that is to wit adorned with vpper and grosser parts in the which these affections be Augustine Wherevpon Augustine in the place aboue alledged Neither had he a counterfet humane affection séeing he had the bodie and soule of a man Herevpon Ambrose woorthilie saith that Christ tooke vpon him not a shew of incarnation but a truth and therefore truelie had affections And he added that this vndoubtedlie was conuenient that he might ouercome sorrowe and sadnes but not exclude them He addeth saieng Neither is that fortitude cōmendable which bringeth in an vnsensiblenes of wounds not a gréefe If there be anie that knowe they haue so vnsensible a bodie as they féele not wounds they haue not the commendation of fortitude or valiant courage but those haue it which ouercome the gréefs which they féele How a saieng of Hilarie must be taken heed of Wherefore Hilarie must be aduisedlie read in his 10. booke De Trinitate who speaketh dangerouslie of the bodie of Christ and of those affections He affirmeth that the Lord had a bodie to suffer but not to féele paine And he saith that the crosse sword and nailes put vpon Christ the violence of a passion A similitude but not a gréefe And he vseth a similitude to wit that it fared euen as if one would attempt with a sword to thrust through water fire or aire he should doo violence against these elements and the sword of his owne nature would put to gréefe but those bodies be not of that nature as they can suffer a wound These things are not agreable to the scripture and to a true humane bodie On this wise may we argue that Christ had gréefe A proofe that Christ suffered greefe To the féeling of gréefe in anie man two things are chéeflie required which things being appointed gréefe dooth followe first that the bodie shuld be hurt secondlie that there shall be a féeling of that hurt But the bodie of Christ was hurt being whole it was broken The soule of Christ was most perfect it had sense Ergo it was not without féeling The selfe same are we to iudge as touching sadnes This is the nature thereof When sadnes appeareth that if in the cogitation or imagination we perceiue anie hurtfull thing that is like to happen or is present then it sheweth it selfe Such cogitations had Christ Those things were repugnant vnto nature wherefore there followed a sadnesse howbeit that followed not which had sinne ioined with it They were perfect motions they went not beyond the rule of Gods word they had the nature of a punishment but not of an offense Our affections be vnpure What cause of difference is there Augustine Augustine in the place aboue recited sheweth the reason bicause the affections of Christ were deriued of power ours of infirmitie Christ had that power that he could vse these affections when and as often as he would but ours doo now spring of infirmitie yea and they rise against vs whether we will or no. We can not bridle them wherefore they be troublous but Christs be cléere not onelie as they were by institution giuen vnto Adam but also as they were adorned by the grace of God they presumed nothing but so long and so much as it behooued 39 So then we may assigne thrée differences betweene Christs affections and ours The first as touching the obiects the motions and affections of Christ neuer declined vnto sinne but ours doo verie often The second Christ as saith Augustine vsed when he iudged that they should be vsed as when he would that man should be man was made it dooth not so happen with vs they breake foorth euen against our wils Thirdlie those perturbations be sometimes so forcible in vs as they disquiet reason it selfe and doo hinder faith but it was not thus in Christ Matt. 5 28. Wherefore Ierom vpon Matthew in the handling of that sentence He that shall looke vpon a woman to lust after hir Passions and preparatiues vnto passions c. distinguisheth and saith that There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may be called suffering fore-suffering That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is alwaies taken in the the ill part when they vanquish and ouercome vs. But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be the first motions which although they be held vnder the name of an offense yet are they not crimes they doo not ouercome But what the difference is betwéene a crime and a sinne Augustine in the 41. The difference betweene a crime and a sinne 1. Tim. 3 10 treatise vpon Iohn sheweth Crimes be gréeuous sins which haue accusation and deserue condemnation but sinnes are of lesse weight Wherefore the apostle when he speaketh touching the ordeining of pastors will haue them to be without crime not without sinne otherwise he should exclude all men from the ministerie Therefore in Christ those affections procéeded not so far that they could alienate his will from the right waie as Ierom saith when he handleth that place My soule is heauie c. Matt. 26 3◠They had rather the nature of foresuffering than of suffering His diuine nature could bring to passe that they should not begin to come foorth but by a certeine dispensation of grace for our saluation he made place for them when the time serued But if they were affections Why Christ called his affections his will whie did he call them a will saieng Not my will be doone but thine He ment the inclination of nature whereby we shunne things hurtfull And it was requisite that Christ should be sad and mooued with those affections bicause it behooued him to be tempted in all things and to ouercome these affections and this victorie not a litle furthered our redemption neither was it against the will of God For he would haue him not onelie to be crucified but also to be affected with those motions euen as Ierusalem to be ouerthrowen and Christ to bewaile it neither while he wept did he against his Fathers will Wherefore if we shall beléeue Cyrill Christ his death in respect that he was a man and had appetite and sense was not voluntarie yet was it voluntarie bicause it pleased the Father and bicause it serued to our redemption for the which Christ came But it was said Christ was blessed how could he be mooued with those affections Bicause that felicitie was so conteined in the vpper part of the mind as it did not redound to the lower parts 40 All these things make against the Stoiks namelie the doctrine of Christ and the doctrine apostolicall also the example of Christ Wherefore it is no maruell if the godlie be so sorrowfull Yea and I thinke good to adde True affections are greater in the godlie than in the wicked that true affections are greater in the godlie than in the wicked who by litle and litle put them awaie and the greater that they be the more they
For Aristotle in his Problems the 30 sextion saith that the Sibyls and the excellent Emperours and famous philosophers were melancholike and that there were some which béeing affected with that humour spake suddenlie manie languages Some spake in manie toongs vpon the sudden which they had neuer learned and that they afterward béeing healed by physicians left off speaking in that manner Thus much for their part But forsomuch as they sée that by the most learned men there is mention made of spirits and that they cannot denie it without blushing while they would confesse somewhat they are diuided into twoo sundrie sects Som thinke that soules become demons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For they which thinke that mans soule is immortall doo saie that those which die after they haue liued well and honestlie are made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but euill and wicked liuers become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so perpetuallie remaine For séeing they cannot now worke contrarie actions it must néeds be that those habits which they carried with them Som would that demons are onelie in this life should indure for euer But they which would haue the soule to be mortall doo allow of spirits but onelie in this life So that they which applie all their senses as much as in them lieth to vnderstanding be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and good spirits but they which turne vnderstanding into sensualitie be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and disturbe all things So the former opinion dooth affirme that one kind passeth into another which séemes no more possible to bée brought to passe than that a man should be changed into a woolfe But if there be anie certeine nature of spirits no doubt the same must be firme and stedfast But if the latter opinion were true then man bicause he is mutable might be sometimes a spirit and sometimes an angel But these men would haue angels and spirits to be nothing else but mens affections The opinion of Trismegistus Mercurius Trismegistus as Augustine saith in his eight booke De ciuitate Dei the 23. chapter denieth that there be indéed anie spirits at all For he saith that God made gods Intelligences separated from all matter by which the spheres of the world are mooued further that men also did make to themselues gods Asclepius answereth I thinke thou speakest of images Indéed so I doo saith Mercurius but I meane such images as be so applied to certeine aspects of the stars that they can speake and heale men and afflict with sicknes and worke miracles and which be indued with mind sense and spirit Aphrodysaeus Alexander Aphrodysaeus saith that there is a certeine diuine power spred through the whole world which can worke all things but that it is requisite the same should be wiselie drawne to particular effects A similitude For euen as we sée it commeth to passe in the sunne that although the heate thereof be the generall life of all things yet out of it being diuerslie applied there are brought foorth diuers and sundrie things for out of the vine it bringeth foorth grapes and out of the trée apples so if that power which is so spred vniuersallie be fitlie drawn by wise men through herbs and stones there doo followe maruellous effects And thus much hitherto as touching those which vtterlie denie that there is anie certeine nature of Daemons or spirits 9 The Platonists grant The opinion of the Platonists that spirits be certeine substances betwéene gods and men and that of them some be earthie som waterie som airie some fierie and some starrie and to euerie one of the spheres seuerallie there be attributed seuerall spirits as some be of Saturne some of Iupiter and some of the Sunne And they were led thus to saie chéeflie by this reason That betwéene two extreames there must of necessitie be placed a meane for that heauenlie bodies are eternall and incorruptible but ours are mortall and fraile and therefore betwéene both must be the bodies of spirits as certeine meane things which may somewhat communicate with both the extreames For they notwithstanding that in time they be eternall yet are stirred with affects and motions And further that as there be birds in the aire and fishes in the water euen so in the highest region of the aire and in the fire there be spirits And least we should thinke them altogither idle partlie they are tutors of men and partlie rulers of prouinces that they both bring mens praiers vnto God and also carrie the benefits of God vnto men that of som they be called Meane-gods of some Natiuitie-spirits and of other some House-gods Apuleius Apuleius not the least among the Platonists defineth spirits on this wise He saith that by nature they are liuing creatures by wit reasonable by bodie airie by time eternall and by mind passiue for that they be affected euen as men be Howbeit all they doo not séeme to agrée in this that the bodies of spirits are eternall For Plutarch writing of oracles saith it was reported that Pan the great god once died The opinion of the diuines But the diuines fathers of sound religion doo affirme that there be spirits and not onelie those by whom the celestiall spheres are driuen about but others also And some of them saie that they haue no bodies proper I meane and of their owne whervnto they be so ioined as they can quicken them and yet they may ioine vnto themselues bodies which be none of their owne 10 So all these men doo confesse The summe of all these opinions that woonderfull things are doone by spirits The Peripateticks by celestiall bodies the Platonists by bodies proper vnto spirits and our diuines by spirits sometime taking bodies to them and sometimes without bodies These thrée opinions confesse that there be magicians But the first vnderstand by magicians good and wise men which fitlie can applie things that worke vnto things that suffer such as are philosophers and physicians The Platonists doo not alwaies take the name of magicians in euill part but such as haue familiaritie with spirits And christians and the true professors vnderstand them onelie to be magicians which haue made anie league with diuels and conspire with them against God For there be some spirits good and some bad for some fell at the beginning some remained as they were which thing Homer séemeth to signifie in Ate and others in Ophionaeus And it may be that these things came vnto them by tradition from the fathers although darkened with shadowes and fables A proofe of spirits by the scriptures Wherefore we affirme out of the holie scriptures that there be spirits and a few places of the scriptures I will rehearse For it would be infinite and troublesome to recite all Iob. 1 2. The diuell vexed Iob ouerthrew his houses and destroied his cattell and seruants In the historie of Achab 1. kin 22 22. a lieng spirit
was not a man but a spirit For if thou wert a man saith he how diddest thou knowe that the wind came from the wildernesse Or if thou wert there how happeneth it that thou wert not destroied with the rest They take to themselues airie bodies A good part of the writers thinke that the spirits doo frame themselues bodies of the aire for that there must be a certeine Sympathia or mutuall agréement betwéene the place and the inhabitants thereof and that the diuels as wée haue said before haue their habitation in the aire wherfore it is credible that they applie vnto themselues fit bodies of the aire Further they adde that it behooueth that the bodies of them should be light and nimble for spirits as Tertullian saith be as it were fowles and doo most swiftlie flie ouer all places Besides this they adde that experience teacheth that those bodies be airie for that there had béene some men which indeuoured sometime to cut and wound them but yet they could not preuaile for they gaue place to the blowes and straitway came togither againe Wherefore the poet Virgil trimlie pronounced of Anchyses which missing his wife in the flight of Troie séeming to him that he sawe hir spirit said Three times about hir necke I sought mine armes to set and thrise In vaine hir likenes fast I held for through my hands she flies Like wauering wind or like to dreames that men full swift espies Moreouer these bodies doo soone vanish from the sight but and if they were earthie there would remaine some massie substance if they were waterie they would run abroad if they were of fire they would burne and might not be handeled But the spirits doo thicken and engrosse these bodies by strait trussing of the parts togither for otherwise they might not be séene or touched Abraham sawe angels Gen. 18 2. and washed their féete set meate before them and they also did eate 26 Howbeit Whether they be bodies or but imaginations some thinke that those are no bodies but are onlie certeine imaginations in the minds of men But others answer that that cannot generallie be true for that they which be mocked by such visions are depriued of their senses But neither is this certeine for they that haue the phrensie are so deceiued manie times and yet they can vse their senses For they feare they run awaie they be troubled in spirit and they crie out Others saie that they be no phantasies bicause they be séene of a great multitude of men togither now it is hard to deceiue a great manie togither For angels were séene of the whole housholds of Lot and Abraham Gen. 19 1. But the holie scriptures prooue That they were true bodies without all doubt that these were not vaine imaginations onlie for the diuell did in verie déed enter into the serpent to the intent he might entice Eue to be deceiued Which thing the curse Gen. 3 1. Ibid. 14. wherewith the serpent was cursed dooth sufficientlie declare Vpon thy bellie shalt thou crall and the seed of the woman shall tread downe thy head For that is true not onlie as touching Christ and the diuell but also as touching men and the serpent And further as I said before the angels offered themselues to be séene of Abraham and of Lot Neither were these anie phantasies for the angels were handled with the hands and when Lot made some delaie of departing out of Sodom Gen. 13 21. they in a manner drew him out of the citie by force The Iewes in the daie-time sawe a smoke and in the night-time a flame So often as they were to take their iournie there entred in a spirit which moued those things For as the light of the sunne doth pearse the water the clouds and the aire so a spirit pearseth through all things Exo. 19 16. When the lawe was giuen vpon Sina there were séene both lightenings smokes vapours and fires also the land was shaken with earthquakes When Christ ascended into heauen the angels accompanied him for they both offered themselues to be séene and spake also vnto the disciples Acts. 1 10. Yee men of Galile why stand yee gazing vp vnto heauen Wherefore it were an impudent part to saie that all these things were onlie imaginations and deceiuings of the mind Yea and the Peripatetiks did neuer so saie that these are onlie vaine images and fained shewes in mans imagination They rather inuented other reasons namelie that they be humors secret powers of nature and celestiall bodies An obiection 2. Thess 2 9. Why then thou wilt alledge doth Paule saie to the Thessalonians that Antichrist shall come in power in woonders and signes of lieng For if they be true things how commeth it to passe then that they be signes of lieng I answere that they may be called lies either of the cause for the diuell being authour of them is a lier Ibidem 10 and 11. or else of the end for he shall make them to the end he may deceiue men And assuredlie the wicked are woorthie so to be deceiued and mocked The wicked are worthie to be deceiued For euen as Paule saith Bicause they receiued not the loue of the truth God shall send them strong delusions Euen so in the apostles time 1. Cor. 5 5. men were deliuered to sathan But sometimes these things be done to shew the mightie power of God for séeing the power of the diuell is so great it is requisit that the power of God whereby he is brideled and ruled should be much greater But it is our part to giue God continuall thanks by whose onlie benefit we are defended from the diuell Wherefore these bodies which the spirits doo applie vnto themselues be airie For euen as water is congealed into yse and sometime hardneth till it become christall euen so the aire wherwith spirits doo cloth themselues is thickned so that it becommeth a visible bodie but if it may séeme that the aire alone is not sufficient they can also mingle some vapour or water withall whereof colours may be had For this we sée to be done in the rainbowe as saith Virgil The rainebowe downe did come with siluer wings of dropping showers Whose face a thousand sundrie hewes against the sunne deuoures 27 There is no néed at all to attribute vnto diuels and angels those vitall parts namelie the lungs hart and liuer for they doo not therefore put on bodies to the end they may quicken them but onlie that they may be séene and therefore they vse them as instruments How the angels and spirits doo eate Luke 24 43. But thou wilt saie that they doo eate and that Christ when he was risen from death did eate with his disciples Augustine in his 94 epistle Ad Deo gratias quaest 1. saith that In Christ that eating was of no necessitie but of power and he vseth this similitude For in one sort saith he doth the earth
