my Commandments always that it might go well with them and with their Children for ever Go say unto them Return you to your Tents But stand thou here with me and I will tell thee all the Commandments and the Ordinances and the Laws which thou shalt teach them that they may do them in the Land which I have given them to possess From this latter kinde the former are plainly distinguished in many things They were not both at one time delivered neither both after one sort nor to one end The former uttered by the voice of God himself in the hearing of Six hundred thousand men the former written with the Finger of God the former termed by the name of a Covenant the former given to be kept without either mention of time how long or of place where On the other side the latter given after and neither written by God himself nor given unto the whole multitude immediately from God but unto Moses and from him to them both by word and writing Finally The latter termed Ceremonies Judgments Ordinances but no where Covenants The observation of the latter restrained unto the Land where God would establish them to inhabite The Laws Positive are not framed without regard had to the place and persons for the which they are made If therefore Almighty God in framing their Laws had an eye unto the nature of that people and to the Countrey where they were to dwell if these peculiar and proper considerations were respected in the making of their Laws and must be also regarded in the Positive Laws of all other Nations besides then seeing that Nations are not all alike surely the giving of one kinde of Positive Laws unto one onely people without any liberty to alter them is but a slender proof that therefore one kinde should in like sort be given to serve everlastingly for all But that which most of all maketh for the clearing of this point is That the Jews who had Laws so particularly determining and so fully instructing them in all affairs what to do were notwithstanding continually inured with causes exorbitant and such as their Laws had not provided for And in this point much more is granted us then we ask namely that for one thing which we have left to the Order of the Church they had twenty which were undecided by the express Word of God and that as their Ceremonies and Sacraments were multiplied above ours even so grew the number of those cases which were not determined by any express word So that if we may devise one Law they by this reason might devise twenty and if their devising so many were not forbidden shall their example prove us forbidden to devise as much as one Law for the ordering of the Church We might not devise no not one if their example did prove that our Saviour hath utterly forbidden all alteration of his Laws in as much as there can be no Law devised but needs it must either take away from his or add thereunto more or less and so make some kinde of alteration But of this so large a grant we are content not to take advantage Men are oftentimes in a sudden passion more liberal then they would be if they had leisure to take advice And therefore so bountiful words of course and frank speeches we are contented to let pass without turning them to advantage with too much rigor It may be they had rather be listned unto when they commend the Kings of Israel which attempted nothing in the Government of the Church without the express Word of God and when they urge that God left nothing in his Word undescribed whether it concerned the Worship of God or outward Polity nothing unset down and therefore charged them strictly to keep themselves unto that without any alteration Howbeit seeing it cannot be denied but that many things there did belong unto the course of their Publick Affairs wherein they had no express word at all to shew precisely what they should do the difference between their condition and ours in these cases will bring some light unto the truth of this present Controversie Before the fact of the son of Shelomith there was no Law which did appoint any certain punishment for Blasphemers That wretched creature being therefore deprehended in that impiety was held in Ward till the minde of the Lord was known concerning his case The like practice is also mentioned upon occasion of a breach of the Sabbath day They finde a poor silly creature gathering sticks in the Wilderness they bring him unto Moses and Aaron and all the Congregation they lay him in hold because it was not declared what should be done with him till God had said unto Moses This man shall die the death The Law requireth to keep the Sabbath day but for the breach of the Sabbath what punishment should be inflicted it did not appoint Such occasions as these are rare And for such things as do fall scarce once in many ages of men it did suffice to take such order as was requisite when they fell But if the case were such as being not already determined by Law were notwithstanding likely oftentimes to come into question it gave occasion of adding Laws that were not before Thus it fell out in the case of those men polluted and of the daughters of Zelophehad whose causes Moses having brought before the Lord received Laws to serve for the like in time to come The Jews to this end had the Oracle of God they had the Prophets And by such means God himself instructed them from Heaven what to do in all things that did greatly concern their state and were not already set down in the Law Shall we then hereupon argue even against our own experience and knowledge Shall we seek to perswade men that of necessity it is with us as it was with them that because God is ours in all respects as much as theirs therefore either no such way of direction hath been at any time or if it hath been it doth still continue in the Church or if the same do not continue that yet it must be at the least supplied by some such mean as pleaseth us to account of equal force A more dutiful and religious way for us were to admire the Wisdom of God which shineth in the beautiful variety of all things But most in the manifold and yet harmonious dissimilitude of those ways whereby his Church upon Earth is guided from age to age throughout all Generations of Men. The Jews were necessarily to continue till the coming of Christ in the flesh and the gathering of Nations unto him So much the Promise made unto Abraham did import So much the Prophesie of Iacob at the hour of his death did foreshew Upon the safety therefore of their very outward state and condition for so long the after good of the whole World and the Salvation of all did depend Unto their so
