knowne relation which God hath vnto vs as vnto children and vnto all good thinges as vnto effectes whereof himselfe is the principall cause these axiomes and lawes naturall concerning our dutie haue arisen That in all things we go about his ayde is by prayer to be craued That he cannot haue sufficient honor done vnto him but the vttermost of that we can do to honour him we must which is in effect the same that we read Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soule and with all thy mind Which law our Sauiour doth terme the First and the great Commaundement Touching the next which as our Sauiour addeth is like vnto this he meaneth in amplitude and largenesse in as much as it is the roote out of which all laws of dutie to men-ward haue growne as out of the former all offices of religion towards God the like naturall inducement hath brought men to know that it is their duty no lesse to loue others then themselues For seeing those things which are equall must needes all haue one measure if I cannot but wish to receiue al good euen as much at euery mans hand as any man can wish vnto his owne soule how should I looke to haue any part of my desire herein satisfied vnlesse my self be careful to satisfie the like desire which is vndoubtedly in other men we all being of one and the same nature To haue any thing offered them repugnant to this desire must needs in all respects grieue them as much as me so that if I do harme I must looke to suffer there being no reason that others should shew greater measure of loue to me then they haue by me shewed vnto them My desire therefore to be loued of my equals in nature as much as possible may be imposeth vpon me a naturall dutie of bearing to them-ward fully the like affection From which relation of equalitie betweene our selues and them that are as our selues what seuerall rules and Canons naturall reason hath drawne for direction of life no man is ignorant as namely That because we would take no harme we must therefore do none That sith we would not be in any thing extreamely dealt with we must our selues auoide all extremitie in our dealings That from all violence and wrong wee are vtterly to abstaine with such like which further to wade in would bee tedious and to our present purpose not altogether so necessary seeing that on these two generall heads alreadie mentioned all other specialties are dependent Wherefore the naturall measure wherby to iudge our doings is the sentence of reason determining and setting downe what is good to be done Which sentence is either mandatory shewing what must be done or else permissiue declaring onely what may be done or thirdly admonitorie opening what is the most conuenient for vs to doe The first taketh place where the comparison doth stand altogether betweene doing and not doing of one thing which in it selfe is absolutely good or euill as it had bene for Ioseph to yeeld or not to yeeld to the impotent desire of his lewd mistresse the one euill the other good simply The second is when of diuerse things euill all being not euitable we are permitted to take one which one sauing only in case of so great vrgency were not otherwise to be taken as in the matter of diuorce amongst the Iewes The last when of diuers things good one is principall and most eminent as in their act who sould their possessions and layd the price at the Apostles feete which possessions they might haue retained vnto themselues without sinne againe in the Apostle S. Paules owne choyce to maintaine himselfe by his owne labour whereas in liuing by the Churches maintenance as others did there had bene no offence committed In goodnes therefore there is a latitude or extent whereby it commeth to passe that euen of good actions some are better then other some whereas otherwise one man could not excell another but all should be either absolutely good as hitting iumpe that indiuisible point or Center wherein goodnesse consisteth or else missing it they should be excluded out of the number of wel-doers Degrees of wel doing there could be none except perhaps in the seldomnes oftennes of doing well But the nature of goodnesse being thus ample a lawe is properly that which reason in such sort defineth to be good that it must be done And the law of reason or humaine nature is that which men by discourse of naturall reason haue rightly found out themselues to be all for euer bound vnto in their actions Lawes of reason haue these markes to be knowne by Such as keepe them resemble most liuely in their voluntarie actions that very manner of working which nature her selfe doth necessarily obserue in the course of the whole world The workes of nature are all behoouefull beautifull without superfluitie or defect euen so theirs if they be framed according to that which the law of reason teacheth Secondly those lawes are inuestigable by reason without the helpe of reuelation supernaturall and diuine Finally in such sort they are inuestigable