Eruditione seculi an scientia Scripturarum and S t Cyrill says Humane learning est catechismus ad fidem I will not deny but that great parts are often hinderances to the work of grace in the soul men will not come off to Christ without great ado who are wedged to the wisedom of this world which contradicts the wisedom of God in the foolishness of preaching learned Pharisees are apt to reproach Saint Paul's with the titles of bablers Ministers like him in Erasmus who being 80 yeers of age knew nothing higher in their calling quam in scholis Dialecticam ac Philosophicam vel docere vel decertare palestram hîc sine fine garrire ad predicandum Christi Evangelium elinquem c. are in a kinde monsters these set the ass upon Christi not Christ upon the ass this to tolerate is as Campanella well notes to measure Christs rights by our straight and narrow model to hide as heathens do the light of Scripture under an Aristotelique bushel for surely the work of a Minister of Jesus Christ is to preach the Word in and out of season to treat of the mysteries of faith not to trade in frivolous questions and nice subtilties to acquaint the soul with what is Gods command and mans duty by prayers to move God to mercy and by tears to prevoke men to pity themselves to raise a holy flame in the heart to God and to every thing that bears his likeness This as Erasmus appositely notes is the work of a Minister And if some Ministers would consider this and more endeavour to be what God requires them their success would be greater then now it is for when people see such Ministers catching at this and hunting after that advantage instead of being crucified to the world and dead to the desires of it crucifying the world by their discourses which preface it to bonds and blood when they see them Chemarims whose fiery zeal and devout outsides serve onely to palliate covetuousness and pride they are much offended at and less resolute for the honour and estimation of the Ministry And alas it is no new thing to see Religion passive under politick projects in coyning which to the Churches dishonour as well as Christs his pretended Vicar is not behinde hand for since pride and state hath bin incathedrated the Priest is so confounded in the Prince the Christian simplicity so over-winged by politick craft that they not onely forget to be humble which Erasmus notes Nostri temporis Episcopi quidem suos habent pro servis Emptitiis imò pro pecudibus but also charge the Church with the burden of their spurious productions and deny her the Ordinances which Christ hath indulged her A learned Father of our Church in his notable Treatise of Scisme lately come forth hath furnished me with a very pat and pregnant instance to this point The Pope as head of the Church to use their words is to supply the Church with all necessaries to Doctrine and Discipline and to the preservation of a succssion in the Church to do which he is to propagate the Episcopal Order in all places under subjection to him upon the revolt of Portugall he refused to admit any new Bishops there and the reason he gave was Lest by that he should acknowledge or approve the Title of the present King against his Catholique Son of Spain by which neglect of his the Episcopal Order in Portugal and the Dominions annexed to that Crown was well neer extinguished and scarce so many Bishops were left alive or could be drawn together as to make a Canonical Ordination the three Orders of Portugal did represent to the Pope that in the Kingdom of Portugall and the Algarbians wherein ought to have been three Metrapolitans and Suffragans there was but one left and he by the Popes Dispensation non-resident and in all the Astatique Provinces but one other and he both sickly and decrepit and in all the Aphrican and American Provinces and the Island not one surviving so that as zealous as his Holiness is for successions maintenance he can be contented to endanger it to take a revenge or to shew a displeasure Thus between those who deny Ordination and others who for private ends disuse it the Church suffers and Christs holy Ordinance hath not its due reverence which the elder Christians provided against this made them nourish up young plants to supply the decay of old Standard they knew that dangerous men and errors would come in when Apostolique men departed and as old Ely nursed up young Samuel so did they cherish the youth of after hopes 'T was a good note of S t Cyprian that the Devil has no greater envie against any then men in place and eminency in the Church ut Gubernatore sublato atrocius atque violentius circa Ecclesiae naufragia grassetur In the Emperour Adrians time when men were giddy and had more itching ears and inquisitive heads then before Egesippus notes a crowd of errors forced the Church and he assigns this for reason Men of Apostolique abilities being dead and those who succeeded them being not so qualified to resist them by argument and the sacred force of reason and Scripture they broke in tanquam in vacuam domum custode suo privatam An Argument perswasive enough to Christians that a learned Ministry and Schools of Institution are necessary and usefull since nothing more disorders then Error nothing sooner discovers it then Art rightly used and carried on by the blessing of God Alas error comes with a top-sail charged with the colours of Truth and so dexterously is the craft of this pyracy couched that none but an exact Artist can discover it The Arians and Orthodox differed but in one letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet upon that depended the honour of Christs coaequality and coessency with the Father how easily might zealous ignorance have dispensed with an Iota upon which so great a point of faith depended and so have given way to Christs dishonour had not the Fathers learnedly and with Athanasian mettle withstood it O Christians there is more goes to make up the Churches and Religions prosperity then good meanings there needs sound heads as well as honest hearts to make her terrible as an army with banners Satan hath more sophistry then a sigh or an elevation of the eye both good both beseeming will enodate His craft winds it self into company with the sons of God and ought he not be a notable craftsman who can cull the scabbed sheep out of the flock of faithful ones Lord what baits has he to beguile us with an Apple for Eve a look-back for Lots wife a Bathsheba for David a witch of Endor for Saul self-love for Joâ—as and fear for Peter's temptation And when he is most swollen with malice then his masque is holiness Servetus that blasphemous Spaniard burnt at Geneva
