judgement vpon the Conscience and to be the executioner of his lawes or finally hee bindes the Conscience in vaine and to no purpose To say that man is in such sort Lord of the Conscience is vnreasonable because his knowledge and power reach no farther then the outward man To say that man may command God is sacrilegious aduancing man aboue God Lastly to say that he bindeth in vaine and to no purpose is withall to say that their opinion is vaine and that man hath no such power at all To shut vp all in a word vnlesse a man may with as much security obey man as God man who is subject to error and injustice as God who is free from both vnlesse we be all as deeply bound to study the laws of men and to knowe them as we are Gods and to subject our selues as absolutely vnto them it is altogether vnconceauable how humane lawes can bind the Conscience equally with diuine This point being thus cleared it is euident that by conscience in this place wee are with St Peter to vnderstand Conscientiam Dei conscience towards God and to interpret this of St Paul yee must bee subiect for conscience by that of the same St Peter Submit your selues vnto every ordinance of man for the Lords sake as if he should say because God hath bound you to be subiect For God hath laid this obligation vpon man appeares by the very institution of Magistracie For although St Peter call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a humane creature yet his meaning is not that it is not from man but for man and his benefit otherwise S. Paul expresly affirmeth that it is the ordinance of God and Solomon that by him kings raigne The reason mouing God to institute the same was partly his soueraigne Lordship ouer man by right of creation by which he may order and dispose of him at pleasure partly the great loue he beareth vnto humane society which his infinite wisdome saw could not so well be maintained if euery man should be left to himselfe and orderly gouernment were not setled among them Herevpon hee ordained some to be in authority some to liue in subiection commanding the one to rule according to justice and equitie the other to submit themselues with all lowlinesse and humility as I meane touching subiection hath in the first part which is the Dutie beene sufficiently declared Now man being thus by the commandement and ordinance of God bound Conscience cannot bee free but as man shall either subject or not subject himselfe so is Conscience bound to testifie for or against him and to excuse or to accuse him If then yee breake the commandement of God and refuse to be subject there is one who will surely accuse you and will not spare a witnesse whose testimony is omni exceptio ne majus better then a thousand witnesses that will testifie against you even your Conscience But to whom will it accuse Vnto that great and dreadfull Iudge of the whole world whose wisdome can not be deceaued whose justice cannot be corrupted and the execution of whose sentence cannot be avoided And what will the sentence be Perpetuall imprisonment in the bottomelesse dungeon of hell therein eternall torments both of body and soule which although it be not presently executed vpon you yet the worme of conscience instantly will begin to gnaw vpon your soules fill you so full of vnspeakable horror and anguish that your life shall be but a death and this world a hell vnto you But if on the contrary side yee shall for the Lords sake and in obedience to his ordinance yeeld subjectiō vnto the higher powers and vnder them liue dutifully in all godlinesse and honestie then shall your consciences testifie nothing but good of you and excuse you vnto God he shall justifie and acquit you your soule shall bee replenished with vnspeakable peace and comfort so as yee shal haue a heaven vpon earth and in heauen it selfe in due time such ioyes as nor eye hath seene nor eare heard nor ever entred into the thought of man To conclude and summe vp all if either we will keepe a good conscience that we may both here and ever be blessed or will avoid the sting of an euill conscience and the miseries that attend vpon it wee must of necessity be subject Yee must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience And thus haue I finished the second part also which is the Necesstie of the dutie It only remaineth now to adde a word or two by way of vse and application There is a generation of whom both St Peter and St Iude speake that despiseth all gouernment and speaketh evill of Dignities cleane contrary vnto the doctrine of my Text which commandeth all to be subject and to honour and obey the Magistrate But these are not all of the same kinde for some despise it out of an erronious judgment others out of an euill habit and custome They that despise it vpon errour are either Anabaptists or Papists The Anabaptists a fanatical fantastical sect vtterly mislike all gouernment and subjection among Christians It is not without cause that S. Iude calleth such kind of people Dreamers for so indeed they are and their dreame is this that Sin is the cause of Subjection and although it were ordained and allowed to the Iewes because they were but infants yet fits it not vs Christians that are in the state of perfection Shall I dispute against this dotage and shew that even among those blessed spirits that are free frō sinne still persist in the truth there are Thrones Dominations Powers Principalities Angels and Arch-angels That if man had continued in his integritie yet government should haue beene inasmuch as man naturally is sociable and disciplinable the morall law commands to honour father and mother the end of gouernment is Peace with Pietie and Honestie and one man euen then should haue stood in need of another That finally there is now as great a necessity thereof as was among the Iews and that the new Testament would neuer haue commanded Subjection or to pray for Magistrates if it were a sin for a Christian to be a Magistrate But I will not vouchsafe them the honour to dispute with them let it suffice in this honourable auditory barely to affirme first that a Christian safely may be a Magistrate secondly that none is fitter then he because no man better knowes the dutie of a Magistrate then he Lastly that no man can so compleatly and perfectly performe the office of a Magistrate but hee because no man vnderstands the true religion which he is to maintaine and by which he is to gouerne but he As for Papists although they doe not thus reject all government yet doe they many waies both in doctrine and practise avile and abase it For first they giue vnto the Pope a supremacie ouer Princes euen vnto Deposition and depresse
with their territories and sundry other things of great value The Ministrie of the Gospell is more excellent then that of the Law lesse therefore cannot be allowed vs. Tithe is too little saith S. Augustin else how doe wee exceed the Pharisees who tithed all If we minister spirituall things reason will that we receaue of your temporalls The law of the Gospell requireth him that is taught to impart to him that teacheth of all his good And reason For as S. Paul saith to Philemon you owe your selues vnto vs. And vnlesse you vnder value too much the eternall saluatioÌ„ of your soules yee can never sufficiently recompence the benefit yee receaue of vs. It is manifest then that an honourable salarie is due vnto vs. But how I beseech you are wee paid our due Poorely God wot witnesse the multitude of impropriations the selling of benefices the detention of tithes or the false and repining paiment of them with the like It was once said What shall wee giue the man of God but now every one saith Come let vs take the houses of God in possession When Moses built the tabernacle he was faine to stay the people from giuing they were so forward but now would God wee could stay their hands from robbing the tabernacle Many there are who call for a learned Ministry in every parish yet keepe to themselues that which should maintaine the Minister A strange perversenesse to desire no benefice may be without a cure and yet to require a cure without a benefice Yea but they are content to allow a Competencie True But if they may be our â—arvers I presume it will bee after the rate of Cratis in his Ephemeris ten pound to the Cooke a groat to the Physitian ten talents to the Parasite one to the Curtizan and to the Philosopher three halfepence For every little is too much for vs but enough is superfluity Et quorsum perditio haec what need all this wasts The poverty of the Apostles they often remember but the bounty of Christians then they vtterly forget If they will haue vs follow the one why refuse they to imitate the other Let them sell all they haue and lay downe the prizes at our feet and then haue with them whensoeuer they please But I presse these points of Honor no farther for me thinkes I heare some say these words would haue sounded better in some advocates mouth in ours they may seeme to proceede of ambition or covetousnesse Wherevnto I answere first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if wee speake not for our selues who will and if wee doe alas what are wee All other sorts of men are allowed to defend themselues and must wee alone suffer wrong and say nought Secondly so to censure is a spice of the contempt wee speake of for indeede wee seeke herein not so much our owne honour and advantage as Gods glory and benefit Gods glory whose ordinance nay who himselfe by contemning vs is contemnâ—d They haue not reiected thee but mee saith God to Samuell Yee haue robbed me in tithes and offerings saith hee by Malachie He that despiseth you despiseth me saith Christ. And lastly He that despiseth despiseth not man but God Your benefit For to deny submission to those who rule over you and watch for your soules is vnprofitable for you saith the Apostle For first as Barnard saith Cuius vita despicitur restat vt praedicatio contemnatur if once our persons grow despicable little will our preaching availe If our preaching availe not neither can you beleeue nor be saued Secondly to contemne a Minister is a fearfull sinne otherwise Hoseas would never haue vsed this aggravation the people were as they that contended with the Priest Lastly God punisheth it accordingly with temporall punishment as vpon the Iewe with seaventy years captiuity with spirituall that hearing they shall heare seeing see yet neither perceiue nor vnderstand and vnlesse they repent with eternall also both in body and soule But of the contempt of the Ministry enough let vs now inquire the redresse thereof See that no man despise thee saith my text A strange speech For doe we steere at the helme of other mens affections Or haue we the command of their actions Why then doth he charge vs to looke to it that we be not despised Surely because wee our selues are mostly the causes thereof and for that it lies much in our owne hands both to prevent and redresse it To make this appeare obserue with me the words immediatly going before my text These things speake and exhort and rebuke with all authority see that no man despise thee Obserue with me againe what Saint Paul saith to Timothie These things command and teach let no man despise thy youth but be an example vnto beleeuers in word in conversation in charity in spirit in faith in purity Which two places being duly pondered and considered it is manifest that the Apostles meaning here is no other then this if we will not be contemned wee must not carry our selues contemptibly and that to avoide this contempt two things are necessary first that we be Good ministers secondly that we be Good men for if wee faile in eyther it cannot possibly bee avoided but wee must bee despised To avoide Contempt then first wee must be Good Ministers and to this end two things are requisite first a talent secondly due employment of the talent By talent I vnderstand fitnesse and ability And that this is necessary appeareth first by the act of God for hee never designeth any to a calling but hee furnisheth him before hand with sufficient gifts If Moses must be the chiefe governour and lawgiuer of Israell he shall be learned yea even in all the wisdome of the Aegyptians aend mighty both in words and deeds If Bezaleel and Aholiab must build the Tabernacle hee will fill them with his spirit in wisdome in vnderstanding in knowledge in all manner of workemanship in gold silver brasse stone timber and what ever else was needfull Esay being to doe an errand for the Lord hath his lipps first touched with a cole froÌ„ the altar Iesus the sonne of Mary being ordained to bee the Messias of the world is annointed with the oile of gladnesse aboue all his fellowes and receiueth the spirit without measure Finally the twelue Apostles being to carry the name of Christ through the world were first baptized with fiery tongues and replenished with the holy Ghost at Ierusalem The same appeareth also by the ordinance of God in his Church For the Priests lips saith Malachie should preserve knowledge and they should seeke the law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts Saint Paul also saith that a Bishop must bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to teach and able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince gainesaiers
and vnheard of vntill this time and example whereof you cannot find in any writer Neither finally is the body of Christ it For that is the thing signified and by your rule the signe and the thing signified must be two differing and distinct things not the same Which also perfectly agreeth with right reason For seeing nothing is opposite vnto it selfe the signe and the thing signified are opposed one vnto another by way of Relation they being Relatiue tearmes it cannot bee that the thing signified should bee one and the same with the signe and consequently that Christs body should be a signe of it selfe The conclusion of all is that if neither bread nor the Accidents of bread nor the body of Christ be the signe in the Eucharist then there is no signe at all therein and if no signe then is the Nature of the Sacrament destroyed a signe being necessary to the constitution thereof Secondly the signe as you say ought to be visible and sensible which is very true For the Sacrament being a Representation of the Death of Christ it can no more be expressed by Insensible signes then a Picture be drawne with Invisible colours But in the Eucharist there is no sensible signe Not the bread for ceasing to be it ceaseth also to bee visible Not the Accidents of bread for though they be visible yet are they not signes as we haue shewed but only of their proper subiect Nor the body of Christ for that being covered from our sight vnder the Accidents of bread cannot be seene of vs. What Seraphicall and piercing eyes some of your Illuminates may haue I knowne not but sure I am ordinary men see it not and what they see seemes to them rather bread then flesh Your owne men confesse so much and therefore the more shame against their owne rule to make it a signe that I say which is Invisible and cannot be seene so that which is visible and may be seene Thirdly lastly you acknowledge that in every Sacrament there ought to be a Proportion and agreement betweene the signe and the 2 signified 1 thing But in the Eucharist as you order it there is no such Proportion For there is nothing that resembleth vnto vs either the Passion of Christ or the nourishment of our soules by his Flesh and Bloud or our mutuall Vnion and Coniunction in his mysticall body Wherein the Analogie and agreement principally standeth Bread indeed would every way be answerable therevnto if according to Christs institution you would suffer it to bee there For the Breaking of the one resembleth the Suffering of the other and the nourishing of our bodies by the one the nourishment of our Soules by the other and our Participation of one Bread our Vnion and Communion in the same mysticall body But you haue banisht it out of the Sacrament and therefore this Analogie also together with it Besides it there remaineth nothing but Christs body and the Accidents of bread Christs body is one and the same for he assumed not more Bodies And to seeke a similitude in an Identitie or betweene the same thing and it owne selfe is meere phrenzie It resteth therefore to make vp the Proportion that the Accidents be broken that they be composed of divers graines and grapes and that they are able to feed and nourish our Bodies or else neither is Christs passion nor our mysticall coniunction nor the spirituall nourishment of our soules by his body resembled by them But this is a foule heresie in Philosophy and whosoever affirmes it deserues to haue his braine purged with a good quantity of Hellebore For if Accidents nourish then are they turned into our substance and if so then haue wee here a stranger Transubstantiation then of bread into Christs body for that is of one substance into another this of Accidents into substance If your Monks for tryall hereof might for a while be fed with nothing else but Accidents I thinke the swaging of their fat paunches would soone put an end to the controversie and force them to confesse that nothing but substance can keepe them from staruing It may be you will say though the Accidents of bread feed not yet they seeme to feed which is sufficient Wherevnto I answere that God vseth not to mocke his Church with vaine shewes and illusions but as he truly and really feedeth our soules with the body and bloud of his Sonne so hath hee ordained true and reall Symbols and resemblances thereof Thus haue wee learned Christ and no otherwise Fourthly it gainesayeth the perpetuall consent of Antiquity And here to avoide tautology I omit all those passages of the Fathers already quoted wherein is affirmed either that bread is the body of Christ or that it is the Figure of his Body Out of both which as wee haue shewed it necessarily followes that bread remaines and that the words of Institution This is my body are to bee vnderstood not literally but tropically Neither will I alleage such frivolous broken and impertinent sentences as your Author furnished you with for your Reall Presence and Transubstantiation But among many I will select a few choice ones such as shall be pregnant and direct to the purpose For I desire to be breefe and to beare you downe not so much with the number as the weight of them Iustin Martyr affirmeth that by the sanctified foode of the Eucharist our Flesh and bloud is nourished by the change thereof and Irenaeus that the substance of our flesh is nourished and augmented thereby It is bread therefore for the true bread of Cstrist neither nourisheth our bodies nor is converted into them The same Irenaeus saith that the Eucharist consisteth of two things the one earthly the other heavenly Take away bread and there remaineth no Earthly thing therein vnlesse you will say that the Accidents are Earthly Clemens of Alexandria proueth against the Encratites who abhorred wine that our Saviour himselfe dranke it because he dranke of the blessed cup. But the argument followes not if there were only bloud in the cup and no Wine Tertullian What then he would haue bread to signify he sufficiently declared calling bread his body If bread signifies his body then is it not his body Origen That meat which is sanctified by the word of God and Prayer as touching the materiall part thereof goeth into the belly and is cast forth into the draught This cannot possibly be vnderstood of the Accidents for they are not materiall nor of the Body of Christ for that were too vnworthy of bread therefore which in the same place hee calleth the Typicall and Symbolicall Body of Christ distinguishing it from his true Body Cyprian The Lord offered Bread and the cup mixt with Wine That which is offered is Consecrated Ergo after Consecration it is Bread and Wine Againe Wee finde it was a mixt cup which the Lord did offer and that it was wine which he
