in this case ye are all bound for the time to suspend and in otherwise doing ye offend against God by troubling his Church without any just or necessary cause Be it that there are some reasons inducing you to think hardly of our Laws Are those reasons demonstrative are they necessary or but meer probabilities onely An Argument necessary and demonstrative is such as being proposed unto any man and understood she minde cannot chase but invardly assent Any one such reason dischargeth I grant the Gonscience and setteth it at full liberty For the publick approbation given by the Body of this whole Church unto those things which are established doth make it but probable that they are good And therefore unto a necessary proofe that they are not good it must give place But if the skilfullest amongst you can shew that all the Books ye have hitherto written be able to afford any one argument of this nature let the instance be given As for probabilities What thing was there ever set down so agreeable with sound reason but some probable shew against it might be made It is meet that when publickly things are received and have taken place General Obedience thereunto should cease to be exacted in case this or that private person led with some probable conceit should make open Protostation Peter or John disallow them and pronounce them naught In which case your answer will be That concerning the Laws of our Church they are not onely condemned in the opinion of a private man but of thousands year and even of those amongst which divers are in publick charge and authority At though when publick consent of the whole hath established any thing every mans judgment being thereunto compared were not private howsoever his calling be to some kinde of publick charge So that of Peace and Quietness there is not any way possible unless the probable voice of every intire Society or Body Politick over-rule all private of like nature in the same Body Which thing effectually proveth That God being Author of Peace and not of Confusion in the Church must needs be Author of those mens peaceable resolutions who concerning these things have determined with themselves to think and do as the Church they are of decreeth till they see necessary cause enforcing them to the contrary 7. Nor is mine own intent any other in these several Books of discourse then to make it appear unto you that for the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Land we are led by great reason to observe them and ye by no necessity bound to impugne them It is no part of my secret meaning to draw you hereby into hatred or to set upon the face of this cause any fairer gloss then the naked truth doth afford but my whole endeavor is to resolve the Conscience and to shew as near as I can what in this Controversie the Heart is to think if it will follow the light of sound and sincere judgment without either cloud of prejudice or mist of passionate affection Wherefore seeing that Laws and Ordinances in particular whether such as we observe or such as your selves would have established when the minde doth sift and examine them it must needs have often recourse to a number of doubts and questions about the nature kindes and qualities of Laws in general whereof unless it be throughly informed there will appear no certainty to stay our perswasion upon I have for that cause set down in the first place an Introduction on both sides needful to be considered declaring therein what Law is how different kindes of Laws there are and what force they are of according unto each kinde This done because ye suppose the Laws for which ye strive are found in Scripture but those not against which we strive And upon this surmise are drawn to hold it as the very main Pillar of your whole cause That Scripture ought to be the onely rule of all our actions and consequently that the Church Orders which we observe being not commanded in Scripture are offensive and displeasant unto God I have spent the second Book in sifting of this point which standeth with you for the first and chiefest principle whereon ye build Whereunto the next in degree is That as God will have always a Church upon Earth while the World doth continue and that Church stand in need of Government of which Government it behoveth himself to be both the Author and Teacher So it cannot stand with duty That man should ever presume in any wise to change and alter the same and therefore That in Scripture there must of necessity be found some particular Form of Ecclesiastical Polity the Laws whereof admit not any kinde of alteration The first three Books being thus ended the fourth proceedeth from the general Grounds and Foundations of your cause unto your general Accusations against us as having in the orders of our Church for so you pretend Corrupted the right Form of Church Polity with manifold Popish Rites and Ceremonies which certain Reformed Churches have banished from amongst them and have thereby given us such example as you think we ought to follow This your Assertion hath herein drawn us to make search whether these be just Exceptions against the Customs of our Church when ye plead that they are the same which the Church of Rome hath or that they are not the same which some other Reformed Churches have devised Of those four Books which remain and are bestowed about the Specialties of that Cause which little in Controversie the first examineth the causes by you alledged wherefore the publick duties of Christian Religion as our Prayers our Sacraments and the rest should not be ordered in such sort as with us they are nor that power whereby the persons of men are consecrated unto the Ministry be disposed of in such manner as the Laws of this Church do allow The second and third are concerning the power of Iurisdiction the one Whether Laymen such as your Governing Elders are ought in all Congregations for ever to be invested with that power The other Whether Bishops may have that power over other Pastors and therewithal that honor which with us they have And because besides the Power of Order which all consecrated persons have and the Power of Iurisdiction which neither they all nor they onely have There is a third power a Power of Ecclesiastical Dominion communicable as we think unto persons not Ecclesiastical and most fit to be restrained unto the Prince our Soveraign Commander over the whole Body Politick The eighth Book we have allotted unto this Question and have sifted therein your Objections against those preeminences Royal which thereunto appertain Thus have I laid before you the Brief of these my Travels and presented under your view the Limbs of that Cause litigious between us the whole intire Body whereof being thus compact it shall be no troublesome thing for any man to finde each particular Controversies resting place
cause her merciful disposition to take so much the more delight in saving others whom the like necessity should press What in this behalf hath been done towards Nations abroad the parts of Christendom most afflicted can best testifie That which especially concerneth our selves in the present matter we treat of is the state of Reformed Religion a thing at her coming to the Crown even raised as it were by miracle from the dead a thing which we so little hoped to see that even they which beheld it done searcely believed their own senses at the first beholding Yet being then brought to pass thus many years it hath continued standing by no other wordly mean but that one onely hand which erected it that hand which as no kinde of imminent danger could cause at the first to withhold it self so neither have the practises so many so bloody following since been ever able to make weary Nor can we say in this case so justly that Aaron and Hur the Ecclesiastical and Civil States have sustained the hand which did lift it self to Heaven for them as that Heaven it self hath by this hand sustained them no aid or help having thereunto been ministred for performance of the Work of Reformation other then such kinde of help or aid as the Angel in the Prophet Zechariah speaketh of saying Neither by an army nor strength but by my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts Which Grace and Favor of Divine Assistance having not in one thing or two shewed it self nor for some few days or years appeared but in such sort so long continued our manifold sins and transgressions striving to the contrary What can we less thereupon conclude then that God would at leastwise by tract of time teach the World that the thing which he blesseth defendeth keepeth so strangely cannot chuse but be of him Wherefore if any refuse to believe us disputing for the Verity of Religion established let then believe God himself thus miraculously working for it and with life even for ever and ever unto that Glorious and Sacred Instrument whereby he worketh OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity BOOK V. Concerning their Fourth Assertion That touching several Publick Duties of Christian Religion there is amongst us much Superstition retained in them and concerning Persons which for performance of those Duties are endued with the Power of Ecclesiastical Order our Laws and Proceedings according thereunto are many ways herein also corrupted The Matter contained in this Fifth Book 1. TRue Religion is the Root of all true Vertues and the stay of all Well-ordered Commonwealths 2. The must extream opposite to true Religion is affected Atheism 3. Of Superstition and the Rest thereof either misguided zeal or Ignorant fear of Divine glory 4. Of the Redress of Superstition in Gods Church and concerning the Question of this Book 5. Four General Propositions demanding that which may reasonably be granted concerning Matters of outward Form in the Exercise of true Religion And fifthly Of a Rule and safe not reasonable in these Cases 6. The first Proposition touching Iudgment what things are convenient in the outward publick ordering of Church affairs 7. The second Proposition 8. The third Proposition 9. The fourth Proposition 10. The Rule of Mens private spirit not safe in these Cases to be followed 11. Plans for the Publick Service of God 12. The Solemnity of Erecting Churches condemned the Hallowing and Dedicating of them scanned by the Adversary 13. Of the names whereby we distinguish our Churches 14. Of the Fashion of our Churches 15. The Sumptuousness of Churches 16. What Holiness and Vertue we ascribe to the Church more than other places 17. Their pretence that would have Churches utterly vazed 18. Of Publick Teaching or Preaching and the first kinde thereof Catechizing 19. Of Preaching by reading publickly the Books of holy Scripture and concerning supposed Untruths in those Translations of Scripture which we allow to be read as also of the choice which we make in reading 20. Of Preaching by the Publick Reading of other prositable Instructions and concerning Books Apâ—cryphal 21. Of Preaching by Sermons and whether Sermons be the onely ordinary way of Teaching whereby man are brought to the saving knowledge of Gods Truth 22. What they attribute to Sermons onely and what we to Reading also 23. Of Prayer 24. Of Publick Prayer 25. Of the Form of Common Prayer 26. Of them which like not to have any Set Form of Common Prayer 27. Of them who allowing a Set Form of Prayer yet allow not ours 28. The Form of our Liturgy too near the Papists too far different from that of other Reformed Churches as they pretend 29. Attire belonging to the Service of God 30. Of gesture in Praying and of different places chosen to that purpose 31. Easiness of Praying after our Form 32. The length of our Service 33. Instead of such Prayers as the Primitive Churches have used and those that be Reformed now use we have they say divers short cuts or shreaddings rather Wishes them Prayers 34. Lessons intermingled with our Prayers 35. The number of our Prayers for Earthly things and our oft rehearsing of the Lords Prayer 36. The People saying after the Minister 37. Our manner of Reading the Psalms otherwise then the rest of the Scripture 38. Of Musick with Psalms 39. Of Singing or Saying Psalms and other parts of Common Prayer wherein the People and the Minister answer one another by course 40. Of Magnificat Benedictus and Nune Dimittis 41. Of the Litany 42. Of Athanasus Creed and Gloria Patri 43. Our want of particular Thanksgiving 44. In some things the Matter of our Prayer as they affirm is unsound 45. When thou hast overcome the sharpness of Death thou didst open the Kingdom of Heaven unto all Believers 46. Touching Prayer for Deliverance from Sudden Death 47. Prayer for these things which we for our worthiness dare not ask God for the worthiness of his Sin would vouchsafe to grant 48. Prayer to be evermore delivered from all Adversity 49. Prayer that all Men may finde Mercy and if the will of God that all Men might be Saved 50. Of the Name the Author and the force of Sacraments which force consisteth in this That God hath ordained them as means to make us partakers of him in Christ and of life through Christ. 51. That God is in Christ by the Personal Incarnation of the Son who is very God 52. The Misinterpretations which Heresit hath made of the manner how God and Man are united in one Christ. 53. That by the union of the one with the other Nature in Christ there groweth neither gain nor loss of Essential Properties to either 54. What Christ hath obtained according to the Flesh by the union of his Flesh with Dâ—iey 55. Of the Personal presence of Christ every where and in what sense it may be granted he is every where present according to the Flesh. 56. The union or mutual Participation which is between Christ
Superstition that riseth voluntarily and by degrees which are hardly discerned mingling it self with the Rites even of very Divine Service done to the onely true God must be considered of as a creeping and incroaching evil an evil the first beginnings whereof are commonly harmless so that it proveth onely then to be an evil when some farther accident doth grow unto it or it self come unto farther growth For in the Church of God sometimes it cometh to pass as in over-battle grounds the Fertile disposition whereof is good yet because it exceedeth due proportion it bringeth forth abundantly through too much rankness things less profitable whereby that which principally it should yield being either prevented in place or defrauded of nourishment faileth This if so large a discourse were necessary might be exemplified even by heaps of Rites and Customs now superstitious in the greatest part of the Christian World which in their first original beginnings when the strength of vertuous devout or charitable affection bloomed them no man could justly have condemned as evil 4. But howsoever Superstition doth grow that wherein unsounder times have done amiss the better ages ensuing must rectifie as they may I now come therefore to those accusations brought against us by Pretenders of Reformation the first in the rank whereof is such That if so be the Church of England did at this day therewith as justly deserve to be touched as they in this cause have imagined it doth rather would I exhort all sorts to seek pardon even with tears at the hands of God then meditate words of defence for our doings to the end that men might think favorably of them For as the case of this World especially now doth stand what other stay or succor have we to lean unto saving the testimony of our Conscience and the comfort we take in this that we serve the living God as near as our Wits can reach unto the knowledge thereof even according to his own will and do therefore trust that his mercy shall be our safeguard against those enraged Powers abroad which principally in that respect are become our Enemies But sith no man can do ill with a good Conscience the consolation which we herein seem to finde is but a meer deceitful pleasing of our selves in errour which at the length must needs turn to our greater grief if that which we do to please God most be for the manifold defects thereof offensive unto him For so it is judged our Prayers our Sacraments our Fasts our Times and Places of Publick meeting together for the worship and service of God our Marriages our Burials our Functions Elections and Ordinations Ecclesiastical almost whatsoever we do in the exercise of our Religion according to Laws for that purpose established all things are some way or other thought faulty all things stained with Superstition Now although it may be the wiser sort of men are not greatly moved hereat considering how subject the very best things have been always unto cavil when Wits possessed either with disdain or dislike thereof have set them up as their mark to shoot at safe notwithstanding it were not therefore to neglect the danger which from hence may grow and that especially in regard of them who desiring to serve God as they ought but being not so skilful as in every point to unwinde themselves where the shares of glosing speech do lye to intangle them are in minde not a little troubled when they hear so bitter invectives against that which this Church hath taught them to reverence as holy to approve as lawful and to observe as behoveful for the exercise of Christian duty It seemeth therefore at least for their sakes very meet that such as blame us in this behalf be directly answered and they which follow us informed plainly in the Reasons of that we do On both sides the end intended between us is to have Laws and Ordinances such as may rightly serve to abolish Superstition and to establish the service of God with all things thereunto appertaining in some perfect form There is an inward reasonable and there is a solemn outward serviceable Worship belonging unto God Of the former kinde are all manner of vertuous Duties that each man in reason and conscience to God-ward oweth Solemn and serviceable Worship we name for Distinction sake whatsoever belongeth to the Church or Publick Society of God by way of External adoration It is the later of these two whereupon our present question groweth Again this later being ordered partly and as touching Principal matters by none but Precepts Divine only partly and as concerning things of Inferiour regard by Ordinances as well Human as Divine about the substance of Religion wherein Gods only Law must be kept there is here no controversie the Crime now intended against us is that our Laws have not ordered those inferiour things as behoveth and that our Customs are either Superstitious or otherwise amiss whether we respect the exercise of Publick duties in Religion or the Functions of Persons authorised thereunto 5. It is with Teachers of Mathematical Sciences usual for us in this present question necessary to lay down first certain reasonable demands which in most Particulars following are to serve as Principles whereby to work and therefore must be before-hand considered The men whom we labour to inform in the truth perceive that so to proceed is requisite For to this end they also propose touching Customs and Rites indifferent their general Axioms some of them subject unto just Exceptions and as we think more meet by them to be farther considered than assented unto by us As that In outward things belonging to the Service of God Reformed Churches ought by all means to shun conformity with the Church of Rome that The first Reformed should be a Pattern whereunto all that come after might to conform themselves that Sound Religion may not use the things which being not commanded of God have been either devised or abused unto Superstition These and the rest of the same consort we have in the Book going before examined Other Canons they alledge and Rules not unworthy of approbation as That in all such things the glory of God and the edification or ghostly good of his People must be sought that nothing should be undecently or murderly done But forasmuch as all the difficulty is in discerning what things do glorifie God and edifie his Church what not when we should think them decent and fit when otherwise because these Rules being too general come not near enough unto the matter which we have in hand and the former Principles being nearer the purpose are too far from Truth we must propose unto all men certain Petitions incident and very material in Causes of this nature such as no man of moderate judgment hath cause to think unjust or unreasonable 6. The first thing therefore which is of force to cause Approbation with good conscience towards such Customs
end It behoveth that the place where God shall be served by the whole Church be a publick place for the avoiding of Privy Conventicles which covered with pretence of Religion may serve unto dangerous practises Yea though such Assemblies be had indeed for Religions sake hurtful nevertheless they may easily prove as well in regard of their fitness to serve the turn of Hereticks and such as privily will soonest adventure to instill their poyson into mens minds as also for the occasion which thereby is given to malicious persons both of suspecting and of traducing with more colourable shew those Actions which in themselves being holy should be so ordered that no man might probably otherwise think of them Which considerations have by so much the greater waight for that of these inconveniences the Church heretofore had so plain experience when Christian men were driven to use Secret Meetings because the liberty of Publick places was not granted them There are which hold that the presence of a Christian multitude and the Duties of Religion performed amongst them do make the place of their Assembly publick even as the presence of the King and his Retinue maketh any mans House a Court But this I take to be an errour in as much as the only thing which maketh any Place publick is the publick assignment thereof unto such Duties As for the Multitude there assembled or the Duties which they perform it doth not appear how either should be of force to insuse any such Prerogative Not doth the solemn Dedication of Churches serve only to make them publick but farther also to surrender up that right which otherwise their Founders might have in them and to make God himself their Owner For which cause at the Erection and Consecration as well of the Tabernacle as of the Temple it pleased the Almighty to give a manifest sign that he took possession of both Finally it not fiâ—th in solemn manner the Holy and Religious use whereunto it is intended such Houses shall be put These things the wisdom of Solomon did not account superfluous He knew how easily that which was meant should be holy and sacred might be drawn from the use whereunto it was first provided he knew how bold men are to take even from God himself how hardly that House would be kept from impious profanation he knew and right wisely therefore endeavoured by such Solemnities to leave in the minds of men that impression which might somewhat restrain their boldness and nourish a reverend affection towards the House of God For which cause when the first House was destroyed and a new in the stead thereof erected by the Children of Israel after their return from captivity they kept the dedication even of this House also with joy The Argument which our Saviour useth against Prophaners of the Temple he taketh from the use whereunto it was with Solemnity consecrated And as the Prophet Ieremy forbiddeth the carrying of Burdens on the Sabbath because that was a Sanctified day So because the Temple was a Place sanctified our Lord would not suffer no not the carriage of a Vessel through the Temple These two Commandements therefore are in the Law conjoyned Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Santuary Out of those the Apostles words Have ye not Houses to eat and drink in albeit Temples such as now were not then erected for that exercise of Christian Religion it hath been nevertheless not absurdly conceived that he teacheth what difference should be made between House and House that what is fit for the Dwelling Place of God and what for Mans Habitation be shewethâ— requireth that Christian men at their Own home take Common food and in the House of the Lord none but that food which is heavenly he instructeth them that as in the one place they use to refresh their Bodies so they may in the other learn to seek the nourishment of their Souls and as there they sustain Temporal life so here they would learn to make provision for Eternal Christ could not suffer that the Temple should serve for a place of Mart not the Apostle of Christ that the Church should be made an Inne When therefore we sanctifie or hallow Churches that which we do as ooly to testifie that we make them Places of publick resort that we invest God himself with them that we sever them from Common uses In which action other Solemnities than such as are decent and fit for that purpose we approve none Indeed we condemn not all as unmeet the like whereunto have either been devised or used haply amongst Idolaters For why should conformity with them in matter of Opinion be lawful when they think that which is true if in action when they do that which is meet it be uot lawful to be like unto them Are we to forsake any true Opinion because Idolaters have maintained it or to shun any requisite action only because we have in the practise thereof been prevented by Idolaters It is no impossible thing but that sometimes they may judge as tightly what is decent about such external affairs of God as in greater things what is true Not therefore whatsoever Idolaters have either thought or done but let whatsoever they have either thought or done idolatrously be so far forth abhorred For of that which is good even in evil things God is Author 13. Touching the names of Angels and Saints whereby the most of our Churches are called as the custome of so naming them is very antient so neither was the cause thereof at the first nor is the use and continuance with us at this present hurtful That Churches were consecrated unto none but the Lord only the very General name it self doth sufficiently shew is as much as by plain Grammatical construction Church doth signifie no other thing than the Lords House And because the multitude as of Persons so of things particular causeth variety of Proper names to be devised for Distinction sake Founders of Churches did herein that which best liked their own conceit at the present time yet each intending that as oft as those Buildings came to be mentioned the name should put men in mind of some memorable thing or person Thus therefore it cometh to pass that all Churches have had their names some as memorials of peace some of wisdom some in memory of the Trinity it self some of Christ under sundry Titles of the blessed Virgin not a few many of one Apostle Saint or Martyr many of all In which respect their commendable purpose being not of every one understood they have been in latter ages construed as though they had superstitiously meant either that those places which where denominated of Angels and Saints should serve for the worship of so glorious Creatures or else those glorified Creatures for defence protection and patronage of such places A thing which the Antients do utterly disclaim To them saith