called his errors the restitution of Christianity And others that are wanderers hope to steal upon truth undiscerned by the conduct of new words and unused phrases and ever when men in their nomination of things do vary from the Law which is the quintessence of reason they do it in a humour which is the quintessence of fancy and when men suppress their opinions till they see a fit season 't is a sign they are more factors for fame then Lovers of truth and have a design of self to which the night of this or that policy not the Sun-light of an honest and open ingenuity must give furtherance The Right Reverend and Learned deceased Bishop of Salisbury tels us that in the Synod of Dort when the fourteen Divines that had subscribed their opinions in affirmance of Arminius his Doctrine first were demanded by the Synod severally whether they now acknowledged for their Doctsine that which formerly they had set down in collatione Hagiensi and published in print not one of those fourteen could be drawn to say in plain and expresst terms that he either held that Doctrine for true or he held it not but as S t Jerome wrote to Pammachi us concerning John Bishop of Jerusalem I cannot brook ambiguous words and sentences that bear two senses truths are best in their open dress what he accounts simplicity I call the malice of his stile loc that beleeves aright ought not to speak in a phrase unusual unapproved by true beleevers and Orthodox Christians Alas words are cheap when Boner was Elect of London he said he blamed Stokesly Bishop of London his Predecessor for troubling those who had the Bible in English saying God willing he did not so much hinder but I will as much further it yet he proved a most bloudy wretch and he can do little to his advantage that hath not his quiver full of them and disperses them not about to the credulous vulgar who are in some tempers and on some occasions so devoted to charity that they give themselves up to beleeve whatever is communicated to them in a serious manner with invocation of God and seeming self-denial When Nestorius after Sisinrius became Bishop of Constantinople he made an Oration to the Emperour in which he blasphemously said O Emperour clear the world of Heresie meaning the Orthodox belief and I will give thee heaven for thy reward yet when this man had his preferment he proved as great a plague to those Cacodox Christians who were not of his minde as to the Orthodox for within five daies after he was setled in his See he decreed demolition of the Arians Church and soon after vexed the Novatians because Paul their Bishop had a good name and was thought a pious man when once men swerve from Catholique Tenents and Phrases they run into a Cyclops den both of infernal pride and confusion and without great mercy never return thence by repentance but perish in their gainsaying for true is that of Tertullian Quod apud multos unum invenitur non est erratum sed irradiatum And therefore as the Sceptiques of old by their upstart Pedantism endeavoured abolition of all good learning turning all into utrum's and questionary debates and for that reason were opposed by the Ancients and their followers with great mordacity 〈◊〉 ought these in their new Systems 〈◊〉 Divinity to be treated as persons that have somewhat to vent contrary to the received faith who word it contrary to the received phrase And those saith a learned Bishop that will arrogate to themselves a new Church or new Religion or new holy orders must produce new miracles new revelations and new cloven tongues for their justification Till when I shall joyn with the Church of Christ in the belief that the spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets and that the Schools of the Prophets are most probable to acquaint men with truth and peace and to disseminate it amongst the people as that which will at once make happy both Church and State And though as the Jews in Christ's case and the Heathens in Christians cases bitterly inveighed sharpening powers against them as stirrers up of the people to mutinies and rebellions so it be common now also to possess Governours with ill principles in distrust of pious and regular Ministers and Professors yet will it be found upon search that nothing laies so strong a ground of just Government as true Religion for besides that Gods restraint is upon them and they dare not do that in his eye which will be rebuked by his word and punished by his hand of Justice they cannot be ill subjects upon the account of retaliation for where they receive protection they ex debito owe subjection and are injurious and ingrateful if they pay it not And no Magistrate is so merciless to his own fame as he who neglects to be a nursing Father to the Church and a Patron to her Schools of learning Digna certe res in qua totum occupetnr Parliamentum nisi enim haec semina dostrinae teneris animis tempestivè sparsa fuerint quaenam in Republica vel exoriatur spes vel adolescat virtus vel effloreseat pura Religio vera faelicitas As the University of Oxford phraseth it in their Letter to the Marquess of Northampton temp Edw. 6. For take away the encouragements of learning what despicable combinations of men will Common-wealths be what shall we do for learned Politicians skilful Physicians subtil Lawyers reverend Antiquaries polite Orators acurate Logicians and Schoolmen and facetious Poets Non omnis fert omnia tellus God and Nature by his leave makes us men but 't is Learning and Art renders us wise and worthy Houses of Learning are the Palaces in which these royal wits are educated and the world is as the field in which they scatter their seeds of renown and the stock on which they graft their noble Cyons and therefore as S t Jerome after he had writ that Summary of Ecclesiastical Writers from Christ's to his time breaks out Discant ergo Celsus Porphyrius Julianus rapidi adversus Christum canes c. Let them know quoth he who think the Church of Christ produces no eloquent Writers that they are deceived for there hath ever been a number of such who in all times have â—lourished in her and her have vindicated from that imputation of rustical simplicity that those Ethniques have charged on her So must I brand these enemies of Schools and learning as underminers of order civility and all good institution and endeavourers to surprise the Capitol of our Faith when learned men as the watch thereof are drawn off and discharged and therefore I appeal to such as prosecute Learning with contempt in S t Jerom's words to Jovinian when rehearsing that of the Apostle They are clouds without water he says Nonne tibi videtur pinxisse sermo Apostolicus Novam imperitiae factionem