conditions is looked for in vs wherefore the change must not be attributed vnto him but vnto vs. But if thou wilt aske me whether God hath knowen and decréed before what shall come to passe as touching these conditions I will grant he hath For euen at the first beginning he not onlie knew what the euents of things would be but also decréed what should be But séeing the secretnes of his will touching these things is not opened vnto vs in the holie scriptures therefore we must followe that rule which is giuen by Ieremie Ionas 3 4. euen as we haue rehearsed before Esaie 38 1. This rule the Niniuits and also Ezechias the king had respect vnto euen before the same was published For although that destruction was denounced to them in the name of God yet they escaped from it by reason of the repentance and praiers which they in the meane time vsed Neither is there anie cause whie we should suspect that God dooth lie in anie thing God lieth not when he threatneth things which come not to passe when he threatneth or promiseth those things which doo not afterward come to passe For as touching Ezechias death was vndoubtedlie to haue taken hold of him by reason of naturall causes commonlie called the second causes wherefore the sentence being pronounced according to those causes he might not be accused of a lie Also the Niniuits if God had doone by them as their sinnes deserued there had béene no other way with them but destruction And God commanded Ionas to preach vnto them according to their deserts Furthermore a lie which in talke hath a supposition or condition ioined therewith cannot be blamed in such sort as it may be in arguments which he absolute and without exception séeing the euent dependeth of the performing or violating of the condition The xiij Chapter Of the creation of all things wherein is intreated of angels of men of the essence of the soule of the image of God and of diuerse other things I Would thinke that vnder the name of heauen and earth In Gen. 1 1. What is signified vnder the name of heauen and earth Moses shewed that the foundation or ground of all things aswell of the heauens as of the elements was made and that this matter is signified by the names of things alreadie finished For séeing it cannot be knowen otherwise but by the forme and perfection it is méet that that also should be named and specified Wherefore this whole heape is signified by the name of heauen and earth wherein also come the other thrée elements fire aire water He shewed vs of the vttermost things by which he will also haue vs to knowe the things that are betwéene both But how far these things at the first were out of square and order it is shewed when of the earth it is said It was without form Gen. 1 2. wast Wherfore this rude heape was brought foorth being as yet stuffe or matter void of order the which belonged aswell to the vpper things as to the lower And so perhaps as the more noble had the vppermost place so to the lesse noble was assigned the nethermost for this cause the name of creation is verie fit for the first and vnorderlie heape The difference betweene making and creating For those things séeme onlie to be made of nothing and other things are said to be made and fashioned And yet this difference is not obserued in all things for some things are called created which are said to be deriued from some former matter Two things doubtles men haue béene accustomed to attribute vnto creation both that it should be of a sudden and that it require no matter to be before hand The Philosophers error touching the beginning of the world 2 Thus the world was not rashlie made neither is it coeternall with the maker or creator Manie of the ancient philosophers assigned the workemanship of things vnto rashnes and chance séeing diuers of them in the stead of beginnings named discord and debate or else such little small bodies as smaller cannot be Aristotle attributed eternitie vnto that whereby he maketh God not to be the working cause of the world but onelie attributed vnto him the cause of the end or if he doo he taketh from him the power of working according to his will and thinketh that the world followeth him as a shadowe dooth the bodie or as the light dooth the sunne Which the Peripatetikes will séeme to doo for diuine honour sake least they should be driuen to ascribe anie lacke of power or alteration in God But these things hurt not vs at all for we affirme not that God is borne or apt to suffer anie thing but we attribute vnto him the chéefest power to doo And although God in his eternitie minded to make the world it followeth not therefore that when he did make it there was in him anie alteration of his purpose or will Againe let vs beware of the error of them in old time A curious imagined error which thought that there was an eternall and vncreat Chaos or confused heape extant before and that God did onelie picke out those things which were there mingled togither But we saie that the same heape also was made the first daie Some there be which demand that séeing God could haue brought foorth the world long before why he did it so late This is an arrogant and malepert question wherein mans curiositie cannot be satisfied but by beating downe the follie thereof For if I should grant thée that the world was made before at anie certeine instant of time that thou couldest imagine yet thou mightest still complaine that the same was but latelie made if thou refer thy cogitation to the eternitie of God so as we must herin deale after a godlie maner and not with this malepert and rash curiositie Of Angels and their creation 3 But verelie it séemes to be a maruell why the creation of Angels is so kept in silence as there is no mention thereof in all the old testament in the old testament I saie bicause in the new testament it is spoken of In the first chapter to the Colossians there is plaine mention of their creation Colos 1 16. There be some which bring two places of the old testament namelie Who maketh his Angels spirits Psal 104 4. And in an other place Psal 33 9. when he said And they be made Howbeit these places doo not firmelie persuade it The heauens are turned about by Angels It should be rather said that they are comprehended vnder the name of heauen séeing it is generallie receiued that the heauens are turned about by them The first reason is bicause if their creation had béene first described it might haue séemed that God vsed their labour in the bringing foorth of other things But to the intent wée should attribute vnto God the whole power of creation therefore did Moses kéepe
therfore demanded of the Lord what he might doo to obtaine eternall life But contrariwise Matthew so soone as he heard of his calling Matth. 9 9. imbraced the same with so great faith as leauing his monie and customership he straightwaie followed Christ And Zacheus otherwise a man gréedie of gaine Luke 19 6. when he had heard of the Lord that he would turne in vnto him he not onelie receiued him into his house with a glad hart but also offered immediatelie to distribute halfe his goods to the poore and to restore fourefold to those whom before he had defrauded Wherfore the whole difference consisteth in the power whereby the truth is taken hold of Manie mo things are reuealed vnto vs by the scriptures than we knowe by faith which must not so be vnderstood as though we affirme that we haue not more truth reuealed vnto vs by the scriptures both of the old testament and new than we doo naturallie knowe Onelie we haue made a comparison betwéene the selfe-same truth when it is naturallie knowne and when it is perceiued by faith Out of the preface vpon Genesis 12 And forasmuch as God may be knowen of vs thrée maner of waies the first is deferred vnto another life Which waie when Moses desired it was said vnto him No man shall see me and liue Of the second did Paule make mention vnto the Romans For the inuisible things of God Rom. 1 20. c. Last of all we perceiue him by faith whereof mention is oftentimes made But in the first to the Corinthians they are both compared togither 1. Cor. 1 21. and the one shewed to be but smallie profitable as it was shewed in the epistle to the Romans But in Genesis when as Moses expresseth vnto vs the workmanship of the world How God may bee knowne by the workmanship of the world he sheweth things whereby we may picke out the inuisible knowledge of God But this waie leaneth altogither vpon faith for except we beléeue the words of God we shall obteine nothing Wherefore it is written vnto the Hebrues Heb. 11 3. By faith we vnderstand that the worlds were made Wherefore in beholding the creatures of God let vs alwaies put to the strength of faith if we will not loose our labour and busie our selues to our owne hurt As for these inuisible things of God which we perceiue they are innumerable but they are all drawen to thrée principall points his power his wisdome and his goodnes The greatnes of the things brought foorth the making of them of nothing and the sudden making of them by the commandement of his onelie woord doo inferre his most mightie power But the workmanship the fourme the comelines and the singular disposition of them doo testifie the wisedome of the maker The profit which we gather of them declareth how great his goodnes is Of so great importance it is that we should comprehend this creation of the world by faith as euen the articles of our beléefe haue their beginning hervpon For this being taken awaie neither will the first sinne be extant the promises concerning Christ will fall and all the strength of religion will be ouerthrowne And séeing that all the articles of the faith are certeine rules and principles of our godlines among them all this is reckoned the first in order the which since we must learne by the reuealing of God as we must also doo all other not by the feigned deuises of satan or precepts of men we must first speake of all these things before we come to the creation it selfe 13 In the holie scriptures we haue a knowledge of God contemplatiue In the preface of the commentaries vpon Aristotles Ethicks and that which consisteth in action Among the philosophers actuall contemplation goeth formost but in the holie scriptures contemplatiue hath the first place insomuch as we must first beléeue Of contemplatiue and actuall knoledge and be iustified by faith afterward followe good works and that so much the more and more abundantly as we be renewed dailie by the holie Ghost So dooth Paule shew in his epistles for first he handleth doctrine afterward he descendeth to the instruction of maners and to the order of life So likewise the children of Israel were first gathered togither vnder the faith of one God the sauiour Afterward in the desert they receiued lawes which serued vnto actuall knowlege And in the table of the ten cōmandements the same order is obserued For first he saith I am the Lord thy God which belongeth to faith or speculatiue knowledge Afterward followe the precepts which belong vnto the works required by God Why theologicall cōtemplation goeth before actiue The cause of this difference is that mens contemplations are gotten by searching out and by the indeuor of meditation and therefore moderate affections are necessarie But those things which we beléeue are receiued by the inspiration of God so that we néed not those preparations And in mans reason it behooueth men first to do before they be iustified But the order of diuine sanctification is far otherwise appointed for first we beléeue afterward we are iustified then by the spirit and grace the powers of our mind are repaired and then followe iust and honest déeds Moreouer the end of philosophie is to obteine that blessednes or felicitie which may here by humane strength be obtained but the end of christian godlines is that in vs should be repaired that image wherevnto we were made in righteousnes and holines of truth that we may euerie daie growe vp in the knowledge of God vntill we be brought to sée him with open face as he is We can not in Aristotles Ethicks heare of the remission of sinnes nor of the feare and confidence of God nor of iustification by the faith of Christ and of such like things For these things are opened by the will of God which can not bée gathered by naturall knowledge through anie of the creatures How one selfe thing is taught one waie by diuinitie and an other waie in the Ethicks Neither doo I denie but that it happeneth oftentimes that the selfe-same things are commended in Aristotles Ethicks which are cōmanded in the holie scriptures but then are those things the selfe-same in matter and not so in forme properties and beginnings for the respect in those things is diuers the properties diuers and the beginnings are not all one Euen as the matter of raine-water and of anie fountaine is all one but the power propertie and originals are farre diuers for the one commeth by the heat of heauen and by the clouds and coldnes of the middle region of the aire but the other is brought foorth from the passages of the earth and from the sea and is so strained as it becommeth swéet or else it so happeneth by conuersion of the aire into water through the coldnes of the place where the fountaine ariseth Euen so those things which
attributed vnto dreames as touching the first sort alreadie declared are not of necessitie bicause they may be hindered and yet this prooueth not but that they may be signes For this also commeth to passe in the clouds which vndoubtedlie be tokens of raine when as neuertheles they be sometime scattered with the wind before it raine Also vrine hath tokens both of sicknes and health when as yet the effect may be hindred by more vehement causes And the same likewise happeneth in the pulses Yea euen the counsels which we haue purposed and determined of with great deliberation are oftentimes staied bicause of things that fall betwixt by the occasion whereof we cannot procéed anie further Therefore no maruell if the same thing come to passe in dreames séeing they be signes of things not fullie perfected but rather new begun and the weake and féeble motions of humors may easilie be staied by manie other causes 5 Democritus dooth on this wise expound those kind of dreams Democritus which represent things comming by chance and are far distant There is somewhat saith he euer flowing frō the things themselues and carried euen vnto the bodies of them that sléepe affecting them with the qualitie and similitude which they bring with them and he affirmeth that in twoo respects it is more easilie perceiued rather in sléepe than waking First A similitude bicause the aire is most easilie mooued in the night as we sée it falleth out in the water when it is striken with a stone a great manie circles are made with that stroke and driuen a great compasse about except there be some contrarie motion to let But the aire is quieter in the night than in the daie bicause it is not driuen into diuers parts by the confluence of creatures moouing themselues Another cause is for that euerie little stir noise is verie easilie perceiued by them that be asléepe And to conclude this author also dooth not refer the causes of dreames vnto God no more than Aristotle dooth Galen But Galen in his booke which he wrote of diuining by dreams teacheth thus much aboue others when as we sée in our dreames those things which we neither did nor thought of they are not to be referred either vnto arts or habits or custome of such things as came to passe while we were waking but vnto humors This rule séemeth to tend to this end that wée may vnderstand of what things dreames are to be counted signes And hée granteth that these things are better knowne by night than by daie bicause then the soule descendeth to the lowest and déepest things in a mans hart where it perceiueth the more easilie what is there And he tels of a certeine man A certeine mans dreame who being asléepe imagined that his leg became a stone which when manie thought that it pertained to his seruants the same leg of his within a few daies fell into a palsie Another thought with himselfe that hée was sunke vp to the throte in a cesterne full of blood out of which he could no maner of waie escape but that shewed that blood verie much abounded in him and that it was néedfull for him to haue it abated Hée maketh mention also of another which dreamed on his sicke daie that he sawe himselfe washed in a hothouse who shortlie after fell into an excéeding great sweate Moreouer saith he men when they are asléepe imagine themselues sometimes to haue so great a burthen vpon them that they are not able to beare the weight of it and at another time that they are so light and so nimble as if they were running and after a maner flieng All these things saith he are tokens either of the excesse or the want of humors Hippocrates Hippocrates as concerning these things writeth in a maner the selfe-same namelie that the mind in the daie time dooth distribute his powers into the senses and other faculties but that in the night it draweth them into the inward parts and for that cause dooth knowe them the better Yet he saith that there be certeine diuine dreams whereby are foretokened calamities vnto cities peoples and some certeine great men For the expounding of which dreames some there be that professe certeine arts to the which yet he himselfe séemeth to attribute verie little And when by dreames it is noted that the humors offend or annoie vs then saith he they are to be holpen by good diet by exercise and medicines And whether they be good dreames or bad he would haue vs to vse praier When helth is signified we must then praie saith he to the sunne to Iupiter of heauen to Iupiter possessor to Minerua to rich Mercurie and to Apollo But if they be vnluckie dreames praie then saith he to the gods which turne euils from men as to the gods of the earth and other petie gods Wherefore Hippocrates either was or else would séeme to be superstitious but trulie for my part as touching true religion I mislike not naie rather I verie well allow of it that if wée be troubled at anie time with fearefull dreames we should repaire to God praieng him to returne from vs those euils if there be anie that doo hang ouer our heads What is the outward cause of dreames 6 There is another kind of dreames which proceedeth from an outward cause namelie of the power or as they commonlie speake of the influence of the heauen which changeth the aire and this once touching our bodies maketh them of a new kind of qualitie whervpon arise diuers appéerances and forms of things to men asléepe Wherfore there be manie effects that come from heauen wherof it bringeth foorth some in the phantasie and in the facultie or power of imagination The power of the imagination and other some in the things themselues and this may be easilie shewed by an example The raine vndoubtedlie hangeth in the aire or clouds and before the raine fall there is such a change in a crowes imagination that by and by he beginneth to call Wherfore the effects that be in the phantasie of dreamers in the thing doo vndoubtedlie come both of one cause yet haue they great diuersitie by reason of the subiects in which they fall out And no doubt but there is a little kind of liknes betwéene these effects but it is verie hard to sée the maner of this proportion or analogie And if it be agréed vpon that the cause of such effects or affections is in the stars who yet can refer these signes to their owne proper cause that is vnto some stars rather than to others Surelie I thinke verie few I will not saie none are able to doo it And yet besides if they should be referred to their proper starres what can we iudge will come to passe by them especiallie as touching things contingent séeing iudiciall astrologie was euer accounted a most vncerteine art And to conclude the forms and similitudes Why diuination by
men at the length become valiant and temperate so as without anie gréefe yea rather with singular pleasure they exercise themselues in the duties belonging to these vertues Two ends of them that be hearers of good doctrine And to conclude we must vnderstand that there are two kinds of ends of this art one that we vnderstand what is spoken the other and that the chéefe principall that what we haue learned we should performe of which latter end since Aristotle sawe that as well yoong as incontinent doo faile therefore he pronounced this kind of hearers to be vnfit if they be compared with others which haue now subdued their affections motions of their mind to the rule of reason For these may not onlie vnderstand what is said but are able also to iudge rightlie thereof which as it is manifest this philosopher did most respect since all his whole reason leaneth to this principle that yoong and incontinent men cannot rightlie iudge of these things Also let vs distinguish mankind The kinds of men distinguished that som be sound and some be altogither incurable and that there be others in a meane betwéene both and they that be sound we thinke haue no néed of these doctrines since they be faultlesse and liue perfectlie The incurable and intemperate and they which haue vtterlie giuen themselues to filthie pleasures shall not be holpen vntill they haue laid awaie this mind but they which be in the meane shall take great fruit hereby Trulie this distinction is well to be liked so neuertheles as there be added therevnto as touching them whose recouerie is despaired of that they must neuer be so despaired of but that good counsels and holsome admonishments may at one time or other doo them good For as the power of physicke is not onlie to maintaine the health which is gotten and to finish that which is begun but also to heale those that be destitute thereof so admonitions and good doctrines which be the medicines of the mind haue power not onelie to retaine good habits and to make perfect the vertues begun but also to reduce to the health of mind those men which haue quite lost the same especiallie if we passe not the bounds of ciuill iustice and outward conuersation 4 Now remaineth Why Aristotle omitted them which by nature are vnapt to receiue vertues that we passe not ouer a verie necessarie disputation the same is how it commeth to passe that since Aristotle said that Yoong and incontinent men are no fit hearers he did not also reckon them which be indued with such a constitution temperature or nature as they cannot be made better and are altogither vnapt to receiue vertues And that such there be Galens opinion of that matter Galen sheweth in sundrie places and especiallie in the booke wherein he treateth of the mutuall consequence of the maners of the mind and temperature of the bodie where he saith that They which thinke that all men haue a mind apt vnto vertues or on the other side that there be none at all doo measure mankind but by the one halfe neither haue they knowne and perceiued the whole nature of man For all men saith he are not by the complexion of their bodie borne enimies of vertue neither doo all men loue and desire the same by the power of their owne nature An obiection that vertues and