man doubt how God should accept such Prayers in case they be opposite to his Will or not grant them if they be according unto that which himself willeth our answer is That such suits God accepteth in that they are conformable unto his general inclination which is that all men might be saved yet always he granteth them not for as much as there is in God sometimes a more private occasioned will which determineth the contrary So that the other being the rule of our actions and not this our requests for things opposite to this Will of God are not therefore the less gracious in his sight There is no doubt but we ought in all things to frame our wills to the Will of God and that otherwise in whatsoever we do we sin For of our selves being so apt to err the onely way which we have to streighten our paths is by following the rule of his Will whose footsteps naturally are right If the eye the hand or the foot do that which the will commandeth though they serve as instruments to sin yet is sin the commanders fault and not theirs because Nature hath absolutely and without exception made them subjects to the will of man which is Lord over them As the body is subject to the will of man so mans will to the Will of God for so it behoveth that the better should guide and command the worse But because the subjection of the body to the will is by natural necessity the subjection of the Will unto God voluntary we therefore stand in need of direction after what sort our wills and desires may be rightly conformed to his Which is not done by willing always the self-same thing that God intendeth For it may chance that his purpose is sometime the speedy death of them whose long continuance in life if we should not wish we were unnatural When the object or matter therefore of our desires is as in this case a thing both good of it self and not forbidden of God when the end for which we desire it is vertuous and apparently most holy when the root from which our affection towards it proceedeth is Charity Piety that which we do in declaring our desire by Prayer yea over and besides all this sith we know that to pray for all men living is but to shew the same affection which towards every of them our Lord Jesus Christ hath born who knowing onely as God who are his did as Man taste death for the good of all men surely to that Will of God which ought to be and is the known rule of all our actions we do not herein oppose our selves although his secret determination haply be against us which if we did understand as we do not yet to rest contented with that which God will have done is as much as he requireth at the hands of men And concerning our selves what we earnestly crave in this case the same as all things else that are of like condition we meekly submit unto his most gracious will and pleasure Finally as we have cause sufficient why to think the practice of our Church allowable in this behalf so neither is ours the first which hath been of that minde For to end with the words of Prosper This Law of Supplication for all Men saith he the devout zeal of all Priests and of all faithful Men doth hold with such full Agreement that there is not any part of all the World where Christian people do not use to pray in the same manner The Church every where maketh Prayers unto God not onely for Saints and such as already in Christ are regenerate but for all Infidels and Enemies of the Cross of Iesus Christ for all Idolaters for all that persecute Christ in his followers for Iews to whose blindness the Light of the Gospel doth not yet shine for Hereticks and Schismaticks who from the Unity of Faith and Charity are estranged And for such what doth the Church ask of God but this That leaving their Errors they may be converted unto him that Faith and Charity may be given them and that out of the darkness of ignorance they may come to the knowledge of his truth Which because they cannot themselves do in their own behalf as long as the sway of evil custom ever-beareth them and the chains of Satan detain them bound neither are they able to break through those Errors wherein they are so determinately setled that they pay unto falsity the whole sum of whatsoever love is owing unto Gods Truth Our Lord merciful and just requireth to have all men prayed for that when we behold innumerable multitudes drawn up from the depth of so bottomless evils we may not doubt but in part God hath done the thing we requested nor despair but that being thankful for them towards whom already he hath shewed mercy the rest which are not as yet enlightned shall before they pass out of life be made partakers of the like grace Or if the Grace of him which saveth for so we set is falleth out over-pass some so that the Prayer of the Church for them be not received this we may leave to the hidden Iudgments of Gods Righteousness and acknowledge that in this Secret there is a Gulf which whole we live we shall never sound 50. Instruction and Prayer whereof we have hitherto spoken are duties which serve as Elements Parts or Principles to the rest that follow in which number the Sacraments of the Church are chief The Church is to us that very Mother of our New Birth in whose Bowels we are all bred at whose Brests we receive nourishment As many therefore as are apparently to our judgment born of God they have the Seed of their Regeneration by the Ministery of the Church which useth to that end and purpose not onely the Word but the Sacrament both having Generative force and vertue As oft as we mention a Sacrament properly understood for in the Writings of the Ancient Fathers all Articles which are peculiar to Christian Faith all Duties of Religion containing that which Sense or Natural Reason cannot of it self discern are most commonly named Sacraments our restraint of the Word to some few principal Divine Ceremonies importeth in every such Ceremony two things the Substance of the Ceremony it self which is visible and besides that somewhat else more secret in reference whereunto we conceive that Ceremony to be a Sacrament For we all admire and honor the holy Sacraments not respecting so much the Service which we do unto God in receiving them as the dignity of that Sacred and Secret Gift which we thereby receive from God Seeing that Sacraments therefore consist altogether in relation to some such Gift or Grace Supernatural as onely God can bestow how should any but the Church administer those Ceremonies as Sacraments which are not thought to be Sacraments by any but by the Church There is in Sacraments to be observed their Force and
in dealing is tyed unto the soundest perfectest and most indifferent Rule which Rule is the Law I mean not only the Law of Nature and of God but the National Law consonant thereunto Happier that people whose Law is their King in the greatest things then that whose King is himself their Law where the King doth guide the State and the Law the King that Common-wealth is like an Harp or Melodious Instrument the strings whereof are turned and handled all by one hand following as Laws the Rules and Canons of Musical Science Most divinely therefore Archytas maketh unto publike felicity these four steps and degrees every of which doth spring from the former as from another cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The King ruling by Law the Magistrate following the Subject free and the whole Society happy Adding on the contrary side that where this order is not it cometh by transgression thereof to pass that a King groweth a Tyrant he that ruleth under him abhorreth to be guided by him or commanded the people subject unto both have freedome under neither and the whole Community is wretched In which respect I cannot chuse but commend highly their wisdom by whom the Foundations of the Common-wealth hath been laid wherein though no manner of Person or cause be unsubject unto the Kings Power yet so is the Power of the King over all and in all limited that unto all his proceedings the Law it self is a rule The Axioms of our Regal Government are these Lex facit regem The Kings Grant of any favour made contrary to the Law is void Rex nibil potest nisi quod jure potest Our Kings therefore when they are to take possession of the Crown they are called unto have it pointed our before their eyes even by the very Solemnities and Rites of their Inauguration to what affairs by the same Law their Supream Power and Authority reacheth crowned we see they are enthronized and annointed the Crown a Sign of a Military Dominion the Throne of Sedentary or Judicial the Oyl of Religious and Sacred Power It is not on any side denied that Kings may have Authority in Secular affairs The Question then is What power they may lawfully have and exercise in causes of God A Prince or Magistrate or a Community saith Doctor Stapleton may have power to lay corporal punishment on them which are teachers of perverse things power to make Laws for the Peace of the Church Power to proclaim to defend and even by revenge to preserve dogmata the very Articles of Religion themselves from violation Others in affection no less devoted unto the Papacy do likewise yield that the Civil Magistrate may by his Edicts and Laws keep all Ecclesiastical Persons within the bounds of their duties and constrain them to observe the Canons of the Church to follow the rule of ancient Discipline That if Ioash was commended for his care and provision concerning so small a part of Religion as the Church-treasure it must needs be both unto Christian Kings themselves greater honour and to Christianity a larger benefit when the custody of Religion and the worship of God in general is their charge It therefore all these things mentioned be most properly the affairs of Gods Ecclesiastical causes if the actions specified be works of power and if that power be such as Kings may use of themselves without the fear of any other power superior in the same thing it followeth necessarily that Kings may have supream power not only in Civil but also in Ecclesiastical affairs and consequently that they may withstand what Bishop or Pope soever shall under the pretended claim of higher Spiritual Authority oppose themselves against their proceedings But they which have made us the former grant will never hereunto condescend what they yield that Princes may do it is with secret exception always understood If the Bishop of Rome give leave if he enterpose no prohibition wherefore somewhat it is in shew in truth nothing which they grant Our own Reformes do the very like when they make their discourse in general concerning the Authority which Magistrates may have a man would think them to be far from withdrawing any jot of that which with reason may be thought due The Prince and Civil Magistrate saith one of them hath to see the Laws of God touching his Worship and touching all Matters and all Orders of the Church to be executed and duly observed and to see every Ecclesiastical Person do that office whereunto he is appointed and to punish those which fail in their office accordingly Another acknowledgeth That the Magistrate may lawfully uphold all truth by his Sword punish all persons enforce all to their duties towards God and men maintain by his Laws every point of Gods Word punish all vice in all men see into all causes visit the Ecclesiastical Estate and correct the abuses thereof Finally to look to his Subjects that under him they may lead their lives in all godliness and honesty◠A third more frankly prosesseth That in case their Church Discipline were established so little it shortneth the Arms of Soveraign Dominion in causes Ecclesiastical that Her Gracious Majesty for any thing they teach or hold to the contrary may no less then now remain still over all persons in all things Supream Governess even with that full and Royal Authority Superiority and Preheminence Supremacy and Prerogative which the Laws already established do give her and her Majesties Injunctions and the Articles of the Convocation house and other writings Apologetical of her Royal Authority and Supream Dignity do declare and explain Possidonius was wont to say of the Epicure That he thought there were no Gods but that those things which he spake concerning the Gods were only given out for fear of growing adious amongst men and therefore that in words he left gods remaining but in very deed overthrew them in so much as he gave them no kind of Action After the very self same manner when we come unto those particular effects Prerogatives of Dominion which the Laws of this Land do grant unto the Kings thereof it will appear how these men notwithstanding their large and liberal Speeches abate such parcels out of the afore alleadged grant and flourishing shew that a man comparing the one with the other may half stand in doubt lest their Opinion in very truth be against that Authority which by their Speeches they seem mightily to uphold partly for the avoiding of publike obloquie envie and hatred partly to the intent they may both in the cad by the establishment of their Discipline extinguish the force of Supream Power which Princes have and yet in the mean while by giving forth these smooth Discourses obtain that their savourers may have somewhat to alleadge for them by way of Apologie and that such words only sound towards all kind of fulness of Power But for my self I had rather construe such their contradictions in the better
respect of their bad qualities their wickedness in it self a deprivation of right to deal in the affairs of the Church and a warrant for others to deal in them which are held to be of a clean other Society the Members whereof have been before so peremptorily for ever excluded from power of dealing for ever with affairs of the Church They which once have learned throughly this Lesson will quickly be capable perhaps of another equivalent unto it For the wickedness of the Ministery transfers their right unto the King In case the King be as wicked as they to whom then shall the right descend There is no remedy all must come by devolution at length even as the Family of Brown will have it unto the godly among the people for confusion unto the wise and the great by the poor and the simple Some Kniper doling with his retinue must take this work of the Lord in hand and the making of Church-Laws and Orders must prove to be their right in the end If not for love of the truth yet for shame of grosse absurdities let these contentions and stifling fancies be abandoned The cause which moved them for a time to hold a wicked Ministery no lawful Ministry and in this defect of a lawful Ministery authorized Kings to make Laws and Orders for the Affairs of the Church till it were well established is surely this First They see that whereas the continual dealing of the Kings of Israel in the Affairs of the Church doth make now very strong against them the burthen whereof they shall in time well enough shake off if it may be obtained that it is indeed lawful for Kings to follow these holy examples howbeit no longer than during the case of necessity while the wickednesse and in respect thereof the unlawfulness of the Ministery doth continue Secondly They perceive right well that unlesse they should yield Authority unto Kings in case of such supposed necessity the Discipline they urge were clean excluded as long as the Clergy of England doth thereunto remain opposite To open therefore a door for her entrance there is no remedy but the Tenet must be this That now when the Ministery of England is universally wicked and in that respect hath lost all Authority and is become no lawful Ministery no such Ministery as hath the right which otherwise should belong unto them if they were vertuous and godly as their Adversaries are in this necessity the King may do somewhat for the Church that which we do imply in the name of Headship he may both have and exercise till they be entered which will disburthen and ease him of it till they come the King is licensed to hold that Power which we call Headship But what afterwards In a Church ordered that which the Supream Magistrate hath to do is to see that the Laws of God touching his Worship and touching all matters and orders of the Church be executed and duly observed to see that every Ecclesiastical Person do that Office whereunto he is appointed to punish those that fail in their Office In a word that which Allain himself acknowledgeth unto the Earthly power which God hath given him it doth belong to defend the Laws of the Church to cause them to be executed and to punish Rebels and Transgressors of the same on all sides therfore it is confest that to the King belongeth power of maintaining the Laws made for Church-Regiment and of causing them to be observed but Principality of Power in making them which is the thing we attribute unto Kings this both the one sort and the other do withstand Touching the Kings supereminent authority in commanding and in judging of Causes Ecclesiastical First to explain therein our meaning It hath been taken as if we did hold that Kings may prescribe what themselves think good to be done in the service of God how the Word shall be taught how the Sacraments administred that Kings may personally sit in the Consistory where the Bishops do hearing and determining what Causes soever do appertain unto the Church That Kings and Queens in their own proper Persons are by Judicial Sentence to decide the Questions which do rise about matters of Faith and Christian Religion That Kings may excommunicate Finally That Kings may do whatsoever is incident unto the Office and Duty of an Ecclesiastical Judge Which opinion because we account as absurd as they who have fathered the same upon us we do them to wit that this is our meaning and no otherwise There is not within this Realm an Ecclesiastical Officer that may by the Authority of his own place command universally throughout the Kings Dominions but they of this People whom one may command are to anothers commandement unsubject Only the Kings Royal Power is of so large compass that no man commanded by him according to the order of Law can plead himself to be without the bounds and limits of that Authority Isay according to order of Law because that with us the highest have thereunto so tyed themselves that otherwise than so they take not upon them to command any And that Kings should be in such sort Supream Commanders over all men we hold it requisite as well for the ordering of Spiritual as Civil Affairs in as much as without universal Authority in this kinde they should not be able when need is to do as vertuous Kings have done Josiah parposing to renew the House of the Lord assembled the Priests and Levites and when they were together gave them their charge saying Go out unto the Cities of Judah and gather of Israel money to repair the House of the Lord from year to year and haste the things But the Levites hastned not Therefore the King commanded Jehoida the Chief-priest and said unto him Why hast thou not required of the Levites to bring in out of Judah and Jerusalem the Tax of Moses the Servant of the Lord and of the Congregation of Israel for the Tabernacle of the Testimony For wicked Athalia and her Children brake up the House of the Lord God and all the things that were dedicated for the House of the Lord did they bestow upon Balaam Therefore the King commanded and they made a Chest and set it at the Gate of the House of the Lord without and they made a Proclamation through Judah and Jerusalem to bring unto the Lord the Tax of Moses the Servant of the Lord laid upon Israel in the Wilderness Could either he have done this or after him Ezekias the like concerning the celebration of the Passeover but that all sorts of men in all things did owe unto these their Soveraign Rulers the same obedience which sometimes Iosuah had them by vow and promise bound unto Whosoever shall rebel against thy Commandments and will not obey thy words in all thou commandest him let him be put to death only be strong and of a good courage Furthermore Judgement Ecclesiastical we say is
preservation of Christianity there is not any thing more needful then that such as are of the Visible Church have mutual Fellowship and Society one with another In which consideration as the main Body of the Sea being one yet within divers Precincts hath divers names so the Catholick Church is in like sort divided into a number of distinct Societies every of which is termed a Church within it self In this sense the Church is always a Visible Society of Men not an Assembly but a Society For although the name of the Church be given unto Christian Assemblies although any number of Christian men congregated may be termed by the name of a Church yet Assemblies properly are rather things that belong to a Church Men are assembled for performance of Publick Actions which Actions being ended the Assembly dissolveth it self and is no longer in being whereas the Church which was assembled doth no less continue afterwards then before Where but three are and they of the Laity also saith Tertullian yet there is a Church that is to say a Christian Assembly But a Church as now we are to understand it is a Society that is a number of men belonging unto some Christian Fellowship the place and limits whereof are certain That wherein they have communion is the Publick Exercise of such duties as those mentioned in the Apostles Acts Instruction Breaking of Bread and Prayer As therefore they that are of the Mystical Body of Christ have those inward Graces and Vertues whereby they differ from all others which are not of the same Body Again whosoever appertain to the Visible Body of the Church they have also the notes of External Profession whereby the World knoweth what they are After the same manner even the several Societies of Christian men unto every of which the name of a Church is given with addition betokening severally as the Church of Rome Corinth Ephesus England and so the rest must be endued with correspondent general properties belonging unto them as they are Publick Christian Societies And of such properties common unto all Societies Christian it may not be denied that one of the very cheifest is Ecclesiastical Polity Which word I therefore the rather use because the name of Government as commonly men understand it in ordinary speech doth not comprise the largeness of that whereunto in this question it is applied For when we speak of Government what doth the greatest part conceive thereby but onely the exercise of Superiority peculiar unto Rulers and Guides of others To our purpose therefore the name of Church-Polity will better serve because it containeth both Government and also whatsoever besides belongeth to the ordering of the Church in publick Neither is any thing in this degree more necessary then Church-Polity which is a Form of ordering the Publick Spiritual Affairs of the Church of God 2. But we must note that he which affirmeth speech to be necessary amongst all men throughout the World doth not thereby import that all men must necessarily speak one kinde of Language even so the necessity of Polity and Regiment in all Churches may be held without holding any one certain form to be necessary in them all nor is it possible that any Form of Polity much less of Polity Ecclesiastical should be good unless God himself be Author of it Those things that are not of God saith Tertullian they can have no other then Gods Adversary for their Author Be it whatsoever in the Church of God if it be not of God we hate it Of God it must be either as those things sometimes were which God supernaturally revealed and so delivered them unto Moses for Government of the Commonwealth of Israel or else as those things which men finde out by help of that light which God hath given them unto that end The very Law of Nature it self which no man can deny but God hath instituted is not of God unless that be of God whereof God is the Author as well this latter way as the former But forasmuch as no form of Church-Polity is thought by them to be lawful or to be of God unless God be so the Author of it that it be also set down in Scripture they should tell us plainly whether their meaning be that it must be there set down in whole or in part For if wholly let them shew what one form of Polity ever was so Their own to be so taken out of Scripture they will not affirm neither deny they that in part even this which they so much oppugn is also from thence taken Again they should tell us whether onely that be taken out of Scripture which is actually and particularly there set down or else that also which the general Principles and Rules of Scripture potentially contain The one way they cannot so much as pretend that all the parts of their own Discipline are in Scripture and the other way their mouths are stopped when they would plead against all other Forms besides their own seeing the general Principles are such as do not particularly prescribe any one but sundry may equally be consonant unto the general Axioms of the Scripture But to give them some larger scope and not to close them up in these streights Let their Allegations be considered wherewith they earnestly bend themselves against all which deny it necessary that any one compleat Form of Church-Polity should be in Scripture First therefore whereas it hath been told them that matters of Faith and in general matters necessary unto Salvation are of a different nature from Ceremonies Order and the kinde of Church Government and that the one is necessary to be expresly contained in the Word of God or else manifestly collected out of the same the other not so that it is necessary not to receive the one unless there be something in Scripture for them the other free if nothing against them may thence be alledged Although there do not appear any just or reasonable cause to reject or dislike of this nevertheless as it is not easie to speak to the contentation of mindes exulcerated in themselves but that somewhat there will be always which displeaseth so herein for two things we are reproved The first is Misdistinguishing because matters of Discipline and Church-Government are as they say matters necessary to Salvation and of Faith whereas we put a difference betwixt the one and the other Our second fault is Injurious dealing with the Scripture of God as if it contained onely the Principal Points of Religion some rude and unfashioned matter of Building the Church but had lest out that which belongeth unto the form and fashion of it as if there were in the Scripture no more then onely to cover the Churches nakedness and not Chains Bracelets Rings Jewels to adorn her sufficient to quench her thirst to kill her hunger but not to minister a more liberal and as it were a more delicous and dainty diet In which
case our Apology shall not need to be very long 3. The mixture of those things by speech which by Nature are divided is the Mother of all Error To take away therefore that Error which Confusion breedeth distinction is requisite Rightly to distinguish is by conceit of minde to sever things different in Nature and to discern wherein they differ So that if we imagine a difference where there is none because we distinguish where we should not it may not be denied that we misdistinguish The only trial whether we do so yea or no dependeth upon comparison between our conceit and the nature of things conceived Touching matters belonging to the Church of Christ this we conceive that they are not of one sute Some things are meerly of Faith which things it doth suffice that we know and believe some things not onely to be known but done because they concern the actions of men Articles about the Trinity are matters of meer Faith and must be believed Precepts concerning the Works of Charity are matters of Action which to know unless they be practised is not enough This being so clear to all mens understanding I somewhat marvel that they especially should think it absurd to oppose Church Government a plain matter of Action unto matters of Faith who know that themselves divide the Gospel into Doctrine and Discipline For if matters of Discipline be rightly by them distinguished from matters of Doctrine why not matters of Government by us as reasonably set against matters of Faith Do not they under Doctrine comprehend the same which we intend by matters of Faith Do not they under Discipline comprise the Regiment of the Church When they blame that in us which themselves follow they give men great cause to doubt that some other thing then judgment doth guide their speech What the Church of God standeth bound to know or do the same in part Nature teacheth And because Nature can teach them but onely in part neither so fully as is requisite for mans salvation not so easily as to make the way plain and expedite enough that many may come to the knowledge of it and so be saved therefore in Scripture hath God both collected the most necessary things that the School of Nature teacheth unto that end and revealeth also whatsoever we neither could with safety be ignorant of nor at all be instructed in but by Supernatural Revelation from him So that Scripture containing all things that are in this kinde any way needful for the Church and the principal of the other sort This is the next thing wherewith we are charged as with an Error We teach that whatsoever is unto Salvation termed necessary by way of excellency whatsoever it standeth all men upon to know or do that they may be saved whatsoever there is whereof it may truly be said This not to believe is eternal death and damnation or This every soul that will live must duly observe Of which sort the Articles of Christian Faith and the Sacraments of the Church of Christ are All such things if Scripture did not comprehend the Church of God should not be able to measure out the length and the breadth of that way wherein for ever she is to walk Hereticks and Schismaticks never ceasing some to abridge some to enlarge all to pervert and obscure the same But as for those things that are accessary hereunto those things that so belong to the way of Salvation as to alter them is no otherwise to change that way then a path is changed by altering onely the uppermost face thereof which be it laid with Gravel or set with Grass or paved with stones remaineth still the same path In such things because discretion may teach the church what is convenient we hold not the Church further tied herein unto Scripture then that against Scripture nothing be admitted in the Church lest that path which ought always to be kept even do thereby come to be overgrown with Brambles and Thorns If this be unfound wherein doth the point of unsoundness lie Is it not that we make some things necessary some things accessory and appendent onely For our Lord and Saviour himself doth make that difference by terming Judgment and Mercy and Fidelity with other things of like nature The greater and weightier matters of the Law Is it then in that we account Ceremonies wherein we do not comprise Sacraments or any other the like substantial duties in the exercise of Religion but onely such External Rites as are usually annexed unto Church actions is it an oversight that we reckon these things and matters of Government in the number of things accessory not things necessary in such sort as hath been declared Let them which therefore think as blameable consider well their own words Do they not plainly compare the one unto Garments which cover the Body of the Church the other unto Rings Bracelets and Jewels that onely adorn it The one to that Food which the Church doth live by the other to that which maketh her Diet liberal dainty and more delicious Is dainty fare a thing necessary to the sustenance or to the cloathing of the Body rich attire If not how can they urge the necessity of that which themselves resemble by things not necessary Or by what construction shall any man living be able to make those comparisons true holding that distinction untrue which putteth a difference between things of External Regiment in the Church and things necessary unto Salvation 4. Now as it can be to Nature no injury that of her we say the same which diligent beholders of her works have observed namely that she provideth for all living Creatures nourishment which may suffice that she bringeth forth no kinde of Creature whereto she is wanting in that which is needful Although we do not so far magnifie her exceeding bounty as to affirm that she bringeth into the World the Sons of Men adorned with gorgeous attire or maketh costly buildings to spring up out of the Earth for them So I trust that to mention what the Scripture of God leaveth unto the Churches discretion in some things is not in any thing to impair the honor which the Church of God yieldeth to the sacred Scriptures perfection Wherein seeing that no more is by us maintained then onely that Scripture must needs teach the Church whatsoever is in such sort necessary as hath been set down and that it is no more disgrace for Scripture to have left a number of other things free to be ordered at the discretion of the Church then for Nature to have lest it unto the wit of man to devise his own attire and not to look for it as the Beasts of the field have theirs If neither this can import nor any other proof sufficient be brought forth that we either will at any time or ever did affirm the sacred Scripture to comprehend no more then onely those bare necessaries if we
