A IVST AND TEMPERATE DEFENCE OF THE FIVE BOOKS OF ECCLESIASTICAL POLICIE WRITTEN BY M. RICHARD HOOKER Against an vncharitable Letter of certain English Protestants as they tearme themselues crauing resolution in some matters of doctrine which seeme to ouerthrow the foundation of religion and the Church amongst vs. Written by WILLIAM COVEL Doctor in Diuinitie and published by authority The contents whereof are in the page following Psalm 112.6 The righteous shall be had in an euerlasting remembrance At LONDON Printed by P. SHORT for CLEMENT KNIGHT dwelling at the signe of the holy Lambe in Paules church-yard 1603. The Articles handled in this Booke 1 Of the Deity of the Sonne of God 2 Of the coeternitie of the Sonne and the proceeding of the holy Ghost 3 Whether the holy Scriptures containe all things necessary to saluation 4 Whether the Scriptures be aboue the Church 5 Of the nature and freedome of mans will 6 Of the vse of faith and good works 7 Whether God allow more then he commandeth 8 Of the vertue of good works 9 None free from euery sinne how from all 10 Of Predestination 11 Whether the Church of Rome be any part of the visible Church 12 Of Preaching and Sermons 13 Of the Ministers office 14 Of the nature of the Sacraments 15 Of Christs institution of the Sacraments 16 Of the necessitie of Baptisme 17 Of Transubstantiation 18 Of speculatiue doctrine or sentences mistaken 19 Of Caluin and the reformed Churches 20 Of Schoolemen Philosophie Reason c. 21 Of the stile and maner of M. Hookers writing TO THE MOST REVEREND Father in God my verie good Lord the Lord Archbishop of Canterburie his Grace Primate and Metropolitan of all England THree principall causes Right Reuerend haue moued me to offer this small Labour to your Graces view First the iust respect of my particular dutie which challengeth al parts of my labor as a most thankefull acknowledgement of that seruice which I owe vnto you Secondly the forme of our Church gouernment which imposeth a submitting of our labours to the censure and allowance of those to whom by right that charge belongeth wherein seeing your authoritie and care next vnto our dread Soueraigne is and is to bee esteemed greatest I desire you to vouchsafe to giue that allowance which your Grace in your wisdome shall thinke fit The last reason is the person of him who whilest he liued was aduanced honoured and esteemed by you and now being dead his learning and sinceritie against the false accusations of others challengeth a defence at your Graces hand For doubtlesse it is more right to vertue to defend the deceased then to aduance those that are liuing This as reason euer expecteth at the hands of vertue so especially then when men of worth of desert of learning are mistaken and accused by those that doe want all I craue to the rest of all your Graces fauours that this last may be added That whatsoeuer my imperfections are in this iust and temperate Defence they may no way diminish the honourable remembrance of him whom I doe defend all allowance is his due the faults are mine for which in all humilitie I craue pardon Your Graces to bee commaunded W. COVEL TO THE READER SEeing we are all bound in the dutifull respect of a common iust cause euen to defend those who are strangers to vs it cannot seeme vnfit to any if we affoord theÌ„ so much fauour whose persons and deserts are verie well knowne There is no better contentment for our labour past then in the assurance from our conscience that it is well imployed for doubtlesse the spurning at vertue giueth a greater stroke to the doer then to him that suffereth yet euen that religion that coÌ„mandeth patience forbiddeth not the iust defence of our selues in a good cause especially then when by wronging a particular man there may be some hazard of the truth it selfe Our Church hath had some enemies more openly discontent in the case of Discipline then they now appeare whom to satisfie with reason Maister Hooker indeuoured with much paines that which might haue contented all was in diuers a spurre to a more violent choler for medicines how profitable soeuer worke not equally in all humours From hence proceeded a desire in some to make question of things whereof there was no doubt and a request for resolution of some points where in there was no danger to this end a Letter which heere is answered was published by certaine Protestants as they tearme themselues which I heare how true I know not is translated into other tongues this they presume hath giuen that wound to that reuerend and learned man that it was not the least cause to procure his death But it is farre otherwise for he contemned it in his wisdome as it was fit and yet in his humilitie would haue answered it if he had liued Surely for mine owne part I neuer thought it conuenient that the grauity of this present businesse and the reuerend worthinesse of him that is accused should not be answered with grauitie both of person and speech and my witnesses are both in heauen and earth how iustly I can excuse my selfe as Elihu did Behold I did wait vpon the word of the ancient and harkened for their knowledge I stayed the time and a long time vntill some elder and of viper iudgement might haue acquited me from all opinion of presumption in this cause which being not done by theÌ„ whom many reasons might haue induced to this Defence I could not for that part which I beare in that Church whose gouernment was defended by Maister Hooker with patience endure so weake a Letter anie longer to remaine vnanswered And herein I haue dealt as with men although to me vnknown of some learning and grauitie to whom peraduenture in manie respects I am farre inferiour and yet for anie thing that I know or appeareth in this Letter they may bee clothed with the same infirmities that I am But if this had beene by himselfe performed which I heare he hath done and I desire thee to expect it thy satisfaction gentle Reader would haue beene much more yet vouchsafe in thy kindnesse to accept this The Authours Preface LIttle hath labour done to make any man excellent if vertue haue not as much power to make it continue neither were it anie honour to deserue well if our memories might die with our names â—or our names be buried as often â—s malice or enuie doth seeke to hide them Fewe things are eminently good which are indured amongst distempered iudgements without bitter reprehension for where weakenesse hath not strength enough to imitate and reuerence that vertue which it feareth it hath violence and malice sufficient to detract from that vertue which it hateth Amongst euill persons as there be fewe things that are good in themselues so there be not manie things which they are willing should appeare good in others for vertue where it is not followed
far hazarded himselfe for the iust defence of religion and Church gouernement If hee had broched any new fancies or proudly opposed the wise established discipline there had bin some reason to haue suspected that by intising speech he had meant to deceiue the Church But seeing hee hath laboured in a waighty cause with reasons against those whom the Magistrats seuerity could not easily suppresse seeing he hath vndertaken it by appointment and performed it with allowance and seeing he hath made no other shew of supporting popery but only by resisting Puritans the slaunder must needs be too light and the accusation without color to say that he hath beaten against the heart of al true Christian doctrine professed by her Maiestie the whole state of this Realme as though which you desire the world might beleeue the hart of Christian religion were only amongst such whom the affectation of singularity hath tearmed by the name of Puritans And that the rest who are not of that temper are dangerous and close hereticks Thus Appollinarius the yonger who wrote so much in defence of the Christian faith that Saint Basil said of him that with his volumes he had filled the whole world and wrote against rauing and frantick Porphury thirty bookes more excellent then any other of his workes was afterward accused that he held the error of the Millenaries that into the trinity he had brought Great greater and greatest of all that he thought not right of the incarnation of Christ but seeing Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria who was an enemy vnto him diuers other Authors besides report that he was vehement to confute the Arrians Eunomians Origenists and many other hereticks in many volumes it may be thought whatsoeuer his other errors were the malice of his aduersaries had forged this to diminish the authority of those bookes which hee had written against them So that this practise is no new thing to diminish the soundnes of their religion whose iudgements and reasons we are vnable to withstand But I doubt not by that which followeth but it shall easily bee made to appeare that he is of the same iudgement with the Church of England that he hath not committed any ouersight nor that he goeth not about to contradict the reuerend fathers of our Church which things in al likeliehood are matters by al you much desired and therefore I hope you will accept as you desire this charitable direct plaine and sincere answere which no doubt of it from himselfe had bin far more learned and more speedy if he could either haue resolued to haue don it or after he had resolued could haue liued to haue seene it finished But first of all he was loth to entermeddle with so weake aduersaries thinking it vnfit as himselfe said that a man that hath a long iourney should turne backe to beate euerie barking curre and hauing taken it in hand his vrgent and greater affaires together with the want of strength weakened with much labour would not giue him time to see it finished Yet his mind was stronger then his yeares and knew not well how to yeeld to infirmitie Wherein if hee had somewhat fauoured himselfe he might peraduenture haue liued to haue answered you to the benefite of the Church and the comfort of a great number But death hath done what hee could it hath killed his bodie and it is laid vp in the heart of the earth it hath taken from vs and from the Church of God a sweete friend a wise counsellour and a strong Champion so that I may say as it was sometimes said of Demosthenes Demosthenes is meete for Athens Demades ouergreat Others fit enough to liue in the midst of errour vanitie vnthankfulnesse and deceit but hee too good For he was as the morning starre in the middest of a cloud and as the Moone when it is full and as the Sunne shining vpon the Temple of the most High and as the rainebowe that is bright in the faire cloudes when he put on the garment of honour and was clothed with all beautie hee went vp to the holy Altar and made the garment of holinesse honourable But this ought to content vs that the soules of the righteous are in the hand of God and no torment shall touch them In the sight of the vnwise they appeared to die and their end was thought grieuous and their departing from vs destruction but they are in peace ARTICLE I. Of the Deity of the Sonne of God AL points in Diuinitie are not of the like easinesse of apprehension For in some the dimme light of nature not wholy darkened can giue a reason of that wee doe as well as faith out of precept doth warrant what wee doe beleeue And therefore the Gentiles both before and after the Lawe were to themselues a kind of Lawe euen by the light of nature not to doe all those thinges that they did desire but they had a thing in their hearts equiualent to the law in respect of forbidding because they could accuse and excuse themselues hauing the witnesse of their conscience present with them Thus the effect of all the commandements was in the Iewes before the lawe and in the Gentiles who had not the law giuen vnto them Thus the first commuandement was in Terah Abrahams father which was the reason of his departure from Vr of the Chaldees to goe into the land of Canaan And afterwards in Iacob when hee departed out of Labans house aboue foure hundred yeares before the Lawe was giuen so the second commandement in Rachel the third in Abraham to his seruant the fourth had a precept in the creation the fift for honouring his parents euen in Esau the sixt in Cain who knew the greatnesse of that euill which hee had committed that slew his brother feare making him out of a guiltie conscience to denie that which loue before had not power enough to teach him to forbeare The seuenth in the hatred of the sinne of Sichem which Iacob though he allowed not to be rightly punished yet he did not approue as to be well done The eight euen in Egypt which made Ioseph to say What act is that you haue done when the cup of Pharaoh was found in the sacke of Beniamin The ninth when Iudah feared the witnesse of Thamar The last in Abimelech for taking the wife of Abraham where the vision did not so much tell him it was a sinne which hee knew by nature as that she was another mans wife Now in these things which were obserued before the morall Law some were of more apparant dislike euen in the opinion of the heathen who had no other direction but the light of nature as the third fift sixt seuenth eight and ninth commandements For the Egyptians had a lawe Sweare not least thou die And this was punished in the twelue tables of the Romans For the fift Homer saith of