vices are not in men by nature Afterward he remooueth this sentence or definition of his by a certeine obiection for that we sée some so well allowed and praised for their excellent vertues and contrariwise others to be condemned and dispraised bicause they be corrupted and infected with vices Neither is it méet that for those things which be naturallie within vs we should either be commended or dispraised Yea and the one sort where a Common weale is well gouerned are punnished and the other sort haue rewards giuen them Herevnto he saith that This is the naturall iudgement of men That men in punishing and rewarding respect not whether things be doone by nature or by industrie to allow succour helpe praise those things which be good profitable and comelie howsoeuer they come whether of nature or of indurstie and those things which be euill damnable full of shame they dispraise kéepe vnder and take away so much as in them lieth not regadring the cause from which they procéed which he indeuoureth to declare plainelie by examples We kill spiders aspes and adders neither doo we first deliberate with our selues whether venim be naturallie planted in those things or whether they got the same by their owne indeuour and will Also we doo loue worship God not weighing with our selues whether he hath attained to his owne goodnes by indeuour and his owne proper will or whether the same haue béene graffed in him by nature from euerlasting We might also adde that beautifull bodies are had in admiration of all men are celebrated with singular praise although that beautie hath come by nature and gifts fréelie giuen as the Diuines speake ought to be praised And bréefelie this he séemeth to affirme that Euill men are condemned and dispraised and contrariwise good men are allowed and praised although it be not known for a certeintie whether that naughtinesse or goodnesse came to them by industrie or by nature or by anie other meanes And in this respect he blamed the Stoiks Against the Stoiks which saie that men by nature are made vnto vertue but are corrupted by other mens examples for that they iudged that all men were by nature made apt vnto vertue wherevnto though by nature and strength they be inclined yet by the ill example of other men by peruerse opinions and by the talke and conuersation of corrupt men they are reuoked from the same But if it should be granted them what I beséech you could they alledge concerning those first men such as they cannot denie but that now then yea oftentimes there haue béene in the world When as at sundrie and certeine times appointed they déeme that the world hath perished either by the ouerflowing of waters or by the consuming of all things with fier and that againe it hath béene renewed Whom I saie will they affirme to haue corrupted either with ill examples or ill doctrine or with pleasures found out or with corrupt inuentions these first men brought foorth againe into light Certeinlie this reason is of force against the Stoiks But against the Peripatetiks and others which thinke that the world neuer began they vse in verie déed another kind of argument that is Put the case there be certeine brethren which are begotten of the selfe-same parents which vse the selfe-same meats liue all vnder one schoole-maister and haue no conuersation with strangers who I beséech you shall be assigned the authour that some be of corrupt and lewd maners and that others doo continuallie shew an honest chast disposition And
all things but as it were a potter Chrysostome in the 19. Homilie vpon the epistle to the Ephesians saith that If a ship though it be sound and well rigged can not brooke the seas without a good maister or gouernour how much lesse can the whole workemanship of the world stand without the care and gouernment of God For if a maister-workeman will not begin to build before he haue deuised in his mind all the parts fashions and fourmes of the building shall we thinke that God hath rashlie without counsell or reason made all things vniuersallie Vndoubtedlie the heauenlie spheares the stars the firmament the aire the water the heate the cold so manie causes and changes of things contrarie and repugnant one to another would fall to ruine vnlesse they were susteined by some gouernour Without care and prouidence our bodie might not be defended from the rigor of the heauen We call those prouident men which being of such excellent iudgement and disposition doo kéepe all the parts of their bodie in their proper office and dutie But God hath the same place in the world that the mind hath in man Besides this the holie scriptures ascribe vnto God the destructions of kingdoms and prophesies and miracles which things doo far passe the compas of our nature And last of all they attribute vnto him the generall iudgement wherein God will one daie render to euerie man according to their works Wherefore we being induced by these and manie more reasons doo conclude that there is a prouidence For we passe not for the Epicureans whose maner of spéech is this Why the Epicures denie prouidence Euen so the powers on high With labours toile are prest The care whereof which on them lie Bereaue them of their rest And this also God walketh vpon the poles of heauen and considereth not the affaires of men These monstruous opinions haue they bred partlie for that they being of grosse wit could not perceiue higher things and partlie being of a shamefull and abhominable life would deuise for themselues this consolation least they should be perpetuallie tormented with the feare of punishments For He that liueth wickedlie Iohn 3 20. abhorreth the light And children when they haue done a fault would not haue either their father to be at home or the maister in the schoole And as touching the first part these things vndoubtedlie should be sufficient for Christians who are perswaded onelie by the word of God without other reason that there is a prouidence 7 But what prouidence is we shall easilie vnderstand by the definition of the same What prouidence is Prouidence is the power of God whereby he directeth all things and bringeth them to their appointed ends In this definition the generall word is power Assuredlie God is most absolute yet for our capacitie sake we saie that there is in him two maner of powers to wit the power of vnderstanding the power of willing For God vnderstandeth and séeth all things and not this onelie but he also willeth all things Héere I will make no néedles disputation whether the will of God be before the vnderstanding or vnderstanding before the will If anie man would knowe these things I send them vnto Scotus and Thomas This power and facultie which I speake of belongeth vnto the qualitie for it is a naturall power The difference is that God by this power directeth all things whatsoeuer either be or hereafter shall be But yet this is not enough for he also conducteth them to their ends But to what ends Euen vnto agréeable ends And those be agréeable which his purpose hath appointed The power is the cause and that things be brought to their proper ends is the effect Here haue we comprehended all the kinds of causes which can be assigned in this matter All the causes of prouidence No efficient cause of the prouidence of God This I speake bicause there can be giuen no efficient cause of the prouidence of God The formall cause is the power of God The matter whereabout are all manner of things whatsoeuer for we in no wise except anie thing But the finall cause is that all things may atteine to their owne ends and may redound to the glorie of God By this definition we sée Prouidence is no bare but an efficient knowledge Acts. 17 28. Rom. 11 36. Prou. 16 1. that the prouidence of God is not onlie a bare knowledge but it is some bringing to effect For as Paule saith In him we liue we mooue and haue our being And againe Of him and in him and by him are all things And as Salomon saith Man may prepare his heart but God ordereth the speach For we are not able to mooue no not the toong being the lightest part of the bodie without the prouidence of God Matt. 10 19. And Christ saith that A sparowe dooth not light vpon the ground without the will of our heauenlie Father And All the heares of our head are numbered Some dreame that God indéed made all these things but after he had made them A similitude cast them off So forsooth carpenters when they haue doone sufficientlie in building of a house they afterward leaue the same but if God should doo so this world would soone come to ruine For a house vnles it be oftentimes repaired and vnderpropped falleth to ruine and decaie If the soule be seuered from the bodie what remaineth but that the bodie will become putrified and rotten Neither are they to be heard which saie that God indéed ruleth all things but that this is nothing else but to minister vnto all things the common influence which euerie thing draweth vnto it selfe This is euen to make God not in verie déed but in name to be the ruler and gouernour of the world Whether God onlie by common influence doo rule all things For if so be that euerie thing according to the nature thereof doo bend and applie vnto it selfe that common influence of God then God followeth the nature of things created where as rather contrariwise all things created ought to followe and séeke after God But they saie that euen as he which throweth a stone A similitude or shooteth an arrowe hath doone enough to haue first forced the same although he himselfe afterward followe not after them when they be out of his hand so it was sufficient for God in that he indued all things with a certeine power although he do not perpetuallie gouerne them But these things be not alike for a stone and an arrowe doo fall immediatelie after that they be shot bicause that force which is in things created cannot be of long continuance Wherefore vnlesse that God should prosecute by his euerlasting care and prouidence the thing which he hath forced the nature of euerie thing could not abide When the Peripatetiks perceiued that all these inferiour things were continuallie troubled they iudged that the prouidence of God was aboue the moone
this I saie belongeth vnto punishment But sinne taketh place in the mind onelie punishments doubtlesse may both be in the mind and in the bodie There is added a third member which is so a punishment as it is also sinne as originall sinne is so is the naturall corruption left after baptisme These things thus concluded I put foorth a certeine sentence or proposition to be confirmed the which hath two parts The first is A proposition whereby the question is defined that God is not by him selfe and properlie the cause of sinne The second is that there is nothing doone in the world no not sinnes them selues without his will determination and prouidence That God by him selfe is not the cause of sinne 7 To prooue the question it behoueth to confirme it as touching both parts Let vs speake of the first that God by him selfe is not the cause of sinne Vnto this purpose serue the arguments in the first place But I adde that when good or euill are opposed as Habit and Priuation the habit by it selfe dooth neuer bring in priuation Light it selfe dooth alwaies illuminate it neuer bringeth in darknes Wherefore if we put good and euill as contrarie priuatiues euill shall not be of good God is the chéefest good let vs then put him to be the habit wherefore by him selfe and properlie he maketh no priuation But I said that he is not the cause of sinne by him selfe and properlie These words I haue added bicause if we will speake lesse properlie he may be said after some sort to be either the beginning or the cause of sinne not indéed the proper cause God is of sinne the remouing or prohibiting cause Two similitudes but that cause which of the philosophers is called remouing or prohibiting I will make the matter plaine by similitudes The sunne is altogither bright the proper effect therof is to make light yet after some maner it may be said to make darknes not in that it shineth but in that it is mooued and departeth from one place to an other For bodies be round therfore when it departeth it can not alwaies by reason of the motion giue light to that place from whence it went but shadowes doo come betwéene so then after some sort it is said to make darknesse by the departure thereof bicause bodies are so ordered and it selfe is mooued So likewise it happeneth as touching some ruinous house it is held vp by a prop some man approching remooueth the prop the stones and buildings through their owne weight fall downe from the top which things haue in them selues the causes of their comming downe yet notwithstanding he which taketh awaie the prop is said after a sort to cause the fall for he remooueth the staie which letted the ruine In like maner God in his owne nature is good yet in respect that he is iust he will punish sinners he taketh awaie his grace and after some sort may be called the cause of those things which afterward be naughtilie doone yet not the true cause for that proper cause is inward that is to wit the naughtie will of them But whie he sometimes taketh awaie his spirit from men a reason may be yéelded when they sinne he remooueth his grace from them not onlie to the intent he may punish but that the excellencie of his fauour may be knowen and to let vs vnderstand that that which God giueth he giueth it fréelie and that it is not of nature For if we should alwaies haue his grace and after one and the selfe same maner as if God would not at sometime stacke his strength we would attribute vnto our owne power the good things that we doo But thus it is to the intent we may acknowledge our owne infirmitie and praie the more feruentlie for preseruation and increase of the heauenlie gift But when the grace and fauour of God is iustlie taken awaie from vs sinne dooth naturallie followe neither is there néede of anie other efficient cause I meane there néedeth no other cause to come from our infected and corrupt affections This appeareth by the similitudes alleaged if the sunne be remooued darknesse dooth followe not through anie efficient cause but by it selfe If the habit be remooued Similitudes priuation is straightwaie present of his owne accord If one so hurteth his eie as the sight be lost blindnes dooth immediatlie followe neither is it néedfull to séeke anie other thing that worketh Which séeing the Manicheis perceiued not they erred most shamefullie they would not attribute the cause of euill vnto the good God but they sawe that there were manie euils and they iudged that euils could not be without a true cause wherevpon they affirmed that there be two beginnings And bicause they sawe a great power to be both in euill in good they brought in two gods one good and an other bad Of these we read much in Augustine But that euill which is sinne commeth if the spirit of God be taken awaie for then man is left vnto him selfe But whether is he so left as God dooth no more anie thing concerning him or his sinne That this may be vnderstood Three sorts of Gods working about his creatures I will declare thrée sorts of working which we may perceiue in God towards his creatures not that other works of his can not be shewed but bicause these thrée doo most of all serue vnto the matter we haue in hand 8 Some action of God is generall The first action of God is generall séeing by his prouidence he cherisheth susteineth and gouerneth all things in their conditions qualities and inclinations as they stood at the beginning when they were created And thus is the order of nature preserued which thing is excellent to be knowne We sée that heauen reteineth his owne nature surelie it hath manie things to be maruelled at We sée that the nature of fire is vehement of aire is pleasant of water is flowing we sée also the mettals the trées the works of artificers which things assuredlie be woonderfull All these are gouerned by God yea and if he should withdrawe his hand from them they would fall to nothing Profitable doubtles is the consideration of his diuine gouernement Oftentimes doth God exhort vs in the psalmes to magnifie him for these works Rom. 1 20. In the first to the Romanes it is written that The Gentiles by these creatures did knowe God and a kind of his euerlasting force working gouernement and godhead in such sort as Aratus said We are in verie déed the linage of God We haue an excellent example of this worke in our selues The soule which is not séene is indiuisible yet it mooueth and quickeneth the whole bodie Euen so all creatures doo reteine their properties and inclinations The second kind of Gods working 9 Secondlie another worke of God is whereby the creatures are not onlie preserued and ruled but doo also obeie the counsels of God For God
in verie déed he semeth to terrifie christian men from the studie of philosophie howbeit if ye marke well the apostles meaning I am sure that ye will be nothing troubled True philosophie since it is gathered by the knowledge of the creatures and by those propositions concludeth manie things as touching the iustice and goodnes which God planted naturallie in the minds of men it cannot be iustlie accused For it is the worke of God and without his speciall gift it cannot be had of men But Paule reprooueth that philosophie which is corrupted through the inuentions of men ambitious contentions of philosophers For if they had kept themselues within certeine bounds and had onelie pronounced those things which the knowledge of the creatures did by most assured reasons declare as touching God and nature they should not haue erred from the truth Wherfore the apostle saith Through philosophie and vaine deceit In what respect phâ—losophie is condemned by Paule and he addeth Which are according to the traditions of men and rudiments of the world Not the creatures but men did teach that the world should be euerlasting It was not nature that shewed but it was vaine cogitations that deuised the world to be compact of the concourse of such small and indiuisible moates as we sée in the sunne-shine and to consist as it were of no ground And who doubteth but that the fate and impassibilitie of the Stoiks the perpetuall doubting of the Academiks and the idle and vnoccupied deitie of the Epicures was this vaine deceit Men dreamt of a communitie of things of the intermingling of wiues one with another in Common-weales of pleasure to be the chéefest good and of gods to be worshipped after the maner of common people but they tooke no knowledge by a naturall light and by vsuall propositions knowen of themselues by assured reasons These in verie déed are the venoms and corruptions wherewith the diuell by naughtie men corrupteth philosophie being the gift of God and this being so defiled and corrupted Paule would haue to be eschewed 9 Howbeit A comparison of the former things with the holie scriptures now must we sée how these things that we haue hitherto spoken will agrée with the holie scriptures for there also haue we philosophie actiue and contemplatiue Those things that we beléeue and are comprehended in the articles of the faith doo belong vnto contemplation for those we perceiue by knowledge but we doo them not and albeit they are not comprehended in science yet neuerthelesse are they vnderstood Vnto the actiue kind are those referred which are conteined in lawes counsels and exhortations Thus far doo these agrée yet doo they differ bicause in philosophie that which is actiue goeth before that which is speculatiue For as it hath béene said we cannot with humane strength behold either God or nature till first our affections be at quiet Why in diuinitie philosophie speculatiue goeth before actiue But in the holie scriptures speculation taketh the first place insomuch as we must first beléeue and be iustified by faith and then afterward doo followe good works and that the more and more abundantlie as we be dailie renewed by the holie Ghost Thus dooth Paule set it foorth in his epistles for he first handleth doctrine and afterward he descendeth to the instruction of maners and framing of the life And so were the children of Israel first gathered in Aegypt vnder the faith of one God the sauiour and afterward in the desert they receiued lawes which serue vnto the knowledge which consisteth in practise Againe in the table of the ten commandements is obserued the same order for it saith first I am the Lord thy God the which thing belongeth to faith or speculatiue knowledge afterward doo followe precepts which belong to the works required of God The cause of this difference is that humane contemplations are gotten by searching out and by the indeuour of meditation therefore moderate affects are necessarie But those things that we beléeue are receiued by the inspiration of God so that there is no néed of those preparations And in mans reason it behooueth men first to doo iust things before they be iustified But the order of diuine sanctification is farre otherwise appointed for we first beléeue and afterward be iustified then by the spirit and by grace are our minds renewed finallie there followe iust and honest déeds 10 Moreouer the end of philosophie is that we should obteine that blessednesse or felicitie which may be gotten here by mans strength but the end of christian godlinesse is to haue repaired in vs that image wherevnto we are made in righteousnesse and holinesse of truth that we may dailie growe vp in the knowledge of God vntill we be brought to sée him euen as he is with face discouered Besides this in the morall philosophie of Aristotle we shall not heare of the remission of sinnes nor of the feare and confidence towards GOD nor of iustification by faith nor of Christ or such other like things for these things are opened by the will of God being such as cannot be gathered by a naturall knowledge from the creatures And we denie not How one verie thing is otherwise taught in diuinitie than it is in philosophie but it oftentimes happeneth that the selfe-same things are commended in Aristotles Ethiks which are commanded by God in the holie scriptures but then are those all one in matter but not informe properties and principles for in them there is a sundrie respect a difference of properties and their originals not all one A similitude Euen in like maner as the raine water and anie fountaine water is all one in matter but the strength propertie originals be of great diuersitie for the one commeth by a heat of the heauens and by the clouds and coldnesse of the middle region of the aire but this other is either gathered from the sea out of the hollowe places of the earth and is so strained as it becommeth swéet or else it commeth by conuerting the aire into water through the coldnesse of the place where the spring ariseth Euen so those things that a christian doth he doth them by the drift of the holie Ghost for they which be driuen by the holie Ghost be the children of God but they which deale by philosophie according to morall rules doo worke by the guide of humane reason Such be stirred to doo these things bicause they so iudge it to be honest and right but the christians bicause God hath so decréed it Those thinke that if they so doo they profit and make perfect themselues but these bicause they may obeie the maiestie of God Those doo beléeue their owne selues but these doo beléeue God and the words of the lawe which he hath made Those be caried with a loue of themselues but these with the loue of God alone Doubtles of this manifold diuersitie it commeth to passe that one and the same
