travels sufficiently cleared the truth no less for the Deity of the Holy Ghost then for the compleat Humanity of Christ there followed hereupon a final conclusion whereby those Controversies as also the rest which Paulâ—n Samosatenus Sabellius Phatinus Aâ—tius Ennomius together with the whole swarm of pestilent Demi-Arians had from time to time stirred up since the Council of Nice were both privately first at Rome in a smaller Synod and then at Constantinople in a general famous Assembly brought to a peaceable and quiet end Sevenscore Bishops and ten agreeing in that Confession which by them set down remaineth at this present hour a part of our Church Liturgy a Memorial of their Fidelity and Zeal a soveraign preservative of Gods people from the venemous infection of Heresie Thus in Christ the verity of God and the compleat substance of man were with full agreement established throughout the World till such time as the Heresie of Nesterius broached it self Dividing Christ into two Persons the Son of God and the Son of Man the one a Person begotten of God before all Worlds the other also a Person born of the Virgin Mary and in special favor chosen to be made intire to the Son of God above all men so that whosoever will honor God must together honor Christ with whose Person God hath vouchsafed to joyn himself in so high a degree of gracious respect and favor But that the self-same Person which verily is Man should properly be God also and that by reason not of two Persons linked in Amity but of two Natures Humane and Divine conjoyned in one and the same Person the God of Glory may be said as well to have suffered death as to have raised the dead from their Graves the Son of Man as well to have made as to have redeemed the World Nestorius in no case would admit That which deceived him was want of heed to the first beginning of that admirable combination of God with Man The Word saith St. Iohn was made flesh and dwelt in us The Evangelist useth the plural number Men for Manhood us for the nature whereof we consist even as the Apostle denying the Assumption of Angelical Nature saith likewise in the plural number he took not Angels but the Seed of Abraham It pleased not the Word or Wisdom of God to take to it self some one Person amongst men for then should that one have been advanced which was assumed and no more but Wisdom to the end she might save many built her House of that Nature which is common unto all she made not this or that Man her Habitation but dwelt in us The Seeds of Herbs and Plants at the first are not in act but in possibility that which they afterwards grow to be If the Son of God had taken to himself a Man now made and already perfected it would of necessity follow that there are in Christ two Persons the one assuming and the other assumed whereas the Son of God did not assume a mans person into his own but a mans nature to his own Person and therefore took Semen the Seed of Abraham the very first original Element of our Nature before it was come to have any Personal Humane subsistence The Flesh and the Conjunction of the Flesh with God began both at one instant his making and taking to himself our flesh was but one act so that in Christâ— there is no Personal subsistence but one and that from everlasting By taking onely the nature of man he still continueth one Person and changeth but the manner of his subsisting which was before in the meer glory of the Son of God and is now in the habit of our flesh For as much therefore as Christ hath no personal subsistence but one whereby we acknowledge him to have been eternally the Son of God we must of necessity apply to the Person of the Son of God even that which is spoken of Christ according to his Humane nature For example according to the flesh he was born of the Virgin Mary baptized of Iohn in the River Iordan by Pilate adjudged to die and executed by the Jews We cannot say properly that the Virgin bore or Iohn did baptize or Pilate condemn or the Jews crucifie the Nature of Man because these all are Personal Attributes his Person is the subject which receiveth them his Nature that which maketh his Person capable or apt to receive If we should say that the Person of a Man in our Saviour Christ was the subject of these things this were plainly to intrap our selves in the very snare of the Nestorians Heresie between whom and the Church of God there was no difference saving onely that Nestorius imagined in Christ as well a Personal Humane subsistence as a Divine the Church acknowledging a substance both Divine and Humane but no other Personal subsistence then Divine because the Son of God took not to himself a mans person but the nature onely of a man Christ is a Person both Divine and Humane howbeit not therefore two persons in one neither both these in one sense but a Person Divine because he is personally the Son of God Humane because he hath really the nature of the Children of Men. In Christ therefore God and Man There is saith Paschasius a twofold substance not a twofold Person because one Person distinguisheth another whereas one nature cannot in another become extinct For the Personal Being which the Son of God already had suffered not the Substance to be Personal which he took although together with the Nature which he had the Nature also which he took continueth Whereupon it followeth against Nestorius That no Person was born of the Virgin but the Son of God no Person but the Son of God baptized the Son of God condemned the Son of God and no other Person crucified which one onely point of Christian Belief The infinite north of the Son of God is the very ground of all things believed concerning Life and Salvation by that which Christ either did or suffered as Man in our behalf But for as much as St. Cyril the chiefest of those Two hundred Bishops assembled in the Council of Ephesus where the Heresie of Nestorius was condemned had in his Writings against the Arians avouched That the Word or Wisdom of God hath but one Nature which is Eternal and whereunto he assumed Flesh for the Arians were of opinion That besides Gods own Eternal Wisdom there is a Wisdom which God created before all things to the end he might thereby create all things else and that this Created Wisdom was the Word which took Flesh. Again for as much as the same Cyril had given instance in the Body and the Soul of Man no farther then onely to enforce by example against Nestorius That a visible and an invisible a mortal and an immortal Substance may united make one Person the words of Cyril were in process of time so
the Law-maker as an argument wherefore it should not be lawful to change that which he hath instituted and will have this the cause why all the Ordinances of our Saviour are immutable they which urge the Wisdom of God as a proof that whatsoever Laws he hath made they ought to stand unless himself from Heaven proclaim them disannulled because it is not in man to correct the Ordinance of God may know if it please them to take notice thereof that we are far from presuming to think that men can better any thing which God hath done even as we are from thinking that men should presume to undo some things of men which God doth know they cannot better God never ordained any thing that could be bettered Yet many things he hath that have been changed and that for the better That which succeedeth as better now when change is requisite had been worse when that which now is changed was instituted Otherwise God had not then left this to chuse that neither would now reject that to chuse this were it not for some new-grown occasion making that which hath been betterworse In this case therefore men do not presume to change Gods Ordinance but they yield thereunto requiring it self to be changed Against this it is objected that to abrogate or innovate the Gospel of Christ if Men or Angels should attempt it were most heinous and cursed sacriledge And the Gospel as they say containeth not onely doctrine instructing men how they should believe but also Precepts concerning the Regiment of the Church Discipline therefore is a part of the Gospel and God being the Author of the whole Gospel as well of Discipline as of Doctrine it cannot be but that both of them have a Common Cause So that as we are to believe for ever the Articles of Evangelical Doctrine so the Precepts of Discipline we are in like sort bound for ever to observe Touching Points of Doctrine as for example the Unity of God the Trinity of Persons Salvation by Christ the Resurrection of the Body Life Everlasting the Judgment to come and such like they have been since the first hour that there was a Church in the World and till the last they must be believed But as for Matters of Regiment they are for the most part of another nature To make new Articles of Faith and Doctrine no Man thinketh it lawful new Laws of Government what Commonwealth or Church is there which maketh not either at one time or another The Rule of Faith saith Tertullian is but one and that alone immoveable and impossible to be framed or cast a new The Law of outward Order and Polity not so There is no reason in the World wherefore we should esteem it as necessary always to do as always to believe the same things seeing every man knoweth that the Matter of Faith is constant the Matter contrariwise of Action daily changeable especially the Matter of Action belonging unto Church Polity Neither can I finde that Men of soundest judgment have any otherwise taught then that Articles of Belief and things which all men must of necessity do to the end they may be saved are either expresly set down in Scripture or else plainly thereby to be gathered But touching things which belong to Discipline and outward Polity the Church hath Authority to make Canons Laws and Decrees even as we read that in the Apostles times it did Which kinde of Laws for as much as they are not in themselves necessary to Salvation may after they are made be also changed as the difference of times or places shall require Yea it is not denied I am sure by themselves that certain things in Discipline are of that nature as they may be varied by times places persons and other the like circumstances Whereupon I demand are those changeable Points of Discipline commanded in the Word of God or no If they be not commanded and yet may be received in the Church how can their former Position stand condemning all things in the Church which in the Word are not commanded If they be commanded and yet may suffer change How can this latter stand affirming all things immutable which are commanded of God Their distinction touching Matters of Substance and of Circumstance though true will not serve For be they great things or be they small if God have commanded them in the Gospel and his commanding them in the Gospel do make them unchangeable there is no reason we should more change the one then we may the other If the Authority of the Maker do prove unchangeableness in the Laws which God hath made then must all Laws which he hath made be necessarily for ever permanent though they be out of Circumstance onely and not of Substance I therefore conclude that neither Gods being Author of Laws for Government of his Church nor his committing them unto Scripture is any reason sufficient wherefore all Churches should for ever be bound to keep them without change But of one thing we are here to give them warning by the way For whereas in this Discourse we have oftentimes profest that many parts of Discipline or Church Polity are delivered in Scripture they may perhaps imagine that we are driven to confess their Discipline to be delivered in Scripture and that having no other means to avoid it we are in fain to argue for the changeableness of Laws ordained even by God himself as if otherwise theirs of necessity should take place and that under which we live be abandoned There is no remedy therefore but to abate this Error in them and directly to let them know that if they fall into any such conceit they do but a little flatter their own cause As for us we think in no respect so highly of it Our perswasion is that no age ever had knowledge of it but onely ours that they which defend it devised it that neither Christ nor his Apostles at any time taught it but the contrary If therefore we did seek to maintain that which most advantageth our own cause the very best way for us and the strongest against them were to hold even as they do that in Scripture there must needs be found some particular Form of Church Polity which God hath instituted and which for that very cause belongeth to all Churches to all times But with any such partial eye to respect our selves and by cunning to make those things seem the truest which are the fittest to serve our purpose is a thing which we neither like nor mean to follow Wherefore that which we take to be generally true concerning the Mutability of Laws the same we have plainly delivered as being perswaded of nothing more then we are of this That whether it be in Matter of Speculation or of Practice no untruth can possibly avail the Patron and Defender long and that things most truly are like most behovefully spoken 11. This we hold and grant for Truth
taken as though it had been his drift to teach That even as in us the Body and the Soul so in Christ God and Man make but one Nature Of which Error Six hundred and thirty Fathers in the Council of Chalcedon condemned Eutiches For as Nestorius teaching rightly That God and Man are distinct Natures did thereupon mis-infer That in Christ those Natures can by no conjunction make one Person so Eutiches of â—ound belief as touching their true Personal Copulation became unsound by denying the difference which still continueth between the one and the other Nature We must therefore keep warily a middle course shunning both that distraction of Persons wherein Nestorius went awry and also this latter confusion of Natures which deceived Eutiches These Natures from the moment of their first combination have been and are for ever inseparable For even when his Soul forsook the Tabernacle of his Body his Deity forsook neither Body nor Soul â— it had then could we not truly hold either that the Person of Christ was buried or that the Person of Christ did raise up it self from the dead For the Body separated from the Word can in no true sense be termed the Person of Christ nor is it true to say That the Son of God in raising up that Body did raise up himself if the Body were not both with him and of him even during the time it lay in the Sepulchre The like is also to be said of the Soul otherwise we are plainly and inevitably Nestorians The very Person of Christ therefore for ever one and the self-same was onely touching Bodily Substance concluded within the Grave his Soul onely from thence severed but by Personal Union his Deity still inseparably joyned with both 53. The sequel of which Conjunction of Natures in the Person of Christ is no abolishment of Natural Properties appertaining to either Substance no transition or transmigration thereof out of one substance into another Finally no such mutual infusion as really causeth the same Natural Operations or Properties to be made common unto both Substances but whatsoever is natural to Deity the same remaineth in Christ uncommunicated unto his Manhood and whatsoever natural to Manhood his Deity thereof is uncapable The true Properties and Operations of his Deity are To know that which is not possible for Created Natures to comprehend to be simply the highest cause of all things the Well-spring of Immortality and Life to have neither end nor beginning of days to be every where present and inclosed no where to be subject to no alteration nor passion to produce of it self those effects which cannot proceed but from infinite Majesty and Power The true Properties and Operation of his Manhood are such as Irenaus reckoneth up If Christ saith he had not taken flesh from the very Earth he would not have coveted those earthly nourishments wherewith bodies which be taken from thence are fed This was the Nature which felt hunger after long fasting was desirous of rest after travel testified compassion and love by tears groaned in heaviness and with extremity of grief even melted away it self into bloody sweats To Christ we ascribe both working of Wonders and suffering of Pains we use concerning him speeches as well of Humility as of Divine Glory but the one we apply unto that Nature which he took of the Virgin Mary the other to that which was in the beginning We may not therefore imagine that the properties of the weaker Nature have vanished with the presence of the more glorious and have been therein swallowed up as in a Gulf. We dare not in this point give ear to them who over-boldly affirm That the Nature which Christ took weak and feeble from us by being mingled with Deity became the same which Deity is that the Assumption of our Substance unto his was like the blending of a drop of Vinegar with the huge Ocean wherein although it continue still yet not with those properties which severed it hath because sithence the instant of their conjunction all distinction and difference of the one from the other is extinct and whatsoever we can now conceive of the Son of God is nothing else but meer Deity Which words are so plain and direct for Eutiches that I stand in doubt they are not his whose name they carry Sure I am they are far from truth and must of necessity give place to the better advised sentences of other men He which in himself was appointed saith Hilary a Mediator to save his Church and for performance of that Mystery of Mediation between God and Man is become God and Man doth now being but one consist of both those Natures united neither hath he through the Union of both incurred the damage or loss of either lest by being born a Man we should think he hath given over to be God or that because he continued God therefore he cannot be Man also whereas the true belief which maketh a man happy proclaimeth joyntly God and Man confesseth the Word and Flesh together Cyril more plainly His two Natures have knit themselves the one to the other and are in that nearness as uncapable of confusion as of distraction Their coherence hath not taken away the difference between them Flesh is not become God but doth still continue Flesh although it be now the Flesh of God Tea of each Substance saith Leo the Properties are all preserved and kept safe These two Natures are as causes and original Grounds of all things which Christ hath done Wherefore some things he doth as God because his Deity alone is the Well-spring from which they flow some things as Man because they issue from his meer Humane nature some things joyntly as both God and Man because both Natures concur as Principles thereunto For albeit the Properties of each Nature do cleave onely to that Nature whereof they are Properties and therefore Christ cannot naturally be as God the same which he naturally is as Man yet both Natures may very well concur unto one effect and Christ in that respect be truly said to work both as God and as Man one and the self-same thing Let us therefore set it down for a rule or principle so necessary as nothing more to the plain deciding of all doubts and questions about the Union of Natures in Christ that of both Natures there is a Co-operation often an Association always but never any Mutual Participation whereby the Properties of the one are infused into the other Which rule must serve for the better understanding of that which Damascene hath touching cross and circulatory speeches wherein there are attributed to God such things as belong to Manhood and to Man such as properly concern the Deity of Christ Jesus the cause whereof is the Association of Natures in one Subject A kinde of Mutual Commutation there is whereby those concrete Names God and Man when we speak of Christ do take
same Conjunction so much altered as not to stay within those limits which our Substance is bordered withal nor the state and quality of our Substance so unaltered but that there are in it many glorious effects proceeding from so near Copulation with Deity God from us can receive nothing we by him have obtained much For albeit the Natural Properties of Deity be not communicable to Mans nature the Supernatural Gifts Graces and Effects thereof are The honor which our Flesh hath by being the Flesh of the Son of God is in many respects great If we respect but that which is common unto us with him the Glory provided for him and his in the Kingdom of Heaven his Right and Title thereunto even in that he is Man differeth from other mens because he is that Man of whom God is himself a part We have right to the same Inheritance with Christ but not the same right which he hath his being such as we cannot reach and ours such as he cannot stoop unto Furthermore to be the Way the Truth and the Life to be the Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification Resurrection to be the Peace of the whole World the Hope of the Righteous the Heir of all things to be that Supream Head whereunto all Power both in Heaven and in Earth is given These are not Honors common unto Christ with other Men they are Titles above the dignity and worth of any which were but a meer Man yet true of Christ even in that he is Man but Man with whom Deity is personally joyned and unto whom it hath added those excellencies which makes him more then worthy thereof Finally Sith God hath deified our Nature though not by turning it into himself yet by making it his own inseparable Habitation we cannot now conceive how God should without Man either exercise Divine Power or receive the glory of Divine Praise For Man is in both an Associate of Deity But to come to the Grace of Unction Did the parts of our Nature the Soul and Body of Christ receive by the influence of Deity wherewith they were matcht no ability of Operations no Vertue or quality above Nature Surely as the Sword which is made fiery doth not onely cut by reason of the sharpness which simply it hath but also burn by means of that heat which it hath from fire so there is no doubt but the Deity of Christ hath enabled that Nature which it took of Man to do more then Man in this World hath power to comprehend for as much as the bare Essential Properties of Deity excepted he hath imparted unto it all things he hath replenished it with all such Perfections as the same is any way apt to receive at the least according to the exigence of that oeconomy or service for which it pleased him in Love and Mercy to be made Man For as the Parts Degrees and Offices of that Mystical Administration did require which he voluntarily undertook the Beams of Deity did in operation always accordingly either restrain or enlarge themselves From hence we may somewhat conjecture how the Powers of that Soul are illuminated which being so inward unto God cannot chuse but be privy unto all things which God worketh and must therefore of necessity be endued with knowledge so far forth Universal though not with infinite knowledge peculiar to Deity itself The Soul of Christ that saw in this life the Face of God was here through so visible presence of Deity filled with all manner of Graces and Vertues in that unmatchable degree of Perfection for which of him we read it written That God with the Oyl of Gladness anointed him above his fellows And as God hath in Christ unspeakably glorified the Nobler so likewise the meaner part of our Nature the very Bodily Substance of Man Where also that must again be remembred which we noted before concerning the degrees of the influence of Deity proportionable unto his own purposes intents and counsels For in this respect his Body which by Natural condition was corruptible wanted the gift of Everlasting immunity from Death Passion and Dissolution till God which gave it to be slain for sin had for Righteousness sake restored it to life with certainty of endless continuance Yea in this respect the very glorified Body of Christ retained in it the skars and marks of former mortality But shall we say that in Heaven his glorious Body by vertue of the same cause hath now power to present it self in all places and to be every where at once present We nothing doubt but God hath many ways above the reach of our capacities exalted that Body which it hath pleased him to make his own that Body wherewith he hath saved the World that Body which hath been and is the Root of Eternal Life the Instrument wherewith Deity worketh the Sacrifice which taketh away sin the Price which hath ransomed Souls from Death the Leader of the whole Army of Bodies that shall rise again For though it had a beginning from us yet God hath given it vital efficacy Heaven hath endowed it with celestial power that vertue it hath from above in regard whereof all the Angels of Heaven adore it Notwithstanding a Body still it continueth a Body consubstantial with our Bodies a Body of the same both Nature and Measure which it had on Earth To gather therefore into one sum all that hitherto hath been spoken touching this point there are but four things which concur to make compleat the whole state of our Lord Jesus Christ his Deity his Manhood the Conjunction of both and the distinction of the one from the other being joyned in one Four principal Heresies there are which have in those things withstood the truth Arians by bending themselves against the Deity of Christ Apollinarians by maiming and misinterpreting that which belongeth to his Humane Nature Nestorians by renting Christ asunder and dividing him into two persons the followers of Eutiches by confounding in his Person those Natures which they should distinguish Against these there have been four most famous Ancient General Councils the Council of Nice to define against Arians against Apollinarians the Council of Constantinople the Council of Ephesus against Nestorians against Eutichians the Calcedon Council In four words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 truly perfectly indivisibly distinctly The first applied to his being God and the second to his being Man the third to his being of both One and the fourth to his still continuing in that One both We may fully by way of Abridgment comprize whatsoever Antiquity hath at large handled either in Declaration of Christian Belief or in Refutation of the soresaid Heresies Within the compass of which four heads I may truly affirm That all Heresies which touch but the Person of Jesus Christ whether they have risen in these latter days or in any age heretofore may be with great facility brought to confine themselves We conclude
