our owne be we neuer so ignorant it must be none other mans be he neuer so learned and it must be our owne not by ordinary course of reading attained either from old or new writers neither yet by often iteration decocted but in a sort after the Anabaptistical manner both sodainely infused and effused This is with those men that noble and that worthy kind of Preaching which must in credit and authority equall the holy Scriptures in power and perspicuity farre excell them A very blind and a bad kind of doctrine For these great inconueniences must needes insue of it First if our Sermons be truely and properly the worde of God as they comonly affirme it will from thence follow that the Preacher in his Sermons cannot erre For The word of God can not erre And so we who haue taught all this while that the Fathers can erre the Pope can erre the CouÌ„cels can erre shall now teach with the selfe same mouth that We our selues cannot erre Which were both an impudent and an impious assertion For what is that which can priuiledge vs from errour in our Preaching The Chaire of Moses could not priuiledge the Pharises from errour the Chaire of Peter cannot priuiledge the Pope from errour the earthly Paradise could not priuiledg the first man from errour nay Heauen it selfe could not priuiledge the Angelles from errour and can onely the Pulpit priuiledge vs from errour Is not Papistry Preached is not Heresie Preached is not Schisme and contention and all errour Preached doe not all these find Pulpits to vent themselues out of Why then it is apparent that a Sermon may not onely bee the word of a man but also sometimes the word of a wicked and vngodly man the word of a Schismatike the word of a Papist the word of an Heretike For as Gregory truly teacheth vs Si desit spiritus nihil adiuuat locus It is not the place can helpe vs if the spirit be not with vs. Secondly if Preaching be truely and properly the word of God as they affirme it will from thence follow that all our glosses must needes be canonicall Scriptures For the word of God is canonicall Scripture and so wee who haue taught all the expositions of the Fathers to be but the bare opinions of men shall foolishly now teach of our owne expositions that they be the very word of God which is to set the Preacher not vp in Moses chaire but to plucke downe God himselfe and to set him vp in Gods chaire Thirdly if Preaching be truely the word of God as they affirme then if I expound the Scripture one way and another man an other way both these must bee taken for canonicall senses and both be true meanings of the word of God though the one of them should be cleane contrary vnto the other as they be but too too often And so euen we our selues should make the holy Scriptures to be indeed no better then a very nose of waxe to be bowed euery way though we bitterly and worthily reproue it in the Papists Fourthly if Preaching be the very word of God and the sole ordinary meanes to beget a true faith in vs as they affirme then will it from thence follow that the Scriptures of themselues are not sufficient to saluation but as the Papists adde vnto them their apocryphal and vnwritten traditions so we must adde vnto them our vocal and speaking expositions to make them perfect These and diuers such like false dangerous consequents must necessarily follow that phantastical doctrine that Preaching is properly the very word of God of which I may truely say with S. Augustine Piget metaÌ„ dicere quà m muita eos vâ—sana sequantur talia sentientes talia dicentes A new and a strange opinion which only doth proceede from humaine pride and ignorance and from an arrogant conceit of men which dote vpon their owne giftes Why is not all this enough which we ascribe vnto Sermons when we acknowledge them to be Gods owne holy institutions to be necessarie meanes of our instruction and powerfull meanes of our conuersion to be truthes which ought of all men to be accepted and honored when they consent and agree with the holy word of God Is not all this I say enough which we lawfully may willingly do ascribe to Sermons but that we must needs make them the very word of God it selfe The Apostle S. Paul though he spake all by Gods owne holy inspiration yet doth hee twice professe in one and the same Chapter that This hee speaketh and not the Lord. He is very well content though hee were an Apostle that where he lacke the warrant of the expresse word of God that part of his writing should be held and esteemed but as the word of a man But some men now adaies are so farre inamored of themselues and so vainely conceited of their owne gift in Preaching as to obtrude all the idle fancies of their owne addle heads vnder none other title but the very word of God Purum putum flat contrary to the doctrine of S. Paul in an other place who telleth vs expresly that a Preacher may take for the foundation of his Sermon The very word of God and yet