and consent unto and confess the truth of them Which way of manifesting his will unto many other gracious priviledges which it had above that which in after ages came in place of it had this added that it brought with it unto the man to whom it was made a preservation against all doubt and hesitancy a full assurance both who the author was and how far his intent and meaning reacht We that are their ofspring ought as St. Chrysostome tell us so to have demeand our selves that it might have been with us as it was with them that we might have had no need of writing no other teacher but the spirit no other books but our hearts no other means to have been taught the things of God Nisi inspirationis divinae internam suaviorémque doctrinam ubi sine sonis sermonum sine elementis literarum eo dulciùs quo secretiùs veritas loquitur as saith Fulgentius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Isidorus Pelusiota for it is a great argument of our shame and imperfection that the holy things are written in books For as God in anger tells the Jews that he himself would not go before them asâ—â— hitherto he had done to conduct them into the promised land but would leave his Angel with them as his deputy so hath he dealt with us the unhappy posterity degenerated from the antient purity of our forefathers When himself refused to speak unto our hearts because of the hardness of them he then began to put his laws in writing Which thing for a long time amongst his own people seems not to have brought with it any sensible inconvenience For amongst all those acts of the Jews which God in his book hath registred for our instruction there is not one concerning any pretended ambiguitie or obscurity of the Text and Letter of their Law which might draw them into faction and schisme the Devil belike having other sufficient advantages on which he wrought But ever since the Gospel was committed to writing what age what monument of the Churches acts is not full of debate and strife concerning the force and meaning of those writings which the holy Ghost hath left us to be the law and rule of faith St. Paul one of the first penmen of the Holy Ghost who in Paradise heard words which it was not lawful for man to utter hath left us words in writing which it is not safe for any man to be too busie to interpret No sooner had he laid down his pen almost ere the ink was dry were there found Syllabarum aucupes such as St. Ambrose spake of qui nescire aliquid erubescunt per occasionem obscuritatis tendunt laqueos deceptionis who thought there could be no greater disparagement unto them then to seem to be ignorant of any thing and under pretence of interpreting obscure places laid gins to entrap the uncautelous who taking advantage of the obscurity of St. Pauls text made the letter of the Gospel of life and peace the most-forcible instrument of mortal quarrel and contention The growth of which the Holy Ghost by the Ministery of St. Peter hath endeavoured to cut up in the bud and to strangle in the womb in this short admonition which but now hath sounded in your eares Which the unlearned c. In which words for our more orderly proceeding we will consider First the sin it self that is here reprehended wresting of Scripture where we will briefly consider what it is and what causes and motioners it findes in our corrupt understandings Secondly the persons guilty of this offence discipher'd unto us in two Epithets unlearned unstable Last of all the danger in the last words unto their own damnation And first of the sin it self together with some of the special causes of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They wrest They deal with Scripture as Chimicks deal with natural bodies torturing them to extract that out of them which God and nature never put in them Scripture is a rule which will not fit it self to the obliquity of our conceits but our perverse and crooked discourse must fit it self to the straightness of that rule A learned writer in the age of our fathers commenting upon Scripture spake most truly when he said that his Comments gave no light unto the text the text gave light unto his Comments Other expositions may give rules and directions for understanding their authors but Scripture gives rules to exposition it self and interprets the interpreter Wherefore when we made in Scripture non pro sententia divinarum Scripturarum as St. Austine speaks sed pro nostra ita dimicantes ut tan velimus Scripturarum esse quae nostra est When we strive to give unto it and not to receive from it the sense when we factiously contend to fasten our conceits upon God and like the Harlot in the book of Kings take our dead and putrified fancies and lay them in the bosome of Scripture as of a mother then are we guilty of this great sin of wresting of Scripture The nature of which will the better appear if we consider a little some of those motioners which drive us upon it One very potent and strong mean is the exceeding affection and love unto our own opinions and conceits For grown we are unro extremities on both hands we cannot with patience either admit of other mens opinions or endure that our own should be withstood As it was in the Lacedaemonian army almost all were Captains so in these disputes all will be leaders and we take our selves to be much discountenanced if others think not as we do So that the complaint which one makes concerning the dissention of Physicians about the diseases of our bodies is true likewise in these disputes which concern the cure of our souls hincillae circa aegros miserae sententiarum concertationes nullo idem censente ne videatur accessio alterius From hence have sprong those miserable contentions about the distemper of our souls singularity alone and that we will not seem to stand as cyphers to make up the summe of other mens opinions being cause enough to make us disagree A fault anciently amongst the Christians so apparant that it needed not an Apostolical spirit to discover it the very heathen themselves to our shame and confusion have justly judiciously and sharply taxt us for it Ammianus Marcellinus passing his censure upon Constantius the Emperour Christianam religionem absolutam simplicem saith he and they are words very well worth your marking Christianam religionem absolutam simplicem anili superstitione confudit In qua scrutanda perplexiùs quà m componenda gratiùs excitavit dissidia pluriâ—â—a quae progressa fusiùs aluit concertatione verborum dum ritum omnem ad suum trahere conatur arbitrium The Christian religion a religion of great simplicity and perfection he troubled with dotage and superstition For going about rather perplexedly to search the
is that which here with our blessed Apostle I am to reprehend Learning in general is nothing else but the competent skill of any man in whatsoever he professes Usually we call by this name onely our polite and Academical studies but indeed it is common to every one that is well skild well practised in his own mystery The unlearned therefore whom here our Apostle rebukes is not he that hath not read a multiplicity of Authors or that is not as Moses was skilful in all the learning of the AEgyptians but he that taking upon him to divide the word of God is yet but raw and unexperienced or if he have had experience wants judgment to make use of it Scripture is never so unhappy as when it falls into these mens fingers That which old Caâ—â—o said of the Grecian Physicians quandocunque ista gens literas suas dabit omnia corrumpet is most true of these men whensoever they shall begin to tamper with Scripture and vent in writing their raw conceits they will corrupt and defile all they touch Quid enim molestiae tristitiaeque temerarii isti praesumptores c. as S. Austine complaineth for what trouble and anguish these rash presumers saith he bring unto the discreeter sort of the brethren cannot sufficiently be exprest when being convinced of their rotten and ungrounded opinions for the maintaining of that which with great levity and open falshood they have averd they pretend the authority of these sacred books and repeat much of them even by heart as bearing witness to what they hold whereas indeed they do but pronounce the words but understand not either what they speak or of what things they do affirm Belike as he that bought Orpheus Harp thought it would of it self make admirable melody how unskilfully soever he toucht it so these men suppose that Scripture will found wonderful musically if they do but strike it with how great infelicity or incongruity soever it be The reason of these mens offence against Scripture is the same with the cause of their miscarriage in civil actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Thucydiâ—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rude men men of little experience are commonly most peremptory but men experienced and such as have Waded in business are slow of determination Quintilian making a question why unlearned men seem many times to be more copious then the learned for commonly such men never want matter of discourse answers that it is because whatsoever conceit comes into their heads without care or choice they broach it cum doctis sit electio modus whereas learned men are choice in their invention and lay by much of that which offers it self Wise hearted men in whom the Lord hath put wisdom and understanding to know how to work all manner of work for the service of the sanctuary like Bezaleel and Aholiab refuse much of the stuff which is presented them But this kinde of men whom here our Apostle notes are naturally men of bold and daring spirits quicquid dixerint hoc legem Dei putant as Saint Jerome speaks whatsoever conceit is begotten in their heads the spirit of God is presently the father of it Nee scire dignantur quid Prophetae quid Apostoli senserint sed ad suum sensum incongrua aptant testimonia But to leave these men and to speak a little more home unto mine own