SVNT MELIORA MIHI RICHARDVS HOOKER Exoniensis scholaris sociusque Collegij Corp. Chrisli Oxon̄ deinde Londi Templi interioris in sacris magister Rectorque huius Ecelesiae scripsit octo libros Politiae Ecclesiasticae Angelicanae quorum tres desiderantur Obijt An̄ Dō M.DC. III. AEtat suae L. Posuit hoc pijssimo viro monumentum Ano. Dō M. DC XXX V Guli Comper Armiger in Christo Iesu quem genuit per Evangelium 1 Corinth 4. 15. OF THE LAWES of ECCLESIASTICAL Politie Eight Bookes By RICHARD HOOKER LONDON Printed for Andrew Crooke at the greene Dragon in S Pauls Church-yard 1666. THE WORKS OF Mr. Richard Hooker That Learned and Judicious Divine IN EIGHT BOOKS OF Ecclesiastical Polity Compleated out of his own Manuscrips Never before Published With an account of his LIFE and DEATH Dedicated to the Kings most Excellency Majesty CHARLES IId. By whose ROYAL FATHER near His Martyrdom the former Five Books then onely extant were commended to His Dear Children as an excellent means to satisfie Private Scruples and settle the Publick Peace of this Church and Kingdom JAM 3. 17. The Wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good works without partiality and hypocrisie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Multitadio investiganda verilalis ad proximos divertunt errores Min. Fel. LONDON Printed by Thomas Newcomb for Andrew Crook at the Green-Dragon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1666. To the KINGS most Excellent MAJESTY CHARLES II d By the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most Gracious Soveraign ALthough I know how little leisure Great Kings have to read large Books or indeed any save onely Gods the study belief and obedience of which is precisely commanded even to Kings Deut. 17.18,19 And from which whatever wholly diverts them will hazard to damn them there being no affairs of so great importance as their serving God and saving their own Souls nor any Precepts so wise just holy and safe as those of the Divine Oracles nor any Empire so glorious as that by which Kings being subject to Gods Law have dominion over themselves and so best deserve and exercise it over their Subjects Yet having lived to see the wonderful and happy Restauration of Your Majesty to Your Rightful Kingdoms and of this Reformed Church to its just Rights Primitive Order and Pristine Constitution by Your Majesties prudent care and imparallel'd bounty I know not what to present more worthy of Your Majesties acceptance and my duty then these Elaborate and Seasonable Works of the Famous and Prudent Mr. Richard Hooker now augmented and I hope compleated with the Three last Books so much desired and so long concealed The publishing of which Volume so intire and thus presenting it to Your Majesty seems to be a blessing and honor reserved by Gods Providence to add a further lusture to Your Majesties glorious Name and happy Reign whose transcendent favor justice merit and munificence to the long afflicted Church of England is a subject no less worthy of admirasion then gratitude to all Posterity And of all things next Gods grace not to be abused or turned into wantonness by any of Your Majesties Clergy who are highly obliged beyond all other Subjects to Piety Loyalty and Industry I shall need nothing more to ingratiate this incomparable Piece to Your Majesties acceptance and all the English Worlds then those high commendations it hath ever had as from all prudent peaceable and impartial Readers so especially from Your Majesties Royal Father who a few days before he was Crowned with Martyrdom commended to His dearest Children the diligent Reading of Mr. Hookers Ecclesiastical Polity even next the Bible as an excellent means to settle them in the Truth of Religion and in the Peace of this Church as much Christian and as well Reformed as any under Heaven As if God had reserved this signal Honor to be done by the best of Kings and greatest Sufferers for this Church to Him who was one of the best Writers and ablest Defenders of it To this Compleated Edition is added such particular accounts as could be got of the Authors Person Education Temper Manners Fortunes Life and Death which is now done with much exactness and proportion That hereby Your Majesty and all the World may see what sort of Men are fittest for Church-work which like the Building of Solomons Temple is best carried on with most evenness of Iudgement and least noise of Passion Also what manner of Man he was to whom we all ow this Noble Work and durable Defence Which is indeed at once as the Tongues of Eloquent Princes are to themselves and their Subjects both a Treasury and an Armory to inrich their friends and defend them against the Enemies of the Church of England Arare composition of unpassionate Reason and unpartial Religion the mature product of a Indicious Scholar a Loyal Subject an Humble Preacher and a most Eloquent Writer The very abstract and quintessence of Laws Humane and Divine a Summary of the Grounds Rules and Proportions of true Polity in Church and State Vpon which clear solid and safe Foundations the good Order Peace and Government of this Church was anciently setled and on which while it stands firm it will be flourishing All other popular and specious pretensions being found by late sad experiences to be as novel and unfit so factious and fallacious yea dangerous and destructive to the Peace and Prosperity of this Church and Kingdom whose inseparable happiness and interests are bound up in Monarchy and Episcopacy The Politick and Visible managing of both which God hath now graciously restored and committed to Your Majesties Soveraign Wisdom and Authority after the many and long Tragedies suffered from those Club Masters and Tub-Ministers who sought not fairly to obtain Reformation of what might seem amiss but violently and wholly to overthrow the ancient and goodly Fabrick of this Church and Kingdom For finding themselves not able in many years to Answer this one Book long ago written in defence of the Truth Order Government Authority and Liberty in things indifferent of this Reformed Church agreeable to Right Reason and True Religion which makes this well tempered Peice a File capable to break the Teeth of any that venture to bite it they conspired at last to betake themselves to Arms to kindle those horrid fires of Civil Wars which this wise Author foresaw and foretold in his admirable Preface would follow those sparks and that smoak which he saw rise in his days So that from impertinent Disputes seconded with scurrilous Pamphlets they fled to Tumults Sedition Rebellion Sacriledge Parricide yea Regicide Counsels Weapons and Practices certainly no way becoming the hearts and hands of Christian Subjects nor ever sanctified by Christ for his Service or his Churches good What now remains but Your Majesties perfecting and preserving that in this Church which you have with
after they have been expresly and wittingly imposed Laws Positive there are in every of those kindes beforementioned As in the first kinde the Promises which we have past unto Men and the Vows we have made unto God for these arâ— Laws which we tie our selves unto and till we have so tied our selves they binde us not Laws Positive in the second kinde are such as the Civil Constitutions peculiar unto each particular Commonweal In the third kinde the Law of Heraldry in War is Positive And in the last all the Judicials which God gave unto the people of Israel to observe And although no Laws but Positive be mutable yet all are not mutable which be Positive Positive Laws are either permanent or else changeable according as the matter it self is concerning which they were first made Whether God or Man be the Maker of them alteration they so far forth admit as the Matter doth exact Laws that concern Supernatural duties are all Positive and either concern Men supernaturally as Men or else as parts of a Supernatural Society which Society we call the Church To concern Men as Men supernaturally is to concern them as duties which belong of necessity to all and yet could not have been known by any to belong unto them unless God had opened them himself in as much as they do not depend upon any Natural ground at all out of which they may be deduced but are appointed of God to supply the defect of those natural ways of salvation by which we are not now able to attain thereunto The Church being a Supernatural Society doth differ from Natural Societies in this that the persons unto whom we associate our selves in the one are Men simply considered as Men But they to whom we be joyned in the other are God Angels and holy Men. Again the Church being hoth a Society and a Society Supernatural Although as it is a Society it have the self same original grounds which other Politick Societies have namely the Natural inclination which all men have unto sociable life and consent to some certain Bond of Association which Bond is the Law that appointeth what kinde of order they shall be associated in Yet unto the Church as it is a Society Supernatural this is peculiar that part of the Bond of their Association which belongs to the Church of God must be a Law Supernatural which God himself hath revealed concerning that kinde of worship which his people shall do unto him The substance of the service of God therefore so far forth as it hath in it any thing more then the Law of Reason doth reach may not be invented of Men as it is amongst the Heathens but must be received from God himself as always it hath been in the Church saving onely when the Church hath been forgetful of her duty Wherefore to end with a general Rule concerning all the Laws which God hath tied men unto Those Laws Divine that belong whether naturally or supernaturally either to men as men or to men as they live in Politick Society or to men as they are of that Politick Society which is the Church without any further respect had unto any such variable accident as the Estate of men and of Societies of men and of the Church it self in this World is subject unto all Laws that so belong unto men they belong for ever yea although they be Positive Laws unless being Positive God himself which made them alter them The reason is because the subject or matter of Laws in general is thus far forth constant Which matter is that for the ordering whereof Laws were instituted and being instituted are not changeable without cause Neither can they have cause of change when that which gave them their first institution remaineth for ever one and the same On the other side Laws that were made for Men or Societies or Churches in regard of their being such as they do not always continue but may perhaps be clean otherwise awhile after and so may require to be otherwise ordered then before the Laws of God himself which are of this nature no man endued with common sense will ever deny to be of a different constitution from the former in respect of the ones constancy and the mutability of the other And this doth seem to have been the very cause why St. Iohn doth so peculiarly term the doctrine that teacheth salvation by Jesus Christ Evangelium AEternum An eternal Gospel because there can be no reason wherefore the publishing thereof should be taken away and any other instead of it proclaimed as long as the World doth continue Whereas the whole Law of Rites and Ceremonies although delivered with so great solemnity is notwithstanding clean abrogated in as much as it had but temporary cause of Gods ordaining it But that we may at the length conclude this first general introduction unto the Nature and Original Birth as of all other Laws so likewise of those which the Sacred Scripture containeth concerning the Author whereof even Infidels have confessed that he can neither err nor deceive Albeit about things easie and manifest unto all men by common sense there needeth no higher consultation because as a man whose wisdom is in weighty affairs admired would take it in some disdain to have his counsel solemnly asked about a toy so the meanness of some things is such that to search the Scripture of God for the ordering of them were to derogate from the reverend Authority and Dignity of the Scripture no less then they do by whom Scriptures are in ordinary talk very idly applied unto vain and childish trifles yet better it were to be superstitious then prophane To take from thence our direction even in all things great or small then to wade through matters of principal weight and moment without ever caring what the Law of God hath either for or against our designs Concerning the custom of the very Paynims thus much Strabo witnesseth Men that are civil do lead their lives after one Common Law appointing them what to do For that otherwise a multitude should with harmony amongst themselves concur in the doing of onething for this is civilly to live or that they should in any sort manage community of life it is not possible Now Laws or Statutes are of two sorts For they are either received from Gods or else from Men. And our ancient Predecessors did surely most honor and reverence that which was from the Gods For which cause Consultation with Oracles was a thing very usual and frequent in their times Did they make so much account of the voice of their gods which in truth were no gods and shall we neglect the precious benefit of conference with those Oracles of the true and living God whereof so great store is left to the Church and whereunto there is so free so plain and so easie access for all men By thy Commandments this was Davids confession unto God thou
receive due honour by whose Incitement the Holy Ordinances of the Church endure every where open contempt No it is not possible they should observe as they ought the One who from the Other withdraw unnecessarily their Own or their Brethrens Obedience Surely the Church of God in this Business is neither of Capacity I trust so weak noâ— so unstrengthened I know with Authority from Above but that her Laws may exact Obedience at the hands of her own Children and injoyn Gain-sayers silence giving them roundly to understand That where our Duty is Submission weak Oppositions betoken Pride We therefore crave Thirdly to have it granted That where neither the Evidence of any Law Divine nor the Strength of any Invincible Argument otherwise found out by the Light of Reason not any Notable Publick Inconvenience doth make against that which our own Laws Ecclesiastical have although but Newly instituted for the Ordering of these Affairs the very Authority of the Church it self at the least in such Cases may give so much Credit to her own Laws as to make their Sentence touching Fitness and Conveniency weightier than any bare or naked Conceit to the contrary especially in them who can owe no less than Childe-like obedience to her that hath more than Motherly Power 9. There are Antient Ordinances Laws which on all sides are allowed to be Just and Good yea Divine and Apostolick Constitutions which the Church it may be doth not always keep nor always justly deserve blame in that respect For in Evils that cannot be removedâ— without the manifest danger of Greater to succeed in their rooms Wisdom of necessity must give place to Necessity All it can do in those Cases is to devise how that which must be endured may be mitigated and the Inconveniences thereof countervailed as neer as may be that when the Best things are not possible the best may be made of Those that are Nature than which there is nothing more constant nothing more uniform in all her ways doth notwithstanding stay her Hand yea and change her Course when That which God by Creation did command he doth at any time by Necessity countermand It hath therefore pleased himself sometime to unloose the very Tongues even of Dumb Creatures and to teach them to plead This in their Own Defence lest the Cruelty of Man should persist to afflict them for not keeping their wonted Course when some invincible Impediment hath hindred If we leave Nature and look into Art the Work-man hath in his Heart a Purpose he carrieth in mind the whole Form which his Work should have there wanteth not him Skill and Desire to bring his Labour to the best effect only the Matter which he hath to work on is unframable This Necessity excuseth him so that nothing is derogated from his Credit although much of his Work 's perfection be found wanting Touching Actions of Common Life there is not any Defence more favourably heard than theirs who alledge sincerely for themselves That they did as Necessity constrained them For when the Mind is rightly ordered and affected as it should be in case some external Impediment crossing well-advised Desires shall potently draw Men to leave what they principally wish and to take a Course which they would not if their Choyce were free what Necessity forceth Men unto the same in This Case it maintaineth as long as nothing is committed simply in it self evil nothing absolutely sinful or wicked nothing repugnant to that Immetable Law whereby whatsoever is condemned as Evil can never any way be made Good The casting away of Things profitable for the sustenance of Man's Life is an unthankful Abuse of the Fruits of God's good Providence towards Mankind Which Consideration for all that did not hinder Saint Paul from throwing Corn into the Sea when care of saving Mens Lives made it necessary to loose that which else had been better saved Neither was this to do Evil to the end that Good might come of it For of Two such Evils being not both evitable the choyce of the Less is not Evil. And Evils must be in our constructions judged inevitable if there be no apparent ordinary way to avoid them Because where Counsel and Advice bear rule of God's extraordinary Power without extraordinary Warrant we cannot presume In Civil Affairs to declare what sway Necessity hath ever been accustomed to bear were labour infinite The Laws of all States and Kingdoms in the World have scarcely of any thing more common use Should then only the Church shew it self inhuman and stern absolutely urging a rigorous observation of Spiritual Ordinances without relaxation or exception what Necessity soever happen We know the contrary Practise to have been commended by him upon the warrant of whose Judgement the Church most of all delighted with merciful and moderate courses doth the ostner condescend unto like equity permitting in cases of Necessity that which otherwise it disalloweth and forbiddeth Cases of Necessity being sometime but urgent sometime extream the consideration of Publick Utility is with very good advice judged at the least equivalent with the easier kinde of Necessity Now that which causeth numbers to storm against some necessary tolerations which they should rather let pass with silence considering that in Polity as well Ecclesiastical as Civil there are and will be always Evils which no art of man can cure breaches and leaks moe than man's wit hath hands to stop that which maketh odious unto them many things wherein notwithstanding the truth is that very just regard hath been had of the Publick good that which in a great part of the weightiest Causes belonging to this present Controversie hath insnared the Judgments both of sundry good and of some well learned men is the manifest truth of certain general Principles whereupon the Ordinances that serve for usual practise in the Church of God are grounded Which Principles men knowing to be most sound and that the ordinary practise accordingly framed is good whatsoever is over and besides that ordinary the same they judge repugnant to those true Principles The cause of which Error is Ignorance what restraints and limitations all such Principles have in regard of so manifold varieties as the matter whereunto they are applyable doth commonly afford These varieties are not known but by much experience from whence to draw the true bounds of all Principles to discern how farr forth they take effect to see where and why they fail to apprehend by what degrees and means they lead to the practise of things in show though not indeed repugnant and contrary one to another requireth more sharpness of Wit more intricate circuitions of Discourse more industry and depth of Judgment than common Ability doth yield So that general Rules til their limits be fully known especially in matter of Publick and Ecclesiastical affairs are by reason of the manifold secret Exceptions which lye hidden in them no other to the eye of man's