lawful must grant that the Canons even of General Councils have but the face of Wise-mens opinions concerning that whereof they-treat till they be publickly assented unto where they are to take place as Laws and that in giving such publick assent as maketh a Christian Kingdome subject unto those Laws the King's authority is the chiefest That which an University of Men a Company or Corporation doth without consent of their Rector is as nothing Except therefore we make the King's Authority over the Clergy less in the greatest things than the power of the meanest Governour is in all things over the Colledge or Society which is under him how should we think it a matter decent that the Clergy should impose Laws the Supream Governours assent not asked Yea that which is more the Laws thus made God himself doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them him It is a loose and licentious opinion which the Anabaptists have embraced holding that a Christian man's liberty is lost and the Soul which Christ hath redeemed unto himself injuriously drawn into servitude under the Yoke of Human power if any Law be now imposed besides the Gospel of Christ in obedience whereunto the Spirit of God and not the constraint of men is to lead us according to that of the blessed Apostle Such as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God and not such as live in thraldom unto men Their Judgement is therefore That the Church of Christ should admit of no Law-makers but the Evangelists no Courts but Presbyteries no Punishments but Ecclesiastical censures As against this sort we are to maintain the use of Human laws and the continual necessity of making them from time to time as long as this present World doth last so likewise the Authority of Laws so made doth need much more by us to be strengthened against another sort who although they do utterly condemn the making of Laws in the Church yet make they a great deal less account of them than they should do There are which think simply of Human laws that they can in no sort touch the Conscience That to break and transgress them cannot make men in the sight of God culpable as Sin doth onely when we violate such Laws we do thereby make our selves obnoxious unto external punishment in this World so that the Magistrate may in regard of such offence committed justly correct the Offender and cause him without injury to endure such pains as Law doth appoint but further it reacheth not For first the Conscience is the proper Court of God the guiltiness thereof is Sin and the punishment Eternal death men are not able to make any Law that shall command the Heart it is not in them to make Inward-conceit a Crime or to appoint for any crime other punishment than corporal their Laws therefore can have no power over the Soul neither can the heart of man be polluted by transgressing them St. Austine rightly desineth Sin to be that which is spoken done or desired not against any Laws but against the Law of the Living God The Law of God is proposed unto Man as a Glass wherein to behold the stains and the spots of their sinful Souls By it they are to judge themselves and when they feel themselves to have transgressed against it then to bewail their offences with David Against thee onely O Lord have I sinned and done wickedly in thy sight that so our present tears may extinguish the flames which otherwise we are to feel and which of God in that day shall condemn the Wicked unto when they shall render account of the Evil which they have done not by violating Statute-Laws and Canons but by disobedience unto his Law and his Word For our better instruction therefore concerning this point first we must note That the Law of God it self doth require at our hands Subjection Be ye subject saith S. Peter and S. Paul Let every Soul be subject subject all unto such Powers as are set over us For if such as are not set over us require our subjection we by denying it are not disobedient to the Law of God or undutiful unto Higher Powers Because though they be such in regard of them over whom they have lawful Dominion yet having not so over us unto us they are not such Subjection therefore we owe and that by the Law of God we are in Conscience bound to yield it even unto every of them that hold the seats of Authority and Power in relation unto us Howbeit not all kindes of subjection unto every such kinde of Power concerning Scribes and Pharisees our Saviour's Precept was Whatsoever they shall tell ye do it Was it his meaning that if they should at any time enjoyn the People to levy an Army or to sell their Lands and Goods for the furtherance of so great an enterprize and in a word that simply whatsoever it were which they did command they ought without any exception forth-with to be obeyed No but whatsoever they shall tell you must be understoud in pertinentibus ad Cathedram it must be construed with limitation and restrained unto things of that kinde which did belong to their place and power For they had not Power general absolutely given them to command all things The reason why we are bound in Conscience to be subject unto all such Power is because all Powers are of God They are of God either instituting or permitting them Power is then of Divine institution when either God himself doth deliver or men by light of nature finde out the kinde thereof So that the power of Parents over Children and of Husbands over their Wives the power of all sorts of Superiors made by consent of Common-wealths within themselves or grown from agreement amongst Nations such power is of God's own Institution in respect of the kinde thereof Again if respect be had unto those particular Persons to whom the same is derived if they either receive it immediately from God as Moses and Aaron did or from nature as Parents do or from men by a natural and orderly course as every Governor appointed in any Common wealth by the order thereof doth then is not the kinde of their Power only of God's instituting but the derivation thereof also into their Persons is from him He hath placed them in their rooms and doth term them his Ministers Subjection therefore is due unto all such Powers inasmuch as they are of God's own institution even then when they are of man's creation Omni Humanae Creaturae Which things the Heathens themselves do acknowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As for them that exercise Power altogether against Order although the kinde of Power which they have may be of God yet is their exercise thereof against God and therefore not of God otherwise than by Permission as all Injustice is Touching such Acts as are done by that power which is according to
