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
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
lesse preach vnto vs because they lacke a voyce whereupon they call the Scripture in a kind of derision but Mutum magistrum that i sa dumbe Teacher we positiuely set downe both the contraries against them First for their position That the Scriptures in themselues are but darke and obscure and such as cannot teach vs we set downe this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 against them that The Scripture is as cleere and as bright as a light which shineth in darkenes as the Apostle Peter teacheth vs nay as bright as the sunne beames as Saint Chrysostom auoucheth they being in themselues so facile and euident that they are able to instruct euen the simple and idiot in all doctrine necessarie vnto their saluation Adeo vt diuina scriptura opus non habeat humana sapientia vt intelligatur as he writeth in an other place So that as the Apostle Paul affirmeth If the doctrine of the Gospell be hid vnto any it is but onely vnto such as perish And this truth we proue against the Papists by many great and strong arguments grounded partly vpon the authority of the holy Scriptures partly vpon the concludencie of necessarie reasons and partly vpon the testimonie of the ancient Fathers being twenty sixe in number as I find them collected by a learned Writer and all of them most excellent answering fully all obiections which are vsually brought either by Papists or Schismatikes against those positions Which because they are all of them most worthy your hearing and yet the time will not now allow me their speaking I referre those that be learned vnto our mens disputation against Bellarmines fourth question vpon the Scriptures where they shall euidently see that there is no point of doctrine necessarie to saluation but that it is most plainely and familiarly deliuered in the Scripture euen to the capacitie of euery simple Reader yea euen the simplest of all Etiam Publicanis Piscatoribus Fabris Pastoribus Illiteratis Idiâ—tir as Saint Chrysostome noteth Vnto which his induction Saint Agustine addeth his generall conclusion Nec in caeteris contrarium est videri though in somewhat other words Vt nemo sit saith he quiiâ—de haurire non possit quod sibisatis sit That for their false position Now for their friuolous reason why the Scriptures cannot teach vs because they lacke a voyce wee set downe this position That the Scriptures haue not onely a liuely voyce in them as birds and beasts haue but also a speaking voyce too as men and Angels haue whereby they doe both teach vs and preach vnto vs. And this wee proue by many sound reasons whereof I will giue you a tast but onely of some one or two because the Arguments be long and the time is short Our first argument is this which because I am now as it were in the Schole and as in a Colonie of both the Vniuersities I will conclude in Scholasticall forme It is in effect thus much If the Scrptures instruct vs with a speaking voyce then doe they likewise preach vnto vs For what other thing is preaching but instructing with the voyce But the Scriptures instruct vs with a speaking voyce Ergo They preach vnto vs. The Assumption we proue by manifold texts of Scripture where the Scripture is expresly affirmed to speake vnto vs. As namely in that place vnto the Romanes Whatsoeuer the law speaketh it speaketh vnto them that are vnder the Law where the Law is said to speake vnto vs. So likewise in another place vnto the Hebrewes Haue yee forgotten the consolation which speaketh vnto you as vnto children where the Prouerbs of Salomon are said to speake vnto vs. For from thence is that testimony fetched So likewise in another place vnto the Romanes What saith the Scripture where the Scripture in generall is said to speake vnto vs. And diuers other such like places there bee alledged by our men against the Papists in discussing the fifth question vpon the Scriptures Wherein we labour to proue it as a ground of our religion against the Papists hereticall doctrine that the Scriptures in themselues doe both speake and preach vnto vs. Our second argument is this That if the Scriptures do expound the Scriptures vnto vs then do they also preach vnto vs. For what other thing is preaching but expounding of the Scriptures But the Scriptures expound the Scriptures vnto vs Ergo They preach vnto vs. The assumption of this argument we proue by many arguments euery one hauing the strength of a firme demonstration and containing sufficient matter to furnish a whole Sermon being all of them deduced either from expresse Scriptures or from necessarie reasons or from the concurring iudgements of the ancient fathers Yea and that you may perceiue how far a learned iudgement doth differ from an ignorant that man of worthy memory M. D. Whitaker whom for his godly labors against the Papists all posterity will reuerence hee deliuereth his iudgement vpon this question in these words which I pray you to marke diligently First he affirmeth that God speaketh vnto vs as plainly in his word as euer hee spake vnto Moses