define not the Church by that which the Church essentially is but by that wherein they imagine their own more perfect then the rest are Touching parts of eminency and perfection parts likewise of imperfection and defect in the Church of God they are infinite their degrees and differences no way possible to be drawn unto any certain account There is not the least contention and variance but it blemisheth somewhat the Unity that ought to be in the Church of Christ which notwithstanding may have not onely without offence or breach of concord her manifold varieties in Rites and Ceremonies of Religion but also her Strifes and Contentions many times and that about matters of no small importance yea her Schisms Factions and such other evils whereunto the Body of the Church is subject sound and sick remaining both of the same Body as long as both parts retain by outward profession that vital substance of truth which maketh Christian Religion to differ from theirs which acknowledge not our Lord Jesus Christ the Blessed Saviour of Mankinde give no crecit to his glorious Gospel and have his Sacraments the Seals of Eternal Life in derision Now the priviledge of the visible Church of God for of that we speak is to be herein like the Ark of Noah that for any thing we know to the contrary all without it are lost sheep yet in this was the Ark of Noah priviledged above the Church that whereas none of them which were in the one could perish numbers in the other are cast away because to Eternal Life our Profession is not enough Many things exclude from the Kingdom of God although from the Church they separate not In the Church there arise sundry grievous storms by means whereof whole Kingdoms and Nations professing Christ both have been heretofore and are at this present day divided about Christ. During which Divisions and Contentions amongst men albeit each part do justifie it self yet the one of necessity must needs err if there be any contradiction between them be it great or little and what side soever it be that hath the truth the same we must also acknowledge alone to hold with the true Church in that point and consequently reject the other as an enemy in that case faln away from the true Church Wherefore of Hypocrites and Dissemblers whose profession at the first was but onely from the teeth outward when they afterwards took occasion to oppugne certain principal Articles of Faith the Apostles which defended the truth against them pronounce them gone out from the Fellowship of sound and sincere Believers when as yet the Christian Religion they had not utterly cast off In like sense and meaning throughout all ages Hereticks have justly been hated as Branches cut off from the Body of the true Vine yet onely so far forth cut off as they Heresies have extended Both Heresie and many other crimes which wholly sever from God do sever from God the Church of God in part onely The Mystery of Piety saith the Apostle is without peradventure great God hath been manifested in the Flesh hath been justified in the Spirit hath been seen of Angels hath been preached to Nations hath been believed on in the World hath been taken up into Glory The Church a Pillar and Foundation of this Truth which no where is known or profest but onely within the Church and they all of the Church that profess it In the mean while it cannot be denied that many profess this who are not therefore cleared simply from all either faults or errors which make separation between us and the Well-spring of our happiness Idolatry severed of old the Israelites Iniquity those Scribes and Pharisees from God who notwithstanding were a part of the Seed of Abraham a part of that very Seed which God did himself acknowledge to be his Church The Church of God may therefore contain both them which indeed are not his yet must be reputed his by us that know not their inward thoughts and them whose apparent wickedness testifieth even in the sight of the whole World that God abhorreth them For to this and no other purpose are meant those Parables which our Saviour in the Gospel hath concerning mixture of Vice with Vertue Light with Darkness Truth with Error as well and openly known and seen as a cunningly cloaked mixture That which separateth therefore utterly that which cutteth off clean from the visible Church of Christ is plain Apostasie direct denial utter rejection of the whole Christian Faith as far as the same is professedly different from Infidelity Hereticks as touching those points of doctrine wherein they fail Schismaticks as touching the quarrels for which or the duties wherein they divide themselves from their Brethren Loose licentious and wicked persons as touching their several offences or crimes have all forsaken the true Church of God the Church which is sound and sincere in the Doctrine that they corrupt the Church that keepeth the Bond of Unity which they violate the Church that walketh in the Laws of Righteousness which they transgress This very true Church of Christ they have left howbeit not altogether left nor forsaken simply the Church upon the main Foundations whereof they continue built notwithstanding these breaches whereby they are rent at the top asunder Now because for redress of professed Errors and open Schisms it is and must be the Churches care that all may in outward Conformity be one as the laudable Polity of former Ages even so our own to that end and purpose hath established divers Laws the moderate severity whereof is a mean both to stay the rest and to reclaim such as heretofore have been led awry But seeing that the Offices which Laws require are always definite and when that they require is done they go no farther whereupon sundry ill-affected persons to save themselves from danger of Laws pretend obedience albeit inwardly they carry still the same hearts which they did before by means whereof it falleth out that receiving unworthily the Blessed Sacrament at our hands they eat and drink their own damnation It is for remedy of this mischief here determined that whom the Law of the Realm doth punish unless they communicate such if they offer to obey Law the Church notwithstanding should not admit without probation before had of their Gospel-like behavior Wherein they first set no time how long this supposed probation must continue again they nominate no certain judgment the verdict whereof shall approve mens behavior to be Gospel-like and that which is most material whereas they seek to make it more hard for dissemblers to be received into the Church then Law and Polity as yet hath done they make it in truth more easie for such kinde of persons to winde themselves out of the Law and to continue the same they were The Law requireth at their hands that duty which in conscience doth touch them nearest because the greatest difference between us and
every one of them for distinction from the rest so that every body Politique hath some Religion but the Church that Religion which is only true Truth of Religion is the proper difference whereby a Church is distinguished from other Politique societies of men we here mean true Religion in gross and not according to every particular for they which in some particular points of Religion do sever from the truth may nevertheless truly if we compare them to men of an heathenish Religion be said to hold and profess that Religion which is true For which cause there being of old so many Politique societies stablished through the world only the Common-wealth of Israel which had the truth of Religion was is that respect the Church of God and the Church of Jesus Christ is every such Politique society of men as doth in Religion hold that truth which is proper to Christianity As a Politique society it doth maintain Religion as a Church that Religion which God hath revealed by Jesus Christ with us therefore the name of a Church importeth onely a society of men first united into some publique form of Regiment and secondly distinguished from other societies by the exercise of Religion With them on the other side the name of the Church in this present question importeth not only a maltitude of men so united and so distinguihed but also further the same divided necessarily and perpetually from the body of the Common-wealth so that even in such a Politique society as consisteth of none but Christians yet the Church and Common-wealth are too Corporations independently subsisting by it self We hold that seeing there is not any man of the Church of England but the same man is also a member of the Common-wealth nor any member of the Common-wealth which is not also of the Church of England Therefore as in a figure Triangle the base doth differ from the sides thereof and yet one and the self same line is both a base and also a side aside simply a base if it chance to be the bottom and under-lye the rest So albeit properties and actions of one do cause the name of a Common-wealth qualities and functions of another sort the name of the Church to be given to a multitude yet one and the self-same multitude may in such sort be both Nay it is so with us that no person appertaining to the one can be denied also to be of the other contrariwise unless they against us should hold that the Church and the Common-wealth are two both distinct and separate societies of which two one comprehendeth alwayes persons not belonging to the other that which they do they could not conclude out of the difference between the Church and the Common-wealth namely that the Bishops may not meddle with the affairs of the Common wealth because they are Governours of an other Corporation which is the Church nor Kings with making Lawes for the Church because they have government not of this Corporation but of another divided from it the Common-wealth and the walls of separation between these two must for ever be upheld they hold the necessity of personal separation which clean excludeth the power of one mans dealing with both we of natural but that one and the same person may in both bear principal sway The causes of common received Errors in this Point seem to have been especially two One That they who embrace true Religion living in such Common-wealths as are opposite thereunto and in other publike affairs retaining civil Communion with such as are constrained for the exercise of their Religion to have a several Communion with those who are of the same Religion with them This was the state of the Jewish Church both in Egypt and Babylon the state of Christian Churches a long time after Christ. And in this case because the proper affairs and actions of the Church as it is the Church hath no dependance on the Laws or upon the Government of the civil State and opinion hath thereby grown that even so it should be always This was it which deceived Allen in the writing of his Apology The Apostles saith he did govern the Church in Rome when Nero bare rule even as at this day in all the Churches dominions The Church hath a spiritual Regiments without dependance and so ought she to have amongst Heathens or with Christians Another occasion of which mis-conceit is That things appertaining to Religion are both distinguished from other affairs and have always had in the Church spiritual persons chosen to be exercised about them By which distinction of Spiritual affairs and persons therein employed from Temporal the Error of personal separation always necessary between the Church and Common-wealth hath strengthened it self For of every Politick Society that being true which Aristotle saith namely That the scope thereof is not simply to live nor the duty so much to provide for the life as for means of living well And that even as the soul is the worthier part of man so humane Societies are much more to care for that which tendeth properly to the souls estate then for such temporal things which the life hath need of Other proof there needeth none to shew that as by all men the Kingdom of God is to be sought first for so in all Common-wealths things spiritual ought above temporal be sought for and of things spiritual the chiefest is Religion For this cause persons and things imployed peculiarly about the affairs of Religion are by an excellency termed Spiritual The Heathens themselves had their spiritual Laws and Causes and Affairs always severed from their temporal neither did this make two Independent estates among them God by revealing true Religion sioth make them that receive it his Church Unto the Iews he so revealed the truth of Religion that he gave them in special Considerations Laws not only for the administration of things spiritual but also temporal The Lord himself appointing both the one and the other in that Common-wealth did not thereby distract it into several independent Communities but institute several Functions of one and the self-same Communitie Some Reasons therefore must there be alledged why it should be otherwise in the Church of Christ. I shall not need to spend any great store of words in answering that which is brought out of the Holy Scripture to shew that Secular and Ecclesiastical affairs and offices are distinguished neither that which hath been borrowed from antiquity using by phrase of speech to oppose the Common-weal to the Church of Christ neither yet their Reasons which are wont to be brought forth as witnesses that the Church and Common-weal were always distinct for whether a Church or Common-weal do differ in not the question we strive for but our controversie is concerning the kind of distinction whereby they are severed the one from the other whether as under heathen Kings of the Church did deal with her own affairs within her self without depending
him in Latin which Doctor Stapleton did to the end of the first Book at the conclusion of which the Pope spake to this purpose There is no Learning that this man hath not searcht into nothing too hard for his understanding This man indeed deserves the name of an Author his Books will get Reverence by Age for there is in them such seeds of Eternity that if the rest be like this they shall last till the last Fire shall consume all Learning Not was this high the only testimony and commendations given to his Books for at the first coming of King Iames into this Kingdom he inquired of the Archbishop Whiâ—gift for his friend Mr. Hooker that writ the Books of Church Polity to which the answer was that he dyed a year before Queen Elizabeth who received the sad news of his Death with very much Sorrow to which the King replyed and I receive it with no less that I shall want the desired happiness of seeing and discoursing with that Man from whose Books I have received such satisfaction Indeed my Lord I have received more satisfaction in reading a Leaf or Paragraph in Mr. Hooker thought it were but about the fashion of Churches or Church Musick or the like but especially of the Sacraments then I have had in the reading particular large Treatises written but of one of those subjects by others though very Learned Men and I observe there is in Mr. Hooker no affected Language but a grave comprehensive cleer manifestation of Reason and that back't with the Authority of the Scripture the Fathers and Schoolmen and with all Law both Sacred and Civil And though many others write well yet in the next Age they will be forgotten but doubtless there is in every page of Mr. Hookers Book the Picture of a Divine Soul such Pictures of Truth and Reason and drawn in so sacred colours that they shall never fade but give an immortal memory to the Author And it is so truly true that the King thought what he spake that as the most Learned of the Nation have and still do mention Mr. Hooker with Reverence so he also did never mention him but with the Epithite of Learned or Iudicious or Reverend or Venerable Mr. Hooker Nor did his Son our late King Charles the first ever mention him but with the same Reverence enjoyning his Son our now gracious King to be studious in M. Hookers Books And our learned Antiquary Mr. Cambden mentioning the Death the Modesty and other Vertues of Mr. Hooker and magnifying his Books wisht that for the honour of this and benefit of other Nations they were turn'd into the Universal Language Which work though undertaken by many yet they have been weary and forsaken it but the Reader may now expect it having been long since begun and lately finisht by the happy pen of Doctor Earl now Lord Bishop of Salisbury of whom I may justly say and let it not offend him because it is such a truth as ought not to be conceal'd from Posterity or those that now live and yet know him not that since Mr. Hooker died none have liv'd whom God hath blest with more innocent Wisdom more sanctified Learning or a more pious peaceable primitive Temper so that this excellent person seems to be only like himself and our venerable Richard Hooker and only fit to make the learned of all Nations happy in knowing what hath been too long confin'd to the language of our little Island There might be many more and just occasions taken to speak of his Books which none ever did or can commend too much but I decline them and hasten to an account of his Christian behaviour and Death at Borne in which place he continued his customary rules of Mortification and Self-Denyal was much in Fasting frequent in Meditation and Prayers injoying those blessed Returns which only Men of strict lives feel and know and of which Men of loose and Godless lives cannot be made sensible for spiritual things are spiritually discerned At his entrance into this place his Friendship was much sought for by Doctor Hadrian Saravia then one of the Prebends of Canterbury a German by birth and sometimes a Pastor both in Flanders and Holland where he had studied and well considered the controverted points concerning Episcopacy and Sacriledge and in England had a just occasion to declare his Judgement concerning both unto his Brethren Ministers of the Low Countryes which was excepted against by Theodor Beza and others against whose exceptions he rejoyned and thereby became the happy Author of many Learned Tracts writ in Latin especially of three one of the Degrees of Ministers and of the Bishops Superiority above the Presbytery a second against Sacriledge and a third of Christian obedience to Princes the last being occasioned by Gretzerus the Jesuit And it is observable that when in a time of Church tumults Beza gave his reasons to the Chancellor of Scotland for the abrogation of Episcopacy in that Nation partly by Letters and more fully in a Treatise of a three-fold Episcopacy which he calls Divine Humane and Satanical this Doctor Saravia had by the help of Bishop Whitgift made such an early discovery of their intentions that he had almost as soon answered that Treatise as it became publique and therein discovered how Beza's opinion did contradict that of Calvins and his adherents leaving them to interfere with themselves in point of Episcopacy but of these Tracts it will not concern me to say more than that they were most of them dedicated to his and the Church of Englands watchful Patron Iohn Whitgift the Archbishop and printed about the year in which Mr. Hooker also appeared first to the world in the Publication of his four Books of Ecclesiastical Polity This friendship being sought for by this Learned Doctor you may believe was not denied by Mr. Hooker who was by fortune so like him as to be engaged against Mr. Travers Mr. Cartwright and others of their Judgment in a controversie too like Doctor Saravia's So that in this year of 1595. and in this place of Borne these two excellent persons began a Holy Friendship increasing dayly to so high and mutual affections that their two wills seemed to be but one and the same and designs both for the glory of God and peace of the Church still assisting and improving each others vertues and the desired comforts of a peaceable Piety which I have willingly mentioned because it gives a foundation to some things that follow This Parsonage of Borne is from Canterbury three miles and near to the common Road that leads from that City to Dover in which Parsonage Mr. Hooker had not been twelve moneths but his Books and the Innocency and Sanctity of his Life became so remarkable that many turn'd out of the road and others Scholars especially went purposely to see the Man whose Life and Learning were so much admired and alas as our Saviour said of St. Iohn Baptist
