinne yet seeing it did make their sinne the less why should it not make our hope concerning their life the greater We pity the most and doubt not but God hath most compassion over them that sinne for want of understanding As much is confessed by sundry others almost in the self-same words which I have used It is but onely my evil hap that the same Sentences which savour Verity in other mens books should seem to bolster Heresie when they are once by me recited If I be deceived in this point not they but the blessed Apostle hath deceived me What I said of others the same he said of himself I obtained mercy for I did it ignorantly Construe his words and you cannot misconstrue mine I spake no otherwise I meant no otherwise than he did 37. Thus have I brought the question concerning our Fathers at length unto an end Of whose estate upon so fit an occasion as was offered me handling the weighty causes of separation between the Church of Rome and us and the weak motives which are commonly brought to retain men in that Society amongst which motives the examples of our Fathers deceased is one although I saw it convenient to utter the Sentence which I did to the end that all men might thereby understand how untruly we are said to condemn as many as have been before us otherwise perswaded than we our selves are yet more than that one Sentence I did not think it expedient to utter judging it a great deal meeter for us to have regard to our own estate than to sift over-curiously what is become of other
and to make the truth of things believed evident unto our mindes is much mightier in operation than the common light of nature whereby we discern sensible things wherefore we must needs be more sure of that we believe than of that we see we must needs be more certain of the mercies of God in Christ Jesus than we are of the light of the Sun when it shineth upon our faces To that of Abraham He did not doubt I answer that this negation doth not exclude all fear all doubting but onely that which cannot stand with true Faith It freeth Abraham from doubting through Infidelity not from doubting through Infirmity from the doubting of Unbelievers not of weak Believers from such a doubting as that whereof the Prince of Samaria is attainted who hearing the promise of sudden Plenty in the midst of Extream Dearth answered Though the Lord would make windows in Heaven were it possible so to come to pass But that Abraham was not void of all doubting what need we any other proof than the plain evidence of his own words Gen. 17. 17. The reason which is taken from the power of the Spirit were effectual if God did work like a natural Agent as the fire doth inflame and the Sun enlighten according to the uttermost ability which they have to bring forth their effects But the incomprehensible wisdom of God doth limit the effects of his power to such a measure as seemeth best unto himself Wherefore he worketh that certainty in all which sufficeth abundantly to their Salvation in the life to come but in none so great as attaineth in this life unto perfection Even so O Lord it hath pleased thee even so it is best and fittest for us that feeling still our own Infirmities we may no longer breathe than pray Adjuva Domine Help Lord our incredulity Of the third Question this I hope will suffice being added unto that which hath been thereof already spoken The fourth Question resteth and so an end of this Point That which cometh last of all in this first branch to be considered concerning the weakness of the Prophet's Faith is Whether he did by this very thought The Law doth fail quench the Spirit fall from Faith and shew himself an Unbeliever or no The Question is of moment the repose and tranquillity of infinite Souls doth depend upon it The Prophet's case is the case of many which way soever we cast for him the same way it passeth for all others If in him this cogitation did extinguish Grace why the like thoughts in us should not take the like effect there is no cause Forasmuch therefore as the matter is weighty dear and precious which we have in hand it behoveth us with so much the greater chariness to wade through it taking special heed both what we build and whereon we build that if our Building be Pearl our Foundation be not Stubble if the Doctrine we teach be full of comfort and consolation the ground whereupon we gather it be sure otherwise we shall not save but deceive both our selves and others In this we know we are not deceived neither can we deceive you when we teach that the Faith whereby ye are sanctified cannot fail it did not in the Prophet it shall not in you If it be so let the difference be shewed between the condition of Unbelievers and his in this or in the like imbecillity and weakness There was in Habakkuk that which Saint Iohn doth call the seed of God meaning thereby the first grace which God powreth into the hearts of them that are incorporated into Christ which having received if because it is an adversary to Sinne we do therefore think we sinne not both otherwise and also by distrustful and doubtfull apprehending of that which we ought stedfastly to believe surely we do but deceive our selves Yet they which are of God do not sinne either in this or in any thing any such sinne as doth quite extinguish Grace clean cutt them off from Christ Jesus because the seed of God abideth in them and doth shield them from receiving any irremediable wound Their Faith when it is at strongest is but weak yet even then when it is at the weakest so strong that utterly it never faileth it never perisheth altogether no not in them who think it extinguished in themselves There are for whose sakes I dare not deal slightly in this Cause sparing that labour which must be bestowed to make it plain Men in like agonies unto this of the Prophet Habakkuk's are through the extremity of grief many times in judgement so confounded that they finde not themselves in themselves For that which dwelleth in their hearts they seek they make diligent search and enquiry It abideth it worketh in them yet still they ask where Still they lament as for a thing which is past finding they mourn as Rachel and refuse to be comforted as if that were not which indeed is and as if that which is not were as if they did not believe when they doe and as if they did despair when they do not Which in some I grant is but a melancholly passion proceeding onely from that dejection of minde the cause whereof is in the Bodâ— and by bodily means can be taken away But where there is no such bodily cause the minde is not lightly in this mood but by some of these three occasions One that judging by comparison either with other men or with themselves at some other time more strong they think imperfection to be a plain deprivation weakness to be utter want of Faith Another cause is they often mistake one thing for another Saint Paul wishing well to the Church of Rome prayeth for them after this sort The God of Hope fill you with all joy of Believing Hence an errour groweth when men in heaviness of Spirit suppose they lack Faith because they finde not the sugred joy and delight which indeed doth accompanie Faith but so as a separable accident as a thing that may be removed from it yea there is a cause why it should be removed The light would never be so acceptable were it not for that usual intercourse of darkness Too much honey doth turn to gall and too much joy even spiritual would make us Wantons Happier a great deal is that man's case whose Soul by inward desolation is humbled than he whose heart is through abundance of Spiritual delight lifted up and exalted above measure Better it is sometimes to go down into the pit with him who beholding darkness and bewailing the loss of inward joy and consolation cryeth from the bottom of the lowest hell My God my God why hast thou forsaken me than continually to work arm in arm with Angels to fit as it were in Abraham's bosom and to have no thought no cogitation but I thank my God it is not with me as it is with other men No God will have them that shall walk in light to feel now and then
