apparel come amongst us although he be a Thief or a Murtherer for there are Thieves and Murtherers in gorgeous apparel be his heart whatsoever if his Coat be of Purple or Velvet or Tissue every one riseth up and all the reverend Solemnities we can use are too little But the man that serveth God is contemned and despised amongst us for his Poverty Herod speaketh in judgement and the People cry out The voyce of God and not of man Paul preacheth Christ they term him a Trifler Hearken beloved Hath not God chosen the Poor of this World that they should be rich in Faith Hath he not chosen the Reffuse of the World to be Heirs of his Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him Hath he not chosen the Off-scowrings of Men to be the Lights of the World and the Apostles of Jesus Christ Men unlearned yet how fully replenished with understanding Few in number yet how great in power Contemptible in shew yet in Spirit how strong how wonderful I would faiâ—â— learn the mystery of the eternal generation of the Son of God saith Hilary Whom shall I seek Shall I get me to the Schools of the Grecians Why I have read Ubi Sapiens ubi Scriba ubi Conquisitor hujus saculi These Wise-men in the World must needs be dumbe in this because they have rejected the wisdom of God Shall I beseech the Scribes and Interpreters of the Law to become my Teachers how can they know this sith they are offended at the Cross of Christ It is death for me to be ignorant of the unsearchable mystery of the Son of God of which mystery notwithstanding I should have been ignorant but that a poor Fisher-man unknown unlearned new come from his Boat with his Cloaths wringing-wet hath opened his mouth and taught me In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God These poor silly Creatures have made us rich in the knowledge of the mysteries of Christ. 7. Remember therefore that which is spoken of by the Apostles Whose words if the Children of this World do not regard is it any marvail They are the Apostles of our Lord Jesus not of their Lord but of ours It is true which one hath said in a certain place Apostolicam sidem seculi homo non capit A man sworn to the World is not capable of that Faith which the Apostles do teach What mean the Children of this World then to tread in the Courts of our God What should your Bodies do at Bethel whose Hearts are at Bethaven The god of this World whom ye serve hath provided Apostles and Teachers for you Chaldeans Wizzards Sooth-sayers Astrologers and such like Hear them Tell not us that ye will sacrifice to the Lord our God if we will sacrifice to Ashtaroth or Melcom that ye will read our Scriptures if we will listen to your Traditions that if ye may have a Mass by permission we shall have a Communion with good leave and liking that ye will admit the things that are spoken of by the Apostles of our Lord Jesus if your Lord and Master may have his Ordinances observed and his Statutes kept Solomon took it as he well might for an evident proof that she did not bear a motherly affection to her Childe which yielded to have it cut in divers parts He cannot love the Lord Jesus with his heart which lendeth one ear to his Apostles and another to false Apostles which can brook to see a mingle-mangle of Religion and Superstition Ministers and Massing-Priests Light and Darkness Truth and Error Traditions and Scriptures No we have no Lord but Jesus no Doctrine but the Gospel no Teachers but his Apostles Were it reason to require at the hand of an English Subject obedience to the Laws and Edicts of the Spaniards I do marvel that any man bearing the name of a Servant of the Servants of Jesus Christ will go about to draw us from our Allegiance We are his sworn Subjects it is not lawful for us to hear the things that are not told us by his Apostles They have told us that in the last days there shall be Mockers therefore we believe it Credimus quia legimus We are so perswaded because we read it must be so If we did not read it we would not teach it Nam qua libro Legis non continentur ea nec nosse debemus saith Hilary Those things that are not written in the book of the Law we ought not so much as to be acquainted with them Remember the words which were spoken of before by the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ. 8. The third thing to be considered in the description of these men of whom we speak is the time wherein we should be manifested to the World They told you there should be mockers in the last time Noah at the commandement of God built an Ark and there were in it Beasts of all sorts clean and unclean A Husbandman planteth a Vineyard and looketh for Grapes but when they come to the gathering behold together with Grapes there are found also wilde Grapes A rich man prepareth a great Supper and biddeth many but when he sitteth him down he findeth amongst his Friends here and there a man whom he knoweth not This hath been the state of the Church â—it hence the beginning God always hath mingled his Saints with faithless and godless Persons as it were the clean with the unclean Grapes with sowre grapes his Friends and Children with Aliens and Strangers Marvel not then if in the last dayes also ye see the men with whom you live and walk arm in arm laugh at your Religion and blaspheme that glorious name whereof you are called Thus it was in the days of the Patriarks and Prophets and are we better than our Fathers Albeit we suppose that the blessed Apostles in foreshewing what manner of men were set out for the last dayes meant to note a calamity special and peculiar to the Ages and Generations which were to come As if he should have said As God hath appointed a time of Seed for the Sower and a time of Harvest for him that reapeth as he hath given unto every Herb and every Tree his own fruit and his own season not the season nor the fruit of another for no man looketh to gather Figgs in the Winter because the Summer is the season for them nor Grapes of Thistles because Grapes are the fruit of the Vine so the same God hath appointed sundry for every Generation of them other men for other times and for the last times the worst men as may appear by their properties which is the fourth point to be considered of in this description 9. They told you that there should be Mockers He meaneth men that shall use Religion as a Cloak to put off and on as the weather serveth such as shall with Herod hear the Preaching of Iohn Baptist to day
them that so to do were so sin against their own souls and that they put forth their hands to iniquity whatsoever they go about and have not first the sacred Scripture of God for direction how can it chuse but bring the simple a thousand times to their wits end how can it chuse but vex and amaze them For in every action of common life to since out some seâ—tence clearly and infallibly setting before our eyes what we ought to do seem we in Scripture never so expert would trouble us more then we are aware In weak and tender minds we little know what misery this strict opinion would breed besides the stops it would make in the whole course of all mens lives and actions make all things sin which we do by direction of Natures light and by the rule of common discretion without thinking at all upon Scripture Admit this Position and Parents shall cause their children to sin as oft as they cause them to do any thing before they come to years of capacity and be ripe for Knowledge in the Scripture Admit this and it shall not be with Masters as it was with him him in the Gospel but servants being commanded to go shall stand still till they have errand warranted unto them by Scripture Which as it standeth with Christian duty in some cases so in common affairs to require it were most unfit Two opinions therefore there are concerning sufficiency of holy Scripture each extreamly opposit unto the other and both repugnant unto truth The Schools of Rome teach Scripture to be unsufficient as if except Traditions were added it did not contain all revealed and supernatural Truth which absolutely is necessary for the children of men in this life to know that they may in the next be saved Others justly condemning this opinion grow likewise unto a dangerous extremity as if Scripture did not only contain all things in that kinde necessary but all things simply and in such sort that to do any thing according to any other Law were not only unnecessary but even opposite unto salvation unlawful and sinful Whatsoever is spoken of God or things appertaining to God otherwise then as the truth is though it seem an honour it is an injury And as incredible praises given unto men do often abate and impair the credit of their deserved commendation so we must likewise take great heed lest in attributing unto Scripture more then it can have the incredibility of that do cause even those things which indeed it hath most abundantly to be less reverendly esteemed I therefore leave it to themselves to consider Whether they have in this First Point overshot themselves or not which God doth know is quickly done even when our meaning is most sincere as I am verily perswaded theirs in this case was OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity Book III. Concerning their Second Assertion That in Scripture there must be of necessity contained a Form of Church Polity the Laws whereof may in no wise be altered The Matter contained in this Third Book 1. WHat the Church is and in what respect Laws of Polity are thereunto necessarily required 2. Whether it be necessary that some particular Form of Church Polity be set down in Scripture sith the things that belong particularly to any such Form are not of necessity to salvation 3. That matters of Church Polity are different from matters of Faith and Salvation and that they themselves so teach which are out Reprovers for so teaching 4. That hereby we take not from Scripture any thing which thereunto with the soundness of truth may be given 5. Their meaning who first urged against the Polity of the Church of England that nothing ought to be established in the Church more then is commanded by the Word of God 6. How great injury men by so thinking should offer unto all the Churches of God 7. A shift notwithstanding to maintain it by interpreting Commanded as though it were meant that greater things onely ought to be found set down in Scripture particularly and lesser framed by the general Rules of Scripture 8. Another Device to defend the same by expounding Commanded as if it did signifie grounded as Scripture and were opposed to things sound out by the light of natural reason onely 9. How Laws for the Polity of the Church may be made by the advise of men and how those being nor repugnant to the Word of God are approved in his sight 10. The neither Gods being the Author of Laws nor yet his committing of them to Scripture is any Reason sufficient to prove that they admit no addition or change 11. Whether Christ must needs intend Laws unchangeable altogether or have forbidden any where to make any other Law then himself did deliver ALbeit the substance of those Controversies whereinto we have begun to wade be rather of outward things appertaining to the Church of Christ then of any thing wherein the nature and being of the Church consisteth yet because the Subject or Matter which this Position concerneth is A Forms of Church Government or Church-Polity It therefore behoveth us so far forth to consider the nature of the Church as is requisite for mens more clear and plain understanding in what respect Laws of Polity or Government are necessary thereunto That Church of Christ which we properly term his body Mystical can be but one neither can that one be sensibly discerned by any man inasmuch as the parts thereof are some in Heaven already with Christ and the rest that are on earth albeit their natural persons be visible we do not discern under this property whereby they are truly and infallibly of that body Only our minds by intellectual conceit are able to apprehend that such a real body there is a body collective because it containeth an huge multitude a body mystical because the mystery of their conjunction is removed altogether from sense Whatsoever we read in Scripture concerning the endless love and the saving mercy which God sheweth towards his Church the only proper subject thereof is this Church Concerning this Flock it is that our Lord and Saviour hath promised I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hands They who are of this Society have such Marks and Notes of distinction from all others as are not objects unto our sense only unto God who seeth their hearts and understandeth all their secret cogitations unto him they are clear and manifest All men knew Nathaniel to be an Israelite But our Saviour piercing deeper giveth further Testimony of him then men could have done with such certainty as he did Behold indeed an Israelite in whom there is no guile If we profess as Peter did that we love the Lord and profess it in the hearing of men charity is prone to believe all things and therefore charitablemen are likely to think we do so as long as they see
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
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
