the Body without the Soul in the Body Christ hath merited to make us just but as a medicine which is made for health doth not head by being made but by being applied so by the merits of Christ there can be no Justification without the application of his Merits Thus farr we joyn hands with the Church of Rome 5. Wherein then do we disagree We disagree about the future and offence of the Medicine whereby Christ cureth our Disease about the ãâ¦ã of applying it about the number and the power of means which God requireth in as for the effectual applying thereof to our Souls comfort When they are re ãâ¦ã that the righteousness is whereby a Christian man is justified they answer that it is a Divine Spiritual quality which quality received into the Soul doth first make it to be one of them who are born of God and secondly indue it with power to bring forth such works as they do that are born of him even as the Soul of Man being joyned to his Body doth first make him to be of the number of reasonable Creatures and secondly inable him to perform the natural Functions which are proper to his kinde That it maketh the Soul amiable and gracious in the sight of God in regard whereof it is termed Grace That is purgeth purifieth and washeth out all the stains and pollutions of sins that by it through the merit of Christ we are delivered as from sin so from eternal death and condemnation the reward of sin This Grace they will have to be applied by infusion to the end that as the Body is warm by the heat which is in the Body so the Soul might be righteous by inherent Grace which Grace they make capable of increase as the Body may be more and more warm so the Soul more and more justified according as Grace should be augmented the augmentation whereof is merited by good Works as good Works are made meritorious by it Wherefore the first receit of Grace in their Divinity is the first Justification the increase thereof the second Justification As Grace may be increased by the merit of good Works so it may be diminished by the demerit of sins venial it may be lost by mortal sin In as much therefore as it is needful in the one case to repair in the other to recover the loss which is made the infusion of Grace hath her sundry after-meals for the which cause they make many ways to apply the infusion of Grace It is applyed to Infants through Baptism without either Faith or Works and in them really it taketh away Original sinne and the punishment due unto it It is applied to Infidels and wicked men in the first Justification through Baptism without Works yet not without Faith and it taketh away both Sinnes Actual and Original together with all whatsoever punishment eternal or temporal thereby deserved Unto such as have attained the first Justification that is to say the first receit of Grace it is applied farther by good Works to the increase of former Grace which is the second Justification If they work more and more Grace doth more increase and they are more and more justified To such as diminished it by venial sinnes it is applied by Holy-water Ave Marie's Crossings Papal Salutations and such like which serve for reparations of Grace decayed To such as have lost it through mortal sinne it is applied by the Sacrament as they term it of Penance which Sacrament hath force to conferr Grace anew yet in such sort that being so conferred it hath not altogether so much power as at the first For it onely cleanseth out the stain or guilt of sinne committed and changeth the punishment eternal into a temporal satisfactory punishment here if time doe serve if not hereafter to be endured except it be lightned by Masses Works of Charity Pilgrimages Fasts and such like or else shortned by pardon for term or by plenary pardon quite removed and taken away This is the mystery of the man of sinne This maze the Church of Rome doth cause her Followers to tread when they ask her the way to Justification I cannot stand now to untip this Building and to siâ it piece by piece onely I will passe by it in few words that that may befall Bâ⦠in the presence of that which God hath builded as hapned unto Dagon before the Ark. 6. Doubtless saith the Apostle I have counted all things loss and judge them to be doing that I may win Christ and to be found in him not having my own righteousness but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God through Faith Whether they speak of the first or second Justification they make it the essence of a Divine quality inherent they make it Righteousnesse which is in us If it be in us then is it ours as our Souls are ours though we have them from God and can hold them no longer than pleaseth him for if he withdraw the breath of our nostrils we fall to dust but the Righteousness wherein we must be found if we will be justified is not our own therefore we cannot be justified by any inherent quality Christ hath merited righteousness for as many as are found in him In him God findeth us if we be faithful for by Faith we are incorporated into Christ. Then although in our selves we be altogether sinful and unrighteous yet even the man which is impious in himself full of iniquity full of sin him being found in Christ through Faith and having his sinne remitted through Repentance him God upholdeth with a gracious eye putteth away his sinne by not imputing it taketh quite away the Punishment due thereunto by pardoning it and accepteth him in Jesus Christ as perfectly righteous as if he had fulfilled all that was commanded him in the Law shall I say more perfectly righteous than if himself had fulfilled the whole Law I must take heed what I say but the Apostle saith God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Such we are in the sight of God the Father as is the very Son of God himself Let it be counted folly or frensie or fury whatsoever it is our comfort and our wisdom we care for no knowledge in the World but this That man hath sinned and God hath suffered That God hath made himself the Son of Man and that men are made the righteousness of God You see therefore that the Church of Rome in teaching Justification by inherent Grace doth pervert the truth of Christ and that by the hands of the Apostles we have received otherwise than she reacheth Now concerning the righteousness of Sanctification we deny it not to be inherent we grant that unless we work we have it not onely we distinguish it as a thing different in nature from the righteousness of Justification we are righteous the one
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 âound 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
much as the Hem of Christs Garment If they do wherefore should I doubt but that Vertue may proceed from Christ to save them No I will not be afraid to say to such a one You erre in your opinion but be of good comfort you have to do with a Merciful God who will make the best of that little which you hold well and not with a captions Sophister who gathereth the worst out of every thing in which you are mistaken But it will be said The admittance of Merit in any degree overthroweth the Foundation excladeth from the hope of Mercy from all possibility of Salvation And now Mr. Hookers own words follow What though they hold the truth sincerely in all other parts of Christian Faith Although they have in some measure all the Vertues and Graces of the Spirit Although they have all other Tokens of Gods Children in them Although they be far from having any proud opinion that they shall be saved by the worthiness of their Deeds Although the onely thing that troubleth and molesteth them be a little too much dejection somewhat too great a fire arising from an erronious conceit That God will require a worthiness in them which they are grieved to finde wanting in themselves Although they be not obstinate in this Opinion Although they be willing and would be glad to forsake it if any one Reason were brought sufficient to disprove it Although the onely cause why they do not forsake it ere they die be their ignorance of that means by which it might be disproved Although the cause why the ignorance in this point is not removed be the want of knowledge in such as should be able and are not to remove it Let me die says Mr. Hooker if it be ever proved That simply an Error doth exclude a Pope or Cardinal in such a case utterly from hope of life Surely I must confess That if it be an Error to think that God may be merciful to save men even when they err my greatest comfort is my error Were it not for the love I bear to this Error I would never wish to speak or to live I was willing to take notice of these two points as supposing them to be very material and that as they are thus contracted they may prove useful to my Reader as also for that the Answers be Arguments of Mr. Hookers great and clear Reason and equal Charity Other Exceptions were also made against him as That he prayed before and not after his Sermons that in his Prayers be named Bishops that be kneeled both when he prayed and he when he received the Sacrament and says Mr. Hooker in his Defence other Exceptions so like these as but to name I should have thought a greater fault then to commit them And 't is not unworthy the noting that in the menage of so great a Controversie a sharper reproof then this and one like it did never fall from the happy Pen of this humble Man That like it was upon a like occasion of Exceptious to which his Answer was Your next Argument consists of Railing and of Reasons to your Railing I say nothing to your Reasons I say what follows And I am glad of this fair occasion to testifie the Dove-like temper of this meek this matchless Man and doubtless it Almighty God had blest the Dissenters from the Ceremonies and Discipline of this Church with a like measure of Wisdom and Humility instead of their pertinacious Zeal then Obedience and Truth had kissed each other then Peace and Piety had flourished in our Nation and this Church and State had been blest like Ierusalem that is at unity with it self but that can never be expected till God shall bless the common people with a belief That Schism is a sin and that there may be offences taken which are not given and that Laws are not made for private men to dispute but to obey And this also maybe worthy of noting That these Exceptions of Mr. Travers against Mr. Hooker were the cause of his transcribing several of his Sermons which we now see Printed with his Books of his Answer to Mr. Travers his Supplication and of his most learned and useful Discourse of Iustification of Faith and Works and by their Transcription they fell into the hands of others that have preserved them from being lost as too many of his other matchless Writings have been and from these I have gathered many observations in this Discourse of his Life After the publication of his Answer to the Petition of Mr. Travers Mr. Hooker grew daily into greater repute with the most Learned and Wise of the Nation but it had a contrary effect in very many of the Temple that were zealous for Mr. Travers and for his Church Discipline insomuch that though Mr. Travers left the place yet the Seeds of Discontent could not be rooted out of that Society by the great Reason and as great Meekness of this humble Man For though the Cheif Benchers gave him much Reverence and Incouragement yet he there met with many neglects and oppositions-by-those of Mr. Travers judgment insomuch that it turned to his extream grief And that he might unbeguile and win them he designed to write a deliberate sober Treatise of the Churches power to make Cannons for the use of Ceremonies and by Law to impose an obedience to them as upon Her Children and this he proposed to do in Eight Books of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity intending therein to shew such Arguments as should force an assent from all Men if Reason delivered in sweet Language and void of any provocation were able to do it And that he might prevent all prejudice he wrote before it a large Preface or Epistle to the Dissenting Brethren wherein there were such Bowels of Love and such a Commixture of that Love with Reason as was never exceeded but in Holy Writ and particularly by that of St. Paul to his dear Brother and Fellow-Laborer Philemon Then which none ever was more like this Epistle of Mr. Hookers So that his dear Friend and Companion in his Studies Doctor Spencer might after his Death justly say What admirable height of Learning and depth of Iudgment dwelt in the lowly minde of this truly humble Man great in all wise mens eyes except his own With what gravity and majesty of Speech his Tongue and Pen uttered Heavenly Mysteries whose eyes in the Humility of his Heart were always cast down to the ground How all things that proceeded from him were breathed as from the Spirit of Love as if he like the Bird of the Holy Ghost the Dove had wanted Gall Let those that knew him not in his Person judge by these living Images of his Soul his Writings The Foundation of these Books was laid in the Temple but he found it no fit place to finish what he had there designed and therefore solicited the Archbishop for a remove to whom he spake to this purpose My Lord
a Minister to Preach Christ crucified In regard whereof not onely worldly things but things otherwise precious even the Discipline it self is vile and base Whereas now by the heat of Contention and violence of Affection the Zeal of Men towards the one hath greatly decayed their love to the other Hereunto therefore they are to be exhorted to Preach Christ crucified the Mortification of the Flesh the Renewing of the Spirit not those things which in time of Strife seem precious but Passions being allayed are vain and childish GEO. CRANMER This Epitaph was long since presented to the World in Memory of Mr. Hooker by Sir William Cooper who also built him a fair Monument in Borne-Church and acknowledges him to have been his Spiritual Father THough nothing can be spoke worthy his Fame Or the Remembrance of that precious Name Iudicious Hooker though this cost be spent On him that hath a Lasting Monument In his own Books yet ought we to express If not his Worth yet oue Respectfulness Church Ceremonies he maintaiu'd Then Why Without all Ceremony should he die Was it because his Life and Death should be Both equal Patterns of Humility Or that perhaps this onely glorious one Was above all to ask Why had he none Yet he that lay so long obscurely low Doth now preferr'd to greater Honors go Ambitious men Learn hence to be more wise Humility is the true way to rise And God in me this Lesson did Inspire To bid this humble Man Friend sit up higher TO THE Most Reverend Father in GOD my very good Lord the Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY his Grace Primate and Metropolitan of all ENGLAND MOst Reverend in Christ the long continued and more then ordinary favor which hither to your Grace hath been pleased to shew towards me may justly claim at my hands some thankful acknowledgment thereof In which consideration as also for that I embrace willingly the ancient received course and conveniency of that Discipline which teacheth inferior Degrees and Orders in the Church of God to submit their Writings to the same Authority from which their allowable dealings whatsoever in such affairs must receive approbation I nothing fear but that your accustomed clemency will take in good worth the offer of these my simple and mean Labors bestowed for the necessary justification of Laws heretofore made questionable because as I take it they were not perfectly understood For surely I cannot finde any great cause of just complaint that good Laws have so much been wanting unto us as we to them To seek Reformation of evil Laws is a commendable endeavor but for us the more necessary is a speedy redress of our selves We have on all sides lost much of our first fervency towards God and therefore concerning our own degenerated ways we have reason to exhort with St. Gregory ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Let us return again unto that which we sometime were but touching the exchange of Laws in Practice with Laws in Device which they say are better for the State of the Church if they might take place the farther we examine them the greater cause we finde to conclude ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã although we continue the same we are the harm is not great These fervent Reprehenders of things established by Publick Authority are always confident and bold spirited men But their confidence for the most part riseth from too much credit given to their own wits for which cause they are seldom free from Error The Errors which we seek to reform in this kinde of men are such as both received at your own hands their first wound and from that time to this present have been proceeded in with that Moderation which useth by Patience to suppress boldness and to make them conquer that suffer Wherein considering the nature and kinde of these Controversies the dangerous sequels whereunto they were likely to grow and how many ways we have been thereby taught Wisdom I may boldly aver concerning the first that as the weightiest conflicts the Church hath had were those which touched the Head the Person of our Savior Christ and the next of importance those questions which are at this day between us and the Church of Rome about the Actions of the Body of the Church of God so these which have lastly sprung up from Complements Rites and Ceremonies of Church Actions are in truth for the greatest part such silly things that very easiness doth make them hard to be disputed of in serious manner Which also may seem to be the cause why divers of the Reverend Prelacy and other most judicious men have especially bestowed their pains about the Matter of Jurisdiction Notwithstanding led by your Graces example my self have thought it convenient to wade through the whole Cause following that method which searcheth the Truth by the causes of Truth Now if any marvel how a thing in it self so weak could import any great danger they must consider not so much how small the spark is that flieth up as how apt things about it are to take fire Bodies Politick being subject as much as Natural to dissolution by divers means there are undoubtedly more estates overthrown through diseases bred within themselves then through violence from abroad because our manner is always to cast a doubtful and a more suspicious eye towards that over which we know we have least power And therefore the fear of External dangers causeth forces at home to be the more united It is to all sorts a kinde of Bridle it maketh vertuous Mindes watchful it holdeth contrary Dispositions in suspense and it setteth those Wits on work in better things which could be else imployed in worse whereas on the other side domestical Evils for that we think we can master them at all times are often permitted to run on forward till it be too late to recal them In the mean while the Commonwealth is not onely through unsoundness so far impaired as those evils chance to prevail but farther also through opposition arising between the unsound parts and the sound where each endeavoreth to draw evermore contrary ways till destruction in the end bring the whole to ruine To reckon up how many Causes there are by force whereof Divisions may grow in a Commonwealth is not here necessary Such as rise from variety in Matter of Religion are not onely the farthest spred because in Religion all men presume themselves interessed alike but they are also for the most part hotlier prosecuted and pursued then other strifes for as much as coldness which in other Contentions may be thought to proceed from Moderation is not in these so favorably construed The part which in this present quarrel striveth against the Current and Stream of Laws was a long while nothing feared the wisest contented not to call to minde how Errors have their effect many times not proportioned to that little appearance of Reason whereupon they would seem built but rather to the vehement affection or
further made known such Supernatural Lawsâ as do serve for Mens direction 12. The cause why so many Natural or Rational Laws are set down in holy Scripture 13. The benefit of having Divine Laws written 14. The sufficiency of Scripture unto the end for which it was instituted 15. Of Laws Positive contained in Scripture the Mutability of certain of them and the general use of Scripture 16. A Conclusion shewing how all this belongeth to the Cause in question HE that goeth about to perswade a multitude that they are not so well-governed as they ought to be shall never want attentive and favorable Hearers because they know the manifold defects whereunto every kinde of Regiment is subject but the secret lets and difficulties which in publick proceedings are innumerable and inevitable they have not ordinarily the judgment to consider And because such as openly reprove supposed disorders of State are taken for Principal Friends to the Common Benefit of all and for men that carry singular Freedom of Minde Under this fair and plausible colour whatsoever they utter passeth for good and currant That which wanteth in the weight of their Speech is supplied by the aptness of Mens mindes to accept and believe it Whereas on the other side if we maintain things that are established we have not onely to strive with a number of heavy prejudices deeply rooted in the hearts of men who think that herein we serve the time and speak in favor of the present State because thereby we either hold or seek preferment but also to bear such Exceptions as Mindes so avetted before-hand usually take against that which they are loth should be poured into them Albeit therefore much of that we are to speak in this present Cause may seem to a number perhaps tedious perhaps obscure dark and intricate for many talk of the Truth which never sounded the depth from whence it springeth And therefore when they are led thereunto they are soon weary as men drawn from those beaten paths wherewith they have been inured yet this may not so far prevail as to cut off that which the matter it self requireth howsoever the nice humor of some be therewith pleased or no. They unto whom we shall seem tedious are in no wise injured by us because it is in their own hands to spare that labor which they are not willing to endure And if any complain of obscurity they must consider that in these Matters it cometh no otherwise to pass then in sundry the works both of Art and also of Nature where that which hath greatest force in the very things we see is notwithstanding itself oftentimes not seen The stateliness of Houses the goodliness of Trees when we behold them delighteth the eye but that Foundation which beareth up the one that Root which ministreth unto the other nourishment and life is in the bosome of the Earth concealed and if there be occasion at any time to search into it such labor is then more necessary then pleasant both to them which undertake it and for the lookers on In like manner the use and benefit of good Laws all that live under them may enjoy with delight and comfort albeit the grounds and first original causes from whence they have sprung be unknown as to the greatest part of men they are But when they who withdraw their obedience pretend That the Laws which they should obey are corrupt and vicious For better examination of their quality it behoveth the very Foundation and Root the highest Well-Spring and Fountain of them to be discovered Which because we are not oftentimes accustomed to do when we do it the pains we take are more needful a great deal then acceptable and the Matters which we handle seem by reason of newness till the minde grow better acquainted with them dark intricate and unfamiliar For as much help whereof as may be in this case I have endeavored throughout the Body of this whole Discourse that every former part might give strength unto all that follow and every latter bring some light unto all before So that if the judgments of men do but hold themselves in suspence as touching these first more General Meditations till in order they have perused the rest that ensue what may seem dark at the first will afterwards be found more plain even as the latter particular decisions will appear I doubt not more strong when the other have been read before The Laws of the Church whereby for so many Ages together we have been guided in the Exercise of Christian Religion and the Service of the true God our Rites Customs and Orders of Ecclesiastical Government are called in question We are accused as men that will not have Christ Jesus to rule over them but have wilfully cast his Statutes behinde their backs hating to be reformed and made subject unto the Scepter of his Discipline Behold therefore we offer the Laws whereby we live unto the General Tryal and Judgment of the whole World heartily beseeching Almighty God whom we desire to serve according to his own Will that both we and others all kinde of Partial affection being clean laid aside may have eyes to see and hearts to embrace the things that in his sight are most acceptable And because the Point about which we strive is the Quality of our Laws our first entrance hereinto cannot better be made then with consideration of the Nature of Law in general and of that Law which giveth Life unto all the rest which are commendable just and good namely the Law whereby the Eternal himself doth work Proceeding from hence to the Law first of Nature then of Scripture we shall have the easier access unto those things which come after to be debated concerning the particular Cause and Question which we have in hand 2. All things that are have some operation not violent or casual Neither doth any thing ever begin to exercise the same without some fore-conceived end for which it worketh And the end which it worketh for is not obtained unless the Work be also fit to obtain it by for unto every end every operation will not serve That which doth assign unto each thing the kinde that which doth moderate the force and power that which doth appoint the form and measure of working the same we term a Law So that no certain end could ever be attained unless the Actions whereby it is attained were regular that is to say Made suitable fit and correspondent unto their end by some Canon Rule or Law Which thing doth first take place in the Works even of God himself All things therefore do work after a sort according to Law all other things according to a Law whereof some Superiors unto whom they are subject is Author onely the Works and Operations of God have him both for their Worker and for the Law whereby they are wrought The Being of God is a kinde of Law to his working for that Perfection
which we call Ius or Right to be the Daughter of Heaven and Earth We know things either as they are in themselves or as they are in mutual relation one to another The knowledge of that which Man is in reference unto himself and other things in relation unto Man I may justly term the Mother of all those Principles which are as it were Edicts Statutes and Decrees in that Law of Nature whereby Humane Actions are framed First therefore having observed that the best things where they are not hindred do still produce the best Operations for which cause where many things are to concur unto one effect the best is in all congruity of Reason to guide the residue that it prevailing most the work principally done by it may have greatest perfection when hereupon we come to observe in our selves of what excellency our Souls are in comparison of our Bodies and the divine part in relation unto the baser of our Souls seeing that all these concur in producing Humane Actions it cannot be well unless the chiefest do command and direct the rest The Soul then ought to conduct the Body and the Spirit of our Mindes the Soul This is therefore the first Law whereby the highest power of the Minde requireth general obedience at the hands of all the rest concurring with it unto Action Touching the several grand Mandates which being imposed by the understanding Faculty of the Minde must be obeyed by the Will of Man they are by the same method found out whether they import our duty towards God or towards Man Touching the one I may not here stand to open by what degrees of discourse the Mindes even of meer Natural Men have attained to know not onely that there is a God but also what Power Force Wisdom and other properties that God hath and how all things depend on him This being therefore presupposed from that known relation which God hath unto us as unto children and unto all good things as unto effects whereof himself is the principal cause these Axioms and Laws Natural concerning our duty have arisen That in all things we go about his aid is by Prayer to be craved That be cannot have sufficient honor done unto him but the uttermost of that we can do to honor him we must which is in effect the same that we read Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy minde Which Law our Saviour doth term The first and the great Commandment Touching the next which as our Saviour addeth as like unto this he meaneth in amplitude and largeness in as much as it is the Root out of which all Laws of duty to Men-ward have grown as out of the former all Offices of Religion towards God the like Natural enducement hath brought men to know that it is their duty no less to love others then themselves For seeing those things which are equal must needs all have one measure if I cannot but wish to receive all good even as much at every mans hand as any man can wish unto his own soul how should I look to have any part of my desire herein satisfied unless my self be careful to satisfie the like desire which is undoubtedly in other men we all being of one and the same Nature To have any thing offered them repugnant to this desire must needs in all respects grieve them as much as me So that if I do harm I must look to suffer there being no reason that others should shew greater measure of love to me then they have by me shewed unto them My desire therefore to be loved of my equals in nature as much as possible may be imposeth upon me a natural duty of bearing to them-ward fully the like affection From which relation of equality between our selves and them that are as our selves what several Rules and Canons Natural Reason hath drawn for direction of life no man is ignorant as namely That because we would take no harm we must therefore do none that sith we would not be in any thing extreamly dealt with we must our selves avoid all extremity in our dealings that from all violence and wrong we are utterly to abstain with such like which further to wade in would be tedious and to our present purpose not altogether so necessary seeing that on these two General Heads already mentioned all other specialities are dependent Wherefore the natural measure whereby to judge our doings is the sentence of Reason determining and setting down what is good to be done Which sentence is either mandatory shewing what must be done or else permissive declaring onely what may be done or thirdly admonitory opening what is the most convenient for us to do The first taketh place where the comparison doth stand altogether between doing and not doing of one thing which in it self is absolutely good or evil as it had been for Ioseph to yield or not to yield to the impotent desire of his leud Mistress the one evil the other good simply The second is when of divers things evil all being not evitable we are permitted to take one which one saving onely in case of so great urgency were not otherwise to be taken as in the matter of Divorce amongst the Jews The last when of divers things good one is principal and most eminent as in their act who sold their possessions and laid the price at the Apostles feet which possessions they might have retained unto themselves without sin Again in the Apostle St. Pauls own choice to maintain himself by his own labor whereas in living by the Churches maintenance as others did there had been no offence committed In goodness therefore there is a latitude or extent whereby it cometh to pass that even of good actions some are better then other some whereas otherwise one man could not excel another but all should be either absolutely good as hitting jump that indivisible Point or Centre wherein goodness consisteth or else missing it they should be excluded out of the number of well-doers Degrees of well-doing there could be none except perhaps in the seldomness and oftenness of doing well But the Nature of Goodness being thus ample a Law is properly that which Reason in such sort defineth to be good that it must be done And the Law of Reason or Humane Nature is that which men by discourse of Natural Reason have rightly found out themselves to be all for ever bound unto in their actions Laws of Reason have these marks to be known by Such as keep them resemble most lively in their voluntary actions that very manner of working which Nature her self doth necessarily observe in the course of the whole World The Works of Nature are all behoveful beautiful without superfluity or defect even so theirs if they be framed according to that which the Law of Reason teacheth Secondly Those Laws are investigable by Reason without
long after Prebend of Ely and then Dean of Lincoln and having for many years past looked upon him with much reverence and favor gave him a fair testimony of both by giving him the Bishoprick of Worcester and which was not a usual favor forgiving him his First-fruits then by constituting him Vice-President of the Principality of Wales And having for several years experimented his Wisdom his Justice and Moderation in the menage of Her affairs in both these places She in the Twenty sixth of Her Reign made him Archbishop of Canterbury and not long after of Her Privy Council and trusted him to menage all Her Ecclesiastical Affairs and Preferments In all which Removes he was like the Ark which left a Blessing upon the place where it rested and in all his Imployments was like Iehoida that did good unto Israel These were the steps of this Bishops Ascension to this place of Dignity and Cares in which place to speak Mr. Cambdens very words in his Annals He devoutly consecrated both his whole life to God and bit painful labors to the good of his Church And yet in this place he met with many oppositions in the regulation of Church Affairs which were much disordered at his entrance by reason of the age and remisness of Bishop Grindal his immediate Predecessor the activity of the Non-conformists and their cheif assistant the Earl of Leicester and indeed by too many others of the like Sacrilegious Principles With these he was to encounter and though he wanted neither courage nor a good cause yet he foresaw that without a great measure of the Queens favor it was impossible to stand in the Breach that was made into the Lands and Immunities of the Church or to maintain the remaining Rights of it And therefore by justifiable Sacred Insinuations such as St. Paul to Agrippa Agrippa believest thou I know thou believest he wrought himself into so great a degree of favor with Her as by his pious use of it hath got both of them a greater degree of Fame in this World and of Glory in that into which they are now entred His merits to the Queen and Her Favors to him were such that she called him Her little black Husband and called his Servants Her Servants And She saw so visible and blessed a sincerity shine in all his cares and endeavors for the Churches and for Her good that She was supposed to trust him with the very secrets of Her Soul and to make him Her Confessor Of which She gave many Fair testimonies and of which one was That She would never eat flesh in Lent without obtaining a Licence from Her little black Husband And would often say She pioââed him because She trusted him and had eased Her-self by laying the burthen of all Her Clergy-cares upon his shoulders which She was certain he managed with Prudence and Piety I shall not keep my self within the promised Rules of Brevity in this account of his Interest with Her Majesty and his care of the Churches Rights if in this digression I should enlarge to particularsâ and therefore my desire is that one example may serve for a testimony of both And that the Reader may the better understand it he may take notice that not many years before his being made Archbishop there passed an Act or Acts of Parliament intending the better preservation of Church Lands by recalling a Power which was vested in others to Sell or Lease them by lodging and trusting the future care and protection of them onely in the Crown And amongst many that made a bad use of this Power or Trust of the Queens the Earl of Leicester was one and the good Bishop having by his Interest with Her Majesty put a stop to the Earls Sacrilegious designs they two fell to an open Opposition before her after which they both quitted the Room nor Friends in appearance But the Bishop made a sudden and a seasonable return to Her Majesty for he found her alone and spake to her with great Humility and Reverence and to this purpose I beseech your Majesty to hear me with patience and to believe that yours and the Churches Safety are dearer to me than my Life but my Conscience dearer than both and therefore give me leave to do my Duty and tell you that Princes are deputed Nursing Fathers of the Church and owe it a Protection and therefore God forbid that you should be so much as Passive in her Ruines when you may prevent it or that I should-behold it without horrour and detestation or should forbear to tell your Majesty of the Sin and Danger And though you and my self are born in an Age of Frailties when the Primitive Piety and Care of the Churches Lands and Immunities are much decayed yes Madam let me beg that you will but first consider and then you will believe there are such sins at Prophaneness and Sacriledge for if there were not they could not have Names in Holy Writ and particularly in the New-Testament And I beseech you to consider that though our Saviour said He judged no man and to testifie it would not judge nor divide the Inheritance betwixt the two Brethren nor would judge the Woman taken in Adultery yet in this point of the Churches Rights he was so zealous that he made himself both the Accuser and the Iudge and the Executioner to punish these sins witnessed in that he himself made the Whip to drive the Prophaners out of the Temple overthrew the Tables of the Money-changers and drove them out of it And consider that it was S. Paul that said to those Christians of his time that were offended with Idolatry yet Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge Supposing I think Sacriledge to be the greater sin This may occasion your Majesty to consider that there is such a sin as Sacriledge and to incline you to prevent the Curse that will follow it I beseech you also to consider that Constantine the first Christian Emperor and Helena his Mother that King Edgar and Edward the Confessor and indeed many others of your Predecessors and many private Christians have also given to God and to his Church much Land and many Immunities which they might have given to those of their own Families and did not but gave them as an absolute Right and Sacrifice to God And with these Immunities and Lands they have entailed a Curse upon the Alienators of them God prevent your Majesty from being liable to that Curse And to make you that are trusted with their Preservation the better to understand the danger of it I beseech you forget not that besides these Curses the Churches Land and Power have been also endeavoured to be preserved as far as Humane Reason and the Law of this Nation have been able to preserve them by an immediate and most sacred Obligation on the Consciences of the Princes of this Realm For they that consult Magna Charta shall find that as all your Predecessours
cloathed with the name of Truth which is mightily and violently to possess men at first but afterwards the weakness thereof being by time discovered to lose that reputation which before it had gained as by the outside of an House the passers by are oftentimes deceived till they see the conveniencie of the Rooms within so by the very name of Discipline and Reformation Men were drawn at first to cast a fancy towards it but now they have not contented themselves only to pass by and behold afar off the fore-front of this reformed house they have entred in even at the special request of Master-workmen and chief Builders thereof they have perused the Roomes the Lights the Conveniencies they find them not answerable to that report which was made of them nor to that opinion which upon report they had conceived So as now the Discipline which at first triumphed over all being unmasked beginneth to droop and hang down her head This cause of change in opinion concerning the Discipline is proper to the Learned or to such as by them have been instructed another cause there is more open and more apparent to the view of all namely the course of Practice which the Reformers have had with us from the beginning the first degree was only some small difference about Cap and Surplice but not such as either bred division in the Church or tended to the ruine of the Government established This was peaceable the next degree more stirring Admonitions were directed to the Parliament in peremptory sort against our whole Form of Regiment in defence of them Volumes were published in English and in Latin yet this was no more than writing Devices were set on foot to erect the Practice of the Discipline without Authority yet herein some regard of Modesty some moderation was used Behold at length it brake forth into open outrage first in writing by Martin in whose kind of dealing these things may be observed first that whereas T. C. and others his great Masters had alwayes before set out the Discipline as a Queen and as the Daughter of God He contrariwise to make her more acceptable to the people brought her forth as a Vice upon the Stage 2 This conceit of his was grounded as may be supposed upon this rare Polity that seeing the Discipline was by writing refuted in Parliament rejected in secret corners hunted out and decried it was imagined that by open rayling which to the vulgar is commonly most plausible the State Ecclesiastical might have been drawn into such contempt and hatred as the overthrow thereof should have been most grateful to all Men and in manner desired of the common people 3. It may be noted and this I know my self to be true how some of them although they could not for shame approve so lewd an Action yet were content to lay hold on it to the advancement of their cause acknowledging therein the secret judgements of God against the Bishops and hoping that some good might be wrought thereby for his Church as indeed there was though not according to their construction For 4. Contrary to their expectation that railing Spirit did not only not further but extremely disgrace and prejudice their Cause when it was once perceived from how low degrees of contradiction at first to what outrage of Contumely and Slander they were at length proceeded and were also likely further to proceed A further degree of outrage was in Fact Certain Prophets did arise who deeming it not possible that God should suffer that to be undone which they did so fiercely desire to have done Namely that his holy Saints the favourers and Fathers of the Discipline should be enlarged and delivered from persecution and seeing no means of deliverance Ordinary were fain to perswade themselves that God must needs raise some extraordinary means and being perswaded of none so well as of themselves they forthwith must need she the instruments of this great work Hereupon they framed unto themselves an assured hope that upon their Preaching out of a Pease Cart all the multitude would have presently joyned unto them and in amazement of mind have asked them Viri sratres quid agimus whereunto it is likely they would have returned an answer far unlike to that of St. Peter Such and such are Men unworthy to govern pluck them down Such and such are the Dear Children of God let them be advanced Of two of these Men it is meet to speak with all Commiseration yet so that others by their example may receive instruction and withall some light may appear what stirring affections the Discipline is like to inspire if it light upon apt and prepared minds Now if any Man doubt of what Society they were or if the Reformers disclaim them pretending that by them they were condemned let these points be considered 1. Whose associates were they before they entered into this frantick Passion whose Sermons did they frequent whom did they admire 2. Even when they were entering into it whose advice did they require and when they were in whose approbation whom advertised they of their purpose whose assistance by Prayers did they request But we deal injuriously with them to lay this to their charge for they reproved and condemned it How did they disclose it to the Magistrate that it might be suppressed or were they not rather content to stand aloof off and see the end of it and loth to quench the Spirit No doubt these mad practitioners were of their society with whom before and in the practice of their madness they had most affinity Hereof read Doctor Bancrofts Book A third inducement may be to dislike of the Discipline if we consider not only how far the Reformers themselves have proceeded but what others upon their Foundations have built Here come the Brownists in the first rank their lineal descendants who have seised upon a number of strange opinions whereof although their Ancestors the Reformers were never actually possessed yet by right and interest from them derived the Brownists and Barrowists have taken possession of them For if the Positions of the Reformers be true I cannot see how the main and general Conclusions of Brownism should be false for upon these two points as I conceive they stand 1. That because we have no Church they are to sever themselves from us 2. That without Civil Authority they are to erect a Church of their own And if the former of these be true the latter I suppose will follow For if above all things Men be to regard their Salvation and if out of the Church there be no Salvation it followeth That if we have no Church we have no means of Salvation And therefore Separation from us in that respect is both lawful and necessary As also That men so separated from the false and counterfeit Church are to associate themselves unto some Church not to ours to the Popish much less therefore to one of their own making Now the ground
Iudges in that Court to be their Ministers others of the people annually chosen twice so many in number as they to be Iudges together with them in the same Court These two sorts to have the care of all Mens manners power of determining of all kinde of Ecclesiastical Causes and authority to Convent to Controll to Punish as far as with Excommunication whom soever they should think worthy none either small or great excepted This device I see not how the wisest at that time living could have bettered if we duly consider what the present State of Geneva did then require For their Bishop and his Clergy being as it is said departed from them by Moon-light or howsoever being departed to chuse in his room any other Bishop had been a thing altogether impossible And for their Ministers to seek that themselves alone might have coercive power over the whole Church would perhaps have been hardly construed at that time But when so frank an offer was made that for every one Minister there should be two of the people to sit and give voice in the Ecclesiastical Consistory what inconvenience could they easily finde which themselves might not be able always to remedy Howbeit as ever more the simpler sort are even when they see no apparent cause jealous notwithstanding over the secret intents and purposes of wiser men this Proposition of his did somewhat trouble them Of the Ministers themselves which had staid behinde in the City when Calvin was gone some upon knowledge of the peoples earnest intent to recal him to his place again had beforehand written their Letters of Submission and assured him of their alleâgiance for ever after if it should like him to hearken unto that Publick Suit But yet misdoubting what might happen if this Discipline did go forward they objected against it the example of other Reformed Churches living quietly and orderly without it Some of the chiefest place and countenance amongst the Laity professed with greater stomach their judgments that such a Discipline was little better then Popish Tyranny disguised and tendered unto them under a new Form This sort it may be had some fear that the filling up of the Seats in the Consistory with so great a member of Laymen was but to please the mindes of the people to the end they might think their own sway somewhat but when things came to tryal of practice their Pastors learning would be at all times of force to over-perswade simple men who knowing the time of their own Presidentship to be but short would always stand in fear of their Ministers perpetual authority And among the Ministers themselves one being so far in estimation above the rest the voices of the rest were likely to be given for the most part respectively with a kinde of secret dependency and aw So that in shew a marvellous indifferently composed Senate Ecclesiastical was to govern but in effect one onely man should as the Spirit and Soul of the residue do all in all But what did these vain surmises boot Brought they were now to so strait an issue that of two things they must chuse one Namely Whether they would to their endless disgrace with ridiculous lightness dismiss him whose restitution they had in so impotent manner desired or else condescend unto that demand wherein he was resolute either to have it or to leave them They thought it better to be somewhat hardly yoked at home then for ever abroad discredited Wherefore in the end those Orders were on all sides assented unto with no less alacrity of minde then Cities unable to hold out longer are wont to shew when they take conditions such as liketh him to offer them which hath them in the narrow streights of advantage Not many years were over passed before these twice-sworn men adventured to give their last and hottest assault to the Fortress of the same Discipline childishly granting by common consent of their whole Senate and that under their Town-Seal a Relaxation to one Bertelier whom the Eldership had Excommunicated Further also decreeing with strange absurdity that to the same Senate it should belong to give final judgment in Matter of Excommunication and to absolve whom it pleased them clean contrary to their own former Deeds and Oaths The report of which Decree being fortwith brought unto Calvin Before saith he this Decree take place either my Blood or Banishment shall sign it Again two days before the Communion should be celebrated this speech was publickly to like effect Kill me if ever this hand do teach forth the things that are holy to them whom the Church hath judged despisers Whereupon for fear of tumult the forenamed Bertelier was by his friends advised for that time not to use the liberty granted him by the Senate nor to present himself in the Church till they saw somewhat further what would ensue After the Communion quietly ministred and some likelihood of peaceable ending of these troubles without any more aââ that very day in the afternoon besides all mens expectation concluding his ordinary Sermon he telleth them That because he neither had learned nor taught to strive with such as are in Authority therefore saith he the case so standing as now it doth let me use these words of the Apostle unto you I commend you unto God and the Word of his Grace and so bad them heartily Adieu It sometimes cometh to pass that the readiest way which a wise man hath to conquer is to flie This voluntary and unexpected mention of sudden departure caused presently the Senate for according to their wonted manner they still continued onely constant in unconstancy to gather themselves together and for a time to suspend their own Decree leaving things to proceed as before till they had heard the judgment of Four Helvetian Cities concerning the matter which was in strife This to have done at the first before they gave assent unto any order had shewed some wit and discretion in them but now to do it was as much as to say in effect That they would play their parts on a stage Calvin therefore dispatcheth with all expedition his Letters unto some Principal Pastor in every of those Cities craving earnestly at their hands to respect this Cause as a thing whereupon the whole State of Religion and Piety in that Church did so much depend That God and all good men were now inevitably certain to be trampled under foot unless those Four Cities by their good means might be brought to give sentence with the Ministers of Geneva when the Cause should be brought before them yea so to give it that two things it might effectually contain The one an Absolute Approbation of the Discipline of Geneva as consonant unto the Word of God without any cautions qualifications ifs or ands the other an earnest Admonition not to innovate or charge the same His vehement request herein as touching both points was satisfied For albeit the said Helvetian Churches did never as yet
which Admonitions all that I mean to say is but this There will come a time when three words uttered with Charity and Meekness shall receive a far more blessed Reward then three thousand Volumns written with disdainful sharpness of Wit But the manner of Mens Writings must not alienate our hearts from the Truth if it appear they have the Truth as the Followers of the same Defender do think he hath and in that perswasion they follow him no otherwise then himself doth Calvin Beza and others with the like perswasion that they in this cause had the Truth We being as fully perswaded otherwise it resteth that some kinde of tryal be used to finde out which part is in error 3. The first mean whereby Nature teacheth men to judge good from evil as well in Laws as in other things is the force of their own discretion Hereunto therefore St. Paul referreth oftentimes his own speech to be considered of by them that heard him I speak as to them which have understanding Judge ye what I say Again afterward Judge in your selves is it comly that a woman pray uncovered The exercise of this kinde of judgment our Saviour requireth in the Iews In them of Berea the Scripture commendeth it Finally Whatsoever we do if our own secret judgment consent not unto it as fit and good to be done the doing of it to us is sin although the thing it self be allowable St. Pauls rule therefore generally is Let every man in his own minde be fully perswaded of that thing which he either alloweth or doth Some things are so familiar and plain that Truth from Falshood and Good from Evil is most easily discerned in them even by men of no deep capacity And of that nature for the most part are things absolutely unto all Mens salvation necessary either to he held or denied either to be done or avoided For which cause St. Augustine acknowledgeth that they are not onely set down but also plainly set down in Scripture So that he which heareth or readeth may without any great difficulty understand Other things also there are belonging though in a lower degree of importance unto the offices of Christian men Which because they are more obscure more intricate and hard to be judged of therefore God hath appointed some to spend their whole time principally in the study of things Divine to the end that in these more doubtful cases their understanding might be a light to direct others If the understanding power or faculty of the Soul be saith the Grand Physitian like unto bodily sight not of equal sharpness in all What can be more convenient then that even as the dark-sighted man is directed by the clear about things visible so likewise in matters of deeper discourse the wise in heart do shew the simple where his way lieth In our doubtful Cases of Law what man is there who seeth not how requisite it is that Professors of skill in that Faculty be our Directors so it is in all other kindes of knowledge And even in this kinde likewise the Lord hath himself appointed That the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and that other men should seek the truth at his mouth because he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts Gregory Nazianzen offended at the peoples too great presumption in controlling the judgment of them to whom in such cases they should have rather submitted their own seeketh by earnest entreaty to stay them within their bounds Presume not ye that are Sheep to make your selves Guides of them that should guide you neither seek ye to overslip the fold which they about you have pitched It sufficeth for your part if ye can well frame your selves to be ordered Take not upon you to judge your selves nor to make them subject to your Laws who should be a Law to you for God is not a God of Sedition and Confusion but of Order and of Peace But ye will say that if the Guides of the people be blinde the common sort of men must not close up their own eyes and be led by the conduct of such If the Priest be partial in the Law the flock must not therefore depart from the ways of sincere Truth and in simplicity yield to be followers of him for his place sake and office over them Which thing though in it self most true is in your defence notwithstanding weak because the matter wherein ye think that ye see and imagine that your ways are sincere is of far deeper consideration then any one amongst Five hundred of you conceiveth Let the vulgar sort among you know that there is not the least branch of the Cause wherein they are so resolute but to the tryal of it a great deal more appertaineth then their conceit doth reach unto I write not this in disgrace of the simplest that way given but I would gladly they knew the nature of that cause wherein they think themselves throughly instructed and are not by means whereof they daily run themselves without feeling their own hazzard upon the dint of the Apostles sentence against evil speakers as touching things wherein they are ignorant If it be granted a thing unlawful for private men not called unto Publick Consultation to dispute which is the best State of Civil Policy with a desire of bringing in some other kinde them that under which they already live for of such Disputes I take it his meaning was If it be a thing confest that of such Questions they cannot determine without rashness in as much as a great part of them consisteth in special Circumstances and for one kinde as many Reasons may be brought as for another Is there any reason in the World why they should better judge what kinde of Regiment Ecclesiastical is the fittest For in the Civil State more insight and in those affairs more experience a great deal must needs be granted them then in this they can possibly have When they which write in defence of your Discipline and commend it unto the Highest not in the least cunning manner are forced notwithstanding to acknowledge That with whom the Truth is they know not they are not certain what certainly or knowledge can the multitude have thereof Weigh what doth move the common sort so much to favor this Innovation and it shall soon appear unto you that the force of particular Reasons which for your several Opinions are alleaged is a thing whereof the multitude never did nor could so consider as to be therewith wholly carried but certain general Inducements are used to make saleable your Cause in gross And when once men have cast a fancy towards it any slight Declaration of Specialties will serve to lead forward mens inclineable and prepared mindes The method of winning the peoples affection unto a general liking of the Cause for so ye term it hath been this First in the hearing of the multitude the faults especially of
