that Church never knew the meaning of her Heresies So that although all Popish Hereticks did perish thousands of them which lived in Popish Superstitions might be saved Thirdly seeing all that held Popish Heresies did not hold all the Heresies of the Pope why might not thousands which were infected with other leaven live and die unsowred with this and so be saved Fourthly If they all held this Heresie many there were that held it no doubt but onely in a general form of words which a favourable Interpretation might expound in a sense differing far enough from the poysoned conceit of Heresie As for example Did they hold that we cannot be saved by Christ without good works We our selves do I think all say as much with this Construction salvation being taken as in that sentence Corde creditur ad justitiam Ore fit confessio ad salutem except Infants and Men cut off upon the point of their conversion of the rest none shall see God but such as seek peace and holiness though not as a Cause of their salvation yet as a Way which they must walk which will be saved Did they hold that without works we are not justified Take justification so as it may also imply sanctification and St. Iames doth say as much For except there be an ambiguity in the same term St. Paul and St. Iames do contradict each the other which cannot be Now there is no ambiguity in the name either of Faith or of Works being meant by them both in one and the same sense Finding therefore that Justification is spoken of by St Paul without implying Sanctification when he proveth that a man is justified by faith without works finding likewise that justification doth sometime imply sanctification also with it I suppose nothing to be more sound then so to interpret St Iames speaking not in that sense but in this 21. We have already shewed that there be two kinds of Christian righteousness the one without us which we have by imputation the other in us which consisteth of faith hope and charity and other Christian Vertues And S. Iames doth prove that Abraham had not onely the one because the thing believed was imputed unto him for righteousness but also the other because he offered up his Son God giveth us both the one justice and the other the one by accepting us for righteous in Christ the other by working Christian righteousness in us The proper and most immediate efficient cause in us of this latter is the Spirit of adoption we have received into our hearts That whereof it consisteth whereof it is really and formally made are those infused vertues proper and peculiar unto Saints which the Spirit in the very moment when first it is given of God bringeth with it the effects whereof are such actions as the Apostle doth call the fruits of works the operation of the Spirit The difference of the which operations from the root whereof they spring maketh it needful to put two kinds likewise of sanctifying righteousness Habitual and Actual Habitual that holiness wherewith our souls are inwardly indued the same instant when first we begin to be the Temples of the Holy Ghost Actual that holiness which afterwards beautifieth all the parts and actions of our life the holiness for which Enoch Iob Zachary Elizabeth and other Saints are in the Scriptures so highly commended If here iâ— he demanded which of these we do first receive I answer that the Spirit the vertue of the spirit the habitual justice which is ingrafted the external justice of Jesus Christ which is imputed these we receive all at one and the same time whensoever we have any of these we have all they go together Yet sith no man is justified except he believe and no man believeth except he hath Faith and no man except he hath received the spirit of Adoption hath Faith forasmuch as they do necessarily infer justification and justification doth of necessity presuppose them we must needs hold that imputed righteousness in dignity being the chiefest is notwithstanding in order to the last of all these but Actual righteousness which is the righteousness of good works succeedeth all followeth after all both in order and time Which being attentivly marked sheweth plainly how the faith of true Believers cannot be divorced from hope and loveâ— how faith is a part of sanctification and yet unto justification necessary how faith is perfected by good works and not works of ours without faith Finally how our Fathers might hold that we are justified by Faith alone and yet hold truly that without works we are not justified Did they think that men do merit rewards in heaven by the works they perform on earth The Ancients use meriting for obtaining and in that sense they of Wittenberg have it in their Confession We teach that good works commanded of God are necessarily to be done and by the free kindness of God they merit their certain rewards Therefore speaking as our Fathers did and we taking their speech in a â—ound meaning as we may take our Fathers and might for as much as their meaning is doubtful and charity doth always interpret doubtful things favourably what should induce as to think that rather the damage of the worst construction did light upon them all then that the blessing of the better was granted unto thousands Fiftly if in the worst construction that may be made they had generally all imbraced it living might not many of them dying utterly renounce it Howsoever men when they sit at ease do vainly tickle their hearts with the vain conceit of I know not what proportionable correspondence between their merits and their rewards which in the trance of their high speculations they dream that God hath measured weighed and laid up as it were in bundles for them notwithstanding we see by daily experience in a number even of them that when the hour of death approacheth when they secretly hear themselves summoned forthwith to appear and stand at the Bar of that Judge whose brightness causeth the eyes of the Angels themselves to dazel all these idle imaginations do then begin to hide their faces to name merits then is to lay their souls upon the rack the memory of their own deeds is lothsome unto them they forsake all things wherein they have put any trust or confidence no staff to lean upon no ease no rest no comfort then but onely in Jesus Christ. 22. Wherefore if this proposition were true To hold in such wise as the Church of Rome doth that we cannot be saved by Christ alone without works is directly to deny the foundation of Faith I say that if this proposition were true nevertheless so many ways I have shewed whereby we may hope that thousands of our Fathers which lived in popish superstition might be saved But what if it be not true What if neither that of the Galathians concerning Circumcision nor this of the Church of Rome by Workes be
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
doubted but many of the Fathers were saved but the means I said was not their ignorance which excuseth no man with God but their knowledge and Faith of the Truth which it appeareth God vouchsafed them by many notable Monuments and Records extant in all Ages Which being the last point in all my Sermon rising so naturally from the Text I then propounded as would have occasioned me to have delivered such matter notwithstanding the former Doctrine had been sound and being dealt in by a general speech without touch of his particular I looked not that a matter of Controversie would have been made of it no more than had been of my like dealing in former time But far otherwise than I looked for Mr. Hooker shewing no grief of Offence taken at my speech all the week long the next Sabbath leaving to proceed upon his ordinarie Text professed to preach again that he had done the day before for some question that his Doctrine was drawn into which he desired might be examined with all severitie So proceeding he bestowed his whole time in that discourse concerning his former Doctrine and answering the places of Scripture which I had alledged to prove that a man dying in the Church of Rome is not to be judged by the Scriptures to be saved In which long speech and utterly impertinent to his Text under colour of answering for himself he impugned directly and openly to all mens understanding the true Doctrine which I had delivered and adding to his former Points some other like as willingly one Error followeth another that is That the Galatians joyning with Faith in Christ Circumcision as necessary to Salvation might not be saved And that they of the Church of Rome may be saved by such a Faith of Christ as they had with a general Repentance of all their Errors notwithstanding their opinion of Iustification in part by their works and merits I was necessarily though not willingly drawn to say something to the Points he objected against sound Doctrine which I did in a short speech in the end of my Sermon with protestation of so doing no of any sinister affection to any man but to bear witness to the Truth according to my Calling and wished if the matter should needs further be dealt in some other more convenient way might be taken for it wherein I hope my dealing was manifest to the Consciences of all indifferent Hearers of me that day to have been according to Peace and without any uncharitableness being duly considered For that I conferred with him the first day I have shewed that the Cause requiring of me the Duty at the least not to be altogether silent in it being a matter of such consequence that the time also being short wherein I was to preach after him the hope of the fruit of our communication being small upon experience of forme Conferences my expectation being that the Church should be no further troubled with it upon the motion I made of taking some other course of dealing I suppose my deferring to speak with him till some fit opportunitie cannot in Charity be judged uncharitable The second day his unlooked for opposition with the former Reasons made it to be a matter that required of necessity some Publick answer which being so temporate as I have shewed if notwithstanding it be sensured as uncharitable and punished so grievously as it is What should have been my punishment if without all such cautions and respects as qualified my speech I had before all and in the understanding of all so reproved him offending openly that others might have feared to doe the like which yet if I had done might have been warranted by the rule and charge of the Apostle Them that offend openly rebuke openly that the rest may also fear and by his example who when Peter in this very Case which is now between us had not in Preaching but in a matter of Conversation not gone with a right foot as was fit for the truth of the Gospel conferred not privately with him but as his own rule required reproved him openly before all that others might hear and fear and not dare to do the like All which reasons together weighed I hope will shew the manner of my dealing to have been charitable and warrantable in every sort The next Sabbath day after this Mr. Hooker kept the way he had entred into before and bestowed his whole hour and more onely upon the Questions he had moved and maintained wherein he so set forth the agreement of the Church of Rome with us and their disagreement from us as if we had consented in the greatest and weightiest Points and differed onely in certain smaller matters Which Agreement noted by him in two chief points is not such as he would have made men believe The one in that he said They acknowledge all men sinners even the blessed Virgin though some of them freed her from sinne for the Council of Trent holdeth that she was free from sinne Another in that he said They teach Christ's Righteousness to be the onely meritorious cause of taking away sinne and differ from us onely in the applying of it For Thomas Aquinas their chief Schoolman and Archbishop Catherinus teach That Christ took away onely Original sinne and that the rest are to be taken away by our selves yea the Council of Trent teacheth That Righteousness whereby we are righteous in God's sight is an inherent Righteousness which must needs be of our own Works and cannot be understood of the Righteousness inherent onely in Christ's Person and accounted unto us Moreover he taught the same time That neither the Galatians nor the Church of Rome did directly overthrow the foundation of Iustification by Christ alone but onely by consequent and therefore might well be saved or else neither the Churches of the Lutherans nor any which bold any manner of Errour could be saved because saith he every Errour by consequent overthroweth the Foundation In which Discourses and such like he bestowed his whole time and more which if he had affected either the truth of God or the peace or the Church he would truly not have done Whose example could not draw me to leave the Scripture I took in hand but standing about an hour to deliver the Doctrine of it in the end upon just occasion of the Text leaving sundry other his unsound speeches and keeping me still to the Principal I confirmed the believing the Doctrine of Justification by Christ onely to be necessary to the Justification of all that should be saved and that the Church of Rome directly denieth that a man is saved by Christ or by Faith alone without the works of the Law Which my Answer as it was most necessary for the service of God and the Church so was it without any immodest or reproachful speech to Mr. Hooker whose unsound and wilful dealings in a Cause of so great importance to the Faith of Christ and salvation of the Church
we teach plainly that To hold the foundation is in express terms to acknowledg it 25. Now because the foundation is an affirmative Proposition they all overthrow it who deny it they directly overthrow it who deny it directly and they overthrow it by consequent or indirectly which hold any one assertion whatsoever whereupon the direct denial thereof may be necessarily concluded What is the Question between the Gentiles and Us but this Whether salvation be by Christ What between the Iews and Us but this Whether by this Iesus whom we call Christ yea or no This is to be the main point whereupon Christianity standeth it is clear by that one sentence of Festus concerning Pauls accusers They brought no crime of such things as I supposed but had certain questions against him of their superstition and of one Iesus which was dead whom Paul affirmed to be alive Where we see that Jesus dead and raised for the Salvation of the World is by Iesus denied despised by a Gentile by a Christian Apostle maintained The Fathers therefore in the Primitive Church when they wrote Tertullian the book which he called Apologeticus Minutius Faelix the Book which he intitleth Octavius Arnobius the seventh books against the Gentiles Chrysostom his Orations against the Jews Eusebius his ten books of Evangelical demonstration they stand in defence of Christianity against them by whom the foundation thereof was directly denied But the writings of the Fathers against Novatians Pelagians and other Hereticks of the like note refel Positions whereby the foundation of Christian Faith was overthrown by consequent onely In the former sort of Writings the foundation is proved in the latter it is alledged as a proof which to men that had been known directly to deny must needs have seemed a very beggerly kind of disputing All Infidels therefore deny the foundation of Faith directly by consequent many a Christian man yea whole Christian Churches have denied it and do deny it at this present day Christian Churches the foundation of Christianity not directly for then they cease to be Christian Churches but by consequent in respect whereof we condemn them as erroneous although for holding the foundation we do and must hold them Christians 26. We see what it is to hold the foundation what directly and what by consequent to deny it The next thing which followeth is whether they whom God hath chosen to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ may once effectually called and through faith justified truly afterwards fall so far as directly to deny the foundation which their hearts have before imbraced with joy and comfort in the Holy Ghost for such is the faith which indeed doth justifie Devils know the same things which we believe and the minds of the most ungodly may be fully perswaded of the Truth which knowledge in the one and in the other is sometimes termed faith but equivocally being indeed no such faith as that whereby a Christian man is justified It is the Spirit of Adoption which worketh faith in us in them not the things which we believe are by us apprehended not onely as true but also as good and that to us as good they are not by them apprehended as true they are Whereupon followeth the third difference the Christian man the more he encreaseth in faith the more his joy and comfort aboundeth but they the more sure they are of the truth the more they quake and tremble at it This begetteth another effect where the hearts of the one sort have a different disposition from the other Non ignoro plerosque conscientia meritorum nihil se esse per mortem magis optare quam credere Malunt cuim extingui penitus quam ad supplicia reparari I am not ignorant saith Minutius that there be many who being conscious what they are to look for do rather wish that they might then think that they shall cease when they cease to live because they hold it better that death should consume them unto nothing then God revive them unto punishment So it is in other Articles of Faith whereof wicked men think no doubt many times they are too true On the contrary side to the other there is no grief or torment greater then to feel their perswasion weak in thingsâ— whereof when they are perswaded they reap such comfort and joy of spirit such is the faith whereby we are justified such I mean in respect of the quality For touching the principal object of Faith longer then it holdeth the foundation whereof we have spoken it neither justifieth nor is but ceaseth to be faith when it ceaseth to believe that Jesus Christ is the onely Saviour of the World The cause of life spiritual in us is Christ not carnally or corporally inhabiting but dwelling in the soul of man as a thing which when the minde apprehendeth it is said to inhabite or possess the minde The minde conceiveth Christ by hearing the Doctrine of Christianity as the light of Nature doth the minde to apprehend those truths which are meerly rational so that saving truth which is far above the reach of Humane Reason cannot otherwise then by the Spirit of the Almighty be conceived All these are implied wheresoever any of them is mentioned as the cause of the spiritual life Wherefore if we have read that the spirit is our life or the Word our life or Christ our life We are in very of these to understand that our life is Christ by the hearing of the Gospel apprehended as a Saviour and assented unto through the power of the Holy Ghost The first intellectual conceit and comprehension of Christ so imbraced St. Peter calleth the seed whereof we be new born our first imbracing of Christ is our first reviving from the state of death and condemation He that hath the Son hath life saith St. Iohn and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life If therefore he which once hath the Son may cease to have the Son though it be for a moment he ceaseth for that moment to have life But the life of them which have the Son of God is everlasting in the world to come But because as Christ being raised from the dead dyed no more death hath no more power over him so justified man being allied to God in Jesus Christ our Lord doth as necessarily from that time forward always live as Christ by whom he hath life liyeth always I might if I had not otherwhere largely done it already shew by many and sundry manifest and clear proofs how the motions and operations of life are sometime so indiscernable and so secret that they seem stone-dead who notwithstanding are still alive unto God in Christ. For as long as that abideth in us which animateth quickneth and giveth life so long we live and we know that the cause of our Faith abideth in us for ever I. Christ the Fountain of Life may flit and leave the Habitation