confusion therewith They which sinne are made ashamed in themselues and with others wherefore after sinne great gréefes doo followe which afflict the spirit disquiet and after a sort kill the mind Furthermore there followeth a confusion so as they be greatlie ashamed if they remember their sinnes or else if their sinnes be recited by others They which be impatient of those euils would faine be deliuered they attempt manie waies but haue no successe Hercules when he had killed his sonne and Iphitus his host The expiations and purgings of the gentils was so disquieted in mind as he was desirous to be purged by sacrifice he came to Athens and was admitted to the sacrifice of Ceres Orestes when he had killed his mother came into the countrie of Taurica and would be purged by sacrifice Of Nero it is reported that after he had killed his mother and had committed other detestable crimes at the length could not sléepe and béeing haunted with furies he deuised to be purged by sacrifice By diuers and sundrie waies were they purged namelie by fire by water and sometimes they vsed egges brimstone witchcrafts and sundrie perfumes Thrise saith Ouid did he purge the old man by fire thrise by water and thrise by brimstone Thrise saith Virgil did he wash his fellowes all about with cleane water Vnlesse saith Iuuenal he will purge himselfe with a hundred egges But forsomuch as they were mans inuentions they profited nothing There is one purgation which is set foorth to vs by faith which hath repentance ioind with it by this men are purged and be at rest Tertullian saith that God consecrated this repentance in himselfe Gen. 8 21 for when he had punished men by the floud he repealed his sentence and said that he would destroie the earth no more for mans sake and it repenteth God of the euill Iere. 18 8. which he would haue brought vpon men so that they repent them of their wickednesse Not that repentance in verie déed hath place in God whereof we haue spoken else-where The originall of repentance Gene. 3 9 and. 15. Touching the originall of repentance it is said that the same began in paradise GOD called our first parents to repentance and added therewith a promise to wit that their séed should tread downe the serpents head This preaching of repentance hath béene continued by all the prophets at length it came to Iohn Baptist Matt. 3 2. who was the dawning and morning starre of our sauiour Christ and his apostles preached repentance Repent ye Matt. 4 17. Luke 24 47. What we vnderstand by the kingdome of heauen for the kingdome of heauen draweth nigh By the kingdome of heauen we vnderstand the newnesse of life heauenlie actions and regeneration So dooth God gouerne vs by his spirit and word which they that doo apprehend by faith doo repent there remaineth that the old life be put awaie So as the fountaine of repentance The fountaine of repentance is to haue the goodnesse of God and the kingdome of heauen in Christ to be manifested and to apprehend it by faith Remission of sinnes goeth before repentance And woorthilie dooth repentance followe for Christ calleth vs vnto a new life not to nourish sinne in vs which it behooueth vs to mortifie The thing is not so to be vnderstood that men maie first repent and by the merit of repentance haue remission of sinnes First it is apprehended by faith afterward followeth a sound repentance The outward signe of taking vpon vs a new life was baptisme therefore Marke calleth the baptisme of Iohn Mark 1 4. The baptisme of repentance vnto the remission of sinnes This is the voice of all those that preach the gospell they be voices crieng in the desert for how manie soeuer be without Christ are the desert The voice is that the kingdome of heauen is offered vnto them which beléeue Now it behooueth that they repent them that they renounce their old life for repentance is the crosse and gibbet of the old man Touching the names of Repentance 2 Before we doo procéed anie further let vs speake of the nature of the word The Hebrues haue this word Schub which signifieth To turne to be conuerted from whence they haue deriued the two nownes Schuua Shiua that is to saie Inuersion and Conuersion when our minds being changed and sinne sequestred a new course of life is taken in hand The Graecians called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hereof commeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a certeine changing of the mind so that in stéed of an euill mind we establish a good The Latines vse the verbe Poenitere deriued of Poena that is Paine because the things which we haue committed are gréeuous and bitter vnto vs. Certeine descriptions of repentance After these Etymologies of words let vs sée what descriptions there be of repentance They are written in the fourth booke of the Master of the sentences the 14. distinct The first is ascribed vnto Ambrose Repentance is to lament for the euils that are past and not to commit againe things to be sorrowed for The verie same in a maner saith Gregorie the bishop of Rome Repentance is to bewaile the sins that are past and not to commit anie more to be bewailed By others it is said that to leaue off sinning is true repentance And others haue somwhat otherwise described the same namelie that repentance is a vertue wherby we bewaile and detest the euils committed with a purpose of amendement a will to cōmit no more anie such euils as are to be lamented They which fall euerie day 2. Pet. 2 22. are compared by saint Peter vnto a dog returning to his vomit vnto a sow which returneth againe to hir mire Repentance by Augustine is sometimes called reuenge béeing a punishment vpon him selfe bicause he is sorie that he hath sinned These descriptions be some without forme Neither will I passe it ouer Repentance called the second table that repentance is called the second table which we read in Ierom vpon the 16. chapter of Ezechiel and in the decrées De poenitentia distinct 1. in the chapter Secunda tabula And in this sort they vnderstood it At the beginning they saie that men sailed prosperouslie that shipwracke was made by the sinne of Adam that regeneration by baptisme is the first boord vpon which we swim out and that if men fall againe after baptisme repentance is the second boord Others doo otherwise interpret it howbeit I doo not much weigh the same 3 Now that we haue placed things on this wise let vs come to a plaine definition A definitiō of repentance which conteineth all the causes We may therefore in my iudgement saie that Repentance is a change of life which a man with great sorrowe for his sinnes committed willinglie taketh vpon him through faith vnto the honor of God and to the
answereth that the godlie sort liued as innocent perfect and vnblameable bicause infirmities and sinnes committed shall not be imputed vnto them by reason of their faith in Christ according to the saieng of Dauid Blessed be they Psal 32 1. whose iniquities are remitted and whose sinnes be couered blessed is the man vnto whom the Lord hath imputed no sinne Of Purgatorie the Papisticall fire 11 But now let vs speake of purgatorie In 1. Cor. 3 verse 15. Looke in Sam. 3 verse 35. What maner of place is feigned for purgatorie It is fained to be a middle place after this life betwéene euerlasting felicitie and the punishments of damned soules in such wise as they which be there are after a sort partakers of both For in so much as they be adorned with grace and be confirmed with hope that felicitie shall be giuen vnto them and doo suffer punishments with a patient mind they be counted among the number of the saints and blessed soules But in that they be tormented doo suffer gréeuous and manifold kinds of punishments in that respect they drawe néere vnto the lot condition of them that are in hell fire And they adde that purgatorie punishments haue not onlie an end and a set terme but that it maie be eased by the good works and praiers of them that be aliue The aduersaries indeuor by manie reasons to persuade that we must grant that there is such a place The first reason for purgatorie 2. Mac. 12 6 as we haue here defined Out of the old testament they cite the historie of the Machabeis where we read that Iudas a man well commended did beléeue that the praier for the dead to be deliuered from their sinnes is both comfortable and godlie The 2. reason Zach. 9 11. Further they flie vnto Zacharie the prophet where we read in the 9. chapter Thou hast loosed thy prisoners out of the pit wherein was no water The 3. reason verse 14. The 4. reason Psal 66 12. Also the 4. chapter of Ecclesiastes Otherwhile a man commeth foorth of prison and chaines and is made a king They bring also the psalme where Dauid saith We passed through fire and water and thou broughtest vs foorth into a place of refreshing The 5. reason Matt. 12 31 Moreouer they repaire vnto the new testament and saie that in the Gospell there is such a kind of sinne as shall neither be forgiuen in this world nor yet in the other world which then might not be spoken saie they vnlesse there should remaine purgings of sinnes in another life The 6. reason Matt. 5 25. And they obiect that saieng in Matthew Least the Gaoâ—er cast thee into prison verelie I saie vnto thee thou shalt not depart thence vntill thou haue paid the vttermost farthing Also they bring that which is spoken by Paule in the first to the Corinthians The 7. reason 1. Cor. 3 15. the 3. chapter But he himselfe shall be saued as it were by fire c. To this purpose also they would haue that to tend The 8. reason Luk. 16 19. The 9. reason Apoc. 21 27 which is said of beggerlie Lazarus full of botches and of the riotous rich man They pretend also that place in the Apocalypse where it is read that No vnpure thing shall be admitted into the holie citie And they thinke that to make on their side The 10. reason Phil. 2 10. which Paule writeth to wit that All knees shall bow vnto God both of things that be in heauen and things that be in earth and things that be vnder the earth Againe they cite the Apocalypse in the 5. chapter that verse 13. All creatures which are in heauen and on the earth and vnder the earth and in the sea c. shall speake praises vnto God These and such other places of scripture they thinke doo make for them Sundrie opinions touching purgatorie 12 But we must marke this that the assertion of them which would néeds haue a purgatorie is not one and the same For some will force it to be as a sure doctrine an article of faith Others doo not so resolutelie and constantlie affirme the same but onlie they suppose and haue opinion that such a thing there is First therefore it séemeth good to shew that it belongeth not to the articles of our faith Whether purgatorie be an article of our faith that it is not a thing of necessitie to be beléeued Secondlie we will make it plaine whether either the opinion or suspicion wherby purgatorie is beléeued be reasonable or iust As touching them which do affirme that the doctrine of purgatorie is of necessitie we must néeds absolutelie hold that the doctrine and articles of our faith ought to be certeine stedfast and are most plainlie to be prooued by testimonies of the scriptures The articles of the faith ought to be certeine and prooued by the scriptures For we are not of their opinion which will make the Fathers or men to be authors of beléeuing of things for we should iudge of the holie Ghost contumeliouslie if we should thinke that such scriptures were deliuered to vs in the which is not wholie and perfectlie conteined whatsoeuer belongeth to our saluation 2. Tim. 3 16. The epistle vnto Timothie doth sufficientlie reprooue these men when it saith that The scripture inspired by God is profitable to teach and confute also to correct instruct that the man of God may be perfect and sincere instructed to euerie good worke Wherefore if thou bring anie worke that thou affirmest to be good or anie thing necessarie to be beléeued which cannot be confirmed by the holy scriptures I trulie would rather not saie that the things which thou hast brought are not good or profitable than to pronounce otherwise of the scripture than the apostle hath iudged thereof For we must not admit that which they commonlie vaunt of namelie that the apostles taught not all things nor that the primitiue church commanded all whatsoeuer should be for our comfort as though it were necessarie daie by daie afterward that more things should be made manifest This perhaps we might grant as touching politike gouernement The primitiue church had all things necessarie to be beleued Tertullian of things not necessarie to saluation but as touching doctrine and the articles of faith necessarilie to be beléeued the ancient Fathers had all no lesse than we haue Tertullian in his booke De praescriptionibus saith Happie is the church vnto the which the apostles haue powred out their whole doctrine with their bloud Christ said also All those things which I haue heard of my fatherâ— Iohn 15 15. I haue made them knowen vnto you These men saie that in déed all things were insinuated by the apostles but that the apostles did not make all things knowen vnto vs. Here saie we that they although they wrote not all things yet
purgatorie doo not well if they obtrude the same vnto the church to be beléeued in which church as things to be beléeued nothing must be taught but that which certeinlie and vndoubtedlie may be proued by the scriptures 23 Now there remaineth A confutation of the arguments which make for purgatorie To the first 1. Mac. 12. 6. that we confute the arguments which were set foorth at the begining First was obiected a place out of the 2. booke of Machabeis which can be no hindrance to the truth bicause those bookes be none of the canonicall scriptures But these men saie that although the Hebrues haue not those bookes yet that our church hath receiued them How the bookes of the Machabeis haue beene receiued of the church Cyprian I grant that the church hath receiued them but as Cyprian testified in the exposition of the Créed to the intent they should be read in the church but not that our faith should thereby be confirmed In the which place the blessed martyr reckoned vp the canonicall bookes and added These be the bookes out of which the fathers would haue the grounds of our faith to consist And Ierom Ierom. when he citeth the bookes of the Machabeis is woont to adde If anie man will beléeue them or receiue them Augustine also Augustine against the second epistle of Gaudentius saith that They were receiued but not equallie with the bookes of the lawe the prophets and the psalmes yet he saith that they be not vnprofitable so they be read and heard discréetelie Discréetelie I saie They must be read discreetlie that we maie iudge wherein they either consent or disagrée with the scriptures Also Melito bishop of Sardine Melito Sardinensis in the recitall which he maketh of the canonicall bookes vnto Eusebius reckoneth not these bookes among them Epiphanius also ouerskipped them Epiphanius Razias 2. Ma. 14. 41. Vnto these things adde that in those bookes is the historie of one Razias who killed himselfe bicause he would not come into the hands of his enimies there both the man his acts are cōmended whose example in the time of Augustine the Circumcellions did abuse when as they did violentlie murther themselues Augustine wherefore Augustine against the Donatists laboured much to defend the booke but how much he profited let other men iudge To conclude at the end of these bookes it is read If I haue written well 2. Ma. 15 39 The writer of these bookes in the end of the booke excuseth himselfe verse 11. To the second that was my desire but if I haue spoken slenderlie and barelie I haue doone that I could Which words are not beséeming where the holie Ghost is author 24 Secondlie there was brought Zacharie the ninth chapter But by the lake wherein no water was Ierom expressedlie vnderstandeth hell where there is no mercie the which being prepared for vs worthilie are we redéemed from thence by Christ Also the place is expounded by some to be that receptacle or roome wherein the soules of the fathers were before Christ ascended into heauen from whence by the benefit of him they were deliuered and caried into heauen yea Ierom. and Ierom affirmeth that in the same lake the riotous rich man was in torments Whereby it appéereth that their exposition of purgatorie faileth Also the sentence of Ecclesiastes wherein it is said Eccl. 4 14. To the third Out of bonds and prisonments some are otherwhile aduanced vnto kingdomes serueth nothing vnto this purpose séeing in that place there is onelie a discourse of the dailie alteration of things And Gregorie the bishop of Pontus Gregorie of Laodicea who was of Laodicea saith as Ierom citeth Euen as a king who is both a foole and an old man may be easilie cast out of his kingdome so on the other side a yong man although he be poore so he be wise may be aduanced from a lowe state vnto a kingdome Origin Victorinus But Origin and Victorinus turne it to an allegorie and saie that An old king and To be cast out betokeneth vnto vs the diuell who otherwise is called the prince of this world and they vnderstand the yong man to be Christ who so soone as he came vnto his father receiued full power whereas before he was greatlie vexed in the world as in a prison That which is in the Psalmes Psal 66 12. To the fourth We haue passed through fire and water c. Augustine expounded concerning the temptations of this world so as aduersities are described by the fire and prosperities by the waters at which temptations while the godlie doo not shrinke they are led vnto the heauenlie refreshings 25 But now let vs sée what they haue obiected out of the new testament Matt. 12 31 To the fift That which is written in the gospell of not forgiuing of sinne against the holie Ghost neither in this world nor yet in the world to come prooueth not that there be anie sinnes which be forgiuen in an other life Among the Logicians two negatiue propositions are not woont to conclude an affirmatiue wherfore Not to be forgiuen in this world and Not to be forgiuen in an other world doo not affirme a forgiuenesse of sinnes to be after this life And it plainelie appéereth that those things were spoken of Christ by exaggeration or amplifieng that thereby the greatnes of that sinne might be the more euident Mark 3 29. And when as Marke writeth the same thing he saith It shall neuer be forgiuen making no mention either of this world or of the world to come Matt. 5 25. To the sixt As touching him that would not agrée with his aduersarie while he is in the way and therefore is commanded to be deliuered vnto the officer by whom he may be cast into prison so as he shall not come foorth from thence vntill he haue paid the vttermost farthing Augustine dooth plainlie vnderstand the same Augustine touching hell fire and he will haue the particle vntill to be vnderstood in the same signification wherein it is said Matt. 1 25. And he knew not hir vntill she had brought foorth hir first begotten sonne Ierom. And Ierom interpreted this place to concerne the kéeping of concord among the faithfull while they shall liue héere which he prooueth both by that which went before and which followeth It was said before Matt 5 23. If thou offer thy gift at the altar and there remembrest that thy brother hath anie thing against thee leaue there thy gift c. Further after these things it is written Loue your enimies Ibidem verse 44. He also maketh mention of an allegoricall interpretation wherein by an Aduersarie some haue vnderstood the spirit it selfe which exposition notwithstanding séemeth absurd vnto him that the spirit should deliuer vs vnto the iudge Neither did he let to speake that there are some which by an Aduersarie vnderstood the
