endless thanks must have their beginning in a state which bringeth the full and final satisfaction of all such perpetual desires Again because our common necessities and the lack which we all have as well of ghostly as of earthly favors is in each kinde so easily known but the gifts of God according to those degrees and times which he in his secrets wisdom seeth meet are so diversly bestowed that it seldom appeareth what all receive what all stand in need of it seldom lieth hid we are not to marvel though the Church do oftner concur in suits then in thanks unto God for particular benefits Nevertheless lest God should be any way unglorified the greatest part of our daily Service they know consisteth according to the â— Blessed Apostles own precise rule in much variety of Psalms and Hymns for no other purpose but onely that out of so plentiful a treasure there might be for every mans heart no chuse out his own Sacrifice and to offer unto God by particular secret instinct what fitteth best the often occasions which any several either Party or Congregation may seem to have They that would clean take from us therefore the daily use of the very best means we have to magnifie and praise the Name of Almighty God for his rich Blessings they that complain of out reading and singing so many Psalms for so good an end they I say that finde fault with our store should of all men be least willing to reprove our scarcity of Thanksgivings But because peradventure they see it is not either generally fit or possible that Churches should frame Thanksgivings answerable to each Petition they shorten somewhat the reins of their censure there are no forms of Thanksgiving they say for release of those common calamities from which we have Petitions to be delivered There are Prayers set forth to be said in the common calamities and Universal scourges of the Realm as Plague Famine c. And indeed so it ought to be by the Word of God But as such Prayers are needful whereby we beg release from our Distresses so there ought to be as necessary Prayers of Thanksgiving when we have received those things at the Lords hand which we asked in our Prayers As oft therefore as any Publick or Universal scourge is removed as oft as we are delivered from those either imminent or present Calamities against the storm and tempest whereof we all instantly craved favor from above let it be a Question what we should render unto God for his Blessings universally sensibly and extraordinarily bestowed A Prayer of three or four lines inserted into some part of our Church Liturgy No we are not perswaded that when God doth in trouble injoyn us the duty of Invocation and promise us the benefit of Deliverance and profess That the thing he expecteth after at our hands is to glorifie him as our mighty and onely Saviour the Church can discharge in manner convenient a work of so great importance by fore-ordaining some short Collect wherein briefly to mention thanks Our custom therefore whensoever so great occasions are incident is by Publick Authority to appoint throughout all Churches set and solemn Forms as well of Supplication as of Thanksgiving the preparations and intended Complements whereof may stir up the mindes of men in much more effectual sort then if onely there should be added to the Book of Prayer that which they require But we err in thinking that they require any such matter For albeit their words to our understanding be very plain that in our Book there are Prayers set forth to be said when common calamities are felt as Plague Famine and such like Again that indeed so it ought to be by the Word of God That likewise there ought to be as necessary Prayers of Thanksgiving when we have received those things Finally that the want of such Forms of Thanksgiving for the release from those common calamities from which we have Petitions to be delivered is the default of the Book of Common Prayer Yet all this they mean but only by way of supposition if express Prayers against so many Earthly miseries were convenient that then indeed as many express and particular Thanksgivings should be likewise necessary Seeing therefore we know that they hold the one superfluous they would not have it so understood as though their mindes were that any such addition to the Book is needful whatsoever they say for Arguments sake concerning this pretented defect The truth is they wave in and out no way sufficiently grounded no way resolved what to think speak or write more then onely that because they have taken it upon them they must no remedy now be opposite 44. The last supposed fault concerneth some few things the very matter whereof is thought to be much amiss In a Song of Praise to our Lord Jesus Christ we have these words When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thoâ— didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers Which maketh some shew of giving countenance to their Error who think that the faithful which departed this life before the coming of Christ were never till then made partakers of joy but remained all in that place which they term the Lake of the Fathers In our Liturgy request is made that we may be preserved from sudden death This seemeth frivolous because the godly should always be prepared to die Request is made that God would give those things which we for our unworthiness dare not ask This they say carrieth with it the note of Popish servile fear and savoreth not of that confidence and reverent familiarity that the children of God have through Christ with their Heavenly Father Request is made that we may evermore be defended from all adversity For this there is no promise in Scripture and therefore it is no Prayer of Faith or of the which we can assure our selves that we shall obtain it Finally Request is made That God would have mercy upon all men This is impossible because some are the Vessels of Wrath to whom God will never extend his Mercy 45. As Christ hath purchased that Heavenly Kingdom the last perfection whereof is Glory in the life to come Grace in this life a preparation thereunto so the same he hath opened to the World in such sort that whereas none can possibly without him attain salvation by him all that believe are saved Now whatsoever he did or suffered the end thereof was to open the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven which our iniquities had shut up But because by ascending after that the sharpness of death was overcome he took the very local possession of glory and that to the use of all that are his even as himself before had witnessed I go to prepare a place for you And again Whom thou hast given me O Father I will that where I am they be also with me that my glory which thou hast given me they may
God vouchsafed them above the rest of the world that in the affairs of their estate which were not determinable one way or other by the Scripture himself gave them extraordinary direction and counsel as oft as they sought it at his hands Thus God did first by speech unto Noses after by Urim and Thummim unto Priests lastly by dreams and visions unto Prophets from whom in such cases they were to receive the answer of God Concerning Ioshua therefore thus spake the Lord unto Moses saying He shall stand before Eleazer the Priest who shall ask counsel for him by the judgement of Urim before the Lord whereof had Ioshua been mindeful the fraud of the Gibeonites could not so smoothly have past unespied till there was no help The Jews had Prophets to have resolved them from the mouth of God himself whether Egyptian aids should profit them yea or no but they thought themselves wise enough and him unworthy to be of their counsel In this respect therefore was their reproof though sharp yet just albeit there had been no charge precisely given them that they should always take heed of Egypt But as for David to think that he did evil in determining to build God a Temple because there was in Scripture no Commandment that he should build it were very injurious the purpose of his heart was religious and godly the act most worthy of honour and renown neither could Nathan chuse but admire his vertuous intent exhort him to go forward and beseech God to prosper him therein Put God saw the endless troubles which David should be subject unto during the whole time of his Regiment and therefore gave charge to defer so good a work till the days of tranquillity and peace wherein it might without interruption be performed David supposed that it could not stand with the duty which he owed unto God to set himself in an house of Cedar-trees and to behold the Ark of the Lords Covenant unsetled This opinion the Lord abateth by causing Nathan to shew him plainly that it should be no more imputed unto him for a fault then it had been unto the Judges of Israel before him his case being the same which theirs was their times not more unquiet then his nor more unfit for such an action Wherefore concerning the force of Negative Arguments so taken from the authority of Scripture as by us they are denied there is in all this less then nothing And touching that which unto this purpose is borrowed from the Controversies sometimes handled between Mr. Harding and the worthiest Divine that Christendom hath bred for the space of some hundreds of years who being brought up together in one University it fell out in them which was spoken of two others They learned in the same that which in contrary Camps they did practice Of these two the one objecting that with us Arguments taken from Authority Negatively are over common the Bishops answer hereunto is that this kinde of Argument is thought to be good whensoever proof is taken of Gods Word and is used not onely by in but also by S. Paul and by many of the Catholick Fathers S. Paul saith God said not unto Abraham In thy seeds all the Nations of the earth shall be blessed but In thy seed which is Christ and thereof he thought he made a good Argument Likewise saith Origen The Bread which the Lord gave unto his Disciples saying unto them Take and eat be deferred not nor commanded to be reserved till the next day Such Arguments Origen and other learned Fathers thought to stand for good whatsoever misliking Mr. Harding hath sound in them This kinde of proof is thought to hold in Gods Commandments for that they be full and perfect and God hath specially charged us that we should neither put to them nor take from them and therefore it seemeth good unto them that have learned of Christ. Unus est magister vester Christus and have heard the voice of God the Father from Heaven Ipsum audite But unto them that add to the Word of God what them listeth and make Gods will subject unto their will and break Gods Commandments for their own traditions sake unto them it seemeth not good Again the English Apologie alledging the example of the Greeks how they have neither private Masses nor mangled Sacraments nor Purgatories nor Pardons it pleaseth Mr. Harding to jest out the matter to use the help of his wits where strength of truth failed him and to answer with scoffing at Negatives The Bishops defence in this case is The ancient learned Fathers having to deal with politick Hereticks that in defence of their Errors avouched the judgement of all the old Bishops and Doctors that had been before them and the general consent of the Primitive and whole universal Church and that with as good regard of truth and as faithfully as you do now the better to discover the shameless boldness and nakedness of their doctrine were oftentimes likewise forced to use the negative and so to drive the same Hereticks as we do you to prove their Affirmatives which thing to do it was never possible The ancient Father Iraeneus thus stayed himself as we do by the Negative Hoc neq Prophetae praedicaverunt neque Dominus docuit neque Apostoli tradiderunt This thing neither did the Prophets publish nor our Lord teach nor the Apostles deliver By a like Negative Chrysostome saith This tree neither Paul planted nor Apollos watered nor God increased In like sort Leo saith What needeth it to believe that thing that neither the Law hath taught nor the Prophets have spoken nor the Gospel hath preached nor the Apostles have delivered And again How are the new devices brought in that our Fathers never knew S. Augustine having reckoned up a great number of the Bishops of Rome by a general Negative saith thus In all this order of succession of Bishops there is not one Bishop found that was a Donatist S. Gregory being himself a Bishop of Rome and writing against the Title of Universal Bishop saith thus None of all my Predecessors ever consented to use this ungodly Title No Bishop of Rome ever took upon him this name of singularity By such Negatives Mr. Harding we reprove the vanity and novelty of your Religion We tell you none of the Catholick ancient learned Father either Greek or Latine ever used either your private Mass or your half Communion or your barbarous unknown prayers Paul never planted them Apollos never watered them God never encreased them they are of your selves they are not of God In all this there is not a Syllable which any way crosseth us For concerning Arguments Negative taken from Humane Authority they are here proved to be in some cases very strong and forcible They are not in our estimation idle reproofs when the Authors of needless Innovations are opposed with such Negatives as that of Leo How are these new
