acknowledge that as well for particular application to special occasions as also in other manifold respects infinite Treasures of Wisdom are over and besides abundantly to be found in the holy Scripture yea that scarcely there is any noble part of knowledge worthy the minde of man but from thence it may have some direction and light yea that although there be no necessity it should of purpose prescribe any one particular form of Church-Government yet touching the manner of governing in general the Precepts that Scripture setteth down are not few and the examples many which it proposeth for all Church-Governors even in particularities to follow yea that those things finally which are of principal weight in the very particular Form of Church-Polity although not that Form which they imagine but that which we against them uphold are in the self-same Scriptures contained If all this be willingly granted by us which are accused to pin the Word of God in so narrow room as that it should be able to direct us but in principal points of our Religion or as though the substance of Religion or some rude and unfashioned matter of building the Church were uttered in them and those things left out that should pertain to the form and fashion of it Let the cause of the Accused be referred to the Accusers own conscience and let that judge whether this accusation be deserved where it hath been laid 5. But so easie it is for every man living to err and so hard to wrest from any mans mouth the plain acknowledgment of Error that what hath been once inconsiderately defended the same is commonly persisted in as long as wit by whetting it self is able to finde out any shift be it never so sleight whereby to escape out of the hands of present contradiction So that it cometh herein to pass with men unadvisedly faln into Error as with them whose state hath no ground to uphold it but onely the help which by subtil conveyance they draw out of casual events arising from day to day till at length they be clean spent They which first gave out That nothing ought to be established in the Church which is not commanded by the Word of God thought this principle plainly warranted by the manifest words of the Law Ye shall put nothing unto the Word which I command you neither shall ye take ought therefrom that ye may keep the Commandments of the Lord your God which I command you Wherefore having an eye to a number of Rites and Orders in the Church of England as marrying with a Ring Crossing in the one Sacrament Kneeling at the other observing of Festival days more then onely that which is called the Lords day enjoyning Abstinence at certain times from some kindes of Meat Churching of Women after Childe-birth Degrees taken by Divines in Universities sundry Church Offices Dignities and Callings for which they found no Commandment in the holy Scripture they thought by the one onely stroke of that Axiom to have cut them off But that which they took for an Oracle being sifted was repeal'd True it is concerning the Word of God whether it be by misconstruction of the sense or by falsification of the words wittingly to endeavor that any thing may seem Divine which is not or any thing not seem which is were plainly to abuse and even to falsifie Divine Evidence which injury offered but unto men is most worthily counted heinous Which point I wish they did well observe with whom nothing is more familiar then to plead in these causes The Law of God the Word of the Lord Who notwithstanding when they come to alledge what Word and what Law they mean their common ordinary practice is to quote by-speeches in some Historical Narration or other and to urge them as if they were written in most exact form of Law What is to add to the Law of God if this be not When that which the Word of God doth but deliver Historically we construe without any warrant as if it were legally meant and so urge it further then we can prove that it was intended do we not add to the Laws of God and make them in number seem more then they are It standeth us upon to be careful in this case For the sentence of God is heavy against them that wittingly shall presume thus to use the Scripture 6. But let that which they do hereby intend be granted them let it once stand as consonant to Reason That because we are forbidden to add to the Law of God any thing or to take ought from it therefore we may not for matters of the Church make any Law more then is already set down in Scripture Who seeth not what sentence it shall enforce us to give against all Churches in the World in as much as there is not one but hath had many things established in it which though the Scripture did never command yet for us to condemn were rashness Let the Church of God even in the time of our Saviour Christ serve for example unto all the rest In their Domestical celebration of the Passover which Supper they divided as it were into two courses what Scripture did give commandment that between the first and the second he that was chief should put off the residue of his Garments and keeping on his Feast-robe onely wash the feet of them that were with him What Scripture did command them never to lift up their hands unwashe in Prayer unto God which custom Aristaus be the credit of the Author more or less sheweth wherefore they did so religiously observe What Scripture did command the Jews every Festival day to fast till the sixth hour The custom both mentioned by Iosephus in the History of his own life and by the words of Peter signified Tedious it were to rip up all such things as were in that Church established yea by Christ himself and by his Apostles observed though not commanded any where in Scripture 7. Well yet a gloss there is to colour that Paradox and notwithstanding all this still to make it appear in shew not to be altogether unreasonable And therefore till further reply come the cause is held by a feeble distinction that the Commandments of God being either general or special although there be no express word for every thing in specialty yet there are general Commandments for all things to the end that even such cases as are not in Scripture particularly mentioned might not be left to any to order at their pleasure onely with Caution That nothing be done against the Word of God and that for this cause the Apostle hath set down in Scripture four general Rules requiring such things alone to be received in the Church as do best and nearest agree with the same Rules that so all things in the Church may be appointed not onely not against but by and according to the Word of God The Rules are these Nothing scandalous
and the Church of Christ in this present World 57. The necessity of Sacrament unto the Participation of Christ. 58. The Substance of Baptism the Rites or Solemnities thereunto belonging and that the Substance thereof being kept other things in Baptism may give place to necessity 59. The Ground in Scripture whereupon a necessity of outward Baptism hath been built 60. What kinde of necessity in outward Baptism hath been gathered by the words of our Saviour Christ and what the true necessity thereof indeed is 61. What things in Baptism have been dispensed with by the Father respecting necessity 62. Whether Baptism by Women be true Baptism good and affected to them that receive it 63. Of Interrogatories in Baptism touching Faith and the purpose of a Christian life 64. Interrogatories proposed unto Infants in Baptism and answered aâ— in their names by God-fathers 65. Of the Cross in Baptism 66. Of Confirmation after Baptism 67. Of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. 68. Of faults noted in the Form of Administring that holy Sacrament 69. Of Festival days and the natural ceases of their convenient Institution 70. The manner of celebrating Festival days 71. Exceptious against our keeping of other Festival days besides the Sabbath 72. Of Days appointed as well for ordinary as for extraordinary Fasts in the Church of God 73. The Celebration of Matrimony 74. The Churching of Woman 75. The Rites of Burial 76. Of the Nature of that Ministry which serveth for performance of Divine Duties in the Church of God and how happiness not eternal onely but also Temporal doth depend upon it 77. Of Power given unto Men to execute that Heavenly Office of the Gift of the Holy Ghost is Ordination and whether conveniently the Power of Order may be sought or sued for 78. Of Degrees whereby the Power of Order is distinguished and concerning the Attire of Ministers 79. Of Oblations Foundations Endowments Tithes all intended for Perpetuity of Religion which purpose being chiefly fulfilled by the Clergâ—es certain and sufficient maintenance must needs by Alienation of Church-Livings be made frustrate 80. Of Ordinatious lawful without Title and without any Popular Election precedent but in no case without regard of due Information what their quality is that enter into holy Orders 81. Of the Learning that should be in Ministers their Residence and the number of their Livings FEw there are of so weak capacity but publick evils they easily espie fewer so patient as not to complain when the grievous inconveniences thereof work sensible smart Howbeit to see wherein the harm which they feel consisteth the Seeds from which it sprang and the method of curing it belongeth to a skill the study whereof is so full of toyl and the practise so beset with difficulties that wary and respective men had rather seek quietly their own and wish that the World may go well so it be not long of them them with pain and hazard make themselves advisers for the common good We which thought it at the very first a sign of cold Affection towards the Church of God to prefer private case before the labor of appeasing publick disturbance must now of necessity refer events to the gracious providence of Almighty God and in discharge of our duty towards him proceed with the plain and unpartial defence of a Common Cause Wherein our endeavor is not so much to overthrow them with whom we conted as to yield them just and reasonable causes of those things which for want of due consideration heretofore they misconceived accusing Laws for Mens over-sights importing evils grown through personal defects unto that which is not evil framing unto some Sores unwholsome Plaisters and applying othersome where no sore is To make therefore our beginning that which to both parts is most acceptable We agree That pure and unstained Religion ought to be the highest of all cares appertaining to Publick Regiment as well in regard of that aid and protection which they who faithfully serve God confess they receive at his merciful hands as also for the force which Religion hath to qualifie all sorts of Men and to make them in publick affairs the more serviceable Governors the apter to rule with Conscience Inferiors for Conscience sake the willinger to obey It is no peculiar conceit but a matter of sound consequence that all duties are by so much the better performed by how much the Men are more Religious from whose Abilities the same proceed For if the course of Politick affairs cannot in any good sort go forward without fit Instruments and that which sitteth them be their Vertues Let Polity acknowledge it self indebted to Religion Godliness being the chiefest top and Well-spring of all true vertues even as God is of all good things So natural is the Union of Religion with Justice that we may boldly deem there is neither where both are not For how should they be unseignedly just whom Religion doth not cause to be such or they Religious which are not found such by the proof of their just actions If they which employ their labor and travel about the publick administration of Justice follow it onely as a trade with unquenchable and unconscionable thirst of gain being not in heart perswaded that Justice is Gods own Work and themselves his Agents in this business the Sentence of Right Gods own verdict and themselves his Priests to deliver it Formalities of Justice do but serve to smother right and that which was necessarily ordained for the common good is through shameful abuse made the cause of common misery The same Piety which maketh them that are in authority desirous to please and resemble God by Justice inflameth every way Men of action with Zeal to do good as far as their place will permit unto all For that they know is most Noble and Divine Whereby if no natural nor casual inability cross their desires they always delighting to inure themselves with actions most beneficial to others cannot but gather great experience and through experience the more wisdom because Conscience and the fear of swerving from that which is right maketh them diligent observers of circumstances the loose regard whereof is the Nurse of Vulgar Folly no less then Solomons attention thereunto was of natural furtherances the most effectual to make him eminent above others For he gave good heed and pierced every thing to the very ground and by that means became the Author of many Parables Concerning Fortitude sith evils great and unexpected the true touchstone of constant mindes do cause oftentimes even them to think upon Divine power with fearfullest suspitions which have been otherwise the most secure despisers thereof how should we look for any constant resolution of minde in such cases saving onely where unfeigned affection to God-ward hath bred the most assured confidence to be assisted by his hand For proof whereof let but the Acts of the ancient Jews be indifferently
understanding than Cloudy mists cast before the eye of Common sense They that walk in darkness know not whither they go And even as little is their certainty whose opinions Generalities only do guide With gross and popular Capacities nothing doth more prevail than unlimited Generalities because of their plainness at the first fights nothing less with men of Exact Judgment because such Rules are not safe to be trusted over-farr General Laws are like general Rules of Physick according whereunto as no Wise man will desire himself to be cured if there be joyned with his Disease some special Accident in regard whereof that whereby others in the same Insirmity but without the like Accident recover health would be to him either hurtful or at the least unprofitable So we must not under a colourable commendation of holy Ordinances in the Church and of reasonable causes whereupon they have been grounded for the Common good imagine that all men's cases ought to have one measure Not without singular wisdom therefore it hath been provided That as the ordinary course of Common affairs is disposed of by General Laws so likewise mens rarer incident Necessities and utilities should be with special equity considered From hence it is that so many Priviledges Immunities Exceptions and Dispensations have been always with great equity and reason granted not to turn the edge of Justice not to make void at certain times and in certain men through meer voluntary grace or benevolence that which continually and universally should be of force as some men understand it but in very truth to practise General Laws according to their right meaning We see in Contracts and other dealings which daily pass between man and man that to the utter undoing of some many things by strictness of Law may be done which equity and honest meaning forbiddeth Not that the Law is unjust but unperfect nor Equity against but above the Law binding mens Consciences in things which Law cannot reach unto Will any man say That the vertue of private Equity is opposite and repugnant to that Law the silence whereof it supplieth in all such private Dealing No more is publick Equity against the Law of publick Affaires albeit the one permit unto some in special Considerations that which the other agreeably with general Rules of Justice doth in general sort forbid For sith all good Laws are the Voyces of right Reason which is the Instrument wherewith God will have the World guided and impossible it is that Right should withstand Right it must follow that Principles and Rules of Justice be they never so generally uttered do no less effectually intend then if they did plainly express an Exception of all Particulars wherein their literal Practise might any way prejudice Equity And because it is natural unto all men to wish their own extraordinary Benefit when they think they have reasonable Inducements so to do and no man can be presumed a competent Judge what Equity doth require in his own Case the likeliest Mean whereby the wit of man can provide that he which useth the benefit of any special benignity above the common course of others may enjoy it with good Conscience and not against the true purpose of Laws which in outward shew are contrary must needs be to arm with Authority some fit both for Quality and Place to administer that which in every such particular shall appear agreeable with Equity wherein as it cannot be denyed but that sometimes the practise of such Jurisdiction may swarve through errour even into the very best and for other respects where less Integrity is So the watchfullest Observers of Inconveniences that way growing and the readiest to urge them in disgrace of authorized Proceedings do very well know that the disposition of these things resteth not now in the hands of Popes who live in no Worldly awe or subjection but is committed to them whom Law may at all times bridle and Superiour power controll yea to them also in such sort that Law it self hath set down to what Persons in what Causes with what Circumstances almost every faculty or favour shall be granted leaving in a manner nothing unto them more than only to deliver what is already given by Law Which maketh it by many degrees less reasonable that under pretence of inconveniences so easily stopped if any did grow and so well prevented that none may men should be altogether barred of the liberty that Law with equity and reason granteth These things therefore considered we lastly require That it may not seem hard if in Cases of Necessity or for Common utilities sake certain profitable Ordinances sometimes be released rather than all men always strictly bound to the general rigor thereof 10. Now where the Word of God leaveth the Church to make choyce of her own Ordinances if against those things which have been received with great reason or against that which the Antient practise of the Church hath continued time out of mind or against such Ordinances as the Power and Authority of that Church under which we live hath in it self devised for the Publick good or against the discretion of the Church in mitigating sometimes with favourable Equity that rigour which otherwise the literal generality of Ecclesiastical Laws hath judged to be more convenient and meet if against all this it should be free for men to reprove to disgrace to reject at their own liberty what they see done and practised according to Order set down if in so great varietie of ways as the wit of man is easily able to finde out towards any purpose and in so great liking as all men especially have unto those Inventions whereby some one shall seem to have been more inlightned from above than many thousands the Church did give every man licence to follow what himself imagineth that Gods Spirit doth reveal unto him or what he supposeth that God is likely to have revealed to some special Person whose Vertues deserve to be highly esteemed What other effect could hereupon ensue but the utter confusion of his Church under pretence of being taught led and guided by his Spirit the gifts and graces whereof do so naturally all tend unto Common peace that where such singularity is they whose Hearts it possesseth ought to suspect it the more in as much as if it did come of God and should for that cause prevail with others the same God which revealeth it to them would also give them power of confirming it unto others either with miraculous operation or with strong and invincible remonstrance of sound Reason such as whereby it might appear that God would indeed have all mens Judgments give place unto it whereas now the errour and unsufficience of their Arguments doth make it on the contrary side against them a strong presumption that God hath not moved their hearts to think such things as he hath not enabled them to prove And so from Rules of general Direction it resteth that now we
in this case ye are all bound for the time to suspend and in otherwise doing ye offend against God by troubling his Church without any just or necessary cause Be it that there are some reasons inducing you to think hardly of our Laws Are those reasons demonstrative are they necessary or but meer probabilities onely An Argument necessary and demonstrative is such as being proposed unto any man and understood she minde cannot chase but invardly assent Any one such reason dischargeth I grant the Gonscience and setteth it at full liberty For the publick approbation given by the Body of this whole Church unto those things which are established doth make it but probable that they are good And therefore unto a necessary proofe that they are not good it must give place But if the skilfullest amongst you can shew that all the Books ye have hitherto written be able to afford any one argument of this nature let the instance be given As for probabilities What thing was there ever set down so agreeable with sound reason but some probable shew against it might be made It is meet that when publickly things are received and have taken place General Obedience thereunto should cease to be exacted in case this or that private person led with some probable conceit should make open Protostation Peter or John disallow them and pronounce them naught In which case your answer will be That concerning the Laws of our Church they are not onely condemned in the opinion of a private man but of thousands year and even of those amongst which divers are in publick charge and authority At though when publick consent of the whole hath established any thing every mans judgment being thereunto compared were not private howsoever his calling be to some kinde of publick charge So that of Peace and Quietness there is not any way possible unless the probable voice of every intire Society or Body Politick over-rule all private of like nature in the same Body Which thing effectually proveth That God being Author of Peace and not of Confusion in the Church must needs be Author of those mens peaceable resolutions who concerning these things have determined with themselves to think and do as the Church they are of decreeth till they see necessary cause enforcing them to the contrary 7. Nor is mine own intent any other in these several Books of discourse then to make it appear unto you that for the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Land we are led by great reason to observe them and ye by no necessity bound to impugne them It is no part of my secret meaning to draw you hereby into hatred or to set upon the face of this cause any fairer gloss then the naked truth doth afford but my whole endeavor is to resolve the Conscience and to shew as near as I can what in this Controversie the Heart is to think if it will follow the light of sound and sincere judgment without either cloud of prejudice or mist of passionate affection Wherefore seeing that Laws and Ordinances in particular whether such as we observe or such as your selves would have established when the minde doth sift and examine them it must needs have often recourse to a number of doubts and questions about the nature kindes and qualities of Laws in general whereof unless it be throughly informed there will appear no certainty to stay our perswasion upon I have for that cause set down in the first place an Introduction on both sides needful to be considered declaring therein what Law is how different kindes of Laws there are and what force they are of according unto each kinde This done because ye suppose the Laws for which ye strive are found in Scripture but those not against which we strive And upon this surmise are drawn to hold it as the very main Pillar of your whole cause That Scripture ought to be the onely rule of all our actions and consequently that the Church Orders which we observe being not commanded in Scripture are offensive and displeasant unto God I have spent the second Book in sifting of this point which standeth with you for the first and chiefest principle whereon ye build Whereunto the next in degree is That as God will have always a Church upon Earth while the World doth continue and that Church stand in need of Government of which Government it behoveth himself to be both the Author and Teacher So it cannot stand with duty That man should ever presume in any wise to change and alter the same and therefore That in Scripture there must of necessity be found some particular Form of Ecclesiastical Polity the Laws whereof admit not any kinde of alteration The first three Books being thus ended the fourth proceedeth from the general Grounds and Foundations of your cause unto your general Accusations against us as having in the orders of our Church for so you pretend Corrupted the right Form of Church Polity with manifold Popish Rites and Ceremonies which certain Reformed Churches have banished from amongst them and have thereby given us such example as you think we ought to follow This your Assertion hath herein drawn us to make search whether these be just Exceptions against the Customs of our Church when ye plead that they are the same which the Church of Rome hath or that they are not the same which some other Reformed Churches have devised Of those four Books which remain and are bestowed about the Specialties of that Cause which little in Controversie the first examineth the causes by you alledged wherefore the publick duties of Christian Religion as our Prayers our Sacraments and the rest should not be ordered in such sort as with us they are nor that power whereby the persons of men are consecrated unto the Ministry be disposed of in such manner as the Laws of this Church do allow The second and third are concerning the power of Iurisdiction the one Whether Laymen such as your Governing Elders are ought in all Congregations for ever to be invested with that power The other Whether Bishops may have that power over other Pastors and therewithal that honor which with us they have And because besides the Power of Order which all consecrated persons have and the Power of Iurisdiction which neither they all nor they onely have There is a third power a Power of Ecclesiastical Dominion communicable as we think unto persons not Ecclesiastical and most fit to be restrained unto the Prince our Soveraign Commander over the whole Body Politick The eighth Book we have allotted unto this Question and have sifted therein your Objections against those preeminences Royal which thereunto appertain Thus have I laid before you the Brief of these my Travels and presented under your view the Limbs of that Cause litigious between us the whole intire Body whereof being thus compact it shall be no troublesome thing for any man to finde each particular Controversies resting place
my Commandments always that it might go well with them and with their Children for ever Go say unto them Return you to your Tents But stand thou here with me and I will tell thee all the Commandments and the Ordinances and the Laws which thou shalt teach them that they may do them in the Land which I have given them to possess From this latter kinde the former are plainly distinguished in many things They were not both at one time delivered neither both after one sort nor to one end The former uttered by the voice of God himself in the hearing of Six hundred thousand men the former written with the Finger of God the former termed by the name of a Covenant the former given to be kept without either mention of time how long or of place where On the other side the latter given after and neither written by God himself nor given unto the whole multitude immediately from God but unto Moses and from him to them both by word and writing Finally The latter termed Ceremonies Judgments Ordinances but no where Covenants The observation of the latter restrained unto the Land where God would establish them to inhabite The Laws Positive are not framed without regard had to the place and persons for the which they are made If therefore Almighty God in framing their Laws had an eye unto the nature of that people and to the Countrey where they were to dwell if these peculiar and proper considerations were respected in the making of their Laws and must be also regarded in the Positive Laws of all other Nations besides then seeing that Nations are not all alike surely the giving of one kinde of Positive Laws unto one onely people without any liberty to alter them is but a slender proof that therefore one kinde should in like sort be given to serve everlastingly for all But that which most of all maketh for the clearing of this point is That the Jews who had Laws so particularly determining and so fully instructing them in all affairs what to do were notwithstanding continually inured with causes exorbitant and such as their Laws had not provided for And in this point much more is granted us then we ask namely that for one thing which we have left to the Order of the Church they had twenty which were undecided by the express Word of God and that as their Ceremonies and Sacraments were multiplied above ours even so grew the number of those cases which were not determined by any express word So that if we may devise one Law they by this reason might devise twenty and if their devising so many were not forbidden shall their example prove us forbidden to devise as much as one Law for the ordering of the Church We might not devise no not one if their example did prove that our Saviour hath utterly forbidden all alteration of his Laws in as much as there can be no Law devised but needs it must either take away from his or add thereunto more or less and so make some kinde of alteration But of this so large a grant we are content not to take advantage Men are oftentimes in a sudden passion more liberal then they would be if they had leisure to take advice And therefore so bountiful words of course and frank speeches we are contented to let pass without turning them to advantage with too much rigor It may be they had rather be listned unto when they commend the Kings of Israel which attempted nothing in the Government of the Church without the express Word of God and when they urge that God left nothing in his Word undescribed whether it concerned the Worship of God or outward Polity nothing unset down and therefore charged them strictly to keep themselves unto that without any alteration Howbeit seeing it cannot be denied but that many things there did belong unto the course of their Publick Affairs wherein they had no express word at all to shew precisely what they should do the difference between their condition and ours in these cases will bring some light unto the truth of this present Controversie Before the fact of the son of Shelomith there was no Law which did appoint any certain punishment for Blasphemers That wretched creature being therefore deprehended in that impiety was held in Ward till the minde of the Lord was known concerning his case The like practice is also mentioned upon occasion of a breach of the Sabbath day They finde a poor silly creature gathering sticks in the Wilderness they bring him unto Moses and Aaron and all the Congregation they lay him in hold because it was not declared what should be done with him till God had said unto Moses This man shall die the death The Law requireth to keep the Sabbath day but for the breach of the Sabbath what punishment should be inflicted it did not appoint Such occasions as these are rare And for such things as do fall scarce once in many ages of men it did suffice to take such order as was requisite when they fell But if the case were such as being not already determined by Law were notwithstanding likely oftentimes to come into question it gave occasion of adding Laws that were not before Thus it fell out in the case of those men polluted and of the daughters of Zelophehad whose causes Moses having brought before the Lord received Laws to serve for the like in time to come The Jews to this end had the Oracle of God they had the Prophets And by such means God himself instructed them from Heaven what to do in all things that did greatly concern their state and were not already set down in the Law Shall we then hereupon argue even against our own experience and knowledge Shall we seek to perswade men that of necessity it is with us as it was with them that because God is ours in all respects as much as theirs therefore either no such way of direction hath been at any time or if it hath been it doth still continue in the Church or if the same do not continue that yet it must be at the least supplied by some such mean as pleaseth us to account of equal force A more dutiful and religious way for us were to admire the Wisdom of God which shineth in the beautiful variety of all things But most in the manifold and yet harmonious dissimilitude of those ways whereby his Church upon Earth is guided from age to age throughout all Generations of Men. The Jews were necessarily to continue till the coming of Christ in the flesh and the gathering of Nations unto him So much the Promise made unto Abraham did import So much the Prophesie of Iacob at the hour of his death did foreshew Upon the safety therefore of their very outward state and condition for so long the after good of the whole World and the Salvation of all did depend Unto their so
the Sacred Authority of Scriptures ever sithence the first publication thereof even till this present day and hour And that they all have always so testified I see not how we should possibly wish a proof more palpable than this manifest received and every where continued Custom of Reading them publickly as the Scriptures The Reading therefore of the Word of God as the use hath ever been in open Audience is the plainest evidence we have of the Churches assent and acknowledgement that it is his Word 3. A further commodity this Custom hath which is to furnish the very simplest and rudest sort with such infallible Axioms and Precepts of Sacred Truth delivered even in the very letter of the Law of God as may serve them for Rules whereby to judge the better all other Doctrins and Instructions which they hear For which end and purpose I see not how the Scripture could be possibly made familiar unto all unless far more should be read in the Peoples hearing than by a Sermon can be opened For whereas in a manner the whole Book of God is by reading every year published a small part thereof in comparison of the whole may hold very well the readiest Interpreter of Scripture occupied many years 4. Besides wherefore should any man think but that Reading it self is one of the ordinary means whereby it pleaseth God of his gracious goodness to instill that Celestial Verity which being but so received is nevertheless effectual to save Souls Thus much therefore we ascribe to the Reading of the Word of God as the manner is in our Churches And because it were odious if they on their part should altogether despise the same they yield that Reading may set forward but not begin the work of Salvation That Faith may be nourished therewith but not bred That herein mens attention to the Scriptures and their speculation of the Creatures of God have like efficacy both being of power to augment but neither to effect Belief without Sermons That if any believe by Reading alone we are to account it a miracle an extraordinary work of God Wherein that which they grant we gladly accept at their hands and with that patiently they would examine how little cause they have to deny that which as yet they grant not The Scripture witnesseth that when the Book of the Law of God had been sometime missing and was after found the King which heard it but only read tare his Cloaths and with tears confessed Great is the wrath of the Lord upon us because our Fathers have notâ— kept his Word to do after all things which are written in this Book This doth argue that by bare reading for of Sermons at that time there is no mention true Repentance may be wrought in the hearts of such as fear God and yet incurr his displeasure the deserved effect whereof is Eternal death So that their Repentance although it be not their first entrance is notwithstanding the first step of their re-entrance into Life and may be in them wrought by the Word only read unto them Besides it seemeth that God would have no man stand in doubt but that the reading of Scripture is effectual as well to lay even the first foundation as to adde degrees of farther perfection in the fear of God And therefore the Law saith Thou shalt read this Law before all Israel that Men Women and Children may hear yea even that their Children which as yet have not known it may hear it and by hearing it so read may learn to fear the Lord. Our Lord and Saviour was himself of opinion That they which would not be drawn to amendment of Life by the Testimony which Moses and the Prophets have given concerning the miseries that follow Sinners after death were not likely to be perswaded by other means although God from the very Dead should have raised them up Preachers Many hear the Books of God and believe them not Howbeit their unbelief in that case we may not impute unto any weakness or insufficiency in the mean which is used towards them but to the wilful bent of their obstinate hearts against it With mindes obdurate nothing prevaileth As well they that preach as they that read unto such shall still have cause to complain with the Prophets which were of old Who will give credit unto our Teaching But with whom ordinary means will prevail surely the power of the World of God even without the help of Interpreters in God's Church worketh mightily not unto their confirmation alone which are converted but also to their conversion which are not It shall not boot them who derogate from reading to excuse it when they see no other remedy as if their intent were only to deny that Aliens and Strangers from the Family of God are won or that Belief doth use to be wrought at the first in them without Sermons For they know it is our Custom of simple Reading not for conversion of Infidels estranged from the House of God but for instruction of Men baptised bred and brought up in the bosom of the Church which they despise as a thing uneffectual to save such Souls In such they imagine that God hath no ordinary mean to work Faith without Sermons The reason why no man can attain Belief by the bare contemplation of Heaven and Earth is for that they neither are sufficient to give us as much as the least spark of Light concerning the very principal Mysteries of our Faith and whatsoever we may learn by them the same we can only attain to know according to the manner of natural Sciences which meer discourse of Wit and Reason findeth out whereas the things which we properly believe be only such as are received upon the credit of Divine Testimony Seeing therefore that he which considereth the Creatures of God findeth therein both these defects and neither the one nor the other in Scriptures because he that readeth unto us the Scriptures delivereth all the Mysteries of Faith and not any thing amongst them all more than the mouth of the Lord doth warrant It followeth in those own respects that our consideration of Creatures and attention unto Scriptures are not in themselves and without-Sermons things of like disability to breed or beget Faith Small cause also there is why any man should greatly wonder as at an extraordinary work if without Sermons Reading be sound to effect thus much For I would know by some special instance what one Article of Christian Faith or what duty required unto all mens Salvation there is which the very reading of the Word of God is not apt to notifie Effects are miraculous and strange when they grow by unlikely means But did we ever hear it accounted for a Wonder that he which doth read should believe and live according to the will of Almighty God Reading doth convey to the Minde that Truth without addition or diminution which Scripture hath derived from
man doubt how God should accept such Prayers in case they be opposite to his Will or not grant them if they be according unto that which himself willeth our answer is That such suits God accepteth in that they are conformable unto his general inclination which is that all men might be saved yet always he granteth them not for as much as there is in God sometimes a more private occasioned will which determineth the contrary So that the other being the rule of our actions and not this our requests for things opposite to this Will of God are not therefore the less gracious in his sight There is no doubt but we ought in all things to frame our wills to the Will of God and that otherwise in whatsoever we do we sin For of our selves being so apt to err the onely way which we have to streighten our paths is by following the rule of his Will whose footsteps naturally are right If the eye the hand or the foot do that which the will commandeth though they serve as instruments to sin yet is sin the commanders fault and not theirs because Nature hath absolutely and without exception made them subjects to the will of man which is Lord over them As the body is subject to the will of man so mans will to the Will of God for so it behoveth that the better should guide and command the worse But because the subjection of the body to the will is by natural necessity the subjection of the Will unto God voluntary we therefore stand in need of direction after what sort our wills and desires may be rightly conformed to his Which is not done by willing always the self-same thing that God intendeth For it may chance that his purpose is sometime the speedy death of them whose long continuance in life if we should not wish we were unnatural When the object or matter therefore of our desires is as in this case a thing both good of it self and not forbidden of God when the end for which we desire it is vertuous and apparently most holy when the root from which our affection towards it proceedeth is Charity Piety that which we do in declaring our desire by Prayer yea over and besides all this sith we know that to pray for all men living is but to shew the same affection which towards every of them our Lord Jesus Christ hath born who knowing onely as God who are his did as Man taste death for the good of all men surely to that Will of God which ought to be and is the known rule of all our actions we do not herein oppose our selves although his secret determination haply be against us which if we did understand as we do not yet to rest contented with that which God will have done is as much as he requireth at the hands of men And concerning our selves what we earnestly crave in this case the same as all things else that are of like condition we meekly submit unto his most gracious will and pleasure Finally as we have cause sufficient why to think the practice of our Church allowable in this behalf so neither is ours the first which hath been of that minde For to end with the words of Prosper This Law of Supplication for all Men saith he the devout zeal of all Priests and of all faithful Men doth hold with such full Agreement that there is not any part of all the World where Christian people do not use to pray in the same manner The Church every where maketh Prayers unto God not onely for Saints and such as already in Christ are regenerate but for all Infidels and Enemies of the Cross of Iesus Christ for all Idolaters for all that persecute Christ in his followers for Iews to whose blindness the Light of the Gospel doth not yet shine for Hereticks and Schismaticks who from the Unity of Faith and Charity are estranged And for such what doth the Church ask of God but this That leaving their Errors they may be converted unto him that Faith and Charity may be given them and that out of the darkness of ignorance they may come to the knowledge of his truth Which because they cannot themselves do in their own behalf as long as the sway of evil custom ever-beareth them and the chains of Satan detain them bound neither are they able to break through those Errors wherein they are so determinately setled that they pay unto falsity the whole sum of whatsoever love is owing unto Gods Truth Our Lord merciful and just requireth to have all men prayed for that when we behold innumerable multitudes drawn up from the depth of so bottomless evils we may not doubt but in part God hath done the thing we requested nor despair but that being thankful for them towards whom already he hath shewed mercy the rest which are not as yet enlightned shall before they pass out of life be made partakers of the like grace Or if the Grace of him which saveth for so we set is falleth out over-pass some so that the Prayer of the Church for them be not received this we may leave to the hidden Iudgments of Gods Righteousness and acknowledge that in this Secret there is a Gulf which whole we live we shall never sound 50. Instruction and Prayer whereof we have hitherto spoken are duties which serve as Elements Parts or Principles to the rest that follow in which number the Sacraments of the Church are chief The Church is to us that very Mother of our New Birth in whose Bowels we are all bred at whose Brests we receive nourishment As many therefore as are apparently to our judgment born of God they have the Seed of their Regeneration by the Ministery of the Church which useth to that end and purpose not onely the Word but the Sacrament both having Generative force and vertue As oft as we mention a Sacrament properly understood for in the Writings of the Ancient Fathers all Articles which are peculiar to Christian Faith all Duties of Religion containing that which Sense or Natural Reason cannot of it self discern are most commonly named Sacraments our restraint of the Word to some few principal Divine Ceremonies importeth in every such Ceremony two things the Substance of the Ceremony it self which is visible and besides that somewhat else more secret in reference whereunto we conceive that Ceremony to be a Sacrament For we all admire and honor the holy Sacraments not respecting so much the Service which we do unto God in receiving them as the dignity of that Sacred and Secret Gift which we thereby receive from God Seeing that Sacraments therefore consist altogether in relation to some such Gift or Grace Supernatural as onely God can bestow how should any but the Church administer those Ceremonies as Sacraments which are not thought to be Sacraments by any but by the Church There is in Sacraments to be observed their Force and
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
seeketh rather proportion then absolute perfection of goodness So that Woman being created for mans sake to be his Helper in regard of the end before mentioned namely the having and bringing up of Children whereunto it was not possible they could concur unless there were subalternation between them which subalternation is naturally grounded upon inequality because things equall in every respect are never willingly directed one by another Woman therefore was even in her first estate framed by Nature not only after in time but inferiour in excellency also unto Man howbeit in so due and sweet proportion as being presented before our eyes might be sooner perceived then defined And even herein doth lie the Reason why that kind of love which is the perfectest ground of Wedlock is seldome able to yield any reason of it self Now that which is born of Man must be nourished with far more travel as being of greater price in Nature and of slower pace to perfection then the Off-spring of any other Creature besides Man and Woman being therefore to joyn themselves for such a purpose they were of necessity to be linked with some straight and insoluble knot The bond of Wedlock hath been always more or less esteemed of as a thing Religious and Sacred The Title which the very Heathens themselves do thereunto oftentimes give is Holy Those Rites and Orders which were instituted in the Solemnization of Marriage the Hebrews term by the Name of Conjugal Sanctification Amongst our selves because sundry things appertaining unto the Publick Order of Matrimony are called in Question by such as know not from whence those Customs did first grow to shew briefly some true and sufficient Reason of them shall not be superfluous although we do not hereby intend to yield so far unto Enemies of all Church-Orders saving their own as though every thing were unlawful the true Cause and Reason whereof at the first might hardly perhaps be now rendred Wherefore to begin with the times wherein the liberty of Marriage is restrained There is saith Solomon a time for all things a time to laugh and a time to mourn That duties belonging unto Marriage and Offices appertaining to Pennance are things unsuitable and unfit to be matched together the Prophets and Apostles themselves do witness Upon which ground as we might right well think it marvellous absurd to see in a Church a Wedding on the day of a publick Fast so likewise in the self-same consideration our Predecessors thought it not amiss to take away the common liberty of Marriages during the time which was appointed for preparation unto and for exercise of General Humiliation by Fasting and praying weeping for sins As for the delivering up of the woman either by her Father or by some other we must note that in ancient times all women which had not Husbands nor Fathers to govern them had their Tutors without whose Authority there was no act which they did warrantable And for this cause they were in Marriage delivered unto their Husbands by others Which custome retained hath still this use that it putteth Women in mind of a duty whereunto the very imbecillity of their nature and Sex doth bind them namely to be always directed guided and ordered by others although our Positive Laws do not tie them now as Pupils The custome of laying down Money seemeth to have been derived from the Saxons whose manner was to buy their Wives But seeing there is not any great cause wherefore the memory of that custome should remain it skilleth not much although we suffer it to lie dead even as we see it in a manner already worn out The Ring hath been always used as an especial pledge of Faith and Fidelity Nothing more fit to serve as a token of our purposed endless continuance in that which we never ought to revoke This is the cause wherefore the Heathens themselves did in such cases use the Ring whereunto Tertullian alluding saith That in ancient times No Woman was permitted to wear gold saving only upon one finger which her Husband had fastened unto himself with that Ring which was usually given for assurance of future Marriage The cause why the Christians use it as some of the Fathers think is either to testifie mutual love or rather to serve for a pledge of conjunction in heart and mind agreed upon between them But what right and custome is there so harmless wherein the wit of man bending it self to derision may not easily find out somewhat to scorn and jest at He that should have beheld the Jews when they stood with a four-cornered Garment spread over the heads of Espoused Couples while their Espousals were in making He that should have beheld their praying over a Cup and their delivering the same at the Marriage-feast with set Forms of Benediction as the Order amongst them was might being lewdly affected take thereat as just occasion of scornful cavil as at the use of the Ring in Wedlock amongst Christians But of all things the most hardly taken is the uttering of these words With my body I thee worship In which words when once they are understood there will appear as little cause as in the rest for any wise man to be offended First therefore inasmuch as unlawful copulation doth pollute and dishonour both parties this Protestation that we do worship and honour another with our bodies may import a denial of all such Lets and Impediments to our knowledge as might cause any stain blemish or disgrace that way which kind of construction being probable would easily approve that speech to a peaceable and quiet mind Secondly in that the Apostle doth so expresly affirm that parties unmarried have not any longer entire power over themselves but each hath interest in others person it cannot be thought an absurd construction to say that worshipping with the body is the imparting of that interest in the body unto another which none before had save only our selves But if this were the natural meaning the words should perhaps be as requisite to be used on the one side as on the other and therefore a third sense there is which I rather rely upon Apparent it is that the ancient difference between a lawful Wife and a Concubine was only in the different purpose of man betaking himself to the one or the other If his purpose were only fellowship there grew to the Woman by this means no worship at all but the contrary In professing that his intent was to add by his person honour and worship unto hers he took her plainly and cleerly to Wife This is it which the Civil Law doth mean when it maketh a Wife to differ from a Concubine in dignity a Wife to be taken where Conjugal honour and affection do go before The worship that grew unto her being taken with declaration of this intent was that her children became by this mean legitimate and free her self was
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
desires of aspiring thereunto and extreme discontentment as oft as they were defeated even this doth shew that the state of Bishops was not a few degrees advanced above the rest Wherefore of grand Apostates which were in the very prime of the Primitive Church thus Lactantius above thirteen hundred years sithence testified Men of a slippery saith they were who feigning that they knew and worshipped God but seeking onely that they might grow in WEALTH and Honour affected the Place of the HIGHEST PRIESTHOOD whereunto when their Betters were chosen before them they thought it better to leave the Church and to draw their Favourers with them than to endure those men their Governours whom themselves desired to govern Now whereas against the present estate of Bishops and the greatness of their port and the largeness of their expences at this day there is not any thing more commonly objected than those antient Canons whereby they are restrained unto a far more sparing life their Houses their Retinue their Diet limited within a farr more narrow compass than is now kept we must know that those Laws and Orders were made when Bishops lived of the same Purse which served a well for a number of others as them and yet all at their disposing So that convenient it was to provide that there might be a moderate stint appointed to measure their expences by lest others should be injured by their wastefulness Contrariwise there is now no cause wherefore any such Law should be urged when Bishops live onely of that which hath been peculiarly alloted unto them They having therefore Temporalities and other Revenues to bestow for their own private use according to that which their state requireth and no other having with them any such common interest therein their own discretion is to be their Law for this matter neither are they to be pressed with the rigour of such antient Canons as were framed for other times much less so odiously to be upbraided with uncomformity unto the Pattern of our Lord and Saviour's estate in such circumstances as himself did never minde to require that the rest of the World should of necessity be like him Thus against the wealth of the Clergy they alledge how meanly Christ himself was provided for against Bishops Palaces his want of a hole to hide his Head in against the service done unto them that he came to minister not to be ministred unto in the World Which things as they are not unfit to controul covetous proud or ambitious desires of the Ministers of Christ and even of all Christians whatsoever they be and to teach men contentment of minde how mean soever their estate is considering that they are but Servants to him whose condition was farrmore abused than theirs is or can be so to prove such difference in State between us and him unlawful they are of no force or strength at all If one convented before their Consistories when he standeth to make this Answer should break out into Invectives against their Authority and tell them that Christ when he was on Earth did not sit to judge but stand to be judged would they hereupon think it requisite to dissolve their Eldership and to permit no Tribunals no Judges at all for fear of swerving from our Saviour's example If those men who have nothing in their mouths more usual than the poverty of Jesus Christ and his Apostles alledge not this as Iulian sometime did Beati panperes unto Christians when his meaning was to spoyl them of that they had our hope is then that as they seriously and sincerely wish that our Saviour Christ in this point may be followed and to that end onely propose his blessed example so at our hands again they will be content to hear with like willingness the holy Apostle's Exhortation made unto them of the Laity also Be ye Followers of us even as we are of Christ let us be your example even as the Lord Iesus Christ is ours that we may all proceed by one and the same rule XXIV But beware we of following Christ as Thieves follow True-men to take their Goods by violence from them Be it that Bishops were all unworthy not onely of Livings but even of Life yet what hath our Lord Jesus Christ deserved for which men should judge him worthy to have the things that are his given away from him unto others that have no right unto them For at this mark it is that the head Lay-Reformers do all aim Must these unworthy Prelates give place What then Shall Better succeed in their rooms Is this desired to the end that others may enjoy their Honours which shall doe Christ more faithful service than they have done Bishops are the worst men living upon Earth therefore let their sanctified Possessions be divided Amongst whom O blessed Reformation O happy men that put to their helping-hands for the furtherance of so good and glorious a Work Wherefore albeit the whole World at this day do already perceive and Posterity be like hereafter a great deal more plainly to discern not that the Clergy of God is thus heaved at because they are wicked but that means are vsed to put it into the heads of the simple multitude that they are such indeed to the end that those who thirst for the spoyl or Spiritual Possessions may till such time as they have their purpose be thought to covet nothing but onely the just extinguishment of un-reformable Persons so that in regard of such mens intentions practices and machinations against them the part that suffereth these things may most fitly pray with David Iudge thou me O Lord according to my Righteousness and according unto mine innocency O let the malice of the wicked come to an end and be thou the guide of the just Notwithstanding forasmuch as it doth not stand with Christian humility otherwise to think then that this violent outrage of men is a rod in the ireful hands of the Lord our God the smart whereof we deserve to feel Let it not seem grievous in the eyes of my reverend L. L. the Bishops if to their good consideration I offer a view of those sores which are in the kind of their heavenly function most apt to breed and which being not in time cured may procure at the length that which God of his infinite mercy avert Of Bishops in his time St. Ierome complaineth that they took it in great disdain to have any fault great or small found with them Epiphanius likewise before Ierome noteth their impatiency this way to have been the very chuse of a Schism in the Church of Christ at what time one Audius a Man of great Integrity of life full of faith and zeal towards God beholding those things which were corruptly done in the Church told the B B. and Presbyters their faults in such sort as those men are wont who love the truth from their hearts and walk in the paths of a most exact
in dealing is tyed unto the soundest perfectest and most indifferent Rule which Rule is the Law I mean not only the Law of Nature and of God but the National Law consonant thereunto Happier that people whose Law is their King in the greatest things then that whose King is himself their Law where the King doth guide the State and the Law the King that Common-wealth is like an Harp or Melodious Instrument the strings whereof are turned and handled all by one hand following as Laws the Rules and Canons of Musical Science Most divinely therefore Archytas maketh unto publike felicity these four steps and degrees every of which doth spring from the former as from another cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The King ruling by Law the Magistrate following the Subject free and the whole Society happy Adding on the contrary side that where this order is not it cometh by transgression thereof to pass that a King groweth a Tyrant he that ruleth under him abhorreth to be guided by him or commanded the people subject unto both have freedome under neither and the whole Community is wretched In which respect I cannot chuse but commend highly their wisdom by whom the Foundations of the Common-wealth hath been laid wherein though no manner of Person or cause be unsubject unto the Kings Power yet so is the Power of the King over all and in all limited that unto all his proceedings the Law it self is a rule The Axioms of our Regal Government are these Lex facit regem The Kings Grant of any favour made contrary to the Law is void Rex nibil potest nisi quod jure potest Our Kings therefore when they are to take possession of the Crown they are called unto have it pointed our before their eyes even by the very Solemnities and Rites of their Inauguration to what affairs by the same Law their Supream Power and Authority reacheth crowned we see they are enthronized and annointed the Crown a Sign of a Military Dominion the Throne of Sedentary or Judicial the Oyl of Religious and Sacred Power It is not on any side denied that Kings may have Authority in Secular affairs The Question then is What power they may lawfully have and exercise in causes of God A Prince or Magistrate or a Community saith Doctor Stapleton may have power to lay corporal punishment on them which are teachers of perverse things power to make Laws for the Peace of the Church Power to proclaim to defend and even by revenge to preserve dogmata the very Articles of Religion themselves from violation Others in affection no less devoted unto the Papacy do likewise yield that the Civil Magistrate may by his Edicts and Laws keep all Ecclesiastical Persons within the bounds of their duties and constrain them to observe the Canons of the Church to follow the rule of ancient Discipline That if Ioash was commended for his care and provision concerning so small a part of Religion as the Church-treasure it must needs be both unto Christian Kings themselves greater honour and to Christianity a larger benefit when the custody of Religion and the worship of God in general is their charge It therefore all these things mentioned be most properly the affairs of Gods Ecclesiastical causes if the actions specified be works of power and if that power be such as Kings may use of themselves without the fear of any other power superior in the same thing it followeth necessarily that Kings may have supream power not only in Civil but also in Ecclesiastical affairs and consequently that they may withstand what Bishop or Pope soever shall under the pretended claim of higher Spiritual Authority oppose themselves against their proceedings But they which have made us the former grant will never hereunto condescend what they yield that Princes may do it is with secret exception always understood If the Bishop of Rome give leave if he enterpose no prohibition wherefore somewhat it is in shew in truth nothing which they grant Our own Reformes do the very like when they make their discourse in general concerning the Authority which Magistrates may have a man would think them to be far from withdrawing any jot of that which with reason may be thought due The Prince and Civil Magistrate saith one of them hath to see the Laws of God touching his Worship and touching all Matters and all Orders of the Church to be executed and duly observed and to see every Ecclesiastical Person do that office whereunto he is appointed and to punish those which fail in their office accordingly Another acknowledgeth That the Magistrate may lawfully uphold all truth by his Sword punish all persons enforce all to their duties towards God and men maintain by his Laws every point of Gods Word punish all vice in all men see into all causes visit the Ecclesiastical Estate and correct the abuses thereof Finally to look to his Subjects that under him they may lead their lives in all godliness and honesty◠A third more frankly prosesseth That in case their Church Discipline were established so little it shortneth the Arms of Soveraign Dominion in causes Ecclesiastical that Her Gracious Majesty for any thing they teach or hold to the contrary may no less then now remain still over all persons in all things Supream Governess even with that full and Royal Authority Superiority and Preheminence Supremacy and Prerogative which the Laws already established do give her and her Majesties Injunctions and the Articles of the Convocation house and other writings Apologetical of her Royal Authority and Supream Dignity do declare and explain Possidonius was wont to say of the Epicure That he thought there were no Gods but that those things which he spake concerning the Gods were only given out for fear of growing adious amongst men and therefore that in words he left gods remaining but in very deed overthrew them in so much as he gave them no kind of Action After the very self same manner when we come unto those particular effects Prerogatives of Dominion which the Laws of this Land do grant unto the Kings thereof it will appear how these men notwithstanding their large and liberal Speeches abate such parcels out of the afore alleadged grant and flourishing shew that a man comparing the one with the other may half stand in doubt lest their Opinion in very truth be against that Authority which by their Speeches they seem mightily to uphold partly for the avoiding of publike obloquie envie and hatred partly to the intent they may both in the cad by the establishment of their Discipline extinguish the force of Supream Power which Princes have and yet in the mean while by giving forth these smooth Discourses obtain that their savourers may have somewhat to alleadge for them by way of Apologie and that such words only sound towards all kind of fulness of Power But for my self I had rather construe such their contradictions in the better
necessary for decision of Controversies rising between man and man and for correction of faults committed in the Affairs of God unto the due execution whereof there are three things necessary Laws Judges and Supream Governours of Judgements What Courts there shall be and what causes shall belong unto each Court and what Judges shall determine of every cause and what Order in all Judgements shall be kept of these things the Laws have sufficiently disposed so that his duty who sitteth in any such Court is to judge not of but after the same Law Imprimis illud observare debet Iudex ne aliter judicet quam legibus constitutionibus aut moribus proditum est ut Imperator Iustinianaus which Laws for we mean the positive Laws of our Realm concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs if they otherwise dispose of any such thing than according to the Law of Reason and of God we must both acknowledge them to be amiss and endeavour to have them reformed But touching that point what may be objected shall after appear Our Judges in Causes Ecclesiastical are either Ordinary or Commissionary Ordinary those whom we term Ordinaries and such by the Laws of this Land are none but Prelates onely whose Power to do that which they do is in themselves and belonging to the nature of their Ecclesiastical calling In Spiritual Causes a Lay-Person may be no Ordinary a Commissionary Judge there is no lett but that he may be and that our Laws do evermore referr the ordinary Judgement of Spiritual Causes unto Spiritual Persons such as are termed Ordinaries no man which knoweth any thing of the Practice of this Realm can easily be ignorant Now besides them which are Authorized to judge in several Territories there is required an universal Power which reacheth over all imparting Supream Authority of Government over all Courts all Judges all Causes the operation of which Power is as well to strengthen maintain and uphold particular Jurisdictions which haply might else be of small effect as also to remedy that which they are not able to help and to redress that wherein they at any time do otherwise than they ought to do This Power being sometime in the Bishop of Rome who by sinister Practises had drawn it into his hands was for just considerations by Publick consent annexed unto the Kings Royal Seat and Crown from thence the Authors of Reformation would translate it into their National Assemblies or Synods which Synods are the onely helps which they think lawful to use against such Evils in the Church as particular Jurisdictions are not sufficient to redress In which Cause our Laws have provided that the Kings supereminent Authority and Power shall serve As namely when the whole Ecclesiastical State or the Principal Persons therein do need Visitation and Reformation when in any part of the Church Errours Schismes Herusies Abuses Offences Contempts Enormities are grown which men in their several Jurisdictions either do not or cannot help Whatsoever any Spiritual Authority and Power such as Legates from the See of Rome did sometimes exercise hath done or might heretofore have done for the remedies of those Evils in lawful sort that is to say without the violation of the Laws of God or Nature in the deed done as much in every degree our Laws have fully granted that the King for ever may do not onely be setting Ecclesiastical Synods on work that the thing may be their Act and the King their Motioner unto it for so much perhaps the Masters of the Reformation will grant but by Commissions few or many who having the Kings Letters Patents may in the vertue thereof execute the premises as Agents in the right not of their own peculiar and ordinary but of his supereminent Power When men are wronged by inferiour Judges or have any just cause to take exception against them their way for Redress is to make their Appeal and Appeal is a present delivery of him which maketh it out of the hands of their Power and Jurisdictions from whence it is made Pope Alexander having sometimes the King of England at advantage caused him amongst other things to agree that as many of his Subjects as would might have appeal to the Court of Rome And thus saith one that whereunto a mean Person at this day would scorn to submit himself so great a King was content to he subject to Notwithstanding even when the Pope saith he had so great Authority amongst Princes which were farr off the Romans he could not frame to obedience nor was able to obtain that himself might abide at Rome though promising not to meddle with other than Ecclesiastical Affairs So much are things that terrifie more feared by such as behold them aloof off than at hand Reformers I doubt not in some Causes will admit Appeals but Appeals made to their Synods even as the Church of Rome doth allow of them so they be made to the Bishop of Rome As for that kinde of Appeal which the English Laws do approve from the Judge of any certain particular Court unto the King as the onely Supream Governour on Earth who by his Delegates may give a final definitive Sentence from which no farther Appeal can be made Will their Plat-form allow of this Surely forasmuch as in that estate which they all dream of the whole Church must be divided into Parishes in which none can have greater or less Authority and Power than another again the King himself must be but a common Member in the Body of his own Parish and the causes of that onely Parish must be by the Officers thereof determinable In case the King had so much favour or preferment as to be made one of those Officers for otherwise by their positions he were not to meddle any more than the meanest amongst his Subjects with the Judgement of any Ecclesiastical Cause how is it possible they should allow of Appeals to be made from any other abroad to the King To receive Appeals from all other Judges belongeth to the highest in power of all and to be in power over All as touching Judgment in Ecclesiastical Causes this as they think belongeth onely to Synods Whereas therefore with us Kings do exercise over all Things Persons and Causes Supream Power both of voluntary and litigious Jurisdictionsâ— so that according to the one they incite reform and command according to the other they judge universally doing both in farr other sort than such as have ordinary Spiritual power oppugned we are herein by some colourable shew of Argument as if to grant thus much to any Secular Person it were unreasonable For sith it is say they apparent out of the Chronicles that judgement in Church-matters pertaineth to God Seeing likewise it is evident out of the Apostles that the High-Priest is set over those matters in Gods behalf It must needs follow that the Principality or direction of the Iudgment of them is by Gods ordinance appertaining to the High-Priest and
