them in the euill day and hauing finished all things stand fast This should be our synchristianismus the Christian-continuance in one minde and one spirit fighting together for the faith of the Gospell against the enemies of the crosse Which as it is glorious to see how we all accord against the common aduersarie in matter of faith and religion so is it as dolefull to behold how they who consent in the substance dissent in the circumstance they who agree in the corner stone disagree in a corner cap. It cannot be denied what long iarre hath bene betweene two Captaines of our hoast as that long warre twixt the house of o 2. Sam. 3â— Saul and the house of Dauid I meane those mountaines which as the Psalmist speakes should haue brought peace to the vallies people below them with those two hils in the storie haue fought so fiercely each against other that they shaked the cottages and weakened I feare the houses that were built vpon them and would haue continued if the house of Saul had not waxen weaker and Dauids house grown stronger from the Lord. It cannot be denied how some humorists like distempering humours would haue altered the state of this mysticall bodie wherein frigida pugnârunt calidis humentia siccis and moisture or deaw of the spirit hath striuen against drought as cold charitie against heate in a good cause It befell p Epist 8 ad p 〈…〉 de 5 presbyteris scisâ—â—aticis S. Cyprian as he complaineth of fiue scismaticall presbyters and I wish some in our Church might not sing the same song Quorundam presbyterorum malignitas perfidia dum coniurationis suae memores antiqua illa contra Episcopatum meâ—m 〈◊〉 contra suffragium vestrum Dei iudicium venena retinentes instaurant veterem contra nos impugnationem suam sacrilega 〈…〉 chinas insidijs solitis denuò renouant A nobis noÌ„ ciecti vltrò se 〈…〉 unt de Ecclesia sponte se pellunt Nunc apparuit Felicissimi f 〈…〉 vnde venisset quibus radicibus quibus viribus staret hi foments olim quibusdam confessoribus hortamenta tribuebant ne concerdarent cum Episcopo suo nec Ecclesiasticam disciplinam cum fide quiete iuxta praecepta Dominica continerent ne confessionâ—s suae gloriam incorrupta immaculata conuersatione seruarent Which whether it be the puffe of ambitioÌ„ in some who like Diotrepâ—â— would haue preheminence qui quoniam non possunt primum â—â—cum in Ecclesia obtinere idcirco illam sâ—indunt vel ab ea dâ—ficuâ—t as q Maior annot in 1. Cor. 12. 15. Beza himselfe truly speaketh or the pricke of their priuate spirit who would haue all things made according to the pa 〈…〉 shewed to them in the mount sure I am with r De vnit Eccl. Cyprian the diuell hath inuented scismes whereby he might subuert faith corrupt veritie and rent vnitie vt quos detinere non potuit viae veteris câ—citate deciperet noui itiner is errore That them whom he could not keepe in Poperie he might deceiue with Puritanitiue Wherin as they pleade that the Church gouernment might be 〈…〉 â—crely ministred according to Gods word so build they on a false ground both fashioning the ripe yeares of the Church to 〈◊〉 infancie and seeing the Apostles who perfited the rules of doctrine scant drew the lines of discipline for euery Church All discipline of the Church according to Gods word I wonder their reading hath not read or their faith beleeueth not Caluâ—â— that great reformer of Geneua Å¿ 〈◊〉 in 1. Câ—r 11. 2 who telleth them all so expresly Seimus vnâ—â—uique Ecclesiae liberum esse politiae formam in s 〈…〉 re sibi apâ—am vtilem quia Dominus nihil certi praescripscrit We know saith Caluin that it is free for euery Church to make a forme of discipline or policie fit and profitable for it selfe because the Lord hath prescribed no certaintie in this behalfe Let them heare t Christ cap. â—â— Martin Bucer another of that mind Ecclesiis Christi sua est permittenda libertas quò vnaquaeque eum praefiniat moduÌ„ rationem sacrarum lectionum interpretationum Scripturarum Catechismi administrationis Sacramentorum precum Psalmorum item publicè peccantium reprehensionis c. quam possit quaelibet Ecclesia confidere suis populis maxime conducturam c. And exhorteth euerie reformer or deformer rather vt quantum possis in his rebus obserues conformitatem that as much as thou canst in these things thou conforme Let them heare u 〈◊〉 56 â— 1. Cor. 11. 2. Gualther who so often wished reformation Quoad fidei salutis doctrinaÌ„ traditiones Apostolorum nullas agnoscimus quam quae symbolo continentur qâ—oad externam vero Ecclesiae formam non inficiamur illos passim multa tradidisse de ordine coetuum Ecclesiasticorum de Sacramentorum administratione tota Ecclesiae oeconomia In quibus cum non possit eadem vbique gentium forma obseruari sic illa instituerunt prout vrbis aut gentis aliâ—uius conditionem requirere videbant Et constat omnibus seculis Ecclesias in his libertate sua vsas fuisse proinde iniquos nimirum esse qui bodie vel sub traditionuÌ„ Apostolicarum nomine vel quocunque alio praetextu omnes ad eandem formam astringere conantur Of this minde is x Loc corn de potest minist Musculus y De potest Eccl. cap. 10. 