taken as though it had been his drift to teach That even as in us the Body and the Soul so in Christ God and Man make but one Nature Of which Error Six hundred and thirty Fathers in the Council of Chalcedon condemned Eutiches For as Nestorius teaching rightly That God and Man are distinct Natures did thereupon mis-infer That in Christ those Natures can by no conjunction make one Person so Eutiches of â—ound belief as touching their true Personal Copulation became unsound by denying the difference which still continueth between the one and the other Nature We must therefore keep warily a middle course shunning both that distraction of Persons wherein Nestorius went awry and also this latter confusion of Natures which deceived Eutiches These Natures from the moment of their first combination have been and are for ever inseparable For even when his Soul forsook the Tabernacle of his Body his Deity forsook neither Body nor Soul â— it had then could we not truly hold either that the Person of Christ was buried or that the Person of Christ did raise up it self from the dead For the Body separated from the Word can in no true sense be termed the Person of Christ nor is it true to say That the Son of God in raising up that Body did raise up himself if the Body were not both with him and of him even during the time it lay in the Sepulchre The like is also to be said of the Soul otherwise we are plainly and inevitably Nestorians The very Person of Christ therefore for ever one and the self-same was onely touching Bodily Substance concluded within the Grave his Soul onely from thence severed but by Personal Union his Deity still inseparably joyned with both 53. The sequel of which Conjunction of Natures in the Person of Christ is no abolishment of Natural Properties appertaining to either Substance no transition or transmigration thereof out of one substance into another Finally no such mutual infusion as really causeth the same Natural Operations or Properties to be made common unto both Substances but whatsoever is natural to Deity the same remaineth in Christ uncommunicated unto his Manhood and whatsoever natural to Manhood his Deity thereof is uncapable The true Properties and Operations of his Deity are To know that which is not possible for Created Natures to comprehend to be simply the highest cause of all things the Well-spring of Immortality and Life to have neither end nor beginning of days to be every where present and inclosed no where to be subject to no alteration nor passion to produce of it self those effects which cannot proceed but from infinite Majesty and Power The true Properties and Operation of his Manhood are such as Irenaus reckoneth up If Christ saith he had not taken flesh from the very Earth he would not have coveted those earthly nourishments wherewith bodies which be taken from thence are fed This was the Nature which felt hunger after long fasting was desirous of rest after travel testified compassion and love by tears groaned in heaviness and with extremity of grief even melted away it self into bloody sweats To Christ we ascribe both working of Wonders and suffering of Pains we use concerning him speeches as well of Humility as of Divine Glory but the one we apply unto that Nature which he took of the Virgin Mary the other to that which was in the beginning We may not therefore imagine that the properties of the weaker Nature have vanished with the presence of the more glorious and have been therein swallowed up as in a Gulf. We dare not in this point give ear to them who over-boldly affirm That the Nature which Christ took weak and feeble from us by being mingled with Deity became the same which Deity is that the Assumption of our Substance unto his was like the blending of a drop of Vinegar with the huge Ocean wherein although it continue still yet not with those properties which severed it hath because sithence the instant of their conjunction all distinction and difference of the one from the other is extinct and whatsoever we can now conceive of the Son of God is nothing else but meer Deity Which words are so plain and direct for Eutiches that I stand in doubt they are not his whose name they carry Sure I am they are far from truth and must of necessity give place to the better advised sentences of other men He which in himself was appointed saith Hilary a Mediator to save his Church and for performance of that Mystery of Mediation between God and Man is become God and Man doth now being but one consist of both those Natures united neither hath he through the Union of both incurred the damage or loss of either lest by being born a Man we should think he hath given over to be God or that because he continued God therefore he cannot be Man also whereas the true belief which maketh a man happy proclaimeth joyntly God and Man confesseth the Word and Flesh together Cyril more plainly His two Natures have knit themselves the one to the other and are in that nearness as uncapable of confusion as of distraction Their coherence hath not taken away the difference between them Flesh is not become God but doth still continue Flesh although it be now the Flesh of God Tea of each Substance saith Leo the Properties are all preserved and kept safe These two Natures are as causes and original Grounds of all things which Christ hath done Wherefore some things he doth as God because his Deity alone is the Well-spring from which they flow some things as Man because they issue from his meer Humane nature some things joyntly as both God and Man because both Natures concur as Principles thereunto For albeit the Properties of each Nature do cleave onely to that Nature whereof they are Properties and therefore Christ cannot naturally be as God the same which he naturally is as Man yet both Natures may very well concur unto one effect and Christ in that respect be truly said to work both as God and as Man one and the self-same thing Let us therefore set it down for a rule or principle so necessary as nothing more to the plain deciding of all doubts and questions about the Union of Natures in Christ that of both Natures there is a Co-operation often an Association always but never any Mutual Participation whereby the Properties of the one are infused into the other Which rule must serve for the better understanding of that which Damascene hath touching cross and circulatory speeches wherein there are attributed to God such things as belong to Manhood and to Man such as properly concern the Deity of Christ Jesus the cause whereof is the Association of Natures in one Subject A kinde of Mutual Commutation there is whereby those concrete Names God and Man when we speak of Christ do take
therefore That to save the World it was of necessity the Son of God should be thus incarnate and that God should so be in Christ as hath been declared 55. Having thus far proceeded in speech concerning the Person of Jesus Christ his two Natures their Conjunction that which he either is or doth in respect of both and that which the one receiveth from the other sith God in Christ is generally the Medicine which doth cure the World and Christ in as is that Receipt of the same Medicine whereby we are every one particularly cured In as much as Christs Incarnation and Passion can be available to no mans good which is not made partaker of Christ neither can we participate him without his Presence we are briefly to consider how Christ is present to the end it may thereby better appear how we are made partakers of Christ both otherwise and in the Sacraments themselves All things are in such sort divided into Finite and Infinite that no one Substance Nature or Quality can be possibly capable of both The World and all things in the World are stinted all effects that proceed from them all the powers and abilities whereby they work whatsoever they do whatsoever they may and whatsoever they are is limited Which limitation of each Creature is both the perfection and also the perservation thereof Measure is that which perfecteth all things because every thing is for some end neither can that thing be available to any end which is not proportionable thereunto and to proportion as well excesses as defects are opposite Again for as much as nothing doth perish but onely through excess or defect of that the due proportioned measure whereof doth give perfection it followeth That measure is likewise the preservation of all things Out of which premises we may conclude not onely that nothing created can possibly be unlimited or can receive any such accident quality or property as may really make it infinite for then should it cease to be a Creature but also that every Creatures limitation is according to his own kinde and therefore as oft as we note in them any thing above their kinde it argueth That the same is not properly theirs but groweth in them from a cause more powerful then they are Such as the Substance of each thing is such is also the Presence thereof Impossible it is that God should withdraw his Presence from any thing because the very Substance of God is infinite He filleth Heaven and Earth although he take up no room in either because his Substance is immaterial pure and of us in this World so incomprehensible that albeit an part of us be ever absent from him who is present whole unto every particular thing yet his Presence with us we no way discern further then onely that God is present which partly by Reason and more perfectly by Faith we know to be firm and certain Seeing therefore that Presence every where is the sequel of an infinite and incomprehensible Substance for what can be every where but that which can no where be comprehended To enquire whether Christ be every where is to enquire of a Natural Property a Property that cleaveth to the Deity of Christ. Which Deity being common unto him with none but onely the Father and the Holy Ghost it followeth That nothing of Christ which is limited that nothing created that neither the Soul nor the Body of Christ and consequently not Christ as Man or Christ according to his Humane Nature can possibly be every where present because those phrases of Limitation and Restraint do either point out the principal subject whereunto every such attribute adhereth or else they intimate the radical cause out of which it groweth For example when we say that Christ as Man or according to his Humane Nature suffered death we show what Nature was the proper subject of Mortality When we say that as God or according to his Deity he conquered Death we declare his Deity to have been the cause by force and vertue whereof lie raised himself from the Grave But neither is the Manhood of Christ that subject whereunto Universal Presence agreeth neither is it the cause original by force whereof his Person is enabled to be everywhere present Wherefore Christ is essentially present with all things in that he is very God but not present with all things as Man because Manhood and the parts thereof can neither be the cause nor the true subject of such Presence Notwithstanding somewhat more plainly to shew a true immediate reason wherefore the Manhood of Christ can neither be every where present nor cause the Person of Christ so to be we acknowledge that of St. Augustine concerning Christ most true In that he is personally the Word he created all things in that he it naturally Man he himself is created of God and it doth not appear that any one Creature hath Power to be present withall Creatures Whereupon nevertheless it will not follow that Christ cannot therefore be thus present because he is himself a Creature for as much as onely Infinite Presence is that which cannot possibly stand with the Essence or Being of any Creature as for Presence with all things that are sith the whole Race Mass and Body of them is Finite Christ by being a Creature is not in that respect excluded from possibility of Presence with them That which excludeth him therefore as Man from so great largeness of Presence is onely his being Man a Creature of this particular kinde whereunto the God of Nature hath set those bounds of restraint and limitation beyond which to attribute unto it any thing more then a Creature of that sort can admit were to give it another Nature to make it a Creature of some other kinde then in truth it is Furthermore if Christ in that he is Man be every where present seeing this cometh not by the Nature of Manhood it self there is no other way how it should grow but either by the Grace of Union with Deity or by the Grace of Unction received from Deity It hath been already sufficiently proved that by Force of Union the Properties of both Natures are imparted to the Person onely in whom they are and not what belongeth to the one Nature really conveyed or translated into the other it hath been likewise proved That Natures united in Christ continue the very same which they are where they are not united And concerning the Grace of Unction wherein are contained the Gifts and Vertues which Christ as Man hath above men they make him Really and Habitually a Man more excellent then we are they take not from him the Nature and Substance that we have they cause not his Soul nor Body to be of another kinde then ours is Supernatural endowments are an advancement they are no extinguishment of that Nature whereto they are given The Substance of the Body of Christ hath no Presence neither can have but onely
to me and especially at this time of my Age a Work of much labor to enquire consider research and determine what a needful to be known concerning him For I knew him not in his Life and must therefore not onely look back to his Death now Sixty four years past but almost Fifty years beyond that even to his Childhood and Youth and gather thence such Observations and Prognosticks as may at least adorn if not prove necessary for the compleating of what I have undertaken This trouble I foresee and foresee also that it is impossible to escape Censures against which I will not hope my well-meaning and diligence can protect me for I consider the Age in which I live and shall therefore but intreat of my Reader a suspension of them till I have made known unto him some Reasons which I my self would now fain believe do make me in some measure fit for this undertaking And if these Reasons shall not acquit me from all Censures they may at least abate of their severity and this is all I can probably hope for My Reasons follow About Forty years past for I am now in the Seventieth of my age I began a happy affinity with William Cranmer now with God Grand Nephew unto the Great Archbishop of that name a family of noted prudence and resolution with him and two of his sisters I had an entire and free friendship One of them was the Wife of Dr. Spencer a Bosom-friend and sometime Compupil with Mr. Hooker in Corpus-Christi Colledge in Oxford and after President of the same I name them here for that I shall have occasion to mention them in this following Discourse as also George Cranmer their Brother of whose useful abilities my Reader may have a more authentick testimony then my Pen can purchase for him by that of our Learned Cambden and others This William Cranmer and his two forenamed Sisters had some affinity and a most familiar friendship with Mr. Hooker and had had some part of their Education with him in his House when he was Parson of Bishops-Born near Cantebury in which City their good Father then lived They had I say a great part of their Education with him as my self since that time a happy Cohabitation with them and having some years before read part of Mr. Hookers Works with great liking and satisfaction my affection on to them made me a diligent Inquisitor into many things that concerned him as namely of his Person his Nature the management of his Time his Wife his Family and the Fortune of him and his Which inquiry hath given me much advantage in the knowledge of what is now under my consideration and intended for the satisfaction of my Reader I had also a friendship with the Reverend Dr. Usher the late Learned Archbishop of Armagh and with Dr. Morton the late Learned and Charitable Bishop of Durham as also with the Learned John Hales of Eaton Colledge and with them also who loved the very name of Mr. Hooker I have had many discourses concerning him and from them and many others that have now put off Mortality I might have had more Informations if I could then have admitted a thought of any fitness for what by perswasion I have now undertaken But though that full Harvest be irrecoverably lost yet my Memory hath preserved some Gleanings and my diligence made such Additions to them as I hope will prove useful to the compleating of what I intend In the discovery of which I shall be faithful and with this assurance put a period to my Introduction THE LIFE IT is not to be doubted but that Richard Hooker was born within the Precincts or in the City of Exeter A City which may justly boast that it was the Birth-place of him and Sir Thomas Bodley as indeed the County may in which it stands that it hath furnished this Nation with Bishop Iewel Sir Francis Drake Sir Walter Raleigh and many others memorable for their Valor and Learning He was born about the Year of our Redemption One thousand five hundred fifty and three and of Parents that were not so remarkable for their Extraction or Riches as for their Vertue and Industry and Gods Blessing upon both By which they were enabled to educate their Children in some degree of Learning of which our Richard Hooker may appear to be one fair Testimony And that Nature is not so partial as always to give the great Blessings of Wisdom and Learning and with them the greater Blessings of Vertue and Government to those onely that are of a more high and honorable Birth His Complexion if we may guess by him at the Age of Forty was Sanguine with a mixture of Choler and yet his Motion was slow even in his Youth and so was his Speech never expressing an Earnestness in either of them but a Gravity suitable to the Aged And it is observe so far as Inquiry is able to look back at this distance of Time that at his being a School-boy he was an early Questionist quietly inquisitive Why this was and that was not to be remembred Why this was granted and that denied This being mixt with a remarkable Modesty and a sweet serene Quietness of Nature and with them a quick Apprehension of many perplext parts of Learning imposed then upon him as a Scholar made his Master and others to believe him to have an inward Blessed Divine Light and therefore to consider him to a little wonder For in that Children were less pregnant less confident and more malleable then in this wiser but not better Age. This Meekness and conjuncture of Knowledge with Modesty in his Conversation being observed by his School-master caused him to perswade his Parents who intended him for an Apprentice to continue him at School till he could finde out some means by perswading his rich Uncle or some other charitable Person to ease them of a part of their Care and Charge Assuring them that their Son was so enriched with the Blessings of Nature and Grace that God seemed to single him out as a special Instrument of his Glory And the good Man told them also that he would double his diligence in instructing him and would neither expect not receive any other Reward then the content of so hopeful and happy an imployment This was not unwelcome news and especially to this Mother to whom he was a dutiful and dear Childe and all Parties were so pleased with this Proposal that it was resolved So it should be And in the mean time his Parents and Master laid a Foundation for his future Happiness by instilling into his Soul the Seeds of Piety those Consciencious principles of Loving and fearing God of an early belief that he knows the very secrets of our Souls that he punisheth our Vices and rewards our Innocence that we should be free from Hypocrisie and appear to Man what we are to God because first or last the crafty man is catcht in his own snare
what went they out to see a Man Cloathed in Purple and fine Linen no indeed but an obscure harmless Man a Man in poor Clothes his Loynes usually girt in a course Gown or Canonical Coat of a mean Stature and stooping and yet more lowly in the thoughts of his Soul his body worn out not with Age but Study and Holy Mortifications his face full of Heat-Pimples begot by his unactivity and sedentary life And to this true Character of his Person let me add this of his Disposition and behaviour God and Nature blest him with so blessed a hashfulness that as in his younger days his Pupils might easily look him out of countenance so neither then nor in his Age did he ever willingly look any Man in the face and was of so mild and humble a Nature that his poor Parish Clark and he did never talk but with both their Hats on or both off at the same time and to this may be added that though he was not purblind yet he was short or weak-sighted and where be fixt his eyes at the beginning of his Sermon there they continued till it was ended and the Reader has a Liberty to believe that his Modesty and Dim sight were some of the reasons why he trusted Mistris Churchman to choose a Wife for him This Parish Clark lived till the third or fourth year of the late long Parliament betwixt which time and Mr. Hookers Death there had come many to see the place of his Burial and the Monument dedicated to his memory by Sir William Cooper who still lives and the poor Clark had many rewards for shewing Mr. Hookers Grave-place and his said Monument and did always hear Mr. Hooker mentioned with Commendations and Reverence to all which he added his own knowledge and observations of his Humility and Holiness in all which Discourses the poor man was still more confirm'd in his opinion of Mr. Hookers Vertues and Learning but it so fell out that about the said third or fourth year of the long Parliament the present Parson of Borne was Sequestred you may guess why and a Genevian Minister put into his good living This and other like Sequestrations made the Clerk express himself in a wonder and say They had Sequestred so many good Men that he doubted if his good Master Mr. Hooker had lived till now they would have Sequestred him too It was not long before this intruding Minister had made a party in and about the said Parish that were desirous to receive the Sacrament as in Geneva to which end the day was appointed for a Select Company and Forms and Stools set about the Altar or Communion Table for them to sit and eat and drink but when they went about this work there was a want of some Joynd-stools which the Minister sent the Clerk to fetch and then to fetch Cushions When the Clerk saw them begin to sit down he began to wonder but the Minister bade him cease wondering and lock the Church door To whom he replied Pray take you the Keys and lock me out I will never come more into this Church for all men will say my Master Hooker was a good Man and a good Scholar and I am sure it was not used to be thus in his days And report says The old man went presently home and died I do not say died immediately but within a few days after But let us leave this grateful Clerk in his quiet Grave and return to Mr. Hooker himself continuing our observations of his Christian behavior in this place where he gave a holy Valediction to all the pleasures and allurements of Earth possessing his Soul in a vertuous quietness which he maintained by constant Study Prayers and Meditations His use was to Preach once every Sunday and he or his Curate to Catechize after the Second Lesson in the Evening Prayer His Sermons were neither long nor earnest but uttered with a grave Zeal and an humble Voice His Eyes always fixt on one place to prevent his imagination from wandring insomuch that he seem'd to Study as he spake the design of his Sermons as indeed of all his Discourses was to shew Reasons for what he spake And with these Reasons such a kinde of Rhetorick as did rather convince and perswade then frighten men into Piety Studying not so much for matter which he never wanted as for apt illustrations to inform and teach his unlearned hearers by familiar examples and then make them better by convincing Applications never laboring by hard words and then by needless distinctions and subdistinctions to amuse his hearers and get glory to himself But glory onely to God Which intention he would often say was as discernable in a Preacher as an Artificial from a Natural Beauty He never failed the Sunday before every Ember week to give notice of it to his Parishioners perswading them both to fast and then to double their Devotions for a Learned and Pious Clergy but especially for the last saying often That the life of a pious Clergy-man was visible Rhetorick and so convincing That the most godless men though they would not deny themselves the enjoyment of their present Lusts did get secretly wish themselves like those of the strictest lives And to what he perswaded others he added his own example of Fasting and Prayer and did usually every Ember week take from the Parish Clerk the Key of the Church door into which place he retired every day and lockt himself up for many hours and did the like most Fridays and other days of Fasting He would by no means omit the customary time of Procession perswading all both rich and poor if they desired the preservation of Love and their Parish Rights and Liberties to accompany him in his Perambulation and most did so In which Perambulation he would usually express more pleasant discourse then at other times and would then always drop some loving and facetious observations to be remembred against the next year especially by the boys and young people still inclining them and all his present Parishioners to meekness and mutual kindnesses and love because Love thinks not evil but covers a multitude of infirmities He was diligent to enquire who of his Parish were sick or any way distressed and would often visit them unsent for supposing that the fittest time to discover those Errors to which health and prosperity had blinded them And having by pious Reasons and Prayers molded them into holy Resolutions for the time to come he would incline them to Confession and bewailing their sins with purpose to forsake them and then to receive the Communion both as a strengthning of those holy Resolutions and as a Seal betwixt God and them of his mercies to their Souls in case that present sickness did put a period to their lives And as he was thus watchful and charitable to the sick so he was as diligent to prevent Law-sutes still urging his Parishioners and Neighbors to bear with each others