becomes precept or president to its practice then is the Church to be followed in such her warrantable customs and observations In the 28 Chapter of S t Matthew our Lord Jesus is mentioned to have ascended in the 16 th verse the Eleven are said to go away into Galilee unto a mountain where Jesus had appointed them there he appears to them in a glorious condition which caused them to worship him as Emanuel God Man Mediator In the 18 th verse our Lord owns the donation of all power to him both in Heaven and Earth before this Christ is not mentioned so solemnly to transfer power Ministerial to his Apostles he asserts his own Authority before he gives them theirs that done Go ye therefore and teach all Nations follows which compared with that other passage As my Father hath sent me so send I you fully cleers to me That transferrency of power Ministerial from God the Father to God the Son and from God the Son to his Apostles and to their Successors in the Ministry who in Tertullian's phrase are the Hereditary Apostles and Disciples of Christ I do not affirm there is an equality of spiritual power in Ministers now to that in the Apostles no more then in the Apostles to that in Christ all Vessels are not of a capacity if the Spirit were on him without measure and upon Apostles and Ministers restrained and as they could bear then we must allow a disparity in the degree God gave him a Name above all names both in heaven and earth saith the Apostles and no creature must contend with its maker But this I dare affirm That the power Spiritual and Ministerial which the A-Apostles expressed by imposition of hands and since in conformity to them and upon the same ground they do carry on who are lawfully called to the Ministry in the Church Christian is as truly spiritual power in them as in their Head from whom they received it and that the Church has now as clear a Charter for her Orders as the Apostles had for their Apostleships the great D r of us Gentiles is my Author God hath set in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers c. Prophets and Teachers that is Ministers as well as Apostles both fixed by Christ as necessary to carry on his spiritual building the Church Both ministring Spirits for the good of the Elect both his good Angels to summon from all quarters his chosen ones both usefull one to lay the foundation and the other to perfect the Structure I write not this to ingage my self in controversies I shall ever indeavour to decline them as well knowing they account nothing to Church peace or Religions purity but this I must profess that my judgement is flatly against entrenchment upon Church Offices let Christians imploy their Gifts soberly and instruct themselves and their Families thorowly and they will finde enough of that task If our Lord had laid the right of teaching in mens readinesses or their talkative abilities he would have appeared to those multitudes of people whom he in the course of his life and Ministry taught fed and cured of infirmities and from whom he had approbation to do and speak as never man did or spake it 's probable he might have found as nimble orators as pregnant gifted men in prayers as great measure of self-denial in some of the people as was in Peter James John or the rest of the Apostles But he appears to the Eleven met according to his appointment and them he culls out of the mass of the multitude to be the Churches Faetificators and he bids them as ver 19. Go ye therefore c. Ye an exclusive phrase as well as a personal not onely ye as well as others but ye only and above others ye as the grand Masters and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Church edification lay ye the foundation let all the after-building be according to your pattern from my prescript And teach all Nations These Metropolitans had large Diocesses Eleven to preach the world over this Commission must be largely taken not restrained to their personal but Doctrinal Visits not to their lives but to the perpetuity of their succession Ministerial not Apostolique for can we think those few could peragrate the Universe into many parts of which there was then no means of convoy or transport or that the hour-glass of their lives did not speed too fast for them to sow the seeds of grace in to so many several and various people and Nations or can the Apostles in any sense natural be said to continue to the end of the world till when Christ promises to be with them I tro no most of the Apostles died within the first Century If Christs promise was to continue them so long as he continued concurrence with them then must they not have seen death till the end of the world for so long he saith he will be with them And if they died so soon after and the world has yet lasted above 1500 yeers and how long further it may last God onely knows the promise must be understood to the orderly succession of the Ministry in all the ages of the Church who are to carry on the Apostles Office of teaching and exercising Discipline in it to the end of the world And this the Apostles understood and followed in their practice for though Judas fell from his Apostleship yet the Eleven by prayer and calling on God were directed specially to compleat their number by the admission of Matthias Act. 1. 15. remembring that Christ Jesus had a work to carry on in the world which required the full help he had in his life time assigned to it and though the Apostles admitted none into the priviledge of their order but upon special direction of the holy Ghost as in the forementioned case of Matthias and S t Paul whom the holy Ghost commanded to be separated as Ministers yet were Disciples Evangelists Bishops and Presbyters by them chosen and from them sent who in their succession carried on the work to this day and those learnedly bred and humbly submitting themselves to Church-approbation were accounted worthy to labour in the Word and Doctrine as Pastors able to feed the people with knowledge and understanding as the Prophet hath it Jer. 3. 15. yea and such men as S t Paul exhorts Timothy to be 2 Tim. 2. 15. Study saith he to shew thy self a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth The consideration of this made Ministers anciently very modest to offer themselves to this weighty charge and the Fathers and Bishops very precise and scrupulous in admitting any unto the care of souls but such as were well reputed and had great knowledge both in Humane and Divine Learning Saint Jerome plainly tells us that in his time the Church was so well served that it was hard to tell whether the Clergie excelled