As the heavenly bread which is the Flesh of Christ after its manner is called the Body of Christ being in truth the Sacramentâ— of Christs Body Marke that which is called Body is not so in truth but only in signe and after a manner Pope Leo Christ being lifted vp into heaven set an end to his Bodily Presence being to abide at the right hand of his Father vntill the times appointed by God for the multiplying of the Sonnes of the Church be accomplished If till then he haue set an end to his Bodily presence then till that time he is no more here Fulgentius the holy Catholike Church throughout the whole world ceaseth not to offer vnto Christ the sacrifice of Bread and Wine in Faith and Charity If a Sacrifice of bread and wine then is it bread and wine after consecration Pope Gelasius certainly the Sacraments of the body and bloud of Christ which wee receiue is a divine thing wherefore by them are wee made partakers of the divine nature and yet the substance or nature of Bread and Wine cease not to bee And verily the image and similitude of the body and bloud of Christ are celebrated in these mysteries And They passe by the worke of the holy Ghost into a divine substance continuing notwithstanding in the propriety of their nature Lo the Substance and Nature of bread remaine and the Sacrament is but an image and Similitude of Christs body What can be more plaine Theodoret Himselfe hath honoured the Visible Symbols with the name of his body and bloud not changing their nature but adding grace vnto nature And againe disputing against an Eutychian Heretike who to overthrow the Humanity of Christ had thus argued that as the signes in the Eucharist are after Consecration changed so the body of our Lord after the assumption thereof was changed into the Divine substance hee bringeth in Orthodaxus thus answering Thou art taken in thine owne nets for the mysticall signes after consecration depart not from their proper nature For they remaine in their former substance and figure and forme and are visible and tangible as formerly they were but are vnderstood to bee thee things they are made and beleeued and are honoured as being the things they are beleeued These passages of Gelasius and Theodoret are the very racke gibbet of you Papists wherevnto the best of you know not what to answere but only that by substance Accident is meant An incredible obstinacy and madnesse and needing rather a Physitian to cure it then a disputer to confute it For with as good reason may you say that by white blacke is meant and by Heaven Hell and any thing by whatsoever Lastly Gregory the Great proueth the truth of Christs body against Eutychius by those words of our Saviour Handle mee and see Can you proue the truth of Christs body in the Sacrament by the same argument Verily if that which is neither felt nor seene be not Flesh Bone neither is the Flesh of Christ in the Sacrament for it is neither felt nor sâ—ene And if bread bee transubstantiated only by vertue of those words This is my body then in the Apostles time there was no Transubstantiation at all For as Gregory saith The manner of the Apostles was only by the Lords prayer to consecrate the host of the Oblation And thus haue you a full grand Iury of the ancient Fathers all of them liuing within sixe hundred yeares after Christ and with joynt consent crossing your new vpstart fiction of the Reall Presence To these I might easily adde a long list of those who succeeded in after times as Bede Rabanus Maurus Walafridus Strabo Bertram Waleram Bishop of Medburg Druthmarus and others not one of them in their times taxed for errour in this point But I will only relate what the Doctrine of the Church of England was about seauen hundred yeares after Christ as appeareth by those Homilies that then were publikely read vnto the people The holy Font water that is called the well-spring of life is like in shape to other waters and is subiect to corruption but the holy Ghosts might cometh to the water through the Priests blessing and it can after wash the body and soule from all sin through Ghostly might Behold now wee see two things in this one creature After true nature that water is corruptible water and after ghostly mystery hath hollowing might So also if wee behold that holy housel after bodily vnderstanding then see wee that it is a creature corruptible and mutable if we acknowledge therein ghostly might then vnderstand wee that life is therein and that it giueth immortality to them that eate it with beleefe Much is betwixt the invisible might of the holy housel the visible shape of his proper nature It is naturally corruptible Bread and corruptible Wine is by might of Gods word truly Christs Body and his bloud not so notwithstanding bodily but Ghostly Much is betwixt the body Christ suffered in and the body that is hallowed to housel The body truly that Christ suffered in was borne of the flesh of Mary with bloud and with bone with skinne and with sinews with humane limmes with a reasonable soule liuing and his Ghostly body which we call the housel is gathered of many cornes without bloud and bone without limme without Soule And therefore nothing is to bee vnderstood therein bodily but all is Ghostly to be vnderstood Thus the Homily and thus much thereof haue I thought good here at large to set downe to the end you may know that our Ancestors in this Iland notwithstanding your loud craks to the contrary haue not alwaies at leastwise in this point beene Papists Besides these testimonies of antiquity wee haue their customes also against you St Hierom reporteth that in the Primitiue times after the holy Communion was ended they were wont to feast together in the Church and to spend the residue of the Eucharist that remained Hesychius saith that it was the custome not to reserue till the morrow as your manner now adaies is but to burne what fragments soeuer remained of the consecrated Elements Evagrius and Nicephorus both doe testifie that the ancient custome of the Church of Constantinople was to send for little children from the schoole such as otherwise were barred from the Communion to giue the remainders of the Sacrament to them Had the Church in those daies verily beleeued that it had been the true and Real body of Christ doe you thinke they would so haue profaned it by feasting vpon it and bestowing it on children Or that they would with such impietie and sacrilege haue burned and consumed it in the fire It is altogether incredible As incredible therefore that they held it to be the Lords Body But of Antiquity enough Fiftly and lastly it implieth in it innumerable contradictions which according to the rule of Logick cannot
in these westerne parts of the kingdome he hath not left his equall neither doe I speake any thing to amplifie by way of Rhetorick I speake lesse then the truth His morall wisdome appeared in the checking of his appetite by temperance and sobrietie free he was in the lawfull vse of Gods creatures but neuer excessiue nor euer could be drawne to it either by example or perswasion which in a constitution so crazie was no doubt vnder God a speciall meanes for the drawing out the thread of his life in his carriage he was graue yet sociable enough courteous yet without affectation or vaine complement a sure friend to the vtmost of his power where he professed it yet without flatterie His ciuill wisdome appeared in the gouernment of his parrish and his family in the education of his Children and the Children of his freinds vpon speciall request committed to his charge in his owne matches and the matches of his daughters and lastly in the preseruing managing and disposing of that estate which God lent him in an orderly manner His spirituall or diuine wisdome appeared in his great knowledge in the sacred scripture in which with Timothy he was trained vp from a Child and as another Apollos grew mighty in them whereunto he added the helpe of the best Interpreters both ancient and moderne the serious study of the Fathers the schoole-diuines the Ecclesiasticall story and the controuersies of the present times aswell with the Romanists as among our selues that in matters not only of Doctrine but discipline in all which he was so well studied and vpon all fitting occasions so willing and ready either by writing or speech to expresse himselfe as many and those not vnlearned Divines were content nay glad to draw water from his well and to light their candles at his torch nay some of his aduersaries in his life time haue in open pulpit since his death to Gods glory their owne comfort and his honour confessed as much But the highest point of his spirituall wisdome appeared in the practise of piety in a due conformitie of his actions to his speculation drawing out as it were a faire coppy in the course of his life of those wholesome lessons which he found in his bookes formed in his braine and taught to others And herein indeede doe I take the very marrow and pith of spirituall wisdome to consist in the possession and fruition of supernaturall truths according to that of the great Earle of Mirandula Veritatem Philosophia quaerit Theologia inuenit religio possidet Philosophy seekes the truth Diuinity finds it but religion possesseth it Religion I say which bindes vs to the performance of our duties to God and man One maine branch of this duty and effect of this wisdome was his Teaching He taught euery where euery way by his example by his pen but specially by his tongue by his tongue both priuately and publiquely publiquely by expounding by catechizing by preaching in which he was so diligent that since his entring into the Ministery which he often professed to be his greatest honour and comfort in this world he waded through the whole body of the Bible from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the reuelation And as he was thus diligent in teaching so was he constant in his course as long as his health and strength would giue him leaue and I may truly say beyond his strength resoluing with that vncle of his no lesse good then great that a General should die in the feild a Preacher in the pulpit The manner of his teaching was not by loud vociferation or ridiculous gesticulation or ostentation of wit or affectation of words but in the euident demonstration of the spirit and power it was demonstratiue masculine and mighty through God to the pulling downe of strong holds deepe it was and yet cleare rationall and yet diuine perspicuous yet punctuall artificial yet profitable calme yet peircing pōderous yet familiar so as the ablest of his hearers might alwayes learne somewhat yet the simplest vnderstand all which was a rare mixture and in this mixture hee ran a middle moderate course most agreeable to the Canons constitutiōs of that Church in which hee was borne and bred betwixt the apish superstition of some and the peevish singularity of others betwixt blind deuotion and ouer-bold presumption betwixt vnreasonable obedience and vnwarrantable disconformitie betwixt popish tyranny grounded vpon carnall policie and popular confusion guided by meere fancie the one labouring for an vsurped Monarchy and to turne all the body into head the other for a lawlesse anarchy and to haue a body without a head Now though in his teaching he ranne this middle course yet did it alwayes aime not only at the information of the iudgment but the reformation of the will the beating downe of impiety and the convincing of the conscience to the drawing of his hearers as from ignorance to knowledge and from errour to truth so likewise thereby from rebellion to obedience from prophanenesse to religion And truely I little doubt but many a good soule now a Saint in heauen did they vnderstand our actions and desires and withall could make knowne their conceits to vs would soone giue vs to vnderstand that vnder God he was the instrument for the turning of them to righteousnesse and so for the directing and conducting of them to that place of their blisse and as little doubt I but many a good soule who heares me this day in secret and in silence blesseth God and the memory of this good man for that spirituall knowledge and comfort which they haue receaued by his Ministery once I am sure that a vertuous Gentlewoman of good note and ranke hath since his death by her letters written with her owne hand to some of his neerest freinds testified her turning to righteousnesse to haue beene first wrought by his meanes and noe question but many others might as iustly and truly doe the like were they so disposed or occasion required it This was the course of his life here now for the manner of his departure hence when his last sicknesse first seazed on him he accounted himselfe noe man of this world when he was in his best health though as a pilgrime he walked in it yet as a souldier he neuer warred after it but now being thus arested and imprisoned he professed to his friends who came to visite him holding vp his hands to heauen that though his body was here yet his heart was aboue and consequently his treasure for where a mans treasure is there will his heart be also He likewise assured vs that though he saw death approaching yet he feared it not death being now but a droane the sting thereof taken out during his sicknes he made his household his congregation his chamber his chappell and his bed his pulpit from whence he cast forth many hloy and heauenly eiaculations and made a most diuine confession
Scripture vnto all which I briefly answer thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I looked that they should punctually conclude Ergo Reading is no kind of Preaching but they insteed hereof substitute another conclusion Reading is not all that Preaching that is required in a Minister which who denies For wee freely confesse more is required then ability to Read except only then when sufficient Ministers or there where sufficient maintenance cannot be had In such a case better a Reader then none to publish Gods word to baptize children to administer the Communion and to performe other necessary duties which but by a Minister may not be done As for the descant vpon this plainsong what did Christ command no more then to come with a book in ones pocket and to read fairely from what spirit it proceeds I will not say sure I am it is a stale popish iest Thinkest thou saith Stapleton vnto Whitaker when Paul preached vnto the Gentiles to convert them hee deliuered them the booke of the old Testament or recited and read the same vnto them But besides testimonie of Scripture they vouch the authority of the booke of Homilies and Canons whereof the one distinguisheth Readers from Preachers which were great wrong vnto them if they be Preachers The other forbiddeth Ministers to preach in private whereby I may not so much as read a chapter in my house if Reading be Preaching This argument I thinke themselues make as little reckoning of as they doe of the authority whereon it is grounded For it is a plaine fallacy of Equivocation and they must needs be very blinde if they discerne it not For when our Church putteth a distinction betwixt Readers and Preachers shee vnderstandeth Preaching in the strict and speciall signification for one kinde of Preaching namely interpreting or making of Sermons And in this sense it is most true Reading is not Preaching and very simple must he be that holdeth bare Reading to be the making of a Sermon But when we say Reading is Preaching we vnderstand Preaching in a more large and generall signification as by and by you shall heare wherevnto because they speake not they speake not to the purpose Furthermore this doctrine say they is a maintainer of Idlers and dumb dogs and soule murtherers what not Pax mifrater good words I pray you for these are but the evaporations of a hot braine Farre be it from vs by any meanes to maintaine any such kinde of Cattle Wee wish with all our hearts that not only all Ministers but all the people of God could prophecie Howbeit were there not an idler nor dumb dog nor soule-murtherer as these men are pleased to tearme them in our Church yet if publicke Reading continue and I hope it will continue so long as the Sunne and Moone endureth Reading will ever bee a kinde of Preaching In the meane season I could wish that they who are so eager against dumbe dogges would sometimes remember to turne the edge of their tongues against bawling curres also with whom the Church of God is as much pestered as the other those I meane who behaue themselues so audaciously confidently in the pulpit yet haue neither the learning nor the wisdome to speake humbly discreetly and to the purpose One argument yet remaines Preaching was before the word written but before writing Reading could not be Reading therefore cannot be Preaching Pardon me my brethren if I call a spade a spade and in plaine English say this is a meere Popish argument For in like manner reasoneth Charron a French Papist to proue that Faith is not taught by Writing or Reading The Scripture saith he came but late into the world and the world had beene without it for the space of two thousand fiue hundred yeares namely all the time from Adam to Moses If then in the meane while the Faith was published to the world and receaued by it it could not bee by the word written or read which then was not but onely by the word preached and heard But in the same sort as Francis Iunius confronteth Charron so will I answere these men First although before Moses no part of the Canon was written yet happily there might be other godly and holy bookes penned out of which the true faith might be learned Secondly grant that at that time nothing at all was written yet the argument followeth not The world was a long time without Scripture Ergo neither now is it the purpose of God to teach by Writing or Reading For contrarily seeing it hath pleased God of his goodnesse at length to commit his word vnto writing it is manifest that he now intends men should learne the knowledge thereof even by Reading also Wherefore I conclude that as before Writing there was happily but one kinde of preaching namely speaking to the eare so now since the time that Gods word hath beene written there are more kindes then one namely speaking to the eye too Thus hauing remoued these rubs as it were out of our way let vs proceed in Gods name to maintaine the truth propounded that Reading is a kind of Preaching wherein I must intreat you againe againe not to mistake me as if I held bare Reading to be all that Preaching which is required in a Minister or that it is the making of a Sermon that is the expounding of a Text deducing of doctrines and particular application of the same by way of exhortation Farre be such vanitie and folly from mee What then Surely by Preaching generally I vnderstand the publishing or notifying or making knowne of Gods word Which seeing it may be done by sundry waies meanes as inwardly outwardly publikely privately by word by writing by speaking by reading by Catechizing by conference and the like I boldly affirme that there are diverse kinds of Preaching and that Reading is one of them And least any man should thinke I stretch the word Preaching too farre bee it knowne vnto you that I doe no more then Martin Bucer sometime Divinity Reader in Cambridge as he is cited by D. Whitgift hath long since done before me for as he granteth that there are sundry sorts of Preaching so among them he reckons Reading for one And whatsoever some punies avouch to the contrary I dare engage all the poore skill I haue in languages vpon it that the originall words vsually translated Preaching as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the old Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the new are not in Scripture no nor in other writers restrained vnto the mouth or scholying vpon a Text but are of far larger extent and capacitie even such as wee haue aboue deliuered So that to come to an issue when we say reading is a kinde of preaching our plaine meaning is that it is a way or meanes by which the word of God is pubâ—lished and made knowne Which being so what is it my bretheren that so much offendeth and angreth you Is it the inconvenience of the
taught in all schooles By what way or meanes is the knowledge of Gods will declared in his word to bee attained By diligent reading and meditating of Gods word or by attentiue hearing the same read and purely expounded by others The booke of Homilies affirmeth that the reading of Scripture breedeth knowledge turneth illuminateth comforteth incourageth and againe expressely The ordinary way to attaine the knowledge of God and our selues is with diligence to heare and read the holy Scripture Finally if the iudgement of the chiefe governours of our Church and the publike authorizing of bookes for the maintenance hereof be a sufficient argument I dare bee bold to say that this is the very doctrine of the Church of England Sure I am that the reverend father of this Diocesse who best should know it gaue expresse commandement that it should publikely in this pulpit bee acknowledged that reading is an ordinary meanes to beget Faith and not Preaching only as they tearme it Thus our latter Divines I haue but one thing more to say in this point and it is this that howsoever these men may differ from Papists in other opinions yet I see not how they can cleare themselues from Popery in this For to omit all consequences which necessarily follow vpon it thus in plaine termes say the Iesuits of Rhemes Faith cometh ordinarily of preaching and hearing and not of reading and writing And Bellarmine Scripture was not given to this end to be a rule of Faith but to be a certaine profitable commonitory to preserue and nourish that doctrine which is receaued by preaching And Stapleton Reading is not via ordinaria the ordinary way to Faith and againe Scripture binds not a man to beleeue neither is Faith to be had by it but only as it is preached by the Church Lastly Charron Faith is by the word Preached and pronounced by voice not written or read Againe Thou beleeuest because thou readest thou art no Christian for the Christian beleeueth afore reading and without And againe Faith got by Reading is acquisite humane studied not Christian and he that hath it is no Christian his Faith must haue another name Iump almost with that ere while quoted out of Hieron ordinarily knowledge so gotten is but vaine iangling and swimmeth in the braine but renewes not the heart Thus Papists against whom our men mainely oppose themselues herein And thus haue I at length resolued the three Questions in the beginning propounded and as I trust maintained the truth of God and that as becommeth the truth with the spirit of meeknesse and sobriety Withall as I suppose I haue made a sufficient Apologie both for my selfe and other my reverend brethren who in the general vnderstanding of the ordinary auditory of this place haue beene publikely censured as Seducing Spirits for holding that which I haue now maintained Reason would that he who seemed to lay this scandall vpon vs should haue made publike amends and either haue interpreted himselfe if he were mis-vnderstood or acknowledged his rashnesse if he did so censure But seeing it will not be and so much charity cannot be found in the heart yea over and aboue seeing I haue since that time beene braued to my face and as I am credibly informed often insulted vpon behinde my back as if I durst not publikely shew my face in these points though otherwise I could haue beene content to hold my peace for the peace of the Church yet now I could doe no other then I haue done and pardon me I beseech you for herevnto haue I beene forced and constrained Sooner perhaps would I haue discharged my selfe of this burthen if sooner I could haue met with so fit an auditory For who can better testifie of what I say or are fitter to be iudges and vmpires in such a businesse then you my reverend and beloved bretheren of the Cleargie To you therefore and to your graue censure doe I referre both my selfe whatsoever I haue said duly remembring that of the Apostle Paul the spirit of the Prophets is subiect to the Prophets And now giue mee leaue to addresse my speech vnto you my beloued bretheren of the Laitie specially you that are the ordinarie auditory of this place Let mee intreat you all not again to mistake me as if by what I haue said I went about any way to derogate from Sermons I say mistake me not againe for once already haue I beene either ignorantly or wilfully misconstrued Preaching some while since in this place on Luc. 20.34.35 and enquiring as my Text occasioned me who they were that should be accounted worthy to obtaine the next world and the resurrection from the dead I affirmed first in generall that it was not semblance only or shew of religion that could make a man worthie and then in particular that a man might be a frequent auditor of Sermons might goe two three foure more miles to heare them all the while might looke the Preacher starke in the face afterward returne with ioy call to minde talke conferre and repeat the same and yet for all this still be counted vnworthy And fearing least I should bee mis-vnderstood I then intreated you not to mistake me as if I misliked Sermons or the going to them Nay I exhorted you to goe provided you went not with contempt of Divine Service at home nor departing from your owne Minister how meane a Preacher soever none I thinke being so meane but is able to teach you more then you knowe provided also that you passe not through the Church-yards of as reverend and learned men as these parts afford any to go a mile further to heare a novice and when you are returned that your repetitions bee not vaineglorious with such a rumble and after the manner of a riot but modest and severally in your owne houses and lastly that the fruit of your often hearing be not a demure looke onely and a prating tongue but true humility charity which best conformeth vs vnto IESVS CHRIST These things I then said and for ought I yet see said not amisse yet am I censured as an enimie to Sermons as one that greeues the hearts of Gods Saints and lash the faults of Hypocrites on the backes of Gods children Wherefore you see I haue reason now to be warie of my selfe and to prevent the like danger that I bee not the second time mistaken as if I spake in derogation of Sermons Sermons I acknowledge to be the blessed ordinance of God as learned Hooker saith they are the keyes to the kingdome of heauen wings to the soule spurres to our good affections food to them that are sound and healthy and vnto diseased mindes physicke Whatsoever any can truely say in honour of them withall our hearts we subscribe vnto it If comparison be made betweene Reading and Sermons wee readily yeeld the precedencie to Sermons For although it be the same word which is read