build vpon it as well Clay and Stubble as Gold and Siluer But these men do tell vs if we will beleeue them that they do build nothing but only pure gold Belike they would faine haue vs to take all for gold that glitters Beloued though we ought in all true sincerity to giue all due honour and reuerence vnto Sermons when they be truely made according to Gods word yet must we alwaies put this difference betweene Sermons and Scriptures The Scriptures we must know to bee Gods owne diuine and holy word containing nothing but pure and tried truthes being all of them writ and penned by Gods holy spirit and by him so commended vnto his holy Church and therefore of all the true members of the Church to be reuerently accepted without all exception But for Sermons we haue an other rule and direction we must in them both examine the spirit of euery speaker exact the matter of euery speech vnto the strict rule of the scripture as the Bereans dealt euen with the Apostle Paul himselfe So that Sermons ought to haue no greater credite with vs then they can gaine vnto themselues by their agreement with the Scriptures if they dissent from them no pulpit can sanctifie them no spirit can make them to bee the word of God if they consent with them yet the Canon of the Scripture being now sealed vp the Truth of God or the Doctrine of God they may be called but The word of God they cannot but onely by some Metonymie or Synecdoche or some other such vnproper and figuratiue speech Therefore it is as true a position to say that a Sermon is the word of a man as it is to say that a House is
as much as Ezra in the bare reading of the word for it made the people both to fast and to pray and to weepe and to giue almes vnto their needy brethren Now what or whose preaching could haue wrought more worthy and noble effects then this bare reading did Thirdly I proued the same position by the testimony of S. Iohn who ascribeth euen faith it selfe which is the chiefe point in question vnto this action of reading These things saith he are written that ye should beleeue Now that which is written cannot make vs beleeue but onely by reading Finally I confirmed it by the testimonie of our Sauiour in bidding vs Search the Scriptures that is to read it and adding that so we should find eternal life in it So that by the forecited Scriptures you see that both The knowledge of God and The faith of God and The feare of God and The obedience of God and Eternall life with God which is the highest reward of all vertues is expresly ascribed vnto the bare reading of the word And therefore those men which deny reading to be an effectual kind of preaching disable it froÌ„ begetting either faith or any other spirituall vertue in vs they make Moses and Ieremie two false prophets Nehemiah and Baruck two false historians S. Iohn a false Apostle and our Sauiour a false Christ for all these affirme it The third position which I gathered from the former obseruation in calling a booke by the name of a Preacher was this That Preaching is not alwaies more effectual then reading This position I then proued by two speciall instances The first of them out of Tully who found his vnderstanding the first part of his minde a great deale more instructed by reading a short letter sent vnto him from Atticus then it had beene by hearing a long discourse of Curioes vpon the selfe same points whereupon he cried out vbi sunt qu◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where be they now saith he who say the word spoken hath greater power in it then hath the word written He there confuteth that opinion by his owne experience Quanto â—agis vidi ex tuis literis quam ex illius sermonâ— quid ageretur The second instance was out of S. Paul whose aduersarie found his affection the other part of the mind a great deale more touched by the bare reading of his letters which he plainely confessed to be strong and mighty then euer it had been by the hearing of his Sermons which he despised as light and things of no value His letters indeed saith he are sore and strong but his bodily presence is weake and his speech of no value This is truely and ingeniously the summe of that doctrine which heretofore I haue deliuered as concerning the comparison of Reading and Preaching In all which what was spoken that could giue the least offence vnto any well meaning or but indifferent mind What that any way offended either against any article of our Christian faith or any duty of godly life or against any other point of sound and wholesome doctrine Nay what but iustified by the authoritie both of the old and new Testament and ratified by the testimonie of the holy ghost himselfe Nay yet further what but auouched for a sealed truth by al true ProtestaÌ„ts against the Papists who teach vs that the Scripture is darke and obscure and such as cannot preach vnto vs. With whom I did neuer looke that any of our men professing themselues