Nobility when the Matter came in tryal would contentedly suffer themselves to be always at the Call and to stand to the sentence of a number of mean persons assisted with the presence of their poor Teacher a man as sometimes it hapneth though better able to speak yet little or no whit apter to judge then the rest From whom be their dealings never so absurd unless it be by way of Complaint to a Synod no Appeal may be made unto any one of higher Power is as much as the Order of your Discipline admitteth no standing in Equality of Courts no Spiritual Iudge to have any ordinary Superior on Earth but as many Supremacies as there are Parishes and several Congregations Neither is it altogether without cause that so many do fear the overthrow of all Learning as a threatned sequel of this your Intended Discipline For if the Worlds Preservation depend upon the multitude of the wise and of that sort the number hereafter be not likely to wax over-great when that therewith the son of Syrach professeth himself at the heart grived men of understanding are already so little set by How should their mindes whom the love of so precious a Iewel filleth with secret jealousie even in regard of the lest things which may any way hinder the flourishing estate thereof chuse but misdoubt lest this Discipline which always you match with Divine Doctrine as her natural and true Sister be found unto all kindes of knowledge a Step-mother seeing that the greatest worldly hopes which are proposed unto the chiefest kinde of Learning ye seek utterly to extirpate as Weeds and have grounded your Platform on such Propositions as do after a sort undermine those most renowned Habitations where through the goodness of Almighty God all commendable Arts and Sciences are with exceeding great industry hitherto and so may they for ever continue studied proceeded in and profest To charge you as purposely bent to the overthrow of that wherein so many of you have attained no small perfection were injurious Onely therefore I wish that your selves did well consider how opposite certain of your Positions are unto the state of Collegiate Societies whereon the two Universities consist Those Degrees which their Statutes binde them to take are by your Laws taken away your selves who have sought them ye so excuse as that ye would have men to think ye judge them not allowable but tolerable onely and to be borne with for some help which ye finde in them unto the furtherance of your purposes till the corrupt estate of the Church may be better reformed Your Laws forbidding Ecclesiastical Persons utterly the exercise of Civil Power must needs deprive the Heads and Masters in the same Colledges of all such Authority as now they exercise either at home by punishing the faults of those who not as children to their Parents by the Law of Nature but altogether by Civil Authority are subject unto them or abroad by keeping Courts amongst their Tenants Your Laws making permanent inequality amongst Ministers a thing repugnant to the Word of God enforce those Colledges the Seniors whereof are all or any part of them Ministers under the Government of a Master in the same Vocation to chuse as oft as they meet together a new President For if so ye judge it necessary to do in Synods for the avoiding of permanent inequality amongst Ministers the same cause must needs even in these Collegiate Assemblies enforce the like Except peradventure ye mean to avoid all such absurdities by dissolving those Corporations and by bringing the Universities unto the Form of the School of Geneva Which thing men the rather are inclined to look for in as much as the Ministery wherein to their Founders with singular Providence have by the same Statutes appointed them necessarily to enter at a certain time your Laws binde them much more necessarily to forbear till some Parish abroad call for them Your opinion concerning the Law Civil is That the knowledge thereof might be spared as a thing which this Land doth not need Professors in that kinde being few ye are the bolder to spurn at them and not to dissemble your mindes as concerning their removal In whose Studies although my self have not much been conversant nevertheless exceeding great cause I see there is to wish that thereunto more encouragement were given as well for the singular Treasures of Wisdom therein contained as also for the great use we have thereof both in Decision of certain kindes of causes arising daily within our selves and especially for Commerce with Nations abroad whereunto that knowledge is most requisite The Reasons wherewith ye would perswade that Scripture is the onely rule to frame all our actions by are in every respect as effectual for proof that the same it the onely Law whereby to determine all our Civil Controversies And then what doth let but that as those men may have their desire who frankly broach it already That the Work of Reformation will never be perfect till the Law of Iesus Christ be received alone so Pleaders and Counsellors may bring their Books of the Common Law and bestow them as the Students of curious and needless Arts did theirs in the Apostles time I leave them to scan how for thosewords of yours may reach wherein ye declare That where as now many houses lie waste through inordinate Suits of Law This one thing will shew the excellency of Discipline for the Wealth of the Realm and quiet of Subjects That the Church is to censure such a Party who is apparently troublesome and contentious and without REASONABLE CAUSE upon a meer Will and Stomach doth vex and molest his Brother and trouble the Country For mine own part I do not see but that it might very well agree with your Principles if your Discipline were fully planted even to send out your Writs of Surcease unto all Courts of England besides for the most things handled in them A great deal further I might proceed and descend lower but for as much as against all these and the like difficulties your answer is That we ought to search what things are consonant to Gods Will not which be most for our own ease and therefore that your Discipline being for such is your Error the absolute Commandment of Almighty God it must be received although the World by receiving it should be clean turned upside down Herein lieth the greatest danger of all For whereas the name of Divine Authority is used to countenance these things which are not the Commandments of God but your own Erroneous Collections on him ye must father whatsoever ye shall afterwards be led either to do in withstanding the Adversaries of your Cause or to think in maintenance of your doings And what this may be God doth know In such kindes of Error the Minde once imagining it self to seek the execution of Gods Will laboreth forthwith to remove both things and persons which any way
proceedeth not from God himself as from the supream cause of all things and every effect doth after a sort contain at leastwise resemble the cause from which it proceedeth All things in the World are said in some sort to seek the highest and to cover more or less the participation of God himself yet this doth no where so much appear as it doth in Man because there are so many kindes of Perfections which Man seeketh The first degree of Goodness is that General Perfection which all things do seek in desiring the continuance of their Being all things therefore coveting as much as may be to be like unto God in Being ever that which cannot hereunto attain personally doth seek to continue it self another way that is by Off-spring and Propagation The next degree of Goodness is that which each thing coveteth by affecting resemblance with God in the constancy and excellency of those operations which belong unto their kinde The Immutability of God they strive unto by working either always or for the most part after one and the same manner his absolute exactness they imitate by tending unto that which is most exquisite in every particular Hence have risen a number of Axioms in Philosophy shewing How the works of nature do always aim at that which cannot be bettered These two kindes of Goodness rehearsed are so nearly united to the things themselves which desire them that we scarcely perceive the appetite to stir in reaching forth her hand towards them But the desire of those Perfections which grow externally is more apparent especially of such as are not expresly desired unless they be first known or such as are not for any other cause then for Knowledge it self desired Concerning Perfections in this kinde that by proceeding in the Knowledge of Truth and by growing in the exercise of Vertue Man amongst the Creatures of this inferior World aspireth to the greatest Conformity with God This is not onely known unto us whom he himself hath so instructed but even they do acknowledge who amongst men are not judged the nearest unto him With Plato what one thing more usual then to excite men unto the love of Wisdom by shewing how much wise men are thereby exalted above men how knowledge doth raise them up into Heaven how it maketh them though not Gods yet â—as Gods high admirable and divine And Mercurius Trismegistus speaking of the vertues of a righteous Soul Such spirits saith he are never slayed with praising and speaking well of all men with doing good unto every one by word and deed because they study to frame themselves according to THE PATTERN of the Father of Spirits 6. In the Matter of Knowledge there is between the Angels of God and the Children of Men this difference Angels already have full and compleat knowledge in the highest degree that can be imparted unto them Men if we view them in their Spring are at the first without understanding or knowledge at all Nevertheless from this utter vacuity they grow by degrees till they come at length to be even as the Angels themselves are That which agreeth to the one now the other shall attain unto in the end they are not so far disjoyned and severed but that they comest length to meet The Soul of Man being therefore at the first as a Book wherein nothing is and yet all things may be imprinted we are to search by what steps and degrees it riseth unto Perfection of Knowledge Unto that which hath been already set down concerning Natural Agents this we must add That albeit therein we have comprised as well Creatures living as void of life if they be in degree of nature beneath Men nevertheless a difference we must observe between those Natural Agents that work altogether unwittingly and those which have though weak yet some understanding what they do as Fishes Fowls and Beasts have Beasts are in sensible capacity as ripe even as men themselves perhaps more ripe For as Stones though in dignity of Nature inferior unto Plants yet exceed them in firmness of strength or durability of Being and Plants though beneath the excellency of Creatures endued with sense yet exceed them in the Faculty of Vegetation and of Fertility So Beasts though otherwise behinde Men may notwithstanding in actions of Sense and Fancy go beyond them because the endeavors of Nature when it hath an higher perfection to seek are in lower the more remiss not esteeming thereof so much as those things do which have no better proposed unto them The Soul of Man therefore being capable of a more Divine Perfection hath besides the Faculties of growing unto sensible knowledge which is common unto us with Beasts a further hability whereof in them there is no shew at all the ability of reaching higher then unto sensible things Till we grow to some ripeness of years the Soul of Man doth onely store it self with conceits of things of inferior and more open quality which afterwards do serve as Instruments unto that which is greater in the mean while above the reach of meaner Creatures is ascendeth not When once it comprehendeth any thing above this as the differences of time affirmations negations and contradiction in Speech we then count it to have some use of Natural Reason Whereunto if afterwards there might be added the right helps of true Art and Learning which helps I must plainly confess this age of the World carrying the name of a Learned Age doth neither much know not greatly regard there would undoubtedly be almost as great difference in maturity of judgment between men therewith inured and that which now men are as between men that are now and Innocents Which speech if any condemn as being over Hyperbolical let them consider but this one thing No Art is at the first finding out so perfect as Industry may aftermake it yet the very first Man that to any purpose knew the way we speak of and followed it hath alone thereby performed more very near in all parts of Natural Knowledge then sithence in any one part thereof the whole World besides hath done In the poverty of that other new devised aid two things there are notwithstanding singular Of marvellous quick dispatch it is and doth shew them that have it as much almost in three days as if it had dwelt threescore years with them Again because the curiosity of Mans wit doth many times with perswade farther in the search of things then were convenient the same is thereby restrained unto such generalities as every where offering themselves are apparent unto men of the weakest conceit that need be So as following the Rules and Precepts thereof we may finde it to be an Art which teacheth the way of speedy Discourse and restraineth the minde of Man that it may not wax overwise Education and Instruction are the means the one by use the other by precept to make our Natural Faculty of Reason both the better and
Subjects that which seemeth good in his own discretion hath not his Edict the force of a Law whether they approve or dislike it Again that which hath been received long sithence and is by custom now established we keep as a Law which we may not transgress yet what consent was ever thereunto sought or required at our hands Of this point therefore we are to note that sith Men naturally have no full and perfect power to command whole Politick Multitudes of Men therefore utterly without our consent we could in such sort be at no Mans commandment living And to be commanded we do consent when that Society whereof we are part hath at any time before consented without revoking the same after by the like Universal Agreement Wherefore as any Mans Deed past is good as long as himself continueth so the Act of a Publick Society of Men done Five hundred years sithence standeth as theirs who presently are of the same Societies because Corporations are Immortal we were then alive in our Predecessors and they in their Successors do live still Laws therefore Humane of what kinde soever are available by consent If here it be demanded how it cometh to pass that this being common unto all Laws which are made there should be found even in good Laws so great variety as there is We must note the Reason hereof to be the sundry particular ends whereunto the different disposition of that Subject or Matter for which Laws are provided causeth them to have a special respect in making Laws A Law there is mentioned amongst the Grecians whereof Pillacus is reported to have been Author and by that Law it was agreed that he which being overcome with drink did then strike any man should suffer punishment double as much as if he had done the same being sober No man could ever have thought this reasonable that had intended thereby onely to punish the injury committed according to the gravity of the Fact For who knoweth not that harm advisedly done is naturally less pardonable and therefore worthy of sharper punishment But for as much as none did so usually this way offend as men in that case which they wittingly fell into even because they would be so much the more freely outragious It was for their publick good where such disorder was grown to frame a Positive Law for remedy thereof accordingly To this appertain those known Laws of making Laws as that Law-makers must have an eye to that place where and to the men amongst whom that one kinde of Laws cannot serve for all kinde of Regiment that where the Multitude beareth sway Laws that shall tend unto the preservation of that State must make common smaller Offices to go by lot for fear of strife and division likely to arise by reason that ordinary qualities sufficing for discharge of such Offices they could not but by many be desired and so with danger contended for and not missed without grudge and discontentment whereas at an uncertain lot none can finde themselves grieved on whomsoever it lighteth Contrariwise the greatest whereof but few are capable to pass by Popular Election that neither the people may envy such as have those Honors in as much as themselves bestow them and that the chiefest may be kindled with desire to exercise all parts of rare and beneficial Vertue knowing they shall not lose their labor by growing in fame and estimation amongst the people If the Helm of chief Government be in the hands of a few of the wealthiest that then Laws providing for continuance thereof must make the punishment of contumely and wrong offered unto any of the common sort sharp and grievous that so the evil may be prevented whereby the rich are most likely to bring themselves into hatred with the people who are not wont to take so great offence when they are excluded from Honors and Offices as when their persons are contumeliously trodden upon In other kindes of Regiment the like is observed concerning the difference of Positive Laws which to be everywhere the same is impossible and against their Nature Now as the Learned in the Laws of this Land observe that our Statutes sometimes are onely the Affirmation or Ratification of that which by Common Law was held before so here it is not to be omitted that generally all Laws Humane which are made for the ordering of Politick Societies be either such as establish some duty whereunto all Men by the Law of Reason did before stand bound or else such as make that a duty now which before was none The one sort we may for distinction sake call Mixedly and the other Meerly Humane That which plain or necessary Reason bindeth Men unto may be in sundry considerations expedient to be ratified by Humane Law For example if Confusion of Blood in Marriage the liberty of having many Wives at once or any other the like corrupt and unreasonable Custom doth happen to have prevailed far and to have gotten the upper hand of Right Reason with the greatest part so that no way is left to rectifie such foul disorder without prescribing by Law the same things which Reason necessarily doth enforce but is not perceived that so it doth or if many be grown unto that which the Apostle did lament in some concerning whom he writeth saying That even what things they naturally know in those very things as Beasts void of Reason they corrupted themselves Or if there be no such special accident yet for as much as the common sort are led by the sway of their sensual desires and therefore do more shun sin for the sensible evils which follow it amongst men then for any kinde of sentence which Reason doth pronounce against it This very thing is cause sufficient why duties belonging unto each kinde of Vertue albeit the Law of Reason teach them should notwithstanding be prescribed even by Humane Law Which Law in this case we term Mixt because the matter whereunto it bindeth is the same which Reason necessarily doth require at our hands and from the Law of Reason it differeth in the manner of binding onely For whereas Men before stood bound in Conscience to do as the Law of Reason teacheth they are now by vertue of Humane Law become constrainable and if they outwardly transgress punishable As for Laws which are Meerly Humane the matter of them is any thing which Reason doth but probably teach to be fit and convenient so that till such time as Law hath passed amongst men about it of it self it bindeth no man One example whereof may be this Lands are by Humane Law in some places after the owners decease divided unto all his Children in some all descendeth to the eldest Son If the Law of Reason did necessarily require but the one of these two to be done they which by Law have received the other should be subject to that heavy sentence which denounceth against all that Decree wicked unjust and unreasonable things Wo.