Agent which seeth already what to resolve upon It hath no apparent absurdity therefore in it to think that all actions of men endued with the use of reason are generally either good or evil Whatsoever is good the same is also approved of God and according unto the sundry degrees of goodness the kinds of Divine approbation are in like sort multiplied Some things are good yet in so mean a degree of goodness that men are onely not disproved nor disallowed of God for them No man hateth his own flesh If ye do good unto them that do so to you the very Publicans themselves do as much They are worse then Infidels that have no care to provide for their own In actions of this sort the very light of nature alone may discover that which is so farre forth in the sight of God allowable Some things in such sort are allowed that they be also required as necessary unto salvation by way of direct immediate and proper necessity final so that without performance of them we cannot by ordinary course be saved nor by any means be excluded from life observing them In actions of this kind our chiefest direction is from Scripture for Nature is no sufficient Teacher what we should do that we may attain unto life everlasting The unsufficiency of the light of nature is by the light of Scripture so fully and so perfectly herein supplied that further light then this hath added there doth not need unto that end Finally some things although not so required of necessity that to leave them undone excludeth from Salvation are notwithstanding of so great dignity and acceptation with God that most ample reward in Heaven is laid up for them Hereof we have no Commandment either in Nature or Scripture which doth exact them at our hands yet those Motives these are in both which draw most effectually our minds unto them In this kind there is not the least action but it doth somewhat make to the accessory augmentation of our bliss For which cause our Saviour doth plainly witness that there shall not be as much as a cup of cold water bestowed for his sake without reward Hereupon dependeth whatsoever difference there is between the states of Saints in glory hither we refer whatsoever belongeth unto the highest perfection of man by way of service towards God Hereunto that servour and first love of Christians did bend it self causing them to sell their possessions and lay down the price at the blessed Apostles feet Hereat S. Paul undoubtedly did aim in so far abridging his own liberty and exceeding that which the bond of necessary and enjoyned duty tied him unto Wherefore seeing that in all these several kinds of actions there can be nothing possibly evil which God approveth and that he approveth much more then he doth command and that his very Commandments in some kinde as namely his Prâ—cepts comprehended in the Law of Nature may be otherwise known theâ— onely by Scripture and that to do them howsoever we know them must needs he acceptable in his sight Let them with whom we have hitherto disputee consider well how it can stand with Reason to make the bare mandate of Sacred Scripture the onely Rule of all good and evil in the actions of mortal men The testimonies of God are true the Testimonies of God are perfect the Testimonies of God are all-sufficient unto that end for which they were given Therefore accordingly we do receive them we do not think that in them God hath omitted any thing needful unto his purpose and left his intent to be accomplished by our devisings What the Scripture purposeth the same in all points it doth perform Howbeit that here we swerve not in judgement one thing especially we must observe namely That the absolute perfection of Scripture is seen by relation unto that end whereto it tendeth And even hereby it cometh to pass the first such as imagine the general and main drift of the body of sacred Scripture not to be so large as it is nor that God did thereby intend to deliver as in truth he doth a full instruction in all things unto salvation necessary the knowledge whereof man by nature could not otherwise in this life attain unto They are by this very mean induced either still to look for new Revelations from Heaven or else dangerously to add to the Word of God uncertain Tradition that so the Doctrine of mans Salvation may be compleat which Doctrine we constantly hold in all respects without any such thing added to be so compleat that we utterly refuse as much as once to acquaint our selves with any thing further Whatsoever to make up the Doctrine of mans Salvation is added as in supply of the Scriptures unsufficiency we reject it Scripture purposing this hath perfectly and fully done it Again the scope and purpose of God in delivering the Holy Scripture such as do take more largely then behoveth they on the contrary side racking and stretching it further then by him was meant are drawn into sundry as great inconveniences These pretending the Scriptures perfection infer thereupon That in Scripture all things lawful to be done must needs be contained We count those things perfect which want nothing requisite for the end whereto they were instituted As therefore God created every part and particle of man exactly perfect that is to say in all points sufficient unto that use for which he appointed it so the Scripture yea every sentence thereof is perfect and wanteth nothing requisite unto that purpose for which God delivered the same So that if hereupon we conclude that because the Scripture is perfect therefore all things lawful to be done are comprehended in the Scripture we may even as well conclude so of every sentence as of the whole sum and body thereof unless we first of all prove that it was the drift scope and purpose of Almighty God in holy Scripture to comprize all things which man may practise But admit this and mark I beseech you what would follow God in delivering Scripture to his Church should clean have abrogated amongst them the Law of Nature which is an infallible knowledge imprinted in the minds of all the children of men whereby both general principles for directing of humane actions are comprehended and conclusions derived from them upon which conclusions groweth in particularity the choice of good and evil in the daily affairs of this life Admit this and what shall the Scripture be but a snare and a torment to weak Consciences filling them with infinite perplexities scrupulosities doubts insoluble and extreme despairs Not that the Scripture it self doth cause any such thing for it tendeth to the clean contrary and the fruit thereof is resolute assurance and certainty in that it teacheth but the necessities of this life urging men to do that which the light of Nature common discretion and judgement of it self directeth them unto on the other side this Doctrine teaching
acknowledge that as well for particular application to special occasions as also in other manifold respects infinite Treasures of Wisdom are over and besides abundantly to be found in the holy Scripture yea that scarcely there is any noble part of knowledge worthy the minde of man but from thence it may have some direction and light yea that although there be no necessity it should of purpose prescribe any one particular form of Church-Government yet touching the manner of governing in general the Precepts that Scripture setteth down are not few and the examples many which it proposeth for all Church-Governors even in particularities to follow yea that those things finally which are of principal weight in the very particular Form of Church-Polity although not that Form which they imagine but that which we against them uphold are in the self-same Scriptures contained If all this be willingly granted by us which are accused to pin the Word of God in so narrow room as that it should be able to direct us but in principal points of our Religion or as though the substance of Religion or some rude and unfashioned matter of building the Church were uttered in them and those things left out that should pertain to the form and fashion of it Let the cause of the Accused be referred to the Accusers own conscience and let that judge whether this accusation be deserved where it hath been laid 5. But so easie it is for every man living to err and so hard to wrest from any mans mouth the plain acknowledgment of Error that what hath been once inconsiderately defended the same is commonly persisted in as long as wit by whetting it self is able to finde out any shift be it never so sleight whereby to escape out of the hands of present contradiction So that it cometh herein to pass with men unadvisedly faln into Error as with them whose state hath no ground to uphold it but onely the help which by subtil conveyance they draw out of casual events arising from day to day till at length they be clean spent They which first gave out That nothing ought to be established in the Church which is not commanded by the Word of God thought this principle plainly warranted by the manifest words of the Law Ye shall put nothing unto the Word which I command you neither shall ye take ought therefrom that ye may keep the Commandments of the Lord your God which I command you Wherefore having an eye to a number of Rites and Orders in the Church of England as marrying with a Ring Crossing in the one Sacrament Kneeling at the other observing of Festival days more then onely that which is called the Lords day enjoyning Abstinence at certain times from some kindes of Meat Churching of Women after Childe-birth Degrees taken by Divines in Universities sundry Church Offices Dignities and Callings for which they found no Commandment in the holy Scripture they thought by the one onely stroke of that Axiom to have cut them off But that which they took for an Oracle being sifted was repeal'd True it is concerning the Word of God whether it be by misconstruction of the sense or by falsification of the words wittingly to endeavor that any thing may seem Divine which is not or any thing not seem which is were plainly to abuse and even to falsifie Divine Evidence which injury offered but unto men is most worthily counted heinous Which point I wish they did well observe with whom nothing is more familiar then to plead in these causes The Law of God the Word of the Lord Who notwithstanding when they come to alledge what Word and what Law they mean their common ordinary practice is to quote by-speeches in some Historical Narration or other and to urge them as if they were written in most exact form of Law What is to add to the Law of God if this be not When that which the Word of God doth but deliver Historically we construe without any warrant as if it were legally meant and so urge it further then we can prove that it was intended do we not add to the Laws of God and make them in number seem more then they are It standeth us upon to be careful in this case For the sentence of God is heavy against them that wittingly shall presume thus to use the Scripture 6. But let that which they do hereby intend be granted them let it once stand as consonant to Reason That because we are forbidden to add to the Law of God any thing or to take ought from it therefore we may not for matters of the Church make any Law more then is already set down in Scripture Who seeth not what sentence it shall enforce us to give against all Churches in the World in as much as there is not one but hath had many things established in it which though the Scripture did never command yet for us to condemn were rashness Let the Church of God even in the time of our Saviour Christ serve for example unto all the rest In their Domestical celebration of the Passover which Supper they divided as it were into two courses what Scripture did give commandment that between the first and the second he that was chief should put off the residue of his Garments and keeping on his Feast-robe onely wash the feet of them that were with him What Scripture did command them never to lift up their hands unwashe in Prayer unto God which custom Aristaus be the credit of the Author more or less sheweth wherefore they did so religiously observe What Scripture did command the Jews every Festival day to fast till the sixth hour The custom both mentioned by Iosephus in the History of his own life and by the words of Peter signified Tedious it were to rip up all such things as were in that Church established yea by Christ himself and by his Apostles observed though not commanded any where in Scripture 7. Well yet a gloss there is to colour that Paradox and notwithstanding all this still to make it appear in shew not to be altogether unreasonable And therefore till further reply come the cause is held by a feeble distinction that the Commandments of God being either general or special although there be no express word for every thing in specialty yet there are general Commandments for all things to the end that even such cases as are not in Scripture particularly mentioned might not be left to any to order at their pleasure onely with Caution That nothing be done against the Word of God and that for this cause the Apostle hath set down in Scripture four general Rules requiring such things alone to be received in the Church as do best and nearest agree with the same Rules that so all things in the Church may be appointed not onely not against but by and according to the Word of God The Rules are these Nothing scandalous
my Commandments always that it might go well with them and with their Children for ever Go say unto them Return you to your Tents But stand thou here with me and I will tell thee all the Commandments and the Ordinances and the Laws which thou shalt teach them that they may do them in the Land which I have given them to possess From this latter kinde the former are plainly distinguished in many things They were not both at one time delivered neither both after one sort nor to one end The former uttered by the voice of God himself in the hearing of Six hundred thousand men the former written with the Finger of God the former termed by the name of a Covenant the former given to be kept without either mention of time how long or of place where On the other side the latter given after and neither written by God himself nor given unto the whole multitude immediately from God but unto Moses and from him to them both by word and writing Finally The latter termed Ceremonies Judgments Ordinances but no where Covenants The observation of the latter restrained unto the Land where God would establish them to inhabite The Laws Positive are not framed without regard had to the place and persons for the which they are made If therefore Almighty God in framing their Laws had an eye unto the nature of that people and to the Countrey where they were to dwell if these peculiar and proper considerations were respected in the making of their Laws and must be also regarded in the Positive Laws of all other Nations besides then seeing that Nations are not all alike surely the giving of one kinde of Positive Laws unto one onely people without any liberty to alter them is but a slender proof that therefore one kinde should in like sort be given to serve everlastingly for all But that which most of all maketh for the clearing of this point is That the Jews who had Laws so particularly determining and so fully instructing them in all affairs what to do were notwithstanding continually inured with causes exorbitant and such as their Laws had not provided for And in this point much more is granted us then we ask namely that for one thing which we have left to the Order of the Church they had twenty which were undecided by the express Word of God and that as their Ceremonies and Sacraments were multiplied above ours even so grew the number of those cases which were not determined by any express word So that if we may devise one Law they by this reason might devise twenty and if their devising so many were not forbidden shall their example prove us forbidden to devise as much as one Law for the ordering of the Church We might not devise no not one if their example did prove that our Saviour hath utterly forbidden all alteration of his Laws in as much as there can be no Law devised but needs it must either take away from his or add thereunto more or less and so make some kinde of alteration But of this so large a grant we are content not to take advantage Men are oftentimes in a sudden passion more liberal then they would be if they had leisure to take advice And therefore so bountiful words of course and frank speeches we are contented to let pass without turning them to advantage with too much rigor It may be they had rather be listned unto when they commend the Kings of Israel which attempted nothing in the Government of the