then Lord let thy Servant depart in peace which was his usual expression And God heard his Prayers though he denied the Church the benefit of them as compleated by himself and 't is thought he hastned his own death by hastning to give life to his Books But this is certain that the nearer he was to his death the more he grew in Humility in holy Thoughts and Resolutions About a moneth before his death this good man that never knew or at least never consider'd the pleasures of the Palate became first to lose his Appetite then to have an aversness to all Food insomuch that he seem'd to live some intermitted weeks by the smell of meat onely and yet still studied and writ And now his Guardian Angel seem'd to foretel him that his years were past away as a shadow bidding him prepare to follow the Generation of his Fathers for the day of his dissolution drew near for which his vigorous Soul appear'd to thirst In this time of his sickness and not many days before his death his House was robb'd of which he having notice his Question was Are my Books and Written Papers safe And being answered That they were His Reply was Then it matters not for no other loss can trouble me About one day before his death Dr. Saravia who knew the very secrets of his Soul for they were supposed to be Confessors to each other came to him and after a Conference of the Benefit the Necessity and Safety of the Churches Absolution it was resolved the Doctor should give him both that and the Sacrament the day following To which end the Doctor came and after a short retirement and privacy they return'd to the company and then the Doctor gave him and some of those friends that were with him the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of our Jesus Which being performed the Doctor thought he saw a reverend gaity and joy in his face but it lasted not long for his bodily infirmities did return suddenly and became more visible insomuch that the Doctor apprehended Death ready to seise him Yet after some amendment left him at night with a promise to return early the day following which he did and then found him better in appearance deep in contemplation and not inclinable to discourse which gave the Doctor occasion to require his present thoughts To which he replied That he was meditating the number and nature of Angels and their blessed Obedience and Order without which Peace could not be in Heaven and oh that it might be so on Earth After which words he said I have lived to see this World is made up of perturbations and I have been long preparing to leave it and gathering comfort for the dreadful hour of making my account with God which I now apprehend to be near And though I have by his Grace lov'd him in my youth and fear'd him in mine age and labor'd to have a Conscience void of offence to him and to all men yet if thou O Lord be extream to mark what I have done amiss who can abide it And therefore where I have failed Lord shew mercy to me for I plead not my Righteousness but the forgiveness of my unrighteousness for his Merits who died to purchase a pardon for penitent sinners And since I ow thee a death Lord let it not be terrible and then take thine own time I submit to it Let not mine O Lord but let thy Will be done With which expression he fell into a dangerous slumber dangerous as to his recovery yet recover he did but it was to speak onely these few words Good Doctor God hath heard my daily Petitions for I am at peace with all men and he is at peace with me and from which blessed assurance I feel that inward joy which this World can neither give nor take from me More he would have spoken but his spirits failed him and after a short conflict betwixt Nature and Death a quiet sigh put a period to his last breath and so he fell asleep And here I draw his Curtain till with the most glorious Company of the Patriarks and Apostles the most noble Army of Martyrs and Confessors this most Learned most Humble holy Man shall also awake to receive an Eternal Tranquillity and with it a greater degree of Glory then common Christians shall be made partakers of In the mean time Bless O Lord Lord bless his Brethren the Clergy of this Nation with ardent desires and effectual endeavors to attain if not to his great Learning yet to his remarkable meekness his godly simplicity and his Christian moderation For these are praise-worthy these bring peace at the last And let the Labors of his life his most excellent Writings be bless with what he designed when he undertook them Which was Glory to thee O God on high Peace in thy Church and good will to mankinde Amen Amen AN APPENDIX To the LIFE of Mr. Richard Hooker ANd now having by a long and Laborious search satisfied my self and I hope my Reader by imparting to him the true Relation of Mr. Hookers Life I am desirous also to acquaint him with some Observations that relate to it and which could not properly fall to be spoken till after his Death of which my Reader may expect a brief and true account in the following Appendix And first it is not to be doubted but that he died in the forty-seventh if not in the forty-sixth year of his Age which I mention because many have believed him to be more aged but I have so examined it as to be confident I mistake not and for the year of his death Mr. Cambden who in his Annals of Queen Elizabeth 1599. mentions him with a high commendation of his Life and Learning declares him to die in the year 1599. and yet in that Inscription of his Monument set up at the charge of Sir William Cooper in Borne Church where Mr. Hooker was buried his Death is said to be in Anno 1603. but doubtless both mistaken for I have it attested under the hand of William Somner the Archbishops Register for the Province of Canterbury that Richard Hookers Will bears date October the 26. in Anno 1600. and that it was prov'd the third of December following And this attested also that at his Death he left four Daughters Alice Cicily Iane and Margaret that he gave to each of them a hundred pound that he left Ione his Wife his sole Executrix and that by his Inventory his Estate a great part of it being in Books came to 1092l 91. 2d which was much more than he thought himself worth and which was not got by his Care much less by the good Huswifery of his Wife but saved by his trusty Servant Thomas Lane that was wiser than his Master in getting Money for him and more frugal than his Mistress in keeping it of which Will I shall say no more but that his dear Friend Thomas the Father of
Nobility when the Matter came in tryal would contentedly suffer themselves to be always at the Call and to stand to the sentence of a number of mean persons assisted with the presence of their poor Teacher a man as sometimes it hapneth though better able to speak yet little or no whit apter to judge then the rest From whom be their dealings never so absurd unless it be by way of Complaint to a Synod no Appeal may be made unto any one of higher Power is as much as the Order of your Discipline admitteth no standing in Equality of Courts no Spiritual Iudge to have any ordinary Superior on Earth but as many Supremacies as there are Parishes and several Congregations Neither is it altogether without cause that so many do fear the overthrow of all Learning as a threatned sequel of this your Intended Discipline For if the Worlds Preservation depend upon the multitude of the wise and of that sort the number hereafter be not likely to wax over-great when that therewith the son of Syrach professeth himself at the heart grived men of understanding are already so little set by How should their mindes whom the love of so precious a Iewel filleth with secret jealousie even in regard of the lest things which may any way hinder the flourishing estate thereof chuse but misdoubt lest this Discipline which always you match with Divine Doctrine as her natural and true Sister be found unto all kindes of knowledge a Step-mother seeing that the greatest worldly hopes which are proposed unto the chiefest kinde of Learning ye seek utterly to extirpate as Weeds and have grounded your Platform on such Propositions as do after a sort undermine those most renowned Habitations where through the goodness of Almighty God all commendable Arts and Sciences are with exceeding great industry hitherto and so may they for ever continue studied proceeded in and profest To charge you as purposely bent to the overthrow of that wherein so many of you have attained no small perfection were injurious Onely therefore I wish that your selves did well consider how opposite certain of your Positions are unto the state of Collegiate Societies whereon the two Universities consist Those Degrees which their Statutes binde them to take are by your Laws taken away your selves who have sought them ye so excuse as that ye would have men to think ye judge them not allowable but tolerable onely and to be borne with for some help which ye finde in them unto the furtherance of your purposes till the corrupt estate of the Church may be better reformed Your Laws forbidding Ecclesiastical Persons utterly the exercise of Civil Power must needs deprive the Heads and Masters in the same Colledges of all such Authority as now they exercise either at home by punishing the faults of those who not as children to their Parents by the Law of Nature but altogether by Civil Authority are subject unto them or abroad by keeping Courts amongst their Tenants Your Laws making permanent inequality amongst Ministers a thing repugnant to the Word of God enforce those Colledges the Seniors whereof are all or any part of them Ministers under the Government of a Master in the same Vocation to chuse as oft as they meet together a new President For if so ye judge it necessary to do in Synods for the avoiding of permanent inequality amongst Ministers the same cause must needs even in these Collegiate Assemblies enforce the like Except peradventure ye mean to avoid all such absurdities by dissolving those Corporations and by bringing the Universities unto the Form of the School of Geneva Which thing men the rather are inclined to look for in as much as the Ministery wherein to their Founders with singular Providence have by the same Statutes appointed them necessarily to enter at a certain time your Laws binde them much more necessarily to forbear till some Parish abroad call for them Your opinion concerning the Law Civil is That the knowledge thereof might be spared as a thing which this Land doth not need Professors in that kinde being few ye are the bolder to spurn at them and not to dissemble your mindes as concerning their removal In whose Studies although my self have not much been conversant nevertheless exceeding great cause I see there is to wish that thereunto more encouragement were given as well for the singular Treasures of Wisdom therein contained as also for the great use we have thereof both in Decision of certain kindes of causes arising daily within our selves and especially for Commerce with Nations abroad whereunto that knowledge is most requisite The Reasons wherewith ye would perswade that Scripture is the onely rule to frame all our actions by are in every respect as effectual for proof that the same it the onely Law whereby to determine all our Civil Controversies And then what doth let but that as those men may have their desire who frankly broach it already That the Work of Reformation will never be perfect till the Law of Iesus Christ be received alone so Pleaders and Counsellors may bring their Books of the Common Law and bestow them as the Students of curious and needless Arts did theirs in the Apostles time I leave them to scan how for thosewords of yours may reach wherein ye declare That where as now many houses lie waste through inordinate Suits of Law This one thing will shew the excellency of Discipline for the Wealth of the Realm and quiet of Subjects That the Church is to censure such a Party who is apparently troublesome and contentious and without REASONABLE CAUSE upon a meer Will and Stomach doth vex and molest his Brother and trouble the Country For mine own part I do not see but that it might very well agree with your Principles if your Discipline were fully planted even to send out your Writs of Surcease unto all Courts of England besides for the most things handled in them A great deal further I might proceed and descend lower but for as much as against all these and the like difficulties your answer is That we ought to search what things are consonant to Gods Will not which be most for our own ease and therefore that your Discipline being for such is your Error the absolute Commandment of Almighty God it must be received although the World by receiving it should be clean turned upside down Herein lieth the greatest danger of all For whereas the name of Divine Authority is used to countenance these things which are not the Commandments of God but your own Erroneous Collections on him ye must father whatsoever ye shall afterwards be led either to do in withstanding the Adversaries of your Cause or to think in maintenance of your doings And what this may be God doth know In such kindes of Error the Minde once imagining it self to seek the execution of Gods Will laboreth forthwith to remove both things and persons which any way
Earth pine away as Children at the withered Brests of their Mother no longerable to yield them relief What would become of Man himself whom these things now do all serve See we not plainly that obedience of Creatures unto the Law of Nature is the stay of the whole World Notwithstanding with Nature it cometh sometimes to pass as with art Let Phidias have rude and obstinate stuff to carve though his art do that it should his work will lack that beauty which otherwise in fitter matter it might have had He that striketh an Instrument with skill may cause notwithstanding a very unpleasant sound if the string whereon he striketh chance to be uncapable of harmony In the matter whereof things natural consist that of Theophrastus takes place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Much of it is oftentimes such as will by no means yield to receive that impression which were best and most perfect Which defect in the matter of things natural they who gave themselves unto the contemplation of nature amongst the Heathen observed often But the true original cause thereof Divine Malediction laid for the sin of Man upon these Creatures which God had made for the use of Man this being an Article of that saving truth which God hath revealed unto his Church was above thereach of their meerly natural capacity and understanding But howsoever these swervings are now and then incident into the course of Nature nevertheless so constantly the Laws of Nature are by Natural Agents observed that no man denieth but those things which Nature worketh are wrought either always or for the most part after one and the same manner If here it be demanded What that is which keepeth Nature in obedience to her own Law we must have recourse to that higher Law whereof we have already spoken and because all other Laws do thereon depend from thence we must borrow so much as shall need for brief resolution in this point Although we are not of opinion therefore as some are that Nature in working hath before her certain exemplary draughts or patterns which subsisting in the bosom of the Highest and being thence discovered she fixeth her eye upon them as Travellers by Sea upon the Pole-star of the World and that according thereunto she guideth her hand to work by imitation Although we rather embrace the Oracle of Hippocrates That each thing both in small and in great fulfilleth the task which destiny hath set down And concerning the manner of excecuting and fulfilling the same What they do they know not yet is it in shew and appearance as though they did know what they do and the truth is they do not discern the things which they look on Nevertheless for as much as the works of Nature are no less exact then if she did both behold and study how to express some absolute shape or mirror always present before her yea such her dexterity and skill appeareth that no intellectual Creature in the World were able by capacity to do that which Nature doth without capacity and knowledge it cannot be but Nature hath some Directer of infinite knowledge to guide her in all her ways Who the guide of Nature but onely the God of Nature In him we live move and are Those things which Nature is said to do are by Divine Art performed using Nature as an Instrument nor is there any such Art or Knowledge Divine in Nature her self working but in the guide of Natures work Whereas therefore things natural which are not in the number of Voluntary Agents for of such onely we now speak and of no other do so necessarily observe their certain Laws that as long as they keep those Forms which give them their Being they cannot possibly be apt or inclinable to do otherwise then they do seeing the kindes of their operations are both constantly and exactly framed according to the several ends for which they serve they themselves in the mean while though doing that which is fit yet knowing neither what they do nor why It followeth that all which they do in this sort proceedeth originally from some such Agent as knoweth appointeth holdeth up and even actually frameth the same The manner of this Divine Efficiency being far above us we are no more able to conceive by our Reason then Creatures unreasonable by their Sense are able to apprehend after what manner we dispose and order the course of our affairs Onely thus much is discerned that the Natural Generation and Process of all things receiveth order of proceeding from the setled stability of Divine Understanding This appointeth unto them their kindes of working the disposition whereof in the Purity of Gods own Knowledge and Will is rightly termed by the name of Providence The same being referred unto the things themselves here disposed by it was wont by the Ancient to be called Natural Destiny That Law the performance whereof we behold in things natural is as it were an authentical or an original Draught written in the bosom of God himself whose Spirit being to execute the same useth every particular nature every meer natural agent onely as an Instrument created at the beginning and ever since the beginning used to work his own will and pleasure withal Nature therefore is nothing else but Gods Instrument In the course whereof Dionysius perceiving some sudden disturbance is said to have cryed out Aut Dens natura patitur aut mundi machina dissolvitur Either God doth suffer impediment and is by a greater then himself hindred or if that be impossible then hath he determined to make a present dissolution of the World the execution of that Law beginning now to stand still without which the World cannot stand This Workman whose servitor Nature is being in truth but onely One the Heathens imagining to be moe gave him in the Skie the name of Iupiter in the Air the name of Iune in the Water the name of Neptune in the Earth the name of Vesla and sometimes of Ceres the name of Apollo in the Sun in the Moon the name of Diana the name of AEolus and divers other in the Winds and to conclude even so many Guides of Nature they dreamed of as they saw there were kindes of things natural in the World These they honored as having power to work or cease accordingly as men deseived of them But unto us there is one onely Guide of all Agents Natural and he both the Creator and the Worker of all in all alone to be blessed adored and honored by all forever That which hitherto hath been spoken concerneth Natural Agents considered in themselves But we must further remember also which thing to touch in a word shall suffice That as in this respect they have their Law which Law directeth them in the means whereby they tend to their own perfection so likewise another Law there is which toucheth them as they are sociable parts united into one Body A Law which bindeth them each to