exempt you from this fear for I am fully perswaded neuer any man liued who would haue bin lother to haue bin the author of any new vnwarranted opinion which might giue but the least shew of coÌ„tradiction to the faith which our Church professeth Things are not to be measured by violence of speech or vncharitable collections for who are on Gods side and who against our Lord in his good time shall reueale And seeing you doubt of his soundnes so far y â— because he maketh the church of Rome a part of the church of christ which M. Sarauia Zanchy others do that you wish him to take heed that he forget not to giue his lawful Soueraigne her right full due giue me leaue to set downe his words in his words his sound feruent affection in this point When the ruines of the house of God that house which consisting of religious soules is most immediatly the precious temple of the Holy-ghost were become not in his fight alone but in the â—ies of the whole world so â—ncâ—â—ding great that verie superstition began euen to feele it selfe too far growne The first that with vs made way to repaire the decaâ—es thereof was King Henrie the eight the son and successor of which famous King as we know was Edward the Saint In whom for so by the euent we may gather iâ— pleased God righteous â—â—d iust to let England see what a blessing sin and iniquiâ—y would not suffer her to inioy that worke which the one had begun and the other so far proceeded in was â—n short space so ouerthrowne as if almost it had neuer bin till such time as that God whose property is to shew his mercies then greatest when they are neerest to be vtterly despaired of caused in the depth of discomfort and darknes a most glorious star to arise and on her head setled the Crowne whom he himselfe had kept as a lambe from the slaughter of those blondie times that the experience of his goodnesse in hir owne deliuerance might cause her merciful disposition to take so much the more delight in sauing others whom the like necessity should presse the continuance of which mercy toward vs in the abundance of his fauour to her we wish may happely continue so long as the Sunne indureth Hitherto Maister Hooker To conclude this small and imperfect worke whereas you ioyne these bookes of Maister Hooker with two other which you take to bee bellowes to blow the coles of sedition I perswade my selfe that the ages which are to come shall more then the present esteem them with high honor for mine owne part what I haue don in defence thereof it is neither from opinion of sufficiencie who know mine owne strength in this kinde weaker then many thousands nor from a desire of contention which I hold howsoeuer sometimes needefull the worst imployment of all learning nor from a willingnes to flatter any a fault what soeuer my other infirmities are whereunto I was neuer subiect nor that I thought those would haue bin wanting who had both farre more learning and greater reason to vndertake the defence then my selfe had Wherefore if there be anything either vnsoundly or vncharitably set downe faults which willingly I would be loth to be accused of I submit my selfe to the Iudgement of the Church and the courteous admonition of the Christian Reader But if any man without cause spurne or thinke himselfe grieued and finde that conteined herein which with iudgement and sound learning he is able to confute and be desirous hereafter to receiue my answere let him set to his name that writeth otherwise let him thinke that Libels personall and of no moment are to bee rather punished by authority then confuted by any mans pen. And so I will hartily pray that no strife may euer be heard of againe but this who shall hate strife most who shall pursue peace and vnity with most desire FINIS Iob. 32. * Wisd. 10.8 * Wis. 4.15 The title of the Booke * in the Letter Pag. 1. a Ibid. b pag. 2. c Pag. 45. d Pag. 3. Lin. 10 a Quando nec laudantem mouet adulatio nec laudatum tentat elatio * Tanti meriti tanti pectoris tanti oris tantae virtutis The preface of the letter answeared when men dreame they are a sleep c. a Vt argumenâ—o non sit propter quod alios accusant has ipsas odisse Dio. Cass. lib. 36. hist. b Epist. ad Asellam virg in prolog super los. c Nicephor Calixtus lib. 10. hist. cap. 36. b In obit Humberâ—i Ber c Nihil ex ea quod meum diceretur praeter cognomen retuli Val. Max. d Si quid est quo vtar vtâ—r si 〈◊〉 ego sum e Nepotianus noster auruÌ„ calcans schedulas consectatus Pag. 19. lin 16 Lege Carol. mag fol. 421. a Ira eius in manu eius Ber. b Sereneb at vultum suum assideÌ„tium gratia no â—ieret â—nerosus sed visum integrum si bene recolitis non admisit Ber. Eccl. 44.7 8. vâ—â—s 11 12.13.14.15 Pag. 2. a Iustin. lib. 15. ex Trogo Sixt Sin lib. 4. bibliothecae Epiphanius in 3. pannarii a Erat animus victor annorâ—m cedere nesciens infirmitati Ber. in vita Humberti b Mors fecit quantum potuit occidit carnem ecce recondita est in corde terrâ— separauit à nobis dulcem amicum prudentâ— Consiliarium Auxiliarium fortem Ber. Eccles. 50.6.7.11 Wis. 3.1.2.3 Gen. 13. Gen. 35.2 Gen. 31.34 Gen. 24.3 Gen 27 41. Gen. 4.9 Gen. 34 31. Gen 49.6 Gen. 44.15 ver 12 Gen. 38.23 Gen 20.3 Diodorus Sicul. Fustibus caeditur Homicida quod fecit expectat Fuge nomen maechi si mortem fugies Stephanus ex Nicosirato Tarpeio Saxo deijciatur Leg. 12. Tabul * Quae deus occulta esse voluit non sunt scrutanda quae autem manifesta fecis non sunt negligenda no in illis illicite curiosi in his damnabiliter inueniantur ingrati Prosper de vocat Gentium a Nec periculosius alicubi erratur nec laboriosius aliquid quaeritur nec fructuosius aliquid inuenitur Aug. lib. 4 de Trinitat Aug. tom 6. ser. 7 Lib. 5. Pag. 113. Epist. 66 ad Maxim Hic non indicatur substantia sed origo i. non quid sit sed vnde sit vel non sit epist. 66. ad Maxim Aug. Bookes 5. pag. 106. sect 51. Pro. 8.22 Ioh. 1.1 Ioh. 17.5 Tom. 2. epist. 174 Aâ—g Ioh 15.26 In comment in Iohan. 15 26 Psal. 126. 1. Corinth 2 Iam. 1. Matt. 28. Matth. 12. About the yeare 381. 430.451 Aug. in Psal. 68 Alius non aliud Vnum non vnus Aug. tom 9. in Euang. Ioh. tract 36. Damasc. de Orthodox fid lib. 3 cap. 6. Hoâ— lib. 5. pag. 121. Aug. tom 6. cont Max. epist. lib. 3.10 Iob. 17.3 Rom. 1. * O terrae â—ehiculum in terrasedem habens Quisquis tande es maccesse nostriâ—â—â—imis
the Christians to please Iulian was noted with this marke of leuity for writing Panegyricks or orations of praise to commend Constantius while he liued against whome afterward he wrote most bitter inuectiues when he was dead Thus some small discontentment serued to turne the heart and open the mouth of Porphyry against the Christians what cause of griefe these zealous professours haue I know not but in my opinion the whole tenor of that vncharitable and vnchristian letter argueth some inward discontent either enuious that other men should be excellent or that themselues being excellent are not more regarded Wherein though they dislike the dim eie of gouernment that loketh not cleerely into mens vertues and the niggardly hand that doth not bountifully reward such as deserue well yet they mighte out of patience and charity worthily haue forborne to haue inueied against his honour which consisted in no other wealth but in his religious contentment and in that true commendation which was the due merit of his own vertues For the world had not much to take from him because hee had not taken much from the world for he neuer affected flatteringly to please her nor she neuer cared fauninglie to please him For as all that Scipio brought from Africa after his danger and trauell to be called his was only a Surname so the greatest recompense that his labours had was the iust commendation that he was a very reuerend learned and graue man For his iudgement taught him out of a Christian patience the resolution of Cato if I haue anie thing to vse I vse it if not I know who I am And seeking to profit in knowledge and that this knowledge might profit the Church he shewed that hee was borne for the good of many and few to bee borne for the good of him For as S. Hierom speaketh of Nepotian despising gold he followed learning the greatest riches But peraduenture his learning had puft him vp and his pride had made his writings impatient and full of bitternes and this moued you to vndertake this vncharitable and vnchristian letter for you say if we beleeue them meaning the Bishops we must thinke that Master Hooker is verie arrogant and presumptuous to make himselfe the onely Rabbi That you had no cause to prouoke him in these tearmes all men know that do reade his writings for dealing in an argument of that kinde with aduersaries of that nature and in a time growne insolent by sufferance hee hath written with that temperat moderation rather like a graue father to reforme the vnstayed errors of hot young violent spirits then seuerelie correcting them with the vntemperat bitternes of their owne stile and sighing at the scurrilous and more then satyricall immodesty of Martinisme he feared with a true sorrow least that honourable calling of Priesthood which was ruinated by slaunder amongst ourselues could not long continue firme in the opinion of others Well for all this the gouernment of his passions was in his owne power as Saint Bernard speaketh of Malachie the Bishop And he was able to rule them for he was truly of a milde spirit and an humble hart and abounding in all other vertues yet he specially excelled in the grace of meekenes for the grauity of his lookes as Saint Bernard speaketh of Humbers was cleered by those that did sit or conuerse with him least he should be burdensome vnto them but a ful laughter few euer discerned in him Some such our Church hath had in all ages a few now aliue which are her ornament if shee can vse them well but moe that are dead whome she ought to praise For all those were honourable men in their generations and were well reported of in their times there are of them that haue left a name behind them so that their praise shall be spoken of for whose posterity a good inheritance is reserued and their seede is conteined in the couenant their bodise are buried in peace but their name liueth for euermore the people speake of their wisedome and the congregation talke of their praise In this number vertue hath placed him whom you accuse and are not afraid being now awaked out of a dreame to account a deceiuer As though in his labours he had meant by intising speech to deceiue the Church or as though by a colourable defēce of the Church discipline he purposed as you say to make questionable and to bring in contempt the doctrine and faith it selfe beating against the heart of all true Christian doctrine professed by her Maiestie and the whole state of this realme Therfore you haue made choice of the principall things conteined in his bookes wishing him to free himselfe from all suspicion of falshoode and trechery accounting your selues to rest contented if he will shew himselfe either all one in iudgement with the Church of England or else freely and ingenuously acknowledge his vnwilling ouersight or at the least shew plainely by good demonstratiō that al our reuerend Fathers haue hitherto bin deceiued To this you craue a charitable direct plaine sincere and speedy answeare this is the summe of the preface to your Christian letter It is too true that al ages haue had deceiuers and that the most dangerous deceiuers haue strongly preuailed vnder pretence of Religion and therefore whereas all bodies are subiect to dissolution there are vndoubtedly mo estates ouerthrown through diseases within themselues which familiarly do steale vpon them then through violence from abroade Because the maner is alwaies to cast a doubtfull and a more suspicious eie towards that ouer which men know they haue least power therfore the feare of apparant dangers causeth their forces to be more vnited it is to all sorts a kind of bridle it maketh vertuous minds watchful it holdeth contrary dispositions in suspence and imployeth the power of all wits and the wits of all men with a greater care Whereas deceits couered with good pretenses are so willingly interteyned so little feared so long suffered vntill their cruelty burst forth when it is too late to cure them vice hath not a better meanes to disperse it selfe nor to gaine intartainment and fauour then by borrowing the counterfeit name and habit of seeming vertue Thus that rebellious Sandracot vnder pretence of liberty mooued the Indians against the officers of Alexander the Great which when they had slaine he that was the author of their liberty turned that into a more cruell bondage oppressing the people whom he had freed from strangers vnder the cruell tyranny of his owne gouernment But of all deceits there is none more dangerous then when the name of God or religion is pretended to countenance out heinous crimes And howsoeuer euen in this kinde this age hath not wāted examples who beeing dangerous vnder holy pretenses the hand of Iustice hath cut off yet the imputation of this fault can in no reason cleaue to him who hath so
