one that had a misfortune it was because hee honoured not his parents For the sixt nature hath made the Murderer to expect what he hath committed For the seuenth Flie the name of an adulterer if thou wilt escape death For the eight Demosthenes against Timocrates repeateth it as Solons law plainely in the verie words And for false witnesse the Romans did punish it by their twelue tables But the incarnation of Christ the Sacraments the Trinitie the Decree of God are matters of a deeper speculation wherin humilitie must follow the direction of faith and not seek vainely with curiositie to know that which our silly weaknesse is far vnable to comprehend For as those things that are manifest are not to bee neglected so those things that are hid are not to be searched least in the one we be vnlawfully curious and in the other be found daungerously vnthankfull Now specially for the matter of the Trinitie wherein you take exception in your two first Articles doubtlesse there are few errours more dangerous or that haue stirred vp greater tragedies in the church of God All men see in nature that there is a God but the distinction of persons Trinitie in Vnitie that faith in humilitie must teach vs to beleeue For who can comprehend by reason that in that holy and sacred Trinitie one is what three are and that two is but one thing and in themselues and euerie particular infinite and all in euerie one and euerie one in all and all in all and one in all Fire hath three things motion light and heat Arrius deuide this if thou canst and then deuide the Trinitie Out of this difficultie together with the rash presumption of ignorant men haue proceeded those dangerous errours that so long and so hotly haue troubled the church thus the Manichies haue denied the vnitie of Essence the Valentinians or Gnostici from Carpocrates held that Christ was man onely from both sexes borne but that he had such a soule which knew all things that were aboue and snewed them Those that haue in their erronious doctrine oppugned the Trinitie are of two sorts they haue either denied the distinction of persons or else the samenesse of Essence thus the Arrians for we will not stand to incounter or confute all other heresies held that Christ was a person before his incarnation but that he was true and eternall God equall and of the same essence with his Father that they denied for they hold that the Sonne is not eternally begotten of the substance of his Father and so that there is an inequalitie and indeed a distinction and prioritie of essence Into this dangerous and ignorant blind heresie confuted long since with powerfull and strong reasons it seemes you are of opinion that Maister Hooker is fallen both against the truth and against the true assertions of the Reuerend Fathers of our church The ground of this so great and so vncharitable accusation is because he saith that the Father alone is originally that Deitie which Christ originally is not Where you seem to inferre against the distinction of the Trinitie that the Godhead of the Father and the Sonne cannot bee all one if the Sonne be not originally that Deitie It seemes then in your opinions that this speech vttered verie learnedly and with great wisedome and truth The Father alone is originally that Deitie which Christ originally is not is both vnusuall new and dangerous First because it weakeneth the eternitie of the Sonne in the opinion of the simple or maketh the Sonne inferiour to the Father in respect of the Godhead or else teacheth the ignorant that there may be many Gods I know your owne Christian iudgements could easily haue freed him from all suspicion of error in this point if your charity had bin equall to your vnderstanding for he himselfe hath confessed in the very same place from whence you haue taken this wherof you accuse him that by the gift of eternall generation Christ hath receiued of the father one and in number the selfe same substance which the father hath of himselfe vnreceiued from any other Who seeth not saith S. Augustine that these words Father and Son shew not the diuersities of natures but the relation of persons and therfore the Son is not of another nature and of a diuers substance because the father is God not from another God but the Son is God from God his father heere is not declared the substance but the originall that is not what he is but from whence he is or is not for in God the Father and in God the Son if we inquire the nature of them both both are God and but one God neither greater or lesse in essence of Godhead one then the other But if we speake of the originall saith Saint Austin which you see Master Hooker did the Father is God originally from whom the Son is God but there is not from whom the Father hath originally his deity so that to mislike this kinde of speech is contrary to all truth to affirme that the Son is not eternally begotten of the father that the Father is not eternally a deity begetting But heere you must take heede of the errour of Arrius who against the truth