amongst Men are never framed as they should be unless presuming the Will of Man to be inwardly obstinate rebellious and averse from all obedience unto the Sacred Laws of his Nature In a word unless presuming Man to be in regard of his depraved minde little better then a wilde beast they do accordingly provide notwithstanding so to frame his outward actions that they be no hindrance unto the common good for which Societies are instituted unless they do this they are not perfect It resteth therefore that we consider how Nature findeth out such Laws of Government as serve to direct even Nature depraved to a right end All men desire to lead in this world an happy life The life is led most happily wherein all Vertue is exercised without impediment or let The Apostle in exhorting men to contentment although they have in this world no more then very bare Food and Rayment giveth us thereby to understand that those are even the lowest of things necessary that if we should be stripped of all those things without which we might possibly be yet these must be left that destitution in these is such an impediment as till it be removed suffereth not the minde of Man to admit any other care For this cause first God assigned Adam maintenance of Life and then appointed him a Law to observe For this cause after Men began to grow to a number the first thing we read they gave themselves unto was the Tilling of the Earth and the Feeding of Cattle Having by this mean whereon to live the principal actions of their life afterward are noted by the Exercise of their Religion True it is that the Kingdom of God must be the first thing in our purposes and desires But in as much as a righteous life presupposeth life in as much as to live vertuously it is impossible except we live Therefore the first impediment which naturally we endeavor to remove is penury and want of things without which we cannot live Unto life many implements are necessary mo if we seek as all men naturally do such a life as hath in it joy comfort delight and pleasure To this end we see how quickly sundry Arts Mechanical were found out in the very prime of the World As things of greatest necessity are always first provided for so things of greatest dignity are most accounted of by all such as judge rightly Although therefore Riches be a thing which every Man wisheth yet no Man of judgment can esteem it better to be Rich then Wise Vertuous and Religious If we be both or either of these it is not because we are so born For into the World we come as empty of the one as of the other as naked in Minde as we are in Body Both which necessities of Man had at the first no other helps and supplies then onely domestical such as that which the Prophet implieth saying Can a Mother forget her childe Such as that which the Apostle mentioneth saying He that careth not for his own is worse then an Infidel Such as that concerning Abraham Abraham will command his sons and his houshold after him that they keep the way of the Lord. But neither that which we learn of our selves nor that which others teach us can prevail where wickedness and malice have taken deep root If therefore when there was but as yet one onely family in the World no means of instruction Humane or Divine could prevent effusion of blood How could it be chosen but that when Families were multiplied and encreased upon Earth after Separation each providing for it self Envy Strife Contention and Violence must grow amongst them For hath not Nature furnished Man with Wit and Valor and as it were with Armor which may be used as well unto extream evil as good Yea were they not used by the rest of the World unto evil Unto the contrary onely by Seth Enoch and those few the rest in that Line We all make complaint of the iniquity of our times not unjustly for the days are evil But compare them with those times wherein there were no civil Societies with those times therein there was as yet no manner of Publick Regiment established with those times wherein there were not above eight righteous persons living upon the face of the Earth And we have surely good cause to think that God hath blessed us exceedingly and hath made us behold most happy days To take away all such mutual grievances injuries and wrongs there was no way but onely by growing unto Composition and Agreement amongst themselves by ordaining some kinde of Government publick and by yielding themselves subject thereunto that unto whom they granted authority to rule and govern by them the peace tranquillity and happy estate of the rest might be procured Men always knew that when Force and Injury was offered they might be Defenders of themselves they knew that howsoever men may seek their own commodity yet if this were done with injury unto others it was not to be suffered but by all men and by all good means to be withstood Finally they knew that no man might in Reason take upon him to determine his own right and according to his own determination proceed in maintenance thereof in as much as every man is towards himself and them whom he greatly affecteth partial And therefore that strifes and troubles would be endless except they gave their common consent all to be ordered by some whom they should agree upon Without which consent there were no reason that one Man should take upon him to be Lord or Judge over another because although there be according to the opinion of some very great and judicious Men a kinde of Natural Right in the Noble Wise and Vertuous to govern them which are of servile disposition nevertheless for manifestation of this their right and mens more peaceable contentment on both sides the assent of them whom are to be governed seemeth necessary To Fathers within their Private Families Nature hath given a supream power for which cause we see throughout the World even from the first Foundation thereof all men have ever been taken as Lords and Lawful Kings in their own houses Howbeit over a whole grand multitude having no such dependency upon any one and consisting of so many Families as every Politick Society in the World doth impossible it is that any should have compleat lawful power but by consent of men or immediate appointment of God because not having the Natural Superiority of Fathers their power must needs be either usurped and then unlawful or if lawful then either granted or consented unto by them over whom they exercise the same or else given extraordinarily from God unto whom all the World is subject It is no improbable opinion therefore which the Arch-Philosopher was of That as the chiefest person in every houshold was always as it were a King so when numbers of
that in truth they never meant any otherwise to tie the one then the other unto Scripture both being thereunto equally tied as far as each is required in the same kinde of necessity unto Salvation If therefore it be not unlawful to know and with full perswasion to believe much more then Scripture alone doth teach if it be against all Sense and Reason to condemn the knowledge of so many Arts and Sciences as are otherwise learned then in Holy Scripture notwithstanding the manifest Speeches of ancient Catholick Fathers which seem to close up within the bosom thereof all manner good and lawful knowledge wheresore should their words be thought more effectual to shew that we may not in deeds and practice then they are to prove that in speculation and knowledge we ought not to go any further then the Scripture Which Scripture being given to teach matters of belief no less then of action the Fathers must needs be and are even as plain against credit besides the relation as against practice without the injunction of the Scripture S. Augustine hath said Whether it be question of Christ or whether it be question of his Church or of what thing soever the question be I say not if we but if an Angel from Heaven shall tell us any thing beside that you have received in the Scripture under the Law and the Gospel let him be accursed In like sort Tertallian We may not give our selves this liberty to bring in any thing of our will nor chuse any thing that other men bring in of their will we have the Apostles themselves for Authors which themselves brought nothing of their own will but the Discipline which they received of Christ they delivered faithfully unto the people in which place the name of Discipline importeth not as they who alledge it would fain have it construed but as any man who noteth the circumstance of the place and the occasion of uttering the words will easily acknowledge even the self-same thing it signifieth which the name of Doctrine doth and as well might the one as the other there have been used To help them farther doth not S. Ierome after the self-same manner dispute We believe it not because we read it not yea We ought not so much as to know the things which the Book of the Law containeth not saith S. Hilary Shall we hereupon then conclude that we may not take knowledge of or give credit unto any thing which sense or experience or report or art doth propose unless we finde the same in Scripture No it is too plain that so far to extend their Speeches is to wrest them against their true intent and meaning To urge any thing upon the Church requiring thereunto that Religious Assent of Christian Belief wherewith the words of the Holy Prophets are received to urge any thing as part of that supernatural and celestially revealed Truth which God hath taught and not to shew it in Scripture this did the ancient Fathers evermore think unlawful impious execrable And thus as their Speeches were meant so by us they must be restrained As for those alledged words of Cyprian The Christian Religion shall finde that out of this Scripture Rules of all Doctrines have sprung and that from hence doth spring and hither doth return whatsoever the Ecclesiastical Discipline doth contain Surely this place would never have been brought forth in this cause if it had been but once read over in the Author himself out of whom it is cited For the words are uttered concerning that one principal Commandment of Love in the honour whereof hespeaketh after this sort Surely this Commandment containeth the Law and the Prophets and in this one Word is the Abridgement of all the Volumes of Scripture This Nature and Reason and the authority of thy Word O Lord doth proclaim this we have heard out of thy month herein the perfection of all Religion doth consist This is the first Commandment and the last This being written in the Book of Life is as it were an everlasting lesson both to Men and Angels Let Christian Religion read this one Word and meditate upon this Commandment and out of this Scriptrue it shall finde the Rules of all Learning to have spring and from hence to have risen and hither to return whatsoever the Ecclesiastical Discipline containeth and that in all things it is vain and bootless which Charity confirmeth not Was this a sentence trow you of so great force to prove that Scripture is the onely Rule of all the actions of men Might they not hereby even as well prove that one Commandment of Scripture is the onely rule of all things and so exclude the rest of the Scripture as now they do all means besides Scripture But thus it fareth when too much desire of contradiction causeth our speech rather to pass by number then to stay for weight Well but Tertullian doth in this case speak yet more plainly The Scripture saith he denieth what it noteth not which are indeed the words of Tertullian But what the Scripture reckoneth up the Kings of Israel and amongst those Kings David the Scripture reckoneth up the sons of David and amongst those sons Solomon To prove that amongst the Kings of Israel there was no David but only one no Solomon but one in the sons of David Tertullians Argument will fitly prove For inasmuch as the Scripture did propose to reckon up all if there were moe it would haue named them In this case the Scripture doth deny the thing it noteth not Howbeit I could not but think that man to do me some piece of manifest injury which would hereby fasten upon me a general Opinion as if I did think the Scripture to deny the very Reign of King Henry the Eighth because it no where noteth that any such King did reign Tertullians speech is probable concerning such matter as he there speaketh of There was saith Tertullian no second Lamech like to him that had two wives the Scripture denieth what it noteth not As therefore it noteth one such to have been in that Age of the World so had there been moe it would by likelihood as well have noted many as one What infer we now hereupon There was no second Lamech the Scripture denieth what it noteth not Were it consonant unto reason to divorce these two Sentences the former of which doth shew how the latter is retrained and not marking the former to conclude by the latter of them that simply whatsoever any man at this day doth think true is by the Scripture denied unless it be there affirmed to be true I wonder that a case so weak and feeble hath been so much persisted in But to come unto those their Sentences wherein matters of action are more apparently touched the Name of Tertullian is as before so here again pretended who writing unto his Wife two Books and exhorting her in the one to live a Widow
concerning any Point of Religion whatsoever yet one Demonstrative Reason alledged or one Manifest Testimony cited from the mouth of God himself to the contrary could not choose but over-weigh them all inasmuch as for them to have been deceived it is not impossible it is that demonstrative Reason or Testimony Divine should deceive Howbeit in defect of proof infallible because the minde doth rather follow probable perswasions then approve the things that have in them no likelihood of truth at all surely if a Question concerning matter of Doctrine were proposed and on the one side no kinde of proof appearing there should on the other be alledged and shewed that so a number of the Learnedest Divines in the World have ever thought although it did not appear what Reason or what Scripture led them to be of that judgement yet to their very bare judgement somewhat a reasonable man would attribute notwithstanding the common imbecillities which are incident unto our nature And whereas it is thought that especially with the Church and those that are called and perswaded of the Authority of the Word of God mans authority with them especially should not prevail it must and doth prevail even with them yea with them especially as far as equity requireth and farther we maintain it not For men to be tied and led by Authority as it were with a kind of captivity of judgement and though there be reason to the contrary not to listen unto it but to follow like Beasts the first in the Herd they know not nor care not whither this were brutish Again that authority of men should prevail with men either against or above Reason is no part of our belief Companies of learned men be they never so great and reverend are to yield unto Reason the weight whereof is no whit prejudiced by the simplicity of his person which doth alledge it but being found to be sound and good the bare opinion of men to the contrary must of necessity stoop and give place Irenaeus writing against Marcion which held one God Author of the Old-Testament and another of the New to prove that the Apostles preached the same God which was known before to the Jews he copiously alledgeth sundry their Sermons and Speeches uttered concerning that matter and recorded in Scripture And lest any should be wearied with such store of Allegations in the end he concludeth While we labour for these Demonstrations out of Scripture and do summarily declare the things which many ways have been spoken be contented quietly to hear and do not think my speech redious Quoniam oftensiones quae sunt in Scripturis non possunt oftendi nisi ex ipsis Scripturis Because demonstrations that art in Scripture may not otherwise be shewed then by citing them out of the Scriptures themselves where they are Which words make so little unto the purpose that they seem as it were offended at him which hath called them thus solemnly forth to say nothing And concerning the Verdict of S. Ierome If no man be he never so well learned have after the Apostles Authority to publish new Doctrine as from Heaven and to require the Worlds assent as unto truth received by Prophetical Revelation doth this prejudice the credit of learned mens judgements in opening that truth which by being conversant in the Apostles Writings they have themselves from thence learned S. Aâ—gustine exhorteth not to hear men but to hearken what God speaketh His purpose is not I think that was we should stop our ears against his own exhortation and therefore he cannot mean simply that audience should altogether be denied unto men but either that if men speak one thing and God himself teach another then he not they to be obeyed or if they both speak the same thing yet then also mans speech unworthy of hearing not simply but in comparison of that which proceedeth from the mouth of God Yea but we doubt what the will of God is Are we in this case forbidden to hear what men of judgement think it to be If not then this Allegation also might very well have been spared In that ancient strife which was between the Catholick Fathers and Arrians Donatists and others of like perverse and froward disposition as long as to Fathers or Councils alledged on the one side the like by the contrary side were opposed impossible it was that ever the Question should by this mean grow unto any issue or end The Scripture they both believed the Scripture they knew could not give sentence on both sides by Scripture the controversie between them was such as might be determined In this case what madness was it with such kindes of proofs to nourish their contention when there were such effectual means to end all controversie that was between them Hereby therefore it doth not as yet appear that an Argument of Authority of man affirmatively is in matters Divine nothing worth Which Opinion being once inserted into the mindes of the vulgar sort what it may grow unto God knoweth Thus much we see it hath already made thousands so headstrong even in gross and palpable Errors that a man whose capacity will scarce serve him to utter five words in sensible manner blusheth not in any doubt concerning matter of Scripture to think his own bare Yea as good as the Nay of all the wise grave and learned judgements that are in the whole world Which insolency must be represt or it will be the very bane of Christian Religion Our Lords Disciples marking what speech he uttered unto them and at the same time calling to minde a common opinion held by the Scribes between which opinion and the words of their Master it seemed unto them that there was some contradiction which they could not themselves answer with full satisfaction of their own mindes the doubt they propose to our Saviour saying Why then say the Scribes that Elias must first come They knew that the Scribes did err greatly and that many ways even in matters of their own profession They notwithstanding thought the judgement of the very Scribes in matters Divine to be of some value some probability they thought there was that Elias should come inasmuch as the Scribes said it Now no truth can contradict any truth desirous therefore they were to be taught how both might stand together that which they knew could not be false because Christ spake it and this which to them did seen true only because the Scribes had said it For the Scripture from whence the Scribes did gather it wâ— not then in their heads We do not finde that our Saviour reproved them of Error for thinking the judgement of the Scribes to be worth the objecting for esteeming it to be of any moment or value in matters concerning God We cannot therefore be perswaded that the will of God is we should so far reject the authority of men as to reckon it nothing No it may be a question whether they that urge
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
preservation of Christianity there is not any thing more needful then that such as are of the Visible Church have mutual Fellowship and Society one with another In which consideration as the main Body of the Sea being one yet within divers Precincts hath divers names so the Catholick Church is in like sort divided into a number of distinct Societies every of which is termed a Church within it self In this sense the Church is always a Visible Society of Men not an Assembly but a Society For although the name of the Church be given unto Christian Assemblies although any number of Christian men congregated may be termed by the name of a Church yet Assemblies properly are rather things that belong to a Church Men are assembled for performance of Publick Actions which Actions being ended the Assembly dissolveth it self and is no longer in being whereas the Church which was assembled doth no less continue afterwards then before Where but three are and they of the Laity also saith Tertullian yet there is a Church that is to say a Christian Assembly But a Church as now we are to understand it is a Society that is a number of men belonging unto some Christian Fellowship the place and limits whereof are certain That wherein they have communion is the Publick Exercise of such duties as those mentioned in the Apostles Acts Instruction Breaking of Bread and Prayer As therefore they that are of the Mystical Body of Christ have those inward Graces and Vertues whereby they differ from all others which are not of the same Body Again whosoever appertain to the Visible Body of the Church they have also the notes of External Profession whereby the World knoweth what they are After the same manner even the several Societies of Christian men unto every of which the name of a Church is given with addition betokening severally as the Church of Rome Corinth Ephesus England and so the rest must be endued with correspondent general properties belonging unto them as they are Publick Christian Societies And of such properties common unto all Societies Christian it may not be denied that one of the very cheifest is Ecclesiastical Polity Which word I therefore the rather use because the name of Government as commonly men understand it in ordinary speech doth not comprise the largeness of that whereunto in this question it is applied For when we speak of Government what doth the greatest part conceive thereby but onely the exercise of Superiority peculiar unto Rulers and Guides of others To our purpose therefore the name of Church-Polity will better serve because it containeth both Government and also whatsoever besides belongeth to the ordering of the Church in publick Neither is any thing in this degree more necessary then Church-Polity which is a Form of ordering the Publick Spiritual Affairs of the Church of God 2. But we must note that he which affirmeth speech to be necessary amongst all men throughout the World doth not thereby import that all men must necessarily speak one kinde of Language even so the necessity of Polity and Regiment in all Churches may be held without holding any one certain form to be necessary in them all nor is it possible that any Form of Polity much less of Polity Ecclesiastical should be good unless God himself be Author of it Those things that are not of God saith Tertullian they can have no other then Gods Adversary for their Author Be it whatsoever in the Church of God if it be not of God we hate it Of God it must be either as those things sometimes were which God supernaturally revealed and so delivered them unto Moses for Government of the Commonwealth of Israel or else as those things which men finde out by help of that light which God hath given them unto that end The very Law of Nature it self which no man can deny but God hath instituted is not of God unless that be of God whereof God is the Author as well this latter way as the former But forasmuch as no form of Church-Polity is thought by them to be lawful or to be of God unless God be so the Author of it that it be also set down in Scripture they should tell us plainly whether their meaning be that it must be there set down in whole or in part For if wholly let them shew what one form of Polity ever was so Their own to be so taken out of Scripture they will not affirm neither deny they that in part even this which they so much oppugn is also from thence taken Again they should tell us whether onely that be taken out of Scripture which is actually and particularly there set down or else that also which the general Principles and Rules of Scripture potentially contain The one way they cannot so much as pretend that all the parts of their own Discipline are in Scripture and the other way their mouths are stopped when they would plead against all other Forms besides their own seeing the general Principles are such as do not particularly prescribe any one but sundry may equally be consonant unto the general Axioms of the Scripture But to give them some larger scope and not to close them up in these streights Let their Allegations be considered wherewith they earnestly bend themselves against all which deny it necessary that any one compleat Form of Church-Polity should be in Scripture First therefore whereas it hath been told them that matters of Faith and in general matters necessary unto Salvation are of a different nature from Ceremonies Order and the kinde of Church Government and that the one is necessary to be expresly contained in the Word of God or else manifestly collected out of the same the other not so that it is necessary not to receive the one unless there be something in Scripture for them the other free if nothing against them may thence be alledged Although there do not appear any just or reasonable cause to reject or dislike of this nevertheless as it is not easie to speak to the contentation of mindes exulcerated in themselves but that somewhat there will be always which displeaseth so herein for two things we are reproved The first is Misdistinguishing because matters of Discipline and Church-Government are as they say matters necessary to Salvation and of Faith whereas we put a difference betwixt the one and the other Our second fault is Injurious dealing with the Scripture of God as if it contained onely the Principal Points of Religion some rude and unfashioned matter of Building the Church but had lest out that which belongeth unto the form and fashion of it as if there were in the Scripture no more then onely to cover the Churches nakedness and not Chains Bracelets Rings Jewels to adorn her sufficient to quench her thirst to kill her hunger but not to minister a more liberal and as it were a more delicous and dainty diet In which
