but that every man should be left to his own liberty we should haue so many seuerall congregations so many diuers religions We see the varietie of opinions touching the gesture in receiuing the communiō though there be order set downe for the receiuing of it kneeling Some hold it vnlawfull to kneele and deeme that to receiue standing is the best way as here in this place Others condemne kneeling as Popish and idolatrous and hold standing as Iewish as the other Popish and therefore say that Christs example in this must bee vnto vs a lawe and rule from which wee may not varie hee received it sitting and therfore any other gesture vnlawful Thus wee see if in this and other things every man were left to his owne liberty what an endlesse worke there would be there would be cōcord in nothing but in diversities and disagreements The vse and ende of these rites as D. Zanchie saith are first that they may procure a reverence vnto the holy things and that by such helpes we may be stirred vp vnto godlines by a streight hand be led vnto Christ The second end That modesty gravity which in all other actions ought to bee regarded may herein chiefly appeare Afterwards he proveth that ecclesiastical traditions and constitutions are not meerely humane but divine good true holy and pleasing to God because they are ordināces of the church which is guided by the spirit of God which is truth For the particulers they are partly humane and partly divine divine because they are a part of that order and decorum that God hath commanded in generall leaving the particulers to the discretion of the church to bee framed according to the generall rule Now as there must of necessitie be a vniforme order in these things prescribed so also is it no lesse necessary to see vniformity in the observance of these orders For they are made to mainetaine and preserue vnity and therefore generally to be observed in those places where they are established And if any inferior governors in the church who are to see vniforme orders to be observed will see some observed and some others wilfully to be broken It were in my opinion much better for them to be meanes vnto superior autority that those orders which they thinke vnfit were altered then that this liberty of diversity shoulde be given which breeds so great scandals For I knowe by manifold experience the danger that this diversity of observing orders bringeth Some poore soules haue and doe stand amazed whilest they see in one parish one forme of praiers and administring the sacraments and another in the next parish They thinke these are divers religions and doubt what they may follow Herevpon it commeth to passe that some fall to Popery some to Atheisme some to other heresies schismes These inconveniences were wisely foreseene in the establishing of an act in Parlament for vniformity And if political lawes of heathen princes be to be observed for conscience sake so that they enioine not disobedience to God much more these that are for mainetenance of concord order and decencie in the worship of God Aug. epist 166. Hoc iubent imperatores quod iubet Christus quia cum bonum iubent per illos non iubet nisi Christus That which kings commande that Christ commandeth because when as they commande that which is good Christ commandeth by them Ob But many of our lawes ordinances and constitutions say some are vnlawful Therefore not to be observed Ans Bucer being written vnto by D. Cranmer then Archbishop of Canterbury and also by B. Hooper as appeareth in his booke de sacris vestibus Touching the lawfulnes of these matters which are now made question of by divers writeth his censure at large vpon our booke of cōmon praier liturgie and ceremonies Now he saith that when first he came into this land he made doubt whether he might ioine with our church as with a church of God things were so farre out of order but when hee looked more seriously into the matter he foūd that the fault was in the manners of the men and for want of the execution of the wholesome orders prescribed and not in the lawes and ordinances prescribed themselues after hee doubteth not to avouch that touching our lawes Bucer subscribeth to our book of commō prayer orders and discipline established he found not any thing that was not either directly or by necessary consequence drawne out of the word of God howsoever he wished that some things that troubled the consciences of some men were removed for their sakes that tooke offence which hee sheweth in particuler Peter Martyr in his Epistles seemeth to bee of the same iudgement Ob Others thinke that all or the most of our ceremonies are lawfull in themselues but the imposing a necessitie in observing of them destroieth Christian liberty Ans That is they were lawfull if they were not cōmaunded Indeed vpon this conceipt some do strongly and strangly hold that the king may not cōmande them to weare their ordinary apparell of this or that fashion much lesse any to be vsed in the Church for they must stande vpon Christian liberty A strange principle of obedience and like to breed loialty in the subiects towards their Prince I marvaile vnto what this humor