Church without the express Word of God and when they urge that God left nothing in his Word undescribed whether it concerned the Worship of God or outward Polity nothing unset down and therefore charged them strictly to keep themselves unto that without any alteration Howbeit seeing it cannot be denied but that many things there did belong unto the course of their Publick Affairs wherein they had no express word at all to shew precisely what they should do the difference between their condition and ours in these cases will bring some light unto the truth of this present Controversie Before the fact of the son of Shelomith there was no Law which did appoint any certain punishment for Blasphemers That wretched creature being therefore deprehended in that impiety was held in Ward till the minde of the Lord was known concerning his case The like practice is also mentioned upon occasion of a breach of the Sabbath day They finde a poor silly creature gathering sticks in the Wilderness they bring him unto Moses and Aaron and all the Congregation they lay him in hold because it was not declared what should be done with him till God had said unto Moses This man shall die the death The Law requireth to keep the Sabbath day but for the breach of the Sabbath what punishment should be inflicted it did not appoint Such occasions as these are rare And for such things as do fall scarce once in many ages of men it did suffice to take such order as was requisite when they fell But if the case were such as being not already determined by Law were notwithstanding likely oftentimes to come into question it gave occasion of adding Laws that were not before Thus it fell out in the case of those men polluted and of the daughters of Zelophehad whose causes Moses having brought before the Lord received Laws to serve for the like in time to come The Jews to this end had the Oracle of God they had the Prophets And by such means God himself instructed them from Heaven what to do in all things that did greatly concern their state and were not already set down in the Law Shall we then hereupon argue even against our own experience and knowledge Shall we seek to perswade men that of necessity it is with us as it was with them that because God is ours in all respects as much as theirs therefore either no such way of direction hath been at any time or if it hath been it doth still continue in the Church or if the same do not continue that yet it must be at the least supplied by some such mean as pleaseth us to account of equal force A more dutiful and religious way for us were to admire the Wisdom of God which shineth in the beautiful variety of all things But most in the manifold and yet harmonious dissimilitude of those ways whereby his Church upon Earth is guided from age to age throughout all Generations of Men. The Jews were necessarily to continue till the coming of Christ in the flesh and the gathering of Nations unto him So much the Promise made unto Abraham did import So much the Prophesie of Iacob at the hour of his death did foreshew Upon the safety therefore of their very outward state and condition for so long the after good of the whole World and the Salvation of all did depend Unto their so
hath placed you Bishops to Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased by his own blood Finally that Commandment which unto the same Timothy is by the same Apostle even in the same form and manner afterwards again urged I charge thee in the sight of God and the Lord Iesus Christ which will judge the quick and dead at his appearance and in his Kingdom Preach the Word of God When Timothy was instituted in that Office then was the credit and trust of this duty committed unto his faithful care The Doctrine of the Gospel was then given him As the precious Talent or Treasure of Iesus Christ then received he for performance of this duty The special Gift of the Holy Ghost To keep this Commandment immaculate and blameless Was to teach the Gospel of Christ without mixture of corrupt and unsound Doctrine such as a number even in those times intermingled with the Mysteries of Christian Belief Till the appearance of Christ to keep it so doth not import the time wherein it should be kept but rather the time whereunto the final reward for keeping it was reserved according to that of St. Paul concerning himself I have kept the Faith for the residue there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Iudge shall in that day render unto me If they that labor in this Harvest should respect but the present fruit of their painful Travel a poor encouragement it were unto them to continue therein all the days of their life But their reward is great in Heaven the Crown of Righteousness which shall be given them in that day is honorable The fruit of their industry then shall they reap with full contentment and satisfaction but not till then Wherein the greatness of their reward is abundantly sufficient to countervail the tediousness of their expectation Wherefore till then they that are in labor must rest in hope O Timothy keep that which is committed unto thy charge that great Commandment which thou hast received keep till the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. In which sense although we judge the Apostles words to have been uttered yet hereunto we do not require them to yield that think any other construction more sound If therefore it be rejected and theirs esteemed more probable which hold That the last words do import perpetual observation of the Apostles Commandment imposed necessarily for ever upon the Militant Church of Christ Let them withal consider That then his Commandment cannot so largely be taken to comprehend whatsoever the Apostle did command Timothy For themselves do not all binde the Church unto some things whereof Timothy received charge as namely unto that Precept concerning the choice of Widows So as they cannot hereby maintain that all things positively commanded concerning the affairs of the Church were commanded for perpetuity And we do not deny that certain things were commanded to be though positive yet perpetual in the Church They should not therefore urge against us places that seem to forbid change but rather such as set down some measure of alteration which measure if we have exceeded then might they therewith charge us justly Whereas now they themselves both granting and also using liberty to change cannot in reason dispute absolutely against all change Christ delivered no inconvenient or unmeet Laws Sundry of ours they hold inconvenient Therefore such Laws they cannot possibly hold to be Christs Being not his they must of necessity grant them added unto his Yet certain of those very Laws so added they themselves do not judge unlawful as they plainly confess both in matter of Prescript Attire and of Rites appertaining to Burial Their own Protestations are that they plead against the inconvenience not the unlawfulness of Popish Apparel and against the inconvenience not the unlawfulness of Ceremonies in Burial Therefore they hold it a thing not unlawful to add to the Laws of Jesus Christ and so consequently they yield That no Law of Christ forbiddeth Addition unto Church Laws The Judgment of Calvin being alledged against them to whom of all men they attribute most whereas his words be plain That for Ceremonies and External Discipline the Church hath power to make Laws The answer which hereunto they make is That indefinitely the speech is true and that so it was meant by him namely That some things belonging unto External Discipline and Ceremonies are in the Power and Arbitrement of the Church but neither was it meant neither is it true generally That all External Discipline and all Ceremonies are left to the Order of the Church in as much as the Sacraments of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord are Ceremonies which yet the Church may not therefore abrogate Again Excommunication is a part of External Discipline which might also be cast away if all External Discipline were Arbitrary and in the choice of the Church By which their answer it doth appear that touching the names of Ceremony and External Discipline they gladly would have us so understood as if we did herein contain a great deal more then we do The fault which we finde with them is That they over-much abridge the Church of her power in these things Whereupon they recharge us as if in these things we gave the Church a liberty which hath no limits or bounds as if all things which the name of Discipline containeth were at the Churches free choice So that we might either have Church Governors and Government or want them either retain or reject Church Censures as we lift They wonder at us as at men which think it so indifferent what the Church doth in Matter of Ceremonies that it may be feared lest we judge the very Sacraments themselves to be held at the Churches pleasure No the name of Ceremonies we do not use in so large a meaning as to bring Sacraments within the compass and reach thereof although things belonging unto the outward form and seemly Administration of them are contained in that name even as we use it For the name of Ceremonies we use as they themselves do when they speak after this sort The Doctrine and Discipline of the Church as the weightiest things ought especially to be looked unto but the Ceremonies also as Mint and Cummin ought not to be neglected Besides in the Matter of External Discipline or Regiment it self we do not deny but there are some things whereto the Church is bound till the Worlds end So as the question is onely how far the bounds of the Churches Liberty do reach We hold that the power which the Church hath lawfully to make Laws and Orders for it self doth extend unto sundry things of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and such other Matters whereto their opinion is That the Churches Authority and Power doth not reach Whereas therefore in Disputing against us about this point they take their compass a great deal wider then the truth of things can afford producing
therein we ought to have followed The Matter contained in this Fourth Book 1. HOw great use Ceremonies have in the Church 2. The First thing they blame in the kinde of our Ceremonies is that we have not in them ancient Apostolical simplicity but a greater pomp and stateliness 3. The second that so many of them are the same which the Church of Rome useth and the Reasons which they bring to prove them for that cause blame-worthy 4. How when they go about to expound what Popish Ceremonies they mean they contradict their own Argument against Popish Ceremonies 5. An Answer to the Argument whereby they would prove that sith we allow the customs of our Fathers to be followed we therefore may not allow such customs as the Church of Rome hath because we cannot account of them which are in that Church as of our Fathers 6. To their Allegation that the course of Gods own wisdom doth make against our conformity with the Church of Rome in such things 7. To the example of the eldest Church which they bring for the same purpose 8. That it is not our best Politie as they pretend it is for establishment of sound Religion to hâ—ve in these things no agreement with the Church of Rome being unsound 9. That neither the Papists upbraiding us as furnished out of their store nor any hope which in that respect they are said to conceive doth make any more against our Ceremonies then the former Allegations have done 10. The grief which they say godly Brethren conceive at such Ceremonies as we have câ—â—â—men with the Church of Rome 11. The third thing for which they reprove a great part of our Ceremonies is for that as we have them from the Church of Rome so that Church had them from the Jews 12. The fourth for that sundry of them have been they say abused unto Iâ—â—aery and arâ— by that mean become scandalous 13. The fifth for that we retain them still notwithstanding the example of certain Churches reformed before us which have cast them out 14. A Declaration of the proceedings of the Church of England â—or the establisement of things as they are SUch was the ancient simplicity and softness of spirit which sometimes prevailed in the World that they whose words were even as Oracles amongst men seemed evermore loth to give sentence against any thing publiquely received in the Church of God except it were wonderful apparently evil for that they did not so much encline to that seventy which delighteth to reprove the least things in seeth amiss as to that Charity which is unwilling to behold any thing that duty bindeth it to reprove The state of this present Age wherein Zeal hath drowned Charity and Skill Meekness will not now suffer any man to marvel whatsoever he shall hear reproved by whomsoever Those Rites and Ceremonies of the Church therefore which are the self-same now that they were when Holy and Vertuous men maintained them against profane and deriding Adversaries her own children have at this day in deâ—ision Whether justly or no it shall then appear when all things are heard which they have to alledge against the outward received Orders of this Church Which inasmuch as themselves do compare unto Mint and Cummin granting them to be no part of those things which in the matter of Polity are weightier we hope that for small things their strife will neither be earnest noâ— long The fifting of that which is objected against the Orders of the Church in particular doth not belong unto this place Here we are to discuss onely those general exceptions which have been taken at any time against them First therefore to the end that their nature and use whereunto they serve may plainly appear and so afterwards their quality the better be discerned we are to note that in every grand or main publique duty which God requireth at the hands of his Church there is besides that matter and form wherein the essence thereof consisteth a certain outward fashion whereby the same is in decent sort administred The substance of all religious actions is delivered from God himself in few words For example sake in the Sacraments Unto the Element let the Word be added and they both do make a Sacrament saith S. Augustine Baptism is given by the Element of Water and that prescript form of words which the Church of Christ doth use the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ is administred in the Elements of Bread and Wine if those mystical words be added thereunto But the due and decent form of administring those holy Sacraments doth require a great deal more The end which is aimed at in setting down the outward form of all religious actions is the edification of the Church Now men are edified when either their understanding is taught somewhat whereof in such actions it behoveth all men to consider or when their hearts are moved with any affection suitable thereunto when their mindes are in any sort stirred up unto that reverence devotion attention and due regard which in those cases seemeth requisite Because therefore unto this purpose not onely speech but sundry sensible means besides have always been thought necessary and especially those means which being object to the eye the liveliest and the most apprehensive sense of all other have in that respect seemed the sittest to make a deep and strong impression from hence have risen not only a number of Prayers Readings Questionings Exhortings but even of visible signs also which being used in perfomance of holy actions are undoubtedly most effectual to open such matter as men when they know and remember carefully must needs be a great deal the better informed to what effect such duties serve We must not think but that there is some ground of Reason even in Nature whereby it cometh to pass that no Nation under Heaven either doth or ever did suffer publike actions which are of weight whether they be Civil and Temporal or else Spiritual and Sacred to pass without some visible solemnity The very strangeness whereof and difference from that which is common doth cause Popular eyes to observe and to mark the same Words both because they are common and do not so strongly move the phansie of man are for the most part but slightly heard and therefore with singular wisdom it hath been provided that the deeds of men which are made in the presence of Witnesses should pass not only with words but also with certain sensible actions the memory whereof is far more easie and durable then the memory of speech can be The things which so long experience of all Ages hath confirmed and made profitable let not us presume to condemn as follies and toys because we sometimes know not the cause and reason of them A wit disposed to scorn whatsoever it doth not conceive might ask wherefore Abraham should say to his servant Put thy hand under my thigh and swear was it not sufficient