to be such reformed and reforming Protestants would euer haue ioyned hands as we euidently see by the writings of some and the speeches of others they apparantly doe For those three forenamed positions of mine which I am sure would greatly haue offended the Papists if they had bin my hearers and beene censured of them as hereticall doctrines haue likewise displeased some that call themselues Protestants Who haue in their ignorance traduced all those three former positions both farre and neere and howted them vp and downe not onely as three false and erroneous doctrines but also as doctrines dangerous and such as tend directly vnto the disgrace of preaching and making it of none effect though no word were spoken vnto any such purpose no nor yet that could bee forced vnto any so badde a sense vnlesse it were this one which must bee done with a wrinch too that they which preferre any preachers Sermon either in excellencie or in effecacie before the holy Scriptures they preferre this word of a man before the word of God which I take to be no heresie but an impregnable verity and so I hope to make it to appeare most plainely to you And therefore I must craue your Christian patience that I may clere the former doctrines from the two former imputations especially from that imputation of falsehood which is the greatest infamie if it be true and the greatest iniurie if it be false that can possibly be cast vpon a Preacher yea a farre greater iniurie then to call him either a murderer a theife or a traitor For to be a false teacher is to be all these together it is to be both a murdererer of mens soules a theefe vnto Christs fold and a trator to Gods honour And therefore Saint Hierom saith that Neminem decet in suspicione baereseos esse patientem That no man ought to be patient when his doctrine is impeached And Ruffine though his aduersarie in some other matters yet in this agreeth with him That he which can indure the suspicion of an heretike it is vnpossible for him to be a true Catholicke And therefore I must pray your licence that by a modest and a Christian Apologie I may vindicate these doctrines into their natiue verity and not suffer such tried and approued truthes to runne vp and downe so branded for errors but freely and sincerely to discharge that duty which I owe both vnto God and to his truth and to the Church and to my selfe All whom I should betray into the handes of the wicked if I should permit such innocent truthes to be any longer so scourged and whipped as they haue lately beene and not doe my best indeuour to rescue and deliuer them First therefore as concerning those three positions which haue bin so mightily resisted you are to know thus much which I doubt not but the greatest part of this graue and learned auditore being the flower of our Clergy doth sufficiently vnderstand that there is none of them all which is any nouelty of mine owne inuention but are all of them maine and beaten grounds of religion expresly and positiuely set downe by all our learned Protestants in their disputations vpon these pointes against the Papists Of which I wonder that some of the reprouers of those doctrines should be so vnlearned as to be ignorant For first whereas the Papists teach vs that the Scriptures of themselues are darke and obscure such as cannot teach vs much
the worke of a man For as in building though both timber and stone and iron and lome and all other the materials be the workes of God yet the house it selfe in respect of the forme may both truely and fitly bee called The worke of a man so is it also euen in Preaching too which the Apostle Paul calleth a Spiritual kinde of building though both the Sentences and Testimonies and Similies and Examples yea and Positions too be the very word of God yet the positure and placing of those things so together and the disposing of them in this and that order and so consequently the whole frame and structure of that speech which we cal a Sermon that is truly and properly the worke of a man The Inuention is mans the Disposition mans the Elocution mans the Action mans the Application and Allusion mans and the ioyning of all those things together in one artificiall body which giueth to the whole speech the name of a Sermon that likewise is mans And therfore as Chrysostome affirmeth of Reading that Lectio est legentis actio so may we likewise affirme of Preaching that Praedicatio est Pradicantis actio as Reading is the action and worke of the Reader though the thing which is Read be the word of God so Preaching is the action and worke of the Preacher though the thing which is Preached be the trueth of God Which argument howsoeuer it may distaste the eares of some ignorants which are without iudgement yet must it needes seeme very milde and gentle euen to the reprouers if it be compared with some of those speeches which haue beene deliuered by some of their owne chiefest authors For