woulde growe if it were followed Ob Againe some think they ought not to yeeld obedience to these orders of the church because they are not resolved but stand in doubt and whatsoever is not of faith but is done doubtingly is a sinne Ans It is much better to obey doubtingly then to disobey doubtingly but me thinkes they should reason thus Because I am enioined to doe such a thing if I obey not the authoritie of a Christian Magistrate I must needes sin vnlesse I can manifestly proue that that which is commāded is vnlawfull Ob There are others that grant them lawful but say they we cannot yeeld vnto them without offence and scandall of Many Christ paid tribute Mat. 17.27 which he was not boūd vnto seeing he was free yet neverthelesse hee did it for avoiding offence Now these men in seeking to shun offence of I know not whom they imagine will run headlong into the wilful offence of the church whole state and rashly breake the cōcord vnity of the Church This is to streine at a Gnat and swallow a Cammell S. Augustin writeth at large most divinely on this point Epist 118. ad Ianuarium Those things saith hee which we obserue not by written autority but by tradition which are observed throughout the whole world we must vnderstand that they are commanded and appointed by the Apostles themselues or els are decreed in lawfull councels whose authority in the Church is most wholesome and holy As that the passion resurrection and ascension of our Savior Christ the comming of the holy Ghost are celebrated solemnized yearely whatsoever such like is observed of the whole church generally
ministery that should read the Scriptures and praiers of the Church catechise according to a forme prescribed read homilies administer the sacraments haue the help of preachers monthly or quarterly or as oft as they could bee had And since then there are very many places where the stipend is not sufficient to maintaine a preacher and are of necessity served with an vnpreaching minister And yet wee doubt not but the people vnder them may performe acceptable service to God in hearing reverently the word read in ioining with him in publike prayers of the Church giving diligent care to the homilies and sermons which he readeth receiueth the sacraments and heare sermons so oft as they can haue them and bee in as good state of salvation as some people that haue diuers sermons made by extempory men which stand vpon the present assistance of the spirit dabitur in illa hora and preach their own idle humors S. August lib. 4. cap. 8. de doctrina christiana sheweth that there were in the Church in his time some ministers which had not the gift of preaching of whome hee made no question but that they were lawfull ministers he approueth their reading of homilies or pronouncing of other mens sermons to the better edifying and instructing of their people These are his words Sunt sane quidam qui bene pronunciare possunt quid autem pronuncient excogitare non possunt quod si ab alijs sumant eloquenter sapienterque conscriptum memoriaeque commendent atque ad populum proferant si eam personam gerunt non improbè faciunt And by your leaue a great parte of our curious preachers which envie so much against reading of homilies and cānot endure that a learned man should vse the helpe of his owne notes in the pulpit because they themselues can preach little worth noting which will seeme to preach all out of the Bible and their owne meditations yet will they preach other mens sermons printed and written and study little else and howsoeuer they knowe themselues to be vnlearned yet doe they account of themselues and will be accounted more then ordinary preachers I would haue them to deny ministers that haue not the gifts to make a sufficient sermon themselues to bee lawfull ministers then we should haue a great many of their preachers in the same state Let it bee proued that aptnesse to make preach sermons of themselues is the forme essence of a minister which cannot bee gathered out of St. Paul though questionlesse it is the principall qualitie in any minister Againe if such shal be denied to be ministers the congregations vnder them may as well be denied to be visible members of the Church of God then must the sacraments administred by them bee denied to bee sacraments but so doth no protestant Church esteeme of our ministers and congregations nor any of any sound iudgement S. Augustine Contra Parmentanum Donatistam contra Cresconium grammaticū contra Petilianum sheweth that the dignitie of the sacraments dependeth not of the worthinesse of the minister because the sacraments are Christs and whosoever the minister be that baptiseth with water it is hee that baptiseth with the holy Ghost To conclude this point the honor due vnto a minister Vnderstanding that this doctrine touching the reading of homilies by such as are not of sufficient abilitie to frame sermons was offensiuely taken as false erronius Let such offensiue men know that herein I said nothing but that which M. Bucer in his censure vpon our booke of common prayer hath written for the substance in his 7 chapter whither I referre the equall reader espec As for