appertain unto several Corporations or Companies of men some to be privately mens own in particular and some to be separated quite from all men which last branch comprizeth things sacred and holy because thereof God alone is Owner The sequel of which received opinion as well without as within the Walls of the House of God touching such possessions as hath been ever that there is not an act more honourable than by all means to amplifie and to defend the patrimony of Religion not any more impious and hateful than to impair those possessions which men in former times when they gave unto holy uses were wont at the Altar of God and in presence of their ghostly Superiours to make as they thought inviolable by words of fearful execration saying These things we offer to God from whom if any take them away which we hope no man will attempt to do but if any shall Let his account be without favour in the last day when he commeth to receive the doom which is due for Sacriledge against that Lord and God unto whom we dedicate the same The best and most renowned Prelates of the Church of Christ have in this consideration rather sustained the wrath than yielded to satisfie the hard desire of their greatest Commanders on earth coveting with ill advice and counsel that which they willingly should have suffered God to enjoy There are of Martyrs whom posterity doth much honour for that having under their hands the custody of such treasures they could by vertuous delusion invent how to save them from prey even when the safety of their own lives they gladly neglected as one sometime an Archdeacon under Xistne the Bishop of Rome did whom when his Judge understood to be one of the Church-Stewards thirst of blood began to slake and another humour to work which first by a favourable countenance and then by quiet speech did thus calmly disclose it self You that profess the Christian Religion make great complaint of the wonderful cruelty we shew towards you Neither peradventure altogether without cause But for my self I am farr from any such bloody purpose Ye are not so willing to love as I unwilling that out of these lips should proceed any capital sentence against you Your Bishops are said to have rich Vessels of Gold and Silver which they use in the exercise of their Religion besides the fame is that numbers sell away their Lands and Livings the huge prices whereof are brought to your Church-coffers by which means the devotion that maketh them and their whole Posterity poor must needs mightily enrich you whose God we know was no Coyner of Money but left behinde him many wholesome and good Precepts at namely that Caesar should have of you the things that are fit for and due to Caesar. His Wars are costly and chargeable unto him That which you suffer to rust in corners the affairs of the Common-wealth do need Your Profession is not to make account of things transitory And yet if ye can be contented but to forego that which ye care not for I dare undertake to warrant you both safety of life and freedom dom of using your conscience a thing more acceptable to you than wealth Which sa it ' Parley the happy Martyr quietly hearing and perceiving it necessary to make some shift for the safe concealment of that which being now desired was not unlikely to be more narrowly afterwards sought he craved respite for three dayes to gather the riches of the Church together in which space against the time the Governour should come to the doors of the Temple bigg with hope to receive his prey a miserable rank of poor lame and impotent Persous was provided their names delivered him up in writing as a true Inventory of the Churches goods and some few words used to signifie how proud the Church was of these Treasures If men did not naturally abhor Sacriledge to resist or to defeat so impious attempts would deserve small prayse But such is the general detestation of rapine in this kinde that whereas nothing doth either in Peace or War more uphold men's reputation than prosperous success because in common construction unless notorious improbity be joyn'd with prosperity it seemeth to argue favour with God they which once have stained their hands with these odious spoyls do thereby fasten unto all their actions an eternal prejudice in respect whereof for that it passeth through the World as an undoubted Rule and Principle that Sacriledge is open defiance to God whatsoever afterwards they undertake if they prosper in it men reckon it but Dionysius his Navigation and if any thing befall them otherwise it is not as commonly so in them ascribed to the great uncertainty of casual events wherein the providence of God doth controul the purposes of men oftentimes much more for their good than if all things did answer fully their hearts desire but the censure of the World is ever directly against them both bitter and peremptoty To make such actions therefore less odious and to mitigate the envy of them many colourable shifts and inventions have been used as if the World did hate onely Wolves and think the Fox a goodly Creature The time it may be will come when they that either violently have spoyled or thus smoothly defrauded God shall finde they did but deceive themselves In the mean while there will be always some skilful Persons which can teach a way how to grinde treatably the Church with jawes that shall scarce move and yet devour in the end more than they that come ravening with open mouth as if they would worry the whole in an instant others also who having wastfully eaten out their own Patrimony would be glad to repair if they might their decayed Estates with the ruine they care not of what nor of whom so the spoyl were theirs whereof in some part if they happen to speed yet commonly they are men born under that constellation which maketh them I know not how as unapt to enrich themselves as they are ready to impoverish others it is their lot to sustain during life both the misery of Beggers and the infamy of Robbers But though no other Plague and Revenge should follow sacrilegious violations of holy things the natural secret disgrace and ignominy the very turpitude of such actions in the eye of a wise understanding heart is it self a heavy punishment Men of vertuous quality are by this sufficiently moved to beware how they answer and requite the mercies of God with injuries whether openly or indirectly offered I will not absolutely say concerning the goods of the Church that they may in no case be seized on by men or that no Obligation Commerce and Bargain made between man and man can never be of force to alienate the property which God hath in them Certain cases I grant there are wherein it is not so dark what God himself doth warrant but that we may safely
by whom any profitable way is censured as reprovable onely under colour of some small difference from great examples going before to do throughout every the like circumstance the same which Christ did in this action were by following his footsteps in that sort to err more from the purpose he aimed at then we now do by not following them with so nice and severe strictness They little weigh with themselves how dull how heavy and almost how without sense the greatest part of the common multitude every where is who think it either unmeet or unnecessary to put them even man by man especially at that time in minde whereabout they are It is true That in Sermons we do not use to repeat our sentences severally to every particular heâer a strange madness it were if we should The softness of Wax may induce a wise man to set his stamp or image therein it perswadeth no man that because Wooll hath the like quality it may therefore receive the like impression So the reason taken from the use of Sacraments in that they are Instruments of Grace unto every particular man may with good congruity lead the Church to frame accordingly her words in Administration of Sacraments because they easily admit this Form which being in Sermons a thing Impossible without apparent ridiculous absurdity agreement of Sacraments with Sermons in that which is alledged as a reasonable proof of conveniency for the one proveth not the same Allegation impertinent because it doth not inforce the other to be administred in like sort For equal principles do then avail unto equal conclusions when the matter whereunto we apply them is equal and not else Our Kneeling at Communions is the gesture of Piety If we did there present our selves but to make some shew or dumb resemblance of a Spiritual Feast it may be that Sitting were the fitter Ceremony but coming as Receivers of inestimable Grace at the Hands of God what doth better beseem our bodies at that hour then to be sensible Witnesses of mindes unfeignedly humbled Our Lord himself did that which custom and long usage had made fit We that which fitness and great decency hath made usual The tryal of our selves before we Eat of this Bread and Drink of this Cup is by express Commandment every mans precise Duty As for necessity of calling others unto account besides our selves albeit we be not thereunto drawn by any great strength which is in their Arguments who first press us with it as a thing necessary by affirming That the Apostles did use it and then prove the Apostles to have used it by affirming it to be necessary Again albeit we greatly muse how they can avouch That God did command the Levites to prepare their Brethren against the Feast of the Passover and that the Examination of them was a part of their Preparation when the place alledged to this purpose doth but charge the Levite saying Make ready Lâahhechem for your Brethren to the end they may do according to the Word of the Lord by Moses Wherefore in the self-same place it followeth how Lambs and Kids and Sheep and Bullocks were delivered unto the Levites and that thus the Service was made ready It followeth likewise how the Levites having in such sort provided for the people they made provision for themselves and for the Priests the Sons of Aaron So that confidently from hence to conclude the necessity of Examination argueth their wonderful great forwardness in framing all things to serve their turn nevertheless the Examination of Communicants when need requireth for the profitable use it may have in such cases we reject not Our fault in admitting Popish Communicants Is it in that we are forbidden to eat and therefore much more to communicate with notorious Malefactors The name of a Papist is not given unto any man for being a notorious Malefactor And the crime wherewith we are charged is suffering of Papists to communicate so that be their life and conversation whatsoever in the fight of man their Popish opinions are in this case laid as Bars and Exceptions against them yea those opinions which they have held in former times although they now both profess by word and offer to shew by fact the contrary All this doth not justifie us which ought not they say to admit them in any wise till their Gospel-like behavior have removed all suspition of Popery from them because Papists are Dogs Swine Beasts Foreigners and Strangers from the House of God in a word they are not of the Church What the terms of Gospel-like behavior may include is obscure and doubtful But of the Visible Church of Christ in this present World from which they separate all Papists we are thus perswaded Church is a word which Art hath devised thereby to sever and distinguish that Society of Men which professeth the true Religion from the rest which profess it not There have been in the World from the very first foundation thereof but three Religions Paganism which lived in the blindness of corrupt and depraved Nature Iudaism embracing the Law which Reformed Heathenish Impiety and taught Salvation to be looked for through One whom God in the last days would send and exalt to be Lord of all Finally Christian Belief which yieldeth obedience to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and acknowledgeth him the Saviour whom God did promise Seeing then that the Church is a name which Art hath given to Professors of true Religion As they which will define a Man are to pass by those qualities wherein one man doth excel another and to take onely those Essential Properties whereby a Man doth differ from Creatures of other kindes So he that will teach what the Church is shall never rightly perform the work whereabout he goeth till in Matter of Religion he touch that difference which severeth the Churches Religion from theirs who are not the Church Religion being therefore a matter partly of contemplation partly of action we must define the Church which is a Religious Society by such differences as do properly explain the Essence of such things that is to say by the Object or Matter whereabout the Contemplations and Actions of the Church are properly conversant For so all Knowledges and all Vertues are defined Whereupon because the onely Object which separateth ours from other Religions is Jesus Christ in whom none but the Church doth believe and whom none but the Church doth worship we finde that accordingly the Apostles do every where distinguish hereby the Church from Infidels and from Jews accounting them which call upon the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ to be his Church If we go lower we shall but add unto this certain casual and variable accidents which are not properly of the Being but make onely for the happier and better Being of the Church of God either indeed or in mens opinions and conceits This is the Error of all Popish definitions that hitherto have been brought They
Civil Magistrate being termed Head by reason of that Authority in Ecclesiastical Affairs which hath been already declared that themselves do acknowledge to be lawful It followeth that he is a Head even subordinated of Christ and to Christ. For more plain explication whereof unto God we acknowledge daily that Kingdom Power and Glory are his that he is the immortal and invisible King of Ages as well the future which shall be as the present which now is That which the Father doth work as Lord and King over all he worketh not without but by the Son who through coeternal generation receiveth of the Father that Power which the Father hath of himself And for that cause our Saviours words concerning his own Dominion are To me all Power both in Heaven and in Earth is given The Father by the Son did create and doth guide all wherfore Christ hath Supream dominion over the whole universal World Christ is God Christ is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the consubstantial Word of God Christ is also that consubstantial Word which made man As God he saith of himself I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end he which was and which is and which is to come even the very Omnipotent As the consubstantial Word of God he hath with God before the beginning of the World that glory which as he was Man he requireth to have Father glorifie thy Son with that glory which with thee be enjoyed before the World waâ Further it is not necessary that all things spoken of Christ should agree to him either as God or else as Man but some things as he is the consubstantial Word of God some things as he is that Word incarnate The Works of Supream Dominion which have been since the first beginning wrought by the power of the Son of God are now most properly and truly the Works of the Son of Man the Word made Flesh doth sit for ever and reign as Soveraign Lord over all Dominion belongeth unto the Kingly Office of Christ as Propitration and Mediation unto his Priestly Instruction unto his Pastoral and Prophetical Office His Works of Dominion are in sundry degrees and kindes according to the different conditions of them that are subject unto it he presently doth govern and hereafter shall judge the World intire and wholly and therefore his Regal power cannot be with truth restrained unto a proportion of the World only Notwithstanding forasmuch as all do not shew and acknowledge with dutiful submission that Obedience which they owe unto him therefore such as do their Lord he is termed by way of excellency no otherwise than the Apostle doth term God the Saviour generally of all but especially of the Faithful these being brought to the obedience of Faith are every where spoken of as men translated into that Kingdom wherein whosoever is comprehended Christ is the Author of eternal Salvation unto them they have a high and ghostly fellowship with God and Christ and Saints as the Apostle in more ample manner speaketh Aggregated they are unto Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the Celestial Ierusalem and to the company of innumerable Angels and to the Congregation of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the Spirits of just and perfect men and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Testament In a word they are of that Mystical body which we term the Church of Christ. As for the rest we account them Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and that live in the Kingdom of Darkness and that are in this present World without God Our Saviours Dominion is therefore over these as over Rebels over them as over dutiful and loving Subjects which things being in holy Scriptures so plain I somewhat muse at that strange position That Christ in the Government of his Church and Superiority over the Officers of it hath himself a Superiour which is the Father but in governing of Kingdoms and Common wealths and in the Superiority which he hath over Kingdoms no Superiour Again That the Civil Magistrates Authority commeth from God immediately as Christs doth and it subordinate unto Christ. In what Evangelist Apostle or Prophet is it found that Christ Supream Governour of the Church should be so unequal to himself as he is Supream Governor of Kingdoms The works of his Providence for the preservation of Mankinde by upholding Kingdoms not only obedient unto but also obstinate and rebellious against him are such as proceed from Divine Power and are not the works of his Providence for safety of God's Elect by gathering inspiring comforting and every way preserving his Church such as proceed from the same Power likewise Surely if Christ as God and Man hath ordained certain means for the gathering and keeping of his Church seeing this doth belong to the Government of that Church it must in reason follow I think that as God and Man he worketh in Church Regiment and consequently hath no more there any Superiours than in the Government of the Common-wealth Again to be in the midst of his wheresoever they are assembled in his Name and to be with them to the World's end are comforts which Christ doth perform to his Church as Lord and Governour yea such as he cannot perform but by that very Power wherein he hath no Superiour Wherefore unless it can be proved that all the works of our Saviours Government in the Church are done by the mere and onely force of his Human nature there is no remedy but to acknowledge it a manifest errour that Christ in the Government of the World is equal to the Father but not in the Government of the Church Indeed to the honour of this Dominion it cannot be said that God did exalt him otherwise than only according to that Human nature wherein he was made low For as the Son of God there could no advancement or exaltation grow unto him And yet the Dominion whereunto he was in his Human nature lifted up is not without Divine Power exercised It is by Divine Power that the Son of man who sitteth in Heaven doth work as King and Lord upon us which are on Earth The exercise of his Dominion over the Church Militant cannot choose but cease when there is no longer any Militant Church in the World And therefore as Generals of Armies when they have finished their Work are wont to yield up such Commissions as were given for that purpose and to remain in the state of Subjects and not as Lords as concerning their former authority even so when the end of all things is come the Son of man who till then reigneth shall do the like as touching Regiment over the Militant Church on the Earth So that between the Son of man and his Brethren over whom he reigneth now in this their War fare there shall be then as touching the exercise of that Regiment no such difference they not warfaring
apparel come amongst us although he be a Thief or a Murtherer for there are Thieves and Murtherers in gorgeous apparel be his heart whatsoever if his Coat be of Purple or Velvet or Tissue every one riseth up and all the reverend Solemnities we can use are too little But the man that serveth God is contemned and despised amongst us for his Poverty Herod speaketh in judgement and the People cry out The voyce of God and not of man Paul preacheth Christ they term him a Trifler Hearken beloved Hath not God chosen the Poor of this World that they should be rich in Faith Hath he not chosen the Reffuse of the World to be Heirs of his Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him Hath he not chosen the Off-scowrings of Men to be the Lights of the World and the Apostles of Jesus Christ Men unlearned yet how fully replenished with understanding Few in number yet how great in power Contemptible in shew yet in Spirit how strong how wonderful I would faiââ learn the mystery of the eternal generation of the Son of God saith Hilary Whom shall I seek Shall I get me to the Schools of the Grecians Why I have read Ubi Sapiens ubi Scriba ubi Conquisitor hujus saculi These Wise-men in the World must needs be dumbe in this because they have rejected the wisdom of God Shall I beseech the Scribes and Interpreters of the Law to become my Teachers how can they know this sith they are offended at the Cross of Christ It is death for me to be ignorant of the unsearchable mystery of the Son of God of which mystery notwithstanding I should have been ignorant but that a poor Fisher-man unknown unlearned new come from his Boat with his Cloaths wringing-wet hath opened his mouth and taught me In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God These poor silly Creatures have made us rich in the knowledge of the mysteries of Christ. 7. Remember therefore that which is spoken of by the Apostles Whose words if the Children of this World do not regard is it any marvail They are the Apostles of our Lord Jesus not of their Lord but of ours It is true which one hath said in a certain place Apostolicam sidem seculi homo non capit A man sworn to the World is not capable of that Faith which the Apostles do teach What mean the Children of this World then to tread in the Courts of our God What should your Bodies do at Bethel whose Hearts are at Bethaven The god of this World whom ye serve hath provided Apostles and Teachers for you Chaldeans Wizzards Sooth-sayers Astrologers and such like Hear them Tell not us that ye will sacrifice to the Lord our God if we will sacrifice to Ashtaroth or Melcom that ye will read our Scriptures if we will listen to your Traditions that if ye may have a Mass by permission we shall have a Communion with good leave and liking that ye will admit the things that are spoken of by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus if your Lord and Master may have his Ordinances observed and his Statutes kept Solomon took it as he well might for an evident proof that she did not bear a motherly affection to her Childe which yielded to have it cut in divers parts He cannot love the Lord Jesus with his heart which lendeth one ear to his Apostles and another to false Apostles which can brook to see a mingle-mangle of Religion and Superstition Ministers and Massing-Priests Light and Darkness Truth and Error Traditions and Scriptures No we have no Lord but Jesus no Doctrine but the Gospel no Teachers but his Apostles Were it reason to require at the hand of an English Subject obedience to the Laws and Edicts of the Spaniards I do marvel that any man bearing the name of a Servant of the Servants of Jesus Christ will go about to draw us from our Allegiance We are his sworn Subjects it is not lawful for us to hear the things that are not told us by his Apostles They have told us that in the last days there shall be Mockers therefore we believe it Credimus quia legimus We are so perswaded because we read it must be so If we did not read it we would not teach it Nam qua libro Legis non continentur ea nec nosse debemus saith Hilary Those things that are not written in the book of the Law we ought not so much as to be acquainted with them Remember the words which were spoken of before by the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ. 8. The third thing to be considered in the description of these men of whom we speak is the time wherein we should be manifested to the World They told you there should be mockers in the last time Noah at the commandement of God built an Ark and there were in it Beasts of all sorts clean and unclean A Husbandman planteth a Vineyard and looketh for Grapes but when they come to the gathering behold together with Grapes there are found also wilde Grapes A rich man prepareth a great Supper and biddeth many but when he sitteth him down he findeth amongst his Friends here and there a man whom he knoweth not This hath been the state of the Church âit hence the beginning God always hath mingled his Saints with faithless and godless Persons as it were the clean with the unclean Grapes with sowre grapes his Friends and Children with Aliens and Strangers Marvel not then if in the last dayes also ye see the men with whom you live and walk arm in arm laugh at your Religion and blaspheme that glorious name whereof you are called Thus it was in the days of the Patriarks and Prophets and are we better than our Fathers Albeit we suppose that the blessed Apostles in foreshewing what manner of men were set out for the last dayes meant to note a calamity special and peculiar to the Ages and Generations which were to come As if he should have said As God hath appointed a time of Seed for the Sower and a time of Harvest for him that reapeth as he hath given unto every Herb and every Tree his own fruit and his own season not the season nor the fruit of another for no man looketh to gather Figgs in the Winter because the Summer is the season for them nor Grapes of Thistles because Grapes are the fruit of the Vine so the same God hath appointed sundry for every Generation of them other men for other times and for the last times the worst men as may appear by their properties which is the fourth point to be considered of in this description 9. They told you that there should be Mockers He meaneth men that shall use Religion as a Cloak to put off and on as the weather serveth such as shall with Herod hear the Preaching of Iohn Baptist to day
which they of that place which the Lord hath chosen shew thee and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee According to the Law which they shall teach thee and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee shalt thou do thou shalt not decline from the thing which they shall shew thee to the right hand nor to the left And that man that will do presumptuously not hearkning unto the Priest that standeth before the Lord thy God to manister there or unto the Judge that man shall die and thou shalt take away evil from Israel When there grew in the Church of Christ a question Whether the Genti'es believing might be saved although they were not circumcised after the manner of Moses nor did observe the rest of those Legal Rites and Ceremonies whereunto the Jews were bound After great Dissention and Disputation about it their conclusion in the end was to have it determined by sentence at Jerusalem which was accordingly done in a Council there assemâled for the same purpose Are ye able to alledge any just and sufficient cause wherefore absolutely ye should not condescend in this Controversie to have your judgments over-ruled by some such Definitive Sentence Whether it fall out to be given with or against you that so these redious contentions may cease Te will perhaps make answer That being perswaded already as touching the truth of your Cause ye are not to hearken unto any sentence no not though Angels should define otherwise as the blessed Apostles own example teacheth Again That Men yea Councils may err and that unless the judgment given do satisfie your mindes unless it be such as ye can by no further argument oppugn in a word unless you perceive and acknowledge it your selves consonant with Gods Word to stand unto it not allowing it were to sin against your own consciences But consider I beseech you first As touching the Apostle how that wherein be was so resolute and peremptory our Lord Iesus Christ made manifest unto him even by Intuitive Revelation wherein there was no possibility of error That which you are perswaded of ye have it no otherwise then by your own onely probable collection and therefore such bold asseverations as in him were admirable should in your months but argue rashness God was not ignorant that the Priests and Iudges whose sentence in Matters of Controversie he ordained should stand both might and oftentimes would be deceived in their judgment Howbeit better it was in the eye of his understanding that sometime an erronious sentence Definitive should prevail till the same authority perceiving such oversight might afterwards correct or reverse it then that strifes should have respite to grow and not come speedily unto some end Neither wish we that men should do any thing which in their hearts they are perswaded they ought not to do but this perswasion ought we say to be fully setled in their hearts that in litigious and controversed causes of such quality the Will of God is to have them to do whatsoever the sentence of judicial and final Decision shall determine yea though it seem in their private opinion to swarve utterly from that which is right as no doubt many times the sentence amongst the Iews did seem unto one part or other contending And yet in this case God did then allow them to do that which in their private judgment it seemed yea and perhaps truly seemed that the Law did disallow For if God be not the Author of confusion but of peace then can he not be the Author of our refusal but of our contentment to stand unto some Definitive Sentence without which almost impossible it is that either we should avoid confusion or ever hope to attain peace To small purpose had the Council of Jerusalem been assembled if one their determination being set down men might afterwards have defended their former opinions When therefore they had given their Definitive Sentence all Controversoâ was at an end Things were disputed before they came to be determined Men afterwards were not to dispute any longer but to obey The Sentence of Iudgment finished their strife which their disputes before judgment could not do This was ground sufficient for any reasonable Mans conscience to build the duty of Obedience upon whatsoever his own opinion were as touching the matter before in question So full of wilfulness and self-liking is our nature that without some Definitive Sentence which being given may stand and a necessity of silence on both sides afterward imposed small hope there is that strifes thus for prosecuted will in short time quietly end Now it were in vain to ask you Whether ye could be content that the Sentence of any Court already erected should be so far authorized as that among the Iews established by God himself for the determining of all Controversies That man which will do presumptuously not hearkning unto the Priest that standeth before the Lord to minister there nor unto the Judge let him die Ye have given us already to understand what your opinion is in part concerning Her sacred Majesties Court of High Commission the nature whereof is the same with that amongst the Iews albeit the power be not so great The other way happily may like you better because Master Beza in his last Book save one written about these Matters professeth himself to be now weary of such Combats and Encounters whether by word or writing in as much as he findeth that Controversies thereby are made but Brawls And therefore wisheth that in some common lawful Assembly of Churches all these strifes may at once be decided Shall there be then in the mean while no doings Yes There are the weightier Matters of the Law Judgment and Mercy and Fidelity These things we ought to do and these things while we contend about less we leave undone Happier are they whom the Lord when he cometh shall finde doing in these things then disputing about Doctors Elders and Deacons Or if there be no remedy but somewhat needs ye must do which may tend to the setting forward of your Discipline do that which wisemen who think some Statute of the Realm more fit to be repealed then to stand in force are accustomed to do before they come to Parliament where the place of enacting is that is to say spend the time in re-examining more duly your cause and in more throughly considering of that which ye labor to overthrow As for the Orders which are established sith Equity and Reason the Law of Nature God and Man do all favor that which is in Being till orderly Iudgment of Decision be given against it it is but Iustice to exact of you and perversness in you it should be to deny thereunto your willing obedience Not that I judge it a thing allowable for men to observe those Laws which its their hearts they are stredfastly perswaded to be against the Law of God But your perswasion
and the coherance it hath with those things either on which it dependeth or which depend on it 8. The case so standing therefore my Brethren as it doth the wisdom of Governors ye must not blame in that they further also forecasting the manifold strange and dangerous innovations which are more then likely to follow if your Discipline should take place have for that cause thought it hitherto a part of their duty to withstand your endeavors that way The rather for that they have seen already some small beginnings of the fruits thereof in them who concurring with you in judgment about the necessity of that Discipline have adventured without more ado to separate themselves from the rest of the Church and to put your speculations in execution These mens hastiness the warier sort of you doth not commend ye wish they had held themselves longer in and not so dangerously flown abroad before the feathers of the Cause had been grown their Error with merciful terms ye reprove naming them in great commiseration of minds your poor Brethren They on the contrary side more bitterly accuse you as their false Brethren and against you they plead saying From your Brests it is that we have sucked those things which when ye delivered unto us ye termed that heavenly sincere and wholesom Milk of Gods Word howsoever ye now abhor as poyson that which the vertue thereof hath wrought and brought forth in us Ye sometime our Companions Guides and Familiars with whom we have had most sweet Consultations are now become our professed Adversaries because we think the Statute-Congregation in England to be no true Christian Churches because we have severed our selves from them and because without their leave or licence that are in Civil Authority we have secretly framed our own Churches according to the Platform of the Word of God For of that point between you and us there is no Controversie Also what would ye have us to do At such time as ye were content to accept us in the number of your own your Teaching we heard weread your Writings And though we would yet able we are not to forget with what zeal ye have ever profest That in the English Congregations for so many of them as be ordered according unto their own Laws the very Publick Service of God is fraught as touching Matter with heaps of intolerable Pollutions and as concerning Form borrowed from the Shop of Antichrist hateful both ways in the eyes of the most Holy the kinde of their Government by Bishops and Archbishops Antichristian that Discipline which Christ hath essentially tied that is to say so united unto his Church that we cannot account it really to be his Church which hath not in it the same Discipline that very Discipline no less there despised then in the highest Throne of Antichrist All such parts of the Word of God as do any way concern that Discipline no less unsoundly taught and interpreted by all authorized English Pastors then by Antichrists Factors themselves At Baptism Crossing at the Supper of the Lord. Kneeling at both a number of other the most notorious Badges of Antichristian Recognisance usual Being moved with these and the like your effectual discourses whereunto we gave most attentive ear till they entred even into our souls and were as fire within our bosoms We thought we might hereof be bold to conclude That sith no such Antichristian Synagogue may be accounted a true Church of Christ ye by accusing all Congregations ordered according to the Laws of England as Antichristian did mean to condemn those Congregations as not being any of them worthy the name of a true Christian Church Ye tell us now it is not your meaning But what meant your often threatnings of them who professing themselves the inhabitants of Mount Sion were too loth to depart wholly as they should out of Babylon Whereat our hearts being fearfully troubled we durst not we durst not continue longer so near her confines lest her plagues might suddenly overtake us before we did cease to be partakers with her sins for so we could not chuse but acknowledge with grief that we were when they doing evil we by our presence in their Assemblies seemed to like thereof or at leastwise not so earnestly to dislike as became men heartily zealous of Gods glory For adventuring to erect the Discipline of Christ without the leave of the Christian Magistrate haply ye may condemn us as fools in that we hazard thereby our estates and persons further then you which are that way more wise think necessary But of any offence or sin therein committed against God with what conscience can you accuse us when your own positions are That the things we observe should every of them be dearer unto us then ten thousand lives that they are the peremptory Commandments of God that no mortal man can dispense with them and that the Magistrate grievously sinneth in not constraining thereunto Will ye blame any man for doing that of his own accord which all men should be compelled to do that are not willing of themselves When God commandeth shall we answer that we will obey if so be Cesar will grant us leave Is Discipline an Ecclesiastical Matter or a Civil If an Ecclesiastical is must of necessity belong to the duty of the Minister and the Minister ye say holdeth all his Authority of doing whatsoever belongeth unto the Spiritual Charge of the House of God even immediately from God himself without dependency upon any Magistrate Whereupon it followeth as we suppose that the hearts of the people being willing to be under the Scepter of Christ the Minister of God into whose hands the Lord himself hath put that Scepter is without all excuse if thereby he guide them not Nor do we finde that hitherto greatly ye have disliked those Churches abroad where the people with direction of their godly Ministers have even against the will of the Magistrate brought in either the Doctrine or Discipline of Iesus Christ For which cause we must now think the very same thing of you which our Saviour did sometime utter concerning false-hearted Scribes and Pharisees They say and do not Thus the foolish Barrowist deriveth his Schism by way of Conclusion as to him it seemeth directly and plainly out of your principles Him therefore we leave to be satisfied by you from whom he hath sprung And if such by your own acknowledgment be persons dangerous although as yet the alterations which they have made are of small and tender growth the changes likely to ensue throughout all States and Vocations within this Land in case your desire should take place must be thought upon First Concerning the Supream Power of the Highest they are no small Prerogatives which now thereunto belonging the Form of your Discipline will constrain it to resign as in the last Book of this Treatise we have shewed at large Again it may justly be feared whether our English
rest their manner was to term disdainfully Scribes and Pharisees to account their Calling an Humane Creature and to detain the people as much as might be from hearing them As touching Sacraments Baptism administred in the Church of Rome they judged to be but an execrable Mockery and no Baptism both because the Ministers thereof in the Papacy are wicked Idolaters lewd Persons Thieves and Murderers cursed Creatures ignorant Beasts and also for that to baptize is a proper action belonging unto none but the Church of Christ whereas Rome is Antichrists Synagogue The custom of using God-fathers and God-mothers at Christnings they scorned Baptism of Infants although confest by themselves to have been continued even sithence the very Apostles own times yet they altogether condemned partly because sundry errors are of no less antiquity and partly for that there is no Commandment in the Gospel of Christ which saith Baptize Infants but he contrariwise in saying Go Preach and Baptize doth appoint that the Minister of Baptism shall in that action first administer Doctrine and then Baptism as also in saying Whosoever doth believe and is baptized be appointeth that the party to whom Baptism is administred shall first believe and then be baptized to the end that Believing may go before this Sacrament in the Receiver no otherwise then Preaching in the Giver sith equally in both the Law of Christ declareth not onely what things are required but also in what order they are required The Eucharist they received pretending our Lord and Saviour example after Supper And for avoiding all those impieties which have been grounded upon the Mystical words of Christ This is my Body This is my Blood they thought it not safe to mention either Body or Blood in that Sacrament but rather to abrogate both and to use no words but these Take eat declare the death of our Lord. Drink shew forth our Lords death In Rites and Ceremonies their Profession was hatred of all Conformity with the Church of Rome For which cause they would rather endure any torment then observe the solemn Festivals which others did in as much as Antichrist they said was the first inventer of them The pretended end of their Civil Reformation was That Christ might have dominion over all that all Crowns and Scepters might be thrown down at his feet that no other might raign over Christian men but he no Regiment keep them in aw but his Discipline amongst them no Sword at all be carried besides his the Sword of Spiritual Excommunication For this cause they labored with all their might in over-turning the Seats of Magistracy because Christ hath said Kings of Nations in abolishing the execution Iustice because Christ hath said Resist not evil in forbidding Oaths the necessary means of Iudicial tryal because Christ hath said Swear not at all Finally in bringing in Community of Goods because Christ by his Apostles hath given the World such example to the end that men might excel one another not in Wealth the Pillar of Secular Authority but in Vertue These men at the first were onely pitied in their Error and not much withstood by any the great Humility Zeal and Devotion which appeared to be in them was in all mens opinion a pledge of their harmless meaning The hardest that men of sound understanding conceived of them was but this O quam honestâ voluntate miseri errant With how good a meaning these poor Souls do evil Luther made request unto Frederick Duke of Saxony that within his Dominion they might be favorably dealt with and spared for that their Error exempted they seemed otherwise right good men By means of which merciful Toleration they gathered strength much more then was safe for the State of the Commonwealth wherein they lived They had their secret Corner-meetings and Assemblies in the night the people flocked unto them by thousands The means whereby they both allured and retained so great multitudes were most effectual First A wonderful shew of zeal towards God wherewith they seemed to be even rapt in every thing they spake Secondly An hatred of sin and a singular love of integrity which men did think to be much more then ordinary in them by reason of the custom which they had to fill the ears of the people with Invectives against their authorized Guides as well Spiritual as Civil Thirdly The bountiful relief wherewith they eased the broken estate of such needy Creatures as were in that respcit the more apt to be drawn away Fourthly A tender compassion which they were thought to take upon the miseries of the common sort over whose heads their manner was even to pour down showres of tears in complaining that no respect was had unto them that their goods were devoured by wicked Cormorants their persons had in contempt all Liberty both Temporal and Spiritual taken from them that it was high time for God now to hear their groans and to send them deliverance Lastly A cunning slight which they had to stroke and smoothe up the mindes of their followers as well by appropriating unto them all the favorable Titles the good words and the gracious promises in Scripture as also by casting the contrary always on the heads of such as were severed from that retinue Whereupon the peoples common aeclamation unto such deceivers was These are verily the Men of God these are his true and sincere Prophets If any such Prophet or Man of God did suffer by order of Law condign and deserved punishment were it for Fellony Rebellion Murder or what else that people so strangely were their hearts inchanted as though Blessed St. Stephen had been again Martyred did lament that God took away his most dear servants from them In all these things being fully perswaded that what they did it was obedience to the Will of God and that all men should do the like there remained after speculation Practice whereby the whole World thereunto if it were possible might be framed This they saw could not be done but with mighty opposition and resistence against which to strengthen themselves they secretly entred into a League of Association And peradventure considering that although they were many yet long Wars would in time waste them out they began to think whether it might not be that God would have them do for their speedy and mighty increase the same which sometime Gods own chosen people the people of Israel did Glad and fain they were to have it so which very desire was it self apt to breed bâth an opinion of possibility and a willingness to gather Arguments of likelihood that so God himself would have it Nothing more clear unto their seeming then that a New Jerusalem being often spoken of in Scipture they undoubtedly were themselves that New Jerusalem and the Old did by way of a certain Fegurative resemblance signifie what they should both be and do
believe In which generality the Object of Faith may not so narrowly be restrained as if the same did extend no further then to the only Scriptures of God Though saith our Saviour ye believe not me believe my works that ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him The other Disciples said unto Thomas We have seen the Lord but his answer unto them was Except I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into them I will not believe Can there be any thing more plain then that which by these two Sentences appeareth Namely That there may be a certain belief grounded upon other assurance then Scripture any thing more clear then that we are said not only to believe the things which we know by anothers relation but even whatsoever we are certainly perswaded of whether it be by reason or by sense Forasmuch therefore as it is granted that S. Paul doth mean nothing else by Faith but onely a full perswasion that that which we do it well done against which kinde of Faith or perswasion as S. Paul doth count it sin to enterprize any thing so likewise some of the very Heathen have taught as Tully That nothing ought to be done whereof thou doubtest whether it be right or wrong whereby it appeareth that even those which had no knowledge of the Word of God did see much of the equity of this which the Apostle requireth of a Christian man I hope we shall not seen altogether unnecessarily to doubt of the soundness of their opinion who think simply that nothing but onely the Word of God can give us assurance in any thing we are to do and resolve us that we do well For might not the Jews have been fully perswaded that they did well to think if they had so thought that in Christ God the Father was although the only ground of this their Faith had been the wonderful works they saw him do Might not yea did not Thomas fully in the end perswade himself that he did well to think that body which now was raised to be the same which had been crucified That which gave Thomas this assurance was his sense Thomas Because thou hast seen thou believest saith our Saviour What Scripture had Tully for his assurance Yet I nothing doubt but that they who alledge him think he did well to set down in Writing a thing so consonarie unto truth Finally We all believe that the Scriptures of God are Sacred and that they have proceeded from God our selves we assure that we do right well in so believing We have for this point a Demoustration sound and infallible But it is not the Word of God which doth or possibly can assure us that we do well to think it his Word For if any one Book of Scripture did give testimony to all yet sell that Scripture which giveth credit to the rest would require another Scripture to give credit unto it neither could we ever come unto any pause whereon to rest our assurance this way so that unless beside Scripture there were something which might assure us that we do well we could nor think we do well no not in being assured that Scripture is a sacred and holy Rule of well-doing On which determination we might be contented to stay our selves without further proceeding herein but that we are drawn on into a larger speech by reason of their so great earnestness who beat more and more upon these last alledged words as being of all other most pregnant Whereas therefore they still argue That wheresoever faith is wanting there is sin and in every action not commanded faith is wanting Ergo in every action not commanded there is sin I would demand of them First forasmuch as the nature of things indifferent is neither to be commanded nor forbidden but left free and arbitrary how there can be any thing indifferent iâ for want of Faith sin be committed when any thing not commanded is done So that of necessity they must adde somewhat and at least wise thus set it down In every action not commanded of God or permitted with approbation Faith is wanting and for want of Faith there is sin The next thing we are to enquire is What those things be which God permitteth with approbation and how we may know them to be so permitted When there are unto one end sundry means as for example for the sustenance of our bodies many kindes of food many sorts of raiment to cloath our nakedness and so in other things of like condition Here the end it self being necessary but not so any one mean thereunto necessary that our bodies should he both fed and cloathed howbeit no one kinde of food or raiment necessary therefore we hold these things free in their own nature and indifferent The choice is left to our own discretion except a principal Bond of some higher duty remove the indifferency that such things have in themselves Their indifferency is removed if either we take away our own liberty as Ananias did for whom to have sold or held his Possessions it was indifferent till his Solemn Vow and Promise into God had strictly bound him one only way or if God himself have precisely abridged the same by restraining us unto or by barring us from some one or more things of many which otherwise were in themselves altogether indifferent Many fashions of Priestly Attire there were whereof Aaron and his Sons might have had their free choice without sin but that God expresly tied them unto one All meats indifferent unto the Jew were it not that God by name excepted some as Swines flesh Impossible therefore it is we should otherwise think then that what things God doth neither command nor forbid the same he permitteth with approbation either to be done or left undone All things are lawful unto me saith the Apostle speaking as it seemeth in the person of the Christian Gentile for maintenance of liberty in things indifferent whereunto his answer is that nevertheless All things are not expedient in things indifferent there is a choice they are not always equally expedient Now in things although not commanded of God yet lawfull because they are permitted the Question is What light shall shew us the conveniency which one hath above another For answer their final Determination is That whereas the Heathen did send men for the difference of good and evil to the light of reason in such things the Apostle sendeth us to the school of Christ in his Word which onely is able through faith to give us assurance and resolution in our doings Which word Onely is utterly without possibility of ever being proved For what if it were true concerning things indifferent that unless the Word of the Lord had determined of the free use of them there could have been no lawful use of them at all which notwithstanding is untrue because it is not
