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
overcome by the sword which they were very ready to take into their hands So that those very men that began with tender meek Petitions proceeded to print publick Admonitions and then to Satyrical Remonstrances and at last having like David numbred who was not and who was for their Cause they got a supposed Certainty of so great a Party that they durst threaten first the Bishops and not long after both the Queen and Parliament to all which they were secretly encouraged by the Earl of Leicester then in great favour with her Majestie and the reputed Cherisher and Patron-general of these Pretenders to Tenderness of Conscience whom he used as a sacreligious snare to further his Design which was by their means to bring such an odium upon the Bishops as to procure an Alienation of their Lands and a large proportion of them for himself which Avaritious desire had at last so blinded his Reason that his ambitious and greedy Hopes had almost flattered him into present possession of Lambeth-house And to thse strange and dangerous Undertakings the Non-conformists of this Nation were much encouraged and heightened by a Correspondence and Confederacy with that Brotherhood in Scotland so that here they became so bold that one told the Queen openly in a Sermon She was like an untamed Heyfer that would not be ruled by Gods people but obstructed his Discipline And in Scotland they were more confident for there they declared Her an Atheist and grew to such an height as not to be accountable for any thing spoken against Her No nor for Treason against their own King if spoken in the Pulpit Shewing at last such a disobedience even to Him that His Mother being in England and then in distress and in prison and in danger of Death the Church denied the King their Prayers for Her and at another time when he had appointed a day of Feasting their Church declared for a general Fast in opposition to his Authority To this height they were grown in both Nations and by these means there was distill'd into the mindes of the common people such other venemous and turbulent Principles as were inconsistent with the safety of the Church and State And these vented so daringly that beside the loss of Life and Limbs the Church and State were both forced to use such other severities as will not admit of an excuse if it had not been to prevent Confusion and the perilous consequences of it which without such prevention would in short time have brought unavoidable ruine and misery to this numerous Nation These Errors and Animosities were so remarkable that they begot wonder in an ingenious Italian who being about this time come newly into this Nation writ scoffingly to a Friend in his own Countrey That the common people of England were wiser then the wisest of his Nation for here the very Women and Shop-keepers were able to judge of Predestination and determine what Laws were fit to be made concerning Church Government then what were fit to be obeyed or abolished That they were more able or at least thought so to raise and determine perplex'd Cases of Conscience then the most Learned Colledges in Italy That Men of the slightest Learning and the most ignorant of the common people were mad for a new or Super or Re-Reformation of Religion and that in this they appeared like that man who would never cease to whet and whet his Knife till there was no Steel left to make it useful And he concluded his Letter with this observation That those very Men that were most busie in Oppositions and Disputations and Controversies and finding out the faults of their Governors had usually the least of Humility and Mortification or of the Power of Godliness And to heighten all these discontents and dangers there was also sprung up a Generation of Godless-men Men that had so long given way to their own Lusts and Delusions and had so often and so highly opposed the Blessed Motions of his Blessed Spirit and the inward Light of their own Consciences that they had thereby sinned themselves to a belief of what they would but were not able to believe Into a belief which is repugnant even to Humane nature for the Heathens believe there are many gods but these had sinned themselves into a belief that there is no God And so finding nothing in themselves but what is worse then nothing began to wish what they were not able to hope for That they should be like the Beasts that perish and in wicked company which is the Atheists Sanctuary were so bold as to say so Though the worst of mankinde when he is left alone at midnight may wish but cannot then think it Into this wretched this reprobate condition many had then sinned themselves And now When the Church was pestered with them and with all these other Irregularities when her Lands were in danger of Alienation her Power at least neglected and her Peace torn to pieces by several Schisms and such Heresies as do usually attend that sin When the common people seemed ambitious of doing those very things which were attended with most dangers that thereby they might be punished and then applauded and pittied When they called the Spirit of Opposition a Tender Conscience and complained of Persecution because they wanted power to persecute others When the giddy multitude raged and became restless to finde out misery for themselves and others and the râ—â—ble would herd themselves together and endeavor to govern and act in spight of Authority In this extremity fear and danger of the Church and State when to suppress the growing evils of both they needed a Man of Prudence and Piâ—ty and of an high and fearless Fortitude they were blest in all by Iohn Whitgift his being made Archbishop of Canterbury of whom ingenious Sir Henry Wotâ—on that knew him well hath left this true Character That he was a Man of a Reverend and