Cartwright in his answere vnto the preface of the Rhemists hee calleth the very translation of the Testament but the word of a man as though all the Scriptures which continue not in their originall languages did presently cease to be the word of God immediately become but the word of a man This is harsh indeed to call the Gospel it selfe but the word of a man when it is translated We goe not so farre by many degrees and God forbid we should we call but those glosses and expositions which are made vpon it The word of a man which is a farre more tempered and qualified speech Which censure notwithstanding lest any wicked hearer should wrest and peruert vnto the despising of Preaching as some haue done the like vnto the despising of Reading let him vnderstand thus much that when wee call a Sermon the word of a man we take not the word of a man in the worst sense as S. Bernard doth who writeth thus of it Res viâ—is volatilis est verbum hominis nullius ponderis nullius pretij nullius soliditatis The word of a man is a thing vile wauering of no waight of no worth of no estimation In this sense we take not the word of a man for so it is in a kind of contrariety vnto the word of God as appeareth by those titles which the Prophet Dauid giueth it in the nineteenth Psalme But when we call a Sermon the word of a man we take it not by way of opposition to the word of God but by way of distinction from the worde of God A Sermon is the word of a man not opposed but supposed vnto the word of God Which distinction I pray you diligently to marke for in that onely consisteth the whole resolution of this knotty question That a Sermon rightly made is the word of a man not opposed vnto the word of God but distinguished from the word of God A Sermon is not so the word of God as the text it selfe is but a discourse framed vpon it by the wit of man Which action notwithstanding lest any wicked spirit should draw it into contempt we acknowledge it as I said before to be Gods owne holy institution one principal meanes of procuring mans saluation as likewise is Reading Meditation and Praying which are no lesse to bee practised though in many places they bee too much neglected We further confesse that though in outward forme it differ from Gods word yet in substance of matter it agreeth with it if it be rightly made and that therefore though it bee not in propriety of speech the word of God it selfe yet because it is a trueth agreeing with Gods word there can no man despise it but he despiseth God that sent it For as if a faithfull messenger deliuer the true sum and substance of his Masters minde though he vse not precisely all his Masters owne wordes yet is it to be taken for his Masters message and he that despiseth him in that message despiseth not the messenger but the Master So is it likewise in our Preaching though the forme of our message be of our owne making as it commonly falleth out in an Ambassadors Oration yet because the matter is of our Masters sending you cannot despise vs but you despise him that sent vs as our Master himselfe testifieth Hee that heareth you he heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me And thus much I thought good to speake at this time in iustification of my former doctrine That a Sermon may be the word of a man and yet the truth of God And that this neither was intended by the speaker nor yet ought to be extended by the hearer as implying the least disgrace vnto Preaching as certaine malignant and captious hearers snatching at my words and affixing their owne senses haue indeuoured to inforce to whom I wish a better mind and a more Christian disposition in the hearing of a Sermon The third Sermon at Paules Crosse Nouemb. 5. Anno 1607. vpon the day of our deliuerance from the gun powder treason PSAL. 81. VER 1.2 3 4 5. Ver. 1. Sing ioifully vnto God our strength sing loud vnto the God of Iacob Ver. 2. Take the song and bring forth the timbrell the pleasant harpe with the viole Ver. 3. Blow the trumpet in the new Moone euen in the time appointed at our feast day Ver. 4. For this is a statute for Israel and a law of the God of Iacob Ver. 5. He set this in Ioseph for a testimony when he came out of the land of Aegypt where I heard a language that I vnderstood not THe Psalmist well perpending and recounting with himselfe in a heauenly meditation the blessed estate where in he then liued in the land of promise wisely coÌ„paring it with that wretched estate wherein his forefathers liued in the land of Egypt how that he was now blessed both with wealth and honour and that which is a great deale more precious then they both with the free and safe vse of Gods holy seruice whereas they were vexed both with want and labour yea and that which is a great deale more grieuous then they both with a cruel restraint froÌ„ the seruice of
