becomes precept or president to its practice then is the Church to be followed in such her warrantable customs and observations In the 28 Chapter of S t Matthew our Lord Jesus is mentioned to have ascended in the 16 th verse the Eleven are said to go away into Galilee unto a mountain where Jesus had appointed them there he appears to them in a glorious condition which caused them to worship him as Emanuel God Man Mediator In the 18 th verse our Lord owns the donation of all power to him both in Heaven and Earth before this Christ is not mentioned so solemnly to transfer power Ministerial to his Apostles he asserts his own Authority before he gives them theirs that done Go ye therefore and teach all Nations follows which compared with that other passage As my Father hath sent me so send I you fully cleers to me That transferrency of power Ministerial from God the Father to God the Son and from God the Son to his Apostles and to their Successors in the Ministry who in Tertullian's phrase are the Hereditary Apostles and Disciples of Christ I do not affirm there is an equality of spiritual power in Ministers now to that in the Apostles no more then in the Apostles to that in Christ all Vessels are not of a capacity if the Spirit were on him without measure and upon Apostles and Ministers restrained and as they could bear then we must allow a disparity in the degree God gave him a Name above all names both in heaven and earth saith the Apostles and no creature must contend with its maker But this I dare affirm That the power Spiritual and Ministerial which the A-Apostles expressed by imposition of hands and since in conformity to them and upon the same ground they do carry on who are lawfully called to the Ministry in the Church Christian is as truly spiritual power in them as in their Head from whom they received it and that the Church has now as clear a Charter for her Orders as the Apostles had for their Apostleships the great D r of us Gentiles is my Author God hath set in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers c. Prophets and Teachers that is Ministers as well as Apostles both fixed by Christ as necessary to carry on his spiritual building the Church Both ministring Spirits for the good of the Elect both his good Angels to summon from all quarters his chosen ones both usefull one to lay the foundation and the other to perfect the Structure I write not this to ingage my self in controversies I shall ever indeavour to decline them as well knowing they account nothing to Church peace or Religions purity but this I must profess that my judgement is flatly against entrenchment upon Church Offices let Christians imploy their Gifts soberly and instruct themselves and their Families thorowly and they will finde enough of that task If our Lord had laid the right of teaching in mens readinesses or their talkative abilities he would have appeared to those multitudes of people whom he in the course of his life and Ministry taught fed and cured of infirmities and from whom he had approbation to do and speak as never man did or spake it 's probable he might have found as nimble orators as pregnant gifted men in prayers as great measure of self-denial in some of the people as was in Peter James John or the rest of the Apostles But he appears to the Eleven met according to his appointment and them he culls out of the mass of the multitude to be the Churches Faetificators and he bids them as ver 19. Go ye therefore c. Ye an exclusive phrase as well as a personal not onely ye as well as others but ye only and above others ye as the grand Masters and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Church edification lay ye the foundation let all the after-building be according to your pattern from my prescript And teach all Nations These Metropolitans had large Diocesses Eleven to preach the world over this Commission must be largely taken not restrained to their personal but Doctrinal Visits not to their lives but to the perpetuity of their succession Ministerial not Apostolique for can we think those few could peragrate the Universe into many parts of which there was then no means of convoy or transport or that the hour-glass of their lives did not speed too fast for them to sow the seeds of grace in to so many several and various people and Nations or can the Apostles in any sense natural be said to continue to the end of the world till when Christ promises to be with them I tro no most of the Apostles died within the first Century If Christs promise was to continue them so long as he continued concurrence with them then must they not have seen death till the end of the world for so long he saith he will be with them And if they died so soon after and the world has yet lasted above 1500 yeers and how long further it may last God onely knows the promise must be understood to the orderly succession of the Ministry in all the ages of the Church who are to carry on the Apostles Office of teaching and exercising Discipline in it to the end of the world And this the Apostles understood and followed in their practice for though Judas fell from his Apostleship yet the Eleven by prayer and calling on God were directed specially to compleat their number by the admission of Matthias Act. 1. 15. remembring that Christ Jesus had a work to carry on in the world which required the full help he had in his life time assigned to it and though the Apostles admitted none into the priviledge of their order but upon special direction of the holy Ghost as in the forementioned case of Matthias and S t Paul whom the holy Ghost commanded to be separated as Ministers yet were Disciples Evangelists Bishops and Presbyters by them chosen and from them sent who in their succession carried on the work to this day and those learnedly bred and humbly submitting themselves to Church-approbation were accounted worthy to labour in the Word and Doctrine as Pastors able to feed the people with knowledge and understanding as the Prophet hath it Jer. 3. 15. yea and such men as S t Paul exhorts Timothy to be 2 Tim. 2. 15. Study saith he to shew thy self a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth The consideration of this made Ministers anciently very modest to offer themselves to this weighty charge and the Fathers and Bishops very precise and scrupulous in admitting any unto the care of souls but such as were well reputed and had great knowledge both in Humane and Divine Learning Saint Jerome plainly tells us that in his time the Church was so well served that it was hard to tell whether the Clergie excelled