Sacred Memory and of the Premitive temper A Man of such a temper as when the Church by lowliness of Spirit did flourish in highest examples of Vertue And though I dare not undertake to add to his Character yet I shall neither do right to this Discourse nor to my Reader if I forbear to give him a further and short account of the life and manners of this excellent Man and it shall be short for I long to end this digression that I may lead my Reader back to Mr. Hooker where we left him at the Temple Iohn Whitgift was born in the County of Lincoln of a Family that was ancient and noted to be prudent and affable and gentile by nature He was educated in Cambridge much of his Learning was acquired in Pembroke-Hall where Mr. Bradford the Martyr was his Tutor From thence he was remov'd to Peter-house from thence to be Master of Pembroke-Hall and from thence to the Mastership of Trinity Colledge About which time the Queen made him her Chaplain and not
infirmities and live in love because as St. Iohn says He that lives in love lives in God for God is Love And to maintain this holy Fire of Love constantly burning on the Altar of a pure Heart his advice was to watch and pray and always keep themselves fit to receive the Communion and then to receive it often for it was both a confirming and a strengthning of their Graces This was his advice and at his entrance or departure out of any house he would usually speak to the whole Family and bless them by name insomuch that as he seem'd in his youth to be taught of God so he seem'd in this place to teach his Precepts as Enoch did by walking with him in all Holiness and Humility making each day a step towards a blessed Eternity And though in this weak and declining age of the World such examples are become barren and almost incredible yet let his memory be blest with this true Recordation because he that praises Richard Hooker praises God who hath given such gifts to men and let this humble and affectionate Relation of him become such a pattern as may invite Posterity to imitate his Vertues This was his constant behavior at Borne thus as Enoch so he walked with God thus did he tread in the footsteps of Primitive Piety and yet as that great example of meekness and purity even our Blessed Iesus was not free from false accusations no more was this Disciple of his This most humble most innocent holy Man his was a slander parallel to that of chaste Susannaes by the wicked Elders or that against St. Athanasius as it is Recorded in his life for that holy Man had Heretical enemies and which this age calls Trepanning The particulars need not a repetition and that it was false needs no other Testimony then the publick punishment of his accusers and their open confession of his innocency 'T was said that the accusation was contrived by a Dissenting Brother one that indur'd not Church Ceremonies hating him for his Books sake which he was not able to Answer and his name hath been told me But I have not so much confidence in the Relation as to make my Pen fix a scandal on him to Posterity I shall rather leave it doubtful till the great day of Revelation But this is certain that he lay under the great charge and the anxiety of this accusation and kept it secret to himself for many moneths And being a helpless man had lain longer under this heavy burthen but that the Protector of the innocent gave such an accidental occasion as forced him to make it known to his two dear Friends Edwin Sandys and George Cranmer who were so sensible of their Tutors sufferings that they gave themselves no rest till by their disquisitions and diligence they had found out the Fraud and brought him the welcome news that his accusers did confess they had wrong'd him and begg'd his pardon To which the good mans reply was to this purpose The Lord forgive them and The Lord bless you for this comfortable news Now I have a just occasion to say with Solomon Friends are born for the days of Adversity and such you have prov'd to me And to my God I say as did the Mother of St. John Baptist Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the day wherein he looked upon me to take away my reproach among men And O my God neither my life nor my reputation are safe in mine own keeping but in thine who didst take care of me when I yet hanged upon my Mothers Brest Blessed are they that put their trust in thee O Lord for when false witnesses were risen up against me when shame was ready to cover my face when I was bowed down with an horrible dread and went mourning all the day long when my nights were restless and my sleeps broken with a fear worse then death when my Soul thirsted for a deliverance as the Hart panteth after the Rivers of Waters Then thou Lord didst bear my complaints pitty my condition and art new become my Deliverer and as long as I live I will hold up my hands in this manner and magnifie thy Mercies who didst not give me over as a prey to mine enemies O blessed are they that put their trust in thee and no prosperity shall make me forget those days of sorrow or to perform those vows that I have made to thee in the days of my fears and affliction for with such sacrifices thou O God art well pleased and I will pay them Thus did the joy and gratitude of this good Mans heart break forth and 't is observable that as the invitation to this slander was his meek behavior and Dove like simplicity for which he was remarkable so his Christian Charity ought to be imitated For though the Spirit of Revenge is so pleasing to mankinde that it is never conquered but by a Supernatural Grace being indeed so deeply rooted in Humane Nature that to prevent the excesses of it for men would not know Moderation Almighty God allows not any degree of it to any man but says Vengeance is mine And though this be said by God himself yet this revenge is so pleasing that