which Admonitions all that I mean to say is but this There will come a time when three words uttered with Charity and Meekness shall receive a far more blessed Reward then three thousand Volumns written with disdainful sharpness of Wit But the manner of Mens Writings must not alienate our hearts from the Truth if it appear they have the Truth as the Followers of the same Defender do think he hath and in that perswasion they follow him no otherwise then himself doth Calvin Beza and others with the like perswasion that they in this cause had the Truth We being as fully perswaded otherwise it resteth that some kinde of tryal be used to finde out which part is in error 3. The first mean whereby Nature teacheth men to judge good from evil as well in Laws as in other things is the force of their own discretion Hereunto therefore St. Paul referreth oftentimes his own speech to be considered of by them that heard him I speak as to them which have understanding Judge ye what I say Again afterward Judge in your selves is it comly that a woman pray uncovered The exercise of this kinde of judgment our Saviour requireth in the Iews In them of Berea the Scripture commendeth it Finally Whatsoever we do if our own secret judgment consent not unto it as fit and good to be done the doing of it to us is sin although the thing it self be allowable St. Pauls rule therefore generally is Let every man in his own minde be fully perswaded of that thing which he either alloweth or doth Some things are so familiar and plain that Truth from Falshood and Good from Evil is most easily discerned in them even by men of no deep capacity And of that nature for the most part are things absolutely unto all Mens salvation necessary either to he held or denied either to be done or avoided For which cause St. Augustine acknowledgeth that they are not onely set down but also plainly set down in Scripture So that he which heareth or readeth may without any great difficulty understand Other things also there are belonging though in a lower degree of importance unto the offices of Christian men Which because they are more obscure more intricate and hard to be judged of therefore God hath appointed some to spend their whole time principally in the study of things Divine to the end that in these more doubtful cases their understanding might be a light to direct others If the understanding power or faculty of the Soul be saith the Grand Physitian like unto bodily sight not of equal sharpness in all What can be more convenient then that even as the dark-sighted man is directed by the clear about things visible so likewise in matters of deeper discourse the wise in heart do shew the simple where his way lieth In our doubtful Cases of Law what man is there who seeth not how requisite it is that Professors of skill in that Faculty be our Directors so it is in all other kindes of knowledge And even in this kinde likewise the Lord hath himself appointed That the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and that other men should seek the truth at his mouth because he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts Gregory Nazianzen offended at the peoples too great presumption in controlling the judgment of them to whom in such cases they should have rather submitted their own seeketh by earnest entreaty to stay them within their bounds Presume not ye that are Sheep to make your selves Guides of them that should guide you neither seek ye to overslip the fold which they about you have pitched It sufficeth for your part if ye can well frame your selves to be ordered Take not upon you to judge your selves nor to make them subject to your Laws who should be a Law to you for God is not a God of Sedition and Confusion but of Order and of Peace But ye will say that if the Guides of the people be blinde the common sort of men must not close up their own eyes and be led by the conduct of such If the Priest be partial in the Law the flock must not therefore depart from the ways of sincere Truth and in simplicity yield to be followers of him for his place sake and office over them Which thing though in it self most true is in your defence notwithstanding weak because the matter wherein ye think that ye see and imagine that your ways are sincere is of far deeper consideration then any one amongst Five hundred of you conceiveth Let the vulgar sort among you know that there is not the least branch of the Cause wherein they are so resolute but to the tryal of it a great deal more appertaineth then their conceit doth reach unto I write not this in disgrace of the simplest that way given but I would gladly they knew the nature of that cause wherein they think themselves throughly instructed and are not by means whereof they daily run themselves without feeling their own hazzard upon the dint of the Apostles sentence against evil speakers as touching things wherein they are ignorant If it be granted a thing unlawful for private men not called unto Publick Consultation to dispute which is the best State of Civil Policy with a desire of bringing in some other kinde them that under which they already live for of such Disputes I take it his meaning was If it be a thing confest that of such Questions they cannot determine without rashness in as much as a great part of them consisteth in special Circumstances and for one kinde as many Reasons may be brought as for another Is there any reason in the World why they should better judge what kinde of Regiment Ecclesiastical is the fittest For in the Civil State more insight and in those affairs more experience a great deal must needs be granted them then in this they can possibly have When they which write in defence of your Discipline and commend it unto the Highest not in the least cunning manner are forced notwithstanding to acknowledge That with whom the Truth is they know not they are not certain what certainly or knowledge can the multitude have thereof Weigh what doth move the common sort so much to favor this Innovation and it shall soon appear unto you that the force of particular Reasons which for your several Opinions are alleaged is a thing whereof the multitude never did nor could so consider as to be therewith wholly carried but certain general Inducements are used to make saleable your Cause in gross And when once men have cast a fancy towards it any slight Declaration of Specialties will serve to lead forward mens inclineable and prepared mindes The method of winning the peoples affection unto a general liking of the Cause for so ye term it hath been this First in the hearing of the multitude the faults especially of
many deep and profound points of Doctrine as being the main original ground whereupon the Precepts of duty depend many Prophecies the clear performance whereof might confirm the World in belief of things unseen many Histories to serve as Looking-glasses to behold the Mercy the Truth the Righteousness of God towards all that faithfully serve obey and honor him yea many intire Meditations of Piety to be as Patterns and Precedents in cases of like Nature many things needful for Explication many for Application unto particular occasions such as the Providence of God from time to time hath taken to have the several Books of his holy Ordinance written Be it then that together with the principal necessary Laws of God there are sundry other things written whereof we might haply be ignorant and yet be saved What shall we hereupon think them needless shall we esteem them as riotous Branches wherewith we sometimes behold most pleasant Vines overgrown Surely no more then we judge our hands or our eyes superfluous or what part soever which if our Bodies did want we might notwithstanding any such defect retain still the compleat Being of Men. As therefore a compleat Man is neither destitute of any part necessary and hath some parts whereof though the want could not deprive him of his essence yet to have them standeth him in singular stead in respect of the special uses for which they serve In like sort all those writings which contain in them the Law of God all those venerable Books of Scripture all those Sacred Tomes and Volumes of holy Writ they are with such absolute perfection framed that in them there neither wanteth any thing the lack whereof might deprive us of life nor any thing in such wise aboundeth that as being superfluous unfruitful and altogether needless we should think it no loss or danger at all if we did want it 14. Although the Scripture of God therefore be stored with infinite variety of matter in all kindes although it abound with all sorts of Laws yet the principal intent of Scripture is to deliver the Laws of Duties Supernatural Oftentimes it hath been in very solemn manner disputed whether all things necessary unto salvation be necessarily set down in the holy Scriptures If we define that necessary unto salvation whereby the way to salvation is in any sort made more plain apparent and easie to be known then is there no part of true Philosophy no Art of account no kinde of Science rightly so called but the Scripture must contain it If onely those things be necessary as surely none else are without the knowledge and practise whereof it is not the will and pleasure of God to make any ordinary grant of salvation it may be notwithstanding and oftentimes hath been demanded how the Books of holy Scripture contain in them all necessary things when of things necessary the very chief is to know what Books we are bound to esteem holy which point is confest impossible for the Scripture it self to teach Whereunto we may answer with truth that there is not in the World any Art or Science which proposing unto it self an end as every one doth some end or other hath been therefore thought defective if it have not delivered simply whatsoever is needful to the same end but all kindes of knowledge have their certain bounds and limits each of them presupposeth many necessary things learned in other Sciences and known beforehand He that should take upon him to teach men how to be eloquent in pleading causes must needs deliver unto them whatsoever Precepts are requisite unto that end otherwise he doth not the thing which he taketh upon him Seeing then no man can plead eloquently unless he be able first to speak it followeth that ability of speech is in this case a thing most necessary Notwithstanding every man would think it ridiculous that he which undertaketh by writing to instruct an Orator should therefore deliver all the Precepts of Grammar because his Profession is to deliver Precepts necessary unto eloquent speech yet so that they which are to receive them be taught beforehand so much of that which is thereunto necessary as comprehendeth the skill of speaking In like sort albeit Scripture do profess to contain in it all things which are necessary unto salvation yet the meaning cannot be simply of all things which are necessary but all things that are necessary in some certain kinde or form as all things that are necessary and either could not at all or could not easily be known by the light of Natural discourse all things which are necessary to be known that we may be saved but known with presupposal of knowledge concerning certain Principles whereof it receiveth us already perswaded and then instructeth us in all the residue that are necessary In the number of these Principles one is the Sacred Authority of Scripture Being therefore perswaded by other means that these Scriptures are the Oracles of God themselves do then teach us the rest and lay before us all the duties which God requireth at our hands as necessary unto salvation Further there hath been some doubt likewise whether containing in Scripture do import express setting down in plain terms or else comprehending in such sort that by reason we may from thence conclude all things which are necessary Against the former of these two constructions instance hath sundry ways been given For our belief in the Trinity the Co-eternity of the Son of God with his Father the proceeding of the Spirit from the Father and the Son the duty of Baptizing Infants These with such other principal points the necessity whereof is by none denied are notwithstanding in Scripture no where to be found by express literal mention onely deduced they are out of Scripture by collection This kinde of comprehension in Scripture being therefore received still there is no doubt how far we are to proceed by collection before the full and compleat measure of things necessary be made up For let us not think that as long as the World doth endure the wit of man shall be able to sound the bottom of that which may be concluded out of the Scripture especially if things contained by collection do so far extend as to draw in whatsoever may be at any time out of Scripture but probably and conjecturally surmized But let necessary collection be made requisite and we may boldly deny that of all those things which at this day are with so great necessity urged upon this Church under the name of Reformed Church Discipline there is any one which their Books hitherto have made manifest to be contained in the Scripture Let them if they can alledge but one properly belonging to their cause and not common to them and us and shew the deduction thereof out of Scripture to be necessary It hath been already shewed how all things necessary unto salvation in such sort as before we have maintained must needs be possible for
the Scriptures setting down such things as indifferent but their not setting down as necessary that doth make them to be indifferent yet this to our present purpose serveth nothing at all We enquire not now Whether any thing be free to be used which Scripture hath nor set down as free but concerning things known and acknowledged to be indifferent whether particularly in chusing any one of them before another we sin if any thing but Scripture direct us into this our choice When many meats are set before me all are indifferent none unlawful I take one as most convenient If Scripture require me so to do then is not the thing indifferent because I must do what Scripture requireth They are all indifferent I might take any Scripture doth not require of me to make any special choice of one I do notwithstanding make choice of one my discretion teaching me so to do A hard case that hereupon I should be justly condemned of sin Not let any man think that following the judgement of natural discretion in such cases we can have no assurance that we please God For to the Author and God of our nature how shall any operation proceeding in natural sort he in that respect unacceptable The nature which himself hath given to work by he cannot but be delighted with when we exercise the same any way without Commandment of his to the contrary My desire is to make this cause so manifest that if it were possible no doubt or scruple concerning the same might remain in any mans cogitation Some truths there are the verity whereof time doth alter As it is now true that Christ is risen from the dead which thing was not true at such time as Christ was living on earth and had not suffered It would be known therefore whether this which they teach concerning the sinful stain of all actions not commanded of God be a truth that doth now appertain unto us onely or a perpetual truth in such sort that from the first beginning of the world unto the last consummation thereof it neither hath been nor can be otherwise I see not how they can restrain this unto any particular time how they can think it true now and not always true that in every action not commanced there is for want of Faith sin Then let them cast back their eyes unto former generations of men and mark what was done in the prime of the World Seth Enoch Noah Sem Abraham Iob and the rest that lived before any syllable of the Law of God was written did they not sin as much as we do in every action not commanded That which God is unto us by his Sacred Word the same he was unto them by such like means as Eliphaz in Iob describeth If therefore we sin in every action which the Scripture commandeth us not it followeth that they did the like in all such actions as were not by Revelation from Heaven exacted at their hands Unless God from Heaven did by vision still shew them what to do they might do nothing not eat not drink not sleep not move Yea but even as in darkness candle light may serve to guide mens steps which to use in the day were madness so when God had once delivered his Law in writing it may be they are of opinion that then it must needs be sin for men to do any thing which was not there commanded them to do whatsoever they might do before Let this be granted and it shall hereupon plainly ensue either that the light of Scripture once shining in the world all other light of Nature is therewith in such sort drowned that now we need it not neither may we longer use it or if it stand us in any stead yet as Aristotle speaketh of men whom nature hath framed for the state of servitude saying They have reason so far forth as to conceive when others direct them but little or none in directing themselves by themselves so likewise our natural capacity and judgement must serve us onely for the right understanding of that which the sacred Scripture teacheth Had the Prophets who succeeded Moses or the blessed Apostles which followed them been setled in this perswasion never would they have taken so great pains in gathering together natural Arguments thereby to teach the faithful their Duties To use unto them any other Motive then Scriptures est Thou it is written had been to teach them other grounds of their Actions then Scripture which I grant they alledge commonly but not onely Onely Scripture they should have alledged had they been thus perswaded that so far forth we do sin as we do any thing otherwise directed then by Scripture S. Augustine was resolute in points of Christianity to credit none how godly and learned soever he were unless he confirmed his sentence by the Scriptures or by some reason not contrary to them Let them therefore with S. Augustine reject and condemn that which is not grounded either on the Scripture or on some reason not contrary to Scripture and we are ready to give them our hands in token of friendly consent with them 5. But against this it may be objected and is That the Fathers do nothing more usually in their Books then draw Arguments from the Scripture negatively in reproof of that which is evil Scriptures teach it not avoid it therefore these disputes with the Fathers are ordinary neither is it hard to shew that the Prophets themselves have so reasoned Which Arguments being sound and good it should seem that it cannot be unsound or evil to hold still the same Asserrion against which hitherto we have disputed For if it stand with reason thus to argue Such a thing is not taught us in Scripture therefore we may not receive or allow it how should it seem unreasonable to think that whatsoever we may lawfully do the Scripture by commanding it must make it lawful But how far such Arguments do reach it shall the better appear by considering the matter wherein they have been urged First therefore this we constantly deny that of so many Testimonies as they are able to produce for the strength of Negative Arguments any one doth generally which is the point in question condemn either all opinions as false or all actions as unlawful which the Scripture teacheth us not The most that can be collected out of them is onely that in some cases a Negative Argument taken from Scripture is strong whereof no man endued with judgement can doubt But doth the strength of some Negative Argument prove this kinde of Negative Argument strong by force whereof all things are denied which Scripture affirmeth not or all things which Scripture prescribeth not condemned The Question between us is concerning matter of Action what things are lawful or unlawful for men to do The Sentences alledged out of the Fathers are as peremptory and as large in every respect for matter of Opinion as of action which argueth