that in truth they never meant any otherwise to tie the one then the other unto Scripture both being thereunto equally tied as far as each is required in the same kinde of necessity unto Salvation If therefore it be not unlawful to know and with full perswasion to believe much more then Scripture alone doth teach if it be against all Sense and Reason to condemn the knowledge of so many Arts and Sciences as are otherwise learned then in Holy Scripture notwithstanding the manifest Speeches of ancient Catholick Fathers which seem to close up within the bosom thereof all manner good and lawful knowledge wheresore should their words be thought more effectual to shew that we may not in deeds and practice then they are to prove that in speculation and knowledge we ought not to go any further then the Scripture Which Scripture being given to teach matters of belief no less then of action the Fathers must needs be and are even as plain against credit besides the relation as against practice without the injunction of the Scripture S. Augustine hath said Whether it be question of Christ or whether it be question of his Church or of what thing soever the question be I say not if we but if an Angel from Heaven shall tell us any thing beside that you have received in the Scripture under the Law and the Gospel let him be accursed In like sort Tertallian We may not give our selves this liberty to bring in any thing of our will nor chuse any thing that other men bring in of their will we have the Apostles themselves for Authors which themselves brought nothing of their own will but the Discipline which they received of Christ they delivered faithfully unto the people in which place the name of Discipline importeth not as they who alledge it would fain have it construed but as any man who noteth the circumstance of the place and the occasion of uttering the words will easily acknowledge even the self-same thing it signifieth which the name of Doctrine doth and as well might the one as the other there have been used To help them farther doth not S. Ierome after the self-same manner dispute We believe it not because we read it not yea We ought not so much as to know the things which the Book of the Law containeth not saith S. Hilary Shall we hereupon then conclude that we may not take knowledge of or give credit unto any thing which sense or experience or report or art doth propose unless we finde the same in Scripture No it is too plain that so far to extend their Speeches is to wrest them against their true intent and meaning To urge any thing upon the Church requiring thereunto that Religious Assent of Christian Belief wherewith the words of the Holy Prophets are received to urge any thing as part of that supernatural and celestially revealed Truth which God hath taught and not to shew it in Scripture this did the ancient Fathers evermore think unlawful impious execrable And thus as their Speeches were meant so by us they must be restrained As for those alledged words of Cyprian The Christian Religion shall finde that out of this Scripture Rules of all Doctrines have sprung and that from hence doth spring and hither doth return whatsoever the Ecclesiastical Discipline doth contain Surely this place would never have been brought forth in this cause if it had been but once read over in the Author himself out of whom it is cited For the words are uttered concerning that one principal Commandment of Love in the honour whereof hespeaketh after this sort Surely this Commandment containeth the Law and the Prophets and in this one Word is the Abridgement of all the Volumes of Scripture This Nature and Reason and the authority of thy Word O Lord doth proclaim this we have heard out of thy month herein the perfection of all Religion doth consist This is the first Commandment and the last This being written in the Book of Life is as it were an everlasting lesson both to Men and Angels Let Christian Religion read this one Word and meditate upon this Commandment and out of this Scriptrue it shall finde the Rules of all Learning to have spring and from hence to have risen and hither to return whatsoever the Ecclesiastical Discipline containeth and that in all things it is vain and bootless which Charity confirmeth not Was this a sentence trow you of so great force to prove that Scripture is the onely Rule of all the actions of men Might they not hereby even as well prove that one Commandment of Scripture is the onely rule of all things and so exclude the rest of the Scripture as now they do all means besides Scripture But thus it fareth when too much desire of contradiction causeth our speech rather to pass by number then to stay for weight Well but Tertullian doth in this case speak yet more plainly The Scripture saith he denieth what it noteth not which are indeed the words of Tertullian But what the Scripture reckoneth up the Kings of Israel and amongst those Kings David the Scripture reckoneth up the sons of David and amongst those sons Solomon To prove that amongst the Kings of Israel there was no David but only one no Solomon but one in the sons of David Tertullians Argument will fitly prove For inasmuch as the Scripture did propose to reckon up all if there were moe it would haue named them In this case the Scripture doth deny the thing it noteth not Howbeit I could not but think that man to do me some piece of manifest injury which would hereby fasten upon me a general Opinion as if I did think the Scripture to deny the very Reign of King Henry the Eighth because it no where noteth that any such King did reign Tertullians speech is probable concerning such matter as he there speaketh of There was saith Tertullian no second Lamech like to him that had two wives the Scripture denieth what it noteth not As therefore it noteth one such to have been in that Age of the World so had there been moe it would by likelihood as well have noted many as one What infer we now hereupon There was no second Lamech the Scripture denieth what it noteth not Were it consonant unto reason to divorce these two Sentences the former of which doth shew how the latter is retrained and not marking the former to conclude by the latter of them that simply whatsoever any man at this day doth think true is by the Scripture denied unless it be there affirmed to be true I wonder that a case so weak and feeble hath been so much persisted in But to come unto those their Sentences wherein matters of action are more apparently touched the Name of Tertullian is as before so here again pretended who writing unto his Wife two Books and exhorting her in the one to live a Widow
in case God before her should take him unto his mercy and in the other if she did marry yet not to joyn her self to an Infidel as in those times some Widows Christian had done for the advancement of their estate in this present world he urgeth very earnestly S. Pauls words Onely in the Lord Whereupon he demandeth of them that think they may do the contrary what Scripture they can shew where God hath dispenced and granted license to do against that which the blessed Apostle so strictly doth enjoyn And because in defence it might perhaps be replied Seeing God doth will that couples which are married when both are Infidels if either party chance to be after converted unto Christianity this should not make separation between them as long as the unconverted was willing to retain the other on whom the grace of Christ had shined wherefore then should that let the making of marriage which doth not dissolve marriage being made After great Reasons shewed why God doth in Converts being married allow continuance with Infidels and yet disallow that the faithful when they are free should enter into bonds of Wedlock with such concludeth in the end concerning those women that so marry They that please not the Lord do even thereby offend the Lord they do even thereby throw themselves into evil that is to say while they please him not by manying in him they do that whereby they incur his displeasure they make an offer of themselves into the service of that enemy with whose servants they link themselves in so near a bond What one syllable is there in all this prejudicial any way to that which we hold For the words of Tertullian as they are by them alledged are two ways mis-understood both in the former part where that is extended generally to all things in the Neuter Gender which he speaketh in the Feminine Gender of Womens persons and in the latter where received with hurt is put instead of willful incurring that which is evil And so in sum Tertullian doth neither mean nor say as is pretended Whatsoever pleaseth not the Lord displeaseth him and with hurt it received but Those women that please not the Lord by their kinde of marrying do even thereby offend the Lord they do even thereby throw themselves into evil Somewhat more shew there is in a second place of Tertullian which notwithstanding when we have examined it will be found as the rest are The Roman Emperors custom was at certain Solemn times to bestow on his Souldiers a Donative which Donative they received wearing Garlands upon their heads There were in the time of the Emperors Severus and Antoninus many who being Souldiers had been converted unto Christ and notwithstanding continued still in that Military course of life In which number one man there was amongst all the rest who at such a time coming to the Tribune of the Army to receive his Donative came but with a Garland in his hand and not in such sort as others did The Tribune offended hereat demanded what this great singularity would mean To whom the Souldier Christianus sum I am a Christian. Many there were so besides him which yet did otherwise at that time whereupon grew a Question Whether a Christian Souldier might herein do as the unchristian did and wear as they wore Many of them which were very sound in Christian belief did rather commend the zeal of this man then approve his action Tertullian was at the same time a Moutanist and an enemy unto the Church for condemning that Prophetical Spirit which Montanus and his followers did boast they had received as it in them Christ had performed his last promise as if to them he had sent the Spirit that should be their Perfecter and final Instructer in the mysteries of Christian truth Which exulceration of mind made him apt to take all occasions of contradiction Wherefore in honour of that action and to gall their mindes who did not so much commend it he wrote his Book de Corona Militis not dissembling the stomach wherewith he wrote it For the first man he commended as one more constant then the rest of his Brethren Who presumed saith he that they might well enough serve two Lords Afterwards choler somewhat rising within him he addeth It doth even remain that they should also devise how to rid themselves of his Martyrdom towards the Prophecies of whose Holy Spirit they have already shewed their disdain They mutter that their good and long peace it now in hazard I doubt not but serue of them send the Scriptures before truss up bag and baggage make themselves in a readiness that they may fly from City to City for that is the only point of the Gospel which they are careful not to forget I know even their Pastors very well what men they are in peace Lions Harts in time of trouble and fear Now these men saith Tertullian They must be answered Where do we finde it written in Scripture that a Christian man may not wear a Garland â And as mens speeches uttered in heat of distempered affection have oftentimes much more eagerness then weight so he that shall mark the Proofs alledge and the Answers to things objected in that Book will now and then perhaps espy the like imbecillity Such is that Argument whereby they that wore on their heads Garlands are charged as transgressors of Natures Law and guilty of Sacriledge against God the Lord o Nature inasmuch as Flowers in such sort worn can neither be smelt noâ seen well by those that wear them And God made Flowers sweet and beautiful that being seen and smelt unto they might so delight Neither doth Tertullian bewray this weakness in striking only but also in repelling their strokes with whom he contendeth They ask saith he What Scripture is there which doth teach that we should not be crowned And what Scripture is there which doth teach that we should For in requiring on the contrary part the aid of Scripture they do give sentence beforehand that their part ought also by Scripture to be aided Which answer is of no great force There is no necessity that if I confess I ought not to do that which the Scripture forbiddeth me I should thereby acknowledge my self bound to do nothing which the Scripture commandeth me not For many inducements beside Scripture may lead me to that which if Scripture be against they all give place and are of no value yet otherwise are strong and effectual perswade Which thing himself well enough understanding and being not ignorant that Scripture in many things doth neither command nor forbid but use silence his resolution in fine is that in the Church a number of things are strictly observed whereof no Law of Scripture maketh mention one way or other that of things once received and confirmed by use long usage is a Law sufficient that in Civil affairs when there is no other Law custom it self doth stand for
and ever shall have some Church Visible upon Earth When the People of God whorshipped the Calf in the Wilderness when they adored the Brazen Serpent when they served the gods of Nations when they bowed their knees to Baal when they burnt Incense and offered Sacrifice unto Idols True it is the wrath of God was most fiercely inflamed against them their Prophets justly condemned them as an adulterous seed and a wicked generation of Miscreants which had forsaken the living God and of him were likewise forsaken in respect of that singular Mercy wherewith he kindly and lovingly embraceth his faithful Children Howbeit retaining the Law of God and the holy Seal of his Covenant the Sheep of his Visible Flock they continued even in the depth of their Disobedience and Rebellion Wherefore not onely amongst them God always had his Church because he had thousands which never bowed their knees to Baal but whose knees were bowed unto Baal even they were also of the Visible Church of God Nor did the Prophet so complain as if that Church had been quite and clean extinguished but he took it as though there had not been remaining in the World any besides himself that carcied a true and an upright heart towards God with care to serve him according unto his holy Will For lack of diligent observing the difference first between the Church of God Mystical and Visible then between the Visible sound and corrupted sometimes more sometimes less the oversights are neither few nor light that have been committed This deceiveth them and nothing else who think that in the time of the first World the Family of Noah did contain all that were of the Visible Church of God From hence it grew and from no other cause in the World that the Affrican Bishops in the Council of Carthage knowing how the Administration of Baptism belongeth onely to the Church of Christ and supposing that Hereticks which were apparently severed from the sound believing Church could not possibly be of the Church of Jesus Christ thought it utterly against Reason That Baptism administred by men of coââupt belief should be accounted as a Sacrament And therefore in maintenance of Rebaptization their Arguments are built upon the sore-alledged ground That Hereticks are not at all any part of the Church of Christ. Our Saviour founded his Church on a Rock and not upon Heresie Power of Baptizing he gave to his Apostles unto Hereticks he gave it not Wherefore they that are without the Church and oppose themselves against Christ do but scatter his Sheep and Flock Without the Church Baptize they cannot Again Are Hereticks Christians or are they not If they be Christians wherefore remain they not in Gods Church If they be no Christians how make they Christians Or to what purpose shall those words of the Lord serve He which is not with me is against me And He which gathereth not with me scaltereth Wherefore evident it is that upon misbegotten Children and the brood of Antichrist without Rebaptization the Holy Ghost cannot descend But none in this case so earnest as Cyprian I know no Baptism but one and that in Church onely none without the Church where he that doth cast out the Devil hath the Devil He doth examine about Belief whose lips and words do breathe forth a Canker The faithless doth offer the Articles of Faith a wicked Creature forgiveth wickedness in the Name of Christ Antichrist signeth he which is cursed of God blesseth a dead carrion promiseth life a man unpeaceable giveth peace a blasphemer calleth upon the Name of God a prophane person doth exercise Priesthood a Sacrilegious wretch doth prepare the Altar and in the neck of all these that evil also cometh the Eucharist a very Bishop of the Devil doth presume to consecrate All this was true but not sufficient to prove that Hereticks were in no sort any part of the Visible Church of Christ and consequently their Baptism no Baptism This opinion therefore was afterwards both condemned by a better advised Council and also revoked by the chiefest of the Authors thereof themselves What is it but onely the self-same error and misconceit wherewith others being at this day likewise possest they ask us where our Church did lurk in what Cave of the Earth it slept for so many hundreds of years together before the bath of Martin Luther As if we were of opinion that Luther did erect a new Church of Christ. No the Church of Christ which was from the beginning is and continueth unto the end Of which Church all parts have not been always equally sincere and sound In the days of Abia it plainly appeareth that Iudah was by many degrees more free from pollution then Israel as that solemn Oration sheweth wherein he pleadeth for the one against the other in this wise O Ieroboam and all Israel hear you me Have ye not driven away the Priests of the Lord the Sons of Aaron and the Levites and have made you Priests like the people of Nations Whosoever cometh to consecrate with a young bullock and seven Rams the same may be a Priest of them that are no gods But we belong unto the Lord our God and have not forsaken him and the Priests the sons of Aaron minister unto the Lord every morning and every evening Burnt-offerings and sweet Incense and the Bread is set in order upon the pure Table and the Candlestick of Gold with the Lamps thereof to burn every evening for we keep the watch of the Lord oâr God but ye have for saken him In St. Pauls time the integrity of Rome was famous Corinth many ways reproved they of Galatia much more out of square In St. Iohns time Ephesus and Smyrna in far better state then Thyatira and Pergamus were We hope therefore that to reform our selves if at any time we have done amiss is not to sever our selves from the Church we were of before In the Church we were and we are so still Other diffcrence between our estate before and now we know none but onely such as we see in Iudah which having sometime been Idolatrous became afterwards more soundly religious by renouncing Idolatry and Superstition If Ephraim be joyned to Idols the counsel of the Prophet is Let him alone If Israel play the Harlot let not Judah sin If it seem evil unto you saith Ioshua to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve whether the gods whom your Fathers served beyond the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose Land ye dwell But I and mine house will serve the Lord. The indisposition therefore of the Church of Rome to reform her self must be no stay unto us from performing our duty to God even as desire of retaining Conformity with them could be no excuse if we did not perform that duty Notwithstanding so far as lawfully we may we have held and do hold Fellowship with them For even as
acknowledge that as well for particular application to special occasions as also in other manifold respects infinite Treasures of Wisdom are over and besides abundantly to be found in the holy Scripture yea that scarcely there is any noble part of knowledge worthy the minde of man but from thence it may have some direction and light yea that although there be no necessity it should of purpose prescribe any one particular form of Church-Government yet touching the manner of governing in general the Precepts that Scripture setteth down are not few and the examples many which it proposeth for all Church-Governors even in particularities to follow yea that those things finally which are of principal weight in the very particular Form of Church-Polity although not that Form which they imagine but that which we against them uphold are in the self-same Scriptures contained If all this be willingly granted by us which are accused to pin the Word of God in so narrow room as that it should be able to direct us but in principal points of our Religion or as though the substance of Religion or some rude and unfashioned matter of building the Church were uttered in them and those things left out that should pertain to the form and fashion of it Let the cause of the Accused be referred to the Accusers own conscience and let that judge whether this accusation be deserved where it hath been laid 5. But so easie it is for every man living to err and so hard to wrest from any mans mouth the plain acknowledgment of Error that what hath been once inconsiderately defended the same is commonly persisted in as long as wit by whetting it self is able to finde out any shift be it never so sleight whereby to escape out of the hands of present contradiction So that it cometh herein to pass with men unadvisedly faln into Error as with them whose state hath no ground to uphold it but onely the help which by subtil conveyance they draw out of casual events arising from day to day till at length they be clean spent They which first gave out That nothing ought to be established in the Church which is not commanded by the Word of God thought this principle plainly warranted by the manifest words of the Law Ye shall put nothing unto the Word which I command you neither shall ye take ought therefrom that ye may keep the Commandments of the Lord your God which I command you Wherefore having an eye to a number of Rites and Orders in the Church of England as marrying with a Ring Crossing in the one Sacrament Kneeling at the other observing of Festival days more then onely that which is called the Lords day enjoyning Abstinence at certain times from some kindes of Meat Churching of Women after Childe-birth Degrees taken by Divines in Universities sundry Church Offices Dignities and Callings for which they found no Commandment in the holy Scripture they thought by the one onely stroke of that Axiom to have cut them off But that which they took for an Oracle being sifted was repeal'd True it is concerning the Word of God whether it be by misconstruction of the sense or by falsification of the words wittingly to endeavor that any thing may seem Divine which is not or any thing not seem which is were plainly to abuse and even to falsifie Divine Evidence which injury offered but unto men is most worthily counted heinous Which point I wish they did well observe with whom nothing is more familiar then to plead in these causes The Law of God the Word of the Lord Who notwithstanding when they come to alledge what Word and what Law they mean their common ordinary practice is to quote by-speeches in some Historical Narration or other and to urge them as if they were written in most exact form of Law What is to add to the Law of God if this be not When that which the Word of God doth but deliver Historically we construe without any warrant as if it were legally meant and so urge it further then we can prove that it was intended do we not add to the Laws of God and make them in number seem more then they are It standeth us upon to be careful in this case For the sentence of God is heavy against them that wittingly shall presume thus to use the Scripture 6. But let that which they do hereby intend be granted them let it once stand as consonant to Reason That because we are forbidden to add to the Law of God any thing or to take ought from it therefore we may not for matters of the Church make any Law more then is already set down in Scripture Who seeth not what sentence it shall enforce us to give against all Churches in the World in as much as there is not one but hath had many things established in it which though the Scripture did never command yet for us to condemn were rashness Let the Church of God even in the time of our Saviour Christ serve for example unto all the rest In their Domestical celebration of the Passover which Supper they divided as it were into two courses what Scripture did give commandment that between the first and the second he that was chief should put off the residue of his Garments and keeping on his Feast-robe onely wash the feet of them that were with him What Scripture did command them never to lift up their hands unwashe in Prayer unto God which custom Aristaus be the credit of the Author more or less sheweth wherefore they did so religiously observe What Scripture did command the Jews every Festival day to fast till the sixth hour The custom both mentioned by Iosephus in the History of his own life and by the words of Peter signified Tedious it were to rip up all such things as were in that Church established yea by Christ himself and by his Apostles observed though not commanded any where in Scripture 7. Well yet a gloss there is to colour that Paradox and notwithstanding all this still to make it appear in shew not to be altogether unreasonable And therefore till further reply come the cause is held by a feeble distinction that the Commandments of God being either general or special although there be no express word for every thing in specialty yet there are general Commandments for all things to the end that even such cases as are not in Scripture particularly mentioned might not be left to any to order at their pleasure onely with Caution That nothing be done against the Word of God and that for this cause the Apostle hath set down in Scripture four general Rules requiring such things alone to be received in the Church as do best and nearest agree with the same Rules that so all things in the Church may be appointed not onely not against but by and according to the Word of God The Rules are these Nothing scandalous
that those very Laws which of their own nature are changeable be notwithstanding uncapable of change is he which gave them being of Authority so to do forbid absolutely to change them neither may they admit alteration against the Will of such a Law-maker Albeit therefore we do not finde any cause why of right there should be necessarily an Immutable Form set down in holy Scripture nevertheless if indeed there have been at any time a Church Polity so set down the change whereof the sacred Scripture doth forbid surely for Men to alter those Laws which God for perpetuity hath established were presumption most intolerable To prove therefore that the Will of Christ was to establish Laws so Permanent and Immutable that in any sort to alter them cannot but highly offend God Thus they reason First If Moses being but a servant in the House of God did therein establish Laws of Government for a perpetuity Laws which they that were of the Houshold might not alter Shall we admit into our thoughts that the Son of God hath in providing for this his Houshold declared himself less faithful then Moses Moses delivering unto the Jews such Laws as were durable if those be changeable which Christ hath delivered unto us we are not able to avoid it but that which to think were heinous impiety we of necessity must confess even the Son of God himself to have been less faithful then Moses Which Argument shall need no Touchstone to try it by but some other of the like making Moses erected in the Wilderness a Tabernacle which was moveable from place to place Solomon a sumptuous and stately Temple which was not moveable therefore Solomon was faithfuller then Moses which no man endued with reason will think And yet by this reason it doth plainly follow He that will see how faithful the one or other was must compare the things which they both did unto the charge which God gave each of them The Apostle in making comparison between our Saviour and Moses attributeth faithfulness unto both and maketh this difference between them Moses in but Christ over the House of God Moses in that House which was his by charge and commission though to govern it yet to govern it as a servant but Christ over this House as being his own intire possession Our Lord and Saviour doth make Protestation I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me Faithful therefore he was and concealed not any part of his Fathers will But did any part of that will require the Immutability of Laws concerning Church Polity They answer Yea for else God should less favor us then the Jews God would not have their Churches guided by any Laws but his own And seeing this did so continue even till Christ now to ease God of that care or rather to deprive the Church of his Patronage what reason have we Surely none to derogate any thing from the ancient love which God hath borne to his Church An Heathen Philosopher there is who considering how many things Beasts have which Men have not how naked in comparison of them how impotent and how much less able we are to shift for our selves a long time after we enter into this World repiningly concluded hereupon that Nature being a careful Mother for them is towards us a hard-hearted Step-dame No we may not measure the affection of our gracious God towards his by such differences For even herein shineth his Wisdom that though the ways of his Providence be many yet the end which he bringeth all at the length unto is one and the self-same But if such kinde of reasoning were good might we not even as directly conclude the very same concerning Laws of Secular Regiment Their own words are these In the ancient Church of the Iews God did command and Moses commit unto writing all things pertinent as well to the Civil as to the Ecclesiastical State God gave them Laws of Civil Regiment and would not permit their Commonweal to be governed by any other Laws then his own Doth God less regard our Temporal estate in this World or provide for it worse then theirs To us notwithstanding he hath not as to them delivered any particular Form of Temporal Regiment unless perhaps we think as some do that the grafting of the Gentiles and their incorporating into Israel doth import that we ought to be subject unto the Rites and Laws of their whole Polity We see then how weak such Disputes are and how smally they make to this purpose That Christ did not mean to set down particular Positive Laws for all things in such sort as Moses did the very different manner of delivering the Laws of Moses and the Laws of Christ doth plainly shew Moses had Commandment to gather the Ordinances of God together distinctly and orderly to set them down according unto their several kindes for each Publick Duty and Office the Laws that belong thereto as appeareth in the Books themselves written of purpose for that end Contrariwise the Laws of Christ we finde rather mentioned by occasion in the writings of the Apostles then any solemn thing directly written to comprehend them in legal sort Again the Positive Laws which Moses gave they were given for the greatest part with restraint to the Land of Iury Behold saith Moses I have taught you Ordinances and Laws as the Lord my God commanded me that ye should do so even within the Land whither ye go to possess it Which Laws and Ordinances Positive he plainly distinguished afterward from the Laws of the Two Tables which were Moral The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire ye heard the voice of the words but saw no similitude onely a voice Then he declared unto you his Covenant which he commanded you to do the Ten Commandments and wrote them upon Two Tables of Stone And the Lord commanded me that same time that I should teach you Ordinances and Laws which ye should observe in the Land whither ye go to possess it The same difference is again set down in the next Chapter following For rehearsal being made of the Ten Commandments it followeth immediately These words the Lord spake unto all your multitude in the Mount out of the midst of the fire the cloud and the darkness with a great voice and added no more and wrote them upon two Tables of Stone and delivered them unto me But concerning other Laws the people give their consent to receive them at the hands of Moses Go thou nearer and hear all that the Lord our God saith and declare thou unto us all that the Lord our God saith unto thee and we will hear it and do it The peoples alacrity herein God highly commendeth with most effectual and hearty speech I have heard the voice of the words of this people they have spoken well O that there were such an heart in them to fear me and to keep all
hath placed you Bishops to Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased by his own blood Finally that Commandment which unto the same Timothy is by the same Apostle even in the same form and manner afterwards again urged I charge thee in the sight of God and the Lord Iesus Christ which will judge the quick and dead at his appearance and in his Kingdom Preach the Word of God When Timothy was instituted in that Office then was the credit and trust of this duty committed unto his faithful care The Doctrine of the Gospel was then given him As the precious Talent or Treasure of Iesus Christ then received he for performance of this duty The special Gift of the Holy Ghost To keep this Commandment immaculate and blameless Was to teach the Gospel of Christ without mixture of corrupt and unsound Doctrine such as a number even in those times intermingled with the Mysteries of Christian Belief Till the appearance of Christ to keep it so doth not import the time wherein it should be kept but rather the time whereunto the final reward for keeping it was reserved according to that of St. Paul concerning himself I have kept the Faith for the residue there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall in that day render unto me If they that labor in this Harvest should respect but the present fruit of their painful Travel a poor encouragement it were unto them to continue therein all the days of their life But their reward is great in Heaven the Crown of Righteousness which shall be given them in that day is honorable The fruit of their industry then shall they reap with full contentment and satisfaction but not till then Wherein the greatness of their reward is abundantly sufficient to countervail the tediousness of their expectation Wherefore till then they that are in labor must rest in hope O Timothy keep that which is committed unto thy charge that great Commandment which thou hast received keep till the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. In which sense although we judge the Apostles words to have been uttered yet hereunto we do not require them to yield that think any other construction more sound If therefore it be rejected and theirs esteemed more probable which hold That the last words do import perpetual observation of the Apostles Commandment imposed necessarily for ever upon the Militant Church of Christ Let them withal consider That then his Commandment cannot so largely be taken to comprehend whatsoever the Apostle did command Timothy For themselves do not all binde the Church unto some things whereof Timothy received charge as namely unto that Precept concerning the choice of Widows So as they cannot hereby maintain that all things positively commanded concerning the affairs of the Church were commanded for perpetuity And we do not deny that certain things were commanded to be though positive yet perpetual in the Church They should not therefore urge against us places that seem to forbid change but rather such as set down some measure of alteration which measure if we have exceeded then might they therewith charge us justly Whereas now they themselves both granting and also using liberty to change cannot in reason dispute absolutely against all change Christ delivered no inconvenient or unmeet Laws Sundry of ours they hold inconvenient Therefore such Laws they cannot possibly hold to be Christs Being not his they must of necessity grant them added unto his Yet certain of those very Laws so added they themselves do not judge unlawful as they plainly confess both in matter of Prescript Attire and of Rites appertaining to Burial Their own Protestations are that they plead against the inconvenience not the unlawfulness of Popish Apparel and against the inconvenience not the unlawfulness of Ceremonies in Burial Therefore they hold it a thing not unlawful to add to the Laws of Jesus Christ and so consequently they yield That no Law of Christ forbiddeth Addition unto Church Laws The Judgment of Calvin being alledged against them to whom of all men they attribute most whereas his words be plain That for Ceremonies and External Discipline the Church hath power to make Laws The answer which hereunto they make is That indefinitely the speech is true and that so it was meant by him namely That some things belonging unto External Discipline and Ceremonies are in the Power and Arbitrement of the Church but neither was it meant neither is it true generally That all External Discipline and all Ceremonies are left to the Order of the Church in as much as the Sacraments of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord are Ceremonies which yet the Church may not therefore abrogate Again Excommunication is a part of External Discipline which might also be cast away if all External Discipline were Arbitrary and in the choice of the Church By which their answer it doth appear that touching the names of Ceremony and External Discipline they gladly would have us so understood as if we did herein contain a great deal more then we do The fault which we finde with them is That they over-much abridge the Church of her power in these things Whereupon they recharge us as if in these things we gave the Church a liberty which hath no limits or bounds as if all things which the name of Discipline containeth were at the Churches free choice So that we might either have Church Governors and Government or want them either retain or reject Church Censures as we lift They wonder at us as at men which think it so indifferent what the Church doth in Matter of Ceremonies that it may be feared lest we judge the very Sacraments themselves to be held at the Churches pleasure No the name of Ceremonies we do not use in so large a meaning as to bring Sacraments within the compass and reach thereof although things belonging unto the outward form and seemly Administration of them are contained in that name even as we use it For the name of Ceremonies we use as they themselves do when they speak after this sort The Doctrine and Discipline of the Church as the weightiest things ought especially to be looked unto but the Ceremonies also as Mint and Cummin ought not to be neglected Besides in the Matter of External Discipline or Regiment it self we do not deny but there are some things whereto the Church is bound till the Worlds end So as the question is onely how far the bounds of the Churches Liberty do reach We hold that the power which the Church hath lawfully to make Laws and Orders for it self doth extend unto sundry things of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and such other Matters whereto their opinion is That the Churches Authority and Power doth not reach Whereas therefore in Disputing against us about this point they take their compass a great deal wider then the truth of things can afford producing
for his servant to shew the Religion of an Oath by naming the Lord God of Heaven and Earth unless that strange Ceremony were added In Contracts Bargains and Conveyances a mans word is a token sufficient to express his will Yet this was the ancient manner in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging to establish all things A man did pluck off his shoe and gave it to his neighbour and this was a sure witness in Israel Amongst the Romans in their making of a Bondman free was it not wondred wherefore so great a do should be made The Master to present his Slave in some Court to take him by the hand and not only to say in the hearing of the publike Magistrate I will that this man become free but after these solemn words uttered to strike him on the cheek to turn him round the hair of his head to be shaved off the Magistrate to touch him thrice with a rod in the end a cap and a white garment to be given him To what purpose all this circumstance Among the Hebrews how strange and in outward appearance almost against reason that he which was minded to make himself a perpetual servant should not only testifie so much in the presence of the Judge but for a visible token thereof have also his ear bored thorow with an awl It were an infinite labour to prosecute these things so far as they might be exemplified both in Civil and Religious actions For in both they have their necessary use and force These sensible things which Religion hath allowed are resemblances framed according to things spiritually understood whereunto they serve as a hand to lead and a way to direct And whereas it may peradventure be objected that to add to Religious duties such Rites and Ceremonies as are significant is to institute new Sacraments sure I am they will not say that Numa Pompilius did ordain a Sacrament a significant Ceremony he did ordain in commanding the Priests to execute the work of their Divine Service with their hands as far as to the fingers covered thereby signifying that fidelity must be defended and that mens right hands are the sacred seat thereof Again we are also to put them in minde that themselves do not hold all significant Ceremonies for Sacraments inasmuch as Imposition of hands they deny to be a Sacrament and yet they give thereunto a forcible signification For concerning it their words are these The party ordained by this ceremony was put in minde of his separation to the work of the Lord that remembring himself to be taken as it were with the hand of God from amongst others this might teach him not to account himself now his own nor to do what himself listeth but to consider that God hath set him about a work which if he will discharge and accomplish he may at the hands of God assure himself of reward and if otherwise of revenge Touching significant Ceremonies some of them are Sacraments some as Sacaments onely Sacraments are those which are signs and tokens of some general promised grace which always really descendeth from God unto the soul that duly receiveth them Other significant tokens are only as Sacraments yet no Sacraments Which is not our distinction but theirs For concerning the Apostles Imposition of hands these are their own words Magnum signum hoc quasi Sacramentum usurparunt They used this sign or as it were Sacrament Concerning Rites and Ceremonies there may be fault either in the kinde or in the number and multitude of them The First thing blamed about the kinde of ours is That in many things we have departed from the ancient simplicity of Christ and his Apostles we have imbraced more outward stateliness we have those Orders in the exercise of Religion which they who best pleased God and served him most devoutly never had For it is out of doubt that the first state of things was best that in the prime of Christian Religion faith was foundest the Scriptures of God were then best understood by all men all parts of godliness did then most abound and therefore it must needs follow that Customs Laws and Ordinances devised since are not so good for the Church of Christ but the best way is to cut off later inventions and to reduce things unto the ancient state wherein at the first they were Which Rule or Canon we hold to be either uncertain or at least wise unsufficient if not both For in case it be certain hard it cannot be for them to shew us where we shall find it so exactly set down that we may say without all controversie These were the Orders of the Apostles times these wholly and onely neither fewer nor more then these True it is that many things of this nature be alluded unto yea many things declared and many things necessariy collected out of the Apostles writings But is it necessary that all the Orders of the Church which were then in use should be contained in their Books Surely no. For if the tenor of their Writings be well observed it shall unto any man easily appear that no more of them are there touched then were needfull to be spoken of sometimes by one occasion and sometimes by another Will they allow then of any other Records besides Well assured I am they are far enough from acknowledging that the Church ought to keep any thing as Apostolical which is not found in the Apostles Writings in what other Records soever it be found And therefore whereas St. Augustine affirmeth that those things which the whole Church of Christ doth hold may well be thought to be Apostolical although they be not found written this his judgement they utterly condemn I will not here stand in defence of S. Augustines opinion which is that such things are indeed Apostolical but yet with this exception unless the Decree of some General Councel have haply caused them to be received for of Positive Laws and Orders received throughout the whole Christian world S. Augustine could imagine no other Fountain save these two But to let pass S. Augustine they who condemn him herein must needs confess it a very uncertain thing what the Orders of the Church were in the Apostles times seeing the Scriptures doe not mention them all and other Records thereof besides they utterly reject So that in tying the Church to the Orders of the Apostles times they tye it to a marvellous uncertain rule unless they require the observation of no Orders but only those which are known to be Apostolical by the Apostles own Writings But then is not this their rule of such sufficiency that we should use it as a touchstone to try the Orders of the Church by for ever Our end ought always to be the same our ways and means thereunto not so The glory of God and the good of the Church was the thing which the Apostles aimed at and therefore ought to be the mark
