They all crie out with one voice that there was no one little woorde at all vttered of Christ which ought not necessarily to be obeyed And without any doutyng they do echewhere teache that these very same thinges by name were commaundementes whyche these good expositors triflyngly say that Christ did but counsell But forasmuche as we haue before taught that this is a moste pestilent error let it suffise here to haue brefely noted that the monkrie which is at this day is grounded vppon the same opinion whiche all the godly ought worthily to abhorre whiche is that there should be imagined some perfecter rule of life than this common rule which is geuen of God to the whole Chirch Whatsoeuer is bilded vpon this fundation can not be but abhominable But they bryng an other profe of their perfection which they thinke to be moste strong for them For the Lorde sayed to the yong man that asked hym of the perfection of righteousnesse If thou wilt be perfect sell all that thou hast and geue it to the poore Whether they do so or no I do not yet dispute but graunt them that for this present Therfore they boste that they be made perfect by forsakyng all theirs If the summe of perfection stande in this what meaneth Paule when he teacheth that he whiche hath distributed all his goodes to the poore vnlesse he haue charitie is nothyng What maner of perfection is this which if charitie be absent is brought with man to nothyng Here they must needes answere that this is the chiefest in dede but not the only worke of perfection But here also Paule crieth against them which sticketh not to make charitie the bonde of perfection without any suche forsakyng If it be certaine that betwene the maister and the disciple is no disagreement and the one of them clerely denieth the perfection of man to consist in this that he should forsake all his goodes and againe affirmeth that perfection is without it we must see howe that sayeng of Christe is to be taken If thou wilt be perfect sell all that thou hast Nowe it shal be no darke sense if we wey whiche we oughte alway to marke in all the preachynges of Christ to whom these woordes bee directed A yong man asketh by what workes he shall enter into euerlastyng lyfe Christ because he was asked of workes sendeth hym to the lawe and rightfully for it is the way of eternall life if it be considered in it selfe and is no otherwise vnable to bryng saluation vnto vs but by oure owne peruersnesse By this answere Christ declared that he teacheth no other rule to frame life by than the same that had in olde tyme ben taught in the lawe of the Lorde So did he bothe geue witnesse to the lawe of God that it was the doctrine of perfecte righteousnesse and therwithall dyd mete wyth sclaunders that he shoulde not seme by any newe rule of life to stirre the people to forsakyng of the law The yong man beyng in dede not of an euel mynde but swelling with vayne confidence answered that he had from his childhode kept al the commaundementes of the law It is most certaine that he was an infinite space distant from that to which he bosted that he had atteined And if his bostyng had ben true he had wanted nothyng to the hyest perfection For we haue before shewed that the lawe conteineth in it self perfect righteousnesse and the same appereth hereby that the kepyng of it is called the way of eternall saluation That he myght be taught to knowe how little he had profited in that righteousnesse which he had to boldly answered that he had fulfilled it was profitable to shake out a familiar fault of his When he abounded in richesse he had his hart fastened vppon them Therefore because he felte not this secrete wounde Christe launced him Goe sayth he sell all that thou haste If he hadde ben so good a keper of the lawe as he thought he was he wold not haue gone away sorowfull when he heard this word For who so loueth God with all his hart whatsoeuer disagreeth with the loue of hym he not onely taketh it for dong but abhorreth as bringyng destruction Therefore wheras Christe commaundeth the couetous richeman to leaue all that he hath it is all one as if he should commaunde the ambitious man to forsake all honors the voluptuous man all delites and the vnchast mā all the instrumentes of luste So consciences that are touched with no felyng of generall admonition must be called back to the particular felyng of their owne euell Therfore they doo in vayne drawe this speciall case to generall exposition as though Christe did set the perfection of man in forsaking of goodes whereas he mente nothyng els by this sayeng than to dryue the yong man that stoode to muche in his owne conceite to feele his owne sore that he mighte vnderstand that he was yet a great way distant from perfect obedience of the law which otherwise he did falsly take vpon him I graunt that this place hath ben euel vnderstāded of some of the Fathers and that therupon grew this couetyng of wilfull pouertie wherby they only were thought to be blessed which forsakyng all earthly thynges did dedicate themselues naked to Christ. But I trust that all the good and not contentious men will be satisfied with this my exposition so that they shall no more doute of the meanyng of Christ. Howbeit the Fathers thought nothyng lesse than to stablishe suche a perfection as hath sins ben framed by the cowled Sophisters thereby to rayse vp a double Christianitie For that doctrine full of sacrilege was not yet borne whych compareth the profession of monkrie to Baptisme yea and openlye affirmeth that it is a forme of seconde Baptisme Who can doute that the Fathers with all theyr harte abhorred this blasphemie Nowe as touchyng that laste thyng whyche Augustine sayeth to haue been among the olde Monkes that is that they applyed themselues whollye to Charitie what neede I to shewe in woordes that it is moste farre from thys newe profession The thyng it selfe speaketh that all they that goe into Monasteries departe from the Chirche For why Doo not they seuer themselues from the lawfull felowshippe of the faithfull in takyng to themselues a peculiar ministerie and priuate ministration of Sacramentes What is it to dissolue the Communion of the Chirche if this bee not it And that I may folowe the comparison which I beganne to make and may ones conclude it what haue they in this behalfe lyke to the olde monkes They although they dwelt seuerally from other men yet had not a seuerall Chirch they dyd partake of the sacramentes together with other they appered at solemne assemblies there they were a parte of the people These men in erectyng to themselues a priuate altar what haue they ells doone but broken the bonde of vnitie For they haue bothe excommunicate themselues from the
with no bondes These Solons do in dede faine that their constitutions are lawes of libertie a swete yoke a light burden but who can not se that they be mere lyes They themselues in dede do fele no heauinesse of their owne lawes which casting away the feare of God doe carelesly and stoutly neglecte both their owne and Gods lawes But they that are touched wyth any care of their saluation are farr from thynking themselues free so long as they be entangled with these snares We se with howe greate warenesse Paule did deale in this behalfe that he durste not so much as in any one thing laye vpon men any snare at al â–ª and that not without cause Truely he foresaw with how great a wounde coÌ„sciences should be striken if they should be charged with a necessitie of those things wherof the Lord had left them libertie On the other side yâ— constitutions are almost innumerable which these meÌ„ haue most greuously stablished with thretening of eternal death which they most seuerely require as necessarie to saluatioÌ„ And among those there are many most hard to be kept but al of them if the whole multitude of them be layed together are impossible so great is the heape How theÌ„ shal it be possible that they vpoÌ„ whoÌ„ so great a weight of difficultie lyeth shold not be vexed in perplexitie with extreme anguish and terror Therfore my purpose is here to impugne such coÌ„stitutions as tend to thys ende inwardly to bind soules before God and charge them with a religion as though they taughte them of thinges necessary to saluation This question doth therfore encoÌ„ber the most part of meÌ„ because they do not suttelly enough put difference betwene the outward court as thei cal it the court of coÌ„science Moreouer thys encreaseth yâ— difficultie that Paul teacheth that the Magistrate ought to be obeyed not only for feare of punishemeÌ„t but for coÌ„sciences sake Wherupon foloweth the coÌ„sciences are also bounde with the politike lawes But if it were so theÌ„ al should fall that we haue spokeÌ„ in the last chap. and entende now to speake coÌ„cerning the spiritual gouernement For the loosing of thys knot first it is good to learne what is CoÌ„science The definition is to be gathered of the proper deriuatioÌ„ of the word For as wheÌ„ meÌ„ do with minde vnderstanding conceiue the knowlege of things they are therby sayd scire to know wherupon is deriued the name of science knowlege so when they haue a feling of Gods iugement as a witnesse adioined with them which doth not suffer them to hide their siÌ„nes but that they be brought accused to the iudgemeÌ„t seate of God the same feling is called CoÌ„scieÌ„ce For it is a certayne meane betwene God maÌ„ because it suffreth not maÌ„ to suppresse that which he knoweth but pursueth him so far til it bring him to giltinesse This is it that Paule meaneth wheÌ„ he teacheth that CoÌ„scieÌ„ce doth together witnesse with meÌ„ wheÌ„ theyr thoughtes do accuse or acquite them in the iugemeÌ„t of God A simple knowlege might remaine in maÌ„ as enclosed Therfore thys feling which presenteth maÌ„ to the iugemeÌ„t of God is as it were a keper ioyned to maÌ„ to marke watch al his secretes that nothing should remaine buryed in darkenesse WhereupoÌ„ also coÌ„meth the old prouerbe CoÌ„scieÌ„ce is a thousaÌ„d witnesses For the same resoÌ„ also Peter hath set the examinatioÌ„ of a good coÌ„science for quietnesse of mynde wheÌ„ we being persuaded of the grace of Christe doe without feare present our selues to God And the author of the Epistle to the Hebrues vseth these wordes to haue no more coÌ„science of synne in stede of to be deliuered or acquited that synne may no more accuse vs. Therfore as workes haue respect to meÌ„ so the coÌ„science is referred to God so the CoÌ„science is nothyng els but the inwarde purenesse of the hart In which sense Paule writeth that Charitie is the fulfilling of the lawe out of a pure coÌ„science and Fayth not fayned Afterwarde also in the same chap â–ª he sheweth how much it differeth from vnderstanding sayeng that some had suffered shipwracke from the fayth because they had forsakeÌ„ good CoÌ„science For in these wordes he signifieth that it is a liuely affectioÌ„ to worship God a sincere desire to liue Godlily and holily Somtime in dede it is referred also to men as in Luke when the same Paul testifieth that he endeuored himselfe that he mighte walke with a good coÌ„science toward God men But this was therfore saied because the frutes of good coÌ„science do flowe come euen to meÌ„ But in speakyng properly it hath respect to God only as I haue alredy said Hereupon coÌ„meth that a law is said to binde coÌ„science which simply bindeth a man without regarde of meÌ„ or not hauing any coÌ„sideration of them As for exaÌ„ple God coÌ„maundeth not only to kepe the minde chast pure from al lust but also forbiddeth al maner of filthinesse of wordes outward wantoÌ„nesse whatsoeuer it be To the keping of this lawe my coÌ„science is subiect although there liued not one man in the world So he that behaâ—â—th himselfe inteÌ„perantly doeth not only synne in thys that he geueth 〈◊〉 exaÌ„ple to his brethren but he hath his coÌ„science bounde with giltinesse before God In thinges that are of themselues meane there is an other coÌ„sideratioÌ„ For we ought to absteine froÌ„ them if they brede any offeÌ„se but the coÌ„science stil being free So Paule speaketh of fleshe consecrate to idols If any sayth he make dout touch it not for consciences sake I say for coÌ„scieÌ„ce not thine own but the others A faithful maÌ„ shold sinne which being first warned should neuerthelesse eate of such fleshe But howsoeuer in respect of his brother it be necessarie for him to absteine as it is prescribed of God yet he cesseth not to kepe still the libertie of coÌ„science We see how this law bynding the outward worke leaueth the conscience vnbounde Now let vs returne to the lawes of meÌ„ If they be made to this end to charge vs with a religioÌ„ as though the obseruing of them wer of it selfe necessarie theÌ„ we say that that is layed vpoÌ„ coÌ„science which was not lawfull to be laied vpoÌ„ it For our conscieÌ„ces haue not to doe with meÌ„ but with God only whereunto perteineth the coÌ„moÌ„ differeÌ„ce betwene yâ— earthly court the court of coÌ„science WheÌ„ yâ— who le world was wrapped in a most thick mist of ignoraÌ„ce yet this smal sparcle of light remained that they acknowleged a mans coÌ„science to be aboue al iugemeÌ„tes of meÌ„ Howbeit the same thing that they did with one worde coÌ„fesse they did afterwarde in dede ouerthrowe yet it was Gods wil the there should theÌ„ also remaine some testimonie of ChristiaÌ„ libertie which might deliuer coÌ„sciences from the tyranny of meÌ„ But the difficultie is not yet dissolued which ariseth out of the words of
song in the sanctuary because the vnbeleuers are deafe heare not al the voyces of God that resounde in the aire And in lyke manner in an other Psalme after that he had descrybed the terrible waues of the Sea he thus concludeth thy testimonies ar verified the beautie of thy teÌ„ple is holinesse for euer And out of this meaning also proceded that which Chryst said to the woman of Samaria that her nation and the rest did honor that which they knew not and that onely the Iewes did worship the true God For wheras the wit of man by reason of the feblenesse therof caÌ„ by no meane attaine vnto God but being holpen and lifted vp by his holy worde it folowed of necessitie that al men excepte the Iewes dyd wander in vanite and errour because they sought god without hys worde ¶ The .vii. Chapter By what testimony the Scripture oughte to be established that is by the witnesse of the holy gost that the authoritie therof may remaine certaine And that it is a wycked inuention to say that the erâ—â—yt therof doeth hangs vpon the iudgemente of the churche BUt before I go any further it is nedeful to say somwhat of the authoritie of the Scripture not onely to prepare mens mindes to reuerence it but also to take away al dout therof Now when it is a matter confessed that it is the worde of God that is there sette forth there is no maÌ„ of so desperate boldnesse vnlesse he be voide of all common sense and naturall wit of man that dare derogate the credit of him that speaketh it But because there are not daily oracles geuen from heauen and the onelye Scryptures remaine wherin it hath pleased the Lord to preserue his truth to perpetual memory the same Scripture by none other meanes is of ful credit among the faythful but in that they doe beleue that it is as verely come from heauen as if they heard the liuely voyce of God to speake therin This matter in dede is ryght worthy both to bee largely entreated of diligently weyed But the readers shall pardoÌ„ me if herein I rather regarde what the proporcion of the woorke which I haue begon may beare thaÌ„ what the largenesse of the matter requireth Ther is growen vp among the most part of men a moste hurteful erroure that the Scripture hath onely so much authoritie as by common consent of the churche is geuen vnto it as if the eternall and inuiolable trueth of God did rest vpon the pleasure of men For so to the great scorne of the holy gost they aske of vs who caÌ„ assure vs that these Scriptures came from God or who can assertaine vs that they haue continued vnto oâ—r age safe and vncorrupted who can perswade vs that thys one booke ought to be reuerently receiued and that other to be stryken out of the number of Scripture vnlesse the churche did appoint a certaine rule of al these thinges It hangeth therfore say they vpon the determinacioÌ„ of the churche both what reuerence is due to the Scripture and what bokes ar to be reckened in the canon therof So these robbers of gods honor whyle they seke vnder color of the church to bring in an vnbridled tyranny care nothing with what absurdities they snare both themselues and other so that they may enforce thys one thyng to be beleued among the symple that the churche can do al thynges But if it be so what shal become of the poore consciences that seke stedfast assuraunce of eternal lyfe if al the promyses that remayne therof stande and bee stayed onely vpon the iudgement of men â–ª When they receyue such answere shal they cesse to wauer and tremble Agayne to what scornes of the vngodly is our faith made subiect into how great suspicion with al men is it brought if this be beleued that it hath but as it were a borrowed credit by the fauoure of men But such babblers are wel confuâ—ed euen with one worde of the Apostle He testifieth that the churche is builded vpon the foundacion of the Prophetes and Apostles If the doctrine of the Prophetes and Apostles be the fundacion of the church then muste it nedes be that the same doctrine stode in stedfast certaintie before that the churche began to be Nether can they wel cauil that although the church take her first beginning therof yet it remaineth doutful what is to be sayed the writinges of the Prophetes and Apostles vnlesse the iudgemente of the church did declare it For if the Chrystian church were at the beginning builded vpon the writinges of the Prophetes and preachyng of the Apostles wheresoeuer that doctrine shal be founde the allowed credyte therof was surely before the churche without which the churche it selfe had neuer ben Therefore it is a vaine forged deuise that the churche hath power to iudge the Scripture so as the certaintie of the scripture should be thought to hange vpon the wil of the churche Wherfore wheÌ„ the churche doth receiue the Scripture and sealeth it with her consenting testimonie she doeth not of a thyng doutefull and that otherwyse should be in controuersy make it autentike and of credit but because she acknowledgeth it to be the trueth of her God accordyng to her dutye of godlinesse without delay she doth honor it Wheras they demaund how shal we be perswaded that it came from god vnlesse we resort to the decree of the churche Thys is al one as if a man should aske howe shall we learne to knowe light from darkenesse white from blacke or swete from sower For the Scripture sheweth in it selfe no lesse apparaunte sense of her trueth than white and blacke thynges do of their color or swete and sower thinges of their tast I knowe that they commonly allege the saying of Augustine wher he sayeth that he would not beleue the gospel saue that the authoritye of the churche moued hym therto But how vntruely and cauillouslye it is alleged for such a meaning by the whole tenor of his writing it is easy to perceiue He had to do with the Manichees whiche required to be beleued without gainesaying when they vaunted that they had the trueth on their side but proued it not And to make their Manicheus to be beleued they preteÌ„ded the gospel Now Augustine asketh them what they would do if they did light vpon a man that would not beeleue the gospel it selfe with what maner of perswasion they would drawe hym to their opinion Afterwarde he sayeth I my self would not beleue the gospel c. saue that the authoritie of the church moued me therto Meaning that he himselfe when he was a straunger from the fayth coulde not otherwise be brought to embrace the gospel for the assured trueth of God but by this that he was ouercome with the authoritie of the church And what maruel is it if a maÌ„ not yet knowing Chryste haue regarde to men Augustine therfore doeth not there teache that the