true faith inuiolate This saith he is it that haie wood and strawe is set on fire perisheth for euen those lusts of theirs as flames doo torment them and they vanish awaie And he added that this happeneth vnto manie while they liue here for it happeneth not seldome vnto the most part of martyrs and saints that they be spoiled of the goods of this world for the name of Christ But he saith that finallie we are all tried with this examination at the end of our life And that fire signifieth tribulations he prooueth it out of the 65. psalme where it is written We haue passed through fire and water verse 12. thou hast brought vs into a wealthie place where by fire is declared aduersitie and by water prosperitie And for the same cause in the exorcisme of baptisme he would haue as well fire as water to be vsed that we may vnderstand we be tried by these two things And he bringeth the sentence of Ecclesiasticus Thus farre of Augustines interpretation The fornace trieth the potters vessell but the temptation of trouble trieth the minds of the iust 29 Vnto this interpretation of Augustine by fire to vnderstand calamities and aduersities Gregorie agréeth Gregorie albeit that he incline vnto purgatorie But as we haue said it is most euident that Paule by buildings either good or ill Paule by building signified doctrine signified doctrines either sound or corrupt whose end is described that if they be good they haue their reward but if they be euill they vanish and come to naught Matt. 15 13. For euerie plant which my heauenlie father hath not planted shall be plucked vp Neither is it anie maruell if good buildings doo stand firme séeing the word of God abideth for euer He that hath not builded well may indéed be saued neuerthelesse by fire bicause he shall perceiue that his doctrine is both confuted and condemned He shall acknowledge that he hath wrought in vaine A similitude euen as he that escapeth through fires whose garments are so burned as yet he leapeth out naked Some expound So as it were by fire bicause men are hardlie brought that they can be caried awaie from their opinions for all men imbrace and loue their owne inuentions more than is méet Howbeit it is more sincere to say that in the examination of God they shall haue experience of shame sadnes trouble and of an vnquiet conscience And vnto this interpretation Ambrose agréed He must of necessitie be alwaies ashamed Ambrose that séeth himselfe to haue defended a false matter in stéed of a truth In this iudgement of God the fault of doctrine is discouered and foorthwith entereth great sadnes and sorrowe of repentance Chrysost 30 Chrysostome thought that this fire perteined vnto hell but bicause he sawe that to make against him which is written But he him selfe shall be saued as it were by fire he interpreteth that To be saued is nothing else but To indure not to be extinguished not to be turned into ashes or to be brought to naught that this ill builder shall remaine as touching substance but shall not as he saith be reserued vnlesse it be vnto punishment that he may be burned with fire and euerlasting flames He was not ignorant that this interpretation was somewhâ—…â—orced and therefore he indeuoured to mitigate the same and he shewed that Paule with goodlie words did sometime set foorth things which otherwise are euill and to be disallowed and againe to call things excellent and praise-woorthie by dishonorable names In the latter epistle to the Corinthians he saith that We make all our cogitatioÌ„s captiue where 2. Cor. 10 5 by the word captiue he calleth that persuasion whereby men willinglie and of their owne accord submit themselues vnto faith Also when he preacheth mortification of the flesh Col. 3 5. and members that be vpon the earth certeinlie by the word mortification he commendeth a thing allowed and perfect whereas by nature we all flie from death And on the other side when he saith vnto the Romans Rom. 6 11. Let not sinne reigne in your mortall bodies by the name of reigne he adoorneth tyrannie a thing vndoubtedlie to be detested with the name of a kingdome So now he calleth the euerlasting continuance in fire and in the paines of hell by the name of Sauing But let Chrysostome defend this interpretation of his as well as he can Chrysostome interpretation confuted it appéereth plainlie that it can not stand for two causes For séeing all things be here taken allegoricallie what néed he labour to prooue it true fire Vnlesse perhaps he will haue hell fire to be an allegorie which thing the receiued opinion in the church will not suffer Further where it is said The fire shall prooue euerie worke what it is we must as Augustine verie well aduiseth determine it to be that fire the which as well the good as euill builders shall haue experience of But I doo not thinke that he would haue the good and holie men to be tormented in hell fire And yet neuertheles haue the Gréeke Scholies brought this opinion of Chrysostome The Greeke expositions Erasmus And Erasmus a notable learned man in his annotations saith that It is a vaine thing to make mention in this place of purgatorie séeing it is here ment farre otherwise Surelie I doubt not but that he himselfe sawe the same thing that if purgatorie fire should be gathered of this place it shall be néedfull for that fire to be common both vnto the apostles and vnto all the saints although they haue builded the church with sincere and approoued doctrines And I can not sufficientlie woonder at them which affirme that this sentence is vnderstood of purgatorie when as otherwise they defend the Popes pardons and doo knowe that some of them are so granted by the Pope as a man may be absolued from all punishment when he dieth so that his soule as they speake may foorthwith flie into heauen How shall such a one be tried in the fire of purgatorie Yea and Scotus said that There may be found an action or motion of charitie so absolute and perfect or as he himselfe speaketh of such feruencie that it can wash awaie all punishments Let the same man shew how this fire of purgatorie which they would wrest out of this place can be common vnto all men Vnlesse perhaps they will place the same in the aire and will deuise that all the saints when they flie awaie vnto heauen passe through the fire As it is spoken of one Alcuinus that he inuented such a tale A deuise altogither feigned namelie that all saints before they ascend into heauen passe through the fire of purgatorie It séemeth also that this should not be vnspoken of that Paule after a sort alludeth the saieng vnto the words of Esaie in the first chapter where it is said verse 31. And their strength shall
the bodies of the blessed for the bodie and members shal be wholie subiected vnto the soule so as it shall neither contend nor striue against it Wherof Paule said 1. Co. 15 43 It is now sowen in feeblenes but then it shall rise in power Therefore in the booke of Wisdome Wisd 3 7 the third chapter it is read of the saints that as sparkes they shall runne through the réeds or stubble 1. Thes 4 17 And Paule vnto the Thessalonians saith We that shal be found aliue and the dead that be raised shal be caught vp to meet with Christ in the aire This no doubt will be a great reioising and nimble motion of our bodies that we shall ascend vnto Christ through the aire In this abilitie the bodie of Christ excelled séeing it walked vpon the waters and gaue power vnto Peter to doo she like and séeing Christ himselfe was taken vp out of the earth into heauen And héerein it consisteth that the soule shall perfectlie gouerne the bodie so as the weight and burden of the flesh shal be no hinderance vnto it This propertie in verie déed belongeth vnto locall motion Note the Vbiquists Wherfore it is a woonder that the Vbiquists admit this qualitie to be in the bodies of the blessed as they write in their bookes and yet doo affirme heauen to be euerie where so that they will not attribute places certeine to the bodie of Christ and to our bodies when we shal be blessed as though locall motion may be without a place 59 Ouer this vnto the saints after resurrection Impassibilitie there is appointed an impassibilitie for they shall not be corrupted nor diminished with anie passions sorrowes or diseases Wherefore the apostle wrote It is now sowen in corruption but it shall rise againe in vncorruption A distinction of affections and passions Of affections and passions in bodies we must not iudge all after one sort for some be hurtfull which doo waste and diminish the bodie yea and finallie doo consume the same Such are hunger thirst sicknesse sorrowe and others of this kind from these affections the saints shal be deliuered But there be other passions which doo rather helpe nature and make it perfect than hurt or impaire it such are the féelings of the senses The eie is not hurt Examples when it is affected with beautifull colours neither the hearing with harmonie and tunes well composed neither is the smelling harmed by good odours So as our bodies shall not be depriued of these passions when after resurrection they shall be in the euerlasting mansion A subtilitie They ad that there shal be a subtilitie which must not so be vnderstood as though the bodies of them that rise againe should be conuerted into spirit that it should be airie or elementall or like vnto the wind so as they may penetrate all things but I referre this subtilitie vnto the exquisit subtill and sharpe vnderstanding of the senses as also vnto the affects which doo followe the bodie and which shall not be grosse and full of impediments neither shall they trouble the mind And to this purpose might be bent that saieng of Paule It is sowen a naturall bodie 1. Co. 15 49. but it shall rise againe a spirituall bodie By which words he ment not that the bodie should be transformed into a spirit but he taught that the humane bodie sauing the nature thereof should as much as may be drawe vnto the propertie of a spirit as touching knowledge and affects These notable properties haue the schoolemen gathered being confirmed by the holie scriptures And yet haue they not declared all 1. Cor. 2 9. for saith Paule to the Corinthians The eie hath not seene nor the eare hath not heard those things which God hath prepared for them that loue him Vbiquitie in no place attributed vnto the bodie of Christ glorified Neither must we leaue vntouched that neither the holie scriptures nor fathers nor schoolemen in anie place haue attributed either vnto the flesh of Christ being risen or to other saints the gift of vbiquitie or prerogatiue of no certeine place Wherefore it is to be maruelled at that this deuise so pleased certeine men of our age yea and the schoolemen especiallie Thomas Aquinas said that it is héerby gathered that bicause the conditions of blessed bodies doo atteine vnto heauenlie properties their habitation after this life is in the heauens yea aboue the heauens Furthermore they dispute concerning the age of them that shall rise againe and they affirme that the same shal be of full growing of maâ—s state ripe and strong And héerevnto they wrest that which is read in the epistle to the Ephesians Till we meet togither in the vnitie of faith Ephe. 4 13. and acknowledging of the sonne of God vnto a perfect man and vnto the measure of the age of the fulnesse of Christ But by their leaue the words of the apostle haue no relation to this purpose for he intreated not there of the fashioning again of bodies but of the instauration of soules as the words going before doo most plainelie declare But as concerning a perfect age of them that rise againe I doo not disagrée with them but yet I affirme the same after another sort When God created the first men he made them not either infants or créeples or else vnperfect or deformed And séeing the resurrection is a certeine new creation or forming againe it is méet that it should be like the first So that as those things which GOD created were verie good that is perfect in their kind euen so shall the bodies which by his power shall be repaired in the resurrection be perfect of nature What properties the bodies of the wicked shall haue in the resurrection 60 But what shall we affirme of the properties and conditions of the wicked when they shall rise againe as concerning their bodie In verie déed they shall haue immortalitie but other qualities of the godlie they shall not obteine Naie rather they shall be deformed with contrarie and plaine opposite qualities They shall be altogither destitute of light and cléerenesse Matt. 22. 13. for as Christ taught They shall be commanded to be cast into the vttermost darknesse Neither shall they be without sufferings for they shal be vexed with vnmeasurable torments and gréefs Mark 9 44. There saith the Lord shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth their woorme shall not die and their fire shall not be extinguished Chéerfull also and nimble shall they not be bicause they shall be cast bound hand and foot into hell-fire Neither for the cause which we haue now alledged shall subtilitie happen vnto them forsomuch as they shall liue in teares and wéeping in most grosse affects and in vehement desires euen as it is gathered by the euangelicall narration of the rich man Lazarus Luke 16 24. Howbeit among those things that I haue spoken this of
ours must chéeflie be remembered to wit What substance the bodies rising againe shall be of that through this diuersitie of qualities and coÌ„ditions the subiect that is the substance of our bodies is not to be altered for in anie wise the same bodie and the same flesh is to be raised vp Origin Neither must we giue eare to Origin which thinketh that onelie the bodie shall be restored but not the flesh We must rather beléeue Christ which said after he was risen from the dead Luk. 24 39. Feele and see for a spirit hath no flesh and bones as ye see me haue And if the same bodie shall rise againe the same flesh and members shall also be restored A place also shall be appointed for them for these things cannot consist without a place But that the subiect shall be all one Paule plainlie prooued when he said vnto the Corinthians 1. Co. 15 53 This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortalitie The pronounce demonstratiue This dooth plainlie declare the substance and verie humane nature of a bodie Yea but thou tellest me verse 13. that the same apostle in the sixt chapter of the same epistle saith Meats are ordeined for the bellie and the bellie for meats but GOD shall destroie both it and them It is also said that The blessed shal be as the angels Matt. 22 30. so as they shall neither marrie wiues nor the women shall be married To what purpose shall varietie of sex be in the blessed which rise againe to what vse or to what end We answer that indéed God in the euerlasting felicitie will take awaie from them that be raised vp the vse and action of these parts but not the substance and nature of them And being demanded why the things themselues shall remaine still To what end shall remaine the parts of the bodie wherof shall be no vse the vse and action being taken awaie we answer that therfore they shall remaine bicause they belong to the wholenesse and perfection of an humane bodie For if all these things should be taken awaie what part thereof would be remaining First the throte should be plucked out the stomach and all the bowels whereby dregs haue their passage and flowing humors are distilled Further it is méet that those parts which we haue rightlie vsed while we liued here should be benefited with reward togither with vs. And séeing blessed men did honestlie and temperatelie vse their throte their taste and their bellie and chastlie kept their inferiour parts why should they not receiue these parts that they may be crowned togither with them 61 Neither is it a firme consequent The vse of certeine parts and members is taken awaie Therefore they themselues also must be taken awaie It dooth not so come to passe in nature An old barren woman A similitude which can no more bring foorth children or giue sucke is not therefore depriued of hir paps nor yet of those parts which serued for procreation Yea and a valiant and noble emperour which hath doone manie woorthie acts in battell when he dieth hath his armor which sometimes he ware fastened about his toombe although he is not to vse the same anie more afterward And the ships which somtimes bare awaie the victorie vpon the sea albeit that men cannot vse them anie more yet doo they drawe them vp into docks and will haue them preserued there for a perpetuall memorie of the things that were doone Yea and Christ himselfe also being risen from the dead brought againe with him the skars of his wounds and said vnto Thomas which doubted Iohn 20 27 Put thy fingers here into my side and into the holes of the nailes and be not vnbeleeuing but faithfull The wounds had alreadie performed their part for by them mankind was redéemed and yet had he them after he was risen from the dead to the intent it might be perceiued that it was the verie same bodie which had suffered before Exod. 3â— â—8 1. Kin. 19 8. Elias also and Moses when they had fasted by the space of fortie daies had not in vaine their mouth throte and bellie when as neuerthelesse they vsed not them a long time 62 But I returne to Origin who thought that the bodie should rise againe but not the flesh But we in the Créed doo confesse not the resurrectioÌ„ of the bodie but of the flesh But this father as we gather out of his booke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith that There be two errors noted as concerning the resurrection The first he maketh to be ours which thinke that flesh bloud bones and the verie same members are to be receiued when we shall be raised vp For this he supposeth to be absurd and fond and ouer grosse bicause he thinketh that it would followe thereof that we should eat drinke and marrie wiues againe But how weake this argument is we declared before when wée shewed that it is méet and conuenient that without vse and proper functions these parts shall be receiued at the blessed resurrection Another error he maketh of certeine heretikes which altogither denied the resurrection of the dead attributing eternall saluation to soules onelie and of such as were bold to call the resurrection of Christ a fantasticall resurrection as who should saie it were onelie shewed by an imagined vision Wherefore he hauing set downe these two errors as certeine extremities pretended to allow of a certeine meane waie He said that when the soule shall be separated from the bodie the foure principall things whereof the bodie consisteth retire themselues againe to their owne store-houses of nature so as the flesh goeth into the earth the breath into the aire the bloud and other humors into waters the heat into heauen These he affirmeth doo not perish when they come there but are so mingled with those elements as they can be no more discerned or drawen awaie from thence Howbeit he affirmeth that the bodies shall rise againe and so rise againe as to euerie one shall be giuen his owne proper bodie and not an other mans The bodie of Peter as he saith shall be giuen to Peter of Paule to Paule bicause it is not méet that sinnes should be punished in a strange bodie and not in the same by which they were committed And after what maner this may be doone he thus declareth In séeds there is ingraffed by God a certeine nature and power of things that it may drawe vnto it all the matter that is to come and the corporall substance of things which doo come from thence Yet neuerthelesse in the séed of the trée are not séene the fruits the flowers the leaues the branches the barke or the bodie whereas otherwise the nature power of all these things hath being in the same Euen so he iudgeth to be in the ashes and matter that remaineth of our bodies And he calleth that power by the Gréeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