as a Supplement of any maim or defect therein but as a necessary Instrument without which we could not reap by the Scriptures perfection that fruit and benefit which it yieldeth The Word of God is a two-edged sword put in the hands of reasonable men and Reason as the weapon that flew Goliah if they be as David was that use it Touching the Apostles he which gave them from above such Power for miraculous confirmation of that which they taught endued them also with Wisdom from above to teach that which they so did confirm Our Saviour made choice of Twelve simple and unlearned Men that the greater their lack of Natural wisdom was the more admirable that might appear which God supernaturally endued them with from Heaven Such therefore as knew the poor and silly estate wherein they had lived could not but wonder to hear the Wisdom of their speech and be so much the more attentive unto their teaching They studied for no Tongue they spake withal of themselves they were rude and knew not so much as how to premeditate the Spirit gave them speech and cloquent utterance But because with St. Paul it was otherwise then with the rest in as much as he never conversed with Christ upon Earth as they did and his education had been scholastical altogether which theirs was not Hereby occasion was taken by certain Malignants secretly to undermine his great Authority in the Church of Christ as though the Gospel had been taught him by others then by Christ himself and as if the cause of the Gentiles conversion and belief through his means had been the learning and skill which he had by being conversant in their Books which thing made them so willing to hear him and him so able to perswade them whereas the rest of the Apostles prevailed because God was with them and by a miracle from Heaven confirmed his Word in their mouths They were mighty in deeds As for him being absent his Writings had some force in presence his Power not like unto theirs In sum concerning his Preaching their very by-word was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 addle speech empty talk His Writings full of great words but in the Power of miraculous Operations His presence not like the rest of the Apostles Hereupon it ariseth that St. Paul was so often driven to make his Apologies Hereupon it ariseth that whatsoever time he had spent in the study of Humane Learning he maketh earnest protestation to them of Corinth that the Gospel which he had preached amongst them did not by other means prevail with them then with others the same Gospel taught by the rest of the Apostles of Christ. My Preaching saith he hath not been in the perswasive speeches of Humane Wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power that your faith may not be in the wisdom of men but in the Power of God What is it which the Apostle doth here deny Is it denied that his speech amongst them had been perswasive No for of him the sacred History plainly restifieth that for the space of a year and a half he spake in their Synagogue every Sabbath and perswaded both Jews and Grecians How then is the speech of men made perswasive Surely there can be but two ways to bring this to pass the one Humane the other Divine Either St. Paul did onely by art and natural industry cause his own speech to be credited or else God by miracle did authorise it and so bring credit thereunto as to the speech of the rest of the Apostles Of which two the former he utterly denieth For why If the Preaching of the rest had been effectual by miracle his onely by force of his own learning so great inequality between him and the other Apostles in this thing had been enough to subvert their Faith For might they not with reason have thought that if he were sent of God as well as they God would not have furnished them and not him with the power of the Holy Ghost Might not a great part of them being simple haply have feared lest their assent had been cunningly gotten unto his doctrine rather through the weakness of their own wits then the certainty of that Truth which he had taught them How unequal had it been that all Believers through the Preaching of other Apostles should have their Faith strongly built upon the evidence of Gods own miraculous approbation and they whom he had converted should have their perswasion built onely upon his skill and wisdom who perswaded them As therefore calling from men may authorise us to teach although it could not authorise him to teach as other Apostles did So although the wisdom of man had not been sufficient to enable him such a Teacher as the rest of the Apostles were unless Gods miracles had strengthned both the one and the others Doctrine yet unto our ability both of teaching and learning the Truth of Christ as we are but meer Christian men it is not a little which the wisdom of man may add Sixthly Yea whatsoever our hearts be to God and to his Truth believe we or be we as yet faithless for our Conversion or Confirmation the force of Natural Reason is great The force whereof unto those effects is nothing without grace What then To our purpose it is sufficient that whosoever doth serve honor and obey God whosoever believeth in him that man would no more do this then innocents and infants do but for the Light of Natural Reason that shineth in him and maketh him apt to apprehend those things of God which being by grace discovered are effectual to perswade reasonable mindes and none other that honor obedience and credit belong aright unto God No man cometh unto God to offer him Sacrifice to pour out Supplications and Prayers before him or to do him any service which doth not first believe him both to be and to be a rewarder of them who in such sort seek unto him Let men be taught this either by Revelation from Heaven or by Instruction upon Earth by Labor Study and Meditation or by the onely secret Inspiration of the Holy Ghost whatsoever the mean be they know it by if the knowledge thereof were possible without discourse of Natural Reason why should none be found capable thereof but onely men nor men till such time as they come unto ripe and full ability to work by reasonable understanding The whole drift of the Scripture of God what is it but onely to teach Theology Theology what is it but the Science of things Divine What Science an be attained unto without the help of Natural Discourse and Reason Iudge you of that which I speak saith the Apostle In vain it were to speak any thing of God but that by Reason Men are able somewhat to judge of that they hear and by discourse to discern how consonant it is to Truth Scripture indeed teacheth things above Nature things which our Reason by
it self could not reach unto Yet those things also we believe knowing by Reason that the Scripture is the Word of God In the presence of Festus a Roman and of King Agrippa a Jew St. Paul omitting the one who neither knew the Jews Religion not the Books whereby they were taught it speaks unto the other of things foreshewed by Moses and the Prophets and performed in Jesus Christ intending thereby to prove himself so unjustly accused that unless his Judges did condemn both Moses and the Prophets him they could not chuse but acquit who taught onely that fulfilled which they so long since had foretold His cause was easie to be discerned what was done their eyes were witnesses what Moses and the Prophets did speak their Books could quickly shew It was no hard thing for him to compare them which knew the one and believed the other King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets I know thou dost The question is how the Books of the Prophets came to be credited of King Agrippa For what with him did authorise the Prophets the like with us doth cause the rest of the Scripture of God to be of credit Because we maintain That in Scripture we are taught all things necessary unto Salvation hereupon very childishly it is by some demanded What Scripture can teach us the Sacred Authority of the Scripture upon the knowledge whereof our whole Faith and Salvation dependeth As though there were any kinde of Science in the World which leadeth men unto knowledge without presupposing a number of things already known No Science doth make known the first Principles whereon it buildeth but they are always either taken as plain and manifest in themselves or as proved and granted already some former knowledge having made them evident Scripture teacheth all supernaturally revealed Truth without the knowledge whereof Salvation cannot be attained The main principal whereupon our belief of all things therein contained dependeth is That the Scriptures are the Oracles of God himself This in it self we cannot say is evident For then all men that hear it would acknowledge it in heart as they do when they hear that every whole is more then any part of that whole because this in it self is evident The other we know that all do not acknowledge when they hear it There must be therefore some former knowledge presupposed which doth herein assure the hearts of all Believers Scripture teacheth us that saving Truth which God hath discovered unto the World by Revelation and it presumeth us taught otherwise that it self is Divine and Sacred The question then being By what means we are taught this some answer That to learn it we have no other way then onely Tradition as namely that so we believe because both we from our Predecessors and they from theirs have so received But is this enough That which all mens experience teacheth them may not in any wise be denied And by experience we all know that the first outward Motive leading men so to esteem of the Scripture is the authority of Gods Church For when we know the whole Church of God hath that opinion of the Scripture we judge it even at the first an impudent thing for any man bred and brought up in the Church to be of a contrary minde without cause Afterwards the more we bestow our labor in reading or hearing the Mysteries thereof the more we finde that the thing it self doth answer our received opinion concerning it So that the former enducement prevailing somewhat with us before doth now much more prevail when the very thing hath Ministred further Reason If Infidels or Atheists chance at any time to call it in question this giveth us occasion to sift what reason there is whereby the testimony of the Church concerning Scripture and our own perswasion which Scripture it self hath confirmed may be proved a truth infallible In which case the ancient Fathers being often constrained to shew what warrant they had so much to relie upon the Scriptures endeavored still to maintain the authority of the Books of God by Arguments such as unbelievers themselves must needs think reasonable if they judged thereof as they should Neither is it a thing impossible or greatly heard even by such kinde of proofs so to manifest and clear that point that no man living shall be able to deny it without denying some apparent Principle such as all men acknowledge to be true Wherefore if I believe the Gospel yet is reason of singular use for that it confirmeth me in this my belief the more If I do not as yet believe nevertheless to bring me into the number of Believers except Reason did somewhat help and were an Instrument which God doth use unto such purposes what should it boot to dispute with Infidels or godless persons for their conversion and perswasion in that point Neither can I think that when grave and learned men do sometime hold that of this Principle there is no proof but by the testimony of the Spirit which assureth our hearts therein it is their meaning to exclude utterly all force which any kinde of Reason may have in that behalf but I rather incline to interpret such their speeches as if they had more expresly set down that other motives and enducements be they never so strong and consonant unto Reason are notwithstanding ineffectual of themselves to work Faith concerning this Principle if the special Grace of the Holy Ghost concur not to the enlightning of our mindes For otherwise I doubt not but men of wisdom and judgment will grant That the Church in this point especially is furnished with Reason to stop the mouths of her impious Adversaries and that as it were altogether bootless to alledge against them what the Spirit hath taught us so likewise that even to our own selves it needeth Caution and Explication how the testimony of the Spirit may be discerned by what means it may be known lest men think that the Spirit of God doth testifie those things which the spirit of error suggesteth The operations of the Spirit especially these ordinary which be common unto all true Christian men are as we know things secret and undiscernable even to the very soul where they are because their nature is of another and an higher kinde then that they can be by us perceived in this life Wherefore albeit the Spirit lead us into all truth and direct us in all goodness yet because these workings of the Spirit in us are so privy and secret we theresore stand on a plainer ground when we gather by Reason from the quality of things believed or done that the Spirit of God hath directed us in both then if we settle our selves to believe or to do any certain particular thing as being moved thereto by the Spirit But of this enough To go from the Books of Scripture to the sense and meaning thereof because the Sentences which are by the Apostles recited out of the Psalms to prove