Reasons were not powerful enough to incline him to a willing acceptance of it his wish was rather to gain a better Country Living where he might be free from Noise so he exprest the desire of his Heart and eat that bread which he might more properly call his own in privacy and quietness But notwithstanding this aversness he was at last perswaded to accept of the Bishops Proposal and was by Patent for Life made Master of the Temple the 17th of March 1585. He being then in the 34th year of his Age. And here I shall make a stop and that the Reader may the better judge of what follows give him a Character of the Times and Temper of the people of this Nation when Mr. Hooker had his Admission into this Place A Place which he accepted rather than desired and yet here he promised himself a virtuous quietness that blessed Tranquillity which he always prayed and laboured for that so he might in Peace bring forth the Fruits of Peace and glorifie God by uninterrupted Prayers and praises for this he always thirsted and yet this was denied him For his Admission into this Place was the very beginning of those Oppositions and Anxieties which till then this Good man was a stranger to and of which the Reader may guess by what follows In this Character of the Times I shall by the Readers favour and for his information look so far back as to the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth a time in which the many pretended Titles to the Crown the frequent Treasons the Doubts of her Successour the late Civil War and the sharp Persecution that had raged to the effusion of so much Blood in the Reign of Queen Mary were fresh in the memory of all men and these begot fears in the most Pious and Wisest of this Nation least the like days should return again to them or their present Posterity The apprehension of which Dangers begot an earnest desire of a Settlement in the Church and State believing there was no other probable way left to make them sit quietly under their own Vines and Fig-trees and enjoy the desired Fruit of their Labours But Time and Peace and Plenty begot Self-ends and those begot Animosities Envy Opposition and Unthankfulness for those blessings for which they lately thirsted being then the very utmost of their Desires and even beyond their Hopes This was the temper of the Times in the beginning of her Reign and thus it continued too long For those very people that had enjoyed the desires of their hearts in a Reformation from the Church of Rome became at last so like the Grave as never to be satisfied but were still thirsting for more and more neglecting to pay that Obedience to Government and perform those Vows to God which they made in their days of Adversities and Fear so that in short time theree appeared thre several Interests each of them fearless and restless in the prosecution of their Designs they may for distinction be called The active Romanists The restless Non-conformists of which there were many sorts and The passive peaceable Protestant The Counsels of the first considered and resolved on in Rome the second in Scotland in Geneva and in divers selected secret dangerous Conventicles both there and within the bosom of our own Nation the third pleaded and defended their Cause by Establisht Laws both Ecclesiastical and Civil and if they were active it was to prevent the other two from destroying what was by those known Laws happily establisht to them and their Posterity I shall forbear to mention the very many and as Dangerous Plots of the Romanists against the Church and State because what is principally intended in this Digression is an account of the Opinions and Activity of the Non-conformists against whose judgement and practice Mr. Hooker became at last but most unwillingly to be ingaged in a Book-war a War which he maintained not as against an Enemy but with the spirit of Meekness and Reason In which number of Non-conformists though some might be sincere and well-meaning men whose indiscreet zeal might be so like Charity as thereby to cover a multitude of Errors yet of this Party there were many that were possest with an high degree of Spiritual wickedness I mean with an innate restles radical Pride and Malice I mean not those lesser sins that are more visible and more properly Carnal and sins against a mans self as Gluttony and Drunkenness and the like from which good Lord deliver us but sins of an higher nature because more unlike to the nature of God which is Love and Mercy and Peace and more like the Devil who is not a glutton nor can be drunk and yet is a Devil those wickednesses of Malice and Revenge and Opposition and a Complacence in working and beholding Confusion which are more properly his work who is the Enemy and disturber of mankind and greater sins though many will not believe it Men whom a furious Zeal and Prejudice had blinded and made incapable of hearing Reason or adhearing to the ways of Peace Men whom Pride and Self-conceit had made to overvalue their own Wisdom and become pertinacious and to hold foolish and unmannerly disputes against those Men which they ought to Reverence and those Laws which they ought to obey Men that laboured and joyed to speak evil of Government and then to be the Authors of Confusion of Confusion as it is Confusion whom Company and Conversation and Custom had blinded and made insensible that these were Errours and at last became so restless and so hardened in their opinions that like those which perisht in the gain-saying of Core so these dyed without repenting these spiritual wickednesses of which Coppinger and Hacket and their adherents are too sad testimonies And in these times which tended thus to Coâ—fusion there were also many others that pretended a Tenderness of Conscience refusing to submit to Ceremonies or to take an Oath before a lawful Magistrate and yet these very Mâ—n did in their secret Conventicles Covenant and Swear to each other to be assiduous and faithful in using their best endeavours to set up a Church Government that they had not agreed on To which end there was many Select parties that wandered up and down and were active in sowing Discontents and Sedition by venemous and secret Murmurings and a Dispersion of scurrilous Pamphlets and Libels against the Church and State but especially against the Bishops by which means together with very bold and as indiscreet Sermons the Common people became so Phanatick as St. Peter observed there were in his time some that wrested the Scripture to their own destruction so by these men and this means many came to believe the Bishops to be Antichrist and the onely Obstructers of Gods Discipline and many of them were at last given over to such desperate delusions as to find out a Text in the Revelation of St. Iohn that Antichrist was to be
a Minister to Preach Christ crucified In regard whereof not onely worldly things but things otherwise precious even the Discipline it self is vile and base Whereas now by the heat of Contention and violence of Affection the Zeal of Men towards the one hath greatly decayed their love to the other Hereunto therefore they are to be exhorted to Preach Christ crucified the Mortification of the Flesh the Renewing of the Spirit not those things which in time of Strife seem precious but Passions being allayed are vain and childish GEO. CRANMER This Epitaph was long since presented to the World in Memory of Mr. Hooker by Sir William Cooper who also built him a fair Monument in Borne-Church and acknowledges him to have been his Spiritual Father THough nothing can be spoke worthy his Fame Or the Remembrance of that precious Name Iudicious Hooker though this cost be spent On him that hath a Lasting Monument In his own Books yet ought we to express If not his Worth yet oue Respectfulness Church Ceremonies he maintaiu'd Then Why Without all Ceremony should he die Was it because his Life and Death should be Both equal Patterns of Humility Or that perhaps this onely glorious one Was above all to ask Why had he none Yet he that lay so long obscurely low Doth now preferr'd to greater Honors go Ambitious men Learn hence to be more wise Humility is the true way to rise And God in me this Lesson did Inspire To bid this humble Man Friend sit up higher TO THE Most Reverend Father in GOD my very good Lord the Lord Archbishop of CANTERBURY his Grace Primate and Metropolitan of all ENGLAND MOst Reverend in Christ the long continued and more then ordinary favor which hither to your Grace hath been pleased to shew towards me may justly claim at my hands some thankful acknowledgment thereof In which consideration as also for that I embrace willingly the ancient received course and conveniency of that Discipline which teacheth inferior Degrees and Orders in the Church of God to submit their Writings to the same Authority from which their allowable dealings whatsoever in such affairs must receive approbation I nothing fear but that your accustomed clemency will take in good worth the offer of these my simple and mean Labors bestowed for the necessary justification of Laws heretofore made questionable because as I take it they were not perfectly understood For surely I cannot finde any great cause of just complaint that good Laws have so much been wanting unto us as we to them To seek Reformation of evil Laws is a commendable endeavor but for us the more necessary is a speedy redress of our selves We have on all sides lost much of our first fervency towards God and therefore concerning our own degenerated ways we have reason to exhort with St. Gregory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us return again unto that which we sometime were but touching the exchange of Laws in Practice with Laws in Device which they say are better for the State of the Church if they might take place the farther we examine them the greater cause we finde to conclude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 although we continue the same we are the harm is not great These fervent Reprehenders of things established by Publick Authority are always confident and bold spirited men But their confidence for the most part riseth from too much credit given to their own wits for which cause they are seldom free from Error The Errors which we seek to reform in this kinde of men are such as both received at your own hands their first wound and from that time to this present have been proceeded in with that Moderation which useth by Patience to suppress boldness and to make them conquer that suffer Wherein considering the nature and kinde of these Controversies the dangerous sequels whereunto they were likely to grow and how many ways we have been thereby taught Wisdom I may boldly aver concerning the first that as the weightiest conflicts the Church hath had were those which touched the Head the Person of our Savior Christ and the next of importance those questions which are at this day between us and the Church of Rome about the Actions of the Body of the Church of God so these which have lastly sprung up from Complements Rites and Ceremonies of Church Actions are in truth for the greatest part such silly things that very easiness doth make them hard to be disputed of in serious manner Which also may seem to be the cause why divers of the Reverend Prelacy and other most judicious men have especially bestowed their pains about the Matter of Jurisdiction Notwithstanding led by your Graces example my self have thought it convenient to wade through the whole Cause following that method which searcheth the Truth by the causes of Truth Now if any marvel how a thing in it self so weak could import any great danger they must consider not so much how small the spark is that flieth up as how apt things about it are to take fire Bodies Politick being subject as much as Natural to dissolution by divers means there are undoubtedly more estates overthrown through diseases bred within themselves then through violence from abroad because our manner is always to cast a doubtful and a more suspicious eye towards that over which we know we have least power And therefore the fear of External dangers causeth forces at home to be the more united It is to all sorts a kinde of Bridle it maketh vertuous Mindes watchful it holdeth contrary Dispositions in suspense and it setteth those Wits on work in better things which could be else imployed in worse whereas on the other side domestical Evils for that we think we can master them at all times are often permitted to run on forward till it be too late to recal them In the mean while the Commonwealth is not onely through unsoundness so far impaired as those evils chance to prevail but farther also through opposition arising between the unsound parts and the sound where each endeavoreth to draw evermore contrary ways till destruction in the end bring the whole to ruine To reckon up how many Causes there are by force whereof Divisions may grow in a Commonwealth is not here necessary Such as rise from variety in Matter of Religion are not onely the farthest spred because in Religion all men presume themselves interessed alike but they are also for the most part hotlier prosecuted and pursued then other strifes for as much as coldness which in other Contentions may be thought to proceed from Moderation is not in these so favorably construed The part which in this present quarrel striveth against the Current and Stream of Laws was a long while nothing feared the wisest contented not to call to minde how Errors have their effect many times not proportioned to that little appearance of Reason whereupon they would seem built but rather to the vehement affection or
fancy which is cast towards them and proceedeth from other Causes For there are divers Motives drawing men to favor mightily those Opinions wherein their Perswasions are but weakly setled and if the Passions of the Minde be strong they easily sophisticate the Understanding they make it apt to believe upon very slender warrant and to imagine infallible Truth where scarce any probable shew appeareth Thus were those poor seduced Creatures Hacquet and his other two adherents whom I can neither speak nor think of but with much commisseration and pity Thus were they trained by fair ways first accompting their own extraordinary love to his Discipline a token of Gods more then ordinary love towards them From hence they grew to a strong conceit that God which had moved them to love his Discipline more then the common sort of men did might have a purpose by their means to bring a wonderful work to pass beyond all mens expectation for the advancement of the Throne of Discipline by some Tragical Execution with the particularities whereof it was not safe for their Friends to be made acquainted of whom they did therefore but covertly demand what they thought of extraordinary Motions of the Spirit in these days and withal request to be commended unto God by their Prayers whatsoever should be undertaken by Men of God in meer Zeal to his Glory and the good of his distressed Church With this unusual and strange course they went on forward till God in whose heaviest worldly Judgments I nothing doubt but that there may lie hidden Mercy gave them over their own Inventions and left them made in the end an example for Head-strong and Inconsiderate Zeal no less fearful then Achitophel for Proud and Irreligious Wisdom If a spark of Error have thus far prevailed falling even where the Wood was green and farthest off to all mens thinking from any inclination unto furious Attempts must not the peril thereof be greater in men whose mindes are of themselves as dry sewel apt beforehand unto Tumults Seditions and Broyls But by this we see in a Cause of Religion to how desperate adventures men will strain themselves for relief of their own part having Law and Authority against them Furthermore Let not any man think that in such Divisions either part can free it self from inconveniencies sustained not onely through a kinde of Truce which Vertue on both sides doth make with Vice during War between Truth and Error but also in that there are hereby so fit occasions ministred for men to purchase to themselves welwillers by the colour under which they oftentimes prosecute quarrels of Envy or Inveterate Malice and especially because Contentions were as yet never able to prevent two Evils The one a mutual exchange of unseemly and unjust disgraces offered by men whose Tongues and Passions are out of rule the other a common hazard of both to be made a prey by such as study how to work upon all Occurents with most advantage in private I deny not therefore but that our Antagonists in these Controversies may peradventure have met with some not unlike to Ithacius who mightily bending himself by all means against the Heresie of Priscillian the hatred of which one Evil was all the Vertue he had became so wise in the end That every man careful of Vertuous Conversations studious of Scripture and given unto any abstinence in Diet was set down in his Kalender of suspected Priscillianists for whom it should be expedient to approve their soundness of Faith by a more licencious and loose behavior Such Proctors and Patrons the Truth might spare Yet is not their grossness so intolerable as on the contrary side the scurrilous and more then Satyrical immodesty of Martinism the first published Schedules whereof being brought to the hands of a grave and a very Honorable Knight with signification given that the Book would refresh his spirits he took it saw what the Title was read over an unsavory sentence or two and delivered back the Libel with this Answer I am sorry you are of the minde to be solaced with these sports and sorrier you have herein thought mine affection to be like your own But as these sores on all hands lie open so the deepest wounds of the Church of God have been more softly and closely given It being perceived that the Plot of Discipline did not onely bend it self to reform Ceremonies but seek farther to erect a popular authority of Elders and to take away Episcopal Jurisdiction together with all other Ornaments and means whereby any difference or inequality is upheld in the Ecclesiastical Order towards this destructive part they have found many helping hands divers although peradventure not willing to be yoked with Elderships yet contented for what intent God doth know to uphold opposition against Bishops not without greater hurt to the course of their whole proceedings in the business of God and Her Majesties service then otherwise much more weighty Adversaries had been able by their own power to have brought to pass Men are naturally better contented to have their commendable actions supprest then the contrary much divulged And because the Wits of the multitude are such that many things they cannot lay hold on at once but being possest with some notable either dislike or liking of any one thing whatsoever sundry other in the mean time may escape them unperceived Therefore if men desirous to have their Vertues noted do in this respect grieve at the same of others whose glory obscureth and darkness theirs it cannot be chosen but that when the ears of the people are thus continually beaten with exclamations against abuses in the Church these tunes come always most acceptable to them whose odious and corrupt dealings in secular affairs both pass by that mean the more covertly and whatsoever happen do also the least feel that scourge of vulgar imputation which notwithstanding they most deserve All this considered as behoveth the sequel of duty on our part is onely that which our Lord and Saviour requireth harmless Discretion the wisdom of Serpents tempered with the innocent meekness of Doves For this World will teach them wisdom that have capacity to apprehend it Our wisdom in this case must be such as doth not propose to it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our own particular the partial and immoderate desire whereof poysoneth wheresoever it taketh place But the scope and mark which we are to aim at is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the publick and common good of all for the easier procurement whereof our diligence must search out all helps and furtherances of direction which Scriptures Counsels Fathers Histories the Laws and Practices of all Churches the mutual Conference of all Mens Collections and Observations may afford Our industry must even anatomize every Particle of that Body which we are to uphold sound and because be it never so true which we teach the World to believe yet if once their affections begin to be alienated a
observe that Discipline nevertheless the Senate of Geneva having required their judgment concerning these three Questions First After what manner by Gods Commandment according to the Scripture and unspotted Religion Excommunication is to be exercised Secondly Whether it may not be exercised some other way then by the Consistory Thirdly What the use of their Churches was to do in this case Answer was returned from the said Churches That they had heard already of those Consistorial Laws and did acknowledge them to be godly Ordinances drawing towards the prescript of the Word of God for which cause that they did not think it good for the Church of Geneva by innovation to change the same but rather to keep them as they were Which answer although not answering unto the former demands but respecting what Mr. Calvin had judged requisite for them to answer was notwithstanding accepted without any further Reply in as much as they plainly saw that when stomach doth strive with wit the match is not equal and so the heat of their former contentions began to slake The present inhabitants of Geneva I hope will not take it in evil part that the faultiness of their people heretofore is by us so far forth laid open as their own Learned Guides and Pastors have thought necessary to discover it unto the World For out of their Books and Writings it is that I have collected this whole Narration to the end it might thereby appear in what sort amongst them that Discipline was planted for which so much contention is raised amongst our selves The Reasons which moved Calvin herein to be so earnest was as Beza himself testifieth For that he saw how needful these Bridles were to be put in the Jaws of that City That which by Wisdom he saw to be requisite for that people was by as great wisdom compassed But wise men are men and the truth is truth That which Calvin did for establishment of his Discipline seemeth more commendable then that which he taught for the countenancing of it established Nature worketh in us all a love to our own Counsels The contradiction of others is a fan to inflame that love Our love set on fire to maintain that which once we have done sharpneth the wit to dispute to argue and by all means to reason for it Wherfore a marvel it were if a man of so great capacity having such incitements to make him desirous of all kinde of furtherances unto his cause could espie in the whole Scripture of God nothing which might breed at the least a probable opinion of likelihood that Divine Authority it self was the same way somewhat inclinable And all which the wit even of Calvin was able from thence to draw by sifting the very utmost sentence and syllable is no more then that certain speeches there are which to him did seem to intimate that all Christian Churches ought to have their Elderships endued with power of Excommunication and that a part of those Elderships every where should be chosen out from amongst the Laity after that Form which himself had framed Geneva unto But what Argument are ye able to shew whereby it was ever proved by Calvin that any one sentence of Scripture doth necessarily inforce these things or the rest wherein your opinion concurreth with his against the Orders of your own Church We should be injurious unto Vertue it self if we did derogate from them whom their industry hath made great Two things of principal moment there are which have deservedly procured him honor throughout the World The one his exceeding pains in composing the Institution of Christian Religion the other his no less industrious travels for Exposition of holy Scripture according unto the same Institutions In which two things whosoever they were that after him bestowed their labor he gained the advantage of prejudice against them if they gainsaid and of glory above them if they consented His Writings published after the question about that Discipline was once begun omit not any the least occasion of extolling the use and singular necessity thereof Of what account the Master of Sentences was in the Church of Rome the same and more amongst the Preachers of Reformed Churches Calvin had purchased So that the perfectest Divines were judged they which were skilfullest in Calvins Writings His Books almost the very Canon to judge both Doctrine and Discipline by French Churches both under others abroad and at home in their own Countrey all cast according unto that mold which Calvin had made The Church of Scotland in erecting the Fabrick of their Reformation took the self-same pattern till at lenght the Discipline which was at the first so weak that without the staff of their approbation who were not subject unto it themselves it had not brought others under subjection began now to challenge Universal Obedience and to enter into open conflict with those very Churches which in desperate extremity had been relievers of it To one of those Churches which lived in most peaceable sort and abounded as well with men for their learning in other Professions singular as also with Divines whose equals were not elswhere to be found a Church ordered by Gualters Discipline and not by that which Geneva adoreth Unto this Church of Heidelburgh there cometh one who craving leave to dispute publickly defendeth with open disdain of their Government that to a Minister with his Eldership power is given by the Law of God to Excommunicate whomsoever yea even Kings and Princes themselves Here were the seeds sown of that controversie which sprang up between Beza and Erastus about the Matter of Excommunication Whether there ought to be in all Churches an Eldership having power to Excommunicate and a part of that Eldership to be of necessity certain chosen out from amongst the Laity for that purpose In which Disputation they have as to me it seemeth divided very equally the Truth between them Beza most truly maintaining the necessity of Excommunication Erastus as truly the non-necessity of Lay-Elders to be Ministers thereof Amongst our selves there was in King Edwards days some question moved by reason of a few mens scrupulosity touching certain things And beyond Seas of them which fled in the days of Queen Mary some contenting themselves abroad with the use of their own Service Book at home authorized before their departure out of the Realm others liking better the Common Prayer Book of the Church of Geneva translated Those smaller Contentions before begun were by this me an somewhat increased Under the happy Reign of Her Majesty which now is the greatest matter a while contended for was the wearing of the Cap and Surpless till there came Admonitions directed unto the High Court of Parliament by men who concealing their names thought it glory enough to discover their mindes and affections which now were universally bent even against all the Orders and Laws wherein this Church is found uncomformable to the Platform of Geneva Concerning the Defender of
which Admonitions all that I mean to say is but this There will come a time when three words uttered with Charity and Meekness shall receive a far more blessed Reward then three thousand Volumns written with disdainful sharpness of Wit But the manner of Mens Writings must not alienate our hearts from the Truth if it appear they have the Truth as the Followers of the same Defender do think he hath and in that perswasion they follow him no otherwise then himself doth Calvin Beza and others with the like perswasion that they in this cause had the Truth We being as fully perswaded otherwise it resteth that some kinde of tryal be used to finde out which part is in error 3. The first mean whereby Nature teacheth men to judge good from evil as well in Laws as in other things is the force of their own discretion Hereunto therefore St. Paul referreth oftentimes his own speech to be considered of by them that heard him I speak as to them which have understanding Judge ye what I say Again afterward Judge in your selves is it comly that a woman pray uncovered The exercise of this kinde of judgment our Saviour requireth in the Iews In them of Berea the Scripture commendeth it Finally Whatsoever we do if our own secret judgment consent not unto it as fit and good to be done the doing of it to us is sin although the thing it self be allowable St. Pauls rule therefore generally is Let every man in his own minde be fully perswaded of that thing which he either alloweth or doth Some things are so familiar and plain that Truth from Falshood and Good from Evil is most easily discerned in them even by men of no deep capacity And of that nature for the most part are things absolutely unto all Mens salvation necessary either to he held or denied either to be done or avoided For which cause St. Augustine acknowledgeth that they are not onely set down but also plainly set down in Scripture So that he which heareth or readeth may without any great difficulty understand Other things also there are belonging though in a lower degree of importance unto the offices of Christian men Which because they are more obscure more intricate and hard to be judged of therefore God hath appointed some to spend their whole time principally in the study of things Divine to the end that in these more doubtful cases their understanding might be a light to direct others If the understanding power or faculty of the Soul be saith the Grand Physitian like unto bodily sight not of equal sharpness in all What can be more convenient then that even as the dark-sighted man is directed by the clear about things visible so likewise in matters of deeper discourse the wise in heart do shew the simple where his way lieth In our doubtful Cases of Law what man is there who seeth not how requisite it is that Professors of skill in that Faculty be our Directors so it is in all other kindes of knowledge And even in this kinde likewise the Lord hath himself appointed That the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and that other men should seek the truth at his mouth because he is the Messenger of the Lord of Hosts Gregory Nazianzen offended at the peoples too great presumption in controlling the judgment of them to whom in such cases they should have rather submitted their own seeketh by earnest entreaty to stay them within their bounds Presume not ye that are Sheep to make your selves Guides of them that should guide you neither seek ye to overslip the fold which they about you have pitched It sufficeth for your part if ye can well frame your selves to be ordered Take not upon you to judge your selves nor to make them subject to your Laws who should be a Law to you for God is not a God of Sedition and Confusion but of Order and of Peace But ye will say that if the Guides of the people be blinde the common sort of men must not close up their own eyes and be led by the conduct of such If the Priest be partial in the Law the flock must not therefore depart from the ways of sincere Truth and in simplicity yield to be followers of him for his place sake and office over them Which thing though in it self most true is in your defence notwithstanding weak because the matter wherein ye think that ye see and imagine that your ways are sincere is of far deeper consideration then any one amongst Five hundred of you conceiveth Let the vulgar sort among you know that there is not the least branch of the Cause wherein they are so resolute but to the tryal of it a great deal more appertaineth then their conceit doth reach unto I write not this in disgrace of the simplest that way given but I would gladly they knew the nature of that cause wherein they think themselves throughly instructed and are not by means whereof they daily run themselves without feeling their own hazzard upon the dint of the Apostles sentence against evil speakers as touching things wherein they are ignorant If it be granted a thing unlawful for private men not called unto Publick Consultation to dispute which is the best State of Civil Policy with a desire of bringing in some other kinde them that under which they already live for of such Disputes I take it his meaning was If it be a thing confest that of such Questions they cannot determine without rashness in as much as a great part of them consisteth in special Circumstances and for one kinde as many Reasons may be brought as for another Is there any reason in the World why they should better judge what kinde of Regiment Ecclesiastical is the fittest For in the Civil State more insight and in those affairs more experience a great deal must needs be granted them then in this they can possibly have When they which write in defence of your Discipline and commend it unto the Highest not in the least cunning manner are forced notwithstanding to acknowledge That with whom the Truth is they know not they are not certain what certainly or knowledge can the multitude have thereof Weigh what doth move the common sort so much to favor this Innovation and it shall soon appear unto you that the force of particular Reasons which for your several Opinions are alleaged is a thing whereof the multitude never did nor could so consider as to be therewith wholly carried but certain general Inducements are used to make saleable your Cause in gross And when once men have cast a fancy towards it any slight Declaration of Specialties will serve to lead forward mens inclineable and prepared mindes The method of winning the peoples affection unto a general liking of the Cause for so ye term it hath been this First in the hearing of the multitude the faults especially of
noted seldom or never absent from thence at the time of those great Assemblies and the favor of proposing there in convenient sort whatsoever ye can object which thing my self have known them to grant of Scholastical courtesie unto Strangers neither hath as I think nor ever will I presume be denied you If your Suit be to have some great extraordinary confluence in expectation whereof the Laws that already are should sleep and have no power over you till in the hearing of thousands ye all did acknowledge your error and renounce the further prosecution of your cause Haply they whose authority is required unto the satisfying of your demand do think it both dangerous to admit such concourse of divided mindes and unmeet that Laws which being once solemnly established are to exact obedience of all men and to constrain thereunto should so far stoop as to hold themselves in suspence from taking any effect upon you till some disputer can perswade you to be obedient A Law is the Deed of the whole Body Politick whereof if ye judge your selves to be any part then is the Law even your Deed also And were it reason in things of this quality to give men audience pleading for the overthrow of that which their own very deed hath ratified Laws that have been approved may be no man doubteth again repealed and to that end also disputed against by the Authors thereof themselves But this is when the whole doth deliberate what Laws each part shall observe and not when a part refuseth the Laws which the whole hath orderly agreed upon Notwithstanding for as much as the cause we maintain is God be thanked such as needeth not to shun any tryal might it please them on whose approbation the matter dependeth to condescend so far unto you in this behalf I wish heartily that proof were made even by solemn conference in orderly and quiet sort whether you would your selves be satisfied or else could by satisfying others draw them to your party Provided alway first In as much as ye go about to destroy a thing which is in force and to draw in that which hath not as yet been received to impose on us that which we think not our selves bound unto and to overthrow those things whereof we are possessed that therefore ye are not to claim in any conference other then the Plaintiffs or Opponents part which must consist altogether in proof and confirmation of two things The one that our Orders by you condemned we ought to abolish the other that yours we are bound to accept in the stead thereof Secondly Because the Questions in Controversie between us are many if once we descend into particulars That for the easier and more orderly proceeding therein the most general be first discussed nor any Question left off nor in each Question the prosecution of any one Argument given over and another taken in hand till the issue whereunto by Replies and Answers both parts are come be collected read and acknowledged as well on the one side as on the other to be the plain conclusion which they are grown unto Thirdly For avoiding of the manifold inconveniences whereunto ordinary and extemporal Disputes are subject as also because if ye should singly dispute one by one as every mans own wit did best serve it might be conceived by the rest that haply some other would have done more the chiefest of you do all agree in this action that when ye shall then chuse your speaker by him that which is publickly brought into Disputation be acknowledged by all your consents not to be his allegation but yours such as ye all are agreed upon and have required him to deliver in all your names The true Copy whereof being taken by a Notary that a reasonable time be allowed for return of Answer unto you in the like form Fourthly Whereas a number of Conferences have been had in other causes with the less effectual success by reason of partial and untrue reports published afterwards unto the World That to prevent this evil there be at the first a Solemn Declaration made on both parts of their Agreement to have that very Book and no other set abroad wherein their present authorized Notaries do write those things fully and onely which being written and there read are by their own open testimony acknowledged to be their own Other circumstances hereunto belonging whether for the choice of time place and language or for prevention of impertinent and needless speech or to any end and purpose else they may be thought on when occasion serveth In this sort to broach my private conceit for the ordering of a publick action I should be loth albeit I do it not otherwise then under correction of them whose gravity and wisdom ought in such cases to over-rule but that so venturous boldness I see is a thing now general and am thereby of good hope that where all men are licenced to offend no man will shew himself a sharp Accuser 6. What success God may give unto any such kinde of Conference or Disputation we cannot tell But of this we are right sure that Nature Scripture and Experience it self have all taught the World to seek for the ending of Contentions by submitting itself into some judicial and definitive Sentence whereunto neither part that contendeth may under any pretence or colour refuse to stand This must needs be effectual and strong as for other means without this they seldom prevail I would therefore know whether for the ending of these irksome strifes wherein you and your Followers do stand thus formally divided against the authorized Guides of this Church and the rest of the people subject unto their Charge whether I say ye be content to refer your Cause to any other higher judgment then your own or else intend to persist and proceed as ye have begun till your selves can be perswaded to condemn your selves If your Determination be this we can be but sorry that ye should deserve to be reckoned with such of whom God himself pronounceth The way of Peace they have not known Ways of peaceable Conclusion there are but these two certain the one a sentence of Iudicial Decision given by authority thereto appointed within our selves the other the like kinde of sentence given by a more Universal authority The former of which two ways God himself in the Law prescribeth and his Spirit it was which directed the very first Christian Churches in the World to use the Latter The Ordinance of God in the Law was this If there arise a matter too hard for thee in judgment between blood and blood between plea c. then shalt thou arise and go up unto the place which the Lord thy God shall chuse and thou shalt come unto the Priests of the Levites and unto the Judge that shall be in those days and ask and they shall shew thee the sentence of Judgment and thou shalt do according to that thing
which they of that place which the Lord hath chosen shew thee and thou shalt observe to do according to all that they inform thee According to the Law which they shall teach thee and according to the judgment which they shall tell thee shalt thou do thou shalt not decline from the thing which they shall shew thee to the right hand nor to the left And that man that will do presumptuously not hearkning unto the Priest that standeth before the Lord thy God to manister there or unto the Judge that man shall die and thou shalt take away evil from Israel When there grew in the Church of Christ a question Whether the Genti'es believing might be saved although they were not circumcised after the manner of Moses nor did observe the rest of those Legal Rites and Ceremonies whereunto the Jews were bound After great Dissention and Disputation about it their conclusion in the end was to have it determined by sentence at Jerusalem which was accordingly done in a Council there assemâ—led for the same purpose Are ye able to alledge any just and sufficient cause wherefore absolutely ye should not condescend in this Controversie to have your judgments over-ruled by some such Definitive Sentence Whether it fall out to be given with or against you that so these redious contentions may cease Te will perhaps make answer That being perswaded already as touching the truth of your Cause ye are not to hearken unto any sentence no not though Angels should define otherwise as the blessed Apostles own example teacheth Again That Men yea Councils may err and that unless the judgment given do satisfie your mindes unless it be such as ye can by no further argument oppugn in a word unless you perceive and acknowledge it your selves consonant with Gods Word to stand unto it not allowing it were to sin against your own consciences But consider I beseech you first As touching the Apostle how that wherein be was so resolute and peremptory our Lord Iesus Christ made manifest unto him even by Intuitive Revelation wherein there was no possibility of error That which you are perswaded of ye have it no otherwise then by your own onely probable collection and therefore such bold asseverations as in him were admirable should in your months but argue rashness God was not ignorant that the Priests and Iudges whose sentence in Matters of Controversie he ordained should stand both might and oftentimes would be deceived in their judgment Howbeit better it was in the eye of his understanding that sometime an erronious sentence Definitive should prevail till the same authority perceiving such oversight might afterwards correct or reverse it then that strifes should have respite to grow and not come speedily unto some end Neither wish we that men should do any thing which in their hearts they are perswaded they ought not to do but this perswasion ought we say to be fully setled in their hearts that in litigious and controversed causes of such quality the Will of God is to have them to do whatsoever the sentence of judicial and final Decision shall determine yea though it seem in their private opinion to swarve utterly from that which is right as no doubt many times the sentence amongst the Iews did seem unto one part or other contending And yet in this case God did then allow them to do that which in their private judgment it seemed yea and perhaps truly seemed that the Law did disallow For if God be not the Author of confusion but of peace then can he not be the Author of our refusal but of our contentment to stand unto some Definitive Sentence without which almost impossible it is that either we should avoid confusion or ever hope to attain peace To small purpose had the Council of Jerusalem been assembled if one their determination being set down men might afterwards have defended their former opinions When therefore they had given their Definitive Sentence all Controversoâ— was at an end Things were disputed before they came to be determined Men afterwards were not to dispute any longer but to obey The Sentence of Iudgment finished their strife which their disputes before judgment could not do This was ground sufficient for any reasonable Mans conscience to build the duty of Obedience upon whatsoever his own opinion were as touching the matter before in question So full of wilfulness and self-liking is our nature that without some Definitive Sentence which being given may stand and a necessity of silence on both sides afterward imposed small hope there is that strifes thus for prosecuted will in short time quietly end Now it were in vain to ask you Whether ye could be content that the Sentence of any Court already erected should be so far authorized as that among the Iews established by God himself for the determining of all Controversies That man which will do presumptuously not hearkning unto the Priest that standeth before the Lord to minister there nor unto the Judge let him die Ye have given us already to understand what your opinion is in part concerning Her sacred Majesties Court of High Commission the nature whereof is the same with that amongst the Iews albeit the power be not so great The other way happily may like you better because Master Beza in his last Book save one written about these Matters professeth himself to be now weary of such Combats and Encounters whether by word or writing in as much as he findeth that Controversies thereby are made but Brawls And therefore wisheth that in some common lawful Assembly of Churches all these strifes may at once be decided Shall there be then in the mean while no doings Yes There are the weightier Matters of the Law Judgment and Mercy and Fidelity These things we ought to do and these things while we contend about less we leave undone Happier are they whom the Lord when he cometh shall finde doing in these things then disputing about Doctors Elders and Deacons Or if there be no remedy but somewhat needs ye must do which may tend to the setting forward of your Discipline do that which wisemen who think some Statute of the Realm more fit to be repealed then to stand in force are accustomed to do before they come to Parliament where the place of enacting is that is to say spend the time in re-examining more duly your cause and in more throughly considering of that which ye labor to overthrow As for the Orders which are established sith Equity and Reason the Law of Nature God and Man do all favor that which is in Being till orderly Iudgment of Decision be given against it it is but Iustice to exact of you and perversness in you it should be to deny thereunto your willing obedience Not that I judge it a thing allowable for men to observe those Laws which its their hearts they are stredfastly perswaded to be against the Law of God But your perswasion
and the coherance it hath with those things either on which it dependeth or which depend on it 8. The case so standing therefore my Brethren as it doth the wisdom of Governors ye must not blame in that they further also forecasting the manifold strange and dangerous innovations which are more then likely to follow if your Discipline should take place have for that cause thought it hitherto a part of their duty to withstand your endeavors that way The rather for that they have seen already some small beginnings of the fruits thereof in them who concurring with you in judgment about the necessity of that Discipline have adventured without more ado to separate themselves from the rest of the Church and to put your speculations in execution These mens hastiness the warier sort of you doth not commend ye wish they had held themselves longer in and not so dangerously flown abroad before the feathers of the Cause had been grown their Error with merciful terms ye reprove naming them in great commiseration of minds your poor Brethren They on the contrary side more bitterly accuse you as their false Brethren and against you they plead saying From your Brests it is that we have sucked those things which when ye delivered unto us ye termed that heavenly sincere and wholesom Milk of Gods Word howsoever ye now abhor as poyson that which the vertue thereof hath wrought and brought forth in us Ye sometime our Companions Guides and Familiars with whom we have had most sweet Consultations are now become our professed Adversaries because we think the Statute-Congregation in England to be no true Christian Churches because we have severed our selves from them and because without their leave or licence that are in Civil Authority we have secretly framed our own Churches according to the Platform of the Word of God For of that point between you and us there is no Controversie Also what would ye have us to do At such time as ye were content to accept us in the number of your own your Teaching we heard weread your Writings And though we would yet able we are not to forget with what zeal ye have ever profest That in the English Congregations for so many of them as be ordered according unto their own Laws the very Publick Service of God is fraught as touching Matter with heaps of intolerable Pollutions and as concerning Form borrowed from the Shop of Antichrist hateful both ways in the eyes of the most Holy the kinde of their Government by Bishops and Archbishops Antichristian that Discipline which Christ hath essentially tied that is to say so united unto his Church that we cannot account it really to be his Church which hath not in it the same Discipline that very Discipline no less there despised then in the highest Throne of Antichrist All such parts of the Word of God as do any way concern that Discipline no less unsoundly taught and interpreted by all authorized English Pastors then by Antichrists Factors themselves At Baptism Crossing at the Supper of the Lord. Kneeling at both a number of other the most notorious Badges of Antichristian Recognisance usual Being moved with these and the like your effectual discourses whereunto we gave most attentive ear till they entred even into our souls and were as fire within our bosoms We thought we might hereof be bold to conclude That sith no such Antichristian Synagogue may be accounted a true Church of Christ ye by accusing all Congregations ordered according to the Laws of England as Antichristian did mean to condemn those Congregations as not being any of them worthy the name of a true Christian Church Ye tell us now it is not your meaning But what meant your often threatnings of them who professing themselves the inhabitants of Mount Sion were too loth to depart wholly as they should out of Babylon Whereat our hearts being fearfully troubled we durst not we durst not continue longer so near her confines lest her plagues might suddenly overtake us before we did cease to be partakers with her sins for so we could not chuse but acknowledge with grief that we were when they doing evil we by our presence in their Assemblies seemed to like thereof or at leastwise not so earnestly to dislike as became men heartily zealous of Gods glory For adventuring to erect the Discipline of Christ without the leave of the Christian Magistrate haply ye may condemn us as fools in that we hazard thereby our estates and persons further then you which are that way more wise think necessary But of any offence or sin therein committed against God with what conscience can you accuse us when your own positions are That the things we observe should every of them be dearer unto us then ten thousand lives that they are the peremptory Commandments of God that no mortal man can dispense with them and that the Magistrate grievously sinneth in not constraining thereunto Will ye blame any man for doing that of his own accord which all men should be compelled to do that are not willing of themselves When God commandeth shall we answer that we will obey if so be Cesar will grant us leave Is Discipline an Ecclesiastical Matter or a Civil If an Ecclesiastical is must of necessity belong to the duty of the Minister and the Minister ye say holdeth all his Authority of doing whatsoever belongeth unto the Spiritual Charge of the House of God even immediately from God himself without dependency upon any Magistrate Whereupon it followeth as we suppose that the hearts of the people being willing to be under the Scepter of Christ the Minister of God into whose hands the Lord himself hath put that Scepter is without all excuse if thereby he guide them not Nor do we finde that hitherto greatly ye have disliked those Churches abroad where the people with direction of their godly Ministers have even against the will of the Magistrate brought in either the Doctrine or Discipline of Iesus Christ For which cause we must now think the very same thing of you which our Saviour did sometime utter concerning false-hearted Scribes and Pharisees They say and do not Thus the foolish Barrowist deriveth his Schism by way of Conclusion as to him it seemeth directly and plainly out of your principles Him therefore we leave to be satisfied by you from whom he hath sprung And if such by your own acknowledgment be persons dangerous although as yet the alterations which they have made are of small and tender growth the changes likely to ensue throughout all States and Vocations within this Land in case your desire should take place must be thought upon First Concerning the Supream Power of the Highest they are no small Prerogatives which now thereunto belonging the Form of your Discipline will constrain it to resign as in the last Book of this Treatise we have shewed at large Again it may justly be feared whether our English
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
regard the present State of the highest Governor placed over us if the quality and disposition of our Nobles if the Orders and Laws of our famous Universities if the Profession of the Civil or the Practice of the Common Law amongst us if the mischiefs whereinto even before our eyes so many others have faln head-long from no less plausible and fair beginnings then yours are There is in every of these Considerations most just cause to fear lest our hastiness to embrace a thing of so perilous consequence should cause Posterity to feel those evils which as yet are more easie for us to prevent then they would be for them to remedy 9. The best and safest way for you therefore my dear Brethren is To call your Deeds past to a new reckoning to re-examine the cause ye have taken in hand and to try it even point by point argument by argument with all the diligent exactness ye can to lay aside the Gall of that Bitterness wherein your mindes have hitherto ever-abounded and with meekness to search the Truth Think ye are Men deem it not impossible for you to err sift unpartially your own hearts whether it be force of Reason or vehemency of Affection which hath bred and still doth feed these Opinions in you If Truth do any where manifest it self seek not to smother it with gloâ—ing Delusion acknowledge the greatness thereof and think it your best Victory when the same doth prevail over youâ— That ye have been earnest in speaking or writing again and again the contrary way should be noblemish or discredit at all unto you Amongst so many so huge Volumes as the infinite pains of St. Augustine have brought forth what one hath gotten him greater love commendation and honor then the Book wherein he carefully collecteth his own over-sights and sincerely condemneth them Many speeches there are of Jobs whereby his Wisdom and other Vertues may appear but the glory of an ingenuous minde he hath purchased by these words onely Behold I will lay mine hand on my mouth I have spoken once yet will I not therefore maintain Argument yea twice howbeit for that cause further I will not proceed Far more comfort it were for us so small is the joy we take in these strises to labor under the same yoke as men that look for the same eternal reward of their labors to be enjoyned with you in Bands of indissoluble Love and Amity to live as if our persons being many our souls were but one rather than in such dismembred sort to spend our few and wretched days in a tedious prosecuting of wearisome contentions the end whereof if they have not some speedy end will be heavy even on both sides Brought already we are even to that estate which Gregory Nazianzen mournfully describeth saying My minde leadeth me sith there is no other remedy to flie and to convey my self into some corner out of sight where I may scape from this cloudy tempest of maliciousness whereby all parts are entred into a deadly war amongst themselves and that little remnant of love which was is now consumed to nothing The onely godliness we glory in is to finde out somewhat whereby we may judge others to be ungodly Each others faults we observe as matter of exprobration and not of grief By these means we are grown hateful in the eyes of the Heathens themselves and which woundeth us the more deeply able we are not to deny but that we have deserved their hatred With the better sort of our own our fame and credit is clean lost The less we are to marvel if they judge vilely of us who although we did well would hardly allow thereof On our backs they also build that are leud and what we object one against another the same they use to the utter scorn and disgrace of us all This we have gained by our mutual home-dissentions This we are worthily rewarded with which are more forward to strive then becometh men of vertuous and milde disposition But our trust in the Almighty is that with us Contentions are now at the highest flote and that the day will come for what cause of despair is there when the Passions of former Enmity being allayed we shall with ten times redoubled tokens of our unfeignedly reconciled love shew our selves each towards other the same which Joseph and the Brethren of Joseph were at the time of their enterview in Egypt Our comfortable expectation and most thirsty desire whereof what man soever amongst you shall any way help to satisfie as we truly hope there is no one amongst you but some way or other will The blessings of the God of Peace both in this World and in the World to come be upon him more then the Stars of the Firmament in number WHAT THINGS ARE HANDLED In the following BOOKS BOOK I. COncerning LAWS in General BOOK II. Of the use of Divine Law contained in Scripture Whether that be the onely Law which ought to serve for our Direction in all things without exception BOOK III. Of Laws concerning Ecclesiastical Polity Whether the Form thereof be in Scripture so set down that no Addition or Charge is lawful BOOK IV. Of General Exceptions taken against the Laws of our Polity as being Popish and banished out of certain Reformed Churches BOOK V. Of our Laws that concern the Publick Religious Duties of the Church and the manner of bestowing that Power of Order which enableth Men in sundry Degrees and Callings to execute the same BOOK VI. Of the Power of Iurisdiction which the Reformed Platform claimeth unto Lay-Elders with others BOOK VII Of the Power of Iurisdiction and the Honor which is annexed thereunto in Bishops BOOK VIII Of the Power of Ecclesiastical Dominion or Supream Authority which with us the highest Governor or Prince hath as well in regard of Domestical Iurisdictions as of that other Foreignly claimed by the Bishop of Rome OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity BOOK I. Concerning Laws and their several kindes in general The Matter contained in this First Book 1. THe cause of Writing this General Discourse concerning Laws 2. Of that Law which God from before the beginning hath set for himself to do all things by 3. The Law which Natural Agents observe and their necessary manner of keeping it 4. The Law which the Angels of God obey 5. The Law whereby Man is in his Actions directed to the Imitation of God 6. Mens first beginning to understand that Law 7. Of Mans Will which is the first thing that Laws of Action are made to guide 8. Of the Natural finding out of Laws by the Light of Reason to guide the Will unto that which is good 9. Of the benefit of keeping that Law which Reason teacheth 10. How Reason doth lead Men unto the making of Humane Laws whereby Politick Societies are governed and to agreement about Laws whereby the Fellowship or Communion of Independent Societies stanoeth 11. Wherefore God hath by Scripture
further made known such Supernatural Lawsâ— as do serve for Mens direction 12. The cause why so many Natural or Rational Laws are set down in holy Scripture 13. The benefit of having Divine Laws written 14. The sufficiency of Scripture unto the end for which it was instituted 15. Of Laws Positive contained in Scripture the Mutability of certain of them and the general use of Scripture 16. A Conclusion shewing how all this belongeth to the Cause in question HE that goeth about to perswade a multitude that they are not so well-governed as they ought to be shall never want attentive and favorable Hearers because they know the manifold defects whereunto every kinde of Regiment is subject but the secret lets and difficulties which in publick proceedings are innumerable and inevitable they have not ordinarily the judgment to consider And because such as openly reprove supposed disorders of State are taken for Principal Friends to the Common Benefit of all and for men that carry singular Freedom of Minde Under this fair and plausible colour whatsoever they utter passeth for good and currant That which wanteth in the weight of their Speech is supplied by the aptness of Mens mindes to accept and believe it Whereas on the other side if we maintain things that are established we have not onely to strive with a number of heavy prejudices deeply rooted in the hearts of men who think that herein we serve the time and speak in favor of the present State because thereby we either hold or seek preferment but also to bear such Exceptions as Mindes so avetted before-hand usually take against that which they are loth should be poured into them Albeit therefore much of that we are to speak in this present Cause may seem to a number perhaps tedious perhaps obscure dark and intricate for many talk of the Truth which never sounded the depth from whence it springeth And therefore when they are led thereunto they are soon weary as men drawn from those beaten paths wherewith they have been inured yet this may not so far prevail as to cut off that which the matter it self requireth howsoever the nice humor of some be therewith pleased or no. They unto whom we shall seem tedious are in no wise injured by us because it is in their own hands to spare that labor which they are not willing to endure And if any complain of obscurity they must consider that in these Matters it cometh no otherwise to pass then in sundry the works both of Art and also of Nature where that which hath greatest force in the very things we see is notwithstanding itself oftentimes not seen The stateliness of Houses the goodliness of Trees when we behold them delighteth the eye but that Foundation which beareth up the one that Root which ministreth unto the other nourishment and life is in the bosome of the Earth concealed and if there be occasion at any time to search into it such labor is then more necessary then pleasant both to them which undertake it and for the lookers on In like manner the use and benefit of good Laws all that live under them may enjoy with delight and comfort albeit the grounds and first original causes from whence they have sprung be unknown as to the greatest part of men they are But when they who withdraw their obedience pretend That the Laws which they should obey are corrupt and vicious For better examination of their quality it behoveth the very Foundation and Root the highest Well-Spring and Fountain of them to be discovered Which because we are not oftentimes accustomed to do when we do it the pains we take are more needful a great deal then acceptable and the Matters which we handle seem by reason of newness till the minde grow better acquainted with them dark intricate and unfamiliar For as much help whereof as may be in this case I have endeavored throughout the Body of this whole Discourse that every former part might give strength unto all that follow and every latter bring some light unto all before So that if the judgments of men do but hold themselves in suspence as touching these first more General Meditations till in order they have perused the rest that ensue what may seem dark at the first will afterwards be found more plain even as the latter particular decisions will appear I doubt not more strong when the other have been read before The Laws of the Church whereby for so many Ages together we have been guided in the Exercise of Christian Religion and the Service of the true God our Rites Customs and Orders of Ecclesiastical Government are called in question We are accused as men that will not have Christ Jesus to rule over them but have wilfully cast his Statutes behinde their backs hating to be reformed and made subject unto the Scepter of his Discipline Behold therefore we offer the Laws whereby we live unto the General Tryal and Judgment of the whole World heartily beseeching Almighty God whom we desire to serve according to his own Will that both we and others all kinde of Partial affection being clean laid aside may have eyes to see and hearts to embrace the things that in his sight are most acceptable And because the Point about which we strive is the Quality of our Laws our first entrance hereinto cannot better be made then with consideration of the Nature of Law in general and of that Law which giveth Life unto all the rest which are commendable just and good namely the Law whereby the Eternal himself doth work Proceeding from hence to the Law first of Nature then of Scripture we shall have the easier access unto those things which come after to be debated concerning the particular Cause and Question which we have in hand 2. All things that are have some operation not violent or casual Neither doth any thing ever begin to exercise the same without some fore-conceived end for which it worketh And the end which it worketh for is not obtained unless the Work be also fit to obtain it by for unto every end every operation will not serve That which doth assign unto each thing the kinde that which doth moderate the force and power that which doth appoint the form and measure of working the same we term a Law So that no certain end could ever be attained unless the Actions whereby it is attained were regular that is to say Made suitable fit and correspondent unto their end by some Canon Rule or Law Which thing doth first take place in the Works even of God himself All things therefore do work after a sort according to Law all other things according to a Law whereof some Superiors unto whom they are subject is Author onely the Works and Operations of God have him both for their Worker and for the Law whereby they are wrought The Being of God is a kinde of Law to his working for that Perfection
which God is giveth Perfection to that he doth Those Natural Necessary and Internal Operations of God the Generation of the Son the Proceeding of the Spirit are without the compass of my present intent which is to touch onely such Operations as have their Beginning and Being by a voluntary purpose wherewith God hath eternally decreed when and how they should be which Eternal Decree is that we term an Eternal Law Dangerous it were for the feeble Brain of Man to wade far into the doings of the most High whom although to know be Life and Joy to make mention of his Name yet our soundest knowledge is to know that we know him not as indeed he is neither can know him and our safest eloquence concerning him is our silence when we confess without confession that his glory is inexplicable his greatness above our capacity and reach He is above and we upon Earth therefore it behoveth our words to be wary and few Our God is One or rather very Oneness and meer Unity having nothing but it Self in it Self and not consisting as all things do besides God of many things In which Essential Unity of God a Trinity Personal nevertheless subsisteth after a manner far exceeding the possibility of mans conceit The works which outwardly are of God they are in such sort of him being One that each Person hath in them somewhat peculiar and proper For being Three and they all subsisting in the Essence of one Deity from the Father by the Son through the Spirit all things are That which the Son doth hear of the Father and which the Spirit doth receive of the Father and the Son the same we have at the hands of the Spirit as being the last and therefore the nearest unto us in order although in power the same with one Second and the First The wise and learned among the very Heathens themselves have all acknowledged some first cause whereupon originally the Being of all things dependeth Neither have they otherwise spoken of that Cause then as an Agent which knowing what and why it worketh observeth in working a most exact Order or Law Thus much is signified by that which Homer mentioneth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus much acknowledged by Mercurius Trismegistus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus much confest by Anaxagoras and Plato terming the Maker of the World an Intellectual Worker Finally the Stoiks although imagining the first cause of all things to be Fire held nevertheless that the same Fire having Art did O 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They all confess therefore in the working of that first cause that Counsel is used Reason followed a Way observed that is to say Constant Order and Law is kept whereof it self must needs be Author unto it self Otherwise it should have some worthier and higher to direct it and so could not it self be the first being the first it can have no other then it self to be the Author of that Law which it willingly worketh by God therefore is a Law both to himself and to all other things besides To himself he is a Law in all those things whereof our Saviour speaks saying My Father worketh as yet so I. God worketh nothing without cause All those things which are done by him have some end for which they are done and the end for which they are done is a Reason of his Will to do them His Will had not inclined to create Woman but that he saw it could not be well if she were not created Non est bonum It is not good man should be alone therefore let us make an helper for him That and nothing else is done by God which to leave undone were not so good If therefore it be demanded why God having power and ability infinite the effects notwithstanding of that power are all so limited as we see they are The reason hereof is the End which he hath proposed and the Law whereby his Wisdom hath stinted the effects of his power in such sort that it doth not work infinitely but correspondently unto that end for which it worketh even all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in most decent and comely sort all things in measure number and weight The General End of Gods External Working is the exercise of his most glorious and most abundant vertue Which abundance doth shew it self in variety and for that cause this variety is oftentimes in Scripture exprest by the name of riches The Lord hath made all things for his own sake Not that any thing is made to be beneficial unto him but all things for him to shew beneficence and grace in them The particular drift of every Act proceeding externally from God we are not able to discern and therefore cannot always give the proper and certain reason of his Works Howbeit undoubtedly a proper and certain Reason there is of every Finite Work of God in as much as there is a Law imposed upon it which if there were not it should be Infinite even as the Worker himself is They err therefore who think that of the Will of God to do this or that there is no Reason besides his Will Many times no Reason known to us but that there is no reason thereof I judge it most unreasonable to imagine in as much as he worketh all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely according to his own Will but the counsel of his own Will And whatsoever is done with counsel or wise resolution hath of necessity some reason why it should be done albeit that reason be to us in some things so secret that it forceth the wit of man to stand as the Blessed Apostle himself doth amazed thereat O the depth of the riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God How unsearchable are his Iudgments c. That Law Eternal which God himself hath made to himself and thereby worketh all things whereof he is the Cause and Author that Law in the admirable frame whereof shineth with most perfect Beauey the Countenance of that Wisdom which hath testified concerning her self The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way even before his works of old I was set up That Law which hath been the Pattern to make and is the Card to guide the World by that Law which hath been of God and with God everlastingly that Law the Author and Observer whereof is one onely God to be blessed for ever how should either Men or Angels be able perfectly to behold The Book of this Law we are neither able nor worthy to open and look into That little thereof which we darkly apprehend we admire the rest with religious ignorance we humbly and meekly adore Seeing therefore that according to this Law he worketh Of whom through whom and for whom are all things although there seem unto us confusion and disorder in the affairs of this present world◠Tamen quoniam bonus mundum rector temperat recte fieri
cuncta ne dubites Let no man doubt but that every thing is well done because the World is rule by so good a Guide as transgresseth not his own Law then which nothing can be more absolute perfect and just The Law whereby he worketh is Eternal and therefore can have no shew or colour of mutability For which cause a part of that Law being opened in the Promises which God hath made because his Promises are nothing else but Declarations what God will do for the good of men touching those Promises the Apostle hath witnessed That God may as possibly deny himself and not be God as fail to perform them And concerning the Counsel of God he termeth it likewise a thing Unchangeable the Counsel of God and that Law of God whereof now we speak being one Nor is the freedom of the Will of God any whit abated let or hindred by means of this because the Imposition of this Law upon himself is his own free and voluntary act This Law therefore we may name Eternal being that order which God before all Ages hath fet down with himself for himself to do all things by 3. I am not ignorant that by Law Eternal the Learned for the most part do understand the Order not which God hath eternally purposed himself in all his Works to observe but rather that which with himself he hath set down as expedient to be kept by all his Creatures according to the several conditions wherewith he hath endued them They who thus are accustomed to speak apply the name of Law unto that onely rule of working which Superior Authority imposeth whereas we somewhat more enlarging the sense thereof term any kinde of Rule or Canon whereby Actions are framed a Law Now that Law which as it is laid up in the bosom of God they call Eternal receiveth according unto the different kinde of things which are subject unto it different and sundry kindes of names That part of it which ordereth Natural Agents we call usually Natures Law that which Angels do clearly behold and without any swerving observe is a Law Celestial and Heavenly the Law of Reason that which bindeth Creatures reasonable in this World and with which by reason they most plainly perceive themselves bound that which bindeth them and is not known but by special Revelation from God Divine Law Humane Law that which out of the Law either of Reason or of God Men probably gathering to be expedient they make it a Law All things therefore which are as they ought to be are conformed unto this Second Law Eternal and even those things which to this Eternal Law are not conformable are notwithstanding in some sort ordered by the First Eternal Law For what good or evil is there under the Sun what action correspondent or repugnant unto the Law which God hath imposed upon his Creatures but in or upon it God doth work according to the Law which himself hath eternally purposed to keep that is to say The First Eternal Law So that a twofold Law Eternal being thus made it is not hard to conceive how they both take place in all things Wherefore to come to the Law of Nature albeit thereby we sometimes mean that manner of working which God hath set for each created thing to keep yet for as much as those things are termed most properly Natural Agents which keep the Law of their kinde unwittingly as the Heavens and Elements of the World which can do no otherwise then they do And for as much as we give unto Intellectual Natures the name of Voluntary Agents that so we may distinguish them from the other expedient it will be that wesever the Law of Nature observed by the one from that which the other is tied unto Touching the former their strict keeping of one Tenure Statute and Law is spoken of by all but hath in it more then men have as yet attained to know or perhaps ever shall attain seeing the travel of wading herein is given of God to the Sons of Men that perceiving how much the least thing in the World hath in it more then the wisest are able to reach unto the may by this means learn humility Moses in describing the Work of Creation attributeth speech unto God God said Let there be light Let there be a Firmament Let the Waters under the Heavens be gathered together into one place Let the Earth bring forth Let there be Lights in the Firmament of Heaven Was this onely the intent of Moses to signifie the infinite greatness of Gods Power by the easiness of his accomplishing such effects without travel pain or labor Surely it seemeth that Moses had herein besides this a further purpose ' namely first to teach that God did not work as a necessary but a voluntary Agent intending beforehand and decreeing with himself that which did outwardly proceed from him Secondly to shew that God did then institute a Law natural to be observed by Creatures and therefore according to the manner of Laws the Institution thereof is described as being established by solemn injunction His commanding those things to be which are and to be in such sort as they are to keep that tenure and course which they do importeth the establishment of Natures Law This Worlds first Creation and the preservation since of things created what is it but onely so far forth a manifestation by execution what the Eternal Law of God is concerning things natural And as it cometh to pass in a Kingdom rightly ordered that after a Law is once published it presently takes effect far and wide all States framing themselves thereunto even so let us think it fareth in the Natural course of the World Since the time that God did first proclaim the Edicts of his Law upon it Heaven and Earth have hearkned unto his voice and their labor hath been to do his will He made a Law for the Rain He gave his Decree unto the Sea that the Waters should not pass his Commandment Now if Nature should intermit her course and leave altogether though it were but for a while the observation of her own Laws if those Principal and Mother Elements of the World whereof all things in this lower World are made should lose the qualities which now they have if the frame of that Heavenly Arch erected over our Heads should loosen and dissolve it self if Celestial Spheres should forget their wonted motions and by irregular volubility turn themselves any way as it might happen if the Prince of the Lights of Heaven which now as a Gyant doth run his unwearied course should as it were through a languishing faintness begin to stand and to rest himself if the Moon should wander from her beaten way the times and seasons of the year blend themselves by disordered and confused mixture the Winds breathe out their last gasp the Clouds yield no Rain the Earth be defeated of Heavenly influence the Fruits of the