in this case ye are all bound for the time to suspend and in otherwise doing ye offend against God by troubling his Church without any just or necessary cause Be it that there are some reasons inducing you to think hardly of our Laws Are those reasons demonstrative are they necessary or but meer probabilities onely An Argument necessary and demonstrative is such as being proposed unto any man and understood she minde cannot chase but invardly assent Any one such reason dischargeth I grant the Gonscience and setteth it at full liberty For the publick approbation given by the Body of this whole Church unto those things which are established doth make it but probable that they are good And therefore unto a necessary proofe that they are not good it must give place But if the skilfullest amongst you can shew that all the Books ye have hitherto written be able to afford any one argument of this nature let the instance be given As for probabilities What thing was there ever set down so agreeable with sound reason but some probable shew against it might be made It is meet that when publickly things are received and have taken place General Obedience thereunto should cease to be exacted in case this or that private person led with some probable conceit should make open Protostation Peter or John disallow them and pronounce them naught In which case your answer will be That concerning the Laws of our Church they are not onely condemned in the opinion of a private man but of thousands year and even of those amongst which divers are in publick charge and authority At though when publick consent of the whole hath established any thing every mans judgment being thereunto compared were not private howsoever his calling be to some kinde of publick charge So that of Peace and Quietness there is not any way possible unless the probable voice of every intire Society or Body Politick over-rule all private of like nature in the same Body Which thing effectually proveth That God being Author of Peace and not of Confusion in the Church must needs be Author of those mens peaceable resolutions who concerning these things have determined with themselves to think and do as the Church they are of decreeth till they see necessary cause enforcing them to the contrary 7. Nor is mine own intent any other in these several Books of discourse then to make it appear unto you that for the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Land we are led by great reason to observe them and ye by no necessity bound to impugne them It is no part of my secret meaning to draw you hereby into hatred or to set upon the face of this cause any fairer gloss then the naked truth doth afford but my whole endeavor is to resolve the Conscience and to shew as near as I can what in this Controversie the Heart is to think if it will follow the light of sound and sincere judgment without either cloud of prejudice or mist of passionate affection Wherefore seeing that Laws and Ordinances in particular whether such as we observe or such as your selves would have established when the minde doth sift and examine them it must needs have often recourse to a number of doubts and questions about the nature kindes and qualities of Laws in general whereof unless it be throughly informed there will appear no certainty to stay our perswasion upon I have for that cause set down in the first place an Introduction on both sides needful to be considered declaring therein what Law is how different kindes of Laws there are and what force they are of according unto each kinde This done because ye suppose the Laws for which ye strive are found in Scripture but those not against which we strive And upon this surmise are drawn to hold it as the very main Pillar of your whole cause That Scripture ought to be the onely rule of all our actions and consequently that the Church Orders which we observe being not commanded in Scripture are offensive and displeasant unto God I have spent the second Book in sifting of this point which standeth with you for the first and chiefest principle whereon ye build Whereunto the next in degree is That as God will have always a Church upon Earth while the World doth continue and that Church stand in need of Government of which Government it behoveth himself to be both the Author and Teacher So it cannot stand with duty That man should ever presume in any wise to change and alter the same and therefore That in Scripture there must of necessity be found some particular Form of Ecclesiastical Polity the Laws whereof admit not any kinde of alteration The first three Books being thus ended the fourth proceedeth from the general Grounds and Foundations of your cause unto your general Accusations against us as having in the orders of our Church for so you pretend Corrupted the right Form of Church Polity with manifold Popish Rites and Ceremonies which certain Reformed Churches have banished from amongst them and have thereby given us such example as you think we ought to follow This your Assertion hath herein drawn us to make search whether these be just Exceptions against the Customs of our Church when ye plead that they are the same which the Church of Rome hath or that they are not the same which some other Reformed Churches have devised Of those four Books which remain and are bestowed about the Specialties of that Cause which little in Controversie the first examineth the causes by you alledged wherefore the publick duties of Christian Religion as our Prayers our Sacraments and the rest should not be ordered in such sort as with us they are nor that power whereby the persons of men are consecrated unto the Ministry be disposed of in such manner as the Laws of this Church do allow The second and third are concerning the power of Iurisdiction the one Whether Laymen such as your Governing Elders are ought in all Congregations for ever to be invested with that power The other Whether Bishops may have that power over other Pastors and therewithal that honor which with us they have And because besides the Power of Order which all consecrated persons have and the Power of Iurisdiction which neither they all nor they onely have There is a third power a Power of Ecclesiastical Dominion communicable as we think unto persons not Ecclesiastical and most fit to be restrained unto the Prince our Soveraign Commander over the whole Body Politick The eighth Book we have allotted unto this Question and have sifted therein your Objections against those preeminences Royal which thereunto appertain Thus have I laid before you the Brief of these my Travels and presented under your view the Limbs of that Cause litigious between us the whole intire Body whereof being thus compact it shall be no troublesome thing for any man to finde each particular Controversies resting place
Here they drew in a Sea of Matter by amplifying all things unto their own Company which are any where spoken concerning Divine Favors and Benefits bestowed upon the Old Commonwealth of Israel concluding that as Israel was delivered out of Egypt so they spiritually out of the Egypt of this Worlds servile thraldom unto Sin and Superstition As Israel was to root out the Idolatrous Nations and to plant instead of them a people which feared God so the same Lords good will and pleasure was now that these new Israelites should under the conduct of other Joshua's Sampsons and Gideons perform a work no less miraculous in casting out violently the wicked from the Earth and establishing the Kingdom of Christ with perfect liberty And therefore as the cause why the Children of Israel took unto one Man many Wives might be lest the casualties of War should any way hinder the promise of God concerning their multitude from taking effect in them so it was not unlike that for the necessary propagation of Christs Kingdom under the Gospel the Lord was content to allow as much Now whatsoever they did in such sort collect out of Scripture when they came to justifie or perswade it unto others all was the Heavenly Fathers appointment his commandment his will and charge Which thing is the very point in regard whereof I have gathered his Declaration For my purpose herein is to shew that when the mindes of men are once erroneously perswaded that it is the Will of God to have those things done which they fancy then Opinions are as Thorns in their sides never suffering them to take rest till they have brought their speculations into practise The lets and impediments of which practice their restless desire and study to remove leadeth them every day forth by the hand into other more dangerous opinions sometimes quite and clean contrary to their first pretended meanings So as what will grow out of such Errors as go masked under the clâ—ak of Divine Authority impossible it is that ever the wit of man should imagine till time have brought forth the fruits of them For which cause it behoveth Wisdom to fear the sequels thereof even beyond all apparent cause of fear These men in whose mouths at the first sounded nothing but onely Mortification of the Flesh were come at the lenght to think they might lawfully have their six or seven Wives apiece They which at the first thought Iudgment and Iustice it self to be merciless cruelty accounted at the length their own hands sanctified with being imbrued in Christian blood They who at the first were wont to beat down all Dominion and to urge against poor Constables Kings of Nations had at the length both Consuls and Kings of their own erection amongst themselves Finally they which could not brook at the first that any man should seek no not by Law the recovery of Goods injuriously taken or withheld from him were grown at the last to think they could not offer unto God more acceptable Sacrifice then by turning their Adversaries clean out of house and home and by enriching themselves with all kinde of spoil and pillage Which thing being laid to their charge they had in a readiness their answer That now the time was come when according to our Saviours promise The meek ones must inherit the Earth and that their title hereunto was the same which the righteous Israelites had unto the goods of the wicked Egyptians Wherefore sith the World hath had in these men so fresh experience how dangerous such active Errors are it must not offend you though touching the sequel of your present misperswasions much more be doubted then your own intents and purposes do haply aim at And yet your words already are somewhat when ye affirm that your Pastors Doctors Elders and Deacons ought to be in this Church of England Whether Her Majesty and our State will or no When for the animating of your Confederates ye publish the Musters which ye have made of your own Bands and proclaim them to amount to I know not how many thousands when ye threaten that sith neither your Suits to the Parliament nor Supplications to our Convocation-House neither your Defences by Writing nor Challenges of Disputation in behalf of that Cause are able to prevail we must blame our selves if to bring in Discipline some such means hereafter be used as shall cause all our hearts to ake That things doubtful are to be construed in the better part is a Principle not safe to be followed in Matters concerning the Publick State of a Commonweal But howsoever these and the like Speeches be accounted as Arrows idlely shot at random without either eye had to any Mark or regard to their lighting place hath not your longing desire for the practice of your Discipline brought the Matter already unto this demurrer amongst you whether the people and their Godly Pastors that way affected ought not to make Separation from the rest and to begin the Exercise of Discipline without the License of Civil Powers which License they have sought for and are not heard Upon which question as ye have now divided your selves the warier sort of you taking the one part and the forwarder in zeal the other so in case these earnest Ones should prevail what other sequel can any wise man imagine but this that having first resolved that Attempts for Discipline without Superiors are lawful it will follow in the next place to be disputed What may be attempted against Superiors which will not have the Scepter of that Discipline to rule over them Yea even by you which have staid your selves from running head-long with the other sort somewhat notwithstanding there hath been done without the leave or liking of your lawful Superiors for the exercise of a part of your Discipline amongst the Clergy thereunto addicted And lest Examination of Principal Parties therein should bring those things to light which might hinder and let your proceedings behold for a Bar against that impediment one Opinion ye have newly added unto the rest even upon this occasion an Opinion to exempt you from taking Oaths which may turn to the molestation of your Brethren in that cause The next Neighbor Opinions whereunto when occasion requireth may follow for Dispensation with Oaths already taken if they afterwards be found to import a necessity of detecting ought which may bring such good men into trouble or damage whatsoever the cause be O merciful God what mans wit is there able to sound the depth of those dangerous and fearful evils whereinto our weak and impotent nature is inclineable to sink it self rather theâ— to shew an acknowledgment of Error in that which once we have unadvisedly taken upon us to defend against the stream as it were of a contrary publick resolution Wherefore if we any thing respect their Error who being perswaded even as ye are have gone further upon that perswasion then ye allow if we
it self could not reach unto Yet those things also we believe knowing by Reason that the Scripture is the Word of God In the presence of Festus a Roman and of King Agrippa a Jew St. Paul omitting the one who neither knew the Jews Religion not the Books whereby they were taught it speaks unto the other of things foreshewed by Moses and the Prophets and performed in Jesus Christ intending thereby to prove himself so unjustly accused that unless his Judges did condemn both Moses and the Prophets him they could not chuse but acquit who taught onely that fulfilled which they so long since had foretold His cause was easie to be discerned what was done their eyes were witnesses what Moses and the Prophets did speak their Books could quickly shew It was no hard thing for him to compare them which knew the one and believed the other King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets I know thou dost The question is how the Books of the Prophets came to be credited of King Agrippa For what with him did authorise the Prophets the like with us doth cause the rest of the Scripture of God to be of credit Because we maintain That in Scripture we are taught all things necessary unto Salvation hereupon very childishly it is by some demanded What Scripture can teach us the Sacred Authority of the Scripture upon the knowledge whereof our whole Faith and Salvation dependeth As though there were any kinde of Science in the World which leadeth men unto knowledge without presupposing a number of things already known No Science doth make known the first Principles whereon it buildeth but they are always either taken as plain and manifest in themselves or as proved and granted already some former knowledge having made them evident Scripture teacheth all supernaturally revealed Truth without the knowledge whereof Salvation cannot be attained The main principal whereupon our belief of all things therein contained dependeth is That the Scriptures are the Oracles of God himself This in it self we cannot say is evident For then all men that hear it would acknowledge it in heart as they do when they hear that every whole is more then any part of that whole because this in it self is evident The other we know that all do not acknowledge when they hear it There must be therefore some former knowledge presupposed which doth herein assure the hearts of all Believers Scripture teacheth us that saving Truth which God hath discovered unto the World by Revelation and it presumeth us taught otherwise that it self is Divine and Sacred The question then being By what means we are taught this some answer That to learn it we have no other way then onely Tradition as namely that so we believe because both we from our Predecessors and they from theirs have so received But is this enough That which all mens experience teacheth them may not in any wise be denied And by experience we all know that the first outward Motive leading men so to esteem of the Scripture is the authority of Gods Church For when we know the whole Church of God hath that opinion of the Scripture we judge it even at the first an impudent thing for any man bred and brought up in the Church to be of a contrary minde without cause Afterwards the more we bestow our labor in reading or hearing the Mysteries thereof the more we finde that the thing it self doth answer our received opinion concerning it So that the former enducement prevailing somewhat with us before doth now much more prevail when the very thing hath Ministred further Reason If Infidels or Atheists chance at any time to call it in question this giveth us occasion to sift what reason there is whereby the testimony of the Church concerning Scripture and our own perswasion which Scripture it self hath confirmed may be proved a truth infallible In which case the ancient Fathers being often constrained to shew what warrant they had so much to relie upon the Scriptures endeavored still to maintain the authority of the Books of God by Arguments such as unbelievers themselves must needs think reasonable if they judged thereof as they should Neither is it a thing impossible or greatly heard even by such kinde of proofs so to manifest and clear that point that no man living shall be able to deny it without denying some apparent Principle such as all men acknowledge to be true Wherefore if I believe the Gospel yet is reason of singular use for that it confirmeth me in this my belief the more If I do not as yet believe nevertheless to bring me into the number of Believers except Reason did somewhat help and were an Instrument which God doth use unto such purposes what should it boot to dispute with Infidels or godless persons for their conversion and perswasion in that point Neither can I think that when grave and learned men do sometime hold that of this Principle there is no proof but by the testimony of the Spirit which assureth our hearts therein it is their meaning to exclude utterly all force which any kinde of Reason may have in that behalf but I rather incline to interpret such their speeches as if they had more expresly set down that other motives and enducements be they never so strong and consonant unto Reason are notwithstanding ineffectual of themselves to work Faith concerning this Principle if the special Grace of the Holy Ghost concur not to the enlightning of our mindes For otherwise I doubt not but men of wisdom and judgment will grant That the Church in this point especially is furnished with Reason to stop the mouths of her impious Adversaries and that as it were altogether bootless to alledge against them what the Spirit hath taught us so likewise that even to our own selves it needeth Caution and Explication how the testimony of the Spirit may be discerned by what means it may be known lest men think that the Spirit of God doth testifie those things which the spirit of error suggesteth The operations of the Spirit especially these ordinary which be common unto all true Christian men are as we know things secret and undiscernable even to the very soul where they are because their nature is of another and an higher kinde then that they can be by us perceived in this life Wherefore albeit the Spirit lead us into all truth and direct us in all goodness yet because these workings of the Spirit in us are so privy and secret we theresore stand on a plainer ground when we gather by Reason from the quality of things believed or done that the Spirit of God hath directed us in both then if we settle our selves to believe or to do any certain particular thing as being moved thereto by the Spirit But of this enough To go from the Books of Scripture to the sense and meaning thereof because the Sentences which are by the Apostles recited out of the Psalms to prove
the Law-maker as an argument wherefore it should not be lawful to change that which he hath instituted and will have this the cause why all the Ordinances of our Saviour are immutable they which urge the Wisdom of God as a proof that whatsoever Laws he hath made they ought to stand unless himself from Heaven proclaim them disannulled because it is not in man to correct the Ordinance of God may know if it please them to take notice thereof that we are far from presuming to think that men can better any thing which God hath done even as we are from thinking that men should presume to undo some things of men which God doth know they cannot better God never ordained any thing that could be bettered Yet many things he hath that have been changed and that for the better That which succeedeth as better now when change is requisite had been worse when that which now is changed was instituted Otherwise God had not then left this to chuse that neither would now reject that to chuse this were it not for some new-grown occasion making that which hath been betterworse In this case therefore men do not presume to change Gods Ordinance but they yield thereunto requiring it self to be changed Against this it is objected that to abrogate or innovate the Gospel of Christ if Men or Angels should attempt it were most heinous and cursed sacriledge And the Gospel as they say containeth not onely doctrine instructing men how they should believe but also Precepts concerning the Regiment of the Church Discipline therefore is a part of the Gospel and God being the Author of the whole Gospel as well of Discipline as of Doctrine it cannot be but that both of them have a Common Cause So that as we are to believe for ever the Articles of Evangelical Doctrine so the Precepts of Discipline we are in like sort bound for ever to observe Touching Points of Doctrine as for example the Unity of God the Trinity of Persons Salvation by Christ the Resurrection of the Body Life Everlasting the Judgment to come and such like they have been since the first hour that there was a Church in the World and till the last they must be believed But as for Matters of Regiment they are for the most part of another nature To make new Articles of Faith and Doctrine no Man thinketh it lawful new Laws of Government what Commonwealth or Church is there which maketh not either at one time or another The Rule of Faith saith Tertullian is but one and that alone immoveable and impossible to be framed or cast a new The Law of outward Order and Polity not so There is no reason in the World wherefore we should esteem it as necessary always to do as always to believe the same things seeing every man knoweth that the Matter of Faith is constant the Matter contrariwise of Action daily changeable especially the Matter of Action belonging unto Church Polity Neither can I finde that Men of soundest judgment have any otherwise taught then that Articles of Belief and things which all men must of necessity do to the end they may be saved are either expresly set down in Scripture or else plainly thereby to be gathered But touching things which belong to Discipline and outward Polity the Church hath Authority to make Canons Laws and Decrees even as we read that in the Apostles times it did Which kinde of Laws for as much as they are not in themselves necessary to Salvation may after they are made be also changed as the difference of times or places shall require Yea it is not denied I am sure by themselves that certain things in Discipline are of that nature as they may be varied by times places persons and other the like circumstances Whereupon I demand are those changeable Points of Discipline commanded in the Word of God or no If they be not commanded and yet may be received in the Church how can their former Position stand condemning all things in the Church which in the Word are not commanded If they be commanded and yet may suffer change How can this latter stand affirming all things immutable which are commanded of God Their distinction touching Matters of Substance and of Circumstance though true will not serve For be they great things or be they small if God have commanded them in the Gospel and his commanding them in the Gospel do make them unchangeable there is no reason we should more change the one then we may the other If the Authority of the Maker do prove unchangeableness in the Laws which God hath made then must all Laws which he hath made be necessarily for ever permanent though they be out of Circumstance onely and not of Substance I therefore conclude that neither Gods being Author of Laws for Government of his Church nor his committing them unto Scripture is any reason sufficient wherefore all Churches should for ever be bound to keep them without change But of one thing we are here to give them warning by the way For whereas in this Discourse we have oftentimes profest that many parts of Discipline or Church Polity are delivered in Scripture they may perhaps imagine that we are driven to confess their Discipline to be delivered in Scripture and that having no other means to avoid it we are in fain to argue for the changeableness of Laws ordained even by God himself as if otherwise theirs of necessity should take place and that under which we live be abandoned There is no remedy therefore but to abate this Error in them and directly to let them know that if they fall into any such conceit they do but a little flatter their own cause As for us we think in no respect so highly of it Our perswasion is that no age ever had knowledge of it but onely ours that they which defend it devised it that neither Christ nor his Apostles at any time taught it but the contrary If therefore we did seek to maintain that which most advantageth our own cause the very best way for us and the strongest against them were to hold even as they do that in Scripture there must needs be found some particular Form of Church Polity which God hath instituted and which for that very cause belongeth to all Churches to all times But with any such partial eye to respect our selves and by cunning to make those things seem the truest which are the fittest to serve our purpose is a thing which we neither like nor mean to follow Wherefore that which we take to be generally true concerning the Mutability of Laws the same we have plainly delivered as being perswaded of nothing more then we are of this That whether it be in Matter of Speculation or of Practice no untruth can possibly avail the Patron and Defender long and that things most truly are like most behovefully spoken 11. This we hold and grant for Truth