know that what Ceremonies we retain common unto the Church of Rome we therefore retain them for that we judge them to be profitable and to be such that others instead of them would be worse So that when they say that we ought to abrogate such Romish Ceremonies as are unprofitable or else might have other more profitable in their stead they trisle and they beat the Air about nothing which toucheth us unless they mean that we ought to abrogate all Romish Ceremonies which in their judgment have either no use or less use than some other might have But then must they shew some commission whereby they are authorized to sit as Judges and we required to take their judgment for good in this case Otherwise their sentences will not be greatly regarded when they oppose their Me thinketh unto the Orders of the Church of England as in the Question about Surplesses one of them doth If we look to the colour black methinks is the more decent if to the form a garment down to the foot hath a great deal more comeliness in it If they think that we ought to prove the Ceremonies commodious which we have retained they do in this Point very greatly deceive themselves For in all right and equity that which the Church hath received and held so long for good that which publike approbation hath ratified must carry the benefit of presumption with it to be accounted meet and convenient They which have stood up as yesterday to challenge it of defect must prove their challenge If we being Defendents do answer that the Ceremonies in question are godly comely decent profitable for the Church their reply is childish and unorderly to say that we demand the thing in question and shew the poverty of our cause the goodness whereof we are fain to beg that our Adversaries would grant For on our part this must be the Answer which orderly proceeding doth require The burden of proving doth rest on them In them it is frivolous to say we ought not to use bad Ceremonies of the Church of Rome and presume all such bad as it pleaseth themselves to dislike unless we can perswade them the contrary Besides they are herein opposite also to themselves For what one thing is so common with them as to use the custome of the Church of Rome for an Argument to prove that such and such Ceremonies cannot be good and profitable for us inasmuch as that Church useth them Which usual kind of disputing sheweth that they do not disallow onely those Romish Ceremonies which are unprofitable but count all unprofitable which are Romish that is to say which have been devised by the Church of Rome or which are used in that Church and not prescribed in the Word of God For this is the onely limitation which they can use sutable unto their other Positions And therefore the cause which they yield why they hold it lawful to retain in Doctrine and in Discipline some things as good which yet are common to the Church of Rome is for that those good things are perpetual Commandments in whose place no other can come but Ceremonies are changeable So that their judgement in truth is that whatsoever by the Word of God is not changeable in the Church of Rome that Churches using is a cause why Reformed Churches ought to change it and not to think it good or profitable And lest we seem to father any thing upon them more then is properly their own let them read even their own words where they complain That we are thus constrained to be like unto the Papists in any their Ceremonies yea they urge that this cause although it were alone ought to move them to whom that belongeth to do them away forasmuch as they are their Ceremonies and that the Bishop of Salisbury doth justifie this their complaint The clause is untrue which they add concerning the Bishop of Salisbury but the sentence doth shew that we do them no wrong in setting down the state of the question between us thus Whether we ought to abolish out of the Church of England all such Orders Rites and Ceremonies as are established in the Church of Rome and are not prescribed in the Word of God For the Affirmative whereof we are now to answer such proofs of theirs as have been before alledged 5. Let the Church of Rome be what it will let them that are of it be the people of God and our Fathers in the Christian Faith or let them be otherwise hold them for Catholicks or hold them for Hereticks it is not a thing either one way or other in this present question greatly material Our conformity with them in such things as have been proposed is not proved as yet unlawful by all this S. Augustine hath said yea and we have allowed his saying That the custome of the people of God and the decrees of our forefathers are to be kept touching those things whereof the Scripture hath neither one way nor other given us any charge What then Doth it here therefore follow that they being neither the people of God nor our Forefathers are for that cause in nothing to be followed This Consequent were good if so be it were granted that only the custom of the people of God and the Decrees of our forefathers are in such case to be observed But then should no other kind of latter Laws in the Church be good which were a gross absurdity to think S. Augustines speech therefore doth import that where we have no divine Precept if yet we have the custom of the people of God or a Decree of our forefathers this is a Law and must be kept Notwithstanding it is not denied but that we lawfully may observe the positive constitutions of our own Churches although the same were but yesterday made by our selves alone Nor is there any thing in this to prove that the Church of England might not by Law receive Orders Rites or Customs from the Church of Rome although they were neither the people of God nor yet our forefathers How much lesse when we have received from them nothing but that which they did themselves receive from such as we cannot deny to have been the people of God yea such as either we must acknowledge for our own forefathers or else disdain the race of Christ 6. The Rites and Orders wherein we follow the Church of Rome are of no other kind that such as the Church of Geneva it self doth follow them in We follow the Church of Rome in mo things yet they in some things of the same nature about which our present controversie is so that the difference is not in the kind but in the number of Rites onely wherein they and we do follow the Church of Rome The use of Wafer-cakes the custom of Godfathers and Godmothers in Baptism are things not commanded nor forbidden in the Scripture things which have been of old and are retained in
harm And doing well their Actions are freed from prejudice and novelty To the best and wisest while they live the World is continually a froward Opposite a curious Observer of their Defects and Imperfections their Vertues it afterwards as much admireth And â—or this cause many times that which most deserveth approbation would hardly be able to finde favour if they which propose it were not content to profess themselves therein Scholars and Followers of the Antients For the World will not endure to hear that we are wiser than any have been which went before In which consideration there is cause why we should be slow and unwilling to change without very urgent necessity the antient Ordinances Rites and long approved Customs of our venerable Predecessors The love of things Antient doth argue stayedness but levity and want of Experience maketh apt auto Innovations That which Wisdom did first begin and hath been with Good men long continued challengeth allowance of them that succeed although it plead for it self nothing That which is new if it promise not much doth fear Condemnation before Tryal till Tryal no man doth acquit or trust it what good soever it pretend and promise So that in this kinde there are few things known to be Good till such time as they grow to be Antient The vain pretence of those glorious Names where they could not be with any truth neither in reason ought to have been so much alledged hath wrought such a prejudice against them in the mindes of the Common sort as if they had utterly no force at all whereas especially for these Observances which concern our present Question Antiquity Custom and Consent in the Church of God making with the which Law doth establish are themselves most sufficient reasons to uphold the same unless some notable publick inconvenience inforce the contrary For a small thing in the eye of Law is as nothing We are therefore bold to make our second Petition this That in things the fitness whereof is not of it self apparent nor easie to be made snfficiently manifest unto all yet the Judgment of Antiquity concurring with that which is received may induce them to think it not unfit who are not able to alledge any known weighty Inconvenience which it hath or to take any strong Exception against it 8. All things cannot be of antient continuance which are expedient and needful for the ordering of Spiritual Affairs but the Church being a Body which dieth not hath always power as occasion requireth no less to ordain that which never was than to ratifie what hath been before To prescribe the Order of doing in all Things Is a peculiar Prerogative which Wisdom hath as a Queen or soveraign Commandress over other Vertues This in every several Man's Actions of Common Life appertaineth unto Morall in Publick and Politick secular Affairs unto Civil Wisdom In like manner to devise any certain Form for the outward Administration of Publick Duties in the Service of God or Things belonging thereunto and to find out the most convenient for that use is a point of Wisdom Ecclesiastical It is not for a Man which doth know or should know what Order is and what Peaceable Government requireth to ask Why we should hang our Iudgment upon the Churches Sleeve and why in Matters of Order more than in Matters of Doctrine The Church hath Authority to Establish That for an Order at one time which at another time it may Abolish and in both do well But That which in Doctrine the Church doth now deliver rightly as a Truth no Man will say that it may hereafter recall and as rightly avouch the contrary Laws touching Matter of Order are changeable by the Power of the Church Articles concerning Doctrine not so We read often in the Writings of Catholick and Holy men rouching Matters of Doctrine This we believe This we bold This the Prophets and Evangelists have declared This the Apostles have delivered This Martyrs have sealed with their Blood and confessed in the midst of Torments to This We cleave as to the Anchor of Our Souls against This though an Angel from Heaven should Preach unto us We would not believe But did we ever in any of Them read touching Matters of mere Comcliness Order and Decency neither Commanded nor Prohibited by any Prophet any Evangelist any Apostle Although the Church wherein we live do ordain them to be kept although they be never so generally observed though all the Churches in the World should Command them though Angels from Heaven should require our Subjection thereunto I would hold him accursed that doth obey Be it in Matter of the one kind or of the other what Scripture doth plainly deliver to that the First place both of Credit and Obedience is due The Next whereunto is whatsoever any Man can necessarily conclude by Force of Reason After These the Voyce of the Church succeedeth That which the Church by her Ecclesiastical Authority shall probably think and define to be True or Good must in congruity of Reason over-rule all other Inferiour Judgements whatsoever To them which ask Why we thus hang our Judgment on the Churches Sleeve I answer with Solomon Because Two are better than One. Yea Simply saith Basil and Universally whether it be in Works of Nature or of Voluntary Choice and Counsel I see not any thing done as it should be is it be wrought by an Agent singling it self from Consorts The Jews have a Sentence of good advice Take not upon Thee to be a Iudge alone there is no sole Iudge but One only Say not to Others Receive my Sentence when their Authority is above thine The bare consent of the whole Church should it self in These things stop their Mouths who living under it dare presume to bark against it There is saith Cassianus no Place of Audience left for them by whom Obedience is not yielded to that which all have agreed upon Might we not think it more than wonderful that Nature should in all Communities appoint a Predominant Judgment to sway and over-rule in so many things or that God himself should allow so much Authority and Power unto every Poor Family for the ordering of All which are in it and the City of the Living God which is his Church be able neither to Command nor yet to Forbid any thing which the Meanest shall in that respect and for her sole Authorities sake be bound to obey We cannot hide or dissemble that Evil the grievous inconvenience whereof we feel Our dislike of them by whom too much heretofore hath been attributed unto the Church is grown to an Error on the contrary hand so that now from the Church of God too much is derogated By which removal of one Extremity with another the World seeking to procure a Remedy hath purchased a meer Exchange of the Evil which before was felt Suppose we that the Sacred Word of God can at their hands
of a standing Tribute that there they did openly read the Scriptures and whosoever will bear saith Tertullian he shall finde God whosoever will study to know shall be also fain to believe But sith there is no likelihood that ever voluntarily they will seek Instruction at our hands it remaineth that unless we will suffer them to perish Salvation it self must seek them it behooveth God to send them Preachers as he did his elect Apostles throughout the World There is a Knowledge which God hath always revealed unto them in the works of Nature This they honour and esteem highly as profound Wisdome howbeit this Wisdome saveth them not That which must save Believers is the knowledge of the Cross of Christ the only Subject of all our Preaching And in their Eyes what seemeth this but Folly It pleaseth God by the foolishness of Preaching to save These Words declare how admirable force those Mysteries have which the World do deride as Follies they shew that the Foolishness of the Cross of Christ is the Wisdom of True Believers they concern the Object of our Faith the Matter preached of and believed in by Christian men This we know that the Grecians or Gentiles did account Foolishness but that they did ever think it a fond or unlikely way to seek mens Conversion by Sermons we have not heard Manifest therefore it is that the Apostle applying the name of Foolishness in such sort as they did must needs by the Foolishness of Preaching mean the Doctrine of Christ which we learn that we may be saved but that Sermons are the only manner of teaching whereby it pleaseth our Lord to save he could not mean In like sort where the same Apostle proveth that as well the sending of the Apostles as their preaching to the Gentiles was necessary dare we affirm it was ever his meaning that unto their Salvation who even from their tender Infancy never knew any other Faith or Religion that only Christian no kinde of Teaching can be available saving that which was so needful for the first universal Conversion of Gentiles hating Christianity neither the sending of any sort allowable in the one case except only of such as had been in the other also most fit and worthy Instruments Belief in all sorts doth come by hearkning and attending to the Word of Life Which Word sometime proposeth and preacheth it self to the Hearer sometime they deliver it whom privately Zeal and Piety moveth to be Instructors of others by conference sometime of them it is taught whom the Church hath called to the Publick either reading thereof or interpreting All these tend unto one effect neither doth that which St. Paul or other Apostles teach concerning the necessity of such Teaching