followeth That there is no particular object so good but it may have the shew of some difficulty or unpleasant quality annexed to itâ— in respect whereof the Will may shrink and decline it Contrariwise for so things are blended there is no particular evil which hath not some appearance of goodness whereby to inâ—inuate it self For evil as evil cannot be desired if that be desired which is evil the cause is the goodness which is or seemeth to be joyned with it Goodness doth not move by being but by being apparent and therefore many things are neglected which are most precious onely because the value of them lieth hid Sensible Goodness is most apparent neer and present which causeth the Appetite to be therewith strongly provoked Now Pursuit and Refusal in the Will do follow the one the Affirmation the other the Negation of Goodness which the Understanding apprehendeth grounding it self upon Sease unless some higher Reason do chance to teach the contraty And if Reason have taught it rightly to be good yet not so apparently that the Minde receiveth it with utter impossibility of being otherwise still there is place left for the Will to take or leave Whereas therefore amongst so many things as are to be done there are so few the goodness whereof Reason in such sort doth or easily can discover we are not to marvel at the choice of evil even then when the contrary is probably known Hereby it cometh to pass that Custom inuring the Minde by long practice and so leaving there a sensible Impression prevaileth more then reasonable Perswasion what way soever Reason therefore may rightly discern the thing which is good and yet the Will of Man not incline it self thereunto as oft as the prejudice of sensible Experience doth oversway Nor let any Man think that this doth make any thing for the just excuse of Iniquity for there was never sin committed wherein a less good was not preferred before a greater and that wilfully which cannot be done without the singular disgrace of Nature and the utter disturbance of that Divine Order whereby the preheminence of chiefest Acceptation is by the best things worthily challenged There is not that good which concerneth us but it hath evidence enough for it self if Reason were diligent to search it out Through neglect thereof abused we are with the shew of that which is not sometimes the subrilty of Satan enveighling us as it did Evâ— sometimes the hastiness of our Wills preventing the more considerate Advice of sound Reason as in the Apostles when they no sooner saw what they liked not but they forthwith were desirous of fire from Heaven sometimes the very custom of evil making the heart obdurate against whatsoever instructions to the contrary as in them over whom our Saviour spake weeping O Ierusalem how often and thou wouldst not Still therefore that wherewith we stand blameable and can no way excuse it is in doing evil we prefer a less good before a greater the greatness whereof is by Reason investigable and may be known The search of Knowledge is a thing painful and the painfulness of Knowledge is that which maketh the Will so hardly inclinable thereunto The Root hereof Divine Malediction whereby the Instruments being weakned wherewithal the Soul especially in reasoning doth work it prefereth rest in Ignorance before wearisome labor to know For a spur of Diligence therefore we have a natural thirst after Knowledge ingrafted in us But by Reason of that original weakness in the Instruments without which the Understanding part is not able in this World by discourse to work the very conceit of painfulness is as a bridle to stay us For which cause the Apostle who knew right well that the weariness of the flesh is an heavy clog to the Will striketh mightily upon this Key Awake thou that sleepest cast off all which presseth down watch labor strive to go forward and to grow in knowledge 8. Wherefore to return to our former intent of discovering the Natural way whereby Rules have been found out concerning that Goodness wherewith the Will of Man ought to be moved in Humane Actions as every thing naturally and necessarily doth desire the utmost good and greatest Perfection whereof Nature hath made it capable even so Man Our felicity therefore being the object and accomplishment of our desire we cannot chuse but wish and cover it All particular things which are subject unto Action the Will doth so far forth incline unto as Reason judgeth them the better for us and consequently the more available to our bliss If Reason err we fall into evil and are so far forth deprived of the general Perfection we seek Seeing therefore that for the framing of Mens actions the knowledge of good from evil is necessary it onely resteth that we search how this may be had Neither must we suppose that there needeth one Rule to know the good and another the evil by For he that knoweth what is straight doth even thereby discern what is crooked because the absence of straightness in bodies capable thereof is crookedness Goodness in Actions is like unto straightness wherefore that which is done well we term right For as the straight way is most acceptable to him that travelleth because by it he cometh soonest to his journeys end so in Action that which doth lie the evenest between us and the end we desire must needs be the fittest for our use Besides which fitness for use there is also in rectitude Beauty as contrariwise in obliquity deformity And that which is good in the Actions of Men doth not onely delight as profitable but as amiable also In which consideration the Grecians most divinely have given to the Active perfection of Men a name expressing both Beauty and Goodness because Goodness in ordinary speech is for the most part applied onely to that which is beneficial But we in the name of Goodness do here imply both And of discerning Goodness there are but these two ways the one the knowledge of the causes whereby it is made such the other the observation of those signs and tokens which being annexed always unto Goodness argue That where they are found there also Goodness is although we know not the cause by force whereof it is there The former of these is the most sure and infallible way but so hard that all shun it and had rather walk as men do in the dark by hap-hazard then tread so long and intricate Mazes for Knowledge sake As therefore Physitians are many times forced to leave such Methods of curing as themselves know to be the fittest and being over-ruled by their Patients impatiency are fain to try the best they can in taking that way of cure which the cured will yield unto In like sort considering how the case doth stand with this present Age full of Tongue and weak of Brain behold we yield to the stream thereof into the Causes of Goodness we
which we call Ius or Right to be the Daughter of Heaven and Earth We know things either as they are in themselves or as they are in mutual relation one to another The knowledge of that which Man is in reference unto himself and other things in relation unto Man I may justly term the Mother of all those Principles which are as it were Edicts Statutes and Decrees in that Law of Nature whereby Humane Actions are framed First therefore having observed that the best things where they are not hindred do still produce the best Operations for which cause where many things are to concur unto one effect the best is in all congruity of Reason to guide the residue that it prevailing most the work principally done by it may have greatest perfection when hereupon we come to observe in our selves of what excellency our Souls are in comparison of our Bodies and the divine part in relation unto the baser of our Souls seeing that all these concur in producing Humane Actions it cannot be well unless the chiefest do command and direct the rest The Soul then ought to conduct the Body and the Spirit of our Mindes the Soul This is therefore the first Law whereby the highest power of the Minde requireth general obedience at the hands of all the rest concurring with it unto Action Touching the several grand Mandates which being imposed by the understanding Faculty of the Minde must be obeyed by the Will of Man they are by the same method found out whether they import our duty towards God or towards Man Touching the one I may not here stand to open by what degrees of discourse the Mindes even of meer Natural Men have attained to know not onely that there is a God but also what Power Force Wisdom and other properties that God hath and how all things depend on him This being therefore presupposed from that known relation which God hath unto us as unto children and unto all good things as unto effects whereof himself is the principal cause these Axioms and Laws Natural concerning our duty have arisen That in all things we go about his aid is by Prayer to be craved That be cannot have sufficient honor done unto him but the uttermost of that we can do to honor him we must which is in effect the same that we read Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy minde Which Law our Saviour doth term The first and the great Commandment Touching the next which as our Saviour addeth as like unto this he meaneth in amplitude and largeness in as much as it is the Root out of which all Laws of duty to Men-ward have grown as out of the former all Offices of Religion towards God the like Natural enducement hath brought men to know that it is their duty no less to love others then themselves For seeing those things which are equal must needs all have one measure if I cannot but wish to receive all good even as much at every mans hand as any man can wish unto his own soul how should I look to have any part of my desire herein satisfied unless my self be careful to satisfie the like desire which is undoubtedly in other men we all being of one and the same Nature To have any thing offered them repugnant to this desire must needs in all respects grieve them as much as me So that if I do harm I must look to suffer there being no reason that others should shew greater measure of love to me then they have by me shewed unto them My desire therefore to be loved of my equals in nature as much as possible may be imposeth upon me a natural duty of bearing to them-ward fully the like affection From which relation of equality between our selves and them that are as our selves what several Rules and Canons Natural Reason hath drawn for direction of life no man is ignorant as namely That because we would take no harm we must therefore do none that sith we would not be in any thing extreamly dealt with we must our selves avoid all extremity in our dealings that from all violence and wrong we are utterly to abstain with such like which further to wade in would be tedious and to our present purpose not altogether so necessary seeing that on these two General Heads already mentioned all other specialities are dependent Wherefore the natural measure whereby to judge our doings is the sentence of Reason determining and setting down what is good to be done Which sentence is either mandatory shewing what must be done or else permissive declaring onely what may be done or thirdly admonitory opening what is the most convenient for us to do The first taketh place where the comparison doth stand altogether between doing and not doing of one thing which in it self is absolutely good or evil as it had been for Ioseph to yield or not to yield to the impotent desire of his leud Mistress the one evil the other good simply The second is when of divers things evil all being not evitable we are permitted to take one which one saving onely in case of so great urgency were not otherwise to be taken as in the matter of Divorce amongst the Jews The last when of divers things good one is principal and most eminent as in their act who sold their possessions and laid the price at the Apostles feet which possessions they might have retained unto themselves without sin Again in the Apostle St. Pauls own choice to maintain himself by his own labor whereas in living by the Churches maintenance as others did there had been no offence committed In goodness therefore there is a latitude or extent whereby it cometh to pass that even of good actions some are better then other some whereas otherwise one man could not excel another but all should be either absolutely good as hitting jump that indivisible Point or Centre wherein goodness consisteth or else missing it they should be excluded out of the number of well-doers Degrees of well-doing there could be none except perhaps in the seldomness and oftenness of doing well But the Nature of Goodness being thus ample a Law is properly that which Reason in such sort defineth to be good that it must be done And the Law of Reason or Humane Nature is that which men by discourse of Natural Reason have rightly found out themselves to be all for ever bound unto in their actions Laws of Reason have these marks to be known by Such as keep them resemble most lively in their voluntary actions that very manner of working which Nature her self doth necessarily observe in the course of the whole World The Works of Nature are all behoveful beautiful without superfluity or defect even so theirs if they be framed according to that which the Law of Reason teacheth Secondly Those Laws are investigable by Reason without
the help of Revelation Supernatural and Divine Finally In such sort they are investigable that the knowledge of them is general the World hath always been acquainted with them according to that which one in Sophocles observeth concerning a Branch of this Law It is no childe of two days or yesterdays birth but hath been no man knoweth how long sithence It is not agreed upon by one or two or few but by all which we may not so understand as if every particular Man in the whole World did know and confess whatsoever the Law of Reason doth contain But this Law is such that being proposed no man can reject it as unreasonable and unjust Again there is nothing in it but any man having natural perfection of wit and ripeness of judgment may by labor and travel finde out And to conclude principles the general thereof are such as it is not easie to finde men ignorant of them Law Rational therefore which men commonly use to call the Law of Nature meaning thereby the Law which Humane Nature knoweth it self in Reason universally bound unto which also for that cause may be termed most fitly the Law of Reason this Law I say comprehendeth all those things which Men by the Light of their Natural Understanding evidently know or at leastwise may know to be beseeming or unbeseeming vertuous or vicious good or evil for them to do Now although it be true which some have said that whatsoever is done amiss the Law of Nature and Reason thereby is transgrest because even those offences which are by their special qualities breaches of Supernatural Laws do also for that they are generally evil violate in general that principle of Reason which willeth universally to flie from evil yet do we not therefore so far extend the Law of Reason as to contain in it all manner of Laws whereunto reasonable Creatures are bound but as hath been shewed we restrain it to those onely duties which all men by force of Natural Wit either do or might understand to be such duties as concern all men Certain half-waking men there are as St. Augustine noteth who neither altogether asleep in fâ—lly nor yet throughly awake in the light of true understanding have thought that there is not at all any thing just and righteous in it self but look wherewith Nations are inured the same they take to be right and just Whereupon their Conclusion is That seeing each sort of people hath a different kinde of right from other and that which is right of it's own nature must be every where one and the same therefore in it self there is nothing right These good folks saith he that I may not trouble their wits with the rehearsal of too many things have not looked so far into the World as to perceive that Do as thou wouldst be done unto is a sentence which all Nations under Heaven are agreed upon Refer this sentence to the love of God and it extinguisheth all heinous crimes Refer it to the love of thy Neighbor and all grievous wrongs it banisheth out of the World Wherefore as touching the Law of Reason this was it seemeth St. Augustines judgment namely that there are in it some things which stand as principles universally agreed upon and that out of those Principles which are in themselves evident the greatest Moral duties we ow towards God or Man may without any great difficulty be concluded If then it be here demanded by what means it should come to pass the greatest part of the Law Moral being so easie for all men to know that so many thousands of men notwithstanding have been ignorant even of principal Moral Duties not imagining the breach of them to be sin I deny not but leud and wicked custom beginning perhaps at the first amongst few afterwards spreading into greater multitudes and so continuing from time to time may be of force even in plain things to smother the light of Natural understanding because men will not bend their wits to examine whether things wherewith they have been accustomed be good or evil For examples sake that grosser kinde of Heathenish Idolatry whereby they worshipped the very works of their own hands was an absurdity to Reason so palpable that the Prophet David comparing Idols and Idolaters together maketh almost no odds between them but the one in a manner as much without wit and sense as the other They that make them are like unto them and so are all that trust in them That wherein an Idolater doth seem so absurd and foolish is by the Wiseman thus exprest He is not ashamed to speakunto that which hath no life He calleth on him that is weak for health He prayeth for life unto him which in dead of him which hath no experience he requireth help For his journey he sueth to him which is not able to go For gain and work and success in his affairs he seeketh furtherance of him that hath no manner of power The cause of which sensless stupidity is afterwards imputed to custom When a Father mourned grievously for his son that was taken away suddenly he made an image for him that was once dead whom now he worshipped as a god ordaining to his servants Ceremonies and Sacrifices Thus by process of time this wicked custom prevailed and was kept as a Law the Authority of Rulers the Ambition of Craftsmen and such like means thrusting forward the ignorant and encreasing their superstition Unto this which the Wiseman hath spoken somewhat besides may be added For whatsoever we have hitherto taught or shall hereafter concerning the force of Mans natural understanding this we always desire withal to be understood that there is no kinde of faculty or power in Man or any other Creature which can rightly perform the Functions allotted to it without perpetual aid and concurrence of that Supream Cause of all things The benefit whereof as oft as we cause God in his justice to withdraw there can no other thing follow then that which the Apostle noteth even men endued with the Light of Reason to walk notwithstanding in the vanity of their minde having their cogitations darkned and being strangers from the Life of God through the ignorance which is in them because of the hardness of their hearts And this cause is mentioned by the Prophet Isaiah speaking of the ignorance of Idolaters who see not how the manifest Law of Reason condemneth their gross iniquity and sui They have not in them saith he so much wit as to think Shall I bow to the stock of a tree All knowledge and understanding is taken from them for God hath shut their eyes that they cannot see That which we say in this case of Idolatry serveth for all other things wherein the like kinde of general blindness hath prevailed against the manifest Laws of Reason Within the compass of which Laws we do not onely comprehend whatsoever may be easily known to belong to the
duty of all men but even whatsoever may possibly be known to be of that quality so that the same be by necessary consequence deduced out of clear and manifest principles For if once we descend unto probable Collections what is convenient formen we are then in the Territory where free and arbitrary Determinations the Territory where Humane Laws take place which Laws are after to be considered 9. Now the due observation of this Law which Reason teacheth us cannot but be effectual unto their great good that observe the same For we see the whole World and each part thereof so compacted that as long as each thing performeth onely that work which is natural unto it it thereby preserveth both other things and also it self Contrariwise let any principal thing as the Sun the Moon any one of the Heavens or Elements but once cease or fail or swerve and who doth not easily conceive that the sequel thereof would be ruine both to it self and whatsoever dependeth on it And is it possible that Man being not onely the noblest Creature in the World but even a very World in himself his transgressing the Law of his Nature should draw no manner of harm after it Yes Tribulation and anguish unto every soul that doth evil Good doth follow unto all things by observing the course of their nature and on the contrary side evil by not observing it but not unto Natural Agents that good which we call Reward not that evil which we properly term Punishment The reason whereof is because amongst Creatures in this World onely Mans observation of the Law of his Nature is Righteousness onely Mans transgression Sin And the reason of this is the difference in his manner of observing or transgressing the Law of his Nature He doth not otherwise then voluntarily the one or the other What we do against our wills or constrainedly we are not properly said to do it because the motive cause of doing it is not in our selves but carrieth us as if the Wind should drive a Feather in the Air we no whit furthering that whereby we are driven In such cases therefore the evil which is done moveth compassion Men are pittied for it as being rather miserable in such respect then culpable Some things are likewise done by Man though not through outward force and impulsion though not against yet without their Wills as in Alienation of Minde or any the like inevitable utter absence of Wit and Judgment For which cause no Man did ever think the hurtful actions of furious Men and Innocents to be punishable Again some things we do neither against nor without and yet not simply and meerly with our Wills but with our Wills in such sort moved that albeit there be no impossibility but that we might nevertheless we are not so easily able to do otherwise In this consideration one evil deed is made more pardonable then another Finally that which we do being evil is notwithstanding by so much more pardonable by how much the exigence of so doing or the difficulty of doing otherwise is greater unless this necessity or difficulty have originally risen from our selves It is no excuse therefore unto him who being drunk committeth incest and alledgeth that his wits were not his own in as much as himself might have chosen whether his wits should by that mean have been taken from him Now Rewards and Punishments do always presuppose some thing willingly done well or ill without which respect though we may sometimes receive good or harm yet then the one is onely a Benefit and not a Reward the other simply an Hurt not a Punishment From the sundry dispositions of Mans will which is the root of all his actions there groweth variety in the sequel of Rewards and Punishments which are by these and the like rules measured Take away the will and all acts are equal That which we do not and would do is commonly accepted as done By these and the like rules Mens actions are determined of and judged whether they be in their own nature rewardable or punishable Rewards and Punishments are not received but at the hands of such as being above us have power to examine and judge our deeds How men come to have this authority one over another in External Actions we shall more diligently examine in that which followeth But for this present so much all do acknowledge that sith every mans heart and conscience doth in good or evil even secretly committed and known to none but it self either like or disallow it self and accordingly either rejoyce very Nature exulting as it were in certain hope of reward or else grieve as it were in a sense of future punishment neither of which can in this case be looked for from any other saving onely from him who discerneth and judgeth the very secrets of all hearts Therefore he is the onely Rewarder and Revenger of all such Actions although not of such actions onely but of all whereby the Law of Nature is broken whereof himself is Author For which cause the Roman Laws called The Laws of the Twelve Tables requiring offices of inward affection which the eye of Man cannot reach unto threaten the neglecters of them with none but Divine Punishment 10. That which hitherto we have set down is I hope sufficient to shew their brutishness which imagine that Religion and Vertue are onely as Men will account of them that we might make as much account if we would of the contrary without any harm unto our selves and that in Nature they are as indifferent one as the other We see then how Nature it self reacheth Laws and Statutes to live by The Laws which have been hitherto mentioned do binde men absolutely even as they are men although they have never any setled Fellowship never any solemn Agreement amongst themselves what to do or not to do But forasmuch as we are not by our selves sufficient to furnish our selves with competent store of things needful for such a life as our Nature doth desire a life fit for the dignity of man Therefore to supply those defects and imperfections which are in us living single and solely by our selves we are naturally enduced to seek Communion and Fellowship with others This was the cause of Mens uniting themselves at the first in Politick Societies which Societies could not be without government nor government without a distinct kinde of Law from that which hath been already declared Two Foundations there are which beat up Publick Societies the one a Natural Inclination whereby all men desire sociable life and fellowship the other an order expresly or secretly agreed upon touching the manner of their Union in living together The latter is that which we call the Law of a Commonweal the very Soul of a Politick Body the parts whereof are by Law animated held together and set on work in such Actions as the common good requireth Laws Politick ordained for External Order and Regiment
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
housholds joyned themselves in civil Societies together Kings were the first kinde of Governors amongst them Which is also as it seemeth the reason why the name of Father continued still in them who of Fathers were made Rulers as also the ancient custom of Governors to do as Melchisedec and being Kings to exercise the Office of Priests which Fathers did at the first grew perhaps by the same occasion Howbeit not this the onely kinde of Regiment that hath been received in the World The inconveniences of one kinde have caused sundry other to be devised So that in a word all Publick Regiment of what kinde soever seemeth evidently to have risen from deliberate Advice Consultation and Composition between Men judging it convenient and behoveful there being no impossibility in Nature considered by it self but that men might have lived without any Publick Regiment Howbeit the corruption of our nature being presupposed we may not deny but that the Law of Nature doth now require of necessity some kinde of Regiment so that to bring things unto the first course they were in and utterly to take away all kinde of Publick Government in the World were apparently to overturn the whole World The case of Mans nature standing therefore as it doth some kinde of Regiment the Law of Nature doth require yet the kindes thereof being many Nature tieth not to any one but leaveth the choice as a thing arbitrary At the first when some certain kinde of Regiment was once approved it may be that nothing was then further thought upon for the manner of governing but all permitted unto their Wisdom and Discretion which were to rule till by experience they found this for all parts very inconvenient so as the thing which they had devised for a remedy did indeed but increase the sore which it should have cured They saw that to live by one Mans will became the cause of all Mens misery This constrained them to come unto Laws wherein all men might see their duties beforehand and know the penalties of transgressing them If things be simply good or evil and withal universally so acknowledged there needs no new Law to be made for such things The first kinde therefore of things appointed by Laws Humane containeth whatsoever being in it self naturally good or evil is notwithstanding more secret then that it can be discerned by every mans present conceit without some deeper discourse and judgment In which discourse because there is difficulty and possibility many ways to err unless such things were set down by Laws many would be ignorant of their duties which now are not and many that know what they should do would nevertheless dissemble it and to excuse themselves pretend ignorance and simplicity which now they cannot And because the greatest part of Men are such as prefer their own private good before all things even that good which is Sensual before whatsoever is most Divine And for that the labor of doing good together with the pleasure arising from the contrary doth make men for the most part slower to the one and proner to the other then that duty prescribed then by Law can prevail sufficiently with them Therefore unto Laws that Men do make for the benefit of Men it hath seemed always needful to add Rewards which may more allure unto good then any hardness deterreth from it and Punishments which may more deter from evil then any sweetness thereto allureth Wherein as the generality is Natural Vertue rewardable and Vice punishable So the particular determination of the Reward or Punishment belongeth unto them by whom Laws are made Theft is naturally punishable but the kinde of punishment is Positive and such lawful as Men shall think with discretion convenient by Law to appoint In Laws that which is Natural bindeth universally that which is Positive not so To let go those kinde of Positive Laws which Men impose upon themselves as by vow unto God contract with Men or such like somewhat it will make unto our purpose a little more fully to consider what things are incident unto the making of the Positive Laws for the Government of them that live united in Publick Society Laws do not onely teach what is good but they enjoyn it they have in them a certain constraining force and to constrain Men unto any thing inconvenient doth seem unreasonable Most requisite therefore it is that to devise Laws which all Men shall be forced to obey none but Wisemen be admitted Laws are Matters of Principal Consequence Men of common Capacity and but ordinary Judgment are not able for how should they to discern what things are fittest for each kinde and state of Regiment We cannot be ignorant how much our obedience unto Laws dependeth upon this point Let a man though never so justly oppose himself unto them that are disordered in their ways and what one among them commonly doth not stomach at such Contradiction storm at Reproof and hate such as would Reform them Notwithstanding even they which brook it worst that Men should tell them of their duties when they are told the same by a Law think very well and reasonably of it For why They presume that the Law doth speak with all indifferency that the Law hath no side respect to their persons that the Law is as it were an Oracle proceeding from Wisdom and Understanding Howbeit Laws do not take their constraining force from the quality of such as devise them but from that power which doth give them the strength of Laws That which we spake before concerning the Power of Government must here be applied unto the power of making Laws whereby to govern which power God hath over all and by the Natural Law whereunto he hath made all subject the lawful power of making Laws to command whole Politick Societies of Men belongeth so properly unto the same entire Societies that for any Prince or Potentate of what kinde soever upon Earth to exercise the same of himself and not either by express Commission immediately and personally received from God or else by Authority derived at the first from their consent upon whose persons they impose Laws it is no better then meer tyranny Laws they are not therefore which Publick Approbation hath not made so But Approbation not onely they give who personally declare their assent by voice sign or act but also when others do it in their names by right originally at the least derived from them As in Parliaments Councils and the like Assemblies although we be not personally our selves present notwithstanding our Assent is by reason of other Agents there in our behalf And what we do by others no reason but that it should stand as our Deed no less effectually to binde us then if our selves had done it in person In many things Assent is given they that give it not imagining they do so because the manner of their assenting is not apparent As for example when an absolute Monarch commandeth his
Subjects that which seemeth good in his own discretion hath not his Edict the force of a Law whether they approve or dislike it Again that which hath been received long sithence and is by custom now established we keep as a Law which we may not transgress yet what consent was ever thereunto sought or required at our hands Of this point therefore we are to note that sith Men naturally have no full and perfect power to command whole Politick Multitudes of Men therefore utterly without our consent we could in such sort be at no Mans commandment living And to be commanded we do consent when that Society whereof we are part hath at any time before consented without revoking the same after by the like Universal Agreement Wherefore as any Mans Deed past is good as long as himself continueth so the Act of a Publick Society of Men done Five hundred years sithence standeth as theirs who presently are of the same Societies because Corporations are Immortal we were then alive in our Predecessors and they in their Successors do live still Laws therefore Humane of what kinde soever are available by consent If here it be demanded how it cometh to pass that this being common unto all Laws which are made there should be found even in good Laws so great variety as there is We must note the Reason hereof to be the sundry particular ends whereunto the different disposition of that Subject or Matter for which Laws are provided causeth them to have a special respect in making Laws A Law there is mentioned amongst the Grecians whereof Pillacus is reported to have been Author and by that Law it was agreed that he which being overcome with drink did then strike any man should suffer punishment double as much as if he had done the same being sober No man could ever have thought this reasonable that had intended thereby onely to punish the injury committed according to the gravity of the Fact For who knoweth not that harm advisedly done is naturally less pardonable and therefore worthy of sharper punishment But for as much as none did so usually this way offend as men in that case which they wittingly fell into even because they would be so much the more freely outragious It was for their publick good where such disorder was grown to frame a Positive Law for remedy thereof accordingly To this appertain those known Laws of making Laws as that Law-makers must have an eye to that place where and to the men amongst whom that one kinde of Laws cannot serve for all kinde of Regiment that where the Multitude beareth sway Laws that shall tend unto the preservation of that State must make common smaller Offices to go by lot for fear of strife and division likely to arise by reason that ordinary qualities sufficing for discharge of such Offices they could not but by many be desired and so with danger contended for and not missed without grudge and discontentment whereas at an uncertain lot none can finde themselves grieved on whomsoever it lighteth Contrariwise the greatest whereof but few are capable to pass by Popular Election that neither the people may envy such as have those Honors in as much as themselves bestow them and that the chiefest may be kindled with desire to exercise all parts of rare and beneficial Vertue knowing they shall not lose their labor by growing in fame and estimation amongst the people If the Helm of chief Government be in the hands of a few of the wealthiest that then Laws providing for continuance thereof must make the punishment of contumely and wrong offered unto any of the common sort sharp and grievous that so the evil may be prevented whereby the rich are most likely to bring themselves into hatred with the people who are not wont to take so great offence when they are excluded from Honors and Offices as when their persons are contumeliously trodden upon In other kindes of Regiment the like is observed concerning the difference of Positive Laws which to be everywhere the same is impossible and against their Nature Now as the Learned in the Laws of this Land observe that our Statutes sometimes are onely the Affirmation or Ratification of that which by Common Law was held before so here it is not to be omitted that generally all Laws Humane which are made for the ordering of Politick Societies be either such as establish some duty whereunto all Men by the Law of Reason did before stand bound or else such as make that a duty now which before was none The one sort we may for distinction sake call Mixedly and the other Meerly Humane That which plain or necessary Reason bindeth Men unto may be in sundry considerations expedient to be ratified by Humane Law For example if Confusion of Blood in Marriage the liberty of having many Wives at once or any other the like corrupt and unreasonable Custom doth happen to have prevailed far and to have gotten the upper hand of Right Reason with the greatest part so that no way is left to rectifie such foul disorder without prescribing by Law the same things which Reason necessarily doth enforce but is not perceived that so it doth or if many be grown unto that which the Apostle did lament in some concerning whom he writeth saying That even what things they naturally know in those very things as Beasts void of Reason they corrupted themselves Or if there be no such special accident yet for as much as the common sort are led by the sway of their sensual desires and therefore do more shun sin for the sensible evils which follow it amongst men then for any kinde of sentence which Reason doth pronounce against it This very thing is cause sufficient why duties belonging unto each kinde of Vertue albeit the Law of Reason teach them should notwithstanding be prescribed even by Humane Law Which Law in this case we term Mixt because the matter whereunto it bindeth is the same which Reason necessarily doth require at our hands and from the Law of Reason it differeth in the manner of binding onely For whereas Men before stood bound in Conscience to do as the Law of Reason teacheth they are now by vertue of Humane Law become constrainable and if they outwardly transgress punishable As for Laws which are Meerly Humane the matter of them is any thing which Reason doth but probably teach to be fit and convenient so that till such time as Law hath passed amongst men about it of it self it bindeth no man One example whereof may be this Lands are by Humane Law in some places after the owners decease divided unto all his Children in some all descendeth to the eldest Son If the Law of Reason did necessarily require but the one of these two to be done they which by Law have received the other should be subject to that heavy sentence which denounceth against all that Decree wicked unjust and unreasonable things Wo.
Whereas now which soever be received there is no Law of Reason transgrest because there is probable reason why either of them may be expedient and for either of them more then probable reason there is not to be found Laws whether mixtly or meerly Humane are made by Politick Societies some onely as those Societies are civilly united some as they are spiritually joyned and make such a Body as we call the Church Of Laws Humane in this latter kinde we are to speak in the Third Book following Let it therefore suffice thus far to have touched the force wherewith Almighty God hath graciously endued our Nature and thereby enabled the same to findeâ—out both those Laws which all Men generally are for ever bound to observe and also such as are most fit for their behoof who lead their lives in any ordered State of Government Now besides that Law which simply concerneth men as Men and that which belongeth unto them as they are Men linked with others in some Form of Politick Society there is a third kinde of Law which toucheth all such several Bodies Politick so far forth as one of them hath Publick Commerce with another And this third is The Law of Nations Between Men and Beasts there is no possibility or Sociable Communion because the Welspring of that Communion is a Natural delight which Man hath to transfuse from himself into others and to receive from others into himself especially those things wherein the excellency of this kinde doth most consist The chiefest Instrument of Humane Communion therefore is Speech because thereby we impart mutually one to another the Conceits of our Reasonable Understanding And for that cause seeing Beasts are not hereof capable for as much as with them we can use no such Conference they being in degree although above other Creatures on Earth to whom Nature hath denied sense yet lower then to be sociable Companions of Man to whom Nature hath given Reason It is of Adam said that amongst the Beasts he sound not for himself any meet companion Civil Society doth more content the Nature of Man then any private kinde of solitary living because in Society this good of Mutual Participation is so much larger then otherwise Herewith notwithstanding we are not satisfied but we covet if it might be to have a kinde of Society and Fellowship even with all mankinde Which thing Socrates intending to signifie professed himself a Citizen not of this or that Commonwealth but of the World And an effect of that very natural desire in us a manifest token that we wish after a sort an Universal Fellowship with all Men appeareth by the wonderful delight men have some to visit foreign Countreys some to discover Nations not heard of in former Ages we all to know the Affairs and Dealings of other People yea to be in League of Amity with them And this not onely for Trafficks sake or to the end that when many are confederated each may make other the more strong but for such cause also as moved the Queen of Sheba to visit Solomon and in a word because Nature doth presume that how many Men there are in the World so many Gods as it were there are or at leastwise such they should be towards Men. Touching Laws which are to serve Men in this behalf even as those Laws of Reason which Man retaining his original Integrity had been sufficient to direct each particular person in all his Affairs and Duties are not sufficient but require the access of other Laws now that Man and his Off-spring are grown thus corrupt and sinful Again as those Laws of Polity and Regiment which would have served Men living in Publick Society together with that harmless disposition which then they should have had are not able now to serve when Mens iniquity is so hardly restrained within any tolerable bounds In like manner the National Laws of Natural Commerce between Societies of that former and better quality might have been other then now when Nations are so prone to offer violence injury and wrong Hereupon hath grown in every of these three kindes that distinction between Primary and Secondary Laws the one grounded upon sincere the other built upon depraved Nature Primary Laws of Nations are such as concern Embassage such as belong to the courteous entertainment of Foreigners and Strangers such as serve for Commodious Traffick and the like Secondary Laws in the same kinde are such as this present unquiet World is most familiarly acquainted with I mean Laws of Arms which yet are much better known then kept But what matter the Law of Nations doth contain I omit to search The strength and vertue of that Law is such that no particular Nation can lawfully prejudice the same by any their several Laws and Ordinances more then a Man by his private resolutions the Law of the whole Commonwealth or State wherein he liveth For as Civil Law being the Act of a whole Body Politick doth therefore over-rule each several part of the same Body so there is no reason that any one Commonwealth of it self should to the prejudice of another anaihilate that whereupon the whole World hath agreed For which cause the Lacedemonians forbidding all access of strangers into their coasts are in that respect both by Josephus and Theodores deservedly blamed as being enemies to that Hospitality which for common Humanities sake all the Nations on Earth should embrace Now as there is great cause of Communion and consequently of Laws for the maintenance of Communion amongst Nations So amongst Nations Christian the like in regard even of Christianity hath been always judged needful And in this kinde of correspondence amongst Nations the force of General Councils doth stand For as one and the same Law Divine whereof in the next place we are to speak is unto all Christian Churches a rule for the chiefest things by means whereof they all in that respect make one Church as having all but One Lord one Faith and one Baptism So the urgent necessity of Mutual Communion for Preservation of our Unity in these things as also for Order in some other things convenient to be every where uniformly kept maketh it requisite that the Church of God here on Earth have her Laws of Spiritual Commerce between Christian Nations Laws by vertue whereof all Churches may enjoy freely the use of those Reverend Religious and Sacred Consultations which are termed Councils General A thing whereof Gods own Blessed Spirit was the Author a thing practised by the holy Apostles themselves a thing always afterwards kept and observed throughout the World a thing never otherwise then most highly esteemed of till Pride Ambition and Tyranny began by factious and vile Endeavors to abuse that Divine Invention unto the furtherance of wicked purposes But as the just Authority of Civil Courts and Parliaments is not therefore to be abolished because sometimes there is cunning used to frame them according
to the private intents of men over-potent in the Commonwealth So the grievous abuse which hath been of Councils should rather cause men to study how so gracious a thing may again be reduced to that first Perfection then in regard of stains and blemishes sithence growing be held for ever in extream disgrace To speak of this matter as the cause requireth would require very long discourse All I will presently say is this Whether it be for the finding out of any thing whereunto Divine Law bindeth us but yet in such sort that Men are not thereof on all sides resolved or for the setting down of some Uniform Judgment to stand touching such things as being neither way matters of necessity are notwithstanding offensive and scandalous when there is open opposition about them Be it for the ending of strifes touching matters of Christian belief wherein the one part may seem to have probable cause of dissenting from the other or be it concerning matters of Policy Order and Regiment in the Church I nothing doubt but that Christian men should much better frame themselves to those Heavenly Precepts which our Lord and Saviour with so great instancy gave as concerning Peace and Unity if we did all concur in desire to have the use of Ancient Councils again renewed rather then these proceedings continued which either make all Contentions endless or bring them to one onely Determination and that of all other the worst which is by Sword It followeth therefore that a new Foundation being laid we now adjoyn hereunto that which cometh in the next place to be spoken of namely wherefore God hath himself by Scripture made known such Laws as serve for direction of Men. 11. All things God onely accepted besides the Nature which they have in themselves receive externally some Perfection from other things as hath been shewed In so much as there is in the whole World no one thing great or small but either in respect of knowledge or of use it may unto our Perfection add somewhat And whatsoever such Perfection there is which our Nature may acquire the same we properly term our good our Soveraign Good or Blessedness that wherein the highest degree of all our Perfection consisteth that which being once attained unto there can rest nothing further to be desired and therefore with it our souls are fully content and satisfied in that they have they rejoyce and thirst for no more Wherefore of good things desired some are such that for themselves we cover them not but onely because they serve as Instruments unto that for which we are to seek Of this sort are Riches Another kinde there is which although we desire for it self as Health and Vertue and Knowledge nevertheless they are not the last mark whereat we aim but have their further end whereunto they are referred So as in them we are not satisfied as having attained the utmost we may but our desires do still proceed These things are linked and as it were chained one to another We labor to eat and we eat to live and we live to do good and the good which we do is as seed sown with reference unto a future Harvest But we must come at the length to some pause For if every thing were to be desired for some other without any stint there could be no certain end proposed unto our actions we should go on we know not whither yea whatsoever we do were in vain or rather nothing at all were possible to be done For as to take away the first efficient of our Being were to annihilate utterly our persons so we cannot remove the last final cause of our working but we shall cause whatsoever we work to cease Therefore something there must be desired for it self simply and for no other That is simply for it self desirable unto the nature whereof it is opposite and repugnant to be desired with relation unto any other The Ox and the Ass desire their food neither propose they unto themselves any end wherefore so that of them this is desired for it self But why By reason of their imperfection which cannot otherwise desire it whereas that which is desired simply for it self the excellency thereof is such as permitteth it not in any sort to be referred unto a further end Now that which Man doth desire with reference to a further end the same he desireth in such measure as is unto that end convenient but what he covereth as good in it self towards that his desire is ever infinite So that unless the last good of all which is desired altogether for it self be also infinite we do evil in making it our end even as they who placed their felicity in wealth or honor or pleasure or any thing here attained because in desiring any thing as our final perfection which is not so we do amiss Nothing may be infinitely desired but that good which indeed is infinite For the better the more desireable that therefore most desireable wherein there is infinity of goodness So that if any thing desireable may be infinite that must needs be the highest of all things that are desired No good is infinite but onely God therefore he is our felicity and bliss moreover desire tendeth unto union with that it desireth If then in him we be blessed it is by force of participation and conjunction with him Again it is not the possession of any good thing can make them happy which have it unless they enjoy the things wherewith they are possessed Then are we happy therefore when fully we enjoy God as an object wherein the Powers of our Souls are satisfied even with everlasting delight So that although we be men yet by being unto God united we live as it were the Life of God Happiness therefore is that estate whereby we attain so far as possibly may be attained the full possession of that which simply for it self is to be desired and containeth in it after an eminent sort the contentation of our desires the highest degree of all our Perfection Of such Perfection capable we are not in this life For while we are in the World we are subject unto sundry imperfections grief of body defects of minde yea the best things we do are painful and the exercise of them grievous being continued without intermission so as in those very actions whereby we are especial'y perfected in this life we are not able to persist forced we are with very weariness and that often to interrupt them Which rediousness cannot fall into those operations that are in the state of bliss when our union with God is compleat Compleat union with him must be according unto every power and faculty of our mindes apt to receive so glorious an object Capable we are of God both by Understanding and Will By Understanding as he is that Soveraign Truth which comprehends the Rich Treasures of all Wisdom By Will as he is that Sea of Goodness
the most High God whose proper handy-work all things are cannot be compassed with that wit and those senses which are our own For God and Man should be very near Neighbors if Mans cogitations were able to take a survey of the Counsels and Appointments of that Majesty Everlasting Which being utterly impossible that the Eye of Man by it self should look into the bosom of Divine Reason God did not suffer him being desirous of the Light of Wisdom to stray any longer up and down and with bootless expence of travel to wâ—nder in darkness that had no passage to get out by His eyes at the length God did open and bestow upon him the knowledge of the Truth by way of Donative to the end that Man might both be clearly convicted of folly and being through Error out of the way have the path that leadeth unto immortality laid plain before him Thus far Lactantius Firmianus to shew that God himself is the Teacher of the Truth whereby is made known the Supernatural way of Salvation and Law for them to live in that shall be saved In the Natural Path of Everlasting Life the first beginning is that ability of doing good which God in the day of Mans Creation endued him with from hence Obedience unto the Will of his Creator absolute Righteousness and Integrity in all his Actions and last of all the Justice of God rewarding the worthiness of his deâ—â—â—ts with the Crown of Eternal Glory Had Adam continued in his first estate this had been the way of life unto him and all his Posterity Whereas I confess notwithstanding with the wittiest of the School-Divines that if we speak of strict Justice God could no way have been bound to requite Mans labors in so large and ample manner as Humane Felicity doth import in as much as the dignity of this exceedeth so far the others value But be it that God of his great Liberality had determined in lieu of Mans endeavors to bestow the same by the rule of that Justice which best beseemeth him namely the Justice of one that requireth nothing mincingly but all with pressed and heaped and even over-enlarged measure yet could it never hereupon necessarily be gathered that such Justice should add to the nature of that Reward the property of everlasting continuance sith Possession of Bliss though it should be but for a moment were an abundant retribution But we are not now to enter into this consideration how gracious and bountiful our good God might still appear in so rewarding the Sons of Men albeit they should exactly perform whatsoever duty their Nature bindeth them unto Howsoever God did propose this Reward we that were to be rewarded must have done that which is required at our hands we failing in the one it were in Nature an impossibility that the other should be looked for The Light of Nature is never able to finde out any way of obtaining the Reward of Bliss but by performing exactly the Duties and Works of Righteousness From Salvation therefore and Life all flesh being excluded this way behold how the Wisdom of God hath revealed a way Mystical and Supernatural away directing unto the same end of life by a course which groundeth it self upon the guiltiness of sin and through sin desert of condemnation and death For in this way the first thing is the tender compassion of God respecting us drowned and swallowed up in misery The next is Redemption out of the same by the precious Death and Merit of a Mighty Saviour which hath witnessed of himself saying I am the Way the way that leadeth us from misery into bliss This Supernatural Way had God in himself prepared before all Worlds The way of Supernatural Duty which to us he hath prescribed our Saviour in the Gospel of St. Iohn doth note terming it by an excellency The Work of God This is the work of God that ye believe in him whom he hath sent Not that God doth require nothing unto happiness at the hands of men saving onely a naked belief for Hope and Charity we may not exclude but that without belief all other things are as nothing and it the ground of those other Divine Vertues Concerning Faith the principal object whereof is that Eternal Verity which hath discovered the Treasures of hidden Wisdom in Christ. Concerning Hope the highest object whereof is that Everlasting Goodness which in Christ doth quicken the dead Concerning Charity the final object whereof is that incomprehensible Beauty which shineth in the countenance of Christ the Son of the Living God Concerning these Vertues the first of which beginning here with a weak apprehension of things not seen endeth with the intuitive Vision of God in the World to come the second beginning here with a trembling expectation of things far removed and as yet but onely heard of endeth with Real and Actual Fruition of that which no Tongue can express the third beginning herewith a weak in inclination of heart towards him unto whom we are not able to approach endeth with endless Union the mystery whereof is higher then the reach of the thoughts of Men. Concerning that Faith Hope and Charity without which there can be no Salvation was there ever any mention made saving onely in that Law which God himself hath from Heaven revealed There is not in the World a syllable muttered with certain truth concerning any of these three more then hath been supernaturally received from the Mouth of the Eternal God Laws therefore concerning these things are Supernatural both in respect of the manner of delivering them which is Divine and also in regard of the things delivered which are such as have not in Nature any cause from which they flow but were by the voluntary appointment of God ordained besides the course of Nature to rectifie Natures obliquity withal 12. When Supernatural Duties are necessarily exacted Natural are not rejected as needless The Law of God therefore is though principally delivered for instruction in the one yet fraught with Precepts of the other also The Scripture is fraught even with Laws of Nature insomuch that Gratian defining Natural Right whereby is meant the right which exacteth those general duties the concern men naturally even as they are men termeth Natural Right that which the Books of the Law and the Gospel do contain Neither is it vain that the Scripture aboundeth with so great store of Laws in this kinde For they are either such as we of our selves could not easily have found out and then the benefit is not small to have them readily set down to our hands or if they be so clear and manifest that no man endued with Reason can lightly be ignorant of them yet the Spirit as it were borrowing them from the School of Nature as serving to prove things less manifest and to enduce a perswasion of somewhat which were in it self more hard and dark unless it should in such foâ—â— be cleared the very
applying of them unto cases particular is not without most singular use and profit many ways for mens instruction Besides be they plain of themselves or obscure the evidence of Gods own testimony added unto the natural assent of Reason concerning the certainty of them doth not a little comfort and confirm the same Wherefore in as much as our actions are conversant about things beset with many circumstances which cause men of sundry wits to be also of sundry judgments concerning that which ought to be done Requisit it cannot but seem the Rule of Divine Law should herein help our imbecillity that we might the more infallibly understand what is good and what evil The first principles of the Law of Nature are easie hard it were to finde men ignorant of them But concerning the duty which Natures Law doth require at the hands of Men in a number of things particular so far hath the Natural Understanding even of sundry whole Nations been darkned that they have not discerned no not gross iniquity to be sin Again being so prone as weare â—o fawn upon our selves and to be ignorant as much as may be of our own deformities without the feeling Sense whereof we are most wretched even so much the more because not knowing them we cannot as much as desire to have them taken away How should our festered sores be cured but that God hath delivered a Law as sharp as the two-edged sword piercing the very closest and most unsearchable corners of the heart which the Law of Nature can hardly Humane Laws by no means possibly reach unto Hereby we know even secret concupiscence to be sin and are made fearful to offend though it be but in a wandring cogitation Finally of those things which are for direction of all the parts of our life needful and not impossible to be discerned by the Light of Nature it self are there not many which few mens natural capacity and some which no mans hath been able to finde out They are saith St. Augustine but a few and they endued with great ripeness of wit and judgment free from all such affairs as might trouble their Meditations instructed in the sharpest and the subtilest points of Learning who have and that very hardly been able to finde out but onely the Immortality of the Soul The Resurrection of the Flesh what Man did ever at any time dream of having not heard it otherwise then from the School of Nature Whereby it appeareth how much we are bound to yield unto our Creator the Father of all Mercy Eternal Thanks for that he hath delivered his Law unto the World a Law wherein so many things are laid open clear and manifest as a Light which otherwise would have been buried in darkness not without the hazard or rather not with the hazard but with the certain loss of infinite thousands of Souls most undoubtedly now saved We see therefore that our soveraign good is desired naturally that God the Author of that natural desire had appointed natural means whereby to fulfil it that Man having utterly disabled his Nature unto those means hath had other revealed from God and hath received from Heaven a Law to teach him how that which is desired naturally must now supernaturally be attained Finally we see that because those latter exclude not the former quite and clean as unnecessary therefore together with such Supernatural duties as could not possibly have been otherwise known to the World the same Law that teacheth them teacheth also with them such Natural duties as could not by Light of Nature easily have been known 13. In the first Age of the World God gave Laws unto our Fathers and by reason of the number of their days their memories served in stead of Books whereof the manifold imperfections and defects being known to God he mercifully relieved the same by often putting then in minde of that whereof it behoved them to be specially mindful In which respect we see how many times one thing hath been iterated unto sundry even of the best and wisest amongst them After that the lives of Men were shortned means more durable to preserve the Laws of God from oblivion and corruption grew in use not without precise direction from God himself First therefore of Moses it is said that he wrote all the words of God not by his own private motion and device For God taketh this act to himself I have written Furthermore were not the Prophets following commanded also to do the like Unto the holy Evangelist St. Iohn how often express charge is given Scribe write these things Concerning the rest of our Lords Disciples the words of St. Augustine are Quidquid ille de suis factis dictis nos legere voluit hoc scribendum illis tanquam suis manibus imperavit Now although we do not deny it to be a matter meerly accidental unto the Law of God to be written although writing be not that which addeth authority and strength thereunto Finally though his Laws do require at our hands the same obedience howsoever they be delivered his providence notwithstanding which hath made principal choice of this way to deliver them who seeth not what cause we have to admire and magnifie The singular benefit that hath grown unto the World by receiving the Laws of God even by his own appointment committed unto writing we are not able to esteem as the value thereof deserveth When the question therefore is whether we be now to seek for any revealed Law of God otherwhere then onely in the Sacred Scripture whether we do now stand bound in the sight of God to yield to Traditions urged by the Church of Rome the same obedience and reverence we do to his Written Law honoring equally and adoring both as Divine Our answer is No. They that so earnestly plead for the Authority of Tradition as if nothing were more safely conveyed then that which spreadeth it self by report and descendeth by relation of former Generations unto the Ages that succeed are not all of them surely a miracle it were if they should be so simple as thus to perswade themselves howsoever if the simple were so perswaded they could be content perhaps very well to enjoy the benefit as they account it of that common Error What hazard the Truth is in when it passeth through the hands of report how maimed and deformed it becometh they are not they cannot possibly be ignorant Let them that are indeed of this minde consider but onely that little of things Divine which the Heathen have in such sort received How miserable had the State of the Church of God been long ere this if wanting the Sacred Scripture we had no Record of his Laws but onely the memory of man receiving the same by report and relation from his Predecessors By Scripture it hath in the Wisdom of God seemed meet to deliver unto the World much but personally expedient to be practised of certain men
after they have been expresly and wittingly imposed Laws Positive there are in every of those kindes beforementioned As in the first kinde the Promises which we have past unto Men and the Vows we have made unto God for these arâ— Laws which we tie our selves unto and till we have so tied our selves they binde us not Laws Positive in the second kinde are such as the Civil Constitutions peculiar unto each particular Commonweal In the third kinde the Law of Heraldry in War is Positive And in the last all the Judicials which God gave unto the people of Israel to observe And although no Laws but Positive be mutable yet all are not mutable which be Positive Positive Laws are either permanent or else changeable according as the matter it self is concerning which they were first made Whether God or Man be the Maker of them alteration they so far forth admit as the Matter doth exact Laws that concern Supernatural duties are all Positive and either concern Men supernaturally as Men or else as parts of a Supernatural Society which Society we call the Church To concern Men as Men supernaturally is to concern them as duties which belong of necessity to all and yet could not have been known by any to belong unto them unless God had opened them himself in as much as they do not depend upon any Natural ground at all out of which they may be deduced but are appointed of God to supply the defect of those natural ways of salvation by which we are not now able to attain thereunto The Church being a Supernatural Society doth differ from Natural Societies in this that the persons unto whom we associate our selves in the one are Men simply considered as Men But they to whom we be joyned in the other are God Angels and holy Men. Again the Church being hoth a Society and a Society Supernatural Although as it is a Society it have the self same original grounds which other Politick Societies have namely the Natural inclination which all men have unto sociable life and consent to some certain Bond of Association which Bond is the Law that appointeth what kinde of order they shall be associated in Yet unto the Church as it is a Society Supernatural this is peculiar that part of the Bond of their Association which belongs to the Church of God must be a Law Supernatural which God himself hath revealed concerning that kinde of worship which his people shall do unto him The substance of the service of God therefore so far forth as it hath in it any thing more then the Law of Reason doth reach may not be invented of Men as it is amongst the Heathens but must be received from God himself as always it hath been in the Church saving onely when the Church hath been forgetful of her duty Wherefore to end with a general Rule concerning all the Laws which God hath tied men unto Those Laws Divine that belong whether naturally or supernaturally either to men as men or to men as they live in Politick Society or to men as they are of that Politick Society which is the Church without any further respect had unto any such variable accident as the Estate of men and of Societies of men and of the Church it self in this World is subject unto all Laws that so belong unto men they belong for ever yea although they be Positive Laws unless being Positive God himself which made them alter them The reason is because the subject or matter of Laws in general is thus far forth constant Which matter is that for the ordering whereof Laws were instituted and being instituted are not changeable without cause Neither can they have cause of change when that which gave them their first institution remaineth for ever one and the same On the other side Laws that were made for Men or Societies or Churches in regard of their being such as they do not always continue but may perhaps be clean otherwise awhile after and so may require to be otherwise ordered then before the Laws of God himself which are of this nature no man endued with common sense will ever deny to be of a different constitution from the former in respect of the ones constancy and the mutability of the other And this doth seem to have been the very cause why St. Iohn doth so peculiarly term the doctrine that teacheth salvation by Jesus Christ Evangelium AEternum An eternal Gospel because there can be no reason wherefore the publishing thereof should be taken away and any other instead of it proclaimed as long as the World doth continue Whereas the whole Law of Rites and Ceremonies although delivered with so great solemnity is notwithstanding clean abrogated in as much as it had but temporary cause of Gods ordaining it But that we may at the length conclude this first general introduction unto the Nature and Original Birth as of all other Laws so likewise of those which the Sacred Scripture containeth concerning the Author whereof even Infidels have confessed that he can neither err nor deceive Albeit about things easie and manifest unto all men by common sense there needeth no higher consultation because as a man whose wisdom is in weighty affairs admired would take it in some disdain to have his counsel solemnly asked about a toy so the meanness of some things is such that to search the Scripture of God for the ordering of them were to derogate from the reverend Authority and Dignity of the Scripture no less then they do by whom Scriptures are in ordinary talk very idly applied unto vain and childish trifles yet better it were to be superstitious then prophane To take from thence our direction even in all things great or small then to wade through matters of principal weight and moment without ever caring what the Law of God hath either for or against our designs Concerning the custom of the very Paynims thus much Strabo witnesseth Men that are civil do lead their lives after one Common Law appointing them what to do For that otherwise a multitude should with harmony amongst themselves concur in the doing of onething for this is civilly to live or that they should in any sort manage community of life it is not possible Now Laws or Statutes are of two sorts For they are either received from Gods or else from Men. And our ancient Predecessors did surely most honor and reverence that which was from the Gods For which cause Consultation with Oracles was a thing very usual and frequent in their times Did they make so much account of the voice of their gods which in truth were no gods and shall we neglect the precious benefit of conference with those Oracles of the true and living God whereof so great store is left to the Church and whereunto there is so free so plain and so easie access for all men By thy Commandments this was Davids confession unto God thou