way to keep his People from infection oâ— Idolaty and Superstition by severing them from Idolaters in outward Ceremonies and therefore hath forbidden them to do things which are in themselves very lawful to be done And â—urther where as the Lord was careful to sever them by Ceremonies from other Nations yet was he not so careful to sever them from any as from the Egyptians amongst whom they lived and from those Nations which were next Neighbours to them because from them was the greatest fear of infection So that following the course which the wisdom of God doth teach it were more safe for us to conform our indifferent Ceremonies to the Turks which are far off then to the Papists which are so near Touching the example of the eldest Churches of God in one Councel it was decreed that Christians should not deck their houses with Bay-leaves and green boughs because the Pagans did use so to do and that they should not rest from their labours those days that the Pagans did that they should not keep the first day of every month as they did Another Council decreed that Christians should not celebrate Feasts on the Birth-dayes of the Martyrs because it was the manner of the Heathen O saith Tertullian better is the Religion of the Heathen for they use no solemnity of the Christians neither the Lords day neither the Pentecost and if they knew them they would have nothing to do with them for they would be afraid lest they should seem Christians but we are not afraid to be called Heathens The same Tertullian would not have Christians to sit after they had payed because the Idolaters did so Whereby it appeareth that both of Particular men and of Counsels in making or abolishing of Ceremonies heed had been taken that the Christians should not be like the Idolaters no not in those things which of themselves are most indifferent to be used or not used The same conformity is not lesse opposite unto reason first inasmuch as contraries must be cured by their contraries and therefore Popery being Antichristianity is not healed but by establishment of Orders thereunto opposite The way to bring a drunken man to sobriety it to carry him as far from excess of drink as may be To rectifie a crooked stick we bend it on the contrary side as far as it was at the first on that side from whence we draw it and so it cometh in the end to a middle between both which is perfect straightness Utter inconformity therefore with the Church of Rome in these things is the best and surest Policy which the Church can use While we use their Ceremonies they take occasion to blaspheme saying that our Religion cannot stand by it self unless it lean upon the staff of their Ceremonies They hereby conceive great hope of having the rest of their Popery in the end which hope causeth them to be more frozen in their wickedness Neither is it without cause that they have this hope considering that which M. Bucer noteth upon the eighteenth of S. Matthew that where these things have been left Popery hath returned but on the other part in places which have been cleansed of these things it hath not yet been seen that it hath had any entrance None make such clamours for these Ceremonies as the Papists and those whom they suborn a manifest token how much they triumph and joy in these things They breed grief of minde in a number that are godly minded and have Antichristianity in such detestation that their minds are Martyred with the very sight of them in the Church Such godly Brethren we ought not thus to grieve with unprofitable Ceremonies yea Ceremonies wherein there is not only no profit but also danger of great hurt that may grow to the Church by infection which Popish Ceremonies are means to breed This in effect is the sum and substance of that which they bring by way of opposition against those Orders which we have common with the Church of Rome these are the reasons wherewith they would prove our Ceremonies in that respect worthy of blame 4. Before we answer unto these things we are to cut off that whereunto they from whom these Objections proceed do oftentimes fly for defence and succour when the force and strength of their Argument is elided For the Ceremonies in use amongst us being in no other respect retained saving onely for that to retain them is to our seeming good and profitable yea so profitable and so good that if we had either simply taken them clean away or else removed them so as to place in their stead others we had done worse the plain and direct way against us herein had been onely to prove that all such Ceremonies as they require to be abolished are retained by us to the hurt of the Church or with lesse benefit then the abolishment of them would bring But forasmuch as they saw how hardly they should be able to perform this they took a more compendious way traducing the Ceremonies of our Church under the name of being Popish The cause why this way seemed better unto them was for that the name of Popery is more odious then very Paganism amongst divers of the more simple sort so whatsoever they hear named Popish they presently conceive deep hatred against it imagining there can be nothing contained in that name but needs it must be exceeding detestable The ears of the People they have therefore filled with strong clamours The Church of England is fraught with Popish Ceremonies they that favour the cause of Reformation maintain nothing but the sincerity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ All such as withstand them fight for the Laws of his sworn enemy uphold the filthy reliques of Antichrist and are defenders of that which is Popish These are the notes wherewith are drawn from the hearts of the multitude so many sighs with these tunes their minds are exasperated against the lawful Guides and Governours of their souls these are the voices that fill them with general discontentment as though the bosom of that famous Church wherein they live were more noysom then any dungeon But when the Authors of so scandalous incantations are examined and called to account how can they justifie such their dealings when they are urged directly to answer whether it be lawful for us to use any such Ceremonies as the Church of Rome useth although the same be not commanded in the Word of God being driven to see that the use of some such Ceremonies must of necessity be granted lawful they go about to make us believe that they are just of the same Opinion and that they only think such Ceremonies are not to be used when they are unprofitable or when as good or better may be established Which Answer is both idle in regard of us and also repugnant to themselves It is in regard of us very vain to make this answer because they
and the Church of Christ in this present World 57. The necessity of Sacrament unto the Participation of Christ. 58. The Substance of Baptism the Rites or Solemnities thereunto belonging and that the Substance thereof being kept other things in Baptism may give place to necessity 59. The Ground in Scripture whereupon a necessity of outward Baptism hath been built 60. What kinde of necessity in outward Baptism hath been gathered by the words of our Saviour Christ and what the true necessity thereof indeed is 61. What things in Baptism have been dispensed with by the Father respecting necessity 62. Whether Baptism by Women be true Baptism good and affected to them that receive it 63. Of Interrogatories in Baptism touching Faith and the purpose of a Christian life 64. Interrogatories proposed unto Infants in Baptism and answered aâ— in their names by God-fathers 65. Of the Cross in Baptism 66. Of Confirmation after Baptism 67. Of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. 68. Of faults noted in the Form of Administring that holy Sacrament 69. Of Festival days and the natural ceases of their convenient Institution 70. The manner of celebrating Festival days 71. Exceptious against our keeping of other Festival days besides the Sabbath 72. Of Days appointed as well for ordinary as for extraordinary Fasts in the Church of God 73. The Celebration of Matrimony 74. The Churching of Woman 75. The Rites of Burial 76. Of the Nature of that Ministry which serveth for performance of Divine Duties in the Church of God and how happiness not eternal onely but also Temporal doth depend upon it 77. Of Power given unto Men to execute that Heavenly Office of the Gift of the Holy Ghost is Ordination and whether conveniently the Power of Order may be sought or sued for 78. Of Degrees whereby the Power of Order is distinguished and concerning the Attire of Ministers 79. Of Oblations Foundations Endowments Tithes all intended for Perpetuity of Religion which purpose being chiefly fulfilled by the Clergâ—es certain and sufficient maintenance must needs by Alienation of Church-Livings be made frustrate 80. Of Ordinatious lawful without Title and without any Popular Election precedent but in no case without regard of due Information what their quality is that enter into holy Orders 81. Of the Learning that should be in Ministers their Residence and the number of their Livings FEw there are of so weak capacity but publick evils they easily espie fewer so patient as not to complain when the grievous inconveniences thereof work sensible smart Howbeit to see wherein the harm which they feel consisteth the Seeds from which it sprang and the method of curing it belongeth to a skill the study whereof is so full of toyl and the practise so beset with difficulties that wary and respective men had rather seek quietly their own and wish that the World may go well so it be not long of them them with pain and hazard make themselves advisers for the common good We which thought it at the very first a sign of cold Affection towards the Church of God to prefer private case before the labor of appeasing publick disturbance must now of necessity refer events to the gracious providence of Almighty God and in discharge of our duty towards him proceed with the plain and unpartial defence of a Common Cause Wherein our endeavor is not so much to overthrow them with whom we conted as to yield them just and reasonable causes of those things which for want of due consideration heretofore they misconceived accusing Laws for Mens over-sights importing evils grown through personal defects unto that which is not evil framing unto some Sores unwholsome Plaisters and applying othersome where no sore is To make therefore our beginning that which to both parts is most acceptable We agree That pure and unstained Religion ought to be the highest of all cares appertaining to Publick Regiment as well in regard of that aid and protection which they who faithfully serve God confess they receive at his merciful hands as also for the force which Religion hath to qualifie all sorts of Men and to make them in publick affairs the more serviceable Governors the apter to rule with Conscience Inferiors for Conscience sake the willinger to obey It is no peculiar conceit but a matter of sound consequence that all duties are by so much the better performed by how much the Men are more Religious from whose Abilities the same proceed For if the course of Politick affairs cannot in any good sort go forward without fit Instruments and that which sitteth them be their Vertues Let Polity acknowledge it self indebted to Religion Godliness being the chiefest top and Well-spring of all true vertues even as God is of all good things So natural is the Union of Religion with Justice that we may boldly deem there is neither where both are not For how should they be unseignedly just whom Religion doth not cause to be such or they Religious which are not found such by the proof of their just actions If they which employ their labor and travel about the publick administration of Justice follow it onely as a trade with unquenchable and unconscionable thirst of gain being not in heart perswaded that Justice is Gods own Work and themselves his Agents in this business the Sentence of Right Gods own verdict and themselves his Priests to deliver it Formalities of Justice do but serve to smother right and that which was necessarily ordained for the common good is through shameful abuse made the cause of common misery The same Piety which maketh them that are in authority desirous to please and resemble God by Justice inflameth every way Men of action with Zeal to do good as far as their place will permit unto all For that they know is most Noble and Divine Whereby if no natural nor casual inability cross their desires they always delighting to inure themselves with actions most beneficial to others cannot but gather great experience and through experience the more wisdom because Conscience and the fear of swerving from that which is right maketh them diligent observers of circumstances the loose regard whereof is the Nurse of Vulgar Folly no less then Solomons attention thereunto was of natural furtherances the most effectual to make him eminent above others For he gave good heed and pierced every thing to the very ground and by that means became the Author of many Parables Concerning Fortitude sith evils great and unexpected the true touchstone of constant mindes do cause oftentimes even them to think upon Divine power with fearfullest suspitions which have been otherwise the most secure despisers thereof how should we look for any constant resolution of minde in such cases saving onely where unfeigned affection to God-ward hath bred the most assured confidence to be assisted by his hand For proof whereof let but the Acts of the ancient Jews be indifferently
the Sacred Authority of Scriptures ever sithence the first publication thereof even till this present day and hour And that they all have always so testified I see not how we should possibly wish a proof more palpable than this manifest received and every where continued Custom of Reading them publickly as the Scriptures The Reading therefore of the Word of God as the use hath ever been in open Audience is the plainest evidence we have of the Churches assent and acknowledgement that it is his Word 3. A further commodity this Custom hath which is to furnish the very simplest and rudest sort with such infallible Axioms and Precepts of Sacred Truth delivered even in the very letter of the Law of God as may serve them for Rules whereby to judge the better all other Doctrins and Instructions which they hear For which end and purpose I see not how the Scripture could be possibly made familiar unto all unless far more should be read in the Peoples hearing than by a Sermon can be opened For whereas in a manner the whole Book of God is by reading every year published a small part thereof in comparison of the whole may hold very well the readiest Interpreter of Scripture occupied many years 4. Besides wherefore should any man think but that Reading it self is one of the ordinary means whereby it pleaseth God of his gracious goodness to instill that Celestial Verity which being but so received is nevertheless effectual to save Souls Thus much therefore we ascribe to the Reading of the Word of God as the manner is in our Churches And because it were odious if they on their part should altogether despise the same they yield that Reading may set forward but not begin the work of Salvation That Faith may be nourished therewith but not bred That herein mens attention to the Scriptures and their speculation of the Creatures of God have like efficacy both being of power to augment but neither to effect Belief without Sermons That if any believe by Reading alone we are to account it a miracle an extraordinary work of God Wherein that which they grant we gladly accept at their hands and with that patiently they would examine how little cause they have to deny that which as yet they grant not The Scripture witnesseth that when the Book of the Law of God had been sometime missing and was after found the King which heard it but only read tare his Cloaths and with tears confessed Great is the wrath of the Lord upon us because our Fathers have notâ— kept his Word to do after all things which are written in this Book This doth argue that by bare reading for of Sermons at that time there is no mention true Repentance may be wrought in the hearts of such as fear God and yet incurr his displeasure the deserved effect whereof is Eternal death So that their Repentance although it be not their first entrance is notwithstanding the first step of their re-entrance into Life and may be in them wrought by the Word only read unto them Besides it seemeth that God would have no man stand in doubt but that the reading of Scripture is effectual as well to lay even the first foundation as to adde degrees of farther perfection in the fear of God And therefore the Law saith Thou shalt read this Law before all Israel that Men Women and Children may hear yea even that their Children which as yet have not known it may hear it and by hearing it so read may learn to fear the Lord. Our Lord and Saviour was himself of opinion That they which would not be drawn to amendment of Life by the Testimony which Moses and the Prophets have given concerning the miseries that follow Sinners after death were not likely to be perswaded by other means although God from the very Dead should have raised them up Preachers Many hear the Books of God and believe them not Howbeit their unbelief in that case we may not impute unto any weakness or insufficiency in the mean which is used towards them but to the wilful bent of their obstinate hearts against it With mindes obdurate nothing prevaileth As well they that preach as they that read unto such shall still have cause to complain with the Prophets which were of old Who will give credit unto our Teaching But with whom ordinary means will prevail surely the power of the World of God even without the help of Interpreters in God's Church worketh mightily not unto their confirmation alone which are converted but also to their conversion which are not It shall not boot them who derogate from reading to excuse it when they see no other remedy as if their intent were only to deny that Aliens and Strangers from the Family of God are won or that Belief doth use to be wrought at the first in them without Sermons For they know it is our Custom of simple Reading not for conversion of Infidels estranged from the House of God but for instruction of Men baptised bred and brought up in the bosom of the Church which they despise as a thing uneffectual to save such Souls In such they imagine that God hath no ordinary mean to work Faith without Sermons The reason why no man can attain Belief by the bare contemplation of Heaven and Earth is for that they neither are sufficient to give us as much as the least spark of Light concerning the very principal Mysteries of our Faith and whatsoever we may learn by them the same we can only attain to know according to the manner of natural Sciences which meer discourse of Wit and Reason findeth out whereas the things which we properly believe be only such as are received upon the credit of Divine Testimony Seeing therefore that he which considereth the Creatures of God findeth therein both these defects and neither the one nor the other in Scriptures because he that readeth unto us the Scriptures delivereth all the Mysteries of Faith and not any thing amongst them all more than the mouth of the Lord doth warrant It followeth in those own respects that our consideration of Creatures and attention unto Scriptures are not in themselves and without-Sermons things of like disability to breed or beget Faith Small cause also there is why any man should greatly wonder as at an extraordinary work if without Sermons Reading be sound to effect thus much For I would know by some special instance what one Article of Christian Faith or what duty required unto all mens Salvation there is which the very reading of the Word of God is not apt to notifie Effects are miraculous and strange when they grow by unlikely means But did we ever hear it accounted for a Wonder that he which doth read should believe and live according to the will of Almighty God Reading doth convey to the Minde that Truth without addition or diminution which Scripture hath derived from