aperiunt enim quasi fontes sapientiae qui aquam non habent doctrinarum promittunt imbrem velut nubes propheticae ad quas perveniat veritas Dei turbinibus exagitantur demonum vitiorum So he Alas they are in a devious road to fame who endeavour Learnings ruine and deserve no nobler a memoriall then Scylla had whose evils were so great that there was neither leâ—t place for greater nor number for more That wise man of the Garamantes spake truth to Alexander Glory ariseth not from violent substraction of what is anothers but from bestowing on others what is our own the best way to be remembred for gallant is to write our memoriall in the Table Adamant of a Charity and Bounty that may outlast us I love Aemilius his gravity and imitable worth his vertuous minde and Learned head better then Aristippus his rapacious heart though it had to friend a grave countenance and a purple robe The Lord deliver the Learned from those men who would have the Name of Learned perish and their seed begg their bread and give and preserve to them such Kings and Protectors as may speak comfortably to them as God did to his He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye Thirdly Antiquity and Elder times have been Zealous for Government and Order in the Church as the Church of Christ hath no custom for contention so not for coâ—fusion God is order and good discipline is one way to make men conform to God as orders Law-giver S t Cyprian one of the first Fathers and a noble Martyr defines Discipline the keeper of hope the conservative of faith a good conductor in our race of Christianity a benefit reaching forth security and increase to those that embrace her and portending destruction to those that refuse or neglect her And Calvin when he disownes all Church usurpation yet concludes That the Church hath Laws of order to promote concord and defend government And reason it should be so for if God be order and his administrations be orderly as himself then disorder as nothing of his ought to be kept out of the Church to which it is peculiarly an enemy The Church is a treasury disorder robbs it 'T is a clear stream of living water disorder puddles it 'T is a fair and bright Heaven disorder clouds and inlowers it 'T is a chart virgin disorder is an impure raptor and corrupts it 'T is a precious orb of spicknard disorder like dead flies putrifies it The foresight of this made our Lord Jesus bespangle his Church with gifts to all purposes of Order and Ornnament He hath set sayes S t Paul in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers then gifts of healing Helps to Governments diversities of tongues And now I have found Church and Government both in a Scripture I hope I may without offence joyn them together Church-Government and assert that of Divine Institution I think most parties are agreed that Government Ecclesiastique as well as Civil is of God all the litigation is What this Ecclesiastique Government which is of God is By what Name and Title it is distinguished and dignified And God wot the heat and humour of peevish brains have set Paul and Barnabas as it were asunder nay hath made such a crack in Christian Eutaxie ' that as Bernardas Dyas Bishop of Calatrore said of the Church of Vicenza that may I of this Chuach of England It is so disordered that it requireth more an Apostle then a Bishop Orpheus sooner charmed Pluto and Proserpina to part with his Eurydice then men amongst us be perswaded to part with their passions though all their swellings and monstrous impregnations like that of the mountains produce only a Mouse a most ridiculous and inglorious scabb of self-conceited Leprosie One party will have Church-Discipline so precisely set down in the Word of God that nothing is left to Christian prudence to alter Others are diametrall to these and make with Cardinall Cusanus Government accountable to the times as he said Scripture was and therefore to be expounded according to the current rites and yet forsooth it is not to be meant as if the Church at one time expoundeth in one fashion and at another time in another sort a Riddle the Scripture must be expounded according to the times and the times according to which Scripture is to be expounded are now this an on that and yet the Church must not be meant to expound it in one fashion at one time and in another fashion another time There are a third sort who fix the essentials of Government in Scripture and the collaterals they admit as left to the order of the particular Churches of Christ this I take to be most safe and moderate and this S t Augustine delivers as his Opinion to Januarius long ago These things quoth be are left free there is no appointment by God concerning them prudent Christians are at liberty to conform to whatever Church they come and in which they live for whatever is enjoyned not contrary to faith and good manners ought to be submitted to for peace and civil societies sake and I saith the Father diligently considering this thorowly do deliver this as an Oracle receiving confirmation from God And truly this I judge to be the meaning of those brotherly expressions that have and ought ever to ebbe and flow from Christian Churches to each other and from the Protestant Churches especially For if the Church of England when it was under Episcopacy saved the rights of other Churches which were disciplinary and condemned them not but held correspondency with them giving them the right hand of fellowship and the other forreign Churches published their candor and approbation of Episcopacy where it was constituted and pressed obedience to it witnesse Reverend Calviâ— in divers places and on divers occasions Learned Zanchy Grave Bucer Eloquent Beza Profound Mâ—uline Accomplisht Chamier yea and multitudes of others of note in the Reformed Churches then doth this arise from that apprehension that the generals of Government being one and the same under both Disciplines Charity ought to passe the rest to the least injury of Christian Concord Farre be it from me to part whom God hath joyned together Wherein the Churches agree let them mind the things that tend to piety and unity the rest God will reveal in his good time for as Calvin after S t Augustine determines it Let every Church observe her own Customs It is profitable sometimes that Religion should have some variety so there be no â—mulation and new things be not introduced for novelties sake The Churches of Christ then have agreed upon Government as appointed by God yea and about the persons interessed in it those Bishops Presbyters and Deacons they never owned Armilustra's in which Souldiers were Priests nor Gifted men unordained for Church Officers this is of
