granteth us to be calledby preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ when the Spirit of the Lord is poured upon us by whose guiding and governance we be led to settle our trust in God and hope for the performance of his promise With this choice is joyned as companion the mortifying of the Old man that is of our affections and lusts from the same Spirit also cometh our Sanctification the love of God and of our Neighbour justice and uprightness of life Finally to say all in sum whatever is in us or may be done of us honest pure true and good that altogether springeth out of this most pleasant Rock from this most plentiful Fountain the goodness love choice and unchangable purpose of God he is the cause the rest are the fruits and effects Yet are also the choice and Spirit of God and Christ himself causes conjoyned and coupled each with other which may be reckoned amongst the principal causes of salvation As oft therefore as we use to say that we are made righteous and saved by Faith only it is meant thereby that faith or rather trust alone doth lay hard upon understand and perceive our righteous making to be given us of God freely that is to say by no deserts of our own but by the free grace of the Almighty Father Moreover Faith doth ingender in us love of our Neighbour and such works as God is pleased withal for if it be a lively and true faith quickned by the Holy Ghost she is the mother of all good saying and doing By this short tale it is evident by what means we attain to be righteous For not by the worthiness of our deservings were we heretofore chosen or long ago saved but by the only mercy of God and pure grace of Christ our Lord whereby we were in him made to do those good works that God had appointed for us to walk in And although good works cannot deserve to make us righteous before God yet do they so cleave unto Faith that neither Faith can be found without them nor good works be any where found without Faith Fol. 68. immortality and blesse life God hath provided for his chosen before the foundations of the World were laid These are the passages which Mr. Prin hath gathered out of Poynets Catechism to prove that Calvinism is the true genuine and original Doctrine of the reformed Church of England in the Points disputed for my part I can see no possible inconvenience which can follow on it in yielding so far to his desires as to admit the passages before recited to be fully consonant to the true genuine sense and proper meaning of all but more especially of our 9 10 13 16 and 17. Articles then newly composed so that whatsoever is positively and clearly affirmed in this Catechism of any of the Points now controverted may be safely implied as the undoubted Doctrine of our Church and Articles For who can find if he looks upon them with a single and impartial eye that all or any of the passages before treated can be made use of for the countenancing of such a personal and eternal election without relation unto sin as is supposed by the Supralapsarians or without reference to Christs death and sufferings as is defended by the Sublapsarians in the Schools of Calvin What ground can a man find here for the Horribile Decretum that cruel and most unmerciful decree of pre-ordaining the far greatest part of all man-kind to everlasting damnation and consequently unto sin that they might be damned What passage find we in all these either in opposition to the Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption though that be afore said to be here condemned or in maintenance of the irresistible working of the grace of God as takes away all freedom and co-operation from the will of man and renders him as unable to his own conversion as to the work of his own being begotten to the life of nature or to the raising of his dead body to life of glory And finally what assurance is here that the man once justified shall not fall into deadly sin or not continue in the same multiplying one sin upon another till he hath made up the measure of his iniquities and yet all this while remain in the favour of God and be as sure and certain of his own salvation by the like unresistible working of the holy Spirit as if he had never wandred from the ways of Righteousness He must see further into a Mill-stone than all men living who can conclude from all or any of those passages that the Zuinglian and Calvinian Doctrines the Anti Arminian Doctrines Antiaâ—m as that Author calls them are manifestly approved and undeniably confirmed by them as the only ancient established and professed Doctrines of our Church and Articles or that can honestly affirm as his eccho doth that both the Master and the Scholar declare themselves plainly in that Catechism to be no friends to any of the Tenents which those of the opposite side contend for Which said 〈◊〉 Faith 〈◊〉 -arm p. 102. we will endeavour to find out Bishop Poynets judgment in the points disputed or so many of them at the least as are touched upon as well from such fragments as are offered to us in the Anti-Arminianism as from such passages as have been cunningly slipt over of purpose to subduct them from the eye of the Reader And first the Author lets us know that God created man after his own Image that is to say in ea absolutissima Justitia perfectissima sanctimonia c. in such a high degree of righteousness and perfect holiness as came most near unto the nature of God himself that this Divine image was so defaced by the sin of our first Parents Adam and Eve that those lineaments of righteousness holiness truth and knowledge of God were disordered and almost obliterated that man being in this wretched case it pleased God to raise him to a new hope of Restitution in the seed of the Woman that is to say in Jesus Christ his only Son conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the pure and most immaculate Virgin Mary the actions of whose life do so much redound to our benefit and commodity that if we cleave fast unto them with a true and lively faith they shall be as much ours as his and finally that as many as are in this faith stedfast were fore-chosen predestinate and appointed to everlasting life before the world was made 2. In the next place he lets us know which the Author hath amongst his fragments that the sacrificings cleansings washings and other Ceremonies of the Law were Shadows Types Images and Figures of the true and eternal Sacrifice of Jesus Christ made upon the Cross by whose benefit alone all the sins of all Believers from the beginning of the World are pardoned by the sore mercy of God and not by any deserts of their own But then he lets us
was then so generally received and taught in the Reformed Church of England as not to be known to Artificers Tradesmen and Mechanicks and that they were so well instructed in the niceties of it as to believe that though Christ died effectually for all yet the benefit thereof should be effectually applied to none but those who do effectually repent Fourthly I consider that if the Popish Clergy of those times did believe no otherwise of Predestination than that men be elected in respect of good works and so long elected as they do them and no longer as Carelese hath reported of them the Doctrine of the Church hath been somewhat altered since those times there being now no such Doctrine taught in the Schools of Rome as that a man continues no longer in the state of Election than whilst he is exercised in good works And finally I consider the unfortunate estate of those who living under no certain rule of Doctrine or Discipline lie open to the practices of cunning and malicious men by whom they are many times drawn aside from the true Religion For witnesses whereof we have Trew and Carelese above mentioned the one being wrought on by the Papists the other endangered by the Gospellers or Zuinglian Sectaries For that Carelese had been tampered with by the Gospellers or Zuinglian Sectaries doth appear most clearly first by the confidence which he had of his own salvation and of the final perseverance of all others also which are the chosen members of the Church of Christ and secondly but more especially for giving the scornful title of a Free-will man to one of his fellow Prisoners who was it seems of different persuasion from him For which consult his Letter to Henry Adlington in the Act. and Mon. Fol. 1749. which happened unto him as to many others when that Doctrine of the Church wanted the countenance of Law and the Doctors of the Church here scattered and dispersed abroad not being able to assist them In which condition the affairs of the holy Church remained till the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and for some years after But no sooner had that gracious Lady attained the Crown when she took order for the reviewing of the publick Liturgy formerly Authorized by Act of Parliament in the fifth and sixth years of King Edward VI. The men appointed for which work were Dr. Parker after Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Grindal after Bishop of London Dr. Pilkington after Bishop of Durham Dr. Cox after Bishop of Elie Dr. May Dean of Pauls Dr. Bill Provost of Eaton after Dean of Westminster Mr. Whitehead sometimes Chaplain to Queen Anne Bullen designed to be the first Archbishp of this new Plantation and finally Sir Thomas Smith a man of great esteem with King Edw. VI. and the Queen now Reigning By thesE men was the Liturgy reviewed approved and passed without any sensible alteration in any of the Rubricks Prayers and Contents thereof but only the giving of some contentment to the Papists and all moderate Protestants in two particulars the first whereof was the taking away of a clause in the Letany in which the People had been taught to pray to Almighty God to deliver them from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities The second was the adding of the sentences in the distribution of the Sacrament viz. The Body of our Lord Jesus which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul to everlasting life The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed for thee c. which sentences exclusive of the now following words of participation as they were only in the first so were they totally left out of the second Liturgy of King Edward VI. Other alterations I find none mentioned in the Act of Parliament 1 Eliz. c. 2. but the appointing of certain Lessons for every Sunday in the year which made no change at all in the publick Doctrine before contained in that book and that the People might be the better trained up in the same Religion which had been taught and preacht unto them in the time of King Edward VI. She gave command by her Injunctions published in the first year of her Reign Ann. 1559. that the Paraphrases of Erasmus should be diligently studied both by Priest and People And to that end it was required as formerly in the Injunctions of the said King Edward 1. That the Paraphrases of the said Erasmus Injunct 6. and on the Gospel in the English tongue should be provided at the joynt charges of the Parson and Parishioners and being so provided should be set up in some convenient place of every Church so as the Parishioners may most commodiously resort unto the same and read the same out of the time of common service And secondly Injunct 16. that every Parson Vicar Curate and Stipendary Priest shall provide and have of his own within the time therein limitted the New Testament in Latine and English with the Paraphrases on the same conferring the one with the other And the Bishops by themselves and other Ordinaries and their Officers in Synods and Visitations shall examine the said Ecclesiastical Priests how they have profited in the study of holy Scripture Evident Arguments that there was no intent of setling any other Doctrine in the Church of England than such as was agreeable to the Judgment of that Learned man The next care was for making and perfecting those Homilies of which we find mention at the end of King Edwards book for the necessary edifying of Christian People and the increase of godly living both books sufficiently provided for besides the confirmation of that first Article of the year 1552. in the Rubrick of the second Liturgy where it is said that after the Creed if there be no Sermon shall follow one of the Homilies already set forth or to be set forth by common authority which Rubrick being revised with the rest of the Liturgy put the said books of Homilies as well the second as first part of them into the service of the Church and thereby made them no small part of the publick doctrine But who they were which laboured in this second book whether they were the same that drew up the first or those who in Queen Elizabeths time reviewed the Liturgy or whether they were made by the one and reviewed by the other I have no where found though I have taken no small pains in the search thereof But those few doctrinals which were contained in the Book of Common Prayer or deducible from it not being much taken notice of and the Homilies not confirm'd by that common Authority which was required in the Rubrick the Zuinglians or Gospellers took the opportunity to disperse their doctrines before the door of utterance should be shut against them or any publick course be taken to suppress their practices And this they did with so much diligence and cunning that they encreased exceedingly both in power and numbers of
Page 477 6. The prosecution of the former story and ill success therein of the undertakers ibid. 7. Restraint of worldly business on the Lords day and the other Holy-days admitted in those times in Scotland Page 478 8. Restraint of certain servile works on Sundays Holy-days and the Wakes concluded in the Council of Oxon under Henry III. ibid. 9. Husbandry and Legal process prohibited on the Lords day first in the Reign of Edward III. Page 479 10. Selling of Wools on the Lords day and the solemn Feasts forbidden first by the said King Edward as after Fairs and Markets generally by King Henry VI. Page 480 11. The Cordwainers of London restrained from selling their Wares on the Lords day and some other Festivals by King Edward IV. and the repealing of that Act by King Henry VIII Page 481 12. In what estate the Lords day stood both for the doctrine and the practice in the beginning of the Reign of the said King Henry ibid. CHAP. VIII The story of the Lords day from the Reformation of Religion in this Kingdom till this present time 1. The doctrine of the Sabbath and the Lords day delivered by three several Martyrs conformably to the judgment of the Protestants before remembred Page 483 2. The Lords day and the other Holy-days confessed by all this Kingdom in the Court of Parliament to have no other ground than the Authority of the Church Page 484 3. The meaning and occasion of that clause in the Common-Prayer-book Lord have mercy upon us c. repeated at the end of the fourth Commandment Page 485 4. That by the Queens Injunctions and the first Parliament of her Reign the Lords day was not meant for a Sabbath day Page 486 5. The doctrine in the Homilies delivered about the Lords day and the Sabbath ibid. 6. The sum and substance of that Homily and that it makes not any thing for a Lords day Sabbath Page 487 7. The first original of the New Sabbath Speculations in this Church of England by whom and for what cause invented Page 489 8. Strange and most monstrous Paradoxes preached on occasion of the former doctrines and of the other effects thereof Page 490 9. What care was taken of the Lords day in King James his Reign the spreading of the doctrines and of the Articles of Ireland Page 491 10. The Jewish Sabbath set on foot and of King James his Declaration about Lawful sports on the Lords day Page 493 11. What Tracts were writ and published in that Princes time in opposition to the doctrines before remembred ibid. 12. In what estate the Lords day and the other Holy-days have stood in Scotland since the Reformation of Religion in that Kingdom Page 494 13. Statutes about the Lords day made by our present Sovereign and the misconstruing of the same His Majesty reviveth and enlargeth the Declaration of King James Page 496 14. An exortation to obedience unto his Majesties most Christian purpose concludes this History Page 497 Historia Quinqu-Articularis Or a Declaration of the Judgment of the Western Churches and more particularly of the Church of England in the five Controverted Points c. CHAP. I. The several Heresies of those who make God to be the Author of Sin or attribute too much to the Natural freedom of Man's Will in the Works of Piety 1. God affirmed by Florinus to be the Author of sin the Blasphemy encountred by Irenaeus and the foul Consequents thereof Page 505 2. Revived in the last Ages by the Libertines said by the Papists to proceed from the Schools of Calvin and by the Calvinists to proceed from the Schools of Rome Page 506 3. Disguised by the Maniches in another dress and the necessity thereby imposed on the Wills of men ibid. 4. The like by Bardesanes and the Priscilianists the dangerous consequents thereof exemplified out of Homer and the words of St. Augustine Page 507 5. The Error of the Maniches touching the servitude of the Will revived by Luther and continued by the rigid Lutherans ibid. 6. As those of Bardesanes and Priscilian by that of Calvin touching the Absolute Decree the dangers which lie hidden under the Decree and the incompatibleness thereof with Christs coming to Judgment ibid. 7. The large expressions of the Ancient Fathers touching the freedom of the Will abused by Pelagius and his followers Page 508 8. The Heresie of Pelagius in what it did consist especially as to this particular and the dangers of it ibid. 9. The Pelagian Heresie condemned and recalled the temper of S. Augustine touching the freedom of the Will in spiritual matters ibid. 10. Pelagianism falsly charged on the Moderate Lutherans How far all parties do agree about the freedom of the Will and in what they differ Page 509 CHAP. II. Of the Debates amongst the Divines in the Council of Trent touching Predestination and Original Sin 1. The Articles drawn from the Writings of the Zuinglians touching Predestination and Reprobation Page 510 2. The Doctrine of Predestination according to the Dominican way ibid. 3. As also the old Franciscans with Reasons for their own and against the other Page 511 4. The Historians judgment interposed between the Parties ibid. 5. The middle way of Catarinus to compose the differences ibid. 6. The newness of St. Augustines Opinion and the dislike thereof by the most Learned men in the Ages following Page 512 7. The perplexities amongst the Theologues touching the absoluteness of the Decrees ibid. 8. The judgment of the said Divines touching the possibility of falling from Grace ibid. 9. The Debates about the nature and transmitting of Original Sin ibid. 10. The Doctrine of the Council in it Page 513 CHAP. III. The like Debates about Free-will with the Conclusions of the Council in the five Controverted Points 1. The Articles against the Freedom of the Will extracted out of Luther's Writings Page 314 2. The exclamation of the Divines against Luther's Doctrine in the Point and the absurdities thereof ibid. 3. The several judgments of Marinarus Catarinus and Andreas Vega ibid. 4. The different judgment of the Dominicans and Franciscans whether it lay in mans power to believe or not to believe and whether the freedom of the Will were lost in Adam ibid. 5. As also of the Point of the co-operation of mans Will with the Grace of God Page 515 6. The opinion of Frier Catanca in the point of irresistibility ibid. 7. Faintly maintained by Soto a Dominican Fryer and more cordially approved by others but in time rejected ibid. 8. The great care taken by the Legates in having the Articles so framed as to please all parties Page 516 9. The Doctrine of the Council in the five Controverted Points ibid. 10. A Transition from the Council of Trent to the Protestant and Reformed Churches Page 517 CHAP. IV. The judgment of the Lutherans and Calvinians in these five Points with some Objections made against the Conclusions of the Council of Dort 1. No difference in Five Points betwixt the
ΚΕΙΜΗΛΙΑ ' ΕΚΚΛΗΣΙΑΣΤΙΚΑ THE HISTORICAL AND MISCELLANEOUS TRACTS Of the Reverend and Learned Peter Heylyn D. D. Now Collected into one Volume I. Ecclesia Vindicata Or The Church of ENGLAND Justified 1. In the Way and Manner of her Reformation 2. In Officiating by a Publick Liturgy 3. In prescribing a set Form of Prayer to be used by Preachers before their Sermons 4. In her Right and Patrimony of Tythes 5. In retaining the Episcopal Government 6. And the Canonical Ordination of Priests and Deacons II. The History of the SABBATH in two Parts III. Historia Quinquarticularis Or A Historical Declaration of the Judgment of the Western Churches and more particularly of the Church of England in the Five Controverted Points reproach'd in these last times with the Name of Arminianism IV. The Stumbling-Block of Disobedience and Rebellion proving the Kingly Power to be neither Co-ordinate nor Subordinate to any other upon Earth To which are Added V. A Treatise de jure Paritatis Episcoporum Or A Defence of the Right of Peerage of the English Bishops AND An Account of the Life of the AUTHOR Never before Published With an exact Table to the whole LONDON Printed by M. Clark for Charles Harper at the Flower-de-luce over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1681. THE LIFE OF The most Learned and Reverend Dr. PETER HEYLYN TO Write the Lives of worthy Personages was ever accounted a most laudable custom amongst the Heathens For to perpetuate the memory of the Dead who were eminent in Vertue did manifestly conduce to the publique benefit of the Living much more the Ancient Christians in their time both solemnly retained this practice and adjudged it an act of Piety and Justice to the Deceased If they were Men of Fame for Learning or other Virtues to Celebrate their praises to Posterity and by this means stir up Emulation in others to follow so noble precedents before them For which cause S. Jerom writ his Catalogus illustrium Virorum before whom also Eusebius with others in short recorded to future Ages the holy Lives of those Primitive Fathers who were signally active or passive for the Christian Faith Tacit. lib. 4. Suum cuique decus posteritas rependit saith the Historian Posterity doth render to every man the Commendation he deserves Therefore for the Reverend Authors sake and in due Veneration of his Name which I doubt not is honoured by all true Sons of the Church of England both for his Learned Writings and constant Sufferings in defence of her Doctrine and Discipline established by Law here is faithfully presented to them a true and compleat Narrative of his Life before his Elaborate Works Reprinted to answer the common expectation of men in this case who would read his Person together with the ordinary and extraordinary occurrences of Providence that befel him as well as his Books that were long before published to the World To give satisfaction in the former here is nothing inserted but the Relations of truth which hath been often heard from his own mouth spoken to his dearest Friends or written by his Pen in some loose fragments of Paper that were found left in his Study after his death upon which as on a sure foundation the whole Series and Structure of the following Discourse is laid together but would have been more happily done if he had left larger Memoirs for it Nothing was more usual in ancient times than for good men saith Tacitus to describe their own Lives Suam ipsi vitam narrare In vita Jul. Agric. fiduciam potius morum quam arrogantiam arbitrati sunt Upon a confidence of their right behaviour rather than to be supposed any arrogancy or presumption in them First of all I shall begin with his Birth In that Country above all other enobled with the famous seat of the Muses to which he was a constant Votary Cambd. Britt by Cambden Oxford is called the Sun Eye and Soul of Great Britain by Matthew Paris the second School of the Church the present Author saith co-eval to Paris if not before it the glory of this Island and of the Western parts near which place or noble Athens Peter Heylyn was Born at Burford an ancient Town of good Note in the County of Oxford upon the 29th day of Novemb. An. Dom. 1600. in the same year with the Celebrated Historian Quensted Dialog de pat illust vir Jacobus Aug. Thuanus on both whom the Stars poured forth the like benign influences But the former viz. Peter Heylyn had not only the faculty of an Historian but the gift of a general Scholar in other Learning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as will appear to any one that reads his laborious Writings He was second Son of Henry Heylyn Gentleman Descended from the Ancient Family of the Heylyns of Pentre-Heylyn in Moungomery-Shire then part of Powis-Land from the Princes whereof they were derived and unto whom they were Hereditary Cup-Bearers for so the word Heylyn doth signifie in the Welsh or Brittish Language An Honourable Office in most Nations which we find in Divine as well as Profane History Neh. 1.11 Magni honoris erat Pincernae munus apud Persás saith Alex. ab Alex. And if Cambden Clarencieux be of good Authority the Reverend Doctor deriveth his Pedegree from Greno ap Heylyn who descended from Brockwell Skythrac one of the Princes of Powis-Land a man of so great Authority with the Princes of North-Wales that Llewellyn the last Prince of that Country made choice of the said Grono-ap-Heylyn to treat with the Commissioners of Edward I. King of England for the concluding a final Peace between them which afterwards being broken by L'lewellyn in him ended all the Princes of North-Wales after they had Reigned for the space of 405. years a goodly time that scarcely the greatest Monarchies in the World have withstood their fatal period and dissolution Yet the Family of Pentre Heylyn from whom the said Grono-ap-Heylyn descended in a direct Line continued their Seat until the year Anno Dom 1637. at which time Rowland Heylyn Alderman and Sheriff of London and Cousin-german to Dr. Heylyn's Father dying without Issue-Male the Seat was transferred into another Family into which the Heiresses Married but if the Doctor had lived a little longer he intended to have repurchased that Seat and bring it back again into the Name and Family His Cousin Mr. Rowland Heylyn before his death caused the Welch and Brittish Bible to be Printed at his own Charges in a portable Volume for the benefit of his Country-men which was before in a large Church Folio also the Practice of Piety in Welch a Book though common not to be despised besides a Welch Dictionary for the better understanding of that Language One thing of chief remark is a Tradition among the Heylyns deriving their Pedigree from Brockwell Skythrac in whose Family was ever observed that one of them had a gag Tooth and the same a notable Omen of good
Divinity as well as undertake the profession of it but afterward persuaded thereto by a Right Reverend and Learned Person Mr. Buckner he seriously applied himself to this Study and holy Profession receiving the Orders of Deacon and Priest but at distinct times in S. Aldates Church in Oxon from the Right Reverend Bishop Howson And when he was Ordained Priest he Preach'd the Ordination Sermon upon these words of our Blessed Saviour to S. Peter Luk. 22.32 And when thou art Converted strengthen thy Brethren What course and method he observed in his Theological Studies he informs us with his own Pen Theol. Vit. praef to the Reader When I began my Studies in Divinity I thought no course so proper and expedient for me as the way commended by King James which was that young Students in Divinity should be excited to study such Books as were most agreeable in Doctrine and Discipline to the Church of England and to bestow their time in the Fathers and Councils School-men Histories and Controversie and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and Abbreviators His Geography was in less than three years Reprinted And in this second Edition was enlarged and again presented by him to the Prince of Wales and by him graciously received with most affectionate commendations of the Author But it met with another kind of entertainment from King James for the Book being put into the hands of that Learned Monarch by Dr. Young then Dean of Winton who design'd nothing but the highest kindness to Mr. Heylyn thereby the King at first exprest his great value he had for the Author but unfortunatly falling on a passage wherein Mr. Heylyn gave Precedency to the French King and called France the more famous Kingdom King James became very much offended and ordered the Lord Keeper to call the Book in The Dean gave notice to Mr. Heylyn of his Majesties displeasure and advised him to repair to Court and make use of the Princes Patronage as the best lenitive to prevent the rankling of this wound But he rather chose to abide in Oxford and acquainting the Lord Danvers with the business afterward sent an Apology and Explanation of his meaning That the burden under which he suffered was rather a mistake than a crime and that mistake not his own but the Printers which was after corrected and amended In the year 1625. he took a Journey with Mr. Levet of Lincolns-Inn into France where he visited more Cities and made more observations in five weeks time for he stayed no longer than many others have done in so many years The particulars of this Journey he reduced into writing and some years after gratifi'd his Countrey with the publication of it together with some other excellent remarks made by him when he went in attendance upon the Earl of Danby to the Isle of Gernsey and Jersey Anno Dom. 1628. Had King James lived to have perused that Book Mr. Heylyn had needed no other Advocate to have restored him to his Princely favour and protection For never was the vanity and levity of the Monsieurs and deformity and sluttishness of their Madams more ingeniously exposed both in Verse and Prose than in the account that he gives of his Voyage into France On April the 18th 1627. he opposed in the Divinity-School and on Tuesday the 24th following he answered pro formâ upon these two Questions viz. An Ecclesia unquam fuerit invisibilis An Ecclesia possit errare Both which he determined in the Negative Upon occasional discourse with him he was pleased once to shew me his Supposition which I read over in his House at Lacies-Court in Abingdon but I had not then either the leisure or good luck to transcribe a Copy of it which would have been worth my pains and more worthy of the Press to the great satisfaction of others For my part I can truly say that I never read any thing with more delight for good Latin Reason and History which that Exercise was full of but since both it and many other choice Papers in his Study through the carelesness of those to whose custody they are committed I suppose are utterly lost and gone ad blattarum tinearum Epulas In stating of the first Question that caused the heats of that day he fell upon a quite different way from that of Dr. Prideaux the Professor in his Lecture De Visibilitate Ecclesiae and contrary to the common opinion of other Divines who generally prove the visibility of the Protestant Church from the poor persecuted Christians dispersed in several places as the Berengarians in Italy the Waldenses in France the Wicklifists in England and the Hussiets in Bohemia which manner of proceeding being disliked by Mr. Heylyn as that which utterly discontinued the Succession of the Hierarchy which the Church of England claims from the very Apostles and their immediate Successors He rather chose to find out a continual visible Church in Asia Ethiopia Greece Italy yea and Rome it self as also in all the Western Provinces then subject to the power of the Roman Bishop when he was the chief Patriarch which Mr. Heylyn from his great knowledge and more than ordinary abilities in History strenuously asserted and proved to which the Professor could make but weak replies as I have heard from knowing persons who were present at that Disputation because he was drawn out of his ordinany byass from Scholastical Disputation to forein Histories in which encounter Mr. Heylyn was the invincible Ajax Nec quisquam Ajacem superare possit nisi Ajax But chiefly the quarrel did arise for two words in Mr. Heylyns Hypothesis after he had proved the Church of England received no Succession of Doctrine or Government from the Berengarians Wicklifists c. who held many Heterodoxies in Religion as different from the established Doctrine of our Church as any point which was maintained at that time in the Church of Rome that the Writers of that Church Bellarmin himself hath stood up as cordially in maintenance of some fundamental points of the Christian Faith against Anti-Trinitarians Anabaptists and other Heretiques of these last Ages as any our Divines and other Learned men of the Protestant Churches which point Mr. Heylyn closed up with these words Vtinam quod ipse de Calvino sic semper errasset nobilissimus Cardinalis at which words the Reverend Doctor was so impatient in his Chair that he fell upon the Respondent in most vile terms calling him Papicola Bellarminianus Pontificius c. to draw the hatred of the University upon him according to the saying Fortiter calumniare aliquid adhaerebit grievously complaining to the younger sort of his Auditors unto whom he made his chiefest addresses of the unprofitable pains he took among them if Bellarmin whom he had laboured to confute for so many years should be honoured with the Title of Nobilissimus Notwithstanding the Respondent acquitted himself bravely before the Company ascribing no more honour to Bellarmin
be placed according to ancient custom at the East end of the Chancel and railed about decently to prevent base and profane usages and where the Chancel wanted any thing of repairs or the Church it self both to be amended Having thus shewed his care first for the House of God to set it in good order the next work followed was to make his own dwelling House a fit and convenient Habitation that to the old Building he added a new one which was far more graceful and made thereto a Chappel next to the Dining-room that was beautified and adorned with silk Hangings about the Altar in which Chappel himself or his Curate read Morning and Evening Prayer to the Family calling in his Labourers and Workfolks for he was seldom without them while he liv'd saying that he loved the noise of a Work-mans hammer for he thought it a deed of Charity as well as to please his own fancy by often building repairing to set poor People a work and encourage painful Artificers and Tradesmen in their honest Callings Yet after his death his Eldest Son was sued for Dilapidations in the Court of Arches by Dr. Beamont his Fathers Successor but the ingenious Gentleman pleaded his cause so notably before Sir Giles Swet then Judge of the Court that he was discharged there being no reason or justice he should be troubled for Dilapidations occasioned by the long War when his Father was unjustly turn'd out of his House and Living In July 1630. he took his Degree of Batchelor in Divinity His Latin Sermon was upon these words Mal. 4.19 Facim vos fieri piscatores hominum Upon the Sunday following being the time of the Act he Preach'd in the Afternoon on Matth. 13.25 In Feb. 13. A. D. 1633. He took his Degree of Dr. in Divinity an honour not usually in those days conferr'd upon men of such green years but our young Doctor verified those excellent words of the Son of Syrach That honourable Age is not that which standeth in length of time nor that is measured by number of years but Wisdom is the grey unto men and an unspotted life is an old Age Wisd 4.8 9. He entertain'd some hopes that Dr. Prideaux his animosities in so long a Tract of time as from 1627. to 1633. might have cooled In his first Disputation he had insisted on the Churches Visibility and now he resolved to assert and establish its Authority and to that purpose made choice to answer for his Degree upon these three questions viz. An Ecclesia habeat Authoritatem In determinandis fidei controversus An Ecclesia habeat Authoritatem Interpretandi S. scripturas An Ecclesia habeat Authoritatem Decernendi Ritus Caeremonias All which he held in the Affirmative according to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the 20th Article But Dr. Prideaux was as little pleased with these questions and the Respondents stating of them as he was with the former And therefore to create unto the Respondent a greater odium he openly declared that the Respondent had falsified the publick Doctrine of the Church and changed the Article with that sentence viz. Habet Ecclesia ritus sive caeremonias c. which was not to be found in the whole body of it and for the proof thereof he read the Article out of a Book which lay before him beginning thus Non licet Ecclesiae quicquam instituere quod verbo Dei scripto adversetur c. To which the Respondent readily answered That he perceived by the bigness of the Book which lay on the Doctors Cushion that he had read that Article out of the harmony of Confessions published at Geneva A. D. 1612. which therein followed the Edition of the Articles in the time of King Edward VI. A.D. 1552. in which that sentence was not found but that it was otherwise in the Articles agreed on in the Convocation A. D. 1562. The Respondent caused the Book of Articles to be sent for out of the Book-sellers shop which being observed by the Doctor he declared himself very willing to decline any further prosecution of that particular But Dr. Heylyn was resolved to proceed on no further Vsquedum liberaverit animam suam ab ista calumnia as his own words were At the coming in of the Book the Respondent read the Article in the English Tongue viz. The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith c. Which done he delivered the Book to one of the Standers by who desired it of him the Book passing from one hand to another till all men were satisfied The Regius Professor had no other subterfuge but this He went to prove that not the Convocation but the High Court of Parliament had power of ordering matters in the Church in making Canons ordaining Ceremonies and determining Controversies in Religion And he could find no other medium to make it good but the Authority of Sir Edward Coke in one of the Books of his Reports An Argument that Dr. Heylyn gratified with no better answer than Non Credendum est cuique extra suam artem For these things and the Professors ill words in the former Disputation Dr. Heylyn caused him to be brought before the Council Table at Woodstock where he was publickly reprehended And upon the coming out of the Kings Declaration concerning lawful sports Dr. Heylyn translated the Regius Professors Lecture upon the Sabbath into English and putting a Preface before it caused it to be Printed a performance which did not only justifie his Majesties proceedings but took off much of that opinion which Dr. Prideaux had amongst the Puritanical Faction in those days A. D. 1634. The grievances which the Collegiate Church of Westminster suffered under the Government of John Lord Bishop of Lincoln then Commendatory Dean thereof became so intolerable that Dr. Heylyn with Dr. Tho. Wilson Dr. Gabriel Moor and Dr. Lud. Wemys with other of the Prebends drew up a Charge of no less than 36 Articles against the Bishop and by way of complaint humbly Petitioned his Majesty for redress of these grievances Whereupon a Commission was issued out to the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York the Earl of Manchester Earl of Portland the Lord Bishop of London and the two Secretaries of State Authorizing them to hold a Visitation of the Church of Westminster to examine the particular Charges made against John Lord Bishop of Lincoln who afterwards calling the Prebends to meet him in the Jerusalem-Chamber desired to know of them what these things were that were amiss that so he might presently redress them But to that Dr. Heylyn replied that seeing they had put the business into his Majesties hands it would but ill become them to take the matters out of his into their own Amongst other grievances the Bishop had most disgracefully turned out the Prebends of the great Seat or Pew under the Pulpit Dr. Heylyn being chosen Advocate for his Brothren did prove before
Num. 2 3 4 5 6 Part 2. Cap. 1. Num. 10 c. Cap. 4 Numb 7. Cap. 5. Num. 5 6. Cap. 6. Num. 5 7. besides many other passages here and there interserted to the same effect that I shall save my self the trouble of adding any thing further to those Observations And to them therefore I refer the Reader for his satisfaction At this time I shall say no more but that the Church had never stood so constantly to Episcopal Government were it not for the great and signal benefits which redound unto it by the same Of which there is none greater or of more necessary use to Christianity than the preserving of a perpetual succession of Preists and Deacons ordained in a Canonical way to be Ministers of holy things to the rest of the people that is to say to Preach the Word Administer the Sacraments and finally to perform all other Divine and Religious Offices which are required of them by the Church in their several places Thus have I laid before thee good Christian Reader the Method and Design of this following Work together with the Argument and Occasion of each several Piece contained in it Which as I have done with all Faith and Candor in the sincerity of my Heart and for the Testimony of a good Conscience laying it with all humble reverence at the feet of those who are in Authority so with respective duty and affection I submit the same unto the judgment of which Persuation or Condition soever thou art for whose instruction in the several Points herein declared it was chiesly studied And I shall heartily beseech all those who shall please to read it that if they meet with any thing therein which either is less fitly spoken or not clearly evidenced they would give me notice of it in such a charitable and Christian way as I may be the better for it and they not the worse Which favour if they please to do me they shall be welcome to me as an Angel of God sent to conduct me from the Lands of error into the open ways of truth And doing these Christian Offices unto one another we shall by Gods good leave and blessing not only hold the bond of external peace but also in due time be made partakers of the spirit of Vnity Which Blessing that the Lord would graciously bestow on his afflicted and distracted Church is no small part of our Devotions in the publick Liturgy where we are taught to pray unto Almighty God that he would please continually to inspire his universal Church with the spirit of Truth Vnity and Concord and grant that all they which do confess his holy Name may agree also in the truth of his holy Word and live in Vnity and godly Love Unto which Prayer he hath but little of a Christian which doth not heartily say Amen Lacies Court in Abingdon April 23. 1657. The Way of the REFORMATION OF THE Church of England DECLARED and JUSTIFIED c. THE INTRODUCTION Shewing the Occasion Method and Design of the whole discourse My dear Hierophilus YOUR company is always very pleasing to me but you are never better welcome han when you bring your doubts and scruples along with you for by that means you put me to the studying of some point or other whereby I benefit my self if not profit you And I remember at the time of your last being with me you seemed much scandalized for the Church of England telling me you were well assured that her Doctrine was most true and orthodox her Government conform to the Word of God and the best ages of the Church and that her publick Liturgie was an Extract of the Primitive Forms nothing in all the whole composure but what did tend to edification and Increase of piety But for all this you were unsatisfied as you said in the ways and means by which this Church proceeded in her Reformation alleding that you had heard it many times objected by some Partisans of the Church of Rome that our Religion was meer Parliamentarian not regulated by Synodical Meetings or the Authority of Councels as in elder times or as D. Harding said long since in his Answer unto B. Jewel That we had a Parliament Religion a Parliament Faith and a Parliament Gospel To which Scultinguis and some others after added that we had none but Parliament Bishops and a Parliament Clergy that you were apt enough to think that the Papists made not all this noise without some ground for it in regard you have observed some Parliaments in these latter days so mainly bent to catch at all occasions whereby no manifest their powers in Ecclesiastical matters especially in constituting the new Assembly of Divines and others And finally that you were heartily ashamed that being so often choaked with these Objections you neither knew how to traverse the â—ndictment nor plead Not guilty to the Bill Some other doubts you said you had relating to the King the Pope and the Protestant Churches either too little or too much look'd after in our Reformation but you were loth to trouble me with too much at once And thereupon you did intreat me to bethink my self of some fit Plaister for the sore which did oft afflict you religiously affirming that your desires proceeded not from curiosity or an itch of knowledge or out of any disaffection to the Power of Parliaments but meerly from an honest zeal to the Church of England whose credit and prosperity you did far prefer before your life or whatsoever in this world could be dear unto you Adding withal that if I would take this pains for your satisfaction and help you out of these perplexities which you were involved in I should not only do good service to the Church it self but to many a wavering member of it whom these objections had much staggered in their Resolutions In fine that you desired also to be informed how far the Parliaments had been interessed in these alterations of Religion which hapned in the Reigns of K. Hen. VIII K. Edw. VI. and Q. Elizabeth What ground there was for all this clamour of the Papists And whether the Houses or either of them have exercised of old any such Authority in matters of Ecclesiastical or Spiritual nature as some of late have ascribed unto them Which though it be a dangerous and invidious Subject as the times now are yet for your sake and for the truth's and for the honour of Parliaments which seem to suffer much in the Popish calumny I shall undertake it premising first that I intend not to say any thing to the point of Right whether or not the Parliament may lawfully meddle in such matters as concern Religion but shall apply my self wholly unto matters of Fact as they relate unto the Reformation here by law established And for my method in this business I shall first lay down by way of preamble the form of calling of the Convocation of the Clergy here in England that
the Church must continue without Reformation or else it must be lawful for National particular Churches to reform themselves In such a case the Church may be reformed per partes part after part Province after Province as is said by Gerson But I do not mean to trouble you with this Dispute For that particular Churches may reform themselves by National or Provincial Councils when the Church general will not do it or that it cannot be effected by a General Council hath been so fully proved by my Lord of Canterbury in his learned and elaborate discourse against Fisher the Jesuite that nothing can be added unto so great diligence But if it be objected as you say it is that National Councils have a power of Promulgation only not of Determination also I answer first that this runs cross to all the current of Antiquity in which not only National but Provincial Councils did usually determine in the points of Faith and these too of the greatest moment as did that of Antioch which if it were somewhat more than a National was notwithstanding never reckoned for a General Council I answer secondly as before that for one Heresie suppressed in a General Council there hath been ten at least suppressed in National and Provincial Synods which could not be in case they had no power of Determination And thirdly That the Articles or Confession of the Church of England are only Declaratory of such Catholick Doctrines as were received of old in the Church of Christ not Introductory of new ones of their own devising as might be evidenced in particular were this place fit for it But what needs any proof at all when we have Confession For the Arch-Bishop of Spalato a man as well studied in the Fathers as the best amongst them ingenuously acknowledged at the High Commission that the Articles of this Church were profitable none of them Heretical and that he would defend the honour of the Church of England against all the World And this he said at the very time of his departure when his soul was gone before to Rome and nothing but his Carkass left behind in England The like avowed by Davenport or Franciscus à Sancta Clara call him which you will who makes the Articles of this Church rightly understood according to the literal meaning and not perverted to the ends of particular Factions to be capable of a Catholick and Orthodox sense which is as much as could be looked for from the mouth of an Adversary So much as cost one of them his life though perhaps it will be said that he died in prison and the burning of his body after his death though he endevoured to save both by a Retractation So that in this case too we have omnia bene nothing amiss in the proceedings of this Church with reference to the Pope or a General Council But you will say that though we could not stay the calling of a General Council which would have justified our proceedings in the eyes of our Adversaries it had been requisite even in the way of civil Prudence to have taken the advice of the Sister-Churches especially of those which were engaged at the same time in the same designs which would have added reputation to us in the eyes of our Friends As for the taking counsel of the Sister-Churches it hath been touched upon already and therefore we shall say no more as to that particular unless the Sister-Churches of these latter times had been like the Believers in the infancy of the Christian Faith when they were all of one heart and one soul as the Scripture hath it Act. 4. their counsels had been dilatory if not destructive 'T is true indeed united Counsels are the stronger and of greater weight and not to be neglected where they may be had but where they are not to be had we must act without them And if we look into the time of our Reformation we shall find those that were engaged in the same design divided into obstinate parties and holding the names of Luther and Zuinglius in an higher estimate than either the truth of the Opinion in which they differed or the common happiness of the Church so disturbed between them The breach not lessened but made wider by the rise of Calvin succeeding not long after in the fame of Zuinglius Besides that living under the command of several Princes and those Princes driving on to their several ends it had been very difficult if not impossible to draw them unto such an Harmony of affections and consent in judgment as so great a business did require So that the Church of England was necessitated in that conjuncture of affairs to proceed as it did and to act that single by it self which could not be effected by the common Counsels and joynt concurrence of the others 'T is true Melancthon was once coming over in King Henries days but staid his journey on the death of Queen Anne Bullen and that he was after sEnt for by King Edward IV. Regis Literis in Angliam vocor as he affirms in an Epistle unto Camerarius Anno 1553. But he was staid at that time also on some other occasion though had he come at that time he had come too late to have had any hand in the Reformation the Articles of the Church being passed the Liturgy reviewed and settled in the year before And 't is as true that Calvin offered his assistance to Arch-Bishop Cranmer for the reforming of this Church Si quis mei usus esset as his own words are if his assistance were thought needful to advance the work But Cranmer knew the man and refused the offer and he did very wisely in it For seeing it impossible to unite all parties it had been an imprudent thing to have closed with any I grant indeed that Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr men of great learning and esteem but of different judgments were brought over hither about the beginning of the Reign of K. Edward VI. the one of them being placed in Oxford the other in Cambridge but they were rather entertained as private Doctors to moderate in the Chairs of those Universities than any ways made use of in the Reformation For as the first Liturgy which was the main key unto the work was framed and settled before either of them were come over so Bucer died before the compiling of the Book of Articles which was the accomplishment thereof Nor do I find that Peter Martyr was made use of otherwise in this weighty business than to make that good by disputation which by the Clergy in their Synods or Convocations was agreed upon By means whereof the Church proceeding without reference to the different interesses of the neighbouring Churches kept a conformity in all such points of Government and publique order with the Church of Rome in which that Church had not forsaken the clear Tract of the primitive Times retaining not only the Episcopal Government with all the concomitants
the Rectors as we call them of particular Churches Concil Tole Can. IV. Can. 25 26. and in the fourth Council of Toledo where we read of Presbyters ordained in paroeciis per paroecias for the use and service of particular Parishes And in this sense but specially indeed for a Countrey Parish the word is taken in an Epistle of Pope Innocentius Innocent lib. ad Decentium c. 5. in which Ecclesiae intra Civitatem constitutae the Churches situated in the City are distinguished plainly from Paroecias the Churches scattered in the Countrey Other Examples of this nature in the later Ages being almost infinite and obvious to the eye of every Reader I forbear to add So for the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we English Diocess it signified at first that part or portion of the Roman Empire there being thirteen of them in all besides the Prefecture of the City of Rome as before was noted which was immediately under the command of the Vicarius or Lieutenant General of those parts And was so called of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to Govern or Administer Isocrat ad Nicoclen as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Isocrates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Demosthenes a Diocess being that part or portion of the Empire which was committed to the Government and Administration of some principal Officer In which regard the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or dioecesis when it was first borrowed by the Church from the civil State was used to signifie that part or portion of the Church which was within the jurisdiction of a Primate containing all the circuit of the civil Diocess as was shewed before the Primate being stiled ordinarily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in the Council of Chalcedon Concil Chalcedon Car. 9.17 Novel const 123. c. 22. the Patriarch of the Diocess in the Laws Imperial But after as the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 began to lose its former latitude in which it signified the whole command or Jurisdiction of a Bishop which we call a Diocess and grew to be restrained to so narrow a compass as the poor limits of a Parish so did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grow less also than at first it was and from a Patriarchal Diocess Horat. de Arte. fell by degrees custom and use prevailing in it quem penes arbitrium est ju norma loquendi as the Poet hath it to signifie no more than what Paroecia had done formerly a Diocess as now we call it whereof see Concil Antioch cap. 9. Con. Sardicens cap. 18. Constantinop ca. 2. Chalcedon ca. 17. Carthag III. can 20. IV. can 36. So then the just result of all is this that the Bishops of the Primitive times were Diocesan Bishops though they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by some ancient Writers and that in the succeeding Ages as the Church increased and the Gospel of our Saviour did inlarge its borders so did the Countrey Villages obtain the name of Parishes or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 having to each of them a Presbyter for the administration of the Sacraments for their instruction both in Faith and Piety whom at this day we call the Rector of the Church or Parish And with this Presbyter or Rector call him as you will must we now proceed who by this Institution I mean the setting out of Parishes in the Countrey Villages did grow exceedingly both in authority and reputation For whereas upon the setting out of Parishes Concil Neo-Caesar ca. 13. the Presbyters became divided into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the City and the Countrey Presbyters each of them had their several priviledges the City Presbyters continuing as before the great Council of Estate unto the Bishop Concil Neo. ca. 13. and doing many things which were not suffered to be done by the Countrey Presbyters and on the other side the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Country Presbyters being more remote did many Ministerial Acts of their own authority which in the presence of their Bishop it was not lawful for them to have done And therefore I conceive the resolution of Bishop Downham in this case Defence of the Sermon l. 1. cap. 2. to be sound and good who telleth us That since the first distinguishing of Parisher and allotting of several Presbyters to them there hath been ever granted to them both potestas Ordinis the power of Orders as they are Ministers Et potestas jurisdictionis spiritualis seu internae a power of spiritual and inward jurisdiction to rule their flock after a private manner as it were in foro Conscientiae in the Court of Conscience as they are Pastors of that flock But because this allowance of a Jurisdiction in foro Conscientiae in the Court of Conscience seems not sufficient unto some who reckon the distinction of a Jurisdiction in foro externo Vindication of the Answ §. 9. in foro interno to be like that of Reflexius and Archipodialiter they do in this not only put the School-men unto School again in whom the like distinctions frequently occur but cross the best Divines in the Church of England who do adhere unto and approve the said distinctions And because many of both sorts may be found in one and that one publick's declared to be both Orthodox in doctrine and consonant in discipline to the Church of England by great Authority I will use his words Holy Table Ch. 3. A single Priest qua talis in that formality and capacity only as he is a Priest hath no Key given him by God or man to open the doors of any external Jurisdiction He hath a Consistory within in foro poenitentiae in the conscience of his Parishioners and a Key given him upon his institution to enter into it But he hath no Consistory without in foro causae in medling with Ecclesiastical causes unless he borrow a Key from his Ordinary For although they be the same Keys yet one of them will not open all these wards the Consistory of outward Jurisdiction not being to be opened by a Key alone but as you may observe in some great mens gates by a Key and a Staff which they usually call a Crosier This saith he I have ever conceived to be the ancient doctrine in this kind opposed by none but professed Puritans affirming further that all learned men in the Church of England do adhere unto it allowing the School-mens double power that of Order and that of Jurisdiction and the subdivision of this Jurisdiction into the internal and external appropriating this last to the Bishop only So he judiciously indeed and for the Authors by him cited both Protestant and School-Divines I refer you to him So then upon this setting out of Parishes the Presbyters which attended in the same had potestatem jurisdictionis a power of Jurisdiction granted to them in the Court of Conscience which needed not to have been granted before
to the judgment of the Protestants before remembred 2. The Lords day and the other Holy days confessed by all this Kingdom in the Court of Parliament to have no other ground than the authority of the Church 3. The meaning and occasion of that clause in the Common-Prayer book Lord have mercy upon us c. repeated at the end of the fourth Commandment 4. That by the Queens Injunctions and the first Parliament of her Keign the Lords day was not meant for a Sabbath day 5. The doctrine in the Homilies delivered about the Lords day and the Sabbath 6. The sum and substance of that Homily and that it makes not any thing for a Lords day Sabbath 7. The first original of the New Sabbath Speculations in this Church of England by whom and for what cause invented 8. Strange and most monstrous Paradoxes preached on occasion of the former doctrines and of the other effects thereof 9. What care was taken of the Lords day in King James his Reign the spreading of the doctrines and of the Articles of Ireland 10. The Jewish Sabbath set on foot and of King James his declaration about lawful sports on the Lords day 11. What Tracts were writ and published in that Princes time in opposition to the doctrines before remembred 12. In what estate the Lords day and the other Holy days have stood in Scotland since the reformation of Religion in that Kingdom 13. Statutes about the Lords day made by our present Sovereign and the misconstruing of the same His Majesty reviveth and enlargeth the Declaration of King James 14. An exhortation to obedience unto his Majesties most Christian purpose concludes this History THUS are we safely come to these present times the times of Reformation wherein whatever had been taught or done in the former days was publickly brought unto the test and if not well approved of layed aside either as unprofitable or plainly hurtful So dealt the Reformators of the church of England as with other things with that which we have now in hand the Lords day and the other Holy days keeping the days as many of them as were thought convenient for the advancement of true godliness and increase of piety but paring off those superstitious conceits and matters of opinion which had been entertained about them But first before we come to this we will by way of preparation lay down the judgments of some men in the present point men of good quality in their times and such as were content to be made a sacrifice in the common Cause Of these I shall take notice of three particularly according to the several times in the which they lived And first we will begin with Master Frith who suffered in the year 1533. who in his declaration of Baptism thus declares himself Our forefathers saith he Page 96. which were in the beginning of the Church did abrogate the Sabbath to the intent that men might have an ensample of Christian liberty c. Howbeith because it was necessary that a day should be reserved in which the people should come together to hear the Word of God they ordained instead of the Sabbath which was Saturday the next day following which is Sunday And although they might have kept the Saturday with the Jew as a thing indifferent yet they did much better Some three years after him Anno 1536. being the 28. of Henry the eighth suffered Master Tyndall who in his answer to Sir Thomas More hath resolved it thus As for the Sabbath we be Lords over the Sabbath Page 287. and may yet change it into Monday or into any other day as we see need or may make every tenth day Holy day only if we see cause why Neither was there any cause to change it from the Saturday but to put a difference between us and the Jews neither reed we any Holy day at all if the people might be taught without it Last of all bishop Hooper sometimes Bishop of Gloucester who suffered in Queen Maries Reign doth in a Treatise by him written on the Ten Commandments and printed in the year 1550. go the self-same way age 103. We may not think saith he that God gave any more holiness to the Sabbath than to the other days For if ye consider Friday Pag. 103. Saturday or Sunday inasmuch as they be days and the work of God the one is no more holy than the other but that day is always most holy in the which we most apply and give our selves unto holy works To that end did he sanctifie the Sabbath day not that we should give our selves to illness or such Ethnical pastime as is now used amongst Ethnical people but being free that day from the travels of this World we might consider the works and benefits of God with thanksgiving hear the Word of God honour him and fear him then to learn who and where be the poor of Christ that want our help Thus they and they amongst them have resolved on these four conclusions First that one day is no more holy than another the Sunday than the Saturday or the Friday further than they are set apart for holy Uses Secondly that the Lords day hath no institution from divine authority but was ordained by our fore-fathers in the beginning of the Church that so the people might have a Day to come together and hear Gods Word Thirdly that still the Church hath power to change the day from Sunday unto Monday or what day she will And lastly that one day in seven is not the Moral part of the fourth Commandment for Mr. Tyndal saith expresly that by the Church of God each tenth day only may be kept holy if we see cause why So that the marvel is the greater that any man should now affirm as some men have done that they are willing to lay down both their Lives and Livings in maintenance of those contrary Opinions which in these latter days have been taken up Now that which was affirmed by them in their particulars was not long afterwards made good by the general Body of this Church and State the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and all the Commons met in Parliament Anno the fifth and sixth of King Edward the sixth 5 6 Edw. 6. cap. 3. where to the honour of Almighty God it was thus enacted For as much as men be not at all times so mindful to Iaud and praise God so ready to resort to hear Gods holy Word and to come to the holy Communion c. as their bounden duty doth require therefore to call men to remembrance of their duty and to help their infirmity it hath been wholsomly provided that there should be some certain times and days appointed wherein the Christians should cease from all kind of labour and apply themselves only and wholly unto the aforesaid holy works properly pertaining to true Keligion c. Which works as they may well be called Gods Service so the time
prescribed by the Church of England shewed plainly their dislike of those Sabbath Doctrines which had been lately set on foot to the dithonour of the Church and diminution of her authority in destinating other days to the service of God than their new Saint-Sabbath Yet did not this the Churches care either so satisfie their desires or restrain the follies of those men who had embraced the New Sabbath Doctrines but that they still went forwards to advance that business which was now made a part of the common cause no book being published by that party either by way of Catechism or Comment on the Ten Commandments or moral Piety or systematical Divinity of all which these last times have produced too many wherein the Sabbath was not pressed upon the consciences of Gods people with as much violence as formerly with authority upon the Jews And hereunto they were encouraged a great deal the rather because in Ireland what time his Majesties Commissioners were employed about the setling of that Church Anno 1615. there passed an Article which much confirmed them in their Courses and hath been often since alledged to justifie both them and their proceedings Art 56. The Article is this The first day of the week which is the Lords day is wholly to be dedicated to the service of God and therefore we are bound therein to rest from our common and daily business and to bestow that leisure upon holy Exercises both private and publick What moved his Majesties Commissioners to this strict austcrity that I cannot say but sure I am that till that time the Lords day never had attained such credit as to be thought an Article of the Faith though of some mens fancies Nor was it like to be of long continuance it was so violently followed the whole Book being now called in and in the place thereof the Articles of the Church of England confirmed by Parliament in that Kingdom Anno 1634. Nor was this all the fruit neither of such dangerous Doctrines that the Lords day was grown into the reputation of the Jewish Sabbath but some that built on their foundations and ploughed with no other than their Heifers endeavoured to bring back again the Jewish Sabbath as that which is expresly mentioned in the fourth Commandment and abrogate the Lords day for altogether as having no foundation in it nor warrant by it Of these one Thraske declared himself for such in King James his time and therewithal took up another Jewish Doctrine about Meats and Drinks as in the time of our dread Soveraign now being Theophilus Braborne grounding himself on the so much applauded Doctrine of the morality of the Sabbath maintained that the Jewish Sabbath ought to be observed and wrote a large Book in defence thereof which came into the World 1632. For which their Jewish doctrines the first received his censure in the Star-Chamber and what became of him I know not the other had his doom in the High-Commission and hath since altered his opinion being misguided only by the principles of some noted men to which he thought he might have trusted Of these I have here spoken together because the ground of their opinions so far as it concerned the Sabbath were the very same they only make the conclusions which of necessity must follow from the former premisses just as the Brownists did befoe when they abominated on the Communion of the Church of England on the Puritan principles But to proceed This of it self had been sufficient to bring all to ruin but this was not all Not only Judaism did begin but Popery took great occasion of increase by the preciseness of some Magistrates and Ministers in several places of this Kingdom in bindring people from their Recreations on the Sunday the Papists in this Realm being thereby persuaded that no honest Mirth or Recreation was tolerable in our Religion Which being noted by King James in his progress through Lancashire King James's Declarat it pleased his Majesty to set out his Declaration May 24. Anno 1618. the Court being then at Greenwich to this effect that for his good peoples lawful Recreations his pleasure was that after the end of Divine Service they should not be disturbed letted or discouraged from any lawful Recreations such as Dancing either Men or Women Archery for Men Leaping Vaulting or any other such harmless Recreations nor from having of May-games Whitsun-Ales or Morrice-dances and setting up of May-poles or other sports therewith used so as the same be had in due and cenvenient time without impediment or let of Divine Service and that Women should have leave to carry Rushes to the Church for the decoring of it atcording to their old custom withal prohibiting all unlawful Games to be used on the Sundays only as Bear-baiting Bull-baiting Enterludes and at all times in the meaner sort of people by Law prohibited Bowling A Declaration which occasioned much noise and clamour and many scandals spread abroad as if these Counsels had been put into that Princes head by some great Prelates which were then of most power about him But in that point they might have satisfied themselves that this was no Court-doctrine no New-divinity which that learned Prince had been taught in England He had declared himself before when he was King of the Scots only to the self-same purpose as may appear in his Basilicon Doron published Anno 1598. This was the first Blow in effect which had been given in all his time to the new Lords day Sabbath then so much applauded For howsoever as I said those who had entertained these Sabbatarian Principles spared neither care nor pains to advance the business by being instant in season and out of season by publick Writings private Preachings and clandestine insinuations or whatsoever other means might tend to the promotion of this Catholick Cause yet find we none that did oppose it in a publick way though there were many that disliked it only one Mr. Loe of the Church of Exeter declared himself in his Effigiatio veri Sabbatismi Anno 1606. to be of different judgment from them and did lay down indeed the truest and most justifiable Doctrine of the Sabbath of any Writer in that time But being written in the Latin Tongue it came not to the peoples hands many of those which understood it never meaning to let the people know the Contents thereof And whereas in the year 1603 at the Commencement held in Cambridg this Thesis or Proposition Dies Dominicus nititur Verbo Dei was publickly maintained by a Doctor there and by the then Vice-Chancellour so determined neither the following Doctors there or any in the other University that I can hear of did ever put up any Antithesis in opposition thereunto At last some four years after his Majesties Declaration before remembred Anno 1622. Doctor Prideaux his Majesties Professour for the University of Oxon did in the publick Act declare his judgment in this point de Sabbato