his glorious estate to make Intercession for vs. Yet this is not all for it is further to be observed that Christ is not Priest as Man only but as Emanuell on God-man This the Apostle to the Hebrewes carefully demonstrateth The law saith he maketh men high Priests which haue infirmity but the wâ—rd of the Oath which was since the law maketh the sonne who is consecrated for ever more And againe Christ saith he by his eternall spirit offered himselfe without spot to God And if he were a Priest after the order of Melchizedecke as he was without Father or Mother without genealogie hauing neither beginning of daies nor end of life as also being Vntithed in the loines of Abraham it cannot be that he should be Priest as Man only for of Man only these things cannot be verified therefore as God also If so then Prayer being an act of Christs Priest-hood it followeth that it is Emanuel God-man that prayeth and that his Prayer is a Theandricall action as Divines terme it Divinely-humane or Humanely-divine This speech haply may sound harshly in some eares there are who sticke not to charge it with â—tat Arrianisme as if thereby we made Christ inferiour to his Father whereas hee himselfe thought it no robbery to be equall vnto him Giue mee leaue therefore to bestow a few words for the clearing of this difficulty the rather because it is being rightly apprehended the ground of singular comfort vnto vs. It is a Fundamentall article of the Christian Faith that in Christ there are two distinct Natures his Divinity his Humanity that both these concurre to the constitution of one Person God-man Whence it followeth that the Agent or Principle which acteth all the workes of Mediation is but one by reason of the Vnitie of the Person even Christ God-man according to that protrite Maxime Actiones sunt suppositorum all actions issue and proceed from the Subiect or person Howbeit seeing the Person alwaies worketh by his Natures and they as wee haue said in Christ are two it followeth by reason of this Dualitie that there are two distinct Principles by which Christ worketh or mediateth according to that other rule in nature Natura est principium motus quietis nature is the principle both of rest and motion This for further illustration may be exemplified in Humane actions For as it is Man or the Person of Man consisting of Soule and Body that vnderstandeth reasoneth moueth speaketh yet it is the Soule by which he vnderstandeth and reasoneth the Body by which he moueth and speaketh so in the actions of Mediation it is Christ God-man that worketh them all yet some by his Godhead and some by his Manhood Here therefore are wee to distinguish The workes of Mediation are either of Soueraignty and Authority or of Subiection and Ministrie Of Soveraignty and Authrity as to send the Holy Ghost to illuminate the Mind to raise from death of Subiection and Ministrie as to suffer to dy to be raised from death All these things did Christ as he was God-man both doe and suffer but yet the former by the Principle of his deity the latter by the Principle of his humanity It is further to be observed that although both the Natures in Christ remaine distinct and consequently their severall operations also yet as Leo truly saith Agit vâ—raque forma cum communione alterius quod cuiusque proprium est both Natures doe that which is proper vnto them but with Communion of each with other This Communion is the concurrence of both Natures in the same Person by their severall proper actions to the producing of one Apotelesma or outward effect pertaining to our Salvation In which concurrence the Deity is ever the principall and the Humanitie is the Organ or Instrument of the Deity so that it never moueth to any thing but as it is acted and moved by the Deity and from it receiues all its value dignity and efficacy as in Man the Body doth from the Soule These things being thus demonstrated let vs in a word applie them to our particular This Prayer of Christ is an act of his Priesthood Heâ— therefore prayes that is the Priest The Priest as we haue shewed is Christ God-man Christ therefore prayeth as God-man But the act is Ministeriall not Soveraigne He prayeth therefore not by the Principle of his Deity but in his Humanitie Howbeit with Communion of the Deity the Instrument partaking with the Principall Agent and deriuing all its vertue and efficacy from the concurrence thereof Which being so the more either ignorant or malitious are our adversaries of the Church of Rome who slander vs as if we held Christ prayed in his Divine nature Nay we know Prayer is a worke of Ministry and implies inferiority whereas the Word is coequall to his Father If may be the dreame of Iewes in their Talmud that God prayes certaine houres every day or of Turkes in their Alcoran that he prayeth for Mahomet But we know that God hath no superiour to whom he should pray and that his will is omnipotent and the effectuall cause of all things so that he needs not pray But it pleased the sonne of God to assume our nature and in the same to make himselfe lesse then his Father and to become obedient vnto him in all things So that although it bee God-man that prayes yet praying non qua Deus sed qua homo not in the forme of the Word but of a Servant it can be no impeachment to his Deity Now if it be God-man that prayes is it possible hee should misse of his suit Surely he himselfe saith I knowe thou hearest me alwaies And the Apostle affirmes that in his Prayers and Supplications he was still heard If hee bee the only Sonne in whom the Father is well pleased will he thinke you deny him any thing Nay if wee that are so vnworthy are yet heard for his sake how can hee that is of such infinite worth but bee heard when as himselfe praies He is therefore alwais heard What is it then he here sues for To himselfe Glorification to his Apostles to know and teach all sauing truth to vs that beleeue through their word Sanctification Vnion with him Perseverance in grace and the blessed-making vision of his Clory Doubtlesse therefore hee himselfe sitteth at the right hand of his Father and swayeth all things both in Heaven and earth to his Churches good His Apostles both knew and taught all the counsells of God and wee may safely build vpon the Foundation they haue laid As for vs all those things shall surely bee made good vnto vs. And though Sathan desire to winnow vs yet Hell gates shall never prevaile against vs. For he that never faileth to be heard hath prayed for our Faith that it faile not then which what surer ground of peace and ioy to the conscience can there be As it is the ground of comfort so is it
beseech you beloued brethren tandem hoc agamus let vs at length attend the businesse which Christ hath charged vs withall What errand hee hath put into our mouthes that and no other let vs freely deliuer And let vs striue to deliuer it in such manner as may make most to our end that is the building vp of men in their most holy Faith This shall we the better doe if we looke vnto Christ and what forme he vsed A better precedent can we not possibly follow for neuer spake man as he did Him did the holy Apostles make their patterne and by vertue thereof converted the world vnto the Christian Faith If we looke vnto any other and for the pleasing of them forme our Sermons after the humour of those whose humour we should rectifie neither shall we please God nor happily in the end them A certaine Painter hauing with all his skill drawne two pictures as like as possibly hee could reserued the one in his chamber and set forth the other on his stall to the view and censure of all that passed by and whatsoeuer they misliked he would with his pencill alter according to their iudgement vntill it was growne every way deformed At length setting forth his other picture by it and the people commending it as an exquisite peece condemning the other as a deformed monster yet that quoth hee I drew according to your judgement this according to my owne art and skill Certainely certainely if we shall attend the seuerall censures of our auditors and patch vp Sermons according to their liking monstrous and enormious must they needs bee Much better were it therefore by our owne art our art being learned from the example of Christ and his Apostles to frame all our Sermons so shall wee gaine many soules vnto Christ and purchase to our selues true praise with God and in the consciences of all good men What though this way we cannot make so much shew of learning and eloquence Yet therein shall we be like the Apostle S. Paul whose preaching was not in the entising words of mans wisdome but in demonstration of the spirit Yea like vnto Christ himselfe who though hee were rich yet made himselfe poore that he might make many rich In a word let vs duly remember that although we be dispensers of heavenly treasures yet is it the pleasure of God wee haue them in earthen vessels that the excellencie of the power may be of God and not of vs. But of what Iesus spake enough After he had spoken these things then hee lift vp his eyes and prayed Not but that without Prayer he was able to effect what he prayed for For being perfect God and the absolute dispencer of all grace wee cannot without fearefull impiety thinke that out of infirmitie he seekes that by request which of himselfe he could not accomplish No but as Ambrose saith though he were Potestatis author Lord of power yet would be Obedientiae Magister the teacher of obedience by due performing his owne dutie For as we haue said he was a Priest and the duties of Priesthood are three Docere Orare Sacrificare to teach to pray to sacrifice As for the first he hath already carefully taught them and giuen them the words which his Father gaue him As touching the third hee was now ready to offer vp himselfe as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sinnes of the world for so saith he by and by Father the houre is come Betwixt these two intercedit intercessio he maketh humble suit that both the one and the other might be effectuall to the eternall saluation of all those whom his Father had chosen out of the world and giuen vnto him And thus as in Christs Priesthood so also in his practise Preaching and Prayer were vsually ioyned together What Christ therefore hath conioyned let no man dare to put asunder The dispensation of the Word and Prayer are by the ioint testimonie of all the Apostles the two principall offices of the Ministery Hardly therefore can they bee divorced without maiming or mangling thereof As in Preaching we are the mouth of God vnto the people so by Prayer ought we to bee the mouth of the people vnto God By the one we teach them the will of God by the other we blesse them in the name of God As we are bound to plant and water by Preaching so are we by Prayer to mediate vnto God for increase For that will affect but coldly except this quicken and inflame it It is not the Word or Prayer severally but the Word and Prayer ioyntly that both sanctifieth the Creature vnto vs and the people vnto God Whence it followeth also that as the Minister is to Preach and Pray so are the People to Heare and Pray For Preaching is to no purpose without Hearing and to what end Praying in the Congregation if none concurre with him Heare therefore they must that they may beleeue for Faith commeth by hearing and hearing by the word of God And Pray they must both for their Pastors faithfully and diligently to dispense the word of truth amongst them and for themselues that God would open the eares of their hearts also that what they heare may be even the savour of life vnto life vnto them This condemneth all those who either out of a disrespect of Preaching are all for Prayer such as were the ancient Euchetae and too many also amongst vs now adayes or out of a contempt of Common Prayer are all for Preaching seldome presenting themselues in the Church vntill the Preacher be in the Pulpit No marvell if the Hearing of the one be fruitlesse seeing they despise the Prayers of the Church by which the blessing is obtained and if the Prayer of the other be vneffectuall seeing they little regard Preaching by which it is to be guided But here happily it will be demanded whether of the twaine Preaching or Prayer is the more noble A question much debated of late and with too much faction and vehemence Wherevnto this I haue to say that if the cōparison be intended betweene Preaching and the Prayer of private men without doubt Preaching is the more excellent For it is publike and therefore more profitable A publike embassage from God and therefore more honourable then a private supplication vnto God To say nothing of the more solemne promise made vnto it of shining as the brightnesse of the firmament and the starres for ever and ever Yea but Preaching is subordinate to Prayer and the end is more worthie then that which is subordinate thereto Nay but it is preordinate rather as the Intelligences are to their orbs or Prudence vnto vertuous actions Or if it be subordinate yet is it in order to the chiefest good as the kingly office is vnto meaner trades for the publike weale and the Mediation of Christ to the salvation of man for the glory of Gods grace which yet are not therefore inferiour But if
crie vnto me Multi sonant voce â—orde muti sunt many sound aloud saith St Augustine with their voice that are dumb in their heart And the contrarie thereof is as true Multi sonant corde voce muti sunt many are silent with their lips yet loud with their affections The common rime though it bee not very elegant yet carries good sense with it Non vox sed votum non cordula musica sed cor non clamans sed amans cantat in aure Dei not the voice but the vow not the harp but the heart not lowing but louing musicke for Gods eares Secondly it serueth for instruction that although Mentall prayer may be available without vocall yet is not vocall so without Mentall For as the body without the soule so words without concurrence of affection are dead The Iewes drew neere vnto God with their mouth honoured him with their lips but the heart being removed farre off it is expressely said they called not vpon his name All Bablers therefore are here condemned who hope to be heard for their heathnish battologie Such are all they who pray in a language they know not like vnto Parrats or the Cardinalls Iay that could repeat the whole Creed but vnderstood never a word thereof A thing vtterly repugnant to nature to Scripture and the practise of all antiquity and is rather the dotage of a drunken braine then the serious exercise of true piety Such also are all they who vnderstand but attend not what they say suffering their thoughts to range about impertinent businesses as if a little lippe labour were enough for God The Schoolemen haâ—e a rule that a generall intention without particular attention is sufficient But it is a profane rule the Gentiles Hoc age shall rise vp in iudgement against it and condemne all those that practise it Lastly it may serue for direction how in what manner to mould and forme our Praying For as our Preaching so our Praying also must be conformed to his example Now if you please to search into it you shall finde this Prayer for the Matter most heavenly for the Method most orderly for the words most expresse and significant and for the length no way tedious as wherein is to vse the words of St Augustine Non multa locutio sed multa precatio not much talking but much praying Every thing is carried with deepe wisdome and advisednesse nothing rashly or tumultuarily Not a word but breatheth forth perfect holinesse and charity and to bee briefe nothing but what every way may become the son of God himselfe Oh that our Prayers might alwaies bee framed according to this patterne How acceptable would they then be to him to whom they are addressed But indeed wee imitate it not as wee ought For on the one side some of vs present vnto God I know not what curious contriuing of words as if he were sooner to be taken with the froth of humane wit then with Christian gravity and simplicity Others on the other side and those God wot sillie ones though they know neither what to say nor how yet least they should seeme destitute of the Spirit of Prayer they presume on the sudden without any meditation to poure out whole floods of words without one drop of sense spinning out their prayers to an enormious length forgetting that God being aboue in heaven themselues here on earth their words should bee both weighty and few Would a man preferre a petition to his Prince without due consideration of all things before hand But these loue to be too homely and familiar with God and I cannot better compare them then to little children who would faine tell a tale to Father or Mother not knowing either what it is or how to vtter it My advice vnto these should be first that they would no longer overweene themselues mistaking the Lips of Calues for the Calues of the lips Then that vpon knowledge of their owne inability they content themselues with short Ejaculations and such Prayers as graue and learned men haue provided for them Lastly that Humility and Charitie be their ordinary Prayers For besides Mentall and Vocall there is also Vitalis Oratio the Prayer of a godly life which cries as loud vnto God for a blessing as Abels murder or notorious sins doe for vengeance Without which though a man roare like Stentor and multiply words as the sand God turneth the deafe eare and will not vouchsafe to heare him But of this as also of the whole Preface thus much Howbeit before I conclude I must craue leaue to addresse a few words vnto you also my Lord who are the Angell of this Diocesse You haue heard what foule abuses there are both of Preaching and Praying it belongeth vnto your Lordship to see them redressed Some are silent and say nothing it were good their mouthes were opened Some insteed of Gods truth broach their owne perverse opinions it were fit their mouthes were stopt Others with their rude behauiour and outcries disgrace Preaching these might be taught a little more civility And others weaken the power of Preaching with too much curiosity these might be persuaded to a little more simplicity As for Publike Prayer it is too much neglected and despised and I feare the scandalous liues of Ministers is in part the cause thereof For although the efficacie as of the Word and Sacraments so of it also depend not vpon the quality of the Minister but Gods ordinance and the blessing of Balaam though a false Prophet were availeable yet the people are not so considerate but the lewd liues of Hophni and Phinees may soone bring the Sacrifices of God into contempt with them Your Lordship therefore may be pleased to haue a speciall eye vnto the reformation hereof And seeing the remisnesse of Heli will not effect it by rigor and severity to procure it that so the liues of your Clergy being answerable vnto their high calling exemplarie to their flock the Liturgy of the Church may recover its ancient credit and dignitie to the glory of God the honour of the Ministry and the building vp of Gods people in their most holy Faith which the Lord grant for his Christs sake V. 1. Father the houre is come glorifie thy Sonne that thy Sonne may glorifie thee Hauing dispatched the Preface wee are now to enter vpon the Corps or Body of the Prayer wherein you may be pleased to obserue with mee other three particulars Quem Pro quibus Quid to whom for whom and for what he prayes For vnto these three heads as I conceaue the whole prayer may conveniently bee reduced Of them therefore in order as it shall please God to assist And first of the first Quem orat to whom hee prayes This appeareth by the very first word of the Prayer Father the houre is come glorify thy sonne It is his Father to whom he prayes even the first Person in the Trinity For although