in no such consideration to be understood as we have mentioned if it were so that men are condemned as well of the one as of the other only for using the Ceremonies of a Religion contrary unto their own and that this cause is such as ought to prevail no less with us than with them shall it not follow that seeing there is still between our Religion and Paganism the self-same contrariety therefore we are still no less rebukeable if we now deck our Houses with Boughs or send New-years gifts unto our Friends or seast on those days which the Gentiles then did or sit after Prayer as they were accustomed For so they infer upon the premises that as great difference as commodiously may be there should be in all outward Ceremonies between the People of God and them which are not his People Again they teach as hath been declared that there is not as great a difference as may be between them except the one do avoid whatsoever Rites and Ceremonies uncommanded of God the other doth embrace So that generally they teach that the very difference of Spiritual condition it self between the Servants of Christ and others requireth such difference in Ceremonies between them although the one be never so far disjoyned in time or place from the other But in case the People of God and Belial do chance to be Neighbours then as the danger of infection is greater so the same difference they say is thereby made more necessary In this respect as the Jews were severed from the Heathen so most especially from the Heathen nearest them And in the same respect we which ought to differ howsoever from the Church of Rome are now they say by reason of our nearness more bound to differ from them in Ceremonies then from Turks A strange kind of speech unto Christianeus and such as I hope they themselves do acknowledge unadvisedly uttered We are not so much to fear infection from Turks as from Papists What of that we must remember that by conforming rather our selves in that respect to Turks we should be spreaders of a worse infection into others then any we are likely to draw from Papists by our conformity with them in Ceremonies If they did â—ate as Turks do the Christian or as Canaanites did of old the Jewish Religion even in gross the circumstance of local nearness in them unto us might haply inforce in us a duty of greater separation from them then from those other mentioned But forasmuch as Papists are so much in Christ nearer unto us then Turks is there any reasonable man now you but will judge it meeter that our Ceremonies of Christian Religion should be Popish then Turkish or Heathenish Especially considering that we were not brought to dwell amongst them as Israel in Canaan having not been of them For even a very part of them we were And when God did by his good Spirit put it into our hearts first to reform our selves whence grew our separation and then by all good means to seek also their Reformation had we not onely cut off their corruptions but also estranged our selves from them in things indifferent who seeth not how greatly prejudicial this might have been to so good a cause and what occasion it had given them to think to their greater obduration in evil that through a froward or wanton desire of Innovation we did unconstrainedly those things for which conscience was pretended Howsoever the case doth stand as Iuda had been rather to choose conformity in things indifferent with Israel when they were neerest opposites then with the farthest removed Pagans So we in like cases much rather with Papists than with Turks I might add further for a more full and complete Answer so much concerning the large odds between the case of the eldest Churches inregard of those Heathens and ours in respect of the Church of Rome that very cavillation it self should be satisfied and have no shift to fly unto 8. But that no one thing may detain us over-long I return to their Reasons against our conformity with that Church That extreme dissimilitude which they urge upon us is now commended as our best and safest policy for establishment of sound Religion The ground of which politick Position is That Evils must be cured by their contraries and therefore the cure of the Church infected with the poyson of Antichristianity must be done by that which is thereunto as contrary as may be A medled estate of the Orders of the Gospel and the Ceremonies of Popery is not the best way to banish Popery We are contrariwise of opinion that he which will perfectly recover a sick and restore a diseased body unto health must not endeavour so much to bring it to a state of simple contrariety as of fit proportion in contâ—ariety unto those evils which are to be cured He that will take away extreme heat by setting the body in extremity of cold shall undoubtedly remove the disease but together with it the diseased too The first thing therefore in skilful cures is the knowledge of the part affected the next is of the evil which doth affect it the last is not onely of the kind but also of the measure of contrary things whereby to remove it They which measure Religion by dislike of the Church of Rome think every man so much the more sound by how much he can make the corruptions thereof to seem more large And therefore some there are namely the Arrians in reformed Churches of Poland which imagine the Canker to have eaten so far into the very Bones and Marrow of the Church of Rome as if it had not so much as a sound belief no not concerning God himself but that the very belief of the Trinity were a part of Antichristian corruption and that the wonderful providence of God did bring to pass that the Bishop of the See of Rome should be famous for his tripple Crown a sensible mark whereby the world might know him to be that Mystical Beast spoken of in the Revelation to be that great and notorious Antichrist in no one respect so much as in this that he maintaineth the Doctrine of the Trinity Wisdom therefore and skill is requisite to know what parts are sound in that Church and what corrupted Neither is it to all men apparent which complain of unsound parts with what kind of unsoundness every such part is possessed They can say that in Doctrine in Discipline in Prayers in Sacraments the Church of Rome hath as it hath indeed very foul and gross corruptions the nature whereof notwithstanding because they have not for the most part exact skill and knowledge to discern they think that amiss many times which is not and the salve of Reformation they mightily call for but where and what the sores are which need it as they wot full little so they think it not greatly material to search such mens contentment must be wrought by stratagem the
you lay aside by himself and reserve according to that which God hath blessed him with that when I come collections be not then to make and that when I am come whom you shall chuse them I may forthwith send away by Letters to carry your beneficence unto Jerusalem Out of which words to conclude the duty of Uniformity throughout all Churches in all manner of indifferent Ceremonies will be very hard and therefore best to give it over But perhaps they are by so much the more loth to forsake this Argument for that it hath though nothing else yet the name of Scripture to give it some kinde of countenance more then the pretext of Livery-coats affordeth them For neither is it any mans duty to cloath all his children or all his servants with one weed nor theirs to cloath themselves so if it were left to their own judgments as these Ceremonies are left of God to the judgment of the Church And seeing Churches are rather in this case like divers Families then like divers servants of one Family because every Church the state whereof is independent upon any other hath authority to appoint orders for it self in things indifferent therefore of the two we may rather infer That as one Family is not abridged of liberty to be cloathed in Friers Gray for that another doth wear Clay colour so neither are all Churches bound to the self-same indifferent Ceremonies which it liketh sundry to use As for that Canon in the Council of Nice let them but read it and weigh it well The ancient use of the Church throughout all Christendom was for fifty days after Easter which fifty days were called Pentecost though most commonly the last day of them which is Whitsunday he so called in like sort on all Sundays throughout the whole year their manner was to stand at Prayer Whereupon their meetings unto that purpose on those days had the name of Stations given them Of which Custom Tertullian speaketh in this wise It is not with us thought sit either to fast on the Lords day or to pray kneeling The same immunity from Fasting and Kneeling we keep all the time which is between the Feasts of Easter and Pentecost This being therefore an order generally received in the Church when some began to be singular and different from all others and that in a Ceremony which was then judged very convenient for the whole Church even by the whole those few excepted which break out of the common Pale the Council of Nice thought good to enclose them again with the rest by a Law made in this sort Because there are certain which will needs kneel at the time of Prayer on the Lords day and in the fifty days after Easter the holy Synod judging it meet that a convenient custom be observed throughout all Churches hath decreed That Standing we make our Prayers to the Lord. Whereby it plainly appeareth that in things indifferent what the whole Church doth think convenient for the whole the same if any part do wilfully violate it may be reformed and inraised again by that general authority whereunto each particular is subject and that the Spirit of singularity in a few ought to give place unto publick judgment this doth clearly enough appear but not that all Christian Churches are bound in every indifferent Ceremony to be uniform because where the whole Church hath not tyed the parts unto one and the same thing they being therein left each to their own choice may either do as others do or else otherwise without any breach of duty at all Concerning those indifferent things wherein it hath been heretofore thought good that all Christian Churches should be uniform the way which they now conceive to bring this to pass was then never thought on For till now it hath been judged that seeing the Law of God doth not prescribe all particular Ceremonies which the Church of Christ may use and in so great variety of them as may be found out it is not possible That the Law of Nature and Reason should direct all Churches unto the same things each deliberating by it self what is most convenient The way to establish the same things indifferent throughout them all must needs be the judgment of some Judicial authority drawn into one onely sentence which may be a rule for every particular to follow And because such authority over all Churches is too much to be granted unto any one mortal man there yet remaineth that which hath been always followed as the best the safest the most sincere and reasonable way namely the Verdict of the whole Church orderly taken and set down in the Assembly of some General Council But to maintain That all Christian Churches ought for Unities sake to be uniform in all Ceremonies and then to teach that the way of bringing this to pass must be by mutual imitation so that where we have better Ceremonies then others they shall be bound to follow us and we them where theirs are better How should we think it agreeable and consonant unto reason For sith in things of this nature there is such variety of particular inducements whereby one Church may be led to think that better which another Church led by other inducements judgeth to be worse For example the East Church did think it better to keep Easter day after the manner of the Jews the West Church better to do otherwise the Greek Church judgeth it worse to use Unleavened Bread in the Eucharist the Latine Church leavened One Church esteemeth it not so good to receive the Eucharist sitting as standing another Church not so good standing as sitting there being on the one side probable Motives as well as on the other unless they add somewhat else to define more certainly what Ceremonies shall stand for best in such sort That all Churches in the World shall know them to be the best and so know them that there may not remain any question about this point we are not a whit the nearer for that they have hitherto said They themselves although resolved in their own judgments what Ceremonies are best foreseeing that such as they are addicted unto be not all so clearly and so incomparably best but others there are or may be at leastwise when all things are well considered as good knew not which way smoothly to rid their hands of this matter without providing some more certain rule to be followed for establishment of Uniformity in Ceremonies when there are divers kindes of equal goodness And therefore in this case they say That the latter Churches and the fewer should conform themselves unto the elder and the moe Hereupon they conclude that for as much as all the Reformed Churches so far as they know which are of our Confession in Doctrine have agreed already in the Abrogation of divers things which we retain Our Church ought either to shew that they have done evil or else she is found to be in fault
or Rites as publickly are established is when there ariseth from the due consideration of those Customs and Rites in themselves apparent reason although not alwayes to prove them better than any other that might possibly be devised for who did ever require this in man's Ordinances yet competent to shew their conveniency and fitness in regard of the use for which they should serve Now touching the nature of religious Services and the manner of their due performance thus much generally we know to be most clear that whereas the greatness and dignity of all manner of Actions is measured by the worthiness of the Subject from which they proceed and of the Object whereabout they are conversant we must of necessity in both respects acknowledge that this present World affordeth not any thing comparable unto the publick Duties of Religion For if the best things have the perfectest and best operations it will follow that seeing Man is the worthiest Creature upon earth and every Society of Men more worthy than any Man and of Societies that most excellent which we call the Church there can be in this World no work performed equal to the exercise of true Religion the proper operation of the Church of God Again forasmuch as Religion worketh upon him who in Majesty and Power is infinite as we ought we account not of it unless we esteem it even according to that very height of Excellency which our hearts conceive when Divine sublimity it self is rightly considered In the powers and faculties of our Souls God requireth the uttermost which our unfeigned affection towards him is able to yield So that if we affect him not farr above and before all things our Religion hath not that inward perfection which it should have neither do we indeed worship him as our God That which inwardly each man should be the Church outwardly ought to testifie And therefore the Duties of our Religion which are seen must be such as that affection which is unseen ought to be Signs must resemble the Things they signifie If Religion bear the greatest sway in our Hearts our outward religious Duties must shew it as farr as the Church hath outward Ability Duties of Religion performed by whole Societies of men ought to have in them according to our power a sensible Excellency correspondent to the Majesty of Him whom we worship Yea then are the publick Duties of Religion best ordered when the Militant Church doth resemble by sensible means as it may in such cases that hidden Dignity and Glory wherewith the Church Triumphant in Heaven is beautified Howbeit even as the very heat of the Sun it self which is the life of the whole World was to the people of God in the Desert a grievous annoyance for ease whereof his extraordinary Providence ordained a Cloudy Pillar to over-shadow them So things of general use and benefit for in this world What is so perfect that no Inconvenience doth ever follow itâ— may by some accident be incommodious to a few In which case for such private Evils remedies thereare of like condition though publick Ordinances wherein the Common good is respected be not stirred Let our first Demand be therefore That in the External Form of Religion such things as are apparently or can be sufficiently proved effectual and generally fit to setforward Godliness either as betokening the greatness of God or as beseeming the Dignity of Religion or as concurring with Celestial Impressions in the mindes of men may be reverently thought of some few rare casual and tollerable or otherwise curable Inconveniences notwithstanding 7. Neither may we in this Case lightly esteem what hath been allowed as fit in the judgment of Antiquity and by the long continued practise of the whole Church from which unnecessarily to swerve Experience never as yet hath found it safe For Wisdom's sake we reverence them no less that are young or not much less then if they were stricken in years And therefore of such it is rightly said That the ripeness of Understanding is gray Hair and their Vertues old Age. But because Wisdom and Youth are seldom joyned in one and the ordinary course of the World is more according to Iob's Observation who giveth men advice to seek Wisdom amongst the Antient and in the length of Dayes Understanding therefore if the Comparison do stand between Man and Man which shall hearken unto other sith the Aged for the most part are best experienced least subject to rash and unadvised Passions it hath been ever judged reasonable That their Sentence in matter of Counsel should be better trusted and more relyed upon than other mens The goodness of God having furnished men with two chief Instruments both necessary for this life Hands to execute and a Mind to devise great things the one is not profitable longer than the vigour of Youth doth strengthen it nor the other greatly till Age and Experience have brought it to Perfection In whom therefore Time hath not perfected Knowledge such must be contented to follow them in whom it hath For this Cause none is more attentively heard than they whose Speeches are as Davids were I have been Young and now am Old much I have seen and observed in the World Sharp and subtile discourses of Wit procure many times very great applause but being laid in the Ballance with that which the habit of sound Experience plainly delivereth they are over-weighed God may endue Men extraordinarily with Understanding as it pleaseth him But let no Man presuming thereupon neglect the Instructions or despite the Ordinances of his Elders sith he whose gift Wisdom is hath said Ask thy Father and he will shew thee thine Antients and they shall tell thee It is therefore the Voyce both of God and Nature not of Learning only that especially in matters of Action and Policy The sentences and judgements of Men experienced aged and wise yea though they speak without any proof or demonstration are no less to be hearkned unto than as being Demonstrations in themselves because such Mens long Observation is as an Eye wherewith they presently and plainly behold those Principles which sway over all Actions Whereby we are taught both the Cause wherefore Wise-mens Judgments should be credited and the Mean how to use their Judgments to the increase of our own Wisdom That which sheweth them to be Wise is the gathering of Principles out of their own particular Experiments And the framing of our particular Experiments according to the Rule of their Principles shall make us such as they are If therefore even at the first so great account should be made of Wise mens Counsels touching things that are Publickly done as time shall add thereunto continuance and approbation of succeeding Ages their Credit and Authority must needs be greater They which do nothing but that which men of Account did before them are although they do amiss yet the less faulty because they are not the Authors of
men as contrariwise the ground of all our happiness and the seed of whatsoever perfect vertue groweth from us is a right opinion touching things divine this kind of knowledge we may justly set down for the first and chiefest thing which God imparteth unto his People and our duty of receiving this at his merciful hands for the first of those religious Offices wherewith we publickly honour him on earth For the instruction therefore of all sorts of men to eternal life it is necessary that the sacred and saving truth of God be openly published unto them Which open publication of heavenly mysteries is by an excellency termed preaching For otherwise there is not any thing publickly notified but we may in that respect rightly and properly say it is preached So that when the School of God doth use it as a word of Art we are accordingly to understand it with restraint to such special matter as that School is accustomed to publish We find not in the World any People that have lived altogether without Religion And yet this duty of Religion which provideth that publickly all sorts of men may be instructed in the fear of God is to the Church of God and hath been always so peculiar that none of the Heathens how curious soever in searching out all kinds of outward Ceremonies like to ours could ever once so much as endeavour to resemble herein the Churches care for the endless good of her Children Ways of teaching there have been sundry always usual in Gods Church For the first introduction of youth to the knowledge of God the Jews even till this day have their Catechisms With Religion it fareth as with other Sciences the first delivery of the Elements thereof must for like consideration be framed according to the weak and slender capacity of young Beginners unto which manner of teaching Principles in Christianity the Apostle in the sixth to the Hebrews is himself understood to allude For this cause therefore as the Decalogue of Moses declareth summarily those things which we ought to do the Prayer of our Lord whatsoever we should request or desire so either by the Apostles or at the least-wise out of their Writings we have the substance of Christian Belief compendiously drawn into few and short Articles to the end that the weakness of no mans wit might either hinder altogether the knowledge or excuse the utter ignorance of needful things Such as were trained up in these Rudiments and were so made fit to be afterward by Baptism received into the Church the Fathers usually in their Writings do term Hearers as having no farther communion or fellowship with the Church than only this that they were admitted to hear the Principles of Christian Faith made plain unto them Catechizing may be in Schools it may be in private Families But when we make it a kind of Preaching we mean always the publick performance thereof in the open hearing of men because things are preached not in that they are taught but in that they are published 19. Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles were in their times all Preachers of Gods Truth some by Word some by Writing some by both This they did partly as faithful Witnesses making meer relation what God himself had revealed unto them and partly as careful Expounders Teachers Perswaders thereof The Church in like case Preacheth still first publishing by way of Testimony or relation the truth which from them she hath received even in such sort as it was received written in the sacred volumes of Scripture Secondly by way of explication discovering the mysteries which lye hid therein The Church as a Witness preacheth his meer revealed Truth by reading publickly the Sacred Scripture So that a second kind of preaching is the reading of holy Writ For thus we may the boldlier speak being strengthened with the examples of so reverend a Prelate as saith that Moses from the time of antient Generations and Ages long since past had amongst the Cities of the very Gentiles them that preached him in that he was read every Sabbath day For so of necessity it must be meant in as much as we know that the Jews have alwayes had their weekly Readings of the Law of Moses but that they always had in like manner their weekly Sermons upon some part of the Law of Moses we no where find Howbeit still we must here remember that the Church by her publick reading of the Book of God preacheth only as a Witness Now the principal thing required in a Witness is Fidelity Wherefore as we cannot excuse that Church which either through corrupt translations of Scripture delivereth instead of divine Speeches any thing repugnant unto that which God speaketh or through falsified additions proposeth that to the people of God as Scripture which is in truth no Scripture So the blame which in both these respects hath been laid upon the Church of England is surely altogether without cause Touching Translations of Holy Scripture albeit we may not disallow of their painful travels herein who strictly have tyed themselves to the very Original letter yet the judgment of the Church as we see by the practise of all Nations Greeks Latines Persians Syrians AEthiopians Arabians hath been ever That the fittest for publick Audience are such as following a middle course between the rigor of literal Translators and the liberty of Paraphrasts do with greatest shortness and plainness deliver the meaning of the Holy Ghost Which being a labour of so great difficulty the exact performance thereof we may rather wish than look for So that except between the words of translation and the mind of Scripture it self there be Contradiction every little difference should not seem an intolerable blemish necessarily to be spunged out Whereas therefore the Prophet David in a certain Psalm doth say concerning Moses and Aaron that they were obedient to the word of God and in the self-same place â—or allowed Translation saith they were not obedient we are for this cause challenged as manifest Gain-sayers of Scripture even in that which we read for Scripture unto the people But for as much as words are resemblances of that which the mind of the Speaker conceiveth and Conceits are Images representing that which is spoken of it followeth that they who will judge of words should have recourse to the things themselves from whence they rise In setting down that Miracle at the sight whereof Peter fell down astonished before the feet of Jesus and cryed Depart Lord I am a Sinner the Evangelist St. Luke saith the store of the Fish which they took was such that the Net they took it in brake and the Ships which they loaded therewith sunk St. Iohn recording the like Miracle saith That albeit the Fishes in number were so many yet the Net with so great a weight was not broken Suppose they had written both of one Miracle Although there be in their