to hold especially sit hence the publishing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ whereby the simplest having now a Key unto Knowledge which the Eunuch in the Acts did want our Children may of themselves by reading understand that which he without an Interpreter could not they are in Scripture plain and easie to be understood As for those things which at the first are obscure and dark when memory hath laid them up for a time Judgment afterwards growing explaineth them Scripture therefore is not so hard but that the only reading thereof may give life unto willing Hearers The easie performance of which holy labour is in like sort a very cold Objection to prejudice the vertue thereof For what though an Infidel yes though a Childe may be able to read there is no doubt but the meanest and worst amongst the People under the Law had been as able as the Priests themselves were to offer Sacrifice Did this make Sacrifice of no effect unto that purpose for which it was instituted In Religion some duties are not commended so much by the hardness of their execution as by the worthiness and dignity of that acceptation wherein they are held with God We admire the goodness of God in nature when we consider how he hath provided that things most needful to preserve this life should be most prompt and easie for all living Creatures to come by Is it not as evident a sign of his wonderful providence over us when that food of Eternal life upon the utter want whereof our endless death and destruction necessarily ensueth is prepared and always set in such a readiness that those very means than which nothing is more easie may suffice to procure the same Surely if we perish it is not the lack of Scribes and learned Expounders that can be out just excuse The Word which saveth our Souls is near us we need for knowledge but to read and live The man which readeth the Word of God the Word it self doth pronounce blessed if he also observe the same Now all these things being well considered it shall be no intricate matter for any man to judge with indifferency on which part the good of the Church is most conveniently sought whether on ours whose opinion is such as hath been shewed or else on theirs who leaving no ordinary way of Salvation for them unto whom the Word of God is but only read do seldom name them but with great disdain and contempt who execute that Service in the Church of Christ. By means whereof it hath come to pass that Churches which cannot enjoy the benefit of usual Preaching are judged as it were even forsaken of God forlorn and without either hope or comfort Contrariwise those places which every day for the most part are at Sermons as the flowing sea do both by their emptiness at times of reading and by other apparent tokens shew to the voice of the living God this way sounding in the ears of men a great deal less reverence then were meet But if no other evil were known to grow thereby who can chuse but think them cruel which doth hear them so boldly teach that if God as to him there nothing impossible do haply save any such as continue where they have all other means of instruction but are not taught by continual preaching yet this is miraculous and more than the fitness of so poor instruments can give any man cause to hope for that Sacraments are not effectual to Salvation except men be instructed by Preaching before they be made Partakers of them yea that both Sacraments and Prayers also where Sermons are not do not only not feed but are ordinarily to further condemnation What mans heart doth not rise at the mention of these thingsâ— It is true that the weakness of our Wits and the dulness of our Affections do make us for the most part even as our Lords own Disciples were for a certain time hard and slow to believe what is written For help whereof expositions and exhortations are needful and that in the most effectual manner The principal Churches throughout the Land and no small part of the rest being in this respect by the goodness of God so abundantly provided for they which want the like furtherance unto knowledge wherewith it were greatly to be desired that they also did abound are yet we hope not left in so extream desticution that justly any men should think the ordinary means of Eternal life taken from them because their teaching is in publick for the most part but by Reading For which cause amongst whom there are not those helps that others have to set them forward in the way of Life such to dis-hearten with fearful Sentences as though their Salvation could hardly be hoped for is not in our understanding so consonant with Christian Charity We hold it safer a great deal and better to give them incouragement to put them in minde that it is not the deepness of their Knowledge but the singleness of their Belief which God accepteth That they which hunger and thirst after Righteousness shall be satisfied That no imbecillity of Means can prejudice the truth of the promise of God herein That the weaker their helps are the more their need is to sharpen the edge of their own industry And that painfulness by feeble meanes shall be able to gain that which in the plenty of more forcible instruments is through sloth and negligence lost As for the men with whom we have thus fart taken pains to conferr about the force of the Word of God either read by it self or opened in Sermons their speeches concerning both the one and the other are in truth such as might give us very just cause to think that the reckoning is not great which they make of either For howsoever they have been driven to devise some odde kinde of blinde uses whereunto they may answer that reading doth serve yet the reading of the Word of God in publick more than their Preachers bare Text who will not judge that they deem needless when if we chance at any time to term it necessary as being a thing which God himself did institute amongst the Jews for purposes that touch as well us as them a thing which the Apostles commend under the Old and ordain under the New Testament a thing whereof the Church of God hath ever sithence the first beginning reaped singular Commodity a thing which without exceeding great detriment no Church can omit they only are the men that ever we heard of by whom this hath been cross'd and gain-said they only the men which have given their peremptory sentence to the contrary It is untrue that simple Reading is necessary in the Church And why untrue Because although it be very convenient which is used in some Churches where before Preaching-time the Church assembled hath the Scriptures read in such order that the whole Canon thereof is
unto God the Sacrifice of Prayse and Thanksgiving in the Congregation so earnestlie exhorteth others to sing Praises unto the Lord in his Courts in his Sanctuary before the memorial of his Holiness and so much complaineth of his own uncomfortable exile wherein although he sustained many most grievous indignities and indured the want of sundry both pleasures and honours before injoyed yet as if this one were his only grief and the rest not felt his speeches are all of the heavenly benefit of Publick Assemblies and the happiness of such as had free access thereunto 25. A great part of the Cause wherefore religious mindes are so inflamed with the love of Publick devotion is that vertue force and efficacy which by experience they finde that the very form and reverend solemnity of Common Prayer duly ordered hath to help that imbecillity and weakness in us by means whereof we are otherwise of our selves the less apt to perform unto God so heavenly a service with such affection of heart and disposition in the powers of our Souls as is requisite To this end therefore all things hereunto appertaining have been ever thought convenient to be done with the most solemnity and majesty that the wisest could devise It is not with Publick as with Private Prayer In this rather secresie is commanded than outward shew whereas that being the publick act of a whole Society requireth accordingly more care to be had of external appearance The very assembling of men therefore unto this service hath been ever solemn And concerning the place of assembly although it serve for other uses as well as this yet seeing that our Lord himself hath to this as to the chiefest of all other plainly sanctified his own Temple by entituling it the House of Prayer what preeminence of dignity soever hath been either by the Ordinance or through the special favour and providence of God annexed unto his Sanctuary the principal cause thereof must needs be in regard of Common Prayer For the honour and furtherance whereof if it be as the gravest of the antient Fathers seriously were perswaded and do oftentimes plainly teach affirming that the House of Prayer is a Court beautified with the presence of Celestial powers that there we stand we pray we sound forth Hymnes unto God having his Angels intermingled as our Associates and that with reference hereunto the Apostle doth require so great care to be had of decency for the Angels sake how can we come to the House of Prayer and not be moved with the very glory of the place it self so to frame our affections Praying as doth best beseem them whose Suits the Almighty doth there sit to hear and his Angels attend to further When this was ingrafted in the mindes of men there needed no penal Statutes to draw them unto publick Prayer The warning sound was no sooner heard but the Churches were presently filled the pavements covered with bodies prostrate and washt with their tears of devout joy And as the place of publick Prayer is a Circumstance in the outward form thereof which hath moment to help devotion so the Person much more with whom the People of God do joyn themselves in this Action as with him that standeth and speaketh in the presence of God for them The authority of his Place the fervour of his Zeal the piety and gravity of his whole Behaviour must needs exceedingly both grace and set forward the service he doth The authority of his Calling is a furtherance because if God have so farr received him into favour as to impose upon him by the hands of men that Office of blessing the People in his Name and making intercession to him in theirs which Office he hath sanctified with his own most gracious Promise and ratified that promise by manifest actual performance thereof when others before in like place have done the same is not his very Ordination a seal as it were to us that the self-same Divine love which hath chosen the instrument to work with will by that instrument effect the thing whereto he ordained it in blessing his People and accepting the Prayers which his Servant offereth up unto God for them It was in this respect a comfortable Title which the Antients used to give unto God's Ministers terming them usually God's most beloved which were ordained to procure by their Prayers his love and favour towards all Again if there be not zeal and fervency in him which proposeth for the rest those sutes and supplications which they by their joyful Acclamations must ratifie if he praise not God with all his might if he pour not out his Soul in Prayer if he take not their Causes to heart and speak not as Moses Daniel and Ezra did for their People how should there be but in them frozen coldness when his affections seem benummed from whom theirs should take fire Vertue and godliness of life are required at the hands of the Minister of God not only in that he is to teach and instruct the People who for the most part are rather led away by the ill example then directed aright by the wholesom instruction of them whose Life swarveth from the rule of their own Doctrine but also much more in regard of this other part of his Function whether we respect the weakness of the People apt to loathe and abhorr the Sanctuary when they which perform the service thereof are such as the Sonnes of Heli were or else consider the inclination of God himself who requireth the lifting up of pure hands in Prayers and hath given the World plainly to understand that the Wicked although they cry shall not be heard They are not fit Supplicants to seek his mercy on the behalf of others whose own un-repented sins provoke his just indignation Let thy Priests therefore O Lord be evermore cloathed with Righteousness that thy Saints may thereby with more devotion rejoice and sing But of all helps for due performance of this Service the greatest is that very set and standing order it self which framed with common advice hath both for matter and form prescribed whatsoever is herein publickly done No doubt from God it hath proceeded and by us it must be acknowledged a Work of singular care and providence that the Church hath evermore held a Prescript form of Common Prayer although not in all things every where the same yet for the most part retaining still the same analogy So that if the Liturgies of all antient Churches throughout the World be compared amongst themselves it may be easily perceived they had all one original mold and that the publick Prayer of the People of God in Churches throughly settled did never use to be voluntary Dictates proceeding from any man's extemporal wit To him which considereth the grievous and scandalous Inconveniencies whereunto they make themselves daily subject with whom any blinde and secret Corner is judged a fit House of
telleth them that if they did suffer notorious Maleâ—actors to come to the Table of our Lord and not put them by it would be as heavily revenged upon them as if themselves had shed his Blood that for this purpose God had called them to the rooms which they held in the Church of Christ that this they should reckon was their Dignity this their Safety this their whole Crown and Glory and therefore this they should carefully intend and not when the Sacrament is administred imagine themselves called only to walk up and down in a White and shining Garment Now whereas these speeches of Ierome and Chrysostom do seem plainly to allude unto such Ministerial Garments as were then in use To this they answer that by Ierom nothing can be gathered but only that the Ministers came to Church in handsome Holy-day apparel and that himself did not think them bound by the Law of God no go like Slovens but the Weed which we mean he defendeth not That Chrysostome meaneth the same which we defend but seemeth rather to reprehend than allow it as we do Which Answer wringeth out of Ierome and Chrysostome that which their words will not gladly yield They both speak of the same Persons namely the Clergy and of their Weed at the same time when they administer the blessed Sacrament and of the self-same kinde of Weed a white Garment so far as we have wit to conceive and for any thing we are able to see their manner of speech is not such as doth argue either the thing it self to be different whereof they speak or their Judgment concerning it different although the one do only maintain it against Pelagius as a thing not therefore unlawful because it was fair or handsom and the other make it a matter of small commendation in it self if they which wear it do nothing else but weare the Robes which their Place requireth The honesty dignity and estimation of White Apparel in the Eastern part of the World is a token of greater fitness for this sacred use wherein it were not convenient that any thing basely thought of should be suffered Notwithstanding I am not bent to stand stiffely upon these Probabilities that in Ierom's and Chrysostom's time any such Attire was made several to this purpose Yet surely the words of Solomon are very impertinent to prove it an Ornament therefore not several for the Ministers to execute their Ministry in because men of credit and estimation wore their ordinary Apparel white For we know that when Solomon wrote those words the several Apparel for the Ministers of the Law to execute their Ministry in was such The Wise man which seared God from his heart and honoured the Service that was done unto him could not mention so much as the Garment of Holiness but with effectual signification of most singular reverence and love Were it not better that the love which men bear to God should make the least things which are imployed in his Service amiable than that their over-scrupulous dislike of so mean a thing as a Vestment should from the very Service of God with-draw their hearts and affections I term it rather a mean thing a thing not much to be respected because even they so account now of it whose first Disputations against it were such as if Religion had scarcely any thing of greater waight Their Allegations were then That if a man were assured to gain a thousand by doing that which may offend any one Brother or be unto him a cause of falling he ought not to do it That this Popish Apparel the Surplice especially hath been by Papists abominably abused That it hath been a mark and a very Sacrament of Abomination That remaining it serveth as a Monument of Idolatry and not only edifieth not but as a dangerous and scandalous Ceremony doth exceeding much harm to them of whose good we are commanded to have regard that it causeth men to perish and make shipwrack of Conscience for so themselves profess they mean when they say the weak are offended herewith that it hardneth Papists hindreth the weak from profiting in the knowledge of the Gospel grieveth godly mindes and giveth them occasion to think hardly of their Ministers that if the Magistrates may command or the Church appoint Rites and Ceremonies yet seeing our abstinence from things in their own nature indifferent if the weak Brother should be offended is a flat Commandement of the Holy Ghost which no Authority either of Church or Common-wealth can make void therefore neither may the one nor the other lawfully ordain this Ceremony which hath great incommodity and no profit great offence and no edifying That by the Law it should have been burnt and consumed with fire as a thing infected with Leprosie That the Example of Ezekiah beating to powder the Brazen Serpent and of Paul abrogating those abused Feasts of Charity inforceth upon us the duty of abolishing altogether a thing which hath been and is so offensive Finally That God by his Prophet hath given an express Commandement which in this case toucheth us no less than of old it did the Jews ' Ye shall pollute the covering of the Images of Silver and the rich ornament of your Images of Gold and cast them away as a stained ragg thou shalt say unto it Get thee hence These and such like were their first Discourses touching that Church-Attire which with us for the most part is usual in Publick Prayer our Ecclesiastical Laws so appointing as well because it hath been of reasonable continuance and by special choice was taken out of the number of those holy Garments which over and besides their mystical reference served for comeliness under the Law and is in the number of those Ceremonies which may with choice and discretion be used to that purpose in the Church of Christ as also for that it suiteth so fitly with that lightsom affection of joy wherein God delighteth when his Saints praise him and so lively resembleth the glory of the Saints in Heaven together with the beauty wherein Angels have appeared unto men that they which are to appear for men in the presence of God as Angels if they were left to their own choice and would chuse any could not easily devise a Garment of more decency for such a Service As for those fore-rehearsed vehement allegations against it shall we give them credit when the very Authors from whom they came confess they believe not their own sayings For when once they began to perceive how many both of them in the two Universities and of others who abroad having Ecclesiastical charge do favour mightily their Cause and by all means set it forward might by persisting in the extremity of that Opinion hazard greatly their own Estates and so weaken that part which their Places do now give them much opportunity to strengthen they asked counsel as it seemed from some abroad who
in the presence of great men as what doth most avail to our own edification in piety and godly zeal If they on the contrary side do think that the same rules of decency which serve for things done unto terrene Powers should universally decide what is fit in the service of God if it be their meaning to hold it for a Maxim That the Church must deliver her publick Supplications unto God in no other form of speech than such as were decent if suit should be made to the Great Turk or some other Monarch let them apply their own rule unto their own form of Common-Prayer Suppose that the people of a whole Town with some chosen man before them did continually twice or thrice in a week resort to their King and every time they come first acknowledge themselves guilty of Rebellions and Treasons then sing a Song and after that explain some Statute of the Land to the Standers by and therein spend at the least an hour this done turn themselves again to the King and for every sort of his Subjects crave somewhat of him at the length sing him another Song and so take their leave Might not the King well think that either they knew not what they would have or else that they were distracted in minde or some other such like cause of the disorder of their Supplication This form of suing unto Kings were absurd This form of Praying unto God they allow When God was served with legal Sacrifices such was the miserable and wretched disposition of some mens mindes that the best of every thing they had being culled out for themselves if there were in their flocks any poor starved or diseased thing not worth the keeping they thought it good enough for the Altar of God pretending as wise Hyprocrites do when they rob God to enrich themselves that the fatness of Calves doth benefit him nothing to us the best things are most profitable to him all as one if the minde of the Offerer be good which is the only thing he respecteth In reproof of which their devout fraud the Prophet Malachy alledgeth that gifts are offered unto God not as supplys of his want indeed but yet as testimonies of that affection wherewith we acknowledge and honour his greatness For which cause sith the greater they are whom we honour the more regard we have to the quality and choice of those Presents which we bring them for honor's sake it must needs follow that if we dare not disgrace our worldly Superiours with offering unto them such reffuse as we bring unto God himself we shew plainly that our acknowledgment of his Greatnesse is but feigned in heart we fear him not so much as we dread them If ye offer the blinde for Sacrifice is it not evil Offer it now unto thy Prince Will he be content or accept thy Person saith the Lord of Hosts Cursed be the Deceiver which hath in his Flock a Male and having made a Vow sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing For I am a great King saith the Lord of Hosts Should we hereupon frame a Rule that what form of speech or behaviour soever is fit for Suiters in a Prince's Court the same and no other beseemeth us in our Prayers to Almighty God 35. But in vain we labour to perswade them that any thing can take away the tediousness of Prayer except it be brought to the very same both measure and form which themselves assign Whatsoever therefore our Liturgy hath more than theirs under one devised pretence or other they cut it off We have of Prayers for Earthly things in their opinion too great a number so oft to rehearse the Lords Prayer in so small a time is as they think a loss of time the Peoples praying after the Minister they say both wasteth time and also maketh an unpleasant sound the Psalms they would not have to be made as they are a part of our Common-Prayer nor to be sung or said by turns nor such Musick to be used with them those Evangelical Hymns they allow not to stand in our Liturgy the Letany the Creed of Athanasius the Sentence of Glory wherewith we use to conclude Psalms these things they cancel as having been instituted in regard of occasions peculiar to the times of old and as being therefore now superfluous Touching Prayers for things earthly we ought not to think that the Church hath set down so many of them without cause They peradventure which finde this fault are of the same affection with Solomon so that if God should offer to grant the whatsoever they ask they would neither crave Riches not length of dayes not yet victory over their Enemies but only an understanding heart for which cause themselves having Eagles wings are offended to see others flye so near the ground But the tender kindness of the Church of God it very well beseemeth to help the weaker sort which are by so great oddes moe in number although some few of the perfecter and stronger may be therewith for a time displeased Ignorant we are not that of such as resorted to our Saviour Christ being present on Earth there came not any unto him with better success for the benefit of their Souls everlasting happiness than they whose bodily necessities gave them the first occasion to seek relief when they saw willingness and ability of doing every way good unto all The graces of the Spirit are much more precious than worldly benefits our ghostly evils of greater importance than any harm which the body feeleth Therefore our desires to heaven-ward should both in measure and number no less exceed than their glorious Object doth every way excel in value These things are true and plain in the eye of a perfect Judgement But yet it must be withal considered that the greatest part of the World are they which be farthest from perfection Such being better able by sense to discern the wants of this present life than by spiritual capacity to apprehend things above sense which tend to their happiness in the world to come are in that respect the more apt to apply their mindes even with hearty affection and zeal at the least unto those Branches of Publick prayer wherein their own particular is moved And by this mean there stealeth upon them a double benefit first because that good affection which things of smaller account have once set on work is by so much the more easily raised higher and secondly in that the very custom of seeking so particular aide and relief at the hands of God doth by a secret contradiction withdraw them from endeavouring to help themselves by those wicked shifts which they know can never have his allowance whose assistance their Prayer seeketh These multiplyed Petitions of worldly things in Prayer have therefore besides their direct use a Service whereby the Church under-hand through a kinde of heavenly fraud taketh therewith the Souls of men as with certain baits If