for his servant to shew the Religion of an Oath by naming the Lord God of Heaven and Earth unless that strange Ceremony were added In Contracts Bargains and Conveyances a mans word is a token sufficient to express his will Yet this was the ancient manner in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging to establish all things A man did pluck off his shoe and gave it to his neighbour and this was a sure witness in Israel Amongst the Romans in their making of a Bondman free was it not wondred wherefore so great a do should be made The Master to present his Slave in some Court to take him by the hand and not only to say in the hearing of the publike Magistrate I will that this man become free but after these solemn words uttered to strike him on the cheek to turn him round the hair of his head to be shaved off the Magistrate to touch him thrice with a rod in the end a cap and a white garment to be given him To what purpose all this circumstance Among the Hebrews how strange and in outward appearance almost against reason that he which was minded to make himself a perpetual servant should not only testifie so much in the presence of the Judge but for a visible token thereof have also his ear bored thorow with an awl It were an infinite labour to prosecute these things so far as they might be exemplified both in Civil and Religious actions For in both they have their necessary use and force These sensible things which Religion hath allowed are resemblances framed according to things spiritually understood whereunto they serve as a hand to lead and a way to direct And whereas it may peradventure be objected that to add to Religious duties such Rites and Ceremonies as are significant is to institute new Sacraments sure I am they will not say that Numa Pompilius did ordain a Sacrament a significant Ceremony he did ordain in commanding the Priests to execute the work of their Divine Service with their hands as far as to the fingers covered thereby signifying that fidelity must be defended and that mens right hands are the sacred seat thereof Again we are also to put them in minde that themselves do not hold all significant Ceremonies for Sacraments inasmuch as Imposition of hands they deny to be a Sacrament and yet they give thereunto a forcible signification For concerning it their words are these The party ordained by this ceremony was put in minde of his separation to the work of the Lord that remembring himself to be taken as it were with the hand of God from amongst others this might teach him not to account himself now his own nor to do what himself listeth but to consider that God hath set him about a work which if he will discharge and accomplish he may at the hands of God assure himself of reward and if otherwise of revenge Touching significant Ceremonies some of them are Sacraments some as Sacaments onely Sacraments are those which are signs and tokens of some general promised grace which always really descendeth from God unto the soul that duly receiveth them Other significant tokens are only as Sacraments yet no Sacraments Which is not our distinction but theirs For concerning the Apostles Imposition of hands these are their own words Magnum signum hoc quasi Sacramentum usurparunt They used this sign or as it were Sacrament Concerning Rites and Ceremonies there may be fault either in the kinde or in the number and multitude of them The First thing blamed about the kinde of ours is That in many things we have departed from the ancient simplicity of Christ and his Apostles we have imbraced more outward stateliness we have those Orders in the exercise of Religion which they who best pleased God and served him most devoutly never had For it is out of doubt that the first state of things was best that in the prime of Christian Religion faith was foundest the Scriptures of God were then best understood by all men all parts of godliness did then most abound and therefore it must needs follow that Customs Laws and Ordinances devised since are not so good for the Church of Christ but the best way is to cut off later inventions and to reduce things unto the ancient state wherein at the first they were Which Rule or Canon we hold to be either uncertain or at least wise unsufficient if not both For in case it be certain hard it cannot be for them to shew us where we shall find it so exactly set down that we may say without all controversie These were the Orders of the Apostles times these wholly and onely neither fewer nor more then these True it is that many things of this nature be alluded unto yea many things declared and many things necessariy collected out of the Apostles writings But is it necessary that all the Orders of the Church which were then in use should be contained in their Books Surely no. For if the tenor of their Writings be well observed it shall unto any man easily appear that no more of them are there touched then were needfull to be spoken of sometimes by one occasion and sometimes by another Will they allow then of any other Records besides Well assured I am they are far enough from acknowledging that the Church ought to keep any thing as Apostolical which is not found in the Apostles Writings in what other Records soever it be found And therefore whereas St. Augustine affirmeth that those things which the whole Church of Christ doth hold may well be thought to be Apostolical although they be not found written this his judgement they utterly condemn I will not here stand in defence of S. Augustines opinion which is that such things are indeed Apostolical but yet with this exception unless the Decree of some General Councel have haply caused them to be received for of Positive Laws and Orders received throughout the whole Christian world S. Augustine could imagine no other Fountain save these two But to let pass S. Augustine they who condemn him herein must needs confess it a very uncertain thing what the Orders of the Church were in the Apostles times seeing the Scriptures doe not mention them all and other Records thereof besides they utterly reject So that in tying the Church to the Orders of the Apostles times they tye it to a marvellous uncertain rule unless they require the observation of no Orders but only those which are known to be Apostolical by the Apostles own Writings But then is not this their rule of such sufficiency that we should use it as a touchstone to try the Orders of the Church by for ever Our end ought always to be the same our ways and means thereunto not so The glory of God and the good of the Church was the thing which the Apostles aimed at and therefore ought to be the mark
himself should suffer To say He knew not what weight of sufferances his Heavenly Father had measured unto him is somewhat hard harder that although he knew them notwithstanding for the present time they were forgotten through the force of these unspeakable pangs which he then was in The one against the plain express words of the holy Evangelist He knew all things that should come upon him the other less credible if any thing may be of less credit then what the Scripture it self gain-sayeth Doth any of them which wrote his sufferings make report that memory failed him Is there in his words and speeches any sign of defect that way Did not himself declare before whatsoever was to happen in the course of that whole tragedy Can we gather by any thing after taken from his own mouth either in the place of publick judgment or upon the Altar of the Cross that through the bruising of his Body some part of the treasures of his Soul were scattered and slipt from him If that which was perfect both before and after did fail at this onely middle instant there must appear some manifest cause how it came to pass True it is that the pangs of his heaviness and grief were unspeakable and as true That because the mindes of the afflicted do never think they have fully conceived the weight or measure of their own wo they use their affection as a whetstone both to wit and memory these as Nurses do feed grief so that the weaker his conceit had been touching that which he was to suffer the more it must needs in that hour have helped to the mitigation of his anguish But his anguish we see was then at the very highest whereunto it could possibly rise which argueth his deep apprehension even to the last drop of the Gall which that Cup contained and of every circumstance wherein there was any force to augment heaviness but above all things the resolute determination of God and his own unchangeable purpose which he at that time could not forget To what intent then was his Prayer which plainly testifieth so great willingness to avoid death Will whether it be in God or Man belongeth to the Essence or Nature of both The Nature therefore of God being one there are not in God divers Wills although the God-head be in divers persons because the power of willing is a natural not a personal propriety Contrariwise the Person of our Saviour Christ being but one there are in him two Wills because two Natures the Nature of God and the Nature of Man which both do imply this Faculty and Power So that in Christ there is a Divine and there is an Humane will otherwise he were not both God and Man Hereupon the Church hath of old condemned Monothelites as Hereticks for holding That Christ had but one Will. The Works and Operations of our Saviours Humane will were all subject to the Will of God and framed according to his Law I desire to do thy Will O God and thy Law is within mine heart Now as Mans will so the Will of Christ hath two several kindes of operation the one Natural or necessary whereby it desireth simply whatsoever is good in it self and shunneth as generally all things which hurt the other Deliberate when we therefore embrace things as good because the eye of understanding judgeth them good to that â—â—d which we simply desire Thus in it self we desire health Physick onely for healths sake And in this sort special Reason oftentimes causeth the Will by choice to prefer one good thing before another to leave one for anothers sake to forgo meaner for the attainment of higher desires which our Saviour likewise did These different inclinations of the Will considered the reason is easie how in Christ there might grow desires seeming but being not indeed opposite either the one of them unto the other or either of them to the Will of God For let the manner of his speech be weighed My Soul is now troubled and what should I say Father save me out of this hour But yet for this very cause I am come into this hour His purpose herein was most effectually to propose to the view of the whole World two contrary Objects the like whereunto in force and efficacy were never presented in that manner to any but onely to the Soul of Christ. There was presented before his eyes in that fearful hour on the one side Gods heavy indignation and wrath towards mankinde as yet unappeased death as yet in full strength Hell as yet never mastered by any that came within the confines and bounds thereof somewhat also peradventure more then is either possible or needful for the wit of man to finde out finally Himself flesh and blood left alone to enter into conflict with all these On the other side a World to be saved by One a pacification of wrath through the dignity of that Sacrifice which should be offered a conquest over death through the power of that Deity which would not suffer the Tabernacle thereof to see corruption and an utter disappointment of all the forces of infernal powers through the purity of that Soul which they should have in their hands and not be able to touch Let no man marvel that in this case the Soul of Christ was much troubled For what could such apprehensions breed but as their nature is inexplicable Passions of minde desires abhorring what they embrace and embracing what they abhor In which Agony how should the tongue go about to express what the soul endured When the griefs of Iob were exceeding great his words accordingly to open them were many howbeit still unto his seeming they were undiscovered Though my talk saith Iob be this day in bitterness yet my plague is greater then my groaning But here to what purpose should words serve when nature hath more to declare then groans and strong cries more then streams of bloody sweats more then his doubled and tripled Prayers can express who thrice putting forth his hand to receive that Cup besides which there was no other cause of his coming into the World he thrice pulleth it back again and as often even with tears of blood craveth If it be possible O Father or if not even what thine own good pleasure is for whose sake the Passion that hath in it a bitter and a bloody conflict even with Wrath and Death and Hell is most welcome Whereas therefore we finde in God a will resolved that Christ shall suffer and in the Humane will of Christ two actual desires the one avoiding and the other accepting death Is that desire which first declareth it self by Prayer against that wherewith he concludeth Prayer or either of them against his minde to whom Prayer in this case seeketh We may judge of these diversities in the Will by the like in the Understanding For as the intellectual part doth not cross it self by conceiving man to be
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