man is hardly perswaded to submit the menage of it to the Time and Justice and Wisdom of his Creator but would hasten to be his own executioner of it And yet nevertheless if any man ever did wholly decline and leave this pleasing Passion to the time and measure of God alone it was this Richard Hooker of whom I write For when his slanderers were to suffer he labored to procure their Pardon and when that was denied him his Reply was That however he would fast and pray that God would give them Repentance and Patience to undergo their Punishment And his Prayers were so for returned into his own bosom that the first was granted if we may believe a Penitent Behavior and an open Confession And 't is observable that after this time he would often say to Dr. Saravia O with what quietness did I enjoy my Soul after I was free from the fears of my slander And how much more after a conflict and victory ever my desires of Revenge In the Year One thousand six hundred and of his Age Forty six he fell into a long and sharp sickness occasioned by a Cold taken in his Passage betwixt London and Gravesend from the malignity of which he was never recovered for till his death he was not free from thoughtful days and restless nights but a submission to his Will that makes the sick mans bed easie by giving rest to his Soul made his very languishment comfortable And yet all this time he was solicitous in his Study and said often to Dr. Saravia who saw him daily and was the cheifâ— comfort of his life That he did not beg a long life of God for any other reason but to live to finish his three remaining Books of POLITY and
then Lord let thy Servant depart in peace which was his usual expression And God heard his Prayers though he denied the Church the benefit of them as compleated by himself and 't is thought he hastned his own death by hastning to give life to his Books But this is certain that the nearer he was to his death the more he grew in Humility in holy Thoughts and Resolutions About a moneth before his death this good man that never knew or at least never consider'd the pleasures of the Palate became first to lose his Appetite then to have an aversness to all Food insomuch that he seem'd to live some intermitted weeks by the smell of meat onely and yet still studied and writ And now his Guardian Angel seem'd to foretel him that his years were past away as a shadow bidding him prepare to follow the Generation of his Fathers for the day of his dissolution drew near for which his vigorous Soul appear'd to thirst In this time of his sickness and not many days before his death his House was robb'd of which he having notice his Question was Are my Books and Written Papers safe And being answered That they were His Reply was Then it matters not for no other loss can trouble me About one day before his death Dr. Saravia who knew the very secrets of his Soul for they were supposed to be Confessors to each other came to him and after a Conference of the Benefit the Necessity and Safety of the Churches Absolution it was resolved the Doctor should give him both that and the Sacrament the day following To which end the Doctor came and after a short retirement and privacy they return'd to the company and then the Doctor gave him and some of those friends that were with him the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Jesus Which being performed the Doctor thought he saw a reverend gaity and joy in his face but it lasted not long for his bodily infirmities did return suddenly and became more visible insomuch that the Doctor apprehended Death ready to seise him Yet after some amendment left him at night with a promise to return early the day following which he did and then found him better in appearance deep in contemplation and not inclinable to discourse which gave the Doctor occasion to require his present thoughts To which he replied That he was meditating the number and nature of Angels and their blessed Obedience and Order without which Peace could not be in Heaven and oh that it might be so on Earth After which words he said I have lived to see this World is made up of perturbations and I have been long preparing to leave it and gathering comfort for the dreadful hour of making my account with God which I now apprehend to be near And though I have by his Grace lov'd him in my youth and fear'd him in mine age and labor'd to have a Conscience void of offence to him and to all men yet if thou O Lord be extream to mark what I have done amiss who can abide it And therefore where I have failed Lord shew mercy to me for I plead not my Righteousness but the forgiveness of my unrighteousness for his Merits who died to purchase a pardon for penitent sinners And since I ow thee a death Lord let it not be terrible and then take thine own time I submit to it Let not mine O Lord but let thy Will be done With which expression he fell into a dangerous slumber dangerous as to his recovery yet recover he did but it was to speak onely these few words Good Doctor God hath heard my daily Petitions for I am at peace with all men and he is at peace with me and from which blessed assurance I feel that inward joy which this World can neither give nor take from me More he would have spoken but his spirits failed him and after a short conflict betwixt Nature and Death a quiet sigh put a period to his last breath and so he fell asleep And here I draw his Curtain till with the most glorious Company of the Patriarks and Apostles the most noble Army of Martyrs and Confessors this most Learned most Humble holy Man shall also awake to receive an Eternal Tranquillity and with it a greater degree of Glory then common Christians shall be made partakers of In the mean time Bless O Lord Lord bless his Brethren the Clergy of this Nation with ardent desires and effectual endeavors to