finde by daily experience that those calamities may be nearest at hand readiest to break in suddenly upon us which we in regard of times or circumstances may imagine to be farthest off Or if they do not indeed approach yet such miseries as being present all men are apt to bewail with tears the wise by their Prayers should rather prevent Finally if we for our selves had a priviledge of immunity doth not true Christian Charity require that whatsoever any part of the World yea any one of all our Brethren elswhere doth either suffer or fear the same we account as our own burthen What one Petition is there found in the whole Litany whereof we shall ever be able at any time to say That no man living needeth the grace or benefit therein craved at Gods hands I am not able to express how much it doth grieve me that things of Principal Excellency should be thus bitten at by men whom God hath endued with graces both of Wit and Learning for better purposes We have from the Apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ received that brief Confession of Faith which hath been always a badge of the Church a mark whereby to discern Christian men from Infidels and Jews This Faith received from the Apostles and their Disciples saith Ireneus the Church though dispersed throughout the World doth notwithstanding keep as safe as if it dwels within the Walls of some one house and as uniformly hold as if it had but one onely heart and soul this as consonantly it Preacheth teacheth and delivereth as if but one tongue did speak for all At one Sun shineth to the whole World so there is no Faith but this one published the brightness whereof must enlighten all that come to the knowledge of the Truth This rule saith Tertullian Christ did institute the stream and current of this rule hath gone as far it hath continued as long as the very promulgation of the Gospel Under Constantine the Emperor about Three hundred years and upward after Christ Arius a Priest in the Church of Alexandria a suttle-witted and a marvellous fair-spoken man but discontented that one should be placed before him in honor whose superior he thought himself in desert became through envy and stomack prone unto contradiction and hold to broach at the length that Heresie wherein the Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ contained but not opened in the former Creed the coequality and coeternity of the Son with the Father was denied Being for this impiety deprived of his place by the Bishop of the same Church the punishment which should have reformed him did but increase his obstinacy and give him occasion of laboring with greater earnestness elswhere to intangle unwary mindes with the snares of his damnable opinion Arius in short time had won to himself a number both of Followers and of great Defenders whereupon much disquietness on all sides ensued The Emperor to reduce the Church of Christ unto the Unity of sound Belief when other means whereof tryal was first made took no effect gathered that famous Assembly of Three hundred and eighteen Bishops in the Council of Nice where besides order taken for many things which seemed to need redress there was with common consent for the setling of all mens mindes that other Confession of Faith set down which we call the Nicene Creed whereunto the Arians themselves which were present subscribed also not that they meant sincerely and indeed to forsake their error but onely to escape deprivation and exile which they saw they could not avoid openly persisting in their former opinions when the greater part had concluded against them and that with the Emperors Royal Assent Reserving therefore themselves unto future opportunities and knowing that it would not boot them to stir again in a matter so composed unless they could draw the Emperor first and by his means the chiefest Bishops unto their part till Constantines death and somewhat after they always professed love and zeal to the Nicene Faith yet ceased not in the mean while to strengthen that part which in heart they favored and to infest by all means under colour of other quarrels their greatest Adversaries in this cause Amongst them Athanasius especially whom by the space of Forty six years from the time of his Consecration to succeed Alexander Archbishop in the Church of Alexandria till the last hour of his life in this World they never suffered to enjoy the comfort of a peaceable day The heart of Constantine stoln from him Constantius Constantines Successor his scourge and torment by all the ways that malice armed with Soveraign Authority could devise and use Under Iulian no rest given him and in the days of Valentinian as little Crimes there were laid to his charge many the least whereof being just had bereaved him of estimation and credit with men while the World standeth His Judges evermore the self-same men by whom his accusers were suborned Yet the issue always on their part shame on his triumph Those Bishops and Prelates who should have accounted his cause theirs and could not many of them but with bleeding hearts and with watred checks behold a person of so great place and worth constrained to endure so soul indignities were sure by bewraying their affection towards him to bring upon themselves those molestations whereby if they would not be drawn to seem his Adversaries yet others should be taught how unsafe it was to continue his friends Whereupon it came to pass in the end that very few excepted all became subject to the sway of time other odds there was none amongst them saving onely that some fell sooner away some latter from the soundness of Belief some were Leaders in the Host of Impiety and the rest as common Soldiers either yielding through fear or brought under with penury or by flattery ensnared or else beguiled through simplicity which is the fairest excuse that well may be made for them Yes that which all men did wonder at Osius the ancientest Bishop that Christendom then had the most forward in defence of the Catholick cause and of the contrary part most feared that very Osius with whose hand the Nicene Creed it self was set down and framed for the whole Christian World to subscribe unto so far yielded in the end as even with the same hand to ratifie the Arians Confession a thing which they neither hoped to see nor the other part ever feared till with amazement they saw it done Both were perswaded that although there had been for Osius no way but either presently subscribe or die his answer and choice would have been the same that Eleazars was It doth not become our age to dissemble whereby many young persons might think that Osius in hundred years old and upward were now gone to another Religion and so through mine hypocrisie for a little time of transitory life they might be deceived by me and I procure malediction and reproach to my old
made us subject to all misery so the full Redemption of the Inward Man and the Work of our Restauration must needs belong unto Knowledge onely They draw very near unto this Error who fixing wholly their mindes on the known necessity of Faith imagine that nothing but Faith is necessary for the attainment of all Grace Yet is it a Branch of Belief that Sacraments are in their place no less required then Belief it self For when our Lord and Saviour promiseth Eternal Life is it any otherwise then as he promised Restitution of health unto Naaman the Syrian namely with this condition Wash and be clean or as to them which were stung of Serpents health by beholding the Brazen Serpent If Christ himself which giveth Salvation do require Baptism it is not for us that look for Salvation to sound and examine him whether unbaptized men may be saved but seriously to do that which is required and religiously to fear the danger which may grow by the want thereof Had Christ onely declared his Will to have all men Baptized and not acquainted us with any cause why Baptism is necessary our ignorance in the reason of that he enjoyneth might perhaps have hindered somewhat the forwardness of our obedience thereunto Whereas now being taught that Baptism is necessary to take away sin how have we the fear of God in our hearts if care of delivering Mens Souls from sin do not move us to use all means for their Baptism Pelagius which denied utterly the guilt of Original sin and in that respect the necessity of Baptism did notwithstanding both Baptize Infants and acknowledge their Baptism necessary for entrance into the Kingdom of God Now the Law of Christ which in these considerations maketh Baptism necessary must be construed and understood according to Rules of Natural Equity Which Rules if they themselves did not follow in expounding the Law of God would they ever be able to prove that the Scripture in saying Whoso believeth not the Gospel of Christ is condemned already meaneth this sentence of those which can hear the Gospel and have discretion when they hear to understand it neither ought it to be applied unto Infants Deaf-men and Fools That which teacheth them thus to interpret the Law of Christ is Natural Equity And because Equity so teacheth it is on all parts gladly confest That there may be in divers cases Life by vertue of inward Baptism even where outward is not found So that if any question be made it is but about the bounds and limits of this possibility For example to think that a man whose Baptism the Crown of Martyrdom preventeth doth lose in that case the happiness which so many thousands enjoy that onely have had the Grace to Believe and not the Honor to seal the testimony thereof with Death were almost barbarous Again When some certain opinative men in St. Bernards time began privately to hold that because our Lord hath said Unless a Man be born again of Water therefore life without either Actual Baptism or Martyrdom in stead of Baptism cannot possibly be obtained at the hands of God Bernard considering that the same equity which had moved them to think the necessity of Baptism no Bar against the happy estate of Unbaptized Martyrs is as forcible for the warrant of their Salvation in whom although there be not the Sufferings of holy Martyrs there are the Vertues which sanctified those Sufferings and made them precious in Gods sight professed himself an enemy to that severity and strictness which admitteth no exception but of Martyrs onely For saith he if a Man desirous of Baptism be suddenly cut off by Death in whom there wanted neither sound Faith devout Hope not sincere Charity God be merciful unto me and pardon me if I err but verily of such a ones Salvation in whom there is no other defect besides his faultless lack of Baptism despair I cannot nor induce my minde to think his Faith void his Hope confounded and his Charity faln to nothing onely because he hath not that which not contempt but impossibility with-holdeth Tell me I beseech you saith Ambrose what there is in any of us more then to will and to seek for our own good They Servant Valentinian O Lord did both For Valentinian the Emperor died before his purpose to receive Baptism could take effect And is it possible that he which had purposely thy Spirit given him to desire Grace should not receive thy Grace which that Spirit did desire Doth it move you that the outward accustomed Solemnities were not done At though Converts that suffer Martyrdom before Baptism did thereby forfeit their right to the Crown of Eternal Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven If the Blood of Martyrs in that case be their Baptism surely his religious desire of Baptism standeth him in the same stead It hath been therefore constantly held as well touching other Believers as Martyrs That Baptism taken away by necessity is supplied by desire of Baptism because with Equity this opinion doth best stand Touching Infants which die unbaptized sith they neither have the Sacrament it self nor any sense or conceit thereof the judgment of many hath gone hard against them But yet seeing Grace is not absolutely tied unto Sacraments and besides such is the lenity of God that unto things altogether impossible he bindeth no man but where we cannot do what is enjoyned us accepteth our will to do in stead of the deed it self Again For as much as there is in their Christian Parents and in the Church of God a presumed desire That the Sacrament of Baptism might be given them yea a purpose also that it shall be given remorse of Equity hath moved divers of the School-Divines in these considerations ingeuously to grant That God all-merciful to such as are not in themselves able to desire Baptism imputeth the secret desire that others have in their behalf and accepteth the same as theirs rather then casteth away their Souls for that which no man is able to help And of the Will of God to impart his Grace unto Infants without Baptism in that case the very circumstance of their Natural Birth may serve as a just Argument whereupon it is not to be misliked that men in charitable presumption do gather a great likelihood of their Salvation to whom the benefit of Christian Parentage being given the rest that should follow is prevented by some such casualty as man hath himself no power to avoid For we are plainly taught of God That the Seed of Faithful Parentage is holy from the very Birth Which albeit we may not so understand as if the Children of Believing Parents were without Sin or Grace from Baptized Parents derived by Propagation or God by Covenant and Promise tied to save any in meer regard of their Parents Belief Yet seeing that to all Professors of the Name of Christ this pre-eminence above Infidels
contrary Internal Powers Which whosoever doth think impossible is undoubtedly farther off from Christian Belief though he be Baptized then are these Innocents which at their Baptism albeit they have no conceit cogitation of Faith are notwithstanding pure and free from all opposite cogitations whereas the other is not free If therefore without any fear or scruple we may account them and term them Believers onely for their outward professions sake which inwardly are farther from Faith then Infants Why not Infants much more at the time of their solemn Initiation by Baptism the Sacrament of Faith whereunto they not onely conceive nothing opposite but have also that Grace given them which is the first and most effectual cause out of which our belief groweth In sum the whole Church is a multitude of Believers all honored with that title even Hypocrites for their Professions sake as well as Saints because of their inward sincere perswasion and Infants as being in the first degree of their ghostly motions towards the actual habit of Faith the first sort are faithful in the eye of the World the second faithful in the sight of God the last in the ready direct way to become both if all things after be suitable to these their present beginnings This saith St. Augustine would not happily content such persons as are uncapable or unquiet but to them which having knowledge are not troublesome it may suffice Wherein I have not for case of my self objected against you that custom onely then which nothing is more from but of a custom most profitable I have done that little which I could â—â— yield you a reasonable cause Were St. Augustine now living there are which would tell him for his better instruction that to say of a childe It is elect and to say it doth believe are all one for which cause sith no man is able precisely to affirm the one of any Infant in particular it followeth that precisely and absolutely we ought not to say the other Which precise and absolute terms are needless in this case We speak of Infants as the rule of piety alloweth both to speak and think They that can take to themselves in ordinary talk a charitable kinde of liberty to name men of their own sort Gods dear children notwithstanding the large reign of of Hyprocrisie should not methinks be so strict and rigorous against the Church for presuming as it doth of a Christian Innocent For when we know how Christ is general hath said That of such is the Kingdom of Heaven which Kingdom is the Inheritance of Gods Elect and do withal behold how his providence hath called them unto the first beginnings of Eternal Life and presented them at the Well-spring of New-birth wherein original sin is purged besides which sin there is no Hinderance of their Salvation known to us as themselves will grant hard it were that loving so many fair inducements whereupon to ground we should not be thought to utter at the least a truth as probable and allowable in terming any such particular Infant an elect Babe as in presuming the like of others whose safety nevertheless we are not absolutely able to warrant If any troubled with these seruples be onely for Instructions sake desirous to know yet some farther reason why Interrogatories should be ministred to Infants in Baptism and be answered unto by others as in their names they may consider that Baptism implieth a Covenant or League between God and Man wherein as God doth bestow presently remission of sins and the Holy Ghost hinding also himself to add in process of time what Grace soever shall be farther necessary for the attainment of Everlasting Life so every Baptized Soul receiving the same Grace at the hands of God tieth likewise it self for ever to the observation of his Law no less then the Jews by Circumcision bound themselves to the Law of Moses The Law of Christ requiring therefore Faith and newness of life in all men by vertue of the Covenant which they make in Baptism Is it toyish that the Church in Baptism exacteth at every mans hands an express Profession of Faith and an inevocable promise of obedience by way of solemn stipulation That Infants may contract and covenant with God the Law is plain Neither is the reason of the Law obscure For sith it rendeth we cannot sufficiently express how much to their own good and doth no way hurt or endanger them to begin the race of their lives herewith they are as equity requireth admitted hereunto and in favor of their tender years such formal complements of stipulation as being requisite are impossible by themselves in their own persons to be performed leave is given that they may sufficiently discharge by others Albeit therefore neither deaf nor dumb men neither surious persons nor children can receive any civil stipulation yet this kinde of ghostly stipulation they may through his indulgence who respecting the singular benefit thereof accepteth Children brought unto him for that end entrech into Articles of Covenant with them and in tender commiseration granteth that other Mens Professions and Promises in Baptism made for them shall avail no less then if they had been themselves able to have made their own None more fit to undertake this office in their behalf then such as present them unto Baptism A wrong conceit that none may receive the Sacrament of Baptism but they whose Parents at the least the one of them are by the soundness of their Religion and by their vertuous demeanor known to be Men of God hath caused some to repel Children whosoever bring them if their Parents be mis-perswaded in Religion or sot other mis-deserts ex-communicated some likewise for that cause to withhold Baptism unless the Father albeit no such exception can justly be taken against him do notwithstanding make Profession of his Faith and avouch the childe to be his own Thus whereas God hath appointed them Ministers of holy things they make themselves Inquisitors of mens persons a great deal farther then need is They should consider that God hath ordained Baptism in favor of mankinde To restrain favors is an odious thing to enlarge them acceptable both to God and Man Whereas therefore the Civil Law gave divers Immunities to them which were Fathers of three children and had them living those Immunities they held although their children were all dead if war had consumed them because it seemed in that case not against reason to repute them by a courteous construction of Law as live men in that the honor of their Service done to the Commonwealth would remain always Can it hurt us in exhibiting the Graces which God doth bestow on men or can it prejudice his glory if the self-same equity guide and direct our hands When God made his Covenant with such as had Abraham to their Father was onely Abrahams immediate issue or onely his lineal posterity according to the flesh included in that