higher Callings are ripped up with marvellous exceeding severity and sharpness of Reproof which being oftentimes dont begetteth a great good opinion of Integrity zeal and Holiness to such constant reprovers of sin as by likelihood would never be so much offended at that which is evil unless themselves were singularly good The next thing hereunto is to impute all Faults and Corruptions wherewith the World aboundeth unto the kinde of Ecclesiastical Government established Wherein as before by reproving Faults they purchased unto themselves with the multitude a name to be vertuous so by finding out this kinde of Cause they obtain to be judged wise above others whereas in truth unto the Form even of Iewish Government which the Lord himself they all confess did establish with like shew of Reason they might impute those Faults which the Prophets condemn in the Governors of that Commonwealth as to the English kinde of Regiment Ecclesiastical whereof also God himself though in another sort is Author the stains and blemishes found in our State which springing from the Root of Humane Frailty and Corruption not onely are but have been always more or less yea and for any thing we know to the contrary will be till the Worlds end complained of what Form of Government soever take place Having gotten thus much sway in the hearts of men a third step is to propose their own Form of Church Government as the onely soveraign remedy of all Evils and to adorn it with all the glorious Titles that may be And the Nature as of men that have sick bodies so likewise of the people in the crazedness of their Mindes possest with dislike and discontentment at things present is to imagine that any thing the vertue whereof they hear commended would help them but that most which they least have tryed The fourth degree of Inducements is by fashioning the very notions and conceits of mens mindes in such sort that when they read the Scripture they may think that every thing soundeth towards the advancement of that Discipline and to the utter disgrace of the contrary Pythagoras by bringing up his Schollars in speculative knowledge of numbers made their conceipts therein so strong that when they came to the contemplation of things natural they imagined that in every particular thing they even beheld as it were with their eyes how the Elements of Number gave Essence and Being to the Works of Nature A thing in reason impossible which notwithstanding through their misfashioned preconceit appeared unto them no less certain then if Nature had written it in the very Foreheads of all the Creatures of God When they of the Family of Love have it once in their heads that Christ doth not signifie any one Person but a Quality whereof many are partakers that to be raised is nothing else but to be regenerated or endued with the said quality and that when Separation of them which have if from them which have it not is here made this is judgment How plainly do they imagine that the Scripture every where speaketh in the favor of that Sect And assuredly the very cause which maketh the simple and ignorant to think they even see how the Word of God runneth currantly on your side is That their mindes are forestalled and their conceits perverted beforehand by being taught that an Elder doth signifie a Lay-man admitted onely to the Office of Rule or Government in the Church a Doctor one which may onely Teach and neither Preach nor Administer the Sacraments a Deacon one which hath charge of the Alms-box and of nothing else That the Scepter the Rod the Throne and Kingdom of Christ art a Form of Regiment onely by Pastors Elders Doctors and Deacons that by Mystical Resemblance Mount Sion and Jerusalem are the Churches which admit Samaria and Babylon the Churches which oppugne the said Form of Regiment And in like sort they are taught to apply all things spoken of repairing the Walls and decayed parts of the City and Temple of God by Esdras Nehemias and the rest As if purposely the Holy Ghost had therein meant to fore-signifie what the Authors of Admonitions to the Parliament of Supplications to the Council of Petitions to Her Majesty and of such other-like Writs should either do or suffer in behalf of this their Cause From hence they proceed to an higher point which is the perswading of men credulous and over-capable of such pleasing Errors That it is the special illumination of the Holy Ghost whereby they discern those things in the Word which others reading yet discern them not Dearly Beloved saith St. John Give not credit unto every spirit There are but two ways whereby the Spirit leadeth men into all Truth the one extraordinary the other common the one belonging but unto some few the other extending it self unto all that are of God the one that which we call by a special divine excellency Revelation the other Reason If the Spirit by such Revelation have discovered unto them the secrets of that Discipline out of Scripture they must profess themselves to be all even Men Women and Children Prophets Or if Reason be the hand which the Spirit hath led them by for as much as Perswasions grounded upon Reason are either weaker or stronger according to the force of those Reasons whereupon the same are grounded they must every of them from the greatest to the least be able for every several Article to shew some special Reason as strong as their Perswasion therein is earnest Otherwise how can it be but that some other sinews there are from which that everplus of strength in Perswasion doth arise Most sure it is That when Mens Affections do frame their Opinions they are in defence of Error more earnest a great deal then for the most part sound Believers in the maintenance of Truth apprehended according to the nature of that evidence which Scripture yieldeth Which being in some things plain as in the Principles of Christian Doctrine in some things as in these Matters of Discipline more dark and doubtful frameth correspondently that inward assent which Gods most gracious Spirit worketh by it as by his Effectual Instrument It is not therefore the servent earnestness of their perswasion but the soundness of those Reasons whereupon the same is built which must declare their Opinions in these things to have been wrought by the Holy Ghost and not by the Fraud of that evil spirit which is even in his illusions strong After that the fancy of the common sort hath once thorowly apprehended the Spirit to be Author of their Perswasions concerning Discipline then is instilled into their hearts that the same Spirit leading men into this opinion doth thereby seal them to be Gods Children and that as the state of the times now standeth the most special taken to know them that are Gods own from others is an earnest affection that way This hath bred high terms of Separation between such and the rest of the
World whereby the one sort are named The Brethren the Godly and so forth the other Worldlings Time-servers Pleasers of Men not of God with such like From hence they are easily drawn on to think it exceeding necessary for fear of quenching that good Spirit to use all means whereby the same may be both strengthned in themselves and made manifest unto others This maketh them diligent bearers of such as are known that way to incline this maketh them eager to take and seek all occasions of secret Conference with such this maketh them glad to use such as Counsellors and Directors in all their dealings which are of weight as Contracts Testaments and the like this maketh them through an unweariable desire of receiving instruction from the Masters of that Company to cast off the care of those very affairs which do most concern their estate and to think that then they are like unto Mary commendable for making choice of the better part Finally This is it which maketh them willing to charge yea oftentimes even to over-charge themselves for such Mens sustenance and relief least their zeal to the Cause should any way be unwitnessed For what is it which poor beguiled souls will not do through so powerful incitements In which respect it is also noted that most labor hath been bestowed to win and retain towards this Cause them whose judgments are commonly weakest by reason of their sex And although not Women loaden with sins as the Apostle St. Paul speaketh but as we verily esteem of them for the most part Women propense and inclinable to holiness be otherwise edified in good things rather then carried away as captives into any kinde of sin and evil by such as enter into their houses with purpose to plant there a zeal and a love towards this kinde of Discipline yet some occasion is hereby ministred for Men to think that if the Cause which is thus furthered did gain by the soundness of proof whereupon it doth build it self it would not most busily endeavor to prevail where least ability of judgment is And therefore that this so eminent industry in making Proselytes more of that sex then of the other groweth for that they are deemed apter to serve as instruments and helps in the Cause Apter they are through the eagerness of their affection that maketh them which way soever they take diligent in drawing their Husbands Children Servants Friends and Allies the same way Apter through that natural inclination unto pity which breedeth in them a greater readiness then in men to be bountiful towards their Preachers who suffer want Apter through sundry opportunities which they especially have to procure encouragements for their Brethren Finally Apter through a singular delight which they take in giving very large and particular intelligence how all near about them stand affected as concerning the same Cause But be they Women or be they Men if once they have tasted of that Cup let any man of contrary opinion open his mouth to perswade them they close up their ears his Reasons they weigh not all is answered with rehearsal of the words of John We are of God he that knoweth God heareth us As for the rest Ye are of the World for this Worlds pomp and vanity it is that ye speak and the World whose ye are heareth you Which cloke sitteth no less fit oâ the lack of their Cause then of the Anabaptists when the Dignity Authority and Honor of Gods Magistrates is upheld against them Shew these eagerly-affected men their inability to judge of such matters their answer is God hath chosen the simple Convince them of Folly and that so plainly that very children upbraid them with it they have their bucklers of like defence Christs own Apostle was accounted mad The best men evermore by the sentence of the World have been judged to be out of their right mindes When instruction doth them no good let them feel but the least degree of most mercifully tempered Severity they fasten on the head of the Lords Vicegerents here on Earth whatsoever they any where finde uttered against the cruelty of Blood-thirsty men and to themselves they draw all the Sentences which Scripture hath in the favor of Innocency persecuted for the Truth yea they are of their due and deserved sufferings no less proud then those ancient disturbers to whom St. Augustine writeth saying Martyrs rightly so named are they not which suffer for their disorder and for the ungodly breach they have made of Christian Unity but which for Righteousness sake are persecuted For Agar also suffered persecution at the hands of Sara wherein she which did impose was holy and she unrighteous which did bear the burthen In like sort with the Theeves was the Lord himself crucified but they who were matcht in the pain which they suffered were in the cause of their sufferings dis-joyned If that must needs be the true Church which doth endure persecution and not that which persecuteth let them ask of the Apostle what Church Sara did represent when she held her Maid in affliction For even our Mother which is free the Heavenly Ierusalem that is to say The true Church of God was as he doth affirm prefigured in that very Woman by whom the Bond-maid was so sharply handled Although if all things be throughly skanned she did in truth more persecute Sara by proud resistance then Sara her by severity of punishment These are the paths wherein ye have walked that are of the ordinary sort of men these are the very steps ye have trodden and the manifest degrees whereby ye are of your Guides and Directors trained up in that School A custom of inuring your ears with reproof of faults especially in your Governors and use to attribute those faults to the kinde of Spiritual Regiment under which ye live boldness in warranting the force of their Discipline for the cure of all such evils a slight of framing your conceits to imagine that Scripture every where favoreth that Discipline perswasion that the cause why ye finde it in Scripture is the illumination of the Spirit that the same Spirit is a Seal unto you of your nearness unto God that ye are by all means to nourish and witness it in your selves and to strengthen on every side your mindes against whatsoever might be of force to withdraw you from it 4. Wherefore to come unto you whose judgment is a Lanthorn of Direction for all the rest you that frame thus the peoples hearts not altogether as I willingly perswade my self of a politick intent or purpose but your selves being first over-borne with the weight of greater mens judgments on your shoulders is laid the burthen of upholding the cause by Argument For which purpose Sentences out of the Word of God ye alledge divers but so that when the same are aiscust thus it always in a manner falleth out That what things by vertue thereof ye urge upon us as altogether
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 clâak 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
which God is giveth Perfection to that he doth Those Natural Necessary and Internal Operations of God the Generation of the Son the Proceeding of the Spirit are without the compass of my present intent which is to touch onely such Operations as have their Beginning and Being by a voluntary purpose wherewith God hath eternally decreed when and how they should be which Eternal Decree is that we term an Eternal Law Dangerous it were for the feeble Brain of Man to wade far into the doings of the most High whom although to know be Life and Joy to make mention of his Name yet our soundest knowledge is to know that we know him not as indeed he is neither can know him and our safest eloquence concerning him is our silence when we confess without confession that his glory is inexplicable his greatness above our capacity and reach He is above and we upon Earth therefore it behoveth our words to be wary and few Our God is One or rather very Oneness and meer Unity having nothing but it Self in it Self and not consisting as all things do besides God of many things In which Essential Unity of God a Trinity Personal nevertheless subsisteth after a manner far exceeding the possibility of mans conceit The works which outwardly are of God they are in such sort of him being One that each Person hath in them somewhat peculiar and proper For being Three and they all subsisting in the Essence of one Deity from the Father by the Son through the Spirit all things are That which the Son doth hear of the Father and which the Spirit doth receive of the Father and the Son the same we have at the hands of the Spirit as being the last and therefore the nearest unto us in order although in power the same with one Second and the First The wise and learned among the very Heathens themselves have all acknowledged some first cause whereupon originally the Being of all things dependeth Neither have they otherwise spoken of that Cause then as an Agent which knowing what and why it worketh observeth in working a most exact Order or Law Thus much is signified by that which Homer mentioneth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Thus much acknowledged by Mercurius Trismegistus ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Thus much confest by Anaxagoras and Plato terming the Maker of the World an Intellectual Worker Finally the Stoiks although imagining the first cause of all things to be Fire held nevertheless that the same Fire having Art did O ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã They all confess therefore in the working of that first cause that Counsel is used Reason followed a Way observed that is to say Constant Order and Law is kept whereof it self must needs be Author unto it self Otherwise it should have some worthier and higher to direct it and so could not it self be the first being the first it can have no other then it self to be the Author of that Law which it willingly worketh by God therefore is a Law both to himself and to all other things besides To himself he is a Law in all those things whereof our Saviour speaks saying My Father worketh as yet so I. God worketh nothing without cause All those things which are done by him have some end for which they are done and the end for which they are done is a Reason of his Will to do them His Will had not inclined to create Woman but that he saw it could not be well if she were not created Non est bonum It is not good man should be alone therefore let us make an helper for him That and nothing else is done by God which to leave undone were not so good If therefore it be demanded why God having power and ability infinite the effects notwithstanding of that power are all so limited as we see they are The reason hereof is the End which he hath proposed and the Law whereby his Wisdom hath stinted the effects of his power in such sort that it doth not work infinitely but correspondently unto that end for which it worketh even all things ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã in most decent and comely sort all things in measure number and weight The General End of Gods External Working is the exercise of his most glorious and most abundant vertue Which abundance doth shew it self in variety and for that cause this variety is oftentimes in Scripture exprest by the name of riches The Lord hath made all things for his own sake Not that any thing is made to be beneficial unto him but all things for him to shew beneficence and grace in them The particular drift of every Act proceeding externally from God we are not able to discern and therefore cannot always give the proper and certain reason of his Works Howbeit undoubtedly a proper and certain Reason there is of every Finite Work of God in as much as there is a Law imposed upon it which if there were not it should be Infinite even as the Worker himself is They err therefore who think that of the Will of God to do this or that there is no Reason besides his Will Many times no Reason known to us but that there is no reason thereof I judge it most unreasonable to imagine in as much as he worketh all things ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not onely according to his own Will but the counsel of his own Will And whatsoever is done with counsel or wise resolution hath of necessity some reason why it should be done albeit that reason be to us in some things so secret that it forceth the wit of man to stand as the Blessed Apostle himself doth amazed thereat O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God How unsearchable are his Iudgments c. That Law Eternal which God himself hath made to himself and thereby worketh all things whereof he is the Cause and Author that Law in the admirable frame whereof shineth with most perfect Beauey the Countenance of that Wisdom which hath testified concerning her self The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way even before his works of old I was set up That Law which hath been the Pattern to make and is the Card to guide the World by that Law which hath been of God and with God everlastingly that Law the Author and Observer whereof is one onely God to be blessed for ever how should either Men or Angels be able perfectly to behold The Book of this Law we are neither able nor worthy to open and look into That little thereof which we darkly apprehend we admire the rest with religious ignorance we humbly and meekly adore Seeing therefore that according to this Law he worketh Of whom through whom and for whom are all things although there seem unto us confusion and disorder in the affairs of this present worldâ Tamen quoniam bonus mundum rector temperat recte fieri
cuncta ne dubites Let no man doubt but that every thing is well done because the World is rule by so good a Guide as transgresseth not his own Law then which nothing can be more absolute perfect and just The Law whereby he worketh is Eternal and therefore can have no shew or colour of mutability For which cause a part of that Law being opened in the Promises which God hath made because his Promises are nothing else but Declarations what God will do for the good of men touching those Promises the Apostle hath witnessed That God may as possibly deny himself and not be God as fail to perform them And concerning the Counsel of God he termeth it likewise a thing Unchangeable the Counsel of God and that Law of God whereof now we speak being one Nor is the freedom of the Will of God any whit abated let or hindred by means of this because the Imposition of this Law upon himself is his own free and voluntary act This Law therefore we may name Eternal being that order which God before all Ages hath fet down with himself for himself to do all things by 3. I am not ignorant that by Law Eternal the Learned for the most part do understand the Order not which God hath eternally purposed himself in all his Works to observe but rather that which with himself he hath set down as expedient to be kept by all his Creatures according to the several conditions wherewith he hath endued them They who thus are accustomed to speak apply the name of Law unto that onely rule of working which Superior Authority imposeth whereas we somewhat more enlarging the sense thereof term any kinde of Rule or Canon whereby Actions are framed a Law Now that Law which as it is laid up in the bosom of God they call Eternal receiveth according unto the different kinde of things which are subject unto it different and sundry kindes of names That part of it which ordereth Natural Agents we call usually Natures Law that which Angels do clearly behold and without any swerving observe is a Law Celestial and Heavenly the Law of Reason that which bindeth Creatures reasonable in this World and with which by reason they most plainly perceive themselves bound that which bindeth them and is not known but by special Revelation from God Divine Law Humane Law that which out of the Law either of Reason or of God Men probably gathering to be expedient they make it a Law All things therefore which are as they ought to be are conformed unto this Second Law Eternal and even those things which to this Eternal Law are not conformable are notwithstanding in some sort ordered by the First Eternal Law For what good or evil is there under the Sun what action correspondent or repugnant unto the Law which God hath imposed upon his Creatures but in or upon it God doth work according to the Law which himself hath eternally purposed to keep that is to say The First Eternal Law So that a twofold Law Eternal being thus made it is not hard to conceive how they both take place in all things Wherefore to come to the Law of Nature albeit thereby we sometimes mean that manner of working which God hath set for each created thing to keep yet for as much as those things are termed most properly Natural Agents which keep the Law of their kinde unwittingly as the Heavens and Elements of the World which can do no otherwise then they do And for as much as we give unto Intellectual Natures the name of Voluntary Agents that so we may distinguish them from the other expedient it will be that wesever the Law of Nature observed by the one from that which the other is tied unto Touching the former their strict keeping of one Tenure Statute and Law is spoken of by all but hath in it more then men have as yet attained to know or perhaps ever shall attain seeing the travel of wading herein is given of God to the Sons of Men that perceiving how much the least thing in the World hath in it more then the wisest are able to reach unto the may by this means learn humility Moses in describing the Work of Creation attributeth speech unto God God said Let there be light Let there be a Firmament Let the Waters under the Heavens be gathered together into one place Let the Earth bring forth Let there be Lights in the Firmament of Heaven Was this onely the intent of Moses to signifie the infinite greatness of Gods Power by the easiness of his accomplishing such effects without travel pain or labor Surely it seemeth that Moses had herein besides this a further purpose ' namely first to teach that God did not work as a necessary but a voluntary Agent intending beforehand and decreeing with himself that which did outwardly proceed from him Secondly to shew that God did then institute a Law natural to be observed by Creatures and therefore according to the manner of Laws the Institution thereof is described as being established by solemn injunction His commanding those things to be which are and to be in such sort as they are to keep that tenure and course which they do importeth the establishment of Natures Law This Worlds first Creation and the preservation since of things created what is it but onely so far forth a manifestation by execution what the Eternal Law of God is concerning things natural And as it cometh to pass in a Kingdom rightly ordered that after a Law is once published it presently takes effect far and wide all States framing themselves thereunto even so let us think it fareth in the Natural course of the World Since the time that God did first proclaim the Edicts of his Law upon it Heaven and Earth have hearkned unto his voice and their labor hath been to do his will He made a Law for the Rain He gave his Decree unto the Sea that the Waters should not pass his Commandment Now if Nature should intermit her course and leave altogether though it were but for a while the observation of her own Laws if those Principal and Mother Elements of the World whereof all things in this lower World are made should lose the qualities which now they have if the frame of that Heavenly Arch erected over our Heads should loosen and dissolve it self if Celestial Spheres should forget their wonted motions and by irregular volubility turn themselves any way as it might happen if the Prince of the Lights of Heaven which now as a Gyant doth run his unwearied course should as it were through a languishing faintness begin to stand and to rest himself if the Moon should wander from her beaten way the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture the Winds breathe out their last gasp the Clouds yield no Rain the Earth be defeated of Heavenly influence the Fruits of the
the sooner able to judge rightly between Truth and Error Good and Evil. But at what time a man may be said to have attained so far forth the use of Reason as sufficeth to make him capable of those Laws whereby he is then bound to guide his actions This is a great deal more easie for common sense to discern then for any man by skill and learning to determine even as it is not in Philosophers who best know the nature both of Fire and Gold to teach what degree of the one will serve to purifie the other so well as the Artizan which doth this by fire discerneth by Sense when the fire hath that degree of heat which sufficeth for his purpose 7. By Reason Man attaineth unto the knowledge of things that are and are not sensible it resteth therefore that we search how Man attaineth unto the knowledge of such things unsensible as are to be known that they may be done Seeing them that nothing can move unless there be some end the desire whereof provoketh unto motion How should that Divine Power of the Soul that Spirit of our Minde as the Apostle termeth it ever stir it self unto action unless it have also the like spur The end for which we are moved to work is sometimes the goodness which we conceive of the very working it self without any further respect at all and the cause that procureth action is the meer desire of action no other good besides being thereby intended Of certain turbulent wits it is said Illis quieta movere magna merces videbatur They thought the very disturbance of things established an hire sufficient to set them on work Sometimes that which we do is referred to a further end without the desire whereof we would leave the same undone as in their actions that gave Alms to purchase thereby the praise of men Man in Perfection of Nature being made according to the likeness of his Maker resembleth him also in the manner of working so that whatsoever we work as men the same we do wittingly work and freely Neither are we according to the manner of Natural Agents any way so tied but that it is in our power to leave the things we do undone The good which either is gotten by doing or which consisteth in the very doing it self causeth not action unless apprehending it as good we so like and desire it That we do unto any such end the same we chuse and prefer before the leaving of it undone Choice there is not unless the thing which we take be so in our power that we might have refused and left it If fire consume the stubble it chuseth not so to do because the nature thereof is such that it can do no other To chuse is to will one thing before another and to will is to bend our Souls to the having or doing of that which they see to be good Goodness is seen with the Eye of the Understanding and the Light of that Eye is Reason So that two Principal Fountains there are of Humane Action Knowledge and Will which Will in things tending towards any end is termed Choice Concerning Knowledge Behold saith Moses I have set before you this day good end evil life and death Concerning Will he addeth immediately Chuse life that is to say the things that tend unto Life them chuse But of one thing we must have special care as being a matter of no small moment and that is How the Will properly and strictly taken as it is of things which are referred unto the end that man desireth differeth greatly from that inferior natural desire which we call Appetite The object of Appetite is whatsoever sensible good may be wished for the object of Will is that good which Reason doth lead us to seek Affections as Joy and Grief and Fear and Anger with such like being as it were the sundry fashions and forms of Appetite can neither rise at the conceit of a thing indifferent nor yet chuse but rise at the sight of some things Wherefore it is not altogether in our power whether we will be stirred with Affections or no. Whereas Actions which issue from the disposition of the Will are in the Power thereof to be performed or stayed Finally Appetite is the Wills Sollicitor and the Will is Appetites Controuler what we covet according to the one by the other we often reject Neither is any other desire termed properly Will but that where Reason and Understanding or the shew of Reason prescribeth the thing desired It may be therefore a question Whether those operations of men are to be counted voluntary wherein that good which is sensible provoketh Appetite and Appetite causeth Action Reason being never called to counsel as when we eat or drink or betake ourselves unto rest and such like The truth is that such actions in men having attained to the use of Reason are voluntary For as the Authority of higher Powers bath force even in those things which are done without their privity and are of so mean reckoning that to acquaint them therewith it needeth not In like sort voluntarily we are said to do that also which the Will if it listed might hinder from being done although about the doing thereof we do not expresly use our Reason or Understanding and so immediately apply our Wills thereunto In cases therefore of such facility the Will doth yield her assent as it were with a kinde of silence by not dissenting in which respect her force is not so apparent as in express Mandates or Prohibitions especially upon advice and consultation going before Where Understanding therefore needeth in those things Reason is the Director of Mans Will by discovering in Action what is good For the Laws of Weldoing are the Dictates of right Reason Children which are not as yet come unto those years whereat they may have again Innocents which are excluded by Natural Defect from ever having thirdly Mad-men which for the present cannot possibly have the use of right Reason to guide themselves have for their guide the Reason that guideth other men which are Tutors over them to seek and to procure their good for them In the rest there is that Light of Reason whereby good may be known from evil and which discovering the same rightly is termed right The Will notwithstanding doth not incline to have or do that which Reason teacheth to be good unless the same do also teach it to be possible For albeit the Appetite being more general may wish any thing which seemeth good be it never so impossible yet for such things the reasonable Will of Man doth never seek Let Reason teach impossibility in any thing and the Will of Man doth let it go a thing impossible it doth not affect the impossibility thereof being manifest There is in the Will of Man naturally that freedom whereby it is apt to take or refuse any particular object whatsoever being presented unto it Whereupon it
will not make any curious or deep inquiry to touch them now and then it shall be sufficient when they are so near at hand that easily they may be conceived without any far removed discourse That way we are contented to prove which being the worse in it self is notwithstanding now by reason of common imbecillity the fitter and likelier to be brooked Signs and tokens to know good by are of sundry kindes some more certain and some less The most certain token of evident Goodness is if the general perswasion of all men do so account it And therefore a common received Error is never utterly overthrown till such times as we go from Signs unto Causes and shew some manifest Root or Fountain thereof common unto all whereby it may clearly appear how it hath come to pass that so many have been overseen In which case surmises and slight probabilities will not serve because the universal consent of men is the perfectest and strongest in this kinde which comprehendeth onely the signs and tokens of Goodness Things casual do vary and that which a man doth but chance to think well of cannot still have the like hap Wherefore although we know not the cause yet thus much we may know that some necessary cause there is whensoever the judgments of all men generally or for the most part run one and the same way especially in matters of that discourse For of things necessarily and naturally done there is no more affirmed but this They keep either always or for the most part one Tenure The general and perpetual voice of men is as the Sentence of God himself For that which all men have at all times learned Nature her self must needs have taught and God being the Author of Nature her voice is but his Instrument By her from him we receive whatsoever in such sort we learn Infinite duties there are the goodness whereof is by this rule sufficiently manifested although we had no other warrant besides to approve them The Apostle St. Paul having speech concerning the Heathen saith of them They are a Law unto themselves His meaning is that by force of the Light of Reason wherewith God illuminateth every one which cometh into the World Men being enabled to know truth from falshood and good from evil do thereby learn in many things what the Will of God is which will himself not revealing by any extraordinary means unto them but they by natural discourse attaining the knowledge thereof seem the Makers of those Laws which indeed are his and they but onely the finders of them out A Law therefore generally taken is a directive rule unto goodness of operation The rule of Divine Operations outward is the definitive appointment of Gods own Wisdom set down within himself The rule of Natural Agents that work by simple necessity is the determination of the Wisdom of God known to God himself the Principal Director of them but not unto them that are directed to execute the same The rule of Natural Agents which work after a sort of their own accord as the Beasts do is the judgment of common sense or fancy concerning the sensible goodness of those objects wherewith they are moved The rule of Ghostly or Immaterial Natures as Spirits and Angels is their intuitive intellectual judgment concerning the amiable beauty and high goodness of that object which with unspeakble joy and delight doth set them on work The rule of Voluntary Agents on Earth is the sentence that Reason giveth concerning the goodness of those things which they are to do And the sentences which Reason giveth are some more some less general before it come to define in particular actions what is good The main principles of Reason are in themselves apparent For to make nothing evident of it self unto Mans understanding were to take away all possibility of knowing any thing And herein that of Theophrastus is true They that seek a reason of all things do utterly overthrow Reason In every kinde of Knowledge some such grounds there are as that being proposed the Minde doth presently embrace them as tree from all possibility of Error clear and manifest without proof In which kinde Axioms or Principles more general are such as this That the greater good is to be chosen before the less If therefore it should be demanded what reason there is why the will of man which doth necessarily shun harm and covet whatsoever is pleasant and sweet should be commanded to count the pleasures of sin Gall and notwithstanding the bitter Accidents wherewith Vertuous Actions are compast yet still to rejoyce and delight in them Surely this could never stand with Reason but that Wisdom thus prescribing groundeth her Laws upon an infallible rule of Comparison which is That small difficulties when exceeding great good is sure to ensue and on the other side momentany benefits when the hurt which they draw after them is unspeakable are not at all to be respected This rule is the ground whereupon the Wisdom of the Apostle buildeth a Law enjoyning Patience unto himself The present lightness of our affliction worketh unto us even with abundance upon abundance an eternal weight of glory while we look not on the things which are seen but on the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Therefore Christianity to be embraced whatsoever calamities in those times it was accompanied withal Upon the same ground our Saviour proveth the Law most reasonable that doth forbid those crimes which men for gains sake fall into For a man to win the World if it be with the loss of his Soul what benefit or good is it Axioms less general yet so manifest that they need no farther proof are such as these God to be worshipped Parents to be honored Others to be used by us as we our selves would be by them Such things as soon as they are alledged all men acknowledge to be good they require no proof or further discourse to be assured of their goodness Notwithstanding whatsoever such principle there is it was at the first found out by discourse and drawn from out of the very Bowels of Heaven and Earth For we are to note that things in the World are to us discernable not onely so far forth as serveth for our vital preservation but further also in a twofold higher respect For first if all other uses were utterly taken away yet the Minde of Man being by Nature speculative and delighted with contemplation in it self they were to be known even for meer Knowledge and Understandings sake Yea further besides this the knowledge of every the least thing in the World hath in it a second peculiar benefit unto us in as much as it serveth to minister Rules Canons and Laws for Men to direct those actions by which we properly term Humane This did the very Heathens themselves obscurely insinuate by making Themis
amongst Men are never framed as they should be unless presuming the Will of Man to be inwardly obstinate rebellious and averse from all obedience unto the Sacred Laws of his Nature In a word unless presuming Man to be in regard of his depraved minde little better then a wilde beast they do accordingly provide notwithstanding so to frame his outward actions that they be no hindrance unto the common good for which Societies are instituted unless they do this they are not perfect It resteth therefore that we consider how Nature findeth out such Laws of Government as serve to direct even Nature depraved to a right end All men desire to lead in this world an happy life The life is led most happily wherein all Vertue is exercised without impediment or let The Apostle in exhorting men to contentment although they have in this world no more then very bare Food and Rayment giveth us thereby to understand that those are even the lowest of things necessary that if we should be stripped of all those things without which we might possibly be yet these must be left that destitution in these is such an impediment as till it be removed suffereth not the minde of Man to admit any other care For this cause first God assigned Adam maintenance of Life and then appointed him a Law to observe For this cause after Men began to grow to a number the first thing we read they gave themselves unto was the Tilling of the Earth and the Feeding of Cattle Having by this mean whereon to live the principal actions of their life afterward are noted by the Exercise of their Religion True it is that the Kingdom of God must be the first thing in our purposes and desires But in as much as a righteous life presupposeth life in as much as to live vertuously it is impossible except we live Therefore the first impediment which naturally we endeavor to remove is penury and want of things without which we cannot live Unto life many implements are necessary mo if we seek as all men naturally do such a life as hath in it joy comfort delight and pleasure To this end we see how quickly sundry Arts Mechanical were found out in the very prime of the World As things of greatest necessity are always first provided for so things of greatest dignity are most accounted of by all such as judge rightly Although therefore Riches be a thing which every Man wisheth yet no Man of judgment can esteem it better to be Rich then Wise Vertuous and Religious If we be both or either of these it is not because we are so born For into the World we come as empty of the one as of the other as naked in Minde as we are in Body Both which necessities of Man had at the first no other helps and supplies then onely domestical such as that which the Prophet implieth saying Can a Mother forget her childe Such as that which the Apostle mentioneth saying He that careth not for his own is worse then an Infidel Such as that concerning Abraham Abraham will command his sons and his houshold after him that they keep the way of the Lord. But neither that which we learn of our selves nor that which others teach us can prevail where wickedness and malice have taken deep root If therefore when there was but as yet one onely family in the World no means of instruction Humane or Divine could prevent effusion of blood How could it be chosen but that when Families were multiplied and encreased upon Earth after Separation each providing for it self Envy Strife Contention and Violence must grow amongst them For hath not Nature furnished Man with Wit and Valor and as it were with Armor which may be used as well unto extream evil as good Yea were they not used by the rest of the World unto evil Unto the contrary onely by Seth Enoch and those few the rest in that Line We all make complaint of the iniquity of our times not unjustly for the days are evil But compare them with those times wherein there were no civil Societies with those times therein there was as yet no manner of Publick Regiment established with those times wherein there were not above eight righteous persons living upon the face of the Earth And we have surely good cause to think that God hath blessed us exceedingly and hath made us behold most happy days To take away all such mutual grievances injuries and wrongs there was no way but onely by growing unto Composition and Agreement amongst themselves by ordaining some kinde of Government publick and by yielding themselves subject thereunto that unto whom they granted authority to rule and govern by them the peace tranquillity and happy estate of the rest might be procured Men always knew that when Force and Injury was offered they might be Defenders of themselves they knew that howsoever men may seek their own commodity yet if this were done with injury unto others it was not to be suffered but by all men and by all good means to be withstood Finally they knew that no man might in Reason take upon him to determine his own right and according to his own determination proceed in maintenance thereof in as much as every man is towards himself and them whom he greatly affecteth partial And therefore that strifes and troubles would be endless except they gave their common consent all to be ordered by some whom they should agree upon Without which consent there were no reason that one Man should take upon him to be Lord or Judge over another because although there be according to the opinion of some very great and judicious Men a kinde of Natural Right in the Noble Wise and Vertuous to govern them which are of servile disposition nevertheless for manifestation of this their right and mens more peaceable contentment on both sides the assent of them whom are to be governed seemeth necessary To Fathers within their Private Families Nature hath given a supream power for which cause we see throughout the World even from the first Foundation thereof all men have ever been taken as Lords and Lawful Kings in their own houses Howbeit over a whole grand multitude having no such dependency upon any one and consisting of so many Families as every Politick Society in the World doth impossible it is that any should have compleat lawful power but by consent of men or immediate appointment of God because not having the Natural Superiority of Fathers their power must needs be either usurped and then unlawful or if lawful then either granted or consented unto by them over whom they exercise the same or else given extraordinarily from God unto whom all the World is subject It is no improbable opinion therefore which the Arch-Philosopher was of That as the chiefest person in every houshold was always as it were a King so when numbers of
to the private intents of men over-potent in the Commonwealth So the grievous abuse which hath been of Councils should rather cause men to study how so gracious a thing may again be reduced to that first Perfection then in regard of stains and blemishes sithence growing be held for ever in extream disgrace To speak of this matter as the cause requireth would require very long discourse All I will presently say is this Whether it be for the finding out of any thing whereunto Divine Law bindeth us but yet in such sort that Men are not thereof on all sides resolved or for the setting down of some Uniform Judgment to stand touching such things as being neither way matters of necessity are notwithstanding offensive and scandalous when there is open opposition about them Be it for the ending of strifes touching matters of Christian belief wherein the one part may seem to have probable cause of dissenting from the other or be it concerning matters of Policy Order and Regiment in the Church I nothing doubt but that Christian men should much better frame themselves to those Heavenly Precepts which our Lord and Saviour with so great instancy gave as concerning Peace and Unity if we did all concur in desire to have the use of Ancient Councils again renewed rather then these proceedings continued which either make all Contentions endless or bring them to one onely Determination and that of all other the worst which is by Sword It followeth therefore that a new Foundation being laid we now adjoyn hereunto that which cometh in the next place to be spoken of namely wherefore God hath himself by Scripture made known such Laws as serve for direction of Men. 11. All things God onely accepted besides the Nature which they have in themselves receive externally some Perfection from other things as hath been shewed In so much as there is in the whole World no one thing great or small but either in respect of knowledge or of use it may unto our Perfection add somewhat And whatsoever such Perfection there is which our Nature may acquire the same we properly term our good our Soveraign Good or Blessedness that wherein the highest degree of all our Perfection consisteth that which being once attained unto there can rest nothing further to be desired and therefore with it our souls are fully content and satisfied in that they have they rejoyce and thirst for no more Wherefore of good things desired some are such that for themselves we cover them not but onely because they serve as Instruments unto that for which we are to seek Of this sort are Riches Another kinde there is which although we desire for it self as Health and Vertue and Knowledge nevertheless they are not the last mark whereat we aim but have their further end whereunto they are referred So as in them we are not satisfied as having attained the utmost we may but our desires do still proceed These things are linked and as it were chained one to another We labor to eat and we eat to live and we live to do good and the good which we do is as seed sown with reference unto a future Harvest But we must come at the length to some pause For if every thing were to be desired for some other without any stint there could be no certain end proposed unto our actions we should go on we know not whither yea whatsoever we do were in vain or rather nothing at all were possible to be done For as to take away the first efficient of our Being were to annihilate utterly our persons so we cannot remove the last final cause of our working but we shall cause whatsoever we work to cease Therefore something there must be desired for it self simply and for no other That is simply for it self desirable unto the nature whereof it is opposite and repugnant to be desired with relation unto any other The Ox and the Ass desire their food neither propose they unto themselves any end wherefore so that of them this is desired for it self But why By reason of their imperfection which cannot otherwise desire it whereas that which is desired simply for it self the excellency thereof is such as permitteth it not in any sort to be referred unto a further end Now that which Man doth desire with reference to a further end the same he desireth in such measure as is unto that end convenient but what he covereth as good in it self towards that his desire is ever infinite So that unless the last good of all which is desired altogether for it self be also infinite we do evil in making it our end even as they who placed their felicity in wealth or honor or pleasure or any thing here attained because in desiring any thing as our final perfection which is not so we do amiss Nothing may be infinitely desired but that good which indeed is infinite For the better the more desireable that therefore most desireable wherein there is infinity of goodness So that if any thing desireable may be infinite that must needs be the highest of all things that are desired No good is infinite but onely God therefore he is our felicity and bliss moreover desire tendeth unto union with that it desireth If then in him we be blessed it is by force of participation and conjunction with him Again it is not the possession of any good thing can make them happy which have it unless they enjoy the things wherewith they are possessed Then are we happy therefore when fully we enjoy God as an object wherein the Powers of our Souls are satisfied even with everlasting delight So that although we be men yet by being unto God united we live as it were the Life of God Happiness therefore is that estate whereby we attain so far as possibly may be attained the full possession of that which simply for it self is to be desired and containeth in it after an eminent sort the contentation of our desires the highest degree of all our Perfection Of such Perfection capable we are not in this life For while we are in the World we are subject unto sundry imperfections grief of body defects of minde yea the best things we do are painful and the exercise of them grievous being continued without intermission so as in those very actions whereby we are especial'y perfected in this life we are not able to persist forced we are with very weariness and that often to interrupt them Which rediousness cannot fall into those operations that are in the state of bliss when our union with God is compleat Compleat union with him must be according unto every power and faculty of our mindes apt to receive so glorious an object Capable we are of God both by Understanding and Will By Understanding as he is that Soveraign Truth which comprehends the Rich Treasures of all Wisdom By Will as he is that Sea of Goodness