of Durham and all to make way for the Popish Doctrine of Miracles 'T is Satans artifice to steal his surprise in at some port of pleasure or profit The Statues of Kings the Miters of Popes and the Arms of States sometimes hang out at common houses and those often of no good report 〈◊〉 I have seen the Holy Lamb sign to a place of tipling Good men are often deluded by their own presumption and lead into a fairer belief of themselves then they deserve We are all in love with our own Apes and we often hug them till we smother reason the most beauteous child of nature yea there are no greater follies acted by any then those that do vow and declare most against them Peter was a bold assertor of his fidelity Though all forsake thee yet will not I I le die with thee Lord Jesus Matth. 26. 35. yet he denied and forswore him for fear In the troubles of the Netherlands the confederates protested before God and the world Nihil omnino velle hoc foedere nostro moliri quod vel ad contemptum Dei vel ad diminutionem authoritatis dignita tis Regiae statuumve suorum tendere posfit but it fell out otherwise for when they had power reason of State and necessity of self-preservation made them do what they as they published at first did not intend As in growth of bodies there are degrees so in mischiefs there are the tender plants of blushing before the full years of sturdiness uemo repente fit turpissimus 'T was a good prayer of David Who knows how oft he offends keep me from presumptuous sinnes Man is never neerer miscarriage then when he least fears it nor is the heart ever more treacherous then when it sollicits with greatest earnestness to lend an ear to the delusion of a sycophant or hearken to the propensions of our nature to accommodate our ends What plots did Gardiner and the Lords of H. 8. Council lay for Cranmer Wricthsly and others for Q. Katherine Parr yea and Tottis a Priest to prove that the Pater noster might be said to Saints made a blasphemous exposition thereof contrary to the sense of Christ Jesus Katherine Mary Dutchess of Mompensier sister of the deceased Duke of Guise was so horribly transported with malice against the Protestant party and had so great a desire of revenge upon the King of France that notwithstanding her nobler endowments she dishonoured her self with that Jesuited varlet Clement his murtherer the more to encourage him in the accomplishment of his villany and to give him assurance of her acceptance of that treasonable assassination Opinions and parties are humble at first but when they are entred they like ill humours in the body steal away the nutriment and force judgement into some little angle and petty principality whereas it ought to rule the whole continent and command in Chief Opinion does by Reason as Empericks by people fits with tricks quick and grosse to please all seasons and Companies sometimes it curdles Reason and makes it shrivle up into uncomely narrownesses another time like a thriftlesse Housekeeper it opens doors for all comers And as that Friar refused none an Alms that asked for the Virgin Maries sake so if Holinesse to the Lord be upon the surface of it the Cry is Come in thou blessed of the Lord. Men are pardon the phrase Jaels in this and these Sisera's they court into their hearts offering them not the cold comforts of hammers and nayls of dispatch nor the pulse of slender welcome but the Royall fare of their fancy yea they dance about the May-poles of their late acquaintence and guests as David did before Gods Ark with all their might But 't is pity they should want Michels to scoff at them who are so taken with novelties and so pleased with Nothings Lord what Mushromes and Cocks combs are cooked to the gustâ— of the curious pallated world And how greedy are men not only to devour a well-sauced poyson but to applaud the Cook that tempers that Circoean Cup of their Inchantment How many hopefull and virtuously disposed mindes may observing men view deflowred whose parts as Moses's Rod have become Serpents not to win peevish natures to truth but to further craft and harmful subtlety which never return'd again into their Native purity whose eloquent tongue like the beauties of the old world have seduced well-inclined and easie Christians to follow them into the deluge of Errors and to scoff at the Ark of Truth the Church as a mentitious sigment He was a wise man in his time who said Pruritus disputandi scabies Ecclesiae Opinions and Disputations have begat one another to the end of the Chapter of Church-peace so that Religion is wholly drowned in Opinion Men are grown Monsters like that in Praepontis which had a great head but shriveled members Ancient sober practical Piety is almost lost and men come to such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of speculation that they are perswaded to be too wise for Instructors too holy to observe Scripture-Rules too contentious to be endured almost in civil Societies Hollerius his Italian hath spawned such Scorpion'd brains that 't is daugerous to converse with them lest we be infected by them So that as Pomponius Laesus said of the Christian quarrels that may we say of active spirits amongst us Viri Sacrilegi moâ—tuos quiescentes turbant templis minime parcunt â—avidi sanguinis civilis praedae mali Daemones sic implicuere nostras mentes â—ut relictis veris hostibus quos longa pace frui permittimus in nos nostrorumque membra armatas sangâ—inolentas convertamus manus How careful were ancient Christians to avoid all things that tended to offence What tendernesse expresseth the holy Apostle when he professed He would rather never eat then offend his weak Brother And the glorious Saints of pristine piety and courage when they denied themselves to gratifie the consciencious scruples of weak Christians When they with tears bemoaned the inadvertency of some to give and the peevishnesse of others to take offence Optatus was much troubled that the Church should be disturbed by the Orthodox licet and the Donatists non licet And Tertullian did not approve that Christians should be called either by the Name of Albinians or Nigrians or Cassians but that which is their proper Name Christians 'T is Satans project to exartuate Religion by new names and new factions amongst her professors and to weaken the power of godlinesse by introducing argumentation and debate the pleasure of wits and the Pensioner of carnal policy that as ingenious Florists to pick the purses of witty persons delighted with their art have so heightned flowers by transplantations preparations of mold adumbrations of them at unbenign seasons of the year by cutting their Roots and sundry such not uncommendable feats of their skill that out of one single root of a Lilly hath come