hast made me wiser then mine enemies Again I have had more understanding then all my Teachers because thy Testimonies are my Meditations What pains would not they have bestowed in the study of these Books who travelled Sea and Land to gain the treasure of some few days talk with men whose wisdom the World did make any reckoning of That little which some of the Heathens did chance to hear concerning such matter as the Sacred Scripture plentifully containeth they did in wonderful sort affect their speeches as oft as they make mention thereof are strange and such as themselves could not utter as they did other things But still acknowledged that their wits which did every where else conquer hardness were with profoundness here over-matched Wherefore seeing that God hath endued us with Sense to the end that we might perceive such things as this present life doth need and with reason left that which Sense cannot reach unto being both now and also in regard of a future estate hereafter necessary to be known should lie obscure Finally with the Heavenly support of Prophetical Revelation which doth open those hidden Mysteries that Reason could never have been able to finde out or to have known the necessity of them unto our everlasting good Use we the precious gifts of God unto his glory and honor that gave them seeking by all means to know what the Will of our God is what righteous before him in his sight what holy perfect and good that we may truly and faithfully do it 16. Thus far therefore we have endeavored in part to open of what nature and force Laws are according unto their several kindes The Law which God with himself hath eternally set down to follow in his own works The Law which he hath made for his Creatures to keep The Law of natural and necessary Agents The Law which Angels in Heaven obey The Law whereunto by the Light of Reason Men finde themselves bound in that they are Men The Law which they make by composition for Multitudes and Politick Societies of Men to be guided by The Law which belongeth unto each Nation The Law that concerneth the Fellowship of all And lastly The Law which God himself hath supernaturally revealed It might peradventure have been more popular and more plausible to vulgar ears if this first discourse had been spent in extolling the force of Laws in shewing the great necessity of them when they are good and in aggravating their offence by whom Publick Laws are injuriously traduced But for as much as with such kinde of matter the Passions of Men are rather stirred one way or other then their knowledge any way set forward unto the tryal of that whereof there is doubt made I have therefore turned aside from that beaten path and chosen though a less easie yet a more profitable way in regard of the end we propose Lest therefore any man should marvel whereunto all these things tendâ— the drift and purpose of all is this even to shew in what manner as every good and perfect gift so this very gift of good and perfect Laws is derived from the Father of Lights to teach men a reason why just and reasonable Laws are of so great force of so great use in the World and to inform their mâ—ndes with some method of reducing the Laws whereof there is present controversie unto their first original causes that so it may be in every particular Ordinance thereby the better discerned whether the same be reasonable just and righteous or no. Is there any thing which can either be thorowly understood or soundly judged of till the very first causes and principles from which originally it springeth be made manifest If all parts of knowledge have been thought by wise men to be then most orderly delivered and proceeded in when they are drawn to their first original seeing that our whole question concerneth the quality of Ecclesiastical Laws let it not seem a labor superfluous that in the entrance thereunto all these several kindes of Laws have been considered in as much as they all concur as principles they all have their forcible operations therein although not all in like aprent and manifest manner By means whereof it cometh to pass that the force which they have is not observed of many Easier a great deal it is for Men by Law to be taught what they ought to do then instructed how to judge as they should do of Law the one being a thing which belongeth generally unto all the other such as none but the wiser and more judicious sort can perform Yea the wisest are always touching this point the readiest to acknowledge that soundly to judge of a Law is the weightiest thing which any man can take upon him But if we will give judgment of the Laws under which we live first let that Law Eternal be always before our eyes as being of principal force and moment to breed in religious mindes a dutiful estimation of all Laws the use and benefit whereof we see because there can be no doubt but that Laws apparently good are as it were things copied out of the very Tables of that High Everlasting Law even as the Book of that Law hath said concerning it self By me Kings reign and by me Princes decree Iustice. Not as if Men did behold that Book and accordingly frame their Laws but because it worketh in them because it discovereth and as it were readeth it self to the World by them when the Laws which they make are righteous Furthermore although we perceive not the goodness of Laws made nevertheless sith things in themselves may have that which we peradventure discern not Should not this breed a fear into our hearts how we speak or judge in the worse part concerning that the unadvised disgrace whereof may be no mean dishonor to him towards whom we profess all submission and aw Surely there must be very manifest iniquity in Laws against which we shall be able to justifie our contumelious Invectives The chiefest root whereof when we use them without cause is ignorance how Laws inferior are derived from that supream or highest Law The first that receive impression from thence are Natural agents The Law of whose operations might be haply thought less pertinent when the question is about Laws for Humane actions but that in those very actions which most spiritually and supernaturally concern men the Rules and Axioms of Natural operations have their force What can be more immediate to our Salvation then our perswasion concerning the Law of Christ towards his Church What greater assurance of love towards his Church then the knowledge of that Mystical Union whereby the Church is become as near unto Christ as any one part of his flesh is unto other That the Church being in such sort his he must needs protect it what proof more strong then if a manifest Law so require which Law it is not possible for
Christ to violate And what other Law doth the Apostle for this alledge but such as is both common unto Christ with us and unto us with other things Natural No man hateth his own flesh but doth love and cherish it The Axioms of that Law therefore whereby Natural agents are guided have their use in the Moral yea even in the Spiritual actions of men and consequently in all Laws belonging unto men howsoever Neither are the Angels themselves so far severed from us in their kinde and manner of working but that between the Law of their Heavenly operations and the Actions of men in this our state of mortality such correspondence there is as maketh it expedient to know in some sort the one for the others more perfect direction Would Angels acknowledge themselves Fellow-servants with the Sons of Men but that both having One Lord there must be some kinde of Law which is one and the same to both whereunto their obedience being perfecter is to our weaker both a Pattern and a Spur Or would the Apostles speaking of that which belongeth unto Saints as they are linked together in the Bond of Spiritual Society so often make mention how Angels are therewith delighted if in things publickly done by the Church we are not somewhat to respect what the Angels of Heaven do Yea so far hath the Apostle St. Paul proceeded as to signifie that even about the outward Orders of the Church which serve but for comeliness some regard is to be had of Angels who best like us when we are most like unto them in all parts of decent demeanor So that the Law of Angels we cannot judge altogether impertinent unto the affairs of the Church of God Our largeness of speech how men do finde out what things Reason bindeth them of necessity to observe and what it guideth them to chuse in things which are left as Arbitary the care we have had to declare the different Nature of Laws which severally concern all men from such as belong unto men either civilly or spiritually associated such as pertain to the Fellowship which Nations or which Christian Nations have amongst themselves and in the last place such as concerning every or any of these God himself hath revealed by his holy Word all serveth but to make manifest that as the Actions of men are of sundry distinct kindes so the Laws thereof must accordingly be distinguished There are in men operations some Natural some Rational some Supernatural some Politick some finally Ecclesiastical Which if we measure not each by his own proper Law whereas the things themselves are so different there will be in our understanding and judgment of them confusion As that first Error sheweth whereon our opposites in this cause have grounded themselves For as they rightly maintain that God must be glorified in all things and that the actions of men cannot tend unto his glory unless they be framed after his Law So it is their Error to think that the onely Law which God hath appointed unto men in that behalf is the Sacred Scripture By that which we work naturally as when we breath sleep move we set forth the glory of God as Natural agents do albeit we have no express purpose to make that our end nor any advised determination therein to follow a Law but do that we do for the most part not as much as thinking thereon In reasonable and Moral actions another Law taketh place a Law by the observation whereof we glorifie God in such sort as no Creature else under Man is able to do because other Creatures have not judgment to examine the quality of that which is done by them and therefore in that they do they neither can accuse not approve themselves Men do both as the Apostle teacheth yea those men which have no written Law of God to shew what is good or evil carry written in their hearts the Universal Law of Mankinde the Law of Reason whereby they judge as by a Rule which God hath given unto all Men for that purpose The Law of Reason doth somewhat direct Men how to honor God as their Creator but how to glorifie God in such sort as is required to the end he may be an Everlasting Saviour this we are taught by Divine Law which Law both ascertaineth the truth and supplieth unto us the want of that other Law So that in Moral actions Divine Law helpeth exceedingly the Law of Reason to guide Mans life but in Supernatural it alone guideth Proceed we further Let us place Man in some Publick Society with others whether Civil or Spiritual and in this case there is no remedy but we must add yet a further Law For although even here likewise the Laws of Nature and Reason be of necessary use yet somewhat over and besides them is necessary namely Humane and Positive Law together with that Law which is of commerce between Grand Societies the Law of Nations and of Nations Christian. For which cause the Law of God hath likewise said Let every Soul be subject to the higher Powers The Publick Power of all Societies is above every Soul contained in the same Societies And the principal use of that Power is to give Laws unto all that are under it which Laws in such case we must obey unless there be reason shewed which may necessarily inforce That the Law of Reason or of God doth enjoyn the contrary Because except our own private and but probable resolutions be by the Law of Publick Determinations over-ruled we take away all possibility of sociable life in the World A plainer example whereof then our selves we cannot have How cometh it to pass that we are at this present day so rent with mutual contentions and that the Church is so much troubled about the Polity of the Church No doubt if men had been willing to learn how many Laws their actions in this life are subject unto and what the true force of each Law is all these controversies might have died the very day they were first brought forth It is both commonly said and truly That the best men otherwise are not always the best in regard of Society The reason whereof is for that the Law of Mens actions is one if they be respected onely as Men and another when they are considered as parts of a Politick Body Many men there are then whom nothing is more commendable when they are singled And yet in Society with others none less fit to answer the duties which are looked for at their hands Yea I am perswaded that of them with whom in this cause we strive there are whose betters among men would be hardly found if they did not live amongst men but in some Wilderness by themselves The cause of which their disposition so unframable unto Societies wherein their live is for that they discern not aright what place and force these several kindes of Laws ought to have in all their
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
the Resurrection of Jesus Christ did not prove it if so be the Prophet David meant them of himself This Exposition therefore they plainly disprove and shew by manifest Reason that of David the words of David could not possibly be meant Exclude the use of Natural reasoning about the sense of holy Scripture concerning the Articles of our Faith and then that the Scripture doth concern the Articles of our Faith who can assure us That which by right Exposition buildeth up Christian Faith being misconstrued breedeth Error between true and false construction the difference Reason must shew Can Christian men perform that which Peter requireth at their hands Is it possible they should both believe and be able without the use of Reason to render a Reason of their belief a Reason sound and sufficient to answer them that demand it be they of the same Faith with us or enemies thereunto May we cause our Faith without Reason to appear reasonable in the eyes of men This being required even of Learners in the School of Christ the duty of their Teachers in bringing them unto such ripeness must needs be somewhat more then onely to read the Sentences of Scripture and then Paraphrastically to scholy them to vary them with sundry Forms of speech without arguing or disputing about any thing which they contain This method of teaching may commend it self unto the World by that easiness and facility which is in it but a Law or a Pattern it is not as some do imagine for all men to follow that will do good in the Church of Christ. Our Lord and Saviour himself did hope by disputation to do some good yea by disputation not onely of but against the truth albeit with purpose for the truth That Christ should be the Son of David was truth yet against this truth our Lord in the Gospel objecteth If Christ be the Son of David how doth David call him Lord There is as yet no way known how to dispute or to determine of things disputed without the use of Natural Reason If we please to adde unto Christ their example who followed him as near in all things as they could the Sermon of Paul and Barnabas set down in the Acts where the people would have offered unto them Sacrifice in that Sermon what is there but onely Natural Reason to disprove their act O men why do ye these things We are men even subject to the self-same Passions with you We Preach unto you to leave these Vanities and to turn to the living God the God that hath not left himself without witness in that he hath done good to the World giving rain and fruitful Seasons filling our hearts with joy and gladness Neither did they onely use Reason in winning such unto a Christian belief as were yet thereto unconverted but with Believers themselves they followed the self-same course In that great and solemn Assembly of Believing Jews how doth Peter prove that the Gentiles were partakers of the Grace of God as well as they but by Reason drawn from those effects which were apparently known amongst them God which knoweth the hearts hath born them witness in giving unto them the Holy Ghost as unto you The light therefore which the Star of Natural Reason and Wisdom casteth is too bright to be obscured by the mist of a word or two uttered to diminish that opinion which justly hath been received concerning the force and vertue thereof even in matters that touch most nearly the principal duties of men and the glory of the Eternal God In all which hitherto hath been spoken touching the force and use of Mans Reason in things Divine I must crave that I be not so understood or construed as if any such thing by vertue thereof could be done without the aid and assistance of Gods most blessed Spirit The thing we have handled according to the question moved about it which question is Whether the Light of Reason be so pernicious that in devising Laws for the Church men ought not by it to search what may be fit and convenient For this cause therefore we have endeavored to make it appear how in the Nature of Reason it self there is no impediment but that the self-same Spirit which revealeth the things that God hath set down in his Law may also be thought to aid and direct men in finding out by the Light of Reason what Laws are expedient to be made for the guiding of his Church over and besides them that are in Scripture Herein therefore we agree with those men by whom Humane Laws are defined to be Ordinances which such as have lawful Authority given them for that purpose do probably draw from the Laws of Nature and God by discourse of Reason aided with the influence of Divine Grace And for that cause it is not said amiss touching Ecclesiastical Canons That by instinct of the Holy Ghost they have been made and consecrated by the reverend acceptation of the World 9. Laws for the Church are not made as they should be unless the Makers follow such direction as they ought to be guided by Wherein that Scripture standeth not the Church of God in any stead or serveth nothing at all to direct but may be let pass as needless to be consulted with we judge it prophane impious and irreligious to think For although it were in vain to make Laws which the Scripture hath already made because what we are already there commanded to do on our parts there resteth nothing but onely that it be executed yet because both in that which we are commanded it concerneth the duty of the Church by Law to provide that the loosness and slackness of men may not cause the Commandments of God to be unexecuted and a number of things there are for which the Scripture hath not provided by any Law but left them unto the careful discretion of the Church we are to search how the Church in these cases may be well directed to make that provision by Laws which is most convenient and fit And what is so in these cases partly Scripture and partly Reason must teach to discern Scripture comprehending Examples and Laws Laws some Natural and some Positive Examples neither are there for all cases which require Laws to be made and when they are they can but direct as Precedents onely Natural Laws direct in such sort that in all things we must for ever do according unto them Positive so that against them in no case we may do any thing as long as the Will of God is that they should remain in force Howbeit when Scripture doth yield us Precedents how far forth they are to be followed when it giveth Natural Laws what particular order is thereunto most agreeable when Positive which way to make Laws unrepugnant unto them yea though all these should want yet what kinde of Ordinances would be most for that good of the Church which is aimed at all this
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
this point Satan took advantage urging the more securely a false cause because the true was unto Adam unknown Why the Jews were forbidden to Plough their Ground with an Ox and an Ass why to cloath themselves with mingled attire of Wooll and Linnen it was both unto them and to us it remaineth obscure Such Laws perhaps cannot be abrogated saving onely by whom they were made because the intent of them being known unto none but the Author he alone can judge how long it is requisite they should endure But if the reason why things were instituted may be known and being known do appear manifestly to be of perpetual necessity then are those things also perpetual unless they cease to be effectual unto that purpose for which they were at the first instituted Because when a thing doth cease to be available unto the end which gave it being the continuance of it must then of necessity appear superfluous And of this we cannot be ignorant how sometimes that hath done great good which afterwards when time hath changed the ancient course of things doth grow to be either very hurtful or not so greatly profitable and necessary If therefore the end for which a Law provideth be perpetually necessary and the way whereby it provideth perpetually also most apt no doubt but that every such Law ought for ever to remain unchangeable Whether God be the Author of Laws by authorising that power of men whereby they are made or by delivering them made immediately from himself by word onely or in writing also or howsoever notwithstanding the Authority of their Maker the mutability of that end for which they are made maketh them also changeable The Law of Ceremonies came from God Moses had commandment to commit it unto the Sacred Records of Scripture where it continueth even unto this very day and hour in force still as the Jew surmiseth because God himself was Author of it and for us to abolish what he hath established were presumption most intolerable But that which they in the blindness of their obdurate hearts are not able to discern sith the end for which that Law was ordained is now fulfilled past and gone how should it but cease any longer to be which hath no longer any cause of being in force as before That which necessity of some special time doth cause to be enjoyned bindeth no longer then during that time but doth afterward become free Which thing is also plain even by that Law which the Apostles assembled at the Council of Ierusalem did from thence deliver unto the Church of Christ the Preface whereof to authorise it was To the Holy Ghost and to us it hath seemed good Which style they did not use as matching themselves in Power with the Holy Ghost but as testifying the Holy Ghost to be the Author and themselves but onely Utterers of that Decree This Law therefore to haue proceeded from God as the Author thereof no faithful man will deny It was of God not onely because God gave them the power whereby they might make Laws but for that it proceeded even from the holy Motion and Suggestion of that secret Divine Spirit whose sentence they did but onely pronounce Notwithstanding as the Law of Ceremonies delivered unto the Jews so this very Law which the Gentiles received from the Mouth of the Holy Ghost is in like respect abrogated by decease of the end for which it was given But such as do not stick at this point such as grant that what hath been instituted upon any special cause needeth not to be observed that cause ceasing do notwithstanding herein fail they judge the Laws of God onely by the Author and main end for which they were made so that for us to change that which he hath established they hold it execrable pride and presumption if so be the end and purpose for which God by that mean provideth be permanent And upon this they ground those ample Disputes concerning Orders and Offices which being by him appointed for the Government of his Church if it be necessary always that the Church of Christ be governed then doth the end for which God provided remain still and therefore in those means which he by Law did establish as being fittest unto that end for us to alter any thing is to lift up our selves against God and as it were to countermand him Wherein they mark not that Laws are Instruments to rule by and that Instruments are not onely to be framed according unto the general end for which they are provided but even according unto that very particular which riseth out of the matter whereon they have to work The end wherefore Laws were made may be permanent and those Laws nevertheless require some alteration if there be any unfitness in the means which they prescribe as tending unto that end and purpose As for example a Law that to bridle theft doth punish Theeves with a quadruple restitution hath an end which will continue as long as the World it self continueth Theft will be always and will always need to be bridled But that the mean which this Law provideth for that end namely the punishment of quadruple restitution that this will be always sufficient to bridle and restrain that kinde of enormity no man can warrant Insufficiency of Laws doth sometimes come by want of judgment in the Makers Which cause cannot fall into any Law termed properly and immediately Divine as it may and doth into Humane Laws often But that which hath been once most sufficient may wax otherwise by alteration of time and place that punishment which hath been sometimes forcible to bridle sin may grow afterwards too week and feeble In a word we plainly perceive by the difference of those three Laws which the Jews received at the hands of God the Moral Ceremonial and Judicial that if the end for which and the matter according whereunto God maketh his Laws continue always one and the same his Laws also do the like for which cause the Moral Law cannot be altered Secondly That whether the Matter whereon Laws are made continue or continue not if their end have once ceased they cease also to be of force as in the Law Ceremonial it fareth Finally That albeit the end continue as in that Law of Theft specified and in a great part of those ancient Judicials it doth yet for as much as there is not in all respects the same subject or matter remaining for which they were first instituted even this is sufficient cause of change And therefore Laws though both ordained of God himself and the end for which they were ordained continuing may notwithstanding cease it by alteration of persons or times they be found unsufficient to attain unto that end In which respect why may we not presume that God doth even call for such change or alteration as the very condition of things themselves doth make necessary They which do therefore plead the Authority of
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
that those very Laws which of their own nature are changeable be notwithstanding uncapable of change is he which gave them being of Authority so to do forbid absolutely to change them neither may they admit alteration against the Will of such a Law-maker Albeit therefore we do not finde any cause why of right there should be necessarily an Immutable Form set down in holy Scripture nevertheless if indeed there have been at any time a Church Polity so set down the change whereof the sacred Scripture doth forbid surely for Men to alter those Laws which God for perpetuity hath established were presumption most intolerable To prove therefore that the Will of Christ was to establish Laws so Permanent and Immutable that in any sort to alter them cannot but highly offend God Thus they reason First If Moses being but a servant in the House of God did therein establish Laws of Government for a perpetuity Laws which they that were of the Houshold might not alter Shall we admit into our thoughts that the Son of God hath in providing for this his Houshold declared himself less faithful then Moses Moses delivering unto the Jews such Laws as were durable if those be changeable which Christ hath delivered unto us we are not able to avoid it but that which to think were heinous impiety we of necessity must confess even the Son of God himself to have been less faithful then Moses Which Argument shall need no Touchstone to try it by but some other of the like making Moses erected in the Wilderness a Tabernacle which was moveable from place to place Solomon a sumptuous and stately Temple which was not moveable therefore Solomon was faithfuller then Moses which no man endued with reason will think And yet by this reason it doth plainly follow He that will see how faithful the one or other was must compare the things which they both did unto the charge which God gave each of them The Apostle in making comparison between our Saviour and Moses attributeth faithfulness unto both and maketh this difference between them Moses in but Christ over the House of God Moses in that House which was his by charge and commission though to govern it yet to govern it as a servant but Christ over this House as being his own intire possession Our Lord and Saviour doth make Protestation I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me Faithful therefore he was and concealed not any part of his Fathers will But did any part of that will require the Immutability of Laws concerning Church Polity They answer Yea for else God should less favor us then the Jews God would not have their Churches guided by any Laws but his own And seeing this did so continue even till Christ now to ease God of that care or rather to deprive the Church of his Patronage what reason have we Surely none to derogate any thing from the ancient love which God hath borne to his Church An Heathen Philosopher there is who considering how many things Beasts have which Men have not how naked in comparison of them how impotent and how much less able we are to shift for our selves a long time after we enter into this World repiningly concluded hereupon that Nature being a careful Mother for them is towards us a hard-hearted Step-dame No we may not measure the affection of our gracious God towards his by such differences For even herein shineth his Wisdom that though the ways of his Providence be many yet the end which he bringeth all at the length unto is one and the self-same But if such kinde of reasoning were good might we not even as directly conclude the very same concerning Laws of Secular Regiment Their own words are these In the ancient Church of the Iews God did command and Moses commit unto writing all things pertinent as well to the Civil as to the Ecclesiastical State God gave them Laws of Civil Regiment and would not permit their Commonweal to be governed by any other Laws then his own Doth God less regard our Temporal estate in this World or provide for it worse then theirs To us notwithstanding he hath not as to them delivered any particular Form of Temporal Regiment unless perhaps we think as some do that the grafting of the Gentiles and their incorporating into Israel doth import that we ought to be subject unto the Rites and Laws of their whole Polity We see then how weak such Disputes are and how smally they make to this purpose That Christ did not mean to set down particular Positive Laws for all things in such sort as Moses did the very different manner of delivering the Laws of Moses and the Laws of Christ doth plainly shew Moses had Commandment to gather the Ordinances of God together distinctly and orderly to set them down according unto their several kindes for each Publick Duty and Office the Laws that belong thereto as appeareth in the Books themselves written of purpose for that end Contrariwise the Laws of Christ we finde rather mentioned by occasion in the writings of the Apostles then any solemn thing directly written to comprehend them in legal sort Again the Positive Laws which Moses gave they were given for the greatest part with restraint to the Land of Iury Behold saith Moses I have taught you Ordinances and Laws as the Lord my God commanded me that ye should do so even within the Land whither ye go to possess it Which Laws and Ordinances Positive he plainly distinguished afterward from the Laws of the Two Tables which were Moral The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire ye heard the voice of the words but saw no similitude onely a voice Then he declared unto you his Covenant which he commanded you to do the Ten Commandments and wrote them upon Two Tables of Stone And the Lord commanded me that same time that I should teach you Ordinances and Laws which ye should observe in the Land whither ye go to possess it The same difference is again set down in the next Chapter following For rehearsal being made of the Ten Commandments it followeth immediately These words the Lord spake unto all your multitude in the Mount out of the midst of the fire the cloud and the darkness with a great voice and added no more and wrote them upon two Tables of Stone and delivered them unto me But concerning other Laws the people give their consent to receive them at the hands of Moses Go thou nearer and hear all that the Lord our God saith and declare thou unto us all that the Lord our God saith unto thee and we will hear it and do it The peoples alacrity herein God highly commendeth with most effectual and hearty speech I have heard the voice of the words of this people they have spoken well O that there were such an heart in them to fear me and to keep all
long safety for two things it was necessary to provide namely the preservation of their state against foreign resistance and the continuance of their peace within themselves Touching the one as they received the Promise of God to be the Rock of their Defence against which who so did violently rush should but bruise and batter themselves so likewise they had his Commandment in all their affairs that way to seek direction and counsel from him Mens Consultations are always perillous And it falleth out many times that after long deliberation those things are by their wit even resolved on which by trial are found most opposite to publick safety It is no impossible thing for States be they never so well established yet by over-sight in some one act or treaty between them and their potent opposites utterly to cast away themselves for ever Wherefore lest it should so fall out to them upon whom so much did depend they were not permitted to enter into War not conclude any League of Peace nor to wade through any act of moment between them and foreign States unless the Oracle of God or his Prophets were first consulted with And lest domestical disturbance should waste them within themselves because there was nothing unto this purpose more effectual then if the Authority of their Laws and Governors were such as none might presume to take exception against it or to shew disobedience unto it without incurring the hatred and detestation of all men that had any spark of the fear of God therefore he gave them even their Positive Laws from Heaven and as oft as occasion required chose in like sort Rulers also to lead and govern them Notwithstanding some desperately impious there were which adventured to try what harm it could bring upon them if they did attempt to be Authors of Confusion and to resist both Governors and Laws Against such Monsters God maintained his own by fearful execution of extraordinary judgment upon them By which means it came to pass that although they were a people infested and mightily hated of all others throughout the World although by Nature hard-hearted querulous wrathful and impatient of rest and quietness yet was there nothing of force either one way or other to work the ruine and subversion of their State till the time before mentioned was expired Thus we see that there was no cause of dissimilitude in these things between that one onely People before Christ and the Kingdoms of the World since And whereas it is further alledged That albeit in Civil Matters and things pertaining to this present life God hath used a greater particularity with them then amongst us framing Laws according to the quality of that People and Countrey yet the leaving of us at greater liberty in things civil is so far from proving the like liberty in things pertaining to the Kingdom of Heaven that it rather proves a straiter bond For even as when the Lord would have his favor more appear by Temporal Blessings of this life towards the people under the Law then towards us he gave also Politick Laws most exactly whereby they might both most easily come into and most stedfastly remain in possession of those earthly benefits Even so at this time wherein he would not have his favor so much esteemed by those outward commodities it is required That as his care inprescribing Laws for that purpose hath somewhat faln in leaving them to mens Consultations which may be deceived so his care for Conduct and Government of the life to come should if it were possible rise in leaving less to the order of men then in times past These are but weak and feeble Disputes for the Inference of that Conclusion which is intended For saving onely in such consideration as hath been shewed there is no cause wherefore we should think God more desirous to manifest his savor by Temporal Blessings towards them then towards us Godliness had unto them and it hath also unto us the promises both of this life and the life to come That the care of God hath faln in earthly things and therefore should rise as much in Heavenly that more is left unto mens consultations in the one and therefore less must be granted in the other that God having used a greater particularity with them then with us for matters pertaining unto this life is to make us amends by the more exact delivery of Laws for Government of the life to come These are proportions whereof if there be any rule we must plainly confess that which truth is we know it not God which spake unto them by his Prophets hath unto us by his onely begotten Son those Mysteries of Grace and Salvation which were but darkly disclosed unto them have unto us more clearly shined Such differences between them and us the Apostles of Christ have well acquainted us withal But as for matter belonging to the outward Conduct or Government of the Church seeing that even in sense it is manifest that our Lord and Saviour hath not by Positive Laws descended so far into particularities with us as Moses with them neither doth by extraordinary Means Oracles and Prophets direct us as them he did in those things which rising daily by new occasions are of necessity to be provided for doth it not hereupon rather follow that although not to them yet to us there should be freedom and liberty granted to make Laws Yea but the Apostle St. Paul doth fearfully charge Timothy beforePontius Pilate to keep what was commanded him safe and sound till the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ. This doth exclude all liberty or changing the Laws of Christ whether by abrogation or addition or howsoever For in Timothy the whole Church of Christ receiveth charge concerning her duty And that charge is to keep the Apostles Commandment and his Commandment did contain the Laws that concerned Church Government And those Laws he straightly requireth to be observed without breach or blame till the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Scripture we grant every one Mans lesson to be the common instruction of all men so far forth as their cases are like and that religiously to keep the Apostles Commandments in whatsoever they may concern us we all stand bound But touching that Commandment which Timothy was charged with we swerve undoubtedly from the Apostles precise meaning if we extend it so largely that the Arms thereof shall reach unto all things which were commanded him by the Apostle The very words themselves do restrain themselves unto some special Commandment among many And therefore it is not said Keep the Ordinances Laws and Constitutions which thou hast received but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great Commandment which doth principally concern thee and thy calling That Commandment which Christ did so often inculcate unto Peter that Commandment unto the careful discharge whereof they of Ephesus are exhorted Attend to your selves and to all the flock wherein the Holy Ghost
way to keep his People from infection oâ— Idolaty and Superstition by severing them from Idolaters in outward Ceremonies and therefore hath forbidden them to do things which are in themselves very lawful to be done And â—urther where as the Lord was careful to sever them by Ceremonies from other Nations yet was he not so careful to sever them from any as from the Egyptians amongst whom they lived and from those Nations which were next Neighbours to them because from them was the greatest fear of infection So that following the course which the wisdom of God doth teach it were more safe for us to conform our indifferent Ceremonies to the Turks which are far off then to the Papists which are so near Touching the example of the eldest Churches of God in one Councel it was decreed that Christians should not deck their houses with Bay-leaves and green boughs because the Pagans did use so to do and that they should not rest from their labours those days that the Pagans did that they should not keep the first day of every month as they did Another Council decreed that Christians should not celebrate Feasts on the Birth-dayes of the Martyrs because it was the manner of the Heathen O saith Tertullian better is the Religion of the Heathen for they use no solemnity of the Christians neither the Lords day neither the Pentecost and if they knew them they would have nothing to do with them for they would be afraid lest they should seem Christians but we are not afraid to be called Heathens The same Tertullian would not have Christians to sit after they had payed because the Idolaters did so Whereby it appeareth that both of Particular men and of Counsels in making or abolishing of Ceremonies heed had been taken that the Christians should not be like the Idolaters no not in those things which of themselves are most indifferent to be used or not used The same conformity is not lesse opposite unto reason first inasmuch as contraries must be cured by their contraries and therefore Popery being Antichristianity is not healed but by establishment of Orders thereunto opposite The way to bring a drunken man to sobriety it to carry him as far from excess of drink as may be To rectifie a crooked stick we bend it on the contrary side as far as it was at the first on that side from whence we draw it and so it cometh in the end to a middle between both which is perfect straightness Utter inconformity therefore with the Church of Rome in these things is the best and surest Policy which the Church can use While we use their Ceremonies they take occasion to blaspheme saying that our Religion cannot stand by it self unless it lean upon the staff of their Ceremonies They hereby conceive great hope of having the rest of their Popery in the end which hope causeth them to be more frozen in their wickedness Neither is it without cause that they have this hope considering that which M. Bucer noteth upon the eighteenth of S. Matthew that where these things have been left Popery hath returned but on the other part in places which have been cleansed of these things it hath not yet been seen that it hath had any entrance None make such clamours for these Ceremonies as the Papists and those whom they suborn a manifest token how much they triumph and joy in these things They breed grief of minde in a number that are godly minded and have Antichristianity in such detestation that their minds are Martyred with the very sight of them in the Church Such godly Brethren we ought not thus to grieve with unprofitable Ceremonies yea Ceremonies wherein there is not only no profit but also danger of great hurt that may grow to the Church by infection which Popish Ceremonies are means to breed This in effect is the sum and substance of that which they bring by way of opposition against those Orders which we have common with the Church of Rome these are the reasons wherewith they would prove our Ceremonies in that respect worthy of blame 4. Before we answer unto these things we are to cut off that whereunto they from whom these Objections proceed do oftentimes fly for defence and succour when the force and strength of their Argument is elided For the Ceremonies in use amongst us being in no other respect retained saving onely for that to retain them is to our seeming good and profitable yea so profitable and so good that if we had either simply taken them clean away or else removed them so as to place in their stead others we had done worse the plain and direct way against us herein had been onely to prove that all such Ceremonies as they require to be abolished are retained by us to the hurt of the Church or with lesse benefit then the abolishment of them would bring But forasmuch as they saw how hardly they should be able to perform this they took a more compendious way traducing the Ceremonies of our Church under the name of being Popish The cause why this way seemed better unto them was for that the name of Popery is more odious then very Paganism amongst divers of the more simple sort so whatsoever they hear named Popish they presently conceive deep hatred against it imagining there can be nothing contained in that name but needs it must be exceeding detestable The ears of the People they have therefore filled with strong clamours The Church of England is fraught with Popish Ceremonies they that favour the cause of Reformation maintain nothing but the sincerity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ All such as withstand them fight for the Laws of his sworn enemy uphold the filthy reliques of Antichrist and are defenders of that which is Popish These are the notes wherewith are drawn from the hearts of the multitude so many sighs with these tunes their minds are exasperated against the lawful Guides and Governours of their souls these are the voices that fill them with general discontentment as though the bosom of that famous Church wherein they live were more noysom then any dungeon But when the Authors of so scandalous incantations are examined and called to account how can they justifie such their dealings when they are urged directly to answer whether it be lawful for us to use any such Ceremonies as the Church of Rome useth although the same be not commanded in the Word of God being driven to see that the use of some such Ceremonies must of necessity be granted lawful they go about to make us believe that they are just of the same Opinion and that they only think such Ceremonies are not to be used when they are unprofitable or when as good or better may be established Which Answer is both idle in regard of us and also repugnant to themselves It is in regard of us very vain to make this answer because they
know that what Ceremonies we retain common unto the Church of Rome we therefore retain them for that we judge them to be profitable and to be such that others instead of them would be worse So that when they say that we ought to abrogate such Romish Ceremonies as are unprofitable or else might have other more profitable in their stead they trisle and they beat the Air about nothing which toucheth us unless they mean that we ought to abrogate all Romish Ceremonies which in their judgment have either no use or less use than some other might have But then must they shew some commission whereby they are authorized to sit as Judges and we required to take their judgment for good in this case Otherwise their sentences will not be greatly regarded when they oppose their Me thinketh unto the Orders of the Church of England as in the Question about Surplesses one of them doth If we look to the colour black methinks is the more decent if to the form a garment down to the foot hath a great deal more comeliness in it If they think that we ought to prove the Ceremonies commodious which we have retained they do in this Point very greatly deceive themselves For in all right and equity that which the Church hath received and held so long for good that which publike approbation hath ratified must carry the benefit of presumption with it to be accounted meet and convenient They which have stood up as yesterday to challenge it of defect must prove their challenge If we being Defendents do answer that the Ceremonies in question are godly comely decent profitable for the Church their reply is childish and unorderly to say that we demand the thing in question and shew the poverty of our cause the goodness whereof we are fain to beg that our Adversaries would grant For on our part this must be the Answer which orderly proceeding doth require The burden of proving doth rest on them In them it is frivolous to say we ought not to use bad Ceremonies of the Church of Rome and presume all such bad as it pleaseth themselves to dislike unless we can perswade them the contrary Besides they are herein opposite also to themselves For what one thing is so common with them as to use the custome of the Church of Rome for an Argument to prove that such and such Ceremonies cannot be good and profitable for us inasmuch as that Church useth them Which usual kind of disputing sheweth that they do not disallow onely those Romish Ceremonies which are unprofitable but count all unprofitable which are Romish that is to say which have been devised by the Church of Rome or which are used in that Church and not prescribed in the Word of God For this is the onely limitation which they can use sutable unto their other Positions And therefore the cause which they yield why they hold it lawful to retain in Doctrine and in Discipline some things as good which yet are common to the Church of Rome is for that those good things are perpetual Commandments in whose place no other can come but Ceremonies are changeable So that their judgement in truth is that whatsoever by the Word of God is not changeable in the Church of Rome that Churches using is a cause why Reformed Churches ought to change it and not to think it good or profitable And lest we seem to father any thing upon them more then is properly their own let them read even their own words where they complain That we are thus constrained to be like unto the Papists in any their Ceremonies yea they urge that this cause although it were alone ought to move them to whom that belongeth to do them away forasmuch as they are their Ceremonies and that the Bishop of Salisbury doth justifie this their complaint The clause is untrue which they add concerning the Bishop of Salisbury but the sentence doth shew that we do them no wrong in setting down the state of the question between us thus Whether we ought to abolish out of the Church of England all such Orders Rites and Ceremonies as are established in the Church of Rome and are not prescribed in the Word of God For the Affirmative whereof we are now to answer such proofs of theirs as have been before alledged 5. Let the Church of Rome be what it will let them that are of it be the people of God and our Fathers in the Christian Faith or let them be otherwise hold them for Catholicks or hold them for Hereticks it is not a thing either one way or other in this present question greatly material Our conformity with them in such things as have been proposed is not proved as yet unlawful by all this S. Augustine hath said yea and we have allowed his saying That the custome of the people of God and the decrees of our forefathers are to be kept touching those things whereof the Scripture hath neither one way nor other given us any charge What then Doth it here therefore follow that they being neither the people of God nor our Forefathers are for that cause in nothing to be followed This Consequent were good if so be it were granted that only the custom of the people of God and the Decrees of our forefathers are in such case to be observed But then should no other kind of latter Laws in the Church be good which were a gross absurdity to think S. Augustines speech therefore doth import that where we have no divine Precept if yet we have the custom of the people of God or a Decree of our forefathers this is a Law and must be kept Notwithstanding it is not denied but that we lawfully may observe the positive constitutions of our own Churches although the same were but yesterday made by our selves alone Nor is there any thing in this to prove that the Church of England might not by Law receive Orders Rites or Customs from the Church of Rome although they were neither the people of God nor yet our forefathers How much lesse when we have received from them nothing but that which they did themselves receive from such as we cannot deny to have been the people of God yea such as either we must acknowledge for our own forefathers or else disdain the race of Christ 6. The Rites and Orders wherein we follow the Church of Rome are of no other kind that such as the Church of Geneva it self doth follow them in We follow the Church of Rome in mo things yet they in some things of the same nature about which our present controversie is so that the difference is not in the kind but in the number of Rites onely wherein they and we do follow the Church of Rome The use of Wafer-cakes the custom of Godfathers and Godmothers in Baptism are things not commanded nor forbidden in the Scripture things which have been of old and are retained in
the forbidding of the latter had no other reason then dissimilitude with that people they which of their own heads alledge this for reason can shew I think some reason more then we are able to find why the former was not also forbidden Might there not be some other mystery in this Prohibition then they think of Yes some other mystery there was in it by all likely-hood For what reason is there which should but induce and therefore much less inforce us to think that care of dissimilitude between the People of God and the Heathen Nations about them was any more the cause of forbidding them to put on Garments of sundry stuff then of charging theâ— withal not to sow their Fields with Meslin or that this was any more the cause of forbidding them to eat Swines-flesh than of charging them withal not to eat the flesh of Eagles Hawks and the like wherefore although the Church of Rome were to us as to Israel the Egyptians and Canaanites were of old yet doth it not follow that the wisdom of God without respect doth teach us to erect between us and them a partition wall of difference in such things indifferent as have been hitherto disputed of 7. Neither is the example of the eldest Churches a whit more available to this purpose Notwithstanding some fault undoubtedly there is in the very resemblance of Idolaters Were it not some kind of blemish to be like unto Infidels and Heathens it would not so usually be objected men would not think it any advantage in the causes of Religion to be able therewith justly to charge their Adversaries as they do Wherefore to the end that it may a little more plainly appear what force this hath and how far the same extendeth we are to note how all men are naturally desirous that they may seem neither to judge nor to do amiss because every Error and Offence is a stain to the beauty of Nature for which cause it blusheth thereat but glorieth in the contrary from whence it riseth that they which disgrace or depress the credit of others do it either in both or in one of these To have been in either directed by a weak and unperfect rule argueth imbecillity and imperfection Men being either led by reason or by imitation of other mens examples if their Persons be odious whose example we chuse to follow as namely if we frame our opinions to that which condemned Hereticks think or direct our Actions according to that which is practised and done by them it lyes as an heavy prejudice against us unless somewhat mightier then their bare example did move us to think or do the same things with them Christian men therefore having besides the common light of all men so great help of heavenly direction from above together with the Lamps of so bright examples at the Church of God doth yield it cannot but worthily seem reproachful for us to leave both the one and the other to become Disciples unto the most hateful sort that live to do as they do only because we see their example before us and have delight to follow it Thus we may therefore safely conclude that it is not evil simply to concur with the Heathens either in opinion or in action and that conformity with them is only then a disgrace when either we follow them in that they think and do amiss or follow them generally in that they do without other reason than only the liking we have to the pattern of their example which liking doth intimate a more universal approbation of them than is allowable Faustus the Manichee therefore objecting against the Jews that they forsook the Idols of the Gentiles but their Temples and Oblations and Altars and Priest hoods and all kind of Ministry of holy things they exercised even as the Gentiles did yea more superstituosly a great deal against the Catholick Christians likewise that between them and the Heathens there was in many things little difference From them saith Faustus ye have learned to hold that one only God is the Author of all their Sacrifices you have turned in Feasts of charity their Idols into Martyrs whom ye honour with the like Religious offices unto theirs The Ghosts of the dead ye appease with Wine and Delicates the Festival days of the Nations ye celebrate together with them and of their kind of life ye have utterly changed nothing S. Augustines defence in behalf of both is that touching the matters of Action Jews and Catholick Christians were free from the Gentiles faultiness even in those things which were objected as tokens of their agreement with the Gentiles and concerning their consent in opinion they did not hold the same with the Gentiles because Gentiles had so taught but because Heaven and Earth had so witnessed the same to be truth that neither the one sort could erre in being fully perswaded thereof nor the other but erre in case they should not consent with them In things of their own nature indifferent if either Councils or particular men have at any time with sound judgement misliked conformity between the Church of God and Infidels the cause thereof hath been somewhat else then onely affectation of dissimilitude They saw it necessary so to do in respect of some special accident which the Church being not alway subject unto hath not still cause to do the like For example in the dangerous days of tryal wherein there was no way for the truth of Jesus Christ to triumph over Infidelity but through the constancy of his Saints whom yet a natural desire to save themselves from the flame might peradventure cause to joyn with Pagans in external Customs too far using the same as a cloak to conceal themselves in and a mist to darken the eyes of Insidels withal for remedy hereof those Laws it might be were provided which forbad that Christians should deck their houses with Boughs as the Pagans did use to do or rest those Festival days whereon the Pagans rested or celebrate such Feasts as were though not Heathenish yet such that the simpler sort of Heathens might be beguiled in so thinking them As for Tertullians judgment concerning the Rites and Orders of the Church no man having judgment can be ignorant how just exceptions may be taken against it His opinion touching the Catholick Church was as un-indifferent as touching our Church the opinion of them that favour this pretended Reformation is He judged all them who did not Montanize to be but carnally minded he judged them still over-abjectly to fawn upon the Heathens and to curry favour with Inâ—idels Which as the Catholick Church did well provide that they might not do indeed so Tertullian over-often through discontentment carpeth injuriously at them as though they did it even when they were free from such meaning But if it were so that either the judgment of those Councils before alledged or of Tertullian himself against the Christians are
usual method of Art is not for them But with those that profess more than ordinary and common knowledge of good from evil with them that are able to put a difference between things naught and things indifferent in the Church of Rome we are yet at controversie about the manner of removing that which is naught whether it may not be perfectly helpt unless that also which is indifferent be cut off with it so far till no Rite or Ceremony remain which the Church of Rome hath being not found in the Word of God If we think this too extreme they reply that to draw men from great excess it not amiss though we use them unto somewhat less then is competent and that a crooked stick is not straightned unless it be bent as far on the clean contrary side that so it may settle it self at the length in a middle estate of evenness between both But how can these comparisons stand them in any stead When they urge us to extreme opposition against the Church of Rome do they mean we should be drawn unto it only for a time and afterwards return to a mediocrity Or was it the purpose of those Reformed Churches which utterly abolished all Popish Ceremonies to come in the end back again to the middle point of evenness and moderation Then have we conceived amiss of their meaning For we have always thought their Opinion to be that utter inconformity with the Church of Rome was not an extremity whereunto we should be drawn for a time but the very mediocrity it self wherein they meant we should ever continue Now by these comparisons it seemeth clean contrary that howsoever they have bent themselves at first to an extreme contrariety against the Romish Church yet therein they will continue no longer then onely till such time as some more moderate course for establishment of the Church may be concluded Yea albeit this were not at the first their intent yet surely now there is great cause to lead them unto it They have seen that experience of the former Policy which may cause the Authors of it to hang down their heads When Germany had stricken off that which appeared corrupt in the Doctrine of the Church of Rome but seemed nevertheless in Discipline still to retain therewith very great conformity France by that rule of policy which hath been before mentioned took away the Popish Orders which Germany did retain But process of time hath brought more light into the world whereby men perceiving that they of the Religion in France have also retained some Orders which were before in the Church of Rome and are not commanded in the Word of God there hath arisen a Sect in England which following still the very self-same Rule of policy seeketh to reform even the French Reformation and purge out from thence also dregs of Popery These have not taken as yet such root that they are able to establish any thing But if they had what would spring out of their stock and how far the unquiet wit of man might be carried with rules of such policy God doth know The trial which we have lived to see may somewhat teach us what posterity is to fear But our Lord of his infinite mercy avert whatsoever evil our swervings on the one hand or on the other may threaten unto the state of his Church 9. That the Church of Rome doth hereby take occasion to blaspheme and to say our Religion is not able to stand of it self unless it lean upon the staff of their Ceremonies is not a matter of so great moment that it did need to be objected or doth deserve to receive answer The name of blasphemy in this place is like the shoo of Hercules on a childs foot If the Church of Rome do use any such kind of silly exprobration it is no such ugly thing to the eat that we should think the honour and credit of our Religion to receive thereby any great wound They which hereof make so perillous a matter do seem to imagine that we have erected of late a frame of some new Religion the furniture whereof we should not have borrowed from our Enemies lest they relieving us might afterwards laugh and gibe at our poverty whereas in truth the Ceremonies which we have taken from such as were before us are not things that belong to this or that Sect but they are the ancient Rites and Customs of the Church of Christ whereof our selves being a part we have the self-same interest in them which our Fathers before us had from whom the same are descended unto us Again in case we had been so much beholden privately unto them doth the reputation of one Church stand by saying unto another I need thee not If some should be so vain and impotent as to mar a benefit with reproachful upbraiding where at the least they suppose themselves to have bestowed some good turn yet surely a wise bodies part it were not â—o put out his fire because his fond and foolish Neighbour from whom he borrowed peradventure wherewith to kindle it might haply cast him therewith in the teeth saying Were it not for me thou wouldest freez and not be able to heat thy self As for that other Argument derived from the secret affection of Papists with whom our conformity in certain Ceremonies is said to put them in great hope that their whole Religion in time will have re-entrance and therefore none are so clamorous amongst us for the observation of these Ceremonies as Papists and such as Papists suborn to speak for them whereby it clearly appeareth how much they rejoyce how much they triumph in these thiâ—… our answer hereunto is still the same that the benefit we have by such Ceremonâ—… over-weigheth even this also No man that is not exceeding partial can well dâ—… but that there is most just cause wherefore we should be offended greatly at the Church of Rome Notwithstanding at such times as we are to deliberate for our selves the freer our minds are from all cistempered affections the sounder and better is our judgement When we are in a fretting mood at the Church of Rome and with that angry disposition enter into any cogitation of the Orders and Rites of our Church taking particular survey of them we are sure to have always one eye fixed upon the countenance of our Enemies and according to the blithe or heavy aspect thereof our other eye sheweth some other suitable token either of dislike or approbation towards our own Orders For the rule of our Judgement in such case being only that of Homer This is the thing which our Enemies would have what they seem contented with even for that very cause we reject and there is nothing but it pleaseth as much the better if we espy that is galleth them Miserable were the state and condition of that Church the weighty affairs whereof should be ordered by those deliberations wherein such an humour as
similitude between us and the Church of Rome in these things indifferent Secondly for that it were infinite if the Church should provide against every such Evil as may come to pass it is not sufficient that they shew possibilitie of dangerous Event unless there appear some likely-hood also of the same to follow in us except we prevent it Nor is this enough unless it be moreover made plain that there is no good and sufficient way of prevention but by evacuating clean and by emprying the Church of every such Rite and Ceremony as is presently called in question Till this be done their good affection towards the safety of the Church is acceptable but the way they prescribe us to preserve it by must rest in suspense And lest hereat they take occasion to turn upon us the speech of the Prophet Ieremy used against Babylon Rebold we have done our endeavour to cure the Discases of Babylon but she through her wilfulness doth rest uncured let them consider into what straits the Church might drive it self in being guided by this their counsel Their axiom is that the sound believing Church of Jesus Christ may not be like Heretical Churches in any of those indifferent things which men make choyce of and do not take by prescript appointment of the Word of God In the word of God the use of Bread is prescribed as a thing without which the Eucharist may not be celebrated but as for the kind of Bread it is not denyed to be a thing indifferent Being indifferent of it self we are by this axiom of theirs to avoid the use of unleavened Bread in their Sacrament because such bread the Church of Rome being Heretical useth But doth not the self-same axiom bar us even from leavened Bread also which the Church of the Grecians useth the opinions whereof are in a number of things the same for which we condemn the Church of Rome and in some things erroneous where the Church of Rome is acknowledged to be found as namely in the Article of the Holy Ghosts proceeding and lest here they should say that because the Greek Church is farther off and the Church of Rome nearer we are in that respect rather to use that which the Church of Rome useth not let them imagine a reformed Church in the City of Venice where a Greek Church and Popish both are And when both these are equally near let them consider what the third shall do Without leavened or unleavened Bread it can have no Sacrament the word of God doth tye it to neither and their axiom doth exclude it from both If this constrain them as it must to grant that their axiom is not to take any place save in those things only where the Church hath larger scope it resteth that they search out some stronger reason then they have as yet alledged otherwise they constrain not us to think that the Church is tyed unto any such rule axiom not then when she hath the widest field to walk in and the greate store of choyce 11. Against such Ceremonies generally as are the same in the Church of England and of Rome we see what hath been hitherto alledged Albeit therefore we do not find the one Churches having of such things to be sufficient cause why the other should not have them Nevertheless in case it may be proved that amongst the number of Rites and Orders common unto both there are Particulars the use whereof is utterly unlawful in regard of some special bad and noysom quality there is no doubt but we ought to relinquish such Rites and Orders what freedom soever we have to retain the other still As therefore we have heard their general exception against all those things which being not commanded in the Word of God were first received in the Church of Rome and from thence have been derived into ours so it followeth that now we proceed unto certain kinds of them as being excepted against not only for that they are in the Church of Rome but are besides either Iewish or abused unto Idolatry and so grown scandalous The Church of Rome they say being ashamed of the simplicity of the Gospel did almost out of all Religions take whatsoever had any fair and gorgeous shew borrowing in that respect from the Jews sundry of their abolished Ceremonies Thus by foolish and tidiculous imitation all their Massing furniture almost they took from the Law lest having an Altar and a Priest they should want Vestments for their Stage so that whatsoever we have in common with the Church of Rome if the same be of this kind we ought to remove it Constantine the Emperor speaking of the keeping of the Feast of Easter saith That it is an unworthy thing to have any thing common with that most spiteful company of the Iews And a little after he saith That it is most absurd and against reason that the Iews should vannâ— and glory that the Christians could not keep those things without their Doctrine And in another place it is said after this sort It is convenient so to order the matter that we have nothing common with that Nation This Councel of Laodicea which was afterward confirmed by the first General Councel decreed that the Christians should not take anleavened Briad of the Iews or communicate with their impiety For the easier manifestation of truth in this point two things there are which must be considered namely the causes wherefore the Church should decline from Iewish Ceremonies and how far it ought so to do One cause is that the Jews were the deadliest and spitefullest Enemies of Christianity that were in the world and in this respect their Orders so far forth to be shunned as we have already set down in handling the Matter of Heathenish Ceremonies For no enemies being so venemous against Christ as Jews they were of all other most odious and by that mean least to be used as â—it Church Patterns for Imitation Another cause is the Solemn Abrogation of the Jews Ordinances which Ordinances for us to resume were to chock our Lord himself which hath disannulled them But how far this second cause doth extend it is not on all sides fully agreed upon And touching those things whereunto it reacheth not although there be small cause wherefore the Church should frame it self to the Jews example in respect of their persons which are most hateful yet God himself having been the Author of their Laws herein they are notwithstanding the former consideration still worthy to be honored and to be followed above others as much as the state of things will bear Jewish Ordinances had some things Natural and of the perperuity of those things no man doubteth That which was Positive we likewise know to have been by the coming of Christ partly necessary not to be kept and partly indifferent to be kept or not Of the former kinde Circumcision and Sacrifice were For this point Stephen was accused and the Evidence which
for not conforming her self to those Churches in that which she cannot deny to be in them well abrogated For the authority of the first Churches and those they account to be the first in this cause which were first Reformed they bring the comparison of younger Daughters conforming themselves in attire to the example of their elder Sisters wherein there is just as much strength of Reason as in the Livery Coats beforementioned St. Paul they say noteth it for a mark of special honor that Epanetus was the first man in all Athaia which did embrace the Christian Faith after the same sort he toucheth it also as a special preheminence of Iunius and Andronicus that in Christianity they were his Ancients The Corinthians he pincheth with this demand Hath the Word of God gone out from you or hath it lighted on you alone But what of all this If any man should think that alacrity and forwardness in good things doth add nothing unto mens commendation the two former speeches of St. Paul might lead him to reform his judgment In like sort to take down the stomach of proud conceited men that glory as though they were able to set all others to School there can be nothing more fit then some such words as the Apostles third sentence doth contain wherein he teacheth the Church of Corinth to know that there was no such great odds between them and the rest of their Brethren that they should think themselves to be Gold and the rest to be but Copper He therefore useth speech unto them to this effect Men instructed in the knowledge of Iesus Christ there both were before you and are besides you in the world ye neither are the Fountain from which first nor yet the River into which alone the Word hath flowed But although as Epanetus was the first man in all Achaia so Corinth had been the first Church in the whole World that received Christ the Apostle doth not shew that in any kinde of things indifferent whatsoever this should have made their example a Law unto all others Indeed the example of sundry Churches for approbation of one thing doth sway much but yet still as having the force of an example onely and not of a Law They are effectual to move any Church unless some greater thing do hinder but they binde none no not though they be many saving onely when they are the major part of a General Assembly and then their voices being more in number must over-sway their judgments who are fewer because in such cases the greater half is the whole But as they stand out single each of them by it self their number can purchase them no such authority that the rest of the Churches being fewer should be therefore bound to follow them and to relinguish as good Ceremonies as theirs for theirs Whereas therefore it is concluded out of these so weak Premisses that the retaining of divers things in the Church of England which other Reformed Churches have cast out must needs argue that we do not well unless we can shew that they have done ill what needed this wrest to draw out from us an accusation of forein Churches It is not proved as yet that if they have done well our duty is to follow them and to forsake our own course because it differeth from theirs although indeed it be as well for us every way as theirs for them And if the proofs alledged for confirmation hereof had been sound yet seeing they lead no further then onely to shew that where we can have no better Ceremonies theirs must be taken as they cannot with modesty think themselves to have found out absolutely the best which the wit of men may devise so liking their own somewhat better then other mens even because they are their own they must in equity allow us to be like unto them in this affection Which if they do they ease us of that uncourteous burden whereby we are charged either to condemn them or else to follow them They grant we need not follow them if our own ways already be better And if our own be but equal the Law of Common Indulgence alloweth us to think them at the least half a thought the better because they are our own which we may very well do and never draw any Inditement at all against theirs but think commendably even of them also 14. To leave Reformed Churches therefore and their Actions for Him to judge of in whose sight they are as they are and our desire is that they may even in his sight be found such as we ought to endeavor by all means that our own may likewise be Somewhat we are enforced to speak by way of Simple Declaration concerning the proceedings of the Church of England in these affairs to the end that men whose mindes are free from those partial constructions whereby the onely name of Difference from some other Churches is thought cause sufficient to condemn ours may the better discern whether that we have done be reasonable yea or no. The Church of England being to alter her received Laws concerning such Orders Rites and Ceremonies as had been in former times an hinderance unto Piety and Religious Service of God was to enter into consideration first That the change of Laws especially concerning matter of Religion must be warily proceeded in Laws as all other things humane are many times full of imperfection and that which is supposed behoveful unto men proveth oftentimes most pernicious The wisdom which is learned by tract of time findeth the Laws that have been in former ages established needful in latter to be abrogated Besides that which sometime is expedient doth not always so continue and the number of needless Laws unabolished doth weaken the force of them that are necessary But true withal it is that Alteration though it be from worse to better hath in it inconveniences and those weighty unless it bein such Laws as have been made upon special occasions which occasions ceasing Laws of that kinde do abrogate themselves But when we abrogate a Law as being ill made the whole cause for which it was made still remaining Do we not herein revoke our very own deed and upbraid our selves with folly yea all that were makers of it with oversight and with error Further if it be a Law which the custom and continual practice of many ages or years hath consumed in the mindes of men to alter it must needs be troublesome and scandalous It amazeth them it causeth them to stand in doubt whether any thing be in it self by nature either good or evil and not all things rather such as men at this or that time agree to account of them when they behold even those things disproved disannulled rejected which use had made in a manner natural What have we to induce men unto the willing obedience and observation of Laws but the weight of so many mens judgments as have with deliberate advice assented