know that what Ceremonies we retain common unto the Church of Rome we therefore retain them for that we judge them to be profitable and to be such that others instead of them would be worse So that when they say that we ought to abrogate such Romish Ceremonies as are unprofitable or else might have other more profitable in their stead they trisle and they beat the Air about nothing which toucheth us unless they mean that we ought to abrogate all Romish Ceremonies which in their judgment have either no use or less use than some other might have But then must they shew some commission whereby they are authorized to sit as Judges and we required to take their judgment for good in this case Otherwise their sentences will not be greatly regarded when they oppose their Me thinketh unto the Orders of the Church of England as in the Question about Surplesses one of them doth If we look to the colour black methinks is the more decent if to the form a garment down to the foot hath a great deal more comeliness in it If they think that we ought to prove the Ceremonies commodious which we have retained they do in this Point very greatly deceive themselves For in all right and equity that which the Church hath received and held so long for good that which publike approbation hath ratified must carry the benefit of presumption with it to be accounted meet and convenient They which have stood up as yesterday to challenge it of defect must prove their challenge If we being Defendents do answer that the Ceremonies in question are godly comely decent profitable for the Church their reply is childish and unorderly to say that we demand the thing in question and shew the poverty of our cause the goodness whereof we are fain to beg that our Adversaries would grant For on our part this must be the Answer which orderly proceeding doth require The burden of proving doth rest on them In them it is frivolous to say we ought not to use bad Ceremonies of the Church of Rome and presume all such bad as it pleaseth themselves to dislike unless we can perswade them the contrary Besides they are herein opposite also to themselves For what one thing is so common with them as to use the custome of the Church of Rome for an Argument to prove that such and such Ceremonies cannot be good and profitable for us inasmuch as that Church useth them Which usual kind of disputing sheweth that they do not disallow onely those Romish Ceremonies which are unprofitable but count all unprofitable which are Romish that is to say which have been devised by the Church of Rome or which are used in that Church and not prescribed in the Word of God For this is the onely limitation which they can use sutable unto their other Positions And therefore the cause which they yield why they hold it lawful to retain in Doctrine and in Discipline some things as good which yet are common to the Church of Rome is for that those good things are perpetual Commandments in whose place no other can come but Ceremonies are changeable So that their judgement in truth is that whatsoever by the Word of God is not changeable in the Church of Rome that Churches using is a cause why Reformed Churches ought to change it and not to think it good or profitable And lest we seem to father any thing upon them more then is properly their own let them read even their own words where they complain That we are thus constrained to be like unto the Papists in any their Ceremonies yea they urge that this cause although it were alone ought to move them to whom that belongeth to do them away forasmuch as they are their Ceremonies and that the Bishop of Salisbury doth justifie this their complaint The clause is untrue which they add concerning the Bishop of Salisbury but the sentence doth shew that we do them no wrong in setting down the state of the question between us thus Whether we ought to abolish out of the Church of England all such Orders Rites and Ceremonies as are established in the Church of Rome and are not prescribed in the Word of God For the Affirmative whereof we are now to answer such proofs of theirs as have been before alledged 5. Let the Church of Rome be what it will let them that are of it be the people of God and our Fathers in the Christian Faith or let them be otherwise hold them for Catholicks or hold them for Hereticks it is not a thing either one way or other in this present question greatly material Our conformity with them in such things as have been proposed is not proved as yet unlawful by all this S. Augustine hath said yea and we have allowed his saying That the custome of the people of God and the decrees of our forefathers are to be kept touching those things whereof the Scripture hath neither one way nor other given us any charge What then Doth it here therefore follow that they being neither the people of God nor our Forefathers are for that cause in nothing to be followed This Consequent were good if so be it were granted that only the custom of the people of God and the Decrees of our forefathers are in such case to be observed But then should no other kind of latter Laws in the Church be good which were a gross absurdity to think S. Augustines speech therefore doth import that where we have no divine Precept if yet we have the custom of the people of God or a Decree of our forefathers this is a Law and must be kept Notwithstanding it is not denied but that we lawfully may observe the positive constitutions of our own Churches although the same were but yesterday made by our selves alone Nor is there any thing in this to prove that the Church of England might not by Law receive Orders Rites or Customs from the Church of Rome although they were neither the people of God nor yet our forefathers How much lesse when we have received from them nothing but that which they did themselves receive from such as we cannot deny to have been the people of God yea such as either we must acknowledge for our own forefathers or else disdain the race of Christ 6. The Rites and Orders wherein we follow the Church of Rome are of no other kind that such as the Church of Geneva it self doth follow them in We follow the Church of Rome in mo things yet they in some things of the same nature about which our present controversie is so that the difference is not in the kind but in the number of Rites onely wherein they and we do follow the Church of Rome The use of Wafer-cakes the custom of Godfathers and Godmothers in Baptism are things not commanded nor forbidden in the Scripture things which have been of old and are retained in
in no such consideration to be understood as we have mentioned if it were so that men are condemned as well of the one as of the other only for using the Ceremonies of a Religion contrary unto their own and that this cause is such as ought to prevail no less with us than with them shall it not follow that seeing there is still between our Religion and Paganism the self-same contrariety therefore we are still no less rebukeable if we now deck our Houses with Boughs or send New-years gifts unto our Friends or seast on those days which the Gentiles then did or sit after Prayer as they were accustomed For so they infer upon the premises that as great difference as commodiously may be there should be in all outward Ceremonies between the People of God and them which are not his People Again they teach as hath been declared that there is not as great a difference as may be between them except the one do avoid whatsoever Rites and Ceremonies uncommanded of God the other doth embrace So that generally they teach that the very difference of Spiritual condition it self between the Servants of Christ and others requireth such difference in Ceremonies between them although the one be never so far disjoyned in time or place from the other But in case the People of God and Belial do chance to be Neighbours then as the danger of infection is greater so the same difference they say is thereby made more necessary In this respect as the Jews were severed from the Heathen so most especially from the Heathen nearest them And in the same respect we which ought to differ howsoever from the Church of Rome are now they say by reason of our nearness more bound to differ from them in Ceremonies then from Turks A strange kind of speech unto Christianeus and such as I hope they themselves do acknowledge unadvisedly uttered We are not so much to fear infection from Turks as from Papists What of that we must remember that by conforming rather our selves in that respect to Turks we should be spreaders of a worse infection into others then any we are likely to draw from Papists by our conformity with them in Ceremonies If they did âate as Turks do the Christian or as Canaanites did of old the Jewish Religion even in gross the circumstance of local nearness in them unto us might haply inforce in us a duty of greater separation from them then from those other mentioned But forasmuch as Papists are so much in Christ nearer unto us then Turks is there any reasonable man now you but will judge it meeter that our Ceremonies of Christian Religion should be Popish then Turkish or Heathenish Especially considering that we were not brought to dwell amongst them as Israel in Canaan having not been of them For even a very part of them we were And when God did by his good Spirit put it into our hearts first to reform our selves whence grew our separation and then by all good means to seek also their Reformation had we not onely cut off their corruptions but also estranged our selves from them in things indifferent who seeth not how greatly prejudicial this might have been to so good a cause and what occasion it had given them to think to their greater obduration in evil that through a froward or wanton desire of Innovation we did unconstrainedly those things for which conscience was pretended Howsoever the case doth stand as Iuda had been rather to choose conformity in things indifferent with Israel when they were neerest opposites then with the farthest removed Pagans So we in like cases much rather with Papists than with Turks I might add further for a more full and complete Answer so much concerning the large odds between the case of the eldest Churches inregard of those Heathens and ours in respect of the Church of Rome that very cavillation it self should be satisfied and have no shift to fly unto 8. But that no one thing may detain us over-long I return to their Reasons against our conformity with that Church That extreme dissimilitude which they urge upon us is now commended as our best and safest policy for establishment of sound Religion The ground of which politick Position is That Evils must be cured by their contraries and therefore the cure of the Church infected with the poyson of Antichristianity must be done by that which is thereunto as contrary as may be A medled estate of the Orders of the Gospel and the Ceremonies of Popery is not the best way to banish Popery We are contrariwise of opinion that he which will perfectly recover a sick and restore a diseased body unto health must not endeavour so much to bring it to a state of simple contrariety as of fit proportion in contâariety unto those evils which are to be cured He that will take away extreme heat by setting the body in extremity of cold shall undoubtedly remove the disease but together with it the diseased too The first thing therefore in skilful cures is the knowledge of the part affected the next is of the evil which doth affect it the last is not onely of the kind but also of the measure of contrary things whereby to remove it They which measure Religion by dislike of the Church of Rome think every man so much the more sound by how much he can make the corruptions thereof to seem more large And therefore some there are namely the Arrians in reformed Churches of Poland which imagine the Canker to have eaten so far into the very Bones and Marrow of the Church of Rome as if it had not so much as a sound belief no not concerning God himself but that the very belief of the Trinity were a part of Antichristian corruption and that the wonderful providence of God did bring to pass that the Bishop of the See of Rome should be famous for his tripple Crown a sensible mark whereby the world might know him to be that Mystical Beast spoken of in the Revelation to be that great and notorious Antichrist in no one respect so much as in this that he maintaineth the Doctrine of the Trinity Wisdom therefore and skill is requisite to know what parts are sound in that Church and what corrupted Neither is it to all men apparent which complain of unsound parts with what kind of unsoundness every such part is possessed They can say that in Doctrine in Discipline in Prayers in Sacraments the Church of Rome hath as it hath indeed very foul and gross corruptions the nature whereof notwithstanding because they have not for the most part exact skill and knowledge to discern they think that amiss many times which is not and the salve of Reformation they mightily call for but where and what the sores are which need it as they wot full little so they think it not greatly material to search such mens contentment must be wrought by stratagem the
this were predominant We have most heartily to thank God therefore that they amongst us to whom the first consultations of causes of this kind fell were men which aiming at another mark namely the glory of God and the good of this his Church took that which they judged thereunto necessary not rejecting any good or convenient thing only because the Church of Rome might perhaps like it If we have that which is meet and right although they be glad we are not to envy them this their solace we do not think it a duty of ours to be in every such thing their Tormentors And wherein it is said that Popery for want of this utter extirpation hath in some places takenroot and flourished again but hath not been able to re-establish it self in any place after provision made against it by utter evacuation of all Romish Ceremonies and therefore as long as we hold any thing like unto them we put them in some more hope than if all were taken away as we deny not but this may be true so being of two evils to choose the less we hold it better that the Friends and Favourers of the Church of Rome should be in some kind of hope to have a corrupt Religion restored then both we and they conceive just fear lest under colour of rooting out Popery the most effectual means to bear up the state of Religion be removed and so a way made either for Paganism or for extreme Barbarity to enter If desire of weakning the hope of others should turn us away from the course we have taken how much more the care of preventing our own fear with-hold us from that we are urged unto Especially seeing that our own fear we know but we are not so certain what hope the Rites and Orders of our Church have bred in the hearts of others Fort it is no sufficient Argument therefore to say that in maintaining and urging these Ceremonies none are so clamorous as Papists and they whom Papists suborn this speech being more hard to justifie than the former and so their proof more doubtfull then the thing it self which they prove He that were certain that this is true must have marked who they be that speak for Ceremonies he must have noted who amongst them doth speak oftenest or is most earnest he must have been both acquainted thorowly with the Religion of such and also privy to what conferences or compacts are passed in secret between them and others which kind of notice are not wont to be vulgar and common Yet they which alleadge this would have it taken as a thing that needeth no proof a thing which all men know and see And if so be it were granted them as true what gain they by it Sundry of them that be Popish are eager in maintenance of Ceremonies Is it so strange a matter to find a good thing furthered by ill men of a smister intent and purpose whose forwardness is not therefore a bridle to such as favour the same cause with a better and sincerer meaning They that seek as they say the removing of all Popish Orders out of the Church and reckon the state of Bishops in the number of those Orders do I doubt not presume that the cause which they prosecute is holy Notwithstanding it is their own ingenuous acknowledgement that even this very cause which they term so often by an excellency The Lords Cause is gratissima most acceptable unto some which hope for prey and spoyl by it and that our Age hath store of such and that such are the very Sectaries of Dionysius the famous Atheist Now if hereupon we should upbraid them with Irreligious as they do us with Superstitious favourers if we should follow them in their own kind of Pleading and say that the most clamorous for this pretended Reformation are either Atheists or else Proctors suborned by Atheists the Answer which herein they would make unto us let them apply unto themselves and there an end For they must not forbid us to presume our cause in defence of our Church-orders to be as good as theirs against them till the contrary be made manifest to the World 10. In the mean while sorry we are that any good and godly mind should be grieved with that which is done But to remedy their grief lyeth not so much in us as in themselves They do not wish to be made glad with the hurt of the Church and to remove all out of the Church whereat they shew themselves to be sorrowful would be as we are perswaded hurtful if not pernicious thereunto Till they be able to perswade the contrary they must and will I doubt not find out some other good mean to chear up themselves Amongst which means the example of Geneva may serve for one Have not they the old Popish custom of using God-fathers and God-mothers in Baptism the old Popish custom of administring the blessed Sacrament of the holy Eucharist with Wafer-cakes These things then the Godly there can digest Wherefore should not the Godly here learn to do the like both in them and in therest of the like nature Some further mean peradventure it might be to asswage their grief if so be they did consider the revenge they take on them which have been as they interpret it the workers of their continuance in so great grief so long For if the maintenance of Ceremonies be a corrosive to such as oppugn them undoubtedly to such as maintain them it can be no great pleasure when they behold how that which they reverence is oppugned And therefore they that judge themselves Martyrs when they are grieved should think withal what they are whom they grieve For we are still to put them in mind that the cause doth make no difference for that it must be presumed as good at the least on our part as on theirs till it be in the end decided who have stood for Truth and who for Error So that till then the most effectual medicine and withal the most sound to ease their grief must not be in our opinion the taking away of those things whereat they are grieved but the altering of that perswasion which they have concerning the same For this we therefore both pray and labour the more because we are also perswaded that it is but conceit in them to think that those Romish Ceremonies whereof we have hitherto spoken are like leprous Clothes infectious to the Church or like soft and gentle Poysons the venom whereof being insensibly penicious worketh death and yet is never felt working Thus they say but because they say it only and the World hath not as yet had so great experience of their Art in curing the Diseases of the Church that the bare authority of their word should perswade in a cause so weighty they may not think much if it be required at their hands to shew First by what means so deadly Infection can grow from
the impotent and not please ourselves It was a weakness in the Christian Jews and a maim of judgment in them that they thought the Gentiles polluted by the eating of those meats which themselves were afraid to touch for fear of transgressing the Law of Moses yea hereat their hearts did so much rise that the Apostle had just cause to fear lest they would rather forsake Christianity then endure any fellowship with such as made no conscience of that which was unto them abominable And for this cause mention is made of destroying the weak by meats and of dissolving the work of God which was his Church a part of the Living Stones whereof were believing Jews Now those weak Brethren before mentioned are said to be as the Jews were and our Ceremonies which have been abused in the Church of Rome to be as the scandalous Meats from which the Gentiles are exhorted to abstain in the presence of Jews for fear of averting them from Christian Faith Therefore as Charity did binde them to refrain from that for their Brethrens sake which otherwise was lawful enough for them so it bindeth us for our Brethrens sake likewise to abolish such Ceremonies although we might lawfully else retain them But between these two cases there are great odds For neither are our weak Brethren as the Jews nor the Ceremonies which we use as the meats which the Gentiles used The Jews were known to be generally weak in that respect whereas contrariwise the imbecillity of ours is not common unto so many that we can take any such certain notice of them It is a chance if here and there some one be found and therefore seeing we may presume men commonly otherwise there is no necessity that our practice should frame it self by that which the Apostle doth prescribe to the Gentiles Again their use of meats was not like unto our Ceremonies that being a matter of private action in common life where every man was free to order that which himself did but this a publick constitution for the ordering of the Church And we are not to look that the Church should change her publick Laws and Ordinances made according to that which is judged ordinarily and commonly fittest for the whole although it chance that for some particular men the same be found inconvenient especially when there may be other remedy also against the sores of particular incoveniences In this case therefore where any private harm doth grow we are not to reject instruction as being an unmeet plaister to apply unto it neither can we say that he which appointeth Teachers for Physicians in this kinde of evil is As if a man would set one to watch a childe all day long lest he should hurt himself with a Knife whereas by taking away the Knife from him the danger is avoided and the service of the man better employed For a Knife may be taken from a childe without depriving them of the benefit thereof which have years and discretion to use it But the Ceremonies which Children do abuse if we remove quite and clean as it is by some required that we should then are they not taken from Children onely but from others also which is as though because Children may perhaps hurt themselves with Knives we should conclude that therefore the use of Knives is to be taken quite and clean even from men also Those particular Ceremonies which they pretend to be so scandalous we shall in the next Book have occasion more throughly to sift where other things also traduced in the publick duties of the Church whereunto each of these appertaineth are together with these to be touched and such Reasons to be examined as have at any time been brought either against the one or the other In the mean while against the conveniency of curing such evils by instruction strange it is that they should object the multitude of other necessary Matters wherein Preachers may better bestow their time then in giving men warning not to abuse Ceremonies A wonder it is that they should object this which have so many years together troubled the Church with quarrels concerning these things and are even to this very hour so earnest in them That if they write or speak publickly but five words one of them is lightly about the dangerous estate of the Church of England in respect of abused Ceremonies How much happier had it been for this whole Church if they which have raised contention therein about the abuse of Rites and Ceremonies had considered in due time that there is indeed store of Matters fitter and better a great deal for Teachers to spend time and labor in It is through their importunate and vehement Asteveâations more then through any such experience which we have had of our own that we are enforced to think it possible for one or other now and then at leastwise in the prime of the Reformation of our Church to have stumbled at some kinde of Ceremonies Wherein for as much as we are contented to take this upon their credit and to think it may be sith also they further pretend the same to be so dangerous a Snare to their Souls that are at any time taken therein they must give our Teachers leave for the saving of those Souls be they never so few to intermingle sometime with other more necessary things Admonition concerning these not unnecessary Wherein they should in reason more easily yield this leave considering that hereunto we shall not need to use the hundredth part of that time which themselves think very needful to bestow in making most bitter Invectives against the Ceremonies of the Church 13. But to come to the last point of all The Church of England is grievously charged with forgetfulness of her duty which duty had been to traine her self unto the Pattern of their Example that went before her in the Work of Reformation For as the Churches of Christ ought to be most unlike the Synagogue of Antichrist in their indifferent Ceremonies so they ought to be most like one unto another and for preservation of Unity to have as much as possible may be all the same Ceremonies And therefore St. Paul to establish this order in the Church of Corinth that they should make their gatherings for the Poor upon the first day of the Sabbath which is our Sunday alledgeth this for a Reason That he had so ordained in other Churches Again As children of one Father and Servants of one Family so all Churches should not onely have one Diet in that they have one Word but also wear as it were one Livery in using the same Ceremonies Thirdly This Rule did the Great Council of Nice follow when it ordained That where certain at the Feast of Pentecost did pray Kneeling they should pray Standing The reason whereof is added which is That one Custom ought to be kept throughout all Churches It is true That the diversity of Ceremonies
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 Clergâes 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
thereby a great deal more effectually then by Positive Laws restrained from doing evil in as much as those Laws have no farther power then over our outward actions onely whereas unto mens inward cogitations unto the privy intents and motions of their hearts Religion serveth for a bridle What more savage wilde and cruel then Man if he see himself able either by fraud to over-teach or by power to over-bear the Laws whereunto he should he subject Wherefore in so great boldness to offend it behoveth that the World should be held in aw not by a vain surmise but a true apprehension of somewhat which no man may think himself able to withstand This is the politick use of Religion In which respect there are of these wise malignants some who have vouchsafed it their marvellous favorable countenance and speech very gravely affirming That Religion honored addeth greatness and contemned bringeth ruine unto Commonweaâs That Princes and States which will continue are above all things to uphold the reverend regard of Religion and to provide for the same by all means in the making of their Laws But when they should define what means are best for that purpose behold they extol the wisdom of Paganisin they give it out as a mystical precept of great importance that Princes and such as are under them in most authority or credit with the people should take all occasions of rare events and from what cause soever the same do proceed yet wrest them to the strengthning of their Religion and not make it nice for so good a purpose to use if need be plain forgeries Thus while they study to bring to pass that Religion may seem but a matter made they lose themselves in the very maze of their own discourses as if Reason did even purposely forsake them who of purpose forsake God the Author thereof For surely a strange kinde of madness it is that those men who though they be void of Piety yet because they have wit cannot chuse but know that treachery guile an deceit are things which may for a while but do not use long to go unespied should teach that the greatest honor to a State is perpetuity and grant that alterations in the Service of God for that they impair the credit of Religion are therefore perilous in Commonweals which have no continuance longer then Religion hath all reverence done unto it and withal acknowledge for so they do that when people began to espie the falshood of Oracles whereupon all Gentilism was built their hearts were utterly averted from it and notwithstanding Counsel Princes in sober earnest for the strengthning of their States to maintain Religion and for the maintenance of Religion not to make choice of that which is true but to authorise that they make choice of by those false and fraudulent means which in the end must needs overthrow it Such are the counsels of men godless when they would shew themselves politick devisers able to create God in Man by art 3. Wherefore to let go this execâable crew and to come to extremities on the contrary hand two affections there are the forces whereof as they bear the greater or lesser sway in mans heart frame accordingly to the stamp and character of his Religion the one Zeal the other Fear Zeal unless it be rightly guided when it endeavoreth most busily to please God forceth upon him those unseasonable offices which please him not For which cause if they who this way swerve be compared with such sincere found and discreet as Abraham was in Matter of Religion the service of the one is like unto slattery the other like the faithful sedulity of friendship Zeal except it be ordered aright when it bendeth it self unto conflict with all things either in deed or but imagined to be opposite unto Religion useth the Razor many times with such eagerness that the very life of Religion it self is thereby hazarded through hatred of Tares the Corn in the Field of God is plucked up So that Zeal needeth both ways a sober guide Fear on the other side if it have not the light of true understanding concerning God wherewith to be moderated breedeth likewise Superstition It is therefore dangerous that in things Divine we should work too much upon the spur either of zeal or fear Fear is a good Solicitor to Devotion Howbeit sith fear in this kinde doth grow from an apprehension of Deity endued with irresistable power to hurt and is of all affections anger excepted the unaptest to admit any conference with Reason for which cause the Wise man doth say of Fear that it is a betrayer of the forces of reasonable understanding therefore except men know beforehand what manner of service pleaseth God while they are fearful they try all things which fancy offereth Many there are who never think on God but when they are in extremity of fear and then because what to think or what to do they are uncertain perplexity not suffering them to be idle they think and do as it were in a phrensie they know not what Superstition neither knoweth the right kinde nor observeth the due measure of actions belonging to the Service of God but is always joyned with a wrong opinion touching things Divine Superstition is when things are either abhorred or observed with a zealous or fearful but erroneous relation to God By means whereof the superstitious do sometimes serve though the true God yet with needless offices and defraud him of duties necessary sometime load others then him with such honors as properly are his The one their over sight who miss in the choice of that wherewith they are affected the other theirs who fail in the election of him towards whom they shew their devotion This the crime of Idolatry that the fault of voluntary either niceness or superfluity in Religion The Christian World it self being divided into two grand parts it appeareth by the general view of both that with Master of Heresie the West hath been often and much troubled but the East part never quiet till the deluge of misery wherein now they are overwhelmed them The chiefest cause whereof doth seem to have lien in the restless wits of the Grecians evermore proud of their own curious and subtile inventions which when at any time they had contrived the great facility of their Language served them readily to make all things fair and plausible to mens understanding Those grand Heretical Impieties therefore which most highly and immediately touched God and the glorious Trinity were all in a manner the Monsters of the East The West bred fewer a great deal and those commonly of a lower nature such as more nearly and directly concerned rather men then God the Latines being always to capital Heresies less inclined yet unto gross Superstition more Superstition such as that of the Pharisees was by whom Divine things indeed were less because other things were more divinely esteemed of then Reason would the
receive due honour by whose Incitement the Holy Ordinances of the Church endure every where open contempt No it is not possible they should observe as they ought the One who from the Other withdraw unnecessarily their Own or their Brethrens Obedience Surely the Church of God in this Business is neither of Capacity I trust so weak noâ so unstrengthened I know with Authority from Above but that her Laws may exact Obedience at the hands of her own Children and injoyn Gain-sayers silence giving them roundly to understand That where our Duty is Submission weak Oppositions betoken Pride We therefore crave Thirdly to have it granted That where neither the Evidence of any Law Divine nor the Strength of any Invincible Argument otherwise found out by the Light of Reason not any Notable Publick Inconvenience doth make against that which our own Laws Ecclesiastical have although but Newly instituted for the Ordering of these Affairs the very Authority of the Church it self at the least in such Cases may give so much Credit to her own Laws as to make their Sentence touching Fitness and Conveniency weightier than any bare or naked Conceit to the contrary especially in them who can owe no less than Childe-like obedience to her that hath more than Motherly Power 9. There are Antient Ordinances Laws which on all sides are allowed to be Just and Good yea Divine and Apostolick Constitutions which the Church it may be doth not always keep nor always justly deserve blame in that respect For in Evils that cannot be removedâ without the manifest danger of Greater to succeed in their rooms Wisdom of necessity must give place to Necessity All it can do in those Cases is to devise how that which must be endured may be mitigated and the Inconveniences thereof countervailed as neer as may be that when the Best things are not possible the best may be made of Those that are Nature than which there is nothing more constant nothing more uniform in all her ways doth notwithstanding stay her Hand yea and change her Course when That which God by Creation did command he doth at any time by Necessity countermand It hath therefore pleased himself sometime to unloose the very Tongues even of Dumb Creatures and to teach them to plead This in their Own Defence lest the Cruelty of Man should persist to afflict them for not keeping their wonted Course when some invincible Impediment hath hindred If we leave Nature and look into Art the Work-man hath in his Heart a Purpose he carrieth in mind the whole Form which his Work should have there wanteth not him Skill and Desire to bring his Labour to the best effect only the Matter which he hath to work on is unframable This Necessity excuseth him so that nothing is derogated from his Credit although much of his Work 's perfection be found wanting Touching Actions of Common Life there is not any Defence more favourably heard than theirs who alledge sincerely for themselves That they did as Necessity constrained them For when the Mind is rightly ordered and affected as it should be in case some external Impediment crossing well-advised Desires shall potently draw Men to leave what they principally wish and to take a Course which they would not if their Choyce were free what Necessity forceth Men unto the same in This Case it maintaineth as long as nothing is committed simply in it self evil nothing absolutely sinful or wicked nothing repugnant to that Immetable Law whereby whatsoever is condemned as Evil can never any way be made Good The casting away of Things profitable for the sustenance of Man's Life is an unthankful Abuse of the Fruits of God's good Providence towards Mankind Which Consideration for all that did not hinder Saint Paul from throwing Corn into the Sea when care of saving Mens Lives made it necessary to loose that which else had been better saved Neither was this to do Evil to the end that Good might come of it For of Two such Evils being not both evitable the choyce of the Less is not Evil. And Evils must be in our constructions judged inevitable if there be no apparent ordinary way to avoid them Because where Counsel and Advice bear rule of God's extraordinary Power without extraordinary Warrant we cannot presume In Civil Affairs to declare what sway Necessity hath ever been accustomed to bear were labour infinite The Laws of all States and Kingdoms in the World have scarcely of any thing more common use Should then only the Church shew it self inhuman and stern absolutely urging a rigorous observation of Spiritual Ordinances without relaxation or exception what Necessity soever happen We know the contrary Practise to have been commended by him upon the warrant of whose Judgement the Church most of all delighted with merciful and moderate courses doth the ostner condescend unto like equity permitting in cases of Necessity that which otherwise it disalloweth and forbiddeth Cases of Necessity being sometime but urgent sometime extream the consideration of Publick Utility is with very good advice judged at the least equivalent with the easier kinde of Necessity Now that which causeth numbers to storm against some necessary tolerations which they should rather let pass with silence considering that in Polity as well Ecclesiastical as Civil there are and will be always Evils which no art of man can cure breaches and leaks moe than man's wit hath hands to stop that which maketh odious unto them many things wherein notwithstanding the truth is that very just regard hath been had of the Publick good that which in a great part of the weightiest Causes belonging to this present Controversie hath insnared the Judgments both of sundry good and of some well learned men is the manifest truth of certain general Principles whereupon the Ordinances that serve for usual practise in the Church of God are grounded Which Principles men knowing to be most sound and that the ordinary practise accordingly framed is good whatsoever is over and besides that ordinary the same they judge repugnant to those true Principles The cause of which Error is Ignorance what restraints and limitations all such Principles have in regard of so manifold varieties as the matter whereunto they are applyable doth commonly afford These varieties are not known but by much experience from whence to draw the true bounds of all Principles to discern how farr forth they take effect to see where and why they fail to apprehend by what degrees and means they lead to the practise of things in show though not indeed repugnant and contrary one to another requireth more sharpness of Wit more intricate circuitions of Discourse more industry and depth of Judgment than common Ability doth yield So that general Rules til their limits be fully known especially in matter of Publick and Ecclesiastical affairs are by reason of the manifold secret Exceptions which lye hidden in them no other to the eye of man's
end It behoveth that the place where God shall be served by the whole Church be a publick place for the avoiding of Privy Conventicles which covered with pretence of Religion may serve unto dangerous practises Yea though such Assemblies be had indeed for Religions sake hurtful nevertheless they may easily prove as well in regard of their fitness to serve the turn of Hereticks and such as privily will soonest adventure to instill their poyson into mens minds as also for the occasion which thereby is given to malicious persons both of suspecting and of traducing with more colourable shew those Actions which in themselves being holy should be so ordered that no man might probably otherwise think of them Which considerations have by so much the greater waight for that of these inconveniences the Church heretofore had so plain experience when Christian men were driven to use Secret Meetings because the liberty of Publick places was not granted them There are which hold that the presence of a Christian multitude and the Duties of Religion performed amongst them do make the place of their Assembly publick even as the presence of the King and his Retinue maketh any mans House a Court But this I take to be an errour in as much as the only thing which maketh any Place publick is the publick assignment thereof unto such Duties As for the Multitude there assembled or the Duties which they perform it doth not appear how either should be of force to insuse any such Prerogative Not doth the solemn Dedication of Churches serve only to make them publick but farther also to surrender up that right which otherwise their Founders might have in them and to make God himself their Owner For which cause at the Erection and Consecration as well of the Tabernacle as of the Temple it pleased the Almighty to give a manifest sign that he took possession of both Finally it not fiâth in solemn manner the Holy and Religious use whereunto it is intended such Houses shall be put These things the wisdom of Solomon did not account superfluous He knew how easily that which was meant should be holy and sacred might be drawn from the use whereunto it was first provided he knew how bold men are to take even from God himself how hardly that House would be kept from impious profanation he knew and right wisely therefore endeavoured by such Solemnities to leave in the minds of men that impression which might somewhat restrain their boldness and nourish a reverend affection towards the House of God For which cause when the first House was destroyed and a new in the stead thereof erected by the Children of Israel after their return from captivity they kept the dedication even of this House also with joy The Argument which our Saviour useth against Prophaners of the Temple he taketh from the use whereunto it was with Solemnity consecrated And as the Prophet Ieremy forbiddeth the carrying of Burdens on the Sabbath because that was a Sanctified day So because the Temple was a Place sanctified our Lord would not suffer no not the carriage of a Vessel through the Temple These two Commandements therefore are in the Law conjoyned Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Santuary Out of those the Apostles words Have ye not Houses to eat and drink in albeit Temples such as now were not then erected for that exercise of Christian Religion it hath been nevertheless not absurdly conceived that he teacheth what difference should be made between House and House that what is fit for the Dwelling Place of God and what for Mans Habitation be shewethâ requireth that Christian men at their Own home take Common food and in the House of the Lord none but that food which is heavenly he instructeth them that as in the one place they use to refresh their Bodies so they may in the other learn to seek the nourishment of their Souls and as there they sustain Temporal life so here they would learn to make provision for Eternal Christ could not suffer that the Temple should serve for a place of Mart not the Apostle of Christ that the Church should be made an Inne When therefore we sanctifie or hallow Churches that which we do as ooly to testifie that we make them Places of publick resort that we invest God himself with them that we sever them from Common uses In which action other Solemnities than such as are decent and fit for that purpose we approve none Indeed we condemn not all as unmeet the like whereunto have either been devised or used haply amongst Idolaters For why should conformity with them in matter of Opinion be lawful when they think that which is true if in action when they do that which is meet it be uot lawful to be like unto them Are we to forsake any true Opinion because Idolaters have maintained it or to shun any requisite action only because we have in the practise thereof been prevented by Idolaters It is no impossible thing but that sometimes they may judge as tightly what is decent about such external affairs of God as in greater things what is true Not therefore whatsoever Idolaters have either thought or done but let whatsoever they have either thought or done idolatrously be so far forth abhorred For of that which is good even in evil things God is Author 13. Touching the names of Angels and Saints whereby the most of our Churches are called as the custome of so naming them is very antient so neither was the cause thereof at the first nor is the use and continuance with us at this present hurtful That Churches were consecrated unto none but the Lord only the very General name it self doth sufficiently shew is as much as by plain Grammatical construction Church doth signifie no other thing than the Lords House And because the multitude as of Persons so of things particular causeth variety of Proper names to be devised for Distinction sake Founders of Churches did herein that which best liked their own conceit at the present time yet each intending that as oft as those Buildings came to be mentioned the name should put men in mind of some memorable thing or person Thus therefore it cometh to pass that all Churches have had their names some as memorials of peace some of wisdom some in memory of the Trinity it self some of Christ under sundry Titles of the blessed Virgin not a few many of one Apostle Saint or Martyr many of all In which respect their commendable purpose being not of every one understood they have been in latter ages construed as though they had superstitiously meant either that those places which where denominated of Angels and Saints should serve for the worship of so glorious Creatures or else those glorified Creatures for defence protection and patronage of such places A thing which the Antients do utterly disclaim To them saith
Lessons Human with Sacred at such time as the one both affected the Credit and usurped the Name of the other as by the Canon of a later Council providing remedy for the self-same Evil and yet allowing the old Ecclesiastical Books to be read it doth more plainly and clearly appear neither can be construed nor should be urged utterly to prejudice our use of those old Ecclesiastical Writings much less of Homilies which were a third kinde of Readings usual in former times a most commendable Institution as well then to supply the casual as now the necessary defect of Sermons In the heat of general Persecution whereunto Christian Belief was subject upon the first promulgation thereof throughout the World it much confirmed the courage and constancy of weaker mindes when publick relation was made unto them after what manner God had been glorified through the sufferings of Martyrs famous amongst them for Holiness during life and at the time of their death admirable in all mens eyes through miraculous evidence of Grace divine assisting them from above For which cause the Vertues of some being thought expedient to be annually had in remembrance above the rest this brought in a fouth kinde of Publick Reading whereby the lives of such Saints and Martyrs had at the time of their yearly Memorials solemn recognition in the Church of God The fond imitation of which laudible Custom being in later Ages resumed where there was neither the like cause to do as the Fathers before had done nor any Care Conscience or Wit in such as undertook to perform that Work some brainless men have by great labour and travel brought to pass that the Church is now ashamed of nothing more than of Saints If therefore Pope Gelasim did so long sithence see those defects of Judgment even then for which the reading of the Acts of Martyrs should be and was at that time forborn in the Church of Rome we are not to marvail that afterwards Legends being grown in a manner to be nothing else but heaps of frivolous and scandalous vanities they have been even with disdain thrown out the very Nests which bred them abhorring them We are not therefore to except only Scripture and to make confusedly all the residue of one sute as if they who abolish Legends could not without incongruity retain in the Church either Homilies or those old Ecclesiastical Books Which Books in case my self did think as some others do safer and better to be left publickly unread nevertheless as in other things of like nature even so in this my private Judgement I should be loath to oppose against the force of their Reverend Authority who rather considering the Divine excellency of some things in all and of all things in certain of those Apocrypha which we publickly read have thought-it better to let them stand as a lift or marginal border unto the Old Testament and though with Divine yet as Human compositions to grant at the least unto certain of them publick audience in the House of God For in as much as the due estimation of heavenly Truth dependeth wholly upon the known and approved authority of those famous Oracles of God it greatly behoveth the Church to have always most especial care lest through confused mixture at any time Human usurp the room and Title of Divine Writings Wherefore albeit for the Peoples more plain instruction as the antient use hath been we read in our Churches certain Books besides the Scripture yet as the Scripture we read them not All men know our professed opinion touching the difference whereby we sever them from the Scripture And if any where it be suspected that some one or other will haply mistake a thing so manifest in every man's eye there is no lett but that as often as those Books are read and need so requireth the style of their difference may expresly be mentioned to barr even all possiblity of Error It being then known that we hold not the Apocrypha for sacred as we do the holy Scripture but for human compositions the subject whereof are sundry Divine matters let there be reason shewed why to read any part of them publickly it should be unlawful or hurtful unto the Church of God I hear it said that many things in them are very frivolous and unworthy of publick audience yea many contrary plainly contrary to the holy Scripture Which hitherto is neither sufficiently proved by him who saith it and if the proofs thereof were strong yet the very allegation it self is weak Let us therefore suppose for I will not demand to what purpose it is that against our Custom of reading Books not Canonical they bring exceptions of matter in those Books which we never use to read suppose I say that what faults soever they have observed throughout the passages of all those Books the same in every respect were such as neither could be construed nor ought to be censured otherwise than even as themselves pretend Yet as men through too much haste oftentimes forget the Errand whereabout they should go so here it appeareth that an eager desire to take together whatsoever might prejudice or any way hinder the credit of Apocryphal Books hath caused the Collector's Pen so to run as it were on Wheels that the minde which should guide it had no leisure to think whether that which might haply serve to with-hold from giving them the Authority which belongeth unto Sacred Scripture and to cut them off from the Canon would as effectually serve to shut them altogether out of the Church and to withdraw from granting unto them that publick use wherein they are only held as profitable for instruction Is it not acknowledged that those Books are Holy that they are Ecclesiastical and Sacred that to term them Divine as being for their excellency next unto them which are properly so termed is no way to honour them above desert yea even that the whole Church of Christ as well at the first as sithence hath most worthily approved their fitness for the publick informations of Life and manners Is not thus much I say acknowledged and that by them who notwithstanding receive not the same for any part of Canonical Scripture by them who deny not but that they are Faulty by them who are ready enough to give instances wherein they seem to contain matter scarce agreeable with holy Scripture So little doth such their supposed Faultiness in moderate mens Judgments inforce the removal of them out of the House of God that still they are judged to retain worthily those very Titles of Commendation than which there cannot greater be given to Writings the Authors whereof are Men. As in truth if the Scripture it self ascribing to the Persons of Men Righteousness in regard of their manifold vertues may not rightly be construed as though it did thereby clear them and make them quite free from all faults no reason we should judge
hath credit with all that confess it as we all do to be his Word every Proposition of holy Scripture every Sentence being to us a Principle if the Principles of all kindes of Knowledge else have that vertue in themselves whereby they are able to procure our Assent unto such Conclusions as the industry of right Discourse doth gather from them we have no reason to think the Principles of that Truth which tendeth unto man's everlasting happiness less forcible than any other when we know that of all other they are for their certainty the most infallible But as every thing of price so this doth require travel We bring not the knowledge of God with us into the World And the less our own opportunity or ability is that way the more we need the help of other men's Judgments to be our direction herein Nor doth any man ever believe into whom the doctrin of Belief is not instilled by instruction some way received at the first from others Wherein whatsoever fit means there are to notifie the Mysteries of the Word of God whether Publickly which we call Preaching or in Private howsoever the Word by every such mean even ordinarily doth save and not only by being delivered unto men in Sermons Sermons are not the only Preaching which doth save Souls For concerning the use and sense of this word Preaching which they shut up in so close a Prison although more than enough have already been spoken to redeem the liberty thereof yet because they insist so much and so proudly insult thereon we must a little inure their Ears with hearing how others whom they more regard are in this Case accustomed to use the self-same language with us whose manner of speech they deride Iustin Martyr doubteth not to tell the Grecians That even in certain of their Writings the very Judgment to come is preached not the Council of Vaeus to insinuate that Presbyters absent through infirmity from their Churches might be said to preach by those Deputies who in their stead did but read Homilies nor the Council of Toledo to call the usual Publick reading of the Gospels in the Church Preaching nor others long before these our days to write that by him who but readeth a Lesson in the Solemn Assembly as part of Divine Service the very Office of Preaching is so far-forth executed Such kind of speeches were then familiar those Phrases seemed not to them absurd they would have marvelled to hear the Out-cryes which we do because we think that the Apostles in writing and others in reading to the Church those Books which the Apostles wrote are neither untruly nor unfitly said to preach For although mens Tongues and their Pens differ yet to one and the self-same general if not particular effect they may both serve It is no good Argument St. Paul could not write with his Tongue therefore neither could he preach with his Pen. For Preaching is a general end whereunto Writing and Speaking do both serve Men speak not with the Instruments of Writing neither write with the Instruments of Speech and yet things recorded with the one and uttered with the other may be preached well enough with both By their Patience therefore be it spoken the Apostles preached as well when they wrote as when they spake the Gospel of Christ and our usual Publick reading of the Word of God for the Peoples instruction is Preaching Nor about words would we ever contend were not their purpose in so restraining the same injurious to God's most Sacred Word and Spirit It is on both sides confest That the Word of God outwardly administred his Spirit inwardly concurring therewith converteth edifieth and saveth Souls Now whereas the external Administration of his Word is as well by reading barely the Scripture as by explaining the same when Sermons thereon be made in the one they deny That the Finger of God hath ordinarily certain principal operations which we most stedfastly hold and believe that it hath in both 22. So worthy a part of Divine Service we should greatly wrong if we did not esteem Preaching as the blessed Ordinance of God Sermons as Keyes to the Kingdom of Heaven as Wings to the Soul as Spurrs to the good Affections of Man unto the Sound and Healthy as Food as Physick unto diseased Mindes Wherefore how higly soever it may please them with words of Truth to extoll Sermons they shall not herein offend us We seek not to derogate from any thing which they can justly esteem but our desire is to uphold the just estimation of that from which it seemeth unto us they derogate more than becometh them That which offendeth us is first the great disgrace which they offer unto our Custom of bare reading the Word of God and to his gracious Spirit the Principal vertue whereof thereby manifesting it self for the endless good of mens Souls even the Vertue which it hath to convert to edifie to save Souls this they mightily strive to obscure and Secondly The shifts wherewith they maintain their opinion of Sermons whereunto while they labour to appropriate the Saving power of the Holy Ghost they separate from all apparent hope of Life and Salvation thousands whom the goodness of Almighty God doth not exclude Touching therefore the use of Scripture even in that it is openly read and the inestimable good which the Church of God by that very mean hath reaped there was we may very well think some cause which moved the Apostle Saint Paul to require that those things which any one Churches affairs gave particular occasion to write might for the Instruction of all be published and that by reading 1. When the very having of the Books of God was a matter of no small charge and difficulty in as much as they could not be had otherwise than only in written Copies it was the necessity not of Preaching things agreeable with the Word but of reading the Word it self at large to the People which caused Churches throughout the World to have publick care that the sacred Oracles of God being procured by Common charge might with great sedulity be kept both intire and sincere If then we admire the providence of God in the same continuance of Scripture notwithstanding the violent endeavours of Infidels to abolish and the fraudulence of Hereticks always to deprave the same shall we set light by that Custom of Reading from whence so precious a benefit hath grown 2. The Voyce and Testimony of the Church acknowledging Scripture to be the Law of the Living God is for the truth and certainty thereof no mean Evidence For if with Reason we may presume upon things which a few mens depositions do testifie suppose we that the mindes of men are not both at their first access to the School of Christ exceedingly moved yea and for ever afterwards also confirmed much when they consider the main consent of all the Churches in the whole World witnessing