hath wil is righteousnes only mans transgression sin For euen to doe that which nature telleth vs we ought howsoeuer we know it must needs be acceptable in Gods sight How this vttered out of great iudgment to another purpose namely that good things are done and allowed whereof we haue other direction then Scripture is by you wrested against the articles of our Church either concerning the perfection of works which are with faith or the goodnes of works without faith to say plainly I cannot yet vnderstand Therfore as the dealing is vnequall to make him say what you list so the aduātage is too great to make him an aduersary to a cause of your own making when the whole scope of his speech is to another purpose For there is no indifferēt reader but had he considered what M. Hooker speaketh to what end in those places by you alleaged he must of necessity haue wondered at your sharpe and acute iudgements that would without blushing aduenture to alleage him to that end But an opiniō doubtlesse that these things wold neuer be examined gaue that cōfidence to your first motion which consideration would haue hindered if you had but once dreamed to haue bin called in question Wee should not therfore need in this much to defend him but briefly resolue you what our Church holdeth and fitly in this point The articles of our Church which ye thinke are oppugned are two first that the fruits of faith cannot abide the seuerity of Gods iustice that man out of faith doth good workes which though they make vs not iust yet are both acceptable and rewardable I doubt not but it is a truth wherof if yee had not bin perswaded this letter of yours profitable as you think to the Church and pleasing to God as all the rest of your writings in that kinde had lien buried vnborne in those rotten sepulchers from whēce into the world they did first come whilest we are by that intermediat iustice of Christ made righteous and haue obtained a free remission of our sins that we are tearmed iust there is with this mercy ioyned the Holy-ghost which dwelling in vs maketh vs fruitfull to good workes this reuiuing all parts from our naturall corruption reformeth vs to a pure and willing obedience vnto that reuealed will which is the rule of all that we ought to doe yet seeing we are clothed with corruption there are euen in our best actions those remainders of imperfection which serue to teach vs thankefulnes and humility both arising from the consideration of our own weakenes And I doubt not but euen in this poynt many of the Church of Rome whose humiliation in their penitēcy of heart seemeth far to exceed ours are of this opinion that euen the best action performed in their whole life as there are yet some few monumēts spared from the couetous hand if all points of it were considered with a streight view sifting euen the least circumstances which closely insinuate thēselues out of our corruptiōs into our actions they would I say confesse that there is something which tasteth of the flesh which corruption if either for want of a strict consideration we see not or through a selfeloue could pardon yet it is not able in the feeblenes of his owne nature to abide the exact triall seuerity of Gods iudgement That law the least transgression wherof is sin is sayd to be fulfilled three waies first in Christ and so all the faithfull are said to fulfill the lawe hauing his obedience imputed to them Secondly it is fulfilled by a diuine acceptatiō for God accepteth our obediēce begun as if it were perfect seeing what imperfections are in it are not imputed to vs. For it is al one not to be not to be imputed blessednes being the reward of both And we know that there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Iesus Thirdly it is fulfilled by vs an error I thinke scarce any do hold sauing only the Anabaptists For that eternall wisdome which hath ledde man by the law vnto Christ hath set those bounds which all men haue broken the first commandement and the last to include all as guilty of the breach of the whole law For our knowledge being but in part it is not possible saith Saint Austen that our loue can be perfect And therfore we conclude the first point according to the article of our Church from which there is no sillable in Master Hooker that is different that our workes though they be good and so esteemed and rewarded yet they cannot abide the iustice of the lawe and the seuerity of Gods iudgement The second point is whether the workes which are done before the grace of Christ are not only not acceptable to God but also haue the nature of sinne In this we must vse some care for whilest men iustly disagreeing haue equally laboured to be differēt one from another both in the end haue bin equally distant frō the truth That there are excellent graces in the heathen no man doubteth and he must needs be far from reason and sense who maketh no difference betwixt the iustice moderation and equity of Titus and Traian and the fury violence and tyranny of Caligula Nero and Domitian betwixt the vncleane lusts of Tiberius and the continency in this respect of Vespasian in one word betwixt the obseruation and the breach of lawes For there is that difference betwixt iust and vniust that euen the frame of nature where sense wanteth acknowledge a well being by the obseruation of what it ought and therfore much more in those good works which because they missed of the right scope wee dare not call by the name of true perfect Christians vertues yet for their very action we are content so long as they swarue not from the righteousnesse of the lawe of nature to giue them leaue to be called by a better name then only sinnes and yet for all this no man taketh them to be much better in the true seuerity of a hard construction for those that are not regenerate although they sin in their best obseruation of the morall lawe yet it is much better to performe those offices then to performe them not seeing a part of that indeuour though it be not meere righteousnesse yet it is lesse sinne We must therefore remember that a worke is considerable either in respect of the substance or in regard of the manner of doing In respect of the worke all the actions of infidels are not sin seeing they performe those things which are commanded by the law of nature of nations of God nay they are so far in this respect from beeing sins that as Saint Austin saith God doth plenteously reward them But concerning the manner of working all their actions are sin as proceeding from a corrupt fountaine a hart that wanteth true faith and directed to an ende of lesse value then he is whose glory ought to be
or to be any other sauing only one We must know therfore that the will of God is secret which therfore in scripture is compared to a deepe or reueiled which must be the rule of those actions which we ought to doe we may indeuour to doe against the first and not sinne as Abraham in offring Isaac I say indeuour for no man can do against it as also fulfill the other and yet sin as Iudas This diuision of the will of God made by many others though in other tearmes serueth both to answer such doubts as vsually arise out of this darknes as also fully to satisfy those slender obiections which you haue framed in this point Damascene deuideth the will into antecedent and consequent Peter Lumbard into his good pleasure and the signe of it others into a will absolute or conditionall others into wil of vs or by vs to be done S. Austin into a most omnipotent and most powerfull wil and into a will not so powerfull that it euer commeth to pasâ—e all these diuisions concurring in one and the selfe same thing to teach vs that there be parts some reueiled some secret of that which in his owne nature can no more be diuers or many then it is possible for the essence of the Godhead to be more then one But how is it then say you that God willeth all men to be saued Is it a constant decree or only an inclination That he thus willeth there is no man doubteth and although some with the restraint of the word all vnderstand it of his eternall vnchangeable secret decree yet we affirmeâ— that with a conditionall will which euer implyeth faith and obedience with a will of the signe antecedent vneffectuall reueiled he willeth all men to be saued Who therfore that they are not it is not his decree but their own fault And although we say as Maister Hooker doth that God willeth many thinges conditionally yet if wee speake properly all things that God willeth hee willeth simply and therefore all things that God willeth must bee the condition being not in respect of the wil but the manifestation of it For it is no more possible that there should be a wil in God conditional then that his knowledge and his wisedome should not be eternall and yet in respect of vs who must be ruled by his law it is conditional God sometimes commandeth what hee will not haue done not that he is contrary in his wil but that his wil as yet is not wholy reueiled The matter of predestination was neuer fully handled before the time of Pelagius whose heresies gaue occasion to Saint Austin and others to confirme vs in this point wherein though I confesse I vnwillingly labour at this time yet I doubt not to affirme which may serue in steed of answere to content you that the predestination of God is eternall not conditional immutable not for works foreseen and that those which God hath determined though his predestination doe not take away second causes certainly must come to passe Neither is that any variablenes as you ouer boldly seeme to insinuate that he inclineth one way decreeth another for certainly saith S. Ambrose he willeth al men to be saued if they wil themselues for he that hath giuen a law to al doubtles hath excluded none Neither is here any acceptatioÌ„ of persons that he hath chosen some not others for that is acceptioÌ„ of persons saith S. Austin wheÌ„ things to equals equally due are not equally diuided but where those things are diuided y t are not due but only of meere liberality bestowed there this inequality is without iniustice or acceptation of persons It being in the power of a creditor that hath two debtors to exact his due of the one without iniustice and meerely of his bounty to forgiue the other If you goe further in this point to leade me into that depth that lamentably hath swallowed vp many thousands I say with S. Austin thou oh man dost thou expect an answer of me and I am a man also therfore let vs rather both heare him who saith oh man who art thou that doest answere God reason thou I wil maruaile dispute thou I wil beleeue and say oh how vnsearchable are his waies and his Iudgements past finding out ARTICLE XI The visible Church and the Church of Rome IN the vehement dissentions of factions that are opposite there is not a labour vsually that reapeth either lesse fruite or lesse thanks then a charitable perswasion to a reconcilement which peraduenure hath bin the principal cause why both parties looking with a iealous eie at the indifferent perswasions of a third haue continued both enimies in themselues and yet the third suspected as a friend to neither This whilest men haue done in kingdomes their conclusions of peace haue faintly languisht all sides earnestly wishing the thing but suspecting those who were agents to intreate a perswasion to it this in the Church some men haue done both in former times and of late with more charity then either learning or successe so that in the end both parties haue taken offence at the mentioÌ„ of a reconcilement That the Church is at variance in it selfe and so hath continued a long time I thinke there is no man doubteth and surely we are all perswaded that vnity and peace are not fitter for any society in the world then for that which is called by the name of Church how this might be effected it hath bin the care of very wisemen who though they haue found little apparance of successe by reason of those badde offices which vncharitable minds haue performed yet they haue not ceased to wishe in the behalfe of the Church as Dauid did for Ierusalem Oh that it were as a City built at vnity in it selfe Priuate contentions are then furthest from all hope of agreement when both parties equally standing vpon tearmes of superiority earnestly contend which is most excellent and that neither haue committed fault In what straits the Church is and hath bin in all times it may easily be gathered in that as yet men are not resolued to whom it belongs principally to procure her peace Some are of opinion that princes must and ought to prouide for the good and welfare of the common-wealth but as for religion they may lawfully permit to euery man what his fancy desireth so that the peace of their realmes be not thereby troubled This once was the error of the heathen who admitting all sects of Philosophers accounted it their honor that they refused none Wherupon saith Pope Leo this City speaking of Rome ignorant of the author of her aduancement whilest she hath ruled almost ouer al nations hath basely bin a seruant to the errors of them al and seemed to her selfe to haue intertained a great religion because she hath not refused the falshood of any This made Themistius the Philosopher as Socrates reporteth to