Propositions being easie and intelligible as they stand by themselves but are made more difficult and obscure even to learned men by interweaving them with many intricate Disputes touching the correspondence of free will with Prescience Providence and Predestination Disputes so intricate and perplexed that Armachanus as great a Clerk as almost any in his time travelled no less than twenty years in the search of one of them alone and yet could not find it And yet I cannot say that the consent in those three Propositions before remembred in which the Church hath generally concentred since the death of St. Augustine hath met with no dissenting Judgment in these later times Some men restraining all our Actions to so strict a Rule as to make the will of man determined and tied up in all particulars even to the taking up of a Rush or Straw as in another case it was taught by Cartwright the great Bel-weather of the Flock in Queen Elizabeths time sufficiently derided Eccles polit lib. 11. p. 96. or rather gravely reprehended for it by judicious Hooker And if we meet with any thing which looks that way in the Writings of some Dominican Fryers who stifly stand to all the rigours of St. Augustine in the controversies of Predestination Grace Free-will c. against the Jesuits and Franciscans it is to be imputed rather to the errour of their Education a stiffness in maintaining their old Opinions or finally to that Animosity which commonly the weaker party carrieth against the stronger than to any clear and evident Authority which they can pretend to from that Father or any other ancient Writers of unquestioned credit which said I hope it will be granted without much difficulty that such a Doctrine of Predestination as neither directly nor indirectly makes God to be the Author of sin nor attributes so much to the will of man in depraved Nature as to exclude the influences of Gods Heavenly Grace is more to be embraced than any other which dasheth against either of the said extreams And that being granted or supposed I shall first lay down the Judgment of the differing parties in the Article of Predestination and the points depending thereupon and afterwards declare to which of the said differing Parties the Doctrine of the Church of England seemeth most inclinable CHAP. II. Of the Debates amongst the Divines in the Council of Trent touching Predestinations and Original Sin 1. The Articles drawn from the Writings of the Zuinglians touching Predestination and Reprobation 2. The Doctrine of Predestination according to the Dominican way 3. As also the old Franciscans with Reasons for their own and against the other 4. The Historians Judgment interposed between the Parties 5. The middle way of Catarinus to compose the differences 6. The newness of St. Augustines Opinion and the dislike thereof by the most learned Men in the Ages following 7. The perplexities amongst the Theologues touching the absoluteness of the Decrees 8. The Judgment of the said Divines touching the possibility of falling from Grace 9. The Debates about the nature and transmitting of Original Sin 10. The Doctrine of the Council in it IN such conditions stood Affairs in reference to the Doctrines of Predestination Grace Free will c. at the first sitting down of the Council of Trent in which those Points became the subject of many sad and serious Debates amongst the Prelates and Divines then and there Assembled which being so necessary to the understanding of the Questions which we have before us I shall not think my time ill spent in laying down the sum and abstract of the same as I find it digested to my hand by Padre Paulo the diligent and laborious Author of the Tridentine History only I shall invert his Method by giving precedency to the Disputes concerning Predestination before the Debates and Agitations which hapned in canvasing the Articles touching the Freedom of mans Will though those about Free-will do first occur in the course and method of that Council It being determined by the Council as that Author hath it to draw some Articles from the Writings of the Protestants concerning the Doctrine of Predestination It appeared that in the Book of Luther in the Augustan Confession and in the Aplogies and Colloquies there was nothing found that deserved Censure But much they found among the Writings of the Zuinglians out of which they drew these following Articles Viz. 1. For Predestination and Reprobation that man doth nothing but all is in the will of God 2. The Predestinated cannot be condemned nor the Reprobate saved 3. The Elect and Predestinated only are truly justified 4. The Justified are bound by Faith to believe they are in the number of the Predestinated 5. The Justified cannot fall from Grace 6. Those that are called and are not in the number of the predestinated do never receive Grace 7. The Justified is bound to believe by Faith that he ought to persevere in Justice until the end 8. The Justified is bound to believe for certain that in case he fall from Grace he shall receive it again In the examining the first of these Articles the Opinions were diverse The most esteemed Divines amongst them thought it to be Catholick the contrary Heretical because the good School-Writers St. Thomas Scotus and the rest do so think that is that God before the Creation out of the Mass of mankind hath elected by his only and meer mercy some for Glory for whom he hath prepared effectually the means to obtain it which is called to predestinate That their number is certain and determined neither can there any be added The others not predestinated cannot complain for that God hath prepared for them sufficient assistance for this though indeed none but the Elect shall be saved For the most principal reason they alledged that S. Paul to the Romans having made Jacob a pattern of the predestinated and Eau of the Reprobate he produceth the Decree of God pronounced before they were born not for their Works but for his own good pleasure To this they joyned the example of the same Apostle That as the Potter of the same lump of Clay maketh one Vessel to honour another to dishonour so God of the same Mass of men chooseth and leaveth whom he listeth for proof whereof S Paul bringeth the place where God saith to Moses I will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy and I will shew pity on whom I will shew pity And the same Apostle concludeth It is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God who sheweth mercy adding after that God sheweth mercy on whom he will and hardneth whom he will They said further That for this cause the Council of the Divine Predestination and Reprobation is called by the same Apostle the height and depth of Wisdom unsearchable and incomprehensible They added places of the other Epistles where he saith We have nothing but what we have received from God that we are not
in a time when he is not predestinated seeing he is always so and generally the divided sense hath no place where the accident is inseparable from the subject Therefore others thought to declare it better saying that God governeth and moveth every thing according to its proper nature which in contingent things is free and such as that the act may consist together with the power to the opposite so that with the act of predestination the power to reprobation and damnation doth stand But this was worse understood than the first The other Articles were consured with admirable concord Concerning the third and sixth they said it hath always been an opinion in the Church that many receive divine Grace and keep it for a time who afterwards do lose it and in time are damned Then was alledged the example of Saul Solomon and Judas one of the twelve a case more evident than all by these words of Christ to the Father I have kept in thy name all that thou hast given me of which not one hath perished but the son of Perdition To these they added Nicholas one of the seven Deacons and others first commended in the Scriptures and then blamed and for a conclusion of all the Fall of Luther Against the sixth they particularly considered that Vocation would become impious derision when those that are called and nothing is wanting on their side are not admitted that the Sacraments would not be effectual for them all which things are absurd But for censure first the Authority of the Prophet was brought directly contrary in terms where God saith That if the Just shall abandon justice and commit iniquity I will not remember his works The example of David was added who committed Murther and Adultery of Magdalen and S. Peter who denied Christ They derided the folly of the Zuinglians for saying the Just cannot fall from Grace and yet sinneth in every work The two last were uniformly condemned of temerity with exception of those unto whom God hath given a special Revelation as to Moses and the Disciples to whom it was revealed that they were written in the Book of Heaven Now because the Doctrine of Predestination doth naturally presuppose a Curse from which man was to be delivered Hist of the Council fol. 175. It will not be amiss to lay down the Judgment of that Council in the Article of Original sin which rendred man obnoxious to the dreadful curse together with the preparatory Debates amongst the School-men and Divines which were there Assembled touching the nature and transmitting of it from Adam unto his Posterity and from one man to another Concerning which it was declared by Catarinus That as God made a Covenant with Abraham and all his Posterity when he made him Father of the faithful So when he gave Original Righteousness to Adam and all man-kind he made him seal an Obligation in the name of all to keept it for himself and them observing the Commandment which because he transgressed he lost it as well for others as himself and incurred the punishment also for them the which as they are derived in every one and to him as the cause to others by vertue of the Covenant so that the actual sin of Adam is actual sin in him and imputed to others is Original for proof whereof he grounded himself upon this especially that a true and proper sin must needs be a voluntary act and nothing can be voluntary but that transgression of Adam imputed unto all And Paul saying that all have sinned in Adam it must b e understood that they have all committed the same sin with him he alledged for example that S. Paul to the Hebrews affirmeth that Levi paid Tyth to Melchisedeck when he paid in his great Grandfather Abraham by which reason it must be said that the Posterity violated the Commandments of God when Adam did it and that they were sinners in him as in him they received Righteousness Which Application as it was more intelligible to the Prelates Assembled together in the Council than any of the Crabbed Intricacies and perplexities of the rest of the School-men irreconcilable in a manner amongst themselves so did it quicken them to the dispatch of their Canons or Anathamatisms which they had the Notions in their heads against all such as had taught otherwise of Original sin Idem sol 181. than was allowed of and maintained in the Church of Rome but more particularly against him 1. That confesseth not that Adam by transgressing hath lost Sanctity and Justice incurred the wrath of God Death and Thraldom to the Devil and is infected in Soul and Body 2. Against him that averreth that Adam by sinning hath hurt himself only or hath derived into his Posterity the death only of the Body and not sin the death of the Soul 3. Against him that affirmeth the sin which is one in the beginning and proper to every one committed by Generation not imitation can be abolished by any other remedy than the death of Christ is applied as well to Children as to those of riper years by the Sacrament of Baptism ministred in the Form and Rite of the Church CHAP. III. The like Debates about Free-will with the Conclusions of the Council in the Five Controverted Points 1. The Articles against the Freedom of the Will extracted out of Luer's Writings 2. The exclamation of the Divines against Luer's Doctrine in the Point and the absurdities thereof 3. The several Judgments of Marinarus Catarinus and Andreas Vega. 4. The different Judgment of the Dominicans and Francisans whether it lay in mans power to believe or not to believe and whether the Freedom of the Will were lost in Adam 5. As also of the Point of the co-operation of mans Will with the Grace of God 6. The opinion of Fryer Catanca in the point of irresistibility 7. Faintly maintained by Soto a Dominican Fryer and more cordially approved by others but in time rejected 8. The great care taken by the Legates in having the Articles so framed as to please all parties 9. The Doctrine of the Council in the Five controverted Points 10. A Transition from the Council of Trent to the Protestant and Reformed Churches THese Differences and Debates concerning Predestination the possibility of falling away from the Faith of Christ and the nature of Original sin being thus passed over I shall look back on those Debates which were had amongst the Fathers and Divines in the Council of Trent about the nature of Free-will and the power thereof In order whereunto these Articles were collected out of the Writings of the Lutherans to be discussed and censured as they found cause for it Now the Articles were these that follow viz. 1. God is the total cause of our works good and evil and the Adultry of David the cruelty of Manlius and the Treason of Judas are the works of God as well as the Vocation of Saul 2. No man hath power to think well or
the more easily divert himself in the ways of Godliness and consequently merit and obtain eternal life which otherwise he might do without any such Grace by his own free will though with more difficulty and trouble And therefore if any man shall say that without the preventing Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and his heavenly Influences a man is able to even hope love or repent as he ought to do that so he may be justified in the sight of God let him be Anathema 4. Of the manner of Conversion The Freedom of the Will is not so utterly lost in man Sess 6. c. 5. though it be diminished and impaired as to be accounted nothing but an empty Name or the name of no such thing existing in Nature in that the Will of man moved and stirred up by the grace of God retains a power of co-operating with the heavenly Grace by which he doth prepare and dispose himself for the obtaining of the Justification which is given unto him Can. 4. And therefore if any one shall say that a man cannot resist this grace though he would or that he is meerly passive not acting any thing but as a stock or sensless stone in his own Conversion let him be also held accurst And so are they who have presumed to affirm and teach that it is not in the power of man to do evil but as well bad as good works are done not only by Gods permission but by his proper working so that as well the Treason of Judas as the Calling of Paul is to be reckoned for the work of Almighty God 5. Of the certainty or uncertainty of Perseverance No man is so far to presume on the secret Mystery of Predestination Sess 6. Can. 13. as to account himself for certain to be within the number of the Elect as if he were assured of this that being justified he could neither sin no more nor were sure of Repentance if he did And therefore no man is to flatter himself with any such certainty of perseverance though all men ought to place a constant and firm hope for the obtaining of the same in the help of God Can. 14. They which by sin have fallen away from the grace received may recover their lost Justification if being stirred up from above they endeavour the recovery of it by sincere Repentance Can. 15. or by the Sacrament of Pennance as the words there are And finally the grace of Justification or the grace by which a man is justified is not only lost by infidelity by which the Faith it self doth suffer Shipwrack but even by every mortal sin though Faith be not lost also at the same time with it Such is the Doctrine of this Council in the Points disputed extracted fainfully out of the Canons and Decrees thereof one only clause being added to the Article of Predestination agreeable to the Opinion in the Conferences and Debates about it which prevailed most upon the Prelates and all others who were interessed and intrusted in drawing up the Products and Conclusions of it which how far it agreeth or disagreeth with or from hat which is maintained by the opposite Parties in the Reformed and Protestant Churches we are next to see CHAP. IV. The Judgment of the Lutherans and Calvinians in these Five Points with some Objections made against the Conclusions of the Council of Dort 1. No difference in the Five Points betwixt the Lutherans and the Church of Rome as is acknowledged by the Papists themselves 1. The Judgement of the Lutheran Churches in the said five Points delivered in the famous Confession of Ausperge 3. The distribution of the Quarrel betwixt the Franciscans Melancthonians and Arminians on the one side the Dominicans Rigid Lutherans and Sublapsarian Calvinists on the other the middle way of Catarinus paralleled by that of Bishop Overal 4. The Doctrine of Predestination as laid down by Calvin of what ill Consequence in it self and how odious to the Lutheran Doctors 5. Opposed by Sebastian Castellio in Geneva it self but propagated in most Churches of Calvins Plat-form and afterwards polished by Perkins a Divine of England and in him censured and confuted by Jacob Van Harmine a Belgick Writer 6. A brief view of the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians and the odious Consequences of it 7. The Judgment of the Sublapsarians in the said Five Points collected and presented at the Conference at the Hauge Anno 1610. 8. The Doctrien of the Synodists in the said Points 9. Affirmed to be repugnant to the holy Scripture as also to the Purity Mercy Justice and Sincerity of Almighty God 10. And the subversion of the Ministry and all Acts of Piety illustrated by the Example of Tiberius Caesar and the Lantgrave of Thurin SUCH being the Doctrines of this Council in the Points disputed we need not not take much pains in looking after the Judgment of the Lutheran Chruches which comes so near to that of the Church of Rome as to be reckoned for the same For in the History of the Council Hist of the Council of Tr. p. 210. it is said expresly as before is noted that in the Books of Luther in the Augustane Confession and in Aplogies and Colloquies there was nothing found as to the Doctrine of Predestination which deserved to be censured And therefore they were sain to have recourse unto the Writings of the Zuinglian party amongst which Calvin and his followers were to be accounted to find out matter to proceed upon in their Fulminations And in particular it is said by Andreas Vega one of the stiffest and most learned men amongst the whole pack of the Franciscans Ibid. f. 208. when the Points about Free will were in agitation that between themselves and the Protestants there was no difference of Opinion as to that particular How near they came to one another in the other Points may easily be found in the Debates and Conferences before laid down compared with the Judgment of the Lutheran Doctors not only in their private Writings but their publick Colloquies But then we are to understand that this Agreement of the Lutheran Doctors expressed in their private Writings and their publick Colloquies and especially the solemn Confession at Ausperge relates to that interpretation of the Decrees and Canons of the Tridentine Council which is made by the Jesuits and Franciscans and not unto the Gloss or Exposition which is made thereof by the Preaching and Dominican Fryers But not to leave so great a matter to a Logical Inference I shall lay down the Doctrine of the Lutheran Churches in the said Five Points extracted faithfully out of the Augustan Confession with the Addition of one Clause only to the first Article the Makers of the Confession declining purposely the Point of Predestination out of the Writings of Melancthon and other learned men of the same persuasion Now the Doctrine of the said Churches so delivered is this that followeth Viz. 1. Of Divine Predestinction
mathematicae persuasionisque plenus omnia fato agi That is to say That he was the more negligent in matters of Religion and about the Gods because he was so much addicted to Astrologers fully persuaded in his own mind that all things were governed by the Destinies And they evince by the miserable example of the Landgrave of Turing of whom it is reported by Heistibachius Heisti lib. 1. de Minor Hist l. 27. p. 39. or Gods love to mankind p. 97. that being by his Friends admonished of his vitious Conversation and dangerous condition he made them this Answer viz. Si praedestinatus sum nulla peccata poterint mibi regnum coelorum auferre si praescitus nulla opera mihi illud valebunt conferre That is to say If I be elected no sins can possibly bereave me of the Kingdom of Heaven if reprobated no goods deeds can advance me to it An Objection not more old than common but such I must confess to which I never found a satisfactory Answer from the Pen of Supralapsarian or Sublapsarian within the small compass of my reading CHAP. V. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants and the Story of them until their final Condemnation in the Synod of Dort 1. The doctrine of the Remonstrants ancienter than Calvinism in the Belgick Churches and who they were that stood up for it before Arminius 2. The first undertakings of Arminius his preferment to the Divinity Chair at Leiden his Commendations and Death 3. The occasion of the Name Remonstrants and Contra Remonstrants the Controversie reduced to Five Points and those disputed at the Hague in a publick Conference 4. The said Five Points according to their several Heads first tendred at the Hague and after at the Synod at Dort 5. The Remonstrants persecuted by their Opposites put themselves under the protection of Barnevelt and by his means obtained a collection of their Doctrine Barnevelt seised and put to death by the Prince of Orange 6. The Calling of the Synod of Dort the parallel betwixt it and the Council at Trent both in the conduct of the business against their Adversaries and the differences amongst themselves 7. The breaking out of the differences in the Synod in open Quarrels between Martinius one of the Divines of Breeme and some of the Divines of Holland and on what occasions 8. A Copy of the Letter from Dr. Belconqual to S. Dudly Carlaton his Majesties Resident at the Hague working the violent prosecutions of those Quarrels by the Dutch Divines 9. A further prosecution of the parallel between the Council and the Synod in reference to the Articles used in the Draught upon the Canons and Decrees of either and the doubtful meaning of them both 10. The quarrelling Parties joyn together against the Remonstrants denying them any place in the Synod and finally dismist them in a furious Oration made by Boyerman without any hearing 11. The Synodists indulgent to the damnable Doctrines of Macorius and unmerciful in the banishment or extermination of the poor Remonstrants 12. Scandalously defamed to make them odious and those of their persuasions in other places Ejected Persecuted and Disgraced HAving thus run through all the other Opinions touching Predestination and the Points depending thereupon I come next to that of the Remonstrants or Arminians as they commonly call them accused of Novelty but ancienter than Calvinism in the Churches of the Belgick Provinces which being originally Dutch did first embrace the Reformation according to the Lutheran model though afterward they suffered the Calvinian Plat-form to prevail upon them It was about the year 1530 that the Reformed Religion was admitted in the Neighbouring Country of East Priezland under Enno the first upon the preaching of Hardingbergius a Learned and Religious man and one of the principal Reformers of the Church of Emden a Town of most note in all that Earldom From him did Clemens Martini take those Principles which afterwards he propagated in the Belgick Churches where the same Doctrine of Predestination had been publickly maintained in a Book called Odegus Laicorum or the Lay-mans guide published by Anastasius Velluanus Ann. 1554. and much commended by Henricus Antonides Divinity Reader in the University of Francka But on the other side the French Ministers having setled themselves in those parts which either were of French Language or anciently belonged to the Crown of France and having more Quicksilver in them than the others had prevailed so far with William of Nassaw Prince of Orange that a Confession of their framing was presented to the Lady Regent ratified in a forcible and tumultuus way and afterwards by degrees obtruded upon all the Belgick Churches which notwithstanding the Ministers successively in the whole Province of Vtrecht adhered unto their former Doctrines not looked on for so doing as the less reformed Nor wanted there some one or other of eminent note who did from time to time oppose the Doctrine of Predestination contained in that Confession of the year 1567. when it took beginning INsomuch that Johannes Isbrandi one of the Preachers of Roterdam openly professed himself an Anticalvinian and so did Gellius Succanus also in the Countrey of West-Friezland who looked no otherwise upon these of Calvin's Judgment than as Innovators in the Doctrine which had been first received amongst them The like we find also of Holmanus one of the Professors of Leyden of Cornelius Meinardi and Cornelius Wiggeri two men of principal esteem before the name of Jacob Van-Harmine was so much as talked of But so it hapned that though these learned men had kept on foot the ancient Doctrines yet did they never find so generally an Entertainment in those Provinces as they did afterwards by the pains and diligence of this Van-Harmine Arminius he is called by our Latin Writers from whom these Doctrines have obtained the name of Arminianism called so upon no juster Grounds than the great Western Continent is called by the name of America whereas both Christopher collumbus had first discovered it and the two Cabots Father and Son had made a further progress in the said discovery before Americus Vespatius ere saw those shores As for Arminius he had been fifteen years a Preacher or a Pastor as they rather phrase it to the great Church of Amsterdam during which times taking a great distast at the Book published by Mr. Perkins intituled Armilla Aurea he set himself upon the canvasing of it and published his performance in it by the name of Examen Predestinationis Perkinsoniae as before was said Incouraged with his good success in this adventure he undertakes a Conference on the same Argument with the learned Junius the sum whereof being spread abroad in several Papers was after published by the name of Amica Collatio Junius being dead in the year 1603. the Curators or Overseers of the University made choice of this Van-harmine to succeed him in his place But the Inhabitants of the Town would not so part with him till
that is to say that we may will the things which are good and following or assisting that we do not will them to no purpose we are not able to do any thing in the works of Piety And by comparing the said Clause with St. Augustins words it cannot easily be discerned why the one party should be branded for the Enemies of the Grace of God while theo ther is honoured as the chief Patron and Defender of it It cannot be denied but that they ascribe somewhat more to the will of man than some of the rigid Lutherans and Calvinians do who will have a man drawn forcibly and irresistably with the cords of Grace velut inanimatum quiddam like a sensless stock without contributing any thing to his own salvation But then it must be granted also that they ascribe no more unto it than what may stand both with the Grace and Justice of Almighty God according to that Divine saying of St. Augustine viz. Si non est gratia Dei quomodo salvat mundum Si non est liberum arbitrium quomodo judicat mundum Were it not for the Grace of God no man could be saved and were there not a freedom of will in man no man with justice could be condemned And as for the Reproachful words which King James is noted to have spoken of them it hath been said with all due reverence to the Majesty of so great a Prince that he was then transported with prejudice or particular Interesse and therefore that there lay an Appeal as once to Philip King of Macedon from the King being not then well informed to the same King whensoever he should be better informed Touching their proceedings it was observed 1. That he had his Education in the Kirk of Scotland where all the Heterodoxies of Calvin were received as Gospel and therefore could not so suddenly cast off those opinions which he suckt in as it were with his MOthers Milk 2. He was much governed at that time by Dr. Mountague then Bishop of Bath and Wells and Dean of his Majesties Chappel Royal who having been a great Stickler in the Predestinarian Controversies when he lived in Cambridg thought it his best way to beat down all such Opinions by Kingly Authority which he could not over-bear by the strength of Arguments And thirdly That K. James had then a turn to serve for the Prince of Orange of which more anon which turn being served and Mountague dying not long after his ears lay open to such further informations as were offered to him which drew him to a better liking both of the Men and then Opinions than he had formerly entertained of either of them It is objected secondly that these Doctrines symbolize so much with the Church of Rome that they serve only for a Bridg for Popery to pass over into any Church into which they can obtain admittance This Calamity first laid upon them in a Declaration of the States General against Barnevelt before remembred wherein they charge him with a design of confederating with the Spaniard to change the Religion of those Countreys and countenancing to that end the Arminian party as his fittest Instruments which clamor being first raised in Holland was afterwards much cherished and made use of by the Puritan or Calvinian party amongst us in England By one of which it is alledged Justificat of the Fathers c. that Mr. Pym being to make a report to the House of Commons Anno 1626. touching the Books of Richard Mountague after Bishop of Chichester affirmed expresly that the whole scope of his Book was to discourage the well-affected in Religion and as much as in him lay to reconcile them unto Popery He gives us secondly a Fragment of a scattered Paper pretended to be written to the Rector of the Jesuits colledg in Bruxels in which the Writer lets him know that they had strongly fortified their Faction here in England by planting the Soveraign Drug Arminianism which he hoped would purge the Protestants from their Heresie Thirdly he backs this Paper with a Clause in the Remonstrance of the House of Commons 1628. where it is said that the hearts of hsi Majesties Subjects were perplexed in beholding the daily growth and spreading of the Faction of Arminanism that being as his Majesty well knew so they say at least but a cunning way to bring in Popery To all which being but the same words out of divers mouths it is answered first That the points which are now debated between the Calvinians and the old Protestants in England between the Remonstrants and the Contra-Remonstrants in the Belgick Churches and finally between the rigid and moderate Lutherans in the upper Germany have been as fiercely agitated between the Franciscans and the Dominicans in the Church of Rome The old English Protestants the Remonstrants and the moderate Lutherans agreeing in these points with the Franciscans as the English Calvinists the Contra-Remonstrants and the rigid Lutherans do with the Dominicans So that there is a compliance on all sides with one of the said two differing parties in the Church of Rome And therefore why a general compliance in these points with the Fryers of S. Dominick the principal sticklers and promoters of that Inquisition should not be thought as a ready a way to bring in Popery as any such compliance with the Fryers of St. Francis he must be a very wise man indeed which can give the reason Secondly it is answered that the Melancthonian or moderate Lutherans which make up infinitely the greatest part of the Lutheran Churches agree in these points with the Jesuits or Franciscan Fryers and yet are still as far from relapsing to the Church of Rome as when they made the first separation from it And therefore thirdly that if Arminianism as they call it be so ready a Bridg for passing over to Popery it would be very well worth the knowing how and by what means it should come to pass that so few of the Remonstrants in the Belgick Provinces and none of those whom they call Arminians in the Church of England should in so long a time pass over that Bridg notwithstanding all the provocations of want and scorn which were put upon the one and have been since multiplied upon the other In the next place it is observed that the Arminian Doctrines naturally incline a man to the sin of pride Justif of the Fathers c. p. 34. in attributing so much to the power of his own will and so little to the Grace of God in chusing both the means and working out of the end of his own salvation And for the proof hereof a passage is alledged out of the History of the Council of Trent that the first Opinion that is to say the Doctrine of Predestination according to the opinion of the Dominican Fryers as it is hidden and mystical keeping the mind humble and relying on God without any confidence in it self knowing the deformity of Sin and
of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge in a Letter to the late Archbishop Cont. Dom. p. 167. bearing date Decemb. 15. 1630. in which he writes that their Doctrines of Predestination is the root of Puritanism and Puritanism is the root of all Rebellions and disobedient untractableness in Parliaments c. and of all Schism and saweiness in the Countrey nay in the Church it self making many thousands of our People and too great a part of the Gentlemen of the Land very Leightons in their hearts which Leighton had published not long before a most pestilent and seditious Book against the Bishops called Sions Plea in which he excited the People to strike the Bishops under the fifth rib reviling the Queen by the name of a Daughter of Heth and for the same was after censured in the Star-Chamber to Pillory loss of Ears c. But because perhaps it may be said that this is but a new device excogitated by the malice of these later times to defame this doctrine Answer to a certain Lett. p. 38. let us behold what Campneys hath delivered of it in the first or second year of Queen Eliz. at the first peeping of it out to disturb this Church Where saith he who seeth not the distraction of England to follow this Doctrine Who seeth not the confusion of all Common-wealths to depend hereupon What Prince may sit safely in the seat of his Kingdom What subject may live quietly possessing his own What man shall be ruled by the right of Law If these Opinions may be perfectly placed in the hearts of the People Which Corollary he brings in in the end of a discourse touching the Rebellion raised by Martin Cyrnel and seconded by the Earl of Lincoln Martin Swarth and others against Hen. VII For building on the Culvinian Maxim that as God doth appoint the end so he appointeth also the means and causes which lead unto it he thereupon inferreth that Martin Swarth and his men according to that Doctrine were destined by God to be slain at the Batrel of Stoke In order whereunto first Sir Richard Simon the Priest must be appointed and predestinate of God to pour in the pestilent poyson of privy Conspiracy and trayterous mischief of vain glory into the heart of Lambert his Scholar as a cause leading to the same end Secondly Ibid. p. 38. That he the said Lambert was appointed and predestinate of God to consent and agree unto the pestiferous persuasion of his Master S. Richard in the pride of Lucifer to aspire unto the Royal Throne as another cause leading to the same end which God ordained Thirdly That the Irish men were appointed of God to be Rebellious Traytors against their Soveraign Lord the King of England and to maintain the false and filthy quarrel of Lambert as another cause leading to the same end Fourthly That in order to the said end the Lady Margaret Sister to K. Edw. IV. was appointed and predestinate of God to be a Traytoress to England and to imploy all her wits forces and power to the utter destruction of her natural Countrey And fifthly in particular that the said Lady Margaret was appointed of God to hire the said Martin Swarth and his men to invade the Realm of England Sixthly and finally that the said Martin Swarth the Earl of Lincoln the Lord Lorel the Lord Gerrard and divers others Captains of the Rebels were appointed and predestinate of God to be of such valiant courage in maintaining the false quarrel of trayterous Lambert that they were slain and on the other side many a brave English mans blood was shed at the Battel of Stoke which was the end of this woful Tragedy Let them say therefore what they can or will this meer necessity which our men teach is the very same which the Stoicks did hold which opinion because it destroyed the state of a Common-wealth was banished out of Rome as St. Augustine declareth in lib. Quaest Vet. Nov. Testam And thus the different judgments of all the other Western Churches and the several Subdivisions of them in the five controverted Points being laid together with such discourses and disputes as have occasionally been made and raised about them we will next shew to which of the said differing parties the Church of England seems most inclinable and afterwards proceed in the story of it Historia Quinqu-Articularis OR A DECLARATION Of the Judgment of the WESTERN-CHVRCHES And more particularly of the CHURCH of ENGLAND In the Five Controverted Points PART II. Containing the Judgment of the Church of England and the most Eminent Divines thereof in the Reign of King Henry VIII and King Edward VI. CHAP. VII An Introduction to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the Points disputed with the Removal of some rubs which are laid in the way 1. The Doctrine of the Homilies concerning the Endowments of man at his first Creation 2. His miserable fall 3. And the promised hopes of his Restitution in the Lord Christ Jesus 4. A general Declaration of the judgment of the Church of England in the points disputed exemplified in the story of Agilmond and Lamistus Kings of Lombardy 5. The contrary judgment of Wicklif objected answered and applied to all modern Heresies 6. A general answer to the like Argument pretended to be drawn from the Writings of Frith Tyndal and Barns But more particularly 7. The judgment of Dr. Barns in the present points and the grounds on which he builded the same 8. Small comfort to be found from the works of Tyndal in favour of the Calvinian Doctrines 9. The falsifyings of John Frith and others in the Doctrine of Predestination reproved by Tyndal 10. A parallel between some of our first Martyrs and the blind man restored to sight in the eighth of Saint Mark. BEing therefore in the next place to declare the Judgment of the Church of England I shall prepare the way by laying down her publick Doctrine touching the Fall of Adam and the Restitution of man-kind in Jesus Christ that having cleared God from being the Author of sin and having laid a sure foundation for the Restitution of Mankind to Gods grace and favour and consequently to the hopes of Eternal Life we may proceed with more assurance to the rest that followeth Hom. of the Nativity fol. 167. And this we cannot better do than by laying down the words of the Homily concerning the Nativity and Birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ where we find it thus Among all the Creatures saith the Homily that God made in the beginning of the world most excellent and wonderful in their kind there was none as the Scripture beareth witness to be compared almost in any point unto man who as well in body as soul exceedeth all other no less than the Sun in brightness and light exceedeth every bright and little Star in the Firmament He was made according to the similitude and Image of God he was endued with all kind
Among which those of the Calvinian party would fain hook in Wicklif together with Fryth Barns and Tyndal which can by no means be brought under that account though some of them deserved well of the Churches for the times they lived in They that desire to hook in Wicklif do first confess that he stands accused by those of the Church of Rome for bringing in Fatal Necessity and making God the Author of sin and then conclude that therefore it may be made a probable guess that there was no disagreement between him and Calvin The cause of which Argument stands thus That there being an agreement in these points betwixt Wicklif and Calvin and the Reformers of our Church embracing the Doctrines of Wicklif therefore they must embrace the Doctrines of Calvin also But first it cannot be made good that our Reformers embraced the Doctrines of Wicklif or had any eye upon the man who though he held many points against those of Rome yet had his field more Tares than Wheat his Books more Heterodoxies than sound Catholick Doctrine And secondly admitting this Argument to be of any force in the present case it will as warrantably serve for all the Sects and Heresies which now swarm amongst us as well as for that of Calvin Wicklif affording them the grounds of their several dotages though possibly they are not so well studied in their own concernments For they who consult the works of Thomas Waldensis or the Historia Wicklifiana writ by Harpsfield will tell us that Wicklif amongst many other errours maintained these that follow 1. That the Sacrament of the Altar is nothing else but a piece of Bread 2. That Priests have no more Authority to minister Sacraments than Lay-men have 3. That all things ought to be common 4. That it is as lawful to Christen a Child in a Tub of water at home or in a Ditch by the way as in a Font-stone in the Churches 5. That it is as lawful at all times to confess unto a Lay-man as to a Priest 6. That it is not necessary or profitable to have any Church or Chappel to pray in or to do any Divine Service in 7. That burying in Church-yards is unprofitable and in vain 8. That Holy-days ordained and instituted by the Church and taking the Lords day in for one are not to be observed and kept in reverence inasmuch as all days are alike 9. That it is sufficient and enough to believe though a man do no good works at all 10. That no Humane Laws or Constitutions do oblige a Christian 11. And finally That God never gave grace nor knowledge to a great person or rich man and that they in no wise follow the same What Anabaptists Brownists Ranters Quakers may not as well pretend that our first Reformers were of their Religion as the Calivinsts can if Wicklifs Doctrine be the rule of our Reformation Which because possibly it may obtain the less belief if they were found only in the works of Harpsfield and Waldensis before remembred the Reader may look for them in the Catalogue of those Mala Dogmata complained of by the Prolocutor in the Convocation Anno 1536. to have been publickly preached printed and professed by some of Wicklifs Followers for which consult the Church History lib. 4. fol. 208. and there he shall be sure to find them It is alledged in the next place that the Calvinistical Doctrines in these points may be found in the Writings of John Frith William Tyndal and Dr. Barns collected into one Volume and printed by John Day 1563. of which the first suffered-death for his conscience Anno 1533. the second Anno 1536. and the third Anno 1540 called therefore by Mr. Fox in a Preface of his before the Book the Ring-leaders of the Church of England And thereupon it is inferred that the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination must be the same with that which was embraced and countenanced by the first Reformers But first admitting that they speak as much in honour of Calvins Doctrine as can be possibly desired yet being of different judgments in the points disputed and not so Orthodox in all others as might make them any way considerable in the Reformation it is not to be thought that either their Writings or Opinions should be looked on by us for our direction in this case Barns was directly a Dominican in point of Doctrine Frith soared so high upon the Wing and quite out-flew the mark that Tyndal thought it not unfit to call him down and lure him back unto his pearch and as for Tyndal he declares himself with such care and caution excepting one of his fllyings out against Free-will that nothing to their purpose can be gathered from him Secondly I do not look on Mr. Fox as a competent Judge in matters which concern the Church of England the Articles of whose Confession he refused to subscribe he being thereunto required by Archbishop Parker and therefore Tyndal Frith and Barns not to be hearkned to the more for his commendation Thirdly if the testimony of Frith and Tyndal be of any force for defence of the Calvinists the Anti-Sabbatarians any more justly make use of of it in defence of themselves against the new Sabbath speculations of Dr. Bond and his Adherents embraced more passionately of late than any Article of Religion here by Law established Of which the first declares the Lords day to be no other than an Ecclesiastical Institution or Church Ordinance the last that it is still changeable from one day to another if the Church so please For which consult the Hist of Sab. l. 2. c. 8. Let Frith and Tyndal be admitted as sufficient Witnesses when they speak against the new Sabbath Doctrines or not admitted when they speak in behalf of Calvins and then I am sure his followers will lose more on the one side than they gained on the other and will prove one of the crossest bargains to them which they over made And then it is in the fourth place to be observed that the greatest Treasury of Learning which those and the Famerlines could boast of was lock'd up in the Cloisters of the Begging Fryers of which the Franciscans were accounted the most nimble Disputants the Dominicans the most diligent and painful Preachers the Augustinians for the most part siding wit the one and the Carmelites or White Fryers joyning with the other so that admitting Frith and Tyndal to maintain the same Doctrine in these points which afterwards was held forth by Calvin yet possibly they maintained them not as any points of Protestant Doctrine in opposition to the errours of the Church of Rome which had not then declared it self on either side but as the received Opinion of the Dominican Fryers in opposition to the Franciscans The Doctrine of which Dominican Fryers by reason of their diligent preaching had met with more plausible entertainment not only amongst the inferiour fort of people but also amongst many others of parts and
trust them with a power to meddle with matters of Religion this Convocation being holden the sixth year of his Reign when Gardiner Bâ—nner Day and Tunstall and others of the stiffest Romanists were put out of their places most of the Episcopal Sees and Parochial Churches being filled with men according unto his desires and generally conformable to the Forms of Worship here by Law established Thirdly the Church of England for the first five years of Queen Elizabeth retained these Articles and no other as the publick tendries of the Church in point of Doctrine which certainly she had not done had it been recommended to her by a less Authority than a Convocation lawfully assembled and confirmed And fourthly that it is true that the Records of Convocation during this King and the first years of Queen Mary are very defective and imperfect most of them lost amongst others those of this present year And yet one may conclude as strongly that my Mother died Childless because my Christening is not to be found in the Parish Register as that the Convocation of this year was barren because the Acts and Articles of it were not entred in the Journal Book To salve this sore it is conceived by the Objector that the Bishops and Clergy had passed over their power to some select Divines appointed by the Kings in which sense they may be said to have made these Articles themselves by their delegates to whom they had deputed their Authority the case not being so clear Id. Ib. but that it occasioned a Cavil at the next Convocation the first of Queen Mary when the Papists therein assembled renounced the legality of any such former transactions And unto this it shall be answered That no such defect of legality as was here pretended was charged against the book of Articles it self but only against a Catechism which was bound up with it countenanced by the Kings Letters Patents prefix'd before it approved by many Bishops and learned men and generally voiced to be another of the products of this Convocation And therefore for so much as concerns this Catechism it was replyed by Mr. John Philpot Archdeacon of Winchester who had been a member in the former and was now a member of the Convocation in the first of Queen Mary That he thought they were deceived in the Title of it Acts and Monum fo 1282. in that it owned the Title of the last Synod of London many which were then present not being made privy to the making or publishing of it He added That the said former Convocation had granted the Authority of making excellent Laws unto certain persons to be appointed by the Kings Majesty so as whatsoever Ecclesiastical Laws they or the most part of them did set forth according to a Statute in that behalf provided might be well said to be done in the Synod of London though such as were of the house had no notice thereof before the promulgation And thereupon he did infer That the setters forth of the Catechism did not slander the House as they went about to persuade the World since they had the Authority of the Synod unto them committed to make such Spiritual Laws as they thought convenient and necessary for the good of the Church In which Discourse we may observe that there was not one word which reflects on the Book of Articles all of it being made in reference to the Catechism before remembred though if the Objection had been made as indeed it was not against the Articles themselves the defence of that learned man and godly Martyr would have served as fully for the one as it did for the other But whatsoever may be said in derogation to the Authority of the Book of Articles as it was published in the time of King Edward the sixth Anno Dom. 1552. certain I am that nothing can be said unto â—â—e contrary but that they were received and the far greater part of them agreed upon in full Convocation Anno 1562. And therefore for avoiding of all Disputes I am resolved to take them in this last capacity as they were ratified by Queen Elizabeth Anno 1563. confirmed by King James An. 1604. and finally established by the late King Charles with his Majesties Royal Declaration prefixt before them Anno 1628. Less doubt there is concerning the intent of this Convocation in drawing up the Articles in so loose a manner that men of different judgments might accommodate them to their own Opinions which I find both observed and commended in them by the former Author by whom we are informed that the Articles of the English Protestant Church Chur. Hist lib. 9. fol. 72. in the infancy thereof were drawn up in general terms foreseeing that posterity would grow up to fill the same meaning that these holy men did prudently discover that differences in judgment would unavoidably happen in the Church and were loth to unchurch any and drive them off from any Ecclesiastical communion for petty differences which made them pen the Articles in comprehensive words to take in all who differing in the branches meet in the root of the same Religion This hath been formerly observed to have been the artifice of those who had the managing of the Council of Trent and is affirmed to have been used by such men also as had the drawing up of the Canons at the Synod of Dort But the Composers of the Articles of the Church of England had not so little in them of the Dove or so much of the Serpent as to make the Articles of the Church like an upright shoe which may be worn on either foot or like to Theramenes shoe as the Adage hath it fit for the foot of every man that was pleased to wear it and therefore we may say of our first Reformers in reference to the present Book of Articles as was affirmed of them by Dr. Brancroft then Bishop of London in relation to the Rubrick in private Baptism that is to say that those reverend and learned men intended not to deceive any by ambiguous terms for which see Conf. at Hampton Court Confer p. 15. And to this supposition or imagination it is also answered That the first Reformers did not so compose the Articles as to leave any liberty to diffenting judgments as the said Author would fain have it in some words preceding but did not bind men to the literal and Grammatical sense they had not otherwise attained to the end they aimed at which was ad tollendam Opiniorum Dissentionem consensum in vera Religione firmandum that is to say to take away diversity of Opinions and to establish an agreement in the true Religion Which end could never be effected if men were left unto the liberty of dissenting or might have leave to put their own sense upon the Articles as they list themselves For where there is a purpose of permitting men to their own Opinions there is no need of definitions and
from time to time though possibly a great part of them might be present and consenting also 1552. Nor stood this book nor the Article of Freewill therein contained upon the order and authority only of this Convocation but had as good countenance and encouragement to walk abroad as could be superadded to it by an Act of Parliament as appears plainly by the Kings Preface to that Book and the Act it self to which for brevity sake I refer the Reader But if it be replyed that there is no relying on the Acts of Parliament which were generally swayed changed and over-ruled by the power and passions of the King and that the Act of Parliament which approved this Book was repealed the first year of King Edward the sixth as indeed it was we might refer the Reader to a passage in the Kings Epistle before remembred in which the Doctrine of Freewill is affirmed to have been purged of all Popish Errors concerning which take here the words of the Epistle Epist Ded. viz. And for as much as the heads and senses of our people have been imbusied and in these days travelled with the understanding of Freewill Justification c. We have by the advice of our Clergy for the purgation of Erroneous Doctrine declared and set forth openly plainly and without ambiguity of speech the meer and certain truth of them so as we verily trust that to know God and how to live after his pleasure to the attaining of everlasting life in the end this Book containeth a perfect and sufficient Doctrine grounded and established in holy Scriptures And if it be rejoyned as perhaps it may that King Henry used to shift Opinion in matters which concerned Religion according unto interest and reason of State it must be answered that the whole Book and every Tract therein contained was carefully corrected by Archbishop Cranmer the most blessed instrument under God of the Reformation before it was committed to the Prolocutor and the rest of the Clergy For proof whereof I am to put the Reader in mind of a Letter of the said Archbishop relating to the eighth Chapter of this book in which he signified to an honourable Friend of his that he had taken the more pains in it because the Book being to be set forth by his Graces that is to say the Kings censure and judgment he could have nothing in it that Momus himself could reprehend as before was said And this I hope will be sufficient to free this Treatise of Freewill from the crime of Popery But finally if notwithstanding all these Reasons it shall be still pressed by those of the Calvinian party that the Doctrine of Freewill which is there delivered is in all points the same with that which was concluded and agreed on in the Council of Trent as appears Cap. de fructibus justificationis merito bonorum operum Can. 34. and therefore not to be accounted any part of the Protestant Doctrine which was defended and maintained by the Church of England according to the first Rules of her Reformation the answers will be many and every answer not without its weight and moment For first it was not the intent of the first Reformers to depart farther from the Rites and Doctrines of the Church of Rome than that Church had departed from the simplicity both of Doctrine and Ceremonies which had been publickly maintained and used in the Primitive times as appears plainly by the whole course of their proceedings so much commended by King James in the Conserence at Hampton Court Secondly this Doctrine must be granted also to be the same with that of the Melancthonian Divines or moderate Lutherans as was confessed by Andreas Vega one of the chief sticklers in the Council of Trent who on the agitating of the Point did confess ingenuously that there was no difference betwixt the Lutherans and the Church touching that particular And then it must be confessed also that it was the Doctrine of Saint Augustine according to that Divine saying of his Sine gratia Dei praeveniente ut velimus subsequente ne frustra velimus ad pietatis opera nil valemus which is the same of that of the tenth Article of the Church of England where it is said That without the grace of God preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will we can do nothing that is acceptable to him in the ways of piety So that if the Church of England must be Arminian and the Arminian must be Papist because they agree together in this particular the Melancthonian Divines amongst the Protestants yea and St. Augustine amongst the Ancients himself must be Papists also CHAP. XIII The Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the certainty or uncertainty of Perseverance 1. The certainty of Grace debated in the Council of Trent and maintained in the Affirmative by the Dominicans and some others 2. The contrary affirmed by Catarinus and his adherents 3. The doubtful resolution of the Council in it 4. The Calvinists not content with certainty of Grace quoad statum praesentem presume upon it also quoad statum suturum 5. The bounds and limits wherewith the judgment in this point ought rationally to be circumscribed 6. The Doctrine of the Church of England in the present Artìcle 7. Justified by the testimonies of Bishop Latimer Bishop Hooper and Master Tyndal 8. And proved by several arguments from the publick Liturgy 9. The Homily commends a probable and sted-fast hope But 10. Allows no certainty of Grace and perseverance in any ordinary way to the Sons of men OF all the Points which exercised the wits and patience of the School-men in the Council of Trent there was none followed with more heat between the parties than that of the certainty of Grace occasioned by some passages in the writings of Luther wherein such certainty was maintained as necessary unto justification and an essential part thereof In canvasing of which point the one part held that certainty of grace was presumption the other that one might have it meritoriously The ground of the first was Hist of the Coun of Trent fol. 205. c. that Saint Thomas Saint Bonaventure and generally the School-men thought so for which cause the major part of the Dominicans were of the same opinion besides the authority of the Doctors they alledged for reasons that God would not that man should be certain that be might not be lifted up in pride and esteem of themselves that he might not prefer himself before others as he that knoweth himself to be just would do before manifest sinners and a Christian would so become drowsie careless and negligent to do good Therefore they said that uncertainty was profitable yea and meritorious besides because it is a passion of the mind which doth afflict it and being supported is turned to merit They alledged many places of the Scripture also of Solomon that a man knoweth not
the English Catechism set forth by Mr. Alexander Nowel and the strength thereof 9. Several considerations on the said Catechism and the rest of the Authors making and what his being Prolocutor in the Convocation might add to any of them in point of Orthodoxy 10. Nothing to be collected out of the first passage in Mr. Nowels Catechism in favour of the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination and the points depending thereupon and less than nothing in the second if it be understood according to the Authors meaning and the determination of the Church MORE calmly and with less deviation from the Doctrine of the Church of England were the same points disputed in Queen Maries days amongst the Confessors in Prison which coming to the knowledg of the Queen and her Councli a Commission was granted to one Dr. Martin a busie man in all such matters as appears by the story to make enquiry amongst many other things into this particular and he according to the power given by the Commission convents before her one John Carelese born at Coventry of no better quality than a Weaver yet one that was grown very able to express himself when the matter came to examination by which Examination it appears that as Carelese somewhat differed in the Doctrine of Predestination and the point depending thereupon from the Church assembled according as it was established in King Edwards time so Trew another of the Prisoners but of what quality or condition I was yet to seek seems more inclinable to that Opinion if Carelese understood them rightly which was defended all that time by the Popish Clergy And that the Reader may perceive the better how the difference stood I shall lay down so much of the Conference between Dr. Martin and the Prisoner as concerns this business leaving the Reader to admire at Gods infinite goodness giving poor unlettered men such a measure of Christian courage as might enable them to speak both stoutly and discreetly in their greatest troubles Now the said Conference was as followeth 2. The Examination of John Carelese before Dr. Martin Martin Carelese I could wish that thou wouldst play the Wise mans part Act. and Mon. fol. 1742. thou art a handsome man and 't is pity but that thou shouldest do well and save that God hath bought Carelese I think your good Mastership most heartily and I put you out of doubt that I am most sure and certain of my salvation by Jesus Christ so that my Soul is safe already what pains soever my body suffer here for a little time Martin Yea marry you say truth for thou art so predestinate to life that thou canst not perish in whatsoever Opinion thou dost die Carelese That God hath predestinate me to eternal life in Jesus Christ I am most certain and even so I am sure that his holy Spirit wherewith I am sealed will so preserve me from all Heresies and evil Opinions that I shall die in none at all Martin Go to let me hear your faith in Predestination for that shall be written also Carelese Your Mastership shall pardon me herein for you said your self ere while that you had no Commission to examine my Conscience Martin I tell thee I have a Commission yea and a Commandment from the Council to examine thee of such things as be in Controversie between thee and thy fellows in the Kings Bench whereof Predestination is a part as thy fellow hath confessed and thy self dost not deny it Carelese I do not deny it but he that first told you that matter might have found himself much better occupied Martin Why I tell thee truth I may now examine thee of any thing that I list Carelese Then let your Scribe set his Pen to the paper and you shall have it roundly as the truth is I believe that Almighty God our most dear loving Father of his great mercy and infinite goodness through Jesus Christ did elect and appoint in him before the foundation of the Earth was laid a Church or Congregation which he doth continually guide and govern by his Grace and holy Spirit so that not one of them all ever finally perish When this was written Mr. Doctor took it in his hand saying Martin Why who will deny this Carelese If you Mastership do allow it and other Learned men when they shall see it I have my hearts desire Martin Did you hold no otherwise than is there written Carelese No verily no ne're did Martin Write that he saith otherwise he holdeth not so that was written it was told me also that thou dost affirm that Christ did not die effectually for all men Carelese Whatsoever hath been told you is not much material for indeed I do believe that Christ did effectually die for all those that do effectually repent and believe and for none other so that was written Martin Now Sir what is Trews faith of Predestination he believeth that all men be Predestinate and that none shall be damned doth he not Carelese No forsooth that he doth not Martin How then Carelese I think he doth believe as your Mastership and the rest of the Clergy do believe of Predestination that we be elect in respect of our good works and so long elected as we do them and no longer Martin Yet thou canst not deny but that you are at a jar amongst your selves in the Kings Bench and it is so throughout all your Congregation for you will not be a Church No Master Doctor that is not so there is a thousand times more variety of opinions amongst your Doctors Carelese which you call of the Catholick Church yea and that in the Sacrament for the which there is so much blood shed now adays I mean of your later Doctors and new Writers as for the old they agree wholly with us Now in this conference or examination there are divers things to be considered For first I consider Carelese as a man unlettered and not so thoroughly grounded in the constitution of the Church of England as not to entertain some thoughts to which the doctrine of this Church could afford no countenance Amongst which I reckon that strong confidence which he had of his own salvation and of the final perseverance of all those who are the chosen Members of the Church of Christ which was not taught him by the Church and could not be obtained in any ordinary way by the light of that doctrine which then shined forth unto the People Secondly I consider him as one so far instructed in the knowledge of Predestination as to lay the foundation of it on Gods great mercy and infinite goodness in Christ Jesus which plainly crosseth with the new Gospellers of those times who found the same upon his absolute will and pleasure without relation to Christs sufferings for us or our faith in him Thirdly I consider that the Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption by the death of Christ and the effectuality thereof to the Sons of men
of the Ninevites before the year 1574. being ten years before the preaching of Harsnets Sermon at St. Pauls Cross and more than twenty years before the stirs at Cambridge betwixt him and Whitacres In all which time or at lest the greatest part thereof he inclined rather unto the Melancthonian way according to the Judgment of the Church of England in laying down the Doctrine of Prodestination than to that of Calvin For fifteen years it is confest in a Letter sent by some of the heads of Cambridg to William Lord Burleigh then Chancellour of the University Anti-Arminian p. 256. bearing date March the 8. 1595. That he had taught in his Lectures preached in Sermons determined in the Schools and printed in several books a contrary Doctrine unto that which was maintained by Dr. Whitacres and had been taught and received in the University ever since the beginning of her Majesties Reign which last though it be gratis dictum without proof or evidence yet it is probable enough that it might be so Cartwright that unextinguished Firebrand being Professor in that place before him and no greater care taken in the first choice of the other before recited to have had the place than to supply it with a man of known aversness from all points of Popery And it seems also by that Letter that Baroe had not sown his seed in a barren soil but in such as brought forth fruit enough and yielded a greater increase of Followers than the Calvinians could have wished For in one place the Letter tells us that besides Mr. Barret of whom we shall speak more anon There were divers others who there attempted publickly to teach new and strange Oinions in Religion as the Subscribers of it call them And in another place it tells us of Dr. Baroe that he had many Disciples and Adherents whom he emboldned by his Example to maintain false Doctrine And by this check it may be said of Peter Baroe in reference to that University indangered to be overgrown with outlandish Doctrines as the Historian doth of Caius Marius with reference to the state of Rome in fear of being over-run by the Tribes of the Cymbri which were then breaking in upon it Actum esset de repub nisi Marius isti seculo contigisset the Commonwealth had then been utterly overthrown if Marius had not been then living Now as for Barret before mentioned he stands accused so far forth as we can discern by the Recantation which some report him to have made for preaching many strange and erroneous Doctrines that is to say 1. Anti-Armini p. 56. That no man in this transitory life is so strongly underpropped at lest by the certainty of saith that is to say as afterwards he explained himself by Revelation that he ought to be assured of his own salvation 2. That the faith of Peter could not fail but that the faith of other men might fail our Lord not praying for the faith of every particular man 3. That the certainty of perseverance for the time to come is a presumptuous and proud security forasmuch as it is in its own nature contingent and that it was not only a presumptuous but a wicked Doctrine 4. There was no distinction in the faith but in the persons believing 5. That the forgiveness of sins is an Article of the Faith but not the forgiveness of the sins particularly of this man or that and therefore that no true Believer either can or ought believe for certain that his sins are forgiven him 6. That he maintained against Calvin Peter Martyr and the rest cencernthose that are not saved that sin is the true proper and first cause of Reprobation 7. That he had taxed Calvin for lifting up himself above the high and Almighty God And 8thly That he had uttered many bitter words against Peter Martyr Theodore Beza Jerom Zanchius and Francis Junius c. calling them by the odious names of Cavinists and branding them with a most grievous mark of Reproach they being the Lights and Ornaments of our Church as is suggested in the Articles which were exhibited against him For having insisted or at lest touched upon these points in a Sermon preached at St. Maries on the â—9 of April Anno 1595. all the Calvinian heads of that University being laid together by Whitacres and inflamed by Perkins took fire immediately And in this Text he was convented on the fifth of May next following at nine of the clock in the morning before Dr. Some then Deputy Vice-Chancellour to Dr. Duport Dr. Goad Dr. Tyndal Dr. Whitacres Dr. Barwell Dr. Jegon Dr. Preston Mr. Chatterton and Mr. Claton in the presence of Thomas Smith publick Notary by whom he was appointed to attend again in the afternoon At which time the Articles above mentioned were read unto him which we alledged to be erroneous and false Et repugnantes esse religioni in regno Angliae legitima Authoritate receptae ac stabilitae that is to say contrary to the Religion received and established by publick Authority in the Realm of England To which Articles being required to give an Answer he confest that he had published in his Sermon all these positions which in the said Articles are contained sed quod contenta in iisdem Religioni Ecclesiae Angelicanae ut praefertur omnino non repugnant but denied them to be any way repugnant to the Doctrine of the Church of England Whereupon the Vice-Chancellour and the forenamed heads entring into mature deliberation and diligently weighing and examining these Positions because it did manifestly appear that the said Positions were false erroneous and likewise repugnant to the Religion received and established in the Church of England adjudged and declared that the said Barret had incurred the Penalty of the 45. Statute of the University de concionibus And by vertue and tenour of that Statute they decreed and adjudged the said Barret to make a publick Recanation in such words and form as by the Vice-Chancellour and the said heads or any three or two of them should be tendred to him or else upon his refusal to recant in that manner to be perpetually expelled both from his Colledg and the University binding him likewise in an Assumpsit of 40 l. to appear personally upon two days warning before the Vice-Chancellour or his Deputy at what time and place they should require It appears afterwards by the Register of the University that Barret being resummoned to appear before him though none but Goad Tyndal Barwell and Preston were present at that time with the Vice-Chancellour or his Deputy for I know not which a Recantation ready drawn was delivered to him which he was commanded to publish solemnly in St. Maries Church on Saturday the 10th of May then next ensuing And it is confidently affirmed by the Author of the Arminianism and his Eccho too that the said Recantation was publickly made by the said Barret at the time and place therein appointed Anti-Arminian p. 61.
