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
SVNT MELIORA MIHI RICHARDVS HOOKER Exoniensis scholaris sociusque Collegij Corp. Chrisli Oxon̄ deinde Londi Templi interioris in sacris magister Rectorque huius Ecelesiae scripsit octo libros Politiae Ecclesiasticae Angelicanae quorum tres desiderantur Obijt An̄ Dō M.DC. III. AEtat suae L. Posuit hoc pijssimo viro monumentum Ano. Dō M. DC XXX V Guli Comper Armiger in Christo Iesu quem genuit per Evangelium 1 Corinth 4. 15. OF THE LAWES of ECCLESIASTICAL Politie Eight Bookes By RICHARD HOOKER LONDON Printed for Andrew Crooke at the greene Dragon in S Pauls Church-yard 1666. THE WORKS OF Mr. Richard Hooker That Learned and Judicious Divine IN EIGHT BOOKS OF Ecclesiastical Polity Compleated out of his own Manuscrips Never before Published With an account of his LIFE and DEATH Dedicated to the Kings most Excellency Majesty CHARLES IId. By whose ROYAL FATHER near His Martyrdom the former Five Books then onely extant were commended to His Dear Children as an excellent means to satisfie Private Scruples and settle the Publick Peace of this Church and Kingdom JAM 3. 17. The Wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated full of mercy and good works without partiality and hypocrisie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. Multitadio investiganda verilalis ad proximos divertunt errores Min. Fel. LONDON Printed by Thomas Newcomb for Andrew Crook at the Green-Dragon in St. Pauls Church-yard 1666. To the KINGS most Excellent MAJESTY CHARLES II d By the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most Gracious Soveraign ALthough I know how little leisure Great Kings have to read large Books or indeed any save onely Gods the study belief and obedience of which is precisely commanded even to Kings Deut. 17.18,19 And from which whatever wholly diverts them will hazard to damn them there being no affairs of so great importance as their serving God and saving their own Souls nor any Precepts so wise just holy and safe as those of the Divine Oracles nor any Empire so glorious as that by which Kings being subject to Gods Law have dominion over themselves and so best deserve and exercise it over their Subjects Yet having lived to see the wonderful and happy Restauration of Your Majesty to Your Rightful Kingdoms and of this Reformed Church to its just Rights Primitive Order and Pristine Constitution by Your Majesties prudent care and imparallel'd bounty I know not what to present more worthy of Your Majesties acceptance and my duty then these Elaborate and Seasonable Works of the Famous and Prudent Mr. Richard Hooker now augmented and I hope compleated with the Three last Books so much desired and so long concealed The publishing of which Volume so intire and thus presenting it to Your Majesty seems to be a blessing and honor reserved by Gods Providence to add a further lusture to Your Majesties glorious Name and happy Reign whose transcendent favor justice merit and munificence to the long afflicted Church of England is a subject no less worthy of admirasion then gratitude to all Posterity And of all things next Gods grace not to be abused or turned into wantonness by any of Your Majesties Clergy who are highly obliged beyond all other Subjects to Piety Loyalty and Industry I shall need nothing more to ingratiate this incomparable Piece to Your Majesties acceptance and all the English Worlds then those high commendations it hath ever had as from all prudent peaceable and impartial Readers so especially from Your Majesties Royal Father who a few days before he was Crowned with Martyrdom commended to His dearest Children the diligent Reading of Mr. Hookers Ecclesiastical Polity even next the Bible as an excellent means to settle them in the Truth of Religion and in the Peace of this Church as much Christian and as well Reformed as any under Heaven As if God had reserved this signal Honor to be done by the best of Kings and greatest Sufferers for this Church to Him who was one of the best Writers and ablest Defenders of it To this Compleated Edition is added such particular accounts as could be got of the Authors Person Education Temper Manners Fortunes Life and Death which is now done with much exactness and proportion That hereby Your Majesty and all the World may see what sort of Men are fittest for Church-work which like the Building of Solomons Temple is best carried on with most evenness of Iudgement and least noise of Passion Also what manner of Man he was to whom we all ow this Noble Work and durable Defence Which is indeed at once as the Tongues of Eloquent Princes are to themselves and their Subjects both a Treasury and an Armory to inrich their friends and defend them against the Enemies of the Church of England Arare composition of unpassionate Reason and unpartial Religion the mature product of a Indicious Scholar a Loyal Subject an Humble Preacher and a most Eloquent Writer The very abstract and quintessence of Laws Humane and Divine a Summary of the Grounds Rules and Proportions of true Polity in Church and State Vpon which clear solid and safe Foundations the good Order Peace and Government of this Church was anciently setled and on which while it stands firm it will be flourishing All other popular and specious pretensions being found by late sad experiences to be as novel and unfit so factious and fallacious yea dangerous and destructive to the Peace and Prosperity of this Church and Kingdom whose inseparable happiness and interests are bound up in Monarchy and Episcopacy The Politick and Visible managing of both which God hath now graciously restored and committed to Your Majesties Soveraign Wisdom and Authority after the many and long Tragedies suffered from those Club Masters and Tub-Ministers who sought not fairly to obtain Reformation of what might seem amiss but violently and wholly to overthrow the ancient and goodly Fabrick of this Church and Kingdom For finding themselves not able in many years to Answer this one Book long ago written in defence of the Truth Order Government Authority and Liberty in things indifferent of this Reformed Church agreeable to Right Reason and True Religion which makes this well tempered Peice a File capable to break the Teeth of any that venture to bite it they conspired at last to betake themselves to Arms to kindle those horrid fires of Civil Wars which this wise Author foresaw and foretold in his admirable Preface would follow those sparks and that smoak which he saw rise in his days So that from impertinent Disputes seconded with scurrilous Pamphlets they fled to Tumults Sedition Rebellion Sacriledge Parricide yea Regicide Counsels Weapons and Practices certainly no way becoming the hearts and hands of Christian Subjects nor ever sanctified by Christ for his Service or his Churches good What now remains but Your Majesties perfecting and preserving that in this Church which you have with
long after Prebend of Ely and then Dean of Lincoln and having for many years past looked upon him with much reverence and favor gave him a fair testimony of both by giving him the Bishoprick of Worcester and which was not a usual favor forgiving him his First-fruits then by constituting him Vice-President of the Principality of Wales And having for several years experimented his Wisdom his Justice and Moderation in the menage of Her affairs in both these places She in the Twenty sixth of Her Reign made him Archbishop of Canterbury and not long after of Her Privy Council and trusted him to menage all Her Ecclesiastical Affairs and Preferments In all which Removes he was like the Ark which left a Blessing upon the place where it rested and in all his Imployments was like Iehoida that did good unto Israel These were the steps of this Bishops Ascension to this place of Dignity and Cares in which place to speak Mr. Cambdens very words in his Annals He devoutly consecrated both his whole life to God and bit painful labors to the good of his Church And yet in this place he met with many oppositions in the regulation of Church Affairs which were much disordered at his entrance by reason of the age and remisness of Bishop Grindal his immediate Predecessor the activity of the Non-conformists and their cheif assistant the Earl of Leicester and indeed by too many others of the like Sacrilegious Principles With these he was to encounter and though he wanted neither courage nor a good cause yet he foresaw that without a great measure of the Queens favor it was impossible to stand in the Breach that was made into the Lands and Immunities of the Church or to maintain the remaining Rights of it And therefore by justifiable Sacred Insinuations such as St. Paul to Agrippa Agrippa believest thou I know thou believest he wrought himself into so great a degree of favor with Her as by his pious use of it hath got both of them a greater degree of Fame in this World and of Glory in that into which they are now entred His merits to the Queen and Her Favors to him were such that she called him Her little black Husband and called his Servants Her Servants And She saw so visible and blessed a sincerity shine in all his cares and endeavors for the Churches and for Her good that She was supposed to trust him with the very secrets of Her Soul and to make him Her Confessor Of which She gave many Fair testimonies and of which one was That She would never eat flesh in Lent without obtaining a Licence from Her little black Husband And would often say She pioâ—â—ed him because She trusted him and had eased Her-self by laying the burthen of all Her Clergy-cares upon his shoulders which She was certain he managed with Prudence and Piety I shall not keep my self within the promised Rules of Brevity in this account of his Interest with Her Majesty and his care of the Churches Rights if in this digression I should enlarge to particularsâ— and therefore my desire is that one example may serve for a testimony of both And that the Reader may the better understand it he may take notice that not many years before his being made Archbishop there passed an Act or Acts of Parliament intending the better preservation of Church Lands by recalling a Power which was vested in others to Sell or Lease them by lodging and trusting the future care and protection of them onely in the Crown And amongst many that made a bad use of this Power or Trust of the Queens the Earl of Leicester was one and the good Bishop having by his Interest with Her Majesty put a stop to the Earls Sacrilegious designs they two fell to an open Opposition before her after which they both quitted the Room nor Friends in appearance But the Bishop made a sudden and a seasonable return to Her Majesty for he found her alone and spake to her with great Humility and Reverence and to this purpose I beseech your Majesty to hear me with patience and to believe that yours and the Churches Safety are dearer to me than my Life but my Conscience dearer than both and therefore give me leave to do my Duty and tell you that Princes are deputed Nursing Fathers of the Church and owe it a Protection and therefore God forbid that you should be so much as Passive in her Ruines when you may prevent it or that I should-behold it without horrour and detestation or should forbear to tell your Majesty of the Sin and Danger And though you and my self are born in an Age of Frailties when the Primitive Piety and Care of the Churches Lands and Immunities are much decayed yes Madam let me beg that you will but first consider and then you will believe there are such sins at Prophaneness and Sacriledge for if there were not they could not have Names in Holy Writ and particularly in the New-Testament And I beseech you to consider that though our Saviour said He judged no man and to testifie it would not judge nor divide the Inheritance betwixt the two Brethren nor would judge the Woman taken in Adultery yet in this point of the Churches Rights he was so zealous that he made himself both the Accuser and the Iudge and the Executioner to punish these sins witnessed in that he himself made the Whip to drive the Prophaners out of the Temple overthrew the Tables of the Money-changers and drove them out of it And consider that it was S. Paul that said to those Christians of his time that were offended with Idolatry yet Thou that abhorrest Idols dost thou commit Sacriledge Supposing I think Sacriledge to be the greater sin This may occasion your Majesty to consider that there is such a sin as Sacriledge and to incline you to prevent the Curse that will follow it I beseech you also to consider that Constantine the first Christian Emperor and Helena his Mother that King Edgar and Edward the Confessor and indeed many others of your Predecessors and many private Christians have also given to God and to his Church much Land and many Immunities which they might have given to those of their own Families and did not but gave them as an absolute Right and Sacrifice to God And with these Immunities and Lands they have entailed a Curse upon the Alienators of them God prevent your Majesty from being liable to that Curse And to make you that are trusted with their Preservation the better to understand the danger of it I beseech you forget not that besides these Curses the Churches Land and Power have been also endeavoured to be preserved as far as Humane Reason and the Law of this Nation have been able to preserve them by an immediate and most sacred Obligation on the Consciences of the Princes of this Realm For they that consult Magna Charta shall find that as all your Predecessours
fancy which is cast towards them and proceedeth from other Causes For there are divers Motives drawing men to favor mightily those Opinions wherein their Perswasions are but weakly setled and if the Passions of the Minde be strong they easily sophisticate the Understanding they make it apt to believe upon very slender warrant and to imagine infallible Truth where scarce any probable shew appeareth Thus were those poor seduced Creatures Hacquet and his other two adherents whom I can neither speak nor think of but with much commisseration and pity Thus were they trained by fair ways first accompting their own extraordinary love to his Discipline a token of Gods more then ordinary love towards them From hence they grew to a strong conceit that God which had moved them to love his Discipline more then the common sort of men did might have a purpose by their means to bring a wonderful work to pass beyond all mens expectation for the advancement of the Throne of Discipline by some Tragical Execution with the particularities whereof it was not safe for their Friends to be made acquainted of whom they did therefore but covertly demand what they thought of extraordinary Motions of the Spirit in these days and withal request to be commended unto God by their Prayers whatsoever should be undertaken by Men of God in meer Zeal to his Glory and the good of his distressed Church With this unusual and strange course they went on forward till God in whose heaviest worldly Judgments I nothing doubt but that there may lie hidden Mercy gave them over their own Inventions and left them made in the end an example for Head-strong and Inconsiderate Zeal no less fearful then Achitophel for Proud and Irreligious Wisdom If a spark of Error have thus far prevailed falling even where the Wood was green and farthest off to all mens thinking from any inclination unto furious Attempts must not the peril thereof be greater in men whose mindes are of themselves as dry sewel apt beforehand unto Tumults Seditions and Broyls But by this we see in a Cause of Religion to how desperate adventures men will strain themselves for relief of their own part having Law and Authority against them Furthermore Let not any man think that in such Divisions either part can free it self from inconveniencies sustained not onely through a kinde of Truce which Vertue on both sides doth make with Vice during War between Truth and Error but also in that there are hereby so fit occasions ministred for men to purchase to themselves welwillers by the colour under which they oftentimes prosecute quarrels of Envy or Inveterate Malice and especially because Contentions were as yet never able to prevent two Evils The one a mutual exchange of unseemly and unjust disgraces offered by men whose Tongues and Passions are out of rule the other a common hazard of both to be made a prey by such as study how to work upon all Occurents with most advantage in private I deny not therefore but that our Antagonists in these Controversies may peradventure have met with some not unlike to Ithacius who mightily bending himself by all means against the Heresie of Priscillian the hatred of which one Evil was all the Vertue he had became so wise in the end That every man careful of Vertuous Conversations studious of Scripture and given unto any abstinence in Diet was set down in his Kalender of suspected Priscillianists for whom it should be expedient to approve their soundness of Faith by a more licencious and loose behavior Such Proctors and Patrons the Truth might spare Yet is not their grossness so intolerable as on the contrary side the scurrilous and more then Satyrical immodesty of Martinism the first published Schedules whereof being brought to the hands of a grave and a very Honorable Knight with signification given that the Book would refresh his spirits he took it saw what the Title was read over an unsavory sentence or two and delivered back the Libel with this Answer I am sorry you are of the minde to be solaced with these sports and sorrier you have herein thought mine affection to be like your own But as these sores on all hands lie open so the deepest wounds of the Church of God have been more softly and closely given It being perceived that the Plot of Discipline did not onely bend it self to reform Ceremonies but seek farther to erect a popular authority of Elders and to take away Episcopal Jurisdiction together with all other Ornaments and means whereby any difference or inequality is upheld in the Ecclesiastical Order towards this destructive part they have found many helping hands divers although peradventure not willing to be yoked with Elderships yet contented for what intent God doth know to uphold opposition against Bishops not without greater hurt to the course of their whole proceedings in the business of God and Her Majesties service then otherwise much more weighty Adversaries had been able by their own power to have brought to pass Men are naturally better contented to have their commendable actions supprest then the contrary much divulged And because the Wits of the multitude are such that many things they cannot lay hold on at once but being possest with some notable either dislike or liking of any one thing whatsoever sundry other in the mean time may escape them unperceived Therefore if men desirous to have their Vertues noted do in this respect grieve at the same of others whose glory obscureth and darkness theirs it cannot be chosen but that when the ears of the people are thus continually beaten with exclamations against abuses in the Church these tunes come always most acceptable to them whose odious and corrupt dealings in secular affairs both pass by that mean the more covertly and whatsoever happen do also the least feel that scourge of vulgar imputation which notwithstanding they most deserve All this considered as behoveth the sequel of duty on our part is onely that which our Lord and Saviour requireth harmless Discretion the wisdom of Serpents tempered with the innocent meekness of Doves For this World will teach them wisdom that have capacity to apprehend it Our wisdom in this case must be such as doth not propose to it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our own particular the partial and immoderate desire whereof poysoneth wheresoever it taketh place But the scope and mark which we are to aim at is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the publick and common good of all for the easier procurement whereof our diligence must search out all helps and furtherances of direction which Scriptures Counsels Fathers Histories the Laws and Practices of all Churches the mutual Conference of all Mens Collections and Observations may afford Our industry must even anatomize every Particle of that Body which we are to uphold sound and because be it never so true which we teach the World to believe yet if once their affections begin to be alienated a
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
and the coherance it hath with those things either on which it dependeth or which depend on it 8. The case so standing therefore my Brethren as it doth the wisdom of Governors ye must not blame in that they further also forecasting the manifold strange and dangerous innovations which are more then likely to follow if your Discipline should take place have for that cause thought it hitherto a part of their duty to withstand your endeavors that way The rather for that they have seen already some small beginnings of the fruits thereof in them who concurring with you in judgment about the necessity of that Discipline have adventured without more ado to separate themselves from the rest of the Church and to put your speculations in execution These mens hastiness the warier sort of you doth not commend ye wish they had held themselves longer in and not so dangerously flown abroad before the feathers of the Cause had been grown their Error with merciful terms ye reprove naming them in great commiseration of minds your poor Brethren They on the contrary side more bitterly accuse you as their false Brethren and against you they plead saying From your Brests it is that we have sucked those things which when ye delivered unto us ye termed that heavenly sincere and wholesom Milk of Gods Word howsoever ye now abhor as poyson that which the vertue thereof hath wrought and brought forth in us Ye sometime our Companions Guides and Familiars with whom we have had most sweet Consultations are now become our professed Adversaries because we think the Statute-Congregation in England to be no true Christian Churches because we have severed our selves from them and because without their leave or licence that are in Civil Authority we have secretly framed our own Churches according to the Platform of the Word of God For of that point between you and us there is no Controversie Also what would ye have us to do At such time as ye were content to accept us in the number of your own your Teaching we heard weread your Writings And though we would yet able we are not to forget with what zeal ye have ever profest That in the English Congregations for so many of them as be ordered according unto their own Laws the very Publick Service of God is fraught as touching Matter with heaps of intolerable Pollutions and as concerning Form borrowed from the Shop of Antichrist hateful both ways in the eyes of the most Holy the kinde of their Government by Bishops and Archbishops Antichristian that Discipline which Christ hath essentially tied that is to say so united unto his Church that we cannot account it really to be his Church which hath not in it the same Discipline that very Discipline no less there despised then in the highest Throne of Antichrist All such parts of the Word of God as do any way concern that Discipline no less unsoundly taught and interpreted by all authorized English Pastors then by Antichrists Factors themselves At Baptism Crossing at the Supper of the Lord. Kneeling at both a number of other the most notorious Badges of Antichristian Recognisance usual Being moved with these and the like your effectual discourses whereunto we gave most attentive ear till they entred even into our souls and were as fire within our bosoms We thought we might hereof be bold to conclude That sith no such Antichristian Synagogue may be accounted a true Church of Christ ye by accusing all Congregations ordered according to the Laws of England as Antichristian did mean to condemn those Congregations as not being any of them worthy the name of a true Christian Church Ye tell us now it is not your meaning But what meant your often threatnings of them who professing themselves the inhabitants of Mount Sion were too loth to depart wholly as they should out of Babylon Whereat our hearts being fearfully troubled we durst not we durst not continue longer so near her confines lest her plagues might suddenly overtake us before we did cease to be partakers with her sins for so we could not chuse but acknowledge with grief that we were when they doing evil we by our presence in their Assemblies seemed to like thereof or at leastwise not so earnestly to dislike as became men heartily zealous of Gods glory For adventuring to erect the Discipline of Christ without the leave of the Christian Magistrate haply ye may condemn us as fools in that we hazard thereby our estates and persons further then you which are that way more wise think necessary But of any offence or sin therein committed against God with what conscience can you accuse us when your own positions are That the things we observe should every of them be dearer unto us then ten thousand lives that they are the peremptory Commandments of God that no mortal man can dispense with them and that the Magistrate grievously sinneth in not constraining thereunto Will ye blame any man for doing that of his own accord which all men should be compelled to do that are not willing of themselves When God commandeth shall we answer that we will obey if so be Cesar will grant us leave Is Discipline an Ecclesiastical Matter or a Civil If an Ecclesiastical is must of necessity belong to the duty of the Minister and the Minister ye say holdeth all his Authority of doing whatsoever belongeth unto the Spiritual Charge of the House of God even immediately from God himself without dependency upon any Magistrate Whereupon it followeth as we suppose that the hearts of the people being willing to be under the Scepter of Christ the Minister of God into whose hands the Lord himself hath put that Scepter is without all excuse if thereby he guide them not Nor do we finde that hitherto greatly ye have disliked those Churches abroad where the people with direction of their godly Ministers have even against the will of the Magistrate brought in either the Doctrine or Discipline of Iesus Christ For which cause we must now think the very same thing of you which our Saviour did sometime utter concerning false-hearted Scribes and Pharisees They say and do not Thus the foolish Barrowist deriveth his Schism by way of Conclusion as to him it seemeth directly and plainly out of your principles Him therefore we leave to be satisfied by you from whom he hath sprung And if such by your own acknowledgment be persons dangerous although as yet the alterations which they have made are of small and tender growth the changes likely to ensue throughout all States and Vocations within this Land in case your desire should take place must be thought upon First Concerning the Supream Power of the Highest they are no small Prerogatives which now thereunto belonging the Form of your Discipline will constrain it to resign as in the last Book of this Treatise we have shewed at large Again it may justly be feared whether our English
regard the present State of the highest Governor placed over us if the quality and disposition of our Nobles if the Orders and Laws of our famous Universities if the Profession of the Civil or the Practice of the Common Law amongst us if the mischiefs whereinto even before our eyes so many others have faln head-long from no less plausible and fair beginnings then yours are There is in every of these Considerations most just cause to fear lest our hastiness to embrace a thing of so perilous consequence should cause Posterity to feel those evils which as yet are more easie for us to prevent then they would be for them to remedy 9. The best and safest way for you therefore my dear Brethren is To call your Deeds past to a new reckoning to re-examine the cause ye have taken in hand and to try it even point by point argument by argument with all the diligent exactness ye can to lay aside the Gall of that Bitterness wherein your mindes have hitherto ever-abounded and with meekness to search the Truth Think ye are Men deem it not impossible for you to err sift unpartially your own hearts whether it be force of Reason or vehemency of Affection which hath bred and still doth feed these Opinions in you If Truth do any where manifest it self seek not to smother it with gloâ—ing Delusion acknowledge the greatness thereof and think it your best Victory when the same doth prevail over youâ— That ye have been earnest in speaking or writing again and again the contrary way should be noblemish or discredit at all unto you Amongst so many so huge Volumes as the infinite pains of St. Augustine have brought forth what one hath gotten him greater love commendation and honor then the Book wherein he carefully collecteth his own over-sights and sincerely condemneth them Many speeches there are of Jobs whereby his Wisdom and other Vertues may appear but the glory of an ingenuous minde he hath purchased by these words onely Behold I will lay mine hand on my mouth I have spoken once yet will I not therefore maintain Argument yea twice howbeit for that cause further I will not proceed Far more comfort it were for us so small is the joy we take in these strises to labor under the same yoke as men that look for the same eternal reward of their labors to be enjoyned with you in Bands of indissoluble Love and Amity to live as if our persons being many our souls were but one rather than in such dismembred sort to spend our few and wretched days in a tedious prosecuting of wearisome contentions the end whereof if they have not some speedy end will be heavy even on both sides Brought already we are even to that estate which Gregory Nazianzen mournfully describeth saying My minde leadeth me sith there is no other remedy to flie and to convey my self into some corner out of sight where I may scape from this cloudy tempest of maliciousness whereby all parts are entred into a deadly war amongst themselves and that little remnant of love which was is now consumed to nothing The onely godliness we glory in is to finde out somewhat whereby we may judge others to be ungodly Each others faults we observe as matter of exprobration and not of grief By these means we are grown hateful in the eyes of the Heathens themselves and which woundeth us the more deeply able we are not to deny but that we have deserved their hatred With the better sort of our own our fame and credit is clean lost The less we are to marvel if they judge vilely of us who although we did well would hardly allow thereof On our backs they also build that are leud and what we object one against another the same they use to the utter scorn and disgrace of us all This we have gained by our mutual home-dissentions This we are worthily rewarded with which are more forward to strive then becometh men of vertuous and milde disposition But our trust in the Almighty is that with us Contentions are now at the highest flote and that the day will come for what cause of despair is there when the Passions of former Enmity being allayed we shall with ten times redoubled tokens of our unfeignedly reconciled love shew our selves each towards other the same which Joseph and the Brethren of Joseph were at the time of their enterview in Egypt Our comfortable expectation and most thirsty desire whereof what man soever amongst you shall any way help to satisfie as we truly hope there is no one amongst you but some way or other will The blessings of the God of Peace both in this World and in the World to come be upon him more then the Stars of the Firmament in number WHAT THINGS ARE HANDLED In the following BOOKS BOOK I. COncerning LAWS in General BOOK II. Of the use of Divine Law contained in Scripture Whether that be the onely Law which ought to serve for our Direction in all things without exception BOOK III. Of Laws concerning Ecclesiastical Polity Whether the Form thereof be in Scripture so set down that no Addition or Charge is lawful BOOK IV. Of General Exceptions taken against the Laws of our Polity as being Popish and banished out of certain Reformed Churches BOOK V. Of our Laws that concern the Publick Religious Duties of the Church and the manner of bestowing that Power of Order which enableth Men in sundry Degrees and Callings to execute the same BOOK VI. Of the Power of Iurisdiction which the Reformed Platform claimeth unto Lay-Elders with others BOOK VII Of the Power of Iurisdiction and the Honor which is annexed thereunto in Bishops BOOK VIII Of the Power of Ecclesiastical Dominion or Supream Authority which with us the highest Governor or Prince hath as well in regard of Domestical Iurisdictions as of that other Foreignly claimed by the Bishop of Rome OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity BOOK I. Concerning Laws and their several kindes in general The Matter contained in this First Book 1. THe cause of Writing this General Discourse concerning Laws 2. Of that Law which God from before the beginning hath set for himself to do all things by 3. The Law which Natural Agents observe and their necessary manner of keeping it 4. The Law which the Angels of God obey 5. The Law whereby Man is in his Actions directed to the Imitation of God 6. Mens first beginning to understand that Law 7. Of Mans Will which is the first thing that Laws of Action are made to guide 8. Of the Natural finding out of Laws by the Light of Reason to guide the Will unto that which is good 9. Of the benefit of keeping that Law which Reason teacheth 10. How Reason doth lead Men unto the making of Humane Laws whereby Politick Societies are governed and to agreement about Laws whereby the Fellowship or Communion of Independent Societies stanoeth 11. Wherefore God hath by Scripture
after they have been expresly and wittingly imposed Laws Positive there are in every of those kindes beforementioned As in the first kinde the Promises which we have past unto Men and the Vows we have made unto God for these arâ— Laws which we tie our selves unto and till we have so tied our selves they binde us not Laws Positive in the second kinde are such as the Civil Constitutions peculiar unto each particular Commonweal In the third kinde the Law of Heraldry in War is Positive And in the last all the Judicials which God gave unto the people of Israel to observe And although no Laws but Positive be mutable yet all are not mutable which be Positive Positive Laws are either permanent or else changeable according as the matter it self is concerning which they were first made Whether God or Man be the Maker of them alteration they so far forth admit as the Matter doth exact Laws that concern Supernatural duties are all Positive and either concern Men supernaturally as Men or else as parts of a Supernatural Society which Society we call the Church To concern Men as Men supernaturally is to concern them as duties which belong of necessity to all and yet could not have been known by any to belong unto them unless God had opened them himself in as much as they do not depend upon any Natural ground at all out of which they may be deduced but are appointed of God to supply the defect of those natural ways of salvation by which we are not now able to attain thereunto The Church being a Supernatural Society doth differ from Natural Societies in this that the persons unto whom we associate our selves in the one are Men simply considered as Men But they to whom we be joyned in the other are God Angels and holy Men. Again the Church being hoth a Society and a Society Supernatural Although as it is a Society it have the self same original grounds which other Politick Societies have namely the Natural inclination which all men have unto sociable life and consent to some certain Bond of Association which Bond is the Law that appointeth what kinde of order they shall be associated in Yet unto the Church as it is a Society Supernatural this is peculiar that part of the Bond of their Association which belongs to the Church of God must be a Law Supernatural which God himself hath revealed concerning that kinde of worship which his people shall do unto him The substance of the service of God therefore so far forth as it hath in it any thing more then the Law of Reason doth reach may not be invented of Men as it is amongst the Heathens but must be received from God himself as always it hath been in the Church saving onely when the Church hath been forgetful of her duty Wherefore to end with a general Rule concerning all the Laws which God hath tied men unto Those Laws Divine that belong whether naturally or supernaturally either to men as men or to men as they live in Politick Society or to men as they are of that Politick Society which is the Church without any further respect had unto any such variable accident as the Estate of men and of Societies of men and of the Church it self in this World is subject unto all Laws that so belong unto men they belong for ever yea although they be Positive Laws unless being Positive God himself which made them alter them The reason is because the subject or matter of Laws in general is thus far forth constant Which matter is that for the ordering whereof Laws were instituted and being instituted are not changeable without cause Neither can they have cause of change when that which gave them their first institution remaineth for ever one and the same On the other side Laws that were made for Men or Societies or Churches in regard of their being such as they do not always continue but may perhaps be clean otherwise awhile after and so may require to be otherwise ordered then before the Laws of God himself which are of this nature no man endued with common sense will ever deny to be of a different constitution from the former in respect of the ones constancy and the mutability of the other And this doth seem to have been the very cause why St. Iohn doth so peculiarly term the doctrine that teacheth salvation by Jesus Christ Evangelium AEternum An eternal Gospel because there can be no reason wherefore the publishing thereof should be taken away and any other instead of it proclaimed as long as the World doth continue Whereas the whole Law of Rites and Ceremonies although delivered with so great solemnity is notwithstanding clean abrogated in as much as it had but temporary cause of Gods ordaining it But that we may at the length conclude this first general introduction unto the Nature and Original Birth as of all other Laws so likewise of those which the Sacred Scripture containeth concerning the Author whereof even Infidels have confessed that he can neither err nor deceive Albeit about things easie and manifest unto all men by common sense there needeth no higher consultation because as a man whose wisdom is in weighty affairs admired would take it in some disdain to have his counsel solemnly asked about a toy so the meanness of some things is such that to search the Scripture of God for the ordering of them were to derogate from the reverend Authority and Dignity of the Scripture no less then they do by whom Scriptures are in ordinary talk very idly applied unto vain and childish trifles yet better it were to be superstitious then prophane To take from thence our direction even in all things great or small then to wade through matters of principal weight and moment without ever caring what the Law of God hath either for or against our designs Concerning the custom of the very Paynims thus much Strabo witnesseth Men that are civil do lead their lives after one Common Law appointing them what to do For that otherwise a multitude should with harmony amongst themselves concur in the doing of onething for this is civilly to live or that they should in any sort manage community of life it is not possible Now Laws or Statutes are of two sorts For they are either received from Gods or else from Men. And our ancient Predecessors did surely most honor and reverence that which was from the Gods For which cause Consultation with Oracles was a thing very usual and frequent in their times Did they make so much account of the voice of their gods which in truth were no gods and shall we neglect the precious benefit of conference with those Oracles of the true and living God whereof so great store is left to the Church and whereunto there is so free so plain and so easie access for all men By thy Commandments this was Davids confession unto God thou
