ye are not to claime in any such cōferēce other thē the plaintifs or opponents part which must cōsist altogether in proofe cōfirmation of two things the one that our orders by you condēned we ought to abolish the other that yours we are bound to accept in the stead therof Secōdly because the questions in cōtrouersie between vs are many if once we descend vnto particularities that for the easier more orderly proceeding therin the most generall be first discussed nor any questiō left off nor in each questiō the prosecutiō of any one argumēt giuē ouer another takē in hād til the issue wherunto by replies answers both parts are come be collected red acknowledged aswel on the one side as on the other to be the plain cōclusiō which they are grown vnto Thirdly for auoyding of the manifold incōueniēces wherunto ordinary extēporal disputes are subiect as also because if ye should singly dispute one by one as euery mans owne wit did best serue it might be cōceiued by the rest that happily some other would haue done more the chiefest of you do all agree in this action that whom ye shal then choose your speaker by him that which is publikely brought into disputation be acknowledged by al your cōsēts not to be his allegatiō but yours such as ye all are agreed vpō haue required him to deliuer in al your names the true copy whereof being taken by a notarie that a reasonable time be allowed for returne of answere vnto you in the like forme Fourthly whereas a number of conferences haue bene had in other causes with the lesse effectual successe by reason of partiall vntrue reports published afterwards vnto the world that to preuent this euill there be at the first a solemne declaration made on both parts of their agreement to haue that very booke no other set abroad wherin their present authorized notaries do write those things fully only which being written there read are by their owne opē testimony acknowledged to be their owne Other circumstances hereunto belōging whether for the choice of time place and language or for preuention of impertinent and needlesse speech or to any end and purpose else they may be thought on whē occasiō serueth In this sort to broach my priuate conceipt for the ordering of a publike actiō I should be loth albeit I do it not otherwise thē vnder correctiō of thē whose grauitie wisedome ought in such cases to ouerrule but that so venterous boldnes I see is a thing now general am therby of good hope that where al mē are licensed to offēd no man will shew himself a sharp accuser 6. What successe God may giue vnto any such kind of conference or disputation we cannot tell But of this we are right sure that nature scripture and experience it selfe haue all taught the world to seeke for the ending of contentions by submitting it self vnto some iudiciall definitiue sentence wherevnto neither part that cōtendeth may vnder any pretence or colour refuse to stand This must needs be effectuall and strong As for other meanes without this they seldome preuaile J would therefore know whether for the ending of these irksome strifes wherein you and your followers do stand thus formally deuided against the authorized guides of this Church the rest of the people subiect vnto their charge whether I say ye be content to referre your cause to any other higher iudgement then your owne or else intend to persist proceed as ye haue begun til your selues can be perswaded to cōdemn your selues If your determinatiō be this we can be but sorie that ye should deserue to be reckened with such of whom God himselfe pronounceth The way of peace they haue not knowne Waies of peaceable conclusion there are but these two certaine the one a sentence of iudiciall decision giuen by authoritie therto appointed within our selues the other the like kind of sentence giuen by a more vniuersall authoritie The former of which two waies God himselfe in the lawe prescribeth and his Spirit it was which directed the very first Christian Churches in the world to vse the later The ordinance of God in the lawe was this If there arise a matter too hard for thee in iudgement betweene bloud bloud betweene plea c. then shalt thou arise and goe vp vnto the place which the Lord thy God shall choose and thou shalt come vnto the Priests of the Leuites and vnto the Iudge that shall be in those dayes and aske and they shal shew thee the sentence of iudgement thou shalt do according to that thing which they of that place which the Lord hath chosen shewe thee and thou shalt obserue to do according to al that they enform thee according to the law which they shall teach thee and according to the iudgemēt which they shal tell thee shalt thou do thou shalt not decline from the thing which they shal shew thee to the right hand nor to the left And that man that will do presumptuously not harkning vnto the Priest that standeth before the Lord thy God to minister there or vnto the Iudge that man shal dye and thou shalt take away euill from Israel When there grew in the Church of Christ a question Whether the Gentiles belieuing might be saued although they were not circumcised after the manner of Moses nor did obserue the rest of those legall rites ceremonies wherunto the Iewes were bound After great dissension and disputation about it their conclusion in the end was to haue it determined by sentence at Ierusalem which was accordingly done in a Councell there assembled for the same purpose Are ye able to alleage any iust and sufficient cause wherfore absolutely ye should not condescend in this controuersie to haue your iudgements ouerruled by some such definitiue sentence whether it fall out to be giuen with or against you that so these tedious contentions may cease Ye will perhaps make answere that being perswaded already as touching the truth of your cause ye are not to harken vnto any sentence no not though Angels should define otherwise as the blessed Apostles owne example teacheth againe that men yea Councels may erre and that vnlesse the iudgement giuen do satisfie your minds vnlesse it be such as ye can by no further argumēt oppugne in a word vnlesse you perceiue and acknowledge it your selues consonant with Gods word to stand vnto it not allowing it were to sinne against your own cōsciences But cōsider I beseech you first as touching the Apostle how that wherein he was so resolute peremptory our Lord Iesus Christ made manifest vnto him euen by intuitive reuelation wherein there was no possibilitie of error That which you are perswaded of ye haue it no otherwise then by your owne only probable collectiō therefore such bold asseuerations as in him were admirable should in your mouthes but argue
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus much acknowledged by Mercurius Trismegist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus much cōfest by Anaxagoras Plato terming the maker of the world an Intellectual worker Finally the Stoikes although imagining the first cause of all things to be fire held neuerthelesse that the same fire hauing arte did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They all confesse therfore in the working of that first cause that counsell is vsed reason followed a way obserued that is to say constant order and law is kept wherof it selfe must needs be author vnto it selfe Otherwise it should haue some worthier and higher to direct it and so could not it selfe be the first Being the first it can haue no other then it selfe to be the author of that law which it willingly worketh by God therefore is a law both to himselfe and to all other things besides To himselfe he is a law in all those things whereof our Sauiour speaketh saying My Father worketh as yet so I. God worketh nothing without cause All those things which are done by him haue some ende for which they are done and the ende for which they are done is a reason of his will to do them His will had not inclined to create woman but that he saw it could not be wel if she were not created Non est bonum It is not good man should be alone Therfore let vs make an helper for him That and nothing else is done by God which to leaue vndone were not so good If therfore it bee demanded why God hauing power hability infinit th' effects notwithstāding of that power are all so limited as wee see they are the reason hereof is the end which he hath proposed and the lawe whereby his wisedome hath stinted th' effects of his power in such sort that it doth not worke infinitely but correspōdently vnto that end for which it worketh euen al things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in most decent and comely sort all things in measure number waight The generall ende of Gods external working is the exercise of his most glorious and most abundant vertue Which abundance doth shew it selfe in varietie and for that cause this varietie is oftentimes in scripture exprest by the name of riches The Lord hath made all things for his owne sake Not that any thing is made to be beneficial vnto him but all things for him to shew beneficence and grace in them The particular drift of euery acte proceeding externally from God we are not able to discerne and therefore cannot alwaies giue the proper and certaine reason of his works Howbeit vndoubtedly a proper and certaine reason there is of euery finite worke of God in as much as there is a law imposed vpon it which if there were not it should be infinite euen as the worker himselfe is They erre therfore who think that of the will of God to doe this or that there is no reason besides his will Many times no reason knowne to vs but that there is no reason thereof I iudge it most vnreasonable to imagine in as much as hee worketh all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not onely according to his owne will but the counsell of his owne will And whatsoeuer is done with counsell or wise resolution hath of necessitie some reason why it should be done albeit that reason bee to vs in somethings so secret that it forceth the wit of man to stand as the blessed Apostle himself doth amazed therat O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God How vnsearchable are his iudgements c That law eternall which God himself hath made to himselfe and therby worketh all things wherof he is the cause and author that law in the admirable frame wherof shineth with most perfect beautie the countenance of that wisdome which hath testified concerning her self The lord possessed me in the beginning of his way euē before his works of old I was set vp that lawe which hath bene the patterne to make and is the Carde to guide the world by that law which hath bene of God and with God euerlastingly that law the author and obseruer whereof is one only God to be blessed for euer how should either men or Angels be able perfectly to behold The booke of this law we are neither able nor worthy to open and looke into That little thereof which we darkly apprehend we admire the rest with religious ignorance we humbly meekly adore Seeing therfore that according to this law he worketh of whom through whom for whom are all things althogh there seeme vnto vs cōfusion disorder in th' affaires of this present world Tamen quon am bonus mund◠rector temperat rectè fieri cuncta ne dubites Let no man doubt but that euery thing is wel done because the world is ruled by so good a guide as transgresseth not his owne law then which nothing can be more absolute perfect iust The law wherby he worketh is eternall and therfore can haue no shew or colour of mutability for which cause a part of that law being opened in the promises which God hath made because his promises are nothing else but declarations what God will do for the good of men touching those promises the Apostle hath witnessed that God may as possibly denie himselfe and not be God as faile to performe them And cōcerning the counsel of God he termeth it likewise a thing vnchangeable the counsel of God and that law of God wherof now we speake being one Nor is the freedome of the wil of God any whit abated let or hindered by meanes of this because the impositiō of this law vpō himselfe is his own free volūtary act This law therfore we may name eternal being that order which God before al ages hath set down with himself for himself to do all things by 3 I am not ignorant that by law eternall the learned for the most part do vnderstand the order not which God hath eternally purposed himselfe in all his workes to obserue but rather that which with himselfe he hath set downe as expedient to be kept by all his creatures according to the seuerall conditiō wherwith he hath indued them They who thus are accustomed to speake apply the name of Lawe vnto that onely rule of working which superiour authority in poseth whereas we somewhat more enlarging the sense thereof terme any kind of rule or Canon whereby actions are framed a lawe Now that lawe which as it is laid vp in the bosome of God they call eternall receiueth according vnto the different kinds of things which are subiect vnto it different and sundry kinds of names That part of it which ordereth naturall agēts we call vsually natures law that which Angels doe clearely behold and without any swaruing obserue is a law coelestiall and heauenly the law of reason that which