Michae speaketh lest the time do sodainely fal vpon them yea and that ere they be prouided for it when they would wish them brought backe into their old formes againe as the Prophet Ioel noteth I will not Malè ominari because I see no iust cause but yet thus farre I hope I may safely goe with Saint Augustine as to giue you this one watchword for your better caution and to shake off too much presumption that Nemo potest veraciter amicus esse â—ominis nisi ipsius fuerit primitus veritatis that Those men can haerdly be truely friends to any that be not truely friends vnto the truth it selfe For as Saint Hierom well obserueth vnto the same purpose it cannot be Vera amicitia if it be not Christi glutino copulata There cannot be possibly any true and sound friendship whereas both parties be not glued together by Christ. Those ciuil and politike respects whereby nations are commonly cemented together they be but Cementum malè temperatum as the prophet speaketh they be but a kind of ill-temperd mortar Arena sine calce as it were sand without lime if that Gluten Christi the truth of Christ religion be not mixed with them And they be commonly no better then a dawbing ouer of a matter as it were the parieting of an olde rotten wall whose swelling breaketh sodainely when as no man looketh for it as the Prophet Isai noteth But a word of this point I hope will be sufficient For as Saint Hierom apologiseth in a like slippery argument Haec dicta sint non infausto contra vos vaticinio sed pauidi cautique monitoris officio vel ea fortasse quae tuta sunt formidantis Let these things be interpreted not as ominously fore speaking that which certainely will be but as carefully forecasting that which possible may be The tendernes of my loue being happily there afraid where it may be there is indeed no true cause of fear But yet stirring you vp vnto a carefull circumspection which I am sure can doe no harme For be it that we lacked the feare of all forraine enemies yet lacke we not the danger of domesticall and intestine which are more to be feared yea and so much the rather too because they can so cunningly disguise mask themselues and seeme to giue so little an outward cause of feare For how many be there now amongst vs not onely of our secret Papists but also of our open Recusants too which doe seeme to reioyce and to iubilate with vs in the commemoration of this happie day and to celebrate the festiuall solemnity of it with as great a zeale as the best of vs all giuing place vnto no man in ringing singing feasting bonefiring and in all other complements of outward reioycing but yet for all this they haue inwardly great griefe to see the remembrance of this ioyfull day so honoured their ioy is nothing els but Ementita frontis serenitas The false glimpse of a lying countenance they reioyce in the face but not in the hart as the Apostle Paul speaketh For surely if they haue any ioy at all in their hartes it is none other but onely that cruell ioy which wicked Esau had that yet for all this they hope that The time of mourning will one day fall vppon vs and then will they kill their brother Iaacob And therefore great cause haue wee to Iubilare yea and to Vigilare too to stand vpon our watch as the Prophet Habakuk speaketh yea and vpon our guard too and to cheere vp one another to watchfulnes and circumâ—spection that we be not taken sleeping by our waking enemies who are like to God in this that they neither slumber nor sleepe but like the diuell in this that they apply all their watching not vnto good but euill They watch not as the keeper of Israel watcheth who neither slumbreth not sleepeth to preserue and maintaine vs but they watch as the thiefe watcheth to spoile and to destroy vs as our Sauiour Christ teacheth vs. And therefore good is that counsell which in an other place he giueth vs that seeing we know not certainely when the thiefe will come that therefore we should constantly watch for his comming To shew you the necessity of this good aduice To watch in that one example whose memoriall we now celebrate you may call to your remembrance and you ought neuer to forget it how neere we were al of vs almost ouertaken for lacke of this watching nay vtterly ouerthrowne by our deepe security in that damnable plot of the gun-powder conspiracy how the plot was contriued the matter congested the worke finished and that there lacked nothing vnto the very perfecting of our destruction but onely the giuing of fire vnto the engine So that as the prophet Dauid speaketh there was but one steppe betweene vs and death but onely that one which also might haue beene as easily finished as it was so farre ripened if our gratious protector The keeper of Israel had not watched a great deale more carefully for vs then we did for our selues but that neuer-sleeping eie of Gods mercifull prouidence of whose vnspeakeable goodnes wee haue had so great experience that waked when we slept and beheld all the working of those hellish pioners yea and laughed euen to