seeketh rather proportion then absolute perfection of goodness So that Woman being created for mans sake to be his Helper in regard of the end before mentioned namely the having and bringing up of Children whereunto it was not possible they could concur unless there were subalternation between them which subalternation is naturally grounded upon inequality because things equall in every respect are never willingly directed one by another Woman therefore was even in her first estate framed by Nature not only after in time but inferiour in excellency also unto Man howbeit in so due and sweet proportion as being presented before our eyes might be sooner perceived then defined And even herein doth lie the Reason why that kind of love which is the perfectest ground of Wedlock is seldome able to yield any reason of it self Now that which is born of Man must be nourished with far more travel as being of greater price in Nature and of slower pace to perfection then the Off-spring of any other Creature besides Man and Woman being therefore to joyn themselves for such a purpose they were of necessity to be linked with some straight and insoluble knot The bond of Wedlock hath been always more or less esteemed of as a thing Religious and Sacred The Title which the very Heathens themselves do thereunto oftentimes give is Holy Those Rites and Orders which were instituted in the Solemnization of Marriage the Hebrews term by the Name of Conjugal Sanctification Amongst our selves because sundry things appertaining unto the Publick Order of Matrimony are called in Question by such as know not from whence those Customs did first grow to shew briefly some true and sufficient Reason of them shall not be superfluous although we do not hereby intend to yield so far unto Enemies of all Church-Orders saving their own as though every thing were unlawful the true Cause and Reason whereof at the first might hardly perhaps be now rendred Wherefore to begin with the times wherein the liberty of Marriage is restrained There is saith Solomon a time for all things a time to laugh and a time to mourn That duties belonging unto Marriage and Offices appertaining to Pennance are things unsuitable and unfit to be matched together the Prophets and Apostles themselves do witness Upon which ground as we might right well think it marvellous absurd to see in a Church a Wedding on the day of a publick Fast so likewise in the self-same consideration our Predecessors thought it not amiss to take away the common liberty of Marriages during the time which was appointed for preparation unto and for exercise of General Humiliation by Fasting and praying weeping for sins As for the delivering up of the woman either by her Father or by some other we must note that in ancient times all women which had not Husbands nor Fathers to govern them had their Tutors without whose Authority there was no act which they did warrantable And for this cause they were in Marriage delivered unto their Husbands by others Which custome retained hath still this use that it putteth Women in mind of a duty whereunto the very imbecillity of their nature and Sex doth bind them namely to be always directed guided and ordered by others although our Positive Laws do not tie them now as Pupils The custome of laying down Money seemeth to have been derived from the Saxons whose manner was to buy their Wives But seeing there is not any great cause wherefore the memory of that custome should remain it skilleth not much although we suffer it to lie dead even as we see it in a manner already worn out The Ring hath been always used as an especial pledge of Faith and Fidelity Nothing more fit to serve as a token of our purposed endless continuance in that which we never ought to revoke This is the cause wherefore the Heathens themselves did in such cases use the Ring whereunto Tertullian alluding saith That in ancient times No Woman was permitted to wear gold saving only upon one finger which her Husband had fastened unto himself with that Ring which was usually given for assurance of future Marriage The cause why the Christians use it as some of the Fathers think is either to testifie mutual love or rather to serve for a pledge of conjunction in heart and mind agreed upon between them But what right and custome is there so harmless wherein the wit of man bending it self to derision may not easily find out somewhat to scorn and jest at He that should have beheld the Jews when they stood with a four-cornered Garment spread over the heads of Espoused Couples while their Espousals were in making He that should have beheld their praying over a Cup and their delivering the same at the Marriage-feast with set Forms of Benediction as the Order amongst them was might being lewdly affected take thereat as just occasion of scornful cavil as at the use of the Ring in Wedlock amongst Christians But of all things the most hardly taken is the uttering of these words With my body I thee worship In which words when once they are understood there will appear as little cause as in the rest for any wise man to be offended First therefore inasmuch as unlawful copulation doth pollute and dishonour both parties this Protestation that we do worship and honour another with our bodies may import a denial of all such Lets and Impediments to our knowledge as might cause any stain blemish or disgrace that way which kind of construction being probable would easily approve that speech to a peaceable and quiet mind Secondly in that the Apostle doth so expresly affirm that parties unmarried have not any longer entire power over themselves but each hath interest in others person it cannot be thought an absurd construction to say that worshipping with the body is the imparting of that interest in the body unto another which none before had save only our selves But if this were the natural meaning the words should perhaps be as requisite to be used on the one side as on the other and therefore a third sense there is which I rather rely upon Apparent it is that the ancient difference between a lawful Wife and a Concubine was only in the different purpose of man betaking himself to the one or the other If his purpose were only fellowship there grew to the Woman by this means no worship at all but the contrary In professing that his intent was to add by his person honour and worship unto hers he took her plainly and cleerly to Wife This is it which the Civil Law doth mean when it maketh a Wife to differ from a Concubine in dignity a Wife to be taken where Conjugal honour and affection do go before The worship that grew unto her being taken with declaration of this intent was that her children became by this mean legitimate and free her self was
condition as long as they stedfastly were observed to honour God and their success being faln from him are remonstrances more than sufficient how all our welfare even on earth dependeth wholly upon our Religion Heathens were ignorant of true Religion Yet such as that little was which they knew it much impaired or bettered alwaies their worldy affairs as their love and zeal towards it did wain or grow Of the Jews did not even their most malicious and mortal Adversaries all acknowledge that to strive against them it was in vain as long as their amity with God continued that nothing could weaken them but Apostasie In the whole course of their own proceedings did they ever finde it otherwise but that during their faith and fidelity towards God every man of them was in war as a thousand strong and as much as a grand Senate for counsel in peaceable deliberations contrariwise that if they swarved as they often did their wonted courage and magnanimity forsook them utterly their Soldiers and military men trembled at the sight of the naked sword when they entered into mutual conference and sate in counsel for their own good that which Children might have seen their gravest Senators could not discern their Prophets saw darkness instead of Visions the wise and prudent were as men bewitcht even that which they knew being such as might stand them in stead they had not the grace to utter or if any thing were well proposed it took no place it entered not into the minds of the rest to approve and follow it but as men confounded with strange and unusual amaâ—â—ments of spirit they attempted tumultuously they saw not what and by the issues of all attempts they found no certain conclusion but this God and Heaven are strong against as in all we do The cause whereof was secret fear which took heart and courage from them and the cause of their fear an inward guiltiness that they all had offered God such apparent wrongs as were not pardonable But it may be the case is now altogether changed and that in Christian Religion there is not the like force towards Temporal felicity Search the ancient Records of time look what hath happened by the space of these sixteen hundred years see if all things to this effect be not Inculent and clear yea all things so manifest that for evidence and proof herein we need not by uncertain dark conjectures surmise any to have been plagued of God for contempt or blest in the course of faithful obedience towards true Religion more than onely them whom we finde in that respect on the one side guilty by their own confessions and happy on the other side by all mens acknowledgement who beholding that prosperous estate of such as are good and vertuous impute boldly the same to God's most especial favour but cannot in like manner pronounce that whom he afflicteth above others with them he hath cause to be more offended For Vertue is always plain to be seen rareness causeth it to be observed and goodness to be honoured with admiration As for iniquity and sin it lyeth many times hid and because we be all offenders it becometh us not to incline towards hard and severe sentences touching others unless their notorious wickedness did sensibly before proclaim that which afterwards came to pass Wherefore the sum of every Christian man's duty is to labour by all means towards that which other men seeing in us may justifie and what we our selves must accuse if we fall into it that by all means we can to avoid considering especially that as hitherto upon the Church there never yet fell tempestuous storm the vapours whereof were not first noted to rise from coldness in affection and from backwardness is duties of service towards God so if that which the tears of antiquity have untered concerning this point should be here set down it were assuredly enough to soften and to mollifie an Heart of steel On the contrary part although we confesse with Saint Augustine most willingly that the chiefest happiness for which we have some Christian Kings in so great admiration above the rest is not because of their long Reign their calm and quiet departure out of this present life the settled establishment of their own flesh and blood succeeding them in Royalty and Power the glorious overthrow of foreign enemies or the wise prevention of inward danger and so secret attempts at home all which solaces and comforts of this our unquiet life it pleaseth God oftentimes to bestow on them which have no society or part in the joys of Heaven giving thereby to understand that these in comparison are toys and trifles farr under the value and price of that which is to be looked for at his hands but in truth the reason wherefore we most extol their felicity is if so be they have virtuously reigned if honour have not filled their hearts with pride if the exercise of their power have been service and attendance upon the Majestie of the Most High if they have feared him as their own inferiours and subjects have feared them if they have loved neither pomp nor pleasure more than Heaven if revenge have slowly proceeded from then and mercy willingly offered it self if so they have tempered rigour with lenity that neither extream severitie might utterly cutt them off in whom there was manifest hope of amendment nor yet the easinesse of pardoning offences imbolden offenders if knowing that whatsoever they do their potency may bear it out they have been so much the more carefull are to do any thing but that which is commendable in the best rather than usual with greatest Personages if the true knowledge of themselves have humbled them in God's sight no lesse than God in the eyes of men hath raised them up I say albeit we reckon such to be the happiest of them that are mightiest in the World and albeit those things alone are happiness nevertheless considering what force there is even in outward blessings to comfort the mindes of the best disposed and to give them the greater joy when Religion and Peace Heavenly and Earthly happiness are wreathed in one Crown as to the worthiest of Christian Princes it hath by the providence of the Almighty hitherto befallen let it not seem unto any man a needlesse and superfluous waste of labour that there hath been thus much spoken to declare how in them especially it hath been so observed and withal universally noted even from the highest to the very meanest how this peculiar benefit this singular grace and preheminence Religion hath that either it guardeth as an heavenly shield from all calamities or else conducteth us safe through them and permitteth them not to be miseâ—… it either giveth honours promotions and wealth or else more benefit by wanting them than if we had them at will it either filleth our Houses with plenty of all good things or maketh a Sallad of green herbs more sweet than all the
why in all the projects of their Discipline it being manifest that their drift is to wrest the Key of Spiritual Authority out of the hands of former Governours and equally to possess therewith the Pastors of all several Congregations the people first for surer accomplishment and then for better defence thereof are pretended necessary Actors in those things whereunto their ability for the most part is as slender as their title and challenge unjust Notwithstanding whether they saw it necessary for them to perswade the people without whose help they could do nothing or else which I rather think the affection which they bear towards this new Form of Government made them to imagin it Gods own Ordinance Their Doctrine is that by the Law of God there must be for ever in all Congregations certain Lay-Elders Ministers of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in as much as our Lord and Saviour by Testament for so they presume hath left all Ministers or Pastors in the Church Executors equally to the whole power of Spiritual Jurisdiction and with them hath joyned the people as Colleagues By maintenance of which Assertion there is unto that part apparently gained a twofold advantage both because the people in this respect are much more easily drawn to favour it as a matter of their own interest and for that if they chance to be crossed by such as oppose against them the colour of Divine Authority assumed for the Grace and Countenance of that Power in the vulgar sort furnisheth their Leaders with great abundance of matter behoveful of their encouragement to proceed alwaies with hope of fortunate success in the end considering their cause to be as David's was a just defence of power given them from above and consequently their Adversaries quarrel the same with Saul's by whom the Ordinance of God was withstood Now on the contrary side if this their surmise prove false if such as in Justification whereof no evidence sufficient either hath been or can be alledged as I hope it shall clearly appear after due examination and trial let them then consider whether those words of Corah Dathan and Abiram against Moses and against Aaron It is too much that ye take upon you seeing all the Congregation is holy be not the very true Abstract and abridgment of all their published Admonitions Demonstrations Supplications and Treatises whatsoever whereby they have laboured to void the rooms of their Spiritual Superiours before Authorized and to advance the new fancied Scepter of Lay Presbyterial Power The Nature of Spiritual Iurisdiction BUt before there can be any setled Determination whether Truth do rest on their part or on ours touching Lay-Elders we are to prepare the way thereunto by explication of some things requisite and very needful to be considered as first how besides that Spiritual Power which is of Order and was instituted for performance of those duties whereof there hath been Speech already had there is in the Church no less necessary a second kind which we call the Power of Jurisdiction When the Apostle doth speak of ruling the Church of God and of receiving accusations his words have evident reference to the Power of Jurisdiction Our Saviours words to the Power of Order when he giveth his Disciples charge saying Preach Baptize Do this in Remembrance of me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Smyrn A Bishop saith Ignatius doth bear the Image of God and of Christ of God in ruling of Christ in administring holy things By this therefore we see a manifest difference acknowledged between the Power of Ecclesiastical Order and the power of Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical The Spiritual Power of the Church being such as neither can be challenged by right of Nature nor could by humane Authority be instituted because the forces and effects thereof are Supernatural and Divine we are to make no doubt or question but that from him which is the Head it hath descended unto us that are the Body now invested therewith He gave it for the benefit and good of Souls as a mean to keep them in the path which leadeth unto endless felicity a bridle to hold them within their due and convenient bounds and if they do go astray a forcible help to reclaim them Now although there be no kind of Spiritual Power for which our Lord Iesus Christ did not give both commission to exercise and direction how to use the same although his Laws in that behalf recorded by the holy Evangelists be the only ground and foundation whereupon the practice of the Church must sustain it self yet as all multitudes once grown to the form of Societies are even thereby naturally warranted to enforce upon their own subjects particularly those things which publick wisdom shall judge expedient for the common good so it were absurd to imagine the Church it self the most glorious amongst them abridged of this liberty or to think that no Law Constitution or Canon can be further made either for Limitation or Amplification in the practice of our Saviours Ordinances whatsoever occasion be offered through variety of times and things during the state of this inconstant world which bringeth forth daily such new evills as must of necessity by new remedies be redrest did both of old enforce our venerable Predecessor and will alwaies constrain others sometime to make sometime to abrogate sometime to augment and again to abridge sometime in sum often to vary alter and change Customs incident unto the manner of exercising that Power which doth it self continue alwaies one and the same I therefore conclude that Spiritual Authority is a Power which Christ hath given to be used over them which are subject unto it for the eternal good of their Souls according to his own most Sacred Laws and the wholsome positive Constitutions of his Church In Doctrine referred unto Action and Practice as this is which concerns Spiritual Jurisdiction the first sound and perfect understanding is the knowledge of the End because thereby both Use doth frame and Contemplation judge all things Of Penitency the chiefest End propounded by Spiritual Iurisdiction Two kinds of Penitency the one a Private Duty toward God the other a Duty of external Discipline Of the vertue of Repentance from which the former Duty proceedeth and of Contrition the first part of that Duty SEeing that the chiefest cause of Spiritual Jurisdiction is to provide for the health and safety of Mens Souls by bringing them to see and Repent their grievous offences committed against God as also to reform all injuries offered with the breach of Christian Love and Charity toward their brethren in matters of Ecclesiastical Cognizance the use of this Power shall by so much the plainlier appear if first the nature of Repentance it self be known We are by Repentance to appease whom we offend by Sin For which cause whereas all Sin deprives us of the favour of Almighty God our way of Reconciliation with him is the inward secret Repentance of the heart which inward
Satisfaction Penitency thrown out of men's hearts the remembrance of that heaviest and last Judgement clean banish'd the wounds of dying men which should be healed are covered the stroke of death which hath gone as deep as any bowels are to receive it is over-cast with the sleight shew of a cloudy look From the Altar of Satan to the holy Table of the Lord men are not afraid to come even belching in a manner the sacrificed morsels they have eaten yea their jaws yet breathing out the irksome savour of their former contagious wickedness they seize upon the blessed body of our Lord nothing terrified with that dreadful commination which saith Whosoever eateth and drinketh unworthily is guilty of the body and blood of Christ. They vainly think it to be peace which is gotten before they be purged of their faults before their crime be solemnly confest before their Conscience be cleared by the sacrifice and imposition of the Priest's hands and before they have pacified the indignation of God Why term they that a Favour which is an Injury Wherefore cloak they Impiety with the name of charitable Indulgence Such facility giveth not but rather taketh away peace and is it self another fresh Persecution or tryal whereby that fraudulent Enemy maketh a secret havock of such as before he had overthrown and now to the end that he may clean swallow them he casteth Sorrow into a dead sleep putteth Grief to silence wipeth away the memory of Faults newly done smothereth the sighs that should rise from a contrite Spirit dryeth up Eyes which ought to send forth rivers of Tears and permitteth not God to be pacified withfull repentance whom haynous and enormous crimes have displeased By this then we see that in Saint Cyprian's judgement all Absolutions are void frustrate and of no effect without sufficient Repentance first shewed Whereas contrariwise if true and full Satisfaction have gone before the sentence of man here given is ratified of God in Heaven according to our Saviours own sacred Testimony Whose sins ye remit they are remitted By what works in the Vertue and by what in the Discipline of Repentance we are said to satisfie either God or men cannot now be thought obscure As for the Inventors of Sacramental Satisfaction they have both altered the natural order heretofore kept in the Church by bringing in a strange preposterous course to absolve before Satisfaction be made and moreover by this their misordered practise are grown into sundry errours concerning the end whereunto it is referred They imagine beyond all conceit of Antiquity that when God doth remit Sin and the punishment eternal thereunto belonging he reserveth the torments of hell-fire to be nevertheless endured for a time either shorter or longer according to the quality of men's Crimes Yet so that there is between God and man a certain Composition as it were or Contract by vertue whereof works assigned by the Priest to be done after Absolution shall satisfie God as touching the punishment which he otherwise would inflict for sin pardoned and forgiven Now because they cannot assure any man that if he performeth what the Priest appointeth it shall suffice This I say because they cannot do in as much as the Priest hath no power to determine or define of equivalency between Sins and Satisfactions And yet if a Penitent depart this life the debt of Satisfaction being either in whole or in part un-discharged they stedfastly hold that the Soul must remain in unspeakable torment till all be paid Therefore for help and mittigation in this Case they advise men to set certain Copes-mates on work whose Prayers and Sacrifices may satisfie God for such Souls as depart in debt Hence have arisen the infinite Pensions of their Priests the building of so many Altars and Tombs the enriching of so many Churches with so many glorious costly Gifts the bequeathing of Lands and ample Possessions to Religious Companies even with utter forgetfulness of Friends Parents Wife and Children all natural affection giving place unto that desire which men doubtful of their own estate have to deliver their Soals from torment after death Yet behold even this being done how farr forth it shall avail they are not sure And therefore the last upshot unto all their former Inventions is that as every action of Christ did both ment for himself and satisfie partly for the eternal and partly for the temporal punishment due unto men for sin So his Saints have obtained the like priviledge of Grace making every good work they do not only meritorious in their own behalf but satisfactory too for the benefit of others Or if having at any time grievously sinned they do more to satisfie God then he in justice can exact of look for at their hands the surplusage runneth to a common stock out of which treasury containing whatsoever Christ did by way of Satisfaction for temporal punishment together with the satisfactory force which resideth in all the vertuous works of Saints and in their Satisfactions whatsoever doth abound I say From hence they hold God satisfied for such arrerages as men behinde in accompt discharge not by other means and for disposition hereof as it is their Doctrine that Christ remitteth not eternal death without the Priests Absolution so without the grant of the Pope they cannot but teach it a like unpossible that Souls in Hell should receive any temporal release of pain The Sacrament of Pardon from him being to this effect no lesse necessary than the Priests Absolution to the other So that by this Postem-gate commeth in the whole mark of Papal Indulgences a Gain unestimable to him to others a Spoyl a scorn both to God and Man So many works of satisfaction pretended to be done by Christ by Saints and Martyrs so many vertuous acts possessed with satisfactory force and vertue so many supererogations in satisfying beyond the exigence of their own necessity And this that the Pope might make a Monopoly of all turning all to his own gain or at least to the gain of those which are his own Such facilitle they have to convert a pretended Sacrament into a Revenue Of Absolution of Penitents SIn is not helped but by being assecured of Pardon It resteth therefore to be considered what warrant we have concerning Forgivenesse when the Sentence of man absolveth us from Sinne committed against God At the words of our Saviour saying to the sick of the Palsey Son thy Sins are forgiven-thee Exception was taken by the Scribes who secretly reasoned against him Is any able to forgive Sins but only God Whereupon they condemned his speech as blasphemy the rest which believed him to be a Prophet sent from God saw no cause wherefore he might not as lawfully say and as truly to whomsoever amongst them God hath taken away thy Sins as Nathan they all knew had used the very like speech to whom David did not therefore impute blasphemy but imbraced as became him the words of truth