the carpets let them now bite him whō after many yeeres buried was burned for despite borne vnto his doct 〈◊〉 is not to be denied vnto him that hath not gifts of himselfe sufficient to make sermons seeing that this notwithstanding he cannot be denied to be a lawfull minister howsoever those that haue greater gifts are worthy of double honour Yet herein the slacknesse of some of the gouernors of our Church cannot be excused for there are many that if they were vrged and inioined haue sufficiencie both of learning and vtterance but their carelesnesse and idlenes is such that vnlesse they bee compelled they will take no pains There are others that with good directiōs helps of their able neighbouring ministers would in short time be brought vnto a reasonable sufficiencie in preaching as I haue knowne the experience of many in divers places Now for the rest which are not able of themselues to frame sermons they might be enioined to the catechising which is appointed by autoritie and to read homilies which are set forth and enioined and to procure their weekely or monthly sermons at the least according to the iniunctions and Canons And seeing it hath beene a fault of some particuler gouernors and not the fault of the gouernment which commandeth the cōtrary to ordaine such insufficient men in places where sufficiēt main tenāce is for able preachers it were to be wished that for the time to cōe they would admit none into such places but preachers And this evil was wisely foreseen thought very necessarie to be redressed when as by our ecclesiasticall lawes they ought to be graduats and of a good age and not meere grammer schollers nor youths which are to be admitted into the ministery Moreouer our gouernors of our Churches should doe a good and necessary service to take a sure survey of those that are preachers what their sufficiency is for many out of their presumptious pride or to avoid the name of a nōpreacher though they haue no learning nor any competent vnderstanding in the scriptures will take vpon them to preach very often yea some of them twice or thrice a weeke and God knowes knowe not how nor what they preach to the great dishonor of God and reproach of preachers bringing the preaching of the word in contempt and to bee iested at These vnpreaching preachers doe more harme in the Church and more hinder the obedience vnto the Gospel then any one thing these ought to bee forbidden to preach till they bee better instructed Lastly seeing the calling of ministers is to bee reverenced they are to admonish the ministers generally and particularly that by their pietie integritie diligence and charitie they would force men to yeeld that reverence and obedience as they are bound vnto and as becommeth them Now for the reverence and obedience vnto the word of God preached by the minister For as the reverent esteeme of the ministery ministers is a great cause that the people receiue the word of God with more alacrity and to their greater profit So the message which they bring i. the word of God addeth autority and honour to the minister and causeth obedience to be yeelded vnto it For vnles we be perswaded that they are Gods ministers and that the word which they deliver is
Gods word wee shall neither profit by it nor yeeld obedience vnto it nay it will bee a fauor of death vnto death vnto vs when wee shall be guilty of taking Gods name in vaine and refuse the word of reconciliation meanes of salvation offred S. Paul 1. Thess 2.13 reioiceth that the Thessalonians receiued the word preached not as the word of man but as it is indeed the word of God 2. Cor. 4.7 we haue this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the vertue thereof might be of God and not of ourselues And this is not only in the Prophets and Apostles who were extraordinary men directed in speciall manner by the holy Ghost but of all ordinary ministers in the Church that so long as they speak the truth of God according to the Scriptures draw soūd instructiō thence apply it to our vse this word so preached is to be esteemed as the word of God and so to be reverenced and obeyed And they that shal otherwise esteeme of it shal be guilty of taking Gods name in vaine For in old time God revealed his wil by dreames visions and sometimes by his owne voice from heavē yet after hee had ordained an ordinary ministery hee made knowne his will vnto the people by them In the 20. of Exod. ver 19. After the law was delivered with thunder lightnings and the noyze of trumpets and the smoaking of the mountaine the people were sore affraide and made request vnto Moses that they might not heare God speak but that Moses might be for thē to God deliver Gods will to them In this ordinance of God that his Ministers should declare his will vnto the people first he declareth his good will toward vs when he taketh out of men them that shal do his message in the world that shal be interpreters of his secret will that shal represent his owne person And so by experience he proveth that it is not vaine that commonly hee calleth vs his temples when out of the mouthes of men as out of his sanctuarie hee giveth answers to men