to the private intents of men over-potent in the Commonwealth So the grievous abuse which hath been of Councils should rather cause men to study how so gracious a thing may again be reduced to that first Perfection then in regard of stains and blemishes sithence growing be held for ever in extream disgrace To speak of this matter as the cause requireth would require very long discourse All I will presently say is this Whether it be for the finding out of any thing whereunto Divine Law bindeth us but yet in such sort that Men are not thereof on all sides resolved or for the setting down of some Uniform Judgment to stand touching such things as being neither way matters of necessity are notwithstanding offensive and scandalous when there is open opposition about them Be it for the ending of strifes touching matters of Christian belief wherein the one part may seem to have probable cause of dissenting from the other or be it concerning matters of Policy Order and Regiment in the Church I nothing doubt but that Christian men should much better frame themselves to those Heavenly Precepts which our Lord and Saviour with so great instancy gave as concerning Peace and Unity if we did all concur in desire to have the use of Ancient Councils again renewed rather then these proceedings continued which either make all Contentions endless or bring them to one onely Determination and that of all other the worst which is by Sword It followeth therefore that a new Foundation being laid we now adjoyn hereunto that which cometh in the next place to be spoken of namely wherefore God hath himself by Scripture made known such Laws as serve for direction of Men. 11. All things God onely accepted besides the Nature which they have in themselves receive externally some Perfection from other things as hath been shewed In so much as there is in the whole World no one thing great or small but either in respect of knowledge or of use it may unto our Perfection add somewhat And whatsoever such Perfection there is which our Nature may acquire the same we properly term our good our Soveraign Good or Blessedness that wherein the highest degree of all our Perfection consisteth that which being once attained unto there can rest nothing further to be desired and therefore with it our souls are fully content and satisfied in that they have they rejoyce and thirst for no more Wherefore of good things desired some are such that for themselves we cover them not but onely because they serve as Instruments unto that for which we are to seek Of this sort are Riches Another kinde there is which although we desire for it self as Health and Vertue and Knowledge nevertheless they are not the last mark whereat we aim but have their further end whereunto they are referred So as in them we are not satisfied as having attained the utmost we may but our desires do still proceed These things are linked and as it were chained one to another We labor to eat and we eat to live and we live to do good and the good which we do is as seed sown with reference unto a future Harvest But we must come at the length to some pause For if every thing were to be desired for some other without any stint there could be no certain end proposed unto our actions we should go on we know not whither yea whatsoever we do were in vain or rather nothing at all were possible to be done For as to take away the first efficient of our Being were to annihilate utterly our persons so we cannot remove the last final cause of our working but we shall cause whatsoever we work to cease Therefore something there must be desired for it self simply and for no other That is simply for it self desirable unto the nature whereof it is opposite and repugnant to be desired with relation unto any other The Ox and the Ass desire their food neither propose they unto themselves any end wherefore so that of them this is desired for it self But why By reason of their imperfection which cannot otherwise desire it whereas that which is desired simply for it self the excellency thereof is such as permitteth it not in any sort to be referred unto a further end Now that which Man doth desire with reference to a further end the same he desireth in such measure as is unto that end convenient but what he covereth as good in it self towards that his desire is ever infinite So that unless the last good of all which is desired altogether for it self be also infinite we do evil in making it our end even as they who placed their felicity in wealth or honor or pleasure or any thing here attained because in desiring any thing as our final perfection which is not so we do amiss Nothing may be infinitely desired but that good which indeed is infinite For the better the more desireable that therefore most desireable wherein there is infinity of goodness So that if any thing desireable may be infinite that must needs be the highest of all things that are desired No good is infinite but onely God therefore he is our felicity and bliss moreover desire tendeth unto union with that it desireth If then in him we be blessed it is by force of participation and conjunction with him Again it is not the possession of any good thing can make them happy which have it unless they enjoy the things wherewith they are possessed Then are we happy therefore when fully we enjoy God as an object wherein the Powers of our Souls are satisfied even with everlasting delight So that although we be men yet by being unto God united we live as it were the Life of God Happiness therefore is that estate whereby we attain so far as possibly may be attained the full possession of that which simply for it self is to be desired and containeth in it after an eminent sort the contentation of our desires the highest degree of all our Perfection Of such Perfection capable we are not in this life For while we are in the World we are subject unto sundry imperfections grief of body defects of minde yea the best things we do are painful and the exercise of them grievous being continued without intermission so as in those very actions whereby we are especial'y perfected in this life we are not able to persist forced we are with very weariness and that often to interrupt them Which rediousness cannot fall into those operations that are in the state of bliss when our union with God is compleat Compleat union with him must be according unto every power and faculty of our mindes apt to receive so glorious an object Capable we are of God both by Understanding and Will By Understanding as he is that Soveraign Truth which comprehends the Rich Treasures of all Wisdom By Will as he is that Sea of Goodness
my Commandments always that it might go well with them and with their Children for ever Go say unto them Return you to your Tents But stand thou here with me and I will tell thee all the Commandments and the Ordinances and the Laws which thou shalt teach them that they may do them in the Land which I have given them to possess From this latter kinde the former are plainly distinguished in many things They were not both at one time delivered neither both after one sort nor to one end The former uttered by the voice of God himself in the hearing of Six hundred thousand men the former written with the Finger of God the former termed by the name of a Covenant the former given to be kept without either mention of time how long or of place where On the other side the latter given after and neither written by God himself nor given unto the whole multitude immediately from God but unto Moses and from him to them both by word and writing Finally The latter termed Ceremonies Judgments Ordinances but no where Covenants The observation of the latter restrained unto the Land where God would establish them to inhabite The Laws Positive are not framed without regard had to the place and persons for the which they are made If therefore Almighty God in framing their Laws had an eye unto the nature of that people and to the Countrey where they were to dwell if these peculiar and proper considerations were respected in the making of their Laws and must be also regarded in the Positive Laws of all other Nations besides then seeing that Nations are not all alike surely the giving of one kinde of Positive Laws unto one onely people without any liberty to alter them is but a slender proof that therefore one kinde should in like sort be given to serve everlastingly for all But that which most of all maketh for the clearing of this point is That the Jews who had Laws so particularly determining and so fully instructing them in all affairs what to do were notwithstanding continually inured with causes exorbitant and such as their Laws had not provided for And in this point much more is granted us then we ask namely that for one thing which we have left to the Order of the Church they had twenty which were undecided by the express Word of God and that as their Ceremonies and Sacraments were multiplied above ours even so grew the number of those cases which were not determined by any express word So that if we may devise one Law they by this reason might devise twenty and if their devising so many were not forbidden shall their example prove us forbidden to devise as much as one Law for the ordering of the Church We might not devise no not one if their example did prove that our Saviour hath utterly forbidden all alteration of his Laws in as much as there can be no Law devised but needs it must either take away from his or add thereunto more or less and so make some kinde of alteration But of this so large a grant we are content not to take advantage Men are oftentimes in a sudden passion more liberal then they would be if they had leisure to take advice And therefore so bountiful words of course and frank speeches we are contented to let pass without turning them to advantage with too much rigor It may be they had rather be listned unto when they commend the Kings of Israel which attempted nothing in the Government of the Church without the express Word of God and when they urge that God left nothing in his Word undescribed whether it concerned the Worship of God or outward Polity nothing unset down and therefore charged them strictly to keep themselves unto that without any alteration Howbeit seeing it cannot be denied but that many things there did belong unto the course of their Publick Affairs wherein they had no express word at all to shew precisely what they should do the difference between their condition and ours in these cases will bring some light unto the truth of this present Controversie Before the fact of the son of Shelomith there was no Law which did appoint any certain punishment for Blasphemers That wretched creature being therefore deprehended in that impiety was held in Ward till the minde of the Lord was known concerning his case The like practice is also mentioned upon occasion of a breach of the Sabbath day They finde a poor silly creature gathering sticks in the Wilderness they bring him unto Moses and Aaron and all the Congregation they lay him in hold because it was not declared what should be done with him till God had said unto Moses This man shall die the death The Law requireth to keep the Sabbath day but for the breach of the Sabbath what punishment should be inflicted it did not appoint Such occasions as these are rare And for such things as do fall scarce once in many ages of men it did suffice to take such order as was requisite when they fell But if the case were such as being not already determined by Law were notwithstanding likely oftentimes to come into question it gave occasion of adding Laws that were not before Thus it fell out in the case of those men polluted and of the daughters of Zelophehad whose causes Moses having brought before the Lord received Laws to serve for the like in time to come The Jews to this end had the Oracle of God they had the Prophets And by such means God himself instructed them from Heaven what to do in all things that did greatly concern their state and were not already set down in the Law Shall we then hereupon argue even against our own experience and knowledge Shall we seek to perswade men that of necessity it is with us as it was with them that because God is ours in all respects as much as theirs therefore either no such way of direction hath been at any time or if it hath been it doth still continue in the Church or if the same do not continue that yet it must be at the least supplied by some such mean as pleaseth us to account of equal force A more dutiful and religious way for us were to admire the Wisdom of God which shineth in the beautiful variety of all things But most in the manifold and yet harmonious dissimilitude of those ways whereby his Church upon Earth is guided from age to age throughout all Generations of Men. The Jews were necessarily to continue till the coming of Christ in the flesh and the gathering of Nations unto him So much the Promise made unto Abraham did import So much the Prophesie of Iacob at the hour of his death did foreshew Upon the safety therefore of their very outward state and condition for so long the after good of the whole World and the Salvation of all did depend Unto their so
meaneth Offence or scandal if I be not deceived saith he is when the example not of a good but of an evil thing doth set men forward to â—â—â— sin Good things can scandalize none save onely evil mindes Good things have no scandalizing Nature in them Yet that which is of it own nature either good or at least not evil may by some accident become scandalous at certain times and in certain places and to certain men the open use thereof nevertheless being otherwise without danger The very Nature of some Rites and Ceremonies therefore is scandalous as it was in a number of those which the Manichees did use and is in all such as the Law of God doth forbid Some are offensive onely through the Agreement of Men to use them unto evil and not else as the most of those things indifferent which the Heathens did to the service of their false gods which another in heart condemning their Idolatry could not do with them in shew and token of Approbation without being guilty of scandal given Ceremonies of this kinde are either devised at the first unto evil as the Eunomian Hereticks in dishonor of the Blessed Trinity brought in the laying on of Water but once to cross the custom of the Church which in Baptism did it thrice Or else having had a profitable use they are afterwards interpreted and wrested to the contrary as those Hereticks which held the Trinity to be three distinct not Persons but Natures abused the Ceremony of three times laying on Water in Baptism unto the strengthning of their Heresie The Element of Water is in Baptism necessary once to lay it on or twice is indifferent For which cause Gregory making mention thereof saith To dive an Insant either thrice or but once in Baptism can be no way a thing reproveable seeing that both in three times washing the Trinity of Persons and in one the Unity of the Godhead may be signified So that of these two Ceremonies neither being hurtful in it self both may serve unto good purpose yet one was devised and the other converted unto evil Now whereas in the Church of Rome certain Ceremonies are said to have been shamefully abused unto evil as the ceremony of Crossing at Baptism of Kneeling at the Eucharist of using Wafer-Cakes and such like the question is Whether for remedy of that evil wherein such Ceremonies have been scandalous and perhaps may be still unto some even amongst ourselves whom the presence and sight of them may confirm in that â—ormer error whereto they served in times past they are of necessity to be removed Are these or any other Ceremonies we have common with the Church of Rome scandalous and wicked in their very nature This no man objecteth Are any such as have been polluted from their very birth and instituted even at the first unto that thing which is evil That which hath been ordained impiously at the first may wear out that impiety in tract of time and then what doth let but that the use thereof may stand without offence The names of our Moneths and of our Days we are not ignorant from whence they came and with what dishonor unto God they are said to have been devised at the first What could be spoken against any thing more effectual to stir hatred then that which sometime the Antient Fathers in this case speak Yet those very names are at this day in use throughout Christendom without hurt or scandal to any Clear and manifest it is that things devised by Hereticks yea devised of a very heretical purpose even against Religion and at their first devising worthy to have been withstood may in time grow meet to be kept as that Custom the inventers whereof were the Eunomian Hereticks So that customs once established and confirmed by long use being presently without harm are not in regard of their corrupt original to be held scandalous But concerning those our Ceremonies which they reckon for most Popish they are not able to avouch that any of them was otherwise instituted then unto good yea so used at the first It followeth then that they all are such as having served to good purpose were afterwards converted unto the contrary And sith it is not so much as objected against us that we retain together with them the evil wherewith they have been infected in the Church of Rome I would demand Who they are whom we scandalize by using harmless things unto that good end for which they were first instituted Amongst our selves that agree in the approbation of this kinde of good use no man will say that one of us is offensive and scandalous unto another As for the favorers of the Church of Rome they know how far we herein differ and dissent from them which thing neither we conceal and they by their publick writings also profess daily how much it grieveth them So that of them there will not many rise up against us as witnesses unto the Inditement of Scandal whereby we might be condemned and cast as having strengthned them in that evil wherewith they pollute themselves in the use of the same Ceremonies And concerning such as withstand the Church of England herein and hate it because it doth not sufficiently seem to hate Rome they I hope are far enough from being by this mean drawn to any kinde of Popish Error The multitude therefore of them unto whom we are scandalous through the use of abused Ceremonies is not so apparent that it can justly be said in general of any one sort of men or other we cause them to offend If it be so that now or then some few are espied who having been accustomed heretofore to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of Rome are not so scoured of their former rust as to forsake their antient perswasion which they have had howsoever they frame themselves to outward obedience of Laws and Orders because such may misconster the meaning of our Ceremonies and so take them as though they were in every sort the same they have been Shall this be thought a reason sufficient whereon to conclude that some Law must necessarily be made to abolish all such Ceremonies They answer that there is no Law of God which doth binde us to retain them And St. Pauls rule is that in those things from which without hurt we may lawfully abstain we should frame the usage of our Liberty with regard to the weakness and imbecillity of our Brethren Wherefore unto them which stood upon their own defence saying All things are lawful unto me he replieth But all things are not expedient in regard of others All things are clean all Meats are lawful but evil unto that man that eateth offensively If for thy meats sake thy Brother be grieved thou walkest no longer according to Charity Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ died Dissolve not for foods sake the work of God We that are strong must bear the imbecillity of