Christ which hath so that use converted the Ceremony of the Cross in Baptism it is no Christian mans part to despise especially seeing that by this mean where Nature doth earnestly import aid Religion yieldeth her that ready assistance then which there can be no help more forcible serving onely to relieve memory and to bring to our cogitation that which should most make ashamed of sin The minde while we are in this present life whether it contemplate meditate deliberate or howsoever exercise it self worketh nothing without continual recourse unto imagination the onely Store-house of wit and peculiar Chair of memory On this Anvile it ceaseth not day and night to strike by means whereof as the Pulse declareth how the heart doth work so the very thoughts and cogitations of mans minde be they good or bad do no where sooner bewray themselves then through the crevesses of that Wall wherewith Nature hath compasied the Cells and Closets of Fancy In the Forehead nothing more plain to be seen then the fear of contumely and disgrace For which cause the Scripture as with great probability it may be thought describeth them marked of God in the Forehead whom his mercy hath undertaken to keep from final confusion and shame Not that God doth set any corporal mark on his chosen but to note that he giveth his Elect security of preservation from reproach the fear whereof doth use shew it self in that part Shall I say that the Sign of the Cross as we use it is in some sort a mean to work our preservation from reproach Surely the minde which as yet hath not hardned it self in sin is seldom provoked thereunto in any gross and grievous manner but Natures secret suggestion objected against it ignominy as a bar Which conceit being entred into that Palace of Mans fancy the Gates whereof have imprinted in them that holy Sign which bringeth fortwith to minde whatsoever Christ hath wrought and we vowed against sin it cometh hereby to pass that Christian men never want a most effectual though a silent Teacher to avoid whatsoever may deservedly procure shame So that in things which we should be ashamed of we are by the Cross admonished faithfully of our duty at the very moment when admonition doth most need Other things there are which deserve honor and yet do purchase many times our disgrace in this present World as of old the very truth of Religion it self till God by his own out-stretched arm made the glory thereof to shine over all the Earth Whereupon St. Cyprian exhorting to Maâ—tyrdom in times of Heathenish persecution and cruelty thought it not vain to alledge unto them with other Arguments the very Ceremony of that Cross whereof we speak Never let that hand offer Sacrifice to Idols which hath already received the Body of our Saviour Christ and shall hereafter the Crown of his Glory Arm your Foreheads unto all boldness â— that the Sign of God may be kept safe Again when it pleased God that the fury of their enemies being bridled the Church had some little rest and quietness if so small a liberty but onely to breathe between troubles may be termed quietness and rest to such as fell not away from Christ through former persecutions he giveth due and deserved praise in the self-same manner You that were ready to endure imprisonment and were resolute to suffer death you that have couragiously withstood the World ye have made your selves both a glorious spectacle for God to behold and a worthy example for the rest of your Brethren to follow Those mouths which had sanctified themselves with food coming down from Heaven leashed after Christ own Body and Blood to taste the poysoned and contagious scraps of Idols those Foreheads which the Sign of God had purified kept themselves to be crowned by him the touch of the Garlands of Satan they abhorred Thus was the memory of that Sign which they had in Baptism a kinde of bar or prevention to keep them even from apostasie whereunto the frailty of flesh and blood over-much fearing to endure shame might peradventure the more easily otherwise have drawn them We have not now through the gracious goodness of Almighty God those extream conflicts which our Fathers had with blasphemous contumelies every where offered to the Name of Christ by such as professed themselves Infidels and Unbelievers Howbeit unless we be strangers to the age wherein we live or else in some partial respect dissemblers of that we hourly both hear and see there is not the simplest of us but knoweth with what disdain and scorn Christ is dishonored far and wide Is there any burden in the World more heavy to bear then contempt Is there any contempt that grieveth as theirs doth whose quality no way making them less worthy then others are of reputation onely the service which they do to Christ in the daily exercise of Religion treadeth them down Doth any contumely which we sustain for Religion sake pierce so deeply as that which would seem of meer Conscience religiously spightful When they that honor God are despised when the chiefest service of Honor that man can do unto him is the cause why they are despised when they which pretend to honor him and that with greatest sincerity do with more then Heathenish petulancy trample under foot almost whatsoever either we or the whole Church of God by the space of so many ages have been accustomed unto for the comlier and better exercise of our Religion according to the soundest Rules that Wisdom directed by the Word of God and by long experience confirmed hath been able with common advice with much deliberation and exceeding great diligence to comprehend when no man fighting under Christs Banner can be always exempted from seeing or sustaining those indignities the sting whereof not to feel or feeling not to be moved thereat is a thing impossible to flesh and blood If this be any object for Patience to work on the strictest bond that thereunto tieth us is our vowed obedience to Christ the solemnest vow that we ever made to obey Christ and to suffer willingly all reproaches for his sake was made in Baptism And amongst other memorials to keep us mindful of that vow we cannot think that the Sign which our new Baptized Fore-heads cïd there receive is either unfit or unforcible the reasons hitherto alledged being weighed with indifferent ballance It is not you will say the Cross in our Fore-heads but in our Hearts the Faith of Christ that ameth us with Patience Constancy and Courage Which as we grant to be most true so neither dare we despise no not the meanest helps that serve though it be but in the very lowest degree of furtherance towards the highest services that God doth require at our hands And if any man deny that such Ceremonies are available at the least as memorials of duty or do think that himself hath no need to be so put in
define not the Church by that which the Church essentially is but by that wherein they imagine their own more perfect then the rest are Touching parts of eminency and perfection parts likewise of imperfection and defect in the Church of God they are infinite their degrees and differences no way possible to be drawn unto any certain account There is not the least contention and variance but it blemisheth somewhat the Unity that ought to be in the Church of Christ which notwithstanding may have not onely without offence or breach of concord her manifold varieties in Rites and Ceremonies of Religion but also her Strifes and Contentions many times and that about matters of no small importance yea her Schisms Factions and such other evils whereunto the Body of the Church is subject sound and sick remaining both of the same Body as long as both parts retain by outward profession that vital substance of truth which maketh Christian Religion to differ from theirs which acknowledge not our Lord Jesus Christ the Blessed Saviour of Mankinde give no crecit to his glorious Gospel and have his Sacraments the Seals of Eternal Life in derision Now the priviledge of the visible Church of God for of that we speak is to be herein like the Ark of Noah that for any thing we know to the contrary all without it are lost sheep yet in this was the Ark of Noah priviledged above the Church that whereas none of them which were in the one could perish numbers in the other are cast away because to Eternal Life our Profession is not enough Many things exclude from the Kingdom of God although from the Church they separate not In the Church there arise sundry grievous storms by means whereof whole Kingdoms and Nations professing Christ both have been heretofore and are at this present day divided about Christ. During which Divisions and Contentions amongst men albeit each part do justifie it self yet the one of necessity must needs err if there be any contradiction between them be it great or little and what side soever it be that hath the truth the same we must also acknowledge alone to hold with the true Church in that point and consequently reject the other as an enemy in that case faln away from the true Church Wherefore of Hypocrites and Dissemblers whose profession at the first was but onely from the teeth outward when they afterwards took occasion to oppugne certain principal Articles of Faith the Apostles which defended the truth against them pronounce them gone out from the Fellowship of sound and sincere Believers when as yet the Christian Religion they had not utterly cast off In like sense and meaning throughout all ages Hereticks have justly been hated as Branches cut off from the Body of the true Vine yet onely so far forth cut off as they Heresies have extended Both Heresie and many other crimes which wholly sever from God do sever from God the Church of God in part onely The Mystery of Piety saith the Apostle is without peradventure great God hath been manifested in the Flesh hath been justified in the Spirit hath been seen of Angels hath been preached to Nations hath been believed on in the World hath been taken up into Glory The Church a Pillar and Foundation of this Truth which no where is known or profest but onely within the Church and they all of the Church that profess it In the mean while it cannot be denied that many profess this who are not therefore cleared simply from all either faults or errors which make separation between us and the Well-spring of our happiness Idolatry severed of old the Israelites Iniquity those Scribes and Pharisees from God who notwithstanding were a part of the Seed of Abraham a part of that very Seed which God did himself acknowledge to be his Church The Church of God may therefore contain both them which indeed are not his yet must be reputed his by us that know not their inward thoughts and them whose apparent wickedness testifieth even in the sight of the whole World that God abhorreth them For to this and no other purpose are meant those Parables which our Saviour in the Gospel hath concerning mixture of Vice with Vertue Light with Darkness Truth with Error as well and openly known and seen as a cunningly cloaked mixture That which separateth therefore utterly that which cutteth off clean from the visible Church of Christ is plain Apostasie direct denial utter rejection of the whole Christian Faith as far as the same is professedly different from Infidelity Hereticks as touching those points of doctrine wherein they fail Schismaticks as touching the quarrels for which or the duties wherein they divide themselves from their Brethren Loose licentious and wicked persons as touching their several offences or crimes have 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 Unity which they violate the Church that walketh in the Laws of Righteousness which they transgress This very true Church of Christ they have left howbeit not altogether left nor forsaken simply the Church upon the main Foundations whereof they continue built notwithstanding these breaches whereby they are rent at the top asunder Now because for redress of professed Errors and open Schisms it is and must be the Churches care that all may in outward Conformity be one as the laudable Polity of former Ages even so our own to that end and purpose hath established divers Laws the moderate severity whereof is a mean both to stay the rest and to reclaim such as heretofore have been led awry But seeing that the Offices which Laws require are always definite and when that they require is done they go no farther whereupon sundry ill-affected persons to save themselves from danger of Laws pretend obedience albeit inwardly they carry still the same hearts which they did before by means whereof it falleth out that receiving unworthily the Blessed Sacrament at our hands they eat and drink their own damnation It is for remedy of this mischief here determined that whom the Law of the Realm doth punish unless they communicate such if they offer to obey Law the Church notwithstanding should not admit without probation before had of their Gospel-like behavior Wherein they first set no time how long this supposed probation must continue again they nominate no certain judgment the verdict whereof shall approve mens behavior to be Gospel-like and that which is most material whereas they seek to make it more hard for dissemblers to be received into the Church then Law and Polity as yet hath done they make it in truth more easie for such kinde of persons to winde themselves out of the Law and to continue the same they were The Law requireth at their hands that duty which in conscience doth touch them nearest because the greatest difference between us and
which we call Ius or Right to be the Daughter of Heaven and Earth We know things either as they are in themselves or as they are in mutual relation one to another The knowledge of that which Man is in reference unto himself and other things in relation unto Man I may justly term the Mother of all those Principles which are as it were Edicts Statutes and Decrees in that Law of Nature whereby Humane Actions are framed First therefore having observed that the best things where they are not hindred do still produce the best Operations for which cause where many things are to concur unto one effect the best is in all congruity of Reason to guide the residue that it prevailing most the work principally done by it may have greatest perfection when hereupon we come to observe in our selves of what excellency our Souls are in comparison of our Bodies and the divine part in relation unto the baser of our Souls seeing that all these concur in producing Humane Actions it cannot be well unless the chiefest do command and direct the rest The Soul then ought to conduct the Body and the Spirit of our Mindes the Soul This is therefore the first Law whereby the highest power of the Minde requireth general obedience at the hands of all the rest concurring with it unto Action Touching the several grand Mandates which being imposed by the understanding Faculty of the Minde must be obeyed by the Will of Man they are by the same method found out whether they import our duty towards God or towards Man Touching the one I may not here stand to open by what degrees of discourse the Mindes even of meer Natural Men have attained to know not onely that there is a God but also what Power Force Wisdom and other properties that God hath and how all things depend on him This being therefore presupposed from that known relation which God hath unto us as unto children and unto all good things as unto effects whereof himself is the principal cause these Axioms and Laws Natural concerning our duty have arisen That in all things we go about his aid is by Prayer to be craved That be cannot have sufficient honor done unto him but the uttermost of that we can do to honor him we must which is in effect the same that we read Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart with all thy soul and with all thy minde Which Law our Saviour doth term The first and the great Commandment Touching the next which as our Saviour addeth as like unto this he meaneth in amplitude and largeness in as much as it is the Root out of which all Laws of duty to Men-ward have grown as out of the former all Offices of Religion towards God the like Natural enducement hath brought men to know that it is their duty no less to love others then themselves For seeing those things which are equal must needs all have one measure if I cannot but wish to receive all good even as much at every mans hand as any man can wish unto his own soul how should I look to have any part of my desire herein satisfied unless my self be careful to satisfie the like desire which is undoubtedly in other men we all being of one and the same Nature To have any thing offered them repugnant to this desire must needs in all respects grieve them as much as me So that if I do harm I must look to suffer there being no reason that others should shew greater measure of love to me then they have by me shewed unto them My desire therefore to be loved of my equals in nature as much as possible may be imposeth upon me a natural duty of bearing to them-ward fully the like affection From which relation of equality between our selves and them that are as our selves what several Rules and Canons Natural Reason hath drawn for direction of life no man is ignorant as namely That because we would take no harm we must therefore do none that sith we would not be in any thing extreamly dealt with we must our selves avoid all extremity in our dealings that from all violence and wrong we are utterly to abstain with such like which further to wade in would be tedious and to our present purpose not altogether so necessary seeing that on these two General Heads already mentioned all other specialities are dependent Wherefore the natural measure whereby to judge our doings is the sentence of Reason determining and setting down what is good to be done Which sentence is either mandatory shewing what must be done or else permissive declaring onely what may be done or thirdly admonitory opening what is the most convenient for us to do The first taketh place where the comparison doth stand altogether between doing and not doing of one thing which in it self is absolutely good or evil as it had been for Ioseph to yield or not to yield to the impotent desire of his leud Mistress the one evil the other good simply The second is when of divers things evil all being not evitable we are permitted to take one which one saving onely in case of so great urgency were not otherwise to be taken as in the matter of Divorce amongst the Jews The last when of divers things good one is principal and most eminent as in their act who sold their possessions and laid the price at the Apostles feet which possessions they might have retained unto themselves without sin Again in the Apostle St. Pauls own choice to maintain himself by his own labor whereas in living by the Churches maintenance as others did there had been no offence committed In goodness therefore there is a latitude or extent whereby it cometh to pass that even of good actions some are better then other some whereas otherwise one man could not excel another but all should be either absolutely good as hitting jump that indivisible Point or Centre wherein goodness consisteth or else missing it they should be excluded out of the number of well-doers Degrees of well-doing there could be none except perhaps in the seldomness and oftenness of doing well But the Nature of Goodness being thus ample a Law is properly that which Reason in such sort defineth to be good that it must be done And the Law of Reason or Humane Nature is that which men by discourse of Natural Reason have rightly found out themselves to be all for ever bound unto in their actions Laws of Reason have these marks to be known by Such as keep them resemble most lively in their voluntary actions that very manner of working which Nature her self doth necessarily observe in the course of the whole World The Works of Nature are all behoveful beautiful without superfluity or defect even so theirs if they be framed according to that which the Law of Reason teacheth Secondly Those Laws are investigable by Reason without
them that so to do were so sin against their own souls and that they put forth their hands to iniquity whatsoever they go about and have not first the sacred Scripture of God for direction how can it chuse but bring the simple a thousand times to their wits end how can it chuse but vex and amaze them For in every action of common life to since out some seâ—tence clearly and infallibly setting before our eyes what we ought to do seem we in Scripture never so expert would trouble us more then we are aware In weak and tender minds we little know what misery this strict opinion would breed besides the stops it would make in the whole course of all mens lives and actions make all things sin which we do by direction of Natures light and by the rule of common discretion without thinking at all upon Scripture Admit this Position and Parents shall cause their children to sin as oft as they cause them to do any thing before they come to years of capacity and be ripe for Knowledge in the Scripture Admit this and it shall not be with Masters as it was with him him in the Gospel but servants being commanded to go shall stand still till they have errand warranted unto them by Scripture Which as it standeth with Christian duty in some cases so in common affairs to require it were most unfit Two opinions therefore there are concerning sufficiency of holy Scripture each extreamly opposit unto the other and both repugnant unto truth The Schools of Rome teach Scripture to be unsufficient as if except Traditions were added it did not contain all revealed and supernatural Truth which absolutely is necessary for the children of men in this life to know that they may in the next be saved Others justly condemning this opinion grow likewise unto a dangerous extremity as if Scripture did not only contain all things in that kinde necessary but all things simply and in such sort that to do any thing according to any other Law were not only unnecessary but even opposite unto salvation unlawful and sinful Whatsoever is spoken of God or things appertaining to God otherwise then as the truth is though it seem an honour it is an injury And as incredible praises given unto men do often abate and impair the credit of their deserved commendation so we must likewise take great heed lest in attributing unto Scripture more then it can have the incredibility of that do cause even those things which indeed it hath most abundantly to be less reverendly esteemed I therefore leave it to themselves to consider Whether they have in this First Point overshot themselves or not which God doth know is quickly done even when our meaning is most sincere as I am verily perswaded theirs in this case was OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity Book III. Concerning their Second Assertion That in Scripture there must be of necessity contained a Form of Church Polity the Laws whereof may in no wise be altered The Matter contained in this Third Book 1. WHat the Church is and in what respect Laws of Polity are thereunto necessarily required 2. Whether it be necessary that some particular Form of Church Polity be set down in Scripture sith the things that belong particularly to any such Form are not of necessity to salvation 3. That matters of Church Polity are different from matters of Faith and Salvation and that they themselves so teach which are out Reprovers for so teaching 4. That hereby we take not from Scripture any thing which thereunto with the soundness of truth may be given 5. Their meaning who first urged against the Polity of the Church of England that nothing ought to be established in the Church more then is commanded by the Word of God 6. How great injury men by so thinking should offer unto all the Churches of God 7. A shift notwithstanding to maintain it by interpreting Commanded as though it were meant that greater things onely ought to be found set down in Scripture particularly and lesser framed by the general Rules of Scripture 8. Another Device to defend the same by expounding Commanded as if it did signifie grounded as Scripture and were opposed to things sound out by the light of natural reason onely 9. How Laws for the Polity of the Church may be made by the advise of men and how those being nor repugnant to the Word of God are approved in his sight 10. The neither Gods being the Author of Laws nor yet his committing of them to Scripture is any Reason sufficient to prove that they admit no addition or change 11. Whether Christ must needs intend Laws unchangeable altogether or have forbidden any where to make any other Law then himself did deliver ALbeit the substance of those Controversies whereinto we have begun to wade be rather of outward things appertaining to the Church of Christ then of any thing wherein the nature and being of the Church consisteth yet because the Subject or Matter which this Position concerneth is A Forms of Church Government or Church-Polity It therefore behoveth us so far forth to consider the nature of the Church as is requisite for mens more clear and plain understanding in what respect Laws of Polity or Government are necessary thereunto That Church of Christ which we properly term his body Mystical can be but one neither can that one be sensibly discerned by any man inasmuch as the parts thereof are some in Heaven already with Christ and the rest that are on earth albeit their natural persons be visible we do not discern under this property whereby they are truly and infallibly of that body Only our minds by intellectual conceit are able to apprehend that such a real body there is a body collective because it containeth an huge multitude a body mystical because the mystery of their conjunction is removed altogether from sense Whatsoever we read in Scripture concerning the endless love and the saving mercy which God sheweth towards his Church the only proper subject thereof is this Church Concerning this Flock it is that our Lord and Saviour hath promised I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hands They who are of this Society have such Marks and Notes of distinction from all others as are not objects unto our sense only unto God who seeth their hearts and understandeth all their secret cogitations unto him they are clear and manifest All men knew Nathaniel to be an Israelite But our Saviour piercing deeper giveth further Testimony of him then men could have done with such certainty as he did Behold indeed an Israelite in whom there is no guile If we profess as Peter did that we love the Lord and profess it in the hearing of men charity is prone to believe all things and therefore charitablemen are likely to think we do so as long as they see
thereunto the weight of that long Experience which the World hath had thereof with consent and good liking So that to change any such Law must needs with the common sort impair and weaken the force of those Grounds whereby all Laws are made effectual Notwithstanding we do not deny alteration of Laws to be sometimes a thing necessary as when they are unnatural or impious or otherwise hurtful unto the Publick Community of Men and against that good for which Humane Societies were instituted When the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour were ordained to alter the Laws of Heatherish Religion received throughout the whole World chosen I grant they were Paul excepted the rest ignorant poor simple unschooled altogether and unlettered men howbeit extraordinarily endued with ghostly Wisdom from above before they ever undertook this Enterprise yea their authority confirmed by Miracle to the end it might plainly appear that they were the Lords Ambassadors unto whose Soveraign power for all flesh to stoop for all the Kingdoms of the Earth to yield themselves willingly conformable in whatsoever should be required it was their duty In this case therefore their oppositions in maintenance of Publick Superstition against Apostolick endeavors as that they might not condemn the ways of their ancient Predecessors that they must keep Religiones Traditas the Rites which from age to age had descended that the Ceremonies of Religion had been ever accounted by so much holier as elder these and the like Allegations in this case were vain and frivolous Not to stay longer therefore in speech concerning this point we will conclude That as the change of such Laws as have been specified is necessary so the evidence that they are such must be great If we have neither voice from Heaven that so pronounceth of them neither sentence of men grounded upon such manifest and clear proof that they in whose hands it is to alter them may likewise infallibly even in heart and conscience judge them so upon necessity to urge alteration is to trouble and disturb without necessity As for Arbitrary Alterations when Laws in themselves not simply bad or unmeet are changed for better and more expedient if the benefit of that which is newly better devised be but small sith the custom of easiness to alter and change is so evil no doubt but to bear a tolerable sore is better then to venter on a dangerous remedy Which being generally thought upon as a matter that touched nearly their whole enterprize whereas change was notwithstanding concluded necessary in regard of the great hurt which the Church did receive by a number of things then in use whereupon a great deal of that which had been was now to be taken away and removed out of the Church yet sith there are divers ways of abrogating things established they saw it best to cut off presently such things as might in that sort be extinguished without danger leaving the rest to be abolished by disusage through tract of time And as this was done for the manner of Abrogation so touching the stint or measure thereof Rites and Ceremonies and other external things of like nature being hurtful unto the Church either in respect of their quality or in regard of their number in the former there could be no doubt or difficulty what should be done their deliberation in the latter was more hard And therefore in as much as they did resolve to remove onely such things of that kinde as the Church might best spare retaining the residue their whole Counsel is in this point utterly condemned as having either proceeded from the blindness of those times or from negligence or from desire of honor and glory or from an erroneous opinion that such things might be tolerated for a while or if it did proceed as they which would seem most favorable are content to think it possible from a purpose partly the easilier to draw Papists unto the Gospel by keeping so many orders still the same with theirs and partly to redeem peace thereby the breach whereof they might fear would ensue upon more thorow alteration or howsoever it came to pass the thing they did is judged evil But such is the lot of all that deal in Publick Affairs whether of Church or Commonwealth that which men list to surmise of their doings being it good or ill they must beforehand patiently aim their mindes to endure Wherefore to let go private surmises whereby the thing in it self is not made either better or worse if just and allowable Reasons might lead them to do as they did then are all these censures frustrate Touching Ceremonies harmless therefore in themselves and hurtful onely in respect of number Was it amiss to decree That those things which were least needful and newliest come should be the first that were taken away as in the abrogating of a number of Saints days and of other the like custom it appeareth they did till afterwards the Form of Common Prayer being perfected Articles of sound Religion and Discipline agreed upon Catechisms framed for the needful instruction of Youth Churches purged of things that indeed were but thensom to the people or to the simple offensive and scandalous all was brought at the length unto that wherein now we stand Or was it amiss that having this way eased the Church as they thought of superfluity they went not on till they had plucked up even those things also which had taken a great deal stronger and deeper root those things which to abrogate without constraint of manifest harm thereby arising had been to alter unnecessarily in their judgments the antient received custom of the whole Church the universal practice of the people of God and those very decrees of our Fathers which were not onely set down by agreement of General Councils but had accordingly been put in ure and so continued in use till that very time present True it is That neither Councils nor Customs be they never so ancient and so general can let the Church from taking away that thing which is hurtful to be retained Where things have been instituted which being convenient and good at the first do afterward in process of time wax otherwise we make no doubt but they may be altered yea though Councils or Customs General have received them And therefore it is but a needless kinde of opposition which they make who thus dispute If in those things which are not expressed in the Scripture that is to be observed of the Church which is the custom of the people of God and decree of our Forefathers then how can these things at any time be varied which heretofore have been once ordained in such sort Whereto we say that things so ordained are to be kept howbeit not necessarily any longer then till there grow some urgent cause to ordain the contrary For there is not any Positive Law of Men whether it be general or particular received by formal express consent as in