things escape them and in many things they may be deceived yea those things which they do know they may either forget or upon sundry indirect considerations let pass and although themselves do not erre yet may they through malice or vanity even of purpose deceive others Howbeit infinite cases there are wherein all these impediments and lets are so manifestly excluded that there is no shew or colour whereby any such Exception may be taken but that the testimony of man will stand as a ground of infallible assurance That there is a City of Rome that Pins Quintus and Gregory the thirteenth and others have been Popes of Rome I suppose we are certainly enough perswaded The ground of our perswasion who never saw the place nor persons before named can be nothing but mans testimony Will any man here notwithstanding alledge those mentioned humane infirmities as Reasons why these things should be mistrusted or doubted of yea that which is more utterly to infringe the force and strength of mans testimony were to shake the very Fortress of Gods truth For whatsoever we believe concerning Salvation by Christ although the Scripture be therein the ground of our belief yet the authority of man is if we mark it the key which openeth the door of entrance into the knowledge of the Scripture The Scripture doth not teach us the things that are of God unless we did credit men who have taught us that the words of Scripture do signifie those things Some way therefore notwithstanding mans infirmity yet his Authority may inforce assent Upon better advice and deliberation so much is perceived and at the length confest that Arguments taken from the Authority of men may not only so far forth as hath been declared but further also be of some force in Humane Sciences which force be it never so small doth shew that they are not utterly naught But in Matters Divine it is still maintained stifly that they have no manner force at all Howbeit the very self same reason which causeth to yield that they are of some force in the one will at the length constrain also to acknowledge that they are not in the other altogether unforcible For it the natural strength of mans wit may by experience and stucie attain unto such ripeness in the knowledge of things humane that men in this respect may presume to build somewhat upon their judgement what reason have we to think but that even in matters Divine the like wits furnisht with necessary helps exercised in Scripture with like diligence and assisted with the grace of Almighty God may grow unto so much perfection of knowledge that men shall have just cause when any thing pertinent unto Faith and Religion is doubted of the more willingly to encline their mindes towards that which the sentence of so grave wise and learned in that faculty shall judge most sound For the controversie is of the weight of such mens judgements Let it therefore be suspected let it be taken as gross corrupt repugnant unto the truth whatsoever concerning things divine above nature shall at any time be spoken as out of the mouths of meer natural men which have not the eyes wherewith heavenly things are discerned For this we contend not But whom God hath endued with principal gifts to aspire unto knowledge by whose exercises labours and divine studies he hath so blest that the World for their great and rate skill that way hath them in singular admiration may we reject even their judgement likewise as being utterly of no moment For mine own part I dare not so lightly esteem of the Church and of the principal Pillars therein The truth is that the minde of man desireth evermore to know the truth according to the most infallible certainty which the nature of things can yield The greatest assurance generally with all men is that which we have by plain aspect and intuitive beholding Where we cannot attain unto this thereâ— what appeareth to be true by strong and invincible demonstration such as wherein it is not by any way possible to be deceived thereunto the minde doth necessarily assent neither is it in the choice thereof to do otherwise And in case these both do fail then which way greatest probability leadeth thither the minde doth evermore incline Scripture with Christian men being received as the Word of God that for which we have probable yea that which we have necessary reason for yea that which we see with out eyes is not thought so sure as that which the Scripture of God teacheth because we hold that his speech revealeth there what himself seeth and therefore the strongest proof of all and the most necessarily assented unto by us which do thus receive the Scripture is the Scripture Now it is not required nor can be exacted at our hands that we should yield unto any thing other assent then such as doth answer the evidence which is to be had of that we assent unto For which cause even in matters Divine concerning some things we may lawfuly doubt and suspend our judgement enclining neither to one side or other as namely touching the time of the fall both of man and Angels of some things we may very well retain an opinion that they are probable and not unlikely to be true as when we hold that men have their souls rather by creation then propagation or that the Mother of our Lord lived always in the state of Virginity as well after his birth as before for of these two the one her virginity before is a thing which of necessity we must believe the other her continuance in the same state always hath more likelihood of truth then the contrary finally in all things then are our Consciences best resolved and in a most agreeable sore unto God and Nature setled when they are so far perswaded as those grounds of â—erswasion which are to be had will bear Which thing I do so much the rather set down for that I see how a number of souls are for want of right Information in this Point oftentimes grievously vexed When bare and unbuilded Conclusions are put into their mindes they finding not themselves to have thereof any great certainty imagine that this proceedeth only from lack of Faith and that the Spirit God doth not work in them as it doth in true Believers by this means their hearts are much troubled they fall into anquish and perplexity whereas the truth is that how bold and confident soever we may be in words when it cometh to the point of trial such as the evidence is which the Truth hath either in it self or through proof such is the hearts assent thereunto neither can it be stronger being grounded as it should be I grant that proof derived from the authority of mans judgement is not able to work that assurance which doth grow by a stronger proof and therefore although ten thousand General Councils would set down one and the same definitive sentence
concerning any Point of Religion whatsoever yet one Demonstrative Reason alledged or one Manifest Testimony cited from the mouth of God himself to the contrary could not choose but over-weigh them all inasmuch as for them to have been deceived it is not impossible it is that demonstrative Reason or Testimony Divine should deceive Howbeit in defect of proof infallible because the minde doth rather follow probable perswasions then approve the things that have in them no likelihood of truth at all surely if a Question concerning matter of Doctrine were proposed and on the one side no kinde of proof appearing there should on the other be alledged and shewed that so a number of the Learnedest Divines in the World have ever thought although it did not appear what Reason or what Scripture led them to be of that judgement yet to their very bare judgement somewhat a reasonable man would attribute notwithstanding the common imbecillities which are incident unto our nature And whereas it is thought that especially with the Church and those that are called and perswaded of the Authority of the Word of God mans authority with them especially should not prevail it must and doth prevail even with them yea with them especially as far as equity requireth and farther we maintain it not For men to be tied and led by Authority as it were with a kind of captivity of judgement and though there be reason to the contrary not to listen unto it but to follow like Beasts the first in the Herd they know not nor care not whither this were brutish Again that authority of men should prevail with men either against or above Reason is no part of our belief Companies of learned men be they never so great and reverend are to yield unto Reason the weight whereof is no whit prejudiced by the simplicity of his person which doth alledge it but being found to be sound and good the bare opinion of men to the contrary must of necessity stoop and give place Irenaeus writing against Marcion which held one God Author of the Old-Testament and another of the New to prove that the Apostles preached the same God which was known before to the Jews he copiously alledgeth sundry their Sermons and Speeches uttered concerning that matter and recorded in Scripture And lest any should be wearied with such store of Allegations in the end he concludeth While we labour for these Demonstrations out of Scripture and do summarily declare the things which many ways have been spoken be contented quietly to hear and do not think my speech redious Quoniam oftensiones quae sunt in Scripturis non possunt oftendi nisi ex ipsis Scripturis Because demonstrations that art in Scripture may not otherwise be shewed then by citing them out of the Scriptures themselves where they are Which words make so little unto the purpose that they seem as it were offended at him which hath called them thus solemnly forth to say nothing And concerning the Verdict of S. Ierome If no man be he never so well learned have after the Apostles Authority to publish new Doctrine as from Heaven and to require the Worlds assent as unto truth received by Prophetical Revelation doth this prejudice the credit of learned mens judgements in opening that truth which by being conversant in the Apostles Writings they have themselves from thence learned S. Aâ—gustine exhorteth not to hear men but to hearken what God speaketh His purpose is not I think that was we should stop our ears against his own exhortation and therefore he cannot mean simply that audience should altogether be denied unto men but either that if men speak one thing and God himself teach another then he not they to be obeyed or if they both speak the same thing yet then also mans speech unworthy of hearing not simply but in comparison of that which proceedeth from the mouth of God Yea but we doubt what the will of God is Are we in this case forbidden to hear what men of judgement think it to be If not then this Allegation also might very well have been spared In that ancient strife which was between the Catholick Fathers and Arrians Donatists and others of like perverse and froward disposition as long as to Fathers or Councils alledged on the one side the like by the contrary side were opposed impossible it was that ever the Question should by this mean grow unto any issue or end The Scripture they both believed the Scripture they knew could not give sentence on both sides by Scripture the controversie between them was such as might be determined In this case what madness was it with such kindes of proofs to nourish their contention when there were such effectual means to end all controversie that was between them Hereby therefore it doth not as yet appear that an Argument of Authority of man affirmatively is in matters Divine nothing worth Which Opinion being once inserted into the mindes of the vulgar sort what it may grow unto God knoweth Thus much we see it hath already made thousands so headstrong even in gross and palpable Errors that a man whose capacity will scarce serve him to utter five words in sensible manner blusheth not in any doubt concerning matter of Scripture to think his own bare Yea as good as the Nay of all the wise grave and learned judgements that are in the whole world Which insolency must be represt or it will be the very bane of Christian Religion Our Lords Disciples marking what speech he uttered unto them and at the same time calling to minde a common opinion held by the Scribes between which opinion and the words of their Master it seemed unto them that there was some contradiction which they could not themselves answer with full satisfaction of their own mindes the doubt they propose to our Saviour saying Why then say the Scribes that Elias must first come They knew that the Scribes did err greatly and that many ways even in matters of their own profession They notwithstanding thought the judgement of the very Scribes in matters Divine to be of some value some probability they thought there was that Elias should come inasmuch as the Scribes said it Now no truth can contradict any truth desirous therefore they were to be taught how both might stand together that which they knew could not be false because Christ spake it and this which to them did seen true only because the Scribes had said it For the Scripture from whence the Scribes did gather it wâ— not then in their heads We do not finde that our Saviour reproved them of Error for thinking the judgement of the Scribes to be worth the objecting for esteeming it to be of any moment or value in matters concerning God We cannot therefore be perswaded that the will of God is we should so far reject the authority of men as to reckon it nothing No it may be a question whether they that urge
when after that David had ended his days in peace they who succeeded him in place for the most part followed him not in quality when their Kings some few excepted to better their worldly estate as they thought left their own and their peoples ghostly condition uncared for by woful experience they both did learn That to forsake the true God of Heaven is to fall into all such evils upon the face of the earth as men either destitute of Grace Divine may commit or unprotected from above endure Seeing therefore it doth thus appear that the safety of all Estates dependeth upon Religion that Religion unfeignedly loved perfecteth mens abilities unto all kindes of vertuous Services in the Commonwealth that mens desire in general is to hold no Religion but the true and that whatsoever good effects do grow out of their Religion who embrace instead of the true a false the Roots thereof are certain sparks of the Light of Truth intermingled with the darkness of Error because no Religion can wholly and onely consist of untruths we have Reason to think That all true Vertues are to honor true Religion as their Parent and all well ordered Commonweals to love her as their chiefest stay 2. They of whom God is altogether unapprehended are but few in number and for grosness of wit such that they hardly and scarcely seem to hold the place of Humane Being These we should judge to be of all others most miserable but that a wretcheder sort there are on whom whereas nature hath bestowed riper capacity their evil disposition seriously goeth about therewith to apprehend God as being not God Whereby it cometh to pass that of these two sorts of men both godless the one having utterly no knowledge of God the other study how to perswade themselves that there is no such thing to be known The Fountain and Well-spring of which Impiety is a resolved purpose of minde to reap in this World what sensual profit or pleasure soever the World yieldeth and not to be barred from any whatsoever means available thereunto And that is the very radical cause of their Atheism no man I think will doubt which considereth what pains they take to destroy those principal Spurs and Motives unto all Vertue the Creation of the World the Providence of God the Resurrection of the Dead the Joys of the Kingdom of Heaven and the endless pains of the wicked yea above all things the Authority of the Scripture because on these Points it evermore beateth and the Souls immortality which granted draweth easily after it the rest as a voluntary train Is it not wonderful that base desires should so extinguish in men the sense of their own excellencyâ— as to make them willing that their souls should be like to the souls of beasts mortal and corruptible with their bodies till some admirable or unusual accident happen as it hath in some to work the beginning of a better alteration in their mindes disputation about the knowledge of God with such kinde of persons commonly prevaileth little For how should the brightness of Wisdom shine where the windows of the soul are of very seâ— purpose closed True Religion hath many things in it the only mention whereof galleth and troubleth their mindes Being therefore loth that enquiry into such matters should breed a perswasion in the end contrary unto that they embrace it is their endeavor to banish as much as in them lyeth quite and clean from their cogitation whatsoever may sound that way But it cometh many times to pass which is their torment that the thing they shun doth follow them truth as it were even obtruding it self into their knowledge and not permitting them to be so ignorant as they would be Whereupon inasmuch as the nature of man is unwilling to continue doing that wherein it shall alwaies condemn it selfe they continuing still obstinate to follow the course which they have begun are driven to devise all the shifts that wit can invent for the smothering of this light all that may but with any the least shew of possibility stay their mindes from thinking that true which they heartily wish were false but cannot think it so without some scruple and fear of the contrary Now because that judicious learning for which we commend most worthily the ancient Sages of the World doth not in this case serve the turn these trenchermates for such the most of them be frame to themselves a way more pleasant a new method they have of turning things that are serious into mockerie an Art of Contradiction by way of scorn a learning wherewith we were long sithence forewarned that the miserable times whereinto we are fallen should abound This they study this they practise this they grace with a wanton superfluity of wit too much insulting over the patience of more vertuously disposed mindes For towards these so forlom creatures we are it must be confest too patient In zeal to the glory of God Babylon hath exceeded Sion We want that decree of Nebuchodonosor the fury of this wicked brood hath the reins too much at liberty their tongues walk at large the spit-venom of their poisoned hearts breaketh out to the annoyance of others what their untamed lust suggesteth the same their licentious mouths do every where set abroach With our contentions their irreligious humor also is much strengthned Nothing pleaseth them better than these manifold oppositions about the Matter of Religion as well for that they have hereby the more opportunity to learn on one side how another may be oppugned and so to weaken the credit of all unto themselves as also because by this not pursuit of lower controversies amongst men professing Religion and agreeing in the principal foundations thereof they conceive hope that about the higher principles themselves time will cause alteration to grow For which purpose when they see occasion they stick not sometime in other mens persons yea sometime without any vizard at all directly to try what the most religious are able to say in defence of the highest points whereupon all Religion dependeth Now for the most part it so falleth out touching things which generally are received that although in themselves they be most certain yet because men presume them granted of all we are hardliest able to bring such proof of their certainty as may satisfie gain-sayers when suddenly and besides expectation they require the same at our hands Which impreparation and unreadiness when they finde in us they turn it to the soothing up of themselves in that cursed fansie whereby they would fain believe that the hearty devotion of such as indeed fear God is nothing else but a kinde of harmless error bred and confirmed in them by the sleights of wiser men For a politick use of Religion they see there is and by it they would also gather that Religion it self is a meer politick device forged purposely to serve for that use Men fearing God are
