and life they looke upon the Sonne of God and him onely The holy Scriptures within the bounds whereof the utmost extent of all our faith and knowledge must be contained are able to make us wise unto salvation but yet through faith which is in Christ Iesus 2 Tim. 3.15 So by his knowledge or the knowledge of himselfe shall my righteous servant iustifie many sayth the Father of the Son Esay 53.11 And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himselfe for me saith the Apostle Gal. 2.20 The children of Israel in the wildernesse being stung with fierie Serpents were directed for their recovery to looke upon the brazen Serpent which was a figure of the Son of man lifted up upon the Crosse that whosoever did beleeve in him might not perish but have eternall life Now as the Israelites with the same eyes and with the same visive facultie wherewith they beheld the sands and the mountaines in the desert did looke upon the brazen Serpent also but were cured by fastning their sight upon that alone and not by looking upon any other object so by the same faith and knowledge whereby we are justified we understand that the world was framed by the word of God and beleeve all other truths revealed and yet fides quâ iustificans faith as it doth justifie us doth not look upon these but fixeth it selfe solely upon the Son of God not knowing any thing here but Iesus Christ and him crucified And thus hath our Saviour a speciall and peculiar place in that larger foundation according to that of the Apostle Ephes. 2.20 Yee are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets of which for so his words in the Originall may well beare it Iesus Christ is the chiefe corner-stone It followeth now that wee should proceed from the foundation to the structure and so leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ goe on unto perfection unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ There is a time wherein Christ is but begun and as it were a-breeding in us Gal. 4.19 My little children of whom I travell in birth againe untill Christ be formed in you After that he hath beene formed in our hearts he is at first but as a babe there yet resteth not at that stay but as in his naturall body hee increased in stature so in every part of his mysticall body hee hath set for himselfe a certaine measure of stature and a fulnesse of growth which being attained unto a Christian is thereby made a perfect man And for this end also doth the Apostle here shew that the Ministery was instituted that we henceforth should be no more children as it is in the words immediately following my Text but that we might grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ. For the perfection which the Apostle here speaketh of is not to be taken absolutely as if any absolute perfection could be found among mâ—n in this life but in comparison with childhood As the opposition is more clearely made by him in 1. Corinth 14.20 Brethren be not children in understanding howbeit in malice be you children but in understanding be perfect that is to say of mans estate And Heb. 5.13.14 Every one that useth milke is unskilfull in the word of righteousnesse for he is a babe but strong meat belongeth to them that are perfect that is that are of full age as our Interpreters have rightly rendred it Now as there is great difference among men in their naturall growth so is there no lesse varietie among them also in respect of their spirituall stature there being severall degrees of this imperfect kinde of perfection here spoken of which according to the diversitie of times places and persons may admit a greater or a lesser measure For we may not thinke that the same measure of knowledge for example is sufficient for a learned man and an unlearned for a Pastor and for an ordinarie Christian for those that lived in the time of darkenesse and them that enjoy the light of the Gospel for them that have the meanes and them that want it But according to the measure of the gift of God wee must know notwithstanding that it is required generally of all men that they grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. 2. Pet. 2.18 not in knowledge onely but in grace even grow up into him in ALL things which is the head as our Apostle here admonisheth us Wee must proceed from faith to faith Rom. 1.17 that is from one measure and degree of it unto another and this being the root and other graces as it were the branches if it grow apace other graces also must hasten and ripen and grow proportionably with it else thou mayest justly suspect that thy growth is not sound and answerable to that which the Apostle sheweth to be in the mysticall body of Christ which according to the effectuall working in the measure of EVERY part maketh increase of the bodie unto the edifying of it selfe in love The time will not permit me to proceed any further and therefore here I end Now the God of peace that brought againe from the dead our Lord Iesus that great Shepheard of the Sheepe through the bloud of his everlasting Covenant make you perfect in every good worke to doe his will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ to whom be glorie for ever and ever Amen FINIS a Num. 10.35 b Psal. 68.1 c Ephes. 4 8.20 d Heb. 9.4 e Heb. 12.24 f Esa. 53.5 g Math. 3.15 and 5.17 h Rom. 10.4 i Psal. 40.7.8 Heb. 10.7 k Psal. 132.14 l Ibid. vers 8.9.16 2 Chron. 6.41 m Act. 10.38 n Mar. 16. o Ioh. 17.4 p Ioh. 16.28 and 19.30 q Act. 3.21 r Rev. 11.19 s Mat. 28.20 t Psal. 68 18. u Ephes. 4.8 x Ephes. 4.11.12 y 2 Chron. 6.41 Psal. 132.9.16 z Ephes. 4.10 a Ib. ver 12. b Col. 1.19 c Ephes. 1.23 d 1 Pet. 2.5 e 1 Cor. 12.13 f Psal. 2.8 g Esa. 43.5.6.7 h Augustin ep 48. Quà m multi nihil interesse credentes in quâ quisque parte Christianus sit ideò permanebant in parte Donati quia ibi nati erant eos inde discedere atque ad Catholicam nemo transire cogebat Et paulò pòst Putabamus quidem nihil interesse ubi fideÌ„ Christi teneremus sed gratias Domino qui nos à divisione collegit hoc uni Deo congruere ut in unitate colatur ostendit i Rev. 17.18 k Ibid. ver 15. l Ibid. vers 5. m Ib. v. 3. 7. n Gal. 4.26 o Rev. 18.7 p Rom 11.20 21.22 q Subesse Romano Pontifici omni humanae creaturae declaramus dicimus definimus pronuntiamus omninò