attain if not to his great Learning yet to his remarkable meekness his godly simplicity and his Christian moderation For these are praise-worthy these bring peace at the last And let the Labors of his life his most excellent Writings be bless with what he designed when he undertook them Which was Glory to thee O God on high Peace in thy Church and good will to mankinde Amen Amen AN APPENDIX To the LIFE of Mr. Richard Hooker ANd now having by a long and Laborious search satisfied my self and I hope my Reader by imparting to him the true Relation of Mr. Hookers Life I am desirous also to acquaint him with some Observations that relate to it and which could not properly fall to be spoken till after his Death of which my Reader may expect a brief and true account in the following Appendix And first it is not to be doubted but that he died in the forty-seventh if not in the forty-sixth year of his Age which I mention because many have believed him to be more aged but I have so examined it as to be confident I mistake not and for the year of his death Mr. Cambden who in his Annals of Queen Elizabeth 1599. mentions him with a high commendation of his Life and Learning declares him to die in the year 1599. and yet in that Inscription of his Monument set up at the charge of Sir William Cooper in Borne Church where Mr. Hooker was buried his Death is said to be in Anno 1603. but doubtless both mistaken for I have it attested under the hand of William Somner the Archbishops Register for the Province of Canterbury that Richard Hookers Will bears date October the 26. in Anno 1600. and that it was prov'd the third of December following And this attested also that at his Death he left four Daughters Alice Cicily Iane and Margaret that he gave to each of them a hundred pound that he left Ione his Wife his sole Executrix and that by his Inventory his Estate a great part of it being in Books came to 1092l 91. 2d which was much more than he thought himself worth and which was not got by his Care much less by the good Huswifery of his Wife but saved by his trusty Servant Thomas Lane that was wiser than his Master in getting Money for him and more frugal than his Mistress in keeping it of which Will I shall say no more but that his dear Friend Thomas the Father of
a place of continual servile toil could not suddenly be wained and drawn unto contrary offices without some strong impression of terror and also for that there is nothing more needful then to punish with extremity the first transgressions of those Laws that require a more exact observation for many ages to come therefore as the Jews superstitiously addicted to their Sabbaths rest for a long time not without danger to themselves and obloquy to their very Law did afterwards perceive and amend wisely their former Error not doubting that bodily labors are made by accessity venial though otherwise especially on that day rest be more convenient So at all times the voluntary scandalous contempt of that rest from labor wherewith publiclkly God is served we cannot too severely correct and bridle The Emperor Constantine having with over-great facility licenced Sundays labor in Country Villages under that pretence whereof there may justly no doubt sometime consideration be had namely left any thing which God by his providence hath bestowed should miscarry not being taken in due time Leo which afterwards saw that this ground would not bear so general and large indulgence as had been granted doth by a contrary Edict both reverse and severely censure his Predecessors remissness saying We ordain according to the true meaning of the Holy Ghost and of the Apostles thereby directed That on the Sacred day wherein our own integrity was restored all do rest and surcease labor That neither Husband-man nor other on that day put their hands to forbidden works For if the Iews did so much reverence their Sabbath which was but a shaddow of ours are not we which inhabit the Light and Truth of Grace bound to honor that day which the Lord himself hath honored and hath therein delivered us both from dishonor and from death Are we not bound to keep it singular and inviolble well contenting our selves with so liberal a grant of the rest and not incroaching upon that one day which God hath chosen to his own honor Were it not wretchless neglect of Religion to make that very day common and to think we may do with it as with the rest Imperial Laws which had such care of hallowing especially our Lords day did not omit to provide that other Festival times might be kept with vacation from labor whether they were days appointed on the sudden as extraordinary occasions fell out or days which were celebrated yearly for Politick and Civil considerations or finally such days as Christian Religion hath ordained in Gods Church The joy that setteth aside labor disperseth those things which labor gathereth For gladness doth always rise from a kinde of fruition and happiness which happiness banisheth the cogitation of all want it needeth nothing but onely the bestowing of that it hath in as much as the greatest felicity that felicity hath is to spred and enlarge it self it cometh hereby to pass that the first effect of joyfulness is to rest because it seeketh no more the next because it aboundeth to give The Root of both is the glorious presence of that joy of minde which riseth from the manifold considerations of Gods unspeakable Mercy into which considerations we are led by occasion of Sacred times For how could the Jewish Congregations of old be put in minde by their weekly Sabbaths what the World reaped through his goodness which did of nothing create the World by their yearly Passover what farewel they took of the Land of Egypt by their Pentecost what Ordinances Laws and Statutes their Fathers received at the hands of God by their Feast