Covenant Were not Proselytes as well as Jews always taken for the Sons of Abraham Yea because the very Heads of Families are Fathers in some sort as touching providence and care for the meanest that belong unto them the servants which Abraham had bought with money were as capable of Circumcision being newly born as any natural childe that Abraham himself begat Be it then that Baptism belongeth to none but such as either believe presently or else being Infants are the children of Believing Parents in case the Church do bring children to the Holy Font whose Natural Parents are either unknown or known to be such as the Church accurseth but yet forgetteth not in that severity to take compassion upon their Off-spring for it is the Church which doth offer them to Baptism by the Ministry of Presenters were it not against both equity and duty to refuse the Mother of Believers her self and not to take her in this case for a Faithful Parent It is not the vertue of our Fathers nor the Faith of any other that can give us the true holiness which we have by vertue of our New Birth Yet even through the common Faith and Spirit of Gods Church a thing which no quality of Parents can prejudice I say through the Faith of the Church of God undertaking the motherly care of oursouls so far forth we may be and are in our Infancy sanctified as to be thereby made sufficiently capable of Baptism and to be interessed in the Rites of our New Birth for their Pieties sake that offer us thereunto It cometh sometime to pass saith St. Augustine that the children of Bond-slaves are brought to Baptism by their Lord sometime the Parents being dead the Friends alive undertake that Office sometime Stangers or Virgins consecrated unto God which neither have nor can have children of their own take up Infants in the open streets and so offer them unto Baptism whom the cruelty of unnatural Parents casteth out and leaveth to the adventure of uncertain Pity As therefore he which did the part of a Neighbor was a Neighbor to that wounded Man whom the Parable of the Gospel describeth so they are Fathers although Strangers that bring Infants to him which maketh them the Sons of God In the phrase of some kinde of men they use to be termed Witnesses as if they came but to see and testifie what is done It savoreth more of Piety to give them their old accustomed name of Fathers and Mothers in God whereby they are well put in minde what affection they ought to bear towards those Innocents for whose religious education the Church accepteth them as pledges This therefore is their own duty But because the answer which they make to the usual demands of stipulation proposed in Baptism is not their own the Church doth best to receive it of them in that form which best sheweth whose the act is That which a Guardian doth in the name of his Guard or Pupil standeth by natural equity forcible for his benefit though it be done without his knowledge And shall we judge it a thing unreasonable or in any respect unfit That Infants by words which others utter should though unwittingly yet truly and forcibly binde themselves to that whereby their estate is so assuredly bettered Herewith Nestorius the Heretick was charged as having faln from his first Profession and broken the promise which he made to God in the Arms of others Of such as profaned themselves being Christians with irreligious delight in the Ensigns of Idolatry Heathenish Spectacles Shows and Stage-plays Tertullian to strike them the more deep claimeth the Promise which they made in Baptism Why were they dumb being thus challenged Wherefore stood they not up to answer in their own defence that such Professions and Promises made in their names were frivolous that all which others undertook for them was but mockery and profanation That which no Heretick no wicked liver no impious despiset of God no miscreant or malefactor which had himself been Baptized was ever so desperate as to disgorge in contempt of so fruitfully received Customs is now their voice that restore as they say The ancient Purity of Religion 65. In Baptism many things of very ancient continuance are now quite and clean abolished for that the Vertue and Grace of this Sacrament had been therewith over-shadowed as fruit with too great abundance of leaves Notwithstanding to them which think that always imperfect Reformation that doth but shear and not flea our retaining certain of those former Rites especially the dangerous Sign of the Cross hath seemed almost an impardonable oversight The Cross they say sith it is but a meer invention of Man should not therefore at all have been added to the Sacrament of Baptism To Sign Childrens Foreheads with a Cross in token that hereafter they shall not be ashamed to make Profession of the Faith of Christ is to bring into the Church a new Word whereas there ought to be no Doctor heard in the Church but our Saviour Christ. That reason which moved the Fathers to use should move us not to use the Sign of the Cross. They lived with Heathens which had the Cross of Christ in contempt we with such as adore the Cross and therefore we ought to abandon it even as in like consideration Ezekias did of old the Brazen Serpent These are the causes of displeasure conceived against the Cross a Ceremony the use whereof hath been profitable although we observe it not as the Ordinance of God but of Men. For saith Tertullian if of this and the like Customs thou shouldst require some Commandment to be shewed thee out of Scriptures there is none found What reason there is to justifie Tradition Life or Custom in this behalf either thou maist of thy self perceive or else learn of some other that doth Lest therefore the name of Tradition should be offensive to any considering how far by some it hath been and is abused we mean by Traditions or Ordinances made in the prime of Christian Religion established with that Authority which Christ hath left to his Church for matters indifferent and in that consideration requisite to be observed till like authority see just and reasonable cause to alter them So that Traditions Ecclesiastical are not rudely and in gross to be shaken off because the Inventors of them were men Such as say They allow no invention of Men to be mingled with the Outward Administration of Sacraments and under that pretence condemn our using the Sign of the Cross have belike some special Dispensation themselves to violate their own Rules For neither can they indeed decently nor do they ever Baptize any without manifest breach of this their profound Axiom That Mens Inventions should not be mingled with Sacraments and Institutions of God They seem to like very well in Baptism the Custom of God-fathers because so generally the Churches have received it Which Custom being of
Mystical kinde of Union which maketh us one with him even as He and the Father are one The Real Presence of Christs most Blessed Body and Blood is not therefore to be sought for in the Sacrament but in the worthy Receiver of the Sacrament And with this the very order of our Saviours words agreeth first Take and eat then This is my Body which was broken for you First Drink ye all of this then followeth This is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins I see not which way it should be gathered by the Words of Christ when and where the Bread is his Body or the Cup his Blood but onely in the very Heart and Soul of him which receiveth them As for the Sacraments they really exhibite but for ought we can gather out of that which is written of them they are not really nor do really contain in themselves that Grace which with them or by them it pleaseth God to bestow If on all sides it be confest That the Grace of Baptism is poured into the Soul of Man that by Water we receive it although it be neither seated in the Water nor the Water changed into it what should induce men to think that the Grace of the Eucharist must needs be in the Eucharist before it can be in us that receive it The fruit of the Eucharist is the Participation of the Body and Blood of Christ. There is no sentence of holy Scripture which saith That we cannot by this Sacrament be made partakers of his Body and Blood except they be first contained in the Sacrament or the Sacrament converted into them This is my Body and This is my Blood being words of promise sith we all agree That by the Sacrament Christ doth really and truly in us perform his promise why do we vainly trouble our selves with so fierce Contentions whether by Consubstantiation or else by Transubstantiation the Sacrament it self be first possessed with Christ or no A thing which no way can either further or hinder us howsoever it stand because our Participation of Christ in this Sacrament dependeth on the co-operation of his Omnipotent Power which maketh it his Body and Blood to us whether with change or without alteration of the Element such as they imagine we need not greatly to care or inquire Take therefore that wherein all agree and then consider by it self what cause why the rest in question should not rather be left as superfluous then urged as necessary It is on all sides plainly confest first That this Sacrament is a true and a real Participation of Christ who thereby imparteth himself even his whole intire Person as a Mystical Head unto every Soul that receiveth him and that every such Receiver doth thereby incorporate or unite himself unto Christ as a Mystical Member of him yea of them also whom he acknowledgeth to be his own Secondly That to whom the Person of Christ is thus communicated to them he giveth by the same Sacrament his holy Spirit to sanctifie them as it sanctifieth him which is their Head Thirdly That what merit force or vertue soever there is in his Sacrificed Body and Blood we freely fully and wholly have it by this Sacrament Fourthly That the effect thereof in us is a real transmutation of our Souls and Bodies from sin to righteousness from death and corruption to immortality and life Fifthly That because the Sacrament being of it self but a corruptible and earthly Creature must needs be thought an unlikely Instrument to work so admirable effects in Man we are therefore to rest our selves altogether upon the strength of his glorious power who is able and will bring to pass That the Bread and Cup which he giveth us shall be truly the thing he promiseth It seemeth therefore much amiss that against them whom they term Sacramentaries so many invective Discourses are made all ranning upon two points That the Eucharist is not bare a Sign or Figure onely and that the efficacy of his Body and Blood is not all we receive in this Sacrament For no man having read their Books and Writings which are thus traduced can be ignorant that both these Assertions they plainly confess to be most true They do not so interpret the words of Christ as if the name of his Body did import but the figure of his Body and to be were onely to signifie his Blood They grant that these holy Mysteries received in due manner do instrumentally both make us partakers of the Grace of that Body and Blood which were given for the Life of the World and besides also impart unto us even in true and real though mystical manner the very Person of our Lord himself whole perfect and intire as hath been shewed Now whereas all three opinions do thus far accord in one that strong conceit which two of the three have imbraced as touching a Literal Corporal and Oral Manducation of the very Substance of his Flesh and Blood is surely an opinion no where delivered in holy Scripture whereby they should think themselves bound to believe it and to speak with the softest terms we can use greatly prejudiced in that when some others did so conceive of eating his Flesh our Saviour to abate that error in them gave them directly to understand how his Flesh so eaten could profit them nothing because the words which he spake were Spirit that is to say they had a reference to a Mystical Participation which Mystical Participation giveth life Wherein there is small appearance of likelihood that his meaning should be onely to make them Marcionites by inversion and to teach them that as Marcion did think Christ seemed to be Man but was not so they contrariwise should believe That Christ in Truth would so give them as they thought his Flesh to eat but yet left the horror thereof should offend them he would not seem to do that he did When they which have this opinion of Christ in that Blessed Sacrament go about to explain themselves and to open after what manner things are brought to pass the one sort lay the Union of Christs Deity with his Manhood as their first foundation and ground From thence they infer a power which the Body of Christ hath thereby to present it self in all places out of which Ubiquity of his Body they gather the presence thereof with that sanctified Bread and Wine of our Lords Table The Conjunction of his Body and Blood with those Elements they use as an Argument to shew how the Bread may as well in that respect be termed his Body because his Body is therewith joyned as the Son of God may be named Man by reason that God and Man in the Person of Christ are united To this they add how the Words of Christ commanding us to eat must needs import That as he hath coupled the Substance of his Flesh and the Substance of Bread together so we together should receive both