of idols as though it were not a litle lighter matter to worship thaÌ„ to serue And yet while they seke a hole to hide theÌ„ in the Greke word they childishly disagre with themselues For seing Latreuein in Greke signifieth nothing but to worship their saying coÌ„meth but to this effect as if they woulde say that they worship in dede their images but without any worshippinge And there is no cause why they shuld say that I seke to catch theÌ„ in words but they theÌ„selues while they seke to cast a mist before the eyes of the simple do bewray their own ignoraunce And yet though they be neuer so eloquent they shal not atteine by their eloquence to proue vnto vs that one selfe same thing is two sondry thinges Let theÌ„ say I shewe me a difference in that thing it selfe wherby they may be thought to differ froÌ„ the old idolaters For as an adulterer or a murderer caÌ„not escape giltinesse of his faulte by geuing his sinne a newe deuised name so is it a verye absurditie to thinke that these men be quitte by newe deuise of a name if in the matter it selfe they nothing differ froÌ„ those idolaters whom they theÌ„selues are coÌ„pelled to condeÌ„ne But so far are they froÌ„ prouing that their case differeth froÌ„ the case of those idolaters that rather the fountaine of al this whole mischiefe is an vnorderly counterfaiting wherin they haue striued with them while both with their own witt they deuise and with their own handes they frame them signifieng formes to expresse them a fashion of God And yet am I not so superstitious that I thinke no images maye be suffred at al. But forasmuch as caruing and painting are the giftes of God I require that they both be purely and lawfully vsed Least these things which god hath geueÌ„ vs for his glory for our own benefite be not only defiled by disordred abuse but also turned to our owne destructioÌ„ We thinke it vnlawful to haue God fashioned oute in visible forme because himselfe hath forbiddeÌ„ it because it cannot be done wythoute some defacemente of hys glory And least they thynke that it is onelye we that are in this opinioÌ„ they that haue ben trauailed in their works shall finde that all sounde writers did alway reproue the same thynge If then it be not lawfull to make any bodily image of God muche lesse shall it be lawfull to worshippe it for God or God in it It remayneth therefore lawfull that onelye those thynges bee painted and grauen whereof our eies are capable but that the maiestie of God which is far aboue the sense of our eies be not abused with vncomly deuised shapes Of this sorte are partly histories and thinges done partly images and fashions of bodies withoute expressing of any thinges done by them The first of these haue some vse in teaching or admonishing a man but what profite the seconde can bring saue only delectacion I see not And yet it is euident that euen such were almost al the images that heretofore haue stande vp in churches Wherby we may iudge that they were there set vp not by discrete iudgemente or choise but by folishe and vnaduised desire I speake not howe muche amisse and vncomely they wer for the moste parte fashione nor howe licentiously paynters and caruers haue in this pointe shewed their wantonnesse whiche thynge I haue alredy touched Only I speake to this end that though there wer no fault in them yet do they nothing auaile to teache But leauing also that difference let vs by the waye consider whether it be expedient in Christian temples to haue any images at al that doe expresse either thinges done or the bodies of men Fyrst if the authoritie of the aunciente churche doe any thyng moue vs let vs remember that for about v. C. yeares together while religion yet better florished and sincere doctrine was in force the Christian churches were vniuersally without images So they were then first brought in for the garnishment of churches when the sinceritie of ministracion was not a lyttle altered I wil not now dispute what reason they had with them that were the first authors therof But if a man compare age with age he shall see that they were muche swarued from that vpryghtnesse of them that were wythoute images What doe we thynke that those holye fathers would haue suffered the church to be so long wythoute the thyng which they iudged profitable and good for them But rather because they saw eyther litle or no profit in it and much daunger to lurke vnderneth it they did rather of purpose and aduisedly reiect it than â—y ignoraunce or negligence omytte it Whyche thyng Augustine doeth also in expresse words testifie When they be set in such places saieth he honorably on hye to be seen of them that pray and doe Sacrifice although they want both sense and lyfe yet with the very likenesse that they haue of liuelye members and senses they so moue the weake mindes that they seeme to liue and breath c. And in an other place For that shape of members doeth worke and in manner enforce thus muche that the minde liuing within a body doeth thynke that body to haue sense whiche he seeth like vnto his own And a litel after Images do more auaile to bow down an vnhappy soule but this that they haue mouth eyes eares and fete than to amend it by this that they neyther speake nor see nor heare nor goe This truely semeth to be the cause why Iohn willed vs to beware not onelye of worshipping of images but also of images themselues And we haue founde it to muche in experience that throughe the horrible madnesse whiche hath heretofore possessed the worlde to the destruccyon in manner of all godlynesse so sone as images be set vp in churches there is as it were a signe sette vp of idolatrie because the folly of men cannot refraine it selfe but it muste foorthwith runne on to supersticious worshippinges But if there were not so muche daunger hanging thereby yet when I consider for what vse temples are ordeined me thinkes it is verie ill beseming the holinesse therof to receiue any other images than these liuely natural images whiche the LORDE by hys woorde hath consecrate I meane Baptisme and the Lordes supper and other ceremonies wherewyth our eies ought both more earnestly to be occupyed and more liuely to be moued than that they should nede any other images framed by the witt of men Loe this is the incomparable commoditie of images whiche can by no value be recompensed if we beleue the papistes I thinke I had spoken enough of this thing alreadye but that the Nicene Synode doeth as it were laye hande on me to enforce me to speake more â–ª I meane not that most famous Synode which CoÌ„staÌ„tine the Great assembled but that which was holden eyght hundred yeares ago by the commaundemente and authoritie of Irene the Empresse For
bynd theÌ„ to a certayn rule that euery man should not geue hymselfe leaue to deuise what forme of worshyp he lyst But because it is not expedieÌ„t to loade the readers with heapyng many matters together I will not touche that poynte yet Onely lette it susâ—ise for this tyme to kepe in mynd that euery cariyng away of the dutyefull behauiours of godlynesse to any other than to God alone is not without robbery of God And fyrste superstition deuysed to geue diuine honours to the Sonne or other starres or idols then folowed ambitious pryde whyche garnyshyng mortall men with spoyles taken from God presumed to prophane all that euer was holy And although this principle remayned among theim to honour the soueraigne deitie yet grewe it in vse indifferently to offer sacrifices to spirites lesser gods or dead meÌ„ of honor So slippery is the way to slide into this fault to make common to a number that whiche God seuerely chalengeth to hym selfe alone The .xiii. Chapter That there is taught in the scriptures one offence of God from the very creation whiche essence conteineth in it thre persons THat which is taught in the scriptures concernyng the incomprehensible and spirituall essence of God oughte to suffise not onely to ouerthrowe the foolisshe errours of the common people but also to confute the fine suttelties of prophane philosophie One of the olde writers semed to haue said very wel That God is al that we do see and all that we doo not see But by this meane he hathe imagined the godhead to be powred out into all the partes of the world Although God to the intent to kepe men in sobre mynde speaketh but sparely of his owne essence yet by those twoo names of addition that I haue rehersed he doothe bothe take away all grosse imaginations and also represse the presumptuous boldnesse of mans mynde For surely his immeasurable greatnesse ought to make vs afrayde that we attempt not to measure hym with our sense and his spirituall nature forbiddeth vs to imagine any thyng earthly or fleshely of hym For the same cause he often assigneth his dwellyng place to be in heauen For though as he is incomprehensible he tilleth the earthe also yet because he seeth oure myndes by reason of their dullnesse to lie still in the earthe for good cause he lifteth vs vp aboue the worlde to shake of our slouth and sluggishnesse And here falleth to grounde the errour of the Manichees which in appointyng two originall beginnynges haue made the diuell in a maner egall with god Surely this was as muche as to breake the vnitie of God and restrayne his vnmeasurablenesse For where they haue presumed to abuse certain testimonies that sheweth a fowle ignoraunce as their errour it selfe sheweth a detestable madnesse And the Anthropomorphites are also easily confuted which haue imagined God to consist of a bodye because oftentymes the scripture ascribeth vnto hym a mouthe eares eyes handes and feete For what man yea though he be sclenderly witted dooth not vnderstande that God dooth so with vs speake as it were childishly as nurses doo with their babes Therefore suche maners of speeche doo not so playnely expresse what God is as they do apply the vnderstandyng of him to our sclender capacitie Whiche to do it behoued of necessitie that he descended a great way beneath his owne heyght But he also setteth out hymselfe by an other speciall marke wherby he may be more nerely knowen For he so declareth hymselfe to bee but one that he yet geueth himselfe distinctly to be considered in three persons whiche except we learne a bare and empty name of god without any true God flieth in our braine And that no man should thinke that he is a threfolde God or that the one essence of God is diuided in three persons we must here seke a short and easy definition to deliuer vs froÌ„ all errour But because many doo make muche a doo about this worde Person as a thyng inuented by man howe iustly they doo so it is beste fyrst to see The apostles namyng the sonne the engraued forme of the Hypostasis of his father he vndoubtedly meaneth that the Father hath some beeyng wherin he differeth from the sonne For to take it for Essence as some expositours haue done as if Christ like a piece of waxe printed with a seale didde represent the substaunce of the Father were not onely harde but also an absurditie For sithe the Essence of God is single or one and vndiuisible he that in hym selfe conteineth it all and not by pecemeale or by deriuation but in whole perfection should very vnproprely yea fondly bee called the engraued forme of hym But because the father although he be in his own propretie distinct hath expressed hymselfe wholly in his sonne it is for good cause sayde that he hath geuen his Hypostasis to be seene in hym Wherwith aptely agreeth that which by and by foloweth that he is the brightnesse of his glory Surely by the Apostles wordes we gather â–ª that there is a certayn propre hypostasis in the father that shineth in the sonne whereby also agayne is easily perceiued the Hypostasis of the sonne that distinguisheth him from the Father Like order is in the holy ghost for we shall by and by proue hym to be God and yet he must nedes be other than the father Yet this distinction is not of the essence whiche it is vnlawfull to make manyfolde Therfore if the Apostles testimonie be credited it foloweth that there be in God thre hypostases This terme seyng the Latines haue expressed with the name of Person it were to muche pride and waywardnesse to brawle about so cleere a matter But if we list worde for worde to translate we may call it Subsistence Many in the same sense haue called it substance And the name of Person hath not ben in vse among the Latins onely but also the Grecians perhaps to declare a consente haue taught that there are three prosopa that is to say Persons in God But they whether they be Grekes or Latins that differ one from an other in the worde doo very well agree in the summe of the matter Nowe howesoeuer the heretikes barke at the name of persone or some ouermuch precise men do carpe that thei like not the worde fained by deuise of men sithe they can not get of vs to say that there be three whereof euery one is wholly God nor yet that there be many goddes what vnreasonablenesse is this to myslyke woordes whiche expresse none other thynge but that whiche is testified and approued by the scriptures It were better say they to restraine not only our meanynges but also oure woordes within the boundes of scripture than to deuyse straunge names that may be the begynnynges of disagrement brawlyng so doo we tyer our selues with strife about woordes so the truthe is loste in contending so charitie is broken by odiousely brawlyng together If they call that a straunge
woorde whiche can not be shewed in scripture as it is written in nombre of syllables then they bynde vs to a hard law wherby is condemned all exposition the is not pieâ—ed together with bare laying together of textes of scripture But if they meane that to be straunge whiche beyng curiousely deuised is superstitiousely defended whiche maketh more for contention than edification whiche is either vnaptely or to no profite vsed whiche withdraweth from the simplicitie of the word of God then with all my hart I embrace their sobre minde For I iudge that we ought with no lesse deuout reuerence to talke of God than to thynke of him for as muche as what soeuer we doo of our selues thinke of him is foolishe and what so euer we speake is vnsauorye But there is a certayn measure to be kepte We ought to learne out of the scriptures a rule bothe to thynke and speake wherby to examine all the thoughtes of our mynde and wordes of our mouth But what withstandeth vs but that suche as in scripture are to our capacitie doutfull and entangled we may in plainer woordes expresse theim beynge yet suche wordes as doo reuerently and faithfully serue the truthe of the scripture and be vsed sparely modestly and not without occasion Of whiche sort there are examples enowe And where as it shall by profe appere that the Churche of great necessitie was enforced to vse the names of Trinitie and Persones if any shall then fynde faulte with the newenesse of woordes shall he not be iustly thought to be greeued at the lyght of the truthe as he that blameth onely this that the truthe is made so playne and cleare to discerne Suche newnesse of woordes if it be so to bee called commeth then chiefly in vse when the truthe is to be defended against wranglers that doo mocke it out with cauillations Whiche thyng we haue at this daye to muche in experience who haue great businesse in vanquisshynge the enemies of true and sounde doctrine With suche foldyng and crooked windyng these slippery snakes doo slide away vnlesse they be strongly griped and holden hard when they be taken So the old fathers beyng troubled with contendyng againste false doctrines were compelled to shewe theyr meanynges in exquisite playnnesse least they should leaue any crooked bywayes to the wicked to whom the doutful constructions of woordes were hidyngholes of errours Arrius confessed Christe to be God and the sonne of God because he coulde not agaynsay the euident wordes of God and as if he had ben so sufficiently discharged did fayne a certayne consent with the rest But in the meane while he ceassed not to scatter abroade that Christe was create and had a beginnyng as other creatures But to the ende they myght drawe foorth his windyng sutteltie out of his denne the auncient fathers went further pronouncyng Christ to be the eternall sonne of the father and consubstanciall with the father Hereat wickednesse began to boile when the Arrians began to hate and deteste the name Omoousion consubstanciall But if in the beginnyng they had sincerely and with playn meanynge confessed Christ to be God they would not now haue denyed hym to be consubstantiall with the father Who dare nowe blame these good men as brawlers and contentious bycause for one litle woordes sake they were so whote in disputation and troubled the quiete of the churche But that little worde shewed the difference betwene the true beleuyng Christians and the Arrians that wer robbers of God Afterward rose vp Sabellius whiche accompted in a maner for nothyng the names of the Father the Sonne and the Holy ghost sayeng in disputation that they were not made to shewe any maner of distinction but onely were seuerall additions of God of whiche sorte there are many If he came to disputation he confessed that he beleeued the father God the sonne God the Holy ghost God But afterwarde he would redely slippe away with sayeng that he hadde in no otherwise spoken than as if he had named God a strong God iust God and wise God and so he song another songe that the Father is the Sonne and the Holy ghost is the father without any order without any distinction The good doctours which then had care of godlynesse to subdewe his wickednesse cried oute on the other side that there ought to be acknowleged in one God thre propreties And to the ende to fense themselues againste the crooked writhen suttleties with plaine and simple truthe they affirmed that there did truely subsist in one God or which came all to one effect that there did subsist in the vnitie of God a Trinitie of persons If then the names haue not ben without cause inuented we ought to take hede that in reiectyng them we be not iustly blamed of proude presumptuousnesse I woulde to God they wer buried in dede so that this faith were agreed of all men that the Father and the Sonne and the Holy ghost bee one God and yet that the Father is not the Sonne nor the Holy ghost the SoÌ„ne but distinct by certain propretie Yet am I not so precise that I can fynde in my harte to striue for bare wordes For I note that the olde fathers whiche otherwise spake very religiousely of such matters did not euery wher agree one with an other nor eueryone with himselfe For what formes of speeche vsed by the councels doothe Hilarie excuse â–ª To howe greate libertie doothe Augustine sometyme breake foorth Howe vnlyke are the Grekes to the Latins But of this variance one example shal suffise for this tyme. When the Latins ment to expresse the word Omoousion they called it Consubstancial declaring the substance of the Father and the Sonne to be one so vsyng the word substance for essence Whervpon Hierom to Damasus sayth it is sacrilege to say that there are thre substances in God and yet aboue a hundred tymes you shall fynde in Hilarie that there are three substances in God In the woorde Hypostasis howe is Hierome accombred For he suspecteth that there lurketh poison in namyng thre Hypostases in God And if a man do vse this word in a godly sense yet he plainly saith that is an impropre speeche if he spake vnfainedly and dyd not rather wittyngly and willyngly seeke to charge the bishoppes of the Eastlandes â–ª whome he soughte to charge with an vniuste sclaunder Sure this one thynge he speaketh not very truely that in all prophane schooles ousia essence is nothyng els but hypostasis whyche is proued false by the common and accustomed vse Augustine is more modeste and gentyll whiche although he say that the worde hypostasis in that sense is strange to latine eares yet so farre is it of that he taketh from the Grekes theyr vsuall maner of speakyng that he also gently beareth with the Latins that had folowed the greke phrase And that whiche Socrates writeth in the syxte booke of the Tripartite hystorie tendeth to this ende as though he ment that it hadde