in the cloude when he talked there with him face to face Secondly he affirmeth that the Scriptures doe preach so plainely and so excellently vnto vs that if God should speake vnto vs from heauen in his owne liuely voyce hee neither would deliuer any other matter nor yet dispose it in any other forme then hee hath already deliuered in the Scripture Thirdly hee affirmeth of the contrary opinion that it is falsum impium That is not onely an erroneous but also an impious kinde of doctrine And fourthly he affirmeth of the defenders of it that they be inepti audaces that is not onely an ignorant but also an impudent kinde of persons This is his iudgement of the reprouers of my doctrine So that for the first of my three positions That the Scriptures in themselues doe preach vnto vs you see that it is no such strange and vncouth monster as some men in the deepenes of their ignorance haue imagined it to be preparing theÌ„selues with no lesse folly to fight against it then the souldiers in Pacuâ—ius did against a Snaile which they thought to be some Monstrum borrenduÌ„ informe ingens as the Poet speaketh that is some fierce and terrible monster when they heard it thus described Animal terrigenum tardigradum Domiportum sanguine cassum Thus ignorance and blindenes there faineth many monsters where true and solid knowledge findeth none at all But let vs now proceede vnto our second position that Reading is an effectuall and a powerfull kinde of Preaching For which point whereas the Papists teach vs that the Scriptures as they be darke and cannot teach vs so they be weake and cannot moue vs whereupon they call the Scripture but literam frigidam and egenum elementum that is a weake and beggerly rudiment we positiuely
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
eam semper inimicitiae per sequantur This is the state yea and the fate of the truth that it alwayes shal be persecuted by the tongues of his enemies And this contradiction against it is one speciall note to know it And therefore the speaking against the truth though with neuer such confidence and vndertaking yet ought not either to scandalize or discourage any man which truely and sincerely seeketh after the truth Because if you examine the reasons of such contradictors as euery wise Christian ought to doe you shall find them Most deceitfull vpon the waightes yea and altogether lighter then vanity it selfe As notably appeared in that renowned Conference which was held for the reducing of our resisters of the truth wherin all the great chalenges of their greatest vndertakers were found to be iust nothing but swolne and windy bladders Builatae nugae as the Poet speaketh This briefly for the first position That the truth shall alwayes be resisted Let vs now come to the second How the truth shall be resisted which as you see must be done by a kind of paterne As Moses was resisted by Iannes and Iambres Let vs therefore now examine who this Iannes and Iambres were and after what manner they resisted Moses for it is not throughly agreed vpon by all expositors Some take this Iannes and Iambres to be Corah and his consorts who resisted the authority of Moses in the wildernesse Now the manner after which they resisted him was this they being high minded and ambitious persons and euen burnt vp with enuie of other mens honours and preferments which they themselues affected and thought themselues more worthie of if they might be their owne Iudges they made a great Schisme and a dangerous commotion about the rule and authority of Moses and Aron and so gathering a great companie of their owne condition and quality they intended flat rebellion if God himselfe had not stayed them telling Moses and Aaron that they tooke too much vpon them in making themselues Lordes ouer the rest of their brethren And adding this for a reason that the whole congregation was as holy as they and that God was with one man as well as with an other Yea and one of their grand exceptions was this as Iosephus reporteth that they did Sacerdotium absque Populi suffâ—agio gerere That they were not elected to their places by the people though they could not be ignorant but that they both had beene elected by God himselfe before So that the maine ends which especially they aymed at were principally two Parity and Popularity the two deadly banes of all good order and of ciuill policie and the beaten pathes to confusion and Anarchie In which their commotion this is worthy the noting that those great reformers which sought thus to pull downe both Moses and Aaron as two vsurpers sought to set vp themselues into the selfe same places as Moses directly obiecteth vnto them Seemeth it a small thing saith he vnto Corah that God hath seuered thee from the multitude of Israel and all thy brethren the sonnes of Leui with thee and do ye also seeke the office of the priest Marke the Leuites cry out against pride and ambition of Priests as certaine male contented Ministers doe likewise against Bishops whom God hath made their rulers but what is the drift and end of such their declamations onely that which was theirs that these