perswade Valens the Emperor that the variety of sects was a thing much pleasing to God seeing by that meanes he was worshipped after diuers manners This though Constantine the great did at the first whose fact we will not at this time examine yet afterward he commanded all the temples of the Idols to be shut vp and the Christian religion to be only vsed whose sonnes Constantius and Constantinus so far followed as Saint Austin saith the example of their Father that Constantine threatned banishment to al those who rested not in the determination of the Nicene councel The contrary was practised by the Emperors Iouinian Valens and Iulian who giuing a liberty to all heretickes sought nothing more then the ouerthrow of the vnity of the Church But wisemen haue euer seene that the peace and tranquilitie of the common wealth seldome or neuer ariseth but out of the concord and agreement of the Church it selfe The dissentions whereof as they serue to hinder religion so they kindle that flame wherewithall doubtlesse in the end the common wealth it selfe must needs perish But how farre all sides are from allowance of reconcilement both the times present can testifie too well and the ages to come must needs witnesse which shall possesse a Church as sonnes doe the inheritance of contentious parents the best part whereof is wasted in vnnecessarie sutes The sound knowledge of religion as well perishing in the middest of dissention as the true practise doth faile by the plentifull abundance of too much peace There haue beene in the world from the verie first foundation thereof but three religions Paganisme which liued in the blindnesse of corrupt and depraued nature Iudaisme embracing the law which reformed heathenish impietie and taught saluation to bee looked for through one whoÌ„ God in the last dayes would send exalt to be lord of al finally Christianisme which yeeldeth obedience to the Gospell of Iesus Christ and acknowledgeth him the Sauiour whom God did promise Now the question is whether the dissenting parties in this last religion be so farre not in opinion but in the obiect differing as that there is no hope of reconciliation and the one part only hath but the priuiledge to be tearmed the Church For the matter of reconcilement it is no businesse which lieth within the compasse of this labour and whether and how it may be done we are willing to referre it to the iudgements of men who haue better abilitie to decide the cause A booke in Latine was published in the first beginning of these bitter contentions without name bearing the title of the dutie of a godly man but since Bellarmine saith that the Author was one George Cassander this booke perswading that Princes ought to make an agreement betwixt the Catholikes the Lutherans and Caluinists as he tearmes them which whilest they cannot find out the meanes to performe they should permit to all men their seuerall religions so that they held both the Scripture and the Apostles Creed for all saith he are the true members of the Church howsoeuer in particular doctrines they seeme to differ This booke was first confuted by Caluin on the one side and then by one Iohn Hessels of Louaine on the other side that all the world might see how loth both sides were to be made friends This hath since beene esteemed by others a labour much like to those pacificants in the Emperour Zeno his time or the heresie of Apelles who held as Eusebius writeth that it was needlesse to discusse the particulars of our faith and sufficient only to beleeue in Christ crucified But least any man should thinke that our contentions were but in smaller points and the difference not great both sides haue charged the other with heresies if not infidelities nay euen such as quite ouerthrowe the principall foundation of our Christian faith How truly both haue dealt those that are learned can best iudge but I am sure that in the greatest differences there are great mistakings which if they were not it is like their dissentions had beene much lesse Now for the second whether both parts may bee called the Church this is that which concerneth the cause that wee haue in hand The Church of England confesseth that the Church of Christ is a company of faithfull people among whom the pure word of God is preached and the sacraments rightly administred according to Christs institution so that as our reuerend Fathers say without Christ there is no Church and those particular Churches are more perfect which in their religious worship haue lesse failed in both these now when enemies become iudges sentences are often partiall and each side with bitternesse of tearmes doth condemne other whilest neither part is willing to confesse their errour or amend themselues Wee haue not suffered the contemptible reuiâ—ings of the Church of Rome without telling her aloud that her faults are not so few as she imagineth that her chastitie and puritie are not so great that she need to boast and that if she will needes bee proud and confidently striue to be the chiefe and the onely Church wee must tell her in zeale that what she was she is not that pride and prosperitie haue corrupted her as other Churches This though we speake out of zeale seeing her faults and knowing her contempt of vs yet out of iudgement we say which Maister Hooker doth that with Rome we dare not communicate concerning sundrie her grosse grieuous abominations yet touching those maine parts of Christian truth wherein they constantly still persist wee gladly acknowledge them to bee of the familie of Iesus Christ therefore wee hope that to reforme our selues if at anie time wee haue done amisse is not to seuer our selues from the Church wee were before in the Church we were and we are so stil as also we say that they of Rome notwithstanding their manifold defects are to bee held and reputed a part of the house of God a limme of the visible Church of Christ. This is that whereat your hote spirits haue taken offence speaking out of the same ignorant zeale against our Church as ye wish our Church to speake against the Church of Rome accounting vs for perfection of a Church as farre short of you as Rome is of vs or your selues of the Angels that are in heauen and therefore you affirme that our statute congregations of England are no true christian churches Which error as you haue at last beene from an vnresistable wisedome taught how to recant so no doubt at length vpon better aduise you wil learne in iudgment how to censure of the Church of Rome And yet mistake me not to giue her her due is not to grant more then shee ought to challenge nor to account her a part of the Church is not to affirme that shee is absolutely perfect There is no one word that from the varietie of acceptation hath bred greater difference in the Church
profession they be Christians then are they of the visible Church of Christ and Christians by externall profession they are all whose marke of recognisance hath in it those things which we haue mentioned Yea although they be impious Idolaters wicked hereticks persons excommunicable such as we deny not to be euen the lims of Satan as long as they continue such Is it then possible say you that the selfesame men should belong both to the Synagogue of Satan and to the Church of Christ Vnto that Church which is his mystical bodie not possible because that bodie consisteth of none but only true Israelits true sonnes of Abraham true seruants and Saints of God Howbeit of the visible body and Church of Christ those may be and oftentimes are in respect of the maine parts of their outward profession who in regard of their inward disposition of minde yea of externall conuersation yea euen of some parts of their very profession are most worthily both hatefull in the sight of God himselfe and in the eies of the sounder parts of the visible Church most execrable From hence haue proceeded those bitter speeches wherewith many of our reuerend Fathers haue censured the Church of Rome as also those violent courses and vnseemely which they haue hitherto vsed against vs. Therefore our Sauiour compareth the kingdome of heauen to a net whereunto al that commeth neither is nor seemeth fishe his Church he compareth to afield where tares manifestly knowne and seene by all men doe grow intermingled with good corne and so shall continue til the final consummation of the world God hath had euer and euer shall haue some Church visible vpon earth But for lack of diligent obseruing the difference first betwixt the church of God mystical and visible then betweene the visible sound and corrupted sometimes more sometimes lesse the ouersights are neither few nor light that haue bin committed This deceiueth them and nothing else who thinke that in the time of the first world the family of Noah did containe al that were of the visible church of God From hence it grew and from no other cause in the world that the Affrican Bishops in the councel of Carthage knowing how the administration of Baptisme belongeth only to the church of Christ and supposing that hereticks which were apparantly seuered from the sound beleeuing church could not possiblie be of the church of Iesus Christ thought it vtterly against reason that baptisme administred by men of corrupt beleefe should be accounted as a Sacrament Some of the Fathers were earnest especially Saint Cyprian in this point but I hope you haue not yet proceeded so farre This opinion was afterwards both coÌ„demned by a better aduised councel and also reuoked by the chiefest of the Authors therof themselues And therfore as it is straÌ„ge for any man to denie them of Rome to be of the church so I cannot but wonder that they will aske where our church was before the birth of Martin Luther as if any were of opinion that Luther did erect a new church of Christ. No the church of Christ which was from the beginning is and continueth in substance the same vnto the end of which al parts haue not bin alwaies equally sincere and sound In the daies of Abiha it plainly appeareth that Iuda was by many degrees more free from pollution then Israel In Saint Paules time the integrity of Rome was famous Corinth many waies reproued they of Galathia much more out of square in Iohns time Ephesus and Sâ—yrna in better state then Thiatyra and Pergamus were and yet all of them no doubt parts of the visible church so standeth the cause betwixt Rome and vs so farre as lawfully we may we haue held and do hold fellowship with them we acknowledge theÌ„ to be of the family of Iesus Christ and our heartie prayer vnto God Almightie is that being conioyned so farre forth with them they may at length if it be his will so yeeld to frame and reforme themselues that no distraction remaine in anie thing but that we all may with one heart and one mouth glorifie God the Father of our Lord and Sauiour whose church we are As there are which make the church of Rome no church at all vtterly so we haue them amongst vs who vnder pretence of imagined corruptions in our discipline do giue euen as hard a iudgement of the church of England it selfe But whatsoeuer either the one sort or the other teach we must acknowledge euen heretikes themselues to bee though a maimed part yet a part of the visible church For as to baptize is a proper action belonging vnto none but the church of Christ which is true in the church of Rome howsoeuer some Anabaptists account it but a mockerie so if an infidell should pursue to death an heretike professing christianitie onely for christian profession sake could the church denie him the honour of Martyrdome Yet this honour all men know to be proper vnto the church and therefore where the Fathers make opposition betwixt the visible church and hereticall companies as often times they doe they are to bee construed as separating heretikes not altogether from the companie of beleeuers but from the fellowship of sound beleeuers for where profest vnbeleefe is there can be no visible church of Christ there may be where sound beleefe wanteth Infidels being cleane without the church denie directly and vtterly reiect the very principles of Christianity which heretikes imbrace and erre onely in misconstruction And therefore it is strange that you dare affirme the Turke to hold any part of the christian faith or to bee in that respect comparable to the church of Rome For that which separateth vtterly that which cutteth off cleane from the visible church of Christ is as Maister Hooker saith plaine Apostasie direct deniall vtter reiection of the whole christian faith as farre as the same is professedly different from infidelitie Heretikes as touching those points of doctrine wherein they faile Schismatikes as touching the quarrels for which or the duties wherein they diuide themselues from their brethren loose licentious and wicked persons as touching their seuerall offences or crimes haue all forsaken the true church of God the church which is sound and sincere in the doctrine that they corrupt The church that keepeth the bond of vnitie which they violate the church that walketh in the lawes of righteousnesse which they transgresse This verie true church of Christ they haue left howbeit not altogether left nor forsaken simply the Church vpon the maine foundations whereof they continue built notwithstanding these breaches whereby they are rent at the top asunder But peraduenture you will say why then doe wee refuse to communicate with the church of Rome more then Zacharie Elizabeth Anna and others did with the high priests corruptions being in both and both remaining parts of the church of God I answer that in the time of our Sauiour Christ the synagogue