thereunto the weight of that long Experience which the World hath had thereof with consent and good liking So that to change any such Law must needs with the common sort impair and weaken the force of those Grounds whereby all Laws are made effectual Notwithstanding we do not deny alteration of Laws to be sometimes a thing necessary as when they are unnatural or impious or otherwise hurtful unto the Publick Community of Men and against that good for which Humane Societies were instituted When the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour were ordained to alter the Laws of Heatherish Religion received throughout the whole World chosen I grant they were Paul excepted the rest ignorant poor simple unschooled altogether and unlettered men howbeit extraordinarily endued with ghostly Wisdom from above before they ever undertook this Enterprise yea their authority confirmed by Miracle to the end it might plainly appear that they were the Lords Ambassadors unto whose Soveraign power for all flesh to stoop for all the Kingdoms of the Earth to yield themselves willingly conformable in whatsoever should be required it was their duty In this case therefore their oppositions in maintenance of Publick Superstition against Apostolick endeavors as that they might not condemn the ways of their ancient Predecessors that they must keep Religiones Traditas the Rites which from age to age had descended that the Ceremonies of Religion had been ever accounted by so much holier as elder these and the like Allegations in this case were vain and frivolous Not to stay longer therefore in speech concerning this point we will conclude That as the change of such Laws as have been specified is necessary so the evidence that they are such must be great If we have neither voice from Heaven that so pronounceth of them neither sentence of men grounded upon such manifest and clear proof that they in whose hands it is to alter them may likewise infallibly even in heart and conscience judge them so upon necessity to urge alteration is to trouble and disturb without necessity As for Arbitrary Alterations when Laws in themselves not simply bad or unmeet are changed for better and more expedient if the benefit of that which is newly better devised be but small sith the custom of easiness to alter and change is so evil no doubt but to bear a tolerable sore is better then to venter on a dangerous remedy Which being generally thought upon as a matter that touched nearly their whole enterprize whereas change was notwithstanding concluded necessary in regard of the great hurt which the Church did receive by a number of things then in use whereupon a great deal of that which had been was now to be taken away and removed out of the Church yet sith there are divers ways of abrogating things established they saw it best to cut off presently such things as might in that sort be extinguished without danger leaving the rest to be abolished by disusage through tract of time And as this was done for the manner of Abrogation so touching the stint or measure thereof Rites and Ceremonies and other external things of like nature being hurtful unto the Church either in respect of their quality or in regard of their number in the former there could be no doubt or difficulty what should be done their deliberation in the latter was more hard And therefore in as much as they did resolve to remove onely such things of that kinde as the Church might best spare retaining the residue their whole Counsel is in this point utterly condemned as having either proceeded from the blindness of those times or from negligence or from desire of honor and glory or from an erroneous opinion that such things might be tolerated for a while or if it did proceed as they which would seem most favorable are content to think it possible from a purpose partly the easilier to draw Papists unto the Gospel by keeping so many orders still the same with theirs and partly to redeem peace thereby the breach whereof they might fear would ensue upon more thorow alteration or howsoever it came to pass the thing they did is judged evil But such is the lot of all that deal in Publick Affairs whether of Church or Commonwealth that which men list to surmise of their doings being it good or ill they must beforehand patiently aim their mindes to endure Wherefore to let go private surmises whereby the thing in it self is not made either better or worse if just and allowable Reasons might lead them to do as they did then are all these censures frustrate Touching Ceremonies harmless therefore in themselves and hurtful onely in respect of number Was it amiss to decree That those things which were least needful and newliest come should be the first that were taken away as in the abrogating of a number of Saints days and of other the like custom it appeareth they did till afterwards the Form of Common Prayer being perfected Articles of sound Religion and Discipline agreed upon Catechisms framed for the needful instruction of Youth Churches purged of things that indeed were but thensom to the people or to the simple offensive and scandalous all was brought at the length unto that wherein now we stand Or was it amiss that having this way eased the Church as they thought of superfluity they went not on till they had plucked up even those things also which had taken a great deal stronger and deeper root those things which to abrogate without constraint of manifest harm thereby arising had been to alter unnecessarily in their judgments the antient received custom of the whole Church the universal practice of the people of God and those very decrees of our Fathers which were not onely set down by agreement of General Councils but had accordingly been put in ure and so continued in use till that very time present True it is That neither Councils nor Customs be they never so ancient and so general can let the Church from taking away that thing which is hurtful to be retained Where things have been instituted which being convenient and good at the first do afterward in process of time wax otherwise we make no doubt but they may be altered yea though Councils or Customs General have received them And therefore it is but a needless kinde of opposition which they make who thus dispute If in those things which are not expressed in the Scripture that is to be observed of the Church which is the custom of the people of God and decree of our Forefathers then how can these things at any time be varied which heretofore have been once ordained in such sort Whereto we say that things so ordained are to be kept howbeit not necessarily any longer then till there grow some urgent cause to ordain the contrary For there is not any Positive Law of Men whether it be general or particular received by formal express consent as in
likewise said Thou shalt utterly deface and destroy all these Synagogues and places where such Idols have been worshipped This Law containeth the Temporal punishment which God hath set down and willeth that men execute for the breach of the other Law They which spare them therefore do but reserve as the Hypocrite Saul did exterable things to worship God withall The truth is that as no man serveth God and loveth him not so neither can any man sincerely love God and not extreamly abhor that sin which is the highest degree of Treason against the Supream Guide and Monarch of the whole world with whose Divine Authority and Power it investeth others By means whereof the state of Idolaters is two wayes miserable First In that which they worship they find no succour and secondly At his hands whom they ought to serve there is no other thing to be looked for but the effects of most just displeasure the withdrawing of Grace dereliction in this world and in the world to come confusion Paul and Barnabas when Infidels admiring their vertues went about to sacrifice unto them rent their Garments in token of horrour and as frighted persons run crying thorow the press of the people O men wherefore doyâ— these things They knew the force of that dreadful Curse whereunto Idolatry maketh subject Nor is there cause why the guilty sustaining the same should grudge or complain of Injustice For whatsoever Evil befalleth in that respect themselves have made themselves worthy to suffer it As for those things either whereon or else wherewith Superstition worketh polluted they are by such abuse and deprived of that Dignity which their Nature delighteth in For there is nothing which doth not grieve and as it were even loath it self whensoever iniquity causeth it to serve unto vile purposes Idolatry therefore maketh whatsoever it toucheth the worse Howbeit sith Creatures which have no understanding can shew no will and where no will is there is no sin and only that which sinneth is subject to punishment Which way should any such Creature be punishable by the Law of God There may be cause sometime to abolish or to extiguish them But surely never by way of punishment to the things themselves Yea farther howsoever the Law of Moses did punish Idolaters we find not that God hath appointed for us any definite or certain temporal judgment which the Christian Magistrate is of necessity for ever bound to execute upon Offenders in that kind much less upon things that way abused as mere instruments For what God did command touching Canaan the same concerneth not us any otherwise than only as a fearful pattern of his just displeasure and wrath against sinful Nations It teacheth us how God thought good to plague and afflict them it doth not appoint in what form and manner we ought to punish the sin of Idolaty in all others Unless they will say that because the Israelites were commanded to make no Covenant with the people of that Land therefore Leagues and Truces made between Superstitious Persons and such as serve God aright are unlawful altogether or because God commanded the Israelites to smite the Inhabitants of Canaan and to root them out that therefore reformed Churches are bound to put all others to the edge of the sword Now whereas Commandment was also given to destroy all places where the Canaanites had served their gods and not to convert any one of them to the honour of the true God this Precept had reference unto a special intent and purpose which was that there should be but one only Place in the whole Land whereunto the People might bring such Offerings Gifts and Sacrifices as their Levitical Law did require By which Law severe charge was given them in that respect not to convert those places to the worship of the living God where Nations before them had served Idols But to seek the place which the Lord their God should chuse out of all their Tribes Besides it is reason we should likewise consider how great a difference there is between their proceedings who erect a new Common-wealth which is to have neither People nor Law neither Regiment nor Religion the same that was and theirs who only reform a decayed estate by reducing it to that perfection from which it hath swarved In this case we are to retain as much in the other as little of former things as we may Sith therefore Examples have not generally the force of Laws which all men ought to keep but of Counsels only and Perswasions not amiss to be followed by them whose Case is the like surely where Cases are so unlike as theirs and ours I see not how that which they did should induce much less any way enforce us to the same practise especially considering that Groves and Hill-altars were while they did remain both dangerous in regard of the secret access which People superstitiously given might have always thereunto with ease neither could they remaining serve with any fitness unto better purpose whereas our Temples their former abuse being by order of Law removed are not only free from such peril but withall so conveniently framed for the people of God to serve and honour him therein that no man beholding them can chuse but think it exceeding great pity they should be ever any otherwise employed Yea but the Cattel of Amalek you will say were fit for sacrifice and this was the very conceit which sometime deceived Soul It was so Nor do I any thing doubt but that Saul upon this conceit might even lawfully have offered to God those reserved spoyls had not the Lord in that particular case given special charge to the contrary And therefore notwithstanding the commandement of Israel to destroy Canaanites Idolaters may be converied and live So the Temples which have served Idolatry as Instruments may be sanctified again and continue albeit to Israel commandement have been given that they should destroy all Idolatrous places in their Lead and to the good Kings of Israel commendation for fulfilling to the evil for disobeying the same Commandement sometimes punishment always sharp and severe reproof hath even from the Lord himself befallen Thus much it may suffice to have written in defence of those Christian Oratories the overthrow and ruine whereof is desired not now by Infidels Pagans or Turks but by a special refined Sect of Christian Believers pretending themselves exceedingly grieved at our Solemnities in erecting Churches at the Names which we suffer them to hold at their form and fashion at the stateliness of them and costliness at the opinion which we have of them and at the manifold supertitious abuses whereunto they have been put 18. Places of publick resort being thus provided for our repair thither is especially for mutual conference and as it were commerce to be had between God and us Because therefore want of the knowledge of God is the cause of all iniquity amongst
for Secular as Sacred uses was commanded to make not to sanctifie but the Unction of the Tabernacle the Table the Laver the Altar of God with all the instruments appertaining thereunto this made them for ever holy unto him in whose service they were imployed But what of this Doth it hereupon follow that all things now in the Church from the greatest to the least are unholy which the Lord hath not himself precisely instituted for so those Rudiments they say do import Then is there nothing holy which the Church by her Authority hath appointed and consequently all positive Ordinances that ever were made by Ecclesiastical Power touching Spiritual affairs are prophane they are unholy I would not with them to undertake a Work so desperate as to prove that for the Peoples instruction no kinde of Reading is good but only that which the Jews devised under Antiochus although even that he also mistaken For according to Elius the Levite out of whom it doth seem borrowed the thing which Antiochus forbad was the Publick reading of the Law and not Sermons upon the Law Neither did the Jews read a Portion of the Prophets together with the Law to serve for an interpretation thereof because Sermons were not permitted them But instead of the Law which they might not read openly they read of the Prophets that which in likeness of matter came nearest to each Section of their Law Whereupon when afterwards the liberty of reading the Law was restored the self-same Custom as touching the Prophets did continue still If neither the Jews have used publickly to read their Paraphrasts nor the Primitive Church for a long time any other Writings than Scripture except the Cause of their not doing it were some Law of God or Reason forbidding them to do that which we do why should the latter Ages of the Church be deprived of the Liberty the former had Are we bound while the World standeth to put nothing in practice but onely that which was at the very first Concerning the Council of Laodicea is it forbiddeth the reading of those things which are not Canonical so it maketh some things not Canonical which are Their Judgment in this we may not and in that we need not follow We have by thus many years experience found that exceeding great good not incumbred with any notable inconvenience hath grown by the Custome which we now observe As for the harm whereof judicious men have complained in former times it came not of this that other things were read besides the Scripture but that so evil choyce was made With us there is never any time bestowed in Divine Service without the reading of a great part of the holy Scripture which we acount a thing most necessary We dare not admit any such Form of Liturgy as either appointeth no Scripture at all or very little to be read in the Church And therefore the thrusting of the Bible out of the House of God is rather there to be feared where men esteem it a matter so indifferent whether the same be by solemn appointment read publickly or not read the bare Text excepted which the Preacher haply chuseth out to expound But let us here consider what the Practise of our Fathers before us hath been and how far-forth the same may be followed We find that in ancient times there was publickly read first the Scripture as namely something out of the Books of the Prophets of God which were of old something out of the Apostles Writings and lastly out of the holy Evangelists some things which touched the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ himself The cause of their reading first the old Testament then the New and always somewhat out of both is most likely to have been that which Iustin Martyr and Saint August observe in comparing the two Testaments The Apostles saith the one hath taught us as themselves did learn first the Precepts of the Law and then the Gospels For what else is the Law but the Gospel foreshewed What other the Gospel than the Law fulfilled In like sort the other What the Old Testament hath the very same the New containeth but that which lyeth there at under a shadow in here brought forth into the open Sun Things there prefigured are here performed Again In the Old Testament there is a close comprehension of the New in the New an open discovery of the Old To be short the method of their Publick readings either purposely did tend or at the least-wise doth fitly serve That from smaller things the mindes of the Hearers may go forward to the Knowledge of greater and by degrees climbe up from the lowest to the highest things Now besides the Scripture the Books which they called Ecclesiastical were thought not unworthy sometime to be brought into publick audience and with that Name they intituled the Books which we term Apocryphal Under the self-same Name they also comprised certain no otherwise annexed unto the New than the former unto the Old Testament as a Book of Hermes Epistles of Clement and the like According therefore to the Phrase of Antiquity these we may term the New and the other the Old Ecclesiastical Books or Writings For we being directed by a Sentence I suppose of Saint Ierom who saith That All Writings not Canonical are Apocryphal use not now the Title Apocryphal as the rest of the Fathers ordinarily have done whose Custom is so to name for the most part only such as might not publickly be read or divulged Ruffinus therefore having rehearsed the self-same Books of Canonical Scripture which with us are held to be alone Canonical addeth immediately by way of caution We must know that other Books there are also which our Fore-fathers have used to name not Canonical but Ecclesiastical Books as the Book of Wisdom Ecclesiasticus Toby Judith the Macchabees in the Old Testament in the New the Book of Hermes and such others All which Books and Writings they willed to be read in Churches but not to be alleadged as if their authority did binde us to build upon them our Faith Other Writings they named Apocryphal which they would not have read in Churches These things delivered unto us from the Fathers we have in this place thought good to set down So far Ruffinus He which considereth notwithstanding what store of false and forged Writings dangerous unto Christian Belief and yet bearing glorious Inscriptions began soon upon the Apostles times to be admitted into the Church and to be honoured as if they had been indeed Apostolick shall easily perceive what cause the Provincial Synod of Laodicea might have as then to prevent especially the danger of Books made newly Ecclesiastical and for feat of the fraud of Hereticks to provide that such Publick readings might be altogether taken out of Canonical Scripture Which Ordinance respecting but that abuse which grew through the intermingling of
wisely considered that the Body is of far more worth than the Rayment Whereupon for fear of dangerous inconveniences it hath been thought good to adde That sometimes Authority must and may with good conscience be obeyed even where Commandment is not given upon good ground That the duty of Preaching is one of the absolute Commandements of God and therefore ought not to be forsaken for the bare inconveniency of a thing which in the own nature is indifferent That one of the foulest spots is the Surplice is the offence which is giveth in occasioning the weak to fall and the wicked to be confirmed in their wickedness yet hereby there is no unlawfulness proved but only an inconveniency that such things should be established howbeit no such Inconveniency neither as may not be born with That when God doth flatly command us to abstain from things is their own Nature indifferent if they offend our weak Brethren his meaning is not we should obey his Commandement herein unless we may do it and not leave undone that which the Lord hath absolutely commanded Always provided That whosoever will enjoy the benefit of this Dispensation to wear a scandalous Badge of Idolatry rather than forsake his Pastoral charge do as occasion serveth teach nevertheless still the incommodity of the thing it self admonish the weak Brethren that they be not and pray unto God so to strengthen them that they may not be offended thereat So that whereas before they which had Authority to institute Rites and Ceremonies were denyed to have power to institute this it is now confest that this they may also lawfully but not so conveniently appoint they did well before and as they ought who had it in utter detestation and hatred as a thing abominable they now do well which think it may be both born and used with a very good Conscience before he which by wearing it were sure to win thousands unto Christ ought not to do it if there were but one which might be offended now though it be with the offence of thousands yet it may be done rather than that should be given over whereby notwithstanding we are not certain we shall gain one the Examples of Ezechias and of Paul the Charge which was given to the Jews by Esay the strict Apostolical prohibition of things indifferent whensoever they may be scandalous were before so forcible Laws against our Ecclesiastical Attire as neither Church nor Common-wealth could possibly make void which now one of far less authority than either hath found how to frustrate by dispensing with the breach of inferiour Commandments to the end that the greater may be kept But it booteth them not thus to soder up a broken Cause whereof their first and last discourses will fall asunder do what they can Let them ingenuously confess that their Invectives were too bitter their Arguments too weak the matter not so dangerous as they did imagin If those alleged testimonies of Scripture did indeed concern the matter to such effect as was pretended that which they should inferr were unlawfulness because they were cited as Prohibitions of that thing which indeed they concern If they prove not our attire unlawful because in truth they concern it not it followeth that they prove not any thing against it and consequently not so much as uncomeliness or incoveniency Unless therefore they be able throughly to resolve themselves that there is no one Sentence in all the Scriptures of God which doth controul the wearing of it in such manner and to such purpose as the Church of England alloweth unless they can fully rest and settle their mindes in this most sound perswasion that they are not to make themselves the only competent Judges of decency in these cases and to despise the solemn judgement of the whole Church preferring before it their own conceit grounded only upon uncertain suspicions and fears whereof if there were at the first some probable cause when things were but raw and tender yet now very tract of time hath it self worn that out also unless I say thus resolved in minde they hold their Pastoral Charge with the comfort of a good Conscience no way grudging at that which they do or doing that which they think themselves bound of duty to reprove how should it possibly help or further them in their course to take such occasions as they say are requisite to be taken and in pensive manner to tell their Audience Brethren our hearts desire is that we might enjoy the full liberty of the Gospel as in other reformed Churches they do elsewhere upon whom the heavy hand of Authority hath imposed no grievous burthen But such is the misery of these our days that so great happiness we cannot look to attain unto Were it so that the equity of the Law of Moses could prevail or the zeal of Ezechias be found in the hearts of those Guides and Governours under whom we live or the voyce of God's own Prophets be duly heard or the Examples of the Apostles of Christ be followed yea or their Precepts be answered with full and perfect obedience these abominable Raggs polluted Garments marks and Sacraments of Idolatry which Power as you see constraineth us to wear and Conscience to abhor had long ere this day been removed both out of sight and out of memory But as now things stand behold to what narrow streights we are driven On the one side we fear the words of our Saviour Christ Woe be to them by whom scandal and offence cometh on the other side at the Apostles speech we cannot but quake and tremble If I preach not the Gospel woe be unto me Being thus hardly beset we see not any other remedy but to hazzard your Souls the one way that we may the other way endeavour to save them Touching the the offence of the Weak therefore we must adventure it If they perish they perish Our Pastoral charge is God's most absolute Commandment Rather than that shall be taken from us we are resolved to take this filth and to put it on although we judge it to be so unfit and inconvenient that as oft as ever we pray or preach so arrayed before you we do as much as in us lyeth to cast away your Souls that are weak-minded and to bring you unto endless perdition But we beseech you Brethren have a care of your own safety take heed to your steps that ye be not taken in those snares which we lay before you And our Prayer in your behalf to Almighty God is that the poyson which we offer you may never have the power to do you harm Advice and counsel is best sought for at their hands which either have no part at all in the Cause whereof they instruct or else are so farr ingaged that themselves are to bear the greatest adventure in the success of their own Counsels The one of which two Considerations maketh men the less respective and the other the more
then their calculation be true for so they reckon that a full third of our Prayers be allotted unto earthly benefits for which our Saviour in his platform hath appointed but one Petition amongst seven the difference is without any great disagreement we respecting what men are and doing that which is meer in regard of the common imperfection our Lord contrariwise proposing the most absolute proportion that can be in mens desires the very highest mark whereat we are able to aime For which cause also our custom is both to place it in the front of our Prayers as a Guide and to adde it in the end of some principal limbs or parts as a complement which fully perfecteth whatsoever may be defective in the rest Twice we rehearse it ordinarily and oftner as occasion requireth more solemnity or length in the form of Divine Service not mistrusting till these new curiosities sprang up that ever any man would think our labour herein mis-spent the time wastfully consumed and the Office it self made worse by so repeating that which otherwise would more hardly be made familiar to the simpler sort for the good of whose Souls there is not in Christian Religion any thing of like continual use and force throughout every hour and moment of their whole lives I mean not only because Prayer but because this very Prayer is of such efficacy and necessity for that our Saviour did but set men a bare example how to contrive or devise Prayers of their own and no way binde them to use this is no doubt as Errour Iohn the Baptist's Disciples which had been always brought up in the bosom of God's Church from the time of their first Infancy till they came to the School of Iohn were not so brutish that they could be ignorant how to call upon the Name of God but of their Master they had received a form of Prayer amongst themselves which form none did use saving his Disciples so that by it as by a mark of special difference they were known from others And of this the Apostles having taken notice they request that as Iohn had taught his so Christ would likewise teach them to pray Tertullian and Saint Augustin do for that cause term it Orationem legitimam the Prayer which Christ's own Law hath tyed his Church to use in the same Prescript form of words wherewith he himself did deliver it and therefore what part of the World soever we fall into if Christian Religion have been there received the ordinary use of this very Prayer hath with equal continuance accompanied the same as one of the principal and most material duties of honour done to Jesus Christ. Seeing that we have saith Saint Cyprian an Advocate with the Father for our Sins when we that have sinned come to seek for pardon let us alledge unto God the words which our Advocate hath taught For sith his promise is our plain warrant that in his Name what we aske we shall receive must we not needs much the rather obtain that for which we sue if not only his Name do countenance but also his Speech present our requests Though men should speak with the tongues of Angels yet words so pleasing to the ears of God as those which the Son of God himself hath composed were not possible for men to frame He therefore which made us to live hath also taught us to pray to the end that speaking unto the Father in the Sonn 's own prescript without scholy or gloss of ours we may be sure that we utter nothing which God will either disallow or deny Other Prayers we use may besides this and this oftner than any other although not tyed so to do by any Commandement of Scripture yet moved with such considerations as have been before set down the causeless dislike where of which others have conceived is no sufficient reason for us as much as once to forbear in any place a thing which uttered with true devotion and zeal of heart affordeth to God himself that glory that aide to the weakest sort of men to the most perfect that solid comfort which is unspeakable 36. With our Lords Prayer they would finde no fault so that they might perswade us to use it before or other Sermons only because so their manner is and not as all Christian people have been of old accustomed insert it so often into the Liturgy But the Peoples custom to repeat any thing after the Minister they utterly mislike Twice we appoint that the words which the Minister first pronounceth the whole Congregation shall repeat after him As first in the publick Confession of Sins and again in rehearsal of our Lord's Prayer presently after the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood received A thing no way offensive no way unfit or unseemly to be done although it had been so appointed ofner than with us it is But surely with so good reason it standeth in those two places that otherwise to order it were not in all respects so well Could there be any thing devised better then that we all at our first access unto God by Prayer should acknowledge meekly our sins and that not onely in heart but with tongue all which are present being made ear-witnesses even of every mans distinct and deliberate assent unto each particular branch of a common Indictment drawn against our selves How were it possible that the Church should any way else with such ease and certainty provide that none of her Children may as Adam dissemble that wretchedness the penitent confession whereof is so necessary a Preamble especially to Common Prayer In like manner if the Church did ever devise a thing fit and convenient what more then this that when together we have all received those Heavenly Mysteries wherein Christ imparteth himself unto us and giveth visible testification of our blessed communion with him we should in hatred of all Heresies Factions and Schisms the Pastor as a Leader the people as willing followers of him step by step declare openly our selves united as Brethren in one by offering up with all our hearts and tongues that most effectual Supplication wherein he unto whom we offer it hath himself not onely comprehended all our necessities but in such sort also framed every Petition as might most naturally serve for many and doth though not always require yet always import a multitude of speakers together For which cause Communicants have ever used it and we at that time by the form of our very utterance do shew we use it yea every word and syllable of it as Communicants In the rest we observe that custom whereunto St. Paul alludeth and whereof the Fathers of the Church in their Writings make often mention to shew indefinitely what was done but not universally to binde for ever all Prayers unto one onely fashion of utterance The Reasons which we have alledged induce us to think it still a good work which they in their pensive
the Example of beginning this Custom in the Church of Christ sith we are wont to suspect things onely before tryal and afterwards either to approve them as good or if we finde them evil accordingly to judge of them their counsel must needs seem very unseasonable who advise men now to suspect that wherewith the World hath had by their own account Twelve hundred years acquaintance and upwards enough to take away suspition and jealousie Men know by this time if ever they will know whether it be good or evil which hath been so long retained As for the Devil which way it should greatly benefit him to have this manner of singing Psalms accounted an invention of Ignatius or an imitation of the Angels of Heaven we do not well understand But we very well see in them who thus plead a wonderful celerity of discourse For perceiving at the first but onely some cause of suspition and fear left it should be evil they are presently in one and the self-same breath resolved That what beginning soever it had there is no possibility it should be good The Potent Arguments which did thus suddenly break in upon them and overcome them are First That it is not unlawful for the People all joyntly to praise God in singing of Psalms Secondly That they are not any where forbidden by the Law of God to sing every Verse of the whole Psalm both with heart and voice quite and clean throughout Thirdly That it cannot be understood what is sung after our manner Of which three for as much as lawfulness to sing one way proveth not another way inconvenient the former two are true Allegations but they lack strength to accomplish their desire the third so strong that it might perswade if the truth thereof were not doubtful And shall this inforce us to banish a thing which all Christian Churches in the World have received a thing which so many ages have held a thing which the most approved Councils and Laws have so oftentimes ratified a thing which was never sound to have any inconvenience in it a thing which always heretofore the best Men and wisest Governors of Gods people did think they could never commend enough a thing which as Basil was perswaded did both strengthen the Meditation of those holy Words which were uttered in that sort and serve also to make attentive and to raise up the hearts of men a thing whereunto Gods people of old did resort with hope and thirst that thereby especially their Souls might be edified a thing which filleth the minde with comfort and heavenly delight stirreth up flagrant desires and affections correspondent unto that which the words contain allayeth all kinde of base and earthly Cogitations banisheth and driveth away those evil secret suggestions which our invisible Enemy is always apt to minister watereth the heart to the end it may fructifie maketh the vertuous in trouble full of magnanimity and courage serveth as a most approved remedy against all doleful and heavy accidents which befal men in this present life To conclude So fitly accordeth with the Apostles own Exhortation Speak to your selves in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs making melody and singing to the Lord in your hearts that surely there is more cause to fear lest the want thereof be a main then the use a blemish to the Service of God It is not our meaning that what we attribute unto the Psalms should be thought to depend altogether on that onely form of singing or reading them by course as with us the manner is but the end of our speech is to shew That because the Fathers of the Church with whom the self-same custom was so many ages ago in use have uttered all these things concerning the fruit which the Church of God did then reap observing that and no other form it may be justly avouched that we our selves retaining it an besides it also the other more newly and not unfruitfully devised do neither want that good which the latter invention can afford not lose any thing of that for which the Ancients so oft and so highly commend the former Let Novelty therefore in this give over endless contradictions and let ancient custom prevail 40. We have already given cause sufficient for the great conveniency and use of reading the Psalms oftner then other Scriptures Of reading or singing likewise Magnificat Benedictus and Nunc dimittis oftner then the rest of the Psalms the causes are no whit less reasonable so that if the one may very well monethly the other may as well even daily be iterated They are Songs which concern us so much more then the Songs of David as the Gospel toucheth us more then the Law the New Testament then the Old And if the Psalms for the excellency of their use deserve to be oftner repeated then they are but that the multitude of them permitteth not any ofther repetition What disorder is it if these few Evangelical Hymns which are in no respect less worthy and may be by reason of their paucity imprinted with much more ease in all mens memories be for that cause every day rehearsed In our own behalf it is convenient and orderly enough that both they and we make day by day Prayers and Supplications the very same why not as fit and convenient to magnifie the Name of God day by day with certain the very self-same Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving Either let them not allow the one or else cease to reprove the other For the Ancient received use of intermingling Hymns and Psalms with Divine Readings enough hath been written And if any may fitly serve unto that purpose how should it better have been devised then that a competent number of the Old being first read these of the New should succeed in the place where now they are set In which place notwithstanding there is joyned with Benedictus the Hundredth Psalm with Magnificaâ— the Ninety eighth the Sixty seventh with Nunc dimittis and in every of them the choice left free for the Minister to use indifferently the one or the other Seeing therefore they pretend no quarrel at other Psalms which are in like manner appointed also to be daily read why do these so much offend and displease their taste They are the first Gratulations wherewith our Lord and Saviour was joyfully received at his entrance into the World by such as in their Hearts Arms and very Bowels embraced Him being Prophetical discoveries of Christ already present whose future coming the other Psalms did but fore-signifie they are against the obstinate incredulity of the Jews the most luculent testimonies that Christian Religion hath yea the onely sacred Hymns they are that Christianity hath peculiar unto it self the other being Songs too of praise and thanksgiving but Songs wherewith as we serve God so the Jew likewise And whereas they tell us These Songs were fit for that purpose when Simeon and Zachary and the Blessed Virgin uttered
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
satisfie our desires in that which else we should want so to love them on whom we bestow is Nature because in them we behold the effects of our own vertue Seeing therefore no Religion enjoyeth Sacraments the signs of Gods love unless it have also that Faith whereupon the Sacraments are built could there be any thing more convenient then that our first admittance to the Actual Receit of his Grace in the Sacrament of Baptism should be consecrated with profession of Belief which is to the Kingdom of God as a Key the want whereof excludeth Infidels both from that and from all other saving Grace We finde by experience that although Faith be an Intellectual Habit of the Minde and have her Seat in the Understanding yet an evil Moral Disposition obstinately wedded to the love of darkness dampeth the very Light of Heavenly Illumination and permitteth not the Minde to see what doth shine before it Men are lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God Their assent to his saving Truth is many times with-held from it not that the Truth is too weak to perswade but because the stream of corrupt affection carrieth them a clean contrary way That the Minde therefore may abide in the Light of Faith there must abide in the Will as constant a resolution to have no fellowship at all with the vanities and works of darkness Two Covenants there are which Christian men saith Isidor do make in Baptism the one concerning relinquishment of Satan the other touching Obedience to the Faith of Christ. In like sort St. Ambrose He which is baptized forsaketh the Intellectual Pharaoh the Prince of this World saying Abrenuncio Thee O Satan and thy Angels thy works and thy mandates I forsake utterly Tertullian having speech of wicked spirits These saith he are the Angels which we in Baptism renounce The Declaration of Iustin the Martyr concerning Baptism sheweth how such as the Church in those days did baptize made profession of Christian Belief and undertook to live accordingly Neither do I think it a matter easie for any man to prove that ever Baptism did use to be administred without Interrogatories of these two kindes Whereunto St. Peter as it may be thought alluding hath said That the Baptism which saveth us is not as Legal Purifications were a cleansing of the flesh from outward impurity but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Interrogative tryal of a good conscience towards God 64. Now the fault which they finde with us concerning Interrogatories is our moving of these Questions unto Infants which cannot answer them and the answering of them by others as in their names The Anabaptist hath many pretences to scorn at the baptism of Children First Because the Scriptures he saith do no where give Commandment to Baptize Infants Secondly For that as there is no Commandment so neither any manifest example shewing it to have been done either by Christ or his Apostles Thirdly In as much as the Word Preached and the Sacraments must go together they which are not capable of the one are no fit receivers of the other Last of all sith the Order of Baptism continued from the first beginning hath in it those things which are unfit to be applied unto Sucking Children it followeth in their conceit That the Baptism of such is no Baptism but plain mockery They with whom we contend are no enemies to the Baptism of Infants it is not their desire that the Church should hazard so many Souls by letting them run on till they come to ripeness of understanding that so they may be converted and then baptized as Infidels heretofore have been they bear not towards God so unthankful mindes as not to acknowledge it even amongst the greatest of his endless mercies That by making us his own possession so soon many advantages which Satan otherwise might take are prevented and which should be esteemed a part of no small happiness the first thing whereof we have occasion to take notice is How much hath been done already to our great good though altogether without our knowledge The Baptism of Infants they esteem as an Ordinance which Christ hath instituted even in special love and favor to his own people They deny not the practice thereof accordingly to have been kept as derived from the hands and continued from the days of the Apostles themselves unto this present onely it pleaseth them not That to Infants there should be Interrogatories proposed in Baptism This they condemn as foolish toyish and profane mockery But are they able to shew that ever the Church of Christ had any Publick Form of Baptism without Interrogatories or that the Church did ever use at the Solemn Baptism of Infants to omit those Questions as needless in this case Ioniface a Bishop in St. Augustines time knowing That the Church did Universally use this Custom of Baptising Infants with Interrogatories was desirous to learn from St. Augustine the true cause and reason thereof If saith he I should see before thee a young infant and should ask of thee whether that Infant when he cometh unto riper age will be honest and just or no Thou wouldst answer I know that to tell in these things what shall come to pass is not in the power of Mortal Man If I should ask What good or evil such an infant thinketh Thine answer hereunto must needs be again with the like uncertainty If them neither canst promise for the time to come nor for the present pronounce any thing in this case How is it that when such are brought unto Baptism their Parents there undertake what the Childe shall afterwards do Yea they are not doubtful to say It doth that which is impossible to be done by Infants At the least there is no man precisely able to affirm it done Vonchsafe me hereunto some short answer such as not onely may press me with the bare authority of Custom but also instruct me in the cause thereof Touching which difficulty whether it may truly be said for Infants at the time of their Baptism That they do believe the effect of St. Angustines answer is Yea but with this distinction a present Actual habit of Faith there is not in them there is delivered unto them that Sacrament a part of the due celebration whereof consisting in answering to the Articles of Faith because the habit of Faith which afterwards doth come with years is but a farther building up of the same edifice the first foundation whereof was laid by the Sacrament of Baptism For that which there we professed without any understanding when we afterwards come to acknowledge do we any thing else but onely bring unto ripeness the very Seed that was sown before We are then Believers because then we begun to be that which process of time doth make perfect And till we come to Actual Belief the very Sacrament of Faith is a shield as strong as after this the Faith of the Sacrament against all
contrary Internal Powers Which whosoever doth think impossible is undoubtedly farther off from Christian Belief though he be Baptized then are these Innocents which at their Baptism albeit they have no conceit cogitation of Faith are notwithstanding pure and free from all opposite cogitations whereas the other is not free If therefore without any fear or scruple we may account them and term them Believers onely for their outward professions sake which inwardly are farther from Faith then Infants Why not Infants much more at the time of their solemn Initiation by Baptism the Sacrament of Faith whereunto they not onely conceive nothing opposite but have also that Grace given them which is the first and most effectual cause out of which our belief groweth In sum the whole Church is a multitude of Believers all honored with that title even Hypocrites for their Professions sake as well as Saints because of their inward sincere perswasion and Infants as being in the first degree of their ghostly motions towards the actual habit of Faith the first sort are faithful in the eye of the World the second faithful in the sight of God the last in the ready direct way to become both if all things after be suitable to these their present beginnings This saith St. Augustine would not happily content such persons as are uncapable or unquiet but to them which having knowledge are not troublesome it may suffice Wherein I have not for case of my self objected against you that custom onely then which nothing is more from but of a custom most profitable I have done that little which I could â—â— yield you a reasonable cause Were St. Augustine now living there are which would tell him for his better instruction that to say of a childe It is elect and to say it doth believe are all one for which cause sith no man is able precisely to affirm the one of any Infant in particular it followeth that precisely and absolutely we ought not to say the other Which precise and absolute terms are needless in this case We speak of Infants as the rule of piety alloweth both to speak and think They that can take to themselves in ordinary talk a charitable kinde of liberty to name men of their own sort Gods dear children notwithstanding the large reign of of Hyprocrisie should not methinks be so strict and rigorous against the Church for presuming as it doth of a Christian Innocent For when we know how Christ is general hath said That of such is the Kingdom of Heaven which Kingdom is the Inheritance of Gods Elect and do withal behold how his providence hath called them unto the first beginnings of Eternal Life and presented them at the Well-spring of New-birth wherein original sin is purged besides which sin there is no Hinderance of their Salvation known to us as themselves will grant hard it were that loving so many fair inducements whereupon to ground we should not be thought to utter at the least a truth as probable and allowable in terming any such particular Infant an elect Babe as in presuming the like of others whose safety nevertheless we are not absolutely able to warrant If any troubled with these seruples be onely for Instructions sake desirous to know yet some farther reason why Interrogatories should be ministred to Infants in Baptism and be answered unto by others as in their names they may consider that Baptism implieth a Covenant or League between God and Man wherein as God doth bestow presently remission of sins and the Holy Ghost hinding also himself to add in process of time what Grace soever shall be farther necessary for the attainment of Everlasting Life so every Baptized Soul receiving the same Grace at the hands of God tieth likewise it self for ever to the observation of his Law no less then the Jews by Circumcision bound themselves to the Law of Moses The Law of Christ requiring therefore Faith and newness of life in all men by vertue of the Covenant which they make in Baptism Is it toyish that the Church in Baptism exacteth at every mans hands an express Profession of Faith and an inevocable promise of obedience by way of solemn stipulation That Infants may contract and covenant with God the Law is plain Neither is the reason of the Law obscure For sith it rendeth we cannot sufficiently express how much to their own good and doth no way hurt or endanger them to begin the race of their lives herewith they are as equity requireth admitted hereunto and in favor of their tender years such formal complements of stipulation as being requisite are impossible by themselves in their own persons to be performed leave is given that they may sufficiently discharge by others Albeit therefore neither deaf nor dumb men neither surious persons nor children can receive any civil stipulation yet this kinde of ghostly stipulation they may through his indulgence who respecting the singular benefit thereof accepteth Children brought unto him for that end entrech into Articles of Covenant with them and in tender commiseration granteth that other Mens Professions and Promises in Baptism made for them shall avail no less then if they had been themselves able to have made their own None more fit to undertake this office in their behalf then such as present them unto Baptism A wrong conceit that none may receive the Sacrament of Baptism but they whose Parents at the least the one of them are by the soundness of their Religion and by their vertuous demeanor known to be Men of God hath caused some to repel Children whosoever bring them if their Parents be mis-perswaded in Religion or sot other mis-deserts ex-communicated some likewise for that cause to withhold Baptism unless the Father albeit no such exception can justly be taken against him do notwithstanding make Profession of his Faith and avouch the childe to be his own Thus whereas God hath appointed them Ministers of holy things they make themselves Inquisitors of mens persons a great deal farther then need is They should consider that God hath ordained Baptism in favor of mankinde To restrain favors is an odious thing to enlarge them acceptable both to God and Man Whereas therefore the Civil Law gave divers Immunities to them which were Fathers of three children and had them living those Immunities they held although their children were all dead if war had consumed them because it seemed in that case not against reason to repute them by a courteous construction of Law as live men in that the honor of their Service done to the Commonwealth would remain always Can it hurt us in exhibiting the Graces which God doth bestow on men or can it prejudice his glory if the self-same equity guide and direct our hands When God made his Covenant with such as had Abraham to their Father was onely Abrahams immediate issue or onely his lineal posterity according to the flesh included in that
for such their particular Invocations and Benedictions as no Man I suppose professing truth of Religion will easily think to have been without Fruit. No there is no cause we should doubt of the benefit but surely great cause to make complaint of the deep neglect of this Christian duty almost with all them to whom by tight of their place and calling the same belongeth Let them not take it in evil part the thing is true their small regard hereunto hath done harm in the Church of God That which Error rashly uttereth in disgrace of good things may peradventure be sponged out when the print of those evils which are grown through neglect will remain behinde Thus much therefore generally spoken may serve for answer unto their demands that require us to tell them Why there should be any such confirmation in the Church seeing we are not ignorant how earnestly they have protested against it and how directly although untruly for so they are content to acknowledge it hath by some of them been said To be first brought in by the seigned Decretal Epistles of the Popes or why it should not be utterly abolished seeing that no one title thereof can be once found in the whole Scripture except the Epistle to the Hebrews be Scripture And again seeing that how free soever it be now from abuse if we look back to the times past which wise men do always more respect then the present it hath been abused and is found at the length no such profitable Ceremony as the whole silly Church of Christ for the space of these Sixteen hundred years hath through want of experience imagined Last of all Seeing also besides the cruelty which is shewed towards poor Country people who are fain sometimes to let their Ploughs stand still and with increble wearisome toyl of their feeble bodies to wander over Mountains and through Woods it may be now and then little less then a whole half score of miles for a Bishops blessing which if it were needful might as well be done at home in their own Parishes rather then they is purchase it with so great loss and so intolerable pain There are they say in Confirmation besides this Three terrible points The first is Laying on of hands with pretence that the same is done to the example of the Apostles which is not onely as they suppose a manifest untruth for all the World doth know that the Apostles did never after Baptism lay hands on any and therefore Saint Luke which saith they did was much deceived But farther also we thereby teach men to think Imposition of Hands a Sacrament belike because it is a principle ingrafted by common Light of Nature in the Mindes of Men that all things done by Apostolick example must needs be Sacrament The second high point of danger is That by tying Confirmation to the Bishop alone there is great cause of suspition given to think that Baptism is not so precious a thing as Confirmation For will any man think that a Velvet Coat is of more price then a Linnen Coyf knowing the one to be an ordinary Garment the other an Ornament which onely Sergeants at Law do wear Finally To draw to an end of perils the last and the weightiest hazard is where the Book it self doth say That Children by Imposition of Hands and Prayer may receive strength against all temptation Which speech as a two-edged sword doth both ways dangerously wound partly because it ascribeth Grace to Imposition of Hands whereby we are able no more to assure our selves in the warrant of any promise from God that his Heavenly Grace shall be given then the Apostle was that himself should obtain Grace by the bowing of his knees to God and partly because by using the very word strength in this matter a word so apt to spred infection we maintain with Popish Evangelists an old forlorn distinction of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon Christs Apostles before his Ascension into Heaven and augmented upon them afterwards a distinction of Grace infused into Christian men by degrees planted in them at the first by Baptism after cherished watred and be it spoken without offence strengthned as by other vertuous Offices which Piety and true Religion teacheth even so by this very special Benediction whereof we speak the Rite or Ceremony of Confirmation 67. The Grace which we have by the holy Eucharist doth not begin but continue life No man therefore receiveth this Sacrament before Baptism because no dead thing is capable of nourishment That which groweth must of necessity first live If our Bodies did not daily waste Food to restore them were a thing superfluous And it may be that the Grace of Baptism would serve to Eternal Life were it not that the state of our Spiritual Being is daily so much hindered and impaired after Baptism In that life therefore where neither Body nor Soul can decay our Souls shall as little require this Sacrament as our Bodies corporal nourishment But as long as the days of our warfare last during the time that we are both subject to diminution and capable of augmentation in Grace the Words of our Lord and Saviour Christ will remain forceable Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you Life being therefore proposed unto all men as their end they which by Baptism have laid the Foundation and attained the first beginning of a new life have here their nourishment and food prescribed for continuance of life in them Such as will live the Life of God must eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man because this is a part of that diet which if we want we cannot live Whereas therefore in our Infancy we are incorporated into Christ and by Baptism receive the Grace of his Spirit without any sense or feeling of the gift which God bestoweth in the Eucharist we so receive the gift of God that we know by Grace what the Grace is which God giveth us the degrees of our own Increase in holiness and vertue we see and can judge of them we understand that the strength of our life begun in Christ is Christ that his Flesh is Meat and his Blood drink not by surmised imagination but truly even so truly that through Faith we perceive in the Body and Blood sacramentally presented the very taste of Eternal Life the Grace of the Sacrament is here as the food which we eat and drink This was it that some did exceedingly fear lest Zwinglius and Occolampadius would bring to pass that men should account of this Sacrament but onely as of a shadow destitute empty and void of Christ. But seeing that by opening the several opinions which have been held they are grown for ought I can see on all sides at the length to a general agreement concerning that which alone is material namely The Real Participation of Christ and of
them is the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ whose Name in the Service of our Communion we celebrate with due honor which they in the Error of their Mass prophane As therefore on our part to hear Mass were an open departure from that sincere Profession wherein we stand so if they on the other side receive our Communion they give us the strongest pledge of fidelity that man can demand What their hearts are God doth know But if they which minde treachery to God and Man shall once apprehend this advantage given them whereby they may satisfie Law in pretending themselves conformable for what can Law with Reason or Justice require more and yet be sure the Church will accept no such offer till their Gospel-like behavior be allowed after that our own simplicity hath once thus fairly eased them from the sting of Law it is to be thought they will learn the Mystery of Gospel-like behavior when leisure serveth them And so while without any cause we fear to profane Sacraments we shall not onely defeat the purpose of most wholesome Laws but lose or wilfully hazard those Souls from whom the likeliest means of full and perfect recovery are by our indiscretion with-held For neither doth God thus binde us to dive into mens consciences nor can their fraud and deceit hurt any man but themselves To him they seem such as they are but of us they must be taken for such as they seem In the Eye of God they are against Christ that are not truly and sincerely with him in our eyes they must be received as with Christ that are not to outward shew against him The case of impenitent and notorious sinners is not like unto theirs whose onely imperfection is Error severed from Pertinacy Error in appearance content to submit it self to better instruction Error so far already cured as to crave at our hands that Sacrament the hatâ—ed and utter refusal whereof was the weightiest point wherein heretofore they swerved and went astray In this case therefore they cannot reasonably charge us with remiss dealing or with carelesness to whom we impart the Mysteries of Christ but they have given us manifest occasion to think it requisit that we earnestly advise rather and exhort them to consider as they ought their sundry over-sights First In equalling undistinctly Crimes with Errors as touching force to make uncapable of this Sacrament Secondly In suffering indignation at the faults of the Church of Rome to blinde and with-hold their judgments from seeing that which withal they should acknowledge concerning so much nevertheless still due to the same Church as to be held and reputed a part of the House of God a Limb of the Visible Church of Christ Thirdly In imposing upon the Church a burthen to enter farther into mens hearts and to make a deeper search of their Consciences then any Law of God or Reason of Man inforceth Fourthly and lastly In repelling under colour of longer tryal such from the Mysteries of Heavenly Grace as are both capable thereof by the Laws of God for any thing we hear to the contrary and should in divers considerations be cherished according to the merciful Examples and Precepts whereby the Gospel of Christ hath taught us towards such to shew compassion to receive them with lenity and all meekness if any thing be shaken in them to strengthen it not to quench with delays and jealousies that feeble smoke of Conformity which seemeth to breathe from them but to build wheresoever there is any Foundation to add Perfection unto slender beginnings and that as by other offices of Piety even so by this very Food of Life which Christ hath left in his Church not onely for preservation of strength but also for relief of weakness But to return to our own selves in whom the next thing severely reproved is the Paucity of Communicants If they require at Communions frequency we wish the same knowing how acceptable unto God such service is when multitudes cheerfully concur unto it if they encourage men thereunto we also themselves acknowledge it are not utterly forgetful to do the like if they require some publick coaction for remedy of that wherein by milder and softer means little good is done they know our Laws and Statutes provided in that behalf whereunto whatsoever convenient help may be added more by the wisdom of man what cause have we given the World to think that we are not ready to hearken to it and to use any good means of sweet compulsion to have this high and heavenly Banquet largely furnished Onely we cannot so far yield as to judge it convenient that the holy desire of a competent number should be unsatisfied because the greater part is careless and undisposed to joyn with them Men should not they say be permitted a few by themselves to communicate when so many are gone away because this Sacrament is a token of our conjunction with our Brethren and therefore by communicating apart from them we make an apparent shew of distraction I ask then on which side Unity is broken whether on theirs that depart or on theirs who being left behinde do communicate First In the one it is not denied but that they may have reasonable causes of departure and that then even they are delivered from just blame Of such kinde of causes two are allowed namely danger of impairing health and necessary business requiring our presence otherwhere And may not a third cause which is unfitness at the present time detain us as lawfully back as either of these two True it is that we cannot hereby altogether excuse our selves for that we ought to prevent this and do not But if we have committed a fault in not preparing our mindes before shall we therefore aggravate the same with a worse the crime of unworthy participation He that abstaineth doth want for the time that Grace and Comfort which Religious Communicants have but he that eateth and drinketh unworthily receiveth death that which is life to others turneth in him to poyson Notwithstanding whatsoever be the cause for which men abstain were it reason that the fault of one part should any way abridge their benefit that are not faulty There is in all the Scripture of God no one syllable which doth condemn communicating a tâ—ngst a few when the rest are departed from them As for the last thing which is our imparting this Sacrament privately unto the sick whereas there have been of old they grant two kindes of necessity wherein this Sacrament might be privately administred of which two the one being erroniously imagined and the other they say continuing no longer in use there remaineth unto us no necessity at all for which that custom should be retained The falsly surmised necessity is that whereby some have thought all such excluded from possibility of salvation as did depart this life and never were made partakers of the holy Eucharist The other case of necessity was
that men ought to Fast more often then Marry the best Feast-maker is with them the perfectest Saint they are assuredly meer Spirit and therefore these our corporal devotions please them not Thus the one for Montanus and his Superstition The other in a clean contrary tune against the Religion of the Church These Set-fasts away with them for they are Iewish and bring men under the yoke of servitude If I will fast let me chuse my time that Christian Liberty be not abridged Hereupon their glory was to fast especially upon the Sunday because the order of the Church was on that day not to Fast. On Church Fasting days and especially the Week before Easter when with us saith Epiphanius Custom admitteth nothing but lying down upon the Earth abstinence from fleshly delights and pleasures sorrowfulness dry and unsavory Diet Prayer Watching Fasting all the Medicines which holy Affections can minister they are up be times to take in of the strongest for the belly and when their veins are well swoln they make themselves mirth with laughter at this our service wherein we are perswaded we please God By this of Epiphanius it doth appear not onely what Fastings the Church of Christ in those times used but also what other parts of Discipline were together therewith in force according to the ancient use and custom of bringing all men at certain times to a due consideration and an open Humiliation of themselves Two kindes there were of Publick Penitency the one belonging to notorious offenders whose open wickedness had been scandalous the other appertaining to the whole Church and unto every several person whom the same containeth It will be answered That touching this latter kinde it may be exercised well enough by men in private No doubt but Penitency is as Prayer a thing acceptable unto God be it in publick or in secret Howbeit as in the one if men were wholly left to their own voluntary Meditations in their Closets and not drawn by Laws and Orders unto the open Assemblies of the Church that there they may joyn with others in Prayer it may be soon conjectured what Christian devotion that way would come unto in a short time Even so in the other We are by sufficient experience taught how little it booreth to tell men of washing away their sins with tears of Repentance and so to leave them altogether unto themselves O Lord what heaps of grievous transgressions have we committed the best the perfectest the most righteous amongst us all and yet clean pass them over unsorrowed foâ— and unrepented of onely because the Church hath forgotten utterly how to bestow her wonted times of Discipline wherein the publick example of all was unto every particular person a most effectual mean to put them often in minde and even in a manner to draw them to that which now we all quite and clean forget as if Penitency were no part of a Christian mans duty Again besides our private offences which ought not thus loosly to be overslipt suppose we the Body and Corporation of the Church so just that at no time it needeth to shew it self openly cast down in regard of those Faults and Transgressions which though they do not properly belong unto any one had notwithstanding a special Sacrifice appointed for them in the Law of Moses and being common to the whole Society which containeth all must needs so far concern every man in particular as at some time in solemn manner to require acknowledgment with more then daily and ordinary testifications of grief There could not hereunto a fitter preamble be devised then that memorable Commination set down in the Book of Common Prayer if our practice in the rest were suitable The Head already so well drawn doth but wish a proportionable Body And by the Preface to that very part of the English Liturgy it may appear how at the first setting down thereof no less was intended For so we are to interpret the meaning of those words wherein restitution of the Primitive Church Discipline is greatly wished for touching the manner of publick penance in time of Lent Wherewith some being not much acquainted but having framed in their mindes the conceit of a new Discipline far unlike to that of old they make themselves believe it is undoubtedly this their Discipline which at the first was so much desired They have long pretended that the whole Scripture is plain for them If now the Communion Book make for them too I well think the one doth as much as the other it may be hoped that being found such a well-willer unto their cause they will more favor it then they have done Having therefore hitherto spoken both of Festival days and so much of solemn Fasts as may reasonably serve to shew the ground thereof in the Law of Nature the practice partly appointed and partly allowed of God in the Jewish Church the like continued in the Church of Christ together with the sinister oppositions either of Hereticks erroneously abusing the same or of others thereat quarrelling without cause we will onely collect the chiefest points as well of resemblance as of difference between them and so end First In this they agree that because Nature is the general Root of both therefore both have been always common to the Church with Infidels and Heathen men Secondly They also herein accord that as oft as joy is the cause of the one and grief the Well-spring of the other they are incompatible A third degree of affinity between them is That neither being acceptable to God of it self but both tokens of that which is acceptable their approbation with him must necessarily depend on that which they ought to import and signifie So that if herein the minde dispose no it self aright whether we rest or fast we offend A fourth thing common unto them is that the greatest part of the World hath always grosly and palpably offended in both Infidels because they did all in relation to false gods godless sensual and careless mindes for that there is in them no constant true and sincere affection towards those things which are pretended by such exercise yea certain flattering over-sights there are wherewith sundry and they not of the worst sort may be easily in these cases led awry even through abundance of love and liking to that which must be imbraced by all means but with caution in as much as the very admiration of Saints Whether we celebrate their glory or follow them in humility whether we laugh or weep mourn or rejoyce with them is as in all things the affection of Love apt to deceive and doth therefore need the more to be directed by a watchful guide seeing there is manifestly both ways even in them whom we honor that which we are to observe and shun The best have not still been sufficiently mindful that Gods very Angels in Heaven are but Angels and that bodily exercise considered in it self is no