When men which had faln in time of persecution and had afterwards repented them but were not as yet received again unto the Fellowship of this Communion did at the hour of their death request it that so they might rest with greater quietness and comfort of minde being thereby assuted of departure in unity of Christs Church which vertuous desire the Fathers did think it great impiety not to satisfie This was Serapions case of necessity Serapion a faithful aged person and always of very upright life till fear of persecution in the end caused him to shrink back after long sorrow for his scandalous offence and sute oftentimes made to be pardoned of the Church fell at length into grievous sickness and being ready to yield up the ghost was then more instant then ever before to receive the Sacrament Which Sacrament was necessary in this case not that Serapion had been deprived of Everlasting Life without it but that his end was thereby to him made the more comfortable And do we think that all cases of such necessity are clean vanished Suppose that some have by mis-perswasion lived in Schism withdrawn themselves from holy and publick Assemblies hated the Prayers and loathed the Sacraments of the Church falsly presuming them to be fraught with impious and Antichristian corruptions Which Error the God of Mercy and Truth opening at the length their eyes to see they do not onely repent them of the evil which they have done but also in token thereof desire to receive comfort by that whereunto they have offered disgrace which may be the case of many poor seduced souls even at this day God forbid we should think that the Church doth sin in permitting the wounds of such to be suppled with that Oyl which this gracious Sacrament doth yield and their bruised mindes not onely need but beg There is nothing which the Soul of Man doth desire in that last hour so much as comfort against the natural terrors of Death and other scruples of Conscience which commonly do then most trouble and perplex the weak towards whom the very Law of God doth exact at our hands all the helps that Christian lenity and indulgence can afford Our general consolation departing this life is the hope of that glorious and blessed Resurrection which the Apostle Saint Paul nameth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to note That as all Men shall have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and be raised again from the dead so the just shall be taken up and exalted above the rest whom the power of God doth but raise and not exalt This Life and this Resurrection our Lord Jesus Christ is for all men as touching the sufficiency of that he hath done but that which maketh us partakers thereof is our particular Communion with Christ and this Sacrament a principal Mean as well to strengthen the Bond as to multiply in us the Fruits of the same Communion For which cause Saint Cyprian termeth it a joyful solemnity of expedite and speedy Resurrection Ignatius a Medicine which procureth Immortality and preventeth Death Irenaeus the nourishment of our Bodies to Eternal Life and their preservative from corruption Now because that Sacrament which at all times we may receive unto this effect is then most acceptable and most fruitful when any special extraordinary occasion nearly and presently urging kindleth our desires towards it their severity who cleave unto that alone which is generally fit to be done and so make all mens conditions alike may adde much affliction to divers troubled and grieved mindes of whose particular estate particular respect being had according to the charitable order of the Church wherein we live there ensueth unto God that glory which his righteous Saints comforted in their greatest distresses do yield and unto them which have their reasonable Petitions satisfied â—â—â—e same contentment tranquillity and joy that others before them by means of like satisfaction have reaped and wherein we all are or should be desirous finally to take our leave of the World whensoever our own uncertain time of most assured departure shall come Concerning therefore both Prayers and Sacraments together with our usual and received Form of administering the same in the Church of England let thus much suffice 69. As the Substance of God alone is infinite and hath no kinde of limitation so likewise his Continuance is from everlasting to everlasting and knoweth neither Beginning nor End Which demonstrable conclusion being presupposed it followeth necessarily that besides him all things are finite both in substance and in continuance If in Substance all things be finite it cannot be but that there are bounds without the compass whereof their substance doth not extend if in continuance also limited they all have it cannot be denied their set and their certain terms before which they had no Being at all This is the reason why first we do most admire those things which are Greatest and secondly those things which are Ancientest because the one are least distant from the infinite Substance the other from the infinite Continuance of God Out of this we gather that onely God hath true Immortality or Eternity that is to say Continuance wherein there groweth no difference by addition of Hereafter unto Now whereas the noblest and perfectest of all things besides have continually through continuance the time of former continuance lengthned so that they could not heretofore be said to have continued so long as now neither now so long as hereafter Gods own Eternity is the Hand which leadeth Angels in the course of their Perpetuity their Perpetuity the Hand that draweth out Celestial Motion the Line of which Motion and the Thred of Time are spun together Now as Nature bringeth forth Time with Motion so we by Motion have learned how to divide Time and by the smaller parts of Time both to measure the greater and to know how long all things else endure For Time considered in it self is but the Flux of that very instant wherein the Motion of the Heaven began being coupled with other things it is the quantity of their continuance measured by the distance of two instants As the time of a man is a mans continuance from the instant of his first breath till the instant of his last gasp Hereupon some have defined Time to be the Measure of the Motion of Heaven because the first thing which Time doth measure is that Motion wherewith it began and by the help whereof it measureth other things as when the Prophet David saith That a mans continuance doth not commonly exceed Threescore and ten years he useth the help both of Motion and Number to measure Time They which make Time an effect of Motion and Motion to be in Nature before Time ought to have considered with themselves that albeit we should deny as Melissus did all Motion we might notwithstanding acknowledge Time because Time doth but signifie the quantity of Continuance which Continuance