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
circumspect Those good and learned men which gave the first direction to this course had reason to wish that their own proceedings at home might be favoured abroad also and that the good affection of such as inclined towards them might be kept alive But if themselves had gone under those sails which they require to be hoised up if they had been themselves to execute their own Theory in this Church I doubt not but castly they would have seen being nearer at hand that the way was not good which they took of advising men first to wear the apparel that thereby they might be free to continue their preaching and then of requiring them so to preach as they might be sure they could not continue except they imagine that Laws which permit them not to do as they would will endure them to speak as they list even against that which themselves do by constraint of Laws they would have easily seen that our People being accustomed to think evermore that thing evil which is publickly under any pretence reproved and the men themselves worse which reprove it and use it too it should be to little purpose for them to salve the wound by making protestations in disgrace of their own actions with plain acknowledgement that they are scandalous or by using fair intreaty with the weak Brethren they would easily have seen how with us it cannot be endured to hear a man openly profess that he putteth fire to his Neighbors house but yet so halloweth the same with Prayer that he hopeth it shall not burn It had been therefore perhaps safer and better for ours to have observed S. Basils advice both in this and in all things of like nature Let him which approveth not his Governours Ordinances either plainly but privately always shew his dislike of he have ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã strong and invincible reason against them according to the true will and meaning of Scripture or else let him quietly with silence do what is enjoyned Obedience with profest unwillingness to obey is no better than manifest disobedience 30. Having thus disputed whether the Surplice be a fit Garment to be used in the service of God the next Question whereinto we are drawn is Whether it be a thing allowable or no that the Minister should say Service in the Chancel or ruin his face at any time from the People or before Service ended remove from the place where it was begun By them which trouble us with these doubts we would more willingly be resolved of a greater doubt Whether it be not a kinde of taking God's Name in vain to debase Religion with such frivolous disputes a sin to bestow time and labour about them Things of so mean regard and quality although necessary to be ordered are notwithstanding very unsavory when they come to be disputed of because Disputation presupposeth some difficulty in the matter which is argued whereas in things of this nature they must be either very simple or very froward who need to be taught by disputation what is meet When we make profession of our Faith we stand when we acknowledge our sins or seek unto God for favour we fall down because the gesture of constancy becometh us best in the one in the other the behavior of humility Some part of our Liturgy consist in the reading of the word of God and the proclaiming of his Law that the people may thereby learn what their duties are towards him some consist in words of praise and thanksgiving whereby we acknowledge unto God what his blessings are towards us some are such as albeit they serve to singular good purpose even when there is no Communion administred nevertheless being devised at the first for that purpose are at the Table of the Lord for that cause also commonly read some are uttered as from the people some as with them unto God some as from God unto them all as before his sight whom we fear and whose presence to offend with any the least unseemliness we would be surely as loath as they who most reprehend or deride that we do Now because the Gospels which are weekly read do all historically declare something which our Lord Jesus Christ himself either spake did or suffered in his own Person it hath been the custom of Christian men then especially in token of the greater reverence to stand to utter certain words of acclamation and at the name of Jesus to bow Which harmless Ceremonies as there is no man constrained to use so we know no reason wherefore any man should yet imagine it an unsufferable evil It sheweth a reverend regard to the Son of God above other Messengers although speaking as from God also And against Infidels Jews Arians who derogate from the honor of Jesus Christ such Ceremonies are most profitable As for any erroneous estimation advancing the Son above the Father and the holy Ghost seeing that the truth of his equality with them is a mystery so hard for the wits of mortal men to rise unto of all Heresies that which may give him superiority above them is least to befeared But to let go this as a matter scarce worth the speaking of whereas if fault be in these things any where justly found Law hath referred the whole disposition and redress thereof to the Ordinary of the place they which elsewhere complain that disgrace and injury is offered even to the meanest Parish Minister when the Magistrate appointeth him what to wear and leaveth not so small a matter as that to his own discretion being presumed a man discreet and trusted with the care of the Peoples Souls do think the gravest Prelates in the Land no competent Judges to discern and appoint where it is fit for the Minister to stand or which way convenient to look Praying From their Ordinary therefore they appeal to themselves finding great fault that we neither reform the thing against the which they have so long since given sentence nor yet make answer unto what they bring which is that Saint Luke declaring how Peter stood up in the middest of the Disciples did thereby deliver an unchangeable rule that whatsoever is done in the Church ought to be done in the midst of the Church and therefore not Baptism to be administred in one place Marriage solemnized in another the Supper of the Lord received in a third in a fourth Sermons in a fifth Prayers to be made that the custom which we use is Levitical absurd and such as hindreth the understanding of the People that if it be meet for the Minister at some time to look towards the People if the body of the Church be a fit place for some part of Divine Service it must needs follow that whensoever his face is turned any other way or any thing done any other where it hath absurdity All these reasons they say have been brought and were hitherto never answered besides a number of
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
the Example of beginning this Custom in the Church of Christ sith we are wont to suspect things onely before tryal and afterwards either to approve them as good or if we finde them evil accordingly to judge of them their counsel must needs seem very unseasonable who advise men now to suspect that wherewith the World hath had by their own account Twelve hundred years acquaintance and upwards enough to take away suspition and jealousie Men know by this time if ever they will know whether it be good or evil which hath been so long retained As for the Devil which way it should greatly benefit him to have this manner of singing Psalms accounted an invention of Ignatius or an imitation of the Angels of Heaven we do not well understand But we very well see in them who thus plead a wonderful celerity of discourse For perceiving at the first but onely some cause of suspition and fear left it should be evil they are presently in one and the self-same breath resolved That what beginning soever it had there is no possibility it should be good The Potent Arguments which did thus suddenly break in upon them and overcome them are First That it is not unlawful for the People all joyntly to praise God in singing of Psalms Secondly That they are not any where forbidden by the Law of God to sing every Verse of the whole Psalm both with heart and voice quite and clean throughout Thirdly That it cannot be understood what is sung after our manner Of which three for as much as lawfulness to sing one way proveth not another way inconvenient the former two are true Allegations but they lack strength to accomplish their desire the third so strong that it might perswade if the truth thereof were not doubtful And shall this inforce us to banish a thing which all Christian Churches in the World have received a thing which so many ages have held a thing which the most approved Councils and Laws have so oftentimes ratified a thing which was never sound to have any inconvenience in it a thing which always heretofore the best Men and wisest Governors of Gods people did think they could never commend enough a thing which as Basil was perswaded did both strengthen the Meditation of those holy Words which were uttered in that sort and serve also to make attentive and to raise up the hearts of men a thing whereunto Gods people of old did resort with hope and thirst that thereby especially their Souls might be edified a thing which filleth the minde with comfort and heavenly delight stirreth up flagrant desires and affections correspondent unto that which the words contain allayeth all kinde of base and earthly Cogitations banisheth and driveth away those evil secret suggestions which our invisible Enemy is always apt to minister watereth the heart to the end it may fructifie maketh the vertuous in trouble full of magnanimity and courage serveth as a most approved remedy against all doleful and heavy accidents which befal men in this present life To conclude So fitly accordeth with the Apostles own Exhortation Speak to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs making melody and singing to the Lord in your hearts that surely there is more cause to fear lest the want thereof be a main then the use a blemish to the Service of God It is not our meaning that what we attribute unto the Psalms should be thought to depend altogether on that onely form of singing or reading them by course as with us the manner is but the end of our speech is to shew That because the Fathers of the Church with whom the self-same custom was so many ages ago in use have uttered all these things concerning the fruit which the Church of God did then reap observing that and no other form it may be justly avouched that we our selves retaining it an besides it also the other more newly and not unfruitfully devised do neither want that good which the latter invention can afford not lose any thing of that for which the Ancients so oft and so highly commend the former Let Novelty therefore in this give over endless contradictions and let ancient custom prevail 40. We have already given cause sufficient for the great conveniency and use of reading the Psalms oftner then other Scriptures Of reading or singing likewise Magnificat Benedictus and Nunc dimittis oftner then the rest of the Psalms the causes are no whit less reasonable so that if the one may very well monethly the other may as well even daily be iterated They are Songs which concern us so much more then the Songs of David as the Gospel toucheth us more then the Law the New Testament then the Old And if the Psalms for the excellency of their use deserve to be oftner repeated then they are but that the multitude of them permitteth not any ofther repetition What disorder is it if these few Evangelical Hymns which are in no respect less worthy and may be by reason of their paucity imprinted with much more ease in all mens memories be for that cause every day rehearsed In our own behalf it is convenient and orderly enough that both they and we make day by day Prayers and Supplications the very same why not as fit and convenient to magnifie the Name of God day by day with certain the very self-same Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving Either let them not allow the one or else cease to reprove the other For the Ancient received use of intermingling Hymns and Psalms with Divine Readings enough hath been written And if any may fitly serve unto that purpose how should it better have been devised then that a competent number of the Old being first read these of the New should succeed in the place where now they are set In which place notwithstanding there is joyned with Benedictus the Hundredth Psalm with Magnificaâ the Ninety eighth the Sixty seventh with Nunc dimittis and in every of them the choice left free for the Minister to use indifferently the one or the other Seeing therefore they pretend no quarrel at other Psalms which are in like manner appointed also to be daily read why do these so much offend and displease their taste They are the first Gratulations wherewith our Lord and Saviour was joyfully received at his entrance into the World by such as in their Hearts Arms and very Bowels embraced Him being Prophetical discoveries of Christ already present whose future coming the other Psalms did but fore-signifie they are against the obstinate incredulity of the Jews the most luculent testimonies that Christian Religion hath yea the onely sacred Hymns they are that Christianity hath peculiar unto it self the other being Songs too of praise and thanksgiving but Songs wherewith as we serve God so the Jew likewise And whereas they tell us These Songs were fit for that purpose when Simeon and Zachary and the Blessed Virgin uttered
interchangeably one anothers room so that for truth of speech it skilleth not whether we say That the Son of God hath created the World and the Son of Man by his Death hath saved it or else That the Son of Man did create and the Son of God die to save the World Howbeit as oft as we attribute to God what the Manhood of Christ claimeth or to Man what his Deity hath right unto we understand by the Name of God and the Name of Man neither the one nor the other Nature but the whole Person of Christ in whom both Natures are When the Apostle saith of the Jews that they crucified the Lord of Glory and when the Son of Man being on Earth affirmeth That the Son of Man was in Heaven at the same instant there is in these two speeches that Mutual Circulation before-mentioned In the one there is attributed to God or the Lord of Glory Death whereof Divine Nature is not capable in the other Ubiquity unto Man which Humane Nature admitteth not Therefore by the Lord of Glory we must needs understand the whole Person of Christ who being Lord of Glory was indeed crucified but not in that nature for which he is termed the Lord of Glory In like manner by the Son of Man the whole Person of Christ must necessarily be meant who being Man upon Earth filled Heaven with his glorious presence but not according to that nature for which the title of man is given him Without this Caution the Fathers whose belief was sincere and their meaning most sound shall seem in their Writings one to deny what another constantly doth affirm Theodoret disputeth with great earnestness that God cannot be said to suffer But he thereby meaneth Christs Divine Nature against Apollinarius which held even Deity it self possible Cyril on the other side against Nestorius as much contendeth That whosoever will deny very God to have suffered death doth forsake the Faith Which notwithstanding to hold were Heresie if the Name of God in this Assertion did not import as it doth the Person of Christ who being verily God suffered death but in the Flesh and not in that substance for which the Name of God is given him 54. If then both Natures do remain with their properties in Christ thus distinct as hath been shewed we are for our better understanding what either Nature receiveth from other to note That Christ is by three degrees a Receiver First In that he is the Son of God Secondly In that his Humane nature hath had the honor of Union with Deity bestowed upon it Thirdly In that by means thereof sundry eminent Graces have flowed as effects from Deity into that Nature which is coupled with it On Christ therefore is bestowed the Gift of Eternal Generation the Gift of Union and the Gift of Unction By the Gift of Eternal Generation Christ hath received of the Father one and in number the self-same substance which the Father hath of himself unreceived from any other For every beginning is a Father unto that which cometh of it and every off-spring is a Son unto that out of which it groweth Seeing therefore the Father alone is originally that Deity which Christ originally is not for Christ is God by being of God Light by issuing out of Light it followeth hereupon That whatsoever Christ hath common unto him with his Heavenly Father the same of necessity must be given him but naturally and eternally given not bestowed by way of benevolence and favor as the other gifts both are And therefore where the Fathers give it out for a rule That whatsoever Christ is said in Scripture to have received the same we ought to apply onely to the Manhood of Christ Their Assertion is true of all things which Christ hath received by Grace but to that which he hath received of the Father by Eternal Nativity or Birth it reacheth not Touching Union of Deity with Manhood it is by Grace because there can be no greater Grace shewed towards Man then that God should vouchsafe to unite to Mans nature the Person of his onely begotten Son Because the Father loveth the Son as Man he hath by Uniting Deity with Manhood given all things into his hands It hath pleased the Father that in him all Fulness should dwell The name which he hath above all names is given him As the Father hath life in himself the Son in himself hath life also by the gift of the Father The gift whereby God hath made Christ a Fountain of Life is That conjunction of the Nature of God with the Nature of Man in the Person of Christ which gift saith Christ to the Woman of Samaria if thou didst know and in that respect understand who it is which asketh water of thee thou wouldst ask of him that he might give thee Living Water The Union therefore of the Flesh with Deity is to that Flesh a gift of Principal Grace and Favor For by vertue of this Grace Man is really made God a Creature is exalted above the dignity of all Creatures and hath all Creatures else under it This admirable Union of God with Man can inforce in that higher Nature no alteration because unto God there is nothing more natural then not to be subject to any change Neither is it a thing impossible That the Word being made Flesh should be that which it was not before as touching the manner of subsistence and yet continue in all Qualities or Properties of Nature the same it was because the Incarnation of the Son of God consisteth meerly in the Union of Natures which Union doth adde Perfection to the Weaker to the Nobler no alteration at all If therefore it be demanded what the Person of the Son of God hath attained by assuming Manhood surely the whole sum of all is this to be as we are truly really and naturally Man by means whereof he is made capable of meaner offices then otherwise his Person could have admitted the onely gain he thereby purchased for himself was to be capable of loss and detriment for the good of others But may it rightly be said concerning the Incarnation of Jesus Christ That as our Nature hath in no respect changed his so from his to ours as little alteration hath ensued The very cause of his taking upon him our Nature was to change it to better the Quality and to advance the condition thereof although in no sort to abolish the Substance which he took nor to infuse into it the Natural forces and Properties of his Deity As therefore we have shewed how the Son of God by his Incarnation hath changed the manner of that Personal subsistence which before was solitary and is now in the Association of Flesh no alteration thereby accruing to the Nature of God so neither are the Properties of Mans nature in the Person of Christ by force and vertue of the
efficient cause in the work of Baptism What if the Ministers Vocation be a Matter of perpetual necessity and not a Ceremony variable as times and occasions require What if his calling be a principal part of the Institution of Christ Doth it therefore follow that the Ministers authority is of the Substance of the Sacrament and as incident into the nature thereof as the Matter and the Form it self yea more incident For whereas in case of necessity the greatest amongst them professeth the change of the Element of Water lawful and others which like not so well this opinion could be better content that voluntarily the words of Christs Institution were altered and Men baptized in the Name of Christ without either mention made of the Father or of the Holy Ghost nevertheless in denying that Baptism administred by private persons ought to be reckoned of as a Sacrament they both agree It may therefore please them both to consider That Baptism is an Action in part Moral in part Ecclesiastical and in part Mystical Moral as being a duty which men perform towards God Ecclesiastical in that it belongeth unto Gods Church as a publick duty Finally Mystical if we respect what God doth thereby intend to work The greatest Moral perfection of Baptism consisteth in mens devout obedience to the Law of God which Law requireth both the outward act or thing done and also that Religious affection which God doth so much regard that without it whatsoever we do is âtateful in his sight who therefore is said to respect Adverbs more then Verbs because the end of his Law in appointing what we shall do is our own Perfection which Perfection consisteth chiefly in the vertuous disposition of the Minde and approveth it self to him not by doing but by doing well Wherein appeareth also the difference between Humane and Divine Laws the one of which two are content with Opus operatum the other require Opus operantis the one do but claim the Deed the other especially the Minde So that according to Laws which principally respect the heart of Men Works of Religion being not religiously performed cannot Morally be perfect Baptism as an Ecclesiastical work is for the manner of performance ordered by divers Ecclesiastical Laws providing That as the Sacrament it self is a gift of no mean worth so the Ministery thereof might in all circumstances appear to be a Function of no small regard All that belongeth to the Mystical Perfection of Baptism outwardly is the Element the Word and the serious Application of both unto him which receiveth both whereunto if we add that secret reference which this action hath to liâe and remission of sins by vertue of Christs own compact solemnly made with his Church to accomplish fully the Sacrament of Baptism there is not any thing more required Now put the Question Whether Baptism Administred to Infants without my Spiritual Calling be unto them both a true Sacrament and an effectual instrument of Grace or else an act of no more account then the ordinary Washings are The sum of all that can be said to defeat such Baptism is That those things which have no Being can work nothing and that Baptism without the power of Ordination is as a Judgment without sufficient Jurisdiction void frustrate and of no effect But to this we answer That the Fruit of Baptism dependeth onely upon the Covenant which God hath made That God by Covenant requireth in the elder sort Faith and Baptism in Children the Sacrament of Baptism alone whereunto he hath also given them right by special priviledge of Birth within the bosom of the holy Church That infants therefore which have received Baptism compleat as touching the Mystical Perfection thereof are by vertue of his own Covenant and Promise cleansed from all sin for as much as all other Laws concerning that which in Baptism is either Moral or Ecclesiastical do binde the Church which giveth Baptism and not the Infant which receiveth it of the Church So that if any thing be therein amiss the harm which groweth by violation of holy Ordinances must altogether rest where the Bonds of such Ordinances hold For that in actions of this nature it fareth not as in Jurisdictions may somewhat appear by the very opinion which men have of them The nullity of that which a Judge doth by way of Authority without Authority is known to all men and agreed upon with full consent of the whole World every man receiveth it as a general Edict of Nature whereas the nullity of Baptism in regard of the like defect is onely a few mens new ungrounded and as yet unapproved imagination Which difference of generality in mens perswasions on the one side and their paucity whose conceit leadeth them the other way hath risen from a difference easie to observe in the things themselves The exercise of unauthorised Jurisdiction is a grievance unto them that are under it whereas they that without Authority presume to Baptize offer nothing but that which to all men is good and acceptable Sacraments are food and the Ministers thereof as Parents or as Nurses at whose hands when there is necessity but no possibility of receiving it if that which they are not present to do in right of their Office be of pity and compassion done by others shall this be thought turn Celestial Bread into Gravel or the Medicine of Souls into Poyson Jurisdiction is a yoke which Law hath imposed on the necks of men in such sort that they must endure it for the good of others how contrary soever it be to their own particular appetites and inclinations Jurisdiction bridleth men against their wills that which a Judge doth prevails by vertue of his very Power and therefore not without great reason except the Law hath given him Authority whatsoever he doth vanisheth Baptism on the other side being a favor which it pleaseth God to bestow a benefit of Soul to us that receive it and a Grace which they that deliver are but as meer Vessels either appointed by others or offered of their own accord to this Service of which two if they be the one it is but their own honor their own offence to be the other Can it possibly stand with Equity and Right That the faultiness of their presumption in giving Baptism should be able to prejudice us who by taking Baptism have no way offended I know there are many Sentences found in the Books and writings of the Ancient Fathers to prove both Ecclesiastical and also Moral defects in the Minister of Baptism a bar to the Heavenly benefit thereof Which Sentences we always so understand as Augustine understood in a case of like nature the words of St. Cyprian When Infants baptized were after their Parents revolt carried by them in arms to the Stews of Idols those wretched Creatures as St. Cyprian thought were not onely their own ruine but their Childrens also Their Children whom this their Apostasie prophaned did lose
God no more instituted then the other howsoever they pretend the other hurtful and this profitable it followeth That even in their own opinion if their words do shew their mindes there is no necessity of stripping Sacraments out of all such attire of Ceremonies as Mans wisdom hath at any time cloathed them withal and consequently That either they must reform their speech as over-general or else condemn their own practice as unlawful Ceremonies have more in weight then in sight they work by commonness of use much although in the several acts of their usage we scarcely discern any good they do And because the use which they have for the most part is not perfectly understood Superstition is apt to impute unto them greater vertue then indeed they have For prevention whereof when we use this Ceremony we always plainly express the end whereunto it serveth namely For a Sign of Remembrance to put us in minde of our duty But by this mean they say we make it a great deal worse For why Seeing God hath no where commanded to draw two lines in token of the duty which we ow to Christ our practice with this Exposition publisheth a new Gospel and causeth another Word to have place in the Church of Christ where no voice ought to be heard but his By which good reason the Authors of those grave admonitions to the Parliament are well-holpen up which held That sitting at Communions betokeneth rest and full accomplishment of Legal Ceremonies in our Saviour Christ. For although it be the Word of God That such Ceremonies are expired yet seeing it is not the Word of God that men to signifie so much should sit at the Table of our Lord these have their doom as well as others Guilty of a new devised Gospel in the Church of Christ. Which strange imagination is begotten of a special dislike they have to hear that Ceremonies now in use should be thought significant whereas in truth such as are not significant must needs be vain Ceremonies destitute of signification are no better then the idle gestures of men whose broken wits are not Masters of what they do For if we look but into Secular and Civil Complements what other cause can there possibly be given why to omit them where of course they are looked for for where they are not so due to use them bringeth mens secret intents often-times into great jealousie I would know I say What reason we are able to yield why things so light in their own nature should weigh in the opinions of men so much saving onely in regard of that which they use to signifie or betoken Doth not our Lord Jesus Christ himself impute the omission of some courteous Ceremonies even in domestical entertainment to a colder degree of loving affection and take the contrary in better part not so much respecting what was less done as what was signified less by the one then by the other For to that very end he referreth in part those gracious Expostulations Simon seest thou this Woman since I entred unto thine house thou gavest me no water for my feet but she hath washed my seet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head Thou gavest me no kiss but this Woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet Mine head with oyl thou didst not anoint but this Woman hath anointed my feet with oynment Wherefore as the usual dumb Ceremonies of common life are in request or dislike according to that they import even so Religion having likewise her silent Rites the chiefest rule whereby to judge of their quality is that which they mean or betoken For if they signifie good things as somewhat they must of necessity signifie because it is of their very nature to be signs of intimation presenting both themselves unto outward sense and besides themselves some other thing to the understanding of beholders unless they be either greatly mischosen to signifie the same or else applied where that which they signifie agreeth not there is no cause of exception against them as against evil and unlawful Ceremonies much less of excepting against them onely in that they are not without sense And if every Religious Ceremony which hath been invented of men to signifie any thing that God himself alloweth were the publication of another Gospel in the Church of Christ seeing that no Christian Church in the World is or can be without continual use of some Ceremonies which men have instituted and that to signifie good things unless they be vain and frivolous Ceremonies it would follow That the World hath no Christian Church which doth not daily proclaim new Gospels a sequel the manifest absurdity whereof argueth the rawness of that Supposal cut of which it groweth Now the cause why Antiquity did the more in actions of common life honor the Ceremony of the Cross might be for that they lived with Infidels But that which they did in the Sacrament of Baptism was for the self-same good of Believers which is thereby intended still The Cross is for us an admonition no less necessary then for them to glory in the Service of Jesus Christ and not to hang down our heads as men ashamed thereof although it procure us reproach and obloquy at the hands of this wretched World Shame is a kinde of fear to incur disgrace and ignominy Now whereas some things are worthy of reproach some things ignominious onely through a false opinion which men have conceived of them Nature that generally feareth opprobtious reprehension must by Reason and Religion be taught what it should be ashamed of and what not But be we never so well instructed what our duty is in this behalf without some present admonition at the very instant of practise what we know is many times not called to minde till that be done whereupon our just confusion ensueth To supply the absence of such as that way might do us good when they see us in danger of sliding there are judicious and wise men which think we may greatly relieve our selves by a bare imagined presence of some whose Authority we fear and would be loath to offend if indeed they were present with us Witnesses at hand are a bridle unto many offences Let the minde have always some whom it feareth some whose Authority may keep even secret thoughts under aw Take Cato or if he be too harsh and rugged chuse some other of a softer mettal whose gravity of life and speech thou lovest his minde and countenance carry with thee set him always before thine eyes either as a watch or as a pattern That which is crooked we cannot streighten but by some such level If men of so good experience and insight in the maims of our weak flesh have thought these fancied remembrances available to awaken shamefastness that so the boldness of sin may be staid ere it look abroad surely the Wisdom of the Church of
Christ which hath so that use converted the Ceremony of the Cross in Baptism it is no Christian mans part to despise especially seeing that by this mean where Nature doth earnestly import aid Religion yieldeth her that ready assistance then which there can be no help more forcible serving onely to relieve memory and to bring to our cogitation that which should most make ashamed of sin The minde while we are in this present life whether it contemplate meditate deliberate or howsoever exercise it self worketh nothing without continual recourse unto imagination the onely Store-house of wit and peculiar Chair of memory On this Anvile it ceaseth not day and night to strike by means whereof as the Pulse declareth how the heart doth work so the very thoughts and cogitations of mans minde be they good or bad do no where sooner bewray themselves then through the crevesses of that Wall wherewith Nature hath compasied the Cells and Closets of Fancy In the Forehead nothing more plain to be seen then the fear of contumely and disgrace For which cause the Scripture as with great probability it may be thought describeth them marked of God in the Forehead whom his mercy hath undertaken to keep from final confusion and shame Not that God doth set any corporal mark on his chosen but to note that he giveth his Elect security of preservation from reproach the fear whereof doth use shew it self in that part Shall I say that the Sign of the Cross as we use it is in some sort a mean to work our preservation from reproach Surely the minde which as yet hath not hardned it self in sin is seldom provoked thereunto in any gross and grievous manner but Natures secret suggestion objected against it ignominy as a bar Which conceit being entred into that Palace of Mans fancy the Gates whereof have imprinted in them that holy Sign which bringeth fortwith to minde whatsoever Christ hath wrought and we vowed against sin it cometh hereby to pass that Christian men never want a most effectual though a silent Teacher to avoid whatsoever may deservedly procure shame So that in things which we should be ashamed of we are by the Cross admonished faithfully of our duty at the very moment when admonition doth most need Other things there are which deserve honor and yet do purchase many times our disgrace in this present World as of old the very truth of Religion it self till God by his own out-stretched arm made the glory thereof to shine over all the Earth Whereupon St. Cyprian exhorting to Maâtyrdom in times of Heathenish persecution and cruelty thought it not vain to alledge unto them with other Arguments the very Ceremony of that Cross whereof we speak Never let that hand offer Sacrifice to Idols which hath already received the Body of our Saviour Christ and shall hereafter the Crown of his Glory Arm your Foreheads unto all boldness â that the Sign of God may be kept safe Again when it pleased God that the fury of their enemies being bridled the Church had some little rest and quietness if so small a liberty but onely to breathe between troubles may be termed quietness and rest to such as fell not away from Christ through former persecutions he giveth due and deserved praise in the self-same manner You that were ready to endure imprisonment and were resolute to suffer death you that have couragiously withstood the World ye have made your selves both a glorious spectacle for God to behold and a worthy example for the rest of your Brethren to follow Those mouths which had sanctified themselves with food coming down from Heaven leashed after Christ own Body and Blood to taste the poysoned and contagious scraps of Idols those Foreheads which the Sign of God had purified kept themselves to be crowned by him the touch of the Garlands of Satan they abhorred Thus was the memory of that Sign which they had in Baptism a kinde of bar or prevention to keep them even from apostasie whereunto the frailty of flesh and blood over-much fearing to endure shame might peradventure the more easily otherwise have drawn them We have not now through the gracious goodness of Almighty God those extream conflicts which our Fathers had with blasphemous contumelies every where offered to the Name of Christ by such as professed themselves Infidels and Unbelievers Howbeit unless we be strangers to the age wherein we live or else in some partial respect dissemblers of that we hourly both hear and see there is not the simplest of us but knoweth with what disdain and scorn Christ is dishonored far and wide Is there any burden in the World more heavy to bear then contempt Is there any contempt that grieveth as theirs doth whose quality no way making them less worthy then others are of reputation onely the service which they do to Christ in the daily exercise of Religion treadeth them down Doth any contumely which we sustain for Religion sake pierce so deeply as that which would seem of meer Conscience religiously spightful When they that honor God are despised when the chiefest service of Honor that man can do unto him is the cause why they are despised when they which pretend to honor him and that with greatest sincerity do with more then Heathenish petulancy trample under foot almost whatsoever either we or the whole Church of God by the space of so many ages have been accustomed unto for the comlier and better exercise of our Religion according to the soundest Rules that Wisdom directed by the Word of God and by long experience confirmed hath been able with common advice with much deliberation and exceeding great diligence to comprehend when no man fighting under Christs Banner can be always exempted from seeing or sustaining those indignities the sting whereof not to feel or feeling not to be moved thereat is a thing impossible to flesh and blood If this be any object for Patience to work on the strictest bond that thereunto tieth us is our vowed obedience to Christ the solemnest vow that we ever made to obey Christ and to suffer willingly all reproaches for his sake was made in Baptism And amongst other memorials to keep us mindful of that vow we cannot think that the Sign which our new Baptized Fore-heads cïd there receive is either unfit or unforcible the reasons hitherto alledged being weighed with indifferent ballance It is not you will say the Cross in our Fore-heads but in our Hearts the Faith of Christ that ameth us with Patience Constancy and Courage Which as we grant to be most true so neither dare we despise no not the meanest helps that serve though it be but in the very lowest degree of furtherance towards the highest services that God doth require at our hands And if any man deny that such Ceremonies are available at the least as memorials of duty or do think that himself hath no need to be so put in
them is the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ whose Name in the Service of our Communion we celebrate with due honor which they in the Error of their Mass prophane As therefore on our part to hear Mass were an open departure from that sincere Profession wherein we stand so if they on the other side receive our Communion they give us the strongest pledge of fidelity that man can demand What their hearts are God doth know But if they which minde treachery to God and Man shall once apprehend this advantage given them whereby they may satisfie Law in pretending themselves conformable for what can Law with Reason or Justice require more and yet be sure the Church will accept no such offer till their Gospel-like behavior be allowed after that our own simplicity hath once thus fairly eased them from the sting of Law it is to be thought they will learn the Mystery of Gospel-like behavior when leisure serveth them And so while without any cause we fear to profane Sacraments we shall not onely defeat the purpose of most wholesome Laws but lose or wilfully hazard those Souls from whom the likeliest means of full and perfect recovery are by our indiscretion with-held For neither doth God thus binde us to dive into mens consciences nor can their fraud and deceit hurt any man but themselves To him they seem such as they are but of us they must be taken for such as they seem In the Eye of God they are against Christ that are not truly and sincerely with him in our eyes they must be received as with Christ that are not to outward shew against him The case of impenitent and notorious sinners is not like unto theirs whose onely imperfection is Error severed from Pertinacy Error in appearance content to submit it self to better instruction Error so far already cured as to crave at our hands that Sacrament the hatâed and utter refusal whereof was the weightiest point wherein heretofore they swerved and went astray In this case therefore they cannot reasonably charge us with remiss dealing or with carelesness to whom we impart the Mysteries of Christ but they have given us manifest occasion to think it requisit that we earnestly advise rather and exhort them to consider as they ought their sundry over-sights First In equalling undistinctly Crimes with Errors as touching force to make uncapable of this Sacrament Secondly In suffering indignation at the faults of the Church of Rome to blinde and with-hold their judgments from seeing that which withal they should acknowledge concerning so much nevertheless still due to the same Church as to be held and reputed a part of the House of God a Limb of the Visible Church of Christ Thirdly In imposing upon the Church a burthen to enter farther into mens hearts and to make a deeper search of their Consciences then any Law of God or Reason of Man inforceth Fourthly and lastly In repelling under colour of longer tryal such from the Mysteries of Heavenly Grace as are both capable thereof by the Laws of God for any thing we hear to the contrary and should in divers considerations be cherished according to the merciful Examples and Precepts whereby the Gospel of Christ hath taught us towards such to shew compassion to receive them with lenity and all meekness if any thing be shaken in them to strengthen it not to quench with delays and jealousies that feeble smoke of Conformity which seemeth to breathe from them but to build wheresoever there is any Foundation to add Perfection unto slender beginnings and that as by other offices of Piety even so by this very Food of Life which Christ hath left in his Church not onely for preservation of strength but also for relief of weakness But to return to our own selves in whom the next thing severely reproved is the Paucity of Communicants If they require at Communions frequency we wish the same knowing how acceptable unto God such service is when multitudes cheerfully concur unto it if they encourage men thereunto we also themselves acknowledge it are not utterly forgetful to do the like if they require some publick coaction for remedy of that wherein by milder and softer means little good is done they know our Laws and Statutes provided in that behalf whereunto whatsoever convenient help may be added more by the wisdom of man what cause have we given the World to think that we are not ready to hearken to it and to use any good means of sweet compulsion to have this high and heavenly Banquet largely furnished Onely we cannot so far yield as to judge it convenient that the holy desire of a competent number should be unsatisfied because the greater part is careless and undisposed to joyn with them Men should not they say be permitted a few by themselves to communicate when so many are gone away because this Sacrament is a token of our conjunction with our Brethren and therefore by communicating apart from them we make an apparent shew of distraction I ask then on which side Unity is broken whether on theirs that depart or on theirs who being left behinde do communicate First In the one it is not denied but that they may have reasonable causes of departure and that then even they are delivered from just blame Of such kinde of causes two are allowed namely danger of impairing health and necessary business requiring our presence otherwhere And may not a third cause which is unfitness at the present time detain us as lawfully back as either of these two True it is that we cannot hereby altogether excuse our selves for that we ought to prevent this and do not But if we have committed a fault in not preparing our mindes before shall we therefore aggravate the same with a worse the crime of unworthy participation He that abstaineth doth want for the time that Grace and Comfort which Religious Communicants have but he that eateth and drinketh unworthily receiveth death that which is life to others turneth in him to poyson Notwithstanding whatsoever be the cause for which men abstain were it reason that the fault of one part should any way abridge their benefit that are not faulty There is in all the Scripture of God no one syllable which doth condemn communicating a tângst a few when the rest are departed from them As for the last thing which is our imparting this Sacrament privately unto the sick whereas there have been of old they grant two kindes of necessity wherein this Sacrament might be privately administred of which two the one being erroniously imagined and the other they say continuing no longer in use there remaineth unto us no necessity at all for which that custom should be retained The falsly surmised necessity is that whereby some have thought all such excluded from possibility of salvation as did depart this life and never were made partakers of the holy Eucharist The other case of necessity was
may be in things that rest and are never moved Besides we may also consider in Rest both that which is past and that which is present and that which is future yea farther even length and shortness in every of these although we never had conceit of Motion But to define without Motion how long or how short such Continuance is were impossible So that herein we must of necessity use the benefit of Years Days Hours Minutes which all grow from Celestial Motion Again for as much as that Motion is Circular whereby we make our Divisions of Time and the Compass of that Circuit such that the Heavens which are therein continually moved and keep in their Motions uniform Celerity must needs touch often the same points they cannot chuse but bring unto us by equal distances frequent returns of the same times Furthermore whereas Time is nothing but the meer quantity of that Continuance which all things have that are not as God is without beginning that which is proper unto all quantities agreeth also to this kinde so that Time doth but measure other things and neither worketh in them any real effect nor is it self ever capable of any And therefore when commonly we use to say That Time doth eat or fret out all things that Time is the wisest thing in the World because it bringeth forth all Knowledge and that nothing is more foolish then Time which never holdeth any thing long but whatsoever one day learneth the same another day forgetteth again that some men see prosperous and happy days and that some mens days are miserable In all these and the like speeches that which is uttered of the Time is not verified of Time it self but agreeth unto those things which are in Time and do by means of so near conjunction either lay their burden upon the back or set their Crown upon the Head of Time Yea the very opportunities which we ascribe to Time do in truth cleave to the things themselves wherewith Time is joyned As for Time it neither causeth things nor opportunities of things although it comprize and contain both All things whatsoever having their time the Works of God have always that time which is seasonablest and fittest for them His Works are some ordinary some more rare all worthy of observation but not all of like necessity to be often remembred they all have their times but they all do not adde the same estimation and glory to the times wherein they are For as God by being every where yet doth not give unto all places one and the same degree of holiness so neither one and the same dignity to all times by working in all For it all either places or times were in respect of God alike wherefore was it said unto Moses by particular designation That very place wherein thou standest is holy ground Why doth the Prophet David chuse out of all the days of the year but one whereof he speaketh by way of principal admiration This is the day the Lord hath made No doubt as Gods extraordinary presence hath hallowed and sanctified certain places so they are his extraordinary works that have truly and worthily advanced certain times for which cause they ought to be with all men that honor God more holy then other days The Wise man therefore compareth herein not unfitly the times of God with the persons of men If any should ask how it cometh to pass that one day doth excel another seeing the light of all the days in the year proceedeth from one Sun to this he answereth That the knowledge of the Lord hath parted them asunder he hath by them disposed the times and solemn Feasts some he hath chosen out and sanctified some he hath put among the days to number Even as Adam and all other men are of one substance all created of the Earth But the Lord hath divided them by great knowledge and made their ways divers some he hath blessed and exalted some he hath sanctified and appropriated unto himself some he hath cursed humbled and put them out of their dignity So that the cause being natural and necessary for which there should be a difference in days the solemn observation whereof declareth Religious thankfulness towards him whose works of principal reckoning we thereby admire and honor it cometh next to be considered what kindes of duties and services they are wherewith such times should be kept holy 70. The Sanctification of Days and Times is a token of that Thankfulness and a part of that publick honor which we ow to God for admirable benefits whereof it doth not suffice that we keep a secret Kalender taking thereby our private occasions as we lift our selves to think how much God hath done for all men but the days which are chosen out to serve as publick Memorials of such his Mercies ought to cloathed with those outward Robes of Holiness whereby their difference from other days may be made sensible But because Time in it self as hath been already proved can receive no alteration the hallowing of Festival days must consist in the shape or countenance which we put upon the affairs that are incident into those days This is the day which the Lord hath made saith the Prophet David Let us rejoyce and be glad in it So that generally Offices and Duties of Religious Joy are that wherein the hallowing of Festival times consisteth The most Natural Testimonies of our rejoycing in God are first his Praises set forth with cheerful alacrity of minde Secondly Our comfort and delight expressed by a charitable largeness of somewhat more then common bounty Thirdly Sequestration from ordinary labors the toyls and cares whereof are not meet to be companions of such gladness Festival solemnity therefore is nothing but the due mixture as it were of these three Elements Praise Bounty and Rest. Touching Praise for as much as the Jews who alone knew the way how to magnifie God aright did commonly as appeared by their wicked lives more of custom and for fashion sake execute the services of their Religion then with hearty and true devotion which God especially requireth he therefore protesteth against their Sabbaths and Solemn Days as being therewith much offended Plentiful and liberal expence is required in them that abound party as a sign of their own joy in the goodness of God towards them and partly as a mean whereby to refresh those poor and needy who being especially at these times made partakers of relaxation and joy with others do the more religiously bless God whose great Mercies were a cause thereof and the more contentedly endure the burthen of that hard estate wherein they continue Rest is the end of all Motion and the last perfection of all things that labor Labors in us are journeys and even in them which feel no weariness by any work yet they are but ways whereby to come unto that which bringeth not happiness till it do bring Rest.