reasoned thus If the Sonne be coeternall with his Father tell vs we beseech you whether he were begotten when he was or when he was not if when he was then there was before two vnbegotten and afterwards one begot the other if when he was not then he must needes be later and after his Father But saith Saint Augustine as we haue knowne onely the Father alwayes and without beginning to be vnbegottē so we confesse the Son alwaies and without beginning to bee begotten of his Father therefore because the Father is originally that Deitie from whence the Sonne is the Sonne though hee be the same Deity yet the Father alone is originally that Deitie which the Sonne originally is not The want of Identitie being not in the Deitie whereof we must needes with the Church of God acknowledge an Vnitie but in that it is not originally the same For euery thing that is a beginning is a father vnto that which commeth of it and euery ofspring is a sonne vnto that out of which it groweth Christ then being God by being of God light by issuing out of light though he be the same deity for in the Trinitie there is but one deity yet the Father is originally that deity alone which Christ originally is not Here if you note but the difference betwixt that Deity and originally that Deity you must needs confesse that M. Hooker speaketh with the consent of reformed antiquitie and hath said nothing to diminish the eternitie of the Sonne or to make him inferiour in respect of his Father or to teach the ignorant that there be manie Gods ARTICLE II. The coeternity of the Sonne and the proceeding of the holy Ghost
proceeding of the holy Ghost as the Schoolemen obserue is threefold one vnspeakeable and eternal whereby the holy Ghost eternally and without time proceedeth from the Father and the Sonne the other temporall when he is sent from the Father and the Son to sanctifie the elect Of this latter proceeding saith Beza is that place vnderstood which you peremptorily alleage for to proue the first So then we say for our answer to this cauill that as yet we see not expresse literall mention of these points but that they are truly and soundly collected by the Church we neither doe can or dare deny secondly that the deniall of expresse literall mention ought not to make any scruple in the minds of weake Christians concerning these articles the substance wherof are plaine scripture though for the words we finde not as yet any expresse literall mention nor last of all as you seeme to feare it can be no vnderpropping to the traditions of the Church of Rome which if they can proue with the like necessary collection out of the holy scripture we are readie to imbrace them with all our hearts In the meane time we account it a wrong to haue an article of our faith for want of expresse literall mention out of scripture to be compared to traditions of that kinde for which in scripture there is no warrant at all To conclude then this article we say that in the Trinitie there is that Identity of essence that it admitteth equality but not plurality the Father is one the Sonne another the Holy-Ghost another but not another thing For that thing that they all are is this one thing that they are one God So that Saint Austin saith I and my Father are one heere both the words of the sentence one are in that he saith one he freeth thee from Arrius and in that he saith are hee freeth thee from Sabellius For are hee would not say of one and one he would not say of diuers for euery person hath his owne substance which no other besides hath although there be others besides which are of the same substance For the persons of the Godhead by reason of the vnity of their substance doe as necessarily remaine one within another as they are of necessitie to be distinguished one frō another because two are the issue of one and one the ofspring of the other two only of three one not growing out of any other For sith they all are but one God in number one indiuisible essence or substance their distinction cannot possiblie admit separation the Father therefore is in the Sonne and the Son in him they both in the Spirit and the Spirit in both them He that can saith Austine conceiue let him comprehend it but hee that cannot let him beleeue and pray that that which hee beleeueth he may truly vnderstand ARTICLE III. Whether the holy Scriptures containe all things necessarie to saluation TWo things are requisite to mans better life a faith to beleeue what he ought a knowledge to comprehend what hee must beleeue For saith our Sauiour in this is eternal life to know thee to be the only verie God and whom thou hast sent Iesus Christ. Because therefore the want of this knowledge is the cause of all iniquitie amongst men as contrariwise the verie ground of all our happinesse and the seed of whatsoeuer perfect vertue groweth from vs is a right opinion touching things diuine this kind of knowledge wee may iustly set downe for the first and chiefest thing which God imparteth to his people and our dutie of receiuing this at his