For as long as any thing which we desire is unattained we rest not Let us not here take Rest for Idleness They are Idle whom the painfulness of action causeth to avoid those Labors whereunto both God and Nature bindeth them they Rest which either cease from their work when they have brought it unto perfection of else give over a meaner labor because a worthier and better is to be undertaken God hath created nothing to be idle or ill employed As therefore Man doth consist of different and distinct parts every part endued with manifold abilities which all have their several ends and actions thereunto referred so there is in this great variety of duties which belong to men that dependency and other by means whereof the lower sustaining always the more excellent and the higher perfecting the more base they are in their times and seasons continued with most exquisite correspondence Labors of bodily and daily toyl purchase freedom for actions of Religious Joy which benefit these actions requite with the gift of desired Rest A thing most natural and fit to accompany the solemn Festival duties of honor which are done to God For if those principal works of God the memory whereof we use to celebrate at such times be but certain tastes and â—â—says as it were of that final benefit wherein our perfect felicity and bliss lieth folded up seeing that the presence of the one doth direct our cogitations thoughts and desires towards the other it giveth surely a kinde of life and addeth inwardly no small delight to those so comfortable expectations when the very outward countenance of that we presently do representeth after a sort that also whereunto we tend as Festival Rest doth that Celestial estate whereof the very Heathens themselves which had not the means whereby to apprehend much did notwithstanding imagine that it needs must consist in Rest and have therefore taught that above the highest moveable sphere there is nothing which feeleth alteration motion or change but all things immutable unsubject to passion blest with eternal continuance in a life of the highest perfection and of that compleat abundant sufficiency within it self which no possibility of want maim or defect can touch Besides whereas ordinary labors are both in themselves painful and base in comparison of Festival Services done to God doth not the natural difference between them shew that the one as it were by way of submission and homage should surrender themselves to the other wherewith they can neither easily concur because painfulness and joy are opposite nor decently because while the minde hath just occasion to make her abode in the House of Gladness the Weed of ordinary toyl and travel becometh her not Wherefore even Nature hath taught the Heathens and God the Jews and Christ us first that Festival Solemnities are a part of the publick exercise of Religion secondly that Praise Liberality and Rest are as Natural Elements whereof Solemnities consist But these things the Heathens converted to the honor of their false gods And as they failed in the end it self so neither could they discern rightly what form and measure Religion therein should observe Whereupon when the Israelites impiously followed so corrupt example they are in every degree noted to have done amiss their Hymns of Songs of Praise were Idolatry their Bounty Excess and their Rest wantonness Therefore the Law of God which appointed them days of Solemnity taught them likewise in what manner the same should be celebrated According to the pattern of which Institution David establishing the state of Religion ordained Praise to be given unto God in the Sabbaths Moneths and appointed Times as their custom had been always before the Lord. Now besides the times which God himself in the Law of Moses particularly specified there were through the Wisdom of the Church certain other devised by occasion of like occurents to those whereupon the former had risen as namely that which Mordecai and Esther did first celebrate in memory of the Lords most wonderful protection when Haman had laid his inevitable Plot to mans thinking for the utter extirpation of the Jews even in one day This they call the Feast of Lots because Haman had cast their life and their death as it were upon the hazard of a Lot To this may be added that other also of Dedication mentioned in the Tenth of St. Iohns Gospel the institution whereof is declared in the History of the Maccabees But for as much as their Law by the coming of Christ is changed and we thereunto no way bound St. Paul although it were not his purpose to favor invectives against the special Sanctification of days and times to the Service of God and to the honor of Jesus Christ doth notwithstanding bend his forces against that opinion which imposed on the Gentiles the Yoke of Jewish Legal observations as if the whole World ought for ever and that upon pain of condemnation to keep and observe the same Such as in this perswasion hallowed those Jewish Sabbaths the Apostle sharply reproveth saying Ye observe days and moneths and times and years I am in fear of you lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain Howbeit so far off was Tertullian from imagining how any man could possibly hereupon call in question such days as the Church of Christ doth observe that the observation of these days he useth for an Argument whereby to prove it could not be the Apostles intent and meaning to condemn simply all observing of such times Generally therefore touching Feasts in the Church of Christ they have that profitable use whereof Saint Augustine speaketh By Festival Solemnities and Set-days we dedicate and sanctifie to God the memory of his benefits lest unthankful forgetfulness thereof should creep upon us in course of time And concerning particulars their Sabbath the Church hath changed into our Lords day that is as the one did continually bring to minde the former World finished by Creation so the other might keep us in perpetual remembrance of a far better World begun by him which came to restore all things to make both Heaven and Earth new For which cause they honored the last day we the first in every seven throughout the year The rest of the days and times which we celebrate have relation all unto one head We begin therefore our Ecclesiastical year with the glorious Annuntiation of his Birth by Angelical Embassage There being hereunto added his Blessed Nativity it self the Mystery of his Legal Circumcision the Testification of his true Incarnation by the Purification of her which brought him in the World his Resurrection his Ascension into Heaven the admirable sending down of his Spirit upon his chosen and which consequently ensued the notice of that incomprehensible Trinity thereby given to the Church of God Again for as much as we know that Christ hath not onely been manifested great in himself but great in other his Saints also