Assistants whom I reverence do purpose to proceed in disquieting and traducing me as you have done by the space of three quarters of this year and so in the end mean to drive me out of the University I must take it patiently because I know not how to redress it but let God be judg between you and me These things I leave to your Worships favourable consideration for this I must needs say and peradventure it may tend to your credit when I shall report it that above the rest hitherto I have found you most courteous and most just I leave your Worship to Gods Direction and holy tuition expecting a gracious Answer Your daily Beadsman WILLIAM BARRET But here perhaps it may be said that though Barret might be as obstinate in refusing to publish the Recantation as this Letter makes him yet it appears by the whole course of those proceedings that his Doctrines were condemned by the heads of the University as being contrary to that which was received and established in the Church of England And that it was so in the Judgment of those men who either concurred in his Censure or subscribed the Letter to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh above-mentioned is a thing past question But this can be no Argument that Barrets Doctrines were repugnant to the Church of England because these Heads either in favour of Dr. Whitacres or in respect to Mr. Perkins were pleased to think no otherwise of them for if it be we may conclude by the same Argument that the Church of Rome was in the right even in the darkest times of ignorance and superstition because all those who publickly opposed her Doctrines were solemnly enjoyned by the then prevailing party to a Recantation and which is more it may be also thence concluded that the Doctrine maintained by Athanasius touching Christs Divinity was contrary to that which had been taught by the Apostles and men of Apostolical spirits because it was condemned for such by some Arrian Bishops in the Council or rather Conventicle of Tyre which was held against him 2. It cannot be made apparent that either Dr. Duport the Vice-Chancellor who was most concerned or Dr. Baroe the Lady Margarets Professour for Divinity there had any hand in sentencing this Recantation Not Dr. Baroe because by concurring to this Sentence he was to have condemned himself Nor Dr. Duport for I find his place to be supplyed and the whole action govern'd by Dr. Some which shews him to be absent at that time from the University according to the stile whereof the Title of Procancellarius is given to Dr. Some in the Acts of the Court as appears by the Extract of them in the Anti-Arminianisin p. 64. compared with p. 63. But thirdly admitting that the Heads were generally thus enclined yet probably the whole body of the University might not be of the same Opinion with them those Heads not daring to affirm otherwise of Barrets Doctrine in their Letter to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh than that it gave just offence to many And if it gave offence unto many only it may be thought that it gave no offence to the Major part or much less to all for if it had the writers of the Letter would not have been so sparing in their expressions as to limit the offence to many if they could have said it of the most But of this we shall speak more in the following Chapter when we shall come to feel the pulse of the University in the great competition between Wotton and Overald after Whitacres death Of which Opinion Harsnet was we have seen before And we have seen before that Baroe had many Disciples and Adherents which stood fast unto him And thereupon we may conclude that when Dr. Baroe had for fourteen or fifteen years maintained these Opinions in the Schools as before was shewed which are now novelized by the name of Arminianism and such an able man as Harsnet had preached them without any Controul when the greatest audience of the Kingdom did stand to him in it There must be many more Barrets who concurred with the same Opinions with them in the University though their names through the Envy of those times are not come unto us CHAP. XXI Of the proceedings against Baroe the Articles of Lambeth and the general calm which was in Oxon touching these Disputes 1. The differences between Baroe and Doctor Whitacres the addresses of Whitacres and others to Archbishop Whitgift which drew on the Articles at Lambeth 2. The Articles agreed on at Lambeth presented both in English and Latin 3. The Articles of no authority in themselves Archbishop Whitgift questioned for them together with the Queens command to have them utterly supprest 4. That Baroe neither was deprived of his Professorship nor compelled to leave it the Anti-Calvinian party being strong enough to have kept him in if he had defired it 5. A Copy of the Letter from the Heads in Cambridg to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh occasioned as they said by Barret and Baroe 6. Dr. Overalds encounters with the Calvinists in the point of falling from the Grace received his own private judgment in the point neither for total nor for final and the concurrence of some other learned men in the same Opinion 7. The general calm which was at Oxon at that time touching these Disputes and the Reasons of it 8. An answer to that Objection out of the Writings of judicious Hooker of the total and final falling 9. The disaffections of Dr. Bukeridge and Dr. Houson to Calvins doctrines an Answer to the Objection touching the paucity of those who opposed the same 10. Possession of a Truth maintained but by one or two preserves it sacred and inviolable for more fortunate times the case of Liberius Pope of Rome and that the testimonies of this kind are rather to be valued by weight than tale FROM Barret pass we on to Baroe betwixt whom and Dr. Whitacres there had been some clashings touching Predestination and Reprobation the certainty of Salvation and the possibility of falling from the Grace received And the heats grew so high at last that the Calvinians thought it necessary in point of prudence to effect that by power and favour which they were not able to obtain by force of Argument To which end they first addressed themselves to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh then being their Chancellor acquainting him by Dr. Some then Deputy Vice-Chancellor with the disturbances made by Barret thereby preparing him to hearken to such further motions as should be made unto him in pursuit of that Quarrel But finding little comfort there they resolved to steer their course by another compass And having prepossest the most Reverend Archbishop Whitgift with the turbulent carriage of those men the affronts given to Dr. Whitacres whom for his learned and laborious Writings against Cardinal Bellarmine he most highly favoured and the great inconveniences like to grow by that publick discord they gave themselves good hopes of
thirty sixth Canon Directions to the Vice-Chancellor Heads c. Jan. 18. 1616. that no man in the Pulpit or Schools be suffered to maintain Dogmatically any point of doctrine that is not allowed by the Church of England that none be suffered to preach or lecture in the Towns of Oxon or Cambridg but such as were every way conformable to the Church hoth in doctrine and discipline and finally which most apparently conduced to the ruin of Calvinism that young Students in Divinity be directed to study such books as be most agreeable in doctrine and discipline to the Church of England and excited to bestow their time in the fathers and Councils Schoolmen Histories and Controversies and not to insist too long upon Compendiums and abbreviations making them the grounds of their study in Divinity This seemed sufficient to bruite these doctrines in the shell as indeed it was had these directions been as carefully followed as they were piously prescribed But little or nothing being done in pursuance of them the Predestinarian doctrines came to be the ordinary Theam of all Sermons Lectures and Disputations partly in regard that Dr. Prideaux who had then newly succeeded Dr. Rob. Abbot in the Chair at Oxon had very passionately exposed the Calvinian Interest and partly in regard of the Kings declared aversness from the Belgick Remonstrants whom for the reasons before mentioned he laboured to suppress to his utmost power And yet being careful that the Truth should not fear the worse for the men that taught it he gave command to such Divines as were commissionated by him to attend in the Synod of Dort An. 1618. not to recede from the doctrine of the Church of England in the point of Vniversal Redemption by the death of Christ A point so inconsistent with that of the absolute and irrespective decree of Reprobation and generally of the whole Machina of Predestination and the points depending thereupon as they are commonly maintained in the Schools of Calvin that fire and water cannot be at greater difference But this together with the rest being condemned in the Synod of Dort and that Synod highly magnified by the English Calvinists they took confidence of making those disputes the Subject of their common discourses both from the Pulpit and Press without stint or measure and thereupon it pleased his Majesty having now no further fear of any dangers from beyond the Seas to put some water into their Wine or rather a Bridle into their mouths by publishing certain Orders and directions touching Preachers and preaching bearing date the 4th of August 1622. In which it was enjoyned amongst other things Directions of preaching and Preachers That no Preacher of what Title soever under the degree of a bishop or Dean at least do from henceforth presume to teach in any popular Auditory the deep points of Predestination Election Reprobation or of the Vniversality Efficacy Resistability or Irresistability of Gods Grace but rather leave those Theams to be handled by learned men and that modestly and moderately by use and application rather than by way of positive Doctrine as being fitter for Schools and Vniversities than for simple Auditors The violating of which Order by Mr Gabriel Bridges of Corpus Christi Colledg in Oxon by preaching on the 19. of January then next following against the absolute decree in maintenance of universal Grace and the co-operation of mans free-will prevented by it though in the publick Church of the University laid him more open to the prosecution of Dr. Prideaux and to the censure of the Vice-Chancellor and the rest of the Heads than any preaching on those points or any of them could possibly have done at mother time Much was the noise which those of the Calvinian party were observed to make on the publishing of this last Order as if their mouths were stopped thereby from preaching the most necessary doctrines tending towards mans salvation But a far greater noise was raised upon the coming out of Mountagues answer to the Gagger in which he asserted the Church to her primitive and genuine doctrines disclaimed all the Calvinian Tenents as disowned by her and left them to be countenanced and maintained by those to whom they properly belonged Which book being published at a time when a Session of Parliament was expected in the year 1624. The opportunity was taken by Mr. Yates and Mr. Ward two of the Lecturers or Preachers of Ipswich to prepare an Information against him with an intent to prosecute the same in the following Session A Copy whereof being come into Mountagues hands he flies for shelter to King James who had a very great estimation of him for his parts and learning in which he had over-mastred they then though much less Selden at his own Philologie The King had already served his own turn against the Remonstrants by the Synod of Dort and thereby freed the Prince of Orange his most dear Confederate from the danger of Barnevelt and his faction Archbishop Abbot came not at him since the late deplorable misfortune which befell him at Branzil and the death of Dr. James Mountague Bishop of Winton left him at liberty from many importunities and sollicitations with which before he had been troubled so that being now master of himself and governed by the light of his own most clear and excellent Judgment he took both Mountague and his dectrines into his Protection gave him a full discharge or quietus est from all those Calumnies of Popery or Arminianism which by the said Informers were laid upon him iucouraged him to proceed in finishing his just Appeal which he was in hand with commanded Dr. Francis White then lately preferred by him to the Deanry of Carlisle and generally magnified not long before for his zeal against Popery to see it licensed for the Press and finally gave order unto Mountague to dedicate the book when printed to his Royal self In obedience unto whose Command the Dean of Carlisle licensed the book with this approbation That there was nothing contained in the same but what was agreeable to the publick Faith Doctrine and Discipline established in the Church of England But King James dying before the book was fully finished at the Press it was published by the name of Appello Caesarem and dedicated to King Charles as the Son and Successor to whom it properly belonged the Author touching in the Epistle Dedicatory all the former passages but more at large than they are here discoursed of in this short Summary And thus far we have prosecuted our Discourse concerning the Five Points disputed between the English Protestants the Belgick Remonstrants the Melancthonian Lutherans together with the Jesuits and Franciscans on the one side the English Calvinists the Contra Remonstrants the Rigid Lutherans and the Dominican Fryers on the other side In the last part whereof we may observe how difficult a thing it is to recover an old doctrinal Truth when overborn and almost lost by the
and that the way being thus laid open it was no hard matter to make the Bishop of Carlisle obnoxious to that kind of Trial which being forsaken on all sides as the times then were he was not able to avoid Which might be also the condition of Arch-bishop Cranmer and as for Fisher Bishop of Rochester he was to deal with an impetuous and violent Prince who was resolved to put the greater disgrace upon him because he had received some greater Honours from the Pope than the condition of Affairs might be thought to bear But against all these violations of their Rights of Peerage it may be said in their behalves for the times to come that by the Statute of the 25th of King Edward the 3d which serves to this day for the standing Rule in Cases of Treason it is required that the Malefactor or the suspected person must be attainted by such men as are of his own Condition and therefore Bishops to be tryed by none but the Peers of the Land unless it be in open opposit on to this Rule of King Edward and in defiance to the fundamental Law in the Magna Charta where it is said that no man is to be Disseised of his Freehold exiled or any ways destroyed nisi per Judicium parium suorum Or per Legem Terrae but by the Judgment of his Peers and by the Law of the Land and I can find no Law of the Land which tells me that a Bishop shall be tryed by a Common Jury Finally if it be a sufficient Argument that Bishops ought not to be reckoned as Peers of the Realm because they may be tryed by a Common Jury then also at some times and in certain Cases the Temporal Lords Dukes Marquesses Earls c. must not pass for Peers because in all Appeals of Murder they are to be tryed by Common Jurors like the rest of the Subjects But secondly it is objected That since a Bishop cannot sit in Judgment on the death of a Peer nor be so much as present at the time of his Trial they are but half-Peers as it were not Peers to all intents and purposes as the others are But this incapacity is not laid upon them by the Laws of the Land or any Limitation of their powers in their Writ of Summons or any thing inhering to the Episcopal Function but only by some ancient Canons and more particularly by the fourth Canon of Toledo which whether they be now of force or not may be somewhat questioned Secondly whensoever they withdrew themselves they did it with a salvo Jure paritatis as before is shewn To which intent they did not only cause their Protestations to be filed on Record Coke Institut part 4. fol. 23. but for the most part made a Proxy to some Temporal Lords to Act in their behalf and preserve their right which though they did not in the Case we had before us yet afterwards in the 21st of King Richard the 2d and from that time forwards when they found Parliamentary Impeachments to become more frequent they observed it constantly as it continues to this day Nor were they hindred by those Canons whatsoever they were from being present at the depositions of Witnesses or taking such preparatory examinations as concern the Trial in which they might be able to direct the Court by the Rules of Conscience though they withdrew themselves at the time of the sentence That was a Trick imposed upon the Bishops by the late long Parliament when they excluded them from being members of the Committee which was appointed for taking the examinations in the business of the Earl of Strafford And this they did not in relation to those ancient Canons but upon design for fear they might discover some of those secret practices which were to be hatched and contrived against him Against which Preparations for a final Trial or taking the Examinations or hearing of depositions of Witnesses or giving counsel in such cases as they saw occasion the Council of Toledo saith not any thing which can be honestly interpreted to their disadvantage So that the Bishops Claim stands good to their right of Peerage any thing in those ancient Canons or the unjust practices of the late Long Parliament to the contrary notwithstanding To draw the business to an end what one thing is required unto the constituting of a Peer of England which is not to be found in an English Bishop if Tenure and Estate they hold their Lands per integram Baroniam as the old Lords did if Voice in Parliament they have their several Writs of Summons as the Lay-Lords have if we desire Antiquity to make good their Interesse most of them have sat longer there in their Predecessors than any of our Temporal Lords in their noblest Ancestors if point of Priviledg they have the same in all respects as the others have except it be in one particular neither clearly stated nor universally enjoyed by those who pretend most to it if Letters Patents from the King to confirm these Honours they have his Majesties Writ of Conge d'eslire his Royal Assent to the Election his Mandate under the Great Seal for their Consecration If therefore we allow the Bishops to be Lords of Parliament we must allow them also to be Peers of the Realm There being nothing which distinguisheth a Peer from from a common Person but his Voice in Parliament which was the matter to be proved A TABLE OF THE CONTENTS The Way of the Reformation of the Church of England declared and justified SECT I. I. THE Introduction shewing the Occasion Method and Design of the whole Discourse Page 1 I. Of Calling or Assembling the Convocation of the Clergy and the Authority thereof when convened together Page 2 II. Of the Ejection of the Pope and vesting the Supremacy in the Regal Crown Page 5 III. Of the Translation of the Scriptures and permitting them to be read in the English Tongue Page 7 IV. Of the Reformation of Religion in the points of Doctrine Page 10 V. Of the Reformation of the Church of England in the Forms of Worship and the times appointed thereunto Page 14 VI. Of the power of making Canons for the well ordering of the Clergy and the directing of the people in the publick duties of Religion Page 18 VII An Answer to the main Objections of either Party Page 20 SECT II. I. That the Church of England did not innovate in the Ejection of the Pope and setling the Supremacy in the Regal Crown Page 23 II. That the Church of England might proceed to a Reformation without the approbation of the Pope or the Church of Rome Page 26 III. That the Church of England might lawfully proceed to a Reformation without the help of a General Council or calling in the aid of the Protestant Churches Page 30 IV. That the Church did not innovate in Translating the Scriptures and the publick Liturgy into vulgar Tongues and of the Consequents thereof to the
Lutherans and the Church of Rome as is acknowledged by the Papists themselves Page 518 2. The Judgment of the Lutheran Churches in the said five Points delivered in the famous Confession of Ausperge ibid. 3. The distribution of the Quarrel betwixt the Franciscans Melancthonians and Arminians on the one side the Dominicans rigid Lutherans and Sublapsarian Calvinists on the other the middle way of Catarinus parallell'd by that of Bishop Overal Page 519 4. The Doctrine of Predestination as laid down by Calvin of what ill Consequence in it self and how odious to the Lutheran Doctors Page 520 5. Opposed by Sebastian Castellio in Geneva it self but propagated in most Churches of Calvins Plat-form and afterwards polished by Perkins a Divine of England and in him censured and confuted by Jacob Van Harmine a Belgick Writer Page 521 6. A brief view of the Doctrine of the Sublapsarians and the odious Consequences of it Page 522 7. The Judgment of the Sublapsarians in the said five Points collected and presented at the Conference at the Hague Anno 1610. ibid. 8. The Doctrine of the Synodists in the said Points Page 523 9. Affirmed to be repugnant to the holy Scripture as also to the Purity Mercy Justice and Sincerity of Almighty God ibid. 10. And the subversion of the Ministry and all Acts of Piety illustrated by the example of Tiberius Caesar and the Lantgrave of Thurin Page 524 CHAP. V. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants and the story of them until their final Condemnation in the Synod of Dort 1. The Doctrine of the Remonstrants ancienter than Calvinism in the Belgick Churches and who they were that stood up for it before Arminius Page 525 2. The first undertakings of Arminius his preferment to the Divinity-Chair at Leiden his Commendations and death Page 526 3. The occasion of the Name Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants the Controversie reduced to five Points and those disputed at the Hague in a publick Conference ibid. 4 The said five Points according to their several Heads first tendred at the Hague and after at the Synod at Dort Page 527 5. The Remonstrants persecuted by their Opposites put themselves under the protection of Barnevelt and by his means obtained a collection of their Doctrine Barnevelt seised and put to death by the Prince of Orange Page 528 6. The Calling of the Synod of Dort the parallel betwixt it and the Council at Trent both in the conduct of the business against their Adversaries and the differences amongst themselves Page 529 7. The breaking out of the differences in the Synod in open Quarrels between Martinius one of the Divines of Breeme and some of the Divines of Holland and on what occasions ibid. 8. A Copy of the Letter from Dr. Belconqual to S. Dudly Carleton his Majesties Resident at the Hague working the violent prosecutions of those Quarrels by the Dutch Divines Page 530 9. A further prosecution of the parallel between the Council and the Synod in reference to the Articles used in the draught upon the Canons and Decrees of either and the doubtful meaning of them both Page 531 10. The quarrelling Parties joyn together against the Remonstrants denying them any place in the Synod and finally dismist them in a furious Oration made by Boyerman without any hearing Page 532 11. The Synodists indulgent to the damnable Doctrines of Macorius and unmerciful in the banishment or extermnation of the poor Remonstrants ibid. 12. Scandalously defamed to make them odious and those of their persuasions in other places Ejected Persecuted and Disgraced Page 533 CHAP. VI. Objections made against the Doctrine of the Remonstrants the Answer unto all and the retorting of some of them on the opposite Party 1. An Introduction to the said Objections Page 534 2. The first Objection touching their being enemies to the Grace of God disproved in general by comparing the Doctrine with that of S. Augustine though somewhat more favourable to Free Will than that of Luther ibid. 3. A more particular Answer in relation to some hard expressions which were used of them by King James Page 535 4. The second charging it as Introductive of Popery begun in Holland and pressed more importunately in England answered both by Reason and Experience to the contrary of it ibid. 5. The third as filling men with spiritual pride first answered in relation to the testimony from which it was taken and then retorted on those who object the same Page 536 6. The fourth Charge making the Remonstrants a factious and seditious People begun in Holland prosecuted in England and answered in the general by the most Religious Bishop Ridley ibid. 7. What moved King James to think so ill of the Remonstrants as to exasperate the States against them Page 537 8. The Remonstrants neither so troublesome nor so chargeable to the States themselves as they are made by the Assertor the indirect proceedings of the Prince of Orange viz. the death of Barnevelt and the injustice of the Argument in charging the practices of his Children and the Prince upon all the party ibid. 9. Nothing in the Arminian Doctrine which may incline a man to sediti us courses as it is affirmed and proved to be in the Calvin Page 538 10. The Recrimination further proved by a passage in the Conference of the Lord Treasurer Burleigh with Queen Eliz. in a Letter of some of the Bishops to the Duke of Buckingham and in that of Dr. Brooks to the late Archbishop ibid. 11. More fully prosecuted and exemplified by Campney's an old English Protestant Page 539 12. A Transition to the Doctrine of the Church of England ibid. CHAP. VII An Introduction to the Doctrine of the Church of England in the points disputed with the Removal of some rubs which are laid in the way 1. The Doctrine of the Homilies concerning the Endowments of man at his first Creation Page 541 2. His miserable fall Page 542 3. And the promised hopes of his Restitution in the Lord Christ Jesus ibid. 4. A general Declaration of the judgment of the Church of England in the points disputed exemplified in the story of Agilmond and Lamistus Kings of Lombardy ibid. 5. The contrary judgment of Wicklif objected answered and applied to all modern Heresies Page 543 6. A general answer to the like Argument pretended to be drawn from the Writings of Frith Tyndal and Barns But more particularly Page 444 7. The judgment of Dr. Barns in the present point and the grounds on which he builded the same ibid. 8. Small comfort to be found from the works of Tyndal in favour of the Calvinian Doctrines Page 545 9. The falsifyings of John Frith and others in the Doctrine of Predestination reproved by Tyndal Page 546 10. A parallel between some of our first Martyrs and the blind man restored to fight in the eighth of Saint Mark. ibid. CHAP. VIII Of the Preparatives to the Reformation and the Doctrine of the Church in the present points 1. The danger of ascribing
the Article to the present Established Doctrine in the Church of Rome ibid. CHAP. XIII The Doctrine of the Church of England concerning the certainty or uncertainty of Perseverance 1. The certainty of Grace debated in the Council of Trent and maintained in the Affirmative by the Dominicans and some others Page 573 2. The contrary affirmed by Catarinus and his adherents ibid. 3. The doubtful resolution of the Council in it Page 574 4. The Calvinists not content with certainty of Grace quoad statum praesentem presume upon it also quoad statum futurum ibid. 5. The bounds and limits wherewith the judgment in this point ought rationally to be circumscribed Page 575 6. The Doctrine of the Church of England in the present Article ibid. 7. Justified by the testimonies of Bishop Latimer Bishoop Hooper and Master Tyndal Page 576 8. And proved by several arguments from the publick Liturgie ibid. 9. The Homily commends a probable and stedfast hope Page 577 But 10. Allows no certainty of Grace and perseverance in any ordinary way to the Sons of men ibid. CHAP. XIV The Plain Song of the second Homily touching the falling from God and the Descants made upon it 1. More from some other Homilies touching the possibility of falling from the grace received Page 578 2. The second Homily or Sermon touching falling from God laid down verbatim Page 579 3. The sorry shifts of Mr. Yates to illude the true meaning of the Homily plainly discovered and consuted Page 581 4. An Answer unto his Objection touching the passage cited from the former Homily in Mr. Mountagues Appeal ibid. 5. The judgment of Mr. Ridley Arch-Deacon of Canterbury in the points of Election and Redemption Page 582 6. As also touching the reasons why the Word was not preached unto the Gentiles till the coming of Christ the influences of grace the co-workings of man and the possibility of falling from the truth of Christ ibid. CHAP. XV. Of the Author and Authority of King Edwards Chatechism as also of the judgment of Martin Bucer and Peter Martyr in the Points disputed 1. The Catechism published by the Authority of King Edward VI. Anno 1553. affirmed to have been Writ by Bishop Poinet and countenanced by the rest of the Bishops and Clergy Page 583 2. Several passages collected out of that Catechism to prove that the Calvinian Doctrins were the true genuine and ancient Doctrins of the Church of England Page 584 3. With a discovery of the weakness and impertinency of the Allegation Page 585 4. What may most probably be conceived to have been the judgment of Bishop Poinet in most of the Controverted Points Page 586 5. An Answer to another Objection derived from Mr. Bucer and Peter Martyr and the influence which their Auditors and Disciples are supposed to have had in the Reformation ibid. 6. That Bucer was a man of moderate Counsels approving the first Liturgy of King Edward VI. assenting to the Papists at the Dyet of Ratisbone in the possibility of falling from grace and that probably Peter Martyr had not so far espoused the Calvinian quarrels when he lived in Oxon as after his return to Zurick and Calvins Neighbourhood Page 587 7. The judgment of Erasmus according as it is delivered in his Paraphrases on the four Evangelists proposed first in the general view and after more particularly in every of the Points disputed Page 588 PART III. CHAP. XVI Of the first breakin gs out of the Predestinarians and their Proceedings in the same 1. The Predestinarians called at first by the name of Gospellers Page 589 2. Campney's a professed Enemy to the Predestinarians but neither Papist nor Pelagian Page 590 3. The common practices of the Calvinists to defame their Adversaries the name of Free-will men to whom given why ibid. 4. The Doctrine of John Knox in restraining all mens actions either good or evil to the determinate Will and Counsel of God Page 591 5. The like affirmed by the Author of the Table of Predestination in whom and the Genevian Notes we find Christ to be excluded from being the foundation of mans Election and made to be an inferiour cause of salvation only ibid. 6. God made to be the Author of sin by the Author of a Pamphlet entituled against a Privy Papist and his secret Counsels called in for the proof thereof both by him and Knox with the mischiefs which ensued upon it ibid. 7. The Doctrine of Robert Crowly imputing all mens sins to Predestination his silly defences for the same made good by a distinction of John Verons and the weakness of that distinction shewed by Campneys Page 592 8. The Errours of the former Authors opposed by Campneys his Book in answer to those Errours together with his Orthodoxie in the point of universal Redemption and what he builds upon the same ibid. 9. His solid Arguments against the imputing of all actions either good or evil to Predestination justified by a saying of Prosper of Aquitain Page 593 10. The virulent prosecutions of Veron and Crowly according to the Genius of the sect of Calvin Page 594 CHAP. XVII Of the disputes amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries days and the resetling of the Church on her former principles under Queen Elizabeth 1. The Doctrine of Predestination disputed amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries days Page 595 2. The Examination of John Carelese between Dr. Martin in reference to the said Disputes ibid. 3. Considerations on some passages in the conference betwixt Dr. Martin and the said John Carelesse Page 596 4. Review made of the publick Liturgie by the command of Queen Elizabeth and the â—araphrases of Erasmus commended to the reading both of Priest and People Page 597 5. The second Book of Homilies how provided for and of the liberty taken by the Gospellers and Zuinglian Sectaries before the reviewing and confirming of the Book of Articles by the Queens Authority ibid. 6. Of the reviewing and authority of the Book of Articles Anno 1562. and what may be from thence inferred Page 598 7. An Answer from the Agreement drawn from omitting the ninth Article of King Edwards Book the necessity of giving some content to the Zuinglian Gospellers and the difficulty wherewith they were induced to subscribe the Book at the first passing of the same ibid. 8. The Argument taken from some passages in the English Catechism set forth by Mr. Alexander Nowel and the strength thereof Page 599 9. Several considerations on the said Catechism and the rest of the Authors making and what his being Prolocutor in the Convocation might add to any of them in point of Orthodoxie ibid. 10. Nothing to be collected out of the first passage in Mr. Nowels Catechism in favour of the Calvinian doctrine of Predestination and the points depending thereupon and less than nothing in the second if it be understood according to the Authors meaning and the determination of the Church Page 600 CHAP. XVIII A Declaration of the
doctrins An Answer to the Objection touching the paucity of those who opposed the same ibid. 10. Possession of a truth maintained but by one or two preserves it sacred and inviolable for more fortunate times the case of Liberius Pope of Rome and that the testimonies of this kind are rather to be valued by weight than tale Page 627 CHAP. XXII Of the Conference at Hampton Court and the several encouragements given to the Anti-Calvinians in the time of King James 1. The occasion of the conference at Hampton Court and the chief persons there assembled Page 628 2. The nine Articles of Lambeth rejected by King James Page 629 3. Those of the Church being left in their former condition ibid. 4. The Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination decryed by Bishop Bancroft and disliked by King James and the reasons of it Page 630 5. Bishop Bancroft and his Chaplain both abused The inserting the Lambeth Articles into the confession of Ireland no argument of King James his approbation of them by whom they were inserted and for what cause allowed of in the said Confession ibid. 6. A pious fraud of the Calvinians in clapping their Predestinarian Doctrines at the end of the Old Testament Anno 1607. discovered censured and rejected with the reasons of it Page 631 7. The great incouragement given by King James to the Anti-Calvinians and the increasing of that party both in power and number by the stirs in Holland ibid. 8. The offence taken by King James at Conradus Vorstius animateth the Oxon Calvanists to suspend Dr. Houson and to preach publickly against Dr. Laud Page 632 9. The like proceedings at Cambridge against Mr. Simpson first prosecuted by King James and on what account that King was more incensed heainst the party of Arminius than against their perswasions ibid. 10. The Instructions published by King James in order to the diminishing of Calvins Authority the defence of universal Redemption and the suppressing of his Doctrines in the other points and why the last proved so unuseful in the case of Gabriel Bridges Page 633 11. The publishing of Mountagues Answer to the Gagger the information made against it the Author and his Doctrine taken by King James into his protection and his Appeal Licensed by the Kings appointment Page 634 12. The conclusion of the whole discourse and the submission of it to the Church of England ibid. A Postscript to the Reader concerning some particulars in a Scurrilous Pamphlet Entituled A Review of the Certamen Epistolare c. Page 635 The Stumbling-Block of Disobedience and Rebellion c. CHAP. I. The Doctrine of Obedience laid down by Calvin and of the Popular Officers supposed by him whereby he overthroweth that Doctrine 1. THe purpose and design of the work in hand Page 645 2. The Doctrine of Obedience unto Kings and Princes soundly and piously laid down by Calvin Page 646 3. And that not only to the good and gracious but even to cruel Princes and ungodly Tyrants Page 647 4. With Answer unto such Objections as are made against it Page 649 5. The Principles of Disobedience in the supposal of some particular Officers ordained of purpose to regulate the power of Kings Page 650 6. How much the practice of Calvin's followers doth differ from their Masters Doctrine as to the point of Obedience Page 651 7. Several Articles and points of Doctrine wherein the Disciples of Calvin are departed from him Page 653 8. More of the differences in point of Doctrine betwixt the Master and the Scholars ibid. 9. The dangerous consequences which arise from his faulty Principles in the point or Article of Disobedience Page 654 10. The method and distribution of the following work Page 655 CHAP. II. Of the Authority of Ephori in the State of Sparta and that they were not instituted for the ends supposed by Calvin 1. The King of Sparta absolute Monarch at the first Page 656 2. Of the declining of the Regal power and the condition of that State when Lycurgus undertook to change the Government Page 657 3. What power Lycurgus gave the Senate and what was left unto the Kings ibid. 4. The Ephori appointed by the Kings of Sparta to ease themselves and curb the Senate Page 658 5. The blundering and mistakes of Joseph Scaliger about the first Institution of the Ephori Page 659 6. The Ephori from mean beginnings grew to great Authority and by what advantages Page 660 7. The power and influence which they had in the publick Government Page 661 8. By what degrees the Ephori incroached on the Spartan Kings Page 662 9. The insolencies of the Ephori towards their Kings altered the State into a Tyranny Page 663 10. The Spartan Kings stomach the insolency of the Ephori and at last utterly destroy them Page 664 11. An application of the former passages to the point in hand Page 665 CHAP. III. Of the Incroachments of the Tribunes on the State of Rome and that they were not instituted for the ends supposed by Calvin 1. The Tribunes of the People why first Instituted in the State of Rome Page 666 2. And with what difficulty and conditions Page 667 3. The Tribunes fortifie themselves with large immunities before they went about to change the Government Page 668 4. The Tribunes no sooner in their Office but they set themselves against the Nobility and the Senate contrary to the Articles of their Institution Page 669 5. The many and dangerous Seditions occasioned by the Tribunes in the City of Rome Page 670 6. The Tribunes and the People do agree together to change the Government of the State Page 671 7. By what degrees the People came to be possessed of all the Offices in the State both of power and dignity Page 672 8. The Plots and Practices of the Gracchi to put the power of the Judicature and Supream Majesty of the Senate into the hands of the People ibid. 9. The Tribunes take upon them to commit the Consuls and bring all the Officers of the State under their command Page 673 10. The Office and Authority of the Tribunes reduced unto its antient bounds by Corn. Sylla and at last utterly destroyed Page 674 11. An Application of the former passage to the point in hand Page 675 CHAP. IV. Of what Authority the Demarchi were in the State of Athens and of the danger and unfitness of the instances produced by Calvin 1. Athens first governed by Kings and afterwards by one Sovereign Prince under other titles Page 676 2. The Annual Magistrates of Athens what they were and of what Authority Page 677 3. By whom and what degrees the State of Athens was reduced to a Democratie Page 678 4. Of the Authority of the Senate and the famous Court of the Areopagites Page 679 5. What the Demarchi were in the State of Athens and of what Authority Page 680 6. The Demarchi never were of power to oppose the Senate nor were ordained to that end ibid. 7. Calvins ill
Parliament that is might have the force of a Law by a civil Sanction The whole debate with all the Traverses and emergent difficulties which appeared therein are specified at large in the Records of Convocation Anno 1532. But being you have not opportunity to consult those Records I shall prove it by the Act of Parliament called commonly The Act of submission of the Clergy but bearing this Title in the Abridgment of the Statutes set out by Poulton That the Clergy in their Convocations shall enact no constitutions without the Kings assent In which it is premised for granted that the Clergy of the Realm of England had not only acknowledged according to the truth that the Convocation of the same Celrgy is always hath been and ought to be assembled always by the Kings Writ but also submitting themselves to the Kings Majesty had promised in verbo Sacerdotis That they would never from henceforth presume to attempt alleadge claim or put in ure enact promulge or execute any new Canons Constitutions Ordinances provincial or other or by whatsoever other name they shall be called in the Convocation unless the Kings most Royal Assent may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same and that his Majesty do giv his most Royal Assent and Authority in that behalf Upon which ground-work of the Clergies the Parliament shortly after built this superstructure to the same effect viz. That none of the said Clergy from henceforth should presume to attempt alleadge claim or put in ure any Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial or Synodals or any other Canons norshall enact promulge or execute any such Canons Constitutions or Ordinances Provincial by whatsoever names or names they may be called in their Convocations in time coming which always shall be assembled by the Kings Writ unless the same Clergy may have the Kings most Royal Assent and Licence to make promulge and execute such Canons Constitutions and Ordinances Provincial or Synodical upon pain of every one of the said Clergy doing the contrary to this Act and thereof convicted to suffer Imprisonment and make Fine at the Kings Will 25 H. 8. c. 19. So that the Statute in effect is no more than this An Act to bind the Clergy to perform their promise to keep them fast unto their word for the time to come that no new Canon should be made in the times succeeding in the favour of the Pope or by his Authority or to the diminution of the Kings Royal Prerogative or contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm of England as many Papal Constitutions were in the former Ages Which Statute I desire you nto take notice of because it is the Rule and Measure of the Churches power in making Canons Constitutions or whatsoever else you shall please to call them in their Convocations The third and final Act conducing to the Popes Ejection was an Act of Parliament 28 H. 8 c. 10. entituled An Act extinguishing the Authority of the Bishop of Rome By which it was enacted That if any person should extol the Authority of the Bishop of Rome he should incur the penalty of a preamunire that every Officer both Ecclesiastioal and Lay should be Sworn to renounce the said Bishop and his Authority and to resist it to his power and to repute any Oath formerly taken in maintenance of the said Bishop or his Authority to be void and finally that the refusal of the said Oath should be judged High Treason But this was also usher'd in by the determination first and after by the practice of all the Clergy For in the year 1534. which was two years before the passing of this Act the King had sent this Proposition to be agitated in both Vniversities and in the greatest and most famous Monasteries of the Kingdom that is to say An aliquid authoritatis in hoc Regno Angliae Pontifici Romano de jure competat plusquam alii cuicunque Episcopo extero By whom it was determined Negatively that the Bishop of Rome had no more power of Right in the Kingdom of England than any other forreign Bishop Which being testified returned under the hands and seals respectively the Originals whereof are still remaining in the Library of Sr. Robert Cotton was a good preamble to the Bishops and the rest of the Clergy assembled in their Convocation to conclude the like And so accordingly they did and made an Instrument thereof subscribed by the hands of all the Bishops and others of the Clergy and afterwards confirmed the same by their corporal Oaths The copies of which Oaths and Instrument you shall find in Foxes Acts and Monumets Vol. 2. fol. 1203. and fol. 1210 1211. of the Edition of John Day Anno 1570. And this was semblably the ground of a following Statute 35 H. 8. c. 1. wherein another Oath was devised and ratified to be imposed upon the Subject for the more clear asserting of the Kings Supremacy and the utter exclusion fo the Popes for ever which Statutes though they were all repealed by an Act of Parliament 1 and 2 d. of Phil. and Mary c. 1. yet were they all revived in 1 Elize save that the name of supream Head was changed unto that of the supream Governour and certain clauses altered in the Oath of Supremacy Where by the way you must take notice that the Statutes which concern the Kings Supremacy are not introductory of any new Right that was not in the Crown before but only declaratory of an old as our best Lawyers tell us and the Statute of the 26 of H. 8. c. 1. doth clearly intimate So that in the Ejection of the Pope of Rome which was the firt and greatest steptowards the work of Reformation the Parliament did nothing for ought it appears but what was done before in the Convocation and did no more than fortifie the Results of Holy Church by the addition and corroboration of the Secular Power 3. Of the Translation of the Scriptures and permitting them to be read in the English Tongue THE second step towards the work of Reformation and indeed one of the most especial parts thereof was the Translation of the Bible into the English Tongue and the permitting all sorts of people to peruse the same as that which visibly did tend to the discovery of the errours and corruptions in the Church of Rome and the intolerable pride and tyranny of the Roman Prelates upon which grounds it had been formerly translated into English by the hand of Wickliff and after on the spreading of Luthers Doctrine by the pains of Tindal a stout and active man in K. Henries days but not so well befriended as the work deserved especially considering that it hapned in such a time when many Printed Pamphlets did disturb the State and some of them of Tindals making which seemed to tend unto sedition and the change of Government Which being remonstrated to the King he caused divers of his Bishops together with sundry of the Learned'st and
any Church but by the leave of the King or of the Ordinary of the place nor privately by any Women Artificers Apprentices Journey-men Husband-men Labourers or by any of the Servants of Yeomen or under with several pains to those who should do the contrary This is the substance of the Statute of the 34 and 35 Hen. 8. c. 1. Which though it shews that there was somewhat done in Parliament in a matter which concern'd Religion which howsoever if you mark it was rather the adding of the penalties than giving any resolution or decision of the points in question yet I presume the Papists will not use this for an Argument that we have either a Parliament-Religion or a Parliament Gospel or that we stand indebted to the Parliament for the Use of the Scriptures in the English Tongue which is so principal a part of the Reformation Nor did the Parliament speed so prosperously in the undertaking which the wise King permitted them to have a hand in for the foresaid ends or found so general an obedience in it from the common people as would have been expected in these Times on the like occasion but that the King was fain to quicken and give life to the Acts thereof by his Proclamation Anno 1546. which you shall find in Fox his Book fo 1427. To drive this Nail a little further The terrour of this Statute dying with H. 8. or being repealed by that of K. Ed. 6. c. 22. the Bible was again made publique and not only suffered to be read by particular persons either privatly or in the Church but ordered to be read over yearly in the Congregation as a part of the Liturgie or Divine Service Which how far it relates to the Court of Parliament we shall see anon But for the publishing thereof in Print for the Use of the people for the comfort and edification of private persons that was done only by the King at least in his Name and by His Authority And so it also stood in Q. Elizabeth's time the translation of the Bible being again reviewed by some of the most learned Bishops appointed thereunto by the Queens Commission from whence it had the name of the Bishops Bible and upon that review Reprinted by her sole Commandement and by her sole Authority left free and open to the Use of her well-affected and religious subjects Nor did the Parliament do any thing in all Her Reign with reference to the Scriptures in the English Tongue otherwise than at the reading of them in that Tongue in the Congregation is to be reckoned for a part of the English Liturgy whereof more hereafter In the translation of them into Welch or British somewhat indeed was done which doth look this way It being ordered in the Parliament 5. Eliz. c. 28. That the B. B. of Hereford St. Davids Bangor Landaff and St. Asaph should take care amongst them for translating the whole Bible with the Book of Common Prayer into the Welch or Brittish Tongue on pain of forfeiting 40 l. a piece in default hereof And to incourage them thereunto it was Enacted that one Book of either sort being so translated and imprinted should be provided and bought for every Cathedral Church as also for all Parish-Churches and Chappels of Ease where the said tongue is commonly used the Ministers to pay the one half of the price and the Parishioners the other But then you must observe withal that it had been before determined in the Convocation of the self-same year Anno 2562. That the Common-Prayer of the Church ought to be celebrated in a tongue which was understood by the people as you may see in the Book of Articles of Religion Art 24. which came out that year and consequently as well in the Welch or Brittish as in any other Which care had it been taken for Ireland also as it was for Wales no question but that people had been more generally civiliz'd and made conformable in all points to the English Government long before this time And for the new Translation of K. James his time to shew that the Translation of Scripture is no work of Parliament as it was principally occasioned by some passages in the Conference at Hampton Court without recourse unto the Parliament so was it done only by such men as the King appointed and by His Authority alone imprinted published and imposed care being taken by the Canon of the year 1603. That one of them should be provided for each several Church at the charge of the Parish No flying in this case to an Act of Parliament either to Authorize the doing of it or to impose it being done 4. Of the Reformation of Religion in points of Doctrine NExt let us look upon the method used in former Times in the reforming of the Church whether in points of Doctrine or in forms of Worship and we shall find it still the same The Clergy did the work as to them seemed best never advising with the Parliament but upon the post-fact and in most cases not at all And first for Doctrinals there was but little done in K. Henries time but that which was acted by the Clergy only in their Convocation and so commended to the people by the Kings sole Authority the matter being never brought within the cognizance of the two Houses of Parliament For in the year 1536. being the year in which the Popes Authority was for ever banished there were some Articles agreed on in the Convocation and represented to the King under the hands of the Bishops Abbots Priors and inferior Clergy usually called unto those Meetings the Original whereof being in Sir Robert Cotton's Library I have often seen Which being approved of by the King were forthwith published under the Title of Articles devised by the Kings Highness to stable Christian quietness and unity amongst the people In which it is to be observed First that those Articles make mention of three Sacraments only that is to say of Baptisme Penance and the Sacrament of the Altar And secondly That in the Declaration of the Doctrine of Justication Images honouring of the Saints departed as also concerning many of the Ceremonies and the fire of Purgatory they differ'd very much from those Opinions which had been formerly received in the Church of Rome as you may partly see by that Extract of them which occurs in Fox his Acts and Monuments Vol. 2. fol. 1246. For the confirming of which Book and recommending it to the use of the people His Majesty was pleased in the Injunctions of the year 1536. to give command to all Deans Parsons Vicars and Curates so to open and declare in their Sermons and other Collations the said Articles unto them which be under their Cure that they might plainly know and discern which of them be necessary to be believed and observed for their salvation and which do only concern the decent and politique Order of the Church And this he did upon this ground that the said
in their Convocations as well by the common assent as by subscriptions of their hands 5 6. Edw. 6. chap. 12. And for the time of Q. Elizabeth it is most manifest that they had no other body of Doctrine in the first part of her Reign then only the said Articles of K. Edward's Book and that which was delivered in the Book of Homilies of the said Kings time In which the Parliament had as little to do as you have seen they had in the Book of Articles But in the Convocation of the year 1562. being the fifth of the Q. Reign the Bishops and Clergy taking into consideration the said book of Articles and altering what they thought most fitting to make it more conducible to the use of the Church and the edification of the people presented it unto the Queen who caused it to be published with this Name and Title viz. Articles whereupon it was agreed by the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of both Provinces and the whole Clergy in the Convocation holden at London Anno 1562. for the avoiding of diversity of Opinions and for the establishing of Consent touching true Religion put forth by the Queens Authority Of any thing done or pretended to be done by the power of the Parliament either in the way of Approbation or of Confirmation not one word occurs either in any of the Printed Books or the Publick Registers At last indeed in the 13th of the said Queens Reign which was 8 years full after the passing of those Articles comes out a Statute for the Redressing of disorders in the Ministers of holy Church In which it was enacted That all such as were Ordained Priests or Ministers of God's Word and Sacraments after any other form then that appointed to be used in the Church of England all such as were to be Ordained or permitted to Preach or to be instituted into any Benefice with Cure of souls should publickly subscribe to the said Articles and testifie their assent unto them Which shews if you observe it well that though the Parliament did well allow of and approve the said Book of Articles yet the said Book owes neither confirmation nor authority to the Act of Parliament So that the wonder is the greater that that most insolent scoff which is put upon us by the Church of Rome in calling our Religion by the name Parliamentaria-Religio should pass so long without controle unless perhaps it was in reference to our Forms of Worship of which I am to speak in the next place But first we must make answer unto some Objections which are made against us both from Law and Practice For Practice first it is alledged by some out of Bishop Jewel in his Answer to the Cavil of Dr. Harding to be no strange matter to see Ecclesiastical Causes debated in Parliament and that it is apparent by the Laws of King Ina King Alfred King Edward c. That our Godly Fore-fathers the Princes and Peers of this Realm never vouchsafed to treat of matters touching the Common State before all Controversies of Religion and Causes Ecclesiastical had been concluded Def. of the Apol. part 6. chap. 2. sect 1. But the answer unto this is easie For first if our Religion may be called Parliamentarian because it hath received confirmation and debate in Parliament then the Religion of our Fore-fathers even Papistry it self concerning which so many Acts of Parliament were made in K. Hen. 8. and Q. Maries time must be called Parliamentarian also And secondly it is most certain that in the Parliaments or Common-Councils call them which you will both of King Inas time and the rest of the Saxon Kings which B. Jewel speaks of not only Bishops Abbots and the higher part of the Clergy but the whole Body of the Clergy generally had their Votes and Suffrages either in person or by proxie Concerning which take this for the leading Case That in the Parliament or Common-Council in K. Ethelberts time who first of all the Saxon Kings received the Gospel the Clergy were convened in as full a manner as the Lay-Subjects of that Prince Convocati Communi Concilio tam Cleri quam Populi saith Sir H. Spelman in his Collection of the Councils Anno 605. p. 118. And for the Parliament of King Ina which leads the way in Bishop Jewel it was saith the same Sr. H. Spelman p. 630. Communi Concilium Episcoporum Procerum Comitum nec non omnium Sapientum Seniorum Populorumque totius Regni Where doubtless Sapientes and Seniores and you know what Seniores signifieth in the Ecclesiastical notion must be some body else then those which after are expressed by the name of Populi which shews the falshood and absurdity of the collection made by Mr. Pryn in the Epistle to his Book against Dr. Cousins viz. That the Parliament as it is now constituted hath an ancient genuine just and lawful Prerogative to establish true Religion in our Church and to abolish and suppress all false new and counterfeit Doctrines whatsoever Unless he means upon the post fact after the Church hath done her part in determining what was true what false what new what ancient and finally what Doctrines might be counted counterfeit and what sincere And as for Law 't is true indeed that by the Statute 1 Eliz. cap. 1. The Court of Parliament hath power to determine and judge of Heresie which at first sight seems somewhat strange but on the second view you will easily find that this relates only to new and emergent Heresies not formerly declared for such in any of the first four General Councils nor in any other General Cuncil adjudging by express words of holy Scripture as also that in such new Heresies the following words restrain this power to the Assent of the Clergy in their Convocation as being best able to instruct the Parliament what they are to do and where they are to make use of the secular sword for cutting off a desperate Heretick from the Church of CHRIST or rather from the Body of all Christian people 5. Of the Reformation of the Church of England in the Forms of Worship and the Times appointed thereunto THIS Rub removed we now proceed unto a view of such Forms of Worships as have been setled in this Church since the first dawning of the day of Reformation in which our Parliaments have indeed done somewhat though it be not much The first point which was altered in the publick Liturgies was that the Creed the Pater-noster and the Ten Commandements were ordered to be said in the English Tongue to the intent the people might be perfect in them and learn them without book as our Phrase is The next the setting forth and using of the English Letany on such days and times in which it was accustomably to be read as a part of the Service But neither of these two was done by Parliament nay to say truth the Parliament did nothing in them All which was done in either of them
the curiosity of the Ministers and mistakes of the people rather than for any other weighty cause As the Statutes 5 and 6 Ed. 6. cap. 1. it was thought expedient by the King with the assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled that the said Order of Common Service should be faithfully and godly perused explained and made fully perfect Perused and explained by whom Why questionless by those who made it or else by those if they were not the same men who were appointed by the King to draw up and compose a Form of Ordination for the Use of the Church And this Assent of theirs for it was no more was the only part that was ever acted by the Parliament in matter of this present nature save that a Statute passed in the former Parliament 3 and 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. unto this effect that such form and manner of making and consecrating Arch-Bishops Bishops Priests Deacons and other Ministers of the Church which before I spake of as by six Prelates and six other men of this Realm learned in Gods Laws by the King to be appointed and assigned shall be devised to that purpose and set forth under the great Seal shall be lawfully used and exercised and none other Where note that the King only was to nominate and appoint the men the Bishops and other learned men were to make the Book and that the Parliament in a blind obedience or at the least upon a charitable confidence in the integrity of the men so nominated did confirm that Book before any of their Members had ever seen it though afterwards indeed in the following Parliament this Book together with the Book of Common-prayer so Printed and explained obtained a more formal confirmation as to the use thereof throughout the Kingdom but in no other respect for which see the Statute 5 and 6 Ed. 6. c. 1. As for the time of Q. Elizabeth when the Common-prayer book now in use being the same almost with the last of King Edward was to be brought again into the Church from whence it was cast out in Queen Maries Reign it was committed to the care of some learned men that is to say to M. Whitehead once Chaplain to Q. Anne Bullen Dr. Parker after Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Dr. Grindal after Bishop of London Dr. Cox after Bishop of Ely Dr. Pilkington after Bishop of Durham Dr. May Dean of Saint Pauls Dr. Bill Provost of Eaton after Dean of Westminster and Sir Tho. Smith By whom being altered in some few passages which the Statute points to 1 Eliz. c. 21. it was presented to the Parliament and by the Parliament received and established without more ado or troubling any Committee of both or either Houses to consider of it for ought appears in their Records All that the Parliament did in it being to put it into the condition in which it stood before in Kings Edwards Reign partly by repealing the Repeal of King Edw. Statutes made in the first of Q. Mary c. 2. and partly by the adding of some farther penalties on such as did deprave the Book or neglect to use it or wilfully did absent themselves from their parish-Parish-Churches And for the Alterations made in King James his time being small in the Rubrick only and for the additions of the Thanksgivings at the end of the Letany the Prayer for the Queen and the Royal Issue and the Doctrine of the Sacraments at the end of the Catechisme which were not in the Book before they were never referred unto the Parliament but were done only by Authority of the Kings Commission and stand in force by virtue only of His Proclamation which you may find before the Book the charge of buying the said Book so explained and altered being laid upon the several and respective Parishes by no other Authority than that of the eightieth Canon made in Convocation Anno 1603. The like may also be affirmed of the Forms of Prayer for the Inauguration-day of our Kings and Queens the Prayer-books for the fifth of November and the fifth of August and those which have been used in all publick Fasts All which without the help of Parliaments have been composed by the Bishops and imposed by the King Now unto this discourse of the Forms of Worship I shall subjoyn a word or two of the times of Worship that is to say the Holy-days observed in the Church of England and so observed that they do owe that observation chiefly to the Churches power For whereas it was found in the former times that the number of the Holy-days was grown so great that they became a burthen to the common people and a great hinderance to the thrift and manufactures of the Kingdom there was a Canon made in the Convocation An. 1536. For cutting off of many superstitious and superfluous Holy-days and the reducing them into the number in which they now stand save that St. George's day and Mary Magdalens day and all the Festivals of the blessed Virgin had their place amongst them according to which Canon there went out a Monitory from the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to all the Suffragans of his Province respectively to see the same observed in their several Diocesses which is still extant on Record But being the Authority of the Church was then in the wane it was thought necessary to confirm their Acts and see execution done upon it by the Kings Injunction which did accordingly come forth with this Form or preamble That the abolishing of the said Holy-days was decreed ordained and established by the Kings Highness Authority as Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England with the common consent and assent of the Prelates and Clergy of this his Realm in Convocation lawfully Assembled and Congregate Of which see Fox his Acts and Monuments fol. 1246 1247. Afterwards in the year 1541. the King perceiving with what difficulty the people were induced to leave off those Holy-days to which they had been so long accustomed published his Proclamation of the twenty-third of July for the abolishing of such Holy-days amongst other things as were prohibited before by his Injunctions both built upon the same foundation namely the resolution of the Clergy in their Convocation And so it stood until the Reign of King E. 6. at which time the Reformation of the publick Liturgie drew after it by consequence an alteration in the present business no days being to be kept or accounted Holy but those for which the Church had set apart a peculiar office and not all those neither For whereas there are several and peculiar offices for the day of the Conversion of St. Paul and the day of St. Barnabas the Apostles neither of these are kept as Holy-days nor reckoned or esteemed as such in the Act of Parliament wherein the names and number of the Holy-days is precisely specified which makes some think the Act of Parliament to have had an over-ruling power on the Common-prayer-Book but it is not so
or too much looked after in the Reformation And first you say it is cvomplained of by some Zelots of the Church of rome that the Pope was very hardly and unjustly dealt with in being deprived of the Supremacy so long enjoyed and exercised by his Predecessors and that it was an Innovation no less strange than dangerous to settle it upon the King 2. That the Church of England ought not to have proceeded to a Reformation without the Pope considered either as the Patriarch of the Weftern world or the Apostle in particular of the English Nation 3. That if a Reformation had been found so necessary it ought to have been done by a General Council at least with the consent and co-operation of the Sister-Churches especially of those who were engaged at the same time in the same designs 4. That in the carrying on of the Reformation the Church proceeded very unadvisedly in letting the people have the Scriptures and the publique Liturgy in the vulgar tongue the dangerous consequents whereof are now grown too visible 5. That the proceedings in the point of the Common-prayer Book were meerly Regal the body of the Clergy not consulted with or consenting to it and consequently not so Regular as we fain would have it And 6. That in the power of making Canons and determining matters of the Faith the Clergy have so fettered and intangled themselves by the Act of Submission that they can neither meet deliberate conclude nor execute but as they are enabled by the Kings Authority which is a Vassalage inconsistent with their native Liberties and not agreeable to the usage of the Primitive times These are the points in which you now desire to have satisfaction and you shall have it in the best way I am able to do it that so you may be freed hereafter from such troubles and Disputants as I perceive have laboured to perplex your thoughts and make you less affectionate than formerly to the Church your Mother 1. That the Church of England did not Innovate in the Ejection of the Pope and settling the Supremacy in the Royal Crown And in this point you are to know that it hath been and still is the general and constant judgment of the greatest Lawyers of this Kingdom that the vesting of the Supremacy in the Crown Imperial of this Realm was not Introductory of any new Right or Power which was not in the Crown before but Declaratory of an old which had been anciently and originally inherent in it though of late Times usurped by the Popes of Rome and in Abeyance at that time as our Lawyers phrase it And they have so resolved it upon very good reasons the principal managery of affairs which concern Religion being a flower inseparably annexed to the Regal Diadem not proper and peculiar only to the Kings of England but to all Kings and Princes in the Church of God and by them exercised and enjoyed accordingly in their times and places For who I pray you were the men in the Jewish Church who destroyed the Idols of that people cut down the Groves demolished the high places and brake in pieces the Brazen Serpent when abused to Idolatry Were they not the godly Kings and Princes only which sway'd the Scepter of that Kingdom And though 't is possible enough that they might do it by the counsel and advice of the High-Priests of that Nation or of some of the more godly Priests and Levites who had a zeal unto the Law of the most high God yet we find nothing of it in the holy Scripture the merit of these Reformations which were made occasionally in that faulty Church being ascribed unto their Kings and none but them Had they done any thing in this which belonged not to their place and calling or by so doing had intrenched on the Office of the Priests and Levits that God who punished Vzzab for attempting to support the Ark when he saw it tottering and smote Osias with a Leprosie for burning Incense in the Temple things which the Priests and Levites only were to meddle in would not have suffered those good Kings to have gone unpunished or at least uncensured how good soever their intentions and pretences were Nay on the contrary when any thing was amiss in the Church of Jewry the Kings and not the Priests were admonished of it and reproved for it by the Prophets which sheweth that they were trusted with the Reformation and none else but they Is it not also said of david that he distributed the Priests and Levites into several Classes allotted to them the particular times of their Ministration and designed them unto several Offices in the publick Service Josephus adding to these passages of the Holy Writ That he composed Hymns and Songs to the Lord his God and made them to be sung in the Congregation as an especial part of the publick Liturgy Of which although it may be said that he composed those Songs and Hymns by vertue of his Prophetical Spirit yet he imposed them on the Church appointed Singing-men to sing them and prescribed Vestments also to these Singing-men by no other power than the regal only None of the Priests consulted in it for ought yet appears The like Authority was exercised and enjoyed by the Christian Emperors not only in their calling Councils and many times assisting at them or presiding in them by themselves or their Deputies or Commissioners but also in confirming the Acts thereof He that consults the Code and Novelles in the Civil Laws will find the best Princes to have been most active in things which did concern Religion in regulating matters of the Church and setting out their Imperial Edicts for suppressing of Hereticks Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia What hath the Emperor to do in matters which concern the Church is one of the chief Brand-marks which Optatus sets upon the Donatists And though some Christians of the East have in the way of scorn had the name of Melchites men of the Kings Religion as the word doth intimate because they adhered unto those Doctrines which the Emperors agreeable to former Councils had confirmed and ratified yet the best was that none but Sectaries and Hereticks put that name upon them Neither the men nor the Religion was a jot the worse Nor did they only deal in matters of Exterior Order but even in Doctrinals matters intrinsecal to the Faith for which their Enoticon set out by the Emperor Zeno for settling differences in Religion may be proof sufficient The like Authority was exercised and enjoyed by Charles the Great when he attained the Western Empire as the Capitulars published in his Name and in the names of his Successors do most clearly evidence and not much less enjoyed and practised by the Kings of England in the elder times though more obnoxious to the power of the Pope of Rome by reason of his Apostleship if I may so call it the Christian Faith being first preached unto the English