11. 12 1â— Danaeus z Lib. 8. de sum script cap 4. Kimedoncius and euen a Confess cap. 5. de Eccles art 17 18. Beza himselfe most strict disciplinarians that might be Wherefore they grieuously offend saith b Lib. 1. in 4. prâ—cept cap. 19. vid. Zanchius who for these indifferent ceremonies trouble the churches of God by their scisme haeccine est pietas quum iactamus haeccine est charitas quam debemus Ecclesiis fratribus Is this the pietie saith he and puritie whereof we brag Is this the charitie we owe to our mother the Church and our brethren Shall we thus Pharise-like tithe Annise and Cummin and leaue the greater matters of the Law Shall we thus striue and struggle in the wombe of Rebeccah Is this the oath we tooke in our baptisme to sight together as one man against Satan Shall we thus stand amazed at squares and rounds at white and at black Surely then the by-standers will say A Puritane is a Protestant frayed out of his wits that swalloweth a Camel in life and straineth out a Gnat in discipline I wish they would rather heare S. * Epist 118. cap. 2. ad Ian. Austines iudgement speaking of these ecclesiasticall rites and ceremonies Totum hoc genus rerum liberas habet obseruationes nec disciplina vlla est in his melior graui prudeÌ„tique Christiano quam vt eo modo agat quo agere viderit Ecclesiam ad quamcunque foriè
Writers for opening the Scripture and giuing the sence nor for confuting of naturall men by reason maketh the Scripture vnsufficient this reason is not sufficient to exclude it from Academicall or popular Sermons 3. Ob. Thou shalt not plow with an Oxe and an Asse together nor sow thy field with diuers kinds of seedes Deut. 22. 9. that is as Philosophers could teach vs Non est de vno genere disciplinae transeundum in aliud We must not confound Philosophie with Theologie or Aristotle with Christ For which Ierom taxed Eustochium saying What communion hath light with darknesse what concord Christ with Belial what agreement the temple of God with idols Quid Horatio Psalterio Virgilio Euangelistis Ciceroni Apostolis wherefore come out from among and separate your selues Or as Tertullian speaketh Praesâ—râ—pt adâ—er Hâ—retiâ— Quid Athenis Ierosolymis Quid Academiae Ecclesiae Quid Haereticis Christianis Nostra institutio de porticu Salomonis est viderint qui Stoicum Platonicum Dialecticum Christianis praetulerunt The beleeuer hath no part with the infidell Diuinitie must not be vnequally yoked with humanitie nor an Oxe with an Asse therefore away with humanitie out of Sermons 1. Resp That law in the old the Apostle expounds well in the new Testament 2. Cor. 6. No fellowship should righteousnesse haue with vnrighteousnesse nor any communion light with darknesse And so secular learning which is darknesse and descended not from the father of lights but ascended rather from the bottomlesse pit should not be brought to the Scripture but to be reproued of the light Yet when it is true he that commaunded the light to shine out of darknesse maketh as the Psalmist speakes this darknesse to be light Wherefore if the Asse will know his masters crib for I must answer this brutish reason in it owne kind this beast as one wel notes may like Balaams asse be taught to speake to good purpose and as an Asse caried a false Prophet then so may it now carrie Christ as once one did Isis and speaking with mans or rather Gods voice forbid the foolishnes of a Prophet whence reuerence secular learning as the people did him with Non tibi sed religioni not for it selfe but for Gods truth that it caryeth And when Caesaris effigiem quilibet assis habet any farthing of their coyne beareth Gods image and superscription of truth we bring it vnto God to whome it belongeth and cast it though but a farthing into the treasurie of the Lord. And therefore seeing it may bring Christians to his Church as the Asse caried Christ to the temple I say to all Preachers as spake he to his disciples Go ye to Bethphage go to Poets Historians and Philosophers and there shall ye find an Asse tyed and her colt loose them and bring them hither for the Lord hath neede of them 4. Ob. Moses though learned in all the wisedome of the Egyptians yet preached he nought to the people but from the mouth of the Lord. The Prophets though filled with knowledge yet prophesied they not of any priuate motion or by the will of man but spake onely as they were moued by the holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1. 21. Yea euen BalaaÌ„ durst not for an house full of gold go beyond the word of the Lord to say more or lesse Num. 22. 18. Christ himselfe preached nothing but what he receiued from his father Ioh. 12. 49. 50. and charged his Apostles to preach whatsoeuer he commanded them nought else Mat. 28. 