himself should suffer To say He knew not what weight of sufferances his Heavenly Father had measured unto him is somewhat hard harder that although he knew them notwithstanding for the present time they were forgotten through the force of these unspeakable pangs which he then was in The one against the plain express words of the holy Evangelist He knew all things that should come upon him the other less credible if any thing may be of less credit then what the Scripture it self gain-sayeth Doth any of them which wrote his sufferings make report that memory failed him Is there in his words and speeches any sign of defect that way Did not himself declare before whatsoever was to happen in the course of that whole tragedy Can we gather by any thing after taken from his own mouth either in the place of publick judgment or upon the Altar of the Cross that through the bruising of his Body some part of the treasures of his Soul were scattered and slipt from him If that which was perfect both before and after did fail at this onely middle instant there must appear some manifest cause how it came to pass True it is that the pangs of his heaviness and grief were unspeakable and as true That because the mindes of the afflicted do never think they have fully conceived the weight or measure of their own wo they use their affection as a whetstone both to wit and memory these as Nurses do feed grief so that the weaker his conceit had been touching that which he was to suffer the more it must needs in that hour have helped to the mitigation of his anguish But his anguish we see was then at the very highest whereunto it could possibly rise which argueth his deep apprehension even to the last drop of the Gall which that Cup contained and of every circumstance wherein there was any force to augment heaviness but above all things the resolute determination of God and his own unchangeable purpose which he at that time could not forget To what intent then was his Prayer which plainly testifieth so great willingness to avoid death Will whether it be in God or Man belongeth to the Essence or Nature of both The Nature therefore of God being one there are not in God divers Wills although the God-head be in divers persons because the power of willing is a natural not a personal propriety Contrariwise the Person of our Saviour Christ being but one there are in him two Wills because two Natures the Nature of God and the Nature of Man which both do imply this Faculty and Power So that in Christ there is a Divine and there is an Humane will otherwise he were not both God and Man Hereupon the Church hath of old condemned Monothelites as Hereticks for holding That Christ had but one Will. The Works and Operations of our Saviours Humane will were all subject to the Will of God and framed according to his Law I desire to do thy Will O God and thy Law is within mine heart Now as Mans will so the Will of Christ hath two several kindes of operation the one Natural or necessary whereby it desireth simply whatsoever is good in it self and shunneth as generally all things which hurt the other Deliberate when we therefore embrace things as good because the eye of understanding judgeth them good to that â—â—d which we simply desire Thus in it self we desire health Physick onely for healths sake And in this sort special Reason oftentimes causeth the Will by choice to prefer one good thing before another to leave one for anothers sake to forgo meaner for the attainment of higher desires which our Saviour likewise did These different inclinations of the Will considered the reason is easie how in Christ there might grow desires seeming but being not indeed opposite either the one of them unto the other or either of them to the Will of God For let the manner of his speech be weighed My Soul is now troubled and what should I say Father save me out of this hour But yet for this very cause I am come into this hour His purpose herein was most effectually to propose to the view of the whole World two contrary Objects the like whereunto in force and efficacy were never presented in that manner to any but onely to the Soul of Christ. There was presented before his eyes in that fearful hour on the one side Gods heavy indignation and wrath towards mankinde as yet unappeased death as yet in full strength Hell as yet never mastered by any that came within the confines and bounds thereof somewhat also peradventure more then is either possible or needful for the wit of man to finde out finally Himself flesh and blood left alone to enter into conflict with all these On the other side a World to be saved by One a pacification of wrath through the dignity of that Sacrifice which should be offered a conquest over death through the power of that Deity which would not suffer the Tabernacle thereof to see corruption and an utter disappointment of all the forces of infernal powers through the purity of that Soul which they should have in their hands and not be able to touch Let no man marvel that in this case the Soul of Christ was much troubled For what could such apprehensions breed but as their nature is inexplicable Passions of minde desires abhorring what they embrace and embracing what they abhor In which Agony how should the tongue go about to express what the soul endured When the griefs of Iob were exceeding great his words accordingly to open them were many howbeit still unto his seeming they were undiscovered Though my talk saith Iob be this day in bitterness yet my plague is greater then my groaning But here to what purpose should words serve when nature hath more to declare then groans and strong cries more then streams of bloody sweats more then his doubled and tripled Prayers can express who thrice putting forth his hand to receive that Cup besides which there was no other cause of his coming into the World he thrice pulleth it back again and as often even with tears of blood craveth If it be possible O Father or if not even what thine own good pleasure is for whose sake the Passion that hath in it a bitter and a bloody conflict even with Wrath and Death and Hell is most welcome Whereas therefore we finde in God a will resolved that Christ shall suffer and in the Humane will of Christ two actual desires the one avoiding and the other accepting death Is that desire which first declareth it self by Prayer against that wherewith he concludeth Prayer or either of them against his minde to whom Prayer in this case seeketh We may judge of these diversities in the Will by the like in the Understanding For as the intellectual part doth not cross it self by conceiving man to be
their Form of Administration Upon their Force their necessity dependeth So that how they are necessary we cannot discern till we see how effectual they are When Sacraments are said to be Visible Signs of Invisible Grace we thereby conceive how Grace is indeed the very end for which these Heavenly Mysteries were instituted and besides sundry other Properties observed in them the matter whereof they consist is such as signifieth Figureth and representeth their End But still their efficacy resteth obscure to our understanding except we search somewhat more distinctly what Grace in particular that is whereunto they are referred and what manner of operation they have towards it The use of Sacraments is but onely in this life yet so that here they concern a far better life then this and are for that cause accompanied with Grace which worketh Salvation Sacraments are the Powerful Instruments of God to Eternal Life For as our Natural Life consisteth in the Union of the Body with the Soul so our Life Supernatural in the Union of the Soul with God And for as much as there is no Union of God with Man without that mean between both which is both it seemeth requisite that we first consider how God is in Christ then how Christ is in us and how the Sacraments do serve to make us partakers of Christ. In other things we may be more brief but the weight of these requireth largeness 51. The Lord our God is but one God In which Indivisible Unity notwithstanding we adore the Father as being altogether of himself we glorifie that Consubstantial Word which is the Son we bless and magnifie that Co-essential Spirit eternally proceeding from both which is the Holy Ghost Seeing therefore the Father is of none the Son is of the Father and the Spirit is of both they are by these their several Properties really distinguishable each from other For the Substance of God with this property to be of none doth make the Person of the Father the very self-same Substance in number with this property to be of the Father maketh the Person of the Son the same Substance having added unto it the property of proceeding from the other two maketh the Person of the Holy Ghost So that in every Person there is implied both the Substance of God which is one and also that property which causeth the same Person really and truly to differ from the other two Every Person hath his own subsistence which no other besides hath although there be others besides that are of the same Substance As no man but Peter can be the person which Peter is yet Paul hath the self-same Nature which Peter hath Again Angels have every of them the Nature of pure and Invisible Spirits but every Angel is not that Angel which appeared in a Dream to Ioseph Now when God became Man lest we should err in applying this to the Person of the Father or of the Spirit St. Peters confession unto Christ was Thou art the Son of the Living God and St. Iohns Exposition thereof was made plain That it is the Word which was made Flesh. The Father and the Holy Ghost saith Damascen have no Communion with the Incarnation of the Word otherwise then onely by approbation and assent Notwithstanding for as much as the Word and Deity are one Subject we must beware we exclude not the Nature of God from Incarnation and so make the Son of God incarnate not to be very God For undoubtedly even the Nature of God it self in the onely Person of the Son is incarnate and hath taken to it self Flesh. Wherefore Incarnation may neither be granted to any Person but onely One nor yet denied to that Nature which is common unto all Three Concerning the cause of which incomprehenble Mystery for as much as it seemeth a thing unconsonant That the World should honor any other as the Saviour but him whom it honoreth as the Creator of the World and in the Wisdom of God it hath not been thought convenient to admit any way of saving man but by man himself though nothing should be spoken of the Love and Mercy of God towards Man which this way are become such a Spectacle as neither Men nor Angels can behold without a kinde of Heavenly astonishment we may hereby perceive there is cause sufficient why Divine Nature should assume Humane that so God might be in Christ reconciling to himself the World And if some cause be likewise required why rather to this end and purpose the Son then either the Father or the Holy Ghost should be made man Could we which are born the children of wrath be adopted the Sons of God through Grace any other then by the Natural Son of God being Mediator between God and us It became therefore him by whom all things are to be the Way of Salvation to all that the Institution and Restitution of the World might be both wrought by one hand The Worlds Salvation was without the Incarnation of the Son of God a thing impossible not simply impossible but impossible it being presupposed That the Will of God was no otherwise to have it saved then by the Death of his own Son Wherefore taking to himself our Flesh and by his Incarnation making it his own Flesh he had now of his own although from us what to offer unto God for us And as Christ took Manhood that by it he might be capable of death whereunto he humbled himself so because Manhood is the proper subject of compassion and feeling pity which maketh the Scepter of Christs Regency even in the Kingdom of Heaven be amiable he which without our Nature could not on Earth suffer for the sins of the World doth now also by means thereof both make intercession to God for sinners and exercise domnion over all men with a true a natural and a sensible touch of Mercy 52. It is not in mans ability either to express perfectly or conceive the manner how this was brought to pass But the strength of our Faith is tried by those things wherein our wits and capacities are not strong Howbeit because this Divine Mystery is more true then plain divers having framed the same to their own conceits and fancies are found in their Expositions thereof more plain then true In so much that by the space of Five hundred years after Christ the Church was almost troubled with nothing else saving onely with care and travel to preserve this Article from the sinister construction of Hereticks Whos 's first mists when the light of the Nicene Council had dispelled it was not long ere Macedonius transfered unto Gods most holy Spirit the same blasphemy wherewith Arius had already dishonored his co-eternally begotten Son not long ere Apollinarius began to pare away from Christs Humanity In refutation of which impieties when the Fathers of the Church Athanasius Basil and the two Gregories had by their painful
travels sufficiently cleared the truth no less for the Deity of the Holy Ghost then for the compleat Humanity of Christ there followed hereupon a final conclusion whereby those Controversies as also the rest which Paulâ—n Samosatenus Sabellius Phatinus Aâ—tius Ennomius together with the whole swarm of pestilent Demi-Arians had from time to time stirred up since the Council of Nice were both privately first at Rome in a smaller Synod and then at Constantinople in a general famous Assembly brought to a peaceable and quiet end Sevenscore Bishops and ten agreeing in that Confession which by them set down remaineth at this present hour a part of our Church Liturgy a Memorial of their Fidelity and Zeal a soveraign preservative of Gods people from the venemous infection of Heresie Thus in Christ the verity of God and the compleat substance of man were with full agreement established throughout the World till such time as the Heresie of Nesterius broached it self Dividing Christ into two Persons the Son of God and the Son of Man the one a Person begotten of God before all Worlds the other also a Person born of the Virgin Mary and in special favor chosen to be made intire to the Son of God above all men so that whosoever will honor God must together honor Christ with whose Person God hath vouchsafed to joyn himself in so high a degree of gracious respect and favor But that the self-same Person which verily is Man should properly be God also and that by reason not of two Persons linked in Amity but of two Natures Humane and Divine conjoyned in one and the same Person the God of Glory may be said as well to have suffered death as to have raised the dead from their Graves the Son of Man as well to have made as to have redeemed the World Nestorius in no case would admit That which deceived him was want of heed to the first beginning of that admirable combination of God with Man The Word saith St. Iohn was made flesh and dwelt in us The Evangelist useth the plural number Men for Manhood us for the nature whereof we consist even as the Apostle denying the Assumption of Angelical Nature saith likewise in the plural number he took not Angels but the Seed of Abraham It pleased not the Word or Wisdom of God to take to it self some one Person amongst men for then should that one have been advanced which was assumed and no more but Wisdom to the end she might save many built her House of that Nature which is common unto all she made not this or that Man her Habitation but dwelt in us The Seeds of Herbs and Plants at the first are not in act but in possibility that which they afterwards grow to be If the Son of God had taken to himself a Man now made and already perfected it would of necessity follow that there are in Christ two Persons the one assuming and the other assumed whereas the Son of God did not assume a mans person into his own but a mans nature to his own Person and therefore took Semen the Seed of Abraham the very first original Element of our Nature before it was come to have any Personal Humane subsistence The Flesh and the Conjunction of the Flesh with God began both at one instant his making and taking to himself our flesh was but one act so that in Christâ— there is no Personal subsistence but one and that from everlasting By taking onely the nature of man he still continueth one Person and changeth but the manner of his subsisting which was before in the meer glory of the Son of God and is now in the habit of our flesh For as much therefore as Christ hath no personal subsistence but one whereby we acknowledge him to have been eternally the Son of God we must of necessity apply to the Person of the Son of God even that which is spoken of Christ according to his Humane nature For example according to the flesh he was born of the Virgin Mary baptized of Iohn in the River Iordan by Pilate adjudged to die and executed by the Jews We cannot say properly that the Virgin bore or Iohn did baptize or Pilate condemn or the Jews crucifie the Nature of Man because these all are Personal Attributes his Person is the subject which receiveth them his Nature that which maketh his Person capable or apt to receive If we should say that the Person of a Man in our Saviour Christ was the subject of these things this were plainly to intrap our selves in the very snare of the Nestorians Heresie between whom and the Church of God there was no difference saving onely that Nestorius imagined in Christ as well a Personal Humane subsistence as a Divine the Church acknowledging a substance both Divine and Humane but no other Personal subsistence then Divine because the Son of God took not to himself a mans person but the nature onely of a man Christ is a Person both Divine and Humane howbeit not therefore two persons in one neither both these in one sense but a Person Divine because he is personally the Son of God Humane because he hath really the nature of the Children of Men. In Christ therefore God and Man There is saith Paschasius a twofold substance not a twofold Person because one Person distinguisheth another whereas one nature cannot in another become extinct For the Personal Being which the Son of God already had suffered not the Substance to be Personal which he took although together with the Nature which he had the Nature also which he took continueth Whereupon it followeth against Nestorius That no Person was born of the Virgin but the Son of God no Person but the Son of God baptized the Son of God condemned the Son of God and no other Person crucified which one onely point of Christian Belief The infinite north of the Son of God is the very ground of all things believed concerning Life and Salvation by that which Christ either did or suffered as Man in our behalf But for as much as St. Cyril the chiefest of those Two hundred Bishops assembled in the Council of Ephesus where the Heresie of Nestorius was condemned had in his Writings against the Arians avouched That the Word or Wisdom of God hath but one Nature which is Eternal and whereunto he assumed Flesh for the Arians were of opinion That besides Gods own Eternal Wisdom there is a Wisdom which God created before all things to the end he might thereby create all things else and that this Created Wisdom was the Word which took Flesh. Again for as much as the same Cyril had given instance in the Body and the Soul of Man no farther then onely to enforce by example against Nestorius That a visible and an invisible a mortal and an immortal Substance may united make one Person the words of Cyril were in process of time so
interchangeably one anothers room so that for truth of speech it skilleth not whether we say That the Son of God hath created the World and the Son of Man by his Death hath saved it or else That the Son of Man did create and the Son of God die to save the World Howbeit as oft as we attribute to God what the Manhood of Christ claimeth or to Man what his Deity hath right unto we understand by the Name of God and the Name of Man neither the one nor the other Nature but the whole Person of Christ in whom both Natures are When the Apostle saith of the Jews that they crucified the Lord of Glory and when the Son of Man being on Earth affirmeth That the Son of Man was in Heaven at the same instant there is in these two speeches that Mutual Circulation before-mentioned In the one there is attributed to God or the Lord of Glory Death whereof Divine Nature is not capable in the other Ubiquity unto Man which Humane Nature admitteth not Therefore by the Lord of Glory we must needs understand the whole Person of Christ who being Lord of Glory was indeed crucified but not in that nature for which he is termed the Lord of Glory In like manner by the Son of Man the whole Person of Christ must necessarily be meant who being Man upon Earth filled Heaven with his glorious presence but not according to that nature for which the title of man is given him Without this Caution the Fathers whose belief was sincere and their meaning most sound shall seem in their Writings one to deny what another constantly doth affirm Theodoret disputeth with great earnestness that God cannot be said to suffer But he thereby meaneth Christs Divine Nature against Apollinarius which held even Deity it self possible Cyril on the other side against Nestorius as much contendeth That whosoever will deny very God to have suffered death doth forsake the Faith Which notwithstanding to hold were Heresie if the Name of God in this Assertion did not import as it doth the Person of Christ who being verily God suffered death but in the Flesh and not in that substance for which the Name of God is given him 54. If then both Natures do remain with their properties in Christ thus distinct as hath been shewed we are for our better understanding what either Nature receiveth from other to note That Christ is by three degrees a Receiver First In that he is the Son of God Secondly In that his Humane nature hath had the honor of Union with Deity bestowed upon it Thirdly In that by means thereof sundry eminent Graces have flowed as effects from Deity into that Nature which is coupled with it On Christ therefore is bestowed the Gift of Eternal Generation the Gift of Union and the Gift of Unction By the Gift of Eternal Generation Christ hath received of the Father one and in number the self-same substance which the Father hath of himself unreceived from any other For every beginning is a Father unto that which cometh of it and every off-spring is a Son unto that out of which it groweth Seeing therefore the Father alone is originally that Deity which Christ originally is not for Christ is God by being of God Light by issuing out of Light it followeth hereupon That whatsoever Christ hath common unto him with his Heavenly Father the same of necessity must be given him but naturally and eternally given not bestowed by way of benevolence and favor as the other gifts both are And therefore where the Fathers give it out for a rule That whatsoever Christ is said in Scripture to have received the same we ought to apply onely to the Manhood of Christ Their Assertion is true of all things which Christ hath received by Grace but to that which he hath received of the Father by Eternal Nativity or Birth it reacheth not Touching Union of Deity with Manhood it is by Grace because there can be no greater Grace shewed towards Man then that God should vouchsafe to unite to Mans nature the Person of his onely begotten Son Because the Father loveth the Son as Man he hath by Uniting Deity with Manhood given all things into his hands It hath pleased the Father that in him all Fulness should dwell The name which he hath above all names is given him As the Father hath life in himself the Son in himself hath life also by the gift of the Father The gift whereby God hath made Christ a Fountain of Life is That conjunction of the Nature of God with the Nature of Man in the Person of Christ which gift saith Christ to the Woman of Samaria if thou didst know and in that respect understand who it is which asketh water of thee thou wouldst ask of him that he might give thee Living Water The Union therefore of the Flesh with Deity is to that Flesh a gift of Principal Grace and Favor For by vertue of this Grace Man is really made God a Creature is exalted above the dignity of all Creatures and hath all Creatures else under it This admirable Union of God with Man can inforce in that higher Nature no alteration because unto God there is nothing more natural then not to be subject to any change Neither is it a thing impossible That the Word being made Flesh should be that which it was not before as touching the manner of subsistence and yet continue in all Qualities or Properties of Nature the same it was because the Incarnation of the Son of God consisteth meerly in the Union of Natures which Union doth adde Perfection to the Weaker to the Nobler no alteration at all If therefore it be demanded what the Person of the Son of God hath attained by assuming Manhood surely the whole sum of all is this to be as we are truly really and naturally Man by means whereof he is made capable of meaner offices then otherwise his Person could have admitted the onely gain he thereby purchased for himself was to be capable of loss and detriment for the good of others But may it rightly be said concerning the Incarnation of Jesus Christ That as our Nature hath in no respect changed his so from his to ours as little alteration hath ensued The very cause of his taking upon him our Nature was to change it to better the Quality and to advance the condition thereof although in no sort to abolish the Substance which he took nor to infuse into it the Natural forces and Properties of his Deity As therefore we have shewed how the Son of God by his Incarnation hath changed the manner of that Personal subsistence which before was solitary and is now in the Association of Flesh no alteration thereby accruing to the Nature of God so neither are the Properties of Mans nature in the Person of Christ by force and vertue of the