the Church of Rome even at this very hour Is conformity with Rome in such things a blemish unto the Church of England and unto Churches abroad an ornament Let them if not for the reverence they owe unto this Church in the bowels whereof they have received I trust that precious and blessed vigor which shall quicken them ââ eternal life yet at the least wise for the singular affection which they do bear towards others take heed how they strike lest they wound whom they would not For undoubtedly it cutteth deeper then they are aware of when they plead that even such Ceremonies of the Church of Rome as contain in them nothing which is not of it self agreeable to the Word of God ought nevertheless to be abolished and that neither the Word of God nor reason nor the examples of the eldest Churches do permit the Church of Rome to be therein followed Hereticks they are and they are our Neighbours By us and amongst us they lead their lives But what then therefore is no ceremony of theirs lawful for us to use We must yield and will that none are lawful if God himself be a Precedent against the use of any But how appeareth it that God is so Hereby they say it doth appear in that God severed his people from the Heathens but specially from the Egyptians and such Nations as were neerest Neighbours unto them by forbidding them to do those things which were in themselves very lawful to be done yea very profitable some and incommodious to be sorburn such things it pleased God to forbid them only because those Heathens did them with whom conformity in the same thing might have bred infection Thus in shaving cutting apparel-wearing yea in sundry kinds of meats also Swines-flesh Conies and such like they were forbidden to do so and so because the Gentiles did so And the end why God forbade them such things waâ to sever them for fear of infection by a great and an high wall from other Nations as S. Paul teacheth The cause of more careful separation from the nearest Nations was the greatness of danger to be especially by them infected Now Papists are to us as those Nations were unto Israel Therefore if the wisdom of God be our Guide we cannot allow conformity with them no not in any such indifferent Ceremonies Our direct answer hereunto is that for any thing here alleadged we may still doubt whether the Lord in such indifferent Ceremonies as those whereof we dispute did frame his People of set purpose unto any utter dissimilitude either with Egyptians or with any other Nation else And if God did not forbid them all such indifferent Ceremonies then our conformity with the Church of Rome in some such is not hitherto as yet disproved although Papists were unto us as those Heathens were unto Israel After the doings of the Land of Egypt wherein you dwelt ye shall not do saith the Lord and after the manner of the land of Canaan whither I will bring you shall ye not do neither walk in their Ordinances Do after my judgements and keep my Ordinances to walk therein I am the Lord your God The Speech is indefinite ye shall not be like them It is not general ye shall not be like them in anything or like unto them in any thing indifferent or like unto them in any indifferent ceremony of theirs Seeing therefore it is not set down how far the bounds of his speech concerning dissimilitude should reach how can any man assure us that it extendeth farther than to those things only wherein the Nations there mentioned were Idolatrous or did against that which the Law of God commandeth Nay doth it not seem a thing very probable that God doth purposely add Do after my judgement as giving thereby to understand that his meaning in the former sentence was but to bar similitude in such things as were repugnant unto the Ordinances Laws and Statutes which he had given Egyptians and Canaanites are for example sake named unto them because the Customs of the one they had been and of the other they should be best acquainted with But that wherein they might not be like unto either of them was such peradventure as had been no whit less unlawfull although those Nations had never been So that there is no necessity to think that God for fear of infection by reason of nearness forbad them to be like unto the Canaanites or the Egyptians in those things which otherwise had been lawful enough For I would know what one thing was in those Nations and is here forbidden being indifferent in it self yet forbidden only because they used it In the Laws of Israel we find it written Ye shall not cut round the corners of your Heads neither shalt thou tear the tafis of thy Board These things were usual amongst those Nations and in themselves they are indifferent But are they indifferent being used as signs of immoderate and hopeless lamentation for the dead In this sense it is that the Law forbiddeth them For which cause the very next words following are Ye shall not cut your Flesh for the dead nor make any print of a mark upon you I am the Lord. The like in Leviticus where speech is of mourning for the dead They shall not make bald parts upon their Head nor shave off the locks of their Beard nor make any cutting in their Flesh. Again in Deut. Ye are the Children of the Lord your God ye shall not cut your selves nor make you Baldness between your eyes for the Dead What is this but in effect the same which the Apostle doth more plainly express saying Sorrow not as they do who have no hope The very light of Nature it self was able to see herein a fault that which those Nations did use having been also in use with others the ancient Roman laws do forbid That shaving therefore and cutting which the Law doth mention was not a matter in it self indifferent and forbidden only because it was in use amongst such Idolaters as were Neighbours to the people of God but to use it had a been crime though no other people or Nation under Heaven should have done it saving only themselves As for those Laws concerning attires There shall no garment of Linnen and VVollen come upon thee as also those touching food and diet wherein Swines-flesh together with sundry other meats are forbidden the use of these things had been indeed of it self harmless and indifferent so that hereby it doth appear how the Law of God forbad in some special consideration such things as were lawful enough in themselves But yet even here they likewise fail of that they intend For it doth not appear that the consideration in regard whereof the Law forbiddeth these things was because those Nations did use them Likely enough it is that the Canaanites used to feed as well on Sheep as on Swines-flesh and therefore if
thereunto the weight of that long Experience which the World hath had thereof with consent and good liking So that to change any such Law must needs with the common sort impair and weaken the force of those Grounds whereby all Laws are made effectual Notwithstanding we do not deny alteration of Laws to be sometimes a thing necessary as when they are unnatural or impious or otherwise hurtful unto the Publick Community of Men and against that good for which Humane Societies were instituted When the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour were ordained to alter the Laws of Heatherish Religion received throughout the whole World chosen I grant they were Paul excepted the rest ignorant poor simple unschooled altogether and unlettered men howbeit extraordinarily endued with ghostly Wisdom from above before they ever undertook this Enterprise yea their authority confirmed by Miracle to the end it might plainly appear that they were the Lords Ambassadors unto whose Soveraign power for all flesh to stoop for all the Kingdoms of the Earth to yield themselves willingly conformable in whatsoever should be required it was their duty In this case therefore their oppositions in maintenance of Publick Superstition against Apostolick endeavors as that they might not condemn the ways of their ancient Predecessors that they must keep Religiones Traditas the Rites which from age to age had descended that the Ceremonies of Religion had been ever accounted by so much holier as elder these and the like Allegations in this case were vain and frivolous Not to stay longer therefore in speech concerning this point we will conclude That as the change of such Laws as have been specified is necessary so the evidence that they are such must be great If we have neither voice from Heaven that so pronounceth of them neither sentence of men grounded upon such manifest and clear proof that they in whose hands it is to alter them may likewise infallibly even in heart and conscience judge them so upon necessity to urge alteration is to trouble and disturb without necessity As for Arbitrary Alterations when Laws in themselves not simply bad or unmeet are changed for better and more expedient if the benefit of that which is newly better devised be but small sith the custom of easiness to alter and change is so evil no doubt but to bear a tolerable sore is better then to venter on a dangerous remedy Which being generally thought upon as a matter that touched nearly their whole enterprize whereas change was notwithstanding concluded necessary in regard of the great hurt which the Church did receive by a number of things then in use whereupon a great deal of that which had been was now to be taken away and removed out of the Church yet sith there are divers ways of abrogating things established they saw it best to cut off presently such things as might in that sort be extinguished without danger leaving the rest to be abolished by disusage through tract of time And as this was done for the manner of Abrogation so touching the stint or measure thereof Rites and Ceremonies and other external things of like nature being hurtful unto the Church either in respect of their quality or in regard of their number in the former there could be no doubt or difficulty what should be done their deliberation in the latter was more hard And therefore in as much as they did resolve to remove onely such things of that kinde as the Church might best spare retaining the residue their whole Counsel is in this point utterly condemned as having either proceeded from the blindness of those times or from negligence or from desire of honor and glory or from an erroneous opinion that such things might be tolerated for a while or if it did proceed as they which would seem most favorable are content to think it possible from a purpose partly the easilier to draw Papists unto the Gospel by keeping so many orders still the same with theirs and partly to redeem peace thereby the breach whereof they might fear would ensue upon more thorow alteration or howsoever it came to pass the thing they did is judged evil But such is the lot of all that deal in Publick Affairs whether of Church or Commonwealth that which men list to surmise of their doings being it good or ill they must beforehand patiently aim their mindes to endure Wherefore to let go private surmises whereby the thing in it self is not made either better or worse if just and allowable Reasons might lead them to do as they did then are all these censures frustrate Touching Ceremonies harmless therefore in themselves and hurtful onely in respect of number Was it amiss to decree That those things which were least needful and newliest come should be the first that were taken away as in the abrogating of a number of Saints days and of other the like custom it appeareth they did till afterwards the Form of Common Prayer being perfected Articles of sound Religion and Discipline agreed upon Catechisms framed for the needful instruction of Youth Churches purged of things that indeed were but thensom to the people or to the simple offensive and scandalous all was brought at the length unto that wherein now we stand Or was it amiss that having this way eased the Church as they thought of superfluity they went not on till they had plucked up even those things also which had taken a great deal stronger and deeper root those things which to abrogate without constraint of manifest harm thereby arising had been to alter unnecessarily in their judgments the antient received custom of the whole Church the universal practice of the people of God and those very decrees of our Fathers which were not onely set down by agreement of General Councils but had accordingly been put in ure and so continued in use till that very time present True it is That neither Councils nor Customs be they never so ancient and so general can let the Church from taking away that thing which is hurtful to be retained Where things have been instituted which being convenient and good at the first do afterward in process of time wax otherwise we make no doubt but they may be altered yea though Councils or Customs General have received them And therefore it is but a needless kinde of opposition which they make who thus dispute If in those things which are not expressed in the Scripture that is to be observed of the Church which is the custom of the people of God and decree of our Forefathers then how can these things at any time be varied which heretofore have been once ordained in such sort Whereto we say that things so ordained are to be kept howbeit not necessarily any longer then till there grow some urgent cause to ordain the contrary For there is not any Positive Law of Men whether it be general or particular received by formal express consent as in
men as contrariwise the ground of all our happiness and the seed of whatsoever perfect vertue groweth from us is a right opinion touching things divine this kind of knowledge we may justly set down for the first and chiefest thing which God imparteth unto his People and our duty of receiving this at his merciful hands for the first of those religious Offices wherewith we publickly honour him on earth For the instruction therefore of all sorts of men to eternal life it is necessary that the sacred and saving truth of God be openly published unto them Which open publication of heavenly mysteries is by an excellency termed preaching For otherwise there is not any thing publickly notified but we may in that respect rightly and properly say it is preached So that when the School of God doth use it as a word of Art we are accordingly to understand it with restraint to such special matter as that School is accustomed to publish We find not in the World any People that have lived altogether without Religion And yet this duty of Religion which provideth that publickly all sorts of men may be instructed in the fear of God is to the Church of God and hath been always so peculiar that none of the Heathens how curious soever in searching out all kinds of outward Ceremonies like to ours could ever once so much as endeavour to resemble herein the Churches care for the endless good of her Children Ways of teaching there have been sundry always usual in Gods Church For the first introduction of youth to the knowledge of God the Jews even till this day have their Catechisms With Religion it fareth as with other Sciences the first delivery of the Elements thereof must for like consideration be framed according to the weak and slender capacity of young Beginners unto which manner of teaching Principles in Christianity the Apostle in the sixth to the Hebrews is himself understood to allude For this cause therefore as the Decalogue of Moses declareth summarily those things which we ought to do the Prayer of our Lord whatsoever we should request or desire so either by the Apostles or at the least-wise out of their Writings we have the substance of Christian Belief compendiously drawn into few and short Articles to the end that the weakness of no mans wit might either hinder altogether the knowledge or excuse the utter ignorance of needful things Such as were trained up in these Rudiments and were so made fit to be afterward by Baptism received into the Church the Fathers usually in their Writings do term Hearers as having no farther communion or fellowship with the Church than only this that they were admitted to hear the Principles of Christian Faith made plain unto them Catechizing may be in Schools it may be in private Families But when we make it a kind of Preaching we mean always the publick performance thereof in the open hearing of men because things are preached not in that they are taught but in that they are published 19. Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles were in their times all Preachers of Gods Truth some by Word some by Writing some by both This they did partly as faithful Witnesses making meer relation what God himself had revealed unto them and partly as careful Expounders Teachers Perswaders thereof The Church in like case Preacheth still first publishing by way of Testimony or relation the truth which from them she hath received even in such sort as it was received written in the sacred volumes of Scripture Secondly by way of explication discovering the mysteries which lye hid therein The Church as a Witness preacheth his meer revealed Truth by reading publickly the Sacred Scripture So that a second kind of preaching is the reading of holy Writ For thus we may the boldlier speak being strengthened with the examples of so reverend a Prelate as saith that Moses from the time of antient Generations and Ages long since past had amongst the Cities of the very Gentiles them that preached him in that he was read every Sabbath day For so of necessity it must be meant in as much as we know that the Jews have alwayes had their weekly Readings of the Law of Moses but that they always had in like manner their weekly Sermons upon some part of the Law of Moses we no where find Howbeit still we must here remember that the Church by her publick reading of the Book of God preacheth only as a Witness Now the principal thing required in a Witness is Fidelity Wherefore as we cannot excuse that Church which either through corrupt translations of Scripture delivereth instead of divine Speeches any thing repugnant unto that which God speaketh or through falsified additions proposeth that to the people of God as Scripture which is in truth no Scripture So the blame which in both these respects hath been laid upon the Church of England is surely altogether without cause Touching Translations of Holy Scripture albeit we may not disallow of their painful travels herein who strictly have tyed themselves to the very Original letter yet the judgment of the Church as we see by the practise of all Nations Greeks Latines Persians Syrians AEthiopians Arabians hath been ever That the fittest for publick Audience are such as following a middle course between the rigor of literal Translators and the liberty of Paraphrasts do with greatest shortness and plainness deliver the meaning of the Holy Ghost Which being a labour of so great difficulty the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for So that except between the words of translation and the mind of Scripture it self there be Contradiction every little difference should not seem an intolerable blemish necessarily to be spunged out Whereas therefore the Prophet David in a certain Psalm doth say concerning Moses and Aaron that they were obedient to the word of God and in the self-same place âor allowed Translation saith they were not obedient we are for this cause challenged as manifest Gain-sayers of Scripture even in that which we read for Scripture unto the people But for as much as words are resemblances of that which the mind of the Speaker conceiveth and Conceits are Images representing that which is spoken of it followeth that they who will judge of words should have recourse to the things themselves from whence they rise In setting down that Miracle at the sight whereof Peter fell down astonished before the feet of Jesus and cryed Depart Lord I am a Sinner the Evangelist St. Luke saith the store of the Fish which they took was such that the Net they took it in brake and the Ships which they loaded therewith sunk St. Iohn recording the like Miracle saith That albeit the Fishes in number were so many yet the Net with so great a weight was not broken Suppose they had written both of one Miracle Although there be in their
Words a manifest shew of jar yet none if we look upon the difference of matter with regard whereunto they might both have spoken even of one Miracle the very same which they spake of divers the one intending thereby to signifie that the greatness of the burden exceeded the natural ability of the instruments which they had to bear it the other that the weakness thereof was supported by a supernatural and miraculous addition of strength The Nets as touching themselves brake but through the power oâ God they held Are not the words of the Prophet Micheas touching Bethleem Thou Bethleem the least and doth not the very Evangelist translate these words Thou Bethleem not the least the one regarding the quantity of the Place the other the dignity Micheas attributeth unto it smallness in respect of circuit Matthew greatness in regard of honor and estimation by being the native soyle of our Lord and Saviour Christ. Sith therefore Speeches which gain-say one another must of necessity be applyed both unto one and the self-same Subject sith they must also the one affirm the other deny the self-same thing what necessity of contradiction can there be between the Letter of the Prophet David and our authorised Translation thereof if he understanding Moses and Aaron do say They were not disobedient we applying our speech to Pharaoh and the AEgyptians do say of them They were not obedient Or which the matter it self will easily enough likewise suffer if the AEgyptians being meant by both it be said that they in regard of their offer to let go the People when they saw the fearful darkness disobeyed not the Word of the Lord and yet that they did not obey his Word in as much as the Sheep and Cattel at the self-same time they with-held Of both Translations the better I willingly acknowledge that which cometh nearer to the very letter of the Original verity yet so that the other may likewise safely enough be read without any perâl at all of gain-saying as much as the least jot or syllable of God's most sacred and precious Truth Which Truth as in this we do not violate so neither is the same gain-sayed or crost no not in those very Preambles placed before certain readings wherein the steps of the Latin Service-Book have been somewhat too nearly followed As when we say Christ spake to his Disciples That which the Gospel declareth he spake unto the Pharises For doth the Gospel affirm he spake to the Pharisees only doth it mean that they and besides them no man else was at that time spoken unto by our Saviour Christ If not then is there in this diversity no contrariety I suppose it somewhat probable that St. Iohn and St. Matthew which have recorded those Sermons heard them and being Hearers did think themselves as wel respected as the Pharisees in that which their Lord and Master taught concerning the Pastoral care he had over his own Flock and his offer of Grace made to the whole World which things are the matter whereof he treateth in those Sermons Wherefore as yet there is nothing found wherein we read for the Word of God that which may be condemned as repugnant unto his Word Furthermore somewhat they are displeased in that we follow not the method of Reading which in their judgement is most commendable the method used in some foreign Churches where Scriptures are read before the time of Divine Service and without either choyce or stint appointed by any determinate Order Nevertheless till such time as they shall vouchsafe us some just and sufficient reason to the contrary we must by their patience if not allowance retain the antient received Custom which we now observe For with us the reading of the Scripture in the Church is a part of our Church-Liturgy a special Portion of the Service which we do to God and not an exercise to spend the time when one doth wait for anothers coming till the assembly of them which shall afterwards worship him be compleâ Wherefore as the form of our Publick Service is not voluntary so neither are the parts thereof left uncertain but they are all set down in such order and with such choyce as hath in the wisdom of the Church seemed best to concur as well with the special occasions as with the general purpose which we have to glorifie God 20. Other Publick readings there are of Books and Writings not Canonical whereby the Church doth also preach or openly make known the Doctrine of vertuous conversation whereupon besides those things in regard whereof we are thought to read the Scriptures of God amiss it is thought amiss that we read in our Churches any thing at all besides the Scriptures To exclude the reading of any such profitable instruction as the Church hath devised for the better understanding of Scripture or for the easier trayning up of the People in holiness and righteousness of life they plead that God in the Law would have nothing brought into the Temple neither Besomes nor Flesh-hooks nor Trumpets but those only which were sanctified that for the expounding of darker places we ought to follow the Jews Polity who under Antiochus where they had not the commodity of Sermons appointed always at their Meetings somewhat out of the Prophets to be read together with the Law and so by the one made the other plainer to be understood That before and after our Saviours comming they neither read Onkelos nor Ionathan's Paraphrase though having both but contented themselves with the reading only of Scriptures that if in the Primitive Church there had been any thing read besides the Monuments of the Prophets and Apostles Iustin Martyr and Origen who mention these would have spoken of the other likewise that the most antient and best Councels forbid any thing to be read in Churches saving Canonical Scripture onely that when other things were afterwards permitted fault was found with it it succeeded but ill the Bible it self was thereby in time quite and clean thrust out Which Arguments if they be only brought in token of the Authors good-will and meaning towards the cause which they would set forward must accordingly be accepted of by them who already are perswaded the same way But if their drift and purpose be to perswade others it would be demanded by what Rule the legal hallowing of Besomes and Flesh-hooks must needs exclude all other readings in the Church save Scripture Things sanctified were thereby in such sort appropriated unto God as that they might never afterwards again be made common For which cause the Lord to sign and mark them as his own appointed oyle of holy oyntment the like whereunto it was not lawful to make for ordinary and daily uses Thus the anoynting of Aaron and his Sons tyed them to the Office of the Priest-hood for ever the anoynting not of those Silver Trumpets which Moses as well
of a standing Tribute that there they did openly read the Scriptures and whosoever will bear saith Tertullian he shall finde God whosoever will study to know shall be also fain to believe But sith there is no likelihood that ever voluntarily they will seek Instruction at our hands it remaineth that unless we will suffer them to perish Salvation it self must seek them it behooveth God to send them Preachers as he did his elect Apostles throughout the World There is a Knowledge which God hath always revealed unto them in the works of Nature This they honour and esteem highly as profound Wisdome howbeit this Wisdome saveth them not That which must save Believers is the knowledge of the Cross of Christ the only Subject of all our Preaching And in their Eyes what seemeth this but Folly It pleaseth God by the foolishness of Preaching to save These Words declare how admirable force those Mysteries have which the World do deride as Follies they shew that the Foolishness of the Cross of Christ is the Wisdom of True Believers they concern the Object of our Faith the Matter preached of and believed in by Christian men This we know that the Grecians or Gentiles did account Foolishness but that they did ever think it a fond or unlikely way to seek mens Conversion by Sermons we have not heard Manifest therefore it is that the Apostle applying the name of Foolishness in such sort as they did must needs by the Foolishness of Preaching mean the Doctrine of Christ which we learn that we may be saved but that Sermons are the only manner of teaching whereby it pleaseth our Lord to save he could not mean In like sort where the same Apostle proveth that as well the sending of the Apostles as their preaching to the Gentiles was necessary dare we affirm it was ever his meaning that unto their Salvation who even from their tender Infancy never knew any other Faith or Religion that only Christian no kinde of Teaching can be available saving that which was so needful for the first universal Conversion of Gentiles hating Christianity neither the sending of any sort allowable in the one case except only of such as had been in the other also most fit and worthy Instruments Belief in all sorts doth come by hearkning and attending to the Word of Life Which Word sometime proposeth and preacheth it self to the Hearer sometime they deliver it whom privately Zeal and Piety moveth to be Instructors of others by conference sometime of them it is taught whom the Church hath called to the Publick either reading thereof or interpreting All these tend unto one effect neither doth that which St. Paul or other Apostles teach concerning the necessity of such Teaching as theirs was or of sending such as they were for that purpose unto the Gentiles prejudice the efficacy of any other way of Publick instruction or inforce the utter disability of any other mens Vocation thought requisite in this Church for the saving of Souls where means more effectual are wanting Their only proper and direct proof of the thing in question had been to shew in what sort and how farr man's Salvation doth necessarily depend upon the knowledge of the Word of God what Conditions Properties and Qualities there are whereby Sermons are distinguished from other kindes of administring the Word unto that purpose and what special Property or Quality that is which being no where found but in Sermons maketh them effectual to save Souls and leaveth all other Doctrinal means besides destitute of vital efficacy These pertinent Instructions whereby they might satisfie us and obtain the Cause it self for which they contend these things which only would serve they leave and which needeth not sometime they trouble themselves with fretting at the ignorance of such as withstand them in their Opinion sometime they fall upon their poor Brethren which can but read and against them they are bitterly eloquene If we alledge what the Scriptures themselves do usually speak for the saving force of the Word of God not with restraint to any one certain kinde of delivery but howsoever the same shall chance to be made known yet by one trick or other they always restrain it unto Sermons Our Lord and Saviour hath said Search the Scriptures for in them ye think to have eternal life But they tell us he spake to the Jews which Jews before had heard his Sermons and that peradventure it was his minde they should search not by reading nor by hearing them read but by attending whensoever the Scriptures should happen to be alledged in Sermons Furthermore having received Apostolical Doctrine the Apostle Saint Paul hath taught us to esteem the same as the Supream Rule whereby all other Doctrines must for ever be examined Yea but in as much as the Apostle doth there speak of that he had Preached he flatly maketh as they strangely affirm his Preachings or Sermons the Rule whereby to examine all And then I beseech you what Rule have we whereby to judge or examine any For if Sermons must be our Rule because the Apostles Sermons were so to their Hearers then sith we are not as they were Hearers of the Apostles Sermons it resteth that either the Sermons which we hear should be our Rule or that being absurd therewill which yet hath greater absurdity no Rule at all be remaining for Tryal what Doctrines now are corrupt what consonant with heavenly Truth Again let the same Apostle acknowledge all Scripture profitable to teach to improve to correct to instruct in Righteousness Still notwithstanding we erre if hereby we presume to gather that Scripture read will avail unto any one of all these uses they teach us the meaning of the words to be that so much the Scripture can do if the Minister that way apply it in his Sermons otherwise not Finally they never hear Sentence which mentioneth the Word or Scripture but forthwith their Glosses upon it are the Word preached the Scripture explained or delivered unto us in Sermons Sermons they evermore understand to be that Word of God which alone hath vital Operation the dangerous sequel of which Construction I wish they did more attentively weigh For sith Speech is the very Image whereby the minde and soul of the Speaker conveyeth it self into the bolom of him which heareth we cannot chuse but see great reason wherefore the Word that proceedeth from God who is Himself very Truth and Life should be as the Apostle to the Hebrews noteth lively and mighty in operation sharper than any two-edged Sword Now if in this and the like Places we did conceive that our own Sermons are that strong and forcible Word should we not hereby impart even the most peculiar glory of the Word of God unto that which is not his word For touching our Sermons that which giveth them their very being is the wit of man and therefore they oftentimes accordingly taste too much of
that over-corrupt Fountain from which they come In our speech of most holy things our most frail affections many times are bewrayed Wherefore when we read or recite the Scripture we then deliver to the People properly the Word of God As for our Sermons be they never so sound and perfect his Word they are not as the Sermons of the Prophets were no they are but ambiguously termed his Word because his Word is commonly the Subject whereof they treat and must be the Rule whereby they are framed Notwithstanding by these and the like shifts they derive unto Sermons alone whatsoever is generally spoken concerning the Word Again what seemeth to have been uttered concerning Sermons and their efficacy or necessity in regard of Divine matter and must consequently be verified in sundry other kindes of teaching if the Matter be the same in all their use is to fasten every such Speech unto that one only manner of teaching which is by Sermons that still Sermons may be all in all Thus because Solomon declareth that the People decay or perish for want of Knowledge where no Prophecying at all is they gather that the hope of Life and Salvation is cut off where Preachers are not which prophecy by Sermons how many soever they be in number that read daily the Word of God and deliver though in other sort the self-same matter which Sermons do The people which have no way to come to the knowledge of God no prophecying no teaching perish But that they should of necessity perish where any one way of knowledge lacketh is more then the words of Solomon import Another usual point of their Art in this present question is to make very large and plentiful Discourses how Christ is by Sermons lifted up higher and made more apparent to the eye of Faith how the savour of the Word is more sweet being brayed and more able to nourish being divided by Preaching then by only reading proposed how Sermons are the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven and do open the Scriptures which being but read remain in comparison still clasped how God giveth richer increase of grace to the Ground that is planted and watered by Preaching than by bare and simple Reading Out of which premises declaring how attainment unto life is easier where Sermons are they conclude an impossibility thereof where Sermons are not Alcidimas the Sophister hath many arguments to prove that voluntary and extemporal far excelleth premeditated speech The like whereunto and in part the same are brought by them who commend Sermons as having which all men I think will acknowledge sundry peculiar and proper vertues such as no other way of Teaching besides hath Aptness to follow particular occasions presently growing to put life into words by countenance voyce and gesture to prevail mightily in the sudden affections of men this Sermons may challenge Wherein notwithstanding so eminent properties whereof Lessons are haply destitute yet Lessons being free from some inconveniences whereunto Sermons are more subject they may in this respect no less take then in other they must give the hand which betokeneth preeminence For there is nothing which is not some way excell'd even by that which it doth excel Sermons therefore and Lessons may each excell other in some respects without any prejudice unto either as touching that vital force which they both have in the work of our Salvation To which effect when we have endeavoured as much as in us doth lye to finde out the strongest causes wherefore they should imagine that Reading is itself so unavailable the most we can learn at their hands is that Sermons are the Ordinance of God the Scriptures dark and the labour of Reading easie First therefore as we know that God doth aide with his grace and by his special providence evermore bless with happy success those things which himself appointeth so his Church we perswade our selves he hath not in such sort given over to a reprobate sense that whatsoever it deviseth for the good of the Souls of men the same he doth still accurse and make frustrate Or if he always did defeat the Ordinances of his Church is not reading the Ordinance of God Wherefore then should we think that the force of his secret grace is accustomed to bless the labour of dividing his Word according unto each man's private discretion in publick Sermons and to withdraw it self from concurring with the publick delivery thereof by such selected portions of Scriptures as the whole Church hath solemnly appointed to be read for the Peoples good either by ordinary course or otherwise according to the exigence of special occasions Reading saith Isidore is to the Hearers no small edifying To them whose delight and meditation is in the Law seeing that happiness and bliss belongeth it is not in us to deny them the benefit of heavenly Grace And I hope we may presume that a rare thing it is not in the Church of God even for that very Word which is read to be both presently their joy and afterwards their study that hear it S. Augustin speaking of devout men noteth how they daily frequented the Church how attentive ear they gave unto the Lessons and Chapters read how careful they were to remember the same and to muse thereupon by themselves St. Cyprian observeth that Reading was not without effect in the hearts of men Their joy and alacity was to him an argument that there is in this Ordinance a blessing such as ordinarily doth accompany the administration of the Word of Life It were much if there should be such a difference between the hearing of Sermons preached and of Lessons read in the Church that he which presenteth himself at the one and maketh his Prayer with the Prophet David Teach me O Lord the way of thy Statutes direct me in the path of thy commandments might have the ground of usual experience wherupon to build his hope of prevailing with God and obtaining the Grace he seeketh they contrariwise not so who crave the like assistance of his Spirit when they give ear to the reading of the other In this therefore Preaching and Reading are equal that both are approved as his Ordinances both assisted with his Grace And if his Grace do assist them both to the nourishment of faith already bred we cannot without some very manifest cause yielded imagin that in breeding or begetting faith his grace doth cleave to the one and utterly forsake the other Touching hardness which is the second pretended impediment as against Homilies being plain and popular instructions it is no bar so neither doth it infringe the efficacy no not of Scriptures although but read The force of reading how small soever they would have it must of necessity be granted sufficient to notifie that which is plain or easie to be understood And of things necessary to all mens salvation we have been hitherto accustomed
oftentimes in one year run through yet a number of Churches which have no such order of simple Reading cannot be in this point charged with breach of Gods commandement which they might be if simple Reading were necessary A poor a cold and an hungry cavil Shall we therefore to please them change the Word Necessary and say that it hath been a commendable Order a Custom very expedient or an Ordinance most profitable whereby they know right well that we mean exceedingly behoovful to read the Word of God at large in the Church whether it be as our manner is or as theirs is whom they prefer before us It is not this that will content or satisfie their mindes They have against it a marvellous deep and profound Axiome that Two things to one and the same end cannot but very improperly be said most profitable And therefore if Preaching be most profitable to man's Salvation then is not Reading if Reading be then Preaching is not Are they resolved then at the leastwise if Preaching be the only ordinary mean whereby it pleaseth God to save our Souls what kinde of Preaching it is which doth save Understand they how or in what respect there is that force or vertue in Preaching We have reason wherefore to make these Demands for that although their Pens run all upon Preaching and Sermons yet when themselves do practise that whereof they write they change their Dialect and those words they shun as if there were in them some secret sting It is not their phrase to say they Preach or to give to their own instructions and exhortations the name of Sermons the pain they take themselves in this kinde is either opening or Lecturing or Reading or Exercising but in no case Preaching And in this present Question they also warily protest that what they ascribe to the vertue of Preaching they still mean it of good Preaching Now one of them saith that a good Sermon must expound and apply a large portion of the Text of Scripture at one time Another giveth us to understand that sound Preaching is not to do as one did at London who spent most of his time in Invectives against good men and told his Audience how the Magistrate should have an eye to such as troubled the peace of the Church The best of them hold it for no good Preaching when a man endeavoureth to make a glorious shew of Eloquence and Learning rather than to apply himself to the capacity of the simple But let them shape us out a good Preacher by what pattern soever pleaseth them best let them exclude and inclose whom they will with their definitions we are not desirous to enter into any contention with them about this or to abate the conceit they have of their own ways so that when once we are agreed what Sermons shall currently pass for good we may at length understand from them what that is in a good Sermon which doth make it the Word of Life unto such as hear If substance of matter evidence of things strength and validity of arguments and proofs or if any other vertue else which Words and Sentences may contain of all this what is there in the best Sermons being uttered which they lose by being read But they utterly deny that the reading either of Scriptures or Homilies and Sermons can ever by the ordinary grace of God save any Soul So that although we had all the Sermons word for word which Iames Paul Peter and the rest of the Apostles made some one of which Sermons was of power to convert thousands of the Hearers unto Christian Faith yea although we had all the instructions exhortations consolations which came from the gracious lips of our Lord Jesus Christ himself and should read them ten thousand times over to Faith and Salvation no man could hereby hope to attain Whereupon it must of necessity follow that the vigour and vital efficacy of Sermons doth grow from certain accidents which are not in them but in their Maker his vertue his gesture his countenance his zeal the motion of his body and the inflexion of his voice who first uttereth them as his own is that which giveth them the form the nature the very essence of instruments available to Eternal life If they like neither that nor this what remaineth but that their final conclusion be Sermons we know are the only ordinary means to Salvation but why or how we cannot tell Wherefore to end this tedious Controversie wherein the too great importunity of our over-eager Adversaries hath constrained us much longer to dwell than the barrenness of so poor a Cause could have seemed at the first likely either to require or to admit if they which without partialities and passions are accustomed to weigh all things and accordingly to give their sentence shall here sit down to receive our Audit and to cast up the whole reckoning on both sides the sum which Truth amounteth unto will appear to be but this that as Medicines provided of Nature and applyed by Art for the benefit of bodily health take effect sometime under and sometime above the natural proportion of their vertue according as the minde and fancy of the Patient doth more or less concurr with them So whether we barely read unto men the Scriptures of God or by Homilies concerning matter of Belief and Conversation seek to lay before them the duties which they owe unto God and Man whether we deliver them Books to read and consider of in private at their own best leasure or call them to the hearing of Sermons publickly in the House of God albeit every of these and the like unto these means do truly and daily effect that in the hearts of men for which they are each and all meant yet the operation which they have in common being most sensible and most generally noted in one kinde above the rest that one hath in some mens opinions drowned altogether the rest and injuriously brought to pass that they have been thought not less effectual than the other but without the other uneffectual to save souls Whereas the cause why Sermons only are observed to prevail so much while all means else seem to sleep and do nothing is in truth but that singular affection and attention which the people sheweth every where towards the one and their cold disposition to the other the reason hereof being partly the Art which our Adversaries use for the credit of their Sermons to bring men out of conceit with all other Teaching besides partly a custom which men have to let those things carelesly pass by their ears which they have oftentimes heard before or know they may hear again whenever it pleaseth themselves partly the especial advantages which Sermons naturally have to procure attention both in that they come always new and because by the Hearer it is still presumed that if they be let slip for the present what good soever they contain is
circumspect Those good and learned men which gave the first direction to this course had reason to wish that their own proceedings at home might be favoured abroad also and that the good affection of such as inclined towards them might be kept alive But if themselves had gone under those sails which they require to be hoised up if they had been themselves to execute their own Theory in this Church I doubt not but castly they would have seen being nearer at hand that the way was not good which they took of advising men first to wear the apparel that thereby they might be free to continue their preaching and then of requiring them so to preach as they might be sure they could not continue except they imagine that Laws which permit them not to do as they would will endure them to speak as they list even against that which themselves do by constraint of Laws they would have easily seen that our People being accustomed to think evermore that thing evil which is publickly under any pretence reproved and the men themselves worse which reprove it and use it too it should be to little purpose for them to salve the wound by making protestations in disgrace of their own actions with plain acknowledgement that they are scandalous or by using fair intreaty with the weak Brethren they would easily have seen how with us it cannot be endured to hear a man openly profess that he putteth fire to his Neighbors house but yet so halloweth the same with Prayer that he hopeth it shall not burn It had been therefore perhaps safer and better for ours to have observed S. Basils advice both in this and in all things of like nature Let him which approveth not his Governours Ordinances either plainly but privately always shew his dislike of he have ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã strong and invincible reason against them according to the true will and meaning of Scripture or else let him quietly with silence do what is enjoyned Obedience with profest unwillingness to obey is no better than manifest disobedience 30. Having thus disputed whether the Surplice be a fit Garment to be used in the service of God the next Question whereinto we are drawn is Whether it be a thing allowable or no that the Minister should say Service in the Chancel or ruin his face at any time from the People or before Service ended remove from the place where it was begun By them which trouble us with these doubts we would more willingly be resolved of a greater doubt Whether it be not a kinde of taking God's Name in vain to debase Religion with such frivolous disputes a sin to bestow time and labour about them Things of so mean regard and quality although necessary to be ordered are notwithstanding very unsavory when they come to be disputed of because Disputation presupposeth some difficulty in the matter which is argued whereas in things of this nature they must be either very simple or very froward who need to be taught by disputation what is meet When we make profession of our Faith we stand when we acknowledge our sins or seek unto God for favour we fall down because the gesture of constancy becometh us best in the one in the other the behavior of humility Some part of our Liturgy consist in the reading of the word of God and the proclaiming of his Law that the people may thereby learn what their duties are towards him some consist in words of praise and thanksgiving whereby we acknowledge unto God what his blessings are towards us some are such as albeit they serve to singular good purpose even when there is no Communion administred nevertheless being devised at the first for that purpose are at the Table of the Lord for that cause also commonly read some are uttered as from the people some as with them unto God some as from God unto them all as before his sight whom we fear and whose presence to offend with any the least unseemliness we would be surely as loath as they who most reprehend or deride that we do Now because the Gospels which are weekly read do all historically declare something which our Lord Jesus Christ himself either spake did or suffered in his own Person it hath been the custom of Christian men then especially in token of the greater reverence to stand to utter certain words of acclamation and at the name of Jesus to bow Which harmless Ceremonies as there is no man constrained to use so we know no reason wherefore any man should yet imagine it an unsufferable evil It sheweth a reverend regard to the Son of God above other Messengers although speaking as from God also And against Infidels Jews Arians who derogate from the honor of Jesus Christ such Ceremonies are most profitable As for any erroneous estimation advancing the Son above the Father and the holy Ghost seeing that the truth of his equality with them is a mystery so hard for the wits of mortal men to rise unto of all Heresies that which may give him superiority above them is least to befeared But to let go this as a matter scarce worth the speaking of whereas if fault be in these things any where justly found Law hath referred the whole disposition and redress thereof to the Ordinary of the place they which elsewhere complain that disgrace and injury is offered even to the meanest Parish Minister when the Magistrate appointeth him what to wear and leaveth not so small a matter as that to his own discretion being presumed a man discreet and trusted with the care of the Peoples Souls do think the gravest Prelates in the Land no competent Judges to discern and appoint where it is fit for the Minister to stand or which way convenient to look Praying From their Ordinary therefore they appeal to themselves finding great fault that we neither reform the thing against the which they have so long since given sentence nor yet make answer unto what they bring which is that Saint Luke declaring how Peter stood up in the middest of the Disciples did thereby deliver an unchangeable rule that whatsoever is done in the Church ought to be done in the midst of the Church and therefore not Baptism to be administred in one place Marriage solemnized in another the Supper of the Lord received in a third in a fourth Sermons in a fifth Prayers to be made that the custom which we use is Levitical absurd and such as hindreth the understanding of the People that if it be meet for the Minister at some time to look towards the People if the body of the Church be a fit place for some part of Divine Service it must needs follow that whensoever his face is turned any other way or any thing done any other where it hath absurdity All these reasons they say have been brought and were hitherto never answered besides a number of