as theirs was or of sending such as they were for that purpose unto the Gentiles prejudice the efficacy of any other way of Publick instruction or inforce the utter disability of any other mens Vocation thought requisite in this Church for the saving of Souls where means more effectual are wanting Their only proper and direct proof of the thing in question had been to shew in what sort and how farr man's Salvation doth necessarily depend upon the knowledge of the Word of God what Conditions Properties and Qualities there are whereby Sermons are distinguished from other kindes of administring the Word unto that purpose and what special Property or Quality that is which being no where found but in Sermons maketh them effectual to save Souls and leaveth all other Doctrinal means besides destitute of vital efficacy These pertinent Instructions whereby they might satisfie us and obtain the Cause it self for which they contend these things which only would serve they leave and which needeth not sometime they trouble themselves with fretting at the ignorance of such as withstand them in their Opinion sometime they fall upon their poor Brethren which can but read and against them they are bitterly eloquene If we alledge what the Scriptures themselves do usually speak for the saving force of the Word of God not with restraint to any one certain kinde of delivery but howsoever the same shall chance to be made known yet by one trick or other they always restrain it unto Sermons Our Lord and Saviour hath said Search the Scriptures for in them ye think to have eternal life But they tell us he spake to the Jews which Jews before had heard his Sermons and that peradventure it was his minde they should search not by reading nor by hearing them read but by attending whensoever the Scriptures should happen to be alledged in Sermons Furthermore having received Apostolical Doctrine the Apostle Saint Paul hath taught us to esteem the same as the Supream Rule whereby all other Doctrines must for ever be examined Yea but in as much as the Apostle doth there speak of that he had Preached he flatly maketh as they strangely affirm his Preachings or Sermons the Rule whereby to examine all And then I beseech you what Rule have we whereby to judge or examine any For if Sermons must be our Rule because the Apostles Sermons were so to their Hearers then sith we are not as they were Hearers of the Apostles Sermons it resteth that either the Sermons which we hear should be our Rule or that being absurd therewill which yet hath greater absurdity no Rule at all be remaining for Tryal what Doctrines now are corrupt what consonant with heavenly Truth Again let the same Apostle acknowledge all Scripture profitable to teach to improve to correct to instruct in Righteousness Still notwithstanding we erre if hereby we presume to gather that Scripture read will avail unto any one of all these uses they teach us the meaning of the words to be that so much the Scripture can do if the Minister that way apply it in his Sermons otherwise not Finally they never hear Sentence which mentioneth the Word or Scripture but forthwith their Glosses upon it are the Word preached the Scripture explained or delivered unto us in Sermons Sermons they evermore understand to be that Word of God which alone hath vital Operation the dangerous sequel of which Construction I wish they did more attentively weigh For sith Speech is the very Image whereby the minde and soul of the Speaker conveyeth it self into the bolom of him which heareth we cannot chuse but see great reason wherefore the Word that proceedeth from God who is Himself very Truth and Life should be as the Apostle to the Hebrews noteth lively and mighty in operation sharper than any two-edged Sword Now if in this and the like Places we did conceive that our own Sermons are that strong and forcible Word should we not hereby impart even the most peculiar glory of the Word of God unto that which is not his word For touching our Sermons that which giveth them their very being is the wit of man and therefore they oftentimes accordingly taste too much of
should be derogated from the Baptism of the Church and Baptism by Donatists be more esteemed of then was meet if on the one side that which Hereticks had done ill should stand as good on the other side that be reversed which the Catholick Church had well and religiously done divers better minded then advised men thought it fittest to meet with this inconvenience by Rebaptising Donatists as well as they Rebaptized Catholicks For stay whereof the same Emperors saw it meet to give their Law a double edge whereby it might equally on both sides cut off not onely Hereticks which Rebaptized whom they could pervert but also Catholick and Christian Priests which did the like unto such as before had taken Baptism at the hands of Hereticks and were afterwards reconciled to the Church of God Donatists were therefore in process of time though with much ado wearied and at the length worn out by the constancy of that Truth which reacheth that evil Ministers of good things are as Torches a Light to others a Waste to none but themselves onely and that the soulness of their hands can neither any whit impair the Vertue nor stain the Glory of the Mysteries of Christ. Now that which was done amiss by vertuous and good men as Cyprian carried aside with hatred against Heresie and was secondly followed by Donatists whom Envy and Rancor covered with shew of Godliness made obstinate to cancel whatsoever the Church did in the Sacrament of Baptism hath of latter days in another respect far different from both the former been brought freshly again into practice For the Anabaptist Rebaptizeth because in his estimation the Baptism of the Church is frustrate for that we give it unto Infants which have not Faith whereas according unto Christs Institution as they conceive it true Baptism should always presuppose Actual Belief in Receivers and is otherwise no Baptism Of these three Errors there is not any but hath been able at the least to alledge in defence of it self many fair probabilities Notwithstanding sith the Church of God hath hitherto always constantly maintained that to Rebaptize them which are known to have received true Baptism is unlawful that if Baptism seriously be administred in the same Element and with the same form of words which Christs Institution teacheth there is no other defect in the World that can make it frustrate or deprive it of the Nature of a true Sacrament And lastly That Baptism is onely then to be re-adminstred when the first delivery thereof is void in regard of the fore-alledged imperfections and no other Shall we now in the case of Baptism which having both for matter and form the substance of Christs Institution is by a fourth sort of men voided for the onely defect of Ecclesiastical Authority in the Minister think it enough that they blow away the force thereof with the bare strength of their very breath by saying We take such Baptism to be no more the Sacrament of Baptism then any other ordinary Bathing to be a Sacrament It behoveth generally all sorts of men to keep themselves within the limits of their own vocation And seeing God from whom mers several degrees and pre-eminences do proceed hath appointed them in his Church at whose hands his pleasure is that we should receive both Baptism and all other publick medicinable helps of Soul perhaps thereby the more to settle our hearts in the love of our ghostly superiors they have small cause to hope that with him their voluntary services will be accepted who thrust themselves into Functions either above their capacity or besides their place and over-boldly intermeddle with Duties whereof no charge was ever give them They that in any thing exceed the compass of their own order do as much as in them lieth to dissolve that Order which is the Harmony of Gods Church Suppose therefore that in these and the like considerations the Law did utterly prohibite Baptism to be administred by any other then persons thereunto solemnly consecrated what necessity soever happen Are not many things firm being done although in part done otherwise then Positive Rigor and Strictness did require Nature as much as is possible inclineth unto validities and preservations Dissolutions and Nullities of things done are not onely not favored but hated when other urged without cause or extended beyond their reach If therefore at any time it come to pass that in reaching publickly or privately in delivering this Blessed Sacrament of Regeneration some unsanctified hand contrary to Christs supposed Ordinance do intrude it self to execute that whereunto the Laws of God and his Church have deputed others Which of these two opinions seemeth more agreeable with Equity outs that disallow what is done amiss yet make not the force of the Word and Sacraments much less their nature and very substance to depend on the Ministers authority and calling or else theirs which defeat disannul and annihilate both in respect of that one onely personal defect there being not any Law of God which saith That if the Minister be incompetent his Word shall be no Word his Baptism no Baptism He which teacheth and is not sent loseth the reward but yet retaineth the name of a Teacher His usurped actions have in him the same nature which they have in others although they yield him not the same comfort And if these two cases be Peers the case of Doctrine and the case of Baptism both alike sith no defect in their vocation that teach the Truth is able to take away the benefit thereof from him which heareth Wherefore should the want of a lawful calling in them that Baptize make Baptism to be vain They grant that the Matter and the Form in Sacraments are the onely parts of Substance and that if these two be retained albeit other things besides be used which are inconvenient the Sacrament notwithstanding is administred but not sincerely Why persist they not in this opinion when by these fair speeches they have put us in hope of agreement Wherefore sup they â—up their words again interlacing such frivolous Interpretations and Glosses as disgrace their Sentence What should move them having named the Matter and the Form of the Sacrament to give us presently warning that they mean by the Form of the Sacrament the Institution which Exposition darkneth whatsoever was before plain For whereas in common understanding that Form which added to the Element doth make a Sacrament and is of the outward substance thereof containeth onely the words of usual Application they set it down lest common Dictionaries should deceive us that the Form doth signifie in their Language the Institution which Institution in truth comprehendeth both Form and Matter Such are their fumbling shifts to inclose the Ministers vocation within the compass of some essential part of the Sacrament A thing that can never stand with sound and sincere construction For what if the Minister be no circumstance but a subordinate
less repugnant to the grounds and principles of Common right than the fraudulent proceedings of Tyrants to the principles of just Soveraignty Howbeit not so those special priviledges which are but instruments wrested and forced to serve malice There is in the Patriark of Heathen Philosophers this Precept Let us Husbandman nor no Handy-craftsman be a Priest The reason whereupon he groundeth is a maxim in the Law of Nature◠It importeth greatly the good of all men that God be reverenced with whose honour it standeth not that they which are publickly imployed in his service should live of base and manuary Trades Now compare herewith the Apostle's words Ye know that these hands have ministred to my necessities and them that are with me What think we Did the Apostle any thing opposite herein or repugnant to the Rules and Maxims of the Law of Nature The self-same reasons that accord his actions with the Law of Nature shall declare our Priviledges and his Laws no less consonant Thus therefore we see that although they urge very colourably the Apostles own Sentences requiring that a Minister should be able to divide rightly the Word of God that they who are placed in Charge should attend unto it themselves which in absence they cannot do and that they which have divers Cures must of necessity be absent from some whereby the Law Apostolick seemeth apparently broken which Law requiring attendance cannot otherwise be understood than so as to charge them with perpetual Residence Again though in every of these causes they infinitely heap up the Sentences of Fathers the Decrees of Popes the antient Edicts of Imperial authority our own National Laws and Ordinances prohibiting the same and grounding evermore their Prohibitions partly on the Laws of God and partly on reasons drawn from the light of Nature yet hereby to gather and inferr contradiction between those Laws which forbid indefinitely and ours which in certain cases have allowed the ordaining of sundry Ministers whose sufficiency for Learning is but mean Again the licensing of some to be absent from their Flocks and of others to hold more than one onely Living which hath Cure of Souls I say to conclude repugnancy between these especial permissions and the former general prohibitions which set not down their own limits is erroneous and the manifest cause thereof ignorance in differences of matter which both sorts of Law concern If then the considerations be reasonable just and good whereupon we ground whatsoever our Laws have by special right permitted if onely the effects of abused Priviledges be repugnant to the Maxims of Common right this main foundation of repugnancy being broken whatsoever they have built thereupon falleth necessarily to the ground Whereas therefore upon surmise or vain supposal of opposition between our special and the principles of Common right they gather that such as are with us ordained Ministers before they can Preach be neither lawfull because the Laws already mentioned forbid generally to create such neither are they indeed Ministers although we commonly so name them but whatsoever they execute by vertue of such their pretended Vocation is void◠that all our grants