up houses for their Habitations and Rooms they use properly but suffer Churches to fall down or abuse some of them to other uses then they were designed for How much was Dioclesian discommended who contested for the priviledges of his Palace but cared not what became of the places dedicated to God And Nero who as much as in him lay butchered Christianity decried not only the Ordinances but the Feasts and Solemnities of the Religion yet then institutes his Juvenalia Feasts in memory of his beard then first cut and to make the folly more pompous the hairs of it forfooth must be put into a case of gold and be consecrated to Jupiter Aelia Catula an old noble Matron aged 80 years dances for triumph and those that do least make merry by singing and dancing It is no sign of great piety when men are bold onely upon the things of God When the World was under the power of Arians Church-plate and Treasure was seized upon and no place will serve the Tyrant Julian to piss against but the Communion Table nay when the bounty of a Constantine and Constantius shall be scoffed at by an Apostate Foelix in these words See how sumptuously the son of Mary is served And no less impiety is it to rifle from the Church-man his maintenance which some of late endeavoured but God brought their counsels to nought and their devices to none effect And just it was with God to scatter and disappoint them qui quaerunt mercedem Phineae sed operantur opera Zimri that is who cry up Christ and cry down his Servitors who ought to live upon his Patrimony and who are to receive maintenance from the Altar which they tend yea and exclame against Magistrates who ought and do defend them There is no need to dispute the right of Tythes qua Maintenance The Christian Church in her purer times ever held Ministers worthy of maintenance and of double honour for their Calling sake and feared much to detain or curtail their dues or to alter the species and manner of conveying it to them Those Christians were ever carefull to give the labourer his hyre and to minister temporals to such as to them imparted spirituals And therefore till the time of H. 8. I finde no Act of Parliament in this Nation that prescribes punishment for non-payment of Tythes the people held it so right a due to the Church-man that they made no scruple of it but if they failed the Law-spirituall punished them by pennance which they dreaded so much that they did seldom incurre it After that H. 8. had broke with the Pope and brought the Church-man under his lash then every one trampled upon the conquer'd worm The Parliament of the 27 th of his Raign seeing the inconvenience declared by Statute their judgment of such as refuse payment of Tythes And so they hold to this day and I hope ever will for Caesar ought to be a sonne of the Church Christ only is Lord and Master of it And let carnall and worldly spirits sleight the Church and her servitors yet they will in conclusion finde that whensoever the Churches last day shall be at hand the evening thereof will bring in the States ruin and dissolution So true is that of the Wiseman He that robbeth his father and mother and saith it is no transgression the same is the companion of a destroyer I know there are many who think sacriledg no sinne and the absorption of Tythes no sacriledg the Clergyman amongst those supernumeraries that ought to be disbanded and they would laugh to see Powers as dreadfull to the Clergy as was King John who accounted all spirituall mâ—n his enemies and was himself an enemy to them Or such times as that after when the Lord Chief-Justice declared openly Yee sirs that be Attorneys of my Lords the Archbishops Bishops c. and all other the Clergy declare unto your Masters and tell them that from henceforth there shall no Justice be done them in the Kings Courts for any manner of thing although never so heynous wrong be done to them but Justice shall be had against them to every one that will complain and require to have it There are some I fear who would make the portion of God not Benjamins a worthy portion but an Ishmaels an Issacars porton a mean and worthless trifle so good Patriots they are that they would dare God to curse the Nation as he did the Jews in Mal. 3. for exceeding the deeds of the wicked in robbing their God by taking away Tythes and Offerings ver 8 and 9. On which words Calvin presents God speaking thus to the Jews Compass ye the whole world go into the most barbarous nests of the Heathens ye shall finde no such gross licentiousness as is amongst you For those Nations barely by the light of nature give reverence to their gods and abhor to take sacrilegiously what is devoted to them But ye make no matter of defrauding me of what is mine own Am I inferiour to Idols is my prerogative less dear to you then that of false gods to those Nations Such it is plain there are but blessed be God I hope they will never prevail For if Pharaohs divinity and Josephs true piety abhorred to sell the Priests Lands God forbid that either their Lands or Tythes should be alienated in days that give themselves the name of Reformation And it ought seriously to be weighed by men in Power that besides the comeliness and piety of supporting those that are Gods messengers whose errand is to save our souls and the gratitude that ought to be expressed towards them that are our instructors in good letters as generally Clergy-men are and the greatest Masters of Art there is much worldly wisdom evidenced in countenancing the Clergy Magistrates are in nothing more self-preserving then while they make the Ministry of their party and by protection of them conjure them their humble servants in all wayes of honour and honesty And I think that if search be made in stories the Clergy one time with another have been as faithfull and forward in all worthy enterprises both of counsell and action as any which made Charls the Great no mean politician take their counsell and consent in all his warres and expeditions I do not say but that the spirituality may sometimes oppose the civil authority and employ their interests as they did in Henry the second of France his time for the Pope against him Prudence in that case may hinder such unkindness and punish it by preventing addition of what is combustible State Injunctious ought to repress causes of disturbance in any for Magistrates must not bear the sword in vain but when the Church-man is quiet and minds his ministration when he meddles with no secular things any further then they entrench upon Gods peculiar and exalt themselves against what is called God then to be narrow towards him is no argument of