then their calculation be true for so they reckon that a full third of our Prayers be allotted unto earthly benefits for which our Saviour in his platform hath appointed but one Petition amongst seven the difference is without any great disagreement we respecting what men are and doing that which is meer in regard of the common imperfection our Lord contrariwise proposing the most absolute proportion that can be in mens desires the very highest mark whereat we are able to aime For which cause also our custom is both to place it in the front of our Prayers as a Guide and to adde it in the end of some principal limbs or parts as a complement which fully perfecteth whatsoever may be defective in the rest Twice we rehearse it ordinarily and oftner as occasion requireth more solemnity or length in the form of Divine Service not mistrusting till these new curiosities sprang up that ever any man would think our labour herein mis-spent the time wastfully consumed and the Office it self made worse by so repeating that which otherwise would more hardly be made familiar to the simpler sort for the good of whose Souls there is not in Christian Religion any thing of like continual use and force throughout every hour and moment of their whole lives I mean not only because Prayer but because this very Prayer is of such efficacy and necessity for that our Saviour did but set men a bare example how to contrive or devise Prayers of their own and no way binde them to use this is no doubt as Errour Iohn the Baptist's Disciples which had been always brought up in the bosom of God's Church from the time of their first Infancy till they came to the School of Iohn were not so brutish that they could be ignorant how to call upon the Name of God but of their Master they had received a form of Prayer amongst themselves which form none did use saving his Disciples so that by it as by a mark of special difference they were known from others And of this the Apostles having taken notice they request that as Iohn had taught his so Christ would likewise teach them to pray Tertullian and Saint Augustin do for that cause term it Orationem legitimam the Prayer which Christ's own Law hath tyed his Church to use in the same Prescript form of words wherewith he himself did deliver it and therefore what part of the World soever we fall into if Christian Religion have been there received the ordinary use of this very Prayer hath with equal continuance accompanied the same as one of the principal and most material duties of honour done to Jesus Christ. Seeing that we have saith Saint Cyprian an Advocate with the Father for our Sins when we that have sinned come to seek for pardon let us alledge unto God the words which our Advocate hath taught For sith his promise is our plain warrant that in his Name what we aske we shall receive must we not needs much the rather obtain that for which we sue if not only his Name do countenance but also his Speech present our requests Though men should speak with the tongues of Angels yet words so pleasing to the ears of God as those which the Son of God himself hath composed were not possible for men to frame He therefore which made us to live hath also taught us to pray to the end that speaking unto the Father in the Sonn 's own prescript without scholy or gloss of ours we may be sure that we utter nothing which God will either disallow or deny Other Prayers we use may besides this and this oftner than any other although not tyed so to do by any Commandement of Scripture yet moved with such considerations as have been before set down the causeless dislike where of which others have conceived is no sufficient reason for us as much as once to forbear in any place a thing which uttered with true devotion and zeal of heart affordeth to God himself that glory that aide to the weakest sort of men to the most perfect that solid comfort which is unspeakable 36. With our Lords Prayer they would finde no fault so that they might perswade us to use it before or other Sermons only because so their manner is and not as all Christian people have been of old accustomed insert it so often into the Liturgy But the Peoples custom to repeat any thing after the Minister they utterly mislike Twice we appoint that the words which the Minister first pronounceth the whole Congregation shall repeat after him As first in the publick Confession of Sins and again in rehearsal of our Lord's Prayer presently after the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood received A thing no way offensive no way unfit or unseemly to be done although it had been so appointed ofner than with us it is But surely with so good reason it standeth in those two places that otherwise to order it were not in all respects so well Could there be any thing devised better then that we all at our first access unto God by Prayer should acknowledge meekly our sins and that not onely in heart but with tongue all which are present being made ear-witnesses even of every mans distinct and deliberate assent unto each particular branch of a common Indictment drawn against our selves How were it possible that the Church should any way else with such ease and certainty provide that none of her Children may as Adam dissemble that wretchedness the penitent confession whereof is so necessary a Preamble especially to Common Prayer In like manner if the Church did ever devise a thing fit and convenient what more then this that when together we have all received those Heavenly Mysteries wherein Christ imparteth himself unto us and giveth visible testification of our blessed communion with him we should in hatred of all Heresies Factions and Schisms the Pastor as a Leader the people as willing followers of him step by step declare openly our selves united as Brethren in one by offering up with all our hearts and tongues that most effectual Supplication wherein he unto whom we offer it hath himself not onely comprehended all our necessities but in such sort also framed every Petition as might most naturally serve for many and doth though not always require yet always import a multitude of speakers together For which cause Communicants have ever used it and we at that time by the form of our very utterance do shew we use it yea every word and syllable of it as Communicants In the rest we observe that custom whereunto St. Paul alludeth and whereof the Fathers of the Church in their Writings make often mention to shew indefinitely what was done but not universally to binde for ever all Prayers unto one onely fashion of utterance The Reasons which we have alledged induce us to think it still a good work which they in their pensive
endless thanks must have their beginning in a state which bringeth the full and final satisfaction of all such perpetual desires Again because our common necessities and the lack which we all have as well of ghostly as of earthly favors is in each kinde so easily known but the gifts of God according to those degrees and times which he in his secrets wisdom seeth meet are so diversly bestowed that it seldom appeareth what all receive what all stand in need of it seldom lieth hid we are not to marvel though the Church do oftner concur in suits then in thanks unto God for particular benefits Nevertheless lest God should be any way unglorified the greatest part of our daily Service they know consisteth according to the â Blessed Apostles own precise rule in much variety of Psalms and Hymns for no other purpose but onely that out of so plentiful a treasure there might be for every mans heart no chuse out his own Sacrifice and to offer unto God by particular secret instinct what fitteth best the often occasions which any several either Party or Congregation may seem to have They that would clean take from us therefore the daily use of the very best means we have to magnifie and praise the Name of Almighty God for his rich Blessings they that complain of out reading and singing so many Psalms for so good an end they I say that finde fault with our store should of all men be least willing to reprove our scarcity of Thanksgivings But because peradventure they see it is not either generally fit or possible that Churches should frame Thanksgivings answerable to each Petition they shorten somewhat the reins of their censure there are no forms of Thanksgiving they say for release of those common calamities from which we have Petitions to be delivered There are Prayers set forth to be said in the common calamities and Universal scourges of the Realm as Plague Famine c. And indeed so it ought to be by the Word of God But as such Prayers are needful whereby we beg release from our Distresses so there ought to be as necessary Prayers of Thanksgiving when we have received those things at the Lords hand which we asked in our Prayers As oft therefore as any Publick or Universal scourge is removed as oft as we are delivered from those either imminent or present Calamities against the storm and tempest whereof we all instantly craved favor from above let it be a Question what we should render unto God for his Blessings universally sensibly and extraordinarily bestowed A Prayer of three or four lines inserted into some part of our Church Liturgy No we are not perswaded that when God doth in trouble injoyn us the duty of Invocation and promise us the benefit of Deliverance and profess That the thing he expecteth after at our hands is to glorifie him as our mighty and onely Saviour the Church can discharge in manner convenient a work of so great importance by fore-ordaining some short Collect wherein briefly to mention thanks Our custom therefore whensoever so great occasions are incident is by Publick Authority to appoint throughout all Churches set and solemn Forms as well of Supplication as of Thanksgiving the preparations and intended Complements whereof may stir up the mindes of men in much more effectual sort then if onely there should be added to the Book of Prayer that which they require But we err in thinking that they require any such matter For albeit their words to our understanding be very plain that in our Book there are Prayers set forth to be said when common calamities are felt as Plague Famine and such like Again that indeed so it ought to be by the Word of God That likewise there ought to be as necessary Prayers of Thanksgiving when we have received those things Finally that the want of such Forms of Thanksgiving for the release from those common calamities from which we have Petitions to be delivered is the default of the Book of Common Prayer Yet all this they mean but only by way of supposition if express Prayers against so many Earthly miseries were convenient that then indeed as many express and particular Thanksgivings should be likewise necessary Seeing therefore we know that they hold the one superfluous they would not have it so understood as though their mindes were that any such addition to the Book is needful whatsoever they say for Arguments sake concerning this pretented defect The truth is they wave in and out no way sufficiently grounded no way resolved what to think speak or write more then onely that because they have taken it upon them they must no remedy now be opposite 44. The last supposed fault concerneth some few things the very matter whereof is thought to be much amiss In a Song of Praise to our Lord Jesus Christ we have these words When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thoâ didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers Which maketh some shew of giving countenance to their Error who think that the faithful which departed this life before the coming of Christ were never till then made partakers of joy but remained all in that place which they term the Lake of the Fathers In our Liturgy request is made that we may be preserved from sudden death This seemeth frivolous because the godly should always be prepared to die Request is made that God would give those things which we for our unworthiness dare not ask This they say carrieth with it the note of Popish servile fear and savoreth not of that confidence and reverent familiarity that the children of God have through Christ with their Heavenly Father Request is made that we may evermore be defended from all adversity For this there is no promise in Scripture and therefore it is no Prayer of Faith or of the which we can assure our selves that we shall obtain it Finally Request is made That God would have mercy upon all men This is impossible because some are the Vessels of Wrath to whom God will never extend his Mercy 45. As Christ hath purchased that Heavenly Kingdom the last perfection whereof is Glory in the life to come Grace in this life a preparation thereunto so the same he hath opened to the World in such sort that whereas none can possibly without him attain salvation by him all that believe are saved Now whatsoever he did or suffered the end thereof was to open the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven which our iniquities had shut up But because by ascending after that the sharpness of death was overcome he took the very local possession of glory and that to the use of all that are his even as himself before had witnessed I go to prepare a place for you And again Whom thou hast given me O Father I will that where I am they be also with me that my glory which thou hast given me they may
behold It appeareth that when Christ did ascend he then most liberally opened the Kingdom of Heaven to the end that with him and by him all Believers might raign In what estate the Fathers rested which were dead before it is not hereby either one way or other determined All that we can rightly gather is that as touching their souls what degree of joy or happiness soever it pleased God to bestow upon them his Ascension which succeeded procured theirs and theirs concerning the Body must needs be not onely of but after his As therefore Helvidius against whom St. Ierome writeth abused greatly those words of Matthew concerning Ioseph and the Mother of our Saviour Christ He knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born thereby gathering against the honor of the Blessed Virgin that a thing denied with special circumstance doth import an opposite affirmation when once that circumstance is expired After the self-same manner it should be a weak collection if whereas we say That when Christ had overcome the sharpness of death he then opened the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers a thing in such sort affirmed with circumstance were taken as insinuating an opposite denial before that circumstance be accomplished and consequently that because when the sharpness of death was overcome he then opened Heaven as well to believing Gentiles as Iews Heaven till then was no receptacle to the Souls of either Wherefore be the Spirits of the just and righteous before Christ truly or falsly thought excluded out of Heavenly joy by that which we in the words alledged before do attribute to Christs Ascension there is to no such opinion nor to the favorers thereof any countenance at all given We cannot better interpret the meaning of these words then Pope Leo himself expoundeth them whose Speech concerning our Lords Ascension may serve instead of a Marginal gloss Christs Exaltation is our Promotion and whither the glory of the Head is already gone before thither the Hope of the âody also is to follow For at this day we have not onely the possession of Paradise assured unto us but in Christ we have entred the highest of the Heavens His opening the Kingdom of Heaven and his entrance thereinto was not onely to his own use but for the benefit of all Believers 46. Our good or evil estate after death dependeth most upon the quality of our lives Yet somewhat there is why a vertuous minde should rather wish to depart this world with a kinde of treatable dissolution then to be suddenly cut off in a moment rather to be taken then snatched away from the face of the Earth Death is that which all men suffer but not all men with one minde neither all men in one manner For being of necessity a thing common it is through the manifold perswasions dispositions and occasions of men with equal desert both of praise and dispraise shunned by some by others desired So that absolutely we cannot discommend we cannot absolutely approve either willingness to live or forwardness to die And concerning the ways of death albeit the choice thereof be onely in his hands who alone hath power over all flesh and unto whose appointment we ought with patience meekly to submit our selves for to be agents voluntarily in our own destruction is against both God and Nature yet there is no doubt but in so great variety our desires will and may lawfully prefer one kinde before another Is there any man of worth and vertue although not instructed in the School of Christ or ever taught what the soundness of Religion meaneth that had not rather end the days of this transitory life as Cyrus in Xenophon or in Plato Socrates are described then to sink down with them of whom Elihu hath said Momento Moriuntur there is scarce an instant between their flourishing and their not being But let us which know what it is to die as Absalon or Ananias and Saphira died let us beg of God that when the hour of our rest is come the patterns of our dissolution may be Iacob Moses Iosoua David who leisureably ending their lives in peace prayed for the Mercies of God to come upon their posterity replenished the hearts of the nearest unto them with words of memorable Consolation strengthned in the fear of God gave them wholesome instructions of life and confirmed them in true Religion in sum Taught the World no less vertuously how to die then they had done before how to live To such as judge things according to the sense of natural men and ascend no higher suddenness because it shortneth their grief should in reason be most acceptable That which causeth bitterness in death is the languishing attendance and expectation thereof ere it come And therefore Tyrants use what art they can to increase the slowness of death Quick riddance out of life is often both requested and bestowed as a benefit Commonly therefore it is for vertuous considerations that Wisdom so far prevaileth with men as to make them desirous of slow and deliberate death against the stream of their sensual inclination conâent to endure the longer grief and bodily pain that the Soul may have time to call it self to a just account of all things past by means whereof Repentance is perfected there is wherein to exercise patience the joys of the Kingdom of Heaven have leisure to present themselves the pleasures of sin and this Worlds vanities are censured with uncorrupt judgment Charity is free to make advised choice of the soyl wherein her last Seed may most fruitfully be bestowed the minde is at liberty to have due regard of that disposition of worldly things which it can never afterwards alter and because the nearer we draw unto God the more we are oftentimes enlightned with the shining beams of his glorious presence as being then even almost in sight a leisureable departure may in that case bring forth for the good of such as are present that which shall cause them for ever after from the bottom of their hearts to pray O let us die the death of the righteous and let our last end be like theirs All which benefits and opportunities are by sudden death prevented And besides for as much as death howsoever is a general effect of the wrath of God against sin and the suddenness thereof a thing which hapneth but to few The World in this respect feareth it the more as being subject to doubtful constructions which as no man willingly would incur so they whose happy estate after life is of all mens the most certain should especially wish that no such accident in their death may give uncharitable mindes occasion of rash sinister and suspicious verdicts whereunto they are over-prone So that whether evil men or good be respected whether we regard our selves or others to be preserved from sudden death is a Blessing of God And our Prayer against it importeth a twofold desire first That death when
of things absent neither for naked signs and testimonies assuring us of Grace received before but as they are indeed and in verity for means effectual whereby God when we take the Sacraments delivereth into our hands that Grace available unto Eternal Life which Grace the Sacraments represent or signifie There have grown in the Doctrine concerning Sacraments many difficulties for want of distinct Explication what kinde or degree of Grace doth belong unto each Sacrament For by this it hath come to pass that the true immediate cause why Baptism and why the Supper of our Lord is necessary few do rightly and distinctly consider It cannot be denied but sundry the same effects and benefits which grow unto men by the one Sacrament may rightly be attributed unto the other Yet then doth Baptism challenge to it self but the inchoation of those Graces the consummation whereof dependeth on Mysteries ensuing We receive Christ Jesus in Baptism once as the first beginner in the Eucharist often as being by continual degrees the finisher of our Life By Baptism therefore we receive Christ Jesus and from him that saving Grace which is proper unto Baptism By the other Sacrament we receive him also imparting therein himself and that Grace which the Eucharist properly bestoweth So that each Sacrament having both that which is general or common and that also which is peculiar unto it self we may hereby gather that the Participation of Christ which properly belongeth to any one Sacrament is not otherwise to be obtained but by the Sacrament whereunto it is proper 58. Now even as the Soul doth Organize the Body and give unto every Member thereof that substance quantity and shape which Nature seeth most expedient so the inward Grace of Sacraments may teach what serveth best for their outward form a thing in no part of Christian Religion much less here to be neglected Grace intended by Sacraments was a cause of the choice and is a reason of the fitness of the Elements themselves Furthermore seeing that the Grace which here we receive doth no way depend upon the Natural force of that which we presently behold it was of necessity That words of express Declaration taken from the very mouth of our Lord himself should be added unto visible Elements that the one might infallibly teach what the other do most assuredly bring to pass In writing and speaking of the Blessed Sacrament we use for the most part under the name of their Substance not onely to comprise that whereof they outwardly and sensibly consist but also the secret Grace which they signifie and exhibit This is the reason wherefore commonly in definitions whether they be framed larger to augâment or stricter to abridge the number of Sacraments we finde Grace expresly mentioned as their ââââ Essential Form Elements as the matter whereunto that Form doth adjoyn it sââ But if that be separated which is secret and that considered alone which is seen as of necessity it must in all those speeches that make distinction of Sacraments from Sacramental Grace the name of a Sacrament in such speeches can imply no more then what the outward substance thereof doth comprehend And to make compleat the outward substance of a Sacrament there is required an outward Form which Form Sacramental Elements receive from Sacramental words Hereupon it groweth that many times there are three things said to make up the Substance of a Sacrament namely the Grace which is thereby offered the Element which shadoweth or signifieth Grace and the Word which expresseth what is done by the Element So that whether we consider the outward by it self alone or both the outward and inward substance of any Sacraments there are in the one respect but two essential parts and in the other but three that concur to give Sacraments their full being Furthermore because definitions are to express but the most immediate and nearest parts of Nature whereas other principles farther off although not specified in defining are notwithstanding in Nature implied and presupposed we must note that in as much as Sacraments are actions religious and mystical which Nature they have not unless they proceed from a serious meaning and what every mans private minde is as we cannot know so neither are we bound to examine Therefore always in these cases the known intent of the Church generally doth suffice and where the contrary is not manifest we may presume that he which outwardly doth the work hath inwardly the purpose of the Church of God Concerning all other Orders Rites Prayers Lessons Sermons Actions and their Circumstances whatsoever they are to the outward Substance of Baptism but things accessory which the wisdom of the Church of Christ is to order according to the exigence of that which is principal Again Considering that such Ordinances have been made to adorn the Sacrament not the Sacrament to depend upon them seeing also that they are not of the Substance of Baptism and that Baptism is far more necessary then any such incident rite or solemnity ordained for the better Administration thereof if the case be such as permitteth not Baptism to have decent Complements of Baptism better it were to enjoy the Body without his Furniture then to wait for this till the opportunity of that for which we desire it be lost Which Premises standing it seemeth to have been no absurd Collection that in cases of necessity which will not suffer delay till Baptism be administred with usual solemnities to speak the least it may be tolerably given without them rather then any man without it should be suffered to depart this life 59. They which deny that any such case of necessity can fall in regard whereof the Church should tolerate Baptism without the decent Rites and Solemnities thereunto belonging pretend that such Tolerations have risen from a false interpretaon which certain men have made of the Scripture grounding a necessity of External Baptism upon the words of our Saviour Christ Unless a man be born again of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven For by Water and the Spirit we are in that place to understand as they imagine no more then if the Spirit alone had been mentioned and Water not spoken of Which they think is plain because elswhere it is not improbable that the Holy Ghost and Fire do but signifie the Holy Ghost in operation resembling Fire Whereupon they conclude That seeing Fire in one place may be therefore Water in another place is but a Metaphor Spirit the interpretation thereof and so the words do onely mean That unless a man be born again of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven I hold it for a most infallible rule in Expositions of Sacred Scripture that were a literal construction will stand the farthest from the Letter is commonly the worst There is nothing more dangerous then this licentious and deluding Art which changeth the meaning
is freely given the fruit of their Bodies bringeth into the World with it a present interest and right to those means wherewith the Ordinance of Christ is that his Church shall be sanctified it is not to be thought that he which as it were from Heaven hath nominated and designed them unto Holiness by special priviledge of their very Birth will himself deprive them of Regeneration and Inward Grace onely because necessity depriveth them of outward Sacraments In which case it were the part of Charity to hope and to make men rather partial then cruel Judges if we had nor those fair apparancies which here we have Wherefore a necessity there is of Receiving and a necessity of Administring the Sacrament of Baptism the one peradventure not so absolute as some have thought but out of all peradventure the other more straight and narrow then that the Church which is by Office a Mother unto such as crave at her hands the Sacred Mystery of their new Birth should repel them and see them die unsatisfied of these their Ghostly desires rather then give them their Souls Rights with omission of those things which serve but onely for the more convenient and orderly Administration thereof For as on the one side we grant that those sentences of holy Scripture which make Sacraments most necessary to eternal life are no prejudice to their Salvation that want them by some inevitable necessity and without any fault of their own So it ought in reason to be likewise acknowledged that for as much as our Lord himself maketh Baptism necessary necessary whether we respect the good received by Baptism or the Testimony thereby yielded unto God of that Humility and meek Obedience which reposing wholly it self on the absolute Authority of his Commandment and on the Truth of his Heavenly Promise doubteth not but from Creatures despicable in their own condition and substance to obtain Grace of inestimable value or rather not from them but from him yet by them as by his appointed means Howsoever he by the secret ways of his own incomprehensible Mercy may be thought to save without Baptism this cleareth not the Church from guiltiness of Blood if through her superstuous scrupulosity lets and impediments of less regard should cause a Grace of so great moment to be withheld wherein our merciless strictness may be our own harm although not theirs towards whom we shew it and we for the hardness of our hearts may perish albeit they through Gods unspeakable Mercy do live God which did not afflict that Innocent whose Circumcision Moses had over-long deferred took revenge upon Moses himself for the injury which was done through so great neglect giving us thereby to understand that they whom Gods own Mercy saveth without us are on our parts notwithstanding and as much as in us lieth even destroyed when under unsufficient pretences we defraud them of such ordinary outward helps as we should exhibit We have for Baptism no day set as the Jews had for Circumcision neither have we by the Law of God but onely by the Churches discretion a place thereunto appointed Baptism therefore even in the meaning of the Law of Christ belongeth unto Infants capable thereof from the very instant of their Birth Which if they have not howsoever rather than lose it by being put off because the time the place or some such like circumstance doth not solemnly enough concur the Church as much as in her lieth wilfully casteth away their Souls 61. The Ancients it may be were too severe and made the necessity of Baptism more absolute then Reason would as touching Infants But will any man say that they notwithstanding their too much rigor herein did not in that respect sustain and tolerate defects of Local or of Personal Solemnities belonging to the Sacrament of Baptism The Apostles themselves did neither use nor appoint for Baptism any certain time The Church for general Baptism heretofore made choice of two chief days in the year the Feast of Easter and the Feast of Pentecost Which Custom when certain Churches in Sicily began to violate without cause they were by Leo Bishop of Rome advised rather to conform themselves to the rest of the World in things so reasonable then to offend mens mindes through needless singularity Howbeit always providing That nevertheless in apparent peril of death danger of siege streights of persecution fear of shipwrack and the like exigents no respect of times should cause this singular defence of true safety to be denied unto any This of Leo did but confirm that sentence which Victor had many years before given extending the same exception as well unto places as times That which St. Augustine speaketh of Women hasting to bring their children to the Church when they saw danger is a weak proof That when necessity did not leave them so much time it was not then permitted them neither to make a Church of their own home Which answer dischargeth likewise their example of a sick Jew carried in a Bed to the place of Baptism and not baptized at home in private The casue why such kinde of Baptism barred men afterwards from entring into holy Orders the reason wherefore it was objected against Novatian in what respect and how far forth it did disable may be gathered by the Twelfth Canon set down in the Council of Neocaesarea after this manner A man which hath been baptized in sickness is not after to be ordained Priest For it may be thought That such do rather at that time because they see no other remedy then of a voluntary minde lay hold on the Christian Faith unless their true and sincere meaning be made afterwards the more manifest or else the scarcity of others inforce the Church to admit them They bring in Iustinians Imperial Constitution but to what purpose seeing it onely forbiddeth men to have the Mysteries of God administred in their Private Chappels lest under that pretence Hereticks should do secretly those things which were unlawful In which consideration he therefore commandeth that if they would use those private Oratories otherwise then onely for their private Prayers the Bishop should appoint them a Clerk whom they might entertain for that purpose This is plain by latter Constitutions made in the time of Leo It was thought good saith the Emperor in their judgment which have gone before that in Private Chappels none should celebrate the holy Communion but Priests belonging unto greater Churches Which Order they took as it seemeth for the custody of Religion lest men should secretly receive from Hereticks in stead of the food the ban of their Souls pollution in place of expiation Again Whereas a Sacred Canon of the Sixth Reverend Synod requireth Baptism as others have likewise the holy Sacrifices and Mysteries to be celebrated onely in âemples hallowed for publick use and not in private Oratories which strict Decrees appear to have been made heretofore in regard
God no more instituted then the other howsoever they pretend the other hurtful and this profitable it followeth That even in their own opinion if their words do shew their mindes there is no necessity of stripping Sacraments out of all such attire of Ceremonies as Mans wisdom hath at any time cloathed them withal and consequently That either they must reform their speech as over-general or else condemn their own practice as unlawful Ceremonies have more in weight then in sight they work by commonness of use much although in the several acts of their usage we scarcely discern any good they do And because the use which they have for the most part is not perfectly understood Superstition is apt to impute unto them greater vertue then indeed they have For prevention whereof when we use this Ceremony we always plainly express the end whereunto it serveth namely For a Sign of Remembrance to put us in minde of our duty But by this mean they say we make it a great deal worse For why Seeing God hath no where commanded to draw two lines in token of the duty which we ow to Christ our practice with this Exposition publisheth a new Gospel and causeth another Word to have place in the Church of Christ where no voice ought to be heard but his By which good reason the Authors of those grave admonitions to the Parliament are well-holpen up which held That sitting at Communions betokeneth rest and full accomplishment of Legal Ceremonies in our Saviour Christ. For although it be the Word of God That such Ceremonies are expired yet seeing it is not the Word of God that men to signifie so much should sit at the Table of our Lord these have their doom as well as others Guilty of a new devised Gospel in the Church of Christ. Which strange imagination is begotten of a special dislike they have to hear that Ceremonies now in use should be thought significant whereas in truth such as are not significant must needs be vain Ceremonies destitute of signification are no better then the idle gestures of men whose broken wits are not Masters of what they do For if we look but into Secular and Civil Complements what other cause can there possibly be given why to omit them where of course they are looked for for where they are not so due to use them bringeth mens secret intents often-times into great jealousie I would know I say What reason we are able to yield why things so light in their own nature should weigh in the opinions of men so much saving onely in regard of that which they use to signifie or betoken Doth not our Lord Jesus Christ himself impute the omission of some courteous Ceremonies even in domestical entertainment to a colder degree of loving affection and take the contrary in better part not so much respecting what was less done as what was signified less by the one then by the other For to that very end he referreth in part those gracious Expostulations Simon seest thou this Woman since I entred unto thine house thou gavest me no water for my feet but she hath washed my seet with tears and wiped them with the hairs of her head Thou gavest me no kiss but this Woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet Mine head with oyl thou didst not anoint but this Woman hath anointed my feet with oynment Wherefore as the usual dumb Ceremonies of common life are in request or dislike according to that they import even so Religion having likewise her silent Rites the chiefest rule whereby to judge of their quality is that which they mean or betoken For if they signifie good things as somewhat they must of necessity signifie because it is of their very nature to be signs of intimation presenting both themselves unto outward sense and besides themselves some other thing to the understanding of beholders unless they be either greatly mischosen to signifie the same or else applied where that which they signifie agreeth not there is no cause of exception against them as against evil and unlawful Ceremonies much less of excepting against them onely in that they are not without sense And if every Religious Ceremony which hath been invented of men to signifie any thing that God himself alloweth were the publication of another Gospel in the Church of Christ seeing that no Christian Church in the World is or can be without continual use of some Ceremonies which men have instituted and that to signifie good things unless they be vain and frivolous Ceremonies it would follow That the World hath no Christian Church which doth not daily proclaim new Gospels a sequel the manifest absurdity whereof argueth the rawness of that Supposal cut of which it groweth Now the cause why Antiquity did the more in actions of common life honor the Ceremony of the Cross might be for that they lived with Infidels But that which they did in the Sacrament of Baptism was for the self-same good of Believers which is thereby intended still The Cross is for us an admonition no less necessary then for them to glory in the Service of Jesus Christ and not to hang down our heads as men ashamed thereof although it procure us reproach and obloquy at the hands of this wretched World Shame is a kinde of fear to incur disgrace and ignominy Now whereas some things are worthy of reproach some things ignominious onely through a false opinion which men have conceived of them Nature that generally feareth opprobtious reprehension must by Reason and Religion be taught what it should be ashamed of and what not But be we never so well instructed what our duty is in this behalf without some present admonition at the very instant of practise what we know is many times not called to minde till that be done whereupon our just confusion ensueth To supply the absence of such as that way might do us good when they see us in danger of sliding there are judicious and wise men which think we may greatly relieve our selves by a bare imagined presence of some whose Authority we fear and would be loath to offend if indeed they were present with us Witnesses at hand are a bridle unto many offences Let the minde have always some whom it feareth some whose Authority may keep even secret thoughts under aw Take Cato or if he be too harsh and rugged chuse some other of a softer mettal whose gravity of life and speech thou lovest his minde and countenance carry with thee set him always before thine eyes either as a watch or as a pattern That which is crooked we cannot streighten but by some such level If men of so good experience and insight in the maims of our weak flesh have thought these fancied remembrances available to awaken shamefastness that so the boldness of sin may be staid ere it look abroad surely the Wisdom of the Church of
for such their particular Invocations and Benedictions as no Man I suppose professing truth of Religion will easily think to have been without Fruit. No there is no cause we should doubt of the benefit but surely great cause to make complaint of the deep neglect of this Christian duty almost with all them to whom by tight of their place and calling the same belongeth Let them not take it in evil part the thing is true their small regard hereunto hath done harm in the Church of God That which Error rashly uttereth in disgrace of good things may peradventure be sponged out when the print of those evils which are grown through neglect will remain behinde Thus much therefore generally spoken may serve for answer unto their demands that require us to tell them Why there should be any such confirmation in the Church seeing we are not ignorant how earnestly they have protested against it and how directly although untruly for so they are content to acknowledge it hath by some of them been said To be first brought in by the seigned Decretal Epistles of the Popes or why it should not be utterly abolished seeing that no one title thereof can be once found in the whole Scripture except the Epistle to the Hebrews be Scripture And again seeing that how free soever it be now from abuse if we look back to the times past which wise men do always more respect then the present it hath been abused and is found at the length no such profitable Ceremony as the whole silly Church of Christ for the space of these Sixteen hundred years hath through want of experience imagined Last of all Seeing also besides the cruelty which is shewed towards poor Country people who are fain sometimes to let their Ploughs stand still and with increble wearisome toyl of their feeble bodies to wander over Mountains and through Woods it may be now and then little less then a whole half score of miles for a Bishops blessing which if it were needful might as well be done at home in their own Parishes rather then they is purchase it with so great loss and so intolerable pain There are they say in Confirmation besides this Three terrible points The first is Laying on of hands with pretence that the same is done to the example of the Apostles which is not onely as they suppose a manifest untruth for all the World doth know that the Apostles did never after Baptism lay hands on any and therefore Saint Luke which saith they did was much deceived But farther also we thereby teach men to think Imposition of Hands a Sacrament belike because it is a principle ingrafted by common Light of Nature in the Mindes of Men that all things done by Apostolick example must needs be Sacrament The second high point of danger is That by tying Confirmation to the Bishop alone there is great cause of suspition given to think that Baptism is not so precious a thing as Confirmation For will any man think that a Velvet Coat is of more price then a Linnen Coyf knowing the one to be an ordinary Garment the other an Ornament which onely Sergeants at Law do wear Finally To draw to an end of perils the last and the weightiest hazard is where the Book it self doth say That Children by Imposition of Hands and Prayer may receive strength against all temptation Which speech as a two-edged sword doth both ways dangerously wound partly because it ascribeth Grace to Imposition of Hands whereby we are able no more to assure our selves in the warrant of any promise from God that his Heavenly Grace shall be given then the Apostle was that himself should obtain Grace by the bowing of his knees to God and partly because by using the very word strength in this matter a word so apt to spred infection we maintain with Popish Evangelists an old forlorn distinction of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon Christs Apostles before his Ascension into Heaven and augmented upon them afterwards a distinction of Grace infused into Christian men by degrees planted in them at the first by Baptism after cherished watred and be it spoken without offence strengthned as by other vertuous Offices which Piety and true Religion teacheth even so by this very special Benediction whereof we speak the Rite or Ceremony of Confirmation 67. The Grace which we have by the holy Eucharist doth not begin but continue life No man therefore receiveth this Sacrament before Baptism because no dead thing is capable of nourishment That which groweth must of necessity first live If our Bodies did not daily waste Food to restore them were a thing superfluous And it may be that the Grace of Baptism would serve to Eternal Life were it not that the state of our Spiritual Being is daily so much hindered and impaired after Baptism In that life therefore where neither Body nor Soul can decay our Souls shall as little require this Sacrament as our Bodies corporal nourishment But as long as the days of our warfare last during the time that we are both subject to diminution and capable of augmentation in Grace the Words of our Lord and Saviour Christ will remain forceable Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you Life being therefore proposed unto all men as their end they which by Baptism have laid the Foundation and attained the first beginning of a new life have here their nourishment and food prescribed for continuance of life in them Such as will live the Life of God must eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man because this is a part of that diet which if we want we cannot live Whereas therefore in our Infancy we are incorporated into Christ and by Baptism receive the Grace of his Spirit without any sense or feeling of the gift which God bestoweth in the Eucharist we so receive the gift of God that we know by Grace what the Grace is which God giveth us the degrees of our own Increase in holiness and vertue we see and can judge of them we understand that the strength of our life begun in Christ is Christ that his Flesh is Meat and his Blood drink not by surmised imagination but truly even so truly that through Faith we perceive in the Body and Blood sacramentally presented the very taste of Eternal Life the Grace of the Sacrament is here as the food which we eat and drink This was it that some did exceedingly fear lest Zwinglius and Occolampadius would bring to pass that men should account of this Sacrament but onely as of a shadow destitute empty and void of Christ. But seeing that by opening the several opinions which have been held they are grown for ought I can see on all sides at the length to a general agreement concerning that which alone is material namely The Real Participation of Christ and of
Life in his Body and Blood by means of this Sacrament Wherefore should the World continue still distracted and rent with so manifold Contentions when there remaineth now no Controversie saving onely about the subject where Christ is Yea even in this point no side denieth but that the Soul of Man is the receptacle of Christs presence Whereby the question is yet driven to a narrower issue nor doth any thing rest doubtful but this Whether when the Sacrament is administred Christ be whole within Man onely or else his Body and Blood be also externally seated in the very Consecrated Elements themselves Which opinion they that defend are driven either to Consubstantiate and Incorporate Christ with Elements Sacramental or to Transubstantiate and change their substance into his and so the one to hold him really but invisibly moulded up with substance of those Elements the other to hide him under the onely visible shew of Bread and Wine the substance whereof as they imagine is abolished and his succeeded in the same room All things considered and compared with that success which Truth hath hitherto had by so bitter Conflicts with Errors in this point Shall I wish that men would more give themselves to meditate with silence what we have by the Sacrament and less to dispute of the manner how If any man suppose that this were too great stupidity and dulness let us see whether the Apostles of our Lord themselves have not done the like It appeareth by many examples that they of their own disposition were very scrupulous and inquisitive yea in other cases of less importance and less difficulty always apt to move questions How cometh it to pass that so few words of so high a Mystery being uttered they receive with gladness the gift of Christ and make no shew of doubt or scruple The reason hereof is not dark to them which have any thing at all observed how the powers of the minde are wont to stir when that which we infinitely long for presenteth it self above and besides expectation Curious and intricate speculations do hinder they abate they quench such inflamed motions of delight and joy as Divine Graces use to raise when extraordinarily they are present The minde therefore feeling present joy is always marvellous unwilling to admit any other cogitation and in that case casteth off those disputes whereunto the intellectual part at other times easily draweth A manifest effect whereof may be noted if we compare with our Lords Disciples in the Twentieth of Iohn the people that are said in the Sixth of Iohn to have gone after him to Capernaum These leaving him on the one side the Sea of Tiberias and finding him again as soon as themselves by ship were arrived on the contrary side whither they knew that by ship he came not and by Land the journey was longer then according to the time he could have to travel as they wondered so they asked also Rabbi when camest thou hither The Disciples when Christ appeared to them in far more strange and miraculous manner moved no question but rejoyced greatly in that they saw For why The one sort beheld onely that in Christ which they knew was more then natural but yet their affection was not rapt therewith through any great extraordinary gladness the other when they looked on Christ were not ignorant that they saw the Well-spring of their own Everlasting felicity the one because they enjoyed not disputed the other disputed not because they enjoyed If then the presence of Christ with them did so much move Judge what their thoughts and affections were at the time of this new presentation of Christ not before their Eyes but within their Souls They had learned before That his Flesh and Blood are the true cause of Eternal Life that this they are not by the bate force of their own substance but through the dignity and worth of His Person which offered them up by way of Sacrifice for the Life of the whole World and doth make them still effectual thereunto Finally that to us they are Life in particular by being particularly received Thus much they knew although as yet they understood not perfectly to what effect or issue the same would come till at the length being assembled for no other cause which they could imagine but to have eaten the Passover onely that Moses appointed when they saw their Lord and Master with hands and eyes lifted up to Heaven first bless and consecrate for the endless good of all Generations till the Worlds end the chosen Elements of Bread and Wine which Elements made for ever the Instruments of Life by vertue of his Divine Benediction they being the first that were commanded to receive from him the first which were warranted by his promise that not onely unto them at the present time but to whomsoever they and their Successors after them did duly administer the same those Mysteries should serve as Conducts of Life and Conveyances of his Body and Blood unto them Was it possible they should hear that voice Take eat This is my Body Drink ye all of this This is my Blood Possible that doing what was required and believing what was promised the same should have present effect in them and not fill them with a kinde of fearful admiration at the Heaven which they saw in themselves They had at that time a Sea of Comfort and Joy to wade in and we by that which they did are taught that this Heavenly Food is given for the satisfying of our empty Souls and not for the exercising of our curious and subtile wits If we doubt what those admirable words may import let him be our Teacher for the meaning of Christ to whom Christ was himself a School-master let our Lords Apostle be his Interpreter content we our selves with his Explication My Body The Communion of my Body My Blood The Communion of my Blood Is there any thing more expedite clear and easie then that as Christ is termed our Life because through him we obtain life so the parts of this Sacrament are his Body and Blood for that they are so to us who receiving them receive that by them which they are termed The Bread and Cup are his Body and Blood because they are causes instrumental upon the receit whereof the Participation of his Body and Blood ensueth For that which produceth any certain effect is not vainly nor improperly said to be that very effect whereunto it tendeth Every cause is in the effect which groweth from it Our Souls and Bodies quickned to Eternal Life are effects the cause whereof is the Person of Christ His Body and Blood are the true Well-spring out of which this Life floweth So that his Body and Blood are in that very subject whereunto they minister life Not onely by effect or operation even as the influence of the Heavens is in Plants Beasts Men and in every thing which they quicken but also by a far more Divine and