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
licence and authorize the same which the Law against ignorance non-residence and plurality doth infringe and so be a Law contrariant or repugnant to the Law of Nature and the Law of God because all the reasons whereupon the Positive Law of man against these three was first established are taken and drawn from the Law of Nature and the Law of God For answer whereunto we will but lead them to answer themselves First therefore if they will grant as they must that all direct oppositions of speech require one and the self-same subject to be meant on both parts where opposition is pretended it will follow that either the Maxims of Common right do inforce the very same things not to be good which we say are good grounding our selves on the reasons by vertue whereof our priviledges are established or if the one doe not reach unto that particular subject for which the other have provided then is there no contradiction between them In all contradictions if the one part be true the other eternally must be false And therefore if the Principles of Common right do at any time truly inforce that particular not to be good which Priviledges make good it argueth invincibly that such priviledges have been grounded upon errour But to say that every Priviledge is opposite unto the Principles of Common right because it dispenseth with that which Common right doth prohibite hath gross absurdity For the voyce of Equity and Justice is that a general Law doth never derogate from a special Priviledge whereas if the one were contrariant to the other a general Law being in force should alwayes dissolve a Priviledge The reason why many are deceived by imagining that so it should doe and why men of better insight conclude directly it should not doth rest in the subject or matter it self which matter indefinitely considered in Laws of Common right is in Priviledges considered as beset and limited with special circumstances by means whereof to them which respect it but by way of generality it seemeth one and the same in both although it be not the same if once we descend to particular consideration thereof Precepts do alwayes propose perfection not such as none can attain unto for then in vain should we ask or require it at the hands of men but such perfection as all men must aim at to the end that as largely as human providence and care can extend it it may take place Moral laws are the rules of Politick those Politick which are made to order the whole Church of God rules unto all particular Churches and the Laws of every particular Church Rules unto every particular man within the body of the same Church Now because the higher we ascend in these Rules the further still we remove from those specialities which being proper to the subject whereupon our actions must work are therefore chiefly considered by us by them least thought upon that wade altogether in the two first kindes of general directions their judgment cannot be exact and sound concerning either laws of Churches or actions of men in particular because they determine of effects by a part of the causes onely out of which they grow they judge conclusions by demipremises and half-principles they lay them in the balance stript from those necessary material circumstances which should give them weight and by shew of falling uneven with the scale of most universal and abstracted rules they pronounce that too light which is not if they had the skill to weigh it This is the reason why men altogether conversant in study do know how to teach but not how to govern men experienced contrariwise govern well yet know not which way to set down orderly the precepts and reasons of that they do He that will therefore judge rightly of things done must joyn with his forms and conceits of general speculation the matter wherein our actions are conversant For by this shall appear what equity there is in those Priviledges and peculiar grants or favours which otherwise will seem repugnant to justice and because in themselves considered they have a shew of repugnancy this deceiveth those great Clerks which hearing a Priviledge defined to be an especial right brought in by their power and authority that make it for some publick benefit against the general course of reason are not able to comprehend how the word against doth import exception without any opposition at all For inasmuch as the hand of Justice must distribute to every particular what is due and judge what is due with respect had no less of particular circumstances than of general rules and axioms it cannot fit all sorts with one measure the wills counsels qualities and states of men being divers For example the Law of Common right bindeth all men to keep their Promises perform their Compacts and answer the Faith they have given either for themselves or others Notwithstanding he which bargaineth with one under years can have no benefit by this allegation because he bringeth it against a Person which is exempt from the Common rule Shall we then conclude that thus to exempt certain men from the Law of Common right is against God against Nature against whatsoever may avail to strengthen and justifie that Law before alledged or else acknowledge as the truth is that special causes are to be ordered by special rules that is men grown unto ripe age disadvantage themselves by bargaining yet what they have wittingly done is strong and in force against them because they are able to dispose and manage their own affairs whereas youth for lack of experience and judgement being easily subject to circumvention is therefore justly exempt from the Law of Common-right whereunto the rest are justly subject This plain inequality between men of years and under years is a cause why Equity and Justice cannot apply equally the same general rule to both but ordereth the one by Common right and granteth to the other a special priviledge Priviledges are either transitory or permanent Transitory such as serve onely some one turn or at the most extend no farther than to this or that man with the end of whose natural life they expâ—e Permanent such as the use whereof doth continue still for that they belong unto certain kindes of men and causes which never dye Of this nature are all immunities and preheminencies which for just considerations one sort of men enjoyeth above another both in the Church and Common-wealth no man suspecting them of contrariety to any branch of those Laws or Reasons whereupon the general right is grounded Now there being general Laws and Rules whereby it cannot be denied but the Church of God standeth bound to provide that the Ministry may be learned that they which have charge may reside upon it and that it may not be free for them in scandalous manner to multiply Ecclesiastical Livings it remaineth in the next place to be examined what the Laws of the Church of England
sort of men capable Cities in the absence of their Governours are as Ships wanting Pilots at Sea But were it therefore Justice to punish whom Superiour Authority pleaseth to call from home or alloweth to be employed elsewhere In committing many Offices to one man there are apparently these inconveniencies the Common wealth doth lose the benefit of serviceable men which might be trained up in those rooms it is not easie for one man to discharge many mens duties well in service of Warfare and Navigation were it not the overthrow of whatsoever is undertaken if one or two should ingrosse such Offices as being now divided into many hands are discharged with admirable both perfection and expedition Nevertheless be it farr from the minde of any reasonable man to imagine that in these considerations Princes either ought of duty to revoke all such kinde of Grants though made with very special respect to the extraordinary merit of certain men or might in honour demand of them the resignation of their Offices with speech to this or the like effect For as much as you A. B. by the space of many years have done us that faithful service in most important affairs for which we alwayes judging you worthy of much honour have therefore committed unto you from time to time very great and weighty Offices which hitherto you quietly enjoy we are now given to understand that certain grave and learned men have found in the Books of antient Philosophers divers Arguments drawn from the common light of Nature and declaring the wonderful discommodities which use to grow by Dignities thou heaped together in one For which cause at this present moved in conscience and tender care for the Publick good we have summoned you hither to dis-possess you of those Places and to depose you from those rooms whereof indeed by vertue of our own Grant yet against Reason you are possessed Neither ought you or any other to think us rash light or inconstant in so doing For we tell you plain that herein we will both say and do that thing which the noble and wife Emperour sometime both said and did in a matter of fair less weight than this Quod inconsultò semicus consultò revocamus That which we unadvisedly have done we advisedly will revoke and undo Now for mine own part the greatest harm I would wish them who think that this were consonant with equity and right is that they might but live where all things are with such kinde of Justice ordered till experience have taught them to see their errour As for the last thing which is incident into the cause whereof we speak namely what course were the best and safest whereby to remedy such evils as the Church of God may sustain where the present liberty of Law is turned to great abuse some light we may receive from abroad not unprofitable for direction of God's own sacred House and Family The Romans being a People full of generosity and by nature courteous did no way more shew their gentle disposition than by easie condescending to see their Bond-men at liberty Which benefit in the happier and better times of the Common-wealth was bestowed for the most part as an ordinary reward of Vertue some few now and then also purchasing freedom with that which their just labours could gain and their honest frugality save But as the Empire daily grew up so the manners and conditions of men decayed Wealth was honoured and Vertue not cared for neither did any thing seem opprobrious out of which there might arise commodity and profit so that it could be no marvel in a State thus far degenerated if when the more ingenious sort were become base the baser laying aside all shame and face of honesty did some by Robberies Burglaries and prostitution of their Bodies gather wherewith to redeem liberty others obtain the same at the hands of their Lords by serving them as vile Instruments in those attempts which had been worthy to be revenged with ten thousand deaths A learned judicious and polite Historian having mentioned so soul disorders giveth his judgment and censure of them in this sort Such eye-sores in the Common-wealth have occasioned many vertuous mindes to condemn altogether the custom of granting liberty to any Bond-slave for as much as it seemed a thing absurd that a People which commands all the World should consist of so vile Reffuse But neither is this the onely customs wherein the profitable inventions of former are depraved by later Ages and for my self I am not of their opinion that wish the abrogation of so grosly used Customs which abrogation might peradventure be cause of greater inconveniencies ensuing but as much as may be I would rather advise that redress were sought through the careful providence of Chief Rulers and Over-seers of the Common-wealth by whom a yearly survey being made of all that are manumissed they which seem worthy might be taken and divided into Tribes with other Citizens the rest dispersed into Colonies abroad or otherwise disposed of that the Common-wealth might sustain neither harm nor disgrace by them The ways to meet with disorders growing by abuse of Laws are not so intricate and secret especially in our case that men should need either much advertisement or long time for the search thereof And if counsel to that purpose may seem needful this Church God be thanked is not destitute of men endued with ripe judgment whensoever any such thing shall be thought necessary For which end at this present to propose any special inventions of my own might argue in a man of my Place and Calling more presumption perhaps than wit I will therefore leave it intire unto graver consideration ending now with request onely and most earnest sute first that they which give Ordination would as they tender the very honour of Jesus Christ the safety of men and the endless good of their own Souls take heed lest unnecessarily and through their default the Church be found worse or less furnished than it might be Secondly that they which by right of Patronage have power to present unto Spiritual Livings and may in that respect much damnifie the Church of God would for the ease of their own account in that dreadful day somewhat consider what it is to betray for gain the Souls which Christ hath redeemed with blood what to violate the sacred Bond of Fidelity and Solemn promise given at the first to God and his Church by them from whose original interest together with the self-same Title of Right the same Obligation of Duty likewise is descended Thirdly that they unto whom the granting of Dispensations is committed or which otherwise have any stroke in the disposition of such Preferments as appertsin unto Learned men would bethink themselves what it is to respect any thing either above or besides Merit considering how hardly the World taketh it when to men of commendable note and quality there is so little respect had or
other saith That the old did onely shadow Grace which was afterward to be given through the passion of Iesus Christ. But the after-wit of latter daies hath found out another more exquisite distinction That Evangelical Sacraments are causes to effect Grace through motions of signes legal according to the same signification and sense wherein Evangelical Sacraments are held by us to be God's Instruments for that purpose For howsoever Bellarmine hath shrunk up the Lutherans sinews and cut off our Doctrine by the skirts Allen although he terms us Hereticks according to the usual bitter venom of his first style doth yet ingenuously confess That the old School-mens Doctrine and ours is one concerning Sacramental efficacy derived from God himself assisting by promise those outward signes of Elements and Words out of which their School-men of the newer mint are so desirous to hatch Grace Where God doth work and use these outward means wherein he neither findeth nor planteth force and aptnesse towards his intended purpose such means are but signes to bring men to the consideration of his Omnipotent Power which without the use of things sensible would not be marked At the time therefore when he giveth his Heavenly Grace he applyeth by the hands of his Ministers that which betokeneth the same nor only betokeneth but being also accompanied for ever with such Power as doth truly work is in that respect termed God's Instrument a true efficient cause of Grace a cause not in it self but onely by connexion of that which is in it self a cause namely God's own Strength and Power Sacraments that is to say the outward signes in Sacraments work nothing till they be blessed and sanctified by God But what is God's Heavenly Benediction and Sanctification saving onely the association of his Spirit Shall we say that Sacraments are like Magical signes if thus they have their effect Is it Magick for God to manifest by things sensible what he doth and to do by his most glorious Spirit really what he manifesteth in his Sacraments The delivery and administration whereof remaineth in the hands of mortal men by whom as by personal Instruments God doth apply signes and with signes inseparably joyn his Spirit and through the power of his Spirit work Grace The first is by way of concomitance and consequence to deliver the rest also that either accompany or ensue It is not here as in Cases of mutual Commerce where divers Persons have divers acts to be performed in their own behalf a Creditor to shew his Bill and a Debtor to pay his Money But God and Man doe here meet in one Action upon a Third in whom as it is the work of God to create Grace so it is his work by the hand of the Ministry to apply a sign which should betoken and his work to annex that Spirit which shall effect it The Action therefore is but one God the Author thereof and Man a Co-partner by him assigned to work for with and under him God the Giver of Grace by the outward Ministery of man so farr forth as he authorizeth man to apply the Sacraments of Grace in the Soul which he alone worketh without either Instrument or Co-agent Whereas therefore with us the remission of Sinne is ascribed unto God as a thing which proceedeth from him only and presently followeth upon the vertue of true Repentance appearing in man that which we attribute to the vertue they do not only impute to the Sacrament of Repentance but having made Repentance a Sacrament and thinking of Sacraments as they do they are enforced to make the Ministry of the Priests and their Absolution a cause of that which the sole Omnipotency of God worketh And yet for my own part I am not able well to conceive how their Doctrine That human Absolution is really a cause out of which our Deliverance from Sinne doth ensue can cleave with the Council of Trent defining That Contrition perfected with Charity doth at all times it self reconcile offenders to God before they come to receive actually the Sacrament of Penance How it can stand with those Discourses of the learned Rabbies which grant That whosoever turneth unto God with his whole heart hath immediately his Sinnes taken away That if a man he truly converted his Pardon can neither be denyed nor delayed It doth not stay for the Priest's Absolution but presently followeth Surely if every contrite Sinner in whom there is Charity and a sincere conversion of Heart have Remission of Sinnes given him before he seek it at the Priest's hands if reconciliation to God be a present and immediate sequel upon every such Conversion or Change It must of necessity follow seeing no man can be a true Penitent or Contrite which doth not both love God and sincerely abhor Sinne that therefore they all before Absolution attain Forgivenesse whereunto notwithstanding Absolution is pretended a Cause so necessary that Sinne without it except in some rare extraordinary Case cannot possibly be remitted Shall Absolution be a Cause producing and working that Effect which is alwayes brought forth without it and had before Absolution be thought of But when they which are thus before-hand pardoned of God shall come to be also assoiled by the Priest I would know what force his Absolution hath in this case Are they able to say here that the Priest doth remit any thing Yet when any of ours ascribeth the Work of Remission to God and interpreteth the Priests Sentence to be but a solemn Declaration of that which God himself hath already performed they scorn at it they urge against it that if this were true our Saviour Christ should rather have said What is loosed in Heaven ye shall loose on Earth then as he doth Whatsoever ye loose on Earth shall in Heaven be loosed As if he were to learn of us how to place his words and not we to crave rather of him a sound and right understanding lest to his dishonour and our own hurt we mis-expound them It sufficeth I think both against their constructions to have proved that they ground an untruth on his speech and in behalf of our own that his words without any such transposition do very well admit the sense we give them which is that he taketh to himself the lawfull proceedings of Authority in his Name and that the Act of Spiritual Authority in this case is by Sentence to acquit or pronounce them free from sinne whom they judge to be sincerely and truly penitent which Interpretation they themselves do acknowledge though not sufficient yet very true Absolution they say declareth indeed but this is not all for it likewise maketh innocent which addition being an untruth proved our truth granted hath I hope sufficiency without it and consequently our opinion therein neither to be challenged as untrue nor as unsufficient To rid themselves out of these Bryars and to make Remission of Sinnes an effect of Absolution notwithstanding that which hitherto hath been said
Tyrant it self must of necessity endure perpetual Anguish and Grief For as the Body is rent with stripes so the Minde with guiltiness of Cruelty Lust and wicked Resolutions Which Furies brought the Emperour Tyberius sometimes into such perplexity that writing to the Senate his wonted art of dissimulation failed him utterly in this Case And whereas it had been ever his peculiar delight so to speak that no man might be able to sound his meaning he had not the power to conceal what he felt through the secret scourge of an evil Conscience though no necessity did now enforce him to disclose the same What to write or how to write at this present if I know saith Tyberius let the Gods and Goddesses who thus continually eat me only be worse to me than they are It was not his Imperial Dignity and Power that could provide a way to protect him against himself the fears and suspitions which improbity had bred being strengthned by every occasion and those Vertues clean banished which are the only foundation of sound tranquility of minde For which cause it hath been truly said and agreeably with all mens experience that if the vertuous did excel in no other priviledge yet farr happier they are than the contrary sort of men for that their hopes be alwayes better Neither are we to marvel that these things known unto all do stay so few from being Authors of their own woe For we see by the antient example of Ioseph's unkinde Brethren how it commeth to remembrance easily when Crimes are once past what the difference is of good from evil and of right from wrong But such consideration when they should have prevented Sinne were over-match'd by inordinate desires Are we not bound then with all thankfulnesse to acknowledge his infinite goodnesse and mercy which hath revealed unto us the way how to rid our selves of these mazes the way how to shake off that yoke which no Flesh is able to bear the way how to change most grisly horror into a comfortable apprehension of heavenly joy Whereunto there are many which labour with so much the greater difficultie because imbecillity of minde doth not suffer them to censure rightly their own doings Some fearful lest the enormity of their Crimes be so unpardonable that no Repentance can do them good some lest the imperfection of their Repentance make it uneffectual to the taking away of Sinne The one drive all things to this issue whether they be not men that have sinned against the Holy Ghost the other to this what Repentance is sufficient to clear Sinners and to assure them that they are delivered Such as by Error charge themselves of unpardonable Sinne must think it may be they deem that unpardonable which is not Our Saviour speaketh indeed of Blasphemy which shall never be forgiven But have they any sure and infallible knowledge what that Blasphemy is If not why are they unjust and cruel to their own Souls imagining certainty of Guiltiness in a Crime concerning the very nature whereof they are uncertain For mine own part although where this Blasphemy is mentioned the cause why our Saviour spake thereof was the Pharisees Blasphemy which was not afraid to say He had an unclean Spirit and did cast out Spirits by the Power of Beelzebub Neverthelesse I dare not precisely deny but that even the Pharisees themselves might have repented and been forgiven and that our Lord Jesus Christ peradventure might but take occasion at their Blasphemy which as yet was pardonable to tell them further of an unpardonable Blasphemy whereinto he foresaw that the Jews would fall For it is plain that many thousands at the first professing Christian Religion became afterwards wilful Apostates moved with no other cause of revolt but mere indignation that the Gentiles should enjoy the benefit of the Gospel as much as they and yet not be burthened with the yoke of Moses his Law The Apostles by Preaching had won them to Christ in whose Name they embraced with great alacrity the full remission of their former sinnes and iniquities they received by the imposition of the Apostles hands that Grace and Power of the Holy Ghost whereby they cured Diseases Prophecyed spake with Tongues and yet in the end after all this they fell utterly away renounced the Mysteries of Christian Faith Blasphemed in their formal Abjurations that most glorious and blessed Spirit the Gifts whereof themselves had possest and by this means sunk their Souls in the Gulf of that unpardonable Sinne whereof as our Lord JESUS CHRIST had told them before hand so the Apostle at the first appearance of such their revolt putteth them in minde again that falling now to their former Blasphemies their Salvation was irrecoverably gone It was for them in this Case impossible to be renewed by any Repentance because they were now in the state of Satan and his Angels the Judge of quick and dead had passed his irrevocable Sentence against them So great difference there is between Infidels unconverted and Backsliders in this manner fallen away that always we have hope to reclaim the one which only hate whom they never knew but to the other which know and Blaspheme to them that with more than infernal malice accurse both the seen brightnesse of Glory which is in him and in themselves the tasted goodness of Divine Grace as those execrable Miscreants did who first received in extraordinary miraculous manner and then in outragious sort blasphemed the Holy Ghost abusing both it and the whole Religion which God by it did confirm and magnifie To such as wilfully thus sinne after so great light of the Truth and Gifts of the Spirit there remaineth justly no fruit or benefit to be expected by Christ's Sacrifice For all other Offenders without exception or stint whether they be Strangers that seek accesse or Followers that will make return unto God upon the tender of their Repentance the grant of his Grace standeth everlastingly signed with his blood in the Book of Eternal life That which in this Case over-terrifieth fearful Souls is a mis-conceit whereby they imagine every act which they doe knowing that they doe amisse and every wilful Breach or Transgression of God's Law to be mere Sinne against the Holy Ghost forgetting that the Law of Moses it self ordained Sacrifices of Expiation as well for Faults presumptuously committed as Things wherein men offend by Errour Now there are on the contrary side others who doubting not of God's mercy towards all that perfectly repent remain notwithstanding scrupulous and troubled with continual fear lest defects in their own Repentance be a barr against them These cast themselves into very great and peradventure needlesse Agonies through mis-construction of things spoken about proportioning our griefs to our Sinnes for which they never think they have wept and mourned enough yea if they have not alwayes a stream of Tears at command they take it for a heart congealed and hardned in sinne when
man surmise that the difference between them was only by distinction in the former kind of power and not in this latter of jurisdiction are not the words of the Law manifest which make Eleazer the Son of Aaron the Priest chief Captain of the Levites and overseer of them unto whom the charge of the Sanctuary was committed Again at the commandment of Aaron and his Sons are not the Gersonites themselves required to do all their service in the whole charge belonging unto the Gersonites being inferiour Priests as Aaron and his Sons were High Priests Did not Iehoshaphat appoint Amarias the Priest to be chief over them who were Judges for the cause of the Lord in Ierusalem Priests saith Josephus worship God continually and the eldest of the stock are governours over the rest He doth sacrifice unto God before others he hath care of the Laws judgeth controversies correcteth offenders and whosoever obeyeth him not is convict of impiety against God But unto this they answer That the reason thereof was because the High-Priest did prefigure Christ and represent to the people that chiefty of our Saviour which was to come so that Christ being now come there is no cause why such preheminence should be given unto any one Which fancy pleaseth so well the humour of all sorts of rebellions spirits that they all seek to shroud themselves under it Tell the Anabaptist which holdeth the use of the sword unlawful for a Christian man that God himself did allow his people to make wars they have their answer round and ready Those ancient Wars were figures of the spiritual Wars of Christ. Tell the Barrowist what sway David and others the Kings of Israel did bear in the ordering of spiritual affairs the same answer again serveth namely That David and the rest of the Kings of Israel prefigured Christ. Tell the Martinist of the High-Priests great authority and jurisdiction amongst the Jews what other thing doth serve this Turn but the self-same shift By the power of the High-Priest the universal supreme Authority of our Lord Iesus Christ was shadowed The thing is true that indeed High-Priests were figures of Christ yet this was in things belonging unto their power of Order they figured Christ by entring into the holy place by offering for the sins of all the people once a year and by other the like duties But that to govern and to maintain order amongst those that were subject to them is an office figurative and abrogated by Christs coming in the Ministry that their exercise of jurisdiction was figurative yea figurative in such sort that it had no other cause of being instituted but only to serve as a representation of somewhat to come and that herein the Church of Christ ought not to follow them this Article is such as must be confirmed if any way by miracle otherwise it will hardly enter into the heads of reasonable men why the High-Priest should more figure Christ in being a Judge then in being whatsoever he might be besides St. Cyprian deemed it no wresting of Scripture to challenge as much for Christian Bishops as was given to the High-Priest among the Jews and to urge the law of Moses as being most effectual to prove it St. Ierom likewise thought it an argument sufficient to ground the Authority of Bishops upon To the end saith he we may understand Apostolical traditions to have been taken from the Old Testament that which Aaron and his Sons and the Levites were in the Temple Bishops and Presbyters and Deacons in the Church may lawfully challenge to themselves In the Office of a Bishop Ignatius observeth these two functions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concerning the one such is the prehemince of a Bishop that he only hath the heavenly mysteries of God committed originally unto him so that otherwise than by his Ordination and by authority received from him others besides him are not licensed therein to deal as ordinary Ministers of Gods Church And touching the other part of their sacred Function wherein the power of their jurisdiction doth appear first how the Apostles themselves and secondly how Titus and Timothy had rule and jurisdiction over Presbyters no man is ignorant And had not Christian Bishops afterward the like power Ignatius Bishop of Antioch being ready by blessed martyrdom to end his life writeth unto his Presbyters the Pastors under him in this sort O◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After the death of Fabian Bishop of Rome there growing some trouble about the receiving of such persons into the Church as had fallen away in persecution and did now repent their fall the Presbyters and Deacons of the same Church advertised St. Cyprian thereof signifying That they must of necessity defer to deal in that cause till God did send them a new Bishop which might moderate all things Much we read of extraodinary fasting usually in the Church And in this appeareth also somewhat concerning the chiefty of Bishops The custome is saith Tertullian that Bishops do appoint when the people shall all fast Yea it is not a matter left to our own free choice whether Bishops shall rule or no but the will of our Lord and Saviour is saith Cyprian that every act of the Church be governed by her Bishops An Argument it is of the Bishops high preheminence rule and government over all the rest of the Clergy even that the Sword of persecution did strike especially always at the Bishop as at the Head the rest by reason of their lower estate being more secure as the self-same Cyprian noteth the very manner of whose speech unto his own both Deacons and Presbyters who remained safe when himself then Bishop was driven into exile argueth likewise his eminent authority and rule over them By these letters saith he I both exhort and COMMAND that ye whose presence there is not envied at nor so much beset with dangers supply my room in doing those things which the exercise of Religion doth require Unto the same purpose serve most directly those comparisons than which nothing is more familiar in the books of the ancient Fathers who as oft as they speak of the several degrees in Gods Clergy if they chance to compare Presbyters with Levitical Priests of the Law the Bishop they compare unto Aaron the High Priest if they compare the one with the Apostles the other they compare although in a lower proportion sometime to Christ and sometime to God himself evermore shewing that they placed the Bishop in an eminent degree of ruling authority and power above other Presbyters Ignatius comparing Bishops with Deacons and with such Ministers of the word and Sacraments as were but Presbyters and had no Authority over Presbyters What is saith he the Bishop but one which hath all principality and power over all so far forth as man may have it being to his power a follower even of Gods own Christ Mr. Calvin himself
will grow in Churches even as many Schisms as there are Persons which have authority Touching Chrysostom to shew that by him there was also acknowledged a ruling superiority of Bishops over Presbyters both then usual and in no respect unlawful what need we alledge his Words and Sentences when the History of his own Episcopal actions in that very kinde is till this day extant for all men to read that will For St. Chrysostom of a Presbyter in Antioch grew to be afterwards Bishop of Constantinople and in process of time when the Emperors heavy displeasure had through the practise of a powerful faction against him effected his banishment Innocent the Bishop of Rome understanding thereof wrote his Letters unto the Clergy of that Church That no Successour ought to be chosen in Chrysostom's room Nec ejus clerum alii parere Pontisici Nor his Clergy OBEY any other Bishop than him A fond kinde of speech if so be there had been as then in Bishops no ruling superiority over Presbyters When two of Chrysostom's Presbyters had joyned themselves to the faction of his mortal enemy Theophilus Patriarch in the Church of Alexandria the same Theophilus and other Bishops which were of his Conventicle having sent those two amongst others to cite Chrysostom their lawful Bishop and to bring him into Publick judgement he taketh against this one thing special exception as being contrary to all order That those Presbyters should come as Messengers and call him to Judgment who were a part of that Clergy whereof himself was Ruler and Judge So that Bishops to have had in those times a ruling superiority over Presbyters neither could Ierom nor Chrysostom be ignorant and therefore hereupon it were superfluous that we should any longer stand VII Touching the next point How Bishops together with Presbyters have used to govern the Churches which were under them It is by Zonaras somewhat plainly and at large declared that the Bishop had his Seat on high in the Church above the residue which were present that a number of Presbyters did alwayes there assist him and that in the oversight of the Poeple those Presbyters were after a sort the Bishops Coadjutors The Bishops and Presbyters who together with him governed the Church are for the most part by Ignatius joyntly mentioned In the Epistle to them of Trallis he saith of Presbyters that they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Counsellors and Assistants of the Bishop and concludeth in the end He that should disobey these were a plain Atheâ—t and an irreligious Person and one that did set Christ himself and his own Ordinances at nought Which Orders making Presbyters or Priests the Bishop's Assistants doth not import that they were of equal authority with him but rather so adjoyned that they also were subject as hath been proved In the Writings of Saint Cyprian nothing is more usual than to make mention of the Colledge of Presbyters subject unto the Bishop although in handling the common affairs of the Church they assisted him But of all other places which open the antient order of Episcopal Presbyters the most clear is that Epistle of Cyprian unto Cernelius concerning certain Novatian Heretiques received again upon their conversion into the unity of the Church After that Urbanus and Sidonius Confessors had come and signified unto our Presbyters that Maximus a Consessor and Presbyter did together with them desire to return into the Church it seemed meet to hear from their own mouths and confessions that which by message they had delivered When they were come and had been called to account by the Presbyters touching those things they had committed Their answer was That they had been deceived and did request that such things as there they were charged with might be forgotten It being brought unto me what was done I took order that the Presbytery might be assembled There were also present five Bishops that upon setled advice it might be with consent of all determined what should be done about their Persons Thus farr St. Cyprian Wherein it may be peradventure demanded Whether he and other Bishops did thus proceed with advice of their Presbyters in all such Publick affairs or the Church as being thereunto bound by Ecclesiastical Canons or else that they voluntarily so did becuase they judged it in discretion as then most convenient Surely the words of Cyprian are plain that of his own accord he chose this way of proceeding Unto that saith he which Donatus and Fortunatus and Novatus and Gordius our Compresbyters have written I could by my self alone make no answer forasmuch as at the very first entrance into my Bishoprick I resolutely determined not to do any thing of mine own private judgment without your counsel and the peoples consent The reason whereof he rendreth in the same Epistle saying When by the grace of God my self shall come unto you for St. Cyprian was now in exile of things which either have been or must to done we will consider sicut honor mutous poseit as the Law of courtesie which one doth owe to another of us requireth And at this very mark doth St. Ierom evermore aim in telling Bishops that Presbyters were at the first their Equals that in some Churches for a long time no Bishop was made but only such as the Presbyters did chuse out amongst themselves and therefore no cause why the Bishop should disdain to consult with them and in weighty affairs of the Church to use their advice sometime to countenance their own Actions or to repress the boldness of proud and insolent Spirits that which Bishops had in themselves sufficient authority and power to have done notwithstanding they would not do alone but craved therein the aid and assistance of other Bishops as in the case of those Novatian Hereticks before alledged Cyprian himself did And in Cyprian we finde of others the like practise Ragatian a Bishop having been used contumelously by a Deacon of his own Church wrote thereof his complaint unto Cyprian and other Bishops In which case their answer was That although in his own cause he did of humility rather shew his grievance than himself take revenge which by the rigor of his Apostolical Office and the authority of his Chair he might have presently done without any further delay Yet if the Party should do again as before their Judgements were Fungaris circa â—um potestate honoris tui cum vel deponas vel abstineas Use on him that power which the honour of thy Place giveth thee either to depose him or exclude him from access unto holy things The Bishop for his assistance and ease had under him to guide and direct Deacons in their charge his Archdeacon so termed in respect of care over Deacons albeit himself were not Deacon but Presbyter For the guidance of Presbyters in their Function the Bishop had likewise under him one of the self-same Order with them but above them an authority one whom
Government is confirmed yea strengthened it is and ratified even by the not establishment thereof in all Churches every where at the first 2. When they further dispute That if any such thing were usedful Christ would in Scripture have set down particular Statutes and Laws appointing that Bishops should be made and prescribing in what order even as the Law doth for all kinde of Officers which were needful in the Iewish Regiment might not a man that would bend his wit to maintain the fury of the Petrobrusian Hereticks in pulling down Oratories use the self-same argument with as much countenance of reason If it were needful that we should assemble our selves in Churches would that God which taught the Iews so exactly the frame of their sumptuous Temple leave us no particular instructions in writing no not so much at which way to lay any one stone Surely such kinde of Argumentation doth not so strengthen the sinews of their cause as weaken the credit of their Judgement which are led therewith 3. And whereas Thirdly in disproof of that use which Episcopal Authority hath in Judgement of Spiritual Causes they bring forth the verdict of Cyprian who saith That equity requireth every man's Cause to be heard where the fault he was charged with was committed forasmuch as there they may have both Accusers and Witnesses in the Cause This Argument grounding it self on Principles no lesse true in Civil than in Ecclesiastical Causes unless it be qualified with some exceptions or limitations over-turneth the highest Tribunal Seats both in Church and Common-wealth it taketh utterly away all appeals it secretly condemneth even the blessed Apostle himself as having transgressed the law of Equity by his appeal from the Court of Iudea unto those higher which were in Rome The generality of such kinde of axioms deceiveth unless it be construed with such cautions as the matter whereunto they are applyable doth require An usual and ordinary transportation of causes out of Africa into Italy out of one Kingdom into another as discontented Persons list which was the thing which Cyprian disalloweth may be unequal and unmeet and yet not therefore a thing unnecessary to have the Courts erectted in higher places and judgement committed unto greater Persons to whom the meaner may bring their causes either by way of appeal ot otherwise to be determined according to the order of Justice which hath been always observed every where in Civil States and is no less requisite also for the State of the Church of God The Reasons which teach it to be expedient for the one will shew it to be for the other at leastwise not unnecessary Inequality of Pastors is an Ordinance both Divine and profitable Their exceptions against it in these two respects we have shewed to be altogether causless unreasonable and unjust XIV The next thing which they upbraid us with is the difference between that inequality of Pastors which hath been of old and which now is For at length they grant That the superiority of Bishops and of Arch-bishops is somewhat antient but no such kinde of Superiority as ours have By the Laws of our Discipline a Bishop may ordain without asking the Peoples consent a Bishop may excommunicate and release alone a Bishop may imprison a Bishop may bear Civil Office in the Realm a Bishop may be a Counsellor of State these thing antient Bishops neither did nor might do Be it granted that ordinarily neither in elections nor deprivations neither in excommunicating nor in releasing the excommunicate in none of the weighty affairs of Government Bishops of old were wont to do any thing without consultation with their Clergy and consent of the People under them Be it granted that the same Bishops did neither touch any man with corporal punishment nor meddle with secular affairs and Offices the whole Clergy of God being then tyed by the strict and severe Canons of the Church to use no other than ghostly power to attend no other business than heavenly Tarquinius was in the Roman Common-wealth deservedly hated of whose unorderly proceedings the History speaketh thus Hic Regum primus traditum à Prioribus morem de omnibus Senatum consulendi solvit domesticis Consillis Rempub. administravit bellum pacem foedera societates perse ipsum cum quibus voluit injussu Populi ac Senatus fecit diremitque Against Bishops the like is objected That they are Invaders of other mens right and by intolerable usurpation take upon them to do that alone wherein antient Laws have appointed that others not they onely should bear sway Let the Case of Bishops he put not in such sort as it is but even as their very heavyest Adversaries would devise it Suppose that Bishops at the first had encroached upon the Church that by sleights and cunning practises they had appropriated Ecclesiastical as Augustus did Imperial power that they had taken the advantage of mens inclinable affections which did not suffer them for Revenue-sake to be suspected of Ambition that in the mean while their usurpation had gone forward by certain easie and unsensible degrees that being not discerned in the growth when it was thus farr grown as we now see it hath proceeded the world at length perceiving there was just cause of complaint but no place of remedy left had assented unto it by a general secret agreement to bear it now as an helpless evil all this supposed for certain and true yet surely a thing of this nature as for the Superiour to do that alone unto which of right the consent of some other Inferiours should have been required by them though it had an indirect entrance at the first must needs through continuance of so many ages as this hath stood be made now a thing more natural to the Church than that it should be opprest with the mention of contrary Orders worn so many ages since quite and clean out of ure But with Bishops the case is otherwise For in doing that by themselves which others together with them have been accustomed to do they do not any thing but that whereunto they have been upon just occasion authorized by orderly means All things natural have in them naturally more or less the power of providing for their own safety And as each particular man hath this power so every Politick Society of men must needs have the same that thereby the whole may provide for the good of all parts therein For other benefit we have not any by sorting our selves into Politick Societies saving only that by this mean each part hath that relief which the vertue of the whole is able to yield it The Church therefore being a Politick Society or Body cannot possibly want the power of providing for it self And the chiefest part of that power consisteth in the Authority of making Laws Now forasmuch as Corporations are perpetual the Laws of the antienter Church cannot chuse but binde the latter while they are in force But we
consisteth in the matter about which the actions of each are conversant and not in this that Civil Royalty admitteth but one Ecclesiastical Government requireth many Supreme Correctors Which Allegation were it true would prove no more than only that some certain number is necessary for the assistance of the Bishop But that a number of such as they do require is necessary how doth it prove Wherefore albeit Bishops should now do the very same which the Antients did using the Colledge of Presbyters under them as their Assistants when they administer Church-Censures yet should they still swerve utterly from that which these men so busily labour for because the Agents whom they require to assist in those Cases are a sort of Lay-Elders such as no antient Bishop ever was assisted with Shall these fruitless jarrs and janglings never cease shall we never see end of them How much happier were the World if those eager Task-masters whose eyes are so curious and sharp in discerning what should be done by many and what by few were all changed into painful doers of that which every good Christian man ought either only or chiefly to do and to be found therein doing when that great and glorious Judge of all mens both deeds and words shall appear In the mean while be it One that hath this charge or be they Many that be his Assistants let there be careful provision that Justice may be administred and in this shall our God be glorified more than by such contentious Disputes XV. Of which nature that also is wherein Bishops are over and besides all this accused to have much more excessive power than the antient in as much as unto their Ecclesiastical authority the Civil Magistrate for the better repressing of such as contemn Ecclesiastical censures hath for divers ages annexed Civil The crime of Bishops herein is divided into these two several branches the one that in Causes Ecclesiastical they strike with the sword of Secular punishments the other that Offices are granted them by vertue whereof they meddle with Civil Affairs Touching the one it reacheth no farther than only unto restraint of liberty by imprisonment which yet is not done but by the Laws of the Land and by vertue of authority derived from the Prince A thing which being allowable in Priests amongst the Jews must needs have received some strange alteration in nature since if it be now so pernicious and venomous to be coupled with a Spiritual Vocation in any man which beareth Office in the Church of Christ. Shemaia writing to the Colledge of Priests which were in Ierusalem and to Zâ—phania the principal of them told them they were appointed of God that they might be Officers in the House of the Lord for every man which raved and did make himselfe a Prophet to the end that they might by the force of this their authority put such in Prison and in the Stocks His malice is reproved for that he provoketh them to shew their power against the innocent But surely when any man justly punishable had been brought before them it could be no unjust thing for them even in such sort then to have punished As for Offices by vertue whereof Bishops have to deal in Civil Affairs we must consider that Civil Affairs are of divers kindesâ— and as they be not all fit for Ecclesiastical Persons to meddle with so neither is it necessary nor at this day haply convenient that from meddling with any such thing at all they all should without exception be secluded I will therefore set down some few causes wherein it cannot but clearly appear unto reasonable men that Civil and Ecclesiastical Functions may be lawfully united in one and the same Person First therefore in case a Christian Society be planted amongst their professed enemies or by toleration do live under some certain State whereinto they are not incorporated whom shall we judge the meetest men to have the hearing and determining of such mere civil Controversies as are every day wont to grow between man and man Such being the state of the Church of Corinth the Apostle giveth them this direction Dare any of you having business against another be judged by the unjust and not under Saints Do ye not know that the Saints shall judge the World If the World then shall be judged by you are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters Know ye not that we shall judge the Angels How much more things that appertain to this life If then ye have judgement of things pertaining to this life set up them which are least esteemed in the Church I speak it to your shame Is it so that there is not a wise man amongst you us not one that can judge between his Brethren but a Brother goeth to law with a Brother and that under the Infidels Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you because ye go to Law one with another Why rather suffer ye not wrong why rather sustain ye not harm In which Speech there are these degrees Better to suffer and to put up Injuries than to contend better to end contention by Arbitrement then by Judgement better by Judgement before the wisest of their own than before the simpler better before the simplest of their own than the wisest of them without So that if judgement of Secular affairs should be committed unto wise men unto men of chiefest Credit and Account amongst them when the Pastors of their Souls are such Who more fit to be also their Judges for the ending of strikes The wisest in things divine may be also in things humane the most skilful At leastwise they are by likelihood commonly more able to know right from wrong than the common un-lettered sort And what St. Augustin did hereby gather his own words do sufficiently show I call God to witness upon my Soul saith he that according to the Order which is kept in well-ordered Monasteries I could wish to have every day my hours of labouring with my hands my hours of reading and of praying rather than to endure these most tumultuous perplexities of other men's causes which I am forced to bear while I travel in Secular businesses either by judging to discuss them or to cut them off by intreaty Unto which toyles that Apostle who himself sustained them not for any thing we read hath notwithstanding â—yed us not of his own accord but being thereunto directed by that Spirit which speaks in him His own Apostleship which drew him to travel up and down suffered him not to be any where settled for this purpose wherefore the wise faithful and holy men which were seated here and there and not them which travelled up and down to preach he made Examiners of such Businesses Whereupon of him it is no where written that he had leisure to attend these things from which we cannot excuse our selves although we be simple because even such he requireth if wise men cannot be had rather than
are not fit to be Ministers which also hath been collected and that by sundry of the Antient and that it is requisite the Clergy be utterly forbidden Marriage For as the burthen of Civil Regiment doth make them who bear it the less able to attend their Ecclesiastical Charge even so Saint Paul doth say that the Married are careful for the World the unmarried freer to give themselves wholly to the service of God Howbeit both experience hath found it safer that the Clergy should bear the cares of honest Marriage than be subject to the inconveniencies which single life imposed upon them would draw after it And as many as are of sound judgement know it to be farr better for this present age that the detriment be born which haply may grow through the lessening of some few mens Spiritual labours than that the Clergy and Common-wealth should lack the benefit which both the one and the other may reap through their dealing in Civil Affairs In which consideration that men consecrated unto the Spiritual service of God be licensed so farr forth to meddle with the Secular affairs of the World as doth seem for some special good cause requisite and may be without any grievous prejudice unto the Church surely there is not in the Apostles words being rightly understood any lett That no Apostle did ever bear Office may it not be a wonder considering the great devotion of the age wherein they lived and the zeal of Herod of Nero the great Commander of the known World and of other Kings of the Earth at that time to advance by all means Christian Religion Their deriving unto others that smaller charge of distributing of the Goods which were laid at their feet and of making provision for the poor which charge being in part Civil themselves had before as I suppose lawfully undertaken and their following of that which was weightier may serve as a marvellous good example for the dividing of one man's Office into divers slips and the subordinating of Inferiours to discharge some part of the same when by reason of multitude increasing that labour waxeth great and troublesome which before was easie and light but very small force it hath to inferr a perpetual divorce between Ecclesiastical and Civil power in the same Persons The most that can be said in this Case is That sundry eminent Canons bearing the name of Apostolical and divers Conncils likewise there are which have forbidden the Clergy to bear any Secular Office and have enjoyned them to attend altogether upon Reading Preaching and Prayer Whereupon the most of the antient Fathers have shewed great dislikes that these two Powers should be united in one Person For a full and final Answer whereunto I would first demand Whether commension and separation of these two Powers be a matter of mere positive Law or else a thing simply with or against the Law immutable of God and Nature That which is simply against this latter Law can at no time be allowable in any Person more than Adultery Blasphemy Sacriledge and the like But conjunction of Power Ecclesiastical and Civil what Law is there which hath not at some time or other allowed as a thing convenient and meet In the Law of God we have examples sundry whereby it doth most manifestly appear how of him the same hath oftentime been approved No Kingdom or Nation in the World but hath been thereunto accustomed without inconvenience and hurt In the prime of the World Kings and Civil Rulers were Priests for the most part all The Romans note it as a thing beneficial in their own Common-wealth and even to them apparently forcible for the strengthening of the Jewes Regiment under Moses and Samuel I deny not but sometime there may be and hath been perhaps just cause to ordain otherwise Wherefore we are not to urge those things which heretofore have been either ordered or done as thereby to prejudice those Orders which upon contrary occasion and the exigence of the present time by like authority have been established For what is there which doth let but that from contrary occasions contrary Laws may grow and each he reasoned and disputed for by such as are subiect thereunto during the time they are in force and yet neither so opposite to other but that both may laudably continue as long as the ages which keep them do see no necessary cause which may draw them unto alteration Wherefore in these things Canons Constitutions and Laws which have been at one time meet do not prove that the Church should alwayes be bound to follow them Ecclesiastical Persons were by antient Order forbidden to be Executors of any man's Testament or to undertake the Wardship of Children Bishops by the Imperial Law are forbidden to bequeath by Testament or otherwise to alienate any thing grown unto them after they were made Bishops Is there no remedy but that these or the like Orders must therefore every where still be observed The reason is not always evident why former Orders have been repealed and other established in their room Herein therefore we must remember the axiom used in the Civil Laws That the Prince is alwayes presumed to do that with reason which is not against reason being done although no reason of his deed be exprest Which being in every respect as true of the Church and her Divine Authority in making Laws it should be some bridle unto those malepert and proud spirits whose wits not conceiving the reason of Laws that are established they adore their own private fancy as the supreme Law of all and accordingly take upon them to judge that whereby they should be judged But why labour we thus in vain For even to change that which now is and to establish instead thereof that which themselves would acknowledge the very self-same which hath been to what purpose were it fith they protest That they utterly condemn as well that which hath been as that which is as well the antient as the present Superiority Authority and Power of Ecclesiastical Persons XVI Now where they lastly alledge That the Law of our Lord Iesus Christ and the judgement of the best in all ages condemn all ruling Superiority of Ministers over Ministers they are in this as in the rest more bold to affirm than able to prove the things which they bring for support of their weak and feeble Cause The bearing of Dominion or the exercising of Authority they say is this wherein the Civil Magistrate is severed from the Ecclesiastical officer according to the words of our Lord and Saviour Kings of Nations bear rule over them but it shall not be so with you Therefore bearing of Dominion doth not agree to one Minister over another This place hath been and still is although most falsely yet with farr greater shew and likelyhood of truth brought forth by the Anabaptists to prove that the Church of Christ ought to have no Civil Magistrates but be ordered
otherwise was most requisite Wherefore the necessity of ordaining such is no excuse for the rash and careless ordaining of every one that hath but a friend to bestow some two or three words of ordinary commendation in his behalf By reason whereof the Church groweth burdened with silly creatures more then need whose noted baseness and insufficiency bringeth their very Order it self into contempt It may be that the fear of a Quare impedit doth cause Institutions to pass more easily then otherwise they would And to speak plainly the very truth it may be that Writs of Quare non impedit were for these times most necessary in the others place Yet where Law will not suffer men to follow their own judgment to shew their judgment they are not hindred And I doubt not but that even conscienceless and wicked Patrons of which sort the swarms are too great in the Church of England are the more imboldened to present unto Bishops any reffuse by finding so easie acceptation thereof Somewhat they might redress this sore notwithstanding so strong impediments if it did plainly appear that they took it indeed to heart were not in a manner contented with it Shall we look for care in admitting whom others present if that which some of your selves confer be at any time corruptly bestowed A foul and an ugly kind of deformity it hath if a man do but think what it is for a Bishop to draw commodity and gain from those things whereof he is left a free bestower and that in trust without any other obligation then his sacred Order only and that religious Integrity which hath been presumed on in him Simoniacal corruption I may not for honors sake suspect to be amongst men of so great place So often they do not I trust offend by sale as by unadvised gift of such preferments wherein that ancient Canon should specially be remembred which forbiddeth a Bishop to be led by humane affection in bestowing the things of God A fault no where so hurtful as in bestowing places of jurisdiction and in furnishing Cathedral Churches the Prebendaries and other Dignities whereof are the very true successors of those ancient Presbyters which were at the first as Counsellers unto Bishops A foul abuse it is that any one man should be loaded as some are with Livings in this kind yea some even of them who condemn utterly the granting of any two Benefices unto the same man whereas the other is in truth a matter of far greater sequel as experience would soon shew if Churches Cathedral being furnished with the residence of a competent number of vertuous grave wise and learned Divines the rest of the Prebends of every such Church were given within the Diocess unto men of worthiest desert for their better encouragement unto industry and travel unless it seem also convenient to extend the benefit of them unto the learned in Universities and men of special imployment otherwise in the affairs of the Church of God But howsoever surely with the publick good of the Church it will hardly stand that in any one person such favours be more multiplied then law permitteth in those Livings which are with Cure Touching Bishops Visitations the first institution of them was profitable to the end that the state and condition of Churches being known there might be for evils growing convenient remedies provided in due time The observation of Church Laws the correction of faults in the service of God and manners of men these are things that visitors should seek When these things are inquired of formally and but for custom sake fees and pensions being the only thing which is sought and little else done by Visitations we are not to marvel if the baseness of the end doth make the action it self loathsom The good which Bishops may do not only by these Visitations belonging ordinarily to their Office but also in respect of that power which the Founders of Colledges have given them of special trust charging even fearfully their consciences therewith the good I say which they might do by this their authority both within their own Diocess and in the well-springs themselves the Universities is plainly such as cannot chuse but add weight to their heavy accounts in that dreadful Day if they do it not In their Courts where nothing but singular integrity and Justice should prevail if palpable and gross corruptions be found by reason of Offices so often granted unto men who seek nothing but their own gain and make no account what disgrace doth grow by their unjust dealings unto them under whom they deal the evil hereof shall work more then they which procure it do perhaps imagine At the hands of a Bishop the first thing looked for is a care of the Clergy under him a care that in doing good they may have whatsoever comforts and encouragements his countenance authority and place may yield Otherwise what heard shall they have to proceed in their painful course all sorts of men besides being so ready to malign despise and every way oppress them Let them find nothing but disdain in Bishops in the enemies of present Government if that way lift to betake themselves all kind of favourable and friendly help unto which part think we it likely that men having wit courage and stomack will incline As great a fault is the want of severity when need requireth as of kindness and courtesie in Bishops But touching this what with ill usage of their powe amongst the meaner and what with disuage amongst the higher sort they are in the eyes of both sorts as Bees have lost their sting It is a long time sithence any great one hath felt or almost any one much feared the edge of that Ecclesiastical severity which sometime held Lords and Dukes in a more religious aw then now the meanest are able to be kept A Bishop in whom there did plainly appear the marks and tokens of a fatherly affection towards them are under his charge what good might he do ten thousand ways more then any man knows how to set down But the souls of men are not loved that which Christ shed his blood for is not esteemed precious This is the very root the fountain of all negligence in Church-Government Most wretched are the terms of mens estate when once they are at a point of wrechlesness so extream that thy bend not their wits any further than only to shift out the present time never regarding what shall become of their Successors after them Had our Predecessors so loosely cast off from them all care and respect to posterity a Church Christian there had noâ— been about the regiment whereof we should need at this day to strive It was the barbarous affection of Nero that the ruine of his own Imperial Seat he could have been well enough contented to see in case he might also have seen it accompanied with the fall of the whole World An affection not more intolerable then theirs
of that courage to follow learning which hath already so much failed through the onely diminution of her chiefest rewards Bishopricks Surely wheresoever this wicked intendment of overthrowing Cathedral Churches or of taking away those Livings Lands and Possessions which Bishops hitherto have enjoyed shall once prevail the hand maids attending thereupon will be Paganism and extreme Barbarity In the Law of Moses how careful provision is made that goods of this kind might remain to the Church for ever Ye shall not make common the holy things of the children of Israel lest ye dye saith the Lord. Touching the fields annexed unto Levitical Cities the Law was plain they might not be sold and the reason of the Law this for it was their possession for ever He which was Lord and owner of it his will and pleasure was that from the Levites it should never pass to be enjoyned by any other The Lords own portion without his own Commission and Grant how should any man justly hold They which hold it by his appointment had it plainly with this condition They shall not sell of it neither change it nor alienate the first-fruits of the Land for it is holy unto the Lord. It falleth sometimes out as the Prophet Habbakkuk noteth that the very prey of Savage Beasts becometh dreadful unto themselves It did so in Iudas Achan Nebuchadnezzar their evil-purchased goods were their snare and their prey their own terror A thing no where so likely to follow as in those goods and possessions which being laid where they should not rest have by the Lords own testimony his most bitter curse their undividable companion These perswasions we use for other mens cause not for theirs with whom God and Religion are parts of the abrogated Law of Ceremonies Wherefore not to continue longer in the cure of a Sore desperate there was a time when the Clergy had almost as little as these good people wish But the Kings of this Realm and others whom God had blest considered devoutly with themselves as David in like case sometimes had done Is it meet that we at the hands of God should enjoy all kindes of abundance and Gods Clergy suffer want They considered that of Solomon Honor God with thy substance and the chiefest of all thy revenue so shall thy barns be filled with corn and thy vessels shall run over with new wine They considered how the care which Iehoshaphat had in providing that the Levites might have encouragement to do the work of the Lord chearfully was left of God as a fit pattern to be followed in the Church for ever They considered what promise our Lord and Saviour hath made unto them at whose hands his Prophets should receive but the least part of the meanest kind of friendliness though it were but a draught of water Which promise seemeth not to be taken as if Christ had made them of any higher courtesie uncapable and had promised reward not unto such as give them but that but unto such as leave them but that They considered how earnest the Apostle is that if the Ministers of the Law were so amply provided for less care then ought not to be had of them who under the Gospel of Jesus Christ possess correspondent rooms in the Church they considered how needful it is that they who provoke all others unto works of Mercy and Charity should especially have wherewith to be examples of such things and by such meons to win them with whom other means without those do commonly take very small effect In these and the like considerations the Church-Revenues were in ancient times augmented our Lord thereby performing manifestly the promise made to his servants that they which did leave either Father or Mother or Lands or goods for his sake should receive even in this World an hundred fold For some hundreds of years together they which joyned themselves to the Church were fain to relinquish all worldly emoluments and to endure the hardness of an afflicted estate Afterward the Lord gave rest to his Church Kings and Princes became as Fathers thereunto the hearts of all men inclined towards it and by his providence there grew unto it every day earthly possessions in more and more abundance till the greatness thereof bred envy which no diminutions are able to satisfie For as those ancient Nursing Fathers thought they did never bestow enough even so in the eye of this present age as long as any thing remaineth it seemeth to bee too much Our Fathers we imitate inperversum as Tertullian speaketh like them we are by being in equal degree the contrary unto that which they were Unto those earthly blessings which God as then did with so great abundance pour down upon the Ecclesiastical state we may in regard of most neer resemblance apply the self same words which the Prophet hath God blessed them exceedingly and by this very mean turned the hearts of their own Brethren to hate them and to deal politiquely with his servants Computations are made and there are huge sums set down for Princes to see how much they may amplifie and enlarge their own treasure how many publique burthens they may ease what present means they have to reward their servants about them if they please but to grant their assent and to accept of the spoil of Bishops by whom Church-goods are but abused unto pomp and vanity Thus albeit they deal with one whose princely vertue giveth them small hope to prevail in impious and sacrilegious motions yet shame they not to move her Royal Majesty even with a suit not much unlike unto that wherewith the Jewish High-Priest tried Iudas whom they sollicited unto Treason against his Master and proposed unto him a number of silver-pence in lien of so vertuous and honest a service But her sacred Majesty disposed to be always like her self her heart so far estranged from willingness to gain by pillage of that estate the only awe whereof under God she hath been unto this present hour as of all other parts of this noble Common-wealth whereof she hath vowed her self a Protector till the end of her days on earth which if nature could permit we wish as good cause we have endless this her gracious inclination is more then a seven times sealed warrant upon the same assurance whereof touching time and action so dishonourable as this we are on her part most secure not doubting but that unto all posterity it shall for ever appear that from the first to the very last of her Soveraign proceedings there hath not been one authorized deed other then consonant with that Symmachus saith Fiscus bonitum Principum non sacer dotum damnis sed hastium spoliis angeatur consonant with that imperial law Ea qua ad be atissima ecclesia jur a pâ—rtinent tanquam ipsamâ— sacro sanctam religiosam Ecclesiam intactu convenit vener abiliter aâ—stodiri ut â—icâ—â— ipsâ—religionis â—idei mater perpetua