of Tabernacles with what protection they journeyed from place to place through so many fears and hazards during the tedious time of forty years travel in the Wildeness by their Annual solemnity of Lots how near the whole Seed of Israel was unto utter extirpation when it pleased that Great God which guideth all things in Heaven and Earth so to change the counsels and purposes of men that the same Hand which had signed a Decree in the opinion both of them that granted and of them that procured it irrevocable for the general massacre of Man Woman and Childe became the Buckler of their preservation that no one hair of their heads might be touched The same days which had been set for the pouring out of so much innocent blood were made the days of their execution whose malice had contrived the plot thereof and the self-same persons that should have endured whatsoever violence and rage could offer were employed in the just revenge of cruelty to give unto blood-thirsty men the taste of their own Cup or how can the Church of Christ now endure to be so much called on and preached unto by that which every Dominical day throughout the year that which year by year so many Festival times if not commanded by the Apostles themselves whose care at that time was of greater things yet instituted either by such Universal Authority as no Men or at the least such as we with no reason may despise do as sometime the holy Angels did from Heaven sing Glory be unto God on High Peace on Earth towards Men good Will for this in effect is the very Song that all Christian Feasts do apply as their several occasions require how should the days and times continually thus inculcate what God hath done and we refuse to agnize the benefit of such remembrances that very benefit which caused Moses to acknowledge those Guides of Day and Night the Sun and Moon which enlighten the World not more profitable to nature by giving all things life then they are to the Church of God by occasion of the use they have in regard of the appointed Festival times That which the head of all Philosophers hath said of Women If they be good the half of the Commonwealth is happy wherein they are the same we may fitly apply to times Well to celebrate these Religious and Sacred days is to spend the flower of our time happily They are the splendor and outward dignity of our Religion forcible Witnesses of Ancient Truth provocations to the Exercises of all Piety shaddows of our endless Felicity in Heaven on Earth Everlasting Records and Memorials wherein they which cannot be drawn to hearken unto that we teach may onely by looking upon that we do in a manner read whatsoever we believe 72. The matching of contrary things together is a kinde of illustration to both Having therefore spoken thus much of Festival Days the next that offer themselves to hand are days of Pensive Humiliation and Sorrow Fastings are either of mens own free and voluntary accord as their particular devotion doth move them thereunto or else they are publickly enjoyned in the Church and required at the hands of all men There are which altogether disallow not the former kinde and the latter they greatly commend so that it be upon extraordinary occasions onely and
of the time when siege began first to be laid against them All these not commanded by God himself but ordained by a publick Constitution of their own the Prophet Zachary expresly toucheth That St. Ierome following the Tradition of the Hebrews doth make the first a memorial of the breaking of those Two Tables when Moses descended from Mount Senai the second a memorial as well of Gods indignation condemning them to forty years travel in the Desart as of his wrath in permitting Chaldeans to waste burn and destroy their City the last a memorial of heavy tydings brought out of Iury to Ezekiel and the rest which lived as Captives in foreign parts the difference is not of any moment considering that each time of sorrow is naturally evermore a Register of all such grievous events as have hapned either in or near about the same time To these I might add sundry other Fasts above twenty in number ordained amongst them by like occasions and observed in like manner besides their weekly Abstinence Mundays and Thursdays throughout the whole year When men fasted it was not always after one and same sort but either by depriving themselves wholly of all food during the time that their Fasts continued or by abating both the quantity and kinde of Diet. We have of the one a plain example in the Ninivites Fasting and as plain a president for the other in the Prophet Daniel I was saith he in heaviness for three weeks of days I eat no pleasant Bread neither tasted Flash nor Wine Their Tables when they gave themselves to fasting had not that usual furniture of such Dishes as do cherish blood with blood but for food they had Bread for suppage Salt and for sawce Herbs Whereunto the Apostle may be thought to allude saying One believeth he may eat all things another which is weak and maketh a conscience of keeping those Customs which the Jews observe eateth Herbs This austere repast they took in the Evening after Abstinence the whole day For to forfeit a Noons meal and then to recompence themselves at night was not their use Nor did they ever accustom themselves on Sabbaths or Festivals days to fast And yet it may be a question whether in some sort they did not always fast the Sabbath Their Fastings were partly in token of Penitency Humiliation Grief and Sorrow partly in sign of devotion and reverence towards God Which second consideration I dare not peremptorily and boldy affirm any thing might induce to abstain till noon as their manner was on Fasting days to do till night May it not very well he thought that hereunto the Sacred Scripture doth give some secret kinde of Testimony Iosephus is plain