auditory Let us a little consider not the weakness of these men but the greatness of the business the manage of which they undertake So great a thing as the skill of exposition of the word and Gospel is so fraught with multiplicity of Authors so full of variety of opinion must needs be confest to be a matter of great learning and that it cannot especially in our days in short time with a mediocrity of industry be attained For if in the Apostles times when as yet much of Scripture was scarsly written when God wrought with men miraculously to inform their understanding and supplied by revelation what mans industry could not yield if I say in these times St. Paul required diligent reading and expresly forbad greenness of schollarship much more then are these conditions required in our times wherein God doth not supply by miracle our natural defects and yet the burden of our profession is infinitely increast All that was necessary in the Apostles times is now necessary and much more For if we adde unto the growth of Christian learning as it was in the Apostles times but this one circumstance to say nothing of all the rest which naturally befals our times and could not be required at the hands of those who guided the first ages of the Church that is the knowledge of the state and succession of doctrine in the Church from time to time a thing very necessary for the determining the controversies of these our days how great a portion of our labour and industry would this alone require Wherefore if Quintilian thought it necessary to admonish young men that they should not presume themselves satis instructos si quem ex iis qui breves circumferuntur artis libellum edidicerint velut decretis technicorum tutos putent if he thought fit thus to do in an art of so inferiour and narrow a sphere much more is it behooveful that young students in so high so spacious so large a profession be advised nor to think themselves sufficiently provided upon their acquaintance with some Notitia or Systeme of some technical divine Look upon those sons of Anak those Giant-like voluminous writers of Rome in regard of whom our little tractats and pocket volumes in this kinde what are they but as Grashoppers I speak not this like some seditious or factious spie to bring weakness of hands or melting of heart upon any of Gods people but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stir up and kindle in you the spirit of industry to inlarge your conceits and not to suffer your labours to be copst and mued up within the poverty of some pretended method I will speak as Joshua did to his people Let us not fear the people of that land they are as meat unto us their shadow is departed from them the Lord is with us fear them not Only let us not think sedendo votis debellari posse that the conquest will be gotten by sitting still and wishing all were well or that the walls of these strong Cities will fall down if we only walk about them and blow rams horns But as the voice of Gods people sometime was by the sword of God and of Gideon so that which here gives the victory must be the grace of God and our industry For by this circumcised narrow and penurious form of study we shall be no more able to keep pace with them then a childe can with Hercules but I forbear and pass away unto the second epithet by which these rackers of Scriptures are by St. Peter stiled Vastable IN the
the Philistines could ever fasten upon or drive to any inconvenience one lustful thought forced to Adultery and Murder one proud conceit stirred up to number the people and drew from God great inconveniences and plagues both upon himself and his Kingdom How careful then ought we to be and to stand on our guard and keep a perpetual watch over our hearts diligently to try and examine our thoughts Nunquam securo triumphantur otio sed tantum sollicito premuntur imperio August Nor while we live shall we be able perfectly to master or securely to triumph over them the only way to suppress and keep them down is to have a perpetual and careful jealousie of them Now of this Religious care and watchfulness over our own thoughts hath the Holy Ghost recorded for our use a notable example in these words which but now I read And it came to passe c. To relate unto you at large the occasion of these words and the story from whence they depend were but to wrong you for I cannot think so meanly of your knowledg in Scripture as that any of you can be ignorant of so famous a passage Yet thus much for the better opening of my way unto such doctrines as I shall draw from this Text I will call back unto your memories that Saul hunting after David to kill him unwittingly stept into a Cave where David was David having now his enemy in his hand and opportunity to revenge himself le ts slip all thought of revenging and only cuts off privily the lap of his Garment For this deed so harmless so innocent the Scripture tells us that his heart smote him that he suffered great anguish and remorse in Conscience for it That which I will require you to note is the tenderness of Conscience and strange scrupulousness in David for so small an action for it will yield us a great Lesson I say it appeareth not by Scripture that David intended any mischief or treason to Saul or that he harbour'd in heart any disloyal thought against him This purpose of cutting off the lap of Sauls garment was no other then to purchase to himself a harmless and honourable testimony of his Innocency and to prove unto Saul that there was no likelihood that he sought his blood whom he spared having him at so great an advantage Yet notwithstanding as if the rending of Sauls garment had been the wounding of Sauls body or the shedding of his blood David stands amazed and is affrighted at so honourable so innocent a thought His heart smote him saith the Scripture As men that have been at sea and indanger'd through the raging of windes and tempests and floods when afterward the weather is cleared up the windes allayed the seasmoothed and all calm yet scarcely dare they set sail again and trust to so uncertain so fickle an Element so seems it to have fared with David in this place He was a man subject to the same passions with other men and doubtless through the raging of unruly and misorderly affections he had many times been in danger of spiritual shipwrack wherefore licet in morem stagni fusum aequor arrideat and though now he could discover no tempest in his heart though the face of his thoughts were as smooth as glass yet when he looks upon such fair and calm affections his heart misgives him and he dares not trust them magnos hic campus montes habet tranquilitas ista tempestas est The care he hath over his own heart fills him with suspitions and still he thinks something he knows not what may be amiss But I must come unto the words And it came to pass afterwards c. In these words we will consider these three things 1. The Person David And Davids heart smote him 2. Davids Sollicitousness his care and jealousy very significantly expressed in the next words His heart smote him 3. The cause of this his care and anxiety of minde in the last words Because he had cut off Sauls skirt In the first point that is in the Person we may consider his greatness he was a King in expectation and already anoynted A circumstance by so much the more considerable because that greatness is commonly taken to be a Priviledge to sin to be over carefull and conscientious of our courses and actions are accounted virtues for private Persons Kings have greater businesses then to examine every thought that comes into their hearts Pater meus obliviscitur se esse Caesarem ego vero memini me Caesaris filiam It is the answer of Julia Augustus the Emperour's daughter when she was taxed for her too wanton and licentious living and counsel'd to conform herself to the Sobriety and Gravity of her Father My Father saith she forgets himself to be Caesar the Emperour but I remember myself to be Caesars daughter It was the speech of Enxius the Poet Plebs in hoc Regi antestâ—â— loco licet lachrimari plebi Regi honeste non licet Private men in this have a priviledge above Princes but thus to do becomes not Princes and if at any time these sad and heavy hearted thoughts do supprize them they shall never want comforters to dispell them When Ahab was for sullnness fallen down upon his bed because Naboth would not yield him his Vineyard Jezabell is presently at hand and asks him Art thou this day King of Israel When Ammon pined away in the incestuous love of his Sister Thamar Jonadab his companion comes unto him and asks why is the Kings Son sad every day so that as it seems great Persons can never be much or long sad Yet David forgets his greatness forgets his many occasions gives no ear to his companions about him but gives himself over to a scrupulous and serious consideration of an Action in shew and countenance but light Secondly as the Person is great so is the care and remorse conceived upon the Consideration of his action exceeding great which is our Second part And therefore the Holy Ghost expresses it in very significant termes His heart smote him a phrase in scripture used by the Holy Ghost when men begin to be sensible and repent them of some sin When David had commited that great sin of numbring the people and began to be apprehensive of it the Scripture tells us that Davids heart smote him when he had commanded Jeab to number the People Wherefore by this smiting we may not here understand some light touch of Conscience like a grain of powder presently kindled and presently gone for the most hard and flinty hearts many times yield such sparks as these He that is most flesht in sin commits it not without some remorse for sin evermore leaves some scruple some sting some lothsomness in the hearts of those that are most inamour'd of it But as Simeon tells the blessed Virgin in St. Lukes Gospell Gladius pertransihit animam tuam a sword shall peirce through thine heart so it seems to have