and tolerations as well of this as the rest are frustrate and of no effect the Persons that enjoy them possess them wrongfully and are deprivable at all hours finally that other just and sufficient remedy of evils there can be none besides the utter abrogations of these our mitigations and the strict establishment of former Ordinances to be absolutely executed whatsoever follow albeit the Answer already made in discovery of the weak and unsound foundation whereupon they have built these erroneous collections may be thought sufficient yet because our desire is rather to satisfie if it be possible than to shake them off we are with very good will contented to declare the causes of all particulars more formally and largely than the equity of our own defence doth require There is crept into the mindes of men at this day a secret pernicious and pestilent conceit that the greatest perfection of a Christian man doth consist in discovery of other mens faults and in wit to discourse of our own profession When the World most abounded with just righteous and perfect men their chiefest study was the exercise of piety wherein for their safest direction they reverently hearkened to the Readings of the Law of God they kept in minde the Oracles and Aphorismes of wisdom which tended unto vertuous life if any scruple of conscience did trouble them for matter of Actions which they took in hand nothing was attempted before counsel and advice were had for fear left rashly they might offend We are now more confident not that our knowledge and judgement is riper but because our desires are another way Their scope was obedience ours is skill their endeavour was reformation of life our vertue nothing but to hear gladly the reproof of vice they in the practice of their Religion wearied chiefly their knees and hands we especially our ears and tongues We are grown as in many things else so in this to a kinde of intemperancy which onely Sermons excepted hath almost brought all other duties of Religion out of taste At the least they are not in that account and reputation which they should be Now because men bring all Religion in a manner to the onely Office of hearing Sermons if it chance that they who are thus conceited do imbrace any special opinion different from other men the Sermons that relish not that opinion can in no wise please their appetite Such therefore as preach unto them but hit not the string they look for are rejected as unprofitable the rest as unlawful and indeed no Ministers if the faculty of Sermons want For why◠A Minister of the Word should they say be able rightly to divide the Word Which Apostolick Canon many think they do well observe when in opening the Sentences of holy Scripture they draw all things favourably spoken unto one side but whatsoever is reprehensive severe and sharp they have others on the contrary part whom that must always concern by which their over-partial and un-indifferent proceeding while they thus labour amongst the people to divide the Word they make the Word a mean to divide and distract the People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to divide aright doth note in the Apostle's Writings soundness of Doctrine onely and in meaning standeth opposite to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the broaching of new opinions against that which is received For questionless the first things delivered to the Church of Christ were pure and sincere Truth Which whosoever did afterwards oppugn could not chuse but divide the Church into two moyeties in which division such as taught what was first believed held the truet part the contrary side in that they were teachers of novelty etred For prevention of which evil there are in this Church many singular and well devised remedies as namely the use of subscribing to the Articles
Persons and Causes of the Church But I see that hitherto they which condemn utterly the name so applyed do it because they mislike that such Power should be given to Civil Governours The great exception that Sir Thomas Moor took against that Title who suffered death for denyal of it was for that it maketh a Lay a Secular Person the head of the State Spiritual or Ecclesiastical as though God himself did not name Said the Head of all the Tribes of Israel and consequently of that Tribe also among the rest whereunto the State Spiritual or Ecclesiastical belonged when the Authors of the Centuries reprove it in Kings and Civil Governours the reason is I st is non competit iste Primatus such kinde of Power is too high for them they fit it not In excuse of Mr. Calvin by whom this Realm is condemned of Blasphemy for intituâ—ing H. 8. Supream Head of this Church under Christ a charitable conjecture is made that he spake by misinformation howbeit as he professeth utter dislike of that name so whether the name be used or no the very Power it self which we give unto Civil Magistrates he much complaineth of and protesteth That their Power over all things was it which had ever wounded him deeply That un-advised Persons had made them too Spiritual that throughout Germany this fault did reign that in these very parts where Calvin himself was it prevailed more than was to be wished that Rulers by imagining themselves so Spiritual have taken away Ecclesiastical Government that they think they cannot reign unless they abolish all the Authority of the Cuurch and be themselves the chief Iudges as well in Doctrine as in the whole Spiritual Regency So that in truth the Question is Whether the Magistrate by being Head in such sense as we term him do use or exercise any part of that Authority not which belongeth unto Christ but which other men ought to have These things being first considered thus it will be easier to judge concerning our own estate whether by force of Ecclesiastical Government Kings have any other kinde of Prerogative that they may lawfully hold and enjoy It is as some do imagine too much that Kings of England should be termed Heads in relation of the Church That which we do understand by Headship is their only Supreme Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs and Causes That which lawful Princes are what should make it unlawful for men in Spiritual Stiles or Titles to signifie If the having of Supream Power be allowed why is the expressing thereof by the Title of Head condemned They seem in words at leastwise some of them now at the length to acknowledge that Kings may have Dominion or Supream Government even over all both Persons and Causes We in terming our Princes Heads of the Church do but testifie that we acknowledge them such Governours Again to this it will peradventure be replyed That howsoever we interpret our selves it is not fit for a mortal man and therefore not fit for a Civil Magistrate to be intituled the Head of the Church which was given to our Saviour Christ to lift him above all Powers Rules Dominions Titles in Heaven or in Earth Where if this Title belong also to Civil Magistrates then it is manifest that there is a Power in Earth whereunto our Saviour Christ is not in this point superiour Again if the Civil Magistrate may have this Title he may be termed also the first-begotten of all Creatures The first begotten of all the Dead yea the Redeemer of his People For these are alike given him as Dignities whereby he is lifted up above all Creatures Besides this the whole Argument of the Apostle in both places doth lead to show that this Title Head of the Church cannot be said of any Creature And further the very domonstrative Articles amongst the Hebrews especially whom St. Paul doth follow serveth to tye that which is verified of one unto himself alone so that when the Apostle doth say that Christ it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Head it is as if he should say Christ and none other is the Head of the Church Thus have we against the entituling of the Highest Magistrate head with relation unto the Church four several Arguments gathered by strong surmise out of words marvellous unlikely to have been written to any such purpose as that whereunto they are now used and urged To the Ephesians the Apostle writeth That Christ God had set on his right hand in the Heavenly places above all Regency and Authority and Power and Dominion and whatsoever name is named not in this World only but in that which shall be also and hath under his feet set all things and hath given him head above all things unto the Church which is his Body even the fulness of him which accomplisheth all in all To the Colossians in like manner That he is the head of the body of the Church who is a first born Regency out of the dead to the end he might be made amongst them all such an one as both the Chiefty He meaneth amongst all them whom he mentioned before saying By him all things that are were made the things in the Heavens and the things in the Earth the things that are visible and the things that are invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Regencies c. Unto the fore-alledged Arguments therefore we answer First that it is not simply the title of Head in such sort understood as the Apostle himself meant it so that the same being imparted in another sense unto others doth not any wayes make those others his Equals in as much as diversity of things is usually to be understood even when of words there is no diversity and it is onely the adding of one and the same thing unto divers Persons which doth argue equality in them If I term Christ and Cesar Lords yet this is no equalizing Cesar with Christ because it is not thereby intended To term the Emperor Lord saith Tertullian I for my part will not refuse so that I be not required to call him Lord in the same sense that God is so termed Neither doth it follow which is objected in the second place that if the Civil Magistrate may be intituled a Head he may as well be termed the first begotten of all Creatures the first begotten of the Dead and the Redeemer of his People For albeit the former dignity doth lift him up to less than these yet these terms are not applyable and apt to signifie any other inferior dignity as the former term of Head was The Argument of matter which the Apostle followeth hath small evidence or proof that his meaning was to appropriate unto Christ that the aforesaid title otherwise than only in such sense as doth make it being so understood too high to be given to any Creature As for the force of the Article where our Lord and Saviour is called the Head it serveth
doubted but many of the Fathers were saved but the means I said was not their ignorance which excuseth no man with God but their knowledge and Faith of the Truth which it appeareth God vouchsafed them by many notable Monuments and Records extant in all Ages Which being the last point in all my Sermon rising so naturally from the Text I then propounded as would have occasioned me to have delivered such matter notwithstanding the former Doctrine had been sound and being dealt in by a general speech without touch of his particular I looked not that a matter of Controversie would have been made of it no more than had been of my like dealing in former time But far otherwise than I looked for Mr. Hooker shewing no grief of Offence taken at my speech all the week long the next Sabbath leaving to proceed upon his ordinarie Text professed to preach again that he had done the day before for some question that his Doctrine was drawn into which he desired might be examined with all severitie So proceeding he bestowed his whole time in that discourse concerning his former Doctrine and answering the places of Scripture which I had alledged to prove that a man dying in the Church of Rome is not to be judged by the Scriptures to be saved In which long speech and utterly impertinent to his Text under colour of answering for himself he impugned directly and openly to all mens understanding the true Doctrine which I had delivered and adding to his former Points some other like as willingly one Error followeth another that is That the Galatians joyning with Faith in Christ Circumcision as necessary to Salvation might not be saved And that they of the Church of Rome may be saved by such a Faith of Christ as they had with a general Repentance of all their Errors notwithstanding their opinion of Iustification in part by their works and merits I was necessarily though not willingly drawn to say something to the Points he objected against sound Doctrine which I did in a short speech in the end of my Sermon with protestation of so doing no of any sinister affection to any man but to bear witness to the Truth according to my Calling and wished if the matter should needs further be dealt in some other more convenient way might be taken for it wherein I hope my dealing was manifest to the Consciences of all indifferent Hearers of me that day to have been according to Peace and without any uncharitableness being duly considered For that I conferred with him the first day I have shewed that the Cause requiring of me the Duty at the least not to be altogether silent in it being a matter of such consequence that the time also being short wherein I was to preach after him the hope of the fruit of our communication being small upon experience of forme Conferences my expectation being that the Church should be no further troubled with it upon the motion I made of taking some other course of dealing I suppose my deferring to speak with him till some fit opportunitie cannot in Charity be judged uncharitable The second day his unlooked for opposition with the former Reasons made it to be a matter that required of necessity some Publick answer which being so temporate as I have shewed if notwithstanding it be sensured as uncharitable and punished so grievously as it is What should have been my punishment if without all such cautions and respects as qualified my speech I had before all and in the understanding of all so reproved him offending openly that others might have feared to doe the like which yet if I had done might have been warranted by the rule and charge of the Apostle Them that offend openly rebuke openly that the rest may also fear and by his example who when Peter