same Conjunction so much altered as not to stay within those limits which our Substance is bordered withal nor the state and quality of our Substance so unaltered but that there are in it many glorious effects proceeding from so near Copulation with Deity God from us can receive nothing we by him have obtained much For albeit the Natural Properties of Deity be not communicable to Mans nature the Supernatural Gifts Graces and Effects thereof are The honor which our Flesh hath by being the Flesh of the Son of God is in many respects great If we respect but that which is common unto us with him the Glory provided for him and his in the Kingdom of Heaven his Right and Title thereunto even in that he is Man differeth from other mens because he is that Man of whom God is himself a part We have right to the same Inheritance with Christ but not the same right which he hath his being such as we cannot reach and ours such as he cannot stoop unto Furthermore to be the Way the Truth and the Life to be the Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Resurrection to be the Peace of the whole World the Hope of the Righteous the Heir of all things to be that Supream Head whereunto all Power both in Heaven and in Earth is given These are not Honors common unto Christ with other Men they are Titles above the dignity and worth of any which were but a meer Man yet true of Christ even in that he is Man but Man with whom Deity is personally joyned and unto whom it hath added those excellencies which makes him more then worthy thereof Finally Sith God hath deified our Nature though not by turning it into himself yet by making it his own inseparable Habitation we cannot now conceive how God should without Man either exercise Divine Power or receive the glory of Divine Praise For Man is in both an Associate of Deity But to come to the Grace of Unction Did the parts of our Nature the Soul and Body of Christ receive by the influence of Deity wherewith they were matcht no ability of Operations no Vertue or quality above Nature Surely as the Sword which is made fiery doth not onely cut by reason of the sharpness which simply it hath but also burn by means of that heat which it hath from fire so there is no doubt but the Deity of Christ hath enabled that Nature which it took of Man to do more then Man in this World hath power to comprehend for as much as the bare Essential Properties of Deity excepted he hath imparted unto it all things he hath replenished it with all such Perfections as the same is any way apt to receive at the least according to the exigence of that oeconomy or service for which it pleased him in Love and Mercy to be made Man For as the Parts Degrees and Offices of that Mystical Administration did require which he voluntarily undertook the Beams of Deity did in operation always accordingly either restrain or enlarge themselves From hence we may somewhat conjecture how the Powers of that Soul are illuminated which being so inward unto God cannot chuse but be privy unto all things which God worketh and must therefore of necessity be endued with knowledge so far forth Universal though not with infinite knowledge peculiar to Deity itself The Soul of Christ that saw in this life the Face of God was here through so visible presence of Deity filled with all manner of Graces and Vertues in that unmatchable degree of Perfection for which of him we read it written That God with the Oyl of Gladness anointed him above his fellows And as God hath in Christ unspeakably glorified the Nobler so likewise the meaner part of our Nature the very Bodily Substance of Man Where also that must again be remembred which we noted before concerning the degrees of the influence of Deity proportionable unto his own purposes intents and counsels For in this respect his Body which by Natural condition was corruptible wanted the gift of Everlasting immunity from Death Passion and Dissolution till God which gave it to be slain for sin had for Righteousness sake restored it to life with certainty of endless continuance Yea in this respect the very glorified Body of Christ retained in it the skars and marks of former mortality But shall we say that in Heaven his glorious Body by vertue of the same cause hath now power to present it self in all places and to be every where at once present We nothing doubt but God hath many ways above the reach of our capacities exalted that Body which it hath pleased him to make his own that Body wherewith he hath saved the World that Body which hath been and is the Root of Eternal Life the Instrument wherewith Deity worketh the Sacrifice which taketh away sin the Price which hath ransomed Souls from Death the Leader of the whole Army of Bodies that shall rise again For though it had a beginning from us yet God hath given it vital efficacy Heaven hath endowed it with celestial power that vertue it hath from above in regard whereof all the Angels of Heaven adore it Notwithstanding a Body still it continueth a Body consubstantial with our Bodies a Body of the same both Nature and Measure which it had on Earth To gather therefore into one sum all that hitherto hath been spoken touching this point there are but four things which concur to make compleat the whole state of our Lord Jesus Christ his Deity his Manhood the Conjunction of both and the distinction of the one from the other being joyned in one Four principal Heresies there are which have in those things withstood the truth Arians by bending themselves against the Deity of Christ Apollinarians by maiming and misinterpreting that which belongeth to his Humane Nature Nestorians by renting Christ asunder and dividing him into two persons the followers of Eutiches by confounding in his Person those Natures which they should distinguish Against these there have been four most famous Ancient General Councils the Council of Nice to define against Arians against Apollinarians the Council of Constantinople the Council of Ephesus against Nestorians against Eutichians the Calcedon Council In four words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly perfectly indivisibly distinctly The first applied to his being God and the second to his being Man the third to his being of both One and the fourth to his still continuing in that One both We may fully by way of Abridgment comprize whatsoever Antiquity hath at large handled either in Declaration of Christian Belief or in Refutation of the soresaid Heresies Within the compass of which four heads I may truly affirm That all Heresies which touch but the Person of Jesus Christ whether they have risen in these latter days or in any age heretofore may be with great facility brought to confine themselves We conclude
assenteth unto all things and from the other nothing which Deity doth work is hid so that by knowledge and assent the Soul of Christ is present with all things which the Deity of Christ worketh And even the Body of Christ it self although the definite limitation thereof be most sensible doth notwithstanding admit in some sort a kinde of infinite and unlimited Presence likewise For his Body being a part of that Nature which whole Nature is presently joyned unto Deity wheresoever Deity is it followeth That his Bodily Substance hath every where a Presence of true Conjunction with Deity And for as much as it is by vertue of that Conjunction made the Body of the Son of God by whom also it was made a Sacrifice for the sins of the whole World this giveth it a presence of force and efficacy throughout all Generations of Men. Albeit therefore nothing be actually infinite in substance but God onely in that he is God nevertheless as every number is infinite by possibility of addition and every line by possibility of extension infinite so there is no stint which can be set to the value or merit of the Sacrificed Body of Christ it hath no measured certainty of limits bounds of efficacy unto life it knoweth none but is also it self infinite in possibility of Application Which things indifferently every way considered that gracious promise of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ concerning presence with his to the very end of the World I see no cause but that we may well and safely interpret he doth perform both as God by essential presence of Deity and as Man in that order sense and meaning which hath been shewed 56. We have hitherto spoken of the Person and of the presence of Christ. Participation is that mutual inward hold which Christ hath of us and we of him in such sort that each possesseth other by way of special interest property and inherent copulation For plainer explication whereof we may from that which hath been before sufficiently proved assume to our purpose these two Principles That every original cause imparteth it self unto those things which come of it and whatsoever taketh Being from any other the same is after a sort in that which giveth it Being It followeth hereupon that the Son of God being Light of Light must needs be also Light in Light The Persons of the Godhead by reason of the Unity of their substance do as necessarily remain one within another as they are of necessity to be distinguished one from another because two are the issue of one and one the Off-spring of the other two onely of three one not growing out of any other And sith they all are but one God in number one indivisible Essence or Substance their distinction cannot possibly admit Separation For how should that subsist solitarily by it self which hath no substance but individually the very same whereby others subsist with it seeing that the Multiplication of Substances in particular is necessarily required to make those things subsist apart which have the self-same General Nature and the Persons of that Trinity are not three particular Substances to whom one General Nature is common but three that subsist by one substance which it self is Particular yet they all three have it and their several ways of having it are that which maketh their Personal distinction The Father therefore is in the Son and the Son in him they both in the Spirit and the Spirit in both them So that the Fathers first Off-spring which is the Son remaineth eternally in the Father the Father eternally also in the Son no way severed or divided by reason of the sole and single Unity of their Substance The Son in the Father as Light in that Light out of which it floweth without separation the Father in the Son as Light in that Light which it causeth and leaveth not And because in this respect his eternal Being is of the Father which eternal Being is his Life therefore he by the Father liveth Again sith all things do accordingly love their Off-spring as themselves are more or less contained in it he which is thus the onely begotten must needs be in this degree the onely Beloved of the Father He therefore which is in the Father by eternal Derivation of Being and Life from him must needs be in him through an eternal Affection of love His Incarnation causeth him also as man to be now in the Father and the Father to be in him For in that he is Man he receiveth Life from the Father as from the Fountain of that Ever-living Deity which in the Person of the Word hath combined it self with Manhood and doth thereunto impart such life as to no other Creature besides him is communicated In which consideration likewise the love of the Father towards him is more then it can be towards any other neither can any attain unto that perfection of love which he beareth towards his Heavenly Father Wherefore God is not so in any nor any so in God as Christ whether we consider him as the Personal Word of God or as the Natural Son of Man All other things that are of God have God in them and he them in himself likewise Yet because their Substance and his wholly differeth their coherence and communion either with him or amongst themselves is in no sort like unto that before mentioned God hath his influence into the very Essence of all things without which influence of Deity supporting them their utter annihilation could not chuse but follow Of him all things have both received their first Being and their continuance to be that which they are All things are therefore partakers of God they are his Off-spring his influence is in them and the Personal Wisdom of God is for that very cause said to excel in nimbleness or agility to pierce into all intellectual pure and subtile spirits to go through all and to reach unto every thing which is Otherwise how should the same Wisdom be that which supporteth beareth up and sustaineth all Whatsoever God doth work the hands of all three Persons are joyntly and equally in it according to the order of that connexion whereby they each depend upon other And therefore albeit in that respect the Father be first the Son next the Spirit last and consequently nearest unto every effect which groweth from all three nevertheless they all being of one Essence are likewise all of one Efficacy Dare any man unless he be ignorant altogether how inseparable the Persons of the Trinity are perswade himself that every of them may have their sole and several Possessions or that we being not partakers of all can have fellowship with any one The Father as Goodness the Son as Wisdom the Holy Ghost as Power do all concur in every particular outwardly issuing from that one onely glorious Deity which they all are For that which moveth God to work is Goodness and
that which ordereth his Work is Wisdom and that which perfecteth his Work is Power All things which God in their times and seasons hath brought forth were eternally and before all times in God as a work unbegun is in the Artificer which afterward bringeth it unto effect Therefore whatsoever we do behold now in this present World it was inwrapped within the Bowels of Divine Mercy written in the Book of Eternal Wisdom and held in the hands of Omnipotent Power the first Foundations of the World being as yet unlaid So that all things which God hath made are in that respect the Off-spring of God they are in him as effects in their highest cause he likewise actually is in them the assistance and influence of his Deity is their life Let hereunto saving efficacy be added and it bringeth forth a special Off-spring amongst men containing them to whom God hath himself given the gracious and amiable name of Sons We are by Nature the Sons of Adam When God created Adam he created us and as many as are descended from Adam have in themselves the Root out of which they spring The Sons of God we neither are all nor any one of us otherwise then onely by grace and favor The Sons of God have Gods own Natural Son as a second Adam from Heaven whose Race and Progeny they are by Spiritual and Heavenly Birth God therefore loving eternally his Son he must needs eternally in him have loved and preferred before all others them which are spiritually sithence descended and sprung out of him These were in God as in their Saviour and not as in their Creator onely It was the purpose of his saving Goodness his saving Wisdom and his saving Power which inclined it self towards them They which thus were in God eternally by their intended admission to life have by vocation or adoption God actually now in them as the Artificer is in the Work which his hand doth presently frame Life as all other gifts and benefits groweth originally from the Father and cometh not to us but by the Son nor by the Son to any of us in particular but through the Spirit For this cause the Apostle wisheth to the Church of Corinth The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost Which three St. Peter comprehendeth in one The participation of Divine Nature We are therefore in God through Christ eternally according to that intent and purpose whereby we are chosen to be made his in this present World before the World it self was made We are in God through the knowledge which is had of us and the love which is born towards us from everlasting But in God we actually are no longer then onely from the time of our actual Adoption into the Body of his true Church into the Fellowship of his Children For his Church he knoweth and loveth so that they which are in the Church are thereby known to be in him Our being in Christ by Eternal fore-knowledge saveth us not without our Actual and Real Adoption into the Fellowship of his Saints in this present World For in him we actually are by our actual incorporation into that Society which hath him for their Head and doth make together with him one Body he and they in that respect having one name for which cause by vertue of this Mystical Conjunction we are of him and in him even as though our very flesh and bones should be made continuate with his We are in Christ because he knoweth and loveth us even as parts of himself No man actually is in him but they in whom he actually is For he which hath not the Son of God hath not Life I am the Vine and ye are the Branches He which abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much Fruit but the Branch severed from the Vine withereth We are therefore adopted Sons of God to Eternal Life by Participation of the onely begotten Son of God whose Life is the Well-spring and cause of ours It is too cold an interpretation whereby some men expound our Being in Christ to import nothing else but onely That the self-same Nature which maketh us to be Men is in him and maketh him Man as we are For what man in the World is there which hath not so far forth communion with Jesus Christ It is not this that can sustain the weight of such sentences as speak of the Mystery of our Coherence with Jesus Christ. The Church is in Christ as Eve was in Adam Yea by Grace we are every of us in Christ and in his Church and in his Church as by Nature we were in those our first Parents God made Eve of the Rib of Adam And his Church he frameth out of the very Flesh the very wounded and bleeding side of the Son of Man His Body crucified and his Blood shed for the Life of the World are the true Elements of that Heavenly Being which maketh us such as himself is of whom we come For which cause the words of Adam may be fitly the words of Christ concerning his Church Flesh of my Flesh and Bone of my Bones a true Nature extract out of my own Body So that in him even according to his Manhood we according to our Heavenly Being are as Branches in that Root out of which they grow To all things he is Life and to men Light as the Son of God to the Church both Life and Light Eternal by being made the Son of Man for us and by being in us a Saviour whether we respect him as God or as Man Adam is in us as an original cause of our Nature and of that corruption of Nature which causeth death Christ as the cause original of Restauration to Life The person of Adam is not in us but his nature and the corruption of his nature derived into all men by Propagation Christ having Adams nature as we have but incorrupt deriveth not nature but incorruption and that immediately from his own Person into all that belong unto him As therefore we are really partakers of the body of Sin and Death received from Adam so except we be truly partakers of Christ and as really possessed of his Spirit all we speak of Eternal Life is but a dream That which quickneth us is the Spirit of the Second Adam and his Flesh that wherewith he quickneth That which in him made our Nature uncorrupt was the Union of his Deity with our Nature And in that respect the sentence of Death and Condemnation which onely taketh hold upon sinful flesh could no way possibly extend unto him This caused his voluntary death for others to prevail with God and to have the force of an Expiatory Sacrifice The Blood of Christ as the Apostle witnesseth doth therefore take away sin because through the Eternal Spirit he offered himself unto God without spot That