mine eyes some small and scarce discernable Grain or Seed whereof Nature maketh a promise that a Tree shall come and when afterwards of that Tree any skilful Artificer undertaketh to frame some exquisite and curious work I look for the event I move no question about performance either of the one or of the other Shall I simply credit Nature in things natural Shall I in things artificial relie my self on Art never offering to make doubt And in that which is above both Art and Nature refuse to believe the Author of both except he acquaint me with his ways and lay the secret of his skill before me Where God himself doth speak those things which either for height and sublimity of Matter or else for secresie of Performance we are not able to reach unto as we may be ignorant without danger so it can be no disgrace to confess we are ignorant Such as love Piety will as much as in them lieth know all things that God commandeth but especially the duties of Service which they ow to God As for his dark and hidden works they prefer as becometh them in such cases simplicity of Faith before that Knowledge which curiously sisting what it should adore and disputing too boldly of that which the wit of man cannot search chilleth for the most part all warmth of zeal and bringeth soundness of belief many times into great hazard Let it therefore be sufficient for me presenting my self at the Lords Table to know what there I receive from him without searching or enquiring of the manner how Christ performeth his promise Let Disputes and Questions Enemies to Piety abatements of true Devotion and hitherto in this cause but over-patiently heard let them take their rest Let curious and sharp-witted Men beat their Heads about what Questions themselves will the very Letter of the Word of Christ giveth plain security that these Mysteries do as Nails fasten us to his very Cross that by them we draw out as touching Efficacy Force and Vertue even the Blood of his goared side In the Wounds of our Redeemer we there dip our Tongues we are died red both within and without our hunger is satisfied and our thirst for ever quenched they are things wonderful which he feeleth great which he seeth and unheard of which he uttereth whose Soul it possest of this Paschal Lamb and made joyful in the strength of this new Wine This Bread hath in it more then the substance which our eyes behold this Cup hallowed with solemn Benediction availeth to the endless life and welfare both of Soul and Body in that it serveth as well for a Medicine to heal our infirmities and purge our sins as for a Sacrifice of Thanksgiving With touching it sanctifieth it enlightneth with belief it truly conformeth us unto the image of Iesus Christ. What these Elements are in themselves it skilleth not it is enough that to me which take them they are the Body and Blood of Christ his Promise in witness hereof sufficeth his Word he knoweth which way to accomplish why should any cogitation possess the minde of a Faithful Communicant but this O my God thou art true O my Soul thou art happy Thus therefore we see that howsoever Mens opinions do otherwise vary nevertheless touching Baptism and the Supper of the Lord we may with consent of the whole Christian World conclude they are necessary the one to initiate or begin the other to consummate or make perfect our life in Christ. 68. In Administring the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ the supposed faults of the Church of England are not greatly material and therefore it shall suffice to touch them in few words The first is That we do not use in a generality once for all to say to Communicants Take eat and drink but unto every particular person Eat thou drink thou which is according to the Popish manner and not the Form that our Saviour did use Our second oversight is by Gesture For in Kneeling there hath been Superstition Sitting agreeth better to the action of a Supper and our Saviour using that which was most fit did himself not kneel A third accusation is for not examining all Communicants whose knowledge in the Mystery of the Gospel should that way be made manifest a thing every where they say used in the Apostles times because all things necessary were used and this in their opinion is necessary yea it is commanded in as much as the Levites are commanded to prepare the people for the Passover and Examination is a part of their Preparation our Lords Supper in place of the Passover The fourth thing misliked is That against the Apostles prohibitionâ to have any familiarity at all with notorious Offenders Papists being not of the Church are admitted to our very Communion before they have by their Religious and Gospel-like behavior purged themselves of that suspition of Popery which their former life hath caused They are Dogs Swine unclean Beasts Foreigners and Strangers from the Church of God and therefore ought not to be admitted though they offer themselves We are fiftly condemned in as much as when there have been store of people to hear Sermons and Service in the Church we suffer the Communion to be ministred to a few It is not enough that our Book of Common Prayer hath godly Exhortations to move all thereunto which are present For it should not suffer a few to Communicate it should by Ecclesiastical Discipline and Civil punishment provide that such as would withdraw themselves might be brought to Communicate according both to the Law of God and the ancient Church Canons In the sixth and last place cometh the enormity of imparting this Sacrament privately unto the sick Thus far accused we answer briefly to the first That seeing God by Sacraments doth apply in particular unto every mans person the Grace which himself hath provided for the benefit of all mankinde there is no cause why Administring the Sacraments we should forbear to express that in our forms of Speech which he by his Word and Gospel teacheth all to believe In the one Sacrament I Baptize thee displeaseth them not If âat thou in the other offend them their fancies are no rules for Churches to follow Whether Christ at his last Supper did speak generally once to all or to every one in particular is a thing uncertain His words are recorded in that Form which serveth best for the setting down with Historical brevity what was spoken they are no manifest proof that he spake but once unto all which did then Communicate muchless that we in speaking unto every Communicant severally do amiss although it were clear that we herein do otherwise then Christ did Our imitation of him consisteth not in tying scrupulously our selves unto his syllables but rather in speaking by the Heavenly Direction of that inspired Divine Wisdom which teacheth divers ways to one end and doth therein controul their boldness
offences do behold the plain image of our own imbecillity Besides also them that wander out of the way it cannot be unexpedient to win with all hopes of favour left strictness used towards such as reclaim themselves should make others more obstinate in errour Wherefore after that the Church of Alexandria had somewhat recovered it self from the tempests and storms of Artianism being in consultation about the re-establishment of that which by long disturbance had been greatly decayed and hindered the ferventer sort gave quick sentence that touching them which were of the Clergy and had stained themselves with Heresie there should be none so received into the Church again as to continue in the order of the Clergy The rest which considered how many mens cases it did concern thought it much more safe and consonant to bend somewhat down towards them which were fallen to shew severity upon a few of the chiefest Leaders and to offer to the rest a friendly reconciliation without any other demand saving onely the abjuration of their errour as in the Gospel that wastful young man which returned home to his Father's house was with joy both admitted and honored his elder Brother hardly thought of for repining thereat neither commended so much for his own Fidelity and vertue as blamed for not embracing him freely whose unexpected recovery ought to have blotted out all remembrance of misdemeanors and faults past But of this sufficient A thing much stumbled at in the manner of giving Orders is our using those memorable words of our Lord and Saviour Christ Receive the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost they say we cannot give and therefore we foolishly bid men receive it Wise-men for their Authorities sake must have leave to befool them whom they are able to make wise by better instruction Notwithstanding if it may please their wisdom as well to hear what Fools can say as to control that which they doe thus we have heard some Wise-men teach namely That the Holy Ghost may be used to signifie not the Person alone but the Gift of the Holy Ghost and we know that Spiritual gifts are not onely abilities to do things miraculous as to speak with Tongues which were never taught us to cure Diseases without art and such like but also that the very authority and power which is given men in the Church to be Ministers of holy things this is contained within the number of those Gifts whereof the Holy Ghost is Author and therefore he which giveth this Power may say without absurdity or folly Receive the Holy Ghost such power as the Spirit of Christ hath endued his Church withal such Power as neither Prince not Potentate King nor Caesar on Earth can give So that if men alone had devised this form of speech thereby to expresse the heavenly well-spring of that Power which Ecclesiastical Ordinations do bestow it is not so foolish but that Wise-men might bear with it If then our Lord and Saviour himself have used the self-samen form of words and that in the self-same kinde of action although there be but the least shew of probability yea or any possibility that his meaning might be the same which ours is It should teach sober and grave men not to be too venturous in condemning that of folly which is not impossible to have in it more profoundness of wisdom than flesh and blood should presume to control Our Saviour after his resurrection from the dead gave his Apostles their Commission saying All power is given me in Heaven and in Earth Go therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghosts teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you In sum As my Father sent me so send I you Whereunto Saint Iohn doth adde farther that having thus spoken he breathed on them and said Receive the Holy Ghost By which words he must of likelyhood understand some gift of the Spirit which was presently at that time bestowed upon them as both the speech of actual delivery in saying Receive and the visible sign thereof his Breathing did shew Absurd it were to imagine our Saviour did both to the ear and also to the very eye expresse a real donation and they at that time receive nothing It resteth then that we search what special grace they did at that time receive Touching miraculous power of the Spirit most apparent it is that as then they received it not but the promise thereof was to be shortly after performed The words of Saint Luke concerning that Power are therefore set down with signification of the time to come Behold I will send the promise of my Father upon you but carry you in the City of Ierusalem untill ye be endued with power from on high Wherefore undoubtedly it was some other effect of the Spirit the Holy Ghost in some other kinde which our Saviour did then bestow What other likelier than that which himself doth mention as it should seem of purpose to take away all ambiguous constructions and to declare that the Holy Ghost which he then gave was an holy and a ghostly authority authority over the souls of men authority a part whereof consisteth in power to remit and retain sinnes Receive the Holy Ghost Whose sinnes server ye remit they are remitted whose sinnes ye retain they are retained Whereas therefore the other Evangelists had set down that Christ did before his suffering promise to give his Apostles the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and being risen from the dead promised moreover at that time a miracolous power of the Holy Ghost Saint Iohn addeth that he also invested them even then with the power of the Holy Ghost for castigation and relaxation of sinne wherein was fully accomplished that which the promise of the Keys did import Seeing therefore that the same power is now given why should the same form of words expressing it be thought foolish The cause why we breathe not as Christ did on them unto whom he imparted power is for that neither Spirit nor Spiritual authority may be thought to proceed from us who are but Delegates of Assigns to give men possession of his Graces Now besides that the power and authority delivered with those words is it self ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a gracious donation which the Spirit of God doth bestow we may most assuredly perswade our selves that the hand which imposeth upon us the function of our Ministry doth under the same form of words so tye it self thereunto that he which receiveth the burthen is thereby for ever warranted to have the Spirit with him and in him for his assistance aid countenance and support in whatsoever he faithfully doth to discharge duty Knowing therefore that when we take Ordination we also receive the presence of the Holy Ghost partly to guide direct and strengthen us in all our wayes and partly to assume unto it self for the more
that we may consider as in Gods own sight and presence with all uprightnesse sincerity and truth let us particularly weigh and examine in every of them First how farr forth they are reproveable by Reasons and Maxims of Common right Secondly whether that which our Laws do permit be repugnant to those Maxims and with what equity we ought to judge of things practised in this case neither on the one hand defending that which must be acknowledged out of square nor on the other side condemning rashly whom we list for whatsoever we disallow Touching Arguments therefore taken from the principles of Common right to prove that Ministers should be learned that they ought to be Resident upon their Livings and that more than one onely Benefice or Spiritual Living may not be granted unto one man the first because Saint Paul requireth in a Minister ability to teach to convince to distribute the Word rightly because also the Lord himself hath protested they shall be no Priests to him which have rejected knowledge and because if the blince lead the Blinde they must both needs fall into the Pit the second because Teachers are Shepherds whose Flocks can be at no time secure from danger they are Watchmen whom the Enemy doth alwayes besiege their labours in the Word and Sacraments admit no intermission their duty requireth instruction and conference with men in private they are the living Oracles of God to whom the People must resort for counsel they are commanded to be Patterns of Holiness Leaders Feeders Supervisors amongst their own it should be their grief as it was the Apostles to be absent though necessarily from them over whom they have taken charge finally the last because Plurality and Residence are opposite because the placing of one Clark in two Churches is a point of Merchandize and filthy gain because no man can serve two Masters because every one should remain in that Vocation whereto he is called What conclude they of all this Against Ignorance against Non-residence and against Plurality of Livings is there any man so raw and dull but that the Volumes which have been written both of old and of late may make him in so plentiful a cause eloquent For if by that which is generally just and requisite we measure what knowledge there should be in a Minister of the Gospel of Christ the Arguments which Light of Nature offereth the Laws and Statutes which Scripture hath the Canons that are taken out of antient Synods the Decrees and Constitutions of sincerest Times the Sentences of all Antiquity and in a word even every man's full consent and conscience is against Ignorance in them that have Charge and Cure of Souls Again what availeth it if we be Learned and not Faithful or what benefit hath the Church of Christ if there be in us sufficiency without endeavour or care to do that good which our place exacteth Touching the pains and industry therefore wherewith men are in conscience bound to attend the work of their Heavenly Calling even as much as in them lyeth bending thereunto their whole endeavour without either fraud sophistication or guile I see not what more effectual Obligation or Bond of Duty there should be urged than their own onely Vow and Promise made unto God himself at the time of their Ordination The work which they have undertaken requireth both care and fear Their sloth that negligently perform it maketh them subject to malediction Besides we also know that the fruit of our pains in this Function is life both to our selves and others And doe we yet need incitements to labour Shall we stop our ears both against those conjuring exhortations which Apostles and against the fearful comminations which Prophets have uttered out of the mouth of God the one for prevention the other for reformation of our sluggishness in this behalf Saint Paul Attend to your selves and to all the Flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made you Over-seers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Again I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ which shall judge the quick and the dead at his comming preach the Word be instant Jeremiah We unto the Pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my Pasture I will visit you for the wickedness of your Works saith the Lord the remnant of my Sheep I will gather together out of all Countries and will bring them again so their solds they shall grew and increase and I will set up Shepherds over them which shall feed them Ezekiel Should not the Shepherds should they not feed the Flocks Ye eat the fat andye clothe your selves with the wool but the weak ye have not strengthened the sick ye have not cured neither have ye bound up the broken nor brought home again that which was driven away ye have not inquired after that which was lost but with cruelty and rigour ye have ruled And verse 8. Wheresore as I live I will require c. Nor let us think to excuse our selves if haply we labour though it be at random and sit not altogether idle abroad For we are bound to attend that part of the flock of Christ whereof the Holy Ghost hath made us Over-seers The residence of Ministers upon their own peculiar Charge is by so much the rather necessary for that absenting themselves from the place where they ought to labour they neither can do the good which is looked for at their hands nor reap the comfort which sweetneth life to them that spend it in these cravels upon their own For it is in this as in all things else which are through private interest dearer than what concerneth either others wholly or us but in part and according to the rate of a general regard As for plurality it hath not onely the same inconveniencies which are observed to grow by absence but over and besides at the least in common construction a shew of that worldly humour which men do think should not raign so high Now from hence their Collections are as followeth first a repugnancy or contradiction between the Principles of common right and that which our Laws in special considerations have allowed secondly a nullitie or frustration of all such acts as are by them supposed opposite to those Principles and invalidity in all Ordinations of men unable to preach and in all dispensations which mitigate the Law of Common right for the other two And why so Forsooth because whatsoever we do in these three cases and not by vertue of Common-right we must yield it of necessity done by warrant of peculiar right or priviledge Now a Priviledge is said to be that that for favour of certain persons commeth forth against Common-right things prohibited are dispensed with because things permitted are dispatched by Common-right but things forbidden require Dispensations By which descriptions of a Priviledge and Dispensation it is they say apparent that a Priviledge must
and operation of their Sacrament surely to admit the matter as a part and not to admit the form hath small congruity with reason Again for as much as a Sacrament is compleat having the matter and form which it ought what should lead them to set down any other parts of Sacramental Repentance then Confession and Absolution as Durandus hath done For touching Satisfaction the end thereof as they understand it is a further matter which resteth after the Sacrament administred and therefore can be no part of the Sacrament Will they draw in Contrition with Satisfaction which are no parts and exclude Absolution a principal part yea the very complement form and perfection of the rest as themselves account it But for their breach of precepts in art it skilleth not if their Doctrine otherwise concerning Penitency and in Penitency touching Confession might be found true We say let no man look for pardon which doth sin other and conceal Sin where in duty it should be revealed The cause why God requireth Confession to be made to him is that thereby testifying a deep hatred of our own iniquity the only cause of his hatred and wrath towards us we might because we are humble be so much the more capable of that compassion and tender mercy which knoweth not how to condemn sinners that condemn themselves If it be our Saviours own principle that the conceipt we have of our debt forgiven proportioneth our thankfulness and love to him at whose hands we receive pardon doth not God fore-see that they which with ill-advised modesty seek to hide their Sin like Adam that they which rake it up under ashes and confess it not are very unlikely to requite with offices of love afterwards the grace which they shew themselves unwilling to prize at the very time when they sue for it in as much as their not confessing what crimes they have committed is a plain signification how loth they are that the benefit of Gods most gracious pardon should seem great Nothing more true then that of Tertullian Confession doth as much abate the weight of mens offences as Concealment doth make them heavier For he which confesseth hath a purpose to appease God he a determination to persist and continue obstinate which keeps them secret to himself St. Chrysostome almost in the same words Wickedness is by being acknowledged lessened and doth but grow by being hid If men having done amiss let it slip as though they knew no such matter what is there to stay them from falling into one and the same evil To call our selves Sinners availeth nothing except we lay our faults in the ballance and take the weight of them one by one Confess thy crimes to God disclose thy transgressions before thy Judge by way of humble Supplication and suit if not with tongue at the least with heart and in this sort seek mercy A general perswasion that thou art a Sinner will neither so humble nor bridle thy Soul as if the Catalogue of thy Sins examined severally be continually kept in mind This shall make thee lowly in thine own eyes this shall preserve thy feet from falling and sharpen thy desires towards all good things The mind I know doth hardly admit such unpleasant remembrances but we must force it we must constrain it thereunto It is safer now to be bitten with the memory then hereafter with the torment of Sin The Jews with whom no Repentance for Sin is available without Confession either conceived in mind or uttered which latter kind they call usually ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Confession delivered by word of mouth had first that general Confession which once every year was made both severally by each of the people for himself upon the day of expiation and by the Priest for them all On the day of expiation the high Priest maketh three express Confessions acknowledging unto God the manifold transgressions of the whole Nation his own personal offences likewise together with the Sins as well of his Family as of the rest of his rank and order They had again their voluntary Confessions at the times and seasons when men bethinking themselves of their wicked conversation past were resolved to change their course the beginning of which alteration was still Confession of Sins Thirdly over and besides these the Law imposed upon them also that special Confession which they in their book call ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Confession of that particular fault for which we namely seek pardon at Gods hands The words of the Law concerning Confession in this kind are as followeth When a Man or Woman shall commit any Sin that Men commit and transgress against the Lord their Sin which they have done that is to say the very deed it self in particular they shall acknowledge In Leviticus after certain transgressions there mentioned we read the like When a Man hath sinned in any one of these things he shall then confess how in that thing he hath offended For such kind of special Sins they had also special Sacrifices wherein the manner was that the Offender should lay his hands on the head of the Sacrifice which he brought and should there make Confession to God saying Now O Lord that I have offended committed Sin and done wickedly in thy sight this or this being my fault behold I repent me and am utterly ashamed of my doings my purpose is never to return more to the same crime None of them whom either the house of judgement had condemned to die or of them which are to be punished with stripes can be clear by being executed or scourged till they repent and confess their faults Finally there was no man amongst them at any time either condemned to suffer death or corrected or chastized with stripes none ever sick and near his end but they called upon him to repent and confess his Sins Of Malefactors convict by witnesses and thereupon either adjudged to die or otherwise chastized their custom was to exact as Ioshua did of Achan open confession My son now give Glory to the Lord God of Israel confess unto him and declare unto me what thou hast committed conceal it not from me Jos. 7. 19. Concerning injuries and trespasses which happen between men they highly commend such as will acknowledge before many It is in him which repenteth accepted as an high Sacrifice if he will confess before many make them acquainted with his over-sights and reveal the transgressions which have passed between him and any of his brethren saying I have verily offended this Man thus and thus I have done unto him but behold I do now repent and am sorry Contariwise whosoever is proud and will not be known of his faults but cloaketh them is not yet come to perfect Repentance for so it is written He that hides his Sins shall not prosper which words of Solomon they do not further extend then only to Sins committed against Men which are in
had they known how Is it tolerable saith Saint Ambrose that to sue to God thou shouldst be ashamed which blushest not to seek and sue unto Man should it grieve thee to be a Suppliant to him from whom thou canst not possibly hide thy self when to open thy sinnes to him from whom if thou wouldst thou mightest conceal them it doth not any thing at all trouble thee This thou art loath to do in the Church where all being Sinners nothing is more opprobrious indeed than concealment of sinne the most humble the best thought of and the lowliest accounted the justest All this notwithstanding we should do them very great wrong to father any such Opinion upon them as if they did teach it a thing impossible for any Sinner to reconcile himself unto God without confession unto the Priest Would Chrysostom thus perswaded have said Let the enquiry and punishment of thy offences be made in thine own thoughts Let the Tribunal whereat thou arraignest thy self be without witness Let God and only God see thee and thy Confession Would Cassianus so believing have given counsel That if any were withheld with bashfulness from discovering their Faulis to men they should be so much the more instant and constant in opening them by supplication to God himself whose wont is to help without publication of mens shame and not to upbraid them when he pardoneth Finally would Prosper settled in this Opinion have made it as touching Reconciliation to God a matter indifferent Whether men of Ecclesiastical Order did detect their crimes by confession or leaving the World ignorant thereof would separate voluntarily themselves for a time from the Altar though not in affection yet in execution of their Ministry and so bewaile their corrupt life Would he have willed them as he doth to make hold of it that the favour of God being either way recovered by fruits of forcible repentance they should not only receive whatsoever they had lost by sinne but also after this their new enfranchisement aspire to the endless joyes of that supernal City To conclude We every where finde the use of Confession especially publick allowed of and commended by the Fathers but that extream and rigorous necessity of Auricular and private Confession which is at this day so mightily upheld by the Church of Rome we finde nor First it was not then the Faith and Doctrine of God's Church as of the Papacy at this present Secondly That the onely remedy for Sinne after Baptisme is Sacramental Penitency Thirdly That Confession in secret is an essential part thereof Fourthly That God himself cannot now forgive Sin without the Priest That because Forgivenesse at the hands of the Priest must arise from Confession in the Offenders Therefore to confesse unto him is a matter of such necessity as being not either in deed or at the least in desire performed excludeth utterly from all pardon and must consequently in Scripture be commanded wheresoever any Promise or Forgivenesse is made No no these Opinions have Youth in their countenance Antiquity knew them not it never thought nor dreamed of them But to let passe the Papacy For as much as Repentance doth import alteration within the minde of a sinful man whereby through the power of God's most gracious and blessed Spirit he seeth and with unfeigned sorrow acknowledgeth former Offences committed against God hath them in utter detestation seeketh pardon for them in such sort as a Christian should doe and with a resolute purpose settleth himself to avoid them leading as near as God shall assist him for ever after an unspotted life And in the Order which Christian Religion hath taught for procurement of God's mercy towards Sinners Confession is acknowledged a principal duty Yea in some cases Confesion to man not to God onely It is not in Reformed Churches denied by the Learneder sort of Divines but that even this Confession cleared from all Errors is both lawful and behoveful for Gods people Confession by man being either Private or Publick Private Confession to the Minister alone touching secret Crimes or Absolution thereupon ensuing as the one so the other is neither practised by the French Discipline nor used in any of those Churches which have been cast by the French mould Open Confession to be made in the face of the whole Congregation by notorious Malefactors they hold necessary Howbeit not necessary towards the remission of Sinnes But only in some sort to content the Church and that one man's repentance may seem to strengthen many which before have been weakned by one man's fall Saxonians and Bohemians in their Discipline constrain no man to open Confession Their Doctrine is That whose Faults have been Publick and thereby scandalous unto the World such when God giveth them the Spirit of Repentance ought as solemnly to return as they have openly gone astray First for the better testimony of their own unfeigned Conversion unto God Secondly the more to notifie their Reconcilement unto the Church And Lastly that others may make benefit of their Example But concerning Confession in private the Churches of Germany as well the rest as Lutherans agree that all men should at certain times confesse their Offences to God in the hearing of Gods Ministers thereby to shew how their Sinnes displease them to receive instruction for the warier carriage of themselves hereafter to be soundly resolved if any scruple or snare of Conscience do entangle their mindes and which is most material to the end that men may at Gods hands seek every one his own particular pardon through the power of those Keys which the Minister of God using according to our blessed Saviours Institution in that case it is their part to accept the benefit thereof as Gods most merciful Ordinance for their good and without any distrust or doubt to embrace joyfully his Grace so given them according to the Word of our Lord which hath said Whose Sinnes ye remit they are remitted So that grounding upon this assured Belief they are to rest with mindes encouraged and perswaded concerning the forgiveness of all their Sinnes as out of Christ's own Word and Power by the Ministry of the Keyes It standeth with us in the Church of England as touching Publick Confession thus First seeing day by day we in our Church begin our Publick Prayers to Almighty God with Publick acknowledgement of our Sinnes in which Confession every man prostrate as it were before his glorious Majesty cryeth against himself and the Minister with one Sentence pronounceth universally all clear whose acknowledgement so made hath proceeded from a true penitent minde What reason is there every man should not under the general terms of Confession represent to himself his own Particulars whatsoever and adjoyning thereunto that affection which a contrite spirit worketh embrace to as full effect the words of Divine Grace as if the same were severally and particularly uttered with addition of Prayers imposition of hands or all
to the Minister of God he presently absolveth in this case the sick Party from all Sinnes by that Authority which Jesus Christ hath committed unto him knowing that God respecteth not so much what time is spent as what truth is shewed in Repentance In summe when the Offence doth stand onely between God and Man's Conscience the Counsel is good which Saint Chrysostom giveth I wish thee not to bewray thy self publickly nor to accuse thy self before others I wish thee to obey the Prophet who saith Disclose thy way unto the Lord confesse thy sins before him Tell thy sins to him that he may blot them out If thou be abashed to tell unto any other wherein thou hast offended rehearse them every day between thee and thy Soul I wish thee not to confesse them to thy fellow-servant who may upbraid thee with them Tell them to God who will cure them There is no need for thee in the presence of Witnesses to acknowledge them Let God alone see thee at thy Confession I pray and beseech you that you would more often than you do confesse to God eternal and reckoning up your Trespasses desire his Pardon I carry you not into a Theatre or open Court of many your Fellow-Servants I seek not to detect your crimes before men Disclose your Conscience before God unfold yourselves to him lay forth your wounds before him the best Physician that is and desire of him salve for them If hereupon it follow as it did with David I thought I will confesse against my self my wickednesse unto thee O Lord and thou forgavest me the plague of my Sinne we have our desire and there remaineth only thankfulnesse accompanied with perpetuity of care to avoid that which being not avoided we know we cannot remedy without new perplexity and grief Contrariwise if peace with God do not follow the pains we have taken in seeking afterit if we continue disquieted and not delivered from anguish mistrusting whether that we do be sufficient it argueth that our Soar doth exceed the power of our own skill and that the wisedom of the Pastor must binde up those parts which being bruised are not able to be recured of themselves Of Satisfaction THere resteth now Satisfaction only to be considered A point which the Fathers do often touch albeit they never aspire to such Mysteries as the Papacy hath found enwrapped within the folds and plaits thereof And it is happy for the Church of God that we have the Writings of the Fathers to shew what their meaning was The name of Satisfaction as the Antient Fathers meant it containeth whatsoever a Penitent should do in the humbling himself unto God and testifying by deeds of Contrition the same which Confession in words pretendeth He which by Repentance for Sins saith Tertullian speaking of fickle-minded-men had a purpose to satisfie the Lord will now by repenting his Repentance make Satan satisfaction and be so much more hateful to God as he is unto Gods enemy more acceptable Is it not plain that Satisfaction doth here include the whole work of Penitency and that God is Satisfied when men are restored through Sin into favour by Repentance How canst thou saith Chrysostom move God to pity thee when thou wilt not seem as much as to know that thou hast offended By appeasing pacifying and moving God to pity Saint Chrysostom meaneth the very same with the Latin Fathers when they speak of satisfying God We feel saith Cyprian the bitter smart of his rod and scourge because there is in us neither care to please him with our good deeds nor to satisfie him for our evil Again Let the eyes which have looked on Idols spunge out their unlawful acts with those sorrowful tears which have power to satisfie God The Master of Sentences alledgeth out of Saint Augustine that which is plain enough to this purpose Three things there are in perfect Penitency Compunction Confession and Satisfaction that as we three wayes offend God namely in Heart Word and Deed so by three Duties we may satisfie God Satisfaction as a part comprehendeth only that which the Papists meant by worthy of Repentance and if we speak of the whole work of Repentance it self we may in the phrase of Antiquity term it very well Satisfaction Satisfaction is a work which Justice requireth to be done for contentment of Persons injured Neither is it in the eye of Justice a sufficient satisfaction unless it fully equal the Injury for which we satisfie Seeing then that sin against God Eternal and Infinite must needs be an infinite wrong Justice in regard thereof doth necessarily exact an infinite recompence or else inflict upon the Offender infinite punishment Now because God was thus to be satisfied and man not able to make satisfaction in such sort his unspeakable love and inclination to save mankinde from eternal death ordained in our behalf a Mediatour to do that which had been for any other impossible Wherefore all sin is remitted in the only faith of Christ's passion and no man without belief thereof justified Bonavent in Sentent 4. dist 15. 9. 9. Faith alone maketh Christ's satisfaction ours howbeit that Faith alone which after sinne maketh us by Conversion his For in as much as God will have the benefit of Christ's satisfaction both thankfully acknowledged and duly esteemed of all such as enjoy the same he therefore imparteth so high a treasure unto no man whose Faith hath not made him willing by Repentance to do even that which of it self how unavailable soever yet being required and accepted with God we are in Christ thereby made capable and sit Vessels to receive the fruits of his Satisfaction Yea we so farr please and content God that because when we have offended he looketh but for Repentance at our hands our Repentance and the works thereof are therefore termed satisfactory not for that so much is thereby done as the Justice of God can exact but because such actions of grief and humility in man after sinne are illices divine misericordiae as Tertullian speaketh of them they draw that pity of God's towards us wherein he is for Christ's sake contented upon our submission to pardon our rebellion against him and when that little which his Law appointeth is faithfully executed it pleaseth him in tender compassion and mercy to require no more Repentance is a name which noteth the habit and operation of a certain grace or vertue in us Satisfaction the effect which it hath either with God or man And it is not in this respect said amiss that Satisfaction importeth Acceptation Reconciliation and Amity because that through Satisfaction on the one part made and allowed on the other they which before did reject are now content to receive they to be won again which were lost and they to love unto whom just cause of hatred was given We satisfie therefore in doing that which is sufficient to this effect and they towards whom we do it are
with joy and reverence Now there is no Controversie but as God in that special Case did authorize Nathan so Christ more generally his Apostles and the Ministers of his Word in his Name to absolve Sinners Their power being equal all the difference between them can be but only in this that whereas the one had prophetical evidence the other have the certainty partly of Faith and partly of Human experience whereupon to ground their Sentence Faith to assure them of God's most graous Pardon in Heaven unto all Penitents and touching the sincerity of each particular Parties repentance as much as outward sensible tokens or signes can warrant It is not to be marvelled that so great a difference appeareth between the Doctrine of Rome and Ours when we teach Repentance They imply in the Name of Repentance much more than we do We stand chiefly upon the due inward Conversion of the Heart They more upon Works of external shew We teach above all things that Repentance which is one and the same from the beginning to the World's end They a Sacramental Penance of their own devising and shaping We labour to instruct men in such sort that every Soul which is wounded with sin may learn the way how to cure it self They clean contrary would make all Soars seem incurable unless the Priests have a hand in them Touching the force of whose Absolution they strangely hold that whatsoever the Penitent doth his Contrition Confession and Satisfaction have no place of right to stand as material parts in this Sacrament nor consequently any such force as to make them available for the taking away of Sin in that they proceed from the Penitent himself without the privity of the Minister but only as they are enjoyned by the Minister's Authority and Power So that no contrition or grief of heart till the Priest exact it no acknowledgement of Sins but that which he doth demand no Praying no Fasting no Alms no Recompence or Restitution for whatsoever we have done can help except by him it be first imposed It is the Chain of their own Doctrine No remedy for mortal sin committed after Baptism but the Sacrament of Penance only No Sacrament of Penance if either matter or form be wanting No wayes to make those Duties a material part of the Sacrament unless we consider them as required and exacted by the Priest Our Lord and Saviour they say hath ordained his Priests Judges in such sort that no man which sinneth after Baptisme can be reconciled unto God but by their Sentence For why If there were any other way of Reconciliation the very promise of Christ should be false in saying Whatsoever ye binde on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whose sins soever ye retain are retained Except therefore the Priest be willing God hath by promise hampred himself so that it is not now in his own power to pardon any man Let him which is offended crave as the Publican did Lord he thou merciful unto me a sinner Let him as David make a thousand times his supplication Have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy compassions put away mine iniquities All this doth not help till such time as the pleasure of the Priest be known till he have signed us a pardon and given us our quietus est God himself hath no Answer to make but such as that of his Angel unto Lot I can do nothing It is true that our Saviour by these words Whose Sins ye remit they are remitted did ordain Judges over our sinful Souls gave them Authority to absolve from sin and promise to ratifie in Heaven whatsoever they should do on Earth in execution of this their Offices to the end that hereby as well his Ministers might take encouragement to do their Duty with all Faithfulness as also his People admonition gladly with all reverence to be ordered by them both parts knowing that the Functions of the one towards the other have his perpetual assistance and approbation Howbeit all this with two Restraints which every Jurisdiction in the World hath the one that the practice thereof proceed in due order the other that it do not extend it self beyond due bounds which bounds or limits have so confined penitential Jurisdiction that although there be given unto it power of remitting sinne yet not such Soveraignty of Power that no sin should be pardonable in man without it Thus to enforce our Saviour's words is as though we should gather that because Whatsoever Ioseph did command in the Land of Pharaoh's grant is it should be done therefore he granteth that nothing should be done in the Land of Egypt but what Ioseph did command and so consequently by enabling his Servant Ioseph to command under him disableth himself to command any thing without Ioseph But by this we see how the Papacy maketh all Sin unpardonable which hath not the Priests Absolution except peradventure in some extraordinary case where albeit Absolution be not had yet it must be desired What is then the force of Absolution What is it which the act of Absolution worketh in a sinful man doth it by any operation derived from it self alter the state of the Soul Doth it really take away sin or but ascertain us of God's most gracious and merciful pardon The latter of which two is our assertion the former theirs At the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ saying unto the sick of the Palsie Son thy sins are forgiven thee the Pharisees which knew him not to be Son of the living God took secret exception and fell to reasoning with themselves against him Is any able to forgive Sin but God only The Sins saith St. Cyprian that are committed against him he alone hath power to forgive which took upon him our sins he which sorrowed and suffered for us he whom the Father delivered unto death for our offences Whereunto may be added that which Clemens Alexandrinus hath Our Lord is profitable every way every way beneficial whether we respect him as Man or as God as God forgiving as Man instructing and learning how to avoid Sin For it is I even I that putteth away thine Iniquities for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins saith the Lord. Now albeit we willingly confess with Saint Cyprian The Sinnes which are committed against him he only hath power to forgive who hath taken upon him our Sinnes he which hath sorrowed and suffered for us he whom God hath given for our Offences Yet neither did Saint Cyprian intend to deny the power of the Minister otherwise then if he presume beyond his Commission to remit Sinne where God's own will is it should be retained For against such Ablutions he speaketh which being granted to whom they ought to have been denyed are of no validity and if rightly it be considered how higher causes in operation use to concur with inferiour means his Grace