in this very Case which is now between us had not in Preaching but in a matter of Conversation not gone with a right foot as was fit for the truth of the Gospel conferred not privately with him but as his own rule required reproved him openly before all that others might hear and fear and not dare to do the like All which reasons together weighed I hope will shew the manner of my dealing to have been charitable and warrantable in every sort The next Sabbath day after this Mr. Hooker kept the way he had entred into before and bestowed his whole hour and more onely upon the Questions he had moved and maintained wherein he so set forth the agreement of the Church of Rome with us and their disagreement from us as if we had consented in the greatest and weightiest Points and differed onely in certain smaller matters Which Agreement noted by him in two chief points is not such as he would have made men believe The one in that he said They acknowledge all men sinners even the blessed Virgin though some of them freed her from sinne for the Council of Trent holdeth that she was free from sinne Another in that he said They teach Christ's Righteousness to be the onely meritorious cause of taking away sinne and differ from us onely in the applying of it For Thomas Aquinas their chief Schoolman and Archbishop Catherinus teach That Christ took away onely Original sinne and that the rest are to be taken away by our selves yea the Council of Trent teacheth That Righteousness whereby we are righteous in God's sight is an inherent Righteousness which must needs be of our own Works and cannot be understood of the Righteousness inherent onely in Christ's Person and accounted unto us Moreover he taught the same time That neither the Galatians nor the Church of Rome did directly overthrow the foundation of Iustification by Christ alone but onely by consequent and therefore might well be saved or else neither the Churches of the Lutherans nor any which bold any manner of Errour could be saved because saith he every Errour by consequent overthroweth the Foundation In which Discourses and such like he bestowed his whole time and more which if he had affected either the truth of God or the peace or the Church he would truly not have done Whose example could not draw me to leave the Scripture I took in hand but standing about an hour to deliver the Doctrine of it in the end upon just occasion of the Text leaving sundry other his unsound speeches and keeping me still to the Principal I confirmed the believing the Doctrine of Justification by Christ onely to be necessary to the Justification of all that should be saved and that the Church of Rome directly denieth that a man is saved by Christ or by Faith alone without the works of the Law Which my Answer as it was most necessary for the service of God and the Church so was it without any immodest or reproachful speech to Mr. Hooker whose unsound and wilful dealings in a Cause of so great importance to the Faith of Christ and salvation of the Church
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
to stand upon I think the like to this and other such in this Sermon and the rest of this matter hath not been heard in Publick places within this Land since Queen Mary's days What consequence this Doctrine may be of if he be not by Authority ordered to revoke it I beseech your H H. as the truth of God and his Gospel is dear and precious unto you according to your godly wisdome to consider I have been bold to offer to your H H. a long and tedious Discourse of these matters but Speech being like to Tapestry which if it be folded up sheweth but part of that which is wrought and being unlapt and laid open sheweth plainly to the eye all the work that is in it I thought it necessary to unfold this Tapestry and to hang up the whole Chamber of it in your most Honourable Senate that so you may the more easily discern of all the Pieces and the sundry Works and Matters contained in it Wherein my hope is your H H. may see I have not deserved so great a Punishment as is laid upon the Church for my sake and also upon my self in taking from me the excercise of my Ministerie Which Punishment how heavy it may seem to the Church or fall out indeed to be I referr it to them to judge and spare to write what I fear but to my self it is exceeding grievous for that it taketh from me the excercise of my Calling Which I do not say is dear unto me as the means of that little benefit whereby I live although this be a lawful consideration and to be regarded of me in due place and of the Authority under whose Protection I most willingly live even by God's Commandment both unto them and unto me but which ought to be more precious unto me than my life for the love which I should bear to the glory and honour of Almighty God and to the edification and salvation of his Church for that my life cannot any other way be of like service to God nor of such use and profit to men by any means For which Cause as I discern how dear my Ministery ought to be unto me so it is my hearty desire and most humble request unto God to your H H. and to all the Authority I live under to whom any dealing herein belongeth that I may spend my life according to his Example who in a word of like sound of fuller sense comparing by it the bestowing of his life to the Offering poured out upon the Sacrifice of the Faith of God's people and especially of this Church whereupon I have already poured out a great part thereof in the same Calling from which I stand now restrained And if your H H. shall finde it so that I have not deserved so great a Punishment but rather performed the Duty which a good and faithful Servant ought in such case to do to his Lord and the People he putteth them in trust withal carefully to keep I am a most humble Suiter by these presents to your H H. that by your godly wisdom some good course may be taken for the restoring of me to my Ministery and Place again Which so great a favour shall binde me yet in a greater obligation of Duty which is already so great as it seemed nothing could be added unto it to make it greater to honour God daily for the continuance and encrease of your good estate and to be ready with all the poor means God hath given me to do your H H. that faithful Service I may possibly perform But if notwithstanding my Cause he never so good your H H. can by no means pacifie such as are offended nor restore me again then am I to rest in the good pleasure of God and to commend to your H H. protection under Her Majesties my private life while it shall be led in duty and the Church to him who hath redeemed to himself a People with his precious Blood and is making ready to come to judge both the Quick and the Dead to give to every one according as he hath done in this life be it good or evil to the Wicked and Unbelievers Justice unto death but to the Faithful and such as love his truth Mercy and Grace to life everlasting Your Honours most bounden and most humble Suppliant WALTER TRAVERS Minister of the Gospel Mr. HOOKER'S ANSVVER TO THE SUPPLICATION THAT Mr. TRAVERS Made to the COUNCIL To my Lord of Canterburie his Grace MY Duty in my most humble wise remembred May it please your Grace to understand That whereas there hath been a late Controversie raised in the Temple and pursued by Mr. Travers upon conceit taken at some words by me uttered with a most simple and harmless meaning In the heat of which pursuit after three publick Invectives silence being enjoyned him by Authority he hath hereupon for defence of his proceedings both presented the Right Honourable Lords and others of Her Majesties Privy Councel with a Writing and also caused or suffered the same to be Copied out and spread through the hands of so many that well nigh all sorts of men have it in their bosomes The matters wherewith I am therein charged being of such quality as they are and my self being better known to your Grace than to any other of their Honors besides I have chosen to offer to your Grace's hands a plain Declaration of my Innocence in all those things wherewith I am so hardly and so heavily charged lest if I still remain silent that which I do for quietness sake be taken as an Argument that I lack what to speak truly and justly in mine own defence 2. First because M. Travers thinketh it an expedient to breed an Opinion in mens mindes that the root of all inconvenient events which are now sprung out is the surly and unpeaceable disposition of the man with whom he hath to do therefore the first in the rank of Accusations laid against me is my intorformity which have so little inclined to so many and so earnest Exhortations and Conferences as my self he saith can witness to have been spent upon me for my better fashioning unto good correspondence and agreement 3. Indeed when at the first by means of special Well-willers without any suit of mine as they very well know although I do not think it had been a mortal sinne in a reasonable sort to have shewed a moderate desire that way yet when by their endeavour without instigation of mine some Reverend and Honourable favourably affecting me had procured her Majesties's grant of the Place At the very point of my eptring thereinto the Evening before I was first to Preach he came and two other Gentlemen joyned with him The effect of his Conference then was That he thought it his Duty to advise me not to enter with a strong hand but to change my purpose of Preaching there the next day and to stay till he had given notice of me to
any direct denial of the foundation as it is affirmed that both are I need not wade so far as to discuss this Controversie the matter which first was brought into question being so clear as I hope it is Howbeit because I desire that the truth even in that also should receive light I will do mine indeavour to set down somewhat more plainly First the foundation of Faith what it is Secondly what is directly to deny the foundation Thirdly whether they whom God hath chosen to be heirs of life may fall so far as directly to deny it Fourthly whether the Galathians did so by admitting the error about Circumcision and the Law Last of all whether the Church of Rome for this one opinion of Works may be thought to do the like and thereupon to be no more a Christian Church than are the Assemblies of Turks and Jews 23. This word Foundation being figuratively used hath always reference to somewhat which resembleth a material building as both that Doctrine of Laws and the community of Christians do By the Masters of Civil Policy nothing is so much inculcated as that Commonweals are founded upon Laws for that a multitude cannot be compacted into one body otherwise then by a common acception of Laws whereby they are to be kept in order The ground of all civil Laws is this No man ought to be hurt or injured by another Take away this perswasion and yet take away all the Laws take away Laws and what shall become of Common-weals So it is in our spiritual Christian Community I do not mean that Body Mystical whereof Christ is onely the head that Building undiscernable by mortal eyes wherein Christ is the chief corner stone but I speak of the visible Church the foundation whereof is the doctrine which the Prophets and the Apostles profest The mark whereunto their Doctrine tendeth is pointed at in these words of Peter unto Christ. Thou hast the words of eternal life In those words of Paul to Timothy The holy Scriptures are able to wake thee wise unto salvation It is the demand of nature it self What shall we do to have eternal life The desire of immortality and the knowledge of that whereby it may be obtained is so natural unto all men that even they who are not perswaded that they shall do notwithstanding wish that they might know a way how to see no end of life And because natural means are not able still to resist the force of Death there is no people in the earth so savage which hath not devised some supernatural help or other to fly for aid and succour in extremities against the enemies of the Laws A longing therefore to be saved without understanding the true way how hath been the cause of all the Superstitions in the World O that the miserable state of others which wander in darkness and wot not whither they go could give us understanding hearts worthily to esteem the riches of the mercy of God towards us before whose eys the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven are set wide openâ— should we offer violence unto it it offereth violence unto us and we gather strength to withstand it But I am besides my purpose when I fall to bewail the cold affection which we bear towards that whereby we should be saved my purpose being only to set down what the ground of salvation is The Doctrine of the Gospel proposeth salvation as the end And doth it not teach the way of attaining thereunto Yet the Damosel possest with a spirit of divination spake the truth These men are the Servants of the most high God which shew unto us the way of Salvation A new and living way which Christ hath prepared for us through the vail that is his flesh Salvation purchased by the death of Christ. By this foundation the children of God before the written Law were distinguished from the sons of men the reverend Patriarks both possest it living and spake expresly of it at the hour of their death It comforted Iob in the midst of grief as it was afterwards the anker-hold of all the righteous in Israel from the writing of the Law to the time of grace Every Prophet making mention of it It was famously spoken of about the time when the comming of Christ to accomplish the promises which were made long before it drew near that the sound thereof was heard even amongst the Gentiles When he was come as many as were his acknowledged that he was their Salvation he that long expected hope of Israel he that Seed in whom all the Nations of the earth shall be blessed So that now he is a name of ruine a name of death and condemnation unto such as dream of a new Messias to as many as look for salvation by any other but by him For amongst men there is given no other name under heaven whereby we must be saved Thus much S. Mark doth intimate by that which he doth put in the front of this book making his entrance with these words The beginning of the Gospel of Iesus Christ the Son of God His Doctrine he termeth the Gospel because it teacheth Salvation the Gospel of Jesus Christ the son of God because it teacheth salvation by him This is then the foundation whereupon the frame of the Gospel is erected that very Jesus whom the Virgin conceived of the holy Ghost whom Simeon imbraced in his arms whom Pilat condemned whom the Iews crucified whom the Apostles preached he is Christ the Lord the onely Saviour of the World Other foundation can no man lay Thus I have briefly opened that principle in Christianity which we call the foundation of our faith It followeth now that I declare unto you what is directly to overthrow it This will be better opened if we understand what it is to hold the foundation of Faith 24. There are which defend that many of the Gentiles who never heard the Name of Christ held the foundation of Christianity and why they acknowledged many of them the Providence of God his infinite wisedom strength power his goodness and his mercy towards the Children of men that God hath judgment in store for the wicked but for the righteous which serve him rewards c. In this which they confessed that lyeth covered which we believe in the Rudiments of their knowledge concerning God the foundation of our Faith concerning Christ lyeth secretly wrapt up and is vertually contained therefore they held the foundation of Faith though they never had it Might we not with as good a colour of Reason defend that every Plowman hath all the Sciences wherein Philosophers have excelled For no man is ignorant of their first Principles which do vertually contain whatsoever by natural means is or can be known Yea might we not with as great reason affirm that a man may put three mighty Oaks wheresoever three Akoms may be put For vertually an Akom is an Oak To avoid such Paradoxes