Law that inasmuch as Law doth stand upon Reason to alledge Reason serveth as well as to cite Scripture that whatsoever is reasonable the same is lawful whosoever is the Author of it that the authority of custom is great finally that the custom of Christians was then and had been a long time not to wear Garlands and therefore that undoubtedly they did offend who presumed to violate such a custom by not observing that thing the very inveterate Observation whereof was a Law sufficient to binde all men to observe it unless they could shew some higher Law some Law of Scripture to the contrary This presupposed it may stand then very well with strength and soundness of reason even thus to answer Whereas they ask what Scripture forbiddeth them to wear a Garland we are in this case rather to demand What Scripture commandeth them they cannot here alledge that that is permitted which is not forbidden them no that is forbidden them which is not permitted For long received custom forbidding them to do as they did if so be it did forbid them there was no excuse in the world to justifie their act unless in the Scripture they could shew some Law that did license them thus to break a received custom Now whereas in all the Books of Tertullian besides there is not so much found as in that one to prove not only that we may do but that we ought to do sundry things which the Scripture commandeth not out of that very Book these Sentences are brought to make us believe that Tertullian was of a clean contrary mind We cannot therefore hereupon yield we cannot grant that hereby is made manifest the Argument of Scripture negative to be of force not only in Doctrine and Ecclesiastical Discipline but even in matters arbitrary For Tertullian doth plainly hold even in that Book that neither the matter which he entreateth of was arbitrary but necessary inasmuch as the received custom of the Church did tie and binde them not to wear Garlands as the Heathens did yea and further also he reckoneth up particularly a number of things whereof he expresly concludeth Haram aliaram ejusmodi disciplinarum si legem expostules Scripturarum nullam invenies which is as much as if he had said in express words Many things thereare which concern the Discipline of the Church and the duties of men which to abrogate and take away the Scriptures negatively urged may not in any case perswade us but they must be observed yea although no Scripture be found which requireth any such thing Tertullian therefore undoubtedly doth not in this Book shew himself to be of the same minde with them by whom his name is pretended 6. But first the sacred Scriptures themselves afford oftentimes such Arguments as are taken from Divine Authority both one way and other The Lord hath commanded therefore it must be And again in like sort He hath not therefore it must not be some certainty concerning this point seemeth requisite to be set down God himself can neither possibly err nor lead into error For this cause his Testimonies whatsoever he affirmeth are always truth and most infallible certainty Yea further because the things that proceed from him are perfect without any manner of defect or maim it cannot be but that the words of his mouth are absolute and lack nothing which they should have for performance of that thing whereunto they tend Whereupon it followeth that the end being known whereunto he directeth his speech the Argument negatively is evermore strong and forcible concerning those things that are apparently requisite unto the same end As for example God intending to set down sundry times that which in Angels is most excellent hath not any where spoken so highly of them as he hath of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ therefore they are not in dignity equal unto him It is the Apostle S. Pauls Argument The purpose of God was to teach his people both unto whom they should offer sacrifice and what sacrifice was to be offered To burn their sons in fire unto Baal he did not command them he spake no such thing neither came it into his minde therefore this they ought not to have done Which Argument the Prophet Jeremy useth more then once as being so effectual and strong that although the thing he reproveth were not only not commanded but forbidden them and that expresly yet the Prophet chooseth rather to charge them with the fault of making a Law unto themselves than the crime of transgressing a Law which God had made For when the Lord had once himself pecisely set down a form of executing that wherein we are to serve him the fault appeareth greater to do that which we are not then not to do that which we are commanded In this we seem to charge the Law of God with hardness onely in that with foolishness in this we shew our selves weak and unapt to be doers of his Will in that we take upon us to be Controllers of his Wisdom in this we fail to perform the thing which God seeth meet convenient and good in that we presume to see what is meet and convenient better then God himself In those actions therefore the whole form whereof God hath of purpose set down to be observed we may not otherwise do then exactly as he hath prescribed In such things Negative Arguments are strong Again with a Negative Argument David is pressed concerning the purpose he had to build a Temple unto the Lord Thus saith the Lord Thou shalt not build me an House to dwell in Wheresoever I have walked with all Israel spake I one word to any of the Iudges of Israel whom I commanded to feed my people saying Why have ye not built me an house The Jews urged with a negative argument touching the aid which they sought at the hands of the King of Egypt We to those rebellious children saith the Lord which walk forth to go down into Egypt and have not asked counsel at my mouth to strengthen themselves with the strength of Pharaoh Finally the league of Ioshua with the Gibeonites is likewise with a Negative Argument touched It was not as it should be And why the Lord gave them not that advice They sought not counsel at the mouth of the Lord. By the vertue of which examples if any man should suppose the force of Negative Arguments approved when they are taken from Scripture in such sort as we in this question are pressed therewith they greatly deceive themselves For unto which of all these was it said that they had done amiss in purposing to do or in doing any thing at all which the Scripture commanded them not Our Question is Whether all be sin which is done without direction by Scripture and not whether the Israelites did at any time amiss by following their own mindes without asking counsel of God No it was that peoples singular priviledge a favour which
no proof to the contrary But that our love is sound and sincere that it cometh from a pure heart a good conscience and a faith unfeigned who can pronounce saving only the searcher of all mens hearts who alone intuitively doth known in this kind who are his And as those everlasting promises of Love Mercy and Blessedness belong to the mystical Church even so on the other side when we read of any duty which the Church of God is bound unto the Church whom this doth concern is a sensible known company And this Visible Church in like sort is but one continued from the first beginning of the World to the last end Which company being divided into two moyeties the one before the other since the coming of Christ that part which since the coming of Christ partly hath embraced and partly shall hereafter embrace the Christian Religion we term as by a more proper name the Church of Christ. And therefore the Apostle affirmeth plainly of all men Christian that be they Jew or Gentiles bond or free they are all incorporated into one company they all make but one body The unity of which visible body and Church of Christ consisteth in that Uniformity which all several persons thereunto belonging have by reason of that one Lord whose servants they all profess themselves that one Faith which they all acknowledge that one Baptism wherewith they are all initiated The visible Church of Jesus Christ is therefore one in outward profession of those things which supernaturally appertain to the very Essence of Christianity and are necessarily required in every particular Christian man Let all the house of Israel know for certainty saith Peter that God hath made him both Lord and Christ even this Iesus whom ye have crucified Christians therefore they are not which call not him their Master and Lord. And from hence it came that first at Antioch and afterward throughout the whole world all that were of the Church visible were called Christians even amongst the Heathen which name unto them was precious and glorious but in the estimation of the rest of the world even Christ Jesus himself was execrable for whose sake all men were so likewise which did acknowledge him to be their Lord. This himself did foresee and therefore armed his Church to the end they might sustain it without discomfort All these things they will do unto you for my names sake yea the time shall come that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth God good service These things I tell you that when the hour shall come ye may then call to minde how I told you before-hand of them But our naming of Jesus Christ the Lord is not enough to prove us Christians unless we also embrace that Faith which Christ hath published unto the World To shew that the Angel of Pergamus continued in Christianity behold how the Spirit of Christ speaketh Thou keepest my Name and thou hast not denied my Faith Concerning which Faith The rule thereof saith Tertullian is one alone immoveable and no way possible to be better framed anew What rule that is he sheweth by rehearsing those few Articles of Christian belief And before Tertullian Irency The Church though scattered through the whole World unto the uttermost borders of the Earth hath from the Apostles and their Disciples received Belief The parts of which Belief he also reciteth in substance the very same with Tertullian and thereupon inferreth This Faith the Church being spread far and wide preserveth as if one House did contain them These things it equally embraceth as though it had even one Soul one Heart and no more It publisheth teacheth and delivereth these things with Uniform consent as if God had given it lut one onely Tongue wherewith to speak He which amongst the Guides of the Church is best able to speak uttereth no more then this and less then this the most simple do not utter when they make Profession of their Faith Now although we know the Christian Faith and allow of it yet in this respect we are but entring entred we are not into the Visible Church before our admittance by the door of Baptism Wherefore immediately upon the acknowledgment of Christian Faith the Eunuch we see was baptized by Philip Paul by Ananias by Peter a huge multitude containing Three thousand Souls which being once Baptized were reckoned in the number of Souls added to the Visible Church As for those Vertues that belong unto Moral Righteousness and honesty of life we do not mention them because they are not proper unto Christian Men as they are Christian but do concern them as they are Men. True it is the want of these Vertues excludeth from Salvation So doth much more the absence of inward belief of heart so doth despair and lack of Hope so emptiness of Christian Love and Charity But we speak now of the Visible Church whose Children are signed with this mark One Lord one Faith one Baptism In whomsoever these things are the Church doth acknowledge them for her Children them onely she holdeth for Aliens and Strangers in whom these things are not found For want of these it is that Saracens Jews and Infidels are excluded out of the bounds of the Church Others we may not deny to be of the Visible Church as long as these things are not wanting in them For apparent it is that all Men are of necessity either Christians or not Christians If by External Profession they be Christians then are they of the Visible Church of Christ and Christians by External Profession they are all whose mark of Recognisance hath in it those things which we have mentioned yea although they be impious Idolaters wicked Hereticks Persons excommunicable yea and cast out for notorious improbity Such withal we deny not to be the Imps and Limbs of Satan even as long as they continue such Is it then possible that the self-same men should belong both to the Synagogue of Satan and to the Church of Jesus Christ Unto that Church which is his Mystical Body not possibleâ— because that Body consisteth of none but onely true Israelites true Sons of Abraham true Servants and Saints of God Howbeit of the Visible Body and Church of Jesus Christ those may be and oftentimes are in respect of the main parts of their outward Profession who inregard of their inward disposition of minde yea of External Conversation yea even of some parts of their very Profession are most worthily both hateful in the sight of God himself and in the eyes of the sounder part of the Visible Church most execrable Our Saviour therefore compareth the Kingdom of Heaven to a Net whereunto all which cometh neither is nor seemeth Fish His Church he compareth unto a Field where Tares manifestly known end seen by all Men do grow intermingled with good Corn and even so shall continue till the final consummation of the World God hath had ever
and ever shall have some Church Visible upon Earth When the People of God whorshipped the Calf in the Wilderness when they adored the Brazen Serpent when they served the gods of Nations when they bowed their knees to Baal when they burnt Incense and offered Sacrifice unto Idols True it is the wrath of God was most fiercely inflamed against them their Prophets justly condemned them as an adulterous seed and a wicked generation of Miscreants which had forsaken the living God and of him were likewise forsaken in respect of that singular Mercy wherewith he kindly and lovingly embraceth his faithful Children Howbeit retaining the Law of God and the holy Seal of his Covenant the Sheep of his Visible Flock they continued even in the depth of their Disobedience and Rebellion Wherefore not onely amongst them God always had his Church because he had thousands which never bowed their knees to Baal but whose knees were bowed unto Baal even they were also of the Visible Church of God Nor did the Prophet so complain as if that Church had been quite and clean extinguished but he took it as though there had not been remaining in the World any besides himself that carcied a true and an upright heart towards God with care to serve him according unto his holy Will For lack of diligent observing the difference first between the Church of God Mystical and Visible then between the Visible sound and corrupted sometimes more sometimes less the oversights are neither few nor light that have been committed This deceiveth them and nothing else who think that in the time of the first World the Family of Noah did contain all that were of the Visible Church of God From hence it grew and from no other cause in the World that the Affrican Bishops in the Council of Carthage knowing how the Administration of Baptism belongeth onely to the Church of Christ and supposing that Hereticks which were apparently severed from the sound believing Church could not possibly be of the Church of Jesus Christ thought it utterly against Reason That Baptism administred by men of coâ—â—upt belief should be accounted as a Sacrament And therefore in maintenance of Rebaptization their Arguments are built upon the sore-alledged ground That Hereticks are not at all any part of the Church of Christ. Our Saviour founded his Church on a Rock and not upon Heresie Power of Baptizing he gave to his Apostles unto Hereticks he gave it not Wherefore they that are without the Church and oppose themselves against Christ do but scatter his Sheep and Flock Without the Church Baptize they cannot Again Are Hereticks Christians or are they not If they be Christians wherefore remain they not in Gods Church If they be no Christians how make they Christians Or to what purpose shall those words of the Lord serve He which is not with me is against me And He which gathereth not with me scaltereth Wherefore evident it is that upon misbegotten Children and the brood of Antichrist without Rebaptization the Holy Ghost cannot descend But none in this case so earnest as Cyprian I know no Baptism but one and that in Church onely none without the Church where he that doth cast out the Devil hath the Devil He doth examine about Belief whose lips and words do breathe forth a Canker The faithless doth offer the Articles of Faith a wicked Creature forgiveth wickedness in the Name of Christ Antichrist signeth he which is cursed of God blesseth a dead carrion promiseth life a man unpeaceable giveth peace a blasphemer calleth upon the Name of God a prophane person doth exercise Priesthood a Sacrilegious wretch doth prepare the Altar and in the neck of all these that evil also cometh the Eucharist a very Bishop of the Devil doth presume to consecrate All this was true but not sufficient to prove that Hereticks were in no sort any part of the Visible Church of Christ and consequently their Baptism no Baptism This opinion therefore was afterwards both condemned by a better advised Council and also revoked by the chiefest of the Authors thereof themselves What is it but onely the self-same error and misconceit wherewith others being at this day likewise possest they ask us where our Church did lurk in what Cave of the Earth it slept for so many hundreds of years together before the bath of Martin Luther As if we were of opinion that Luther did erect a new Church of Christ. No the Church of Christ which was from the beginning is and continueth unto the end Of which Church all parts have not been always equally sincere and sound In the days of Abia it plainly appeareth that Iudah was by many degrees more free from pollution then Israel as that solemn Oration sheweth wherein he pleadeth for the one against the other in this wise O Ieroboam and all Israel hear you me Have ye not driven away the Priests of the Lord the Sons of Aaron and the Levites and have made you Priests like the people of Nations Whosoever cometh to consecrate with a young bullock and seven Rams the same may be a Priest of them that are no gods But we belong unto the Lord our God and have not forsaken him and the Priests the sons of Aaron minister unto the Lord every morning and every evening Burnt-offerings and sweet Incense and the Bread is set in order upon the pure Table and the Candlestick of Gold with the Lamps thereof to burn every evening for we keep the watch of the Lord oâ—r God but ye have for saken him In St. Pauls time the integrity of Rome was famous Corinth many ways reproved they of Galatia much more out of square In St. Iohns time Ephesus and Smyrna in far better state then Thyatira and Pergamus were We hope therefore that to reform our selves if at any time we have done amiss is not to sever our selves from the Church we were of before In the Church we were and we are so still Other diffcrence between our estate before and now we know none but onely such as we see in Iudah which having sometime been Idolatrous became afterwards more soundly religious by renouncing Idolatry and Superstition If Ephraim be joyned to Idols the counsel of the Prophet is Let him alone If Israel play the Harlot let not Judah sin If it seem evil unto you saith Ioshua to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve whether the gods whom your Fathers served beyond the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose Land ye dwell But I and mine house will serve the Lord. The indisposition therefore of the Church of Rome to reform her self must be no stay unto us from performing our duty to God even as desire of retaining Conformity with them could be no excuse if we did not perform that duty Notwithstanding so far as lawfully we may we have held and do hold Fellowship with them For even as
the Apostle doth say of Israel that they are in one respect enemies but in another beloved of God In like sort with Rome we dare not communicate concerning sundry her gross and grievous abominations yet touching those main parts of Christian truth wherein they constantly still persist we gladly acknowledge them to be of the Family of Jesus Christ and our hearty prayer unto God Almighty is that being conjoyned so far forth with them they may at the length if it be his will so yield to frame and reform themselves that no distraction remain in any thing but that we all may with one heart and one mouth glorifie God the Father of our Lord and Saviour whose Church we are As there are which make the Church of Rome utterly no Church at all by reason of so many so grievous Errors in their Doctrines So we have them amongst us who under pretence of imagined corruptions in our Discipline do give even as hard a judgment of the Church of England it self But whatsoever either the one sort or the other teach we must acknowledge even Hereticks themselves to be though a maimed part yet a part of the Visible Church If an Infidel should pursue to death an Heretick professing Christianity onely for Christian Profession sake could we deny unto him the honor of Martyrdom Yet this honor all men know to be proper unto the Church Hereticks therefore are not utterly cut off from the Visible Church of Christ. If the Fathers do any where as oftentimes they do make the true Visible Church of Christ and Heterical companies opposite they are to be construed as Separating Hereticks not altogether from the company of Believers but from the fellowship of sound Believers For whereprofest unbelief is there can be no Visible Church of Christ there may be where sound belief wanteth Infidels being clean without the Church deny directly and utterly reject the very Principles of Christianity which Hereticks embrace and err onely by misconstruction Whereupon their opinions although repugnant indeed to the Principles of Christian Faith are notwithstanding by them held otherwise and maintained as most consonant thereunto Wherefore being Christians in regard of the general Truth of Christ which they openly profess yet they are by the Fathers every where spoken of as men clean excluded out of the right believing Church by reason of their particular Errors for which all that are of a sound belief must needs condemn them In this consideration the answer of Calvin unto Farell concerning the children of Popish Parents doth seem crazed Whereas saith he you ask our judgment about a matter whereof there is doubt amongst you whether Ministers of our Order professing the pure Doctrine of the Gospel may lawfully admit unto Baptism an Infant whose Father is a stranger unto our Churches and whose Mother hath salm from us unto the Papacy so that both the Parents are Popish Thus we have thought good to answer namely that it is an absurd thing for us to baptize them which cannot be reckoned Members of our Body And sith Papists children are such we see not how it should be lawful to Minister Baptism unto them Sounder a great deal is the answer of the Ecclesiastical Colledge of Geneva unto Knox who having signified unto them that himself did not think it lawful to Baptize bastards or the children of Idolaters he meaneth Papists or of Persons Excommunicate till either the Parents had by repentance submitted themselves unto the Church or else their children being grown unto the years of understanding should come and sue for their own Baptism For thus thinking saith he I am thought to be over severe and that not onely by them which are Popish but even in their judgments also who think themselves Maintainers of the Truth Master Knox's oversight herein they controuled Their Sentence was Wheresoever the Profession of Christianity hath not utterly perished and been extinct Infants are beguiled of their right if the Common Seal be denied them Which conclusion in it self is sound although it seemeth the ground is but weak whereupon they build it For the reason which they yield of their Sentence is this The promise which God doth make to the faithful concerning their Seed reacheth unto a thousand Generations it resteth not onely in the first degree of Descent Infants therefore whose Great Grandfathers have been holy and godly do in that respect belong to the Body of the Church although the Fathers and Grandfathers of whom they descend have been Apostates Because the tenure of the Grace of God which did adopt them Three hundred years ago and more in their Ancient Predecessors cannot with justice be defeated and broken off by their Parents impiety coming between By which reason of theirs although it seem that all the World may be baptized in as much as no man living is a thousand descents removed from Adam himself yet we mean not at this time either to uphold or to overthrow it onely their alledged conclusion we embrace so it be construed in this sort That for as much as men remain in the Visible Church till they utterly renounce the Profession of Christianity we may not deny unto Infants their right by withholding from them the publick sign of holy Baptism if they be born where the outward acknowledgment of Christianity is not clean gone and extinguished For being in such sort born their Parents are within the Church and therefore their birth doth give them interest and right in Baptism Albeit not every Error and Fault yet Heresies and Crimes which are not actually repented of and forsaken exclude quite and clean from that Salvation which belongeth unto the Mystical Body of Christ yea they also make a Separation from the Visible sound Church of Christ altogether from the Visible Church neither the one nor the other doth sever As for the Act of Excommunication it neither shutteth out from the Mystical nor clean from the Visible but onely from Fellowship with the Visible in holy duties With what congruity then doth the Church of Rome deny that her enemies whom she holdeth always for Hereticks do at all appertain to the Church of Christ when her own do freely grant that albeit the Pope as they say cannot teach Heresie nor propound Error he may notwithstanding himself worship Idols think amiss concerning matters of Faith yea give himself unto Acts Diabolical even being Pope How exclude they us from being any part of the Church of Christ under the colour and pretence of Heresie when they cannot but grant it possible even for him to be as touching his own personal perswasion Heretical who in their opinion not onely is of the Church but holdeth the chiefest place of Authority over the same But of these things we are not now to dispute That which already we have set down is for our present purpose sufficient By the Church therefore in this question we understand no other then onely the Visible Church For
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
must be by Reason found out And therefore To refuse the conduct of the Light of Nature saith St. Augustine is not Folly alone but accompanied with Impiety The greatest amongst the School Divines studying how to set down by exact definition the Nature of an Humane Law of which nature all the Churches Constitutions are found not which way better to do it then in these words Out of the Precepts of the Law of Nature as out of certain common and undemonstrable Principles Mans Reason doth necessarily proceed unto certain more particular determinations Which particular determinations being found out according unto the Reason of Man they have the names of Humane Laws so that such other conditions be therein kept as the making of Laws doth require that is If they whose Authority is thereunto required do establish and publish them as Laws And the truth is that all our controversie in this cause concerning the Orders of the Church is What particulars the Church may appoint That which doth finde them out is the force of Mans Reason That which doth guide and direct his Reason is first the general Law of Nature which Law of Nature and the Moral Law of Scripture are in the substance of Law all one But because there are also in Scripture a number of Laws particular and positive which being in force may not by any Law of Man be violated we are in making Laws to have thereunto an especial eye As for example it might perhaps seem reasonable unto the Church of God following the general Laws concerning the nature of Marriage to ordain in particular that Cosin-Germans shall not marry Which Law notwithstanding ought not to be received in the Church if there should be in the Scripture a Law particular to the contrary forbidding utterly the Bonds of Marriage to be so far forth abridged The same Thomas therefore whose definition of Humane Laws we mentioned before doth add thereunto this Caution concerning the Rule and Canon whereby to make them Humane Laws are Measures in respect of Men whose actions they must direct howbeit such Measures they are as have also their higher Rules to be measured by Which Rules are two the Law of God and the Law of Nature So that Laws Humane must be made according to the General Laws of Nature and without contradiction unto any Positive Law in Scripture otherwise they are ill made Unto Laws thus made and received by a whole Church they which live within the bosom of that Church must not think it a matter indifferent either to yield or not to yield obedience Is it a small offence to despise the Church of God My Son keep thy Fathers Commandment saith Solomon and forget not thy Mothers instruction binde them both always about thine heart It doth not stand with the duty which we ow to our Heavenly Father that to the Ordinances of our Mother the Church we should shew our selves disobedient Let us not say we keep the Commandments of the one when we break the Law of the other For unless we observe both we obey neither And what doth let but that we may observe both when they are not the one to the other in any sort repugnant For of such Laws onely we speak as being made in form and manner already declared can have in them no contradiction unto the Laws of Almighty God Yea that which is more the Laws thus made God himself doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them him It is a loose and licentious opinion which the Anabaptists have embraced holding That a Christian Mans liberty is lost and the Soul which Christ hath redeemed unto himself injuriously drawn into servitude under the yoke of Humane Power if any Law be now imposed besides the Gospel of Jesus Christ In obedience whereunto the Spirit of God and not the constraint of man is to lead us according to that of the blessed Apostle Such as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God and not such as live in thraldom unto men Their judgment is therefore that the Church of Christ should admit no Law-Makers but the Evangelists The Author of that which causeth another thing to be is Author of that thing also which thereby is caused The light of Natural Understanding Wit and Reason is from God he it is which thereby doth illuminate every man entring into the World If there proceed from us any thing afterwards corrupt and naught the Mother thereof is our own darkness neither doth it proceed from any such cause whereof God is the Author He is the Author of all that we think or do by vertue of that Light which himself hath given And therefore the Laws which the very Heathens did gather to direct their actions by so far forth as they proceed from the Light of Nature God himself doth acknowledge to have proceeded even from himself and that he was the Writer of them in the Tables of their Hearts How much more then is he the Author of those Laws which have been made by his Saints endued further with the Heavenly Grace of his Spirit and directed as much as might be with such instructions as his Sacred Word doth yield Surely if we have unto those Laws that dutiful regard which their Dignity doth require it will not greatly need that we should be exhorted to live in obedience unto them Iâ— they have God himself for their Author contempt which is offered unto them cannot chuse but redound unto him The safest and unto God the most acceptable way of framing our lives therefore is with all Humility Lowliness and Singleness of Heart to study which way our willing Obedience both unto God and Man may be yielded even to the utmost of that which is due 10. Touching the Mutability of Laws that concern the Regiment and Polity of the Church changed they are when either altogether abrogated or in part repealed or augmented with farther additions Wherein we are to note that this question about the changing of Laws concerneth onely such Laws as are Positive and do make that now good or evil by being commanded or forbidden which otherwise of it self were not simply the one or the other Unto such Laws it is expresly sometimes added how long they are to continue in force If this be no where exprest then have we no light to direct our judgments concerning the changeableness or immutability of them but by considering the nature and quality of such Laws The nature of every Law must be judged of by the end for which it was made and by the aptness of things therein prescribed unto the same end It may so fall out that the reason why some Laws of God were given is neither opened nor possible to be gathered by the Wit of Man As why God should forbid Adam that one Tree there was no way for Adam ever to have certainly understood And at Adams ignorance of
long safety for two things it was necessary to provide namely the preservation of their state against foreign resistance and the continuance of their peace within themselves Touching the one as they received the Promise of God to be the Rock of their Defence against which who so did violently rush should but bruise and batter themselves so likewise they had his Commandment in all their affairs that way to seek direction and counsel from him Mens Consultations are always perillous And it falleth out many times that after long deliberation those things are by their wit even resolved on which by trial are found most opposite to publick safety It is no impossible thing for States be they never so well established yet by over-sight in some one act or treaty between them and their potent opposites utterly to cast away themselves for ever Wherefore lest it should so fall out to them upon whom so much did depend they were not permitted to enter into War not conclude any League of Peace nor to wade through any act of moment between them and foreign States unless the Oracle of God or his Prophets were first consulted with And lest domestical disturbance should waste them within themselves because there was nothing unto this purpose more effectual then if the Authority of their Laws and Governors were such as none might presume to take exception against it or to shew disobedience unto it without incurring the hatred and detestation of all men that had any spark of the fear of God therefore he gave them even their Positive Laws from Heaven and as oft as occasion required chose in like sort Rulers also to lead and govern them Notwithstanding some desperately impious there were which adventured to try what harm it could bring upon them if they did attempt to be Authors of Confusion and to resist both Governors and Laws Against such Monsters God maintained his own by fearful execution of extraordinary judgment upon them By which means it came to pass that although they were a people infested and mightily hated of all others throughout the World although by Nature hard-hearted querulous wrathful and impatient of rest and quietness yet was there nothing of force either one way or other to work the ruine and subversion of their State till the time before mentioned was expired Thus we see that there was no cause of dissimilitude in these things between that one onely People before Christ and the Kingdoms of the World since And whereas it is further alledged That albeit in Civil Matters and things pertaining to this present life God hath used a greater particularity with them then amongst us framing Laws according to the quality of that People and Countrey yet the leaving of us at greater liberty in things civil is so far from proving the like liberty in things pertaining to the Kingdom of Heaven that it rather proves a straiter bond For even as when the Lord would have his favor more appear by Temporal Blessings of this life towards the people under the Law then towards us he gave also Politick Laws most exactly whereby they might both most easily come into and most stedfastly remain in possession of those earthly benefits Even so at this time wherein he would not have his favor so much esteemed by those outward commodities it is required That as his care inprescribing Laws for that purpose hath somewhat faln in leaving them to mens Consultations which may be deceived so his care for Conduct and Government of the life to come should if it were possible rise in leaving less to the order of men then in times past These are but weak and feeble Disputes for the Inference of that Conclusion which is intended For saving onely in such consideration as hath been shewed there is no cause wherefore we should think God more desirous to manifest his savor by Temporal Blessings towards them then towards us Godliness had unto them and it hath also unto us the promises both of this life and the life to come That the care of God hath faln in earthly things and therefore should rise as much in Heavenly that more is left unto mens consultations in the one and therefore less must be granted in the other that God having used a greater particularity with them then with us for matters pertaining unto this life is to make us amends by the more exact delivery of Laws for Government of the life to come These are proportions whereof if there be any rule we must plainly confess that which truth is we know it not God which spake unto them by his Prophets hath unto us by his onely begotten Son those Mysteries of Grace and Salvation which were but darkly disclosed unto them have unto us more clearly shined Such differences between them and us the Apostles of Christ have well acquainted us withal But as for matter belonging to the outward Conduct or Government of the Church seeing that even in sense it is manifest that our Lord and Saviour hath not by Positive Laws descended so far into particularities with us as Moses with them neither doth by extraordinary Means Oracles and Prophets direct us as them he did in those things which rising daily by new occasions are of necessity to be provided for doth it not hereupon rather follow that although not to them yet to us there should be freedom and liberty granted to make Laws Yea but the Apostle St. Paul doth fearfully charge Timothy beforePontius Pilate to keep what was commanded him safe and sound till the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ. This doth exclude all liberty or changing the Laws of Christ whether by abrogation or addition or howsoever For in Timothy the whole Church of Christ receiveth charge concerning her duty And that charge is to keep the Apostles Commandment and his Commandment did contain the Laws that concerned Church Government And those Laws he straightly requireth to be observed without breach or blame till the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Scripture we grant every one Mans lesson to be the common instruction of all men so far forth as their cases are like and that religiously to keep the Apostles Commandments in whatsoever they may concern us we all stand bound But touching that Commandment which Timothy was charged with we swerve undoubtedly from the Apostles precise meaning if we extend it so largely that the Arms thereof shall reach unto all things which were commanded him by the Apostle The very words themselves do restrain themselves unto some special Commandment among many And therefore it is not said Keep the Ordinances Laws and Constitutions which thou hast received but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that great Commandment which doth principally concern thee and thy calling That Commandment which Christ did so often inculcate unto Peter that Commandment unto the careful discharge whereof they of Ephesus are exhorted Attend to your selves and to all the flock wherein the Holy Ghost