that the knowledge of them is generall the world hath alwayes bene acquainted with them according to that which one in Sophocles obserueth corcerning a branch of this law It is no child of two dayes or yeasterdayes birth but hath bene no man knoweth how long sithence It is not agreed vpon by one or two or few but by all which we may not so vnderstand as if euery particular man in the whole world did know and confesse whatsoeuer the law of reason doth conteine but this lawe is such that being proposed no man can reiect it as vnreasonable and vniust Againe there is nothing in it but any man hauing naturall perfection of wit and ripenesse of iudgement may by labour and trauaile find out And to conclude the generall principles thereof are such as it is not easie to find men ignorant of them Law rationall therefore which men commonly vse to call the law of nature meaning thereby the law which humaine nature knoweth it selfe in reason vniuersally bound vnto which also for that cause may be termed most fitly the lawe of reason this law I say comprehendeth all those things which men by the light of their naturall vnderstanding euidently know or at least wife may know to be beseeming or vnbeseeming vertuous or vitious good or euill for them to do Now although it be true which some haue said that whatsoeuer is done amisse the law of nature and reason therby is transgrest because euen those offences which are by their speciall qualities breaches of supernaturall lawes do also for that they are generally euill violate in generall that principle of reason which willeth vniuersally to flie from euill yet do we not therfore so far extend the law of reason as to conteine in it all maner lawes
We may not giue our selues this liberty to bring in any thing of our will nor choose any thing that other men bring in of their will we haue the Apostles themselues for authors which themselues brought nothing of their owne wil but the discipline which they receiued of Christ they deliuered faithfully vnto the people In which place the name of discipline importeth not as they who alleage it would faine haue it construed but as any man who noteth the circumstance of the place and the occasion of vttering the words will easily acknowledge euen the selfe same thing it signifieth which the name of doctrine doth and as well might the one as the other there haue bene vsed To helpe them farther doth not Saint Ierome after the selfe same maner dispute We beleeue it not because we reade it not Yea We ought not so much as to knowe the things which the booke of the Lawe containeth not sayth Saint Hilarie Shall we hereupon then conclude that we may not take knowledge of or giue credit vnto any thing which sense or experience or report or art doth propose vnlesse we find the same in scripture No it is too plaine that so farre to extend their speeches is to wrest them against their true intent and meaning To vrge any thing vpon the Church requiring thereunto that religious assent of Christian beliefe wherewith the words of the holy Prophets are receiued to vrge any thing as part of that supernaturall and Celestially reuealed truth which God hath taught and not to shewe it in Scripture this did the auncient Fathers euermore thinke vnlawfull impious execrable And thus as their speeches were meant so by vs they must be restrained As for those alleaged words of Cyprian The christian religion shall find that out of this scripture rules of all doctrines haue sprâ—ng and that from hence doth spring and hether doth returne whatsoeuer the Ecclesiasticall discipline doth coÌ„teine surely this place would neuer haue bin brought forth in this cause if it had bene but once read ouer in the author himselfe out of whom it is cited For the words are vttered concerning that one principall commaundement of loue in the honour whereof he speaketh after this sort Surely this commaundement containeth the Law and the Prophets and in this one word is the abridgement of al the volumes of scripture This nature and reason and the authority of thy word O Lord doth proclaime this we haue heard out of thy mouth herein the perfection of all religion doth consist This is the first commandement and the last thing being written in the booke of life is as it were an euerlasting lesson both to men and Angels Let Christian religion reade this one word and meditate vpon this commaundement and out of this scripture it shall find the rules of all learning to haue sprung and from hence to haue risen and hither to returne whatsoeuer the Ecclesiasticall discipline containeth and that in all things it is vaine and bootelesse which charity confirmeth not Was this a sentence trow you of so great force to proue that Scripture is the onely rule of all the actions of men Might they not hereby euen as well proue that one commandement of Scripture is the onely rule of all things and so exclude the rest of the Scripture as now they do all meanes besides