great matter Finally Seeing that both are Ordinances were devised for the good of Man and yet not Man created purposely for them as for other Offices of Vertue whereunto Gods immutable Law for ever tieth it is but equity to wish or admonish that where by uniform order they are not as yet received the example of Victors extremity in the one and of Iohns Disciples curiosity in the other be not followed yea where they are appointed by Law that notwithstanding we avoid Judaism and as in Festival days mens necessities for matter of labour so in times of Fasting regard be had to their imbecillities lest they should suffer harm doing good Thus therefore we see how these two Customes are in divers respects equal But of Fasting the use and exercise though less pleasant is by so much more requisite than the other as grief of necessity is a more familiar guest then the contrary passion of mind albeit gladness to all men be naturally more welcome For first We our selves do many âo things amiss than well and the fruit of our own ill doing is remorse because nature is conscious to it self that it should do the contrary Again forasmuch as the world over-aboundeth with malice and few are delighted in doing good unto other men there is no man so seldom crost as pleasured at the hands of others whereupon it cannot be chosen but every mans Woes must double in that respect the number and measure of his delights Besides concerning the very choice which oftentimes we are to make our corrupt inclination well considered there is cause why our Saviour should account them the happiest that do most mourn and why Solomon might judge it better to frequent mourning then Feasting-houses not better simply and in it self for then would Nature that way incline but in regard of us and our common weakness better Iob was not ignorant that his Childrens Banquets though teâdiÌg to amity needed Sacrifice Neither doth any of us all need to be taught that in things which delight we easily swerve from mediocrity and are not easily led by a right direct line On the other side the Sores and Diseases of mind which inordinante pleasure breedeth are by Dolour and Grief cured For which cause as all offences use to seduce by pleasing so all punishments endeavour by vexing to reform transgressions We are of our own accord apt enough to give entertainment to things delectable but patiently to lack what flesh and blood doth desire and by Vertue to forbear what by Nature we covet this no man attaineth unto but with labour and long practice From hence it riseth that in former Ages abstinence and Fasting more then ordinary was always a special branch of their praise in whom it could be observed and known were they such as continually gave themselves to austere life of men that took often occasions in private vertuous respects to lay Solomons counsel aside Eat thy bread with joy and to be followers of Davids Example which saith I humbled my soul with fasting or but they who otherwise worthy of no great commendation have made of hunger some their Gain some their Physick some their Art that by mastering sensual Appetites without constraint they might grow able to endure hardness whensoever need should require For the body accustomed to emptiness pineth not away so soon as having still used to fill it self Many singular Effects there are which should make Fasting even in publick Considerations the rather to be accepted For I presume we are not altogether without experience how great their advantage is in martial Enterprizes that lead Armies of men trained in a School of Abstinence It is therefore noted at this day in some that patience of hunger and thirst hath given them many Victories in others that because if they want there is no man able to rule them not they in plenty to moderate themselves he which can either bring them to hunger or overcharge them is sure to make them their own overthrow What Nation soever doth feel these dangerous inconveniences may know that sloth and fulness in peaceable times at home is the cause thereof and the remedy a strict Observation of that part of Christian Discipline which teacheth men in practice of Ghostly warfare against themselves those things that afterwards may help them justly assaulting or standing in lawful defence of themselves against others The very purpose of the Church of God both in the number and in the order of her Fasts hath been not only to preserve thereby throughout all Ages the remembrance of miseries heretofore sustained and of the causes in our selves out of which they have risen that men considering the one might fear the other the more but farther also to temper the mind lest contrary affections coming in place should make it too profuse and dissolute in which respect it seemeth that Fasts have been set as Ushers of Festival days for prevention of those disorders as much as might be wherein notwithstanding the World always will deserve as it hath done blame because such evils being not possible to be rooted out the most we can do is in keeping them low and which is chiefly the fruit we look for to create in the minds of men a love towards a frugal and severe life to undermine the Palaces of wantonness to plant Parsimony as Nature where Riotousness hath been studied to harden whom pleasure would melt and to help the tumours which always Fulness breedeth that Children as it were in the Wool of their Infancy dyed with hardness may never afterwards change colour that the poor whose perpetual Fasts are of Necessity may with better contentment endure the hunger which Vertue causeth others so often to chuse and by advice of Religion it self so far to esteem above the contrary that they which for the most part do lead sensual and easie lives they which as the Prophet David describeth them are not plagued like other men may by the publick spectacle of all be still put in mind what themselves are Finally that every man may be every mans daily guide and example as well by fasting to declare humility as by praise to express joy in the sight of God although it have herein befallen the Church as sometimes David so that the speech of the one may be truly the voice of the other My soul fasted and even that was also turned to my reproof 73. In this world there can be no Society durable otherwise then only by propagation Albeit therefore single Life be a thing more Angelical and Divine yet sith the replenishing first of Earth with blessed Inhabitants and then of Heaven with Saints everlastingly praising God did depend upon conjunction of Man and Woman he which made all things compleat and perfect saw it could not be good to leave men without any Helper unto the sore-alledged end In things which some farther and doth cause to be desired choice
it sundry things which the very words of the Scripture it self doth seem to allude unto us namely after departure from the Sepulchre unto the House whence the dead was brought it sheweth the manner of their Burial-feast and a consolatory form of Prayer appointed for the Master of the Synagogue thereat to utter albeit I may not deny but it hath also some things which are not perhaps so antsient as the Law and the Prophets But whatsoever the Jewes custom was before the dayes of our Saviour Christ hath it once at any time been heard of the either Church or Christian man of sound belief did ever judge this a thing unmeet undecent unfit for Christianity till these miserable daies wherein under the colour of removing superstitious abuses the most effectual means both to testifie and to strengthen true Religion are plucked at and in some places even pulled up by the very rootsâ Take away this which was ordained to shew at Burials the peculiar hope of the Church of God concerning the dead and in the manner of those dumb Funerals what one one thing is there whereby the World may perceive we are Christian men 76. I come now unto that Function which undertaketh the publick Ministry of holy things according to the Laws of Christian Religion And because the nature of things consisting as this doth in action is known by the object whereabout they are conversant and by the end or scope whereunto they are referred we must know that the object of this Function in both God and Men God in that he is publickly worshipped of his Church and Men in that they are capable of happinesse by means which Christian Discipline appointeth So that the summe of our whole labour in this kinde is to honour God and to save men For whether we severally take and consider men one by one or else gather them into one Society and Body as it hath been before declared that every man's Religion is in him the Well-spring of all other sound and sincere vertues from whence both here in some sort and hereafter more abundantly their full joy and felicity ariseth because while they live they are blessed of God and when they dye their works follow them So at this present we must again call to minde how the very worldly peace and prosperity the secular happinesse the temporal and natural good estate both of all Men and of all Dominions hangeth chiefly upon Religion and doth evermore give plain testimony that as well in this as in other considerations the Priest is a pillar of that Common-wealth wherein he faithfully serveth God For if these Assertions be true first that nothing can be enjoyed in this present world against his will which hath made all things secondly that albeit God doth sometime permit the impious to have yet impiety permitteth them not to enjoy no not temporal blessings on earth thirdly that God hath appointed those blessings to attend as Hand-maids upon Religion and fourthly that without the work of the Ministry Religion by no means can possibly continue the use and benefit of that sacred Function even towards all mens worldly happiness must needs be granted Now the first being a Theoreme both understood and confest by all to labour in proof thereof were superfluous The second perhaps may be called in question except it be perfectly understood By good things temporal therefore we mean length of daies health of body store of friends and well-willers quietness prosperous success of those things we take in hand riches with fit opportunities to use them during life reputation following us both alive and dead children or such as instead of children we wish to leave Successors and Partakers of our happinesse These things are naturally every man's desire because they are good And on whom God bestoweth the same them we confesse he graciously blesseth Of earthly blessings the meanest is wealth reputation the chiefest For which cause we esteem the gain of honour an ample recompence for the losse of all other worldly benefits But for as much as in all this there is no certain perpetuity of goodnesse nature hath taught to affect these things not for their own sake but with reference and relation to somewhat independently good as is the exercise of vertue and speculation of truth None whose desires are rightly ordered would wish to live to breathe and move without performance of those actions which are beseeming man's excellencyâ Wherefore having not how to employ it we wax weary even of life it self Health is precious because sickness doth breed that pain which disableth action Again why do men delight so much in the multitude of friends but for that the actions of life being many do need many helping hands to further them Between troublesome and quiet dayes we should make no difference if the one did not hinder and interrupt the other uphold our liberty of action Furthermore if those things we do succeed it rejoyceth us not so much for the benefit we thereby reap as in that it probably argueth our actions to have been orderly and well-guided As for riches to him which hath and doth nothing with them they are a contumely Honour is commonly presumed a sign of more than ordinary vertue and merit by means whereof when ambitious mindes thirst after it their endeavours are testimonies how much it is in the eye of nature to possesse that Body the very shadow whereof is set at so high a rate Finally such is the pleasure and comfort which we take in doing that when life forsaketh us still our desires to continue action and to work though not by our selves yet by them whom we leave behinde us causeth us providently to resign into other mens hands the helps we have gathered for that purpose devising also the best we can to make them perpetual It appeareth therefore how all the parts of temporal felicity are only good in relation to that which riseth them as instruments and that they are no such good as wherein a right desire doth ever stay or rest it self Now temporal blessings are enjoyed of those which have them know them esteem them according to that they are in their own nature Wherefore of the wicked whom God doth hate his usual and ordinary speeches are That blood-thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their dayes that God shall cause a pestilence to cleave unto the wicked and shall strike them with consuming grief with Feavers burning diseases and sores which are past cure that when the impious are fallen all men should tread them down and none shew countenance of love towards them as much as by pitying them in their misery that the sinnes of the ungodly shall beâeave them of peace that all counsels complots and practices against God shall come to nothing that the lot and inheritance of the unjust is beggery that the name of unrighteous Persons shall purifie and the posterity of Robbers starve If
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 amaââments 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
them Powers then gifts of Cures Aides Governments kindes of Languages Are all Apostles Are all Prophets Are all Teachers Is there power in all Have all grace to cure Do all speak with Tongues Can all interpret But be you desirous of the better graces They which plainly discern first that some one general thing there is which the Apostle doth here divide into all these branches and do secondly conceive that general to be Church-Offices besides a number of other difficulties can by no means possibly deny but that many of these might concurr in one man and peradventure in some one all which mixture notwithstanding their form of discipline doth most shun On the other side admit that Communicants of special infused grace for the benefit of Members knit into one body the Church of Christ are here spoken of which was in truth the plain drift of that whole Discourse and see if every thing do not answer in due place with the fitness which sheweth easily what is likeliest to have been meane For why are Apostles the first but because unto them was granted the Revelation of all Truth from Christ immediately Why Prophets the second but because they had of some things knowledge in the same manner Teachers the next because whatsoever was known to them it came by hearing yet God withal made them able to instruct which every one could not do that was taught After Gifts of Edification there follow general abilities to work things above Nature Grace to cure men of bodily Diseases Supplies against occurrent defects and impediments Dexterities to govern and direct by counsel Finally aptness to speak or interpret foreign tongues Which Graces not poured out equally but diversly sorted and given were a cause why not onely they all did furnish up the whole Body but each benefit and help other Again the same Apostle other-where in like sort To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith When he ascended up on high he led Captivity captive and gave gifts unto men He therefore gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the gathering together of Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edification of the Body of Christ. In this place none but gifts of Instruction are exprest And because of Teachers some were Evangelists which neither had any part of their knowledge by Revelation as the Prophets and yet in ability to teach were farr beyond other Pastors they are as having received one way less than Prophets and another way more than Teachers set accordingly between both For the Apostle doth in neither place respect what any of them were by Office or Power given them through Ordination but what by grace they all had obtained through miraculous infusion of the Holy Ghost For in Christian Religion this being the ground of our whole Belief that the promises which God of old had made by his Prophets concerning the wonderful Gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost wherewith the Reign of the true Messias should be made glorious were immediately after our Lord's Ascension performed there is no one thing whereof the Apostles did take more often occasion to speak Out of men thus endued with gifts of the Spirit upon their Conversion to Christian Faith the Church had her Ministers chosen unto whom was given Ecclesiastical power by Ordination Now because the Apostle in reckoning degrees and varieties of Grace doth mention Pastors and Teachers although he mention them not in respect of their Ordination to exercise the Ministery but as examples of men especially enriched with the gifts of the Holy Ghost divers learned and skilfull men have so taken it as if those places did intend to teach what Orders of Ecclesiastical Persons there ought to be in the Church of Christ which thing we are not to learn from thence but out of other parts of holy Scripture whereby it clearly appeareth that Churches Apostolick did know but three degrees in the power of Ecclesiastical Order at the first Apostles Presbyters and Deacons afterwards in stead of Apostles Bishops concerning whose Order we are to speak in the seventh Book There is an errour which beguileth many who doe much intangle both themselves and others by not distinguishing Services Offices and Orders Ecclesiastical the first of which three and in part the second may be executed by the Laity whereas none have or can have the third but the Clergy Catechists Exorcists Readers Singers and the rest of like sort if the nature onely of their labours and pains be considered may in that respect seem Clergy-men even as the Fathers for that cause term them usually Clerks as also in regard of the end whereunto they were trained up which was to be ordered when years and experience should make them able Notwithstanding in as much as they no way differed from others of the Laity longer than during that work of Service which at any time they might give over being thereunto but admitted not tyed by irrevocable Ordination we finde them alwayes exactly severed from that body whereof those three before rehearsed Orders alone are natural parts Touching Widows of whom some men are perswaded that if such as Saint Paul describeth may be gotten we ought to retain them in the Church for ever Certain mean Services there were of Attendance as about Women at the time of their Baptism about the Bodies of the sick and dead about the necessities of Travellers Way-faring men and such like wherein the Church did commonly life them when need required because they lived of the Alms of the Church and were fittest for such purposes Saint Paul doth therefore to avoid scandal require that none but Women well-experienced and vertuously given neither any under threescore years of age should be admitted of that number Widows were never in the Church so highly esteemed as Virgins But seeing neither of them did or could receive Ordination to make them Ecclesiastical Persons were absurd The antientest therefore of the Fathers mention those three degrees of Ecclesiastical Order specified and no moe When your Captain saith Tertullian that is to say the Deacons Presbyters and Bishops fly who shall teach the Laity that they must be constant Again What should I mention Lay-men saith Optatus yea or divers of the Ministery it self To what purpose Deacons which are in the third or Presbyters in the second degree of Priesthood when the very Heads and Princes of all even certain of the Bishops themselves were content to redeem life with the loss of Heaven Heaps of Allegations in a case so evident and plain are needless I may securely therefore conclude that there are at this day in the Church of England no other than the same Degrees of Ecclesiastical Order namely Bishops Presbyters and Deacons which had their beginning from Christ and his blessed Apostles themselves As for Deans Prebendaries Parsons Vicars Curates Arch-deacons
Chancellours Officials Commissaries and such other the like names which being not found in holy Scripture we have been thereby through some mens errour thought to allow of Ecclesiastical Degress not known nor ever heard of in the better ages of former times all these are in truth but Titles of Office whereunto partly Ecclesiastical Persons and partly others are in sundry forms and conditions admitted as the state of the Church doth need degrees of Order still continuing the same they were from the first beginning Now what habit or attire doth beseem each Order to use in the course of common life both for the gravity of his Place and for Example-sake to other men is a matter frivolous to be disputed of A small measure of wisedom may serve to teach them how they should cutt their coats But seeing all well-ordered Polities have ever judged it meet and fit by certain special distinct Ornaments to sever each sort of men from other when they are in publick to the end that all may receive such Complements of Civil Honour as are due to their Roomes and Callings even where their Persons are not known it argueth a disproportioned minde in them whom so decent Orders displease 79. We might somewhat marvel what the Apostle Saint Paul should mean to say that Covetousness is Idolatry if the daily practise of men did not shew that whereas Nature requireth God to be honoured with wealth we honour for the most part Wealth as God Fain we would teach our selves to believe that for worldly goods it sufficeth frugally and honestly to use them to our own benefit without detriment and hurt of others or if we go a degree farther and perhaps convert some small contemptible portion thereof to Charitable uses the whole duty which we owe unto God herein is fully satisfied But for as much as we cannot rightly honour God unless both our Souls and Bodies be sometime imployed meerly in his Service Again sith we know that Religion requireth at our hands the taking away of so great a part of the time of our lives quite and clean from our own business and the bestowing of the same in his Suppose we that nothing of our wealth and substance is immediately due to God but all our own to bestow and spend as our selves think meet Are not our riches as well his as the days of our life are his Wherefore unless with part we acknowledge his Supream Dominion by whose benevolence we have the whole how give we Honour to whom Honour belongeth or how hath God the things that are God's I would know what Nation in the World did ever honour God and not think it a point of their duty to do him honour with their very goods So that this we may boldly set down as a Principle clear in Nature an Axiom which ought not to be called in question a Truth manifest and infallible that men are eternally bound to honour God with their substance in token of thankful acknowledgement that all they have is from him To honour him with our worldly goods not only by spending them in lawful manner and by using them without offence but also by alienating from our selves some reasonable part or portion thereof and by offering up the same to him as a sign that we gladly confess his sole and Soveraign Dominion over all is a duty which all men are bound unto and a part of that very Worship of God which as the Law of God and Nature it self requireth so we are the rather to think all men no less strictly bound thereunto than to any other natural duty in as much as the hearts of men do so cleave to these earthly things so much admire them for the sway they have in the World impute them so generally either to Nature or to Chance and Fortune so little think upon the Grace and Providence from which they come that unless by a kinde of continual tribute we did acknowledge God's Dominion it may be doubted that short in time men would learn to forget whose Tenants they are and imagine that the World is their own absolute free and independent inheritance Now concerning the kinde or quality of gifts which God receiveth in that sort we are to consider them partly as first they proceed from us and partly as afterwards they are to serve for divine uses In that they are testimonies of our affection towards God there is no doubt but such they should be as beseemeth most his Glory to whom we offer them In this respect the fatness of Abel's Sacrifice is commended the flower of all mens increase assigned to God by Solomon the Gifts and Donations of the People rejected as oft as their cold affection to God-ward made their Presents to be little worth Somewhat the Heathens saw touching that which was herein fit and therefore they unto their gods did not think they might consecrate any thing which was impure or unsound or already given or else not truly their own to give Again in regard of use forasmuch as we know that God hath himself no need of worldly commodities but taketh them because it is our good to be so exercised and with no other intent accepteth them but to have them used for the endless continuance of Religion there is no place left of doubt or controversie but that we in the choyce of our gifts are to level at the same mark and to frame our selves to his known intents and purposes Whether we give unto God therefore that which himself by commandment requireth or that which the publick consent of the Church thinketh good to allot or that which every man 's private devotion doth best like in as much as the gift which we offer proceedeth not only as a testimony of our affection towards God but also as a mean to uphold Religion the exercise whereof cannot stand without the help of temporal commodities if all men be taught of Nature to wish and as much as in them lyeth to procure the perpetuity of good things if for that very cause we honour and admire their wisdom who having been Founders of Common-weals could devise how to make the benefit they lest behind them durable if especially in this respect we prefer Lycurgus before Solon and the Spartan before the Athenian Polity it must needs follow that as we do unto God very acceptable service in honouring him with our substance so our service that way is then most acceptable when it tendeth to perpetuity The first permanent donations of honour in this kinde are Temples Which works do so much set forward the exercise of Religion that while the World was in love with Religion it gave to no sort greater reverence than to whom it could point and say These are the men that have built us Synagogues But of Churches we have spoken sufficiently heretofore The next things to Churches are the Ornaments of Churches memorials which mens devotion hath added to remain in the treasure of
God's House not onely for uses wherein the exercise of Religion presently needeth them but also partly for supply of future casual necessities whereunto the Church is on earth subject and partly to the end that while they are kept they may continually serve as testimonies giving all men to understand that God hath in every Age and Nation such as think it no burthen to honour him with their substance The riches first of the Tabernacle of God and then of the Temple of Ierusalem arising out of voluntary Gifts and Donations were as we commonly speak a Nemo scit the value of them above that which any man would imagine After that the Tabernacle was made furnished with all necessaries and set up although in the wilderness their ability could not possibly be great the very metal of those Vessels which the Princes of the twelve Tribes gave to God for their first Presents amounted even then to two thousand and four hundred shekels of Silver an hundred and twenty shekels of Gold every shekel weighing half an ounce What was given to the Temple which Solomon erected we may partly conjecture when over and besides Wood Marble Iron Brass Vestments Precious Stones and Money the sum which David delivered into Solomon's hands for that purpose was of Gold in mass eight thousand and of Silver seventeen thousand Cichars every Cichar containing a thousand and eight hundred shekels which riseth to nine hundred Ounces in every one Cichar whereas the whole charge of the Tabernacle did not amount unto thirty Cichars After their return out of Babylon they were not presently in case to make their second Temple of equal magnificence and glory with that which the enemy had destroyed Notwithstanding what they could they did Insomuch that the building finished there remained in the Coffers of the Church to uphold the fabrick thereof six hundred and fifty Cichars of Silver one hundred of Gold Whereunto was added by Nehemias of his own gift a thousand drams of Gold fifty vessels of Silver five hundred and thirty Priests vestments by other the Princes of the Fathers twenty thousand drams of Gold two thousand and two hundred pieces of Silver by the rest of the People twenty thousand of Gold two thousand of Silver threescore and seven attires of Priests And they furthermore bound themselves towards other Charges to give by the Pole in what part of the World soever they should dwell the third of a shekel that is to say the sixth part of an ounce yearly This out of foreign Provinces they always sent in Gold Whereof Nithridates is said to have taken up by the way before it could pass to Ierusalem from Asia in one adventure eight hundred talents Crassus after that to have borrowed of the Temple it self eight thousand at which time Eleazar having both many other rich Ornaments and all the Tapestry of the Temple under his custody thought it the safest way to grow unto some composition and so to redeem the residue by parting with a certain beam of Gold about seven hundred and an half in weight a prey sufficient for one man as he thought who had never bargained with Crassus till then and therefore upon the confidence of a solemn Oath that no more should be looked for he simply delivered up a large morsel whereby the value of that which remained was betrayed and the whole lost Such being the casualties whereunto moveable Treasures are subject the Law of Moses did both require eight and twenty Cities together with their Fields and whole Territories in the Land of Iury to be reserved for God himself and not onely provide for the liberty of farther additions if men of their own accord should think good but also for the safe preservation thereof unto all Posterities that no man's avarice or fraud by defeating so vertuous intents might discourage from like purposes God's third indowment did therefore of old consist in Lands Furthermore some cause no doubt there is why besides sundry other more rare Donations of uncertain rate the Tenth should be thought a Revenue so natural to be allotted out unto God For of the spoils which Abraham had taken in Warr he delivered unto Melchisedeck the Titles The vow of Iacob at such time as he took his journey towards Haran was If God will be with me and will keep me in this voyage which I am to go and will give me Bread to eat and Cloaths to put on so that I may return to my Father's house in safety then shall the Lord be my God and this Stone which I have set up as a Pillar the same shall be God's House and of all thou shalt give me I will give unto thee the Tythe And as Abraham gave voluntarily as Iacob vowed to give God Tythes so the Law of Moses did require at the hands of all men the self-same kinde of Tribute the Tenth of their Com Wine Oyl Fruit Cattel and whatsoever increase his heavenly Providence should send In so much that Painims being herein followers of their steps paid Tythes likewise Imagine we that this was for no cause done or that there was not some special inducements to judge the Tenth of our Worldly profits the most convenient for God's Portion Are not all things by him created in such sort that the formes which give them their distinction are number their operations measure and their matter weight Three being the mystical number of God's unsearchable perfection within himself Seven the number whereby our own perfections through grace are most ordered and Ten the number of Nature's perfections for the beauty of Nature is Order and the foundation of Order Number and of Number Ten the highest we can rise unto without iteration of numbers under it could Nature better acknowledge the power of the God of nature than by assigning unto him that quantity which is the continent of all she possesseth There are in Philo the Jew many Arguments to shew the great congruity and fitness of this number in things consecrated unto God But because over-nice and curious speculations become not the earnestnesse of holy things I omit what might be farther observed as well out of others as out of him touching the quantity of this general sacred Tribute whereby it commeth to passe that the meanest and the very poorest amongst men yielding unto God as much in proportion as the greatest and many times in affection more have this as a sensible token always assuring their mindes that in his sight from whom all good is expected they are concerning acceptation protection divine priviledges and preheminencies whatsoever Equals and Peers with them unto whom they are otherwise in earthly respects inferiours being furthermore well assured that the top as it were thus presented to God is neither lost nor unfruitfully bestowed but doth sanctifie to them again the whole Mass and that he by receiving a little undertaketh to bless all In which consideration the Jewes were
less repugnant to the grounds and principles of Common right than the fraudulent proceedings of Tyrants to the principles of just Soveraignty Howbeit not so those special priviledges which are but instruments wrested and forced to serve malice There is in the Patriark of Heathen Philosophers this Precept Let us Husbandman nor no Handy-craftsman be a Priest The reason whereupon he groundeth is a maxim in the Law of Natureâ It importeth greatly the good of all men that God be reverenced with whose honour it standeth not that they which are publickly imployed in his service should live of base and manuary Trades Now compare herewith the Apostle's words Ye know that these hands have ministred to my necessities and them that are with me What think we Did the Apostle any thing opposite herein or repugnant to the Rules and Maxims of the Law of Nature The self-same reasons that accord his actions with the Law of Nature shall declare our Priviledges and his Laws no less consonant Thus therefore we see that although they urge very colourably the Apostles own Sentences requiring that a Minister should be able to divide rightly the Word of God that they who are placed in Charge should attend unto it themselves which in absence they cannot do and that they which have divers Cures must of necessity be absent from some whereby the Law Apostolick seemeth apparently broken which Law requiring attendance cannot otherwise be understood than so as to charge them with perpetual Residence Again though in every of these causes they infinitely heap up the Sentences of Fathers the Decrees of Popes the antient Edicts of Imperial authority our own National Laws and Ordinances prohibiting the same and grounding evermore their Prohibitions partly on the Laws of God and partly on reasons drawn from the light of Nature yet hereby to gather and inferr contradiction between those Laws which forbid indefinitely and ours which in certain cases have allowed the ordaining of sundry Ministers whose sufficiency for Learning is but mean Again the licensing of some to be absent from their Flocks and of others to hold more than one onely Living which hath Cure of Souls I say to conclude repugnancy between these especial permissions and the former general prohibitions which set not down their own limits is erroneous and the manifest cause thereof ignorance in differences of matter which both sorts of Law concern If then the considerations be reasonable just and good whereupon we ground whatsoever our Laws have by special right permitted if onely the effects of abused Priviledges be repugnant to the Maxims of Common right this main foundation of repugnancy being broken whatsoever they have built thereupon falleth necessarily to the ground Whereas therefore upon surmise or vain supposal of opposition between our special and the principles of Common right they gather that such as are with us ordained Ministers before they can Preach be neither lawfull because the Laws already mentioned forbid generally to create such neither are they indeed Ministers although we commonly so name them but whatsoever they execute by vertue of such their pretended Vocation is voidâ that all our grants and tolerations as well of this as the rest are frustrate and of no effect the Persons that enjoy them possess them wrongfully and are deprivable at all hours finally that other just and sufficient remedy of evils there can be none besides the utter abrogations of these our mitigations and the strict establishment of former Ordinances to be absolutely executed whatsoever follow albeit the Answer already made in discovery of the weak and unsound foundation whereupon they have built these erroneous collections may be thought sufficient yet because our desire is rather to satisfie if it be possible than to shake them off we are with very good will contented to declare the causes of all particulars more formally and largely than the equity of our own defence doth require There is crept into the mindes of men at this day a secret pernicious and pestilent conceit that the greatest perfection of a Christian man doth consist in discovery of other mens faults and in wit to discourse of our own profession When the World most abounded with just righteous and perfect men their chiefest study was the exercise of piety wherein for their safest direction they reverently hearkened to the Readings of the Law of God they kept in minde the Oracles and Aphorismes of wisdom which tended unto vertuous life if any scruple of conscience did trouble them for matter of Actions which they took in hand nothing was attempted before counsel and advice were had for fear left rashly they might offend We are now more confident not that our knowledge and judgement is riper but because our desires are another way Their scope was obedience ours is skill their endeavour was reformation of life our vertue nothing but to hear gladly the reproof of vice they in the practice of their Religion wearied chiefly their knees and hands we especially our ears and tongues We are grown as in many things else so in this to a kinde of intemperancy which onely Sermons excepted hath almost brought all other duties of Religion out of taste At the least they are not in that account and reputation which they should be Now because men bring all Religion in a manner to the onely Office of hearing Sermons if it chance that they who are thus conceited do imbrace any special opinion different from other men the Sermons that relish not that opinion can in no wise please their appetite Such therefore as preach unto them but hit not the string they look for are rejected as unprofitable the rest as unlawful and indeed no Ministers if the faculty of Sermons want For whyâ A Minister of the Word should they say be able rightly to divide the Word Which Apostolick Canon many think they do well observe when in opening the Sentences of holy Scripture they draw all things favourably spoken unto one side but whatsoever is reprehensive severe and sharp they have others on the contrary part whom that must always concern by which their over-partial and un-indifferent proceeding while they thus labour amongst the people to divide the Word they make the Word a mean to divide and distract the People ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã to divide aright doth note in the Apostle's Writings soundness of Doctrine onely and in meaning standeth opposite to ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the broaching of new opinions against that which is received For questionless the first things delivered to the Church of Christ were pure and sincere Truth Which whosoever did afterwards oppugn could not chuse but divide the Church into two moyeties in which division such as taught what was first believed held the truet part the contrary side in that they were teachers of novelty etred For prevention of which evil there are in this Church many singular and well devised remedies as namely the use of subscribing to the Articles
with our Ministerie God really performing the same which Man is authorized to act as in his Name there shall need for decision of this point no great labour To Remission of Sins there are two things necessary Grace as the only cause which taketh away Iniquity and Repentance as a Duty or Condition required in us To make Repentance such as it should be what doth God demand but inward sincerity joyned with fit and convenient Offices for that purpose the one referred wholly to our own Consciences the other best discerned by them whom God hath appointed Judges in this Court. So that having first the promises of God for pardon generally unto all Offenders penitent and particularly for our own unfeigned meaning the unfallible testimony of a good Conscience the sentence of God's appointed Officer and Vicegerent to approve with unpartial Judgement the quality of that we have done and as from his Tribunal in that respect to assoil us of any Crime I see no cause but that by the Rules of our Faith and Religion we may rest our selves very well assured touching God's most merciful Pardon and Grace who especially for the strengthening of weak timerous and fearful mindes hath so farr indued his Church with Power to absolve Sinners It pleaseth God that men sometimes should by missing this help perceive how much they stand bound to him for so precious a Benefit enjoyed And surely so long as the World lived in any awe or fear of falling away from God so dear were his Ministers to the People chiefly in this respect that being through tyranny and persecution deprived of Pastors the doleful rehearsal of their lost felicities hath not any one thing more eminent than that Sinners distrest should not now know how or where to unlade their Burthens Strange it were unto me that the Fathers who so much every where extol the Grace of Jesus Christ in leaving unto his Church this Heavenly and Divine power should as men whose simplicity had universally been abused agree all to admire the magnifie and needless Office The Sentence therefore of Ministerial Absolution hath two effects touching sin it only declareth us freed from the guiltiness thereof and restored into God's favour but concerning right in Sacred and Divine Mysteries whereof through Sin we were made unworthy as the power of the Church did before effectually binde and retain us from access unto them so upon our apparent repentance it truly restoreth our Liberty looseth and Chains wherewith we were tyed remitteth all whatsoever is past and accepteth us no less returned than if we never had gone astray For in as much as the Power which our Saviour gave to his Church is of two kindes the one to be exercised over voluntary Penitents only the other over such as are to be brought to Amendment by Ecclesiastical Censures the words wherein he hath given this Authority must be so understood as the Subject or Matter whereupon it worketh will permit It doth not permit that in the former kinde that is to say in the use of Power over voluntarie Converts to binde or loose remit or retain should signifie any other than only to pronounce of Sinners according to that which may be gathered by outward signes because really to effect the removal or continuance of Sinne in the Soul of any Offender is no Priestly act but a Work which farr exceedeth their Ability Contrariwise in the latter kinde of Spiritual Jurisdiction which by Censures constraineth men to amend their Lives It is is true that the Minister of God doth then more declare and signifie what God hath wrought And this Power true it is that the Church hath invested in it Howbeit as other truths so this hath by errour been oppugned and depraved through abuse The first of Name that openly in Writing withstood the Churches Authority and Power to remit Sinne was Tertullian after he had combined himself with Montanists drawn to the liking of their Heresie through the very sowreness of his own nature which neither his incredible skill and knowledge otherwise nor the Doctrine of the Gospel it self could but so much alter as to make him savour any thing which carried with it the taste of lenity A Spunge steeped in Worm-wood and Gall a Man through too much severity merciless and neither able to endure nor to be endured of any His Book entituled concerning Chastity and written professedly against the Discipline of the Church hath many fretful and angry Sentences declaring a minde very much offended with such as would not perswade themselves that of Sins some be pardonable by the Keyes of the Church some uncapable of Forgiveness That middle and moderate Offences having received chastisement may by Spiritual Authority afterwards be remitted but greater Transgressions must as touching Indulgence be left to the only pleasure of Almighty God in the World to come That as Idolatry and Bloodshed so likewise Fornication and sinful Lust are of this nature that they which so farr have fallen from God ought to continue for ever after barred from access unto his Sanctuary condemned to perpetual profusion of Tears deprived of all expectation and hope to receive any thing at the Churches hands but publication of their shame For saith he who will fear to waste out that which he hopeth he may recover Who will be careful for ever to hold that which be knoweth cannot for ever be withheld from him He which slackneth the Bridle to sinne doth thereby give it even the spurr also Take away fear and that which presently succeedeth in stead thereof is Licencious desire Greater Offences therefore are punishable but not pardonable by the Church If any Prophet or Apostle be found to have remitted such Transgressions they did it not by the ordinary course of Discipline but by extraordinary power For they also raised the Dead which none but God is able to do they restored the Impotent and Lame men a work peculiar to Jesus Christ Yea that which Christ would not do because executions of such severity beseemed not him who came to save and redeem the World by his sufferings they by their power strook Elymas and Ananias the one blinde and the other dead Approve first your selves to be as they were Apostles or Prophets and then take upon you to pardon all men But if the Authority you have be only Ministerial and no way Soveraign over-reach not the limits which God hath set you know that to pardon capital Sin is beyond your Commission Howbeit as oftentimes the vices of wicked men do cause other their commendable qualities to be abhorred so the honour of great mens vertues is easily a Cloak of their Errours In which respect Tertullian hath past with much less obloquy and reprehension than Novatian who broaching afterwards the same opinion had not otherwise wherewith to countervail the Offence he gave and to procure it the like toleration Novatian at the first a Stoical Phylosopher which kinde of men hath alwayes accounted
of uncleanness they nourish the root out of which they grow they breed that iniquity which bred them The blot therefore of Sin abideth though the act be transitory And out of both ariseth a present debt to endure what punishment soever the evil which we have done deserveth an Obligation in the Chains whereof Sinners by the Justice of Almighty God continue bound till Repentance loose them Repent this thy Wickedness saith Peter unto Simon Magus beseech God that if it be possible the thought of thine heart may be pardoned for I see thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of Iniquity In like manner Solomon The Wicked shall be held fast in the cords of his own sin Nor doth God only binde Sinners hand and foot by the dreadful determination of his own unsearchable Judgment against them but sometime also the Church bindeth by the Censures of her Discipline So that when Offenders upon their Repentance are by the same Discipline absolved the Church looseth but her own Bonds the Chains wherein she had tyed them before The act of Sin God alone remitteth in that his purpose is never to call it to account or to lay it unto mens charge The stain he washeth out by the sanctifying Grace of his Spirit And concerning the punishment of Sinne as none else hath power to cast Body and Soul into Hell fire so none power to deliver either besides him As for the Ministerial Sentence of private Absolution it can be no more than a Declaration what God hath done It hath but the force of the Prophet Nathan's Absolution God hath taken away thy Sin Than which construction especially of words judicial there is not any thing more vulgar For example the Publicans are said in the Gospel to have justified God The Jews in Malachi to have blessed Proud men which sinne and prosper not that the one did make God righteous or the other the wicked happy But to bless to Justifie and to Absolve are as commonly used for words of Judgement or Declaration as of true and real efficacy Yea even by the opinion of the Master of Sentences It may be soundly affirmed and thought that God alone doth remit and retain Sinnes although he have given Power to the Church to do both But he one way and the Church another He only by himself forgiveth Sinne who cleanseth the Soul from inward blemish and looseth the Debt of Eternal death So great a Priviledge he hath not given unto his Priests who notwithstanding are authorized to loose and binde that is to say declare who are bound and who are loosed For albeit a man be already cleared before God yet he is not in the Church of God so taken but by the vertue of the Priests Sentence who likewise may be said to binde by imposing Satisfaction and to loose by admitting to the Holy Communion Saint Hierom also whom the Master of the Sentences alledgeth for more countenance of his own opinion doth no less plainly and directly affirm That as the Priests of the Law could only discern and neither cause nor remove Leprosies So the Ministers of the Gospel when they retain or remit Sin do but in the one judge how long we continue guilty and in the other declare when we are clear or free For there is nothing more apparent than that the Discipline of Repentance both Publick and Private was ordained as an outward mean to bring men to the vertue of inward Conversion So that when this by manifest tokens did seem effected Absolution ensuing which could not make served only to declare men innocent But the cause wherefore they are so stiff and have forsaken their own Master in this point is for that they hold the private Discipline of Penitency to be a Sacrament Absolution an external sign in this Sacrament the signs external of all Sacraments in the New Testament to be both causes of that which they signifie and signs of that which they truly cause To this opinion concerning Sacraments they are now tyed by expounding a Canon in the Florentine Council according to the former Ecclesiastical invention received from Thomas For his device it was that the mercy of God which useth Sacraments as Instruments whereby to work indueth them at the time of their Administration with supernatural force and ability to induce Grace into the Souls of men Even as the Axe and Saw doth seem to bring Timber into that fashion which the minde of the Artificer intendeth His Conceipt Scotus Occam Petrus Alliacensis with sundry others do most earnestly and strongly impugn shewing very good reason wherefore no Sacrament of the new Law can either by vertue which it self hath or by force supernatural given it be properly a cause to work Grace but Sacraments are therefore said to work or conferr Grace because the will of Almighty God is although not to give them such efficacy yet himself to be present in the Ministry of the working that effect which proceedeth wholly from him without any real operation of theirs such as can enter into men's Souls In which construction seeing that our Books and Writings have made it known to the World how we joyn with them it seemeth very hard and injurious Dealing that Bellarmine throughout the whole course of his second Book De Sacramentis in genere should so boldly face down his Adversaries as if their opinion were that Sacraments are naked empty and ineffectual signes whererein there is no other force than only such as in Pictures to stir up the minde that so by theory and speculation of things represented Faith may grow Finally That all the operations which Sacraments have is a sensible and divine Instruction But had it pleased him not to hud-wink his own knowledge I nothing doubt but he fully saw how to answer himself it being a matter very strange and incredible that one which with so great diligence hath winowed his Adversarys Writings should be ignorant of their minds For even as in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ both God and Man when his human nature is by it self considered we may not attribute that unto him which we do and must ascribe as oft as respect is had unto both natures combined so because in Sacraments there are two things distinctly to be considered the outward sign and the secret concurrence of Gods most blessed Spirit in which respect our Saviour hath taught that Water and the Holy Ghost are combined to work the mysterie of new birth Sacraments therefore as signs have only those effects before mentioned but of Sacraments in that by God's own Will and Ordinance they are signs assisted alwayes with the power of the Holy Ghost we acknowledge whatsoever either the places of the Scripture or the Authority of Councels and Fathers or the proofs and arguments of reason which he alledgeth can shew to be wrought by them The Elements and words have power of infallible signification for