RESURGAM GOLDEN REMAINS of the ever Memorable Mr. Iohn Hales of Eton College c. LONDON Printed for Tim Garthwait at the Little North doore of St. Paules 1659 Reason Revelation CONTROVERSERS of the Times Like Spirits in the Mineralls with all their labor nothing is don My very Good Lord MY business is now effected by your L. care to my contentment since the first day of my coming to Dort they have made me an allowance equal with our English Divines which is 20 Florens a day a less allowance might very well have served me if I had not been joyned with them but being joyned it was not fit that for matter of maintenance I should be in their debts I am exceedingly beholden to Mr. Musius his kindness not only upon this but upon all occasions It doth proceed I suppose from your L. to whom as I must ever stand bound for the return of perpetual thanks and service so I would be a suiter to your L. that your L. would be pleased to give Mr. Musius thanks for his kindness For our Synod business as we went too slow before so now they would have us go too fast they would have us to dispatch one article a week which is too little time for so weighty questions But I hope they shall be done to some purpose with the remembrance of my faithfullest duty and service to your L. and your worthy Lady and my best wishes for both your health and happiness I take my leave and rest Dordretch this 2d of February Stylo Novo Your L. in all true respects of service Walter Balcanqual My very Good Lord SInce Mr. Hales his going here hath been nothing done in the Synod of any note on the seventh of February now still was held the 76â—â— Session in which nothing was done but that they which before had not spoken in the second article did speak what they thought fit there was nothing of note spoken save that one of the Transisulani took it evil that we took the Remonstrants meaning in their opinions where they spake best and soundest but he would have their meaning to be gathered out of all places in their Books where they speak most absurdly which we thought was very far besides the rule of charity so in that Session the Synodical diquisition for the second article was ended The President told us moreover that the Delegats had sent to the Remonstrants and had demanded of them if they had any thing in writ which might serve for the explication of their opinion concerning the five articles and that they had given to them their confirmation of their opinion concerning the first article as likeways a confutation of that which they held for the Heterodox opinion and a beginning of their explication of the second article now he shewed us the Book of which is good faith I was ashamed to think that men of judgement could imagine that the Synod could have time to peruse it for it is a little book of Martyrs it doth exceed two hundreth folia in folio moreover he told us that the Delegats had commanded them within 8. dayes to bring in all they would or could say as necessary for the understanding of their minde concerning the whole five articles On the 8. of February Stylo Novo was held the 77â—â— Session iâ—â— which was nothing done but that the President did dictate to us these drawn out of the Remonstrants writings concerning the 3. and 4. articles which I hold not expedient to send to your L. but if I shal understand that your L. do desire them I can easily send them It was appointed we should this morning send our Amanuenses to write out so much of the Remonstrants big Book as did concern the second article which we did and that again Monday we should consult what we should have done with the great volumn it self this day the President sent to our particular Colledge some particular strange points which he had drawn out of their late explication of the second article and in very pathetical terms did by his letter entreat us to have a care of condemning them in our judgement of the same article Concerning this second article I beseech your L. give me leave to express my grief as there is difference touching it in the Synod so there is much difference about it in our own Colledge will your L. be pleased to give me leave to say something of it it is fit your L. should take notice of it but no wayes as from me the question amongst us is whether the words of the Scripture which are likewise the words of our confession Christus oblatus est aut mortuus pro toto humano genere seu pro peccatis totius mundi be to be understood of all particular men or only of the elect who consist of all sorts of men Dr. Davenant and Dr. Ward are of Martinius of Breme his minde that it is to be understood of all particular men the other three take the other exposition which is of the writers of the reformed Churches and namely of my late Lord of Sarisbury both sides think they are right and therefore cannot yield one untoanother with a safe conscience It is my Lord a matter of great consequence for us to set down the exposition of one article of our Church confession will your L. therefore be pleased to think of this proposition since our judgement of none of the five articles is to be known till we have done with them all what if we should desire the President to take no notice but to let us go on to the rest of the articles and in mean time we should send into England the true state of our controversie and have advice there from some of the chief of the Church What exposition they would have to be given of that article of their confession which we may safely follow for it is no matter of salvation in which we differ before we have done with the rest of the articles we may easily have one answer from England if your L. like this motion or any other your L. should do well by your letters to us to desire it if not I beseech your L. pardon my error which proceedeth only from my fear of distraction among our selves and from my obedience to his Majesties charge who commanded me in all such cases to have recourse to your L. for counsel so with my best prayers to God for your L. health and happiness with the remembrance of my best service to your L. and your worthy Lady I take my leave and rest Dordretch this 9. of February Stylo Nouo Your L. in all true respect and service Walter Balcanqual My very Good Lord THough your L. Letters caused some anger here with the informer who was unknown to them yet believe it your L. hath done a work worthy of your Honour and such a one as if it had been left undone would when it could not have
been helped have made us all heartily wish that it had been done your L. Letters have taken the true effect which your L. in your advice intended we all acknowledge your L. counsel to be not only good but necessary and yet we are displeased your L. should be informed of the variance without which we must have been deprived of this your L. wholsome and necessary direction since my last Letters to your L. it is true that we agreed upon some propositions which are without question true but they were such as did no ways decide the question controverted in the Synod we retained the words of Scripture and our own confessions but all the difference is in the interpretation of these words When the Canons of the second article come to be made it will be determined whether Christ did really persolvere pretium redemptionis pro omnibus ac singulis hominibus an pro solis electis in the Synod then should we have differed in voices because I know your L. will write to my L. Grace I beseech your L. require a speedy answer in our Letters to my L. Grace we have but a little noted the difference which is like to be I have here in this paper sent to your L. the true state of the difference which will be concerning this proposition Christus obtulit se pro peccatis totius mundi I dare engage my credit with your L. that it is truly set down and more fully then in our Letters to my L. Grace your L. may take so much of it as you shall think fit and make his Grace acquainted with it and write that this is like to be the difference not in as your L. is informed our Colledge but in the Synod about the second article and therefore desire his Grace to send us some good counsel for our carriage in it for certainly most voices in the Synod will follow the receaved exposition of the reformed Doctors confirmed much by my late L. of Sarisbury his G. brother who was thought to understand the meaning of our confession as well as any man I doubt not but that your L. will crown your own work with following of it when your L. shall find the fruit of peace in the Synod among us procured by your L. your L. will finde great matter of joy arising from the conscience of this Christian counsel our controversie among our selves I must needs say was with much love and amitie no man desiring any thing to be put in our articles but that we should all approve of but so the question had never been decided I beseech your L. pardon this my libertie to your L. it is the love of peace and my respect to your L. Honour doth procure it Since my last to your L. there hath been three Sessionsâ—â— first the 78. Session held on the 2. February Novo Stylo in which Dr. Beckins one of the Helvetian Devines at the President his intreaty did publickly discusse the 7. arguments of the Remonstrants in Collat. Hag. whereby they prove Gratiam regenerationis esse resistibilem That being done al auditors were removed and it was inquired what order the Synod thought fittest to be taken with the Remonstrants huge volume the transcription whereof was impossible the President told us he had cast a general glance over it all and did finde that a few of the first leaves did contain a confirmation of their opinion of the first article but all the rest did contain nothing but a confutation of the contra R. opinion and an exagitation of their persons we desired some part of it to be read I must needs say the Remonstrants had no favour for I will assure your L. that the President