Scripture But thus it fareth when too much desire of contradiction causeth our speech rather to passe by number then to stay for waight Well but Tertullian doth in this case speake yet more plainely The scripture sayth he denieth what it noteth not which are indeed the words of Tertullian But what the scripture reckoneth vp the Kings of Israell and amongst those Kings Dauid the scripture reckoneth vp the sonnes of Dauid and amongst those sonnes Salomon To proue that amongst the Kings of Israell there was no Dauid but only one no Salomon but one in the sonnes of Dauid Tertullians argument will fitly proue For in as much as the scripture did propose to recken vp 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 thinke that man to do me some peece of manifest iniury which would hereby fasten vpon me a generall opinion as if I did thinke the scripture to deny the very raigne of King Henry the eight because it no where noteth that any such King did raigne 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 wiues the scripture denieth what it noteth not As therefore it noteth one such to haue bene in that age of the world so had there beene moe it would by likelihood as well haue noted many as one What infer we now hereupon There was no second Lamech the scripture denieth what it noteth not Were it consonant vnto reason to diuorce these two sentences the former of which doth shew how the later is restrained and not marking the former to conclude by the later of them that simply whatsoeuer any man at this day doth thinke true is by the scripture denied vnlesse it be there affirmed to be true I wonder that a cause so weake and feeble hath bene so much persisted in But to come vnto those their sentences wherein matters of action are more apparantly touched the name of Tertullian is as before so here againe pretended who writing vnto his wife two bookes and exhorting her in the one to liue a widdow in case God before her should take him vnto his mercy and in the other if she did marry yet not to ioyne her selfe to an infidel as in those times some widowes Christian had done for the aduancement of their estate in this present world he vrgeth very earnestly Saint Paules words onely in the Lord whereupon he demaundeth of them that thinke they may do the contrary what Scripture they can shew where God hath dispensed and graunted licence to do against that which the blessed Apostle so strictly doth inioyne And because in defence it might perhaps be replied seeing God doth will that couples which are maried when bothe are infidels if either party chaunce to be after conuerted vnto Christianity this should not make separation betweene them as long as the vnconuerted was willing to reteine the other on whom the grace of Christ had shined wherefore then should that let the making of mariage which doth not dissolue mariage being made after great reasons shewed why God doth in Conuerts being maried allow continuance with infidels and yet disallow that the faithfull when they are free should enter into bonds of wedlocke with such concludeth in the end concerning those women that so mary They that please not the Lord do euen thereby offend the Lord they do euen thereby throw themselues into euill that is to say while they please him not by
controuersie in this cause concerning the orders of the Church is what particulars the Church may appoint That which doth finde them out is the force of mans reason That which doth guide and direct his reason is first the generall law of nature which law of nature and the morall law of scripture are in the substance of law all one But because there are also in scripture a number of lawes particular and positiue which being in force may not by any law of man be violated we are in making lawes to haue thereunto an especiall eie As for example it might perhaps seeme reasonable vnto the Church of God following the generall laws concerning the nature of mariage to ordaine in particular that cosen germains shall not marry Which law notwithstanding ought not to be receiued in the Church if there should be in the scripture a law particular to the contrary forbidding vtterly the bonds of mariage to be so far forth abridged The same Thomas therfore whose definition of humane lawes we mentioned before doth adde thereunto his caution concerning the rule and canon whereby to make them Humane lawes are measures in respect of men whose actiōs they must direct howbeit such measures they are as haue also their higher rules to be measured by which rules are two the law of God and the law of nature So that laws humane must be made according to the generall lawes of nature without contradiction vnto any positiue lawe in scripture Otherwise they are ill made Vnto lawes thus made and receiued by a whole Church they which liue within the bosome of that Church must not think it a matter indifferēt either to yeeld or not to yeeld obedience Is it a small offence to despise