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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02461	A sermon principally entreating of the crosse in Baptisme wherein also it is proued, against the vnaduised reprouers, that it is no popish error, to say; that Austine sent from Gregorie the Great, was the conuerter of the English in this iland: and further that the Britaines did not receiue their first faith from the Church of Rome. By R. H. D.	Hacket, Roger, 1559-1621.	1606 (1606)	STC 12591; ESTC S117906	24,790	63

beleeue in Christ but that hee might the better know from whence the good came he receaued by Christ whether hee did beleeue in his Crosse For as in another place hee saith the fountaine Marah it is bitter but it became sweete when Moses cast in the wood of Christ It is the preaching of the Crosse of Christ that maketh al our bitter waters sweete So Chrysostome The Passion of our Lord is the beginning and head of all our blisse by which we liue by which wee are let vs therefore with a ioyfull mind carry with vs the Crosse of Christ as the crowne cause of all which maketh for our good Thus then you see the reasons which moued those auncient Fathers to signe their baptised with the Crosse either because they somewhat thought that the Apostles either by their ensample or word shewed that the baptised were to bee signed with the Crosse or that they might shew to the Iewes and Gentiles that they were not ashamed of their Christ that was crucified or that they might the better teach their hearers to ascribe the whole of their saluation to the only merit and worth of Christs bitter death endured on the Crosse These were the thoughts and this the practise of that godly antiquity whose piety and wisedome as we cannot but reuerence so let vs follow them in all peace and patience well weighing the reasons that should moue vs to abhor their pathes Now notwithstanding all that hath been shewed out of those Fathers for the Crosse in Baptisme wee will shew which is the fourth thing we proposed to proue that whereas there are two kinds of crosses the one manēt the other transient the one materiall the other aereall that somewhat in those Fathers times but much more since both those kinds of crosses haue bin sinfully more or lesse abused the one to Idolatry the other to superstition I must heere confesse vnto you that many strange things are recorded by the ancient of the Crosse materiall As that in the time of Cyril Bishop of Ierusalem there should appeare in the aire a signe of the Crosse of that brightnes and greatnes that by the sight thereof many vnbeleeuing Iewes and Gentiles were conuerted to the faith as that to Constantine should appeare in heauen the signe of the Crosse and that from thence he should heare that in that sign hee should ouercome the which when according to the voice and vision followed he caused a Crosse to be made of gold and beautified it with many precious stones and set it ouer the entrance to his Palace nay hee further caused the Crosse to be richly embrodered in his chiefe standard which in battaile was carried before him yea and on the armour of his souldiers which warred vnder him And when aereall crosses appeared on the garments of Arcadius such which were with him going to warre against the Persians for the wrongs they had done the Christians of Armenia after his returne with conquest from the battaile hee caused his money to bee coyned with a Crosse Thus the Crosse made his entrance into the Palace standards armour and coyne of Princes and after into the cities high waies yea and holied places and for Christs sake but to the dishonor of Christ hurt of mens soules got that reuerend estimation amongst men that in fine it they adored as Sozomen saith they did the stādard of Cōstantine in which the Crosse was pictured to it they fell downe and kneeling kissed it making their praiers to it as to Christ Thus lea●ing Christ they cōmitted spirituall wh●oredome with his Crosse and contrary to the expresse command of God nade themselues a grauen image for to worship it The which all may appeare if we cōsider what Darandus reporteth to be the practise of their deuotion on Easter day for when their golden and gemmified Crosse which with them had stood couered from the time of Christs Passion vntill the time supposed that he rose was once vncouered then in their blind and deceiued deuotion the people bare-foot came creeping to it saluting it adoring it offering to it and humbly kissing the basest parts of it reputing this their Idolatrie the greatest worship they could do to Christ Now as this materiall and manent Crosse was thus sinfully abused to Idolatry so was also the Crosse aereall and transient fouly abused to superstition For whē some of the Fathers had somewhat largely spoken of the power of the Crosse as that by it the diuels were terrified and driuen away the oracles of the Pagans for feare of it durst giue no answere that by it all enchantmēts lost their force and witcheries their effectes then at euery turne and at euery work whersoeuer they were or whatsoeuer they tooke in hand were it belonging to God or man or brute beasts or other senselesse creatures they crossed themselues reputing nothing wel begun which was not first begun with a Crosse nor nothing well ended which was not ended with a Crosse Neither was this the error only of some of the people but of the Fathers some otherwise deuout and pious did not only giue way to these superstitions of the people but were in part the exhorters and furtherers of many vnto this blind needlesse and superstitious deuotion So Chrysostome hauing spoken before of the Crosse inferreth Wherfore in our parlers on our walles and on our windowes yea and on our foreheads and soules with great care and studie let vs set the Crosse To the same he perswadeth his hearers in diuers other places In like māner Hierom in an Epistle he writeth to Demetriades Do thou aftē arme thy forehead with the sign of the Crosse lest the destroyer of Aegypt find place in thee And the same to Eust●chium whatsoeuer thou doest wheresoeuer thou goest let thy hand make a crosse Now with the times did this superstitious deuotion encrease amongst the people and clergie In so much that in these later yeares no Church was consecrated but with a multitude of crosses no praiers said no Sacraments administred but they were begun continued ended with many crosses Yea their breaden God as Durandus writeth whilest that Sacrament was ministred was signed with the Crosse twentie fiue times Vnto which signe was attributed that vertue that Durandus affirmeth by vertue of the Crosse made and words said the bread in that Sacrament was transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ. Thus whereas at the first it was but once or seldome made after it was often whereas they signed to put the baptised in mind that they should not bee ashamed to confesse Christ crucified but should in the merit of his Passiō place the cause of all their blisse after they ascribed the vertue and holines to the outward signe that without it they thought nothing was sanctified nothing cōsecrated nothing sufficiently fenced from the power and malice of the diuell So