Divine Majesty their most convenient answer was that The best Temples which we can dedicate to God are our sanctified Souls and Bodies Whereby it plainly appeareth how the Fathers when they were upbraided with that defect comforted themselves with the meditation of Gods most gracious and merciful nature Who did not therefore the less accept of their hearty affection and zeal rather than took any great delight or imagined any high perfection in such their want of external Ornaments which when they wanted the cause was their only lack of ability ability serving they wanted them not Before the Emperour Constantines time under Severus Gardian Philip and Galienus the state of Christian affairs being tolerable the sonner Buildings which were but of mean and small estate contented them not spacious and ample Churches they erected throughout every City No Envy was able to be their hindrance no practise of Satan or fraud of men available against their proceedings herein while they continued as yet worthy to feel the aide of the arm of God extended over them for their safety These Churches Dioclesian caused by solemn Edict to be afterwards overthrown Maximinus with like authority giving leave to erect them the hearts of all men were even rapt with Divine joy to see those places which tyrannous impiety had laid waste recovered as it were out of mortal calamity Churches reared up to an height immeasurable and adorned with far more beauty in their restauration than their Founders before had given them Whereby we see how most Christian minds stood then affected we see how joyful they were to behold the sumptuous stateliness of Houses built unto Gods glory If we should over and besides this alledge the care which was had that all things about the Tabernacle of Moses might be as beautiful gorgeous and rich as Art could make them or what travel and cost was bestowed that the goodliness of the Temple might be a Spectacle of admiration to all the world this they will say was figurative and served by Gods appointment but for a time to shadow out the true everlasting glory of a more Divine Sanctuary whereinto Christ being long fithence entred it seemeth that all those curious exornations should rather cease Which thing we also our selves would grant if the use thereof had been meetly and only mystical But sith the Prophet David doth mention a natural conveniency which such kind of bounteous Expences have as well for that we do thereby give unto God a testimony of our chearful affection which thinketh nothing too dear to be bestowed about the furniture of his Service as also because it serveth to the world for a witness of his Almightiness whom we outwardly honour with the chiefest of outward things as being of all things Himself incomparably the greatest Besides were it not also strange if God should have made such store of glorious Creatures on Earth and leave them all to be consumed in Secular vanity allowing none but the baser sort to be imployed in his own service To set forth the Majesty of Kings his Vicegerents in this world the most gorgeous and rare treasures which the world hath are procured We think belike that he will accept what the meanest of them would disdain If there be great care to build and beautifie these corruptible Sanctuaries little or none that the living Temples of the Holy Ghost the dearly redeemed Souls of the people of God may be edified huge expences upon Timber and Stone but towards the relief of the poor small devotion Cost this way infinite and in the mean while Charity cold we have in such case just occasion to make complaint as Saint Ierom did The walls of the Church there are â—now contented to build and to underset it with goodly Pillars the Marbles are polished the Roofs shine with Gold the Altar hath Precious Stones to adorn it and of Christs Ministers no choyce at all The same Ierom both in that place and elsewhere debaseth with like intent the glory of such Magnificence a thing whereunto mens affections in those times needed no spuâ—r thereby to extoll the necessity sometimes of Charity and Alms sometimes of other the most principal Duties belonging unto Christian men which Duties were neither so highly esteemed as they ought and being compared with that in question the directest Sentence we can give of them both as unto me it seemeth is this God who requireth the one as necessary accepteth the other also as being an honourable work 16. Our opinion concerning the force and vertue which such Places have is I trust without any blemish or stain of Heresie Churches receive as every thing else their chief perfection from the end whereunto they serve Which end being the publick worship of God they are in this consideration Houses of greater Dignity than any provided for meaner purposes For which cause they seem after a sort even to mourn as being injured and defrauded of their right when places not sanctified as they are prevent them unnecessarily in that preheminence and honour Whereby also it doth come to pass that the Service of God hath not then it self such perfection of grace and comeliness as when the dignity of place which it wisheth for doth concurr Again albeit the true worship of God be to God in it self acceptable who respecteth not so much in what place as with what affection he is served and therefore Moses in the midst of the Sea Iob on the Dunghil Ezechias in Bed Ieremy in Mire Ionas in the Whale Daniel in the Den the Children in the Furnace the Thief on the Cross Peter and Paul in Prison calling unto God were heard as S. Basil noteth manifest notwithstanding it is that the very majesty and holyness of the place where God is worshipped hath in regard of us great vertue force and efficacy for that it serveth as a sensible help to stirr up devotion and in that respect no doubt bettereth even our holiest and best actions in this kind As therefore we every where exhort all men to worship God even so for performance of this Service by the people of God assembled we think not any place so good as the Church neither any exhortation so sit as that of David O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness 17. For of our Churches thus it becometh us to esteem howsoever others rapt with the pang of a furious zeal do pour out against them devout blasphemies crying Down with them down with them even to the very ground For to Idolatry they have been abused And the places where Idols have been worshipped are by the Law of God devote to utter destruction For extentions of which Law the Kings that were godly as Asa Jehosaphat Ezechia Josia destroyed all the High places Altars and Groves which had been erected in Juda and Israel He that said Thou shalt have no other gods before my face hath
the Sacred Authority of Scriptures ever sithence the first publication thereof even till this present day and hour And that they all have always so testified I see not how we should possibly wish a proof more palpable than this manifest received and every where continued Custom of Reading them publickly as the Scriptures The Reading therefore of the Word of God as the use hath ever been in open Audience is the plainest evidence we have of the Churches assent and acknowledgement that it is his Word 3. A further commodity this Custom hath which is to furnish the very simplest and rudest sort with such infallible Axioms and Precepts of Sacred Truth delivered even in the very letter of the Law of God as may serve them for Rules whereby to judge the better all other Doctrins and Instructions which they hear For which end and purpose I see not how the Scripture could be possibly made familiar unto all unless far more should be read in the Peoples hearing than by a Sermon can be opened For whereas in a manner the whole Book of God is by reading every year published a small part thereof in comparison of the whole may hold very well the readiest Interpreter of Scripture occupied many years 4. Besides wherefore should any man think but that Reading it self is one of the ordinary means whereby it pleaseth God of his gracious goodness to instill that Celestial Verity which being but so received is nevertheless effectual to save Souls Thus much therefore we ascribe to the Reading of the Word of God as the manner is in our Churches And because it were odious if they on their part should altogether despise the same they yield that Reading may set forward but not begin the work of Salvation That Faith may be nourished therewith but not bred That herein mens attention to the Scriptures and their speculation of the Creatures of God have like efficacy both being of power to augment but neither to effect Belief without Sermons That if any believe by Reading alone we are to account it a miracle an extraordinary work of God Wherein that which they grant we gladly accept at their hands and with that patiently they would examine how little cause they have to deny that which as yet they grant not The Scripture witnesseth that when the Book of the Law of God had been sometime missing and was after found the King which heard it but only read tare his Cloaths and with tears confessed Great is the wrath of the Lord upon us because our Fathers have notâ— kept his Word to do after all things which are written in this Book This doth argue that by bare reading for of Sermons at that time there is no mention true Repentance may be wrought in the hearts of such as fear God and yet incurr his displeasure the deserved effect whereof is Eternal death So that their Repentance although it be not their first entrance is notwithstanding the first step of their re-entrance into Life and may be in them wrought by the Word only read unto them Besides it seemeth that God would have no man stand in doubt but that the reading of Scripture is effectual as well to lay even the first foundation as to adde degrees of farther perfection in the fear of God And therefore the Law saith Thou shalt read this Law before all Israel that Men Women and Children may hear yea even that their Children which as yet have not known it may hear it and by hearing it so read may learn to fear the Lord. Our Lord and Saviour was himself of opinion That they which would not be drawn to amendment of Life by the Testimony which Moses and the Prophets have given concerning the miseries that follow Sinners after death were not likely to be perswaded by other means although God from the very Dead should have raised them up Preachers Many hear the Books of God and believe them not Howbeit their unbelief in that case we may not impute unto any weakness or insufficiency in the mean which is used towards them but to the wilful bent of their obstinate hearts against it With mindes obdurate nothing prevaileth As well they that preach as they that read unto such shall still have cause to complain with the Prophets which were of old Who will give credit unto our Teaching But with whom ordinary means will prevail surely the power of the World of God even without the help of Interpreters in God's Church worketh mightily not unto their confirmation alone which are converted but also to their conversion which are not It shall not boot them who derogate from reading to excuse it when they see no other remedy as if their intent were only to deny that Aliens and Strangers from the Family of God are won or that Belief doth use to be wrought at the first in them without Sermons For they know it is our Custom of simple Reading not for conversion of Infidels estranged from the House of God but for instruction of Men baptised bred and brought up in the bosom of the Church which they despise as a thing uneffectual to save such Souls In such they imagine that God hath no ordinary mean to work Faith without Sermons The reason why no man can attain Belief by the bare contemplation of Heaven and Earth is for that they neither are sufficient to give us as much as the least spark of Light concerning the very principal Mysteries of our Faith and whatsoever we may learn by them the same we can only attain to know according to the manner of natural Sciences which meer discourse of Wit and Reason findeth out whereas the things which we properly believe be only such as are received upon the credit of Divine Testimony Seeing therefore that he which considereth the Creatures of God findeth therein both these defects and neither the one nor the other in Scriptures because he that readeth unto us the Scriptures delivereth all the Mysteries of Faith and not any thing amongst them all more than the mouth of the Lord doth warrant It followeth in those own respects that our consideration of Creatures and attention unto Scriptures are not in themselves and without-Sermons things of like disability to breed or beget Faith Small cause also there is why any man should greatly wonder as at an extraordinary work if without Sermons Reading be sound to effect thus much For I would know by some special instance what one Article of Christian Faith or what duty required unto all mens Salvation there is which the very reading of the Word of God is not apt to notifie Effects are miraculous and strange when they grow by unlikely means But did we ever hear it accounted for a Wonder that he which doth read should believe and live according to the will of Almighty God Reading doth convey to the Minde that Truth without addition or diminution which Scripture hath derived from
Common Prayer the manifold confusions which they fall into where every man 's private Spirit and Gift as they term it is the only Bishop that ordaineth him to this Ministry the irksome deformities whereby through endless and senseless effusions of indigested Prayers they oftentimes disgrace in most unsufferable manner the worthiest part of Christian duty towards God who herein are subject to no certain Order but pray both what and how they list to him I say which weigheth duly all these things the reasons cannot be obscure why God doth in Publick Prayer so much respect the Solemnitie of Places where the Authority and calling of Persons by whom and the precise Appointment even with what Words or Sentences his Name should be called on amongst his People 26. No man hath hitherto been so impious as plainly and directly to condemn Prayer The best stratagem that Satan hath who knoweth his Kingdom to be no one way more shaken than by the Publick devout Prayers of God's Church is by traducing the form and manner of them to bring them into contempt and so to shake the force of all men's devotion towards them From this and from no other forge hath proceeded a strange conceit that to serve God with any set form of Common Prayer is superstitious As though God himself did not frame to his Priests the very speech wherewith they were charged to bless the People or as if our Lord even of purpose to prevent this fancy of extemporal and voluntary Prayers had not left us of his own framing one which might both remain as a part of the Church-Liturgy and serve as a Pattern whereby to frame all other Prayers with efficacy yet without superfluity of words If Prayers were no otherwise accepted of God then being conceived always new according to the exigence of present occasions if it be right to judge him by our own Bellies and to imagine that he doth loath to have the self-same supplications often iterated even as we do to be every day fed without alteration or change of diet if Prayers he Actions which ought to waste away themselves in the making if being made to remain that they may be resumed and used again as Prayers they be but instruments of Superstition surely we cannot excuse Moses who gave such occasion of scandal to the World by not being contented to praise the Name of Almighty God according to the usual naked simplicity of God's Spirit for that admirable victory given them against Pharaoh unless so dangerous a President were lest for the casting of Prayers into certain Poetical moulds and for the framing of Prayers which might be repeated often although they never had again the same occasions which brought them forth at the first For that very Hymne of Moses grew afterwards to be a part of the ordinary Jewish Liturgy not only that but sundry other sithence invented Their Books of Common-Prayer contained partly Hymns taken out of thē Holy Scripture partly Benedictions Thanksgivings Supplications penned by such as have been from time to time the Governours of that Synagogue These they sorted into their several times and places some to begin the service of God with and some to end some to go before and some to follow and some to be interlaced between the Divine Readings of the Law and Prophets Unto their custom of finishing the Passeover with certain Psalmes there is not any thing more probable then that the holy Evangelist doth evidently allude saying That after the Cup delivered by our Saviour unto his Apostles they sung and went forth to the Mount of Olives As the Jews had their Songs of Moses and David and the rest so the Church of Christ from the very beginning hath both used the same and besides them other also of like nature the Song of the Virgin Mary the Song of Zachary the Song of Simeon such Hymnes as the Apostle doth often speak of saying I will pray and sing with the Spirit Again in Psalms Hymnes and Songs making melody unto the Lord and that heartily Hymnes and Psalms are such kindes of Prayer as are not wont to be conceived upon a sudden but are framed by Meditation before hand or else by Prophetical illumination are inspired as at that time it appeareth they were when God by extraordinary gifts of the Spirit inabled men to all parts of service necessary for the edifying of his Church 27. Now albeit the Admonitioners did seem at the first to allow no Prescript form of Prayer at all but thought it the best that their Minister should always be left at liberty to pray as his own discretion did serve yet because this opinion upon better advice they afterwards retracted their Defender and his Associates have sithence proposed to the World a form such as themselves like and to shew their dislike of ours have taken against it those exceptions which whosoever doth measure by number must needs be greatly out of love with a thing that hath so many faults whosoever by weight cannot chuse but esteem very highly of that wherein the wit of so scrupulous Adversaries hath not hitherto observed any defect which themselves can seriously think to be of moment Gross Errours and manifest Impiety they grant we have taken away Yet many things in it they say are amiss many instances they give of things in our Common Prayer not agreeable as they pretend with the word of God It hath in their eye too great affinity with the form of the Church of Rome it differeth too much from that which Churches elsewhere reformed allow and observe our Attire disgraceth it it is not orderly read nor gestured as beseemeth it requireth nothing to be done which a Childe may not lawfully do it hath a number of short cutts or shreddings which may be better called Wishes than Prayers it intermingleth Prayings and Readings in such manner as if Supplicants should use in proposing their Sutes unto mortal Princes all the World would judge them madd it is too long and by that mean abridgeth Preaching it appointeth the People to say after the Minister it spendeth time in singing and in reading the Psalms by course from side to side it useth the Lord's Prayer too oft the Songs of Magnificat Benedictus and Nune Dimittis it might very well spare it hath the Letany the Creed of Athanasius and Gloria Patri which are superfluous it craveth Earthly things too much for deliverance from those Evils against which we pray it giveth no Thanks some things it asketh unseasonably when they need not to be prayed for as deliverance from Thunder and Tempest when no Danger is nigh some in too abject and diffident manner as that God would give us that which we for our unworthiness dare not ask some which ought not to be desired as the deliverance from sudden Death riddance from all Adversity and the extent of saving Mercy towards all men These and such like are the Imperfections
then their calculation be true for so they reckon that a full third of our Prayers be allotted unto earthly benefits for which our Saviour in his platform hath appointed but one Petition amongst seven the difference is without any great disagreement we respecting what men are and doing that which is meer in regard of the common imperfection our Lord contrariwise proposing the most absolute proportion that can be in mens desires the very highest mark whereat we are able to aime For which cause also our custom is both to place it in the front of our Prayers as a Guide and to adde it in the end of some principal limbs or parts as a complement which fully perfecteth whatsoever may be defective in the rest Twice we rehearse it ordinarily and oftner as occasion requireth more solemnity or length in the form of Divine Service not mistrusting till these new curiosities sprang up that ever any man would think our labour herein mis-spent the time wastfully consumed and the Office it self made worse by so repeating that which otherwise would more hardly be made familiar to the simpler sort for the good of whose Souls there is not in Christian Religion any thing of like continual use and force throughout every hour and moment of their whole lives I mean not only because Prayer but because this very Prayer is of such efficacy and necessity for that our Saviour did but set men a bare example how to contrive or devise Prayers of their own and no way binde them to use this is no doubt as Errour Iohn the Baptist's Disciples which had been always brought up in the bosom of God's Church from the time of their first Infancy till they came to the School of Iohn were not so brutish that they could be ignorant how to call upon the Name of God but of their Master they had received a form of Prayer amongst themselves which form none did use saving his Disciples so that by it as by a mark of special difference they were known from others And of this the Apostles having taken notice they request that as Iohn had taught his so Christ would likewise teach them to pray Tertullian and Saint Augustin do for that cause term it Orationem legitimam the Prayer which Christ's own Law hath tyed his Church to use in the same Prescript form of words wherewith he himself did deliver it and therefore what part of the World soever we fall into if Christian Religion have been there received the ordinary use of this very Prayer hath with equal continuance accompanied the same as one of the principal and most material duties of honour done to Jesus Christ. Seeing that we have saith Saint Cyprian an Advocate with the Father for our Sins when we that have sinned come to seek for pardon let us alledge unto God the words which our Advocate hath taught For sith his promise is our plain warrant that in his Name what we aske we shall receive must we not needs much the rather obtain that for which we sue if not only his Name do countenance but also his Speech present our requests Though men should speak with the tongues of Angels yet words so pleasing to the ears of God as those which the Son of God himself hath composed were not possible for men to frame He therefore which made us to live hath also taught us to pray to the end that speaking unto the Father in the Sonn 's own prescript without scholy or gloss of ours we may be sure that we utter nothing which God will either disallow or deny Other Prayers we use may besides this and this oftner than any other although not tyed so to do by any Commandement of Scripture yet moved with such considerations as have been before set down the causeless dislike where of which others have conceived is no sufficient reason for us as much as once to forbear in any place a thing which uttered with true devotion and zeal of heart affordeth to God himself that glory that aide to the weakest sort of men to the most perfect that solid comfort which is unspeakable 36. With our Lords Prayer they would finde no fault so that they might perswade us to use it before or other Sermons only because so their manner is and not as all Christian people have been of old accustomed insert it so often into the Liturgy But the Peoples custom to repeat any thing after the Minister they utterly mislike Twice we appoint that the words which the Minister first pronounceth the whole Congregation shall repeat after him As first in the publick Confession of Sins and again in rehearsal of our Lord's Prayer presently after the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood received A thing no way offensive no way unfit or unseemly to be done although it had been so appointed ofner than with us it is But surely with so good reason it standeth in those two places that otherwise to order it were not in all respects so well Could there be any thing devised better then that we all at our first access unto God by Prayer should acknowledge meekly our sins and that not onely in heart but with tongue all which are present being made ear-witnesses even of every mans distinct and deliberate assent unto each particular branch of a common Indictment drawn against our selves How were it possible that the Church should any way else with such ease and certainty provide that none of her Children may as Adam dissemble that wretchedness the penitent confession whereof is so necessary a Preamble especially to Common Prayer In like manner if the Church did ever devise a thing fit and convenient what more then this that when together we have all received those Heavenly Mysteries wherein Christ imparteth himself unto us and giveth visible testification of our blessed communion with him we should in hatred of all Heresies Factions and Schisms the Pastor as a Leader the people as willing followers of him step by step declare openly our selves united as Brethren in one by offering up with all our hearts and tongues that most effectual Supplication wherein he unto whom we offer it hath himself not onely comprehended all our necessities but in such sort also framed every Petition as might most naturally serve for many and doth though not always require yet always import a multitude of speakers together For which cause Communicants have ever used it and we at that time by the form of our very utterance do shew we use it yea every word and syllable of it as Communicants In the rest we observe that custom whereunto St. Paul alludeth and whereof the Fathers of the Church in their Writings make often mention to shew indefinitely what was done but not universally to binde for ever all Prayers unto one onely fashion of utterance The Reasons which we have alledged induce us to think it still a good work which they in their pensive