so much which is nothing else but a wilfull suffering of themselves to be led blind-fold by one man who commonly is more blind than many of themselves is no fruit of the spirit but of meere carnall policie and may serve peradventure for a bond of peace betwixt themselues and their owne partie such as the Priests of Antichrist were to have and as many as would be content to yeeld themselves to the conduct of such a Commander but hath proved the greatest block that ever stood in the way for giving impediment to the peace and unity of the universall Church which here we looke after And therefore Nilus Archbishop of Thessalonica entring into the consideration of the original ground of that long cōtinued schisme whereby the West standeth as yet divided from the East and the Latin Churches from the Greeke wrote a whole booke purposely of this argument wherein he sheweth that there is no other cause to be assigned of this distraction but that the Pope will not permit the cognisance of the controversie unto a generall Councell but will needs sit himselfe as the alone Teacher of the point in question and have others hearken unto him as if they were his Scholars and that this is contrary both to the ordinances and the practice of the Apostles and the Fathers Neither indeed is there any hope that ever wee shall see a generall peace for matters of Religion setled in the Christian world as long as this supercilious Master shall be suffered to keepe this rule in Gods house how much soever he be magnified by his owne Disciples and made the onely foundation upon which the unitie of the Catholick Church dependeth Now in the next place for the further opening of the unitie of the faith wee are to call unto minde the distinction which the Apostle maketh betwixt the foundation and that which is builded thereupon betwixt the principles of the doctrine of Christ and that which he calleth perfection The unitie of the faith and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God here spoken of hath reference as we heard to the foundation as that which followeth of a perfect man and the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ to the superstruction and perfection In the former there is a generall unitie among all true beleevers in the latter a great deale of varietie there being severall degrees of perfection to be found in severall persons according to the measure of the gift of Christ. So we see in a materiall Building that still there is but one foundation though great disparitie be observed in sundry parts of the superstruction some rooms are high some lowe some darke some lightsome some more substantially some more slightly builded and in tract of time some prove more ruinous than others yet all of them belong to one building as long as they hold together and stand upon the same foundation And even thus is it in the spirituall Building also whether we respect the practicall part of Christianitie or the intellectuall In the practicall we see wonderfull great difference betwixt Christian and Christian some by Gods mercy attaine to a higher measure of perfection and keepe themselves unspotted from the cōmon corruptions of the world others watch not so carefully over their wayes and lead not such strict lives but are oftentimes overtaken and fall fowly that he who looketh upon the one and the other would hardly thinke that one Heaven should receive them both But although the one doth so farre outstrip the other in the practice of new Obedience which is the Christian mans race yet are there certaine fundamentall principles in which they both concurre as a desire to feare Gods name repentance for sinnes past and a sincere purpose of heart for the time to come to cleave unto the LORD Which whosoever hath is under mercie and may not be excluded from the Communion of Saints In like manner for the intellectuall part the first principles of the Oracles of God as the Apostle calleth them hold the place of the common foundation in which all Christians must be grounded although some be babes and for further knowledge are unskilfull in the word of righteousnesse other some are of perfect age who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discerne both good and evill The Oracles of God containe aboundance of matter in them and whatsoever is found in them is a fit object for faith to apprehend but that all Christians should uniformely agree in the profession of all those truthes that are revealed there is a thing that rather may be wished than ever hoped for Yet the varietie of mens judgements in those manie points that belong to Theologicall faith doth not dissolve the unitie which they hold together in the fundamentall principles of the Catholick faith The unitie of the faith commended here is a Catholick unitie and such as every true Christian attaineth unto Till wee ALL come in the unitie of the