by vnskilfull men bene wrongfullye applied vnto this matter Yea and the same Hilarie hymselfe layethe it for a greate faulte to the heretikes charge that by theyr waywardnesse he is compelled to putte those thynges in perylle of the speche of men whyche oughte to haue beene kepte in the relygiousnesse of myndes playnely confessynge that this is to doo thynges vnlaufull to speake that ought not to bee spoken to attempt thynges not licenced A little after he excuseth himself with many words for that he was so bold to vtter newe names For after he had vsed the natural names Father Sonne and Holy ghost he addeth that what soeuer is sought further is beyōd the compasse of speache beyonde the reache of sense and beyonde the capacitie of vnderstandynge And in an other place he saith the happy ar the bishops of Gallia which neither had nor receiued nor knewe any other confession but that olde and simple one whiche from the time of the Apostles was receyued in all churches And muche like is the excuse of Augustine that this woorde was wroung oute of necessitie by reason of the imperfection of mens language in so greate a matter not to expresse that whiche is but that it shoulde not bee vnspoken howe the Father the Sonne and the Holy ghoste are three This modestie of the holy menne ought to warne vs that we doo not foorthwith so seuerely lyke Censors note them with infamie that refuse to subscribe and sweare to suche wordes as we propounde them so that they doo it not of pride of frowardnesse or of malicious crafte But let them again consider by how great necessitie we are driuen to speake so that by littell little they may be enured with that profitable maner of speche Let them also learne to beware least sithe we must mete on the one syde with the Arrians on the other syde with Sabellians whyle they be offended that we cutte of occasion from them both to cauill they bryng themselues in suspicion that they be the disciples either of Arrius or of Sabellius Arrius sayth that Christe is God but he muttereth that he was create and had a beginnyng He saith Christe is one with the father but secretely he whispereth in the eares of his disciples that he was made one as the other faithfull be although by singular prerogatiue Say ones that Christ is Consubstanciall with his father then plucke you of his visour from the dissembler and yet you adde nothyng to the scripture Sabellius sayth that the seueral names Father Son and Holy ghost signifie nothyng in God seuerally distincte saye that they are three and he will crye out that you name thre gods Saye that there is in one essence a Trinitie of persons then shal you in one word bothe saye what the scripture speaketh and stop their vayne babblyng Nowe if any be holden with so curious superstition that they can not abide these names yet is there no man though he wold neuer so fayn that can deny but that when we heare of one we must vnderstande an vnitie of substance when we here of thre in one essence that it is ment of the persons in the trinitie Which thyng beyng without fraude confessed we stay no longer vpon wordes But I haue long ago foūd and that often that who soeuer do obstinately quarell about woordes doo keepe within them a secrete poison so that it is better willyngly to prouoke theim than for their pleasure to speake darkly But leauyng disputation of woordes I will nowe begyn to speake of the matter it selfe I call therfore a Persone a subsistence in the essence of God which hauyng relation to the other is distinguished from them with vncōmunicable propretie By the name of Subsistence we meane an other thyng than the essence For if the worde had simply ben God and in the meane tyme had nothynge seuerally propre to it selfe Iohn hadde sayde amysse that it was with god Where he foorthewith addeth that God hymselfe was the same woorde he calleth vs backe agayne to the one single essence But because it could not be with God but that it must rest in the father hereof ariseth that subsistence which though it be ioyned to the essence with an vnseparable knot yet hath it a speciall marke wherby it doth differ from it So of the three subsistences ▪ I say that eche hauyng relation to other is in propretie distinguished Relation is here expressely mencioned For when there is simple and indefinite mencion made of God this name belongeth no lesse to the Sonne and the Holy ghoste than to the Father But when the Father is compared with the Sonne the seuerall propretie of eyther doth discerne hym from the other Thirdely what soeuer is propre vnto euery of them is vncommunicable For that which is geuen to the Father for a marke of difference can not agree with nor be geuen to the Son And I mislyke not the definition of Tertullian so that it be rightly taken That there is in God a certayne disposition or distribution which yet chaungeth nothyng of the vnitie of the essence But before that I go any further it is good that I proue the Godhead of the Sonne and of the Holy ghost Then after we shall see how they differ one from an other Surely when the Worde of God is spoken of in the Scripture it were a very greate absurditie to imagin it only a fadyng and vanishyng voyce whiche sente into the ayre cometh out of God hymselfe of whiche sort were the oracles geuen to the fathers and all the prophecies when rather the woorde is mente to bee the perpetuall wisedome abidyng with the Father from whens all the oracles and prophecies proceded For as Peter testifieth no lesse didde the olde prophetes speake with the spirite of Christ than dyd the Apostles and all they that after them dyd distribute the heauenly doctrine But because Christe was not yet openly shewed we must vnderstande that the Worde was before all worlde 's begotten of the Father And if the Spirite was of the Worde whose instrumentes were the prophetes we do vndoutedly gather that he was true god And this doth Moses teache playnly enough in the creation of the world when he setteth the worde as the meane For why dooth he expressely tell that God in creatyng of all his woorkes sayd Be this doone or that doon but that the vnserchable glory of god may shiningly appere in his images The suttlenosed and babblyng men do easily mock out this with sayeng that the name Woorde is there taken for his byddynge or commaundemente But better expositors are the Apostles whiche teache that the worldes were made by the same and that he susteineth theym all with his mightie Worde For here we see that the Word is taken for the bidding or commaundement of the Sonne which is hymselfe the eternall and essentiall Word to the Father And to the wise and sobre it is not darke that Salomon sayth
with hym and that the Holy Spirite is not a thyng diuers from the Father the Son For in eche Hypostasis is vnderstanded the whole substance with this that euery one hath his own propretie The Father is whole in the Sonne the Sonne is whole in the Father as hymselfe affirmeth I am in the Father and the Father is in me And the Ecclesiasticall writers doo not graunt the one to be seuered from the other by any difference of essence By these names that betoken distinction sayth Augustin that is ment wherby they haue relation one to an other and not the very substance whereby they are all one By whiche meanynge are the sayinges of the olde writers to bee made agree whiche otherwise would seeme not a little to disagree For sometyme they saye that the Father is the beginnyng of the Sonne and somtyme that the Sonne hath bothe godhead and essence of hymselfe and is all one begynnynge with the Father The cause of this diuersitie Augustine doothe in an other place well and planelye declare when he sayeth CHRIST hauynge respect to him selfe is called God and to his Father is called the Sonne And agayne ▪ the Father as to hymselfe is called God as to his Sonne is called the Father where hauynge respecte to the Sonne he is called the Father he is not the Sonne where as to the Father he is called the Son he is not the Father and where he is called as to hym self the Father and as to hymselfe the Sonne it is all one God Therfore when we simply speake of the Sonne without hauyng respect to the Father we do well and proprely say that he is of hym selfe and therfore we call hym but one beginnyng but when we make mention of the relation betweene him and his Father then we rightly make the Father the beginning of the Sonne All the whole fifth boke of Augustine concernyng the Trinitie dooth nothyng but sette foorth this matter And muche safer it is to reste in that relation that he speaketh of than into suttletle pearcyng vnto the hye mysterie to wander abroade by many vayne speculations Let them therfore that are pleased with sobrenesse cōtented with measure of Faith shortly learne so muche as is profitable to bee knowen that is when we professe that we beleue in one God vnder the name of God we vnderstande the one onely and single essence in whiche we comprehende thre Persons or hypostases And therfore so oft as we doo indefinitely speake of the name of God we meane no lesse the Sonne and the Holy ghost than the Father But when the Sonne is ioyned to the Father then commeth in a relation and so we make distinction betwene y◠Persons And because the propreties in the Persons bring an order with them so as the beginnyng and orginall is in the Father so ofte as mencion is made of the Father and the Son or the Holy ghost together the name of God is peculiarly geuen to the Father By this meane is reteined the vnitie of the essence and regarde is hadde to the order whiche yet dothe minishe nothyng of the godhead of the Sonne and of the Holy ghoste And where as we haue already seene that the Apostles doo affirme that the Sonne of God is he whom Moses and the prophetes doo testifie to be Iehouah the Lorde we must of necessitie alwaye come to the vnitie of the essences Wherefore it is a detestable sacrilege for vs to call the Sonne a seuerall God from the Father bycause the symple name of God doothe admytte no relation and God in respecte of hym selfe can not bee saide to be this or that Now that the name of Iehouah the Lorde indefinitely taken is applied to Christe appereth by the wordes of Paul wher he sayth Therfore I haue thryse praied the Lorde because that after he hadde receyued the aunswere of Christ. My grace is sufficient for the he sayeth by and by that the power of Christ may dwell in me It is certayne that the name Lorde is there set for Iehouah and therfore to restraine it to the person of the Mediatour were very fonde and childyshe for somuch as it is an absolute sentence that compareth not the Father with the Sonne And we knowe that after the accustomed maner of the Greekes the Apostles doo commonly sette the worde Kyrios Lord in stede of Iehouah And not to fetche an example farre of Paule dydde in no other sense pray to the Lorde than in the same sense that Peter citethe the place of Ioell who soeuer calleth vppon the name of the Lorde shall be saued But where this name is peculiarly geuen to the Sonne we shall se that there is an other reason therof when we com to a place fitte for it Nowe it is enough to haue in mynde when Paule had absolutely praied to God he by and by bryngeth in the name of Christ. Euen so is the whole God called by Christ hymselfe the Spirite For there is no cause agaynst it but that the whole essence of God may bee spirituall wherin the Father the Sonne and the Holy ghoste be comprehended Whiche is very playne by the Scripture For euen as there we heare God to be made a Spirite so we do here the Holy ghost for so muche as it is an Hypostasis of the whole essence to bee called bothe God and procedyng from God But for as muche as Satan to the ende to roote out our Faith hath alway moued great cōtentions partly concernyng the diuine essence of the Sonne and of the Holy ghost and partly cōcernyng their distinction of Persones And as in a maner in all ages he hath stirred vp wicked spirites to trouble the true teachers in this behalfe so at this day he trauaileth out of the olde embres to kyndle a new fyre therfore here it is good to answere the peruerse foolishe errours of some Hitherto it hath ben our purpose to leade as it were by the hande those that ar willyng to learne and not to striue hande to hande with the obstinate and contentious But nowe the truthe which we haue already peasably shewed must be reskued from the cauillations of the wicked All be it my chiefe trauayle shall yet be applied to this ende that they whyche geue gentill and open eares to the woord of God may haue whervpon stedfastly to rest their foote In this poynt if any where at all in the secrete mysteries of Scripture we ought to dispute sobrely and with greate moderation and to take great hede that neyther oure thought nor oure tongue procede any further than the boundes of Goddes woorde dooe extende For howe may the mynde of man by his capacitie define the immeasurable essence of God whiche neuer yet coulde certainly determine howe great is the body of the Son which yet he daily seeth with his eyes yea howe may she by her owne guidyng atteyn to discusse the substaunce of God that can not
the nature of man hath preeminence among all kyndes of liuyng creatures Therefore in that worde is noted the integritie that man had when he was endued with ryght vnderstandyng when he had his affection framed accordynge to reason and all his senses gouerned in right order and when in excelleÌ„t giftes he did truly resemble the excellence of his Creatour And though the principall seate of the image of God were in the mynde and hart or in the soule and the powers therof yet was there no parte of man not so muche as the body wherin dyd not some sparkes therof appere Certaine it is that also in all the partes of the worlde there doo shyne some resemblances of the glory of God wherby we may gather that where it is said that his Image is in man there is in so saying a certain secret comparison that auaunceth man aboue all other creatures and doth as it were seuer him from the common sort Neither is it to be denied that the Angels were create after the likenesse of God sithe as Christ him selfe testifieth our chiefe perfection shall be to become like vnto theim But not without cause doeth Moses by that peculiar title sette forth the grace of God towarde vs specially where he compareth onely visible creatures with man But yet it semeth that there is not geuen a ful definition of the image of God vnlesse it plainlier appere in what qualities man excelleth and wherby he ought to be compted a glasse resemblyng the glorye of God But that can be by no other thyng better knowen than by the repayryng of mans corrupted nature First it is doubtlesse that when Adam felle from his estate he was by that departure estranged from God Wherefore althoughe we graunte that the Image of God was not altogyther defaced and blotted oute in hym yet was it so corrupted that all that remaineth is but vggly deformitie Therefore the begynnyng of recouerie of safetie for vs is in that restoryng whyche we obteyne by Christe whoe is also for the same cause called the seconde Adam because he restored vs vnto trewe and perfecte integritie For althoughe where Paule dooeth in comparyson set the quicknyng Spirite that Christe geueth to the faithfull against the liuyng soule wherin Adam was created he setteth foorth the more abundaunte measure of grace in the regeneration yet doothe he not take awaye this other principall poynte that this is the ende of our regeneration that Chrste shulde newe fashion vs to the image of God Therfore in an other place he teacheth that the newe man is renewed accordynge to the image of hym that created hym Wherwith agreeth this saying put on the new maÌ„ which is create according to God Now it is to be sene what Paul doth principally coÌ„preheÌ„d vnder this renuyng First he speaketh of knowlege and after of pure rightuousnesse and holynesse Wherby we gather that the image of God was first of al to be sene in the light of the mynde in the vprightnesse of hart and soundnesse of all the partes For although I graunt that this is a figuratiue phrase of speeche to set the part for the whole yet can not this principle be ouerthrowen that that thyng whiche is the chief in the renewyng of the image of God was also the principall in the creation of hym And for the same purpose maketh it that in an other place he teacheth that we beholdyng the glory of God with open face are transformed into the same image Nowe doo we see howe Christe is the moste perfect image of God accordyng to the whiche we beyng fashioned are so restored that in true godlynesse rightuousnesse purenesse and vnderstaÌ„dyng we beare the image of God Whiche principle beyng established Osianders imagination of the shape of our body dooth easily vanishe away of it selfe Where as the man alone is in Paule called the Image and glory of God and the woman is excluded from that degree of honour it appereth by the reste of the text that the same is to be applied only to ciuile order of policie But that vnder the name of image wherof we speake is comprehended all that belongeth to the spirituall and eternall lyfe I thinke it be alredy sufficiently proued And the same thyng doeth Iohn confirme in other wordes saying that the lyghte whiche was from the beginnyng in the eternall worde of God was the light of men For where his purpose was to praise the singular grace of God whereby man excelleth all other liuyng creatures to seuer him from the common â—orte because he hath atteined no common life but ioyned with the light of vnderstandyng he therwithall sheweth howe he was made after the image of God Therfore sithe the image of God is the vncorrupted excellence of the nature of man whiche shyned in Adam before his fall and afterwarde was so corrupted and almoste defaced that nothyng remaineth sins that ruine but disordred mangled and filthily spotted yet the same dooth in some part appere in the electe insomuche as they are regenerate and shall obtein her full brightnesse in heauen But that we may knowe on what partes it consisteth it shall be good to entreate of the powers of the soule For that speculatiue deuise of Augustine is not sounde where he saith that the soule is a glasse of the Trinitie because that there are in it vnderstandyng will and memorie Neither is their opinion to bee approued whiche sette the Image of God in the power of dominion geuen vnto hym as if he resembled God onely in this marke that he is appointed lorde and possessor of all thynges where as in dede the Image of God is proprely to be sought within hym and not without hym and is an inwarde good gifte of the soule But before I go any further it is nedefull that I meete with the dotyng errour of the Manichees whyche Seruetto hath attempted to brynge in agayne in this age Where it is saide that God breathed the breath of life into the face of man they thought that the soule dyd conuey into man the substance of God as if some porcion of the immeasurable God were come into man But it is easye euen shortely to shewe howe many grosse and fowle absurdities this deuillish errour draweth with it For if the soule be by deriuation part of the essence of God it shall folowe that the nature of God is subiect not only to chaunge and passions but also to ignorance euill lustes weaknesse and all kindes of vices Nothing is more inconstant than man because contrary motions do tosse and diuersely drawe his soule oftentimes he is blynde by ignorance ofte he yeldeth as vanquished euen to small tentations and we knowe that the soule it self is the sinke and receiuer of al filthinesse all which thynges we must ascribe to the nature of God if we graunte that the soule is of the essence of God or a secrete inflowyng of godhed Who would not abhorte this