being displaced they might creepe into their roomes So that it is not humility but it is another pride which driueth such men so hotly to declame against pride And this was the resisting of Iannes and Iambres in the former times if by them be meant Corah and his mutinous companions Let vs now looke downe into those latter times and see whether the truth hath not beene resisted after the selfe same manner with vs heere at home that it was then with him Haue there not stood vp amongst vs certaine ambitious and seditious Corahs of the tribe of Leui who bursting with enuie at the honour and preferment of the reuerend Fathers and Gouernours of our Church who sit in Moses chaire haue both by word and writing indeauoured to resist them and thereby to extenuate or rather indeede exterminate all their lawfull authority and iurisdiction vnder the pretence of a new reformation Haue they not told them plainely that they take too much vpon them in setting vp themselues aboue their fellow Ministers who ought to be al equalles 2. Haue they not brought for theÌ„selues the same allegation that those seditious persons did that al the people of God are holy and that euery Minister is as good as a Bishop and ought to haue as great authority as he Is it not one of their chiefest greeuances that the election of Ministers is not subiected vnto the peoples suffrages who are their great masters and whom they seruilely obserue with all addicted obsequiousnes Haue they not made as great and as dangerous a schisme in this owne Church about these matters as euer the other did in the Church of the Iewes And that which is the prime point of all the rest doe not their owne writings declare that all that rule and authority which they would take away from our reuerend prelacie they would assume againe and cunningly conuay vnto themselues vnder the name of the Presbyterie All this is more then manifest vnto men of any reach if they haue but with halfe an eye lookt into the peremptorie dealing and practice of their presumptuous Consistorie and of that enormous and vnlimited claime which it layeth vnto all authority both Ecclesiasticall and Ciuill But the same God which denied successe vnto that Schisme hath also restrained the proceedings of this his name be praised for it for the very ground fouÌ„dation whereupon these men builded their imaginarie Babel and towers in the aire hath begunne long agoe to sinke vnder their feete as it did wiih those mutiners so that a great part of them are swallowed vp by it and the rest are fast following vnto the center of Shisme onely the cry of a few of the hindmost may still be heard amongst vs as they are in sinking downe which can not much longer be irksome and tedious because they be in the way to silence And thus much for the former application of this storie if by Iannes and Iambres bee vnderstood Corah and his seditious companie Now other expositors and those the greater number doe expound this otherwise affirming this Iannes and Iambres to be those two Egyptian sorcerers which resisted Moses in the presence of King Pharao Now the manner after which they resisted him was this When as Moses Aaron were sent into Egypt to deliuer the Israelites from their slauery and bondage they auouched to King Pharao that The Lord God of Israel had sent them on that message and for the proofe of their assertion they confirmed their Ambassage by diuers signes and strange wonders
in like sort the decent and orderly ceremonies of the Church though abused in one place yet in an other be restored vnto their right vse especially the abuse which is offered in ceremonies being but only secunda idolatria as Tertullian noteth but a second and inferiour degree of idolatry whereas that which is offered in the creatures is often-times the principall they beeing honored for very Gods Where finde you Gods creatures in this case of idolatry to haue any greater priuiledge then the Churches ceremonies If they after they haue beene made idols in the highest degree may yet haue their vse in the seruice of God why may not the other too which can be made idols but in an inferiour degree If the idolatrie with creatures do not destroy the vse of the same indiuidua why should the idolatry of ceremonies which is a lesse abuse destroy the vse of all the whole species the translators of our Geneua Bible in setting out the picture of the golden Calfe insinuate these two things First that the abuse offered to one idol of that kind though it were idolatry in the highest degree yet hath not so corrupted the whole species of it but that other may both lawfully and profitably bee vsed Secondly that though that idols were but a mans inuention had bin so notably abused vnto idolatry yet that it is not debarred from helping vs euen in the seruice of God for that must needs be the end of their figuring it in that booke Beza as you heard before goeth further for hee alloweth the very same alter which hath beene the instrument of an idolatrous sacrifice to be vsed as an instrument of our christian Sacrament In which iudgement diuers martyrs in Queene Maries time concurred