passe ouer A similitude that by that similitude which Iob vseth of the cloud which suddenlie goeth awaie is noted the shortnesse of our life Euen as Iames did also in his epistle when he said What is your life Euen a vapour that appeareth for a little while Afterward he saith It shall not returne to his owne home Which is nothing else but that these conditions of this life shall not be receiued againe after resurrection to wit that anie man shall againe be a prince an housholder husbandman citizen or in such other state Neither did Aben-Ezra dissemble that by this place also the resurrection of the dead is not disprooued There was another argument brought out of the words of Daniel bicause he wrote that manie should rise againe and did not saie All whereby grew a suspicion least he should make the resurrection particular not as it is shewed to be vniuersall Howbeit we expounded this saieng of his and declared that he might not saie All séeing manie are to be found aliue at the last daie who in verie déed shall not die but be changed Neuerthelesse the prophet in that place touched the resurrection as well of the godlie as of the wicked when he said Some shall rise vnto ignominie and others vnto glorie and that euerlastinglie Neither also is that anie hinderance which is spoken in the psalme namelie that The wicked shall not rise in iudgment bicause he there treateth of the cause and not of the nature and substance of them They shall not stand saith he but their cause shall be ouerthrowen for they shall not be quitted at the tribunall seat of God but shall be condemned These answers haue we made to the obiections A conclusion of this treatise of the resurrection and according to our promise we haue expounded the principall points of this treatise And now there remaineth that we indeuor earnestlie while we liue here to haue a part in the first resurrection prouiding that our faith may be excellent our charitie feruent and effectuall our hope firme and constant and that our actions aswell inward as outward may be christian and well ordered and that we subdue the wicked motions and affections of the flesh altogither conforming our will and mind vnto the lawe of God In performing whereof we shall after the former obteine that latter and blessed resurrection The xvj Chapter Of the taking vp of Elias and Henoch In 2. Kin. 2. verse 11. NOw it séemeth good to discourse of the taking vp of Elias and what I haue determined to speake of I will diuide into thrée principall points A diuision of this treatise First I thinke it méete to be vnderstood whither Elias ascended that is what place he hath occupied by his ascending secondlie whether he be dead and whether he inioie his bodie or hath put off the same thirdlie if he liueth whether he shall returne vnto vs and to what end he was taken vp But forsomuch as this lot namelie to be taken vp was common aswell vnto Henoch as vnto him as we read in the fift chapter of Genesis we will intreate of them both togither verse 24. Howbeit A comparison between the taking vp of Elias and Henoch this testimonie of Henoch differeth from the historie of Elias bicause therein is no mention of the place wherevnto Henoch was translated But in verie déed it is written of Elias that he was taken vp through a whirlewind into heauen How and whether Elias was taken vp albeit some man may suppose that word Schamaijm to be of the genetiue case as though it were said In a whirlewind of heauen that is to saie that Elias was taken vp in a heauenlie whirlewind But the interpretation that is receiued in a maner of all the expounders is that that word should be vnderstood as put in the accusatiue case and noteth the place vnto the which Elias ascended Yet haue we not héereby anie thing certeine or defined bicause the name of the word heauen is manifold and vnder that name manie things are signified Heauen among the Hebricians is this aire wherewith the earth and water was compassed And sometimes it signifieth those vpper spheres which are garnished with sundrie and manifold starres Also those high seats of the blessed which are manifest far and wide aboue those visible spheres are called heauen Albeit manie in this our time account heauen to be a certeine spirituall and bodilesse place of the blessed which is wholie euerie where But this is nothing else but to mingle togither the highest with the lowest and the lowest with the highest We leauing this vbiquarie and fained heauen saie not that the seats of the blessed are bodilesse but are wide and largelie spred beyond the compasses of the starres and beyond the firmament it selfe The place whither Christ ascended Acts. 1. 11. Héereof also we thinke it commeth that it is said that Christ ascended aboue all heauens as the apostolicall historie teacheth and as it is written in the epistle to the Ephesians Eph. 4 10. where it is properlie vnderstood that he came to the lower most parts of the earth for he was conuersant among men in this world so must the heauen whither he ascended be properlie vnderstood to be the highest if respect be had vnto the Antithesis or contrarietie And vndoubted credit also must be giuen vnto the testimonie of the angel wherein it was said that He should come to iudge from thence whither he by ascending went And Peter in expresse words affirmeth Acts. 3 21. that Heauen must conteine him vntill the restitution of all things In which words the aduerbe Vntill hath great force for it is euen as if it were said He shall not come out of heauen vnto vs before all things shall be restored by the last iudgement 2 Neither onelie be the latter fathers as Beda and Strabus of our side whose testimonies be recited by Peter Lombard The first heauen which is next about the seuen spheres that they affirmed heauen to be Empyreum not so called as though anie thing were burned in them with 〈◊〉 but bicause of the firie light with which kind the place is perpetuallie lightned they will haue it that the angels were there placed immediatlie after their creation Yea and Ambrose and Basil being men of great authoritie among the ecclesiasticall fathers were of the same mind for they expounding the works of the six daies demanded whether the darknesse was created by God And they answered Whether darkenesse was made by God that darknesse hath no essence and proper nature which may be brought foorth by creation but that séeing it belongeth vnto priuation it followeth of it owne accord the firmament being vnder put as an arch or vault to an vnshapen matter For they saie that before the world was made God himselfe liued in a most splendent light which being shut forth remained when the firmament had béene compassed
himselfe with other businesse 2. Tim. 2. 4 Hée also that entreth into this office must take héed that he hinder not himselfe with other cares and businesse as Paul saith vnto Timothie No man being in the warfare of God troubleth himselfe with the businesse of this life This function is of so great moment as it requireth the whole man Neither shall he doe a little that shall be able to performe this as he ought to doe Aristotle Aristotle in his first booke of Politikes saith that euerie one instrument is méete for one only worke One instrument for one worke Wherefore it is not méete for the ministers of Christ to plaie the part of souldiers huntsmen Marchauntes or Marriners Further it is to be noted that séeing they bée called the ministers of Christ they ought in anie wise to be distinct from others Which thing Iohn Baptist verie wel distinguished when hee saide Iohn 1. 26. My selfe baptise you with water but hee standeth in the middest of you whom ye know not There must be put a difference betwéene Christ his ministers Iohn 1. 6. They must not liue idely hee shall baptise you with the spirite and fire And Iohn the Euangelist wisely did put a difference betwéene Christ and his forerunner when he saide He was not the light but that he might beare witnesse of the light Neither is it the part of ministers to liue idlelie for they be hired to labour in the vineyarde Matt. 20. 1. to the ende that they maie afterwarde haue their reward which they should the oftener haue respect vnto séeing they exercise a worke both troublesome to the flesh and full of labour But in the meane time while we liue here there is no cause why they should dreame of a better estate than either the Apostles or Christ himself had experiēce of in their ministerie They must not expect better fortune than the Apostles had 1. Cor. 4. 13 Act. 17. 18. Act. 22. 22. Matt. 9. 24. 34. Ibid. 12. 29. Ibid. 26 67 Iohn 8. 59. Luk. 4. 29. The Apostles were accōpted as the ofscourings of the world Paul boasted that he was reuyled as a babler and was reported of the Iewes to be vnworthie to liue as though he were an ofscooring and hainous offendour And was not Christ derided in euerie place there was no want of contumelies and reproches They rose against him with stones They indeuored to cast him downe headlong from the mount Oftentimes they would haue laide holde vppon him whom at the last when they had taken they crucified with great ignominie The same lotte must they looke for because it is enough for the scholer to be like his Master Mat. 10. 25 and the seruant if he be as his Lord. 28 They be called the dispensers of the giftes of God Looke part 4 p. 12. Act. 15. They are not called sacrifices or sacrificing priests but not sacrificers or sacrificing Priestes not that all kinde of sacrifices be taken awaie from them For praises and confessions by the which the goodnesse and mercie of God is declared are an acceptable sacrifice of God No lesse are praiers What be the sacrifices of the ministers of the Church confession of sinnes offering of Almes and repentance by which the heart is made contrite and humble and finallie the sacrifice of our owne bodies which we offer vp vnto God as a liuelie and reasonable sacrifice we denie not but that these things are done by the ministers of the Church And last of all it is a sacrifice whereby vnbeléeuing people are brought vnto Christ as it is plainlie shewed in the xv Rom. 15. 16 Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans in the which Euangelicall ministration the Ministers of Christ are most of all busied But the fauourers of superstitions brag that they sacrifice the sonne of God which is most absurde The ministers do not sacrifice the son of God Heb. 10. 14 bicause Christ offered vp himself nor néeded he another Priest By one oblation did he finish and make perfect whatsoeuer was to be done for our redemption Nor méete it is that man should be had as a sacrificer in so great an oblatiō For it behooueth alwaies that he which offereth be either equall or more excellent than the thing that is offered which we to imagine of our selues being compared vnto Christ is plaine sacriledge Further howe can we offer the sonne of God séeing he is perpetuallie in the sight of his father where he is our propitiation and our Aduocate 1. Iohn 2. 1. But if by sacrifice they vnderstand thankesgiuing for his death and bicause he would giue his bodie to be crucified his blood to be shed for our saluation such a sacrifice we will not denie to be offered to God in the Lordes Supper aswel by the Minister of the Church as also by all them that stand by And happilie the Fathers after this manner vnderstoode this worde To Sacrifice What the fathers ment by the word To sacrifice The fathers are not to be commended for vsing of this word Cyprian which in their writings they often vse albeit I maie not commend their aduise séeing thereof is growen an intollerable abuse Neither must we forget that offerings were accustomed to be done by the faithfull when they approched to the Supper of the Lorde as Cyprian most plainelie witnesseth And of these oblations there is mention made in the Collectes which are read after the Offertorie in the Masse But of these things else where Onelie this warning we woulde giue least it should be thought that they are called the Ministers of Christ bicause in the Masse they sacrifice his bodie and blood vnto God the father 29 As to the rest It is required in Stewardes That euerie one be found faithfull 1. Cor. 4. 2. Ministers must be found faithful and prudent A gouernor of a house ought to be prudent and wise Mat. 24. 45. The Apostle requireth not the eloquence of the world Nobilitie Fauour the power of Kings but a faithfull administration onelie Vnto this Christ added Wisedome when he said in Matthew A faithfull seruant and a wise whom the Lord hath set ouer his familie Howbeit these two qualities be so ioined in themselues as the one of necessitie followeth the other Neither shall the seruant escape frée if he behaue himselfe otherwise than is prescribed vnto him séeing in the Gospell we reade Ib. ver 48. that If the seruant when his Lord shall delaie his comming waxe cruell to his fellow seruantes so as he striketh them and oppresse them with tyrannie the Lord shall come at a time vnlooked for and shall destroie and slaie him and appoint his part with Hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Also of the wise and prudent housholder Mat. 13. 52 we haue heard that he bringeth out of his treasurie things both new and olde Euen so he that maketh a banquet
for the power of the Tribunes The displeasures which the common people suffered by the Nobilitie were temporall and belonged to the maintenaunce and safetie of the bodie but those thinges which the Papistes bring in vppon vs haue respect vnto eternall saluation But letting passe the example of Ethnickes another thing commeth to minde which is mencioned in the Ecclesiasticall Historie The example of Paphnutius Paphnutius a Bishoppe of Egypt and a verie noble confessour of the Lord whose right eye the Emperour Maximianus put out and hockst his left ham whereby he might liue halfe blind lame when he was in the Synode of Tyrus where also sate Maximus a worthie Bishop of Ierusalem and he himselfe a confessour of Christ and perceiued that nothing else was sought by his fellow Bishoppes but that Athanasius might be oppressed by deceites ill reports and naughtie practises rose vp and taking Maximus by the hand which sat in the middest of the rest said It is not lawfull for thee to sit among these men And hauing spoken these wordes he led him awaie with him Also Christ admonished Mat. 16. 6. that we should beware of the Leauen of the Pharisees And Paul saide 1. Cor. 5. 6. A little leauen marreth the whole lumpe Yea and experience it selfe teacheth that they which hauing knowledge of the truth are withheld through an affection to their friends or kinne loue of their countrie couetousnes of riches and goods they become colder euerie daie more than other as touching godlinesse and are so frosen together at the length as the féele of religion is extinguished in them and sometime of friendes and brethren they become most cruell enemies And it is founde to be most true which the wise man said Eccle. 13. He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith Neither can it otherwise be but as the Apostle said out of Menander 1. Co. 15. 23 yâ— ill spéech wil corrupt good maners 37 Let vs sée what happened vnto the Israelites in the time of Ieroboam when Idolatrie was erected 2. Chro. 11 13. Verilie they which had but a crum of godlines leauing the confines of the kingdome of Israel ioyned theÌ„selues to the house of Iuda to the intent they might not sacrifice vnto the Idols which were erected but that they might worshippe the true God according to the prescript of the Lawe in the place which he had chosen vnto himselfe Which whoso did not they not onelie contaminated themselues with Idolatrie but together with the wâ—…ed they were afflicted with manifolde and gréeuous punishments There was euen at the beginning of the world a separation made betwéene the posteritie of Seth and Caine for these had departed from the true worshippe of God wherein they soundlie continued Gen. 4. 17. 5. 1. And assuredlie the punishment of the floud was so long differred as that holie posteritie continued frée from Idolatrie but whenas afterward the sons of God being allured with the beawtie of women had ioyned themselues with the vngodlie all things went to confusion and horrible shame wherefore God destroyed the worlde by a floud of water Gen. 6. In which destruction neither Noah himselfe with his familie had béene saued vnlesse by going into the Arke he had seuered himselfe from the vngodlie Lot likewise escaped the fire because he was led foorth from the fellowship of wicked men Gen. 19. The Lord also commanded as we haue it in the booke of Numerie Num. 16. 21 that the Israelites should separate themselues from Dathan and Abiram vnlesse they were more willing to perish together with them He also called foorth the Israelites which were remaining in Babylon after the libertie giuen vnto them by Cyrus and Darius Esa 52. ver 11. for that gréeuous punishments were at hande vnto the Babylonians by reason of their Idolatrie and shamefull wickednesse In fine if the first Adam by the instinct of Gods spirite truelie saide of his wife Gen. 2. 23. For this cause shal man leaue his father and mother and shall cleaue vnto his wife why also were not all things to be left of vs for retaining the truth of Christ seeing that euen the wife her selfe the children must be left for religion sake But if we séeme not to our aduersaries to haue doone well let them declare the cause why they haue separated themselues from al other Churches being the greater part of the world They are not able in verie déede to shewe such iust and euident causes as ours be which we haue before alleadged Let not their slaunders terrifie vs especiallie those which they haue always in their mouth saying that we are disturbers These bee no newe things They haue béene oftentimes vpbraided to the seruaunts of God Did not Achab the king of Samaria rebuke Elias the man of God 2. King 17. 18. and said Art thou Elias which troublest Israell But the Prophet constantlie returned the rebuke vpon him I trouble not Israell thou rather doest altogether with thy wife Iezabell The Iewes also accused Christ before Pilate Luke 23. 5. that he troubled all Iurie beginning at Galile Of the Apostles also as it is in the Actes it is saide Acts. 17. 6. Acts. 24. 5. that they troubled men Yea and Tertullus the Orator thus spake vnto Portius Festus that hée shoulde punish Paul because that they might by his conduct and gouernment inioy excellent peace and tranquillitie if onelie Paul were not a let who troubled all things by peruerse and new doctrine But now I cease to vrge anie more the seconde point namely that we might not otherwise doe but depart from the Popedome Thrée special causes of departing from the Papists For thrée sortes of necessitie vrged vs namelie of obaying the commaundements of GOD of shunning sinnes and flying Idolatrie and also for the escaping of paines and punishments which remaine for the wicked Neither must it séeme anie maruell that these necessities are laide vppon vs séeing that in the ciuill lawes the companies and assemblie which vnlawfullie assemble together are condemned to gréeuous punishments as it is in the Title de Collegijs corporibus illicitis the which are not onelie forbidden by the Commonweale or Emperour but they which frequent the same are accounted of euen as if they had occupied the publike place or temple with armed men For they are thought to abuse such corporations and fellowships for the working of their naughtines Wherfore God doeth rightlie and in order when by his commaundements he reconcileth vs from such assemblies 38 But nowe I come to the third member of this treatise wherein I will shew that we departed not from the Church but are rather come vnto it That they which haue left the Pope haue not departeâ— from the Church but rather returned to the same Which that it may euidently appeare we must consider that our aduersaries are verie much deceiued forsomuch as they thinke that things