that the Angels assisting them should be driven to betake themselves unto other stations although by nature they were not tyed where now they are but had charge also elsewhere as long as their absence from beneath might but tolerably be supplyed and by descending their rooms above should become vacant For we are not to dream in this case of any platform which bringeth equally high and low unto Parish Churches nor of any constraint to maintain at their own charge men sufficient for that purpose the one so repugnant to the Majesty and Greatness of English Nobility the other so improbable and unlikely to take effect that they which mention either of both seem not indeed to have conceived what either is But the eye of Law is the eye of God it looketh into the hearts and secret dispositions of men it beholdeth how far one star differeth from another in glory and as mens several degrees require accordingly it guideth them granting unto principal Personages priviledges correspondent to their high Estates and that not onely in Civil but even in Spiritual Affairs to the end they may love that Religion the more which no way seeketh to make them vulgar no way diminisheth their dignity and greatness but to do them good doth them honour also and by such extraordinary favours teacheth them to be in the Church of God the same which the Church of God esteemeth them more worth than thousands It appeareth therefore in what respect the Laws of this Realm have given liberty of non-residence to some that their knowledge may be increased and their labours by that mean be made afterwards the more profitable to others left the Houses of Great-men should want that daily exercise of Religion wherein their example availeth as much yea many times peradventure more than the Laws themselves with the common sort A third thing respected both in permitting absence and also in granting to some that liberty of addition or plurality which necessarily inforceth their absence is a meer both just and conscionable regard that as men are in quality and as their services are in weight for the publick good so likewise their rewards and encouragements by special priviledge of Law might somewhat declare how the State it self doth accept their pains much abhorring from their bestial and savage rudeness which think that Oxen should onely labour and Asses feed Thus to Readers in Universities whose very Paper and Book-expences their antient allowances and stipends at this day do either not or hardly sustain to Governours of Colledges lest the great overplus of charges necessarily inforced upon them by reason of their place and very slenderly supplyed by means of that change in the present condition of things which their Founders could not fore-see to men called away from their Cures and imployed in weightier business either of the Church or Common-wealth because to impose upon them a burthen which requireth their absence and not to release them from the duty of Residence were a kinde of cruel and barbarous injustice to Residents in Cathedral Churches or upon Dignities Ecclesiastical forasmuch as these being rooms of greater Hospitality places of more respect and consequence than the rest they are the rather to be furnished with men of best quality and the men for their qualities-sake to be favoured above others I say unto all these in regard of their worth and merit the Law hath therefore given leave while themselves bear weightier burthens to supply inferiour by deputation and in like consideration partly partly also by way of honour to Learning Nobility and Authority permitteth that men which have taken Theological degrees in Schools the Suffragans of Bishops the Houshold-Chaplains of men of Honour or in great Offices the Brethren and Sonnes of Lords Temporal or of Knights if God shall move the hearts of such to enter at any time into Holy Orders may obtain to themselves a faculty or licence to hold two Ecclesiastical Livings though having Cure any Spiritual Person of the Queens Councel three such Livings her Chaplains what number of promotions her self in her own Princely wisedom thinketh good to bestow upon them But as it fareth in such cases the gap which for just considerations we open unto some letteth in others through corrupt practises to whom such favours were neither meant nor should be communicated The greatness of the Harvest and the scarcity of able Work-men hath made it necessary that Law should yield to admit numbers of men but slenderly and meanly qualified Hereupon because whom all other worldly hopes have forsaken they commonly reserve Ministerial Vocation as their last and surest refuge ever open to forlorn men the Church that should nourish them whose service she needeth hath obtruded upon her their service that know not otherwise how to live and sustain themselves These finding nothing more easie than means to procure the writing of a few lines to some one or other which hath authority and nothing more usual than too much facility in condescending unto such requests are often received into that Vocation whereunto their unworthiness is no small disgrace Did any thing more aggravate the crime of Ieroboams prophane Apostasie than that he chose to have his Clergy the scum and reffuse of his whole Land Let no man spare to tell it them they are not faithful towards God that burthen wilfully his Church with such swarms of unworthy Creatures I will not say of all degrees in the Ministry that which Saint Chrysostom doth of the highest He that will undertake so weighty a charge had need to be a man of great understanding rarely assisted with Divine grace for integrity of manners purity of life and for all other vertues to have in him more than a man But surely this I will say with Chrysostom We need not doubt whether God be highly displeased with us or what the cause of his anger is if things of so great fear and holiness at are the least and lowest duties of his service be thrown wilfully on them whose not onely mean but bad and scandalous quality doth defile whatsoever they handle These eye-sores and blemishes in continual attendants about the Service of God's Sanctuary do make them every day fewer that willingly resort unto it till at length all affection and zeal towards God be extinct in them through a wearisom contempt of their Persons which for a time onely live by Religion and are for recompence in fine the death of the Nurse that feedeth them It is not obscure how incommodious the Church hath found both this abuse of the liberty which Law is enforced to grant and not onely this but the like abuse of that favour also which Law in other considerations already mentioned affordeth toucheth Residence and plurality of Spiritual Livings Now that which is practised corruptly to the detriment and hurt of the Church against the purpose of those very Laws which notwithstanding are pretended in defence and justification thereof we must needs acknowledge no