faith saith the Apostle As there is a common salvation so is there a common faith which is alike precious in the highest Apostle and the meanest beleever For we may not thinke that Heaven was prepared for deepe Clerkes onely and therefore beside that larger measure of knowledge whereof all are not capable there must be a Rule of faith common to small and great which as it must consist but of few propositions for simple men cannot beare away many so is it also requisite that those articles should be of such weight and moment that they may be sufficient to make a man wise unto saluation that howsoever in other points learned men may goe beyond common Christians and exceed one another likewise by many degrees yet in respect of these radicall truthes which is the necessarie and common food of all the children of the Church there is not an unitie onely but such a kinde of equalitie also brought in among all sorts of Christians as was heretofore among the Congregation of the Israelites in the collection of their Manna where he that gathered much had nothing over and hee that gathered little had no lacke If then salvation by beleeving these common principles may be had and to salvation none can come that is not first a member of the Catholick Church of Christ it followeth thereupon that the unitie of the faith generally requisite for the incorporating of Christians into that blessed societie is not to be extended beyond those common principles Which may further be made manifest unto us by the continuall practice of the Catholick Church her selfe in the matriculation of her children and the first admittance of them into her communion For when shee prepared her Catechumeni for Baptisme and by that dore received them into the congregation of Christs flock we may not think her iudgement to have beene so weake that shee would omit any thing herein that was
essentially necessary for the making of one a member of the Church Now the profession which she required of all that were to receive Baptisme was for the Agenda or practicall part an abrenuntiation of the Divell the World and the Flesh with all their sinfull workes and lustes and for the Credenda the things to be beleeved an acknowledgement of the articles of the Creed which being solemnly done she then baptised them in this faith intimating thereby sufficiently that this was that one Faith commended unto her by the Apostles as the other that one Baptisme which was appointed to be the Sacrament of it This Creed though for substance it was the same every where yet for forme was somewhat different and in some places received moe enlargements than in others The Westerne Churches herein applyed themselves to the capacitie of the meaner sort more than the Easterne did using in their Baptisme that shorter Forme of Confession commonly called The Apostles Creed which in the more ancient times was briefer also than now it is As we may easily perceive by comparing the Symbol recited by Marcellus Ancyranus in the Profession of the faith which he delivered to Pope Iulius with the expositions of the Apostles Creed written by the Latin Doctors wherein the mention of the Fathers being Maker of heaven and earth the Sonnes Death and Descending into Hell and the Communion of Saints is wholly omitted All which though they were of undoubted veritie yet for brevities sake seeme at first to have beene omitted in this short Summe because some of them perhaps were not thought to be altogether so necessary for all men which is Suarez his judgement touching the point of the descent into Hell and some that were most necessary either thought to be sufficiently implied in other Articles as that of Christ's death in those of his crucifixion and buriall or thought to be sufficiently manifested by the light of reason as that of the creation of heaven and earth For howsoever this as it is a truth revealed by God's Word becommeth an object for faith to apprehend Heb. 11.3 yet it is otherwise also clearely to be understood by the discourse of reason Rom. 1.20 even as the unitie and all the other attributes of the Godhead likewise are Which therefore may be well referred unto those Praecognita or common principles which nature may possesse the minde withall before that grace enlightneth it and need not necessarily to be inserted into that Symbol which is the badge and cognizance whereby the Beleever is to be differenced and distinguished from the Vnbeleever The Creed which the Easterne Churches used in Baptisme was larger then this being either the same or very little different from that which we commonly call the Nicene Creed because the greatest part of it was repeated and confirmed in the first generall Councell held at Nice where the first draught thereof was presented to the Synod by Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea with this Preamble As wee have received from the Bishops that were before us both at our first catechizing and when we received Baptisme and as we have learned from the holy Scriptures and as we have both beleeved and taught when wee entred into the Ministery and in our Bishoprick it selfe so beleeving at this present also we declare this our faith unto you To this the Nicene Fathers added a more cleare explication of the Deitie of the Sonne against the Arrian heresie wherewith the Church was then troubled professing him to be begotten not made and to be of one substance with the Father The second generall Councell which was assembled fiftie-six yeares after at Constantinople approving this confession of the faith as