then receiued he for performance of this duty the special gift of the holy Ghost To keepe this cōmandement immaculate and blamelesse was to teach the Gospel of Christ without mixture of corrupt vnsound doctrine such as a number did euen in those times intermingle with the misteries of Christian beliefe Til the appearance of Christ to keep it so doth not import the time wherein it shold be kept but rather the time whereunto the finall reward for keeping it was reserued according to that of S. Paul concerning himselfe I haue kept the faith for the residue there is laid vp for me a crowne of righteousnes which the Lord the righteous shall in that day render vnto me If they that labour in this haruest should respect but the present fruit of their painefull trauell a poore incouragement it were vnto them to continue therein al the daies of their life But their reward is great in heauen the crowne of righteousnes which shal be giuen them in that day is honorable The fruite of their industry then shall they reape with full contentment and satisfaction but not till then Wherein the greatnes of their reward is abundantly sufficient to counteruaile the tediousnesse of their expectation Wherefore till then they that are in labour must rest in hope O Timothie keepe that which is committed vnto thy charge that great commandement which thou hast receiued keepe till the appearance of our Lord Iesus Christ. In which sense although we iudge the Apostles words to haue bene vttered yet hereunto we do not require them to yeeld that thinke any other construction more sound If therefore it be reiected and theirs esteemed more probable which hold that the last wordes doe import perpetuall obseruation of the Apostles commaundement imposed necessarilly for euer vppon the militant Church of Christ let them withall consider that then his commaundement cannot so largely bee taken as to comprehend whatsoeuer the Apostle did commaund Timothy For themselues do not all blind the Church vnto some things whereof Timothy receiued charge as namely vnto that precept concerning the choise of Widowes So as they cannot hereby maintaine that all things positiuely commanded concerning the affaires of the Church were commanded for perpetuitie And we do not deny that certaine things were commanded to be though positiue yet perpetuall in the Church They should not therefore vrge against vs places that seeme to forbid change but rather such as set downe some measure of alteration which measure if we haue exceeded then might they therwith charge vs iustly Whereas now they themselues both granting and also vsing liberty to change cannot in reason dispute absolutely against al change Christ deliuered no inconuenient or vnmeete lawes Sundry of ours they hold inconuenient Therefore such lawes they cannot possibly hold to be Christs Being not his they must of necessity graunt them added vnto his Yet certaine of those very lawes so added they themselues do not iudge vnlawfull as they plainly confesse both in matter of prescript attire and of rites appertaining to buriall Their owne protestations are that they plead against the inconuenience not the vnlawfulnes of popish apparell and against the inconuenience not the vnlawfulnesse of Ceremonies in Buriall Therefore they hold it a thing not vnlawfull to adde to the lawes of Iesus Christ and so consequently they yeeld that no lawe of Christ forbiddeth addition vnto Church laws The iudgement of Caluin being alleaged against them to whom of all men they attribute most whereas his words be plaine that for Ceremonies and externall discipline the Church hath power to make lawes the answer which herunto they make is that indefinitly the speech is true and that so it was meant by him namely that some things belonging vnto externall discipline and Ceremonies are in the power and arbitrement of the Church but neither was it mēt neither is it true generally that al externall discipline all Ceremonies are left to the order of the Church in as much as the sacraments of Baptisme the Supper of the Lord are Ceremonies which yet the Church may not therefore abrogate Againe excommunication is a part of externall discipline which might also be cast away if all externall discipline were arbitrary and in the choise of the Church By which their answer it doth appeare that touching the names of Ceremonie and externall discipline they gladly would haue vs so vnderstood as if we did herein conteine a great deale more then we do The fault which we find with them is that they ouermuch abridge the Church of her power in these things Whereupon they recharge vs as if in these things we gaue the Church a liberty which hath no limits or boūds as if all things which the name of discipline cōteineth were at the churches free choice so that we might either haue Church-gouernours and gouernement or want them either reteine or reiect Church censures as we list They wonder at vs as at men which thinke it so indifferent what the Church doth in matter of ceremonies that it may bee feared least we iudge the very sacraments themselues to be held at the Churches pleasure No the name of ceremonies we do not vse in so large a meaning as to bring Sacraments within the compasse and reach thereof although things belonging vnto the outward forme and seemely administration of them are conteined in that name euen as we vse it For the name of ceremonies we vse as they themselues do when they speake after this sort The Doctrine and Discipline of the Church as the waightiest things ought especially to be looked vnto but the Ceremonies also as mynt comyn ought not to be neglected Besides in the matter of externall discipline or regiment itselfe wee doe not deny but there are some thinges whereto the Church is bound till the worlds ende So as the question is onely howe farre the bounds of the Churches libertie do reach We hold that the power which the Church hath lawfully to make lawes and orders for it selfe doth extend vnto sundrie things of Ecclesiasticall iurisdiction and such other matters whereto their opinion is that the Churches authoritie and power doth not reach Whereas therefore in disputing against vs about this point they take their compasse a great deale wider then the truth of things can afford producing reasons and arguments by way of generality to proue that Christ hath set downe all things belonging any way vnto the forme of ordering his Church and hath absolutely forbidden change by addition or diminution great or small for so their maner of disputing is we are constrained to make our defence by shewing that Christ hath not depriued his Church so farre of all libertie in making orders lawes for it selfe and that they themselues do not thinke he hath so done For are they able to shew that all particular customes rites and orders of reformed Churches haue bene appointed by Christ himselfe No they graunt
nature Words must be taken according to the matter wherof they are vttered The Apostles commaund to abstaine from bloud Conster this according to the lawe of nature and it will seeme that Homicide only is forbidden But conster it in reference to the law of the Iewes about which the question was and it shall easily appeare to haue a cleane other sense and in any mans iudgement a truer when we expound it of eating and not of sheading bloud So if we speake of fornication he that knoweth no lawe but only the lawe of nature must needes make thereof a narrower construction then he which measureth the same by a lawe wherein sundry kindes euen of coniugall copulation are prohibited as impure vncleane vnhonest Saint Paule himselfe doth terme incestuous marriage fornication If any do rather think that the Christian Gentiles themselues through the loose and corrupt custome of those times tooke simple fornication for no sinne and were in that respect offensiue vnto beleeuing Iewes which by the law had bene better taught our proposing of an other coniecture is vnto theirs no preiudice Some thinges therefore we see there were wherein the Gentiles were forbidden to be like vnto the Iewes some things wherin they were commanded not to be vnlike Againe some things also there were wherein no lawe of God did let but that they might be either like or vnlike as occasion should require And vnto this purpose Leo sayth Apostolicall ordinance beloued knowing that our Lord Iesus Christ came not into this world to vndo the law hath in such sort distinguished the mysteries of the old testament that certaine of them it hath chosen out to benefit euangelicall knowledge withall and for that purpose appointed that those things which before were Iewish might now be Christian customes The cause why the Apostles did thus conforme the Christians as much as might be according to the patterne of the Iewes was to reine them in by this meane the more and to make them cleaue the better The Church of Christ hath had in no one thing so many and so contrary occasions of dealing as about Iudaisme some hauing thought the whole Iewish lawe wicked and damnable in it selfe some not condemning it as the former sort absolutely haue notwithstanding iudged it either sooner necessary to be abrogated or further vnlawful to be obserued then truth can beare some of scrupulous simplicitie vrging perpetuall and vniuersall obseruation of the law of Moses necessary as the Christian Iewes at the first in the Apostles times some as Heretiques holding the same no lesse euen after the contrary determination set downe by consent of the Church at Ierusalem finally some being herein resolute through meere infidelitie and with open profest enmitie against Christ as vnbeleeuing Iewes To cōtrowle slaunderers of the law and Prophets such as Marcionites and Manichees were the Church in her liturgies hath intermingled with readings out of the new Testament lessons taken out of the lawe and Prophets whereunto Tertullian alluding saith of the Church of Christ It intermingleth with euangelicall and apostolicall writings the law and the Prophets and from thence it drinketh in that faith which with water it sealeth clotheth with the spirit nourisheth with the Eucharist with martirdom setteth forward They would haue wondered in those times to heare that any man being not a fauourer of heresie should terme this by way of disdaine mangling of the Gospels Epistles They which honor the law as an image of the wisdome of God himselfe are notwithstanding to know that the same had an end in Christ. But what was the lawe so abolished with Christ that after his ascention the office of Priests became immediatly wicked the very name hatefull as importing the exercise of an vngodly function No as long as the glory of the temple continued and till the time of that finall desolation was accomplished the very Christian Iewes did continue with their sacrifices and other parts of legall seruice That very lawe therefore which our Sauiour was to abolish did not so soone become vnlawfull to be obserued as some imagine nor was it afterwards vnlawful so far that the very name of Aultar of Priest of Sacrifice it selfe should be banished out of the world For thogh God do now hate sacrifice whether it be Heathenish or Iewish so that we cannot haue the same things which they had but with impietie yet vnlesse there be some greater let then the onely euacuation of the law of Moses the names thēselues may I hope be retained without sin in respect of that proportion which things established by our Sauiour haue vnto them which by him are abrogated And so throughout all the writings of the auncient fathers we see that the words which were do continue the onely difference is that whereas before they had a literall they now haue a metaphoricall vse and are as so many notes of remembrance vnto vs that what they did signifie in the letter is accomplished in the truth And as no man can depriue the Church of this libertie to vse names whereunto the lawe was accustomed so neither are wee generally forbidden the vse of things which the lawe hath though it neither commaund vs any particularitie as it did the Iewes a number and the waightiest which it did commaund them are vnto vs in the Gospell prohibited Touching such as through simplicitie of error did vrge vniuersall and perpetuall obseruation of the lawe of Moses at the first we haue spoken already Against Iewish heretikes and false Apostles teaching afterwards the selfe same Saint Paul in euery Epistle commonly either disputeth or giueth warning Iewes that were zealous for the lawe but withall infidels in respect of Christianitie and to the name of Iesus Christ most spitefull enemies did while they flourished no lesse persecute the Church then Heathens After their estate was ouerthrowne they were not that way so much to be feared Howbeit because they had their Synagogues in euery famous Citie almost throughout the world and by that meanes great opportunitie to withdraw from the Christian faith which to doe they spared no labor this gaue the Church occasion to make sundry lawes against them As in the Councell of Laodicea The festiuall presents which Iewes or Heretikes vse to send must not be receiued nor Holy dayes solemnized in their company Againe From the Iewes men ought not to receiue their vnleauened nor to communicate with their impieties Which Councell was afterwardes indeede confirmed by the sixt generall Councell But what was the true sense or meaning both of the one and the other Were Christians here forbidden to communicate in vnleauened bread because the Iewes did so being enemies of the Church Hee which attentiuely shall waigh the wordes will suspect that they rather forbid communion with Iewes thē imitation of them much more if with these two decrees be compared a third in the Councell of Cōstantinople Let no man either of the Clergie