20. therefore his sent-ones and messengers may preach nothing but his word 1. Resp By this reason no Preacher may speake a sentence in his Sermon which is not immediatly the Scripture according to matter forme and words and shall we so condemne all the men of God preaching since the Apostles times Nay out of thine owne mouth will I iudge thee ô euill seruant and slouthfull For what shall we thinke then of our talking Preachers who speake most of their owne braine and in many sentences speake often neither Scripture nor scant good reason to their people 2 By this reason they may not alleage Caluins exposition vnlesse they will make him the thirteenth Apostle and hath his Comments by diuine inspiration as had the Apostles Nay this excludeth Fathers Doctors and Schoolemen out of our Sermons when we dispute against the Papists 3 Who knoweth whether these holy men of God vsed not secular learning in their Sermons as well as Saint Paul Their Prophesies that we haue are but generall notes and summa capita of their Sermons as the c Prophetis fuiâ— mos postquam iussâ— crant aliquid populo nuncâ—are paucis summas rerum coÌ„plecti valâ—â—s templâ— praefigere ait Caluin praefat in Esa Comment in cap. â— 1. in Aba 2. 2. SolebaÌ„t Prophetae ex more suarum concionuÌ„ argumenta pracipua capita scripto comprehensa publicè legenda proponere aâ—â— Gualâ— homi 5. in Abac 2 2. Sic Dan 〈…〉 prolâ—gâ—m in 12. Prophet cap. 12. Sohn lib. 1. de verb Deâ— Vnde fit vt partes librorum Propheticorum interduÌ„ non satâ—â— cohâ—rere videantur De quo Origen lib. 1. in C 〈…〉 uÌ„ cant Ierom. in Ierem. 21. aâ—â—bi annotaâ—â—t Learned obserue And yet S. Ambrose Lib. 3. de fide cap. 1. dare auouch that euen in these generall notes of their Sermons the Prophets haue relation to poeticall stories And Saint Ierome Epist ad Rom. auoucheth it of both saying Quis nesciat in Mose in Prophetarum voluminibus quaedam assumpta de Gentilium libris Who can be ignorant that in Moses and the Prophets some things are taken out of the bookes of the Gentiles For the Apostles though in their Epistles to particular Churches none saue Saint Paule cite humanitie yet who can shew that in their popular Sermons to the Gentiles throughout the whole world they alleaged not truth out of Poets Philosophers and Historians seeing Christ promised them that his spirit should leade them not onely into truth but in omnem veritatem into all truth Ioh. 16. 13. 4 Though neither did as in shewing vs the immediat will of God and laying downe the grounds of faith it was not so conuenient to mixe it with mens precepts yet in expounding this will in explaning the sence of words and phrase of speech in declaring the nature of birds beasts and stones c. to which they allude we cannot cut the word aright without the vse of Grammarians in the proprietie acceptation of words without helpe of Logicians in distinguishing ambiguities without ayde of Rhetoricians in following precepts and rules of speech to perswade without helpe of Historiographers to calculate times of naturall Philosophie to scan causes and their effects Geometrie to find sites and situations and such like Wherefore though they onely spake immediatly from the Lord in declaring his will yet can we not without these helps expound
2. 8. Hemingius Who the parts of longer speech who the order of disputations who the force and connexion of their arguments without Logicke Doeth not Paul require in a Preacher that he be apt to teach and deuide Gods word aright which that he cannot do without Logick Rhetoricke nor without secular learning expound it who seeth not Many things saith he are said in the Prophets the Psalmes and Apostolical writings Quae sine reruÌ„ naturalium doctrina intelligi nequeunt which cannot be vnderstood much lesse opened to the people without the doctrine and learning of naturall things Whatsoeuer things are written of the site of places and of the natures of beasts trees stones herbes or other like bodies in prophane authors that the knowledge of them helpeth to open the darke places of the Scripture we haue taught before saith Saint q Lib. 2. de Doct. Christ cap. 29. quaecunque de locorum situ naturisque animalium lignorum lapiduÌ„ herbaruÌ„ ahorâ— ve corporuÌ„ scripta sunt eoruÌ„ cognitioneÌ„ valere ad aenigmata scriptâ—â—raruÌ„ soluendae docuimus Austine and cap. 16. he shewes that for expounding the Scripture aright the knowledge of beasts of herbes of stones and such like is necessary and must be found out And where are these natures better to be found then in Plinie Aristotle Dioscorides Gesner Poets Philosophers and Historians Certum est saith r Proble loc 150. de lect Ethnic Aretius it is certaine that difficult places and hard knots of the scripture vsitata phrasi sententia ab Ethnicis petita expediri are opened by a like phrase and sentence in prophane authors And though many places in Scripture be plaine and easie yet who seeth not that because of seeming antilogies whereof there be not a Å¿ Vide Indicem loc pug praefix tom 1. August Alâ—ha