which they are called Seals of God's Truth The Spirit affixed unto those Elements and Words power of operation within the Soul most admirable divine and impossible to be exprest For so God hath instituted and ordained that together with due administration and receit of Sacramental signs there shall proceed from himself Grace effectual to Sanctifie to Cure to Comfort and whatsoever else is for the good of the Souls of Men. Howbeit this opinion Thomas rejecteth under pretence that it maketh Sacramental Words and Elements to be in themselves no more than signes whereas they ought to be held as causes of that they signifie He therefore reformeth it with this addition that the very sensible parts of the Sacraments do Instrumentally effect and produce not Grace for the Schoolmen both of these times and long after did for the most part maintain it untrue and some of them unpossible that sanctifying Grace should efficiently proceed but from God alone and that by immediate creation as the substance of the Soul doth but the phantasie which Thomas had was that sensible things through Christ's and the Priest's Benediction receive a certain supernatural transitory force which leaveth behinde it a kinde of preparative quality or beauty within the Soul whereupon immediately from God doth ensue the Grace that justifieth Now they which pretend to follow Thomas differ from him in two points For first they make Grace an immediate effect of the outward signe which he for the dignity and excellency thereof was afraid to do Secondly Whereas he to produce but a preparative quality in the Soul did imagine God to create in the Instrument a supernatural Gift or hability They confesse that nothing is created infused or any way inherent either in the Word or in the Elements nothing that giveth them Instrumental efficacy but Gods mere motion or application Are they able to explain unto us or themselves to conceive what they mean when they thus speak For example let them teach us in the Sacrament of Baptisme what it is for Water to be moved till it bring forth Grace The application thereof by the Minister is plain to sense The force which it hath in the minde as a moral instrument of Information or Instruction we know by reason and by Faith we understand how God doth assist it with his Spirit Whereupon ensueth the Grace which Saint Cyprian did in himself observe saying After the bathe of Regeneration having scowred out the stained foulnesse of former life supernatural light had entrance into the Breast which was purified and cleansed for it After that a second nativity had made another man by inward receipt of the Spirit from Heaven things doubtful began in marvellous manner to appear certain that to be open which lay hid Darknesse to shine like the clear light former hardnesse to be made facility impossibility casinesse Insomuch as it might be discerned how that was earthly which before had been carnally bred and lived given over unto Sinnes That now God's own which the Holy Ghost did quicken Our Opinion is therefore plain unto every man's understanding We take it for a very good speech which Bonaventure hath uttered in saying Heed must be taken that while we assigne too much to the bodily signes in way of their Commendation we withdraw not the honour which is due to the Cause which worketh in them and the Soul which receiveth them Whereunto we conformably teach that the outward signe applyed hath of it self no natural efficacy towards Grace neither doth God put into it any supernatural inherent Vertue And as I think we thus farre avouch no more than they themselves confesse to be very true If any thing displease them it is because we adde to these Premises another assertion That with the outward signe God joyneth his Holy Spirit and so the whole Instrument of God bringeth that to passe whereunto the baser and meaner part could not extend As for operations through the motions of signes they are dark intricate and obscure perhaps possible howbeit not proved either true or likely by alledging that the touch of our Saviour's Garment restored Health Clay Sight when he applyed it Although ten thousand such Examples should be brought they overthrow not this one Principle That where the Instrument is without inherent the Effect must necessarily proceed from the onely Agents adherent power It passeth a man's conceit how water should be carried into the Soul with any force of Divine motion or Grace proceed but merely from the influence of God's Spirit Notwithstanding if God himself teach his Church in this case to believe that which he hath not given us capacity to comprehend how incredible soever it may seem yet our Wits should submit themselves and Reason give place unto Faith therein But they yield it to be no question of Faith how Grace doth proceed from Sacraments if in general they be acknowledged true instrumental Causes by the Ministry whereof men receive Divine Grace And that they which impute Grace to the onely operation of God himself concurring with the external sign do no lesse acknowledge the true efficacy of the Sacrament then they that ascribe the same to the quality of the sign applyed or to the motion of God applying and so farr carrying it till Grace be not created but extracted out of the natural possibility of the Soul Neverthelesse this last Philosophical imagination if I may call it Philosophical which useth the terms but overthroweth the rules of Philosophy and hath no Article of Faith to support it but whatsoever it be they follow it in a manner all they cast off the first opinion wherein is most perspicuity and strongest evidence of certain truth The Councel of Florence and Trent defining that Sacraments contain and conferr Grace the sense whereof if it liked them might so easily conform it self with the same opinion which they drew without any just cause quite and clean the other way making Grace the issue of bare words in such Sacraments as they have framed destitute of any visible Element and holding it the off-spring as well of Elements as of Words in those Sacraments where both are but in no Sacrament acknowledging Grace to be the fruit of the Holy Ghost working with the outward signe and not by it in such sort as Thomas himself teacheth That the Apostles Imposition of Hands caused not the comming of the Holy Ghost which notwithstanding was bestowed together with the exercise of that Ceremony Yea by it saith the Evangelist to wit as by a mean which came between the true Agent and the Effect but not otherwise Many of the Antient Fathers presupposing that the Faithful before Christ had not till the time of his comming that perfect Life and Salvation which they looked for and we possesse thought likewise their Sacraments to be but prefigurations of that which ours in present do exhibit For which cause the Florentine Councel comparing the one with the
are not fit to be Ministers which also hath been collected and that by sundry of the Antient and that it is requisite the Clergy be utterly forbidden Marriage For as the burthen of Civil Regiment doth make them who bear it the less able to attend their Ecclesiastical Charge even so Saint Paul doth say that the Married are careful for the World the unmarried freer to give themselves wholly to the service of God Howbeit both experience hath found it safer that the Clergy should bear the cares of honest Marriage than be subject to the inconveniencies which single life imposed upon them would draw after it And as many as are of sound judgement know it to be farr better for this present age that the detriment be born which haply may grow through the lessening of some few mens Spiritual labours than that the Clergy and Common-wealth should lack the benefit which both the one and the other may reap through their dealing in Civil Affairs In which consideration that men consecrated unto the Spiritual service of God be licensed so farr forth to meddle with the Secular affairs of the World as doth seem for some special good cause requisite and may be without any grievous prejudice unto the Church surely there is not in the Apostles words being rightly understood any lett That no Apostle did ever bear Office may it not be a wonder considering the great devotion of the age wherein they lived and the zeal of Herod of Nero the great Commander of the known World and of other Kings of the Earth at that time to advance by all means Christian Religion Their deriving unto others that smaller charge of distributing of the Goods which were laid at their feet and of making provision for the poor which charge being in part Civil themselves had before as I suppose lawfully undertaken and their following of that which was weightier may serve as a marvellous good example for the dividing of one man's Office into divers slips and the subordinating of Inferiours to discharge some part of the same when by reason of multitude increasing that labour waxeth great and troublesome which before was easie and light but very small force it hath to inferr a perpetual divorce between Ecclesiastical and Civil power in the same Persons The most that can be said in this Case is That sundry eminent Canons bearing the name of Apostolical and divers Conncils likewise there are which have forbidden the Clergy to bear any Secular Office and have enjoyned them to attend altogether upon Reading Preaching and Prayer Whereupon the most of the antient Fathers have shewed great dislikes that these two Powers should be united in one Person For a full and final Answer whereunto I would first demand Whether commension and separation of these two Powers be a matter of mere positive Law or else a thing simply with or against the Law immutable of God and Nature That which is simply against this latter Law can at no time be allowable in any Person more than Adultery Blasphemy Sacriledge and the like But conjunction of Power Ecclesiastical and Civil what Law is there which hath not at some time or other allowed as a thing convenient and meet In the Law of God we have examples sundry whereby it doth most manifestly appear how of him the same hath oftentime been approved No Kingdom or Nation in the World but hath been thereunto accustomed without inconvenience and hurt In the prime of the World Kings and Civil Rulers were Priests for the most part all The Romans note it as a thing beneficial in their own Common-wealth and even to them apparently forcible for the strengthening of the Jewes Regiment under Moses and Samuel I deny not but sometime there may be and hath been perhaps just cause to ordain otherwise Wherefore we are not to urge those things which heretofore have been either ordered or done as thereby to prejudice those Orders which upon contrary occasion and the exigence of the present time by like authority have been established For what is there which doth let but that from contrary occasions contrary Laws may grow and each he reasoned and disputed for by such as are subiect thereunto during the time they are in force and yet neither so opposite to other but that both may laudably continue as long as the ages which keep them do see no necessary cause which may draw them unto alteration Wherefore in these things Canons Constitutions and Laws which have been at one time meet do not prove that the Church should alwayes be bound to follow them Ecclesiastical Persons were by antient Order forbidden to be Executors of any man's Testament or to undertake the Wardship of Children Bishops by the Imperial Law are forbidden to bequeath by Testament or otherwise to alienate any thing grown unto them after they were made Bishops Is there no remedy but that these or the like Orders must therefore every where still be observed The reason is not always evident why former Orders have been repealed and other established in their room Herein therefore we must remember the axiom used in the Civil Laws That the Prince is alwayes presumed to do that with reason which is not against reason being done although no reason of his deed be exprest Which being in every respect as true of the Church and her Divine Authority in making Laws it should be some bridle unto those malepert and proud spirits whose wits not conceiving the reason of Laws that are established they adore their own private fancy as the supreme Law of all and accordingly take upon them to judge that whereby they should be judged But why labour we thus in vain For even to change that which now is and to establish instead thereof that which themselves would acknowledge the very self-same which hath been to what purpose were it fith they protest That they utterly condemn as well that which hath been as that which is as well the antient as the present Superiority Authority and Power of Ecclesiastical Persons XVI Now where they lastly alledge That the Law of our Lord Iesus Christ and the judgement of the best in all ages condemn all ruling Superiority of Ministers over Ministers they are in this as in the rest more bold to affirm than able to prove the things which they bring for support of their weak and feeble Cause The bearing of Dominion or the exercising of Authority they say is this wherein the Civil Magistrate is severed from the Ecclesiastical officer according to the words of our Lord and Saviour Kings of Nations bear rule over them but it shall not be so with you Therefore bearing of Dominion doth not agree to one Minister over another This place hath been and still is although most falsely yet with farr greater shew and likelyhood of truth brought forth by the Anabaptists to prove that the Church of Christ ought to have no Civil Magistrates but be ordered
Chief-Priest and such like ought not in any sort at all to be given unto any Christian Bishop what excuse should we make for so many Antient both Fathers and Synods of Fathers as have generally applyed the Title of Arch-Priest unto every Bishop's Office High time I think it is to give over the obstinate defence of this most miserable forsaken Cause in the favour whereof neither God nor amongst so many wise and vertuous men as Antiquity hath brought forth any one can be found to have hitherto directly spoken Irksome confusion must of necessity be the end whereunto all such vain an ungrounded confidence doth bring as hath nothing to bear it out but only an excessive measure of bold and peremptory words holpen by the start of a little time before they came to be examined In the Writings of the antient Fathers there is not any thing with more serious asseveration inculcated than that it is God which maketh Bishops that their Authority hath Divine allowance that the Bishop is the Priest of God that he is Judge in Christ's stead that according to God's own Law the whole Christian Fraternity standeth bound to obey him Of this there was not in the Christian World of old any doubt or controversie made it was a thing universally every where agreed upon What should move men to judge that now so unlawful and naught which then was so reverently esteemed Surely no other cause but this men were in those times times meek lowly tractable willing to live in dutiful aw and subjection unto the Pastors of their Souls Now we imagin our selves so able every man to teach and direct all others that none of us can brook it to have Superiours and for a mask to hide our Pride we pretend falsely the Law of Christ as if we did seek the execution of his will when in truth we labour for the meer satisfaction of our own against his XVII The chiefest cause of disdain and murmure against Bishops in the Church of England is that evil-affected eye wherewith the World looked upon them since the time that irreligious Prophaneness beholding the due and just advancements of Gods Clergy hath under pretence of enmity unto Ambition and Pride proceeded so farr that the contumely of old offered unto Aaron in the like quarrel may seem very moderate and quiet dealing if we compare it with the fury of our own times The ground and original of both their proceedings one and the same in Declaration of their Grievances they differ not the Complaints as well of the one as the other are Wherefore lift ye up your selves thus farr above the Congregation of the Lord It is too much which you take upon you too much Power and too much Honour Wherefore as we have shewed that there is not in their Power any thing unjust or unlawful so it resteth that in their Honour also the like be done The labour we take unto this purpose is by so much the harder in that we are forced to wraftle with the stream of obstinate Affection mightily carried by a wilful prejudice the Dominion whereof is so powerful over them in whom it reigneth that it giveth them no leave no not so much as patiently to hearken unto any speech which doth not profess to feed them in this their bitter humour Notwithstanding for as much as I am perswaded that against God they will not strive if they perceive once that in truth it is he against whom they open their mouths my hope is their own Confession will be at the length Behold we have done exceeding foolishly It was the Lord and we know it not Him in his Ministers we have despised we have in their honour impugned his But the alteration of men's hearts must be His good and gracious work whose most omnipotent power framed them Wherefore to come to our present purpose Honour is no where due saving only unto such as have in them that whereby they are sound or at the least presumed voluntarily beneficial unto them of whom they are honoured Wheresoever nature seeth the countenance of a Man it still presumeth that there is in him a minde willing to do good if need require inasmuch as by nature so it should be for which cause Men unto Men do honor even for very Humanity sake And unto whom we deny all honor we seem plainly to take from them all opinion of Human Dignity to make no account or reckoning of them to think them so utterly without vertue as if no good thing in the World could be looked for at their hands Seeing therefore it seemeth hard that we should so hardly think of any man the Precept of St. Peter is Honor all men Which duty of every men towards all doth vary according to the several degrees whereby they are more and less beneficial whom we do honor Honor the Physician saith the Wiseman The reason why because for necessities sake God created him Again Thou shalt rise up before the beary head and honor the person of the Aged The reason why because the younger sort have great benefit by their gravity experience and wisdom for which cause these things the Wiseman termeth the Crown or Diadem of the Aged Honor is due to Parents The reason why because we have our beginning from them Obey the Father that hath begotten thee the Mother that bare thee despise thou nor Honor due unto Kings and Governors The reason why because God hath set them for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well Thus we see by every of these particulars that there is always some kinde of vertue beneficial wherein they excel who receive honor and that degrees of Honor are distinguished according to the value of those effects which the same beneficial Vertue doth produce Nor is Honor only an inward estimation whereby they are reverenced and well thought of in the mindes of men but Honor whereof we now speak is defined to be an External sign by which we give a sensible testification that we acknowledge the beneficial Vertue of others Sarah honored her Husband Abraham this appeareth by the Title she gave him The Brethren of Ioseph did him honor in the Land of Egypt their lowly and humble gesture sheweth it Parents will hardly perswade themselves that this intentional Honor which reacheth no farther than to the Inward conception only is the Honor which their Children owe them Touching that Honor which mystically agreeing unto Christ was yielded literally and really unto Solomon the words of the Psalmist concerning it are Unto him they shall give of the Gold of Sheba they shall pray for him continually and daily bless him Weigh these things in themselves Titles Gestures Presents other the like external signs wherein Honor doth consist and they are matters of no great moment Howbeit take them away let them cease to be required and they are not things of small importance
of that courage to follow learning which hath already so much failed through the onely diminution of her chiefest rewards Bishopricks Surely wheresoever this wicked intendment of overthrowing Cathedral Churches or of taking away those Livings Lands and Possessions which Bishops hitherto have enjoyed shall once prevail the hand maids attending thereupon will be Paganism and extreme Barbarity In the Law of Moses how careful provision is made that goods of this kind might remain to the Church for ever Ye shall not make common the holy things of the children of Israel lest ye dye saith the Lord. Touching the fields annexed unto Levitical Cities the Law was plain they might not be sold and the reason of the Law this for it was their possession for ever He which was Lord and owner of it his will and pleasure was that from the Levites it should never pass to be enjoyned by any other The Lords own portion without his own Commission and Grant how should any man justly hold They which hold it by his appointment had it plainly with this condition They shall not sell of it neither change it nor alienate the first-fruits of the Land for it is holy unto the Lord. It falleth sometimes out as the Prophet Habbakkuk noteth that the very prey of Savage Beasts becometh dreadful unto themselves It did so in Iudas Achan Nebuchadnezzar their evil-purchased goods were their snare and their prey their own terror A thing no where so likely to follow as in those goods and possessions which being laid where they should not rest have by the Lords own testimony his most bitter curse their undividable companion These perswasions we use for other mens cause not for theirs with whom God and Religion are parts of the abrogated Law of Ceremonies Wherefore not to continue longer in the cure of a Sore desperate there was a time when the Clergy had almost as little as these good people wish But the Kings of this Realm and others whom God had blest considered devoutly with themselves as David in like case sometimes had done Is it meet that we at the hands of God should enjoy all kindes of abundance and Gods Clergy suffer want They considered that of Solomon Honor God with thy substance and the chiefest of all thy revenue so shall thy barns be filled with corn and thy vessels shall run over with new wine They considered how the care which Iehoshaphat had in providing that the Levites might have encouragement to do the work of the Lord chearfully was left of God as a fit pattern to be followed in the Church for ever They considered what promise our Lord and Saviour hath made unto them at whose hands his Prophets should receive but the least part of the meanest kind of friendliness though it were but a draught of water Which promise seemeth not to be taken as if Christ had made them of any higher courtesie uncapable and had promised reward not unto such as give them but that but unto such as leave them but that They considered how earnest the Apostle is that if the Ministers of the Law were so amply provided for less care then ought not to be had of them who under the Gospel of Jesus Christ possess correspondent rooms in the Church they considered how needful it is that they who provoke all others unto works of Mercy and Charity should especially have wherewith to be examples of such things and by such meons to win them with whom other means without those do commonly take very small effect In these and the like considerations the Church-Revenues were in ancient times augmented our Lord thereby performing manifestly the promise made to his servants that they which did leave either Father or Mother or Lands or goods for his sake should receive even in this World an hundred fold For some hundreds of years together they which joyned themselves to the Church were fain to relinquish all worldly emoluments and to endure the hardness of an afflicted estate Afterward the Lord gave rest to his Church Kings and Princes became as Fathers thereunto the hearts of all men inclined towards it and by his providence there grew unto it every day earthly possessions in more and more abundance till the greatness thereof bred envy which no diminutions are able to satisfie For as those ancient Nursing Fathers thought they did never bestow enough even so in the eye of this present age as long as any thing remaineth it seemeth to bee too much Our Fathers we imitate inperversum as Tertullian speaketh like them we are by being in equal degree the contrary unto that which they were Unto those earthly blessings which God as then did with so great abundance pour down upon the Ecclesiastical state we may in regard of most neer resemblance apply the self same words which the Prophet hath God blessed them exceedingly and by this very mean turned the hearts of their own Brethren to hate them and to deal politiquely with his servants Computations are made and there are huge sums set down for Princes to see how much they may amplifie and enlarge their own treasure how many publique burthens they may ease what present means they have to reward their servants about them if they please but to grant their assent and to accept of the spoil of Bishops by whom Church-goods are but abused unto pomp and vanity Thus albeit they deal with one whose princely vertue giveth them small hope to prevail in impious and sacrilegious motions yet shame they not to move her Royal Majesty even with a suit not much unlike unto that wherewith the Jewish High-Priest tried Iudas whom they sollicited unto Treason against his Master and proposed unto him a number of silver-pence in lien of so vertuous and honest a service But her sacred Majesty disposed to be always like her self her heart so far estranged from willingness to gain by pillage of that estate the only awe whereof under God she hath been unto this present hour as of all other parts of this noble Common-wealth whereof she hath vowed her self a Protector till the end of her days on earth which if nature could permit we wish as good cause we have endless this her gracious inclination is more then a seven times sealed warrant upon the same assurance whereof touching time and action so dishonourable as this we are on her part most secure not doubting but that unto all posterity it shall for ever appear that from the first to the very last of her Soveraign proceedings there hath not been one authorized deed other then consonant with that Symmachus saith Fiscus bonitum Principum non sacer dotum damnis sed hastium spoliis angeatur consonant with that imperial law Ea qua ad be atissima ecclesia jur a pârtinent tanquam ipsamâ sacro sanctam religiosam Ecclesiam intactu convenit vener abiliter aâstodiri ut âicââ ipsâreligionis âidei mater perpetua
est it a ejââ patrimonium jugiter servetur illasââ 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
in dealing is tyed unto the soundest perfectest and most indifferent Rule which Rule is the Law I mean not only the Law of Nature and of God but the National Law consonant thereunto Happier that people whose Law is their King in the greatest things then that whose King is himself their Law where the King doth guide the State and the Law the King that Common-wealth is like an Harp or Melodious Instrument the strings whereof are turned and handled all by one hand following as Laws the Rules and Canons of Musical Science Most divinely therefore Archytas maketh unto publike felicity these four steps and degrees every of which doth spring from the former as from another cause ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The King ruling by Law the Magistrate following the Subject free and the whole Society happy Adding on the contrary side that where this order is not it cometh by transgression thereof to pass that a King groweth a Tyrant he that ruleth under him abhorreth to be guided by him or commanded the people subject unto both have freedome under neither and the whole Community is wretched In which respect I cannot chuse but commend highly their wisdom by whom the Foundations of the Common-wealth hath been laid wherein though no manner of Person or cause be unsubject unto the Kings Power yet so is the Power of the King over all and in all limited that unto all his proceedings the Law it self is a rule The Axioms of our Regal Government are these Lex facit regem The Kings Grant of any favour made contrary to the Law is void Rex nibil potest nisi quod jure potest Our Kings therefore when they are to take possession of the Crown they are called unto have it pointed our before their eyes even by the very Solemnities and Rites of their Inauguration to what affairs by the same Law their Supream Power and Authority reacheth crowned we see they are enthronized and annointed the Crown a Sign of a Military Dominion the Throne of Sedentary or Judicial the Oyl of Religious and Sacred Power It is not on any side denied that Kings may have Authority in Secular affairs The Question then is What power they may lawfully have and exercise in causes of God A Prince or Magistrate or a Community saith Doctor Stapleton may have power to lay corporal punishment on them which are teachers of perverse things power to make Laws for the Peace of the Church Power to proclaim to defend and even by revenge to preserve dogmata the very Articles of Religion themselves from violation Others in affection no less devoted unto the Papacy do likewise yield that the Civil Magistrate may by his Edicts and Laws keep all Ecclesiastical Persons within the bounds of their duties and constrain them to observe the Canons of the Church to follow the rule of ancient Discipline That if Ioash was commended for his care and provision concerning so small a part of Religion as the Church-treasure it must needs be both unto Christian Kings themselves greater honour and to Christianity a larger benefit when the custody of Religion and the worship of God in general is their charge It therefore all these things mentioned be most properly the affairs of Gods Ecclesiastical causes if the actions specified be works of power and if that power be such as Kings may use of themselves without the fear of any other power superior in the same thing it followeth necessarily that Kings may have supream power not only in Civil but also in Ecclesiastical affairs and consequently that they may withstand what Bishop or Pope soever shall under the pretended claim of higher Spiritual Authority oppose themselves against their proceedings But they which have made us the former grant will never hereunto condescend what they yield that Princes may do it is with secret exception always understood If the Bishop of Rome give leave if he enterpose no prohibition wherefore somewhat it is in shew in truth nothing which they grant Our own Reformes do the very like when they make their discourse in general concerning the Authority which Magistrates may have a man would think them to be far from withdrawing any jot of that which with reason may be thought due The Prince and Civil Magistrate saith one of them hath to see the Laws of God touching his Worship and touching all Matters and all Orders of the Church to be executed and duly observed and to see every Ecclesiastical Person do that office whereunto he is appointed and to punish those which fail in their office accordingly Another acknowledgeth That the Magistrate may lawfully uphold all truth by his Sword punish all persons enforce all to their duties towards God and men maintain by his Laws every point of Gods Word punish all vice in all men see into all causes visit the Ecclesiastical Estate and correct the abuses thereof Finally to look to his Subjects that under him they may lead their lives in all godliness and honestyâ A third more frankly prosesseth That in case their Church Discipline were established so little it shortneth the Arms of Soveraign Dominion in causes Ecclesiastical that Her Gracious Majesty for any thing they teach or hold to the contrary may no less then now remain still over all persons in all things Supream Governess even with that full and Royal Authority Superiority and Preheminence Supremacy and Prerogative which the Laws already established do give her and her Majesties Injunctions and the Articles of the Convocation house and other writings Apologetical of her Royal Authority and Supream Dignity do declare and explain Possidonius was wont to say of the Epicure That he thought there were no Gods but that those things which he spake concerning the Gods were only given out for fear of growing adious amongst men and therefore that in words he left gods remaining but in very deed overthrew them in so much as he gave them no kind of Action After the very self same manner when we come unto those particular effects Prerogatives of Dominion which the Laws of this Land do grant unto the Kings thereof it will appear how these men notwithstanding their large and liberal Speeches abate such parcels out of the afore alleadged grant and flourishing shew that a man comparing the one with the other may half stand in doubt lest their Opinion in very truth be against that Authority which by their Speeches they seem mightily to uphold partly for the avoiding of publike obloquie envie and hatred partly to the intent they may both in the cad by the establishment of their Discipline extinguish the force of Supream Power which Princes have and yet in the mean while by giving forth these smooth Discourses obtain that their savourers may have somewhat to alleadge for them by way of Apologie and that such words only sound towards all kind of fulness of Power But for my self I had rather construe such their contradictions in the better
any longer under him but he together with them under God receiving the joyes of everlasting triumph that so God may be in all all misery in all the Wicked through his Justice in all the Righteous through his love all felicity and blisse In the mean while he reigneth over the World as King and doth those things wherein none is Superiour unto him whether we respect the works of his Providence and Kingdom or of his Regiment over the Church The cause of Errour in this point doth seem to have been a misconceit that Christ as Mediatour being inferiour to his Father doth as Mediatour all Works of Regiment over the Church when in truth Regiment doth belong to his Kingly Office Mediatourship to his Priestly For as the High-Priest both offered Sacrifices for expiation of the Peoples sins and entred into the holy Place there to make intercession for them So Christ having finished upon the Cross that part of his Priestly Office which wrought the propitiation for our Sinnes did afterwards enter into very Heaven and doth there as Mediatour of the New Testament appear in the sight of God for us A like sleight of Judgement it is when they hold that Civil Authority is from God but not immediately through Christ nor with any subordination to God nor doth any thing from God but by the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. They deny it not to be said of Christ in the Old Testament By me Princes rule and the Nobles and all the Iudges of the Earth In the New as much is taught That Christ is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Wherefore to the end it may more plainly appear how all Authority of Man is derived from God through Christ and must by Christian men be acknowledged to be no otherwise held then of and under him we are to note that because whatsoever hath necessary being the Son of God doth cause it to be and those things without which the World cannot well continue have necessary being in the World a thing of so great use as Government cannot choose but be originally from Him Touching that Authority which Civil Magistrates have in Ecclesiastical Affairs it being from God by Christ as all other good things are cannot chuse but be held as a thing received at his hands and because such power is of necessity for the ordering of Religion wherein the essence and very being of the Church consisteth can no otherwise slow from him than according to that special care which he hath to govern and guide his own People it followeth that the said Authority is of and under him after a more special manner in that he is Head of the Church and not in respect of his general Regency over the World All things saith the Apostle speaking unto the Church are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is God's Kings are Christ's as Saints because they are of the Church if not collectively yet divisively understood It is over each particular Person within that Church where they are Kings Surely Authority reacheth both unto all mens persons and to all kindes of causes also It is not denyed but that they may have and lawfully exercise it such Authority it is for which and for no other in the World we term them Heads such Authority they have under Christ because he in all things is Lord overall and even of Christ it is that they have received such Authority in as much as of him all lawful Powers are therefore the Civil Magistrate is in regard of this Power an under and subordinate Head of Christ's People It is but idle where they speak That although for several Companies of Men there may be several Heads or Governours differing in the measure of their Authority from the Chiefest who is Head over all yet it cannot be in the Church for that the reason why Head-Magistrates appoint others for such several places it Because they cannot be present every where to perform the Office of an Head But Christ is never from his Body nor from any Part of it and therefore needeth not to substitute any which may be Heads some over one Church and some over another Indeed the consideration of Man's imbecillity which maketh many Heads necessary where the burthen is too great for one moved Iethro to be a Perswader of Moses that a number of Heads of Rulers might be instituted for discharge of that duty by parts which in whole he saw was troublesome Now although there be not in Christ any such defect or weakness yet other causes there be divers more than we are able to search into wherefore it might seem unto him expedient to divide his Kingdom into many Provinces and place many Heads over it that the Power which each of them hath in particular with restraint might illustrate the greatness of his unlimited Authority Besides howsoever Christ be Spiritually alwayes united unto every part of his Body which is the Church Nevertheless we do all know and they themselves who alledge this will I doubt not confess also that from every Church here visible Christ touching visible and corporal presence is removed as farr as Heaven from the Earth is distant Visible Government is a thing necessary for the Church and it doth not appear how the exercise of visible Government over such Multitudes every where dispersed throughout the World should consist without sundry visible Governours whose Power being the greatest in that kinde so farr as it reacheth they are in consideration thereof termed so farr Heads Wherefore notwithstanding the perpetual conjunction by vertue whereof our Saviour alwayes remaineth spiritually united unto the parts of his Mystical Body Heads indeed with Supream Power extending to a certain compasse are for the exercise of a visible Regiment not unnecessary Some other reasons there are belonging unto this branch which seem to have been objected rather for the exercise of mens wits in dissolving Sophismes than that the Authors of them could think in likelyhood thereby to strengthen their cause For example If the Magistrate be Head of the Church within his own Dominion then is he none of the Church For all that are of the Church make the Body of Christ and every one of the Church fulfilleth the place of one member of the Body By making the Magistrate therefore Head we do exclude him from being a Member subject to the Head and so leave him no place in the Church By which reason the name of a Body Politick is supposed to be alwayes taken of the inferiour sort alone excluding the Principal Guides and Governors contrary to all Mens customes of speech The Errour ariseth by misconceiving of some Scripture-sentences where Christ as the Head and the Church as the Body are compared or opposed the one to the other And because in such comparisons ooppositions the Body is taken for those only parts which are subject unto the Head they imagine that who so is the Head of any
respect of their bad qualities their wickedness in it self a deprivation of right to deal in the affairs of the Church and a warrant for others to deal in them which are held to be of a clean other Society the Members whereof have been before so peremptorily for ever excluded from power of dealing for ever with affairs of the Church They which once have learned throughly this Lesson will quickly be capable perhaps of another equivalent unto it For the wickedness of the Ministery transfers their right unto the King In case the King be as wicked as they to whom then shall the right descend There is no remedy all must come by devolution at length even as the Family of Brown will have it unto the godly among the people for confusion unto the wise and the great by the poor and the simple Some Kniper doling with his retinue must take this work of the Lord in hand and the making of Church-Laws and Orders must prove to be their right in the end If not for love of the truth yet for shame of grosse absurdities let these contentions and stifling fancies be abandoned The cause which moved them for a time to hold a wicked Ministery no lawful Ministry and in this defect of a lawful Ministery authorized Kings to make Laws and Orders for the Affairs of the Church till it were well established is surely this First They see that whereas the continual dealing of the Kings of Israel in the Affairs of the Church doth make now very strong against them the burthen whereof they shall in time well enough shake off if it may be obtained that it is indeed lawful for Kings to follow these holy examples howbeit no longer than during the case of necessity while the wickednesse and in respect thereof the unlawfulness of the Ministery doth continue Secondly They perceive right well that unlesse they should yield Authority unto Kings in case of such supposed necessity the Discipline they urge were clean excluded as long as the Clergy of England doth thereunto remain opposite To open therefore a door for her entrance there is no remedy but the Tenet must be this That now when the Ministery of England is universally wicked and in that respect hath lost all Authority and is become no lawful Ministery no such Ministery as hath the right which otherwise should belong unto them if they were vertuous and godly as their Adversaries are in this necessity the King may do somewhat for the Church that which we do imply in the name of Headship he may both have and exercise till they be entered which will disburthen and ease him of it till they come the King is licensed to hold that Power which we call Headship But what afterwards In a Church ordered that which the Supream Magistrate hath to do is to see that the Laws of God touching his Worship and touching all matters and orders of the Church be executed and duly observed to see that every Ecclesiastical Person do that Office whereunto he is appointed to punish those that fail in their Office In a word that which Allain himself acknowledgeth unto the Earthly power which God hath given him it doth belong to defend the Laws of the Church to cause them to be executed and to punish Rebels and Transgressors of the same on all sides therfore it is confest that to the King belongeth power of maintaining the Laws made for Church-Regiment and of causing them to be observed but Principality of Power in making them which is the thing we attribute unto Kings this both the one sort and the other do withstand Touching the Kings supereminent authority in commanding and in judging of Causes Ecclesiastical First to explain therein our meaning It hath been taken as if we did hold that Kings may prescribe what themselves think good to be done in the service of God how the Word shall be taught how the Sacraments administred that Kings may personally sit in the Consistory where the Bishops do hearing and determining what Causes soever do appertain unto the Church That Kings and Queens in their own proper Persons are by Judicial Sentence to decide the Questions which do rise about matters of Faith and Christian Religion That Kings may excommunicate Finally That Kings may do whatsoever is incident unto the Office and Duty of an Ecclesiastical Judge Which opinion because we account as absurd as they who have fathered the same upon us we do them to wit that this is our meaning and no otherwise There is not within this Realm an Ecclesiastical Officer that may by the Authority of his own place command universally throughout the Kings Dominions but they of this People whom one may command are to anothers commandement unsubject Only the Kings Royal Power is of so large compass that no man commanded by him according to the order of Law can plead himself to be without the bounds and limits of that Authority Isay according to order of Law because that with us the highest have thereunto so tyed themselves that otherwise than so they take not upon them to command any And that Kings should be in such sort Supream Commanders over all men we hold it requisite as well for the ordering of Spiritual as Civil Affairs in as much as without universal Authority in this kinde they should not be able when need is to do as vertuous Kings have done Josiah parposing to renew the House of the Lord assembled the Priests and Levites and when they were together gave them their charge saying Go out unto the Cities of Judah and gather of Israel money to repair the House of the Lord from year to year and haste the things But the Levites hastned not Therefore the King commanded Jehoida the Chief-priest and said unto him Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and Jerusalem the Tax of Moses the Servant of the Lord and of the Congregation of Israel for the Tabernacle of the Testimony For wicked Athalia and her Children brake up the House of the Lord God and all the things that were dedicated for the House of the Lord did they bestow upon Balaam Therefore the King commanded and they made a Chest and set it at the Gate of the House of the Lord without and they made a Proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem to bring unto the Lord the Tax of Moses the Servant of the Lord laid upon Israel in the Wilderness Could either he have done this or after him Ezekias the like concerning the celebration of the Passeover but that all sorts of men in all things did owe unto these their Soveraign Rulers the same obedience which sometimes Iosuah had them by vow and promise bound unto Whosoever shall rebel against thy Commandments and will not obey thy words in all thou commandest him let him be put to death only be strong and of a good courage Furthermore Judgement Ecclesiastical we say is