out the eyes of those their Teachers for whom not many years since they would have pulled out their own But enough of this I return to Traditions which while they contend with Scripture or are made as supplements to inch out Scripture thought too short I wholly disallow Though I confess I love ingenuous freedom and I beleeve Religion is not in many things so stiffgirt as some ridgid people suggest while they portray it clubsisted ready to smite every one it meets with nay in a keenness like Peters sword strait out and off with the ear of every opponent yet do I not comply with the judgment of some who rest on a Counsel-Canon as on Gospel and make less difference between them then is almost discernable because I fear it hath somewhat of a popish smatch in it for were not the Popes infallibility and the Popes virtuall presence and authoritative influence in Counsels in part leaned to some of our Profession would be more nice in that kinde then they are I will contest in reverence and duty to holy Counsels and Synods lawfully called and convened with any he that 's most a servant to them God forbid I should depraetiate worth in any man or judge my self fit to censure and not rather to be censured but this I say Da mihi Magistrum Christum Da mihi Regulam S. Scripturam In matters of this weight I 'le to the beam of the Sanctuary no Master will I own as to imperation over my faith but Christ I like not to crave mens pardons as the Sicilian Ambassadors did Pope Martin the fourths blasphemously Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi miserere nobis While they speak according to Scripture I 'le obey them and take heed not to offend them but if they prove illuminates and eccentrically wilde that they tell me Christ is in this Enthusiasm and that new Light which neither I nor they understand nor doth Gods word clear out to me they are to me but as tinkling cymbals I neither care for their Euge's nor fear I their Anathema's Whatever then becomes of other Writings my zeal and vote shall be ever to preserve the renown of the holy Books of the old and new Testament let loose persons call them by those profane nick-names of Lesbiam regulam Evangelium nigrum Theologiam atramentariam nasum cereum and let Atheists deride them they are the Christians Magna Charta for Heaven cursed be he that violates them to profane uses they are the Christians Canaan Let profane worldlings look with bloody Gardner's eyes upon it not endure to see the Book called Verbum Dei yet the sincere Christian values it as his Canaan the milk and honey of which refresheth him against his tedious march in the wilderness of this sinful and sorrowful life accounting all other Books as Egypts garlick and onyons to its Manna and Quails This this is full of the dew of Heaven as was Gideon's Fleece when all other Writings profit nothing but are dry and sapless 't is the Iliads which every devout Alexander who by faith overcomes the world lodgeth in his noblest Cabinet his heart 'T is the Tree of life on which hangs the Fruit of the knowledge of good and evil 't is the Ark of God in which as it were is the pot of Manna and Aaron's rod comfort and correction therein are Gods staves of beauty and bonds his binding and his drawing cords yea therein the whole duty of man both to God and his neighbour is comprized Now judge O man what could God do more for his Vineyard the Church then he hath done In giving her such an Oracle for her doubts such a Light against her darkness such a Touchstone of her Purity and her rivals adulteration And what can the Church do less in return to God then by signal fidelity maintain the honor and authority of this Canon deposited with her Let that blasphemous new light M r Edwards mentions call the Scriptures the golden Calf and brazen Serpent that set at variance King and Parliament and Kingdom against Kingdom that things would never be well till the golden calf and brazen serpent were broken to pieces yet next to heaven I will venter all I have in the holy war for Scripture He that comes to surprize that Capitol shall have my life his sacrifice and my prayers his curse and let all Christian people say Amen Amen This is the first Jewel in Antiquities Crown her zeal for the reverence of the holy Scriptures Secondly The elder Church Christian was express about a Ministry and the right qualification of Ministers according to the holy Institution of our Lord Jesus the great Head Doctor and Bishop of his Church who left her not as common in which every Christian as to the publick use of gifts had alike right but separated some to instruct to exercise power of the Keys to continue succession and to minister the holy things of the Gospel by virtue of an infallible promise of his cooperation with them to the end of the world This separation has been for many hundred yeers declared by Imposition of hands which the Church calls Ordination and has Apostolique practice to warrant it In Acts 6. 6. Stephen is mentioned to be a man full of faith and of the holy Ghost yet did he not execute any Ministerial Office upon account of his gracious qualifications till he was presented to the Apostles they had prayed for him and laid their hands on him a Scripture well to be weighed by men of contrary judgement especially since backed by the general practice of the Church Catholique For if the Churches fidelity in this Gospel Tradition and Universally received Ordinance should be questioned the Canon of holy Writ and all the Doctrines and Practises of Christianity will become litigious since the Church as the pillar and ground of truth is the deliverer and declarer of them And we are not to doubt but that the holy Ghost who leads into all truth hath rightly guided the Catholique Church to this belief since all holy men of all times and Churches how different soever each from other in Rites and situation have agreed upon it and accordingly declared themselves and nothing hath ever been found against it worthy the sway of our assents in contradiction to so Oecumenical an acknowledgment And truly I much wonder any should be of contrary judgement who ought to know the validity of Antiquities consent echoing to Scripture were Scripture silent had the practice of Antiquity no footing therein I should be as unwilling to follow it as any he that is most against it For that of Reverend Calvin is most true Si in sola Antiquitate c. If Antiquity be only the Judge then prodigious heresies which brake out in Apostolique times will become Catholique faith But when the Word of God gives rise to what in this kinde Antiquity embraceth and