or Light of Reason or Learning or other help they may be received so they be not against the Word of God but according at leastwise unto the general Rules of Scripture they must be made Which is in effect as much as to say We know not what to say wel in defence of this Position And therefore lest we should say it is false there is no remedy but to say that in some sense or other it may be true if we could tell how First that Scholy had need of a very favorable Reader and a tractable that should think it plain construction when to be commanded in the Word and grounded upon the Word are made all one If when a man may live in the state of Matrimony seeking that good thereby which Nature principally desireth he make rather choice of a contrary life in regard of St. Pauls judgment That which he doth is manifestly grounded upon the Word of God yet not commanded in his Word because without breach of any Commandment he might do otherwise Secondly whereas no man in Justice and Reason can be reproved for those actions which are framed according unto that known Will of God whereby they are to be judged and the Will of God which we are to judge our actions by no sound Divine in the World ever denied to be in part made manifest even by the Light of Nature and not by Scripture alone If the Church being directed by the former of these two which God hath given who gave the other that man might in different sort be guided by them both if the Church I say do approve and establish that which thereby it judgeth meet and sindeth not repugnant to any word or syllable of holy Scripture who shall warrant our presumptuous boldness controuling herein the Church of Christ But so it is the name of the Light of Nature is made hateful with men the Star of Reason and Learning and all other such like helps beginneth no otherwise to be thought of then if it were an unlucky Comet or as if God had so accursed it that it should never shine or give light in things concerning our duty any way towards him but be esteemed as that Star in the Revelation called Wormword which being faln from Heaven maketh Rivers and Waters in which it falleth so bitter that men tasting them die thereof A number there are who think they cannot admire as they ought the power and authority of the Word of God if in things Divine they should attribute any force to Mans reason For which cause they never use reason so willingly as to disgrace Reason Their usual and common Discourses are unto this effect First The Natural Man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God For they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Secondly It is not for nothing that St. Paul giveth charge to beware of Philosophy that is to say such knowledge as Men by Natural Reason attain unto Thirdly Consider them that have from time to time opposed themselves against the Gospel of Christ and most troubled the Church with Heresie Have they not always been great admirers of Humane Reason Hath their deep and profound skill in Secular Learning made them the more obedient to the Truth and not armed them rather against it Fourthly They that fear God will remember how heavy his sentences are in this case I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will cast away the Understanding of the Prudent Where is the Wise Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this World Hath not God made the Wisdom of this World foolishness Seeing the World by Wisdom know not God In the Wisdom of God it pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save Believers Fifthly The Word of God in it self is absolute exact and perfect The Word of God is a two-edged sword as for the Weapons of Natural Reason they are as the Armor of Saul rather cumbersome about the Soldier of Christ then needful They are not of force to do that which the Apostles of Christ did by the power of the Holy Ghost My Preaching therefore saith Paul hath not been in the inticing speech of Mans wisdom but in plain evidence of the Spirit of Power that your Faith might not be in the Wisdom of men but in the Power of God Sixthly If I believe the Gospel there needeth no reasoning about it to perswade me If I do not believe it must be the Spirit of God and not the Reason of Man that shall convert my heart unto him By these and the like Disputes an opinion hath spred it self very far in the World as if the way to be ripe in Faith were to be raw in Wit and Judgment as if Reason were an enemy unto Religion childish simplicity the Mother of Ghostly and Divine Wisdom The cause why such Declamations prevail so greatly is For that men suffer themselves in two respects to be deluded one is that the Wisdom of Man being debased either in comparison with that of God or in regard of some special thing exceeding the reach and compass thereof it seemeth to them not marking so much as if simply it were condemned another That Learning Knowledge or Wisdom falsly so termed usurping a name whereof they are not worthy and being under that name controuled their reproof is by so much the more easily misapplied and through equivocation wrested against those things whereunto so precious names do properly and of right belong This duly observed doth to the former Allegations it self make sufficient answer Howbeit for all Mens plainer and fuller satisfaction First Concerning the inability of Reason to search out and to judge of things Divine if they be such as those properties of God and those duties of Men towards him which may be conceived by attentive consideration of Heaven and Earth We know that of meer Natural Men the Apostle testifieth How they knew both God and the Law of God Other things of God there be which are neither so found nor though they be shewed can ever be approved without the special operation of Gods good Grace and Spirit Of such things sometime spake the Apostle St. Paul declaring how Christ had called him to be a Witness of his Death and Resurrection from the Dead according to that which the Prophets and Moses had foreshewed Festus a meer Natural man an Infidel a Roman one whose ears were unacquainted with such matter heard him but could not reach unto that whereof he spake the suffering and the rising of Christ from the dead he rejected as idle superstitious fancies not worth the hearing The Apostle that knew them by the Spirit and spake of them with Power of the Holy Ghost seemed in his eyes but learnedly mad Which example maketh manifest what elswhere the same Apostle teacheth namely that Nature hath need of Grace whereunto I hope we are
must be by Reason found out And therefore To refuse the conduct of the Light of Nature saith St. Augustine is not Folly alone but accompanied with Impiety The greatest amongst the School Divines studying how to set down by exact definition the Nature of an Humane Law of which nature all the Churches Constitutions are found not which way better to do it then in these words Out of the Precepts of the Law of Nature as out of certain common and undemonstrable Principles Mans Reason doth necessarily proceed unto certain more particular determinations Which particular determinations being found out according unto the Reason of Man they have the names of Humane Laws so that such other conditions be therein kept as the making of Laws doth require that is If they whose Authority is thereunto required do establish and publish them as Laws And the truth is that all our controversie in this cause concerning the Orders of the Church is What particulars the Church may appoint That which doth finde them out is the force of Mans Reason That which doth guide and direct his Reason is first the general Law of Nature which Law of Nature and the Moral Law of Scripture are in the substance of Law all one But because there are also in Scripture a number of Laws particular and positive which being in force may not by any Law of Man be violated we are in making Laws to have thereunto an especial eye As for example it might perhaps seem reasonable unto the Church of God following the general Laws concerning the nature of Marriage to ordain in particular that Cosin-Germans shall not marry Which Law notwithstanding ought not to be received in the Church if there should be in the Scripture a Law particular to the contrary forbidding utterly the Bonds of Marriage to be so far forth abridged The same Thomas therefore whose definition of Humane Laws we mentioned before doth add thereunto this Caution concerning the Rule and Canon whereby to make them Humane Laws are Measures in respect of Men whose actions they must direct howbeit such Measures they are as have also their higher Rules to be measured by Which Rules are two the Law of God and the Law of Nature So that Laws Humane must be made according to the General Laws of Nature and without contradiction unto any Positive Law in Scripture otherwise they are ill made Unto Laws thus made and received by a whole Church they which live within the bosom of that Church must not think it a matter indifferent either to yield or not to yield obedience Is it a small offence to despise the Church of God My Son keep thy Fathers Commandment saith Solomon and forget not thy Mothers instruction binde them both always about thine heart It doth not stand with the duty which we ow to our Heavenly Father that to the Ordinances of our Mother the Church we should shew our selves disobedient Let us not say we keep the Commandments of the one when we break the Law of the other For unless we observe both we obey neither And what doth let but that we may observe both when they are not the one to the other in any sort repugnant For of such Laws onely we speak as being made in form and manner already declared can have in them no contradiction unto the Laws of Almighty God Yea that which is more the Laws thus made God himself doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them him It is a loose and licentious opinion which the Anabaptists have embraced holding That a Christian Mans liberty is lost and the Soul which Christ hath redeemed unto himself injuriously drawn into servitude under the yoke of Humane Power if any Law be now imposed besides the Gospel of Jesus Christ In obedience whereunto the Spirit of God and not the constraint of man is to lead us according to that of the blessed Apostle Such as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God and not such as live in thraldom unto men Their judgment is therefore that the Church of Christ should admit no Law-Makers but the Evangelists The Author of that which causeth another thing to be is Author of that thing also which thereby is caused The light of Natural Understanding Wit and Reason is from God he it is which thereby doth illuminate every man entring into the World If there proceed from us any thing afterwards corrupt and naught the Mother thereof is our own darkness neither doth it proceed from any such cause whereof God is the Author He is the Author of all that we think or do by vertue of that Light which himself hath given And therefore the Laws which the very Heathens did gather to direct their actions by so far forth as they proceed from the Light of Nature God himself doth acknowledge to have proceeded even from himself and that he was the Writer of them in the Tables of their Hearts How much more then is he the Author of those Laws which have been made by his Saints endued further with the Heavenly Grace of his Spirit and directed as much as might be with such instructions as his Sacred Word doth yield Surely if we have unto those Laws that dutiful regard which their Dignity doth require it will not greatly need that we should be exhorted to live in obedience unto them Iâ— they have God himself for their Author contempt which is offered unto them cannot chuse but redound unto him The safest and unto God the most acceptable way of framing our lives therefore is with all Humility Lowliness and Singleness of Heart to study which way our willing Obedience both unto God and Man may be yielded even to the utmost of that which is due 10. Touching the Mutability of Laws that concern the Regiment and Polity of the Church changed they are when either altogether abrogated or in part repealed or augmented with farther additions Wherein we are to note that this question about the changing of Laws concerneth onely such Laws as are Positive and do make that now good or evil by being commanded or forbidden which otherwise of it self were not simply the one or the other Unto such Laws it is expresly sometimes added how long they are to continue in force If this be no where exprest then have we no light to direct our judgments concerning the changeableness or immutability of them but by considering the nature and quality of such Laws The nature of every Law must be judged of by the end for which it was made and by the aptness of things therein prescribed unto the same end It may so fall out that the reason why some Laws of God were given is neither opened nor possible to be gathered by the Wit of Man As why God should forbid Adam that one Tree there was no way for Adam ever to have certainly understood And at Adams ignorance of
number of degrees being not onely by the Law of Moses but also by the Law of the sons of Noah for so they took it an unlawful discovery of nakedness This discovery of nakedness by unlawful Marriages such as Moses in the Law reckoneth up I think it for mine own part more probable to have been meant in the words of that Canon then Fornication according unto the scase of the Law of Nature Words must be taken according to the matter whereof they are uttered The Apostles command to abstain from Blood Construe this according to the Law of Nature and it will seem that Homicide onely is forbidden But construe it in reference to the Law of the Jews about which the question was and it shall easily appear to have a clean other sense and in any mans judgment a truer when we expound it of eating and not of shedding blood So it we speak of Fornication he that knoweth no Law but onely the Law of Nature must needs make thereof a narrower construction then he which measureth the same by a Law wherein sundry kindes even of Conjugal Copulation are prohibited as impure unclean unhonest St. Paul himself doth term Incestuous Marriage Fornication If any do rather think that the Christian Gentiles themselves through the loose and corrupt Custom of those times took simple Fornication for no Sin and were in that respect offensive unto believing Jews which by the Law had been better taught Our proposing of another conjecture is unto theirs no prejudice Some things therefore we see there were wherein the Gentiles were forbidden to be like unto the Jews some things wherein they were commanded not to be unlike Again some things also there were wherein no Law of God did let but that they might be either like or unlike as occasion should require And unto this purpose Leo saith Apostolical Ordinance beloved knowing that our Lord Iesus Christ came not into this world to undo the Law hath in such sort distinguished the Mysteries of the Old Testament that certain of them it hath chosen one to benefit Evangelical knowledge withal and for that purpose appointed that those things which before were Iewish might now be Christian Customs The cause why the Apostles did thus conform the Christians as much as might be according to the pattern of the Jews was to rein them in by this mean the more and to make them cleave the better The Church of Christ hath had in no one thing so many and so contrary occasions of dealing as about Judaism some having thought the whole Jewish Law wicked and damnable in it self some not condemning it as the Former sort absolutely have notwithstanding judged it either sooner necessary to be abrogated or further unlawful to be observed then truth can bear some of scrupulous simplicity urging perpetual and universal observation of the Law of Moses necessary as the Christian Jews at the first in the Apostles times some as Hereticks holding the same no less even after the contrary determination set down by consent of the Church at Ierusalem finally some being herein resolute through meer infidelity and with open profest enmity against Christ as unbelieving Jews To controul slanderers of the Law and Prophets such as Marcionites and Manichees were the Church in her Liturgies hath intermingled with Readings out of the New Testament Lessons taken out of the Law and Prophets whereunto Tertullian alluding saith of the Church of Christ It intermingleth with Evangelical and Apostolical Writings the Law and the Prophets and from thence it drinketh in that Faith which with Water is sealeth cloatheth with the Spirit nourisheth with Eucharist with Martyrdom setteth forward They would have wondred in those times to hear that any man being not as Favorer of Heresie should term this by way of disdain Mangling of the Gospels and Epistles They which honor the Law as an Image of the Wisdom of God himself are notwithstanding to know that the same had an end in Christ. But what Was the Law so abolished with Christ that after his Ascension the Office of Priests became immediately wicked and the very name hateful as importing the exercise of an ungodly function No as long as the glory of the Temple continued and till the time of that final desolation was accomplished the very Christian Jews did continue with their Sacrifices and other parts of Legal Service That very Law therefore which our Saviour was to abolish did not so soon become unlawful to be observed as some imagine nor was it afterward unlawful so far that the very name of Altar of Priests of Sacrifice it self should be banished out of the World For though God do now hate Sacrifice whether it be Heathenish or Jewish so that we cannot have the same things which they had but with impiety yet unless there be some greater let then the onely evacuation of the Law of Moses the names themselves may I hope be retained without sin in respect of that proportion which things established by our Saviour have unto them which by him are abrogated And so throughout all the writings of the Ancient Fathers we see that the words which were do continue the onely difference it that whereas before they had a literal they now have a metaphorical use and are as so many notes of remembrance unto us that what they did signifie in the Letter is accomplished in the Truth And as no man can deprive the Church of this liberty to use names whereunto the Law was accustomed so neither are we generally forbidden the use of things which the Law hath though it neither command us any particularity as it did the Jews a number and the weightiest which it did command them are unto us in the Gospel prohibited Touching such as through simplicity of error did urge universal and perpetual observation of the Law of Moses at the first we have spoken already Against Jewish Hereticks and false Apostles teaching afterwards the self-same St. Paul in every Epistle commonly either disputeth or giveth warning Jews that were zealous for the Law but withal Infidels in respect of Christianity and to the name of Jesus Christ most spightful enemies did while they flourished no less persecute the Church then Heathens and after their Estate was overthrown they were not that way so much to be feared Howbeit because they had their Synagogues in every famous City almost throughout the World and by that means great opportunity to withdraw from the Christian Faith which to do they spared no labor this gave the Church occasion to make sundry Laws against them As in the Council of Laodicea The Festival Presents which Iews or Hereticks use to send must not be received nor Holidays solemnized in their company Again From the Iews Men ought not to receive their Unlevened Bread nor to communicate with their Impieties Which Council was afterwards indeed confirmed by the Sixth General Council But what was the true sense or meaning both of
it absurd to commend their Writings as Reverend Holy and Sound wherein there are so many singular Perfections only for that the exquisite Wits of some few peradventure are able dispersedly here and there to finde now a word and then a sentence which may be more probably suspected than easily cleared of Error by as which have but conjectural knowledge of their meaning Against immodest Invectives therefore whereby they are charged as being fraught with outragious Lyes we doubt not but their more allowable censure will prevail who without so passionate terms of disgrace do note a difference great enough between Apocryphal and other Writings a difference such as Iosephus and Epiphanius observe the one declaring that amongst the Jews Books written after the days of Artaxerxe were not of equal credit with them which had gone before in as much as the Jews sithence that time had not the like exact succession of Prophets the other acknowledging that they are profitable although denying them to be Divine in such construction and sense as the Scripture it self is so termed With what intent they were first published those words of the Nephew of Jesus do plainly enough signifie After that my Grand-father Jesus had given himself to the reading of the Law and the Prophets and other Books of our Fathers and had gotten therein sufficient judgment he purposed also to write something pertaining to Learning and Wisdom to the intent that they which were desirous to learn and would give themselves to these things might profit much more in living according to the Law Their end in writing and ours in reading them is the same The Books of Iudith Toby Baruch Wisdome and Ecclesiasticus we read as serving most unto that end The rest we leave unto men in private Neither can it be reasonably thought because upon certain solemn occasions some Lessons are chosen out of those Books and of Scripture it self some Chapters not appointed to be read at all that we thereby do offer disgrace to the Word of God or lift up the Writings of men above it For in such choice we do not think but that Fitness of Speech may be more respected than Worthyness If in that which we use to read there happen by the way any Clause Sentence or Speech that soundeth towards Error should the mixture of a little dross constrain the Church to deprive herself of so much Gold rather than learn how by Art and Judgment to make separation of the one from the other To this effect very fitly from the counsel that St. Ierem giveth Lata of taking heed how she read the Apocrypha as also by the help of other learned men's Judgments delivered in like case we may take direction But surely the Arguments that should binde us not to read them or any part of them publickly at all must be stronger than as yet we have heard any 21. We marvel the less that our reading of Books not Canonical is so much impugned when so little is attributed unto the reading of Canonical Scripture it self that now it hath grown to be a question whether the Word of God be any ordinary mean to save the Souls of men in that it is either privately studied or publickly read and so made known or else only as the same is preached that is to say explained by a lively voyce and applyed to the People's use as the Speaker in his Wisdom thinketh meet For this alone is it which they use to call Preaching The publick reading of the Apocrypha they condemn altogether as a thing effectual unto Evil the bare reading in like sort of whatsoever yea even of Scriptures themselves they mislike as a thing uneffectual to do that good which we are perswaded may grow by it Our desire is in this present Controversie as in the rest not to be carried up and down with the waves of uncertain Arguments but rather positively to lead on the mindes of the simpler sort by plain and easie degrees till the very nature of the thing it self do make manifest what is Truth First therefore because whatsoever is spoken concerning the efficacy or necessity of God's Word the same they tye and restrain only unto Sermons howbeit not Sermons read neither for such they also abhor in the Church but Sermons without Book Sermons which spend their life in their birth and may have publick audience but once For this cause to avoid ambiguities wherewith they often intangle themselves not marking what doth agree to the Word of God in it self and what in regard of outward accidents which may befall it we are to know that the Word of God is his Heavenly Truth touching matters of eternal life revealed and uttered unto Men unto Prophets and Apostles by immediate Divine Inspiration from them to us by their Books and Writings We therefore have no Word of God but the Scripture Apostolick Sermons were unto such as heard them his Word even as properly as to us their Writings are Howbeit not so our own Sermons the exposition which our discourse of Wit doth gather and minister out of the Word of God For which cause in this present question we are when we name the Word of God always to mean the Scripture only The end of the Word of God is to save and therefore we term it the Word of Life The way for all men to be saved is by the knowledge of that Truth which the Word hath taught And sith Eternal life is a thing of it self communicable unto all it behooved that the Word of God the necessary mean thereunto be so likewise Wherefore the Word of Life hath been always a Treasure though precious yet easie as well to attain as to finde lest any man desirous of life should perish through the difficulty of the way To this and the Word of God no otherwise serveth than only in the nature of a Doctrinal Instrument It saveth because it maketh wise unto Salvation Wherefore the ignorant it saveth not they which live by the Word must know it And being it self the Instrument which God hath purposely framed thereby to work the knowledge of Salvation in the hearts of men what cause is there wherefore it should not of it self be acknowledged a most apt and a likely mean to leave an apprehension of things Divine in our understanding and in the minde an assent thereunto For touching the one sith God who knoweth and discloseth best the rich tresures of his own Wisdom hath by delivering his Word made choice of the Scriptures as the most effectual means whereby those treasures might be imparted unto the World it followeth That no man's understanding the Scripture must needs be even of it self intended as a full and perfect discovery sufficient to imprint in us the lively Character of all things necessarily required for the attainment of Eternal Life And concerning our assent to the Mysteries of Heavenly truth seeing that the Word of God for the Author's sake