is no other then a head without a body And this you see for whom he prayes as also in what order why in such order he prayes for them Whence briefly we may obserue first to what height of honour it hath pleased Christ to advance his Church in that hee hath made her not only Christian by vertue of her Spirituall vnction but also Christ by reason of her mysticall vnion with him then which what higher dignitie Secondly that in all things Christ is to be preferred even to our very liues yea our soules and their saluation as Moses and S. Paul sometime did because hee is of infinite more worth and desert then all Thirdly that Christ is the Principle of all good and that the life both of Grace and Glory is to be deriued from him alone If we seek it from Saints or Angells or any other creature they will but deceaue our hopes in the end as water torrents that passe away doe the trauellers of Temah and Sheba Lastly that as in hell the rich glutton could not finde so much as one drop of water so out of Christ not a drop of grace is to be had Carefully therefore are wee to labour that wee may be in him Being in him we cannot but be partakers of all goods together with him Neither need wee feare the losse thereof for he hath receaued it for vs and our life is hid with Christ in God And thus much of the second part Pro quibus for whom he prayes Come we vnto the third Quid orat what he prayes for first what to himselfe then what to his Church To himselfe he prayes for Glorification rendring divers reasons why it should be granted vnto Him Of all which we will speake in their order but first of the thing demanded Glorifie thy Sonne Glorie is no other then the splendor claritie brightnesse or shining of a thing resulting and rising from the perfection eminency or excellency it hath aboue other things For example the Glory of God is the perfection of his nature and attributes infinitely surpassing and out-shining the perfection of all creatures Among the creatures the Glory of the Sunne Moone and Starres is their incomparable brightnesse aboue other lights Of Princes their peerlesse soveraignty and state aboue the subject Of Man the soule and speech by which he excelleth the brute and dumb creature Of the Church her speciall priviledges aboue all other societies And so in other things So that Glorie is no other then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 greatnesse ioined with beauty or goodnesse Not every beauty or goodnesse but that which is exochally or eminently so In regard whereof in Hebrew it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Weight as causing those that behold it as it were to sinke vnder the burden thereof Wherevnto S. Paul as it seemes alluding ioyneth an exceeding weight with Glorie In the Chaldee it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pretiousnesse as being of greatest worth and value in which respect the Apostle ioyneth Riches with Glory In Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fame opinion from the effect thereof because in the minde it begetteth due estimation of it and in speech honourable mention In regard whereof it is defined by some Clara cum laude notitia an apprehension thereof together with praise by others laus consentiens bonorum or vox hominum incorruptè judicantium praise giuen by good men or the report of them that iudge rightly thereof Of which againe by and by Such is Glory Now to Glorifie imports two acts the one of bounty and liberality the other of Iustice. That whereby Glory is conferred bestowed where it is not or is augmented and increased where it is not in the full measure And so God is said to glorifie the creature according to that of the Psalmist Grace and glory God will giue This whereby the glorie that is is acknowledged ascribed vnto the thing that is glorious yea whereby it is made knowne manifest to others to the praise and honour thereof And so the creature is said to glorifie God And in this latter sense wee finde these three words of Praising Honouring and Glorifying in Scripture ordinarily to be vsed although in proper speech each haue its severall and peculiar notion For Praising is that act where by in words we giue testimonie of the vertue or goodnesse of a thing So the Philosopher Laus est oratio magnitudinem virtutis indicans praise is a speech declaring the greatnesse of vertue Honouring is an higher degree where by not in words only but by outward gestures and signes also we testifie of the excellence goodnesse of a thing Glorifying is the fruit or effect of both For in praysing by words and honouring by signes wee cause the goodnesse and excellencie of a thing to spread it selfe vnto the knowledge of many Whence insteed of glorificatio divers say clarificatio deriuing gloria from clarus as if it were claria to import the making of a thing illustrious to shine abroad St. Basil therefore defining 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to glorifie by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and S. Augustin by gloriosum dicere to say a thing is glorious say something but not all For as we haue shewed it steps further and includes more within it And thus you see in generall both what glory is and what it is to glorifie by which as by a threed we may easily be guided to that particular which here our Saviour craues when he saith Father glorifie thy Sonne For vndoubtedly he prayes that his father would bestow vpon him what glorie he wanted if he wanted any and the manifestation of that glorie which already he had if he had any or should haue therefore Wherefore to make all plaine we will enquire three things First What glory he was presently possessed of secondly what glory yet he wanted and thirdly how hee would be glorified Of these in order and first of the first That Christ now presently was possessed of glorie though haply not as yet in the full measure cannot bee denied For although the Prophet say that hee had neither forme nor comelinesse nor beautie yet indeed he was the fairest of all men full of grace and truth Outwardly and in the eye of naturall men beauty he had none he seemed a Worme rather then a Man but inwardly and to them that were spirituall hee both was and appeared glorious and they beheld his glory not as of man but as of the only begotten of the Father Omitting therefore this as granted of all hands let vs rather enquire touching his glory what it was It was double the glorie of his Person and the glory of his Office The glory of his Person againe is double For being the word made flesh so consisting of two distinct natures the Word and the Flesh though the Person be but one yet is there a twofold
glorie thereof one of the Word another of the Flesh. The glorie of the Word standeth in two things first that hee is the eternall Sonne of the eternall Father begotten after an vnspeakable manner of his owne substance and therefore the brightnesse of his glory and the expresse image of his Person A name too excellent for the Angells themselues For neuer did the Father say to any of them Thou art my sonne this day haue I begotten thee Secondly that being so begotten hee is consubstantiall and coequall with his Father neither counteth he it robbery to bee equall with him For though he be the Sonne and not the Father yet being of the same Substance hee is one and the same God with him and may iustly challenge vnto himselfe the fulnesse of the Deitie as farre forth as the Father A glory infinitely transcending that of any creature The glorie of his Flesh is likewise double of Assumption and Communication Of Assumption by which it was taken into the divine nature For as soone as it began to haue being in the wombe of the blessed virgin it was prevented from subsisting in it selfe and was drawne into the vnitie of the Person of the Sonne of God eternally to subsist therein The highest dignitie that a creature can aspire vnto That of Communication is whereby glorious things are communicated vnto his humane nature And it is either Personall or Habitual Personall is that whereby as the nature of man is truely giuen to the Person of the Sonne so the Person of the Sonne is truely communicated vnto the nature of man Wherevpon because in the Person of the Sonne is the fulnesse of all perfection and all the essentiall attributes of the Deitie as namely Omniscience omnipotence omnipresence and the rest therefore doe wee say that all these attributes and that fulnesse of perfection are communicated also vnto the Manhood Howbeit not Physically and by effusion as if the same properties which are in God should formally and subiectiuely be in man as heat transfused from the fire is inherent in the water For that which is infinite cannot bee comprehended of that which is finite How then Personally in the sonne of God So that by reason of the hypostaticall vnion there is such a reall communion betweene them that the sonne of man is truly the Sonne of God and consequently also Omniscient omnipotent omnipresent and the rest The want of due consideration hereof was it that bred that monster of Vbiquitie and that great quarrell betwixt vs and the Saxon Churches Communication habituall is that whereby the fulnesse of grace was bestowed vpon him to be subiectiuely and inherently in his Flesh. And this is the glory of his Vnction For the spirit of the Lord rested vpon him the spirit of wisdome and vnderstanding the spirit of counsell and might the spirit of knowledge and of the feare of the Lord. By this Spirit was he annointed with the oile of gladnesse aboue his fellowes yea he receiued the spirit without measure or limit both for the essence vertue thereof intensiuely and extensiuely to all effects and purposes both for himselfe and others So that in his Will there was perfect iustice without taint or staine in his Minde perfect wisdome and knowledge both Beatificall whereby he saw God farre more clearly then any other as being more neerely vnited vnto him and Infused whereby he knew all heauenly and supernaturall verities which without the revelation of grace cannot bee knowne yea Acquisite and Experimentall also whereby hee knew all whatsoeuer by the light of reason and nature might bee knowne So that he was ignorant of nothing which hee ought to know or might make to his full happinesse And this was his Habituall glory Now the Glory of his Office breefely was to be the Mediator betweene God and Man An office of so high a nature that it could bee performed by none but only him who was both God and Man For herevnto it was necessary that he should be a Prophet a Priest and a King A Prophet as an Arbiter to take knowledge of the cause quarrell depending betweene them and as an Internuntius or legate to propound expound the conditions of peace that are to be concluded vpon A Priest to be an Intercessor and to make interpellation for the party offending and then to be a Fideiussor or Surety making satisfaction to the party for him A King hauing all power both in heauen and earth to keepe and preserue the Church so reconciled in the state of grace to tread downe vnder his feete all the enimies thereof Wondrous Glory and farre aboue that of any creature And this is the Glory he was already possessed of Wanted he yet any further Glory yes verily and that in regard both of his Divine and Humane nature Of his Divine for the Word had now emptied himselfe of his glory Emptied himselfe I say not simply and absolutely for he could no more in such sort abdicate his glory then cease to be himselfe it being essentiall vnto him and his very selfe but oeconomically and dispensatiuely vailing couering it vnder the cloud of his flesh For if as St Leo saith the exinanition of the divine Maiesty was the advancement of the servile forme vnto the highest pitch of honour then by like proportion the advancement of the servile forme was the exinanition of the divine Maiesty This Exinanition or Emptying of himselfe was in his Incarnation conception nativity obedience actiue to the law of nature as being the sonne of Adam and to the law of Moses as being the sonne of Abraham Passiue in suffering hunger and cold and wearinesse a thousand sorrowes wherevnto the infirmity of his flesh was subiect In this state Christ now stood neither had he as yet recovered the Glory whereof he had emptied himselfe nay he was not as yet come to the lowest degree of his humiliation For though they were instant and nere at hand yet his agonie his sweating of bloud his arraignment his crosse his death his emprisonment in the graue were not yet come All which did more more eclipse the glory of his Deity so that this Glory of the word as yet he wanted In regard of his Humane nature hee had not yet deposed humane infirmities as hunger thirst feare sorrow anguish and the like Neither had hee obtained incorruption impassibility immortality nor that glorious purity strength agility clarity of the body which he expected together with the fulnesse of inward ioyes and comforts in the Soule Adde herevnto that the actions of his mediation namely of his Prophecy Priesthood and Kingdome had not nor could not bee hitherto performe gloriously but only in such an humble manner as suted with the state of humiliation in which presently he stood To make all plaine though as the Schoole speaketh he were Comprehensor in termino affectione iustitiae yet he was viator extraterminum
so pleased haue vsed some other meanes for the appeasing of his wrath Yes doubtlesse for he had abundance of spirit wisdome But he chose this as the best course for the declaration of his iustice and mercy justice in the rigorous exacting of satisfaction for sinne yea even from his owne sonne mercy in the free pardon of sinne by the death and passion of his sonne Excellently to this purpose Cameracensis God in the beginning gaue vnto man truth to instruct him iustice to direct him mercy to preserue him and peace to delight him But he rebelling against his creator they all fled from him returned vnto God Where iustice called vpon him for satisfaction and truth required performance of his word but Peace sought mitigation of wrath and mercy sued for pardon In this difficulty wisdome interposed her selfe and found out a meanes to content all namely by the incarnation and suffering of the sonne of God Wherevnto the Father yeelding all were soone accorded and so mercy and truth met together and justice and peace kissed each other For further ratification whereof it pleased the Father solemnely and vnalterably to decree that his sonne should suffer in the flesh Wherevpon our Saviour saith it was so determined and the Scriptures as they foretell it so they affirme that thus it must be and that Christ ought to suffer And according to this determinate counsell and fore-knowledge of God when the houre appointed was come he was delivered and taken and by wicked hands crucified and slaine Of which great worke being now to speake and to enquire into the Punishment fore appointed vnto him by his Father because some extenuate it too much as if he seemed only to suffer or suffered not what indeed hee did others againe too much aggravate it as if he suffered the very paines of the damned in hell wee will as warily and as carefully as we can steere betweene that Scylla and this Charybdis And to this end wee will diligently enquire foure things the species or kinde of punishment he suffered the extention the intention and the duration thereof And of each of these briefely in a word The kind of punishment was that which was due to sin and every way equivalent for the expiation thereof howbeit so farre forth and no further then was convenient for such a person First therefore he suffered not that Punishment of sinne which is sinne for God many times and that iustly punisheth one sinne by another The reason for that then he should haue beene a sinner either by inherent or actuall sinne and so could never haue made sufficient satisfaction for the sinnes of others Neither secondly did he suffer the personall punishment of this or that man as the gout the stone the dropsie and the like For he tooke not the person but the nature of man into him and so made himselfe subiect not to Personall but to Naturall infirmities only To say nothing that those paines are many of them so contrary and repugnant one vnto another as they are incompatible in the same person Nor yet thirdly did he suffer those punishments which proceede either from the conscience of inherent sinne or the eternall continuance of sinne such as are Remorse and despaire For in him was never any sinne whether Originall or Actuall Only it was imputed vnto him inasmuch as he vndertooke to satisfy for it These foreprised and excepted all other sorts of Punishment were laid vpon him And because in Sinne there is a double act an Aversion or turning away from God the chiefest good and a Conversion or turning vnto that which is only a seeming good and consequently the desert of a double Punishment the one of losse to be depriued of the true good in regard of the Aversion the other of sence to feele smart both in body and soule in regard of the Conversion our blessed Lord and Sauiour suffered both The Punishment of Losse being in regard of present comfort and ioy left vnto himselfe and in a sort forsaken of his Father of which againe anon in the due place The punishment of Sence for he felt during the while extreame both torment and paine outwardly in the body and horror and anguish inwardly in the Soule The Extension whereof was also exceeding generall for he suffered from all that any way could afflict him and in all whatsoever belonged vnto him From his Father therefore he suffered who for a time abandoned him and delivered him into the hand of sinners from the powers of darknesse who laid vpon him whatsoever their malice could devise from the Iewes who stumbled at him and despised him from the Gentiles who made a game and laughing-stocke of him from Magistrates who convented and condemned him from the people who arrested and accused him from the Clergie who charged him with cozinage and blasphemy from the Laity who cryed out crucifie him crucifie him from his enimies who cruelly persecuted him from his friends who in his greatest need started aside from him from forrainers who disdainfully shooke the head at him from those of his owne houshold who most treacherously betraied him and in a word from all sorts both of men and women yea from the Heaven which denied to giue him light from the aire which refused to vouchsafe him breath from the earth which would not so much as beare him frō what not And as from all so hee suffered also in all In his goods being stript even of his raiment and lots cast thereon in his good name being esteemed a deceiuer a blasphemer a drunkard a glutton a magitian a traitor to Caesar in his friends who were scattered as soone as the shepheard was smitten in his mother through whose heart a sword was driuen in his soule by strong feare before his passion and extreame sorrow in his passion in all the parts of his body his head being crowned with thornes his face spit vpon his cheekes buffited his hands feet nailed his sides peirced his backe armes scourged and the whole vpon the crosse barbarously stretched and racked in all his sences the touch by wounds the tast with myrre and vineger the smell with the loathsome savour of Golgotha the hearing with shamefull taunts and revilings and the sight with mowes and disdainefull behaviour finally in the whole person by death the separation of the soule from the body The Intension of all which was likewise exceeding vehement even proportionable vnto the desert of sinne wherefore he sticketh not to say Behold and see if there be any sorrow like vnto my sorrow And againe the sorrowes of hell compassed me round about Not that he felt the flames of hell fire or the same kind of torment which the damned suffer in hell farre bee such impiety from our thoughts but that which is equivalent therevnto Had he suffered only the death of the crosse and no more his martyrs might seeme to haue endured more bitter paines
betweene themselues This spirituall punishment is the greatest of all iudgements in this life and is vsually attended with eternall shame and confusion of face in the next And reason it is that they who sleight that which God holdeth so deare should themselues be sleighted of him and seeing they disdaine to glorifie him that he by iust vengeance should glorifie himselfe vpon them So dealt he with Pharaoh Nabuchadnetzar Antiochus Herod and other proud tyrants and so will hee one day deale with all those that set so light of his Glory Is then the glory of the Father so deare and pretious vnto him Is he so iealous and charie of it that he will not haue it in any case touched or blemished Then surely that which maketh for his Glory and without which the Sonne cannot glorifie him may not bee denied him And so much for the Maior The Minor Proposition is But by my glorification I shall glorifie thee and without it I shall not be able to glorifie thee This though it be as true as the former yet the truth thereof is not so evident as of that For it may bee obiected that our Saviour now praying for his Glorification implies therein that he was not as yet glorified For wee vse not to sue for what we are already possessed of but only giue thankes for it Yet by and by he saith Ego glorificauite I haue already glorified thee on earth As he was God he had from all eternity glorified him in heauen As he was Man he had here on earth glorified him by his doctrine life obedience miracles And if wee as yet vnglorified doe glorifie him how should not the Sonne much more be able to doe it Vnto all which I thus answer breifly that glorifying is double either Inchoate or Compleate As touching the Inchoate it is true that as the Father had in part already glorified him as in particular by the raising vp of Lazarus so had the Sonne also in part glorified the Father But as touching that which is Compleate neither had the Father as yet so glorified the Sonne nor the Sonne the Father Wherefore as our Saviour is to be vnderstood here to pray for his perfect Glorification so are we to conceiue it also of the Fathers as if hee had said more fully vnlesse the Father perfectly glorifie the Sonne neither can the Sonne perfectly glorifie the Father For as God declared the glory of his power in deliuering Israel out of Egypt by a mighty hand with many signes and wonders yet had his mercy and truth yea his power also beene much impeached had hee not proceeded according to promise to settle them safely in the land of Canaan so the Father although he had begun to shew his glory in the incarnation of his Sonne and all other his noble acts yet if he did not goe on to cōsummate and perfect his Sonnes glory by supporting him in his last combate raising him from death taking him vp into heaven and setting him at his right hand with all power and authority the glory of his goodnesse wisdome mercy iustice and omnipotence would bee exceedingly blemished But when once the Sonne shall be so glorified then shall he by vertue of the power giuen him powre forth of his spirit vpon the sonnes of men subdue the world vnto his obedience trample all his enimies vnder his feet and recover the kingdome vnto his Father Whereby it will manifestly appeare that hee is the eternall Father very God the author of life and saluation sweet in his goodnesse true in his promise iust in retribution wise in all his actions and most powerfull also in his executions And so much likewise of the Minor The vse whereof may serue first for confutation For it answeres a vaine quarrell of the Arrians against the coequalitie of the Sonne with the Father The Father say they must needs be greater then the Sonne because the Sonne saith Pater clarifica filium father glorifie thy sonne and he is greater who giues then he who receaues glory Wherevnto I answer in the words of S. Augustin Quòd si ille qui glorificat c. If he that glorifieth be greater then he whom he doth glorifie let them grant that they are equall who glorifie one the other For it is written that the Sonne also glorifieth the Father I saith hee haue glorified thee on earth So also elsewhere saith our Saviour the spirit shall glorifie me And there being in the holy and blessed Trinitie such an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Circuminsession as whereby each Person dwelleth in other it cānot be but each of them should knowe and knowing mutually and eternally glorifie one another Secondly it serues for information that as Christ our head referred his owne Glorification vnto the glory of his Father so we that are his members should doe the like and in all things seeke to glorifie our Father Nay if Christ to the praise of the glory of his Fathers grace was content to become sinne and a curse for vs how much more are wee bound in euery thing to intend his glory of whom hee exacteth no such thing It is the rule of the Apostle S. Paul Whether yee eat or drinke or doe any thing else doe all to the praise and glory of God All whatsoeuer either we are or haue we haue receiued of him and it is he who by Christ hath redeemed vs both bodies and soules let vs therefore glorifie him both in bodies and soules for they are his Thirdly and lastly seeing our Saviour vrgeth his desire to glorifie his Father as a speciall argument to perswade him to grant his request it may serue for singular comfort vnto vs that as long as our actions respect Gods glory and are ioined therewith they cannot but be accepted He will surely blesse them and giue them good successe sith his glory cannot be divided from them A holy life glorifying God is a vitall prayer Though wee heare no speech from it yet it cryeth aloud in the eares of God and saith Father thou maist not deny to glorifie me for through the whole course of my life I study nothing more then to glorifie thee And thus much of our Saviours second motiue drawne from the highest and most soueraigne end of all the Glory of his Father Vers. 2. As thou hast giuen him power ouer all flesh that he should giue eternall life to as many as thou hast giuen him His third reason is drawne from the Power bestowed vpon him by his Father thus Thou hast giuen him power over all flesh to the end he should giue eternall life to as many as thou hast giuen him Ergo thou oughtest to glorifie thy sonne The Antecedent of this Enthymeme is deliuered in the Text in expresse tearmes The Consequence is only insinuated implied For clearing whereof it may please you to obserue with mee first that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated as is not a