simple men who knowing the time of their owne Presidentship to bee but short would alwayes stand in feare of their ministers perpetuall authoritie and among the ministers themselues one being so farre in estimation aboue the rest the voyces of the rest were likely to be giuen for the most part respectiuely with a kinde of secret dependencie and awe so that in shewe a maruellous indifferently composed Senate Ecclesiasticall was to gouerne but in effect one onely man should as the Spirite and soule of the residue doe all in all But what did these vaine surmises boote Brought they were now to so straight an issue that of two thinges they must choose one namely whether they would to their endlesse disgrace with ridiculous lightnes dismisse him whose restitution they had in so impotent maner desired or else condescende vnto that demaund wherein hee was resolute eyther to haue it or to leaue them They thought it better to be somewhat hardly yoked at home then for euer abroad discredited Wherefore in the ende those orders were on all sides assented vnto with no lesse alacritie of minde then Cities vnable to holde out longer are wont to shewe when they take conditions such as it liketh him to offer them which hath them in the narrow streightes of aduantage Not many yeares were ouerpassed before these twice sworne men aduentured to giue their last and hotest assault to the fortresse of the same discipline childishly graunting by comon consent of their whole Senate that vnder their towne seale a relaxation to one Bertelier whom the Eldership had excommunicated further also decreeing with strange absurditie that to the same Senate it should belong to giue finall iudgemēt in matter of excōmunication and to absolue whom it pleased them cleane contrary to their owne former deedes and oaths The report of which decree being forth with brought vnto Caluin Before sayth he this decree take place either my bloud or banishment shall signe it Againe two dayes before the Cōmunion should be celebrated his speech was publiquely to like effect Kill me if euer this hand do reach forth the things that are holy to thē whom THE CHVRCH hath iudged despisers Whereupon for feare of tumult the forenamed Bertelier was by his friends aduised for that time not to vse the liberty granted him by the Senate nor to present himselfe in the Church till they saw somewhat further what would ensue After the Communion quietly ministred and some likelihood of peaceable ending these troubles without any more ado that very day in the afternoone besides all mens expectation concluding his ordinary sermon he telleth them that because he neither had learned nor taught to striue with such as are in authority therefore sayth he the case so standing as now it doth let me vse these words of the Apostle vnto you I commend you vnto God the word of his grace and so bad them hartily all A dew It sometimes commeth to passe that the readiest way which a wise man hath to conquer is to flie This voluntarie and vnexpected mention of sudden departure caused presently the Senate for according to their woonted maner they still continued onely constant in vnconstancy to gather themselues together and for a time to suspend their own decree leauing things to proceed as before till they had heard the iudgement of foure Heluetian Cities concerning the matter which was in strife This to haue done at the first before they gaue assēt vnto any order had shewed some wit discretion in thē but now to do it was as much as to say in effect that they would play their parts on stage Caluin therfore dispatcheth with all expedition his letters vnto some principall pastor in euery of those cities crauing earnestly at their hands to respect this cause as a thing whereupō the whole state of religion piety in that church did so much depend that God all good men were now ineuitably certaine to be trampled vnder foot vnlesse those foure Cities by their good means might be brought to giue sentence with the ministers of Geneua when the cause should be brought before them yea so to giue it that two things it might effectually containe the one an absolute approbation of the discipline of Geneua as consonant vnto the word of God without any cautions qualifications ifs or ands the other an earnest admonition not to innouate or change the same His vehemēt request herein as touching both points was satisfied For albeit the sayd Heluetian Churches did neuer as yet obserue that discipline neuerthelesse the Senate of Geneua hauing required their iudgement concerning these three questions First after what manner by Gods commaundement according to the Scripture and vnspotted religion excommunication is to be exercised Secondly whether it may not be exercised some other way then by the Consistorie Thirdly what the vse of their Churches was to do in this case answer was returned from the sayd Churches That they had heard already of those consistoriall lawes and did acknowledge them to be godly ordinances drawing towards the prescript of the word of God for which cause that they did not thinke it good for the Church of Geneua by innouation to change the same but rather to keepe them as they were Which aunswer although not aunswering vnto the former demaunds but respecting what Maister Caluin had iudged requisite for them to aunswere was notwithstanding accepted without any further reply in as much as they plainely saw that when stomacke doth striue with wit the match is not equall And so the heat of their former contentions began to flake The present inhabitants of Geneua J hope will not take it in euill part that the faltinesse of their people heretofore is by vs so farre forth layd open as their owne learned guides and Pastors haue thought necessarie to discouer it vnto the world For out of their bookes and writings it is that I haue collected this whole narration to the end it might thereby appeare in what sort amongst them that discipline was planted for which so much contention is raised amongst our selues The reasons which mooued Caluin herein to be so earnest was as Beza himselfe testifieth for that he saw how needfull these bridles were to be put in the iawes of that Citie That which by wisedome he saw to be requisite for that people was by as great wisedome compassed But wise men are men and the truth is truth That which Caluin did for establishment of his discipline seemeth more commendable then that which he taught for the countenancing of it established Nature worketh in vs all a loue to our owne counsels The contradiction of others is a fanne to inflame that loue Our loue set on fire to maintaine that which once we haue done sharpeneth the wit to dispute to argue and by all meanes to reason for it Wherefore a maruaile it were if a man of so great capacitie hauing such incitements to make him desirous of
rashnes God was not ignorant that the Priests and Iudges whose sentence in matters of controuersie 〈◊〉 ordained should stand both might and oftentimes would be deceiued in their iudgement Howbeit better it was in the eye of his vnderstanding that sometime an erroneous sentence definitiue should preuaile till the same authoritie perceiuing such ouersight might afterwardes correct or reuerse it then that strifes should haue respit to growe and not come speedily vnto some end Neither wish we that men should do any thing which in their hearts they are perswaded they ought not to doe but this perswasion ought we say to be fully setled in their harts that in litigious and controuersed causes of such qualitie the will of God is to haue them to do whatsoeuer the sentence of iudiciall and finall decision shall determine yea though it seeme in their priuate opinioÌ„ to swarue vtterly from that which is right as no doubt many times the sentence amongst the Iewes did seeme vnto one part or other contending and yet in this case God did then allow them to doe that which in their priuate iudgement it seemed yea and perhaps truly seemed that the lawe did disallow For if God be not the author of confusion but of peace then can he not be the author of our refusall but of our contentment to stand vnto some definitiue sentence without which almost impossible it is that eyther wee should auoyd confusion or euer hope to attaine peace To small purpose had the Councell of Ierusalem bene assembled if once their determination being set downe men might afterwards haue defended their former opinions When therefore they had giuen their definitiue sentence all controuersie was at an ende Things were disputed before they came to be determined men afterwardes were not to dispute any longer but to obey The sentence of iudgement finished their strife which their disputes before iudgement could not doe This was ground sufficient for any reasonable mans conscience to build the dutie of obedience vpon whatsoeuer his owne opinion were as touching the matter before in question So full of wilfulnes and selfeliking is our nature that without some definitiue sentence which being giuen may stand and a necessitie of silence on both sides afterward imposed small hope there is that strifes thus far prosecuted will in short time quietly end Now it were in vaine to aske you whether ye could be content that the sentence of any Court already erected should bee so farre authorized as that among the Iewes established by God himselfe for the determining of all controuersies That man which wil do presumptuously not harkning vnto the Priest that standeth before the Lord to minister there nor vnto the Iudge let him dye Ye haue giuen vs already to vnderstand what your opinioÌ„ is in part concerning her sacred Maiesties Court of high Commission the nature whereof is the same with that amongst the Iewes albeit the power be not so great The other way happily may like you better because Maister Beza in his last booke saue one written about these matters professeth himselfe to be now weary of such combats and encounters whether by word or writing in as much as he findeth that controuersies therby are made but braules therfore wisheth that in some common lawfull assembly of Churches all these strifes may at once be decided Shall there be then in the meane while no doings Yes There are the waightier matters of the lawe iudgement and mercie and fidelitie These things we ought to do and these things while we contend about lesse we leaue vndone Happier are they whom the Lord when he commeth shall finde doing in these things then disputing about Doctors Elders Deacons Or if there be no remedie but somewhat needs ye must do which may tend to the setting forward of your discipline do that which wise men who thinke some Statute of the realme more fit to be repealed then to stand in force are accustomed to do before they come to Parliament where the place of enacting is that is to say spend the time in reexamining more duly your cause and in more throughly considering of that which ye labour to ouerthrow As for the orders which are established sith equitie and reason the law of nature God and man do all fauour that which is in being till orderly iudgement of decision be giuen against it it is but iustice to exact of you and peruersnes in you it should be to denie thereunto your willing obedience Not that I iudge it a thing allowable for men to obserue those lawes which in their hearts they are stedfastly perswaded to be against the law of God but your perswasion 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 iust or necessary cause Be it that there are some reasons inducing you to think hardly of our lawes Are those reasons demonstratiue are they necessary or but meere probabilities only An argument necessary demonstratiue is such as being proposed vnto any mâ— vnderstood the mind cannot choose but inwardly assent Any one such reason dischargeth J graunt the conscience and setteth it at full libertie For the publike approbatioÌ„ giuen by the body this whole Church vnto those things which are established doth make it but probable that they are good And therefore vnto a necessary proofe that they are not good it must be giue place But if the skilfullest amongst you can shew that all the bookes ye haue hitherto written be able to afford any one argument of this nature let the instance be giuen As for probabilities what thing was there euer set downe so agreeable with soâ—â—â—d reason but some probable shewe against it might be made Is it meete that when publikely things are receiued and haue taken place generall obedience thereunto should cease to bee exacted in case this or that priuate person led with some probable conceipt shoulde make open protestation I Peter or Iohn disallow them and pronounce them nought In which case your answere will be that concerning the lawes of our Church they are not onely condemned in the opinion of a priuate man but of thousands yea and euen of those amongst which dâ—uers are in publique charge and authoritie As though when publique consent of the whole hath established anything euery mans iudgement being thereunto compared were not priuate howsoeuer his calling be to some kind of publique charge So that of peace and quietnes there is not any way possible vnlesse the probable voice of euery intier societie or body politique ouerrule all priuate of like nature in the same body Which thing effectually proueth 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 thinges haue determined with themselues to thinke and do as the Church they are of decreeth till they see necessary cause enforcing
in that one to proue not onely that we may do but that we ought to do sundry things which the Scripture commaundeth not out of that verie booke these sentences are brought to make vs belieue that Tertullian was of a cleane contrary minde We cannot therefore hereupon yeeld we cannot graunt that hereby is made manifest the argument of Scripture negatiuely to be of force not only in doctrine and ecclesiasticall discipline but euen in matters arbitrary For Tertullian doth plainely hold euen in that booke that neither the matter which he intreateth of was arbitrary but necessarie in as much as the receaued custome of the Church did tye and bind them not to weare garlands as the Heathens did yea and further also he reckoneth vp particularly a number of things whereof he expresly concludeth Harum aliarum eiusmodi disciplinarum si legem expostules scripturarum nullam inuenies which is as much as if he had sayd in expresse words Many things there are which concerne the discipline of the Church and the duties of men which to abrogate and take away the scriptures negatiuely vrged may not in any case perswade vs but they must be obserued yea although no scripture be found which requireth any such thing Tertullian therefore vndoubtedly doth not in this booke shew himselfe to be of the same mind with them by whom his name is pretended 6 But sith the sacred scriptures themselues affoord oftentimes such arguments as are taken from diuine authoritie both one way and other The Lord hath commaunded therefore it must be And againe in like sort He hath not therefore it must not be some certainty concerning this point seemeth requisite to be set downe God himselfe can neither possibly erre nor leade into error For this cause his testimonies whatsoeuer he affirmeth are alwaies truth and most infallible certainty Yea further because the things that proceed frō him are perfect without any manner of defect or maime it cannot be but that the words of his mouth are absolute lacke nothing which they should haue for performance of that thing whereunto they tend Wherupon it followeth that the end being knowne wherunto he directeth his speech the argumēt euen negatiuely is euermore strōg forcible cōcerning those things that are apparātly requisit vnto the same ende As for example God intending to set downe 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 Sauiour