though an enemy unto Regiment by Bishops doth notwithstanding confess that in old time the Ministers which had charge to teach chose of their Company one in every City to whom they appropriated the Title of Bishop lest equality should bread dissention He addeth farther that look what duty the Roman Consuls did execute in proposing matters unto the Senate in asking their opinions in directing them by advice admonition exhortation in guiding actions by their Authority and in seeing that performed which was with common consent agreed on the like charge had the Bishop in the assembly of other Ministers Thus much Calvin being forced by the evidence of truth to grant doth yet deny the Bishops to have been so in Authority at the first as to bear rule over other Ministers Wherein what rule he doth mean I know not But if the Bishops were so farr in dignity above other Ministers as the Consuls of Rome for their year above other Senators it is as much as we require And undoubtedly if as the Consuls of Rome so the Bishops in the Church of Christ had such authority as both to direct other Ministers and to see that every of them should observe tâat which their common consent had agreed on how this could be done by the Bishop not bearing rule over them for mine own part I must acknowledge that my poor concept is not able to comprehend One objection there is of some force to make against that which we have hither to endeavoured to prove if they mistake it not who alledge it St. Ierom comparing other Presbyters with him unto whom the name of Bishop was tâen appropriate asketh What a Bishop by vertue of his place and calling may do more then a Presbyter except it be only to Ordain In like sort Chrysostome having moved a question wherefore St. Paul should give Timothy precept concerning the quality of Bishops and descend from them to Deacons omiting the Order of Presbyters between he maketh thereunto this answer What things he spake concerning Bishops the same are also meet for Presbyters whom Bishops seem not to excell in any thing but only in the power of Ordination Wherefore seeing this doth import no ruling superiority it follows that Bishops were as then no rulers over that part of the Clergy of God Whereunto we answer that both S. Ierom and S. Chrysostom had in those their speeches an eye no farther then only to that function for which Presbyters and Bishops were consecrated unto God Now we know that their Consecration had reference to nothing but only that which they did by force and vertue of the power of Order wherein fithe Bishops received their charge only by that one degree to speak of more ample then Presbyters did theirs it might be well enough said that Presbyters were that way authorized to do in a manner even as much as Bishops could do if we consider what each of them did by vertue of solemn consecration for as concerning power of regiment and jurisdiction it was a thing withal added unto Bishops for the necessary use of such certain persons and people as should be thereunto subject in those particular Churches whereof they were Bishops and belonged to them only as Bishops of such or such a Church whereas the other kind of power had relation indefinitely unto any of the whole society of Christian men on whom they should chance to exercise the same and belonged to them absolutely as they were Bishops wheresoever they live St. Ieroms conclusion thereof is that seeing in the one kind of power there is no greater difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop Bishops should not because of their preeminence in the other too much lift up themselves above the Presbyters under them St. Chrysostom's collection that whereas the Apostle doth set down the qualities whereof regard should be had in the Consecration of Bishops there was no need to make a several discourse how Presbyters ought to be qualified when they are Ordained because there being so little difference in the functions whereunto the one and the other receive Ordination the same precepts might well serve for both at least-wise by the vertues required in the greater what should need in the less might be easily understood As for the difference of jurisdiction the truth is the Apostles yet living and themselves where they were resident exercising the jurisdiction in their own persons it was not every where established in Bishops When the Apostles prescribed those laws and when Chysostom thus spake concerning them it was not by him at all respected but his eye was the same way with Ieroms his cogitation was wâolly fixed on that power which by Consecration is given to Bishops more then to Presbyters and not on that which they have over Presbyters by force of their particular accessory jurisdiction Wherein if any man suppose that Ierom and Chrysostom knew no difference at all between a Presbyter and a Bishop let him weigh but one or two of their sentences The pride of insolent Bishops hath not a sharper enemy then Ierom for which cause he taketh often occasions most severely to inveigh against them sometimes for shewing disdain and contempt of the Clergy under them sometimes for not suffering themselves to be told of their faults and admonished of their duty by inferiours sometime for not admitting their Presbyters to teach if so be themselves were in presence sometimes for not voucââsasing to use any conference with them or to take any counsel of them Howbeit never doth he in such wise bend himself against their disorders as to deny their Rule and Authority over Presbyters Of Vigilantius being a Presbyter he thus writeth Miror sanctum Episcopum in cujus Parochia Presbyter esse dicitur acquiescere surori ejus non virga Apostolica virgaque ferrea confringere vas inutile I marvel that the holy Bishop under whom Vigilantius is said to be a Presbyter doth yield to his fury and not break that unprofitable Vessel with his Apostolick and iron rod. With this agreeth most fitly the grave advice he giveth to Nepotian Be thou subject unto thy Bishop and receive him as the Father of thy Soul This also I say that Bishops should know themselves to be Priests and not Lords that they ought to honour the Clergy as becometh the Clergy to be honoured to the end their Clergy may yield them the honour which as Bishops they ought to have That of the Orator Domitius is famous Wherefore should I esteem of thee as of a Prince when thou makest not of me that reckoning which should in reason be made of a Senator Let us know the Bishop and his Presbyters to be the same which Aaron sometimes and his Sons were Finally writing against the Hereticks which were name Luciferians The very safety of the Church saith he dependeth on the dignity of the Chief Priest to whom unless men grant an exceeding and an eminent power there
are not fit to be Ministers which also hath been collected and that by sundry of the Antient and that it is requisite the Clergy be utterly forbidden Marriage For as the burthen of Civil Regiment doth make them who bear it the less able to attend their Ecclesiastical Charge even so Saint Paul doth say that the Married are careful for the World the unmarried freer to give themselves wholly to the service of God Howbeit both experience hath found it safer that the Clergy should bear the cares of honest Marriage than be subject to the inconveniencies which single life imposed upon them would draw after it And as many as are of sound judgement know it to be farr better for this present age that the detriment be born which haply may grow through the lessening of some few mens Spiritual labours than that the Clergy and Common-wealth should lack the benefit which both the one and the other may reap through their dealing in Civil Affairs In which consideration that men consecrated unto the Spiritual service of God be licensed so farr forth to meddle with the Secular affairs of the World as doth seem for some special good cause requisite and may be without any grievous prejudice unto the Church surely there is not in the Apostles words being rightly understood any lett That no Apostle did ever bear Office may it not be a wonder considering the great devotion of the age wherein they lived and the zeal of Herod of Nero the great Commander of the known World and of other Kings of the Earth at that time to advance by all means Christian Religion Their deriving unto others that smaller charge of distributing of the Goods which were laid at their feet and of making provision for the poor which charge being in part Civil themselves had before as I suppose lawfully undertaken and their following of that which was weightier may serve as a marvellous good example for the dividing of one man's Office into divers slips and the subordinating of Inferiours to discharge some part of the same when by reason of multitude increasing that labour waxeth great and troublesome which before was easie and light but very small force it hath to inferr a perpetual divorce between Ecclesiastical and Civil power in the same Persons The most that can be said in this Case is That sundry eminent Canons bearing the name of Apostolical and divers Conncils likewise there are which have forbidden the Clergy to bear any Secular Office and have enjoyned them to attend altogether upon Reading Preaching and Prayer Whereupon the most of the antient Fathers have shewed great dislikes that these two Powers should be united in one Person For a full and final Answer whereunto I would first demand Whether commension and separation of these two Powers be a matter of mere positive Law or else a thing simply with or against the Law immutable of God and Nature That which is simply against this latter Law can at no time be allowable in any Person more than Adultery Blasphemy Sacriledge and the like But conjunction of Power Ecclesiastical and Civil what Law is there which hath not at some time or other allowed as a thing convenient and meet In the Law of God we have examples sundry whereby it doth most manifestly appear how of him the same hath oftentime been approved No Kingdom or Nation in the World but hath been thereunto accustomed without inconvenience and hurt In the prime of the World Kings and Civil Rulers were Priests for the most part all The Romans note it as a thing beneficial in their own Common-wealth and even to them apparently forcible for the strengthening of the Jewes Regiment under Moses and Samuel I deny not but sometime there may be and hath been perhaps just cause to ordain otherwise Wherefore we are not to urge those things which heretofore have been either ordered or done as thereby to prejudice those Orders which upon contrary occasion and the exigence of the present time by like authority have been established For what is there which doth let but that from contrary occasions contrary Laws may grow and each he reasoned and disputed for by such as are subiect thereunto during the time they are in force and yet neither so opposite to other but that both may laudably continue as long as the ages which keep them do see no necessary cause which may draw them unto alteration Wherefore in these things Canons Constitutions and Laws which have been at one time meet do not prove that the Church should alwayes be bound to follow them Ecclesiastical Persons were by antient Order forbidden to be Executors of any man's Testament or to undertake the Wardship of Children Bishops by the Imperial Law are forbidden to bequeath by Testament or otherwise to alienate any thing grown unto them after they were made Bishops Is there no remedy but that these or the like Orders must therefore every where still be observed The reason is not always evident why former Orders have been repealed and other established in their room Herein therefore we must remember the axiom used in the Civil Laws That the Prince is alwayes presumed to do that with reason which is not against reason being done although no reason of his deed be exprest Which being in every respect as true of the Church and her Divine Authority in making Laws it should be some bridle unto those malepert and proud spirits whose wits not conceiving the reason of Laws that are established they adore their own private fancy as the supreme Law of all and accordingly take upon them to judge that whereby they should be judged But why labour we thus in vain For even to change that which now is and to establish instead thereof that which themselves would acknowledge the very self-same which hath been to what purpose were it fith they protest That they utterly condemn as well that which hath been as that which is as well the antient as the present Superiority Authority and Power of Ecclesiastical Persons XVI Now where they lastly alledge That the Law of our Lord Iesus Christ and the judgement of the best in all ages condemn all ruling Superiority of Ministers over Ministers they are in this as in the rest more bold to affirm than able to prove the things which they bring for support of their weak and feeble Cause The bearing of Dominion or the exercising of Authority they say is this wherein the Civil Magistrate is severed from the Ecclesiastical officer according to the words of our Lord and Saviour Kings of Nations bear rule over them but it shall not be so with you Therefore bearing of Dominion doth not agree to one Minister over another This place hath been and still is although most falsely yet with farr greater shew and likelyhood of truth brought forth by the Anabaptists to prove that the Church of Christ ought to have no Civil Magistrates but be ordered
things below We consider not what it is which we reap by the Authority of our Chiefest Spiritual Governors not are likely to enter into any consideration thereof till we want them and that is the cause why they are at our hands so unthankfully rewarded Authority is a constraining Power which Power were needless if we were all such as we should be willing to do the things we ought to do without constraint But because generally we are otherwise therefore we all reap singular benefit by that Authority which permitteth no men though they would to slack their duty It doth not suffice that the Lord of an Houshold appoint Labourers what they should do unless he set over them some chief Workman to see they do it Constitutions and Canons made for the ordering of Church-affairs are dead Task-masters The due execution of Laws Spiritual dependeth most upon the vigilant care of the Chiefest Spiritual Governors whose charge is to see that such Laws be kept by the Clergy and People under them With those Duties which the Law of God and the Ecclesiastical Canons require in the Clergy Lay-Governors are neither for the most part so well acquainted nor so deeply and nearly touched Requisite therefore it is that Ecclesiastical Persons have authority in such things Which kinde of Authority maketh them that have it Prelates If then it be a thing confest as by all good men it needs must be to have Prayers read in all Churches to have the Sacraments of God administred to have the Mysteries of Salvation painfully taught to have God every where devoutly worshipped and all this perpetually and with quietness bringeth unto the whole Church and unto every Member thereof inestimoble good how can that Authority which hath been proved the Ordinance of God for preservation of these duties in the Church how can it choose but deserve to be held a thing publickly most beneficial It were to be wished and is to be laboured for as much as can be that they who are set in such Rooms may be furnished with honourable Qualities and Graces every way fit for their Galling But be they otherwise howsoever so long as they are in Authority all men reap some good by them albeit not so much good as if they were abler men There is not any amongst us all but is a great deal more apt to exact another man's duty than the best of us is to discharge exactly his own and therefore Prelates although neglecting many ways their duty unto God and men do notwithstanding by their Authority great good in that they keep others at the leastwise in some awe under them It is our duty therefore in this consideraton to honor them that rule as Prelates which Office if they discharge well the Apostles own verdict is that the honor they have they be worthy of yea though it were double And if their Government be otherwise the judgement of sage men hath ever been this that albeit the dealings of Governors be culpable yet honourable they must be in respect of that Authority by which they govern Great caution must be used that we neither be emboldned to follow them in evil whom for Authorities sake we honor nor induced in Authority to dishonor them whom as examples we may not follow In a word not to dislike sin though it should be in the highest were unrighteous meekness and proud righteousness it is to contemn or dishonor Highness though it should be in the sinfullest men that live But so hard it is to obtain at our hands especially as now things stand the yielding of Honor to whom Honor in this case belongeth that by a brief Declaration only what the Duties of men are towards the principal Guides and Pastors of their Souls we cannot greatly hope to prevail partly for the malice of their open Adversaries and partly for the cunning of such as in a sacrilegious intent work their dishonor under covert by more mystical and secret means Wherefore requisite and in a manner necessary it is that by particular instances we make it even palpably manifest what singular benefit and use publick the nature of Prelates is apt to yield First no man doubteth but that unto the happy condition of Common-weals it is a principal help and furtherance when in the eye of Foreign States their estimation and credit is great In which respect the Lord himself commending his own Laws unto his people mentioneth this as a thing not meanly to be accounted of that their careful obedience yielded thereunto should purchase them a great good opinion abroad and make them every where famous for wisdom Fame and reputation groweth especially by the vertue not of common ordinary persons but of them which are in each estate most eminent by occasion of their higher Place and Calling The mean man's actions be they good or evil they reach not farr they are not greatly enquired into except perhaps by such as dwell at the next door whereas men of more ample dignity are as Cities on the tops of Hills their lives are viewed a farr off so that the more there are which observe aloof what they do the greater glory by their well-doing they purchase both unto God whom they serve and to the State wherein they live Wherefore if the Clergy be a beautifying unto the body of this Common-weal in the eyes of Foreign beholders and if in the Clergy the Prelacy be most exposed unto the World's eye what publick benefit doth grow from that Order in regard of reputation thereby gotten to the Land from abroad we may soon conjecture Amongst the Jews their Kings excepted who so renowned throughout the World as their High-Priest who so much or so often spoken of as their Prelates 2. Which Order is not for the present only the most in sight but for that very cause also the most commended unto Posterity For if we search those Records wherein there hath descended from age to age whatsoever notice and intelligence we have of those things which were before us is there any thing almost else surely not any thing so much kept in memory as the successions doings sufferings and affairs of Prelates So that either there is not any publick use of that light which the Church doth receive from Antiquity or if this be absurd to think then must we necessarily acknowledge our selves beholden more unto Prelates than unto others their Inferiours for that good of direction which Ecclesiastical actions recorded do always bring 3. But to call home our cogitations and more inwardly to weigh with our selves what principal commodity that Order yieldeth or at leastwise is of its own disposition and nature apt to yield Kings and Princes partly for information of their own consciences partly for instruction what they have to do in a number of most weighty affairs intangled with the cause of Religion having as all men know so usual occasion of often consultations and conferences with their Clergy suppose
that degree they were placed in Neither are we so to judge of their worldly condition as if they were Servants of men and at mens hands did receive those earthly benefits by way of stipend in lieu of pains whereunto they are hired nay that which is paid unto them is homage and tribute due unto the Lord Christ. His Servants they are and from him they receive such goods by way of stipend Not so from men For at the hands of men he himself being honored with such things hath appointed his Servants therewith according to their several degrees and places to be maintained And for their greater encouragement who are his Labourers he hath to their comfort assured them for ever that they are in his estimation worthy the hire which he alloweth them and therefore if men should withdraw from him the store which those his Servants that labour in his Work are maintained with yet be in his Word shall be found everlastingly true their labour in the Lord shall not be forgotten the hire he accounteth them worthy of they shall surely have either one way or other answered In the prime of the Christian world that which was brought and laid down at the Apostles feet they disposed of by distribution according to the exigence of each man's need Neither can we think that they who out of Christ's treasury made provision for all others were careless to furnish the Clergy with all things fit and convenient for their Estate And as themselves were chiefest in place of Authority and Calling so no man doubteth but that proportionably they had power to use the same for their own decent maintenance The Apostles with the rest of the Clergy in Ierusalem lived at that time according to the manner of a Fellowship or Collegiate Society maintaining themselves and the poor of the Church with a common purse the rest of the Faithful keeping that Purse continually stored And in that sense it is that the Sacred History saith All which believed were in one place and had all things common In the Histories of the Church and in the Writings of the Antient Fathers for some hundreds of years after we finde no other way for the maintenance of the Clergy but onely this the Treasury of Jesus Christ furnished through mens Devotion bestowing sometimes Goods sometimes Lands that way and out of his Treasury the charge of the service of God was deârayed the Bishop and the Clergy under him maintained the poor in their necessity ministred unto For which purpose every Bishop had some one of the Presbyters under him to be Treasurer of the Church to receive keep and deliver all which Office in Churches Cathedral remaineth even till this day albeit the use thereof be not altogether so large now as heretofore The disposition of these goods was by the appointment of the Bishop Wherefore Prosper speaking of the Bishops care herein saith It was necessary for one to be troubled therewith to the end that the rest under him might be freer to attend quietly their Spiritual businesses And left any man should imagine that Bishops by this means were hindred themselves from attending the service of God Even herein saith he they dâ God service for if these things which are bestowed on the Church be God's he doth the work of God who not of a covetous minde but with purpose of most faithful administration taketh care of things consecrated unto God And forasmuch as the Presbyters of every Church could not all live with the Bishop partly for that their number was great and partly because the People being once divided into Parishes such Presbyters as had severally charge of them were by that mean more conveniently to live in the midst each of his own particular flock therefore a competent number being fed at the same Table with the Bishop the rest had their whole allowance apart which several allowances were called Sportulae and they who received them Sportulantes fratres Touching the Bishop as his Place and Estate was higher so likewise the proportion of his Charges about himself being for that cause in all equity and reason greater yet forasmuch as his stiat herein was no other than it pleased himself to set the rest as the manner of Inferiours is to think that they which are over them alwayes have too much grudged many times at the measure of the Bishops private expence perhaps not without cause Howsoever by this occasion there grew amongst them great heart-burning quarrel and strife where the Bishops were found culpable as eating too much beyond their tether aud drawing more to their own private maintenance than the proportion of Christ's Patrimony being not greatly abundant could bear sundry Constitutions hereupon were made to moderate the same according to the Churches condition in those times Some before they were made Bishops having been Owners of ample Possessions sold them and gave them away to the Poor Thus did Paulinus Hilary Cyprian and sundry others Hereupon they who entring into the same Spiritual and high Function held their Secular Possessions still were hardly thought of And even when the Case was fully resolved that so to do was not unlawful yet it grew a question Whether they lawfully might then take any thing out of the Publick Treasury of Christ a question Whether Bishops holding by Civil Title sufficient to live of their own were bound in Conscience to leave the Goods of the Church altogether to the use of others Of contentions about these matters there was no end neither appeared there any possible way for quietness otherwise than by making partition of Church-Revenues according to the several ends and users for which they did serve that so the Bishops part might be certain Such partition being made the Bishop enjoyed his portion several to himself the rest of the Clergy likewise theirs a third part was severed to the furnishing and upholding of the Church a fourth to the erection and maintenance of Houses wherein the Poor might have relief After which separation made Lands and Livings began every day to be dedicated unto each use severally by means whereof every of them became in short time much greater than they had been for worldly maintenance the fervent devotion of men being glad that this new opportunity was given of shewing zeal to the House of God in more certain order By these things it plainly appeareth what proportion of maintenance hath been ever thought reasonable for a Bishop sith in that very partition agreed on to bring him unto his certain stint as much as allowed unto him alone as unto all the Clergy under him namely a fourtli part of the whole yearly Rents and Revenues of the Church Nor is it likely that before those Temporalities which now are such eye-sores were added unto the honour of Bishops their state was so mean as some imagine For if we had no other evidence than the covetous and ambitious humour of Hereticks whose impotent
Persons and Causes of the Church But I see that hitherto they which condemn utterly the name so applyed do it because they mislike that such Power should be given to Civil Governours The great exception that Sir Thomas Moor took against that Title who suffered death for denyal of it was for that it maketh a Lay a Secular Person the head of the State Spiritual or Ecclesiastical as though God himself did not name Said the Head of all the Tribes of Israel and consequently of that Tribe also among the rest whereunto the State Spiritual or Ecclesiastical belonged when the Authors of the Centuries reprove it in Kings and Civil Governours the reason is I st is non competit iste Primatus such kinde of Power is too high for them they fit it not In excuse of Mr. Calvin by whom this Realm is condemned of Blasphemy for intituâing H. 8. Supream Head of this Church under Christ a charitable conjecture is made that he spake by misinformation howbeit as he professeth utter dislike of that name so whether the name be used or no the very Power it self which we give unto Civil Magistrates he much complaineth of and protesteth That their Power over all things was it which had ever wounded him deeply That un-advised Persons had made them too Spiritual that throughout Germany this fault did reign that in these very parts where Calvin himself was it prevailed more than was to be wished that Rulers by imagining themselves so Spiritual have taken away Ecclesiastical Government that they think they cannot reign unless they abolish all the Authority of the Cuurch and be themselves the chief Iudges as well in Doctrine as in the whole Spiritual Regency So that in truth the Question is Whether the Magistrate by being Head in such sense as we term him do use or exercise any part of that Authority not which belongeth unto Christ but which other men ought to have These things being first considered thus it will be easier to judge concerning our own estate whether by force of Ecclesiastical Government Kings have any other kinde of Prerogative that they may lawfully hold and enjoy It is as some do imagine too much that Kings of England should be termed Heads in relation of the Church That which we do understand by Headship is their only Supreme Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs and Causes That which lawful Princes are what should make it unlawful for men in Spiritual Stiles or Titles to signifie If the having of Supream Power be allowed why is the expressing thereof by the Title of Head condemned They seem in words at leastwise some of them now at the length to acknowledge that Kings may have Dominion or Supream Government even over all both Persons and Causes We in terming our Princes Heads of the Church do but testifie that we acknowledge them such Governours Again to this it will peradventure be replyed That howsoever we interpret our selves it is not fit for a mortal man and therefore not fit for a Civil Magistrate to be intituled the Head of the Church which was given to our Saviour Christ to lift him above all Powers Rules Dominions Titles in Heaven or in Earth Where if this Title belong also to Civil Magistrates then it is manifest that there is a Power in Earth whereunto our Saviour Christ is not in this point superiour Again if the Civil Magistrate may have this Title he may be termed also the first-begotten of all Creatures The first begotten of all the Dead yea the Redeemer of his People For these are alike given him as Dignities whereby he is lifted up above all Creatures Besides this the whole Argument of the Apostle in both places doth lead to show that this Title Head of the Church cannot be said of any Creature And further the very domonstrative Articles amongst the Hebrews especially whom St. Paul doth follow serveth to tye that which is verified of one unto himself alone so that when the Apostle doth say that Christ it ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Head it is as if he should say Christ and none other is the Head of the Church Thus have we against the entituling of the Highest Magistrate head with relation unto the Church four several Arguments gathered by strong surmise out of words marvellous unlikely to have been written to any such purpose as that whereunto they are now used and urged To the Ephesians the Apostle writeth That Christ God had set on his right hand in the Heavenly places above all Regency and Authority and Power and Dominion and whatsoever name is named not in this World only but in that which shall be also and hath under his feet set all things and hath given him head above all things unto the Church which is his Body even the fulness of him which accomplisheth all in all To the Colossians in like manner That he is the head of the body of the Church who is a first born Regency out of the dead to the end he might be made amongst them all such an one as both the Chiefty He meaneth amongst all them whom he mentioned before saying By him all things that are were made the things in the Heavens and the things in the Earth the things that are visible and the things that are invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Regencies c. Unto the fore-alledged Arguments therefore we answer First that it is not simply the title of Head in such sort understood as the Apostle himself meant it so that the same being imparted in another sense unto others doth not any wayes make those others his Equals in as much as diversity of things is usually to be understood even when of words there is no diversity and it is onely the adding of one and the same thing unto divers Persons which doth argue equality in them If I term Christ and Cesar Lords yet this is no equalizing Cesar with Christ because it is not thereby intended To term the Emperor Lord saith Tertullian I for my part will not refuse so that I be not required to call him Lord in the same sense that God is so termed Neither doth it follow which is objected in the second place that if the Civil Magistrate may be intituled a Head he may as well be termed the first begotten of all Creatures the first begotten of the Dead and the Redeemer of his People For albeit the former dignity doth lift him up to less than these yet these terms are not applyable and apt to signifie any other inferior dignity as the former term of Head was The Argument of matter which the Apostle followeth hath small evidence or proof that his meaning was to appropriate unto Christ that the aforesaid title otherwise than only in such sense as doth make it being so understood too high to be given to any Creature As for the force of the Article where our Lord and Saviour is called the Head it serveth
dear and precious to me than that I may always remain in your Honours favour which hath oftentimes be an helpful and comfortable unto me in my Ministry aud to all such as reaped any fruit of my simple and faithful labour In which dutiful regard I humbly beseech you Honours to vouchsafe to do me this grace to conceive nothing of me otherwise than according to the duty wherein I ought to live by any information against me before your Honours have heard my answer and been throughly informed of the matter Which although it be a thing that your wisdoms not in favour but in justice yeld to all men yet the state of the the calling into the Ministery whereunto it hath pleased God of his goodness to call me though unworthiest of all is so subject to mis-information as except we may finde this favour with your Honours we cannot look for any other but that our unindifferent parties may easily procure us to be hardly esteemed of and that we shall be made like the poor Fisher-boats in the Sea which every swelling wave and billow raketh and runneth over Wherein my Estate is yet harder than any others of my Rank and Calling who are indeed to fight against Flesh and Blood in what part soever of the Lords Host and Field they shall stand mashalled to serve yet many of them deal with it naked and unfurnished of Weapons But my service was in a place where I was to encounter with it well appointed and armed with skill and with authority whereof as I have always thus deserved and therefore have been careful by all good means to entertain still your Honours favourable respect of me so have I special cause at this present wherein mis-information to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and other of the High Commission hath been able so farr to prevail against me that by their Letter they have inhibited me to preach or execute any Act of Ministry in the Temple or elsewhere having never once called me before them to understand by mine answer the truth of such things as had been informed against me We have a story in our Books wherein the Pharisees proceeding against our Saviour Christ without having heard him is reproved by an honourable Counsellour as the Evangelist doth term him saying Doth our Law judge a man before it hear him and know what he hath done Which I do not mention to the end that by an indirect and covert speech I might so compare those who have without ever hearing me pronounced a heavy sentence against me for notwithstanding such proceedings I purpose by Gods grace to carry my self towards them in all seeming duty agreeable to their places much less do I presume to liken my Cause to our Saviour Christ's who hold it my chiefest honour and happiness to serve him though it be but among the hindes and hired Servants that serve him in the basest corners of his House But my purpose in mentioning it is to shew by the judgement of a Prince and great man in Israel that such proceeding standeth not with the Lavv of God and in a Princely Pattern to shew it to be a noble part of an honourable Counsellour not to allow of indirect dealings but to allow and affect such a course in Justice as is agreeable to the Lavv of God We have also a plain rule in the Word of God not to proceed any otherwise against any Elder of the Church much less against one that laboureth in the Word and in teaching Which rule is delivered with this most earnest charge and obtestation I beseech and charge thee in the sight of God and the Lord Iesus Christ and the Elect Angels that thou keep those rules without preferring one before another doing nothing of partiality or including to either part which Apostolical and most earnest charge I referr to your Honours wisdom how it hath been regarded in so heavy a Judgement against me without ever hearing my Cause and whetheâ as having God before their eyes and the Lord Jesus by whom all former Judgements shall be tried again and as in the presence of the Elect Angels Witnesses and Observers of the Regiment of the Church they have proceeded thus to such a sentence They alledge indeed two reasons in their Letters whereupon they restrain my Ministry which if they were as strong against me as they are supposed yet I referr to your Honours wisdoms whether the quality of such an Offence as they charge me with which is in effect but an indiscretion deserve so grievous a punishment both to the Church and me in taking away my Ministery and that poor little commodity which it yieldeth for the necessary maintenance of my life if so unequal a ballancing of faults and punishments should have place in the Common-wealth surely we should shortly have no Actions upon the Case nor of Trespass but all should be Pleas of the Crown nor any man amerced or fined but for every light offence put to his ransom I have credibly heard that some of the Ministery have been committed for grievous transgressions of the Laws of God and men being of no ability to do other service in the Church than to read yet hath it been thought charitable and standing with Christian moderation and temperancy not to deprive such of Ministry and Beneficency but to inflict some more tolerable punishment Which I write not because such as I think were to be favoured but to shew how unlike their dealing is with me being through the goodness of God not to be touched with any such blame and one who according to the measure of the gift of God have laboured now some years painfully in regard of the weak estate of my Body in preaching the Gospel and as I hope not altogether unprofitably in respect of the Church But I beseech your Honors to give me leave briefly to declare the particular reasons of their Letter and what Answer I have to make unto it The first is That as they say I am not lawfully called to the Function of the Ministry nor allowed to preach according to the Laws of the Church of England For Answer to this I had need to divide the Points and first to make answer to the former wherein leaving to shew what by the Holy Scriptures is required in a lawful Calling and that all this is to be found in mine that I be not too long for your weighty affairs I rest I thus answer My calling to the Ministry was such as in the calling of any thereunto is appointed to be used by the Orders agreed upon in the National Synods of the Low-Countreys for the direction and guidance of their Churches which Orders are the same with those whereby the French and Scotish Churches are governed whereof I have shewed such sufficient testimonial to my Lord the Archbishop of Canterbury as is requisite in such a Matter whereby it must needs fall out if any man be lawfully called to the Ministry in
to stand upon I think the like to this and other such in this Sermon and the rest of this matter hath not been heard in Publick places within this Land since Queen Mary's days What consequence this Doctrine may be of if he be not by Authority ordered to revoke it I beseech your H H. as the truth of God and his Gospel is dear and precious unto you according to your godly wisdome to consider I have been bold to offer to your H H. a long and tedious Discourse of these matters but Speech being like to Tapestry which if it be folded up sheweth but part of that which is wrought and being unlapt and laid open sheweth plainly to the eye all the work that is in it I thought it necessary to unfold this Tapestry and to hang up the whole Chamber of it in your most Honourable Senate that so you may the more easily discern of all the Pieces and the sundry Works and Matters contained in it Wherein my hope is your H H. may see I have not deserved so great a Punishment as is laid upon the Church for my sake and also upon my self in taking from me the excercise of my Ministerie Which Punishment how heavy it may seem to the Church or fall out indeed to be I referr it to them to judge and spare to write what I fear but to my self it is exceeding grievous for that it taketh from me the excercise of my Calling Which I do not say is dear unto me as the means of that little benefit whereby I live although this be a lawful consideration and to be regarded of me in due place and of the Authority under whose Protection I most willingly live even by God's Commandment both unto them and unto me but which ought to be more precious unto me than my life for the love which I should bear to the glory and honour of Almighty God and to the edification and salvation of his Church for that my life cannot any other way be of like service to God nor of such use and profit to men by any means For which Cause as I discern how dear my Ministery ought to be unto me so it is my hearty desire and most humble request unto God to your H H. and to all the Authority I live under to whom any dealing herein belongeth that I may spend my life according to his Example who in a word of like sound of fuller sense comparing by it the bestowing of his life to the Offering poured out upon the Sacrifice of the Faith of God's people and especially of this Church whereupon I have already poured out a great part thereof in the same Calling from which I stand now restrained And if your H H. shall finde it so that I have not deserved so great a Punishment but rather performed the Duty which a good and faithful Servant ought in such case to do to his Lord and the People he putteth them in trust withal carefully to keep I am a most humble Suiter by these presents to your H H. that by your godly wisdom some good course may be taken for the restoring of me to my Ministery and Place again Which so great a favour shall binde me yet in a greater obligation of Duty which is already so great as it seemed nothing could be added unto it to make it greater to honour God daily for the continuance and encrease of your good estate and to be ready with all the poor means God hath given me to do your H H. that faithful Service I may possibly perform But if notwithstanding my Cause he never so good your H H. can by no means pacifie such as are offended nor restore me again then am I to rest in the good pleasure of God and to commend to your H H. protection under Her Majesties my private life while it shall be led in duty and the Church to him who hath redeemed to himself a People with his precious Blood and is making ready to come to judge both the Quick and the Dead to give to every one according as he hath done in this life be it good or evil to the Wicked and Unbelievers Justice unto death but to the Faithful and such as love his truth Mercy and Grace to life everlasting Your Honours most bounden and most humble Suppliant WALTER TRAVERS Minister of the Gospel Mr. HOOKER'S ANSVVER TO THE SUPPLICATION THAT Mr. TRAVERS Made to the COUNCIL To my Lord of Canterburie his Grace MY Duty in my most humble wise remembred May it please your Grace to understand That whereas there hath been a late Controversie raised in the Temple and pursued by Mr. Travers upon conceit taken at some words by me uttered with a most simple and harmless meaning In the heat of which pursuit after three publick Invectives silence being enjoyned him by Authority he hath hereupon for defence of his proceedings both presented the Right Honourable Lords and others of Her Majesties Privy Councel with a Writing and also caused or suffered the same to be Copied out and spread through the hands of so many that well nigh all sorts of men have it in their bosomes The matters wherewith I am therein charged being of such quality as they are and my self being better known to your Grace than to any other of their Honors besides I have chosen to offer to your Grace's hands a plain Declaration of my Innocence in all those things wherewith I am so hardly and so heavily charged lest if I still remain silent that which I do for quietness sake be taken as an Argument that I lack what to speak truly and justly in mine own defence 2. First because M. Travers thinketh it an expedient to breed an Opinion in mens mindes that the root of all inconvenient events which are now sprung out is the surly and unpeaceable disposition of the man with whom he hath to do therefore the first in the rank of Accusations laid against me is my intorformity which have so little inclined to so many and so earnest Exhortations and Conferences as my self he saith can witness to have been spent upon me for my better fashioning unto good correspondence and agreement 3. Indeed when at the first by means of special Well-willers without any suit of mine as they very well know although I do not think it had been a mortal sinne in a reasonable sort to have shewed a moderate desire that way yet when by their endeavour without instigation of mine some Reverend and Honourable favourably affecting me had procured her Majesties's grant of the Place At the very point of my eptring thereinto the Evening before I was first to Preach he came and two other Gentlemen joyned with him The effect of his Conference then was That he thought it his Duty to advise me not to enter with a strong hand but to change my purpose of Preaching there the next day and to stay till he had given notice of me to
two faults predominant would tire out any that should answer unto every point severally un apt speaking of School-Controversies and of my words so untoward a reciting that he which should promise to draw a Man's Countenance and did indeed expresse the parts at leastwise most of them truly but perversely place them could not represent a more offensive Visage than unto me my own speech seemeth in some places as he hath ordered it For answer whereunto that Writing is sufficient wherein I have set down both my words and meaning in such sort that where this Accusation doth deprave the one and either mis-interpret or without just cause mis-like the other it will appear so plainly that I may spare very well to take upon me a new needlesse labour here 12. Onely at one thing which is there to be found because Mr. Travers doth here seem to take such a special advantage as if the matter were unanswerable he constraineth me either to detect his oversight or to confesse mine own in it In settling the Question between the Church of Rome and us about Grace and Justification lest I should give them an occasion to say as commonly they doe that when we cannot refute their Opinions we propose to our selves such instead of theirs as we can refute I took it for the best and most perspicuous way of teaching to declare first how farâ we doe agree and then to shew our disagreement not generally as Mr. Travers his words would carry it for the easier fastning that upon me wherewith saving onely by him I was never in my life touched but about the matter onely of Justification for further I had no cause to meddle at this time What was then my Offence in this Case I did as he saith so set it out as if we had consented in the greatest and weightiest Points and differed onely in smaller matters It will not be found when it commeth to the balance a light difference where we disagree as I did acknowledge that we doe about the very essence of the Medicine whereby Christ cureth our Disease Did I goe about to make a shew of Agreement in the weightiest Points and was I so fond as not to conceal our disagreement about this I doe with that some indifferency were used by them that have taken the weighing of my words 13. Yea but our Agreement is not such in two of the chiefest Points as I would have men believe it is And what are they The one is I said They acknowledge all men sinners even the Blessed Virgin though some of them free her from sin Put the case I had affirmed That onely some of them free her from sin and had delivered it as the most current opinion amongst them that she was conceived in sin doth not Bonaâ Tature say plainly Omnesfere in a manner all men do bold this â doth he not bring many reasons wherefore all men should hold it Were their voyces since that time ever counted and their number found smaller which hold it than theirs that hold the contrary Let the question then be Whether I might say The most of them acknowledged all men sinner even the Blessed Virgin her selfe To shew that their general received opinion is the contrary the Tridentine Council is alledged peradventure not altogether so considerately For if that Council have by resolute determination freed her if it held as Mr. Travers saith it doth that she was free from sin then must the Church of Rome needs condemn them that hold the contrary For what thee Council holdeth the same they all doe and must hold But in the Church of Rome who knoweth not that it is a thing indifferent to think and defend the one or the other So that by this Argument the Council of Trent holdeth the Virgin free from sinne ergo it is plain that none of them may and therefore untrue that most of them do acknowledge her a Sinner were for able to overthrow my supposed Affection if it were true that the Council did hold this But to the end it may clearly appear how it neither holdeth this not the contrary I will open what many do conceive of the Canon that concerneth this matter The Fathers of Trent perceived that if they should define of this matter it would be dangerous howsoever it were determined If they had freed her from her Original sinne the reasons against them are unanswerable which Bonaveâture and others do alledge but especially Thomas whose line as much as may be they follow Again if they did resolve the other way they should control themselves in another thing which iâ no case might be altered For they profess to keep no day holy in the honour of an ââââholy thing and the Virgin Conception they honour with a Feast which they could not abrogate without cancelling a Constitution of âystem Quoââââ And that which is worse the World might parhaps suspect that if the Church of Rome didâ amisse before in this it is not impossible for her to fail in other things In the end they did wisely quoââ out their Canon by a middle thred establishing the Feast of the Virgin 's Conception and leaving the other question doubtful as they found it giving onely a Cavent that no man should take the Decree which pronounceth all Mankinde originally sinfull for a definitive Sentence concerning the Blessed Virgin This in my sight is plain by their own words Declarat hac ipsa sancta Synodââ c. Wherefore our Country-men at Rheââs mentioning this Point are marvellous wary how they speak they touch it as though it were a hot coal Many godly devout men judge that our blessed Lady was neither burn not couâââd in sin Is it their wont to speak ainely of things definitively set down in that Councell In like sort we finde that the rest which have since that time of the Tridentine Synod written of Original sin are in this Point for the mostpart either silent or very sparing in speech and when they speak either doubtful what to think or whatsoever they think themselves fearfull to set down any certain Determination If I be thought to take the Canon of this Council otherwise than they themselves doe let him expound in whose Sentence was neither last asked not his Penne least occupied in setting it down I mean Androdius whom Gregory the thirteenth hath allowed plainly to confest that it is a matter which neither expresse evidence of Scripture not the Tradition of the Fathers nor the Sentence of Church hath determined that they are too surly and self-willed which defending their opinion are displeased with them by whom the other is maintained Finally that the Father of Trent have not set down any certainty about this Question but lest it doubtful and indifferent Now whereas my words which I had set down in Writing before I uttered them were indeed these Although they imagine that the Mother of our Lord Iesus Christ were for his honour and