there vndoubtedly is spirituall life If it be in semblance only and shew yet are wee still to iudge the best For as in matters of Faith we are to thinke and speak according to Scripture which only is infallible so in things concerning charity wee are to thinke and speake according to probabilitie Which howsoeuer it may deceaue yet is it not through any fault or with danger of him who thinkes better of another then he deserueth but only of the hypocrite who is farre other then hee seemed to be But as touching our selues because we are privie to the truth and sincerity of our owne hearts we may certainely conclude of our selues that we are spiritually aliue that by the certainty of Faith For all conclusions are of Faith which are deduced though but from one proposition contained in Scripture if the other be any way known to be true He that operateth spirituall actions is spiritually aliue is a proposition verified by Scripture But I operate spirituall actions is a proposition not contained in Scripture but testified to me by my conscience Ergo I am spiritually aliue is the conclusion issuing from both and of Faith because of the Major grounded on Scripture Secondly it sheweth how impotent and incongruous the speech of those is who pretending to liue this spirituall life yet when they taxed of their infirmities as suppose too much distemper in passion or impatience in wrongs or the like presently cry out they can doe no otherwise and who can endure it But stay my brother if thou be spirituall thou art not vnfurnisht of ability What if I should say of a kinde of Omnipotencie For so the Apostle through Iesus Christ strengthning me I am able to doe all things Why then saiest thou I cannot To bee without spirituall power is to be without spirituall life and they only can doe nothing who are out of Christ. If therefore thou liue say no more I cannot Nolle in causa est non posse praetenditur thou pretendest inability but the cause is thou wilt not There is a sparke within thee doe but quicken that vp and vse thy best endeavour and through Christ strengthning thee thou shalt bee able to master any infirmitie Thirdly and lastly seeing the spirituall life is the only happy and truely comfortable life why study we not aboue all things to liue this life With out it to win the whole world and to enioy all the pleasures thereof will proue but poore gaine For what is it to the losse of the soule which vnlesse it liue spiritually must needs die eternally And when this life is obtained striue we by all meanes to keepe and preserue it Much power and glory must Christ haue before he can giue it and shall we hauing by gift receaued it bee carelesse and negligent to retaine and hold it Skinne for skinne said he who knew it well and all that a man hath will hee giue for his life If for his naturall life how much more pretious should his spirituall life be vnto him This rather then they would loose the holy Martyrs of God were content to part both with life and liuehood Let the same preparation of mind be in vs for it is the very life of our life And thus much of the first point Quid what the gift is It is Life The second is Vnde whence it is It is from the sonne and that by way of gift For so saith my Text that hee may giue First therefore it is from the Sonne Which yet must not be vnderstood exclusiuely as if it were not from the Father and the holy Ghost also For the holy blessed Trinitie is the author of all life both naturall and spirituall This appeareth plainely For to giue life is an extrinsecall action and according to the old rule actiones ad extra sunt indivisae such actions as stay not within but issue forth from the Deity are common to all three persons Hence touching Naturall life it is said In him that is in God we liue and moue and haue our being And you know who it was that first breathed the breath of life into Adam even the wholy trinity who had said Come let vs make man And concerning spirituall life hence is it that it is called Vita Dei the life of God and that Moses saith of Israell Ipse est vita tua He to wit God is thy life Howbeit wee are further to know that although God be the fountaine of all good yet is he to vs in regard of spirituall grace vntill we be in Christ but fons obsignatus a fountaine sealed vp In Christ hee is a fountaine opened not otherwise For he passeth no grace but by a mediator Him therefore hath he made the Principle of all good and to this end hath hee filled him with the fulnesse of grace that of his fulnesse wee might all receiue even grace for grace And in this sense is it that wee say Spirituall life is from him Whence also it is called the life of Christ Christ himselfe is called the Lord giver of life yea and said to be our very life But how this life is derived from him vnto vs let vs enquire a little farther And because out of naturall Philosophy we haue hitherto proportioned the spirituall life for the substance thereof with the Naturall giue me leaue a little to reflect againe vpon the same Science to proportion out the manner of conveying it also First therefore vnto life a Soule is necessary for without it nothing can liue Secondly it is as necessary that the Soule haue life in it selfe or else how can it giue life for nothing giueth that which it selfe hath not Thirdly the Soule must not only haue life in it but also a power to quicken and make aliue For as Aristotle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soule is the cause and principle of life to the liuing body Fourthly notwithstanding this life and quickning power of the Soule it is necessary for the conveyance of life vnto the body that it be first infused and hypostatically vnited therevnto For before God breathed the Soule into Adam his body though otherwise organized and formed lay but as a dead lumpe breathlesse and lifelesse But no sooner was the soule powred into him but forthwith he began to liue the life of a man For fiftly vpon the vnion of soule and body riseth the constitution and being of man For neither is the soule nor the body severally and asunder called Man but the whole ioyntly composed together vpon which constitution and being of Man resulteth in the sixt place the naturall life of man and continually remaineth vntill the dissolution betwixt Soule and Body And lastly vpon this naturall life proceede ' those humane and connaturall operations of which aboue Now let vs as briefly apply all this vnto our present purpose First that which in the conveyance of this spirituall life is
answerable vnto the soule is Christ the Mediator who therefore in six hundred places of Scripture is said to be our life And himselfe saith of himselfe I am the resurrection and the life and againe I am the way the truth and the life Secondly as the Soule so hath Christ also life in himselfe As the Father saith he hath life in himselfe so hath he giuen vnto the Sonne also to haue life in himselfe and S. Paul saith that the Spirit of life is in the Sonne And S. Iohn This life is in his Sonne And againe This life was in him and the life was the light of men Thirdly as the soule hath not only life in it but also a quickning power so hath Christ also So S. Iohn As the Father so the Sonne quickneth whomsoeuer he will And S. Paul The first Adam was made a living soule and the second Adam was made a quickning spirit Fourthly as the soule vntill it be personally vnited quickneth not so neither doth Christ vntill he be mystically vnited Of this Vnion I cannot now speake I shall hereafter when I come to those words That they may be one as we are one I in them and thou in me In the meane season thus S. Paul I liue yet not I but Christ liueth in me that is I liue by Christ vnited vnto me And S. Iohn He that hath the Son that is he that is vnited vnto him hath life but he that hath not the Sonne that is is not vnited vnto him hath not life Fiftly as the Vnion of soule and body makes and constitutes Man so vpon our Vnion with Christ are we made new men Christian men spirituall men yea as is aboue proued very Christ. So speaketh S. Paul in the place alleadged and elsewhere yee are of God in Christ Iesus that is by being in Christ yee haue receiued of God a new essence or being Sixtly as from the naturall being of man comes naturall life so from the spirituall issues spirituall life Because I liue saith our Saviour yee to wit who receiue of my spirit and so are spirituall men yee I say shall liue Seventhly and lastly as from humane life proceed humane operations so from the spirituall proceed spirituall actions This hath beene already shewed wherevnto I now only adde that of S. Paul If Christ be in you the body indeed is dead vnto sinne but the spirit is life vnto righteousnesse And thus you see how and after what manner spirituall life is conveyed vnto vs from Christ. It is further added that this life is not only from Christ but that he is the donour and giuer thereof It is from him but by way of gift For so it is said that he may giâ—e So also elsewhere The bread of God is he which commeth downe from heauen and giueth life vnto the world And S. Paul the wages of sinne is death but the gift of God is eternall life through Iesus Christ our Lord. Wherevpon S. Peter calleth it the grace of life And the scripture every where imputeth the whole worke of our salvation from the beginning vnto the end thereof vnto meere grace Now as he saith Gratia non est gratia nisisit omnimodo gratuita grace is not grace vnlesse it be every way of free gift And certainly if it be not of free gift it is of merit and due preparation in our selues But I beseech you what merit what preparation of himselfe was there in Adam vnto life while as yet he lay like a dead lump of clay before his maker What in Lazarus when he had beene quatriduanus foure dayes in the graue and began to putrifie and corrupt Surely none at all No more can there be in vs who before we receiue this life are vtterly dead in trespasses and sins If the creature disposed not himselfe vnto his creation nor man vnto his generation nor the science vnto its incition how can we prepare our selues either to our renovation or regeneration or ingrafting into the mysticall body of Christ In a word can sinne be a disposition or preparation vnto Grace I trow no. Yet whatsoeuer we doe before we are new creatures and liue the spirituall life is at the best but splendidum peccatum a gay and glittering sinne For the agent is altogether sinfull and carnall and whatsoeuer is of flesh is flesh Doe we gather grapes of thornes or figgs of thistles or good fruite of an evill tree No verily For such as the tree is such fruit it yeeldeth Good it cannot yeeld till it be made good Made good we are not till wee beleeue Till we beleeue therefore can wee doe no good If so then what is not of Faith is sinne and pleaseth not God And what pleaseth not him cannot dispose vnto grace Being then without merit and disposition vnto grace it must needs follow that as spirituall life is by Vnion so it is also by way of gift from Christ. The vse of all may be first to teach vs that all they who are not vnto Christ mystically vnited are spiritually dead and what actions soeuer proceed from them notwithstanding all the specious and goodly shew they make are not living actions For being not acted by the spirit of Christ they are not like vnto bodies animated by a humane soule but vnto such dead bodies rather as are raised vp by magicians and are stirred and moved only by the spirit of Satan These may seeme to liue but indeed liue not And if spirituall life bee the only blessed life then must these needs bee in a most ruefull and miserable case Secondly it teacheth vs that if we desire to liue this wee must indeavour by all meanes to be vnited vnto Christ. He is come vnto vs that we might haue life yea and that we might haue it in abundance If we come not to him it is our fault if we liue not And iust cause shall we giue him to complaine of vs as he did of the Iewes yee will not come to me that yee might haue life Our comming is by Faith By it Christ dwelleth in our harts and by it is the iust man said to liue This purgeth and purifieth our soules and produceth in vs the works of charity which are the right operations of Spirituall life Thirdly seeing we liue by Christ it is reason we should also liue vnto him For as S. Augustin saith every thing should liue to that by which it liueth as the body because it liveth by the Soule ought to liue vnto the Soule Hence therefore is it that S. Paul would haue all that are dead vnto sinne to reckon themselues aliue but aliue vnto God through Iesus Christ our Lord. Hence also he affirmeth that none of vs liveth to himselfe but that we liue vnto the Lord and that himselfe through the law is dead to the law that he might liue vnto God But most
expresly thus saith he we iudge that if one died for all thē were all dead that he died for all that they which liue should not henceforth liue vnto themselues but vnto him which died for them and rose againe You will say how are we to liue vnto Christ I answere as the body liueth vnto the Soule The Body liueth vnto the Soule when it is serviceable and obedient therevnto especially when it followeth not the sway of inordinate passion but the direction of right reason In like manner we liue vnto Christ when we serue and obey him not living after the flesh but after the spirit For not they that walke after the flesh are in Christ but they only who are lead by the spirit of Christ. S. Peter expresseth it by liuing not to the lusts of men but to the will of God And by and by setteth down the Iusts of men to be the will of the Gentiles namely lasciviousnesse lusts excesse of wine revellings banquetings abominable idolatries and the like Vnto all which he opposeth liuing according to God in the spirit Fourthly and lastly hence we may learne humility to ascribe nothing to our owne selues For what are wee in nature but stinking carkasses If we liue it is by the meere grace of Christ. Come vnto him of our selues to be quickned by him we could not It was his Father that drew vs vnto him Not vnto vs therefore not vnto vs but vnto the Father through Iesus Christ bee ascribed the whole praise and glory thereof for evermore And thus much of the second point Vnde whence this life is The third point is Quibus vpon whom it is conferred and bestowed Vpon those saith my Text and all those whom his Father hath giuen him Who are they For of them Christ very often speaketh All saith he that my father giueth me shall come vnto me And againe This is the Fathers will which hath sent me that of all which hee hath giuen me I should loose nothing And yet againe My Father which gaue them me is greater then all And so also sundry times in the sequele of this present Chapter For clearer vnderstanding hereof therefore we are to knowe that there is a double donation by which men are said to be giuen vnto Christ the one Common the other Singular The Common is that whereby the Father hauing given vnto the Sonne all power both in heauen and earth deliuereth all things also into his hand giuing as it were liverie and seizing of them that from thenceforth hee may dispose of them at his pleasure And thus all men whatsoeuer both elect and reprobate are giuen vnto him But this is not here meant as by and by shall appeare Another donation therefore there is more speciall and singular whereby the Father deliuereth vnto the Sonne some of the creatures as vnto a head to be his members or to persist in our present similitude giueth them as a body to the soule to be acted and quickned by him that is to be ruled and ordered not only by the Scepter of his Power but of his Grace and sanctifying Spirit Now who are these Surely not all flesh for all are not vnited to him and so liue not by him Who then They that are elected and chosen vnto life of whom it is said Multi vocati pauci verò electi many are called but few are chosen And that these are here meant plainely appeareth by and by where he saith I haue manifested thy name vnto the men which thou gauest me out of the world that is not to all but some only selected and culled from the rest And againe Thine they were and thou gauest them mee How thine By free election and now mine by speciall donation And yet againe I pray not for the world but for them that thou hast giuen me for they are thine Where you see the world distinguished from them that are given him and excluded from being the Fathers together with them Whence it followeth necessarily that the donation here meant is not of all but those only who in speciall sort are the Fathers namely his chosen and peculiar ones For the better vnderstanding hereof and that you may knowe how and in what order the Father is pleased to proceed in this gracious worke thus I take it you are to conceaue thereof First the Father seeing all mankind by the fall of Adam to bee corrupted and in the state of damnation out of his meere mercy and loue decreed not to loose the whole race of man but to renew and repaire againe his image in some of them to the praise of the glory of his grace prouided yet alwaies that his iustice for sinne be fully satisfied Secondly for the satisfaction of his iustice he further decreed to send his sonne into the world that taking our nature vpon him he might therein suffer whatsoeuer was due to sinne and so mediate a peace betweene God and vs. Then thirdly out of the corrupt Masse of mankinde he selecteth and chuseth some particulars even such as he pleaseth with a purpose infallibly to bring them to everlasting life And in regard of this act it is that our Saviour saith tui erant they were from al eternity thine and againe tui sunt by the constant continuation of the same purpose they are still thine In the fourth place those that are thus elected the Father giueth vnto the Sonne to accomplish his purpose vpon them and by vertue of the power and life giuen him to quicken them vnto eternall life Being thus giuen wee are now Christs Wherevpon also the Church is bold and saith My welbeloued is mine and I am his and S. Paul directly affirmeth that we are Christs And being Christs fiftly lastly he actually enliues quickens them raising them vp from the death of sinne and convaying into them the spirit of life in such sort as wee haue formerly declared But doth Christ bestow life vpon all them that are so given him yea verily my text expressely affirmeth it that he should giue eternall life to as many as thou hast giuen him This was the very end wherefore the Father gaue them to him And shall we thinke that the Father tooke not order sufficient for the attaining of his end God forbid For because he would not faile of his end therefore did he giue so great power vnto his Sonne Such power that nothing except he would could plucke them out of his hands and so much life that if hee would hee might giue it in abundance Shall we say that the Sonne though he hath power yet wants will Farre be such blasphemy from vs. For he testifieth of himselfe that hee came downe from heauen with this resolution not to doe his owne will but the will of him that sent him and now that he is come that he seeketh not his owne will but the will of the Father
saith Let him deny himselfe Himselfe What meanes he by that There are two sorts of men for as S. Paul distinguisheth there is a Spirituall and there is a Naturall man The Spirituall man is he who is borne a new of water and the holy Ghost by grace is become a new creature a new man transformed into the image of Christ. The naturall man is he that is as yet vnregenerate hath nothing in him but nature the corruption thereof bearing only the image of the old Adam Must the spirituall man deny himselfe No verily so farre forth as he is spirituall for so doing he should disclaime and disesteeme the very grace of God by which hee is whatsoeuer he is It is the Naturall man then that must be denied Now in the Naturall man there is first Nature and then the corruption of nature By Nature I vnderstand the powers faculties of the soule such as are the Vnderstanding and the light of reason whose office is to discerne truth from falsehood and the Will vnder which also I comprehend Passions and Affections whose dutie is to pursue that which is good and to shun that which is evill The corruption of nature is that which in Scripture is called flesh concupiscence and is commonly known in the Church by the name of Originall sinne because it is traduced vnto vs from our parents and wee are polluted therewith in every part both of soule and body from our very conception and birth Now which of these two must be denied I answer both yet not both alike but the corruption of Nature simply and absolutely and Nature it selfe only in some respect First then Nature it selfe must bee denied What simply and absolutely as the corruption of Nature No by no meanes â—oâ— it is the good creature of God without it neither are we capable of blessednesse nor can bee schollers in the schoole of Christ. Nature is not opposite but subordinate vnto Grace and Grace destroyeth not nor abolisheth but healeth and perfecteth Nature Neither is it without cause that God spoiling man of his supernaturals for sinne only wounded him in his naturals and left vnto him both a light in his Vnderstanding and a liberty in his Will By the light of reason the invisible things of God euen his eternall Power and Godhead are clearely scene there is no nation so barbarous but partly by inbred principles partly by the booke of the creatures knowe him By the same light of reason doe we in part also know the will of God for the law morall is written in our hearts by nature and how many excellent precepts of moralitie doe we finde in the writings of meere naturall men Finally even in the matter of the Gospell reason seeth thus farre that it is not vnpossible if God will and vpon this ground Iustin Martyr Tertullian Arnobius Lactantius Athenagoras Augustin anciently and Aquinas Vives Mornay of late haue attempted to proue by reason the truenesse of Christian religion As for the Will it is yeelded of all hands that in matters morally good it hath free liberty and may of it selfe either chuse it or refuse it at pleasure So that hitherto Nature the power thereof is no way to bee denied or disclaimed Wherein then Surely in things meerely supernaturall For that which is aboue reason cannot be comprehended by reason and that which passeth the reach of nature caÌ„not be attained only by the power of nature The naturall man saith S. Paul perceaueth not the things of God nor can knowe them because they are spiritually discerned In these things reason is starke blinde and seeth nothing Search the writings of the subtilest and sharpest Naturalist and ye shall finde in them of Christ and his Gospell nor palme nor footstep Here therefore reason must bee denied and as a woman may not speake in the Church so must reason also be silent in things supernaturall In things not revealed it must be contented not to know docta ignorantia est it is a learned ignorance In things revealed it must beleeue without and aboue reason reason must bee captived vnto the obedience of faith And as where the naturall Philosopher endeth there the Physitian begins so where naturall reason stoppeth divine Faith must come in place Otherwise if reason will needs be prying into Gods arke and search into those mysteries that are aboue the reach thereof it is the corruption of reason and no marvaile if it become vaine and foolish in her imaginations Yea when men in their curiosity thinke themselues most wise then are they most infatuated And as Ixion in the fable embraceing a cloud insteed of Iuno begat Centaures thereon so they entertaining their owne fancies insteed of divine veritie bring forth nothing but monsters of errors and strange opinions What I say of reason must be vnderstood of the will also in spirituall matters the one wanteth light to see and the other strength to doe It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that sheweth mercy for as we haue already demonstrated neither can we will of our selues without preventing grace nor doe when wee haue willed without pursuing grace So that if a man will be no more then the scholler of Nature he cannot be the scholler of Christ. For as nature is vnable both to know the mysteries which Christ teacheth and to doe the duties which he requireth so doth Christ command vs to renounce our naturall abilities to come as infants vnto the kingdome of heauen But if Nature it selfe must be denied much more the Corruption of Nature For as the Scripture saith Corruption cannot inherit vncorruption and without holinesse it is impossible to see God Now the leprosie of Originall Corruption not only infects the inferiour part of the soule as Papists dreame but spreads it selfe to every part even the superiour also For as for the mind it is not only blind and ignorant but Corrupt also and full of vanity it savoureth not the things of God but they seeme vnto it meere folly As for the will it is not only vnable to performe spirituall duties but full of hardnesse also and perversnesse and vntowardensse vnto any thing that is good Finally the inferiour part is but a shop of all turpitude outragiousnesse full of nothing else but tempestuous tumultuous vnruly and sinfull lusts These all as the Scripture saith must be crucified must be mortified must be killed that is must vtterly be renounced and denied if wee will bee the followers of Christ. And reason For the flesh lusteth and fighteth against the spirit by reason whereof the good wee would doe we cannot doe and the evill wee would not doe wee doe They that walke after the flesh saith St Paul are not in Christ but they that walke after the spirit And they that liue after the flesh shall die neither can any man liue vnlesse by the spirit