Iesus Christ therefore they are not in dignitie equall vnto him It is the Apostle Saint Paules argument The purpose of God was to teach his people both vnto whom they should offer sacrifice and what sacrifice was to be offered To burne their sonnes in fire vnto Baal hee did not commaund them he spake no such thing neither came it into his mind therefore this they ought not to haue done VVhich argument the Prophet Ieremie vseth more then once as being so effectuall and strong that although the thing hee reproueth were not onely not commaunded but forbidden them and that expresly yet the Prophet chooseth rather to charge them with the fault of making a lawe vnto themselues then with the crime of transgressing a lawe which God had made For when the Lord hath once himselfe precisely set downe a forme of executing that wherein we are to serue him the fault appeareth greater to do that which we are not then not to do that which we are commaunded In this we seeme to charge the Lawe of God with hardnesse onely in that with foolishnesse in this we shew our selues weake and vnapt to be doers of his will in that we take vpon vs to be controllers of his wisedome in this we faile to performe the thing which God seeth meete conuenient and good in that we presume to see what is meete and conuenient better then God himselfe In those actions therefore the whole forme whereof God hath of purpose set downe to be obserued we may not otherwise do then exactly as he hath prescribed in such things negatiue arguments are strong Againe with a negatiue argument Dauid is pressed concerning the purpose he had to build a Temple vnto the Lord Thus sayth the Lord thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in Wheresoeuer I haue walked with all Israell spake I one word to any of the Iudges of Israel whom I commaunded to feed my people saying Why haue ye not built me an house The Iewes vrged with a negatiue argument touching the ayde which they sought at the hands of the King of AEgypt Woe to those rebellious children sayth the Lord which walke forth to go downe into AEgypt and haue not asked counsell at my mouth to strengthen themselues with the strength of Pharao Finally the league of Ioshua with the Gabeonites is likewise with a negatiue argument touched It was not as it should be And why The Lord gaue them not that aduise They sought not counsell at the mouth of the Lord. By the vertue of which examples if any man should suppose the force of negatiue arguments approued when they are taken from Scripture in such sort as we in this question are pressed therewith they greatly deceiue themselues For vnto which of all these was it said that they had done amisse in purposing to do or in doing any thing at all which the Scripture commanded them not Our question is whether all be sinne which is done without direction by scripture and not whether the Israelites did at any time amisse by following their owne minds without asking counsell of God No it was that peoples singular priuiledge a fauour which God vouchfafed them aboue the rest of the world that in the affaires of their estate which were not determinable one way or other by the scripture himselfe gaue them extraordinarily direction and counsell as oft as they sought it at his hands Thus God did first by speech vnto Moses after by Vrim and Thummim vnto Priests lastly by dreames and visions vnto Prophets from whom in such cases they were to receiue the aunswere of God Concerning Iosua therefore thus spake the Lord vnto Moses saying He shall stand before Eleazar the Priest who shall aske counsell for him by the iudgement of Vrim before the Lord whereof had Iosua bene mindfull the fraud of the Gabeonites could not so smoothly haue past vnespied till there was no helpe The Iewes had Prophets to haue resolued them from the mouth of God himselfe whether Egyptian aides should profite them yea or no but they thought themselues wise enough and him vnworthy to be of their Counsell In this respect therfore was their reproofe though sharpe yet iust albeit there had bene no charge precisely geuen them that they should alwayes take heed of Egypt But as for Dauid to thinke that he did euill in determining to build God a Temple because there was in scripture no commandement that he should build it
with them especially as far as equitie requireth farther we maintain it not For men to be tyed led by authoritie as it were with a kind of captiuity of iudgement and though there be reason to the contrary not to listen vnto it but to follow like beastes the first in the heard they know not nor care not whether this were brutish Againe that authoritie of men should preuaile with men either against or aboue reason is no part of our beliefe Companies of learned men be they neuer so great and reuerend are to yeeld vnto reason the waight whereof is no whit preiudiced by the simplicitie of his person which doth alleage it but being found to be sound and good the bare opinion of men to the contrary must of necessitie stoope and giue place Irenaeus writing against Marcion which held one God author of the old Testament and another of the new to proue that the Apostles preached the same God which was knowne before to the Iewes hee copiously alleageth sundry their sermons and speeches vttered concerning that matter and recorded in Scripture And least any should be wearied with such store of allegations in the ende hee concludeth While we labour for these demonstrations out of Scripture and doe summarily declare the thinges which many wayes haue beene spoken bee contented quietly to heare and doe not thinke my speech tedious Quoniam ostensiones quae sunt in scripturis non possunt ostendi nisi ex ipsis scripturis Because demonstrations that are in scripture may not otherwise be shewed then by citing them out of the scriptures themselues where they are Which wordes make so little vnto the purpose that they seeme as it were offended at him which hath called them thus solemnely foorth to say nothing And concerning the verdict of Ierome If no man be he neuer so well learned haue after the Apostles any authoritie to publish new doctrine as from heauen and to require the worldes assent as vnto truth receiued by propheticall reuelation doth this preiudice the credite of learned mens iudgements in opening that truth which by being conuersant in the Apostles writinges they haue themselues from thence learned Saint Augustine exhorteth not to heare men but to hearken what God speaketh His purpose is not I thinke that wee should stop our eares against his owne exhortation and therefore hee cannot meane simply that audience should altogether bee denied vnto men but eyther that if men speake one thing and God himselfe teach an other then hee not they to bee obeyed or if they both speake the same thing yet then also mans speech vnworthy of hearing not simply but in comparison of that which proceedeth from the mouth of God Yea but wee doubt what the will of God is Are wee in this case forbidden to heare what men of iudgement thinke it to be If not then this allegation also might very well haue beene spared In that auncient strife which was betweene the Catholique fathers and Arrians Donatistes and others of like peruerse and frowarde disposition as long as to fathers or Councells alleaged on the one side the like by the contrarie side were opposed impossible it was that euer the question should by this meane growe vnto any issue or ende The scripture they both beleeued the scripture they knew could not giue sentence on both sides by scripture the controuersie betweene them was such as might be determined In this case what madnesse was it with such kindes of proofes to nourish their contention when there were such effectuall meanes to end all controuersie that was betweene them Hereby therefore it doth not as yet appeare that an argument of authoritie of man affirmatiuely is in matters diuine nothing worth Which opinion being once inserted into the mindes of the vulgar sort what it may growe vnto God knoweth Thus much wee see it hath alreadie made thousandes so headstrong euen in grosse and palpable errors that a man whose capacitie will scarce serue him to vtter fiue wordes in sensible manner blusheth not in any doubt concerning matter of scripture to think his owne bare Yea as good as the Nay of all the wise graue and learned iudgements that are in the whole world Which insolencie must be represt or it will be the very bane of Christian religion Our Lordes Disciples marking what speech hee vttered vnto them and at the same time calling to minde a common opinion held by the Scribes betweene which opinion and the wordes of their Maister it seemed vnto them that there was some contradiction which they could not themselues aunswere with full satisfaction of their owne mindes the doubt they propose to our Sauiour saying Why then say the Scribes that Elias must first come They knew that the Scribes did erre greatly and that many waies euen in matters of their owne profession They notwithstanding thought the iudgement of the very Scribes in matters diuine to bee of some value some probabilitie they thought there was that Elias should come in as much as the Scribes said it Now no truth can contradict any truth desirous therefore they were to be taught how bothe might stand together that which they knew could not be false because Christ spake it and this which to them did seeme true onely because the Scribes had said it For the scripture from whence the Scribes did gather it was not then in their heads Wee doe not finde that our Sauiour reprooued them of error for thinking the iudgement of Scribes to be worth the obiecting for esteeming it to be of any moment or value in matters concerning God We cannot therefore be perswaded that the will of God is we should so farre reiect the authoritie of men as to recken it nothing No it may be a question whether they that vrge vs vnto this be themselues so perswaded indeede Men do sometimes bewray that by deedes which to confesse they are hardly drawne Marke then if this be not generall with all men for the most part When the iudgements of learned men are alleaged against them what do they but eyther eleuate their credite or oppose vnto them the iudgements of others as learned Which thing doth argue that all men acknowledge in them some force and waight for which they are loath the cause they maintaine should be so much weakened as their testimony is auaileable Againe what reason is there why alleaging testimonies as proofes men giue them some title of credite honour and estimation whom they alleage vnlesse before hand it be sufficiently knowne who they are what reason hereof but only a common in grafted perswasion that in some men there may be found such qualities as are able to counteruaile those exceptions which might be taken against them and that such mens authoritie is not lightly to be shaken off Shall I adde further that the force of arguments drawne from the authoritie of scripture it selfe as scriptures commonly are alleaged shall being sifted be found to depende vpon the
controuersie 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 generall law of nature which law of nature and the morall law of scripture are in the substance of law all one But because there are also in scripture a number of lawes particular and positiue which being in force may not by any law of man be violated we are in making lawes to haue thereunto an especiall eie As for example it might perhaps seeme reasonable vnto the Church of God following the generall laws concerning the nature of mariage to ordaine in particular that cosen germains shall not marry Which law notwithstanding ought not to be receiued in the Church if there should be in the scripture a law particular to the contrary forbidding vtterly the bonds of mariage to be so far forth abridged The same Thomas therfore whose definition of humane lawes we mentioned before doth adde thereunto his caution concerning the rule and canon whereby to make them Humane lawes are measures in respect of men whose actiōs they must direct howbeit such measures they are as haue 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 generall lawes of nature without contradiction vnto any positiue lawe in scripture Otherwise they are ill made Vnto lawes thus made and receiued by a whole Church they which liue within the bosome of that Church must not think it a matter indifferēt either to yeeld or not to yeeld obedience Is it a small offence to despise the Church of God My sonne keepe thy fathers comaundement saith Salomon forget not thy mothers instruction bind thē bothe alwaies about thine hart It doth not stand with the duty which we owe to our heauenly fathers that to the ordinances of our mother the Church we should shew our selues disobedient Let vs not say we keepe the commandements of the one when we breake the law of the other For vnlesse we obserue bothe we obey neither And what doth let but that we may obserue both when they are not the one to the other in any sort repugnant For of such lawes only we speake as being made in forme and maner already declared can haue in them no contradiction vnto the lawes of almighty God Yea that which is more the lawes thus made God himselfe doth in such sort authorize that to despise them is to despise in them him It is a loose licentious opinion which the Anabaptists haue embraced holding that a Christian mans libertie is lost and the soule which Christ hath redeemed vnto himselfe iniuriously drawne into seruitude vnder the yoke of humane power if any law be now imposed besides the Gospell of Iesus Christ in obedience whereunto the spirite of God and not the constraint of men is to leade vs according to that of the blessed Apostle Such as are led by the spirits of God they are the sonnes of God and not such as liue in thraldome vnto men Their iudgement is therefore that the Church of Christ should admit no law makers but the Euangelists The author of that which causeth another thing to be is author of that thing also which thereby is caused The light of naturall vnderstanding wit and reason is from God he it is which thereby doth illuminate euery man entering into the world If there proceede from vs any thing afterwardes corrupt and naught the mother thereof is our