offences do behold the plain image of our own imbecillity Besides also them that wander out of the way it cannot be unexpedient to win with all hopes of favour left strictness used towards such as reclaim themselves should make others more obstinate in errour Wherefore after that the Church of Alexandria had somewhat recovered it self from the tempests and storms of Artianism being in consultation about the re-establishment of that which by long disturbance had been greatly decayed and hindered the ferventer sort gave quick sentence that touching them which were of the Clergy and had stained themselves with Heresie there should be none so received into the Church again as to continue in the order of the Clergy The rest which considered how many mens cases it did concern thought it much more safe and consonant to bend somewhat down towards them which were fallen to shew severity upon a few of the chiefest Leaders and to offer to the rest a friendly reconciliation without any other demand saving onely the abjuration of their errour as in the Gospel that wastful young man which returned home to his Father's house was with joy both admitted and honored his elder Brother hardly thought of for repining thereat neither commended so much for his own Fidelity and vertue as blamed for not embracing him freely whose unexpected recovery ought to have blotted out all remembrance of misdemeanors and faults past But of this sufficient A thing much stumbled at in the manner of giving Orders is our using those memorable words of our Lord and Saviour Christ Receive the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost they say we cannot give and therefore we foolishly bid men receive it Wise-men for their Authorities sake must have leave to befool them whom they are able to make wise by better instruction Notwithstanding if it may please their wisdom as well to hear what Fools can say as to control that which they doe thus we have heard some Wise-men teach namely That the Holy Ghost may be used to signifie not the Person alone but the Gift of the Holy Ghost and we know that Spiritual gifts are not onely abilities to do things miraculous as to speak with Tongues which were never taught us to cure Diseases without art and such like but also that the very authority and power which is given men in the Church to be Ministers of holy things this is contained within the number of those Gifts whereof the Holy Ghost is Author and therefore he which giveth this Power may say without absurdity or folly Receive the Holy Ghost such power as the Spirit of Christ hath endued his Church withal such Power as neither Prince not Potentate King nor Caesar on Earth can give So that if men alone had devised this form of speech thereby to expresse the heavenly well-spring of that Power which Ecclesiastical Ordinations do bestow it is not so foolish but that Wise-men might bear with it If then our Lord and Saviour himself have used the self-samen form of words and that in the self-same kinde of action although there be but the least shew of probability yea or any possibility that his meaning might be the same which ours is It should teach sober and grave men not to be too venturous in condemning that of folly which is not impossible to have in it more profoundness of wisdom than flesh and blood should presume to control Our Saviour after his resurrection from the dead gave his Apostles their Commission saying All power is given me in Heaven and in Earth Go therefore and teach all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghosts teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you In sum As my Father sent me so send I you Whereunto Saint Iohn doth adde farther that having thus spoken he breathed on them and said Receive the Holy Ghost By which words he must of likelyhood understand some gift of the Spirit which was presently at that time bestowed upon them as both the speech of actual delivery in saying Receive and the visible sign thereof his Breathing did shew Absurd it were to imagine our Saviour did both to the ear and also to the very eye expresse a real donation and they at that time receive nothing It resteth then that we search what special grace they did at that time receive Touching miraculous power of the Spirit most apparent it is that as then they received it not but the promise thereof was to be shortly after performed The words of Saint Luke concerning that Power are therefore set down with signification of the time to come Behold I will send the promise of my Father upon you but carry you in the City of Ierusalem untill ye be endued with power from on high Wherefore undoubtedly it was some other effect of the Spirit the Holy Ghost in some other kinde which our Saviour did then bestow What other likelier than that which himself doth mention as it should seem of purpose to take away all ambiguous constructions and to declare that the Holy Ghost which he then gave was an holy and a ghostly authority authority over the souls of men authority a part whereof consisteth in power to remit and retain sinnes Receive the Holy Ghost Whose sinnes server ye remit they are remitted whose sinnes ye retain they are retained Whereas therefore the other Evangelists had set down that Christ did before his suffering promise to give his Apostles the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and being risen from the dead promised moreover at that time a miracolous power of the Holy Ghost Saint Iohn addeth that he also invested them even then with the power of the Holy Ghost for castigation and relaxation of sinne wherein was fully accomplished that which the promise of the Keys did import Seeing therefore that the same power is now given why should the same form of words expressing it be thought foolish The cause why we breathe not as Christ did on them unto whom he imparted power is for that neither Spirit nor Spiritual authority may be thought to proceed from us who are but Delegates of Assigns to give men possession of his Graces Now besides that the power and authority delivered with those words is it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a gracious donation which the Spirit of God doth bestow we may most assuredly perswade our selves that the hand which imposeth upon us the function of our Ministry doth under the same form of words so tye it self thereunto that he which receiveth the burthen is thereby for ever warranted to have the Spirit with him and in him for his assistance aid countenance and support in whatsoever he faithfully doth to discharge duty Knowing therefore that when we take Ordination we also receive the presence of the Holy Ghost partly to guide direct and strengthen us in all our wayes and partly to assume unto it self for the more
and what himself did wish had been otherwise As for Sozomen his correspondency with Hereticks having shewed to what end the Church did first ordain Penitentiaries he addeth immediately that Novatianists which had no care of Repentance could have no need of this Office Are these the words of a Friend or Enemy Besides in the entrace of that whole Narration Not to sinne saith he at all would require a Nature more divine than ours is But God hath commanded to pardon Sinners yea although they transgresse and offend often Could there be any thing spoken more directly opposite to the Doctrine of Novatian Eudaemon was Presbyter under Nectarius To Novatianists the Emperour gave liberty of using their Religion quietly by themselves under a Bishop of their own even within the City for that they stood with the Church in defence of the Catholick Faith against all other Hereticks besides Had therefore Eudaemon favoured their heresie their Camps were not pitched so farr off but he might at all times have found easie accesse unto them Is there any man that hath lived with him and hath touched him that way if not why suspect we him more than Nectarius Their report touching Grecian Catholick Bishops who gave approbation to that which was done and did also the like themselves in their own Churches we have no reason to discredit without some manifest and clear evidence brought against it For of Catholick Bishops no likelihood but that their greatest respect to Nectarius a man honored in those parts no lesse than the Bishop of Rome himself in the Western Churches brought them both easily and speedily unto conformity with him Arrians Eunomians Apollinarians and the rest that stood divided from the Church held their Penitentiaries as before Novatianists from the beginning had never any because their opinion touching Penitency was against the practice of the Church therein and a cause why they severed themselves from the Church so that the very state of things as they then stood giveth great shew of probability to his speech who hath affirmed That they onely which held the Sonne consubstantial with the Father and Novatianists which joyned with them in the same Opinion had no Penitentiaries in their Churches the rest retained them By this it appeareth therefore how Baronius finding the Relation plain that Nectarius did abolish even those private secret Confessions which the People had been before accustomed to make to him that was Penitentiary laboureth what he may to discredit the Authors of the Report and to leave it imprinted in mens mindes that whereas Nectarius did but abrogate publick Confession Novatianists have maliciously forged the abolition of Private as if the oddes between these two were so great in the ballance of their Judgement which equally hated or contemned both or as if it were not more clear than light that the first alteration which established Penitentiaries took away the burthen of Publick Confession in that kinde of Penitents and therefore the second must either abrogate Private or nothing Cardinal Bellarmine therefore finding that against the Writers of the History it is but in vain to stand upon so doubtful terms and exceptions endeavoureth mightily to prove even by their report no other Confession taken away then Publick which Penitentiaries used in Private to impose upon Publick Offenders For why It is saith he very certain that the Name of Penitents in the Fathers Writings signifieth onely Publick Penitents certain that to hear the Confessions of the rest now more than one could possibly have done certain that Sozomen to shew how the Latine Church retained in his time what the Greek had clean cast off declareth the whole Order of Publick Penitency used in the Church of Rome but of Private he maketh no mention And in these Considerations Bellarmine will have it the meaning both of Socrates and Sozomen that the former Episcopal Constitution which first did erect Penitentiaries could not concern any other Offenders than such as Publickly had sinned after Baptisme That onely they were prohibited to come to the Holy Communion except they did first in secret confesse all their Sinnes to the Penitentiary by his appointment openly acknowledge their open Crimes and doe publick Penance for them That whereas before Novatian's uprising no man was constrainable to confesse publickly any Sinne this Canon enforced Publick Offenders thereunto till such time as Nectarius thought good to extinguish the Practice thereof Let us examine therefore these subtile and fine Conjectures whether they be able to hold the touch It seemeth good saith Socrates to put down the office of these Priests which had charge of Penitency what charge that was the kindes of Penitency then usual must make manifest There is often speech in the Fathers Writings In their Books frequent mention of Penitency exercised within the Chambers of our Heart and seen of God and not communicated to any other the whole charge of which Penitency is imposed of God and doth rest upon the Sinner himself But if Penitents in secret being guilty of Crimes whereby they knew they had made themselves unfit Guests for the Table of our Lord did seek direction for their better performance of that which should set them clear it was in this case the Penitentiaries Office to take their Confessions to advise them the best way he could for their Souls good to admonish them to counsel them but not to lay upon them more than private Penance As for notorious wicked Persons whose Crimes were known to convict judge and punish them was the Office of the Ecclesiastical Consistory Penitentiaries had their Institution to another end But unlesse we imagine that the antient time knew no other Repentance then publick or that they had little occasion to speak of any other Repentance or else that in speaking thereof they used continually some other Name and not the name of Repentance whereby to express private Penitency how standeth it with reason that whensoever they write of Penitents it should be thought they meant only Publick Penitents The truth is they handle all three kindes but private and voluntary Repentance much oftner as being of farr more general use whereas Publick was but incident unto few and not oftner than once incident unto any Howbeit because they do not distinguish one kinde of Penitency from another by difference of Names our safest way for Construction is to follow circumstance of Matter which in this Narration will not yield it self applyable onely unto Publick penance do what they can that would so expound it They boldly and confidently affirm That no man being compellable to confesse publickly any Sinne before Novatius time the end of instituting Penitentiaries afterwards in the Church was that by them men might be constrained unto publick Confession Is there any Record in the World which doth testifie this to be true There is that testifie the plain contrary For Sozomen declaring purposely the cause of their Institution saith That whereas men openly craving Pardon at
of causes of Judgement to be highest let thus much suffice as well for declaration of our own meaning as for defence of the truth therein The cause is not like when such Assemblies are gathered together by Suream Authority concerning other affairs of the Church and when they meet about the making of Ecclesiastical Laws or Statutes For in the one they are onely to advise in the other to decree The Persons which are of the one the King doth voluntarily assemble as being in respect of quality fit to consult withal them which are of the other he calleth by prescript of Law as having right to be thereunto called Finally the one are but themselves and their Sentence hath but the weight of their own Judgment the other represent the whole Clergy and their voyces are as much as if all did give personal verdict Now the question is Whether the Clergy alone so assembled ought to have the whole power of making Ecclesiastical Laws or else consent of the Laity may thereunto be made necessary and the King's assent so necessary that his sole denial may be of force to stay them from being Laws If they with whom we dispute were uniform strong and constant in that which they say we should not need to trouble our selves about their Persons to whom the power of making Laws for the Church belongs for they are sometime very vehement in contention that from the greatest thing unto the least about the Church all must needs be immediately from God And to this they apply the pattern of the antient Tabernacle which God delivered unto Moses and was therein so exact that there was not left as much as the least pin for the wit of man to devise in the framing of it To this they also apply that streight and severe charge which God soosten gave concerning his own Law Whatsoever I command you take heed ye do it Thou shalt put nothing thereto thou shalt take nothing from it Nothing whether it be great or small Yet sometimes bethinking themselves better they speak as acknowledging that it doth suffice to have received in such sort the principal things from God and that for other matters the Church had sufficient authority to make Laws whereupon they now have made it a question What Persons they are whose right it is to take order for the Churches affairs when the institution of any new thing therein is requisite Law may be requisite to be made either concerning things that are onely to be known and believed in or else touching that which is to be done by the Church of God The Law of Nature and the Law of God are sufficient for declaration in both what belongeth unto each man separately as his Soul is the Spouse of Christ yea so sufficient that they plainly and fully shew whatsoever God doth require by way of necessary introduction unto the state of everlasting bliss But as a man liveth joyned with others in common society and belongeth to the outward Politick Body of the Church albeit the same Law of Nature and Scripture have in this respect also made manifest the things that are