three Synods consisting of many Elderships Deacons Women Church-servants or Widows free consent of the people unto actions of greatest moment after they be by Churches or Synods orderly resolved All this Form of Polity if yet we may term that a form of building when men have laid a few Rafters together and those not all of the foundest neither but howsoever all this Form they conclude is prescribed in such sort that to adde to it any thing as of like importance for so I think they mean or to abrogate of it any thing at all is unlawful In which resolution if they will firmly and constantly persist I see not but that concerning the points which hitherto have been disputed of they must agree that they have molested the Church with needless opposition and henceforward as we said before betake themselves wholly unto the tryal of particulars whether every of those things which they esteem as principal be either so esteemed of or at all established for perpetuity in holy Scripture and whether any particular thing in our Church Polity be received other then the Scripture alloweth of either in greater things or in smaller The Matters wherein Church Polity is conversant are the Publick Religious Duties of the Church as the Administration of the Word and Sacraments Prayers Spiritual Censures and the like To these the Church standeth always bound Laws of Polity are Laws which appoint in what manner these duties shall be performed In performance whereof because all that are of the Church cannot joyntly and equally work the first thing in Polity required is A difference of Persons in the Church without which difference those Functions cannot in orderly sort be executed Hereupon we hold That Gods Clergy are a State which hath been and will be as long as there is a Church upon Earth necessarily by the plain Word of God himself a State whereunto the rest of Gods people must be subject as touching things that appertain to their Souls health For where Polity is it cannot but appoint some to be Leaders of others and some to be led by others If the blinde lead the blinde they both perish It is with the Clergy if their persons be respected even as it is with other men their quality many times far beneath that which the dignity of their place requireth Howbeit according to the Order of Polity they being The lights of the World others though better and wiser must that way be subject unto them Again for as much as where the Clergy are any great multitude order doth necessarily require that by degrees they be distinguished we hold there have ever been and ever ought to be in such case at leastwise two sorts of Ecclesiastical Persons the one subordinate unto the other as to the Apostles in the beginning and to the Bishops always since we finde plainly both in Scripture and in all Ecclesiastical Records other Ministers of the Word and Sacraments have been Moreover it cannot enter into any Mans conceit to think it lawful that every man which listeth should take upon him charge in the Church and therefore a solemn admittance is of such necessity that without it there can be no Church Polity A number of Particularities there are which make for the more convenient Being of these Principal and Perpetual parts in Ecclesiastical Polity but yet are not of such constant use and necessity in Gods Church Of this kinde are times and places appointed for the Exercise of Religion Specialties belonging to the Publick Solemnity of the Word the Sacraments and Prayer the Enlargement or Abridgement of Functions Ministerial depending upon those two Principals beforementioned To conclude even whatsoever doth by way of Formality and Circumstance concern any Publick Action of the Church Now although that which the Scripture hath of things in the former kinde be for ever permanent yet in the latter both much of that which the Scripture teacheth is not always needful and much the Church of God shall always need which the Scripture teacheth not So as the Form of Polity by them set down for perpetuity is three ways faulty Faulty in omitting some things which in Scripture are of that nature as namely the difference that ought to be of Pastors when they grow to any great multitude Faulty in requiring Doctors Deacons Widows and such like as things of perpetual necessity by the Law of God which in Truth are nothing less Faulty also in urging some things by Scripture Immutable as their Lay-Elders which the Scripture neither maketh Immutable nor at all teacheth for any thing either we can as yet finde or they have hitherto been able to prove But hereof more in the Books that follow As for those marvellous Discourses whereby they adventure to argue That God must needs have done the thing which they imagine was to be done I must confess I have often wondred at their exceeding boldness herein When the question is Whether God have delivered in Scripture as they affirm he hath a compleat particular Immutable Form of Church Polity why take they that other both presumptuous and superfluous labor to prove he should have done it there being no way in this case to prove the Deed of God saving onely by producing that evidence wherein he hath done it But if there be no such thing apparent upon Record they do as if one should demand a Legacy by force and vertue of some Written Testament wherein there being no such thing specified he pleadeth That there it must needs be and bringeth arguments from the love or good will which always the Testator bore him imagining that these or the like proofs will convict a Testament to have that in it which other men can no where by reading finde In matters which concern the Actions of God the most dutiful way on our part is to search what God hath done and with meekness to admire that rather then to dispute what he in congruity of Reason ought to do The ways which he hath whereby to do all things for the greatest good of his Church are more in number then we can search other in Nature then that we should presume to determine which of many should be the fittest for him to chuse till such time as we see he hath chosen of many some one which one we then may boldly conclude to be the fittest because he hath taken it before the rest When we do otherwise surely we exceed our bounds who and where weare we forget And therefore needful it is that our Pride in such cases be contrould and our Disputes beaten back with those Demands of the blessed Apostle How unsearchable are his Iudgments and his Ways past finding out Who hath known the Minde of the Lord or who was his Counsellor OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity BOOK IV. Concerning their Third Assertion That our Form of Church-Politie is corrupted with Popish Orders Rites and Ceremonies banished out of certain Reformed Churches whose example
therein we ought to have followed The Matter contained in this Fourth Book 1. HOw great use Ceremonies have in the Church 2. The First thing they blame in the kinde of our Ceremonies is that we have not in them ancient Apostolical simplicity but a greater pomp and stateliness 3. The second that so many of them are the same which the Church of Rome useth and the Reasons which they bring to prove them for that cause blame-worthy 4. How when they go about to expound what Popish Ceremonies they mean they contradict their own Argument against Popish Ceremonies 5. An Answer to the Argument whereby they would prove that sith we allow the customs of our Fathers to be followed we therefore may not allow such customs as the Church of Rome hath because we cannot account of them which are in that Church as of our Fathers 6. To their Allegation that the course of Gods own wisdom doth make against our conformity with the Church of Rome in such things 7. To the example of the eldest Church which they bring for the same purpose 8. That it is not our best Politie as they pretend it is for establishment of sound Religion to hâ—ve in these things no agreement with the Church of Rome being unsound 9. That neither the Papists upbraiding us as furnished out of their store nor any hope which in that respect they are said to conceive doth make any more against our Ceremonies then the former Allegations have done 10. The grief which they say godly Brethren conceive at such Ceremonies as we have câ—â—â—men with the Church of Rome 11. The third thing for which they reprove a great part of our Ceremonies is for that as we have them from the Church of Rome so that Church had them from the Jews 12. The fourth for that sundry of them have been they say abused unto Iâ—â—aery and arâ— by that mean become scandalous 13. The fifth for that we retain them still notwithstanding the example of certain Churches reformed before us which have cast them out 14. A Declaration of the proceedings of the Church of England â—or the establisement of things as they are SUch was the ancient simplicity and softness of spirit which sometimes prevailed in the World that they whose words were even as Oracles amongst men seemed evermore loth to give sentence against any thing publiquely received in the Church of God except it were wonderful apparently evil for that they did not so much encline to that seventy which delighteth to reprove the least things in seeth amiss as to that Charity which is unwilling to behold any thing that duty bindeth it to reprove The state of this present Age wherein Zeal hath drowned Charity and Skill Meekness will not now suffer any man to marvel whatsoever he shall hear reproved by whomsoever Those Rites and Ceremonies of the Church therefore which are the self-same now that they were when Holy and Vertuous men maintained them against profane and deriding Adversaries her own children have at this day in deâ—ision Whether justly or no it shall then appear when all things are heard which they have to alledge against the outward received Orders of this Church Which inasmuch as themselves do compare unto Mint and Cummin granting them to be no part of those things which in the matter of Polity are weightier we hope that for small things their strife will neither be earnest noâ— long The fifting of that which is objected against the Orders of the Church in particular doth not belong unto this place Here we are to discuss onely those general exceptions which have been taken at any time against them First therefore to the end that their nature and use whereunto they serve may plainly appear and so afterwards their quality the better be discerned we are to note that in every grand or main publique duty which God requireth at the hands of his Church there is besides that matter and form wherein the essence thereof consisteth a certain outward fashion whereby the same is in decent sort administred The substance of all religious actions is delivered from God himself in few words For example sake in the Sacraments Unto the Element let the Word be added and they both do make a Sacrament saith S. Augustine Baptism is given by the Element of Water and that prescript form of words which the Church of Christ doth use the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ is administred in the Elements of Bread and Wine if those mystical words be added thereunto But the due and decent form of administring those holy Sacraments doth require a great deal more The end which is aimed at in setting down the outward form of all religious actions is the edification of the Church Now men are edified when either their understanding is taught somewhat whereof in such actions it behoveth all men to consider or when their hearts are moved with any affection suitable thereunto when their mindes are in any sort stirred up unto that reverence devotion attention and due regard which in those cases seemeth requisite Because therefore unto this purpose not onely speech but sundry sensible means besides have always been thought necessary and especially those means which being object to the eye the liveliest and the most apprehensive sense of all other have in that respect seemed the sittest to make a deep and strong impression from hence have risen not only a number of Prayers Readings Questionings Exhortings but even of visible signs also which being used in perfomance of holy actions are undoubtedly most effectual to open such matter as men when they know and remember carefully must needs be a great deal the better informed to what effect such duties serve We must not think but that there is some ground of Reason even in Nature whereby it cometh to pass that no Nation under Heaven either doth or ever did suffer publike actions which are of weight whether they be Civil and Temporal or else Spiritual and Sacred to pass without some visible solemnity The very strangeness whereof and difference from that which is common doth cause Popular eyes to observe and to mark the same Words both because they are common and do not so strongly move the phansie of man are for the most part but slightly heard and therefore with singular wisdom it hath been provided that the deeds of men which are made in the presence of Witnesses should pass not only with words but also with certain sensible actions the memory whereof is far more easie and durable then the memory of speech can be The things which so long experience of all Ages hath confirmed and made profitable let not us presume to condemn as follies and toys because we sometimes know not the cause and reason of them A wit disposed to scorn whatsoever it doth not conceive might ask wherefore Abraham should say to his servant Put thy hand under my thigh and swear was it not sufficient
this were predominant We have most heartily to thank God therefore that they amongst us to whom the first consultations of causes of this kind fell were men which aiming at another mark namely the glory of God and the good of this his Church took that which they judged thereunto necessary not rejecting any good or convenient thing only because the Church of Rome might perhaps like it If we have that which is meet and right although they be glad we are not to envy them this their solace we do not think it a duty of ours to be in every such thing their Tormentors And wherein it is said that Popery for want of this utter extirpation hath in some places takenroot and flourished again but hath not been able to re-establish it self in any place after provision made against it by utter evacuation of all Romish Ceremonies and therefore as long as we hold any thing like unto them we put them in some more hope than if all were taken away as we deny not but this may be true so being of two evils to choose the less we hold it better that the Friends and Favourers of the Church of Rome should be in some kind of hope to have a corrupt Religion restored then both we and they conceive just fear lest under colour of rooting out Popery the most effectual means to bear up the state of Religion be removed and so a way made either for Paganism or for extreme Barbarity to enter If desire of weakning the hope of others should turn us away from the course we have taken how much more the care of preventing our own fear with-hold us from that we are urged unto Especially seeing that our own fear we know but we are not so certain what hope the Rites and Orders of our Church have bred in the hearts of others Fort it is no sufficient Argument therefore to say that in maintaining and urging these Ceremonies none are so clamorous as Papists and they whom Papists suborn this speech being more hard to justifie than the former and so their proof more doubtfull then the thing it self which they prove He that were certain that this is true must have marked who they be that speak for Ceremonies he must have noted who amongst them doth speak oftenest or is most earnest he must have been both acquainted thorowly with the Religion of such and also privy to what conferences or compacts are passed in secret between them and others which kind of notice are not wont to be vulgar and common Yet they which alleadge this would have it taken as a thing that needeth no proof a thing which all men know and see And if so be it were granted them as true what gain they by it Sundry of them that be Popish are eager in maintenance of Ceremonies Is it so strange a matter to find a good thing furthered by ill men of a smister intent and purpose whose forwardness is not therefore a bridle to such as favour the same cause with a better and sincerer meaning They that seek as they say the removing of all Popish Orders out of the Church and reckon the state of Bishops in the number of those Orders do I doubt not presume that the cause which they prosecute is holy Notwithstanding it is their own ingenuous acknowledgement that even this very cause which they term so often by an excellency The Lords Cause is gratissima most acceptable unto some which hope for prey and spoyl by it and that our Age hath store of such and that such are the very Sectaries of Dionysius the famous Atheist Now if hereupon we should upbraid them with Irreligious as they do us with Superstitious favourers if we should follow them in their own kind of Pleading and say that the most clamorous for this pretended Reformation are either Atheists or else Proctors suborned by Atheists the Answer which herein they would make unto us let them apply unto themselves and there an end For they must not forbid us to presume our cause in defence of our Church-orders to be as good as theirs against them till the contrary be made manifest to the World 10. In the mean while sorry we are that any good and godly mind should be grieved with that which is done But to remedy their grief lyeth not so much in us as in themselves They do not wish to be made glad with the hurt of the Church and to remove all out of the Church whereat they shew themselves to be sorrowful would be as we are perswaded hurtful if not pernicious thereunto Till they be able to perswade the contrary they must and will I doubt not find out some other good mean to chear up themselves Amongst which means the example of Geneva may serve for one Have not they the old Popish custom of using God-fathers and God-mothers in Baptism the old Popish custom of administring the blessed Sacrament of the holy Eucharist with Wafer-cakes These things then the Godly there can digest Wherefore should not the Godly here learn to do the like both in them and in therest of the like nature Some further mean peradventure it might be to asswage their grief if so be they did consider the revenge they take on them which have been as they interpret it the workers of their continuance in so great grief so long For if the maintenance of Ceremonies be a corrosive to such as oppugn them undoubtedly to such as maintain them it can be no great pleasure when they behold how that which they reverence is oppugned And therefore they that judge themselves Martyrs when they are grieved should think withal what they are whom they grieve For we are still to put them in mind that the cause doth make no difference for that it must be presumed as good at the least on our part as on theirs till it be in the end decided who have stood for Truth and who for Error So that till then the most effectual medicine and withal the most sound to ease their grief must not be in our opinion the taking away of those things whereat they are grieved but the altering of that perswasion which they have concerning the same For this we therefore both pray and labour the more because we are also perswaded that it is but conceit in them to think that those Romish Ceremonies whereof we have hitherto spoken are like leprous Clothes infectious to the Church or like soft and gentle Poysons the venom whereof being insensibly penicious worketh death and yet is never felt working Thus they say but because they say it only and the World hath not as yet had so great experience of their Art in curing the Diseases of the Church that the bare authority of their word should perswade in a cause so weighty they may not think much if it be required at their hands to shew First by what means so deadly Infection can grow from
the impotent and not please ourselves It was a weakness in the Christian Jews and a maim of judgment in them that they thought the Gentiles polluted by the eating of those meats which themselves were afraid to touch for fear of transgressing the Law of Moses yea hereat their hearts did so much rise that the Apostle had just cause to fear lest they would rather forsake Christianity then endure any fellowship with such as made no conscience of that which was unto them abominable And for this cause mention is made of destroying the weak by meats and of dissolving the work of God which was his Church a part of the Living Stones whereof were believing Jews Now those weak Brethren before mentioned are said to be as the Jews were and our Ceremonies which have been abused in the Church of Rome to be as the scandalous Meats from which the Gentiles are exhorted to abstain in the presence of Jews for fear of averting them from Christian Faith Therefore as Charity did binde them to refrain from that for their Brethrens sake which otherwise was lawful enough for them so it bindeth us for our Brethrens sake likewise to abolish such Ceremonies although we might lawfully else retain them But between these two cases there are great odds For neither are our weak Brethren as the Jews nor the Ceremonies which we use as the meats which the Gentiles used The Jews were known to be generally weak in that respect whereas contrariwise the imbecillity of ours is not common unto so many that we can take any such certain notice of them It is a chance if here and there some one be found and therefore seeing we may presume men commonly otherwise there is no necessity that our practice should frame it self by that which the Apostle doth prescribe to the Gentiles Again their use of meats was not like unto our Ceremonies that being a matter of private action in common life where every man was free to order that which himself did but this a publick constitution for the ordering of the Church And we are not to look that the Church should change her publick Laws and Ordinances made according to that which is judged ordinarily and commonly fittest for the whole although it chance that for some particular men the same be found inconvenient especially when there may be other remedy also against the sores of particular incoveniences In this case therefore where any private harm doth grow we are not to reject instruction as being an unmeet plaister to apply unto it neither can we say that he which appointeth Teachers for Physicians in this kinde of evil is As if a man would set one to watch a childe all day long lest he should hurt himself with a Knife whereas by taking away the Knife from him the danger is avoided and the service of the man better employed For a Knife may be taken from a childe without depriving them of the benefit thereof which have years and discretion to use it But the Ceremonies which Children do abuse if we remove quite and clean as it is by some required that we should then are they not taken from Children onely but from others also which is as though because Children may perhaps hurt themselves with Knives we should conclude that therefore the use of Knives is to be taken quite and clean even from men also Those particular Ceremonies which they pretend to be so scandalous we shall in the next Book have occasion more throughly to sift where other things also traduced in the publick duties of the Church whereunto each of these appertaineth are together with these to be touched and such Reasons to be examined as have at any time been brought either against the one or the other In the mean while against the conveniency of curing such evils by instruction strange it is that they should object the multitude of other necessary Matters wherein Preachers may better bestow their time then in giving men warning not to abuse Ceremonies A wonder it is that they should object this which have so many years together troubled the Church with quarrels concerning these things and are even to this very hour so earnest in them That if they write or speak publickly but five words one of them is lightly about the dangerous estate of the Church of England in respect of abused Ceremonies How much happier had it been for this whole Church if they which have raised contention therein about the abuse of Rites and Ceremonies had considered in due time that there is indeed store of Matters fitter and better a great deal for Teachers to spend time and labor in It is through their importunate and vehement Asteveâ—ations more then through any such experience which we have had of our own that we are enforced to think it possible for one or other now and then at leastwise in the prime of the Reformation of our Church to have stumbled at some kinde of Ceremonies Wherein for as much as we are contented to take this upon their credit and to think it may be sith also they further pretend the same to be so dangerous a Snare to their Souls that are at any time taken therein they must give our Teachers leave for the saving of those Souls be they never so few to intermingle sometime with other more necessary things Admonition concerning these not unnecessary Wherein they should in reason more easily yield this leave considering that hereunto we shall not need to use the hundredth part of that time which themselves think very needful to bestow in making most bitter Invectives against the Ceremonies of the Church 13. But to come to the last point of all The Church of England is grievously charged with forgetfulness of her duty which duty had been to traine her self unto the Pattern of their Example that went before her in the Work of Reformation For as the Churches of Christ ought to be most unlike the Synagogue of Antichrist in their indifferent Ceremonies so they ought to be most like one unto another and for preservation of Unity to have as much as possible may be all the same Ceremonies And therefore St. Paul to establish this order in the Church of Corinth that they should make their gatherings for the Poor upon the first day of the Sabbath which is our Sunday alledgeth this for a Reason That he had so ordained in other Churches Again As children of one Father and Servants of one Family so all Churches should not onely have one Diet in that they have one Word but also wear as it were one Livery in using the same Ceremonies Thirdly This Rule did the Great Council of Nice follow when it ordained That where certain at the Feast of Pentecost did pray Kneeling they should pray Standing The reason whereof is added which is That one Custom ought to be kept throughout all Churches It is true That the diversity of Ceremonies
ought not to cause the Churches to dissent out with another But yet it maketh most to the avoiding of Dissention that there be amongst them an Unity not onely in Doctrine but also in Ceremonies And therefore our Form of Service is to be amended not onely for that it cometh too near that of the Papists but also because it is so different from that of the Reformed Churches Being asked to what Churches ours should conform it self and why other Reformed Churches should not as well frame themselves to ours Their answer is That if there be any Ceremonies which we have better then others they ought to frame themselves to us If they have better then we then we ought to frame ourselves to them If the Ceremonies be alike commodious tha latter Churches should conform themselves to the first as the younger Daughter to the Elder For as St. Paul in the Members where all other things are equal noteth it for a mark of honor above the rest that one is called before another to the Gospel so is it for the same cause amongst the Churches And in this respect he pincheth the Corinths that not being the first which received the Gospel yet they would have their several manners from other Churches Moreover where the Ceremonies are alike commodious the fewer ought to conform themselves unto the moe For as much therefore as all the Churches so far as they know which plead after this manner of our Confession in Doctrine agree 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 that doth not conform her self in that which she cannot deny to be well abrogated In this Axiom that Preservation of Peace and Unity amongst Christian Churches should be by all good means procured we joyn most willingly and gladly with them Neither deny we but that to the avoiding of Dissention it availeth much that there be amongst them an Unity as well in Ceremonies as in Doctrine The onely doubt is about the manner of their Unity How far Churches are bound to be Uniform in their Ceremonies and what way they ought to take for that purpose Touching the one the Rule which they have set down is That in Ceremonies indifferent all Churches ought to be one of them unto another as like as possibly they may be Which possibly we cannot otherwise conster then that it doth require them to be even as like as they may be without breaking any Positive Ordinance of God For the Ceremonies whereof we speak being Matter of Positive Law they are indifferent if God have neither himself commanded nor forbidden them but left them unto the Churches discretion so that if as great Uniformity be required as is possible in these things seeing that the Law of God forbiddeth not any one of them it followeth that from the greatest unto the least they must be in every Christian Church the same except meer impossibility of so having it be the hindrance To us this Opinion seemeth over-extream and violent We rather incline to think it a just and reasonable cause for any Church the State whereof is free and independent if in these things it differ from other Churches onely for that it doth not judge it so fit and expedient to be framed therein by the pattern of their example as to be otherwise framed then they That of Gregory unto Leander is a charitable Speech and a peaceable In una side nil officit Ecclesiae sancta consuetudo diversa Where the Faith of the Holy Church is one a difference in Customs of the Church doth no harm That of St. Augustine to Cassulanus is somewhat particular and toucheth what kinde of Ceremonies they are wherein one Church may vary from the example of another without hurt Let the Faith of the whole Church how wide soever it hath spred it self be always one although the Unity of Belief be famous for variety of certain Ordinances whereby that which is rightly believed suffereth no kinde of let or impediment Calvin goeth further As concerning Rites in particular let the sentence of Augustine take place which leaveth it free unto all Churches to receive their own Custom Yea sometime it profiteth and is expedient that there be difference lest men should think that Religion is tyed to outward Ceremonies Always provided that there be not any emulation nor that Churches delighted with novelty affect to have that which others have not They which grant it true That the diversity of Ceremonies in this kinde ought not to cause dissension in Churches must either acknowledge that they grant in effect nothing by these words or if any thing be granted there must as much be yielded unto as we affirm against their former strict Assertion For if Churches be urged by way of duty to take such Ceremonies as they like not of How can dissension be avoided Will they say that there ought to be no dissension because such as are urged ought to like of that whereunto they are urged If they say this they say just nothing For how should any Church like to be urged of duty by such as have no authority or power over it unto those things which being indifferent it is not of duty bound unto them Is it their meaning that there ought to be no dissension because that which Churches are not bound unto no man ought by way of duty to urge upon them And if any man do he standeth in the sight both of God and Men most justly blameable as a needless Disturber of the Peace of Gods Church and an Author of Dissension In saying this they both condemn their own practice when they press the Church of England with so strict a bond of duty in these things and they overthrow the ground of their practice which is That there ought to be in all kinde of Ceremonies Uniformity unless impossibility hinder it For Proof whereof it is not enough to alledge what St. Paul did about the Matter of Collections or what Noblemen do in the Liveries of their Servants or what the Council of Nice did for Standing in time of Prayer on certain days Because though St. Paul did will them of the Church of Corinth every man to lay up somewhat by him upon the Sunday and to reserve it in store till himself did come thither to send it unto the Church of Ierusalem for relief of the Poor there signifying withal that he had taken the like order with the Churches of Galatia yet the reason which he yieldeth of this order taken both in the one place and the other sheweth the least part of his meaning to have been that whereunto his words are writhed Concerning Collection for the Saints he meaneth them of Ierusalem as I have given order to the Church of Galatia so likewise do ye saith the Apostle that is In every first day of the week let each of
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
for not conforming her self to those Churches in that which she cannot deny to be in them well abrogated For the authority of the first Churches and those they account to be the first in this cause which were first Reformed they bring the comparison of younger Daughters conforming themselves in attire to the example of their elder Sisters wherein there is just as much strength of Reason as in the Livery Coats beforementioned St. Paul they say noteth it for a mark of special honor that Epanetus was the first man in all Athaia which did embrace the Christian Faith after the same sort he toucheth it also as a special preheminence of Iunius and Andronicus that in Christianity they were his Ancients The Corinthians he pincheth with this demand Hath the Word of God gone out from you or hath it lighted on you alone But what of all this If any man should think that alacrity and forwardness in good things doth add nothing unto mens commendation the two former speeches of St. Paul might lead him to reform his judgment In like sort to take down the stomach of proud conceited men that glory as though they were able to set all others to School there can be nothing more fit then some such words as the Apostles third sentence doth contain wherein he teacheth the Church of Corinth to know that there was no such great odds between them and the rest of their Brethren that they should think themselves to be Gold and the rest to be but Copper He therefore useth speech unto them to this effect Men instructed in the knowledge of Iesus Christ there both were before you and are besides you in the world ye neither are the Fountain from which first nor yet the River into which alone the Word hath flowed But although as Epanetus was the first man in all Achaia so Corinth had been the first Church in the whole World that received Christ the Apostle doth not shew that in any kinde of things indifferent whatsoever this should have made their example a Law unto all others Indeed the example of sundry Churches for approbation of one thing doth sway much but yet still as having the force of an example onely and not of a Law They are effectual to move any Church unless some greater thing do hinder but they binde none no not though they be many saving onely when they are the major part of a General Assembly and then their voices being more in number must over-sway their judgments who are fewer because in such cases the greater half is the whole But as they stand out single each of them by it self their number can purchase them no such authority that the rest of the Churches being fewer should be therefore bound to follow them and to relinguish as good Ceremonies as theirs for theirs Whereas therefore it is concluded out of these so weak Premisses that the retaining of divers things in the Church of England which other Reformed Churches have cast out must needs argue that we do not well unless we can shew that they have done ill what needed this wrest to draw out from us an accusation of forein Churches It is not proved as yet that if they have done well our duty is to follow them and to forsake our own course because it differeth from theirs although indeed it be as well for us every way as theirs for them And if the proofs alledged for confirmation hereof had been sound yet seeing they lead no further then onely to shew that where we can have no better Ceremonies theirs must be taken as they cannot with modesty think themselves to have found out absolutely the best which the wit of men may devise so liking their own somewhat better then other mens even because they are their own they must in equity allow us to be like unto them in this affection Which if they do they ease us of that uncourteous burden whereby we are charged either to condemn them or else to follow them They grant we need not follow them if our own ways already be better And if our own be but equal the Law of Common Indulgence alloweth us to think them at the least half a thought the better because they are our own which we may very well do and never draw any Inditement at all against theirs but think commendably even of them also 14. To leave Reformed Churches therefore and their Actions for Him to judge of in whose sight they are as they are and our desire is that they may even in his sight be found such as we ought to endeavor by all means that our own may likewise be Somewhat we are enforced to speak by way of Simple Declaration concerning the proceedings of the Church of England in these affairs to the end that men whose mindes are free from those partial constructions whereby the onely name of Difference from some other Churches is thought cause sufficient to condemn ours may the better discern whether that we have done be reasonable yea or no. The Church of England being to alter her received Laws concerning such Orders Rites and Ceremonies as had been in former times an hinderance unto Piety and Religious Service of God was to enter into consideration first That the change of Laws especially concerning matter of Religion must be warily proceeded in Laws as all other things humane are many times full of imperfection and that which is supposed behoveful unto men proveth oftentimes most pernicious The wisdom which is learned by tract of time findeth the Laws that have been in former ages established needful in latter to be abrogated Besides that which sometime is expedient doth not always so continue and the number of needless Laws unabolished doth weaken the force of them that are necessary But true withal it is that Alteration though it be from worse to better hath in it inconveniences and those weighty unless it bein such Laws as have been made upon special occasions which occasions ceasing Laws of that kinde do abrogate themselves But when we abrogate a Law as being ill made the whole cause for which it was made still remaining Do we not herein revoke our very own deed and upbraid our selves with folly yea all that were makers of it with oversight and with error Further if it be a Law which the custom and continual practice of many ages or years hath consumed in the mindes of men to alter it must needs be troublesome and scandalous It amazeth them it causeth them to stand in doubt whether any thing be in it self by nature either good or evil and not all things rather such as men at this or that time agree to account of them when they behold even those things disproved disannulled rejected which use had made in a manner natural What have we to induce men unto the willing obedience and observation of Laws but the weight of so many mens judgments as have with deliberate advice assented