owne darknes neither doth it proceed from any such cause whereof God is the author He is the author of all that we think or doe by vertue of that light which himselfe hath giuen And therefore the lawes which the very Heathens did gather direct their actiōs by so far forth as they proceeded from the light of nature God himselfe doth acknowledge to haue proceeded euen from himselfe and that he was the writer of them in the tables of their hearts How much more then he the author of those lawes which haue bene made by his Saints endued furder with the heauenly grace of his spirit and directed as much as might be with such instructiōs as his sacred word doth yeeld Surely if we haue vnto those lawes that dutifull regard which their dignitie doth require it will not greatly need that we should be exhorted to liue in obedience vnto them If they haue God himselfe for their author contempt which is offered vnto them cannot choose but redound vnto him The safest and vnto God the most acceptable way of framing our liues therfore is with all humilitie lowlines and singlenes of hart to studie which way our willing obedience both vnto God and man may be yeelded euen to the vtmost of that which is due 10 Touching the mutabilitie of lawes that concerne the regiment politie of the church changed they are when either altogether abrogated or in part repealed or augmented with farther additions Wherein wee are to note that this question about changing of lawes concerneth onely such lawes as are positiue and do make that now good or euill by being commanded or forbidden which otherwise of it selfe were not simply the one or the other Vnto such lawes it is expressely sometimes added how long they are to continue in force If this be no where exprest then haue we no light to direct our iudgemēts concerning the chaungeablenes or immutabilitie of them but by considering the nature and qualitie of such lawes The nature of euery lawe must be iudged of by the ende for which it was made and by the aptnes of thinges therein prescribed vnto the same end It may so fall out that the reason why some lawes of God were giuen is neither opened nor possible to be gathered by wit of man As why God should forbid Adam that one tree there was no way for Adam euer to haue certainely vnderstood And at Adams ignorance of this point Satan tooke aduantage vrging the more securely a false cause because the true was vnto Adam vnknowne Why the Iewes were forbidden to plow their ground with an oxe and an asse why to cloath themselues with mingled attire of wooll and linnen both it was vnto them vnto vs it remaineth obscure Such lawes perhaps cannot be abrogated sauing onely by whom they were made because the intent of them being knowne vnto none but the author he alone can iudge how long it is requisite they should endure But if the reason why things were instituted may be known and being knowne do appeare manifestly to be of perpetuall necessitie then are those things also perpetuall vnlesse they cease to be effectuall vnto that purpose for which they were at the first instituted Because when a thing doth cease to be auaileable vnto the end which gaue it being the
but that concerning the points which hitherto haue beene disputed of they must agree that they haue molested the Church with needelesse opposition and henceforward as we said before betake themselues wholly vnto the triall of particulars whether euery of those thinges which they esteeme as principall be eyther so esteemed of or at all established for perpetuitie in holy scripture and whether any particular thing in our Church-politie bee receiued other then the scripture alloweth of eyther in greater thinges or in smaller The matters wherein Church-politie is conuersant are the publique religious duties of the Church as the administration of the word and sacraments prayers spirituall censures and the like To these the Church standeth alwayes bound Lawes of politie are laws which appoint in what maner these duties shal be performed In performance whereof because all that are of the Church cannot ioyntly and equally worke the first thing in politie required is a difference of persons in the Church without which difference those functions cannot in orderly sort bee executed Hereupon we hold that Gods clergie are a state which hath bene and will be as long as there is a Church vpō earth necessarie by the plaine word of God himselfe a state whereunto the rest of Gods people must be subiect as touching things that appertaine to their soules health For where politie is it cannot but appoint some to be leaders of others and some to be led by others If the blind leade the blind they both perish It is with the clergie if their persons be respected euen as it is with other men their qualitie many times farre beneath that which the dignitie of their place requireth Howbeit according to the order of politie they being the lightes of the world others though better and wiser must that way be subiect vnto them Againe for as much as where the clergie are any great multitude order doth necessarily require that by degrees they be distinguished wee holde there haue euer bene and euer ought to be in such case at least wise two sorts of Ecclesiasticall persons the one subordinate vnto the other as to the Apostles in the beginning and to the Bishops alwaies since wee finde plainely both in scripture and in all Ecclesiasticall records other ministers of the word and sacraments haue bene Moreouer it cannot enter into any mans conceipt to thinke it lawfull that euery man which listeth should take vpon him charge in the Church and therefore a solemne admittance is of such necessitie that without it there can be no church-politie A number of particularities there are which make for the more conuenient being of these principall perpetuall parts in Ecclesiasticall politie but yet are not of such constant vse and necessitie in Gods Church Of this kind are times and places appointed for the exercise of religion specialties belonging to the publike solemnitie of the word the sacraments and praier the enlargement or abridgement of functions ministeriall depending vpon those two principall before mentioned to conclude euen whatsoeuer doth by way of formalitie circumstance concerne any publique action of the Church Now although that which the scripture hath of thinges in the former kind be for euer permanent yet in the later both much of that which the scripture teacheth is not alwaies needfull and much the Church of God shall alwaies neede which the scripture teacheth not So as the forme of politie by thē set downe for perpetuitie is three waies faultie Faultie in omitting some things which in scripture are of that nature as namely the difference that ought to bee of Pastors when they grow to any great multitude faultie in requiring Doctors Deacons Widowes and such like as thinges of perpetuall necessitie by the law of God which in truth are nothing lesse faultie also in vrging some thinges by scripture immutable as their Layelders which the scripture neither maketh immutable nor at all teacheth for any thing either we can as yet find or they haue hitherto beene able to proue But hereof more in the bookes that followe As for those maruellous discourses wherby they aduenture to argue that God must needs haue done the thing which they imagine was to be done I must confesse I haue often wondred at their exceeding boldnesse herein When the question is whether God haue deliuered in scripture as they affirme he hath a complet particular immutable forme of Church-politie why take they that other both presumptuous and superfluous labour to proue he should haue done it there being no way in this case to proue the deede of God sauing only by producing that euidence wherein he hath done it But if there be no such thing apparent vpon record they do as if one should demaund a legacie by force and vertue of some written testament wherein there being no such thing specified hee pleadeth that there it must needes be and bringeth argumēts from the loue or good-will which alwaies the testatour bore him imagining that these or the like proofes will conuict a testament to haue that in it which other mē can no where by reading find In matters which concerne the actions of God the most dutiful way on our part is to search what God hath done and with meeknes to admire that rather thē to dispute what he in congruitie of reason ought to do The waies which he hath whereby to do all things for the greatest good of his Church are mo in number thē we can search other in nature thē that we should presume to determine which of many should be the fittest for him to choose till such time as we see he hath chosen of many some one which one wee then may boldly conclude to be the fittest because he hath taken it before the rest When we doe otherwise surely we exceede our bounds who and where we are we forget and therefore needfull it is that our pride in such cases be controld and our disputes beaten backe with those demands of the blessed Apostle How vnsearchable are his iudgements and his waies past finding out Who hath knowne the minde of the Lord or who was his counsellor The fourth Booke Concerning their third assertion that our forme of Church-politie is corrupted with popish orders rites and ceremonies banished out of certaine reformed Churches whose example therein we ought to haue followed The matter conteined in this fourth Booke 1 HOw great vse ceremonies haue in the Church 2 The first thing they blame in the kinde of our ceremonies is that wee haue not in them auncient Apostolicall simplicitie but a greater pompe statelinesse 3 The second that so many of them are the same which the Church of Rome vseth and the reasons which they bring to proue them for that cause blame worthy 4 How when they go about to expound what popish ceremonies they meane they contradict their owne arguments against popish ceremonies 5 An answere to the argument whereby they would proue that sith wee allow the customes
are aware of wheÌ„ they plead that eueÌ„ such ceremonis of the church of Rome as coÌ„teine in theÌ„ nothing which is not of it selfe agreeable to the word of God ought neuerthelesse to be abolished and that neither the word of God nor reason nor the examples of the eldest Churches do permit the Church of Rome to be therin followed Heretiques they are they are our neighbors By vs and amongst vs they lead their liues But what then Therfore no ceremony of theirs lawfull for vs to vse Wâ—â—ust yeeld and will that none are lawfull if God himself be a precedeÌ„t against the vse of any But how appeareth it that God is so Hereby they say it doth appeare in that God seuered his people from the Heathens but specially from the Aegyptians and such nations as were neerest neighbors vnto them by forbidding them to do those things which were in themselues very lawfull to be done yea very profitable some and incommodious to be forborne such things it pleased God to forbid them only because those Heathens did them with whom conformity in the same things might haue bred infection Thus in shauing cutting apparell wearing yea in sundry kinds of meates also swines flesh conies and such like they were forbidden to do so and so because the Gentiles did so And the end why God forbad them such things was to seuer them for feare of infection by a great and an high wall from other nations as S. Paul teacheth The cause of more carefull separation from the neerest nations was the greatnesse of danger to be especially by them infected Now Papists are to vs as those nations were vnto Israell Therefore if the wisdome of God be our guide we cannot allow conformity with them no not in any such indifferent ceremonie Our direct answer hereunto is that for any thing here alleaged we may still doubt whether the Lord in all such indiffereÌ„t ceremonies as those whereof we dispute did frame his people of set purpose vnto any vtter dissimilitude either with Aegyptians or with any other nation else And if God did not forbid them all such indifferent ceremonies then our conformity with the Church of Rome in some such is not hitherto as yet disproued although Papists were vnto vs as those heathens were vnto Israell After the doings of the land of Aegypt wherein you dwelt ye shall not do saith the Lord and after the maner of the land of Canaan whether I will bring you shall ye not do neither walke in their ordinances Do after my iudgements and keepe my ordinances to walke therein I am the Lord your God The speech is indefinite ye shall not be like them It is not generall ye shall not be like them in any thing or like vnto them in any thing indifferent or like vnto them in any indifferent ceremony of theirs Seeing therefore it is not set downe how farre the bounds of his speech concerning dissimilitude should reach how can any man assure vs that it exteÌ„deth farder then to those things only wherin the nations there mentioned were idolatrous or did against that which the law of God commandeth Nay doth it not seem a thing very probable that God doth purposely adde Do after my iudgements as giuing therby to vnderstaÌ„d that his meaning in the former sentence was but to bar similitude in such things as were repugnant vnto the ordinances lawes and statutes which he had giuen Aegyptians and Cananites are for example sake named vnto them because the customes of the one they had bin and of the other they should be best acquainted with But that wherein they might not be like vnto either of them was such peraduenture as had beene no whit lesse vnlawfull although those nations had neuer bene So that there is no necessitie to thinke that God for feare of infection by reason of neernes forbad them to be like to the Cananites or the Aegyptians in those things which otherwise had bene lawfull enough For I would know what one thing was in those nations and is here forbidden being indifferent in it self yet forbidden onely because they vsed it In the laws of Israel we find it written ye shal not cut round the corners of your heads neither shalt thou teare the tufts of thy beard These things were vsuall amongst those nations in themselues they are indifferent But are they indifferent being vsed as signes of immoderate and hopeles lamentation for the dead In this sense