men And fearing left that such questions as these if voluntarily they should be too farr waded in might seem worthy of that rebuke which our Saviour thought needfull in a case not unlike What is this unto thee When I was forced much beside my expectation to render a reason of my speech I could not but yield at the Call of others and proceed so farr as Duty bound me for the fuller satisfying of mindes Wherein I have walked as with Reverence so with Fear with Reverence inregard of our Fathers which lived in former times not without Fear considering them that are alive 38. I am not ignorant how ready men are to feed and sooth up themselves in evil Shall I will the man say that loveth the present World more than he loveth Christ shall I incurr the high displeasure of the mightiest upon Earth Shall I hazard my Goods endanger my Estate put my self into jeopardy rather than to yield to that which so many of my Fathers imbraced and yet found favour in the sight of God Curse ye Meroz saith the Lord curse bar Inhabitants because they helped not the Lord they helped him not against the Mighty If I should not onely not help the Lord against the Mighty but help to strengthen them that are mighty against the Lord worthily might I fall under the burthen of that Curse worthy I were to bear to bear my own Judgement But if the Doctrine which I reach be a flower gathered in the Garden of the Lord a part of the saying Truth of the Gospel from whence notwithstanding poysonous Creatures do suck-venom I can but wish it were otherwise and content my self with the lord that hath befallen me the rather because it hath not befallen me alone Saint Paul taught a Truth and a comfortable truth when he taught that the greater our misery is in respect of our Iniquities the readier is the mercy of God for our release If we seek unto him the more we have sinned the more praise and glory and honour unto him that pardoneth our sinne But mark what sewd Collections were made hereupon by some Why then am I condemned for a Sinner And the Apostle as we are blamed and as some affirm that we say Why doe we not evil that good may come of it he was accused to teach that which ill-disposed People did gather by his teaching though it were clean not onely besides but against his meaning The Apostle addeth Their Condemnation which thus doe is just I am not hasty to apply Sentences of Condemnation I wish from mine Heart their Conversion whosoever are thus perversly affected For I must needs say Their Case is fearful their Estate dangerous which harden themselves presuming on the mercy of God towards others It is true that God is merciful but let us beware of presumptuous sinnes God delivered Ionah from the bottome of the Sea will you therefore cast your selves head-long from the tops of Rocks and say in your Hearts God shall deliver us He pitieth the Blinde that would gladly see but will he pity him that may see and hardeneth himself in blindenesse No Christ hath spoken too much unto you to claim the priviledge of your Fathers 39. As for us that have handled this Cause concerning the condition of our Fathers whether it be this thing or any other which we bring unto you the Counsel is good which the Wise man giveth Stand thou fast in thy sure understanding in the way and knowledge of the Lord and have but one manner of word and follow the Word of peace and righteousnesse As a loose tooth is a grief to him that eateth so doth a wavering and unstable word in speech that tendeth to instruction offend Shall a wise man speak words of the winde saith Eliphaz leight unconstant unstable words Surely the wisest may speak words of the winde such is the untoward Constitution of our nature that we doe neither so perfectly understand the way and knowledge of the Lord nor so stedfastly imbrace it when it is understood nor so graciously utter it when it is imbraced not so peaceably maintain it when it is uttered but that the best of us are over-taken sometime through blindenesse sometime through hastinesse sometime through impatience sometimes through other passions us the minde whereunto God doth know we are too subject We must therefore be contented both to pardon others and to crave that others may pardon us for such things Let no man that speaketh as a man think himself while he liveth alwayes freed from scapes and over-sights in his speech The things themselves which I have spoken unto you are sound howsoever they have seemed otherwise unto some at whose hands I have in that respect received Injury I willingly forget it although indeed considering the benefit which I have reaped by this necessary speech of Truth I rather incline to that of the Apostle They have not injured me at all I have cause to wish them as many Blessings in the Kingdom of Heaven as they have forced me to utter words and syllables in this Cause wherein I could not be more sparing of speech than I have been It becommeth no man saith Saint Ierom to be patient in the crime of Heresie Patient as I take it we should be alwayes though the crime of Heresie were intended but silent in a thing of so great Consequence I could not beloved I durst not be especially the love which I bear to the truth of Christ Jesus being hereby somewhat called in question Whereof I beseech them in the meeknesse of Christ that have been the first original cause to consider that a Watch-man may cry an Enemy when indeed a Friend commeth In which Cause as I deem such a Watch-man more worthy to be loved for his Care than mis-liked for his Errour So I have judged it my own part in this as much as in me lyeth to take away all suspition of any unfriendly intent or meaning against the Truth from which God doth know my heart is free 40. Now to you Beloved which have heard these things I will use no other words of admonition than those that are offered me by St. Iames My Brethren have not the Faith of our glorious Lord Iesus in respect of Persons Ye are not now to learn that as of it self it is not hurtful so neither should it be to any scandalous and offensive in doubtful cases to hear the different judgments of men Be it that Cephas hath hath one interpretation and Apollos hath another that Paul is of this minde and Barnabas of that if this offend you the fault is yours Carry peaceable mindes and you may have comfort by this variety Now the God of Peace give you peaceable mindes and turn it to your everlasting comfort A LEARNED SERMON OF THE NATURE OF PRIDE HABAK. 2. 4. His mind swelleth and is not right in him But the Iust by his Faith shall live THE nature of Man being much more delighted to
World that shall change his Heart over-throw his Faith alter his affection towards God or the affection of God to him If I be of this note who shall make a separation between me and my God shall tribulation or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword No I am perswaded that neither tribulation nor anguish nor persecution or famine nor nakedness nor peril nor sword nor death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall ever prevail so far over me I know in whom I have believed I am not ignorant whose precious blood hath been shed for me I have a Shepheard full of kindness full of care and full of power unto him I commit my self his own finger hath engraven this sentence in the Tables of my heart Satan hath desired to winnow thee as wheat but I have prayed that thy Faith fail not Therefore the assurance of my hope I will labour to keep as a Jewel unto the end and by labour through the gracious mediation of his Prayer I shall keep it To the Worshipful Mr. GEORGE SUMMASTER Principal of Broad-Gates Hall in Oxford Henry Iackson wisheth all Happiness SIR YOur kinde acceptance of a former testification of that respect I owe you hath made me venture to shâw the World these godly Sermons under your name In which as every point is worth observation so some especially are to be noted The first that as the spirit of Prophesie is from God himself who doth inwardly heat and enlighten the hearts and mindes of his holy Pen-men which if some would diligently consider they would not puzzle themselves with the contentions of Scot and Thomas Whether God only or his Ministring Spirits do infuse into men's mindes prophetical Revelations per species intelligibiles so God framed their words also Whence he holy Father St. Augustine religiously observeth That all those who understand the Sacred Writers will also perceive that they ought not to use other words than they did in expressing those heavenly Mysteries which their hearts conceived as the Blessed Virgin did our Saviour By the Holy Ghost The greater is Castell-o his offence who hath laboured to teach the Prophets to speak otherwise than they have already Much like to that impious King of Spain Alphonsus the tenth who found fault with God's works Si inquit Creationi assuissiem Mundum melius ordinassem If he had been with God at the Creation of the World the World had gone better than now it doth As this man found fault with God's works so did the other with God's words but because we have a most sure word of the Prophets to which we must take heed I will let his words pass with the winde having elsewhere spoken to you more largely of his errours whom notwithstanding for his other excellent parts I much respect You shall moreover from hence understand how Christianity consists not in formal and seeming purity under which who knows not notorious Villany to mâsk but in the heart root Whence the Author truly teacheth that Mockers which use Religious as a Cloak to put off and on as the Weather serveth are worse than Pagans and Infidels Where I cannot omit to shew how justly this kinde of men hath been reproved by that renowned Martyr of Jesus Christ E. Latimer both because it will be opposite in this purpose and also free that Christian Worthy from the slanderous reproaches of him who was if ever any a Moâker of God Religion and all good men But first I must desire you and in you all Readers not to think lightly of that excellent man for using this and the like witty similitudes in his Sermons For whosoever will call to minde with what riff-raff God's people were fed in those days when their Priests whose lips should have preserved Knowledge preached nothing else but dreams and false miracles of counterfeit Saints enrolled in that sâttish Legend coyned and amplified by a drousie head between sleeping and waking He that will consider this and also how the People were delighted with such toys God sending them strong delusions that they should believe lyes and how hard it would have been for any man wholly and upon the sudden to draw their mindes to another bent will easily perceive both how necessary it was to use Symbolical Discourse and how wisely and moderately it was applied by the religious Father to the end he might lead their understanding so far till it were so convinced informed and setled that it might forget the means and way by which it was led and think only of that it had acquired Far in all such mystical speeches who knows not that the end for which they are used is only to be thought upon This then being first considered let us hear the story as it is related by Mr. Fox Mr. Latuner saith he in his Sermon gave the People certain Cards out of the fifth sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew For the chief Triumph in the Cards be limited the Heart as the principal thing that they should serve God withal whereby he quite overthrew all hypocritical and external Ceremonies not tending to the necessary furtherance of God's holy Word and Sacraments By this he exhorted all men to serve the Lord with inward heart and true affection and not with outward Ceremonies adding moreover to the praise of that Triumph that though it were never so small yet it would take up the best Coat-card beside in the Bunch yea though it were the King of Clubs c. meaning thereby how the Lord would be worshipped and served in simplicity of the heart and verity wherein consisteth true Christian Religion c. Thus Master Fox By which it appears that the holy man's intention was to lift up the Peoples hearts to God and not that he made a Sermon of playing at Cards and taught them how to play at Triumph and plaid himself at Cards in the Pulpit as that base companion Parsons reports the matter in his wonted scurrilous vein of railing whence he calleth it a Christmas-Sermon Now he that will think ill of such Allusions may out of the abundance of his folly jest at Demosthenes for his story of the Sheep Wolves and Doggs and Menenius for his fiction of the Belly But hinc illae lacrymae The good Bishop meant that the Romish Religion came not from the heart but consisted in outward Ceremonies Which sorely grieved Parsons who never had the least warmth or spark of honesty Whether B. Latimer compared the Bishops to the Knave of Clubs as the Fellow interprets him I know not I am sure Parsons of all others deserved those colours and so I leave him We see then what inward purity is required of all Christians which if they have then in Prayer and all other Christian duties they shall lift up pure hands as the
Apostle speaks not as Baronius would have it washed from sins with holy water but pure that is holy free from the pollution of sin as the Greek word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã doth signifie You may also see here refused those calumnies of the Papists that we abandon all religious Rites and godly duties as also the confirmation of our Doctrine touching certainty of Faith and so of Salvation which is so strongly denied by some of that Faction that they have told the world S. Paul himself was uncertain of his own salvation What then shall we say but pronounce a wo to the most strict observers of St. Francis rules and his Canonical Discipline though they make him even equal with Christ and the most meritorious Monk that ever was registred in their Kalender of Saints But we for our comfort are otherwise taught out of the holy Scripture and therefore exhorted to build our selves in our most holy Faith that so when our earthly house of this Tabernacle shall be destroyed we may have a Building given of God a house not made with hands but eternal in the Heavens This is that which is most piously and feelingly taught in these few leaves so that you shall read nothing here but what I perswade my self you have long practiâed in the constant course of your life It remaineth only that you accept of these Labours tendred to you by him who wisheth you the long joys of this world and the eternal of that which is to come Oxon. from Corp. Christi Colledge this 13. of Ianuary 1613. TWO SERMONS Upon Part of Saint Judes Epistle The First Sermon Epist. JUDE Verse 17 18 19 20 21. But ye beloved remember the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ How that they told you that there should be Mockers in the last time which should walk after their own ungodly lusts These are makers of Sects fleshly having not the Spirit But ye beloved edifie your selves in your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost And keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto eternal life THE occasions whereupon together with the end wherefore this Epistle was written is opened in the front and entry of the same There were then as there are now many evil and wickedly disposed Persons not of the Mystical Body yet within the visible bounds of the Church men which were of old ordained to condemnation ungodly men which turned the grace of our God into wantonness and denyed the Lord Jesus For this cause the Spirit of the Lord is in the hand of Iude the Servant of Iesus and Brother of Iames to exhort them that are called and sanctified of God the Father that they would earnestly contend to maintain the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Which Faith because we cannot maintain except we know perfectly first against whom secondly in what sort it must be maintained therefore in the former three verses of that parcel of Scripture which I have read the Enemies of the Crosse of Christ are plainly described and in the latter two they that love the Lord Jesus have a sweet Lesson given them how to strengthen and stablish themselves in the Faith Let us first therefore examine the description of these Reprobates concerning Faith and afterwards come to the words of the Exhortation wherein Christians are taught how to rest their hearts on God's eternal and everlasting Truth The description of these godless Persons is two-fold general and special The general doth point them out and shew what manner of men they should be The Particular pointeth at them and saith plainly These are they In the general description we have to consider of these things First when they were described They were told of before Secondly the men by whom they were described They were spoken of by the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ. Thirdly the days when they should be manifest unto the World they told you They should be in the last time Fourthly their disposition and whole demeanour Mockers and Walkers after their own ungodly lusts 2. In the third to the Philippians the Apostle describeth certain They are men saith he of whom I have told you often and now with tears I tell you of them their God is their belly their glory and rejoycing is in their own shame they minde earthly things These were Enemies of the Crosse of Christ Enemies whom he saw and his eyes gusht out with tears to behold them But we are taught in this place how the Apostles spake also of Enemies whom as yet they had not seen described a family of men as yet unheard of a generation reserved for the end of the World and for the last time they had not only declared what they heard and saw in the days wherein they lived but they have prophesied also of men in time to come And you do well said St. Peter in that ye take heed to the words of Prophesie so that ye first know this that no Prophesie in the Scripture cometh of any man 's own resolution No Prophesie in Scripture cometh of any man 's own resolution For all Prophesie which is in Scripture came by the secret inspiration of God But there are Prophesies which are no Scripture yea there are Prophesies against the Scripture My Brethren beware of such Prophesies and take heed you heed them not Remember the things that were spoken of before but spoken of before by the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Take heed to Prophesies but to Prophesies which are in Scripture for both the manner and matter of those Prophesies do shew plainly that they are of God 3. Touching the manner how men by the spirit of Prophesie in holy Scripture have spoken and written of things to come we must understand that as the knowledge of that they spake so likewise the utterance of that they knew came not by these usual and ordinary means whereby we are brought to understand the mysteries of our Salvation and are wont to instruct others in the same For whatsoever we know we have it by the hands and Ministry of men which lead us along like Children from a letter to a syllable from a syllable to a word from a word to a line from a line a to a sentence from a sentence to a side and so turn over But God himself was their Instructor he himself taught them partly by Dreams and Visions in the Night partly by Revelations in the Day taking them aside from amongst their Brethren and talking with them as a man would talk with his Neighbour in the way This they became acquainted even with the secret and hidden Counsels of God they saw things which themselves were not able to utter they behold that whereat men and Angels are astonished They understood in the beginning what should come to passe in the last dayes 4. God
which lightned thus the eyes of their understanding giving them knowledge by unusual and extraordinary means did also miraculously himself frame and fashion their Words and Writings in so much that a greater difference there seemeth not to be between the manner of their knowledge than there is between the manner of their speech and ours When we have conceived a thing in our hearts and throughly understand it as we think within our selves âre we can utter in such sort that our Brethren may receive instruction or comfort at our mouths how great how long how earnest meditation are we forced to use And after much travail and much pains when we open our lips to speak of the wonderful works of God our tongues do faulter within our mouths yea many times we disgrace the dreadful mysteries of our Faith and grieve the spirit of our Hearers by words unsavoury and unseemly speeches Shall a Wise-man fill his Belly with the Eastern winde saith Eliphaz shall a Wise-man dispute with words not comely or with talk that is not profitable Yet behold even they that are wisest amongst us living compared with the Prophets seem no otherwise to talk of God than as if the Children which are carried in arms should speak of the greatest matters of State They whose words do most shew forth their wise understanding and whose lips do utter the purest knowledge so long as they understand and speak as men are they not fain sundry ways to excuse themselves Sometimes acknowledging with the Wise-man Hardly can we discern the things that are on earth and with great labour finde we out the things that are before us Who can then seek out the things that are in Heaven Sometimes confessing with Iob the righteous in treating of things too wonderful for us we have spoken we wist not what Sometimes ending their talk as doth the History of the Macchabees if we have done well and as the Cause required it is that we desire if we have spoken slenderly and barely we have done we could But God hath made my mouth like a sword saith Esay And we have received saith the Apostle not the spirit of the World but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are given to us of God which things also we speak not in words which man's wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost doth teach This is that which the Prophets mean by those Books written full within and without which Books were so often delivered them to eat not because God fed them with Ink and Paper but to teach us that so oft as he imployed them in this heavenly Work they neither spake nor wrote any word of their own but uttered syllable by syllable as the Spirit put it into their mouths no otherwise than the Harp or the Lute doth give a sound according to the discretion of his hands that holdeth and striketh it with skill The difference is only this An instrument whether it be a Pipe or Harp maketh a distinction in the times and sounds which distinction is well perceived of the Hearer the Instrument it self understanding not what is Piped or Harped The Prophets and holy men of God not so I opened my mouth saith Ezekiel and God reached me a scroul saying Son of man cause thy Belly to eat and fill thy Bowels with this I give thee I ate it and it was sweet in my mouth as honey saith the Prophet Yea sweeter I am perswaded than either honey or the honey comb For herein they were not like Harps or Lutes but they felt they felt the power and strength of their own words When they spake of our peace every corner of their hearts was filled with joy When they prophesied of mournings lamentations and woes to fall upon us they wept in the bitterness and indignation of Spirit the arm of the Lord being mighty and strong upon them 5. On this manner were all the Prophesie of holy Scripture Which Prophesies although they contain nothing which is not profitable for our instruction yet as one Star differeth from another in glory so every word of Prophesie hath a treasure of matter in it but all matters are not of like importance as all Treasures are not of equal price The chief and principal matter of Prophesie is the promise of Righteousness Peace Holiness Glory Victory Immortality unto every Soul which believeth that Jesus is Christ of the Iew first and of the Gentile Now because the doctrine of Salvation to be looked for by Faith in him who was in outward appearance as it had been a man forsaken of God in him who was numbred judged and condemned with the wicked in him whom men did see busseted on the face scofft at by Souldiers scourged by Tormentors hanged on the Cross pierced to the Heart in him whom the eyes of many Witnesses did behold when the anguish of his Soul enforced him to roar as if his heart had rent in sunder O my God my God why hast thou forsaken me I say because the doctrine of Salvation by him is a thing improbable to a natural man that whether we preach to the Gentile or to the Jew the one condemneth our Faith as madnesse the other as Blasphemy therefore to establish and confirm the certainty of this saving Truth in the hearts of men the Lord together with their Preachings whom he sent immediately from himself to reveal these things unto the World mingled Prophesies of things both Civil and Ecclesiastical which were to come in every age from time to time till the very last of the latter dayes that by those things wherein we see daily their words fulfilled and done we might have strong consolation in the hope of things which are not seen because they have revealed as well the one as the other For when many things are spoken of before in Scripture whereof we see first one thing accomplished and then another and so a third perceive we not plainly that God doth nothing else but lead us along by the hand till he have settled us upon the rock of an assured hope that not one jot or tittle of his Word shall pass till all be fulfilled It is not therefore said in vain that these godless wicked ones were spoken of before 6. But by whom By them whose words if men or Angels from Heaven gainsay they are accursed by them whom whosoever despiseth despiseth not them but me saith Christ. If any man therefore doth love the Lord Jesus and wo worth him that loveth not the Lord Jesus hereby we may know that he loveth him indeed if he despise not the things that are spoken of by his Apostles whom many have despised even for the baseness and simpleness of their Persons For it is the property of fleshly and carnal men to honour and dishonour credit and discredit the words and deeds of every man according to that he wanteth or hath without If a man with gorgeous
and to morrow condescend to have him beheaded or with the other Herod say they will worship Christ when they purpose a massacre in their hearts kiss Christ with Iudas and betray Christ with Iudas These are Mockers For Ishmael the Son of Hagar laughed at Isaac which was heir of the Promise so shall these men laugh at you as the maddest People under the Sun if ye be like Moses choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season And why God hath not given them eyes to see nor hearts to conceive that exceeding recompence of your reward The promises of Salvation made to you are matters wherein they can take no pleasure even as Ishmael took no pleasure in that promise wherein God had said unto Abraham In Isaac shall thy seed be called because the Promise concerned not him but Isaac They are termed for their impiety towards God Mockers and for the impurity of their life and conversation Walkers after-their own ungodly lusts Saint Peter in his second Epistle and third Chapter soundeth the very depth of their impiety shewing first how they shall not shame at the length to profess themselves prophane and iââeligious by flat denying the Gospel of Jesus Christ and deâding the sweet and comfortable promises of his appearing Secondly that they shall not be onely deâiders of all Religion but also disputers against God using Truth to subvert the Truth yea Scriptures themselves to disprove Scriptures Being in this sort Mockers they must needs be also Followers of their own ungodly lusts Being Atheists in perswasion can they choose but be Beasts in conversation For why remove they quite from them the feat of God Why take they such pains to abandon and put out from their hearts all sense all taste all feeling of Religion but onely to this end and purpose that they may without inward remorse and grudging of Conscience give over themselves to all uncleanness Surely the state of these men is more lamentable than is the condition of Pagans and Turks For at the bare beholding of Heaven and Earth the Infidel's heart by and by doth give him that there is an eternal infinite immortal and ever-living God whose hands have fashioned and framed the World he knoweth that every House is builded of some man though he see not the man which built the House and he considereth that it must be God which hath built and created all things although because the number of his days be few he could not see when God disposed his Works of old when he caused the light of his Clouds first to shine when he laid the Corner-stone of the Earth and swadled it with bands of Water and Darkness when he caused the Morning-star to know his place and made bars and doors to shut up the Sea within his House saying Hitherto shalt thou come but no further he hath no eye-witnesse of these things Yet the light of Natural reason hath put this wisdom in his reâns and hath given his Heart thus much understanding Bring a Pagan to the Schools of the Prophets of God prophesie to an Infidel rebuke him lay the judgements of God before him make the secret sinnes of his heart manifest and he shall fall down and worship God They that crucified the Lord of Glory were not so farr past recovery but that the preaching of the Apostles was able to move their hearts and to bring them to this Men and Brethren what shall we doe Agrippa that sate in judgement against Paul for Preaching yielded notwithstanding thus farr unto him Almost thou perswadest me to become a Christian. Although the Jews for want of knowledge have not submitted themselves to the righteousnesse of God yet I bear them record saith the Apostle That they have a zeal The Athenians a people having neither zeal nor knowledge yet of them also the same Apostle beareth witnesse Ye men of Athens I perceive ye are ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã some way religious but Mockers walking after their own ungodly lusts they have smothered every spark of that heavenly light they have stifled even their very natural understanding O Lord thy Mercy is over all thy works thou savest Man and Beast yet a happy case it had been for these men if they had never been born and so I leave them 10. Saint Iude having his minde exercised in the Doctrine of the Apostles of Jesus Christ concerning things to come in the last time became a man of wise and staid judgement Grieved he was to see the departure of many and their falling away from the Faith which before they did professe grieved but not dismayed With the simpler and weaker sort it was otherwise Their countenance began by and by to change they were half in doubt they had deceived themselves in giving credit to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Saint Iude to comfort and refresh these silly Babes taketh them up in his armes and sheweth them the men at whom they were offended Look upon them that forsake this blessed Profession wherein you stand they are now before your eyes view them mark them are they not carnal are they not like to noysom carrion cast out upon the Earth is there that Spirit in them which cryeth Abba Father in your bosoms Why should any man be discomforted Have you not heard that there should be Mockers in the last time These verily are they that now do separate themselves 11. For your better understanding what this severing and separating of themselves doth mean we must know that the multitude of them which truly believe howsoever they be dispersed farr and wide each from other is all one Body whereof the Head is Christ one building whereof he is the Corner-stone to whom they as the Members of the Body being knit and as the stones of the Building being coupled grow up to a man of perfect stature and rise to an holy Temple in the Lord. That which linketh Christ to us is his mere mercy and love towards us That which tyeth us to him is our faith in the promised Salvation revealed in the Word of Truth That which uniteth and joyneth us amongst our selves in such sort that we are now as if we had but one Heart and one Soul is our love Who be inwardly in Heart the lively Members of this Body and the polished stones of this Building coupled and joyned to Christ as flesh of his flesh and bones of his bones by the mutual bond of his unspeakable love towards them and their unseigâed faith in him thus linked and fastned each to other by a spiritual sincere and hearty affection of love without any manner of simulation who be Jewes within and what their names be none can tell save he whose eyes do behold the secret disposition of all mens hearts We whose eyes are too dim to behold the inward man must leave the secret judgement of every Servant to his own Lord accounting
Now I taste nothing sweet but the Bread which came down from Heaven to give life unto the World Now mine eys see nothing but Jesus rising from the dead Now my ears refuse all kinde of melody to hear the Song of them that hath gotten victory of the Beast and of his Image and of his Mark and of the number of his Name that stand on the Sea of Glass having the Harps of God and singing the Song of Moses the Servant of God and the Song of the Lamb saying Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty just and true are thy wayes O King of Saints Surely if the Spirit have been thus effectual in the secret work of our Regeneration unto newness of life if we endeavour thus to frame our selves anew then we may say boldly with the blessed Apostle in the tenth to the Hebrews We are not of them which withdraw our selves to perdition but which follow Faith to the conservation of the Soul For they which fall away from the grace of God and separate themselves unto perdition they are fleshly and carnal they have not God's holy Spirit But unto you because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts to the end ye might know that Christ hath built you upon a Rock unmoveable that he hath registred your names in the Book of life that he hath bound himself in a sure and everlasting Covenant to be your God and the God of your Children after you that he hath suffered as much groaned as oft prayed as heartily for you as for Peter O Father keep them in thy Name O Righteous Father the World hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known that thou hast sent me I have declared thy name unto them and will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them The Lord of his infinite mercy give us hearts plentifully fraught with the treasure of this blessed assurance of Faith unto the end 15. Here I must advertise all men that have the testimony of God's holy fear within their Breasts to consider how unkindly and injuriously our own Countrey-men and Brethren have dealt with us by the space of four and twenty years from time to time as if we were the men of whom St. Iude here speaketh never ceasing to charge us some with Scism some with Heresie some with plain and manifest Apostasie as if we had clean separated our selves from Christ utterly forsaken God quite abjured Heaven and trampled all Truth and Religion under our feet Against this third sort God himself shall plead our Cause in that day when they shall answer us for these words nor we them To others by whom we are accused for Schism and Heresie we have often made our reasonable and in the sight of God I trust allowable Answers For in the way which they call Heresie we worship the God of our Fathers believing all things which are written in the Law and the Prophets That which they call Schism we know to be our reasonable service unto God and obedience to his voyce which cryeth shrill in our ears Go out of Babylon my People that you be not Partakers of her sinnes and that ye receive not of her Plagues And therefore when they rise up against us having no quarrel but this we need not seek any farther for our Apology than the words of Abiah to Iereboam and his Army 2 Chron. 13. O Ieroboam and Israel hear you me Ought you not to know that the Lord God of Israel hath given the Kingdom over Israel to David for ever even to him and to his Sons by a Covenant of Salt that is to say an everlasting Covenant Jesuits and Papists hear ye me ought you not to know that the Father hath given all power unto the Son and hath made him the onely Head over his Church wherein he dwelleth as an Husband-man in the midst of his Vineyard manuring it with the sweat of his own brows not letting it forth to others For as it is in the Canticles Solomon had a Vineyard in Baalhamon he gave the Vineyard unto Keepers every one bringing forth the fruit thereof a thousand pieces of Silver but my Vineyard which is mine is before me saith Christ. It is true this is meant of the Mystical Head set over the Body which is not seen But as he hath reserved the Mystical Administration of the Church invisible unto himself so he hath committed the Mystical Government of Congregations visible to the Sonnes of David by the same Covenant whose Sons they are in the governing of the Flock of Christ whomsoever the Holy Ghost hath set over them to go before them and to lead them in several Pastures one in this Congregation another in that as it is written Take heed unto your selves and to all the Flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Neither will ever any Pope or Papist under the Cope of Heaven be able to prove the Romish Bishop's usurped Supremacy over all Churches by any one word of the Covenant of Salt which is the Scripture For the Children in our streets do now laugh them to scorn when they force Thou art Peter to this purpose The Pope hath no more reason to draw the Charter of his universal Authority from hence than the Brethren had to gather by the words of Christ in the last of St. Iohn that the Disciple whom Jesus loved should not dye If I will that he âarry till I come what is that to thee saith Christ. Straitways a report was raised amongst the Brethren that this Disciple should not dye Yet Jesus said not to him He shall not dye but If I will that he âarry till I come what is that to thee Christ hath said in the sixteenth of St. Matthew's Gospel to Simon the Son of Ionas I say to thee Thou art Peter Hence an opinion is held in the World That the Pope is universal Head of all Churches Yet Jesus said not The Pope is universal Head of all Churches but Ta es Petrus Thou art Peter Howbeit as Ieroboam the son of Nebat the servant of Solomon rose up and rebelled against his Lord and there were gathered unto him vain men and wicked which made themselves strong against Roboam the son of Solomon because Roboam was but a Childe and tender-hearted and could not resist them So the Son of Perdition and Man of Sin being not able to brook the words of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ which forbad his Disciples to be like Princes of Nations They bear rule that are called Gracious it shall not be so with you hath risen up and rebelled against his Lord and to strengthen his arm he hath crept into the Houses almost of all the Noblest Families round about him and taken their
Children from the Cradle to be his Cardinals He hath fawned upon the Kings and Princes of the Earth and by Spiritual Cozenage hath made them sell their lawful Authority and Jurisdiction for Titles of Catholicus Christianissimus Defensor Fidei and such like he hath proclaimed sale of Pardons to inveigle the ignorant built Seminaries to allure young men desirous of Learning erected Stews to gather the dissolute unto him This is the Rock whereupon his Church is built Hereby the man is grown huge and strong like the Cedars which are not shaken with the winde because Princes have been as Children over-tender hearted and could not resist Hereby it is come to pass as you see this day that the Man of Sinne doth war against us not by men of a Language which we cannot understand but he cometh as Iereboam against Iudah and bringeth the fruit of our own Bodies to eat us up that the bowels of the Childe may be made the Mother's grave and hath caused no small number of our Brethren to forsake their Native Countrey and with all disloyalty to cast off the yoke of their Allegiance to our dread Soveraign whom God in mercy hath set over them for whose safeguard if they carried not the hearts of Tygers in the bosomes of men they would think the dearest blood in their Bodies well spent But now saith Abiah to Ieroboam Ye think ye be able to resist the Kingdom of the Lord which is in the hands of the Sonnes of David Ye be a great multitude the golden Calves are with you which Ieroboam made you for gods Have ye not driven away the Priests of the Lord the Sons of Aaron and the Levites and have made you Priests like the People of Nations Whosoever cometh with a young Bullock and seven Rams the same may be a Priest of them that are no gods If I should follow the Comparison and here uncover the Cup of those deadly and ugly Abominations wherewith this Ieroboam of whom we speak hath made the Earth so drunk that it hath retled under us I know your godly Hearts would loath to see them For my own part I delight not to take in such filth I had rather take a Garment upon my Shoulders and go with my face from them to cover them The Lord open their Eyes and cause them if it be possible at the length to see how they are wretched and miserable and poor and blinde and naked Put it O Lord in their hearts to seek white Rayment and to cover themselves that their filthy nakednesse may no longer appear For beloved in Christ we bow our Knees and lift up our hands to Heaven in our Chambers secretly and openly in our Churches we pray heartily and hourly even for them also though the Pope hath given out as a Judge in a solemn Declaratory Sentence of Excommunication against this Land That our gracious Lady hath quite abolished Prayers within her Realm and his Scholars whom he hath taken from the midst of us have in their published Writings charged us nor onely nor to have any holy Assemblies unto the Lord for Prayer but to hold a Common School of Sinne and Flattery to hold Sacriledge to be God's Service Unfaithfulnesse and breach of Promise to God to give it to a Strumpet to be a Vertue to abandon Fasting to abhor Confession to mislike with Penance to like well of Usury to charge none with restitution to finde no good before God in single life not in no well-working that all men as they fall to us are much worse and more than afore corrupted I do not add one word or syllable unto that which Mr. Bristow a man both born and sworn amongst us hath taught his hand to deliver to the view of all I appeal to the Conscience of every Soul that hath been truly converted by us Whether his heart were never raised up to God by our Preaching Whether the words of our Exhortation never wâââg any tear of a penitent heart from his eys Whether his Soul never reaped any joy and comfort any consolation in Christ Jesus by our Sacraments and Prayers and Psalms and Thanksgiving Whether he were never bettered but always worsed by us O merciful God! If Heaven and Earth in this case do not witness with us and against them let us be razed out from the Land of the Living Let the Earth on which we stand swallow us quick as it hath done Corah Dathan and Abiram But if we belong unto the Lord our God and have not forsaken him if our Priests the Sons of Aaron minister unto the Lord and the Levites in their Office if we offer unto the Lord every morning and every evening the Burnt-offerings and sweet Incense of Prayers and Thanksgiving if the Bread be set in order upon the pure Table and the Candlestick of Gold with the Lamps thereof burn every morning that is to say if amongst us God's blessed Sacraments be duly administred his holy Word sincerely and daily preached if we keep the Watch of the Lord our God and if ye have forsaken him then doubt ye not this God is with us as a Captain his Priests with sounding Trumpets must cry alarm against you O ye Children of Israel fight not against the Lord God of your Fathers for ye shall not prosper THE SECOND SERMON Epist. JUDE Verse 17 18 19 20 21. But ye beloved remember the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ How that they told you that there should be Mockers in the last time which should walk after their own ungodly lusts These are makers of Sects fleshly having not the Spirit But ye beloved edifie your selves in your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost And keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto eternal life HAving otherwhere spoken of the words of Saint Iude going next before concerning Mockers which should come in the last time and Backsliders which even then should fall away from the Faith of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I am now by the aide of Almighty God and through the assistance of his good Spirit to lay before you the words of Exhortation which I have read 2. Wherein first of all whosoever hath an eye to see let him open it and he shall well perceive how careful the Lord is for his Children how desirous to see them profit and grow up to a manly stature in Christ how loath to have them any way mis-led either by examples of the wicked or by inticements of the world and by provocation of the flesh or by any other means forcible to deceive them and likely to estrange their hearts from God For God is not at that point with us that he careth not whether we sink or swim No he hath written our names in the Palm of his Hand in the Signet upon his Finger are we graven in Sentences not onely of Mercy but
things are enjoyned them which God did never require at their hands and the things he doth require are kept from them their eyes are fed with pictures and their ears are filled with melody but their souls do wither and starve and pine away they cry for bread and behold stones are offered them they ask for fish and see they have Scorpions in their hands Thou seest O Lord that they build themselves but not in faith they feed their Children but not with food their Rulers say with shame Bring and not build But God is Righteous their drunkenness stinketh their abominations are known their madness is manifest the wince hath bound them up in her wings and they shall be ashamed of their doings Ephraim saith the Prophet is joyned to Idols let him alone I will turn me therefore from the Priests which do minister unto Idols and apply this Exhortation to them whom God hath appointed to feed his Chosen in Israel 32. If there be any feeling of Christ any drop of heavenly dew or any spark of God's good spirit within you stir it up be careful to build and edifie first your selves and then your flocks in this most holy Faith 33. I say first your selves For hâ which will set the hearts of other men on fire with the love of Christ must himself burn with love It is want of faith in our selves my Brethren which makes us wretchless in building others We forsake the Lords inheritance and feed it not What is the reason of this Our own desires are settled where they should not be We our selves are like those women which have a longing to eat coals and lime aud filth we are fed some with honour some with ease some with wealth the Gospel waxeth loathsom and unpleasant in our taste how should we then have a care to feed others with that which we cannot fancy our selves If Faith wax cold and slender in the heart of the Prophet it will soon perish from the ears of the People The Prophet Amos speaketh of a famine saying I will send a famine in the Land not a famine of bread nor a thirst of water but of hearing the Word of the Lord. Men shall wander from sea to sea and from the North unto the East shall they ran to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not finde it Iudgement must begin at the House of God saith Peter Yea I say at the Sanctuary of God this judgement must begin This famine must begin at the heart of the Prophet He must have darkness for a vision he must stumble at noon day as at the twi-light and then truth shall fall in the midst of the streets then shall the people wander from sea to sea and from the North unto the East shall they run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord. 34. In the second of Haggai Speak now saith God to his Prophet Speak now to Zerubbabel the Son of Shealtiel Prince of Iudah and to Iehoshua the Son of Iehosadak the High-priest and to the residue of the people saying Who is left among you that saw this House in her first glory and how do you see it now Is not this House in your eyes in comparison of it is nothing The Prophet would have all mens eyes turned to the view of themselves every sort brought to the consideration of their present state This is no place to shew what duty Zerubbabel or Iehoshuah doth owe unto God in this respect They have I doubt not such as put them hereof in remembrance I ask of you which are a part of the residue of God's Elect and chosen people Who is there amongst you that hath taken a survey of the House of God as it was in the days of the blessed Apostles of Jesus Christ Who is there amongst you that hath seen and considered this Holy Temple in her first glory And how do you see it now Is it not in comparison of the other almost as nothing when ye look upon them which have undertaken the charge of your Souls and know how far these are for the most part grown out of kind how few there be that tread the steps of their antient Predecessors ye are easily filled with indignation easily drawn unto these complaints wherein the difference of present from former times is bewailed easily perswaded to think of them that lived to enjoy the days which now are gone that surely they were happy in comparison of us that have succeeded them Were not their Bishops men unreproveable wise righteous holy temperate well-reported of even of those which were without Were not their Pastors Guides and Teachers able and willing to exhort with wholsome Doctrine and to reprove those which gain-said the Truth had they Priests made of the reffuse of the people were men like to the children which were in Niniveh unable to discern between the right hand and the left presented to the charge of their Congregations did their Teachers leave their flocks over which the Holy Ghost had made them Overseers did their Prophets enter upon holy things as spoils without a reverend calling were their Leaders so unkindly affected towards them that they could finde in their hearts to sell them as sheep or oxen not caring how they made them away But Beloved deceive not your selves Do the faults of your Guides and Pastors offend you it is your fault if they be thus faulty Nullus quimalum Rectorem patitur cum accuset quia sai fuit meriti perversi Pastoris subjacere ditioni saith St. Gregory whosoever thou art whom the inconvenience of an evil Governor doth press accuse thy self and not him his being such is thy deserving O ye disobedient Children turn again saith the Lord and then will I give you Pastors according to mine own heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding So that the onely way to repair all ruines breaches and offensive decays in others is to begin reformation at your selves Which that we may all sincerely seriously and speedily do God the Father grant for his Son our Saviour Jesus sake unto whom with the Holy Ghost three Persons one Eternal and Everlasting God be honour and glory and praise for ever Amen FINIS * This you may find in the Temple Reconds Will. Ermstead was Master of the Temple at the Dissolution of the Priory and diâd 2. Eliz. Richard Alvey Bat. l. ivinity paâ 13. Feâ 2 Eliz. Magister sive Cujtos DemuÌs Ecclestae nevi Templle died 27 Bez. Richard Hooker Succeeded that year by Patent in terminiâ as Alvy had ââ and he left it 32 Eliz. Tint year Dr. Belgey succeeded Richard Hooker * Mr. Dering â See Bishop Spotswoods History of the Church of Scotland * In his Annals of Elââ 1599. * Iohn Whitgift the Archbishop * Hââeâ and Cappergot The cause of Writing this General Discourse Greg. Nat. Sulp. Seveââ Epist. Hist. Eccles. Leg. Carol. Mag. fol. 421 Judg.