herein we suspect our contrarying thoughts suppose that we may be deceaued that they may being nearer the times of Christ and his Apostles in things of this nature better see the truth Nay since the Crosse is a rite meerely in the generall indifferent since it may serue to decency and order as a badge of our profession how may I or other of the like mind and conscience with my selfe in this refuse the order of our Church vpon our priuate spleene and fansies let not him that vseth it not cōdemne him that vseth it If not to thee yet to mee except I would giue the lye vnto my cōscience it is indifferēt Surely Chemnisius writing of the rites which in the Sacraments are vsed for order and decency sake of those outward things indifferent saith It must not be permitted to euery man without the iudgement and consent of the Church of his own wātonnes wil to leaue out or alter any rite or ceremony that is vsed in the Church For although other Churches doe not vse to baptise with the Crosse yet are we in things of this nature to follow the rites and orders of the Church in which we liue not the orders of those to whom wee are not subiect except we will become troublers of the peace of our Church an offence vnto other and cause other to be offēded with vs. The seueral Churches of God without blemish or derogation to other may in these rites vse their liberty according to the rule of Paul as Chemnisius in the same place speaketh And as Linwood inferred when in some Churches the baptised was dipped vnder the water in some had water sprinckled or powred on that it was not of the necessity of Baptisme that the child should bee dipped so maiest thou in that some Churches doe signe the baptised with the signe of the Crosse others do not hereby vnderstand that the Church of God doth not repute the Crosse to be of the necessity of Baptisme Yet doth the Church in which we liue for order sake cōmand the vse of the Crosse vnto vs. Should we for this forsake the people of our charge and leaue the ministrie vnto which God hath called vs by what warrant this was not the coūsell of Beza Cartwright and other impugners of this the like ceremonies but rather to walke in our calling and in patiēce to beare the burden of these dislikes If this had bin absolutely euil this they might not nor would not haue perswaded And if they thought it lawfull but not expedient nor conuenient our Gouernours in their great experience should better know what is fitting the state of our Church than they If they do not as thou supposest yet how maiest thou leaue thy lawfull and needful duty which God hath enioyned and requireth of thee in that thou wilt not vndergoe with the good of many that which thou thinkest is not expedient If thou farther saiest that the Crosse hath bin most superstitiously abused we say the same yet being freed from superstition and the opinion of merit holines and necessity why may it not be continued with vs especially since that which is vsed of vs is far vnlike that which is vsed of the Papists For they make the Crosse in Baptisme a needfull ceremonie wee a conueniēt they signe the baptised and the water oftē we once they put some religion and holines in the signe wee put none they crosse the baptised before he receiueth his Christendome we after and after he is receiued as a member in the Church they to driue out the diuell and by that signe to feare him from returning wee that it might be an honorable badge to remember vs with all boldnesse to confesse Christ crucified and to repute the cause of all our happines the merit of Christs Passion endured on the Crosse Well may therfore the Crosse be vsed of vs which hath been most superstitiously abused by them And so much the rather because that by this signe thus remaining with vs since all other vse of the crosse is in no vse with vs wee may stop the mouthes of the slaundering Papists which say that wee are enemies to Christ and to his Crosse because our Rulers haue broken downe his Crucifixes and Crosses and because the people do not as their Fathers did signe themselues with the sign of the Crosse For this signe thus vsed in Baptisme sheweth that wee are not enemies to Christ nor to his Crosse but to their Idolatry superstition And although we do not liue among the Iewes and Pagans which seeke to shame vs because we put our trust in him that was hanged on a tree by this Crosse to shew them that that which they reproch wee repute our glory yet since this is a doctrine needfull for all sorts to learne that not in the minister or water but in the blood of Iesus they attaine the washing away and remission of their sinnes since of this many of the people are very ignorant not only by the word and Sacraments the blessed meanes of God but by this signe also the people may be remembred as thought the anciēt Fathers that Christ died for them on the Crosse Neither lacketh this cause the approbation of many reuerend of our moderne writers For although Beza to Grendal did there reiect the Crosse because it opened a gap to that great superstition and Idolatry which among the Papists ensued and would haue it therefore with the brasen Serpent vtterly abolished yet the fame Beza in his after thoughts writing vnto Francis Ba●dwin I know that some hauing taken away the adoration of the Crosse haue yet retained some vse of the signe of the Crosse Let them vse as it is fit their liberty and to the same in an● place there was a time in which there was some vse of the signe of the Crosse against the contemners of Christ crucified and let it be long and willinglie vsed of Christians for an outward signe of their religion Where marke he saith that it is meet that they should vse their liberty in the vse of the Crosse 2. That it was of good vse against the contemners of Christ crucified 3. that hee would willingly haue it long cōtinued as an outward professiō of true religiō Likewise Bucer speaking of the Crosse this signe not only because it hath been of auncient vse in the Church of God but because it is a very plaine signe presentlie remembring the Crosse of Christ I iudge it not vndecent or vnprofitable if it bee purely vnderstood and religiously taken without any superstition or seruitude of the element or of common custome To the same purpose Chemnisius such rites we do not without cause love and reteine in the action of Baptisme which do signifie and illustrate the doctrine deliuered in Scripture concerning Baptisme In another place we ought to oppose our selues against those rites which fight with the word of God Or when