destruction And there was no necessitie to compell God to geue him any other then a meane will and a fraile will that of mans fall he myghte gather matter for his owne glory ¶ The .xvi. Chapter That God by his power dooth monishe and mainteyne the worlde whiche hym selfe hath created and by his prouidence doeth gouerne al the partes therof BUt it were veray fonde and bare to make God a creatour for a moment which doeth nothyng sins he hath ones made an ende of his worke And in this poynte principally ought we to differ from the prophane men that the presence of the power of God may shine vnto vs no lesse in the continuall state of the world than in the first beginnyng of it For thoughe the myndes of the very wicked in only beholdyng of the heauen earth are compelled to rise vp vnto the creatour yet hath faith a certain peculiar maner by it self wherby it geueth to god â—he whole praise of creation And therfore serueth that saying of the Apostle which we before alleged that we do not vnderstand but by fayth that the world was made by the word of God For vnlesse we passe forward euen vnto his prouidence we do not yet rightly conceiue what this meaneth the God is the creator howe soeuer we do seeme to comprehende it in mynde and confesse it with tongue When the sense of the fleshe hath ones sette before it the power of God in the very creation it resteth there and when it procedeth furthest of all it dooeth nothyng but wey and consider the wysedom power and goodnesse of the workeman in making suche a piece of worke which thinges do of them selues offer and thrust them selues in sight of men whether they will or no a certain generall doyng in preseruyng gouerning the same vpon which dependeth the power of mouyng Finally it thinketh that the liuely force at the beginning put into all things by God doth suffise to sustein them But faith ought to perce deper that is to say whom it hath lerned to be the creatour of al things by and by to gather that the same is the perpetual gouernor preseruer of them and that not by stirryng with an vniuersall motion as wel the whole frame of the worlde as all the partes therof but by susteynyng cherishing caring for with singular prouideÌ„ce euery one of those thinges that he hath created eueÌ„ to the least sparow So Dauid after he had fyrst said that the worlde was created by God by by descendeth to the continuall course of his prouidence By the worde of the Lorde saith he the heauens were stablished all the power therof by the spirite of his mouth By and by he addeth The Lord looked down vpon the sonnes of men so the rest that he saith further to the same effect For although they doo not al reason so orderly yet because it were not likely to be beleued that God had care of mens matters vnlesse he were the maker of the worlde nor any man doeth earnestly beleue that God made the worlde vnlesse he be perswaded that God hath also care of hys workes therefore not without cause Dauid doeth by good order conueye vs from the one to the other Generally in dede both the Philosophers doe teach and mens mindes doe conceiue that all partes of the worlde are quickened wyth the secrete inspiration of God But yet they atteine not so farre as Dauid both hymselfe procedeth and carryeth all the godly wyth hym saying all thynges wayte vpon thee that thou mayest geue them fode in due season Thou geuest it to them and they gather it Thou openest thy hand and they are filled with good things But if thou hide thy face they are troubled If thou take awaye theyr breath they dye and returne to theyr dust Againe if thou sende forth thy Spirite they are created and thou renewest the face of the earth Yea although they agree to the saying of Paul that we haue our being and are moued and do lyue in God yet are they farre from that earnest felyng of grace which he commendeth vnto vs because they taste not of gods speciall care wherby alone his fatherly fauor is knowen That thys difference maye the better appeare it is to be knoweÌ„ that the Prouidence of God suche as it is taughte in the Scripture is in comparison set as contrary to fortune and chaunces that happeÌ„ by aduenture Nowe forasmuche as it hath been commonly beleued in al ages and the same opinion is at thys daye also in a manner in al men that all thynges happen by fortune it is certayne that that which ought to haue been beleued concernyng Prouidence is by that wrong opinion not onely darkened but also in manner buried If a man light among theues or wylde beastes if by wynde sodenly rysen he suffer shipwrack on the sea if he be kylled wyth the fall of a house or of a tree if an other wandryng in deserte places fynde remedy for hys pouertie if hauing been tossed with the waues he atteine to the haueÌ„ if miraculously he escape but a fynger bredth from death all these chaunces as well of prosperitie as of aduersitie the reason of the fleshe doeth ascrybe to fortune But whosoeuer is taught by the mouth of Chryst that all the heares of hys hed are numbred will seke for a cause further of and wyll fyrmelye beleue that all chaunces are gouerned by the secrete councell of God And as concerning thinges without lyfe thys is to be thought that although euery one of them haue hys owne propertie naturally put into it yet doe they not put forth their power but only so farre as they be directed by the present hande of God They are therefore nothing els but instrumentes whereby God continually poureth in so much effecte as pleaseth him and at hys will boweth and turneth them to thys or that doyng Of no creature is the power more maruellous or more glorious than of the sunne For besyde that it geueth lyght to the whole worlde wyth hys bryghtnesse howe greate a thyng is thys that he cherysheth and quickeneth all lyuing creatures wyth hys heate that he breatheth frutefulnesse into the earth wyth hys beames that out of sedes warmed in the bosome of the grounde he draweth a budding grenenesse and susteyning the same wyth new nouryshmentes doth encrease and strengthen it tyll it ryse vp in stalkes That he fedeth it with continuall vapoure till it growe to a floure and from a floure to fruite That then also wyth bakyng it he bryngeth it to rypenesse That trees likewise and vines being warned by him do first budde and shote forth braunches and after sende out a flower and of a flower do engeÌ„der frute But the Lord because he would claime the whole glory of all these thinges to himselfe made the lighte first to be and the earth to be furnished with al kindes of herbes and fruites before
the olde testamente dyd shewe onely an image in abscence of the truthe and a shadowe in steede of the bodye But the newe testament geueth the truthe present and the sounde bodie it self And this difference is mentioned commonli whersoeuer the new testament is in comparison set againste the olde but it is more largely entreated of in the epistle to the Hebrues than any where els There the Apostle disputeth againste them whiche thought that the obseruations of Moses lawe might not be taken awaye but that thei sholde also drawe wyth them the ruine of all religion To confute thys erroure he vseth that whiche had been forespoken by the Prophete concerning the presthoode of Christe For whereas there is geuen hym an eternall presthoode it is certaine that that prestehoode is taken away wherin newe successors were dayly put in one after an other But hee proueth that the institution of this newe prestehoode is to be preferred bicause it is stablished with an othe He after addeth further that in the same change of the preestehoode is also conteined the change of the Testament And that it was necessarie so to be he proueth by this reason for that the weakenesse of the law was such that it coulde helpe nothing to perfection Then he procedeth in declaring what was that weakenesse euen this that it had certaine outwarde righteousnesses of the fleshe whyche could not make the obseruers of them perfect according to conscience that by sacrifices of beastes it coulde neither wipe away synnes nor purchase true holynesse He concludeth therefore that there was in it a shadowe of good thynges to come but not the liuely image of the thinges them selues and that therefore it had not other office but to bee as an introduction into a better hope whiche is delyuered in the Gospell Here is to bee seen in what poynte the couenant of the lawe is compared with the couenant of the Gospell and the ministerie of Christe with the ministerie of Moses For if the comparison concerned the substance of the promisses then were there greate dyfference betweene the twoo testamentes but sithe the poynte of oure case leadeth vs an other waye we muste tende to thys ende to fynde oute the truth Let vs then set forth heere the couenant whiche he hathe stablished to be eternall and neuer to peryshe The accomplyshment therof whereby it atteineth to be stablished and continuing in force is Christe Whyle suche establyshment was in expectation the Lorde did by Moses apointe ceremonies to bee as it were solemne signes of the coufyrmation Nowe this came there in question whether the ceremonies that were ordeyned in the lawe oughte to geue place to Christe or no. Althoughe these ceremonies were in deede onely accidentes or verylye additions and thynges adioyned or as the people call them accessarie thynges to the couenaunte yet bycause they weare instrumentes or meanes of the admynistration thereof they beare the name of the couenaunte yt selfe as the lyke ys wonte to bee attributed to other Sacramentes Therefore in summe the olde Testamente is in thys place called the solemne fourme of confyrmynge the couenaunte conteyned in Ceremonies and Sacrifices The Apostle saythe that bycause in yt ys nothynge perfecte vnlesse wee passe further therefore yt behoued that they shoulde bee dyscoâ—tinued and abrogate that place myght be geuen to Christe the assurer and mediatore of better testament by whome eternall sanctification is ones purchaced to the elect and the transgressions blotted oute that remayned vnder the lawe Or if you like it better thus That the olde testament of the Lorde was that whiche was deliuered wrapped vp in the shadowish and effectual obseruation of ceremonies and that therfore it was but for a time bicause it did but as it wer hang in suspense vntyll it myght staye vpon a more stedfast and substantiall confyrmation and that then onely it was made newe eternall after that it was consecrate and stablyshed by the bloode of Christe Wherevpon Christe calleth the cuppe that he gaue at his supper to his Disciples The cup of the newe testament in his bloode to signifie that then the testameÌ„t of God attemeth his trueth by whiche it be coÌ„meth newe and eternal when it is sealed with his bloode Hereby appeareth in what sense the Apostle saide that in the scholynge of the lawe the Iewes were brought vnto Christ before that he was shewed in the flesh And he confesseth that thei were the children and heires of God but yet suche as for their yonge age were to be kept vnder the custodie of a schoolemaster For it behoued that ere the sonne of righteousnesse was yet rysen their sholde neither be so great brightnesse of reuelation nor so great deepe sight of vnderstandynge Therefore God so gaue them in measure the light of hys worde that thei saw it as yet farre of and darkely Therfore Paule expresseth this sclendernesse of vnderstanding by the terme of yonge age whiche the Lords wil was to haue to be exercised with that elements of this worlde with out warde observations as rules of instruction for children vntyll Christe shoulde shyne a broade by whom it behoued that the knowledge of the faithfull people shoulde growe to full age This distinction Christe him selfe meant of when hee saide that the lawe and the Prophetes were vntyll Ihon and that from thenseforth the kingedome of God is preached What did the lawe and the Prophetes open to men of their time euen this thei gaue a taste of that wisedome which in time to come sholde be plainely disclosed and thei shewed it before as it were twinclingely shyning a farr of But when it came to passe that Christ might be pointed to with the finger then was the kingedome of God set open For in him are laied abroade the treasures of al wisdome and vnderstanding whereby wee atteine euen in a manner into the secret closettes of heauen And it maketh not against vs that ther can scarsely any one be found in the Christian Churche that in excellencye of faith maye be compared with Abraham or that the Prophetes excelled in suche force of spirite that euen at this daye thei lighten the whole worlde withall For oure question is not here what grace the Lord hathe bestowed vpon a few but what ordinarie disposition he vsed in teachinge his people suche as is declared in the Prophetes them selues which were endued with peculiar knoweledge aboue the rest For euen their preaching is dark and enclosed in figures as of thinges a farre of Moreouer howe meruellous knoweledge soeuer appeared in them aboue other yet forasmuche as they wer dryuen of necessitie to submit them to the common childish â—â—struction of the people thei them selues also were reckened in the nuÌ„bre of children Fynallye there neuer chaunged any suche clere sfyght to any at that tyme but that it dede in some parte savoure of the darknesse of the time Whervpon Christ saide Many kinges and Prophetes
in shame no horrour in death what valiaÌ„tnesse or temperance were it to beare them indifferently But when euery one of these doth with the natural bitternesse therof bitte the heartes of vs all herein doth the valiantnesse of a faythfull man shewe it self if beyng assayed with the felyng of such bitternesse how greuously so euer he be troubled with it yet with valiantly resistyng he ouercommeth it his patience vttereth it selfe herein yf beyng sharply prouoked he is yet so bridled with the feare of God that he bursteth not out into any disteÌ„per His cherefulnesse appereth herein yf beyng wounded with sadnesse and sorrowe he resteth vpon the spirituall comfort of God This conflict whiche the faithfull do susteyne agaynst the natural felyng of sorrow while they studie for patience and temperance Paul hath very wel described in these wordes We are put to distresse in al thinges but we are not made sorrowfull we labour but we are not lefte destitute we suffer persecution but we are not forsaken in it we are throweÌ„ downe but we perish not You see how to beare the crosse patiently is not to be altogether astonished and without al felyng of sorrow As the Stoikes in olde time did foolishly describe a valiant hearted man to be such a one as puttyng of all nature of man was a like moued in prosperitie and in aduersitie in sorrowfull and ioyefull state yea suche a one as like a stone was moâ—ed with nothyng And what haue they profited with this hye wisedome Forsothe they haue painted out such an image of wisedome as neuer was found and neuer can herafter be among meÌ„ But rather while they coueted to haue to exact and precise a patience they haue taken awaye all the vse of patience out of mans life And at this day also amoÌ„g Christians there are newe Stoikes that recken it a fault not only to grone and wâ—pe but also to be sad and carefull But these strange conclusions do commonly procede from idle men whiche busieng themselues rather in speculation than doyng can do nothyng but brede vs such new found doctrines But we haue nothyng to do with that stony Philosophie whiche our maister and Lord hath condemned not only by his worde but also by his example For he mourned and wept both at his owne and other mens aduersities The worlde sayth he shall reioyse but you shall mourne and wepe And bicause no man should finde faulte therewith by his open proclamation he hath pronounced them blessed that mourne And no maruell For if all wepyng be blamed what shal we iudge of the Lord himself out of whose body dropped blouddy teares If euery feare be noted of infidelitie what shall we iudge of that quakyng feare wherewith we reade that he was not sclenderly striken If all sadnesse be mislyked how shal we like this that he confesseth his soule to be sad euen to the death This I thought good to speake to this ende to cal godly mindes from despear that they should not therfore altogether forsake the studie of patience bycause they can not put of the naturall affection of sorrow whiche must needes happen to them that make of patience a senslesse dulnesse and of a valiant and constant man a stocke For the Scripture geueth to the holy ones the prayse of patience when they are so troubled with hardnesse of aduersities that yet thei be not ouercome nor throweÌ„ downe with it when they be so pricked with bitternesse that they be also delited with spirituall ioye when they be so distressed with grefe that yet they receyue courage againe beyng cheared with the comfort of God Yet in the meane time that repugnancie abideth still in their heartes that naturall sense eschueth and dredeth those thinges that it knoweth to be against it but the affection of godlinesse trauaileth euen through all those difficulties to the obeyeng of Gods will This repugnancie the Lord expressed when he sayd thus to Peter WheÌ„ thou waste yong thou didst gird thy self didst walke whether thou woldest But when thou art old an other shall gyrde thee and leade thee whither thou shalt not be willyng Neyther is it likely that Peter when the time came that he must glorifie God by his death was drawen vnwillyngly and resistyng vnto it Els his martyrdome should haue but small prayse But howe so euer he did with great cherefulnesse of heart obeye the ordinance of God yet bicause he had not put of the nature of manne he was doubly strayned with two sortes of willes For when he dyd by himselfe coÌ„sider the bloudly death that he should suffer beyng stryken with horrour thereof he would gladly haue escaped it On the other side when it came in his minde that he was called vnto it by the commauÌ„dement of God then conqueryng and treadyng downe feare he gladly yea and cherefully toke it upon him This therefore we must endeuour yf we will be the Disciples of Christ that our mindes be inwardly filled with so great a reuerence and obedience to God as may tame and subdue to his ordinance all contrarie affections So shall it come to passe that with whatsoeuer kinde of crosse we be vexed eueÌ„ in the greatest anguishes of minde we shall constantly kepe patience For aduersities shal haue their sharpnesse wherwith we shal be bitten so when we are afflicted with sicknesse we shal bothe grone and be disquieted desire health so beyng pressed with pouertie we shal be pricked with the sâ—inges of carefulnesse and sorrowe so shall we be striken with grefe of shame contempt and iniurie so shall we yelde due teares to nature at the burial of our frendes but this alway shal be the conclusion But the lord willed so therefore let vs folow his will Yea euen in the middest of the prickynges of sorrow in the middest of mourning and teares this thought must needes come betwene to incline our heart to take cherefully the very same thinges by reason whereof it is so moued But for asmuche as we haue taken the chefe cause of bearyng the crosse out of the coÌ„sideratioÌ„ of the wil of God we must in few wordes define what difference is betwene Phylosophical Christian patieÌ„ce Truely very fewe of the Phylosophers climbed to so hie a reason to vnderstand that the hand of God doth exercise vs by afflictions and to thinke that God is in this behalf to be obeyed But they bryng no other reason but bicause we must so doe of necessitie What is this els but to say that thou must yeld vnto God bicause thou shalt trauail in vaine to wrastle against him For if we obey God only bicause we so must of necessitie then if we might escape we would cesse to obey But the Scripture biddeth vs to consider a far other thing in the wil of God that is to say first iustice and equitie then the care of our saluatioÌ„ These therfore be the Christian exhortations to patience whether pouertie or banishmeÌ„t or