dear and precious to me than that I may always remain in your Honours favour which hath oftentimes be an helpful and comfortable unto me in my Ministry aud to all such as reaped any fruit of my simple and faithful labour In which dutiful regard I humbly beseech you Honours to vouchsafe to do me this grace to conceive nothing of me otherwise than according to the duty wherein I ought to live by any information against me before your Honours have heard my answer and been throughly informed of the matter Which although it be a thing that your wisdoms not in favour but in justice yeld to all men yet the state of the the calling into the Ministery whereunto it hath pleased God of his goodness to call me though unworthiest of all is so subject to mis-information as except we may finde this favour with your Honours we cannot look for any other but that our unindifferent parties may easily procure us to be hardly esteemed of and that we shall be made like the poor Fisher-boats in the Sea which every swelling wave and billow raketh and runneth over Wherein my Estate is yet harder than any others of my Rank and Calling who are indeed to fight against Flesh and Blood in what part soever of the Lords Host and Field they shall stand mashalled to serve yet many of them deal with it naked and unfurnished of Weapons But my service was in a place where I was to encounter with it well appointed and armed with skill and with authority whereof as I have always thus deserved and therefore have been careful by all good means to entertain still your Honours favourable respect of me so have I special cause at this present wherein mis-information to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and other of the High Commission hath been able so farr to prevail against me that by their Letter they have inhibited me to preach or execute any Act of Ministry in the Temple or elsewhere having never once called me before them to understand by mine answer the truth of such things as had been informed against me We have a story in our Books wherein the Pharisees proceeding against our Saviour Christ without having heard him is reproved by an honourable Counsellour as the Evangelist doth term him saying Doth our Law judge a man before it hear him and know what he hath done Which I do not mention to the end that by an indirect and covert speech I might so compare those who have without ever hearing me pronounced a heavy sentence against me for notwithstanding such proceedings I purpose by Gods grace to carry my self towards them in all seeming duty agreeable to their places much less do I presume to liken my Cause to our Saviour Christ's who hold it my chiefest honour and happiness to serve him though it be but among the hindes and hired Servants that serve him in the basest corners of his House But my purpose in mentioning it is to shew by the judgement of a Prince and great man in Israel that such proceeding standeth not with the Lavv of God and in a Princely Pattern to shew it to be a noble part of an honourable Counsellour not to allow of indirect dealings but to allow and affect such a course in Justice as is agreeable to the Lavv of God We have also a plain rule in the Word of God not to proceed any otherwise against any Elder of the Church much less against one that laboureth in the Word and in teaching Which rule is delivered with this most earnest charge and obtestation I beseech and charge thee in the sight of God and the Lord Iesus Christ and the Elect Angels that thou keep those rules without preferring one before another doing nothing of partiality or including to either part which Apostolical and most earnest charge I referr to your Honours wisdom how it hath been regarded in so heavy a Judgement against me without ever hearing my Cause and whetheâ as having God before their eyes and the Lord Jesus by whom all former Judgements shall be tried again and as in the presence of the Elect Angels Witnesses and Observers of the Regiment of the Church they have proceeded thus to such a sentence They alledge indeed two reasons in their Letters whereupon they restrain my Ministry which if they were as strong against me as they are supposed yet I referr to your Honours wisdoms whether the quality of such an Offence as they charge me with which is in effect but an indiscretion deserve so grievous a punishment both to the Church and me in taking away my Ministery and that poor little commodity which it yieldeth for the necessary maintenance of my life if so unequal a ballancing of faults and punishments should have place in the Common-wealth surely we should shortly have no Actions upon the Case nor of Trespass but all should be Pleas of the Crown nor any man amerced or fined but for every light offence put to his ransom I have credibly heard that some of the Ministery have been committed for grievous transgressions of the Laws of God and men being of no ability to do other service in the Church than to read yet hath it been thought charitable and standing with Christian moderation and temperancy not to deprive such of Ministry and Beneficency but to inflict some more tolerable punishment Which I write not because such as I think were to be favoured but to shew how unlike their dealing is with me being through the goodness of God not to be touched with any such blame and one who according to the measure of the gift of God have laboured now some years painfully in regard of the weak estate of my Body in preaching the Gospel and as I hope not altogether unprofitably in respect of the Church But I beseech your Honors to give me leave briefly to declare the particular reasons of their Letter and what Answer I have to make unto it The first is That as they say I am not lawfully called to the Function of the Ministry nor allowed to preach according to the Laws of the Church of England For Answer to this I had need to divide the Points and first to make answer to the former wherein leaving to shew what by the Holy Scriptures is required in a lawful Calling and that all this is to be found in mine that I be not too long for your weighty affairs I rest I thus answer My calling to the Ministry was such as in the calling of any thereunto is appointed to be used by the Orders agreed upon in the National Synods of the Low-Countreys for the direction and guidance of their Churches which Orders are the same with those whereby the French and Scotish Churches are governed whereof I have shewed such sufficient testimonial to my Lord the Archbishop of Canterbury as is requisite in such a Matter whereby it must needs fall out if any man be lawfully called to the Ministry in
to stand upon I think the like to this and other such in this Sermon and the rest of this matter hath not been heard in Publick places within this Land since Queen Mary's days What consequence this Doctrine may be of if he be not by Authority ordered to revoke it I beseech your H H. as the truth of God and his Gospel is dear and precious unto you according to your godly wisdome to consider I have been bold to offer to your H H. a long and tedious Discourse of these matters but Speech being like to Tapestry which if it be folded up sheweth but part of that which is wrought and being unlapt and laid open sheweth plainly to the eye all the work that is in it I thought it necessary to unfold this Tapestry and to hang up the whole Chamber of it in your most Honourable Senate that so you may the more easily discern of all the Pieces and the sundry Works and Matters contained in it Wherein my hope is your H H. may see I have not deserved so great a Punishment as is laid upon the Church for my sake and also upon my self in taking from me the excercise of my Ministerie Which Punishment how heavy it may seem to the Church or fall out indeed to be I referr it to them to judge and spare to write what I fear but to my self it is exceeding grievous for that it taketh from me the excercise of my Calling Which I do not say is dear unto me as the means of that little benefit whereby I live although this be a lawful consideration and to be regarded of me in due place and of the Authority under whose Protection I most willingly live even by God's Commandment both unto them and unto me but which ought to be more precious unto me than my life for the love which I should bear to the glory and honour of Almighty God and to the edification and salvation of his Church for that my life cannot any other way be of like service to God nor of such use and profit to men by any means For which Cause as I discern how dear my Ministery ought to be unto me so it is my hearty desire and most humble request unto God to your H H. and to all the Authority I live under to whom any dealing herein belongeth that I may spend my life according to his Example who in a word of like sound of fuller sense comparing by it the bestowing of his life to the Offering poured out upon the Sacrifice of the Faith of God's people and especially of this Church whereupon I have already poured out a great part thereof in the same Calling from which I stand now restrained And if your H H. shall finde it so that I have not deserved so great a Punishment but rather performed the Duty which a good and faithful Servant ought in such case to do to his Lord and the People he putteth them in trust withal carefully to keep I am a most humble Suiter by these presents to your H H. that by your godly wisdom some good course may be taken for the restoring of me to my Ministery and Place again Which so great a favour shall binde me yet in a greater obligation of Duty which is already so great as it seemed nothing could be added unto it to make it greater to honour God daily for the continuance and encrease of your good estate and to be ready with all the poor means God hath given me to do your H H. that faithful Service I may possibly perform But if notwithstanding my Cause he never so good your H H. can by no means pacifie such as are offended nor restore me again then am I to rest in the good pleasure of God and to commend to your H H. protection under Her Majesties my private life while it shall be led in duty and the Church to him who hath redeemed to himself a People with his precious Blood and is making ready to come to judge both the Quick and the Dead to give to every one according as he hath done in this life be it good or evil to the Wicked and Unbelievers Justice unto death but to the Faithful and such as love his truth Mercy and Grace to life everlasting Your Honours most bounden and most humble Suppliant WALTER TRAVERS Minister of the Gospel Mr. HOOKER'S ANSVVER TO THE SUPPLICATION THAT Mr. TRAVERS Made to the COUNCIL To my Lord of Canterburie his Grace MY Duty in my most humble wise remembred May it please your Grace to understand That whereas there hath been a late Controversie raised in the Temple and pursued by Mr. Travers upon conceit taken at some words by me uttered with a most simple and harmless meaning In the heat of which pursuit after three publick Invectives silence being enjoyned him by Authority he hath hereupon for defence of his proceedings both presented the Right Honourable Lords and others of Her Majesties Privy Councel with a Writing and also caused or suffered the same to be Copied out and spread through the hands of so many that well nigh all sorts of men have it in their bosomes The matters wherewith I am therein charged being of such quality as they are and my self being better known to your Grace than to any other of their Honors besides I have chosen to offer to your Grace's hands a plain Declaration of my Innocence in all those things wherewith I am so hardly and so heavily charged lest if I still remain silent that which I do for quietness sake be taken as an Argument that I lack what to speak truly and justly in mine own defence 2. First because M. Travers thinketh it an expedient to breed an Opinion in mens mindes that the root of all inconvenient events which are now sprung out is the surly and unpeaceable disposition of the man with whom he hath to do therefore the first in the rank of Accusations laid against me is my intorformity which have so little inclined to so many and so earnest Exhortations and Conferences as my self he saith can witness to have been spent upon me for my better fashioning unto good correspondence and agreement 3. Indeed when at the first by means of special Well-willers without any suit of mine as they very well know although I do not think it had been a mortal sinne in a reasonable sort to have shewed a moderate desire that way yet when by their endeavour without instigation of mine some Reverend and Honourable favourably affecting me had procured her Majesties's grant of the Place At the very point of my eptring thereinto the Evening before I was first to Preach he came and two other Gentlemen joyned with him The effect of his Conference then was That he thought it his Duty to advise me not to enter with a strong hand but to change my purpose of Preaching there the next day and to stay till he had given notice of me to
their Complaints heard at all times and the faults they complained of if Mr. Alveyes private admonition did not serve then by some other means to be redressed but according to the old received Orders of both Houses Whereby the substance of their Honors Letters were indeed fully satisfied Yet because Mr. Travers intended not this but as it seemed another thing therefore notwithstanding the Orders which have been taken and for any thing I know do stand still in as much force in this Church now as at any time heretofore He complaineth much of the good Orders which he doth mean have been withstood Now it were hard if as many as did any ways oppose unto these and the like Orders in his perswasion good do thereby make themselves Dislikers of the present state and proceeding It they whom he aimeth at have any other wayes made themselves to be thought such it is likely he doth known wherein and will I hope disclose wherein it appertaineth both the Persons whom he thinketh and the causes why he thinketh them so ill-affected But whatsoever the men be doe their Faults make me faulty They doe if I joyn my self with them I beseech him therefore to declare wherein I have joyned with them Other joyning than this with any man here I cannot imagine It may be I have talked or walked or eaten or interchangeably used the Duties of common humanity with some such as he is hardly perswaded of For I know no Law of God or Man by force whereof they should be as Heathens and Publicans unto me that are not gracious in the eyes of another man perhaps without cause or if with cause yet such cause as he is privy unto and not I. Could he or any reasonable man think it is a charitable course in me to observe them that shew by external courtesies a favourable inclination toward him and if I spy out any one amongst them of whom I think not well hereupon to draw such an accusation as this against him and to offer it where he hath given up his against me which notwithstanding I will acknowledge to be just and reasonable if he or any man living shall shew that I use as much as the bare familiar company but of one who by word or deed hath ever given me cause to suspect or conjecture him such as here they are termed with whom complaint is made that I joyn my self This being spoken therefore and written without all possibility of proof doth not Mr. Travers give me over-great cause to stand in some fear lest he make too little conscience how he useth his Tongue or Pen These things are not laid against me for nothing they are to some purpose if they take place For in a minde perswaded that I am as he deciphereth me one which refuses to be at peace with such as embrace the truth and side my self with men sinisterly affected thereunto any thing that shall be spoken conferring the unsoundness of my Doctrine cannot choose but he favourably entertained This presupposed it will have likelihood enough which afterwards followeth that many of my Sermons have tasted of some sour leaven or other that in them he hath discovered many unsound matters A thing much to be lamented that such a place as this which might have been so well provided for hath fallen into the hands of one no better instructed in the truth But what if in the end it be found that he judgeth my words as they do colours which look upon them with green spectacles and think that which they see is green when indeed that is green whereby they see 7. Touching the first point of this discovery which is about the matter of Predestination to set down that I spake for I have it written to declare and confirm the several branches thereof would be tedious now in this Writing where I have so many things to touch that I can but touch them onely Neither is it herein so needful for me to justifie my speech when the very place and presence where I spake doth it self speak sufficiently for my clearing This matter was not broached in a blinde Alley or uttered where none was to hear it that had skill with Authority to controll or covertly insinuated by some gliding Sentence 8. That which I taught was at Pauls Cresse it was not hudled in amongst other matterr in such sort that it could passe without noting it was opened it was proved it was some reasonable time stood upon I see not which way my Lord of London who was present and heard it can excuse so great a fault as patiently without rebuke or controlment afterwards to hear any man there teach otherwise than the Word of God doth nor as it is understood by the private interpretation of some one or two men or by a special construction received in some few Books but as it is understood by alâ Churches professing the Gospel by them all and therefore even by our own also amongst others A man that did mean to prove that he speaketh would surely take the measure of his words shorter 9. The next thing discovered is an opinion about the assurance of mens perswasâsions in matters of Faith I have taught he saith That the assurance of things which we believe by the Word is not so certain as of that we perceive by sense And is it as certain Yea I taught as he himself I trust will not deny that the things which God doth promise in his Word are surerunto us than any thing which we touch handle or see But are we so sure and certain of them If we be why doth God so often prove his Premises unto us as he doth by argument taken from our sensible experience We must be surer of the proof than of the thing proved otherwise it is no proof How is it that if ten men doe all look upon the Moon every one of them knoweth it as certainly to be the Moon as another but many believing one and the same Promise all have not one and the same fulnesse of Perswasion How falleth it out that men being assured of any thing by sense can be no surer of it than they are whereas the strongest in faith that liveth upon the earth hath always need to labour and strive and pray that his assurance concerning Heavenly and Spiritual things may grow encrease and be augmented 10. The Sermon wherein I have spoken somewhat largely of this point was long before this late Controversie rose between him and me upon request of some of my friends seen and read by many and amongst many some who are thought able to discern And I never heard that any one of them hitherto hath condemned it as containing unsound matter My Case were very hard if as oft as any thing I speak displeasing one man's taste my Doctrine upon his onely word should be taken for sour leaven 11. The rest of this discovery is all about the matter now in question wherein he hath
by his special protection preserved clean from all sinne yet concerning the rest they teach as we do that all have sinned Against my words they might with more pretence take exception Because so many of them think she had sinne which exception notwithstanding the Proposition being indefinite and the matter contingent they cannot take because they grant That many whom they account grave and devout amongst them think that she was clear from all sinne But whether Mr. Travers did note my words himself or take them upon the credit of some other man's noting the Tables were faulty wherein it was noted All men sinners even the Blessed Virgin When my second Speech was rather All men except the Blessed Virgin To leave this another fault he findeth that I said They teach Christs Righteousnesse to be the onely meritorious cause of taking away sinne and differ from us onely in the applying of it I did say and doe They teach as we do that although Christ be the onely meritorious cause of our Iustice yet as a medicine which is made for Health doth not heal by being made but by being applyed So by the merits of Christ there can be no Life nor Iustification without the application of his merits But about the manner of applying Christ about the number and power of means whereby he is applyed we dissent from them This of our dissenting from them is acknowledged 14. Our agreement in the former is denied to be such as I pretend Let their own words therefore and mine concerning them be compared Doth not Andradius plainly confess Our sins do shut and onely the merits of Christ open the entring unto blessedness And So to It is put for a good ground that all since the fall of Adam obtained Salvation onely by the Passion of Christ Howbeit as no cause can be effectual without applying so neither can any man be saved to whom the suffering of Christ is not applied In a word who not When the Council of Trent reckoning up the causes of our first Justification doth name no end but God's Glory and our Felicity no efficient but his Mercy no Instrumental but Baptism no meritorious but Christ whom to have merited the taking away of no sin but Original is not their opinion which himself will finde when he hath well examined his Witnesses Catharinus and Thomas Their Jesuites are marvellous angry with the men out of whose gleanings Mr. Travers seemeth to have taken this they openly disclaim it they say plainly Of all this Catholicks there is no one this did ever so teach they make solemn protestation We believe and profess That Christ upon the Cross hath altogether satisfied for all sins as well Original as Actual Indeed they teach that the merit of Christ doth not take away Actual sinne in such sort as it doth Original wherein if their Doctrine had been understood I for my speech had never been accused As for the Council of Trent concerning inherent Righteousness what doth it here No man doubteth but they make another formal cause of Justification than we do In respect whereof I have shewed you already that we disagree about the very essence of that which cureth our Spiritual disease Most time it is which the grand Philosopher hath Every man judgeth well of that which he knoweth and therefore till we know the things throughly whereof we judge it is a point of judgment to stay our judgment 15. Thus much labour being spent in discovering the unsoundness of my Doctrine some pains he taketh further to open faults in the manner of my teaching as that I bestowed my whole hour and more my time and more than my time in discourses utterly impertinent to my Text. Which if I had done it might have past without complaining of to the Privy Council 16. But I did worse as he saith I left the expounding of the Scriptures and my ordinary Calling and discoursed upon School-points and questions neither of edification nor of truth I read no Lecture in the Law or in Physick And except the bounds of ordinary Calling may be drawn like a Purse how are they so much wider unto him than to me that he which in the limits of his ordinary Calling should reprove that in me which he understood not and I labouring that both he and others might understand could not do this without forsaking my Calling The matter whereof I spake was such as being at the first by me but lightly touched he had in that place openly contradicted and solemnly taken upon him to disprove If therefore it were a School-question and unfit to be discoursed of there that which was in me but a Proposition onely at the first wherefore made he a Probleme of it Why took he first upon him to maintain the negative of that which I had affirmatively spoken onely to shew mine own opinion little thinking that ever it would have been a Question Of what nature soever the Question were I could doe no lesse than there explain my self to them unto whom I was accused of unsound Doctrine wherein if to shew what had been through ambiguity mistaken in my words or misapplied by him in this Cause against me I used the distinctions and helps of Schools I trust that herein I have committed no unlawful thing These School-implements are acknowledged by grave and wise men not unprofitable to have been invented The most approved for Learning and Judgement do use them without blame the use of them hath been well liked in some that have taught even in this very place before me the quality of my Hearers is such that I could not but think them of capacity very sufficient for the most part to conceive harder than I used any the cause I had in hand did in my judgment necessarily require them which were then used when my words spoken generally without distinctions had been perverted what other way was there for me but by distinctions to lay them open in their right meaning that it might appear to all men whether they were consonant to truth or no And although Mr. Travers be so inured with the City that he thinketh it unmeet to use any speech which savoureth of the School yet his opinion is no Canon though unto him his minde being troubled my speech did seem like Fetters and Manacles yet there might be some more calmly affected which thought otherwise his private judgment will hardly warrant his bold words that the things which I spake were neither of edification nor truth They might edifie some other for any thing he knoweth and be true for any thing he proveth to the contrary For it is no proof to cry Absurdities the like whereunto have not been heard in publick places within this Land since Queen Marie's days If this came in earnest from him I am sorry to see him so much offended without cause more sorry that his fitâ should be so extream to make him speak he knoweth not what That I
neither affected the truth of God nor the peace of the Church Mihi pro minimo âest it doth not much move me when Mr. Travers doth say that which I trust a greater than Mr. Travers will gainsay 17. Now let all this which hitherto he hath said be granted him let it be as he would have it let my Doctrine and manner of teaching be as much disallowed by all men's Judgements as by his what is all this to his purpose He alledgeth this to be the cause why he bringeth it in The High-Commissioners charge him with an indiscretion and want of duty in that he inveighed against certain Points of Doctrine taught by me as erroneous not conâerring first with me nor complaining of it to them Which faults a sea of such matter as he hath hitherto waded in will never be able to scoure from him For the avoiding Schism and disturbance in the Church which must needs grow if all men might think what they list and speak openly what they think therefore by a Decree agreed upon by the Bishops and confirmed by her Majesties Authority it was ordered That erroneous Doctrine if it were taught publickly should not be publickly refuted but that notice thereof should be given into such as are by her Highness appointed to hear and to determine such Causes For breach of which Order when he is charged with lack of Duty all the faults that can be heaped upon me will make but a weak defence for him As surely his defence is not much stronger when he alledges for himself That he was in some hope his speech in proving the truth and clearing those scraples which I had in my self might cause me either to embrace sound Doctrine or suffer it to be embraced of others which if I did he should not need to complain that It was meet he should discover first what I had sown and make it manifest to be tares and then desire their Sithe to cutt it down that Conscience did binds him to doe otherwise than the foresaid Order requireth that He was unwilling to deal in that publick manner and wished a more convenient way were taken for it that He had resolved to have protested the next Sabbath day that he would some other way satisfie such as should require it and not deal more in that place Be it imagined let me not be taken as if I did compare the offenders when I do not but their Answers onely that a Libeller did make this Apology for himself I am not ignorant that if I have just matter against any man the Law is open there are Judges to hear it and Courts where it ought to be complained of I have taken another course against such or such a man yet without breach of Duty forasmuch as I am able to yield a reason of my doing I conceive some hope that a little discredit amongst men would make him ashamed of himself and that his shame would work his amendment which if it did other accusation there should not need could his answer he thought sufficient could it in the judgement of discreet men free him from all blame No more can the hope Mr. Travers conceived to reclaim me by publick speech justifie his fault against the established Order of the Church 18. His thinking it meet he should first openly discover to the People the Tares that had been sown amongst them and then require the hand of Authority to mow them down doth onely make it a Question Whether his opinion that this was meet may be a priviledge or protection against the lawful Constitution which had before determined of it as of a thing unmeet Which Question I leave for them to discusse whom it most concerneth If the Order be such that it cannot be kept without hazarding a thing so precious as a good Conscience the peril whereof could be no greater to him than it needs must be to all others whom it toucheth in like Causes then this is evident it will be an effectual motive not onely for England but also for other Reformed Churches even Geniva it self for they have the like to change or take that away which cannot but with great inconvenience be observed In the mean while the breach of it may in such consideration be pardoned which truly I wish howsoever it be yet hardly defended as long as it standeth in force uncancelled 19. Now whereas he confesseth another way had been more convenient and that he found in himself secret unwillingnesse to doe that which he did doth he not say plainly in effect that the light of his own Understanding proved the way that he took perverse and crooked Reason was so plain and pregnant against it that his Minde was alienated his Will averted to another course yet somewhat there was that so farr over-ruled that it must needs be done even against the very stream what doth it bewray Finally his purposed Protestation whereby he meant openly to make it known that he did not allow this kinde of proceeding and therefore would satisfie men otherwise and deal no more in this Place sheweth his good minde in this that he meant to stay himself from further offending but it serveth not his turn He is blamed because the thing he hath done was amisse and his Answer is That which I would have done afterwards had been well if so be I had done it 20. But as in this he standeth perswaded that he hath done nothing besides duty so he taketh it hardly that the High Commissioners should charge him with indiscretion Wherefore as if he could so wash his hands he maketh a long and a large declaration concerning the carriage of himself how he waded in matters of smaller weight and how in things of greater moment how wary he dealt how naturally he took his things rising from the Text how closely he kept himself to the Scriptures he took in hand how much pains he took to confirm the necessity of believing Iustification by Christ onely and to shew how the Church of Rome denieth that a man is saved by Faith alone without works of the Law what the Sons of Thunder would have done if they had been in his case that his Answer was very temperate without immodest or reproachful speech that when he might before all have reproved me he did not but contented himself with exhorting me before all to follow Nathan's example and revisit my Doctrine when he might have followed Saint Paul's example in reproving Peter he did not but exhorted me with Peter to endure to be withstood This Testimony of his discreet carrying himself in the handling of his matter being more agreeably framed and given him by another than by himself might make somewhat for the praise of his Person but for defence of his action unto them by whom he is thought undiscreet for not concerning privately before he spake will it serve to answer that when he spake he did it considerately He perceiveth it will not and
therefore addeth reasons such as they are as namely how he purposed at the first to take another course and that was this Publickly to deliver the truth of such Doctrine as I had otherwise taught and at convenient opportunity to conferr with me upon such points Is this the rule of Christ If thy Brother offend openly in his speech controll it first with contrary speech openly and conferr with him afterwards upon it when convenient opportunity serveth Is there any Law of God or Man whereupon to ground such a Resolution any Church extant in the World where Teachers are allowed thus to doe or to be done unto He cannot but see how weak an allegation it is when he bringeth in his following this course first in one matter and so afterwards in another to approve himself now following it again For if the purpose of doing of a thing so uncharitable be a fault the deed is a greater fault and doth the doing of it twice make it the third time fit and allowable to be done The weight of the Cause which is his third defence relieveth him as little The weightier it was the more it required considerate advice and consultation the more it stood him upon to take good heed that nothing were rashly done or spoken in it But he meaneth weighty in regard of the wonderful danger except he had presently withstood me without expecting a time of Conference This Cause being of such moment that might prejudice the Faith of Christ encourage the ill-affected to continue still in their damnable wayes and other weak in Faith to suffer themselves to be seduced to the destruction of their Souls he thought it his bounden duty to speak before he talked with me A man that should read this and not know what I had spoken might imagine that I had at the least denied the Divinity of Christ. But they which were present at my speech and can testifie that nothing passed my lips more than is contained in their Writings whom for soundnesse of Doctrine Learning and Judgment Mr. Travers himself doth I dare say not onely allow but honour they which heard and do know that the Doctrine here signified in so fearful manner the Doctrine that was so dangerous to the Faith of Christ that was so likely to encourage ill-affected men to continue still in their damnable wayes that gave so great cause to tremble for fear of the present destruction of Souls was onely this I doubt not but God was merciful to save thousands of our Fathers living heretofore in the Popish Superstition in as much as they sinned ignorantly and this spoken in a Sermon the greatest part whereof was against Popery they will hardly be able to discern how CHRISTIANITY should herewith be so grievously shaken 21. Whereby his fourth excuse is also taken from him For what doth it boot him to say The time was short wherein he was to preach after me when his Preaching of this matter perhaps ought surely might have been either very well omitted or at least more conveniently for a while deferred even by their Judgements that cast the most favourable aspect towards these his hasty proceedings The poyson which men had taken at my hands was not so quick and strong in operation as in eight dayes to make them past cure by eight dayes delay there was no likelihood that the force and power of his Speech could dye longer meditation might bring better and stronger proofs to minde than extemporal dexterity could furnish him with And who doth know whether Time the onely Mother of sound Judgement and discreet dealing might have given that action of his some better ripeness which by so great festination hath as a thing born out of time brought small joy unto him that begat it Doth he think it had not been better that neither my speech had seemed in his eyes as an Arrow sticking in a thigh of Flesh nor his own as a Childe whereof he must needs be delivered by an hour His last way of disburthening himself is by casting his Load upon my Back as if I had brought him by former Conferences out of hope that any fruit should ever come of conferring with me Loth I am to rip up those Conferences whereof he maketh but a slippery and loose relation In one of them the question between us was Whether the perswasion of Faith concerning remission of sinnes eternal life and whatsoever God doth promise unto man be as free from doubting as the perswasion which we have by sense concerning things tasted felt and seen For the Negative I mentioned their example whose Faith in Scripture is most commended and the experience which all faithful men have continually had of themselves For proof of the Affirmative which he held I desiring to have some reason heard nothing but all good Writers oftentimes inculâaâed At the length upon request to see some one of them Peter Martyr's Common places were brought where the leaves were turned down at a place sounding to this effect That the Gospel doth make Christians more vertuous than moral Philosophy doth make Heat hens which came not near the questions by many miles 22. In the other Conference he questioned about the matter of Reprobation misliking first that I had termed God a permissive and no positive cause of the evil which the Schoolmen do call malum cuspae Secondly that to their Objection who say If I be elected do what I will I shall be saved I had answered that the will of God in this thing is not absolute but conditional to save his Elect believing fearing and obediently serving him Thirdly that to stop the mouths of such as grudge and repine against God for rejecting Cast aways I had taught that they are not rejected no not in the purpose and counsel of God without a foreseen worthinesse of rejection going though not in time yet in orderâ beforeâ For if God's electing do in orderâ as needs it must presuppose the foresight of their being that are elected though they be elected before they be nor onely the positive foresight of their being but also the permissive of their being miserable because Election is through mercy and mercy doth always presuppose misery it followeth that the very Chosen of God acknowledge to the praise of the riches of his exceeding free compassion that when he in his secret determination set it down Those shall live and not dye they lay as ugly spectacles before him as Lepers covered with dung and mine as ulcers putrified in their Fathers âoyns miserable worthy to be had in detestation and shall any forsaken Creature be able to say unto God Thou didst plunge me into the depth and assign me unto endless torments onely to satisfie thine own will finding nothing in me for which I could seem in thy sight so well worthy to feel everlasting flames 23. When I saw that Mr. Travers carped at these things onely because they lay not open I promised at some convenient time to
make them clear as light both to him and all others Which if they that reprove me will not grant me leave to doe they must think that they are for some cause or other more desirous to have me reputed an unsound man then willing that my sincere meaning should appear and be approved When I was further asked what my grounds were I answered that Saint Paul's words concerning this Cause were my grounds His next Demand What Author I did follow in expounding Saint Paul and gathering the Doctrine out of his words against the judgement he saith of all Churches and all good Writers I was well assured that to control this over-reaching speech the sentences which I might have cited out of Church-Confessions together with the hast learned Monuments of former times and not the meanest of our own were tho iâ number than perhaps he would willingly have heard of but what had this booted me For although he himself in generality do much use those formal speeches All churches and all good Writers yet as he holdeth it in Pulpit lawful to say in general the Paâuims think this or the Heathens that but utterly unlawful to cite any sentence of theirs that say it so he gave me at that time great cause to think than my particular alledging of other mens words to shew their agreement with mine would as much have displeased his minde as the thing it self for which it had been alledged for he knoweth how often he hath in publick place bitten me for this although I did never in any Sermon use many of the Sentences of other Writers and do make most without any having always thought it meetest neither to affect nor contemn the use of them 24. He is not ignorant that in the very entrance to the talk which we had privately at that time to prove it unlawful altogether in Preaching either for confirmation declaration or otherwise to cite any thing but mere Canonical Scripture he brought in The Scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable to teach improve c. urging much the vigour of these two Clauses The man of God and every good work If therefore the work were good which he required at my hands if privately to shew why I thought the Doctrine I had delivered to be according to Saint Paul's meaning were a good work can they which take the place before alledged for a Law condemning every man of God whoâ in doing the work of Preaching any other way useth human Authority like it in me if in the work of strengthening that which I had preached I should bring forth the testimonies and the sayings of mortal men I alledged therefore that which might under no pretence in the world be disallowed namely reasons not meaning thereby mine own reason as now it is reported but true sound divine reason reason whereby chose Conclusions might be out of Saint Paul demonstrated and not probably discoursed of onely reason proper to that science whereby the things of God are known Theological Reason without Principles in Scripture that are plain soundly deduced more doubtful inferences in such sort that being heard they cannot be denied not any thing repugnant unto them received but whatsoever was before otherwise by miscollecting gathered out of dark places is thereby forced to yield it self and the true consonant meaning of Sentences not understood is brought to light This is the reason which I intended If it were possible for me to escape the Ferula in any thing I do or speak I had undoubtedly escaped in this In this I did that which by some is enjoyned as the only allowable but granted by all as the most sure and safe way whereby to resolve things doubted of in matters appertaining to Faith and Christian Religion So that Mr. Travers had here small cause given him to be weary of conferring unlesse it was in other respects than that poor one which is here pretended that is to say the little hope he had of doing me any good by conference 25. Yet behold his first reason of not complaining to the High Commission is That sith I offended onely through an over-charitable inclination he conceived good hope when I should see the truth cleared and some scruples which where in my minde removed by his diligence I would yield But what experience soever he had of former Conferences how small soever his hope was that fruit would come of it if he should have conferred will any man judge this a Cause sufficient why to open his mouth in publick without any one word privately spoken He might have considered the men do sometimes reap where they sow but wish small hope he might have considered that although unto me whereof he was not certain neither but if to me his labour should be as Water spilt or poured into a torne dish yet to him it could not be fruitlesse to do that which Order in Christian Churches that which Charity amongst Christian men that which at many men's hands even common humanity it self at his many other things besides did require What fruit could there come of his open contradicting in so great haste with so small advice but such as must needs be unpleasant and mingled with much aceâbity Surely he which will take upon him to defend that in this there was no over-sight must beware left by such defences he leave an opinion dwelling in the mindes of men that he is more stiff to maintain what he hath done then careful to doe nothing but that which may justly be maintained 26. Thus have I as near as I could seriously answered things of weight with smaller I have dealt as I thought their quality did require I take no joy in striving I have not been nuzled or trained up in it I would to Christ they which have at this present enforced me hereunto had so ruled their hands in any reasonable time that I might never have been constrained to strike so much as in mine own defence Wherefore to prosecute this long and redious contention no further I shall wish that your Grace and their Honours unto whose intelligence the dutiful regard which I have of their Judgments maketh me desirous that as accusations have been brought against me so that this my answer thereunto may likewise come did both with the one the other as Constantine with Books containing querulous matter Whether this be convenient to be wished or no I cannot tell But sith there can come nothing of contention but the mutual waste of the Parties contending till a common enemy dance in the ashes of them both I do wish heartily that the grave advice which Constantine gave for re-uniting of his Clergy so many times upon some small occasions in so lamentable sort divided or rather the strict Commandment of Christ unto his that they should not be divided at all may at the length if it be his blessed will prevail so farr at least in this corner of the Christian world to the burying
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
is his will that if there shall be a Church within his Dominions he will maiâ and deform the same M. M. pag 1â He that was as faithful as Moses left as clear instruction set the Government of the Church But Christ was as faithful as Moses Eâgâ Demensir of Discip. cap. 1. b John 17. Either God hath left a Prescript Form of Government now or else he is less careful under the New Testament then under the Old Demonst. of Dist. cap. 1. c Ecclesiast Dist. lib. 1. Rom. 11. 17. Ephes. 2. 12 1â Deut. 4. 5. Vers. 12 13 14. Deut. 5. 22. Vers. 27. Vers. 28 29 30 31. * T. C. lib. 1. p. 35. Whereas you say That they the Jews had nothing but was determined by the Law and we have many things undetermined and left to the Order of the Church I will offer for one that you shall bring that we have lest âo the Order of the Church to shew you they that had twenty which were undecided of by the express Word of God T. C. In the Table to his Second Book T. C. lib. 1. p. 446. If he will needs separate the Worship of God from the External Polity yet as the Lord set forth the one so he left nothing undescribed in the other Levit. 24 31. Numb 15. 3â Numb 9. Numb 27. Gen. 18. 18. Gen. 48. 16. T. C. lib. 2. p. 440. 1 Tim 6. 14. Job 18. 37. Job 21. 1â Acts 22. 18. 2 Tim 4. 1. 1 Tim. 5. 20. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1 Tim. 4. 24. 2 Tim. 4. 7. T. C. lib 3. p. 241. My Reasons do never conclude the unlawfulness of these Ceremonies of Burial but the inconvenience and inexpedience of them And in the Table Of the inconvenience nor of the unlawfulness of Popish Apparel and Ceremonies in Burial T. C. lib. 1. pag. 32. Upon the indefinite speaking of Mr. Calvin saying Ceremonies and External Disciple without adding all or some you go about subtilly to make men believe That Mr. Calvin had placed the whâle External Discipline in the Power and Arbitrement of the Church For it all External Discipline were Arbitrary and in the choice of the Church Excommunication also Which is a part of it might be cast away which I think you will not say And in the very next words before Where you will give to understand that Ceremonies and External Discipline are not prescribed particularly by the Word of God and therefore lest to the Order of the Church You must understand that all External Discipline is not lest to the Orders of the Church being particularly prescribed in the Scriptures no more then all Ceremonies are less to the Order of the Church as the Sacraments of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. T. C. lib. 3. p. 171. T C. lib. 1. p. 27. We deny not but certain things are lest to the Order of the Church because they are of the Nature of those which are varied by times places persons and other circumstances and so could not at once be set ââwn and established forever âsaâ ââ 14. Col. 2. â2 August Epist. ââ Iosh. 12. Jude 11. 4â Jââââ 3â Ioh. 12. 4â * Nisi Reip. suae statu in omnem constitu ãâ¦ã Magistratus ordinarie singulorum mânera potesââtem que de cripse âit quae judi cioâum ferâq ratio habendaâ quomodo civium finiendae âieris ââa solum minus Ecclesiae Christianae provi lit quam Moses olim Judaicae sed quà m à Lycurgo Solone Numa Civitatiâ suis prospectum siâ âib de Ecclesiast Discip. The Defence of godly Ministers against Dr. Bridges 133. Luk. 6. 39. Matth. 4. 14. Rom. 11. 13. Now great use Ceremonies have in the Church Matth. 23. 23. The Doctrine and Discipline of the Church as the weighiust things ought especially to be looked unto but the Ceremonies also as Mint and Cummin ought not to be neglected T.C. l p. 1â1 Gen. 24. 2. Ruth 4. 7. Exod. 21. 6. a Dionys. p. 121. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã b Liv. lib. â Maru ad digitor usque involutaÌ rem divinam facere significantes fidem inâandam sedemque ejâs etiam indexivis sucratam esse c Eccles. disc fol. 51. Fol. 32. The first thing they blame in the kinde of our Ceremonies is that we have not in them ancient Apostolical simplicity but a greater pomp and stateliness Lib. Eccles. disc T. C. l. 3. p. 181. Tâm 7. de hapt âatra Donatist lib. â aâ 23. T. C. l. 1. p. 31. If this judgement of S. Augustine be a good judgement ââ found than there he some things commanded of God which are not in the scripture and therfore there is no sufficient Doctrine contained in Scripture whereby we may be saved For all the Commandements of God and of the Apostles are needful for our salvation Vide Ep ââa ãâ¦ã 7. 2. 2 Chron. 2. 5. Our Orders and Ceremonies blamed in that so many of them are the same whiâh the Church of Rome useth Eccles. Discipl sol 12. T. C. lib. 1. p. 131. T. C. l. 1. p. 20. C.l.1 p 25. T. C. lib. 1 p. 13â T. C. l. 1. p. 30. T. C. l. 1. p 131. T. C. l. 1 p. 132. Tom. 2. Graca â3 Con. Africa cap. 27. Lib. de Idolat He seemeth to mean the feast of Easter day celebrated in the memory of our Saviours resurrection and for that cause earned the Lords day Lib. de Anima a T. C. l. 3 p. 178. b T. C. l. 3. p. 179. T. C. l. 3. p. 180. That whereas they who blame us in this behalf when reason evicteth that all such Ceremonies are not to be abolished make answer that when they condemn Popish Ceremonies their meaning is of Ceremonies unprofitable or Ceremonies instead whereof as good or better may be devised they cannot hereby get out of the bryars but contradict and gainsay themselves in asmuch as their usual manner is to prove that Ceremonies uncommanded in the Church of God and yet used in the Church of Rome are for this very cause unprofitable to us and not so good as others in their place would be T. C. l. 3. p. 171. What an open untruth is it that this is one of our principles not to be lawful to use the same Ceremonies which the Papists did when as I have both before declared the contrary and even here have expresly added that they are not to be used when as good or better may be established Eccles. discip sol 100. T. C. l. 3. p. 176. As for your often repeating that the Ceremonies in question are godly comely and decent It is your old wont of demanding the thing in question and an undoubted Argument of your extream poverty T. C. l. 3. p. 176. T. C. l. 3. p. 177. And that this complaint of ours is just in that we are thus constrained to be like unto the Papists in any their Ceremonies and that this cause only ought to move them to whom that belongeh to do