skorne all their wicked indeuors For when they themselues thought all to bee cocksure and were euen putting of the fire vnto their infernall powder he vtterly defeated all their purpose and indeuour by snatching vs as a firebrand out of the fire and causing the flames therof as the flames of Sidrachs fire to issue out vpon themselues to deuoure those that sought to deuoure vs. So that we haue as great a cause to Iubilate vnto God as euer those three children had when they sung their renowned Psalme in the fiery ouen For surely their deliuerance was neuer more miraculous then was that of ours who were both designed to as cruell a flame and as strangely deliuered from the same euen by the immediate hand of God he being as it were in the middest of the flame with vs as he was with them For in that miraculous deliuerance of ours there be two points most remarkeable in both which the hand of God may be sensibly felt yea and his preâ—ence in a sorâ— may be visibly seene there shined so great an euidence of Gods prouidence in them The first of them is this that he made their owne tongue the instrument to bewray them that so they should Suo indicio quasi sorex perire as the Comike speaketh that they should perish as the rat doth by bewraying of themselues and that so their owne tongue should fall vpon them as it is in the Psalme For the same tongue which could contriue the treason could not conceale the treason but though it inioyned dumbe silence vnto others yea euen vnto their owne pestiferous confederates
confirmeth it by two notable instances the first of them Historicall taken from the former times Moses was resisted by Iannes and Iambres two notable inchanters the second of them Propheticall giuen to the latter times So shall the truth also be resisted by these men that is inchanting hypocrites Which two examples the Apostle onely nameth not for lacke of other store for the continued succession of Romane Bishops which is so much stood vpon hath beene oftener interrupted and for longer space then the succession of Heretickes and Schismaticks and such like resisters of the truth hath beene as appeareth by Chronologistes and writers of stories But he setteth down these two by way of Synecdoche putting a part for the whole and a few examples for a many to avoyd prolixity In which few notwithstanding by this his comparing of the first times with the last and of that which hath beene with that which shall be this appeareth to be an irrefragable Axiome that The truth shall alwayes be resisted For first if we take the name of Truth in his largest and most extended sense for the generall speaking of the truth as the Apostle Paul doth in his former vnto Timothie I speake the truth in Christ Iesus and lie not the truth in this sense is so commonly resisted that it passeth in euery mans mouth as a common prouerbe that Veritas odium parit The reward of speaking the truth is onely hatred Of which vnequall measure the Apostle Paul complaineth vnto the Galatians Am I therefore saith he become your enemie because I haue spoken the truth vnto you And our Sauiour Christ likewise vnto the Iewes Ye goe about to kill me a man that haue spoken the truth vnto you Secondly if we take the name of Truth in a particular and more restrained sense for the truth of Gods religion and the doctrine of his word as our Sauiour Christ doeth in the Gospel of S Iohn Sanctifie them with thy truth thy word is truth in which sense I take it to be taken in this place the Truth is in this sense so naturally resisted by all that are not the Truthes owne naturall children that Tertulian hath giuen vs this generall obseruation Simulatque apparuit veritas inimica esse coepit The truth saieth he no sooner peeped out and appeared but by and by it began to be hated yea and that by two contrarie sorts of people as hee noteth in that place Extranei à quibus quotidie obsidetur and proprij à quibus quotidie proditur The first sort of those resisters of the truth are strangers and aliens from the common wealth of Israel such as openly professe not only the resisting but also the vtter subuerting of it such as were Nabuchâ—donoser and Antiochus in the time of the law the persecuting Emperours in the time of the Gospel and the Turke in our time professed and sworne enemies not onely of the faith but also of the very name of Christians The second sort of those resisters of the truth and they much more dangerous are dissembling Hypocrites of whom this text more poperly speaketh such as pretend to assist the truth but intend to resist it by secretly supplanting it and planting manifold errours vnder the name of it Of which sort of persons the Apostle Paul foretelleth vs that euen of our selues there shall such men arise speaking peruerse things to drawe disciples after them Such as doe veritatem non veritate docere as S. Augustine speaketh They sometimes speake the truth but seldome truely