Local It was not therefore every where seen nor did it every where suffer death every where it could not be intombed it is not every where now being exalted into Heaven There is no proof in the World strong to inforce that Christ had a true Body but by the true and natural Properties of his Body Amongst which Properties Definite or Local Presence is chief How it is true of Christ saith Tertullian that he died was buried and rose again if Christ had not that very flesh the nature whereof is capable of these things flesh mingled with blood supported with bones woven with sinews embroidered with veins If his Majestical Body have now any such new property by force whereof it may every where really even in Substance present it self or may at once be in many places then hath the Majesty of his estate extinguished the veriâ—y of his Nature Make thou no doubt or question of it saith St. Augustine but that the Man Christ Iesus is now in that very place from whence he shall come in the same Form and Substance of Flesh which he carried thither and from which he hath not taken Nature but given thereunto Immortality According to this Form he spreadeth not out himself into all places For it behoveth us to take great heed lest while we go about to maintain the glorious Deity of him which is Man we leave him not the true Bodily Substance of a Man According to St. Augustines opinion therefore that Majestical Body which we make to be every where present doth thereby cease to have the Substance of a true Body To conclude We hold it in regard of the fore-alleaged proofs a most infallible truth That Christ as Man is not every where present There are which think it as infallibly true That Christ is every where present as Man which peradventure in some sense may be well enough granted His Humane Substance in it self is naturally absent from the Earth his Soul and Body not on Earth but in Heaven onely Yet because this Substance is inseparably joyned to that Personal Word which by his very Divine Essence is present with all things the Nature which cannot have in it self Universal Presence hath it after a sort by being no where severed from that which every where is present For in as much as that Infinite Word is not divisible into parts it could not in part but must needs be wholly incarnate and consequently wheresoever the Word is it hath with it Manhood else should the Word be in part or somewhere God onely and not Man which is impossible For the Person of Christ is whole perfect God and perfect Man wheresoever although the parts of his Manhood being Finite and his Deity Infinite we cannot say that the whole of Christ is simply every where as we may say that his Deity is and that his Person is by Force of Deity For somewhat of the Person of Christ is not every where in that sort namely His Manhood the onely Conjunction whereof with Deity is extended as far as Deity the actual position restrained and tied to a certain place yet presence by way of Conjunction is in some sort presence Again As the Manhood of Christ may after a sort be every-where said to be present because that Person is every where present from whose Divine Substance Manhood is no where severed So the same Universality of Presence may likewise seem in another respect appliable thereunto namely by Cooperation with Deity and that in all things The Light created of God in the Beginning did first by it self illuminate the World but after that the Sun and Moon were created the World sithence hath by them always enjoyed the same And that Deity of Christ which before our Lords Incarnation wrought all things without man doth now work nothing wherein the Nature which it hath assumed is either absent from it or idle Christ as Man hath all Power both in Heaven and Earth given him He hath as Man not as God onely Supream Dominion over quick and dead for so much his Ascension into Heaven and his Session at the right Hand of God do import The Son of God which did first humble himself by taking our flesh upon him descended afterwards much lower and became according to the Flesh obedient so far as to suffer Death even the Death of the Cross for all men because such was his Fathers Will. The former was an Humiliation of Deity the later an Humiliation of Manhood for which cause there followed upon the latter an Exaltation of that which was humbled For with Power he created the World but restored it by obedience In which obedience as according to his Manhood he had glorified God on Earth so God hath glorified in Heaven that Nature which yielded him obedience and hath given unto Christ even in that he is Man such Fulness of Power over the whole World that he which before fulfilled in the state of Humility and Patience whatsoever God did require doth now reign in Glory till the time that all things be restored He which came down from Heaven and descended into the lowest parts of the Earth is ascended far above all Heavens that fitting at the right Hand of God he might from thence fill all things with the gracious and happy fruits of his saving Presence Ascension into Heaven is a plain local translation of Christ according to his Manhood from the lower to the higher parts of the World Session at the right Hand of God is the actual exercise of that Regency and Dominion wherein the Manhood of Christ is joyned and matched with the Deity of the Son of God Not that his Manhood was before without the Possession of the same Power but because the full use thereof was suspended till that Humility which had been before as a vail to hide and conceal Majesty were laid aside After his rising again from the dead then did God set him at his right Hand in Heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and domination and every name that is named not in this World onely but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and hath appointed him over all the Head to the Church which is his Body the fulness of him that filleth all in all The Scepter of which Spiritual Regiment over us in this present World is at the length to be yielded up into the hands of the Father which gave it that is to say The use and exercise thereof shall cease there being no longer on Earth any Militant Church to govern This Government therefore he exerciseth both as God and as Man as God by Essential Presence with all things as Man by Co-operation with that which essentially is present Touching the manner how he worketh as Man in all things the Principal Powers of the Soul of Man are the Will and Understanding the one of which two in Christ
Which Labyrinth as the other sort doth justly shun so the way which they take to the same Inâ— is somewhat more short but no whit more certain For through Gods Omnipotent Power they imagine that Transubstantiation followeth upon the words of Consecration and upon Transubstantiation the Participation of Christs both Body and Blood in the onely shape of Sacramental Elements So that they all three do plead Gods Omnipotency Sacramentaries to that Alteration which the rest confess he accomplisheth the Patrons of Transubstantiation over and besides that to the change of one substance into another the Followers of Consubstantiation to the kneading of both Substances as it were into one lump Touching the sentence of Antiquity in this cause first For as much as they knew that the force of this Sacrament doth necessarily presuppose the Verity of Christs both Body and Blood they used oftentimes the same as an Argument to prove That Christ hath as truly the substance of Man as of God because here we receive Christ and those Graces which flow from him in that he is Man So that if he have no such Being neither can the Sacrament have any such meaning as we all confess it hath Thus Tertullian thus Irenaeus thus Theodoret disputeth Again as evident it is how they teach that Christ is personally there present yea present whole albeit a part of Christ be corporally absent from thence that Christ assisting this Heavenly Banquet with his Personal and true Presence doth by his own Divine Power add to the Natural Substance thereof Supernatural Efficacy which addition to the Nature of those consecrated Elements changeth them and maketh them that unto us which otherwise they could not be that to us they are thereby made such Instruments as mystically yet truly invisibly yet really work our Communion or Fellowship with the Person of Jesus Christ as well in that he is Man as God our Participation also in the Fruit Grace and Efficacy of his Body and Blood whereupon there ensueth a kinde of Transubstantiation in us a true change both of Soul and Body an alteration from death to life In a word it appeareth not that of all the ancient Fathers of the Chruch any one did ever conceive or imagine other then onely a Mystical Participation of Christs both Body and Blood in the Sacrament neither are their speeches concerning the change of the Elements themselves into the Body and Blood of Christ such that a man can thereby in Conscience assure himself it was their meaning to perswade the World either of a Corporal Consubstantiation of Christ with those Sanctified and Blessed Elements before we receive them or of the like Transubstantiation of them into the Body and Blood of Christ. Which both to our Mystical Communion with Christ are so unnecessary that the Fathers who plainly hold but this Mystical Communion cannot easily be thought to have meant any other change of Sacramental Elements then that which the same Spiritual Communion did require them to hold These things considered how should that Minde which loving Truth and seeking Comfort out of Holy Mysteries hath not perhaps the leisure perhaps nor the wit nor capacity to tread out so endless Mazes as the intricate Disputes of this cause have led men into how should a vertuously disposed minde better resolve with it self then thus Variety of Iudgments and Opinions argueth obscurity in those things whereabout they differ But that which all parts receive for Truth that which every one having sifted is by no one denied or doubted of must needs be matter of infallible certainly Whereas therefore there are but three Expositions made of This is my Body The first This is in it self before participation really and truly the Natural Substance of my Body by reason of the coexistence which my Omnipotent Body hath with the sanctified Element of Bread which is the Lutherans Interpretation The second This is in itself and before participation the very true and Natural Substance of my Body by force of that Deity which with the words of Consecration abolisheth the Substance of Bread and substituteth in the place thereof my Body which is the Popish construction The last This Hallowed Food through concurrence of Divine Power is in verity and truth unto faithful Receivers instrumentally a cause of that Mystical Participation whereby as I make my self wholly theirs so I give them in hand an actual possession of all such saving Grace as my Sacrificed Body can yield and as their Souls do presently need This is to them and in them my Body Of these three rehearsed Interpretations the last hath in it nothing but what the rest do all approve and acknowledge to be most true nothing but that which the words of Christ are on all sides confest to inforce nothing but that which the Church of God hath always thought necessary nothing but that which alone is sufficient for every Christian man to believe concerning the use and force of this Sacrament Finally Nothing but that wherewith the Writings of all Antiquity are consonant and all Christian Confessions agreeable And as Truth in what kinde soever is by no kinde of Truth gain-said so the minde which resteth it self on this it never troubled with those perplexities which the other do both finde by means of so great contradiction between their opinions and true principles of Reason grounded upon Experience Nature and Sense Which albeit with boysterous courage and breath they seem oftentimes to blow away yet whoso observeth how again they labor and sweat by subtilty of wit to make some shew of agreement between their peculiar conceits and the general Edicts of Nature must needs perceive they struggle with that which they cannot fully master Besides sith of that which is proper to themselves their Discourses are hungry and unpleasant full of tedious and irksome labor heartless and hitherto without Fruit on the other side read we them or hear we others be they of our own or of ancienter times to what part soever they be thought to incline touching that whereof there is controversie yet in this where they all speak but one thing their Discourses are Heavenly their Words sweet as the Honey-Comb their Tongues melodiously tuned Instruments their Sentences meer Consolation and Ioy Are we not hereby almost even with voice from Heaven admonished which we may safeliest cleave unto He which hath said of the one Sacrament Wash and be clean hath said concerning the other likewise Eat and live If therefore without any such particular and solemn warrant as this is that poor distressed Woman coming unto Christ for health could so constantly resolve her self May I but touch the skirt of his Garment I shall be whole what moveth us to argue of the manner how Life should come by Bread our duty being here but to take what is offered and most assuredly to rest perswaded of this that can we but eat we are safe When I behold with
them Powers then gifts of Cures Aides Governments kindes of Languages Are all Apostles Are all Prophets Are all Teachers Is there power in all Have all grace to cure Do all speak with Tongues Can all interpret But be you desirous of the better graces They which plainly discern first that some one general thing there is which the Apostle doth here divide into all these branches and do secondly conceive that general to be Church-Offices besides a number of other difficulties can by no means possibly deny but that many of these might concurr in one man and peradventure in some one all which mixture notwithstanding their form of discipline doth most shun On the other side admit that Communicants of special infused grace for the benefit of Members knit into one body the Church of Christ are here spoken of which was in truth the plain drift of that whole Discourse and see if every thing do not answer in due place with the fitness which sheweth easily what is likeliest to have been meane For why are Apostles the first but because unto them was granted the Revelation of all Truth from Christ immediately Why Prophets the second but because they had of some things knowledge in the same manner Teachers the next because whatsoever was known to them it came by hearing yet God withal made them able to instruct which every one could not do that was taught After Gifts of Edification there follow general abilities to work things above Nature Grace to cure men of bodily Diseases Supplies against occurrent defects and impediments Dexterities to govern and direct by counsel Finally aptness to speak or interpret foreign tongues Which Graces not poured out equally but diversly sorted and given were a cause why not onely they all did furnish up the whole Body but each benefit and help other Again the same Apostle other-where in like sort To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he saith When he ascended up on high he led Captivity captive and gave gifts unto men He therefore gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the gathering together of Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edification of the Body of Christ. In this place none but gifts of Instruction are exprest And because of Teachers some were Evangelists which neither had any part of their knowledge by Revelation as the Prophets and yet in ability to teach were farr beyond other Pastors they are as having received one way less than Prophets and another way more than Teachers set accordingly between both For the Apostle doth in neither place respect what any of them were by Office or Power given them through Ordination but what by grace they all had obtained through miraculous infusion of the Holy Ghost For in Christian Religion this being the ground of our whole Belief that the promises which God of old had made by his Prophets concerning the wonderful Gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost wherewith the Reign of the true Messias should be made glorious were immediately after our Lord's Ascension performed there is no one thing whereof the Apostles did take more often occasion to speak Out of men thus endued with gifts of the Spirit upon their Conversion to Christian Faith the Church had her Ministers chosen unto whom was given Ecclesiastical power by Ordination Now because the Apostle in reckoning degrees and varieties of Grace doth mention Pastors and Teachers although he mention them not in respect of their Ordination to exercise the Ministery but as examples of men especially enriched with the gifts of the Holy Ghost divers learned and skilfull men have so taken it as if those places did intend to teach what Orders of Ecclesiastical Persons there ought to be in the Church of Christ which thing we are not to learn from thence but out of other parts of holy Scripture whereby it clearly appeareth that Churches Apostolick did know but three degrees in the power of Ecclesiastical Order at the first Apostles Presbyters and Deacons afterwards in stead of Apostles Bishops concerning whose Order we are to speak in the seventh Book There is an errour which beguileth many who doe much intangle both themselves and others by not distinguishing Services Offices and Orders Ecclesiastical the first of which three and in part the second may be executed by the Laity whereas none have or can have the third but the Clergy Catechists Exorcists Readers Singers and the rest of like sort if the nature onely of their labours and pains be considered may in that respect seem Clergy-men even as the Fathers for that cause term them usually Clerks as also in regard of the end whereunto they were trained up which was to be ordered when years and experience should make them able Notwithstanding in as much as they no way differed from others of the Laity longer than during that work of Service which at any time they might give over being thereunto but admitted not tyed by irrevocable Ordination we finde them alwayes exactly severed from that body whereof those three before rehearsed Orders alone are natural parts Touching Widows of whom some men are perswaded that if such as Saint Paul describeth may be gotten we ought to retain them in the Church for ever Certain mean Services there were of Attendance as about Women at the time of their Baptism about the Bodies of the sick and dead about the necessities of Travellers Way-faring men and such like wherein the Church did commonly life them when need required because they lived of the Alms of the Church and were fittest for such purposes Saint Paul doth therefore to avoid scandal require that none but Women well-experienced and vertuously given neither any under threescore years of age should be admitted of that number Widows were never in the Church so highly esteemed as Virgins But seeing neither of them did or could receive Ordination to make them Ecclesiastical Persons were absurd The antientest therefore of the Fathers mention those three degrees of Ecclesiastical Order specified and no moe When your Captain saith Tertullian that is to say the Deacons Presbyters and Bishops fly who shall teach the Laity that they must be constant Again What should I mention Lay-men saith Optatus yea or divers of the Ministery it self To what purpose Deacons which are in the third or Presbyters in the second degree of Priesthood when the very Heads and Princes of all even certain of the Bishops themselves were content to redeem life with the loss of Heaven Heaps of Allegations in a case so evident and plain are needless I may securely therefore conclude that there are at this day in the Church of England no other than the same Degrees of Ecclesiastical Order namely Bishops Presbyters and Deacons which had their beginning from Christ and his blessed Apostles themselves As for Deans Prebendaries Parsons Vicars Curates Arch-deacons