most ancient and agreeable to Baptisme inlarged it somewhat in the Article that concerned the Holy Ghost especially which at that time was most oppugned by the Macedonian Heretickes And whereas the Nicene confession proceeded no further than to the beliefe which we have in the holy Trinitie the Fathers of Constantinople made it up by adding that which was commonly professed touching the Catholicke Church and the priviledges belonging thereunto Epiphanius repeating this Creed at large affirmeth it to haue been delivered unto the Church by the Apostles Cassianus avoucheth as much where he urgeth this against Nestorius as the Creed anciently received in the Church of Antioch from whence hee came The Romane Church after the dayes of Charles the great added the article of the procession of the Hâ—ly Ghost from the Sonne unto this Symboll and the Councell of Trent hath now recommended it unto us as that principle in which all that professe the faith of Christ doe necessarily agree and the firme and ONELY FOVNDATION against which the Gates of Hell shall never prevaile It is a matter confessed therefore by the Fathers of Trent themselues that in the Constantinopolitane Creed or in the Romane Creed at the farthest which differeth nothing from the other but that it hath added Filióque to the procession of the Holy Ghost and out of the Nicene Creed Deum de Deo to the articles that concerne the Sonne that onely foundation and principle of faith is to be found in the unitie whereof all Christians must necessarily agree Which is otherwise cleared sufficiently by the constant practice of the Apostles and their successours in the first receiving of men into the Societie of the Church For in one of the Apostles ordinary Sermons we see there was so much matter delivered as was sufficient to convert men unto the faith and to make them capable of Baptisme and those Sermons treated onely of the first principles of the doctrine of Christ upon the receiving whereof the Church following the example of the Apostles never did denie Baptisme unto her Catechumeni In these first principles therefore must the foundation be contained and that common unitie of faith which is required in all the members of the Church The foundation then being thus cleared concerning the superstruction we learne from the Apostle that some build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood hay stubble Some proceed from one degree of wholesome knowledge unto another increasing their maine stock by the addition of those other sacred truthes that are revealed in the word of God and these build upon the foundation gold and silver and precious stones Others retaine the precious foundation but lay base matter upon it wood hay stubble and such other eyther unprofitable or more dangerous stuffe and others goe so farre that they overthrow the very foundation it selfe The first of these be wise the second foolish the third madde builders When the day of tryall commeth the first mans worke shall abide and hee himselfe shall receive a reward the second shall lose his worke but not himselfe he shall suffer losse saith the Apostle but he himselfe shall be saved the third shall lose both himselfe and his worke together And as in this spirituall
them and Gods anger So that where these things did thus concurre in any as wee doubt not but they did in many thousands the knowledge of the common principles of the faith the ignorance of such maine errours as did endanger the foundation a godly life and a faithfull death there we have no cause to make any question but that God had fitted a subject for his mercy to worke upon And yet in saying thus wee doe nothing lesse than say that such as these were Papists either in their life or in their death members of the Romane Church perhaps they were but such as by God's goodnes were preserved from the mortalitie of Popery that raigned there For Popery it selfe is nothing else but the botch or the plague of that Church which hazardeth the soules of those it seizeth upon as much as any infection can doe the body And therefore if any one will needs be so foole-hardy as to take up his lodging in such a Pest-house after warning given of the present danger wee in our charitie may well say Lord have mercy upon him but he in the meane time hath great cause to feare that God in his justice will inflict that judgement upon him which in this case he hath threatned against such as will not beleeve the truth but take pleasure in vnrighteousnesse And so much may suffice for that question The second question so rise in the mouthes of our Adversaries is Where was your Church before Luther Whereunto an answere may bee returned from the grounds of the solution of the former question that our Church was even there where now it is In all places of the world where the ancient foundations were retained and those common principles of faith upon the profession whereof men have ever beene wont to be admitted by Baptisme into the Church of Christ there we doubt not but our Lord had his subjects and wee our fellow-servants For wee bring-in no new Faith nor no new Church That which in the time of the ancient Fathers was accounted to be truely and properly Catholick namely that which was beleeved every where alwayes and by all that in the succeeding ages hath evermore beene preserved and is at this day entirely professed in our Church And it is well observed by a learned man who hath written a full discourse of this argument that whatsoever the Father of lies either hath attempted or shall attempt yet neither