That the sixth hour the day they divided into twelve was wont on the Sabbath always to call them home unto meat Neither is it improbable but that the Heathens did therefore so often upbraid them with Fasting on that day Besides they which found so great fault with our Lords Disciples for rubbing a few Ears of Corn in their hands on the Sabbath day are not unlikely to have aimed also at the same mark For neither was the bodily pain so great that it should offend them in that respect and the very manner of defence which our Saviour there useth is more direct and literal to justifie the breach of the Jewish custom in Fasting then in working at that time Finally the Apostles afterwards themselves when God first gave them the gift of Tongues whereas some in disdain and spight termed Grace Drunkenness it being then the day of Pentecost and but onely a fourth part of the day spent they use this as an argument against the other cavil These men saith Peter are not drunk as you suppose since as yet the third hour of the day is not over-past Howbeit leaving this in suspence as a thing not altogether certainly known and to come from Jews to Christians we finde that of private voluntarily Fastings the Apostle Saint Paul speaketh more then once And saith Tertullian they are sometime commanded throughout the Church Ex aliqua sellicitudinis Ecclesiastica causa the care and fear of the Church so requiring It doth not appear that the Apostles ordained any set and certain days to be generally kept of all Notwithstanding for as much as Christ hath fore-signified that wher himself should be taken from them his absence would soon make them apt to fast it seemeth that even as the first Festival day appointed to be kept of the Church was the day of our Lords return from the dead so the first sorrowful and mourning day was That which we now observe in memory of his departure oâ—t of this World And because there could be no abatement of grief till they saw him raised whose death was the occasion of their heaviness therefore the day he lay in the Sepulchre hath been also kept and observed as a weeping day The Custom of Fasting these two days before Easter is undoubtedly most ancient in so much that Ignatius not thinking him a Catholick Christian man which did not abhor and as the state of the Church was then avoid fasting on the Jews Sabbath doth notwithstanding except for ever that one Sabbath or Saturday which falleth out to be the Easter-Eve as with us it always doth and did sometimes also with them which kept at that time their Easter the Fourteenth day of March as the custom of the Jews was It came afterward to be an order that even as the day of Christs Resurrection so the other two in memory of his death and burial were weekly But this when Saint Ambrose lived had not as yet taken place throughout all Churches no not in Millan where himself was Bishop And for that canâ—â— he saith that although at Rome he observed the Saturdays fast because such was then the custom in Rome nevertheless in his own Church at home he did otherwise The Churches which did not observe that day had another instead thereof which was the Wednesday for that when they judged it meet to have weekly a day of Humiliation besides that whereon our Saviour suffered death it seemed best to make their choice of that day especially whereon the Jews are thought to have first contrived their treason together with Iudas against Christ. So that the instituting and ordaining both of these and of all other times of like exercise is as the Church shall judge expedient for mens good And concerning every Christians mans duty herein surely that which Augustine and Ambrose are before alledged to have done is such as all men favoring Equity must needs allow and follow if they affect peace As for their specified Errors I will not in this place dispute whether voluntarily Fasting with a vertuous purpose of minde be any medicinable remedy of evil or a duty acceptable unto God and in the World to come even rewardable as other offices are which proceed from Christian Piety
satisfied if they accept it as sufficient and require no more Otherwise we satisfie not although we do satisfie For so between man and man it oftentimes falleth out but between man and God never It is therefore true that our Lord Jesus Christ by one most precious and propitiatory Sacrifice which was his Body a Gift of infinite worth offered for the Sins of the whole World hath thereby once reconciled us to God purchased his general free pardon and turned Divine indignation from mankinde But we are not for that cause to think any office of Penitence either needless or fruitless on our own behalf For then would not God require any such Duties at our hands Christ doth remain everlastingly a gracious Intercessour even for every particular Penitent Let this assure us that God how highly soever displeased and incensed with our Sins is notwithstanding for his sake by our Tears pacified taking that for Satisfaction which is due by us because Christ hath by his Satisfaction made it acceptable For as he is the High Priest of our Salvation so he hath made us Priests likewise under him to the end we might offer unto God praise and thankfulness while we continue in the way of life and when we sin the satisfactory or propitiatory sacrifice of a broken and a contrite Heart There is not any thing that we do that could pacifie God and clear us in his sight from sin if the goodness and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ were not whereas now beholding the poor offer of our religions endeavours meekly to submit our selves as often as we have offended he regardeth with infinite mercy those services which are as nothing and with words of comfort reviveth our afflicted mindes saying It â— I even I that taketh away thine Iniquities for mine