it is that the law forbiddeth them For which cause the very next words following are ye shal not cut your flesh for the dead nor make any print of a marke vpon you I am the Lord. The like in Leuiticus where speech is of mourning for the dead They shal not make bald parts vpoÌ„ their head nor shaue off the locks of their beard nor make any cutting in their flesh Againe in Deuteronomy ye are the children of the Lord your God ye shal not cut your selues nor make you baldnes betweene your eyes for the dead What is this but in effect the same which the Apostle doth more plainly expresse saying Sorrow not as they do which haue no hope The very light of nature it selfe was able to see herein a fault that which those nations did vse hauing bin also in vse with others the ancient Romane laws do forbid That shauing therefore and cutting which the law doth mention was not a matter in it selfe indifferent and forbidden onely because it was in vse amongst such idolaters as were neighbours to the people of God but to vse it had bin a crime though no other people or nation vnder heauen should haue done it sauing only themselues As for those laws concerning attire There shall no garment of linnen wollen come vpon thee as also those touching food and diet wherein swines flesh together with sundry other meates are forbidden the vse of these things had bene indeed of it selfe harmelesse and indifferent so that hereby it doth appeare how the law of God forbad in some speciall consideration such things as were lawful inough in themselues But yet euen here they likewise faile of that they intend For it doth not appeare that the consideration in regard whereof the law forbiddeth these things was because those nations did vse them Likely enough it is that the Cananites vsed to feed as well on sheepes as on swines flesh therefore if the forbidding of the later had no other reason theÌ„ dissimilitude with that people they which of their own heads alleage this for reason can shew I think some reason more theÌ„ we are able to find why the former was not also forbiddeÌ„ Might there not be some other mystery in this prohibition then they think of Yes some other mystery there was in it by all likelihood For what reason is there which should but induce and therefore much lesse enforce vs to thinke that care
the Church of Rome hath being not found in the word of God If we thinke this to extreme they reply that to draw meÌ„ froÌ„ great excesse it is not amisse though we vse them vnto somewhat lesse then is competent that a crooked stick is not stieightned vnlesse it be bent as farre on the cleane contrary side that so it may settle it selfe at the length in a middle estate of euennes between both But how can these coÌ„parisons stand them in any steed When they vrge vs to extreme opposition against the Church of Rome do they meane we should be drawne vnto it onely for a time and afterwards returne to a mediocrity or was it the purpose of those reformed churches which vtterly abolished all popish ceremonies to come in the end back againe to the middle point of euennesse and moderation Then haue we conceiued amisse of their meaning For we haue alwaies thought their opinion to be that vtter inconformity with the Church of Rome was not an extremity wherunto we should be drawne for a time but the very mediocrity it selfe wherein they meant we should euer continue Now by these comparisons it seemeth cleane contrarie that howsoeuer they haue bent themselues at first to an extreme contrariety against the Romish Church yet therin they wil continue no longer then only till such time as some more moderate course for establishmeÌ„t of the Church may be concluded Yea albeit this were not at the first their intent yet surely now there is great cause to leade theÌ„ vnto it They haue seene that experience of the former policie which may cause the authors of it to hang downe their heads When Germany had strickeÌ„ off that which appeared corrupt in the doctrine of the Church of Rome but seemed neuerthelesse in discipline still to reteine therewith very great conformitie Fraunce by that rule of policie which hath bene before mentioned tooke away the Popish orders which Germany did reteine But processe of time hath brought more light vnto the world whereby men perceiuing that they of the religion in France haue also reteined some orders which were before in the Church of Rome and are not commaunded in the word of God there hath arisen a sect in England which following still the very selfe same rule of policie seeketh to reforme euen the French reformation and purge out from thence also dregs of Popery These haue not taken as yet such roote that they are â—able to establish any thing But if they had what would spring out of their stocke and how farre the vnquiet wit of man might be caried with rules of such policie God doth know The triall which we haue liued to see may somewhat teach vs what posteritie is to feare But our Lord of his infinite mercie auert whatsoeuer euill our swaruings on the one hand or on the other may threaten vnto the state of his Church 9 That the Church of Rome doth hereby take occasion to blaspheme and to say our religion is not able to stand of it selfe vnlesse it leane vpon the staffe of their Ceremonies is not a matter of so great momeÌ„t that it did need to be obiected or doth deserue to receiue answer The name of blasphemy in this place is like the shoe of Hercules on a childs foote If the Church of Rome do vse any such kind of silly exprobration it is no such ougly thing to the eare that we should thinke the honour and credite of our religion to receiue thereby any great wound They which hereof make so perilous a matter do seeme to imagine that we haue erected of late a frame of some new religion the furniture whereof we should not haue borrowed from our enemies least they relieuing vs might afterwards laugh and gibe at our pouerty whereas in truth the Ceremonies which we haue taken from such as were before vs are not things that belong to this or to that sect but they are the auncient rites and customes of the Church of Christ whereof our selues being a part we haue the selfe same interest in them which our fathers before vs had from whom the same are descended vnto vs. Againe in case we had bene so much beholding priuately vnto them doth the reputation of one Church stand by saying vnto another I need thee not If some should be so vrine and impotent as to marre a benefite with reprochfull vpbraiding where at the least they suppose themselues to haue bestowed some good turne yet surely a wise bodies part it were not to put out his fire because his fond and foolish neighbour from whom he borrowed peraduenture wherewith to kindle it might happily cast him therewith in the teeth saying were it not for me thou wouldest freeze and not be able to heate thy selfe As for that other argument deriued from the secret affection of Papists with whom our conformitie in certaine Ceremonies is sayd to put them in great hope that their whole religion in time will haue reentrance and therefore none are so clamorous amongst vs for the obseruation of these Ceremonies as Papists and such as Papists suborne to speake for them whereby it clearely appeareth how much they reioyce how much they triumph in these things our aunswere hereunto is still the same that the benefite we haue by such ceremonies ouerweigheth euen this also No man which is not exceeding partiall can well deny but that there is most iust cause wherefore we should be offended greatly at the Church of Rome Notwithstanding at such times as we are to deliberate for our selues the freer our minds are from all distempered affections the sounder better is our iudgemeÌ„t When we are in a fretting mood at the Church of Rome and with that angry disposition enter into any cogitation of the orders rites of our Church taking particular suruey of them we are sure to haue alwayes one eye fixed vpon the countenance of our enemies and according to the blith or heauy aspect thereof our other eye sheweth some other sutable token either of dislike or approbation towards our owne orders For the rule of our iudgement in such case being onely that of Homer This is the thing which our enemies would haue what they seeme contented with euen for that very cause we reiect there is nothing but it pleaseth vs much the better if we espy that it gauleth them Miserable were the state condition of that Church the waighty affaires whereof should be ordered by those deliberations wherein such an humor as this were perdominant We haue most heartily to thanke God therefore that they amongst vs to whom the first consultations of causes of this kind fell were men which aiming at another marke namely the glorie of God and the good of this his Church tooke that which they iudged thereunto necessary not reiecting any good or conuenient thing onely because the Church of Rome might perhaps like it If we haue that which is meere and right although
which they did condemne The Apostles notwithstanding from whom Stephen had receiued it did not so teach the abrogation no not of those things which were necessarily to cease but that euen the Iewes being Christian might for a time continue in them And therefore in Ierusalem the first Christian Bishop not Circumcised was Marke and he not Bishop till the daies of Adrian the Emperour after the ouerthrow of Ierusalem there hauing bene fifteene Bishops before him which were all of the Circumcision The Christian Iewes did thinke at the first not onely themselues but the Christian Gentiles also bound and that necessarily to obserue the whole lawe There went forth certaine of the sect of Pharises which did beleeue and they comming vnto Antioch taught that it was necessary for the Gentiles to be circumcised and to keepe the lawe of Moses Whereupon there grew dissention Paul and Barnabas disputing against them The determination of the Councell held at Ierusalem concerning this matter was finally this Touching the Gentils which beleeue we haue written determined that they obserue no such thing Their protestation by letters is For as much as we haue heard that certain which departed froÌ„ vs haue troubled you with words and combred your minds saying Ye must be circumcised and keepe the lawe knowe that we gaue them no such commandement Paule therefore continued still teaching the Gentiles not onely that they were not bound to obserue the lawes of Moses but that the obseruation of those lawes which were necessarily to be abrogated was in them altogether vnlawfull In which point his doctrine was misreported as though he had euery where preached this not only concerning the Gentiles but also touching the Iewes Wherfore comming vnto Iames and the rest of the Cleargie at Ierusalem they tolde him plainely of it saying Thou seest brother how many thousand Iewes there are which beleeue they are all zealous of the law Now they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Iewes which are amongst the Gentiles to forsake Moses and sayest that they ought not to circumcise their children neither to liue after the customes And hereupon they gaue him counsell to make it apparent in the eyes of all men that those flying reports were vntrue and that himselfe being a Iew kept the lawe euen as they did In some thinges therefore wee see the Apostles did teach that there ought not to be conformitie betweene the Christian Iewes and Gentiles How many things this lawe of inconformitie did comprehend there is no need we should stand to examine This generall is true that the Gentiles were not made conformable vnto the Iewes in that which was necessarily to cease at the comming of Christ. Touching things positiue which might either cease or continue as occasion should require the Apostles tendering the zeale of the Iewes thought it necessary to binde euen the Gentiles for a time to abstaine as the Iewes did froÌ„ things offered vnto idols from bloud froÌ„ strangled These decrees were euery where deliuered vnto the Gentiles to bee straightly obserued and kept In the other matters where the Gentiles were free and the Iewes in their owne opinion still tied the Apostles doctrine vnto the Iewe was Condemne not the Gentile vnto the Gentile Despise not the Iewe the one sorte they warned to take heed that scrupulositie did not make them rigorous in giuing vnaduised sentence against their brethren which were free the other that they did not become scandalous by abusing their libertie freedome to the offence of their weake brethren which were scrupulous From hence therefore two conclusioÌ„s there are which may euidently be drawne the first that whatsouer conformitie of positiue lawes the Apostles did bring in betweene the Churches of Iewes and Gentiles it was in those things only which might either cease or continue a shorter or a longer time as occasion did most require the second that they did not impose vpon the Churches of the Gentiles any part of the Iewes ordinances with bond of necessary and perpetuall obseruatioÌ„ as we al both by doctrine and practise acknowledge but only in respect of the conueniencie and fitnes for the present state of the Church as theÌ„ it stood The words of the Councels decree coÌ„cerning the Gentiles are It seemed good to the holy Ghost to vs to lay vpoÌ„ you no more burden sauing only those things of necessitie abstinence froÌ„ Idoll-offrings froÌ„ strangled bloud and froÌ„ fornication So that in other things positiue which the coÌ„ming of Christ did not necessarily extinguish the Gentils were left altogether free Neither ought it to seeme vnreasonable that the Gentils should necessarily be bound tied to Iewish ordinances so far forth as that decree importeth For to the Iew who knew that their differeÌ„ce froÌ„ other nations which were aliens strangers froÌ„ God did especially consist in this that Gods people had positiue ordinaÌ„ces giuen to theÌ„ of God himself it seemed maruelous hard that the ChristiaÌ„ Gentils should be incorporated into the same common welth with Gods owne chosen people be subiect to no part of his statutes more then only the lawe of nature which heatheÌ„s count theÌ„selues bouÌ„d vnto It was an opinioÌ„ constaÌ„tly receiued amongst the Iews that God did deliuer vnto the sonnes of Noah seueÌ„ precepts namely to liue in some form of regimeÌ„t vnder 1 publique lawes 2 to serue call vpoÌ„ the name of God 3 to shun Idolatry 4 not to suffer effusioÌ„ of bloud 5 to abhor all vncleane knowledge in the flesh 6 to commit no â—apine 7 finally not to eate of any liuing creature whereof the bloud was not first let out if therefore the Gentiles would be exempt from the lawe of Moses yet it might seeme hard they should also cast off euen those things positiue which were obserued before Moses and which were not of the same kinde with lawes that were necessarily to cease And peraduenture hereupon the Councell sawe it expedient to determine that the Gentiles should according vnto the third the seuenth and the fift of those precepts abstaine from things sacrificed vnto idoles from strangled and bloud and from fornication The rest the Gentiles did of their owne accord obserue nature leading them thereunto And did not nature also teach them to abstaine from fornication No doubt it did Neither can we with reason thinke that as the former two are positiue so likewise this being meant as the Apostle doth otherwise vsually vnderstand it But very marriage within a number of degrees being not onely by the lawe of Moses but also by the lawe of the sonnes of Noah for so they tooke it an vnlawfull discouerie of nakednes this discouerie of nakednesse by vnlawfull marriages such as Moses in the lawe reckoneth vp I thinke it for mine owne part more probable to haue bene meant in the wordes of that Canon then fornication according vnto the sense of the lawe of