part and impute their general acknowledgment of the lawfullness of Kingly Power unto the force of truth presenting it self before them sometimes above their particular contrarieties oppositions denyals unto that errour which having so fully possest their minds casteth things inconvenient upon them of which things in their due place Touching that which is now in hand weare on all sides fully agreed First that there is not any restraint or limitation of matter for regal Authority and Power to be conversant in but of Religion onely and of whatsoever cause thereunto appertaineth Kings may lawfully have change they lawfully may therein exercise Dominion and use the temporal Sword Secondly that some kind of actions conversant about such affairs are denyed unto Kings As namely Actions of Power and Order and of Spiritual Jurisdiction which hath with it inseparably joyned Power to Administer the Word and Sacraments power to Ordain to Judge as an Ordinary to bind and loose to Excommunicate and such like Thirdly that even in those very actions which are proper unto Dominion there must be some certain rule whereunto Kings in all their proceedings ought to be strictly tyed which rule for proceeding in Ecclesiasticall affairs and causes by Regal Power hath not hitherto been agreed upon with such uniform consent and certainty as might be wished The different sentences of men herein I will now go about to examine but it shall be enough to propose what Rule doth seem in this case most reasonable The case of deriving Supream Power from a whole intire multitude into some special part thereof as partly the necessity of expedition in publick affairs partly the inconvenience of confusion and trouble where a multitude of Equals dealeth and partly the dissipation which must needs ensue in companies where every man wholly seeketh his own particular as we all would do even with other mens hurts and haply the very overthrow of themselves in the end also if for the procurement of the common good of all men by keeping every several man is order some were not invested with Authority over all and encouraged with Prerogative-Honour to sustain the weighty burthen of that charge The good which is proper unto each man belongeth to the common good of all as part to the whole perfection but these two are things different for men by that which is proper are severed united they are by that which is common Wherefore besides that which moveth each man in particular to seek his own private good there must be of necessity in all publick Societies also a general mover directing unto common good and framing every mans particular unto it The end whereunto all Government was instituted was Bonum publicum the Universal or Common good Our question is of Dominion for that end and purpose derived into one such as all in one publick State have agreed that the Supream charge of all things should be committed unto one They I say considering what inconveniency may grow where States are subject unto sundry Supream Authorities have for fear of these inconveniencies withdrawn from liking to establish many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the multitude of Supream Commanders is troublesome No Nan saith our Saviour can serve two Masters surely two supream Masters would make any ones service somewhat uneasie in such cases as might fall out Suppose that to morrow the Power which hath Dominion in Justice require thee at the Court that which in War at the Field that which in Religion at the Temple all have equal Authority over thee and impossible it is that then in such case thou shouldst be obedient unto all By chusing any one whom thou wilt obey certain thou art for thy disobedience to incur the displeasure of the other two But there is nothing for which some comparable reason or other may not be found are we able to shew any commendable State of Government which by experience and practice hath felt the benefit of being in all causes subject unto the Supream Authority of one Against the policy of the Israelites I hope there will no man except where Moses deriving so great a part of his burthen in Government unto others did notwithstanding retain to himself Universal Supremacy Iehosaphat appointing one to be chosen in the affairs of God and another in the Kings affair's did this as having Dominion over them in both If therefore from approbation of Heaven the Kings of Gods own chosen people had in the affairs of Jewish Religion Supream Power why not Christian Kings the like also in Christian Religion First unless men will answer as some have done That the Jews Religion was of far less perfection and dignity then ours our being that truth whereof theirs was but a shadowish prefigurative resemblance Secondly That all parts of their Religion their Laws their Sacrifices and their Rights and Ceremonies being fully set down to their hands and needing no more but only to be put in execution the Kings might well have highest Authority to see that done whereas with us there are a number of Mysteries even in Belief which were not so generally for them as for us necessary to be with sound express acknowledgement understood A number of things belonging to external Government and our manner of serving God not set down by particular Ordinances and delivered to us in writing for which cause the State of the Church doth now require that the Spiritual Authority of Ecclesiastical persons be large absolute and not subordinate to Regal power Thirdly That whereas God armeth Religion Iewish as Christian with the Temporal sword But of Spiritual punishment the one with power to imprison to scourge to put to death The other with bare authority to Censure and excommunicate There is no reason that the Church which hath no visible sword should in Regiment be subject unto any other power then only unto theirs which have authority to bind and loose Fourthly That albeit whilst the Church was restrained unto one people it seemed not incommodious to grant their King the general Chiefty of Power yet now the Church having spread it self over all Nations great inconveniences must therby grow if every Christian King in his several Territory shall have the like power Of all these differences there is not one which doth prove it a thing repugnant to the Law either of God or of Nature that all Supremacy of external Power be in Christian Kingdoms granted unto Kings thereof for preservation of quietness unity order and peace in such manner as hath been shewed Of the Title of Headship FOr the Title or State it self although the Laws of this Land have annexed it to the Crown yet so far◠we should not strive if so be men were nice and scrupulous in this behalf only because they do wish that for reverence to Christ Jesus the Civil Magistrate did rather use some other form of speech wherewith to express that Soveraign Authority which he lawfully hath overall both
notwithstanding I knew well what speech it deserved and what some zealous earnest man of the spirit of Iohn and Iames â—irnamed Boanerges Sons of Thunder would have said in such a case yet I chose rather to content my self in exhorting him to revisit his Doctrine as Nathan the Prophet did the device which without consulting with God he had of himself given to David concerning the building of the Temple and with Peter the Apostle to endure to be withstood in such a Case not unlike unto this This is effect was that which passed between us concerning this matter and the invectives I made against him wherewith I am charged Which rehearsal I hope may clear me with all that shall indifferently consider it of the blames laid upon me for want of Duty to Mr. Hooker in not conferring with him whereof I have spoken sufficiently already and to the High-Commission in not revealing the matter to them which yet now I am further to answer My Answer is That I protest no contempt not wilful neglect of any lawful Authority stayed me from complaining unto them but these Reasons following First I was in some hope that Mr. Hooker notwithstanding he had been ovencarried with a shew of Charity to prejudice the Truth yet when it should be sufficiently proved would have acknowledged it or at the lest induced with Peace that it might be offered without either offence to him or to such as would receive it either of which would have taken away any cause of just Complaint When neither of these fell out according to my expectation and desire but that he replied to the Truth and objected against it I thought he might have some doubts and scruples in himself which yet if they were cleared he would either embrace sound Doctrine or at lest suffer it to have its course Which hope of him I nourished so long as the matter was not bitterly and immodestly handled between us Another Reason was the Cause it self which according to the Parable of the Tares which are said to be sown among the Wheat sprung up first in his Grass Therefore as the Servants in that Place are not said to have come to complain to the lord till the Tares came to shew their fruits in their kinde so I thinking it yet but a time of discovering of it what it was desired not their fickle to cutt it down For further answer It is to be considered that the conscience of my Duty to God and to his Church did binde me at the first to deliver sound Doctrine in such Points as had been otherwise uttered in the Place where I had now some years taught the Truth Otherwise the rebuke of the Prophet had fallen upon me for not going up to the breach and standing in it and the peril for answering the blood of the City in whose Watch-Tower I sate if it had been surprized by my default Moreover my publick Protestation in being unwilling that if any were not yet satisfied some other more convenient way might be taken for it And lastly that I had resolved which I uttered before to some dealing with me about the matter to have protested the next Sabbath day that I would no more answer in that Place any Objections to the Doctrine taught by any means but some other way satisfie such as should require it These I trust may make it appear that I failed not in Duty to Authoritie notwithstanding I did not complain nor give over so soon dealing in the Case If I did how is he clear which can alledge none of all these for himself who leaving the expounding of the Scriptures and his ordinarie Calling voluntarily discoursed upon School-Points and Questions neither of edification nor of Truth who after all this as promising to himself and to untruth a Victory by my silence added yet in the next Sabbath day to the maintenance of his former Opinions these which follow That no additament taketh away the Foundation except it be a Privative of which sort neither the Works added to Christ by the Church of Rome nor Circumcision by the Galatians were as one denieth him not to be a man that saith he is a Righteous man but he that saith he is a dead man Whereby it might seem that a man might without hurt adde Works to Christ and pray also that God and Saint Peter would save them That the Galatians Case is harder than the Case of the Church of Rome because the Galatians joyned Circumcision with Christ which God had forbidden and abolished but that which the Church of Rome joyned with Christ were good Works which God hath commanded Wherein he committed a double fault one in expounding all the questions of the Galatians and consequently of the Romans and other Epistles of Circumcision onely and the Ceremonies of the Law as they doe who answer for the Church of Rome in their Writings contrary to the clear meaning of the Apostle as may appear by many strong and sufficient reasons The other in that he said the addition of the Church of Rome was of Works commanded of God Whereas the least part of the Works whereby they looked to merit was of such works and most were works of Supererogation and works which God never commanded but was highly displeased with as of Masses Pilgrimages Pardons pains of Purgatory and such like That no one sequel urged by the Apostle against the Galatians for joyning Circumcision with Christ but might be us well enforced against the Lutherans that is that for their ubiquity it may be as well said to them If ye hold the Body of Christ to be in all places you are fallen from grace you are under the curse of the Law saying Cursed be he that fulfilleth not all things written in this Book with such like He added yet further That to a Bishop of the Church of Rome to a Cardinal yea to the Pope himself acknowledging Christ to be the Saviour of the World denying other errours and being discomforted for want of Works whereby he might be justified he would not doubt but use this speech Thou holdest the foundation of Christian Faith though it be but by a slender thred thou holdest Christ though but by the hem of his Garment why shouldst thou not hope that vertue may pass from Christ to save thee That which thou holdest of Iustification by thy Works overthroweth indeed by consequent the foundation of Christian Faith but be of good chear thou hast not to do with a captionus Sophister but with a merciful God who will justifie thee for that thou holdest and not take the advantage of doubtful construction to condemn thee And if this said he be an Errour I hold it willingly for it is the greatest comfort I have in this World without which I would not wish either to speak or to live Thus farr beng not to be answered in it any more he was bold to proceed the absurdity of which Speech I need not
by his special protection preserved clean from all sinne yet concerning the rest they teach as we do that all have sinned Against my words they might with more pretence take exception Because so many of them think she had sinne which exception notwithstanding the Proposition being indefinite and the matter contingent they cannot take because they grant That many whom they account grave and devout amongst them think that she was clear from all sinne But whether Mr. Travers did note my words himself or take them upon the credit of some other man's noting the Tables were faulty wherein it was noted All men sinners even the Blessed Virgin When my second Speech was rather All men except the Blessed Virgin To leave this another fault he findeth that I said They teach Christs Righteousnesse to be the onely meritorious cause of taking away sinne and differ from us onely in the applying of it I did say and doe They teach as we do that although Christ be the onely meritorious cause of our Iustice yet as a medicine which is made for Health doth not heal by being made but by being applyed So by the merits of Christ there can be no Life nor Iustification without the application of his merits But about the manner of applying Christ about the number and power of means whereby he is applyed we dissent from them This of our dissenting from them is acknowledged 14. Our agreement in the former is denied to be such as I pretend Let their own words therefore and mine concerning them be compared Doth not Andradius plainly confess Our sins do shut and onely the merits of Christ open the entring unto blessedness And So to It is put for a good ground that all since the fall of Adam obtained Salvation onely by the Passion of Christ Howbeit as no cause can be effectual without applying so neither can any man be saved to whom the suffering of Christ is not applied In a word who not When the Council of Trent reckoning up the causes of our first Justification doth name no end but God's Glory and our Felicity no efficient but his Mercy no Instrumental but Baptism no meritorious but Christ whom to have merited the taking away of no sin but Original is not their opinion which himself will finde when he hath well examined his Witnesses Catharinus and Thomas Their Jesuites are marvellous angry with the men out of whose gleanings Mr. Travers seemeth to have taken this they openly disclaim it they say plainly Of all this Catholicks there is no one this did ever so teach they make solemn protestation We believe and profess That Christ upon the Cross hath altogether satisfied for all sins as well Original as Actual Indeed they teach that the merit of Christ doth not take away Actual sinne in such sort as it doth Original wherein if their Doctrine had been understood I for my speech had never been accused As for the Council of Trent concerning inherent Righteousness what doth it here No man doubteth but they make another formal cause of Justification than we do In respect whereof I have shewed you already that we disagree about the very essence of that which cureth our Spiritual disease Most time it is which the grand Philosopher hath Every man judgeth well of that which he knoweth and therefore till we know the things throughly whereof we judge it is a point of judgment to stay our judgment 15. Thus much labour being spent in discovering the unsoundness of my Doctrine some pains he taketh further to open faults in the manner of my teaching as that I bestowed my whole hour and more my time and more than my time in discourses utterly impertinent to my Text. Which if I had done it might have past without complaining of to the Privy Council 16. But I did worse as he saith I left the expounding of the Scriptures and my ordinary Calling and discoursed upon School-points and questions neither of edification nor of truth I read no Lecture in the Law or in Physick And except the bounds of ordinary Calling may be drawn like a Purse how are they so much wider unto him than to me that he which in the limits of his ordinary Calling should reprove that in me which he understood not and I labouring that both he and others might understand could not do this without forsaking my Calling The matter whereof I spake was such as being at the first by me but lightly touched he had in that place openly contradicted and solemnly taken upon him to disprove If therefore it were a School-question and unfit to be discoursed of there that which was in me but a Proposition onely at the first wherefore made he a Probleme of it Why took he first upon him to maintain the negative of that which I had affirmatively spoken onely to shew mine own opinion little thinking that ever it would have been a Question Of what nature soever the Question were I could doe no lesse than there explain my self to them unto whom I was accused of unsound Doctrine wherein if to shew what had been through ambiguity mistaken in my words or misapplied by him in this Cause against me I used the distinctions and helps of Schools I trust that herein I have committed no unlawful thing These School-implements are acknowledged by grave and wise men not unprofitable to have been invented The most approved for Learning and Judgement do use them without blame the use of them hath been well liked in some that have taught even in this very place before me the quality of my Hearers is such that I could not but think them of capacity very sufficient for the most part to conceive harder than I used any the cause I had in hand did in my judgment necessarily require them which were then used when my words spoken generally without distinctions had been perverted what other way was there for me but by distinctions to lay them open in their right meaning that it might appear to all men whether they were consonant to truth or no And although Mr. Travers be so inured with the City that he thinketh it unmeet to use any speech which savoureth of the School yet his opinion is no Canon though unto him his minde being troubled my speech did seem like Fetters and Manacles yet there might be some more calmly affected which thought otherwise his private judgment will hardly warrant his bold words that the things which I spake were neither of edification nor truth They might edifie some other for any thing he knoweth and be true for any thing he proveth to the contrary For it is no proof to cry Absurdities the like whereunto have not been heard in publick places within this Land since Queen Marie's days If this came in earnest from him I am sorry to see him so much offended without cause more sorry that his fitâ— should be so extream to make him speak he knoweth not what That I