similitude between us and the Church of Rome in these things indifferent Secondly for that it were infinite if the Church should provide against every such Evil as may come to pass it is not sufficient that they shew possibilitie of dangerous Event unless there appear some likely-hood also of the same to follow in us except we prevent it Nor is this enough unless it be moreover made plain that there is no good and sufficient way of prevention but by evacuating clean and by emprying the Church of every such Rite and Ceremony as is presently called in question Till this be done their good affection towards the safety of the Church is acceptable but the way they prescribe us to preserve it by must rest in suspense And lest hereat they take occasion to turn upon us the speech of the Prophet Ieremy used against Babylon Rebold we have done our endeavour to cure the Discases of Babylon but she through her wilfulness doth rest uncured let them consider into what straits the Church might drive it self in being guided by this their counsel Their axiom is that the sound believing Church of Jesus Christ may not be like Heretical Churches in any of those indifferent things which men make choyce of and do not take by prescript appointment of the Word of God In the word of God the use of Bread is prescribed as a thing without which the Eucharist may not be celebrated but as for the kind of Bread it is not denyed to be a thing indifferent Being indifferent of it self we are by this axiom of theirs to avoid the use of unleavened Bread in their Sacrament because such bread the Church of Rome being Heretical useth But doth not the self-same axiom bar us even from leavened Bread also which the Church of the Grecians useth the opinions whereof are in a number of things the same for which we condemn the Church of Rome and in some things erroneous where the Church of Rome is acknowledged to be found as namely in the Article of the Holy Ghosts proceeding and lest here they should say that because the Greek Church is farther off and the Church of Rome nearer we are in that respect rather to use that which the Church of Rome useth not let them imagine a reformed Church in the City of Venice where a Greek Church and Popish both are And when both these are equally near let them consider what the third shall do Without leavened or unleavened Bread it can have no Sacrament the word of God doth tye it to neither and their axiom doth exclude it from both If this constrain them as it must to grant that their axiom is not to take any place save in those things only where the Church hath larger scope it resteth that they search out some stronger reason then they have as yet alledged otherwise they constrain not us to think that the Church is tyed unto any such rule axiom not then when she hath the widest field to walk in and the greate store of choyce 11. Against such Ceremonies generally as are the same in the Church of England and of Rome we see what hath been hitherto alledged Albeit therefore we do not find the one Churches having of such things to be sufficient cause why the other should not have them Nevertheless in case it may be proved that amongst the number of Rites and Orders common unto both there are Particulars the use whereof is utterly unlawful in regard of some special bad and noysom quality there is no doubt but we ought to relinquish such Rites and Orders what freedom soever we have to retain the other still As therefore we have heard their general exception against all those things which being not commanded in the Word of God were first received in the Church of Rome and from thence have been derived into ours so it followeth that now we proceed unto certain kinds of them as being excepted against not only for that they are in the Church of Rome but are besides either Iewish or abused unto Idolatry and so grown scandalous The Church of Rome they say being ashamed of the simplicity of the Gospel did almost out of all Religions take whatsoever had any fair and gorgeous shew borrowing in that respect from the Jews sundry of their abolished Ceremonies Thus by foolish and tidiculous imitation all their Massing furniture almost they took from the Law lest having an Altar and a Priest they should want Vestments for their Stage so that whatsoever we have in common with the Church of Rome if the same be of this kind we ought to remove it Constantine the Emperor speaking of the keeping of the Feast of Easter saith That it is an unworthy thing to have any thing common with that most spiteful company of the Iews And a little after he saith That it is most absurd and against reason that the Iews should vannâ— and glory that the Christians could not keep those things without their Doctrine And in another place it is said after this sort It is convenient so to order the matter that we have nothing common with that Nation This Councel of Laodicea which was afterward confirmed by the first General Councel decreed that the Christians should not take anleavened Briad of the Iews or communicate with their impiety For the easier manifestation of truth in this point two things there are which must be considered namely the causes wherefore the Church should decline from Iewish Ceremonies and how far it ought so to do One cause is that the Jews were the deadliest and spitefullest Enemies of Christianity that were in the world and in this respect their Orders so far forth to be shunned as we have already set down in handling the Matter of Heathenish Ceremonies For no enemies being so venemous against Christ as Jews they were of all other most odious and by that mean least to be used as â—it Church Patterns for Imitation Another cause is the Solemn Abrogation of the Jews Ordinances which Ordinances for us to resume were to chock our Lord himself which hath disannulled them But how far this second cause doth extend it is not on all sides fully agreed upon And touching those things whereunto it reacheth not although there be small cause wherefore the Church should frame it self to the Jews example in respect of their persons which are most hateful yet God himself having been the Author of their Laws herein they are notwithstanding the former consideration still worthy to be honored and to be followed above others as much as the state of things will bear Jewish Ordinances had some things Natural and of the perperuity of those things no man doubteth That which was Positive we likewise know to have been by the coming of Christ partly necessary not to be kept and partly indifferent to be kept or not Of the former kinde Circumcision and Sacrifice were For this point Stephen was accused and the Evidence which