picked out the worst part of it there were some five leaves read which contained nothing but a bitter Satyr against Calvin Beza Pareus Piscator Whittaker Perkins Bogorman Festus and twenty more but in truth though unhappily yet finely penned me thought it was Episcopius his tongue about the taking notice of this book the suffrages of the Synod did varie much yet most voices were that it should be committed to some Deputed by the Synod who should diligently peruse it and relate unto the Synod if they found any new thing in it which was not contained in their former writings but yet so that any member of the Synod that would might be present with the perusers The Delegats gave this mediatory sentence because they had observed that both the parts of it were desired by many they desired their might be a forenoon Session or two kept for the nonce in which that small part of the book which contained the confirmation of their opinion might be read and every man take with his pen what he should think fit the rest to be put over to perusers who should make relation to the Synod of any thing they found new or fit and therefore the Assessors and D. Damannus the Scribe were entreated to run over the book make choice of what things they thought fit to be read in the Synod which when they have done we shall hear more of it The president telleth us that the campenses Remonstrants who had been lately peremptorily cited to compeire before the Synod were not come but that they had sent three others in their place to plead their cause and that he had likewise received a supplication to the Synod from the Campenses contra-Remonst The Synod referred the hearing of the whole cause to deputies one out of every Colledge Sessio 79. 12. Feb. The Synodical disquisition concerning the third and fourth article began many Devines spake divers things the disquisition came down to D. Crocius of Breme and so the Synod was dimissed Sessio 82. 12. Feb. We went on in the Synodical disquisition of the third and fourth article where many men spake their opinions freely when it came to Sibrandus he spake at least an houre in his speech he took exceptions at some things that D. Martinius of Breme had spoken the day before especially that he had said God was causa physica conversionis he delivered some reasons against it and desired Martinius to give satisfaction to them and to instruct him in that which he knew not before Martinius answered for himself but between them both there were more words then sense for they made it a meer Phylosophical speculation like to keeping a phylosophie act much against the gravity of questions to be discussed in a Synod Martinius for the truth of his assertion appealed to Goclenius their present as being princeps philosophorum who were not wont to be appealed to in Synodical questions and Goclenius took the moderator his place bravely upon him told us that Themistius Averores Alexander Aphrodisaeus and many more were of Martinius his opinion and his opinion true in Philosophy but yet he would not have it to prescribe in Divinity Sibrandus fell upon Goclenius too so after many words lost on all sides
learning which the world teaches it were almost a miracle to finde a man constant to his own tenents For not to doubt in things in which we are conversant is either by reason of excellency and serenity of understanding throughly apprehending the main principles on which all things are grounded together with the discrying of the several passages from them unto particular conclusions and the diverticles and blind by-paths which Sophistry and deceit are wont to tread and such a man can nature never yield or else it is through a senseless stupidity like unto that in the common sort of men who conversing among the creatures and beholding the course of heaven and the heavenly host yet never attend them neither ever sinks it into their heads to marvel or question these things so full of doubt and difficulty Even such a one is he that learns Theology in the School of nature if he seem to participate of any setledness or composedness of conscience Either it never comes into his head to doubt of any of those things with which the world hath inured him or if it doth it is to no great purpose he may smother and strangle he can never resolve his doubt The reason of which is this It lies not in the worlds power to give in this case a text of sufficient authority to compose and fix the thoughts of a soul that is dispos'd to doubt But this great inconvenience which held the world in uncertainty by the providence of God is prevented in the Church For unto it is left a certain undoubted and sufficient authority able to exalt every valley and lay low every hill to smooth all rubs and make our way so open and passable that little enquiry serves So that as it were a wonder in the school of nature to finde one setled and resolved so might it seem a marvel that in the Church any man is unstable unresolved Yet notwithstanding even here is the unstable man found too and to his charge the Apostle lays this sin of wresting of Scripture For since that it is confest at all hands that the sense and meaning of Scripture is the rule and ground of our Christian tenents whensoever we alter them we must needs give a new sense unto the word of God So that the man that is unstable in his religion can never be free from violating of Scripture The especial cause of this levity and flitting disposition in the common and ordinary sort of men is their disability to discern of the strength of such reasons as may be framed against them For which cause they usually start and many times falls away upon every objection that is made In which too sudden entertainment of objections they resemble the state of those who are lately recovered out of some long sickness qui et si reliquias effugerint suspicionibus tamen inquietantur omnem câ—â—lorem corporis sui calumniantur Who never more wrong themselves then by suspecting every alteration of their temper and being affrighted at every little passion of heat as if it were an ague-fit To bring these men therefore unto an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to purchase them a setledness of minde that temper that St. Austine doth require in him that reads his book tales meorum Scriptorem velim judices qui responsionem non semper desiderent quum his quae leguntur audierint aliquid contradici the same temper must be found in every reader of Scripture he must not be at a stand and require an answer to every objection that is made against them For as the Philosopher tells us that mad and fantastical men are very apprehensive of all outward accidents because their soul is inwardly empty and unfurnished of any thing of worth which might hold the inward attention of their mindes so when we are so easily dord and amated with every Sophisme it is a certain argument of great defect of inward furniture and worth which should as it were ballance the minde and keep it upright against all outward occurrents whatsoever And be it that many times the means to open such doubts be not at hand yet as S. Austine sometime spake unto his Scholler Licentius concerning such advice and counsel as he had given him Nolo te causas rationesque rimari quae etiamsi reddi possint sidei tamen qua mihi credis non eas debeo so much more must we thus resolve of those lessons which God teacheth us the reasons and grounds of them though they might be given yet it fits not that credit and trust which we owe him once to search into or call in question And so I come to the third general part the danger of wresting of Scripture in the last words unto their own damnation The reward of every sin is death As the worm eats out the heart of the plant that bred it so whatsoever is done amiss naturally works no other end but destruction of him that doth it As this is true in general so is it as true that when the Scripture doth precisely note out unto us some sin and threatens death unto it it is commonly an argument that there is more then ordinary that there is some especial sin which shall draw with it some especial punishment This sin of wresting of Scripture in the eye of some of the ancients seemed so ougly that they have ranged it in the same rank with the sin against the holy Ghost And therefore have they pronounced it a sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greater then can be pardoned For the most part of other sins are sins of infirmity or simplicity but this is a sin of wit and strength The man that doth it doth it with a high hand he knows and sees and resolves upon it Again Scripture is the voice of God and it is confest by all that the sense is Scripture rather then the words It cannot therefore be avoided but he that wilfully strives to fasten some sense of his own upon it other then the very nature of the place will bear must needs take upon him the Person of God and become a new inditer of Scripture and all that applaud and give consent unto any such in effect cry the same that the people did to Herod the voice of God and not of man If he then that abases the Princes coin deserves to die what is his desert that instead of the tried silver of Gods word stamps the name and Character of God upon Nehushtan upon base brazen stuff of his own Thirdly No Scripture is of private interpretation saith the Apostle There can therefore be but two certain and infallible interpreters of Scripture either it self or the holy Ghost the Author of it It self doth then expound it self when the words and circumstances do sound unto us the prime and natural and principal sense But when the place is obscure involved and intricate or when there is contained some secret and hidden mystery beyond