if the brightnesse of the sunne can not be seuered from the heate therof shall we therfore saye that the earth is warmed with the light enlightened with the heate There is nothing more fit for this purpose than this similitude The sunne with his heate geueth life and frutefulnesse to the earth with his beames he geueth light brightnesse Here is a mutuall vnseparable cōioyning yet reason forbiddeth to conuey to the one that whiche is peculiar to the other Like absurditie is in this confusion of two sortes of graces that Osiander thrusteth in For because God dothe in dede renew them to the obseruing of righteousnesse whome he frely accōpteth for righteous therfore Osiander confoundeth that gift of regeneratiō with this fre acceptation affirmeth that they be al one the selfsame thing But the Scripture ioyning thē both together yet doth distinctly reckē them that the manifold grace of God may the better appere vnto vs. For that saying of Paul is not superfluous that Christ was geuen vs vnto righteousnesse sanctification And whensoeuer he resoneth to proue by the saluation purchaced for vs by the fatherly loue of God by the grace of Christ that we are called to holinesse cleannesse he plainely declareth that it is one thing to be iustified an other be made newe creatures But when Osiāder cometh to the Scripture he corrupteth as many places as he allegeth Where Paul saith that faith is accompted for righteousnesse to him that worketh not but beleueth in him that iustifieth the wicked mā he expoūdeth it to make righteous With like rashnesse he depraueth al the fourth Chapter to the Romains sticketh not with like fals colour to corrupt that place which I euen now alleged Who shal accuse the electes of God it is God that iustifieth where it is plaine that he speaketh simply of gilthinesse acquiting the meaning of the Apostle hangeth vpon a comparing of contraries Therfore Osiander is found to fond a babbler as wel in that reason as in alleging the testimonies of Scripture And no more rightly doth he speake of the name of righteousnesse in saying that fayth was accompted to Abraham for righteousnesse after that embracing Christ whiche is the righteousnesse of God and God him self he excelled in singular vertues whereby appereth that of two whole places he hath wrongfully made one corrupt place For the ryghteousnesse that is there mentioned perteineth not to the whole course of his calling but rather the holy Ghost testifieth that although the vertues of Abrahā were singularly excellent that with long continuance hee at length had encreasced them yet hee did no other waye please God but by this that he receiued by faythe the grace offered in the promyse Whereupon foloweth that in iustification there is no place for workes as Paull very well affirmeth As for this the Osiander obiecteth that the power of iustifiyng is not in faith of it selfe but in respect that it receiueth Christe I wyllynglye graunte it For if fayth did iustifie of it selfe or by inwarde force as they call it and as it is alwaye feble and vnperfect could not worke iustification but in part so should the iustification be maymed that should geue vs but a pece of saluation As for vs we imagine no suche thinge but in proper speakyng doe saye that God only iustifieth and then we geue the same to Christe because he was geuen vs vnto ryghteousnesse and faythe we compare as it were to a vessell For except we came emptie with open mouthe of our soule to craue the grace of Christe we can not be able to receyue Christ. Whereupon we gather that we doe not take from Christ the power of iustifying when we teache that he is first receiued by fayth before that his righteousnesse be receyued But yet I doe not admit the crooked figures of this Sophister when he sayth that faith is Christ as if an earthen pot were a treasure because gold is hidden in it For the reson is not vnlike but that faith although it be by it selfe of no worthynesse or price may iustifie vs in bryngynge Christ as a pot full of money maketh a man ryche Therfore I say that fayth whiche is onely the instrument to receyue rightuousnesse is vnfitly mingled with Christe whiche is the materiall cause and bothe author and minister of so great a benefit Nowe is this doubt also dissolued Howe this worde Faith ought to bee understanded when we entreate of iustification In the receiuing of Christ he goeth further for he sayeth that the inward worde is receiued by the ministration of the outwarde worde thereby to drawe vs from the priesthode of Christ and the persone of the Mediatour to his outwarde Godhed As for vs we deuide not Christ but we say that he is the same eternall worde of God whiche reconciling vs to God in his flesh gaue vs righteousnesse and we confesse that otherwyse he could not haue fulfilled the office of Mediatour and purchaced vs righteousnesse vnlesse he had ben eternall God But this is Osianders doctrine where as Christ is both God and mā that he was made righteousnesse to vs in respect of his nature of Godhed and not of manhode But if this properly belong to the Godhed thē it shal not be peculiar to Christ but common with the father and the holy Ghost for as muche as ther is not one righteousnesse of the one and an other of the other Moreouer that whiche was naturally frō eternitie coulde not bee conueniently sayde to bee made to vs. Butte althoughe we graunte this that God was made righteousnesse for vs howe shal it agree that that whiche is set betwene is made of God Truely that properly belongeth to the persone of the Mediatour whiche though he conteine in hym selfe the nature of Godhede yet here he is specially signified by his proper title by whiche he is seuerally discerned frō the father and the holy Ghost But the folishly triumpheth in that one worde of Hieremic where he promiseth that the Lorde Iehoua shal be our righteousnesse but out of that he shall gather nothinge but that Christ which is righteousnes is God openly shewed in the flesh In an other place we haue rehearsed out of Paules sermon that God purchased to himselfe the churche with his bloud if any man gather therupon that the bloud wherewith sinnes were purged was diuine and of the nature of Godhed who can abyde so fowle an errour But Osiander thinketh that with this so childishe a cauillation he hath gotten all thinges he swelleth he leapeth for ioye and stuffeth many leaues full with his bigge wordes when yet there is a plaine and redy solutiō for it in saying that the worde Iehoua in dede when he is made the issue of Dauid shal be the righteousnesse of the godly But Esaie teacheth in what sense saying My iust seruant shal with knowledge of him selfe iustifie many Let vs note that the
who so dare go further and to aske any thing of God beside these firste they will adde of their owne to the wisdome of God which can not be done without mad blasphemie then they hold not themselues vnder the wil of God but despising it do with gredynesse wander further finally they shal neuer obteine any thyng forasmuche as they pray without faith And there is no doute that all suche praiers are made without faith because here wanteth the woorde of God vpon which vnlesse faith be grounded it can in no wise stande But they which forsaking the maisters rule doo folowe their owne desires are not onely without the worde of God but also so much as they be able with their whole endeuor are against it Therefore Tertullian no lesse fitly thaÌ„ truly hath called this a lawful prayer secretely signifyeng that all other are lawlesse and vnlawfull We woulde not haue these thynges so taken as though we were so bounde with this forme of prayer that we may not change a worde or a sillable For there are echewhere red many prayers in the Scriptures farre differyng from this in woordes yet written by the same Spirite and which are at this day profytable to be vsed of vs. Many are continually put into the mouthes of the faithful by the same Spirite which in lykenesse of wordes do not so muche agree This onely is our meanyng in so teachyng that no man shold seke loke for or aske any other thyng at all than that which is summarily comprehended in this praier and whiche thoughe it moste differ in wordes yet differeth not in sense Like as it is certaine that all the praiers which are found in the Scriptures and which do come out of godly hartes are applied to this so verily none can any where bee founde whiche maye matche muche lesse passe the perfectnesse of this praier Here is nothing left out that might be thought vpon to the praises of God nothyng that ought to come into the mynde of man for his owne profites and the same so fully that all hope is worthily taken away from all men to attempt to make any better In a summe let vs remembre that this is the doctrine of the wisedome of God which hath taught what he willed and willed what was nedefull But although we haue aboue saied that we ought alway to breathe vpwarde with myndes lifted vp to God and pray without ceassyng yet forasmuche as suche is our weakenesse as nedeth to bee vpholden with many helpes suche is our dullnesse as needeth to be pricked forwarde with many spurres it is good that euery one of vs appoynt to hymselfe priuately certaine houres whiche may not passe away without prayer and which may haue the whole affectioÌ„s of our mynd throughly busied to that purpose as when we rise in the mornyng before that we go to our daies worke when we sitt down to meate when we haue ben fedde by the blessyng of God when we take vs to rest Only let this not be a superstitious obseruyng of houres by which as payeng a taske to God we may think our selues discharged for the other houres but a trayning of our weakeâ—s wherby it may so be exercised from time to time stirred vp Specially we ought carefully to loke that so oft as either we our selues are in distresse or we se other to be in distresse with any hardnesse of aduersitie we runne streight waye to hym not with feete but with hartes then that we suffer not any prosperitie of our owne or other mens to passe but that we testifie that we acknowlege it to bee his with praise and thankesgeuyng Finally this is diligentlye to bee obserued in all prayer that we goe not about to bynde God to certaine circumstances nor to appoynt to hym what he shal do at what time in what place and in what maner as by this prayer we ar taught to make to hym no law nor to appoynt to him any condition but to leaue to his will that those thynges which he will do he may do in what maner at what tyme and in what place it pleaseth him Wherfore ere we make any prayer for our selues we first praie that his will be done where we do already submitt our will to his with which when it is restrained as with a bridle put vppon it it maye not presume to bryng God into rule but make hym the iudge and gouernor of all her desyres If we do with myndes framed to this obedience suffer our selues to be ruled with the lawes of Gods Prouidence we shall easily learne to continue in praier and with longyng desires paciently to waite for the Lord beyng assured that although he appeare not yet he is alway present with vs and will when he seeth his tyme declare howe not deaffe eares he gaue to the praiers whiche in the eyes of men semed to be despised And this shal be a most present comfort that we faint not and fall downe by despaire if at any time God do not answere at our firste requestes Like as they are wont to do whiche while they are caried with their sodeyne heate do so call vpon God that if he come not to them at their fyrst bruntes and bryng them present helpe they by and by imagine hym to be angry and hatefully bent agaynst them and castyng away all hope of obteynyng do cesse to call vpon him But rather differâ—yng our hope with a well tempered euennesse of mynde let vs goe forwarde in that perseuerance which is so much coÌ„mended to vs in Scriptures For in the Psalmes we may oftentymes see howe Dauid and other faithfull men when they seme in a maner weried with prayeng did beate the aire because they threwe away their words to God that heard them not and yet they cesse not from prayeng because the word of God hath not his full authoritie manteined vnlesse the credite therof bee set aboue all successes of thynges Moreouer let vs not tempte God and prouoke him against vs beyng weried with oure importunacie whiche many vse to doo which do nothing but indent with God vpon a certain condition and binde him to the lawes of their couenantyng as though he were seruant to their desires which if he doo not presently obey they disdayne they chafe they carpe against hym they murmure they turmoile Therfore to such oftentymes in his furor he beyng angry grauÌ„teth that which to other in his mercie he beyng fauorable denieth An example hereof are the children of Israell for whome it had ben better not to haue ben heard of the Lord than with flesh to eate vp his wrath But if yet at length after long lokyng for it our sense do not perceiue what we haue preuailed with prayeng and feleth no fruite thereof yet our faith shall assure vs of that whiche can not bee perceiued by sense namely that we haue obteined that which was expedient for vs forasmuche as the Lord dothe so ofte and so certainly
foreknow out of an idle watchtoure the thinges that he worketh not but in suche sense as it is ofte red For truely when Peter sayth in Luke the Christ was by the determined coūsel foreknowlege of God appoynted to death he doth not bryng God as a loker on but the author of our saluation So the same Peter also where he sayth that the faithfull to whome he wrote were chosen accordyng to the foreknowlege of God proprely expresseth that secrete Predestination wherby God hath marked for his children whome he wold And the worde Purpose whiche he ioyneth for a diuers woorde expressyng all one thing forasmuche as it dothe euery where signifie a stedfast determination as they commonly calle it vndoutedlye teacheth that God when he is author of our saluation goeth not oute of hymselfe In whiche sense he sayth in the same Chapiter that Christe was the lambe foreknowen before the creation of the worlde For what is more fonde or triflyng than to say that God from on hye did stande lokyng whense saluation should come to mankynde Therefore in Paule the foreknowen people is as muche as a small portion mingled with the multitude which falsly pretendeth the name of God In an other place also Paule to beate downe their bostyng which beyng but couered with a visor doo take vpon themselues the thefe preeminence among the godly before the world sayth that God knoweth who be his Finally by that sayeng Paule poynteth vnto vs two sortes of people the one of the whole kynrede of Abraham the other seuerally chosen oute of it and whiche beyng layde vp vnder the eyes of God is hidden from the sight of men And it is no dout that he toke this out of Moses whych affirmeth that God will be mercifull to whome he wyll althoughe he there spake of the electe people whoe 's estate in outwarde seemyng was egall as if he shoulde haue sayde that in the common adoption is included with hym a speciall grace towarde some as it were a more holye treasure and that the common couenaunt withstandeth not but that the same small numbre maye be exempte in degree and he wyllyng to make hymselfe the free disposer and ruler of this thyng precisely denyeth that he will be merciefull to one rather than to an other for any other reason but for that it so pleaseth hym because when mercie commeth to hym that seeketh it though he in deede suffer not a denyall yet he either preuenteth or partely getteth to hymselfe the fauor wherof God claymeth to hymselfe the prayse Now let the soueraigne Iudge and maister pronounce of the whole mater When he saw so great hardnesse in his hearers that he dyd in a maner waste his wordes without fruite among the multitude to remedie this offence he crieth out Whatsoeuer my Father geueth me it shall come to me For this is the wyll of my Father that whatsoeuer my Father hath geuen me I shall not lose any thyng of it Note that the begynnyng is taken at the Fathers gyfte that we may be deliuered into the faithfull kepyng and defence of Christe Here some man peraduenture will turne a circle aboute and wyll take exception sayeng that they onely are accompted in the propre possession of the Father whoe 's yeldyng hath ben voluntarie by Fayth But Christe standeth onely vpon that poynte that althoughe the fallynges awaie of greate multitudes doo shake the whole worlde yet the counsell of God shall be stedfast and stande faster than the heauens themselues that his election may neuer fayle They are sayde to haue ben the elect of the Father beefore that he gaue to them his onely begotten Sonne They aske whether it were by nature yea rather them whyche were straungers he made his owne by drawyng them to hym There is a greatee clearenesse in the woordes of Christe than can by shiftyng be couered with any darknesse No man sayth he can come to me vnlesse my Father drawe hym But who so hathe hearde and learned of my Father he commeth to me If all generally without difference should bow their knee before Christ then the election were common but nowe in the fewnesse of the beleuers appeareth a manifest diuersitie Therfore after that Christe had affirmed that the disciples whiche were geuen him were the peculiar possession of God the Father within a little after he added I praie not for the worlde but for those whom thou hast geuen me because they are thyne Whereby is proued that the whole worlde belongeth not to the Creator of it sauyng that grace delyuereth a fewe from the wrath of God and from eternall deathe whiche otherwyse shoulde haue perished but the worlde it selfe is lefte in his owne destruction to whiche it was appoynted In the meane time although Christe putt hymselfe meane betweene yet he claymeth to himselfe the power of choosyng in common with the Father I speake not sayth he of all I knowe whome I haue chosen If any man aske from whense he hath chosen them he answereth in an other place Oute of the worlde whiche he excludeth out of his prayers when he commendeth his disciples to his Father This is to be holden that when he affirmeth that he knoweth whome he hath chosen there is signified some speciall sort in the generall kynde of men then that the same speciall sort is made to differ not by the qualitie of their owne vertues but by the heauenly decree Wherupon foloweth that many excell by their own force or diligence when Christ maketh hymselfe the author of election For when in an other place he reckeneth Iudas among the elect wheras he was a deuell this is referred onely to the office of Apostleshyp whyche althoughe it bee a cleere myrror of the fauor of God as Paul so oftentymes acknowlegeth in his owne persone yet it conteyneth not in it selfe the hope of eternal saluation Iudas therfore when he did vnfaithfully beare the office of an Apostle myght be worse than the deuell but of those whome Christ hath ones graffed into his bodye he will suffre none to perishe because in preseruyng their saluation he wil performe that whiche he hath promysed that is he will stretche foorth the power of God whiche is greater than all For whereas he sayth in all other place Father of those whome thou haste geuen me I haue loste none but the sonne of perdition although it be an abusiue speche by figure yet it hath no doutefull meanyng The summe is that God maketh them his chyldren by free adoption whome he will haue to be his chyldren and that the inwarde cause therof is in hymselfe because he is content with his owne secrete good pleasure But Ambrose Origene and Hierome thoughte that God distributeth his grace among men as he forseeth that euery man will vse it well Yea and Augustine was ones in the same opinion But when he had better profited in Knowlege of the Scripture he not only reuoked
than eche one seuerally neither is it my meaning that thys is so spoken in common to the faithful as though they were al alike endued with the Spirite of vnderstanding and doctrine but because it is not to be graunted to the aduersaries of Christ that they should for the defense of an euill cause wrest the Scripture to a wrong sense But omitting this I simply cōfesse that which is true that the lord is perpetually presēt with his ruleth them with his Spirite And that this Spirite is not the Spirite of error ignorance lyeng or darkenesse but of sure reuelation wisedome trueth light of whō they not deceitfully may learne those thinges that are geuē them that is to say what is the hope of their calling what be the richesse of the glory of the inheritaunce of God in the saintes But wheras the faythful euen they that are endued with more excellent giftes aboue the rest do in thys fleshe receiue onely the firste frutes a certaine tast of that Spirite there remaineth nothing leeuer to them thā knowing their own weakenesse to hold themselues carefully within the boundes of the worde of God least if they wander farr after their own sense they by by stray out of the right waie in so much as they be yet voide of that Spirite by whoe 's only teaching truth is discerned from falshode For all men do confesse with Paule that they haue not yet atteined to the marke Therfore they more endeuor to daily profiting than glory of perfection But they wil take exception say that whatsoeuer is particularly attributed to euery one of the holy ones the same doth throughly fully belong to the Chirche it selfe Although this hath some seming of truth yet I deney it to be true God doth in dede so distribute to euery one of the members the giftes of his Spirite by measure that the whole body wanteth nothing necessarie whē the giftes are geuē in cōmon But the richesse of the Chirche are alway such that there euer wāteth much of that hiest perfection which our aduersaries do bost of Yet the Chirche is not therefore so lefte destitute in any behalf but that she alway hath so much as is enough For the Lord knoweth what her necessitie requireth But to holde her vnder humilitie and godly modestie he geueth her no more than he knoweth to be expedient I know what here also they are wont to obiecte that is that the Chirche is clensed with the washing of water in the worde of life that it might be without wrincle and spot and that therfore in an other place it is called the piller and stay of truth But in the first of these two places is rather taught what Christ daily worketh in it than what he hath allredy done For if he daily sanctifieth purgeth polysheth wypeth from spottes all them that be his truely it is certayne that they are yet besprinkled with some spottes and wrincles and that there wanteth somwhat of their sanctificatiō But how vayne and fabulous is it to iudge the Chirch alredy in euery part holy and spottlesse wherof all the members are spotty and very vncleane It is true therefore that the Chirche is sanctified of Christe But onely the beginning of that sanctifieng is here seen but the ende and full accomplishment shall be when Christe the holiest of holy ones shall truely and fully fill it with his holinesse It is true also that the spottes and wrincles of it are wiped awaye but so that they be daily in wiping awaye vntill Christe with his comming dooe vtterlye take awaye all that remaineth For vnlesse we graunt this we must of necessitie affirme with the Pelagians that the righteousnesse of the faithfull is perfect in this life and with the Cathani and Donatistes we muste suffer no infirmitie in the Chirch The other place as we haue ells where seen hath a sense vtterly differing from that which they pretende For when Paule hath instructed Timothee and framed him to the true office of a Bishop he sayeth that he did it to this purpose that he should knowe how he ought to be haue himselfe in the Chirch And that he should with the greater religiousnesse and endeuor bend himselfe thereunto he addeth that the Chirch is the very piller stay of truth For what ells do these wordes meane but that the truth of God is preserued in the Chirch namely by the ministerie of preaching As in an other place he teacheth that Christ gaue Apostles Pastors and Teachers that we should no more be caried about with euery winde of doctrine or be morked of men but that being enlightened with the true knowledge of the Sonne of God we should altogether mete in vnitie of Faith Wheras therfore the truth is not extinguished in the world but remayneth safe that same cōmeth to passe because it hath the Chirche a faithful keper of it by whoe 's helpe ministerie it is susteined But if this keping standeth in the ministerie of the Prophetes and Apostles it foloweth that it hangeth wholy herupō if the word of the Lord be faithfully preserued doe kepe hys puritie But that the reders may better vnderstande vpon what pointe thys question chefely standeth I wil in fewe wordes declare what our aduersaries require and wherin we stande against them Where they say that the Chirche can not erre it tendeth herunto thus they expounde it that forasmuch as it is gouerned by the Spirite of God it may goe safely without the worde that whether soeuer it goeth it can not thinke nor speake any thing but truth that therfore if it determine any thing wtout or beside Gods worde the same is no otherwise to be estemed than as a certaine Oracle of God If we graūt that first point that the Chirche can not erre in thinges necessarie to saluation this is our meaning that this is therfore because forsaking al her own wisdome she suffreth her selfe to be taught of the Holy ghost by the word of God This therfore is the difference They set the authoritie of the Chirch without the worde of God but we wil that it be annexed to the worde and suffer it not to be seuered from it And what maruel is it if the spouse and scholar of Christ be subiect to her husbande scholemaister that the cōtinually and ernestly hāgeth of his mouth For this is the order of a wel gouerned house that the wife should obey the authoritie of the husbande thys is the rule of a wel ordered schoole that the teaching of the scholemaster alone should there be heard Wherfore let the Chirche not be wise of her selfe not thinke any thing of her selfe but determine the ende of her wisdōe where he hath made an ende of speaking After thys maner she shal also distruste all the inuentions of her owne reason but in those thinges wherin it stādeth vpō the word of God she shall wauer