aperiunt enim quasi fontes sapientiae qui aquam non habent doctrinarum promittunt imbrem velut nubes propheticae ad quas perveniat veritas Dei turbinibus exagitantur demonum vitiorum So he Alas they are in a devious road to fame who endeavour Learnings ruine and deserve no nobler a memoriall then Scylla had whose evils were so great that there was neither leâ—t place for greater nor number for more That wise man of the Garamantes spake truth to Alexander Glory ariseth not from violent substraction of what is anothers but from bestowing on others what is our own the best way to be remembred for gallant is to write our memoriall in the Table Adamant of a Charity and Bounty that may outlast us I love Aemilius his gravity and imitable worth his vertuous minde and Learned head better then Aristippus his rapacious heart though it had to friend a grave countenance and a purple robe The Lord deliver the Learned from those men who would have the Name of Learned perish and their seed begg their bread and give and preserve to them such Kings and Protectors as may speak comfortably to them as God did to his He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye Thirdly Antiquity and Elder times have been Zealous for Government and Order in the Church as the Church of Christ hath no custom for contention so not for coâ—fusion God is order and good discipline is one way to make men conform to God as orders Law-giver S t Cyprian one of the first Fathers and a noble Martyr defines Discipline the keeper of hope the conservative of faith a good conductor in our race of Christianity a benefit reaching forth security and increase to those that embrace her and portending destruction to those that refuse or neglect her And Calvin when he disownes all Church usurpation yet concludes That the Church hath Laws of order to promote concord and defend government And reason it should be so for if God be order and his administrations be orderly as himself then disorder as nothing of his ought to be kept out of the Church to which it is peculiarly an enemy The Church is a treasury disorder robbs it 'T is a clear stream of living water disorder puddles it 'T is a fair and bright Heaven disorder clouds and inlowers it 'T is a chart virgin disorder is an impure raptor and corrupts it 'T is a precious orb of spicknard disorder like dead flies putrifies it The foresight of this made our Lord Jesus bespangle his Church with gifts to all purposes of Order and Ornnament He hath set sayes S t Paul in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers then gifts of healing Helps to Governments diversities of tongues And now I have found Church and Government both in a Scripture I hope I may without offence joyn them together Church-Government and assert that of Divine Institution I think most parties are agreed that Government Ecclesiastique as well as Civil is of God all the litigation is What this Ecclesiastique Government which is of God is By what Name and Title it is distinguished and dignified And God wot the heat and humour of peevish brains have set Paul and Barnabas as it were asunder nay hath made such a crack in Christian Eutaxie ' that as Bernardas Dyas Bishop of Calatrore said of the Church of Vicenza that may I of this Chuach of England It is so disordered that it requireth more an Apostle then a Bishop Orpheus sooner charmed Pluto and Proserpina to part with his Eurydice then men amongst us be perswaded to part with their passions though all their swellings and monstrous impregnations like that of the mountains produce only a Mouse a most ridiculous and inglorious scabb of self-conceited Leprosie One party will have Church-Discipline so precisely set down in the Word of God that nothing is left to Christian prudence to alter Others are diametrall to these and make with Cardinall Cusanus Government accountable to the times as he said Scripture was and therefore to be expounded according to the current rites and yet forsooth it is not to be meant as if the Church at one time expoundeth in one fashion and at another time in another sort a Riddle the Scripture must be expounded according to the times and the times according to which Scripture is to be expounded are now this an on that and yet the Church must not be meant to expound it in one fashion at one time and in another fashion another time There are a third sort who fix the essentials of Government in Scripture and the collaterals they admit as left to the order of the particular Churches of Christ this I take to be most safe and moderate and this S t Augustine delivers as his Opinion to Januarius long ago These things quoth be are left free there is no appointment by God concerning them prudent Christians are at liberty to conform to whatever Church they come and in which they live for whatever is enjoyned not contrary to faith and good manners ought to be submitted to for peace and civil societies sake and I saith the Father diligently considering this thorowly do deliver this as an Oracle receiving confirmation from God And truly this I judge to be the meaning of those brotherly expressions that have and ought ever to ebbe and flow from Christian Churches to each other and from the Protestant Churches especially For if the Church of England when it was under Episcopacy saved the rights of other Churches which were disciplinary and condemned them not but held correspondency with them giving them the right hand of fellowship and the other forreign Churches published their candor and approbation of Episcopacy where it was constituted and pressed obedience to it witnesse Reverend Calviâ— in divers places and on divers occasions Learned Zanchy Grave Bucer Eloquent Beza Profound Mâ—uline Accomplisht Chamier yea and multitudes of others of note in the Reformed Churches then doth this arise from that apprehension that the generals of Government being one and the same under both Disciplines Charity ought to passe the rest to the least injury of Christian Concord Farre be it from me to part whom God hath joyned together Wherein the Churches agree let them mind the things that tend to piety and unity the rest God will reveal in his good time for as Calvin after S t Augustine determines it Let every Church observe her own Customs It is profitable sometimes that Religion should have some variety so there be no â—mulation and new things be not introduced for novelties sake The Churches of Christ then have agreed upon Government as appointed by God yea and about the persons interessed in it those Bishops Presbyters and Deacons they never owned Armilustra's in which Souldiers were Priests nor Gifted men unordained for Church Officers this is of