Secondly this is the best and most profitable exercise to humility when hee accustometh vs to obey his word howsoever it be preached by men like vnto vs yea sometimes our inferiors in dignity Thirdly there was nothing fitter for the cherishing of mutuall charitie then that men should bee bound togither with this bond when one is made pastor to teach the rest and the people are commanded to be schollers of the same schoole to receiue all one doctrine at one mouth These points Calvin handleth so largely and so pithily that I referre them that would be farther satisfied vnto his fourth booke of Institutions and third chapter But here arise two maine doubts the one touching the doctrine the second touching the life of the Minister First as concerning the doctrine it seemeth that here is great danger if we shall take all for true Prophets and all that is delivered for Gods word For we read 1. King 18.26 and 1. King 22.6 and many other places that their were false prophets and therefore Deut. 18.20.21 the Lord is faine to teach them how to know the true Prophet from the false whether they speake his word or their owne Touching Prophets their calling was immediate and extraordinary there was no such question of Levits or Priests Ob Our Saviour Christ in the gospell Mat. 7.15 bids his disciples to beware of false Prophets and S. Paule and S. Jude make mention of false teachers c. Resp In our Saviour Christs time the extraordinary calling of Prophets was not altogither ceased And the Apostle spake not of ordinary Ministers but of such as went about like Apostles or Evangelists and such as without any setled place or ordinary calling went from place to place to sowe heresies some of which denied Christ the foundation some taught doctrines of devils and damnable heresies If they had meant ordinary ministers in an established Church they would haue easily told them a redresse by ordinary proceeding either to reclaime or depose them Ob Yet further it is obiected 1. Ioh. 4. we are commanded to try the spirits whether they be of God or no c. Resp Indeed many herevpon ignorantly presumptuously haue and doe assume vnto themselues a power and liberty to dieue into the secrets of God and to censure some to be ministers of God and sent by him some to bee no lawfull ministers but send themselues some this and that at their pleasure Whereas the Apostle giueth no such liberty but expoundeth himselfe in the wordes following that he that denieth the Lord Iesus to be come in the flesh is not of God Ob But how if vpon the right foundatiō they build wood hay stubble insteed of gold siluer and precious stones Resp God suffereth such sometimes 1 To stirre vp our care and attention to teach vs to doe as the noble Bereans did Act. 17.11 Secondly to try vs as Deut. 13.3 whether we will bee carried away with every blast of false doctrine Thirdly to try the ministers humilitie whether he will acknowledge his error when he is convinced and reforme it as S. Augustine de catechizandis rudibus declareth Quod si humanae infirmitatis intentio etiam ab ipsa rerum veritate errauer it ne forte accidat vt hinc offendatur auditor Non aliunde nobis debet videri accidisse nisi quia Deus experiri nos voluit vtrum cum mentis placiditate corrigamur ne in defensione nostri erroris maiori praecipitemur errori Fourthly to teach the minister not to trust to his wit or present faculty but by studie reading meditation prayer prepare himselfe Ob But many preach much out of humane writers ancient fathers therefore their sermons are not to be received as the word of God Resp If their sayings alleadged by the preacher be agreeable to the word of God and fitly applied they are to be receiued as the word because if it bee truth it is of him that is the truth the way and the life Heare what Saint Augustin in lib. 2. de doctrina christiana cap. 40. saith of this point Philosophietiam qui vocantur si qua forte vera fidei nostrae accommoda dixerunt non solum formidanda non sunt sed ab ijs etiam tanquam iniustis possessoribus in vsum nostrum vēdicanda c. The heathen Philosophers saith hee those things which they haue spoken truely and agreeable to our faith we ought to be so farre of from being afraid of it as that we are to challenge it from them as from vniust possessors to our owne vse as the Israelites did the vessels iewels and rayment which they borrowed from the Aegyptians c. To the same purpose S. Hierom. Vid etiam S. Hieron Tom. 2 pag 326 Basu-edit epist magno oratori Romano hanc quaest copiose disputante And now to conclude this point also If thou suspect that