the pollicy of Saint Paul who by professing himselfe to bee a Pharisee set the Pharisees and Saducees by the eares that himselfe the while might escape them both who both else would haue set against him But some man perhaps will say what need so many words to proue so cleare a case giue vs rather some direction how wee may keepe our selues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without gunshot Hic labor hoc opus est this indeede is the point of difficulty and if I should attempt it in this wise auditory happily some one or other would taxe me to be as wise as Phormio who presumed to discourse of military service in the presence of Hannibal the expertest captaine of that time Neither dare I therefore nor will I adventure vpon this argument farther then my text leads me and that briefly pointing only with my finger to the fountaines Be wise saith our Saviour Christ as Serpents How is that First the Serpent by naturall instinct knowes man to be his mortall enimy that principally he aimes at the breaking of his head and therefore carefully provides for it So should wee wisely seeke out who are ill affected towards vs and which way they purpose to assault vs that wee may bee the more able to prevent them Sagitta praevisa facilius evitatur the arrow foreseene is easily declined and it is easy to countermine when wee know which way the mine is carried Watchfulnesse then and observation is here required Againe the Serpent as wee haue shewed stops his eares because hee will not heare the enchanters charme So should wee also turne the deafe eare vnto the crafty insinuations of false treacherous Sinons Blessed is hee that feareth alwaies saith Salomon for distrust is the sinewes of wisdome saith the Poet bonum est timere omnia vt nihil timeamus it is good to feare all things that we may feare nothing Credulity is the bane of honest hearts but it is wisdome timere Danaos dona ferentes to feare an enimy speake he never so faire Charity you will say is not suspitious true without a cause But when there is cause wisdome requireth vs to be Diffident and Distrustfull Lastly the Serpent being assaulted vseth the best shift hee can either by couering his head or by flight to saue himselfe So should wee also in all dangers vse such lawfull meanes as are offered vs to free our selues It is not sufficient to say Dij prohibebunt haec God will helpe all nunquam propter te de coelo descendent tibi dent mentem oportet vt prohibeas if thou sit idle hee will never come downe from heaven to helpe thee thou must haue a minde to helpe thy selfe To pray vnto God for averting dangers without vsing the meanes is to tempt God and to enwrap our selues farther into danger But I will proceede no farther in this point nor read a lecture of wisdome vnto those that are farre wiser then my selfe and it may be some are liker to goe too farre then to come too short in these matters I will therefore passe from hence vnto the second part which is the Limitation if first I may by your patience briefly apply this This doctrine condemnes the great foolishnesse of those who care not to vse caution in any thing nor toward off any thrust whatsoever is aimed at them Such was the error of Tertullian in ancient times who held it vnlawfull to fly in time of persecution and such is the peevishnesse of Anabaptists in these daies who thinke it vnchristian to defend themselues from wrongs and iniuries making themselues outlawes both to God and man and refusing the benefit of any law But starke franticke and mad are they who like Caecias loue to draw clouds and tempests on their owne heads right Ishmaels whose hands being against all men draw all mens hands against themselues provoking and exasperating oftentimes those that are too mighty for them vntill they bee crusht for their labour More wisdome certainly were it to follow the wise counsell of our Saviour Christ to be wise as Serpents and to make friends even of the wicked Mammon if for no other cause yet for a Ne noceat that they doe vs no hurt And as this wisdome is to bee practised in regard of temporall dangers and such as concerne the body so much more in regard of spirituall dangers and such as concerne the soule Nam pretium pars haec corpore maius habet the soule is of greater value then the body for if the body dye yet doth the soule liue and the body shall be revnited to it happily to liue with it eternally but if the soule perish the body cannot liue but must dye with it for evermore Oh then my brethren seeing our poore soules are every houre in danger the flesh seeâ—ing to betray vs the world to entrap vs the Divell to devoure vs seeing so many wolvish Iesuits and Seminaries walke about in ship-skins vsing all art and cunning to deceiue vs and to draw vs from the faith of Christ vnto the service of Antichrist let vs that are the children of light labour to be as wise in our generation as they are in theirs and as they are astuti Serpentes studio nocendi câ—afty serpents to hurt so let vs be prudentes sicut Serpentes studio nocentes cavendi wise as serpents in keeping our selues from being hurt by them Let vs not be in alijs rebus cauti in maximis negligentes wary in petty matters and retchles in the greatest least wee be found too much to prize this present life quae vera vita sit ignorare and to be ignorant of the true life But specially ought this wisdome to bee practised by publike persons and such as haue the managing of state businesses because publike evills are ever more dangerous then private Father Parsons a deepe polititian forsooth in the judgement of Papists would not haue statesmen goe about to prevent insuing dangers because they are only Contingent and nothing else but a May to the end I thinke that their trecheries and intended treasons might not be looked into nor discouered But whatsoever this cheating Mountebanke affirme it behooueth all publike persons carefully to prevent future mischiefes and to take heede that the commonwealth incurre no danger The neglect of this wisdome is a certaine forerunner of destruction Cuiuscunque fortunam mutare constituit Deus consilia corrumpit whose state God meaneth to change their wisdome he first taketh away God grant therefore vnto his Maiesty and to his councell and all that are in publike place vnder him to bee wise as serpents for the prevention of all such evills as threaten our state The late divelish powdertreason assures vs that the endlesse malice of Hell Rome will ever be working against vs and that therefore we ought with all providence to stop and countermine them And so much for the first part which is Christs counsell Be wise as Serpents The next is
the limitation of this wisdome for it is not boundlesse and infinite but as vnto the sea so vnto it also terms are set which it may not passe Pone modum Prudentiae set a measure to thy wisdome saith Salomon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be not wise aboue that thou oughtest to be wise saith Saint Paul And the Philosopher makes it an extreame of Wisdome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be wise aboue measure What then is the measure what is the limit of wisdome Be Serpents saith our Saviour yet Doues be wise yet innocent Be yee wise as Serpents and innocent as Doues Bee innocent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word derived from the privatiue particle ae and the verbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifying simple without mixture or from the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a horne signifying Harmelesse or Hurtlesse The Syrian translation turnes it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfect entire vpright Tota innocentia saith Augustine ad vnum verbum Iustitiae redigitur innocence is nothing else but justice and elsewhere Innocentia est quae nemini nocet nec nocere velit innocence is that which neither doth nor will hurt any Be innocent then and innocent as doues Not as serpents in the winter time which though they sting nor then being benumb'd with cold yet are full of venome but as Doves which are vtterly void of malice and haue no desire to hurt For the nature of the Doue is described in this one Distich Est sine felle gemit rostro non laedit vngues Possidet innocuos puraque grana legit shee is without gall mourneth hurteth not with her bill hath harmelesse clawes and feeds on pure graine So that all these things considered Doue-like innocencie consisteth in these three things first to doe no hurt secondly to doe all good thirdly to doe both with all sincerity To doe no hurt that we be not vitious to doe all good or else we are not vertuous and to season all with sincerity or else it is counterfeit vertue and so double iniquity And these duties are to be performed not only to those that are of the house-hold of faith by reason of that mysticall vnion that is betwixt vs and them in Christ but generally also vnto all men being made of the same moulds and vnited into the brotherhood of the same bloud So then Innocency is vnto Wisdome as Hercules pillars beyond which it may not passe and our Saviour alloweth men to be wise with Innocence and for Innocence but not against it But what if by Innocence I cannot escape the danger must I still persist in mine Innocence If Iobs wife may be judge she will say Doest thou still continue in thine vprightnesse Blaspheame God and dye But Iob telleth her in so saying shee is but a foolish woman For the law of God is eternall immutable inflexible and the breach thereof is sinne and the least sinne is greater then the greatest of other evills as being most repugnant vnto the nature of God and therefore most odious vnto him In regard whereof the true Saints of God would not for a million of liues forgoe their Innocencie David though he had both opportunity and power yet would he not to secure himselfe lay hands on Saul according to the ancient proverbe saith he let wickednesse proceede from the wicked but my hand shall not be vpon him Though he kill me yet will I trust in him saith Iob. If I perish I perish saith Hester when shee was to doe a necessary but dangerous duty Wee are not carefull to answere thee in this matter neither will wee worship thy Idolls say the three children though threatned otherwise to be cast into a fiery furnace And the prince of Conde being commanded of three things to chuse one either perpetuall imprisonment or death or to goe to Masse Masse quoth he I never will the other two I leaue to the Princes pleasure But what speake I of Saints Even heathen men acknowledge that Innocencie is to be held notwithstanding all outward evills It is better saith Socrates to suffer then to doe wrong There are some things saith Aristotle to which a good man must never suffer himselfe to be constrained but rather endure all extremities yea death it selfe Wherevpon Socrates I would rather dye a thousand times then forsake my station And another the veriest coward in the world am I to doe evill and yet another it is not the part of a vertuous man to say this I will not suffer but this I will not doe And Fabritius obtained that honourable testimony of his enimy Pyrrhus that the Sunne would sooner goe out of his course then hee stray out of the way of honesty So that by the testimony both of nature and grace the law of innocencie is no Lesbian rule flexible to all occasions but according to the old saying Fiat justitia ruant caeli justice must be done though vpon doing the same heaven and earth come together If this be so will some men say how then can wee be both wise and innocent at once Very well for as Ambrose saith individuum justitiae prudentiae contubernium wisdome and innocence are inseparable companions For first a man cannot be truly innocent except hee be wise For in all vertuous actions Prudence of necessity must be the director seeing it is the eye of the soule without which nothing can be done cum electione modo vpon choice and in measure Wherevpon saith Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is impossible to bee good without wisdome Secondly neither can a man bee wise without innocence For although there be a wisdome equivocally so called by reason of the resemblance it hath with the true wisdome being able both to finde out and to menage convenient meanes vnto worldly and evill ends yet this Saint Paul calleth the wisdome of the flesh and Saint Iames an earthly sensuall and divelish wisdome But the true wisdome is from aboue therefore pure peaceable easy to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without judging and without hypocrisie that is in one word innocent Hence is it that the Scripture tearmeth Sinners Fooles because they are not innocent and the feare of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the top of wisdome because it is Innocent Hence also it is that Moses telleth the Israelites their wisdome consisted in obseruing the commandements of God and that David saith by them hee became wiser then his teachers wiser then the ancients And the same David hauing advised Princes and Iudges to bee wise and learned addeth presently kisse the sonne intimating thereby that wisdome cannot be without religious innocence So that as innocence cannot bee without wisdome so neither can a man bee wise without innocence And here in the very light of nature accordeth also with scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle it is impossible for a man to be wise and not
good and Cicero saith that vnhonest men may be callidi ve◠suti subtle and crafty but Prudentes wise they can never bee The reason is evident because whatsoever is not just is not profitable nay nothing is more vnprofitable then to be hurtfully wise insomuch as Socrates seems to haue iust cause when he cursed him who first distinguished betweene profitable and honest Now to bee wise without innocence is very hurtfull vnto publike states for it overthrowes the society of man if one man may aduantage himselfe by the harme of another For as in the fable of Menenius Agrippa the whole body soone perished when the rest of the members to ease themselues wronged the belly so the whole common-wealth will quickly be dissolued if men may be wise for themselues only and hurtfull vnto others Neither is such wisdome hurtfull only to the publike but also to a mans owne selfe For sinne being the only evill that can hurt a man hee hurts himselfe most who to decline a little evill of paine or losse or disgrace commits an evill against his owne soule Whereby first hee looseth the peace of his conscience which is the happinesse of a man yea his heauen vpon earth For the iust man is as bold as a lyon and a good conscience is a continuall feast saith Salomon Nay Epicurus himselfe who placeth the chiefest blessednesse of a man in pleasure confesseth that a man cannot liue comfortably vnles he liue innocently For as oyle preserueth the light of the lampe so doth innocence maintaine peace and ioy in the conscience Againe as by sinne the peace of conscience is lost so it worketh confusion of face in the day of judgement when men shall bee judged not by their worldly wisdome but according to their innocence Oh how many will there at that day cry out with Cicero O me nunquam sapientem aliquando id quod non eram falso existimatum aye me that indeede was never wise but falsely thought to be what I was not And with those in the booke of Wisdome We fooles thought his life madnesse and his end without honor How is hee counted among the children of God and his portion is among the Saints But the innocent heart shall then lift vp a chearfull countenance as knowing that though here it were despised yet there it shall be iustified and rewarded with a crowne of glory O innocence innocence had I the tongue both of men and Angells yet were I not able sufficiently to extoll thee The man that possesseth thee nothing can hurt he is every where secure If he be tempted it maketh for his advantage if he bee humbled it is for his advancement if he fight he conquereth if he be slaine hee is crowned In bondage hee is free in danger safe in tribulation ioyfull the righteous loue him the vnrighteous in their conscience cannot but approue him and God himselfe highly esteemeth of him Alas alas that among men innocence should so little be regarded Every man desireth to haue all other things good a good house good land a good wife good apparell a good horse every thing good but a good and an innocent soule who desireth to haue I cannot but wonder wherein man hath so highly offended his owne selfe that he should thus wish all the things about him to be good and himselfe only to be evill Perhaps thou wilt say if I may be wise for my selfe no farther then innocence will giue me leaue I shall bee a right innocent indeede liuing but a poore life and nothing set by of any Nought set by of any What not of God not of his holy angells not of his blessed Saints and children For as for wicked men their honouring doth but avile and abase vs. And what talkest thou of a poore life Is not innocencie it selfe great riches If thy chest bee full of treasure thou countest thy selfe rich and canst thou be poore if thy heart be full of innocence Haue theeues and robbers and evill men store of wealth and hath hee no riches in store for thee Yes he hath already bestowed vpon thee the treasures of sanctifying graces and reserueth for thee immortality and glory and eternall life O the blessednesse of that man who is both wise and innocent But where shall a man finde such a Serpent-Doue such a wise innocent If a man should light a candle with Diogenes and narrowly search every corner of the World for him I thinke he should hardly finde any but must be faine to cry out with the Prophet David Helpe Lord for there is not a good man left Of wise and deepe Machiavillians I suppose he may readily finde more then a good many such as subordinate religion vnto policy holding that rule in Seneca Pietas honestas pudor privata bona sunt Reges quâ licet eant piety honesty modesty are the vertues of private men Princes may doe what they list vbi tantum honesta dominantilicent Precario regnatur hee is not an absolute King but raigneth at anothers pleasure who may doe nothing but what is honest and that of Lewis the 11. Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnane hee hath not the feat of gouerning that cannot discemble These how wise soever they seeme in their own conceits are the veriest fooles in the world they say that all state-policy is built vpon pretence of religion and yet saying it is but a pretence they confesse they build but on a sandy foundation The scripture brandeth them for very fooles Dixit insipiens c. hee is but a foole that saith in his heart there is no good O miseros homines saith Saint Augustine qui cum voluntesse mali nolnut esse veritatem quâ damnantur mali Wretched men who resoluing to be evill would not there should bee a truth to condemne the evill Among these great pollititians who hauing no religion in them yet carefully take it on them our superpoliticke Iesuits may beare the bell Who more pious in shew Who more mischievous in practise Even in their doctrine vnder the title of Catholike faith they teach Treasons and murthers and lying and periuring equivocations making way to the fulfilling of Christs prophecie that in the latter time nor faith nor truth should be found on earth Vnto these wise hypocrites and all others who care more for semblance then substance in religion giue me leaue to say with S◠Chrysostome O hypocrite if it be good to be good why wilt thou seeme to bee that which thou wilt not be If it be evill to be evill why wilt thou bee that which thou wilt not seeme to be If it bee good to seeme to be good it is better to be so if it be evill to seeme to be evill it is worse to be so wherefore either seeme as thou art or be as thou seemest to be But let vs come home to our selues and apply this doctrine a little more closely and particularly That you my Lords are wise as Serpents