we teach plainly that To hold the foundation is in express terms to acknowledg it 25. Now because the foundation is an affirmative Proposition they all overthrow it who deny it they directly overthrow it who deny it directly and they overthrow it by consequent or indirectly which hold any one assertion whatsoever whereupon the direct denial thereof may be necessarily concluded What is the Question between the Gentiles and Us but this Whether salvation be by Christ What between the Iews and Us but this Whether by this Iesus whom we call Christ yea or no This is to be the main point whereupon Christianity standeth it is clear by that one sentence of Festus concerning Pauls accusers They brought no crime of such things as I supposed but had certain questions against him of their superstition and of one Iesus which was dead whom Paul affirmed to be alive Where we see that Jesus dead and raised for the Salvation of the World is by Iesus denied despised by a Gentile by a Christian Apostle maintained The Fathers therefore in the Primitive Church when they wrote Tertullian the book which he called Apologeticus Minutius Faelix the Book which he intitleth Octavius Arnobius the seventh books against the Gentiles Chrysostom his Orations against the Jews Eusebius his ten books of Evangelical demonstration they stand in defence of Christianity against them by whom the foundation thereof was directly denied But the writings of the Fathers against Novatians Pelagians and other Hereticks of the like note refel Positions whereby the foundation of Christian Faith was overthrown by consequent onely In the former sort of Writings the foundation is proved in the latter it is alledged as a proof which to men that had been known directly to deny must needs have seemed a very beggerly kind of disputing All Infidels therefore deny the foundation of Faith directly by consequent many a Christian man yea whole Christian Churches have denied it and do deny it at this present day Christian Churches the foundation of Christianity not directly for then they cease to be Christian Churches but by consequent in respect whereof we condemn them as erroneous although for holding the foundation we do and must hold them Christians 26. We see what it is to hold the foundation what directly and what by consequent to deny it The next thing which followeth is whether they whom God hath chosen to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ may once effectually called and through faith justified truly afterwards fall so far as directly to deny the foundation which their hearts have before imbraced with joy and comfort in the Holy Ghost for such is the faith which indeed doth justifie Devils know the same things which we believe and the minds of the most ungodly may be fully perswaded of the Truth which knowledge in the one and in the other is sometimes termed faith but equivocally being indeed no such faith as that whereby a Christian man is justified It is the Spirit of Adoption which worketh faith in us in them not the things which we believe are by us apprehended not onely as true but also as good and that to us as good they are not by them apprehended as true they are Whereupon followeth the third difference the Christian man the more he encreaseth in faith the more his joy and comfort aboundeth but they the more sure they are of the truth the more they quake and tremble at it This begetteth another effect where the hearts of the one sort have a different disposition from the other Non ignoro plerosque conscientia meritorum nihil se esse per mortem magis optare quam credere Malunt cuim extingui penitus quam ad supplicia reparari I am not ignorant saith Minutius that there be many who being conscious what they are to look for do rather wish that they might then think that they shall cease when they cease to live because they hold it better that death should consume them unto nothing then God revive them unto punishment So it is in other Articles of Faith whereof wicked men think no doubt many times they are too true On the contrary side to the other there is no grief or torment greater then to feel their perswasion weak in thingsâ— whereof when they are perswaded they reap such comfort and joy of spirit such is the faith whereby we are justified such I mean in respect of the quality For touching the principal object of Faith longer then it holdeth the foundation whereof we have spoken it neither justifieth nor is but ceaseth to be faith when it ceaseth to believe that Jesus Christ is the onely Saviour of the World The cause of life spiritual in us is Christ not carnally or corporally inhabiting but dwelling in the soul of man as a thing which when the minde apprehendeth it is said to inhabite or possess the minde The minde conceiveth Christ by hearing the Doctrine of Christianity as the light of Nature doth the minde to apprehend those truths which are meerly rational so that saving truth which is far above the reach of Humane Reason cannot otherwise then by the Spirit of the Almighty be conceived All these are implied wheresoever any of them is mentioned as the cause of the spiritual life Wherefore if we have read that the spirit is our life or the Word our life or Christ our life We are in very of these to understand that our life is Christ by the hearing of the Gospel apprehended as a Saviour and assented unto through the power of the Holy Ghost The first intellectual conceit and comprehension of Christ so imbraced St. Peter calleth the seed whereof we be new born our first imbracing of Christ is our first reviving from the state of death and condemation He that hath the Son hath life saith St. Iohn and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life If therefore he which once hath the Son may cease to have the Son though it be for a moment he ceaseth for that moment to have life But the life of them which have the Son of God is everlasting in the world to come But because as Christ being raised from the dead dyed no more death hath no more power over him so justified man being allied to God in Jesus Christ our Lord doth as necessarily from that time forward always live as Christ by whom he hath life liyeth always I might if I had not otherwhere largely done it already shew by many and sundry manifest and clear proofs how the motions and operations of life are sometime so indiscernable and so secret that they seem stone-dead who notwithstanding are still alive unto God in Christ. For as long as that abideth in us which animateth quickneth and giveth life so long we live and we know that the cause of our Faith abideth in us for ever I. Christ the Fountain of Life may flit and leave the Habitation
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
men And fearing left that such questions as these if voluntarily they should be too farr waded in might seem worthy of that rebuke which our Saviour thought needfull in a case not unlike What is this unto thee When I was forced much beside my expectation to render a reason of my speech I could not but yield at the Call of others and proceed so farr as Duty bound me for the fuller satisfying of mindes Wherein I have walked as with Reverence so with Fear with Reverence inregard of our Fathers which lived in former times not without Fear considering them that are alive 38. I am not ignorant how ready men are to feed and sooth up themselves in evil Shall I will the man say that loveth the present World more than he loveth Christ shall I incurr the high displeasure of the mightiest upon Earth Shall I hazard my Goods endanger my Estate put my self into jeopardy rather than to yield to that which so many of my Fathers imbraced and yet found favour in the sight of God Curse ye Meroz saith the Lord curse bar Inhabitants because they helped not the Lord they helped him not against the Mighty If I should not onely not help the Lord against the Mighty but help to strengthen them that are mighty against the Lord worthily might I fall under the burthen of that Curse worthy I were to bear to bear my own Judgement But if the Doctrine which I reach be a flower gathered in the Garden of the Lord a part of the saying Truth of the Gospel from whence notwithstanding poysonous Creatures do suck-venom I can but wish it were otherwise and content my self with the lord that hath befallen me the rather because it hath not befallen me alone Saint Paul taught a Truth and a comfortable truth when he taught that the greater our misery is in respect of our Iniquities the readier is the mercy of God for our release If we seek unto him the more we have sinned the more praise and glory and honour unto him that pardoneth our sinne But mark what sewd Collections were made hereupon by some Why then am I condemned for a Sinner And the Apostle as we are blamed and as some affirm that we say Why doe we not evil that good may come of it he was accused to teach that which ill-disposed People did gather by his teaching though it were clean not onely besides but against his meaning The Apostle addeth Their Condemnation which thus doe is just I am not hasty to apply Sentences of Condemnation I wish from mine Heart their Conversion whosoever are thus perversly affected For I must needs say Their Case is fearful their Estate dangerous which harden themselves presuming on the mercy of God towards others It is true that God is merciful but let us beware of presumptuous sinnes God delivered Ionah from the bottome of the Sea will you therefore cast your selves head-long from the tops of Rocks and say in your Hearts God shall deliver us He pitieth the Blinde that would gladly see but will he pity him that may see and hardeneth himself in blindenesse No Christ hath spoken too much unto you to claim the priviledge of your Fathers 39. As for us that have handled this Cause concerning the condition of our Fathers whether it be this thing or any other which we bring unto you the Counsel is good which the Wise man giveth Stand thou fast in thy sure understanding in the way and knowledge of the Lord and have but one manner of word and follow the Word of peace and righteousnesse As a loose tooth is a grief to him that eateth so doth a wavering and unstable word in speech that tendeth to instruction offend Shall a wise man speak words of the winde saith Eliphaz leight unconstant unstable words Surely the wisest may speak words of the winde such is the untoward Constitution of our nature that we doe neither so perfectly understand the way and knowledge of the Lord nor so stedfastly imbrace it when it is understood nor so graciously utter it when it is imbraced not so peaceably maintain it when it is uttered but that the best of us are over-taken sometime through blindenesse sometime through hastinesse sometime through impatience sometimes through other passions us the minde whereunto God doth know we are too subject We must therefore be contented both to pardon others and to crave that others may pardon us for such things Let no man that speaketh as a man think himself while he liveth alwayes freed from scapes and over-sights in his speech The things themselves which I have spoken unto you are sound howsoever they have seemed otherwise unto some at whose hands I have in that respect received Injury I willingly forget it although indeed considering the benefit which I have reaped by this necessary speech of Truth I rather incline to that of the Apostle They have not injured me at all I have cause to wish them as many Blessings in the Kingdom of Heaven as they have forced me to utter words and syllables in this Cause wherein I could not be more sparing of speech than I have been It becommeth no man saith Saint Ierom to be patient in the crime of Heresie Patient as I take it we should be alwayes though the crime of Heresie were intended but silent in a thing of so great Consequence I could not beloved I durst not be especially the love which I bear to the truth of Christ Jesus being hereby somewhat called in question Whereof I beseech them in the meeknesse of Christ that have been the first original cause to consider that a Watch-man may cry an Enemy when indeed a Friend commeth In which Cause as I deem such a Watch-man more worthy to be loved for his Care than mis-liked for his Errour So I have judged it my own part in this as much as in me lyeth to take away all suspition of any unfriendly intent or meaning against the Truth from which God doth know my heart is free 40. Now to you Beloved which have heard these things I will use no other words of admonition than those that are offered me by St. Iames My Brethren have not the Faith of our glorious Lord Iesus in respect of Persons Ye are not now to learn that as of it self it is not hurtful so neither should it be to any scandalous and offensive in doubtful cases to hear the different judgments of men Be it that Cephas hath hath one interpretation and Apollos hath another that Paul is of this minde and Barnabas of that if this offend you the fault is yours Carry peaceable mindes and you may have comfort by this variety Now the God of Peace give you peaceable mindes and turn it to your everlasting comfort A LEARNED SERMON OF THE NATURE OF PRIDE HABAK. 2. 4. His mind swelleth and is not right in him But the Iust by his Faith shall live THE nature of Man being much more delighted to