succoured that they may wynde themselues out of this distresse But to take awaye all dout at ones I say that all vowes being not lawful nor rightly made as they are nothing worth before God so oughte to be voide to vs. For if in contractes of men those promises only doe bynde in which he with whom we contract would haue vs bounde it is an absurditie that we should be driuen to the keping of those things which God doth not require of vs specially sith our works are no otherwise right but when they please God and when consciences haue this testimonie that they please hym For this remaineth certaine whatsoeuer is not of Faith is sinne Whereby Paule meaneth that the worke which is taken in hande with douting is therefore faulty because Faith is the roote of al good workes by which we are assured that they be acceptable to God Therefore if it be lawfull for a Christian man to goe about nothing without this assurednesse if by faulte of ignorance they haue taken any thing in hande why shoulde they not afterwarde geue it ouer when they be deliuered from errors Sithe vowes vnaduisedly made are such they do not onely nothing binde but are necessarily to be vndone Yea what if they are not onely nothing estemed but also are abhominable in the sight of God as is aboue shewed It is nedelesse to discourse any longer of a mater not nedefull This one argumente semeth to me to be enough to pacifie godly consciēces and deliuer them from all dout that whatsoeuer workes doe not flowe out of the pure fountaine and be not directed to the lawfull ende are refused of God and so refused that he no lesse forbiddeth vs to goe forewarde in them than to beginne them For hereupon foloweth that those vowes which procede of error and superstition are both of no value before God and to be forsaken of vs. Moreouer he that shall knowe this solution shall haue wherewith he may defende againste the sclaunders of the wicked them that departe from monkerie to some honest kynde of lyfe They are greuously accused of breache of Fayth and periurie because they haue broken as it is commonly thoughte the insoluble bonde wherewith they were bounde to God and to the Chirch But I say that there was no bonde where God doth abrogate that whiche man confirmeth Moreouer admitting that they were bounde when they were holdē entangled with not knowing of God and with error nowe sins they are lightened with the knowlege of the truth I say that they are therewithall free by the grace of Christe For if the crosse of Christe haue so greate effectualnesse that it looseth vs frō the curse of the law of God wherw t we were holdē bonde how much more shal it deliuer vs frō forein bondes which are nothing but the snaring nettes of Satan To whomsoeuer therfore Christ shineth with the lighte of his Gospell it is no doute that he looseth them from all snares whiche they had put vpon themselues by superstition Howbeit they want not yet an other defense if they were not fitt to liue vnmaried For if an impossible vow be a sure destruction of the soule whom the Lorde would haue saued and not destroied it foloweth that we ought not to continue therin But howe impossible is the vowe of continēce to them that are not endued with a singular gift we haue alredy taught and experience speaketh it though I holde my peace For neither is it vnknowen with how great filthinesse almost all monasteries do swarme And if any of them seme honester and more shamefast than the rest yet they are not therfore chast because they suppresse and kepe in the fault of vnchastitie So verily God doth with horrible exāples take vengeance on the boldnesse of men whiche forgetting their owne weakenesse do against nature couet that which is denied them and despising the remedies which the Lord had geuen them at hande do trust that they can with stubbornnesse and obstinatie ouercome the disease of incontinence For what ells shall we cal it but stubbornnesse when one being warned that he nedeth mariage and that the same is geuen him of the Lord for a remedie doeth not onely despise it but also bindeth himselfe with an othe to the despising of it ¶ The .xiiii. Chapter Of Sacramentes BYside the preaching of the Gospell an other helpe of like sort is in the Sacramētes of which to haue some certaine doctrine taught is much behouefull for vs wherby we may learne both to what ende they were ordeined and what is now the vse of them First it is mete to consider what is a Sacramente It semeth to me that this shal be a playne and propre definition if we say that it is an outwarde signe wherwith the Lord sealeth to our cōsciences the promises of his good wil toward vs to susteine the weakenesse of our Faith and we againe on our behalues doe testifie our godlinesse towarde him as well before him and the Angels as before mē We may also with more brefenesse define it otherwise as to call it a testimonie of Gods fauor towarde vs confirmed by an outwarde signe with a mutuall testifieng of our godlinesse towarde him Whether soeuer you choose of these definitions it differeth nothing in sense from that definition of Augustine which teacheth that a Sacramēt is a visible signe of a holy thig or a visible forme of inuisible grace but it doth better and more certainly expresse the thing it selfe For wheras in that brefenesse there is some darknesse wherin many of the vnskilfuller sort are deceiued I thought good in moe wordes to geue a fuller sentence that there should remaine no dout For what reason the olde writers vsed this worde in the sense it is not hard to see For so oft as the olde translater would rēder in Latine this Greke worde Mysterion mysterie specially when diuine maters were entreated of he translated it Sacrament So to the Ephesians That he might make knowen vnto vs the Sacrament of his will Againe if yet ye haue heard the distribution of the grace of God which is geuen to me in you because according to reuelatiō the Sacrament was made knowen to me To the Colossians The mysterie which hath ben hiddē from ages and generations but now is manifested to his Saintes to whom the Lord would make knowen the richesse of this Sacramente c. Againe to Timothee A great Sacrament of godlinesse God is opēly shewed in the flesh He would not say a secret least he shoulde seme to say somwhat vnder the greatnesse of the thinges Therfore he hath put Sacrament in stede of Secret but of a holy thing In that significatiō it is somtime founde amōg the ecclesiastical writers And it is well enough knowen that those which in Latine are called Sacramentes in Greke are Mysteries which expressing of one thing in twoo seuerall wordes endeth all the contention And hereby it came to passe that
to admonishe them of what force the worde of God is of it self being preached by man he compareth the ministers themselues to husbandemen which when they haue bestowed their labor and trauaile in tillyng the earth haue no more to do But what shold tillyng and sowing and wateryng profit vnlesse that whiche is sowen should receiue liuetynesse by heauenly benefite Therfore he concludeth that bothe he that planteth and he that watereth are nothyng but that all thynges are to be ascribed to God whiche alone geueth the encrease Therefore the Apostles do in their preachyng vtter the power of the Spirite so farre as God vseth the instrumentes ordeined by hymselfe to the settyng foorth of his spirituall grace Yet we must kepe still that distinction that we remembre what man is able to do by hymselfe and what is propre to God Sacramentes are so confirmations of our Faith that many tymes when the Lorde meaneth to take away the confidence of the very thynges that are by hym promysed in the Sacramentes he taketh away the sacramentes themselues When he spoyleth and thrusteth away Adam from the gifte of immortalitie he sayth Let him not eate of the fruite of lyfe least he lyue for euer What sayth he Coulde that fruite restore to Adam his vncorruption from which he was nowe fallen No. But this is all one as if he had said Least he should enioy a vaine confidēce if he kepe still the signe of my promise let that bee shaken awaye from hym whiche myght bryng hym some hope of immortalitie After this maner when the Apostle exhorteth the Ephesians to remēbre that they were forein gestes of the testamentes strangers from the felowship of Israell without God without Christ he saith that they were not partakers of Circumcision Whereby he doth by figure of transnomination signifie that they were excluded from the promise it self which had not receiued the signe of the promise To their other obiection that the glorie of God is conueyed to creatures to whome so muche power is ascribed and that therby it is so farre diminished we haue in redynesse to answere that we set no power in creatures Onely this we say that God vseth meanes and instrumentes whiche he hymselfe seeth to be expedient that all thynges may serue his glorie forasmuch as he is Lorde and iudge of all Therfore as by bread and other nourishementes he feedeth our body as by the sunne he enlightneth the world as by fire he warmeth yet neither bread nor the sunne nor fyre are any thing but so farre as by those instrumentes he dothe distribute his blessynges vnto vs so spiritually he nourisheth Faith by the Sacramentes whose onely office is to sett his promises before our eies to be loked vpon yea to be pledges vnto vs of them And as it is our duetie to fasten none of our affiance in other creatures which by the liberalitie and bountifulnesse of God are ordeined to our vses and by the ministerie wherof he geueth vs his giftes nor to haue them in admiration praise them as causes of our good so neither ought our confidence to sticke fast in the Sacramentes nor the glorie of God to be remoued vnto them but leauyng all thynges both our Faith and confession ought to rise vp to him the author bothe of the sacramentes and of all thyngs Wheras some bring an argument out of the very name of a Sacrament it is nothyng strong A Sacrament saye they whereas it hath among allowed authors many significations yet it hath but one which agreeth with the signes that is wherby it signifieth that solemne othe whych the soldior maketh to his capitaine when he entreth into profession of a soldior For as by that othe of warfare newe soldiors do bynde their faith to the capitain and professe to be his soldiors so by our signes we professe Christ our capitaine and do testifie that we serue vnder his banner They adde similitudes to make therby the mater more playne As a gowne made the Romains seuerally knowen frō the Grekes which dyd weare clokes as the very degrees of men at Rome were discerned by their seueral signes the degree of Senators from the degree of knightes by purple cote and piked shooes againe a knyghte from a cōmoner by a ryng so we beare our signes that may make vs seuerally knowen from prophane men But by the thynges aboue said it is euident enough that the olde writers whyche gaue to the signes the name of Sacramentes hadde no regarde howe this woorde was vsed among Latine writers but for theyr owne purpose fayned this newe signification wherby they signified onely holy Signes But if wee will searche the mater more depely it maye seme that they haue with the same relation applied this woorde to suche a signification wherewith they haue remoued the name of Faith to that sense wherin it is nowe vsed For wheras Faith is a truthe in performyng promises yet they haue called Faith an assurednesse or sure persuasion whiche is had of the truth it selfe Likewise wheras a Sacrament is the soldiors part wherby he voweth hymselfe to his capitayne they haue made it the capitaynes parte whereby he receyueth soldiors into roomes of seruice For by the Sacramente the Lorde doothe promise that he will be oure God and that we shall bee his people But we passe ouer suche suttleties forasmuche as I thynke I haue proued with argumentes playne enoughe that they hadde respecte to nothyng ells but to signifie that these are Signes of holye and spirituall thynges We receyue in deede the similitudes whyche they bryng of outwarde tokens but we allowe not that that whyche is the last poynte in the Sacramentes is by them set fo◠the chiefe yea and onely thyng But this is the fyrste poynte that they should serue our Faith before GOD the later poynt that they should testifie our confession before men Accordyng to this later consideration those similitudes haue place But in the meane tyme lette that first point remaine because otherwise as we haue already proued the mysteries should be but colde vnlesse they were helpes to our faith and additions to doctrine ordeined to the same vse and ende Agayne we must be warned that as these men doo weaken the force and vtterly ouerthrowe the vse of Sacramentes so on the contrarie syde there be some which faine to Sacramentes I wote note what secrete vertues whiche are no where red to be putt in them by God By which error the simple and vnskilfull are dangerously deceiued while they are bothe taught to seke the giftes of God where they can not bee founde and are by little and little drawen away from God to embrace mere vanitie in stede of his veritie For the Sophisticall schooles haue taught with great consent that the Sacramentes of the new law that is to say those which are nowe in vse in the Christian Chirch do iustifie and geue grace so that we do not laie a stoppe of deadly
by the Eunuche and the Samaritanes in whom the Lorde kepte a contrary order that Baptisme went before the giftes of the Holy ghost The fiftenthe reason is more than foolishe He saith that we are by regeneratiō made Gods and that they be Gods to whome the worde of God is spoken whiche accordeth not to children that be infantes Whereas he faineth a Godhead to the faithfull that is one of his dotages which it perteineth not to this present place to examine But to wrest the place of the Psalme to so cōtrarie a sense is a point of desperate shamelesnesse Christ sayth that Kynges and Magistrates are called of the Prophet goddes because they beare an office appointed them of God But that which concernyng the speciall commaundement of gouernance is directed to certaine men this handsome expositor draweth to the doctrine of the Gospell that he may banishe infantes out of the Chirch Agayne he obiecteth that infantes can not be accompted newe men because they are not begotten by the word But I doo nowe agayne repete that which I haue often sayde that to regenerate vs doctrine is the vncorruptible sede if we bee fit to receiue it but when by reason of age there is not yet in vs aptnesse to learne God kepeth his degrees of regeneratyng Afterward he commeth backe to his allegories that in the lawe a shepe and a goate were not offred in sacrifice so sone as they came out of the wombe If I lysted to drawe figures to this purpose I coulde likewise redily obiecte agaynst hym that all fyrst begotten thynges were consecrate to God so soone as they had opened the wombe then that a lambe must be killed at a yeares age Wherupō foloweth that māly strēgth is not to be taried for but rather that the new and yet tender issues are chosen of God for sacrifices Furthermore he affirmeth that none can come to Christ but they that haue ben prepared of Iohn As though Iohns office wer not enduryng but for a tyme. But to omitt this trulye that same preparation was not in the children whom Christ embraced and blessed Wherfore let him goe with his false principle At length he calleth for patrones Trismegistus and the Sibylles to proue that holy washyngs perteine not but to them that are of growen age Loe howe honorably he thynketh of the Baptisme of Christ which he reduceth to the Ceremonies of the Gentiles that it may be no otherwyse ministred than pleaseth Trismegistus But we more esteme the authoritie of God whome it hath pleased to make infantes holye to himselfe and to admitte them with the holy signe the force wherof they did not yet by age vnderstād Neither do we compt it lawfull to borowe out of the cleansynges of the Gentiles any thyng that may change in our Baptisme the euerlastyng and inuiolable law of God which he hath stablished concerning circumcision Last of al he maketh this argument that if it be lawful to Baptise infantes without vnderstandyng then Baptisme may enterludelike and in sport be ministred of boies whē they plaie But of this matter let hym quarell with God by whoe 's cōmaundement circumcision was cōmon to infantes before that they had atteyned vnderstandyng Was it therfore a playeng mater or subiect to the follies of children that they myght ouerthrowe the holy ordinance of God But it is no meruaile that these reprobate Spirits as though they wer vexed with a phrenesie do thrust in all the grossest absurdities for defence of their errors because God dothe with suche giddynesse iustly take vengeance of their pride and stubbornesse Uerily I trust I haue made playne with howe feble succors Seruettus hath holpen his silly brethrē the Anabaptists Now I think it will be doutful to no sobre mā how rashly thei trouble the Chirch of Christ that moue brawles contentions for the Baptisme of infantes But it is profitable to consyder what Satan goeth about with this so great sutteltie euen to take away frō vs the singular fruite of affiance spirituall ioy which is to be gathered hereof to diminishe as much also of the glorie of the goodnesse of God For how swete is it to godly myndes to be certified not onely by worde but also by sight to be sene with eies that they obteine so much fauor with the heuēly Father that he hath also care of their posteritie For here it is to be sene howe he taketh vpon him the person of a most prouident Father of household toward vs which euen after our death dothe not lay away his carefulnesse of vs but prouideth and forseeth for our children Ought we not here after the exāple of Dauid with al our hart to leape vp vnto thākesgeuyng that by suche shewe of his goodnesse his name maye bee sanctified This verily Sathan intendeth in assayling with so great armies the Baptisme of infants namely that this testifyeng of the grace of God beyng taken away the promise which by it is present before our eies may at length by little and little vanishe away Wherupon should grow not only a wicked vnthankfulnesse toward the mercy of God but also a certaine slouthfulnesse in instructyng our children to godlynesse For by this spurr we ar not a little pricked forward to bring them vp in the earnest feare of God and in the keping of his law when we cōsider that euen immediatly from their birth he taketh and acknowlegeth them for his children Wherefore vnlesse we list enuiously to darken the bountifulnesse of God let vs offer to him our children to whome he geueth a place among them that be of his familie and householde that is to say the membres of the Chirche ¶ The .xvii. Chapiter ¶ Of the holy Supper of Christ and what if auayleth vs. AFter the God hath ones receiued vs into his familie and not only to take vs as his seruantes but as his children that he may fulfill the office of a moste goed Father and carefull for his issue he taketh also vpon him to nourishe vs throughout the whole course of our life And not contented therewith it pleased hym by a pledge geuen to assure vs of thys continuall liberalitie To this ende therefore he hath geuen his Chirche an other Sacrament by the hand of his only begotten Sonne namely a spirituall banket wherin Christ testifieth hymselfe to be the quicknyng bread wherwith our soules are fed to true and blessed immortalitie But forasmuche as the knowlege of so great a mysterie is very necessarie and accordyng to the greatnesse therof requireth a diligent declaration and Satan that he myghte bereue the Chirch of this inestimable treasure hath long agoe spred mystes and sins that tyme darknesse to obscure the light of it and then hath stirred striues and battels that myght estrange the myndes of the simple from tastyng of this holy fode and hath also in our tyme attempted the same craft therfore when I shall haue brefely knit vp the summe for the