mar few in the Scripture of ambiguitie in speech and words of imperfect clauses of preposterous speeches and anticipations of idiotismes in both tongues of manifold allusions to things of all sorts of tropicall and figuratiue speeches wherof I spake before and lastly of the difficulty and obscurity of Scripture wherof Illyricus hath giuen no t Tract 1. de rat cognos script lesse then one and fiftie reasons though matters most necessary to saluation be in some place or other plaine yet can it not be vnderstood without this helpe Reade that writer how he u Ibid. tract 6. de necessit cognit sheweth in euery booke of holy writ some thing is alluded to which without it we cannot expound and deuide aright to our people But of all other Hyperius lib. 1. de ration stud Theolog. cap. 4. Quòdartium scientia sit Theologo necessaria is learned and large in this point Where he auoucheth that the knowledge of the arts doth no lesse mightily conduce to vnderstand then to open and expound to others the high mysteries of the Scripture Neither will we heare them qui obganniunt who barke and baule against vs that the skill of vnderstanding and expounding the Scriptures is so to be expected of the holy Ghost that we need not vse these good helpes Though all knowledge of diuine things come from God yet is it exacted of vs to learne the arts the tongues and other secular learning with many watchings and vse them when the matter requireth in expounding the Scripture Quid verbis opus est euincit experientia c. What need words experience proueth that the causes beginnings progresse ends circumstances and what soeuer is of moment are in obscure places more perspicuously explaned of them who vse the arts then of those that want theÌ„ or vse theÌ„ not at al. And afterward he sheweth at large that Grammer for proprietie of words and phrases Logicke for defintions diuisions demonstrations argumentations auoiding sophismes and distinguishing ambigâ—ities Rhetoricke to teach delight perswade and moue the affection Arithmeticke for calculation of times yeares and supputations Geometrie for sites and situations of places countries and regions Physiologie for scanning causes and their effects for searching natures and qualities of man his soule her faculties of plants stones beasts birds hearbes trees Palmes Cedars Oliue tree Fig tree and Vine mentioned often in Scripture diseases as leprosie dropsie fluxe of bloud and feuers Astronomie for the celestiall motions for the Sun Moone Starres for Meteors raine wind rainbow thunders haile tempest earthquakes and the first and latter raine in Canaan Ethicke for manners and good life for definitions of vertues or vices for helpes and hinderances of both Historie for knowledge of men their manners kingdomes and regencie of the Monarchies Poetrie vnder whose darke fables much excellent morality for life and good maners like a kernel within the shell is contained Without these arts saith he a Preacher cannot vnderstand the Scriptures aright Neque Prophetarum vaeticinia conciones planè percipiet neither open them for himselfe nor diuide them to other aright And therefore Theodoret on this place diuide aright compares a Preacher to a plowman who vseth not one but many instruments as helpes for tilling the ground Indeed solo vomere terra proscinditur sed vt hoc fieri possit caetera etiam aratri membra sunt necessaria saith x Lib. 16. de ciuit Dei cap. 2. Austine The culter and share is the principall toole that cleaueth the ground the word of God alone is sharpe to diuide betweene the marrow and bone and plow vp the fallow ground of our hearts yet as caetera aratri membra sunt necessaria as the other tooles are necessarie in the plow so Aratus we see Saint Paul was faine to vse as an helpe for his tillage If this simily like not a y B. Iewell ser 6. in Ios 6. of destroying Iericho larned Bishop and Iewel of our Church vseth another We say eloquence and other liberall arts are to be likened to that part of the Carpenters wimble which turneth about goeth round and by little and little draweth in the iron or steele-bit The woodden handle entreth not into the wood but wreatheth in the piercer so do these arts if they be rightly vsed further the vnderstanding of the word of God This vse Lactantius seemed to seeke when z Lib. 3. Instit cap 1. Vellem mihi dari eloquentiam vel quia magis credant homines ornatae veritati vel vt ipsi suis armis vincantur he said I would I had the gift of eloquence or learning either because men might giue better credite to the truth when it is beautifully adorned or that they might be ouercome with their owne weapons And surely they who do not thus maintaine learning in preaching but would banish the vse of liberall arts from the pulpit restore as much as in them lyeth ignorant Iericho againe a Ibid. saith Bishop Iewell And I may with b Ibid. him boldly auerre This ignorant Iericho hath many friends in our dayes who by all meanes draw men