and the Church of Christ in this present World 57. The necessity of Sacrament unto the Participation of Christ. 58. The Substance of Baptism the Rites or Solemnities thereunto belonging and that the Substance thereof being kept other things in Baptism may give place to necessity 59. The Ground in Scripture whereupon a necessity of outward Baptism hath been built 60. What kinde of necessity in outward Baptism hath been gathered by the words of our Saviour Christ and what the true necessity thereof indeed is 61. What things in Baptism have been dispensed with by the Father respecting necessity 62. Whether Baptism by Women be true Baptism good and affected to them that receive it 63. Of Interrogatories in Baptism touching Faith and the purpose of a Christian life 64. Interrogatories proposed unto Infants in Baptism and answered aâ— in their names by God-fathers 65. Of the Cross in Baptism 66. Of Confirmation after Baptism 67. Of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. 68. Of faults noted in the Form of Administring that holy Sacrament 69. Of Festival days and the natural ceases of their convenient Institution 70. The manner of celebrating Festival days 71. Exceptious against our keeping of other Festival days besides the Sabbath 72. Of Days appointed as well for ordinary as for extraordinary Fasts in the Church of God 73. The Celebration of Matrimony 74. The Churching of Woman 75. The Rites of Burial 76. Of the Nature of that Ministry which serveth for performance of Divine Duties in the Church of God and how happiness not eternal onely but also Temporal doth depend upon it 77. Of Power given unto Men to execute that Heavenly Office of the Gift of the Holy Ghost is Ordination and whether conveniently the Power of Order may be sought or sued for 78. Of Degrees whereby the Power of Order is distinguished and concerning the Attire of Ministers 79. Of Oblations Foundations Endowments Tithes all intended for Perpetuity of Religion which purpose being chiefly fulfilled by the Clergâ—es certain and sufficient maintenance must needs by Alienation of Church-Livings be made frustrate 80. Of Ordinatious lawful without Title and without any Popular Election precedent but in no case without regard of due Information what their quality is that enter into holy Orders 81. Of the Learning that should be in Ministers their Residence and the number of their Livings FEw there are of so weak capacity but publick evils they easily espie fewer so patient as not to complain when the grievous inconveniences thereof work sensible smart Howbeit to see wherein the harm which they feel consisteth the Seeds from which it sprang and the method of curing it belongeth to a skill the study whereof is so full of toyl and the practise so beset with difficulties that wary and respective men had rather seek quietly their own and wish that the World may go well so it be not long of them them with pain and hazard make themselves advisers for the common good We which thought it at the very first a sign of cold Affection towards the Church of God to prefer private case before the labor of appeasing publick disturbance must now of necessity refer events to the gracious providence of Almighty God and in discharge of our duty towards him proceed with the plain and unpartial defence of a Common Cause Wherein our endeavor is not so much to overthrow them with whom we conted as to yield them just and reasonable causes of those things which for want of due consideration heretofore they misconceived accusing Laws for Mens over-sights importing evils grown through personal defects unto that which is not evil framing unto some Sores unwholsome Plaisters and applying othersome where no sore is To make therefore our beginning that which to both parts is most acceptable We agree That pure and unstained Religion ought to be the highest of all cares appertaining to Publick Regiment as well in regard of that aid and protection which they who faithfully serve God confess they receive at his merciful hands as also for the force which Religion hath to qualifie all sorts of Men and to make them in publick affairs the more serviceable Governors the apter to rule with Conscience Inferiors for Conscience sake the willinger to obey It is no peculiar conceit but a matter of sound consequence that all duties are by so much the better performed by how much the Men are more Religious from whose Abilities the same proceed For if the course of Politick affairs cannot in any good sort go forward without fit Instruments and that which sitteth them be their Vertues Let Polity acknowledge it self indebted to Religion Godliness being the chiefest top and Well-spring of all true vertues even as God is of all good things So natural is the Union of Religion with Justice that we may boldly deem there is neither where both are not For how should they be unseignedly just whom Religion doth not cause to be such or they Religious which are not found such by the proof of their just actions If they which employ their labor and travel about the publick administration of Justice follow it onely as a trade with unquenchable and unconscionable thirst of gain being not in heart perswaded that Justice is Gods own Work and themselves his Agents in this business the Sentence of Right Gods own verdict and themselves his Priests to deliver it Formalities of Justice do but serve to smother right and that which was necessarily ordained for the common good is through shameful abuse made the cause of common misery The same Piety which maketh them that are in authority desirous to please and resemble God by Justice inflameth every way Men of action with Zeal to do good as far as their place will permit unto all For that they know is most Noble and Divine Whereby if no natural nor casual inability cross their desires they always delighting to inure themselves with actions most beneficial to others cannot but gather great experience and through experience the more wisdom because Conscience and the fear of swerving from that which is right maketh them diligent observers of circumstances the loose regard whereof is the Nurse of Vulgar Folly no less then Solomons attention thereunto was of natural furtherances the most effectual to make him eminent above others For he gave good heed and pierced every thing to the very ground and by that means became the Author of many Parables Concerning Fortitude sith evils great and unexpected the true touchstone of constant mindes do cause oftentimes even them to think upon Divine power with fearfullest suspitions which have been otherwise the most secure despisers thereof how should we look for any constant resolution of minde in such cases saving onely where unfeigned affection to God-ward hath bred the most assured confidence to be assisted by his hand For proof whereof let but the Acts of the ancient Jews be indifferently
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
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
receive due honour by whose Incitement the Holy Ordinances of the Church endure every where open contempt No it is not possible they should observe as they ought the One who from the Other withdraw unnecessarily their Own or their Brethrens Obedience Surely the Church of God in this Business is neither of Capacity I trust so weak noâ— so unstrengthened I know with Authority from Above but that her Laws may exact Obedience at the hands of her own Children and injoyn Gain-sayers silence giving them roundly to understand That where our Duty is Submission weak Oppositions betoken Pride We therefore crave Thirdly to have it granted That where neither the Evidence of any Law Divine nor the Strength of any Invincible Argument otherwise found out by the Light of Reason not any Notable Publick Inconvenience doth make against that which our own Laws Ecclesiastical have although but Newly instituted for the Ordering of these Affairs the very Authority of the Church it self at the least in such Cases may give so much Credit to her own Laws as to make their Sentence touching Fitness and Conveniency weightier than any bare or naked Conceit to the contrary especially in them who can owe no less than Childe-like obedience to her that hath more than Motherly Power 9. There are Antient Ordinances Laws which on all sides are allowed to be Just and Good yea Divine and Apostolick Constitutions which the Church it may be doth not always keep nor always justly deserve blame in that respect For in Evils that cannot be removedâ— without the manifest danger of Greater to succeed in their rooms Wisdom of necessity must give place to Necessity All it can do in those Cases is to devise how that which must be endured may be mitigated and the Inconveniences thereof countervailed as neer as may be that when the Best things are not possible the best may be made of Those that are Nature than which there is nothing more constant nothing more uniform in all her ways doth notwithstanding stay her Hand yea and change her Course when That which God by Creation did command he doth at any time by Necessity countermand It hath therefore pleased himself sometime to unloose the very Tongues even of Dumb Creatures and to teach them to plead This in their Own Defence lest the Cruelty of Man should persist to afflict them for not keeping their wonted Course when some invincible Impediment hath hindred If we leave Nature and look into Art the Work-man hath in his Heart a Purpose he carrieth in mind the whole Form which his Work should have there wanteth not him Skill and Desire to bring his Labour to the best effect only the Matter which he hath to work on is unframable This Necessity excuseth him so that nothing is derogated from his Credit although much of his Work 's perfection be found wanting Touching Actions of Common Life there is not any Defence more favourably heard than theirs who alledge sincerely for themselves That they did as Necessity constrained them For when the Mind is rightly ordered and affected as it should be in case some external Impediment crossing well-advised Desires shall potently draw Men to leave what they principally wish and to take a Course which they would not if their Choyce were free what Necessity forceth Men unto the same in This Case it maintaineth as long as nothing is committed simply in it self evil nothing absolutely sinful or wicked nothing repugnant to that Immetable Law whereby whatsoever is condemned as Evil can never any way be made Good The casting away of Things profitable for the sustenance of Man's Life is an unthankful Abuse of the Fruits of God's good Providence towards Mankind Which Consideration for all that did not hinder Saint Paul from throwing Corn into the Sea when care of saving Mens Lives made it necessary to loose that which else had been better saved Neither was this to do Evil to the end that Good might come of it For of Two such Evils being not both evitable the choyce of the Less is not Evil. And Evils must be in our constructions judged inevitable if there be no apparent ordinary way to avoid them Because where Counsel and Advice bear rule of God's extraordinary Power without extraordinary Warrant we cannot presume In Civil Affairs to declare what sway Necessity hath ever been accustomed to bear were labour infinite The Laws of all States and Kingdoms in the World have scarcely of any thing more common use Should then only the Church shew it self inhuman and stern absolutely urging a rigorous observation of Spiritual Ordinances without relaxation or exception what Necessity soever happen We know the contrary Practise to have been commended by him upon the warrant of whose Judgement the Church most of all delighted with merciful and moderate courses doth the ostner condescend unto like equity permitting in cases of Necessity that which otherwise it disalloweth and forbiddeth Cases of Necessity being sometime but urgent sometime extream the consideration of Publick Utility is with very good advice judged at the least equivalent with the easier kinde of Necessity Now that which causeth numbers to storm against some necessary tolerations which they should rather let pass with silence considering that in Polity as well Ecclesiastical as Civil there are and will be always Evils which no art of man can cure breaches and leaks moe than man's wit hath hands to stop that which maketh odious unto them many things wherein notwithstanding the truth is that very just regard hath been had of the Publick good that which in a great part of the weightiest Causes belonging to this present Controversie hath insnared the Judgments both of sundry good and of some well learned men is the manifest truth of certain general Principles whereupon the Ordinances that serve for usual practise in the Church of God are grounded Which Principles men knowing to be most sound and that the ordinary practise accordingly framed is good whatsoever is over and besides that ordinary the same they judge repugnant to those true Principles The cause of which Error is Ignorance what restraints and limitations all such Principles have in regard of so manifold varieties as the matter whereunto they are applyable doth commonly afford These varieties are not known but by much experience from whence to draw the true bounds of all Principles to discern how farr forth they take effect to see where and why they fail to apprehend by what degrees and means they lead to the practise of things in show though not indeed repugnant and contrary one to another requireth more sharpness of Wit more intricate circuitions of Discourse more industry and depth of Judgment than common Ability doth yield So that general Rules til their limits be fully known especially in matter of Publick and Ecclesiastical affairs are by reason of the manifold secret Exceptions which lye hidden in them no other to the eye of man's
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
lost and that without all hope of recovery This is the true cause of odds between Sermons and other kindes of wholesome Instruction As for the difference which hath been hitherto so much defended on the contrary side making Sermons the only ordinary means unto Faith and eternal Life sith this hath neither evidence of Truth nor proof sufficient to give it warrant a cause of such quality may with fart better grace and conveniency aske that pardon which common humanity doth easily grant than claim in challenging manner that assent which is as unwilling when reason guideth it to be yielded where it is not as with-held where it is apparently due All which notwithstanding as we could greatly wish that the rigour of this their opinion were allayed and mittigated so because we hold it the part of religious ingenuity to honour vertue in whomsoever therefore it is our most hearty desire and shall be always our Prayer unto Almighty God that in the self-same fervent zeal wherewith they seem to effect the good of the Souls of men and to thirst after nothing more than that all men might by all means be directed in the way of life both they and we may constantly persist to the Worlds end For in this we are not their Adversaries though they in the other hitherto have been ours 23. Between the Throne of God in Heaven and his Church upon Earth here militant if it be so that Angels have their continual intercourse where should we finde the same more verified than in those two ghostly Exercises the one Doctrine the other Prayer For what is the Assembling of the Church to learn but the receiving of Angels descended from above What to pray but the sending of Angels upwards His Heavenly Inspirations and our holy Desires are as so many Angels of intercourse and commerce between God and us As Teaching bringeth us to know that God is our supream Truth so Prayer testifieth that we acknowledge him our soveraign Good Besides sith on God as the most High all inferiour Causes in the World are dependant and the higher any Cause is the more it coveteth to impart vertue unto things beneath it how should any kinde of service we do or can do finde greater acceptance than Prayer which sheweth our concurrence with him in desiring that wherewith his very Nature doth most delight Is not the name of Prayer usual to signifie even all the service that ever we do unto God And that for no other cause as I suppose but to shew that there is in Religion no acceptable Duty which devout Invocation of the name of God doth not either presuppose or inferr Prayers are those Calves of Mens lips those most gracious and sweet odours those rich Presents and Gifts which being carried up into Heaven do best restifie our dutiful affection and are for the purchasing of all favour at the hands of God the most undoubted means we can use On others what more easily and yet what more fruitfully bestowed than our Prayers If we give Counsel they are the simpler onely that need it if Almes the poorer only are relieved but by Prayer we do good to all And whereas every other Duty besides is but to shew it self as time and opportunity require for this all times are convenient when we are not able to do any other things for mens behoof when through maliciousness or unkindness they vouchsafe not to accept any other good at our hands Prayer is that which we always have in our power to bestow and they never in theirs to refuse Wherefore God fotbid saith Samuel speaking unto a most unthankful People a People weary of the benefit of his most vertuous Government over them God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and cease to pray for you It is the first thing wherewith a righteous life beginneth and the last wherewith it doth end The knowledge is small which we have on Earth concerning things that are done in Heaven Notwithstanding thus much we know even of Saints in Heaven that they pray And therefore Prayer being a work common to the Church as well Triumphant as Militant a work common unto Men with Angels what should we think but that so much of our Lives is celestial and divine as we spend in the exercise of Prayer For which cause we see that the most comfortable Visitations which God hath sent men from above have taken especially the times of Prayer as their most natural opportunities 24. This holy and religious duty of Service towards God concerneth us one way in that we are men and another way in that we are joined as parts to that visible Mystical Body which is his Church As men we are at our own choice both for time and place and form according to the exigence of our own occasions in private But the service which we do as Members of a Publick Body is publick and for that cause must needs be accompted by so much worthier than the other as a whole society of such condition exceedeth the worth of any one In which consideration unto Christian Assemblies there are most special Promises made St. Paul though likely to prevail with God as much as any one did notwithstanding think it much more both for God's glory and his own good if Prayers might be made and thanks yielded in his behalf by a number of men The Prince and People of Niniveh assembling themselves as a main Army of Supplicants it was not in the power of God to withstand them I speak no otherwise concerning the force of Publick Prayer in the Church of God than before me Tertullian hath done We come by Troops to the Place of Assembly that being banded as it were together we may be Sapplicants enough to besiege God with our Prayers These Forces are unto him acceptable When we publickly make our Prayers it cannot be but that we do it with much more comfort than in private for that the things we aske publickly are approved as needful and good in the Judgement of all we hear them sought for and desired with common consent Again thus much help and furtherance is more yielded in that if so be our zeal and devotion to God-ward be slack the alacrity and fervour of others serveth as a present spurt For even Prayer it self saith Saint Basil when it hath not the consort of many voyces to strengthen it is not it self Finally the good which we do by Publick Prayer is more than in private can be done for that besides the benefit which is here is no less procured to our selves the whole Church is much bettered by our good example and consequently whereas secret neglect of our duty in this kinde is but only our own hurt one man's contempt of the Common Prayer of the Church of God may be and oftentimes is most hurtful unto many In which considerations the Prophet David so often voweth
whereby our form of Common Prayer is thought to swerve from the Word of God A great favourer of that part but yet his Errour that way excepted a learned painful a right vertuous and good man did not fear sometime to undertake against Popish Detractors the general maintenance and defence of our whole Church-Service as having in it nothing repugnant to the Word of God And even they which would file away most the largeness of that Offer do notwithstanding in more sparing terms acknowledge little less For when those opposite judgements which never are wont to construe things doubtful to the better those very tongues which are always prone to aggravate whatsoever hath but the least shew whereby it may be suspected to savour of or to sound towards any evil do by their own voluntary sentence clearly free us from gross Errours and from manifest Impiety herein who would not judge us to be discharged of all blame which are confest to have no great fault even by their very word and testimony in whose eyes no fault of ours hath ever hitherto been accustomed to seem small Nevertheless what they seem to offer us with the one hand the same with the other they pull back again They grant we erre not in palpable manner weare not openly and notoriously impious yet Errors we have which the sharp insight of their wisest men do espy there is hidden impiety which the profounder sort are able enough to disclose Their skilful ears perceive certain harsh and unpleasant discords in the sound of our Common Prayer such as the Rules of Divine Harmony such as the Laws of God cannot bear 28. Touching our Conformity with the Church of Rome as also of the difference between some Reformed Churches and ours that which generally hath been already answered may serve for answer to that Exception which in these two respects they take particularly against the form of our Common Prayer To say that in nothing they may be followed which are of the Church of Rome were violent and extream Some things they do in that they are men in that they are Wise men and Christian men some things some things in that they are men misled and blinded with Errour As farr as they follow Reason and Truth we fear not to tread the self-same steps wherein they have gone and to be their Followers Where Rome keepeth that which is antienter and better others whom we much more affect leaving it for newer and changing it for worse we had rather follow the perfections of them whom we like not than in defects resemble them whom we love For although they profess they agree with us touching a prescript form of Prayer to be used in the Church yet in that very form which they say is agreeable to Gods Word and the use of Reformed Churches they have by special Protestation declared That their meaning is not it shall be prescribed as a thing whereunto they will tye their Minister It shall not they say be necessary for the Minister daily to repeat all these things before mentioned but beginning with some like Confession to proceed to the Sermon which ended he either useth the Prayer for all States before mentioned or else prayeth as the Spirit of God shall move his Heart Herein therefore we hold it much better with the Church of Rome to appoint a prescript form which every man shall be bound to observe then with them to set down a kinde of direction a form for men to use if they list or otherwise to change as pleaseth themselves Furthermore the Church of Rome hath rightly also considered that Publick Prayer is a Duty intire in it self a Duty requisite to be performed much oftner than Sermons can possibly be made For which cause as they so we have likewise a Publick form how to serve God both Morning and Evening whether Sermons may be had or no. On the contrary side their form of Reformed Prayer sheweth only what shall be done upon the dayes appointed for the Preaching of the Word with what words the Minister shall begin when the hour appointed for Sermon is come what shall be said or sung before Sermon and what after So that according to this form of theirs it must stand for a Rule No Sermon No Service Which over-sight occasioned the French spitefully to term Religion that sort exercised a meer Preach Sundry other more particular defects there are which I willingly forbear to rehearse in consideration whereof we cannot be induced to prefert their Reformed form of Prayer before our own what Church soever we resemble therein 29. The Attire which the Minister of God is by Order to use at times of Divine Service being but a matter of meer formality yet such as for Comeliness sake hath hitherto been judged by the wiser sort of men not unnecessary to concurr with other sensible Notes betokening the different kinde or quality of Persons and Actions whereto it is tyed as we think not ourselves the holier because we use it so neither should they with whom no such thing is in use think us therefore unholy because we submit our selves unto that which in a matter so indifferent the wisdom of Authority and Law have thought comely To solemn Actions of Royalty and Justice their suitable Ornaments are a Beauty Are they only in Religion a stain Divine Religion saith Saint Ierom he speaketh of the Priestly Attire of the Law hath one kinde of Habite wherein to minister before the Lord another for ordinary uses belonging unto common life Pelagius having carped at the curious neatness of men's Apparel in those days and through the sowreness of his disposition spoken somewhat too hardly thereof affirming That the glory of Cloaths and Ornaments was a thing contrary to God and godliness S. Ierom whose custom is not to pardon over-easily his Adversaries if any where they chance to trip presseth him as thereby making all sorts of men in the World God's enemies Is it enmity with God saith he if I wear my Coat somewhat handsome If a Bishop a Priest Deacon and the rest of the Ecclesiastical Order come to administer the usual Sacrifice in a white Garment are they hereby God's Adversaries Clarks Monks Widows Virgins take beed it is dangerous for you to be otherwise seen than in soul and ragged Cloaths Not to speak any thing of Secular men which have proclaimed to have war with God as oft as ever they put on precious and shining Cloathes By which words of Ierome we may take it at the least for a probable collection that his meaning was to draw Pelagius into hatred as condemning by so general a speech even the neatness of that very Garment it self wherein the Clergy did then use to administer publickly the holy Sacrament of Christ's most blessed Body and Blood For that they did then use some such Ornament the words of Chrysostome give plain testimony who speaking to the Clergy of Antioch
them but cannot so be to us which have not received like benefit Should they not remember how expresly Hezekiah amongst many other good things is commended for this also That the praises of God were through his appointment daily set forth by using in publick Divine Service the Songs of David and Asaph unto that very end Either there wanted wise men to give Hezekiah advice and to inform him of that which in his case was as true as it is in ours namely that without some inconvenience and disorder he could not appoint those Psalms to be used as ordinary Prayers seeing what although they were Songs of Thanksgiving such as David and Asaph had special occasion to use yet not so the whole Church and People afterwards whom like occasions did not befal or else Hezekiah was perswaded as we are that the praises of God in the mouths of his Saints are not so restrained to their own particular but that others may both conveniently and fruitfully use them first because the Mystical Communion of all faithful men is such as maketh every one to be interested in those precious Blessings which any one of them receiveth at Gods hands Secondly because when any thing is spoken to extol the goodness of God whose mercy endureth for ever albeit the very particular occasion whereupon it riseth do come no more yet the Fountain continuing the same and yielding other new effects which are but onely in some sort proportionable a small resemblance between the benefits which we and others have received may serve to make the same words of praise and thanksgiving fit though not equally in all circumstances fit for both a clear demonstration whereof we have in all the Ancient Fathers Commentaries and Meditations upon the Psalms Last of all because even when there is not as much as the shew of any resemblance nevertheless by often using their words in such manner our mindes are daily more and more ensured with their affections 41. The Publick Estate of the Church of God amongst the Jews hath had many rare and extraordinary Occurrents which also were occasions of sundry open Solemnities and Offices whereby the people did with general consent make shew of correspondent affection towards God The like duties appear usual in the ancient Church of Christ by that which Tertullian speaketh of Christian Women themselves matching with Infidels She cannot content the Lord with performance of his discipline that hath at her side a Vassal whom Satan hath made his vice-agent to cross whatsoever the faithful should do If her presence be required at the time of station or standing Prayer he chargeth her at no time but that to be with him in his baths if a fasting day come he hath on that day a banquet to make if there be cause for the Church to go forth in solemn Procession his whole family have such business come upon them that no one can be spared These Processions as it seemeth were first begun for the interring of holy Martyrs and the visiting of those places where they were intombed Which thing the name it self applied by Heathens unto the office of Exequies and partly the speeches of some of the Ancients delivered concerning Christian Processions partly also the very dross which Superstition thereunto added I mean the Custom of Invocating Saints in Processions heretofore usual do strongly insinuate And as things invented to one purpose are by use easily converted to more it grew That Supplications with this solemnity for the appeasing of Gods wrath and the averting of publick evils were of the Greek Church termed Litanies Rogations of the Latine To the people of Vienna Mamercus being their Bishop above 450 years after Christ therebefel many things the suddenness and strangeness whereof so amazed the hearts of all men that the City they began to forsake as a place which Heaven did threaten with imminent ruine It beseemed not the person of so grave a Prelate to be either utterly without counsel as the rest were or in a common perplexity to shew himself alone secure Wherefore as many as remained he earnestly exhorteth to prevent portended calamities using those vertuous and holy means wherewith others in like case have prevailed with God To which purpose he perfecteth the Rogations or Litanies before in use and addeth unto them that which the present necessity required Their good success moved Sidonius Bishop of Averna to use the same so-corrected Rogations at such time as he and his people were after afflicted with Famine and besieged with potent Adversaries For till the empty name of the Empire came to be setled in Charles the Great the fall of the Romans huge Dominion concurring with other universal evils caused those times to be days of much affliction and trouble throughout the World So that Rogations or Litanies were then the very strength stay and comfort of Gods Church Whereupon in the year Five hundred and six it was by the Council of Aurelia decreed That the whole Church should bestow yearly at the Feast of Pentecost three days in that kinde of Processionary service About half an hundred years alter to the end that the Latine Churches which all observed this Custom might not vary in the order and form of those great Litanies which were so solemnly every where exercised it was thought convenient by Gregory the First and the best of that name to draw the flower of them all into one But this iron began at length to gather rust which thing the Synod of Colen saw and in part redrest within that Province neither denying the necessary use for which such Litanies serve wherein Gods clemency and mercy is desired by publick suit to the end that Plagues Destructions Calamities Famines Wars and all other the like adversities which for our manifold sins we have always cause to fear may be turned away from us and prevented through his Grace not yet dissembling the great abuse whereunto as sundry other things so this had grown by mens improbity and malice to whom that which was devised for the appeasing of Gods displeasure gave opportunity of committing things which justly kindled his wrath For remedy whereof it was then thought better that these and all other Supplications or Processions should be no where used but onely within the Walls of the House of God the place sanctified unto Prayer And by us not onely such inconveniences being remedied but also whatsoever was otherwise amiss in form or matter it now remaineth a work the absolute perfection whereof upbraideth with Error or somewhat worse them whom in all parts it doth not satisfie As therefore Litanies have been of longer continuance then that we should make either Gregory or Mamercus the Author of them so they are of more permanent use then that now the Church should think it needeth them not What dangers at any time are imminent what evils hang over our heads God doth know and not we We
endless thanks must have their beginning in a state which bringeth the full and final satisfaction of all such perpetual desires Again because our common necessities and the lack which we all have as well of ghostly as of earthly favors is in each kinde so easily known but the gifts of God according to those degrees and times which he in his secrets wisdom seeth meet are so diversly bestowed that it seldom appeareth what all receive what all stand in need of it seldom lieth hid we are not to marvel though the Church do oftner concur in suits then in thanks unto God for particular benefits Nevertheless lest God should be any way unglorified the greatest part of our daily Service they know consisteth according to the â— Blessed Apostles own precise rule in much variety of Psalms and Hymns for no other purpose but onely that out of so plentiful a treasure there might be for every mans heart no chuse out his own Sacrifice and to offer unto God by particular secret instinct what fitteth best the often occasions which any several either Party or Congregation may seem to have They that would clean take from us therefore the daily use of the very best means we have to magnifie and praise the Name of Almighty God for his rich Blessings they that complain of out reading and singing so many Psalms for so good an end they I say that finde fault with our store should of all men be least willing to reprove our scarcity of Thanksgivings But because peradventure they see it is not either generally fit or possible that Churches should frame Thanksgivings answerable to each Petition they shorten somewhat the reins of their censure there are no forms of Thanksgiving they say for release of those common calamities from which we have Petitions to be delivered There are Prayers set forth to be said in the common calamities and Universal scourges of the Realm as Plague Famine c. And indeed so it ought to be by the Word of God But as such Prayers are needful whereby we beg release from our Distresses so there ought to be as necessary Prayers of Thanksgiving when we have received those things at the Lords hand which we asked in our Prayers As oft therefore as any Publick or Universal scourge is removed as oft as we are delivered from those either imminent or present Calamities against the storm and tempest whereof we all instantly craved favor from above let it be a Question what we should render unto God for his Blessings universally sensibly and extraordinarily bestowed A Prayer of three or four lines inserted into some part of our Church Liturgy No we are not perswaded that when God doth in trouble injoyn us the duty of Invocation and promise us the benefit of Deliverance and profess That the thing he expecteth after at our hands is to glorifie him as our mighty and onely Saviour the Church can discharge in manner convenient a work of so great importance by fore-ordaining some short Collect wherein briefly to mention thanks Our custom therefore whensoever so great occasions are incident is by Publick Authority to appoint throughout all Churches set and solemn Forms as well of Supplication as of Thanksgiving the preparations and intended Complements whereof may stir up the mindes of men in much more effectual sort then if onely there should be added to the Book of Prayer that which they require But we err in thinking that they require any such matter For albeit their words to our understanding be very plain that in our Book there are Prayers set forth to be said when common calamities are felt as Plague Famine and such like Again that indeed so it ought to be by the Word of God That likewise there ought to be as necessary Prayers of Thanksgiving when we have received those things Finally that the want of such Forms of Thanksgiving for the release from those common calamities from which we have Petitions to be delivered is the default of the Book of Common Prayer Yet all this they mean but only by way of supposition if express Prayers against so many Earthly miseries were convenient that then indeed as many express and particular Thanksgivings should be likewise necessary Seeing therefore we know that they hold the one superfluous they would not have it so understood as though their mindes were that any such addition to the Book is needful whatsoever they say for Arguments sake concerning this pretented defect The truth is they wave in and out no way sufficiently grounded no way resolved what to think speak or write more then onely that because they have taken it upon them they must no remedy now be opposite 44. The last supposed fault concerneth some few things the very matter whereof is thought to be much amiss In a Song of Praise to our Lord Jesus Christ we have these words When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death thoâ— didst open the Kingdom of Heaven to all Believers Which maketh some shew of giving countenance to their Error who think that the faithful which departed this life before the coming of Christ were never till then made partakers of joy but remained all in that place which they term the Lake of the Fathers In our Liturgy request is made that we may be preserved from sudden death This seemeth frivolous because the godly should always be prepared to die Request is made that God would give those things which we for our unworthiness dare not ask This they say carrieth with it the note of Popish servile fear and savoreth not of that confidence and reverent familiarity that the children of God have through Christ with their Heavenly Father Request is made that we may evermore be defended from all adversity For this there is no promise in Scripture and therefore it is no Prayer of Faith or of the which we can assure our selves that we shall obtain it Finally Request is made That God would have mercy upon all men This is impossible because some are the Vessels of Wrath to whom God will never extend his Mercy 45. As Christ hath purchased that Heavenly Kingdom the last perfection whereof is Glory in the life to come Grace in this life a preparation thereunto so the same he hath opened to the World in such sort that whereas none can possibly without him attain salvation by him all that believe are saved Now whatsoever he did or suffered the end thereof was to open the doors of the Kingdom of Heaven which our iniquities had shut up But because by ascending after that the sharpness of death was overcome he took the very local possession of glory and that to the use of all that are his even as himself before had witnessed I go to prepare a place for you And again Whom thou hast given me O Father I will that where I am they be also with me that my glory which thou hast given me they may