behold saith the Apostle I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Christ in the work of mans salvation is alone the Galathians were cast away by joyning Circumcision and the other Rites of the Law with Christ the Church of Rome doth teach her children to joyn other things likewise with him therefore their saith their belief doth not profit them any thing at all It is true that they do indeed joyn other things with Christ but how Not in the work of Redemption it self which they grant that Christ alone hath performed sufficiently for the salvation of the whole world but in the application of this inestimable treasure that it may be effectual to their salvation how demurely soever they confess that they seek remission of sins no otherwise then by the blood of Christ using humbly the means appointed by him to apply the benefit of his holy Blood they teach indeed so many things pernicious in Christian Faith in setting down the means whereof they speak that the very foundation of Faith which they hold is thereby plainly overthrown and the force of the blood of Jesus Christ extinguished We may therefore disputing with them urge them even with as dangerous sequels as the Apostle doth the Galatians But I demand If some of those Galatians heartily embracing the Gospel of Christ sincere and sound in Faith this one only error excepted had ended their lives before they were ever taught how perillous an opinion they held shall we think that the danger of this error did so over-weigh the benefit of their faith that the mercy of God might not save them I grant they overthrew the foundation of Faith by consequent doth not that so likewise which the Lutheran Churches do at this day so stifly and so firmly maintain For mine own part I dare not here deny the possibility of their salvation which have been the chiefest instruments of ours albeit they carried to their grave a perswasion so greatly repugnant to the truth Forasmuch therefore as it may be said of the Church of Rome she hath yet a little strength she doth not directly deny the foundation of Christianity I may I trust without offence perswade my self that thousands of our Fathers in former times living and dying within her walls have found mercy at the hands of God 18. What although they repented not of their errors God forbid that I should open my mouth to gain-say that which Christ himself hath spoken Except ye repent ye shall all perish And if they did not repent they perished But withall note that we have the benefit of a double Repentance the least sin which we commit in Deed Thought or Word is death without Repentance Yet how many things do escape us in every of these which we do not know How many which we do not observe to be sins And without the knowledge without the observation of sin there is no actual Repentance It cannot then be chosen but that for as many as hold the foundation and have holden all Sins and Errors in hatred the blessing of Repentance for unknown Sins and Errors is obtained at the hands of God through the gracious mediation of Jesus Christ for such suiters as cry with the Prophet David Purge me O Lord from my secret sins 19. But we wash a wall of lome we labour in vain all this is nothing it doth not prove it cannot justifie that which we go about to maintain Infidels and Heathen men are not so godless but that they may no doubt cry God mercy and desire in general to have their sins forgiven them To such as deny the foundation of Faith there can be no Salvation according to the ordinary course which God doth use in saving men without a particular repentance of that Error The Galathians thinking that unless they were circumcised they could not be saved overthrew the foundation of Faith directly therefore if any of them did die so perswaded whether before or after they were told of their Errors their end is dreadful there is no way with them but one death and condemnation For the Apostle speaketh nothing of men departed but saith generally of all If ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing Ye are abolished from Christ whosoever are justified by the Law ye are fallen from grace Gal. 5. Of them in the Church of Rome the reason is the same For whom Antichrist hath seduced concerning them did not S. Paul speak long before they received not the word of truth that they might not be saved therefore God would send them strong delusions to beleeve lies that all they might be damned which believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness And S. Iohn All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life Apoc. 13. Indeed many in former times as their Books and Writings do yet shew held the foundation to wit salvation by Christ alone and therefore might be saved God hath always had a Church amongst them which firmly kept his saving truth As for such as hold with the Church of Rome that we cannot be saved by Christ alone without works they do not only by a circle of consequence but directly deny the foundation of Faith they hold it not no not so much as by a thred 20. This to my remembrance being all that hath been opposed with any countenance or shew of reason I hope if this be answered the cause in question is at an end Concerning general Repentance therefore what a Murtherer a Blasphemer an unclean person a Turk a Iew any sinner to escape the wrath of God by a general Repentance God forgive me Truly it never came within my heart that a general Repentance doth serve for all sins it serveth only for the common over-sights of our sinful life and for the faults which either we do not mark or do not know that they are faults Our Fathers were actually penitent for sins wherein they knew they displeased God or else they fall not within the compass of my first speech Again that otherwise they could not be saved than holding the foundation of Christian Faith we have not only affirmed but proved Why is it not then confessed that thousands of our Fathers which lived in Popish Superstitions might yet by the mercy of God be saved First if they had directly denied the very foundations of Christianity without repenting them particularly of that sin he which saith There could be no salvation for them according to the ordinary course which God doth use in saving men granteth plainly or at the least closely insinuateth that an extraordinary priviledge of mercy might deliver their souls from Hell which is more then I required Secondly if the foundation be denied it is denied for fear of some Heresie which the Church of Rome maintaineth But how many were there amongst our Fathers who being seduced by the common Error of