the last houre of his life doeth receaue the faith which he can neither testifie by words nor yet by signes Further our aduersaries also confesse that there is a baptisme of request desire Baptismus flaminis which they cal The baptisme of fire For whenas a man beléeuing desireth baptisme cannot inioy it dieth they saie he is saued Which also Ambrose iudged of Valentinian the Emperor What Ambrose iudged of Valentinian the Emperour which came vnto him to be baptised and was slaine by the waie How then do they regard this sentence Vnlesse a man be borne againe of the water and the spirit c If a request desire be there sufficient why maie it not be sufficient in children the election of God and the promise and the holy Ghost wherewith we declare them to be indued séeing they be borne of faithfull progenitors Iohn 3. 5. The water and the spirit taken to be both one Moreouer Christ talked there with Nichodemus who was of a perfect age and might haue had the benefite both of water and of a minister There be some also which there by the water and the spirit vnderstand all one thing so as the latter worde expresseth the former For Water allegoricallie doeth diuerse times signifie grace and the holie ghost as Christ shewed when he talked with the Woman of Samaria and when he cried Iohn 4. 10. Iohn 7. 37. Ioel. 2. 28. He that thirsteth let him come vnto me and drinke And in Ioel it is saide I will powre vpon you cleane water c. And the same manner of spéech in a maner thou hast in that which Iohn Baptist saide of Christ Matt. 3. 11. He that commeth after me he baptiseth with fire and with the spirit In which place fire and the spirit signifie all one thing but the former answeres are plaine enough 19 There is another place in the 17. Chapter of the booke of Genesis Verse 14. But the vncircumcised manchilde in whose flesh the foreskinne is not circumcised that soule shall be cut off from his people Whose flesh shall not be circumcised his soule shal be rooted out because he hath broken my couenant Behold saie they the young Hebrewes which died without circumcision were to be cut off and that as touching the soule wherefore it séemeth to followe that they cannot haue saluation Howbeit this place also prooueth but little which euen our aduersaries shall be compelled to graunt Forsomuch as the Maister of the Sentences in the 4. The master of the Sentences Booke when he followeth this opinion that children which died before the viij daie being vncircumcised were damned is forsaken How the Hebrewes vnderstand that sentence and for the more part is not defended by the writers And as touching the matter the Hebrewes referre these words vnto him which after the viij daie was not circumcised and they vnderstand the cutting off to be as concerning the life of the bodie to wit that he shoulde die before his naturall time which opinion séemeth to be prooued out of the historie of Moses Exod. 4. 24 where the Angel would slaie him because he had not circumcised his sonne But this proofe séemeth not to be sufficient ynough because it is not read that the Angell meant to kill the childe but the father vnlesse perhaps they bring this testimonie onelie to the intent to declare that the threatening was to kill the bodie There be others which vnderstand That the soule should be cut off from among the people because he shall not be reckoned among the Israelites nor their Church neither shall be numbred in the common weale there to obtaine neither heritage nor office Nowe séeing these two interpretations may be vsed it maketh the argument to be weake But least we should séeme to giue the slip Look part 4 cap. 7. art 20 admit that God speake there of the death of the soule and of the losse of eternall life yet may wée expound that these things must not so be vnderstoode except when the circumcised shall be come to age and shall consent to the negligence of his elders which did not circumcise him Otherwise if he himselfe shall circumcise himselfe and shall detest that which the Parents did towards him he shall not deserue to be cut off but rather to be commended So must the law of God be vnderstood if their happen a consent of omitting Circumcision he is worthie to perish he I meane shall be cut off But if so be he depart vncircumcised before he haue power to circumcise himselfe he must be left to the merrie of God neither is it méete to iudge rashlie of him But séeing he might belong to the predestination or to the election of God and that he came of godlie ancestors we maie hope well of him And the selfe same iudgement in all respectes is to be giuen of this sentence that was of the saying of Christ which we intreated of before namelie Iohn 3. 5. Vnlesse a man shall be borne of water and the spirit he shall not enter into the kingdome of heauen Which saying since our aduersaries are constrained whether they will or no to vnderstand modestlie there is no cause why thy shoulde so greatly wrangle about this sentence By these things which we haue nowe alleaged it is easilie prooued that our young children séeing now by the worde of God and promise of the couenant they séeme to be ingraffed to the Church ought not to be excluded from Baptisme Euen as the children of the Hebrewes although they were young ones were circumcised The ninth Chapter Of the dedication of Temples wherein is intreated of sundrie corruptions of Baptisme WHile I earnestly think vppon the Dedication of the temple which Salomon made In 2. kin 8. at the end that cōmeth to my remembrance which Augustin hath in a certaine Oration to the people of the dedication of a temple to wit that those things which are doone in the outward temples doe also pertaine vnto vs who bée the true temples of God The dedication of a Temple is applied vnto vs. Verse 17. Wherefore in the first Epistle to the Corinthians the third Chapter it is written That the Temple of God is holie which are you Verse 17. Further we haue in the 6. Chapter Verse 19. Your bodies are the Temples of the holie Ghost Therefore we must take héede least we erre in the dedicating of any of both temples The outwarde temple is then dedicated when we begin to applie it to holie vses Godlie men are visible consecrated when they be baptized and godlie men are then visiblie consecrated vnto God when they be washed in holie baptisme But this must be prouided that both the one and the other bée doone according to the rule of the word of God But séeing we are to intreate of these things it is méete we should begin with the Etymologie of the words What
couenaunt adopted by God and iustified there is no cause but that they be iustly and of good right baptized In 1. King Cap. 8. 20 Wherefore many are deceiued which throughly perswade themselues that the Infants of Christians which perish without baptisme are vtterly damned In déede Christ saide Mar. 16. 16. He that shall beleeue and bee baptized shall be saued And further added He that will not beleeue shall bee damned But did not there put He that shall not bee baptized For it maie well be that some man beléeueth and by some occasions is let that he cannot be baptized Yea and Augustine himselfe somewhat harde in this matter acknowledged a baptisme aswell of the spirit as of Martyrdome namelie when anie man dieth of Martyrdome before he be baptized And Ambrose in his funerall sermon made at the death of Valentinian who was slaine being * Catechumenus newlie conuerted and not yet baptized affirmeth that he raigneth with Christ in heauen For albeit that he were not baptized yet did he therefore trauell into Italie that he might be baptized of Ambrose a Catholick Bishop Wherfore he affirmeth that he was iustified by faith Therefore looke what faith bringeth to passe in men of rype age before they be baptized that doth the spirit of Christ and the promise worke in yong children Whether al the children of the Christians belong to the Couenant But here some men demand whether all the children of the Christians belong vnto the couenant Which if it be auouched then that is obiected which vnto the Romans is written of the two twins of whom being not yet borne when as they had doone neither good nor yll it was saide Iacob haue I loued Rom. 9. 13. but Esau haue I hated Neither is it any doubt but that Isaac was a faithfull father and a holie man whose sonne Esau notwithstanding is knowen to haue bin out of the couenant Vnto this we answere that those which be of the couenant of God are considered either as they are before God or else in such sort as they maie be knowen of the Church God doubtlesse hath the number of his children most certaine which he hath predestinate from all eternitie But the promise of the couenant with the stock of Abraham is not of any number certaine and it expressely shutteth forth none of his successors And so when the children of the beléeuers are offered vnto the Church to be Christened the same hath respect vnto the promise according as it is vttered But if there be anie prerogatiue or exception in the secret counsels of God the Church staieth not for that séeing no such matter belongeth vnto it Therefore it cannot bee accused of falshood when it reckoneth the children of holie men among the holie And so it circumcised Esau and such like It is said of some that regeneration is not to be graunted but by the word which is the séede of God Verse 23. Howe it must be vnderstoode which is saide regeneration is not to be graunted but by the word For Peter saith in his first Epistle the first Chapter That wee are borne anewe not of a corruptible seede but of an incorruptible which is the word of God But vnto this we answere that this must be vnderstoode as touching men of rype age but that the case standeth not so with infants vnlesse we will make the children of the Hebrewes to be in better state than the children of the Christians For those coulde not be circumcised if they had died the viij daie Whom notwithstanding to exempt from the couenant of God would be wicked Also it might be lawful to affirme that yong children bée borne againe by the worde of God but yet by the inward word that is by the comfortable power of Christ and his holie spirit Lastlie is obiected that which is written in the 3. Chapter of Iohn Iohn 3. 3. Except a man shall be borne againe of the water and the spirit How must be vnderstoode that saying the 3. of Iohn Vnlesse a man be borne anew of water and the spirit c. he shal not enter into the kingdome of heauen Vnto this maie be first said that Christ would teach Nichodemus a newe regeneration and that the same is doone by the spirit Which he expressed by two wordes namely by water and the spirit neither is it against the maner of the scriptures that the grace it selfe of God should be signified vnder the name of water For it aswell watereth as also maketh fruitfull the minde and the soule of the faithfull Yea and Iohn Baptist ioyned together the spirit and fire when he saieth He that commeth after me Matt. 3. 11. shall baptize with the spirit and with fire In which spéech he vttered one and the selfe same thing vnder two maner of wordes Or if ye had rather referre these words vnto outward baptisme the saying may be drawen vnto them which neglect the receiuing of baptisme whē they haue no let to the contrarie For if a man refuse this sacrament he vndoubtedly sheweth himselfe not to be iustified Then séeing the matter thus standeth that iustification dependeth not of baptisme but goeth before it there shall bee no néede of exorcismes and exsufflations For the word of God teacheth not that these thinges shoulde be vsed Also there appeareth not in vs at this daie this grace of healings neither are the Infants which are offered to be baptized such as these men haue imagined But perhaps thou wilt say Whether men hauing the spirit grace before Baptisme are therfore baptized in vaine To what ende then is Baptisme deliuered vnto them if they had the substance of baptisme before Is the labour spent there in vaine No verily First because we obey God who commanded vnto vs the worke of baptisme Secondly wée seale the promise and gift which we haue receiued Moreouer faith is there confirmed by the holie Ghost through the word and outward signes And when we thinke with our selues of this visible worde or sacrament the spirit of God stirreth vp faith in our hearts whereby againe and againe we imbrace the diuine promises and so iustification is amplified while faith is increased in the beléeuers Verily God doeth assist the signes ordained by him For they are no prophane or emptie things Wherefore the fruite of baptisme is not momentanie but it indureth all our whole life For which cause they that are baptized spend not their labour in vaine neither doe they an vnnecessarie worke An answere to the reasons of the Fathers 21 Now these thinges being declared and expounded it remaineth that I answere the iudgement of the Fathers and the reasons which the fauourers of exorcismes doe bring The fathers that were of the greater antiquitie and purer age spake of those exorcismes with which the men taken or possessed of ill spirites were healed by those faithfull which had the grace of healings giuen them by God And therefore they
imitation of the Hebrewes and Ethnickes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One wherein they would imitate the Hebrewes vnto whom by a prescript rule of the lawe of Moses that water was commaunded as it is in the booke of Numbers Num. 8. 7. Howbeit séeing the legall ceremonies by the benefit of Christ his death be extinguished we ought not of our owne rashnesse to reuoke the same While they were in vse they had the word of God ioyned with them but now when they are destitute of that they be more superstitious An other there is wherin they haue imitated the Ethnickes who no doubt but vsed purifying waters but yet not after the same manner For when holy seruice was doone vnto the supernall Gods the body that was to bée purified was all wholy washed but if to the infernall Gods they were onely touched with sprinkling of the purifying water And this Virgil as a man very skilfull of their high priestes lawe Virgil. did diligently obserue by the testimonie of Macrobius in the 3. booke of his Saturnals the first Chapter Which I therefore thought good to rehearse to the intent that sacrificing priestes may know that while they sprinkle things with holy water they doe it not to the high God but doe sacrifice vnto the infernall gods that is to them that be in hel And that sprinklings with purifying waters was an vse among the Ethnickes the Ecclesiasticall historie teacheth In which it is written of Valentinianus when as yet he was not Emperour and was in the traine of Iulianus the Apostata and had come into the Temple there the prelate sprinkled him with his water He being angrie thereat gaue him a blowe saying Why hast thou polluted my purple garment with thy water Yea and God may therefore séeme to haue appointed that rite vnto the Hebrewes because they should not decline â—o the superstition of the Ethnickes And that ceremonie no doubt so long as it was of force had his vtilitie Why the ceremonies of the old law were instituted as the rest had For the old rites before the comming of Christ were testimonies and certaine seales of the heauenlie giftes promises and fauour of God to be giuen For these are spirituall thinges neither can they be discerned with the outward eyes and therefore were signes rites and ceremonies added thereto that men being admonished by them might be confirmed as touching the good will grace of God Whereunto adde that all those thinges shadowed Christ and his redemption Also we after the same manner doe in Christianitie vse baptisme the Eucharist And there is no doubt but that Dauid when in the 51. A place of the Psalme expounded psalme he sang Sprinkle me Lord with Hisop and I shall be cleane and shall become whiter than snowe had respect vnto the legall sprinkling the which in that age as I haue declared had the word of GOD ioyned therewith But that which the sacrificers doe say that they consecrate is no inuention of God but of men 26 These men indeuour indéede howebeit in vaine to fasten to their superstition certaine places of the Scripture As that of Ezechiel Eze. 47. 1. I sawe water going foorth of the Temple c. Zach. 13. 1. And also the Testimonie of Zacharie wherein it is written And in that daie shall the house of Dauid and all the inhabitantes of Ierusalem haue an open well Those things are altogether impertinent to the matter because the Prophetes vnder this word Water ment nothing else thaÌ„ the giftes of the holy Ghost and abundant grace of God towarde the faithfull And there was a certaine Papisticall preacher in these our daies who commending vnto the people the vse of the holy water taught that it serued to renewe the remembraunce of Baptisme and he counselled all those which sprinkle themselues with the same that they should say in themselues Remember that thou art Baptised Howbeit these things besides that they be fonde they haue not anie testimonie either of the Scriptures or Canons or Councels Ouer and besides we must weigh how friuolous and absurd it is in that they would institute it to be either a Sacrament or as they call it a Sacramentall thing because some one Prophet or Apostle did it once or twise As if so be God would once by Elizeus amend the waters by vsing of salt should therefore such a kinde of Rite be brought into the Church Ier. 28. 11. Ieremie ware vpon his necke a woodden yoke And Esay healed the sore of Ezechias with figges Why did they not here make so manie sacrameÌ„ts 27 In like manner the men of Colen 4. Kings 20. 7. Ridiculous arguments of the men of Colen haue offered themselues to be laughed at in their Antididagma where they alleadged the example of Marcellus Bishoppe of Apameensis as it is in the Tripartite Historie in the 9. booke the 34. Chapter who when the Temple of a certain Idol was to be burned and that the fire put therunto tooke no effect for there was present an ill spirit which repressed the violence of the fire then hee perceiuing a danger least the people as yet weake should take offence and thinke that the ill spirit was stronger than Christ did runne vnto the Church and commaunded water to be brought vnto him and lying prostrate before the altar prayed with great spirite and faith Further he signed that Water with the signe of the crosse and commaunded Equitius his Deacon that he should cast the same vppon the Temple of the Idol and after that he chearefully set it on fire which when he had doone both the Idoll and the Temple were verie easilie burned They bring also that which Narcissus Bishoppe of Ierusalem did As Eusebius reporteth in the 6. booke and eight Chapter He vppon Easter daie at night during which night the faithfull in times past were continuallie praying in the Temple when there nowe wanted oyle in the Lampes and that it séemed that the lightes could no longer indure and that the people were maruellous sad he himselfe commaunded that water should be brought him foorth of a wel néere at hande And when he had prayed earnestlie he commaunded to fill the lampes and the water did in a manner take vnto it the nature of oyle and kept in light all the whole night But to what purpose are these things alleadged The Histories shewe not that those were holie Waters Furthermore if it séemed good vnto God to make those Bishoppes famous by the instrument of water for confirming of their sounde Doctrine ought therefore holie water to be instituted Vndoubtedlie as a lawe is not woont to be made vpon a particular example so for the shewing foorth of some certaine myracle sacraments in the Church must not be inuented according to the will and pleasure of men Where as I haue now spoken many things touching holie Water namelie that the author thereof as they will was Alexander and haue confuted the Argumentes
away comprehendeth in it some voluntarinesse as are the mingled actions whereof there is mention in the Ethickes What maner of Action is Exile for they which so goe from one countrie to an other would shunne greater punishmentes which they should incurre by tarrying in their owne countrie Also vnto exiles they haue ioyned those which vulgarlie are called Banna Banna Betwéene them are perceiued some differences although not great But hereof we reade in the digestes in the Title De interdictis relegatis 2 These thinges being set downe after this manner it will not be hard to enter into the definition Wherefore we will say The definition of Exile that exile is a flying away wherein the guiltie for this cause doe goe from one countrie to an other that they may auoyd the punishmentes of lawes or else suffer them Wherefore it is a flying but not of euerie sorte because otherwhile men doe flie either pouerty or scarcitie of graine or the distemperature of the heauen or else sicknesse the plague but they returne when they will and therefore it was said That they may auoid punishmentes or else suffer them And that latter particle which is added belongeth vnto them which be caried into the Iland or vnto the Mines And whereuppon these thinges beganne it is easie to be shewed The Romane common weale considered of two maner of wais The Romane commonweale either is considered as it was when the libertie thereof stoode or else when afterward it began to be ruled and gouerned by one king So in like manner Exiles were of two sortes to wit one in the time of libertie and an other vnder princes When it was a frée Citie banishment was enough if they were Citizens when the question touched their life But afterward the Emperours commaunded that Malefactors should be caried away vnto the Mines or into the Ilandes Wherefore Cicero in his Oration for Caecinna said Cicero that Exile was the hauen of punishmentes not an execution of death That the Romane Lawes punished no offence by Exile And he added that the citie of Rome by their lawes punished no offence by banishment Neuerthelesse if any would auoyd prysons bondes and other punishmentes those fled into exile as vnto an Altar Neither must it be read vnto Armes Ad aras non ad arma as corruptedlie some copies haue For if that the parties which were guiltie would in abiding at home hazard the extremitie of the lawe the citie should not be so soone taken from them as their life But when they would none of that the Citie was not said to be taken from them but cōtrariwise they were said to leane it And in the fift Philippick Oration he saieth They which were condemned for capitall crimes had no sooner chosen a Citie but they were admitted into it whither they came to dwell Furthermore out of a certaine Oration of Iulius Caesar which is described by Salust in the conspiracie of Catiline it is gathered that the auncient Romans did imitate the Gréekes so that they punished the Citizens with stripes and put the condemned to death After that were made the lawes of Porcia and also certaine other lawes which would not that a Citizen should be punished with death but graunted him to goe into Exile Cicero in his Oration for his house said that Exile was not by expresse name layd vppon them which were condemned but they were forbidden water and fire to wit that by a certaine space of miles they might not inioy the vse of humane thinges And certainelie it behooued Cicero himselfe to be absent fiue hundreth miles from the Citie So then the Citizens of Rome were not by expresse name sent into Exile But as touching the thing it selfe there séemed to be but small difference In déede they were not layd hold vppon but they were constrained to depart except they would liue of the ayre Wherefore so often as thou shalt reade in the histories while the Commonwealth stood the name of Exile we must after this manner interprete the same A kinde of banishment among the Gretians for 10. or 15. yéeres 3 Among the Gretians also there was a kinde of Exile which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wit of ten or xv yéeres which was not laide vpon men because of crimes neither was it counted among punishments neither did it bring any infamie vnto them that were exiled but it did rather moderate enuie The name is deriued of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which word is signified a shell For there were certaine shels wherein was written the name of him that was to be banished We might call the same a banishment by lot Nor did they onelie liue thus in exile which excelled others in riches fauour and power but also they which excelled in eloquence and wisedome Wherefore Damon the Schoolemaister of Pericles was cast foorth in this respect because he was wiser than the rest Aristides also when at the incitation of Themistocles The banishment of Aristides this kinde of banishment shoulde haue bin decréed vnto him was present in the assembly By whom sate as it happened a certaine man of the Countrie who hauing the right of voyces and could not write praied Aristides whom he knew not that in the shell which he had he would write the name of Aristides To whom Aristides said Doest thou knowe that man He denied that hée knewe him For what cause then saieth he wilt thou cast him out The countrie man said because they oftentimes call him iust but we Athenians cannot abide so great iustice The indeuour in a Citie that no one should surpasse an other The manner therefore was in the gouernment of common people to vse verie great indeuour that none in the Citie should excell Yea and Aristotle in the 5. Booke of his Politicks De conseruando statu Democratico maketh mention hereof counselling that if any man in a Citie should excell ouermuch he should be remooued from thence because such men for the most part woulde beare rule ouer others There is moreouer another kinde of Exile which is called voluntarie A voluntarie Exile and it is not of one forme onelie One is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is for the cause of slaughter yet not of voluntarie but when a man is slaine of one vnwittingly and vnwillingly When this happened they for purging sake remooued their habitation for menquellers haue alwayes bin counted vnpure Wherefore in the Pandects in the Title De poenis in the lawe Aut facta in the Paragraphe Euentus a Lawier saieth that such a kinde of Homicide was accustomed to be purged by banishment And he added thereto the verses of Homer wherein Patroclus saieth Patroclus that hée when he was a childe vnwittingly slue his companion and that his father brought him vnto Peleus to be purged and so the purging being performed a companion was giuen vnto him And in Herodotus the first Booke