est it a ejâ—â— patrimonium jugiter servetur illasâ—â— As for the case of publique burthens let any politirian living make it appear that by confiscation of Bishops livings and their utter dissolution at once the Common-wealth shall ever have half that relief and ease which it receiveth by their continuance as now they are and it shall give us some cause to think that albeit we sew they are implously and irreligiously minded yet we mayâ— esteem them at least to be tolerable Common-wealths-men But the case is too clear and manifest the World doth but too plainly see it that no one Order of subjects whatsoever within this Land doth bear the seventh part of that proportion which the Clergy beareth in the burthens of the Commonwealth No revenue of the Crownlike unto it either for certainty or for greatness Let the good which this way hath grown to the Common-wealth by the dissolution of religious houses teach men what ease unto publique burthens there is like to grow by the overthrow of the Clergy My meaning is not hereby to make the state of Bishopricks and of those dissolved Companies alike the one no less unlawful to be removed then the other For those religious persons were men which followed only a special kind of Contemplative life in the Commonwealth they were properly no portion of Gods Clergy only such amongst them excepted as were also Priests their goods that excepted which they unjustly held through the Popes usurped power of appropriating Ecclesiastical livings unto them may in part seem to be of the nature of Civil possessions held by other kinds of Corporations such as the City of London hath divers Wherefore as their institution was human and their end for the most part superstitious they had not therein meerly that holy and divine interest which belongeth unto Bishops who being imployed by Christ in the principal service of his Church are receivers and disposers of his patrimony as hath been showed which whosoever shall with-hold or with-draw at any time from them he undoubtedly robbeth God himself If they abuse the goods of the Church unto pomp and vanity such faults we do not excuse in them Only we wish it to be considered whether such faults be verily in them or else but objected against them by such as gape after spoil and therefore are no competent judges what is moderate and what excessive in them whom under this pretence they would spoil But the accusation may be just In plenty and fulness it may be we are of God more forgetful then were requisite Notwithstanding men should remember how not to the Clergy alone it was said by Moses in Deuteronomy Necum manducaveris biberis domos optimas adisicaveris If the remedy prescribed for this disease be good let it unpartially be applied Interest Reip utre suâ QUIS QUE bene utatur Let all states be put to their moderate pensions let their livings and lands be taken away from them whosoever they be in whom such ample possessions are found to have been matters of grievous abuse Were this just â— would Noble Families think this reasonable The Title which Bishops have to their livings is as good as the title of any sort of men unto whatsoever we accompt to be most justly held by them yea in this one thing the claim of â— B. hath preheminence above all secular Titles of right in that Gods own interest in the tenure whereby they hold even as also it was to the Priests of the Law an assurance of their spiritual goods and possessions whereupon though they many times abused greatly the goods of the Church yet was not Gods patrimony therefore taken away from them and made saleable unto other Tribes To rob God to ransack the Church to overthrow the whole Order of Christian Bishops and to turn them out of Land and Living out of House and Home what man of common honesty can think it for any manner of abuse to be a remedy lawful or just We must confess that God is righteous in taking away that which men abuse But doth that excuse the violence of Thieves and Robbers Complain we will not with S. Ierom that the hands of men are so straightly tyed and their liberal minds so much bridled and held back from doing good by augmentation of the Church-Patrimony For we confess that herein mediocrity may be and hath been sometime exceeded There did want heretofore Moses to temper mens liberality to say unto them who enriched the Church Sufficit Stay your hands lest favour of zeal do cause you to empty your selves too far It may be the largeness of mens hearts being then more moderate had been after more dureable and one state by too much over-growing the rest had not given occasion unto the rest to undermine it That evil is now sufficiently cured the Church treasury if then it were over-ful hath since been reasonable well emptyed That which Moses spake unto givers we must now inculcate unto takers away from the Church Let there be some stay some stint in spoiling If Grape-gatherers came unto them saith the Prophet would they not leave some remnant behind But it hath fared with the wealth of the Church as with a Tower which being built at the first with the highest overthroweth if self after by its own greatness neither doth the ruine thereof cease with the only fall of that which hath exceeded mediocrity but one part beareth down another till the whole be laid prostrate For although the state Ecclesiastical both others and even Bishops themselves be now fallen to so low an ebb as all the World at this day doth see yet because there remaineth still somewhat which unsatiable minds can thirst for therefore we seem not to have been hitherto sufficiently wronged Touching that which hath been taken from the Church in Appropriations known to amount to the value of one hundred twenty six thousand pounds yearly we rest contentedly and quietly without it till it shall please God to touch the hearts of men of their own voluntary accord to restore it to Him again judging thereof no otherwise then some others did of those goods which were by Sylla taken away from the Citizens of Rome that albeit they were in truth malè capta unconscionably taken away from the right owners at the first nevertheless seeing that such as were after possessed of them held them not without some title which Law did after a sort make good repetitio corum proculdubio labefaltabat compositam civitatem what hath been taken away as dedicated unto uses superstitious and consequently not given unto God or at the least-wise not so rightly given we repine not thereat That which hath gone by means secret and indirect through corrupt compositions or compacts we cannot help What the hardness of mens hearts doth make them loath to have exacted though being due by Law eventhereof the want we do also bear Out of that which after all these
Deductions cometh clearly unto our hands I hope it will not be said that towards the publique charge we disburse nothing And doth the residue seem yet excessive The ways whereby temporal men provide for themselves and their Families are fore-closed unto us All that we have to sustain our miserable life with is but a remnant of God's own treasure so farr already diminished and clipt that if there were any sense of common humanity left in this hard-hearted World the improverished estate of the Clergy of God would at the length even of very commiseration be spared The mean Gentleman that hath but an hundred pound Land to live on would not be hasty to change his Worldly estate and condition with many of these so over-abounding Prelates a common Artisan or Tradesman of the City with ordinary Pastors of the Church It is our hard and heavy lot that no other sort of men being grudged at how little benefit soever the Publick Weal reap by them no state complained of for holding that which hath grown unto them by lawful means only the Governors of our Souls they that study day and night so to guide us that both in this World we may have comfort and in the World to come endless felicity and joy for even such is the very scope of all their endeavours this they wish for this they labour how hardly soever we use to construe of their incents hard that only they should be thus continually lifted at for possessing but that whereunto they have by Law both of God and man most just Title If there should be no other remedy but that the violence of men in the end must needs bereave them of all succour further than the inclinations of others shall vouchsafe to cast upon them as it were by way of Alms for their relief but from to hour better they are not than their Fathers who have been contented with as hard a portion at the World's hands let the light of the Sun and Moon the common benefit of Heaven and Earth be taken away from â—â— if the Question were Whether God should lose his glory and the safety of his Church be hazarded or they relinquish the right and interest which they have in the things of this World But fith the Question in truth is Whether Levi shall be deprived of the portion of God or no to the end that Simeon or Reuben may devour it as their spoyl the comfort of the one in sustaining the injuries which the other would offer must be that Prayer powred out by Moses the Prince of Prophets in most tender affection to Levi Bless O Lord his substance accept than the work of his hands sâ—ite through the loyns of them that rise up against him and of them which hate him that they rise no more OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity Book VIII Containing their Seventh Assertion That to no Civil Prince or Governor there may be given such power of Ecclesiastical Dominion as by the Laws of this Land belongeth unto the Supreme Regent thereof WE come now to the last thing whereof there is Controversie moved namely The Power of Supreme Iurisdiction which for distinction sake we call The Power of Ecclesiastical dominion It was not thought fit in the Iews Commonwealth that the exercise of Supremacy Ecclesiastical should be denied unto him to whom the exercise of Chiefy Civil did appertain and therefore their Kings were invested with both This power they gave into Simon when they consented that he should be their Prince not only to set men over their Works and Countrey and Weapons but also to provide for the Holy things and that he should be obeyed of every man and that the Writings of the Country should be made in his name and that it should not be lawful for any of the people or Priests to withstand his words or to call any Congregation in the Country without him And if haply it be surmised that thus much was given to Simon as being both Prince and High-Priest which otherwise being their Civil Governor he could not lawfully have enjoyed We must note that all this is no more then the ancient Kings of that People had being Kings and not Priests By this power David Asa Iehoshaphat Iosiaes and the rest made those Laws and Orders which sacred History speaketh of concerning matters of meer Religion the affairs of the Temple and service of God Finally had it not been by the vertue of this power how should it possibly have come to pass that the piety or impiety of the Kings did always accordingly change the publique face of Religion which things the Prophets by themselves never did nor at any time could hinde from being done Had the Priests alone been possest of all power in spiritual affairs how should any thing concerning matter of Religion have been made but only by them in had it head been not in the King to change the face of religion at any time the altering of religion the making of Ecclesiastical Laws with other the like actions belonging unto the power of Dominion are still termed the deeds of the King to shew that in him was placed the supremacy of power in this kinde over all and that unto their Priests the same was never committed saving only at such times as the Priests were also Kings and Princess over them According to the pattern of which example the like power in causes Ecclesiastical is by the Laws of this Realm annexed unto the Crown and there are which do imagine that Kings being meer Lay-persons do by this means exceed the lawful bounds of their callings which thing to the end that they may perswade they first make a necessary separation perpetual and personal between the Church and the Common-wealth Secondly they so tie all kind of power Ecclesiastical unto the Church as if it were in every degree their only right who are by proper spiritual functions termed Church-Governours and might not unto Christian Princes in any wise appertain To lurk under shifting ambignities and equivocations of words in matter of principal weight is childish A Church and a Common-wealth we grant are things in nature one distinguished from the other a Common-wealth is one way and a Church an other way defined In their opinions the Church and Common-wealth are corporations not distinguished only in nature and definition but in substance perpetually severed so that they which are of the one can neither appoint nor execute in whole nor in part the duties which belong to them which are of the other without open breach of the Law of God which hath divided them and doth require that so being divided they should distinctly or severally work as depending both upon God and not hanging one upon the others approbation For that which either hath to do we say that the care of Religion being common to all societies Politique such societies as do embrace the true Religion have the name of the Church given unto
every one of them for distinction from the rest so that every body Politique hath some Religion but the Church that Religion which is only true Truth of Religion is the proper difference whereby a Church is distinguished from other Politique societies of men we here mean true Religion in gross and not according to every particular for they which in some particular points of Religion do sever from the truth may nevertheless truly if we compare them to men of an heathenish Religion be said to hold and profess that Religion which is true For which cause there being of old so many Politique societies stablished through the world only the Common-wealth of Israel which had the truth of Religion was is that respect the Church of God and the Church of Jesus Christ is every such Politique society of men as doth in Religion hold that truth which is proper to Christianity As a Politique society it doth maintain Religion as a Church that Religion which God hath revealed by Jesus Christ with us therefore the name of a Church importeth onely a society of men first united into some publique form of Regiment and secondly distinguished from other societies by the exercise of Religion With them on the other side the name of the Church in this present question importeth not only a maltitude of men so united and so distinguihed but also further the same divided necessarily and perpetually from the body of the Common-wealth so that even in such a Politique society as consisteth of none but Christians yet the Church and Common-wealth are too Corporations independently subsisting by it self We hold that seeing there is not any man of the Church of England but the same man is also a member of the Common-wealth nor any member of the Common-wealth which is not also of the Church of England Therefore as in a figure Triangle the base doth differ from the sides thereof and yet one and the self same line is both a base and also a side aside simply a base if it chance to be the bottom and under-lye the rest So albeit properties and actions of one do cause the name of a Common-wealth qualities and functions of another sort the name of the Church to be given to a multitude yet one and the self-same multitude may in such sort be both Nay it is so with us that no person appertaining to the one can be denied also to be of the other contrariwise unless they against us should hold that the Church and the Common-wealth are two both distinct and separate societies of which two one comprehendeth alwayes persons not belonging to the other that which they do they could not conclude out of the difference between the Church and the Common-wealth namely that the Bishops may not meddle with the affairs of the Common wealth because they are Governours of an other Corporation which is the Church nor Kings with making Lawes for the Church because they have government not of this Corporation but of another divided from it the Common-wealth and the walls of separation between these two must for ever be upheld they hold the necessity of personal separation which clean excludeth the power of one mans dealing with both we of natural but that one and the same person may in both bear principal sway The causes of common received Errors in this Point seem to have been especially two One That they who embrace true Religion living in such Common-wealths as are opposite thereunto and in other publike affairs retaining civil Communion with such as are constrained for the exercise of their Religion to have a several Communion with those who are of the same Religion with them This was the state of the Jewish Church both in Egypt and Babylon the state of Christian Churches a long time after Christ. And in this case because the proper affairs and actions of the Church as it is the Church hath no dependance on the Laws or upon the Government of the civil State and opinion hath thereby grown that even so it should be always This was it which deceived Allen in the writing of his Apology The Apostles saith he did govern the Church in Rome when Nero bare rule even as at this day in all the Churches dominions The Church hath a spiritual Regiments without dependance and so ought she to have amongst Heathens or with Christians Another occasion of which mis-conceit is That things appertaining to Religion are both distinguished from other affairs and have always had in the Church spiritual persons chosen to be exercised about them By which distinction of Spiritual affairs and persons therein employed from Temporal the Error of personal separation always necessary between the Church and Common-wealth hath strengthened it self For of every Politick Society that being true which Aristotle saith namely That the scope thereof is not simply to live nor the duty so much to provide for the life as for means of living well And that even as the soul is the worthier part of man so humane Societies are much more to care for that which tendeth properly to the souls estate then for such temporal things which the life hath need of Other proof there needeth none to shew that as by all men the Kingdom of God is to be sought first for so in all Common-wealths things spiritual ought above temporal be sought for and of things spiritual the chiefest is Religion For this cause persons and things imployed peculiarly about the affairs of Religion are by an excellency termed Spiritual The Heathens themselves had their spiritual Laws and Causes and Affairs always severed from their temporal neither did this make two Independent estates among them God by revealing true Religion sioth make them that receive it his Church Unto the Iews he so revealed the truth of Religion that he gave them in special Considerations Laws not only for the administration of things spiritual but also temporal The Lord himself appointing both the one and the other in that Common-wealth did not thereby distract it into several independent Communities but institute several Functions of one and the self-same Communitie Some Reasons therefore must there be alledged why it should be otherwise in the Church of Christ. I shall not need to spend any great store of words in answering that which is brought out of the Holy Scripture to shew that Secular and Ecclesiastical affairs and offices are distinguished neither that which hath been borrowed from antiquity using by phrase of speech to oppose the Common-weal to the Church of Christ neither yet their Reasons which are wont to be brought forth as witnesses that the Church and Common-weal were always distinct for whether a Church or Common-weal do differ in not the question we strive for but our controversie is concerning the kind of distinction whereby they are severed the one from the other whether as under heathen Kings of the Church did deal with her own affairs within her self without depending
judge of If it were a matter of wrong or an evill deed O ye Iews I would according to reason maintain you Causes of the Church are such as Gallio there receiteth if it be a question of your Law look ye to it I will be no judge thereof In respect of this difference therefore the Church and the Common-wealth may in speech be compared or opposed aptly enough the one to the other yet this is no Argument that they are two Independent Societies Some other Reasons there are which seem a little more neerly to make for the purpose as long as they are but heard and not sifted For what though a man being severed by Excommunication from the Church be not thereby deprived of freedom in the City or being there discommoned is not therefore forthwith excommunicated and excluded the Church What though the Church be bound to receive them upon Repentance whom the Common-weal may refuse again to admit If it chance the same man to be shut out of both division of the Church and Common-weal which they contend for will very hardly hereupon follow For we must note that members of a Christian Common-weal have a triple state a natural a civil and a spiritual No mans natural estate is cut off otherwise then by that capital execution After which he that is none of the body of the Common-wealth doth not I think remain fit in the body of that visible Church And concerning mans civil estate the same is subject partly to inferiour abatement of liberty and partly to diminution in the highest degree such as banishment is sith it casteth out quite and clean from the body of the Common-weal it must needs also consequently cast the banished party even out of the very Church he was of before because that Church and the Common-weal he was of were both one and the same Society So that whatsoever doth utterly separate a mans person from the one it separateth from the other also As for such abatements of civil estate as take away only some priviledge dignity or other benefit which a man enjoyeth in the Common-weal they reach only to our dealing with publike affairs from which what may lett but that men may be excluded and thereunto restored again without diminishing or augmenting the number of persons in whom either Church or Common-wealth consisteth He that by way of punishment loseth his voice in a publike election of Magistrates ceaseth not thereby to be a Citizen A man dis-franchised may notwithstanding enjoy as a Subject the common benefit of Protection under Laws and Magistrates so that these inferiour diminutions which touch men civilly but neither do clean extinguish their estates as they belong to the Common-wealth nor impair a whit their condition as they are of the Church of God These I say do clearly prove a difference of the one from the other but such a difference as maketh nothing for their surmise of distracted Societies And concerning Excommunication it curreth off indeed from the Church and yet not from the Commonwealth howbeit so that the party Excommunicate is not thereby severed from one body which subsisteth in it self and retained by another in like sort subsisting but he which before had fellowship with that society whereof he was a member as well touching things spiritual as civil is now by force of Excommunication although not severed from the body in Civil affairs nevertheless for the time cut off from it as touching Communion in those things which belong to the same body as it is the Church A man which having been both Excommunicated by the Church and deprived of Civil dignity in the Common-wealth is upon his repentance necessarily reunited into the one but not of necessity into the other What then That which he is admitted unto is a Communion in things Divine whereof both parts are partakers that from which he is withheld is the benefit of some humane previledge or right which other Citizens happily enjoy But are not these Saints and Citizens one and the same people are they not one and the same Society Doth it hereby appear that the Church which received an Excommunicate can have no dependency on any pers o which hath chief Authority and Power of these things in the Commonwealth whereunto the same party is not admitted Wherefore to end this point I conclude First that under the dominions of Infidels the Church of Christ and their Common-wealth were two Societies independent Secondly that in those Common-wealths where the Bishop of Rome beareth sway one Society is both the Church and the Common-wealth But the Bishop of Rome doth divide the body into two divers bodies and doth not suffer the Church to depend upon the power of any civil Prince and Potenrate Thirdly that within this Realm of England the case is neither as in the one nor as in the other of the former two but from the state of Pagans we differ in that with us one Society is both the Church and Common-wealth which with them it was not as also from the state of those Nations which subjected themselves to the Bishop of Rome in that our Church hath dependance from the Chief in our Common-wealth which it hath not when he is suffered to rule In a word our state is according to the pattern of Gods own antient elect people which people was not part of them the Common-wealth and part of them the Church of God but the self-same people whole and entire were both under one Chief Governour on whose Supream Authority they did all depend Now the drift of all that hath been alledged to prove perpetual separation and independency between the Church and the Commonwealth is that this being held necessary it might consequently be thought fit that in a Christian Kingdom he whose power is greatest over the Common-wealth may not lawfully have supremacy of power also over the Church that is to say so far as to order thereby and to dispose of spiritual affairs so far as the highest uncommanded Commander in them Whereupon it is grown a Question whether Government Ecclesiastical and power of Dominion in such degrees as the Laws of this Land do grant unto the Soveraign Governour thereof may by the said supream Governour lawfully be enjoy'd and held For resolution wherein we are First to define what the power of dominion is Secondly then to shew by what right Thirdly after what sort Fourthly in what measure Fiftly in what inconveniency According to whose example Christian Kings may have it And when these generals are opened to examine afterwards how lawful that is which we in regard of Dominion do attribute unto our own namely the title of headship over the Church so far as the bounds of this Kingdom do reach Secondly the Prerogative of calling and dissolving great assemblies about spiritual affairs publick Thirdly the right of assenting unto all those orders concerning Religion which must after be in force as Law Fourthly the advancement of Principal
Church-Governours to their rooms of Prelacy Fifthly judicial authority higher then others are capable of And sixthly exemption from being punishable with such kind of Censures as the platform of Reformation doth teach that they ought to be subject unto What the Power of Dominion is VVIthout order there is no living in publick Society because the want thereof is the mother of confusion whereupon division of necessity followeth and out of division destruction The Apostle therefore giving instruction to publike Societies requireth that all things be orderly done Order can have no place in things except it be settled amongst the persons that shall by office be conversant about them And if things and persons be ordered this doth imply that they are distinguished by degrees For order is a gradual disposition The whole world consisting of parts so many so different is by this only thing upheld he which framed them hath set them in order The very Deity it self both keepeth and requireth for ever this to be kept as a Law that wheresoever there is a coagmentation of many the lowest be knit unto the highest by that which being interjacent may cause each to cleave to the other and so all to continue one This order of things and persons in publike Societies is the work of Policie and the proper instrument thereof in every degree is power power being that hability which we have of our selves or receive from others for performance of any action If the action which we have to perform be conversant about matters of meer Religion the power of performing it is then spiritual And if that power be such as hath not any other to over-rule it we term it Dominion or Power Supream so far as the bounds thereof extend When therefore Christian Kings are said to have Spiritual Dominion or Supream Power in Ecclesiastical affairs and causes the meaning is that within their own Precincts and Territories they have an authority and power to command even in matters of Christian Religion and that there is no higher nor greater that can in those cases overcommand them where they are placed to raign as Kings But withal we must likewise note that their power is termed supremacy as being the highest not simply without exception of any thing For what man is so brain-sick as not to except in such speeches God himself the King of all Dominion Who doubteth but that the King who receiveth it must hold it of and order the Law according to that old axiom Altribuat Rex legi quod lex attribuit es potestatem And again Rex non debet esse sub homine sed sub Deo lege Thirdly whereas it is altogether without reason That Kings are judged to have by vertue of their Dominion although greater power then any yet not than all the state of those Societies conjoyned wherein such Soveraign rule is given them there is not any thing hereunto to the contrary by us affirmed no not when we grant supream Authority unto Kings because Supremacy is not otherwise intended or meant to exclude partly sorraign powers and partly the power which belongeth in several unto others contained as parts in that politick body over which those Kings have Supremacy Where the King hath power of Dominion or Supream power there no forrain State or Potentate no State or Potentate Domestical whether it consisteth of one or many can possibly have in the same affairs and causes Authority higher than the King Power of Spiritual Dominion therefore is in causes Ecclesiastical that ruling Authority which neither any forraign State not yet any part of that politick body at home wherein the same is established can lawfully over-rule It hath been declared already in general how the best established dominion is where the Law doth most rule the King the true effect whereof particularly is found as well in Ecclesiastical as Civil affairs In these the King through his Supream Power may do sundry great things himself both appertaining to Peace and War both at home and by command and by commerce with States abroad because the Law doth so much permit Sometimes on the other side The King alone hath no right to do without consent of his Lords and Commons in Parliament The King himself cannot change the nature of Pleas nor Courts no not so much as restore blood because the Law is a hath unto him the positive Laws of the Realm have a priviledg therein and restrain the Kings power which positive Laws whether by custom or otherwise established without repugnancy to the Laws of God and nature ought not less to be in force even in supernatural affairs of the Church whether in regard of Ecclesiastical Laws we willingly embrace that of Ambrose Imperator bonus intrae Ecclesiam non supra Ecclesiam est Kings have Dominion to exercise in Ecclesiastical causes but according to the Laws of the Church whether it be therefore the nature of Courts or the form of Pleas or the kind of Governours or the order of proceeding in whatsoever business for the received Laws an Lib 〈…〉 o the Church the King hath Supream Authority and power but against them never What such positive Laws hath appointed to be done by others than the King or by others with the King and in what form they have appointed the doing of it the same of necessity must be kept neither is the Kings sole Authority to alter it yet as it were a thing unreasonable if in civil affairs the King albeit the whole universal body did joyn with him should do any thing by their absolute power for the ordering of their state at home in prejudice of those ancient Laws of Nations which are of force throughout all the World because the necessary commerce of Kingdoms dependeth on them So in principal matters belonging to Christian Religion a thing very scandalous and offensive it must needs be thought if either Kings or Laws should dispose of the Law of God without any respect had unto that which of old hath been reverently thought of throughout the World and wherein there is no Law of God which forceth us to swerve from the ways wherein so many and holy Ages have gone Wherefore not without good consideration the very Law it self hath provided That Iudges Ecclesiastical appointed under the Kings Commission shall not adjudg for heresie anything but that which heretofore hathbeen adjudged by the Authority of the Cononical Scriptures or by the first four general Counbels or lysome other general Council wherein the same hath been declared heresie by the express words of the said Canonical Scriptures or such at hereafter shall be determined to be heresie by the high Court of Parliament of this Realm with the assent of the Clergy in the Convocation An. 1. Reg. Eliz. By which words of the Law Who doth not plainly see how that in one branch of proceeding by vertue of the Kings supream authority the credit which those four first general Councels have throughout
all Churches and evermore had was judged by the making of the aforesaid Act a just cause wherefore they should be mentioned in that case as a requisite part of that rule wherewith Dominion was to be limited But of this we shall further consider when we come unto that which Soveraign Power may do in making Ecclesiastical Laws Unto which Supream Power in Kings two kinds of adversaries there are which have opposed themselvs one sort defending That Supream power in causes Ecclesiastical throughout the world appertaineth of Divine Right to the Bishop of Rome Another sort That the said power belongeth in every national Church unto the Clergy thereof assembled We which defend as well against the one as against the other That Kings within their own Precincts may have it must shew by what right it must come unto them First unto me it seemeth almost out of doubt controversie that every independent multitude before any certain form of Regiment established hath under God Supream Authority full Dominion over it self even as a man not tyed with the band of subjection as yet unto any other hath over himself the like power God creating mankind did endue it naturally with power to guide it self in what kind of Society soever he should chuse to live A man which is born Lord of himself may be made an others servant And that power which naturally whole societies have may be derived unto many few or one under whom the rest shall then live in subjection Some multitudes are brought into subjection by force as they who being subdued are fain to submit their necks unto what yoak it pleaseth their Conquerors to lay upon them which Conquerors by just and lawful Wars do hold their power over such multitudes as a thing descending unto them Divine Providence it self so disposing For it is God who giveth victory in the day of War and unto whom Dominion in this sort is derived the same they enjoy according to the Law of Nations which Law authorizeth Conquerours to reign as absolute Lords over them whom they vanquish Sometimes it pleaseth God himself by special appointment to chuse out and nominate such as to whom Dominion shall be given which thing he did often in the Common-wealth of Israel They which in this sort receive power immediately from God have it by meer Divine Right they by humane on whom the same is bestowed according to mens discretion when they are left freely by God to make choice of their own Governours By which of these means soever it happen that Kings or Governors be advanced unto their Estates we must acknowledg both their lawful choice to be approved of God and themselves to be Gods Lievtenants and cofess their Power which they have to be his As for Supream Power in Ecclesiastical affairs the Word of God doth no where appoint that all Kings should have it neither that any should not have it for which cause it seemeth to stand altogether by humane Right that unto Christian Kings there is such Dominion given Again on whom the same is bestowed at mens discretions they likewise do hold it by Divine Right If God in his revealed Word hath appointed such Power to be although himself extraordinarily bestow it not but leave the appointment of persons to men yea albeit God do neither appoint nor assign the person nevertheless when men have assigned and established both Who doth doubt but that sundry duties and affairs depending thereupon are prescribed by the Word of God and consequently by that very right to be exacted For example sake the power which Romane Emperors had over foreign Provinces was not a thing which the Law of God did ever Institute Neither was Tiberius Caesar by especial Commission from Heaven therewith invested and yet paiment of Tribute unto Caesar being now made Emperor is the plain Law of Jesus Christ unto Kings by humane Right Honor by very Divine Right is due mans Ordinances are many times proposed as grounds in the Statutes of God And therefore of what kind soever the means be whereby Governors are lawfully advanced to their States as we by the Laws of God stand bound meekly to acknowledg them for Gods Lieutenants and to confess their Power his So by the same Law they are both authorized and required to use that Power as far as it may be in any State available to his Honor. The Law appointeth no man to be a husband but if a man hath betaken himself unto that condition it giveth him power Authority over his own Wife That the Christian world should be ordered by the Kingly Regiment the Law of God doth not any where command and yet the Law of God doth give them which once are exalted unto that place of Estate right to exact at the hands of their Subjects general obedience in whatsoever affairs their power may serve to command and God doth ratifie works of that Soveraign Authority which Kings have received by men This is therefore the right whereby Kings do hold their power but yet in what sort the same doth rest and abide in them it somewhat behoveth further to search where that we be not enforced to make overlarge discourses about the different conditions of Soveraign or Supream Power that which we speak of Kings shall be in respect of the State and according to the nature of this Kingdom where the people are in no subjection but such as willingly themselves have condescended unto for their own most behoo◠and security In Kingdoms therefore of this quality the highest Governor hath indeed universall Dominion but with dependency upon that whole entire body over the several parts whereof he hath Dominion so that it standeth for an Axiom in this case The King is Major singulis universis minor The Kings dependency we do not construe as some have done who are of opinion that no mans birth can make him a King but every particular person advanced to such Authority hath at his entrance into his Raign the same bestowed on him as an estate in condition by the voluntary deed of the people in whom it doth lie to put by any one and to preferr some other before him better liked of or judged fitter for the place and that the party so rejected hath no injury done unto him no although the same be done in a place where the Crown doth go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by succession and to a person which is capital and hath apparently if blood be respected the nearest right They plainly affirm in all well appointed Kingdoms the custom evermore hath been and is that children succeed not their Parents till the people after a sort have created them anew neither that that they grow to their Fathers as natural and proper Heirs but are then to be reckoned for Kings when at the hands of such as represent the Kings Majesty they have by a Scepter and a Diadem received as it were the investure of Kingly power Their
If there be of the antient Fathers which say That thee is but one Head of the Church Christ and that the Minister that baptizeth cannoâ—â—e the Head of him that is baptized because Christ is the Head of the whole Church and tat Paul could not be Head of the Church which he planted because Christ is the Head of the whole Body They understand the name of Head in such sort as we grant that it is oâ— applicable to any other no not in relation to the least part of the whole Churh he which baptizeth baptizeth into Christ he which converteth converteth into Christ he which ruleth ruleth for Christ. The whole Church can have but one to be Head as Lord and Owner of all wherefore if Christ be Head in that kinde it followeth that no other besides can be so either to the whole or to any part To call and dissolve all solemn Assemblies about the Publick Affairs of the Church AMongst sundry Prerogatives of Simons Dominion over the Jews there is reckoned as not the least That no man might gather any great Assembly in the Land without him For so the manner of Jewish Regiment had alwayes been that whether the cause for which men assembled themselves in peaceable good and orderly sort were Ecclesiastical or Civil Supream Authority should assemble them David gathered all Israel together unto Ierusalem when the Ark was to be removed he assembled the Sons of Aaron and the Levites Solomon did the like at such time as the Temple was to be dedicated when the Church was to be reformed Asa in his time did the same The same upon like occasions was done afterwards by Ioash Hezekiat Iosiah and others The Consuls of Rome Polybius affirmeth to have had a kinde of Regal Authority in that they might call together the Senate and People whensoever it pleased them Seeing therefore the Affairs of the Church and Christian Religion are Publick Affairs for the ordering whereof more Solemn Assemblies sometimes are of as great importance and use as they are for Secular Affairs It seemeth no less an act of Supream Authority to call the one then the other Wherefore the Clergy in such wise gathered together is an Ecclesiastical Senate which with us as in former times the chiefest Prelate at his discretion did use to assemble so that afterwards in such considerations as have been before specified it seemed more meet to annex the said Prerogative to the Crown The plot of reformed Discipline not liking thereof so well taketh order that every former Assembly before it breaketh up should it self appoint both the time and place of their After-meeting again But because I finde not any thing on that side particularly alledged against us herein a longer disputation about so plain a cause shall not need The antient Imperial Law forbiddeth such Assemblies as the Emperor's Authority did not cause to be made Before Emperors became Christians the Church had never any General Synod their greatest Meeting consisting of Bishops and others the gravest in each Province As for the Civil Governor's Authority it suffered them only as things not regarded or not accounted of at such times as it did suffer them So that what right a Christian King hath as touching Assemblies of that kinde we are not able to judge till we come to later times when Religion had won the hearts of the highest Powers Constantine as Pighius doth grant was not only the first that ever did call any General Councel together but even the first that devised the calling of them for consultation about the businesses of God After he had once given the example his Successors a long time followed the same in so much that St. Hierom to disprove the Authority of a Synod which was pretended to be general useth this as a forcible Argument Dic quis Imperator have Synodum jusserit convocari Their Answer hereunto is no Answer which say That the Emperors did not this without conference had with the Bishops for to our purpose it is enough if the Clergy alone did it not otherwise than by the leave and appointment of their Soveraign Lords and Kings Whereas therefore it is on the contrary side alledged that Valentinian the elder being requested by Catholick Bishops to grant that there might be a Synod for the ordering of matters called in question by the Arians answered that he being one of the Laity might not meddle with such matters and thereupon willed that the Priests and Bishops to whom the care of those things belongeth should meet and consult together by themselves where they thought good We must with the Emperor's speech weigh the occasion and drift thereof Valentinian and Valens the one a Catholick the other an Arian were Emperors together Valens the Governour of the East and Valentinian of the West Empire Valentinian therefore taking his Journey from the East unto the West parts and passing for that intent through Thracia there the Bishops which held the soundnesse of Christian Belief because they knew that Valent was their professed Enemy and therefore if the other was once departed out of those quarters the Catholick Cause was like to finde very small favour moved presently Valentinian about a Councel to be assembled under the countenance of his Authority who by likelihood considering what inconvenience might grow thereby inasmuch as it could not be but a means to incense Valens the more against them refused himself to be Author of or present at any such Assembly and of this his denyal gave them a colourable reason to wit that he was although an Emperour yet a secular Person and therefore not able in matters of so great obscurity to fit as a competent Judge But if they which were Bishops and learned men did think good to consule thereof together they might Whereupon when they could not obtain that which they most desired yet that which he granted unto them they took and forthwith had a Councel Valentinian went on towards Rome they remaining in consultation till Valens which accompanied him returned back so that now there was no remedy but either to incurr a manifest contempt or else at the hands of Valens himself to seek approbation of that they had done To him therefore they became Suitors his Answer was short Either Arianism or Exile which they would whereupon their Banishment ensued Let reasonable men now therefore be Judges how much this example of Valentinian doth make against the Authority which we say that Soveraign Rulers may lawfully have as concerning Synods and Meetings Ecclesiastical Of the Authority of making Laws THere are which wonder that we should account any Statute a Law which the High Court of Parliament in England hath established about the matters of Church-Regiment the Prince and Court of Parliament having as they suppose no more lawful means to give order to the Church and Clergy in those things than they have to make Laws for the Hierarchies of Angels in Heaven
That the Parliament being a mere Temporal Court can neither by the law of Nature nor of God have competent power to define of such matters That Supremacy in this kinde cannot belong unto Kings as Kings because Pagan Emperours whose Princely power was true Soveraignty never challenged so much over the Church That Power in this kinde cannot be the right of any Earthly Crown Prince or State in that they be Christians forasmuch as if they be Christians they all owe subjection to the Pastors of their Souls That the Prince therefore not having it himself cannot communicate it to the Parliament and consequently cannot make Laws here or determine of the Churches Regiment by himself Parliament or any other Court subjected unto him The Parliament of England together with the Convocation annexed thereunto is that whereupon the very essence of all Government within this Kingdom doth depend it is even the body of the whole Realm it consisteth of the King and of all that within the Land are subject unto him The Parliament is a Court not so merely Temporal as if it might meddle with nothing but onely Leather and Wool Those dayes of Queen Mary are not yet forgotten wherein the Realm did submit it self unto the Legate of Pope Iulius at which time had they been perswaded as this man seemeth now to be had they thought that there is no more force in Laws made by Parliament concerning Church-Affairs then if men should take upon them to make Orders for the Hierarchies of Angels in Heaven they might have taken all former Statutes of that kinde as cancelled and by reason of nullity abrogated What need was there that they should bargain with the Cardinal and purchase their Pardon by promise made before-hand that what Laws they had made assented unto or executed against the Bishop of Rome's Supremacy the same they would in that present Parliament effectually abrogate and repeal Had they power to repeal Laws made and none to make Laws concerning the Regiment of the Church Again when they had by suit obtained his confirmation for such Foundations of Bishopricks Cathedral Churches Hospitals Colledges and Schools for such Marriages before made for such Institutions into Livings Ecclesiastical and for all such Judicial Processes as having been ordered according to the Laws before in force but contrary unto the Canons and Orders of the Church of Rome were in that respect thought defective although the Cardinal in his Letters of Dispensation did give validity unto those Acts even Apostolicae firmitatis robur the very strength of Apostolical solidity what had all these been without those grave authentical words Be it enacted by the Authority of this present Parliament that all and singular Articles and Clauses contained in the said Dispensation shall remain and be reputed and taken to all intents and constructions in the Laws of this Realm lawful good and effectual to be alledged and pleaded in all Courts Ecclesiastical and Temporal for good and sufficient matter either for the Plaintiff or Defendant without any Allegation or Objection to be made against the validity of them by pretence of any General Councel Canon or Decree to the contrary Somewhat belike they thought there was in this mere Temporal Court without which the Popes own mere Ecclesiastical Legate's Dispensation had taken small effect in the Church of England neither did they or the Cardinal imagine any thing committed against the Law of Nature or of God because they took order for the Churches Affairs and that even in the Court of Parliament The most natural and Religious course in making Laws is that the matter of them be taken from the judgement of the wisest in those things which they are to concern In matters of God to set down a form of Prayer a solemn confession of the Articles of the Christian Faith and Ceremonies meet for the exercise of Religion It were unnatural not to think the Pastors and Bishops of our Souls a great deal more fit than men of Secular Trades and Callings Howbeit when all which the wisdome of all sorts can do is done for the devising of Laws in the Church it is the general consent of all that giveth them the form and vigour of Laws without which they could be no more unto us than the Councel of Physitians to the sick Well might they seem as wholesom admonitions and instructions but Laws could they never be without consent of the whole Church to be guided by them whereunto both Nature and the practise of the Church of God set down in Scripture is found every way so fully consonant that God himself would not impose no not his own Laws upon his People by the hand of Moses without their free and open consent Wherefore to define and determine even of the Churches Affairs by way of assent and approbation as Laws are defined in that Right of Power which doth give them the force of Laws thus to define of our own Churches Regiment the Parliament of England hath competent Authority Touching that Supremacy of Power which our Kings have in this case of making Laws it resteth principally in the strength of a negative voice which not to give them were to deny them that without which they were Kings but by mere title and not in exercise of Dominion Be it in Regiment Popular Aristocratical or Regal Principality resteth in that Person or those Persons unto whom is given right of excluding any kinde of Law whatsoever it be before establishment This doth belong unto Kings as Kings Pagan Emperors even Nero himself had no less but much more than this in the Laws of his own Empire That he challenged not any interest of giving voice in the laws of the Church I hope no man will so construe as if the cause were conscience and fear to encroach upon the Apostles right If then it be demanded By what right from Constantine downward the Christian Emperors did so far intermeddle with the Churches affairs either we must herein condemn them as being over presumptuously bold or else judge that by a Law which is termed Regia that is to say Regal the People having derived unto their Emperors their whole power for making of Laws and by that means his Edicts being made Laws what matter soever they did concern as Imperial dignity endowed them with competent Authority and power to make Laws for Religion so they were thought by Christianity to use their Power being Christians unto the benefit of the Church of Christ was there any Christian Bishop in the world which did then judge this repugnant unto the dutiful subjection which Christians do ow to the Pastors of their Souls to whom in respect of their Sacred Order it is not by us neither may be denied that Kings and Princes are as much as the very meanest that liveth under them bound in conscience to shew themselves gladly and willingly obedient receiving the Seals of Salvation the blessed Sacraments at their hands as at the
hands of our Lord Jesus Christ with all reverence not disdaining to be taught and admonished by them nor with-holding from them as much as the least part of their due and decent honour All which for any thing that hath been alleadged may stand very well without resignation of Supremacy of Power in making Laws even Laws concerning the most Spiritual Affairs of the Church which Laws being made amongst us are not by any of us so taken or interpreted as if they did receive their force from power which the Prince doth communicate unto the Parliament or unto any other Court under him but from Power which the whole Body of the Realm being naturally possest with hath by free and deliberate assent derived unto him that ruleth over them so farr forth as hath been declared so that our Laws made concerning Religion do take originally their essence from the power of the whole Realm and Church of England than which nothing can be more consonant unto the law of Nature and the will of our Lord Jesus Christ. To let these go and return to our own Men Ecclesiastical Governours they say may not meddle with making of Civil Laws and of Laws for the Common-wealth nor the Civil Magistrate high or low with making of Orders for the Church It seemeth unto me very strange that these men which are in no cause more vehement and fierce than where they plead that Ecclesiastical Persons may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be Lords should hold that the power of making Ecclesiastical Laws which thing of all other is most proper unto Dominion belongeth to none but Ecclesiastical Persons onely Their oversight groweth herein for want of exact observation what it is to make a Law Tully speaking of the Law of Nature saith That thereof God himself was Inventor Disceptator Lator the Deviser the Discusser and Deliverer wherein he plainly alludeth unto the chiefest parts which then did appertain to his Publick action For when Laws were made the first thing was to have them devised thesecond to sift them with as much exactness of Judgement as any way might be used the next by solemn voyce of Soveraign Authority to pass them and give them the force of Laws It cannot in any reason seem otherwise than most fit that unto Ecclesiastical Persons the care of devising Ecclesiastical Laws be committed even as the care of Civil unto them which are in those Affairs most skilful This taketh not away from Ecclesiastical Persons all right of giving voyce with others when Civil Laws are proposed for Regiment of the Common-wealth whereof themselves though now the World would have them annihilated are notwithstanding as yet a part much less doth it cut off that part of the power of Princes whereby as they claim so we know no reasonable cause wherefore we may not grant them without offence to Almighty God so much Authority in making all manner of Laws within their own Dominions that neither Civil nor Ecclesiastical do pass without their Royal assent In devising and discussing of Laws Wisdom especially is required but that which establisheth them and maketh them is Power even Power of Dominion the Chiefty whereof amongst us resteth in the Person of the King Is there any Law of Christs which forbiddeth Kings and Rulers of the Earth to have such Soveraign and Supream Power in the making of Laws either Civil or Ecclesiastical If there be our controversie hathan end Christ in his Church hath not appointed any such Law concerning Temporal Power as God did of old unto the Common-wealth of Israel but leaving that to be at the World 's free choice his chiefest care is that the Spiritual Law of the Gospel might be published farr and wide They that received the Law of Christ were for a long time People scattered in sundry Kingdoms Christianity not exempting them from the Laws which they had been subject unto saving only in such cases as those Laws did injoyn that which the Religion of Christ did forbid Hereupon grew their manifold Persecutions throughout all places where they lived as oft as it thus came to pass there was no possibility that the Emperours and Kings under whom they lived should meddle any whit at all with making Laws for the Church From Christ therefore having received Power who doubteth but as they did so they might binde them to such Orders as seemed fittest for the maintenance of their Religion without the leave of high or low in the Common-wealth for as much as in Religion it was divided utterly from them and they from it But when the mightiest began to like of the Christian Faith by their means whole Free-States and Kingdoms became obedient unto Christ. Now the question is Whether Kings by embracing Christianity do thereby receive any such Law as taketh from them the weightiest part of that Soveraignty which they had even when they were Heathens Whether being Infidels they might do more in causes of Religion than now they can by the Laws of God being true Believers For whereas in Regal States the King or Supream Head of the Common-wealth had before Christianity a supream stroak in making of Laws for Religion he must by embracing Christian Religion utterly deprive himself thereof and in such causes become subject unto his Subjects having even within his own Dominions them whose commandment he must obey unlesse his Power be placed in the Head of some foreign Spiritual Potentate so that either a foreign or domestical Commander upon Earth he must admit more now than before he had and that in the chiefest things whereupon Common-wealths do stand But apparent it is unto all men which are not Strangers unto the Doctrine of Jesus Christ that no State of the World receiving Christianity is by any Law therein contained bound to resign the Power which they lawfully held before but over what Persons and in what causes soever the same hath been in force it may so remain and continue still That which as Kings they might do in matters of Religion and did in matter of false Religion being Idolatrous and Superstitious Kings the same they are now even in every respect fully authorized to do in all affairs pertinent to the state of true Christian Religion And concerning the Supream Power of making Laws for all Persons in all causes to be guided by it is not to be let passe that the head Enemies of this Headship are constrained to acknowledge the King endued even with this very Power so that he may and ought to exercise the same taking order for the Church and her affairs of what nature of kinde soever in case of necessity as when there is no lawful Ministry which they interpret then to be and this surely is a point very remarkable wheresoever the Ministry is wicked A wicked Ministry is no lawful Ministry and in such sort no lawful Ministry that what doth belong unto them as Ministers by right of their calling the same to be annihilated in
respect of their bad qualities their wickedness in it self a deprivation of right to deal in the affairs of the Church and a warrant for others to deal in them which are held to be of a clean other Society the Members whereof have been before so peremptorily for ever excluded from power of dealing for ever with affairs of the Church They which once have learned throughly this Lesson will quickly be capable perhaps of another equivalent unto it For the wickedness of the Ministery transfers their right unto the King In case the King be as wicked as they to whom then shall the right descend There is no remedy all must come by devolution at length even as the Family of Brown will have it unto the godly among the people for confusion unto the wise and the great by the poor and the simple Some Kniper doling with his retinue must take this work of the Lord in hand and the making of Church-Laws and Orders must prove to be their right in the end If not for love of the truth yet for shame of grosse absurdities let these contentions and stifling fancies be abandoned The cause which moved them for a time to hold a wicked Ministery no lawful Ministry and in this defect of a lawful Ministery authorized Kings to make Laws and Orders for the Affairs of the Church till it were well established is surely this First They see that whereas the continual dealing of the Kings of Israel in the Affairs of the Church doth make now very strong against them the burthen whereof they shall in time well enough shake off if it may be obtained that it is indeed lawful for Kings to follow these holy examples howbeit no longer than during the case of necessity while the wickednesse and in respect thereof the unlawfulness of the Ministery doth continue Secondly They perceive right well that unlesse they should yield Authority unto Kings in case of such supposed necessity the Discipline they urge were clean excluded as long as the Clergy of England doth thereunto remain opposite To open therefore a door for her entrance there is no remedy but the Tenet must be this That now when the Ministery of England is universally wicked and in that respect hath lost all Authority and is become no lawful Ministery no such Ministery as hath the right which otherwise should belong unto them if they were vertuous and godly as their Adversaries are in this necessity the King may do somewhat for the Church that which we do imply in the name of Headship he may both have and exercise till they be entered which will disburthen and ease him of it till they come the King is licensed to hold that Power which we call Headship But what afterwards In a Church ordered that which the Supream Magistrate hath to do is to see that the Laws of God touching his Worship and touching all matters and orders of the Church be executed and duly observed to see that every Ecclesiastical Person do that Office whereunto he is appointed to punish those that fail in their Office In a word that which Allain himself acknowledgeth unto the Earthly power which God hath given him it doth belong to defend the Laws of the Church to cause them to be executed and to punish Rebels and Transgressors of the same on all sides therfore it is confest that to the King belongeth power of maintaining the Laws made for Church-Regiment and of causing them to be observed but Principality of Power in making them which is the thing we attribute unto Kings this both the one sort and the other do withstand Touching the Kings supereminent authority in commanding and in judging of Causes Ecclesiastical First to explain therein our meaning It hath been taken as if we did hold that Kings may prescribe what themselves think good to be done in the service of God how the Word shall be taught how the Sacraments administred that Kings may personally sit in the Consistory where the Bishops do hearing and determining what Causes soever do appertain unto the Church That Kings and Queens in their own proper Persons are by Judicial Sentence to decide the Questions which do rise about matters of Faith and Christian Religion That Kings may excommunicate Finally That Kings may do whatsoever is incident unto the Office and Duty of an Ecclesiastical Judge Which opinion because we account as absurd as they who have fathered the same upon us we do them to wit that this is our meaning and no otherwise There is not within this Realm an Ecclesiastical Officer that may by the Authority of his own place command universally throughout the Kings Dominions but they of this People whom one may command are to anothers commandement unsubject Only the Kings Royal Power is of so large compass that no man commanded by him according to the order of Law can plead himself to be without the bounds and limits of that Authority Isay according to order of Law because that with us the highest have thereunto so tyed themselves that otherwise than so they take not upon them to command any And that Kings should be in such sort Supream Commanders over all men we hold it requisite as well for the ordering of Spiritual as Civil Affairs in as much as without universal Authority in this kinde they should not be able when need is to do as vertuous Kings have done Josiah parposing to renew the House of the Lord assembled the Priests and Levites and when they were together gave them their charge saying Go out unto the Cities of Judah and gather of Israel money to repair the House of the Lord from year to year and haste the things But the Levites hastned not Therefore the King commanded Jehoida the Chief-priest and said unto him Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and Jerusalem the Tax of Moses the Servant of the Lord and of the Congregation of Israel for the Tabernacle of the Testimony For wicked Athalia and her Children brake up the House of the Lord God and all the things that were dedicated for the House of the Lord did they bestow upon Balaam Therefore the King commanded and they made a Chest and set it at the Gate of the House of the Lord without and they made a Proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem to bring unto the Lord the Tax of Moses the Servant of the Lord laid upon Israel in the Wilderness Could either he have done this or after him Ezekias the like concerning the celebration of the Passeover but that all sorts of men in all things did owe unto these their Soveraign Rulers the same obedience which sometimes Iosuah had them by vow and promise bound unto Whosoever shall rebel against thy Commandments and will not obey thy words in all thou commandest him let him be put to death only be strong and of a good courage Furthermore Judgement Ecclesiastical we say is
them who use but that Power which Laws have given them unless men can shew that there is in those Laws some manifest iniquity or injustice Whereas therefore against the force Judicial and Imperial which Supream Authority hath it is alledged how Constantine termeth Church-Officers Over-seers of things within the Church himself of those without the Church how Augustine witnesseth that the Emperor not daring to judge of the Bishop's Cause committed it to the Bishops and was to crave paâ—â—â—on of the Bishops for that by the Donatists importunity which made no end to appealing unto him he was being weary of them drawn to give sentence in a matter of theirs how Hilary beseecheth the Emperor Constance to provide that the Governors of his Provinces should not presume to take upon them the Judgement of Ecclesiastical Causes to whom onely Common-wealth matters belonged how Ambrose affirmeth that Palaces belong unto the Emperor Churches to the Minister That the Emperor hath the authority over the Common-walls of the City and not in holy things for which cause he never would yield to have the Causes of the Church debated in the Princes Consistories but excused himself to the Emperor Valentinian for that being convented to answer concerning Church-matters in a Civil Court he came not We may by these testimonies drawn from Antiquity if wellst to consider them discern how requisite it is that Authority should always follow received Laws in the manner of proceeding For inasmuch as there was at the first no certain Law determining what force the principal Civil Magistrates authority should be of how farr it should reach and what order it should observe but Christian Emperors from time to time did what themselves thought most reasonable in those affairs by this means it cometh to passe that they in their practise vary and are not uniform Vertuous Emperors such as Constantine the Great was made conscience to swerve unnecessarily from the custom which had been used in the Church even when it lived under Infidels Constantine of reverence to Bishops and their Spiritual Authority rather abstained from that which himself might lawfully do than was willing to claim a Power not fit or decent for him to exercise The Order which hath been before he ratifieth exhorting the Bishops to look to the Church and promising that he would do the Office of a Bishop over the Common-wealth which very Constantine notwithstanding did not thereby so renounce all Authority in judging of Special Causes but that sometime he took as St. Augustine witnesseth even personal cognition of them howbeit whether as purposing to give therein judicially any Sentence I stand in doubt for if the other of whom St. Augustine elsewhere speaketh did in such sort judge surely there was cause why he should excuse it as a thing not usually done Otherwise there is no lett but that any such great Person may hear those Causes to and fro debated and deliver in the end his own opinion of them declaring on which side himself doth judge that the truth is But this kinde of Sentence bindeth no side to stand thereunto it is a Sentence of private perswasion and not of solemn jurisdiction albeit a King or an Emperour pronounce it Again on the contrary part when Governours infected with Heresie were possessed of the Highest Power they thought they might use it as pleased themselves to further by all means that opinion which they desired should prevail they not respecting at all what was meet presumed to command and judge all men in all Causes without either care of orderly proceeding or regard to such Laws and Customs as the Church had been wont to observe So that the one sort feared to do even that which they might and that which the other ought not they boldly presumed upon the one sort of modesty excused themselves where they scarce needed the other though doing that which was inexcusable bare it out with main power not enduring to be told by any man how farr they roved beyond their bounds So great odds was between them whom before we mentioned and such as the younger Valentinian by whom St. Ambrose being commanded to yield up one of the Churches under him unto the Arrians whereas they which were sent on his Message alledged That the Emperour did but use his own right forasmuch as all things were in his power The Answer which the holy Bishop gave them was That the Church is the House of God and that those things that are Gods are not to be yielded up and disposed of it at the Emperors will and pleasure His Palaces he might grant to whomsoever he pleaseth but Gods own Habitation not so A cause why many times Emperours do more by their absolute Authority than could very well stand with reason was the over-great importunity of wicked Hereticks who being Enemies to Peace and Quietness cannot otherwise than by violent means be supported In this respect therefore we must needs think the state of our own Church much better settled than theirs was because our Lawes have with farr more certainty prescribed bounds unto each kinde of Power All decision of things doubtful and correction of things amiss are proceeded in by order of Law what Person soever he be unto whom the administration of Judgment belongeth It is neither permitted unto Prelates nor Prince to judge and determine at their own discretion but Law hath prescribed what both shall do What Power the King hath he hath it by Law the bounds and limits of it are known the intire Community giveth general order by Law how all things publickly are to be done and the King as the Head thereof the Highest in Authority over all causeth according to the same law every particular to be framed and ordered thereby The whole Body Politick maketh Laws which Laws gave Power unto the King and the King having bound himself to use according unto Law that power it so falleth out that the execution of the one is accomplished by the other in most religious and peaceable sort There is no cause given unto any to make supplication as Hilary did that Civil Governors to whom Common-wealth-matters only belong may not presume to take upon them the Judgement of Ecclesiastical causes If the cause be Spiritual Secular Courts do not meddle with it we need not excuse our selves with Ambrose but boldly and lawfully we may refuse to answer before any Civil Judge in a matter which is not Civil so that we do not mistake either the nature of the Cause or of the Court as we easily may do both without some better direction than can be by the rules of this new-found Discipline But of this most certain we are that our Laws do neither suffer a Spiritual Court to entertain those Causes which by the Law are Civil nor yet if the matter be indeed Spiritual a mere Civil Court to give Judgement of it Touching Supream Power therefore to command all men and in all manner