hath he hitherto effected nor shall ever bring it to passe hereafter that this Catholick doctrine ratified by the common consent of Christians alwayes and every where should be abolished but that in the thickest mist rather of the most perplexed troubles it still obtained victorie both in the mindes and in the open confession of all Christians no wayes overturned in the foundation thereof and that in this veritie that one Church of Christ was preserved in the midst of the tempests of the most cruell winter or in the thickest darknes of her waynings Thus if at this day we should take a survay of the severall professions of Christianitie that have any large spread in any part of the world as of the Religion of the Romane and the Reformed Churches in our Quarters of the Aegyptians and Aethiopians in the South of the Grecians and other Christians in the Easterne parts and should put-by the points wherein they did differ one from another and gather into one body the rest of the Articles wherein they all did generally agree wee should finde that in those propositions which without all controversie are universally received in the whole Christian world so much truth is contained as being joyned with holy obedience may be sufficient to bring a man unto everlasting salvation Neither have wee cause to doubt but that as many as doe walke according to this rule neither overthrowing that which they have builded by superinducing any damnable heresies thereupon nor otherwise vitiating their holie faith with a lewd and wicked conversation peace shall bee upon them and mercie and upon the Israel of GOD. Now these common principles of the Christian faith which we call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or things generally beleeved of all as they have Vniversalitie and Antiquity and Consent concurring with them which by Vincentius his rule are the speciall characters of that which is truely and properly Catholick so for their Duration wee are sure that they have still held out and beene kept as the Seminarie of the Catholique Church in the darkest and difficultest times that ever have beene where if the Lord of Hostes had not in his mercy reserved this seed unto us we should long since have beene as Sodom and should have beene like unto Gomorrah It cannot be denied indeed that Sathan and his instruments have used their utmost endeavour either to hide this light from mens eyes by keeping them in grosse ignorance or to deprave it by bringing-in pernicious heresies and that in these latter ages they have much prevailed both wayes aswell in the West and North as in the East and South Yet farre be it for all this from any man to thinke that God should so cast away his people that in those times there should not be left a remnant according to the election of grace The Christian Church was never brought unto a lower ebbe than was the Iewish Synagogue in the dayes of our Saviour Christ when the Interpreters of the Law had taken away the key of knowledge and that little knowledge that remained was miserably corrupted not onely with the leaven of the Pharisees but also with the damnable heresie of the Sadduces And yet a man at that time might have seene the true servants of GOD standing together with these men in the selfe-same Temple which might well be accounted as the House of the Saints in regard of the one so a Denne of theeves in respect of the other When the pestilent heresie of the Arrians had polluted the whole world the people of Christ were not to bee found among them onely who made an open secession from that wicked company but among those also who held externall communion with them and lived under their Ministery Where they so learned the other truthes of GOD from them that they were yet ignorant of their maine errour God in his providence so ordering matters that as it is noted by S. Hilary the people of Christ should not perish under the Priests of Antichrist If you demand then Where was Gods Temple all this while the answer is at hand There where Antichrist sate Where was Christs people Even under Antichrists Priests and yet this is no justification at all either of Antichrist or of his Priests but a manifestation of God's great power who is able to uphold his Church even there where Satans throne is Babylon was an infectious place and the infection thereof was mortall and yet God had his people there whom hee preserved from the
mortalitie of that infection Else how should he have said Come out of her my people that yee bee not partakers of her sinnes and that ye receive not of her plagues If the place had not beene infectious he should not have needed to forwarne them of the danger wherein they stood of partaking in her sinnes and if the infection had not beene mortall he would not have put them in minde of the plagues that were to follow and if in the place thus mortally infected God had not preserved a people alive unto himselfe he could not have said Come out of her my people The enemie indeed had there sowne his tares but sowne them in the LORDS field and among the LORDS wheate And a field we know may so bee overgrowne with such evill weedes as these that at the first sight a man would hardly thinke that any corne were there at all even as in the barne it selfe the mixture of the chaffe with the wheate is sometime such as a-farre off a man would imagine that he did see but a heape of chaffe and nothing else Those worthy husbandmen that in these last 600. yeares have taken paines in plucking up those pernicious weedes out of the LORDS field and severing the