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
interchangeably one anothers room so that for truth of speech it skilleth not whether we say That the Son of God hath created the World and the Son of Man by his Death hath saved it or else That the Son of Man did create and the Son of God die to save the World Howbeit as oft as we attribute to God what the Manhood of Christ claimeth or to Man what his Deity hath right unto we understand by the Name of God and the Name of Man neither the one nor the other Nature but the whole Person of Christ in whom both Natures are When the Apostle saith of the Jews that they crucified the Lord of Glory and when the Son of Man being on Earth affirmeth That the Son of Man was in Heaven at the same instant there is in these two speeches that Mutual Circulation before-mentioned In the one there is attributed to God or the Lord of Glory Death whereof Divine Nature is not capable in the other Ubiquity unto Man which Humane Nature admitteth not Therefore by the Lord of Glory we must needs understand the whole Person of Christ who being Lord of Glory was indeed crucified but not in that nature for which he is termed the Lord of Glory In like manner by the Son of Man the whole Person of Christ must necessarily be meant who being Man upon Earth filled Heaven with his glorious presence but not according to that nature for which the title of man is given him Without this Caution the Fathers whose belief was sincere and their meaning most sound shall seem in their Writings one to deny what another constantly doth affirm Theodoret disputeth with great earnestness that God cannot be said to suffer But he thereby meaneth Christs Divine Nature against Apollinarius which held even Deity it self possible Cyril on the other side against Nestorius as much contendeth That whosoever will deny very God to have suffered death doth forsake the Faith Which notwithstanding to hold were Heresie if the Name of God in this Assertion did not import as it doth the Person of Christ who being verily God suffered death but in the Flesh and not in that substance for which the Name of God is given him 54. If then both Natures do remain with their properties in Christ thus distinct as hath been shewed we are for our better understanding what either Nature receiveth from other to note That Christ is by three degrees a Receiver First In that he is the Son of God Secondly In that his Humane nature hath had the honor of Union with Deity bestowed upon it Thirdly In that by means thereof sundry eminent Graces have flowed as effects from Deity into that Nature which is coupled with it On Christ therefore is bestowed the Gift of Eternal Generation the Gift of Union and the Gift of Unction By the Gift of Eternal Generation Christ hath received of the Father one and in number the self-same substance which the Father hath of himself unreceived from any other For every beginning is a Father unto that which cometh of it and every off-spring is a Son unto that out of which it groweth Seeing therefore the Father alone is originally that Deity which Christ originally is not for Christ is God by being of God Light by issuing out of Light it followeth hereupon That whatsoever Christ hath common unto him with his Heavenly Father the same of necessity must be given him but naturally and eternally given not bestowed by way of benevolence and favor as the other gifts both are And therefore where the Fathers give it out for a rule That whatsoever Christ is said in Scripture to have received the same we ought to apply onely to the Manhood of Christ Their Assertion is true of all things which Christ hath received by Grace but to that which he hath received of the Father by Eternal Nativity or Birth it reacheth not Touching Union of Deity with Manhood it is by Grace because there can be no greater Grace shewed towards Man then that God should vouchsafe to unite to Mans nature the Person of his onely begotten Son Because the Father loveth the Son as Man he hath by Uniting Deity with Manhood given all things into his hands It hath pleased the Father that in him all Fulness should dwell The name which he hath above all names is given him As the Father hath life in himself the Son in himself hath life also by the gift of the Father The gift whereby God hath made Christ a Fountain of Life is That conjunction of the Nature of God with the Nature of Man in the Person of Christ which gift saith Christ to the Woman of Samaria if thou didst know and in that respect understand who it is which asketh water of thee thou wouldst ask of him that he might give thee Living Water The Union therefore of the Flesh with Deity is to that Flesh a gift of Principal Grace and Favor For by vertue of this Grace Man is really made God a Creature is exalted above the dignity of all Creatures and hath all Creatures else under it This admirable Union of God with Man can inforce in that higher Nature no alteration because unto God there is nothing more natural then not to be subject to any change Neither is it a thing impossible That the Word being made Flesh should be that which it was not before as touching the manner of subsistence and yet continue in all Qualities or Properties of Nature the same it was because the Incarnation of the Son of God consisteth meerly in the Union of Natures which Union doth adde Perfection to the Weaker to the Nobler no alteration at all If therefore it be demanded what the Person of the Son of God hath attained by assuming Manhood surely the whole sum of all is this to be as we are truly really and naturally Man by means whereof he is made capable of meaner offices then otherwise his Person could have admitted the onely gain he thereby purchased for himself was to be capable of loss and detriment for the good of others But may it rightly be said concerning the Incarnation of Jesus Christ That as our Nature hath in no respect changed his so from his to ours as little alteration hath ensued The very cause of his taking upon him our Nature was to change it to better the Quality and to advance the condition thereof although in no sort to abolish the Substance which he took nor to infuse into it the Natural forces and Properties of his Deity As therefore we have shewed how the Son of God by his Incarnation hath changed the manner of that Personal subsistence which before was solitary and is now in the Association of Flesh no alteration thereby accruing to the Nature of God so neither are the Properties of Mans nature in the Person of Christ by force and vertue of the
Local It was not therefore every where seen nor did it every where suffer death every where it could not be intombed it is not every where now being exalted into Heaven There is no proof in the World strong to inforce that Christ had a true Body but by the true and natural Properties of his Body Amongst which Properties Definite or Local Presence is chief How it is true of Christ saith Tertullian that he died was buried and rose again if Christ had not that very flesh the nature whereof is capable of these things flesh mingled with blood supported with bones woven with sinews embroidered with veins If his Majestical Body have now any such new property by force whereof it may every where really even in Substance present it self or may at once be in many places then hath the Majesty of his estate extinguished the veriâ—y of his Nature Make thou no doubt or question of it saith St. Augustine but that the Man Christ Iesus is now in that very place from whence he shall come in the same Form and Substance of Flesh which he carried thither and from which he hath not taken Nature but given thereunto Immortality According to this Form he spreadeth not out himself into all places For it behoveth us to take great heed lest while we go about to maintain the glorious Deity of him which is Man we leave him not the true Bodily Substance of a Man According to St. Augustines opinion therefore that Majestical Body which we make to be every where present doth thereby cease to have the Substance of a true Body To conclude We hold it in regard of the fore-alleaged proofs a most infallible truth That Christ as Man is not every where present There are which think it as infallibly true That Christ is every where present as Man which peradventure in some sense may be well enough granted His Humane Substance in it self is naturally absent from the Earth his Soul and Body not on Earth but in Heaven onely Yet because this Substance is inseparably joyned to that Personal Word which by his very Divine Essence is present with all things the Nature which cannot have in it self Universal Presence hath it after a sort by being no where severed from that which every where is present For in as much as that Infinite Word is not divisible into parts it could not in part but must needs be wholly incarnate and consequently wheresoever the Word is it hath with it Manhood else should the Word be in part or somewhere God onely and not Man which is impossible For the Person of Christ is whole perfect God and perfect Man wheresoever although the parts of his Manhood being Finite and his Deity Infinite we cannot say that the whole of Christ is simply every where as we may say that his Deity is and that his Person is by Force of Deity For somewhat of the Person of Christ is not every where in that sort namely His Manhood the onely Conjunction whereof with Deity is extended as far as Deity the actual position restrained and tied to a certain place yet presence by way of Conjunction is in some sort presence Again As the Manhood of Christ may after a sort be every-where said to be present because that Person is every where present from whose Divine Substance Manhood is no where severed So the same Universality of Presence may likewise seem in another respect appliable thereunto namely by Cooperation with Deity and that in all things The Light created of God in the Beginning did first by it self illuminate the World but after that the Sun and Moon were created the World sithence hath by them always enjoyed the same And that Deity of Christ which before our Lords Incarnation wrought all things without man doth now work nothing wherein the Nature which it hath assumed is either absent from it or idle Christ as Man hath all Power both in Heaven and Earth given him He hath as Man not as God onely Supream Dominion over quick and dead for so much his Ascension into Heaven and his Session at the right Hand of God do import The Son of God which did first humble himself by taking our flesh upon him descended afterwards much lower and became according to the Flesh obedient so far as to suffer Death even the Death of the Cross for all men because such was his Fathers Will. The former was an Humiliation of Deity the later an Humiliation of Manhood for which cause there followed upon the latter an Exaltation of that which was humbled For with Power he created the World but restored it by obedience In which obedience as according to his Manhood he had glorified God on Earth so God hath glorified in Heaven that Nature which yielded him obedience and hath given unto Christ even in that he is Man such Fulness of Power over the whole World that he which before fulfilled in the state of Humility and Patience whatsoever God did require doth now reign in Glory till the time that all things be restored He which came down from Heaven and descended into the lowest parts of the Earth is ascended far above all Heavens that fitting at the right Hand of God he might from thence fill all things with the gracious and happy fruits of his saving Presence Ascension into Heaven is a plain local translation of Christ according to his Manhood from the lower to the higher parts of the World Session at the right Hand of God is the actual exercise of that Regency and Dominion wherein the Manhood of Christ is joyned and matched with the Deity of the Son of God Not that his Manhood was before without the Possession of the same Power but because the full use thereof was suspended till that Humility which had been before as a vail to hide and conceal Majesty were laid aside After his rising again from the dead then did God set him at his right Hand in Heavenly places far above all principality and power and might and domination and every name that is named not in this World onely but also in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and hath appointed him over all the Head to the Church which is his Body the fulness of him that filleth all in all The Scepter of which Spiritual Regiment over us in this present World is at the length to be yielded up into the hands of the Father which gave it that is to say The use and exercise thereof shall cease there being no longer on Earth any Militant Church to govern This Government therefore he exerciseth both as God and as Man as God by Essential Presence with all things as Man by Co-operation with that which essentially is present Touching the manner how he worketh as Man in all things the Principal Powers of the Soul of Man are the Will and Understanding the one of which two in Christ
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
efficient cause in the work of Baptism What if the Ministers Vocation be a Matter of perpetual necessity and not a Ceremony variable as times and occasions require What if his calling be a principal part of the Institution of Christ Doth it therefore follow that the Ministers authority is of the Substance of the Sacrament and as incident into the nature thereof as the Matter and the Form it self yea more incident For whereas in case of necessity the greatest amongst them professeth the change of the Element of Water lawful and others which like not so well this opinion could be better content that voluntarily the words of Christs Institution were altered and Men baptized in the Name of Christ without either mention made of the Father or of the Holy Ghost nevertheless in denying that Baptism administred by private persons ought to be reckoned of as a Sacrament they both agree It may therefore please them both to consider That Baptism is an Action in part Moral in part Ecclesiastical and in part Mystical Moral as being a duty which men perform towards God Ecclesiastical in that it belongeth unto Gods Church as a publick duty Finally Mystical if we respect what God doth thereby intend to work The greatest Moral perfection of Baptism consisteth in mens devout obedience to the Law of God which Law requireth both the outward act or thing done and also that Religious affection which God doth so much regard that without it whatsoever we do is â—tateful in his sight who therefore is said to respect Adverbs more then Verbs because the end of his Law in appointing what we shall do is our own Perfection which Perfection consisteth chiefly in the vertuous disposition of the Minde and approveth it self to him not by doing but by doing well Wherein appeareth also the difference between Humane and Divine Laws the one of which two are content with Opus operatum the other require Opus operantis the one do but claim the Deed the other especially the Minde So that according to Laws which principally respect the heart of Men Works of Religion being not religiously performed cannot Morally be perfect Baptism as an Ecclesiastical work is for the manner of performance ordered by divers Ecclesiastical Laws providing That as the Sacrament it self is a gift of no mean worth so the Ministery thereof might in all circumstances appear to be a Function of no small regard All that belongeth to the Mystical Perfection of Baptism outwardly is the Element the Word and the serious Application of both unto him which receiveth both whereunto if we add that secret reference which this action hath to liâ—e and remission of sins by vertue of Christs own compact solemnly made with his Church to accomplish fully the Sacrament of Baptism there is not any thing more required Now put the Question Whether Baptism Administred to Infants without my Spiritual Calling be unto them both a true Sacrament and an effectual instrument of Grace or else an act of no more account then the ordinary Washings are The sum of all that can be said to defeat such Baptism is That those things which have no Being can work nothing and that Baptism without the power of Ordination is as a Judgment without sufficient Jurisdiction void frustrate and of no effect But to this we answer That the Fruit of Baptism dependeth onely upon the Covenant which God hath made That God by Covenant requireth in the elder sort Faith and Baptism in Children the Sacrament of Baptism alone whereunto he hath also given them right by special priviledge of Birth within the bosom of the holy Church That infants therefore which have received Baptism compleat as touching the Mystical Perfection thereof are by vertue of his own Covenant and Promise cleansed from all sin for as much as all other Laws concerning that which in Baptism is either Moral or Ecclesiastical do binde the Church which giveth Baptism and not the Infant which receiveth it of the Church So that if any thing be therein amiss the harm which groweth by violation of holy Ordinances must altogether rest where the Bonds of such Ordinances hold For that in actions of this nature it fareth not as in Jurisdictions may somewhat appear by the very opinion which men have of them The nullity of that which a Judge doth by way of Authority without Authority is known to all men and agreed upon with full consent of the whole World every man receiveth it as a general Edict of Nature whereas the nullity of Baptism in regard of the like defect is onely a few mens new ungrounded and as yet unapproved imagination Which difference of generality in mens perswasions on the one side and their paucity whose conceit leadeth them the other way hath risen from a difference easie to observe in the things themselves The exercise of unauthorised Jurisdiction is a grievance unto them that are under it whereas they that without Authority presume to Baptize offer nothing but that which to all men is good and acceptable Sacraments are food and the Ministers thereof as Parents or as Nurses at whose hands when there is necessity but no possibility of receiving it if that which they are not present to do in right of their Office be of pity and compassion done by others shall this be thought turn Celestial Bread into Gravel or the Medicine of Souls into Poyson Jurisdiction is a yoke which Law hath imposed on the necks of men in such sort that they must endure it for the good of others how contrary soever it be to their own particular appetites and inclinations Jurisdiction bridleth men against their wills that which a Judge doth prevails by vertue of his very Power and therefore not without great reason except the Law hath given him Authority whatsoever he doth vanisheth Baptism on the other side being a favor which it pleaseth God to bestow a benefit of Soul to us that receive it and a Grace which they that deliver are but as meer Vessels either appointed by others or offered of their own accord to this Service of which two if they be the one it is but their own honor their own offence to be the other Can it possibly stand with Equity and Right That the faultiness of their presumption in giving Baptism should be able to prejudice us who by taking Baptism have no way offended I know there are many Sentences found in the Books and writings of the Ancient Fathers to prove both Ecclesiastical and also Moral defects in the Minister of Baptism a bar to the Heavenly benefit thereof Which Sentences we always so understand as Augustine understood in a case of like nature the words of St. Cyprian When Infants baptized were after their Parents revolt carried by them in arms to the Stews of Idols those wretched Creatures as St. Cyprian thought were not onely their own ruine but their Childrens also Their Children whom this their Apostasie prophaned did lose