our Lords admonition Pray that ye enter not into temptation When himself pronounceth them blessed that should for his Names sake be subject to all kindes of ignominy and opprobrious malediction was it his purpose that no man should ever pray with David Lord remove from me shame and contempt In those tribulations saith St. Augustine which may hurt as well as profit we must say with the Apostle What we should ask as we ought we know not yet because they are tough because they are grievous because the sense of our weakness flieth them we pray according to the general desire of the will of man that God would turn them away from us owing in the mean while this devotion to the Lord our God that if he remove them not yet we do not therefore imagine our selves in his sight despised but rather with godly sufferance of evils expect greater good at his merciful hands For thus is vertue in weakness perfected To the flesh as the Apostle himself granteth all affliction is naturally grievous Therefore Nature which causeth to fear teacheth to pray against all adversity Prosperity in regard of our corrupt inclination to abuse the blessings of Almighty God doth prove for the most part a thing dangerous to the Souls of Men. Very Ease it self is death to the wicked and the prosperity of fools slayeth them Their Table is a Snare and their Felicity their utter overthrow Few men there are which long prosper and sin not Howbeit even as these ill effects although they be very usual and common are no bar to the hearty prayers whereby most vertuous mindes with peace and prosperity always where they love because they consider that this in it self is a thing naturally desired So because all adversity is in it self against nature what should hinder to pray against it although the providence of God turn it often unto the great good of many men Such Prayers of the Church to be delivered from all adversity are no more repugnant to any reasonable disposition of mens mindes towards death much less to that blessed Patience and meek Contentment which Saints by Heavenly inspiration have to endure what cross or calamity soever it pleaseth God to lay upon them then our Lord and Saviours own Prayer before his Passion was repugnant unto his most gracious resolution to die for the sins of the whole World 49. In praying for deliverance from all adversity we seek that which Nature doth wish to it self but by intreating for Mercy towards all we declare that Affection wherewith Christian Charity thirsteth after the good of the whole World we discharge that duty which the Apostle himself doth impose on the Church of Christ as a commendable office a sacrifice acceptable in Gods sight a service according to his heart whose desire is to have all men saved A work most suitable with his purpose who gave himself to be the price of redemption for all and a forcible mean to procure the conversion of all such as are not yet acquainted with the Mysteries of that Truth which must save their Souls Against it there is but the bare shew of this one Impediment that all mens salvation and many mens eternal condemnation or death are things the one repugnant to the other that both cannot be brought to pass that we know there are Vessels of Wrath to whom God will never extend mercy and therefore that wittingly we ask an impossible thing to be had The truth is that as life and death mercy and wrath are matters of meer understanding or knowledge all mens salvation and some mens endless perdition are things so opposite that whosoever doth affirm the one must necessarily deny the order God himself cannot effect both or determine that both shall be There is in the knowledge both of God and Man this certainty That life and death have divided between them the whole Body of mankinde What portion either of the two hath God himself knoweth for us he hath left no sufficient means to comprehend and for that cause neither given any leave to search in particular who are infalliby the heirs of the Kingdom of God who cast-aways Howbeit concerning the state of all men with whom we live for onely of them our Prayers are meant we may till the Worlds end for the present always presume That as far as in us there is power to discern what others are and as far as any duty of ours dependeth upon the notice of their condition in respect of God the safest Axioms for Charity to rest it self upon are these He which believeth already is and he which believeth not as yet may be the childe of God It becometh not us during life altogether to condemn any man seeing that for any thing we know there is hope of every mans forgiveness the possibility of whose repentance is not yet cut off by death And therefore Charity which hopeth all things prayeth also for all Men. Wherefore to let go Personal Knowledge touching Vessels of Wrath and Mercy what they are inwardly in the sight of God it skilleth not for us there is cause sufficient in all men whereupon to ground our Prayers unto God in their behalf For whatsoever the Minde of Man apprehencieth as good the Will of Charity and Love is to have it inlarged in the very uttermost extent that all may enjoy it to whom it can any way add perfection Because therefore the father a good thing doth reach the nobler and worthier we reckon it our Prayers for all mens good no less then for our own the Apostle with very fit terms commendeth as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a work commendable for the largeness of the affection from whence it springeth even as theirs which have requested at Gods hands the salvation of many with the loss of their own Souls drowning as it were and over-whelming themselves in the abundance of their love towards others is proposed as being in regard of the rareness of such affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more then excellent But this extraordinary height of desire after other mens salvation is no common mark The other is a duty which belongeth unto all and prevaileth with God daily For as it is in it self good so God accepteth and taketh it in very good part at the hands of faithful men Our Prayers for all men do include both them that shall finde mercy and them also that shall finde none For them that shall no man will doubt but our Prayers are both accepted and granted Touching them for whom we crave that mercy which is not to be obtained let us not think that our Saviour did mis-instruct his Disciples willing them to pray for the peace even of such as should be uncapable of so great a blessing or that the Prayers of the Prophet Ieremy offended God because the answer of God was a resolute denial of favor to them for whom Supplication was made And if any
for such their particular Invocations and Benedictions as no Man I suppose professing truth of Religion will easily think to have been without Fruit. No there is no cause we should doubt of the benefit but surely great cause to make complaint of the deep neglect of this Christian duty almost with all them to whom by tight of their place and calling the same belongeth Let them not take it in evil part the thing is true their small regard hereunto hath done harm in the Church of God That which Error rashly uttereth in disgrace of good things may peradventure be sponged out when the print of those evils which are grown through neglect will remain behinde Thus much therefore generally spoken may serve for answer unto their demands that require us to tell them Why there should be any such confirmation in the Church seeing we are not ignorant how earnestly they have protested against it and how directly although untruly for so they are content to acknowledge it hath by some of them been said To be first brought in by the seigned Decretal Epistles of the Popes or why it should not be utterly abolished seeing that no one title thereof can be once found in the whole Scripture except the Epistle to the Hebrews be Scripture And again seeing that how free soever it be now from abuse if we look back to the times past which wise men do always more respect then the present it hath been abused and is found at the length no such profitable Ceremony as the whole silly Church of Christ for the space of these Sixteen hundred years hath through want of experience imagined Last of all Seeing also besides the cruelty which is shewed towards poor Country people who are fain sometimes to let their Ploughs stand still and with increble wearisome toyl of their feeble bodies to wander over Mountains and through Woods it may be now and then little less then a whole half score of miles for a Bishops blessing which if it were needful might as well be done at home in their own Parishes rather then they is purchase it with so great loss and so intolerable pain There are they say in Confirmation besides this Three terrible points The first is Laying on of hands with pretence that the same is done to the example of the Apostles which is not onely as they suppose a manifest untruth for all the World doth know that the Apostles did never after Baptism lay hands on any and therefore Saint Luke which saith they did was much deceived But farther also we thereby teach men to think Imposition of Hands a Sacrament belike because it is a principle ingrafted by common Light of Nature in the Mindes of Men that all things done by Apostolick example must needs be Sacrament The second high point of danger is That by tying Confirmation to the Bishop alone there is great cause of suspition given to think that Baptism is not so precious a thing as Confirmation For will any man think that a Velvet Coat is of more price then a Linnen Coyf knowing the one to be an ordinary Garment the other an Ornament which onely Sergeants at Law do wear Finally To draw to an end of perils the last and the weightiest hazard is where the Book it self doth say That Children by Imposition of Hands and Prayer may receive strength against all temptation Which speech as a two-edged sword doth both ways dangerously wound partly because it ascribeth Grace to Imposition of Hands whereby we are able no more to assure our selves in the warrant of any promise from God that his Heavenly Grace shall be given then the Apostle was that himself should obtain Grace by the bowing of his knees to God and partly because by using the very word strength in this matter a word so apt to spred infection we maintain with Popish Evangelists an old forlorn distinction of the Holy Ghost bestowed upon Christs Apostles before his Ascension into Heaven and augmented upon them afterwards a distinction of Grace infused into Christian men by degrees planted in them at the first by Baptism after cherished watred and be it spoken without offence strengthned as by other vertuous Offices which Piety and true Religion teacheth even so by this very special Benediction whereof we speak the Rite or Ceremony of Confirmation 67. The Grace which we have by the holy Eucharist doth not begin but continue life No man therefore receiveth this Sacrament before Baptism because no dead thing is capable of nourishment That which groweth must of necessity first live If our Bodies did not daily waste Food to restore them were a thing superfluous And it may be that the Grace of Baptism would serve to Eternal Life were it not that the state of our Spiritual Being is daily so much hindered and impaired after Baptism In that life therefore where neither Body nor Soul can decay our Souls shall as little require this Sacrament as our Bodies corporal nourishment But as long as the days of our warfare last during the time that we are both subject to diminution and capable of augmentation in Grace the Words of our Lord and Saviour Christ will remain forceable Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no life in you Life being therefore proposed unto all men as their end they which by Baptism have laid the Foundation and attained the first beginning of a new life have here their nourishment and food prescribed for continuance of life in them Such as will live the Life of God must eat the Flesh and drink the Blood of the Son of Man because this is a part of that diet which if we want we cannot live Whereas therefore in our Infancy we are incorporated into Christ and by Baptism receive the Grace of his Spirit without any sense or feeling of the gift which God bestoweth in the Eucharist we so receive the gift of God that we know by Grace what the Grace is which God giveth us the degrees of our own Increase in holiness and vertue we see and can judge of them we understand that the strength of our life begun in Christ is Christ that his Flesh is Meat and his Blood drink not by surmised imagination but truly even so truly that through Faith we perceive in the Body and Blood sacramentally presented the very taste of Eternal Life the Grace of the Sacrament is here as the food which we eat and drink This was it that some did exceedingly fear lest Zwinglius and Occolampadius would bring to pass that men should account of this Sacrament but onely as of a shadow destitute empty and void of Christ. But seeing that by opening the several opinions which have been held they are grown for ought I can see on all sides at the length to a general agreement concerning that which alone is material namely The Real Participation of Christ and of
the days of whose departure out of the World are to the Church of Christ as the Birth and Coronation days of Kings or Emperors therefore especial choice being made of the very flower of all occasions in this kinde there are annual selected times to meditate of Christ glorified in them which had the honor to suffer for his sake before they had age and ability to know him glorified in them which knowing him as Stephen had the sight of that before death whereinto so acceptable death did lead glorified in those Sages of the East that came from far to adore him and were conducted by strange light glorified in the second Elias of the World sent before him to prepare his way glorified in every of those Apostles whom it pleased him to use as Founders of his Kingdom here glorified in the Angels as in Michael glorified in all those happy Souls that are already possessed of Heaven Over and besides which number not great the rest be but four other days heretofore annexed to the Feast of Easter and Pentecost by reason of general Baptism usual at those two Feasts which also is the cause why they had not as other days any proper name given them Their first Institution was therefore through necessity and their present continuance is now for the greater honor of the Principals whereupon they still attend If it be then demanded Whether we observe these times as being thereunto bound by force of Divine Law or else by the onely Positive Ordinances of the Church I answer to this That the very Law of Nature it self which all men confess to be Gods Law requireth in general no less the Sanctification of Times then of Places Persons and Things unto Gods honor For which cause it hath pleased him heretofore as of the rest so of times likewise to exact some parts by way of perpetual homage never to be dispensed withal nor remitted Again To require some other parts of time with as strict exaction but for less continuance and of the rest which were left arbibitrary to accept what the Church shall in due consideration consecrate voluntarily unto like Religious uses Of the first kinde amongst the Jews was the Sabbath-day of the second Those Feasts which are appointed by the Law of Moses the Feast of Dedication invented by the Church standeth in the number of the last kinde The Moral Law requiring therefore a seventh part throughout the age of the whole World to be that way employed although with us the day be changed in regard of a new Revolution begun by our Saviour Christ yet the same proportion of time continueth which was before because in reference to the benefit of Creation and now much more of Renovation thereunto added by him which was Prince of the World to come we are bound to accompt the Sanctification of one day in seven a duty which Gods Immutable Law doth exact for ever The rest they say we ought to abolish because the continuance of them doth nourish wicked Superstition in the mindes of men besides they are all abused by Papists the enemies of God yea certain of them as Easter and Pentecost even by the Jews 71. Touching Jews their Easter and Pentecost have with ours as much affinity as Philip the Apostle with Philip the Macedonian King As for imitation of Papists and the breeding of Superstition they are now become such common guests that no man can think it discourteous to let them go as they came The next is a rare Observation and Strange you shall finde if you mark it as it doth deserve to be noted well that many thousands there are who if they have vertuously during those times behaved themselves if their devotion and zeal in Prayer have been fervent their attention to the Word of God such as all Christian men should yield imagine that herein they have performed a good duty which notwithstanding to think is a very dangerous Error in as much as the Apostle Saint Paul hath taught That we ought not to keep our Easter as the Jews did for certain days but in the Unleavened Bread of Sincerity and of Truth to feast continually Whereas the restraint of Easter to a certain number of days causeth us to rest for a short space in that near consideration of our duties which should be extended throughout the course of our whole lives and so pulleth out of our mindes the Doctrine of Christs Gospel â—re we be aware The Doctrine of the Gospel which here they mean or should mean is That Christ having finished the Law there is no Jewish Paschal Solemnity nor abstinence from sour Bread now required at our hands there is no Leaven which we are bound to cast out but malice sin and wickedness no Bread but the food of sincere Truth wherewith we are tied to celebrate our Passover And seeing no time of sin is granted us neither any intermission of sound belief it followeth That this kinde of feasting ought to endure always But how are standing Festival Solemnities against this That which the Gospel of Christ requireth is the perpetuity of vertuous duties not perpetuity of exercise or action but disposition perpetual and practice as oft as times and opportunities require Just valiant liberal temperate and holy men are they which can whensoever they will and will whensoever they ought execute what their several perfections import If Vertues did always cease to be when they cease to work there should be nothing more pernicious to Vertue then Sleep Neither were it possible that men as Zachary and Elizabeth should in all the Commandments of God walk unreprovable or that the Chain of our Conversation should contain so many Links of Divine Vertues as the Apostles in divers places have reckoned up if in the exercise of each vertue perpetual continuance were exacted at our hands Seeing therefore all things are done in time and many offices are not possible at one and the same time to be discharged duties of all forms must have necessarily their several successions and seasons In which respect the School-men have well and soundly determined That Gods Affirmative Laws and Precepts the Laws that enjoyn any actual duty as Prayer Alms and the like do binde us ad semper velle but not ad semper agere we are tyed to iterate and resume them when need is howbeit not to continue them without any intermission Feasts whether God himself hath ordained them or the Church by that Authority which God hath given they are of Religion such publick services as neither can nor ought to be continued otherwise then onely by iteration Which iteration is a most effectual mean to bring unto full maturity and growth those Seeds of Godliness that these very men themselves do grant to be sown in the hearts of many Thousands during the while that such Feasts are present The constant habit of well-doing is not gotten without the custom of doing well neither can Vertue be made perfect but by
that men ought to Fast more often then Marry the best Feast-maker is with them the perfectest Saint they are assuredly meer Spirit and therefore these our corporal devotions please them not Thus the one for Montanus and his Superstition The other in a clean contrary tune against the Religion of the Church These Set-fasts away with them for they are Iewish and bring men under the yoke of servitude If I will fast let me chuse my time that Christian Liberty be not abridged Hereupon their glory was to fast especially upon the Sunday because the order of the Church was on that day not to Fast. On Church Fasting days and especially the Week before Easter when with us saith Epiphanius Custom admitteth nothing but lying down upon the Earth abstinence from fleshly delights and pleasures sorrowfulness dry and unsavory Diet Prayer Watching Fasting all the Medicines which holy Affections can minister they are up be times to take in of the strongest for the belly and when their veins are well swoln they make themselves mirth with laughter at this our service wherein we are perswaded we please God By this of Epiphanius it doth appear not onely what Fastings the Church of Christ in those times used but also what other parts of Discipline were together therewith in force according to the ancient use and custom of bringing all men at certain times to a due consideration and an open Humiliation of themselves Two kindes there were of Publick Penitency the one belonging to notorious offenders whose open wickedness had been scandalous the other appertaining to the whole Church and unto every several person whom the same containeth It will be answered That touching this latter kinde it may be exercised well enough by men in private No doubt but Penitency is as Prayer a thing acceptable unto God be it in publick or in secret Howbeit as in the one if men were wholly left to their own voluntary Meditations in their Closets and not drawn by Laws and Orders unto the open Assemblies of the Church that there they may joyn with others in Prayer it may be soon conjectured what Christian devotion that way would come unto in a short time Even so in the other We are by sufficient experience taught how little it booreth to tell men of washing away their sins with tears of Repentance and so to leave them altogether unto themselves O Lord what heaps of grievous transgressions have we committed the best the perfectest the most righteous amongst us all and yet clean pass them over unsorrowed foâ— and unrepented of onely because the Church hath forgotten utterly how to bestow her wonted times of Discipline wherein the publick example of all was unto every particular person a most effectual mean to put them often in minde and even in a manner to draw them to that which now we all quite and clean forget as if Penitency were no part of a Christian mans duty Again besides our private offences which ought not thus loosly to be overslipt suppose we the Body and Corporation of the Church so just that at no time it needeth to shew it self openly cast down in regard of those Faults and Transgressions which though they do not properly belong unto any one had notwithstanding a special Sacrifice appointed for them in the Law of Moses and being common to the whole Society which containeth all must needs so far concern every man in particular as at some time in solemn manner to require acknowledgment with more then daily and ordinary testifications of grief There could not hereunto a fitter preamble be devised then that memorable Commination set down in the Book of Common Prayer if our practice in the rest were suitable The Head already so well drawn doth but wish a proportionable Body And by the Preface to that very part of the English Liturgy it may appear how at the first setting down thereof no less was intended For so we are to interpret the meaning of those words wherein restitution of the Primitive Church Discipline is greatly wished for touching the manner of publick penance in time of Lent Wherewith some being not much acquainted but having framed in their mindes the conceit of a new Discipline far unlike to that of old they make themselves believe it is undoubtedly this their Discipline which at the first was so much desired They have long pretended that the whole Scripture is plain for them If now the Communion Book make for them too I well think the one doth as much as the other it may be hoped that being found such a well-willer unto their cause they will more favor it then they have done Having therefore hitherto spoken both of Festival days and so much of solemn Fasts as may reasonably serve to shew the ground thereof in the Law of Nature the practice partly appointed and partly allowed of God in the Jewish Church the like continued in the Church of Christ together with the sinister oppositions either of Hereticks erroneously abusing the same or of others thereat quarrelling without cause we will onely collect the chiefest points as well of resemblance as of difference between them and so end First In this they agree that because Nature is the general Root of both therefore both have been always common to the Church with Infidels and Heathen men Secondly They also herein accord that as oft as joy is the cause of the one and grief the Well-spring of the other they are incompatible A third degree of affinity between them is That neither being acceptable to God of it self but both tokens of that which is acceptable their approbation with him must necessarily depend on that which they ought to import and signifie So that if herein the minde dispose no it self aright whether we rest or fast we offend A fourth thing common unto them is that the greatest part of the World hath always grosly and palpably offended in both Infidels because they did all in relation to false gods godless sensual and careless mindes for that there is in them no constant true and sincere affection towards those things which are pretended by such exercise yea certain flattering over-sights there are wherewith sundry and they not of the worst sort may be easily in these cases led awry even through abundance of love and liking to that which must be imbraced by all means but with caution in as much as the very admiration of Saints Whether we celebrate their glory or follow them in humility whether we laugh or weep mourn or rejoyce with them is as in all things the affection of Love apt to deceive and doth therefore need the more to be directed by a watchful guide seeing there is manifestly both ways even in them whom we honor that which we are to observe and shun The best have not still been sufficiently mindful that Gods very Angels in Heaven are but Angels and that bodily exercise considered in it self is no