called his errors the restitution of Christianity And others that are wanderers hope to steal upon truth undiscerned by the conduct of new words and unused phrases and ever when men in their nomination of things do vary from the Law which is the quintessence of reason they do it in a humour which is the quintessence of fancy and when men suppress their opinions till they see a fit season 't is a sign they are more factors for fame then Lovers of truth and have a design of self to which the night of this or that policy not the Sun-light of an honest and open ingenuity must give furtherance The Right Reverend and Learned deceased Bishop of Salisbury tels us that in the Synod of Dort when the fourteen Divines that had subscribed their opinions in affirmance of Arminius his Doctrine first were demanded by the Synod severally whether they now acknowledged for their Doctsine that which formerly they had set down in collatione Hagiensi and published in print not one of those fourteen could be drawn to say in plain and expresst terms that he either held that Doctrine for true or he held it not but as S t Jerome wrote to Pammachi us concerning John Bishop of Jerusalem I cannot brook ambiguous words and sentences that bear two senses truths are best in their open dress what he accounts simplicity I call the malice of his stile loc that beleeves aright ought not to speak in a phrase unusual unapproved by true beleevers and Orthodox Christians Alas words are cheap when Boner was Elect of London he said he blamed Stokesly Bishop of London his Predecessor for troubling those who had the Bible in English saying God willing he did not so much hinder but I will as much further it yet he proved a most bloudy wretch and he can do little to his advantage that hath not his quiver full of them and disperses them not about to the credulous vulgar who are in some tempers and on some occasions so devoted to charity that they give themselves up to beleeve whatever is communicated to them in a serious manner with invocation of God and seeming self-denial When Nestorius after Sisinrius became Bishop of Constantinople he made an Oration to the Emperour in which he blasphemously said O Emperour clear the world of Heresie meaning the Orthodox belief and I will give thee heaven for thy reward yet when this man had his preferment he proved as great a plague to those Cacodox Christians who were not of his minde as to the Orthodox for within five daies after he was setled in his See he decreed demolition of the Arians Church and soon after vexed the Novatians because Paul their Bishop had a good name and was thought a pious man when once men swerve from Catholique Tenents and Phrases they run into a Cyclops den both of infernal pride and confusion and without great mercy never return thence by repentance but perish in their gainsaying for true is that of Tertullian Quod apud multos unum invenitur non est erratum sed irradiatum And therefore as the Sceptiques of old by their upstart Pedantism endeavoured abolition of all good learning turning all into utrum's and questionary debates and for that reason were opposed by the Ancients and their followers with great mordacity 〈◊〉 ought these in their new Systems 〈◊〉 Divinity to be treated as persons that have somewhat to vent contrary to the received faith who word it contrary to the received phrase And those saith a learned Bishop that will arrogate to themselves a new Church or new Religion or new holy orders must produce new miracles new revelations and new cloven tongues for their justification Till when I shall joyn with the Church of Christ in the belief that the spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets and that the Schools of the Prophets are most probable to acquaint men with truth and peace and to disseminate it amongst the people as that which will at once make happy both Church and State And though as the Jews in Christ's case and the Heathens in Christians cases bitterly inveighed sharpening powers against them as stirrers up of the people to mutinies and rebellions so it be common now also to possess Governours with ill principles in distrust of pious and regular Ministers and Professors yet will it be found upon search that nothing laies so strong a ground of just Government as true Religion for besides that Gods restraint is upon them and they dare not do that in his eye which will be rebuked by his word and punished by his hand of Justice they cannot be ill subjects upon the account of retaliation for where they receive protection they ex debito owe subjection and are injurious and ingrateful if they pay it not And no Magistrate is so merciless to his own fame as he who neglects to be a nursing Father to the Church and a Patron to her Schools of learning Digna certe res in qua totum occupetnr Parliamentum nisi enim haec semina dostrinae teneris animis tempestivè sparsa fuerint quaenam in Republica vel exoriatur spes vel adolescat virtus vel effloreseat pura Religio vera faelicitas As the University of Oxford phraseth it in their Letter to the Marquess of Northampton temp Edw. 6. For take away the encouragements of learning what despicable combinations of men will Common-wealths be what shall we do for learned Politicians skilful Physicians subtil Lawyers reverend Antiquaries polite Orators acurate Logicians and Schoolmen and facetious Poets Non omnis fert omnia tellus God and Nature by his leave makes us men but 't is Learning and Art renders us wise and worthy Houses of Learning are the Palaces in which these royal wits are educated and the world is as the field in which they scatter their seeds of renown and the stock on which they graft their noble Cyons and therefore as S t Jerome after he had writ that Summary of Ecclesiastical Writers from Christ's to his time breaks out Discant ergo Celsus Porphyrius Julianus rapidi adversus Christum canes c. Let them know quoth he who think the Church of Christ produces no eloquent Writers that they are deceived for there hath ever been a number of such who in all times have â—lourished in her and her have vindicated from that imputation of rustical simplicity that those Ethniques have charged on her So must I brand these enemies of Schools and learning as underminers of order civility and all good institution and endeavourers to surprise the Capitol of our Faith when learned men as the watch thereof are drawn off and discharged and therefore I appeal to such as prosecute Learning with contempt in S t Jerom's words to Jovinian when rehearsing that of the Apostle They are clouds without water he says Nonne tibi videtur pinxisse sermo Apostolicus Novam imperitiae factionem