Exposition which are not inclinable to think that Moses was matched like Socrates nor that Circumcision could now in Eleazar be strange unto her having had Gersons her elder son before circumcised nor that any occasion of châ—ler could rise from a spectacle of such misery as doth naturally move Compassion and not Wrath nor that Zipporah was so impious as in the visible presence of Gods deserved Anger to storm at the Ordinance and Law of God not that the words of the History it self can inforce any such affection but do onely declare how after the act performed she touched the feet of Moses saying Sponsus tu mihi as sanguinum Thou art unto me an Husband of Blood which might be very well the one done and the other spoken even out of the slowing abundance of commiseration and love to signifie with hands laid under his feet That her tender affection towards him had caused her thus to forget Woman-hood to lay all Motherly affection aside and to redeem her Husband out of the hands of Death with effusion of Blood The sequel thereof take it which way you will is a plain Argument That God was satisfied with that she did as may appeal by his own Testimony declaring How there followed in the person of Moses present release of his grievous punishment upon her speedy discharge of that duty which by him neglected had offended God even as after execution of Justice by the hands of Phineas the Plague was immediately taken away which former impunity of sin had caused In which so manifest and plain cases not to make that a reason of the event which God himself hath set down as a reason were falsly to accuse whom he doth justifie and without any cause to traduce what we should allow yet seeing they which will have it a breach of the Law of God for her to circumcise in that necessity are not able to deny but Circumcision being in that very manner performed was to the innocent Childe which received it true Circumcision why should that defect whereby Circumcision was so little wealmed be to Baptism a deadly wound These Premises therefore remaining as hitherto they have been laid because the Commandment of our Saviour Christ which committeth joyntly to Publick Ministers both Doctrine and Baptism doth no more by linking them together import That the Nature of the Sacrament dependeth on the Ministers Authority and Power to Preach the Word then the force and vertue of the Word doth on Licence to give the Sacrament and considering that the Work of External Ministery in Baptism is onely a pre-eminence of honor which they that take to themselves and are not thereunto called as Aaron was do but themselves in their own persons by means of such usurpation Incur the just blame of disobedience to the Law of God father also in as much as it standeth with no reason That Errors grounded on a wrong interpretation of other Mens Deeds should make frustrate whatsoever is misconceived and that Baptism by Women should cease to be Baptism as oft as any Man will thereby gather That Children which die unbaptized are damned which opinion if the Act of Baptism administred in such manner did inforce it might be sufficient cause of disliking the same but none of defeating or making it altogether void Last of all whereas general and full consent of the godly-learned in all ages doth make for Validity of Baptism yea albeit administred in private and even by Women which kinde of Baptism in case of necessity divers Reformed Churches do both allow and defend some others which do not defend tolerate few in comparison and they without any just cause do utterly disannul and annihilate Surely howsoever through defect on either side the Sacrament may be without Fruit as well in some cases to him which receiveth as to him which giveth it yet no disability of either part can so far make it frustrate and without effect as to deprive it of the very Nature of true Baptism having all things else which the Ordinance of Christ requireth Whereupon we may consequently infer That the Administration of this Sacrament by private persons be it lawful or unlawful appeareth not as yet to be meerly void 63. All that are of the Race of Christ the Scripture nameth them Children of the Promise which God hath made The Promise of Eternal Life is the Seed of the Church of God And because there is no attainment of life but through the onely begotten Son of God nor by him otherwise then being such as the Creed Apostolick describeth it followeth That the Articles thereof are Principles necessary for all men to subscribe unto whom by Baptism the Church receiveth into Christs School All Points of Christian Doctrine are either demonstrable Conclusions or demonstrative Principles Conclusions having strong and invincible Proofs as well in the School of Jesus Christ as elswhere And Principles be Grounds which require no Proof in any kinde of Science because it sufficeth if either ther certainty be evident in it self or evident by the light of some higher knowledge and in it self such as no mans knowledge is ever able to overthrow Now the principles whereupon we do build our souls have their evidence where they had their original and as received from thence we adore them we hold them in reverend admiration we neither argue nor dispute about them we give unto them that assent which the Oracles of God require We are not therefore ashamed of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ because miscreants in scorn have upbraided us That the highest point of our Wisdom is Belief That which is true and neither can be disceined by Sense not concluded by meer Natural Principles must have Principles of revealed Truth whereupon to build it self and an habit of Faith in us wherewith Principles of that kinde are apprehended The Mysteries of our Religion are above the reach of our Understanding above discourse of Mans Reason above all that any Creature can comprehend Therefore the first thing required of him which standeth for admission into Christs Family is Belief Which Belief consisteth not so much in knowledge as in acknowledgment of all things that Heavenly Wisdom revealeth the Affection of Faith is above her reach her Love to God-ward above the comprehension which the hath of God And because onely for Believers all things may be done He which is Goodness it self loveth them above all Deserve we then the love of God because we believe in the Son of God What more opposite then Faith and Pride When God had created all things he looked upon them and loved them because they were all as himself had made them So the true Reason wherefore Christ doth love Believers is Because their belief is the gift of God a gift then which flesh and blood in this World cannot possibly receive a greater And as to love them of whom we receive good things is Duty because they
either Presbyters or Deacons I rather term the one sort Presbyters than Priests because in a matter of so small moment I would not willingly offend their eares to whom the name of Priesthood is odious though without cause For as things are distinguished one from another by those true essential forms which being really and actually in them doe not onely give them the very last and highest degree of their natural perfection but are also the knot foundation and root whereupon all other inferiour perfections depend so if they that first do impose names did alwayes understand exactly the nature of that which they nominate it may be that then by hearing the termes of vulgar speech we should still be taught what the things themselves most properly are But because words have so many Artificers by whom they are made and the things whereunto we apply them are fraught with so many varieties it is not always apparent what the first Inventers respected much less what every man 's inward conceit is which useth their words For any thing my self can discern herein I suppose that they which have bent their study to search more diligently such matters do for the most part finde that Name 's advisedly given had either regard unto that which is naturally most proper or if perhaps to some other speciality to that which is sensibly most eminent in the thing signified and concerning popular use of words that which the wisedom of their Inventors did intend thereby is not commonly thought of but by the name the thing altogether conceived in gross as may appear in that if you ask of the common sort what any certain word for example what a Priest doth signifie their manner is not to answer a Priest is a Clergy-man which offereth sacrifice to God but they shew some particular Person whom they use to call by that name And if we lift to descend to Grammar we are told by masters in those Schools that the word Priest hath his right place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in him whose meer Function or Charge is the service of God Howbeit because the eminentest part both of Heathenish and Jewish service did consist in Sacrifice when Learned-men declare what the word Priest doth properly signifie according to the minde of the first imposer of that name their ordinary Schools do well expound it to imply Sacrifice Seeing then that Sacrifice is now no part of the Church-Ministry how should the name of Priesthood be thereunto rightly applyed Surely even as Saint Paul applyeth the name of Flesh unto that very substance of Fishes which hath a proportionable correspondence to Flesh although it be in nature another thing Whereupon when Philosophers will speak warily they make a difference between Flesh in one sort of living Creatures and that other substance in the rest which hath but a kinde of analogy to Flesh the Apostle contrariwise having matter of greater importance whereof to speak nameth indifferently both Flesh. The Fathers of the Church of Christ with like security of speech call usually the Ministery of the Gospel Priesthood in regard of that which the Gospel hath proportionable to antient Sacrifices namely the Communion of the blessed Body and Blood of Christ although it hath properly now no Sacrifice As for the People when they hear the name it draweth no more their Mindes to any cogitation of Sacrifice than the name of a Senator or of an Alderman causeth them to think upon old age or to imagine that every one so termed must needs be antient because years were respected in the first nomination of both Wherefore to pass by the name let them use what dialect they will whether we call it a Priesthood a Presbytership or a Ministery it skilleth not Although in truth the word Presbyter doth seem more fit and in propriety of speech more agreeable than Priest with the drift of the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ. For what are they that embrace the Gospel but Sons of God What are Churches but his Families Seeing therefore we receive the Adoption and state of Sons by their Ministery whom God hath chosen out for that purpose seeing also that when we are the Sons of God our continuance is still under their care which were our Progenitors what better Title could there be given them than the reverend name of Presbyters or fatherly Guides The Holy Ghost throughout the body of the New Testament making so much mention of them doth not any where call them Priests The Prophet Esay I grant doth but in such sort as the antient Fathers by way of analogy A Presbyter according to the proper meaning of the New Testament is he unto whom our Saviour Christ hath communicated the power of Spiritual procreation Out of twelve Patriarks issued the whole multitude of Israel according to the flesh And according to the mystery of heavenly birth our Lord's Apostles we all acknowledge to be the Patriarks of his whole Church St. Iohn therefore beheld sitting about the Throne of God in Heaven four and twenty Presbyters the one half Fathers of the old the other of the new Ierusalem In which respect the Apostles likewise gave themselves the same Title albeit that name were not proper but common unto then with others For of Presbyters some were greater some lesse in power and that by our Saviour's own appointment the greater they which received fulness of Spiritual power the less they to whom less was granted The Apostle's peculiar charge was to publish the Gospel of Christ unto all Nations and to deliver them his Ordinances received by immediate revelation from himself Which preheminence excepted to all other Offices and Duties incident unto their Order it was in them to Ordain and Consecrate whomsoever they thought meet even as our Saviour did himself assign seventy other of his own Disciples inferiour Presbyters whose Commission to Preach and Baptize was the same which the Apostles had Whereas therefore we finde that the very first Sermon which the Apostles did publickly make was the conversion of above three thousand Souls unto whom there were every day more and more added they having no open place permitted them for the exercise of Christian Religion think we that Twelve were sufficient to teach and administer Sacraments in so many private places as so great a multitude of People did require This harvest our Saviour no doubt foreseeing provided accordingly Labourers for it before hand By which means it came to pass that the growth of that Church being so great and so sudden they had notwithstanding in a readiness Presbyters enough to furnish it And therefore the History doth make no mention by what occasion Presbyters were instituted in Ierusalem onely we read of things which they did and how the like were made afterwards elsewhere To these two Degrees appointed of our Lord and Saviour Christ his Apostles soon after annexed Deacons Deacons therefore must know
that we may consider as in Gods own sight and presence with all uprightnesse sincerity and truth let us particularly weigh and examine in every of them First how farr forth they are reproveable by Reasons and Maxims of Common right Secondly whether that which our Laws do permit be repugnant to those Maxims and with what equity we ought to judge of things practised in this case neither on the one hand defending that which must be acknowledged out of square nor on the other side condemning rashly whom we list for whatsoever we disallow Touching Arguments therefore taken from the principles of Common right to prove that Ministers should be learned that they ought to be Resident upon their Livings and that more than one onely Benefice or Spiritual Living may not be granted unto one man the first because Saint Paul requireth in a Minister ability to teach to convince to distribute the Word rightly because also the Lord himself hath protested they shall be no Priests to him which have rejected knowledge and because if the blince lead the Blinde they must both needs fall into the Pit the second because Teachers are Shepherds whose Flocks can be at no time secure from danger they are Watchmen whom the Enemy doth alwayes besiege their labours in the Word and Sacraments admit no intermission their duty requireth instruction and conference with men in private they are the living Oracles of God to whom the People must resort for counsel they are commanded to be Patterns of Holiness Leaders Feeders Supervisors amongst their own it should be their grief as it was the Apostles to be absent though necessarily from them over whom they have taken charge finally the last because Plurality and Residence are opposite because the placing of one Clark in two Churches is a point of Merchandize and filthy gain because no man can serve two Masters because every one should remain in that Vocation whereto he is called What conclude they of all this Against Ignorance against Non-residence and against Plurality of Livings is there any man so raw and dull but that the Volumes which have been written both of old and of late may make him in so plentiful a cause eloquent For if by that which is generally just and requisite we measure what knowledge there should be in a Minister of the Gospel of Christ the Arguments which Light of Nature offereth the Laws and Statutes which Scripture hath the Canons that are taken out of antient Synods the Decrees and Constitutions of sincerest Times the Sentences of all Antiquity and in a word even every man's full consent and conscience is against Ignorance in them that have Charge and Cure of Souls Again what availeth it if we be Learned and not Faithful or what benefit hath the Church of Christ if there be in us sufficiency without endeavour or care to do that good which our place exacteth Touching the pains and industry therefore wherewith men are in conscience bound to attend the work of their Heavenly Calling even as much as in them lyeth bending thereunto their whole endeavour without either fraud sophistication or guile I see not what more effectual Obligation or Bond of Duty there should be urged than their own onely Vow and Promise made unto God himself at the time of their Ordination The work which they have undertaken requireth both care and fear Their sloth that negligently perform it maketh them subject to malediction Besides we also know that the fruit of our pains in this Function is life both to our selves and others And doe we yet need incitements to labour Shall we stop our ears both against those conjuring exhortations which Apostles and against the fearful comminations which Prophets have uttered out of the mouth of God the one for prevention the other for reformation of our sluggishness in this behalf Saint Paul Attend to your selves and to all the Flock whereof the Holy Ghost hath made you Over-seers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood Again I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ which shall judge the quick and the dead at his comming preach the Word be instant Jeremiah We unto the Pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my Pasture I will visit you for the wickedness of your Works saith the Lord the remnant of my Sheep I will gather together out of all Countries and will bring them again so their solds they shall grew and increase and I will set up Shepherds over them which shall feed them Ezekiel Should not the Shepherds should they not feed the Flocks Ye eat the fat andye clothe your selves with the wool but the weak ye have not strengthened the sick ye have not cured neither have ye bound up the broken nor brought home again that which was driven away ye have not inquired after that which was lost but with cruelty and rigour ye have ruled And verse 8. Wheresore as I live I will require c. Nor let us think to excuse our selves if haply we labour though it be at random and sit not altogether idle abroad For we are bound to attend that part of the flock of Christ whereof the Holy Ghost hath made us Over-seers The residence of Ministers upon their own peculiar Charge is by so much the rather necessary for that absenting themselves from the place where they ought to labour they neither can do the good which is looked for at their hands nor reap the comfort which sweetneth life to them that spend it in these cravels upon their own For it is in this as in all things else which are through private interest dearer than what concerneth either others wholly or us but in part and according to the rate of a general regard As for plurality it hath not onely the same inconveniencies which are observed to grow by absence but over and besides at the least in common construction a shew of that worldly humour which men do think should not raign so high Now from hence their Collections are as followeth first a repugnancy or contradiction between the Principles of common right and that which our Laws in special considerations have allowed secondly a nullitie or frustration of all such acts as are by them supposed opposite to those Principles and invalidity in all Ordinations of men unable to preach and in all dispensations which mitigate the Law of Common right for the other two And why so Forsooth because whatsoever we do in these three cases and not by vertue of Common-right we must yield it of necessity done by warrant of peculiar right or priviledge Now a Priviledge is said to be that that for favour of certain persons commeth forth against Common-right things prohibited are dispensed with because things permitted are dispatched by Common-right but things forbidden require Dispensations By which descriptions of a Priviledge and Dispensation it is they say apparent that a Priviledge must
less repugnant to the grounds and principles of Common right than the fraudulent proceedings of Tyrants to the principles of just Soveraignty Howbeit not so those special priviledges which are but instruments wrested and forced to serve malice There is in the Patriark of Heathen Philosophers this Precept Let us Husbandman nor no Handy-craftsman be a Priest The reason whereupon he groundeth is a maxim in the Law of Nature◠It importeth greatly the good of all men that God be reverenced with whose honour it standeth not that they which are publickly imployed in his service should live of base and manuary Trades Now compare herewith the Apostle's words Ye know that these hands have ministred to my necessities and them that are with me What think we Did the Apostle any thing opposite herein or repugnant to the Rules and Maxims of the Law of Nature The self-same reasons that accord his actions with the Law of Nature shall declare our Priviledges and his Laws no less consonant Thus therefore we see that although they urge very colourably the Apostles own Sentences requiring that a Minister should be able to divide rightly the Word of God that they who are placed in Charge should attend unto it themselves which in absence they cannot do and that they which have divers Cures must of necessity be absent from some whereby the Law Apostolick seemeth apparently broken which Law requiring attendance cannot otherwise be understood than so as to charge them with perpetual Residence Again though in every of these causes they infinitely heap up the Sentences of Fathers the Decrees of Popes the antient Edicts of Imperial authority our own National Laws and Ordinances prohibiting the same and grounding evermore their Prohibitions partly on the Laws of God and partly on reasons drawn from the light of Nature yet hereby to gather and inferr contradiction between those Laws which forbid indefinitely and ours which in certain cases have allowed the ordaining of sundry Ministers whose sufficiency for Learning is but mean Again the licensing of some to be absent from their Flocks and of others to hold more than one onely Living which hath Cure of Souls I say to conclude repugnancy between these especial permissions and the former general prohibitions which set not down their own limits is erroneous and the manifest cause thereof ignorance in differences of matter which both sorts of Law concern If then the considerations be reasonable just and good whereupon we ground whatsoever our Laws have by special right permitted if onely the effects of abused Priviledges be repugnant to the Maxims of Common right this main foundation of repugnancy being broken whatsoever they have built thereupon falleth necessarily to the ground Whereas therefore upon surmise or vain supposal of opposition between our special and the principles of Common right they gather that such as are with us ordained Ministers before they can Preach be neither lawfull because the Laws already mentioned forbid generally to create such neither are they indeed Ministers although we commonly so name them but whatsoever they execute by vertue of such their pretended Vocation is void◠that all our grants and tolerations as well of this as the rest are frustrate and of no effect the Persons that enjoy them possess them wrongfully and are deprivable at all hours finally that other just and sufficient remedy of evils there can be none besides the utter abrogations of these our mitigations and the strict establishment of former Ordinances to be absolutely executed whatsoever follow albeit the Answer already made in discovery of the weak and unsound foundation whereupon they have built these erroneous collections may be thought sufficient yet because our desire is rather to satisfie if it be possible than to shake them off we are with very good will contented to declare the causes of all particulars more formally and largely than the equity of our own defence doth require There is crept into the mindes of men at this day a secret pernicious and pestilent conceit that the greatest perfection of a Christian man doth consist in discovery of other mens faults and in wit to discourse of our own profession When the World most abounded with just righteous and perfect men their chiefest study was the exercise of piety wherein for their safest direction they reverently hearkened to the Readings of the Law of God they kept in minde the Oracles and Aphorismes of wisdom which tended unto vertuous life if any scruple of conscience did trouble them for matter of Actions which they took in hand nothing was attempted before counsel and advice were had for fear left rashly they might offend We are now more confident not that our knowledge and judgement is riper but because our desires are another way Their scope was obedience ours is skill their endeavour was reformation of life our vertue nothing but to hear gladly the reproof of vice they in the practice of their Religion wearied chiefly their knees and hands we especially our ears and tongues We are grown as in many things else so in this to a kinde of intemperancy which onely Sermons excepted hath almost brought all other duties of Religion out of taste At the least they are not in that account and reputation which they should be Now because men bring all Religion in a manner to the onely Office of hearing Sermons if it chance that they who are thus conceited do imbrace any special opinion different from other men the Sermons that relish not that opinion can in no wise please their appetite Such therefore as preach unto them but hit not the string they look for are rejected as unprofitable the rest as unlawful and indeed no Ministers if the faculty of Sermons want For why◠A Minister of the Word should they say be able rightly to divide the Word Which Apostolick Canon many think they do well observe when in opening the Sentences of holy Scripture they draw all things favourably spoken unto one side but whatsoever is reprehensive severe and sharp they have others on the contrary part whom that must always concern by which their over-partial and un-indifferent proceeding while they thus labour amongst the people to divide the Word they make the Word a mean to divide and distract the People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to divide aright doth note in the Apostle's Writings soundness of Doctrine onely and in meaning standeth opposite to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the broaching of new opinions against that which is received For questionless the first things delivered to the Church of Christ were pure and sincere Truth Which whosoever did afterwards oppugn could not chuse but divide the Church into two moyeties in which division such as taught what was first believed held the truet part the contrary side in that they were teachers of novelty etred For prevention of which evil there are in this Church many singular and well devised remedies as namely the use of subscribing to the Articles