the Church of God My sonne keepe thy fathers comaundement saith Salomon forget not thy mothers instruction bind thē bothe alwaies about thine hart It doth not stand with the duty which we owe to our heauenly fathers that to the ordinances of our mother the Church we should shew our selues disobedient Let vs not say we keepe the commandements of the one when we breake the law of the other For vnlesse we obserue bothe we obey neither And what doth let but that we may obserue both when they are not the one to the other in any sort repugnant For of such lawes only we speake as being made in forme and maner already declared can haue in them no contradiction vnto the lawes of almighty God Yea that which is more the lawes thus made God himselfe doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them him It is a loose licentious opinion which the Anabaptists haue embraced holding that a Christian mans libertie is lost and the soule which Christ hath redeemed vnto himselfe iniuriously drawne into seruitude vnder the yoke of humane power if any law be now imposed besides the Gospell of Iesus Christ in obedience whereunto the spirite of God and not the constraint of men is to leade vs according to that of the blessed Apostle Such as are led by the spirits of God they are the sonnes of God and not such as liue in thraldome vnto men Their iudgement is therefore that the Church of Christ should admit no law makers but the Euangelists The author of that which causeth another thing to be is author of that thing also which thereby is caused The light of naturall vnderstanding wit and reason is from God he it is which thereby doth illuminate euery man entering into the world If there proceede from vs any thing afterwardes corrupt and naught the mother thereof is our owne darknes neither doth it proceed from any such cause whereof God is the author He is the author of all that we think or doe by vertue of that light which himselfe hath giuen And therefore the lawes which the very Heathens did gather direct their actiōs by so far forth as they proceeded from the light of nature God himselfe doth acknowledge to haue proceeded euen from himselfe and that he was the writer of them in the tables of their hearts How much more then he the author of those lawes which haue bene made by his Saints endued furder with the heauenly grace of his spirit and directed as much as might be with such instructiōs as his sacred word doth yeeld Surely if we haue vnto those lawes that dutifull regard which their dignitie doth require it will not greatly need that we should be exhorted to liue in obedience vnto them If they haue God himselfe for their author contempt which is offered vnto them cannot choose but redound vnto him The safest and vnto God the most acceptable way of framing our liues therfore is with all humilitie lowlines and singlenes of hart to studie which way our willing obedience both vnto God and man may be yeelded euen to the vtmost of that which is due 10 Touching the mutabilitie of lawes that concerne the regiment politie of the church changed they are when either altogether abrogated or in part repealed or augmented with farther additions Wherein wee are to note that this question about changing of lawes concerneth onely such lawes as are positiue and do make that now good or euill by being commanded or forbidden which otherwise of it selfe were not simply the one or the other Vnto such lawes it is expressely sometimes added how long they are to continue in force If this be no where exprest then haue we no light to direct our iudgemēts concerning the chaungeablenes or immutabilitie of them but by considering the nature and qualitie of such lawes The nature of euery lawe must be iudged of by the ende for which it was made and by the aptnes of thinges therein prescribed vnto the same end It may so fall out that the reason why some lawes of God were giuen is neither opened nor possible to be gathered by wit of man As why God should forbid Adam that one tree there was no way for Adam euer to haue certainely vnderstood And at Adams ignorance of this point Satan tooke aduantage vrging the more securely a false cause because the true was vnto Adam vnknowne Why the Iewes were forbidden to plow their ground with an oxe and an asse why to cloath themselues with mingled attire of wooll and linnen both it was vnto them vnto vs it remaineth obscure Such lawes perhaps cannot be abrogated sauing onely by whom they were made because the intent of them being knowne vnto none but the author he alone can iudge how long it is requisite they should endure But if the reason why things were instituted may be known and being knowne do appeare manifestly to be of perpetuall necessitie then are those things also perpetuall vnlesse they cease to be effectuall vnto that purpose for which they were at the first instituted Because when a thing doth cease to be auaileable vnto the end which gaue it being the