and adjuncts of it which had been utterly abolished in Zuinglian Churches and much impaired in power and jurisdiction by the Lutherans also and keeping up a Liturgy or set form of worship according to the rites and usages of the primitive times which those of the Calvinian Congregations would not hearken to God certainly had so disposed it in his Heavenly wisdom that so this Church without respect unto the names and Dictates of particular Doctors might found its Reformation on the Prophets and Apostles only according to the Explications and Traditions of the ancient Fathers And being so founded in it self without respect to any of the differing parties might in succeeding Ages sit as Judge between them as being more inclinable by her constitution to mediate a peace amongst them than to espouse the quarrel of either side And though Spalato in the Book of his Retractations which he calls Consilium redeundi objects against us That besides the publick Articles and confession authorised by the Churches we had embraced some Lutheran and Calvinian Fancies multa Lutheri Calvini dogmata so his own words run yet this was but the error of particular men not to be charged upon the Church as maintaining either The Church is constant to her safe and her first conclusions though many private men take liberty to imbrace new Doctrines 4. That the Church did not innovate in translating the Scriptures and the publick Liturgie into vulgar tongues and of the consequents thereof in the Church of England The next thing faulted as you say in the Reformation is the committing so much heavenly treasure to such rotten vessels the trusting so much excellent Wine to such musty bottles I mean the versions of the Scriptures and the publick Liturgies into the usual Languages of the common people and the promiscuous liberty indulged them in it And this they charge not as an Innovation simply but as an Innovation of a dangerous consequence the sad effects whereof we now see so clearly A charge which doth alike concern all the Protestant and Reformed Churches so that I should have passed it over at the present time but that it is made ours more specially in the application the sad effects which the enemy doth so much insult in being said to be more visible in the Church of England than in other places This make it ours and therefore here to be considered as the former were First then they charge it on the Church as an Innovation it being affirmed by Bellarmine l. 2. De verbo Dei c. 15. whether with less truth or modesty it is hard to say Vniversam Ecclesiam semper his tantum linguis c. that in the Universal Church in all times foregoing the Scriptures were not commonly and publickly read in any other language but in the Hebrew Greek and Latine This is you see a two-edged sword and strikes not only against all Translations of the Scriptures into vulgar Languages for common use but against reading those Translations publickly as a part of Liturgy in which are many things as the Cardinal tells us quae secreta esse debent which are not fit to be made known to the common people This is the substance of the charge and herein we joyn issue in the usual Form with Absque hoc sans ceo no such matter really the constant current of Antiquity doth affirm the contrary by which it will appear most plainly that the Church did neither Innovate in the act of hers nor deviate therein from the Word of God or from the usage of the best and happiest times of the Church of Christ Not from the Word of God there 's no doubt of that which was committed unto writing that it might be read and read by all that were to be directed and guided by it The Scriptures of the Old Testament first writ in Hebrew the Vulgar Language of that people and read unto them publickly on the Sabbath days as appears clearly Act. 13.15 15.21 translated afterwards by the cost and care of Ptolemy Philadelphus King of Egypt into the Greek tongue the most known and sTudied Language of the Eastern World The New Testament first writ in Greek for the self-same reason but that S. Matthew's Gospel is affirmed by some Learned men to have been written in the Hebrew and written to this end and purpose that men might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing they might have life in his Name Joh. 20. vers ult But being that all the Faithful did not understand these Languages and that the light of holy Scripture might not be likened to a Candle hidden under a Bushel It was thought good by many godly men in the Primitive times to translate the same into the Languages of the Countreys in which they lived or of the which they had been Natives In which respect S. Chrysostom then banished into Armenia translated the New Testament and the Psalms of David into the Language of that people S. Hierom a Pannonian born translated the whole Bible into the Dalmatick tongue as Vulphilas Bishop of the Gothes did into the Gothick all which we find together without further search in the Bibliotheque of Sixtus Senensis a learned and ingenuous man but a Pontifician and so less partial in this cause The like done here in England by the care of Athelstan causing a Translation of it into the Saxon Tongue the like done by Methodius the Apostle General of the Sclaves translating it into the Sclavonian for the use of those Nations not to say any thing of the Syriack Aethiopick Arabick the Persian and Chaldaean Versions of which the times and Authors are not so well known And what I pray you is the vulgar or old Latine Edition of late times made Authentick by the Popes of Rome but a Translation of the Scriptures out of Greek and Hebrew for the instruction of the Roman and Italian Nations to whom the Latine at that time was the Vulgar Tongue And when that Tongue by reason of the breaking in of the barbarous Nations was worn out of knowledge I mean as to the common people did not God stir up James Arch-Bishop of Genoa when the times were darkest that is to say Anno 1290. or thereabouts to give some light to them by translating the whole Bible into the Italian the modern Language of that Countrey As he did Wiclef not long after to translate the same into the English of those times the Saxon Tongue not being then commonly understood a copy of whose Version in a fair Velom Manuscript I have now here by me by the gift of my noble Friend Charles Dymoke Hereditary Champion to the Kings of England So then it is no Innovation to translate the Scriptures and less to suffer these Translations to be promiscuously read by all sorts of people the Scripture being as well Milk for Babes as strong Meat for the man of more able judgment Why else doth the Apostle note it
miseries of his own May not both Factions see by this what a condition the poor Church of England is involved in by them The sight whereof althoug it justifie them not in their several courses as being not without example in their present practices yet it may serve to let you know that as the distractions and confusions under which we suffer are not the consequents of our translating of the Scriptures and publick Liturgies into the common vulgar Tongues so it is neither new nor strange that such confusionsand distractions should befal the Church 5. That the proceedings of this Church in setting out the English Liturgy were not meerly Regal and of the power of Soveraign Princes in Ecclesiastical affairs Having thus proved that nothing hath been done amiss by the Church of England with reference to Gods Word the testimonies of godly Fathes and the usage of the primitive times in leaving off the Latine Service and celebrating all Divine Offices in the English Tongue I am to justifie it next in order to the carrying on of that weighty business whether so Regular or not as we fain would have it I see you are not scrupled at the subject-matter of the Common-prayer-book which being translated into Greek Latine French and Spanish hath found a general applause in most parts of Christendom no where so little set by as it is at home All scruples in that kind have been already fully satisfied by our learned Hooker who hath examined it per partes and justified it in each part and particular Office But for the greater honour of it take this with you also which is alledged in the Conference of Hampton Court touching the Marquess of Rhosny after Duke of Sally and Lord High Treasurer of France who coming Ambassador to King James from Henry IV. and having seen the solemn celebration of our Service at Canterbury and in his Majesties Royal Chappels did often and publickly affirm that if the Reformed Churches in France had kept the same Orders as were here in England he was assured there would have been many thousand Protestants in that Kingdom more than were at that time That which you seem to stick at only is in the way and manner of proceeding in it which though you find by perusal of the Papers which I sent first unto you not to have been so Parliamentarian as the Papists made it yet still you doubt whether it were so Regular and Canonical as it might have been And this you stumble at the rather in regard that the whole Body of the Clergy in their Convocation had no hand therein either as to decree the doing of it or to approve it being done but that it was resolved on by the King or rather by the Lord Protector in the Kings Minority with some few of the Bishops by which Bishops and as small a number of Learned Church-men being framed and fashioned it was allowed of by the King confirmed or imposed rather by an Act of Parliament Your question hereupon is this Whether the King for his acting it by a Protector doth not change the Case consulting with a lesser part of his Bishops and Clergy and having their consent therein may conclude any thing in the way of a Reformation the residue and greatest part not advised withal nor yielding their consent unto it in a formal way This seems to have some reference to the Scottish Liturgie for by your Letter I perceive that one of the chief of your Objectors is a Divine of that Nation and therefore it concerns me to be very punctual in my Answer to it And that my Answer my be built on the surer Ground it is to be considered first whether the Reformation be in corruption of manners or abuses in Government whether in matters practical or in points of Doctrine 2. If in matters practical whether such practice have the character of Antiquity Universality and Consent imprinted on it or that it be the practice of particular Churches and of some times only And 3. If in points of Doctrine whether such points have been determined of before in a General Council or in particular Councils universally received and countenanced or are to be defined de novo on emergent controversies And these Distinctions being laid I shall answer briefly First If the things to be reformed be either corruptions in manners or neglect of publick duties to Almighty God abuses either in Government or the parties governing the King may do it of himself by his sole Authority The Clergy are beholden to him if he takes any of them along with him when he goeth about it And if the times should be so bad that either the whole body of the Clergy or any though the greatest part thereof should oppose him in it he may go forwards notwithstanding punishing such as shall gainsay him in so good a work and compelling others And this I look on as a Power annexed to the Regal Diadem and so inseparably annexed that Kings could be no longer Kings if it were denied them But hereof we have spoke already in the first of this Section and shall speak more hereof in the next that follows And on the other side if the Reformation be in points of Doctrin and in such points of doctrine as have not been before defined or not defined in form and manner as before laid down The King only with a few of his Bishops and Learned Clergy though never so well studied in the point disputed can do nothing in it That belongs only to the whole Body of the Clergy in their Convocation rightly called and constituted whose Acts being ratified by the King bind not alone the rest of the Clergy in whose names they Voted but all the residue of the subjects of what sort soever who are to acquiesce in their Resolutions The constant practice of the Church and that which we have said before touching the calling and authority of the Convocation makes this clear enough But if the thing to be Reformed be a matter practical we are to look into the usage of the Primitive times And if the practice prove to have been both ancient and universally received over all the Church though intermitted for a time and by time corrupted The King consulting with so many of his Bishops and others of his most able Clergy as he thinks fit to call unto him and having their consent and direction in it may in the case of intermission revive such practice and in the case of corruption and degeneration restore it to its Primitive and original lustre whether he do it of himself of his own meer motion or that he follow the advice of his Council in it whether he be of age to inform himself or that he doth relie on those to whom he hath committed the publick Government it comes all to one So they restrain themselves to the ancient patterns The Reformation which was made under josias though in his Minority and acting by the Counsel of the
in the Primitive Church how justifiable in the whole course and order of her publick Liturgie with all the Rubricks and observances therein contained In which if any thing be done conducible unto Gods glory and the Churches peace the information of the Reader or the convincing of such men who are otherwise minded I shall think my labour well bestowed and my pains well recompensed Howsoever it will be some matter of contentment to me that I have done my duty in it according unto that poor measure of abilities which the Lord hath given me commending both the cause and these weak indevours to his Heavenly blessings without which Paul's planting and Apollo's watering are of no increase CHAP. I. What doth occurre and whether any thing at all for Set Forms of Prayer from the time of Adam unto Moses 1. Prayer the chief exercise of publick Worship 2. The ground use and necessity of publick Forms 3. What priviledge belongs unto the Priest or Minister in that part of Gods Service which consists in Prayer 4. The inconvenience and confusion that must needs arise for want of Set Forms in the Worship of God 5. Liturgies or Set Forms of Prayer in use amongst all sorts of people Jews Gentiles Christians 6. The meaning of the word Liturgy or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the civil sense 7. As also in the Ecclesiastical notion of it 8. Whether the offerings of Cain and Abel were regulated by a prescribed Form 9. A prescribed Form of Worship conceived by some to have been introduced by Enos 10. The Sacrifices and devotions of the ancient Patriarchs for the most part occasional only 11. The Consecrating of set places for Gods publick worship first begun by Jacob. IT is exceeding well observed by our incomparable Hooker as some truly call him Hook Eccl. Pol. l. 5. §. 23. That if the Angels have a continual intercourse betwixt the Throne of God in Heaven and his Church here militant upon the Earth the same is no where better verified than in those two godly exercises of Doctrine and Prayer For what saith he is the assembling of the Church to learn but the receiving of Angels descended from above What to pray but the ascending of Angels upwards His Heavenly inspirations and our holy desires being as so many Angels of commerce and intercourse between God and us And although these two godly and religious exercises seem to walk hand in hand together the Prayers made in and by the Church having for many Ages past even long before the birth of Christianity been intermingled with the reading of the Law and Prophets yet find we that of Prayer so acceptable in the sight of God so highly valued by the Lord above all other parts of his publick Service that he vouchsafed from hence to give a name to his holy Temple and to entitle it Isa 56.7 The House of Prayer Which holy and religious duty as it concerneth us two ways one way in that we are men and another way as parts and members of the Church the mystical Body of our Lord and Saviour so it admits of several considerations both for the matter of the same and the manner of it As men we are at our own choice for time place and form according to the exigences of our own occasions The Church requires not any thing in the performance of this pious office either as private or domestical but that we pray with understanding that we consider with our selves what it is we ask 1 Cor. 14.15 Jam. 4.3 and of whom we ask it Ye ask and receive not saith S. James because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lusts But for the Service which we do as a publick body that being publick is for that cause to be accompted so much the worthier than the other as a whole society of such condition exceedeth the worth of any one particular person and for that cause hath been more strictly tied in all former Ages as to prescribed times and places so to set Forms also For were there not some time prescribed in the great growth and spreading of the Church of God for the convening of the Congregation some place assigned in which to meet together at the times appointed the prayers and devotions of Gods people might and would happen oftentimes to be either at the same time in several places or in the same place at several times and so be nothing less than the common prayers the joynt devotions of Gods Servants Of all the circumstances which attend Gods publick Service those two of time and place come most near the substance and are de bene esse at the least of that weighty duty And if appointed times and places being meerly circumstances be of so great a consequence in Gods publick Service that without them it cannot be discharged with effect and comfort assuredly the form thereof containing the whole substance the main body of it hath much more need to be prescribed For what saith the Apostle in this case or one very near it If the whole Church should come together in some place and all speak with tongues 1 Cor. 14.23 and there come in those which are Vnbelievers would they not say that ye are mad Vers 26 Or what a tumult would it be if when you come together every one of you hath a Psalm hath a Tongue hath a Doctrine hath a Revelation would it not be a strange medly Vers 23 God as S. Paul hath told us is the God of order not of confusion in the Churches And therefore hath given power unto his Church that all things in it for the manner Vers 40 be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decently in a stablished order and for the end thereof Vers 26 to edifying A thing which could not be in possibility had every man the liberty to use his own tongue in the Congregation or to conceive and utter his own prayers or frame unto himself his own devotions which is the ground of all those several Liturgies and set Forms of Prayer which have from the Apostles times been used in the House of God and never quarrelled till of late Nor can it be ascribed as I conceive to any lower power than the Wisdom of God guiding the Counsels of his Church and therefore to be reckoned as a work of his singular Providence that the Church hath evermore observed a prescript form of Common-Prayer although not in all things every where the same yet for the most part retaining still the same Analogy Hook Eccl. Pol. l. 9. num 25. So that as Hooker well observeth if the Liturgies of all ancient Churches throughout the world be compared amongst themselves it may be easily perceived that they had all one original mould and that the publick prayers of the People of God in Churches throughly setled and established did never use to be voluntary dictates proceeding from any mans extemporal wit And certainly to drive this
the third Council of Carthage I shall bethink my self of an Answer to it But sure I am that in the third Council of Carthage Caesario Attico Coss as it is said to be in all Collections of the Councils were made but 24 Canons as it is in balsamon but five and twenty as in zonaras whereof this is none And no less sure that it is told me by Baronius haud omnes in hac Synodo sanciri that all the Canons attributed to this Council were not made therein Baron Annal. Eccla An. 397. n. 46. nor is it to be found in the Collection of the Canons of the Councils of Carthage either of Zonaras or Balsamon or in the Codex Canonum published by Justellus and therefore in all probability made in none at all Next look we on the other parts of the publick Liturgies for other parts there were besides the ministration of the Sacraments and the daily Service and we shall find as undeniable Authorities for defence of those as any of the former before remembred Of these I shall insist upon no more at this present time than the Form of ordering Bishops Priests and Deacons and that of solemnizing Matrimony to which we shall adjoyn their Form and Rites of Burial and so descend at last to a conclusion And first for that of Ordination whereas the ancient Form thereof had been interrupted and many of the Rulers of the Church had been too sensibly indulgent to their own affections in the dispensing of the same it pleased the Fathers in the fourth Council of Carthage not so much to ordain and constitute new Forms and Ordinances as revive the old A Council of that note and eminance that as the Acts thereof were approved and ratified by Pope Leo the great if that add any thing unto them Binius in titulo Concil To. 1. p. 587. edit Col. Id. Ibid. p. 591. so by the same the following Ages of the Church did use to regulate and dispose the publick Discipline Adeo ut hoc Concilium Ecclesiae disciplinae ad pristinam consuetudinem revocatae quasi promptuarium semper meritoque apud posteros habitum fuit as saith Binius truly Now amongst those they which first lead the way unto all the rest declare the Form and manner to be used in all Ordinations whether of Bishops Priests and Deacons or of inferiour Officers in the Church of Christ And first for Bishops especial care being taken for an inquisition into their Doctrine Life and Conversation Concil Carthag IV. can 1. it is decreed that when a Bishop is to be ordained two other Bishops are to hold the Book of the holy Gospel over his head and whilest one of them doth pronounce the blessing the rest there present lay their hands upon his head Episcopus cum ordinatur Ib. Can. 2. duo Episcopi panant teneant Evangeliorum codicem super caput cervicem or rather verticem ejus uno super eum fundente benedictionem reliqui omnes Episcopi qui adsunt manibus suis caput ejus tangant So the canon goeth And this is still observed in the Church of England save that the laying of the Book on the parties head is turned and as I think with more significancy into the putting of the same into his hand Then for the ordering of the Priest or Presbyter it is thus declared Presbyter cum ordinatur Episcopo eum benedicente manum super caput ejus tenente Ib. Can. 3. etiam omnes Presbyteri qui praesentes sunt manus suas juxta manum Episcopi super caput illius teneant When a Presbyter is to be ordained the Bishop giving the benediction or saying the words of Consecration and holding his hand upon his head all other Presbyters then present are to lay their hands upon his head near the hand of the Bishop And this is also used and required in the Church of England save that more near unto the Rule and prescript of Antiquity three Presbyters at least are to be assistant in laying hands upon the party to be ordained And last of all for that of Deacons it was thus provided solus Episcopus qui eum benedicit manum super caput illius ponat Ibid. Can. 4. that the Bishop only who ordains should lay his hand upon his head The reason of the which is this quia non ad Sacerdotium sed ad ministerium consecratur because he is not consecrated to the Office of Priesthood but to an inferiour ministry in the house of God Nor is the Deacon otherwise ordained than thus in the Church of England Here are the Rites the visible and external signs but where I pray you are the Forms the prescribed words and prayers which are now in use I answer that they are included in those two phrases benedicere and fundere benedictionem to bless to give the benediction or pronounce the blessing For as a Writer of our own very well observes Benedicere hic nibil aliud est quam verba proferre Mason de Minist Angl. l. 2. cap. 17. per quae horum Ordinum potestas traditur To bless saith he or give the benediction is nothing more nor less than to say those words by which the power of Order is conferred on every or either of the parties which receive the same And that the Form of words then used was prescribed and set not left unto the liberty of every Prelate to use what Form of words he pleased so he kept the sense we saw before in that of Zonaras where he affirmed that the Canon formerly remembred about the using prescribed Forms in the Church of God did reach to Ordination also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Ordinations Zonaras in Concil Carth. Can. 117. saith the Scholiast the Bishop or Chief Priest laying his hands on him that came to be ordained was to recite the usual and accustomed Prayers Statas preces exequi solitus est as the Translator of the Scholiast And this may be observed withal that though this Council be of good antiquity as being held An. 398. yet almost all the Acts thereof and those especially amongst the rest were rather declaratory of the antient Customs of the Church of CHRIST Baron Annal. Eccl. An. 398. than introductory of new as both Baronius and Binius do affirm and justifie That which remains concerns the Form of Marriage and Rites of Burial to which a little shall be added of those pious Gestures used by them in the Act of publick Worship and that being done I shall conclude And first for Marriage there is no question to be made but that from the beginning of Christianity it hath been celebrated by the Priest or Minister with publick Prayers and Benedictions and most times with the celebration of the blessed Eucharist whereof thus Tertullian Vnde sufficiam ad felicitatem ejus matrimonii enarrandam Tertullian ad uxorem l. 2. quod Ecclesia conciliat confirmat
scattered and dispersed abroad the Gospel was by them disseminated in all the parts and Countreys where they came and Saul himself being taken off even in the middle of his fury became the greatest instrument of Gods power and glory in the converting of the Gentiles For presently upon his own Conversion we find him Preaching in the Synagogues of Damascus Act. 9.20.22 Gal. 1.17 18. Act. 9 30. Act. 11.26 thence taking a long journey into Arabia from thence returning to Hierusalem afterwards travelling towards Tarsus his own native soyl and thence brought back to Antioâ—h by the means of Barnabas And all this while I look upon him as an Evangelist only a constant and a zealous Preacher of the Gospel of Christ in every Region where he travelledâ— His calling unto the Apostleship was not until the Holy Ghost had said unto the Prophets Lucius Act. 13.1 2. Simeon and Manahen ministring then in Antiochia Separate mihi Barnabam Saulum separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them An extraordinary call and therefore done by extraordinary means and Ministers For being the persons here employed in this Ordination neither were Apostles nor yet advanced for ought we find unto the estate and honour of Episcopacy it most be reckoned amongst those Extraordinaries which God pleased to work in and about the calling of this blessed Apostle Of which we may affirm with Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysostom hom 20. in Act. that of the things which did befall S. Paul in his whole vocation there was nothing ordinary but every part was acted by the hand of God God in his extraordinary works ties not himself to ordinary means and courses but takes such ways and doth imploy such instruments as himself best pleaseth for the more evident demonstration of his power and glory So that however Simeon Manahen and Lucius did lay hands upon him yet being the call and designation was so miraculous he might well say that he was made an Apostle neither of men nor by men but of Jesus Christ and God the Father Chrysostom so expounds the place Not of Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 1. v. 1. Hom. 27. in Act so to make it manifest that he received not his call from them not by men because he was not sent by them but by the Spirit As for the work to which he was thus separated by the Lord ask the said Father what it was and he will tell you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it was the office of an Apostle and that he was ordained an Apostle here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might Preach the Gospel with the greater power Ask who it was that did ordain him and he will tell you that howsoever Manahen Lucius and Simeon did lay hands upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet he received his Ordination by the Holy Ghost And certainly that he had not the Apostleship before may be made manifest by that which followed after For we do not find in all the story of his Acts that either he ordained Presbyters or gave the Holy Ghost or wrought any miracles which were the signs of his Apostleship before this solemn Ordination 2 Cor. 12.11 or imposition of the hands of the said three Prophets as afterwards we find he did in several places of that book and shall now shew as it relates unto our present business in that which followeth Paul being thus advanced by God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ to the high place of an Apostle immediately applyeth himself unto the same Preaching the Word with power and miracles in the Isle of Cyprus Act. 13.11 c. from thence proceeding to Pamphylia and other Provinces of the lesser Asia every where gaining Souls to Almighty God Having spent three years in those parts of Asia and planted Churches in a great part thereof he had a mind to go again to Antioch Act. 14.26 from whence be had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which he had fulsilled But fearing lest the Doctrine he had Preached amongst them might either be forgotten or produce no profit if there were none left to attend that service Before he went he thought it fitting to found a Ministery amongst them in their several Churches To this end They i.e. He and Barnabas ordained them Presbyters in every Church with prayer and fasting Act. 14.23 and that being done they recommended him unto the Lord in whom they believed This is the first Ordination which we find of Presbyters in holy Scripture though doubtless there were many before this time The Church could neither be instructed nor consist at all without an ordinary Minister left amongst the people for the Administration of the Word and Sacraments However this being as I said the first record thereof in holy Scripture we will consider hereupon first to what Office they were called which are here called Presbyters Secondly by whom they were Ordained And thirdly by what means they were called unto it First for the Office what it was I find some difference amongst Expositors as well new as old Beza conceives the word in a general sense and to include at once Pastors and Deacons and whoever else were set apart for the rule and government of the Churches to them committed Annot. in Act. 14. v. 23. Presbyteros i.e. Pastores Diaconos alios Ecclesiae gubernationi praefectos as his own words are Here we have pastors Deacons Governours included in this one word Presbyters Ask Lyra who those Governours were Lyra in Act. 14. which Beza calls praefecti in a general name and he will tell you they were Bishops Nomine Presbyterorum hic intelliguntur etiam alii Ecclesiae Ministri ut Episcopi Diaconi Under the name of Presbyters saith he are comprehended also other Ecclesiastical Ministers as Bishops and Deacons Gloss Ordinar in Act. 14. The ordinary gloss agrees herewith as to that of Bishops and gives this reason for the same Illo autem tempore ejusdem erant nominis Episcopi Presbyteri that in that time Bishops and Presbyters were called by the same name Oecum in Act. 14. And Oecumenius holds together with them as to that of Deacons nothing that Paul and Barnabas had Epifcopal Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that they did not only ordain Deacons but also Presbyters So that it seemeth Saint Paul provided here against all occasions fetling the Churches by him planted in so sure a way that there was nothing left at random which either did relate to government or point of Doctrine And yet if any shall contend that those who here are called Presbyters were but simply such according to the notion of that word as it is now used I shall not much insist upon it I only shew what other Authors have affirmed herein and so leave it off The next thing here to be considered is who they were that were the
neque Diaconus jus habeat baptizandi that without lawful mission from the Bishop neither the Presbyter nor Deacons might Baptize Not that I think there was required in Hieroms time a special Licence from the Bishop for every ministerial act that men in either of those Orders were to execute but that they had no more interest therein than what was specially given them by and from the Bishop in their Ordination As for the Act of Preaching which was at first discharged by the Apostles Prophets and Evangelists according to the gifts that God had given them for the performance of the same when as the Church began to settle it was conferred by the Apostles on the several Presbyters by themselves ordained as doth appear by Saint Pauls exhortation to the Presbyters 2 Tim. 4.5 which he called from Ephesus unto Miletum To this as Timothy had been used before doing the work of an Evangelist so he was still required to ply it being called unto the Office of a Bishop Saint Paul conjuring him before God and Christ that notwithstanding the diversions which might happen to him by reason of his Episcopal place and jurisdiction 2. Tim. 4.2 he should Preach the Word and not to Preach it only in his own particular 2 Tim. 2.15 shewing himself a Workman that needed not to be ashamed dividing the word of truth aright But seeing that others also did the like according to the trust reposed in them whether they had been formerly ordained by the Apostles or might be by himself ordained in times succeeding Those that discharge this duty both with care and conscience 1 Tim. 5.17 guiding and governing that portion of the Church aright wherewith they are intrusted and diligently labouring in the word and doctrine by the Apostle are accounted worthy of double honour Which questionless S. Paul had never represented unto Timothy but that it did belong unto him as a part of his Episcopal power and Office to see that men so painful in their calling and so discreet in point of government should be rewarded and encouraged accordingly By honour in this place the Apostle doth not only mean respect and reverence but support and maintenance as appears plainly by that which is alledged from holy Scripture viz. Thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the Corn And the Labourer is worthy of his hiâ—e Chrysost hom 15. in 1 Tim. 5. Ambros in locum Calvin in 1 ad Tim. c. 5. Chrysostom so expounds the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By honour here is meant both reverence and a supply of all things necessary with whom agree the Commentaries which pass under the name of Ambrose Calvin affirms the like for our modern Writers Victum praecipue suppeditari jubet Pastoribus qui docendo sunt occupati Paul here commandeth that necessary maintenance be allowed the Pastor who laboureth in the Word and Doctrin And hereto Beza agreeth also in his Annotations on the place Now we know well that in those times wherein Paul wrote to Timothy and a long time after the dispensation of the Churches Treasury was for the most part in the Bishop and at his appointment For as in the beginnings of the Gospel the Faithful sold their Lands and Goods Act. 4. v. ult and laid the money at the Apostles feet by them to be distributed as the necessities of the Church required So in succeeding times all the Oblations of the faithful were returned in unto the Bishop of the place and by him disposed of We need not stand on many Authors in so clear a business Zonaras telling plainly that at the first the Bishop had the absolute and sole disposing of the revenues of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zonaras in Concil Chalcedâ—n Ca. 26. no man whoever being privy to their doings in it And that they did accordingly dispose thereof to every man according to his parts and industry doth appear by Cyprian where he informeth us that he having advanced Celerinus a Confessor of great renoun amongst that people and no less eminent indeed for his parts and piety unto the office of a Reader he had allotted unto him Cypr. Ep. 34. vel l. 4. ep 5. and to Aurelius one of equal vertue then a Reader also Vt sportulis iisdem cum Presbyteris honorentur that they should have an equal share in the distribution with the Priests or Presbyters But many times so fell out that those to whom the Ministry of the word was trusted Preached other doctrin to the People than that which had been taught by the Apostles 1 Tim. 1.3 Tit. 1.10 11. Vain talkers and deceivers which subverted whole houses teaching things they should not and that for filthy lucres sake What must the Bishop do to them He must first charge them not to Preach such doctrins which rather minister questions than godly edifying 1 Tim. 1.4 And if they will not hearken to nor obey this charge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1.9 he must stop their mouths let them be silenced in plain English The silencing of such Ministers as deceive the People and Preach such things they should not even for lucres sake to the subverting of whole Families is no new matter as we see in the Church of God Saint Paul here gives it as in charge to Titus and to all Bishops in his person Certain I am that Chrysostom doth so expound it If thou prevailest not saith he by admonitions Chrysost tom 2. n. Tit. 1. be not afraid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 silentium iis impone the Translator reads it but silence them that others may the better be preserved by it Hierom doth so translate it also quibus oportet silentium indici such men must be commanded silence Hieron in Can. Tit. And for the charge of Paul to Timothy that he should charge those false Apostles which he speaks of not to Preach strange doctrines it carries with it an Authority that must be exercised For this cause I required thee to abide at Ephesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not that thou shouldst intreat but command such men to Preach no other doctrines than they had from me Theophylact on those words Theophyl in 1. ad Tim. c. 1. puts the question thus in the words of Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may be asked saith he whether that Timothy were then Bishop when Paul wrote this to him To which he answereth of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it is most probable giving this reason of the same because he is to charge those men not to teach other doctrines Oecumen in locum Oecumenius is more positive in the point and affirms expresly on these words that Paul had made him Bishop there before that time And Lyra if he may be heard Lyra in 1 Tim. c. 1. make this general use of the Apostles exhortation that the first Act here recommended to a Bishop is falsae doctrinae
Paraeus in Apocal c. 3. v. did afterwards recover and get strength again instanceth in Anatotius and Stephanus both eminent and learned men and both Bishops there whereas indeed they were not Bishops of this Laodicea but of Laodicea in Syria called antiently Seleucia Tetrapolis as he might easily have seen by a more careful looking on those places of Eusebius which himself hath cited Now in the Nicene Council if we like of that we find the Successors of those several Angels subscribing severally to the Acts thereof Act. Conc. Nic. in subser amongst other Prelates of that time as viz. Menophanes of Ephesus Eutychius B. of Smyrna for the province of Asia Artemidorus B. of Sardis Soron or Serras B. of Thyatira Ethymasius B. of Philadelphia for the Province of Lydia and finally Nunechlus B. of this Laodicea Perpet gover cap. 13. p. 269. for the Province of Phrygia for Theodotus who by Bilson is affirmed to have subscribed as Bishop of this Laodicea was Bishop of Laodicea in the Province of Syria amongst the Bishops of which Province his subscription is which I marvel that most learned and industrious Prelate did not see And though we find not him of Pergamus amongst them there yet after in the Council of Chalcedon doth his name occur In fine by the person that speaketh to the Pastors and those seven Churches and the name he gives them it is plain and evident that their vocation was not only confirmed by the Lord himself but their Commission expressed He speaketh that hath best right to appoint what Pastors he would have to guide his Flock till himself come to judgment The name he giveth them sheweth their power and charge to be delivered them from God and consequently each of them in his several charge and City must have Commission to reform the errors and abuses in their several Churches at whose hands it shall be required by him that shall sit judge to take account of their doings And so much for the Angels of the seven Churches in Asia remembred in the book of the Revelation But to go forwards to S. John the Author of it immediately on his return from Patmos he sets himself unto the reformation of these Churches calling together the Bishops of the same as before we shewed and governing both those and the adjoyning Churches of Asia minor by his Apostolical Authority and preheminence Which having done on the intreaty and request of some godly men he went unto the neighbour Nations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens Alex. ap Euseb hist l. 2. c. 17. in some places instituting or ordaining Bishops in others rectifying and reforming the whole Churches and in a word by the direction of the spirit founding a Clergy in the same It seems the journey was not far the places which he visited being said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the neighbouring Nations and indeed the Apostle was now grown too old to endure much travel being near an hundred at this time And therefore I conceive that the Episcopal Sees of Traellis and Magnesia were of his foundation Concil Chal. in subscript being Cities not far off and after reckoned as the Suffragans of the Archb. or Metropolitan of Ephesus Certain I am that they were both of them Sees of Bishops as doth appear by the Epistles of Ignatius in which he nameth Polybius Bishop of Trallis Ignat. Epist ad Magnesi and Damas Bishop of Magnesia and those not titular Bishops only but such as were to be obeyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without gain-saying and without whose allowance there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 layed upon the Presbyters who were not to do any thing in their ministrations but by his authority One other Bishop there is said to be of S. John's ordaining viz. the young man which Clemens speaks of Clem. Alex. ap Euseb hist l. 2. c. 17. whose aspect being liked by the Apostle he left him to the care and tutorage of an ancient Bishop of those parts And when the Young man afterwards for want of careful looking to became debauched and made himself the Captain of a crew of Out-laws the blessed Saint with much ado reclaimed him from that wretched course and afterwards having new moulded him and prepared him for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made him a Bishop in the Church But whether that the word will bear that sense as to the making him a Bishop or that it only doth imply that S. John placed him in some function of the holy Ministery Ecclesiae ministeri◠praefecit as Christophorson reads it I will not contend Only I cannot but observe that where the Bishop to whose care he was committed is in the prosecution of the story called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some have collected from the same Unbishopping of Tim. Tit. p. 126. that Bishops in those times were no more than Presbyters But this will prove if better looked on but a plain mistake the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that place noting the Bishops age and not his office as doth appear by that which followeth in the story where he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which certainly doth signifie an ancient man but not a Presbyter The Asian Churches being thus setled and confirmed in the faith of Christ partly by the pains and travel of this blessed man but principally by the Gospel and other pieces of Divine holy Scripture by him written and published about this time Beda de sex aetatibus In Annal. Ecc he went unto the Lord his God in a good old age being then 98 years old as Beda reckoneth in the beginning of the second century Anno 101. according to the computation of Baronius The Church at his departure he left firmly grounded in all the points of faith and doctrine taught by Christ our Saviour as well setled in the outward government the polity and administration of the same which had been framed by the Apostles according to the pattern and example of their Lord and Master For being that the Church was born of Seed immortal and they themselves though excellent and divine yet still mortal men it did concern the Church in an high degree to be provided of a perpetuity or if you will an immortality of Overseers both for the sowing of this Seed and for the ordering of the Church or the field it self This since they could not do in person they were to do it by their Successors who by their Office were to be the ordinary Pastors of the Church and the Vicars of Christ Now if you ask the Fathers who they were that were accounted in their times and ages the Successors of the Apostles they will with one accord make answer that the Bishops were To take them as they lived in order it is affirmed expresly by Irenaeus Iren. l. 3. c. 3. one who conversed familiatly with Polycarpus S. John's Disciple He speaking of those Bishops which were ordained by the Apostles
Eccles l. 4.21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Five books he writ as both Eusebius and Saint Hierom tell us touching the Acts and Monuments of the Church of God this last affirming of the work that it contained many things ad utilitatem legentium pertinentia exceeding profitable to the Reader De scriptor Eccles though written in a plain and familiar stile Some fragments of his cited by Eusebius we have seen before the body of his Works being eaten by the teeth of Time and one we are to look on now being the remainder of a most accurate and full confession of his Faith Euseb ut supra which he left behind him There he relates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that in a Journey towards Rome he did confer with many Bishops and that he found amongst them all the same Form of Doctrine there being no City where he came no Episcopal succession wherein he found not all things so confirmed and setled as they were prescribed by the Word taught by the Prophets and Preached by our Lord and Saviour Particularly he tells us of the Church of Corinth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it continued constantly in the Orthodox Faith till the time that Primus was there Bishop with whom he had much conference as he sailed towards Rome staying with him many days at Corinth and being much delighted with his Conversation Of Rome he only doth inform us that he abode there till the time of Anicetus whose Deacon Eleutherus at that time was who not long after did succeed in his Pastors Chair Soter succeeding Anicetus Eleutherus succeeding Soter Where by the way De viris ill in Egesip I wonder how Saint Hierom came to place the coming of Egesippus unto Rome sub Aniceto when Anicetus was there Bishop considering that Egesippus tells us he was there before and that he there continued 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 until the time of Anicetus as before was said Discoursing of the Errours of the Jews his Countrey-men he sheweth that after James the Just was martyred in defence of Christs Truth and Gospel Simeon the son of Cleophas and Uncle to our Saviour was erected Bishop all the Disciples giving their voices unto him as being of their Masters kindred He addeth that Hierusalem whereof he speaketh was called for long time the Virgin Church as being undefiled with the filth of Heresies and that Thebulis was the first who broached strange Doctrine in the same the man being discontented as it seemed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he was not made a Bishop So far the pieces of this Journal or Itinerary direct us in this present search as to discern how strong a bulwark the Episcopal succession hath been and been accounted also of Gods sacred Truths how strong a Pillar for support of that blessed building At the same time with Egesippus lived Dionysius the learned and renowned Bishop of the Church of Corinth Euseb Eccles hist l. 4. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De scriptor Ecc. successor to that Primus whom before we spoke of A man as both Eusebius and Saint Hierom say of such both industry and Eloquence ut non solum suae Civitatis Provinciae populos that he instructed not alone by his Epistles the people of his own City and Province but also those of other Churches One writ he saith Eusebius to the Lacedemonians at once confirming them in faith and love another unto the Athenians about the time that Publius their Bishop suffered Martyrdom exhorting them to live according to the prescript of Christs holy Gospel In that Epistle he makes mention of Quadratus also who succeeded Publius in that charge declaring also that Dionysius the Areopagite being converted by Saint Paul was made the first Bishop of that City Of which three Bishops of Athens Quadratus is much celebrated by Eusebius for an Apologie by him written Euseb l. 4. c. 3. and tendred unto Adrian the Emperour in the behalf of Christians being the first piece of that kind that was ever written in the World and written as it seems with such power and efficacy Id. ibid. c. 9. that shortly after Adrian desisted from his persecuting of the Church of God making a Law or Edict for their future safety But to go on with Dionysius A third he writ unto the Nicomedians opposing in the same the Heresies of Marcion a fourth unto the Gortynaeans in which he much commended their Bishop Philip in that the Church committed to his care and governance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had been made famous by so many tryals both for faith and constancy He writ unto the Church of Amastris also and the rest in Pontus speaking by name of Palma the Bishop there as also to the Church of Gnossus in the Isle of Crete in which he did persuade Pintus Bishop of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to impose that grievous yoke of Chastity upon his brethren as a matter necessary but to consider rather the infirmity and weakness of them Finally there was extant in Eusebius's time another Epistle of this Dionysius to the Church of Rome wherein he magnifieth their abundant charity towards all the Brethren which were in want or persecution not only of their own but of other Cities highly commending Soter who was then their Bishop who did not only study to preserve them in so good a way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but also did encourage them to improve their bounties So much remains of Dionysius and his publick Acts by which we may perceive that though the Bishops of those times as since had their particular Sees and Cities yet did their care extend unto others also maintaining a continual intercourse betwixt one another not only for their mutual comfort in those dangerous times but also for the better government of the Church it self the Unity whereof was then best preserved by that correspondence which the Bishops in the name of their several Churches had with one another For other Bishops of those times not to say any thing of Melito or Polycarpus whom before we spake of nor of the Bishops of the four Patriarchal Sees which we shall have occasion to remember shortly those of most fame were Papias and Apollinarius Euseb Hist l. 3. c 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishops successively of Hierapolis a City of Phrygia Pothinus Bishop of Lyons in France Id. l. 4. c. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. l. 5. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. c. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. c. 25. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. c. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theophilus Bishop of Caesarea Cassius Bishop of Tyre Clarius Bishop of Ptolomais all three in Palestine Publius Julius Bishop of Debelto a Colony in Thrace with many others of great eminency whereof consult Euseb Hist Eccles 5. c. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By this that hath been said of Dionysius and other Bishops
four Sees in those early days 7. The use made of this Episcopal succession by Saint Irenaeus 8. As also by Tertullian and some other Ancients 9. Of the Authority enjoyed by Bishops in Tertullians time in the administration of the Sacraments 10. As also in enjoyning Fasts and the disposing of the Churches Treasury 11. And in the dispensation of the Keys 12. Tertullian misalledged in maintenance of the Lay-Presbytery 13. The great extent of Christianity and Episcopacy in Tertullians time concludes this Century HAVING thus setled the affairs of the Church of Britain we will look back again towards Rome where we find Victor sitting as successor unto Eleutherius and the whole Church though free from persecutions yet terribly embroyled with Schisms and Heresies For in the later end of Eleutherius Blastus and Florinus two notorious Hereticks had broached this doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb Eccl. hist l. 5. c. 19. that God was the author of sin and possibly might have spread the venom of their Heresie exceeding far if Irenaeus that great and learned Bishop of Lyons being then at Rome had not prescribed a speedy and a sovereign Antidote in several Tractates and Discourses against the same But Eleutherius being dead and Victor in his place there hapned such a Schism in the Church of Christ by his precipitance and perversness that all the water which Irenaeus and many other godly men could pour into it Id. l. 5. c. 23. 24. was hardly sufficient to quench the flame The business which occasioned it was the feast of Easter or indeed not the Feast it self upon the keeping of the which all Christians had agreed from the first beginnings but for the day in which it was to be observed wherein the Churches of Asia had an old Tradition differing from the rest of Christendom For whereas generally that festival had been solemnized in the Church of Christ on the Lords Day next after the Jewish Passeover as being the day which our Redeemer honoured with his Resurrection the Christians of the Asian Churches kept it upon the 14th day of the month precisely being the very day prescribed for the Jewish Passeover A business of no great importance more than for a general conformity in the Church of Christ yet such as long had exercised the patience of it even from the time of Pius Pope of Rome who first decreed it to be kept on the Lords Day Die Dominico Pascha celebrari as it is in Platina Platina in vita Pii Pont. Euscb Ecc. hist l. 5. c. 24. but followed with most heat and violence by this Victor perhaps upon the Omen of his name Of whom Eusebius thus reporteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that he attempted to cut off the whole Church of Asia together with the Churches adjacent from the Communion of the Catholick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they had maintained some heterodox or dangerous Doctrine contrary to the Faith of Christ A matter taken very tenderly not only by the Asian Bishops whom it most concerned but also by some other of the Western parts who more endeavoured the preservation of the Churches peace than the advancement and authority of the See of Rome those of chief note which interessed themselves therein being Irenaeus Polycrates the one Bishop of the Metropolitan Church of Lyons in France the other of the Church of Ephesus the Queen of Asia both honourable in their times and places And first Polycrates begins deriving the occasion and descent of their observation from Philip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ibid. one of the twelve Apostles not of the seven Deacons as our Christopherson most ridiculously and falsly doth translate it who died at Hierapolis a City of Phrygia and from Saint John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who rested on the bosom of our Lord and Saviour as also from Polycarpus and Thracias Bishops of Smyrna and both Martyrs Sagaris B. of Laodicea Papyrus and Melito and many others who kept the feast of Easter as the Asians did As for himself he certifieth that following the Traditions of his Elders he had done the like that seven of his kindred had been Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself being the eighth and all which did so observe the feast of Easter when the Jews did prepare the Passeover that having served God 65 years diligently canvassed over the holy Scriptures and held both intercourse and correspondence with many of the brethren over all the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was the least disturbed at those Bruta fulmina Adding withal that he might here commemorate those several Bishops that were assembled at his call to debate the point 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that this bare retital of their names was too great a trouble who though they could not but be sensible of his imperfections yet thinking that he bare not those gray hairs for nought did willingly subscribe unto his Epistle So far Id. ibid. c. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to this purpose he And on the other side Irenaeus writing unto Victor utterly dislikes that his severe and rigid manner of proceeding in cutting off so many Churches from the Communion of our Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only because they did adhere to the Tradition of their Ancestors in a point of Ceremony shewing how much he differed in this business from the temper and moderation of his Predecessours Soter Anicetus Pius Higinus Sixtus and Telesphorus who though they held the same opinions that he did did notwithstanding entertain the Asian Bishops when they came unto them with great affection and humanity sending to those who lived far distant the most blessed Eucharist in testimony of their fellowship and Communion with them Nor did he write thus unto Victor only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to the Governours or Bishops of many other Churches also And certainly it was but need that such a Moderator should be raised to atone the difference the billows beating very highly and Victor being beset on every side for his stiff perversness by the Prelates of the adverse party 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sharply assaulting him both with words and Writings For the composing of this business before it grew to such a heat there could no better means be thought of than that the Bishops of the Church in their several quarters should meet together to debate and determine of it And so accordingly they did Euseb hist Eccl. l. 5. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and many Synods and assemblies of the Bishops were held about it viz. one in Caesarea of Palestine wherein Theophilus B. of the place and Narcissus B. of Hierusalem did sit as Presidents another at Rome a third of all the Bishops of Pontus in the which Palmas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the chief amongst them of that Order did then preside A fourth there was of the French or Gallick Churches in the which Irenaeus sat
was a very pregnant evidence that they had neither verity nor antiquity to defend their Doctrins nor could with any shew of Justice challenge to themselves the name and honour of a Church Id. ibid. ca. 36. And such and none but such were those other Churches which he after speaketh of viz. of Corinth Philippi Thessalonica Ephesus and the rest planted by the Apostles apud quas ipsae Cathedrae Apostolorum suis locis praesidentur in which the Chairs of the Apostles to that time were sate in being possessed not by themselves but by their Successors By the same argument Optatus first and after him St. Austin did confound the Donatists that mighty faction in the Church St. Austin thus Numerate Sacerdotes vel ab ipsa sede Petri August contr Petil. l. 2. in illo ordine quis cui successerit videte Number the Bishops which have sate but in Peters Chair and mark who have succeeded one another in the same A Catalogue of which he gives us in another place Id. Epist 165. lest else he might be thought to prescribe that to others on which he would not trust himself Nay so far he relyed on the authority of this Episcopal Succession in the Church of Christ as that he makes it one of the special motives quae eum in gremio Ecclesiae justissimè teneant which did continue him in the bosom of the Catholick Church Id. contr Epist Manichaei c. 4. As for Optatus having laid down a Catalogue of the Bishops in the Church of Rome till his own times He makes a challenge to the Donatists to present the like Optat. de schis Donat. l. 2. Vestrae Cathedrae originem edite shew us saith he the first original of your Bishops and then you have done somewhat to advance your cause In which it is to be observed that though the instance be made only in the Episcopal succession of the Church of Rome Irt. adv haere lib. 3. cap. 3. the argument holds good in all others also it being too troublesome a labour as Irenaeus well observed omnium Ecclesiarum enumerare successiones to run through the succession of all particular Churches and therefore that made choyce of as the chief or principal But to return again unto Tertullian whom I account amongst the Writers of this Age though he lived partly in the other besides the use he made of this Episcopal succession to convince the Heretick he shews us also what authority the Bishops of the Church did severally enjoy and exercise in their successions which we will take according to the proper and most natural course of Christianity First for the Sacrament of Baptism which is the door or entrance into the Church Tertul. lib. de Baptism c. 17. Dandi quidem jus habet summus sacerdos i. e. Episcopus The Right saith he of giving Baptism hath the High-Priest which is the Bishop and then the Presbyters and Deacons non tamen sine Episcopi antoritate yet not without the Bishops licence and authority for the Churches honour which if it be preserved then is Peace maintained Nay so far he appropriates it unto the Bishop as that he calleth it dictatum Episcopi officium Episcopatus a work most proper to the Bishop in regard of his Episcopacy or particular Office Which howsoever it may seem to ascribe too much unto the Bishop in the administration of this Sacrament is no more verily than what was after affirmed by Hierom Hieron adver Lucifer shewing that in his time sine Episcopi jussione without the warrant of the Bishop neither the Presbyters nor the Deacons had any authority to Baptize not that I think that in the days of Hierom before whose time Parishes were assigned to Presbyters throughout the Church the Bishops special consent and warrant was requisite to the baptizing of each several Infant but that the Presbyters and Deacons did receive from him some general faculty for their enabling in and to those Ministrations Next for the Sacrament of the blessed Eucharist that which is a chief part of that heavenly nourishment by which a Christian is brought up in the assured hopes of Eternal life he tells us in another place non de aliorum manu quam Praesidentium sumimus Tertul. de Corona Militis that they received it only from their Bishops hand the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or President of the Presbytery as Justin Martyr seconded by Beza did before call him Which Exposition or construction lest it should be quarrelled as being injurious to the Presbyters who are thereby excluded from the honour and name of Presidents I shall desire the Reader to consult those other places of Tertullian in which the word Prefident is used as viz. Prescriptio Apostoll Bigames non sinit praesidere Tert. ad axor lib. ad uxorem and lib. de Monogamia in both of which the man that had a second Wife is said to be disabled from Presiding in the Church of God and on consideration to determine of it whether it be more probable that Presbyters or Bishops be here meant by Presidents Besides the Church not being yet divided generally into Parishes but only in some greater Cities the Presbyter had not got the stile of Rector and therefore much less might be called a President that being a word of Power and Government which at that time the Presbyters enjoyed not in the Congregation And here Pope Leo will come in to help us if occasion be assuring us that in his time it was not lawful for the Presbyter in the Bishops presence nisi illo jubente Leo Epist 88. unless it were by his appointment conficere Sacramentum corporis sanguinis Christi to consecrate the Sacrament of Christs body and blood The author of the Tract ascribed to Hierom entituled de Septem Ecclesiae ordinibus doth affirm as much but being the author of it is uncertain though it be placed by Erasinus amongst the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 docta we will pass it by From the Administration of the Sacraments which do belong ad potestatem ordinis to the power of Order proceed we on to those which do appertain ad potestatem jurisdictionis unto the power of Jurisdiction And the first thing we meet with is the appointing of the publick Fasts used often in the Church as occasion was A priviledg not granted to the common Presbyter and much less to the common people but in those times wherein the Supream Magistrate was not within the pale or bosom of the Church entrusted to the Bishop only This noted also by Tertullian in his book entituled de jejuniis which though he writ after his falling from the Church and so not to be trusted in a point of Doctrine may very well be credited in a point of custom Quod Episcopi universae plebi mandare jejunia assolent non dico de industria stipium conferendarum sed ex aliqua sollicitudinis Ecclesiae causa
vocatur ad principatum sed ad servitutem totius Ecclesiae is not invited to an Empire or a Principality but to the Service of the whole Church And this he keeps himself to constantly in that whole discourse being the sixth Homily on the Prophet Esay in which although he afterwards doth call the Bishop Ecclesiae Princeps yet he affirms that he is called ad servitutem to a place of service and that by looking to his service well ad solium coeleste ire posset he may attain an Heavenly Throne And so much shall suffice for Origen a Learned but unfortunate man with whom the Church had never peace either dead or living From him then we proceed unto his Successor Heraclas an Auditor at first of Clemens â—â—sâ—b hist l. 6. c. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then of Origen who being marvellously affected with the great Learning of the man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made him his Partner in the Chair which after Origen was laid by Id. c. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he managed wholly by himself with great applause A man that had the happiness to succeed the two greatest Enemies in the world Origen and Demetrius the one in the Schools the other in the Church of Alexandria unto which honour he was called on Demetrius death who had sate Bishop there three and forty years On this preferment of Heraclas unto the Patriarchate the Regency of the Alexandrian Schools was forthwith given to Dionysius another of Origens Disciples who after fourteen years or thereabout succeeded also in the Bishoprick And here began that alteration in the Election of the Bishops of this Church which S. Hierom speaks of Hieron ad Evagrium The Presbyters before this time used to Elect their Bishop from among themselves Alexandriae à Marco Evangelista usque ad Heraclam Dionysium Episcopos Presbyteri unum ex se electum in excelsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant as the Father hath it But here we find that course was altered though what the alteration was in what it did consist whether in the Electors or the condition of the party to be Elected is not so clearly evident in S. Hierom's words For my part I conceive it might be in both both in the unum ex se and the collocabant For first the Presbyters of that Church had used to choose their Bishop from amongst themselves Electing always one of their own body But in the choice of these two Bishops that course was altered these two not being Presbyters of the Church but Readers in the Schools of Alexandria and so not chosen from amongst themselves And secondly I take it that the course was altered as to the Electors to the Collocabant For whereas heretofore the Presbyters had the sole power of the Election to choose whom they listed and having chosen to enthrone him without expecting what the people were pleased to do the people seeing what was done in other Churches begun to put in for a share not only ruling but finally over-ruling the Election What else should further the Election of these two I can hardly tell but that their diligence and assiduity in the discharge of the employment they had took upon them the great abilities they shewed therein and the great satisfaction given thereby unto the people who carefully frequented those publick Readings had so endeared them to the multitude that no other Bishops could content them had not these been chosen And this I am the rather induced to think because that in a short time after the interess of the people in the Election of their Bishop was improved so high that the want of their consent and suffrage was thought by Athanasius a sufficient bar against the right of the Elected Atha in Epi. ad Orthodoxos affirming it to be against the Churches Canons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to the precept of the Apostles But which of these soever it was an alteration here was made of the ancient custom which is as much as is intended by S. Hierom in the words alledged How others have abused this place to prove that the imparity of Bishops is not of Divine Authority but only brought in by the Presbyters we have shewn before Part I. Cha. 3. But to go on with Dionysius for of Heraclas and his acts there is little mention we find the time in which he sate to be full of troubles both in regard of Persecutions which were raised against the Church without and Heresies which assaulted her within Novatus had begun a faction in the Church of Rome grounding the same upon a false and dangerous doctrine the sum whereof we find in an Epistle of this Dionysius Eus hist Ec. lib. 7. cap. 7. unto another Dionysius Pope of Rome And whereas Fabius Bishop of Antiochia was thought to be a fautor of that Schism he writes to him about it also Id. l. 6. c. 36. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. l. 7. c. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. l. 7. c. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. l. 7. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So when Sabellius had begun to disperse his Heresies he presently gives notice of it to Sixtus or Xystus Bishop of the Church of Rome as also unto Ammon Bishop of Bernice and Basilides the Metropolitan of Cyrenaica or Pentapolis and to divers others And when that Paulus Samosatenus began to broach strange doctrins in the Church of Christ although he could not go in person to suppress the same yet writ he an Epistle to the Bishops Assembled there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 declaring his opinion of the point in question And on the other side when as the Persecutors made foul havock in the Church and threatned utterly to destroy the Professors of it Id. l. 6. c. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he by his Letters certifieth his neighbouring Bishops in what estate Gods Church stood with him with what heroick resolutions the Christians in his charge did abide the fury and conquered their tormenters by their patient sufferings so giving houour to the dead and breathing courage in the living Indeed what Bishops almost were there in those parts of Christendom with whom he held not correspondence with whom he had not mutual and continual entercourse by the way of Letters from whom he did not carefully receive in the self-same way both advice and comfort Witness his several Epistles besides those formerly remembred unto Cornelius Pope of Rome Id. li. 6. c. 38. commending him for an Epistle by him written against Novatus and giving notice to him of the death of Fabius and how Demetrianus did succeed him in the See of Antioch and also to the Church of Rome discoursing of the publick Ministeries in the Christian Church Witness that also unto Stephanus the Predecessor of Cornelius Id. l. 7. c. 2. Id. l. 7. c. 4. entituled De Baptismate a second to the aforesaid Stephanus about the faction of Novatus