greater then the rest and that with common advice they ought to govern the Church To clear the sense of these words therefore as we have done already the former Laws which the Church from the beginning universally hath observed were some delivered by Christ himself with a charge to keep them till the worlds end as the Law of Baptizing and administring the holy Eucharist some brought in afterwards by the Apostles yet not without the special direction of the Holy Ghost as occasions did arise Of this sort are those Apostolical orders and laws whereby Deacons Widows Virgins were first appointed in the Church This answer to Saint Ierom seemeth dangerous I have qualified it as I may by addition of some words of restraint yet I satisfie not may self in my judgment it would be altered Now whereas Jerom doth term the Government of Bishops by restraint an Apostolical tradition acknowledging thereby the same to have been of the Apostles own institution it may be demanded how these two will stand together namely that the Apostles by divine instinct should be as Jerom confesseth the Authors of that regiment and yet the custome of the Church he accompted for so by Jerom it may seem to be in this place accompted the chiefest prop that upholdeth the same To this we answer That for as much as the whole body of the Church hath power to alter with general consent and upon necessary occasions even the positive law of the Apostles if there be no commandment to the contrary and it manifestly appears to her that change of times have clearly taken away the very reason of Gods first institution as by sundry examples may be most clearly proved what laws the universal Church might change and doth not if they have long continued without any alteration it seemeth that St. Jerom ascribeth the continuance of such positive laws though instituted by God himself to the judgemement of the Church For they which might abrogate a Law and do not are properly said to uphold to establish it and to give it being The Regiment therefore whereof Jerom speaketh being positive and consequently not absolutely necessary but of a changeable nature because there is no Divine voice which in express words forbiddeth it to be changed he might imagine both that it came by the Apostles by very divine appointment at the first and notwithstanding be after a sort said to stand in force rather by the custome of the Church choosing to continue in it than by the necessary constraint of any Commandment from the Word requiring perpetual continuance thereof So that St. Ieroms admonition is reasonable sensible and plain being contrived to this effect The ruling superiority of one Bishop over many Presbyters in each Church is an Order descended from Christ to the Apostles who were themselves Bishops at large and from the Apostles to those whom they in their steads appointed Bishops over particular Countries and Cities and even from those antient times universally established thus many years it hath continued throughout the World for which cause Presbyters must not grudg to continue subject unto their Bishops unless they will proudly oppose themselves against that which God himself ordained by his Apostles and the whole Church of Christ approveth and judgeth most convenient On the other side Bishops albeit they may avouch with conformity of truth that their Authority had thus descended even from the very Apostles themselves yet the absolute and everlasting continuance of it they cannot say that any Commandment of the Lord doth injoyn And therefore must acknowledge that the Church hath power by universal consent upon urgent cause to take it away if thereunto she be constrained through the proud tyrannical and unreformable dealings of her Bishops whose Regiment she hath thus long delighted in because she hath found it good and requisite to be so governed Wherefore lest Bishops forget themselves as if none on earth had Authority to touch their states let them continually bear in mind that it is rather the force of custom whereby the Church having so long found it good to continue under the Regiment of her vertuous Bishops doth still uphold maintain and honour them in that respect than that any such true and heavenly Law can be showed by the evidence whereof it may of a truth appear that the Lord himself hath appointed Presbyters for ever to be under the Regiment of Bishops in what sort soever they behave themselves let this consideration be a bridle unto them let it teach them not to disdain the advice of their Presbyters but to use their authority with so much the greater humility and moderation as a Sword which the Church hath power to take from them In all this there is no leâ—â— why S. Ierom might not think the Authors of Episcopal Regiment to have been the very blessed Apostles themselves directed therein by the special mution of the Holy Ghost which the Ancients all before and besides him and himself also elsewhere being known to hold we are not without better evidence then this to think him in judgement divided both from himself and from them Another Argument that the Regiment of Churches by one Bishop over many Presbyters hath been always held Apostolical may be this We find that throughout all those Cities where the Apostles did plant Christianity the History of times hath noted succession of pastors in the seat of one not of many there being in every such Church evermore many Pastors and the first one in every rank of succession we find to have been if not some Apostle yet some Apostles Disciple By Epiphanius the Bishops of Ierusalem are reckoned down from Iames to Hilarion then Bishop Of them which boasted that they held the same things which they received of such as lived with the Apostles themselves Tertullian speaketh after this sort Let them therefore shew the beginnings of their Churches let them recite their Bishops one by one each in such sort succeeding other that the first Bishop of them have had for his Author and Predecessour some Apostle or at least some Apostolical Person who persevered with the Apostles For so Apostolical Churches are wont to bring forth the evidence of their estates So doth the Church of Smyrna having Polycarp whom Iohn did consecrate Catalogues of Bishops in a number of other Churches Bishops and succeeding one another from the very Apostles times are by Eusebius and Socrates collected whereby it appeareth so clear as nothing in the World more that under them and by their appointment this Order began which maketh many Presbyters subject unto the Regiment of some one Bishop For as in Rome while the civil ordering of the Common-wealth was joyntly and equally in the hands of two Consuls Historical Records concerning them did evermore mention them both and note which two as Collegues succeeded from time to time So there is no doubt but Ecclesiastical antiquity had done the very like had not one Pastors place and
much concerning that Local Compass which was antiently set out to Bishops within the bounds and limits whereof we finde that they did accordingly exercise that Episcopal Authority and power which they had over the Church of Christ. IX The first whom we read to have bent themselves against the Superiority of Bishops were Aerius and his Followers Aerius seeking to be made a Bishop could not brook that Eustathius was thereunto preferred before him Whereas therefore he saw himself unable to rise to that greatness which his ambitious pride did affect his way of revenge was to try what Wit being sharpned with envy and malice could do in raising a new seditious opinion that the Superiority which Bishops had was a thing which they should not have that a Bishop might not ordain and that a Bishop ought not any way to be distinguished from a Presbyter For so doth St. Augustin deliver the opinion of Aerius Epiphanius not so plainly nor so directly but after a more Rhetorical sort His Speech was rather furious than convenient for man to use What is saith he a Bishop more than a Presbyter The one doth differ from the other nothing For their Order as one their Honour one one their Dignity A Bishop imposeth his hands so doth a Presbyter A Bishop baptizeth the like doth a Presbyter The Bishop is a Minister of Divine Service a Presbyter is the same The Bishop sitteth as a Iudge in a Throne even the Presbyter fitteth also A Presbyter therefore doing thus far the self-same thing which a Bishop did it was by Aerius inforced that they ought not in any thing to differ Are we to think Aerius had wrong in being judged an Heretick for holding this opinion Surely if Heresie be an error falsely fathered upon Scriptures but indeed repugnant to the truth of the Word of God and by the consent of the universal Church in the Councils or in her contrary uniform practice throughout the whole world declared to be such and the opinion of Aerius in this point be a plain error of that nature there is no remedy but Aerius so schismatically and stifly maintaining it must even stand where Epiphanius and Augustin have placed him An error repugnant unto the truth of the Word of God is held by them whosoever they be that stand in defence of any Conclusion drawn erroneously out of Scripture and untruely thereon fathered The opinion of Aerius therefore being falsely collected out of Scripture must needs be acknowledged an error repugnant unto the truth of the Word of God His opinion was that there ought not to be any difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter His grounds and reasons for this Opinion were Sentences of Scripture Under pretence of which Sentences whereby it seemed that Bishops and Presbyters at the first did not differ it was concluded by Aerius that the Church did ill in permitting any difference to be made The Answer which Epiphanius maketh unto some part of the proofs by Aerius alleged was not greatly studied or labored for through a contempt of so base an error for this himself did perceive and profess yieldeth he thereof expresly this reason Men that have wit do evidently see that all this is meer foolishness But how vain and ridiculous soever his opinion seemed unto wise men with it Aerius deceived many for which cause somewhat was convenient to be said against it And in that very extemporal slightness which Epiphanius there useth albeit the answer made to Aerius be in part but raw yet ought not hereby the Truth to finde any less favour than in other Causes it doth where we do not therefore judge Heresie to have the better because now and then it alledgeth that for it self which Defenders of Truth do not always so fully answer Let it therefore suffice that Aerius did bring nothing unanswerable The weak Solutions which the one doth give are to us no prejudice against the Cause as long as the others oppositions are of no greater strength and validity Did not Aerius trow you deserve to be esteemed as a new Apollos mighty and powerful in the Word which could for maintenance of his Cause bring forth so plain Divine Authorities to prove by the Apostles own Writings that Bishops ought not in any thing to differ from other Presbyters For example where it is said that Presbyters made Timothy Bishop is it not clear that a Bishop should not differ from a Presbyter by having power of Ordination Again if a Bishop might by Order be distinguished from a Presbyter would the Apostle have given as he doth unto Presbyters the Title of Bishops These were the invincible demonstrations wherewith Aerius did so fiercely assault Bishops But the Sentence of Aerius perhaps was only that the difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter hath grown by the order and custom of the Church the Word of God not appointing that any such difference should be Well let Aerius then finde the favour to have his Sentence so construed yet his fault in condemning the order of the Church his not submitting himself unto that Order the Schism which he caused in the Church about it who can excuse No the truth is that these things did even necessarily ensue by force of the very opinion which he and his followers did hold His conclusion was That there ought to be no difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop His proofs those Scripture-sentences which make mention of Bishops and Presbyters without any such distinction or difference So that if between his Conclusion and the Proofs whereby he laboured to strengthen the same there be any shew of coherence at all we must of necessity confess that when Aerius did plead There is by the Word of God no difference between a Presbyter and a Bishop his meaning was not only that the Word of God it self appointeth nor but that it enforceth on us the duty of not appointing nor allowing that any such difference should be made X. And of the self-same minde are the Enemies of Government by Bishops even at this present day They hold as Aerius did that if Christ and his Apostles were obeyed a Bishop should not be permitted to ordain that between a Presbyter and a Bishop the Word of God alloweth not any inequality or difference to be made that their Order their Authority their Power ought to be one that it is but by usurpation and corruption that the one sort are suffered to have rule of the other or to be any way superiour unto them Which opinion having now so many Defenders shall never be able while the World doth stand to finde in some believing Antiquity as much as one which hath given it countenance or born any friendly affection towards it Touching these men therefore whose desire is to have all equal three ways there are whereby they usually oppugn the received Order of the Church of Christ. First by disgracing the inequality of Pastors as a new
by his special protection preserved clean from all sinne yet concerning the rest they teach as we do that all have sinned Against my words they might with more pretence take exception Because so many of them think she had sinne which exception notwithstanding the Proposition being indefinite and the matter contingent they cannot take because they grant That many whom they account grave and devout amongst them think that she was clear from all sinne But whether Mr. Travers did note my words himself or take them upon the credit of some other man's noting the Tables were faulty wherein it was noted All men sinners even the Blessed Virgin When my second Speech was rather All men except the Blessed Virgin To leave this another fault he findeth that I said They teach Christs Righteousnesse to be the onely meritorious cause of taking away sinne and differ from us onely in the applying of it I did say and doe They teach as we do that although Christ be the onely meritorious cause of our Iustice yet as a medicine which is made for Health doth not heal by being made but by being applyed So by the merits of Christ there can be no Life nor Iustification without the application of his merits But about the manner of applying Christ about the number and power of means whereby he is applyed we dissent from them This of our dissenting from them is acknowledged 14. Our agreement in the former is denied to be such as I pretend Let their own words therefore and mine concerning them be compared Doth not Andradius plainly confess Our sins do shut and onely the merits of Christ open the entring unto blessedness And So to It is put for a good ground that all since the fall of Adam obtained Salvation onely by the Passion of Christ Howbeit as no cause can be effectual without applying so neither can any man be saved to whom the suffering of Christ is not applied In a word who not When the Council of Trent reckoning up the causes of our first Justification doth name no end but God's Glory and our Felicity no efficient but his Mercy no Instrumental but Baptism no meritorious but Christ whom to have merited the taking away of no sin but Original is not their opinion which himself will finde when he hath well examined his Witnesses Catharinus and Thomas Their Jesuites are marvellous angry with the men out of whose gleanings Mr. Travers seemeth to have taken this they openly disclaim it they say plainly Of all this Catholicks there is no one this did ever so teach they make solemn protestation We believe and profess That Christ upon the Cross hath altogether satisfied for all sins as well Original as Actual Indeed they teach that the merit of Christ doth not take away Actual sinne in such sort as it doth Original wherein if their Doctrine had been understood I for my speech had never been accused As for the Council of Trent concerning inherent Righteousness what doth it here No man doubteth but they make another formal cause of Justification than we do In respect whereof I have shewed you already that we disagree about the very essence of that which cureth our Spiritual disease Most time it is which the grand Philosopher hath Every man judgeth well of that which he knoweth and therefore till we know the things throughly whereof we judge it is a point of judgment to stay our judgment 15. Thus much labour being spent in discovering the unsoundness of my Doctrine some pains he taketh further to open faults in the manner of my teaching as that I bestowed my whole hour and more my time and more than my time in discourses utterly impertinent to my Text. Which if I had done it might have past without complaining of to the Privy Council 16. But I did worse as he saith I left the expounding of the Scriptures and my ordinary Calling and discoursed upon School-points and questions neither of edification nor of truth I read no Lecture in the Law or in Physick And except the bounds of ordinary Calling may be drawn like a Purse how are they so much wider unto him than to me that he which in the limits of his ordinary Calling should reprove that in me which he understood not and I labouring that both he and others might understand could not do this without forsaking my Calling The matter whereof I spake was such as being at the first by me but lightly touched he had in that place openly contradicted and solemnly taken upon him to disprove If therefore it were a School-question and unfit to be discoursed of there that which was in me but a Proposition onely at the first wherefore made he a Probleme of it Why took he first upon him to maintain the negative of that which I had affirmatively spoken onely to shew mine own opinion little thinking that ever it would have been a Question Of what nature soever the Question were I could doe no lesse than there explain my self to them unto whom I was accused of unsound Doctrine wherein if to shew what had been through ambiguity mistaken in my words or misapplied by him in this Cause against me I used the distinctions and helps of Schools I trust that herein I have committed no unlawful thing These School-implements are acknowledged by grave and wise men not unprofitable to have been invented The most approved for Learning and Judgement do use them without blame the use of them hath been well liked in some that have taught even in this very place before me the quality of my Hearers is such that I could not but think them of capacity very sufficient for the most part to conceive harder than I used any the cause I had in hand did in my judgment necessarily require them which were then used when my words spoken generally without distinctions had been perverted what other way was there for me but by distinctions to lay them open in their right meaning that it might appear to all men whether they were consonant to truth or no And although Mr. Travers be so inured with the City that he thinketh it unmeet to use any speech which savoureth of the School yet his opinion is no Canon though unto him his minde being troubled my speech did seem like Fetters and Manacles yet there might be some more calmly affected which thought otherwise his private judgment will hardly warrant his bold words that the things which I spake were neither of edification nor truth They might edifie some other for any thing he knoweth and be true for any thing he proveth to the contrary For it is no proof to cry Absurdities the like whereunto have not been heard in publick places within this Land since Queen Marie's days If this came in earnest from him I am sorry to see him so much offended without cause more sorry that his fitâ— should be so extream to make him speak he knoweth not what That I