mercifull hands for the first of those religious offices wherewith wee publikely honour him on earth Now our Church holdeth and wee most willingly confesse that the scripture is the true ground of all that holily we beleeue But yet for all that not the onely meanes concerning God of all that profitably wee know For that new impression made into our nature euē by the hand of the Almightie after the first sinne and the wise beholding of his excellent workmanship in the making of all his creatures are two volumes wherein wee may read though not directly the mercy of that power that hath saued vs yet the greatnes and the might of that hand that hath first made vs which though it be not all that we must beleeue yet it is not the least part of that which we ought to know For this as it maketh vs without excuse so it serueth euen to leade vs to a better knowledge and vntill it be perfect to vtter out of the light of nature those voices which may argue vs though not to be sonnes for by this we cannot crie Abba Father yet to be reasonable creatures of that power which we do adore this made Euripides in Troas and manie of the heathen to vtter those prayers which had they beene offered vp in Christ had not bin vnbeseeming a good Christian so that though the Scriptures containe all things which are necessarie to saluation and that our chiefest direction is from them yet we are not affraid to confesse that there is besides a light of nature not altogether vnprofitable the insufficiencie whereof is by the light of Scripture fully and perfectly supplied and that both these together as Master Hooker affirmeth which you mislike doe serue in such full sort that they both iointly not seuerally either of them be so compleat that vnto euerlasting felicity we need not the knowledge of any thing more then of these two I cannot but maruaile that men indued with reason should finde anie thing in this assertion which in the hardest construction might be wrested as detracting frō the sufficiency of the holy scripture And only for this cause by reason that we reade darkly by the light of nature those first elements out of a naturall knowledge which by the accesse of a better teacher serue afterward for the full perfecting of that knowledge which is requisite to mans saluation For as the schoolemen say man standeth in need of a threefold lawe to a morall vprightnes setting aside that righteousnes requisit for his heauenly country First an eternall law which Saint Austin calleth the cheifest reason secondly naturall last of all humane vnto which if we adde that man ouer and besides these is in an ordination to a supernaturall ende then it is manifest that to make him a heauenly Citizen there is requisite a fourth lawe which man must learne to obei◠out of the holy scripture But as in the greatest and fairest buildings euen those stones that lye lowest are of an vse not be contemned though peraduenture not comparable to those last exquisite perfections by which the worke is finished so euen the light of nature for the acting of morall vertues hath his vse though not absolutely compleat to make vs Christians And therefore in the nature of mans will the very Philosophers did seldome erre but
IN this Article the thing which you mislike is not any matter of his iudgement but that he seemeth to cōfesse either out of lesse learning then you haue or more humilitie then you shew that the coeternitie of the Sonne of God with his Father and the proceeding of the Spirit from the Father and the Sonne are in Scripture no where to be found by expresse literall mention And yet you cannot be ignorant but that vndoubtedly he beleeued both Therfore in my opinion it is strange why out of the second fift Article holdē by our church you alleage that the Sonne is the word of the Father from euerlasting begotten of the Father and the holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son as though you dealt with an aduersarie that denied either You could not be ignorant hauing perused his writings with that diligence to reprehend but in this great mysterie of the Trinitie both concerning the equalitie of the Sonne with the Father and the Deitie of the holie Ghost who proceedeth from both see plainly that he held directly and soundly that doctrine which is most true and euerie way agreeable with the iudgements and expositions of the Reuerend Fathers of our Church Neither doe I know whether in this point anie of them haue left behinde them a more sound learned and vertuous Confession then he hath done For saith he The Lord our God is but one God In which indiuisible vnitie notwithstanding we adore the Father as being altogether of himselfe we glorifie that Consubstantiall Word which is the Sonne wee blesse and magnifie that coessentiall Spirit eternally proceeding from both which is the holy Ghost what confession can there be in this point of greater iudegment learning and truth and wherein there is lesse difference with that which our Church holdeth both hauing their ground as you may see by