attention gained without wit nor their affections perswaded without eloquence where to come vnfurnisht and leaue the workings without meanes to him who giueth a power and a blessing to the meanes we vse is all one to appoint him what meanes are fittest or to inioyne him to worke without meanes at all which though that Almightie power can do yet then to refuse theÌ„ when they are prouided or not to furnish vs with as much as we can of the best that he hath prouided it argueth our vnthankfulnesse and our want of choise This made when Celsus Iulian and Porphyry had written against vs the holy Fathers to confute them with all varietie of humane learning that thus the enemies of that truth which we teach may say with Iulian We are strooke through with our owne weapons This was the happines of Epiphanius whiâ—â— I wish were common to all preachers that his writings were read of the learned for the matter of the simple for the words Thus we should not doubt but to win an attention from all nay euen for the true discharging of this businesse there is a necessarie vse of Grammar to teach the originall proprietie of words of Logicke to discerne ambiguities of Rhetoricke for ornament a good tale being much better when it is well told of Philosophie for the vnfolding the true nature of causes the ignorance whereof hath brought much error in expounding the holy Scriptures of Historie for the computation of times in one word of all humane learning which like the spoiles of Egypt we haue recouered from the vniust owners accounting it no more disgrace to be accused of eloquence wit or humane learning then S. Austin did by Petilian to be termed Tertullus the Orator There be that account Inciuilitie of maners and Rusticitie of speech as Saint Hierome speaketh true holinesse But it is not fit that those that are toothlesse should enuie the teeth of others or those that are Moules repine that others see as the same Father admonisheth Calphurnius It hath beene a trouble of some of our best and most excellent preachers that they haue beene inforced after their wearisome â—oiling and vnregarded paines to giue a reason and make a defence as though they had committed a fault for the vse of that for which in true estimation they ought to haue reaped much praise And therfore saith one whom I dare oppose for eloquence and iudgement against the best in that great city of the contrarie faction I am not of opinion with those men who thinke that all secular and prophane learning should be abandoned from the lips of the preacher and that whether hee teach or exhort he is of necessitie to tie himselfe to the sentence and phrase of only Scripture Good is good wheresoever I find it vpon a withered and fruitlesse stalke saith S. Austin a grape sometimes may hang shall I refuse the grape because the stalk is fruitlesse and withered There is not any knowledg of learning to be despised seeing that all science whatsoeuer is in the nature kind of good things rather those that despise it we must repute rude vnprofitable altogether who would bee glad that all men were ignorant that their owne ignorance lying in the common heape might not be espied And S. Austin in in another place saith Eloquence is not euill but a sophisticall malignant profession proposing to it selfe not as it meaneth but either of contention or for commodity sake to speake for all things against all things What were more profitable then the eloquence of Donatus Parmenian others of your sect if it ran with as free a streame for the peace vnity truth and loue of Christ as it floweth against it for els it is a venimous eloquence as Saint Cyprian wrote of the eloquence of Nouatus I know there is much amisse both in matter and in the vse of prophane learning but this we are sure if we bring it to the Scripture if it bee faultie it is condemned if wholsome it is there confirmed And I see no reason that any man should be bold to offer his owne inuentions and conceits to the world when hee findeth such in the Fathers and others as cannot be amended I am sorie that the learned of any sort as my Author saith that hath but born a book should dispraise learning she hath enemies enough abroad though she bee iustified by her children It is fitter that wisedome bee beaten by fooles then by those who ought to be esteemed wise aboue all other places a blow giuen in the pulpit against learning a fault too common leaueth a scarre in the face of knowledge which cannot easily be cured It calleth in question the reaching of others as if they fed the people with acorns husks not bread or because they gather the truth out of humane Authours they contemned the authority of the holy Scriptures Doubtlesse it is somtime vanity in those that preach itching in those that heare a thing not tolerable or allowable in either but where it is otherwise let not a rasâ— conclusion without proofe as though it were young mens faults bee admitted against good learning If Asclepiodorus will draw with a cole or chauke alone I iudge him not if others wil paint with colours neither let them be iudged for those that are wise and humble in the Church know how with discretion to make vse of all and yet not all of the like authoritie For doctrines deriued exhortations deducted interpretations agreeable are not the verie word of God but that onely which is in the originall text or truly translated and yet we call those sermons though improperly the word of God To conclude this point as our Church hath manie excellent Preachers which we wish by good incouragement may increase so it is too presumptuous a labour for any to prescribe one forme necessarie to all But I could wish that all were like him whom you accuse or like one Marianus Genazanensis whom Angelus Politianus doth excellently describe in my opinion an excellent patterne of a reuerend Diuine ARTICLE XIII Of the Ministers office IN the actions of this life whether spirituall or temporal God and man giue their approbation in a diuers maner the one looketh onely at the thing done the other at the mind disposition of the doer And therefore the same things from diuers parties are not of the same nor of like value nay that which is from sinceritie a worship is from hypocrisie a sin and the defects which outwardly the maner of doing disproueth the sinceritie oftentimes in the mind of the doer acquiteth In the eye of man it is sometimes a fault which is no sin in the eye of God a sin which in the eye of man was no fault So that according to lawes which principally respect the heart of man works of religion being not religiously performed caÌ„not morally be perfect Baptisme as an
and as if it were neuer giuen True it is that seeing God from whom mens seuerall degrees preheminences proceed hath appointed them in his Church at whose hands his pleasure is that we should receiue Baptisme and all other publike helpes medicinable to the soule perhaps thereby the more to settle our hearts in the loue of our ghostly superiors they haue small cause to hope that with him their voluntarie seruices will be accepted who thrust themselues into functions either aboue their capacitie or besides their place and ouerboldly intermeddle with duties whereof no charge was euer giuen vnto them In which respect if lawes forbid it to be done yet therefore it is not necessarily void when it is done For many things are firme being done which in part are done otherwise thē positiue rigor and strictnes did require Actions vsurped haue often the same nature which they haue in others although they yeeld not him that doth them the same comfort What defects then are in this kind they redound with restraint to the offender only the grace of Baptisme commeth by donation from God onely That God hath committed the mysterie of Baptisme vnto speciall men it is for orders sake in his Church and not to the intent that their authoritie might giue being or adde force to the Sacrament it selfe Infants haue right to Baptisme we all know that they haue it not by lawfull ministers it is not their fault Mens owne faults are their owne harmes So then wee conclude this point with Maister Hooker that it is one thing to defend the fact for lawfulnesse in the doer which few do and another thing the fact being done which no man hath reason to disallow for though it is not lawfull for women to vndertake that office to baptize which peraduenture belongs not vnto them yet the Baptisme being done we hold it lawfull ARTICLE XIIII Of the Sacraments IT is not a thing lesse vsuall in the apprehension of truths through the weaknesse of our vnderstanding to ascribe too little to that which in all reason hath great vertue then to allow ouermuch to that which hath no vertue at all It fareth with men in this kind as it doth with some deceitfull artificers who bestow most arte and outward additions where inwardly there is least value whilest they leaue that altogether vnfurnished which is able to expose it to sale by his owne worth It is our fault no lesse violently to extoll what our fancies make vs to account excellent then to dispraise things truly commendable in their owne nature because onely they haue gained this disaduantage to bee disliked by vs. So that whosoeuer maketh either praise or dispraise to be a rule of iudgement or the iudgement of some few to bee a signe of value he with like hazard equally erreth in both For times and places violent circumstances of that which men say with or against breed infinite varietie of alterations where things are the same and out of commendation alone a strange effect dispraise like a monster doth spring vp It being cause sufcient to distempered humours vehemently to dislike only in this respect that others doe commend the same Wherein the safest and most charitable direction will bee absolutely in that violent opposition to beleeue neither but euen from both to deriue a truth much sounder then that which either holdeth From hence hath it come to passe that whilest they of the Church of Rome haue peraduenture ascribed too much to works some of vs too little others haue set downe an equality dissenting from both Thus in the matter of the sacraments things of greatest and most hidden vertue left vnto the Church for they are called Mysteries some haue bin thought to deriue that power to them which belongeth to God only which whilest others sought to auoide they haue euen depriued them of that grace which God doubtles in truth hath bestowed vpon them In this kinde you are of opinion that M. Hooker hath erred who as you imagine hath ascribed to the sacraments farre more following therein the steps of the Church of Rome then either the Scripture the articles of our Church or the exposition of our Reuerend Bishops and others do For the Fathers say you make the Sacraments only Seales of assurance by which the Spirit worketh inuisibly to strengthen our faith And therfore they call them visible words seales of righteousnesse and tokens of grace That they doe and say thus there is no man doubteth but we are not yet perswaded that this is all or the furthest as you alledge that they saie because vndoubtedly we are assured that they haue learned both to know and to speake otherwise For the Sacraments chiefest force and vertue consisteth in this that they are heauenly ceremonies which God hath sanctified and ordained to be administred in his Church First as markes to know when God doth impart his vitall or sauing grace of Christ vnto all that are capable therof and secondly as meanes conditionall which God requireth in them vnto whom he imparteth grace For doubtles it must needes be a great vnthankfulnesse and easily breed contempt to ascribe only that power to them to be but as seales and that they teach but the minde by other sense as the worde doth by hearing which if it were all what reason hath the Church to bestow any Sacrament vpon Infants who as yet for their yeares are nor capable of any instruction there is therefore of Sacraments vndoubtedly some more excellent and heauenly vse Sacraments by reason of their mixt nature are more diuersly interpreted and disputed of then any other part of Religion besides for that in so great store of properties belonging to the selfe same thing as euery mans wit hath taken hold of some especiall consideration aboue the rest so they haue accordingly giuen their censure of the vse and necessity of them For if respect bee had to the dutie which euery communicant doth vndertake we may cal them truly bōds of our obedience to God strict obligations to the mutuall exercise of Christian charity prouocations to godlines preseruatiōs frō sin memorials of the principal benefits of Christ. If we respect the time of their institutiō they are annexed for euer vnto the new testamēt as other rites were before with the old If we regard the weakenesse that is in vs they are warrants for the more security of our beleefe If we compare the receiuers with those that receiue them not they are works of distinctiō to separate Gods owne from strangers and in those that receiue them as they ought they are tokens of Gods gratious presence whereby men are taught to know what they cannot see For Christ and his holy spirit with all their blessed effects though entring into the soule of man we are not able to apprehend or expresse how doe notwithstanding giue notice of the times when they vse to make their accesse because it pleaseth Almighty God to communicate by sensible