than perhaps it seemeth to them which know not the deepnesse of Satan as the blessed Divine speaketh For although this be proof sufficient that they doe not directly deny the foundation of Faith yet if there were no other leaven in the lump of their Doctrine but this this were sufficient to prove that their Doctrine is not agreeable to the foundation of Christian Faith The Pelogians being over-great friends unto Nature made themselves Enemies unto Grace for all their confessing that men have their Souls and all the faculties thereof their wills and all the ability of their wills from God And is not the Church of Rome still an Adversary unto Christ's Merits because of her acknowledging that we have received the power of meriting by the blood of Christ Sir Thomas Moor setteth down the odds between us and the Church of Rome in the matter of Works thus Like as we grant them that no good work of man is rewardable in Heaven of its own nature but through the meer goodnesse of God that lists in set so high a price upon so poor a thing and that this price God setteth through Christ's Passion and for that also they be his own Works with us for good works to god-God-word worketh no man without God work in him and as we grant them also that no man may be proud of his works for his imperfect working and for that in all that man may doe he can doe God no good but is a Servant unprofitable and doth but his bare duty as we I say grant unto them these things so this one things or twain doe they grant us again That men are bound to work good works if they have time and power and that whose worketh in true faith most shall be most rewarded but then set they thereto That all his Rewards shall be given him for his Faith alone and nothing for his Works at all because his Faith is the thing they say that forceth him to work well I see by this of Sir Thomas Moor how easie it is for men of the greatest capacity to mistake things written or spoken as well on the one side as on the other Their Doctrine as he thought maketh the work of man rewardable in the World to come through the goodnesse of God whom it pleased to set so high a price upon so poor a thing and ours that a man doth receive that eternal and high reward not for his Works but for his Faiths sake by which he worketh whereas in truth our Doctrine is no other than that we have learned at the feet of Christ namely That God doth justifie the believing man yet not for the worthinesse of his belief but for the worthinesse of him which is believed God rewardeth abundantly every one which worketh yet not for any meritorious dignity which is or can be in the Work but through his mere mercy by whose Commandment he worketh Contrariwise their Doctrine is That as pure Water of it self hath no savour but if it passe through a sweet Pipe it taketh a pleasant smell of the Pipe through which it passeth so although before Grace received our Works doe neither satisfie nor merit yet after they doe both the one and the other Every vertuous Action hath then power in such to satisfie that if we our selves commit no mortal sinne no hainous crime whereupon to spend this treasure of satisfaction in our own behalf it turneth to the benefit of other mens release on whom it shall please the Steward of the House of God to bestow it so that we may satisfie for our selves and others but merit onely for our selves In meriting our Actions do work with two hands with one they get their morning stipend the encrease of Grace with the other their evening hire the everlasting Crown of Glory Indeed they teach that our good Works doe not these things as they come from us but as they come from Grace in us which Grace in us is another thing in their Divinity than is the mere goodnesse of God's mercy towards us in Christ Jesus 34. If it were not a long deluded Spirit which hath possession of their Hearts were it possible but that they should see how plainly they doe herein gain-say the very ground of Apostolick Faith Is this that Salvation by Grace whereof so plentiful mention is made in the Scriptures of God Was this their meaning which first taught the World to look for Salvation onely by Christ By Grace the Apostle saith and by Grace in such sort as a Gift a thing that commeth not of our selves nor of our Works lest any man should boast and say I have wrought out my own Salvation By Grace they confesse but by Grace in such sort that as many as wear the Diadem of Blisse they wear nothing but what they have won The Apostle as if he had foreseen how the Church of Rome would abuse the World in time by ambiguous terms to declare in what sense the name of Grace must be taken when we make it the cause of our Salvation saith He saved us according to his mercy which mercy although it exclude not the washing of our new birth the renewing of our Hearts by the Holy Ghost the Means the Vertues the Duties which God requireth of our hands which shall be saved yet it is so repugnant unto Merits that to say We are saved for the worthiness of any thing which is ours is to deny we are saved by Grace Grace bestoweth freely and therefore justly requireth the glory of that which is bestowed We deny the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we abuse disanul and annihilate the benefit of his bitter passion if we test in these proud imaginations that life is deservedly ours that we merit it and that we are worthy of it 35. Howbeit considering how many vertuous and just men how many Saints how many Martyrs how many of the Antient Fathers of the Church have had their sundry perilous Opinions and amongst sundry of their Opinions this that they hoped to make God some part of amends for their sinnes by the voluntary punishment which they laid upon themselves because by a Consequent it may follow hereupon that they were injurious unto Christ shall we therefore make such deadly Epitaphs and set them upon their Graves They denied the foundation of Faith directly they are damned there is no Salvation for them Saint Austin saith of himself Errare passum Hareticus isse nolo And except we put a difference between them that erre and them that obstinately persist in Errour how is it possible that ever any man should hope to be saved Surely in this Case I have no respect of any Person either alive or dead Give me a man of what estate or condition soever yea a Cardinal or a Pope whom in the extreme point of his life affliction hath made to know himself whose heart God hath touched with true sorrow for all his sinnes and filled with love
declining or swarving aside which absolute perfection when did God ever finde in the Sons of mere mortal men Doth it not follow that all Flesh must of necessity fall down and confess We are not dust and ashes but worse our mindes from the highest to the lowest are not right If not right then undoubtedly not capable of that blessedness which we naturally seek but subject unto that which we most abhorr Anguish Tribulation Death Wo endless Misery For whatsoever misseth the way of Life the issue thereof cannot be but Perdition By which reason all being wrapped up in sinne and made thereby the Children of Death the mindes of all men being plainly convicted not to be right shall we think that God hath indued them with so many excellencies more not onely than any but then all the Creatures in the World besides to leave them in such estate that they had been happier if they they had never been Here commeth necessarily in a new way unto Salvation so that they which were in the other perverse may in this be found strait and righteous That the way of Nature this the way of Grace The end of that way Salvation merited presupposing the righteousness of mens works their Righteousness a natural hability to do them that hability the goodness of God which created them in such perfection But the end of this way Salvation bestowed upon men as a Gift presupposing not their righteousness but the forgiveness of their unrighteousness Justification their Justification not their natural ability to do good but their hearty sorrow for their not doing and unfeigned belief in him for whose sake not-doers are accepted which is their Vocation their Vocation the Election of God taking them out from the number of lost Children their Election a Mediator in whom to be elect This Mediation inexplicable Mercy his Mercy their Misery for whom he vouchsafed to make himself a Mediator The want of exact distinguishing between these two wayes and observing what they have common what peculiar hath been the cause of the greatest part of that confusion whereof Christianity at this day laboureth The lack of diligence in searching laying down and inuring mens mindes with those hidden grounds of Reason whereupon the least particular in each of these are most firmly and strongly builded is the onely reason of all those scruples and uncertainties wherewith we are in such sort intangled that a number despair of ever discerning what is right or wrong in any thing But we will let this matter rest whereinto we stepped to search out a way how some mindes may be and are right truly even in the sight of God though they be simply in themselves not right Howbeit there is not onely this difference between the just and impious that the minde of the one is right in the sight of God because his obliquity is not imputed the other perverse because his sin is unrepented of but even as lines that are drawn with a trembling hand but yet to the point which they should are thought ragged and uneven nevertheless direct in comparison of them which run clean another way so there is no incongruity in terming them right-minded men whom though God may charge with many things amiss yet they are not as those hideous and ugly Monsters in whom because there is nothing but wilful opposition of minde against God a more than tolerable deformity is noted in them by saying that their mindes are not right The Angel of the Church of Thyatyra unto whom the Son of God sendeth this greeting I know thy works and thy love and service and faith notwithstanding I have a few things against thee was not as he unto whom Saint Peter Thou hast no fellowship in this business for thy heart is not right in the sight of God So that whereat the orderly disposition of the minde of man should be this Perturbation and sensual Appetites all kept in awe by a moderate and sober will in all things frained by Reason Reason directed by the Law of God and Nature this Babylonian had his minde as it were turned upside down In him unreasonable cecity and blindnesse trampled all Laws both of God and Nature under seet Wilfulness tyrannized over Reason and Brutish Sensuality over Will An evident token that his out-rage would work his overthrow and procure his speedy ruine The Mother whereof was that which the Prophet in these words signified His minde doth swell Immoderate swelling a token of very eminent breach and of inevitable destruction Pride a vice which cleaveth so fast unto the hearts of men that if we were to strip our selves of all faults one by one we should undoubtedly finde it the very last and hardest to put off But I am not here to touch the secret itching humour of vanity wherewith men are generally touched It was a thing more than meanly inordinate wherewith the Babylonian did swell Which that we may both the better conceive and the more easily reap profit by the nature of this vice which setteth the whole World out of course and hath put so many even of the wisest besides themselves is first of all to be inquired into Secondly the dangers to be discovered which it draweth inevitably after it being not cured And last of all the ways to cure it Whether we look upon the gifts of Nature or of Grace or whatsoever is in the World admired as a part of man's excellency adorning his Body beautifying his Minde or externally any way commending him in the account and opinion of men there is in every kinde somewhat possible which no man hath and somewhat had which few men can attain unto By occasion whereof there groweth disparagement necessarily and by occasion of disparagement Pride through mens ignorance First therefore although men be not proud of any thing which is not at lest in opinion good yet every good thing they are not proud of but onely of that which neither is common unto many and being desired of all causeth them which have it to be honoured above the rest Now there is no man so void of brain as to suppose that Pride consisteth in the bare possession of such things for then to have Vertue were a Vice and they should be the happiest men who are most wretched because they have least of that which they would have And though in speech we do intimate a kinde of vanity to be in them of whom we say They are Wise men and they know it yet this doth not prove That every Wiseman is proud which doth not think himself to be blockish What we may have and know that we have it without offence do we then make offensive when we take joy and delight in having it What difference between men enriched with all aboundance of earthly and heavenly Blessings and Idols gorgeously attired but this The one takes pleasures in that which they have the other none If we may be possest with Beauty Strength Riches Power Knowledge
as a Supplement of any maim or defect therein but as a necessary Instrument without which we could not reap by the Scriptures perfection that fruit and benefit which it yieldeth The Word of God is a two-edged sword put in the hands of reasonable men and Reason as the weapon that flew Goliah if they be as David was that use it Touching the Apostles he which gave them from above such Power for miraculous confirmation of that which they taught endued them also with Wisdom from above to teach that which they so did confirm Our Saviour made choice of Twelve simple and unlearned Men that the greater their lack of Natural wisdom was the more admirable that might appear which God supernaturally endued them with from Heaven Such therefore as knew the poor and silly estate wherein they had lived could not but wonder to hear the Wisdom of their speech and be so much the more attentive unto their teaching They studied for no Tongue they spake withal of themselves they were rude and knew not so much as how to premeditate the Spirit gave them speech and cloquent utterance But because with St. Paul it was otherwise then with the rest in as much as he never conversed with Christ upon Earth as they did and his education had been scholastical altogether which theirs was not Hereby occasion was taken by certain Malignants secretly to undermine his great Authority in the Church of Christ as though the Gospel had been taught him by others then by Christ himself and as if the cause of the Gentiles conversion and belief through his means had been the learning and skill which he had by being conversant in their Books which thing made them so willing to hear him and him so able to perswade them whereas the rest of the Apostles prevailed because God was with them and by a miracle from Heaven confirmed his Word in their mouths They were mighty in deeds As for him being absent his Writings had some force in presence his Power not like unto theirs In sum concerning his Preaching their very by-word was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 addle speech empty talk His Writings full of great words but in the Power of miraculous Operations His presence not like the rest of the Apostles Hereupon it ariseth that St. Paul was so often driven to make his Apologies Hereupon it ariseth that whatsoever time he had spent in the study of Humane Learning he maketh earnest protestation to them of Corinth that the Gospel which he had preached amongst them did not by other means prevail with them then with others the same Gospel taught by the rest of the Apostles of Christ. My Preaching saith he hath not been in the perswasive speeches of Humane Wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of Power that your faith may not be in the wisdom of men but in the Power of God What is it which the Apostle doth here deny Is it denied that his speech amongst them had been perswasive No for of him the sacred History plainly restifieth that for the space of a year and a half he spake in their Synagogue every Sabbath and perswaded both Jews and Grecians How then is the speech of men made perswasive Surely there can be but two ways to bring this to pass the one Humane the other Divine Either St. Paul did onely by art and natural industry cause his own speech to be credited or else God by miracle did authorise it and so bring credit thereunto as to the speech of the rest of the Apostles Of which two the former he utterly denieth For why If the Preaching of the rest had been effectual by miracle his onely by force of his own learning so great inequality between him and the other Apostles in this thing had been enough to subvert their Faith For might they not with reason have thought that if he were sent of God as well as they God would not have furnished them and not him with the power of the Holy Ghost Might not a great part of them being simple haply have feared lest their assent had been cunningly gotten unto his doctrine rather through the weakness of their own wits then the certainty of that Truth which he had taught them How unequal had it been that all Believers through the Preaching of other Apostles should have their Faith strongly built upon the evidence of Gods own miraculous approbation and they whom he had converted should have their perswasion built onely upon his skill and wisdom who perswaded them As therefore calling from men may authorise us to teach although it could not authorise him to teach as other Apostles did So although the wisdom of man had not been sufficient to enable him such a Teacher as the rest of the Apostles were unless Gods miracles had strengthned both the one and the others Doctrine yet unto our ability both of teaching and learning the Truth of Christ as we are but meer Christian men it is not a little which the wisdom of man may add Sixthly Yea whatsoever our hearts be to God and to his Truth believe we or be we as yet faithless for our Conversion or Confirmation the force of Natural Reason is great The force whereof unto those effects is nothing without grace What then To our purpose it is sufficient that whosoever doth serve honor and obey God whosoever believeth in him that man would no more do this then innocents and infants do but for the Light of Natural Reason that shineth in him and maketh him apt to apprehend those things of God which being by grace discovered are effectual to perswade reasonable mindes and none other that honor obedience and credit belong aright unto God No man cometh unto God to offer him Sacrifice to pour out Supplications and Prayers before him or to do him any service which doth not first believe him both to be and to be a rewarder of them who in such sort seek unto him Let men be taught this either by Revelation from Heaven or by Instruction upon Earth by Labor Study and Meditation or by the onely secret Inspiration of the Holy Ghost whatsoever the mean be they know it by if the knowledge thereof were possible without discourse of Natural Reason why should none be found capable thereof but onely men nor men till such time as they come unto ripe and full ability to work by reasonable understanding The whole drift of the Scripture of God what is it but onely to teach Theology Theology what is it but the Science of things Divine What Science an be attained unto without the help of Natural Discourse and Reason Iudge you of that which I speak saith the Apostle In vain it were to speak any thing of God but that by Reason Men are able somewhat to judge of that they hear and by discourse to discern how consonant it is to Truth Scripture indeed teacheth things above Nature things which our Reason by
it self could not reach unto Yet those things also we believe knowing by Reason that the Scripture is the Word of God In the presence of Festus a Roman and of King Agrippa a Jew St. Paul omitting the one who neither knew the Jews Religion not the Books whereby they were taught it speaks unto the other of things foreshewed by Moses and the Prophets and performed in Jesus Christ intending thereby to prove himself so unjustly accused that unless his Judges did condemn both Moses and the Prophets him they could not chuse but acquit who taught onely that fulfilled which they so long since had foretold His cause was easie to be discerned what was done their eyes were witnesses what Moses and the Prophets did speak their Books could quickly shew It was no hard thing for him to compare them which knew the one and believed the other King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets I know thou dost The question is how the Books of the Prophets came to be credited of King Agrippa For what with him did authorise the Prophets the like with us doth cause the rest of the Scripture of God to be of credit Because we maintain That in Scripture we are taught all things necessary unto Salvation hereupon very childishly it is by some demanded What Scripture can teach us the Sacred Authority of the Scripture upon the knowledge whereof our whole Faith and Salvation dependeth As though there were any kinde of Science in the World which leadeth men unto knowledge without presupposing a number of things already known No Science doth make known the first Principles whereon it buildeth but they are always either taken as plain and manifest in themselves or as proved and granted already some former knowledge having made them evident Scripture teacheth all supernaturally revealed Truth without the knowledge whereof Salvation cannot be attained The main principal whereupon our belief of all things therein contained dependeth is That the Scriptures are the Oracles of God himself This in it self we cannot say is evident For then all men that hear it would acknowledge it in heart as they do when they hear that every whole is more then any part of that whole because this in it self is evident The other we know that all do not acknowledge when they hear it There must be therefore some former knowledge presupposed which doth herein assure the hearts of all Believers Scripture teacheth us that saving Truth which God hath discovered unto the World by Revelation and it presumeth us taught otherwise that it self is Divine and Sacred The question then being By what means we are taught this some answer That to learn it we have no other way then onely Tradition as namely that so we believe because both we from our Predecessors and they from theirs have so received But is this enough That which all mens experience teacheth them may not in any wise be denied And by experience we all know that the first outward Motive leading men so to esteem of the Scripture is the authority of Gods Church For when we know the whole Church of God hath that opinion of the Scripture we judge it even at the first an impudent thing for any man bred and brought up in the Church to be of a contrary minde without cause Afterwards the more we bestow our labor in reading or hearing the Mysteries thereof the more we finde that the thing it self doth answer our received opinion concerning it So that the former enducement prevailing somewhat with us before doth now much more prevail when the very thing hath Ministred further Reason If Infidels or Atheists chance at any time to call it in question this giveth us occasion to sift what reason there is whereby the testimony of the Church concerning Scripture and our own perswasion which Scripture it self hath confirmed may be proved a truth infallible In which case the ancient Fathers being often constrained to shew what warrant they had so much to relie upon the Scriptures endeavored still to maintain the authority of the Books of God by Arguments such as unbelievers themselves must needs think reasonable if they judged thereof as they should Neither is it a thing impossible or greatly heard even by such kinde of proofs so to manifest and clear that point that no man living shall be able to deny it without denying some apparent Principle such as all men acknowledge to be true Wherefore if I believe the Gospel yet is reason of singular use for that it confirmeth me in this my belief the more If I do not as yet believe nevertheless to bring me into the number of Believers except Reason did somewhat help and were an Instrument which God doth use unto such purposes what should it boot to dispute with Infidels or godless persons for their conversion and perswasion in that point Neither can I think that when grave and learned men do sometime hold that of this Principle there is no proof but by the testimony of the Spirit which assureth our hearts therein it is their meaning to exclude utterly all force which any kinde of Reason may have in that behalf but I rather incline to interpret such their speeches as if they had more expresly set down that other motives and enducements be they never so strong and consonant unto Reason are notwithstanding ineffectual of themselves to work Faith concerning this Principle if the special Grace of the Holy Ghost concur not to the enlightning of our mindes For otherwise I doubt not but men of wisdom and judgment will grant That the Church in this point especially is furnished with Reason to stop the mouths of her impious Adversaries and that as it were altogether bootless to alledge against them what the Spirit hath taught us so likewise that even to our own selves it needeth Caution and Explication how the testimony of the Spirit may be discerned by what means it may be known lest men think that the Spirit of God doth testifie those things which the spirit of error suggesteth The operations of the Spirit especially these ordinary which be common unto all true Christian men are as we know things secret and undiscernable even to the very soul where they are because their nature is of another and an higher kinde then that they can be by us perceived in this life Wherefore albeit the Spirit lead us into all truth and direct us in all goodness yet because these workings of the Spirit in us are so privy and secret we theresore stand on a plainer ground when we gather by Reason from the quality of things believed or done that the Spirit of God hath directed us in both then if we settle our selves to believe or to do any certain particular thing as being moved thereto by the Spirit But of this enough To go from the Books of Scripture to the sense and meaning thereof because the Sentences which are by the Apostles recited out of the Psalms to prove