the places alleaged by M. Hooker in the Margent from the infallible euidence of Gods word This troubleth you that hee saith that these points are in scripture no where to be found by expresse literall mention which you out of your learned obseruation haue prooued as you thinke to be farre otherwise by those places of Scripture which his carelesse reading and weake iudgement was no way able to obserue Where first to proue the coeternitie of the Sonne you alleage The Lord hath possessed me in the beginning of his way I was before his works of old And againe In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God And againe Glorifie me thou Father with thine owne selfe with the glorie which I had with thee before the world was These places I confesse by way of collection may serue trulie to confirme in this Article that which our Church holdeth and yet they are not the plainest places that might be alleaged for this purpose But in all these where is there to be found expresse literall mention of the Coeternitie of the Sonne with the Father Nay for any thing that euer I could reade I do not thinke you are able to find the word Coeternall or Coequall in the whole Scripture in this sence For after the Arrians had long in this point troubled the Church the holy Fathers expresse what they held by the word Homousion which word Saint Augustine affirmeth not to be found in all the Scripture What then hath Maister Hooker said which Saint Augustine said not long since neither of them disprouing the thing but both denying the expresse literall mention of the word which I persuade my self your selues are neuer able to find Now for the proceeding of the holy Ghost you alleage as you say expresse words When the Comforter shall come whom I will send vnto you from the Father euen the Spirit of truth which proceedeth of the Father Out of this place as you thinke you haue sufficiently proued the expresse literal mention of this point we contēd not with you nor with any whether the truth of this point may directly be warranted by holy scripture but whether there be as you say expresse literal mention First then we call that expresse literal mention which is set down in plaine tearmes not inferred by way of consequence that it is so in this point we haue some reasō to doubt vntil out of your great obseruation you confirme it by more plaine and apparant Scripture For against this place which is but one which you haue alleaged we take this twofold exception as thereby accounting it insufficient to proue as you would haue it that there is expresse literall mention of the proceeding of the Spirit from the Father and the Son For first in that place alleaged out of Saint Iohn there is no mention at all of proceeding from the Sonne Secondly as Maister Beza whose authority you will not denie doth expound the place Christ speaketh not of the essence of the holy Ghost in himselfe but of the vertue and power of the holy Ghost in vs neither doth his interpretation which wee will not examine at this time any way preiudice the foundation of that truth which our Church doth hold For the Deitie of the holie Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Sonne though not by any expresse literall mention yet may easily be proued by infinite places of Scripture and other infallible demonstrations besides this In the dayes of Liberius the Pope and of Constantius the Emperour certaine fantasticall spirits held that the holy Ghost was not God but onely the ministeriall instrument of diuine working This began vnder Arrius and increased by Eunomius a leprous heretike but a subtill Logitian whom the Church hath strongly confuted with arguments impossible to be answered As first that the holy Ghost is euerie where to giue all things to know and search all things that we are commanded to baptise in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost besides the greatnesse of the sinne against the holy Ghost So Ananias that lyed as Peter said to the holy Ghost lyed not to man but to God These and many such places warranted those ancient Councels to conclude the Deitie of the holy Ghost equall to the Father and the Sonne and equally proceeding from both As first the Councell of Constantinople consisting of an hundreth and fiftie Bishops vnder Theodosius the elder and Damasus the Pope which condemned the heresie of the Macedonians The same faith was confirmed by the Councell of Ephesus the Councell of Chalcedon the Councell of Lateran vnder Innocentius the third and diuers others And Athanasius himselfe maketh it most plaine that the Father is of none either made created or begotten the Sonne is of the Father alone not made nor created but begotten the holy Ghost is from the Father and the Sonne not made nor created nor begotten but proceeding In this nothing being first or last greater or lesse but all the three persons coeternall and coequall The