of greatest necessity nevertheless by reason of new occasions still arising which the Church having care of Souls must take order for as need requireth hereby it cometh to pass that there is and ever will be so great use even of Human Laws and Ordinances deducted by way of discourse as a conclusion from the former Divine and Natural serving as Principals thereunto No man doubteth but that for matters of Action and Practice in the Affairs of God for manner in Divine Service for order in Ecclesiastical proceedings about the Regiment of the Church there may be oftentimes cause very urgent to have Laws made but the reason is not so plain wherefore Human laws should appoint men what to believe Wherefore in this we must note two things 1. That in matters of opinion the Law doth not make that to be truth which before was not as in matter of Action is causeth that to be a duty which was not before but manifesteth only and giveth men notice of that to be truth the contrary whereunto they ought not before to have believed 2. That opinions do cleave to the understanding and are in heat assented unto it is not in the power of any Human law to command them because to prescribe what men shall think belongeth only unto God Corde creditur ore fit confessio saith the Apostle As opinions are either fit or inconvenient to be professed so man's laws hath to determine of them It may for Publick unities sake require mens professed assent or prohibit their contradiction to special Articles wherein as there haply hath been Controversie what is true so the same were like to continue still not without grievous detriment unto a number of Souls except Law to remedy that evil should set down a certainty which no man afterwards is to gain-say Wherefore as in regard of Divine laws which the Church receiveth from God we may unto every man apply those words of wisdom in Solomon My Son keep thou thy Fathers Precepts Conserva Fili mi praecepta Patris tui even so concerning the Statutes and Ordinances which the Church it self makes we may add thereunto the words that follow Etut dimitt as legem Matris tuae And forsake thou not thy Mothers law It is a thing even undoubtedly natural that all free and Independent Societies should themselves make their own Laws and that this power should belong to the whole not to any certain part of a Politick body though haply some one part may have greater sway in that action than the rest which thing being generally fit and expedient in the making of all Laws we see no cause why to think otherwise in Laws concerning the service of God which in all well-order'd States and Common-wealths is the first thing that Law hath care to provide for When we speak of the right which naturally belongeth to a Common-wealth we speak of that which must needs belong to the Church of God For if the Common-wealth be Christian if the People which are of it do publickly embrace the true Religion this very thing doth make it the Church as hath been shewed So that unless the verity and purity of Religion do take from them which embrace it that power wherewith otherwise they are possessed look what authority as touching laws for Religion a Common-wealth hath simply it must of necessity being of the Christian Religion It will be therefore perhaps alledged that a part of the verity of Christian Religion is to hold the power of making Ecclesiastical Laws a thing appropriated unto the Clergy in their Synods and whatsoever is by their only voyces agreed upon it needeth no further approbation to give unto it the strength of a Law as may plainly appear by the Canons of that first most venerable Assembly where those things the Apostle and Iames had concluded
that he denieth us not no not when we were laden with Iniquity leave to commune familiarly with him liberty to crave and intreat that what Plagues soever we have deserved we may not be in worse case than Unbelievers that we may not be hemmed in by Pagans and Infidels Ierusalem is a sinful polluted City but Ierusalem compared with Babylon is righteous And shall the Righteous be over-born shall they be compass'd about by the Wicked But the Prophet doth not onely complain Lord how commeth it to passe that thou handlest us so hardly of whom thy Name is called and bearest with the Heathen-Nations that despise thee No he breaketh out through extremity of grief and inferreth violently This proceeding is perverse the Righteous are thus handled therefore perverse judgment doth proceed 9. Which illation containeth many things whereof it were better much both for you to hear and me to speak if necessity did not draw me to another task Paul and Barnabas being requested to preach the same things again which once they had preached thought it their Duty to satisfie the godly desires of men sincerely affected to the truth Nor may it seem burdenous for me nor for you unprofitable that I follow their example the like occasion unto theirs being offered me When we had last the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrew in hand and of that Epistle these words In these last dayes he hath spoken unto us by his Son After we had thence collected the nature of the visible Church of Christ and had defined it to be a community of men sanctified through the profession of the Truth which God hath taught the World by his Son and had declared That the scope of Christian Doctrine is the comfort of them whose hearts are over-charged with the burden of sinne and had proved that the Doctrin professed in the Church of Rome doth bereave men of comfort both in their lives and in their deaths The conclusion in the end whereunto we came was this The Church of Rome being in Faith so corrupted as she is and refusing to be reformed as she doth we are to sever our selves from her the example of our Fathers may not retain us in communion with that Church under hope that we so continuing may be saved as well as they God I doubt noâ— was merciful to save thousands of them though they lived in Popish Superstitions inasmuch as they sinned ignorantly but the Truth is now laid before our Eys The former part of this last Sentence namely these words I doubt not but God was merciful to save thousands of our Fathers living in Popish Superstitions inasmuch as they seemed ignorantly This Sentence I beseech you to mark and to fist it with the severity of austere judgement that if it be found to be gold it may be suitable to the precious foundation whereon it was then laid for I protest that if it be hay or stubble my own hand shall see fire on it Two questions have risen by this speech before alledged The one Whether our Fathers infected with Popish Errours and Superstitions may be saved The other Whether their ignorance be a reasonable inducement to make us think they might We are then to examine first what possibility then what probability there is that God might be merciful unto so many of our Fathers 10. So many of our Fathers living in Popish Superstitions yet by the mercy of God be saved No this could not be God hath spoken by his Angel from Heaven unto his People concerning Babylon by Babylon we understand the Church of Rome Go out of her my People that ye be not Partakers of her Plagues For answer whereunto first I do not take the words to be meant onely of Temporal plagues of the Corporal death sorrow famine and fire whereunto God in his wrath had condemned Babylon and that to save his chosen People from these Plagues he saith Go out with like intent as in the Gospel speaking of Ierusalem's desolations he saith Let them that are in Judea flye unto the Mountains and them that are in the midst thereof depart one or as in the former times to Lot Arise take thy Wife and thy Daughters which are there lest thou be destroyed in the punishment of the City but forasmuch as here it is said Go out of Babylon we doubt their everlasting destruction which are Partakers therein is either principally meant or necessarily implyed in this Sentence How then was it possible for so many of our Fathers to be saved since they were so farr from departing out of Babylon that they took her for their Mother and in her bosome yielded up the Ghost 11. First for the Plagues being threatned unto them that are Partakers in the sins of Babylon we can define nothing concerning our Fathers our of this Sentence unless we shew what the sins of Babylon be and what they be which are such Partakers of them that their everlasting plagues are inevitable The sins which may be common both to them of the Church of Rome and to others departed thence must be severed from this question He which saith Department of Babylon lest ye be partakers of her sons sheweth plainly that he meaneth such sins as except we separate ourselves we have no power in the World to avoid such impieties as by their Law they have established and whereunto all that are among them either do indeed assent or else are by powerful means forced in shew and appearance to subject themselves As for example in the Church of Rome it is maintained That the same credit and reverence that we give to the Scriptures of God ought also to be given to unwritten verities That the Pope is Supream head ministerial over the Universal Church-militant That the Bread in the Eucharist is transubstantiated into Christ That it is to be adored and to be offered up unto God as a Sacrifice propitiatory for quick and dead That Images are to be worshipped Saints to be called upon as Intercessors and such like Now because some Heresies do concern things only believed as the transubstantiation of the Sacramental Elements in the Eucharist some concern things which practised and put in ure as the adoration of the Elements transubstantiated we must note that erroneously the practice of that is sometime received whereof the doctrine that teacheth it is not heretically maintained They are all partakers of the maintenance of Heresies who by word or deed allow them knowing them although not knowing them to be Heresies as also they and that most dangerously of all others who knowing Heresie to be Heresie do notwithstanding in worldly respects make semblance of allowing that which in heart and judgment they condemn But Heresie is heretically maintained by such as obstinately hold it after wholsome admonition Of the last sort as of the next before I make no doubt but that their condemnation without an actual repentance is inevitable Lest any man therefore
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
Children from the Cradle to be his Cardinals He hath fawned upon the Kings and Princes of the Earth and by Spiritual Cozenage hath made them sell their lawful Authority and Jurisdiction for Titles of Catholicus Christianissimus Defensor Fidei and such like he hath proclaimed sale of Pardons to inveigle the ignorant built Seminaries to allure young men desirous of Learning erected Stews to gather the dissolute unto him This is the Rock whereupon his Church is built Hereby the man is grown huge and strong like the Cedars which are not shaken with the winde because Princes have been as Children over-tender hearted and could not resist Hereby it is come to pass as you see this day that the Man of Sinne doth war against us not by men of a Language which we cannot understand but he cometh as Iereboam against Iudah and bringeth the fruit of our own Bodies to eat us up that the bowels of the Childe may be made the Mother's grave and hath caused no small number of our Brethren to forsake their Native Countrey and with all disloyalty to cast off the yoke of their Allegiance to our dread Soveraign whom God in mercy hath set over them for whose safeguard if they carried not the hearts of Tygers in the bosomes of men they would think the dearest blood in their Bodies well spent But now saith Abiah to Ieroboam Ye think ye be able to resist the Kingdom of the Lord which is in the hands of the Sonnes of David Ye be a great multitude the golden Calves are with you which Ieroboam made you for gods Have ye not driven away the Priests of the Lord the Sons of Aaron and the Levites and have made you Priests like the People of Nations Whosoever cometh with a young Bullock and seven Rams the same may be a Priest of them that are no gods If I should follow the Comparison and here uncover the Cup of those deadly and ugly Abominations wherewith this Ieroboam of whom we speak hath made the Earth so drunk that it hath retled under us I know your godly Hearts would loath to see them For my own part I delight not to take in such filth I had rather take a Garment upon my Shoulders and go with my face from them to cover them The Lord open their Eyes and cause them if it be possible at the length to see how they are wretched and miserable and poor and blinde and naked Put it O Lord in their hearts to seek white Rayment and to cover themselves that their filthy nakednesse may no longer appear For beloved in Christ we bow our Knees and lift up our hands to Heaven in our Chambers secretly and openly in our Churches we pray heartily and hourly even for them also though the Pope hath given out as a Judge in a solemn Declaratory Sentence of Excommunication against this Land That our gracious Lady hath quite abolished Prayers within her Realm and his Scholars whom he hath taken from the midst of us have in their published Writings charged us nor onely nor to have any holy Assemblies unto the Lord for Prayer but to hold a Common School of Sinne and Flattery to hold Sacriledge to be God's Service Unfaithfulnesse and breach of Promise to God to give it to a Strumpet to be a Vertue to abandon Fasting to abhor Confession to mislike with Penance to like well of Usury to charge none with restitution to finde no good before God in single life not in no well-working that all men as they fall to us are much worse and more than afore corrupted I do not add one word or syllable unto that which Mr. Bristow a man both born and sworn amongst us hath taught his hand to deliver to the view of all I appeal to the Conscience of every Soul that hath been truly converted by us Whether his heart were never raised up to God by our Preaching Whether the words of our Exhortation never wâ—â—â—g any tear of a penitent heart from his eys Whether his Soul never reaped any joy and comfort any consolation in Christ Jesus by our Sacraments and Prayers and Psalms and Thanksgiving Whether he were never bettered but always worsed by us O merciful God! If Heaven and Earth in this case do not witness with us and against them let us be razed out from the Land of the Living Let the Earth on which we stand swallow us quick as it hath done Corah Dathan and Abiram But if we belong unto the Lord our God and have not forsaken him if our Priests the Sons of Aaron minister unto the Lord and the Levites in their Office if we offer unto the Lord every morning and every evening the Burnt-offerings and sweet Incense of Prayers and Thanksgiving if the Bread be set in order upon the pure Table and the Candlestick of Gold with the Lamps thereof burn every morning that is to say if amongst us God's blessed Sacraments be duly administred his holy Word sincerely and daily preached if we keep the Watch of the Lord our God and if ye have forsaken him then doubt ye not this God is with us as a Captain his Priests with sounding Trumpets must cry alarm against you O ye Children of Israel fight not against the Lord God of your Fathers for ye shall not prosper THE SECOND SERMON Epist. JUDE Verse 17 18 19 20 21. But ye beloved remember the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ How that they told you that there should be Mockers in the last time which should walk after their own ungodly lusts These are makers of Sects fleshly having not the Spirit But ye beloved edifie your selves in your most holy Faith praying in the Holy Ghost And keep your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto eternal life HAving otherwhere spoken of the words of Saint Iude going next before concerning Mockers which should come in the last time and Backsliders which even then should fall away from the Faith of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I am now by the aide of Almighty God and through the assistance of his good Spirit to lay before you the words of Exhortation which I have read 2. Wherein first of all whosoever hath an eye to see let him open it and he shall well perceive how careful the Lord is for his Children how desirous to see them profit and grow up to a manly stature in Christ how loath to have them any way mis-led either by examples of the wicked or by inticements of the world and by provocation of the flesh or by any other means forcible to deceive them and likely to estrange their hearts from God For God is not at that point with us that he careth not whether we sink or swim No he hath written our names in the Palm of his Hand in the Signet upon his Finger are we graven in Sentences not onely of Mercy but