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
efficient cause in the work of Baptism What if the Ministers Vocation be a Matter of perpetual necessity and not a Ceremony variable as times and occasions require What if his calling be a principal part of the Institution of Christ Doth it therefore follow that the Ministers authority is of the Substance of the Sacrament and as incident into the nature thereof as the Matter and the Form it self yea more incident For whereas in case of necessity the greatest amongst them professeth the change of the Element of Water lawful and others which like not so well this opinion could be better content that voluntarily the words of Christs Institution were altered and Men baptized in the Name of Christ without either mention made of the Father or of the Holy Ghost nevertheless in denying that Baptism administred by private persons ought to be reckoned of as a Sacrament they both agree It may therefore please them both to consider That Baptism is an Action in part Moral in part Ecclesiastical and in part Mystical Moral as being a duty which men perform towards God Ecclesiastical in that it belongeth unto Gods Church as a publick duty Finally Mystical if we respect what God doth thereby intend to work The greatest Moral perfection of Baptism consisteth in mens devout obedience to the Law of God which Law requireth both the outward act or thing done and also that Religious affection which God doth so much regard that without it whatsoever we do is â—tateful in his sight who therefore is said to respect Adverbs more then Verbs because the end of his Law in appointing what we shall do is our own Perfection which Perfection consisteth chiefly in the vertuous disposition of the Minde and approveth it self to him not by doing but by doing well Wherein appeareth also the difference between Humane and Divine Laws the one of which two are content with Opus operatum the other require Opus operantis the one do but claim the Deed the other especially the Minde So that according to Laws which principally respect the heart of Men Works of Religion being not religiously performed cannot Morally be perfect Baptism as an Ecclesiastical work is for the manner of performance ordered by divers Ecclesiastical Laws providing That as the Sacrament it self is a gift of no mean worth so the Ministery thereof might in all circumstances appear to be a Function of no small regard All that belongeth to the Mystical Perfection of Baptism outwardly is the Element the Word and the serious Application of both unto him which receiveth both whereunto if we add that secret reference which this action hath to liâ—e and remission of sins by vertue of Christs own compact solemnly made with his Church to accomplish fully the Sacrament of Baptism there is not any thing more required Now put the Question Whether Baptism Administred to Infants without my Spiritual Calling be unto them both a true Sacrament and an effectual instrument of Grace or else an act of no more account then the ordinary Washings are The sum of all that can be said to defeat such Baptism is That those things which have no Being can work nothing and that Baptism without the power of Ordination is as a Judgment without sufficient Jurisdiction void frustrate and of no effect But to this we answer That the Fruit of Baptism dependeth onely upon the Covenant which God hath made That God by Covenant requireth in the elder sort Faith and Baptism in Children the Sacrament of Baptism alone whereunto he hath also given them right by special priviledge of Birth within the bosom of the holy Church That infants therefore which have received Baptism compleat as touching the Mystical Perfection thereof are by vertue of his own Covenant and Promise cleansed from all sin for as much as all other Laws concerning that which in Baptism is either Moral or Ecclesiastical do binde the Church which giveth Baptism and not the Infant which receiveth it of the Church So that if any thing be therein amiss the harm which groweth by violation of holy Ordinances must altogether rest where the Bonds of such Ordinances hold For that in actions of this nature it fareth not as in Jurisdictions may somewhat appear by the very opinion which men have of them The nullity of that which a Judge doth by way of Authority without Authority is known to all men and agreed upon with full consent of the whole World every man receiveth it as a general Edict of Nature whereas the nullity of Baptism in regard of the like defect is onely a few mens new ungrounded and as yet unapproved imagination Which difference of generality in mens perswasions on the one side and their paucity whose conceit leadeth them the other way hath risen from a difference easie to observe in the things themselves The exercise of unauthorised Jurisdiction is a grievance unto them that are under it whereas they that without Authority presume to Baptize offer nothing but that which to all men is good and acceptable Sacraments are food and the Ministers thereof as Parents or as Nurses at whose hands when there is necessity but no possibility of receiving it if that which they are not present to do in right of their Office be of pity and compassion done by others shall this be thought turn Celestial Bread into Gravel or the Medicine of Souls into Poyson Jurisdiction is a yoke which Law hath imposed on the necks of men in such sort that they must endure it for the good of others how contrary soever it be to their own particular appetites and inclinations Jurisdiction bridleth men against their wills that which a Judge doth prevails by vertue of his very Power and therefore not without great reason except the Law hath given him Authority whatsoever he doth vanisheth Baptism on the other side being a favor which it pleaseth God to bestow a benefit of Soul to us that receive it and a Grace which they that deliver are but as meer Vessels either appointed by others or offered of their own accord to this Service of which two if they be the one it is but their own honor their own offence to be the other Can it possibly stand with Equity and Right That the faultiness of their presumption in giving Baptism should be able to prejudice us who by taking Baptism have no way offended I know there are many Sentences found in the Books and writings of the Ancient Fathers to prove both Ecclesiastical and also Moral defects in the Minister of Baptism a bar to the Heavenly benefit thereof Which Sentences we always so understand as Augustine understood in a case of like nature the words of St. Cyprian When Infants baptized were after their Parents revolt carried by them in arms to the Stews of Idols those wretched Creatures as St. Cyprian thought were not onely their own ruine but their Childrens also Their Children whom this their Apostasie prophaned did lose
Covenant Were not Proselytes as well as Jews always taken for the Sons of Abraham Yea because the very Heads of Families are Fathers in some sort as touching providence and care for the meanest that belong unto them the servants which Abraham had bought with money were as capable of Circumcision being newly born as any natural childe that Abraham himself begat Be it then that Baptism belongeth to none but such as either believe presently or else being Infants are the children of Believing Parents in case the Church do bring children to the Holy Font whose Natural Parents are either unknown or known to be such as the Church accurseth but yet forgetteth not in that severity to take compassion upon their Off-spring for it is the Church which doth offer them to Baptism by the Ministry of Presenters were it not against both equity and duty to refuse the Mother of Believers her self and not to take her in this case for a Faithful Parent It is not the vertue of our Fathers nor the Faith of any other that can give us the true holiness which we have by vertue of our New Birth Yet even through the common Faith and Spirit of Gods Church a thing which no quality of Parents can prejudice I say through the Faith of the Church of God undertaking the motherly care of oursouls so far forth we may be and are in our Infancy sanctified as to be thereby made sufficiently capable of Baptism and to be interessed in the Rites of our New Birth for their Pieties sake that offer us thereunto It cometh sometime to pass saith St. Augustine that the children of Bond-slaves are brought to Baptism by their Lord sometime the Parents being dead the Friends alive undertake that Office sometime Stangers or Virgins consecrated unto God which neither have nor can have children of their own take up Infants in the open streets and so offer them unto Baptism whom the cruelty of unnatural Parents casteth out and leaveth to the adventure of uncertain Pity As therefore he which did the part of a Neighbor was a Neighbor to that wounded Man whom the Parable of the Gospel describeth so they are Fathers although Strangers that bring Infants to him which maketh them the Sons of God In the phrase of some kinde of men they use to be termed Witnesses as if they came but to see and testifie what is done It savoreth more of Piety to give them their old accustomed name of Fathers and Mothers in God whereby they are well put in minde what affection they ought to bear towards those Innocents for whose religious education the Church accepteth them as pledges This therefore is their own duty But because the answer which they make to the usual demands of stipulation proposed in Baptism is not their own the Church doth best to receive it of them in that form which best sheweth whose the act is That which a Guardian doth in the name of his Guard or Pupil standeth by natural equity forcible for his benefit though it be done without his knowledge And shall we judge it a thing unreasonable or in any respect unfit That Infants by words which others utter should though unwittingly yet truly and forcibly binde themselves to that whereby their estate is so assuredly bettered Herewith Nestorius the Heretick was charged as having faln from his first Profession and broken the promise which he made to God in the Arms of others Of such as profaned themselves being Christians with irreligious delight in the Ensigns of Idolatry Heathenish Spectacles Shows and Stage-plays Tertullian to strike them the more deep claimeth the Promise which they made in Baptism Why were they dumb being thus challenged Wherefore stood they not up to answer in their own defence that such Professions and Promises made in their names were frivolous that all which others undertook for them was but mockery and profanation That which no Heretick no wicked liver no impious despiset of God no miscreant or malefactor which had himself been Baptized was ever so desperate as to disgorge in contempt of so fruitfully received Customs is now their voice that restore as they say The ancient Purity of Religion 65. In Baptism many things of very ancient continuance are now quite and clean abolished for that the Vertue and Grace of this Sacrament had been therewith over-shadowed as fruit with too great abundance of leaves Notwithstanding to them which think that always imperfect Reformation that doth but shear and not flea our retaining certain of those former Rites especially the dangerous Sign of the Cross hath seemed almost an impardonable oversight The Cross they say sith it is but a meer invention of Man should not therefore at all have been added to the Sacrament of Baptism To Sign Childrens Foreheads with a Cross in token that hereafter they shall not be ashamed to make Profession of the Faith of Christ is to bring into the Church a new Word whereas there ought to be no Doctor heard in the Church but our Saviour Christ. That reason which moved the Fathers to use should move us not to use the Sign of the Cross. They lived with Heathens which had the Cross of Christ in contempt we with such as adore the Cross and therefore we ought to abandon it even as in like consideration Ezekias did of old the Brazen Serpent These are the causes of displeasure conceived against the Cross a Ceremony the use whereof hath been profitable although we observe it not as the Ordinance of God but of Men. For saith Tertullian if of this and the like Customs thou shouldst require some Commandment to be shewed thee out of Scriptures there is none found What reason there is to justifie Tradition Life or Custom in this behalf either thou maist of thy self perceive or else learn of some other that doth Lest therefore the name of Tradition should be offensive to any considering how far by some it hath been and is abused we mean by Traditions or Ordinances made in the prime of Christian Religion established with that Authority which Christ hath left to his Church for matters indifferent and in that consideration requisite to be observed till like authority see just and reasonable cause to alter them So that Traditions Ecclesiastical are not rudely and in gross to be shaken off because the Inventors of them were men Such as say They allow no invention of Men to be mingled with the Outward Administration of Sacraments and under that pretence condemn our using the Sign of the Cross have belike some special Dispensation themselves to violate their own Rules For neither can they indeed decently nor do they ever Baptize any without manifest breach of this their profound Axiom That Mens Inventions should not be mingled with Sacraments and Institutions of God They seem to like very well in Baptism the Custom of God-fathers because so generally the Churches have received it Which Custom being of
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
of the time when siege began first to be laid against them All these not commanded by God himself but ordained by a publick Constitution of their own the Prophet Zachary expresly toucheth That St. Ierome following the Tradition of the Hebrews doth make the first a memorial of the breaking of those Two Tables when Moses descended from Mount Senai the second a memorial as well of Gods indignation condemning them to forty years travel in the Desart as of his wrath in permitting Chaldeans to waste burn and destroy their City the last a memorial of heavy tydings brought out of Iury to Ezekiel and the rest which lived as Captives in foreign parts the difference is not of any moment considering that each time of sorrow is naturally evermore a Register of all such grievous events as have hapned either in or near about the same time To these I might add sundry other Fasts above twenty in number ordained amongst them by like occasions and observed in like manner besides their weekly Abstinence Mundays and Thursdays throughout the whole year When men fasted it was not always after one and same sort but either by depriving themselves wholly of all food during the time that their Fasts continued or by abating both the quantity and kinde of Diet. We have of the one a plain example in the Ninivites Fasting and as plain a president for the other in the Prophet Daniel I was saith he in heaviness for three weeks of days I eat no pleasant Bread neither tasted Flash nor Wine Their Tables when they gave themselves to fasting had not that usual furniture of such Dishes as do cherish blood with blood but for food they had Bread for suppage Salt and for sawce Herbs Whereunto the Apostle may be thought to allude saying One believeth he may eat all things another which is weak and maketh a conscience of keeping those Customs which the Jews observe eateth Herbs This austere repast they took in the Evening after Abstinence the whole day For to forfeit a Noons meal and then to recompence themselves at night was not their use Nor did they ever accustom themselves on Sabbaths or Festivals days to fast And yet it may be a question whether in some sort they did not always fast the Sabbath Their Fastings were partly in token of Penitency Humiliation Grief and Sorrow partly in sign of devotion and reverence towards God Which second consideration I dare not peremptorily and boldy affirm any thing might induce to abstain till noon as their manner was on Fasting days to do till night May it not very well he thought that hereunto the Sacred Scripture doth give some secret kinde of Testimony Iosephus is plain That the sixth hour the day they divided into twelve was wont on the Sabbath always to call them home unto meat Neither is it improbable but that the Heathens did therefore so often upbraid them with Fasting on that day Besides they which found so great fault with our Lords Disciples for rubbing a few Ears of Corn in their hands on the Sabbath day are not unlikely to have aimed also at the same mark For neither was the bodily pain so great that it should offend them in that respect and the very manner of defence which our Saviour there useth is more direct and literal to justifie the breach of the Jewish custom in Fasting then in working at that time Finally the Apostles afterwards themselves when God first gave them the gift of Tongues whereas some in disdain and spight termed Grace Drunkenness it being then the day of Pentecost and but onely a fourth part of the day spent they use this as an argument against the other cavil These men saith Peter are not drunk as you suppose since as yet the third hour of the day is not over-past Howbeit leaving this in suspence as a thing not altogether certainly known and to come from Jews to Christians we finde that of private voluntarily Fastings the Apostle Saint Paul speaketh more then once And saith Tertullian they are sometime commanded throughout the Church Ex aliqua sellicitudinis Ecclesiastica causa the care and fear of the Church so requiring It doth not appear that the Apostles ordained any set and certain days to be generally kept of all Notwithstanding for as much as Christ hath fore-signified that wher himself should be taken from them his absence would soon make them apt to fast it seemeth that even as the first Festival day appointed to be kept of the Church was the day of our Lords return from the dead so the first sorrowful and mourning day was That which we now observe in memory of his departure oâ—t of this World And because there could be no abatement of grief till they saw him raised whose death was the occasion of their heaviness therefore the day he lay in the Sepulchre hath been also kept and observed as a weeping day The Custom of Fasting these two days before Easter is undoubtedly most ancient in so much that Ignatius not thinking him a Catholick Christian man which did not abhor and as the state of the Church was then avoid fasting on the Jews Sabbath doth notwithstanding except for ever that one Sabbath or Saturday which falleth out to be the Easter-Eve as with us it always doth and did sometimes also with them which kept at that time their Easter the Fourteenth day of March as the custom of the Jews was It came afterward to be an order that even as the day of Christs Resurrection so the other two in memory of his death and burial were weekly But this when Saint Ambrose lived had not as yet taken place throughout all Churches no not in Millan where himself was Bishop And for that canâ—â— he saith that although at Rome he observed the Saturdays fast because such was then the custom in Rome nevertheless in his own Church at home he did otherwise The Churches which did not observe that day had another instead thereof which was the Wednesday for that when they judged it meet to have weekly a day of Humiliation besides that whereon our Saviour suffered death it seemed best to make their choice of that day especially whereon the Jews are thought to have first contrived their treason together with Iudas against Christ. So that the instituting and ordaining both of these and of all other times of like exercise is as the Church shall judge expedient for mens good And concerning every Christians mans duty herein surely that which Augustine and Ambrose are before alledged to have done is such as all men favoring Equity must needs allow and follow if they affect peace As for their specified Errors I will not in this place dispute whether voluntarily Fasting with a vertuous purpose of minde be any medicinable remedy of evil or a duty acceptable unto God and in the World to come even rewardable as other offices are which proceed from Christian Piety
whether wilfully to break and despise the wholesome laws of the Church herein be a thing which offendeth God whether truly it may not be said that penitent both weaping and fasting are means to blot out sin means whereby through Gods unspeakable and undeserved mercy we obtain or procure to our selves pardon which attainment unto any gracious benefit by him bestowed the phrase of Antiquity useth to express by the name of Merit but if either Saint Augustine or Saint Ambrose have taught any wrong opinion seeing they which reprove them are not altogether free from Error I hope they will think it no error in us so to censure mens smaller faults that their vertues be not thereby generally prejudiced And if in Churches abroad where we are not subject to Power or Jurisdiction discretion should teach us for Peace and Quietness sake to frame our selves to other mens example Is it meet that at home where our freedom is less our boldness should be more Is it our duty to oppugn in the Churches whereof we are Ministers the Rites and Customs which in Foreign Churches Piety and Modesty did teach us as strangers not to oppugn but to keep without shew of contradiction or dislike Why oppose they the name of a Minister in this case unto the state of a private man Doth their order exempt them from obedience to Laws That which their Office and place requireth is to shew themselves patterns of reverend subjection not Authors and Masters of contempt towards Ordinances the strength whereof when they seek to weaken they do but in truth discover to the World their own imbecillities which a great deal wiselier they might conceal But the practice of the Church of Christ we shall by so much the better both understand and love if to that which hitherto hath been spoken there be somewhat added for more particular declaration how Hereticks have partly abused Fasts and partly bent themselves against the lawful use thereof in the Church of God Whereas therefore Ignatius hath said If any keep Sundays or Saturdays Fasts one onely Saturday in the year excepted that man is no better then a murtherer of Christ the cause of such his earnestness at that time was the impiety of certain Hereticks which thought that this World being corruptible could not be made but a very evil Author And therefore as the Jews did by the Festival Solemnity of their Sabbath rejoyce in the God that created the World as in the Author of all Goodness so those Hereticks in hatred of the Maker of the World sorrowed wept and fasted on that day as being the birth-day of all evil And as Christian men of sound belief did solemnize the Sunday in joyful memory of Christs Resurrection so likewise at the self-same time such Hereticks as denied his Resurrection did the contrary to them which held it When the one sort rejoyced the other fasted Against those Hereticks which have urged perpetual abstinence from certain Meats as being in their very nature unclean the Church hath still bent herself as an enemy Saint Paul giving charge to take heed of them which under any such opinion should utterly forbid the use of Meats or Drinks The Apostles themselves forbad some as the order taken at Ierusalem declareth But the cause of their so doing we all know Again when Tertullian together with such as were his followers began to Montanize and pretending to perfect the severity of Christian Discipline brought in sundry unaccustomed days of Fasting continued their Fasts a great deal longer and made them more rigorous then the use of the Church had been the mindes of men being somewhat moved at so great and so sudden novelty the cause was presently inquired into After notice taken how the Montanists held these Additions to be Supplements of the Gospel whereunto the Spirit of Prophesie did now mean to put as it were the last hand and was therefore newly descended upon Montanus whose orders all Christian men were no less to obey then the Laws of the Apostles themselves this Abstinence the Church abhorred likewise and that justly Whereupon Tertullian proclaiming even open War of the Church maintained Montanism wrote a Book in defence of the new Fast and intituled the same A Treatise of Fasting against the opinion of the Carnal sort In which Treatise nevertheless because so much is sound and good as doth either generally concern the use or in particular declare the Custom of the Churches Fasting in those times men are not to reject whatsoever is alledged out of that Book for confirmation of the Truth His error discloseth it self in those places where he defendeth Fasts to be duties necessary for the whole Church of Christ to observe as commanded by the Holy Ghost and that with the same authority from whence all other Apostolical Ordinances came both being the Laws of God himself without any other distinction or difference saving onely that he which before had declared his will by Paul and Peter did now farther reveal the same by Montanus also Against us ye pretend saith Tertullian that the Publick Orders which Christianity is bound to keep were delivered at the first and that no new thing is to be added thereunto Stand if you can upon this point for behold I challenge you for Fasting more then at Easter your selves But in fine ye answer That these things are to be done as established by the voluntary appointment of men and not by vertue or force of any Divine Commandment Well then he addeth Ye have removed your first footing and gone beyond that which was delivered by doing more then was at the first imposed upon you You say you must do that which your own judgments have allowed We require your obedience to that which God himself doth institute Is it not strange that men to their own will should yield that which to Gods Commandment they will not grant Shall the pleasure of men prevail more with you then the power of God himself These places of Tertullian for Fasting have worthily been put to silence And as worthily Aerius condemned for opposition against Fasting The one endeavored to bring in such Fasts as the Church ought not to receive the other to overthrow such as already it had received and did observe The one was plausible unto many by seeming to hate carnal loosness and riotous excess much more then the rest of the World did the other drew hearers by pretending the maintenance of Christian Liberty The one thought his cause very strongly upheld by making invective declamations with a pale and a withered countenance against the Church by filling the ears of his starved hearers with speech suitable to such mens humors and by telling them no doubt to their marvellous contentment and liking Our new Prophesies are refused they are despised It is because Montanus doth Preach some other God or dissolve the Gospel of Iesus Christ or overthrow any Canon of Faith and Hope No our crime is We teach
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
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
the birth of our Saviour Christ begin the distinction of the Church into Parishes Presbyters and Deacons having been ordained before to exercise Ecclesiastical Functions in the Church of Rome promiscuously he was the first that tyed them each one to his own station So that of the two indefinite Ordination of Presbyters and Deacons doth come more near the Apostles Example and the tying of them to be made onely for particular Congregations may more justly ground it self upon the Example of Evaristus than of any Apostle of Christ. It hath been the opinion of wise and good men heretofore that nothing was ever devised more singularly beneficial unto God's Church than this which our honourable Predecessors have to their endless praise found out by the erecting of such Houses of Study as those two most famous Universities do contain and by providing that choise Wits after reasonable time spent in contemplation may at the length either enter into that holy Vocation for which they have been so long nourished and brought up or else give place and suffer others to succeed in their rooms that so the Church may be alwayes furnished with a number of men whose ability being first known by publick tryal in Church-labours there where men can best judge of them their calling afterwards unto particular charge abroad may be accordingly All this is frustrate those worthy Foundations we must dissolve their whole device and religious purpose which did erect them is made void their Orders and Statutes are to be cancelled and disannulled in case the Church be forbidden to grant any power of Order unless it be with restraint to the Party ordained unto some particular Parish or Congregation Nay might we not rather affirm of Presbyters and of Deacons that the very nature of their Ordination is unto necessary local restraint a thing opposite and repugnant The Emperour Iustinian doth say of Tutors Certa rei vel causae tutor dari non potest quia personae non causae vel rei tutor datur He that should grant a Tutorship restraining his grant to some one certain thing or cause should do but idlely because Tutors are given for personal defence generally and not for managing of a few particular things or causes So he that ordaining a Presbyter or a Deacon should in the form of Ordination restrain the one or the other to a certain place might with much more reason be thought to use a vain and a frivolous addition than they reasonably to require such local restraint as a thing which must of necessity concurr evermore with all lawfull Ordinations Presbyters and Deacons are not by Ordination consecrated unto Places but unto Functions In which respect and in no other it is that sith they are by vertue thereof bequeathed unto God severed and sanctified to be imployed in his Service which is the highest advancement that mortal Creatures on Earth can be raised unto the Church of Christ hath not been acquainted in former Ages with any such propane and unnatural Custom as doth hallow men with Ecclesiastical Functions of Order onely for a time and then dismiss them again to the common Affairs of the World Whereas contrariwise from the Place or Charge where that Power hath been exercised we may be by sundry good and lawful occasions translated retaining nevertheless the self-same Power which was first given It is some grief to spend thus much labour in refuting a thing that hath so little ground to uphold it especially sith they themselves that teach it doe not seem to give thereunto any great credit if we may judge their mindes by their actions There are amongst them that have done the work of Ecclesiastical Persons sometime in the Families of Noblemen sometime in much more publick and frequent Congregations there are that have successively gone through perhaps seven or eight particular Churches after this sort yea some that at one and the same time have been some which at this present hour are in real obligation of Ecclesiastical duty and possession of Commodity thereto belonging even in sundry particular Churches within the Land some there are amongst them which will not so much abridge their liberty as to be fastened or tyed unto any place some which have bound themselves to one place onely for a time and that time being once expired have afterwards voluntarily given unto other places the like experience and tryal of them All this I presume they would not doe if their perswasion were as strict as their words pretend But for the avoiding of these and such other the like confusisions as are incident unto the cause and question whereof we presently treat there is not any thing more material than first to separate exactly the nature of the Ministery from the use and exercise thereof Secondly to know that the onely true and proper Act of Ordination is to invest men with that power which doth make them Ministers by consecrating their Persons to God and his Service in holy things during term of life whether they exercise that power or no Thirdly that to give them a Title or Charge where to use their Ministery concerneth not the making but the placing of God's Ministers and therefore the Lawes which concern onely their Election or Admission unto place of Charge are not applyable to infringe any way their Ordination Fourthly that as oft as any antient Constitution Law or Cannon is alledged concerning either Ordinations or Elections we forget not to examine whether the present case be the same which the antient was or else do contain some just reason for which it cannot admit altogether the same Rules which former Affairs of the Church now altered did then require In the question of making Ministers without a Title which to doe they say is a thing unlawful they should at the very first have considered what the name of Title doth imply and what affinity or coherence Ordinations have with Titles which thing observed would plainly have shewed them their own errour They are not ignorant that when they speak of a Title they handle that which belongeth to the placing of a Minister in some charge that the Place of Charge wherein a Minister doth execute his Office requireth some House of God for the People to resote unto some definite number of Souls unto whom he there administreth holy things and some certain allowance whereby to sustain life that the Fathers at the first named oratories and Houses of Prayer Titles thereby signifying how God was interessed in them and held them as his own Possessions But because they know that the Church had Ministers before Christian Temples and Oratories were therefore some of them understand by a Title a definite Congregation of People onely and so deny that any Ordination is lawful which maketh Ministers that have no certain Flock to attend forgetting how the Seventy whom Christ himself did ordain Ministers had their Calling in that manner whereas yet no certain Charge could be given them Others