any direct denial of the foundation as it is affirmed that both are I need not wade so far as to discuss this Controversie the matter which first was brought into question being so clear as I hope it is Howbeit because I desire that the truth even in that also should receive light I will do mine indeavour to set down somewhat more plainly First the foundation of Faith what it is Secondly what is directly to deny the foundation Thirdly whether they whom God hath chosen to be heirs of life may fall so far as directly to deny it Fourthly whether the Galathians did so by admitting the error about Circumcision and the Law Last of all whether the Church of Rome for this one opinion of Works may be thought to do the like and thereupon to be no more a Christian Church than are the Assemblies of Turks and Jews 23. This word Foundation being figuratively used hath always reference to somewhat which resembleth a material building as both that Doctrine of Laws and the community of Christians do By the Masters of Civil Policy nothing is so much inculcated as that Commonweals are founded upon Laws for that a multitude cannot be compacted into one body otherwise then by a common acception of Laws whereby they are to be kept in order The ground of all civil Laws is this No man ought to be hurt or injured by another Take away this perswasion and yet take away all the Laws take away Laws and what shall become of Common-weals So it is in our spiritual Christian Community I do not mean that Body Mystical whereof Christ is onely the head that Building undiscernable by mortal eyes wherein Christ is the chief corner stone but I speak of the visible Church the foundation whereof is the doctrine which the Prophets and the Apostles profest The mark whereunto their Doctrine tendeth is pointed at in these words of Peter unto Christ. Thou hast the words of eternal life In those words of Paul to Timothy The holy Scriptures are able to wake thee wise unto salvation It is the demand of nature it self What shall we do to have eternal life The desire of immortality and the knowledge of that whereby it may be obtained is so natural unto all men that even they who are not perswaded that they shall do notwithstanding wish that they might know a way how to see no end of life And because natural means are not able still to resist the force of Death there is no people in the earth so savage which hath not devised some supernatural help or other to fly for aid and succour in extremities against the enemies of the Laws A longing therefore to be saved without understanding the true way how hath been the cause of all the Superstitions in the World O that the miserable state of others which wander in darkness and wot not whither they go could give us understanding hearts worthily to esteem the riches of the mercy of God towards us before whose eys the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven are set wide openâ— should we offer violence unto it it offereth violence unto us and we gather strength to withstand it But I am besides my purpose when I fall to bewail the cold affection which we bear towards that whereby we should be saved my purpose being only to set down what the ground of salvation is The Doctrine of the Gospel proposeth salvation as the end And doth it not teach the way of attaining thereunto Yet the Damosel possest with a spirit of divination spake the truth These men are the Servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of Salvation A new and living way which Christ hath prepared for us through the vail that is his flesh Salvation purchased by the death of Christ. By this foundation the children of God before the written Law were distinguished from the sons of men the reverend Patriarks both possest it living and spake expresly of it at the hour of their death It comforted Iob in the midst of grief as it was afterwards the anker-hold of all the righteous in Israel from the writing of the Law to the time of grace Every Prophet making mention of it It was famously spoken of about the time when the comming of Christ to accomplish the promises which were made long before it drew near that the sound thereof was heard even amongst the Gentiles When he was come as many as were his acknowledged that he was their Salvation he that long expected hope of Israel he that Seed in whom all the Nations of the earth shall be blessed So that now he is a name of ruine a name of death and condemnation unto such as dream of a new Messias to as many as look for salvation by any other but by him For amongst men there is given no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved Thus much S. Mark doth intimate by that which he doth put in the front of this book making his entrance with these words The beginning of the Gospel of Iesus Christ the Son of God His Doctrine he termeth the Gospel because it teacheth Salvation the Gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God because it teacheth salvation by him This is then the foundation whereupon the frame of the Gospel is erected that very Jesus whom the Virgin conceived of the holy Ghost whom Simeon imbraced in his arms whom Pilat condemned whom the Iews crucified whom the Apostles preached he is Christ the Lord the onely Saviour of the World Other foundation can no man lay Thus I have briefly opened that principle in Christianity which we call the foundation of our faith It followeth now that I declare unto you what is directly to overthrow it This will be better opened if we understand what it is to hold the foundation of Faith 24. There are which defend that many of the Gentiles who never heard the Name of Christ held the foundation of Christianity and why they acknowledged many of them the Providence of God his infinite wisedom strength power his goodness and his mercy towards the Children of men that God hath judgment in store for the wicked but for the righteous which serve him rewards c. In this which they confessed that lyeth covered which we believe in the Rudiments of their knowledge concerning God the foundation of our Faith concerning Christ lyeth secretly wrapt up and is vertually contained therefore they held the foundation of Faith though they never had it Might we not with as good a colour of Reason defend that every Plowman hath all the Sciences wherein Philosophers have excelled For no man is ignorant of their first Principles which do vertually contain whatsoever by natural means is or can be known Yea might we not with as great reason affirm that a man may put three mighty Oaks wheresoever three Akoms may be put For vertually an Akom is an Oak To avoid such Paradoxes
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