which lightned thus the eyes of their understanding giving them knowledge by unusual and extraordinary means did also miraculously himself frame and fashion their Words and Writings in so much that a greater difference there seemeth not to be between the manner of their knowledge than there is between the manner of their speech and ours When we have conceived a thing in our hearts and throughly understand it as we think within our selves â—re we can utter in such sort that our Brethren may receive instruction or comfort at our mouths how great how long how earnest meditation are we forced to use And after much travail and much pains when we open our lips to speak of the wonderful works of God our tongues do faulter within our mouths yea many times we disgrace the dreadful mysteries of our Faith and grieve the spirit of our Hearers by words unsavoury and unseemly speeches Shall a Wise-man fill his Belly with the Eastern winde saith Eliphaz shall a Wise-man dispute with words not comely or with talk that is not profitable Yet behold even they that are wisest amongst us living compared with the Prophets seem no otherwise to talk of God than as if the Children which are carried in arms should speak of the greatest matters of State They whose words do most shew forth their wise understanding and whose lips do utter the purest knowledge so long as they understand and speak as men are they not fain sundry ways to excuse themselves Sometimes acknowledging with the Wise-man Hardly can we discern the things that are on earth and with great labour finde we out the things that are before us Who can then seek out the things that are in Heaven Sometimes confessing with Iob the righteous in treating of things too wonderful for us we have spoken we wist not what Sometimes ending their talk as doth the History of the Macchabees if we have done well and as the Cause required it is that we desire if we have spoken slenderly and barely we have done we could But God hath made my mouth like a sword saith Esay And we have received saith the Apostle not the spirit of the World but the spirit which is of God that we might know the things that are given to us of God which things also we speak not in words which man's wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost doth teach This is that which the Prophets mean by those Books written full within and without which Books were so often delivered them to eat not because God fed them with Ink and Paper but to teach us that so oft as he imployed them in this heavenly Work they neither spake nor wrote any word of their own but uttered syllable by syllable as the Spirit put it into their mouths no otherwise than the Harp or the Lute doth give a sound according to the discretion of his hands that holdeth and striketh it with skill The difference is only this An instrument whether it be a Pipe or Harp maketh a distinction in the times and sounds which distinction is well perceived of the Hearer the Instrument it self understanding not what is Piped or Harped The Prophets and holy men of God not so I opened my mouth saith Ezekiel and God reached me a scroul saying Son of man cause thy Belly to eat and fill thy Bowels with this I give thee I ate it and it was sweet in my mouth as honey saith the Prophet Yea sweeter I am perswaded than either honey or the honey comb For herein they were not like Harps or Lutes but they felt they felt the power and strength of their own words When they spake of our peace every corner of their hearts was filled with joy When they prophesied of mournings lamentations and woes to fall upon us they wept in the bitterness and indignation of Spirit the arm of the Lord being mighty and strong upon them 5. On this manner were all the Prophesie of holy Scripture Which Prophesies although they contain nothing which is not profitable for our instruction yet as one Star differeth from another in glory so every word of Prophesie hath a treasure of matter in it but all matters are not of like importance as all Treasures are not of equal price The chief and principal matter of Prophesie is the promise of Righteousness Peace Holiness Glory Victory Immortality unto every Soul which believeth that Jesus is Christ of the Iew first and of the Gentile Now because the doctrine of Salvation to be looked for by Faith in him who was in outward appearance as it had been a man forsaken of God in him who was numbred judged and condemned with the wicked in him whom men did see busseted on the face scofft at by Souldiers scourged by Tormentors hanged on the Cross pierced to the Heart in him whom the eyes of many Witnesses did behold when the anguish of his Soul enforced him to roar as if his heart had rent in sunder O my God my God why hast thou forsaken me I say because the doctrine of Salvation by him is a thing improbable to a natural man that whether we preach to the Gentile or to the Jew the one condemneth our Faith as madnesse the other as Blasphemy therefore to establish and confirm the certainty of this saving Truth in the hearts of men the Lord together with their Preachings whom he sent immediately from himself to reveal these things unto the World mingled Prophesies of things both Civil and Ecclesiastical which were to come in every age from time to time till the very last of the latter dayes that by those things wherein we see daily their words fulfilled and done we might have strong consolation in the hope of things which are not seen because they have revealed as well the one as the other For when many things are spoken of before in Scripture whereof we see first one thing accomplished and then another and so a third perceive we not plainly that God doth nothing else but lead us along by the hand till he have settled us upon the rock of an assured hope that not one jot or tittle of his Word shall pass till all be fulfilled It is not therefore said in vain that these godless wicked ones were spoken of before 6. But by whom By them whose words if men or Angels from Heaven gainsay they are accursed by them whom whosoever despiseth despiseth not them but me saith Christ. If any man therefore doth love the Lord Jesus and wo worth him that loveth not the Lord Jesus hereby we may know that he loveth him indeed if he despise not the things that are spoken of by his Apostles whom many have despised even for the baseness and simpleness of their Persons For it is the property of fleshly and carnal men to honour and dishonour credit and discredit the words and deeds of every man according to that he wanteth or hath without If a man with gorgeous
things are enjoyned them which God did never require at their hands and the things he doth require are kept from them their eyes are fed with pictures and their ears are filled with melody but their souls do wither and starve and pine away they cry for bread and behold stones are offered them they ask for fish and see they have Scorpions in their hands Thou seest O Lord that they build themselves but not in faith they feed their Children but not with food their Rulers say with shame Bring and not build But God is Righteous their drunkenness stinketh their abominations are known their madness is manifest the wince hath bound them up in her wings and they shall be ashamed of their doings Ephraim saith the Prophet is joyned to Idols let him alone I will turn me therefore from the Priests which do minister unto Idols and apply this Exhortation to them whom God hath appointed to feed his Chosen in Israel 32. If there be any feeling of Christ any drop of heavenly dew or any spark of God's good spirit within you stir it up be careful to build and edifie first your selves and then your flocks in this most holy Faith 33. I say first your selves For hâ— which will set the hearts of other men on fire with the love of Christ must himself burn with love It is want of faith in our selves my Brethren which makes us wretchless in building others We forsake the Lords inheritance and feed it not What is the reason of this Our own desires are settled where they should not be We our selves are like those women which have a longing to eat coals and lime aud filth we are fed some with honour some with ease some with wealth the Gospel waxeth loathsom and unpleasant in our taste how should we then have a care to feed others with that which we cannot fancy our selves If Faith wax cold and slender in the heart of the Prophet it will soon perish from the ears of the People The Prophet Amos speaketh of a famine saying I will send a famine in the Land not a famine of bread nor a thirst of water but of hearing the Word of the Lord. Men shall wander from sea to sea and from the North unto the East shall they ran to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord and shall not finde it Iudgement must begin at the House of God saith Peter Yea I say at the Sanctuary of God this judgement must begin This famine must begin at the heart of the Prophet He must have darkness for a vision he must stumble at noon day as at the twi-light and then truth shall fall in the midst of the streets then shall the people wander from sea to sea and from the North unto the East shall they run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord. 34. In the second of Haggai Speak now saith God to his Prophet Speak now to Zerubbabel the Son of Shealtiel Prince of Iudah and to Iehoshua the Son of Iehosadak the High-priest and to the residue of the people saying Who is left among you that saw this House in her first glory and how do you see it now Is not this House in your eyes in comparison of it is nothing The Prophet would have all mens eyes turned to the view of themselves every sort brought to the consideration of their present state This is no place to shew what duty Zerubbabel or Iehoshuah doth owe unto God in this respect They have I doubt not such as put them hereof in remembrance I ask of you which are a part of the residue of God's Elect and chosen people Who is there amongst you that hath taken a survey of the House of God as it was in the days of the blessed Apostles of Jesus Christ Who is there amongst you that hath seen and considered this Holy Temple in her first glory And how do you see it now Is it not in comparison of the other almost as nothing when ye look upon them which have undertaken the charge of your Souls and know how far these are for the most part grown out of kind how few there be that tread the steps of their antient Predecessors ye are easily filled with indignation easily drawn unto these complaints wherein the difference of present from former times is bewailed easily perswaded to think of them that lived to enjoy the days which now are gone that surely they were happy in comparison of us that have succeeded them Were not their Bishops men unreproveable wise righteous holy temperate well-reported of even of those which were without Were not their Pastors Guides and Teachers able and willing to exhort with wholsome Doctrine and to reprove those which gain-said the Truth had they Priests made of the reffuse of the people were men like to the children which were in Niniveh unable to discern between the right hand and the left presented to the charge of their Congregations did their Teachers leave their flocks over which the Holy Ghost had made them Overseers did their Prophets enter upon holy things as spoils without a reverend calling were their Leaders so unkindly affected towards them that they could finde in their hearts to sell them as sheep or oxen not caring how they made them away But Beloved deceive not your selves Do the faults of your Guides and Pastors offend you it is your fault if they be thus faulty Nullus quimalum Rectorem patitur cum accuset quia sai fuit meriti perversi Pastoris subjacere ditioni saith St. Gregory whosoever thou art whom the inconvenience of an evil Governor doth press accuse thy self and not him his being such is thy deserving O ye disobedient Children turn again saith the Lord and then will I give you Pastors according to mine own heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding So that the onely way to repair all ruines breaches and offensive decays in others is to begin reformation at your selves Which that we may all sincerely seriously and speedily do God the Father grant for his Son our Saviour Jesus sake unto whom with the Holy Ghost three Persons one Eternal and Everlasting God be honour and glory and praise for ever Amen FINIS * This you may find in the Temple Reconds Will. Ermstead was Master of the Temple at the Dissolution of the Priory and diâ—d 2. Eliz. Richard Alvey Bat. l. ivinity paâ— 13. Feâ— 2 Eliz. Magister sive Cujtos DemuÌ„s Ecclestae nevi Templle died 27 Bez. Richard Hooker Succeeded that year by Patent in terminiâ— as Alvy had â—â— and he left it 32 Eliz. Tint year Dr. Belgey succeeded Richard Hooker * Mr. Dering †See Bishop Spotswoods History of the Church of Scotland * In his Annals of Elâ—â— 1599. * Iohn Whitgift the Archbishop * Hâ—â—eâ— and Cappergot The cause of Writing this General Discourse Greg. Nat. Sulp. Seveâ—â— Epist. Hist. Eccles. Leg. Carol. Mag. fol. 421 Judg.