of God and he that resists shall receive to himself damnation This O Princes and Rulers was the honour of ancient Christianity that it subjects to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake that is If it cannot lift up the hand to assert it will lay down the neck to suffer If it say not Go up and prosper as it cannot to a bad cause because it dare not disobey God in calling evil good yet it will pray that God would overrule mens designs and out of them modell his own glory For as Tertul. said well long ago God forbid those should contrive their advancement by force whose glory it ought to be to suffer and thence to have the testimony of their fidelity For Christians ought not to obey powers as those Heretiques called Sataniani did the devil Ne noceant but out of conscience because Power is of God and Conscience is Gods Deputy to keep man from misrule Thus much briefly for the piety of elder times in order to God Now somewhat of their Charity in order to themselves and others First Elder Christians abounded in love one to another Our Lord gave the rule Joh. 13. 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another Time was when it passed Proverbially Ecce quam diligunt Christiani When S t Cyprian was led to Martyrdom the whole people ran with him crying Let us die together with the holy Bishop And when Christians were sick though of diseases infectious yet Christians would go to them and tend them though they died with them A Christian must not be waspish the nettle of humour that harms every one that toucheth it is a weed in Christs garden but all Love even to Enemies for his sake who loved us when Enemies so much and no more know and beleeve we of God as we love him for his own and our Neighbour for his sake Let men talk as they will yet if they have a spirit of opposition and cannot walk peaceably with their brother yea and in a great measure with those without I shall not think their condition ever the better If their principle be to be singular and unsociable Vae soli for as the Father hath it Cum Deo manere non possunt qui esse in Ecclesia Dei unanimes noluerunt ardeant licet flammis ignibus traditi vel objecti bestiis animas suas ponunt non erat illa fidei corona sed poena perfidiae nec religiosae virtutis exitus gloriosus sed desperationis interitus Occidi talis potest coronari non potest There is nothing more reproachful to man then disunion we are all Natures progeny and we should not strive to the distemper of the womb that nourisheth us to production the sociable soul that God hath infused into us seems our Director that we should agree to serve our Creator yea and one another in all reasonable Offices of Civility We see the Harmonij in nature and that the drift of every thing is to accomodate the end of God in the inferiority and superiority of things there is no mutinies amongst the Creatures sensitive and vegetative The Supream Lawgiver hath implanted his Soveraign will on the instinct of every creature and it acts as and no otherwise then according to that limitation and designment Only Rationall being are frayers and breakers of the Peace 'T was an ill spirit in a Brother to imbrew even in the beginning of time and penury of men his hands in his Brothers bloud yet Cain did this but he had a Mark of Vengeance set upon him for it And 't was fit he should be branded for a Butcher who had no provocation but piety no person but a brother to act his murtherous villany upon How much more divine was the soul of Abraham who would have no contention with Lot for quoth he we are Brethren who put himself upon a holy colluctation with God for sinful Sodom and would not be denied till Mercy had put importunity to blush S t Bernard Ep. 6. writes to Bruno to deal with certain Monks who had deserted their order and he prescribes the Method Flectere oportet precibus ratione convincere columbinam eorum simplicitatem prudentiâ instruere serpentinâ ne putent obedientiam inobedienti adhaerere c. Yet alas we are at but a word and a blow we make men offendors for words for a trifle a misplaced phrase a mistaken sence a petulant carriage cursing one another as Jews and Samaritans did Morning and Evening in their Orisons The judicious S t Edw. Sandys notes That do the Psaltsgrave and Lantgrave whatever they could by inhibiting the Lutherans to rail against the Calvinists yet would they not be restrained but professed openly That they would sooner return to the Papacy then admit Sacramentary and Predestinary Pestilence meaning the Calvinist So in the conference of Mompelgart when Frederick Earl of Wertonburg exhorted nis Divines to acknowledge Beza and his Company for Brethren and ro declare it by giving them their hand they refused it utterly saying they would pray to God to open their eyes and would do them any office of humanity and charity but they would not give them the right hand of Brotherhood because they were proved to be guilty Errorum teterrinâ—orum that was the doctrine of Election and Reprobation A blemish which ancient Christianity knew not nay which the Protestant Religion is now much reproached for I wish we were not so ambitious to be more wise and Learned in Arts of reviling then our Forefathers were and if there must be a triall of wits would to God the subject and matter of it may be somewhat else then the life and honour of peace and Christian charity For in most Church-contentions it hath fallen out that one errour opposed hath brought up as great an one even from the opposition I know not what many think of contention and brawls but S t Paul cals it a fruit of the flesh and makes it exclusive of heaven and S t John saies He that loves not his brother whom he hath seen cannot love God whom he hath not seen In pure times Christians reckoned their love to Christ by their love to his members whom they relieved as that excellent Bishop Chrysanthius did out of his own estate and by their sound knowledge and skill in the things of God accompanied with justice modesty patience under the hardest Trials and advancing his glory as they had opportunity to do it they evidenced their love to God and to their Brethren for his sake This was the aemulation those holy men had to glorifie God by holy lives that those that saw them might be ashamed of their contradiction and persecution of them Primitive Bishops were simple-hearted not crafty and insighted in worldly policies but abounding in the work of the Lord rich in faith and Scripture-knowledge ready to