of the SacrameÌ„ts the effect of the thing ordeined by Christ is not taken away or the grace of Gods guift diminished as touching them which receiue by faith and orderly the things offered vnto them which for the institutioÌ„ of Christ and his promise are effectuall although they be administred by euill men But to inferre heereupon that the same actions howsoeuer don scoffingly and in iest contrary or besides the holy institution of the Church are truly Sacraments It is a conclusion too violent and not warranted by any truth For howsoeuer the grace of Sacraments dependeth not vpon the Minister who maie faile of these vertues that are fitte to bee required in him yet it is necessarie that there should bee an intention to administer a true Sacrament least we put no difference betwixt that which either derision imitatioÌ„ chance or the Church doth For if the conuersion of Lucius first Christian king of this land were to be acted vpon a stage and that two persons were to represent â—ugatius and Damianus sent by Eleutherius the Pope to baptize Lucius could any man in reason thinke how orderly soeuer performed that this were true baptisme were not this to make the bare action all and the intention a circumstance not belonging to it But we must know as M. Hooker saith that SacrameÌ„ts are actions mysticall and religious for no man can truly define them otherwise which nature they haue not vnlesse they proceede from a serious meaning yet what euery mans priuate minde is as we cannot know so neither are we bound to examine for in these cases the knowne intent of the Church doth generally suffice and where the contrary is not manifest as circumstances will serue easily to discouer we must presume that he which outwardly doth the worke hath inwardly the purpose of the Church of God Now this beeing a discreet rule wisely to put a difference betwixt Sacraments holie actions and the like irreligiousâ—â—e and prophanely performed is that whereat your zealous wisdome doth take offence and which you pursue with that bitternesse of speech calling it meere Popery a humane inuention and inducemeÌ„t to fides implicita as though the dangers were neither few nor small which came vnto y e Church by this opinion Let me intreat your patience a little vouchsafe to be but aduised by him who in all humilitie wil be readie to follow y e sound directions of the meanest in Gods church and I doubt not to make it apparant that Maister Hooker hath deliuered that truth the contrary wherof is no way fit to be admitted or allowed by vs. Some are of opinion that no intention at all is required in the Ministers of the Sacraments but that if the thing and the words be present though either in â—est or otherwise performed yet notwithstanding it is a Sacrament The first Author of this as Bellarmine saith was Luther whose words I must needes say are violeÌ„tly wrested to make him speake that which he neuer ment It is like that heout of whom by misunderstanding you haue collected this opinion was Maister Caluin who rightly deriuing the vertue of Sacraments from the Minister to God himselfe the author of the first institution saith thus I refer so much to the holy institution of Christ that if an Epicure inwardely deriding the whole action should administer the supper by the commandement of Christ marke the words and according to the rule by him giuen which no man could that wanted the intention of the Church I would account them saith he the true pledges of the body and the blood of Christ Where we are willing to confesse with him and with truth it selfe that Sacraments for their vertue depeÌ„d not vpon the intention of the Minister though without the intention of the Church they are not Sacraments Where by intention we meane not a particular purpose of all that the Sacraments require a thing peraduenture aboue the capacity of many lawfull Ministers but a generall intention of performing that sacred action according to the meaning of the Church Where by church we mean not any one particular but the true Church or as M. Caluin saith Christs rule or that intention which Christians in that action haue and yet if one in this should follow the intention of a particular Church that did erre it were not a reason sufficient to make the Sacrament to be none at all for euen his intention in following that particular Church though erring were an intentioÌ„ of following the true Church that doth not erre Neither is it required as the scholemen say that this intention necessarily be actual nor it sufficeth not to be habituall which may be in men either drunke or asleepe but vertuall that is in the power of that intention which howsoeuer now distracted before was actuall Neither doe we meane that the Minister should necessarily haue the same intent of the end which the Church hath but of the action the end being perhaps without the compasse of his knowledg but the action cannot vnlesse we suppose him to be a Minister weaker then any church hath For it is one thing to intend what the Church intendeth and another thing to intend what the Church doth For those that intend by baptisme an vtter acquittance from originall sinne and