condition as long as they stedfastly were observed to honour God and their success being faln from him are remonstrances more than sufficient how all our welfare even on earth dependeth wholly upon our Religion Heathens were ignorant of true Religion Yet such as that little was which they knew it much impaired or bettered alwaies their worldy affairs as their love and zeal towards it did wain or grow Of the Jews did not even their most malicious and mortal Adversaries all acknowledge that to strive against them it was in vain as long as their amity with God continued that nothing could weaken them but Apostasie In the whole course of their own proceedings did they ever finde it otherwise but that during their faith and fidelity towards God every man of them was in war as a thousand strong and as much as a grand Senate for counsel in peaceable deliberations contrariwise that if they swarved as they often did their wonted courage and magnanimity forsook them utterly their Soldiers and military men trembled at the sight of the naked sword when they entered into mutual conference and sate in counsel for their own good that which Children might have seen their gravest Senators could not discern their Prophets saw darkness instead of Visions the wise and prudent were as men bewitcht even that which they knew being such as might stand them in stead they had not the grace to utter or if any thing were well proposed it took no place it entered not into the minds of the rest to approve and follow it but as men confounded with strange and unusual amaâ—â—ments of spirit they attempted tumultuously they saw not what and by the issues of all attempts they found no certain conclusion but this God and Heaven are strong against as in all we do The cause whereof was secret fear which took heart and courage from them and the cause of their fear an inward guiltiness that they all had offered God such apparent wrongs as were not pardonable But it may be the case is now altogether changed and that in Christian Religion there is not the like force towards Temporal felicity Search the ancient Records of time look what hath happened by the space of these sixteen hundred years see if all things to this effect be not Inculent and clear yea all things so manifest that for evidence and proof herein we need not by uncertain dark conjectures surmise any to have been plagued of God for contempt or blest in the course of faithful obedience towards true Religion more than onely them whom we finde in that respect on the one side guilty by their own confessions and happy on the other side by all mens acknowledgement who beholding that prosperous estate of such as are good and vertuous impute boldly the same to God's most especial favour but cannot in like manner pronounce that whom he afflicteth above others with them he hath cause to be more offended For Vertue is always plain to be seen rareness causeth it to be observed and goodness to be honoured with admiration As for iniquity and sin it lyeth many times hid and because we be all offenders it becometh us not to incline towards hard and severe sentences touching others unless their notorious wickedness did sensibly before proclaim that which afterwards came to pass Wherefore the sum of every Christian man's duty is to labour by all means towards that which other men seeing in us may justifie and what we our selves must accuse if we fall into it that by all means we can to avoid considering especially that as hitherto upon the Church there never yet fell tempestuous storm the vapours whereof were not first noted to rise from coldness in affection and from backwardness is duties of service towards God so if that which the tears of antiquity have untered concerning this point should be here set down it were assuredly enough to soften and to mollifie an Heart of steel On the contrary part although we confesse with Saint Augustine most willingly that the chiefest happiness for which we have some Christian Kings in so great admiration above the rest is not because of their long Reign their calm and quiet departure out of this present life the settled establishment of their own flesh and blood succeeding them in Royalty and Power the glorious overthrow of foreign enemies or the wise prevention of inward danger and so secret attempts at home all which solaces and comforts of this our unquiet life it pleaseth God oftentimes to bestow on them which have no society or part in the joys of Heaven giving thereby to understand that these in comparison are toys and trifles farr under the value and price of that which is to be looked for at his hands but in truth the reason wherefore we most extol their felicity is if so be they have virtuously reigned if honour have not filled their hearts with pride if the exercise of their power have been service and attendance upon the Majestie of the Most High if they have feared him as their own inferiours and subjects have feared them if they have loved neither pomp nor pleasure more than Heaven if revenge have slowly proceeded from then and mercy willingly offered it self if so they have tempered rigour with lenity that neither extream severitie might utterly cutt them off in whom there was manifest hope of amendment nor yet the easinesse of pardoning offences imbolden offenders if knowing that whatsoever they do their potency may bear it out they have been so much the more carefull are to do any thing but that which is commendable in the best rather than usual with greatest Personages if the true knowledge of themselves have humbled them in God's sight no lesse than God in the eyes of men hath raised them up I say albeit we reckon such to be the happiest of them that are mightiest in the World and albeit those things alone are happiness nevertheless considering what force there is even in outward blessings to comfort the mindes of the best disposed and to give them the greater joy when Religion and Peace Heavenly and Earthly happiness are wreathed in one Crown as to the worthiest of Christian Princes it hath by the providence of the Almighty hitherto befallen let it not seem unto any man a needlesse and superfluous waste of labour that there hath been thus much spoken to declare how in them especially it hath been so observed and withal universally noted even from the highest to the very meanest how this peculiar benefit this singular grace and preheminence Religion hath that either it guardeth as an heavenly shield from all calamities or else conducteth us safe through them and permitteth them not to be miseâ—… it either giveth honours promotions and wealth or else more benefit by wanting them than if we had them at will it either filleth our Houses with plenty of all good things or maketh a Sallad of green herbs more sweet than all the
Chancellours Officials Commissaries and such other the like names which being not found in holy Scripture we have been thereby through some mens errour thought to allow of Ecclesiastical Degress not known nor ever heard of in the better ages of former times all these are in truth but Titles of Office whereunto partly Ecclesiastical Persons and partly others are in sundry forms and conditions admitted as the state of the Church doth need degrees of Order still continuing the same they were from the first beginning Now what habit or attire doth beseem each Order to use in the course of common life both for the gravity of his Place and for Example-sake to other men is a matter frivolous to be disputed of A small measure of wisedom may serve to teach them how they should cutt their coats But seeing all well-ordered Polities have ever judged it meet and fit by certain special distinct Ornaments to sever each sort of men from other when they are in publick to the end that all may receive such Complements of Civil Honour as are due to their Roomes and Callings even where their Persons are not known it argueth a disproportioned minde in them whom so decent Orders displease 79. We might somewhat marvel what the Apostle Saint Paul should mean to say that Covetousness is Idolatry if the daily practise of men did not shew that whereas Nature requireth God to be honoured with wealth we honour for the most part Wealth as God Fain we would teach our selves to believe that for worldly goods it sufficeth frugally and honestly to use them to our own benefit without detriment and hurt of others or if we go a degree farther and perhaps convert some small contemptible portion thereof to Charitable uses the whole duty which we owe unto God herein is fully satisfied But for as much as we cannot rightly honour God unless both our Souls and Bodies be sometime imployed meerly in his Service Again sith we know that Religion requireth at our hands the taking away of so great a part of the time of our lives quite and clean from our own business and the bestowing of the same in his Suppose we that nothing of our wealth and substance is immediately due to God but all our own to bestow and spend as our selves think meet Are not our riches as well his as the days of our life are his Wherefore unless with part we acknowledge his Supream Dominion by whose benevolence we have the whole how give we Honour to whom Honour belongeth or how hath God the things that are God's I would know what Nation in the World did ever honour God and not think it a point of their duty to do him honour with their very goods So that this we may boldly set down as a Principle clear in Nature an Axiom which ought not to be called in question a Truth manifest and infallible that men are eternally bound to honour God with their substance in token of thankful acknowledgement that all they have is from him To honour him with our worldly goods not only by spending them in lawful manner and by using them without offence but also by alienating from our selves some reasonable part or portion thereof and by offering up the same to him as a sign that we gladly confess his sole and Soveraign Dominion over all is a duty which all men are bound unto and a part of that very Worship of God which as the Law of God and Nature it self requireth so we are the rather to think all men no less strictly bound thereunto than to any other natural duty in as much as the hearts of men do so cleave to these earthly things so much admire them for the sway they have in the World impute them so generally either to Nature or to Chance and Fortune so little think upon the Grace and Providence from which they come that unless by a kinde of continual tribute we did acknowledge God's Dominion it may be doubted that short in time men would learn to forget whose Tenants they are and imagine that the World is their own absolute free and independent inheritance Now concerning the kinde or quality of gifts which God receiveth in that sort we are to consider them partly as first they proceed from us and partly as afterwards they are to serve for divine uses In that they are testimonies of our affection towards God there is no doubt but such they should be as beseemeth most his Glory to whom we offer them In this respect the fatness of Abel's Sacrifice is commended the flower of all mens increase assigned to God by Solomon the Gifts and Donations of the People rejected as oft as their cold affection to God-ward made their Presents to be little worth Somewhat the Heathens saw touching that which was herein fit and therefore they unto their gods did not think they might consecrate any thing which was impure or unsound or already given or else not truly their own to give Again in regard of use forasmuch as we know that God hath himself no need of worldly commodities but taketh them because it is our good to be so exercised and with no other intent accepteth them but to have them used for the endless continuance of Religion there is no place left of doubt or controversie but that we in the choyce of our gifts are to level at the same mark and to frame our selves to his known intents and purposes Whether we give unto God therefore that which himself by commandment requireth or that which the publick consent of the Church thinketh good to allot or that which every man 's private devotion doth best like in as much as the gift which we offer proceedeth not only as a testimony of our affection towards God but also as a mean to uphold Religion the exercise whereof cannot stand without the help of temporal commodities if all men be taught of Nature to wish and as much as in them lyeth to procure the perpetuity of good things if for that very cause we honour and admire their wisdom who having been Founders of Common-weals could devise how to make the benefit they lest behind them durable if especially in this respect we prefer Lycurgus before Solon and the Spartan before the Athenian Polity it must needs follow that as we do unto God very acceptable service in honouring him with our substance so our service that way is then most acceptable when it tendeth to perpetuity The first permanent donations of honour in this kinde are Temples Which works do so much set forward the exercise of Religion that while the World was in love with Religion it gave to no sort greater reverence than to whom it could point and say These are the men that have built us Synagogues But of Churches we have spoken sufficiently heretofore The next things to Churches are the Ornaments of Churches memorials which mens devotion hath added to remain in the treasure of
presume him as willing to forego for our benefit as alwayes to use and convert to our benefit whatsoever our Religion hath honoured him withall But surely under the name of that which may be many things that should not be are often done By means whereof the Church most commonly for Gold hath Flanel and whereas the usual Saw of old was Glaucus his change the Proverb is now A Church-bargain And for fear left Covetousness alone should linger out the time too much and not be able to make havock of the House of God with that expedition which the mortal enemy thereof did vehemently wish he hath by certain strong inchantments so deeply bewitcht Religion it self as to make it in the end an earnest Sollicitour and an eloquent Perswader of Sacriledge urging confidently that the very best service which men of Power can do to Christ is without any more Ceremony to sweep all and to leave the Church as hare as in the day it was first born that fulness of bread having made the Children of the Houshold wanton it is without any scruple to be taken away from them and thrown to Doggs that they which laid the prices of their Lands as offerings at the Apostles feet did but sow the seeds of Superstition that they which indowed Churches with Lands poysoned Religion that Tythes and Oblations are now in the sight of God as the sacrificed bloud of Goats that if we give him our hearts and affections our goods are better bestowed otherwise that Polycarp's Disciple should not have said We offer unto God our goods as tokens of thankfulness for that we receive neither Origen He which worshippeth God must by Gifts and oblations acknowledge him the Lord of all In a word that to give unto God is errour reformation of errour to take from the Church that which the blindness of former Ages did unwisely give By these or the like suggestions received with all joy and with like sedulity practised in certain parts of the Christian world they have brought to passe that as David doth say of Man so it is in hazard to be verified concerning the whole Religion and Service of God The time thereof may peradventure fall out to be threescore and ten years or if strength do serve unto fourscore what followeth is likely to be small joy for them whatsoever they be that behold it Thus have the best things been overthrown not so much by puissance and might of Adversaries as through defect of counsel in them that should have upheld and defended the same 80. There are in a Minister of God these four things to be considered his Ordination which giveth him power to meddle with things sacred the charge or portion of the Church allotted unto him for exercise of his Office the performance of his Duty according to the exigence of his Charge and lastly the maintenance which in that respect he receiveth All Ecclesiastical Lawes and Canons which either concern the bestowing or the using of the power of Ministerial Order have relation to these four Of the first we have spoken before at large Concerning the next for more convenient discharge of Eclcesiastical Duties as the body of the People must needs be severed by divers Precincts so the Clergy likewise accordingly distributed Whereas therefore Religion did first take place in Cities and in that respect was a cause why the name of Pagans which properly signifieth a Countrey people came to be used in common speech for the same that Infidels and Unbelievers were it followed thereupon that all such Cities had their Ecclesiastical Colledges consisting of Deacons and of Presbyters whom first the Apostles or their Delegates the Evangelists did both ordain and govern Such were the Colledges of Ierusalem Antioch Ephesus Rome Corinth and the rest where the Apostles are known to have planted our Faith and Religion Now because Religion and the cure of Souls was their general charge in common over all that were near about them neither had any one Presbyter his several Cure apart till Evaristus Bishop in the See of Rome about the year 112. began to assign Precincts unto every Church or Title which the Christians held and to appoint unto each Presbyter a certain compasse whereof himself should take charge alone the commodiousnesse of this invention caused all parts of Christendom to follow it and at the length amongst the rest our own Churches about the year 636. became divided in like manner But other distinction of Churches there doth not appear any in the Apostles Writings save onely according to those Cities wherein they planted the Gospel of Christ and erected Ecclesiastical Colledges Wherefore to ordain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 throughout every City and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 throughout every Church doe in them signifie the same thing Churches then neither were nor could be in so convenient sort limited as now they are first by the bounds of each state and then within each state by more particular Precincts till at the length we descend unto several Congregations termed Parishes with farr narrower restraint than this Name at the first was used And from hence hath grown their errour who as oft as they read of the duty which Ecclesiastical Persons are now to perform towards the Church their manner is alwayes to understand by that Church some particular Congregation of Parish Church They suppose that there should now be no man of Ecclesiastical Order which is not tyed to some certain Parish Because the names of all Church-Officers are words of relation because a Shepheard must have his Flock a Teacher his Scholars a Minister his Company which he ministreth unto therefore it seemeth a thing in their eyes absurd and unreasonable that any man should be ordained a Minister otherwise than onely for some particular Congregation Perceive they not how by this meane they make it unlawful for the Church to imploy men at all in converting Nations For if so be the Church may not lawfully admit to an Ecclesiastical Function unlesse it tye the party admitted unto some particular Parish then surely a thanklesse labour it is whereby men seek the Conversion of Infidels which know not Christ and therefore cannot be as yet divided into their special Congregations and Flocks But to the end it may appear how much this one thing amongst many more hath been mistaken there is first no Precept requiring that Presbyters and Deacons be made in such sort and not otherwise Albeit therefore the Apostles did make them in that order yet is not their Example such a Law as without all exception bindeth to make them in no other order but that Again if we will consider that which the Apostles themselves did surely no man can justly say that herein we practise any thing repugnant to their example For by them there was ordained onely in each Christian City a Colledge of Presbyters and Deacons to administer holy things Evaristus did a hundred years after
less repugnant to the grounds and principles of Common right than the fraudulent proceedings of Tyrants to the principles of just Soveraignty Howbeit not so those special priviledges which are but instruments wrested and forced to serve malice There is in the Patriark of Heathen Philosophers this Precept Let us Husbandman nor no Handy-craftsman be a Priest The reason whereupon he groundeth is a maxim in the Law of Nature◠It importeth greatly the good of all men that God be reverenced with whose honour it standeth not that they which are publickly imployed in his service should live of base and manuary Trades Now compare herewith the Apostle's words Ye know that these hands have ministred to my necessities and them that are with me What think we Did the Apostle any thing opposite herein or repugnant to the Rules and Maxims of the Law of Nature The self-same reasons that accord his actions with the Law of Nature shall declare our Priviledges and his Laws no less consonant Thus therefore we see that although they urge very colourably the Apostles own Sentences requiring that a Minister should be able to divide rightly the Word of God that they who are placed in Charge should attend unto it themselves which in absence they cannot do and that they which have divers Cures must of necessity be absent from some whereby the Law Apostolick seemeth apparently broken which Law requiring attendance cannot otherwise be understood than so as to charge them with perpetual Residence Again though in every of these causes they infinitely heap up the Sentences of Fathers the Decrees of Popes the antient Edicts of Imperial authority our own National Laws and Ordinances prohibiting the same and grounding evermore their Prohibitions partly on the Laws of God and partly on reasons drawn from the light of Nature yet hereby to gather and inferr contradiction between those Laws which forbid indefinitely and ours which in certain cases have allowed the ordaining of sundry Ministers whose sufficiency for Learning is but mean Again the licensing of some to be absent from their Flocks and of others to hold more than one onely Living which hath Cure of Souls I say to conclude repugnancy between these especial permissions and the former general prohibitions which set not down their own limits is erroneous and the manifest cause thereof ignorance in differences of matter which both sorts of Law concern If then the considerations be reasonable just and good whereupon we ground whatsoever our Laws have by special right permitted if onely the effects of abused Priviledges be repugnant to the Maxims of Common right this main foundation of repugnancy being broken whatsoever they have built thereupon falleth necessarily to the ground Whereas therefore upon surmise or vain supposal of opposition between our special and the principles of Common right they gather that such as are with us ordained Ministers before they can Preach be neither lawfull because the Laws already mentioned forbid generally to create such neither are they indeed Ministers although we commonly so name them but whatsoever they execute by vertue of such their pretended Vocation is void◠that all our grants and tolerations as well of this as the rest are frustrate and of no effect the Persons that enjoy them possess them wrongfully and are deprivable at all hours finally that other just and sufficient remedy of evils there can be none besides the utter abrogations of these our mitigations and the strict establishment of former Ordinances to be absolutely executed whatsoever follow albeit the Answer already made in discovery of the weak and unsound foundation whereupon they have built these erroneous collections may be thought sufficient yet because our desire is rather to satisfie if it be possible than to shake them off we are with very good will contented to declare the causes of all particulars more formally and largely than the equity of our own defence doth require There is crept into the mindes of men at this day a secret pernicious and pestilent conceit that the greatest perfection of a Christian man doth consist in discovery of other mens faults and in wit to discourse of our own profession When the World most abounded with just righteous and perfect men their chiefest study was the exercise of piety wherein for their safest direction they reverently hearkened to the Readings of the Law of God they kept in minde the Oracles and Aphorismes of wisdom which tended unto vertuous life if any scruple of conscience did trouble them for matter of Actions which they took in hand nothing was attempted before counsel and advice were had for fear left rashly they might offend We are now more confident not that our knowledge and judgement is riper but because our desires are another way Their scope was obedience ours is skill their endeavour was reformation of life our vertue nothing but to hear gladly the reproof of vice they in the practice of their Religion wearied chiefly their knees and hands we especially our ears and tongues We are grown as in many things else so in this to a kinde of intemperancy which onely Sermons excepted hath almost brought all other duties of Religion out of taste At the least they are not in that account and reputation which they should be Now because men bring all Religion in a manner to the onely Office of hearing Sermons if it chance that they who are thus conceited do imbrace any special opinion different from other men the Sermons that relish not that opinion can in no wise please their appetite Such therefore as preach unto them but hit not the string they look for are rejected as unprofitable the rest as unlawful and indeed no Ministers if the faculty of Sermons want For why◠A Minister of the Word should they say be able rightly to divide the Word Which Apostolick Canon many think they do well observe when in opening the Sentences of holy Scripture they draw all things favourably spoken unto one side but whatsoever is reprehensive severe and sharp they have others on the contrary part whom that must always concern by which their over-partial and un-indifferent proceeding while they thus labour amongst the people to divide the Word they make the Word a mean to divide and distract the People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to divide aright doth note in the Apostle's Writings soundness of Doctrine onely and in meaning standeth opposite to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the broaching of new opinions against that which is received For questionless the first things delivered to the Church of Christ were pure and sincere Truth Which whosoever did afterwards oppugn could not chuse but divide the Church into two moyeties in which division such as taught what was first believed held the truet part the contrary side in that they were teachers of novelty etred For prevention of which evil there are in this Church many singular and well devised remedies as namely the use of subscribing to the Articles
had they known how Is it tolerable saith Saint Ambrose that to sue to God thou shouldst be ashamed which blushest not to seek and sue unto Man should it grieve thee to be a Suppliant to him from whom thou canst not possibly hide thy self when to open thy sinnes to him from whom if thou wouldst thou mightest conceal them it doth not any thing at all trouble thee This thou art loath to do in the Church where all being Sinners nothing is more opprobrious indeed than concealment of sinne the most humble the best thought of and the lowliest accounted the justest All this notwithstanding we should do them very great wrong to father any such Opinion upon them as if they did teach it a thing impossible for any Sinner to reconcile himself unto God without confession unto the Priest Would Chrysostom thus perswaded have said Let the enquiry and punishment of thy offences be made in thine own thoughts Let the Tribunal whereat thou arraignest thy self be without witness Let God and only God see thee and thy Confession Would Cassianus so believing have given counsel That if any were withheld with bashfulness from discovering their Faulis to men they should be so much the more instant and constant in opening them by supplication to God himself whose wont is to help without publication of mens shame and not to upbraid them when he pardoneth Finally would Prosper settled in this Opinion have made it as touching Reconciliation to God a matter indifferent Whether men of Ecclesiastical Order did detect their crimes by confession or leaving the World ignorant thereof would separate voluntarily themselves for a time from the Altar though not in affection yet in execution of their Ministry and so bewaile their corrupt life Would he have willed them as he doth to make hold of it that the favour of God being either way recovered by fruits of forcible repentance they should not only receive whatsoever they had lost by sinne but also after this their new enfranchisement aspire to the endless joyes of that supernal City To conclude We every where finde the use of Confession especially publick allowed of and commended by the Fathers but that extream and rigorous necessity of Auricular and private Confession which is at this day so mightily upheld by the Church of Rome we finde nor First it was not then the Faith and Doctrine of God's Church as of the Papacy at this present Secondly That the onely remedy for Sinne after Baptisme is Sacramental Penitency Thirdly That Confession in secret is an essential part thereof Fourthly That God himself cannot now forgive Sin without the Priest That because Forgivenesse at the hands of the Priest must arise from Confession in the Offenders Therefore to confesse unto him is a matter of such necessity as being not either in deed or at the least in desire performed excludeth utterly from all pardon and must consequently in Scripture be commanded wheresoever any Promise or Forgivenesse is made No no these Opinions have Youth in their countenance Antiquity knew them not it never thought nor dreamed of them But to let passe the Papacy For as much as Repentance doth import alteration within the minde of a sinful man whereby through the power of God's most gracious and blessed Spirit he seeth and with unfeigned sorrow acknowledgeth former Offences committed against God hath them in utter detestation seeketh pardon for them in such sort as a Christian should doe and with a resolute purpose settleth himself to avoid them leading as near as God shall assist him for ever after an unspotted life And in the Order which Christian Religion hath taught for procurement of God's mercy towards Sinners Confession is acknowledged a principal duty Yea in some cases Confesion to man not to God onely It is not in Reformed Churches denied by the Learneder sort of Divines but that even this Confession cleared from all Errors is both lawful and behoveful for Gods people Confession by man being either Private or Publick Private Confession to the Minister alone touching secret Crimes or Absolution thereupon ensuing as the one so the other is neither practised by the French Discipline nor used in any of those Churches which have been cast by the French mould Open Confession to be made in the face of the whole Congregation by notorious Malefactors they hold necessary Howbeit not necessary towards the remission of Sinnes But only in some sort to content the Church and that one man's repentance may seem to strengthen many which before have been weakned by one man's fall Saxonians and Bohemians in their Discipline constrain no man to open Confession Their Doctrine is That whose Faults have been Publick and thereby scandalous unto the World such when God giveth them the Spirit of Repentance ought as solemnly to return as they have openly gone astray First for the better testimony of their own unfeigned Conversion unto God Secondly the more to notifie their Reconcilement unto the Church And Lastly that others may make benefit of their Example But concerning Confession in private the Churches of Germany as well the rest as Lutherans agree that all men should at certain times confesse their Offences to God in the hearing of Gods Ministers thereby to shew how their Sinnes displease them to receive instruction for the warier carriage of themselves hereafter to be soundly resolved if any scruple or snare of Conscience do entangle their mindes and which is most material to the end that men may at Gods hands seek every one his own particular pardon through the power of those Keys which the Minister of God using according to our blessed Saviours Institution in that case it is their part to accept the benefit thereof as Gods most merciful Ordinance for their good and without any distrust or doubt to embrace joyfully his Grace so given them according to the Word of our Lord which hath said Whose Sinnes ye remit they are remitted So that grounding upon this assured Belief they are to rest with mindes encouraged and perswaded concerning the forgiveness of all their Sinnes as out of Christ's own Word and Power by the Ministry of the Keyes It standeth with us in the Church of England as touching Publick Confession thus First seeing day by day we in our Church begin our Publick Prayers to Almighty God with Publick acknowledgement of our Sinnes in which Confession every man prostrate as it were before his glorious Majesty cryeth against himself and the Minister with one Sentence pronounceth universally all clear whose acknowledgement so made hath proceeded from a true penitent minde What reason is there every man should not under the general terms of Confession represent to himself his own Particulars whatsoever and adjoyning thereunto that affection which a contrite spirit worketh embrace to as full effect the words of Divine Grace as if the same were severally and particularly uttered with addition of Prayers imposition of hands or all