meanes those blessings which are incomprehensible Seeing therfore that grace is a consequent of Sacraments a thing which accompanieth them as their end a benefit which he y t hath receiueth from God himselfe the author of Sacraments not from any other natural or supernatural quality in them it may be heereby both vnderstood that Sacraments are necessary and that the manner of their necessity to life supernaturall is not in al respects as foode vnto naturall life Because they containe in themselues no vitall force or efficacie but they are duties of seruice and worship which vnlesse we performe as the author of grace requireth they are vnprofitable For all receiue not the grace of God which receiue the Sacraments of his grace Neither is it ordinarily his will to bestowe the grace of Sacraments vpon any but by the Sacraments Which grace also they that receiue by Sacraments or with Sacraments receiue it from him and not from them That sauing grace which Christ originally is or hath for the general good of his whole Church by Sacramēts he seuerally deriueth into euery mēber therof They serue as instruments the vse is in our hands the effect is his And this made the Schoolemen and the rest which you are affraide to graunt to say that the Sacraments were not only signes but causes of our iustification Now agent causes we know are of two sorts principall which worketh by the vertue and power of his forme as fire maketh hotte and thus nothing can cause grace but God himselfe Grace being a participation of the diuine nature Instrumentall which worketh not as the other by vertue of his owne proper forme but only by that motion which it hath from the principall and first agent Thus doe Sacraments worke and therfore saith Saint Austin the Sacraments are finished performed and passe away but the vertue of God that worketh by them or with them remaineth Thus for the vse of them the Church hath Gods expresse commandement for the effect his conditionall promise so that without our obedience to the one there is of the other no apparant assurance as contrariwise where the signes and Sacraments of his grace are not either through contempt vnreceiued or receiued with contempt we are not to doubte but that they really giue what they promise and are what they signifie For we take not the Sacraments as it seemeth you doe for bare resemblances or memorials of things absent neither for naked signes and testimonies assuring vs of grace receiued before but as they are indeede and in truth for meanes effectual whereby God when we take the Sacraments deliuereth into our hands that grace auaileable vnto eternall life which grace the Sacraments represent or signifie And yet we acknowledge as Hugo saith that the Sacraments being as he calleth them vessels of grace they cure not of them selues no more then glasses doe the sick but the potions contained in them Neither doth any man say no not the Church of Rome although they be so accused by some of vs that the Sacraments worke of themselues by a vertue resigned vnto them without God meerely of the worked on actiuely but that God worketh by them as by instruments powerfull and thought in his wisdome fittest For doubtles the Church hath authority to vse the word and the Sacraments as powerfull meanes of regeneration both hauing by a diuine ordination a force and vertue to beget faith and therefore iustly amongst all the treasures that God hath left vnto his Church we honor and admire most the holy Sacraments not respecting so much the seruice which we do vnto God in receiuing them as the dignity of that sacred and secret guift which we thereby receiue from God And therfore when our Church saith that Sacraments are not only markes of Christian profession but rather certaine testimonies and effectuall signes of Grace and of the goodwill of God towards vs by which God worketh inuisiblie in vs we thereby conceiue how grace is indeed the very end for which these heauenly mysteries were instituted and besides sundry other properties obserued in them the matter whereof they consist is such as signifieth figureth and representeth their end For surely sacraments are the powerfull instruments of God vnto eternall life For as the naturall life consisteth in the vnion of the body with the soule so the spiritual life in the vnion of the soule with God And for asmuch as there is no vnion of God with man without that meane betweene both which is both nor this participated to vs without the sacraments the vertue must needs bee great that God by these imparteth vnto his Church For they are signes not only signifying but as M. Zanchie saith exhibiting also inuisible grace For God directly affirmeth that he giueth that with the signe which by the signe he representeth In the Sacraments wee acknowledge three things The Word the Element the thing signified by the word and represented by the element and all these vnited yet not by any reall or physicall vnion that one cannot bee receiued without the other but in these the vnion is sacramentall and the order mysticall betwixt the signes and the things signified by an institution from God Whereby it commeth to passe that heauenly and spirituall things by signes bodily and earthly are signified offered and by the vertue of the holy Ghost really exhibited and performed vnto the elect Thus if either the signes or the thing signified be wanting it ceaseth truly to bee a sacrament Neither is grace necessarily tied euer to the externall sacrament for we giue the one and God giueth the other and when both are giuen then is the sacrament faithfully receiued Thus God iustifieth by the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the holy Ghost for this being the effect of his promise the sacraments apply it vnto vs by thus giuing it faith by thus receiuing both being as instruments For God doth iustifie by the sacraments man by faith but God one and the same maketh righteous by both he being the author from whence they both come Therefore it is a branch of beleefe howsoeuer you scoffe at it as omitted in our Creed that sacraments are in their place as Maister Hooker saith no lesse required then beleefe it self For when our Sauior promiseth eternall life it is with this condition as health to Naaman the Syrian Wash and be cleane But you are afraid to say that the Sacraments beget faith although you confesse that they do increase it Surely this is a feare like to the disposition of some melancholie humour where fancie growing strong forceth an auoidance of things oftentimes that are without daunger for to make Sacraments and the word to be ioyned with faith both in his generation and in our iustification is neither to rob faith of his proper office nor to ascribe more vnto the Sacraments then of right belongeth For we are not in anie doubt to affirme
away their soules and therefore there is a more absolute necessity in the Church to giue Baptisme which she can neuer willingly refuse to doe without cruelty then there is in the faithfull to receiue it who how willing soeuer yet alwaies cannot ARTICLE XVII Of Transubstantiation SEeing the Church hath nothing left vnto it either more powerful or more reuerently to be esteemed then the holy Sacraments it hath bin the policie of Sathan from the beginning to darken the cleere light of these with infinit clouds of vnnecessary questions wholy impertinent and vnprofitable to that cause So that out of due consideration of this great euill wisemen haue thought it more fit by application to make vse of that which concernes them in this kinde rather then by curious inquisition to desire to finde out what concerneth them not The whole benefit which the Church hath is from Christ and this by no other meanes but by participation For Christ to be what he is is not to be what he is to the Church but only by a participation of all that he is as a mediator betwixt him and vs. This we cal the mutuall inward hold which Christ hath of vs and we of him in such sort that each possesseth other by way of speciall interest properly and inherent copulation for what soeuer we are eternally according to his election wee are actually no longer in God then onely from the time of our actuall adoption into the body of his true Church into the fellowship of his children wee are therefore adopted sonnes of God to eternall life by participation of the onely Sonne of God whose life is the welspring cause of ours This participation besides the presence of Christs person and besides the mysticall copulation thereof with the parts and members of his whole Church importeth a true actuall influence of grace whereby the life which we liue according to godlinesse is his and from him wee receiue those perfections wherein our eternal happinesse consisteth This is partly by imputation of his merit partly by habituall and reall infusion of his grace the first whereof as the ground of all the rest being the Spirit maketh a blessed vnion of all those howsoeuer distinguisht by place or time who mystically belong vnto that body and this being the common vnion of all Saints we fitly terme the communion of Saints That of imputation maketh vs al sonnes in which number how farre so euer one may seeme to excel another yet touching this that all are sons they are all equals some happily better sonnes then the rest are but none anie more a sonne then another Neither doth this participation include anie grosse surmise of any mixture of the substance of his flesh with ours but is actually deriued vnto his Church by the vse of his holy Sacraments Wherein Baptisme doth chalenge vnto it self the inchoation of those graces the consummation whereof dependeth vpon other mysteries For the grace which we haue by the holy Eucharist doth not begin but continue life and therefore no man receiueth it before Baptisme because nothing is capable of nourishment that doth not liue Now life being propounded to all men as their end those which by Baptisme haue laid the foundation and attained the first beginning of a new life haue in the Eucharist foode prescribed and giuen for the continuance of life in them In both the same thing being affoorded which is a participation of Christ in our infancie we are incorporated into Christ and by Baptisme receiue the grace of his Spirit without any sense or feeling of the gift which God bestoweth In the Eucharist we so receiue the gift of God that we know by grace what the grace is which God giueth vs. The degrees of our increase in holinesse and vertue we see and can iudge of them we vnderstand that the strength of our life begun in Christ is Christ that his flesh is meat and his bloud drinke not by surmised imagination but truly euen so truly that through faith we perceiue in the body and bloud sacramentally presented the verie taste of eternall life the grace of the Sacrament is heere as the food which wee eate and drinke And howsoeuer it was to bee feared that by the meanes of some men should be brought to account of this Sacrament but only as of a shadow destitute emptie and voide of Christ yet now at length for any thing that I can see all sides are growne as it is fit to a generall agreement concerning that which alone is materiall namely the reall participation of Christ and of life in his body and bloud by meanes of this Sacrament The maner how which ought to be the least part of our consideration is in this question the greatest difference So that considering the small successe that bitter contentions haue had in this cause it were to be wished that men would giue themselues more to meditate with silence what they haue by the sacrament and in humilitie lesse to dispute of the maner how This being the true difference betwixt Christes disciples and others that the one because they enioyed not disputed the other disputed not because they inioyed For doubtlesse this heauenly food is giuen for the satisfying of our emptie soules and not for the exercising of our curious and subtill wits It is sufficient that the sacraments reallie exhibit what they promise though they are not really or doe not really containe in themselues that grace which with them or by them it pleaseth God to bestow Now the first by all sides being granted why doe we vainly saith Maister Hooker trouble our selues with so fierce contentions whether by consubstantiation or els by Transubstantiation the sacrament it selfe be first possest with Christ or no a thing which no way can either further or hinder vs howsoeuer it stand because our participation of Christ in the sacrament dependeth vpon the cooperation of his omnipotent power which maketh it his body and bloud to vs whether with change or without alteration of the element such as they imagine we need not greatly to care or enquire for That being admitted wherein all agree which is a reall presence why should not the rest in question rather be left as superfluous then vrged as necessarie This is that which being vttered by Maister Hooker out of great wisdome argueth as you surmise that hee maketh light of the doctrin of Transubstantiation whereas the reuerend Fathers of our Church doe so much detest it and that so many blessed Martyrs haue suffered death for denial thereof Whether the doctrine of Transubstantiation be true or false howsoeuer it is plaine what Maister Hooker thought yet that is no part of the contention at this time The matter in question betwixt you and him is only this Whether it be not curiosity to contend for the manner how seeing all sides are agreed that the thing is For as in those who were to bee cured by our Sauiour Christ we