those that doe not there is a diuersitie in the end but the action is all one and therefore not reiterated though the end be diuers Now to do the externall action and yet in iest is no more to doe what the Church intendeth to doe then their speech and action Haile King of the Iewes was any honor or true reuerence to our Sauiour Christ. The necessity of this intention not for grace but to make it a Sacramentall action will more euidently appeare if wee consider what kinde of instrument the Minister is Man may be the instrument of another agent many waies First in respect only of his bodily members his hand his backe or such like without any vse of the will Secondly in respect of his outward parts with the vse of sense as to reade to watch to tell what he seeth and to this also the will is no further required but to the outward action Thirdly in respect of the bodily members together with sense and reason as in Iudges appointed by Princes to determine causes wherein wisdome and the will are to be instruments Now the Ministers of the Sacrament must be of this third kinde And therefore saith Hugo if a father should take his sonne to a bathe and should say Sonne I wash thee in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost and so dip him in the water it were ridiculous to thinke that hee were thus baptized Where although such prophaners are without excuse for vnreuerend imitation of holy things yet these actions without the intention of the Church can no wayes bee tearmed sacraments For if those who hold a sermon read to be
all tending to one ende for which God hath made his visible church to be that congregation of faithfull people wherein the pure word of God is preached so that in this respect we refuse not to make the preaching of the word taking the word preaching for all manner of teaching to be an essentiall note of the church For doubtles in that parable of the sower by you alledged we mislike not much the interpretation of that Reuerend Bishop which you bring forth as opposite to Maister Hooker saying God is the husbandman the Preachers of the word are the seed sowers the seede is the word of God the ground is the harts of men and yet Saint Austin differeth a little from this exposition where he saith the sower is God and I because he soweth what am I but the seedmans basket Which euen the meanest Christian no doubt is though neuer called to the office of preaching if he can by priuate conference exhort and instruct out of holy Scripture which as it is an acte of lesse honor and profit then the preaching of those that are worthily called to that office so euen in their sermons that are called there is no man but must acknowledge a manifold and apparant difference For seeing speech as Maister Hooker saith which you mislike is the very image whereby the mind and soule of the speaker conueyeth itselfe into the bosome of him that heareth we cannot chuse but see great reason wherfore the word that proceedeth from God who is in him selfe very truth and life should be as the Apostle to the Hebrues noteth liuely and mighty in operation sharper then any two edged sword Now to make our sermons that strong forcible word is to impart the most peculiar glory of the word of God vnto that which is not his word For touching our sermons that which giueth them their very being is the will of man and therefore they oftentimes accordingly tast too much of that ouer-corrupt fountaine from which they come For euen the best of our Sermons and in Sermons there is an infinite difference howsoeuer they oftentimes haue a singular blessing and that the scripture the pure word of God is the text and the ground of the speech yet the rest of the discourse which is sometimes two or three houres long a time too long for most preachers to speake pertinently is but the paraphrasticall inlarging of the same text together with those fit exhortations and applications which the learning of the preacher is able to furnish himselfe withall and his discretion shall thinke fit for that auditory to which he speaketh And therfore as to equalize euery declamation or oration in schooles to them is to wrong sermons so to make euen the best sermons equall to the scripture must be in apparant reason a great wrong to that which is immediately Gods own word wherunto though the best preach agreeably yet the sermons of none since the Apostles time are or ought to be esteemed of equall authority with the holy scripture and yet we are not afraide to ascribe vnto them that blessing from aboue to conuert reforme and strengthen which no eloquence Wisedome Learning Policie and Power of the world is able to match Neither is there contrariety in this that we that are the Preachers are sent as the Apostles were in respect of our calling from God and yet that the learning and wit of man giueth the very beeing vnto that wee teach Vnlesse which some ouerboldly doe you thinke it vnlawfull to vse either learning or wit in making of sermons As though all other helpes purchased with great cost and