scandalous at certain times and in certaine places and to certaine men the open vse thereof neuerthelesse being otherwise without daunger The verie nature of some rites and Ceremonies therfore is scandalous as it was in a number of those which the Manichees did vse and is in all such as the law of God doth forbid Some are offensiue only through the agreement of men to vse them vnto euill and not else as the most of those thinges indifferent which the Heathens did to the seruice of their false Gods which an other in heart condemning their idolatrie could not doe with them in shew and token of approbation without being guiltie of scandall giuen Ceremonies of this kinde are either deuised at the first vnto euill as the Eunomian Heretiques in dishonour of the blessed Trinitie brought in the laying on of water but once to crosse the custom of the Church which in Baptisme did it thrise or else hauing had a profitable vse they are afterwards interpreted and wrested to the contrarie as those Heretiques which held the Trinitie to be three distinct not persons but natures abused the Ceremonie of three times laying on water in Baptisme vnto the strengthning of their heresie The element of water is in Baptisme necessarie once to lay it on or twice is indifferent For which cause Gregorie making mention thereof sayth To diue an infant either thrice or but once in Baptisme can be no way a thing reproueable seeing that both in three times washing the Trinitie of persons and in one the Vnitie of Godhead may be signified So that of these two Ceremonies neither being hurtfull in it selfe both may serue vnto good purpose yet one was deuised and the other conuerted vnto euill Now whereas in the Church of Rome certaine Ceremonies are said to haue bene shamefully abused vnto euill as the Ceremonie of Crossing at Baptisme of kneeling at the Eucharist of vsing Wafer-cakes and such like the question is whether for remedie of that euill wherein such Ceremonies haue bene scandalous and perhaps may be still vnto some euen amongst our selues whome the presence and sight of them may confirme in that former error whereto they serued in times past they are of necessitie to be remoued Are these or any other Ceremonies wee haue common with the Church of Rome scandalous and wicked in their verie nature This no man obiecteth Are any such as haue bene polluted from their verie birth and instituted euen at the first vnto that thing which is euill That which hath bene ordeyned impiously at the first may weare out that impietie in tract of time and then what doth let but that the vse thereof may stand without offence The names of our monethes and of our dayes wee are not ignorant from whence they came and with what dishonour vnto God they are said to haue bene deuised at the first What could be spoken against any thing more effectuall to stirre hatred then that which sometime the auncient Fathers in this case speake Yet those very names are at this day in vse throughout Christendome without hurt or scandall to any Cleare and manifest it is that thinges deuised by Heretiques yea deuised of a very hereticall purpose euen against religion and at their first deuising worthy to haue bene withstood may in time growe meete to be kept as that custome the inuentors wherof were the Eunomian Heretiques So that customes once established and confirmed by long vse being presently without harme are not in regard of their corrupt originall to be held scandalous But coÌ„cerning those our Ceremonies which they reckon for most Popish they are not able to auouch that any of them was otherwise instituted theÌ„ vnto good yea so vsed at the first It followeth then that they all are such as hauing serued to good purpose were afterward conuerted vnto the contrary And sith it is not so much as obiected against vs that we reteine together with them the euil wherwith they haue bin infected in the Church of Rome I would demand who they are whom we scandalize by vsing harmles things vnto that good end for which they were first instituted Amongst our selues that agree in the approbation of this kinde of good vse no man wil say that one of vs is offensiue and scandalous vnto another As for the fauorers of the church of Rome they know how far we herein differ dissent froÌ„ them which thing neither we conceale they by their publike writings also professe daily how much it grieueth them so that of theÌ„ there will not many rise vp against vs as witnesses vnto the inditement of scandal whereby we might be coÌ„demned cast as hauing strengthned theÌ„ in that euil wherwith they pollute themselues in the vse of the same Ceremonies And concerning such as withstaÌ„d the Church of England herein hate it because it doth not sufficiently seeme to hate Rome they I hope are far enough froÌ„ being by this meane drawne to any kind of popish error The multitude therfore of them vnto whom we are scaÌ„dalous through the vse of abused ceremonies is not so appareÌ„t that it can iustly be said in general of any one sort of meÌ„ or other we cause theÌ„ to offend If it be so that now or theÌ„ some few are espied who hauing bin accustomed heretofore to the rites ceremonies of the Church of Rome are not so scowred of their former rust as to forsake their auncient perswasioÌ„ which they haue had howsoeuer they frame theÌ„selues to outward obedience of laws orders because such may misconster the meaning of our ceremonies and so take theÌ„ as though they were in euery sort the same they haue bin shal this be thought a reason sufficieÌ„t wheron to coÌ„clude that some law must necessarily be made to abolish al such ceremonies They answer that there is no law of God which doth bind vs to reteine theÌ„ And S. Pauls rule is that in those things froÌ„ which without hurt we may lawfully absteine we should frame the vsage of our libertie with regard to the weakenes and imbecillitie of our brethren Wherefore vnto them which stood vpon their owne defence saying All things are lawfull vnto me he replyeth But all things are not expedient in regard of others All things are cleane all meates are lawfull but euill vnto that man that eateth offensiuely If for thy meates â—ake thy brother bee grieued thou walkest no longer according to charitie Destroy not him with thy meate for whome Christ dyed Dissolue not for foodes sake the worke of God Wee that are strong must beare the imbecillities of the impotent and not please our selues It was a weakenesse in the Christian Iewes and a maime of iudgement in them that they thought the Gentiles polluted by the eating of those meates which themselues were afraid to touch for feare of transgressing the lawe of Moses yea hereat their hearts did so much rise that the Apostle had iust cause to feare least
till such things be abolished what exception can there be taken against the iudgement of S. Augustine who saith that Of things harmelesse whatsoeuer there is which the whole Church doth obserue throughout the world to argue for any mans immunitie from obseruing the same it were a point of most insolent madnes And surely odious it must needs haue bene for one Christian Church to abolish that which all had receiued and held for the space of many ages that without any detriment vnto Religion so manifest and so great as might in the eyes of vnpartiall men appeare sufficient to cleare thē from all blame of rash inconsiderate proceeding if in feruour of zeale they had remoued such things Whereas contrariwise so reasonable moderation herein vsed hath freed vs from being deseruedly subiect vnto that bitter kind of obloquie wherby as the Church of Rome doth vnder the colour of loue towards those things which be harmelesse maintaine extremely most hurtfull corruptions so we peraduenture might be vpbraided that vnder colour of hatred towards those things that are corrupt we are on the other side as extreme euen againts most harmelesse ordinances And as they are obstinate to retaine that which no man of any conscience is able wel to defend so we might be reckoned fierce and violent to teare away that which if our owne mouthes did condemne our consciences would storme and repine thereat The Romanes hauing banished Tarquinius the proud and taken a sollemne oath that they neuer would permit any man more to raigne could not herewith content themselues or thinke that tyrannie was throughly extinguished till they had driuen one of their Consuls to depart the Citie against whom they found not in the world what to obiect sauing onely that his name was Tarquine and that the common-wealth could not seeme to haue recouered perfect freedome as long as a man of so daungerous a name was left remaining For the Church of England to haue done the like in casting out of Papall tyranny and superstition to haue shewed greater willingnes of accepting the very ceremonies of the Turke Christs professed enemie then of the most indifferent things which the Church of Rome approueth to haue left not so much as the names which the Church of Rome doth giue vnto things innocent to haue eiected whatsoeuer that Church doth make accompt of be it neuer so harmelesse in it selfe and of neuer so auncient continuance without any other crime to charge it with then onely that it hath bene the hap thereof to be vsed by the Church of Rome and not to be commanded in the word of God this kind of proceeding might happily haue pleased some fewe men who hauing begun such a course themselues must needs be glad to see their example followed by vs. But the Almightie which giueth wisedome and inspireth with right vnderstanding whō soeuer it pleaseth him he foreseeing that which mans wit had neuer bene able to reach vnto namely what tragedies the attempt of so extreme alteration would raise in some parts of the Christian world did for the endlesse good of his Church as we cannot chuse but interpret it vse the bridle of his prouident restraining hand to stay those eager affections in some and to settle their resolution vpon a course more calme and moderate least as in other most ample and heretofore most flourishing dominions it hath since fallen out so likewise if in ours it had come to passe that the aduerse part being enraged and betaking it selfe to such practises as men are commonly wont to embrace when they behold things brought to desperate extremities and no hope left to see any other end then onely the vtter oppression and cleane extinguishment of one side by this meane Christendome flaming in all parts of greatest importance at once they all had wanted that comfort of mutuall reliefe wherby they are now for the time susteined and not the least by this our Church which they so much impeach till mutuall combustious bloudsheads and wastes because no other inducement will serue may enforce them through very faintnesse after the experience of so endlesse miseries to enter on all sides at the length into some such consultation as may tend to the best reestablishment of the whole Church of Iesus Christ. To the singular good whereof it cannot but serue as a profitable direction to teach men what is most likely to proue auaileable when they shall quietly consider the triall that hath bene thus long had of both kinds of reformation as well this moderate kind which the Church of England hath taken as that other more extreme and rigorous which certaine Churches elsewhere haue better liked In the meane while it may be that suspence of iudgement and exercise of charity were safer and seemelier for Christian men then the hote pursute of these controuersies wherein they that are most feruent to dispute be not alwayes the most able to determine But who are on his side and who against him our Lord in his good time shall reueale And sith thus farre we haue proceeded in opening the things that haue beene done let not the principall doers themselues be forgotten When the ruines of the house of God that house which cōsisting of religious soules is most immediatly the pretious temple of the holy Ghost were become not in his sight alone but in the eyes of the whole world so exceeding great that very superstition began euen to feele itselfe too farre growne the first that with vs made way to repaire the decayes thereof by beheading superstition was King Henry the eight The sonne and successour of which famous King as we know was Edward the Saint in whom for so by the euent wee may gather it pleased God righteous and iust to let England see what a blessing sinne and iniquitie would not suffer it to enioy Howbeit that which the wise man hath sayde concerning Enoch whose dayes were though many in respect of ours yet scarse as three to nine in comparison of theirs with whome hee liued the same to that admirable child most worthily may be applyed Though he departed this worlde soone yet fulfilled he much time But what ensued That worke which the one in such sort had begun and the other so farre proceeded in was in short space so ouerthrowne as if almost it had neuer bene till such time as that God whose property is to shew his mercies then greatest when they are neerest to be vtterly despaired of caused in the depth of discomfort and darknes a most glorious starre to arise and on her head setled the Crowne whome him selfe had kept as a lambe from the slaughter of those bloudie times that the experience of his goodnes in her own deliuerance might cause her mercifull disposition to take so much the more delight in sauing others whom the like necessity shold presse What in this behalfe hath bene done towards nations abroad the parts of Christendome most afflicted can best testifie That which