serve unto others good and all to prefer the good of the whole before whatsoever their own particular as we plainly see they do when things natural in that regard forget their ordinary natural wont That which is heavy mounting sometime upwards of its own accord and forsaking the Centre of the Earth which to it self is most natural even as if it did hear it self commanded to let go the good it privately wisheth and to relieve the present distress of Nature in common 4. But now that we may lift up our eyes as it were from the Tootstool to the Throne of God and leaving these Natural consider a little the state of Heavenly and Divine Creatures Touching Angels which are Spirits Immaterial and Intellectual the glorious Inhabitants of those Sacred Palaces where nothing but Light and Blessed Immortality no shadow of matter for tears discontentments griefs and uncomfortable passions to work upon but all joy tranquillity and peace even for ever and ever doth dwell As in number and order they are huge mighty and royal Armies so likewise in perfection of obedience unto that Law which the Highest whom they adore love and imitate hath imposed upon them Such observants they are thereof that our Saviour himself being to set down the perfect Idea of that which we are to pray and wish for on Earth did not teach to pray or wish for more then onely that here it might be with us as with them it is in Heaven God which moveth meer Natural Agents as an efficient onely doth otherwise move Intellectual Creatures and especially his holy Angels For beholding the Face of God in admiration of so great excellency they all adore him and being rapt with the love of his beauty they cleave inseparably for ever unto him Desire to resemble him in goodness maketh them unwearable and even unsatiable in their longing to do by all means all manner of good unto all the Creatures of God but especially unto the Children of Men. In the countenance of whose Nature looking downward they behold themselves beneath themselves even as upward in God beneath whom themselves are they see that character which is no where but in themselves and us resembled Thus far even the Painims have approached thus far they have seen into the doings of the Angels of God Orpheus confessing that the Fiery Throne of God is attended on by those most industrious Angels careful how all things are performed amongst men and the Mirror of Humane Wisdom plainly teaching That God moveth Angels even as that thing doth stir Mans heart which is thereunto presented amiable Angelical Actions may therefore be reduced unto these three general kindes First Most delectable Love arising from the visible apprehension of the Purity Glory and Beauty of God invisible saving onely unto Spirits that are pure Secondly Adoration grounded upon the evidence of the greatness of God on whom they see how all things depend Thirdly Imitation bred by the presence of his exemplary goodness who ceaseth nor before them daily to fill Heaven and Earth with the rich treasures of most free and undeserved Grace Of Angels we are not to consider onely what they are and do in regard of their own Being but that also which concerneth them as they are linked into a kinde of Corporation amongst themselves and of Society or Fellowship with men Consider Angels each of them severally in himself and their Law is that which the Prophet David mentioneth All ye his Angels praise him Consider the Angels of God associated and their Law is that which disposeth them as an Army one in order and degree above another Consider finally the Angels as having with us that communion which the Apostle to the Hebrews noteth and in regard whereof Angels have not disdained to profess themselves our fellow servants From hence there springeth up a third Law which bindeth them to works of Ministerial employment Every of which their several Functions are by them performed with joy A part of the Angels of God notwithstanding we know have faln and that their fall hath been through the voluntary breach of that Law which did require at their hands continuance in the exercise of their high and admirable vertue Impossible it was that ever their will should change or encline to remit any part of their duty without some object having force to avert their conceit from God and to draw it another way and that before they attained that high perfection of bliss wherein now the Elect Angels are without possibility of falling Of any thing more then of God they could not by any means like as long as whatsoever they knew besides God they apprehended it not in it self without dependency upon God because so long God must needs seem infinitely better then any thing which they so could apprehend Things beneath them could not in such sort be presented unto their eyes but that therein they must needs see always how those things did depend on God It seemeth therefore that there was no other way for Angels to sin but by reflex of their understanding upon themselves when being held with admiration of their own sublimity and honor the memory of their subordination unto God and their dependency on him was drowned in this conceit whereupon their adoration love and imitation of God could not chuse but be also interrupted The fall of Angels therefore was Pride Since their fall their practices have been the clean contrary unto those beforementioned for being dispersed some in the Air some on the Earth some in the Water some amongst the Minerals Dens and Caves that are under the Earth they have by all means labored to effect an Universal Rebellion against the Laws and as far as its them lieth utter destruction of the Works of God These wicked spirits the Heathens honored instead of Gods both generally under the name of Dii inferi Gods Infernal and particularly some in Oracles some in Idols some as Houshold Gods some as Nymphs In a word No foul and wicked spirit which was not one way or other honored of Men as God till such time as Light appeared in the World and dissolved the works of the Devil Thus much therefore may suffice for Angels the next unto whom in degree are Men. 5. God alone excepted who actually and everlastingly is whatsoever he may be and which cannot hereafter be that which now he is not all other things besides are somewhat in possibility which as yet they are not in act And for this cause there is in all things an appetite or desire whereby they incline to something which they may be and when they are it they shall be perfecter then now they are All which Perfections are contained under the general name of Goodness And because there is not in the World any thing whereby another may not some way be made the perfecter therefore all things that are are good Again sith there can be no goodness desired which
proceedeth not from God himself as from the supream cause of all things and every effect doth after a sort contain at leastwise resemble the cause from which it proceedeth All things in the World are said in some sort to seek the highest and to cover more or less the participation of God himself yet this doth no where so much appear as it doth in Man because there are so many kindes of Perfections which Man seeketh The first degree of Goodness is that General Perfection which all things do seek in desiring the continuance of their Being all things therefore coveting as much as may be to be like unto God in Being ever that which cannot hereunto attain personally doth seek to continue it self another way that is by Off-spring and Propagation The next degree of Goodness is that which each thing coveteth by affecting resemblance with God in the constancy and excellency of those operations which belong unto their kinde The Immutability of God they strive unto by working either always or for the most part after one and the same manner his absolute exactness they imitate by tending unto that which is most exquisite in every particular Hence have risen a number of Axioms in Philosophy shewing How the works of nature do always aim at that which cannot be bettered These two kindes of Goodness rehearsed are so nearly united to the things themselves which desire them that we scarcely perceive the appetite to stir in reaching forth her hand towards them But the desire of those Perfections which grow externally is more apparent especially of such as are not expresly desired unless they be first known or such as are not for any other cause then for Knowledge it self desired Concerning Perfections in this kinde that by proceeding in the Knowledge of Truth and by growing in the exercise of Vertue Man amongst the Creatures of this inferior World aspireth to the greatest Conformity with God This is not onely known unto us whom he himself hath so instructed but even they do acknowledge who amongst men are not judged the nearest unto him With Plato what one thing more usual then to excite men unto the love of Wisdom by shewing how much wise men are thereby exalted above men how knowledge doth raise them up into Heaven how it maketh them though not Gods yet âas Gods high admirable and divine And Mercurius Trismegistus speaking of the vertues of a righteous Soul Such spirits saith he are never slayed with praising and speaking well of all men with doing good unto every one by word and deed because they study to frame themselves according to THE PATTERN of the Father of Spirits 6. In the Matter of Knowledge there is between the Angels of God and the Children of Men this difference Angels already have full and compleat knowledge in the highest degree that can be imparted unto them Men if we view them in their Spring are at the first without understanding or knowledge at all Nevertheless from this utter vacuity they grow by degrees till they come at length to be even as the Angels themselves are That which agreeth to the one now the other shall attain unto in the end they are not so far disjoyned and severed but that they comest length to meet The Soul of Man being therefore at the first as a Book wherein nothing is and yet all things may be imprinted we are to search by what steps and degrees it riseth unto Perfection of Knowledge Unto that which hath been already set down concerning Natural Agents this we must add That albeit therein we have comprised as well Creatures living as void of life if they be in degree of nature beneath Men nevertheless a difference we must observe between those Natural Agents that work altogether unwittingly and those which have though weak yet some understanding what they do as Fishes Fowls and Beasts have Beasts are in sensible capacity as ripe even as men themselves perhaps more ripe For as Stones though in dignity of Nature inferior unto Plants yet exceed them in firmness of strength or durability of Being and Plants though beneath the excellency of Creatures endued with sense yet exceed them in the Faculty of Vegetation and of Fertility So Beasts though otherwise behinde Men may notwithstanding in actions of Sense and Fancy go beyond them because the endeavors of Nature when it hath an higher perfection to seek are in lower the more remiss not esteeming thereof so much as those things do which have no better proposed unto them The Soul of Man therefore being capable of a more Divine Perfection hath besides the Faculties of growing unto sensible knowledge which is common unto us with Beasts a further hability whereof in them there is no shew at all the ability of reaching higher then unto sensible things Till we grow to some ripeness of years the Soul of Man doth onely store it self with conceits of things of inferior and more open quality which afterwards do serve as Instruments unto that which is greater in the mean while above the reach of meaner Creatures is ascendeth not When once it comprehendeth any thing above this as the differences of time affirmations negations and contradiction in Speech we then count it to have some use of Natural Reason Whereunto if afterwards there might be added the right helps of true Art and Learning which helps I must plainly confess this age of the World carrying the name of a Learned Age doth neither much know not greatly regard there would undoubtedly be almost as great difference in maturity of judgment between men therewith inured and that which now men are as between men that are now and Innocents Which speech if any condemn as being over Hyperbolical let them consider but this one thing No Art is at the first finding out so perfect as Industry may aftermake it yet the very first Man that to any purpose knew the way we speak of and followed it hath alone thereby performed more very near in all parts of Natural Knowledge then sithence in any one part thereof the whole World besides hath done In the poverty of that other new devised aid two things there are notwithstanding singular Of marvellous quick dispatch it is and doth shew them that have it as much almost in three days as if it had dwelt threescore years with them Again because the curiosity of Mans wit doth many times with perswade farther in the search of things then were convenient the same is thereby restrained unto such generalities as every where offering themselves are apparent unto men of the weakest conceit that need be So as following the Rules and Precepts thereof we may finde it to be an Art which teacheth the way of speedy Discourse and restraineth the minde of Man that it may not wax overwise Education and Instruction are the means the one by use the other by precept to make our Natural Faculty of Reason both the better and
oftentimes in one year run through yet a number of Churches which have no such order of simple Reading cannot be in this point charged with breach of Gods commandement which they might be if simple Reading were necessary A poor a cold and an hungry cavil Shall we therefore to please them change the Word Necessary and say that it hath been a commendable Order a Custom very expedient or an Ordinance most profitable whereby they know right well that we mean exceedingly behoovful to read the Word of God at large in the Church whether it be as our manner is or as theirs is whom they prefer before us It is not this that will content or satisfie their mindes They have against it a marvellous deep and profound Axiome that Two things to one and the same end cannot but very improperly be said most profitable And therefore if Preaching be most profitable to man's Salvation then is not Reading if Reading be then Preaching is not Are they resolved then at the leastwise if Preaching be the only ordinary mean whereby it pleaseth God to save our Souls what kinde of Preaching it is which doth save Understand they how or in what respect there is that force or vertue in Preaching We have reason wherefore to make these Demands for that although their Pens run all upon Preaching and Sermons yet when themselves do practise that whereof they write they change their Dialect and those words they shun as if there were in them some secret sting It is not their phrase to say they Preach or to give to their own instructions and exhortations the name of Sermons the pain they take themselves in this kinde is either opening or Lecturing or Reading or Exercising but in no case Preaching And in this present Question they also warily protest that what they ascribe to the vertue of Preaching they still mean it of good Preaching Now one of them saith that a good Sermon must expound and apply a large portion of the Text of Scripture at one time Another giveth us to understand that sound Preaching is not to do as one did at London who spent most of his time in Invectives against good men and told his Audience how the Magistrate should have an eye to such as troubled the peace of the Church The best of them hold it for no good Preaching when a man endeavoureth to make a glorious shew of Eloquence and Learning rather than to apply himself to the capacity of the simple But let them shape us out a good Preacher by what pattern soever pleaseth them best let them exclude and inclose whom they will with their definitions we are not desirous to enter into any contention with them about this or to abate the conceit they have of their own ways so that when once we are agreed what Sermons shall currently pass for good we may at length understand from them what that is in a good Sermon which doth make it the Word of Life unto such as hear If substance of matter evidence of things strength and validity of arguments and proofs or if any other vertue else which Words and Sentences may contain of all this what is there in the best Sermons being uttered which they lose by being read But they utterly deny that the reading either of Scriptures or Homilies and Sermons can ever by the ordinary grace of God save any Soul So that although we had all the Sermons word for word which Iames Paul Peter and the rest of the Apostles made some one of which Sermons was of power to convert thousands of the Hearers unto Christian Faith yea although we had all the instructions exhortations consolations which came from the gracious lips of our Lord Jesus Christ himself and should read them ten thousand times over to Faith and Salvation no man could hereby hope to attain Whereupon it must of necessity follow that the vigour and vital efficacy of Sermons doth grow from certain accidents which are not in them but in their Maker his vertue his gesture his countenance his zeal the motion of his body and the inflexion of his voice who first uttereth them as his own is that which giveth them the form the nature the very essence of instruments available to Eternal life If they like neither that nor this what remaineth but that their final conclusion be Sermons we know are the only ordinary means to Salvation but why or how we cannot tell Wherefore to end this tedious Controversie wherein the too great importunity of our over-eager Adversaries hath constrained us much longer to dwell than the barrenness of so poor a Cause could have seemed at the first likely either to require or to admit if they which without partialities and passions are accustomed to weigh all things and accordingly to give their sentence shall here sit down to receive our Audit and to cast up the whole reckoning on both sides the sum which Truth amounteth unto will appear to be but this that as Medicines provided of Nature and applyed by Art for the benefit of bodily health take effect sometime under and sometime above the natural proportion of their vertue according as the minde and fancy of the Patient doth more or less concurr with them So whether we barely read unto men the Scriptures of God or by Homilies concerning matter of Belief and Conversation seek to lay before them the duties which they owe unto God and Man whether we deliver them Books to read and consider of in private at their own best leasure or call them to the hearing of Sermons publickly in the House of God albeit every of these and the like unto these means do truly and daily effect that in the hearts of men for which they are each and all meant yet the operation which they have in common being most sensible and most generally noted in one kinde above the rest that one hath in some mens opinions drowned altogether the rest and injuriously brought to pass that they have been thought not less effectual than the other but without the other uneffectual to save souls Whereas the cause why Sermons only are observed to prevail so much while all means else seem to sleep and do nothing is in truth but that singular affection and attention which the people sheweth every where towards the one and their cold disposition to the other the reason hereof being partly the Art which our Adversaries use for the credit of their Sermons to bring men out of conceit with all other Teaching besides partly a custom which men have to let those things carelesly pass by their ears which they have oftentimes heard before or know they may hear again whenever it pleaseth themselves partly the especial advantages which Sermons naturally have to procure attention both in that they come always new and because by the Hearer it is still presumed that if they be let slip for the present what good soever they contain is
lost and that without all hope of recovery This is the true cause of odds between Sermons and other kindes of wholesome Instruction As for the difference which hath been hitherto so much defended on the contrary side making Sermons the only ordinary means unto Faith and eternal Life sith this hath neither evidence of Truth nor proof sufficient to give it warrant a cause of such quality may with fart better grace and conveniency aske that pardon which common humanity doth easily grant than claim in challenging manner that assent which is as unwilling when reason guideth it to be yielded where it is not as with-held where it is apparently due All which notwithstanding as we could greatly wish that the rigour of this their opinion were allayed and mittigated so because we hold it the part of religious ingenuity to honour vertue in whomsoever therefore it is our most hearty desire and shall be always our Prayer unto Almighty God that in the self-same fervent zeal wherewith they seem to effect the good of the Souls of men and to thirst after nothing more than that all men might by all means be directed in the way of life both they and we may constantly persist to the Worlds end For in this we are not their Adversaries though they in the other hitherto have been ours 23. Between the Throne of God in Heaven and his Church upon Earth here militant if it be so that Angels have their continual intercourse where should we finde the same more verified than in those two ghostly Exercises the one Doctrine the other Prayer For what is the Assembling of the Church to learn but the receiving of Angels descended from above What to pray but the sending of Angels upwards His Heavenly Inspirations and our holy Desires are as so many Angels of intercourse and commerce between God and us As Teaching bringeth us to know that God is our supream Truth so Prayer testifieth that we acknowledge him our soveraign Good Besides sith on God as the most High all inferiour Causes in the World are dependant and the higher any Cause is the more it coveteth to impart vertue unto things beneath it how should any kinde of service we do or can do finde greater acceptance than Prayer which sheweth our concurrence with him in desiring that wherewith his very Nature doth most delight Is not the name of Prayer usual to signifie even all the service that ever we do unto God And that for no other cause as I suppose but to shew that there is in Religion no acceptable Duty which devout Invocation of the name of God doth not either presuppose or inferr Prayers are those Calves of Mens lips those most gracious and sweet odours those rich Presents and Gifts which being carried up into Heaven do best restifie our dutiful affection and are for the purchasing of all favour at the hands of God the most undoubted means we can use On others what more easily and yet what more fruitfully bestowed than our Prayers If we give Counsel they are the simpler onely that need it if Almes the poorer only are relieved but by Prayer we do good to all And whereas every other Duty besides is but to shew it self as time and opportunity require for this all times are convenient when we are not able to do any other things for mens behoof when through maliciousness or unkindness they vouchsafe not to accept any other good at our hands Prayer is that which we always have in our power to bestow and they never in theirs to refuse Wherefore God fotbid saith Samuel speaking unto a most unthankful People a People weary of the benefit of his most vertuous Government over them God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and cease to pray for you It is the first thing wherewith a righteous life beginneth and the last wherewith it doth end The knowledge is small which we have on Earth concerning things that are done in Heaven Notwithstanding thus much we know even of Saints in Heaven that they pray And therefore Prayer being a work common to the Church as well Triumphant as Militant a work common unto Men with Angels what should we think but that so much of our Lives is celestial and divine as we spend in the exercise of Prayer For which cause we see that the most comfortable Visitations which God hath sent men from above have taken especially the times of Prayer as their most natural opportunities 24. This holy and religious duty of Service towards God concerneth us one way in that we are men and another way in that we are joined as parts to that visible Mystical Body which is his Church As men we are at our own choice both for time and place and form according to the exigence of our own occasions in private But the service which we do as Members of a Publick Body is publick and for that cause must needs be accompted by so much worthier than the other as a whole society of such condition exceedeth the worth of any one In which consideration unto Christian Assemblies there are most special Promises made St. Paul though likely to prevail with God as much as any one did notwithstanding think it much more both for God's glory and his own good if Prayers might be made and thanks yielded in his behalf by a number of men The Prince and People of Niniveh assembling themselves as a main Army of Supplicants it was not in the power of God to withstand them I speak no otherwise concerning the force of Publick Prayer in the Church of God than before me Tertullian hath done We come by Troops to the Place of Assembly that being banded as it were together we may be Sapplicants enough to besiege God with our Prayers These Forces are unto him acceptable When we publickly make our Prayers it cannot be but that we do it with much more comfort than in private for that the things we aske publickly are approved as needful and good in the Judgement of all we hear them sought for and desired with common consent Again thus much help and furtherance is more yielded in that if so be our zeal and devotion to God-ward be slack the alacrity and fervour of others serveth as a present spurt For even Prayer it self saith Saint Basil when it hath not the consort of many voyces to strengthen it is not it self Finally the good which we do by Publick Prayer is more than in private can be done for that besides the benefit which is here is no less procured to our selves the whole Church is much bettered by our good example and consequently whereas secret neglect of our duty in this kinde is but only our own hurt one man's contempt of the Common Prayer of the Church of God may be and oftentimes is most hurtful unto many In which considerations the Prophet David so often voweth
the Enemies invasion doth remain but over and besides namely through Prayer and Imposition of Hands becometh yet greater yet mightier in strength so far as to raign with a kinde of Imperial Dominion over the whole Band of that roming and spoiling Adversary As much is signified by Eusebius Emissenus saying The Holy Ghost which descendeth with saving influence upon the Waters of Baptism doth there give that fulness which sufficeth for innocenty and afterwards exhibiteth in Confirmation an Augmentation of further Grace The Fathers therefore being thus perswaded held Confirmation as an Ordinance Apostolick always profitable in Gods Church although not always accompanied with equal largeness of those External Effects which gave it countenance at the first The cause of severing Confirmation from Baptism for most commonly they went together was sometimes in the Minister which being of inferior degree might Baptize but not Confirm as in their case it came to pass whom Peter and Iohn did confirm whereas Philip had before baptized them and in theirs of whom St. Ierome hath said I deny not but the Custom of the Churches is that the Bishop should go abroad and imposing his hands pray for the Gift of the Holy Ghost on them whom Presbyters and Deacons far off in lesser Cities have already âaptized Which ancient Custom of the Church St. Cyprian groundeth upon the example or Peter and Iohn in the Eighth of the Acts before alledged The faithful in Samaria saith he had already obtained Baptism onely that which was wanting Peter and John supplied by Prayer and Imposition of Hands to the end the Holy Ghost might be poured upon them Which also is done amongst our selves when they which be already Baptized are brought to the Prelates of the Church to obtain by their Prayer and Imposition of Hands the Holy Ghost By this it appeareth that when the Ministers of Baptism were persons of inferior degree the Bishops did after Confirm whom such had before Baptized Sometimes they which by force of their Ecclesiastical Calling might do as well the one as the other were notwithstanding Men whom Heresie had dis-joyned from the Fellowship of true Believers Whereupon when any Man by them Baptized and Confirmed came afterwards to see and renounce their Error there grew in some Churches very hot contention about the manner of admitting such into the Bosome of the true Church as hath been declared already in the question of Rebaptization But the generally received Custom was onely to admit them with Imposition of Hands and Prayer Of which Custom while some imagined the reason to be for that Hereticks might give Remission of Sins by Baptism but not the Spirit by Imposition of Hands because themselves had not Gods Spirit and that therefore their Baptism might stand but Confirmation must be given again The imbecillity of this ground gave Cyprian occasion to oppose himself against the practice of the Church herein laboring many ways to prove That Hereticks could do neither and consequently that their Baptism in all respects was as frustrate as their Chrism for the manner of those times was in Confirming to use Anointing On the other side against Luciferians which ratified onely the Baptism of Hereticks but disannulled their Confirmations and Consecrations under pretence of the reason which hath been before specified Hereticks cannot give the Holy Ghost St. Ierome proveth at large That if Baptism by Hereticks be granted available to Remission of Sins which no man receiveth without the Spirit it must needs follow that the reason taken from disability of bestowing the Holy Ghost was no reason wherefore the Church should admit Converts with any new Imposition of Hands Notwithstanding because it might be objected That if the gift of the Holy Ghost do always joyn it self with true Baptism the Church which thinketh the Bishops Confirmation after others Mens Baptism needful for the obtaining of the Holy Ghost should hold an error Saint Ierome hereunto maketh answer That the cause of this observation is not any absolute impossibility of receiving the Holy Ghost by the Sacrament of Baptism unless a Bishop add after it the Imposition of Hands but rather a certain congruity and fitness to honor Prelacy with such pre-eminences because the safety of the Church dependeth upon the dignity of her chief Superiors to whom if some eminent Offices of Power above others should not be given there would be in the Church as many Schisms as Priests By which answer it appeareth his opinion was That the Holy Ghost is received in Baptism that Confirmation is onely a Sacramental Complement that the reason why Bishops alone did ordinarily confirm was not because the benefit grace and dignity thereof is greater then of Baptism but rather for that by the Sacrament of Baptism Men being admitted into Gods Church it was both reasonable and convenient that if he Baptize them not unto whom the chiefest authority and charge of their Souls belongeth yet for honors sake and in token of his Spiritual Superiority over them because to bless is an act of Authority the performance of this annexed Ceremony should be sought for at his hands Now what effect their Imposition of Hands hath either after Baptism administred by Hereticks or otherwise St. Ierome in that place hath made no mention because all men understood that in Converts it tendeth to the fruits of Repentance and craveth in behalf of the Penitent such grace as David after his fall desired at the hands of God in others the fruit and benefit thereof is that which hath been before shewed Finally Sometime the cause of severing Confirmation from Baptism was in the parties that received Baptism being Infants at which age they might be very well admitted to live in the Family but because to fight in the Army of God to discharge the duties of a Christian man to bring forth the fruits and to do the Works of the Holy Ghost their time of ability was not yet come so that Baptism were not deferred there could by stay of their Confirmation no harm ensue but rather good For by this means it came to pass that Children in expectation thereof were seasoned with the principles of true Religion before malice and corrupt examples depraved their mindes a good foundation was laid betimes for direction of the course of their whole lives the Seed of the Church of God was preserved sincere and sound the Prelates and Fathers of Gods Family to whom the cure of their Souls belonged saw by tryal and examination of them a part of their own heavy burthen discharged reaped comfort by beholding the first beginnings of true godliness in tender years glorified him whose praise they found in the mouths of Infants and neglected not so fit opportunity of giving every one Fatherly encouragement and exhortation Whereunto Imposition of Hands and Prayer being added our Warrant for the great good effect thereof is the same which Patriarks Prophets Priests Apostles Fathers and Men of God have had
for such their particular Invocations and Benedictions as no Man I suppose professing truth of Religion will easily think to have been without Fruit. No there is no cause we should doubt of the benefit but surely great cause to make complaint of the deep neglect of this Christian duty almost with all them to whom by tight of their place and calling the same belongeth Let them not take it in evil part the thing is true their small regard hereunto hath done harm in the Church of God That which Error rashly uttereth in disgrace of good things may peradventure be sponged out when the print of those evils which are grown through neglect will remain behinde Thus much therefore generally spoken may serve for answer unto their demands that require us to tell them Why there should be any such confirmation in the Church seeing we are not ignorant how earnestly they have protested against it and how directly although untruly for so they are content to acknowledge it hath by some of them been said To be first brought in by the seigned Decretal Epistles of the Popes or why it should not be utterly abolished seeing that no one title thereof can be once found in the whole Scripture except the Epistle to the Hebrews be Scripture And again seeing that how free soever it be now from abuse if we look back to the times past which wise men do always more respect then the present it hath been abused and is found at the length no such profitable Ceremony as the whole silly Church of Christ for the space of these Sixteen hundred years hath through want of experience imagined Last of all Seeing also besides the cruelty which is shewed towards poor Country people who are fain sometimes to let their Ploughs stand still and with increble wearisome toyl of their feeble bodies to wander over Mountains and through Woods it may be now and then little less then a whole half score of miles for a Bishops blessing which if it were needful might as well be done at home in their own Parishes rather then they is purchase it with so great loss and so intolerable pain There are they say in Confirmation besides this Three terrible points The first is Laying on of hands with pretence that the same is done to the example of the Apostles which is not onely as they suppose a manifest untruth for all the World doth know that the Apostles did never after Baptism lay hands on any and therefore Saint Luke which saith they did was much deceived But farther also we thereby teach men to think Imposition of Hands a Sacrament belike because it is a principle ingrafted by common Light of Nature in the Mindes of Men that all things done by Apostolick example must needs be Sacrament The second high point of danger is That by tying Confirmation to the Bishop alone there is great cause of suspition given to think that Baptism is not so precious a thing as Confirmation For will any man think that a Velvet Coat is of more price then a Linnen Coyf knowing the one to be an ordinary Garment the other an Ornament which onely Sergeants at Law do wear Finally To draw to an end of perils the last and the weightiest hazard is where the Book it self doth say That Children by Imposition of Hands and Prayer may receive strength against all temptation Which speech as a two-edged sword doth both ways dangerously wound partly because it ascribeth Grace to Imposition of Hands whereby we are able no more to assure our selves in the warrant of any promise from God that his Heavenly Grace shall be given then the Apostle was that himself should obtain Grace by the bowing of his knees to God and partly because by using the very word strength in this matter a word so apt to spred infection we maintain with Popish Evangelists an old forlorn distinction of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon Christs Apostles before his Ascension into Heaven and augmented upon them afterwards a distinction of Grace infused into Christian men by degrees planted in them at the first by Baptism after cherished watred and be it spoken without offence strengthned as by other vertuous Offices which Piety and true Religion teacheth even so by this very special Benediction whereof we speak the Rite or Ceremony of Confirmation 67. The Grace which we have by the holy Eucharist doth not begin but continue life No man therefore receiveth this Sacrament before Baptism because no dead thing is capable of nourishment That which groweth must of necessity first live If our Bodies did not daily waste Food to restore them were a thing superfluous And it may be that the Grace of Baptism would serve to Eternal Life were it not that the state of our Spiritual Being is daily so much hindered and impaired after Baptism In that life therefore where neither Body nor Soul can decay our Souls shall as little require this Sacrament as our Bodies corporal nourishment But as long as the days of our warfare last during the time that we are both subject to diminution and capable of augmentation in Grace the Words of our Lord and Saviour Christ will remain forceable Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you Life being therefore proposed unto all men as their end they which by Baptism have laid the Foundation and attained the first beginning of a new life have here their nourishment and food prescribed for continuance of life in them Such as will live the Life of God must eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man because this is a part of that diet which if we want we cannot live Whereas therefore in our Infancy we are incorporated into Christ and by Baptism receive the Grace of his Spirit without any sense or feeling of the gift which God bestoweth in the Eucharist we so receive the gift of God that we know by Grace what the Grace is which God giveth us the degrees of our own Increase in holiness and vertue we see and can judge of them we understand that the strength of our life begun in Christ is Christ that his Flesh is Meat and his Blood drink not by surmised imagination but truly even so truly that through Faith we perceive in the Body and Blood sacramentally presented the very taste of Eternal Life the Grace of the Sacrament is here as the food which we eat and drink This was it that some did exceedingly fear lest Zwinglius and Occolampadius would bring to pass that men should account of this Sacrament but onely as of a shadow destitute empty and void of Christ. But seeing that by opening the several opinions which have been held they are grown for ought I can see on all sides at the length to a general agreement concerning that which alone is material namely The Real Participation of Christ and of
which that surcease were likely to draw after it Let the Lord Maior of London or any other unto whose Office Honor belongeth be deprived but of that Title which in itself is a matter of nothing and suppose we that it would be a small maim unto the credit force and countenance of his Office It hath not without the singular wisdom of God been provided that the ordinary outward tokens of Honor should for the most part be in themselves things of mean account for to the end they might easily follow as faithful testimonies of that beneficial vertue whereunto they are due it behoved them to be of such nature that to himself no man might over-eagerly challenge them without blushing not any man where they are due withhold them but with manifest appearance of too great malice or pride Now forasmuch as according to the Antient Orders and Customs of this Land as of the Kingdom of Israel and of all Christian Kingdoms through the World the next in degree of Honor unto the Chief Soveraign are the Chief Prelates of God's Church what the reason hereof may be it resteth next to be enquired XVIII Other reason there is not any wherefore such Honor hath been judged due saving only that publick good which the Prelates of God's Clergy are Authors of For I would know which of these things it is whereof we make any question either that the favour of God is the chiefest Pillar to bear up Kingdoms and States or that true Religion publickly exercised is the principal mean to retain the favour of God or that the Prelates of the Church are they without whom the exercise of true Religion cannot well and long continue If these three be grented then cannot the publick benefit of Prelacy be dissembled And of the first or second of these I look not for any profest denyal The World at this will blush not to grant at the leastwise in word as much as Heathens themselves have of old with most earnest asseveration acknowledged concerning the force of Divine Grace in upholding Kingdoms Again though his mercy doth so farr strive with mens ingratitude that all kinde of Publick iniquities deserving his indignation their safety is through his gracious Providence many times neverthelesse continued to the end that amendment might if it were possible avert their Envy so that as well Common-weals as particular Persons both may and do endure much longer when they are careful as they should be to use the most effectual means of procuring His favour on whom their continuance principally dependeth Yet this point no man will stand to argue no man will openly arm himself to enter into set Disputation against the Emperors Theodosius and Valentinian for making unto their Laws concerning Religion this Preface Decere arbitramur nostrum Imperium subditos nostros de Religione commonefacere Ita enim plenicrem adquiri Dei ac Salvatoris nostri Iesu Christi benignitatem possibile esse existimamus si quando nos pro viribus ipsi placere studuerimus nostros subditos ad eam rem instituerimus Or against the Emperor Iustinian for that he also maketh the like Profession Per sanctissimas Ecclessias nostrum Imperium sustineri communes res elementissimi Dei gratia muniri credimus And in another place Certissimè credemus quia Sacerdotum puritas deââââ ad Dominum Deum Salvatorem nostrum Iesuis Christum fervor ab ipsis missa perpetua preces maltum favorem nostra Reipublica incrementum praebent Wherefore onely the last point is that which men will boldly require us to prove for no man feareth now to make it a question Whether the Prelacy of the Church be any thing available or no to effect the good and long continuance of true Religion Amongst the principal Blessings wherewith God enriched Israel the Prophet in the Psalm acknowledgeth especially this for one Thou didst lead thy People like Sheep by the hands of Moses and Aaron That which Sheep are if Pastors be wanting the same are the people of God if so be they want Governors And that which the principal Civil Governors are in comparison of Regents under them the same are the Prelates of the Church being compared with the rest of God's Clergy Wherefore inasmuch as amongst the Jews the benefit of Civil Government grew principally from Moses he being their Principal Civil Governor even so the benefit of Spiritual Regiment grew from Aaron principally he being in the other kinde of their principal Rector although even herein subject to the Soveraign Dominion of Moses For which cause these two alone are named as the Heads and Well-springs of all As for the good which others did in service either of the Common-wealth or of the Sanctuary the chiefest glory thereof did belong to the chiefest Governors of the one sort and of the other whose vigilant care and oversight kept them in their cue Order Bishops are now is High-Priests were then inregard of power over other Priests and in respect of subjection unto High-Priests What Priests were then the same now Presbyters are by way of their place under Bishops The ones Authority therefore being so profitable how should the others be thought unnecessary Is there any man professing Christian Religion which holdeth it not as a Maxim That the Church of Jesus Christ did reap a singular benefit by Apostolical Regiment not only for other respects but even in regard of that Prelacy whereby they had and exercised Power of Jurisdiction over lower Guides of the Church Preciates are herein the Apostles Successors as hath been proved Thus we see that Prelacy must needs be acknowledged exceedingly beneficial in the Church and yet for more perspicuities sake it shall not be pains superstuously taken if the manner how be also declared at large For this one thing not understood by the vulgar sort causeth all contempt to be offered unto higher Powers not only Ecclesiastical but Civil whom when proud men have disgraced and are therefore reproved by such as carry some dutiful affection of minde the usual Apologies which they make for themselves are these What more vertue in these Great ones than in others we see no such eminent good which they do above other mon. We grant indeed that the good which Higher Governors do is not so immediate and near unto every of us as many times the meane labours of others under them and this doth make it to be less esteemed But we must note that it is in this Case as in a Ship he that fitteth at the Stern is quiet he moveth not he seemeth in a manner to do little or Nothing in comparison of them that sweat about other toil yet that which he doth is in value and force more than all the labours of the residue laid together The influence of the Heavens above worketh infinitely more to our good and yet appeareth not half so sensible as the force doth of
things below We consider not what it is which we reap by the Authority of our Chiefest Spiritual Governors not are likely to enter into any consideration thereof till we want them and that is the cause why they are at our hands so unthankfully rewarded Authority is a constraining Power which Power were needless if we were all such as we should be willing to do the things we ought to do without constraint But because generally we are otherwise therefore we all reap singular benefit by that Authority which permitteth no men though they would to slack their duty It doth not suffice that the Lord of an Houshold appoint Labourers what they should do unless he set over them some chief Workman to see they do it Constitutions and Canons made for the ordering of Church-affairs are dead Task-masters The due execution of Laws Spiritual dependeth most upon the vigilant care of the Chiefest Spiritual Governors whose charge is to see that such Laws be kept by the Clergy and People under them With those Duties which the Law of God and the Ecclesiastical Canons require in the Clergy Lay-Governors are neither for the most part so well acquainted nor so deeply and nearly touched Requisite therefore it is that Ecclesiastical Persons have authority in such things Which kinde of Authority maketh them that have it Prelates If then it be a thing confest as by all good men it needs must be to have Prayers read in all Churches to have the Sacraments of God administred to have the Mysteries of Salvation painfully taught to have God every where devoutly worshipped and all this perpetually and with quietness bringeth unto the whole Church and unto every Member thereof inestimoble good how can that Authority which hath been proved the Ordinance of God for preservation of these duties in the Church how can it choose but deserve to be held a thing publickly most beneficial It were to be wished and is to be laboured for as much as can be that they who are set in such Rooms may be furnished with honourable Qualities and Graces every way fit for their Galling But be they otherwise howsoever so long as they are in Authority all men reap some good by them albeit not so much good as if they were abler men There is not any amongst us all but is a great deal more apt to exact another man's duty than the best of us is to discharge exactly his own and therefore Prelates although neglecting many ways their duty unto God and men do notwithstanding by their Authority great good in that they keep others at the leastwise in some awe under them It is our duty therefore in this consideraton to honor them that rule as Prelates which Office if they discharge well the Apostles own verdict is that the honor they have they be worthy of yea though it were double And if their Government be otherwise the judgement of sage men hath ever been this that albeit the dealings of Governors be culpable yet honourable they must be in respect of that Authority by which they govern Great caution must be used that we neither be emboldned to follow them in evil whom for Authorities sake we honor nor induced in Authority to dishonor them whom as examples we may not follow In a word not to dislike sin though it should be in the highest were unrighteous meekness and proud righteousness it is to contemn or dishonor Highness though it should be in the sinfullest men that live But so hard it is to obtain at our hands especially as now things stand the yielding of Honor to whom Honor in this case belongeth that by a brief Declaration only what the Duties of men are towards the principal Guides and Pastors of their Souls we cannot greatly hope to prevail partly for the malice of their open Adversaries and partly for the cunning of such as in a sacrilegious intent work their dishonor under covert by more mystical and secret means Wherefore requisite and in a manner necessary it is that by particular instances we make it even palpably manifest what singular benefit and use publick the nature of Prelates is apt to yield First no man doubteth but that unto the happy condition of Common-weals it is a principal help and furtherance when in the eye of Foreign States their estimation and credit is great In which respect the Lord himself commending his own Laws unto his people mentioneth this as a thing not meanly to be accounted of that their careful obedience yielded thereunto should purchase them a great good opinion abroad and make them every where famous for wisdom Fame and reputation groweth especially by the vertue not of common ordinary persons but of them which are in each estate most eminent by occasion of their higher Place and Calling The mean man's actions be they good or evil they reach not farr they are not greatly enquired into except perhaps by such as dwell at the next door whereas men of more ample dignity are as Cities on the tops of Hills their lives are viewed a farr off so that the more there are which observe aloof what they do the greater glory by their well-doing they purchase both unto God whom they serve and to the State wherein they live Wherefore if the Clergy be a beautifying unto the body of this Common-weal in the eyes of Foreign beholders and if in the Clergy the Prelacy be most exposed unto the World's eye what publick benefit doth grow from that Order in regard of reputation thereby gotten to the Land from abroad we may soon conjecture Amongst the Jews their Kings excepted who so renowned throughout the World as their High-Priest who so much or so often spoken of as their Prelates 2. Which Order is not for the present only the most in sight but for that very cause also the most commended unto Posterity For if we search those Records wherein there hath descended from age to age whatsoever notice and intelligence we have of those things which were before us is there any thing almost else surely not any thing so much kept in memory as the successions doings sufferings and affairs of Prelates So that either there is not any publick use of that light which the Church doth receive from Antiquity or if this be absurd to think then must we necessarily acknowledge our selves beholden more unto Prelates than unto others their Inferiours for that good of direction which Ecclesiastical actions recorded do always bring 3. But to call home our cogitations and more inwardly to weigh with our selves what principal commodity that Order yieldeth or at leastwise is of its own disposition and nature apt to yield Kings and Princes partly for information of their own consciences partly for instruction what they have to do in a number of most weighty affairs intangled with the cause of Religion having as all men know so usual occasion of often consultations and conferences with their Clergy suppose