a Christian man Aut that the chiefest diffarence is that where they seat men for the difference of good and evil to the light of reason In such things the Apostle seâdeth them to the School of Christ in his Word which only is able through faith to give them assurance and resolution in their doings T. C. l. 1. p. 60. John 20.21 T.C. 1. 2. p. 58. Acts. 5. Exod. 28.43 Levit. 11. 1 Cor. 6.12 Job 2. 10. Arist. Pal. 11 August Ep. 18. The First Assertion endeavoured to be proved by the use of taking Arguments Negatively from the Authority of Scripture which kinde of disputing is mual in the Fathers Aug cont liter Peril l. 3. c. 6. Tertul. de praescript advers T.C. l 2. p. 81. Augustine saith Whether it be question of Christ or whether it be question of his Church c. And lest the Answer should restrain the general saying of Augustine unto the Doctrine of the Gospel so that he would thereby save out the Discipline even Tertullian himself before he was embrued with the Heresie of Montanus giveth Testimony unto the Discipline in these world We may not give our selves c. Hierom. centra Helvid Hilar. in Psal. 131. T. C. l. r. p. 8. Let him hear what Cyprian saith The Christian Religion saith he shall finde that c Verè hee mandatum legem comptectitur Prophetas in hee verbo ownium Scripturarum volumina coarctantuo Hot natura hac ratis hac Demine verbi tui clam at authoritas hee exore two andivinus hieinvenit consummationem nem omnis Religio Prinum of hocmandatum ultimum hot it librovita censâât um indeficiencie haminibus Argella exhibes lessiemen Legat hoc unum verbum in hot mandato medietur Christiana Religio inseriet ex hoc Scripunta omulum dotle marum regelas emarisse bine naset but reveral quicquid Ecclesiastica conââââ disciplina in omalous irthamessis frivolum quaiquid dileetio non confirmal men confirmat Tertul. lib. de Monog T. C. l. 2. p 81. And in another place Tertullian saith That the Scripture deniest that when it noteth nor T. C. l. 2. p. 80. And that in indifferent things it is not enough that they be not against the Word but that they be according to the Word it may appear by other place where he saith That whatsoever pleaseth not the Lord displeaseth him and with hurt is received liv 2. ad uxorem Quae Domino non plarent utique effendnt utique malo se inserunt T. C. l. 2 l. 81. And to come yet neerer where he disputeth against the wearing of crown or garland which is indifferent in it self to those which objecting asked Where the Scripture saith There man might nor wear a Crown He answereth by asking where the Scripture saith that they may wear And unto them replying that it is permitted which is not forbidden He answereth that it is forbidden which is not permitted Whereby appeareth that the Argument of the Scriptures negatively holdeth nor only in the Doctrine and Ecclesiastical Discipline but even in matters arbitrary and variable by the advice of the Church Where it is not enough that they be not forbidden unless there be some Word which doth permit the use of them It is not enough that the Scripture speaketh one against them unless it speak for them And finally where it displeaseth the Lord which pleaseth him not we must of necessity have the Word of his mountain declare his pleasure Tent de ãâ¦ã The first Assertion endeavoured to be confirmed by the Scriptureâ custom of disputing from Divine authority negatively 1 Iob. a. 9. God is light and there is in him no darkness at all Hebr. 6 1â It is impossible that God should âe Num. 22.19 God is not as man that he should fve T. C. l 2. p. 41. It is not hard to shew that the Prophets have reasoned Negatively As when in the person of the Lord the Prophet saith Whereof I have not spoken Jer. 19.3 And which never eatred into my heart Jer. 7. 31 32. And where he condemneth them because they have not asked counsel at the mouth of the Lord Isai. 30.2 And it may be shewed that the same kinde of Argument hath been used in things which are not of the substance of Salvation or Damnation and whereof there was no Commandment to the contrary as in the former there was Levit. 18. 31. and 30 3. Deut. 17. 16. In Ioshua the Children of Israel are charged by the Prophet that they asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord when they entred into Covenant with the Gibeanites Ioshua 19. 14. And yet that Covenant was not made contrary unto any Commandment of God Moreover We read that when David had taken this counsel to build a Temple unto the Lord albeit the Lord had revealed before in his Word that there should be such a standing place where the Ark of the Covenant and the Service should have a certain abiding And albeit there was no Word of God which forbad David to build the Temple yet the Lord with commendation ââ his good affection and zeal he had to the advancement of his glory concludeth against Davids Resolution to build the Temple with this Reason Namely That he had given no Commandment of this who should build it 1 Chron. 1â 6. Levit. 18. 21 and 2. 3. Deut. 28. 10. 1 Chron. 17.6 Isai. 30. 1. Josh 9.14 Num. 27.21 1 Chron 17. T. C. l. 2. p. 50 Mr. Harding reproacheth the Bishop of Salisbury with this kinde of reasoning unto whom the Bishop answereth The Argument of Authority negatively is taken to be good whensoever proof is taken of Gods Word and is used not only by us but also by many of the Catholick Fathers A little after he sheweth the Reason why the Argument of Authority of the Scripture negatively is good namely for that the Word of God is perfect In another place unto M. Harding casting him in the teeth with Negative Arguments he allulgeth places out of Irenaeus Chrysostome Leâ which reasoned Negatively of the Authority of the Scriptures The places which he alledgeth be very full and plain in generality without any such restraints as the Answeres imagined as they are there to be seen a Vest. Patere Iugurtha ac Marius sub codem Africana milnaâies in iisdem castris didirâre quae rested in cotrariis facerent Art 1. Divis. 29. Gal. 3. Orig in Levit ââm 5. Matth. 25. Matth. 17. Desent par 9 ed. 15. divis Lib. 1. cap. 1. De incompânaâ Deâ âom 3. Epist 93. c. 12. Epist. 97. 6. 30. Epist. 165. Lib 4. Eâ 32. Their opinion concerning the force of Arguments taken from humane authority for the ordering of mens actâoâ or perswasions T. C. l. 1 p. 25. When the question is of the authority of a man it heldeth not thâr affirmatively not negatively The Reason is because the infirmity of man can never attain to
the perfection of any thing whereby he might speak all things that are to be spoken to it neither yet be free from error in those things which he speaketh or giveth out And therefore this argument neither affirmatively nor negatively compelleth the hearer but only induceth him to some liking or disliking of that for which it is brought and is rather for an Orator to perswade the simpler sort then for a Disputer to enforce him that is learned 1 Cor. 1 â1 Ioh â 34 Deut. 19.15 Matth. 18. 16. T. C. la. p. 10. Although this kinde of Argument of Authority of men is good neither in humane nâr divine sciences yet it hath some small force in humane sciences for if such as naturally and in that he is a man he may come to some ripeness of judgement in those sââences which in divine maturi hath no force at all as of him which naturally and as he is a man can no more judge of them then a blinde man of colours yea so far is it from drawing crolit If it be barely spoken wâthout Reason and testimony of Scripture that it eaârieth also a suâpition of untruth whatsoever proceedeth from him which the Apostle did well note when to signifie a thing corruptly spoken and against the truth he saith that it is spoken according to man Rom. 3. He saith not as a wicked and flying man but simply as a man And although this corruption be reformed in many yet for so mâch as in whom the knowledge of the truth is most advanced there remaineth both ignorance and disordered affâctions whereof either of them turneth him from speaking of the truth no mans authority with the Church especially and those that are called and perswaded of the Authority of the Word of God can bring any assurance unto the Conscience T. C. l. 2 p. 21. Of divers sentences of the Fathers themselves whereby some have likened them to brute Beasts without Reason which suffer themselves to be led by the judgement and authority of others some have preferred the judgement of one simple rude man alledging reason unto companies of learned men I will conteâ my self at this time with two or three Sentences Irâneuo saith whatsoever is to be shewed in the Scripture cannot be shewed but out of the âcripture themselves l. 3 cap. 12 Ierome saith No man âs he never so holy or eloquent hath any authority after the Apostles in Psal. 86. Augustinâ saith That he will believe none how godly and learned soever he be unless he confirm his sentence by the Scriptures or by some reason nor contrary to them Ep. 18. And in another place Hear this The Lord saith hear not this Donâius saith ââgatus saith Vincentius saith Hilarius saith Ambrose saith Augustine saith but hearken unto thâ the Lord saith Ep 8. And again having to do with an Arrian he affirmeth that neither he ought to bring forth the Council of Niâe nor the other the Council of Arimiâe thereby to bring prejudice each to other neither outhâ the Arrian to be holden by the authority of the one nor himself by the authority of the other but by the Scriptures which are witnesses proper ââ neither but common to both matter with matter cause with cause reason with reason ought to be debated Cont. Max. Atrian p. 14. cap. And in another ââce against Petil. the Donarist he saith Let not these words he heard between us I say You say let us hear this Thus âaith the Lord. And by and by speaking of the Scriptures he saith There let us seek the Church there let us try the cause De unit Eccles. cap. 3. Hereby it is manifest that the argument of the authority of man affirmatively in nothing worth Matth. 17.10 T. C. lib. 2. 2â It at any time it hapned unto Augustine as it did against the Donatists and others to alledge the authority of the ancient Fathers which had been heiuâe him yet this was not done before he had laid a sure foundation of his cause in the Scriptures and that also being provoked by the adversaries of the truth who hare themselves high of some Council or of some man of name that had âavorcil that part A Declaration what the truth is in this matter Matth. 86. 40. Ephis 5. 29. Matth 5. 46. 1 âian 5. 8. Matth. 1â 42. Acts 4. 31. 1 Thes. 2. 7 9. T. C. lib. p. 6. Where this Doctrine is accused of bringing men to despair it hath wrong For when doubting is the way to despair against which this Doctrine offereth the remedy it must needâ be that it bringeth comfort and joy to the conscience of man Luke 7. â What the Church is and in what respect Laws of Pulky are thereunto necessarily required John 10. 22. and 1.47 and 21. 15. 1 Tim. 1 5. a Ephes. 2. 16. That he might r. o n cise both unto God in one body Ephes. 3. 16. That the Genries should be in their ââ also and of the ââââbâdâ âile T. p. 3. 7. art 3 1 Cor. 12. 13. Ephes. 4. 5. Acts. 2.36 John 13 13. Col. 3. 21. and 2. 1. b 1 Cer. 1. 23. Vide Tanilum lib. An sal 15. Not qussitissturis âââit assââiâ quos per flagiria invites vulgus Christianes appellabat Auâior nominis ejus Christus qui Tiberio ãâ¦ã pâââââârem Pântion Pilatum ãâ¦ã ârat Repressâg in pâesers exitiabilu superstitio rââsâââ erumpehat âââ and per Iudsam originem ejus mali jed per urhem ââiâm quo cuâcta undique atrocia aus pâdenda ââââââ ââl broâââââ John 15. 21. ââd 86. 2. 4. Apec 2. 13. Tâcul de Virgin Veland Iter. Advers Haâes lib. â 1. cap. 2. c. Acts 8. 38. 22. 16. 2. 41. Matth. 13.47 13. 24. Exod. 23. ââ 106.19 20. 2 Kings 18 4. Jere 11.14 2 Kings 23. 17. lâi 17. 3. 1. 4. 60. 15. Jere. 13. 11. 1 Kings 13. 8. Jere. 13. 11. 1 Kings 19. 18. âââuâa In Concil Car. Matth 7. 24. 16. 18. ââ 19. Sâââââium in ââââ Con. il Matth. 12. 30. In Conâiââ ãâ¦ã Vide Hââââ Dial. Atâââ Lucifâââa 2 Chre. 13. Hos. 14. 15 17. Josh. 14. 15. Rom. 11.28 Calvin Epish 1. Epist. 283. Epist. 285. Tertul. Exhort ad Caslie Ubi tres Ecclesia est licet laici Acts. 2. 47. Whether it be necessary that some particular Form of Church-Polity be set down in Scripture sith the things that belong particularly unto any such Form are not of necessary to Salvation Tertul. de hibitu mul. AErouli sine necesse est quae Del non lunt Rom. 2. 15. Lact. lib. 6. c. 8. Ille legis hujus inventor disceptater lator Cic. 3. de Repub * Two things misliked the one that we distinguish matters of Discipline or Church Government from matters of Faith and necessary unto Salvation The other that we are injurious to the Scripture of God in abridging the large and rich Continks thereof Their words are these You which
is his will that if there shall be a Church within his Dominions he will maiâ and deform the same M. M. pag 1â He that was as faithful as Moses left as clear instruction set the Government of the Church But Christ was as faithful as Moses Eâgâ Demensir of Discip. cap. 1. b John 17. Either God hath left a Prescript Form of Government now or else he is less careful under the New Testament then under the Old Demonst. of Dist. cap. 1. c Ecclesiast Dist. lib. 1. Rom. 11. 17. Ephes. 2. 12 1â Deut. 4. 5. Vers. 12 13 14. Deut. 5. 22. Vers. 27. Vers. 28 29 30 31. * T. C. lib. 1. p. 35. Whereas you say That they the Jews had nothing but was determined by the Law and we have many things undetermined and left to the Order of the Church I will offer for one that you shall bring that we have lest âo the Order of the Church to shew you they that had twenty which were undecided of by the express Word of God T. C. In the Table to his Second Book T. C. lib. 1. p. 446. If he will needs separate the Worship of God from the External Polity yet as the Lord set forth the one so he left nothing undescribed in the other Levit. 24 31. Numb 15. 3â Numb 9. Numb 27. Gen. 18. 18. Gen. 48. 16. T. C. lib. 2. p. 440. 1 Tim 6. 14. Job 18. 37. Job 21. 1â Acts 22. 18. 2 Tim 4. 1. 1 Tim. 5. 20. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã 1 Tim. 4. 24. 2 Tim. 4. 7. T. C. lib 3. p. 241. My Reasons do never conclude the unlawfulness of these Ceremonies of Burial but the inconvenience and inexpedience of them And in the Table Of the inconvenience nor of the unlawfulness of Popish Apparel and Ceremonies in Burial T. C. lib. 1. pag. 32. Upon the indefinite speaking of Mr. Calvin saying Ceremonies and External Disciple without adding all or some you go about subtilly to make men believe That Mr. Calvin had placed the whâle External Discipline in the Power and Arbitrement of the Church For it all External Discipline were Arbitrary and in the choice of the Church Excommunication also Which is a part of it might be cast away which I think you will not say And in the very next words before Where you will give to understand that Ceremonies and External Discipline are not prescribed particularly by the Word of God and therefore lest to the Order of the Church You must understand that all External Discipline is not lest to the Orders of the Church being particularly prescribed in the Scriptures no more then all Ceremonies are less to the Order of the Church as the Sacraments of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. T. C. lib. 3. p. 171. T C. lib. 1. p. 27. We deny not but certain things are lest to the Order of the Church because they are of the Nature of those which are varied by times places persons and other circumstances and so could not at once be set ââwn and established forever âsaâ ââ 14. Col. 2. â2 August Epist. ââ Iosh. 12. Jude 11. 4â Jââââ 3â Ioh. 12. 4â * Nisi Reip. suae statu in omnem constitu ãâ¦ã Magistratus ordinarie singulorum mânera potesââtem que de cripse âit quae judi cioâum ferâq ratio habendaâ quomodo civium finiendae âieris ââa solum minus Ecclesiae Christianae provi lit quam Moses olim Judaicae sed quà m à Lycurgo Solone Numa Civitatiâ suis prospectum siâ âib de Ecclesiast Discip. The Defence of godly Ministers against Dr. Bridges 133. Luk. 6. 39. Matth. 4. 14. Rom. 11. 13. Now great use Ceremonies have in the Church Matth. 23. 23. The Doctrine and Discipline of the Church as the weighiust things ought especially to be looked unto but the Ceremonies also as Mint and Cummin ought not to be neglected T.C. l p. 1â1 Gen. 24. 2. Ruth 4. 7. Exod. 21. 6. a Dionys. p. 121. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã b Liv. lib. â Maru ad digitor usque involutaÌ rem divinam facere significantes fidem inâandam sedemque ejâs etiam indexivis sucratam esse c Eccles. disc fol. 51. Fol. 32. The first thing they blame in the kinde of our Ceremonies is that we have not in them ancient Apostolical simplicity but a greater pomp and stateliness Lib. Eccles. disc T. C. l. 3. p. 181. Tâm 7. de hapt âatra Donatist lib. â aâ 23. T. C. l. 1. p. 31. If this judgement of S. Augustine be a good judgement ââ found than there he some things commanded of God which are not in the scripture and therfore there is no sufficient Doctrine contained in Scripture whereby we may be saved For all the Commandements of God and of the Apostles are needful for our salvation Vide Ep ââa ãâ¦ã 7. 2. 2 Chron. 2. 5. Our Orders and Ceremonies blamed in that so many of them are the same whiâh the Church of Rome useth Eccles. Discipl sol 12. T. C. lib. 1. p. 131. T. C. l. 1. p. 20. C.l.1 p 25. T. C. lib. 1 p. 13â T. C. l. 1. p. 30. T. C. l. 1. p 131. T. C. l. 1 p. 132. Tom. 2. Graca â3 Con. Africa cap. 27. Lib. de Idolat He seemeth to mean the feast of Easter day celebrated in the memory of our Saviours resurrection and for that cause earned the Lords day Lib. de Anima a T. C. l. 3 p. 178. b T. C. l. 3. p. 179. T. C. l. 3. p. 180. That whereas they who blame us in this behalf when reason evicteth that all such Ceremonies are not to be abolished make answer that when they condemn Popish Ceremonies their meaning is of Ceremonies unprofitable or Ceremonies instead whereof as good or better may be devised they cannot hereby get out of the bryars but contradict and gainsay themselves in asmuch as their usual manner is to prove that Ceremonies uncommanded in the Church of God and yet used in the Church of Rome are for this very cause unprofitable to us and not so good as others in their place would be T. C. l. 3. p. 171. What an open untruth is it that this is one of our principles not to be lawful to use the same Ceremonies which the Papists did when as I have both before declared the contrary and even here have expresly added that they are not to be used when as good or better may be established Eccles. discip sol 100. T. C. l. 3. p. 176. As for your often repeating that the Ceremonies in question are godly comely and decent It is your old wont of demanding the thing in question and an undoubted Argument of your extream poverty T. C. l. 3. p. 176. T. C. l. 3. p. 177. And that this complaint of ours is just in that we are thus constrained to be like unto the Papists in any their Ceremonies and that this cause only ought to move them to whom that belongeh to do
measure but verily I believe there shall be found more than a third part of the Prayers which are not Psalms and texts of Scripture spent in praying for and praying against the commodities and incommodities of this life which is contrary to all the Arguments or Contents of the Prayers of the Church sit down in the Scripture but especially of our Saviour Christs Prayer by the which ours ought to be directed T. C. l. 1. p. 135. What a reason is this we must rep at the Lords Prayer oftentimes therefore oftentimes in half an hour and one in the neck of another Our Saviour Christ doth not there give a prescript Forme of Prayer whereunto he bindeth us but giveth us a Rule and Squire to frame all our Prayers by I know it is necessary to Pray and Pray often I know also that in a few words it is impossible for any man to frame so pithy a Prayer and I confess that the Church doth well in concluding their Prayers with the Lords Prayer But I stand upon this Thee there is no necessity laid upon us to use these very words and no more T. C. lib. 1. pag. 219. Praemisse legitima ordinaria oratione quasi fundamento accidentium jus est desideriorum jus est superstruendi extrinsecus petitioner Terâol de Orat Luke 11. 1. Cypr. in Orat Dom. The Peoples trying after the Minister Another fault is That all the people are appointed in divers places to say after the Minister whereby not only the time is unprofitably wasted and a confused noise of the people one speaking after another caused but an Opinion bred in their hearts that those only be their Prayers which they pronounce with their own mouths after the Minister otherwise than the order which is left to the Church doth bear 1 Cor. 14. 16. and otherwise than Iustin Martyr sheweth the custom of the Churches to have been in his time T. C. l. 1 p. 139. l. 3. p. 211 212 213. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Basil. Pââs in Pral 1 Cor. 14. 15. Our manner of reading the Psalms otherwise then the rest of the Scripture They have always the same profit to be stuâied in to be read and preached upon which ether Scriptures have and this above the rest that they are to be sung * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Diânys Hierar Eccles. cap. 3. But to make daily Prayers of them hand-over-head or otherwise then the present estate wherein we he doth agree with the maner contained in them is an abusing of them T. C. lâ 3. pag. 206. Of Musick with Psalms * ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Basil. in Psal. Of singing or saying Psalms and other parts of Common Prayer wherein the People and Minister answer one another by course For the singing of Psalms by course and side after side although it be very ancient yet it is not commendable and so much the mere to be suspected for that the Devil hath gone about to get it so great Authority partly by deriving it from Ignatius time and partly in making the World believe that this came from Heaven and that the Angels were heard to sing after this sort Which as it is a meer Fable so is it confuted by Historiographers whereof some ascribe the beginning of this to Damasus some other unto Flavianus and Diodorus T. C. lib. 1. p. 203. a Exod. 19. â Is 24.3 Deut. 3. 27. 26. 17. Josh. 24.16 b Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib. 6. cap. 8. a Theod. lib. 2 cap. 24. b Plat. in vitâ Damasi c Bene mari plerunque comparatur Ecclesia quae primo ingredientis populi agmine totis vestibulis undas comit deinde in oratione totius plebis tanquam undis âefl âensibâs strides cum responsuriis Psalmorum canruvinocura mulierum virginum parvulorum consonus undatum stragor resulta Hexam lib. 2. cap. 5. d Basil. Epist. 63. e Plin. secund Epist lib. 10. cp 97. Exod 15. 1. 21. Isai. 6. 3. * From whence soever it came it cannot he good considering that when it is granted that all the people may praise God as it is in singing of Psalms then this ought no to be restrained unto a few and where it is lawful both with heart and voice tosing the whole Psalm there it is not meet that they should sing but the one half with their heart and voice and the other with their heart onely For where they may both with heart and voice sing âiâeâ the heart is not enough Therefore besides the incommodity which cometh this way in that being tossed after this sort men cannot understand what is sung those other two inconveniences come of this form of singing and therefore it is vanished in all Reformed Churches T. C. lib. 1. p. 103. Ephes. 5. 19. Of Magnificat Benedictus and Nunc dimittis These Thanksgivings were made by occasion of certain particular beââââe and are no more to be used for ordinary Prayers then the Ave-Maria So that both for this cause and the other before alledged of the Psalms it is not convenient in make ordinary prayers of them T. C. lib. 3. p. 208. 2 Chro. 29.30 Of the Leâany a We pray for the avoiding of those dangâââ which are nothing near us as from Lightning and Thundring in the midst of Winter from Storms and Tempest when the Weather is most fair and the Seas most calm It is true That upon some urgent Calamity a Prayer may and ought to be framed which may beg either the community for want whereof the Church is in distress ââ the turning away of that mischief which either approacheth or is already upon it But to make those Prayers which are for the present time and danger ordinary and daily Prayers I cannot hitherto see any either Scripture or example of the Primitive Church And here for the simples sake I will set down after what âurâ this abuse crept into the Church There was one Mamericus Bishop of Vienna which in the time of great Earth-quakes which were in France instituted certain Supplications which the Grecians and we of them call the Letany which concerned âhat matter There is no doubt but as other discommodities rose in other Countries they likewise had Prayers accordingly Now Pope Gregory either made himself or gathered the Supplications that were made against the Calamities of every Country and made of them a great Letany or Supplication as Platina calleth in and gave it to be used in all Churches which thing albeit all Churches might do for the time in respect of the case of the Calamity which the Churches suffered yet there is no cause why it should be perpetual that was ordained but for a time â and why all Lands should pray to be delivered from the Incommodities that some Land hath been troubled with T. C. lib 1. pag. 137. â Exod. 15.30 Wild. 10. 20. 2 Sam. 6. 1. 1 Chron. 13.4 2 Chron. 20. 3. Joel 1. 1â b Tertul. lib. â ad Exor c Terent. Andr. d Hier. Epist.
and proclaim Gâmatisaâaâ which sign fieth a Prohibition or forbidding of ordinary works and is the same Hebrew word wherewith those Feasts days are noted in the Law wherein they should rest The reason of which Commandment of the Lord was that they abstained that day as much as might be conveniently from Meats so they might abstain from their daily works to the end they might bestow the whole day in hearing the Word of God and humbling themselves in the Congregation confessing their faults and desiring the Lord to turn away from his fierce wrath In this case the Church having Commandment to make a Holiday mây and ought to do it as the Church which was in Babylon did during the time of their Captivity but where it is destitute of a Commandment it may not presume by any Decree to restrain that liberty which the Lord hath given Joâl 12. 15. Exod. 13 3. Esib. 9. T. C. lib. 3. pag 193. The example out of Esther is no sufficient warrant for these Feasts n question For first as in other cases so in this case of days the estate of Christians under the Gospel ought not to be so ceremonious as was theirs under the Law Secondly That which was done there was done by a special direction of the Spirit of God either through the ministry of the Prophets whâch they had or by some other extraordinary means which is not to be followed by us This may appear by another place Zaâh 8. where the Jews changed their Fasts into Feasts onely by the mouth of the Lord through the ministry of the Prophet For further prâol whereof first I take the ââ Verse where it appeareth that this was an order to enâure always even as long as the other Feast days which were instituted by the Lord himself So that what abuses soever were of that Feast yet as a perpetual Decree of God it ought to have remained whereas our Churches can make no such Decree which may not upon change of times and at her circumstances be altered For the other proof hereof I take the last Verse For the Prophet contenteth not himself with that that he had rehearsed the Decree as he doth sometimes the Decree of propane Kings but oditeth precisely that as soon as ever the Decree was made it was Registred in this Book of Esther which is one of the Bâoks of Canonical Scripture declaring thereby in what esteem they had it If it had been of no further Authority then on Decree or then a Canon of one of the Councils it had been presumption to have brought it into the Library of the Holy Ghost The sum of my Answer is That this Decree was Divine and not Ecclesiastical onely 2 Mac. 15 34. â Mac. 4. 55. a Commemoratio Apostolica passionis toâlas Christianitatis magistra à cunctis jure celebratur Cod. l. 3 tiâ 12 l.7 b T. C. lib. 1. pag. 153. For so much as the old people did never keep any Feast or Holiday for remembrance either of Moses c. c T. C. lib. 1. pag. 153. The people whân it is called St. Pauls day or the Blessed Virgin Maries day can understand nothing thereby but that they are instituted to the honor of St. Paul or the Virgin Mary unless they be otherwise taught And if you say Let them to be taught I have answered That the teaching in this Land cannot by any other which is yet taken come to the most part of those which have drunk this poyson c. d Scilicet ignorant nos nec Christum unquam relinquere qui pro totius servandorum mundi saluâe passus est nec alium quempiam colere posse Nam hunc quidem tanquam Filium Dei a loramus Martyres verò tanquam Discipulos Imitatores Domini digne proptet insuperabilem in Regem ipsorum ac Praeceprorem benevolenuam diligismus quorum nos consories dicipulos fieri optamus Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. 4. cap. 15. e T. C. lib. 1. pag. 153. As for all the Commodities c. f T. C. lib. 1. pag. 154. g T. C. lib. 1. pag. 154. We condemn not the Church of England neither in this nor in other things Which are meet to be Reformed For it is one thing to mislike another thing to condemn and it is one thing to condemn something in the Church and another thing to condemn the Church for it h ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã De Clauâio dictum apud Dionys. lib. 50. Mark 2. 27. Numb 15.32 a Hi vacare consueti sunt seprima die neque aâma portaâe in praedictis diebâs neque terrae culturam contingere neque alterius cujuspiam curam habere parluntur sed ââ templis extendenâes manoâ adorare usque ad vesperam solitisunt Ingrediente verb in civiâaâem Lagoâum âum exerciâ mulâis hominibus cum custodiâe dobueriât civiâaâem ipsis âââtitiam observantibus provinciâ quidem dominum suscepit amarissimum Lex verò manifesââta est malaââ habere solennitatem Agathârâbid apuâ Ioseph lib. 1. coââr Appiââ Vide Dionys. lib. 37. b 1 Mac. 2.40 c Nehe. 13. 15. d Coâ l. 3 ââ 12 l.3 e Leo Constiâ 54. f T. C. lib. 3. ââ â2 Dies sesâoâ a Matth. 28.1 Mark 16.1 Luke 24.1 John 20.1 1 Cor. 16.2 Apoc. 1.10 b Apostolis prââcsiâom suiâ âon uâ beges de sestis diebus celebrând sancirent ied uârecte vivendi caâioâââââ pie ãâ¦ã bis authores essent Socra Hill lib. cap. 23. c Quae toto tertarum or he servantur vel db ipsâs Apostolis vel Consilus gâneralibus quorum ãâ¦ã rimain in Ecclesia authoritas âââ stratuts est ntelligere liceââ Sicuââ quâd Domini Passio Resurrectio in Coelum Ascensus Adventus Spiritus Sancti anniversaria solemnitaâe celebrarenuâ August Epist. 118. d Luk 2.14 Of Days appâinted as well for ordinary as for extraordinary Fasts in the Church of God T. C. lib. 1. pag. 30. I will not enter now to discuss whether it were well done to Fast iâ aâl places according to the custom of the place You oppose Ambrose and Augustine I could oppose Ignatius and Tertullian whereof the one saith it is aefos a deâââble thing to Fast upon the Lords Day the other That it is to kill the Lord Tertulâ the Coron il Ignatius Epist de Phillips And although Ambese and Augustine being private men at Rome would have so done yet it followeth not That if they had been Citizens and Ministers there that they would have done And if they had done so yet it followeth ãâ¦ã but they would hase spoken against that appointment of days and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of Fasting whereof Eusebius saith that Moâtaâââ was the first Author I speak of that which they ought to have done For otherwise I know they both thought corruptly of Fastings when as the one saith It was a remedy or reward to Fast other days â in ãâ¦ã not in Fast was in and the others asketh What Salvation we
whereby our form of Common Prayer is thought to swerve from the Word of God A great favourer of that part but yet his Errour that way excepted a learned painful a right vertuous and good man did not fear sometime to undertake against Popish Detractors the general maintenance and defence of our whole Church-Service as having in it nothing repugnant to the Word of God And even they which would file away most the largeness of that Offer do notwithstanding in more sparing terms acknowledge little less For when those opposite judgements which never are wont to construe things doubtful to the better those very tongues which are always prone to aggravate whatsoever hath but the least shew whereby it may be suspected to savour of or to sound towards any evil do by their own voluntary sentence clearly free us from gross Errours and from manifest Impiety herein who would not judge us to be discharged of all blame which are confest to have no great fault even by their very word and testimony in whose eyes no fault of ours hath ever hitherto been accustomed to seem small Nevertheless what they seem to offer us with the one hand the same with the other they pull back again They grant we erre not in palpable manner weare not openly and notoriously impious yet Errors we have which the sharp insight of their wisest men do espy there is hidden impiety which the profounder sort are able enough to disclose Their skilful ears perceive certain harsh and unpleasant discords in the sound of our Common Prayer such as the Rules of Divine Harmony such as the Laws of God cannot bear 28. Touching our Conformity with the Church of Rome as also of the difference between some Reformed Churches and ours that which generally hath been already answered may serve for answer to that Exception which in these two respects they take particularly against the form of our Common Prayer To say that in nothing they may be followed which are of the Church of Rome were violent and extream Some things they do in that they are men in that they are Wise men and Christian men some things some things in that they are men misled and blinded with Errour As farr as they follow Reason and Truth we fear not to tread the self-same steps wherein they have gone and to be their Followers Where Rome keepeth that which is antienter and better others whom we much more affect leaving it for newer and changing it for worse we had rather follow the perfections of them whom we like not than in defects resemble them whom we love For although they profess they agree with us touching a prescript form of Prayer to be used in the Church yet in that very form which they say is agreeable to Gods Word and the use of Reformed Churches they have by special Protestation declared That their meaning is not it shall be prescribed as a thing whereunto they will tye their Minister It shall not they say be necessary for the Minister daily to repeat all these things before mentioned but beginning with some like Confession to proceed to the Sermon which ended he either useth the Prayer for all States before mentioned or else prayeth as the Spirit of God shall move his Heart Herein therefore we hold it much better with the Church of Rome to appoint a prescript form which every man shall be bound to observe then with them to set down a kinde of direction a form for men to use if they list or otherwise to change as pleaseth themselves Furthermore the Church of Rome hath rightly also considered that Publick Prayer is a Duty intire in it self a Duty requisite to be performed much oftner than Sermons can possibly be made For which cause as they so we have likewise a Publick form how to serve God both Morning and Evening whether Sermons may be had or no. On the contrary side their form of Reformed Prayer sheweth only what shall be done upon the dayes appointed for the Preaching of the Word with what words the Minister shall begin when the hour appointed for Sermon is come what shall be said or sung before Sermon and what after So that according to this form of theirs it must stand for a Rule No Sermon No Service Which over-sight occasioned the French spitefully to term Religion that sort exercised a meer Preach Sundry other more particular defects there are which I willingly forbear to rehearse in consideration whereof we cannot be induced to prefert their Reformed form of Prayer before our own what Church soever we resemble therein 29. The Attire which the Minister of God is by Order to use at times of Divine Service being but a matter of meer formality yet such as for Comeliness sake hath hitherto been judged by the wiser sort of men not unnecessary to concurr with other sensible Notes betokening the different kinde or quality of Persons and Actions whereto it is tyed as we think not ourselves the holier because we use it so neither should they with whom no such thing is in use think us therefore unholy because we submit our selves unto that which in a matter so indifferent the wisdom of Authority and Law have thought comely To solemn Actions of Royalty and Justice their suitable Ornaments are a Beauty Are they only in Religion a stain Divine Religion saith Saint Ierom he speaketh of the Priestly Attire of the Law hath one kinde of Habite wherein to minister before the Lord another for ordinary uses belonging unto common life Pelagius having carped at the curious neatness of men's Apparel in those days and through the sowreness of his disposition spoken somewhat too hardly thereof affirming That the glory of Cloaths and Ornaments was a thing contrary to God and godliness S. Ierom whose custom is not to pardon over-easily his Adversaries if any where they chance to trip presseth him as thereby making all sorts of men in the World God's enemies Is it enmity with God saith he if I wear my Coat somewhat handsome If a Bishop a Priest Deacon and the rest of the Ecclesiastical Order come to administer the usual Sacrifice in a white Garment are they hereby God's Adversaries Clarks Monks Widows Virgins take beed it is dangerous for you to be otherwise seen than in soul and ragged Cloaths Not to speak any thing of Secular men which have proclaimed to have war with God as oft as ever they put on precious and shining Cloathes By which words of Ierome we may take it at the least for a probable collection that his meaning was to draw Pelagius into hatred as condemning by so general a speech even the neatness of that very Garment it self wherein the Clergy did then use to administer publickly the holy Sacrament of Christ's most blessed Body and Blood For that they did then use some such Ornament the words of Chrysostome give plain testimony who speaking to the Clergy of Antioch
telleth them that if they did suffer notorious Maleâactors to come to the Table of our Lord and not put them by it would be as heavily revenged upon them as if themselves had shed his Blood that for this purpose God had called them to the rooms which they held in the Church of Christ that this they should reckon was their Dignity this their Safety this their whole Crown and Glory and therefore this they should carefully intend and not when the Sacrament is administred imagine themselves called only to walk up and down in a White and shining Garment Now whereas these speeches of Ierome and Chrysostom do seem plainly to allude unto such Ministerial Garments as were then in use To this they answer that by Ierom nothing can be gathered but only that the Ministers came to Church in handsome Holy-day apparel and that himself did not think them bound by the Law of God no go like Slovens but the Weed which we mean he defendeth not That Chrysostome meaneth the same which we defend but seemeth rather to reprehend than allow it as we do Which Answer wringeth out of Ierome and Chrysostome that which their words will not gladly yield They both speak of the same Persons namely the Clergy and of their Weed at the same time when they administer the blessed Sacrament and of the self-same kinde of Weed a white Garment so far as we have wit to conceive and for any thing we are able to see their manner of speech is not such as doth argue either the thing it self to be different whereof they speak or their Judgment concerning it different although the one do only maintain it against Pelagius as a thing not therefore unlawful because it was fair or handsom and the other make it a matter of small commendation in it self if they which wear it do nothing else but weare the Robes which their Place requireth The honesty dignity and estimation of White Apparel in the Eastern part of the World is a token of greater fitness for this sacred use wherein it were not convenient that any thing basely thought of should be suffered Notwithstanding I am not bent to stand stiffely upon these Probabilities that in Ierom's and Chrysostom's time any such Attire was made several to this purpose Yet surely the words of Solomon are very impertinent to prove it an Ornament therefore not several for the Ministers to execute their Ministry in because men of credit and estimation wore their ordinary Apparel white For we know that when Solomon wrote those words the several Apparel for the Ministers of the Law to execute their Ministry in was such The Wise man which seared God from his heart and honoured the Service that was done unto him could not mention so much as the Garment of Holiness but with effectual signification of most singular reverence and love Were it not better that the love which men bear to God should make the least things which are imployed in his Service amiable than that their over-scrupulous dislike of so mean a thing as a Vestment should from the very Service of God with-draw their hearts and affections I term it rather a mean thing a thing not much to be respected because even they so account now of it whose first Disputations against it were such as if Religion had scarcely any thing of greater waight Their Allegations were then That if a man were assured to gain a thousand by doing that which may offend any one Brother or be unto him a cause of falling he ought not to do it That this Popish Apparel the Surplice especially hath been by Papists abominably abused That it hath been a mark and a very Sacrament of Abomination That remaining it serveth as a Monument of Idolatry and not only edifieth not but as a dangerous and scandalous Ceremony doth exceeding much harm to them of whose good we are commanded to have regard that it causeth men to perish and make shipwrack of Conscience for so themselves profess they mean when they say the weak are offended herewith that it hardneth Papists hindreth the weak from profiting in the knowledge of the Gospel grieveth godly mindes and giveth them occasion to think hardly of their Ministers that if the Magistrates may command or the Church appoint Rites and Ceremonies yet seeing our abstinence from things in their own nature indifferent if the weak Brother should be offended is a flat Commandement of the Holy Ghost which no Authority either of Church or Common-wealth can make void therefore neither may the one nor the other lawfully ordain this Ceremony which hath great incommodity and no profit great offence and no edifying That by the Law it should have been burnt and consumed with fire as a thing infected with Leprosie That the Example of Ezekiah beating to powder the Brazen Serpent and of Paul abrogating those abused Feasts of Charity inforceth upon us the duty of abolishing altogether a thing which hath been and is so offensive Finally That God by his Prophet hath given an express Commandement which in this case toucheth us no less than of old it did the Jews ' Ye shall pollute the covering of the Images of Silver and the rich ornament of your Images of Gold and cast them away as a stained ragg thou shalt say unto it Get thee hence These and such like were their first Discourses touching that Church-Attire which with us for the most part is usual in Publick Prayer our Ecclesiastical Laws so appointing as well because it hath been of reasonable continuance and by special choice was taken out of the number of those holy Garments which over and besides their mystical reference served for comeliness under the Law and is in the number of those Ceremonies which may with choice and discretion be used to that purpose in the Church of Christ as also for that it suiteth so fitly with that lightsom affection of joy wherein God delighteth when his Saints praise him and so lively resembleth the glory of the Saints in Heaven together with the beauty wherein Angels have appeared unto men that they which are to appear for men in the presence of God as Angels if they were left to their own choice and would chuse any could not easily devise a Garment of more decency for such a Service As for those fore-rehearsed vehement allegations against it shall we give them credit when the very Authors from whom they came confess they believe not their own sayings For when once they began to perceive how many both of them in the two Universities and of others who abroad having Ecclesiastical charge do favour mightily their Cause and by all means set it forward might by persisting in the extremity of that Opinion hazard greatly their own Estates and so weaken that part which their Places do now give them much opportunity to strengthen they asked counsel as it seemed from some abroad who