where once he dwelleth What shall become of his Promise I am with you to the Worlds end If the Seed of God which containeth Christ may be first conceived and then cast out how doth S. Peter term it immortal How doth St. Iohn affirm It abideth If the Spirit which is given to cherish and preserve the Seed of Life may be given and taken away how is it the earnest of our inheritance until Redemption how doth it continue with us for ever If therefore the man which is once just by faith shall live by Faith and live for ever it followeth that he which once doth believe the foundation must needs believe the foundation forever If he believe it for ever how can he ever directly deny it Faith holding the direct affirmation the direct negation so long as Faith continueth is excluded Object But you will say That as he that is to day holy may to morrow forsake his holiness and become impure as a friend may change his minde and be made an enemy as hope may wither so saith may dye in the heart of man the Spirit may be quenched Grace may be extinguished they which believe may be quite turned away from the Truth Sol. The case is clear long experience hath made this manifest it needs no proof I grant we are apt prone and ready to forsake God but is God as ready to forsake us Our mindes are changeable is His so likewise Whom God hath justified hath not Christ assured that it is his Fathers will to give them a Kingdom Notwithstanding it shall not be otherwise given them than if they continue grounded and stablished in the Faith and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel if they abide in love and holiness Our Saviour therefore when he spake of the sheep effectually called and truly gathered into his fold I give unto-them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hands in promising to save them he promised no doubt to preserve them in that without which there can be no salvation as also from that whereby it is irrecoverably lost Every errour in things appertaining unto God is repugnant unto Faith every fearful cogitation unto hope unto love every stragling inordinate desire unto holiness every blemish wherewith either the inward thoughts of our mindes or the outward actions of our lives are stained But heresie such as that of Ebion Gerinthus and others against whom the Apostles were forced to bend themselves both by word and also by writing that repining discouragement of heart which tempteth God whereof we have Israel in the Desart for a pattern coldness such as that in the Angels of Ephesus soul sins known to be expresly against the first or second table of the Law such as Noah Monasses David Solomon and Peter committed These are each in their kind so opposite to the former vertues that they leave no place for salvation without an actual repentance But Infidelity extream despair hatred of God and all goodness obduration in Sin cannot stand where there is but the least spark of Faith hope love and sanctity even as cold in the lowest degree cannot be where heat in the highest degree is found Whereupon I conclude that although in the first kind no man liveth which sinneth not and in the second as perfect as any do live may sinne yet sith the man which is born of God hath a promise That in him the Seed of God shall abide which Seed is a sure Preservative against the sinnes that are of the third suit Greater and clearer assurance we cannot have of any thing than of this that from such sinnes God shall preserve the Righteous as the apple of his Eye for ever Directly to deny the foundation of Faith is plain Infidelity where Faith is entred there Infidelity is for ever excluded Therefore by him which hath once sincerely believed in Christ the foundation of Christian Faith can never be directly denied Did not Peter Did not Marcellinus Did not others both directly deny Christ after that they had believed and again believe after they had denied No doubt as they confesse in words whose Condemnation is nevertheless their not believing for example we have Iudas So likewisewise they may believe in Heart whose Condemnation without Repentance is their not Confessing Although therefore Peter and the rest for whose Faith Christ hath prayed that it might not fail did not by denial sinne the Sinne of Infidelity which is an inward abnegation of Christ for if they had done this their Faith had clearly failed Yet because they sinned notoriously and grievously committing that which they knew to be expresly forbidden by the Law which saith Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve necessary it was that he which purposed to save their Souls should as he did touch their Hearts with true unfeigned repentance that his mercy might restore them again to life whom Sinne had made the children of Death and Condemnation Touching the point therefore I hope I may safely set down that if the Justified erre as he may and never come to understand his errour God doth save him through general repentance But if he fall into Heresie he calleth him at one time or other by actual repentance but from Infidelity which is an inward direct denial of the foundation he preserveth him by special providence for ever Whereby we may easily know what to think of those Galatians whose hearts were so possest with the love of the Truth that if it had been possible they would have pluckt out their eyes to bestow upon their Teachers It is true that they were greatly changed both in perswasion and affection so that the Galatians when Saint Paul wrote unto them were not now the Galatians which they had been in former time for that through errour they wandred although they were his sheep I do not deny but that I should deny that they were his sheep if I should grant that through errour they perished It was a perilous opinion that they held perilous even in them that held it only as an Errour because it overthroweth the foundation by consequent But in them which obstinately maintain it I cannot think it less than a damnable Heresie We must therefore put a difference between them which erre of ignorance retaining neverthelesse a mind desirous to be instructed in Truth and them which after the Truth is laid open persist in the stubborn defence of their blindness Heretical defenders froward and stiff-necked Teachers of Circumcision the blessed Apostle calls Doggs Silly men who were seduced to think they taught the Truth he pitieth he taketh up in his arms he lovingly imbraceth he kisseth and with more than fatherly tenderness doth so temper qualifie and correct the speech he useth towards them that a man cannot easily discern whether did most abound the love which he bare to to their godly
Faith as we trust by his mercy we our selves are I permit it to your wise considerations whether it be more likely that as frenzy though it take away the use of reason doth notwithstanding prove them reasonable Creatures which have it because none can be frantick but they So Antichristianity being the bane and plain overthrow of Christianity may neverthelesse argue the Church where Antichrist sitteth to be Christian Neither have I ever hitherto heard or read any one word alledged of force to warrant that God doth otherwise than so as in the two next Questions before hath been declared binde himself to keep his Elect from worshipping the Beast and from receiving his mark in their foreheads but he hath preserved and will preserve them from receiving any deadly wound at the hands of the Man of Sinne whose deceit hath prevailed over none unto death but onely unto such as never loved the Truth such as took pleasure in unrighteousnesse They in all ages whose hearts have delighted in the principal Truth and whose Souls have thirsted after righteousness if they received the mark of Errour the mercy of God even erring and dangerously erring might save them if they received the mark of Heresie the same mercy did I doubt not convert them How farr Romish Heresies may prevail over God's Elect how many God hath kept falling into them how many have been converted from them is not the question now in hand for if Heaven had not received any one of that coat for these thousand years it may still be true that the Doctrine which this day they do professe doth not directly deny the foundation and so prove them simply to be no Christian Church One I have alleadged whose words in my ears sound that way shall I adde another whose speech is plain I deny her not the name of a Church saith another no more than to a man the name of a man as long as he liveth what sicknesse soever he hath His Reason is this Salvation is Iesus Christ which is the mark which joyneth the Head with the Body Iesus Christ with the Church is so cut off by many merits by the merits of Saints by the Popes Pardons and such other wickednesse that the life of the Church boldeth by a very thred yet still the life of the Church holdeth A third hath these words I acknowledge the Church of Rome even at this present day for a Church of Christ such a Church as Israel did Jeroboam yet a Church His reason is this Every man seeth except he willingly hoodwink himself that as alwayes so now the Church of Rome holdeth firmly and stedfastly the Doctrine of Truth concerning Christ and baptizeth in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost confesseth and avoucheth Christ for the onely Redeemer of the World and the Iudge that shall sit upon quick and dead receiving true Believers into endless joy faithless and godless men being cast with Satan and his Angels into flames unquenchable 28. I may and will rein the question shorter than they doe Let the Pope take down his top and captivate no more mens Souls by his Papal Jurisdiction let him no longer count himself Lord Paramount over the Princes of the World no longer hold Kings as his Servants paravaile Let his stately Senate submit their Necks to the yoke of Christ and cease to die their Garments like Edom in Blood Let them from the highest to the lowest hate and forsake their Idolatry abjure all their Errours and Heresies wherewith they have any way perverted the truth Let them strip their Churches till they leave no polluted ragg but onely this one about her By Christ alone without works we cannot be saved It is enough for me if I shew that the holding of this one thing doth not prove the foundation of Faith directly denied in the Church of Rome 29. Works are an addition Be it so what then the foundation is not subverted by every kinde of addition Simply to adde unto those fundamental words is not to mingle Wine with Water Heaven and Earth things polluted with the sanctified blood of Christ Of which Crime indict them which attribute those operations in whole or in part to any Creature which in the work of our Salvation wholly are peculiar unto Christ and If I open my mouth to speak in their defence if I hold my peace and plead not against them as long as breath is within my Body let me be guilty of all the dishonor that ever hath been done to the Son of God But the more dreadful a thing it is to deny salvation by Christ alone the more slow and fearful I am except it be too manifest to lay a thing so grievous to any man's charge Let us beware lest if we make too many ways of denying Christ we scarce leave any way for our selves truly and soundly to confess him Salvation only by Christ is the true foundation whereupon indeed Christianity standeth But what if I say You cannot besaved only by Christ without this addition Christ believed in heart confessed with mouth obeyed in life and conversation Because I adde do I therefore deny that which I did directly affirm There may be an additament of explication which overthroweth not but proveth and concludeth the Proposition whereunto it is annexed He which saith Peter was a Chief Apostle doth prove that Peter was an Apostle He which saith Our Salvation is of the Lord through Sanctification of the Spirit and Faith of the Truth proveth that our Savation is of the Lord. But if that which is added be such a privation as taketh away the very essence of that whereunto it is added then by the sequel it overthroweth it He which saith Iudas is a dead man though in word he granteth Iudas to be a man yet in effect he proveth him by that very speech no man because death depriveth him of being In like sort he that should say our Election is of Grace for our Works sake should grant in sound of words but indeed by consequent deny that our Election is of Grace for the Grace which electeth us is no Grace if it elect us for our Works sake 30. Now whereas the Church of Rome addeth Works we must note further that the adding of Works is not like the adding of Circumcision unto Christ Christ came not to abrogate and put away good Works he did to change Circumcision for we see that in place thereof he hath substituted holy Baptism To say Ye cannot be saved by Christ except ye be circumcised is to adde a thing excluded a thing not only not necessary to be kept but necessary not to be kept by them that will be saved On the other side to say Ye cannot be saved by Christ without Works is to add things not only not excluded but commanded as being in their place and in their kinde necessary and therefore subordinated unto Christ by Christ himself by whom
his absence should bereave them of and secondly of the sundry evils which themselves should be subject unto being once bereaved of so gracious a Master and Patron The one consideration over-whelmed their Souls with heaviness the other with fear Their Lord and Saviour whose words had cast down their hearts raiseth them presently again with chosen sentences of sweet encouragement My dear it is for your own sakes I leave the World I know the affections of your hearts are tender but if your love were directed with that advised and staid judgment which should be in you my speech of leaving the World and going unto my Father would not a little augment your joy Desolate and comfortless I will not leave you in Spirit I am with you to the Worlds end whether I be present or absent nothing shall ever take you out of these hands my going is to take possession of that in your names which is not only for me but also for you prepared where I am you shall be In the mean while my peace I give not as the World giveth give I unto you Let not your hearts be troubled nor fear The former part of which Sentence having otherwhere already been spoken of this unacceptable occasion to open the latter part thereof here I did not look for But so God disposeth the wayes of men Him I heartily beseech that the thing which he hath thus ordered by his Providence may through his gracious goodnesse turn unto your comfort Our Nature for coveteth preservation from things hurtful Hurtful things being present do breed heaviness being future do cause fear Our Saviour to abate the one speaketh thus unto his Disciples Let not your Hearts be troubled and to moderate the other addeth Fear not Grief and heaviness in the presence of sensible Evils cannot but trouble the mindes of men It may therefore seem that Christ required a thing impossible Be not troubled Why how could they choose But we must note this being natural and therefore simply not reproveable is in us good or bad according to the causes for which we are grieved or the measure of our grief It is not my meaning to speak so largely of this affection as to go over all particulars whereby men do one way or other offend in it but to teach it so farr onely as it may cause the very Apostles equals to swerve Our grief and heaviness therefore is reproveable sometime in respect of the cause from whence sometime in regard of the measure whereunto it groweth When Christ the life of the World was led unto cruel death there followed a number of People and Women which Women bewayled much his heavy case It was a natural compassion which caused them where they saw undeserved miseries there to pour forth unrestrained tears Nor was this reproved But in such readiness to lament where they less needed their blindness in not discerning that for which they ought much rather to have mourned this our Saviour a little toucheth putting them in minde that the tears which were wasted for him might better have been spent upon themselves Daughters of Ierusalem weep not for me weep for your selves and for your children It is not as the Stoicks have imagined a thing unseemly for a Wise man to be touched with grief of minde but to be sorrowful when we least should and where we should lament there to laugh this argueth our small wisdom Again when the Prophet David confesseth thus of himself I grieved to see the great prosperity of godless men how they flourish and go untoucht Psal. 73. Himself hereby openeth both our common and his peculiar imperfection whom this cause should not have made so pensive To grieve at this is to grieve where we should not because this grief doth rise from Errour We erre when we grieve at wicked mens impunity and prosperity because their Estate being rightly discerned they neither prosper nor go unpunished It may seem a Paradox it is truth That no wicked man's estate is prosperous fortunate or happy For what though they bless themselves and think their happinesse great Have not frantick Persons many times a great opinion of their own wisdome It may be that such as they think themselves others also do account them But what others Surely such as themselves are Truth and Reason discerneth farâ— otherwise of them Unto whom the Jews wish all prosperity unto them the phrase of their speech is to wish Peace Seeing then the name of Peace containeth in it all parts of true happiness when the Prophet saith plainly That the Wicked have no peace how can we think them to have any part of other than vainly imagined Felicity What wise man did ever account Fools happy If Wicked men were wise they would cease to be wicked Their Iniquity therefore proving their Folly how can we stand in doubt of their misery They abound in those things which all men desire A poor happinesse to have good things in possession A man to whom God hath given Riches and Treasures and Honour so that he wanteth nothing for his Soul of all that it desireth but yet God giveth him not the power to eat thereof such a felicity Solomon esteemeth but as a vanity a thing of nothing If such things adde nothing to mens happiness where they are not used surely Wicked men that use them ill the more they have the more wretched Of their Prosperity therefore we see what we are to think Touching their Impunity the same is likewise but supposed They are oftner plagued than we are aware of The pangs they feel are not always written in their forehead Though Wickedness be Sugar in their mouths and Wantonness as Oyl to make them look with chearful Countenance nevertheless if their Hearts were disclosed perhaps their glittering state would not greatly be envied The voyces that have broken out from some of them O that God had given me a heart sensless like the flints in the rocks of stone which as it can taste no pleasure so it feeleth no wo these and the like speeches are surely tokens of the curse which Zophar in the Book of Iob poureth upon the head of the impious man He shall suck the gall of Asps and the Viper's tongue shall slay him If this seem light because it is secret shall we think they go unpunished because no apparent Plague is presently seen upon them The Judgments of God do not always follow crimes as Thunder doth Lightning but sometimes the space of many Ages coming between When the Sun hath shined fair the space of six dayes upon their Tabernacle we know not what Clouds the seventh may bring And when their punishment doth come let them make their account in the greatness of their sufferings to pay the interest of that respite which hath been given them Or if they chance to escape clearly in this World which they seldome do in the Day when the Heavens shall shrivel as a scrowl and the Mountains