appointment but of divine approbation So say I in the case of Ceremonies so far as they relate to the usefull Order and Ornament of the Church they are not only not to be contemned but honoured and kept And these that are hotly violent against them quâ such had best consider that there may be use of them to do the drudgery of worship and to stave off prophanesse and when they are emploied but as Cryars of Courts of Justice are to minde men of their reverence to what is sacred and to learn them to be bare and submisse to their betters there is no ill construction can be reasonably made of them I know they have and ever will be while men are ignorant ambitious and worldly subject to be abused partly by the ignorance of superstitious people and partly by over activity of men of note in the Church who of good purpose introduced them as did S t Chrysostome Church-Musick into the Church at Constantinople to prevent the Arians withdrawing of the Orthodox to their Church or Oratories in which they had such Musick I know I say that by this and other means the number of Ceremonies grew so great that the Church was not able to abide them That S t Augustine and many others greatly inveighed against them and wished correction of them And therefore as all things of discipline and order constituted by man may upon just cause be ordered and altered as to prudence shall seem most meet Provided it be done in lawfull manner and by persons lawfully called thereto so endeavoured many in the Church to put a stop to this evil and to offer a remedy thereto But alas It was a disease past cure Men of estimation hugg'd their own Apes and in the customes and Rites of their own initiation hung up Trophees and Banners to their Memories happy was he thought that could travell farthest in this wildernesse of imagination and have the remarque of adding something to Church-Solemnity under pretence of some notable zeal noble charity devout-rapture matchlesse self-deniall so that at length the Ceremonies grew to have no name but Legion for they were many which made many holy men cry out against them and some professe that the soul of Religion was overlaid by the body yea every thing so out of order that even Pope Adrian the 6. in his Instructions to his Legate professed Scimus in hac sancta sede aliquot jam annis multa abominanda fuisse nay for many years before him holy S t Bernard cried out against some of place as more proggers for their own advantage then the glory of Christianity Vides omne Ecclesiasticum zelum â—ervere sola pro dignitate tuenda honori totum datur sanctitati nihil aut parum lib. 4. de Consid ad Eugenium Heu Heu Domine Deus ipsi sunt in persecutione primi qui videntur in Ecclesia primatum diligere Yea even in the Councel of Trent about the gathering and managing of which more carnal policy was expressed then comported with the simplicity of Christ and the reall honour of his pretended Vicar there was a loud out cry againsi extravagant Ceremonies And that from the mouths of Learned Prelates and Friars of the Papacy Insomuch that Langi Archbishop of Saltzburg said It was but reasonable to be disburthened of them But the Pope and his party had too much gain by this craft to part with them cheaply The Colledge of Parish â— Priests at Rome is now become a conclave of Cardinals and hath Church-Princes and the Pope Head of the Church to rule it which way it will yea his Palace the Commonwealth of Christians as Albergatus his words are to the Cardinall Nephew to Gregory the 13 th They I say becoming so great must have support And finding this among the politique accoutrements of the Papacy could not give ought but a deaf ear to those endeavours Nothing obtaining audience at Rome but what hath the Oratory of gain or the impulse of invincible necessity The Crys and humble Remonstrances of the Waldenses Nicholaus Clemingius Petrus de Aliaco Humbertus de Romania Gulielmus Parisiensis Petrarch Bernard Adrian the 6 th Cornelius Antonius Picus Mirandula Lawrentius Cardinal of Ratisbon Gilbertus the Monk Durand the Schoolman all which in their times importuned Reformation produced nothing those Addars of Rome would not hear the voice of these charmers though they charmed wisely till Luther broke out no general Councel could be gained and when that was brought about there was such tricks such postings from Trent to Rome such designing things to crafty and secular ends such tying up of the Fathers and Prelates there convened that some of the braver spirits muttered that the Pope did but hold the world in hand that he called that Councel to reform the Church but that he insâ—nded nothing lesse which made the French Embassador protest In the Name of his Master and the French Church that they would not obey any thing coâ—cluded there for as much as they were the Decrees of Pope Pius the fourth rather then of the Councel all things being done at Rome not at Trent Now as it were the Axe is laid to the Root of the Tree Germany reaks on t the heat Luther had roused up in her Many of the Prelates faithfull enough to the Papacy in spiritualibus are not displeased at the cheque that this new appearance is expected to give to the career of the Conclavique policy and divers Princes not only not oppose Luther but openly mediate for him and at last prove protectors of him The Germans naturally sturdy and rough enough adore this new risen Star and use pretences of zeal for warrà nts to violence and extravagancy Religious men and houses go to wrack and all the symptoms of popular dirity and confusion are visible Many partiall Reformations there were in some parts of Germany and France and sundry Princes favoured Luther wherein his enterprises gratified their interests as to Supremacy and justification of Princely authority against the Popes Usurpation the Emperour Charles the 5 th the then King of France and Henry the 8 th of this Land found not themselves aggrieved Vnus in mundo Sol Vnus in regno Rex Vna in Religione Religio ne ubi non una ubi multa nulla fiat saith the Politique Marselaer as Luther by distracting the Papal affairs did them no disservice so silently they applauded him but when once Religion grew concerned then all of them fell foul upon him Henry the 8 th wrote against him and the other two Princes prosecuted the Lutherans severely So God calling up Luther and calling out of this life Henry the 8 th and the Crown of his Land descending to his Son and Heir Edw. the 6 th Reformation began to be in credit here also In the short Reign of this blessed Josiah by the counsell of his godly Uncle the Protector of his person and Government