should be derogated from the Baptism of the Church and Baptism by Donatists be more esteemed of then was meet if on the one side that which Hereticks had done ill should stand as good on the other side that be reversed which the Catholick Church had well and religiously done divers better minded then advised men thought it fittest to meet with this inconvenience by Rebaptising Donatists as well as they Rebaptized Catholicks For stay whereof the same Emperors saw it meet to give their Law a double edge whereby it might equally on both sides cut off not onely Hereticks which Rebaptized whom they could pervert but also Catholick and Christian Priests which did the like unto such as before had taken Baptism at the hands of Hereticks and were afterwards reconciled to the Church of God Donatists were therefore in process of time though with much ado wearied and at the length worn out by the constancy of that Truth which reacheth that evil Ministers of good things are as Torches a Light to others a Waste to none but themselves onely and that the soulness of their hands can neither any whit impair the Vertue nor stain the Glory of the Mysteries of Christ. Now that which was done amiss by vertuous and good men as Cyprian carried aside with hatred against Heresie and was secondly followed by Donatists whom Envy and Rancor covered with shew of Godliness made obstinate to cancel whatsoever the Church did in the Sacrament of Baptism hath of latter days in another respect far different from both the former been brought freshly again into practice For the Anabaptist Rebaptizeth because in his estimation the Baptism of the Church is frustrate for that we give it unto Infants which have not Faith whereas according unto Christs Institution as they conceive it true Baptism should always presuppose Actual Belief in Receivers and is otherwise no Baptism Of these three Errors there is not any but hath been able at the least to alledge in defence of it self many fair probabilities Notwithstanding sith the Church of God hath hitherto always constantly maintained that to Rebaptize them which are known to have received true Baptism is unlawful that if Baptism seriously be administred in the same Element and with the same form of words which Christs Institution teacheth there is no other defect in the World that can make it frustrate or deprive it of the Nature of a true Sacrament And lastly That Baptism is onely then to be re-adminstred when the first delivery thereof is void in regard of the fore-alledged imperfections and no other Shall we now in the case of Baptism which having both for matter and form the substance of Christs Institution is by a fourth sort of men voided for the onely defect of Ecclesiastical Authority in the Minister think it enough that they blow away the force thereof with the bare strength of their very breath by saying We take such Baptism to be no more the Sacrament of Baptism then any other ordinary Bathing to be a Sacrament It behoveth generally all sorts of men to keep themselves within the limits of their own vocation And seeing God from whom mers several degrees and pre-eminences do proceed hath appointed them in his Church at whose hands his pleasure is that we should receive both Baptism and all other publick medicinable helps of Soul perhaps thereby the more to settle our hearts in the love of our ghostly superiors they have small cause to hope that with him their voluntary services will be accepted who thrust themselves into Functions either above their capacity or besides their place and over-boldly intermeddle with Duties whereof no charge was ever give them They that in any thing exceed the compass of their own order do as much as in them lieth to dissolve that Order which is the Harmony of Gods Church Suppose therefore that in these and the like considerations the Law did utterly prohibite Baptism to be administred by any other then persons thereunto solemnly consecrated what necessity soever happen Are not many things firm being done although in part done otherwise then Positive Rigor and Strictness did require Nature as much as is possible inclineth unto validities and preservations Dissolutions and Nullities of things done are not onely not favored but hated when other urged without cause or extended beyond their reach If therefore at any time it come to pass that in reaching publickly or privately in delivering this Blessed Sacrament of Regeneration some unsanctified hand contrary to Christs supposed Ordinance do intrude it self to execute that whereunto the Laws of God and his Church have deputed others Which of these two opinions seemeth more agreeable with Equity outs that disallow what is done amiss yet make not the force of the Word and Sacraments much less their nature and very substance to depend on the Ministers authority and calling or else theirs which defeat disannul and annihilate both in respect of that one onely personal defect there being not any Law of God which saith That if the Minister be incompetent his Word shall be no Word his Baptism no Baptism He which teacheth and is not sent loseth the reward but yet retaineth the name of a Teacher His usurped actions have in him the same nature which they have in others although they yield him not the same comfort And if these two cases be Peers the case of Doctrine and the case of Baptism both alike sith no defect in their vocation that teach the Truth is able to take away the benefit thereof from him which heareth Wherefore should the want of a lawful calling in them that Baptize make Baptism to be vain They grant that the Matter and the Form in Sacraments are the onely parts of Substance and that if these two be retained albeit other things besides be used which are inconvenient the Sacrament notwithstanding is administred but not sincerely Why persist they not in this opinion when by these fair speeches they have put us in hope of agreement Wherefore sup they â—up their words again interlacing such frivolous Interpretations and Glosses as disgrace their Sentence What should move them having named the Matter and the Form of the Sacrament to give us presently warning that they mean by the Form of the Sacrament the Institution which Exposition darkneth whatsoever was before plain For whereas in common understanding that Form which added to the Element doth make a Sacrament and is of the outward substance thereof containeth onely the words of usual Application they set it down lest common Dictionaries should deceive us that the Form doth signifie in their Language the Institution which Institution in truth comprehendeth both Form and Matter Such are their fumbling shifts to inclose the Ministers vocation within the compass of some essential part of the Sacrament A thing that can never stand with sound and sincere construction For what if the Minister be no circumstance but a subordinate
Sacrifices of the ungodly Our fourth Proposition before set down was that Religion without the help of spiritual Ministery is unable to plant it self the fruits thereof not possible to grow of their own accord Which last Assertion is herein as the first that it needeth no farther confirmation If it did I could easily declare how all things which are of God he hath by wonderful art and wisdom sodered as it were together with the glue of mutual assistance appointing the lowest to receive from the neerest to themselves what the influence of the highest yieldeth And therefore the Church being the most absolute of all his works was in reason to be also ordered with like harmony that what he worketh might no less in grace than in nature be effected by hands and instruments duly subordinated unto the power of his own Spirit A thing both needful for the humiliation of man which would not willingly be debtor to any but to himself and of no small effect to nourish that divine love which now maketh each embrace other not as Men but as Angels of God Ministerial actions tending immediately unto God's honour and man's happinesse are either as contemplation which helpeth forward the principal work of the Ministery or else they are parts of that principal work of Administration it self which work consisteth in doing the service of God's House and in applying unto men the soveraign medicines of Grace already spoken of the more largely to the end it might thereby appear that we owe to the Guides of our Souls even as much as our Souls are worth although the debt of our Temporal blessings should be stricken off 77. The Ministery of things divine is a Function which as God did himself institute so neither may men undertake the same but by Authoritie and Power given them in lawful manner That God which is no way deficient or wanting unto Man in necessaries and hath therefore given us the light of his heavenly Truth because without that inestimable benefit we must needs have wandered is darkness to out endless perdition and woe hath in the like abundance of mercies ordained certain to attend upon the due execution of requisite Parts and Offices therein prescribed for the good of the whole World which men thereunto assigned do hold their authoritie from him whether they be such as himself immediately or as the Church in his name investeth it being neither possible for all not for every men without distinction convenient to take upon him a Charge of so great importance They are therefore Ministers of God not onely by way of subordination as Princes and Civil Magistrates whose execution of Judgement and Justice the supream hand of divine providence doth uphold but Ministiers of God as from whom their anthority is derived and not from men For in that they are Christ's Ambassadours and his Labourers Who should give them their Commission but he whose most inward affairs they mannage Is not God alone the Father of Spirits Are not Souls the purchase of Jesus Christ What Angel in Heaven could have said to Man as our Lord did unto Peter Feed my Sheep Preach Baptize Do this in remembrance of me Whose Sins ye retain they are retained and their offences in Heaven pardoned whose faults you shall in earth forgive What think we Are these terrestrial sounds or else are they voices uttered out of the clouds above The power of the Ministry of God translateth out of darknesse into glory it rayseth men from the Earth and bringeth God himself from Heaven by blessing visible Elements it maketh them invisible grace it giveth daily the Holy Ghost it hath to dispose of that flesh which was given for the life of the World and that blood which was poured out to redeem Souls when it poureth malediction upon the heads of the wicked they perish when it revoketh the same they revive O wreched blindnesse if we admire not so great power more wretched if we consider it aright and notwithstanding imagine that any but God can bestow it To whom Christ hath imparted power both over that mystical Body which is the societie of Souls and over that natural which is himself for the knitting of both in one a work which antiquitie doth call the making of Christ's Body the same power is in such not amiss both termed a kinde of mark or Character and acknowledged to be indelible Ministerial power is a mark of separation because it severeth them that have it from other men and maketh them a special order consecrated unto the service of the most High in things wherewith others may not meddle Their difference therefore from other men is in that they are a distinct order So Tertullian calleth them And Saint Paul himself dividing the body of the Church of Christ into two Moyeties nameth the one part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as much as to say the order of the Laity the opposite part whereunto we in like sort term the order of God's Clergy and the Spiritual power which he hath given them the power of their order so farr forth as the same consisteth in the bare execution of holy things called properly the affairs of God For of the Power of their jurisdiction over mens persons we are to speak in the Books following They which have once received this power may not think to put it off and on like a Cloak as the weather serveth to take it reject and resume it as oft as themselves list of which prophane and impious contempt these latter times have yielded as of all other kindes of Iniquity and Apostasie strange examples but let them know which put their hands unto this Plough that once consecrated unto God they are made his peculiar Inheritance for ever Suspensions may stop and degradations utterly cut off the use or exercise of Power before given but voluntarily it is not in the power of man to separate and pull asunder what God by his authority coupleth So that although there may be through mis-desert degradation as there may be cause of just separation after Matrimony yet if as sometime it doth restitution to former dignity or reconciliation after breach doth happen neither doth the one nor the other ever iterate the first knot Much less is it necessary which some have urged concerning the re-ordination of such as others in times more corrupt did consecrate heretofore Which Errour already quell'd by Saint Ierome doth not now require any other refutation Examples I grant there are which make for restraint of those men from admittance again into rooms of Spiritual function whose fall by Heresie or want of constancy in professing the Christian Faith hath been once a disgrace to their calling Nevertheless as there is no Law which bindeth so there is no cause that should alwaies lead to shew one and the same severity towards Persons culpable Goodnesse of nature it self more inclineth to clemency than rigour And we in other mens
Chancellours Officials Commissaries and such other the like names which being not found in holy Scripture we have been thereby through some mens errour thought to allow of Ecclesiastical Degress not known nor ever heard of in the better ages of former times all these are in truth but Titles of Office whereunto partly Ecclesiastical Persons and partly others are in sundry forms and conditions admitted as the state of the Church doth need degrees of Order still continuing the same they were from the first beginning Now what habit or attire doth beseem each Order to use in the course of common life both for the gravity of his Place and for Example-sake to other men is a matter frivolous to be disputed of A small measure of wisedom may serve to teach them how they should cutt their coats But seeing all well-ordered Polities have ever judged it meet and fit by certain special distinct Ornaments to sever each sort of men from other when they are in publick to the end that all may receive such Complements of Civil Honour as are due to their Roomes and Callings even where their Persons are not known it argueth a disproportioned minde in them whom so decent Orders displease 79. We might somewhat marvel what the Apostle Saint Paul should mean to say that Covetousness is Idolatry if the daily practise of men did not shew that whereas Nature requireth God to be honoured with wealth we honour for the most part Wealth as God Fain we would teach our selves to believe that for worldly goods it sufficeth frugally and honestly to use them to our own benefit without detriment and hurt of others or if we go a degree farther and perhaps convert some small contemptible portion thereof to Charitable uses the whole duty which we owe unto God herein is fully satisfied But for as much as we cannot rightly honour God unless both our Souls and Bodies be sometime imployed meerly in his Service Again sith we know that Religion requireth at our hands the taking away of so great a part of the time of our lives quite and clean from our own business and the bestowing of the same in his Suppose we that nothing of our wealth and substance is immediately due to God but all our own to bestow and spend as our selves think meet Are not our riches as well his as the days of our life are his Wherefore unless with part we acknowledge his Supream Dominion by whose benevolence we have the whole how give we Honour to whom Honour belongeth or how hath God the things that are God's I would know what Nation in the World did ever honour God and not think it a point of their duty to do him honour with their very goods So that this we may boldly set down as a Principle clear in Nature an Axiom which ought not to be called in question a Truth manifest and infallible that men are eternally bound to honour God with their substance in token of thankful acknowledgement that all they have is from him To honour him with our worldly goods not only by spending them in lawful manner and by using them without offence but also by alienating from our selves some reasonable part or portion thereof and by offering up the same to him as a sign that we gladly confess his sole and Soveraign Dominion over all is a duty which all men are bound unto and a part of that very Worship of God which as the Law of God and Nature it self requireth so we are the rather to think all men no less strictly bound thereunto than to any other natural duty in as much as the hearts of men do so cleave to these earthly things so much admire them for the sway they have in the World impute them so generally either to Nature or to Chance and Fortune so little think upon the Grace and Providence from which they come that unless by a kinde of continual tribute we did acknowledge God's Dominion it may be doubted that short in time men would learn to forget whose Tenants they are and imagine that the World is their own absolute free and independent inheritance Now concerning the kinde or quality of gifts which God receiveth in that sort we are to consider them partly as first they proceed from us and partly as afterwards they are to serve for divine uses In that they are testimonies of our affection towards God there is no doubt but such they should be as beseemeth most his Glory to whom we offer them In this respect the fatness of Abel's Sacrifice is commended the flower of all mens increase assigned to God by Solomon the Gifts and Donations of the People rejected as oft as their cold affection to God-ward made their Presents to be little worth Somewhat the Heathens saw touching that which was herein fit and therefore they unto their gods did not think they might consecrate any thing which was impure or unsound or already given or else not truly their own to give Again in regard of use forasmuch as we know that God hath himself no need of worldly commodities but taketh them because it is our good to be so exercised and with no other intent accepteth them but to have them used for the endless continuance of Religion there is no place left of doubt or controversie but that we in the choyce of our gifts are to level at the same mark and to frame our selves to his known intents and purposes Whether we give unto God therefore that which himself by commandment requireth or that which the publick consent of the Church thinketh good to allot or that which every man 's private devotion doth best like in as much as the gift which we offer proceedeth not only as a testimony of our affection towards God but also as a mean to uphold Religion the exercise whereof cannot stand without the help of temporal commodities if all men be taught of Nature to wish and as much as in them lyeth to procure the perpetuity of good things if for that very cause we honour and admire their wisdom who having been Founders of Common-weals could devise how to make the benefit they lest behind them durable if especially in this respect we prefer Lycurgus before Solon and the Spartan before the Athenian Polity it must needs follow that as we do unto God very acceptable service in honouring him with our substance so our service that way is then most acceptable when it tendeth to perpetuity The first permanent donations of honour in this kinde are Temples Which works do so much set forward the exercise of Religion that while the World was in love with Religion it gave to no sort greater reverence than to whom it could point and say These are the men that have built us Synagogues But of Churches we have spoken sufficiently heretofore The next things to Churches are the Ornaments of Churches memorials which mens devotion hath added to remain in the treasure of