who were content to vse the same Surplices and Chalices which had beene abused in adolatrous masses The like did the christians in the primitiue church they conuerted the same temples into the houses of God which had beene consecrated to the seruice of abhominable idols yet are both idolatrous Temples and Alters mans owne meere inuentions and not Gods eyther creatures or ordinances So that though our crosse were the same which was abused and but a mans inuention yet might it by these examples be defended But secondly I answere vnto your consequent That if it were granted that the signe of the crosse were but a mans inuention yet can it not bee granted with any truth that the protestants crosse is the same which the Papists haue abused ours differing from theirs both in the Agents and in the ends of the action two very great and materiall differences Thirdly I demand how those men which condemne all humaine inuentions which haue idolatrously beene abused do agâ—ee with them selues when they condemne kneeling and commend sitting at the holy communion making this to bee a significant signe of our eternall rest which is both meerely an humaine inuention and hath notably beene abused vnto idolatry Ob. Perhaps you will say that sitting is agreeable to Christs owne institution and that he himselfe sat at his last Supper Resp. But that is not so hee vsed an other site of his body as distant from sitting as kneeling is He leaned and so did the rest of his Disciples according to the custome and fashion of those times Looke Clauis Scripturae in voce sinus Stuckius de ritibus conuiuialibus lib. 2. cap. 34. Ob. But happily you thinke that sitting hath not beene so wickedly abused vnto idolatry as kneeling hath Resp. Nay much more and to more horrible idolatry too For in the kingdomes of Calecute and Narsiâ—ga and in diuerse other prouinces of the East and West India where they worship the diuill in a most deformed image they represent him alwayes sitting and they worship him not kneeling but prostrate So that they which reiect kneeling and retaine sitting whilest they auoide the iesture of Christian idolaters they imâ—tate the iesture of Heathen idols Therefore where sitting is allowed I know not why either kneeling or crossing should be abolished Then to recapitulate the summe of this long answer If neitâ—er wee our selues nor the papits our aduersaâ—ies doe thinke our crosse auaileable to the driuing away of diuils nor to the sanctifying of our selues nor yet do adore it with diuine or holy worship then is not our crosse made an idoll either by our owne practise or by their opinion and therefore not to be debarred from the seruice of God by force of your first argument Againe if our crosse be either no humaine inuention but rather an Apostolicall tradition or being an humaine inuention yet hath neuer beene abused vnto idolatry then is it not excluded from the seruice of God by vertue of your second argument But the first of these is true as I haue shewed in the body of this answere Ergo the second also The fift obiection For as much as our profession of Christ is a part of the couenant Rom. 10.8.9 I haue doubted how man may appoint the signe of the crosse as a token of our profession This being Gods owne prerogatiue as to ordaine the couenant so to ordaine meete signes for it Gen. 17.7.11 Answer This fift obiection is very intricate but I gesse that â—t may be explicated thus No man may adde signes to the couenant of God Gen. 17.7.11 But our profession of Christ is the couenant of God Rom. 10.8.9 Ergo no man may adde signes to our profession of Christ. And by consequent the signe of the crosse may not bee added to our profession in baptisme In which argument the Maior must be answered by distinction That the outward signes of our profession or couenant with God bee of two diuers natures for either they bee sacramentall or ceremoniall signes For sacramentall signes wee plainely confesse that they must needs bee of Gods owne institution and haue his owne promise annexed vnto them and therefore no man hath any power to ordaine them but this as you truly say is Gods sole prerogatiue But â—or rituall and ceremoniall signes made either for the ordering of the Church within it selfe or for the distinguishing of it from other assemblies the case is farre otherwise such thinges may bee made by the Churches constitution without any incroching vppon Gods prerogatiue by the iudgement of the most Diuines both old and new I reffere you for breuities sake vnto the ninety fiue page of Bishoppe Whitgifts booke continuing vnto page 128. In which long and learned discourse hee citeth many testimonies of the ancient fathers declaring many rites ceremonies to haue beene ordained in the primitiue Church by hir owne authority without any expresse warrant of the word for them sauing onely that generall warrantize of Saint Paule Omnia decenter et ordine fiant In which rule he naming not the seuerall particulars but leauing them to the Churches discretion he giueth it power to ordaine lawes and ceremonies so that these conditioÌ„s be not transgressed