the prime sense infallibly to shew us this there can be no Interpreter but the holy Ghost that gave it Besides these two all other Interpretation is private Wherefore as the Lords of the Philistines sometimes said of the kine that drew the Ark unto Bethshemesh If they go of themselves then is this from God but if they go another way then is it not from God it is some chance that hath happened unto us so may it be said of all pretended sense of Scripture If Scripture come unto it of it self then is it of God but if it go another way or if it be violently urged and goaded on then is it but a matter of chance of mans wit and invention As for those marvellous discourses of some framed upon presumption of the spirits help in private in judging or Interpreting of difficult places of Scripture I must needs confess I have often wondred at the boldness of them The spirit is a thing of dark and secret operation the manner of it none can descry As underminers are never seen till they have wrought their purpose so the spirit is never perceived but by its effects The effects of the spirit as far as they concern knowledge and instruction are not particular Information for resolution in any doubtful case for this were plainly revelation but as the Angel which was sent unto Cornelius informs him not but sends him to Peter to School so the spirit teaches not but stirs up in us a desire to learn Desire to learn makes us thirst after the means and pious sedulity and carefulness makes us watchful in the choice and diligent in the use of our means The promise to the Apostles of the Spirit which should lead them into all truth was made good unto them by private and secret informing their understandings with the knowledge of high and heavenly mysteries which as yet had never entred into the conceit of any man The same promise is made to us but fulfilled after another manner For what was written by revelation in their hearts for our instruction have they written in their books To us for information otherwise then out of these books the spirit speaks not When the spirit regenerates a man it infuses no knowledge of any point of faith but sends him to the Church and to the Scriptures When it stirs him up to newness of life it exhibits not unto him an inventory of his sins as hitherto unknown but either supposes them known in the law of nature of which no man can be ignorant or sends him to learn them from the mouth of his teachers More then this in the ordinary proceeding of the holy spirit in matter of instruction I yet could never descrie So that to speak of the help of the spirit in private either in dijudicating or in interpreting of Scripture is to speak they know not what Which I do the rather note first because by experience we have learnt how apt men are to call their private conceits the spirit and again because it is the especial errour with which S. Austine long agoe charged this kinde of men tanto sunt ad seditionem faciliores quanto sibi videntur spiritu excellere by so much the more prone are they to kindle schisme and contention in the Church by how much they seem to themselves to be endued with a more eminent measure of spirit then their brethren whilst 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Basils speaks under preâ—â—ense of interpretation they violently broach their own conceits Great then is the danger in which they wade which take upon them this business of interpretation temeritas asserendae incertae dubiaeque opinionis saith St. Austine difficile sacrilegii crimen evitat the rashness of those that aver uncertain and doubtful interpretations for Catholick and absolute can hardly escape the sin of sacrilege But whereas our Apostle saith their own destruction is the destruction only their own This were well if it stretched no farther The ancients much complain of this offence as an hinderer of the salvation of others There were in the days of Istdorus Pelusiota some that gave out that all in the old Testament was spoken of Christ belike out of extream opposition to the Manichees who on the otherside taught that no text in the old Testament did foretel of Christ. That Father therefore dealing with some of that opinion tells them how great the danger of their tenent is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for if saith he we strive with violence to draw and apply those texts to Christ which apparantly pertain not to him we shall gain nothing but this to make all the places that are spoken of him suspected and so discredit the strength of other testimonies which the Church usually urges for the refutation of the Jews For in these cases a wrested proof is like unto a suborn'd witness It never doth help so much whilest it is presumed to be strong as it doth hurt when it is discovered to be weak S. Austine in his books de Genesi ad litteram sharply reproves some Christians who out of some places of Scripture misunderstood fram'd unto themselves a kinde of knowledge in Astronomy and Physiology quite contrary unto some part of heathen learning in this kinde which were true and evident unto sense A man would think that this were but a small errour and yet he doubts not to call it turpenimis perniciosum maximè cavendum His reason warrants the roundness of his reproof For he charges such to have been a scandal unto the word and hinderers of the conversion of some heathen men that were schollars For how saith he shall they believe our books of Scripture perswading the resurrection of the dead the kingdome of heaven and the rest of the mysteries of our profession if they finde them faulty in these things of which themselves have undeniable demonstration Yea though the cause we maintain be never so good yet the issue of diseas'd and crazie proofs brought to maintain it must needs be the same For unto all causes be they never so good weakness of proof when it is discovered brings great prejudice but unto the cause of religion most of all St. Austine observ'd that there were some qui cum de aliquibus qui sanctum nomen profitentur aliquid criminis vel falsi sonuerit vel veri patuerit instant satagunt ambiunt ut de omnibus hoc credatur It fares no otherwise with religion it self then it doth with the professors of it Diverse malignants there are who lie in wait to espie where our reasons on which we build are weak and having deprehended it in some will earnestly solicit the world to believe that all are so if means were made to bring it to light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen speaks using for advantage against us no strength of their own but the vice and imbecillity of our defence The book of the Revelation is a book full of wonder
and mystery the ancients seem to have made a religion to meddle with it and thought it much better to admire it with silence then to adventure to expound it and therefore amongst their labours in exposition of Scripture scarsly is there any one found that hath toucht it But our age hath taken better heart and scarsly any one is there who hath entertained a good conceit of his own abilities but he hath taken that book as a fit argument to spend his pains on That the Church of Rome hath great cause to suspect her self to fear least she have a great part in the prophesies of that book I think the most partial will not deny Yet unto the expositors of it I will give this advice that they look that that befal not them which Thucidides observes to befal the common sort of men who though they have good means to acquit themselves like men yet when they think their best hopes fail them and begin to despair of their strength comfort themselves with interpretations of certain dark and obscure prophesies Many plain texts of Scripture are very pregnant and of sufficient strength to overthrow the points maintained by that Church against us If we leave these ground our selves upon our private expositions of this book we shall justly seem in the poverty of better proofs to rest our selves upon those prophesies which though in themselves they are most certain yet our expositions of them must except God give yet further light unto his Church necessarily be mixt with much uncertainty as being at the best but unprobable conjectures of our own Scarsly can there be found a thing more harmful to religion then to vent thus our own conceits and obtrude them upon the world for necessary and absolute The Physicians skill as I conceive of it stands as much on opinion as any that I know whatsoever Yet their greatest master Hippocrates tells them directly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Then the Physicians presumption upon opinion there is not one thing that brings either more blame to himself or danger to his patient If it be thus in an art which opinion taken away must needs fall how little room then must opinion have in that knowledge where nothing can have place but what is of eternal truth Where if once we admit of opinion all is overthrown But I conclude this point adding only this general admonition that we be not too peremptory in our positions where express text of Scripture fails us that we lay not our own collections and conclusions with too much precipitancy For experience hath shewed us that the error and weakness of them being afterwards discovered brings great disadvantage to Christianity and trouble to the Church The Eastern Church before S. Basils time had entertained generally a conceit that that those Greek Particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the rest were so divided among the Trinity that each of the Persons had his Particle which was no way appliable to the rest S. Basil having discovered this to be but a niceness and needless curiosity beginning to teach so raised in the Church such a tumult that he brought upon himself a great labour of writing many tracts in Apology for himself with much ado ere matters could again be setled The fault of this was not in Basil who Religiously fearing what by way of consequence might ensue upon an error taught a truth but in the Church who formerly had with too much facility admitted a conclusion so justly subject to exception And let this suffice for our third part Now because it is