their assurance whereof his Peace he gave them his Peace he left unto them not such Peace as the World offereth by whom his name is never so much pretended as when deepest treachery is meant but Peace which passeth all understanding Peace that bringeth with it all happinesse Peace that continueth for ever and ever with them that have it This Peace God the Father grant `for his Son's sake unto whom with the Holy Ghost three Persons one Eternal and Everliving God be all Honour and Glory and Praise now and for ever Amen A Learned and Comfortable SERMON Of the certainty and perpetuity of FAITH in the ELECT Especially of the Prophet Habakkuk's FAITH HABAK. 1. 4. Whether the Prophet Habakkuk by admitting this cogitation into his minde The Law doth fail did thereby shew himself an Unbeliever WEE have seen in the opening of this clause which concerneth the weakness of the Prophet's Faith First what things they are whereunto the Faith of sound Believers doth assent Secondly wherefore all men assent not thereunto and Thirdly why they that doe doe it many times with small assurance Now because nothing can be so truly spoken but through mis-understanding it may be depraved therefore to prevent if it be possible all mis-construction in this cause where a small errour cannot rise but with great danger it is perhaps needful ere we come to the fourth Point that something be added to that which hath been already spoken concerning the third That meer natural men do neither know nor acknowledge the things of God we do not marvel because they are spiritually to be discerned but they in whose hearts the light of Grace doth shine they that are taught of God why are they so weak in Faith why is their assenting to the Law so scrupulous so much mingled with fear and wavering It seemeth strange that ever they should imagin the Law to fail It cannot seem strange if we weigh the reason If the things which we believe be considered in themselves it may truly be said that Faith is more certain than any Science That which we know either by sense or by infallible demonstration is not so certain as the Principles Articles and Conclusions of Christian Faith Concerning which we must note that there is a certainty of evidence and a certainty of adherence Certainty of evidence we call that when the minde doth assent unto this or that not because it is true in it self but because the truth is clear because it is manifest unto us Of things in themselves most certain except they be also most evident our perswasion is not so assured as it is of things more evident although in themselves they be lesse certain It is as sure if not surer that there be spirits as that there he men but we be more assured of these than of them because these are more evident The truth of some things is so evident that no man which heareth them can doubt of them as when we hear that a part of any thing is less than the whole the minde is constrained to say This is true If it were so in matters of Faith then as all men have equal certainty of this so no Believer should be more scrupulous and doubtful than another But we finde the contrary The Angels and Spirits of the Righteous in Heaven have certainty most evident of things spiritual but this they have by the light of glory That which we see by the light of Grace though it he indeed more certain yet it is not to us so evidently certain as that which sense or the light of Nature will not suffer a man to doubt of Proofs are vain and frivolous except they be more certain than is the thing proved and do we not see how the Spirit every where in the Scripture proving matters of Faith laboureth to confirm us in the things which we believe by things whereof we have sensible knowledge I conclude therefore that we have less certainty of evidence concerning things believed than concerning sensible or naturally perceived Of these who doth doubt at any time Of them at somtime who doubteth not I will not here alledge the sundry confessions of the perfectest that have lived upon earth concerning their great imperfections this way which if I did I should dwell too long upon a matter sufficiently known by every faithful man that doth know himself The other which we call the certainty of adherence is when the heart doth cleave and stick unto that which it doth believe This certainty is greater in us than the other The reason is this The faith of a Christian doth apprehend the words of the Law the promises of God not onely as true but also as good and therefore even then when the evidence which he hath of the Truth is so small that it grieveth him to feel his weakness in assenting thereto yet is there in him such a sure adherence unto that which he doth but faintly and fearfully believe that his Spirit having once truly tasted the heavenly sweetness thereof all the world is not able quite and clean to remove him from it but he striveth with himself to hope against all reason of believing being setled with Iob upon this unmoveable resolution Though God kill me I will not give ever trusting in him For why This lesson remaineth for ever imprinted in him It is good for me to cleave unto God Psal. 37. Now the mindes of all men being so darkned as they are with the foggy damp of original corruption it cannot be that any man's heart living should be either so enlightned in the knowledge or so established in the love of that wherein his Salvation standeth as to be perfect neither doubting nor shrinking at all If any such were what doth lett why that man should not be justified by his own inherent righteousness For Righteousness inherent being perfect will justifie And perfect Faith is a part of perfect Righteousness inherent yea a principal part the root and the Mother of all the rest so that if the Fruit of every Tree be such as the Root is Faith being perfect as it is if it be not at all mingled with distrust and fear what is there to exclude other Christian vertues from the like perfections And then what need we the righteousness of Christ His Garment is superstuous we may be honourably cloathed with our own Robes if it be thus But let them beware who challenge to themselves a strength which they have not left they lose the comfortable support of that weakness which indeed they have Some shew although no soundness of ground there is which may be alledged for defence of this supposed-perfection in certainty touching matters of our Faith as first that Abraham did believe and doubted not secondly that the spirit which God hath given us to no other end but only to assure us that we are the Sons of God to embolden us to call upon him as our Father to open our eyes
neither affected the truth of God nor the peace of the Church Mihi pro minimo â—est it doth not much move me when Mr. Travers doth say that which I trust a greater than Mr. Travers will gainsay 17. Now let all this which hitherto he hath said be granted him let it be as he would have it let my Doctrine and manner of teaching be as much disallowed by all men's Judgements as by his what is all this to his purpose He alledgeth this to be the cause why he bringeth it in The High-Commissioners charge him with an indiscretion and want of duty in that he inveighed against certain Points of Doctrine taught by me as erroneous not conâ—erring first with me nor complaining of it to them Which faults a sea of such matter as he hath hitherto waded in will never be able to scoure from him For the avoiding Schism and disturbance in the Church which must needs grow if all men might think what they list and speak openly what they think therefore by a Decree agreed upon by the Bishops and confirmed by her Majesties Authority it was ordered That erroneous Doctrine if it were taught publickly should not be publickly refuted but that notice thereof should be given into such as are by her Highness appointed to hear and to determine such Causes For breach of which Order when he is charged with lack of Duty all the faults that can be heaped upon me will make but a weak defence for him As surely his defence is not much stronger when he alledges for himself That he was in some hope his speech in proving the truth and clearing those scraples which I had in my self might cause me either to embrace sound Doctrine or suffer it to be embraced of others which if I did he should not need to complain that It was meet he should discover first what I had sown and make it manifest to be tares and then desire their Sithe to cutt it down that Conscience did binds him to doe otherwise than the foresaid Order requireth that He was unwilling to deal in that publick manner and wished a more convenient way were taken for it that He had resolved to have protested the next Sabbath day that he would some other way satisfie such as should require it and not deal more in that place Be it imagined let me not be taken as if I did compare the offenders when I do not but their Answers onely that a Libeller did make this Apology for himself I am not ignorant that if I have just matter against any man the Law is open there are Judges to hear it and Courts where it ought to be complained of I have taken another course against such or such a man yet without breach of Duty forasmuch as I am able to yield a reason of my doing I conceive some hope that a little discredit amongst men would make him ashamed of himself and that his shame would work his amendment which if it did other accusation there should not need could his answer he thought sufficient could it in the judgement of discreet men free him from all blame No more can the hope Mr. Travers conceived to reclaim me by publick speech justifie his fault against the established Order of the Church 18. His thinking it meet he should first openly discover to the People the Tares that had been sown amongst them and then require the hand of Authority to mow them down doth onely make it a Question Whether his opinion that this was meet may be a priviledge or protection against the lawful Constitution which had before determined of it as of a thing unmeet Which Question I leave for them to discusse whom it most concerneth If the Order be such that it cannot be kept without hazarding a thing so precious as a good Conscience the peril whereof could be no greater to him than it needs must be to all others whom it toucheth in like Causes then this is evident it will be an effectual motive not onely for England but also for other Reformed Churches even Geniva it self for they have the like to change or take that away which cannot but with great inconvenience be observed In the mean while the breach of it may in such consideration be pardoned which truly I wish howsoever it be yet hardly defended as long as it standeth in force uncancelled 19. Now whereas he confesseth another way had been more convenient and that he found in himself secret unwillingnesse to doe that which he did doth he not say plainly in effect that the light of his own Understanding proved the way that he took perverse and crooked Reason was so plain and pregnant against it that his Minde was alienated his Will averted to another course yet somewhat there was that so farr over-ruled that it must needs be done even against the very stream what doth it bewray Finally his purposed Protestation whereby he meant openly to make it known that he did not allow this kinde of proceeding and therefore would satisfie men otherwise and deal no more in this Place sheweth his good minde in this that he meant to stay himself from further offending but it serveth not his turn He is blamed because the thing he hath done was amisse and his Answer is That which I would have done afterwards had been well if so be I had done it 20. But as in this he standeth perswaded that he hath done nothing besides duty so he taketh it hardly that the High Commissioners should charge him with indiscretion Wherefore as if he could so wash his hands he maketh a long and a large declaration concerning the carriage of himself how he waded in matters of smaller weight and how in things of greater moment how wary he dealt how naturally he took his things rising from the Text how closely he kept himself to the Scriptures he took in hand how much pains he took to confirm the necessity of believing Iustification by Christ onely and to shew how the Church of Rome denieth that a man is saved by Faith alone without works of the Law what the Sons of Thunder would have done if they had been in his case that his Answer was very temperate without immodest or reproachful speech that when he might before all have reproved me he did not but contented himself with exhorting me before all to follow Nathan's example and revisit my Doctrine when he might have followed Saint Paul's example in reproving Peter he did not but exhorted me with Peter to endure to be withstood This Testimony of his discreet carrying himself in the handling of his matter being more agreeably framed and given him by another than by himself might make somewhat for the praise of his Person but for defence of his action unto them by whom he is thought undiscreet for not concerning privately before he spake will it serve to answer that when he spake he did it considerately He perceiveth it will not and
therefore addeth reasons such as they are as namely how he purposed at the first to take another course and that was this Publickly to deliver the truth of such Doctrine as I had otherwise taught and at convenient opportunity to conferr with me upon such points Is this the rule of Christ If thy Brother offend openly in his speech controll it first with contrary speech openly and conferr with him afterwards upon it when convenient opportunity serveth Is there any Law of God or Man whereupon to ground such a Resolution any Church extant in the World where Teachers are allowed thus to doe or to be done unto He cannot but see how weak an allegation it is when he bringeth in his following this course first in one matter and so afterwards in another to approve himself now following it again For if the purpose of doing of a thing so uncharitable be a fault the deed is a greater fault and doth the doing of it twice make it the third time fit and allowable to be done The weight of the Cause which is his third defence relieveth him as little The weightier it was the more it required considerate advice and consultation the more it stood him upon to take good heed that nothing were rashly done or spoken in it But he meaneth weighty in regard of the wonderful danger except he had presently withstood me without expecting a time of Conference This Cause being of such moment that might prejudice the Faith of Christ encourage the ill-affected to continue still in their damnable wayes and other weak in Faith to suffer themselves to be seduced to the destruction of their Souls he thought it his bounden duty to speak before he talked with me A man that should read this and not know what I had spoken might imagine that I had at the least denied the Divinity of Christ. But they which were present at my speech and can testifie that nothing passed my lips more than is contained in their Writings whom for soundnesse of Doctrine Learning and Judgment Mr. Travers himself doth I dare say not onely allow but honour they which heard and do know that the Doctrine here signified in so fearful manner the Doctrine that was so dangerous to the Faith of Christ that was so likely to encourage ill-affected men to continue still in their damnable wayes that gave so great cause to tremble for fear of the present destruction of Souls was onely this I doubt not but God was merciful to save thousands of our Fathers living heretofore in the Popish Superstition in as much as they sinned ignorantly and this spoken in a Sermon the greatest part whereof was against Popery they will hardly be able to discern how CHRISTIANITY should herewith be so grievously shaken 21. Whereby his fourth excuse is also taken from him For what doth it boot him to say The time was short wherein he was to preach after me when his Preaching of this matter perhaps ought surely might have been either very well omitted or at least more conveniently for a while deferred even by their Judgements that cast the most favourable aspect towards these his hasty proceedings The poyson which men had taken at my hands was not so quick and strong in operation as in eight dayes to make them past cure by eight dayes delay there was no likelihood that the force and power of his Speech could dye longer meditation might bring better and stronger proofs to minde than extemporal dexterity could furnish him with And who doth know whether Time the onely Mother of sound Judgement and discreet dealing might have given that action of his some better ripeness which by so great festination hath as a thing born out of time brought small joy unto him that begat it Doth he think it had not been better that neither my speech had seemed in his eyes as an Arrow sticking in a thigh of Flesh nor his own as a Childe whereof he must needs be delivered by an hour His last way of disburthening himself is by casting his Load upon my Back as if I had brought him by former Conferences out of hope that any fruit should ever come of conferring with me Loth I am to rip up those Conferences whereof he maketh but a slippery and loose relation In one of them the question between us was Whether the perswasion of Faith concerning remission of sinnes eternal life and whatsoever God doth promise unto man be as free from doubting as the perswasion which we have by sense concerning things tasted felt and seen For the Negative I mentioned their example whose Faith in Scripture is most commended and the experience which all faithful men have continually had of themselves For proof of the Affirmative which he held I desiring to have some reason heard nothing but all good Writers oftentimes inculâ—aâ—ed At the length upon request to see some one of them Peter Martyr's Common places were brought where the leaves were turned down at a place sounding to this effect That the Gospel doth make Christians more vertuous than moral Philosophy doth make Heat hens which came not near the questions by many miles 22. In the other Conference he questioned about the matter of Reprobation misliking first that I had termed God a permissive and no positive cause of the evil which the Schoolmen do call malum cuspae Secondly that to their Objection who say If I be elected do what I will I shall be saved I had answered that the will of God in this thing is not absolute but conditional to save his Elect believing fearing and obediently serving him Thirdly that to stop the mouths of such as grudge and repine against God for rejecting Cast aways I had taught that they are not rejected no not in the purpose and counsel of God without a foreseen worthinesse of rejection going though not in time yet in orderâ— beforeâ— For if God's electing do in orderâ— as needs it must presuppose the foresight of their being that are elected though they be elected before they be nor onely the positive foresight of their being but also the permissive of their being miserable because Election is through mercy and mercy doth always presuppose misery it followeth that the very Chosen of God acknowledge to the praise of the riches of his exceeding free compassion that when he in his secret determination set it down Those shall live and not dye they lay as ugly spectacles before him as Lepers covered with dung and mine as ulcers putrified in their Fathers â—oyns miserable worthy to be had in detestation and shall any forsaken Creature be able to say unto God Thou didst plunge me into the depth and assign me unto endless torments onely to satisfie thine own will finding nothing in me for which I could seem in thy sight so well worthy to feel everlasting flames 23. When I saw that Mr. Travers carped at these things onely because they lay not open I promised at some convenient time to