licence and authorize the same which the Law against ignorance non-residence and plurality doth infringe and so be a Law contrariant or repugnant to the Law of Nature and the Law of God because all the reasons whereupon the Positive Law of man against these three was first established are taken and drawn from the Law of Nature and the Law of God For answer whereunto we will but lead them to answer themselves First therefore if they will grant as they must that all direct oppositions of speech require one and the self-same subject to be meant on both parts where opposition is pretended it will follow that either the Maxims of Common right do inforce the very same things not to be good which we say are good grounding our selves on the reasons by vertue whereof our priviledges are established or if the one doe not reach unto that particular subject for which the other have provided then is there no contradiction between them In all contradictions if the one part be true the other eternally must be false And therefore if the Principles of Common right do at any time truly inforce that particular not to be good which Priviledges make good it argueth invincibly that such priviledges have been grounded upon errour But to say that every Priviledge is opposite unto the Principles of Common right because it dispenseth with that which Common right doth prohibite hath gross absurdity For the voyce of Equity and Justice is that a general Law doth never derogate from a special Priviledge whereas if the one were contrariant to the other a general Law being in force should alwayes dissolve a Priviledge The reason why many are deceived by imagining that so it should doe and why men of better insight conclude directly it should not doth rest in the subject or matter it self which matter indefinitely considered in Laws of Common right is in Priviledges considered as beset and limited with special circumstances by means whereof to them which respect it but by way of generality it seemeth one and the same in both although it be not the same if once we descend to particular consideration thereof Precepts do alwayes propose perfection not such as none can attain unto for then in vain should we ask or require it at the hands of men but such perfection as all men must aim at to the end that as largely as human providence and care can extend it it may take place Moral laws are the rules of Politick those Politick which are made to order the whole Church of God rules unto all particular Churches and the Laws of every particular Church Rules unto every particular man within the body of the same Church Now because the higher we ascend in these Rules the further still we remove from those specialities which being proper to the subject whereupon our actions must work are therefore chiefly considered by us by them least thought upon that wade altogether in the two first kindes of general directions their judgment cannot be exact and sound concerning either laws of Churches or actions of men in particular because they determine of effects by a part of the causes onely out of which they grow they judge conclusions by demipremises and half-principles they lay them in the balance stript from those necessary material circumstances which should give them weight and by shew of falling uneven with the scale of most universal and abstracted rules they pronounce that too light which is not if they had the skill to weigh it This is the reason why men altogether conversant in study do know how to teach but not how to govern men experienced contrariwise govern well yet know not which way to set down orderly the precepts and reasons of that they do He that will therefore judge rightly of things done must joyn with his forms and conceits of general speculation the matter wherein our actions are conversant For by this shall appear what equity there is in those Priviledges and peculiar grants or favours which otherwise will seem repugnant to justice and because in themselves considered they have a shew of repugnancy this deceiveth those great Clerks which hearing a Priviledge defined to be an especial right brought in by their power and authority that make it for some publick benefit against the general course of reason are not able to comprehend how the word against doth import exception without any opposition at all For inasmuch as the hand of Justice must distribute to every particular what is due and judge what is due with respect had no less of particular circumstances than of general rules and axioms it cannot fit all sorts with one measure the wills counsels qualities and states of men being divers For example the Law of Common right bindeth all men to keep their Promises perform their Compacts and answer the Faith they have given either for themselves or others Notwithstanding he which bargaineth with one under years can have no benefit by this allegation because he bringeth it against a Person which is exempt from the Common rule Shall we then conclude that thus to exempt certain men from the Law of Common right is against God against Nature against whatsoever may avail to strengthen and justifie that Law before alledged or else acknowledge as the truth is that special causes are to be ordered by special rules that is men grown unto ripe age disadvantage themselves by bargaining yet what they have wittingly done is strong and in force against them because they are able to dispose and manage their own affairs whereas youth for lack of experience and judgement being easily subject to circumvention is therefore justly exempt from the Law of Common-right whereunto the rest are justly subject This plain inequality between men of years and under years is a cause why Equity and Justice cannot apply equally the same general rule to both but ordereth the one by Common right and granteth to the other a special priviledge Priviledges are either transitory or permanent Transitory such as serve onely some one turn or at the most extend no farther than to this or that man with the end of whose natural life they expâ—e Permanent such as the use whereof doth continue still for that they belong unto certain kindes of men and causes which never dye Of this nature are all immunities and preheminencies which for just considerations one sort of men enjoyeth above another both in the Church and Common-wealth no man suspecting them of contrariety to any branch of those Laws or Reasons whereupon the general right is grounded Now there being general Laws and Rules whereby it cannot be denied but the Church of God standeth bound to provide that the Ministry may be learned that they which have charge may reside upon it and that it may not be free for them in scandalous manner to multiply Ecclesiastical Livings it remaineth in the next place to be examined what the Laws of the Church of England
of uncleanness they nourish the root out of which they grow they breed that iniquity which bred them The blot therefore of Sin abideth though the act be transitory And out of both ariseth a present debt to endure what punishment soever the evil which we have done deserveth an Obligation in the Chains whereof Sinners by the Justice of Almighty God continue bound till Repentance loose them Repent this thy Wickedness saith Peter unto Simon Magus beseech God that if it be possible the thought of thine heart may be pardoned for I see thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of Iniquity In like manner Solomon The Wicked shall be held fast in the cords of his own sin Nor doth God only binde Sinners hand and foot by the dreadful determination of his own unsearchable Judgment against them but sometime also the Church bindeth by the Censures of her Discipline So that when Offenders upon their Repentance are by the same Discipline absolved the Church looseth but her own Bonds the Chains wherein she had tyed them before The act of Sin God alone remitteth in that his purpose is never to call it to account or to lay it unto mens charge The stain he washeth out by the sanctifying Grace of his Spirit And concerning the punishment of Sinne as none else hath power to cast Body and Soul into Hell fire so none power to deliver either besides him As for the Ministerial Sentence of private Absolution it can be no more than a Declaration what God hath done It hath but the force of the Prophet Nathan's Absolution God hath taken away thy Sin Than which construction especially of words judicial there is not any thing more vulgar For example the Publicans are said in the Gospel to have justified God The Jews in Malachi to have blessed Proud men which sinne and prosper not that the one did make God righteous or the other the wicked happy But to bless to Justifie and to Absolve are as commonly used for words of Judgement or Declaration as of true and real efficacy Yea even by the opinion of the Master of Sentences It may be soundly affirmed and thought that God alone doth remit and retain Sinnes although he have given Power to the Church to do both But he one way and the Church another He only by himself forgiveth Sinne who cleanseth the Soul from inward blemish and looseth the Debt of Eternal death So great a Priviledge he hath not given unto his Priests who notwithstanding are authorized to loose and binde that is to say declare who are bound and who are loosed For albeit a man be already cleared before God yet he is not in the Church of God so taken but by the vertue of the Priests Sentence who likewise may be said to binde by imposing Satisfaction and to loose by admitting to the Holy Communion Saint Hierom also whom the Master of the Sentences alledgeth for more countenance of his own opinion doth no less plainly and directly affirm That as the Priests of the Law could only discern and neither cause nor remove Leprosies So the Ministers of the Gospel when they retain or remit Sin do but in the one judge how long we continue guilty and in the other declare when we are clear or free For there is nothing more apparent than that the Discipline of Repentance both Publick and Private was ordained as an outward mean to bring men to the vertue of inward Conversion So that when this by manifest tokens did seem effected Absolution ensuing which could not make served only to declare men innocent But the cause wherefore they are so stiff and have forsaken their own Master in this point is for that they hold the private Discipline of Penitency to be a Sacrament Absolution an external sign in this Sacrament the signs external of all Sacraments in the New Testament to be both causes of that which they signifie and signs of that which they truly cause To this opinion concerning Sacraments they are now tyed by expounding a Canon in the Florentine Council according to the former Ecclesiastical invention received from Thomas For his device it was that the mercy of God which useth Sacraments as Instruments whereby to work indueth them at the time of their Administration with supernatural force and ability to induce Grace into the Souls of men Even as the Axe and Saw doth seem to bring Timber into that fashion which the minde of the Artificer intendeth His Conceipt Scotus Occam Petrus Alliacensis with sundry others do most earnestly and strongly impugn shewing very good reason wherefore no Sacrament of the new Law can either by vertue which it self hath or by force supernatural given it be properly a cause to work Grace but Sacraments are therefore said to work or conferr Grace because the will of Almighty God is although not to give them such efficacy yet himself to be present in the Ministry of the working that effect which proceedeth wholly from him without any real operation of theirs such as can enter into men's Souls In which construction seeing that our Books and Writings have made it known to the World how we joyn with them it seemeth very hard and injurious Dealing that Bellarmine throughout the whole course of his second Book De Sacramentis in genere should so boldly face down his Adversaries as if their opinion were that Sacraments are naked empty and ineffectual signes whererein there is no other force than only such as in Pictures to stir up the minde that so by theory and speculation of things represented Faith may grow Finally That all the operations which Sacraments have is a sensible and divine Instruction But had it pleased him not to hud-wink his own knowledge I nothing doubt but he fully saw how to answer himself it being a matter very strange and incredible that one which with so great diligence hath winowed his Adversarys Writings should be ignorant of their minds For even as in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ both God and Man when his human nature is by it self considered we may not attribute that unto him which we do and must ascribe as oft as respect is had unto both natures combined so because in Sacraments there are two things distinctly to be considered the outward sign and the secret concurrence of Gods most blessed Spirit in which respect our Saviour hath taught that Water and the Holy Ghost are combined to work the mysterie of new birth Sacraments therefore as signs have only those effects before mentioned but of Sacraments in that by God's own Will and Ordinance they are signs assisted alwayes with the power of the Holy Ghost we acknowledge whatsoever either the places of the Scripture or the Authority of Councels and Fathers or the proofs and arguments of reason which he alledgeth can shew to be wrought by them The Elements and words have power of infallible signification for
that the affairs of Christians should be brought into publick judgement Howbeit not without comfort in our Lord are these travels undertaken by us for the hopes sake of eternal life to the end that with patience we may reap fruit So farr is Saint Augustin from thinking it unlawful for Pastors in such sort to judge Civil Causes that he plainly collecteth out of the Apostles words a necessity to undertake that duty yea himself he comforteth with the hope of a blessed reward in lieu of travel that way sustained Again even where whole Christian Kingdoms are how troublesome were it for Universities and other greater Collegiate Societies erected to serve as Nurseries unto the Church of Christ if every thing which civilly doth concern them were to be carried from their own peculiar Governors because for the most part they are as fittest it is they should be Persons Ecclesiastical Calling It was by the wisdom of our famous Predecessors foreseen how unfit this would be and hereupon provided by grant of special Charters that it might be as now it is in the Universities where their Vice-Chancellors being for the most part Professors of Divinity are nevertheless Civil Judges over them in the most of their ordinary Causes And to go yet some degrees further A thing impossible it is not neither altogether unusual for some who are of royal blood to be consecrated unto the Ministry of Jesus Christ and so to be Nurses of God's Church not only as the Prophet did fore-tell but also as the Apostle Saint Paul was Now in case the Crown should by this mean descend unto such Persons perhaps when they are the very last or perhaps the very best of their Race so that a greater benefit they are not able to bestow upon a Kingdom than by accepting their right therein shall the sanctity of their Order deprive them of that honour whereunto they have right by blood or shall it be a barr to shut out the publick good that may grow by their vertuous Regiment If not then must they cast off the Office which they received by Divine Imposition of hands or if they carry a more religious opinion concerning that heavenly Function it followeth that being invested as well with the one as the other they remain God's lawfully anointed both ways With men of skill and mature judgement there is of this so little doubt that concerning such as at this day are under the Archbishops of Ments Colen and Travers being both Archbishops and Princes of the Empire yea such as live within the Popes own Civil Territories there is no cause why any should deny to yield them civil obedience in any thing which they command not repugnant to Christian Piety yea even that civilly for such as are under them not to obey them were the part of seditious Persons Howbeit for Persons Ecclesiastical thus to exercise Civil Dominion of their own is more than when they onely sustain some Publick Office or deal in some business Civil being thereunto even by Supream Authority required As Nature doth not any thing in vain so neither Grace Wherefore if it please God to bless some Principal Attendants on his own Sanctuary and to endue them with extraordinary parts of excellency some in one kinde some in another surely a great derogation it were to the very honour of him who bestowed so precious Graces except they on whom he hath bestowed them should accordingly be imployed that the fruit of those Heavenly Gifts might extend it self unto the Body of the Common-wealth wherein they live which being of purpose instituted for so all Common-wealths are to the end that all might enjoy whatsoever good it pleaseth the Almighty to endue each one with must needs suffer loss when it hath not the gain which eminent civil hability in Ecclesiastical Persons is now and then found apt to afford Shall we then discommend the People of Milan for using Ambrose their Bishop as an Ambassadour about their Publick and Politick Affairs the Jews for electing their Priests sometimes to be Leaders in Warr David for making the High Priest his Chiefest Counsellour of State Finally all Christian Kings and Princes which have appointed unto like services Bishops or other of the Clergy under them No! they have done in this respect that which most sincere and religious wisdom alloweth Neither is it allowable only when either a kinde of necessity doth cast Civil Offices upon them or when they are thereunto preferred in regard of some extraordinary fitness but further also when there are even of right annexed unto some of their places or of course imposed upon certain of their Persons Functions of Dignity and Account in the Common-wealth albeit no other consideration be had therein save this that their credit and countenance may by such means be augmented A thing if ever to be respected surely most of all now when God himself is for his own sake generally no where honoured Religion almost no where no where religiously adored the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments of Christ a very cause of disgrace in the eyes both of high and low where it hath not somewhat besides it self to be countenanced with For unto this very pass things are come that the glory of God is constrained even to stand upon borrowed credit which yet were somewhat the more tolerable if there were not that disswade to lead iâ— him No practise so vile but pretended Holynesse is made sometimes a Cloak to hide it The French King Philip Valois in his time made an Ordinance that all Prelates and Bishops shuâ—â—ld be clean excluded from Parliaments where the Affairs of the Kingdom were handled pretending that a King with good Conscience cannot draw Pastors having Cure of Souls from so weighty a business to trouble their Heads with Consultations of State But irreligious intents are not able to hide themselves no not when Holiness is made their Cloak This is plain and simple truth That the counsels of wicked men hate always the presence of them whose vertue though it should not be able to prevail against their purposes would notwithstanding be unto their minds a secret corrosive and therefore till either by one shift or another they can bring all things to their own hands alone they are not secure Ordinances holler and better there stand as yet in force by the grace of Almighty God and the works of his Providence amongst us Let not Envy so far prevail as to make us account that a Blemish which if there be in us any spark of sound Judgement or of religious Conscience we must of necessity acknowledge to be one of the chiefest Ornaments unto this Land By the antient Laws whereof the Clergy being held for the chief of those Three Estates which together make up the entire Body of this Common-wealth under one Supreme Head and Governour it hath all this time ever born a sway proportionable in the Weighty Affairs of the Land wise and vertuous Kings condescending
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
to tye that unto him by way of excellency which in meaner degrees is common to others it doth not exclude any other utterly from being termed Head but from being intituled as Christ is the Head by way of the very highest degree of excellency Not in the communication of Names but in the confusion of things there is errour Howbeit if Head were a Name that could not well be nor never had been used to signifie that which a Magistrate may be in relation to some Church but were by continual use of speech appropriated unto the onely thing it signifieth being applyed unto Jesus Christ then although we must carry in our selves a right understanding yet ought we otherwise rather to speak unless we interpret our own meaning by some clause of plain speech because we are else in manifest danger to be understood according to that construction and sense wherein such words are personally spoken But here the rarest construction and most removed from common sense is that which the Word doth import being applyed unto Christ that which we signifie by it in giving it to the Magistrate it is a great deal more familiar in the common conceit of men The word is so fit to signifie all kindes of Superiority Preheminence and Chiefty that nothing is more ordinary than to use it in vulgar speech and in common understanding so to take it If therefore Christian Kings may have any preheminence or chiefty above all others although it be less than that which Theodore Beza giveth who placeth Kings amongst the principal Members whereunto publick Function to the Church belongeth and denyeth not but that of them which have publick Fonction the Civil Magistrates power hath all the rest at command in regard of that part of his Office which is to procure that Peace and good 〈…〉 especially kept in things concerning the first Table if even hereupon they term him the Head of the Church which is his Kingdom it should not seem so unfit a thing Which Title surely we could not communicate to any other no not although it should at our hands be exacted with torments but that our meaning herein is made known to the World so that no man which will understand can easily be ignorant that we do not impart unto Kings when we term them Heads the honor which is properly given to our Lord and Saviour Christ when the blessed Apostle in Scripture doth term him the Head of the Church The power which we signifie in that name differeth in three things plainly from that which Christ doth challenge First it differeth in order because God hath given to his Church for the Head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Farr above all Principalities and Powers and Might and Dominion and every Name that is named not in this World only but also in that which is to come Whereas the Power which others have is subordinate unto his Secondly again as he differeth in order so in measure of Power also because God hath given unto him the ends of the Earth for his Possesion unto him Dominion from Sea to Sea unto him all power both in Heaven and Earth unto him such Soveraignty as doth not only reach over all places persons and things but doth rest in his own only Person and is not by any succession continued he reigneth as Head and King nor is there any kinde of law which tyeth him but his own proper will and wisdom his power is absolute the same joyntly over all which it is severally over each not so the Power of any other Headship How Kings are restrained and how their Power is limited we have shewed before so that unto him is given by the title of Headship ever the Church that largeness of Power wherein neither Man nor Angel can be matched not compared with him Thirdly the last and greatest difference between him and them is in the very kinde of their Power The Head being of all other parts of the Body most divine hath dominion over all the rest it is the fountain of sense of motion the throne where the guide of the Soul doth reign the Court from whence direction of all things human proceedeth Why Christ is called the Head of the Church these Causes themselves do yield As the Head is the chiefest part of a man above which there is none alwayes joyned with the Body so Christ the highest in his Church is alwayes knit to it Again as the Head giveth sense and motion unto all the Body so he quickneth us and together with understanding of heavenly things giveth strength to walk therein Seeing therefore that they cannot affirm Christ sensibly present or alwayes visibly joyned unto his Body the Church which is on Earth in as much as his Corporal residence is in Heaven again seeing they do not affirm it were intolerable if they should that Christ doth personally administer the external Regiment of outward Actions in the Church but by the secret inward influence of his Grace giveth Spiritual life and the strength of ghostly motions thereunto Impossible it is that they should so close up their eyes as not to discern what odds there is between that kinde of operation which we imply in the Headship of Princes and that which agreeth to our Saviours dominion over the Church The Headship which we give unto Kings is altogether visibly exercised and ordereth only the external frame of the Church-affairs here amongst us so that it plainly differeth from Christ's even in very nature and kinde To be in such sort united unto the Church as he is to work as he worketh either on the whole Church or upon any particular Assembly or in any one man doth neither agree nor hath any possibility of agreeing unto any one besides him Against the first distinction or difference it is to be objected That to entitle a Magistrate head of the Church although it be under Christ is not absurd For Christ hath a two-fold Superiority ever his and even Kingdoms according to the one he hath a Superior which is his Father according to the other none had immediate Authority with his Father that is to say of the Church he is Head and Governor onely as the Son of Man Head and Governor of Kingdoms onely as the Son of God In the Church as Man he hath Officers under Him which Officers are Ecclesiastical Persons As for the Civil Magistrate his Office belongeth unto Kingdoms and to Common-wealths neither is he there an under or subordinate Head considering that his Authority cometh from God simply and immediately even as our Saviour Christ's doth Whereunto the sum of our Answer is First that as Christ being Lord or Head over all doth by vertue of that Soveraignty rule all so he hath no more a Superiour in governing his Church than in exercising Soveraign Dominion upon the rest of the World besides Secondly That all Authority as well Civil as Ecclesiastical is subordinate unto him And Thirdly the