But in case there were no such appointed to sit and to hear both what would then he end of their quarrels They will answer perhaps That for purposes their Synids shall serve Which is as if in the Common-wealth the higher Magistrates being removed every Township should be a State altogether free and independent and the Controversies which they cannot end speedily within themselves to the contentment of both parties should be all determined by Solemn Parliaments Mercipul God! where is the light of Wit and Judgement which this age doth so much vaunt of and glory in when unto these such odd imaginations so great not only assent but also applause is yielded 6. As for those in the Clergy whose Place and Calling is lower were iâ— not that their eyes are blinded lest they should see the thing that of all others is for their good most effectal somewhat they might consider the benefit which they enjoy by having such in Authority over them as are of the self-same Profession Society and Body with them such as have trodden the same steps before such as know by their own experience the manifold intolerable contempts and indignities which faithful Pastors intermingled with the multitude are constrained every day to suffer in the exercise of their Spiritual Charge and Function unless their Superiours taking their Causes even to heart be by a kinde of sympathy drawn to relieve and aid them in their vertuous proceedings no less effectually than loving Parents their dear Children Thus therefore Prelacy being unto all sorts so beneficial ought accordingly to receive honor at the hands of all But we have just cause exceedingly to fear that those miserable times of confusion are drawing on wherein the people shall be oppressed one of another inasmuch as already that which prepareth the way thereunto is come to pass Children presume against the Antient and the Vile against the Honorable Prelacy the temperature of excesses in all Estates the glew and soder of the Publick weal the ligament which tieth and connecteth the limbs of this Bodie Politick each to other hath instead of deserved Honor all extremity of Disgrace the Foolish every where plead that unto the wise in heart they owe neither service subjection not honor XIX Now that we have laid open the causes for which Honor is due unto Prelates the next thing we are to consider is What kindes of Honor be due The good Government either of the Church or the Common-wealth dependeth scarcely on any one external thing so much as on the Publick Marks and Tokens whereby the estimation on that Governours are in is made manifest to the eyes of men True it is that Governors are to be esteemed according to the excellency of their vertues the more vertous they are the more they ought to be honored if respect be had unto that which every man should voluntarily perform unto his Superiors But the question is now of that Honor which Publick Order doth appoint unto Church-Governors in that they are Governors the end whereof is to give open sensible testimony that the Place which they hold is judged publickly in such degree beneficial as the marks of their excellency the Honors appointed to be done unto them do import Wherefore this honor we are to do them without presuming our selves to examine how worthy they are and withdrawing it if by us they be thought unworthy It is a note of that publick judgement which is given of them and therefore not tolerable that men in private should by refusal to do them such honor reverse as much as in them lyeth the Publick judgement If it deserve so grievous punishment when any particular Person adventureth to deface those marks whereby is signified what value some small piece of Coyn is publickly esteemed at is it sufferable that Honors the Character of that estimation which publickly is had of Publick Estates and Callings in the Church or Common-wealth should at every man's pleasure be cancelled Let us not think that without most necessary cause the same have been thought expedient The first Authors thereof were wise and judicious men they knew it a thing altogether impossible for each particular in the multitude to judge what benefit doth grow unto them from their Prelates and thereunto uniformly to yield them convenient honor Wherefore that all sorts might be kept in obedience and awe doing that unto their Superiors of every degree not which every man 's special fancy should think meet but which being before-hand agreed upon as meet by publick Sentence and Decision might afterwards stand as a rule for each in particular to follow they found that nothing was more necessary than to allet unto all degrees their certain honor as marks of publick judgement concerning the dignity of their Places which mark when the multitude should behold they might be thereby given to know that of such or such restimation their Governors are and in token thereof do carry those notes of excellency Hence it groweth that the different notes and signs of Honor do leave a correspondent impression in the mindes of common Beholders Let the people be asked Who are the chiefest in any kinde of Calling who whost to be listned unto who of greatest account and reputation and see if the very discourse of their mindes lead them not unto those sensible marks according to the difference whereof they give their suitable judgement esteeming them the worthiest persons who carry the principal note and publick mark of Worthiness If therefore they see in other estates a number of tokens sensible whereby testimony is given what account there is publickly made of them but no such thing in the Clergy what will they hereby or what can they else conclude but that where they behold this surely in that Common-wealth Religion and they that are conversant about it are not esteemed greatly beneficial Whereupon in time the open contempt of God and Godliness must needs ensue Qui bona fide Dcos colit amat Sacerdotes saith Papenius In vain doth that Kingdom or Common-wealth pretend zeal to the honor of God which doth not provide that his Clergy also may have honor Now if all that are imployed in the service of God should have one kinde of honor what more confused absurd and unseemly Wherefore in the honor which hath been allotted unto God's Clergy we are to observe how not only the kindes thereof but also in every particular kinde the degrees do differ The honor which the Clergy of God hath hitherto enjoyed consisteth especially in prcheminence of Title Place Ornament Attendance Priviledge Endowment In every of which it hath been evermore judge meet that there should be no small odds between Prelates and the inferior Clergy XX. Concerning Title albeit even as under the Law all they whom God had sesevered to offer him Sacrifice were generally termed Priests so likewise the name of Pastor or Presbyter be now common unto all that serve him in the
the light of a true and sound understanding which sheweth what honor is fit for Prelats and what attendancy convenient to be a part of their honor Touching Priviledges granted for Honor's-sake partly in general unto the Clergy and partly unto Prelates the Chiefest Persons Ecclesiastical in particular of such quality and number they are that to make but rehearsal of them we scarce think it safe left the very entrails of some of our godly Brethren as they term themselves should thereat haply burst in sunder XXI And yet of all these things rehearsed it may be there never would have grown any question had Bishops been honored only thus farr forth But the honoring of the Clergy with wealth this is in the eyes of them which pretend to seek nothing but mere Reformation of Abuses a sin that can never be remitted How soon O how soon might the Church be perfect even without any spot or wrinckle if Publick Authority would at the length say Amen unto the holy and devout requests of those godly Brethren who as yet with out-stretched necks groan in the pangs of their zeal to see the Houses of Bishops risted and their so long desired Livings gloriously divided amongst the Righteous But there is an impediment a lett which somewhat hindreth those good mens Prayers from taking effect They in whose hands the Soveraignty of Power and Dominion over the Church doth rest are perswaded there is a God for undoubtedly either the name of Godhead is but a feigned thing or if in Heaven there be a God the Saerilegious intention of Church-Robbers which lurketh under this plausible name of Reformation is in his sight a thousand times more hateful than the plain professed malice of those very Miscreants who threw their Vomit in the open face of our blessed Saviour They are not words of perswasion by which true men can hold their own when they are over-beset with Thieves And therefore to speak in this Cause at all were but labor lost saving only in respect of them who being as yet un-joyned unto this Conspiracy may be haply somewhat stayed when they shall know betimes what it is to see Thieves and to run on with them as the Prophet in the Psalm speaketh When thou sawest a Thief then thou consentedst with him and hast been Partaker with Adulterers For the better information therefore of men which carry true honest and indifferent mindes these things we will endeavour to make most clearly manifest First That in Goods and Livings of the Church none hath propriety but God himself Secondly That the honor which the Clergy therein hath is to be as it were God's Receivers the honor of Prelates to be his chief and principal Receivers Thirdly That from him they have right not only to receive but also to use such Goods the lower sort in smaller and the higher in larger measure Fourthly That in case they be thought yea or found to abuse the same yet may not such honor be therefore lawfully taken from them and be given away unto Persons of other Calling XXII Possessions Lands and Livings Spiritual the wealth of the Clergy the Goods of the Church are in such sort the Lords own that man can challenge no propriety in them His they are and not ours all things are his in that from him they have their being My Corn and my Wine and mine Oyl saith the Lord. All things his in that he hath absolute power to dispose of them at his pleasure Mine saith he are the Sheep and Oxen of a thousand hills All things his in that when we have them we may say with Iob God hath given and when we are deprived of them The Lord whose they are hath likewise taken them away again But these sacred Possessions are his by another tenure His because those men who first received them from him have unto him returned them again by way of Religious gift or Oblation And in this respect it is that the Lord doth term those Houses wherein such Gifts and Oblations were laid His Treasuries The ground whereupon men have resigned their own interest in things Temporal and given over the same unto God is that Precept which Solomon borroweth from the Law of Nature Honor the Lord out of thy Substance and of the chiefest of all thy Revenue so shall thy Barns be filled with Plenty and with new Wine the fat of thy Press shall overflow For although it be by one most fitly spoken against those superstitious Persons who only are scrupulous in external Rites Wilt thou win the favour of God He vertuous They best worship him that are his Followers It is not the bowing of your Knees but of your Hearts it is not the number of your Oblations but the integrity of your Lives not your Incense but your Obedience which God is delighted to be honored by Nevertheless we must beware lest simply understanding this which comparatively is meant that is to say whereas the meaning is that God doth chiefly respect the inward disposition of the Heart we must take heed we do not hereupon so worship him in Spirit that outwardly we take all Worship Reverence and Honor from him Our God will be glorified both of us himself and for us by others To others because our Hearts are known and yet our example is required for their good therefore it is not sufficient to carry Religion in our Hearts as Fire is carried in Flint-stones but we are outwardly visibly apparently to serve and honor the living God yea to employ that way as not only for our Souls but our Bodies so not only our Bodies but our Goods yea the choice the flower the chiefest of all thy Revenue saith Solomon If thou hast any thing in all thy Possessions of more value and price than other to what use shouldest thou convert it rather than to this Samuel was dear unto Hannah his Mother The Childe that Hannah did so much esteem she could not but greatly wish to advance and her Religious conceit was that the honoring of God with it was the advancing of it unto honor The chiefest of the Off-spring of men are the Males which be first-born and for this cause in the antient World they all were by right of their birth Priests of the Most High By these and the like Precedents it plainly enough appeareth that in what Heart soever doth dwell unseigned Religion in the same there resteth also a willingness to bestow upon God that soonest which is most dear Amongst us the Law is that sith Gold is the chiefest of Mettals if it be any where found in the bowels of the Earth it belongeth in right of honor as all men know to the King Whence hath this Custom grown but onely from a natural perswasion whereby men judge it decent for the highest Persons alwayes to be honored with the choisest things If ye offer unto God the blinde saith the Prophet Malachi it is not
est it a ejâ—â— patrimonium jugiter servetur illasâ—â— As for the case of publique burthens let any politirian living make it appear that by confiscation of Bishops livings and their utter dissolution at once the Common-wealth shall ever have half that relief and ease which it receiveth by their continuance as now they are and it shall give us some cause to think that albeit we sew they are implously and irreligiously minded yet we mayâ— esteem them at least to be tolerable Common-wealths-men But the case is too clear and manifest the World doth but too plainly see it that no one Order of subjects whatsoever within this Land doth bear the seventh part of that proportion which the Clergy beareth in the burthens of the Commonwealth No revenue of the Crownlike unto it either for certainty or for greatness Let the good which this way hath grown to the Common-wealth by the dissolution of religious houses teach men what ease unto publique burthens there is like to grow by the overthrow of the Clergy My meaning is not hereby to make the state of Bishopricks and of those dissolved Companies alike the one no less unlawful to be removed then the other For those religious persons were men which followed only a special kind of Contemplative life in the Commonwealth they were properly no portion of Gods Clergy only such amongst them excepted as were also Priests their goods that excepted which they unjustly held through the Popes usurped power of appropriating Ecclesiastical livings unto them may in part seem to be of the nature of Civil possessions held by other kinds of Corporations such as the City of London hath divers Wherefore as their institution was human and their end for the most part superstitious they had not therein meerly that holy and divine interest which belongeth unto Bishops who being imployed by Christ in the principal service of his Church are receivers and disposers of his patrimony as hath been showed which whosoever shall with-hold or with-draw at any time from them he undoubtedly robbeth God himself If they abuse the goods of the Church unto pomp and vanity such faults we do not excuse in them Only we wish it to be considered whether such faults be verily in them or else but objected against them by such as gape after spoil and therefore are no competent judges what is moderate and what excessive in them whom under this pretence they would spoil But the accusation may be just In plenty and fulness it may be we are of God more forgetful then were requisite Notwithstanding men should remember how not to the Clergy alone it was said by Moses in Deuteronomy Necum manducaveris biberis domos optimas adisicaveris If the remedy prescribed for this disease be good let it unpartially be applied Interest Reip utre suâ QUIS QUE bene utatur Let all states be put to their moderate pensions let their livings and lands be taken away from them whosoever they be in whom such ample possessions are found to have been matters of grievous abuse Were this just â— would Noble Families think this reasonable The Title which Bishops have to their livings is as good as the title of any sort of men unto whatsoever we accompt to be most justly held by them yea in this one thing the claim of â— B. hath preheminence above all secular Titles of right in that Gods own interest in the tenure whereby they hold even as also it was to the Priests of the Law an assurance of their spiritual goods and possessions whereupon though they many times abused greatly the goods of the Church yet was not Gods patrimony therefore taken away from them and made saleable unto other Tribes To rob God to ransack the Church to overthrow the whole Order of Christian Bishops and to turn them out of Land and Living out of House and Home what man of common honesty can think it for any manner of abuse to be a remedy lawful or just We must confess that God is righteous in taking away that which men abuse But doth that excuse the violence of Thieves and Robbers Complain we will not with S. Ierom that the hands of men are so straightly tyed and their liberal minds so much bridled and held back from doing good by augmentation of the Church-Patrimony For we confess that herein mediocrity may be and hath been sometime exceeded There did want heretofore Moses to temper mens liberality to say unto them who enriched the Church Sufficit Stay your hands lest favour of zeal do cause you to empty your selves too far It may be the largeness of mens hearts being then more moderate had been after more dureable and one state by too much over-growing the rest had not given occasion unto the rest to undermine it That evil is now sufficiently cured the Church treasury if then it were over-ful hath since been reasonable well emptyed That which Moses spake unto givers we must now inculcate unto takers away from the Church Let there be some stay some stint in spoiling If Grape-gatherers came unto them saith the Prophet would they not leave some remnant behind But it hath fared with the wealth of the Church as with a Tower which being built at the first with the highest overthroweth if self after by its own greatness neither doth the ruine thereof cease with the only fall of that which hath exceeded mediocrity but one part beareth down another till the whole be laid prostrate For although the state Ecclesiastical both others and even Bishops themselves be now fallen to so low an ebb as all the World at this day doth see yet because there remaineth still somewhat which unsatiable minds can thirst for therefore we seem not to have been hitherto sufficiently wronged Touching that which hath been taken from the Church in Appropriations known to amount to the value of one hundred twenty six thousand pounds yearly we rest contentedly and quietly without it till it shall please God to touch the hearts of men of their own voluntary accord to restore it to Him again judging thereof no otherwise then some others did of those goods which were by Sylla taken away from the Citizens of Rome that albeit they were in truth malè capta unconscionably taken away from the right owners at the first nevertheless seeing that such as were after possessed of them held them not without some title which Law did after a sort make good repetitio corum proculdubio labefaltabat compositam civitatem what hath been taken away as dedicated unto uses superstitious and consequently not given unto God or at the least-wise not so rightly given we repine not thereat That which hath gone by means secret and indirect through corrupt compositions or compacts we cannot help What the hardness of mens hearts doth make them loath to have exacted though being due by Law eventhereof the want we do also bear Out of that which after all these