were very iniurious the purpose of his hart was religious and godly the act most worthy of honour and renowne neither could Nathan choose but admire his vertuous intent exhort him to go forward and beseech God to prosper him therein But God saw the endlesse troubles which Dauid should be subiect vnto during the whole time of his regiment and therefore gaue charge to differre so good a worke till the dayes of tranquilitie and peace wherein it might without interruption be performed Dauid supposed that it could not stand with the duty which he owed vnto God to set himselfe in an house of Cedar trees and to behold the Arke of the Lords Couenant vnsetled This opinion the Lord abateth by causing Nathan to shew him plainely that it should be no more imputed vnto him for a fault then it had bene vnto the Iudges of Israell before him his case being the same which theirs was their times not more vnquiet then his nor more vnfit for such an action Wherefore concerning the force of negatiue arguments so taken from the authority of Scripture as by vs they are denied there is in all this lesse then nothing And touching that which vnto this purpose is borrowed froÌ„ the controuersies sometime handled betweene M. Harding and the worthiest Diuine that Christendome hath bred for the space of some huÌ„dreds of yeres who being brought vp together in one Vniuersitie it fell out in them which was spoken of two others They learned in the same that which in contrary CaÌ„ps they did practise Of these two the one obiecting that with vs arguments taken from authority negatiuely are ouer common the Bishops answer hereunto is that This kind of argument is thought to be good whensoeuer proofe is taken of Gods word and is vsed not only by vs but also by Saint Paul and by many of the Catholique Fathers Saint Paule saith God said not vnto Abraham In thy seeds all the nations of the earth shall be blessed but in thy seed which is Christ and thereof he thought he made a good argument Likewise sayth Origen The bread which the Lord gaue vnto his disciples saying vnto them Take and eate he differred not nor commanded to be reserued till the next day Such arguments Origen and other learned Fathers thought to stand for good whatsoeuer misliking Maister Harding hath found in theÌ„ This kind of proofe is thought to hold in Gods commaundements for that they be full and perfect and God hath specially charged vs that we should neither put to them nor take fro them and therefore it seemeth good vnto them that haue learned of Christ Vnus est magister vester Christus haue heard the voyce of God the Father from heauen Ipsum auâ—ite But vnto them that adde to the word of God what them listeth and make Gods will subiect vnto their will and breake Gods commaundements for their owne traditions sake vnto them is seemeth not good Againe the English Apologie alleaging the example of the Greekes how they haue neither priuate Masses nor mangled Sacraments nor Purgatories nor pardons it pleaseth Maister Harding to iest out the matter to vse the helpe of his wits where strength of truth failed him to answer with scoffing at negatiues The Bishops defence in this case is The auncient learned Fathers hauing to deale with impudent heretiques that in defence of their errors auouched the iudgement of all the old Bishops and Doctors that had bene before them and the generall consent of the primitiue and whole vniuersall Church and that with as good regard of truth and as faithfully as you do now the better to discouer the shamelesse boldnes nakednes of their doctrine were oftentimes likewise forced to vse the negatiue so to driue the same heretiques as we do you to proue their affirmatiues which thing to do it was neuer possible The ancient father Irenaeus thus stayed himselfe as we do by the negatiue Hoc neque Prophetae praedicauerunt néque Dominus docuit néque Apostoli tradiderunt This thing neither did the Prophets publish nor our Lord teach nor the Apostles deliuer By a like negatiue Chrysostome saith This tree neither Paule planted nor Apollo watered nor God increased In like sort Leo saith What needeth it to beleeue that thing that neither the Lawe hath taught nor the Prophets haue spoken nor the Gospell hath preached nor the Apostles haue deliuered And againe How are the new deuises brought in that our Fathers neuer knew S. Augustine hauing reekoned vp a great number of the Bishops of Rome by a generall negatiue saith thus In all this order of succession of Bishops there is not one Bishop found that was a Donatist Saint Gregory being himselfe a Bishop of Rome and writing against the title of vniuersall Bishop saith thus None of all my predecessors euer consented to vse this vngodly title No Bishop of Rome euer tooke vpon him this name of Singularity By such negatiues M. Harding we reproue the vanity and nouelty of your religion we tell you none of the catholique ancient learned Fathers either Greeke or Latine euer vsed either your priuate Masse or your halfe communion or your barbarous vnknowne prayers Paule neuer planted them Apollo neuer watered them God neuer increased them they are of your selues they are not of God In all this there is not a syllable which any way crosseth vs. For coÌ„cerning arguments negatiue euen taken from humane authorityâ— they are here proued to be in some cases very strong and forcible They are not in our estimation idle reproofes when the authors of needlesse innouations are opposed with such negatiues as that of Leo How are these new deuises brought in which our fathers neuer knew When their graue and reuerend superiours do recken vp vnto them as Augustine did vnto the Donatists large Catalogues of Fathers wondered at for their wisdome piety and learning amongst whom for so many ages before vs no one did euer so thinke of the Churches affaires as now the world doth begin to be perswaded surely by vs they are not taught to take exception hereat because such arguments are negatiue Much lesse when the like are taken from the sacred authority of Scripture if the matter it selfe do beare them For in truth the question is not whether an argument from scripture negatiuely may be good but whether it be so generally good that in all actions men may vrge it The fathers I graunt do vse very generall and large tearmes euen as Hiero the King did in speaking of Archimedes From henceforward whatsoeuer Archimedes speaketh it must be belieued His meaning was not that Archimedes could simply in nothing be deceiued but that he had in such sort approued his skill that he seemed worthy of credit for euer after in matters appertaining vnto the science he was skilfull in In speaking thus largely it is presumed that mens speeches will be taken according to the
matter whereof they speake Let any man therefore that carieth indifferency of iudgement peruse the Bishops speeches and consider well of those negatiues concerning scripture which he produceth out of Irenaeus Chrysostome Leo which three are chosen from amongst the residue because the sentences of the others euen as one of theirs also do make for defence of negatiue arguments taken from humane authority and not from diuine onely They mention no more restraint in the one then in the other yet I thinke themselues will not hereby iudge that the Fathers tooke both to be strong without restraint vnto any speciall kind of matter wherein they held such arguments forcible Nor doth the Bishop either say or proue any more then that an argument in some kinds of matter may be good although taken negatiuely from Scripture 7 An earnest desire to draw all things vnto the determination of bare and naked Scripture hath caused here much paines to be taken in abating the estimation and credite of man Which if we labour to maintaine as farre as truth and reason will beare let not any thinke that we trauaile about a matter not greatly needful For the scope of all their pleading against mans authoritie is to ouerthrowe such orders lawes and constitutions in the Church as depending thereupon if they should therefore be taken away would peradueture leaue neither face nor memory of Church to continue long in the world the world especially being such as now it is That which they haue in this case spoken I would for breuities sake let passe but that the drift of their speech being so dangerous their words are not to be neglected Wherefore to say that simply an argument taken from mans authority doth hold no way neither affirmatiuely nor negatiuely is hard By a mans authority we here vnderstaÌ„d the force which his word hath for the assurance of anothers mind that buildeth vpon it as the Apostle somewhat did vpon their report of the house of Cloe and the Samaritanes in a matter of farre greater moment vpon the report of a simple woman For so it is sayd in Saint Iohns Gospell Many of the Samaritans of that City belieued in him for the saying of the woman which testified He hath told me all things that euer I did The strength of mans authority is affirmatiuely such that the waightiest affaires in the world depend therâ—on In iudgement and iustice are not herevpon proceedings grounded Sayth not the law that in the mouth of two or three witnesses euery word shal be confirmed This the law of God would not say if there were in a mans testimony no force at all to prooue any thing And if it be admitted that in matter of fact there is some credite to be giuen to the testimonie of man but not in matter of opinion and iudgement we see the contrary both acknowledged and vniuersally practised also throughout the world The sentences of wise and expert men were neuer but highly esteemed Let the title of a mans right be called in question are we not bold to relie and build vpon the iudgement of such as are famous for their skill in the lawes of this land In matter of state the waight many times of some one mans authority is thought reason sufficient euen to sway ouer whole nations And this not onely with the simpler sort but the learneder and wiser we are the more such arguments in some cases preuaile with vs. The reason why the simpler sort are mooued with authority is the conscience of their owne ignorance whereby it commeth to passe that hauing learned men in admiration they rather feare to dislike them then know wherefore they should allow and follow their iudgements Contrariwise with them that are skilfull authority is much more strong and forcible because they only are able to discerne how iust cause there is why to some mens authority so much should be attributed For which cause the name of Hippocrates no doubt were more effectuall to perswade euen such men as Galen himselfe then to moue a silly Empiricke So that the very selfe same argument in this kind which doth but induce the vulgaâ— sort to like may constraine the wiser to yeeld And therefore not Orators only with the people but euen the very profoundest disputers in all faculties haue hereby often with the best learned preuailed most As for arguments taken from humaine authority and that negatiuely for example sake if we should thinke the assembling of the people of God together by the sound of a bell the presenting of infants at the holy font by such as commonly we call their Godfathers or any other the like receiued custome to be impious because some men of whom we thinke very reuerendly haue in their bookes and writings no where mentioned nor taught that such things should be in the Church this reasoning were subiect vnto iust reproofe it were but feeble weake and vnsound Notwithstanding euen negatiuely an argument from humaine authority may be strong as namely thus The Chronicles of England mention no moe then onely sixe kings bearing the name of Edward since the time of the last conquest therefore it cannot be there should be moe So that if the question be of the authority of a mans testimony we cannot simply auouch either that affirmatiuely it doth not any way hold or that it hath only force to induce the simpler sort and not to constraine men of vnderstanding and ripe iudgement to yeeld assent or that negatiuely it hath in it no strength at all For vnto eâ—uery of these the contrary is most plaine Neither doth that which is alleaged concerning the infirmitie of men ouerthrow or disproue this Men are blinded with ignorance and errour many things may escape them and in many things they may bee deceiued yea those things which they do knowe they may either forget or vpon sundry indirect considerations let passe and although themselues do not erre yet may they through malice or vanity euen of purpose deceiue others Howbeit infinite cases there are wherein all these impediments and lets are so manifestly excluded that there is no shew or colour whereby any such exception may be taken but that the testimony of man will stand as a ground of infallible assurance That there is a City of Rome that Pius Quintus and Gregory the 13. and others haue beene Popes of Rome I suppose we are certainely enough perswaded The ground of our perswasion who neuer saw the place nor persons before named can be nothing but mans testimony Will any man here notwithstanding alleage those mentioned humaine infirmities as reasons why these things should be mistrusted or doubted of Yea that which is more vtterly to infringe the force and strength of mans testimony were to shake the very fortresse of Gods truth For whatsoeuer we beleeue concerning saluation by Christ although the scripture be therein the ground of our beliefe yet the authority of man is if we