that the Angels assisting them should be driven to betake themselves unto other stations although by nature they were not tyed where now they are but had charge also elsewhere as long as their absence from beneath might but tolerably be supplyed and by descending their rooms above should become vacant For we are not to dream in this case of any platform which bringeth equally high and low unto Parish Churches nor of any constraint to maintain at their own charge men sufficient for that purpose the one so repugnant to the Majesty and Greatness of English Nobility the other so improbable and unlikely to take effect that they which mention either of both seem not indeed to have conceived what either is But the eye of Law is the eye of God it looketh into the hearts and secret dispositions of men it beholdeth how far one star differeth from another in glory and as mens several degrees require accordingly it guideth them granting unto principal Personages priviledges correspondent to their high Estates and that not onely in Civil but even in Spiritual Affairs to the end they may love that Religion the more which no way seeketh to make them vulgar no way diminisheth their dignity and greatness but to do them good doth them honour also and by such extraordinary favours teacheth them to be in the Church of God the same which the Church of God esteemeth them more worth than thousands It appeareth therefore in what respect the Laws of this Realm have given liberty of non-residence to some that their knowledge may be increased and their labours by that mean be made afterwards the more profitable to others left the Houses of Great-men should want that daily exercise of Religion wherein their example availeth as much yea many times peradventure more than the Laws themselves with the common sort A third thing respected both in permitting absence and also in granting to some that liberty of addition or plurality which necessarily inforceth their absence is a meer both just and conscionable regard that as men are in quality and as their services are in weight for the publick good so likewise their rewards and encouragements by special priviledge of Law might somewhat declare how the State it self doth accept their pains much abhorring from their bestial and savage rudeness which think that Oxen should onely labour and Asses feed Thus to Readers in Universities whose very Paper and Book-expences their antient allowances and stipends at this day do either not or hardly sustain to Governours of Colledges lest the great overplus of charges necessarily inforced upon them by reason of their place and very slenderly supplyed by means of that change in the present condition of things which their Founders could not fore-see to men called away from their Cures and imployed in weightier business either of the Church or Common-wealth because to impose upon them a burthen which requireth their absence and not to release them from the duty of Residence were a kinde of cruel and barbarous injustice to Residents in Cathedral Churches or upon Dignities Ecclesiastical forasmuch as these being rooms of greater Hospitality places of more respect and consequence than the rest they are the rather to be furnished with men of best quality and the men for their qualities-sake to be favoured above others I say unto all these in regard of their worth and merit the Law hath therefore given leave while themselves bear weightier burthens to supply inferiour by deputation and in like consideration partly partly also by way of honour to Learning Nobility and Authority permitteth that men which have taken Theological degrees in Schools the Suffragans of Bishops the Houshold-Chaplains of men of Honour or in great Offices the Brethren and Sonnes of Lords Temporal or of Knights if God shall move the hearts of such to enter at any time into Holy Orders may obtain to themselves a faculty or licence to hold two Ecclesiastical Livings though having Cure any Spiritual Person of the Queens Councel three such Livings her Chaplains what number of promotions her self in her own Princely wisedom thinketh good to bestow upon them But as it fareth in such cases the gap which for just considerations we open unto some letteth in others through corrupt practises to whom such favours were neither meant nor should be communicated The greatness of the Harvest and the scarcity of able Work-men hath made it necessary that Law should yield to admit numbers of men but slenderly and meanly qualified Hereupon because whom all other worldly hopes have forsaken they commonly reserve Ministerial Vocation as their last and surest refuge ever open to forlorn men the Church that should nourish them whose service she needeth hath obtruded upon her their service that know not otherwise how to live and sustain themselves These finding nothing more easie than means to procure the writing of a few lines to some one or other which hath authority and nothing more usual than too much facility in condescending unto such requests are often received into that Vocation whereunto their unworthiness is no small disgrace Did any thing more aggravate the crime of Ieroboams prophane Apostasie than that he chose to have his Clergy the scum and reffuse of his whole Land Let no man spare to tell it them they are not faithful towards God that burthen wilfully his Church with such swarms of unworthy Creatures I will not say of all degrees in the Ministry that which Saint Chrysostom doth of the highest He that will undertake so weighty a charge had need to be a man of great understanding rarely assisted with Divine grace for integrity of manners purity of life and for all other vertues to have in him more than a man But surely this I will say with Chrysostom We need not doubt whether God be highly displeased with us or what the cause of his anger is if things of so great fear and holiness at are the least and lowest duties of his service be thrown wilfully on them whose not onely mean but bad and scandalous quality doth defile whatsoever they handle These eye-sores and blemishes in continual attendants about the Service of God's Sanctuary do make them every day fewer that willingly resort unto it till at length all affection and zeal towards God be extinct in them through a wearisom contempt of their Persons which for a time onely live by Religion and are for recompence in fine the death of the Nurse that feedeth them It is not obscure how incommodious the Church hath found both this abuse of the liberty which Law is enforced to grant and not onely this but the like abuse of that favour also which Law in other considerations already mentioned affordeth toucheth Residence and plurality of Spiritual Livings Now that which is practised corruptly to the detriment and hurt of the Church against the purpose of those very Laws which notwithstanding are pretended in defence and justification thereof we must needs acknowledge no
of Religion before admission of degrees to Learning or to any Ecclesiastical Living the custom of reading the same Articles and of approving them in publick Assemblies wheresoever men have Benefices with Cure of Souls the order of testifying under their hands allowance of the Book of Common-Prayer and the Book of ordaining Ministers finally the Discipline and moderate severity which is used either in other wise correcting or silencing them that trouble and disturb the Church with Doctrines which tend unto Innovation it being better that the Church should want altogether the benefit of such mens labours than endure the mischief of their inconformity to good Laws in which case if any repine at the course and proceedings of Justice they must learn to content themselves with the answer of M. Curius which had sometime occasion to cutt off one from the Body of the Common-wealth in whose behalf because it might have been pleaded that the party was a man serviceable he therefore began his judicial sentence with this preamble Non esse open Reip. to cive qui parers nescires The Common-wealth needeth men of quality yet never those men which have not learned how to obey But the wayes which the Church of England hath taken to provide that they who are Teachers of others may do it soundly that the Purity and Unity as well of antient Discipline as Doctrine may be upheld that avoiding singularities we may all glorifie God with one heart and one tongue they of all men do least approve that do most urge the Apostle's Rule and Canon For which cause they alledge it not so much to that purpose as to prove that unpreaching Ministers for so they term them can have no true nor lawful calling in the Church of God Sainst Augustine hath said of the will of man that simply to will proceedeth from Nature but our well-willing is from Grace We say as much of the Minister of God publickly to teach and instruct the Church is necessary in every Ecclesiastical Minister but ability to teach by Sermons is a Grace which God doth bestow on them whom he maketh sufficient for the commendable discharge of their duty That therefore wherein a Minister differeth from other Christian men is not as some have childishly imagined the sound-preaching of the Word of God but as they are lawfully and truly Governours to whom authority of Regiment is given in the Common-wealth according to the order which Polity hath set so Canonical Ordination in the Church of Christ is that which maketh a lawful Minister as touching the validity of any Act which appertaineth to that Vocation The cause why Saint Paul willed Timothy not to be over-hasty in ordaining Ministers was as we very well may conjecture because imposition of hands doth consecrate and make them Ministers whether they have gifts and qualities fit for the laudable discharge of their Duties or no. If want of Learning and skill to preach did frustrate their Vocation Ministers ordained before they be grown unto that maturity should receive new Ordination whensoever it chanceth that study and industry doth make them afterwards more able to perform the Office than which what conceit can be more absurd Was not Saint Augustine himself contented to admit an Assistant in his own Church a man of small Erudition considering that what he wanted in knowledge was supplyed by those vertues which made his life a better Orator than more Learning could make others whose conversation was less Holy Were the Priests fithence Moses all able and sufficient men learnedly to interpret the Law of God Or was it ever imagined that this defect should frustrate what they executed and deprive them of right unto any thing they claimed by vertue of their Priesthood Surely as in Magistrates the want of those Gifts which their Office neâ—deth is cause of just imputation of blame in them that wittingly chuse unsufficient and unfit men when they might do otherwise and yet therefore is not their choyce void nor every action of Magistracy frustrate in that respect So whether it were of necessity or even of very carelesnesse that men unable to Preach should be taken in Pastours rooms nevertheless it seemeth to be an errour in them which think that the lack of any such perfection defeateth utterly their Calling To wish that all men were so qualified as their Places and Dignities require to hate all sinister and corrupt dealings which hereunto are any lett to covet speedy redress of those things whatsoever whereby the Church sustaineth detriment these good and vertuous desires cannot offend any but ungodly mindes Notwithstanding some in the true vehemency and others under the fair pretence of these desires have adventured that which is strange that which is violent and unjust There are which in confidence of their general allegations concerning the knowledge the Residence and the single Livings of Ministers presume not onely to annihilate the solemn Ordinations of such as the Church must of force admit but also to urge a kinde of universal proscription against them to set down Articles to draw Commissions and almost to name themselves of the Quorum for inquiry into mens estates and dealings whom at their pleasure they would deprive and make obnoxious to what punishment themselves list and that not for any violation of Laws either Spiritual or Civil but because men have trusted the Laws too farr because they have held and enjoyed the liberty which Law granteth because they had not the wit to conceive as these men do that Laws were made to intrap the simple by permitting those things in shew and appearance which indeed should never take effect for as much as they were but granted with a secret condition to be put in practice If they should be profitable and agreeable with the Word of God which condition failing in all Ministers that cannot Preach in all that are absent from their Livings and in all that have divers Livings for so it must be presumed though never as yet proved therefore as men which have broken the Law of God and Nature they are depriveable at all hours Is this the Justice of that Discipline whereunto all Christian Churches must stoop and sabmit themselves Is this the equity wherewith they labour to reform the World I will no way diminish the force of those Arguments whereupon they ground But if it please them to behold the visage of these Collections in another Glass there are Civil as well as Ecclesiastical Unsufficiencies Non residences and Pluralitiesâ— yea the reasons which Light of Nature hath ministred against both are of such affinity that much less they cannot inforce in the one than in the other When they that bear great Offices be Persons of mean worth the contempt whereinto their authority groweth weakneth the sinews of the whole State Notwithstanding where many Governours are needful and they not many whom their quality cannot commend the penury of worthier must needs make the meaner
sort of men capable Cities in the absence of their Governours are as Ships wanting Pilots at Sea But were it therefore Justice to punish whom Superiour Authority pleaseth to call from home or alloweth to be employed elsewhere In committing many Offices to one man there are apparently these inconveniencies the Common wealth doth lose the benefit of serviceable men which might be trained up in those rooms it is not easie for one man to discharge many mens duties well in service of Warfare and Navigation were it not the overthrow of whatsoever is undertaken if one or two should ingrosse such Offices as being now divided into many hands are discharged with admirable both perfection and expedition Nevertheless be it farr from the minde of any reasonable man to imagine that in these considerations Princes either ought of duty to revoke all such kinde of Grants though made with very special respect to the extraordinary merit of certain men or might in honour demand of them the resignation of their Offices with speech to this or the like effect For as much as you A. B. by the space of many years have done us that faithful service in most important affairs for which we alwayes judging you worthy of much honour have therefore committed unto you from time to time very great and weighty Offices which hitherto you quietly enjoy we are now given to understand that certain grave and learned men have found in the Books of antient Philosophers divers Arguments drawn from the common light of Nature and declaring the wonderful discommodities which use to grow by Dignities thou heaped together in one For which cause at this present moved in conscience and tender care for the Publick good we have summoned you hither to dis-possess you of those Places and to depose you from those rooms whereof indeed by vertue of our own Grant yet against Reason you are possessed Neither ought you or any other to think us rash light or inconstant in so doing For we tell you plain that herein we will both say and do that thing which the noble and wife Emperour sometime both said and did in a matter of fair less weight than this Quod inconsultò semicus consultò revocamus That which we unadvisedly have done we advisedly will revoke and undo Now for mine own part the greatest harm I would wish them who think that this were consonant with equity and right is that they might but live where all things are with such kinde of Justice ordered till experience have taught them to see their errour As for the last thing which is incident into the cause whereof we speak namely what course were the best and safest whereby to remedy such evils as the Church of God may sustain where the present liberty of Law is turned to great abuse some light we may receive from abroad not unprofitable for direction of God's own sacred House and Family The Romans being a People full of generosity and by nature courteous did no way more shew their gentle disposition than by easie condescending to see their Bond-men at liberty Which benefit in the happier and better times of the Common-wealth was bestowed for the most part as an ordinary reward of Vertue some few now and then also purchasing freedom with that which their just labours could gain and their honest frugality save But as the Empire daily grew up so the manners and conditions of men decayed Wealth was honoured and Vertue not cared for neither did any thing seem opprobrious out of which there might arise commodity and profit so that it could be no marvel in a State thus far degenerated if when the more ingenious sort were become base the baser laying aside all shame and face of honesty did some by Robberies Burglaries and prostitution of their Bodies gather wherewith to redeem liberty others obtain the same at the hands of their Lords by serving them as vile Instruments in those attempts which had been worthy to be revenged with ten thousand deaths A learned judicious and polite Historian having mentioned so soul disorders giveth his judgment and censure of them in this sort Such eye-sores in the Common-wealth have occasioned many vertuous mindes to condemn altogether the custom of granting liberty to any Bond-slave for as much as it seemed a thing absurd that a People which commands all the World should consist of so vile Reffuse But neither is this the onely customs wherein the profitable inventions of former are depraved by later Ages and for my self I am not of their opinion that wish the abrogation of so grosly used Customs which abrogation might peradventure be cause of greater inconveniencies ensuing but as much as may be I would rather advise that redress were sought through the careful providence of Chief Rulers and Over-seers of the Common-wealth by whom a yearly survey being made of all that are manumissed they which seem worthy might be taken and divided into Tribes with other Citizens the rest dispersed into Colonies abroad or otherwise disposed of that the Common-wealth might sustain neither harm nor disgrace by them The ways to meet with disorders growing by abuse of Laws are not so intricate and secret especially in our case that men should need either much advertisement or long time for the search thereof And if counsel to that purpose may seem needful this Church God be thanked is not destitute of men endued with ripe judgment whensoever any such thing shall be thought necessary For which end at this present to propose any special inventions of my own might argue in a man of my Place and Calling more presumption perhaps than wit I will therefore leave it intire unto graver consideration ending now with request onely and most earnest sute first that they which give Ordination would as they tender the very honour of Jesus Christ the safety of men and the endless good of their own Souls take heed lest unnecessarily and through their default the Church be found worse or less furnished than it might be Secondly that they which by right of Patronage have power to present unto Spiritual Livings and may in that respect much damnifie the Church of God would for the ease of their own account in that dreadful day somewhat consider what it is to betray for gain the Souls which Christ hath redeemed with blood what to violate the sacred Bond of Fidelity and Solemn promise given at the first to God and his Church by them from whose original interest together with the self-same Title of Right the same Obligation of Duty likewise is descended Thirdly that they unto whom the granting of Dispensations is committed or which otherwise have any stroke in the disposition of such Preferments as appertsin unto Learned men would bethink themselves what it is to respect any thing either above or besides Merit considering how hardly the World taketh it when to men of commendable note and quality there is so little respect had or
so great unto them whose deserts are very mean that nothing doth seem more strange than the one sort because they are not accounted of and the other because they are it being every man's hope and expectation in the Church of God especially that the onely purchace of greater rewards should be alwayes greater deserts and that nothing should ever be able to plant a Thorn where a Vine ought to grow Fourthly that honourable Personages and they who by vertue of any principal Office in the Common-wealth are inabled to qualifie a certain number and make them capable of favours or Faculties above others suffer not their names to be abused contrary to the true intent and meaning of wholsom Laws by men in whom there is nothing notable besides Covetousness and Ambition Fifthly that the graver and wiser sort in both Universities or whosoever they be with whose approbation the marks and recognizances of all Learning are bestowed would think the Apostle's caution against unadvised Ordinations not impertinent or unnecessary to be born in minde even when they grant those degrees of Schools which degrees are not gratia gratis data kindnesses bestowed by way of humanity but they are gratiae gratum sacientes favours which always imply a testimony given to the Church and Common-wealth concerning mens sufficiency for manners and knowledge a testimony upon the credit whereof sundry Statutes of the Realm are built a testimony so far available that nothing is more respected for the warrant of divers mens abilitie to serve in the affairs of the Realm a testimony wherein if they violate that Religion wherewith it ought to be always given and thereby do induce into errour such as deem it a thing uncivil to call the credit thereof in question let them look that God shall return back upon their heads and cause them in the state of their own Corporations to feel either one way or other the punishment of those harms which the Church through their negligence doth sustain in that behalf Finally and to conclude that they who enjoy the benefit of any special Indulgence or Favour which the Laws permit would as well remember what in duty towards the Church and in conscience towards God they ought to do as what they may do by using of their own advantage whatsoever they see tolerated no man being ignorant that the cause why absence in some cases hath been yielded unto and in equity thought sufferable is the hope of greater fruit through industry elsewhere the reason likewise wherefore pluralities are allowed unto men of note a very soveraign and special care that as Fathers in the antient World did declare the preheminence of priority in birth by doubling the worldly portions of their first-born so the Church by a course not unlike in assigning mens rewards might testifie an estimation had proportionably of their Vertues according to the antient Rule Apostolick They which excel in labour ought to excel in honour and therefore unless they answer faithfully the expectation of the Church herein unless sincerely they bend their wits day and night both to sow because they reap and to sow so much more abundantly as they reap more abundantly than other men whereunto by their very acceptance of such benignities they formally binde themselves let them be well assured that the honey which they eat with fraud shall turn in the end into true gall for as much as Laws are the sacred Image of his wisedom who most severely punisheth those colourable and subtile crimes that seldome are taken within the walk of human Justice I therefore conclude that the grounds and maxims of Common right whereupon Ordinations of Ministers unable to Preach tolerations of absence from their Cures and the multiplications of their Spiritual Livings are disproved do but indefinitely enforce them unlawful not unlawful universally and without exception that the Laws which indefinitely are against all these things and the Priviledges which make for them in certain cases are not the one repugnant to the other that the Laws of God and Nature are violated through the effects of abused Priviledges that neither our Ordinations of men unable to make Sermons nor our dispensations for the rest can be justly proved frustrate by vertue of any such surmised opposition between the special Laws of this Church which have permitted and those general which are alledged to disprove the same that when Priviledges by abuse are grown in commodious there must be redress that for remedy of such evils there is no necessity the Church should abrogate either in whole or in part the specialties before mentioned and that the most to be desired were a voluntary reformation thereof on all hands which may give passage unto any abuse OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity BOOK VI. Containing their Fifth Assertion That our Laws are Corrupt and Repugnant to the Laws of God in matter belonging to the Power of Ecclesiastical Iurisdiction in that we have not throughout all Churches certain Lay-Elders established for the Exercise of that Power THE same Men which in heat of Contention do hardly either speak or give ear to reason being after sharp and bitter conflicts retired to a calm remembrance of all their former proceedings the causes that brought them into quarrel the course which their striving affections have followed and the issue whereunto they are come may peradventure as troubled waâ—eâ—s in small time of their own accord by certain easie degrees settle themselves again and so recover that clearness of well advised judgment whereby they shall stand at the length indifferent both to yeild and admit any reasonable satisfaction where before they could not endure with patience to be gain-said Neither will I despair of the like success in these unpleasant Controversies touching Ecclesiastical Polity the time of silence which both parts have willingly taken to breathe seeming now as it were a pledge of all Mens quiet Contentment to hear with more indifferency the weightiest and last remains of that Cause Jurisdiction Dignity Dominion Ecclesiastical For let any Man imagin that the bare and naked difference of a few Ceremonies could either have kindled so much fire or have caused it to flame so long but that the parties which herein laboured mightily for change and as they say for Reformation had somewhat more then this mark whereat to aim Having therefore drawn out a compleat Form as they suppose of publick service to be done to God and set down their Plot for the Office of the Ministry in that behalf they very well knew how little their labours so far forth bestowed would avail them in the end without a claim of Jurisdiction to uphold the Fabrick which they had erected and this neither likely to be obtained but by the strong hand of the people not the people unlikely to favour it the more if overture were made of their own Interest right and title thereunto Whereupon there are many which have conjectured this to be the cause
Correct his Family The Souls of Men are Gods Treasure committed to the Trust and Fidelity of such as must render a strict account for the very least which is under their Custody God hath not invested them with Power to make a Revenue thereof but to use it for the good of them whom Jesus Christ hath most dearly bought And because their Office therein consisteth of sundry functions some belonging to Doctrine some to Discipline all contained in the Name of the Keys they have for matters of Discipline as well Litigious as Criminal their Courts and Consistories erected by the heavenly Authority of his most Sacred Voice who hath said Dic Ecclesia Tell the Church against rebellious and conâ—umacious Persons which refuse to obey their Sentence armed they are with Power to eject such out of the Church to deprive them of the Honours Rights and Priviledges of Christian Men to make them as Heathens and Publicans with whom society was hateful Furthermore lest their Acts should be slenderly accounted of or had in contempt whether they admit to the Fellowship of Saints or seclude from it whether they bind Offenders or set them again at liberty whether they remit or retain Sins whatsoever is done by way of orderly and lawfull proceeding the Lord himself hath promised to ratifie This is that grand Original Warrant by force whereof the Guides and Prelates in Gods Church first his Apostles and afterwards others following them successively did both use and uphold that Discipline the end whereof is to heal Mens Consciences to cure their Sins to reclaim Offenders from iniquity and to make them by Repentance just Neither hath it of Ancient time for any other respect been accustomed to bind by Ecclesiastical Censures to retain so bound till tokens of manifest Repentance appeared and upon apparent Repentance to Release saving only because this was received as a most expedient method for the cure of sin The course of Discipline in former Ages reformed open Transgressors by putting them into Offices of open Penitence especially Confession whereby they declared their own crimes in the hearing of the whole Church and were not from the time of their first Convention capable of the holy Mysteries of Christ till they had solemnly discharged this duty Offenders in secret knowing themselves altogether as unworthy to be admitted to the Lords Table as the other which were with-held being also perswaded that if the Church did direct them in the Offices of their Penitency and assist them with publique Prayer they should more easily obtain that they sought than by trusting wholly to their own endeavours finally having no impediment to stay them from it but bashfulness which countervailed not the former inducements and besides was greatly cased by the good construction which the charity of those times gave to such actions wherein Mens piety and voluntary care to be reconciled to God did purchase them much more love than their faults the testimonies of common frailty were able to procure disgrace they made it not nice to use some one of the Ministers of God by whom the rest might take notice of their faults prescribe them convenient remedies and in the end after publick Confession all joyn in Prayer unto God for them The first beginner of this Custom had the more followers by means of that special favour which alwaies was with good consideration shewed towards voluntary Penitents above the rest But as Professors of Christian belief grew more in number so they waxed worse when Kings and Princes had submitted their Dominions unto the Scepter of Jesus Christ by means whereof Persecution ceasing the Church immediately became subject to those evills which peace and security bringeth forth there was not now that love which before kept all things in tune but every where Schisms Discords Dissentions amongst Men. Conventicles of Hereticks bent more vehemently against the sounder and better sort than very Infidels and Heathens themselves faults not corrected in Charity but noted with delight and kept for malice to use when the deadliest opportunities should be offered Whereupon forasmuch as publick Confessions became dangerous and prejudicial to the safety of well-minded Men and in divers respects advantagious to the Enemies of Gods Church it seemed first unto some and afterwards generally requisite that voluntary Penitents should surcease from open Confession Instead whereof when once private and secret Confession had taken place with the Latins It continued as a profitable Ordinance till the Lateran Council had Decreed that all Men once in a year at the least should confess themselves to the Priest So that being a thing thus made both general and also necessary the next degree of estimation whereunto it grew was to be honoured and and lifted up to the Nature of a Sacramentâ— that as Christ did institute Baptism to give life and the Eucharist to nourish life so Penitence might be thought a Sacrament ordained to recover life and Confession a part of the Sacrament They define therefore their private Penetency to be a Sacrament of remitting sins after Baptism The vertue of Repentance a detestation of wickedness with ful purpose to amend the same and with hope to obtain pardon at Gods hands Wheresoever the Prophets cry Repent and in the Gospel Saint Peter maketh the same Exhortation to the Jews as yet unbaptized they would have the vertue of Repentance only to be understood The Sacrament where he adviseth Simon Magus to repent because the Sin of Simon Magus was after Baptism Now although they have onely external Repentance for a Sacrament internal for a Vertue yet make they Sacramental Repentance nevertheless to be composed of three parts Contrition Confession and Satisfaction which is absurd because Contrition being an inward thing belongeth to the Vertue and not to the Sacrament of Repentance which must consist of external parts if the nature thereof be external Besides which is more absurd they leave out Absolution whereas some of their School Divines handling Penance in the nature of a Sacrament and being not able to espie the least resemblance of a Sacrament save only in Absolution for a Sacrament by their doctrine must both signifie and also confer or bestow some special Divine Grace resolved themselves that the duties of the Penitent could be but meer preparations to the Sacrament and that the Sacrament it self was wholly in Absolution And albeit Thomas with his Followers have thought it safer to maintain as well the services of the Penitent as the words of the Minister necessary unto the essence of their Sacrament the services of the Penitent as a cause material the words of Absolution as a formal for that by them all things else are perfected to the taking away of Sin which opinion now reigneth in all their Schools since the time that the Councel of Trent gave it solemn approbation seeing they all make Absolution if not the whole essence yet the very form whereunto they ascribe chiefly the whole force
Councel of Nice where thirteen years being set for the Penitency of certain offenders the severity of this Degree is mitigated with special caution That in all such cases the mind of the Penitent and the manner of his Repentance is to be noted that as many as with fear and tears and meekness and the exercise of good works declared themselves to be Converts indeed and not in outward appearance only towards them the Bishop at his discretion might use more lenity If the Councel of Nice suffice not let Gratian the Founder of the Canon Law expound Cyprian who sheweth that the stine of time in Penitency is either to be abridged or enlarged as the Penitents Faith and behaviour shall give occasion I have easilier found out men Saith S. Ambrose able to keep themselves free from crimes then conformable to the rules which in Penitency they should observe S. Gregory Bishop of Nisse complaineth and enveigheth bitterly against them who in the time of their Penitency lived even as they had done alwaies before Their countenance as chearful their attire is neat their dyet as costly and their sleep as secure as ever their worldly business purposely followed to exile pensive thoughts for their minds repentance pretended but indeed nothing less express These were the inspections of life whereunto St. Cyprian alludeth as for Auricular Examinations he knew them not Were the Fathers then without use of private Confession as long as publick was in use I affirm no such thing The first and ancientest that mentioneth this Confession is Origen by whom it may seem that men being loth to present rashly themselves and their faults unto the view of the whole Church thought it best to unfold first their minds to some one special man of the Clergy which might either help them himself or referre them to an higher Court if need were Be therefore circumspect saith Origen in making choice of the party to whom thou meanest to confess thy Sin know thy Physitian before thou use him If he find thy malady such as needeth to be made publick that other may be the better by it and thy self sonner helpt his counsel must be obeyed That which moved sinners thus voluntarily to detect themselves both in private and in publick was fear to receive with other Christian men the mysteries of heavenly grace till Gods appointed Stewards and Ministers did judge them worthy It is in this respect that St. Ambrose findeth fault with certain men which sought imposition of Penance and were not willing to wait their time but would be presently admitted Communicants Such people saith he do seek by so rash and preposterous desires rather to bring the Priest into bonds then to loose themselves In this respect it is that S. Augustine hath likewise said When the wound of Sin is so wide and the disease so far gone that the medicinable body and blood of our Lord may not be touched men are by the Bishops authority to sequester themselves from the Altar till such time as they have repented and be after reconciled by the same authority Furthermore because the knowledge how to handle our own sores is no vulgar and common art but we either carry towards our selves for the most part an over-soft and gentle hand fearful of touching too near the quick or else endeavouring not to be partial we fall into timerous scrupulosities and sometime into those extream discomforts of mind from which we hardly do ever lift up our heads again men thought it the safest way to disclose their secret faults and to crave imposition of Penance from them whom our Lord Jesus Christ hath left in his Church to be Spiritual and Ghostly Physitians the Guides and Pastors of redeemed Souls whose Office doth not onely consist in generall perswasions unto amendment of life but also in the private particular cure of diseased minds Howsoever the Novatianists presume to plead against the Church saith Salvianus that every man ought to be his own Penitentiary and that it is a part of our duty to exercise but not of the Churches Authority to impose or prescribe Repentance the truth is otherwise the best and strongest of us may need in such cases direction What doth the Church in giving Penance but shew the remedies which Sin requireth or what do we in receiving the same but fulfill her precept what else but sue unto God with tears and salts that his merciful ears may be opened St. Augustines exhortation is directly to the same purpose Let every man whilst he hath time judge himself and change his life of his own accord and when this is resolved Let him from the disposers of the holy Sacraments learn in what manner be is to pacifie Gods displeasure But the greatest thing which made men forward and willing upon their knees to confess whatsoever they had committed against God and in no wise to be with-held from the same with any fear of disgrace contempt or obloquy which might ensue was their servent desire to be helped and assisted with the Prayers of Gods Saints Wherein as St. Iames doth exhort unto mutual confession alledging this onely for a reason that just mens devout prayers are of great avail with God so it hath been heretofore the use of Penitents for that intent to unburthen their minds even to private persons and to crave their Prayers Whereunto Cassianus alluding counselleth That if men possest with dulness of spirit be themselves unapt to do that which is required they should in meek affection seek health as the least by good and vertuous mens prayers unto God for them And to the same effect Gregory Bishop of Nisse Humble thy self and take unto thee such of thy brethren as are of one mind and do bear kind affection towards thee that they may together mourn and labour for thy deliverance Show me thy bitter and abundant tears that I may blend mine own with them But because of all men there is or should be none in that respect more fit for troubled and distressed minds to repair unto then Gods Ministers he proceedeth further Make the Priest as a Father partaker of thine affliction and grief be bold to impart unto him the things that are most secret he will have care both of thy safety and of thy credit Confession saith Leo is first to be offered to God and then to the Priest as to one which maketh supplication for the sins of Penitent offenders Suppose we that men would ever have been easily drawn much less of their own accord have come unto publick Confession whereby they know they should sound the trumpet of their own disgrace would they willingly have done this which naturally all men are loth to do but for the singular trust and confidence which they had in the publick prayers of Gods Church Let thy Mother the Church weep for thee saith Ambrose let her wash and bathe thy faults with