of causes of Judgement to be highest let thus much suffice as well for declaration of our own meaning as for defence of the truth therein The cause is not like when such Assemblies are gathered together by Suream Authority concerning other affairs of the Church and when they meet about the making of Ecclesiastical Laws or Statutes For in the one they are onely to advise in the other to decree The Persons which are of the one the King doth voluntarily assemble as being in respect of quality fit to consult withal them which are of the other he calleth by prescript of Law as having right to be thereunto called Finally the one are but themselves and their Sentence hath but the weight of their own Judgment the other represent the whole Clergy and their voyces are as much as if all did give personal verdict Now the question is Whether the Clergy alone so assembled ought to have the whole power of making Ecclesiastical Laws or else consent of the Laity may thereunto be made necessary and the King's assent so necessary that his sole denial may be of force to stay them from being Laws If they with whom we dispute were uniform strong and constant in that which they say we should not need to trouble our selves about their Persons to whom the power of making Laws for the Church belongs for they are sometime very vehement in contention that from the greatest thing unto the least about the Church all must needs be immediately from God And to this they apply the pattern of the antient Tabernacle which God delivered unto Moses and was therein so exact that there was not left as much as the least pin for the wit of man to devise in the framing of it To this they also apply that streight and severe charge which God soosten gave concerning his own Law Whatsoever I command you take heed ye do it Thou shalt put nothing thereto thou shalt take nothing from it Nothing whether it be great or small Yet sometimes bethinking themselves better they speak as acknowledging that it doth suffice to have received in such sort the principal things from God and that for other matters the Church had sufficient authority to make Laws whereupon they now have made it a question What Persons they are whose right it is to take order for the Churches affairs when the institution of any new thing therein is requisite Law may be requisite to be made either concerning things that are onely to be known and believed in or else touching that which is to be done by the Church of God The Law of Nature and the Law of God are sufficient for declaration in both what belongeth unto each man separately as his Soul is the Spouse of Christ yea so sufficient that they plainly and fully shew whatsoever God doth require by way of necessary introduction unto the state of everlasting bliss But as a man liveth joyned with others in common society and belongeth to the outward Politick Body of the Church albeit the same Law of Nature and Scripture have in this respect also made manifest the things that are of greatest necessity nevertheless by reason of new occasions still arising which the Church having care of Souls must take order for as need requireth hereby it cometh to pass that there is and ever will be so great use even of Human Laws and Ordinances deducted by way of discourse as a conclusion from the former Divine and Natural serving as Principals thereunto No man doubteth but that for matters of Action and Practice in the Affairs of God for manner in Divine Service for order in Ecclesiastical proceedings about the Regiment of the Church there may be oftentimes cause very urgent to have Laws made but the reason is not so plain wherefore Human laws should appoint men what to believe Wherefore in this we must note two things 1. That in matters of opinion the Law doth not make that to be truth which before was not as in matter of Action is causeth that to be a duty which was not before but manifesteth only and giveth men notice of that to be truth the contrary whereunto they ought not before to have believed 2. That opinions do cleave to the understanding and are in heat assented unto it is not in the power of any Human law to command them because to prescribe what men shall think belongeth only unto God Corde creditur ore fit confessio saith the Apostle As opinions are either fit or inconvenient to be professed so man's laws hath to determine of them It may for Publick unities sake require mens professed assent or prohibit their contradiction to special Articles wherein as there haply hath been Controversie what is true so the same were like to continue still not without grievous detriment unto a number of Souls except Law to remedy that evil should set down a certainty which no man afterwards is to gain-say Wherefore as in regard of Divine laws which the Church receiveth from God we may unto every man apply those words of wisdom in Solomon My Son keep thou thy Fathers Precepts Conserva Fili mi praecepta Patris tui even so concerning the Statutes and Ordinances which the Church it self makes we may add thereunto the words that follow Etut dimitt as legem Matris tuae And forsake thou not thy Mothers law It is a thing even undoubtedly natural that all free and Independent Societies should themselves make their own Laws and that this power should belong to the whole not to any certain part of a Politick body though haply some one part may have greater sway in that action than the rest which thing being generally fit and expedient in the making of all Laws we see no cause why to think otherwise in Laws concerning the service of God which in all well-order'd States and Common-wealths is the first thing that Law hath care to provide for When we speak of the right which naturally belongeth to a Common-wealth we speak of that which must needs belong to the Church of God For if the Common-wealth be Christian if the People which are of it do publickly embrace the true Religion this very thing doth make it the Church as hath been shewed So that unless the verity and purity of Religion do take from them which embrace it that power wherewith otherwise they are possessed look what authority as touching laws for Religion a Common-wealth hath simply it must of necessity being of the Christian Religion It will be therefore perhaps alledged that a part of the verity of Christian Religion is to hold the power of making Ecclesiastical Laws a thing appropriated unto the Clergy in their Synods and whatsoever is by their only voyces agreed upon it needeth no further approbation to give unto it the strength of a Law as may plainly appear by the Canons of that first most venerable Assembly where those things the Apostle and Iames had concluded
were afterwards published and imposed upon the Churches of the Gentiles abroad as Laws the Records thereof remaining still the Book of God for a testimony that the power of making Ecclesiastical Laws belongeth to the Successors of the Apostles the Bishops and Prelates of the Church of God To this we answer That the Councel of Ierusalem is no Argument for the power of the Clergy to make Laws For first there hath not been sithence any Councel of like authority to that in Ierusalem Secondly The cause why that was of such authority came by a special accident Thirdly The reason why other Councels being not like unto that in nature the Clergy in them should have no power to make Laws by themselves alone is in truth so forcible that except some Commandment of God to the contrary can be shewed it ought notwithstanding the foresaid example to prevail The Decrees of the Councel of Ierusalem were not as the Canons of other Ecclesiastical Assemblies Human but very Divine Ordinances for which cause the Churches were farr and wide commanded every where to see them kept no otherwise than if Christ himself had personally on Earth been the Author of them The cause why that Council was of so great Authority and credit above all others which have been sithence is expressed in those words of principal observation Unto the Holy Ghost and to us it hath seemed good which form of speech though other Councels have likewise used yet neither could they themselves mean nor may we so understand them as if both were in equal sort assisted with the power of the Holy Ghost but the latter had the favour of that general assistance and presence which Christ doth promise unto all his according to the quality of their several Estates and Callings the former the grace of special miraculous rare and extraordinary illumination in relation whereunto the Apostle comparing the Old Testament and the New together termeth the one a Testament of the Letter for that God delivered it written in stone the other a Testament of the Spirit because God imprinted it in the hearts and declared it by the tongues of his chosen Apostles through the power of the Holy Ghost feigning both their conceits and speeches in most Divine and incomprehensible manner Wherefore in as much as the Council of Ierusalem did chance to consist of men so enlightened it had authority greater than were meet for any other Council besides to challenge wherein such kinde of Persons are as now the state of the Church doth stand Kings being not then that which now they are and the Clergy not now that which then they were Till it be proved that some special Law of Christ hath for ever annexed unto the Clergy alone the power to make Ecclesiastical laws we are to hold it a thing most consonant with equity and reason that no Ecclesiastical laws be made in a Christian Common-wealth without consent as well of the Laity as of the Clergy but least of all without consent of the highest Power For of this thing no man doubteth namely that in all Societies Companies and Corporations what severally each shall be bound unto it must be with all their assents ratified Against all equity it were that a man should suffer detriment at the hands of men for not observing that which he never did either by himself or by others mediately or immediately agree unto Much more than a King should constrain all others no the strict observation of any such Human Ordinance as passeth without his own approbation In this Case therefore especially that vulgar Axiom is of force Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari approbari debet Whereupon Pope Nicolas although otherwise not admitting Lay-persons no not Emperors themselves to be present as Synods doth notwithstanding seem to allow of their presence when matters of Faith are determined whereunto all men must stand bound Ubinam legistis Imperatores Antecessores vestros Synodalibus Conventibus interfuisse nisi forsitan in quibus de Fide tractatum est quae non solum ad Clericos verum etiam ad Laicos omnes pertinet Christianos A Law be it Civil or Ecclesiastical is a Publick Obligation wherein seeing that the whole standeth charged no reason it should pass without his privity and will whom principally the whole doth depend upon Sicut Laici jurisdictionem Clericorum perturbare ita Clerici jurisdictionem Laicorum non debent minuere saith Innocentius Extra de judic novit As the Laity should not hinder the Clergy's jurisdiction so neither is it reason that the Laity's right should be abridged by the Clergy saith Pope Innocent But were it so that the Clergy alone might give Laws unto all the rest forasmuch as every Estate doth desire to inlarge the bounds of their own Liberties is it not easie to see how injurious this might prove to men of other conditions Peace and Justice are maintained by preserving unto every Order their Rights and by keeping all Estates as it were in an even ballance which thing is no way better done than if the King their common Parent whose care is presumed to extend most indifferently over all do bear the chiefest sway in the making Laws which All must be ordered by Wherefore of them which in this point attribute most to the Clergy I would demand What evidence there is whereby it may clearly be shewed that in antient Kingdoms Christian any Canon devised by the Clergy alone in their Synods whether Provincial National or General hath by mere force of their Agreement taken place as a Law making all men constrainable to be obedient thereunto without any other approbation from the King before or afterwards required in that behalf But what speak we of antient Kingdoms when at this day even the Papacy it self the very Tridentine Council hath not every where as yet obtained to have in all points the strength of Ecclesiastical Laws did not Philip King of Spain publishing that Council in the Low Countries adde thereunto an express clause of special provision that the same should in no wise prejudice hurt or diminish any kinde of Priviledge which the King or his Vassals a fore-time had enjoyed touching either possessory Judgements of Ecclesiastical Livings or concerning nominations thereunto or belonging to whatsoever right they had else in such Affairs If therefore the Kings exception taken against some part of the Canons contained in that Council were a sufficient barr to make them of none effect within his Territories it followeth that the like exception against any other part had been also of like efficacy and so consequently that no part therof had obtained the strength of a Law if he which excepted against a part had so done against the whole as what reason was there but that the same Authority which limited might quite and clean have refused that Council who so alloweth the said Act of the Catholick Kings for good and
his institution that God in like sort doth authorize them and account them to be his though it were not confessed it might be proved undeniably For if that be acounted our deed which others do whom we have appointed to be our Agents how should God but approve those deeds even as his own which are done by vertue of that Commission and Power which he hath given Take heed saith Iehosophat unto his Judges be careful and circumspect what ye do ye do not execute the judgments of Man but of the Lord 2 Chron. 19. 6. The Authority of Caesar over the Jews from whence was it Had it any other ground than the Law of Nations which maketh Kingdoms subdued by just War to be subject unto their Conquerors By this Power Caesar exacting Tribute our Saviour confesseth it to be his Right a Right which could not be with-held without Injury yea disobedience herein unto him and even Rebellion against God Usurpers of Power whereby we do not mean them that by violence have aspired unto places of Highest Authority but them that use more Authority than they did ever receive in form and manner before-mentioned for so they may do whose Title to the rooms of Authority which they possess no man can deny to be just and lawful even as contrariwise some mens proceedings in Government have been very orderly who notwithstanding did not attain to be made Governors without great violence and disorder such Usurpers thereof as in the exercise of their Power do more than they have been authorized to do cannot in Conscience binde any man unto Obedience That subjection which we owe unto lawful Powers doth not onely import that we should be under them by order of our State but that we shew all submission towards them both by honor and obedience He that resisteth them resisteth God And resisted they be if either the Authority it self which they exercise be denied as by Anabaptists all Secular Jurisdiction is or if resistance be made but only so farr forth as doth touch their Persons which are invested with Power for they which said Nolumus hunc regnare did not utterly exclude Regiment nor did they wish all kinde of Government clearly removed which would not at the first have David to govern or if that which they do by vertue of their Power namely their Laws Edicts Services or other Acts of Jurisdiction be not suffered to take effect contrary to the blessed Apostles most holy rule Obey them which have the oversight of you Heb. 13. 17. or if they do take effect yet is not the will of God thereby satisfied neither as long as that which we do is contemptuously or repiningly done because we can do no otherwise In such sort the Israelites in the Desart obeyed Moses and were notwithstanding deservedly plagued for disobedience The Apostle's Precept therefore is Be subject even for God's cause Be subject not for fear but of mere Conscience knowing that be which resisteth them purchaseth to himself condemnation Disobedience therefore unto Laws which are made by them is not a thing of so small account as some would make it Howbeit too rigorous it were that the breach of every Human Law should be held a deadly sin A mean there is between those extremities if so be we can finde it out TO THE READER THe pleasures of thy spacious Walks in Mr. Hooker's Temple-Garden not unfitly so called both for the Temple whereof he was Master and the Subject Ecclesiastical Polity do promise acceptance to these Flowers planted and watered by the same hand and for thy sake composed into this Posie Sufficiently are they commended by their fragrant smell in the dogmatical Truth by their beautiful colours in the accurate stile by their medicinable vertue against some diseases in our neighbour Churches now proving epidemical and threatning farther infection by their strait feature and spreading nature growing from the root of Faith which as here is proved can never be rooted up and extending the branches of Charity to the covering of Noah's nakedness opening the windows of Hope to men's misty conceits of their bemisted Fore-fathers Thus and more than thus do the Works commend themselves The Workman needs a better Work-man to commend him Alexander's Picture requires Apelles his Pencil nay he needs it not His own Works commend him in the Gates and being dead he yet speaketh the Syllables of that memorable name Mr. Richard Hooker proclaiming more than if I should here stile him a painful Student a profound Scholar a judicious Writer with other due Titles of his Honor. Receive then this posthume Orphan for his own yea for thine own sake and if the Printer bath with overmuch haste like Mephibosheth's Nurse lamed the Childe with slips and falls yet be thou of David's minde shew kindness to him for his Father Ionathan's sake God grant that the rest of his Brethren be not more than lamed and that at Saul's three Sons died the same day with him so those three promised to perfect his Polity with other Issues of that learned Brain be not duried in the Grave with their renowned Father Farewel W. S. The CONTENTS of the TREATISES following I. A Supplication made to the Councel by Master WALTER TRAVERS II. Master HOOKERS Answer to the Supplication that Master TRAVERS made to the Councel III. A learned Discourse of Iustification Works and how the foundation of Faith is overthrown IV. A learned Sermon of the nature of Pride V. A Remedy against Sorrow and Fear delivered in a Funeral Sermon VI. Of the certainty and perpetuity of Faith in the Elect especially of the Prophet Habbakkuk's Faith VII Two Sermons upon part of Saint Jude's Epistle A SVPPLICATION Made to the COUNCEL BY Master Walter Travers Right Honourable THE manifold benefits which all the Subjects within this Dominion do at this present and have many years enjoyed under Her Majesties most happy and prosperous reign by your godly wisdom and careful watching over this Estate night and day I truly and unfeignedly acknowledge from the bottom of my heart ought worthily to binde us all to pray continually to Almighty God for the continuance and increase of the life and good estate of your Honours and to be ready with all good duties to satisfie and serve the same to our Power Besides publick benefits common unto all I must needs and do willingly confess my self to stand bound by most special Obligation to serve and honour you more than any other for the honourable favour it hath pleased you to vouchsafe both oftentimes heretofore and also now of late in a matter more dear unto me than any earthly commodity that is the upholding and furthering of my service in the ministring of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For which cause as I have been always careful so to carry my self as I might by no means give occasion to be thought unworthy of so great a Benefit so do I still next unto her Majesties gracious countenance hold nothing more
those Churches then is my Calling being the same with theirs also lawful But I suppose notwithstanding they use this general speech they mean only my Calling is not sufficient to deâ— in the Ministry within this Land because I was not made Minister according to that Order which in this Case is ordained by our Laws Whereunto I beseech your Honours to consider throughly of mine Answer because exception now again is taken to my Ministery whereas having been heretofore called in question for it I so answered the matter as I continued in my Ministery and for any thing I discerned looked to hear that no more objected unto me The communion of Saints which every Christian man professeth to believe is such as that the Acts which are done in any true Church of Christs according to his Word are held as lawful being done in one Church as in another Which as it holdeth in other Acts of Ministery as Baptism Mariage and such like so doth it in the calling to the Ministery by reason whereof all Churches do acknowledge and receive him for a Minister of the Word who hath been lawfully called thereunto in any Church of the same Profession A Doctor created in any University of Christendom is acknowledged sufficiently qualified to teach in any Country The Church of Rome it self and the Canon law holdeth it that being ordered in Spain they may execute that belongeth to their Order in Italy or in any other place And the Churches of the Gospel never made any question of it which if they shall now begin to make doubt of and deny such to be lawfully called to the Ministry as are called by another Order than our own then may it well be looked for that other Churches will do the like And if a Minister called in the Low-countries be not lawfully called in England then may they say to our Preachers which are there that being made of another Order than theirs they cannot suffer them to execute any Act of Ministry amongst them which in the end must needs breed a Schism and dangerous divisions in the Churches Further I have heard of those that are learned in the Laws of this Land that by express Statute to that purpose Anno 13. upon subscription to the Articles agreed upon Anno 62. that they who pretend to have been ordered by another Order than that which is now established are of like capacity to enjoy any place of Ministry within the Land as they which have been ordered according to that which is now by law in this case established Which comprehending manifestly all even such as were made Priests according to the Order of the Church of Rome it must needs be that the Law of a Christian Land professing the Gospel should be as favourable for a Minister of the Word as for a Popish Priest which also was so found in Mr. Whittingham's Case who notwithstanding such Replies against him enjoyed still the benefit he had by his Ministry and might have done untill this day if God had spared him life so long which if it be understood so and practised in others why should the change of the Person alter the right which the Law giveth to all other The place of Ministry whereunto I was called was not Presentative and if it had been so surely they would never have presented any man whom they never knew and the order of this Church is agreeable herein to the Word of God and the antient and best Canons that no man should be made a Minister sine titulo therefore having none I could not by the Orders of this Church have entred into the Ministry before I had a Charge to tend upon When I was at Antwerp and to take a Place of Ministry among the People of that Nation I see no cause why I should have returned again over the Seas for Orders here nor how I could have done it without disallowing the Orders of the Churches provided in the Country where I was to live Whereby I hope it appeareth that my Calling to the Ministry is lawful and maketh me by our Law of capacity to enjoy any benefit or commodity that any other by reason of his Ministry may enjoy But my Cause is yet more easie who reaped no benefit of my Ministery by Law receiving onely a benevolence and voluntary Contribution and the Ministery I dealt with being Preaching onely which every Deacon here may do being licensed and certain that are neither Ministers not Deacons Thus I answer the former of these two Points whereof if there be yet any doubt I humbly desire for a final end thereof that some competent Judges in Law may determine of it whereunto I referr and submit my self with all reverence and duty The second is That I preached without License Whereunto this is my Answer I have not presumed upon the Calling I had to the Ministery abroad to Preach or deal with any part of the Ministery within this Church without the consent and allowance of such as were to allow me unto it my Allowance was from the Bishop of London testified by his two several Letters to the Inner Temple who without such testimony would by no means rest satified in it which Letters being by me produced I referr it to your Honours wisdom whether I have taken upon me to Preach without being allowed as they charge according to the Orders of the Realm Thus having answered the second point also I have done with the Objection of dealing without Calling or License The other Reason they alledge is concerning a late Action wherein I had to deal with Mr. Hooker Master of the Temple In the handling of which Cause they charge me with an Indiscretion and want of Duty In that I inveighed as they say against certain Points of Doctrine taught by him as erroneous not conferring with him nor complaining of it to them My Answer hereunto standeth in declaring to your Honours the whole course and carriage of that Cause and the degrees of proceeding in it which I will do as briefly as I can and according to the truth God be my witness as near as my best memory and notes of remembrance may serve me thereunto After that I have taken away that which seemed to have moved them to think me not charitably minded to Mr. Hooker which is Because he was brought in to Mr. Alveyes Place wherein this Church desired that I might have succeeded which Place if I would have made suit to have obtained or if I had ambitiously affected and sought I would not have refused to have satisfied by subscription such as the matter them seemed to depend upon whereas contrariwise notwithstanding I would not hinder the Church to do that they thought to be most for their edification and comfort yet did I neither by Speech nor Letter make suit to any for the obtaining of it following herein that resolution which I judge to be most agreeable to the Word and Will of God that is that
labouring and suing for Places and Charges in the Church is not lawful Further whereas at the suit of the Church some of your Honours entertained the Cause and brought it to a near issue that there seemed nothing to remain but the commendation of my Lord the Archbishop of Canterbury when as he could not be satisfied but by my subscribing to his late Articles and that my Answer agreeing to subscribe according to any Law and to the Statute provided in that Case but praying to be respited for subscribing to any other which I could not in Conscience do either for the Temple which otherwise he said he would not commend me to nor for any other Place in the Church did so little please my Lord Archbishop as he resolved that otherwise I should not be commended to it I had utterly here no cause of offence against Mr. Hooker whom I did in no sort esteem to have prevented or undermined me but that God disposed of me as it pleased him by such means and occasions as I have declared Moreover as I have taken no cause of offence at Mr. Hooker for being preferred so there were many Witnesses that I was glad that the place was given him hoping to live in all godly peace and comfort with him both for acquaintance and good-will which hath been between us and for some kinde of affinity in the marriage of his nearest kindred and mine Since his comming I have so carefully endeavoured to entertain all good correspondence and agreement with him as I think he himself will bear me witness of many earnest Disputations and Conferences with him about the matter the rather because that contrary to my expectation he inclined from the beginning but smally thereunto but joyned rather with such as had always opposed themselves to any good order in this Charge and made themselves to be brought indisposed to his present state and proceedings For both knowing that God's Commandement charged me with such Duty and discerning how much on peace might further the good service of God and his Church and the mutual comfort of us both I had resolved constantly to seek for Peace and though it should flye from me as I saw it did by means of some who little desired to see the good of our Church yet according to the rule of God's Word to follow after it Which being so as hereof I take God to witnesse who searcheth the heart and reins and who by his Son will judge the World both quick and dead I hope no charitable Judgement can suppose me to have stood evil-affected towards him for his Place or desirous to fall into any Controversie with him Which my resolution I pursued that whereas I discovered sundry unsound matters in his Doctrine as many of his Sermons tasted of some sour leaven or other yet thus I carried my self towards him Matters of smaller weight and so covertly discovered that no great offence to the Church was to be feared in them I wholly passed by as one that discerned nothing of them or had been unfurnished of replies for others of great moment and so openly delivered as there was just cause of fear left the Truth and Church of God should be prejudiced and perilled by it and such as the Conscience of my Duty and Calling would not suffer me altogether to pass over this was my course to deliver when I should have just cause by my Text the truth of such Doctrine as he lead otherwise taught in general speeches without touch of his Person in any sort and further at convenient opportunity to conferr with him in such points According to which determination whereas he had taught certain things concerning Predestination otherwise than the Word of God doth as it is understood by all Churches professing the Gospel and not unlike that wherewith Coranus sometimes troubled his Church I both delivered the truth of such points in a general Doctrine without any touch of him in particular and conferred with him also privately upon such Articles In which Conference I remember when I urged the consent of all Churches and good Writers against him that I knew and desired if it were otherwise What Authors he had seen of such Doctrine He answered me That his best Author was his own Reason which I wished him to take heed of as a matter standing with Christian modesty and wisdom in a Doctrine not received by the Church not to trust to his own Judgment so farr as to publish it before he had conferred with others of his Profession labouring by daily Prayer and Study to know the will of God as he did to see how they understood such Doctrine Notwithstanding he with wavering replyed That he would some other time deal more largely in the matter I wished him and prayed him not so to do for the peace of the Church which by such means might be hazarded seeing he could not but think that men who make any Couscience of their Ministerie will judge it a necessarie dutie in them to teach the truth and to convince the contrarie Another time upon like occasion of this Doctrine of his That the assurance of that we believe by the Word is not so certain as of that we perceive by sense I both taught the Doctrine otherwise namely the assurance of Faith to be greater which assured both of things above and contrarie to all sense and human understanding and dealt with him also privately upon that point According to which course of late when as he had taught That the Church of Rome is a true Church of Christ and a sanctified Church by profession of that Truth which God both revealed unto us by his Son though not a part and perfect Church and further That be doubted not but that thousands of the Fathers which lived and dyed in the Superstitions of that Church were saved because of their ignorance which excuseth them mis-alledging to that end a Text of Scripture to prove it The matter being ofset purpose openly and at large handled by him and of that moment that might prejudice the Faith of Christ encourage the ill-affected to continue still in their damnable ways and others weak in Faith to suffer themselves easily to be seduced to the destruction of their Souls I thought it my most bounden duty of God and to his Church whilst I might have opportunitie to speak with him to teach the Truth in a general speech in such points of Doctrine At which time I taught That such as dye or have died at any time in the Church of Rome holding in their ignorance that Faith which is taught in it and namely Iustification in part by Works could not be said by the Scriptures to be saved In which matter foreseeing that if I waded not warily in it I should be in danger to be reported as hath fallen out since notwithstanding to condemn all the Fathers I said directly and plainly to all mens understanding That it was not indeed to be
the Body without the Soul in the Body Christ hath merited to make us just but as a medicine which is made for health doth not head by being made but by being applied so by the merits of Christ there can be no Justification without the application of his Merits Thus farr we joyn hands with the Church of Rome 5. Wherein then do we disagree We disagree about the future and offence of the Medicine whereby Christ cureth our Disease about the 〈…〉 of applying it about the number and the power of means which God requireth in as for the effectual applying thereof to our Souls comfort When they are re 〈…〉 that the righteousness is whereby a Christian man is justified they answer that it is a Divine Spiritual quality which quality received into the Soul doth first make it to be one of them who are born of God and secondly indue it with power to bring forth such works as they do that are born of him even as the Soul of Man being joyned to his Body doth first make him to be of the number of reasonable Creatures and secondly inable him to perform the natural Functions which are proper to his kinde That it maketh the Soul amiable and gracious in the sight of God in regard whereof it is termed Grace That is purgeth purifieth and washeth out all the stains and pollutions of sins that by it through the merit of Christ we are delivered as from sin so from eternal death and condemnation the reward of sin This Grace they will have to be applied by infusion to the end that as the Body is warm by the heat which is in the Body so the Soul might be righteous by inherent Grace which Grace they make capable of increase as the Body may be more and more warm so the Soul more and more justified according as Grace should be augmented the augmentation whereof is merited by good Works as good Works are made meritorious by it Wherefore the first receit of Grace in their Divinity is the first Justification the increase thereof the second Justification As Grace may be increased by the merit of good Works so it may be diminished by the demerit of sins venial it may be lost by mortal sin In as much therefore as it is needful in the one case to repair in the other to recover the loss which is made the infusion of Grace hath her sundry after-meals for the which cause they make many ways to apply the infusion of Grace It is applyed to Infants through Baptism without either Faith or Works and in them really it taketh away Original sinne and the punishment due unto it It is applied to Infidels and wicked men in the first Justification through Baptism without Works yet not without Faith and it taketh away both Sinnes Actual and Original together with all whatsoever punishment eternal or temporal thereby deserved Unto such as have attained the first Justification that is to say the first receit of Grace it is applied farther by good Works to the increase of former Grace which is the second Justification If they work more and more Grace doth more increase and they are more and more justified To such as diminished it by venial sinnes it is applied by Holy-water Ave Marie's Crossings Papal Salutations and such like which serve for reparations of Grace decayed To such as have lost it through mortal sinne it is applied by the Sacrament as they term it of Penance which Sacrament hath force to conferr Grace anew yet in such sort that being so conferred it hath not altogether so much power as at the first For it onely cleanseth out the stain or guilt of sinne committed and changeth the punishment eternal into a temporal satisfactory punishment here if time doe serve if not hereafter to be endured except it be lightned by Masses Works of Charity Pilgrimages Fasts and such like or else shortned by pardon for term or by plenary pardon quite removed and taken away This is the mystery of the man of sinne This maze the Church of Rome doth cause her Followers to tread when they ask her the way to Justification I cannot stand now to untip this Building and to siâ— it piece by piece onely I will passe by it in few words that that may befall Bâ—… in the presence of that which God hath builded as hapned unto Dagon before the Ark. 6. Doubtless saith the Apostle I have counted all things loss and judge them to be doing that I may win Christ and to be found in him not having my own righteousness but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God through Faith Whether they speak of the first or second Justification they make it the essence of a Divine quality inherent they make it Righteousnesse which is in us If it be in us then is it ours as our Souls are ours though we have them from God and can hold them no longer than pleaseth him for if he withdraw the breath of our nostrils we fall to dust but the Righteousness wherein we must be found if we will be justified is not our own therefore we cannot be justified by any inherent quality Christ hath merited righteousness for as many as are found in him In him God findeth us if we be faithful for by Faith we are incorporated into Christ. Then although in our selves we be altogether sinful and unrighteous yet even the man which is impious in himself full of iniquity full of sin him being found in Christ through Faith and having his sinne remitted through Repentance him God upholdeth with a gracious eye putteth away his sinne by not imputing it taketh quite away the Punishment due thereunto by pardoning it and accepteth him in Jesus Christ as perfectly righteous as if he had fulfilled all that was commanded him in the Law shall I say more perfectly righteous than if himself had fulfilled the whole Law I must take heed what I say but the Apostle saith God made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him Such we are in the sight of God the Father as is the very Son of God himself Let it be counted folly or frensie or fury whatsoever it is our comfort and our wisdom we care for no knowledge in the World but this That man hath sinned and God hath suffered That God hath made himself the Son of Man and that men are made the righteousness of God You see therefore that the Church of Rome in teaching Justification by inherent Grace doth pervert the truth of Christ and that by the hands of the Apostles we have received otherwise than she reacheth Now concerning the righteousness of Sanctification we deny it not to be inherent we grant that unless we work we have it not onely we distinguish it as a thing different in nature from the righteousness of Justification we are righteous the one
be led than drawn doth many times stubbornly resist Authority when to Perswasion it easily yieldeth Whereupon the Wisest Law-makers have endeavoured always that those Laws might seem most reasonable which they would have most inviolably kept A Law simply commanding or forbidding is but dead in comparison of that which expresseth the reason wherefore it doth the one or the other And surely even in the Laws of God although that he hath given Commandment be in it self a reason sufficient to exact all obedience at the hands of men yet a forcible inducement it is to obey with greater alacrity and chearfulnesse of minde when we see plainly that nothing is imposed more than we must needs yield unto except we will be unreasonable In a word whatsoever be taught be it Precept for direction of our Manners or Article for instruction of our Faith or document any way for information of our mindes it then taketh root and abideth when we conceive not onely what God doth speak but why Neither is it a small thing which we derogate as well from the honour of his Truth as from the comfort joy and delight which we our selves should take by it when we loosely slide over his speech as though it were as our own is commonly vulgar and trivial Whereas he uttereth nothing but it hath besides the substance of Doctrine delivered a depth of wisdom in the very choice and frame of words to deliver it in The reason whereof being not perceived but by greater intention of brain than our nice mindes for the most part can well away with fain we would bring the World if we might to think it but a needless curiosity to rip up any thing further than extemporal readness of wit doth serve to reach unto Which course if here we did list to follow we might tell you that in the first branch of this Sentence God doth condemn the Babylonian's pride and in the second teach what happiness of state shall grow to the righteous by the constancy of their Faith notwithstanding the troubles which now they suffer and after certain notes of wholsome instruction hereupon collected pass over without detaining your mindes in any further removed speculation But as I take it there is a difference between the talk that beseemeth Nurses among Children and that which men of Capacity and Judgment do or should receive instruction by The minde of the Prophet being erected with that which hath been hitherto spoken receiveth here for full satisfaction a short abridgement of that which is afterwards more particularly unfolded Wherefore as the question before disputed of doth concern two sorts of men the Wicked flourishing as the Bay and the righteous like the withered Grass the one full of pride the other cast down with utter discouragement so the answer which God doth make for resolution of doubts hereupon arisen hath reference unto both sorts and this present sentence containing a brief Abstract thereof comprehendeth summarily as well the fearful estate of iniquity over-exalted as the hope laid up for righteousness opprest In the former branch of which Sentence let us first examine what this rectitude or straitness importeth which God denieth to be in the minde of the Babylonian All things which God did create he made them at the first true good and right True in respect of correspondence unto that pattern of their Being which was eternally drawn in the Counsel of God's fore-knowledge Good in regard of the use and benefit which each thing yieldeth unto other Right by an'apt conformity of all parts with that end which is outwardly proposed for each thing to tend unto Other things have ends proposed but have not the faculty to know judge and esteem of them and therefore as they tend thereunto unwittingly so likewise in the means whereby they acquire their appointed ends they are by necessity so held that they cannot divert from them The ends why the Heavens do move the Heavens themselves know not and their motions they cannot but continue Only men in all their actions know what it is which they seek for neither are they by any such necessity tyed naturally unto any certain determinate mean to obtain their end by but that they may if they will forsake it And therefore in the whole World no Creature but onely man which hath the last end of his actions proposed as a recompence and reward whereunto his minde directly bending it self is termed right or strait otherwise perverse To make this somewhat more plain we must note that as they which travel from City to City enquire ever for the straightest way because the streightest is that which soonest bringeth them unto their journeys end So we having here as the Apostle speaketh no abiding City but being always in travel towards that place of joy immortality and rest cannot but in every of our deeds words and thoughts think that to be best which with most expedition leadeth us thereunto and is for that very cause termed right That Soveraign good which is the eternal fruition of all good being our last and chiefest felicity there is no desperate Despiser of God and godliness living which doth not wish for The difference between right and crooked mindes is in the means which the one of the other eschew or follow Certain it is that all particular things which are naturally desired in the world as Food Rayment Honor Wealth Pleasure Knowledge they are subordinated in such wise unto that future Good which we look for in the World to come that even in them there lyeth a direct way tending unto this Otherwise we must think that God making promises of good things in this life did seek to pervert men and to lead them from their right minds Where is then the obliquity of the minde of man his minde is perverse cam and crooked not when it bendeth it self unto any of these things but when it bendeth so that it swerveth either to the right hand or to the left by excess or defect from that exact rule whereby Human actions are measured The rule to measure and judge them by is the Law of God For this cause the Prophet doth make so often and so earnest suit O direct me in the way of thy Commandments As long as I have respect to thy Statules I am sure not to tread amiss Under the name of the Law we must comprehend not only that which God hath written in Tables and Leaves but that which Nature also hath engraven in the hearts of men Else how should those Heathens which never had Books but Heaven and Earth to look upon be convicted of Perverseness But the Gentiles which had not the Law in Books had saith the Apostle the effect of the Law written in their hearts Then seeing that the heart of man is not right exactly unless it be found in all parts such that God examining and calling it unto account with all severity of rigour be not able once to charge it with
and to make the truth of things believed evident unto our mindes is much mightier in operation than the common light of nature whereby we discern sensible things wherefore we must needs be more sure of that we believe than of that we see we must needs be more certain of the mercies of God in Christ Jesus than we are of the light of the Sun when it shineth upon our faces To that of Abraham He did not doubt I answer that this negation doth not exclude all fear all doubting but onely that which cannot stand with true Faith It freeth Abraham from doubting through Infidelity not from doubting through Infirmity from the doubting of Unbelievers not of weak Believers from such a doubting as that whereof the Prince of Samaria is attainted who hearing the promise of sudden Plenty in the midst of Extream Dearth answered Though the Lord would make windows in Heaven were it possible so to come to pass But that Abraham was not void of all doubting what need we any other proof than the plain evidence of his own words Gen. 17. 17. The reason which is taken from the power of the Spirit were effectual if God did work like a natural Agent as the fire doth inflame and the Sun enlighten according to the uttermost ability which they have to bring forth their effects But the incomprehensible wisdom of God doth limit the effects of his power to such a measure as seemeth best unto himself Wherefore he worketh that certainty in all which sufficeth abundantly to their Salvation in the life to come but in none so great as attaineth in this life unto perfection Even so O Lord it hath pleased thee even so it is best and fittest for us that feeling still our own Infirmities we may no longer breathe than pray Adjuva Domine Help Lord our incredulity Of the third Question this I hope will suffice being added unto that which hath been thereof already spoken The fourth Question resteth and so an end of this Point That which cometh last of all in this first branch to be considered concerning the weakness of the Prophet's Faith is Whether he did by this very thought The Law doth fail quench the Spirit fall from Faith and shew himself an Unbeliever or no The Question is of moment the repose and tranquillity of infinite Souls doth depend upon it The Prophet's case is the case of many which way soever we cast for him the same way it passeth for all others If in him this cogitation did extinguish Grace why the like thoughts in us should not take the like effect there is no cause Forasmuch therefore as the matter is weighty dear and precious which we have in hand it behoveth us with so much the greater chariness to wade through it taking special heed both what we build and whereon we build that if our Building be Pearl our Foundation be not Stubble if the Doctrine we teach be full of comfort and consolation the ground whereupon we gather it be sure otherwise we shall not save but deceive both our selves and others In this we know we are not deceived neither can we deceive you when we teach that the Faith whereby ye are sanctified cannot fail it did not in the Prophet it shall not in you If it be so let the difference be shewed between the condition of Unbelievers and his in this or in the like imbecillity and weakness There was in Habakkuk that which Saint Iohn doth call the seed of God meaning thereby the first grace which God powreth into the hearts of them that are incorporated into Christ which having received if because it is an adversary to Sinne we do therefore think we sinne not both otherwise and also by distrustful and doubtfull apprehending of that which we ought stedfastly to believe surely we do but deceive our selves Yet they which are of God do not sinne either in this or in any thing any such sinne as doth quite extinguish Grace clean cutt them off from Christ Jesus because the seed of God abideth in them and doth shield them from receiving any irremediable wound Their Faith when it is at strongest is but weak yet even then when it is at the weakest so strong that utterly it never faileth it never perisheth altogether no not in them who think it extinguished in themselves There are for whose sakes I dare not deal slightly in this Cause sparing that labour which must be bestowed to make it plain Men in like agonies unto this of the Prophet Habakkuk's are through the extremity of grief many times in judgement so confounded that they finde not themselves in themselves For that which dwelleth in their hearts they seek they make diligent search and enquiry It abideth it worketh in them yet still they ask where Still they lament as for a thing which is past finding they mourn as Rachel and refuse to be comforted as if that were not which indeed is and as if that which is not were as if they did not believe when they doe and as if they did despair when they do not Which in some I grant is but a melancholly passion proceeding onely from that dejection of minde the cause whereof is in the Bodâ— and by bodily means can be taken away But where there is no such bodily cause the minde is not lightly in this mood but by some of these three occasions One that judging by comparison either with other men or with themselves at some other time more strong they think imperfection to be a plain deprivation weakness to be utter want of Faith Another cause is they often mistake one thing for another Saint Paul wishing well to the Church of Rome prayeth for them after this sort The God of Hope fill you with all joy of Believing Hence an errour groweth when men in heaviness of Spirit suppose they lack Faith because they finde not the sugred joy and delight which indeed doth accompanie Faith but so as a separable accident as a thing that may be removed from it yea there is a cause why it should be removed The light would never be so acceptable were it not for that usual intercourse of darkness Too much honey doth turn to gall and too much joy even spiritual would make us Wantons Happier a great deal is that man's case whose Soul by inward desolation is humbled than he whose heart is through abundance of Spiritual delight lifted up and exalted above measure Better it is sometimes to go down into the pit with him who beholding darkness and bewailing the loss of inward joy and consolation cryeth from the bottom of the lowest hell My God my God why hast thou forsaken me than continually to work arm in arm with Angels to fit as it were in Abraham's bosom and to have no thought no cogitation but I thank my God it is not with me as it is with other men No God will have them that shall walk in light to feel now and then
7.80 The Cause and occasion of handling these things and what might be wished in them for whose sakes so much pains is taken Jam. 2. 1. The first Establishment of new Discipline by Mr. Calvins industry in the Church of Geneva and the beginning of strife about in amongst ourselves Epist. Cal. 24. Luk. 20. 19. An. Dom. 1541. Epist. 166 Quod cam Urbem videret omnino his froâ—nis indigere By what means so many of the people are trained into the liking of that Discipline 1 Cor. 10. 13. 11. 13. Luk. 12 56 57. Acts 17. 11. Rom. 14. 5. Galen de ope docen gen Mal. 2. 7. Greg. Nazian Orat. qua se excusat Matth. 10. 14. Mal. 2. 9. Jude v. 10. 2 Pet. 2. 12. Calvin Instit. lib. 4 cap. 20. sect 8. The Author of the Petition directed to Her Majesty pag. 3. â— Joh. 4. 1. â— Thes. 2. 11. 1 Tim. 3. 6. 1 Joh. 4. 6. 1 Cor. 1. 17. Acts 26. 24. â—ap 5. 4. We Yools thought his life madness Marc. Tris. ad Ascâ—lap 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Lactaut de Justiâ— lib. 5. cap. 16. August Epist. 50. What hath caused so many of the Learneder soâ—t to approve the same Discipline T. C. lib. 1. p. 97. Euseb. 3. l 32. Lib. Stram Somewhat after the beginning Lib. 7. cap. 11. Phil. 4. 12. a Antiquitas ceremoniis arque fanis tantum sanctitatis tribuere consue vir quanâ—um adstruxerit verustatis Aâ—â— p. 746. b Rom. 16. 16. 2 Cor. 13. 12. 1 Thes. 9. 25. 1 Pet. 5. 14. In their meetings to serve God their manner was in the end to salute one another with a kiss using these words Peace be with you For which cause Tertullian doth call it Signaculum Orationis The Seal of Prayer lib. de Orat c Epist. Jud. vers 12. Concerning which Feasts Saint Chrysostom saith Statis diebus menâ—aâ— faciebaâ—t communes peracta synaxi post Sacromentorum Communionem inibant convivium divitibus quidem cibos afferentibus pauperibus aurera qui nihil habebant enam vocatis in 1 Cor. 11. Rom. 27. Of the same Feasts is like sort Tertullian Câ—â— in noâ— re de numâ—ne rationem sui 〈…〉 Vocatur enim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id quod est peneâ— Gracol dilectio Qâ—anâ—isconque sumptibus constet lucruâ—â— est pleâ—ath nomliâ— better 〈…〉 April cap. 35. Galen Clas 2. lib. De cujusque anim peccat notitia arque medela Petition to the Q. Mary pag. 14. Eccles. 10. 1. Their calling for Tryal by Disputation No end of Contention without submission of both parts unto some Definitive Sentence Rom. 3. 17. Deut. 17. 8. Acts 19. Pref. Tract de Excom Presbyt Matth. 23.23 T. C lib. 3. p. 191. The Matter contrained in these Eight Books How just cause there is to fear the manifold dangerous events likely is ensue upon this intended Reformation if it did take place 1 Pet. 2. 2. Psal. 55. 13 Pref. against Dr. Baner Matth. 23. 3. Sap. 6. 24. Eccles. 26. 29. Hum. 〈…〉 to the 〈…〉 p. 5â— Acts 19. 19. Humb. Motioâ— Page 74. Counterp Pag. 108. Mat. 15. 13. Guy de Bres câ—ner lerreur des Anabapristes page 4. Page 5. Page 16. Pag. 118 119. Pag. 116 120. Page 124. Luk. 6. 12. Pag. 117. Page 40. Jere. 31.34 Page 25. Page 27. 2 Tim. 3. 7. Page 65. Page 65. Page 135. Page 25. Page 71. Page 124. Page 764. Page 748. Page 512. Page 518. Page 722. Page 726. Page 688. Page 38. Page 122. Page 841. Page 833. Page 849. Page 40. I actant de Justir lib. 5. cap. 19. Page 6. Page 420. Page 55. Page 6. Page 7. Page 7. Page 27. Page 6. Page 41. Matth. 5. â— Exod. 11. 2. Mart. in his third Libel pag. 28. Demonsâ—r in the Pref. The Conclusion of all Job 39. 37. Greg. Naz. in Apol. The cause of writing this General Discourse Of that Law which God from before the beginning hath set for himself to do all things by John 16. 13 14 15. a Iupiters counsel was accomplished b The Creator made the whole world not with hands but by Reason Sub. in Ecleg Phys. c Proceed by a certain and a set way in the making of the World John 5. 17. Gen. 2. 1â— Sapi. 8. 1. Sapi. 11. 17. Ephes. 1. 7. Phil 4. 19. Col. 2. 3. Prov. 15. 4. Ephes. 1. 11. Rom 11 23. Prov. â— â—3 Rom. 11. 36. Boet. lib. 4. de Consol. Philos. 2 Tim. 2. 13. Heb. â— 17. The Law which Natural Agents have given them to observe and their necessary manner of keeping it d Id omne quod in rebus creatis sir est materia legis aeternae Th. l. 1 2. â— 93. art 4,5,6 Nullomondo aliquid legibus summi creatoris ordinationique subtrahitor à quo pax univerlitatis administratur August de Civit. Dei lib. 12. c. 22 Immo peccaâ—um quateniâ— Ã Deo justè permirrkur cadit in legem aternam Etiam legi aterna subjicitur peccatum quateous voluntaria legis transgressio paenalâ— quoddam incommedum anime inserit juxtaillud Augustini Jutinâ—i Domine sic est in poena sua sihi sit omnis animus in ordinatus Confes. lib. 1. cap. 12. Nec male scholasticâ— Quemadmodum inquiunt videraus res naturales cunningentes hoc ipso quod à sine particulari suo atque adâ—o à lege aterna exorbiran in candem legem arternam incidere quatenus consequuntur alium â—inem à lege etiam aternà ipsis in casu particulari constiturum Sic verisimile est homines etiam cùm peccant desciseunt à lege aeternaÌ„ ut praecipiente reincidere in ordinem aeternae legis ut punientis Psal. 19. 5. Theophrast in Metaph. Arist. Rhet. 1. cap. 35. This an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 17. â—â— e Form in other Creatures is a thing proportionable nâ—â— the siâ—ul in living Creatures 5 asiâ—e it is nor nor other wise diâ—ernable then onely by effects According to the diversity of inward Forms things of the World are distinguished into their kindes Vide Yhâ—m in Compend Theol. cap. 9. Oâ—â—ne quod uâ—oveâ—ur ab aliquo est quast instrumentum quod dam primi moventis Rideâ—alum est auâ—m eriam apud inductos ponere instrumentum moverinum ab aliquo principali ageme The Law which Angels on work by Psal. â—4 4. Heb 1. 7. Eph. 3. 10. Dan. 7. 10. Matth. 2â— â—3 Heb. 12. 22. Luk. 2. 13. Matth. 6. 10. 10. 10. Psal p. 11. 12 Luk. 15. 9. Heb. 1. 14. Acts. 10. 9. Dan. 9. 23. Matth. 12. 10. Dan. 4. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. Metaph. 12. cap. 9. Joâ— 38. 9. Matth. 18. 10. Psal. 148. 2. Heb. 1. 6. â—ai 6. 3â— Th's is intimated wheresoever we finde them termed the Sons of God as Job 1. 6. 38. 7. 2 Pet. 2. 4. Jude vers 6. Psal. 148. 2. Luk. 7. 13. Matth. 26. 53. Psal. 148. 2. Heb. 12. 21. Apoc. 22. 9. Joh. 8. 4â— 1 Pet. 5.
notionem veritatis munus â—â—um secie ut humanim sapientiam nullam esse moâ—nstraret erranci ac vago viam consequendae immortalitatis ostenderet lerer Laclant lib. 1. cap. 1. d Seâ—t lib. 4. Sent dist 49. 6. Loueendo de sâ—rida justitiâ Deus nulli nostrum propter qua cun que merira est debitor perfectionis reddendae tam inteniae propter iâ—moderatum excessum ililus perfectionis ultra illa meâ—ica Sesed esto quod ex liberatiate sâ—d determinâ—sser meritis conferre actum tam perfectum tanquam praemium tali quidem justitiâ qualis decer eum scillicet supererogantis in pramis Tatnen non sequitur ex hâ—c neccessario quo l per ilam just tiaâ— siâ— reddenda perfectio perennis anquam â—â—â—nium imo aâ—undans secret retributio in beatirudine unâ—us momenti John 14. 6. John 6. 29. The cause why so many Natural or Rational Laws are set down in holy Scripture * Jus naturale est quod in lege Evangelio conâ—inetur pag 1 â—â— 1. * Ioseph lib. secunâ—o contra Appiâ— Lacedamenii quomoto non sunt ob inhespitalitatem reprehendendi â—â—lumque neglectum nupriaruâ— Elienses verò Thebaui â—b coiâ—â—um cum masculis plaâ— impuâ—entem contra naâ—uram quâ—m recti uâ—lites exercre putahant Cum. que hic omnino perpecroreni etiam suis legibus miscucre Vide Th. 12. q. 49 4.5.6 Lex naturae sic currupta suit apul Germanos ur larrocinium non reputarâ—nt peoâ—â— arum August Auc quisquiro author est lib. de quaest nor ver rest Quis nesâ—â—t quid hoâ—â—â— vitae contrairae auâ— ignorer quia quod sibi heri non vult alâ—s manime debeat lacere At verò naturalis lex eva â—â—â—â— oppressa consuenâ—â—lin delinqueâ—di â—une oppreti matiseâ—â—ari sereptis ut Dei jedicium omnes audirent Non qubâ—â—enires obllrerate est â—ed quia maxius elup aurho hâ—â—â—â—e carebat idolatriae â—udebitur timog Dei â—a terris non erat â—â—â—â—icatio operabatur circa rem proximi avids eâ—ar concupisceâ—ia Data ergo lex est ut quae debantur authoritatem inherent quae latere cooperat manifestarentur The benefit of having Divine Laws written Exod. 24.4 Hos. 8. 12. Apoc. 1.11 14.13 August lib. 1. de Cons. Evang cap. ult * I mean those Historical Matters concerning the ancient state of the first World the Deluge the Sons of Noah the Children of Israels deliverance one of Egypt the life and doings of Moses their Captain with such like The certain truth whereof delivered in holy Scripture is of the Heathen which had them onely by report so in ermingled with fabulous vanities that the most which remaineth in them to be seen in the shew of dark and obscure steps where some part of the Truth hath gone The sufficiency of Scripture unto the end for which it was insâ—â—cured Uâ—rum cognitio supernaturalis necessarie â—iâ—tori sit sufficienter tralita in sacra Scriptura This question proposal by Seâ—â—â—uâ— is affirmatively concluded or no. a Ephes. 5.25 b 2 Tim. 3 8. c Tiâ— 1. 12. d 2 Pet. 2.4 John 23. 31. 2 Tim. 3. 15. 2 Tim. 3. 14. Vers. 15. Whitakerus adverius Bellarmen quast 6. cap â— Of Laws Posisitive contained in Scripture the mutability of certain of them and the general use of Scripture Isai. 29. 13. Their fear towards me was taught by the precept of men Apoc. 14. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plaro in sine 2. Polir a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Geogr. lib. 16. b Psal. 11â— 98 c Vidâ— Orphei Carmin◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo de Mos. A Conclusion shewing how all this belongeth to the cause in question Jam. 1.17 Arist. Phys. 1. 1. cap. 1. Arist. Ethic. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Intelligie de legum qualitate judicium Prov. 8. 15. Ephes. 5. 2. Apoc. 19. 10. 1 Pet. 1. 12. Ephes. 3. 10. 1 Tim 5. 21. 1 Cor. 11. 10. Psal. 148. 7 8 9. Rom. 1. 2â— Rom. 2. 15. Rom. 13. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist. Ethic. lib. 5. cap. 3. Iob 31. 3. Psal. 145. 19 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zonarin Can. Apust 65. Acts 15.20 T. C. l. 1. p. 59 60. The first pretended proof of the first Position out of Scripture Prov. 2. 9. T. C. lib. 1. p. 20. I say That the Word of God containeth whatsoevâ—r things can fall into any part of mans life For in Solomon saith in the second Chapter of the Proverbs My son if thou receive my words c. then they shalt understand iustice and iudgementâ— and equity and every good way Psal. 119. 95. a 2 Tim. 3. 16. The whole Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable to teach to improve to correct and to instruct in righteousness that the man of God may be absolute being made perfect unto all good works He meaneth all and only those good works which belong unto us as we are Men of God and which unto salvation are necessary Or if we understand by men of God God's Ministers there is not required in them an universal skill of every good work or way but an hability to teach whatsoever men are bound to do that they may be saved And with this kinde of knowledge the Scripture sufficeth to furnish them as touching matter The second Proof out of Scripture 1 Cor. 10. 32. T. C. l. 1 p. 26 S. Paul saith That whether we eat or drink or whatsoever we do we must do it to the glory of God but no man can glorifie God in any thing but by obedience and there is no obedience but in respect of the commandment and word of God therefore it followeth that the Word of God directeth a man to all his actions 1 Pet. 2. 11. Rom. 2. 34. 1 Cor. 10. 33. Rom. 2. 23. The first Scripture proi 1 Tim. 4. 5. and thirds which S. Easil said at moves and drinks 1 that they are cause tight into us by â—â—â—â—â— of God the same is do desynd ersloted of all things lesse whenever we have the used of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The forth Scripture prof Tim. 4. 23. T. C. l. 1. p. 87. Psal. 19.8 Apoc. 3. 14. 2 Cor. 1. 18. John 10. 38. John 20. 25. a And if any will say that S. Paul meaneth there a full 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—â— and perwasion that that which he doth is well it is granted that S. Paul doth is well done I grant it But from whance can that spring but from Faith How can we perswade and assure our selves that we do well but whereas we have the Word of God for our warrant T. C. l. 1. c. 27. b What also that so me even of those Heathen men have taught that nothing wight to be done whereof thou douhtest whether it be right or wrong Whereby if appeareth that even those which has no knowledge of the Word of God did see much of the equity of this which the Apostle requireth of
measure but verily I believe there shall be found more than a third part of the Prayers which are not Psalms and texts of Scripture spent in praying for and praying against the commodities and incommodities of this life which is contrary to all the Arguments or Contents of the Prayers of the Church sit down in the Scripture but especially of our Saviour Christs Prayer by the which ours ought to be directed T. C. l. 1. p. 135. What a reason is this we must rep at the Lords Prayer oftentimes therefore oftentimes in half an hour and one in the neck of another Our Saviour Christ doth not there give a prescript Forme of Prayer whereunto he bindeth us but giveth us a Rule and Squire to frame all our Prayers by I know it is necessary to Pray and Pray often I know also that in a few words it is impossible for any man to frame so pithy a Prayer and I confess that the Church doth well in concluding their Prayers with the Lords Prayer But I stand upon this Thee there is no necessity laid upon us to use these very words and no more T. C. lib. 1. pag. 219. Praemisse legitima ordinaria oratione quasi fundamento accidentium jus est desideriorum jus est superstruendi extrinsecus petitioner Terâ—ol de Orat Luke 11. 1. Cypr. in Orat Dom. The Peoples trying after the Minister Another fault is That all the people are appointed in divers places to say after the Minister whereby not only the time is unprofitably wasted and a confused noise of the people one speaking after another caused but an Opinion bred in their hearts that those only be their Prayers which they pronounce with their own mouths after the Minister otherwise than the order which is left to the Church doth bear 1 Cor. 14. 16. and otherwise than Iustin Martyr sheweth the custom of the Churches to have been in his time T. C. l. 1 p. 139. l. 3. p. 211 212 213. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil. Pâ—â—s in Pral 1 Cor. 14. 15. Our manner of reading the Psalms otherwise then the rest of the Scripture They have always the same profit to be stuâ—ied in to be read and preached upon which ether Scriptures have and this above the rest that they are to be sung * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diâ—nys Hierar Eccles. cap. 3. But to make daily Prayers of them hand-over-head or otherwise then the present estate wherein we he doth agree with the maner contained in them is an abusing of them T. C. lâ— 3. pag. 206. Of Musick with Psalms * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil. in Psal. Of singing or saying Psalms and other parts of Common Prayer wherein the People and Minister answer one another by course For the singing of Psalms by course and side after side although it be very ancient yet it is not commendable and so much the mere to be suspected for that the Devil hath gone about to get it so great Authority partly by deriving it from Ignatius time and partly in making the World believe that this came from Heaven and that the Angels were heard to sing after this sort Which as it is a meer Fable so is it confuted by Historiographers whereof some ascribe the beginning of this to Damasus some other unto Flavianus and Diodorus T. C. lib. 1. p. 203. a Exod. 19. â— Is 24.3 Deut. 3. 27. 26. 17. Josh. 24.16 b Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib. 6. cap. 8. a Theod. lib. 2 cap. 24. b Plat. in vitâ— Damasi c Bene mari plerunque comparatur Ecclesia quae primo ingredientis populi agmine totis vestibulis undas comit deinde in oratione totius plebis tanquam undis â—efl â—ensibâ—s strides cum responsuriis Psalmorum canruvinocura mulierum virginum parvulorum consonus undatum stragor resulta Hexam lib. 2. cap. 5. d Basil. Epist. 63. e Plin. secund Epist lib. 10. cp 97. Exod 15. 1. 21. Isai. 6. 3. * From whence soever it came it cannot he good considering that when it is granted that all the people may praise God as it is in singing of Psalms then this ought no to be restrained unto a few and where it is lawful both with heart and voice tosing the whole Psalm there it is not meet that they should sing but the one half with their heart and voice and the other with their heart onely For where they may both with heart and voice sing â—iâ—eâ— the heart is not enough Therefore besides the incommodity which cometh this way in that being tossed after this sort men cannot understand what is sung those other two inconveniences come of this form of singing and therefore it is vanished in all Reformed Churches T. C. lib. 1. p. 103. Ephes. 5. 19. Of Magnificat Benedictus and Nunc dimittis These Thanksgivings were made by occasion of certain particular beâ—â—â—â—e and are no more to be used for ordinary Prayers then the Ave-Maria So that both for this cause and the other before alledged of the Psalms it is not convenient in make ordinary prayers of them T. C. lib. 3. p. 208. 2 Chro. 29.30 Of the Leâ—any a We pray for the avoiding of those dangâ—â—â— which are nothing near us as from Lightning and Thundring in the midst of Winter from Storms and Tempest when the Weather is most fair and the Seas most calm It is true That upon some urgent Calamity a Prayer may and ought to be framed which may beg either the community for want whereof the Church is in distress â—â— the turning away of that mischief which either approacheth or is already upon it But to make those Prayers which are for the present time and danger ordinary and daily Prayers I cannot hitherto see any either Scripture or example of the Primitive Church And here for the simples sake I will set down after what â—urâ— this abuse crept into the Church There was one Mamericus Bishop of Vienna which in the time of great Earth-quakes which were in France instituted certain Supplications which the Grecians and we of them call the Letany which concerned â—hat matter There is no doubt but as other discommodities rose in other Countries they likewise had Prayers accordingly Now Pope Gregory either made himself or gathered the Supplications that were made against the Calamities of every Country and made of them a great Letany or Supplication as Platina calleth in and gave it to be used in all Churches which thing albeit all Churches might do for the time in respect of the case of the Calamity which the Churches suffered yet there is no cause why it should be perpetual that was ordained but for a time â— and why all Lands should pray to be delivered from the Incommodities that some Land hath been troubled with T. C. lib 1. pag. 137. â— Exod. 15.30 Wild. 10. 20. 2 Sam. 6. 1. 1 Chron. 13.4 2 Chron. 20. 3. Joel 1. 1â— b Tertul. lib. â— ad Exor c Terent. Andr. d Hier. Epist.
weighed from whose magnanimity in causes of most extream hazard those strange and unwonted resolutions have grown which for all circumstances no people under the Roof of Heaven did ever hitherto match And that which did always animate them was their meer Religion Without which if so be it were possible that all other Ornaments of Minde might be had in their full perfection nevertheless the minde that should possess them divorced from Piety could be but a spectacle of commiseration even as that Body is which adorned with sundry other admirable Beauties wanteth Eye-sight the chiefest Grace that Nature hath in that kinde to bestow They which commend so much the felicity of that innocent World wherein it is said That men of their own accord did embrace fidelity and honesty not for fear of the Magistrate or because revenge was before their eyes â— if at any time they should do otherwise but that which held the people in aw was the shame of ill-doing the love of equity and right it self a bar against all oppressions which greatness of power causeth They which describe unto us any such estate of happiness amongst men though they speak not of Religion do notwithstanding declare that which is in truth her onely working For if Religion did possess sincerely and sufficiently the hearts of all men there would need no other restraint from evil This doth not onely give life and perfection to all endeavors wherewith it concurreth but what event soever ensues it breedeth if not joy and gladness always yet always patience satisfaction and reasonable contentment of minde Whereupon it hath been set down as an Axiom of good experience that all things religiously taken in hand are prosperously ended because whether men in the end have that which Religion did allow them to desire or that which it teacheth them contentedly to suffer they are in neither event unfortunate But lest any man should here conceive that it greatly skilleth not of what sort our Religion be in as much as Heathens Turks and Infidels impute to Religion a great part of the same effects which our selves ascribe hereunto they having ours in the same detestation that we theirs It shall be requisite to observe well how far forth there may be agreement in the effects of different Religions First By the bitter strife which riseth oftentimes from small differences in this behalf and is by so much always greater as the matters is of more importance we see a general agreement in the secret opinion of men that every man ought to embrace the Religion which is true and to shun as hurtful whatsoever dissenteth from it but that most which doth farthest dissent The generality of which perswasion argueth That God hath imprinted it by nature to the end it might be a spur to our industry in searching and maintaining that Religion from which as to swerve in the least points is error so the capital enemies thereof God hateth as his deadly foes aliens and without repentance children of endless perdition Such therefore touching mans immortal state after this life are not likely to reap benefit by their Religion but to look for the clean contrary in regard of so important contrariety between it and the true Religion Nevertheless in as much as the errors of the most seduced this way have been mixed with some truths we are not to marvel that although the one did turn to their endless wo and confusion yet the other had many notable effects as touching the affairs of this present life There were in these quarters of the World Sixteen hundred years ago certain speculative Men whose Authority disposed the whole Religion of those times By their means it became a received opinion that the Souls of Men departing this life do slit out of one Body into some other Which opinion though false yet entwined with a true that the Souls of Men do never perish abated the fear of death in them which were so resolved and gave them courage unto all adventures The Romans had a vain superstitious custom in most of their enterprises to conjecture before hand of the event by certain tokens which they noted in Birds or in the Intrails of Beasts or by other the like frivolous Divinations From whence notwithstanding as oft as they could receive any sign which they took to be favorable it gave them such hope as if their gods had made them more then half a promise of prosperous success Which many times was the greatest cause that they did prevail especially being men of their own natural inclination hopeful and strongly conceited whatsoever they took in hand But could their fond Superstition have furthered so great attempts without the mixture of a true perswasion concerning the unresistable force of Divine Power Upon the wilful violation of Oaths execrable Blasphemies and like contempts offered by Deriders of Religion even unto false gods fearful tokens of Divine Revenge have been know to follow Which occurrents the devouter sort did take for manifest Arguments that the gods whom they worshipped were of power to reward such as sought unto them and would plague those that feared them not In this they erred For as the Wise man rightly noteth conning such it was not the power of them by whom they sware but the vengeance of them that sinned which punished the offences of the ungodly It was their hurt untruly to attribute so great power unto false gods Yet the right conceit which they had that to perjury vengeance is due was not without good effect as touching the course of their lives who feared the wilful violation of Oaths in that respect And whereas we read so many of them so much commended some for their milde and merciful disposition some for their vertuous severity some for integrity of life all these were the fruits of true and infallible principles delivered unto us in the World of God as the Axioms of our Religion which being imprinted by the God of Nature in their hearts also and taking better root in some them in most others grew though not from yet with and amidst the heaps of manifold repugnant Errors which Errors of corrupt Religion had also their suitable effects in the lives of the self-same parties Without all controversie the purer and perfecter our Religion is the worthier effects it hath in them who stedfastly and sincerely embraceit in others not They that love the Religion which they prosess may have failed in choice but yet they are sure to reap what benefit the same is able to afford whereas the best and foundest professed by them that bear it not the like affection yieldeth them retaining it in that sort no benefit David was a Man after Gods own heart so termed because his affection was hearty towards God Beholding the like disposition in them which lived under him it was his Prayer to Almighty God O keep this for ever in the purpose and thoughts of the heart of this people But