formatae or communicatoriae were these Letters called as in the 163 Epistle of S. Austin where both names occur This as it was the usage of the former times so was there never more need to uphold the same than in the latter part of this present Age. So mighty a distemper had possessed the Church that no part almost of it was in a tolerable constitution and therefore it concerned the Bishops to be quick and active before the maladies thereof became incurable In that of Carthage besides the faction raised by Felicissimus which had no countenance from the Church there was an erroneous doctrine publickly received about the Baptism of Hereticks The Church of Alexandria besides the heat she fell into concerning Origen was much disquieted by the Heresie of Sabellius broached within the same And that no sooner was suppressed or at lest quieted for the present but a great flame brake out in the Church of Antioch which beginning in the House of Paulus Samosatenus before remembred had like to have put all the Church into combustion Rome in the mean time was afflicted more than all the rest by the Schism raised and the false doctrines preached therein by Novatianus and that not for a fit only and no more but so but in a constant kind of sickness which disturbed her long In this distemper of the Church the Bishops had no way to consult her health but by having recourse to their old way of mutual commerce and conference which being it could not be performed in person must be done by Letters And so accordingly it was Witness those several Letters written by St. Cyprian to the Bishops of Rome viz. from him to Stephanus Epist 71. to Lucius Epist 58. and to Cornelius Epist 42 43 47 54 55 57. to the Church there Epist 23 29. and from the Church of Rome and the Bishops of it unto him again Epist 31 46 48 49. In all of which they mutually both give and take advice as the necessities of their affairs and the condition of the Church required Nor was the business of the Church of Carthage in agitation between Cyprian only and the Roman Prelates but taken also into the care and consideration of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria Euseb hist Ecc. l. 7. cap. 2. who writ his judgment in it and advice about it to Stephanus then Pope of Rome who held against St. Cyprian or indeed rather for the truth in the point in question What the same Dionysius did for the suppressing of the faction of Novatus raised in Rome at first but after spreading further over all the Church we have in part beheld already by his Epistle unto Fabius of Antiochia who was suspected to incline that way and that inscribed unto Cornelius written about that business also which before we spake of And we may see what Cyprian did in recompence of that advice and comfort which he had from Rome in his own afflictions by the great care he took for the composing of her Schisms and troubles when she fell into them by his Epistles to that only purpose as viz. those unto Cornelius Cypr. Ep. 41. Id. Ep. 42. Id. Ep. 43. Id. Ep. 50 51. Id. Ep. 48 49. intituled Quod ordinationem Novatiani non receperit De ordinatione ejus à se comprobata Quod ad Confessores à Novatiano seductos literas fecerit The Letters of those seduced Confessors to him and his congratulation unto them upon their return to their obedience to the Church Cornelius writing unto him touching the faction of Novatian and their wicked practices with his Reply unto Cornelius Thus also when Sabellius began to broach his Heresies within the jurisdiction of Alexandria he did not only signifie the same to the Bishop of Rome which by the Cardinal is used I know not how for a prime Argument Baron in Annal Eccl. Anno 260. n. 62. to prove the Popes Supremacy but unto divers other Bishops as before was shewn to whom assuredly he owed no obedience This as he did according to the usage of the Church at that time in force so took he other courses also for the suppression of that Heresie both by power and pen. For finding upon certain information 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that diverse Bishops of Pentapolis Athan. de sentent Dionys being within the Patriarchat of Alexandria began to countenance and embrace the said desperate doctrines and had so far prevailed therein that there was hardly any mention in their Churches of the Son of God he knowing that the care and oversight of the said Churches did belong to him first laboured by his Messengers and Commissioners to dissuade them from those lewd opinions and when that would not do the deed he was constrained to write unto them an Epistle in which he throughly confuted their erroneous Tenets By which as we may see the care and piety of this famous Prelate triumphing in the fall of Heresie so we may see the power and eminency of that famous See having the governance and superintendency of so many Churches But that which was indeed the greatest business of his time and which the Church was most concerned in was that of Paulus Samosatenus the sixteenth Bishop of the Church of Antioch great in relation to the man Euseb Eccl. hist l. 7. c. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the three prime Bishops in the Christian Church and great inference to the danger which was like to follow When one of the main Pillars of a Church is foundred the whole edifice is in danger of a present ruin And therefore presently upon the apprehension of the mischief likely to ensue in case there was no speedy course taken to prevent the same the Bishops of all parts repaired to Antioch not only those which were within the jurisdiction of that Patriarchate but such as lived far off and in all possibility might have kept their Churches from the infection of the Heresie being so remote For thither came Firmilianus Bishop of Caesarea Id. Ibid. in Cappadocia Gregory surnamed Thaumaturgus Bishop of Neo-Caesarea in Pontus and Athenodorus his brother another Bishop of that Province Helenus Bishop of Tarsus Nicomas Bishop of Iconium Hymenaeus Bishop of Hierusalem Maximus Bishop of Bostra Theoctecnus Bishop of Caesarea the Metropolis of Palestine and so many others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the number of them was innumerable Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria was required also to be there Id. ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he excused himself by reason of his age and weakness And well indeed he might do so being then very ill at ease and dying whilst the Synod was in preparation Id. ibid. But what he could not do in person he performed by his Pen writing not only to the Fathers who were there assembled which Eusebius speaks of but to the Heretick himself a Copy of the which we have both in Baronius and the Bibliotheca as before was said As
under Eutychianus Baron Ann. Eccl. in An. 277. his next Successor and let them reconcile the difference that list for me Suffice it that the Heresie being risen up and being so directly contrary both to Faith and Piety the Bishops of the Church bestirred themselves both then and after for the suppressing of the same according to their wonted care of Her peace and safety Not as before in the case of Paulus Samosatenus by Synodical meetings which was the only way could be taken by them for the deposing of him from his Bishoprick which followed as a part of his condemnation but by discourse and Argument in publick Writings which might effectually suppress the Heresie although the person of the Heretick was out of distance and to say truth Epiph. advers haeres 66. n. 12. beyond their reach The Persian King had eased them of that labour who seizing on that wretched miscreant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commanded him to be flay'd alive and thereby put him to death as full of ignominy as of pain But for the confutation of the Heresie which survived the Author that was the business of the Bishops by whom as Epiphanius noteth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. Ibid. n. 21. many most admirable Disputations had been made in confutation of his Errors Particularly he instanceth in Archelaus Bishop of the Caschari a Nation of Mesopotamia Titus Bishop of Bostra Diodorus one of the Bishops of Cilicia Serapion Bishop of Thmua Eusebius the Historian Bishop of Caesarea Eusebius Emisenus Georgius and Apollinaris Bishops successively of Laodicea Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria with many other Prelates of the Eastern Churches Not that the Bishops of the West did nothing in it though not here named by Epiphanius who being of another Language could not so well take notice of their Works and Writings For after this St. Austin Bishop of Hippo wrote so much against them and did so fully satisfie and confute them both that he might justly say with the Apostle that he laboured more abundantly than they all So careful were the Bishops of the Churches safety that never any Heretick did arise but presently they set a watch upon him and having found what Heresies or dangerous doctrines he dispersed abroad endeavoured with all speed to prevent the mischief This as they did in other cases so was their care the more remarkable by how much greater was the person whom they were to censure Which as we have before demonstrated in the case of Paulus Patriarch of the Church of Antioch so we may see the like in their proceedings against Marcellinus one of the Popes of Rome the third from Felix who though he broached no Heresie as the other did yet gave as great a scandal to the Church as he if not greater far The times were hot and fiery in the which he sat so fierce a persecution being raised against the Church by Dioclesian and his Associates in the Empire as never had been before A persecution which extended not only to the demolishing of Churches Theod. Eccl. hist l. 5. c. 28. Arnob. cont gent. l. 4. in fine Damas in vita Marcellini the Temples of Almighty God but to the extirpation of the Scriptures the Books and Oracles of the Almighty And for the bodies of his Servants some of which were living Libraries and all lively Temples even Temples of the holy Ghost it raged so terribly amongst them that within Thirty days Seventeen thousand Persons of both sexes in the several parts and Provinces of the Romam Empire were crowned with Martyrdom the Tyrants so extreamly raging Marcellinus comes at last unto his trial where being wrought upon either by flattery or fear or both he yielded unto flesh and blood and to preserve his life Id. ibid. he betrayed his Master Ad sacrificium ductus est ut thurificaret quod fecit saith Damasus in the Pontifical He was conducted to the Temple to offer incense to the Roman Idols which he did accordingly And this I urge not to the scandal and reproach of the Church of Rome Indeed 't is no Reproach unto her that one amongst so many godly Bishops most of them being Martyrs also should waver in the constancy of his resolutions and for a season yield unto those persuasions which flesh and blood and the predominant love of life did suggest unto him That which I urge it for is for the declaration of the Course which was taken against him the manner how the Church proceeded in so great a cause and in the which so great a Person was concerned For though the crime were great and scandalous tending to the destruction of the flock of Christ which being much guided by the example of so prime a Pastor might possibly have been seduced to the like Idolatry and that great numbers of them ran into the Temple and were spectators of that horrid action yet find we not that any of them did revile him in word or deed or pronounced hasty judgment on him but left the cognizance of the cause to them to whom of right it did belong Nor is it an hard matter to discern who these Judges were Lay-men they could not be Amb. Epist l. 5. Ep. 32. that 's sure Quando audisti in causa fidei Laicos de Episcopis judicasse When did you ever hear saith Ambrose speaking of the times before him that Lay-men in a point of Faith did judge of Bishops And Presbyters they were not neither they had no Authority to judge the Person of a Bishop That Bishops had Authority to censure and depose their Presbyters we have shewn already that ever any Presbyters did take upon them to judge their Bishop is no where to be found I dare boldly say it in all the practice of Antiquity For being neither munere pares Id. ibid. nor jure suniles equal in function nor alike in law they were disabled now in point of reason from such bold attempts as afterwards disabled by Imperial Edict A simple Biship might as little intermeddle in it as a simple Presbyter for Bishops severally and apart were not to judge their Metropolitan no nor one another Being of equal Order and Authority and seeing that Par in parem non habet potestatem that men of equal rank qua tales are of equal power one of them cannot be the others Judge for want of some transcendent power to pass sentence on him Which as it was of force in all other cases wherein a Bishop was concerned so most especially in this wherein the party Criminal was a Metropolitan and more than so the Primate or Patriarch of the Diocess So that all circumstances laid together there was no other way conceivable in these ancient times than to call a Council the greatest Ecclesiastical Tribunal of Christ on earth there to debate the business and upon proof of the offence to proceed to judgment This had been done before in the case of Paulus and this is
day that now they will not be persuaded that it is a Dream For the awakening of the which and their reduction to more sound and sensible Counsels next to my duty to Gods Church and your Sacred Majesty have I applied my self to compose this Story wherein I doubt not but to shew them how much they have deceived both themselves and others in making the old Jewish Sabbath of equal age and observation with the Law of Nature and preaching their new sabbath-Sabbath-Doctrines in the Church of Christ with which the Church hath no acquaintance wherein I doubt not but to shew them that by their obstinate resolution not to make Publication of your Majesties pleasure they tacitely condemn not only all the Fathers of the Primitive times the Learned Writers of all Ages many most godly Kings and Princes of the former days and not few Councils of chief note and of faith unquestionable but even all states of Men Nations and Churches at this present whom they most esteem This makes your Majesties interest so particular in this present History that were I not obliged unto your Majesty in any nearer bond than that of every common Subject it could not be devoted unto any other with so just propriety But being it is the work of your Majesties Servant and in part fashioned at those times which by your Majesties leave were borrowed from Attendance on your Sacred Person your Majesty hath also all the rights unto it of a Lord and Master Institut l. 1. tit 8. §. 1. So that according to that Maxim of the Civil Laws Quodcunque per servum acquiritur id domino acquirit suo your Majesty hath as absolute power to dispose thereof as of the Author who is Dread Soveraign Your Majesties most Obedient Subject and most faithful Servant PET. HEYLYN A PREFACE To them who being themselves mistaken have misguided others in these new Doctrines of the Sabbath NOT out of any humour or desire of being in action or that I love to have my hands in any of those publick quarrels wherewith our peace hath been disturbed but that Posterity might not say we have been wanting for our parts to your information and the direction of Gods People in the ways of truth have I adventured on this Story A Story which shall represent unto you the constant practice of Gods Church in the present business from the Creation to these days that so you may the better see how you are gone astray from the paths of Truth and tendries of Antiquity and from the present judgment of all Men and Churches The Arguments whereto you trust and upon seeming strength whereof you have been emboldned to press these Sabbatarian Doctrins upon the Consciences of poor people I purpose not to meddle with in this Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They have been elsewhere throughly canvassed and all those seeming strengths beat down by which you were your selves misguided and by the which you have since wrought on the affections of unlearned men or such at least that judged not of them by their weight but by their numbers But where you give it out as in matter of fact how that the Sabbath was ordained by God in Paradise and kept accordingly by all the Patriarchs before Moses time or otherwise ingraft by Nature in the soul of man and so in use also amongst the Gentiles In that I have adventured to let men see that you are very much mistaken and tell us things directly contrary unto truth of Story Next where it is the ground-work of all your building that the Commandment of the Sabbath is Moral Natural and Perpetual as punctually to be observed as any other of the first or second Table I doubt not but it will appear by this following History that it was never so esteemed of by the Jews themselves no not when as the observation of the same was most severely pressed upon them by the Law and Prophets nor when the day was made most burdensome unto them by the Scribes and Pharisees Lastly whereas you make the Lords day to be an institution of our Saviour Christ confirmed by the continual usage of the holy Apostles and both by him and them imposed as a perpetual Ordinance on the Christian Church making your selves believe that so it was observed in the times before as you have taught us to observe it in these latter days I have made manifest to the world that there is no such matter to be found at all either in any writings of the Apostles or monument of true Antiquity or in the practice of the middle or the present Churches What said I of the present Churches So I said indeed and doubt not but it will appear so in this following Story The present Churches all of them both Greek and Latin together with the Protestants of what name soever being far different both in their Doctrine and their practice from these new conceptions And here I cannot chuse but note that whereas those who first did set on foot these Doctrines in all their other practices to subvert this Church did bear themselves continually on the Authority of Calvin and the example of those Churches which came most near unto the Plat-form of Geneva In these their Sabbath-speculations they had not only none to follow but they found Calvin and Geneva and those other Churches directly contrary unto them However in all other matters they cryed up Calvin and his Writings Hooker in his Preface making his Books the very Canon to which both Discipline and Doctrine was to be confirmed yet hic magister non tenetur here by his leave they would forsake him and leave him fairly to himself that they themselves might have the glory of a new invention For you my Brethren and beloved in our Lord and Saviour as I do willingly believe that you have entertain'd these Tenets upon mis-persuasion not out of any ill intentions to the Church your Mother and that it is an errour in your judgments only not of your affections So upon that belief have I spared no pains as much as in me is to remove that errour and rectifie what is amiss in your opinion I hope you are not of those men Quos non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris who either hate to be reformed or have so far espoused a quarrel that neither truth nor reason can divorce them from it Nor would I gladly you should be of their resolutions Qui volunt id verum esse quod credunt nolunt id credere quod verum est who are more apt to think all true which themselves believe than be persuaded to believe such things as are true indeed In confidence whereof as I was first induced to compose this History so in continuance of those hopes I have presumed to address it to you to tender it to your perusal and to submit it to your censure That if you are not better furnished you may learn from hence that you have trusted
more unto other men than you had just reason It is my chief ende avour as it is my prayer that possibly I may behold Jerusalem in prosperity all my life long Nor doubt I by the grace of God to reduce some of you at the least to such conformity with the practice of the Catholick Church that even your hands may also labour in the advancement and promotion of that full prosperity which I so desire This that I may the better do I shall present you as I said with the true story of the Sabbath and therein lay before your eyes both what the Doctrine was and what the practice of all former times and how it stands in both respects with all Gods Churches at this present First for the Sabbath I shall shew you that it was not instituted by the Lord in Paradise nor naturally imprinted in the soul of man nor ever kept by any of the Antient Fathers before Moses time And this not generally said and no more but so but proved particularly and successively in a continued descent of times and men Next that being given unto the Jews by Moses it was not so observed or reckoned of as any of the moral precepts but sometimes kept and sometimes not according as mens private businesses or the necessities of the state might give way unto it and finally was for ever abrogated with the other Ceremonies at the destruction of the Temple As for the Gentiles all this while it shall hereby appear that they took no more notice of it except a little at the latter end of the Jewish State than to deride both it and all them that kept it Then for the Lords day that it was not instituted by our Saviour Christ commanded by the Apostles or ordained first by any other Authority than the voluntary Consecration of it by the Church to religious uses and being Consecrated to those uses was not advanced to that esteem which it now enjoys but liesurely and by degrees partly by the Edicts of secular Princes partly by Canons of particular Councils and finally by the Decretals of several Popes and Orders of inferiour Prelates and being so advanced is subject still as many Protestant Doctors say to the Authority of the Church to be retained or changed as the Church thinks fit Finally that in all Ages heretofore and in all Churches at this present it neither was nor is esteemed of as a Sabbath day nor reckoned of so near a kin to the former Sabbath but that at all such leisure times as were not destinate by the Church to Gods publick service men might apply their minds and bestow their thoughts either about their businesses or upon their pleasures such as are lawful in themselves and not prohibited by those powers under which they lived Which shewed and manifestly proved unto you I doubt not but those Paper-walls which have been raised heretofore to defend these Doctrines how sair soever they may seem to the outward eye and whatsoever colours have been laid upon them will in the end appear unto you to be but Paper-walls indeed some beaten down by the report only of those many Canons which have successively been mounted in the Church of God either to fortifie the Lords day which it self did institute or cast down those Jewish fancies which some had laboured to restore Such passages as occurred concerning England I purposely have deferred till the two last Chapters that you may look upon the actions of our Ancestors with a clearer eye both those who lived at the first planting of Religion and those who had so great an hand in the reforming of the same And yet not look upon them only but by comparing your new Doctrines with those which were delivered in the former times your severe practice with the innocent liberty which they used amongst them You may the better see your errours and what strange Incense you have offered in the Church of God A way in which I have the rather made choice to walk that by the practice of the Church in general you may the better judge of those Texts of Scripture which seem to you to speak in the behalf of that new Divinity which you have preached unto the People and by the practice of this Church particularly it may with greater ease be shewed you that you did never suck these Doctrines from your Mothers Breasts It is an observation and a rule in Law that custom is the best interpreter of a doubtful statute and we are lesson'd thereupon to cast our eyes in all such questionable matters unto the practice of the state in the self-same case Si de interpretatione legis quaeritur imprimis inspiciendnm est quo jure civitas retro in hujusmodi casibus usa fuit Consuetudo enim optima interpretatio legis est De legib longa consuet If you submit unto this rule and stand unto the Plea which you oft have made I verily persuade my self that you will quickly find your errour and that withal you will discover how to abet a new and dangerous Doctrine you have deserted the whole practice of the Christian Church which for the space of 1600 years hath been embraced and followed by all godly men These are the hopes which we project unto our selves The cause of this our undertaking was your Information and the chief end we aim at is your Reformation Your selves my Brethren and your good if I may procure it are the occasion and the recompence of these poor endeavours Pretiumque causa laboris in the Poets language Nor would I you should think it any blemish to your reputation should you desert a cause which with so vehement affections you have first mainteined or that the world would censure you of too deep a folly should you retract what you have either taught or written in the times before Rather the world and all good men shall praise both your integrity and ingenuity in that you think it no disparagement to yield the better unto truth whensoever you find it Being men conceive it not impossible but that you may be in an errour and having erred think it your greatest Victory that you are conquered by the truth which being mighty will prevail and either here or elsewhere enforce all of us to confess the great powers thereof S. Austin and the Cardinal two as great Clerks as almost any in their times have herein shewed the way unto you one in his Retractations the other in his Recognitions nor did it ever turn unto their disgrace Therefore abandoning all such fond conceits as enemies unto the truth which I trust you seek and above all things wish to find let me beseech you to possess your souls with desire of knowledge and that you would not shut your eyes against the tendry of those truths which either here or elsewhere are presented to you for your information Which that you may the better do I do adjure you in the name and for the
of the affairs of the Christian Church cannot but be displeasing unto them which are not Christianly affected Our former Book we destinated to the Jewish part of this enquiry wherein though long it was before we found it yet at the last we found a Sabbath A Sabbath which began with that state and Church and ended also when they were no longer to be called a Nation but a dispersed and scattered ruin of what once they were In that which followeth our Enquiry must be more diffused of the same latitude with the Church a Church not limited and confined to some Tribes and Kindreds but generally spreading over all the World We may affirm it of the Gospel what Florus sometimes said of the state of Rome Ita late per orbem terrarum arma circumtulit ut qui res ejus legunt non unius populi sed generis humani facta discunt The history of the Church and of the World are of like extent So that the search herein as unto me it was more painful in the doing so unto thee will it be more pleasing being done because of that variety which it will afford thee And this Part we have called the History of the Sabbath too although the institution of the Lords Day and entertainment of the same in all times and Ages since that institution be the chief thing whereof it treateth For being it is said by some that the Lords Day succeeded by the Lords appointment into the place and rights of the Jewish Sabbath so to be called and so to be observed as the Sabbath was this Book was wholly to be spent in the search thereof whether in all or any Ages of the Church either such doctrine had been preached or such practice pressed upon the Conscience of Gods people And search indeed we did with all care and diligence to see if we could find a Sabbath in any evidence of Scripture or writings of the holy Fathers or Edicts of Emperours or Decrees of Councils or finally in any of the publick Acts and Monuments of the Christian Church But after several searches made upon the alias and the pluries we still return Non est inventus and thereupon resolve in the Poets language Et quod non invenis usquam esse putes nosquam that which is no where to be found may very strongly be concluded not to be at all Buxdorfius in the 11th Chapter of his Synagoga Judaica out of Antonius Margarita tells us of the Jews quod die sabbatino praeter animam consuetam praediti sunt alia that on the Sabbath day they have an extraordinary soul infused into them which doth enlarge their hearts and rouze up their spirits Ut Sabbatum multo honorabilius peragere possint that they may celebrate the Sabbath with the greater bonour And though this sabbatarie soul may by a Pythagorical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seem to have transmigrated from the Jews into the Bodies of some Christians in these later days yet I am apt to give my self good hopes that by presenting to their view the constant practice of Gods Church in all times before and the consent of all Gods Churches at this present they may be dispossessed thereof without great difficulty It is but anima superflua is Buxdorfius calls it and may be better spared than kept because superfluous However I shall easily persuade my self that by this general representation of the estate and practice of the Church of Christ I may confirm the wavering in a right persuasion and assure such as are already well affected by shewing them the perfect harmony and agreement which is between this Church and the purest times It is our constant prayer to Almighty God as well that he would strengthen such as do stand and confirm the weak as to raise up those men which are fallen into sin and errour As are our prayers such should be also our endeavours as universal to all sorts of men as charitable to them in their several cases and distresses Happy those men who do aright discharge their Duties both in their prayers and their performance The blessing of our labours we must leave to him who is all in all without whom all Pauls planting and Apollo's watering will yield poor encrease In which of these three states soever thou art good Christian Reader let me beseech thee kindly to accept his pains which for thy sake were undertaken that so he might in some poor measure be an instrument to strengthen or confirm or raise thee as thy case requires This is the most that I desire and less than this thou couldst not do did I not desire it And so fare thee well THE HISTORY OF THE SABBATH The Second Book CHAP. I. That there is nothing found in Scripture touching the keeping of the Lords Day 1. The Sabbath not intended for a perpetual Ordinance 2. Preparatives unto the dissolution of the Sabbath by our Saviour Christ 3. The Lords day not enjoyned in the place thereof either by Christ or his Apostles but instituted by the Authority of the Church 4. Our Saviours Resurrection on the first day of the week and apparitions on the same make it not a Sabbath 5. The coming down of the Holy Ghost upon the first day of the week makes it not a Sabbath 6. The first day of the week not made a Sabbath more than others by Saint Peter Saint Paul or any other of the Apostles 7. Saint Paul frequents the Synagogue on the Jewish Sabbath and upon what reasons 8. What was concluded against the Sabbath in the Council holden in Hierusalem 9. The preaching of Saint Paul at Troas upon the first day of the week no argument that then that day was set apart by the Apostles for religious exercises 10. Collections on the first day of the week 1 Cor. 16. conclude as little for that purpose 11. Those places of Saint Paul Galat. 4.10 Colos 2.16 do prove invincibly that there is no Sabbath to be looked for 12. The first day of the week not called the Lords day until the end of this first Age and what that title adds unto it WE shewed you in the former Book what did occur about the Sabbath from the Creation of the World to the destruction of the Temple which comprehended the full time of 4000 years and upwards in the opinion of the most and best Chronologers Now for five parts of eight of the time computed from the Creation to the Law being in all 2540 years and somewhat more there was no Sabbath known at all And for the fifteen hundred being the remainder it was not so observed by the Jews themselves as if it had been any part of the Law of Nature but sometimes kept and sometimes broken either according as mens private businesses or the affairs of the republick would give way unto it Never such conscience made thereof as of Adultery Murder Blasphemy or Idolatry no not when as the Scribes and Pharisees had most made it
vel sabbatum esset vel dies Dominicus as the Father hath it and choose you which you will we shall find little in it for a Christian Sabbath In case it was on the Sabbath then Peter did not keep the Lords day holy as he should have done in case that day was then selected for Gods worship for the Text tells us that the next day he did begin his journey to Cornelius house Acts 10.24 In case it was upon the Lords day as we call it now then neither did Saint Peter sanctifie that day in the Congregation as he ought to do had that day then been made the Sabbath and his conversion of Cornelius being three days after must of necessity be done on the Wednesday following So that we find no Lords day Sabbath either of S. Peters keeping or of S. Philips or else the preaching of the Word and the administring the Sacraments were not affixed at all unto the first day of the week as the peculiar marks and characers thereof So for Saint Paul the Doctor of the Gentiles who laboured more abundantly than the other Apostles besides what shall be said particularly in the following section it may appear in general that he observed no Lords-day-sabbath but taught on all days travelled on all days and wrought according to his Trade upon all days too when he had no employment in the Congregation That he did teach on all days is not to be questioned by any that considers how great a work he had to do and how little time That he did travel upon all days is no less notorious to all that look upon his life which was still in motion And howsoever he might rest sometimes on the Lords day as questionless he did on others as often as upon that day he Preached the Gospel yet when he was a Prisoner in the hands of the Roman Souldiers there is no doubt but that he travelled as they did Lords days and Sabbaths In Dominieam 17. post Trinit all days equally many days together Of this see what Saint Luke hath written in the last Chapters of the Acts. Lastly for working at his Trade which was Tent-making on the Lords day as well as others Conradus Dietericus proves â—t out of Hierom that when he had none unto whom to preach in the Congregation he followed on the Lords day the works of his Occupation Hieronymus colligit ex Act. 18. vers 3. 4. quod die etiam Dominica quando quibus in publico conventu concionaretur non habebat manibus suis laboravit So Dietericus speaking of our Apostle Now what is proved of these Apostles and of S. Philip the Evangelist may be affirmed of all the rest whose lives and actions are not left upon record in holy Scripture Their Ministery being the same and their work as great no question but their liberty was correspondent and that they took all times to be alike in the advancing of the business which they went about and cherished all occasions presented to them on what day soever What further may be said hereof in reference to Saint John who lived longest of them and saw the Church established and her publick meetings in some order we shall see hereafter in his own place and time Mean while we may conclude for certain that in the planting of the Church he used all days equally kept none more holy than another and after when the Church was setled however he might keep this holy and honour it for the use which was made thereof yet he kept other days so used as holy but never any like a Sabbath Proceed we next unto Saint Paul in this particular of whom the Scripture tells us more than of all the rest and we shall find that he no sooner was converted but that forthwith he Preached in the Synagogues that Jesus was the Christ Acts 9.20 If in the Synagogues most likely that it was on the Jewish Sabbath the Synagogues being destinate especially to the Sabbath days So after he was called to the publick Ministery he came to Antiochia Acts 13.14 and went into the Synagogue on the Sabbath day and there Preached the Word What was the issue of his Sermon That the Text informs us And when the Jews were gone out of the Synagogue the Gentiles besought that these words might be Preached again the next Sabbath Verse 42 Saint Paul assented thereunto and the next Sabbath day as the Text tells us Verse 44 came almost the whole City together to hear the Word of God It seems the Lords day was not grown as yet into any credit especially not into the repute of the Jewish Sabbath for if it had Saint Paul might easily have told these Gentiles that is such Gentiles as had been converted to the Jewish Church that the next day would be a more convenient time and indeed opus diei in die suo the doctrine of the Resurrection on the day thereof This hapned in the forty sixth year of Christs Nativity some twelve years after his Passion and Resurrection and often after this did the Apostle shew himself in the Jewish Synagogues on the Sabbath days which I shall speak of here together that so we may go on unto the rest of this Discourse with less interruption And first it was upon the Sabbath that he did preach to the Philippians and baptized Lydia with her houshold Acts 16. Amongst the Thessalonians he reasoned three sabbath days together out of the Scriptures Acts 17. At Corinth every sabbath day with the Jews and Greeks Acts 18. besides those many Texts of Scripture when it is said of him that he went into the Synagogues and therefore probably that it was upon the Sabbath as before we said Not that Saint Paul was so affected to the Sabbath as to prefer that day before any other but that he found the people at those times assembled and so might preach the Word with the greater profit Saint Chrysostom for the Ancients have resolved it so In Acts 13.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father hath it So Calvin for the modern Writers makes this the special cause of St. Pauls resort unto the places of Assembly on the Sabbath day quod profecium aliquem sperabat In Acts 16.13 because in such concourse of people he hoped the Word of God would find the better entertainment Any thing rather to be thought than that S. Paul who had withstood so stoutly those false Apostles who would have Circumcision and the Law observed when there was nothing publickly determined of it would after the decision of so great a Council wherein the Law of Moses was for ever abrogated eieither himself observe the Sabbath for the sabbaths sake or by his own example teach the Gentiles how to Judaize which he so blamed in St. Peter The sabbath with the legal Ceremonies did receive their doom as they related to the Gentiles in that great Council holden in Hierusalem which though it was not
done afterwards in pursuit hereof consisted specially in beating down the opposition of the common people who were not easily induced to lay by their business next in a descant as it were on the former plain-song the adding of particular restrictions as occasion was which were before conteined though not plainly specified both in the Edicts of the former Emperours and Constitutions of the Churches before remembred Yet all this while we find not any one who did observe it as Sabbath or which taught others so to do not any who affirmed that any manner of work was unlawful on it further than as it was prohibited by the Prince or Prelate that so the people might assemble with their greater comfort not any one who preached or published that any pastime sport or recreation of an honest name such as were lawful on the other days were not fit for this And thereupon we may resolve as well of lawful business as of lawful pleasures that such as have not been forbidden by supream Authority whether in Proclamà tions of the Prince or Constitutions of the Church or Acts of Parliament or any such like Declaration of those higher Powers to which the Lord hath made us subject are to be counted lawful still It matters not in case we find it not recorded in particular terms that we may lawfully apply our selves to some kind of business or recreate our selves in every kind of honest pleasure at those particular hours and times which are left at large and have not been designed to Gods publick service All that we are to look for is to see how far we are restrained from labour or from recreations on the Holy days and what Authority it is that hath so restrained us that we may come to know our duty and conform unto it The Canons of particular Churches have no power to do it further than they have been admitted into the Church wherein we live for then being made a part of her Canon also they have power to bind us to observance As little power there is to be allowed unto the Declarations and Edicts of particular Princes but in their own dominions only Kings are Gods Deputies on the Earth but in those places only where the Lord hath set them their power no greater than their Empire and though they may command in their own Estates yet is it extra sphaeram activitatis to prescribe Laws to Nations not subject to them A King of France can make no Law to bind us in England Much less must we ascribe unto the dictates and directions of particular men which being themselves subject unto publick Order are to be hearkned to no further than by their life and doctrine they do preach obedience unto the publick Ordinances under which they live For were it otherwise every private man of name and credit would play the Tyrant with the liberty of his Christian Brethren and nothing should be lawful but what he allowed of especially if the pretence be fair and specious such as the keeping of a Sabbath to the Lord our God the holding of an holy convocation to the King of Heaven Example we had of it lately in the Gothes of Spain and that strange bondage into which some pragmatick and popular man had brought the French had not the Council held at Orleans gave a check unto it And with examples of this kind must we begin the story of the following Ages CHAP. V. That in the next six hundred years from Pope Gregory forwards the Lords day was not reckoned of as of a Sabbath 1. Pope Gregories care to set the Lords day free from Jewish rigours at that time obtruded on the Church 2. Strange fancies taken up by some about the Lords day in these darker Ages 3. Scriptures and Miracles in these times found out to justifie the keeping of the Lords day holy 4. That in the judgment of the most learned in these six Ages the Lords day hath no other ground than the Authority of the Church 5. With how much difficulty the people of these times were barred from following their Husbandry and Law-days on the Lords day 6. Husbandry not restrained on the Lords day in the Eastern parts until the time of Leo Philosophus 7. Markets and Handierafts restrained with no less opposition than the Plough and Pleading 8. Several casus reservati in the Laws themselves wherein men were permitted to attend those businesses on the Lords day which the laws restrained 9. Of divers great and publick actions done in these Ages on the Lords day 10. Dancing and other sports no otherwise prohibited on the Lords day than as they were an hindrance to Gods publick Service 11. The other Holy days as much esteemed of and observed as the Lords day was 12. The publick hallowing of the Lords day and the other Holy days in these present Ages 13. No Sabbath all these Ages heard of either on Saturday or Sunday and how it stood with Saturday in the Eastern Churches WE are now come to the declining Ages of the Church after the first 600 years were fully ended and in the entrance on the seventh some men had gone about to possess the people of Rome with two dangerous fancies one that it was not lawful to do any manner of work upon the Saturday or the old Sabbath ita ut die Sabbati aliquid operari prohiberent the other ut dominicorum die nullus debeat larari that no man ought to bathe himself on the Lords day or their new Sabbath With such a race of Christned Jews or Judaizing Christians was the Church then troubled Against these dangerous Doctrines did Pope Gregory write his Letter to the Roman Citizens stiling the first no other than the Preachers of Antichrist Epl. 3. l. 11. one of whose properties it shall be that he will have the Sabbath and the Lords day both so kept as that no manner of work shall be done on either qui veniens diem Sabbatum atque dominicum ab omni faciet opere custodire as the Father hath it Where note that to compell or teach the people that they must do no manner of work on the Lords day is a mark of Antichrist And why should Antichrist keep both days in so strict a manner Because saith he he will persuade the people that he shall die and rise again therefore he means to have the Lords day in especial honour and he will keep the Sabbath too that so he may the better allure the Jews to adhere unto him Against the other he thus reasoneth Et si quidem pro luxuria voluptate quis lavari appetit hoc fieri nec reliquo quolibet die concedimus c. If any man desires to bathe himself only out of a luxurious and voluptuous purpose observe this well this we conceive not to be lawful upon any day but if he do it only for the necessary refreshing of his body then neither is it fit it should be forbidden upon the
the offering of the Paschal Lamb his Death and Passion Sic Sabbatismus ille requiem annunciabat quae post hanc vitam posita â—â—t fanctis â—lectis so did the Sabbath signifie that eternal rest which after this life is provided for the Saints and elect of God And more than this Spiritualis homo non uno die hebdomadis sed omni tempore Sabbatizare satagit the true spiritual man keeps not his Subbath once a week but at all times whatever every hour and minute What then would he have no day set apart for Gods publick service no but not the Sabbath Because saith he we are not to rejoyce in this world that perisheth but in the sure and certain hope of the Resurrection therefore we ought not rest the seventh day in sloth and idleness But we dispose our selves to prayers and hearing of the Word of God upon the first day of the week on the which Christ rose cum summa cura providentes ut tam illo quam caeteris diebus feriati semper simus à servili opere peccati Provided always that upon that and all days else we keep our selves free from the servile Acts of sin This was the Sabbath which they principally looked for in this present life never applying of that name to the Lords day in any of those monuments of Learning they have left behind them The first who ever used it to denote the Lords day the first that I have met with in all this search is one Petrus Alfonsus he lived about the times that Rupertus did who calls the Lords day by the name of the Christian Sabbath Dies domnica dies viz. resurrectionis quae suae salvationis causa extitit Christianorum sabbatum est But this no otherwise to be construed than by Analogy and resemblance no otherwise than the Feast of Easter is called the Christian Passeover As for the Saturday the old Sabbath day though it continued not a Sabbath yet it was still held in an high esteem in the Eastern Churches counted a festival day or at least no fast and honoured with the meetings of the Congregation In reference to the first we find how it was charged on the Church of Rome by the sixth Council in Constantinople Anno 692. that in the holy time of Lent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they used to fast the Saturday which was directly contrary to the Canons of the Apostles as they there alledge This also was objected by Photius Patriarch of Constantinople against Pope Nicolas of Rome Anno 867. and after that by Michael of Constantinople against Leo the ninth Anno 1053. which plainly shews that in the Eastern Churches they observed it otherwise And in relation to the other Curopalat we find that whereas in the principal Church of Constantinople the holy Sacrament was celebrated only on the greater feasts as also on the Saturdays and the Sundays Sabbatis dominicis and not on other days as at Rome it was Constantine surnamed Mononiachus Anno 1054 enriched it with revenue and bestowed much fair plate upon it that so they might be able every day to perform that office Which proves sufficiently that Saturday was always one in all publick duties and that it kept even pace with Sunday But it was otherwise of old in the Church of Rome where they did laborare jejunare as Humbertus saith in his defence of Leo the ninth against Nicetas And this with little opposition or interruption save that which had been made in the City of Rome in the beginning of the seventh Century and was soon crushed by Gregory then Bishop there as before we noted And howsoever Vrban of that name the second Hect. Boet. hist l. 22. did consecrate it to the weekly service of the blessEd Virgin and instituted in the Council held at Clermont Anno 1095. that our Ladies office Officium B. Mariae should be said upon it Eandemque Sabbato quoque die praecipua devotione populum Christianum colere debere and that upon that day all Christian folk should worship her with their best devotions yet it continued still as before it was a day of fasting and of working So that in all this time in 1200 years we have found no Sabbath nor do we think to meet with any in the times that follow either amongst the Schoolmen or amongst the Protestants which next shall come upon the Stage CHAP. VI. What is the judgment of the Schoolmen and of the Protestants and what the practice of those Churches in this Lords day business 1. That in the judgment of the Schoolmen the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment 2. As also that the Lords day is not founded on Divine Authority but the Authority of the Church 3. A Catalogue of the Holy-days drawn up in the Council of Lyons and the new Doctrine of the Schools touching the native sanctity of the Holy-days 4. In what estate the Lords day stood in matter of restraint from labour at the reformation 5. The Reformators find great fault both with the said new doctrine and restraints from labour 6. That in the judgment of the Protestant Divines the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment 7. As that the Lords day hath no other ground on which to stand than the Authority of the Church 8. And that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other 9. What is the practice of all Churches the Roman Lutheran and Calvinian chiefly in matter of Devotion rest from labour and sufferance of lawful pleasures 10. Dancing cried down by Calvin and the French Churches not in relation to the Lords day but the sport it self 11. In what estate the Lords day stands in the Eastern Churches and that the Saturday is no less esteemed of by the Ethiopians than the said Lords day WE are now come unto an Age wherein the Learning of the world began to make a different shew from what it did to such a period of time in which was made the greatest alteration in the whole fabrick of the Church that ever any time could speak of The Schoolmen who sprung up in the beginning of the thirteenth Age contracted Learning which before was diffused and scattered into fine subtilties and distinctions the Protestants in the beginning of the sixteenth endeavouring to destroy those buildings which with such diligence and curiosity had been erected by the Schoolmen though they consented well enough in the present business so far as it concern'd the Institution either of the Lords day or the Sabbath Of these and what they taught and did in reference to the point in hand we are now to speak taking along with us such passages of especial note as hapned in the Christian world by which we may learn any thing that concerns our business And first beginning with the Schoolmen they tell us generally of the Sabbath that
in the Christian Church laying this ground that ours succeeded in the place of theirs Sabbatum mutatur in diem dominicum similiter aliis solennitatibus veteris legis novae solennitates succedunt 1. 2 ae qu. 103. Art 3. ad 4. as his words there are Upon which ground of his the Doctrines now remembred were no question raised and howsoever other men might think all days alike in themselves considered yet those of Rome will have some holier than the rest even by a natural and inherent holiness And in this state things stood both for the doctrine and the practice until such time as men began to look into the errours and abuses in the Church of Rome with a more serious eye than before they did the Canonists being no less nice in the point of practice than were the Schoolmen and the rest exorbitant in the point of Doctrine Whose Niceties especially in matter of restraint we have most fully represented to us by Tostatus In Exod. 12. one that had run through all the parts of Learning at that time on foot and was as well studied in the Canon as in the Schools He then determineth of it thus Itinerando pro negotiis peccatum esse mortale c. Qu. 25. He that doth travel on the Holy days for in that general Name the Lords day and the other Festivals are comprehended about worldly business commits mortal sin as also if he Trade or Traffick in the place wherein he liveth But this hath two exceptions or reservations First if the business by him done be but small and light quae quietem Sabbati non impediunt such as are no great hinderance to the Sabbaths rest and secondly nisi hoc sit in causa pia unless it were on some devout and pious purpose To read unto or teach a man to deal in actions of the Law or determine Suits Qu. 26. or to cast Accounts si quis doceret ut lucretur if it be done for hire or for present gain become servile works and are forbidden Otherwise if one do it gratis Qu. 27. If a Musitian wait upon a Gentleman to recreate his mind with Musick and that they are agreed on a certain wages or that he be hired only for a present turn he sins in case he play or sing unto him on the Holy days but not if his reward be doubtful Qu. 28. and depends only upon the bounty of the parties who enjoy his Musick A Cook that on the Holy days is hired to make a Feast or to dress a Dinner doth commit mortal sin sed non pro toto mense aut anno but not if he be hired by the month or by the year Meat may be dressed upon the Lords day or the other Holy days Qu. 29. but to wash Dishes on those days was esteemed unlawful differri in diem alteram Qu. 32. and was to be deferred till another day Lawyers that do their Clients business for their wonted see were not to draw their Bills or frame their Answers or peruse their Evidences on the Holy days Secus si causam agerent pro miserabilibus personis c. but it was otherwise if they dealt for poor indigent people such as did sue in forma pauperis as we call it or in the causes of a Church or Hospital in which the Popes had pleased to grant a Dispensation A man that travelled on the Holy days Qu. 34. to any special shrine or Saint did commit no sin Si autem in redeundo peccatum est mortale but if he did the like in his coming back he then sinned mortally Qu. 35. In any place where formerly it had been the custom neither to draw Water nor to sweep the House but to have those things ready on the day before the custom was to be observed where no such custom is there they may be done Actions of a long continuance if they were delightful or if one played three or four hours together on a Musical Instrument were not unlawful on the Holy days yet possibly they might be sinful at si quis hoc ageret ex lascivia as if one played only out of wantonness Qu. 36. or otherwise were so intent upon his Musick that he went not to Mass Artificers which work on the Holy days for their own profit only are in mortal sin unless the work be very small quia modicum non facit solennitatem dissolvi because a little thing dishonours not the Festival De minimis non curat lex as our saying is Contrary Butchers Vintners Bakers Coster-mongers sinned not in selling their Commodities because more profit doth redound to the Common wealth which cannot be without such commodities than to them that sell yet this extended not to Drapers Shoomakers or the like because there is not such a present necessity for cloaths as meat Yet where the custom was that Butchers did not sell on the Holy days but specially not upon the Lords day that commendable custom was to be observed though in those places also it was permitted to the Butcher that on those days at some convenient times thereof he might make ready what was to be sold on the morrow after as kill and skin his Bestial which were fit for sale in case he could not do it with so much convenience non ita congrue at another time Qu. 37. To write out or transcribe a Book though for a mans own private use was esteemed unlawful except it were exceeding small because this put no difference between the Holy days and the other yet was it not unlawful neither in case the Argument were Spiritual nor for a Preacher to write out his Sermons or for a Student to provide his Lecture for the day following Windmils were suffered to be used on the Holy days Qu. 38. not Watermills because the first required less labour and attendance than the other did This is the reason in Tostatus though I can see no reason in it the passage of the Water being once let run being of more certainty and continuance than the changeable blowing of the Wind. But to proceed Qu. 39. Ferry-men were not to transport such men in their Boats or Wherries as did begin their Journey on an Holy day unless they went to Mass or on such occasions but such as had begun their Journey and now were in pursuit thereof might be ferried over quia forte carebunt victu because they may perhaps want Victuals if they do not pass Qu. 41. To repair Churches on the Lords day and the other Holy-days was accounted lawful in case the Workmen did it gratis and that the Church were poor not able to hire Workmen on the other days not if the Church were rich and in case to do it Qu. 42. So also to build Bridges repair the walls of Towns and Castles or other publick Edifices on those days was not held unlawfu si instent hostes in case the
Enemy be at hand though otherwise not to be done where no danger was These are the special points observed and published by Tostatus And these I have the rather exactly noted partly that we may see in what estate the Lords day and the other Holy days were in the Church of Rome what time the reformation of Religion was first set on foot but principally to let others see how near they come in their new fancies and devices unto the Niceties of those men whom they most abhor Thus stood it as before I said both for the Doctrine and the Practice till men began to look into the Errours and abuses in the Roman Church with a more serious eye than before they did and at first sight they found what little pleased them in this particular Their Doctrine pleased them not in making one day holier than another not only in relation to the use made of them but to a natural and inherent holiness wherewith they thought they were invested Nor did their practice please much more in that they had imposed so many burdens of restraint upon the consciences of Gods people and thereby made that day a punishment which was intended for the ease of the labouring man Against the doctrine of these men and the whole practice of that Church Calvin declares himself in his book of Institutions And therewith taxeth those of Rome L. 2. cap. 8. p. 34. qui Judaica opinione populum superioribus seculis imbuerunt who in the times before possessed the peoples minds with so much Judaism that they had changed the day indeed as in dishonour of the Jew but otherwise retained the former sanctity thereof which needs must be saith he if there remain with us as the Papists taught the same opinion of the mysteries and various significations of days and times which the Jews once had And certainly saith he we see what dangerous effects have followed on so false a Doctrine those which adhere to their instructions having exceedingly out gone the Jews crassa carnalique Sabbatismi superstitione in their gross and carnal superstitions about the Sabbath In Apocal. 1. v. 10. Beza his Scholar and Achates sings the self-same Song that howsoever the Assemblies of the Lords day were of Apostolical and divine Tradition sic tamen ut Judaica cessatio ab omni opere non observaretur quoniam hoc plane fuisset Judaismum non abolere sed tantum quod ad diem attinet immutare yet so that there was no cessation from work required as was observed among the Jews For that saith he had not so much abolished Judaism as put it off and changed it to another day And then he adds that this cessation was first brought in by Constantine and afterwards confirmed with more and more restraints by the following Emperours by means of which it came to pass that that which first was done for a good intent viz. that men being free from their worldly businesses might wholly give themselves to hearing of the Word of God in merum Judaismum degenerarit degnerated at the last into down-right Judaism So for the Lutheran Churches Chemnitius challengeth the Romanists of superstition quasi dominicae diei reliquis diebus festis per se peculiaris quaedam insit sanctitas because they taught the people that the Holy days considered only in themselves had a Native Sanctity And howsoever for his part he think it requisite that men should be restrained from all such works as may be any hinderance unto the sanctifying of the day yet he accounts it but a part of the Jewish leaven nimis scrupulose diebus festis prohibere operas externas quie vel quando non impediunt publicum ministerium so scrupulously to prohibit such external Actions which are at all no hindrance to Gods publick service and mans Sabbath Duties Bueer goes further yet and doth not only call it a superstition In Mat. 12. but an Apostacy from Christ to think that working on the Lords day in it self considered is a sinful thing Si existimetur operari in eo die per se esse peccatum superstitio gratiae Christi qui ab elementis mundi nos suo sanguine liberavit negatio est as his own words are Then adds that he did very well approve of the Lords day meetings si eximatur è cordibus hominum opinio necessitatis if men were once dispossessed of these opinions that the day was necessary to be kept that it was holier in it self than the other days and that to work upon that day in it self was sinful Lastly the Churches of the Switzers profess in their Confession that in the keeping of the Lords day they give not the least hint to any Jewish superstitions Neque enim alteram diem altera sanctiorem esse credimus nec otium Deo per se probari existimamus For neither Cap. 24. as they said do we conceive one day to be more holy than another or think that rest from labour in it self considered is any way pleasing unto God By which we plainly may perceive what is the judgment of the Protestant Churches in the present point Indeed It is not to be thought that they could otherwise resolve and determine of it considering what their Doctrine is of the day it self how different they make it from a Sabbath day which Doctrine that we may perceive with the greater ease we will consider it in three Propositions in which most agree 1. That the keeping holy one day of seven is not the Moral part of the fourth Commandment or to be reckoned as a part of the law of Nature 2. That the Lords day is not founded on Divine Commandment but only on the authority of the Church and 3. That the Church hath still authority to change the day and to transfer it to some other First for the first it seems that some of Rome considering the restraints before remembred and the new Doctrine thence arising about the Natural and inherent holiness which one day had above another had altered what was formerly delivered amongst the Schoolmen and made the keeping of one day in seven to be the Moral part of the fourth Commandment This Calvin chargeth them withal that they had taught the people in the former times Instit l. 1. Cap. 8.11 34. that whatsover was ceremonial in the fourth Commandment which was the keeping of the Jews seventh day had been long since abrogated remanere vero quod morale est nempe unius diei observationem in hebdomade but that the moral part thereof which was the keeping of one day in seven did continue still With what else is it as before was said than in dishonour of the Jews to change the day and to affix as great a sanctity thereunto as the Jews ever did And for his own part he professeth that howsoever he approved of the Lords day meetings Non tamen numerum septennarium ita se morari ut ejus servituti Ecclesias
concern Gods service and that the Apostles made it manifest by their Example Singulis diebus vel quocunque die That every day or any day Catech. qu. 103. §. 2. may by the Church be set apart for religious Exercises And as for Vrsine he makes this difference between the Lords day and the Sabbath that it was utterly unlawful to the Jews either to neglect or change the Sabbath without express Commandment from God himself as being a ceremonial part of divine Worship but for the Christian Church that may design the first or second or any other day to Gods publick service Ecclesia vero Christiana primum vel alium diem tribuit ministerio salva sua libertate sine opinione cultus vel necessitatis as his words there are To these add Dietericus a Lutheran Divine Dom. 17. post Trinit who though he makes the keeping of one day in seven to be the moral part of the fourth Commandment yet for that day it may be dies Sabbati or dies Solis or quicunque alius Sunday or Saturday or any other be it one in seven And so Hospinian is persuaded Dominicum diem mutare in alium transserre licet That is the occasions of the Church do so require the Lords day may be changed unto any other provided it be one of seven and that the change be so transacted that it produce no scandal or confusion in the Church of God Nay by the doctrine of the Helvetian Churches if I conceive their meaning rightly every particular Church may destinate what day they please to religious meetings and every day may be a Lords day Cap. 2. or a Sabbath For so they give it up in their Confession Deligit ergo quaevis Ecclesiae sibi certum tempus ad preces publicas Evangelii praedicationem necnon sacramentorum celebrationem though for their parts they kept that day which had been set apart for those holy uses even from the time of the Apostles yet so that they conceived it free to keep the Lords day or the Sabbath Sed Dominicum non Sabbatum libera observatione celebramus Some Sectaries since the Reformation have gone further yet and would have had all days alike as unto their use all equally to be regarded and reckoned that the Lords day as the Church continued it was a Jewish Ordinance thwarting the Doctrine of Saint Paul who seemed to them to abrogate that difference of days which the Church retained This was the fancy or the frenzy rather of the Anabaptist taking the hint perhaps from something which had been formerly delivered by some wiser men and after them of the Swinck feildian and the Familist as in the times before of the Petro-Brusians and if Waldensis wrong him not of Wiclef also Such being the Doctrine of those Churches the Protestant and those of Rome it is not to be thought but that their practice is according Both make the Lords day only an Ecclesiastical constitution and therefore keep it so far forth as by the Canons of their Churches they are enjoyned These what they are at Rome and those of her obedience we have seen already and little hath been added since It hath not been of late a time to make new restraints rather to mitigate the old to lay down such which were most burdensom and grievous to be born withal And so it seems they do Azorius the Jesuit being more remiss in stating and determining the restraints imposed on the Lords day and the other Holy days than Tostatus was who lived in safer times by far than these now present nor is their Discipline so severe as their Canon neither So that the Lords day there for ought I could observe when I was amongst them is solemnized much after the same manner as with us in England repairing to the Church both at Mass and Vespers riding abroad to take the Air or otherwise to refresh themselvas and following their honest pleasures at such leisure times as are not destir ate to the publick meetings the people not being barred from travelling about their lawful business as occasion is so they reserve some time for their Devotions in the publick Which is indeed agreeable to the most antient and most laudable custom in the Church of God Now for the protestant Churches the Lutherans do not differ much from that which we have said before of the Church of Rome and therefore there is nothing to be said of them But for the rest which follow Galvin and think themselves the only Orthodox and Reformed Churches we will consider them in three several circumstances first in the exercise of Religious Duties secondly in restraint from labours and thirdly in permission of Recreations And first for the excrcise of religious Duties they use it in the Morning only the Afternoon being left at large for any and for every man to dispose thereof as to him seems fitting So is it in the Churches of high Germany those of the Palatinate and all the others of that mould For I have heard from Gentlemen of good repute that at the first reception of the Lady Elizabeth into that Countrey on Sunday after Dinner the Coaches and the Horses were brought forth and all the Princes Court betook themselves unto their pleasures sures Hunting or Hawking as the season of the year was fit for either Which tend the Princcss thither answer was made it was their custom so to do and that they had no Evening-service but ended all the Duties of the day with the Morningsermon Nor is this custom only and no more but so art 46. There is a Canon for it in some places it must be no otherwise For in the first Council of Dort Anno 1574. it was Decreed Publicae vespertinae preces non sunt introducendae ubi non sunt introduciae ubi sunt tollantur that in such Churches where publick Evening Prayer had not been admitted it should continue as it was and where they were admitted they should be put down So Doctor Smith relates the Canon if so irregular a Decree may deserve that name in his collat doctr Cathol Protest cap. 68. Art 1. And so it stood till the last synod of Dort Anno 1618. what time to raise the reputation of the Palatine Catechisin Sess 14. being not long after to be admitted into their Canon it was concluded that Catechism-lectures should be read each Sunday in the afternoon nor to be laid aside propter auditorum infrequentiam for want of Auditors Now to allure the people thither being before staved off by a former Synod it was provided that their Ministers should read howsoever Coram paucis auditoribus immo vel coram suis famulis tantu Though few were present or none but their domestick servants in hope by little and little to attract the people And secondly it was resolved on to implore the civil Magistrate Vt opera omnia servilia seu quotidiana c. quibus tempus
themselves to prayer and Gods publick service Particularly Fitz-Herbert tells us that no plea shall be holden Quindena Paschae Nat. Brevium fol. 17. 1 Eli◠p. 168. because it is always on the sunday but it shall be holden crastino quindenae paschae on the morrow after So Justice Dyer hath resolved that if a Writ of scire facias out of the Common-pleas bear Test on a Sunday it is an errour because that day is not dies juridicus in Banco And so it is agreed amongst them that on a Fine levied with Proclamations according to the Statute of King Henry VII if any of the Proclamations be made on the Lords day all of them are to be accounted erroneous Acts. But to return unto the Canon where before we left however that Archbishop Langton formerly and Islip at the present time had made these several restraints from all servile labours yet they were far enough from entertaining any Jewish fancy The Canon last remembred that of Simon Islip doth express as much But more particularly and punctually we may find what was the judgment of these times in a full declaration of the same in a Synod at Lambeth what time John Peckham was Archbishop which was in Anno 1280. Lindw l. 1. tit de offic Archipresb It was thus determined Sciendum est quod obligatio ad feriandum in Sabbato legali expiravit omnino c. It is to be understood that all manner of obligation of resting on the legal Sabbath as was required in the Old Testament is utterly expired with the other ceremonies And it is now sufficient in the New Testament to attend Gods service upon the Lords days and the other Holy days ad hoc Ecclesiastica authoritate deputatis appointed by the Church to that end and purpose The manner of sanctifying all which days non est sumendus à superstitione Judaica sed à Canonicis institutis is not to be derived from any Jewish superstition but from the Canons of the Church This was exact and plain enough and this was constantly the doctrine of the Church of England Joannes de Burgo who lived about the end of K. Henry VI. doth almost word for word resolve it so in his Pupilla oculi part 10. c. 11. D. Yet find we not in these restraints that Marketting had been forbidden either on the Lords day or the other Holy days and indeed it was not that came in afterwards by degrees partly by Statutes of the Realm partly by Canons of the Church not till all Nations else had long laid them down For in the 28 of King Edward III. cap 14. it was accorded and established that shewing of Wools shall be made at the Stapie every day of the week except the Sunday and the solemn Feasts in the year This was the first restraint in this kind with us here in England and this gives no more priviledge to the Lords day than the solemn Festivals Antiq. Brit. in Stafford Nor was there more done in it for almost an hundred years not till the time of Henry VI. Anno 1444. what time Archbishop Stafford decreed throughout his Province ut nundina emporia in Ecclesiis aut Coemiteriis diebusque Dominicis atque Festis praeterquam tempore messis non teneantur that Fairs and Markets should no more be kept in Churches and Church-yards or on the Lords days or the other Holy-days except in time of Harvest only If in that time they might be suffered then certainly in themselves they were not unlawful on any other further than as prohibited by the higher powers Now that which the Archbishop had decreed throughout his Province Tabians Chronicle Catworth Lord Mayor of London attempted to exceed within that City For in this year saith Fabian Anno 1444. an Act was made by Authority of the Common Council of London that upon the Sunday should no manner of thing within the franchise of the City be bought or sold neither Victual nor other thing nor no Artificer should bring his Ware unto any man to be worn or occupied that day as Taylers Garments and Cordwayners Shooes and so likewise all other occupations But then it followeth in the story the which Ordinance held but a while enough to shew by the success how ill it doth agree with a Lord Mayor to deal in things about the Sabbath Afterwards in the year 1451. which was the 28 of this Henries Reign it pleased the King in Parliament to ratifie what before was ordered by that Archbishop in this form that followeth 28. H. 6. c. 16. Considering the abominable injuries and effences done to Almigvty God and to his Saints always ayders and finguler affistants in our necessities by the necasion of Fairs and Marhets upon their high and principal Feasts as in the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord. in the day of Corpus Christi in the day of Whitsunday Trinity Sunday and other Sundays as also in the high Feast of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady the day of all Saints and on Good Friday accustomably and miserably holden and used in the Keaim of England c. our Soveraign Lord the King c. hath ordained that all manner of Fairs and Markets on the said principal Feasts and Sundays and Good Friday shall clearly cease from all shewing of any Goods and Merchandises necessary Victual only ercept which yet was more than was allowed in the City-Act upon pain of forfeiture of all the goods aforesaid to the Lord of the franchise or liverty where such goods be or shall be she wed contrary to this Ordinance the four Sundays in Harvest except Which clause or reservation sheweth plainly that the things before prohibited were not esteemed unlawful in themselves as also that this Law was made in confirmation of the former order of the Archbishop as before was said Now on this Law I find two resolutions made by my Lords the Judges First Justice Brian in the 12th of King Edward the fourth declared that no sale made upon a Sunday though in a Fair or Market-overt for Markets as it seemeth were not then quite laid down though by Law prohibited shall be a good sale to alter the property of the goods And Ploydon in the time of Queen Elizabeth was of opinion Daltons Justice cap. 27. that the Lord of any Fair or Market kept upon the Sunday contrary to the Statute may therefore be indicted for the King or Queen either at the Assizes or general Goal delivery or Quarter Sessions within that County If so in case such Lord may be Endicted for any Fair or Market kept upon the sunday as being contrary to the Statute then by the same reason may he be Endicted for any Fair or Market kept on any of the other Holy-days in that Statute mentioned Nor staid it here For in the 1465. which was the fourth year of King Edward IV. it pleased the King in Parliament to Enact as followeth Our Soveraign Lord the