and by Learned Bishops and Presbyters both of this and other Churches the Scheme of our Church-service and decency was ordered and to such a degree refined that Spalatenses a Forreign cals our old Praier-Book Breviarium optimè reformatum And no otherwise thought our Parliaments of those times as 5. 6. Ed 6. c. 1. 1. Eliz. c. 2. 8. Eliz. c. 1. call it a godly and virtuous Book and a means together with the preaching of the Word and Administration of the Sacraments of the pouring forth of the blessings of God upon the Land Yea when the Popish Parliament of prâ— Q. Mary repealed the Act of the 6. Ed. 6. by which this uniformity of worship according to the Common-Praier-Book was setled The Stat. of 1 El. c. 2. saies That Repeal of Q. Mary was to the great decay of the due honour â—f God and discomfort to the professors of the truth of Christs Religion But we are wiser in our generation then those Fathers of Light our worthy Progenitors We are more holy then they because lesse orderly lesse solemn in our service of God then they yea to excuse our selves We pretene their Reformation was but partiall whenas God knows there are who wisely beleeve that their settlemenrs were such as will not be bettered by any their Successors For although they appointed set Forms of devotion for the Publike as a help to their weaknesse who could not pray without them and as a prudent entertainment of the Congregation while it was gathering which in great Parishes was long and unto Servants who came late beneficiall for by that means could they get time enough to Sermon yet intended they it never to justle out the gifts of men whom God had specially enabled to extemporary praier who therefore were left free to use their gifts both in their Families and before and after their Sermons Nor to soothe up people in ignorance or so to accustome them to Forms that they should never endeavour by seeking more interest in God to receive more ability from him Nor did they appoint Holy dayes to be kept in obedience to any Popish Canon or in memory of Saints but upon civil reasons thereby to give people ease from their hard labours and to call them to the service of God in prayers and praising of him as sayes the Statute of 5 and 6 Ed. 6. c. 3. Neither hath this Church kept decent habits for her Ministry out of a desire to symbolize with Popelings but according to the wisedom of the first Reformation confirmed by the 30 th Injunction of Queen Elizabeth wherein habits for order and distinction sake were enjoyned Ministers in their Universities and Churches These I say though carped at by many were harmlesly setled and some think might usefully have been continued but they are disused now and how much purer our Religion hath been since they have been voted down let the world judg Nunc seges ubi Troja fuit Only if good pretentions were enough the Donatists had them as much as the Orthodox yet 't was observed justly of them that their designs were brought forth by passion nourished by ambition and confirmed by covetousness I will not say any thing of those who wheâ—â— they had place misplaced things well ordered let God plead his own cause Aliter hominum livor aliter Christus judicat non eadem est sententia tribunalis ejus anguli susurronum multae hominibus viae videntur justae quae postea reperiuntur pravae saith S t Jerom Let men of fury and passion rave as they list being as S t Gregory stileth them appositely Bellonae sacerdotes non Eccleâ—iae Martis faces tibicines non Evangelii lumina Cometae infausti pestis dira omnia non stellae salutares Christum pronunciantes yet my judgement shall be with Gods leave calm and moderate I will pray for a peaceable temper and till I know better conclude that councel concerning forms and order in the Church good which reverend Calvin wrote to the Protector forementioned Vt certa illa extet a qua pastoribus discâ—dere non liceat I crave leave of the Reader for this excursion which I thought necessary and I hope he will not condemn as offensive A plain ingenious freedom best befits me who am to act no part but that of a good Christian and therefore it shall be my constant resolve to rank flatterers as Erasmus did Eriers inter falsos fratres who the more holy they pretend to be are the more execrable for nihil turpius sanctis parasitis But I leave them to their proper Judge and make to the third head of Antiquities Piety which consists In care to countenance truth and censure errors And here is good reason for this if we consider the nature of truth which makes the soul free not only in professing but also in not fearing what may be the consequence of boldly owning it which armed the Martyrs with invincible courage and made them more then conquerours over their fears and persecutors There is also much to be said for care to prevent growth of error even from the nature of error which in the words of Constantine the Great makes those in whom it raigns enemies to truth promoters of dissention and often of assassination counsellours to every thing contrary to truth favourers of dangerous and fabulous evils In a word being under a shew of piety great offenders and contagious to all that border on them The good Emperour by sad experience knew what shifts and deluding courses the Arians took to bring to pass their designs therefore laid he load of reproach on them And that not without cause for first they conveyed their poison under gilded pills and in not to be understood expressions and to such a clymax of vanity ascended they that they would allow none of the ancient Fathers to be compared to them but applaâ—ded themselves to be the only knowing men the only men of self-deniall the only men to whem Jesus Christ was revealed and to whom such mysteries were made known as never came into the thought or under the experience of any men before them that as Mahomet made use of an Epilepticall distemper in which to arrogate to himself divine authority so did these of an over self-conceit and pride of soul to be the only illuminates of their time Nay when Arius was called to account for his errors he averred he had rejected them and denied those to be his belief or doctrine swearing that he beleeved as did the Orthodox in the Nicene Counsell yet for all this holy Macarius made it his prayer to God to take Arius out of the Church least errors and heresies spawned too much for truth to overcome or outlustre them And good man it fell out as he feared for though the good Emperour took away from them their meeting places and commanded their return to the Church though they were condemned and banished