behold saith the Apostle I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Christ in the work of mans salvation is alone the Galathians were cast away by joyning Circumcision and the other Rites of the Law with Christ the Church of Rome doth teach her children to joyn other things likewise with him therefore their saith their belief doth not profit them any thing at all It is true that they do indeed joyn other things with Christ but how Not in the work of Redemption it self which they grant that Christ alone hath performed sufficiently for the salvation of the whole world but in the application of this inestimable treasure that it may be effectual to their salvation how demurely soever they confess that they seek remission of sins no otherwise then by the blood of Christ using humbly the means appointed by him to apply the benefit of his holy Blood they teach indeed so many things pernicious in Christian Faith in setting down the means whereof they speak that the very foundation of Faith which they hold is thereby plainly overthrown and the force of the blood of Jesus Christ extinguished We may therefore disputing with them urge them even with as dangerous sequels as the Apostle doth the Galatians But I demand If some of those Galatians heartily embracing the Gospel of Christ sincere and sound in Faith this one only error excepted had ended their lives before they were ever taught how perillous an opinion they held shall we think that the danger of this error did so over-weigh the benefit of their faith that the mercy of God might not save them I grant they overthrew the foundation of Faith by consequent doth not that so likewise which the Lutheran Churches do at this day so stifly and so firmly maintain For mine own part I dare not here deny the possibility of their salvation which have been the chiefest instruments of ours albeit they carried to their grave a perswasion so greatly repugnant to the truth Forasmuch therefore as it may be said of the Church of Rome she hath yet a little strength she doth not directly deny the foundation of Christianity I may I trust without offence perswade my self that thousands of our Fathers in former times living and dying within her walls have found mercy at the hands of God 18. What although they repented not of their errors God forbid that I should open my mouth to gain-say that which Christ himself hath spoken Except ye repent ye shall all perish And if they did not repent they perished But withall note that we have the benefit of a double Repentance the least sin which we commit in Deed Thought or Word is death without Repentance Yet how many things do escape us in every of these which we do not know How many which we do not observe to be sins And without the knowledge without the observation of sin there is no actual Repentance It cannot then be chosen but that for as many as hold the foundation and have holden all Sins and Errors in hatred the blessing of Repentance for unknown Sins and Errors is obtained at the hands of God through the gracious mediation of Jesus Christ for such suiters as cry with the Prophet David Purge me O Lord from my secret sins 19. But we wash a wall of lome we labour in vain all this is nothing it doth not prove it cannot justifie that which we go about to maintain Infidels and Heathen men are not so godless but that they may no doubt cry God mercy and desire in general to have their sins forgiven them To such as deny the foundation of Faith there can be no Salvation according to the ordinary course which God doth use in saving men without a particular repentance of that Error The Galathians thinking that unless they were circumcised they could not be saved overthrew the foundation of Faith directly therefore if any of them did die so perswaded whether before or after they were told of their Errors their end is dreadful there is no way with them but one death and condemnation For the Apostle speaketh nothing of men departed but saith generally of all If ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Ye are abolished from Christ whosoever are justified by the Law ye are fallen from grace Gal. 5. Of them in the Church of Rome the reason is the same For whom Antichrist hath seduced concerning them did not S. Paul speak long before they received not the word of truth that they might not be saved therefore God would send them strong delusions to beleeve lies that all they might be damned which believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness And S. Iohn All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life Apoc. 13. Indeed many in former times as their Books and Writings do yet shew held the foundation to wit salvation by Christ alone and therefore might be saved God hath always had a Church amongst them which firmly kept his saving truth As for such as hold with the Church of Rome that we cannot be saved by Christ alone without works they do not only by a circle of consequence but directly deny the foundation of Faith they hold it not no not so much as by a thred 20. This to my remembrance being all that hath been opposed with any countenance or shew of reason I hope if this be answered the cause in question is at an end Concerning general Repentance therefore what a Murtherer a Blasphemer an unclean person a Turk a Iew any sinner to escape the wrath of God by a general Repentance God forgive me Truly it never came within my heart that a general Repentance doth serve for all sins it serveth only for the common over-sights of our sinful life and for the faults which either we do not mark or do not know that they are faults Our Fathers were actually penitent for sins wherein they knew they displeased God or else they fall not within the compass of my first speech Again that otherwise they could not be saved than holding the foundation of Christian Faith we have not only affirmed but proved Why is it not then confessed that thousands of our Fathers which lived in Popish Superstitions might yet by the mercy of God be saved First if they had directly denied the very foundations of Christianity without repenting them particularly of that sin he which saith There could be no salvation for them according to the ordinary course which God doth use in saving men granteth plainly or at the least closely insinuateth that an extraordinary priviledge of mercy might deliver their souls from Hell which is more then I required Secondly if the foundation be denied it is denied for fear of some Heresie which the Church of Rome maintaineth But how many were there amongst our Fathers who being seduced by the common Error of
any direct denial of the foundation as it is affirmed that both are I need not wade so far as to discuss this Controversie the matter which first was brought into question being so clear as I hope it is Howbeit because I desire that the truth even in that also should receive light I will do mine indeavour to set down somewhat more plainly First the foundation of Faith what it is Secondly what is directly to deny the foundation Thirdly whether they whom God hath chosen to be heirs of life may fall so far as directly to deny it Fourthly whether the Galathians did so by admitting the error about Circumcision and the Law Last of all whether the Church of Rome for this one opinion of Works may be thought to do the like and thereupon to be no more a Christian Church than are the Assemblies of Turks and Jews 23. This word Foundation being figuratively used hath always reference to somewhat which resembleth a material building as both that Doctrine of Laws and the community of Christians do By the Masters of Civil Policy nothing is so much inculcated as that Commonweals are founded upon Laws for that a multitude cannot be compacted into one body otherwise then by a common acception of Laws whereby they are to be kept in order The ground of all civil Laws is this No man ought to be hurt or injured by another Take away this perswasion and yet take away all the Laws take away Laws and what shall become of Common-weals So it is in our spiritual Christian Community I do not mean that Body Mystical whereof Christ is onely the head that Building undiscernable by mortal eyes wherein Christ is the chief corner stone but I speak of the visible Church the foundation whereof is the doctrine which the Prophets and the Apostles profest The mark whereunto their Doctrine tendeth is pointed at in these words of Peter unto Christ. Thou hast the words of eternal life In those words of Paul to Timothy The holy Scriptures are able to wake thee wise unto salvation It is the demand of nature it self What shall we do to have eternal life The desire of immortality and the knowledge of that whereby it may be obtained is so natural unto all men that even they who are not perswaded that they shall do notwithstanding wish that they might know a way how to see no end of life And because natural means are not able still to resist the force of Death there is no people in the earth so savage which hath not devised some supernatural help or other to fly for aid and succour in extremities against the enemies of the Laws A longing therefore to be saved without understanding the true way how hath been the cause of all the Superstitions in the World O that the miserable state of others which wander in darkness and wot not whither they go could give us understanding hearts worthily to esteem the riches of the mercy of God towards us before whose eys the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven are set wide openâ— should we offer violence unto it it offereth violence unto us and we gather strength to withstand it But I am besides my purpose when I fall to bewail the cold affection which we bear towards that whereby we should be saved my purpose being only to set down what the ground of salvation is The Doctrine of the Gospel proposeth salvation as the end And doth it not teach the way of attaining thereunto Yet the Damosel possest with a spirit of divination spake the truth These men are the Servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of Salvation A new and living way which Christ hath prepared for us through the vail that is his flesh Salvation purchased by the death of Christ. By this foundation the children of God before the written Law were distinguished from the sons of men the reverend Patriarks both possest it living and spake expresly of it at the hour of their death It comforted Iob in the midst of grief as it was afterwards the anker-hold of all the righteous in Israel from the writing of the Law to the time of grace Every Prophet making mention of it It was famously spoken of about the time when the comming of Christ to accomplish the promises which were made long before it drew near that the sound thereof was heard even amongst the Gentiles When he was come as many as were his acknowledged that he was their Salvation he that long expected hope of Israel he that Seed in whom all the Nations of the earth shall be blessed So that now he is a name of ruine a name of death and condemnation unto such as dream of a new Messias to as many as look for salvation by any other but by him For amongst men there is given no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved Thus much S. Mark doth intimate by that which he doth put in the front of this book making his entrance with these words The beginning of the Gospel of Iesus Christ the Son of God His Doctrine he termeth the Gospel because it teacheth Salvation the Gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God because it teacheth salvation by him This is then the foundation whereupon the frame of the Gospel is erected that very Jesus whom the Virgin conceived of the holy Ghost whom Simeon imbraced in his arms whom Pilat condemned whom the Iews crucified whom the Apostles preached he is Christ the Lord the onely Saviour of the World Other foundation can no man lay Thus I have briefly opened that principle in Christianity which we call the foundation of our faith It followeth now that I declare unto you what is directly to overthrow it This will be better opened if we understand what it is to hold the foundation of Faith 24. There are which defend that many of the Gentiles who never heard the Name of Christ held the foundation of Christianity and why they acknowledged many of them the Providence of God his infinite wisedom strength power his goodness and his mercy towards the Children of men that God hath judgment in store for the wicked but for the righteous which serve him rewards c. In this which they confessed that lyeth covered which we believe in the Rudiments of their knowledge concerning God the foundation of our Faith concerning Christ lyeth secretly wrapt up and is vertually contained therefore they held the foundation of Faith though they never had it Might we not with as good a colour of Reason defend that every Plowman hath all the Sciences wherein Philosophers have excelled For no man is ignorant of their first Principles which do vertually contain whatsoever by natural means is or can be known Yea might we not with as great reason affirm that a man may put three mighty Oaks wheresoever three Akoms may be put For vertually an Akom is an Oak To avoid such Paradoxes
than perhaps it seemeth to them which know not the deepnesse of Satan as the blessed Divine speaketh For although this be proof sufficient that they doe not directly deny the foundation of Faith yet if there were no other leaven in the lump of their Doctrine but this this were sufficient to prove that their Doctrine is not agreeable to the foundation of Christian Faith The Pelogians being over-great friends unto Nature made themselves Enemies unto Grace for all their confessing that men have their Souls and all the faculties thereof their wills and all the ability of their wills from God And is not the Church of Rome still an Adversary unto Christ's Merits because of her acknowledging that we have received the power of meriting by the blood of Christ Sir Thomas Moor setteth down the odds between us and the Church of Rome in the matter of Works thus Like as we grant them that no good work of man is rewardable in Heaven of its own nature but through the meer goodnesse of God that lists in set so high a price upon so poor a thing and that this price God setteth through Christ's Passion and for that also they be his own Works with us for good works to God-word worketh no man without God work in him and as we grant them also that no man may be proud of his works for his imperfect working and for that in all that man may doe he can doe God no good but is a Servant unprofitable and doth but his bare duty as we I say grant unto them these things so this one things or twain doe they grant us again That men are bound to work good works if they have time and power and that whose worketh in true faith most shall be most rewarded but then set they thereto That all his Rewards shall be given him for his Faith alone and nothing for his Works at all because his Faith is the thing they say that forceth him to work well I see by this of Sir Thomas Moor how easie it is for men of the greatest capacity to mistake things written or spoken as well on the one side as on the other Their Doctrine as he thought maketh the work of man rewardable in the World to come through the goodnesse of God whom it pleased to set so high a price upon so poor a thing and ours that a man doth receive that eternal and high reward not for his Works but for his Faiths sake by which he worketh whereas in truth our Doctrine is no other than that we have learned at the feet of Christ namely That God doth justifie the believing man yet not for the worthinesse of his belief but for the worthinesse of him which is believed God rewardeth abundantly every one which worketh yet not for any meritorious dignity which is or can be in the Work but through his mere mercy by whose Commandment he worketh Contrariwise their Doctrine is That as pure Water of it self hath no savour but if it passe through a sweet Pipe it taketh a pleasant smell of the Pipe through which it passeth so although before Grace received our Works doe neither satisfie nor merit yet after they doe both the one and the other Every vertuous Action hath then power in such to satisfie that if we our selves commit no mortal sinne no hainous crime whereupon to spend this treasure of satisfaction in our own behalf it turneth to the benefit of other mens release on whom it shall please the Steward of the House of God to bestow it so that we may satisfie for our selves and others but merit onely for our selves In meriting our Actions do work with two hands with one they get their morning stipend the encrease of Grace with the other their evening hire the everlasting Crown of Glory Indeed they teach that our good Works doe not these things as they come from us but as they come from Grace in us which Grace in us is another thing in their Divinity than is the mere goodnesse of God's mercy towards us in Christ Jesus 34. If it were not a long deluded Spirit which hath possession of their Hearts were it possible but that they should see how plainly they doe herein gain-say the very ground of Apostolick Faith Is this that Salvation by Grace whereof so plentiful mention is made in the Scriptures of God Was this their meaning which first taught the World to look for Salvation onely by Christ By Grace the Apostle saith and by Grace in such sort as a Gift a thing that commeth not of our selves nor of our Works lest any man should boast and say I have wrought out my own Salvation By Grace they confesse but by Grace in such sort that as many as wear the Diadem of Blisse they wear nothing but what they have won The Apostle as if he had foreseen how the Church of Rome would abuse the World in time by ambiguous terms to declare in what sense the name of Grace must be taken when we make it the cause of our Salvation saith He saved us according to his mercy which mercy although it exclude not the washing of our new birth the renewing of our Hearts by the Holy Ghost the Means the Vertues the Duties which God requireth of our hands which shall be saved yet it is so repugnant unto Merits that to say We are saved for the worthiness of any thing which is ours is to deny we are saved by Grace Grace bestoweth freely and therefore justly requireth the glory of that which is bestowed We deny the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we abuse disanul and annihilate the benefit of his bitter passion if we test in these proud imaginations that life is deservedly ours that we merit it and that we are worthy of it 35. Howbeit considering how many vertuous and just men how many Saints how many Martyrs how many of the Antient Fathers of the Church have had their sundry perilous Opinions and amongst sundry of their Opinions this that they hoped to make God some part of amends for their sinnes by the voluntary punishment which they laid upon themselves because by a Consequent it may follow hereupon that they were injurious unto Christ shall we therefore make such deadly Epitaphs and set them upon their Graves They denied the foundation of Faith directly they are damned there is no Salvation for them Saint Austin saith of himself Errare passum Hareticus isse nolo And except we put a difference between them that erre and them that obstinately persist in Errour how is it possible that ever any man should hope to be saved Surely in this Case I have no respect of any Person either alive or dead Give me a man of what estate or condition soever yea a Cardinal or a Pope whom in the extreme point of his life affliction hath made to know himself whose heart God hath touched with true sorrow for all his sinnes and filled with love
his absence should bereave them of and secondly of the sundry evils which themselves should be subject unto being once bereaved of so gracious a Master and Patron The one consideration over-whelmed their Souls with heaviness the other with fear Their Lord and Saviour whose words had cast down their hearts raiseth them presently again with chosen sentences of sweet encouragement My dear it is for your own sakes I leave the World I know the affections of your hearts are tender but if your love were directed with that advised and staid judgment which should be in you my speech of leaving the World and going unto my Father would not a little augment your joy Desolate and comfortless I will not leave you in Spirit I am with you to the Worlds end whether I be present or absent nothing shall ever take you out of these hands my going is to take possession of that in your names which is not only for me but also for you prepared where I am you shall be In the mean while my peace I give not as the World giveth give I unto you Let not your hearts be troubled nor fear The former part of which Sentence having otherwhere already been spoken of this unacceptable occasion to open the latter part thereof here I did not look for But so God disposeth the wayes of men Him I heartily beseech that the thing which he hath thus ordered by his Providence may through his gracious goodnesse turn unto your comfort Our Nature for coveteth preservation from things hurtful Hurtful things being present do breed heaviness being future do cause fear Our Saviour to abate the one speaketh thus unto his Disciples Let not your Hearts be troubled and to moderate the other addeth Fear not Grief and heaviness in the presence of sensible Evils cannot but trouble the mindes of men It may therefore seem that Christ required a thing impossible Be not troubled Why how could they choose But we must note this being natural and therefore simply not reproveable is in us good or bad according to the causes for which we are grieved or the measure of our grief It is not my meaning to speak so largely of this affection as to go over all particulars whereby men do one way or other offend in it but to teach it so farr onely as it may cause the very Apostles equals to swerve Our grief and heaviness therefore is reproveable sometime in respect of the cause from whence sometime in regard of the measure whereunto it groweth When Christ the life of the World was led unto cruel death there followed a number of People and Women which Women bewayled much his heavy case It was a natural compassion which caused them where they saw undeserved miseries there to pour forth unrestrained tears Nor was this reproved But in such readiness to lament where they less needed their blindness in not discerning that for which they ought much rather to have mourned this our Saviour a little toucheth putting them in minde that the tears which were wasted for him might better have been spent upon themselves Daughters of Ierusalem weep not for me weep for your selves and for your children It is not as the Stoicks have imagined a thing unseemly for a Wise man to be touched with grief of minde but to be sorrowful when we least should and where we should lament there to laugh this argueth our small wisdom Again when the Prophet David confesseth thus of himself I grieved to see the great prosperity of godless men how they flourish and go untoucht Psal. 73. Himself hereby openeth both our common and his peculiar imperfection whom this cause should not have made so pensive To grieve at this is to grieve where we should not because this grief doth rise from Errour We erre when we grieve at wicked mens impunity and prosperity because their Estate being rightly discerned they neither prosper nor go unpunished It may seem a Paradox it is truth That no wicked man's estate is prosperous fortunate or happy For what though they bless themselves and think their happinesse great Have not frantick Persons many times a great opinion of their own wisdome It may be that such as they think themselves others also do account them But what others Surely such as themselves are Truth and Reason discerneth farâ— otherwise of them Unto whom the Jews wish all prosperity unto them the phrase of their speech is to wish Peace Seeing then the name of Peace containeth in it all parts of true happiness when the Prophet saith plainly That the Wicked have no peace how can we think them to have any part of other than vainly imagined Felicity What wise man did ever account Fools happy If Wicked men were wise they would cease to be wicked Their Iniquity therefore proving their Folly how can we stand in doubt of their misery They abound in those things which all men desire A poor happinesse to have good things in possession A man to whom God hath given Riches and Treasures and Honour so that he wanteth nothing for his Soul of all that it desireth but yet God giveth him not the power to eat thereof such a felicity Solomon esteemeth but as a vanity a thing of nothing If such things adde nothing to mens happiness where they are not used surely Wicked men that use them ill the more they have the more wretched Of their Prosperity therefore we see what we are to think Touching their Impunity the same is likewise but supposed They are oftner plagued than we are aware of The pangs they feel are not always written in their forehead Though Wickedness be Sugar in their mouths and Wantonness as Oyl to make them look with chearful Countenance nevertheless if their Hearts were disclosed perhaps their glittering state would not greatly be envied The voyces that have broken out from some of them O that God had given me a heart sensless like the flints in the rocks of stone which as it can taste no pleasure so it feeleth no wo these and the like speeches are surely tokens of the curse which Zophar in the Book of Iob poureth upon the head of the impious man He shall suck the gall of Asps and the Viper's tongue shall slay him If this seem light because it is secret shall we think they go unpunished because no apparent Plague is presently seen upon them The Judgments of God do not always follow crimes as Thunder doth Lightning but sometimes the space of many Ages coming between When the Sun hath shined fair the space of six dayes upon their Tabernacle we know not what Clouds the seventh may bring And when their punishment doth come let them make their account in the greatness of their sufferings to pay the interest of that respite which hath been given them Or if they chance to escape clearly in this World which they seldome do in the Day when the Heavens shall shrivel as a scrowl and the Mountains