the most unfit to judge who bend themselves purposely against whatsoever the Church useth except it pleasie themselves to give it the grace and countenance of their favourable approbation which they willingly do not yield unto any part of Church-Policy in the forehead whereof there is not the mark of that new devised stamp But howsoever men like or dislike whether they judge things necessary or needless in the House of God a Conscience they should have touching that which they boldly affirm or deny 1. In the Primitive Church no Bishops no Pastor having power over other Pastors but all Equals every man Supreme Commander and Ruler within the Kingdom of his own Congregation or Parish The Bishops that are spoken of in the time of the Primitive Church all such as Persons or Rectors of Parishes are with in It thus it have been in the prime of the Church the question is how farr they will have that prime to extend and where the latter spring of that neâ—-supposed disorder to begin That Primitive Church wherein they hold that amongst the Fathers all which had Pastoral charge were Equal they must of necessity so farr enlarge as to contain some hundred of years because for proof hereof they alledge boldly and confidently Saint Cyprian who suffered Martyrdom about two hundred and threescore years after our blessed Lord's Incarnation A Bishop they say such as Cyprian doth speak of had only a Church or Congregation such as they Ministers and Pastors with us which are appointed unto several Towns Every Bishop in Cyprian's time was Pastor of one only Congregation assembled in one place to be taught of one man A thing impertiment although it were true For the Question is about Personal inequality amongst Governors of the Church Now to shew there was no such thing in the Church at such time as Cyprian lived what bring they forth Forsooth that Bishops had then but a small circuit of place for the exercise of their Authority Be it supposed that no one Bishop had more than one only Town to govern one only Congregation to rule Doth it by Cyprian appear that in any such Town of Congregation being under the cure and charge of someone Bishops there were not besides that one Bishop others also Ministers of the Word and Sacraments yet subject to the power of the same Bishop If this appear not how can Cyprian be alledged for a Witness that in those times there were no Bishops which did differ from other Ministers as being above them in degree of Ecclesiastical power But a gross and a palpable untruth it is That Bishops with Cyprian were as Ministers are with us in Parish-Churches and that each of them did guide some Parish without any other Pastors under him St. Cyprian's own Person may serve for a manifest disproof hereof Pomius being Deacon under Cyprian noteth that his admirable vertues caused him to be Bishop with the soonest which advancement therefore himself endeavoured for a while to avoid It seemed in his own eyes too soon for him to take the title of so great Honor in regard whereof a Bishop is tenned Pourisex Sacerdos Antistes Dei Yet such was his quality that whereas others did hardly perform that duty whereunto the Discipline of their Order togetherwith the Religion of the Oath they took at their entrance into the Office even constrained them him the Chair did not make but receive such a one as behoved that a Bishop should be But soon after followed that Prescription whereby being driven into exile and continuing in that estate for the space of some two years he ceased not by Letters to deal with his Clergy and to direct them about the Publick affairs of the Church They unto whom those Epistles were written he commonly entituleth the Presbyters and Deacons of that Church If any man doubt whether those Presbyters of Carthage were Ministers of the Word and Sacraments or no let him consider but that one only place of Cyprian where he giveth them this careful advice how to deal with circumspection in the perilous times of the Church that neither they which were for the truths sake imprisoned might want those Ghostly comforts which they ought to have nor the Church by ministring the same unto them incurr unnecessary danger and peril In which Epistle it doth expresly appear that the Presbyters of whom he speaketh did offer that is to say administer the Eucharist and that many there were of them in the Church of Carthage so as they might have every day change for performance of that duty Nor will any man of sound Judgement I think deny that Cyprian was in Authority and Power above the Clergy of that Church above those Presbyters unto whom he gave direction It is apparently therefore untrue that in Cyprian's time Ministers of the Word and Sacraments were all equal and that no one of them had either Title more excellent than the rest or Authority and Government over the rest Cyprian Bishop of Carthage was clearly Superiour unto all other Ministers there Yea Cyprian was by reason of the Dignity of his See an Archbishop and so consequently Superiour unto Bishops Bishops we say there have been alwayes even as long as the Church of Christ it self hath been The Apostles who planted it did themselves rule as Bishops over it neither could they so well have kept things in order during their own times but that Episcopal Authority was given them from above to exercise far and wice over all other Guides and Pastors of God's Church The Church indeed for a time continued without Bishops by restraint every where established in Christian Cities But shall we thereby conclude that the Church hath no use of them that without them it may stand and flourish No the cause wherefore they were so soon universally appointed was for that it plainly appeared that without them the Church could not have continued long It was by the special Providence of God no doubt so disposed that the evil whereof this did serve for remedy might first be felt and so the reverend Authority of Bishops be made by so much the more effectual when our general experience had taught men what it was for Churches to want them Good Laws are never esteemed so good not acknowledged so necessary as when precedent crimes are as seeds out of which they grow Episcopal Authority was even in a manner sanctified unto the Church of Christ by that little bitter experience which it first had of the pestilent evil of Schismes Again when this very thing was proposed as a remedy yet a more suspicions and fearful acceptance it must needs have found if the self-same provident Wisdom of Almighty God had not also given before-hand sufficient tryal thereof in the Regiment of Ierusalem a Mother-Church which having received the same order even at the first was by it most peaceably governed when other Churches without it had trouble So that by all means the necessary use of Episcopal
World that shall change his Heart over-throw his Faith alter his affection towards God or the affection of God to him If I be of this note who shall make a separation between me and my God shall tribulation or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword No I am perswaded that neither tribulation nor anguish nor persecution or famine nor nakedness nor peril nor sword nor death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall ever prevail so far over me I know in whom I have believed I am not ignorant whose precious blood hath been shed for me I have a Shepheard full of kindness full of care and full of power unto him I commit my self his own finger hath engraven this sentence in the Tables of my heart Satan hath desired to winnow thee as wheat but I have prayed that thy Faith fail not Therefore the assurance of my hope I will labour to keep as a Jewel unto the end and by labour through the gracious mediation of his Prayer I shall keep it To the Worshipful Mr. GEORGE SUMMASTER Principal of Broad-Gates Hall in Oxford Henry Iackson wisheth all Happiness SIR YOur kinde acceptance of a former testification of that respect I owe you hath made me venture to shâ—w the World these godly Sermons under your name In which as every point is worth observation so some especially are to be noted The first that as the spirit of Prophesie is from God himself who doth inwardly heat and enlighten the hearts and mindes of his holy Pen-men which if some would diligently consider they would not puzzle themselves with the contentions of Scot and Thomas Whether God only or his Ministring Spirits do infuse into men's mindes prophetical Revelations per species intelligibiles so God framed their words also Whence he holy Father St. Augustine religiously observeth That all those who understand the Sacred Writers will also perceive that they ought not to use other words than they did in expressing those heavenly Mysteries which their hearts conceived as the Blessed Virgin did our Saviour By the Holy Ghost The greater is Castell-o his offence who hath laboured to teach the Prophets to speak otherwise than they have already Much like to that impious King of Spain Alphonsus the tenth who found fault with God's works Si inquit Creationi assuissiem Mundum melius ordinassem If he had been with God at the Creation of the World the World had gone better than now it doth As this man found fault with God's works so did the other with God's words but because we have a most sure word of the Prophets to which we must take heed I will let his words pass with the winde having elsewhere spoken to you more largely of his errours whom notwithstanding for his other excellent parts I much respect You shall moreover from hence understand how Christianity consists not in formal and seeming purity under which who knows not notorious Villany to mâ—sk but in the heart root Whence the Author truly teacheth that Mockers which use Religious as a Cloak to put off and on as the Weather serveth are worse than Pagans and Infidels Where I cannot omit to shew how justly this kinde of men hath been reproved by that renowned Martyr of Jesus Christ E. Latimer both because it will be opposite in this purpose and also free that Christian Worthy from the slanderous reproaches of him who was if ever any a Moâ—ker of God Religion and all good men But first I must desire you and in you all Readers not to think lightly of that excellent man for using this and the like witty similitudes in his Sermons For whosoever will call to minde with what riff-raff God's people were fed in those days when their Priests whose lips should have preserved Knowledge preached nothing else but dreams and false miracles of counterfeit Saints enrolled in that sâ—ttish Legend coyned and amplified by a drousie head between sleeping and waking He that will consider this and also how the People were delighted with such toys God sending them strong delusions that they should believe lyes and how hard it would have been for any man wholly and upon the sudden to draw their mindes to another bent will easily perceive both how necessary it was to use Symbolical Discourse and how wisely and moderately it was applied by the religious Father to the end he might lead their understanding so far till it were so convinced informed and setled that it might forget the means and way by which it was led and think only of that it had acquired Far in all such mystical speeches who knows not that the end for which they are used is only to be thought upon This then being first considered let us hear the story as it is related by Mr. Fox Mr. Latuner saith he in his Sermon gave the People certain Cards out of the fifth sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew For the chief Triumph in the Cards be limited the Heart as the principal thing that they should serve God withal whereby he quite overthrew all hypocritical and external Ceremonies not tending to the necessary furtherance of God's holy Word and Sacraments By this he exhorted all men to serve the Lord with inward heart and true affection and not with outward Ceremonies adding moreover to the praise of that Triumph that though it were never so small yet it would take up the best Coat-card beside in the Bunch yea though it were the King of Clubs c. meaning thereby how the Lord would be worshipped and served in simplicity of the heart and verity wherein consisteth true Christian Religion c. Thus Master Fox By which it appears that the holy man's intention was to lift up the Peoples hearts to God and not that he made a Sermon of playing at Cards and taught them how to play at Triumph and plaid himself at Cards in the Pulpit as that base companion Parsons reports the matter in his wonted scurrilous vein of railing whence he calleth it a Christmas-Sermon Now he that will think ill of such Allusions may out of the abundance of his folly jest at Demosthenes for his story of the Sheep Wolves and Doggs and Menenius for his fiction of the Belly But hinc illae lacrymae The good Bishop meant that the Romish Religion came not from the heart but consisted in outward Ceremonies Which sorely grieved Parsons who never had the least warmth or spark of honesty Whether B. Latimer compared the Bishops to the Knave of Clubs as the Fellow interprets him I know not I am sure Parsons of all others deserved those colours and so I leave him We see then what inward purity is required of all Christians which if they have then in Prayer and all other Christian duties they shall lift up pure hands as the
Exposition which are not inclinable to think that Moses was matched like Socrates nor that Circumcision could now in Eleazar be strange unto her having had Gersons her elder son before circumcised nor that any occasion of châ—ler could rise from a spectacle of such misery as doth naturally move Compassion and not Wrath nor that Zipporah was so impious as in the visible presence of Gods deserved Anger to storm at the Ordinance and Law of God not that the words of the History it self can inforce any such affection but do onely declare how after the act performed she touched the feet of Moses saying Sponsus tu mihi as sanguinum Thou art unto me an Husband of Blood which might be very well the one done and the other spoken even out of the slowing abundance of commiseration and love to signifie with hands laid under his feet That her tender affection towards him had caused her thus to forget Woman-hood to lay all Motherly affection aside and to redeem her Husband out of the hands of Death with effusion of Blood The sequel thereof take it which way you will is a plain Argument That God was satisfied with that she did as may appeal by his own Testimony declaring How there followed in the person of Moses present release of his grievous punishment upon her speedy discharge of that duty which by him neglected had offended God even as after execution of Justice by the hands of Phineas the Plague was immediately taken away which former impunity of sin had caused In which so manifest and plain cases not to make that a reason of the event which God himself hath set down as a reason were falsly to accuse whom he doth justifie and without any cause to traduce what we should allow yet seeing they which will have it a breach of the Law of God for her to circumcise in that necessity are not able to deny but Circumcision being in that very manner performed was to the innocent Childe which received it true Circumcision why should that defect whereby Circumcision was so little wealmed be to Baptism a deadly wound These Premises therefore remaining as hitherto they have been laid because the Commandment of our Saviour Christ which committeth joyntly to Publick Ministers both Doctrine and Baptism doth no more by linking them together import That the Nature of the Sacrament dependeth on the Ministers Authority and Power to Preach the Word then the force and vertue of the Word doth on Licence to give the Sacrament and considering that the Work of External Ministery in Baptism is onely a pre-eminence of honor which they that take to themselves and are not thereunto called as Aaron was do but themselves in their own persons by means of such usurpation Incur the just blame of disobedience to the Law of God father also in as much as it standeth with no reason That Errors grounded on a wrong interpretation of other Mens Deeds should make frustrate whatsoever is misconceived and that Baptism by Women should cease to be Baptism as oft as any Man will thereby gather That Children which die unbaptized are damned which opinion if the Act of Baptism administred in such manner did inforce it might be sufficient cause of disliking the same but none of defeating or making it altogether void Last of all whereas general and full consent of the godly-learned in all ages doth make for Validity of Baptism yea albeit administred in private and even by Women which kinde of Baptism in case of necessity divers Reformed Churches do both allow and defend some others which do not defend tolerate few in comparison and they without any just cause do utterly disannul and annihilate Surely howsoever through defect on either side the Sacrament may be without Fruit as well in some cases to him which receiveth as to him which giveth it yet no disability of either part can so far make it frustrate and without effect as to deprive it of the very Nature of true Baptism having all things else which the Ordinance of Christ requireth Whereupon we may consequently infer That the Administration of this Sacrament by private persons be it lawful or unlawful appeareth not as yet to be meerly void 63. All that are of the Race of Christ the Scripture nameth them Children of the Promise which God hath made The Promise of Eternal Life is the Seed of the Church of God And because there is no attainment of life but through the onely begotten Son of God nor by him otherwise then being such as the Creed Apostolick describeth it followeth That the Articles thereof are Principles necessary for all men to subscribe unto whom by Baptism the Church receiveth into Christs School All Points of Christian Doctrine are either demonstrable Conclusions or demonstrative Principles Conclusions having strong and invincible Proofs as well in the School of Jesus Christ as elswhere And Principles be Grounds which require no Proof in any kinde of Science because it sufficeth if either ther certainty be evident in it self or evident by the light of some higher knowledge and in it self such as no mans knowledge is ever able to overthrow Now the principles whereupon we do build our souls have their evidence where they had their original and as received from thence we adore them we hold them in reverend admiration we neither argue nor dispute about them we give unto them that assent which the Oracles of God require We are not therefore ashamed of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ because miscreants in scorn have upbraided us That the highest point of our Wisdom is Belief That which is true and neither can be disceined by Sense not concluded by meer Natural Principles must have Principles of revealed Truth whereupon to build it self and an habit of Faith in us wherewith Principles of that kinde are apprehended The Mysteries of our Religion are above the reach of our Understanding above discourse of Mans Reason above all that any Creature can comprehend Therefore the first thing required of him which standeth for admission into Christs Family is Belief Which Belief consisteth not so much in knowledge as in acknowledgment of all things that Heavenly Wisdom revealeth the Affection of Faith is above her reach her Love to God-ward above the comprehension which the hath of God And because onely for Believers all things may be done He which is Goodness it self loveth them above all Deserve we then the love of God because we believe in the Son of God What more opposite then Faith and Pride When God had created all things he looked upon them and loved them because they were all as himself had made them So the true Reason wherefore Christ doth love Believers is Because their belief is the gift of God a gift then which flesh and blood in this World cannot possibly receive a greater And as to love them of whom we receive good things is Duty because they
satisfie our desires in that which else we should want so to love them on whom we bestow is Nature because in them we behold the effects of our own vertue Seeing therefore no Religion enjoyeth Sacraments the signs of Gods love unless it have also that Faith whereupon the Sacraments are built could there be any thing more convenient then that our first admittance to the Actual Receit of his Grace in the Sacrament of Baptism should be consecrated with profession of Belief which is to the Kingdom of God as a Key the want whereof excludeth Infidels both from that and from all other saving Grace We finde by experience that although Faith be an Intellectual Habit of the Minde and have her Seat in the Understanding yet an evil Moral Disposition obstinately wedded to the love of darkness dampeth the very Light of Heavenly Illumination and permitteth not the Minde to see what doth shine before it Men are lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God Their assent to his saving Truth is many times with-held from it not that the Truth is too weak to perswade but because the stream of corrupt affection carrieth them a clean contrary way That the Minde therefore may abide in the Light of Faith there must abide in the Will as constant a resolution to have no fellowship at all with the vanities and works of darkness Two Covenants there are which Christian men saith Isidor do make in Baptism the one concerning relinquishment of Satan the other touching Obedience to the Faith of Christ. In like sort St. Ambrose He which is baptized forsaketh the Intellectual Pharaoh the Prince of this World saying Abrenuncio Thee O Satan and thy Angels thy works and thy mandates I forsake utterly Tertullian having speech of wicked spirits These saith he are the Angels which we in Baptism renounce The Declaration of Iustin the Martyr concerning Baptism sheweth how such as the Church in those days did baptize made profession of Christian Belief and undertook to live accordingly Neither do I think it a matter easie for any man to prove that ever Baptism did use to be administred without Interrogatories of these two kindes Whereunto St. Peter as it may be thought alluding hath said That the Baptism which saveth us is not as Legal Purifications were a cleansing of the flesh from outward impurity but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Interrogative tryal of a good conscience towards God 64. Now the fault which they finde with us concerning Interrogatories is our moving of these Questions unto Infants which cannot answer them and the answering of them by others as in their names The Anabaptist hath many pretences to scorn at the baptism of Children First Because the Scriptures he saith do no where give Commandment to Baptize Infants Secondly For that as there is no Commandment so neither any manifest example shewing it to have been done either by Christ or his Apostles Thirdly In as much as the Word Preached and the Sacraments must go together they which are not capable of the one are no fit receivers of the other Last of all sith the Order of Baptism continued from the first beginning hath in it those things which are unfit to be applied unto Sucking Children it followeth in their conceit That the Baptism of such is no Baptism but plain mockery They with whom we contend are no enemies to the Baptism of Infants it is not their desire that the Church should hazard so many Souls by letting them run on till they come to ripeness of understanding that so they may be converted and then baptized as Infidels heretofore have been they bear not towards God so unthankful mindes as not to acknowledge it even amongst the greatest of his endless mercies That by making us his own possession so soon many advantages which Satan otherwise might take are prevented and which should be esteemed a part of no small happiness the first thing whereof we have occasion to take notice is How much hath been done already to our great good though altogether without our knowledge The Baptism of Infants they esteem as an Ordinance which Christ hath instituted even in special love and favor to his own people They deny not the practice thereof accordingly to have been kept as derived from the hands and continued from the days of the Apostles themselves unto this present onely it pleaseth them not That to Infants there should be Interrogatories proposed in Baptism This they condemn as foolish toyish and profane mockery But are they able to shew that ever the Church of Christ had any Publick Form of Baptism without Interrogatories or that the Church did ever use at the Solemn Baptism of Infants to omit those Questions as needless in this case Ioniface a Bishop in St. Augustines time knowing That the Church did Universally use this Custom of Baptising Infants with Interrogatories was desirous to learn from St. Augustine the true cause and reason thereof If saith he I should see before thee a young infant and should ask of thee whether that Infant when he cometh unto riper age will be honest and just or no Thou wouldst answer I know that to tell in these things what shall come to pass is not in the power of Mortal Man If I should ask What good or evil such an infant thinketh Thine answer hereunto must needs be again with the like uncertainty If them neither canst promise for the time to come nor for the present pronounce any thing in this case How is it that when such are brought unto Baptism their Parents there undertake what the Childe shall afterwards do Yea they are not doubtful to say It doth that which is impossible to be done by Infants At the least there is no man precisely able to affirm it done Vonchsafe me hereunto some short answer such as not onely may press me with the bare authority of Custom but also instruct me in the cause thereof Touching which difficulty whether it may truly be said for Infants at the time of their Baptism That they do believe the effect of St. Angustines answer is Yea but with this distinction a present Actual habit of Faith there is not in them there is delivered unto them that Sacrament a part of the due celebration whereof consisting in answering to the Articles of Faith because the habit of Faith which afterwards doth come with years is but a farther building up of the same edifice the first foundation whereof was laid by the Sacrament of Baptism For that which there we professed without any understanding when we afterwards come to acknowledge do we any thing else but onely bring unto ripeness the very Seed that was sown before We are then Believers because then we begun to be that which process of time doth make perfect And till we come to Actual Belief the very Sacrament of Faith is a shield as strong as after this the Faith of the Sacrament against all