infinite labour together with a naturall ability all perfected in those excellent fountaines of all learning the Vniuersities were to be reiected as wholy vnprofitable in this busines Neither doth Master Hooker or any other of iudgement say which you seeme to infer that a man by natural witte without a supernaturall light from the scripture is able to vtter those mysteries as he ought which doubtlesse being a great fault is rather the error of those who preach most and yet vse least helps of learning or wit for that they vtter Wherein it must needs seeme strange that they euer vnderstanding by the word the worde preached whereunto they ascribe vitall operation yet they performe this with such negligence that they come rashly vnfurnished to so great a businesse and scarce attentiuely weigh the dangerous sequell of this construction Doubtlesse our sermons euen the best either for sound knowledge or pure zeale are not Gods word in the same manner that the sermoÌ„s of the Prophets were no they are but ambiguously tearmed his word because his word is commonly the subiect wherof they treate and must be the rule whereby they are framed Yet sermons haue sundrie peculiar and proper vertues such as no other way of teaching besides hath aptnesse to follow particular occasions presently growing to put life into words by countenance voice and gesture to preuaile mightily in the sodaine affections of men these and such like are those excellent prerogatiues which some few may challeÌ„g who worthily deserue the name to be called preachers We reiect not as of no vse at all in the Church euen the vertuous labours of meaner men who come far short of the perfection of these few but earnestly wish the gouernours of our Church for fitte imployment and maintenance to respect both And they laying aside all comparisons equally to labour to further that worke which by a blessing from aboue knoweth how to profit by the labours of all It seemeth by that which you allege that only such sermons haue their beeing from the wit of man which curiously bring into the pulpit Poets Philosophers Rhetoricians Phisitions Schoolemen and other humaine learning which the reuerend Fathers say you and more staid diuines are warâ—e to auoid In this speech of yours in my opinion there are two faults The first a particular vniust censure of the Fathers whether you meane the holy Fathers of the Church as Saint Austine Saint Ambrose Saint Gregorie Saint Bernard and the rest or those reuerend Fathers which doe liue at this day all which whilest you seeke to commend directly you dispraise accounting them to auoid all humane learning and that their sermons haue not their being from the wit of man which doubtlesse is false seeing they excell by infinite degrees the sermons of manie others which are framed by neither The second fault is a generall taxation of all those who anie way furnish their sermons with humane learning You may peraduenture be able to giue good direction in other points but surely in framing of a Preacher or making of a sermon you are much deceiued for I can neuer perswade my selfe that the exactest industrie that man can vse is vnlawfull or vnnecessarie in this worke for sometimes we are to deale with those whose opinions are not easily confuted without humane learning nor their
interpreting which as to maintaine must needes be great simplicity so to dislike all vse of them is intolerable vnthankfulnesse But in this accusation it is not apparant what you meane wheÌ„ you alledge out of Luther that schoole diuinity hath banished from vs the true and sincere diuinity If this were the direct iudgement of Luther to condemne all schoole diuinity yet it is a strange oppositioÌ„ to alledge the sentence of one man against the practise and authorities of the best Fathers Neither doe we vnderstand which it is the olde or the new that so much offendes you by old we meane that Scholasticall kinde of expounding which the most eloquent Fathers lately comen from the schooles of Rhetoricians and Philosophers haue brought with them to the interpreting of holy Scriptures that thus they might be able to teach to delight to perswade a matter fitting al but not easie for any that is not excellently furnished with humane learning In this sense Beda calleth Prudentius the most noble Schooleman of the Spaniards whom it is like in the seueritie of your iudgment you would haue dispraised and Gennadius in the Catalogue of famous writers reckoneth vp Museus Iulianus Eucherius and diuers others amongst the Schoolmen that is amongst the chiefe professours of Schoole-eloquence Saint Hierome affirmeth of himselfe that manie things in Diuinitie he handled with Schoole oâ—nament and of Saint Paul he saith that when he preached at Athens vpon occasion of the inscription of the Altar to the vnknowne God he handled it with a scholasticall kind of elegancie Is this then that which so much offends you Was it an ornament in these Fathers and many others and is it a blemish in M. Hooker But peraduenture it is the