cruel were a sinne most grievous considering that the people of God should be easie to relent as Joseph was towards his Brethren Finally if so it fall out that the death of him which was injured prevent his submission which did offend let him then for so they determine that he ought goe accompanied with ten others unto the Sepulchre of the Dead and there make confession of the Fault saying I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel and against this man to whom I have done such or such injury and if Money be due let it be restored to his Heirs or in case he have none known leave it with the house of Iudgement That is to say with the Senators Ancients and Guides of Israel We hold not Christian people tyed unto Jewish Orders for the manner of Restitution but surely Restitution we must hold necessary as well in our own Repentance as theirs for Sinnes of wilful oppression and wrong Now although it suffices that the Offices wherewith we pacifie God or private men be secretly done yet in Cases where the Church must be also satisfied it was not to this end and purpose unnecessary that the antient Discipline did farther require outward signes of Contrition to be shewed Confession of Sinnes to be made openly and those Works to be apparent which served as Testimonies for Conversion before men Wherein if either Hypocrisie did at any time delude their Judgment they knew that God is he whom Maskes and Mockeryes cannot blinde that he which seeth mens hearts would judge them according unto his own evidence and as Lord correct the Sentence of his Servants concerning matters beyond their reach Or if such as ought to have kept the Rules of Canonical Satisfaction would by sinister means and practises undermine the same obtruding presumptuously themselves to the participation of Christ's most sacred Mysteries before they were orderly re-admitted thereunto the Church for contempt of holy things held them incapable of that Grace which God in the Sacrament doth impart to devout Communicants and no doubt but he himself did retain bound whom the Church in those cases refused to loose The Fathers as may appear by sundry Decrees and Canons of the Primitive Church were in matter specially of publick Scandal provident that too much facility of pardoning might not be shewed He that casteth off his lawful wife saith Saint Basil and doth take another it adjudged an Adulterer by the verdict of our Lord himself and by our Fathers it is Canonically ordained that such for the space of a year shall mourn for two years space hear three years be prostrate the seventh year assemble with the faithful in Prayer and after that be admitted to communicate if with tears they bewail their fault Of them which had fallen from their faith in the time of Emperour Licinius and were not thereunto forced by any extream usage the Nicene Synod under Constantine ordained that earnestly repenting they should continue three years Hearers seven years be prostrate and two years communicate with the people in prayer before they came to receive the oblation Which rigour sometimes they tempered nevertheless with lenity the self-same Synod having likewise defined That whatsoever the cause were any man desirous at the time of departure out of this life to receive the Eucharist might with examination and tryal have it granted him by the Bishop Yea besides this case of special commiseration there is a Canon more large which giveth always liberty to abridge or extend out the time as the Parties meek or sturdy disposition should require By means of which Discipline the Church having power to hold them many years in suspence there was bred in the mindes of the Penitents through long and daily practise of submission a contrary habit unto that which before had been their ruine and for ever afterwards wariness not to fall into those snares out of which they knew they could not easily winde themselves Notwithstanding because there was likewise hope and possibility of shortning the time this made them in all the Parts and Offices of their Repentance the more fervent In the first station while they onely beheld others passing towards the Temple of God whereunto for themselves to approach it was not lawful they stood as miserable forlorn men the very patterns of perplexity and woe In the second when they had the favour to wait at the doors of God where the sound of his comfortable word might be heard none received it with attention like to theirs Thirdly being taken and admitted to the next degree of Prostrates at the feet yet behinde the back of that Angel representing God whom the rest saw face to face their tears and entreaties both of Pastour and People were such as no man could resist After the fourth step which gave them liberty to hear and pray with the rest of the People being so near the haven no diligence was then flacked which might hasten admission to the Heavenly Table of Christ their last desire It is not therefore a thing to be marvelled at though Saint Cyprian took it in very ill part when open Back-sliders from the faith and sacred Religion of Christ laboured by sinister practise to procure from imprisoned Saints those requests for present absolution which the Church could neither yield unto with safety of Discipline nor in honour of Martyrdom easily deny For what would thereby ensue they needed not to conjecture when they saw how every man which came so commended to the Church by Letters thought that now he needed not to crave but might challenge of duty his peace taking the matter very highly if but any little forbearance or small delay was used He which is overthrown saith Cyprian menaceth them that stand the wounded them that were never toucht and because presently he hath not the body of our Lord in his foul imbrued hands nor the blood within his polluted lips the miscreant fumeth at God's Priests Such is thy madness O thou furious man thou art angry with him which laboureth to turn away God's anger from thee him thou threatnest which sueth unto God for grace and mercy on thy behalf Touching Martyrs he answereth That it ought not in this case to seem offensive though they were denied seeing God himself did refuse to yield to the piety of his own righteous Saints making suit for obdurate Iews As for the Parties in whose behalf such shifts were used to have their desire was in very truth the way to make them the more guilty Such peace granted contrary to the rigour of the Gospel contrary to the Law of our Lord and God doth but under colour of merciful relaxation deceive Sinners and by soft handling destroy them a grace dangerous for the Giver and to him which receiveth it nothing at all available The patient expectation that bringeth health is by this means not regarded recovery of soundness not sought for by the only medicine available which is
calling been always so eminent above the rest in the same Church And what need we to seek far for proofs that the Apostles who began this order of Regiment by Bishops did it not but by divine instinct when without such direction things of far less weight and moment they attemdted not Paul and Barnabas did not open their mouths to the Gentiles till the Spirit had said Separate me Paul and Barnabas for the work whereunto I have sent them The Eunuch by Philip was neither baptized nor instructed before the Angel of God was sent to give him notice that so it pleased the most High In Asia Paul and the rest were silent because the Spirit forbad them to speak When they intended to have seen Bythinia they stayed their journey the spirit not giving them leave to go Before Timothy was imployed in those Episcopal affairs of the Church about which the Apostle St. Paul used him the Holy Ghost gave special charge for his Ordination and prophetical intelligence more then once what success the same would have And shall we think that Iames was made Bishop of Ierusalem Evodius Bishop of the Church of Antioch the Angels in the Churches of Asia Bishops that Bishops every where were appointed to take away factions contentions and Schisms without some like divine instigation and direction of the Holy Ghost Wherefore let us not fear to be herein bold and peremptory That if any thing in the Churches Government surely the first institution of Bishops was from Heaven was even of God the Holy Ghost was the Author of it VI. A Bishops saith St. Augustine is a Presbyter's Superior but the question is now wherein that superiority did consist The Bishops pre-eminence we say therefore was twofold First he excelled in latitude of the power of Order secondly in that kind of power which belongeth unto Iurisdiction Priests in the law had authority and power to do greater things then Levites the high Priest greater then inferiour Priests might do therefore Levites were beneath Priests and Priests inferior to the High Priest by reason of the very degree of dignity and of worthiness in the nature of those functions which they did execute and not only for that the one had power to command and controul the other In like sort Presbyters having a weightier and a worthier charge then Deacons had the Deacon was in this sort the Presbyters inferior and where we say that a Bishop was likewise ever accompted a Presbyters superior even according unto his very power of Order we must of necessity declare what principal duties belonging unto that kind of power a Bishop might perform and not a Presbyter The custom of the primitive Church in consecrating holy Virgins and Widows unto the service of God and his Church is a thing not obscure but easie to be known both by that which St. Paul himself concerning them hath and by the latter consonant evidence of other mens writings Now a part of the pre-eminence which Bishops had in their power of Order was that by them onely such were consecrated Again the power of ordaining both Deacons and Presbyters the power to give the power of order unto others this also hath been always peculiar unto Bishops It hath not been heard of that inferiour presbyters were ever authorized to ordein And concerning Ordination so great force and dignity it hath that whereas Presbyters by such power as they have received for Administration of the Sacraments are able only to beget Children unto God Bishops having power to Ordain do by vertue thereof create Fathers to the people of God as Epiphanius fitly disputeth There are which hold that between a Bishop and a Presbyter touching power of Order there is no difference The reason of which conceipt is for that they see Presbyters no less then Bishops authorized to offer up the prayers of the Church to Preach the Gospel to Baptize to Administer the holy Eucharist but they considered not with all as they should that the Presbyters authority to do these things is derived from the Bishops which doth ordain him thereunto so that even in those things which are common unto both yet the power of the one is as it were a certain light borrowed from the others lamp The Apostles being Bishops at large â—deined every where Presbyters Titus and Timothy having received Episcopal power as Apostolique Embassadors or Legates the one in Greece the other in Ephesus they both did by vertue thereof likewise ordein throughout all Churches Deacons and Presbyters within the circuits allotted unto them As for Bishops by restraint their power this way incommunicable unto Presbyters which of the ancients do not acknowledge I make not Confirmation any part of that power which hath always belonged only unto Bishops because in some places the custom was that Presbyters might also confirm in the absence of a Bishop albeit for the most part none but onely Bishops were thereof the allowed Ministers Here it will be perhaps Objected that the power of Ordination it self was not every where peculiar and proper unto Bishops as may be seen by 2 Council of Carthage which sheweth their Churches Order to have been That Presbyters should together with the Bishop lay hands upon the ordained But the answer hereunto is easie For doth it hereupon follow that the power of Ordination was not principally and originally in the Bishop Our Saviour hath said unto his Apostles With me ye shall sit and judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel yet we know that to him alone it belongeth to judge the World and that to him all judgement is given With us even at this day Presbyters are licensed to do as much as that Council speaketh of if any be present Yet will not any man thereby conclude that in this Church others than Bishops are allowed to ordain The association of Presbyters is no sufficient proof that the power of Ordination is in them but rather that it never was in them we may hereby understand for that no man is able to shew either Deacon or Presbyter ordained by Presbyters only and his Ordination accounted lawful in any ancient part of the Church every where examples being found both of Deacons and of Presbyters ordained by Bishops alone oftentimes neither ever in that respect thought unsufficient Touching that other chiefty which is of Jurisdiction amongst the Jews he which was highest through the worthiness of peculiar duties incident into his function in the legal service of God did bear alwaies in Ecclesiastical jurisdiction the chiefest sway As long as the glory of the Temple of God did last there were in it sundry orders of men consecrated unto the service thereof one sort of them inferior unto another in dignity and degree the Nathiners subordinate unto the Levites the Levites unto the Priests the rest of the Priests to those twenty four which were chief Priests and they all to the High Priest If any
the Antients termed usually an Arch-Presbyter weat this day name him Dean For most certain truth it is that Churches-Cathedral and the Bishops of them are as glasses wherein the face and very countenance of Apostolical antiquity remaineth even as yet to be seen notwithstanding the alterations which tract of time and the course of the world hath brought For defence and maintenance of them we are most earnestly bound to strive even as the Jews were for their Temple and the High-Priest of God therein The overthrow and ruine of the one if ever the sacrilegious avarice of Atheists should prevail so farr which God of his infinite mercy forbid ought no otherwise to move us than the people of God were moved when having beheld the sack and combustion of his Sanctuary in most lamentable manner flaming before their eyes they uttered from the bottom of their grieved Spirits those voyces of doleful supplication Exsurge Domine miserearis Sion serve tui diligunt lapides ejus pulver is ejus miseret cos VIII How farr the power which Bishops had did reach what number of Persons was subject unto them at the first and how large their Territories were it is not for the question we have in hand a thing very greatly material to know For if we prove that Bishops have lawfully of old ruled over other Ministers it is enough how few soever those Ministers have been how small soever the circuit of Place which hath contained them Yet hereof somewhat to the end we may so farr forth illustrate Church-Antiquities A Law Imperial there is which sheweth that there was great care had to provide for every Christian City Biâ—hop as near as might be and that each City had some Territory belonging unto it which Territory was also under the Bishop of the same City that because it was not universally thus but in some Countrys one Bishop had subject unto him many Cities and their Territories the Law which provided for establishment of the other Orders should not prejudice those Churches wherein this contrary Custom had before prevailed Unto the Bishop of every such City not only the Presbyters of the same City but also of the Territory thereunto belonging were from the first beginning subject For we must note that when as yet there were in Cities no Parish Churches but only Colledges of Presbyters under their Bisâ—ops Regiment yet smaller Congregations and Churches there were even then abroad in which Churches there was but some one only Presbyter to perform amongst them Divine duties Towns and Villages abroad receiving the Faith of Christ from Cities whereunto they were adjacent did as Spiritual and Heavenly Colonies by their subjection honour those antient Mother Churches out of which they grew And in the Christian Cities themselves when the mighty increase of Believers made it necessary to have them divided into certain several companies and over every of those companies one only Pastor to be appointed for the Ministry of holy things between the first and the rest after it there could not be but a natural inequality even as between the Temple and Synagogues in Ierusalem The Clergy of Cities were termed Urbici to shew a difference between them and the Clergies of Townes of Villages of Castles abroad And how many soever these Parishes or Congregations were in number which did depend on any one principal City-Church unto the Bishop of that one Church they and their several sole Presbyters were all subject For if so be as some imagine every petty Congregation or Hamlet had had his own particular Bishop what sense could there be in those words of Ierom concerning Castles Villages and other places abroad which having onely Presbyters to teach them and to minister unto them the Sacraments were resorted unto by Bishops for the Administration of that wherewith their Presbyters were not licensed to meddle To note a difference of that one Church where the Bishop hath his seat and the rest which depend upon it that one hath usually been termed Cathedral according to the same sense wherein Ignatius speaking of the Church of Antioch termeth it his Throne and Cyprian making mention of Euaristâ—s who had been Bishop and was now depoâ—ed termeth him Cathedrae extâ—rrem one that was thrust besides his Chair The Church where the Bishop is set with his Colledge of Presbyters about him we call a See the Local compass of his Authority we term a Diocess Unto a Bishop within the compass of his own both See and Diocess it hath by right of his place evermore appertained to ordain Presbyters to make Deacons and with judgement to dispose of all things of weight The Apostle St. Paul had Episcopal Authority but so at large that we cannot assign unto him any one certain Diocess His positive Orders and Constitutions Churches every where did obey Yea a charge and care saith he I have even of all the Churches The walks of Titus and Timothy was limited within the bounds of a narrow Precinct As for other Bishops that which Chrysostom hath concerning them If they be evil could not poâ—â—ibly agreâ— unto them unless their Authority had reached farther than to some one only Congregation The danger being so great at it is to him that scandalizeth one Soul What shall he saith Chrisostom speaking of a Bishop what shall he deserve by whom so many Souls yea even whole Cities and Peoples Men Women and Children Citizens Peasants Inhabitants both of his own City and of other Towns subject unto it are offended A thing so unusual it was for a Bishop not to have ample Jurisdiction that Theophilus Patriark of Alexandria for making one a Bishop of a small Town is noted a proud Despiser of the commendable Orders of the Church with this censure Such Novelties Theophilus presumed every where to begin taking upon him as it had been another Moses Whereby is discovered also their Errour who think that such as in Ecclesiâ—stical Writings they finde termed Chorepiscopos were the same in the Country which the Bishop was in the City Whereas the old Chorepiscopi are they that were appointed of the Bishops to have as his Vicegerents some over-sight of those Churches abroad which were subject unto his See in which Churches they had also power to make Sub-deacons Readers and such like petty Church-Officers With which power so stâ—nted they not contenting themselves but adventuring at the length to Orâ—â—in even Deacons and Presbyters also as the Bishop himself did their presumption herein was controlled and stayed by the antient Edict of Councils For example that of Antioch It hath seemed good to the holy Synod that such in Towns and Countrys as are called Chorepiscopi do know their limits and govern the Churches under them contenting themselves with the charge thereof and with Authority to make Readers Sub-Deacons Exorcists and to be Leaders or Guiders of them but not to meddle with the Ordination either of
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
most willingly thereunto even of reverence to the Most High with the Flower of whose sanctified Inheritance as it were with a kinde of Divine presence unless their Chiefest Civil Assemblies were so farr forth beautified as might be without any notable impediment unto their Heavenly Fâ—nctions they could not satisfie themselves as having showed towards God an Affection most duâ—iful Thus first in defect of other Civil Magistrates Secondly for the ease and quietness of Scholastical Societies Thirdly by way of Political necessity Fourthly in regard of quality care and extraordinancy Fifthly For countenance into the Ministry And lastly even of Devotion and Reverence towards God himself there may be admitted at leastwise in some Particulars well and lawfully enough a conjunction of Civil and Ecclesiastical Power except there be some such Law or Reason to the contrary as may prove it to be a thing simply in it self naught Against it many things are objected as first That the matters which are noted in the holy Scripture to have belonged unto the ordinary Office of any Minister of God's holy Word and Sacraments are these which follow with such like and no other namely The watch of the Sanctuary the business of God the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments Oversight of the House of God Watching over his Flock Prophesie Prayer Dispensations of the Mysteries of God Charge and care of mens Souls If a man would shew what the Offices and Duties of a Chirurgion or Physician are I suppose it were not his part so much as to mention any thing belonging to the one or the other in case either should be also a Souldier or a Merchant or an House-keeper or a Magistrate Because the Functions of these are different from those of the former albeit one and the same man may happily be both The Case is like when the Scripture teacheth what Duties are required in an Ecclesiastical Minister in describing of whose Office to touch any other thing than such as properly and directly toucheth his Office that way were impertinent Yea But in the Old Testament the two Powers Civil and Ecclesiastical were distinguished not onely in Nature but also in Person the one committed unto Moses and the Magistrates joyned with him the other to Aaron and his Sons Jehosophat in his Reformation doth not onely distinguish Causes Ecclesiastical from Civil and erecteth divers Courts for them but appointeth also divers Iudges With the Jews these two Powers were not so distinguished but that sometimes they might and did concâ—â— in one and the same Person Was not Ely both Priest and Judge After their return from captivity Esâ—â—as a Priest and the same their Chief Governour even in Civil Affairs also These men which urge the necessity of making always a Personal distinction of these two Powers as if by Iehosaphat's example the same Person ought not to deal in both Causes yet are not scrupulous to make men of Civil Place and Calling Presbyters and Ministers of Spiritual Jurisdiction in their own Spiritual Consistories If it be against the Jewish Precedents for us to give Civil Power unto such as have Ecclesiastical is it not as much against the same for them to give Ecclesiastical Power unto such as have Civil They will answer perhaps That their Position is onely against conjunction of Ecclesiastical Power of Order and the Power of Civil Jurisdiction in one Person But this Answer will not stand with their Proofs which make no less against the Power of Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in one Person for of these two Powers Iehosaphat's example is Besides the contrary example of Heli and of Ezra by us alledged do plainly shew that amongst the Jewes even the power of Order Ecclesiastical and Civil Jurisdiction were sometimes lawfully united in one and the same Person Pressed further we are with our Lord and Saviour's example who denyeth his Kingdom to be of this Wold and therefore as not standing with his Calling refused to be made a King to give sentence in a criminal Cause of Adultery and in a Civil of dividing an Inheritance The Jews imagining that their Messiah should be a Potent Monarch upon Earth no marvail though when they did otherwise wonder at Christ's greatness they sought forthwith to have him invested with that kinde of Dignity to the end he might presently begin to reign Others of the Jewes which likewise had the same imagination of the Messiah and did somehat incline to think that peradventure this might be He thought good to try whether he would take upon him that which he might do being a King such as they supposed their true Messiah should be But Christ refused to be a King over them because it was no part of the Office of their Messiah as they did falsely conceive and to intermeddle in those Acts of Civil Judgement be refused also because he had no such Jurisdiction in that Common-wealth being in regard of his Civil Person a man of mean and low Calling As for repugnancy between Ecclesiastical and Civil Power or any inconvenience that these two Powers should be united it doth not appear that this was the cause of his resistance either to reign or else to judge What say we then to the blessed Apostles who teach That Souldiers intangle not themselves with the businesses of this life but leave them to the end they may please him who hath chosen them to serve and that so the good Souldiers of Christ â—ught to do The Apostles which taught this did never take upon them any Place or Office of Civil Power No they gave over the Ecclesiastical care of the Poor that they might wholly attend upon the Word and Prayer St. Paul indeed doth exhort Timothy after this manner Suffer thou evil as a noble Souldier of Iesus Christ No man warring is entangled with the affairs of Life because he must serve such as have pressed him unto Warfare The sense and meaning whereof is plain that Souldiers may not be nice and tender that they must be able to endure hardnesse that no man betaking himself unto Wars continueth entangled with such kinde of Businesses as tend only unto the ease and quiet felicity of this Life but if the service of him who hath taken them under his Banner require the hazard yea the losse of their Lives to please himâ— they must be content and willing with any difficulty any peril be it never so much against the natural desire which they have to live in safety And at this point the Clergy of God must always stand thus it behoveth them to be affected as oft as their Lord and Captain leadeth them into the field whatsoever conflicts perils or evils they are to endure Which duty being not such but that therewith the Civil Dignities which Ecclesiastical Persons amongst us do enjoy may enough stand the Exhortation of Paul to Timothy is but a slender Allegation against them As well might we gather out of this place that Men having Children or Wives
things below We consider not what it is which we reap by the Authority of our Chiefest Spiritual Governors not are likely to enter into any consideration thereof till we want them and that is the cause why they are at our hands so unthankfully rewarded Authority is a constraining Power which Power were needless if we were all such as we should be willing to do the things we ought to do without constraint But because generally we are otherwise therefore we all reap singular benefit by that Authority which permitteth no men though they would to slack their duty It doth not suffice that the Lord of an Houshold appoint Labourers what they should do unless he set over them some chief Workman to see they do it Constitutions and Canons made for the ordering of Church-affairs are dead Task-masters The due execution of Laws Spiritual dependeth most upon the vigilant care of the Chiefest Spiritual Governors whose charge is to see that such Laws be kept by the Clergy and People under them With those Duties which the Law of God and the Ecclesiastical Canons require in the Clergy Lay-Governors are neither for the most part so well acquainted nor so deeply and nearly touched Requisite therefore it is that Ecclesiastical Persons have authority in such things Which kinde of Authority maketh them that have it Prelates If then it be a thing confest as by all good men it needs must be to have Prayers read in all Churches to have the Sacraments of God administred to have the Mysteries of Salvation painfully taught to have God every where devoutly worshipped and all this perpetually and with quietness bringeth unto the whole Church and unto every Member thereof inestimoble good how can that Authority which hath been proved the Ordinance of God for preservation of these duties in the Church how can it choose but deserve to be held a thing publickly most beneficial It were to be wished and is to be laboured for as much as can be that they who are set in such Rooms may be furnished with honourable Qualities and Graces every way fit for their Galling But be they otherwise howsoever so long as they are in Authority all men reap some good by them albeit not so much good as if they were abler men There is not any amongst us all but is a great deal more apt to exact another man's duty than the best of us is to discharge exactly his own and therefore Prelates although neglecting many ways their duty unto God and men do notwithstanding by their Authority great good in that they keep others at the leastwise in some awe under them It is our duty therefore in this consideraton to honor them that rule as Prelates which Office if they discharge well the Apostles own verdict is that the honor they have they be worthy of yea though it were double And if their Government be otherwise the judgement of sage men hath ever been this that albeit the dealings of Governors be culpable yet honourable they must be in respect of that Authority by which they govern Great caution must be used that we neither be emboldned to follow them in evil whom for Authorities sake we honor nor induced in Authority to dishonor them whom as examples we may not follow In a word not to dislike sin though it should be in the highest were unrighteous meekness and proud righteousness it is to contemn or dishonor Highness though it should be in the sinfullest men that live But so hard it is to obtain at our hands especially as now things stand the yielding of Honor to whom Honor in this case belongeth that by a brief Declaration only what the Duties of men are towards the principal Guides and Pastors of their Souls we cannot greatly hope to prevail partly for the malice of their open Adversaries and partly for the cunning of such as in a sacrilegious intent work their dishonor under covert by more mystical and secret means Wherefore requisite and in a manner necessary it is that by particular instances we make it even palpably manifest what singular benefit and use publick the nature of Prelates is apt to yield First no man doubteth but that unto the happy condition of Common-weals it is a principal help and furtherance when in the eye of Foreign States their estimation and credit is great In which respect the Lord himself commending his own Laws unto his people mentioneth this as a thing not meanly to be accounted of that their careful obedience yielded thereunto should purchase them a great good opinion abroad and make them every where famous for wisdom Fame and reputation groweth especially by the vertue not of common ordinary persons but of them which are in each estate most eminent by occasion of their higher Place and Calling The mean man's actions be they good or evil they reach not farr they are not greatly enquired into except perhaps by such as dwell at the next door whereas men of more ample dignity are as Cities on the tops of Hills their lives are viewed a farr off so that the more there are which observe aloof what they do the greater glory by their well-doing they purchase both unto God whom they serve and to the State wherein they live Wherefore if the Clergy be a beautifying unto the body of this Common-weal in the eyes of Foreign beholders and if in the Clergy the Prelacy be most exposed unto the World's eye what publick benefit doth grow from that Order in regard of reputation thereby gotten to the Land from abroad we may soon conjecture Amongst the Jews their Kings excepted who so renowned throughout the World as their High-Priest who so much or so often spoken of as their Prelates 2. Which Order is not for the present only the most in sight but for that very cause also the most commended unto Posterity For if we search those Records wherein there hath descended from age to age whatsoever notice and intelligence we have of those things which were before us is there any thing almost else surely not any thing so much kept in memory as the successions doings sufferings and affairs of Prelates So that either there is not any publick use of that light which the Church doth receive from Antiquity or if this be absurd to think then must we necessarily acknowledge our selves beholden more unto Prelates than unto others their Inferiours for that good of direction which Ecclesiastical actions recorded do always bring 3. But to call home our cogitations and more inwardly to weigh with our selves what principal commodity that Order yieldeth or at leastwise is of its own disposition and nature apt to yield Kings and Princes partly for information of their own consciences partly for instruction what they have to do in a number of most weighty affairs intangled with the cause of Religion having as all men know so usual occasion of often consultations and conferences with their Clergy suppose
life Whether it were covetousness or sensuality in their lives absurdity or error in their teaching any breach of the laws and Canons of the Church wherein he espied them faulty certain and sure they were to be thereof most plainly told Which thing they whose dealings were justly culpable could not bear but instead of amending their faults bent their hatred against him who sought their amendment till at length they drove him by extremity of infestation through weariness of striving against their injuries to leave both them and with them the Church Amongst the manifold accusations either generally intended against the Bishops of this our Church or laid particularly to the charge of any of them I cannot find that hitherto their spitefullest adversaries have been able to say justly that any man for telling them their personal faults in good and Christian sort hath sustained in that respect much persecution Wherefore notwithstanding mine own inferior estate and calling in Gods Church the consideration whereof assureth me that in this kind the sweetest Sacrifice which I can offer unto Christ is meek Obedience reverence and aw unto the Prelates which he hath placed in seats of higher Authority over me emboldned I am so far as may conveniently stand with that duty of humble subjection meekly to crave my good L L. your favourable pardon if it shall seem a fault thus far to presume or if otherwise your wonted courteous acceptation AEneid l. 12. Sinite hat haud mollia fatu Sublatis aperite dolis In government be it of what kind soever but especially if it be such kind of Government as Prelates have over the Church there is not one thing publiquely more hurtful then that an hard opinion should be conceived of Governors at the first and a good opinion how should the World ever conceive of them for their after-proceedings in Regiment whose first access and entrance thereunto giveth just occasion to think them corrupt men which fear not that God in whose name they are to rule Wherefore a scandalous thing it is to the Church of God and to the Actors themselves dangerous to have aspired unto rooms of Prelacy by wicked means We are not at this day troubled much with that tumultuous kind of ambition wherewith the elections of Damasus in S. Ieromes age and of Maximus in Gregories time and of others were long sithence stained Our greatest fear is rather the evil which Leo and Anthemius did by Imperial constitution endeavour as much as in them by to prevent He which granteth or he which receiveth the office and dignity of a Bishop otherwise then beseemeth a thing Divine and most holy he which bestoweth and he which obteineth it after any other sort then were honest and lawful to use if our Lord Jesus Christ were present himself on earth to bestow it even with his own hands sinneth a sin by so much more grievous then the sin of Balshazar by how much Offices and Functions heavenly are more precious then the meanest ornaments or implements which thereunto appertain If it be as the Apostle saith that the Holy Ghost doth make Bishops and that the whole action of making them is Gods own deed men being therein but his Agents what spark of the fear of God can there possibly remain in their hearts who representing the person of God in naming worthy men to Ecclesiastial charge do sell that which in his name they are to bestow or who standing as it were at the Throne of the Living God do bargain for that which at his hands they are to receive Wo worth such impious and irreligious prophanations The Church of Christ hath been hereby made not a den of thieves but in a manner the very dwelling place of soul spirits for undoubtedly such a number of them have been in all ages who thus have climbed into the seat of Episcopal Regiment 2. Men may by orderly means be invested with spiritual Authority and yet do harm by reason of ignorance how to use it to the good of the Church It is saith Chrysostom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing highly to be accompted of but a hard thing to be that which a Bishop should be Yea a hard and a toilsom thing it is for a Bishop to know the things that belong unto a Bishop A right good man may be a very unfit Magistrate And for discharge of a Bishops Office to be well minded is not enough no not to be well learned also Skill to instruct is a thing necessary skill to govern much more necessary in a Bishop It is not safe for the Church of Christ when Pishops learn what belongeth unto Government as Empericks learn physick by killing of the sick Bishops were wont to be men of great learning in the Laws both Civil and of the Church and while they were so the wisest men in the land for Counsel and Government were Bishops 3. Know we never so well what belongeth unto a charge of so great moment yet can we not therein proceed but with hazard of publique detriment if we relye on our selves alone and use not the benefit of conference with others A singular mean to unity and concord amongst themselves a marvellous help unto uniformity in their dealings no small addition of weight and credit unto that which they do a strong bridle unto such as watch for occasions to stir against them finally a very great stay unto all that are under their Government it could not chuse but be soon found if Bishops did often and seriously use the help of mutual consultation These three rehearsed are things onely preparatory unto the course of Episcopal proceedings But the hurt is more manifestly seen which doth grow to the Church of God by faults inherent in their several actions as when they carelesly Ordein when they Institute negligently when corruptly they bestow Church-Livings Benefices Prebends and rooms especially of Jurisdiction when they visit for gain-sake rather then with serious intent to do good when their Courts erected for the maintenance of good Order are disordered when they regard not the Clergy under them when neither Clergy nor Laity are kept in that aw for which this authority should serve when any thing appeareth in them rather then a fatherly affection towards the flock of Christ when they have no respect to posterity and finally when they neglect the true and requisite means whereby their authority should be upheld Surely the hurt which groweth out of these defects must needs be exceeding great In a Minister ignorance and disability to teach is a maim nor is it held a thing allowable to ordain such were it not for the avoiding of a greater evil which the Church must needs sustain if in so great scarcity of able men and unsufficiency of most Parishes throughout the Land to maintain them both publick Prayer and the Administration of Sacraments should rather want then any man thereunto be admitted lacking dexterity and skill to perform that which