the indeuour of helping our neighbours Hereunto he not onely exhorteth vs but setteth foorth Christ for an example vnto vs For hee is the image of God whereunto we are made Amongst men there is no fit example it must be taken out of heauen The example of the Decii is set before the eies of souldiers in whom are two warly policies They to the intent the armie might follow them were carried with a courage against their enimies and pacified God by their death The first doth Cicero in his booke de Natura Deorum graunt the other he denyeth We as touching the death of Christ doe acknowledge aswell the one as the other both that it is to be followed and also that it hath made God merciful vnto vs. Paul would that the same minde should be in vs Rom. 8. 9. for if we be lead by the spirite of Christ doe liue in him we ought to haue the selfe-same minde with him By this as by a generall thing all that followeth must be considered of When he declareth that Christ must be followed he starteth not from his commaundements Learne of me for I am meeke and lowlie of heart Mat. 11. 29. Ioh. 13. 15. Mat. 10. 24. Luke 6. 23. Matt. 5. 12. I haue giuen you an example that euen as I c. The disciple is not aboue his master So haue they doone vnto the Prophets which were before you If they haue persecuted me Mat. 15. 20. Luk. 14. 27. they will also persecute you Hee that taketh not vp his crosse and followeth mee cannot bee my disciple First therefore he sheweth who this is that we ought to follow to wit God man Secondly wherein he was obedient namely vnto death euen the death of the crosse Thirdlie what he obtained for these things Phil. 2. 9. The godhead and maiestie of Christ euen a name which is aboue euerie name He extolleth the worthinesse of Christ that since he humbled himselfe from so great a maiestie we that are but wormes should not puffe vp our selues and be proude yea let vs depart from our owne right which if we could abase our selues lower thā Christ did yet are we not to be compared vnto him which in comparisō of him are but wormes being in the forme of God that is to wit in maiestie in shewe in comlinesse in dignitie in glorie c. From these things he seuered himselfe for a time euen as a prince which bearing good will to a maide of meane calling goeth like a priuate man to her house In his kingly maiestie hee declareth his power but he concealeth his loue in the habit of a commoner he hideth his maiestie but sheweth his burning desire First did the power of the worde of God thine by his creation and prouidence nowe is his charitie shewed He that séeth not the diuinitie of Christ séeth nothing Some say that The forme dooth not signifie his nature or essence but his ornament maiestie and glorie as wee haue saide Howbeit these were no lyes nor fained things Esa 42. 8. and therefore they declare him to be God I will not giue mine honour to anie other But if hee giue vnto him his maiestie glorie comlinesse c. he is not another from him but is God Paul vseth the worde Forme both wayes aswell touching a seruant as touching God that thou maist knowe that neither nature is changed into other It is not the propertie of forme to marre but to preserue If Christ had béene a creature as Arrius would he shoulde haue béene a seruant for euerie creature serueth God and he should not haue taken the forme of a seruant We receiue not that which we haue but that which we haue not Further thou hearest a pluralitie of persons and an equalitie He thought it no robberie to be equall with God These things hath Chrysostome in his Homily De consubstātialitate Trinitatis The same father saith Arrius confesseth Christ to be verie man but there is the worde Forme He tooke vpon him the forme of a seruant therefore when he saieth The forme of God he vnderstandeth God The forme of any thing suffereth no varietie of being from that thing whose forme it is A man hath not the forme of an Angel because he cannot be an Angel a brute beast hath not the forme of a man because he can not be a man The same Chrysostome reasoneth from the ende which the Apostle maketh hee exhorted the Philippians being equall that one should giue place to the other he perswaded not that the seruants shoulde obey their masters Wherefore the argument must bee taken from equals If the sonne were vnequall to the father he would not haue vsed perswasion to these men of that thing which hee woulde hee was equall to the father and obeyed him he was equall vnto other men in nature and gaue place vnto them The sense is He was in the forme of God But there is added an other particle for the better explaning thereof he perceiued he knew and he iudged himselfe to be equall vnto God and not according to robberie and yet did he giue place to the empyre of his father He boasted not of his dignitie which he might haue doone but he humbled himselfe and tooke vppon him the forme of a seruaunt Wee be seruants and take vpon vs the forme of God Woe be vnto vs. He put not off the Godhead he cannot denie himselfe and he which is the cause that all things be ceaseth not himselfe to be onely he hidde himselfe vnder man and the same most abiect He abased himselfe as touching both the natures For hee hid his diuinitie and submitted his humanitie yet did he not so put off the diuinitie but that he shewed it after a sort The father gaue out a voice the Angels sang Luke 3. 22. Luke 2. 14. Luke 3. 21. Ibid. 22. Mat. 15. 33 Mark 4. 39. Ibidem Mat. 14. 25. Mat. 27. 51. Ibidem the heauens opened a Dooue came downe the aire was darkened the windes ceased the Sea became calme it was made firme vnder his féete and the féete of his Apostle the earth trembled the Rockes riued in sunder the vaile of the temple brake the graues opened the earth yéelded out her deade the water was turned into wine the bread and the fishes were increased Iohn 2. 9. Matt. 14. Marke 6. Luk. 21. 21. the figge trée was withered the diseases of men departed Simeon Anna the theefe and Iohn the diuell and the wife of Pilate confessed and he himselfe prophesied and saw the cogitations of the heart So much as was sufficient to those which are predestinate he shewed the glorie of the diuine nature and others had nothing to accuse him of yet did he put the vaile of humanitie betwéene whereby he was hidden So was he obscured as we sée the sunne when there is a cloud betwéene vs and it Whereupon he prayeth Iohn 17. 5. Glorifie me oh father God thou wast
sufficiently imagine much lesse declare Wherefore being protected by the fauor of God Martyrs departure out of England through the sea through enemies finally through the middest of the plague I am come to you my deare brethren And except that the will of God which maketh plaine the passage had by his stedfast counsel determined of this my returne it was vnpossible that I should haue bin brought hither in safetie And the verie same power of God hath not onely mooued the Magistrate of this most noble Citie but also hath so raised vp and incouraged beyond my desertes very many godly and famous learned men partly of the Schoole and partly of the Church as not onely they haue bin desirous to retaine me here but haue earnestly indeuoured to restore me into my former place vnto whom I nowe yéelde thankes in this publicke and honorable place of assembly and I pray and beséeche the immortall God for his sonne Iesus Christes sake to rewarde them euerlastingly for their curtesie and to graunt me that I may in some part though not so fully as I woulde answere their expectation And whereas I vnderstande that ye which be studentes in Diuinitie haue so often so chéerefully come together to the hearing of the worde of God I am not onely verie glad but I reioyce excéedingly euen from the bottome and bowels of my heart Further seeing these your desertes require it I doe earnestly commende you which haue so diligently kept and preserued in your sincere heartes the life of heauenly wisedome and I am desirous to my power to further your indeuours But least we should this day méete together in vaine I thinke it now méete in fewe wordes to declare that which I am minded to speake For by this meanes when our speach shall be reduced to certaine limites from wandring then shall ye easilie consider with your selues those thinges which I shall speake I haue oftentimes noted that when Diuinitie is commended vnder one labour are reaped two and those not common fruites First there is a thankes giuen vnto God who hath bestowed such so great a gift vnto his heauēlie Commonweale that is vnto the Church Secōdlie is shewed that they which with an obstinate minde persecute the same doe it not vnwittinglie Wherefore I also that I may not be vngratefull vnto God and that I may commend your wisedome as it deserueth will speake of the woorthinesse of Diuinitie and therewithal will cōmend your earnest desire thereunto which with great wisdome you haue taken in hand Albeit I know I cannot sufficientlie for the woorthinesse thereof commend this heauenlie exercise and doe feare least by approouing your counsell in receauing it I might séeme to drawe your mindes not vnto Diuinitie but to the fauour and affection of my selfe Howbeit your godlinesse and courtesie cause me that I will not cease from that which I haue purposed to doe For thereby ye will be brought to forgiue fréelie those thinges which are not throughlie well prooued and with lesse eloquence vttered And since ye are no lesse religious than my verie good friendes take that with the right hand which others would easilie take with the left The woorthinesse of Diuinitie But first as touching the woorthinesse of Diuinitie after what manner I beséech you shall I speake of the same Hereof I am sure ye haue heard manie times in déede it is become a prouerb that the Colestock twise sodden dooth bring lothing with it and that one and the same thing often repeated although it be renued by the eloquence of wordes or florish of Rhetorick yet is it tedious to those that heare it Who knoweth not how vnpleasant a thing it is to treate of thinges that be like and that all men which walke in like places are soone weried Howbeit this ought speciallie to stirre vp you to heare attentiuelie and me to speake fréelie that the scripture of God the oftener it is taken in hand to be considered and treated of the more brightnesse excellent light it shooteth foorth Ye know that golde and precious stones the more they be worne vppon the fingers Similitudes the more they glister and ye are not ignorant that in brightnesse the word of God passeth gold the Topas and all precious stones Also we are taught that the word of God is compared to a liuelie water which not onely quencheth the thirst abundantlie but also springeth out vnto eternall life and water the more it is mooued and drawen Iohn 4. 14. the purer and swéeter it is And séeing the word of God is like vnto a consuming fire the same in like manner as it is often stirred blowen so dooth it send out the greater and brighter flames Therefore we also the more plentifullie we extoll the excellencie of the diuine wisedome with our discourse the more profite and pleasure shall we haue The Athenians did speciallie for this cause boast of the antiquitie of the inhabitantes in their country for that corne was there first of all found And by that reason prooued that men were there from the beginning For where nature would first haue the foode and noorishment for mankinde to growe in the same place it is likelie that there men were borne from the beginning The force and strength of which reason when I consider with my selfe I alwayes thought it to be good and strong although I doubt not but that it is a fiction of the priestes that corne first sprang and was knowen at Athens For Plato the God of the Philosophers as one calles him teacheth that Artes Sciences Husbandrie and in a manner all notable thinges were found out by them of the East partes that is by the Assyrians and Chaldeans whome he calleth barbarous which also our Religion and true faith acknowledgeth to be so which sheweth that pleasant paradice was in the beginning planted in the East Gen. 2. 8. wherein the first men were placed immediatlie after their creation Wherefore as vaine and fabulous we reiect that which is taken as graunted namelie that men and the sustenance for them was first found in the countrie of Athens This contrariwise doe we imbrace as true and stedfast when we speake of Antiquitie that those thinges are more auntient which haue as proper and growing at home whatsoeuer thinges are necessarie for the life and health of men The auncientnesse of Diuinitie For they to whome thinges are brought from other partes must néedes giue place to them of whome they first receaued them which since no man can anie way deny what other facultie be it neuer so great noble auncient and honorable can in antiquitie be compared with our Diuinitie that is with the knowledge of the word of God Vndoubtedlie none at all For those thinges which be taught in the holie scriptures cannot be shewed to be translated from anie of the other sciences but rather out of those fountaines all the rest are drawen if they haue anie thing
GOD and that ye be of one mind with me louing and friendlie Why then should I be afraid in this learned companie of yours but friendlie graue but yet welwilling seuere but yet courteous holy but yet bounteous to exercise that office which I haue not taken vppon me but you haue called me vnto Wherefore I am not driuen from this function for happening of it vnto me vppon the sudden or vnlooked for and thinking of other matters and intending other occasions not because manie abroad take it vppon them and therefore may séeme superfluous finallie not because it is ioyned with a burden which my strength is not able to sustaine nay rather for all these causes I am much the rather incouraged the more pricked foreward and the more rauished to bend my selfe wholie vnto this labour And to doe the same besides the Argumentes nowe alleaged both the woorthinesse and profite of the thinges to be handled dooth mightilie drawe me hereunto ought earnestly also to prouoke you to be manie times present Which two thinges should be commended of me more at large if ye had not oftentimes heard them more plainlie and eloquentlie declared by good godlie men than can be set foorth and pronounced by my barren and base kinde of vtterance Yet that I faile not in my duetie in running through the chiefe pointes I will rather take a taste than séeme to haue spoken thereof And that I speake not confusedlie but in order I think it méete to beginne at the definition A definition of diuinitie Wherefore I iudge that Diuinitie is a doctrine in déede not agréeable to our mindes not by the light of nature but by the brightnesse of faith whereby is both learned and taught in the Church out of the holie scriptures a certaine assured knowledge aswell of the wisedome as of the will of God And it is found to be of that nature and propertie that like vnto gold and pretious stones the oftener they be vsed handled with the handes the more they shine by handling and considering it yéeldeth foorth more shining beames of his brightnesse and euen as a liuelie water which not onelie quencheth the thirst but also springeth vp euen vnto eternall life and as that which the more it is mooued and drawen the clearer and swéeter it is made and euen as the fire A similitude which the more it is blowen stirred the greater and more cleare flames it giueth foorth Neither are we to thinke that these similitudes are rashlie applyed to this purpose since in the holy scriptures the wordes of God and sound doctrine are woont to be compared vnto pretious stones gold and siluer and also vnto liuelie water and to burning fire and that for iust cause For euen as these among men are preferred before other thinges euen by the testimonie of Pindarus who saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 water is the best thing So the scriptures of GOD excell all mens learning and sciences Other writinges in déede doe also describe the workes of God yet such as are perceiued to indure by the continuall course of nature but those doe set foorth his maruelous actes because they excéede all the power of nature they are commonlie called miracles And they are declared least perhappes we should suspect that God in the producing and preseruing of naturall thinges had so spent all his power and might as he can doe nothing more nor make anie thing more excellent which in trueth is not so for God hath infinite power so that there is nothing in nature so firme stedfast and strong which cannot by him be turned vpside downe be directed to a contrarie purpose than it was instituted at the beginning Which bringeth no small consolation to godlie men For they being admonished by the holie scriptures vnderstand that all thinges are in the hand of their good father and that there can be no griefe or trouble brought vppon them but so much as GOD the gouernour of all thinges hath decréed to doe vnto them for their saluation Hereby are we made of a constant minde in aduersities of good courage in perils and in the crosse it selfe ioyfull of an inuincible minde and altogether vnfearefull when we must enter into conflictes for the name of Christ Hereof arose that noble spéech of Daniels fellowes Dan 3. 17. Behold the God whome we woorship is able to deliuer vs out out of the furnace of burning fire and out of thy hand O king Hereof Dauid with an inuincible minde sang Psal 27. 1. The Lord is my light and my saluation whome shall I feare The Lord is the strength of my life of whome shall I be afraid Though an host of men laid siege against me yet shall not my heart be afraid and though there rose vp warre against me yet will I put my trust in him And in an other place Psal â—3 3. If I shall walke through the vallie of the shadowe of death I will feare no euill And finallie hereuppon Paul the notable Apostle of Christ and most famous defendor and publisher of the Gospell Who saith he shall separate vs from the loue of God shall affliction penurie persecution Rom. 8. 30. hunger nakednesse perill the sword As it is written For thy sake haue we bin slaine all the day long we haue bin counted as sheepe appointed to the slaughter but in all those thinges we ouercome for his sake that loued vs. For I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor thinges present nor to come nor height nor depth nor anie other creature can separate vs from the loue of GOD which is in Christ Iesu our Lord. Verilie such thinges doe the children of GOD with true boasting pronounce being taught by the holy scriptures as they that know which haue heard and beléeue the holy scriptures that God their good father dooth gouerne direct moderate and order all thinges euerie moment at his owne pleasure and when he shall thinke good dooth manie thinges besides the course of nature taking from wild beastes their sauagenesse and crueltie naturallie bread in them from fiers the power of burning from the sunne and starres their natural light from hostes of men their strength from the windes their violence and from the sea the vehemencie of waues stormes And contrariwise by punishing the wise men with madnesse by striking a feare into the mightie by inspiring the ignorant with learning the infantes with eloquence and the weake ones with most puissant strength They which know and stedfastlie beléeue those thinges in the holy scriptures doe dwel in a house founded vppon a most strong rock which by no inundation of raine flouds stormes or tempestes of weather can be ouerthrowen TO THE MOST RENOWMED Princes Elizabeth by the grace of God Queene of England France and Ireland Grace and euerlasting happinesse from God the Father through Iesus Christ our Sauiour THat the whole worlde most