that many an honest and well-meaning man both of the Clergy and the Laity either because of the appearance of the thing it self or out of some opinion of those men who first endeavoured to promote it became exceedingly affected towards the same as taking it to be a Doctrin sent down from Heaven for encrease of Piety So easily did they believe it and grew at last so strongly possessed therewith that in the end they would not willingly be persuaded to conceive otherwise thereof than at first they did or think they swallowed down the hook when they took the bait An hook indeed which had so fastned them to those men who love to fish in troubled waters that by this Artifice there was no small hope conceived amongst them to fortifie their side and make good that cause which till this trim Deceit was thought of was almost grown desperate Once I am sure that by this means the Brethren who before endeavoured to bring all Christian Kings and Princes under the yoke of their Presbyteries made little doubt to bring them under the command of their Sabbath Doctrines And though they failed of that applauded parity which they so much aimed at in the advancing of their Elderships yet hoped they without more ado to bring all higher Powers whatever into an equal rank with the common people in the observance of their Jewish Sabbatarian rigours So Doctor Bound declares himself pag. 171. The Magistrate saith he and Governours in authority how High soever cannot take any priviledg to himself whereby he might be occupied about worldly business when other men should rest from labour It seems they hoped to see the greatest Kings and Princes make suit unto their Consistory for a Dispensation as often as the great Affairs of State or what cause soever induced them otherwise to spend that Day or any part or parcel of it than by the new Sabbath Doctrine had been permitted For the endearing of the which as formerly to endear their Elderships they spared no place or Text of Scripture where the word Elder did occur and without going to the Heralds had framed a Pedigree thereof from Jethro from Noahs Ark and from Adam finally so did these men proceed in their new devices publishing out of holy Writ both the antiquity and authority of their Sabbath day No passage of Gods Book unransacked where there was mention of a Sabbath whether the legal Sabbath charged on the Jews or the spiritual Sabbath of the Soul from sin which was not fitted and applied to the present purpose though if examined as it ought with no better reason than Paveant illi non paveam ego was by an ignorant Priest alledged from Scripture to prove that his Parishioners ought to pave the Chancel Yet upon confidence of these proofs they did already begin to sing Victoria especially by reason of the enterteinment which the said Doctrines found with the common people For thus the Doctor boasts himself in his second Edition Anno 606. as before was said Many godly learned both in their Preachings Writings and Disputations did concur with him in that Argument and that the lives of many Christians in many places of the Kingdom were framed according to his Doctrine p. 61. Particularly in the Epistle to the Reader that within few years three several profitable Treatises successively were written by three godly learned Preachers Greenhams was one whoseever were the other two that in the mouth of two or three witnesses the Doctrine of the Sabbath might be established Egregiam verò laudem spolia ampla But whatsoever cause he had thus to boast himself in the success of his new Doctrines the Church I am sure had little cause to rejoyce thereat For what did follow hereupon but such monstrous Paradoxes and those delivered in the Pulpit as would make every good man tremble at the hearing of them First as my Author tells me it was preached at a Market Town in Oxfordshire that to do any servile work or business on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man or commit adultery Secondly preached in Somersetshire that to throw a Bowl on the Lords day was as great a sin as to kill a man Thirdly in Norfolk that to make a Feast or dress a Wedding Dinner on the Lords day was as great a sin as for a Father to take a knife and cut his childs throat Fourthly in Suffolk that to ring more Bells than one on the Lords day was as great a sin as to commit Murder I add what once I heard my self at Sergeants Inn in Fleetstreet about five years since that temporal death was at this day to be inflicted by the Law of God on the Sabbath-breaker on him that on the Lords day did the works of his daily calling with a grave application unto my Masters of the Law that if they did their ordinary works on the Sabbath day in taking Fees and giving Counsel they should consider what they did deserve by the Law of God And certainly these and the like conclusions cannot but follow most directly on the former Principles For that the fourth Commandment be plainly moral obliging us as straitly as it did the Jews and that the Lords day be to be observed according to the prescript of that Commandment it must needs be that every wilful breach thereof is of no lower nature than Idolatry or blaspheming of the Name of GOD or any other deadly sin against the first Table and therefore questionless as great as Murder or Adultery or any sin against the second But to go forwards where I left my Author whom before I spake of being present when the Suffolk Minister was convented for his so lewd and impious Doctrine was the occasion that those Sabbatarian errours and impieties were first brought to light and to the knowledg of the State On which discovery as he tells us this good ensued that the said books of the Sabbath were called in and forbidden to be printed and made common Archbishop Whitguift by his Letters and Visitations did the one Anno 1599. and Sir John Popham Lord Chief Justice did the other Anno 1600. at Bury in Suffolk Good remedies indeed had they been soon enough applyed yet not so good as those which formerly were applied to Thacker and his fellow in the aforesaid Town of Bury for publishing the books of Brown against the service of the Church Nor was this all the fruit of so bad a Doctrine For by inculcating to the people these new Sabbath speculations teaching that that day only was of Gods appointment and all the rest observed in the Church of England a remnant of the will-worship in the Church of Rome the other holy days in this Church established were so shrewdly shaken that till this day they are not well recovered of the blow then given Nor came this on the by or besides their purpose but as a thing that specially was intended from the first beginning from
which afterwards in the year 1625. he published to the World with his other Lectures Now in this Speech or Determination he did thus resolve it First that the Sabbath was not instituted in the first Creation of the World nor ever kept by any of the ancient Patriarchs who lived before the Law of Moses therefore no moral and perpetual Precept as the others are Sect. 2. Secondly That the sanctifying of one day in seven is ceremonial only and obliged the Jews not Moral to oblige us Christians to the like Observance Sect. 3. 4. Thirdly That the Lords day is founded only on the Authority of the Church guided therein by the practice of the Apostles not on the fourth Commandment which in the 7. Section he entituleth a seandalous Doctrine nor any other authority in holy Scripture Sect. 6. 7. Fourthly That the Church hath still authority to change the day though such authority be not fit to be put in practice Sect. 7. Fifthly That in the celebration of it there is no such cessation from the works of labour required of us as was exacted of the Jews but that we lawfully may dress Meat proportionable unto every mans estate and do such other things as be no hinderance to the publick Service appointed for the day Sect. 8. Sixthly That on the Lords day all Recreations whatsoever are to be allowed which honestly may refresh the spirits and encrease mutual love and Neighbourhood amongst us and that the Names whereby the Jews did use to call their Festival whereof the Sabbath was the chief were borrowed from an Hebrew word which signifies to Dance and to make merry or rejoyce And lastly that it appertains to the Christian Magistrate to order and appoint what Pastimes on the Lords day are to be permitted and what prohibited not unto every private person much less to every mans rash Zeal as his own words are who out of a schismatical Stoicism debarring men from lawful Pastimes doth incline to Judaisin Sect. 8. This was the sum and substance of his resolution then which as it gave content unto the sounder and the better part of the Assembly so it did infinitely stomack and displease the greater numbers such as were formerly possessed with the other Doctrines though they were wiser than to make it a publick Quarrel Only it pleased Mr. Bifeild of Surrey in his Reply in a Discourse of Mr. Brerewoods of Cresham Colledg Anno 1631. to tax the Doctor as a spreader of wicked Doctrine and much to marvel with himself how either he durst be so hold to say Page 161. or having said it could be suffered to put it forth viz. That to establish the Lords day on the fourth Commandment were to incline too much to Judaism This the said M. Bifeild thinks to be a foul aspertion on this famous Church But in so thinking I conceive that he consulted more his own opinion and his private interest than any publick maintenance of the Churches cause which was not injured by the Doctor but defended rather But to proceed or rather to go back a little About a year before the Doctor thus declared his judgment one Tho. Broad of Gloucestorshire had published something in this kind wherein to speak my mind thereof he rather shewed that he disliked those Sabbath Doctrines than durst disprove them And before either M. Brerewood whom before I named had writ a learned Treatise about the Sabbath on a particular occasion therein mentioned but published it was not till after both Anno 1629. Add here to joyn them altogether that in the Schools at Oxon Anno 1628. it was maintained by Dr. Robinson now Archdeacon of Gloucester viz. Ludos Recreationis gratia in die Dominico non esse prohibitos Divina Lege That Recreations on the Lords day were not at all prohibited by the Word of God As for our neighbour Church of Scotland as they proceeded not at first with that mature deliberation in the reforming of that Church which had been here observed with us so did they run upon a course of Reformation which after was thought fitting to be reformed The Queen was young and absent in the Court of France the Regent was a desolate Widow a Stranger to the Nation and not well obeyed So that the people there possessed by Cnoxe and other of their Teachers took the cause in hand and went that way which came most near unto Geneva where this Cnoxe had lived Among the first things wherewithal they were offended were the Holy days Proceedings at Perth These in their Book of Discipline Anno 1560. they condemned at once particularly the observation of Holy days entituled by the names of Saints the Feasts of Christmas Circumcision Epiphany the Purification and others of the Virgin Mary all which they ranked awongst the abominations of the Roman Religion as having neither Commandment nor assurance in the Word of God But having brought this Book to be subsigned by the Lords of secret Counsel it was first rejected some of them giving it the Title of Devote Imaginations Cnoxe Hist of Scotl. p. 523. whereof Cnoxe complains Yet notwithstanding on they went and at last prevailed for in the middle of the Tumults the Queen Regent died and did not only put down all the Holy days the Lords day excepted but when an uprore had been made in Edenburg about a Robin-hood or a Whitson-Lord they of the Consistory excommunicated the whole multitud Now Proceedings at Perth that the holy days were put down may appear by this That in the year 1566. when the Confession of the Helvetian Churches was proposed unto them they generally approved the same save that they liked not of those Holy days which were there retained But whatsoever they intended and howsoever they had utterly suppressed those days which were entituled by the Names of particular Saints yet they could never so prevail but that the people would retain some memory of the two great and principal Feasts of Christs Nativity and Resurrection For in the year 1575. Complaint was made unto the Regent how in Dunfreis they had conveyed the Reader to the Church with Taber and Whissel to read Prayers all the Holy days of Zule or Christmas Thereupon Anno 1577. it was ordained in an Assembly of the Church That the Visitors should admonish Ministers preaching or ministring the Communion at Pasche or Zule or other like superstitious times under pain of deprivation to desist therefrom Anno 1587. it was complained of to his Majesty That Pasche and Zule were superstitiously observed in Fife and about Dunfreis and in the year 1592. the Act of the Queen Regent granting licence to keep the said two Feasts was by them repealed Yet find we by the Bishop of Brechin in his Discourse of the Proceedings at the Synod of Perth that notwithstanding all the Acts Civil and Ecclesiastick made against the superstitious observation and prophane abuse of Zule day the people could never be induced to labour on
that day and wheresoever Divine service was done that day as in Towns which have always Morning and Evening Prayers they were perceived to resort in greater numbers on that day than on any other to the Church As for King James of happy memory he did not only keep the said great Festivals from his youth as there is said but wished them to be kept by all his Subjects yet without abuse and in his Basilicon Doron published Anno 1598. thus declares himself that without superstition Plays and unlawful Games may be used in May and good Cheer at Christmas Now on the other side as they had quite put down those days which had been dedicated by the Church to Religious Meetings so they appointed others of their own authority For in their Book of Discipline before remembred it was thus decreed viz. That in every notable Town a day besides the Sunday should be appointed weekly for Sermons that during the time of Sermon the day should be kept free from all exercise of labour as well by the Master as by the Servant as also that every day in the said great Towns there be either Sermon or Prayers with reading of the Scriptures So that it seemeth they only were afraid of the name of Holy days and were contented well enough with the thing it self As for the Lords day in that Kingdom I find not that it had attained unto the name or nature of a Sabbath day until that Doctrine had been set on foot amongst us in England For in the Book of Discipline set out as formerly was said in 560. they call it by no other name than Sunday ordaining that upon four Sundays in the year which are therein specified the Sacrament of the Lords Supper should be administred to the people and in the year 1592. an Act of King James the third about the Saturday and other Vigills to be kept holy from Evensong to Evensong was annulled and abrogated Which plainly shews that then they thought not of a Sabbath But when the Sabbath doctrine had been raised in England Anno 1595 as before was said it found a present entertainment with the Brethren there who had before professed in their publick Writings to our Puritans here Davison p. 20. that both their causes were most nearly linked together and thereupon they both took up the name of Sabbath and imposed the rigour yet so that they esteem it lawful to hold Fasts thereon quod saepissime in Ecclesia nostra Scoticana factum est and use it often in that Church which is quite contrary unto the nature of a Sabbath And on the other side they deny it to be the weekly Festival of the Resurrection Non sunt dies Dominici festa Resurrectionis as they have resolved it Altare Damasc p. 669. which shews as plainly that they build not the translation of their Sabbath on the same grounds as our men have done Id. 696. In brief by making up a mixture of a Lords day Sabbath they neither keep it as the Lords day nor as the Sabbath And in this state things stood until the year 1618. what time some of the Ancient holy days were revived again in the Assembly held at Perth in which moving some other Rites of the Church of England which were then admitted it was thus determined viz. As we abhor the superstitious observation of festival days by the Papists and detest all licentious and prophane abuse thereof by the common sort of Professors so we think that the inestimable benefits received from God by our Lord Jesus Christ his Birth Passion Resurrection Ascension and sending down of the Holy Ghost was commendably and godly remembred at certain particular days and times by the whole Church of the world and may be also now Therefore the Assembly ordains that every Minister shall upon these days have the Commemoration of the foresaid inestimable benefits and make choice of several and pertinent Texts of Scripture and frame their Doctrine and Exhortation thereunto and rebuke all superstitious observation and licentious prophanation thereof A thing which much displeased some men of contrary persuasion first out of fear that this was but a Preamble to make way for all the other Holy days observed in England And secondly because it seemed that these five days were in all points to be observed as the Lords day was both in the times of the Assembly and after the dissolving of the same But pleased or dispeased so it was decreed and so still it stands But to return again to England It pleased his Majesty now Reigning whom God long preserve upon information of many notable misdemeanors on this day committed 1 Carol. 1. in his first Parliament to Enact That from thence-forwards there should be no Meetings Assemblies or concourse of people out of their Parishes on the Lords day for any sports or pastimes whatsoever nor any Bear-baitings Bull-baitings common Plays Enterludes or any other unlawful Exercises or Pastimes used by any person or persons in their own Parishes every offence to be punished by the forfeiture of 3 s. 4 d. This being a Probation Law was to continue till the end of the first Session of the next Parliament And in the next Parliament it was continued till the end of the first Session of the next 3 Carol. 1. which was then to come So also was another Act made in the said last Session wherein it was enacted That no Carrier Waggoner Wain-man Carman or Drover travel thence-forwards on the Lords day on pain that every person and persons so offending shall lose and forfeit 20 s. for every such offence And that no Butcher either by himself or any other by his privity and consent do kill or sell any Victual on the said day upon the forfeiture and loss of 6 s. 8 d. Which Statutes being still in force by reason that there hath not been any Session of Parliament since they were enacted many both Magistrates and Ministers either not rightly understanding or wilfully mistaking the intent and meaning of the first brought Dancing and some other lawful Recreations under the compass of unlawful Pastimes in that Act prohibited and thereupon disturbed and punished many of the Kings obedient people only for using of such Sports as had been authorized by his Majesties Father of blessed memory Nay which is more it was so publickly avowed and printed by one who had no calling to interpret Laws except the provocation of his own ill spirit That Dancing on the Lords day was an unlawful Pastime punishable by the Statute 1. Carol. 1. which intended so he saith to suppress Dancing on the Lords day as well as Bear-baiting Bull-baiting Enterludes and common Plays which were not then so rife and common as Dancing when this Law was made Things being at this height King Charles Declarat it pleased his excellent Majesty Observing as he saith himself how much his people were debarred of Recreation and finding in some
Counties that under the pretence of taking away abuses there had been a general forbidding not only of ordinary Meetings but of the Feasts of the Dedication of Churches commonly called Wakes to ratifie and publish the Declaration of his Majesties Father before remembred adding That all those Feasts with others should be observed and that all neighbourhood and freedom with manlike and lawful exercises be therein used Commanding all the Justices of Assize in their several Circuits to see that no man do trouble or molest any of his loyal and dutiful People in or for their lawful Recreations having first done their duty to God and continuing in obedience unto him and his Laws and further that publication thereof be made by order from the Bishops through all the Parishes of their several Diocesses respectively Thus did it please his excellent and sacred Majesty to publish his most pious and religious purpose of opening to his loyal people that liberty of the day which the day allowed of and which all Christian States and Churches in all times before had never questioned withal of shutting up that door whereat no less than Judaism would in fine have entred and so in time have over-run the fairest and most beautiful Church at this day in Christendom And certainly it was a pious and Princely act nothing inferiour unto that of Constantine or any other Christian King or Emperour before remembred it being no less pious in it self considered to keep the Holy-days free from Superstition than to preserve them from Prophaneness especially considering that permission of lawful Pleasures is no less proper to a Festival than restraint from labour Nay of the two it is more ancient For in his time Tertullian tells us that they did diem solis laetitiae indulgere devote the Sunday partly unto Mirth and Recreation not to Devotion altogether when in an hundred years after Tertullians time there was no Law or Constitution to restrain men from labour on this day in the Christian Church Yet did not his most excellent Majesty find such obedience in some men and such as should have been examples unto their flocks as his most Christian purpose did deserve there being some so setled in the opinion of a Sabbath day a day not heard of in the Church of Christ 40 years agoe that they chose rather to deprive the Church of their pains and ministry than yield unto his Majesties most just commands For whose sakes specially next to my duty unto God my Soveraign and the Church my Mother I have employed my time and studies to compose this History that they may see therein in brief the practice of Gods Church in the times before them and frame themselves to do thereafter casting aside those errours in the which they are and walking in the way which they ought to travel Which way when all is done will be via Regia the Kings high way as that which is most safe and of best assurance because most travelled by Gods people Our private paths do lead us often into errour and sometimes also into danger And therefore I beseech all those who have offended in that kind to lay aside their passions and their private interests if any are that way misguided as also not to shut their eyes against those truths which are presented to them for their information that so the King may have the honour of their due obedience the Church the comfort of their labours and conformable ministry For to what purpose should they hope to be ennobled for their sufferings in so bad a cause that neither hath the doctrine of the Scripture to authorize it or practice of the Church of God the best Expositor of the Scripture to confirm and countenance it or to be counted constant to their first Conclusions having such weak and dangerous premisses to support the same since constancy not rightly grounded is at best but obstinacy and many times doth end in Heresie Once again therefore I exhort them even in Gods name whose Ministers they are and unto whom they are to give up an account of their imployment and in the Kings Name whom as Gods deputy they are bound to obey not for wrath only but for conscience sake and in the Churches name whose peace they are to study above all things else and their own names lastly whom it most concerns that they desist and go not forwards in this disobedience lest a worse business fall upon them For my part I have done my best so far to give them satisfaction in the present point so far forth as the nature of an History would permit as they might think it no disparagement to alter their opinions and desert their errors and change their resolutions since in so doing they shall conform themselves unto the practice of Gods Church in all times and Ages The greatest Victory which a man can get is to subdue himself and triumph over sin and errour De Civit. Dei l. 22. c. 30. I end as I began in S. Augustins language Quibus hoc nimium vel quibus parum est mihi ignoscant quibus satis est non mihi sed Domino mecum congratulantes gratias agant Let such as shall conceive this Treatise to be too little or too much excuse my weakness And as for those whom it may satisfie in the smallest measure let them not unto me but to God with me ascribe all the honour to whom belongs all praise and glory even for evermore Pibrac Quadr. 5. Ne va disant ma main a faict cest oeuure Ou ma vertu ce bel oeuure a parfaict Mais dis ainsi Dieu par moy l'oeuuee a faict Dieu est l'Autheur du peu de bien que l'oeuure Say not my hand this Work to end hath brought Nor this my vertue hath attain'd unto Say rather thus this God by me hath wrought God's Author of the little good I do FINIS Historia Quinqu-Articularis OR A DECLARATION Of the Judgment of the WESTERN CHVRCHES And more particularly of the CHURCH of ENGLAND IN The Five Controverted Points Reproached in these Last times by the Name of ARMINIANISM Collected in the way of an Historical Narration Out of the Publick Acts and Monuments and most approved Authors of those several Churches By PETER HEYLYN D. D. Jer. 6.16 State super vias videte interrogate de semitis antiquis quae sit via bona ambulate in ea invenietis refrigerium animabus vestris Macrob. in Saturnal Omne meum nihil meum LONDON Printed by M. Clark to be sold by C. Harper 1681. TO THE READER IT is well known to some in London and elsewhere that these Papers were finished for the Press before August last But the first breaking out in Cheshire and the unsetledness of affairs which ensued upon it proved such discouragements to all Engagings of this kind that Michaelmas was past before the undertakers would adventure on it And what distractions have since followed
told how much my first engaging in this business might offend those men who loved to countenance their extravagancy by the name of the Church and what loud clamours they had raised against the most Reverend Dr. Whitgift for encountring with T. C. in behalf of the Liturgy against Dr. John Bridges Dean of Sarisbury for standing in defence of the sacred Hirarchy against the most Learned Bishop Bilson for crossing Calvins new device about Christ descent against Dr. Barce for opposing the Genevian Rigors in the points before us against Mr. Richard Montague for separating the opinions of private men from the Churches Doctrins and finall against the late Renowned Archbishop for labouring to restore this Church to its primitive lustre And though hI could not hope to be more savourably dealt withal in this case than my Letters were yet I might reasonably expect to be used no worse But on the contrary I have lately seen a scurrilous Pamphlet the Author whereof hath licked up all the filth of former Libels to vomit it at once upon me without respect to that civility which beseems a Scholar or that sobriety and modesty which adorns a Christian so Cocks are dieted sometimes with Garlick before they fight that they may rather overcome their Adversaries by the stinck of their breath than by the sharpness of their spurs or the strength of their blows But I have been so long accustomed to the noise of this Rayling Rhetorick that I am now no more troubled at it than were the Catadupi at the Rorings of the River Nilus or Socrates to see himself derided and exposed to scorn on the publick Theatre Or could I be exasperated to a Retaliation that saying of St. Cyprian would recal me to my wonted temper who being bitterly railed at by some of his Presbyters returned this Answer Non Oportet me paria cum illis facere that it becomes not me to answer them with the like revilings And yet I cannot but take notice of a mischievous project for throwing a Ball of discord betwixt me and some friends of mine Doctors in title and degree and by the Libeller declared to be of my own persuasion one of which is affirmed to say That I was an unhappy Writer and marred every thing which I medled with and for the finding of this one I have nothing but a blind direction of Hist in the margin placed there of purpose as it seemeth to put me into a suspition of all eminent persons whose names begin with those two Letters It is recorded in the History of Amianus Marcellinus that certain men informed the Emperour Valence by their Devilish Arts that one whose name began with THEO should succeed in the Empire Which put the sealous Prince into such a general distrust of all whose Names had that beginning Theodoret Theodofius Theopulos Theodulos Theodore that he caused many of them though men of eminent worth and most exemplary Loyalty to be made the subjects of his fear and cruelty And such a Devillish Art is this of T. C. the younger by which two Letters he affects to disguise his name to work me into a suspition of some eminent persons and such as must be also of my own persuasions But I have no such jealousies as Valence had and therefore shall create no trouble to my self or others upon that temptation For first I know the parties pointed to in those two letters to be the masters of so much Candor and Ingenuity that I am consident they rather would excuse my infelicities or insufficiencies be they which they will than bring me under the reproach of any such censure as none of different judgment ever laid upon me And secondly so much they have descended beneath themselves as of their own accord to certifie me both by Letters and Messages how free they were from giving any ground to that base suspition which was contrived with so much malice and design to divide between us And so Autorem Scelus repetet the Calumny must be left at the Authors door as the natural parent of it till he can find out more distinctly upon whom to charge it In the mean time I leave him to the mercy of the Laws as a common Barrator Drenched over head and ears in the waters of strife a sower of discord and discention amongst faithful friends But I have wasted too much time on this piece of impertinency and might perhaps have better studied my own fame if I had taken no notice of the Libel or the Author either but that to have been silent altogether in so just a grievance might possibly be taken for an argument of insensibility For otherwise as there is nothing in the Author but the stoln name of Theophilus Churchman which descries my Pen so there is nothing argumentative in the Pamphlet either which was not both foreseen and satisfied in the following papers before it came unto my hands I return therefore to my Post which if I can make good by Records and Evidence the fittest weapons for this Warfare I shall not easily be forced from it by Reproach and Clamors as were the ancient Gauls from surprising the Capitol by the noise and gagling of the Geese But whether I have made it good or not must be left to the Reader to whom I hope it will appear that Calvinism was not the native and original Doctrine of the Church of England though in short time it overspread a great part thereof as Arrianism did the Eastern Churches in the elder times Ubi ingemuit orbis as St. Hierom hath it when the world groaned and trembled under the calamity of that dangerous Heresie And I hope too it will appear by this discourse that I am not yet so far reduced ad secundam pueritiam as the Scorner taunts it as that my venerable back and buttocks pardon me for repeating such unmannerly language should be intituled to the Rod of this proud Orbilius Or if I be I doubt not but that God Almighty who ordaineth praise out of the mouths of Babes and Sucklings will raise some glory to his Name from that second Childhood To which great God and his unspeakable mercies in Jesus Christ our common Saviour I do most heartily recommend this Church and all them that love it Lacies Court in Abington December 26. 1659. PETER HEYLYN Historia Quinqu-Articularis OR A DECLARATION Of the Judgment of the Western-Churches c. CHAP. I. The several Heresies of those who make God to be the Author of Sin or attribute too much to the Natural freedom of Man's Will in the Works of Piety 1. God affirmed by Florinus to be the Author of sin the blasphemy encountred by Irenaeus and the foul consequents thereof 2. Revived in the last Ages by the Libertines said by the Papists to proceed from the Schools of Calvin and by the Calvinists to proceed from the Schools of Rome 3. Disguised by the Maniches in another dress and the necessity thereby imposed on the Wills
say it is moved by it self And he condemned yea mocked the Lutherans manner of speech that the Will followeth as a dead and unreasonable Creature for being reasonable by Nature moved by its own Cause which is God it is moved as reasonable and followeth a reasonable And likewise that God consenteth though men will not and spurn at him For it is a contradiction that the Effect should spurn against the Cause That it may happen that god may effectually convert one that before hath spurned before sufficient prevention but afterwards cannot because a gentleness in the Will moved must needs follow the Efficacy of the Divine Motion Soto said That every Divine Inspiration was only sufficient and that that whereunto Free-will hath assented obtaineth efficiency by that consent without which it is ineffectual not by the defect of it self but of the man The Opinion he defended very fearfully because it was opposed that the distinction of the Reprobate from the Elect would proceed from man contrary to the perpetual Catholick sense that the Vessels of Mercy are distinguished by Grace from the Vessels of Wrath. That Gods Election would be for Works foreseen and not for his good Pleasure That the Doctrine of the Fathers in the Affrican and French Councils against the Pelagians hath published that God maketh them to will which is to say that he maketh them consent therefore giving consent to us it ought to be attributed to the Divine Power or else he that is saved would be no more obliged to God than he that is damned if God should use them both alike But notwithstanding all these Reasons the contrary Opinion had the general applause though many confessed that the Reasons of Catanca were not resolved and were displeased that Soto did not speak freely but said that the Will consenteth in a certain manner so that it may in a certain manner resist as though there were a certain manner of mean between this Affirmation and Negation The free speech of Catanca and the other Dominicans did trouble them also who knew not how to distinguish the Opinion which attributeth Justification by consent from the Pelagian and therefore they counselled to take heed of leaping beyond the Mark by too great a desire to condemn Luther that Objection being esteemed above all that by this means the Divine Election or Predestination would be for Works foreseen which no Divine did admit The Ground thus laid we shall proceed unto a Declaration of the Judgment of the Church of Rome in the five Articles disputed afterwards with such heat betwixt the Remonstrants and the Contra Remonstrants in the Belgick Church so far forth as it may be gathered from the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent and such preparatory Discourses as smoothed the way to the Conclusions which were made therein In order whereunto it was advised by Marcus Viguerius Bishop of Sinigali to separate the Catholick Doctrine from the contrary and to make two Decrees in the one to make a continued Declaration and Confirmation of the Doctrine of the Churches Ibid. p. 215. and in the other to condemn and Anathematize the contrary But in the drawing up of the Decrees there appeared a greater difficulty than they were aware of in conquering whereof the Cardinal of Sancta Cruz one of the Presidents of the Council took incredible pains avoiding as much as was possible to insert any thing controverted amongst the School-men and so handling those that could not be omitted as that every one might be contented And to this end he observed in every Congregation what was disliked by any and took it away or corrected it as he was advised and he spake not only in the Congregations but with every one in particular was informed of all the doubts and required their Opinions He diversifyed the matter with divers Orders changed sometimes one part sometimes another until he had reduced them unto the Order in which they now are which generally pleased and was approved by all Nor did the Decrees thus drawn and setled give less content at Rome than they did at Trent for being transmitted to the Pope and by him committed to the Fryers and other learned men of the Court to be consulted of amongst them they found an universal approbation because every one might understand them in his own sense And being so approved of were sent back to Trent and there solemnly passed in a full Congregation on the thirteenth of January 1547. according to the account of the Church of Rome And yet it is to be observed that though the Decrees were so drawn up as to please all parties especially as to the giving of no distast to the Dominican Fryers and theis Adherents yet it is casie to be seen that they incline more favourably to the Franciscans whose cause the Jesuits have since wedded and speak more literally and Grammatically to the sence of that party than they to do the others which said I shall present the Doctrine of the Council of Trent as to these controverted Points in this Order following 1. Of Divine Predestination All Mankind having lost its primitive integrity by the sin of Adam they became thereby the Sons of wrath Concil Trid. Sess 6. c. 1. and so much captivated under the command of Satan that neither the Gentiles by the power of Nature nor the Jews by the Letter of the Law of Moses were able to free themselves from that grievous Servitude In which respect it pleased Almighty God the Father of all Mercies to promise first Ibid c. 2. and afterwards actually to send his only begotten Son Jesus Christ into the World not only to redeem the Jews who were under the Law but that the Gentiles also might embrace the righteousness which is by Faith and all together might receive the Adoption of Sons To which end he prepared sufficient assistance for all Hist of the Council f. 212. which every man having free will might receive or refuse as it pleased himself and foreseeing from before all Eternity who would receive his help and use it to God and on the other side who would refuse to make use thereof he predestinated and elected those of the first sort to Eternal Life and rejected the others 2. Of the Merit and Effect of the Death of Christ Him God proposed to be a propitiation for our sins by his Death and Passion and nor for our sins only Ses 6. c. 2 3. but for the sins of the whole World But so that though Christ died for all men yet all do not receive the benefit of his death and sufferings but only they to whom the merit of his Passion is communicated in their new birth or Regeneration by which the grace whereby they are justified or made just is conferred upon them 3. Of Mans Conversion unto God The Grace of God is not given no man by Jesus Christ to no other end session 6 can 2 3. but that thereby he might
free him yet by his Doctrine of Predestination he hath laid such grounds as have involved his followers in the same guilt also For not content to travel a known and beaten way he must needs find out a way by himself which either the Dominicans nor any other of the followers of S. Augustine's rigors had found out before in making God to lay on Adam an unavoidable necessity of falling into sin and misery that so he might have opportunity to manifest his mercy in the electing of some few of his Posterity and his justice in the absolute rejecting of all the rest In which as he can find no Countenance from any of the Ancient Writers so he pretendeth not to any ground for it in the holy Scriptures For whereas some objected on Gods behalf De certis verbis non extare That the Decree of Adams Fall and consequently the involving of his whole Posterity in sin and misery had no foundation in the express words of Holy Writ Institut l. 3. c. 23. Sect. 7. he makes no other Answer to it than a quasi vero as if saith he God made and created man the most exact Piece of his Heavenly Workmanship without determining of his end And on this Point he was so resolutely bent that nothing but an absolute Decree for Adams Fall seconded by the like for the involving of all his Race in the same prediction would either serve his turn or preserve his Credit For whereas others had objected on Gods behalf that no such unavoidable necessity was laid upon man-kind by the will of God but rather that he was Created by God unto such a perishing estate because he foresaw to what his own perversness at the last would bring him He answereth that this Objection proves nothing at all or at least nothing to the purpose Calv. Institut lib. 3. cap. 23. sect 6. which said he tells us further out of Valla though otherwise not much versed as he there affirmeth in the holy Scriptures That this question seems to be superfluous because both Life and Death are rather the Acts of Gods Will than of his Prescience or fore-knowledge And then he adds as of his own that if God did but fore-see the successes of men and did not also dispose and order them by his Will then this Question should not without cause be moved Whether his fore-seeing any thing availed to the necessity of them â—aâ—m â—â— sect 7. But since saith he he doth no otherwise fore-see the things that shall come to pass than because he hath decreed that they should so come to pass it is in vain to move any Controversy about Gods fore-knowledge where it is certain that all things do happen rather by divine Ordinance and appointment Yet notwithstanding all these shifts he is forced to acknowledge the Decree of Adams Fall to be Horribile decretum a cruel and horrible Decree as indeed it is a cruel and horrible Decree to pre-ordain so many Millions to destruction and consequently unto sin that he might destroy them And then what can the wicked and impenitent do but ascribe all their sins to God by whose inevitable Will they are lost in Adam by whom they were particularly and personally necessitated to death and so by consequence to sin A Doctrine so injurious to God so destructive of Piety of such reproach amongst the Papists and so offensive to the Lutherans of what sort soever that they profess a greater readiness to fall back to Popery than to give way to this Predestinarian Pestilence by which name they call it to come in amongst them But howsoever having so great a Founder as Calvin was it came to be generally entertained in all the Churches of his Plat-form strongly opposed by Sebastian Castellino in Geneva it self but the poor man so despightfully handled both by him and Beza who followed him in all and went beyond him in some of his Devises that they never left pursuing him with complaints and clamours till they had first cast him out of the City and at the last brought him to his Grave The terrour of which example and the great name which Calvin had attained unto not only by his diligent Preaching but also by his laborious Writings in the eye of the World As it confirmed his power at home so did it make his Doctrines the more acceptable and esteemed abroad More generally diffused and more pertinaciously adhered unto in all those Churches which either had received the Genevian Discipline or whose Divines did most industriously labour to advance the same By means whereof it came to pass as one well observeth That of what account the Master of the Sentences was in the Church of Rome Hooker in eccle Pol. Pres p. 9. the same and more amongst the Preachers of the Reformed Churches Calvin had purchased so that they were deemed to be the most perfect Divines who were most skilful in his Writings His Books almost the very Canon by which both Doctrine and Discipline were to be judged The French Churches both under others abroad or at home in their own Country all cast according to the Mold which he had made The Church of Scotland in erecting the Fabrick of their own Reformation took the self same pattern Receive not long after in the Palatine Churches and in those of the Netherlands In all which as his Doctrine made way to bring in the Discipline so was it no hard matter for the Discipline to support the Doctrine and crush all those who durst oppose it Only it was permitted unto Beza and his Disciples to be somewhat wilder than the rest in placing the Decree of Predestination before the Fall which Calvin himself had more rightly placed in Massa corrupta in the corrupted Mass of Man-kind and the more moderate Calvinians as rightly presuppose for a matter necessary before there could be any place for the Election or Reprobation of particular persons But being they concurred with the rest as to the personal Election or Reprobation of particular persons the restraining of the Benefit of our Saviours sufferings to those few particulars whom only they had honoured with the glorious name of the Elect the working on them by the irresistible powers of Grace in the Act of Conversion and bringing them infallibly by the continual assistance of the said Grace unto life everlasting there was hardly any notice taken of thier Deviation they being scarce beheld in the condition of erring brethren though they differed from them in the main fountain which they built upon but passing under the name of Calvinists as they thus did And though such of the Divines of the Belgick Churches as were of the old Lutheran stock were better affected unto the Melancthonian Doctrine of Predestination than to that of Calvin yet knowing how pretious the name and memory of Calvin was held amongst them or being unwilling to fall foul upon one another they suffered his Opinions to prevail without opposition And so
they were over-ruled by the Entreaties of some and the power of others A matter so unpleasing to the rigid Calvinians that they informed against him to the State for divers Heterodoxies which they had noted in his Writings But the business being heard at the Hague he was acquitted by his Judge dispatcht for Leyden and there confirmed in his place Toward which the Testimonial Letters sent from the Church of Amsterdam did not help a little In which he stands commended Ob vitae inculpatae sanae doctrinae morum summam integritatem That is to say for a man of an unblameable life sound Doctrine and fair behaviour as may be seen at large in the Oration which was made at his Funeral in the Divinity Schools of Leyden on the 22. day of October 1609. Thus died Arminius but the Cause did not so die with him For during the first time of his sitting in the Chair of Leyden he drew unto him a great part of the University who by the Piety oâ—he man his powerful Arguments his extream diligence in that place and the clear light of Reason which appeared in all his Discourses were so wedded unto his Opinions that no time nor trouble could drown them For Arminius dying in the year 1609 as before was said the heats betwixt the Scholars and those of the contrary persuasion were rather increased than abated the more increased for want of such a prudent Moderator as had before preserved the Churches from a publick Rupture The breach between them growing wider and wider each side thought fit to seek the Countenance of the State and they did accordingly for in the year 1610. the followers of Arminius address their Remonstrnace containing the Antiquity of their Doctrines and the substance of them to the States of Holland which was encountred presently by a Contra Remonstrance exhibited by those of Calvins Party from hence the names of Remonstrants and Contra Remonstrants so frequent in their Books and Writings each Party taking opportunity to disperse their Doctrines the Remonstrants gained exceedingly upon their Adversaries For the whole Controversie being reduced to these five Points Viz. The Method and Order of Predestination The Efficacy of Christs Death The Operations of Grace both before and after mans Conversion and perseverance in the same the Parties were admitted to a publick Conference at the Hague in the year 1611. in which the Remonstrants were conceived to have had much the better of the day Now for the five Articles above mentioned they were these that follow VIZ. I. De Electione ex fide praevisa DEus aeterno immutabili Decreto in Jesu Christo filio suo ante jactum mundum fundamentum statuit ex lapso peccatis obnoxio humano genere illos in Christo propter Christum per Christum servare qui spiritus sancti gratia in eundem filium ejus credunt in ea fide fideique obedientia per eandem gratiam usque ad finem perseverant II. De Redemptione Universali Proinde Deus Christus pro omnibus ac singulis mortuuus est atque id ita quidem ut omnibus per mortem crucis Reconciliationem Peccatorum Remissionem impetrarit Ea tamen conditione ut nemo illa peccatorum Remisione fruatur praeter hominem fidelem John 2.26 1 John 2.2 III. De causa fidei Homo fidem salutarem à seipso non habet nec vi liberi sui arbitrii quandoquidem in statu defectionis peccati nihil boni quod quidem vere est bonum quale est fides salutaris ex se potest cogitare velle aut facere sed necessarium est eum à Deo in Christo per spiritum ejus sanctum regigni renovari mente affctibus seu voluntate omnibus facultatibus ut aliquid boni posset intelligere cogitare velle perficere secundum illu JOhn 15.5 sine me potestis nihil IV. De Conversionis modo De gratia est initiumi progressus perfectio omnis boni atque adeo quidem ut ipse homo Kegenitus absque hac praecedanea seu Adventitia excitante consequente co-operante gratia neq boni quid cogitare velle aut facere potest neq etiam ulli male tentationi resistere adeo quidem ut omnia bona opera quae excogitare possumus Dei gratiae in Christo tribuenda sunt Quoad vero modum co-operationis illius gratiae illa non est irresistibilis de multis enim dicitur eos spiritui sancto refistisse Actotum 7. alibi multis locis V. De Perseverantia incerta Qui Jesu Christo per veram fidem sunt insiti ac proinde spiritus ejus vivificantis participes ii abunde habent facultatum quibus contra Satanam peccatum mundum propriam suam carnem pugnent victoriam obtineant verumtamen per gratiae spiritus sancti subsidium Jesus Christus quidem illis spiritu sus in omnibus tentatinnibus adest manum porrigit modo sint ad certamen prompti ejus Auxilium Petant neque officio suo desint eos confirmat adeo quidem ut nulla satanae fraude aut vi seduci vel e manibus Christi eripi possint secundum illud Johannis 10. Nemo illos è manu mea eripiet Sed an illi ipsi negligentia sua principium illud quo sustentantur in Christo deserere non possint praesentem mundum iterum amplecti à sancta doctrina ipsis semel tradita deficere conscientiae naufragium facere à gratia excidere penitus ex sacra scriptura esset expendendum antequam illud cum plena animi tranquillitate Plerephoria dicere possumus VIZ. I. Of Election on t of Faith foreseen ALmighty God by an Eternal and unchangeable Decree ordained in Jesus Christ his only Son before the foundations of the World were laid to save all those in Christ for Christ and through Christ who being faln and under the command of sin by the assistance of the Grace of the Holy Ghost do persevere in Faith and Obedience to the very end II. Of universal Redemption To this end Jesus Christ suffered Death for all men and in every man that by his death upon the Cross he might obtain for all mankind both the forgiveness of their sins and Reconciliation with the Lord their God with this Condition notwithstanding that none but true Believers should enjoy the benefit of the Reconciliation and forgiveness of sins John 2.16 1 John 2.2 III. Of the cause or means of attaining Faith Man hath not saving Faith in and of himself nor can it attain it by the power of his own Free-will in regard that living in an estate of sin and defection from God he is not able of himself to think well or do any thing which is really or truly good amongst which sort saving Faith is to be accounted And therefore it is necessary that by God in Christ and through the Workings of the Holy Ghost he be regenerated and renewed
the excellency of Divine Grace so the Second being that maintained by the Franciscans was plausible and populare and cherished humane presumption c. The whole passage we have had before in the Second Chapter Numb 4. but we shall answer to no more of it than the former Clause Concerning which it may be said that though Father Paul the Author of the History hath filled the Christian World with admiration yet it is obvious to the eye of any discerning Reader that in many places he savoureth not so much of the Historian as he doth of the Party and that being carryed by the Interest of his Native Countrey which was the Signory of Venice he seldom speaks favourably of the Jesuits and their adherents amongst which the Franciscans in these points are to be accounted Secondly that either Father Paul did mistake himself or else that his Translator hath mistaken his meaning in making the Second Opinion to be more pleasing to the Preaching Fryers than the understanding Divines the name of Preaching Fryers being so appropriated in common speech to those of the Dominican Order that it is never applyed unto any other And Thirdly That the Authority of Father Paul is no otherwise to be embraced in Doctrinal matters what credit soever may be given to him in point of History than as it is seconded by Reason And certainly if we proceed by the rule of Reason that Doctrine must needs more cherish humane presumption which puffeth men up with the certainty of their Election the infallibility of assisting and persisting Grace and the impossibility of falling from the attaining of that salvation which they have promised to themselves than that which leaves these points uncertain which puts a man to the continnal necessity of calling on God and working out the way unto his salvation with fear and trembling He that is once possessed with this persuasion that all the sins which he can possibly commit were they as many as have been committed by all mankind since the beginning of the World are not able to frustrate his Election or separate him from the love and favour of Almighty God will be too apt to swell with Pharisaical pride and despise all other men as Heathens and Publicans when such poor Publicans as have their minds humble and relying on God will stand aloof not daring to approach too near the Divine Majesty but crying out with God be merciful unto me a sinner and yet shall be more justified in the sight of God than the others are For this we need produce no proof we find it in the supercilious looks in the haughty carriage of those who are so well assured of their own Election who cannot so disguise themselves as not to undervalue and despise all those who are not of the same party and persuasion with them A race of men whose insolence and pride there is no avoid by a modest submission whose favour there is no obtaining by good turns and benefits Quorum superbiam frustra per modestiam obsequium effugeris as in another case was said by a Noble Britain And finally it is objected but the Objection rather doth concern the men than the Doctrine that the Arminians are a Faction a turbulent seditious Faction so found in the Vnited Provinces from their very first spawning not to be suffered by any Reason of State in a Commonwealth So saith the Author of the pamphlet called the Observator observed and proves it by the wicked conspiracy as he calls it of Barnevelt Obf. Observed p. 46. who suffered most condignly as he tells us upon that account 1619. And afterwards by the damnable and hellish plot of Barnevelts Children and Allies in their designs against the State and the Prince of Orange P. 37. This Information seconded by the Author of the Book called The Justification of the Fathers c. who tells us but from whom he knows not that the States themselves have reported of them that they had created them more trouble than the King of Spain had by all his Wars And both these backt by the Authority of King James who tells us of them in his Declaration against Vorstius That if they were not with speed rooted out no other issue could be expected than the Curse of God infamy throughout all the Reformed Churches and a perpetual rent and destraction in the whole body of the State This is the substance of the Charge So old and common that it was answered long since by Bishop Ridly in Qu. Maries days when the Doctrine of the Protestants was said to be the readiest way to stir up Sedition and trouble the quiet of the Commonwealth wherefore to be repressed in time by force of Laws To which that godly Bishop returns this Answer That Satan doth not cease to practice his old guiles and accustomed subtilties He hath ever this Dart in a readiness to whirl against his adversaries to accuse them of Sedition that he may bring them if he can in danger of the Higher Powers for so hath he by his Ministers always charged the Prophets of God Ahab said unto Elias art thou he that troubleth Israel The false Prophets complained also to their Princes of Jeremy that his words were seditious and not to be suffered Did not the Scribes and Pharisees falsly accuse Christ as a seditious person and one that spake against Caesar Which said and the like instance made in the Preachings of St. Paul Confer between Kidley and Latimer he concludes it thus viz. But how far they were from all sedition their whole Doctrine Life and Conversation doth well declare And this being said in reference to the Charge in general the Answer to each part thereof is not far to seek And first it hath been answered to that part of it which concerns King James that the King was carried in this business not so much by the clear light of his most excellent understanding as by Reason of State the Arminians as they call them were at that time united into a party under the command of John Olden Barnevelt and by him used for the reasons formerly laid down to undermine the power of Maurice then Prince of Orange who had made himself the Head of the Contra-Remonstrants and was to that King a most dear Confederate Which Division in the Belgick Provinces that King considered as a matter of most dangerous consequence and utterly destructive of that peace unity and concord which was to be the greatest preservation of the States Vnited on whose tranquillity and power he placed a great part of the peace and happiness of his own Dominions Upon which reason he exhorts them in the said Declaration To take heed of such infected persons their own Countrey-men being already divided into Factions upon this occasion as he saith which was a matter so opposite to Vnity which was indeed the only prop and safety of their State next under God as of necessity it must by little and little
bring them to utter tuin if justly and in time they did not provide against it So that King James considering the present breach as tending to the utter ruin of those States and more particularly of the Prince of Orange his most dear Ally he thought it no small piece of King-craft to contribute toward the suppression of the weaker party not only by blasting them in the said Declaration with reproachful names but sending such Divines to the Assembly at Dort as he was sure would be sufficiently active in their condemnation So that part of the Argument which is borrowed from the States themselves it must be proved by some better evidence than the bare word of Mr. Hickman before it can deserve an Answer the speech being so Hyperbolical not to call it worse that it can hardly be accounted for a flower of Rhetorick The greatest trouble which the States themselves were put to in all this business was for the first eight years of it but the hearing of Complaints receiving of Remonstrances and being present at a Conference between the parties And for the last four years for it held no longer their greatest trouble was to find out a way to forfeit all their old and Native Priviledges in the death of Barnevelt for maintenance whereof they had first took up Arms against the Spaniard In all which time no blood at all was drawn by the Sword of War and but the blood of five or six men only by the Sword of Justice admitting Barnevelts for one Whereas their Wars with Spain had lasted above thrice that time to the sacking of many of their Cities the loss of at least 100000 of their own lives and the expense of many millions of Treasure And as for Barnevelt if he had committed any Treason against his Countrey by the Laws of the same Countrey he was to be tryed Contrary whereunto the Prince of Orange having gotten him into his power put him over to be judged by certain Delegates commissionated by the States General who by the Laws of the Union can pretend unto no Authority over the Life and Limb of the meanest Subject Finally for the conspiring of Barnevelts Children it concerns only them whose design it was Who to revenge his death so unworthily and unjustly contrived and as they thought so undeservedly and against their Laws might fall upon some desperate Counsels and most unjustifiable courses in pursuance of it But what makes this to the Arminian and Remonstrant party Or doth evince them for a turbulent and seditious Faction not to be suffered by any Reason of State in a well-ordered Commonwealth Barnevelts Kindred might be faulty the Arminians innocent or the Armanians faulty in their practice against the life of the Prince of Orange under and by whom they had suffered so many oppressions without involving those in their Crimes and Treasons who hold the same Opinion with them in their Neighbouring Churches The reason is because there is nothing in the Doctrine of the Arminians it as relates to the Five points in difference which can dispose the Professors of it to any such practices And therefore if the Arminians should have proved as turbulent and seditious as their Enemies made them yet we were not to impute it to them as they were Arminians that is to say as men following the Melancthonian way of Predestination and differing in those points from the rest of the Calvinists but as exasperated and provoked and forced to cast themselves upon desperate courses Quae libertatis arma dat ipse dolor in the Poets language But so some say it is not with the Doctrine of the other party by which mens actions are so ordered and predetermined by the eternal Will of God even to the taking up of a straw as before was said ut nec plus boni nec minus mali that it is neither in their power to do more good or commit less evil than they do And then according to that Doctrine all Treasons Murders and Seditions are to be excused as unavoidable in them who commit the same because it is not in their power not to be guilty of those Treasons or Seditions which the fire and fury of the Sect shall inflame them with And then to what end should Princes make Laws or spend their whole endeavours in preserving the publick Peace when notwithstanding all their cares and travels to prevent the mischief things could no otherwise succeed than as they have been predetermined by the Will of God And therefore the best way would be Sinere res vadere quo vult in the Latin of an old Spanish Monk to let all matters go as they will since we cannot make them go as we would according to that counsel of the good old Poet. Solvite mortales animos Manil. de Sphe lib. curisque levate Totque super vacuis animum deplete querelis Fata regunt Orbem certa stant omnia lege That is to say Discharge thy Soul poor man of vexing fears And ease thy self of all superfluous cares The World is governed by the Fates and all Affairs by Heaven's decree do stand or fall To this effect it is reported that the old Lord Burleigh should discourse with Queen Eliz. when he was first acquainted with the making of the Lambeth Articles Not being pleased wherewith Hist Artic. Lambeth p. 6 7. he had recourse unto the Queen letting her see how much her Majesties Authority and the Laws of the Realm were thereby violated and it was no hard matter to discern what they aimed at who had most stickled in the same For saith he this is their Opinion and Doctrine that every Humane action be it good or evil it is all restrained and bound up by the Law of an immutable Decree that upon the very wills of men also this necessity is imposed ut aliter quam vellent homines velle non possent that men could not will otherwise than they did will Which Opinions saith he Madam if they be true Frustra ego aliique fideles Majestatis tuae ministri c. then I and the rest of your Majesties faithful Ministers do sit in Council to no purpose 't is in vain to deliberate and advise about the affairs of your Realm Cum de his quae eveniunt necessario stulta sit plane omnis consultatio since in those things that came to pass of necessity all consultation is foolish and ridiculous To which purpose it was also press'd by the Bishop of Rochester Oxon and St. Davids in a Letter to the Duke of Buckingham concerning Mountagues Appeal Ann. 1625. Cabuba p. 116. In which it is affirmed that they cannot conceive what use there can be of Civil Government in the Common-wealth or of Preaching and external Ministry in the Church if such fatal Opinins as some which are opposite and contrary to those delivered by Mr. Mountague shall be publickly taught and maintained More plainly and particularly charged by Dr. Brooks once Master
of Heavenly gifts he had no spot of uncleanness in him he was sound and perfect in all parts both outwardly and inwardly his reason was uncorrupt his understanding was pure and good his will was obedient and goldly he was made altogether like unto God in Righteousness in Holiness in Wisdom in Truth to be short in all kind of perfection After which having spoken of mans Temporal Felicities relating to the delicacies of the Garden of Eden and the Dominion which God gave him over all the Creatures the Homily doth thus proceed viz. But as the common nature of all men is in time of prosperity and wealth to forget not only themselves but also God even so did this first man Adam who having but one Commandment at Gods hand namely That he should not eat of the Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil did notwithstanding most unmindfully or rather most wilfully break it Hom. of the Nativity p. 168. in forgetting the strait charge of his Maker and giving ear to the crafty suggestion of the evil Serpent the Devil whereby it came to pass that as before he was blessed so now he was accursed as before he was loved so now he was abhorred as before he was most beautiful and precious so now he was most vile and wretched in the sight of his Lord and Maker instead of the Image of God he was now become the Image of the Devil instead of a Citizen of Heaven he was now become the Bond-slave of Hell having in himself no one part of his former purity and cleanness but being altogether spotted and defiled insomuch that now he seemed to be nothing else but a lump of sin and therefore by the just judgment of God was condemned to everlasting death This being said touching the introduction of the body of Sin the Homily doth first proceed to the propagation and universal spreading of it and afterwards to the Restitution of lost man by faith in Christ This so great and miserable plague for so the Homily proceedeth if it had only rested in Adam who first offended it had been so much the easier and might the better have been born but it fell not only on him but also in his Posterity and Children for ever so that the whole brood of Adams flesh should sustain the self same fall and punishment which their forefather by his offence most justly had deserved S. Paul in the fifth to the Romans saith By the offence of only Adam the fault came upon all men to condemnation and by one mans disobedience many were made sinners By which words we are taught that as in Adam all men universally received the reward of sin that is to say became mortal and subject unto death having in themselves nothing but everlasting condemnation both of body and soul c. Had it been any marvel if man-kind had been utterly driven to desperation being thus fallen from life to death from salvation to destruction from Heaven to Hell But behold the great goodness and tender mercy of God in this behalf albeit mans wickedness and sinful behaviour was such that it deserved not in any part to be forgiven yet to the intent be might not be clean destitute of all hope and comfort in time to come he ordained a new Covenant and made a sure promise thereof namely that he would send a Mediater or Messias into the world which should make intercession and put himself as a stay between both parties to pacifie the wrath and indignation conceived against sin and to deliver man out of the miserable curse and cursed misery whereunto he was fallen head-long by disobeying the Will and Commandment of the only Lord and Maker Which ground thus laid we will proceed unto the Doctrine of Predestination according to the sense and meaning of the Church of England which teacheth us according to the general current of the ancient Authors before Augustins time that God from all Eternity intending to demonstrate his power and goodness designed the Creation of the World the making of man after his own Image and leaving him so made in a perfect liberty to do or not to do what he was commanded and that foreknowing from all Eternity the man abusing this liberty would plung himself and his posterity into a gulf of miseries he graciously resolved to provide them such a Saviour who should redeem them from their sins to elect all those to life eternal who laid hold upon him leaving the rest in the same state in which he found them for their incredulity And this I take to be the method of Election unto life Eternal through Jesus Christ our Lord according to the Doctrine of the Church of England For althought there be neither prius nor posterius in the will of God who sees all things at once together and willeth at the first sight without more delay yet to apply his acts unto our capacity as were the acts of God in their right production so were they primitively in his intention But Creation without peradventure did forego the fall and the disease or death which ensued upon it was of necessity to be before there could be a course taken to prescribe the cure and the prescribing of the cure must first be finished before it could be offered to particular persons Of which and of the whole doctrine of Predestination as before declared we cannot have an happier illustration than that of Agilmond and Lamistus in the Longobardian story of Paul the Deacon In which it is reported That Agilmond the second King of Lombardy riding by a Fish-pond saw seven your Children sprawling in it whom their unnatural Mothers as the Author thinketh had thrown into it not long before Amazed whereat he put his hunting spear amongst them and stirred them gently up and down which one of them laying hold on was drawn to land called Lamistus from the word Lama which is the Language of that People and signifies a Fish-pond Trained up in that Kings Court and finally made his Successor in the Kingdom Granting that Agilmond being forewarned in a Vision that he should find such Children sprawling for life in the midst of that pond might thereupon take a resolution within himself to put his hunting spear amongst them and the which of them soever should lay hold upon it should be gently drawn out of the water adopted for his Son and made Heir of his Kingdom No Humane story can afford us the like parallel case to Gods proceeding in the great work of Predestination to Eternal Life according to the Doctrine of the ancient Fathers and the Church of Rome as also of the Lutheran Churches and those of the Arminian party in the Belgick Provinces Now that this was the Doctrine also of the Church of England will easily appear upon a due search into the Monuments and Records thereof as they stand backed by those learned religious men who had a principal hand in carrying on the great work of the Reformation