Romane Religion to depart from thence whethersoever they would or else to sell their estates or to receive the profits of them whereever they were And not many years after he gave liberty to the Mahumetan Moors of Spain amounting to divers thousands to depars freely thence into any province of Africa there to enjoy freedom from the bloody Inquisitors and with his own shipping conveyed many of them safe into France thorow which by the gracious permiffion of H. the Great they had safe and free passage Charls the ninth of France did by his Agents earnestly solicit Lewes de Clermont Prince of Conde and Jasper de Coligni Earl of Castilion Admiral of France being chief directors and commanders of the Protestants affairs to depart France with the rest of the Religion and that they might begin a Plantation in the Island of Florida in America he not only gave leave to the first Expedition which was undertaken by In o Ribald in Ann o 1562. but also at the Admirals intreaty did very largely contribute to the second Navigation which was entred upon by Landover and other Protestants And were there no other motive to moderation then that of the Apostle The Lord is at hand it were enough a cogent argument to Christians As if the Apostle had thus said Manage power wisely use advantages warily be thrifty Stewards of your talents while ye are in office the audit day is neer God is entring on his circuit to enquire how his Miuisters have discharged their trust He will have no pity on that servant who when he had his fellow-servant on his knee beging pardon for his sake refused him It is a shrewd brand of ignobleness in the Counsel of H. 8. who when they had as they thought the good Archbishop Cranmer on the hip and that he was accused of demerit against the State suffered him to stand without doors among the Lacquies and serving-men for the space of half an hour Brave spirits pity not rejoyce over the ruins of their betters 't is good for every one to remember the measure we mete to others will be measured to us again therefore let your moderation be known unto all men This also calls upon men in Rule to remember Posterity by imitating elder Christians in raising supporting and adding to things of publike and lasting piety and unquestioned charity In this sense that of the Apostle is very pressing To do good and distribute forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased In this methinks 't is good to begin with God and to remember what he increpates Hag. 1. 4. Is it time for you to dwell in your seiled houses and to let this house â—ye waste M r Caâ—vin notes well upon these words That much time had pass'd and now God had given them peace he expected that they should not lye still but build his house but saith he the Jews were so indulgent to their private advantages to their ease and delight that they thought the worship of God not worth looking after so they had sacrifices and an Altar it mattered not where or what the place be in which they serv'd God This was the cause that the Prophet had command from God so tartly to reprove them And truly the good man comes home to us Nuuc saith he quis gratis accendit Dei altare c. Who amongst us takes care of Gods Altar every one looks after his advantage in the mean time the Interest of God suffers no zeal for no care of God yea what 's worst of all multi lucrum captant ex evangelio perinde ac si ars esset quaestuosa that is Many drive a subtle and gainfull way of Religion making it serve their turns and speak their language Thus he Much more pure and daefecated was Christianity in those ages which many amongst us called blind but their deeds shew otherwise Then Churches and Chappels Houses in their intent for Religion and the honour of God were erected and liberally provided for by their care and charity to the worlds end For my part I must judg faith by works and if living charity appear I will not judg that a dead faith which moved it they must have somewhat to say in extenuation of other mens charities who never mean to be renowned by any of their own Famous Wickliff magnifies the bounty of Princes to the Church but he blames highly the rapines and damages done to them by unworthy Popes and particular Interests Farre is it from any sober mind to censure those who not only appropriated the Tenth to God but endowed him with all in a kinde tbat they did possesse who cloathed naked Christ with reverence be it written in their best vests and never thought themselves richer then when they had expended all they had to puchase him a rich seat and prepare for him a goodly retinue at whose Tables he in his Members fed and by whose bounty their necessities were supplied It is a sure fign of devout times when Churches have their reverence and decent attire as well as Courts of State and Law when the Rights of God and Religion are inviolate as well as those of men For as a Right Reverend Father of our Church long ago published The two Estates Civil and Ecclesiastical make the main angle in every Government God himselfe hath severed them and made these two to meet in one not one to malign and consume the other And the happy combining of these two is the strength of the head and of the whole building If it bear but upon one of them it will certainly decay It did so in Sauls time he little regarded the Ark and lesse the Priests David saw Sauls error and in this Psal 75. 3. where he sings ne perdas to a Commonwealth promiseth to have equal care of both Piliars and to uphold them both Thus the Bishop It was reckoned also a sign of calm times and to the praise of Government when publike buildings were raised and decayes provided against Vespasian is commended for a brave Prince in that he gave liberty encouragement to build in those wast places of Rome which fire and sword had deformed and at his own charge repaired the Capitoll the Temple of Peace and the Monument of Claudius yea in all places of the Roman Dominion erected some Trophie of publique use and Ornament and Paulus Diaconus tels us that as Emperours have been good or bad so have publique buildings been either preserved or neglected And Guevaera asserts it the duty of good Governours not only to exterminate vices their Countreys but also to adorn them with famous structures a token that they are good Fathers of their people who by their liberality to posterity declare the duty of a noble Prince to extend to the weal of Government first and next to his own preservation by it Octavius might well justifie himself no unprofitable Shepherd When in his Reign Rome had changed