chaffe from his graine cannot be rightly said in doing this eyther to have brought in another field or to have changed the ancient graine The field is the same but weeded now unweeded then the graine the same but winnowed now unwinnowed then Wee preach no new faith but the same Catholique faith that ever hath beene preached neyther was it any part of our meaning to begin a new Church in these latter dayes of the world but to reforme the old A tree that hath the luxurious branches lopped off and the noxious things that cleave unto it taken away is not by this pruning and purging of it made another tree than it was before neyther is the Church reformed in our dayes another Church than that which was deformed in the dayes of our fore-fathers though it hath no agreement for all that with Poperie which is the Pestilence that walked in those times of darkenesse and the destruction that now wasteth at noone day And thus have I finished that which I had to speak concerning the unitie of the faith for the further explication whereof the Apostle addeth and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God Wherein wee may observe both the Nature of this Grace and the Object of it For the former we see that Faith is here described unto us by Knowledge to shew unto us that Knowledge is a thing that is necessarily required in true beleeving Whereof this may bee an argument sufficient that in matters of faith the Scripture doth use indifferently the termes of knowing and beleeving So Iob 19.25 I know that my Redeemer liveth Ioh. 17.3 This is life eternall that they know thee the onely true God and Iesus Christ whom thou hast sent Esai 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant iustifie manie As therefore in the fundamentall truthes of Christian Religion unitie of faith is required among all those that belong to the Catholick Church so in those maine grounds likewise there is unitie of knowledge generally required among all that professe the name of Christ. For some things there be the knowledge whereof is absolutely necessarie necessitate medij vel finis as the School-men speak without which no man may expect by Gods ordinarie law to attaine unto the end of his faith the salvation of his soule And in these a man may lose himselfe not by Heresie onely which is a flat denying but by Ignorance also which is a bare not knowing of them these things being acknowledged to be so necessarie that although it lay not in our power to attaine thereunto yet this invincible Ignorance should not excuse us from everlasting death Even as if there were one onely remedie whereby a sicke man could be recovered and freed from corporall death suppose the patient and the Physitian both were ignorant of it the man must perish as well not knowing it as if being brought unto him he had refused it And therefore in this case it is resolved that from the explicite faith actuall knowledge of these things nothing can excuse but onely such an incapacitie as is found in infants naturals and distracted persons and that in all others which have the use of reason although they want the meanes of instruction this Ignorance is not onely perillous but also damnable The danger then of this Ignorance being by the confession of the most judicious Divines of both sides acknowledged to be so great the wofull estate of the poore Countrey wherein I live is much to bee lamented where the people generally are suffered to perish for want of knowledge the vulgar superstitions of Poperie not doing them halfe that hurt that the ignorance of those common principles of the faith doth which all true Christians are bound to learne The consideration whereof hath sometime drawne mee to treate with those of the opposite party to move them that howsoever in other things we did differ one from another yet wee should joyne together in teaching those maine points the knowledge whereof was so necessary unto salvation and of the truth whereof there was no controversie betwixt us But what for the jealousies which these distractions in matters of Religion have bred among us what for other respects the motiō took small effect so betwixt us both the poor people are kept still in miserable ignorāce neither knowing the grounds of the one religion nor of the other Here the case God be thanked is farre otherwise where your Maiesties care can never be sufficiently commended in taking order that the chiefe heads of the Catechisme should in the ordinarie ministerie be diligently propounded and explained unto the people throughout the land Which I wish were as duely executed every where as it was piously by You intended Great Scholars possibly may thinke that it standeth not so well with their credite to stoop thus low and to spend so much of their time in teaching these rudiments and first principles of the doctrine of Christ. But they should consider that the laying of the foundation skilfully as it is the matter of greatest importance in the whole building so is it the very master-peece of the wisest builder According to the grace of God which is given unto mee as a wise master-builder I have layd the foundation saith the great Apostle And let the learnedest of us all try it when-ever wee please wee shall finde that to lay this ground-worke rightly that is to apply our selves unto the capacitie of the common Auditorie and to make an Ignorant man to understand these mysteries in some good measure will put us to the tryall of our skill and trouble us a great deale more than if we were to discusse a controversie or handle a subtile