shall continue the present gouernement ceremonies giue no way to y Aug. ipsa mutaâ—tio consuâ—tudinis etiam quae adtuvat vtilitate novitate perturbat Formalists innovations then they may say they hold with the doctrine discipline and ceremonies of the Church they haue subscribed vnto them and yeelded obedience to the Church These men are vile formalists that turne religion into policie either condemne theÌ„selues in those things they know or knowingly coÌ„firme sooth others in their errors and disobedience These meÌ„ neither deserue nor haue loue of Prince Magistrate nor people neither is any trust reposed in them for they cannot haue good consciences which will stretch every way and howsoever some for their owne purpose seem to flatter them yet they are truely esteemed of none Yet God forbid that we should deny but there are some which deny obedieÌ„ce for their coÌ„science sake not rightly informed in the word of God who if they could haue beene perswaded otherwise would never haue vndergone such evident losse and trouble yet let such labour to knowe that it is not good to leaue preaching of the word a matter of substance which is commanded vnder a Woe for matters of circumstance ceremonies and in question And to consider the benefit of vnity peace The reason that the people alleadge why they will not be brought to conforme themselues in their places nor like such ministers as are conformable is because they haue beene otherwise taught and they were good men that so taught vs say they And one holdes of Paul another of Apollo Novelty and singularity doe so affect them that they scorne to doe as the Church state do they say the smale number is in the right The way that fewest approue and most condemne that is the true way So did the Donatists plead in S. Augustines time and because some of them were then punished for their outrageous faults they grounded herevpon that they were the persecuted Church they suffered for righteousnesse and yet the louing cariage and mildnesse of the Church then towards them and their proud spitefull and seditious practises against the Church did evidently testifie who were Christs disciples and who not who had the spirit of loue and vnity and who of pride hatred and contention And I pray God we may once cleerely perceiue that this is the practise of SataÌ„ as Bucer saith to bring vs to a verball profession and by questions of genealogies and matters of smaller moment to tread S. Iames his religion vnder foot when we shall haue religion all in opinions and little or never a whit in good workes as is now come to passe And all this while the Papists haue gotten greate advantage and by whose meanes the Brownists increase it is more then evident and God grant we may knowe how God delighteth in loue and vnity and how Church nor state can longe consist where divisions are fostered Now because all publique disorders disobedience arise out of particuler houses parishes and that wee are met togither here at the Visitation for reformation of such things as are amisse The churchwardens sworne meÌ„ are to take heed that they performe obedience in presenting faults according to their oath Ob But some obiect say they holde not our spiritual iudges nor their courtes lawfull neither will they present for faults such matters as they hold to bee no faults i. disobedience vnto Church orders Ans To answere thee why didst thou sweare to answere by oath particulerly to these and these things and by thy mentall reservation doest thus hypocritically wickedly dispense with thy oath Hast thou learned divinity of the Priscillianist or of the treacherous equivocating Papist Ob Some will presume they neede not present according to oath because little or nothing is meÌ„ded but a little purse punishment Ans May not the superiour Magistrate repriue a fellon and the supreme pardon at his pleasure yet thou must bee accessary if thou do not apprehend indite such offenders And learne this withall That Magistrates especially of estate do must do many things whereof we cannot tell the reason and they may seeme to vs to doe ill when they do best and it is not fit for vs to take accompt of them but to looke to our owne duties know they are more wise then we And if in our busines little be mended that thou canst see imagine or hope that it is better then thou canst see and performe thou thy oath which is alwaies sacred Others dispense with their oathes for feare others spare their friends and familiars others because they would not be accompted troublesome and others also because they would themselues be borne with another time Every Minister should herein do wel to admonish his people of the great waight of an oath and if these and like vnder officers would present and indite according as they are bound theÌ„ need there not be such exclaming against superiorpowers for the raigning of all abuses seeing the principall cause ariseth from ourselues And thus much for the first point of obedience and for this time FINIS To the Reader I Knowe that it will be expected at this autors hands that he should haue haÌ„dled these points more fully exactly haue set theÌ„ downe in more plausible polished words sentences But vnderstand that his study about this was begun and ended within the coÌ„passe of one onely weeke besides it was to be no larger then could be deliuered in an houres space and it was purposed only for the supply of that place at that time without any intent at all of further publishing till their inordinate dealing extorted it out of his hands and now is set downe as neere as may be in the same words His intent was good in Gods feare to perswade them to obedience and vnity which God grant that they and we all may follow Amen