Deductions cometh clearly unto our hands I hope it will not be said that towards the publique charge we disburse nothing And doth the residue seem yet excessive The ways whereby temporal men provide for themselves and their Families are fore-closed unto us All that we have to sustain our miserable life with is but a remnant of God's own treasure so farr already diminished and clipt that if there were any sense of common humanity left in this hard-hearted World the improverished estate of the Clergy of God would at the length even of very commiseration be spared The mean Gentleman that hath but an hundred pound Land to live on would not be hasty to change his Worldly estate and condition with many of these so over-abounding Prelates a common Artisan or Tradesman of the City with ordinary Pastors of the Church It is our hard and heavy lot that no other sort of men being grudged at how little benefit soever the Publick Weal reap by them no state complained of for holding that which hath grown unto them by lawful means only the Governors of our Souls they that study day and night so to guide us that both in this World we may have comfort and in the World to come endless felicity and joy for even such is the very scope of all their endeavours this they wish for this they labour how hardly soever we use to construe of their incents hard that only they should be thus continually lifted at for possessing but that whereunto they have by Law both of God and man most just Title If there should be no other remedy but that the violence of men in the end must needs bereave them of all succour further than the inclinations of others shall vouchsafe to cast upon them as it were by way of Alms for their relief but from to hour better they are not than their Fathers who have been contented with as hard a portion at the World's hands let the light of the Sun and Moon the common benefit of Heaven and Earth be taken away from â—â— if the Question were Whether God should lose his glory and the safety of his Church be hazarded or they relinquish the right and interest which they have in the things of this World But fith the Question in truth is Whether Levi shall be deprived of the portion of God or no to the end that Simeon or Reuben may devour it as their spoyl the comfort of the one in sustaining the injuries which the other would offer must be that Prayer powred out by Moses the Prince of Prophets in most tender affection to Levi Bless O Lord his substance accept than the work of his hands sâ—ite through the loyns of them that rise up against him and of them which hate him that they rise no more OF THE LAWS OF Ecclesiastical Polity Book VIII Containing their Seventh Assertion That to no Civil Prince or Governor there may be given such power of Ecclesiastical Dominion as by the Laws of this Land belongeth unto the Supreme Regent thereof WE come now to the last thing whereof there is Controversie moved namely The Power of Supreme Iurisdiction which for distinction sake we call The Power of Ecclesiastical dominion It was not thought fit in the Iews Commonwealth that the exercise of Supremacy Ecclesiastical should be denied unto him to whom the exercise of Chiefy Civil did appertain and therefore their Kings were invested with both This power they gave into Simon when they consented that he should be their Prince not only to set men over their Works and Countrey and Weapons but also to provide for the Holy things and that he should be obeyed of every man and that the Writings of the Country should be made in his name and that it should not be lawful for any of the people or Priests to withstand his words or to call any Congregation in the Country without him And if haply it be surmised that thus much was given to Simon as being both Prince and High-Priest which otherwise being their Civil Governor he could not lawfully have enjoyed We must note that all this is no more then the ancient Kings of that People had being Kings and not Priests By this power David Asa Iehoshaphat Iosiaes and the rest made those Laws and Orders which sacred History speaketh of concerning matters of meer Religion the affairs of the Temple and service of God Finally had it not been by the vertue of this power how should it possibly have come to pass that the piety or impiety of the Kings did always accordingly change the publique face of Religion which things the Prophets by themselves never did nor at any time could hinde from being done Had the Priests alone been possest of all power in spiritual affairs how should any thing concerning matter of Religion have been made but only by them in had it head been not in the King to change the face of religion at any time the altering of religion the making of Ecclesiastical Laws with other the like actions belonging unto the power of Dominion are still termed the deeds of the King to shew that in him was placed the supremacy of power in this kinde over all and that unto their Priests the same was never committed saving only at such times as the Priests were also Kings and Princess over them According to the pattern of which example the like power in causes Ecclesiastical is by the Laws of this Realm annexed unto the Crown and there are which do imagine that Kings being meer Lay-persons do by this means exceed the lawful bounds of their callings which thing to the end that they may perswade they first make a necessary separation perpetual and personal between the Church and the Common-wealth Secondly they so tie all kind of power Ecclesiastical unto the Church as if it were in every degree their only right who are by proper spiritual functions termed Church-Governours and might not unto Christian Princes in any wise appertain To lurk under shifting ambignities and equivocations of words in matter of principal weight is childish A Church and a Common-wealth we grant are things in nature one distinguished from the other a Common-wealth is one way and a Church an other way defined In their opinions the Church and Common-wealth are corporations not distinguished only in nature and definition but in substance perpetually severed so that they which are of the one can neither appoint nor execute in whole nor in part the duties which belong to them which are of the other without open breach of the Law of God which hath divided them and doth require that so being divided they should distinctly or severally work as depending both upon God and not hanging one upon the others approbation For that which either hath to do we say that the care of Religion being common to all societies Politique such societies as do embrace the true Religion have the name of the Church given unto
every one of them for distinction from the rest so that every body Politique hath some Religion but the Church that Religion which is only true Truth of Religion is the proper difference whereby a Church is distinguished from other Politique societies of men we here mean true Religion in gross and not according to every particular for they which in some particular points of Religion do sever from the truth may nevertheless truly if we compare them to men of an heathenish Religion be said to hold and profess that Religion which is true For which cause there being of old so many Politique societies stablished through the world only the Common-wealth of Israel which had the truth of Religion was is that respect the Church of God and the Church of Jesus Christ is every such Politique society of men as doth in Religion hold that truth which is proper to Christianity As a Politique society it doth maintain Religion as a Church that Religion which God hath revealed by Jesus Christ with us therefore the name of a Church importeth onely a society of men first united into some publique form of Regiment and secondly distinguished from other societies by the exercise of Religion With them on the other side the name of the Church in this present question importeth not only a maltitude of men so united and so distinguihed but also further the same divided necessarily and perpetually from the body of the Common-wealth so that even in such a Politique society as consisteth of none but Christians yet the Church and Common-wealth are too Corporations independently subsisting by it self We hold that seeing there is not any man of the Church of England but the same man is also a member of the Common-wealth nor any member of the Common-wealth which is not also of the Church of England Therefore as in a figure Triangle the base doth differ from the sides thereof and yet one and the self same line is both a base and also a side aside simply a base if it chance to be the bottom and under-lye the rest So albeit properties and actions of one do cause the name of a Common-wealth qualities and functions of another sort the name of the Church to be given to a multitude yet one and the self-same multitude may in such sort be both Nay it is so with us that no person appertaining to the one can be denied also to be of the other contrariwise unless they against us should hold that the Church and the Common-wealth are two both distinct and separate societies of which two one comprehendeth alwayes persons not belonging to the other that which they do they could not conclude out of the difference between the Church and the Common-wealth namely that the Bishops may not meddle with the affairs of the Common wealth because they are Governours of an other Corporation which is the Church nor Kings with making Lawes for the Church because they have government not of this Corporation but of another divided from it the Common-wealth and the walls of separation between these two must for ever be upheld they hold the necessity of personal separation which clean excludeth the power of one mans dealing with both we of natural but that one and the same person may in both bear principal sway The causes of common received Errors in this Point seem to have been especially two One That they who embrace true Religion living in such Common-wealths as are opposite thereunto and in other publike affairs retaining civil Communion with such as are constrained for the exercise of their Religion to have a several Communion with those who are of the same Religion with them This was the state of the Jewish Church both in Egypt and Babylon the state of Christian Churches a long time after Christ. And in this case because the proper affairs and actions of the Church as it is the Church hath no dependance on the Laws or upon the Government of the civil State and opinion hath thereby grown that even so it should be always This was it which deceived Allen in the writing of his Apology The Apostles saith he did govern the Church in Rome when Nero bare rule even as at this day in all the Churches dominions The Church hath a spiritual Regiments without dependance and so ought she to have amongst Heathens or with Christians Another occasion of which mis-conceit is That things appertaining to Religion are both distinguished from other affairs and have always had in the Church spiritual persons chosen to be exercised about them By which distinction of Spiritual affairs and persons therein employed from Temporal the Error of personal separation always necessary between the Church and Common-wealth hath strengthened it self For of every Politick Society that being true which Aristotle saith namely That the scope thereof is not simply to live nor the duty so much to provide for the life as for means of living well And that even as the soul is the worthier part of man so humane Societies are much more to care for that which tendeth properly to the souls estate then for such temporal things which the life hath need of Other proof there needeth none to shew that as by all men the Kingdom of God is to be sought first for so in all Common-wealths things spiritual ought above temporal be sought for and of things spiritual the chiefest is Religion For this cause persons and things imployed peculiarly about the affairs of Religion are by an excellency termed Spiritual The Heathens themselves had their spiritual Laws and Causes and Affairs always severed from their temporal neither did this make two Independent estates among them God by revealing true Religion sioth make them that receive it his Church Unto the Iews he so revealed the truth of Religion that he gave them in special Considerations Laws not only for the administration of things spiritual but also temporal The Lord himself appointing both the one and the other in that Common-wealth did not thereby distract it into several independent Communities but institute several Functions of one and the self-same Communitie Some Reasons therefore must there be alledged why it should be otherwise in the Church of Christ. I shall not need to spend any great store of words in answering that which is brought out of the Holy Scripture to shew that Secular and Ecclesiastical affairs and offices are distinguished neither that which hath been borrowed from antiquity using by phrase of speech to oppose the Common-weal to the Church of Christ neither yet their Reasons which are wont to be brought forth as witnesses that the Church and Common-weal were always distinct for whether a Church or Common-weal do differ in not the question we strive for but our controversie is concerning the kind of distinction whereby they are severed the one from the other whether as under heathen Kings of the Church did deal with her own affairs within her self without depending
any longer under him but he together with them under God receiving the joyes of everlasting triumph that so God may be in all all misery in all the Wicked through his Justice in all the Righteous through his love all felicity and blisse In the mean while he reigneth over the World as King and doth those things wherein none is Superiour unto him whether we respect the works of his Providence and Kingdom or of his Regiment over the Church The cause of Errour in this point doth seem to have been a misconceit that Christ as Mediatour being inferiour to his Father doth as Mediatour all Works of Regiment over the Church when in truth Regiment doth belong to his Kingly Office Mediatourship to his Priestly For as the High-Priest both offered Sacrifices for expiation of the Peoples sins and entred into the holy Place there to make intercession for them So Christ having finished upon the Cross that part of his Priestly Office which wrought the propitiation for our Sinnes did afterwards enter into very Heaven and doth there as Mediatour of the New Testament appear in the sight of God for us A like sleight of Judgement it is when they hold that Civil Authority is from God but not immediately through Christ nor with any subordination to God nor doth any thing from God but by the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. They deny it not to be said of Christ in the Old Testament By me Princes rule and the Nobles and all the Iudges of the Earth In the New as much is taught That Christ is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth Wherefore to the end it may more plainly appear how all Authority of Man is derived from God through Christ and must by Christian men be acknowledged to be no otherwise held then of and under him we are to note that because whatsoever hath necessary being the Son of God doth cause it to be and those things without which the World cannot well continue have necessary being in the World a thing of so great use as Government cannot choose but be originally from Him Touching that Authority which Civil Magistrates have in Ecclesiastical Affairs it being from God by Christ as all other good things are cannot chuse but be held as a thing received at his hands and because such power is of necessity for the ordering of Religion wherein the essence and very being of the Church consisteth can no otherwise slow from him than according to that special care which he hath to govern and guide his own People it followeth that the said Authority is of and under him after a more special manner in that he is Head of the Church and not in respect of his general Regency over the World All things saith the Apostle speaking unto the Church are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is God's Kings are Christ's as Saints because they are of the Church if not collectively yet divisively understood It is over each particular Person within that Church where they are Kings Surely Authority reacheth both unto all mens persons and to all kindes of causes also It is not denyed but that they may have and lawfully exercise it such Authority it is for which and for no other in the World we term them Heads such Authority they have under Christ because he in all things is Lord overall and even of Christ it is that they have received such Authority in as much as of him all lawful Powers are therefore the Civil Magistrate is in regard of this Power an under and subordinate Head of Christ's People It is but idle where they speak That although for several Companies of Men there may be several Heads or Governours differing in the measure of their Authority from the Chiefest who is Head over all yet it cannot be in the Church for that the reason why Head-Magistrates appoint others for such several places it Because they cannot be present every where to perform the Office of an Head But Christ is never from his Body nor from any Part of it and therefore needeth not to substitute any which may be Heads some over one Church and some over another Indeed the consideration of Man's imbecillity which maketh many Heads necessary where the burthen is too great for one moved Iethro to be a Perswader of Moses that a number of Heads of Rulers might be instituted for discharge of that duty by parts which in whole he saw was troublesome Now although there be not in Christ any such defect or weakness yet other causes there be divers more than we are able to search into wherefore it might seem unto him expedient to divide his Kingdom into many Provinces and place many Heads over it that the Power which each of them hath in particular with restraint might illustrate the greatness of his unlimited Authority Besides howsoever Christ be Spiritually alwayes united unto every part of his Body which is the Church Nevertheless we do all know and they themselves who alledge this will I doubt not confess also that from every Church here visible Christ touching visible and corporal presence is removed as farr as Heaven from the Earth is distant Visible Government is a thing necessary for the Church and it doth not appear how the exercise of visible Government over such Multitudes every where dispersed throughout the World should consist without sundry visible Governours whose Power being the greatest in that kinde so farr as it reacheth they are in consideration thereof termed so farr Heads Wherefore notwithstanding the perpetual conjunction by vertue whereof our Saviour alwayes remaineth spiritually united unto the parts of his Mystical Body Heads indeed with Supream Power extending to a certain compasse are for the exercise of a visible Regiment not unnecessary Some other reasons there are belonging unto this branch which seem to have been objected rather for the exercise of mens wits in dissolving Sophismes than that the Authors of them could think in likelyhood thereby to strengthen their cause For example If the Magistrate be Head of the Church within his own Dominion then is he none of the Church For all that are of the Church make the Body of Christ and every one of the Church fulfilleth the place of one member of the Body By making the Magistrate therefore Head we do exclude him from being a Member subject to the Head and so leave him no place in the Church By which reason the name of a Body Politick is supposed to be alwayes taken of the inferiour sort alone excluding the Principal Guides and Governors contrary to all Mens customes of speech The Errour ariseth by misconceiving of some Scripture-sentences where Christ as the Head and the Church as the Body are compared or opposed the one to the other And because in such comparisons ooppositions the Body is taken for those only parts which are subject unto the Head they imagine that who so is the Head of any
Dominion over the whole Church of Christ militant doth and that by divine right appertain to the Pope of Rome They did prove it lawful to grant unto others besides Christ the power of Headship in a different kinde from his but they should have proved it lawful to challenge as they did to the Bishop of Rome a Power universal in that different kinde Their fault was therefore in exacting wrongfully so great Power as they challenged in that kinde and not in making two kindes of Power unless some reasons can be shewed for which this distinction of Power should be thought erroneous and false A little they stirr although in vain to prove that we cannot with truth make such distinction of Power whereof the one kinde should agree unto Christ onely and the other be further communicated Thus therefore they argue If there be no Head but Christ in respect of Spiritual Government there is no Head but be in respect of the Word Sacraments and Discipline administred by those whom he hath appointed for as much also as it is his Spiritual Government Their meaning is that whereas we make two kindes of Power of which two the one being Spiritual is proper unto Christ the other men are capable of because it is visible and external We do amiss altogether in distinguishing they think forasmuch as the visible and external power of Regiment over the Church is onely in relation unto the Word Sacraments and Discipline administred by such as Christ hath appointed thereunto and the exercise of this Power is also his Spiritual Government Therefore we do but vainly imagin a visible and external Power in the Church differing from his Spiritual Power Such Disputes as this do somewhat resemble the practising of Well-willers upon their Friends in the pangs of Death whose maner is even their to put smoak in their Nostrils and so to fetch them again alhough they know it a matter impossible to keep them living The kinde of affecton which the Favourers of this laboring cause bear towards it will not suffer them to se it dye although by what means they should make it live they do not see but thy may see that these wrestlings will not help Can they be ignorant how little it boteth to overcast so clear a light with some mist of ambiguity in the name of Spiritual Râ—iment To make things therefore so plain that henceforward a Childes capacity ma serve rightly to conceive our meaning we make the Spiritual Regiment of Christ to â—e generally that whereby his Church is ruled and governed in things Spiritual Of this general we make two distinct kindes the one invisible exercised by Christ himself in his own Person the other outwardly administred by them whom Christ doth allow to be Rulers and Guiders of his Church Touching the former of these two kindes we teach that Christ in regard thereof is particularly termed the Head of the Church of God neither can any other Creature in that sense and meaning be termed Head besides him because it importeth the conduct and government of our Souls by the hand of that blessed Spirit wherewith we are sealed and marked as being peculiarly his Him onely therefore do we acknowledge to be the Lord which dwelleth liveth and reigneth in our hearts him only to be that Head which giveth salvation and life unto his Body him onely to be that Fountain from whence the influence of heavenly Graces distilleth and is derived into all parts whether the Word or the Sacraments or Discipline or whatsoever be the means whereby it floweth As for the Power of administring these things in the Church of Christ which Power we call the Power of Order it is indeed both Spiritual and His Spiritual because such properly concerns as the Spirit His because by him it was instituted Howbeit neither Spiritual as that which is inwardly and invisibly exercised nor His as that which he himself in Person doth exercise Again that power of Dominion which is indeed the point of this Controversie and doth also belong to the second kinde of Spiritual Government namely unto that Regiment which is external and visible this likewise being Spiritual in regard of the manner about which it dealeth and being his in as much as he approveth whatsoever is done by it must notwithstanding be distinguished also from that Power whereby he himself in Person administreth the former kinde of his own Spiritual Regiment because he himself in Person doth not administer this we do not therefore vainly imagine but truly and rightly discern a Power external and visible in the Church exercised by men and severed in nature from that Spiritual Power of Christ's own Regiment which Power is termed Spiritual because it worketh secretly inwardly and invisibly His because none doth nor can it personally exercise either besides or together with him seeing that him onely we may name our Head in regard of His and yet in regard of that other Power from this term others also besides him Heads without any contradiction at all which thing may very well serve for answer unto that also which they further alledge against the aforesaid distinction namely That even the outward Societies and Assemblies of the Church where one or two are gathered together in his Name either for hearing of the Word or for Prayer or any other Church-exercise our Saviour Christ being in the midst of them as Mediatour must be their Head and if he be not there idle but doing the Office of a Head fully it followeth that even in the outward Societies and Meetings of the Church no more man can be called the Head of it seeing that our Saviour Christ doing the whole Office of the Head himself alone leaveth nothing to men by doing whereof they may obtain that Title Which Objection I take as being made for nothing but onely to maintain Argument for they are not so farr gone as to argue this in sooth and right good earnest God standeth saith the Psalmist in the midst of gods if God be there present he must undoubtedly be present as God if he be not there idle but doing the Office of a God fully it followeth that God himself alone doing the whole Office of a God leaveth nothing in such Assemblies to any other by doing whereof they may obtain so high a Name The Psalmist therefore hath spoken amiss and doth ill to call Judges Gods Not so for as God hath his Office differing from theirs and doth fully discharge it even in the midst of them so they are not hereby excluded from all kinde of Duty for which that Name should be given into them also but in that Duty for which it was given them they are encouraged Religiously and carefully to order themselves after the self-same manner Our Lord and Saviour being in the midst of his Church as Head is our comfort without the abridgement of any one duty for performance whereof others are termed Headsm another kinde than he is
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
labouring and suing for Places and Charges in the Church is not lawful Further whereas at the suit of the Church some of your Honours entertained the Cause and brought it to a near issue that there seemed nothing to remain but the commendation of my Lord the Archbishop of Canterbury when as he could not be satisfied but by my subscribing to his late Articles and that my Answer agreeing to subscribe according to any Law and to the Statute provided in that Case but praying to be respited for subscribing to any other which I could not in Conscience do either for the Temple which otherwise he said he would not commend me to nor for any other Place in the Church did so little please my Lord Archbishop as he resolved that otherwise I should not be commended to it I had utterly here no cause of offence against Mr. Hooker whom I did in no sort esteem to have prevented or undermined me but that God disposed of me as it pleased him by such means and occasions as I have declared Moreover as I have taken no cause of offence at Mr. Hooker for being preferred so there were many Witnesses that I was glad that the place was given him hoping to live in all godly peace and comfort with him both for acquaintance and good-will which hath been between us and for some kinde of affinity in the marriage of his nearest kindred and mine Since his comming I have so carefully endeavoured to entertain all good correspondence and agreement with him as I think he himself will bear me witness of many earnest Disputations and Conferences with him about the matter the rather because that contrary to my expectation he inclined from the beginning but smally thereunto but joyned rather with such as had always opposed themselves to any good order in this Charge and made themselves to be brought indisposed to his present state and proceedings For both knowing that God's Commandement charged me with such Duty and discerning how much on peace might further the good service of God and his Church and the mutual comfort of us both I had resolved constantly to seek for Peace and though it should flye from me as I saw it did by means of some who little desired to see the good of our Church yet according to the rule of God's Word to follow after it Which being so as hereof I take God to witnesse who searcheth the heart and reins and who by his Son will judge the World both quick and dead I hope no charitable Judgement can suppose me to have stood evil-affected towards him for his Place or desirous to fall into any Controversie with him Which my resolution I pursued that whereas I discovered sundry unsound matters in his Doctrine as many of his Sermons tasted of some sour leaven or other yet thus I carried my self towards him Matters of smaller weight and so covertly discovered that no great offence to the Church was to be feared in them I wholly passed by as one that discerned nothing of them or had been unfurnished of replies for others of great moment and so openly delivered as there was just cause of fear left the Truth and Church of God should be prejudiced and perilled by it and such as the Conscience of my Duty and Calling would not suffer me altogether to pass over this was my course to deliver when I should have just cause by my Text the truth of such Doctrine as he lead otherwise taught in general speeches without touch of his Person in any sort and further at convenient opportunity to conferr with him in such points According to which determination whereas he had taught certain things concerning Predestination otherwise than the Word of God doth as it is understood by all Churches professing the Gospel and not unlike that wherewith Coranus sometimes troubled his Church I both delivered the truth of such points in a general Doctrine without any touch of him in particular and conferred with him also privately upon such Articles In which Conference I remember when I urged the consent of all Churches and good Writers against him that I knew and desired if it were otherwise What Authors he had seen of such Doctrine He answered me That his best Author was his own Reason which I wished him to take heed of as a matter standing with Christian modesty and wisdom in a Doctrine not received by the Church not to trust to his own Judgment so farr as to publish it before he had conferred with others of his Profession labouring by daily Prayer and Study to know the will of God as he did to see how they understood such Doctrine Notwithstanding he with wavering replyed That he would some other time deal more largely in the matter I wished him and prayed him not so to do for the peace of the Church which by such means might be hazarded seeing he could not but think that men who make any Couscience of their Ministerie will judge it a necessarie dutie in them to teach the truth and to convince the contrarie Another time upon like occasion of this Doctrine of his That the assurance of that we believe by the Word is not so certain as of that we perceive by sense I both taught the Doctrine otherwise namely the assurance of Faith to be greater which assured both of things above and contrarie to all sense and human understanding and dealt with him also privately upon that point According to which course of late when as he had taught That the Church of Rome is a true Church of Christ and a sanctified Church by profession of that Truth which God both revealed unto us by his Son though not a part and perfect Church and further That be doubted not but that thousands of the Fathers which lived and dyed in the Superstitions of that Church were saved because of their ignorance which excuseth them mis-alledging to that end a Text of Scripture to prove it The matter being ofset purpose openly and at large handled by him and of that moment that might prejudice the Faith of Christ encourage the ill-affected to continue still in their damnable ways and others weak in Faith to suffer themselves easily to be seduced to the destruction of their Souls I thought it my most bounden duty of God and to his Church whilst I might have opportunitie to speak with him to teach the Truth in a general speech in such points of Doctrine At which time I taught That such as dye or have died at any time in the Church of Rome holding in their ignorance that Faith which is taught in it and namely Iustification in part by Works could not be said by the Scriptures to be saved In which matter foreseeing that if I waded not warily in it I should be in danger to be reported as hath fallen out since notwithstanding to condemn all the Fathers I said directly and plainly to all mens understanding That it was not indeed to be
to stand upon I think the like to this and other such in this Sermon and the rest of this matter hath not been heard in Publick places within this Land since Queen Mary's days What consequence this Doctrine may be of if he be not by Authority ordered to revoke it I beseech your H H. as the truth of God and his Gospel is dear and precious unto you according to your godly wisdome to consider I have been bold to offer to your H H. a long and tedious Discourse of these matters but Speech being like to Tapestry which if it be folded up sheweth but part of that which is wrought and being unlapt and laid open sheweth plainly to the eye all the work that is in it I thought it necessary to unfold this Tapestry and to hang up the whole Chamber of it in your most Honourable Senate that so you may the more easily discern of all the Pieces and the sundry Works and Matters contained in it Wherein my hope is your H H. may see I have not deserved so great a Punishment as is laid upon the Church for my sake and also upon my self in taking from me the excercise of my Ministerie Which Punishment how heavy it may seem to the Church or fall out indeed to be I referr it to them to judge and spare to write what I fear but to my self it is exceeding grievous for that it taketh from me the excercise of my Calling Which I do not say is dear unto me as the means of that little benefit whereby I live although this be a lawful consideration and to be regarded of me in due place and of the Authority under whose Protection I most willingly live even by God's Commandment both unto them and unto me but which ought to be more precious unto me than my life for the love which I should bear to the glory and honour of Almighty God and to the edification and salvation of his Church for that my life cannot any other way be of like service to God nor of such use and profit to men by any means For which Cause as I discern how dear my Ministery ought to be unto me so it is my hearty desire and most humble request unto God to your H H. and to all the Authority I live under to whom any dealing herein belongeth that I may spend my life according to his Example who in a word of like sound of fuller sense comparing by it the bestowing of his life to the Offering poured out upon the Sacrifice of the Faith of God's people and especially of this Church whereupon I have already poured out a great part thereof in the same Calling from which I stand now restrained And if your H H. shall finde it so that I have not deserved so great a Punishment but rather performed the Duty which a good and faithful Servant ought in such case to do to his Lord and the People he putteth them in trust withal carefully to keep I am a most humble Suiter by these presents to your H H. that by your godly wisdom some good course may be taken for the restoring of me to my Ministery and Place again Which so great a favour shall binde me yet in a greater obligation of Duty which is already so great as it seemed nothing could be added unto it to make it greater to honour God daily for the continuance and encrease of your good estate and to be ready with all the poor means God hath given me to do your H H. that faithful Service I may possibly perform But if notwithstanding my Cause he never so good your H H. can by no means pacifie such as are offended nor restore me again then am I to rest in the good pleasure of God and to commend to your H H. protection under Her Majesties my private life while it shall be led in duty and the Church to him who hath redeemed to himself a People with his precious Blood and is making ready to come to judge both the Quick and the Dead to give to every one according as he hath done in this life be it good or evil to the Wicked and Unbelievers Justice unto death but to the Faithful and such as love his truth Mercy and Grace to life everlasting Your Honours most bounden and most humble Suppliant WALTER TRAVERS Minister of the Gospel Mr. HOOKER'S ANSVVER TO THE SUPPLICATION THAT Mr. TRAVERS Made to the COUNCIL To my Lord of Canterburie his Grace MY Duty in my most humble wise remembred May it please your Grace to understand That whereas there hath been a late Controversie raised in the Temple and pursued by Mr. Travers upon conceit taken at some words by me uttered with a most simple and harmless meaning In the heat of which pursuit after three publick Invectives silence being enjoyned him by Authority he hath hereupon for defence of his proceedings both presented the Right Honourable Lords and others of Her Majesties Privy Councel with a Writing and also caused or suffered the same to be Copied out and spread through the hands of so many that well nigh all sorts of men have it in their bosomes The matters wherewith I am therein charged being of such quality as they are and my self being better known to your Grace than to any other of their Honors besides I have chosen to offer to your Grace's hands a plain Declaration of my Innocence in all those things wherewith I am so hardly and so heavily charged lest if I still remain silent that which I do for quietness sake be taken as an Argument that I lack what to speak truly and justly in mine own defence 2. First because M. Travers thinketh it an expedient to breed an Opinion in mens mindes that the root of all inconvenient events which are now sprung out is the surly and unpeaceable disposition of the man with whom he hath to do therefore the first in the rank of Accusations laid against me is my intorformity which have so little inclined to so many and so earnest Exhortations and Conferences as my self he saith can witness to have been spent upon me for my better fashioning unto good correspondence and agreement 3. Indeed when at the first by means of special Well-willers without any suit of mine as they very well know although I do not think it had been a mortal sinne in a reasonable sort to have shewed a moderate desire that way yet when by their endeavour without instigation of mine some Reverend and Honourable favourably affecting me had procured her Majesties's grant of the Place At the very point of my eptring thereinto the Evening before I was first to Preach he came and two other Gentlemen joyned with him The effect of his Conference then was That he thought it his Duty to advise me not to enter with a strong hand but to change my purpose of Preaching there the next day and to stay till he had given notice of me to