cup is called the couenant in the blood there is a promise expressed that may be of force to confirme Faith Wherupō foloweth that vnlesse we haue respect to God and embrace that which he offreth we doe not rightly vse the holy Supper Moreouer they also do not satisfie me which acknowleging that we haue some communion with Christ when they meane to expresse it doe make vs partakers only of the Spirite without making any mention of flesh and blood As though al those thinges were spoken of nothing that hys flesh is verily meate that his blood is verily drinke that none hath life but he that eateth that flesh and drinketh that blood and such other sayenges that belong to the same ende Wherfore if it be certaine that the full communicating of Christ procedeth beyonde their description as it is to narowly strained I wil now go about to knit vp in few wordes how large it is and how farr it extendeth it selfe before that I speake of the contrarie fault of excesse For I shal haue a longer disputation with the excessiue teachers which when according to their owne grossnesse they frame a maner of eating drinking ful of absurditie do also transfigure Christ stripped out of hys fleshe into a fantasie if yet a man may with any wordes comprehende so great a mysterie whiche I se that I can not sufficiently comprehende with minde and therfore I doe willingly confesse it that no man should measure the hynesse therof by the smal proportion of my childishnesse But rather I exhorte the reders that they do not restrayne the sense of their minde within these to narrowe boundes but endeuor to rise vp much hyer thā they can by my guiding For I my selfe so oft as I speake of this thing whē I haue trauailed to say all thinke that I haue yet sayd but litle in respecte of the worthinesse therof And although the minde can do more in thinking than the tong in expressing yet with greatnesse of the thing the minde also is surmounted and ouerwhelmed Finally therefore nothing remaineth but that I must breake fourth into admiration of that mysterie whiche neither the mind can suffise to thinke of nor the tong to declare Yet after suche manner as I can I wil set fourth the summe of my sentence which as I nothing dout to be true so I trust that it will not be disallowed of godly hartes First of all we are taughte out of the Scripture that Christe was from the beginning that life bringing worde of the Father the fountaine and original of life from whense all thinges euer receiued their hauing of life Wherfore Ihon somtime calleth him the worde of life and somtime writeth that life was in him meaning that he euen then flowyng into al creatures poured into them the power of breathing and liuing Yet the same Ihon addeth afterwarde that the life was then and not tyll then openly shewed when the Sonne of God taking vpō him our fleshe gaue himselfe to be seen with eyes and felte with handes For though he did before also spred abrode his power into the creatures yet because man beyng by synne estranged from God hauing lost the communion of lyfe saw on euery side death hanging ouer hym that he myght recouer hope of immortalitie it behoued that he should be receiued into the communion of that worde For how small a confidence mayest thou conceiue therof if thou heare that the worde of God in dede from which thou art most farr remoued cōteyneth in it selfe the fulnesse of lyfe but in thy selfe and rounde about thee nothyng offreth it selfe and is present before thine eyes but death But sins that fountayne of lyfe beganne to dwell in our fleshe nowe it lyeth not a farr of hydden from vs but presently deliuereth it selfe to be partaken of vs. Yea and it maketh the very fleshe wherein it resteth to be of power to bryng lyfe to vs that by partaking therof we maye be fed to immortalitie I am sayth he the bred of lyfe that am come downe from heauen And the bred whiche I will geue is my fleshe whiche I will geue for the lyfe of the worlde In whiche woordes he teacheth not onely that he is lyfe in respecte that he is the eternall woorde of God whiche came downe to vs from heauen but that in comming downe he poured the same power into the fleshe whiche he did put on that from thense the communicatyng of lyfe mighte flowe fourth vnto vs. Hereupon also these thinges nowe followe that his fleshe is verily mente and his blood is verily drinke with whiche sustenances the faythfull are fostered into eternall life Herein therfore consisteth singular comfort to the godly that nowe they finde life in their owne fleshe For so they doe not onely with easy passage atteine vnto it but haue it of it selfe layd abrode for them and offring it selfe vnto them Only let them holde open the bosome of their hart that they may embrace it beeyng present and they shall obteyne it But although the fleshe of Christe haue not so greate power of it selfe that it can geue life to vs whiche bothe in the owne firste estate of it was subiecte to mortalitie and nowe being endued with immortalitie liueth not by it selfe yet it is rightfully called lifebringing whiche is filled with fulnesse of lyfe to poure it into vs. In which meaning I doe with Cyril expounde that sayeng of Christ As the Father hath lyfe in himselfe so he hath also geuen to the Sonne to haue life in himselfe For there he properly speaketh of his giftes not whiche he from the beginning possessed with the Father but with whiche he was garnished in the same fleshe in whiche he appeared Therefore he sheweth that in hys manhode also dwelleth the fullnesse of lyfe that whosoeuer partaketh of his flesh and blood may therwithall also enioy the partaking of life Of what sort that is we may declare by a familiar example For as out of a foūtaine water is somtime drōk somtime is drawen somtime by forrowes is conueied to the watering of groundes which yet of it selfe doth not ouerflow into so many vses but from the very spring it selfe which with euerlasting flowing yeldeth and ministreth vnto it from tyme to tyme newe abundance so the fleshe of Christ is like a riche and vnwasted fountaine whiche poureth into vs the life springing from the Godhead into it selfe Nowe whoe seeth not that the communion of the fleshe and blood of Christe is necessarie to al that aspire to heauenly lyfe Hereunto tendeth that sayeng of the Apostle that the Chirch is the body of Christe and the fulfilling of it and that he is the hed oute of whiche the whole body coupled and knit together by ioyntes maketh encrease of the body that our bodies are the members of Christ. Al which thinges we vnderstande to be impossible to be brought to passe but that he must whellye cleaue to vs in Spirite and body
of Christ which is done when he is broughte vnder the corruptible elements of this world or is bound to any earthly creatures The other that nothyng be by fainyng applied to his body that agreeth not with the nature of man whiche is done when it is either saide to bee infinite or is sett in many places at ones But these absurdities being taken away I willyngly receiue what soeuer may auaile to expresse the true and substantiall communicatyng of the Body and Blood of the Lord which cōmunicatyng is deliuered to the faithfull vnder the holy signes of the Supper so that they may be thought not to receyue it by imagination onely or vnderstandyng of mynde but to enioy it in dede to the foode of eternall lyfe Why this sentence is so hatefull to the worlde and all defence taken away from it by the vniust iudgementes of many there is no cause at all but for that the deuell hath with horrible bewitchyng madded their myndes Truely that which we teache dothe in all pointes very well agree with the Scriptures it conteineth neither any absurditie nor darknesse nor doutfulnesse it is not agaynst true godlynesse and sounde edification finally it hath nothing in it that may offend sauyng that in certaine ages past when that ignorance and barbarousnesse of Sophisters reigned in the Chirche so clere light and open truthe hath ben vnworthily oppressed Yet because Satā at this day also trauayleth by troublesome Spirites to spot it with all the sclanders and reproches that he can and bendeth himselfe to no other thyng with greater endeuor it is profitable the more diligently to defende and rescue it Nowe before that we goe any further we must entreate of the selfe institution of Christe specially because this is the most glorious obiection that our aduersaries haue that we departe from the woordes of Christe Therfore that we may be discharged of the false cause of malice wherwith they burden vs our fittest beginnyng shall be at the exposition of the woordes Three Euangelistes and Paule rehearse that Christe tooke bread when he had geuen thankes he brake it gaue it to his disciples and sayde Take eate this is my Body whiche is delyuered or broken for you Of the cuppe Mathew and Marke saye thus This cuppe is the blood of the newe testament whiche shal be shedde for many vnto forgeuenesse of synnes But Paule and Luke say thus This cuppe is the newe testament in my blood The patrones of transubstantiation will haue by the pronoune this the forme of bread to be signified because the consecration is made in the whole contente of the sentence and there is no substance that can be shewed But if they be holden with religious care of the woordes because Christ testified that that whiche he reached into the disciples handes was his bodye truely this their deuise that that whiche was bread is nowe the bodie is moste farre from the propre meanyng of them That which Christe tooke into his handes and gaue the Apostles he affirmeth to be his body but he toke bread who therfore can not vnderstande that bread is yet shewed and therfore there is no greater absurditie than to remoue that to the forme whiche is spoken of the bread Other when they expounde this woorde is for to be transubstantiate doo flee to a more enforced and violently wrasted glose Therefore there is no cause why they should pretende that they be moued with reuerence of wordes For this was vnheard of among all nations and languages that the word is should be taken in this sense namely for to be tourned into an other thyng As for them that leaue breade in the Supper and affirme that there is the body of Christ they muche differ among themselues They whiche speake more modestly althoughe they precisely exact the letter This is my body yet afterwarde swarue from theyr precisenesse and say that it is as muche in effect as that the body of Christ is with bread in bread and vnder bread Of the mater it selfe which they affirme we haue already touched somwhat and we shal by and by haue occasion yet to speake more Nowe I dispute only of the wordes by which they say they are restrained that they can not admitte bred to be called the body because it is a signe of the body But if they shunne all figures why do they leape away from the plaine shewing of Christ to their owne maners of speaking farr differing from it For there is great difference betwene this that bread is the body and this that the body is with bread But because they sawe it to bee impossible that this simple proposition might stande that bread is the body they haue attempted to scape away by those formes of speche as it were by croked turnyngs Some more bolde sticke not to affirme that euen in propre speakyng bread is the body and by this meane they truely proue themselues to be litteral mē If it be obiected that therfore the bread is Christ and is God this verily they will denie because it is not expressed in the wordes of Christ. But they shall nothyng preuayle by denyeng it forasmuche as all doo agree that whole Christ is offred vs in the Supper But it is an intolerable blasphemie that it be without figure spoken of a fraile and corruptible element that it is Christ. Now I aske of them whether these twoo propositions be bothe of one effect Christe is the Sonne of God and bread is the body of Christe If they graunt that they are diuers which we will enforce them to graunte whether they will or no then lett them answere whens commeth the difference I thynke they wyll bryng none other but that the bread is after the sacramentall maner called the body Wherupon foloweth that Christes wordes are not subiecte to the common rule nor oughte to bee tried by Grammer Also I aske of all the precise and stiffe requirers of the letter where Luke and Paule do call the cuppe the testament in the blood whether they do not expresse the same thyng which they dyd in the first parte where they call bread the bodye Truely the same religion was in the one parte of the mysterie that was in the other and because shortnesse is darke longer speche dothe better open the meanyng So oft therfore as they shall affirme by one word that the bread is the body I will out of mo wordes bryng a fitt exposition that it is the Testament in the bodye For why Shall we nede to seke a more faithfull or surer expositor than Paule Luke Neither yet doo I tende herunto to diminishe any thing of that communicating of the body of Christ which I haue confessed onely my purpose is to confute that folish waiwardnesse wherby they do so hatefully brawle about words I vnderstand by the authoritie of Paul and Luke that the bread is the body of Christ because it is the couenant in the body If they fight against
lesse obediently embrace than they and do wey them with more godly reuerence Yea their negligent carelesnesse sheweth that they doo not greatly care what Christe ment so that it geue them a buckler to defende their obstinatie like as oure earnest searchyng ought to be a wytnesse howe muche we esteeme the authoritie of Christ. They odiously spread abrode that naturall sense of man withholdeth vs from beleuyng that which Christ hath vttered with his owne holy mouth but howe maliciously they burden vs with this sclander I haue a great part already made playne and hereafter it shall more clerely appere Therfore nothing withholdeth vs from beleuing Christ when he speaketh nor from obeying so soone as he dothe but with becke will this or that Only this is the question whether it be vnlawful to enquire of the naturall meanyng These good maisters that they may seme wel lettred do forbid men to departe be it neuer so litle from the letter But I on the other syde when the scripture nameth God a warlike man because I see that with out figuratiue translation it is to rough a maner of speakyng doo not dout that it is a comparison taken from men And truely vpon none other pretence in the olde tyme the Anthropomorphites troubled the true teaching Fathers but that catching fast hold of these sayings The eies of God do see It went vp to his eares His hand stretched out The earth his footestole they cried out that God had his bodye taken from hym whiche the Scripture assigneth vnto hym If this law be receiued outragious barbarousnesse shal ouerwhelme the whole light of faith For what monsters of absurdities may not phrentike men picke out if it be graunted them to allege euery small tittle to stablishe their opinions That whiche they obiect that it is not likely that when Christ prepared for his Apostles a singular comfort it aduersities he did then speake in a riddle or darkly maketh of our side For if it had not come in the myndes of the Apostles that bread was figuratiuely called the body because it was the signe of the body they had without doute ben troubled with so monstrous a thyng Almost at the same moment Iohn reporteth that they did sticke in perplexitie at euery of the least difficulties They whiche striue among themselues howe Christ will go to the Father and do moue question howe he wyll goe out of the worlde they which vnderstande nothyng of those thynges that are spoken concernyng the heauenly Father till they see hym how wold they haue ben so easy to beleue that whiche all resō refuseth that Christ sitteth at the boorde in their sight and is enclosed inuisible vnder bread Whereas therfore they in eatyng the bread without doutyng testified their consent hereby appeareth that they toke Christes wordes in the same sense that we do because they remēbred that which ought not to seme strange in mysteries that the name of the thing signified is transferred to the signe Therfore it was to the disciples as it is to vs a certaine and clere comfort entangled with no riddle Neither is ther any other cause why some should depart from our exposition but because the enchauntment of the deuyll hath blynded them namely that they shoulde faine darkenesse to themselues where the exposition of an apt figure offreth it self Moreouer if we precisely stande vpon the words Christ shold wrongfully haue spoken in one place seuerally an other thyng concernyng the bread than he speaketh of the cup. He calleth the bread his body he calleth the wyne his blood either it shal be a confused vaine repetition or it shal be such a partition as shall diuide the body from the blood Yea it shall as truely be sayd of the cuppe This is my body as of the bread it selfe and it may likewyse enterchangeably be sayd that the bread is the blood If they answer that we muste consider to what ende or vse the signes were ordeined I graunt it in dede but in the meane tyme they shall not vnwynde themselues but that their error must drawe this absurditie with it that the bread is the blood and the wyne is the bodye Nowe I wote not what this meaneth when they graunt the bread and the body to be diuers things yet to affirme that the one is spoken of the other proprely and without any figure as if a man shold say that a garment is in dede a thyng differyng from a man and yet that it is proprely called a man In the meane while as though their victorie consisted in obstinatie railing they say that Christ is accused of liēg if an exposition be sought of the wordes Now it shal be easy for vs to shew to the reders how vniust wrong these catchers of syllables do to vs when thei fill the simple with this opinion that we withdraw credit from the wordes of Christ which we haue proued to be furiously peruerted and confounded by them but to be faithfully and rightly expounded by vs. But the sclaunder of this lye can not be vtterly purged till an other crime be wiped away For they spread abroade that we be so addicted to naturall reason that we geue no more to the power of God than the order of nature suffreth and common sense teacheth From so malicious sclaūders I appelle to the very doctrine it selfe which I haue declared whiche dothe clerely enough shewe that I do not measure this mysterie by the proportion of mans reason nor doo make it subiect to the lawes of nature I beseche you haue we learned out of naturall philosophie that Christe dothe so from heauen feede our soules and bodies with his fleshe as our bodies ar norished with bread and wyne Whens cometh this power to fleshe that it may geue lyfe All men will say that it is not doone naturally It will no more please mans reason that the fleshe of Christe reacheth to vs that it maye be foode vnto vs. Finally whosoeuer hath tasted of our doctrine shal be rauished into admiration of the secrete power of God But these good men that be so zelous of it forge to themselues a miracle which beyng taken away God hymselfe vanisheth with his power I desire to haue the readers ones agayne warned that they diligently wey what our doctrine bringeth whether it hang vpon common sense or with the winges of Faith surmounting the worlde climbeth vp beyond it into the heauens We say that Christ as well with the outwarde signe as with his Spirite descendeth to vs that he may truely quicken our soules with the substance of his fleshe of his blood In these fewe wordes he that perceyueth not to be conteined many miracles is more than senslesse forasmuche as there is nothyng more beside nature than that soules should borrow spiritual and heauenly life of the fleshe which toke her beginnyng of the earth and which was subiect to death Nothing is more incredible than that thinges distant and asunder by the