new and later kind of Schoole interpreting that you mislike whose methode is Philosophicall disputing made of Aristotelian learning this sprang vp about some foure hundreth and odde yeares past in the time of Lotharius the second Emperour of Rome who recouering out of darkenesse the Roman lawes caused them publikely to bee read and to be expounded by diuers Writers by this meanes diuinitie began to waxe cold vntill by imitation of these men certaine deuout Monkes and others vndertooke the like in expounding the holy Scripture by which meanes euen vntill this day there remaineth in the Schooles tenne orders of their vsuall expounding by Concordance Historie Postill Question Lecture Compendium or Abridgement Sermon Meeter Meditation all which no doubt of it in your opinion are esteemed vnlawfull and vnprofitable Nowe many that were excellent in this kind the Church both knoweth how to vse with great profit and in recompence of their labour hath giuen them titles with much honour Thus Alexander Hales who made his Summe that excellent worke by commaundement of Innocentius the fourth was called the fountaine of life because of that liuely knowledge that flowed from him he was Maister to Bonauenture a scholer not inferiour to himselfe of whom he was wont to say that in Bonauenture he thought Adam sinned not meaning for that illumination which was in him doubtles there was much in him as though he had not beene darkened by the fall of Adam and therfore the Church called him the Seraphicall Doctor To these Aquinas was not inferiour who came so neere vnto Saint Austin that some thought hee had all his works by heart and by a common prouerbe it was spoken that the soule of Saint Austin dwelt in Aquinas in whom aboue all the rest foure contrarieties were said to excell abundance breuitie facilitie security In respect whereof hee gained the title to be called Angelicall Now for any man to follow the steps of these though treading sure as hauing more light can any man in reason account it to be a fault Is there no other matter of reproofe in Maister Hookers writings but that vertues must bee faults But hee seeketh to proue matters of diuinity with the strength of reason Indeed this is a great fault which if many had not beene afraid to commit the world had not beene filled with so many idle and vnreasonable discourses But so it is that through an ignorant zeale of honouring the scriptures the name of the light of nature is made hateful with men the starre of reason and learning all other such like helps beginneth no otherwise to be thought of then as if it were an vnlucky Comet or as if God had so accursed it that it should neuer shine or giue light in things concerning our duty any way toward him but be esteemed as that starre in the Reuelation called wormwood Which being fallen from heauen maketh riuers waters in which it falleth so bitter that men tasting them die thereof A number there are who thinke they cannot admire as the ought the power authority of the word of God if in things diuine they should attribute any force to mans reason for which cause they neuer vse reason so willingly as to disgrace reason Then vsuall and common discourses are to this effect The naturall man perceiueth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse vnto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned For answer where unto we say that concerning the abilitie of Reason to search out and to iudge of things diuine if they be such as those properties of God and those duties of men towards him which may be conceiued by attentiue consideration of heauen and earth wee know that of meere naturall men the Apostle testifieth how they know both God and the law of God other things of God there be which are neither so found nor though they bee shewed can euer be approued without the speciall approbation of Gods good grace spirit such is the suffring rising againe of our Sauiour Christ which Eestus a meere naturall man could not vnderstand therefore Paul seemed in his eyes to be learnedly mad This sheweth that nature hath need of grace to which Maister Hooker was neuer opposit in saying that grace may haue vse of nature But Paul chargeth the Colossians to beware of Philosophie that is to say such knowledge as men by naturall reason are able to attaine I confesse Philosophie wee are warned to take heed of not that Philosophy which is true and sound knowledge attained by a naturall discourse of reason but that Philosophie which to bolster heresie or errour which I am sure Maister Hooker doth not casteth a fraudulent shew of reason vpon things which are indeede vnreasonable and by that meanes as by a stratageme spoyleth the simple which are not able to withstand such cunning He that giueth warning to take heede of an enemies policie doth not giue counsell to auoid all policie but rather to vse all prouident foresight and circumspection least our simplicity bee ouerreacht by cunninâ— sleights The way not to be inueigled by them that arâ— so guilefull through skill is