apparant that the end of this our Apostles admonition is to give the Church a caveat how she behave her self in handling of Scripture give me leave a little instead of the use of such doctrines as I have formerly laid down to shew you as far as my conceit can stretch what course any man may take to save himself from offering violence unto Scripture and reasonably settle himself any pretended obscurity of the text whatsoever notwithstanding For which purpose the diligent observing of two rules shall be throughly available First The literal plain and uncontroversable meaning of Scripture without any addition or supply by way of interpretation is that alone which for ground of faith we are necessarily bound to accept except it be there where the holy Ghost himself treads us out another way I take not this to be any peculiar conceit of mine but that unto which our Church stands necessarily bound When we receded from the Church of Rome one motive was because she added unto Scripture her glosses as Canonical to supply what the plain text of Scripture could not yield If in place of hers we set up our own glosses thus to do were nothing else but to pull down Baal and set up an Ephod to run round and meet the Church of Rome again in the same point in which at first we left her But the plain evident and demonstrative ground of this rule is this That authority which doth warrant our faith unto us must every way be free from all possibility of errour For let us but once admit of this that there is any possibility that any one point of faith should not be true if it be once granted that I may be deceived in what I have believed how can I be assur'd that in the end I shall not be deceived If the author of faith may alter or if the evidence and assurance that he hath left us be not pregnant and impossible to be defeated there is necessarily opened an inlet to doubtfulness and wavering which the nature of faith excludes That faith therefore may stand unshaken two things are of necessity to concur First that the Author of it be such a one as can by no means be deceived and this can be none but God Secondly that the words and text of this Author upon whom we ground must admit of no ambiguity no uncertainty of interpretation If the trumpet give an uncertain sound who shall provide himself to battle If the words admit a double sense and I follow one who can assure me that that which I follow is the truth For infallibility either in judgement or interpretation or whatsoever is annext neither to the See of any Bishop nor to the Fathers nor to the Councels nor to the Church nor to any created power whatsoever This doctrine of the literal sense was never greivous or prejudicial to any but onely to those who were inwardly conscious that their positions were not sufficiently grounded When Cardinal Cajetan in the days of our grandfathers had forsaken that vein of postilling and allegorising on Scripture which for a long time had prevailed in the Church and betaken himself unto the literal sense it was a thing so distastful unto the Church of Rome that he was forc'd to find out many shifts and make many apologies for himself The truth is as it will appear to him that reads his
grievousness greatness of this sin of bloodshed and partly to give the best counsel I can for the restraint of those conceits and errors which give way unto it I have made choice of these few words out of the Old Testament which but now I read In the New Testament there is no precept given concerning bloodshed The Apostles seem not to have thought that Christians ever should have had need of such a prohibition For what needed to forbid those to seek each others blood who are not permitted to speak over hastily one to another when therefore I had resolved with my self to speak something concerning the sin of bloodshed I was in a manner constrain'd to reflect upon the Old Testament and make choice of those words And the Land cannot be purged of blood that is shed in it but by the blood of him that shed it In which words for my more orderly proceeding I will observe these two general parts First the greatness of the sin Secondly the means to cleanse and satisfie for the guilt of it The first that is the greatness of the sin is expressed by two circumstances First by the generality extent and largness of the guilt of it and secondly by the difficulty of cleansing it The largness and compass of the guilt of this sin is noted out unto us in the word Land and the Land cannot be purged It is true in some sense of all sins Nemo sibi uni errat no man sins in private and to himself alone For as the Scripture notes of that action of Jepthte when he vowed his daughter unto God That it became a Custome in Israel so is it in all sins The error is only in one person but the example spreads far wide and thus every man that sins sins against the whole Land yea against the whole world For who can tell how far the example and infection of an evil action doth spread In other sins the infection is no larger then the disease but this sin like a plague one brings the infection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but thousands die for it yet this sin of bloud diffuses and spreads it self above all other sins For in other sins noxa sequitur caput The guilt of them is confined to the person that committed them God himself hath pronounced of them The Son shalt not bear the sins of the Father the soul that sinneth shall die the death But the sin of blood seems to claim an exception from this Law If by time iâ—â— be not purged like the frogs of Egypt the whole land stank of them It leaves a guilt upon the whole land in which it is committed Other sins come in like rivers and break their banks to the prejudice and wrong of private persons but this comes in like a Sea raging and threatning to overwhelm whole countreys If blood in any land do lie unrevenged every particular soul hath cause to fear least part of the penalty fall on him We read in the books of Kings that long after Sauls death God plagued the Land of Jewry with three years famine because Saul in his life time had without any just cause shed the blood of some of the Gibeonites neither the famine ceased till seaven of Sauls Nephews had died for it In this story there are many things rare and worth our observation First the Generality and extent of the guilt of Blood-shed which is the cause for which I urged it it drew a general famine on the whole Land Secondly the continuance and length of the punishment It lasted full three years and better Thirdly the time of the plague it fell long after the person offending was dead Fourthly whereas it is said in my Text. That blood is cleansed by the blood of him that shed it here the blood of him that did this sin sufficed not to purge the Land from it That desperate and woful end that besel both Saul and his Sons in that last and fatal battel upon Mount Gilboah a man might think had freed the Land from danger of blood yet we see that the blood of the Gibeonites had left so deep a stain that it could not be sponged out without the blood of seven more of Sauls off-spring So that in some cases it seems we must alter the words of my Text The Land cannot be purged of blood but by the blood of him and his posterity that shed it Saint Peter tells us that some mens sins go before them unto judgement and some mens sins follow after Beloved here is a sin that exceedes the members of this division for howsoever it goes before or after us unto Judgement Yet it hath a kinde of Ubiquity and so runs afore so follows us at the heels that it stays behinde us too and calls for vengeance long after that we are gone Blood unrevenged passes from Father to Son like an Heirlome or legacy and he that dies with blood hanging on his fingers leaves his Off-spring and his Family as pledges to answer it in his stead As an Engineer that works in a Mine lays a train or kindles a Match and leaves it behinde him which shall take hold of the powder long after he is gone so he that sheds blood if it be not be times purged as it were kindles a Match able to blow up not only a Parliament but even a whole Land where blood lies unrevenged Secondly another circumstance serving to express unto us the greatness of this sin I told you was the difficulty of cleansing it intimated in those words cannot be cleansed but by the blood of him that shed it Most of other sins have sundry ways to wash the guilt away As in the Levitical Law the woman that was unclean by reason of Childe-bearing might offer a pair of Turtle-doves or two young Pigeons so he that travels with other sins hath either a Turtle or a Pigeon he hath more ways then one to purifie him prayer unto God or true repentance or satisfaction to the party wronged or bodily affliction or temporary mulct But he that travels with the sin of Blood for him there remains no sacrifice for sin but a fearful expectation of vengeance he hath but one way of cleansing onely his blood the blood of him that shed it The second general part which we considered in these words was that one mean which is left to cleanse blood exprest in the last words the blood of him that shed it The Apostle to the Hebrews speaking of the sacrifices of the Old Testament notes that without blood there was no cleansing no forgiveness He spake it only of the blood of beasts of Bulls and Goats who therefore have their blood that they might shed it in mans service and for mans use But among all the Levitical Sacrifices there was not one to cleanse the man-slayer For the blood of the cattle upon a thousand Hills was not sufficient for this yet was that sin to be purged with blood too and