lay it upon the Predestination of God and would excuse it by ignorance or say he cannot be good because he is otherwise destined which in the next words he calls A Stoical Opinion refuted by those words of Horace Nemo adeo ferus est c. But that which makes most against the absolute irrespective and irreversible Decree of Predestination whether it be life or death is the last clause of our second Article being the seventeenth of the Church as before laid down where it is said that we must receive Gods promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and that in all our doings that will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared to us in holy Scriptures And in the holy Scripture it is declared to us That God gave his Son for the World or for all mankind that Christ offered himself a Sacrifice for all the sins of the whole World that Christ redeemed all mankind that Christ commanded the Gospel to be preached to all that God wills and commands all men to hear Christ and to believe in him and in him to offer grace and salvation unto all men That this is the infallible truth in which there can be no falshood otherwise the Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospel preaching the same should be false witnesses of God and should make him a liar than which nothing can be more repugnant to the Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination which restrains Predestination unto life in a few particulars without respect had to their faith in Christ or Christs sufferings and death for them which few particulars so predestinate to eternal life shall as they tell us by an irresistible Grace be brought to God and by the infallible conduct of the holy Spirit persevere from falling away from grace and favour Nothing more contrary to the like absolute decree of Reprobation by which the infinitely greatest part of all mankind is either doomed remedilesly to the torments of Hell when they were but in the state of Creability as the Supralapsarians have informed us and unavoidably necessitated unto sin that they might infallibly be damn'd or otherwise as miserably leaving them under such a condition according to the Doctrine of the Sablapsarians which renders them uncapable of avoiding the wrath to come and consequently subjected them to a damnation no less certain than if they were created to no other purpose which makes it seem the greater wonder that Dr. Vsher afterwards Lord Primate of Ireland in drawing up the Article of predestination for the Church of Ireland Anno 1615. should take in so much as he doth of the Lambeth Articles and yet subjoyn this very clause at the foot thereof Article of Ireland Numb 12.14 17. which can no more concorporate with it than any of the most heterogeneous metals can unite into one piece of refined Gold which clause as it remaineth in the Articles of the Church of England how well it was applyed by King James and others in the Conference at Hampton Court we shall see hereafter In the mean time we must behold another Argument which fights more strongly against the positive decree of Reprobation than any of the rest before that is to say the reconciliation of all men to Almighty God the universal redemption of mankind by the death of Christ expresly justified and maintained by the Church of England For though one in our late undertaking seem exceeding confident that the granting of universal redemption will draw no inconvenience with it as to the absoluteness of Gods decrees or to the insuperability of converting Grace Cap. 10. or to the certain infallible perseverance of Gods Elect aftec Conversion Yet I dare say he will not be so confident in affirming this That if Christ did so far die for all as to procure a salvation for all under the condition of faith and repentance as his own words are there can be any room for such an absolute decree of Reprobation Antecedaneous and precedent to the death of Christ as his great Masters in the School of Calvin have been pleased to teach him Now for the Doctrine of this Church in that particular it is exprest so clearly in the second Article of the five before laid down that nothing needs be added either in way of explication or of confirmation howsoever for avoiding of all doubt and hesitancy we will first add some farther testimonies touching the Doctrine of this Church in the point of universal Redemption And secondly touching the applying of so great a benefit by universal Vocation and finally we shall shew the causes why the benefit is not effectual unto all alike And first as for the Doctrine of Universal Redemption it may be further proved by those words in the publick Catechism where the Child is taught to say that he believeth in God the Son who redeemed with him all mankind in that clause of the publick Letany where God the Son is called the Redeemer of the World in the passages of the latter Exhortation before the Communion where it is said That the Oblation of Christ once offered was a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD in the proper Preface appointed for the Communion on Easter day in which he is said to be the very Paschal Lamb that was offered for us and taketh away the sins of the world repeated in the Gloria in excelsis to the same effect Hom. Salvation p. 13. And finally in the Prayer of Conservation viz. Almighty God our heavenly Father which of thy tender mercies didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to suffer death upon the Cross for our Redemption who made there by his own Oblation of himself once offered a firm and perfect and sufficient Sacrifice Oblation and Satisfaction for the sins of the WHOLE WORLD To this purpose it is said in the book of Homilies That the World being wrapt up in sin by the breaking of Gods Law God sent his only Son our Saviour Christ into this world to fulfil the Law for us and by shedding of his most precious blood to make a Sacrifice and Satisfaction or as it may be called amends to his Father for our sins to asswage his wrath and indignation conceived against us for the same Out of which words it may be very well concluded That the World being wrapt up in sin the Recompence and Satisfaction which was made to God must be made to him for the sins of the World or else the plaister had not been commensurate to the sore nor so much to the magnifying of Gods wonderful mercies in the offered means of Reconcilement betwixt God and man the Homily must else fall short of that which is taught in the Articles In which besides what was before delivered from the second and 31. concerning the Redemption of the world by the death of Christ it is affirmed in the 15. as plain as may be That
world The like saith Bishop Hooper also telling us Pref. to his Exposition There was no diversity in Christ of Jew or Gentile that it was never forbid but that all sorts of people and every propeny of the World to be made partakers of the Jews Religion And then again in the example of the Ninevites Thou hast saith he good Christian Reader the mercy of God and general promise of salvation performed in Christ for whose sake only God and man were set at one The less assistance we had from Bishop Hooper in the former points the more we shall receive in this touching the causes why this great benefit is not made effectual unto all alike Concerning which he lets us know That to the obtaining the first end of his justice he allureth as many as be not utterly wicked and may be helped Ibid. partly with threatnings and partly with promises and so provoketh them unto amendment of life c. and would have all men to be saved therefore provoketh now by fair means now by foul that the sinner should satisfie his just and righteous pleasure not that the promises of God appertain to such as will not repent or his threatnings unto him that doth repent but these means he useth to save his creature this way useth he to nurture us until such time as the holy Spirit worketh such a perfection in us that we will obey him though there were neither pain nor joy mentioned at all And in another place more briefly That if either out of a contempt or hate of Gods Word we fall into sin and transform our selves into the image of the Devil then we exclude our selves by this means from the promises and merits of Christ Serm. 1. Sund. after Epiph. Bishop Latimer to the same point also His salvation is sufficient to satisfie for all the World as concerning it self but as concerning us he saveth no more than such as put their trust in him and as many as believe in him shall be saved the other shall be cast out as Infidels into everlasting damnation not for lack of salvation but for infidelity and lack of faith which is the only cause of their damnation One word more out of Bishop Hooper to conclude this point which in fine is this To the Objection saith he touching that S. Peter speaketh of such as shall perish for their false doctrine c. this the Scripture answereth that the promise of grace appertaineth to every sort of men in the world and comprehendeth them all howbeit within certain limits and bounds the which if men neglect to pass over they exclude themselves from the promise of Christ CHAP. XI Of the Heavenly influences of Gods grace in the Conversion of a Sinner and mans co-operation with those Heavenly influences 1. The Doctrine of Deserving Grace ex congruo maintained in the Roman Schools before the Council of Trent rejected by our ancient Martyrs and the Book of Articles 2. The judgment of Dr. Barns and Mr. Tyndal touching the necessary workings of Gods grace on the will of man not different from that of the Church of England 3. Vniversal grace maintained by Bishop Hooper and proved by some passages in the Liturgy and Book of Homilies 4. The offer of Vniversal grace made ineffectual to some for want of faith and to others for want of repentance according to the judgment of Bishop Hooper 5. The necessity of Grace preventing and the free co-operation of mans will being so prevented maintained in the Articles in the Homilies and the publick Liturgy 6. The necessity of this co-operation on the part of man defended and applied to the exercise of a godly life by Bishop Hooper 7. The Doctrine of Irresistibility first broached by Calvin pertinaciously maintained by most of his followers and by Gomarus amongst others 8. Gainsaid by Bishop Hooper and Bishop Latimer 9. And their gainsayings justified by the tenth Article of King Edwards Books And 10. The Book of Homilies THIS leads me unto the Disputes touching the influences of Grace and the co-operation of mans will with those Heavenly influences in which the received Doctrine of the Church of Rome seems to have had some alteration to the better since the debating and concluding of those points in the Council of Trent before which time the Doctrine of the Roman Schools was thought to draw too near to the lees of Pelagianism to ascribe too much to mans Free-will or so much to it at the least as by the right use of the powers of nature might merit grace ex congruo as the School-men phrase it of the hands of God Against this it was that Dr. Barnes declared as before was said in his discourse about Free-will and against which the Church of England then declared in the 13 Article His works p. 821. affirming That such works as are done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of his Spirit do not make men meet to receive grace or as the School-men say deserve grace of Congruity Against which Tyndal gives this note That Free-will preventeth not Grace which certainly he had never done if somewhat to the contrary had not been delivered in the Church of Rome and against which it was declared by John Lambert another of our ancient Martyrs in these following words viz. Concerning Free-will saith he I mean altogether as doth S. Augustine that of our selves we have no liberty nor ability to do the will of God but are subject unto sin Acts and Mn. fol. 1009. and thrals of the same conclusi sub peccato or as witnesseth S. Paul But by the grace of God we are rid and set at liberty according to the proportion that every man hath taken of the same some more some less But none more fully shewed himself against this opinion than Dr. Barnes before remembred not touching only on the by Collection of his works by I. D. sol 266. but writing a Discourse particularly against the errours of that time in this very point But here saith he we will search what strength is of man in his natural power without the Spirit of God to will or do those things that be acceptable before God unto the fulfilling of the will of God c. A search which had been vain and needless if nothing could be found which tended to the maintenance of acting in spiritual matters by mans natural power without the workings of the Spirit And therefore he saith very truly That man can do nothing by his Free-will as Christ teacheth for without me ye can do nothing c. where it is opened that Free-will without Grace can do nothing he speak not of eating and drinking though they be works of Grace but nothing that is fruitful that is meritorious that is worthy of thanks that is acceptable before God To which effect we also find these brief Remembrances Mans Free-will without Gods Grace can do nothing that is good p. 268. that all which
could challenge or pretend to any such certainty quoad statum futurum or build on a continual perseverance in it for the time to come For even those men who stickled most in maintenance of the certainty of Grace quoad statum praesentem concurred with those who maintained the uncertainty of perseverance together with the possibility of falling totally and finally from the Grace received for which see Chap. 2. Num. Appell Caes part 2. cap. 26. 8. of this present Book But the Calvinists being men of another making presume not only as one saith of them to know all things that belong to their present justification a assuredly as they know that Christ in Heaven but are as sure of their eternal election and of their future glorification as they are of this Article of our Creed that Christ was born of the Virgin Mary And that he may not be thought to have spoken this without good authority we need look no farther than the fifth Article of the Contra-Remonstrants which was disputed at the Hague according as it is laid down in our fourth Chap. Numb 7. compared with the determination of the Council of Dort touching the point of perseverance the sum whereof is briefly this viz. That God will preserve in the Faith all those who are absolutely elected from eternity and are in time brought to faith by an almighty and irresistible operation or working so that though they fall into detestable wickednesses and villanies and continue in them some space of time Arcan Dry. Anti Remo p. 21. against their conscience yet the said wicked villanies do not binder so much as a straw amounts to their election or salvation neither do they or can they by means of or because of these fall from the Grace of Adoption and from the state of Justification or lose their faith but all their sins how great soever they be both which heretofore they have committed and those which after they will or shall commit are surer than assuredly forgiven them yea and moreover they themselves at last though it be at the last gasp shall be called to repentance and brought out into possession of salvation To which determination of the Synod it self it may be thought impertinent to subjoyn the words and suffrages of particular men though those of Roger Dontebeck are by no means to be omitted by whom is affirmed That if it were possible for any one man to commit all the sins over again which have been acted in the world it would neither frustrate his election nor alienate him from the love and favour of God For which and many other passages of like nature too frequent in the writings of the Contra-Remonstrants the Reader may consult the Appendix to the book called Press-Declaratio Sententiae Remonstrantium printed at Leiden Anno 1616. and there he may he satisfied in his curiosity But on the other side such as have looked into the mysteries of eternal life with the eye of Reverence are neither so confident in the point nor so unadvised in their expressions as Donlebeck and others of the presumptuous sort of our modern Calvinists Moun. against the Gagger c. 22. p. 185. by whom we are informed that all assurance is twofold that is to say in respect of the object known believed and in regard of the subject believing knowing As man relieth upon his Evidence or as his Evidence to relie upon that all Evidence is divine or humane from God or man that Evidence divine if apprehended is over certain and infallible both for the necessity of our object God in whom is no change nor shadow of change as also for the manner of determining the Evidence whereby that is certain or necessary for effect which is but contingent otherwise in it self that such Evidence as is most clear and such assurance as is most certain in it self may be contingent and uncertain as we may both use it and dispose it who are here and there off and on as our judgments vary being irresolute in our ways and as inconstant in our works And thereupon it is inferred in behalf of those who maintain the infallibility of such assurance that they mean no otherwise than this that is to say that in regard of God faithful and true in respect of his promises Yea and Amen every Child of God renewed by Grace may and ought infallibly assure himself of his own salvation procured in Christ who yet in regard of his own infirmity and inconstancy cannot chuse but waver in his assurance and fear the worst though he hope the best And this if Bellarmine say right is St. Augustines doctrine out of whom he collects thus much Ex promissione Christi potest unusquisque colligere se transisse à morte ad vitam in judicium non venire that is to say that every man he means it only of the regenerate man may collect from the promise of Christ that he is translated from death to life and shall not be brought unto the judgment of condemnation the Cardinal thereupon resolves that a man may collect so much by infallible assurance and divine if he look into the faithfulness of him that promiseth but if he consider his own disposition we assign no more but probable and conjectural assurance only Which said as to the certainty and incertainty of the assurance which a man may have within himself not only concerning his present being in the state of Grace as his continuance and perseverance in it for time to come we must next look into the Doctrine of this Church in the point it self For having formerly maintained in the tenth Article of her Confession that there remains a freedom of the Will in man for laying or not laying hold upon those means which are offered by the Grace of God for our salvation she must by consequence maintain also that there is a freedom from the Will in standing unto Grace received or departing from it Certain I am that it is so resolved in the sixteenth Article for her Confession in which it is declared that after we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from the Grace given and fall into sin and by the Grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives Art 16. where plainly the Church teacheth a possibility of falling or departing from the Graceof the Holy Ghost which is given unto us and that our rising again and amending of our lives upon such a rising is a matter of contingency only and no way necessary on Gods part to assure us of a Doctrine so repugnant to that of the Calvinists that to make the Article come up to their opinion they would fain add neither finally nor totally as appears by that of Doctor Reynolds at Hampton Court to the first clause of it By which addition as they would make the last part of it to be absolutely unprofitable and of no effect so do they wilfully oppose themselves against the known
Falling from the grace of God according to the Doctrine of the Church of England And hereunto I must needs say that I never met with any satisfactory and sufficient Answer how much soever some have slighted the authority of it or the strength rather of the Argument which is taken from it for Mr. Yetes of Ipswitch from whose Candle most of them that followed borrow all their light in his book intituled Ibis ad Caesarem written against Mountagues Appeal can find no better Answers to it or evasions from it than they four that follow viz. 1. That the Homily speaks of the visible Church and therefore it is not to be construed in the same sense of all whereas the Homily speaketh of Gods chosen people Ibid. ad Cas p. 2. c. 3. p. 139. his chosen Vineyard are the words and consequently not only of the mixed multitude in a visible Church He answers secondly That it speaks with limitation and distinction some beholding the face of Gods mercy aright other not as they ought to do the one of which may fall quite away the other being transformed can never be wholly deformed by Satan but this is such a pitiful shift as could not save the man from the scorn of laughter had he been deal with in his kind the Homily speaking largely of those men which having beheld Gods face of mercy in Jesus Christ as they ought to do do afterwards neglect the same prove unthankful to him and order not their lives according to his Example and Doctrine c. For which consult the place at large in the former Church He answers thirdly that the Homily speaks conditionally if they afterwards c. that is to say if afterwards they neglect the same prove unthankful to him and order not their lives according to his Example and Doctrine c. and so concludes nothing positively and determinately which is a sorrier shift than that which you had before for if such conditional Propositions conclude nothing positively what will become of all those Propositions in the Scriptures by which we are assured That if a sinner do repent him of his sins wickednesses he shall find mercy from the Lord Do they conclude nothing positively neither most miserable were the state of man if these conditional Propositions should conclude nothing to the comfort of a troubled conscience And finally he answereth thus that the Homily speaks of Gods dreadful countenance appearing in Plagues Sword Famine and such like temporal punishments wherewith the Elect may be chastened as well as others that they may not for ever be condemned with the wicked the first part of which Allegation I confess to be true Gods judgments falling promiscuously on all sorts of people but the addition is unknown and is not to be found in the words of the Homily And secondly the Homily speaks not only of Gods temporal judgments with which the Elect be chastened as well as others that they may not for ever be condemned with the wicked but positively and determinately of taking from them his Kingdom and holy Word as in the former so that they shall be no longer in his Kingdom governed no longer by his holy Spirit put from the Grace and benefit which they had c. But Master Yates intends not so to leave the matter we must first see that he is as good at raising an Objection as at the making of an Answer and he objecteth out of another of he Homilies that though the godly do fall yet they walk not on purposely in sin they stand not still to continue and tarry in sin they sit not down like careless men Hom. of certain places of Scripture fol. 150. without all fear of Gods just punishment for sin through Gods great grace and infinite mercy they rise again and fight against sin c. But first it may be hoped that Master Yates could not be ignorant how great a difference there is betwixt such passages as fall occasionally and on the by from the pen of a Writer discoursing on another Argument and those which do occur in such Discourses Sermons and other Tractates as purposely are made and fitted to the point in hand And secondly though it be affirmed in the said Homily that the godly man which shall add sin to sin by Gods great grace and infinite mercy may arise again and fight against sin Yet can it not be gathered thence that it is so at all times and in all such cases that is to say that neither the great grace nor his infinite mercy shall be wanting at any time unto such as are fallen from God or that man shall not be wanting to himself in making a right use of it to his rising again And then this passage in the Homily will affirm no more to this purpose than the Article doth Art 16. where it is said that after we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from grace given and fall into sin and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our lives Now to these testimonies from the Homilies the publick Liturgy and the writings of the Learned men and Godly Martyrs before remembred it will not be amiss to add one more that is to say Master Lancelot Ridley Arch-Deacon of Canterbury who by his name seems to have had relation to Doctor Nicholas Ridley Bishop of London and by his office to Doctor Cranmer Arch-bishop of Canterbury the two chief Agents in the work of the Reformation This man had published some Expositions on Saint Pauls Epistles to the Ephesians and Philippians as he did afterwards on that to the Collossians also which last was printed by Richard Grafton 1548. At which time both the first Liturgy and the first book of Homilies were in force and practice and therefore was not like to contain any point of Doctrine repugnant unto either of them And if we look upon him in his Comment upon the Epistle we shall find him thus declare himself in the points disputed which I will lay all together according to the method formerly observed in setting down the Articles sor points themselves For first in reference to Election unto life eternal he telleth us That all fulness of the Father is said to dwell in Christ Ridley in Colâ—s cap. 1 6. that all men should know all the goodness they have to come of God by Christ to them and all that believe in Christ should not perish but be saved and should have life everlasting by Christ with the Fâ—ther Liâ—â— in cap. 2. P. 1. And afterwards speaking on those vertues which St. Paul commends in the Elect he tells us That those vertues do shew unto us who be elected of God and who not as far as man can judge of outward things and that those men may be concluded to be elected of God who hate all vice and sin that love vertue and godly living and in it do walk all their life-time by true faith and
know withal which that Author doth not that he did truly die and was truly buried ut iratum humano generi Patrem suavissimo sacrificio placaret that by so sweet a Sacrifice he might reconcile his angry and offended Father unto all Man-kind 3. In the third place by asking this question viz. Whether the Spirit alone and Faith sleep we never so securely or stand we never so wreckless or slothful work all things for us as without any help of our own to carry us to Heaven He plainly sheweth first that some me there were who did so conceive it but that they were to be condemned for conceiving so of it And secondly that all men were to lend a helping hand toward their salvation not only by laying hold on Christ with the hand of faith but in being fruitful of good works without which faith is neither to be reckoned true and lively or animated by the Holy Ghost 4. He telleth us finally that the Chuch is the company of them that are called to eternal life by the Holy Ghost by whom she is guided and governed And yet it cannot but be feared that many of those who are called to eternal life by the Holy Ghost and chearfully for a time obey the calling and live continually within the pale of the Church which is guided by the most bllessed Spirit do fall away from God and the grace received and thereby bring themselves into a state of damnation from which they never do recover by sincere repentance As little comfort can be drawn from that Argument by which they hope to make the Articles in these points to speak no otherwise than according to the sense of Martin Bucer Godw. Annal. in Edw. 6. and Peter Martyr by whose Disciples and Auditors they are alledged to have been composed or at the least by such as held consent with them in Doctrine but unto this it hath been answered that our first reformers were Arch-Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons most of them too old to be ut to School again to either of them Secondly the first Liturgy of King Edward VI. which was the Key to the whole work was finished confirmed and put in execution before either of them were brought over dispatcht soon after their arrival to their several chairs Martyr to the Divinity Lecture in Oxon and Bucer unto that of Cambridge where he lived not long And dying so quickly as he did Luctu Academiae as my Author hath it though he had many Auditors there yet could he not gain many Disciples in so short a time Thirdly that though Peter Martyr lived to see the Death of King Edward and consequently the end of the Convocation Ann. 1552. in which the Articles of Religion were first composed and agreed on yet there was little use made of him in advising and much less in directing any thing which concerned that business for being a stranger and but one and such an one who had no Authority in Church or State he could not be considered as a Master-builder though some use might be made of him as a labourer to advance the work And fourthly as to their consent in point of doctrine it must be granted in such things and in such things only in which hey joyn together against the Papists not in such points wherein those Learned men agreed not between themselves and therefore could be no foundation of consent in others For they who have consulted the Lives and Writings of these Learned men have generally observed that Bucer having spent the most part of his time in the Lutheran Churches was more agreeable to the doctrines which were there maintained as Martyr who was most conversant amongst the Suitzers shewed himself more inclinable to the Zuinglian or Calvinian Tenants And it is generally observed also that Bucer was a man of moderate counsel and for that received a check from Calvin at his first coming hither putting him in remembrance of his old fault for a fault he thought it Mediis consiliis Autorem esse vel approbatorem of being an Author or an approver of such moderate courses as the hot and fiery temper of the Calvinists could by no means like And governing himself with such moderation he well approved of the first Liturgy translated into Latine by Alexander Alesius a learned Scot that he might be the better able to understand the composure of it and pass his judgment on the same accordingly And yet it cannot bedenied but that there are many passages in the first Liturgy which tend directly to the maintenance of universal Redemption by the death of Christ of the co-operation of mans will with the grace of God and finally of the possibility of falling from that grace and other the benefits and fruits thereof before received In which last point it is affirmed that he amongst some others of the Protestant Doctors assented to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome at the Dyet at Ratisbone And it is more than probable that Peter Martyr was not Peter Martyr I mean that he was not the same man as the Zuinglian and Calvinian Doctrine is and his espousing the same being here as he was after his departure when he had spent some further time amongst the Suitzers and was thereby grown a nearer neighbour unto Calvin than he was in England For whereas his book of Common-Places Anti-arm p. 79.83 94 102 103 108 c. and his Commentary to St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans are most insisted on for the proof of his Calvinism it appears plainly by his Epistle to Sir Anthony Coke that the last was not published till the year 1558. which was more than five years after his leaving of this Kingdom And as for his book of Common-Places although it was Printed first at London yet it received afterwards two impressions more the one at Zurick and the other at Basil before the last Edition of it by Massonius after his decease Ann. 1576. By which Edition being that which is in Oxon Library and probably remaining only in the hands of Students or in the private Libraries of Colleges it will be hard if not impossible to judge of his opinion in these points when he lived in England And now Iam fallen amongst these strangers it will not be amiss to consult the Paraphrases of Erasmus in the English tongue Vide Chap. 8. Sect. 3. Chap. 17. Sect. 4. which certainly had never been commended to the reading both of Priest and People as well by the injunctions of Queen Eliz. as K. Edw. VI. if they had contained in them any other Doctrine than what is consonant to the Articles the Homilies and the publick Liturgy of this Church Paraph. Erasm fol. 434. Now in his Paraphrase on the third Chapter of St. John v. 16. we shall find it thus Who saith he would have believed the charity of God to have been so great towards the world being rebellious against him and guilty of so many great faults
consequenty the only cause and worker of all evil yea even with compulsion and force as they shamefully and plainly affirm then will no man deny but that on the other side Gods Predestination worketh as violently in all things that are good so then if Gods Predestination work all without all exception both in evil and good then all other things whatsoever they be although they all appear to work and do some things yet do they indeed utterly nothing So that the Devil doth nothing Man doth nothing Laws do nothing Doctrine doth nothing Prayer doth nothing but Gods Predestination doth all together and is the efficient cause yea and the only cause of all things He further proves that according unto this position August Retrac l. a. c. 9. 11. they hold the Errour both of the Stoicks as also of the Manicheans that is to say Ibid. p. 26. as St. Augustine declareth that evil hath his original of Gods Ordinance and not of mans freewill for if Murtherers Adulterers Thieves Traitors and Rebels be of God predestinated and appointed to be wicked even as they are cannot chuse but of meer necessity by the Ordinance of God commit all such wickedness even as they do then what is our life but a meer destiny All our doing Gods Ordinances and all our imaginations branches of Gods Predestination And then we must have Thieves by Predestination Whoremasters and Adulterers by Predestination Murderers and Traitors by Predestination and indeed what not if all mens actions are necessitated by the Will of God and so necessitated that they can neither do less evil nor more good than they do though they should never so much endeavour it as some of our Calvinians teach us which Opinion as Campneys hath observed Ibid. p. 45. is condemned by Prosper of Aquitane in his defence of St. Augustine in these following words Predestinationem dei sive ad malum sive ad bonum c. Prosp 1. Resp ad Object Gal. 6. That the predestination of God saith he doth work in all men either into good or into evil is most foolishly said As though a certain necessity should drive men unto both seeing in good things the evil is not to be understood wthout grace and in evil things the evil is to be understood without grace And so much touching Campneys and his performance in the points against the Gospellers some passages having before been borrowed from him concerning Lambert Gynnel and his Adherents For which see Chap. 6. Numb 11. No sooner was this book come out but it gave a very strong alarum to those of the Calvinian party within this Realm which had been very much encreased by the retiring of so many of our learned men to the Zuinglian and Genevian Churches in Queen Maries days amongst which none more eager because more concerned than Veron Crowly above mentioned The first of these being reader of the Divinity Lecture in the Church of St. Pauls and one of the Chaplains to the Queen published his Answer shortly after called An Apology or Defence of the Doctrine of predestination and dedicated to the Queen in which Answer he gives his Adversary no better Titles than the blind guide of the free-will men p. 37. A very Pelagian and consequently a Rank Papist p. 40. Suffering the Devil by such sectaries as Campneys to sow his lyes abroad c. and 41. The Standard-bearer of the free-will men His book he calls a venomous and Railing book upbraids him with his bearing of a faggot in King Edwards days and challenging him that if he be able to maintain his own Doctrine and oppose that in the answer to it let him come forth and play the man Nor was it long before another Answer came out by the name of Crowly called an Apology or defence of the English Writers and Preachers with Cerberus the three headed dog of Hell Chargeth with false Doctrine under the name of Predestination printed at London in the year 1566. And by the Title of this Book as we may see with what a strange Genius the Gospellers or Calvinians were possessed from the first beginning we may well conjecture at the Gentle usage which the poor man was like to find in the whole Discourse But if it be objected in favour of these two books that they were published by Authority and according to Order when that of Campneys seems to have been published by stealth without the Name of Author or of Printer as is affirmed in Verons book before remembred It may be since answered that the Doctrine of the Church was then unsetled the Articles of King Edwards time being generally conceived to be out of force and no new established in their place when Veron first entred on the cause And secondly it may be answered that though Crowlyes Apology came not out till the year 1566 when the new Articles were agreed upon yet his Treatice called a Confutation of thirteen Articles which gave occasion to the Quarrel had been written many years before And he conceived himself obliged to defend his Doctrine and get as good countenance to it as he could within a time especially intent on suppressing Popery might be no hard matter for him to do And as to that part of the Objections which relate to Campneys and his suppessing of his Name I look upon it as a high part of wisdom in him in regard of the great sway which the Calvinians had at their first coming over the prejudice conceived against him for his slips and sufferings in the Reign of K. Edward and the Authority of the men against whom he writ Veron a Chaplain to the Queen Crowly of great esteem in London for his diligent preaching and Knox the great Directer of the Kirk of Scotland CHAP. XVII Of the Disputes among the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries days and the Resetling of the Church on her former Principles under Queen Elizabeth 1. The Doctrine of Predestination disputed amongst the Confessors in Prison in Queen Maries days 2. The Examination of John Carelese before Dr. Martin in reference to the said Disputes 3. Considerations on some passages in the Conference betwixt Dr. Martin and the said John Carelese 4. Review made of the publick Liturgy by the command of Queen Elizabeth and the Paraphrases of Erasmus commended to the reading both of Priest and People 5. The second book of Homilies how provided for and of the liberty taken by the Gospellers and Zuinglian Sectaries before the reviewing and confirming of the Book of Articles by the Queens Authority 6. Of the reviewing and authority of the Book of Articles Anno 1562. and what may be from thence inferred 7. An answer from the Agreement drawn from the omitting the ninth Article of King Edwards Book the necessity of giving some content to the Zuinglian Gospellers and difficulty wherewith they were induced to subscribe the Book at the first passing of the same 8. The Argument taken from some passages in
which more hereafter Notice whereof being taken of those which were of most Authority in the Government of the Church it was thought necessary for the preventing of the mischief which might thence ensue that the Articles of Religion published in King Edwards time 1552. should be brought under a Review accommodated to the use of the Church and made to be the standing rule by which all persons were to regulate and confirm their Doctrines And to this end a Convocation was assembled on the 13. of January Ann. 1562. which continued till the 14th day of April the main business which was acted in it being the canvasing and debating of the Articles of King Edwards book and passing them in the form and manner in which now they stood which business as they took first into consideration on the 19th of January and diligently prosecuted from day to day by the Bishops and Clergy in their several houses they came to an agreement on the 29th of the same month on which the said Articles were publickly recited generally approved and subscribed by the greatest part of the Clergy which were then assembled And being so subscribed presented to the Queen and ratified by her Royal Authority were forthwith published to the same end for which they were made that is to say For the avoiding of diversities of opinions and for the stablishing of consent touching true Religion as in the title is declared In the composing of which book though a clause was added to the twentieth Article and another taken from the third though some Articles of King Edwards were totally omitted and some new made as that amongst the rest for confirmation of the second Book of Homilies which were not in the book before yet the five Articles touching the Doctrine of the Church in the points disputed as they stand in the eighth Chapter of this book were left in that same state in which they found them And being left in the same state in which they found them were to be taken in the same sense in which they had been understood at the first making of them according to such illustrations as occur in the book of Common Prayer such explanations as are found in the book of Homilies and the judgment of those Learned men and godly Martyrs which had a principal hand in the Reformation so that the Articles being the same as to these particulars the paraphrases of Erasmus state the same the publick Liturgy and the first book of Homilies in all points the same and the second book of Homilies agreeing exactly with the first in the present controversies as appears by the three first Sections of the seventh Chapter of this book and that which follows in the next there is no question to be made but that the doctrine was the same in the said five points which had been publickly allowed of in the time of King Edward But against this it may be said that one of the material Articles of King Edwards book in reference to the points disputed was totally left out of this and therefore that there was some alteration of the Churches judgment as to the sense and meaning of the present Articles which Article being the tenth in number as it stands in that book is there delivered in these words viz. Gratia Christi seu spiritus sanctus qui per eundem datur c. The grace of Christ or the Holy Ghost which is given by him doth take from man the heart of stone and giveth him a heart of flesh And though by the influences thereof it rendreth us willing to do those good works which before we were unwilling to do and unwilling to do those evil works which before we did voluntati tamen nullam violentiam infert yet is no violence offered by it to the will of man nor can any man when he hath sinned excuse himself quasi volens aut coactus peccaverit as if he had finned against his will or upon constraint and therefore that he ought not to be accused or condemned upon that account For answer whereunto it may first be said that the Composers of that Book thought ir not fit to clog it with any unnecessary points in which the peace and safety of the Church seemeth not much concerned and therefore as they left out the present Article so they omitted the sixteenth touching the blasphemy against the Holy Chost together with the four last of King Edwards Book touching the general Resurrection the state of means souls after death the Doctrine of the Millinaries and of a general salvation to be given to the wicked also after they had endured the pains of Hell for a certain time Secondly they considered that the doctrine of mans free Co-operation with the grace of God had been sufficiently expressed and provided for by the tenth Article of this Book and the ninth of which illustrated by divers passages in the publick Liturgy accommodated and applied to the most encrease of piety in the book of Homilies therefore that there was no great need to contend about it or to retain it in the Book And somewhat also must be done the point being so secured and provided for as before was said to content the Zuinglians or Calvinians by which last name they were afterwards more generally called who were grown strong and numerous in most parts of the Realm Insomuch that many of them did not refuse to subscribe the book and were complained of for that cause by the Prolocutor to the House of Bishops desiring that an order might be presently made to cause them to subscribe their names to the said Article either in their own house or before their Lordships which order being made on the fifth of February the Prolocutor signified to the Archbishop and Bishops in the name of the lower House of Convocation that some of the Refusers had subscribed and that others still persisted in their former obstinacy And thereupon the Bishops ordered the same day the tenth of February quod nomina eorum qui hactenus non subscripserant presententur coram iis in proxima sessione that is to say that the names of such who still refused to subscribe should be presented to their Lordships at the next Session which put an end to the dispute for after this I hear no more of their refusals the subscription of the book being universal as appears by this memorial in the journal of the Convocation viz. universus clerus eosdem etiam unanimiter recepit professus est ut ex manuum suarum subscriptionibus patet that is to say that all the Clergy did unanimously approve the said Articles and testified their consent therein as by the subscription of their hands doth and may appear so difficult a thing it was from the first beginning to bring that violent and head-strong faction unto any conformity In the next place it is objected that Mr. Alexander Nowel Dean of Saint Pauls who was Prolocutor in this Convocation
XVIII A Declaration of the Doctrine in the Points disputed under the new establishment made by Queen Elizabeth 1. the Doctrine of the second Book of Homilies concerning the wilful fall of Adam the miserable estate of man the restitution of lost man in Jesus Christ and the universal redemption of all man-kind by his death and passion 2. The doctrine of the said second Book concerning universal grace the possibility of a total and final falling and the co-operation of mans will with the grace of God 3. The judgment of Reverend Bishop Jewel touching the universal redemption of mankind by the death of Christ Predestination grounded upon faith in Christ and reached out unto all them that believe in him by Mr. Alexander Poynets 4. Dr. Harsnet in his Sermon at St. Pauls Cross Anno 1584. sheweth that the absolute decree of Reprobation turneth the truth of God into a lie and makes him to be the Author of sin 5. That it deprives man of the natural freedom of his will makes God himself to be double minded to have two contrary wills and to delight in mocking his poor Creature Man 6. And finally that it makes God more cruel and unmerciful than the greatest Tyrant contrary to the truth of Scripture and the constant Doctrine of the Fathers 7. The rest of the said Sermon reduced unto certain other heads directly contrary to the Calvinian Doctrines in the points disputed 8. Certain considerations on the Sermon aforesaid with reference to the subject of it as also to the time place and persons in and before which it was first preached An Answer to some Objections concerning a pretended Recantation falsly affirmed to have been made by the said Mr. Harsnet 10. That in the judgment of the Right Learned Dr. King after Bishop of London the alteration of Gods denounced judgments in some certain cases infers no alteration in his Counsels the difference between the changing of the will and to will a charge 11. That there is something in Gods decrees revealed to us and something concealed unto himself the difference between the inferiour and superiour causes and of the conditionalty of Gods threats and promises 12. The accommodating of the former part of this discourse to the case of the Ninevites 13. And not the case of the Ninevites to the case disputed THese Obstacles being thus removed I shall proceed unto a Declaration of the Churches Doctrine under this new establishment made by Queen Elizabeth And first all Arguments derived from the publick Liturgy and the first book of Homilies being still in force we will next see what is delivered in the Homilies of the second part establisht by a special Article and thereby made a part of the doctrine here by Law established And first as touching the doctrine of Predestination it is declared in the Homily of the Nativity That as in Adam all men universally sinned so in Adam all men received the reward of sin that is to say became mortal and subject unto death having in themselves nothing but everlasting condemnation both of body and soul that man being in this wretched case ti pleased God to make a new Covenant with him namely that he would send a Mediator or Messias into the world which should make intercession and put himself as a stay between both parties to pacifie wrath and indignation conceived against sin and to deliver man out of the miserable curse and cursed misery whereunto he was fallen headlong by disobeying the Will and Commandment of the only Lord and Maker Nor secondly was this deliverance and redemption partial intended only for a few but general and universal for all man-kind the said Homily telling us not long after that all this was done to the end the promise and covenant of God made unto Abraham and his Posterity Hom. p. 172. concerning the Redemption of the World might be credited and believed to deliver man-kind from the bitter curse of the Law and make perfect satisfaction by his death for the sins of all People For the accomplishment whereof It was expedient saith the Homily that our Mediator should be such an one as might take upon him the sins of Man-kind and sustain the due punishment thereof viz. Death to the intent he might more fully and perfectly make satisfaction for man-kind which is as plain as words can make it and yet not more plain than that which followeth in the Homily of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament Fol. 200. Nor doth the Homily speak less plainly in another place concerning Universal Grace than it doth speak to this in reference to Universal Redemption as appears evidently by the first part of the Sermon against the peril of Idolatry Hom. 1. part against the peril in which it is declared in the way of paraphrase on some passages in the 40. Chapter of the Prophet Isaiah That it had been preached to men from the beginning and how by the Creation of the World and the greatness of the work they might understand the Majesty of God the Creator and Maker of all things to be greater than it should be expressed in any image or bodily similitude And therefore by the light of the same instruction had they not shut their eyes against it they might have come unto a further knowledg of the Will of God and by degrees to the performance of all moral duties required of them before Christ coming in the flesh And in the third part of the same Sermon there are some passages which do as plainly speak of falling from God the final alienation of the Soul of a man once righteous from his love and favour Where it is said how much better in were that the Arts of Painting and we had never been found than one of them whose Souls are so precious in the sight of God should by occasion of Image or Picture perish and be lost And what can here be understood by the souls which are so precious in the sight of God but the souls of the Elect of justified and righteous persons the souls of wicked men being vile and odious in his sight hated by God as Esau was before all Eternity as the Calvinians do informs us And what else can we understand by being perished and lost but a total or final alienation of those precious souls Hom. of the Resurrection p. 139. from his grace and favour more plainly speaks the Homily of the Resurrection in which the Church represents unto us what shame it should be for us being thus clearly and freely washed from our sin to return to the filthiness thereof again What a folly it would be for us being thus endued with Righteousness to lose in again What a madness it would be to lose the inheritance we be now set in for the vile and transitory pleasure of sins And what an unkindness it would be where our Saviour Christ of his mercy is come unto us to dwell with us as our guest to drive him from
being thus discharged he shews in the next place Ibid. 48. that as God desireth not the death of man without relation to his sin so he desireth not the death of the sinful man or of the wicked sinful man but rather that they shoudl turn from their wickedness and live And he observes it is said unto the Goats in St. Matthews Gospel Ite malidicti in ignem paratum he doth not say Maledicti patris Go ye cursed of the Father as it is Benedicti patris when he speaks of the sheep God intituling himself to the blessing only and that the fire is prepared but for whom Non vobis sed Diabolo Angelis ejus not for you but for the Devil and his Angels So that God delighteth to prepare neither Death nor Hell for damned men The last branch of his Discourse he resolves into six consequences as links depending on his Chain 1. Gods absolute Will is not the cause of Reprobation but sin 2. No man is of an absolute necessity the child of Hell so as by Gods grace he may not avoid it 3. God simply willeth every living soul to be saved and to come to the Kingdom of Heaven 4. God sent his Son to save every soul and to bring it to the Kingdom of Heaven 5. God offereth Grace effectually to save every one and to direct him to the Kingdom of Heaven 6. The nelgect and contempt of this Grace is the cause why every one doth not come to Heaven and not any privative Decree Council and Determination of God The stating and canvasing of which points so plainly curtly to the Doctrines of che old Zuinglian Gospellers and the modern Calvinians as they take up the rest of the Sermon so to the Sermon I refer the Reader for his furtehr satisfaction in them I note this only in the close that there is none of the five Arminian Articles as they commonly call them which is not contained in terms express or may not easily be found by way of Deduction in one or more of the six consequences before recited Now in this Sermon there are sundry things to be considered as namely first That the Zuinglian or Calvinian Gospel in these points was grown so strong that the Preacher calls it their Goliah so huge and monstrous that many quaked and trembled at it but none that is to say but few or none vel duo vel nemo in the words of Persius durst take up Davids sling to throw it down Secondly That in canvasing the absolute Decree of Reprobation the Preacher spared none of those odious aggravations which have been charged upon the Doctrines of the modern Calvinists by the Remonstrants and their party in these latter times Thirdly That the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross the greatest Auditory of the Kingdom consisting not only of the Lord Mayor the Aldermen and the rest of the chief men in the City but in those times of such Bishops and other learned men as lived occasionally in London and the City of Westminster as also of the Judges and most learned Lawyers some of the Lords of the Council being for the most part present also Fourthly That for all this we cannot find that any offence was taken at it or any Recantation enjoyned upon it either by the high Commission or Bishop of London or any other having Authority in the Church of England nor any complaint made of it to the Queen or the Council-Table as certainly there would have been if the matter of the Sermon had been contrary to the Rules of the Church and the appointments of the same And finally we may observe that though he was made Archbiship of York in the Reign of King Charles 1628. when the times are thought to have been inclinable to those of the Arminian Doctrines yet he was made Master of Pembrook Hill Bishop of Chichester and from thence translated unto Norwich in the time of King James And thereupon we may conclude that King James neither thought this Doctrine to be against the Articles of Religion here by Law established nor was so great an Enemy to them or the men that held them as some of our Calvinians have lately made him But against this it is objected by Mr. Prin in his book of Perpetuity c. printed at London in the year 1627. 1. That the said Mr. Harsnet was convented for this Sermon and forced to recant it as Heretical 2. That upon this Sermon Perpetulty c. 304. and the Controversies that arose upon it in Cambridg between Baroe and Whitacres not only the Articles of Lambeth were composed of which more hereafter but Mr. Wotton was appointed by the University to confute the same 3. That the siad Sermon was so far from being published or printed that it was injoyned by Authority to be recanted For Answer whereunto it would first be known where the said Sermon was recanted and by whose Authority Not in or by the University of Cambridg where Mr. Harsnet lived both then and a long time after for the Sermon was preached at St. Pauls Cross and so the University could take no cognisance of it nor proceed against him for the same And if the Recantation was madea t St. Pauls Cross where the supposed offence was given it would be known by whose Authority it was enjoyned Not by the Bishop of London in whose Diocess the Sermon was preached for his Authority did not reach so far as Cambridg whither the Preacher had retited after he had performed the service he was called unto and if it were injoyned by the High Commission and performed accordingly there is no question to be made but that we should have heard of in the Anti-Arminianism where there are no less than eight leaves spend in relating the story of a like Recantation pretended to be made by one Mr. Barret on the tenth of May 1595. and where it is affirmed that the said Mr. Harsnet held and maintained the same errors for which Barret was to make his Recantation But as it will be proved hereafter that no such Recantation wass made by Barret so we have reason to believe that no such Recantation was imposed on Harsnet Nor secondly can it be made good that the Controversies between Doctor Whitacres and Dr. Baroe were first occasioned by this Sermon or that Mr. Wotton was appointed by the University to confute the same For it appears by a Letter written from the heads of that University to their Chancellor the Lord Treasurer Burleigh dated March 18. 1595. that Baroe had maintained the same Doctrines and his Lectures and Determinations above 14 years before by their own account for which see Chap. 21. Numb 80. which must be three years at the least before the preaching of that Sermon by Mr. Harsnet And though it is probable enopugh that Mr. Wotton might give himself the trouble of confuting the Sermon yet it is more than probable that he was not required so to do by that
touching the subversion of Nineveh the other of her conversion kept within the heart of God Whereupon he changed the sentence pronounced but not the counsel whereunto the sentence weas referred 3. If you consider Nineveh in the inferiour cause that is in the deservings of Inineveh it shall fall to the ground but if you take it in the superiour cause in the goodness and clemency of Almighty God Nineveh shall escape Lastly the judgment was pronounced with a condition reserved in the mind of the judge Nineveh shall be overthrown if it repent not Now he that speaketh with condition may change his mind without suspition of lightness 2 Cor. 1. As Paul promised the Corinthians to come to them in his way towards Macedonia and did it not For he evermore added in his soul that condition which no man must exclude if it stand with the pleasure of God and he hinder me not Philip threatned the Lacedemonians that if he invaded their Country he would utterly extinguish them They wrote him no other answer but this If meaning it was a condition well put in because he was never like to come amongst them Si nisi non esset perfectum quidlibet esset If it were not for conditions and exceptions every thing would be perfect but nothing more unperfect than Nineveh if this secret condition of the goodness of God at the second hand had not been So far this Reverend Prelate hath discoursed of the nature of Gods decrees and accommodated his discourse thereof to the case of the Ninevites Let us next see how far the principal particulars of the said discourse and the case of the Ninevites it self my be accommodated to the Divine decree of Predestination concerning which the said Reverend Prelate was not pleased to declare his judgment either as being impertinent to the case which he had in hand or out of an unwillingness to engage himself in those disputes which might not suddenly be ended All that he did herein was to take care for laying down such grounds in those learned Lectures by which his judgment might be guessed at though not declared As Dr. Peter Baroe of whom more hereafter declared his judgment touching the Divine Decrees in the said case of the Ninevites before he fell particularly on the Doctrine of Predestination as he after did And first as for accommodating the case of the Ninevites to the matter which is now before us we cannot better do it than in the words of Bishop Hooper so often mentioned who having told us that Esau was no more excluded from the promise of grace than Jacob was Pres to his Expos on the ten Commandments proceedeth thus viz. By the Scripture saith he it seemeth that the sentence of God was given to save the one and damn the other before the one loved God or the other hated him Howbeit these threatnings of god against Esau if he had not of his wilful malice excluded himself from the promise of grace should no more have hindred his salvation than Gods threatnings against Nineveh which notwithstanding that God said should be destroyed within forty days stood a great time after and did penance Esau was circumcised and presented unto the Church of God by his Father Isaac in all external Ceremonies as well as Jacob. And that his life and conversation was not as agreeable unto justice and equity as Jacobs was the sentence of God unto Rebecca was not in the fault but his own malice Out of which words we may observe first that the sentence of God concerning Esau was not the cause that his conversation was so little agreeable to justice and equity no more than the judgment denounced against the Ninevites could have been the cause of their impenitency if they had continued in their sins and wickednesses without repentance contrary to the Doctrine of the Gospellers in Queen Maries days imputing all mens sins to Predestination Secondly that Gods threatnings against Esau supposing them to be tanta-mount to a reprobation could no more have hindred his salvation than the like threatning against the Ninevites could have sealed to them the assurance of their present destruction if he had heartily repented of his sins as the Ninevites did And therefore thirdly as well the decree of God concerning Esau as that which is set out against the Ninevites are no otherwise to be understood than under the condition tacitly annexed unto them that is to say that the Ninevites should be destroyed within forty days if they did not repent them of their sins and that Esau should be reprobated to eternal death if he gave himself over to the lusts of a sensual appetite Which if it be confessed for true as I think it must then fourthly the promises made by God to Jacob and to all such as are beloved of God as Jacob was and consequently their election unto life eternal are likewise to be understood with the like condition that is to say if they repent them of their sins and do unfainedly believe his holy Gospel The like may be affirmed also in all the other particulars touching Gods decrees with reference to the Doctrine of Predestination which are observed or accommodated by that learned Prelate in the case of the Ninevites had I sufficient time and place to insist upon them CHAP. XIX Of the first great breach which was made in the Doctrine of the Church by whom it was made and what was done towards the making of it up 1. Great alterations made in the face of the Church from the return of such Divines as had withdrawn themselves beyond Sea in the time of Queen Mary with the necessity of imploying them in the publick service if otherwise of known zeal against the Papists 2. Several examples of that kind in the places of greatest power and trust in the Church of England particularly of Mr. Fox the Martyrologist and the occasion which he took of publishing his opinion in the point of Predestination 3. His notes on one of the Letter of John Bradford Martyr touching the matter of election therein contained 4. The difference between the Comment and the Text and between the Author of the Comment and Bishop Hooper 5. Exceptions against some passages and observations upon others in the said Notes of Mr. Fox 6. The great breach made hereby in the Churches Doctrine made greater by the countenance which was given to the Book of Acts and Monuments by the Convocation An. 1571. 7. No argument to be drawn from hence touching the approbation of his doctrine by touching the approbation of his doctrine by that Convocation no more than for the Approbation of his Marginal Notes and some particular passages in it disgraceful to the Rites of the Church attire of the Bishops 8. A counterballance made in the Convocation against Fox his Doctrine and all other Novelisms of that kind IT was not long that Queen Mary sate upon the Throne and yet as short time as it was it gave
absolute will and pleasure yet he is fain to have recourse to some certain condition telling us that though the mercy of God his Grace Election Vocation and other precedent Causes do justifie us yet this is upon condition of believing in Christ And finally it is to be observed also that after all his pains taken in defending such a personal and eternal Election as the Calvinians now contend for he adviseth us to wrap up our selves wholly both body and soul under Gods general promise and not to cumber our heads with any further speculations knowing that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish c. And so I take my leave of our Martyrologist the publishing of those discourse I look on as the first great battery which was made on the Bulwarks of this Church in point of doctrine by any member of her own after the setling of the Articles by the Queens Authority Ann. 1562. the brables raised by Crowley in his Book against Campneys though it came out after the said Articles were confirmed and published being but as hail-shot in comparison of this great piece of Ordnance Not that the Arguments were so strong as to make any great breach in the publick Doctrine had it been published in a time less capable of innovations or rather if the great esteem which many had of that man and the universal reception which his Book found with all sorts of People had not gained more authority unto his discourse than the merit or solidness of it could deserve The inconveniencies whereof as also the many marginal Notes and other passages visibly tending to faction and sedition in most parts of that Book were either not observed at first or winked at in regard of the great animosities which were ingendred by it in all sorts of People as well against the persons of the Papists as against the doctrine Insomuch that in the Convocation of the year 1571. there passed some Canons requiring that not only the Deans of all Cathedrals should take a special care that the said Book should be so conveniently placed in their several Churches that people of all conditions might resort unto it but also that all and every Arch-Bishop Bishops Deans Residentiaries and Arch-Deacons should choose the same to be placed in some convenient publick room of their several houses not only for the entertainment and instruction of their menial servants but of such strangers also as occasionally repaired unto them If it be hereupon inferred that Fox his doctrine was approved by that Convocation and therefore that it is agreeable to the true intent and meaning of the Articles of the Church of England besides what hath been said already by Anticipation it may as logically be inferred that the Convocation approved all his marginal Notes all the factious and seditious passages and more particularly the scorn which he puts upon the Episcopal habit and other Ceremonies of the Church Touching which last for the other are too many to be here recited let us behold how he describes the difference which hapned between Hooper Bishop of Glocester on the one side Cranmer and Ridley on the other about the ordinary habit and attire then used by the Bishops of this Church we shall find it thus viz. Acts and Mon. so 1366 1367. For notwithstanding the godly reformation of Religion that was begun in the Church of England besides other ceremonies that were more ambitious than profitable or tended to edification they used to wear such garments and apparel as the Romish Bishops were wont to do First a Chimere and under that a white Rocket then a Mathematical cap with four Angles dividing the whole world into four parts These trifles being more for superstition than otherwise as he could never abide so in no wise could he be persuaded to wear them But in conclusion this Theological contestation came to this end that the Bishops having the upper hand Mr. Hooper was fain to agree to this condition that sometimes he should in his Sermon shew himself apparalled as the Bishops were Wherefore appointed to preach before the King as a new Player in a strange apparel he cometh forth on the stage His upper garment was a long skarlet Chimere down to the foot and under that a white linnen Rocket that covered all his shoulders upon his head he had a Geometrical that is a square cap albeit that his head was round What case of shame the strangeness hereof was that day to the good Preacher every man may easily judge But this private contumely and reproach in respect of the publick profit of the Church which he only sought he bare and suffered patiently Here have we the Episcopal habit affirmed to be a contumely and reproach to that godly man slighted contemptuously by the name of trifles and condemned in the marginal Note for a Popish attire the other ceremonies of the Church being censured as more ambitious than profitable and tending more to superstition than to edification which as no man of sense or reason can believe to be approved and allowed of by that Convocation so neither is it to be believed that they allowed of his opinion in the present point For a counterballance whereunto there was another Canon passed in this Convocation by which all Preachers were enjoyned to take special care â—ne quid unquam doceant pro concione quod à populo religiose teneri credi velint nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrinae veteris aut novi testamenti quodque ex'illa ipsa doctrina Cathotici Patres veteres Episcopi Collegerint that is to say that they should maintain no other doctrine in their publicki Sermons to be believed of the People but that which was agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and New Testament and had from thence been gathered by the Catholick or Orthodox Fathers and ancient Bishops of the Church To which rule if they held themselves as they ought to do no countenance could be given to Calvines Doctrines or Fox his judgment in these points maintained by one of the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops of the Church but St. Augustine only who though he were a godly man and a learned Prelate yet was he but one Bishop not Bishops in the plural number but one father and not all the fathers and therefore his opinion not to be maintained against all the rest CHAP. XX. Of the great Innovation made by Perkins in the publick Doctrine the stirs arising thence in Cambridge and Mr. Barrets carriage in them 1. Of Mr. Perkins and his Doctrine of Predestination which his recital of the four opinions which were then maintained about the same 2. The sum and substance of his Doctrine according to the Supralapsarian or Supra-creatarian way 3. The several censures past upon it both by Papists and Protestants by none more sharply than by Dr. Rob. Abbots after Bishop of Sarum 4. Of Dr. Baroe the Lady Margarets Professor in the Vniversity and his Doctrine
composing those differences not by the way of an accommodation but an absolute conquest and to this end they dispatch'd to him certain of their number in the name of the rest such as were interessed in the Quarrel Dr. Whitacres himself for one and therefore like to stickle hard for the obtaining their ends the Articles to which they had reduced the whole state of the business being brought to them ready drawn and nothing wanting to them but the face of Authority wherewith as with Medusa's head to confound their Enemies and turn their Adversaries into stones And that they might be sent back with the face of Authority the most Reverend Archbishop Whitgift calling unto him Dr. Flecher Bishop of Bristol then newly elected unto London and Dr. Richard Vaughan Lord Elect of Bangor together with Dr. Tyndal Dean of Ely Dr. Whitacres and the rest of the Divines which came from Cambridg proposed the said Articles to their consideration at his House in Lambeth on the tenth of Novemb. Anno 1595. by whom those Articles were agreed on in these following words 1. Deus ab aeterno praedestinavit quosdam ad vitam quosdam reprobavit ad mortem 2. Causa movens aut efficiens praedestinationis ad vitam non est praevisio fidei aut perseverantiae aut bonorum operum aut ullius rei quae insit in personis Praedestinatis sed sola voluntas beneplaciti Dei 3. Praedestinatorum praefinitus certus est numerus qui nec augeri nec minui potest 4. Qui non sunt Praedestinati ad salutem necessario propter peccata sua damnabuntur 5. Vera viva justificans fides spiritus Dei justificantis non extinguitur non excidit non evanescit in Electis aut finaliter aut totaliter 6. Homo vere fidelis id est fide justificante praeditus certus est plerophoria Fidei de Remissione peccatorum suorum salute sempiterna sua per Christum 7. Gratia salutaris non tribuitur non incommunicatur non conceditur universis hominibus qua servari possint si velint 8. Nemo potest venire ad Christum nisi datum ei fuerit nisi pater eum traxerit omnes homines non trahuntur à patre ut veniant ad filium 9. Non est positum in arbitrio aut potestate uniuscujusque hominis servari 1. God from Eternity hath predestinate certain men unto life certain men he hath reprobate 2. The moving or efficient cause of predestination unto life is not the foresight of Faith or of perseverance or of good works or of any thing that is in the person predestinated but only the good will and pleasure of God 3. There is predetermined a certain number of the Predestinate which can neither be augmented or diminished 4. Those who are not predestinated to salvation shall be necessarily damned for their sins 5. A true living and justifying Faith and the Spirit of God justifying is not extinguished falleth not away it vanisheth not away in the Elect either totally or finally 6. A man truly faithful that is such an one who is indued with a justifying faith is certain with the full assurance of faith of the remission of his sins and of his everlasting salvation by Christ 7. Saving Grace is not given is not granted is not communicated to all men by which they may be saved if they will 8. No man can come unto Christ unless it be given unto him and unless the Father shall draw him and all men are not drawn by the Father that they may come to the Son 9. It is not in the will or power of every one to be saved Now in these Articles there are these two things to be considered first the Authority by which they were made and secondly the effect produced by them in order to the end proposed and first as touching the authority by which they were made it was so far from being legal and sufficient that it was plainly none at all For what authority could there be in so thin a meeting consisting only of the Archbishop himself two other Bishops of which but one had actually received consecration one Dean and half a dozen Doctors and other Ministers neither impowred to any such thing by the rest of the Clergy nor authorized to it by the Queen And therefore their determinations of no more Authority as to binding of the Church or prescribing to the judgment of particular persons than as if one Earl the eldest son of two or three others meeting with half a dozen Gentlemen in Westminster Hall can be affirmed to be in a capacity of making Orders which must be looked on by the Subject as Acts of Parliament A Declaration they might make of their own Opinions or of that which they thought fittest to be holden in the present case but neither Articles nor Canons to direct the Church for being but Opinions still and the Opinions of private and particular persons they were not to be looked upon as publick Doctrines And so much was confessed by the Archbishop himself when he was called in question for it before the Queen who being made acquainted with all that passed by the Lord Treasurer Burleigh who neither liked the Tenents nor the manner of proceeding in them was most passionately offended that any such Innovation should be made in the publicck Doctrine of this Church and once resolved to have them all attainted of a Premunire But afterwards upon the interposition of some Friends and the reverend esteem she had of the excellent Prelate the Lord Archbishop whom she commonly called her Black Husband she was willing to admit him to his defence and he accordingly declared in all humble manner that he and his Associates had not made any Articles Canons or decrees with an intent that they should serve hereafter for a standing Rule to direct the Church but only had resolved on some Propositions to be sent to Cambridge for the appeasing of some unhappy differences in the University with which Answer her Majesty being somewhat pacified commanded notwithstanding that he should speedily recall and suppress those Articles which was performed with such care and diligence that a Copy of them was not to be found for a long time after And though we may take up this relation upon the credit of History of the Lambeth Articles printed in Latin 1651. or on the credit of Bishop Mountague who affirms the same in his Appeal Appeal p. 71. Resp Nec p. 146 Anno 1525. yet since the Authority of both hath been called in question we will take our warrant for this Narrative from some other hands And first we have it in a book called Necessario Responsio published by the Remonstrants Anno 1618. who possibly might have the whole story of it from the mouth of Baroe or some other who lived at that time in Cambridge Cabul p. 117. and might be well acquainted with the former passages And secondly We find the same