necessary for decision of Controversies rising between man and man and for correction of faults committed in the Affairs of God unto the due execution whereof there are three things necessary Laws Judges and Supream Governours of Judgements What Courts there shall be and what causes shall belong unto each Court and what Judges shall determine of every cause and what Order in all Judgements shall be kept of these things the Laws have sufficiently disposed so that his duty who sitteth in any such Court is to judge not of but after the same Law Imprimis illud observare debet Iudex ne aliter judicet quam legibus constitutionibus aut moribus proditum est ut Imperator Iustinianaus which Laws for we mean the positive Laws of our Realm concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs if they otherwise dispose of any such thing than according to the Law of Reason and of God we must both acknowledge them to be amiss and endeavour to have them reformed But touching that point what may be objected shall after appear Our Judges in Causes Ecclesiastical are either Ordinary or Commissionary Ordinary those whom we term Ordinaries and such by the Laws of this Land are none but Prelates onely whose Power to do that which they do is in themselves and belonging to the nature of their Ecclesiastical calling In Spiritual Causes a Lay-Person may be no Ordinary a Commissionary Judge there is no lett but that he may be and that our Laws do evermore referr the ordinary Judgement of Spiritual Causes unto Spiritual Persons such as are termed Ordinaries no man which knoweth any thing of the Practice of this Realm can easily be ignorant Now besides them which are Authorized to judge in several Territories there is required an universal Power which reacheth over all imparting Supream Authority of Government over all Courts all Judges all Causes the operation of which Power is as well to strengthen maintain and uphold particular Jurisdictions which haply might else be of small effect as also to remedy that which they are not able to help and to redress that wherein they at any time do otherwise than they ought to do This Power being sometime in the Bishop of Rome who by sinister Practises had drawn it into his hands was for just considerations by Publick consent annexed unto the Kings Royal Seat and Crown from thence the Authors of Reformation would translate it into their National Assemblies or Synods which Synods are the onely helps which they think lawful to use against such Evils in the Church as particular Jurisdictions are not sufficient to redress In which Cause our Laws have provided that the Kings supereminent Authority and Power shall serve As namely when the whole Ecclesiastical State or the Principal Persons therein do need Visitation and Reformation when in any part of the Church Errours Schismes Herusies Abuses Offences Contempts Enormities are grown which men in their several Jurisdictions either do not or cannot help Whatsoever any Spiritual Authority and Power such as Legates from the See of Rome did sometimes exercise hath done or might heretofore have done for the remedies of those Evils in lawful sort that is to say without the violation of the Laws of God or Nature in the deed done as much in every degree our Laws have fully granted that the King for ever may do not onely be setting Ecclesiastical Synods on work that the thing may be their Act and the King their Motioner unto it for so much perhaps the Masters of the Reformation will grant but by Commissions few or many who having the Kings Letters Patents may in the vertue thereof execute the premises as Agents in the right not of their own peculiar and ordinary but of his supereminent Power When men are wronged by inferiour Judges or have any just cause to take exception against them their way for Redress is to make their Appeal and Appeal is a present delivery of him which maketh it out of the hands of their Power and Jurisdictions from whence it is made Pope Alexander having sometimes the King of England at advantage caused him amongst other things to agree that as many of his Subjects as would might have appeal to the Court of Rome And thus saith one that whereunto a mean Person at this day would scorn to submit himself so great a King was content to he subject to Notwithstanding even when the Pope saith he had so great Authority amongst Princes which were farr off the Romans he could not frame to obedience nor was able to obtain that himself might abide at Rome though promising not to meddle with other than Ecclesiastical Affairs So much are things that terrifie more feared by such as behold them aloof off than at hand Reformers I doubt not in some Causes will admit Appeals but Appeals made to their Synods even as the Church of Rome doth allow of them so they be made to the Bishop of Rome As for that kinde of Appeal which the English Laws do approve from the Judge of any certain particular Court unto the King as the onely Supream Governour on Earth who by his Delegates may give a final definitive Sentence from which no farther Appeal can be made Will their Plat-form allow of this Surely forasmuch as in that estate which they all dream of the whole Church must be divided into Parishes in which none can have greater or less Authority and Power than another again the King himself must be but a common Member in the Body of his own Parish and the causes of that onely Parish must be by the Officers thereof determinable In case the King had so much favour or preferment as to be made one of those Officers for otherwise by their positions he were not to meddle any more than the meanest amongst his Subjects with the Judgement of any Ecclesiastical Cause how is it possible they should allow of Appeals to be made from any other abroad to the King To receive Appeals from all other Judges belongeth to the highest in power of all and to be in power over All as touching Judgment in Ecclesiastical Causes this as they think belongeth onely to Synods Whereas therefore with us Kings do exercise over all Things Persons and Causes Supream Power both of voluntary and litigious Jurisdictionsâ— so that according to the one they incite reform and command according to the other they judge universally doing both in farr other sort than such as have ordinary Spiritual power oppugned we are herein by some colourable shew of Argument as if to grant thus much to any Secular Person it were unreasonable For sith it is say they apparent out of the Chronicles that judgement in Church-matters pertaineth to God Seeing likewise it is evident out of the Apostles that the High-Priest is set over those matters in Gods behalf It must needs follow that the Principality or direction of the Iudgment of them is by Gods ordinance appertaining to the High-Priest and