of God and he that resists shall receive to himself damnation This O Princes and Rulers was the honour of ancient Christianity that it subjects to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake that is If it cannot lift up the hand to assert it will lay down the neck to suffer If it say not Go up and prosper as it cannot to a bad cause because it dare not disobey God in calling evil good yet it will pray that God would overrule mens designs and out of them modell his own glory For as Tertul. said well long ago God forbid those should contrive their advancement by force whose glory it ought to be to suffer and thence to have the testimony of their fidelity For Christians ought not to obey powers as those Heretiques called Sataniani did the devil Ne noceant but out of conscience because Power is of God and Conscience is Gods Deputy to keep man from misrule Thus much briefly for the piety of elder times in order to God Now somewhat of their Charity in order to themselves and others First Elder Christians abounded in love one to another Our Lord gave the rule Joh. 13. 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another Time was when it passed Proverbially Ecce quam diligunt Christiani When S t Cyprian was led to Martyrdom the whole people ran with him crying Let us die together with the holy Bishop And when Christians were sick though of diseases infectious yet Christians would go to them and tend them though they died with them A Christian must not be waspish the nettle of humour that harms every one that toucheth it is a weed in Christs garden but all Love even to Enemies for his sake who loved us when Enemies so much and no more know and beleeve we of God as we love him for his own and our Neighbour for his sake Let men talk as they will yet if they have a spirit of opposition and cannot walk peaceably with their brother yea and in a great measure with those without I shall not think their condition ever the better If their principle be to be singular and unsociable Vae soli for as the Father hath it Cum Deo manere non possunt qui esse in Ecclesia Dei unanimes noluerunt ardeant licet flammis ignibus traditi vel objecti bestiis animas suas ponunt non erat illa fidei corona sed poena perfidiae nec religiosae virtutis exitus gloriosus sed desperationis interitus Occidi talis potest coronari non potest There is nothing more reproachful to man then disunion we are all Natures progeny and we should not strive to the distemper of the womb that nourisheth us to production the sociable soul that God hath infused into us seems our Director that we should agree to serve our Creator yea and one another in all reasonable Offices of Civility We see the Harmonij in nature and that the drift of every thing is to accomodate the end of God in the inferiority and superiority of things there is no mutinies amongst the Creatures sensitive and vegetative The Supream Lawgiver hath implanted his Soveraign will on the instinct of every creature and it acts as and no otherwise then according to that limitation and designment Only Rationall being are frayers and breakers of the Peace 'T was an ill spirit in a Brother to imbrew even in the beginning of time and penury of men his hands in his Brothers bloud yet Cain did this but he had a Mark of Vengeance set upon him for it And 't was fit he should be branded for a Butcher who had no provocation but piety no person but a brother to act his murtherous villany upon How much more divine was the soul of Abraham who would have no contention with Lot for quoth he we are Brethren who put himself upon a holy colluctation with God for sinful Sodom and would not be denied till Mercy had put importunity to blush S t Bernard Ep. 6. writes to Bruno to deal with certain Monks who had deserted their order and he prescribes the Method Flectere oportet precibus ratione convincere columbinam eorum simplicitatem prudentiâ instruere serpentinâ ne putent obedientiam inobedienti adhaerere c. Yet alas we are at but a word and a blow we make men offendors for words for a trifle a misplaced phrase a mistaken sence a petulant carriage cursing one another as Jews and Samaritans did Morning and Evening in their Orisons The judicious S t Edw. Sandys notes That do the Psaltsgrave and Lantgrave whatever they could by inhibiting the Lutherans to rail against the Calvinists yet would they not be restrained but professed openly That they would sooner return to the Papacy then admit Sacramentary and Predestinary Pestilence meaning the Calvinist So in the conference of Mompelgart when Frederick Earl of Wertonburg exhorted nis Divines to acknowledge Beza and his Company for Brethren and ro declare it by giving them their hand they refused it utterly saying they would pray to God to open their eyes and would do them any office of humanity and charity but they would not give them the right hand of Brotherhood because they were proved to be guilty Errorum teterrinâ—orum that was the doctrine of Election and Reprobation A blemish which ancient Christianity knew not nay which the Protestant Religion is now much reproached for I wish we were not so ambitious to be more wise and Learned in Arts of reviling then our Forefathers were and if there must be a triall of wits would to God the subject and matter of it may be somewhat else then the life and honour of peace and Christian charity For in most Church-contentions it hath fallen out that one errour opposed hath brought up as great an one even from the opposition I know not what many think of contention and brawls but S t Paul cals it a fruit of the flesh and makes it exclusive of heaven and S t John saies He that loves not his brother whom he hath seen cannot love God whom he hath not seen In pure times Christians reckoned their love to Christ by their love to his members whom they relieved as that excellent Bishop Chrysanthius did out of his own estate and by their sound knowledge and skill in the things of God accompanied with justice modesty patience under the hardest Trials and advancing his glory as they had opportunity to do it they evidenced their love to God and to their Brethren for his sake This was the aemulation those holy men had to glorifie God by holy lives that those that saw them might be ashamed of their contradiction and persecution of them Primitive Bishops were simple-hearted not crafty and insighted in worldly policies but abounding in the work of the Lord rich in faith and Scripture-knowledge ready to