which is a peruerse thing for as Tertullian noteth in the forealleadged place Ne tunc quidem cùm aliquid veri afferunt sine mendacij vitio sunt They seeke to deceiue euen whilest they speake the truth because they speake the truth but with a lying heart as they did in S. Paules time who preached the truth but onely for contention and a many like in our time who oftentimes abusâ— the speaking of the truth but onely to the venting of somâ— priuate affection which preuaricating kind of speaking of the truth is indeede nothing els but a resisting of the truth it is nothing els but only ars fallendi vt per bona facilius per suadere possint mala as Vincentius Lirinensis noteth that is an Arte of deceiuing that so vnder the countenance of a few smaller trueths they may bring the better credit to a many greater errors Of which hypocriticall resisters of the truth there be two diuers kinds The first of them are such as hold the truth in small things but resist it in greater matters as euen now I noted such as were false Prophets in the the time of the law and deceitfull heretikes in the time of the Gospell both which the Apostle Peter yoaketh together in one sentence As there were false Prophets amongst the people so shall there be also false teachers amongst you which priuily shall bring in damnable heresies The second sort of hypocriticall resisters of the truth doe seeme to be cleane contrarie vnto the former for they hold the truth in greater matters but resist it in smaller about which notwithstanding they stirre vp no small stirres Such as the Chuch calleth Schismatikes who contend for trifles as it were for life and lims making a great coÌ„science where they should not but none at al where they should as diuers men amongst vs doe who for Cappes and Surplices Holy daies and Crosses and such like smaller matters belonging only vnto order external regiment haue made in our Church a dangerous faction and rent making head against their heads and crying out like vnto Libertines or rather indeede like seditious Tribunes that all our Christian liberty is vtterly betraied because in these matters the priuate fansie of euery idle head may not countermaund the authority of a publike law and yet couering all this their grosse disobedience vnder an outward cloake of religion and conscience But howsoeuer those men may seeme to please and applaud themselues in making a conscience to resist the Magistrate whom the Apostle Paul coÌ„mandeth them euen for Conscience to obey yet sure I am of this that Saint Augustine is so farre from allowing of this their disobedience to be conscience that he openly pronounceth it to be indeede nothing els but onely a true resisting of the truth Cui nisi ipsi veritati resistitur saith he cum regi ex veritate iubenti resistitur What doe men resist but onely the very truth when they resist the lawfull commandement of their Prince A wise and a true censure Thus you see that the truth shall surely be resisted both by many men and by many meanes And therefore no man ought to be so weak minded as to cal the truth of the truth in questioÌ„ because he seeth it to be resisted or heareth it to be boldly contradicted For as S. Hierom truely noteth Haec est conditio veritatis vt
command and inioyneth the subiect submission to obey in matters of indifferencies or els is he cleane stript of all power and authority Ob. But you say that though you knew it were commanded by law yet you doubting still of the lawfulnesse of it and taking it rather to be legitimum then licitum this doubting had turned your obedience into sinne Resp. It is very true indeed and therefore I doubt not but that your very doubting in this case was your sinne nay many sinnes bound together it being both the effect and the cause and the body of sinne in you The effect because it proceeded from ignorance of the truth And againe because as a learned Diuine noteth Conscientia nimis scrupulosa nascitur ex vitio vel naturali vel acquisito the cause of sinne because it produced disobedience in you and that vnto a most ancient and a most generall Christian law and the body of sinne because it kept you from assenting vnto the truth for in doubting there can be no determination and therefore no assenting be the thing whereof wee doubt neuer so true and certaine Which suspence and vncertainâ—â— in matter of duty euen the Heathens define to be a great sin Qui deliberant vtruÌ„ id sequantur quod honestuÌ„ esse videant aut se scientes scelere contaminent in ipsa dubitatione inest facinus So that your doubting was not onely a sinne but also a sinne out of measure sinfull corrupting your best actions and intangling your conscience with a most vn-auoidable necessity of sinning If you obey you sinne against your owne perswasion if you disobey you sinne against the law which you ought to obey euen for conscience sake an indissoluble knot Whereby euen your future obedience if