Posit geneâ—â— supponiâ—ur species Aug. in â—â—â— 2. cap. de Transact c Non perâ—iâ—iâ—â—â— mulieri in ecclesia loqui sed nee docere now ringere nec offerre non dibus virilis muneris â—edum sacerdotalis officii sortem sibi vendicare Tertul. de Velund Virg. d T. C. lib. 1. pag 144. The Substance of the Sacrament dependeth chiefly of the Institution and Word of God which is the Form and as it were the Life of the Sacrament T. C. lib. 1. pag. 144. Although part of the Institution be observed yet if the whole Institution be â—â—t it is no Sacrament T. C. lib. 1. pag. 146. The Orders which God hath set are That it should be done in the Congregation and by the Minister T. C. lib. 1. pag. 145. And I will further say That although the Infants which die without Baptism should be assuredly damned which is most false yet ought not the Orders which God hath set in his Church be broken â—keâ— this sort Nostro pâ—oâ—â— alterius saluâ—i consulere non debemus Aug. lib. cont â—end cap. 17. Matth. 9. 13. Matth. 23. 2â— Whether Baptism by Women be â—â—â— Baptism goâ—â— and effectual to them that receive it a T. C. lib. 1. pag. 144. Oâ—dus polar whether he â—e a Minister or so dependeth not onely the dignity but also the being of the Sacrament So that I take the Baptism of Women to be â—o more the holy sacrament of Baptism than any other daily or ordinary washing of the Childe b 1 Tim. 2. 22. c 1 Tim. 14. 34. Clem. Const. Apostol lib. 2â— cap. â— T. C. lib. 1. pag. 144. a Lâ—â—iâ— prelibentur ne si permitterentar eorum occasione perveniatur ad Illicita Lib. neque tamen Iust. de Asuth Tâ—e lib. Officiâ—â— D. de rei Vind. b Ephes. 4. â— c Una est Nativiâ—as de tiâ—riâ— alia de â—oelo una de cainc alia de Spiritu Una de â—ieâ—mitate alia de mortalitate una de masculo foemina alia de Deo Ecclesia Sed ip ae duâ— singulares sunt Quo modo enim â—terus non potest repeti sie nec Baptismus â—â—eâ—ari Prosp. Senten 3â—1 Eia fraâ—res lacteum genitalis sontâ—s ad laticem conâ—olate ut seâ—â—per robia aqua sufficiar hoc ante omnia scientâ—s quia hanc necâ—ssandere lioet nec turfes haurire Zeneâ—h Invit ad Fent August de Eapâ— â— Don. lib. 2. cap. 14. Tâ—â—t de Bapâ— Cypr. Epist. 7 1. Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 1 2 3. Cypr Epist 70 71,72 73 74 75 76. a Illi ips Episcopi qui Rebapâ—zandes Haeretâ— â—â— cum Cyprians statuerant ad anâ—iquem consuerudinem revoâ—â—ti neâ—um â—â—misere decretum Hierim cont Lucifer Vide August cunt Crescon lib. 3. cap â— â— Epist. 48. b Diâ—â—lti â—eri nun pâ—sse ut in â—alsâ— Baptisiâ—are inquinatus abâ—uar immundus â—munlet supplantator â—rigat perilkus liberer reus veniam tribnar damuâ—tus abtolvar â—â—ne haec â—innia poterâ—â—â—â— ad sulos Hâ—reâ—leâ—â— pertinete qui sahaveâ—unt Syâ—bolum dum alter dixeâ—it duos Deos cum Deus anus sâ— alter â—atrem rule in persona Filil cogâ—osei alter catnem sub lucins Filiâ— Dei per quam Deo reconciâ—â—â—tus est â—aundus Er â—â—ereil Iâ—â—usmâ—â— qui 3 Sacramenns Catholicis alteri moseuatus Opâ—â—i lib. 1. c Synod Nico. cap. 19. d Synoâ— 1. Arâ—â—at cap. 8. e Euseb. Eccles. Hist lib. 7. cap â— Circa An. 3â—0 Circa An 370. Viâ—â—ent Lyren Adveâ—s â—â—res cap 11. * Vide C. Theâ—â— lib. 15. â—â— â—â—b Adveâ—â—â— â—â—s se lib. â—ullus dica Anâ—â—â— Si quis C. Ne. Sin â—â— Baptis Circa An. 41â— Numb 16. 10. Levit. 10. 1. 1 Sam. 13.11 2 Sam. â— 6 2 Chro. 26.16 Heb. â— 4 * Sect. 306. Lugdunentis ex lireria Decret de Manim â—nâ—rast Dunase Eaâ—ciur Reg. 10â— Prohibita neri si sians non tenent In prohibitionibus antemcirca reâ— favorables contratiom obtinâ—r a T. C. lib. â— pag. 144. As St. Paul saith That a man cannot Preach which is not sent Rom. 10. 15. No not although he speak the words of the Scripture and interpret them So I cannot see how a man can Baptize unless he be sent to that end although he pour witer and rehearse the words which are to be rehearsed in the Ministry of Baptism b T. C. lib. 1. pag. 16â— If either the Matter of the Sacrament or the Form of it which is the Institution which things are onely substantial parte were wanting there should then have been no Sacrament at all ministred But they being retained and yet other things used which are not convenient the Sacrament is ministred but not sincerely c T. C. lib. 3. pag. 1â—â— d T. C. lib. 3. pag. 121. e T. C. lib. 3. pag. 135. The Minister is of the Substance of the Sacrament considering that it is a principal part of Christâ— Institution Faza Epist. 2. Desir aqua tamen Baptismuâ— alicujus diff tri cum aedificasione non pessit nec debear egoâ—â—â—tâ— quoâ— is aliâ— liquere non minus tireâ— quam aqua Baptiâ—â—arim f T. C. lib. 3. pag. 138. Shew me why the breach of the Institution in the Form should make the Sacrament unavailable and not the breach of this part which concerneth the Minister T. C. ibid. Howsoever some learned and godly give some liberty in the change of the Elements of the holy Sacrament yet I do notice how that can stand Idem pag. 137. I would rather judge him baptized who is baptized into the Name of Christ without adding the Father and the Holy Ghost when the Element of Water is added then when the other words being duty kept some other liquor is used * Factuâ— alterins alil nacerâ— non deber Vlâ— lib. de Tupille â—â—ct S. Plurimum Item Aâ—pier lib Pater familias De Here Irsâ—â— â— aâ—â—ficia renent Authores inâ—s non aliâ—â— Lib. Sancmus 22 C. de lâ—oen August Epist. 23. T. C. lib. 3. pag 136. Augustine standeth in doubt whether Baptism by a Lay-man he available or no. Conr. Lit. Patâ— lib. 2. â— 13. Where by all likelihood he was out of doubt that that which was ministred by a Woman whose unaptness herein is double to that of a Layman was of no esse 1 T. C. lib. 1. pag. 116. The Sacriledge of Private Persons Women especially in Administring the holy Sament of Baptism * T. C. lib. 3. pag. 139. As by the Seal which the Prince hath set apart to Seal his Grants with when it is sloin and set to by him that hath no authority there groweth as assurance to the party that hath it So if it were possible to be the Seal of God which a Woman should set to yet for that she hath fâ—ola iâ— and put it to not onely without but contrary to the Commandment of God I see not how any can take any assurance by reason thereof â— Exod. 4.24 T. C. lib. 1. pag. 144. I say that the unlawfulness of that sect doth
not opposit by holding that Grace hath use of Nature Secondly Philosophy we are warned to take heed of not that Philosophy which is true and sound Knowledge attained by Natural discourse of Reason but that Philosophy which to bolster Heresie or Error casteth a fraudulent shew of Reason upon things which are indeed unreasonable and by that mean as by a stratagem spoileth the simple which are not able to withstand such cunning Take heed lest any spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit He that exhorteth to beware of an enemies policy doth not give counsel to be impolitick but rather to use all prudent foresight and circumspection lest our simplicity be over-reached by cunning sleights The way not to be inveighled by them that are so guileful through skill is throughly to be instructed in that which maketh skilful against guile and to be armed with that true and sincere Philosophy which doth teach against that deceitful and vain which spoileth Thirdly But many great Philosophers have been very unsound in belief and many sound in belief have been also great Philosophers Could Secular Knowledge bring the one sort unto the love of Christian Faith Nor Christian Faith the other sort out of love with Secular Knowledge The harm that Hereticks did they did it unto such as were unable to discern between sound and deceitful reasoning and the remedy against it was ever the skill which the Ancient Fathers had to discry and discover such deceit Insomuch that Cresconius the Heretick complained greatly of St. Augustine as being too full of Logical subtilties Heresie prevaileth onely by a counterfeit shew of Reason whereby notwithstanding it becometh invincible unless it be convicted of Fraud by manifest Remonstrance clearly true and unable to be withstood When therefore the Apostle requireth hability to convict Hereticks can we think he judgeth it a thing unlawful and not rather needful to use the Principal Instrument of their Conviction the Light of Reason It may not be denied but that in the Fathers writings there are sundry sharp invectives against Hereticks even for their very Philosophical reasonings The cause whereof Tertullian confesseth not to have been any dislike conceived against the kinde of such reasonings but the end We may saith he even in matters of God be made wiser by Reasons drawn from the Publick Perswasions which are grafted in Mens mindes So they be used to further the Truth not to bolster Error so they make with not against that which God hath determined For there are some things even known by Nature as the Immortality of the Soul to many our God unto all I will therefore my self also use the sentence of some such as Plato pronouncing every Soul Immortal I my self too will use the secret acknowledgment of the communalty bearing Record of the God of gods But when I hear men alledge That which is dead is dead and While thou art alive be alive and After death an end of all even of death it self Then will I call to minde both that the heart of the people with God is accounted dust and that the very Wisdom of the World is pronounced Folly If then an Heretick flie also unto such vicious popular and secular conceits my answer unto him shall be Thou Heretick avoid the Heathen although in this ye be one that ye both belie God yet thou that dost his under the Name of Christ differest from the Heathen in that thou seemest to thy self a Christian. Leave him therefore his conceits seeing that neither will be learn thine Why dost thou having sight trust to a blind guide Thou which hast put on Christ take raiment of him that is naked If the Apostle have armed thee why dost thou borrow a strangers shield Let him rather learn of thee to acknowledge then thou of him to renounce the Resurrection of the Flesh. In a word the Catholick Fathers did good unto all by that Knowledge whereby Hereticks hindering the Truth in many might have furthered therewith themselves but that obstinately following their own ambitious or otherwise corrupted affections instead of framing their wills to maintain that which Reason taught they bent their wits to finde how Reason might seem to teach that which their Wills were set to maintain For which cause the Apostle saith of them justly that they are for the most part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men condemned even in and of themselves For though they be not all perswaded that it is truth which they withstand yet that to be error which they uphold they might undoubtedly the sooner a great deal attain to know but that their study is more to defend what once they have stood in then to finde out sincerely and simply what truth they ought to persist in for ever Fourthly there is in the World no kinde of knowledge whereby any part of Truth is seen but we justly account it precious yea that Principal Truth in comparison whereof all other knowledge is vile may receive from it some kinde of light whether it be that Egyptian and Caldean wisdom Mathematical wherewith Moses and Daniel were furnished or that Natural Moral and Civil wisdom wherewith Solomon excelled all Men or that Rational and Oratorial wisdom of the Grecians which the Apostle St. Paul brought from Tarsus or that Judaical which he learned in Ierusalem sitting at the feet of Gamaliel To detract from the dignity thereof were to injure even God himself who being that Light which none can approach unto hath sent out these lights whereof we are capable even as so many sparkles resembling the Bright Fountain from which they rise But there are that bear the title of Wisemen and Scribes and great Disputers of the World and are nothing indeed less then what in shew they most appear These being wholy addicted unto their own wills use their wit their learning and all the wisdom they have to maintain that which their obstinate hearts are delighted with esteeming in the frantick error of their mindes the greatest madness in the World to be Wisdom and the highest Wisdom foolishness Such were both Jews and Grecians which professed the one sort Legal and the other Secular skill neither enduring to be taught the Mystery of Christ Unto the glory of whose most blessed Name who so study to use both their Reason and all other Gifts as well which Nature as which Grace hath endued them with let them never doubt but that the same God who is to destroy and confound utterly that wisdom falsly so named in others doth make reckoning of them as of true Scribes Scribes by Wisdom instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven Scribes against that Kingdom hardned in a vain opinion of Wisdom which in the end being proved folly must needs perish true Understanding Knowledge Judgment and Reason continuing for evermore Fifthly Unto the Word of God being in respect of that end for which God ordained it perfect exact and absolute in it self we do not add Reason
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