own sake Thus doth Repentance satisfie God changing his wrath and indignation unto mercy Anger and mercy are in us Passions but in him not so God saith Saint Basil is no wayes passionate but because the punishments which his judgment doth inflict are like effect of indignation severe and grievous to such as suffer them therefore we term the revenge which he taketh upon Sinners anger and the withdrawing of his plagues mercy His wrath saith St. Augustin is not as ours the trouble of a minde disturbed and disquieted with things amiss but a ralm unpassionate and just assignation of dreadful punishment to be their portion which have disobeyed his mercy a free determination of all felicity and happiness unto men except their sins remain as a bar between it and them So that when God doth cease to be angry with sinful men when he receiveth them into favour when he pardoneth their offences and remembreth their iniquities no more for all these signifie but one thing it must needs follow that all punishments before due is revenge of sinne whether they be Temporal or Eternal are remitted For how should God's indignation import only man's punishment and yet some punishment remain unto them towards whom there is now in God no indignation remaining God saith Tertullian takes Penitency at mens hands and men at his in lieu thereof receive impunity which notwithstanding doth not prejudice the chastisements which God after pardon hath laid upon some Offenders as on the people of Israel on Moses on Miriam on David either for their own more sound amendment or for example unto others in this present world for in the World to come punishments have unto these intents no use the dead being not in case to be better by correction nor to take warning by executions of God's Justice there seen but assuredly to whomsoever he remitteth sinne their very pardon is in it self a full absolute and perfect discharge for revengeful punishment which God doth now here threaten but with purpose of revocation if men repent no where inflict but on them whom impenitency maketh obdurate Of the one therefore it is said Though I tell the wicked Thou shalt dye the death yet if he turneth from his sinne and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live and not dye Of the other Thou according to thine hardness and heart that will not repent treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and evident appearance of the judgement of God If God be satisfied and do pardon sinne our justification restored is as perfect as it was at the first bestowed For so the Prophet Isaiah witnesseth Though your sinnes were as crimson they shall be made as white as snow though they were as scarlet they shall be as white as wool And can we doubt concerning the punishment of Revenge which was due to sinne but that if God be satisfied and have forgotten his wrath it must be even as Saint Augustine reasoneth What God hath covered he will not observe and what he observeth not he will not punish The truth of which Doctrine is not to be shifted off by restraining it unto eternal punishment alone For then would not David have said They are blessed to whom God imputeth not sinne Blessednesse having no part or fellowship at all with malediction Whereas to be subject to Revenge for Sinne although the punishment be but temporal is to be under the curse of the Law wherefore as one and the same Fire consumeth Stubble and refineth Gold so if it please God to lay punishment on them whose sinnes he hath forgiven yet is not this done for any destructive end of wasting and eating them out as in plagues inflicted upon the Impenitent neither is the punishment of the one as of the other proportioned by the greatness of sinne past but according to that future purpose whereunto the goodness of God referreth it and wherein there is nothing meant to the Sufferer but furtherance of all happiness now in grace and hereafter in glory Saint Augustin to stop the mouths of Pelagians arguing That if God had imposed death upon Adam and Adam's posterity as a punishment of sinne death should have ceased when God procured Sinners their pardon Answereth first It is no marvel either that bodily death should not have hapned to the first man unlesse he had first sinned death as punishment following his sinne or that after sinne is forgiven death notwithstanding befalleth the Faithful to the end that the strength of righteousness might be exercised by overcoming the fear thereof So that justly God did inflict bodily death on man for committing Sinne and yet after Sinne forgiven took it not away that his Righteousness might still have whereby to be exercised He fortifieth this with David's example whose sinne he forgave and yet afflicted him for exercise and tryal of his humility Briefly a general axiome he hath for all such chastisements Before forgiveness they are the punishment of Sinners and after forgiveness they are exercises and tryals of Righteous men Which kinde of proceeding is so agreeable with God's nature and man's comfort that it