holy Scripture to lay open in the view of the world many grosse faults and imperfections even of the most excellent instruments of his glory That which he tells the woman in the Gospel who annointed him before his passion that wheresoever the Gospel should be preached this fact of hers should be recorded in memorial of her the same as it seems was his intent concerning his Saints that wheresoever the word of life should be taught there likewise should be related the grievous sins of his servants And therefore accordingly scarcely is there any one Saint in the whole book of God who is not recorded in one thing or other to have notably overshot himself Sometimes he hath made the Saints themselves the proclaimers of their own shame So he makes Moses to register his own infidelity so David in his one and fiftieth Psalm by the instinct of Gods spirit leaves unto the Church under his own hand an evidence against himself for his adultery and murther Sometimes he makes their dearest friends the most exact chroniclers of their faults for so St. Chrysostome observes of St. Mark the companion and Scholer of Peter who hath more particularly registred the fall of his master then any of the other Evangelists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Who would not marvel saith he that St. Mark not only concealed not the grosse escape of his master but hath more accurately then any of the rest recorded the particulars of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even because he was his Disciple As if he could have done his master no better service then to deliver a most exact relation of his fault There are yet two things further to be noted in this dispensation of Almighty God The first in regard of us the second in regard of the Saints whose errors are recorded for the first who can but marvel that since all things that are written are written for our instruction that if they be good they may serve for our imitation if otherwise for warnings to us yet many sinister actions of the Saints of God are so exprest in Scripture without censure without note that it were almost some danger to pronounce of them Abrahams equivocating with Abimelech Jacobs deluding his blinde father Rachel abusing Laban with a lie Jephthe his sacrificing his daughter Sampson killing himself with the Philistins these and many other besides are so fet down that they may seem to have been done rather by divine instinct then out of humane infirmity Wherein the Holy Ghost seems to me tanquam adoriri nos ex insidiis to set upon us out of ambush to use a kind of guile to see whether we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual discretion to trie whether we will attribute more to mens examples then to his precepts Secondly in regard of the Saints themselves it is worth our noting that God seems to have had more care to discredit them then to honour them in that their faults are many times particularly registred but their repentance is wrapt up in silence so the story of Noah is concluded with his drunkenness after the report of Lots incest there is not a word of him throughout the Scriptures as soon as the story of Salomons idolatry is related it immediately follows in the text And Salomon died We should very much wrong these men if we should think that they past out of this life without repentance because their repentance is concealed Doubtless if we were worthy to search the mysteries of the spirit we should finde that the Holy Ghost hath left something for our instruction even in this particular for nothing in Scripture is done by chance But as St. Chrysostome is wont sometime to tell his auditory that he will not resolve all doubts but leave some to meditate on by themselves so will I now deal with you I will leave this to your private considerations to practise your wits in the depths of christianity and so to frame reasons unto your selves of this proceeding of the Holy spirit In the New Testament the Holy Ghost constantly holds the same course of relating the fall of the Saints and so accordingly by all foure Evangelists sets down at large the fearful sin of Peter in denying and forswearing his Master But as it pleased him in mercy to give him repentance so in these words which I have read unto you hath it pleased him to leave unto the Church a memorial of it Our first note therefore before we come to the words shall be a note of that exceeding use and profit which hath redounded to the Church by the registring of Peters repentance for this is done by the Holy Ghost to signifie unto us the necessity and force of repentance and sorrow for sin The concealing of Solomons reclaim hath occasioned some upon acknowledgement of the necessity of repentance to suppose that Solomon past away without it and so received the finall reward of the impenitent But he that should have read this story of Peter and observed what authority he had afterwards what especial favour our Saviour did him after his resurrection notwithstanding his fall if the manner of his recovery had not been recorded might easily have entertained a conceit very prejudicial to repentance Quid non speremus Who might not hope to regain the favour of God without shedding a tear if Peter notwithstanding so grievous a crime without repentance should again be reconciled We might therefore with excuse have presumed upon a nonnecessity of repentance as if it had been enough in case of sin to practise that which common morality teaches barely to relinquish it without any more adoe that therefore which we learn by this registring of Peters repentance is this that for the clearing of a Christian mans account unto God it is nor sufficient barely to cease from doing ill to satisfie the law which we broke either with our life or with our goods to make recompence to our neighbour for wrong done him all this and much more washes not away the guilt of sin before God These are things which the very light of nature teaches us to do It was not to be thought that David to his former adulteries and murther would have added new he that hath been forc't to restore fourefold that which he had taken away by stealth will peradventure take warning to steal no more But this doth not suffice him There is a further duty a duty of repentance required of every Christian man a duty proper to him alone For this doctrine of repentance Nature never taught in her school neither was it ever found in the books of the learned It is particular to the Book of God and to the doctrine that came down from Heaven In the sins against the first Table we offend immediately and only against God but in the sins against the second Table there is a double guilt contracted one against God another against our Neighbour In these sins as there is a double fault
then conceal'd And so he dismist the Synod without doing any thing farther What these Libelli supplices contain is unknown Some imagine it to be from the Remonstrant party others more probably think that the subject of them were certain Gravamina of the Countrey Ministers Mr. Deans Sermon was taken well for any thing I can yet learn to the contrary but your Lordship shall understand there was a little doubt made concerning these Latine Sermons Mr. Praeses when the Letters were directed to the Arminian party requested the Forreigners that they would be pleased to bestow in their Courses some Latin Sermons to entertain the Synod till the Arminians made their appearance and first commended this unto the English My Lord Bishop refused it because of the suddain warning but Mr. Dean would needs undertake it But certain of the Exteri came to the Bishop and shewed him how dangerous this might be For it was as they thought a very hard matter so to walk as not to touch upon some points that are in Controversy which could not be without the offence of one party My Lord Bishop and the other two for this reason thought the motion very inconvenient but Mr. Dean would by no means apprehend of it but as of a business very fit to be done It seems this was the general conceit of the Forreigners which was the cause that there was in this kinde nothing done till now notwithstanding that the motion was made a pretty while before my coming to Dort But how well this example is approved it will appear if others of the Forreigners do follow it Here is a rumour of a certain Jesuitical book lately set forth in disgrace of our Synod I have not yet seen it but I understand it is in the hands of the Praeses unto whom I had repair'd to have looked into it but that I conceive him to be exceeding full of business As soon as I can learn what it is I will acquaint your Honour with it We have much speech of a strange Comet of an unusual length seen this morning I saw it not and peradventure it is no Newes unto your Lordship if it have appeared in the Horison of the Hague My Lord Bishop and his Company remember their Love and Service to your Honour and thank you for your Letter of English Newes which they here return I have sent according to your Lordships Will six Catalogues of the Synod printed with us in Latin And so for this time I humbly take my leave From Dort this 19 29 of Novemb. 