ought not curiously to enquire howe the hem of his garment had such vertue but faithfully to beleeue that it was able to affoord health so neither in this need the church to be inquisitiue after what maner Christ presenteth himselfe but truely to beleeue that he is there present Which because some irreligious men at the first doubted men haue beene driuen to find out these reasonable satisfactions or rather satisfactions to humane reason from his omnipotencie Transubstantiation Consubstantiation or such like whereas indeed we know that in many mysteries of our faith it is sufficient to beleeue the thing though wee cannot comprehend the meanes how Of this kind saith Bellarmine is the Trinitie of persons in the vnitie of essence Christ to bee both God and man the same bodies in number to rise againe Christ really to be in the Eucharist and such like which by reason of our shallow vnderstanding mans weaknesse is not able to comprehend For if ignorance bee in these things that are below then how much more in those things that are aboue And if Mephibosheth whē he came vnto Dauids table accounted himselfe in all humility so farre vnworthie what ought our contemplation to be but of his mercie and our want of desert when we shall come to bee partakers of so inestimable fauours For if the Bethsamites were punished for looking into the Arke what can we expect to be the recompence of our vndiscreete follie Is it not then an aduise needfull which Maister Hooker giueth and you mislike rather to seek how to receiue it worthily then to desire to know how it is present with vs For the one importeth a duty that is necessary and the other bewrayeth a desire that is superfluous in the one we performe what God hath commanded and in the other affect what he hath forbiddē Neither is this to make Transubstantiation for deniall whereof so many as you say haue died any light matter but rather to shew the great depth of the mystery and the small profit that is reaped by the searching of it for seeing it is on all sides plainely confest first that this Sacrament is a true and reall participation of Christ who thereby imparteth himselfe euen his whole entire person as a mysticall head vnto euery soule that receiueth him and that euery such receiuer doth thereby incorporate or vnite himselfe vnto Christ as a mysticall member of him yea of them also whom he acknowledgeth to be his owne Secondly that to whom the person of Christ is thus communicated to them he giueth by the same Sacrament his holy Spirit to sanctify them as it sanctifieth him which is their head Thirdly that what merit force or vertue soeuer there is in this sacrificed body and bloud we freely fully and wholy haue it by this sacrament Fourthly that the effect thereof in vs is a reall transmutation of our soules and bodies from sinne to righteousnesse from death and corruption to immortalitie and life Fiftly that because the Sacrament being of it selfe but a corruptible and earthlie creature must needes be thought an vnlikely instrument to worke so admirable effects in man we are therfore to rest our selues altogether vpon the strength of his glorious power who is able and will bring to passe that the bread and cup which he giueth vs shal be truly the thing he promiseth Now seeing there are but three differing opinions for the manner of it Sacramentaries Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation al do pleade Gods omnipotencie the first to that alteration which the rest coufesse he accomplisheth the patrons of transubstantiation ouer and besides that to the chang of one substance into another the followers of cōsubstantiation to the kneading vp of both substances as it were in one lumpe and that in this variety the mind which loueth truth seeketh comfort out of holy mysteries hath not perhaps the leasure perhaps not the wit nor capacity to tread out so endlesse mazes as the intricate disputes of this cause haue led men into how should a vertuously disposed minde better resolue with it selfe then thus Variety of iudgements and opinions argueth obscurity in those things where about they differ but that which all parts receiue for certaine that which euery one hauing sifted is by no one denyed or doubted of must needes be matter of infallible truth whereas therefore there are but three expositions made of This is my body the first this is in it selfe before participation really and truly the natural substance of my body by reason of the coexistence which my omnipotent body hath with the sanctified element of breade which is the Lutherans interpretation The second this is in it selfe and before participation the very true natural substance of my body by force of that deity which by the words of consecration abolisheth the substance of bread and substituteth in the place thereof my body which is the construction of the Church of Rome The last this hallowed food through concurrence of diuine power is in verity and truth vnto faithfull receiuers instrumentally a cause of that mysticall participation whereby as I make my selfe wholy theirs so I giue them in hand an actuall possession of all such sauing grace as my sacrificed body can yeeld and all their soules do presently need this is to them and in them my bodie Of these three rehearsed interpretations the last hath in it nothing but what the rest do all approue and acknowledg to be most true nothing but that which the words of Christ are on all sides confest to inforce nothing but that which the Church of God hath alwayes thought necessarie nothing but that which alone is sufficient for euerie Christian man to beleeue concerning the vse and force of this Sacrament finally nothing but that wherewith the writings of all antiquity are consonant and all Christian confessions agreeable And as truth in what kinde soeuer is by no kind of truth gainsaid so the mind which resteth it selfe on this is neuer troubled with those perplexities which the other doe both finde by meanes of so great contradiction betweene their opinions the true principles of reason grounded vpon experience nature and sense What moueth vs to argue how life should be bread our duty being but to take what is offred and most assuredly to rest perswaded of this that if we can but eate we are safe Such as loue piety will as much as in them lyeth know all things that God commandeth but especially the duties of seruice which they owe vnto him as for his darke and hidden workes they preferre as becommeth them in such cases simplicity of faith before that knowledge which curiously sifting what it should adore and disputing too boldly of that which the wit of man can not search chilleth for the most parte all warmth of zeale and bringeth soundnes of beleefe many times into great hazard Let it therefore be sufficient for me presenting my selfe at the Lords table to know
flattery to acquite them frō al imperfections in that kind euen vpon the religiō it self which had no more affinity with the faults that were in them then they had with the framing of that religion which proceeded first from no weaker author then God himselfe The last is y e wrong which our church hath euen frō those who vndoubtedly would seem in their zealous affection exceedingly to fauour both The ground of which wrong proceedeth only from hence that those persons y ◠gouernment which place time and other necessities caused them to frame ought without exception to be an absolute patterne to al the Churches that were round about them In so much that that gouerment which was at the first so weake that without the staffe of their approbation who were not subiect vnto it themselues it had not brought others vnder subiection began now to challenge an vniuersal obedience and enter into open conflict with the most Churches of Europe but especially with those which in desperate extremity had bin releiuers of it Thus because some few who neither in quality nor place were much distant from Geneua in opinion of Maister Caluin were content to follow their forme of gouernment others not weighing the riches of that mercy which had made their own Church too great and honorable to be framed to so narrow poore ascantling began stormingly to repine that presently al things were not so bared to y e patterne of those Churches which in their opinions were most reformed So that whatsoeuer any man spake or wrote in disallowance of that to be our modell to beframed by or truly to the laying open of those conflictes conquered with great policy which Maister Caluin had in the first establishing of that gouernment all sounded harshly in the eares of these men and was plainly construed to be a direct disgracing of Maister Caluin which could be nothing else as you say but a discouery of a popish and vnsound affection Where before I answere to this I must first tell them that if they should with the like importunity seek to frame vs to the exāple of the primitiue church in respect of gouernment we should tell them that Israel are not bound to the same things in Canaan that they were in the desert nor that those reuerend Fathers 〈◊〉 Bishops who succeed in that apostolick charg are not for their maintenance and state though the authority be all one to be framed to that pouerty which was the portion of those who planted and gouerned the first Churches This being then no such necessity but that the Church may lawfully vse euen those benefits wherwith God hath blessed her setting her feete in a large roume why should men without cause recall her back againe to her daies of mourning or feeding her with the bread of teares coupe her vp in those narrow limites of subiection and want seeing God in his mercy hath prouided for her now the same gouerment to be administred in a richer manner Now how far all men are bounde to speake of those whom they reuerence and loue and yet in some cases do thinke not safe to follow this is that error that hath deceiued many For from hence the priuate ouersights of those who how famous and excellent soeuer were but men haue growne by the violence of some of their followers to be stifly maintained as vndoubted truthes as though there were no difference betwixt being a man not alwaies erring and not erring at all The one is a worthy happines graunted to some few the other a speciall priuiledge not permitted to any meerely man no not to Maister Caluin himselfe This serueth to teach vs that for those things which we doe and beleeue wee haue better warrant then mans inuention and that no man how excellent soeuer except Christ may or ought precisely to be followed in all that he doth For thus while we ad vnto men that honor a great part whereof peraduenture they deserue we detract frō that truth which we make no where to be found but in those who inseparably are followers of their steps That Maister Caluin who is made by you the vnpleasing subiect of this article was as Maister Hooker termeth him the wisest man incomparably that euer the French Church did inioy since the hower it inioyed him I thinke there is no man of any reading that much doubteth and surely for learning and vnwearied paines in his calling men of best iudgement and vnderstanding would be ready enough to giue him that which belonged vnto him if some priuate men out of their loue and zeale did not too greatly ouerlode him with it For doubtlesse we should be iniurious to vertue it selfe if we did derogate from them whom their industry hath made great Two things there are of principall moment which haue deseruedly procured him honor throughout all the world the one his exceeding paines in composing the Institution of Christian religion from which most haue gleaned that haue written since the other his no lesse industrious trauailes in the exposition of holy scripture in which two things whosoeuer they were that after him bestowed their labour he gained the aduantage of preiudice against them if they gainsaide and of glory aboue them if they consented Now out of this so hardly are we taught to keepe a meane proceeded this intollerable fault that many were desirous in an opinion of his worth that all Churches together with his learning shoulde swallow vp without making choice whatsoeuer other imperfections remained in him So that of what account Peter Lumbard was in the church of Rome whom for singular reuerence they called the Maister of the Sentences of the same and more amongst the Preachers of reformed Churches Maister Caluin was And they onely were iudged the perfectest diuines which were skilfullest in Caluins writings His bookes almost were reputed the very Canon for controuersies to be iudged by To this extremity and far greater the partiall affection of loue caried a number of wise men who from approbation growing to strong praises frō praises to admiration frō admiration to a tyrannous opinion that it was wholy vnlawfull in any thing to dissent from him So that now it was almost as necessarie to dispraise him as to commend him because what with discretion the Church before might haue vsed with much profit she scarce now could admit without a generall suspition thorough all Christendome that we durst not in any thing dissent from him And doubtlesse in some weake minds that which at first was but praise in the end was not many steps short of idolatrie So that the practise of Ezechias in breaking to peeces that serpent of brasse wherunto the children of Israel had burnt incense was not altogether vnfit to bee vsed in this case For in kingdomes it is high time either to cut off or disgrace those whom the multitude are willing to puffe vp when neglecting their owne ruine they are content to burie