beloued Sōne which only can manifestly shew the Father and in dede he hath manifestly shewed hym to the full so much as behoueth vs whyle we nowe beholde hym by a glasse As therefore thys is now taken awaye from men that they can not make newe Sacramentes in the Chirch of God so it were to be wished that as litle as were possible of mans inuētion might be myngled with those Sacramentes that are of God For lyke as when water is poured in the wyne departeth and is delayed as with leauen scattered among it the whole lumpe of done waxeth sower so the purenesse of the mysteries of God is nothyng ells but defyled when man addeth any thyng of hys owne And yet we see how farr the Sacramentes are swarued out of kynde from their naturall purenesse as they be handled at thys day There is echewhere to muche of pompes ceremonies and gesturinges but of the woorde of God in the meane tyme there is neither any consideration nor mention withoute which euen the Sacramentes themselues are not Sacramentes Yea and the very ceremonies that are ordeined of God in so greate a route can not ones lift vp their hed but lye as it were oppressed How litle is that seen in Baptisme which only ought there to haue shyned and been loked vpon as we haue in an other place rightfully complained euen Baptisme it selfe As for the Supper it is vtterly buried sins that it hath ben turned into the Masse sauing that it is seen ones euery yere but in a mangled and halfe torne fashion The .xix. Chapter Of the fiue falsly named Sacramentes where is declared that the other fyue which haue ben hetherto commonly taken for Sacramentes are not Sacramentes and then is shewed what manner of thinges they be OUr former discourse concerning Sacramentes myghte haue obteined thys with the sobre and willing to learne that they should not ouer curiously procede any further nor shold without the word of God embrace any other Sacraments beside those twoo which they knewe to be ordeined of the Lord. But forasmuch as that opinion of the seuen Sacramentes being commonly vsed in al mens take hauing wādered through all scholes and preachinges hath by very auncientie gathered rootes and is yet styll settled in the myndes of men I thought that I should do a thing worth the trauail if I should seuerally and more nerely searche those other fyue that are commonly adnumbred among the true and naturall Sacramentes of the Lorde and wyping away al deceitfull color shoulde set them fourth to be seen of the simple suche as they be and how falsly they haue ben hetherto taken for Sacramentes First I here protest to al the godly that I doe not take in hande this contention aboute the name for any desire of striuing but that I am by weighty causes led to fight againste the abuse of it I am not ignorante that Christians are Lordes as of wordes so of al thinges also therfore may at their wil apply wordes to thinges so that a godly sense be kept although there be some vnproprenesse in the speaking Al thys I graunt although it were better that the woordes shoulde be made subiect to thinges than thinges to the wordes But in the name of Sacrament there is an other consideratiō For they which make seuen Sacramentes do therewithal geue to them al this definition that they be visible formes of inuisible grace they make them altogether vessells of the Holy ghost instrumentes of geuing of righteousnesse causes of the obteining of grace Yea and the Maister of the sentences himselfe denyeth that the Sacramentes of the lawe of Moses are properly called by this name because they did not deliuer in dede the thing that they figured Is it I beseche you to be suffred that those signes which the Lord hath hallowed with his own mouth which he hath garnished with excellent promises should not be accompted for Sacramentes and in the meane time this honor shoulde be conueyed away to those vsages which men either haue deuised of themselues or at least do obserue without expresse commaundement of God Therefore either let them change the definition or let them absteine from the wrongfull vsing of this worde which doth afterwarde engender false opinions and ful os absurditie Extreme anointing say they is a figure and cause of inuisible grace because it is a Sacrament If we ought in no wise to graunt that which they gather vpon it then truely we must resist them in the name it selfe least therby we admitt that it maye geue occasion to such an error Againe when they would proue it to be a Sacrament they adde thys cause for that it consisteth of the outwarde signe and the worde If we finde neither commaundement nor promise of it what can we do ells but crye out against them Now appeareth that we brawle not about the worde but do moue a cōtrouersie not superfluous cōcerning the thing it selfe Therfore this we must strongly hold fast which we haue with inuincible reson before cōfirmed that the power to institute a Sacrament is in the hande of none but of God only For a Sacrament ought with a certaine promise to raise vp cōfort the cōsciēces of the faythful which could neuer receiue this certaintie from man A Sacrament ought to be to vs a witnessing of the good wil of God towarde vs wherof none of all men or Angels can be witnesse forasmuch as none hath ben of Gods counsell Therefore it is he alone which doth with right authoritie testifie of himself to vs by his worde A Sacramēt is a seale wherw t the testament or promise of God is sealed But it could not be sealed with bodily thinges and elementes of thys worlde vnlesse they be by the power of God framed and appoynted therunto Therfore mā can not ordeine a Sacrament because this is not in the power of man to make that so great mysteries of God should lye hidden vnder so base thynges The worde of God muste goe before which maye make a Sacrament to be a Sacrament as Augustine very well teacheth Moreouer it is profitable that there be kepte some difference betwene the Sacramentes and other ceremonies vnlesse we will fall into many absurdities The Apostles prayed kneling therfore men shall not kneele without a Sacrament It is sayd that the disciples prayed toward the East therfore the loking into the East shal be a Sacrament Paule willeth men in euery place to lift vp pure handes and it is rehearsed that holy mē oftentimes prayed with their handes lifted vp then let the lifting vp of hands also be made a Sacramēt Finally let all the gestures of the holy ones turne into Sacramentes Howbeit I would not also muche passe vppon these thinges if so that they were not ioyned with those other greater discommodities If they will presse vs with the authoritie of the olde Chirche I saye that they pretende a false color For this number of
Sacrament is extreme vnctioÌ„ which is not done but of the Prest that in extremes so thei terme it with oile coÌ„secrate of the Bishop with this forme By thys holy anointing by his most kind mercy God pardoÌ„ thee whatsoeuer yâ— hast offeÌ„ded by seing by hearing by smelling feling tasting They faine that there be twoo vertues of it the forgeuenesse of sinnes ease of bodily sicknesse if it be so expedieÌ„t if not the saluation of the soule They say that the institution of it is set of Iames whose wordes are these Is any sicke among you Let hym bryng in the Elders of the Chirch and let them pray ouer hym anointing him with oyle in the name of the Lorde and the prayer of Fayth shal saue the sicke man and the Lord shal rayse hym by and if he be in synnes they shal be forgeuen hym Of the same sorte is thys anointing of which we haue aboue shewed that the other layeng on of handes is namely a playerlike hypocrisie whereby without reason and without frute they woulde resemble the Apostles Marc rehearseth that the Apostles at their first sending according to the commaundement whiche they haue receiued of the Lord raised vp dead meÌ„ cast out deuils cleansed leprous meÌ„ healed the sicke and that in healing of the sicke they vsed oyle They anointed sayth he many sicke meÌ„ with oyle and they were healed Hereunto Iames had respect when he commauÌ„ded the Elders to be called together to anoint the sicke man That vnder such Ceremonies is conteined no hyer mysterie they shall easily iudge which marke how great libertie the Lorde and his Apostles vsed in these outwarde thinges The Lord going about to restore sight to the blinde maÌ„ made cley of dust spittle some he healed with touching other some with his word After the same maner the Apostles healed some diseases with the word only some with touching other some with anointing But it is likely that this anointing was not as al other things also wer not causelesly put in vre I graunt yet not that it shold be a meane of healing but only a signe that the dulnesse of the vnskilful myght be put in mynde from whense so great power proceded to thys ende that they should not geue the prayse therof to the Apostles And that the Holy ghost and hys gyftes are signified by oyle it is a common and vsual thing But that same grace of healinges is vanished awaye like as also the other miracles which the Lord willed to be shewed for a tyme wherby he might make the new preaching of the Gospel maruelous for euer Therefore though we grauÌ„t neuer so much that anoynting was a Sacramente of those powers which wer theÌ„ ministred by the hands of the Apostles it now nothing perteineth to vs to whom the ministratioÌ„ of such powers is not coÌ„mitted And by what greater reasoÌ„ do they make a SacrameÌ„t of this anointing than of al other signes that are rehearsed to vs in the Scripture â–ª Why do they not appoint some Siloah to swymme in wherinto at certaine ordinarie recourses of tymes sicke men may plunge themselues That say they should be done in vaine Truely no more in vayne than anoyntyng Why do they not lye along vpon dead men because Paule raysed vp a dead childe with lyeng vpon hym Why is not cley made of spittle dust a Sacrament But the other wer but singular examples but this is geueÌ„ of Iames for a commaundemeÌ„t Uerily Iames spake for the same time when the Chirch yet stil enioied such blessing of God They affirme in dede that there is yet stil the same force in their anointingâ— but we finde it otherwise by experieÌ„ce Let no maÌ„ now maruel how thei haue with such boldnesse mocked soules which they know to be senslesse blinde when they are spoyled of the word of God that is of their life light sith they are nothing ashamed to go about to mocke the liuing and feling senses of the body Therfore they make themselues worthy to be scorned whyle they bost that they are endued with the grace of healinges The Lord verily is present with his in al ages and so oft as nede is he helpeth their sicknesses no lesse thaÌ„ in olde tyme but he doth not so vtter those manifest powers nor distributeth miracles by the handes of the Apostles because this gift both was but for a tyme and also is partly falleÌ„ away by the vnthankfulnesse of men Therfore as not wtout cause the Apostles haue by the signe of oile opeÌ„ly testified that the grace of healinges coÌ„mitted to them was not their owne power but the power of the Holy ghost so on the other side they are wroÌ„gdoers to the Holy ghost which make a stinking oile of no force to be hys power This is altogether like as if one would say that al oyle is the power of the Holy ghost because it is called by the name in Scripture that euerye doue is the Holy ghost because he appered in that forme But these thiÌ„gs let them loke to So much as for this preseÌ„t is enough for vs we do most câ—rtainly perceiue that their annointing is no Sacrament whiche is neyther a Ceremonie ordeined of God nor hath any promise For when we require these twoo thinges in a Sacrament that it be a ceremonie ordeined of God that it haue a promise of Godâ— we do there wtal require that the same Ceremonie be geuen to vs and that the promise belong vnto vs. For no man doth affirme the Circumcision is nowe a Sacrament of the Christian Chirch althoughe it both was an ordinance of God and had a promise knitt vnto it because it was neither commaunded to vs nor the promise which was adioyned to it was geueÌ„ to vs wiâ—h the same conditioÌ„ That the promise which they proudely bost of in their annointing is not geuen to vs we haue euidently shewed and they theÌ„selues declare by experience The Ceremonie ought not to haue ben vsed but of them that were endued with the grace of healinges not of these butchers that can more skill of slayeng and murthering than of healing Howbeit althoughe they obteyne thys that that which Iames commaundeth concerning annointing agreeth with thys age which they are most farr from yet eueÌ„ so they shal not haue much preuailed in prouing of their vnction wherwith they haue hetherto annointed vs. Iames wylleth that all sicke men be annointed these men infecte with their fatt liquor not sicke men but corpses half dead when the lyfe lieth alredy laboryng at the toppe of their lippes or as they themselues terme it in extremes If they haue in their Sacramente a present medicine wherby they may either ease the sharpenesse of diseases or at the least may bryng some comfort to the soule they ar to cruel that do neuer heale in time Iames willeth that the sicke maÌ„ be annointed of the Elders of the
the promise Againe of those ceremonies that they vse it is not red that any one is institute of god Therfore here cā be no Sacramēt Of Matrimonie The last is Matrimonie which as all men confesse to be ordeined of God so no man vntill the tyme of Gregorie euer sawe that it was geuen for a Sacrament And what sober man would euer haue thought it It is a good a holy ordināce of God so tyllage carpentrie shoemakers craft barbers craft are lawfull ordinances of God and yet they are no Sacramentes For there is not only this required in a Sacrament that it be the worke of God but that it be an outwarde Ceremonie appoynted of God to confirme a promise That there is no suche thyng in Matrimonie very chyldren also can iudge But say they it is a Signe of a holy thyng that is of the spirituall conioynyng of Christe with the Chirche If by this woorde Signe they vnderstand a Token sett before vs of God to this ende to raise vp the assurednesse of our Faithe they are farre besyde the truthe If they simplye take a Signe for that which is brought to expresse a similitude I wyll shewe howe wittyly they reason Paule sayth As one starre differeth from an other star in brightnesse so shal be the resurrectiō of the dead Lo here is one Sacrament Christ sayth The kyngdome of heauen is lyke to a grain of mustardsede Lo here is an other Againe The kingdom of heauē is like vnto leauē Lo here is the third Esai saith Behold the lord shal fede his flock as a shepherd Lo here is the fowerth In an other place The Lord shall go forth as a Gyant Loe here is the fifth Finally what end or measure shal there be There is nothyng but by this meane it shal be a Sacrament Howe many parables and similitudes are in the Scripture so many Sacraments there shal be Yea and theft shal be a Sacrament because it is written the day of the Lorde is lyke a thefe Whoe can abyde these sophisters prating so foolishly I graunt in dede that so oft as we see a vine it is very good to call to remembrance that whiche Christ sayth I am a vine ye be branches my father is the vinedresser So oft as a shepherde with his flocke cometh toward vs it is good also that this come to our mynde I am a good shepherd my shepe heare my voice But if any man adde such similitudes to the number of Sacramentes he is mete to be sent to Antycira But they still laye fourth the wordes of Paule in which he geueth to Matrimonie the name of a Sacrament he that loueth his wife loueth hymselfe No man euer hated his owne flesh but nourisheth it and cherisheth it euen as Christ doth the Chirch because we are members of hys body of his fleshe and of his bones For this a man shall leaue hys Father and mother and shal cleaue to his wife and they shal be two into one fleshe Thys is a great Sacrament but I saye in Christ and the Chirch But so to handle the Scriptures is to mingle heauē and earth together Paule to shew to maried men what singular loue they ought to beare to their wiues setteth fourth Christe to them for an example For as he poured fourth the bowells of his kindenesse vpon the Chirch which he had espoused to himselfe so ought euery man to be affectioned toward his own wife It foloweth after He that loueth his wife loueth himselfe as Christ loued the Chirch Now to teache how Christ loued the Chirch as himselfe yea how he made himselfe one with hys spouse the Chirch he applyeth to hym those thinges which Moses reporteth that Adam spake of him selfe For when Eue was brought into his syght whom he knew to haue ben shapen out of his syde This woman sayth he is a bone of my bones and fleshe of my fleshe Paul testifieth that all this was spiritually fulfylled in Christ and vs when he sayeth that we are membres of his body of his fleshe and of his bones yea and one fleshe with hym At lengthe he addeth a concludyng Sentence This is a great mysterie And least any man shoulde be deceiued with the doble signifyeng of the woordes he expresseth that he speaketh not of the fleshely conioynyng of man and woman but of the spiritual mariage of Christe and the Chirch And truely it is in dede a great mysterie that Christe suffred a ribbe to be taken from himselfe whereof we might be shapen that is to say whē he was strōg he willed to be weake that we might be strengthened with his strength that now we may not our selues lyue but he may lyue in vs. The name of Sacramente deceiued them But was it rightfull that the whole Chirch should suffer the punishment of their ignorance Paul said Mysterie which word when the translater might haue lefte beyng not vnused with Latin eares or might haue translated it a Secrete he chose rather to put in the worde Sacrament yet in no other sense than Paule had in Greke called it Mysterie Now let them go and with crieng out raile against the skil of tōges by ignorance whereof they haue so long most fowly been blynde in an easy mater and suche as offreth it self to be perceiued of euery man But why doo they in this one place so earnestly sticke vpon this litle word Sacrament and some other tymes do passe it ouer vnregarded For also in the first Epistle to Timothe the Translater hath vsed it and in the selfe same Epistle to the Ephesians in euery place for Mysterie But let this slippyng be pardoned them at least the liers ought to haue had a good remēbrance For whē they haue ones set out Matrimonie with title of a Sacrament afterward to call it vncleannesse defyling and fleshly filthinesse how gyddy lightnesse is this How great an absurditie is it to debarre prests from a Sacramēt If they deny that they debarre them frō the Sacramēt but frō the lust of copulation they escape not so away frō me For they teach that the copulatiō it self is a part of that Sacramēt that by it alone is figured the vniting that we haue with Christ in conformitie of nature bicause man and womā ar not made one but by carnall copulatiō Howbeit some of thē haue here founde two Sacramentes the one of God and the soule in the betrouthed man and woman the other of Christe and the Chirch in the husband and the wife Howsoeuer it be yet copulatiō is a Sacrament from which it was vnlawful that any christian should be debarred Unlesse peraduenture the Sacraments of christiās do so yll agree that thei can not stand together There is also an other absurditie in their doctrines They affirme that in the Sacrament is geuen the grace of the Holye ghoste they teache that copulation is a Sacrament and they denye that at copulation the Holy ghost