you shall returne ad meliorem mentem yet will carry this euill with it as to accuse condemne your former disobedience For as Tertullian reasoneth in an other like matter Qui hodie non deliquit suscepta corona deliquit aliquando recusata If you do not then offend wheÌ„ you obserue the crosse you must needes haue offended when you refused it This is the faire fruite of your needlesse scrupulosity that it maketh one part of your life to giue in euidence against an other Now if your doubting as you say do corrupt your obedience and turne that into sinne doe you thinke that it acquiteth your disobedience from sinne Or can you thinke that it is no sinne to go against a grounded law when you thinke it so great a sinne to go against an vngrounded opinion I doubt not but if these two sinnes were put into Critolaus his ballance togither your sinne against the law would appeare much the heauier For as Tertullian noteth in the fore-cited place Nec nullum nec incertum videri potest delictum quod committitur in obseruationem satis auctoratam such as the crosse is And as the Prophet Samuel teacheth vs Disobedience is as the sinne of witch-craft which must needes make your sinne against the law beeing the sinne of disobedience to be much more greeuous then the sinne against your perswasion it being but erroneous Ob. But you will say that that disobedience which is there so condemned was disobedience vnto the commandement of God Resp. And I say that it is the commandement of God that we should obey the magistrate Let euery soule bee subiect to the higher powers For there is no power but of God Whosoeuer therefore resisteth power resisteth the ordinance of God Neither ought we only to obey the magistrate in those things which God himselfe commandeth but also euen in those which only man ordaineth as the Apostle Peeter expresly teacheth vs. Submit your selues vnto all maner ordinance of man for the Lords sake Marke vnto all ordinances of man not being opposed to the ordinances of God as the crosse is not Yea and these we must obey euen for conscience sake as the Apostle Paul teacheth vs in the fore-cited place We must be subiect saith he not only for wrath but also for conscience sake which sentence hath oftentimes made mee to wonder at the strange mishapen conscience of many men in our daies who make a great conscience of not obseruing the crosse and other like ceremonies of the Church where they haue no scripture to guide their conscience and yet make no conscience of breaking Godly lawes which the scriptures command them for conscience sake to obserue Ob. But you say that this signe of the crosse hauing neither any word of Christ nor example of Apostles to confirme approue it your conscience would not suffer you to yeeld obedience vnto it Resp. I answere that it hauing againe neither any word of Christ nor Apostles example to infirme and reproue it this proueth it to be in his owne nature indifferent and so to be put in the power of the magistrate to command or forbid as occasioÌ„s may induce it And therfore it being out of doubt by the magistrate coÌ„manded no man ought to make a doubt whether it shold be obeied For as Eusebius obserueth out of Plato they which be priuate persons must neither disputare nor dubitare de legibus but simpliciter parere Which branch of Platoes law he ceÌ„sureth to be consonant to the heauenly law of God With whoÌ„ in this point of simple obedience consenteth Tertullian allowing much better of our simple obeying then of our subtil inquiring into things of this nature Lando fidem saith he quae antè credit obseruandum esse quà m didicit The equity of which rule euen you your selfe and diuers other by your practice do confesse in yeelding your obedience to the cap and surplice and many other ceremonies of our English Church And therefore I desire but to know some good reason why you do not the like to the crosse in baptisme What commandement of Christ or what example of Apostles haue you for the surplice or what speciall warrant and rule for your conscience saue onely this generall rule of obedience And therefore you must shew by the commandement of Christ or example of the Apostles either that the surplice is more allowed then the crosse or that the crosse is more condemned then the surplice or els you must follow that rule of obedience as well in the one as you do in the other otherwise you shall plainely declare vnto the world that you play but fast loose with the name of your conscience which when you will is bound and when you will is free hauing so none other rule for it but onely your owne will which is a croked rule Againe if your conscience were so scrupulized by your doubting it must needes bee because you knew no light of scripture to giue you resolution either on the one side or on the other For Dubitatio is in neutram partem consensio Now you being thus vncertainly poised why did you rather propend vnto that