the Pope himselfe is not exempted from this generality saith Bernard And. God hath made Kings rulers not only over Souldiers but over Priests also saith Pope Gregory In the old Testament Aaron was subiect vnto Moses and Priests and Levites to the Prince in the new Testament Christ himselfe submitted himselfe vnto the secular power and St Paul appealed vnto Caesar at whose iudgement seat hee saith hee ought to be iudged In a word the law of nature requireth Subiection of all the law of Moses requireth the same so doth the Gospell too and therefore let every soule be subiect vnto the higher powers And so much also of the Subiect As touching the Relation or Duty that from the higher Powers to the inferior is Rule Government of which neither was it my purpose neither doth my Text occasion me now to speake but from the inferiour to the superiour it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Subiection Yee must bee subiect This Subiection is not a point but hath latitude and includeth within it sundry duties all which notwithstanding as I conceaue may be reduced vnto three answerable vnto those three eminencies and excellencies that are in the Magisâ—rate For there is in the Magistrate first the eminencie of person and degree then the excellency of power and authority and lastly the dignity of his worke and operation and every one of these deserueth accordingly to be requited with a seuerall dutie First then there is in the superior powers an eminencie aboue others in regard of their persons as being the vicegerent and lieutenants of the King of heauen and earth not as other men but after a peculiar manner in maiestie and dominion bearing the image of God the God of heaven as Daniel saith hauing giuen vnto them a Kingdome power strength and glory In which respect they are stiled in Scripture Principalities and Powers Dominations and Dignities the Lords annointed yea Gods Dixi Dij estis I haue said yee are Gods This eminency and excellency in the Magistrate is to be answered with Honour and Reverence from vs. My sonne feare the Lord and the King saith Solomon Feare God honour the King saith Peter Honour thy Father and thy Mother saith the fift commandement not those naturall parents onely which haue begotten vs but Patres patriae the fathers of the country also This Honour and Reverence as I vnderstand includeth within it a triple act first of the minde in a due estimation and valuing of their place and dignity secondly of the will in an humble inclination thereof vnto them because of their excellency thirdly of the body in outward behaviour carriage towards them as rising vp in their presence baring the head bowing the knee reverent speaking vnto them and such like according to the manner of the country where wee liue Neverthelesse of these three the second is the principall and most proper act of Honour for a man may know the worth of a thing and yet bee no whit affected towards it as the Gentiles knew God yet glorified him not as God and outward demeanure comporement what shew of reverence soever it haue yet may proceede of scorne and derision as was that of the Iewes towards Christ. But if vpon apprehension of the Magistrates worth and excellency the heart be inclined and duly affected therewith all externall acts of reverence will surely follow of themselues Such a one will ever set the best construction on all their actions interpreting nothing sinisterly he will conceale their errours and infirmities and with Sem and Iaphet going backward cover them hee will not suffer them either in their persons or actions to bee traduced or dishonoured but will carefully defend or excuse them In a word hee will not somuch as entertaine an evill thought against them so farre is he from saying or doing ought that may detract from them And so much of the first duty Honour and Reverence The second eminencie in the magistrate is the excellency of Power and Authority whereby he enacteth and ordaineth lawes for the well government of the common-wealth commanding that which is good forbidding that which is evill advanceing the well deseruing and punishing those that either transgresse or neglect his commandements briefly hauing the greatest power that can be on earth ius vitae atque necis power of life death Now vnto authority who seeth not that Obedience is due Put them in minde saith Saint Paul to obey Magistrates and indeede to what end is authority and power to command if every man notwithstanding might refuse to obey and doe what he list But here wee are to be advertized that as the Magistrates authority is not infinite so there are bounds set vnto our Obedience Princes though they be soveraignes in regard of their subiects yet are they viceroyes in regard of God Regum timendorum in proprios greges Reges in ipsos imperium est Iovis Kings command their people and God them Omne sub Regno graviore Regnum est every Kingdome is vnder a greater Kingdome If then they command vnder God wee must obey if against God wee must say with the Apostle it is better to obey God then man Hand over head to yeeld a Monkish and blind obedience vnto them is to advance man into the throne of God and to giue vnto another the glory only due to him withall to incurâ—e the fearfull curse threatned vnto Israel for obseruing the wicked statutes of Ahab and Omri True it is wee must giue vnto Cesar the things that are Cesars and so must wee giue vnto God the things that are Gods If any aske quis prohibet who forbids in such cases to obey Say maior potestas a greater power If they threaten answere with Saint Augustine Da veniam tu carcerem ille gehennam minatur thou threatnest the body with imprisonment hee both body and soule with hell fire Only take heede first that thou be not lead by fancies and imaginations but be sure that they command against God secondly that denying obedience thou doe it in all humility without scandall or contempt lastly that yet thou be content to obey passiuely and whatsoever they shall command within the sphere of their activity and not against God that thou bee ready also to obey actiuely And so much of the second duty Obedience The third and last eminency in the magistrate is the dignity and excellency of his worke which is exceeding great For he is the Minister of God for our wealth saith Saiâ—t Paul and thereunto he applyeth himselfe Hee is custos vtrivsque tabulae the guardian and keeper of both the tables of the law that vnder him wee may lead a godly and a peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty Were it not for him every one would doe what seemed good in his owne eyes and men like wolues would pray one vpon another but now by him every man enioyes his own violence is repressed
justice is executed religion is maintained and humane society preserued To procure these things and to attend the publike good as it is a worthy so it is also a difficult worke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee may not sleepe all night that hath taken charge of a common-wealth and they that haue worne it haue both felt and confessed that a Diadem is no small burthen so that it is not without cause that in the holy tongue the same word signifieth both an honour and a burden For this worthy worke so difficult vnto the Magistrate so profitable vnto vs what duty are wee to returne Even hearty thankfulnesse and all possible requitall Verball thankes are due yet are they alone too sleight a reward for so great a worke wee are farther to requite him in our liuelodes with tribute and custome as the Apostle chargeth and that not niggardly and only to supply his necessities but bountifully and proportionably vnto his state and dignity Nay because otherwise wee can never make him full satisfaction and were owe even our very selues vnto him even our selues must wee bestow vpon him and bee ready to doe him service with the expence not only of liuelode but of life also Dignus est operarius mercede sua the labourer is worthy of his hire But aboue all wee must ever remember to make our addresses and prayers vnto God for our Kings all that are in authority vnder them that God would giue them to vse the words of Tertullian vitam prolixam imperium securum domum tutam exercitus fortes senatum fidelem populum probum orbem quietum a long life a secure raigne safety at home valiant armies abroad faithfull counsellors good subiects and a peaceable World And thus haue I finished the first part of my text which is the Duty Subiection The next part followeth which is the necessity thereof for it is not an arbitrary duty nor left indifferent vnto our choice whether wee will be subiect yea or no but necessity is laid vpon vs yee must needs be subiect saith our Apostle or as it is in the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of necessity yee must be subiect But what May not a man refuse to be subiect if he list Doubtlesse he may How then is it necessary as you say not arbitrary For clearing of this point it may please you to remember that there is a double Necessity the one Absolute and Simple the other Hypotheticall and Conditionall Simple Necessity is that which cannot otherwise be being infallibly and immutably determined vnto one and such necessity of subiection is not here meant for it is manifest by experience and the more is the pitty that too many too often refuse to be subiect Conditionall necessity is that which Simply considered may bee otherwise but such or such things being supposed cannot be otherwise and this Necessity is here vnderstood as appeareth by the very text yee must needs be subiect not only for wrath but also for conscience as if he should say if either yee will avoide wrath or else will keepe a good conscience of necessity yee must be subiect So that wee are bound to Subiection by a double tie the first is Humane the second is Divine the Humane is the Wrath of the Magistrate yee must needs bee subiect because of wrath the Divine is Conscience towards God yee must be subiect also because of conscience And of these two briefly Wrath is a passion seated in the Invading part of the soule of man whereby hee desireth to keepe off or to remoue whatsoeuer is nociue hurtfull vnto him that by way of invading and assaulting him who either would doe or hath done vs hurt For as man naturally desireth to preserue and keepe that good whereof hee is possessed and to obtaine that farther good which he seeth to bee convenient for him so if any goe about to bereaue him of the one or to barre him from the other presently the bloud begins to boyle about the heart and anger so inflames him that he cannot let him alone but must needs resist him and set against him with all his might Hence is it that the philosopher calls anger cotem fortitudinis the wheâ—stone of courage and divers define it to be appetitum vindictae desire of revenge How truly and philosophically I despute not sure I am revenge vsually waites vpon wrath and our Apostle ioynes them both together a revenger saith he to execute wrath Now the Magistrates duty is to procure the publike good videre nequid respub detrimenti capiat to provide that the common suffer no detriment or harme If therefore any shall hinder the publike good or shall worke any disadvantage or dammage vnto the state the wrath of the Magistrate ought to burne against such a man And as God when his lawes are broken or himselfe any way dishonoured waxeth angry with man so these Gods on earth these vicegods when men by contemning their authority and denying them due subiection goe about to disturbe and set combustion in the state haue iust cause to be angry and to seeke revenge vpon them But Wrath and desire of revenge in him that wanteth power is vaine and foolish according to that of the Poet Quid stulti proprium non posse velle nocere it is the property of a foole wanting ability to desire to doe hurt but in him who hath not only will but strength and power also to be revenged it is dangerous and terrible Fulmen est vbi cum potestate habitat iracundia it is no lesse then thunder and lightning when anger and power meete together And such is the wrath of the Magistrate the wrath of a Prince is as the roaring of a lyon and the anger of a King is as messengers of death saith Salomon For lawes haue ever beene backed with severe penalties as mults imprisonment banishment dismembring torments death yea cruell kindes of death as appeareth by the lawes of all other nations and those of Moses also whereof God was author The reason is because men are wild beasts and would desperately breake through all lawes were they not so curbed restrained bona est ars terrere ne pecces it is great wisdome to terrify to the end that men sinne not But what are lawes vnlesse they bee duly executed Surely but scarcrows and bugbeares therefore vnto the Magistrate is the due execution of them committed and into his hand is the sword of Iustice put not to let it ly rusting in the sheath but to draw it forth against offendors and that first for the satisfaction of iustice that the party delinquent may receiue condigne punishment and then for the example of others that Israell may see and feare For although paena ad vnum the penalty light but on one yet metus ad omnes it is intended for the terror of all not to walke in those waies which leade vnto so
fearfull ends And indeede to what end hath God put into the heart of man this passion of feare but to decline and avoid all such euills as would destroy him or afflict him Take away feare and men will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 despise all danger and run headlong into all mischiefe but feare is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a preseruing nature as saith the philosopher inclining and perswading man carefully to keepe himselfe from dangers If then to come to an issue yee will not worke mischiefe vnnaturally vnto your owne selues if yee will avoide the Magistrates fury if yee will not incurre the rigour of the law nor fall vpon the edge of the sword of justice yee must needs be subiect But what need will some man say so much to feare the Wrath of the Magistrate May not a man hide his counsells so deepe and carry his actions so cunningly that nor witnesse nor Iudge shall know them If they come to light and bee discouered doth not greatnesse breake through lawes as wasps doe through cobwebs May not judges jury witnesses by friends fauour bribes be corrupted Are pardons impossible to bee obtained from Princes Nay suppose the worst that the penalty of the law can by no meanes be escaped what care they for fines and amercements who are content to beggar themselues to enioy their pleasures What for shame and ignominy who are growne impudent in all wickednesse What for death who count it worse then death not to liue as they list and to bee barred from their desires For there haue beene who haue said moriar modo regnet let mee dye so he may be King and aut Caesar aut nihil an Emperour or nothing To all this I answere briefly first trust not vnto secrecy but remember what wise Solomon saith Curse not the King no not in thy thought neither the great one in thy bedchamber for the foule of the Heaven will carry the voyce and that which hath wings shall declare the matter Secondly hope not for impunity many as great as gratious as wealthy as thou haue failed thereof and how knowest thou but one time or other thou maist meete with one who will accept nor thy person nor thy fee but will say vnto thee with Saint Peter thy mony perish with thee Lastly if any haue so farre put off naturall affection as not to feare Wrath chusing rather to fall into the hands of justice then to be restrained from his wickednesse let such a one know that what Wrath cannot yet Conscience should worke in him For here it must freely bee confessed that Wrath of it selfe is not sufficient it striketh at the branches not the roote and endeavoureth to reforme outward actions but reacheth not vnto the cause which is inward corruption Which remaining in vs Wrath happily may make vs more wary in offending but cannot worke in vs a loue of goodnesse and a desire not to offend at all Wherefore God in his deepe wisdome hath thought it good to binde vs vnto subiection not by a single but double tie and vnto Wrath to adde Conscience Yee must needs be subiect not only for wrath but also for conscience Conscience is that facultie or power of the Practicall vnderstanding in man whereby he is priuy to all his actions whether they be immanent and conceaued within as thoughts or emanant and issuing forth as his words and workes This Conscience is then said to be bound when by him who hath power and authority ouer it it is charged to performe its dutie that is to beare witnesse of all our actions vnto God and according to the qualitie of them to excuse or accuse vs for that these are the duties of conscience plainely appeareth by that of S. Paul their conscience bearing witnesse and their thoughts accusing or excusing This charge is then laid vpon the Conscience after that by the same authority man himselfe is bound for man being free Conscience also is free but man being bound by a law Conscience stands bound also But who is the binder of the conscience God without question He is the Law-giuer saith S. Iames that can both saue and destroy and he as S. Iohn saith is greater then the conscience But can the Magistrate also by his lawes binde the conscience Papists attribute vnto vs the Negatiue that they cannot themselues hold the Affirmatiue that they can and warrant it by this my Text Yee must bee subiect for conscience Vpon this plaine song sundry of them descant very pleasantly but none plaies the wanton more then Doctor Kellison who inferres that we despoile Princes of authority and superiority and giue subjects good leaue to rebell and revolt that we bring Iudges and Tribunall seats and all lawes into contempt that no Prince can rely on his subjects no subjects on their Prince or fellow subjects in a word that wee take away all society and ciuill conversation To all which I answere breefly First suppose the maine ground were true yet neither can they proue it out of my Text nor doe such absurdities follow therevpon Out of my Text they cannot proue it for that only affirmes that the Conscience is bound but determines not that mans lawes bindeth it Neither doe such absurdities follow for albâ—it wee should deny man to be the binder yet doe wee freely professe that the Conscience is bound which is enough But we answer farther that they much abuse vs for we deny not rem that they binde onely wee differ from them in modo maintaining that they binde not in such manner as they teach They hold that mens lawes binde non minùs guà m lex divina equally with Gods lawes so that were there not any law of God binding to Subiection yet mans law of it selfe and of its owne power would binde This we deny teaching contrarily that humane lawes binde the Conscience not immediatly but mediatly not primarily but secundarily not in themselues of their owne power but in the force and vertue of Divine law Divine law I say whether that which is imprinted in the heart by nature or that which is revealed vnto vs by Scripture both which command Subiection This truth in fâ—w words thus I demonstrate First if mans law immediatly binde the Conscience then is euery transgression thereof without farther respect vnto Gods law a mortall sinne But so it is not for according to St Iohns definition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sin is a transgression of the law meaning not mans but Gods law only in regard whereof St Augustine saith more expresly Sin is dictum factum concupitum any saying doing or coueting against Gods law Besides if man of himselfe without respect vnto Gods law can binde the conscience then either is he Lord of the conscience and may himselfe conuent it examine it take its testimonie and accordingly proceed to sentence either of life or death both vpon body and soule or he hath power to command God to sit in