Interest as did the true Mother 1 King 3. 27. then have the Church divided Let Astrologers not knowing the true cause of the Coelestiall motions to salve the appearances tell us of Eccentriques and Epicicles and Philosophers when they are at a stand pray aid from their occulta qualitas and Lawyers when they know not well how to give things a bottom tell us they are in abaiance and some late Divines fill our heads with dreams of the Churches outward pomp here That the Saints must be the great men of the world and must trample down every thing of Order and Antiquity Let them tell us of new Heavens and new Earths whereinto are received such as the old never willingly bore for Lucifer was cast from Heaven for pride and Corah and his company were swallowed up by the earth for mutiny against Magistracy and let them bespeak mansions in that Novus Orbis let them be Masters of rule in the world in the Sunne and precious men in the Moon of their fancies and there promise themselves coelestial clarity I shall neither envy nor admire them the more but fear them as such as Salvian speaks of Apud nonnullos Christi nomen non videatur jam sacramentum esse sed sermo and I shall pray that they may see their wandrings in time and as the Father sayes well secundas tabulas habere modestiae qui primas non habere sapientiae For let them cry out never so bitterly against regulations and orderly forms and establishments yet they will hold tack when their Tabernacles of ill-mixed altogethers dissolve and become vain For as a Learned Bishop of the Church hath lately observed If foundations which were in their own nature good should be destroyed for accessary abuses and for the faults of perticuler persons we should neither leave a Sunne in Heaven for that hath been adored by Prgans nor a spark of fire or any eminent creature upon earth for they have all been abused And since it is the will of God that heresies and offences must be let all good Christians patiently abide Gods triall by them For as wise master-builders out of the chaos of rubbish raise beautifull frames of structure so God out of the janglings of Christians by infinite and matchless wisedom compiles his glory Vtitur gentibus ad materiam operationis suae hereticis ad probationem fidei suae schismaticis ad stabilimentum doctrinae suae Judaeis ad comparationem pulchritudinis suae as S t Augustin pithily Let then the devout Christian not so much study policy as piety not more endeavour after power then peace let the Ministers of God rather seek to deny then gratifie themselvs in any thing that is worldly let the world alone to those whose portion it is they are greedy enough after it Aurelian would never take it for his glory to have the children sing it and salute him with an applause of his valour for slaâ—ing thousands of the Sarmatians Vnus homo mille mille mille decollavimus and adding mille mille mille vincit qui mille mille occidit tantùm vim habet nemo quantum fudit sanguinis If he were not wedded to the world and resolved that Power was his heaven God forbid holy souls should when they see preferment shun them and the world frown on them cry out as Eli's daughter in Law did 1 Sam. 4. 21. when the Ark was sursurpris'd My glory is departed the Ark of my safety and content is taken Let those delight in it and boast of it whose wisedom is carnall and opposite to God who venture the double Ducket of Aeternity against this single Penny of Earth which that French King would not when his brother counselled him with small forces to sally out of Towers upon the great Army of the Duke of Mayne Let politick Richlieu profess that his desire to be Cardinall Duke and Peer of France was but to shew the world what and how great his King and Master was since he the Cardinal how conspicuous soever was but a ray from the Kings Sunne and a rivulet from his Ocean yet God sees another motive in the heart then the tongue mentions no secret excludes the Sunne of Righteousness from view nor any shift the God of Truth from weighing the temper of spirits and discovering them to be what they are though with Balaam they shift from place to place and thing to thing to gain a subterfuge and opportunity of serving themselves most advantagiously yet at length God meets with them and when their glasses are runne which cannot be long that glory which maketh worthy men live for ever dieth with such and their memory of honour is enterred with them And though the most of men are convinced of the truth of this yet how greedily do such great spirits gullop down the world and with what eagerness do they profecute it by a dangerous hospitality which entertains Devils oftner then Angels What noble Paradoes doth self-love make forcing Religion to be Chaplain to bless their banquets of Ambition unto which they invite all their admirers and to warrant which they have such musters of Scriptures though misapplied and misunderstood that they look like the Archangel Michael and his forces advancing to discomfort as it were the Devil and his Angels of contrarients diffidence we know who said Behold my zeal for the Lord of Heasts 2 King 10. 16. yet ver 18. 31. his zeal was murther and idolatry Am I come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it the Lord said to me go up against this Land and destroy it were the words of Rabshecah 2 King 18. 25. yet God in Chap. 19. ver 28. interprets this a rage and tumult against him and sayes he will put his hook in his nose and his bridle in his lips and turn him back by the way by which he came yea by an Angel destroy his hoast and defend Jerusalem as it is ver 34 35. I love not their Principles who make Religion usher to Lyon-like practises as doth the Spaniard in the Indies which they by force possesse and in which they have put to the sword and other butcherly torments millions it is thought both at Cuba Hayta Peru Panama Mexico and all under pretence of planting the Catholick faith and placing Christians in the room of Infidels such courses may thrive for a while but in the end God will pluck up those poysonous roots for medicine to others that they may hear and fear and do no more presumptuously I cannot blame Heathens who know and hope for no other Heaven but that of temporall felicity and worldly greatness to aym at it I wonder not at Mahomet the second the first Turkish Emperour whom story tells us to be of no Religion but a meer Atheist worshipping no other God but good-fortune thinking all things lawfull that agreed with his lust and keeping no league promise or oath longer then stood with his