1618. Your Honours Chaplain and bounden in all Duty Jo. Hales Right Honourable my very good Lord UPon Friday the 20 30 of Novemb. the Deputies met in the Morning where first of all there were recited the Judgements of some concerning the manner of Catechizing which was yet depending who had not delivered their mindes in writing the day before In this was there nothing extraordinary save only the advice of the Remonstrants of Utrecht For the Deputies of that Province gave their Judgments severally the Contra-Remonstrants by themselves and the Remonstrants by themselves These first blamed the common Catechisme passant amongst them as being too obscure for the Simple and too long for the Memory Secondly they thought it not necessary that there should be a threefold Catechism for one well learnt might serve for all the rest Thirdly they would have a Catechism so made that the Answers might be nothing else but bare Texts of H. Scripture For they thought that if Scripture alone were taught and not any mens glosses it would be a more immediate means to gain the Anabaptists and other Schismaticks to accept of the Catechism Fourthly they thought fit that in the Preface to these Catechisms there should be a note given to this purpose that these kinds of writing by Catechisms c. were to be esteemed only as the Apochryphal Scriptures To the third point some little thing was answered to this purpose that this was a mean utterly to extirpate all other Forms of Catechizings out of the Church there never yet having been any form of Creed or Catechism so conceived Yet there might be a time hereafter for the Synod to consider of it when they pleased After this followed the Form of Catechizing which the Praeses and Assessors had agreed upon My purpose was to have taken an extract of it and sent it to your Honor and I dealt with Festus Hommius about it but his answer was that he was to communicate about this with the Praeses and that it was in the hand of Sebast. Dammannus his fellow Scribe To Dammannus I was not known neither did I understand of any acquaintance he had with your Honor and therefore I let it rest The summe of it was this That there should be observ'd a threefold Catechizing 1. At home by the Parents 2. In the Schole by the Schole-master A third in the Church by Catechetical Sermons then that there should be a threefold Catechism one for Incipientes containing the Lords Prayer the Creed the Commandments the Doctrine of the Sacraments and the Church Discipline A second for the Middle sort which should be a brief of the Palatine Catechism a third for Youths the Palatine Catechism it self That every one that was admitted Scholemaster should be bound to teach no other Catechism and that all other Forms should be abolisht that if either Scholemasters in the Scholes or Ministers in the Church should refuse or neglect to Catechize they should be subject to censure c. When this Form was read the Provinces were in order askt what they would have alter'd or supplied Those of Geldria thought it fit that the Minister before his Catechetical Sermon should not only take the words of the Catechism as the custom had in most places been but likewise some Text of Scripture upon which the doctrine of the Catechism was grounded For as it seems the custom is in Catechistical Sermons not to take a Text of Scripture but a portion of the Catechism for their Text and Theme It was answered that this custom had been a long time laid down and could not now conveniently be recall'd the same Deputies proposed whether it were not fit that whereas in the Decree there is mention made of a censure to pass on those who neglected it there should be some particular form of Censure set down by the Synod The thing being put to voices it was decreed that it should be left to the Judgement of the Classes how they should be censur'd The South Hollanders thought it necessary there should be publike catechizing in the Church by way of Question and Answer It was answered that this could not be by reason of the frequency of Sermons Those of Overisell proposed somewhat concerning the form of chatechetical Sermons It was answer'd that this should hereafter be thought of Which answer is a civil way which the Praeses uses when he means to put by an impertinent question
Synod first to handle of Election and then of Reprobation as much as should seem necessary and for the Churches good and withall charged them to answer roundly and Categorically whether they would proceed according to this order they answered No. Then did the Praeses require them to withdraw and give the Synod leave to advise of this The sum of that which past in the mean time was this That their pretence of Conscience was vain since it was not of any thing which concern'd Faith or good manners but only of order and method in disputing which could not at all concern the Conscience that the Disputation must begin from Election First because the order of Nature so requir'd to deal of the Affirmative before the Negative and again because that all Divines who ever handled this Question did hold the same order and the Holy Ghost in Scripture had taken the same course That they should be assured in the name of the Synod that they should have Liberty to diseusse the question of Predestination throughout That whatsoever they pretended yet the true end of their so hotly urging the question of Reprobation was only to exagitate the Contra-Remonstrants Doctrine and to make way for their own Doctrine in point of Election Iâ—â—dius observed that it had been the Custome of all those who favour'd Pelagianism to trouble the Church with the question of Reprobation D. Gomarus that saw that his Iron was in the fire for I perswade my self that the Remonstrants spleen is chiefly against him began to tell us that Episcopius had falsified the Tenent of Reprobation that no man taught that God absolutely decreed to cast man away without sin but as he did decree the end so he did decree the means that is as he predestinated man to death so he predestinated him to sin the only way to death and so he mended the question as Tinkers mend Kettles and made it worse then it was before In summe the Synod caused a Decree to be penn'd to this purpose That it should be lawful for the Remonstrants to propose their Doubts both in the Question of Election and of Reprobation but for the order in disputation which of the two should come first they should leave that to the Synod who thought it fitter to give then to receive Laws and that whereas they pretended Conscience it was but vain since there was nothing in Scripture against this Command of the Synod nay that it was more agreeable with Conscience to obey then to withstand Then were the Remonstrants called in and after a short admonission better to advise themselves the Decree of the Synod was read unto them And when they began to urge their Conscience the Praeses Poliricus spake to this purpose that there had heretofore been many Decrees made by the Delegates but they had been all neglected he therefore strictly warn'd them that no man should dare to withstand any Decree either of the Magistrate or of the Synod either by open opposing against it or by sullen silence under pain of penalty according to the will of the Lords When Episcopius had said aegerimè ferimus and would have said somewhat more he was enjoyn'd silence and so the Session ended Mr. Praeses telling us that the next Session we should come to the question si per Remonstrantes liceret Now concerning Monsieur Moulins Proposals of which your Lordship requir'd to know what I thought I will deliver my self in my next Letters to your Honour In the mean time commending your Honour to Gods good protection I humbly take my leave Dort this 17 27. of Decemb. 1618. Your Honours Chaplain and bounden in all Duty Jo. Hales Right Honourable my very good Lord UPon Friday 18 2â—â— of Decemb. in the morning it was long ere the Synod met At length being come together there were read the two Decrees one of the States another of the Synod made the former Session the reason of the repeating was the absence of some the day before Then did the Praeses signify that that very morning immediately before the time of the Synod he had received from the Remonstrants Letters satis prolixâ—â—s which concern'd himself and the whole Synod the perusal of which Letters was the cause of his long stay The Letters were sent to the Secular Delegates to know whether or no they would have them read Whilst the Seculars were advising of this point there were brought in a great heap of the Remonstrants Books and laid upon the Table before the Praeses for what end it will appear by and by The Secular Delegates signifie that they think not fit that the Letters should be publickly read and that the Remonstrants should immediately be call'd in They being entred the Praeses askt them whether they were ready to obey the Orders set down by the States and the Synod They require to have their Letters read but the Seculars willed them instead of reading their Letters to hearken to a Decree of the States and forthwith was read a Decree sounding to this purpose that the States strictly commanded that nothing should be read or spoken in the Synod in prejudice of the Decree made yesterday but that they should without any further delay come to the business in hand The Remonstrants reply that except they may most freely propose their mindes in both the parts of Predestination both Election and Reprobation they refused to go further in Conference for that their Conscience would not permit them The Praeses replyed that for Liberty of proposal of their opinions they could not complain for the Synod had given them Libertatem Christianam aequam justam but such an absolute Liberty as they seemed to require of going as far as they list of oppugning before the Synod what opinions they pleased of learned men this they thought unfit And as for Conscience they knew that the Word of God was the rule of it Now what part of Scripture had they that favoured them in this behalf or that did take any order and prescribe a Method in Disputation By thus stiffely urging their Conscience they did exceedingly wrong the Decrees of the States and Synod as if by them something against the Word of God some impiety were commanded When the Praeses had thus said he began to propose unto them certain Interrogatories concerning the Five Articles Your Honour may be pleased to call to minde that in one of my former Letters I shewed that because the Remonstrants had given up their opinions very perplexedly and imperfectly the Synod had thought good that the Praeses should propose them certain questions out of their own Writings so the better to wrest their meaning from them This was the Praeses now beginning to do and this was the cause of the bringing in of the Books The Interrogatory proposed was this Whether or no they did acknowledge that the Articles exhibited in the Hague Conference did contein their opinions Episcopius stept up and required that it might