Dominion over the whole Church of Christ militant doth and that by divine right appertain to the Pope of Rome They did prove it lawful to grant unto others besides Christ the power of Headship in a different kinde from his but they should have proved it lawful to challenge as they did to the Bishop of Rome a Power universal in that different kinde Their fault was therefore in exacting wrongfully so great Power as they challenged in that kinde and not in making two kindes of Power unless some reasons can be shewed for which this distinction of Power should be thought erroneous and false A little they stirr although in vain to prove that we cannot with truth make such distinction of Power whereof the one kinde should agree unto Christ onely and the other be further communicated Thus therefore they argue If there be no Head but Christ in respect of Spiritual Government there is no Head but be in respect of the Word Sacraments and Discipline administred by those whom he hath appointed for as much also as it is his Spiritual Government Their meaning is that whereas we make two kindes of Power of which two the one being Spiritual is proper unto Christ the other men are capable of because it is visible and external We do amiss altogether in distinguishing they think forasmuch as the visible and external power of Regiment over the Church is onely in relation unto the Word Sacraments and Discipline administred by such as Christ hath appointed thereunto and the exercise of this Power is also his Spiritual Government Therefore we do but vainly imagin a visible and external Power in the Church differing from his Spiritual Power Such Disputes as this do somewhat resemble the practising of Well-willers upon their Friends in the pangs of Death whose maner is even their to put smoak in their Nostrils and so to fetch them again alhough they know it a matter impossible to keep them living The kinde of affecton which the Favourers of this laboring cause bear towards it will not suffer them to se it dye although by what means they should make it live they do not see but thy may see that these wrestlings will not help Can they be ignorant how little it boteth to overcast so clear a light with some mist of ambiguity in the name of Spiritual Râ—iment To make things therefore so plain that henceforward a Childes capacity ma serve rightly to conceive our meaning we make the Spiritual Regiment of Christ to â—e generally that whereby his Church is ruled and governed in things Spiritual Of this general we make two distinct kindes the one invisible exercised by Christ himself in his own Person the other outwardly administred by them whom Christ doth allow to be Rulers and Guiders of his Church Touching the former of these two kindes we teach that Christ in regard thereof is particularly termed the Head of the Church of God neither can any other Creature in that sense and meaning be termed Head besides him because it importeth the conduct and government of our Souls by the hand of that blessed Spirit wherewith we are sealed and marked as being peculiarly his Him onely therefore do we acknowledge to be the Lord which dwelleth liveth and reigneth in our hearts him only to be that Head which giveth salvation and life unto his Body him onely to be that Fountain from whence the influence of heavenly Graces distilleth and is derived into all parts whether the Word or the Sacraments or Discipline or whatsoever be the means whereby it floweth As for the Power of administring these things in the Church of Christ which Power we call the Power of Order it is indeed both Spiritual and His Spiritual because such properly concerns as the Spirit His because by him it was instituted Howbeit neither Spiritual as that which is inwardly and invisibly exercised nor His as that which he himself in Person doth exercise Again that power of Dominion which is indeed the point of this Controversie and doth also belong to the second kinde of Spiritual Government namely unto that Regiment which is external and visible this likewise being Spiritual in regard of the manner about which it dealeth and being his in as much as he approveth whatsoever is done by it must notwithstanding be distinguished also from that Power whereby he himself in Person administreth the former kinde of his own Spiritual Regiment because he himself in Person doth not administer this we do not therefore vainly imagine but truly and rightly discern a Power external and visible in the Church exercised by men and severed in nature from that Spiritual Power of Christ's own Regiment which Power is termed Spiritual because it worketh secretly inwardly and invisibly His because none doth nor can it personally exercise either besides or together with him seeing that him onely we may name our Head in regard of His and yet in regard of that other Power from this term others also besides him Heads without any contradiction at all which thing may very well serve for answer unto that also which they further alledge against the aforesaid distinction namely That even the outward Societies and Assemblies of the Church where one or two are gathered together in his Name either for hearing of the Word or for Prayer or any other Church-exercise our Saviour Christ being in the midst of them as Mediatour must be their Head and if he be not there idle but doing the Office of a Head fully it followeth that even in the outward Societies and Meetings of the Church no more man can be called the Head of it seeing that our Saviour Christ doing the whole Office of the Head himself alone leaveth nothing to men by doing whereof they may obtain that Title Which Objection I take as being made for nothing but onely to maintain Argument for they are not so farr gone as to argue this in sooth and right good earnest God standeth saith the Psalmist in the midst of gods if God be there present he must undoubtedly be present as God if he be not there idle but doing the Office of a God fully it followeth that God himself alone doing the whole Office of a God leaveth nothing in such Assemblies to any other by doing whereof they may obtain so high a Name The Psalmist therefore hath spoken amiss and doth ill to call Judges Gods Not so for as God hath his Office differing from theirs and doth fully discharge it even in the midst of them so they are not hereby excluded from all kinde of Duty for which that Name should be given into them also but in that Duty for which it was given them they are encouraged Religiously and carefully to order themselves after the self-same manner Our Lord and Saviour being in the midst of his Church as Head is our comfort without the abridgement of any one duty for performance whereof others are termed Headsm another kinde than he is
hands of our Lord Jesus Christ with all reverence not disdaining to be taught and admonished by them nor with-holding from them as much as the least part of their due and decent honour All which for any thing that hath been alleadged may stand very well without resignation of Supremacy of Power in making Laws even Laws concerning the most Spiritual Affairs of the Church which Laws being made amongst us are not by any of us so taken or interpreted as if they did receive their force from power which the Prince doth communicate unto the Parliament or unto any other Court under him but from Power which the whole Body of the Realm being naturally possest with hath by free and deliberate assent derived unto him that ruleth over them so farr forth as hath been declared so that our Laws made concerning Religion do take originally their essence from the power of the whole Realm and Church of England than which nothing can be more consonant unto the law of Nature and the will of our Lord Jesus Christ. To let these go and return to our own Men Ecclesiastical Governours they say may not meddle with making of Civil Laws and of Laws for the Common-wealth nor the Civil Magistrate high or low with making of Orders for the Church It seemeth unto me very strange that these men which are in no cause more vehement and fierce than where they plead that Ecclesiastical Persons may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be Lords should hold that the power of making Ecclesiastical Laws which thing of all other is most proper unto Dominion belongeth to none but Ecclesiastical Persons onely Their oversight groweth herein for want of exact observation what it is to make a Law Tully speaking of the Law of Nature saith That thereof God himself was Inventor Disceptator Lator the Deviser the Discusser and Deliverer wherein he plainly alludeth unto the chiefest parts which then did appertain to his Publick action For when Laws were made the first thing was to have them devised thesecond to sift them with as much exactness of Judgement as any way might be used the next by solemn voyce of Soveraign Authority to pass them and give them the force of Laws It cannot in any reason seem otherwise than most fit that unto Ecclesiastical Persons the care of devising Ecclesiastical Laws be committed even as the care of Civil unto them which are in those Affairs most skilful This taketh not away from Ecclesiastical Persons all right of giving voyce with others when Civil Laws are proposed for Regiment of the Common-wealth whereof themselves though now the World would have them annihilated are notwithstanding as yet a part much less doth it cut off that part of the power of Princes whereby as they claim so we know no reasonable cause wherefore we may not grant them without offence to Almighty God so much Authority in making all manner of Laws within their own Dominions that neither Civil nor Ecclesiastical do pass without their Royal assent In devising and discussing of Laws Wisdom especially is required but that which establisheth them and maketh them is Power even Power of Dominion the Chiefty whereof amongst us resteth in the Person of the King Is there any Law of Christs which forbiddeth Kings and Rulers of the Earth to have such Soveraign and Supream Power in the making of Laws either Civil or Ecclesiastical If there be our controversie hathan end Christ in his Church hath not appointed any such Law concerning Temporal Power as God did of old unto the Common-wealth of Israel but leaving that to be at the World 's free choice his chiefest care is that the Spiritual Law of the Gospel might be published farr and wide They that received the Law of Christ were for a long time People scattered in sundry Kingdoms Christianity not exempting them from the Laws which they had been subject unto saving only in such cases as those Laws did injoyn that which the Religion of Christ did forbid Hereupon grew their manifold Persecutions throughout all places where they lived as oft as it thus came to pass there was no possibility that the Emperours and Kings under whom they lived should meddle any whit at all with making Laws for the Church From Christ therefore having received Power who doubteth but as they did so they might binde them to such Orders as seemed fittest for the maintenance of their Religion without the leave of high or low in the Common-wealth for as much as in Religion it was divided utterly from them and they from it But when the mightiest began to like of the Christian Faith by their means whole Free-States and Kingdoms became obedient unto Christ. Now the question is Whether Kings by embracing Christianity do thereby receive any such Law as taketh from them the weightiest part of that Soveraignty which they had even when they were Heathens Whether being Infidels they might do more in causes of Religion than now they can by the Laws of God being true Believers For whereas in Regal States the King or Supream Head of the Common-wealth had before Christianity a supream stroak in making of Laws for Religion he must by embracing Christian Religion utterly deprive himself thereof and in such causes become subject unto his Subjects having even within his own Dominions them whose commandment he must obey unlesse his Power be placed in the Head of some foreign Spiritual Potentate so that either a foreign or domestical Commander upon Earth he must admit more now than before he had and that in the chiefest things whereupon Common-wealths do stand But apparent it is unto all men which are not Strangers unto the Doctrine of Jesus Christ that no State of the World receiving Christianity is by any Law therein contained bound to resign the Power which they lawfully held before but over what Persons and in what causes soever the same hath been in force it may so remain and continue still That which as Kings they might do in matters of Religion and did in matter of false Religion being Idolatrous and Superstitious Kings the same they are now even in every respect fully authorized to do in all affairs pertinent to the state of true Christian Religion And concerning the Supream Power of making Laws for all Persons in all causes to be guided by it is not to be let passe that the head Enemies of this Headship are constrained to acknowledge the King endued even with this very Power so that he may and ought to exercise the same taking order for the Church and her affairs of what nature of kinde soever in case of necessity as when there is no lawful Ministry which they interpret then to be and this surely is a point very remarkable wheresoever the Ministry is wicked A wicked Ministry is no lawful Ministry and in such sort no lawful Ministry that what doth belong unto them as Ministers by right of their calling the same to be annihilated in
lawful must grant that the Canons even of General Councils have but the face of Wise-mens opinions concerning that whereof they-treat till they be publickly assented unto where they are to take place as Laws and that in giving such publick assent as maketh a Christian Kingdome subject unto those Laws the King's authority is the chiefest That which an University of Men a Company or Corporation doth without consent of their Rector is as nothing Except therefore we make the King's Authority over the Clergy less in the greatest things than the power of the meanest Governour is in all things over the Colledge or Society which is under him how should we think it a matter decent that the Clergy should impose Laws the Supream Governours assent not asked Yea that which is more the Laws thus made God himself doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them him It is a loose and licentious opinion which the Anabaptists have embraced holding that a Christian man's liberty is lost and the Soul which Christ hath redeemed unto himself injuriously drawn into servitude under the Yoke of Human power if any Law be now imposed besides the Gospel of Christ in obedience whereunto the Spirit of God and not the constraint of men is to lead us according to that of the blessed Apostle Such as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God and not such as live in thraldom unto men Their Judgement is therefore That the Church of Christ should admit of no Law-makers but the Evangelists no Courts but Presbyteries no Punishments but Ecclesiastical censures As against this sort we are to maintain the use of Human laws and the continual necessity of making them from time to time as long as this present World doth last so likewise the Authority of Laws so made doth need much more by us to be strengthened against another sort who although they do utterly condemn the making of Laws in the Church yet make they a great deal less account of them than they should do There are which think simply of Human laws that they can in no sort touch the Conscience That to break and transgress them cannot make men in the sight of God culpable as Sin doth onely when we violate such Laws we do thereby make our selves obnoxious unto external punishment in this World so that the Magistrate may in regard of such offence committed justly correct the Offender and cause him without injury to endure such pains as Law doth appoint but further it reacheth not For first the Conscience is the proper Court of God the guiltiness thereof is Sin and the punishment Eternal death men are not able to make any Law that shall command the Heart it is not in them to make Inward-conceit a Crime or to appoint for any crime other punishment than corporal their Laws therefore can have no power over the Soul neither can the heart of man be polluted by transgressing them St. Austine rightly desineth Sin to be that which is spoken done or desired not against any Laws but against the Law of the Living God The Law of God is proposed unto Man as a Glass wherein to behold the stains and the spots of their sinful Souls By it they are to judge themselves and when they feel themselves to have transgressed against it then to bewail their offences with David Against thee onely O Lord have I sinned and done wickedly in thy sight that so our present tears may extinguish the flames which otherwise we are to feel and which of God in that day shall condemn the Wicked unto when they shall render account of the Evil which they have done not by violating Statute-Laws and Canons but by disobedience unto his Law and his Word For our better instruction therefore concerning this point first we must note That the Law of God it self doth require at our hands Subjection Be ye subject saith S. Peter and S. Paul Let every Soul be subject subject all unto such Powers as are set over us For if such as are not set over us require our subjection we by denying it are not disobedient to the Law of God or undutiful unto Higher Powers Because though they be such in regard of them over whom they have lawful Dominion yet having not so over us unto us they are not such Subjection therefore we owe and that by the Law of God we are in Conscience bound to yield it even unto every of them that hold the seats of Authority and Power in relation unto us Howbeit not all kindes of subjection unto every such kinde of Power concerning Scribes and Pharisees our Saviour's Precept was Whatsoever they shall tell ye do it Was it his meaning that if they should at any time enjoyn the People to levy an Army or to sell their Lands and Goods for the furtherance of so great an enterprize and in a word that simply whatsoever it were which they did command they ought without any exception forth-with to be obeyed No but whatsoever they shall tell you must be understoud in pertinentibus ad Cathedram it must be construed with limitation and restrained unto things of that kinde which did belong to their place and power For they had not Power general absolutely given them to command all things The reason why we are bound in Conscience to be subject unto all such Power is because all Powers are of God They are of God either instituting or permitting them Power is then of Divine institution when either God himself doth deliver or men by light of nature finde out the kinde thereof So that the power of Parents over Children and of Husbands over their Wives the power of all sorts of Superiors made by consent of Common-wealths within themselves or grown from agreement amongst Nations such power is of God's own Institution in respect of the kinde thereof Again if respect be had unto those particular Persons to whom the same is derived if they either receive it immediately from God as Moses and Aaron did or from nature as Parents do or from men by a natural and orderly course as every Governor appointed in any Common wealth by the order thereof doth then is not the kinde of their Power only of God's instituting but the derivation thereof also into their Persons is from him He hath placed them in their rooms and doth term them his Ministers Subjection therefore is due unto all such Powers inasmuch as they are of God's own institution even then when they are of man's creation Omni Humanae Creaturae Which things the Heathens themselves do acknowledge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As for them that exercise Power altogether against Order although the kinde of Power which they have may be of God yet is their exercise thereof against God and therefore not of God otherwise than by Permission as all Injustice is Touching such Acts as are done by that power which is according to