what it is to sit in the shadow of death A grieved spirit therefore is no argument of a faithless minde A third occasion of mens mis-judging themselves as if they were faithless when they are not is They fasten their cogitations upon the distrustful suggestions of the flesh whereof finding great abundance in themselves they gather thereby surely unbelief hath full dominion it hath taken plenary possession of me if I were faithful it could not be thus Not marking the motions of the Spirit and of Faith because they lye buried and over-whelmed with the contrary when notwithstanding as the blessed Apostle doth acknowledge that the Spirit groaneth and that God heareth when we do not so there is no doubt but that our Faith may have and hath her private operations secret to us yet known to him by whom they are Tell this to a man that hath a minde deceived by too hard an opinion of himself and it doth but augment his grief he hath his answer ready Will you make me think otherwise than I finde than I feel in my self I have throughly considered and exquisitely sifted all the corners of my heart and I see what there is never seek to perswade me against my knowledge I do not I know I do not believe Well to favour them a little in their weakness let that be granted which they do imagine be it that they be faithless and without belief But are they not grieved for their unbelief They are Do they not wish it might and also strive that it may be otherwise We know they do Whence commeth this but from a secret love and liking which they have of those things that are believed No man can love things which in his own opinion are not And if they think those things to be which they shew that they love when they desire to believe them then must it needs be that by desiring to believe they prove themselves true Believers For without Faith no man thinketh that things believed are Which argument all the subtilty of infernal powers will never be able to dissolve The Faith therefore of true Believers though it hath many and grievous down-falls yet doth it still continue invincible it conquereth and recovereth it self in the end The dangerous conflicts whereunto it is subject are not able to prevail against it The Prophet Habakkuk remained faithful in weakness though weak in Faith It is true such is our weak and wavering nature we have no sooner received Grace but we are ready to fall from it we have no sooner given our assent to the Law that it cannot fall but the next conceit which we are ready to embrace is that it may and that it doth fail Though we finde in our selves a most willing heart to cleave unseparably unto God even so farr as to think unfeignedly with Peter Lord I am ready to go with thee into Prison and to death yet how soon and how easily upon how small occasions are we changed if we be but a while let alone and left unto our selves The Galatians to day for their sakes which teach them the truth of Christ are content if need were to pluck out their own eyes and the next day ready to pluck out theirs which taught them The love of the Angel to the Church of Ephesus how greatly enflamed and how quickly slacked the higher we flow the nearer we are unto an ebb if men be respected as mere men according to the wonted course of their alterable inclination without the heavenly support of the Spirit Again the desire of our ghostly enemy is so incredible and his means so forcible to over-throw our Faith that whom the blessed Apostle knew betrothed and made hand-fast unto Christ to them he could not write but with great trembling I am jealous over you with a godly jealousie for I have prepared you to one Husband to present you a pure Virgin unto Christ but I fear lest at the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your mindes should be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ. The simplicity of Faith which is in Christ taketh the naked promise of God his bare Word and on that it resteth This simplicity the Serpent laboureth continually to pervert corrupting the mind with many imaginations of repugnancy and contrariety between the promise of God and those things which sense or experience or some other fore-conceived perswasion hath imprinted The word of the promise of God unto his People is I will not leave thee nor forsake thee upon this the simplicity of Faith resteth and is not afraid of famine But mark how the subtilty of Satan did corrupt the mindes of that Rebellious generation whose Spirits were not faithful unto God They beheld the desolate state of the desart in which they were and by the wisdom of their sense concluded the promise of God to be but folly Can God prepare a Table in the Wildernesse The word of the promise to Sarah was Thou shalt bear a Son Faith is simple and doubteth not of it but Satan to corrupt this simplicity of Faith entangleth the mind of the Woman with an argument drawn from common experience to the contrary A woman that is old Sarah now to be acquainted again with forgotten passions of youth The word of the promise of God by Moses and the Prophets made the Saviour of the World so apparent unto Philip that his simplicity could conceive no other Messias than Iesus of Nazareth the Son of Ioseph But to stay Nathaniel left being invited to come and see he should also believe and so be saved the subtilty of Satan casteth a mist before his eyes putteth in his head against this the common conceived perswasion of all men concerning Nzaareth Is it possible that any good thing should come from thence this stratagem he doth use with so great dexterity that the minds of all men are so strangely bewitched with it that it bereaveth them for the time of all perceivance of that which should relieve them and be their comfort yea it taketh all remembrance from them even of things wherewith they are most familiarly acquainted The people of Israel could not be ignorant that he which led them through the Sea was able to feed them in the Desâ—rt but this was obliterated and put out by the sense of their present want Feeling the hand of God against them in their food they remember not his hand in the day that he delivered them from the hand of the Oppressour Sarah was not then to learn That with God all things were possible Had Nathaniel never noted how God doth chuse the base things if this World to disgrace them that are most honourably esteemed The Prophet Habakkuk knew that the promises of Grace protection and favour which God in the Law doth make unto his People do not grant them any such immunity as can free and exempt them from all chastisements he knew that as God said I will continue for ever my