long professed and received doctrine but continue to use all good means and seek at your Lordships hands some effectual Remedy hereof lest by petmitting passage to these Errors the whole body of Popery should by little and little break in upon us to the overthrow of our Religion and consequently the withdrawing of many here and elsewhere from true obedience to her Majesty May it therefore please your Lordship to have an honourable consideration of the premises and for the better maintaining of peace and the truth of Religion so long received in this University and Church to vouchsafe your Lordships good aid and advice both to the comfort of us wholly consenting and agreeing in judgment and all others of the University truly affected and to the suppression in time not only of these errors but even of gross Popery like by such means in time easily to creep in amongst us as we find by late experience it hath dangerously begun Thus craving pardon for troubling your Lordship and commending the same in praise to Almighty God we humbly take our leave From Cambridge March 8th 1595. Your Lordships humble and bounden to be commanded Roger Goad Procan R. Some Tho. Leg John Jegon Thomas Nevil Thomas Preston Hump. Tyndal James Mountague Edmond Barwel Laurence Cutterton Such was the condition of Affairs at Cambridge at the expiring of the year 1595. the genuine Doctrine of the Church beginning then to break through the clouds of Calvinism wherewith it was before obscured and to shine forth again in its former lustre To the advancement of which work as the long continuance of Baroe in the University for the space of 20 years and upwards the discreet activity of Dr. Harsnet Fellow and Master of Pembrook Colledge for the term of 40 yeaas and more gave a good encouragement so the invincible constancy of Mr. Barret and the slender opposition made by Overald contributed to the confirmation and encrease thereof For scarce had Overald warmed his Chair when he found himself under a necessity of encountring some of the remainder of Baroes Adversaries though he followed not the blow so far as Baroe did for some there were of the old Predestination Leven who publickly had taught as he related it in the conference at Hampton Court all such persons as were once truly justified though after they fell into never so grievous sins yet remained still just or in the state of Justification before they actually repented of those sins yea though they never repented of them through forgetfulness or sudden death yet they should be justified and saved without Repentance Against which Overald maintained that whosoever although before justified did commit any grievous sin as Adultery Murder Treason or the like did become ipso facto Conf. at Ham. C. p. 42. subject to Gods wrath and guilty of damnation or were in the state of damnation quoad presentem statum until they repented And so far he had followed Baroe but he went no further holding as he continued his own story that such persons as were called and justified according to the purpose of Gods Election did neither fall totally from all the graces of God though how a justified man may bring himself into a present state of Wrath and Damnation without a total falling from all the graces of God is beyond my reason and that they were in time renewed by the Spirit of God unto a lively faith and repentance and thereby justified from those sins with the guilt and wrath annexed unto them into which they had fallen nor can it be denied but that some other Learned men of those times were of the same opinion also Amongst which I find Dr. John Bridges Dean of Sarum Anti-Armini pag. 202. and afterwards Lord Bishop of Oxon to be reckoned for one and Mr. Richard Hooker of whom more anon to be accounted for another But being but the compositions of private men they are not to be heard against the express words of the two Homilies touching falling from God in case the point had not been positively determined in the sixteenth Article But so it hapned notwithstanding that Overald not concurring with the Calvinists concerning the estate of such justified persons as afterwards fell into grievous sins there grew some diffidences and distrust between them which afterwards widned themselves into greater differences Insomuch that diffenting from them also touching the absolute decree of Reprobation and the restraining of the benefit of Christs death and Gods grace unto a few particulars and that too in Gods primitive purpose and intent concerning the salvation and damnation of man-kind those of the Anti-Calvinian party went on securely with little or no opposition and less disturbance At Oxford all things in the mean time were calm and quiet no publick opposition shewing it self in the Schools or Pulpits The reasons of that which might be first that the Students of that University did more incline unto the canvasing of such points as were in difference betwixt us and the Church of Rome than unto those which were disputed against the Calvinists in these points of Doctrine for witness whereof we may call in the works of Sanders Stapleton Allyns Parsons Campian and many others of that sid as those of Bishop Jewel Bishop Bilson Dr. Humphreys Mr. Nowel Dr. Sparks 〈◊〉 Hist l. 9. Dr. Reynolds and many others which stood firm to the Church of England And secondly though Dr. Humphreys the Queens Professor for Divinity was not without cause reckoned for a Non conformist yet had he the reputation of a moderate man a moderate Non-conformist as my Author calls him and therefore might permit that liberty of opinion unto other men which was indulged unto himself neither did Dr. Holland who succeeded him give any such countenance to the propagating of Calvins doctrines as to make them the subject of his Lectures and Disputations Insomuch that Mr. Prin with all his diligence can find but seven men who publickly maintained any point of Calvianism in the Schools of Oxon from the year 1596. to the year 1616. and yet to make that number also he is fain to take in Dr. George Abbot and Dr. Benfield on no other account but for maintaining Deum non esse authorem peccati that God is not the Author of sin which any Papist Lutheran or Arminian might have maintained as well as they And yet it cannot be denied but that by errour of these times the reputation which Calvin had attained to in both Universities and the extream diligence of his followers for the better carrying on of their own designs there was a general tendency unto his opinions in the present controversies so that it is no marvel if many men of good affection to that Church in government and forms of worship might unawares be seasoned with his Principles in point of Doctrine Instit fathers in the Pref. his book of Institutes being for the most part the foundation on which the young Divines of
those times did build their studies and having built their studies on a wrong foundation did publickly maintain some point or other of his Doctrines which gave least offence and out of which no dangerous consequence could be drawn as they thought and hoped to the dishonour of God the disgrace of Religion the scandal of the Church or subversion of godliness amongst which if judicious Mr. Hooker be named for one as for one I find him to be named yet is he named only for maintaining one of the five points that namely of the not total or final falling away of Gods Elect as Dr. Overald also did in the Schools of Cambridge though neither of them can be challenged for maintaining any other point of Calvins Doctrine touching the absolute decree of Reprobation Election unto life without reference to faith in Christ the unresistible workings of Grace the want of freedom in the will to concur therewith and the determining of all mens actions unto good or evil without leaving any power in men to do the contrary And therefore secondly Mr. Hookers discourse of Justification as it now comes into our hands might either be altered in some points after his decease by him that had the publishing of it or might be written by him as an essay of his younger years before he had consulted the Book of Homilies and perused every clause in the publick Liturgy as he after did or had so carefully examined every Text of Scripture upon which he lays the weight of his judgment in it as might encourage him to have it printed when he was alive Of any men who publickly opposed the Calvinian tenents in this University till after the beginning of King James his Reign I must confess that I have hitherto found no good assurance though some there were who spared not to declare their dislike thereof and secretly trained up their Scholars in other principles An argument whereof may be that when Dr. Baroe dyed in London which was about three or four years after he had left his place in Cambridge his Funeral was attended by most of the Divines then living in and about the City Dr. Bancroft then Bishop of London giving order in it which plainly shews that there were many of both Universities which openly favoured Baroes Doctrines and did as openly dislike those of the Calvinians though we find but few presented to us by their names Amongst which few I first reckon Dr. John Buckridge President of St. Johns Colledge and Tutor to Archbishop Laud who carried his Anti-Calvinian doctrines with him to the See of Rochester and publickly maintained them at a conference in York House Ann. 1626. And secondly Dr. John Houson one of the Canons of Christ Church and Vice-Chancellor of the University Ann. 1602. so known an enemy to Calvin his opinions that he incurred a suspension by Dr. Robert Abbots then Vice Chancellor And afterwards being Bishop of Oxon subscribed the letter amongst others to the Duke of Buckingham in favour of Mountague and his Book called Appello Cesarem as before was said And though we find but these two named for Anti-Calvinist in the five controverted points yet might there be many houses perhaps some hundreds who held the same opinions with them though they discovered not themselves or break out in any open opposition 1 King 19 18. 1 King 19 1◠as they did at Cambridge God had 7000. Servants in the Realm of Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal though we find the name of none but the Prophet Eliah the residue keeping themselves so close for fear of danger that the Prophet himself complained to God that he alone was left to serve him A parallel case to which may be that the Christians during the power and prevalency of the Arian Hereticks St. Jerome giving us the names of no more than three who had stood up stoutly in defence of the Nicene council and the points of Doctrine there established viz. 1. St. Athanasius Patriark of Alexandria in Egypt St. Hillary Bishop of Poictious in France and St. Eusebius Bishop of Vevelli in Italy of which thus the Father Siquidem Arianis victis triumphatorem Athanasium suum Egyptus excepit Hillarium è prelio revertentem galliarum ecclesia complexa est ad reditum Eusebii sui lugubres vestes Italia mutavit that is to say upon the overthrow of the Arians Egypt received her Athanasius now returned in triumph the Church of France embraced her Hillary coming home with victory from the battel and on the return of Eusebius Italy changed her mourning garments By which it is most clear even to vulgar eyes that not these Bishops only did defend the truth but that it was preserved by many others as well of the Clergy as of the People in their several Countreys who otherwise never had received them with such joy and triumph if a great part of them had not been of the same opinions though no more of them occur by name in the records of that age But then again If none but the three Bishops had stood unto the truth in the points disputed at that time between the Orthodox Christians and the Arian Hereticks yet had that been sufficient to preserve the Church from falling universally from the faith of Christ or deviating from the truth in those particulars Deut. 17.6 Mat. 18 19. the word of truth being established as say both Law and Gospel if there be only two or three witnesses to attest unto it two or three members of the Church may keep possession of a truth in all the rest and thereby save the whole from errour even as a King invaded by a foreign Enemy doth keep possession of his Realm by some principal fortress the standing out whereof may in time regain all the rest which I return for answer to another objection touching the paucity of those Authors whom we have produced in maintenance of the Anti Calvinian or old English doctrines since the resetling of the Church under Queen Elizabeth for though they be but few in number and make but a very thin appearance Apparent rari nautes in gurgite vasto in the Poets language yet serve they for a good assurance that the Church still kept possession of her primitive truths not utterly lost though much endangered by such contrary Doctrines as had of late been thrust upon her there was a time when few or none of the Orthodox Bishops durst openly appear in favour of St. Athanasius but only Liberius Pope of Rome Theod. Hist Eccles lib. 2. cap. 15. who thereupon is thus upbraided by Constantius the Arian Emperour Quota pars tu es orbis terrarum qui solus c. How great a part saith he art thou of the whole world that thou alone shouldst shew thy self in defence of that wicked man and thereby overthrow the peace of the Universe To which Liberius made this answer non diminuitur solitudine mea verbum dei nam olim
tres solum inventi fuere qui edicto resisterint that is to say the Word of God is not made the weaker by my sole appearing in defence thereof no more than when there were but three he means the three Hebrew Children in the Book of Daniel which durst make open opposition to the Kings Edict Liberius thought himself sufficient to keep possession of a truth in the Church of Christ till God should please to raise up more Champions in all places to defend the same not thinking it necessary to return any other answer or to produce the names of any others of his time who turned Athanasius as much as he which brings into my mind a passage in the conference betwixt Dr. Ban Featly and Sweat the Jesuite in which the Jesuite much insisted on that thred-bare question viz. where was your Church before Luther which when the Doctor went to shew out of Scriptures and Fathers some of the Papists standing by cried out for names those which stood further of ingeminating nothing but Names Names whereupon the Dr. merily asked them if nothing would content them but a Buttery book And such an Answer I must make in the present case to such as take up testimony by tale not weight and think no truth is fairly proved except it come attended with a cloud of witnesses But what we want in number now he shall find hereafter when we shall come to take a view of King James his Reign to which now we hasten CHAP. XXII Of the Conference at Hampton Court and the several encouragements given to the Anti-Calvinians in the time of King James 1. The occasion of the conference at Hampton Court and the chief persons there assembled 2. The nine Articles of Lambeth rejected by King James 3. Those of the Church being left in their former condition 4. The Calvinian Doctrine of Predestination decryed by Bishop Bancroft and disliked by King James and the reasons of it 5. Bishop Bancroft and his Chaplain both abused the inserting the Lambeth Articles into the confession of Ireland no argument of King James his approbation of them by whom they were inserted and for what cause allowed of in the said Confession 6. A pious fraud of the Calvinians in clapping their predestinarian Doctrines at the end of the Old Testament An. 1607. discovered censured and rejected with the reasons for it 7. The great incouragement given by King James to the Anti-calvinians and the increasing of that party both in power and number by the stirs in Holland 8. The offence taken by King James at Conradus Vorstius animateth the Oxon. Calvinists to suspend Dr. Houson and to preach publickly against Dr. Laud. 9. The like proceedings at Cambridge against Mr. Simpson first prosecuted by King James and on what account that the King was more incensed against the party of Arminius than against their persuasions 10. Instructions published by King James in order to the diminishing of Calvins Authority the defence of universal Redemption and the suppressing of his Doctrines in the other points and why the last proved so unuseful in the case of Gabriel Bridges 11. The publishing of Mountagues answer to the Gagger the information made against it the Author and his Doctrine taken by King James into his protection and his appeal licensed by the Kings appointment 12. The conclusion of the whole discourse and the submission of it to the Church of England NOw we come unto the Reign of King James of happy memory whose breeding in the kirk of Scotland had given some hopes of seeing better days to the English Puritans than those which they enjoyed under Queen Elizabeth Upon which hopes they presented him at his first coming to the Crown with a supplication no less tedious than it was impertinent given out to be subscribed with a thousand hands though it wanted many of that number and aiming at an alteration in many points both of Doctrine and Discipline But they soon found themselves deceived For first the King commanded by publick Proclamation that the divine service of the Church should be diligently officiated and frequented as in former times under pain of suffering the severest penalties by the Laws provided in that case And that being done instead of giving such a favourable answer to their supplication as they had flattered themselves withal he commended the answering of it to the Vice-Chancellour Heads and other Learned men of the University of Oxon from whom there was nothing to be looked for toward their contentment But being thirdly a just Prince and willing to give satisfaction to the just desires of such as did apply themselves unto him as also to inform himself in all such particulars as were in difference betwixt the Petitioners and the Prelates he appointed a solemn Conference to be held before him at Hampton Court on Thursday the 12th of January Anno 1603. being within less than ten moneths after his entrance on the Kingdom To which Conference were called by several Letters on the Churches part the most Reverend and right renowned Fathers in God Dr. John Whitgift Arch-bishop of Canterbury Dr. Richard Bancroft Bishop of London Dr. Tobie Matthews Bishop of Durham Dr. Thomas Bilson Bishop of Winchester Dr. Gervase Babbinton Bishop of Worchester Dr. Anthony Rudd Bishop of Davids Dr. Anthony Walson Bishop of Chichester Dr. Henry Robbinson Bishop of Carlile and Dr. Thomas Dove Bishop of Peterborough as also Dr. James Mountague Dean of the Chappel Dr. Thomas Ravis Dean of Christ Church Dr. John Bridges Dean of Sarum Dr. Lancelot Andrews Dean of Westminster Dr. John Overald Dean of Saint Pauls Dr. William Barlaw Dean of Chester Dr. Giles Tompson Dean of Windsor together with Dr. Joh King Arch-Deacon of Nottingham and Dr. Richard Field after Dean of Glocester all of them habited and attired according to their several ranks and stations in the Church of England And on the other side there appeared for the Plantiff or Petitioner Dr. Reynolds Dr. Spark Mr. Knewstubs and Mr. Chatterton the two first being of Oxon and the other of Cambridge Con. at H. C. p. 27. apparelled in their Turky Gowns to shew as Bishop Bancroft tartly noted they desired rather to conform themselves in outward Ceremonies with the Turks than they did with the Papists The first day of the Conference being spent betwixt the King and the Bishops the second which was the 16th of the same moneth was given to the Plantiffs to present their grievances and to remonstrate their desires amongst which it was named by Dr. Reynolds Con. at H. C. p. 24. as the mouth of the rest That the nine Assertions Orthodoxal as he termed them concluded upon at Lambeth might be inserted into the Book of Articles which when King James seemed not to understand as having never heard before of those nine Assertions Pag. 40. c. He was informed that by reason of some Controversies arising in Cambridge about certain points of Divinity my Lords Grace
and approbation published the Exposition or Analysis of our Articles in which he gives the Calvinist as fair quarter as can be wished But first beginning with the last so much of the Objection as concerns Bishop Bancrost is extreamly false not agreeing to the Lambeth Articles not being Bishop of London when those Articles were agreed unto as is mistakingly affirmed and that Analysis of Explication of our English Articles related to in the Objection being published in the year 1585. which was ten years before the making of the Lambeth articles and eighteen years before Bancroft had been made Archbishop And secondly It is not very true that King James liked that is to say was well pleased with the putting of those Articles into the confession of the Church of Ireland though the said Confession was subscribed in his name by the Lord Deputy Chichester is plainly enough not without his consent for many other things were in the Confession to which the Lord Deputy subscribed and the King consented as affairs then stood which afterwards he declared no great liking to either of the Tenor or effect thereof For the truth is that the drawing up of that Confession being committed principally to the care of Dr. Vsher and afterwards Lord Primate of Ireland a professed Calvinian he did not only thrust into it all the Lambeth Articles but also many others of his own Opinions as namely That the Pope was Antichrist or that man of sin that the power of sacerdotal Absolution is no more than declaratory as also touching the morality of the Lords day Sabbath and the total spending of it in religious Exercises Which last how contrary it is to King Jame's Judgment how little cause he had to like it or rather how much reason he had to dislike it his declaration about lawful Sports which he published within three years after doth express sufficiently so that the King might give confent to the confirming of these Articles amongst the rest though he liked as little of the one as he did of the other And he might do it on these Reasons For first The Irish Nation at that time were most tenaciously addicted to Errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome and therefore must be bended to the other extream before they could be sireight and Orthodox in these points of doctrine Secondly It was an usual practice with the King in the whole course of his Government to ballance one extream by the other countenancing the Papist against the Puritan and the Puritan sometimes against the Papist that betwixt both the true Religion and Professors of it might be kept in safety With greater Artifice but less Authority have some of our Calvinians framed unto themselves another Argument derived from certain Questions and answers printed at the end of the Bible published by Rob. Barker his Majesties own Printer in the year 1607. from whence it is inferred by the Author of the Anti-Arminianism Anti-Armin p. 54. and from him by others that the said Questions and Answers do contain a punctual Declaration of the received doctrine of this Church in the points disputed But the worst is they signifie nothing to the purpose for which they were produced For I would fain know by what Authority those Questions and Answers were added to the end of the Bible If by Authority and that such Authority can be produced the Argument will be of force which it takes from them and then no question but the same Authority by which they were placed there at first would have preserved them in that place for a longer time than during the sale of that Edition The not retaining them in such Editions as have followed since the sale of that shews plainly that they were of no anthority in themselves nor intended by the Church for a rule to others and being of no older standing than the year 1607. for ought appears by Mr. Prin who first made the Objection they must needs seem as destitute of antiquity as they are of authority so that upon the whole matter the Author of the Book hath furnished those of different Judgment with a very strong argument that they wrre foisted in by the fraud and practice of some of the Emissaries of the Puritan Faction who hoped in time to have them pass as currant amongst the people as any part of Canonical Scripture Such Piae fraudes as these are we should have too many were they once allowed of Some prayers were also added to the end of the Bible in some Editions and others at the end of the publick Liturgy Which being neglected at the first and afterwards beheld as the authorized prayers of the Church were by command left out of those Books and Bibles as being the compositions of private men not the publick acts of the Church and never since added as before But to return unto King James we find not so much countenance given to the Calvinians by the fraud of his Printer as their opposites received by his grace and favour by which they were invested in the chief preferments of the Church of England conferred as openly and freely upon the Anti-Calvinians as those who had been bread up in the other persuasions Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine habentur as we know who said For presently upon the end of the Conference he prefers Bishop Bancroft to the Chair of Canterbury and not long after Dr. Barlow to the See of Rochester On whose translation unto Lincoln Dr. Richard Neil then Dean of westminster succeeds at Rochester and leaves Dr. Buckridge there for his successour at his removal unto Lichfield in the year 1609. Dr. Samuel Harsnet is advanced to the See of Chichester and about ten years after unto that of Norwich In the beginning of the year 1614. Dr. Overald succeeds Neil then translated to Lincoln in the See of Coventry and Lichfield Dr. George Mountein succeeded the said Neil then translated to Durham in the Church of Lincoln In the year 1619. Dr. John Houson one of the Canons of Christs Church a professed Anti-Calvinist is made Bishop of Oxon. And in the year 1621. Dr. Valentine Cary Successor unto Overald in the Deanry of St. Paul is made Bishop of Exon and on the same day Dr. William Laud who had been Pupil unto Buckridge as before said is consecrated Bishop of St. Davids By which encouragements the Anti-Calvinians or old English Protestants took heart again and more openly declared themselves than they had done formerly the several Bishops above-named finding so gracious a Patron of the learned King are as being themselves as bountiful Patrons respect being had to the performants in their nomination to their Friends and followers By means whereof though they found many a Rub in the way and were sometimes brought under censure by the adverse party yet in the end they surmounted all difficulties and came at last to be altogether as considerable both for power and number as the Calvinists were Towards which
whom they found travelling on the Sunday though their business was of more concernment to them than the lifting of the Oxe or Asse out of the ditch With what a cursed rigour a Victualler hath been forced to pay ten shillings for selling a half-penny loaf to a poor man in the time of Sermon What penalty they procured to be ordained against Vintners Taylors Barbers for selling but a pint of Wine or carrying home a new suit of Cloaths or trimming the man that was to wear them on their Sabbath day And finally against all persons whatsoever for walking in the fields or streets after all the publick duties of the day were ended They may tell me what they will of their giving the right hand of Fellowship to some Divines of Transmarine Churches who differ in that Doctrine from them But quid verba audiam cum facta videam Ibid. the bleating of the Sheep and the lowing of the Oxen will not out of my ears though preferred under a pretence of making them an acceptable Sacrifice to the Lord their God But the main ondeavour of the Pamphlet is to bring me under the reproach of a Prophanation in using such words unto the King in a Petition of mine presented to him as it could not without sin be applied unto any but to Cod. A greater crime than any of the other two and as falsly charged It is suggested in the Libel that upon the sense of some indignity which was offered to me in being disturbed in my possession of a Lodging in Magdalen Colledge I made complaint unto the King of the great wrong which bad been done his Majesties creature and the workmanship of his hands and that for this expression I was checked by the Marquess of Hertford who was then Chancellor of that University for proof whereof we are referred to somewhat which was said in the Bursery of that Colledge before two of the fellows But first I hope that all things which we said in the Bursery before any two or more of the fellows Ecce inter pocula quaerant Romalides Saturi c. must not pass for Gospel nor that all Table-talk fit only for the Voider when the meal is done is to be preserved upon Record for undoubted Truths Secondly I am confident as I can be of any thing so long since done that no such expression ever passed my pen there being no visible necessity to enforce me to it I conceive Thirdly that the Libeller cannot be so much a Stranger to the Assembly Notes on Gen. 1.6 as not to know if he had learnt it no where else that it is a familiar phrase in the style of the court to say such an one was created Earl Marquess or Duke c. upon which ground the Members of the House of Peers were looked upon by our Republicans or Common-wealths men not without some contempt as his Majesties Creatures Creatures of the Prerogative as they commonly called them And therefore Fourthly that the Marquess of Hertford was not likely to reprove me for calling my self his Majesties Creature or the workmanship of his hands in reference to my temporal fortunes and the place I held about the King that Noble person acknowledging with a loyal gratitude that he received his Creation to the Honourable Title of Lord Marquess from the hands of his Majesty and that his being made Governour to the Princes Highness was the Kings sole Workmanship Finally if all expressions of this nature must be laid aside and that we must be taught a new Court-Dialect because some Divines of the Assembly and other professed enemies of Monarchical Government do not like the old we must discharge the Titles of most High and Mighty of Majesty and Sacred Majesty because disliked by Buchanan in his most seditious book de Jure Regni By whom such adjuncts are reputed inter Barbarismos Solecismos Aulicos amongst the Barbarisms and extravagancies of the Courts of Princes But for the clearer satisfaction of all equal and unbyassed persons I shall lay down the truth the whole truth and nothign but the truth as to that particular In which the Reader is to know that at his Majesties first making choice of Oxon for his Winter Quarters Anno 1642. The course of my attendance carried me to wait upon him there as a Chaplain in ordinary Where I had not been above a week when I received his Majesties command by the Clerk of the Closet for attending Mr. Secretary Nicholas on the morrow morning and applying my self from time to time to such directions as I should receive from him in order to his Majesties service Which command was afterwards re-inforced upon me when the time of my ordinary attendance of the Court was at an end for that year as can be proved by two several intimations of it under his own most Royal hand with this charge super-added to it that I was not to depart the Town without special leave I found by this that my attendance at the Court was like to last as long as the War and therefore that it did concern me to accommodate my self with Lodging and such other necessaries as might both encourage and enable me to perform those services which were required at my hands A Chamber in the Colledge being vacant within few months after by the absence of one of the Fellows and the death of the other I gained the free consent of the absent party Master Hobs by name in whom the sole right of it then remained to make use of it for my self and my little company Five moneths I quietly enjoyed it without interruption But coming from the Court on Alhallow-day I found some Souldiers in the Room who told me that they came to take possession of it for Master D. who had succeeded in the Rights of the man deceased and that they meant to keep it for him until further order This carried me back unto the Court where I acquainted Master Secretary with the indignity and affront which was put upon me desiring him either to defend me from contempt and scorn or that he would get me a discharge from that employment which had lain so long and heavy on me By his advice a short Petition was drawn up to this Sacred Majesty briefly containing the particulars before laid down and humbly praying in the close that he would graciously be pleased to extend unto me such a measure of his power and favour in the case before him as might preserve me in a fit capacity to proceed in those services which otherwise I could not be able to perform as I had done formerly His Majesty thereupon gave order to the now Lord Bishop of Lichfield being then President of the Colledge to fee me resetled for the present and to Sir Arthur Aston who was then Governour of the Town to take some strict course with his Souldiers for not giving me the like disturbance for the time to come which was the least I could expect from his
the good and gracious but even to cruel Princes and ungodly Tyrants 4. With Answer unto such Objections as are made against it 5. The Principles of Disobedience in the supposal of some popular Officers ordained of purpose te regulate the power of Kings 6. How much the practice of Calvin's followers doth differ from their Masters Doctrine in the point of Obedience 7. Severasl Articles and points of Doctrine wherein the Disciples of Calvin are departed from him 8. More of the differences in point of Doctrine betwixt the Master and his Scholars 9. The dangerous consequences which arise from his faulty Principles in the point or Article of Disobedience 10. The method and distribution of the following Work SOME Writers may be likened unto Jeremies Figs of which the Prophet saith that if they were good they were very good Jerem. 24.4 if evil very evil such as could not be eaten they were so evil Of such a tempera nd esteem was Origen amongst the Ancients of whom it was observed not without good cause that in his Expositions of the Book of God and other learned Tractates which he writ and published where he did well none could do it better and where he failed at all no man erred more grosly And of this sort and composition was Mr. Calvin of Geneva than whom there is not any Minister of the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas who hath more positively expresly laid down the Doctrine of Obedience unto Kings and Princes and the unlawfulness of Subjects taking Arms against their Soveraign nor opened a more dangerous gap to disobedience and rebellions in most States of Christendom In which it is most strange to see how prone we are such is the frailty and corruption of our sinful nature to refuse the good and choose the evil to take no notice of his words when it most concerns us when we are plainly told our duties both to God and man and on the other side to take his words for Oracles his Judgment for infallible all his Geese for Swans when he saith any thing which may be useful to our purposes or serve to the advancement of our lewd designs The credit and authority of the man was deservedly great amongst the people where he lived and in short time of such authority and esteem in the World abroad that his works were made the only Rule to which both Discipline and Doctrine was to be conformed and if a Controversie did arise either in points Dogmatical or a case of Conscience his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was sufficient to determine in it at least to silence the gainsayers And as it is observed in the works of Nature that corruptio optimi est pessima and that the sweetest meats make the sourest exrements so the opinion and esteem which some of the Reformed Churches and conceived of him which to say the truth was great and eminent and the ill use they made of some words and passages in his Writings which most unfortunately served to advance their purposes in his Writings which most unfortunately served to advance their purposes have been the sad occasion of those Wars and miseries which almost all the Western parts of Christendom have been so fatally involved in since the times he lived Which words and passage as they are cautelously laid down and compassed round with many fair expressions of affection to the Supream Powers that they might pass without discovery and be the sooner swallowed by unwary men so by his followers who are exceeding wise in their Generations have they been hidden and concealed with all art that may be For though they build their dangerous Doctrines upon his foundation and toss this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this ball of discord and dissension from one hand to another yet do they very cunningly conceal their Author and never use his name to confirm their Tenets And this they do upon this reason that if their Doctrine give offence unto Christian Princes and any of their Pamphlets be to feel the fire or otherwise come under any publick censure as not lonce since hapned to Paraeus the Patron of their Sect might escape untouched and his authority remain unquestioned to give new life unto their hopes at another time In which respects and withal seeing that the heads of this monstrous Hydra of sedition do grow the faster for the cutting and that the lopping off the Branches keeps the Trunk the fresher I shall pass by the petit Pamphleters of these times and strike directly at the head and without medling with the boughs or branches will lay my Ax immediately to the root of the Tree and bring the first Author of these factious and Antimonarchical Principles which have so long disturbed the peace of Christendom to a publick trial A dangerous and invidious undertaking I must needs confess but for my Countreys and the truths sake I will venture on it and in pursuance of the same will first lay down the doctrine of Obedience as by him delivered which I shall faithfully translate without gloss or descant and next compare his Doctrine with our present practice noting wherein his Scholars have forsaken their Master with application unto those who do most admire him and finally I shall discover and remove that Stumbling-block which he hath cunningly laid before us but hid so secretly that it can hardly be discerned at which so many a man hath stumbled both to the breaking of his own neck and his Neighbours too This is the race that I am to run the prize I aim at is no other than forasmuch as in me lieth to do good to all men to those especially who think themselves to be of the houshold of Faith And therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us on in Gods Name Subditorum erga suos Magistratus Officium primum est de eorum functione quà m honorificientissimè sentire Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 20. fect 22. c. the first duty of the Subjects towards their Magistrates is to think wondrous honourably of their place and function which they acknowledg to be a jurisdiction delegated by Almighty God and therefore are by consequence to respect and reverence them as the Ministers and Deputies of God For some there are who very dutifully do behave themselves towards their Magistrates and would have all men do the like because they think it most expedient for the Common-wealth and yet esteem no otherwise of them than of some necessary evils which they cannot want 1 Pet. 2.17 Prov. 24.21 But St Peter looks for more than this when he commandeth us to honour the King and so doth Solomon also where he requires us to fear God and the King For the first under the term of honouring comprehends a good esteem a fair opinion the other joyning God and the King together shews plainly that in the person of a King there is a Ray of sacred majesty And that of Paul is richly worth our observation Rom. 13.5 where
name of Sunday often used for the Lords day by the primitive Christians but the Sabbath never Page 422 CHAP. III. That in the fourth Age from the time of Constantine to Saint Austine the Lords day was not taken for a Sabbath day 1. The Lords day first established by the Emperour Constantine Page 423 2. What labours were permitted and what restrained on the Lords day by this Emperours Edict Page 424 3. Of other Holy days and Saints days instituted in the time of Constantine Page 425 4. That weekly other days particularly the Wednesday and the Friday were in this Age and those before appointed for the meetings of the Congregation ibid. 5. The Saturday as highly honoured in the Eastern Churches as the Lords day was Page 426 6. The Fathers of the Eastern Churches cry down the Jewish Sabbath though they held the Saturday Page 427 7. The Lords day not spent wholly in Religious exercises and what was done with that part of it which was left at large Page 428 8. The Lords day in this Age a day of Feasting and that it hath been always deemed Heretical to hold Fasts thereon Page 429 9. Of Recreation on the Lords day and of what kind those Dancings were against the which the Fathers enveigh so sharply Page 430 10. Other Imperial Edicts about the keeping of the Lords day and the other Holy-days Page 432 11. The Orders at this time in use on the Lords day and other days of publick meeting in the Congregation Page 433 12. The infinite differences between the Lords day and the Sabbath Page 434 CHAP. IV. The great improvement of the Lords day in the fifth and sixth Ages make it not a Sabbath 1. In what estate the Lords day stood in S. Austins time Page 435 2. Stage plays and publick Shews prohibited on the Lords day and the other Holy days by Imperial Edicts Page 437 3. The base and beastly nature of the Stage-plays at those times in use Page 438 4. The barbarous bloody quality of the Spectacula or Shews at this time prohibited ibid. 5. Neither all civil business nor all kind of pleasure restrained on the Lords day by the Emperour Leo as some give it out The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath Page 440 6. The French and Spaniards in the sixth Age begin to Judaize about the Lords day and of restraint of Husbandry on that day in that Age first thought of Page 441 7. The so much cited Canon of the Council of Mascon proves no Lords day Sabbath Page 442 8. Of publick honours done in these Ages to the Lords day by Prince and Prelate Page 443 9. No Evening Service on the Lords day till these present Ages Page 444 10. Of publick Orders now Established for the better regulating of the Lords Day-meetings Page 445 11. All Business and Recreation not by Law prohibited are in themselves as lawful on the Lords day as on any other ibid. CHAP. V. That in the next six hundred years from Pope Gregory forwards the Lords day was not reckoned of as of a Sabbath 1. Pope Gregories care to set the Lords day free from some Jewish rigours at that time obtruded on the Church Page 447 2. Strange fancies taken up by some about the Lords day in these darker Ages ibid. 3. Scriptures and Miracles in these times found out to justifie the keeping of the Lords day Holy Page 448 4. That in the judgment of the most Learned in these six Ages the Lords day hath no other ground than the Authority of the Church Page 449 5. With how much difficulty the People of these times were barred from following their Husbandry and Law-days on the Lords day Page 450 6. Hüsbandry not restrained on the Lords day in the Eastern Parts until the time of Leo Philosophus Page 451 7. Markets and Handicrasts restrained with no less opposition than the Plough and Pleading Page 452 8. Several casus reservati in the Laws themselves wherein men were permitted to attend those businesses on the Lords day which the Laws restrained Page 453 9. Of divers great and publick actions done in these Ages on the Lords day Page 454 10. Dancing and other sports no otherwise prohibited on the Lords day than as they were an hinderance to Gods publick Service Page 455 11. The other Holy-days as much esteemed of and observed as the Lords day was Page 456 12. The publick hallowing of the Lords day and the other Holy-days in these present Ages Page 457 13. No Sabbath all these Ages heard of either on Saturday or Sunday and how it stood with Saturday in the Eastern Churches Page 458 CHAP. VI. What is the judgment of the School-men and of the Protestants and what the practice of those Churches in this Lords day business 1. That in the judgment of the School-men the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment Page 640 2. As also that the Lords day is not founded on Divine Authority but the Authority of the Church Page 461 3. A Catalogue of the Holy-days drawn up in the Council of Lyons and the new Doctrine of the Schools touching the native sanctity of the Holy-days Page 462 4. In what estate the Lords day stood in matter of restraint from labour at the Reformation Page 463 5. The Reformators find great fault both with the said new doctrine and restraints from labour Page 464 6. That in the judgment of the Protestant Divines the keeping of one day in seven is not the moral part of the fourth Commandment Page 465 7. As that the Lords day hath no other ground on which to stand than the Authority of the Church Page 466 8. And that the Church hath power to change the day and to transfer it to some other Page 467 9. What is the practice of all Churches the Roman Lutheran and Calvinian chiefly in matter of Devotion rest from labour and sufferance of lawful pleasures Page 468 10. Dancing cryed down by Calvin and the French Churches not in relation to the Lords day but the sport it self Page 470 11. In what estate the Lords day stands in the Eastern Churches and that the Saturday is no less esteemed of by the Ethiopians than the said Lords day Page 471 CHAP. VII In what estate the Lords day stood in this Isle of Britain from the first planting of Religion to the Reformation 1. What doth occur about the Lords day and the other Festivals amongst the Churches of the Brittans Page 472 2. Of the estate of the Lords day and the other Holy days in the Saxon Heptarchie Page 473 3. The honours done unto the Sunday and the other Holy-days by the Saxon Monarchs Page 474 4. Of the publick actions Civil Ecclesiastical mixt and Military done on the Lords day under the first six Norman Kings Page 476 5. New Sabbath doctrines broached in England in King Johns Reign and the miraculous original of the same
too much to our ancient Martyrs c. exemplified in the parity of Ministers and popular elections unto Benefices allowed by Mr. John Lambert Page 547 2. Nothing ascribed to Calvins judgment by our first Reformers but much to the Augustine Confession the Writings of Melancthon Page 548 3. And to the Authority of Erasmus his Paraphrases being commended to the use of the Church by King Edward VI. and the Reasons why ibid. 4. The Bishops Book in order to a Reformation called The institution of a Christian man commanded by King Henry VIII 1537. correcied afterwards with the Kings own hand examined and allowed by Cranmer approved by Parliament and finally published by the name of Necessary Doctrine c. An. 1543. ibid. 5. The Doctrine of the said two Books in the points disputed agreeable unto that which after was established by King Edward VI. Page 549 6. Of the two Liturgies made in the time of King Edward VI. and the manner of them the testimony given unto the first and the alterations in the second Page 550 7. The first Book of Homilies by whom made approved by Bucer and of the Argument that may be gathered from the method of it in the points disputed ibid. 8. The quality and condition of those men who principally concurred to the Book of Articles with the Harmony or consent in judgment between Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Ridley Bishop Hooper c. Page 551 9. The Doctrine delivered in the Book of Articles touching the five controverted points ibid. 10. An Answer to the Objection against these Articles for the supposed want of Authority in the making of them Page 552 11. An Objection against King Edwards Catechism mistaken for an Objection against the Articles refelled as that Catechism by John Philpot Martyr and of the delegating of some powers by that Convocation to a choice Committee Page 553 12. The Articles not drawn up in comprehensible or ambiguous terms to please all parties but to be understood in the respective literal and Grammatical sense and the Reasons why ibid. CHAP. IX Of the Doctrine of Predestination delivered in the Articles the Homilies the publique Liturgies and the Writings of some of the Reformers 1. The Articles differently understood by the Calvinian party and the true English Protestants with the best way to find out the true sense thereof Page 555 2. The definition of Predestination and the most considerable points contained in it ibid. 3. The meaning of those words in the definition viz. Whom he hath chosen in Christ according to the Exposition of S. Ambrose S. Chrysostom S. Jerom as also of Archbishop Cranmer Bishop Latimer and the Book of Homilies Page 556 4. The Absolute Decree condemned by Bishop Latimer as a means to Licentiousness and Carnal living ibid. 5. For which and making God to be the Author of sin condemned as much by Bishop Hooper ibid. 6. Our Election to be found in Christ not sought for in Gods secret Councils according to the judgment of Bishop Hatimer Page 557 7. The way to find out our Election delivered by the same godly Bishop and by Bishop Hooper with somewhat to the same purpose also from the Book of Homilies ibid. 8. The Doctrine of Predestination delivered by the holy Martyr John Bradford with Fox his gloss upon the same to corrupt the sense Page 558 9. No countenance to be had for any absolute personal and irrespective decree of Predestination in the publique Liturgie ibid. 10. An Answer to such passages out of the said Liturgie as seem to favour that opinion as also touching the number of Gods Elect. CHAP. X. The Doctrine of the Church concerning Reprobation and Universal Redemption 1. The absolute Decree of Reprobation not found in the Articles of this Church but against it in some passages of the publick Liturgie Page 560 2. The cause of Reprobation to be found in a mans self and not in Gods Decrees according to the judgment of Bishop Latimer and Bishop Hooper ibid. 3. The Absolute Decrees of Election and Reprobation how contrary to the last clause in the seventeenth Article Page 561 4. The inconsistency of the Absolute Decree of Reprobation with the Doctrine of Vniversal Redemption by the death of Christ ibid. 5. The Vniversal Redemption of man-kind by the death of Christ declared in many places of the publick Liturgie and affirmed also in one of the Homilies and the Book of Articles Page 502 6. A further proof of it from the Mission of the Apostles and the Prayer used in the Ordination of Priests ibid. 7. The same confirmed by the Writings of Archbishop Cranmer and the two other Bishops before mentioned Page 563 8. A Generality of the Promises and an Vniversality of Vocation maintained by the said two godly Bishops ibid. 9. The reasons why this benefit is not made effectual to all sorts of men to be found only in themselves ibid. CHAP. XI Of the Heavenly influences of Gods grace in the Conversion of a Sinner and a mans cooperation with those Heavenly influences 1. The Doctrine of Deserving Grace ex congruo maintained in the Roman Schools before the Council of Trent rejected by our ancient Martyrs and the Book of Articles Page 564 2. The judgment of Dr. Barns and Mr. Tyndal touching the necessary workings of Gods grace on the will of man not different from that of the Church of England Page 565 3. Vniversal grace maintained by Bishop Hooper and approved by some passages in the Liturgie and Book of Homilies ibid. 4. The offer of Vniversal grace made ineffectual to some for want of faith and to others for want of repentance according to the judgment of Bishop Hooper ibid. 5. The necessity of Grace Preventing and the free co-operation of mans will being so prevented maintained in the Articles in the Homilies and the publique Liturgie Page 566 6. The necessity of this co-operation on the part of man defended and applied to the exercise of a godly life by Bishop Hooper ibid. 7. The Doctrine of Irresistibility first broached by Calvin pertinaciously maintained by most of his followers and by Gomarus amongst others Page 567 8. Gainsaid by Bishop Hooper and Bishop Latimer ibid. 9. And their gain-sayings justified by the tenth Article of King Edwards Books Page 568 And 10. The Book of Homilies ibid. CHAP. XII The Doctrine of Free-will agreed upon by the Clergy in their Convocation An. 1543. 1. Of the Convocation holden in the year 1543. in order to the Reformation of Religion in points of Doctrine Page 569 2. The Article of Free-will in all the powers and workings of it agreed on by the Prelates and Clergie of that Convocation agreeable to the present Doctrine of the Church of England ibid. 3. An Answer to the first Objection concerning the Popishness of the Bishops and Clergie in that Convocation Page 571 4. The Article of Free-will approved by King Henry VIII and Archbishop Cranmer Page 572 5. An Answer to the last Objection concerning the Conformity of
Doctrine in the Points disputed under the new establishment made by Queen Elizabeth 1. The Doctrine of the second Book of Homilies concerning the wilful fall of Adam the miserable estate of man the restitution of lost man in Jesus Christ and the universal redemption of all mankind by his death and passion Page 601 2. The doctrine of the said second Book concerning universal grace the possibility of a total and final falling and the co-operation of mans will with the grace of God Page 602 3. The judgment of Reverend Bishop Jewel touching the universal redemption of man-kind by the death of Christ Predestination grounded upon faith in Christ and reached out unto all them that believe in him by Mr. Alexander Nowel ibid. 4. Dr. Harsnet in his Sermon at St. Pauls Cross Anno 1584. sheweth that the absolute decree of Reprobation turneth the truth of God into a lie and makes him to the Author of sin Page 603 5. That it deprives man of the natural freedom of his will makes God himself to be double-minded to have two contrary wills and to delight in mocking his poor Creature Man ibid. 6. And finally that it makes God more cruel and unmerciful than the greatest Tyrant contrary to the truth of Scripture and the constant Doctrine of the Fathers Page 604 7. The rest of the said Sermon reduced unto certain other heads directly contrary to the Calvinian Doctrine in the points disputed ibid. 8. Certain considerations on the Sermon aforesaid with reference to the subject of it as also to the time place and persons in and before which it was first preached Page 605 9. An Answer to some Objections concerning a pretended Recantation falsly affirmed to have been made by the said Mr. Harsnet ibid. 10. That in the judgment of the Right Learned Dr. King after Bishop of London the alteration of Gods denounced judgments in some certain cases infers no alteration in his Councils the difference between the changing of the will and to will a change Page 606 11. That there is something in Gods decrees revealed to us and something concealed unto himself the difference between the inferiour and superiour causes and of the conditionality of Gods threats and promises ibid. 12. The accomodating of the former part of this discourse to the case of the Ninevites Page 607 13. And not the case of the Ninevites to the case disputed ibid. CHAP. XIX Of the first great breach which was made in the Doctrine of the Church by whom it was made and what was done towards the making of it up 1. Great alterations made in the face of the Church from the return of such Divines as had withdrawn themselves beyond Sea in the time of Queen Mary with the necessity of imploying them in the publick service if otherwise of known zeal against the Papists Page 609 2. Several examples of that kind in the places of greatest power and trust in the Church of England particularly of Mr. Fox the Martyrologist and the occasion which he took of publishing his opinion in the point of Predestination ibid. 3. His Notes on one of the Letters of John Bradford Martyr touching the matter of Election therein contained ibid. 4. The difference between the Comment and the Text and between the Author of the Comment and Bishop Hooper Page 612 5. Exceptions against some passages and observations upon others in the said Notes of Mr. Fox ibid. 6. The great breach made hereby in the Churches Doctrine made greater by the countenance which was given to the Book of Acts and Monuments by the Convocation Anno 1571. Page 613 7. No argument to be drawn from hence touching the approbation of his doctrine by that Convocation no more than for the Approbation of his Marginal Notes and some particular passages in it disgraceful to the Rites of the Church attire of the Bishops ibid. 8. A counterballance made in the Convocation against Fox his Doctrine and all other Novelisms of that kind Page 614 CHAP. XX. Of the great Invocation made by Perkins in the publick Doctrine the stirs arising thence in Cambridge and Mr. Barrets carriage in them 1. Of Mr. Perkins and his Doctrine of Predestination with his recital of the four opinions which were then maintained about the fame Page 614 2. The sum and substance of his Doctrine according to the Supralapsarian or Supra-creatarian way Page 615 3. The several censures past upon it both by Papists and Protestants by none more sharply than by Dr. Rob. Abbots after Bishop of Sarum Page 616 4. Of Dr. Baroe the Lady Margarets Professor in the Vniversity and his Doctrine touching the divine Decrees upon occasion of Gods denounced Judgment against the Ninivites ibid. 5. His constant opposition to the Predestinarians and the great increase of his Adherents Page 617 6. The Articles collected out of Barrets Sermon derogatory to the Doctrine and persons of the chief Calvinians ibid. 7. Barret convented for the same and the proceedings had against him at his first conventing Page 618 8. A Form of Recantation delivered to him but not the same which doth occur in the Anti-Arminianism to be found in the Records of the Vniversity ibid. 9. Several Arguments to prove that Barret never published the Recantation imposed upon him Page 619 10. The rest of Barrets story related in his own Letter to Dr. Goad being then Vice-Chancellor ibid. 11. The sentencing of Barret to a Recantation no argument that his Doctrine was repugnant to the Church of England and that the body of the same Vniversity differed from the heads in that particular Page 620 CHAP. XXI Of the proceedings against Baroe the Articles of Lambeth and the general calm which was in Oxon touching these Disputes 1. The differences between Baroe and Dr. Whitacres the address of Whitacres and others to Arch-bishop Whitgift which drew on the Articles of Lambeth Page 621 2. The Articles agreed on at Lambeth presented both in English and Latine Page 622 3. The Articles of no authority in themselves Archbishop Whitgift questioned for them together with the Queens command to have them utterly supprest ibid. 4. That Baroe neither was deprived of his Professorship nor compelled to leave it the Anti-Calvinian party being strong enough to have kept him in if he had desired it Page 623 5. A Copy of the Letter from the Heads in Cambridge to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh occasioned as they said by Barret and Baroe Page 624 6. Dr. Overalds encounters with the Calvinists in the point of falling from the grace received his own private judgment in the point neither for total nor for final and the concurrence of some other Learned men in the same opinion Page 625 7. The general calm which was at Oxon at that time touching these disputes and the Reasons of it ibid. 8. An Answer to that Objection out of the writings of judicious Hooker of the total and final falling Page 626 9. The disaffections of Dr. Bukeridge and Dr. Houson to Calvins
the City Provinces As for the Church of Antiochia it spread its bounds and jurisdiction over those goodly Countries of the Roman Empire from the Mediterranean on the West unto the furthest border of that large dominion where it confined upon the Persian or the Parthian Kingdom together with Cilicia and Isauria in the lesser Asia But whether at this time it was so extended I am not able to determine Certain I am that in the very first beginning of this Age all Syria at the least was under the jurisdiction of this Bishop Ignatius in his said Epistle to those of Rome Ignat. ad Rom. stiling himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not a Bishop in Syria but the Bishop of Syria which sheweth that there being many Bishops in that large Province he had a power and superiority over all the rest Indeed the Bishops of Hierusalem were hedged within a narrower compass being both now and long time after subject unto the Metropolitan of Caesarea as appears plainly by the Nicene Canon though after they enlarged their border and gained the title of a Patriarch as we may see hereafter in convenient time Only I add that howsoever other of the greater Metropolitan Churches such as were absolute and independent as Carthage Cyprus Millain the Church of Britain Concil Ni. c. 7◠and the rest had and enjoyed all manner of Patriarchal rights which these three enjoyed yet only the three Bishops of Rome Antioch and Alexandria had in the Primitive times the names of Patriarches by reason of the greatness of the Cities themselves being the principal both for power and riches in the Roman Empire the one for Europe the other for Asia and the third for Africk This ground thus laid we will behold what use is made of this Episcopal succession by the ancient writers And first Saint Irenaeus a Bishop and a Martyr both derives an argument from hence to convince those Hereticks which broached strange Doctrines in the Church Iren. contr haer lib. 3. cap. 3. Habemus annumerari eos qui ab Apostolis instituti sunt Episcopi in Ecclesiis c. we are able to produce those men which were ordained Bishops by the Apostles in their several Churches and their successors till our times qui nihil tale docuerunt neque cognoverunt quale ab hiis deliratur who neither knew nor taught any such absurdities as these men dream of Which said in general he instanceth in the particular Churches of Rome Ephesus and Smyrna being all founded by the Apostles and all of them hac ordinatione successione by this Episcopal ordination and succession deriving from the Apostles the Preaching and tradition of Gods holy truth till those very times The like we find also in another place where speaking of those Presbyteri so he calleth the Bishops which claimed a succession from the Apostles He tells us this quod cum Episcopatus successione charisma veritatis certum secundum placitum Patris acceperunt that together with the Episcopal succession Ir. adv haeres l. 4. cap. 43. they had received a certain pledge of truth according to the good pleasure of the Father See to this purpose also cap. 63. where the same point is pressed most fully and indeed much unto the honour of this Episcopal succession Where because Irenaeus called Bishops in the former place by the name of Presbyters I would have no man gather Smectym p. 23. as some men have done that he doth use the name of Bishops and Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a promiscuous sense much less conclude that therefore Presbyters and Bishops were then the same For although Irenaeus doth here call the Bishops either by reason of their age or of that common Ordination which they once received by the name of Presbyters yet he doth no where call the Presbyters by the name of Bishops as he must needs have done if he did use the names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a promiscuous sense as it is supposed And besides Irenaeus being at this time Bishop if not Archbishop of the Church of Lyons could not but know that he was otherwise advanced both in power and title as well in Dignity as Jurisdiction than when he was a Presbyter of that very Church under Pothinus his Predecessor in that See and therefore not the same man meerly which he was before But to let pass as well the observation as the inference certain I am that by this argument the holy Father did conceive himself to be armed sufficiently against the Hereticks of his time and so much he expresseth plainly saying that by this weapon he was able to confound all those qui quoquo modo vel per sui placentiam malam vel vanam gloriam vel per coecitatem malam sententiam praeter quam oportet Ire adv haeres l. 3. c. 3. colligunt Who any way either out of an evil self complacency or vain-glorious humour or blindness of the mind or a depraved understanding did raise such Doctrins as they ought not So much for blessed Irenaeus a man of peace as well in disposition and affection as he was in name Next let us look upon Tertullian who lived in the same time with Irenaeus beginning first to be of credit about the latter end of this second Century Baron ann eccl anno 196. Pamel in vita Tertull. as Baronius calculates it and being at the height of reputation an 210. as Pamelius noteth about which time Saint Irenaeus suffered Martyrdom And if we look upon him well we find him pressing the same point with greater efficacy than Irenaeus did before him For undertaking to convince the Hereticks of his time as well of falshood as of novelties and to make known the new upstartedness of their Assemblies which they called the Church he doth thus proceed Tertull. de praes adv haeres c. 32. Edant ergo origines ecclesiarum suarum evolvant ordinem Episcoporum suorum c. Let them saith he declare the original of their Churches let them unfold the course or order of their Bishops succeeding so to one another from the first beginning that their first Bishop whosoever he was had some of the Apostles or of the Apostolical men at least who did converse with the Apostles to be their founder and Predecessor For thus the Apostolical Churches do derive their Pedegree Thus doth the Church of Smyrna shew their Polycarpus placed there amongst them by Saint John and Rome her Clement Consecrated or Ordained by Peter even as all other Churches also do exhibit to us the names of those who being Ordained Bishops by the Apostles did sow the Apostolical seed in the field of God This was the challenge that he made And this he had not done assuredly had he not thought that the Episcopal succession in the Church of Christ had been an evident demonstration of the truth thereof which since the Hereticks could not shew in their Congregations or Assemblies it
the first time that ever these Sabbath Doctrines peeped into the light For Dr. Bound the first sworn servant of the Sabbath hath in his first edition thus declared himself Page 31. that he sees not where the Lord hath given any authority to his Church ordinarily and perpetually to sanctifie any day except that which he hath sanctified himself and makes it an especial argument against the goodness of the Religion in the Church of Rome that to the seventh day they have joined so many other days Page 32. and made them equal with the seventh if not superiour thereunto as well in the solemnity of divine Offices as restraint from labour So that we may perceive by this that their intent from the beginning was to cry down the holy days as superstitious Popish Ordinances that so their new found Sabbath being placed alone and Sabbath now it must be called might become more eminent Nor were the other though more private effects thereof of less dangerous nature the people being so insnared with these new devices and pressed with rigours more than Jewish that certainly they are in as bad condition as were the Israelites of old when they were captivated and kept under by the Scribes and Pharisees Some I have known for in this point I will say nothing without good assurance who in a furious kind of zeal like the mad Prophetess in the Poet have run into the open streets yea and searched private Houses too to look for such as spent those hours on the Lords day in lawful pastimes which were not destinate by the Church to Gods publick service and having found them out scattered the company brake the Instruments and if my memory fail me not the Musitians head and which is more they thought that they were bound in conscience so to do Others that will not suffer either baked or roast to be made ready for their Dinners on their Sabbath day lest by so doing they should eat and drink their own damnation according to the doctrine preached unto them Some that upon the Sabbath will not sell a pint of Wine or the like Commodity though Wine was made by God not only for mans often infirmities but to make glad his heart and refresh his spirits and therefore no less requisite on the Lords day than on any other Others which have refused to carry provender to an Horse on the supposed Sabbath day though our Redeemer thought it no impiety on the true Sabbath day indeed to lead poor Cattel to the Water which was the motive and occasion of M. Brerewoods learned Treatise So for the female sex Maid-servants I have met with some two or three who though they were content to dress their meat upon the Sabbath yet by no means would be persuaded either to wash their Dishes or make clean their Kitchen But that which most of all affects me is that a Gentlewoman at whose House I lay in Leicester the last Northern Progress Anno 1634. expressed a great desire to see the King and Queen who were then both there And when I proferd her my service to satisfie that loyal longing she thanked me but refused the favour because it was the Sabbath day Unto so strange a bondage are the people brought that as before I said a greater never was imposed on the Jews themselves what time the consciences of that people were pinned most closely on the sleeves of the Scribes and Pharisees But to go forwards in my story it came to pass for all the care before remembred that having such a plausible and fair pretence as sanctifying a day unto the Lord and keeping a Commandment that had long been silenced it got strong footing in the Kingdom as before is said the rather because many things which were indeed strong avocations from Gods publick Service were as then permitted Therefore it pleased King James in the first entrance of his Reign so far to condescend unto them as to take off such things which seemed most offensive To which intent he signitied his loyal pleasure by Proclamation dated at Theobald May 7. 1603. that Whereas he had been informed that there had been in tormer times a greet neglect in keeping the Sabbath day for better obserbing of the same and for abeiding of all impious prophanarion of it be straitly charged and commanded that no Bear-baiting Bull baiting Enterludes common Plays or other like disordered or unlawful exercises or pastimes be frequented kept or used at any time hereafter upon any Sabbath day Not that his purpose was to debar himself of lawful pleasures on that day but to prohibit such disordered and unlawful pastimes whereby the common people were withdrawn from the Congregation they being only to be reckoned for Common Plays which at the instant of their Acting or representing are studied only for the entertainment of the common people on the publick Theaters Yet did not this though much content them And therefore in the Conference at Hampton Court it seemed good to D. Reynolds who had been made a party in the cause to touch upon the prophanation of the Sabbath for so he called it and contempt of his Majesties Proclamation made for the reforming of that abuse of which be earnestly desired a straiter course for reformation thereof to which he found a gentral and unanimous assent Nor was there an assent only and nothing done For presently in the following Convocation it pleased the Prelates there assembled to revive so much of the Queens Injunction before remembred as to them seemed fitting and to incorporate it into the Commons then agreed of only a little alteration to make it more agreeable to the present times being used therein That then they ordered in the Canon for due celebrution of Sundays and holp days Can. 13. viz. All manner of persons within the Church of England shall from beneeforth celebrote and heep the Lords day commonly called Sunday and other Holy days according to Gods holy will and pleasure and the Diders of the Church of England prescribed in that behalf i.e. in hearing the Word of God read and taught in pribate and publich Prapert in acknowledging their offences to God and amendment of the same in reconciling themselves charitably to their Neighbours where displeasure had been in offentimes receibing the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ using all godly and scber conversation The residue of the said Injunction touching work in Harvest it seemed fit unto them not to touch upon leaving the same to stand or fall by the statute of King Edward the sixth before remembred A Canon of an excellent composition For by enjoyning godly and sober conversation and diligent repair to Church to hear the Word of God and receive the Sacrament they stopped the course of that prophaneness which formerly had been complained of and by their ranking of the holy days in equal place and height with Sunday and limiting the celebration of the same unto the Orders in that case