that the age present is corrected when the age past is iustly rebuked for the same fault And there cannot be a better meanes to cure our disorder at home then by discouering the effects that it hath wrought abroade Now that which principally discouereth that you are not such as in the title of this letter you terme your selues is that you make not Caluin but Christ himselfe the author of this discipline who as you say raised vp diuers men in diuers places as Oecolampadius Swinglius Suychius Philip Bucer Capito and Miconius and â—aught them by the same spirit out of the same holy scripture the same doctrine and commandement of truth and righteousnes In this you bewray what you are and how truly you fauour our present state in giuing so honorable testimony of that Church gouernment which hath bin so much oppugned by the Fathers of our Church Nay so much misliked by the Queene her self as appeareth by her most eloqueÌ„t speech against those reformers And I must needes tell you that those who haue taken vpon them the defence thereof are only able to confirme it not by places of scripture but by poore and marueâ—lous sleight coniectures collected froÌ„ them I need not giue instance in any one sentence so alledged for that I thinke the instance of any alledged otherwise not easily to be giuen A very strange thing sure it were that such a discipline as you speake of should be taught by Christ and his Apostles in the word of God and no Church euer hath found it out nor receiued it till this present time contrariwise the gouerment against which you bend yourselues to be obserued euery where through all generations and ages of the Christian world no Church euer perceiuing the word of God to be against it Finde but one Church one is not much vpon the face of the whole earth that hath bin ordered by your discipline or hath not bin ordered by ours that is to say by Episcopall regiment sithence the time that the blessed Apostles were here conuersant But you complaine of it as an iniurie that men should be willed to seeke for examples and paterns of gouerment in any of those times that haue bin before It is to small purpose that some daughter Churches haue learned to speake their mothers dialect In one word to conclude this article such is naturally our affection that whom in great things we mightily admire in them wee are not perswaded willingly that any thing should be amisse The reason wherof is that as dead flies putrefie the ointment of the apothecary so a little folly him that is in estimation for wisdome This in euery profession hath too much authorised the iudgments of a few this with Germans hath caused Luther and with many other Churches Caluin to preuaile in all things But thou O Lord art only holy thou only art iust who permittest the worthiest vessels of thy glory to be in some things blemished with the staine of humane frailty euen for this cause least we should esteem of any man aboue that which behooueth ARTICLE XX. Of Schoolemen Philosophie and Popery PHilosophie telleth vs if it be lawfull for me to vse so much Philosophie that naturall motions in the end are swifter but violet are more slowe and therefore heauy things the lower they descend doe moue faster and by so much also they moue slower by how much they ascend higher It seemeth that the accusations in this letter were such as had their first motion rather from the violence of some affection then from any naturall inclination to vnderstand the truth For surely though I take not vpon me to censure any man being my selfe clothed with so many wants yet in my weake opinion those that would desire are solution of such things as ouerthrow the foundation of the Church amongst vs which in your leâ—ter you professe should hardly esteeme the right vse of Philosophers and schoole learning to be an accusation of that kind So that whereas at the first your obiections seemed to moue with a greater strength now in the end they growe weake like the stroke of a man that is halfe tyred But I haue final reason to complaine of this which is mine owne aduantage for without the armour of other learning only in the strength of reason I duâ—st incounter a stronger man then my selfe in this wherein you accuse Maister Hooker that the right vse of Schoolemen and Philosophers is no hindrance or disgrace to true diuinity And therefore whereas you charge him that in all his discourse for the most part Aristotle and the ingenious Schoolemen almost in all points haue some finger and that reason is highly set vp against holy Scripture and such like I verely perswade my selfe that herein he hath committed no vnlawfull thing For those schoole imployments are acknowledged by graue and wise men not vnprofitablie to haue bin inuented the most approued for learning and iudgment doe vse them without blame the vse of them hath bin well liked by those that haue written in this kind the quality of the readers of his bookes though not of the most yet of those whom the matter concerned most was such as he could not but thinke them of capacity very sufficient to conceiue harder learning then he hath vsed any the cause he had in hand did in my opinion necessarily require those schoolemen and philosophers that he hath vsed for where a cause is strangely mistaken for want of distinctions what other way was there for him but by distinctions to lay it open That so it might appeare vnto all men whether it were consonant to truth or no and although you and I peraduenture being vsed to a more familiar and easie learning thinke it vnmeete to admit approoue or frequent the schooles yet our opinions are no Canons for Maister Hooker And although you being troubled in minde doe thinke that his writings seeme like fetters and manacles yet no doubt he hath met both with readers and hearers more calmely affected which haue iudged otherwise But it is a strange presumption in my opinion for priuate men such as professe themselues to be but common Christians which your writings besides your owne confession doe make manifest to prescribe a forme either of writing or teaching so plaine and familiar or rather indeed so empty and shallow that no man may doubte how vnlearned soeuer to giue his censure Must all knowledge be humbled so low that it must stoope to the capacity of the meanest reader But the Fathers say you haue misliked it Indeed I confesse there is an ouermuch vse which is euill in all things where there is not an absolute necessity Besides things comparatiuely spoken in regard of true vnderstanding of the scriptures is no rule for warrant that they are to be misliked simply For Stapleton himselfe confesseth in his cautions of expounding the scripture that the Schoolemen haue not a certaine and infallible authority of
throughly to be instructed in that which maketh skilful against guile and to bee armed with that true and sincere Philosophie which doth teach against that deceitfull and vaine which spoileth But haue not the greatest troublers of the Church bin the greatest admirers of humane reason Hath their deep profound skil in secular learning made theÌ„ the more obedient to the truth and not armed them rather against it Indeed many great philosophers haue bin very vnsound in beleefe yet many sound in beleef haue bin great Philosophers Could secular knowledge bring the one sort vnto y e loue of christian faith nor Christian faith the other sort out of loue with secular knowledg The harme that heretikes did was to such as by their weakenes were not able to discerne betweene sound and deceitfull reasoning and the remedie against it was euer the skill of the ancient Fathers to discouer it In so much that Cresconius the heretike complained greatly of Saint Austin as you do of Maister Hooker for being too full of logicall subtilties But the word of God in it selfe is absolute exact and perfect and therefore needlesse to adde any humane or schoole learning for those weapons are like the armour of Saul rather cumbersome then needfull and with these hath Maister Hooker filled his writings I answer there is in the World no kind of knowledge whereby any part of truth is seen but wee iustly account it precious yea that principall truth in comparison whereof all other truth is vile may receiue from it some kind of light whether it be that Egyptian and Chaldean wisdome mathematicall wherewith Moses and Daniel were furnished or that naturall morall and ciuill wisdome wherein Salomon excelled all men or that rationall and oratoriall wisedome of the Grecians which the Apostle Saint Paul brought from Tharsus or that Iudaicall which he learned in Ierusalem sitting at the feete of Gamaliel to detract from the dignity thereof were to iniure euen God himselfe who being that light which none can approch vnto hath sent out these lights whereof we are capable as so many sparkles resembling the bright fountain from which they rise And therfore vnto he word of God being in respect of that end wherunto God ordeined it perfect exact and absolute we doe not adde any thing as a supplement of any maime or defect therein but as a necessary instrument without which wee coulde not reape by the scriptures perfection that fruite and benefit which it yeeldeth In respect of al which places alledged it must needs seem strange that any for the vse of schoole diuinity and humane learning should incur that hard suspition which you seeke to fasten vpon M. Hooker namely that he is a priuie subtil enimie to the whole state of our Church that he would haue men to deeme her Maiâ—stie to haue done ill in abolishing the Romish religion that he would be glad to see the back-slyding of all reformed Churches or that he meanes to bring in a confusion of all things a tolleration of all religions these and such like are the heauie conclusions that follow the vse of schoolemen and secular learning and the least of those euils which are likely in your opinion to be deriued into the heart of our Church and common wealth from that dangerous poyson which is conteined in Maister Hookers writings Surely it is great pitie that al men should thinke what they list or speake openly what they think but doubtlesse it did little moue him wheÌ„ you say that which a greater theÌ„ you certainely wil gainsay His words in this cause haue seemed to you as an arrow sticking in a thigh of flesh and your own as a child whereof you must needes be deliuered by an hower but deliberation would haue giuen peraduenture more ripenes which now by haste hath as a thing borne out of time beene small ioye to you that begat it Therefore I wil conclude with the speech of the son of Sirach He that applieth his minde to the law of the most high keepeth the sayings of famous men entreth in also into the secrets of darke sentences he seeketh out the mystery of graue sentences and exerciseth himselfe in dark parables though he be dead he shall leaue a greater fame theÌ„ a thousand Doubtles this is verified in him of whom you haue published vnto the world so hard a censure ARTICLE XXI The stile and maner of writing AS it is an honour to performe that which is excellent so it is a vertue to approue that which is excellently performed where to be wanting in the first may be slouth or ignorance but to be wanting in the latter must needes be malice Fewe there are or haue beene in any age which reaping the due recompence of their labour haue done that good which they ought and haue not receiued that reward which they ought not Wise men haue thought no otherwise but that this common lot might be their portion yet the feare thereof could not haue that power ouerall to make them in that respect wholy vnprofitably silent Knowing that euen that which they suffred for well doing was their honour and that which they did well and suffred for it was others shame This vice in my opinion is not more vsuall with anie then with vs who by reason of the corrupt quality thereof haue imposed a silence to a great number who by their writings doubtlesse would haue bin verie singular ornaments vnto Gods Church whereas strangers of lesse merit haue a twofold aduantage The one that we read their writings without preiudice of their persons the other that with a desire of nouelty we greedily deuoure as we do fashions whatsoeuer we think to be done by strangers this onely in all things how excellent soeuer being cause enough of dislike that it is home borne but more iustly of silence that it is disliked So that when we haue sifted whatsoeuer is likely to be reproued euen the last thing to be examined is the stile itselfe Thus haue you dealt with Maister Hooker whom as in all other things you haue set vpon the racke so in this you haue taken vpon you far more theÌ„ beseemeth either the modesty or the small learning that is vsually found in such as professe theÌ„selues to be but common Christians For certainely to iudge of a stile is not the least point of learning though it be the least known but peremptorily to dislike which you do is more then only to iudge For this is but to deliuer a speciall verdict as we thinke our selues but the other is to take vpon vs exactly to tell what the law is Some I haue seene excellently writing vpon the variety of stiles and the best in my opinion is one Pascalius who was like enough to iudge well because he himselfe wrote an excellent stile yet surely there is in no point of learning greater varietie of tastes then there is in this some preferre