my body that shall bee giuen for you My flesh is truly meat and my blood is truly drinke the bread that I shall giue you is my flesh for the life of the world and other like sentences of our Savioâ—r I. D. Your second Argument is drawne from the opinion of the ancient Fathers grounded vpon the Scriptures An invincible and irrefragable Argument if you bee able to make it good For who is hee that dares withstand so great Authority as is that of the Fathers backt with Scripture But bragge is a good dogge as they say and it behooueth you to cracke and boast of much least otherwise you be thought to be destitute of all For I will be bold to affirme that neither you nor your author shall ever be able to proue any one of the ancient Fathers whether with Scripture or without to bee of your side in this present point Those that you pretend to make for you wee shall examine as they offer themselues in order And as for grounding their opinion vpon Scripture neither could they doe so seeing they never dreamed of your Reall presence neither doe the particular places by you vouched import any such thing The first place This is my body shall hereafter at large be vnfolded the rest as is already demonstrated speake not a word of the Sacrament but only of Spirituall eating If the Fathers either in their Homilies or Commentaries alledge these words discoursing of the Eucharist it maketh nothing against vs. For seeing Christ is Spiritually eaten not only out of the Sacrament but in it also and Spirituall eating cannot well be expressed but by tearmes borrowed from Bodily eating no marvell if the ancient Fathers speaking of the Sacrament accomodate these words and the rest in the sixt of Iohn thereunto N. N. The Fathers doe not only vrge all the circumstances here specified or signified to proue it to be the true naturall Body of Christ as that it was to be giuen for vs the next day after Christs words were spoken that it was to bee given for the life of the whole world and that it was truly meat and truly Christs flesh but doe adde also divers other circumstances of much efficacy to confirme the same affirming the same more in particular that it is the very Body which was borne of the blessed Virgin the very same Body that suffered on the Crosse. The selfe-same body saith St Chrysostome that was nailed beaten crucified blouded wounded with a speare is receiued by vs in a Sacrament Whereunto St Augustine addeth this particularity that it is the selfe-same that walked here among vs vpon earth As he walked here in earth saith he among vs so the very selfe-same flesh doth he giue to bee eaten and therefore no man eateth that flesh but first adoreth it And Hesychius addeth that hee gaue the selfe-same Body whereof the Angell Gabriel said to the Virgin Mary that it should be conceiued of the Holy Ghost And yet farther It is the same body saith St Chrysostom that the Major or learned men did adore in the manger but thou doest see him saith he not in the manger but on the Altar not in the armes of a woman but in the hands of a Priest The very selfe-same flesh saith St Augustine againe that â—ate at the table in the last supper washed his Disciples feete the very same I say did Christ giue with his owne hands to his Disciples when he said Take eate this is my body c. and so did he beare himselfe in his owne hands which was prophecied of David but fulfilled only by Christ in that supper These are the particularities vsed by the Fathers to declare what Body they meane and can there be any more effectuall Speeches then these I. D. Pliny in one of his Epistles adviseth him that would be a Writer oftentimes to looke backe vnto the title of his Booke and to consider what his drift and purpose is least ere he be aware he step aside and fall vpon things impertinent Which wise and prudent counsell of his had you duly regarded I perswade my selfe you would not haue spoken so little to the purpose as in this section you haue done For out of all these sayings of the Fathers you conclude no more but this that the true naturall flesh of Christ which was borne of the blessed virgin conversed among vs here on earth and suffered on the crosse c. is present in the Sacrament which who denies Certainly none of our side for wee all freely confesse the same together with you So that the difference betwixt you and vs lies not in the thing it selfe but in the Manner nor whether Christ be present but how and in what sort hee is present Two waies say wee he is present Sacramentally Spiritually as is aboue already declared And this Presence wee affirme to be so strait and neere that wee are thereby bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh But the Presence that you maintaine is a Corporalland Locall Presence of the Flesh of Christ vnder the Accidents of Bread and Wine and that by way of Transubstantiation And this is the point which you haue vndertaken to proue out of the Fathers and to which you ought to speake but in this place you performe it not For how doth this follow The Fathers say that true Christ is present Ergo they say he is present Corporally Locally and by way of Transubstantiation Certainly not at all for hee may otherwise be Present namely Sacramentally as wee hold and Spiritually Neither shall your Author with all his wit and skill ever bee able to make good this or the like consequence from the thing to the manner And thus much for answere in generall Particularly St Chrysostome saith the selfe-same Body which was crucified c. is receaued by vs. But how In a Sacrament that is Sacramentally and by Faith Even as in Baptisme we are made partakers of the Blood of Christ and the power of the Holy Ghost not by a Reall presence or Transubstantiation of Water into them but only as St Chrysostome here speaketh in a Sacrament The which comparison I vse the rather because it is the Fathers own who elsewhere saith that it is in the Lords supper as it is in Baptisme wherein by the sensible element of water the gift is bestowed and that which is intelligible to wit regeneration and renovation is performed The Reddition whereof must needs be this that in like manner by the sensible creatures of Bread and Wine the gift is giuen we are made partakers of the Body and Blood of Christ to the Spirituall nourishment of our soules By which proportion it seemeth that as the one is effected without Transubstantiation so is the other also Your next Author is Saint Augustine who saith that the same Flesh which walked here among vs doth he giue to be eaten True but to bee eaten by Faith not by the mouth For
Chrysostome doe proue not only this but the Resurrection also of our Bodies by the truth of Christs Flesh in the Sacrament for that our Flesh ioyning with his Flesh which is immortall shall bee immortall also I. D. The truth of Christs Flesh in the Sacrament and the Coniunction of our Flesh with his Flesh neither is nor ever was by vs denied And therefore to heap vp Fathers for the proofe thereof is but to spend your labour to no purpose That you should proue is the Presence of Christ by Transubstantiation Which hitherto you haue but little aymed at In the Sacrament say these Fathers our Flesh is ioyned to Christs Flesh Ergo our Flesh shall rise againe The Antecedent is true and the sequele is good But what ioyning doe they meane The taking of Christs flesh into the mouth They neuer dreamt of it And if it were so it would follow that all they that eat Christ Sacramentally among whom how many Reprobates are there shall rise againe vnto life everlasting For I hope you will not say that the sacred Flesh of Christ doth quicken any vnto everlasting death How then is it By eating him not only Sacramentally but also spiritually and by Faith For by this meanes Christ becomes the food of our soules which redounding vpon the Flesh by making it the Temple of the Holy Ghost and an instrument of righteousnes fitteth and prepareth it to a glorious Resurrection Hence our Sauiour He that eateth my flesh drinketh my bloud hath life everlasting and I will raise him vp at the last day And the Apostle S. Paul If Christ bee in you the Body indeed is dead because of sinne but the spirit is life because of righteousnesse But if the spirit of him that raised vp Iesus Christ from the dead dwell in you hee that raised vp Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodies by his spirit that dwelleth in you And that this is the meaning of the Fathers appeares by that they say Our bodies come not into corruption but partake of life by being nourished with the body bloud of the Lord. For that our bodies in litterall sense should be nourished with Christs body is to make it the food of the belly not of the minde then which saith Bellarmine nothing can bee deuised more absurd And what I pray you is Nourishment properly Only to take meat into the mouth No but the alteration and conversion of the substance thereof into the substance of that which is nourished which to affirme of the Body of Christ is horrible impiety Of force therefore must the Fathers be vnderstood to speake of such a Nourishment by the body of Christ as is spirituall Now if the Nourishment be spirituall such is the Eating also and it is as absurd to say that the soule is nourished by bodily eating as that the body is nourished by spirituall eating Will you haue all in a word The things that wee eat with our mouth in the Sacramēt are not the causes but the pledges of our Resurrection So saith the great Councell of Nice We must beleeue these things to be the symbols or pledges of our Resurrection N. N. And the same S. Irenaeus doth proue farther that the great God of the old Testament Creator of heauen earth was Christs Father For proofe whereof hee alleageth this reason that Christ in the Sacrament did fulfill the Figures of the old Testament and that in particular wherein bread was a figure of his Flesh which he fulfilled saith Irenaeus making it his Flesh indeed I. D. The Marcionites whom Irenaeus confuteth taught that the God of the old Testament was not the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ and that the Creator was knowne but the Father of Christ was vnknowne Against this hee endeauoureth to proue that the Father of our Lord was he who created the world That this he intendeth manifestly appeareth by those words where hee saith Others saying that another besides the creator is his Father and offering vnto him those creatures that are here amongst vs shew that he is greedy and covetous of that which is anothers And among other arguments this he vseth for one Bread and Wine are the creatures of the Creator of the world which creatures Iesus Christ vseth in the Sacrament the one to be his Body and the other to be his Bloud and therein are they offered to his Father Ergo the Creator is his Father Were he not his Father he would never haue takē that which belongs vnto another or whervnto he had no right and convert it to his owne vse So that here your Author hath notably deceaued you For Irenaeus proueth Christ to bee the sonne of the Creator not by his omnipotence in turning Bread and Wine into his Flesh and Bloud a thing that neuer came into his thought but from his right and title to the Creatures which maketh nothing for Transubstantiation Touching the Figures of the old Testament and how they prefigured our Sacraments we haue spoken enough already N. N. What is so sacrilegious saith Optatus Milevitanus as to breake downe scrape and remoue the altars of God on which your selues haue sometimes offered and the members of Christ haue beene borne c. What is an altar but the Seat of the Body and Bloud of Christ And this monstrous villanie of yours is doubled for that you haue brokē also the chalice which did beare the Bloud of Christ himselfe When the mixed chalice and the Bread broken taketh the word of God the Eucharist of the bloud and body of Christ is made Bread receauing the calling of God is not now common bread but the Eucharist consisting of two things one earthly another heavenly the earthly thing is the old forme of bread the heavenly is the body of Christ newly made vnder that forme Let vs now consider also the persons to whom this Commandement was giuen they were those twelue Apostles whom Christ at his last Supper taught the new Oblation of the new Testament giuing them authority by this precept to consecrate to make present and to offer to God his body and bloud I. D. Where little or nothing is objected the answer is soone made Optatus saith that the altar is the seat of Christs body and bloud and that the chalice beareth his bloud Irenaeus saith that after consecration the Eucharist of the body and bloud is made that in it there is a heavenly thing and the Apostles had authority to make present the body of Christ. Ergo the body and bloud of Christ is really corporally locally and by way of Transubstantiation present in the Sacrament A poore and silly consequence which all the wity our author hath wil neuer be able to make good For those words of the Fathers may be salued and verified if Christ be Present any other way And Present hee is Sacramentally to the signes and spiritually to the Faith of
the worthy receauer Neither are the Fathers alwaies literally to be vnderstood when they vse the names of the Body and Bloud of Christ. For it is the common practise of them all writing of the Sacraments specially of the Lords Supper to call the signe by the name of the thing signified following therein the custome of Scripture and the example of our Saviour who as Theodoret saith changed the names and called the signe by the name of his Body So that when they say the Body is on the altar the Bloud is in the Chalice and so of the rest the meaning by this rule is the Sacrament of the Body and Bloud is there or the Body and Bloud is there Sacramentally But in vouching Irenaeus what is the reason you curtal one place and adde vnto another Meant you to play the Giant Procrustes and to shorten the one because it was too long for your bed and to stretch out the other because it was too short For whereas to those words the Eucharist of the Bloud and Body of Christ is made Irenaeus addeth immediatly by which the substance of our flesh is augmented and consisteth this you thought good to omit because it maketh directly against you For it is not the naturall Flesh and Bloud of Christ whereby our Bodies are nourished and increased Yet in the Sacrament by his Body Bloud they waxe and grow Ergo by his Symbolicall Body and Bloud the Bread and Wine still remaining Againe whereas Irenaeus saith The Eucharist consisteth of two things one earthly another heavenly you adde the earthly thing is the old forme of bread the heauenly is the body of Christ newly made vnder that forme But this is your owne Glosse and no part of the Text and such a Glosse as corrupteth the Text. For Irenaeus neuer dreamt of your Formes and Accidents without substance and his plaine meaning is that whereas before Consecration there was but one thing and that earthly namely Bread now it is made the Eucharist consisting of two things the one Earthly namely Bread the other Heauenly to wit the Body of Christ. N. N. For we doe not take these as common Bread Wine but like as Iesus Christ our Saviour incarnated by the word of God had Flesh and Bloud for our salvation eveÌ„ so we be taught that the food wherewith our Flesh and Bloud be nourished by alteration when it is consecrated by the prayer of his word to bee the Flesh and Bloud of the same Iesus Christ incarnated I. D. It is not common bread saith Iustin. What of that For hee that denies it to be common bread doth not deny it to be bread nay he confesseth it to be so though not only so by vertue of the addition of Grace vnto it If every thing that ceaseth to be common loose its nature and cease to be what it was then whosoever comes to Rome must not beleeue his eyes but thinke he is in Fairy land where things are not what they seeme to bee For there doubtlesse all things are hallowed nothing Common Iustin saith farther As the word became flesh so is bread made the body What after the same manner Then farewell Transubstantiation For the Word became Flesh by vniting it vnto himselfe hypostatically not by Transubstantiating himselfe into it In like manner therefore is bread made Body not by a substantiall change of Bread into body but by a Sacramentall vnion of the body with bread Nay saith hee but the same powerfull Word that wrought the one worketh also the other Yet this enforceth no Transubstantiation For no power is able to make a Sacrament by earthly creatures to convay vnto vs heavenly Graces saue only that which is Divine But would you see a prety tricke of legerdemaine and how your author juggles with you The words of Iustin runne not in the same order as they are set downe but thus Even so are wee taught that the food blessed by the prayer of the word of God whereby our flesh by conversion is changed c. Then which nothing maketh more against that which you intend For the consecrated Food as Iustin saies nourisheth our Flesh and Blood But the Body of Christ nourisheth them not neither to that end is converted into our substance Wherefore of necessity it must bee Bread and if bread after Consecration what is become of your new found Transubstantiation N. N. Neither hath Moyses giuen vs the true Bread but our Lord Iesus Christ himselfe the Feaster and the Feast himselfe the Eater and hee that is eaten I. D. Christ indeede is the Feast and is eaten but eaten as he is the Feast not of the Body but the Soule eaten therefore is he by the mouth of the Soule not of the body For a Spirituall meat must spiritually be receiued And more then this Saint Hierom vnderstands not For as for that he saith Manna was not the true bread it cannot be denied For our Saviour affirmeth it and in it selfe it was no more then the food of the belly Yet was it made a Sacrament both Significatiue and Exhibitiue of Christ though generally to the Iewes it was fruitlesse because they considered it carnally and vnderstood not the mystery thereof So all the Fathers Heare one Augusâ—â—â— for them all The ancients saith he while as yet the true sacrifice which the faithfull know was foreshewed in Figures did celebrate the figures of the thing figured some of them with knowledge but more ignorantly And againe Your Fathers did eat Manna in the Wildernesse and are dead for they vnderstood not that which they did eat Therefore not vnderstanding they receiued nothing else but corporall meat And yet againe The same meat the same drinke but to them that vnderstand and beleeue but to those that vnderstand not only Manna only water Neither can wee conceiue of this otherwise vnlesse wee will leaue Christ and Saint Paul at variance the one denying that Moyses giuing Manna gaue the true bread the other affirmâ—â—g that they all ate the same spirituall meat Which being so it seemes strange to mee how you can hammer your Reall Presence from hence For to reason thus is very ridiculous Moyses gaue not the body of Christ Ergo bread in the Eucharist is transubstantiated into Christs body Yet this is all I can see and vntill you shew mee better reason farther answere you may not looke from mee N. N. If you aske how it is made it is enough for thee to heare that it is made by the Holy Ghost even as our Lord made for himselfe a Body out of the Virgin mother of God and wee know no more but that the word of God is true strengthfull and almighty And againe Not as the Body of Christ came downe from heaven but because the Bread and Wine is changed into the Body and Blood of Christ. I. D. This Damascen lived vpward of seauen hundred years after Christ and hath not yeares
enough to be numbred among the ancient Fathers In regard whereof as also because of those many shamefull errors and fabulous narrations every where appearing in his writings hee is one of little or no authority in the Church of God He was the first that removed the bounds of the ancient Doctors in this matter bringing in sundry new strange terms never heard of in former times the misvnderstanding of which by little and little prepared a way to that deformed monster of Transubstantiation Neverthelesse it is certaine that howsoever many of his speeches may seeme harsh and inconvenient and great advantage hath beene taken of them that way yet himselfe was cleane of another mind Let vs therefore heare what hee saith It is made saith hee by the Holy Ghost even as our Lord made for himselfe a body out of the Virgin mother If so then is it not made by Transubstantiation for Christ assuming a body turned not his Deity into it Yet was the worke of the Holy Ghost necessary for he alone is able to sanctify the Naturall element and to invest them with Supernaturall graces The same saith he of Baptisme He hath ioyned the Grace of the Holy Ghost to oile and water and hath made it the washing of Regeneration And Leo yet more fully vsing the selfe-same comparison Christ gave vnto water that which he gaue vnto his mother for the power of the most high and over shaddowing of the holy Ghost which made that Mary brought forth the Saviour hath made water to regenerate the beleeuer Whereby you see that the same power of Gods Spirit by which the blessed Virgin conceived may be emploied in a Sacrament without that change and conversion that you imagine of And that Damascen though hee aknowledged a change of the Bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ yet was not acquainted with your change may appeare by these words Because it is the manner of men to eat bread and to drinke wine with water he hath conioyned his divinity with them and made them his body and blood that by vsuall things and which are according to nature we might be setled in these things that are aboue nature Here you see hee conioyneth the Divinity with bread and wine Now coniunction is only of those things that are and haue a being Bread and Wine therefore still are If they be then are they not abolished And if they be not abolished then is Transubstantiation gone Adde herevnto that Accidents without Substance are not Vsuall things nor according to Nature and therefore not they but true bread and true Wine are the things which in Damascens judgement raise vs vp to those things that are aboue Nature But of him enough N. N. The perishing meat and pleasures of this world please me not I long for Gods Bread the heauenly Bread the bread of life which thing is the flesh of Christ the Sonne of God I. D. That Ignatius wrote an Epistle to the Romans both Eusebius and Hierom testify and that this which now passeth vnder that title may be the right Epistle I deny not Howbeit it is confessed of all that those Epistles which are granted to be his are not come vnto our hands perfect For some passages are cited out of them by some of the ancients as Hierom Theodoret and others which now are not found in them and some are manifestly corrupted and depraved as appeareth So that if Baronius and Bellarmine might challenge them of corruption in those places which make for Saint Pauls marriage and against halfe Communions I hope I haue as much liberty to challenge the place by you alleaged if it made any thing against vs. But it needs not for Ignatius speaketh not there of the Sacrament and therefore it maketh nothing to the purpose Neither doth it follow The bread is flesh Ergo by Transubstantiation N. N. We ought so to communicate with our Lords table that wee doubt nothing of the verity of his Body and Bloud seeing he said Except yee eat the Flesh of the Son of man c. I. D. Leo disputeth in this place against the Eutychians who denied the truth of Christs body and thus he argueth The Eucharist is a symboll of the body of Christ Ergo Christ hath a true body and whosoever will rightly communicate must nothing doubt thereof So reasoneth also Theodoret. For Orthodoxus demanding whether Bread and Wine were Symbols of the true body blood of Christ or no and being answered yea he thus concludes If the divine mysteries be samplars of the true body then the body of the Lord is now also true and not changed into the nature of the Divinity Hence may you see the weaknesse of your Argument Communicants may not doubt that Christ hath a true body or if you will that the true body of Christ is in the Eucharist Ergo bread is transubstantiated into body Ridiculous N. N. As therefore our Baptisme is made by reall washing with water and reall renewing of the Holy Ghost so now in the Supper of Christ it behooueth wee bee really fed with the fruit of the tree of life which is none other thing besides the flesh of Christ. I. D. If we yeelded Euthymius vnto you the matter were not great For he liued vpward of eleven hundred yeares after Christ and your owne Chronologers place him after Gratian and Peter Lombard Yet what saith hee It behooueth that in the supper wee be really fed with the flesh of Christ. Really fed Who doubteth of it But you are to know that Reall doth not necessarily import your Carnall manner For Spirituall is also Reall vnlesse you will say a spirit is no thing N. N. It is a remembrance of Christs death by the presence of the body which died It is the Body and Bloud of Christ covered from our eyes revealed to our Faith feeding presently our body and soule to everlasting life I. D. This Nicephorus also liued eleauen hundred yeares after Christ and therefore is none of the Fathers nor of any great authority Neither doth that which hee saith conclude your purpose For Christs Body may bee and is present Sacramentally and to our faith and presently feed both soules and bodies to everlasting life and yet Bread and Wine remaine still in the Sacrament Else where hee calleth the outward Elements symbolls and signes of the Passion of Christ. If symbolls and signes then not the Body it selfe N. N. They receiue not the fruit of Saluation in the eating of the healthfull sacrifice They eat the healthfull Sacrifice which surely is nothing else but the naturall body of Christ but the frute they receiue not As many men take an healthfull medicine but because their bodies bee evill affected it proueth not healthfull to them I. D. Thus you reason The healthfull Sacrifice is the naturall body of Christ Ergo Bread by Transubstantiation is made the body of Christ. How